History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 89

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 89
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 89

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The " Three Brothers" is a noticeable natural fea- ture on Pero's Hill where three large bowlders, of some ten or more tons' weight cach, located in a group, stand up prominently on the high elevation.

EARLY SETTLEMENT AND PIONEER INCIDENTS OF THE TOWNSHIP.

It has been stated and generally believed that John Ringo was the first permanent white settler of Am- well, but the honor is contested by Francis Moore. History fixes Ringo's advent in the year 1720.+ We can find no authoritative data as to Moore, and his claim rests wholly on the statements of old men re- cently living in the neighborhood,-that he came be- fore Ringo and built a little rum-shop about opposite to where was the tavern at Ringos .; At all events, about 1720, Francis Moore purchased 100 acres at Ringos, on the east side of the King's Road (Old York Road), and sold the same to John Dagworthy, Esq., May 9, 1724. At this day it is difficult to say to whom the honor of the first settlement of East Amwell belongs.

When John Ringo came this country was frequented by Indians and wild beasts. He built a log hut at the point where the two main Indian "paths" erossed, and there he was accustomed to entertain travelers, there heing no house near. It hence obtained noto- riety as "Ringo's tavern." Its roof often sheltered Governor John Reading, Mahlon Stacy, Robert Dims- dale, and others of the large proprietors when here marking out their tracts. There, too, Capt. Johnson, Joseph Higgins, Jonathan Burroughs, Peter Fisher, Derrick Hoagland, Capt. Schenck, John Runyon, Walter Wilson, Dr. Craven, and scores of others met and talked over enrrent topies. This place was kept by John Ringo and his descendants for nearly three- quarters of a century. Before the Revolution he had considerable money, and it is said he would pace up and down the road, much distressed lest the British should get it. He finally buried it, and died without

revealing the hiding-place, so that his family were left comparatively poor.& By his will he left €9 to provide a fence around his grave. He, together with his family, was buried in a small cemetery about 200 yards back of the new Presbyterian church at Ringos; their graves are marked by initial letters, and sur- rounded by a rude stone wall. Ringo's oll tavern was burned in 1840.

The Hunterdon Gazette (Flemington ) of Wednesday, April 22, 1840, contained the following :

" Tho old tavern nt Ringos, which we believe has been standing up- words of one hundred years, was destroyed by firo on Saturday night. We are indebted to a correspondent for the following account.

"On Saturday evening, at 8 o'clock, the cry of 'Fire" wos heard in our streets, when we beheld the flames bursting from the east end of the shed belonging to the tavern ; . . . und so rapid wasits progress that a borse which was tied in the shed was with some difficulty loosed and rescued. The tavern-house, standing but a few feet distant, and unoccu- pied by any family, and of course closed, in one moment took fire : the whole roof was In a blaze. The bulted door was forced open, and all avallable means brought into requisition to arrest the progress of the de- vouring element, but in vnin : in a very little time the whole length and breadth of this large and ancient house glowed in ane general mass of fire.

"Tho barn, belonging to Judge Wilson, on the north, and especially the large store-house owned by W. L. Skillman on the south. were in the most imminent danger, the latter being only a few paces distant from the fire. The remarkable calmness of the wind, and its westerly position bearing the flames away, rondered our exertions successful in saving the store-house and contents, the new tavern-house, and adjoining build- ings.

Thus this noted travelers' rest, with its sign bearing a portrait of Washington, passed away, to come to us of a later generation only through the medium of old men's tales and the historic page.

Philip Ringo lived, in 1736, where Peter Young lately resided. | Philip Ringo's name appears for the first time in connection with this township in a deed for 5 acres of land dated Aug. 6, 1736; the convey- ance is to him from John Dagworthy, and in the de- seription occurs this sentence : "South of the present dwelling-house, and over against Theophilus Ket- chum's land, innholder."

Ringo was witness to a deed, executed in 1742, for the mill property known as the "Race Mill," about a mile south of Ringos. His land adjoined that of John Ringo. Among other claims to land by the In- dians in 1758, was one made by Teedyseung, the Del- aware chief, to a tract " called Neshannock, begin- ning at Philip Ringo's house, which stands near a corner of it ; and so along the road that leads from thence to Brunswick, as far as Neshannock Creek ; thence up the same to George Hatten's ; thence on a strait course to Petit's place, and so on to a hill called Paatquacktung ; thenee in a strait line to the place of beginning; which tract was reserved at the sale, and marked out by Waubaway, who is alive."" This In- dian title was, however, extinguished by a treaty made at Easton in October of that year.

* Otherwise Duck Brouk.

+ Hist. Coll. N. J., p. 242.

1 An old deed for the transfer of some property in Ringos recites that one of the boundary lines is " along the lino of land of Francis Mooro."

2 llis buried treasure has never been found, and many doubts aro ex- prowed as to his having ever hid nny.

He died in 1879.

" Smith's History of New Jersey, p. 445.

352

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Philip was much more prominent in the affairs of the settlement than was his brother John, of whom there are no recollections save those associating him with the tavern. Philip was judge of the Hunterdon County courts in 1754, and his name appears as a jus- tice as early as 1723, and is last found in 1745. He was a Presbyterian, and we find him, in 1715, present- ing to Presbytery a call from Hopewell and Maiden- head (now Lawrenceville) for the labors of Mr. Robert Orr. An old tax-list of 1722 shows, also, that he owned one of the two mills of the township, four head of cattle and horses, and fifty acres of land .* His real estate passed to his son John, who, on his death, left his wife, Martha, executrix. His estate was suh- ject to a mortgage held by William Pidgeon, Esq., who (on his decease) made Clayton Newbold, William Coxe, and Anthony Sykes his executors; they ob- tained judgment, and Joshua Corshon, sheriff of Hun- terdon County, exposed the same to sale, whereupon it was purchased by Joseph Robeson for £1305. In the deed there is one exception,-viz., in the 25-acre tract there was reserved 25 feet square, in the north- west corner, for a bnrying-place. This is the back part of the lot lately owned by Jesse Landis.t

What relationship Cornelius Ringo, of Hopewell, sustained to Philip is not shown. He was a justice in 1746, and otherwise prominent in Hunterdon County in the early days.

The 3000-acre tract known as the Benjamin Field purchase of 1702 passed into the hands of Nathan Allen, of Allentown, who began to dispose of the same to settlers about 1720. Dec. 6, 1721, a convey- ance was made to Rudolph Harley, of Somerset, for 176 acres, comprising all the land west and south of Ringos, and extending to the east side of the Old York Road. The description of the land does not mention names of persons who owned adjoining tracts. This, however, is not proof positive that there were no other settlers there. Harley, in 1726 (August 25th), sold 25 acres to Theophilus Ketchum, "innholder," being the land upon which most of the old village stood. It is claimed that Ringo's old tavern formerly stood on this tract. With the excep- tion of 8 acres sold to John Justus Ganse, the balance of the Harley estate was sold, March 29, 1754, to Ru- dolph Harley, Jr .; but it immediately passed into the hands of Henry Graff, his brother-in-law, who sold it to his son-in-law, Henry Landis, May 1, 1772.

By a quit-claim decd executed June 26, 1758, by Nicholas Austin and Sarah, his wife (Quakers), of Abington, P'a., the following persons, nearly all of whom were actual settlers in this section, are shown as being possessed of portions of the above-mentioned tract : Ichabod Leigh, 1182 acres; Henry Landis, 80; William Schenck, 280; Jacob Sutphin, 150; Tunis Hoppock, 100; Jacob Moore, 130; John Becelsimon,

30; Obadiah Howell, 8; Justus Ransel, 30; Rudolph Harley, 142; John Housel, 3; Gershom Mott, 2; John Ringo, 40; James Baird, 18; Anna Lequear, 80 ; George Thompson, 100; Jeremiah Trout, 3; Hon. Barrack, 100; George Trout, 17; John Hoagland, 200; Derrick Hoagland, 180; John Williamson, 180, -computed to contain 19892 acres.

From the above it would seem that this portion of Amwell was quite thickly settled for that early date. In many of the deeds the occupations of the settlers are stated, from which we learn that there were then a cooper, a gunsmith, a saddletree-maker, and a foundry where brass castings were made for saddle- mountings. Among those who came early to this locality for saddletrees was Henry Landis, a young man learning his trade at Germantown, Pa. An- other young man,-Henry Graff, from Neuwrid on the Rhine,-making the acquaintance of young Lan- dis at Germantown, and desiring to go to some Ger- man settlement, in 1724 accompanied Landis to Am- well, where he found a home with Rudolph Harley, and a wife in his daughter Anna. Graff was born in 1699. He set to work at once to clear and cultivate his new wilderness home. In a few years (1737) he was joined by Landis, who left Germantown and set- tled at Ringos on attaining his majority. He was born in Germany, Aug. 16, 1716. In I737 he mar- ried Elizabeth Naas, who lived on the Neshanic. He at once established a small business, which eventually so increased as to enrich him. In 1750 he began to build the stone house, still standing, late the residence of his grandson, Henry Runyan. His large barn stood until 1840, when it was removed by the late Henry Runyan, He added to his land until in 1800 he possessed over 300 acres in and around Ringos, and had given his sons Joseph and Samuel fine farms a short distance south of his own. He married, for his second wife, March 6, 1754, Catharine Graff. She was born Sept. 11, 1734.

Of the sons, John married a Servis, of Amwell; Henry married Mary Carver; Daniel, Barbara Sli- fer; Jacob, Mary Harley, of Skippack, Pa .; Joseph, Sarah Colvin, of Amwell; Samuel, Hannah Hevelin, of Bucks Co., Pa .; David, Mary Paxson, of same county ; Solomon, Elizabeth Recder, of Amwell. Isaac remained single.

Henry Landis was a Dunkard, and for many years the meetings were held at his house and at the houses of the Lawshes, Moores, Runkles, and Wag- oners, also members of that denomination. He made his will seven years before his death, which occurred in July, 1809, he having nearly completed his ninety- third year. He appointed John Lequear, Paul Kull, and his son David his executors.

The children of Henry Graff were Lena, Elizabeth, Sarah, Rebecca, Henry, Mary, Hannah, Daniel, Joseph, Benjamin, Samnel. Hannah married John Runkle, of Amwell. Daniel, Joseph, and Benjamin lived in Sussex Co., N. J., and Samuel resided on the

* Rev. Geo. Hale's Historical Discourse, pp. 12, 13.

+ Recollections of John Runkle, and MS. notes of Rev. Aaron S. Lan- ning.

353

EAST AMWELL.

homestead east of Flemington, whither his father moved after selling his farm at Ringos to Henry Landis.

The Rev. Aaron S. Laning, of Pennington, N. J., a lineal descendant of Rudolph Harley, contributes the following reminiscences :

" In my boyhood I had the story of the settlement of this part of Am- well told me often by the late John Runkle, born in 1752, in Hunterdon. Ills mother was of the Youngblood stock. They Ived on a farmi at what is now Weart's Corner. Runkle lived in the vicinity of Flemington. Hlla grandfuther Youngblood died, and his father worked the farm. lle told me he used to go down there and work during the week, and would return by the paths to Ringos, and so alung by Harley's house, to his uncle's (Honness Boss), to stay over the Sundays. Harley's house stood about half a mile west of Bingos, and remains of it are yet plainly visi- ble. He described the country as then one vast wilderness, with here omul there a log house and small clearings; the ronds were horse- or foot-paths; Ringo's (tavern) was n small log house with a porch in front. The settlers about Weart's Corner were mostly Hollanders, including the Youngs, the Youngbloods, the Fishers, Hyronimus Mingo, and others. The beautiful mendow stretching down from the roudside, above the ohl stone house of Landis, to the southeast, wasn swamp of green-briers. The settlers around Ringos were principally German. He and his father had often gone to Trenton to mill on horseback. This John Runkle lived to the age of ninety-three. He married n Graff for his first wife, and the widow of John Runyan, ne'e Rebecca Landis, for his second. Ho was the grandfather of Mrs. W. P. Emery, of Flemington, and others in that Vicinity."

" The eastern portion of Old Amwell, on the north- ern slope of Sourland Mountain," says a writer in the Hunterdon Republican in 1878, "is somewhat cele- brated as being the home of several descendants of Richard and Penelope Stout," the history of the latter of whom is almost too marvelous for belief. But the sober pages of history reveal this record :*

"She was born at Amsterdam, about 1602; her father's name was Van Princis. Sho and her first husband ( whose name is not known) sailed for New York (then New Amsterdam) about 1620; the vessel was stranded nt Sandy Hook ; the crow got asbore, and marched towards the said New York. But Penelope's (for that was her mume) husband, being hurt in the wreck, could not march with them ; therefore he and his wife tarried In the woods. They had not been long in the place before the Indians killed them both (ns they thought), and stripped them to the skin. However, Penelope enme to, though her skull was fractured and her left shouldler so hacked that she could never use that arm like the other ; she was also ent neross the allomen, so that her bowels appeared ; these she kept in with the hand. She continued In this situation for sevon days, taking shelter in n hollow tree und enting the exerescence of it ; the sev- onth day she saw a deer passing by with arrows sticking in It, and soon after two Indians appeared, whom she was glad to see, in hope they would put hor out of her misery. Accordingly, one inde tuwards her to knock her on the head ; but the other, who was an elderly man, prevented him, nud, throwing his matchcont about her, carried ber to his wigwam ant cured her of her wounds nunl bruises. After that he took her to New York wird mado n present of her to her countrymen,-viz., an Indian present, expecting ten times the value in return. It was In New York that one Richard Stout married her : he was a native of England, and of a good family. Sho wns now in her twenty-second year, nud he in his fortieth. She bore him soven sons and three daughters,-vlz. : Jonathan (founder of Hopewell), John, Richard, James, Peter, David, Benjamin, Mary, Sarah, and Alice.t The mother lived to the ngo of one hundred nud ten, und anw hor offspring multipHed Into five hundred and two in about righty-eight years."

James, a grandson of Richard and Penelope Stout, settled in Amwell, on the west side of Jacob Man- ners' farm, where Abraham Runkle now resides.

Ilis brother, David, came soon after and brought his family, settling about a mile north of James. Benjamin, David's youngest son, settled northwest of the Manners farm. David gave the lot for a family burying-ground, which was then on a part of his farm. The old David Stout dwelling-house is still standing, about a mile northeast of Jacob Man- ners' residence.

The Manners family, closely connected with the Stouts by marriage, was one of the earliest in the township. Jolin Manners, the emigrant settler of Amwell, was an Englishman,-born in Yorkshire, England, in 1679. He settled at Freehold and mar- ried Rachel, one of Richard Stout's daughters. In 1718 they came to Amwell and purchased the farm where Jacob S. Manners now lives. A deed, of date 1728, shows that John Manners owned about 400 acres. This, as well as Benjamin Stout's land, was purchased of C. Van Syckel, who bought of Thomas Stevenson, the owner of a large tract of the William Penn grant from the "West Jersey Society" of Quaker proprietors. John Manners' house formerly stood but a few feet cast of the present wagon-house, "and about 200 yards east of the present mansion- house there." Here the second John Manners was born. The ruins of the second house built by John Manners, in 1750, are still to be seen, a short distance east of the present mansion. John Manners, Jr., married Mary Higgins (daughter of Jediah Higgins and Hannah Stout, daughter of Jonathan, son of Richard the first), and had a son, John, who re- moved to Readington and was the father of Dr. Johnt and Gen. James S. Manners. The latter, born in 1780, was three years sheriff of the county and a general of the militia; he lived near Kuhl's Mill. and died in 1851, without issue. John Manners, Jr .. after the death of his first wife, Mary Higgins, mar- ried Rachel, a daughter of James Stout. They had two children,-Rachel, born in 1773, and David, born in 1777, who was the father of Jacob S. Man- ners, who now lives on the homestead.

David Manners, son of John, Jr., married Mary Schenck, and had nine children, the names of the live sons being as follows : John, Abraham, Theodore. Abraham (2), and Jacob S. Abraham died without issue ; John married a daughter of the Hopewell John Stout; Abraham (2) married a daughter of Abram Quick (her mother being a Stout) ; Theodore married Caroline Werts: and Jacob S. married a daughter of Jacob Blackwell, and lives on the old Manners homestead. Jacob S. Manners has recently purchased a lot adjoining the old Stout graveyard and laid it out for a family cemetery.

Peter (1) Young in 1726 purchased 1000 acres in Amwell east of the Manners tract, upon which he settled, along with his sons, Peter (2), Jacob, and

* Benedict's Ist. Baptista; Hist. Cull. New Jersey.

+ Nathan Stout, In history of the family, In 1823, says daughters' nanies were Deliverance, Sarah, and Penelope.

* For sketch of Dr. John Manners sco chapter on " Medical Profesion of Hunterdon County," elsewhere in this work.

354

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Henry. His location was at what is now Wertsville. Peter (3) Young, of Ringos, a great-grandson of Peter (1), died in 1879, over eighty years old.

Peter Young (3) was a son of Jacob, the son of Peter (2), and the grandson of the first Peter. His wife was Elizabeth Guthrie. She died about fifteen years ago, and, with her husband, lies buried in the churchyard at Larison's Corner. Their sons-Amos, John, and Jacob-are all deceased.

Roelif Sutphin, who lives on the old " Indian Path" road, about midway between Ringos and Wertsville, is a son of James S. and Charity (Hortman) Sutphin. James S. was born in 1778, and was second son of Roelif (or "Rafe") and Johannah (Stout) Sutphin, the said Roelif being the son of Jacob Sutphin, who migrated from Somerset County in the early part of the eighteenth century and settled in Amwell, now Raritan, township, about a mile north of Larison's Corner, upon a tract of 220 acres which he purchased there; he subsequently bought another tract of 200 acres on the Neshanic, south of Reaville, which remained in the family for generations, but is now occupied by Robert Cain. Roelif, the son of James S., married Rachel Bellis, daughter of John H. Bellis .*

Another prominent family of Amwell is that bear- ing the name of Prall, descended from Abram (1), who very early, but at what date is unknown, purchased a large tract of land in this township, embracing the farms now occupied by William B. Prall and William W. Fisher, the latter being the old homestead. Abram was twice married, Peter being a son by his first wife, and Dr. Williamt by his second, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Stout; by the latter, also, two daugh- ters, Elizabeth and Hannah.

Peter Prall, son of Abram (1), was born in Amwell, in 1750, on the homestead farm. He married Mary Quick, also of Amwell. He died March 2, 1829, aged seventy-eight years nine months. Their chil- dren were Abram (2), born in 1770, married Sarah Fisher,¿ and Catharine, who married John P. Quick. The children of Abram (2), and his descendants, are as follows : Mary Prall, who married Joseph Sntphin ; Peter, born May 3, 1796, married, in 1817, Catharine Sutphin, daughter of James Stont Sutphin ; Sally, became the wife of Jacob Sutphin, also a son of James S .; Ann, married Christopher Griggs ; and Catharine, married John Griggs. Jacob was twice married, first to Margaret Case, second to Mary Young; Eliza be- came the wife of George Smith; Abram (3), born Dec. 9, 1811, married Hannah Bellis, a danghter of Mathias Bellis. Peter Prall died July 6, 1839; his wife, born Aug. 28, 1798, died July 10, 1867.

Abram and Hannah Prall were married Sept. 16, 1832. Their children were William B., born Dec. 10, 1834, and Abram J., born April 28, 1840. A sketch of William B. Prall and family is given in another place.

The children of Mathias Bellis and Elizabeth Sut- phin are as follows: 1, William M., born July 2, 1802; 2, Ralph M., Dec. 10, 1803 ; 3, Adam M., Sept. 16, 1806; 4, Hiram, May 17, 1809; 5, Mary Ann, May 2, 1811; 6, Hannah, March 23, 1813; 7, Eliza- beth, Jan. 14, 1817; 8, Charity, March 23, 1822.

William M. Bellis married Abi House), April +, 1841.

Ralph M. Bellis (son of Mathias) married Lucretia Young, and died April 22, 1870, aged over sixty-six years.

The Blackwell family is an old one, representing, in Andrew Blackwell, one of the early settlers of Am- well, whose descendants are to be found in the Hol- combe, Wilson, Van Derveer, Case, Larison, and other well-known families of this section. Andrew Blackwell was born Oct. 11, 1787 ; Anna Hunt, his wife, was born Jan. 20, 1792. They had nine children, all deceased except Noah, Randolph, Bloomfield, and Andrew, who all reside in East Amwell, save Bloom- field, who is living near Mount Airy, in West Amwell.

Jacob Quick, Sr., was an early settler at what is now Van Liew's Corners, on a portion of which Moses S. Quick now resides. He died Sept. 15, 1800, aged eighty-six (born 1714). His son, Jacob, Jr., was born in 1749, married Jerusha (Rose?), and died Nov. 7, 1816, aged sixty-seven .¿ His wife was born Nov. 2, 1753. Their children were Jane, born in 1771; Jacob, 1774; Ezekiel Rose, 1777; Abraham, 1779; Rosan- nah, 1781 (married Josie Quick; had no issue) ; Mary, 1785.

CIVIL ORGANIZATION.

East Amwell was set off in 1846|| from the former township of that name. In 1854, Ringos, before sit- uate in Delaware, West Amwell, and Raritan town- ships, was annexed to East Amwell.

The following is an extract from the record of the first town-meeting, held at the house of Charles W. Holcombe, at Weart's Corner :

"At the first annual meeting of the inhabitants of the township of East Amwell, held April 13, 1846, for the purpose of electing officers for the above-named township for the ensuing year, the following officers were elected : John S. Williamson, Moderator ; Jacob S. Durham, Clerk ; John Hoagland, Judge of Election ; Ralph Sutphin, Assessor; John V. Hoagland, Collector; Jacob S. Williamson, Abraham T. Williamson, Chosen Frecholders; N. O. Durham, John S. Williamson, Israel Wilson, Richard Van Lieu, John L. Case, Township Committee; Jacob F. Prall, James S. Fisher, Surveyors of Highways; Andrew HI. Quick, Nathan Stout, John S. Hoagland, Commissioners of Appeal ; Ralph Sutphin, John

¿ Both the Jacob Quicks were hnried in the private burial-ground, on the farm originally located by Jacob, Sr., and now in the possession of the Van Liew family.

| " An Act to Divide the Township of Amwell," etc., approved Feb. 27, 1846. (Session Laws, 1846, p. 81, et seq.) In this enactment the township of East Amwell was defined as "all that part of the said township of Am- well which lies east of the middle of the great road leading direct from Woodsville (by New Market and Rocktown) to the village of Ringos."

* For a more full account of the Sntphin and Bellis families soo history of Raritan township, in this work.

t See sketch in Medical chapter, Hunterdon County.

¿ Peter Fisher came from Germany abont 1728-29, and settled in what Is now West Amwell, upon the land now occupied by Caleb F. Fisher; he had four sons, the youngest of whom was Jacob, the father of Sarah Fisher. She died Sept. 18, 1831, aged fifty-six. (See further account in history of West Amwell township.)

355

EAST AMWELL.

S. Hoagland, Overseers of the Poor; Jonathan Quick, Poundkeepor; . Abraham K. Quick, Constable ; David Hille, Ralph Schank, William Metler, School Committee; Christopher Servis, Garret Ilixon, Jacob Ser- vis, Wm. Fisher, Alison Chamberlin, Jonathan Higgins, Solomnou Labuw, Janie's H. Wikoff, Overseers of the Highways,

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History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 89

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170