History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 10

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2 > Part 10

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Freehold is one of the three original town- ships of Monmonth County, although the towns of Middletown and Shrewsbury had been recog- nized in the public acts of the Governor, Council and General Assembly of New Jersey several years prior to the passage of the act of October 31, 1693,-then approved by Governor Andrew Hamilton, -by which the province was first divided into townships. By that act it was provided and declared that

"The township of Freehold includes all the land from the Head of Cheesequakes Creek, and runs along the lines of Middletown to the Burlington Path; thence along the line of Shrewsbury to the line of the Province; thence along the Province Line to the line of the county; thence northeast along the said county line to where it began."

The first reduction of the territory of Free- hold township was the laying off of the south- western portion to form the township of Upper Freehold, which was done prior to 1730. No record of the erection of Upper Freehold is found, and therefore neither the precise date nor the original boundaries can be given of the part taken from Freehold for that purpose.

An act passed in 1767, "to divide the town of Shrewsbury and annex parts thereof to the towns of Freehold and Upper Freehold," after providing for the formation of the new township of Dover (now in Ocean County)

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

from the territory of Shrewsbury, proceeds as follows :

" All that part of the aforesaid township of Shrews- bury, beginning at the mouth of Passaquanaqua Brook where it empties into Manasquan River, and from thence running south to the line of the before- mentioned town of Dover; thence west along the same line to the line of that part of said township of Shrewsbury annexed to the town of Upper Freehold; thence north eighteen degrees west to where Burling- ton Old Path crosseth the north branch of Tom's River, alias Pine Brook; thence easterly along the

· bounds of Freehold to where it began, shall be, and is hereby divided off from the said town of Shrews- bury and annexed unto the town of Freehold, and forever hereafter shall be accounted part thereof."

Further reductions of the territory of Free- hold were made in 1844 (act of February 28th) by the erection of Millstone; in 1847 by the erection of Atlantic, and in 1848 by the erection of Marlboro' and Manalapan town- ships, all of which took parts of the area of Freehold, and to the histories of which (else- where given in this volume) reference may be had for a description of the Freehold terri- tory embraced in their erection.

The settlements first made within the terri- tory of the old township of Freehold are re- ferred to in a letter written by Lewis Morris, of Shrewsbury (afterwards Governor of New Jersey), to the bishop of London in the year 1700, as follows:

" Freehold was settled from Scotland (Mr. Keith began the first settlement there, and made a fine Plantation, which he afterwards sold, and went into Pennsylvania), and about the one-half of it are Scotch Presbyterians and a sober people; the other part of it was settled by people (some from New England, some from New York aud some from the fore-men- tioned towns)' who are, generally speaking, of no religion. There is in this town a Quaker Meeting- House, but most of the Quakers who built it are come off with Mr. Keith; they have not fixt yet on any religion, but are most inclinable to the Church; and could Mr. Keith be persuaded to go into those conn- trys he would (with the blessing of God) not only bring to the Church the Quakers that came off with him in East and West Jersey, which are very numer- ous, but make many converts in that country."

Oldmixon, writing in 1708, says: " There's

a new Town in the County called Freehold, which has not been laid out and inhabited long. It does not as yet contain above forty Families, and as to its Out plantations, we sup- pose they are much the same in number with the rest, and may count it about thirty thousand acres. There are several Congrega- tions of Church of England Men, as at Shrews- bury, Amboy, Elizabeth Town and Freehold, whose Minister is M' John Beak,-his income is £65."

With reference to the first settlements in Freehold, it is to be noticed that Lewis Mor- ris, in the before-quoted letter to the Bishop of London, in 1700, mentions "Mr. Keith " as the pioneer settler in the township. In the " Records of ye Highways in ye Countie of Monmouth," as laid out March 2, 1687, is found the laying of a road, as follows : " And Burlington Path being the King's Highway from Crosswicks Creek, by George Keith's plantation, to John Hampton's, as ye way now goeth, and so to ye Leonards, and thence to ye Falls, as the way goeth, but it is to be made more straight at the Leonard's and at some other places betwixt that and ye Falls." In other ancient writings it is written that George Keith was " a Scotch Man who founded Free- hold, where he lived some time. He was a Quaker preacher, afterwards became an Epis- copalian and started Episcopalian Churches in Freehold and Shrewsbury."

"George Keith, subsequently of considerable note as a prominent Quaker," a missionary of the English Church and writer, arrived iu East Jersey in 1685, having been appointed Surveyor-General of the Prov- ince by the Proprietors in Scotland [commissioned August 8, 1684]. He did not enter upon his duties, however, till some time after his arrival. It is thought that his acquaintance with the Scotch Pro- prietors grew out of the fact that, in 1683, he was in charge of a school which a son of Robert Barclay at- tended. He ran the division line between East and West Jersey in 1687, but two years afterward removed to Pennsylvania, and accepted the superintendence of a school in Philadelphia, and soon became eminent, both as a preacher and writer, among the Quakers, leading to the assumption of the post of a leader and the creation of a party which brought abont great divisions and bitterness in a previously united body.

1 Bergen, Acqueckenonck, Elizabethtown, Newark, Wood- bridge, Piscataway and Perth Amboy,

' N. J. Arch., Series 1, vol. i. pp. 517-18.

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FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP.

His course was publicly denounced at a meeting of ministers in Philadelphia in 1692, but their action had no effect upon him. He continued preaching and writing in support of his views till 1694, when he returned to England, and soon after, although he retained a considerable number of adherents, he ab- jured the doctrines of the Quakers and became a zealous clergyman of the Established Church of Eng- land. He returned to America in 1702 as a mission- ary from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, receiving an allowance of £200 per annum. He preached in all the colonies from Massachusetts to North Carolina, several places in New Jersey prof- iting by his ministrations. Mr. Keith eventually returned to England, by way of Virginia, and received a benefice in Sussex, where he died, continuing until his death to write against the the doctrines of the Quakers."

The place where Mr. Keith preached in the township of Freehold was at Topanemus, which is in that part of the township which was sub- sequently taken off to form the township of Marlborough. Mr. Thomas Boels is mentioned as being then one of the leading men of the township, and the one who gave the site for the first Episcopal (St. Peter's) Church of Freehold. John Reid was also a prominent man at that place at that time. He was surveyor-general of the province and one of the justiees of Monmouth County (in which eapaeity he pre- sided at the first eourt held at what is now Freehold, in 1715). He came to reside in what was then the township of Freehold as early as 1690. In 1693, John Johnston was a resident of the township and a commissioner of assess- ments for it. In 1697, Richard Salter was one of the inhabitants of Freehold township,-the records showing him to have been such, and that in that year he was appointed "King's Attorney " in the courts. . In the southerly part of the township Cornelius Thomson was a resident as early as 1702, in which year he built the old stone house which is still standing about three miles south of Freehold town, just over the Manalapan township line, and is now occupied by Mrs. Achsah Hendrickson. At this old house (then owned and oeeupied by Cornelius Thomson) the township meetings were held in 1710, and it was one of the prin- cipal places where public meetings were held for twenty years later.

The first settlers in the old township of Freehold were (as mentioned by Lewis Morris in the letter to the bishop of London, already quoted) Seotelimen, and, almost as a matter of course, largely Presbyterian. Before the year 1700 they had established a church of that de- nomination near the Middlesex County line, in what was then Freehold township, " on the old way [from Burlington] to Freehold and Am- boy." Of that church the Rev. Joseph Morgan became pastor in 1709. With reference to this godly man, there is found in "New Jersey Co- lonial Documents " (series 1, vol. iv. page 190) the following :

"Letter from Joseph Morgan, of Freehold, New Jersey, to the Lords of Trade,-relating to some im- provements in modes of navigation.

"Freehold, in Monmouth County, in ye East divi- sion of New Jersey, in North America.

" AUG. 5, 1714.

"May it please your Lordships:

"I hope ye enclosed Work will excuse my Presump- tion in writing to your Lordships, & though hitherto I am to you unknown, ye Work inclosed will be never ye Worse known, it being yt web will justify or con- denin it-Self when effectually put to Tryal.

"What I propose to do by it I know to be true, but what ye Benefit of it at Sea in Calms & contrary Winds, I (having never crost ye Sea) must leave to Marriners to judge; and I believe yy can give no good Judgment till yy have tryed it. The Small cost, ye Lightness & little Lumber in a Ship, recommends ye Work to tryal. The oars keeping stroke on both sides of ye Ship to a hair's breadth, if y' were an huu- dred of ym, & ye Same Machine serving to row wth many or few Oars indifferently, & ye Ease of Weald- ing ye Oars if great enough to require an hundred men to carry oue of y", & by consequence Oars big enough for a Spanish Galleon or ye Royal Sovereign, or such great Oars yt a Pair or two (if need require) Shall be Sufficient for a Ship; (together wth ye hang- ing of ye Oars so yt ye rowling Sea can have no power on y") any other way y" only to thrust ye Ships for- ward, & yt ye Strength of One mau will row as much as 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or ten men, according to ye way yt is taken, besides ye Addition of ye weight of ye wheel by it's motion & ye Swiftness of ye Oars into & in ye Water by ye help of Weights or Springs (all weh are infallibly so) recommend ye Tryal of it against ye Wind at Sea, weh if good may save many a Ship from Ship-wreck, & by weathering points, &c., many weeks & Months in voiages & be excellent in War."

Then follow thirteen deseriptions of the mode of applying the invention to ships, with pen and

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

ink figures, showing the wheels, cranks, booms, etc., that were to aid men employed in moving is one which has become historie, viz., the post- the oars, which were to project from the sides of ing of Colonel Morgan and his riflemen at Richmond's Mill on the 28th of June, 1778, during the battle of Monmouth. The mill, now owned by Charles Van Cleaf, standing on one of the branches of Manasquan River, a short distance from Blue Ball, is on the site of the old Richmond Mill of the Revolution, which, as late as 1825, was the property of David Richmond, from whom it passed to Aaron Shaw, and afterwards to Joseph Shumar, from whom it obtained its present name of Shumar's Mill. vessels, as " Found out in ye year 1712 [to 1714] by Joseph Morgan, of Freehold, in New Jersey, in North America." To the preceding Mr. Morgan adds, in his memorial : "In this Work it being as easy to weald Oars for ye greatest Ship on y' Ocean, as for yo Smallest Boat, and one man's Strength equalizing so inany, ye bene- fit must be exceeding great for ships yt lye be- calmed or Wind Bound, &c." On the 28th of August he wrote again to the Lords, inclosing fifteen diagrams of methods of applying his invention, sending this communication by way of Philadelphia, fearing that the earlier iu- closures might have miscarried. Nothing is found showing that the Lords or the Queen took any action as to the adoption of his inventions, which were certainly a foreshadowing (and per- haps the earliest) of the present system of pro- pelling vessels by mechanical power.

In 1763 the Rev. Samuel Cooke was the missionary in Monmouth County of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, his labors being in Freehold, Shrews- bury, Middletown and vicinity, his salary being sixty pounds per year. With reference to his labors in this region, the minutes of the society give the following:

" The Rev. Mr. Cooke, the Society's Missionary in Monmouth County, in his letter dated November 14, 1763, acquaints the Society that his Congregation at Shrewsbury purpose to set about enlarging (if not entirely rebuilding) their church, and that his Con- gregation of Freehold and Middletown are gradually improving under his care. In another letter, dated October 11, 1764, he writes that besides the regular Duties of the Mission, he officlates, as often as Oppor- tunity will permit, at Cranbury, Middletown Point. &c., where he finds the People well disposed. He has baptised since April, six Adults, after they had passed publick and very satisfactory Examination; five Children between six and ten years of Age, and thirty-one Infants."

The pastor above referred to, left his congre- gation and went over to the British in the War of the Revolution. During that struggle Free- hold township was the scene of many exeiting and memorable events, which have been men-

tioned elsewhere in this history. Among these

Gordon's " Gazetteer " of 1834 says of Free- hold township : " Its greatest length, northeast and southwest, is twenty-three miles ; greatest breadth, eleven miles ; area, 104,000 acres ; surface level, soil sand and sandy loam, not more than half of which is in cultivation, being barren or covered with pine forest. There are, however, some good farms which produce abundance of rye, corn, &e. Englishtown1 and Freehold are villages and post-towns. Popula- tion in 1830, 5481. In 1832 the township contained about 1100 taxables, 203 house- holders, whose rateables did not exceed $30, seventy-one single men, cleven stores, eleven saw-mills, sixteen run of grist-mill stones, two fulling-mills, four earding-machines, sixteen tan-vats, fourteen distilleries for cider, 1245 horses aud mules and 2569 neat cattle."

Following is a list of the chosen freeholders of Freehold township from 1791 to the present time, viz. :

1791. William Lloyd.

1798-1802. William Lloyd.

1891-10. John P. Conover.

1805. George Cook.

1806-07. William Lloyd.

1819-44. John J. Conover.

1822-29. John J. Ely.

1835-39. John M. Perrine.

1849-41. Barzilla Hendrickson.

1842. Daniel Emkin.

1843-44. Barzilla Hendrickson.

1844-45. William Vandorn.

1845-48. Richard Hartshorne.

1 Manalapan, Millstone and Marlboro' were taken from Freehold several years after the time here referred to.

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FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP.

1846-47. John M. Perrine.

1848-50. William Snyder. 1849. John Newell. 1850. Richard Hartshorne. 1851-52. Job Emmons. 1853. John Cox.

1854-55. William Snyder. 1856-59. John L. Doty. 1860-62. George W. Patterson. 1863-65. James S. Yard.

1866-74. Samuel Conover. 1875. Barclay Snyder. 1876-78. Alfred Walters. 1879-84. John H. Buck.

East Freehold village is located upon land which was owned before the Revolution by William Lane. The first attempt at business at this place was made in 1839, when Peter Antonides built a blacksmith-shop, in which lie still continues the business. A school-house was erected in 1842, and in 1846 a dwelling- house was built. The place remained in this condition until 1870, when James S. Walling erected a blacksmith-shop and dwelling. In 1873, T. B. Halloway opened a grocery, which was continued for a short time only. The place is a station on the Freehold and New York Railway, north of Freehold town.

West Freehold, which was first known as " Mount's Corners," received that name from the tavern which was kept there by Moses Mount, who was there as early as 1800. He kept it till about 1836, when his grandson, John Mount, became the landlord and continued till 1855. Samuel V. Hankinson, the present landlord, came into possession in 1862.

About 1812, Job Throckmorton kept a store where the wheelwright shop now is, a short distance from the Corners. Thomas E. Combs opened a store about 1828 at the corner, and kept it until he removed to Red Bank, about 1835. In 1820 the real estate at and near the Corners was owned by Elisha Combs and Levi Solomon. About 1834, Edmund Connolly opened a blacksmith-shop, and was succeeded by William Forman. A post-office was estab- lished a few years since.

Smithburg village, or settlement, is on the Mount Holly road, in the southwestern part of the township, at the intersection of the lines of Millstone, Manalapan and Freehold townships.

A tavern is said to have been kept there before the Revolution. The property came into the possession of Charles Parker before 1800, and Joel Parker (sinee Governor of New Jersey), was born in the old house. His fatlier, Charles Parker, kept it as a tavern several years, and sold to Asher Smith, who kept it until 1856, when he was succeeded by his son, William M. Smith, who sold it in 1863 to Lewis Chamberlain. The present owner is Morris Robbins. A store was built here in 1860 by William Smith, which was occupied for six years by William Segoine and four years by William M. Smith. It is now kept by R. Strieklan.

At Siloam, otherwise known as MeIntyre's Corners, in Freehold township, a school-house was built on a lot, sold to the trustees by John L. Hendrickson, November 6, 1860. In 1860 a church was organized at the place and called Siloam. A Sunday-school was established in the old school-house by the Rev. John H. Bos- well. On July 26, 1870, the corner-stone was laid for a church building, fifty-two by thirty feet, which was completed and dedicated July 28, 1871. The pastor for a time was Rev. A. J. Gregory. The society has been without a pastor for several years.

Clayton's Corners was so called from the store established there in 1858 by Clark Clayton, who continued until 1866, when Gilbert H. Irons succeeded him. In 1873, Horatio Clayton, the present owner and occupant, began business there.

The Hartshorne Mill, situated about one and a half miles north of Freehold town, on Spottswood North Brook, is now owned by General Charles Haight. Richard S. Harts- horne built a mill on the site of the present one in 1816, and owned and oeenpied it until 1835, when William Hartshorne became the owner and ran it until 1856, when he sold to John V. Hartshorne, his son, who, in 1874, sold to Haight & Ellis. The latter sold to General Haight, the present owner.

The poet, Philip Freneau, was a resident of Freehold township for a few of the later years of his life. In 1832 he lived in a house (now or recently owned by John Buek) about two miles below Frechold town. He died while on

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

his return from Freehold to his home, having become bewildered and benumbed by cold

A historic point in the township is the farm which, in Revolutionary times, was owned by the Rhea family, - often called the "Carr Farm," -and now owned by D. Demarest Denise, situ- ated a short distance southwest of Freehold town, on the road to Hightstown. The "middle ravine," which is frequently mentioned in ae- counts of the battle of Monmouth, was on this farm. It was then swampy, but now, in con- sequence of underdraining, not much evidence of swamp remains, except depression in the ground. This farm belonged to the Rhea family, who resided in Freehold,1 and the tenant on the farm was named Carr, and hence the honse thereon was called in the accounts of the battle the "Carr House." This farm extended nearly up to the village, and between it and the par- sonage farin was the Wikoff farm, so there were only two farms between the village and the parsonage farm, where the main battle occurred. The old house on the Rhea-Denise farm was demolished within the past two or three years, and in pulling down the chimney a cannon-ball was found imbedded in it, about twelve feet from the ground.

On the Rhea farm, in the line of the retreat, is an old family burying-ground of the Rhea family. The oldest tombstone therein marks the grave of Janet Rhea, who died in 1715, aged ninety. Of course she was a Scotch em- igrant. Another stone in the old burial- ground was erected to the memory of an owner of the farm, Robert Rhea, who died January 18, 1729. Another is that of Vauer Rhea, who died January 15, 1761, aged ninety-three years. Others are to the memory of David Rhea, who died in May, 1761, aged sixty-four years, and to Jonathan Rhea, who died May 23, 1770, aged sixty-three years, this last-named being the latest date found. Several children of Robert Rhea were also buried here.

Among the other burial-grounds in the town- ship is that now used by the Baptist Society of Freehold. This, which is situated a short dis-

tance southwest of the town of Freehold, was established when the old Baptist Church was erected there, between the years 1762 and 1773. In 1822 the Rev. J. M. Challis, pastor of the Upper Freehold Baptist Church, speaking of a visit to the people in this vicinity, says: "The old church is almost in ruins." It was soon after repaired and used until 1847, when the society built a church in Freehold. Since that time the grounds have been used for burial purposes only.

The cemetery of the Reformed Church of Freehold, though located in the township out- side the corporation limits, is the principal ceme- tery of Freehold, and is more fully noticed in the preceding history of the town.

About one mile from Freehold town, on the east side of the Englishtown road, in Freehold township, is the cemetery of the Roman Catholic "Church of St. Rose of Lima," of Freehold. This ground was purchased by the church in 1857, and was laid out and formally consecrated in the following year.

Near the Catholic cemetery is a small plat of ground which has been in use for many years as a burial-place for colored people.

The earliest mention of a school-house in this section is found in a record of 1705, of the lay- ing ont of the road leading from John Leonard's, near Cherry-Tree Landing, in Mid- dletown, by way of Tinton Falls, south- westerly to a post-road. The exact locality is not determined, but, as near as can be ascer- tained, it was without the old township of Freehold, which then embraced several town- ships, Upper Freehold then being within its limits. The description in which the school- house is mentioned is as follows : "Thence by Job Throckmorton's; thenec, as the road lyes, to Combes' Brook, thence as the road lyes to the gulley between Thomas Forman and the Scoole House; thence, as the old road was laid out, to David Clayton's gully by his fence."

In March, 1778, Joseph- Rue advertised in the New Jersey Gazette that he " will open a Latin School in the house of Henry Perrine, Freehold, April 13, 1778." No particulars of this school have been found.

1 David Rhea, sheriff (1785), and Jonathan Rhea, clerk (1789). were of this family.

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FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP.

Across the road from the old Baptist Ceme- tery there was built, about 1824, a school-house, which remained in use until 1850, when it was abandoned, most of its pupils afterwards attending school in Freehold village.

In 1839, when Freehold embraced the town- ships of Marlboro', Manalapan and Millstone, it contained twenty-six full districts and four parts of districts. The names and numbers are here given, and their localities are easily determined,-

No. 1 .- Near Garret D. Hendrickson's.

No. 2 .- Jonathan Morgan.

No. 3 .- Union Missionary.

No. 4 .- Union Hill.

No.' 5 .- Near Abraham's Mill.

No. 6 .- Session House.

No. 7 .- Englishtown. No. 8,-Near Englishtown.

No. 9 .- Manalapan.

No. 10 .- West Manalapan.

No. 11 .- Sweetman's Lane.

No. 12 .- Burnt Tavern.

No. 13 .- Black's Mills.

No. 14 .- Near Thomas Thompson's, dec.

No. 15 .- Freehold Corner.

No. 16 .- Corner Meeting-House.

No. 17 .- Freehold Academy.

No. 18 .- Near William Van Dorn's.

No. 19 .- Brick Church. No. 20 .- Dutch Lane.

No. 21 .- Near Caleb Lockerson's.

No. 22 .- Georgia.

No. 23 .- New Prospect.

No. 24 .* Bowman's Bridge.

No. 25 .-- Near Samuel Garrison.

No. 26 .- Near Jackson's Mills. Parts of Districts. No. 27 .- Near Bergen's Mill.

No. 28 .- Near Bebow's. No. 29 .- Holmdel.

No. 30 .- Near Garrett Razo Conover.

The present township contains eight districts, including Freehold town, and has twelve hundred and sixty-one children of school age. The value of school property is estimated at twenty-seven thousand five hundred dol- lars. The districts are as follows :

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 10

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 994

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994