History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 101

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140

USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 101
USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 101

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SQUIRE DALRYMPLE.

Andrew Dalrymple came from Morris County dur- ing the latter part of the eighteenth century, and about 1801 purchased some two hundred and fifty acres of land, and resided where Frank Roe now does, adjoining the village of Branchville, Frankford town- ship, Sussex Co., N. J. Both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives on this place, assisted in the early interests connected with the growth of the township and village, and did their part well as citizens of a new country, in establishing schools, churches, and for the welfare and good of society. They were buried in the "Plains Cemetery."

Their children were Brice, James, John, Israel, Jo- seph, Jane (wife of Benjamin Drake), Elizabeth (wife of John Phillips).

Brice Dalrymple was father of our subject, born April 17, 1777 ; married, Jan. 6, 1804, Susan, daughter of Daniel and Mary (Couse) Struble, and grand- daughter of Peter Struble, the first settler of the Struble family in Sussex County, and who settled on Smith's Hill in 1752. Susan Struble was born on the place now occupied for an almshouse in the township of Frankford, July 6, 1788, and died March 15, 1870. He died April 10, 18-19.

Their children are Mary Ann (deceased), wife of Henry J. Bedell, born April 10, 1807; Andrew; born July 22, 1808, resided in Knox Co., Ohio, and there died about 1874; Daniel, born March 28, 1810 (un- married), resides in Branchville; James, died young ; John (see his sketch) ; Richard, born Jan. 24, 1815, died Aug. 9, 1874, and also his wife, Catherine Stoll, died about the same time, leaving two children ; Elea- nor, horn Sept. 30, 18IG, became the wife of David Simmons, both are deceased, leaving five children ; Margaret, died at the age of twenty-eight; Squire, subject of this sketch ; Elizabeth, born Jan. 28, 1823, wife of Peter Roy, of Wantage; James, born April 19, 1825, a coal-merchant at Branchville.

Brice Dalrymple spent his time until his mar- daughters.

riage in obtaining an education and in learning and working at the millwright trade. Afterwards he pur- chased nearly three hundred acres of land adjoining the village of Branchville, and where a part of the

Aquese Hablymple

village now is, upon which he resided the remainder of his life. He was a quiet farmer, sought to fulfill the whole duties of the citizen, was no seeker after office, but contented with agricultural pursuits. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church, and contributors to all local worthy objects. By their industry and perseverance they accumulated a good competency, which was divided among their children.

Squire Dalrymple, son of Brice, born Sept. 30, 1821, remained at home until he was twenty-five years of age, obtained a good practical education, and became inured to and acquainted with the care and manage- ment of a farm.

lle married, Dee. 9, 1816, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Irania Lum, of Milton, Morris Co., N. J. She was born July 7, 1819. Her father was born April 27, 1779, in Knowlton, Warren Co., and was largely engaged at Milton in the manufacture of iron, and owned and managed several iron-forges. Ile died tet. 13, 1862. Her mother was born May 7, 1785, at Ilanover, N. J., and died Sept. 19, 1862. The chil- dren born to John Lum were five sons and three

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Upon the decease of his father, Squire Dalrymple succeeded to the property of one hundred and fifty acres of land, partly by purchase, and partly by in- heritance, it being a part of his father's estate.

In place of the log house upon this farm, he ereeted in 1853 his present substantial farm residenee, and has built thereon commodious barns, and his surroundings show the work of a thrifty and prosperous farmer.

In polities Mr. Dalrymple is a Demoerat, and has been honored by the citizens of his township with

official position for many years. For more or less, during a period of thirty years, he has served as free- holder of Frankford, and held other minor offiees.

Both he and his wife are members of the Presby- terian Church at Branchville, and interested in the propagation of the principles of morality and religion.

Their children are Charles A., Margaret (wife of George Roe, of Augusta), Susan Irene (wife of Dr. Jacob I. Roe, of Vienna, Warren Co.), Edward S., and Franklin R.

SPARTA*

I .- DESCRIPTIVE.

SPARTA lies upon the eastern line of Sussex County, having Hardyston township on the north, Byram on the south, Morris County on the east, and Andover and Lafayette townships on the west. It contains 40 square miles, or an area of 25,650 acres. The lines of the Sussex and New Jersey Midland Railways touch the town, both having stations in it,-Sparta on the former, and Ogdensburg on the latter. The Wallkill River, flowing through the centre of the town, sparkles in a valley whose beauty challenges the admiration of every beholder.

Sparta is rich in mineral products, among which the most valuable are found in the zine-ore mines at Ogdensburg and the iron-ore mines two miles distant therefrom, at a locality known as Ogden Mine. In the working of these mines a great many people and a large amount of capital are employed. Blue lime- stone exists in the valley of the Wallkill, near Sparta and Ogdensburg, and crystalline limestone northwest of Sparta, in the Pimple Hills range, as well as in the Wallkill valley, near Stirling Hill, but these minerals have not been utilized to any extent.

Like its sister-townships, Sparta is more or less mountainous, and looks for agricultural profit more to the business of grazing and dairying than to other branches of husbandry.

The population of Sparta in July, 1880, was 2274, against 2031 in 1870.

There are two villages, called Sparta and Ogdens- burg. The former, located near the centre of the township, is maintained by the agricultural interests surrounding it. The latter is adjacent to iron- and zine-ore mines, and receives thence its chief support. The assessed valuation of Sparta is $937,300, and the total taxation $11,600.

II .- EARLY SETTLEMENT.

One of the earliest settlers, and probably the first permanent settler, in what is now the township of Sparta, was Robert Ogden, of Elizabethtown, N. J., who came hither with his family about 1778,t and occupied a large tract of land lying upon and around the site of the present village of Ogdensburg. It is said that Mr. Ogden was a commissioned officer in the service of Great Britain during his residence in Elizabethtown, and that after a time he looked with such disfavor upon the course of the mother-country in its relations with the American colonies that he threw up his commission some time before the out- break of the Revolution. To the cause of liberty in that memorable struggle he gave his four sons,- Aaron, Henry Warren, Elias, and Robert. Aaron rose to the rank of colonel, and won conspicuous re- nown as the commander of the famous Life-Guards of Washington. Henry Warren Ogden joined the naval service in the same war, and it is of record that he frequently distinguished himself by heroic conduet.

Mr. Ogden built a framed house on the road between Ogdensburg and Sparta, and with his elder sons, Robert, Jr., and Elias, engaged in the cultivation of his land, which covered in the aggregate several thou- sand aeres. They set ont great numbers of apple- and peach-trees and set up a distillery, in which they made a good deal of apple- and peach-brandy. They also established, near the present location of Ogdens- burg, a forge, in which they made bar iron from ore taken from the place now called Ogden Mine.

Robert Ogden was a man of more than ordinary

+ " Towards the close of the Revolution, Robert Ogden, Sr., retired to Sparta, in the county of Sussex, whore he owned largo tracts of land."- Elmer's Reminiscences, p. 139.

Robert Ogdon, Jr., appears first in the records of the county in 1778. See sketch in " Bench and Bar" of Sussex.

* By David Schwartz.

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capacity for the time. He occupied a place in the ranks of the judiciary at one time. His ardent love for church works and the zeal he exercised in the direction of church affairs as a " deacon" caused him to be popularly known by the latter title, and for miles around whoever did not know Deacon Robert Ogden at once set himself down as inexen-ably ignorant. He died in his Sparta home, in January, 1787, at the age of seventy, and was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard at Sparta village, where a tablet commemorates his virtues, and where by his side lies Phoebe, his wife, who survived him nine years.

The foundations and the frame of the house that Robert Ogden built on the Sparta road are still in- tact, and are portions of the present residence of Jo- seph Youngs. It was occupied by Robert Ogden, Jr., after his father's death, and upon the marriage of Dr. Samuel Fowler to Rebecca, daughter of Robert Og- den, last named, Dr. Fowler purchased that as well as much adjacent property, which then became known, and still is known, as the "old Fowler property."

Robert Ogden was a lawyer, and paid less attention, doubtless, to landed interests than did Maj. Elias, who was not only a famous farmer, but concerned himself not a little in the business of iron mining at his prop- near Ogdensburg, where the forge-site may still be seen. Robert was, however, closely and warmly as- sociated with religious affairs, and in the foundation of the Presbyterian Church at Sparta not only bore a lendling part, but obtained from Lord Rutherford, a Scotch nobleman, a donation to the church of 50 acres of land, upon a portion of which the church edifice stands. Mr. Ogden assisted with his own hands in the preparation of the timbers for the church frame in 1786, and during his after-residence in Sparta was a staunch supporter of the church and one of its most devoted workers. An entry upon the church records in his own hand sets forth that on May 7, 1821, he re- moved from Sparta to Franklin with Dr. Fowler, and that on that occasion he deposited the church com- munion service with William Corwin. Ile died in 1826, eleven years later than his brother Elias. The remains of both rest in the Sparta village church- yard.

Just when Noadiah Wade, a carpenter by trade, and earlier a captain in the Revolutionary war, came to the neighborhood of Ogdensburg cannot be said. It was surely some time previous to 1800, since Noadiah Wade's son bearing the same name, and living now in the house his father there built, was born in it in 1800. About all that is known of the elder Wade is that he kept a tavern on the place, and between lodg- ing travelers and doing odd jobs of carpentering managed to eke out an existence.

Not long after the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury John Lenterman came from Frankford township to Sparta, where he had bought of the Ogdens about . Decker died Feb. 5, 1862, aged seventy-five.

400 acres of land that included the site now occupied by the village of Ogdensburg. He made his residence just south of where the village is, and began to burn lime and brick. He is said to have been the first to project these industries in those parts, and, as a con- sequence, was kept busy supplying the demands of the people for a great way abont, especially in the matter of brick. Mr. Lenterman also established a store near his residence. The building yet stands there, and, from a date-mark upon it, appears to have been erected in 1821. The produce he received in exchange for his store-goods he caused to be carted to New York, and by the same methods transported from New York the goods he needed for his trade. True, his store was a small atfair, and his stock of goods likewise small, but those were not the days of hnge enterprises, since the sparse population thereabout did not demand any very great development of trade. William Lenterman, now aged eighty, who succeeded his father in the business, resides near Ogdensburg.

There were in that vicinity, at the time of John Lenterman's coming to Ogdensburg, Noadiah Wade, Andrew Johnson, a carpenter, Michael Rohriek, and his son Casper, Noah Talmage, the Ogdens, Kembles, Munsons, Hammonds, and Deckers.

Michael Rohrick is supposed to have come to the erty on the mountain, and forging iron at his forge , town before 1800 and made his home in a log house that stood not far from Jacob Sntton's present resi- dence. Mr. Rohriek said that he found on the place three bearing apple-trees of sturdy growth. Those trees are now ou Jacob Sutton's place, and still bear- ing fruit as faithfully as ever. Mr. Sutton says they are undoubtedly over a hundred years old, and is in- clined to think they are the oldest fruit-bearing trees in Sussex County. Michael Rohrick lived to be about ninety years of age.

Henry Decker is supposed to have come from Deckertown in 1795 and located on a portion of the Ogden tract near Ogdensburg. His children were James, William, Benjamin, Susan, June, and Mar- garet. William died at Big Eddy, on the Delaware ; Benjamin, at Deckertown; Susan moved to Ohio with Margaret, who married a Mr. Mapes; Jane married John Happarec and moved to Pennsylvania. The only one of the family to identify himself with the history of Sparta was James, who married a daugh- ter to John Norman and settled near Sparta village, on the James Ludlam property, now owned by James B. Titman.

Mr. Decker joined with Nelson Hunt and Lewis Sherman in introducing at Sparta, in 1836, the maun- facture of anchors, having, however, carried on a forge there for some years previous to that time in company with Mr. Sherman. He owned a farm on the Sparta road, where his son John lives, and there also carried on a distillery at an early day. In company with his son, James L. (now sheriff of Sussex County), he built a grist-mill near Sparta in 1854. Mr. James

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Two brothers named Sutton came from France before the Revolution and settled in Morris County, where they died. Jonathan Sutton, son to one of them, located in the village of Sparta after the Revo- lution, and, moving not long after to Hardyston, died there. He was at one time a resident of Morris Co., N. J., and entered the army from that county as cap- tain. His son Jacob, who died in Hardyston, was father to Jacob Sutton, now living in Sparta township. The latter came to Sparta in 1820, and in 1825 mar- ried a daughter of Martin Cox, who came from Wan- tage in 1823 and located on a farm formerly owned by Benjamin Quick, to whom it had descended from his father. Benjamin Quick did not_ possess the faculty of taking care of the property left by his father, and, although it was a valuable one, Benjamin squandered it in a brief time. Jacob Sutton settled, when he married, upon a farm owned before that by George Buckley.

In 1820, George Givens was living on the place now occupied by E. G. Braisted. Givens died on the farm, as did his son George, to whom the property descended.

E. G. Braisted is a son to Thomas Braisted, who married Martha, daughter to George Givens the younger.

Garret Van Blarcom lived where the widow of his son Samuel now lives. Garret Van Blarcom was a stone-mason by trade, but devoted himself chiefly to farming.

Joseph Cole was on the Titman place, and Ephraim Kemble near Monroe Corner, where his sons Ephraim and Robert now live.

John Crawford lived on the farm now occupied by D. C. Sutton, and had effected material improvements upon it.

Before 1800, Israel Munson settled near Franklin, where his son Asa now lives, and there he died in 1837. Jacob Munson was a blacksmith at Ogdens- burg at an early day, as was Moses Wright. J. L. Munson lives now on the Sparta road, near Ogdens- burg, upon a place belonging pretty early in the nine- teenth century to a widow known far and near as " Granny" Newman.

Thomas Van Kirk came to America from Europe, and made a settlement in Sparta upon a farm now the home of his grandson, Mills Van Kirk. Thomas Van Kirk was a blacksmith, and set up a shop on his place. He died on the farm in 1825, and his son Peter, taking possession of the property, remained upon it until his death, in 1841. Of Thomas Van Kirk's other sons, John died when young, Patrick became a farmer, lived on a piece of land near the old homestead, and died there at an advanced age. Peter Van Kirk mar- ried a daughter of Robert Mills, an early settler in Andover township, and had a family of three daugh- ters and four sons. The daughters are still living, and known as Mrs. John Kelsey, of Newton; Mrs. M. L. Basley, of Elmira, N. Y .; and Mrs. John Case, of Franklin. Of the four sons, Thomas, Robert, and

James are dead. Mills lives on the 300 acres owned by his grandfather in 1780, and to that tract has added 50 acres.

Among the hands on Elias Ogden's farm along about I800 was Peter Norman, a Jerseyman. He married Rebecca, daughter to John Chamberlain, and then moved to a farm on the mountain, east of where J. L. Munson now lives. Peter bought the place of his brother Oliver, who had improved it some as he could spare time from his business as forgeman, which he followed near by.

. In 1780, Job Cory, a blacksmith and farmer, came to the vicinity of Sparta village and undertook the work of driving a distillery that had been built by a Mr. Morrow, who was in his day the owner of a dis- tillery, a potash-works, and saw-mill, and by general consent considered the richest man in those parts. In the midst of his prosperity, however, the dam at Morris' Pond gave way, and as the loosened flood of waters came rushing down they swept away in a twinkling Mr. Morrow's distillery, his potash-works, and his saw-mill, and left him an impoverished man. By the flood two of Mr. Morrow's saw-mill em- ployees, named Beers and Kinney, were carried off and drowned. Search for their bodies amid the gen- eral wreck and ruin proved fruitless, and no one sup- posed they would be recovered. Singular to relate, the body of Kinney was recovered through the instru- mentality of a dream of Samuel Wade, to whom ap- peared for three successive nights the vision of Kinney buried under the sand some ways down the stream from the saw-mill site. He told his dream, and, act- ing upon its instructions, the people searched at the exact spot indicated, and there, buried just as the dreamer told it would be, the searchers found the body of poor Kinney.

Job Corey had four sons and three danghters. Of his sons, James died in Sparta, William in Penn- sylvania, Silas in Iowa, and David in Sparta, in 1870. David's son Job now lives in Sparta, on the road be- tween Sparta and Ogdensburg.

Recalling the fortunes of Peter Norman, it may suffice to state that he died in 1865, at the age of eighty-six. Ile was the father of sixteen children. Of the sixteen, five now live in the township,-to wit, William, aged seventy-five, at Sparta village ; Mrs. M. Riker, on the old mountain-farm; and Robert Nor- man, Mrs. Peter Riker, and James Norman in various portions of the township.

Presumably before 1800, Jacob Timbrel, a native of New Jersey, engaged to work on "halves" for Robert Ogden the place now owned by John Decker. Mr. Ogden wished Timbrel to buy it, and agreed to give him such time as he might want to pay for it in; but Timbrel did not wish to burden himself with the obli- gation. Ile carried on the place on shares fourteen years, and then Benjamin Decker buying the farm, Timbrel went over to the meadows and farmed it near Stirling Hill. Jacob Timbrel had six sons, all of

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whom were born in Sparta. Hezekiah settled in the town, on a farm, and there died. He and his wife died of a fever, Feb. 22, 1877, after having been ill some time, and were buried in the same grave. He was aged seventy-six and she eighty-one.

Near Ogdensburg, also about 1800, lived William Johnson, formerly of Elizabethtown. From the latter place he entered the Federal service for the Revolu- tionary war, and served therein seven years, two months, and two days. He lived a long time on a farm near Stirling Hill, and, removing from there to a place about a mile to the westward, there died.

John Boss, a survivor of the Revolution, settled in Green township before 1790. About 1800 he moved to Andover, and in 1809 changed his location to Sparta township, where he bought a tract of 1123 acres of one Elias Haines. A. M. Baldwin had, it was supposed, made the first improvements on the place, and at the time John Boss eame on to take possession of it Henry Cook was living there. John Boss had eleven children, of whom but two were sons. Of the eleven children, two are now living in Sparta, -John Boss, on the old homestead, and Mrs. Amos Pierson, near there. They are aged respectively vighty-three and seventy-live.

In the neighborhood of John Boss' settlement in 1809 lived John Bradbury, grandfather to Benjamin Bradbury, of Sparta village. Benjamin and Byram l'itney lived where Joseph MeMickle now resides, and there, too, were William Ayers, William Corwin, a tanner, and Amos Dustin, a Revolutionary survivor, and a farmer as well as an occasional worker at Mor- row's fulling-mill, in Sparta. Mr. Dustin's children living in Sparta are Mrs. Peter Stites, Jane Dustin, and Mrs. George Beatty.

John Butler, a carpenter, kept what he was pleased to call the "Blue Ball Tavern," on the road from Sparta to the Boss place. The tavern is not there, but the ruins are.

George Robinson was located near, and on the place now occupied by Richard MePeake lived James Brad- bury. A portion of Bradbury's farm became the property of William Himenover, who sold it to Ziba Nichols. Nichols lived there until his death, in 1880, at the age of eighty-four.

Richard Mel'eake, already mentioned, came from Andover. He lives in the Boss neighborhood, and, although in his eighty-fourth year, is hearty. He married a daughter to Capt. Isaac Goble, a cooper, living in Byram township, and afterwards in Sparta. Isane Goble's father was David Goble, an early settler in Byram, where, by reason of his ownership of great tracts of land, he was known as " King David."

There is now in the possession of Maj. John Boss, living near Sparta village, a cannon-ball that in a battle of the Revolution shot away a leg from Lewis Chamberlain, uncle to Maj. Boss. The latter's father was with Chamberlain at the battle, and, indeed, with him when he was killed. A son of Lewis Chamber-

lain, named William, living in Hunterdon County, was somewhat known to fame as a man who had four wives and twenty-four children.

Thomas Beatty settled in Andover before the Rev- olution, near Struble's l'ond, and near him was also Robert Mills, on a farm now occupied by his grand- son, Robert Mills. Beatty, with three of his sons, removed to Ohio. Of the three, one-James-was a soldier in the Revolution. Thomas, a fourth son, re- mained behind, and, marrying Robert Mills' daughter, moved in 1815 to Sparta, where he made a settlement on the farm now owned by his son, George B. Beatty. There the elder Beatty died, in 1840. James Ludlam had been living on the place to which Thomas Beatty moved, and had not only improved it considerably, but had drained mueh adjacent lowland for the pur- pose of enltivating hemp. There was, however, no decent roadway in 1815 from Sparta village to Beatty's farm, and he, eager to supply the requisite conveni- ence with speed, made what were known as "road- bees" or "road-frolics," and in pretty quick time had as good a road as he wanted. .

Mr. Beatty's neighbors were not numerous. Among them he reckoned John Anderson, on the John Ru- therford farm ; John Bedell, in Byram ; and William B. Ayers, nearer at hand.

l'eter Mains emigrated from Germany before 1800, and located in Andover, and his son Peter, who was born on German Flats, became a settler in Sparta about 1815.

III .- TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

The aet organizing Sparta was approved Feb. 13, 1845. Section 1 of the act reads as follows :

" All those parts of the townships of Hardyston, Frankford, Nowlon, and Byram, in the county of Sussex, lying withIn the boundaries and descriptions following,-to wit, beginning ut e point in the centre of the Union turnpike road north of the tavern-house of Jumes I., Hlurd, where the Morris and Sussex County line crosses snid road; thence (1) in a northwesterly courso to the northeast corner of Henry L. Smith's farm; thence the same course to the intersection of the line between the town- ships of Byram and Newton, on the Brogden ridge, west of William Kinney's dwelling-house; thence (2) In a northerly course to o point of junction in the rond lending from Jonah Howell's mill aod the roadl leading from Thomas House's by Merrit Pinckney's to Newton ; from thence (3) to a poplar-tree in the line between the townships of Newton and Frankford, east of the house of Peter G. Demarest ; thence (4) u northeasterly courso to the intersection of the line between the towo- ships of Hurdyston and Frankford near a white-oak tree benring north forty-two degrees west from the storehouse of Thomas Brasted; thenco (5) In an enstorly course to a limestone rock on the east bank of the road leading from Sparta to Hamburg, being near to, and the first rock north Intely occupied by William Martin nt Ogdensburg ; from thence n south- casterly course touching the south bounds of Seeley Powleson's farm to the intersection of the line between the counties of Morria nud Sussex ; thence (6) along the samo to the beginning-shall be, and the samo is hereby, set off from the townships of Hardyston, Frankford, Newton, and Byram, in the county of Sussex, and made n separato township, to be called and known by the name of ' the township of Sparta.'"

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History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 101

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1140

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140