History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 191

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 191
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 191

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Previous to the adoption of the provisions of the common school law the modus operandi of organizing schools in South Brunswick was for the trustees to canvass around the township among the heads of families, each of whom signed an agreement to send such a number of children to school as he or she had of the school age or could spare from home, and to pay a certain specified amount per scholar. The teachers boarded around, stopping a week more or less with each family who patronized his school. For a time the money voted at the annual township- meetings for school purposes and received from the surplus State fund was apportioned by the trustees to the heads of families, and by them paid to the teachers as tuition at so much per scholar, and after- wards it was paid by the trustees directly to the teachers and credited to the parents ; but the present system did away with these and other inconvenient methods, which are recalled by the older residents simply as reminiscences of the days when the inhab- itants of the township were struggling along under still more serious inconveniences than any connected with the schools.

The township is divided into twelve school districts, known as Six-Mile Run District, No. 40; Sand Hills District, No. 41; George's Road District, No. 42; Fresh Ponds District, No. 43; Ridge District, No. 44; Dayton District, No. 45; Rhode Hall District, No. 46; Mapleton District, No. 47; Little Rocky Hill District, No. 48; Scott's Corners District, No. 50 ; Pleasant Hill District, No. 51 ; and Kingston Dis- trict, No. 55.

In 1852 the number of school districts was 17;

TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE.

John G. Stults, 1854, 1863. Peter Cortelyou, 1854-69, 1871-72, 1874, 1878.

Ralph E. Stults, 1854-55.

Jamee P. DeHart, 1854.

Henry H. Stults, 1869-70.

I. D. Barclay, 1870-71. Isaac Snediker, 1871.

Peter Barclay, 1872, 1875. ITenry C. Messeroll, 1873.

George W. Dutchier, 1873. Jacob W. Suydam, 1874.

John L. Suydam, 1875. Jobn Hunt, 1875. Henry McDowell, 1875.

George I. McDowell, 1876.

Robert Gulick, 1876.

J. S. Bennett, 1876-77. John W. Dey, 1876-77. William A Robineon, 1877. Richard Farr, 1877. William II. Gilee, 1878-80.

Abraham S. Meyrick, 1878-79.

Abijah E. Chamberlain, 1880-81. George R. Dey, 1880.

R. C. Stults, 1865-74.

Aaron D. Britton, 1879-81.

Henry McDonald, 1855-56. John II. Martin, 1857-58.

This ISmedthe

789

SOUTH BRUNSWICK.

number of children between five and eighteen, 1098 ; number of children taught, 640; average time schools were kept, 10 months; total amount appropriated for school purposes, $1692.28.

In 1880 the total amount received by the several school districts in South Brunswick from all sources for school purposes was as follows : In Districts Nos. 40, 41, 43, 41, 47, 48, 50, and 51, $300 each; in Dis- trict No. 42, $412.09; in District No. 45, $440.18; in District No. 46, $460; and in District No. 55, $746.13. The value of school property in the township was $17,100, divided as follows among the several dis- tricts : Districts Nos. 40 and 45, $2000 each ; Dis- trict No. 41, $200; District No. 42, $1400; District No. 43, $400; Districts Nos. 44 and 50, $900 each ; District No. 46, $1900; District No. 47, $1500 ; Dis- trict No. 48, $600; District No. 51, $300; and District No. 55, $5000. The number of children in the town- ship of the school age was 1189, of whom 89 belonged to District No. 40 ; 74 to District No. 41; 131 to Dis- trict No. 42; 58 to District No. 43 ; 82 to District No. 44; 128 to District No. 45; 69 to District No. 46; 235 to District No. 55; 46 to District No. 47 ; 49 to Dis- trict No. 48; and 64 each to Districts Nos. 50 and 51. It was estimated that 28 in the township attended private schools, and that 148 did not attend schools. Schools were kept open an average of ten months during the year, affording employment to one male and thirteen female teachers, the former at a monthly salary of $50, the latter at an average monthly salary of $28.30. District No. 41 has a school library of 41 volumes. Funds are being established in Districts Nos. 47 and 55 for the same purpose.

Industrial Pursuits.1-AN ANCIENT GRIST-MILL. -Gray's grist-mill, at Gray's Mills, on the Millstone, in the southwestern part of the township, is one of the successors of a mill which stood there, as is sup- posed, many years before the Revolution, and was for a time known as " Aqueduct Mill," on account of its proximity to an aqueduct carrying the Delaware and Raritan Canal over the Millstone River. The earliest proprietor of whom any knowledge can be gained was a man named Cooley, who was a pre-Revolu- tionary operator there. During the war the mill was burned, and soon afterwards was rebuilt by Cooley. After a while it was purchased by a man named Scud- der, and later it had several successive owners until it was purchased by Dr. Hunt, who tore it down and rebuilt it, finally selling it to Alexander Gray, since whose death it has been owned by his widow.

THE DEAN MILL .- About 1810, Abraham Dean built a saw-mill at what is now Dean's Station, and carried on a lumbering business there until succeeded by his son Aaron, who conducted it about twenty years, when he was succeeded by his brother, Thomas Dean. From Thomas Dean the business passed to the latter's son, Aaron Dean, who erected a grist-mill

adjacent to the saw-mill, and has continued the busi- ness to the present.

DISTILLERIES .- Samuel Combs had a distillery in the Fresh Ponds neighborhood in the latter part of the last century, which was probably the pioneer in its line. In 1852, John H. Martin established a dis- tillery at Dean's Station, and soon sold it to William Hammell, who died in 1877, and was succeeded in the business by his son, James H. Hammell.

J. C. Powers has had a distillery just below Gray's Mills.

HAY-PRESSES .- Wheeler & Thomas erected a lay- press at Dean's Station in 1873, where they estab- lished a business, which, in 1875, they sold to S. I. Snediker. The machine has a capacity of six tons per day. The baled hay is shipped to New York. At Dayton a similar business was started by S. I. Snediker, which is now owned by the Reynolds Brothers.

MECHANICS' SHOPS .- At Plainsboro' are the wagon- shop of John E. Shultz (established in 1850) and the blacksmith-shop of William Wilson; at Gray's Mills Charles Williamson bas a blacksmith-shop, and E. S. Williamson a wheelwright-shop. The blacksmitlı- shop of John Owens at Kingston was established in 1880, and the wheelwright-shop of J. W. Shann some years earlier. There is a blacksmith-shop at Dayton.

QUARRIES .- North of Mapletown on the river are some excellent quarries of freestone, a fine gray, with portions of no sandstone, streaked with small veins of quartz. It works well under the hammer, and was used in constructing the locks of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.

Between Gray's Mills and Kingston is a quarry where considerable stone has been taken out, and which is known as the Cruser quarry.

Burial-Places .- Much interest attaches to the first death, the first funeral, and the first grave in any lo- cality. If settlement begun at an early date, the cer- tainty that all earthly things have an end is strongly impressed on the mind of the wanderer in the old graveyard by the thought that the people who pre- pared the occupant of the first grave for burial, the man who made the first rude coffin, the man who dug the lonely grave, first opening Mother Earth in the vicinity for the reception of one of her children, the minister who officiated at the first funeral, the sorrowing friends who lowered the departed into his . long home, the bereaved household, to whom that spot became an attraction that endeared the neigh- borhood to them during their lives, and every sym- pathetic or curious person who stood by, all lie in other graves around it or elsewhere, an old and weather-worn, often partially, sometimes wholly, il- legible headstone, if there be one at all, being the only remaining evidence to any living person of the event which it commemorates.

The early graves were made on the lands of the ! settlers ; the early coffins were roughly fashioned out

1 See sketch of Mapletown for a mention of industries there.

790

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

of unsuitable material with few tools by unskilled hands; there were no plumed hearses, and the fu- nerals were conducted without formality, often pro- viding opportunity for the blunt and unconventional preachers of the early days to preach effective ser- mons, which would otherwise have fallen unheeded upon the callous ears of their auditors; for death had then been stripped of little of its awe, and by the pioneer preachers was literally brandished before the mental vision of their auditors as an admonition that the time for repentance was neither long nor certain. It is related of one stalwart circuit rider, with whom the settlers were long familiar, that on one occasion he said, " There's a certain class that won't come to preaching. My only chance at some of them is when I am addressing them as mourners at the funeral of some member of their family. When I do get them there where they can't leave I make the best of my opportunity." This may have been taking an unfair advantage, and it is an open question whether much grace and mercy and charity was inculcated in that way ; but perhaps the dominie was honest in his in- tent, and has long since received his reward accord- ingly.

It was not an uncommon thing for a man to save a few good boards of suitable wood for years, with the design of having his coffin made out of them, and there have been instances related, one at least of an early resident of South Brunswick, of men's making their own coffins and putting them carefully away until they should be needed. The earliest burials were made near the houses of the settlers, and all traces of the graves have long since disappeared from view. Many who have died in the township have from an early date been buried at Cranbury and in the cemetery at Kingston, on the north side of the road forming the county line at that place, and con- sequently in Somerset County.

In the graveyard of the Baptist Church at Dayton are about one hundred graves visible, many hav- ing doubtless become indistinguishable. There are many graves entirely unmarked ; some are marked with wooden headboards, and others with headstones, the inscriptions on which are in various degrees of legibility. The oldest of the latter is that of John T., son of Samuel and Mary Ann Disbrow, who died Feb. 23, 1854.

There is an old burying-ground at Fresh Ponds, the inscriptions on some of the headstones there being un- decipherable. It covers an area of about three-quar- ters of an acre, and there are about thirty graves to be seen. The oldest legible memorial here is as follows : " In memory of Farrand Jacobs, who departed this life in the full hope of a glorious immortality, May 24th, 1844."

Villages and Hamlets .- KINGSTON, three miles northeast of Princeton, at the intersection of the old New York and Philadelphia turnpike with the Dela- ware and Raritan Canal, is a station on the Rocky

Hill Railroad, located mostly in Franklin township (Somerset County), a small portion in South Bruns- wick, and its western extremity in Princetou township (Mercer County), and contains five hundred inhabit- ants, a school-house, two churches, two hotels, a sash and blind factory, a lumber-yard, a blacksmith-shop and wheelwright-shop, some stores, and a goodly number of dwellings. Here was one of the earliest settlements in the country around about, and it is stated that there was a church there as early as 1723, and considered probable that a school was opened there at a date not much later.

Vantilburgh's inn, which stood in Somerset County, on the north side of the road dividing that county at that point from Middlesex County, was long known as the favorite stopping-place of Washington and the Governors of New Jersey in passing from the eastern towns to the State capital.

It was at this village that Washington, with the American troops, eluded the British on the day of the battle of Princeton by filing off to the left at the church, down the narrow road leading to Rocky Hill, while the enemy in pursuit, supposing he had gone to New Brunswick to destroy their winter stores, kept on the main road.

The old Withington tavern, now known as the Kingston House, was built previous to 1776, its ear- liest occupant, so far as is known, having been Phin- eas Withington. Before the era of railroads Kings- ton was on the great thoroughfare between New York and Philadelphia, and it is related that the stage travel was so large between the two cities that forty- nine stages loaded with passengers have halted at the same time at Withington's, four hundred harnessed horses standing before the house. Those must have been lively times in Kingston, and since then some of its citizens may be pardoned if they have sighed in idle hours for " the good old days" of bustle, activity, and excitement which have long been signally lack- ing there, the place having settled down to the usual monotonous every-day experiences of other villages of its size. "Mine host" Withington is spoken of as having been a very popular landlord, who did his ut- most to please his guests, having a sufficiency for all in both larder and cellar, and a private fish-pond, which he constructed at considerable expense in order to furnish his table with "trout right out of the water," as he expressed it. Some of his descendants are now prominent residents and property-owners at Kingston. The old house, many times repaired and renovated, having passing through the hands of numerous landlords, is now, under its modern name, kept by J. B. Titus.

That portion of Kingston lying within the borders of South Brunswick contains the stores of Cornelius Van Duyn, postmaster, and C. B. Moore, the Kings- ton House, the school-house belonging to District No. 55, and a few dwellings.

The post-office was in the Somerset County part of

Stryker Howland

Andrew Rowland

791

SOUTH BRUNSWICK.

the village until 1870, when Cornelius Van Duyn was appointed postmaster, succeeding C. B. Moore, and removed it across the line into Middlesex County.

The first merchant in Kingston, in South Bruns- wick, was Joseph C. Higgins, who opened a store there in 1867. Mr. C. B. Moore formerly had a store in the northern part of the village, and removed to the South Brunswick side of the road a few years ago. Higgins was not long in trade, and Ezra De Hart, P. Robinson, James Gray, and a man named Thorne each had stores there for a short time.

MAPLETOWN, which received its name from the Maple family formerly resident there, is a somewhat ancient hamlet on the "straight" turnpike from Trenton to New Brunswick, now nearly connected with Kingston by a continuation of dwellings. Gor- don mentions it in his "Gazetteer," published in 1832, as follows: " A hamlet on Millstone River, a short distance above the mouth of Stony Brook, two miles southeast of Princeton and fifteen miles from New Brunswick, containing a fine grist-mill and saw- mill and fulling-mill, and four or five dwellings."

DAYTON, formerly known as Cross-Roads, is situ- ated about a quarter of a mile from the New York Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, southeast of the centre of the township, at the intersection of the Kingston road, the Plainsboro' road, and the Rhode Hall road with the New Brunswick and Cranbury turnpike, and was named in honor of William L. Dayton, of Trenton, the change having been neces- sitated by the frequent miscarriage of mails intended for that locality, there being another post-office in the State called Cross-Roads. Mr. Dayton, who was at- torney for the railroad company at the time of the construction of the line, had favored the citizens by securing them, at the railroad company's expense, a new school-house in place of an old one which it was necessary to move in order to clear the way for the track-layers, and later contributed liberally towards building the Presbyterian Church there.

The first public-house at Dayton was kept by James Whitlock as early as 1750, and after a time sold to John Barricklo, who occupied it many years, during which it was known as the Barricklo tavern. Of Barricklo William L. Schenck bought it and kept it about thirty years, and was succeeded by his son, William B. Schenck, who remodeled the building for use as a dwelling, and later converted a portion of it into a store. Thomas Wetherell built a public- house at Dayton during the latter part of the last century, and kept a tavern there until 1817 or 1818, when he died, and was succeeded by his daughter, Mrs. Ann McDowell. The tavern many times changed hands until 1880, when it passed into the possession of Frederick Farr, the present occupant. The Exchange Hotel was built by its present pro- prietor, Abraham Terhune, in 1860.

The first store at the Cross-Roads was kept by Mrs. Abigail Van Pelt. It was a small concern, and the

stock of no particular kind of merchandise was at all extensive, but there were many kinds, including whisky, and it is said " Mother" Van Pelt was able to furnish a customer with about anything that could by any possibility be required. A still earlier store stood on the New Brunswick and Cranbury turnpike, south of the Corners, the name of whose proprietor cannot be learned. W. B. Schenck kept a store in the old Barricklo tavern building for some years, and was succeeded by J. C. Vanderveer and others. Thomas W. Schenck has had a store in the village about thirty years, during the past few years in the old Barricklo building. George F. Vanderveer has been a merchant there since 1877.

J. C. Vanderveer, insurance agent, is, and for a number years has been, postmaster. The village contains two stores, two churches, a school-house, a blacksmith- and wheelwright-shop, a hay-pressing es- tablishment, and thirty-five dwellings.

DEAN'S STATION, on the New York Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, is a hamlet on the New Bruns- wick and Cranbury turnpike and near the headwaters of Lawrence's Brook, in the northern part of the town- ship. The locality was early known as " Dean's," in honor of Abraham Dean, who built a saw-mill there in 1810, and was a prominent business man there until succeeded by other members of his family. About 1845, John H. Martin had built several houses and opened a store there, and from that time onward nntil after the erection of the depot and the estab- lishment of a regular railway station there to super- sede a flag-station the hamlet was known as Martins- ville, and by some is so called to this day ; but when the station was opened the railroad company named it Dean's Station, and from it the hamlet received the name by which it is commonly known.

John H. Martin had several successors in the mer- cantile business, one after another, and his former store has been occupied since 1878 by William A. Wines, and is owned by Samuel Giles. Besides the store the place contains a distillery, a hay-pressing establishment, and twelve dwellings. Formerly there was a blacksmith's shop.

PLAINSBORO' .- This hamlet is located on the line between South Brunswick and Cranbury, on the Princeton turnpike, and contains a hotel, two stores, a blacksmith's shop, a wheelwright-shop, two churches, and a number of dwellings.

The Plainsboro' tavern was erected about 1800, and the first occupant of whom any information is obtain- able was Mrs. Mary Gulick, who perhaps was the suc- cessor there of a deceased husband. About 1820 the stand passed into other hands, and the changes of proprietors and occupants have been frequent. The present landlord is Arthur Ruding. John D. Van Doren is a merchant, and has for a year been post- master. Another merchant is William Schooley.

GRAY'S MILLS, at the western extremity of South Brunswick, on Millstone River, and near the aque-

792

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

duct of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, is a hamlet of six houses, named in honor of Alexander Gray, and was settled before the Revolution, its nucleus having been the ancient grist-mill elsewhere referred to. Besides the mill there are in the settlement a wheelwright-shop and a blacksmith-shop.

MONMOUTH JUNCTION .- This is a hamlet contain- ing a church, a store and post-office, a hotel, a rail- way station, and fourteen dwellings, located on the New York Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, at its junction with the Jamesburg and Freehold Rail- road and the Rocky Hill extension of the same. The first merchant was Stryker Rowland. The only store now is that of H. B. Groves, opened in 1879. The first postmaster was Charles O. Greggs, about 1878; the present is H. B. Groves.

The first and only public-house was built in 1871, by John H. Martin, and was occupied by John Shreeve until 1876. At the latter date James S. Hig- gins bought the property, and has since conducted the business.

FRANKLIN PARK .- The above is the name of a hamlet of twenty dwellings, more or less, a hotel, a school-house, and a store and post-office, at the north- ern limit of the township, and partially in Somerset County. The store is kept by C. C. Beekman, who is also postmaster.

FRESH PONDS .- A hamlet of a dozen houses, a church, and a school-house, known variously as Pigeon Swamp, Woodville, Woodside, and Fresh Ponds, is lo- cated at a cross-roads in the northeast part of the town- ship. It has been long called as above, on account of the proximity in former years of several marshy ponds, known collectively as " Pigeon Swamp," since partially drained by an improvement called the " Great Ditch."

RHODE HALL is a neighborhood on the boundary line between Monroe and South Brunswick, and con- tains a store, a hotel, and several dwellings. It is an old settlement, the early residents having been sev- eral Scotch families, some of the descendants of whom have risen to distinction in various walks of life.

The nucleus of the settlement was an old tavern, formerly known as the " Half-way House," which was often a scene of much activity in the old staging days, and was first kept, probably as early as 1730, by David Williamson, who gave the locality its name. Williamson was succeeded by Thomas McDowell about 1774. A public-house is now kept at Rhode Hall by John Smock, who succeeded his father, Sim- mons Smock, as landlord at the latter's death. A race-course, known as the Rhode Hall Driving Park, was made there.

Churches .- THE BETHEL METHODIST CHURCH OF PLAINSBORO' .--- This church was erected by sub- scription in 1812, the land on which it stands having been donated to a Methodist society then formed in the neighborhood by Robert Davison, Jr. (a zealous Methodist), with the provision that in case the church

to be built thereon at any time ceased to belong to and be used by the Methodist denomination, the lot should revert to him, his heirs, or his legal repre- sentatives.

The first preacher who held meetings in the build- ing is reasonably supposed to have been Rev. Joseph Totten, who closed his labors there about 1814 or 1815. Much aid towards the erection of the church was rendered by Mr. Davison, in the hope of estab- fishing a Methodist Church there. This hope was never realized, though the few Methodists in the vicinity have maintained a class organization to the present, thus retaining the control of the house of worship, which has been used by all Christian denom- inations irregularly, without aiding to form a church of any sect in the neighborhood. In course of time it became dilapidated and was unserviceable for a num- ber of years. It was repaired and reopened in 1850, and has been kept up by contributions from people in the vicinity, prominent among whom was Mrs. Char- lotte Zeff, a granddaughter of the giver of the lot.

THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DAYTON .- The ground upon which stands the Baptist Church at Dayton was deeded to the trustees of the Baptist Church of Dayton by William Jones, and services were first held in the church in 1848, immediately after its completion, by Rev. Jacob Gessner. The last pastor was Rev. Morgau Cox, who severed his connection with it in 1874.

The church is located on the New Brunswick and Cranbury turnpike, opposite the Presbyterian Church, and is a wooden building forty-five feet by thirty- three. Prior to the erection of the Presbyterian Church the Presbyterians held frequent meetings in it.

A legal organization is preserved, and the present trustees are James Higgins, Andrew Rowland, N. B. Guire, and Charles Groves. No records of this church are known to be in existence.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF DAYTON .- One of the numerous outlying stations of the Cranbury pastors was Dayton, where a regular service was maintained for some time previous to the organiza- tion of the Presbyterian Church there. About 1867, as the result of prayer-meetings and exhortations, there was a religious awakening that led to many conversions, and soon afterward the demand for a church organization became apparent.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 191

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224