USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Warren County, New Jersey > Part 10
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The Opera House was built by Widenor Brothers, in 1895, on the property long the residence of Theodore Paul, at the corner of Water and Market Streets. A brick store was on the corner for many years after 1826.
The Belvidere House was built in 1831 for use as a store. As a hotel it has been kept by William Butler, William Craig, John P. Rib- ble, William Brocaw and several of the Fisher family. At present it is owned by George Givens, and kept by Otto Kaiser. The Pequest House, early known as the Washington House, was built before 1800, and burned and rebuilt in 1833. It was kept before 1840 by Sheriff Daniel Winters. It was again burned in 1877 and rebuilt in 1881. It is at present owned by Charles Cole.
Belvidere is supplied with two excellent water systems, the oldest being the Belvidere Water Company, which was incorporated in 1877, and furnishes water either from the Delaware or from artesian wells. The second, established in 1908, is the Buckhorn Springs Water Com- pany, which furnishes water from the Buckhorn, which has its rise in springs on Scott's Mountain, two miles south of Belvidere.
Butler's Grove, now owned by Mrs. A. Massénat, has been a favorite picnic ground for time beyond the memory of man. Seventy years ago the woods began with the last houses in town, and in the grove every year for many years before 1840 camp meetings were held, lasting for several weeks. Here the great Methodist preachers, such as Banghart, Fort and others, preached to great numbers of people. When the woods grew smaller the meetings were held in Axford's grove, at Pequest.
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The old stone foundation near the saw mill on the river bank is all that is left of the "Eagle Foundry," which Browne & Titus con- ducted seventy years ago, according to an advertisement in the Family Register, Vol. 1, No. 34. The foundry was owned by General Wall, and occupied by Peter Ketchum when it burned down on March 22, 1849.
An early resident of Belvidere was Lawrence Lomerson, a mill- wright, who, during the spring freshets, ran Durham boats and acted as steersman of rafts on the Delaware. He was born in 1770, and died in 1864.
Belvidere has possessed one of the solidest financial institutions in the State of New Jersey ever since John I. Blair established, in 1 829, the house now known as the Belvidere National Bank, which at one time had a capital of $500,000 in active use. From it developed the great financial house of John I. Blair & Co., of New York, than which few in the world can claim to be more important. Mr. Blair was president or vice-president of the Belvidere National Bank till his death in 1899, at the age of ninety-seven years, since which time his son, DeWitt Clinton Blair, who inherited the greater part of his im- mense fortune, has been its president. C. Ledyard Blair was elected. president in 1911. Mr. D. C. Blair still holds his legal residence in Belvidere, having his mansion on The Park.
The Warren County National Bank was established by the efforts of its energetic cashier and vice-president, Mr. George P. Young, in 1894, and has a capital of $50,000 and an equal amount as surplus.
Belvidere lacks something that many towns possess in abundance. It has no debt !
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Belvidere was organized in 1826, and a brick house of worship was erected on Market Street, where an old grave yard marks the spot. The present structure was built in 1855, on a desirable site east of the Park, presented by G. D. Wall, who was once elected Governor of New Jersey. A commodious
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brick parsonage was erected in 1859. The present pastor is the Rev. Dr. William Hampton. A two-manual Jardine pipe organ was in- stalled in the church in 1904.
The First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere is a daughter of the Old Oxford Church, founded before 1744. A church was built in Belvidere in 1834 on a splendid site west of the Park, presented by G. D. Wall. The parsonage, on a lot adjacent, was bought in 1848. The present substantial stone structure was erected after a fire had destroyed the original building in 1859. Eight pastors have ministered to the congregation, including the present pastor, the Rev. J. de Hart Bruen, who has served for more than a quarter of a century. A two-manual Jardine pipe organ replaced one of simpler design a dozen years ago.
The Second Presbyterian Church was organized in 1849, to repre- sent the "New School," and the present church was built at once. In 1870 Dr. J. Marshall Paul presented the parsonage, which he had built in 1855 for a public reading room and library, under the name of Stadleman Institute. A fine new Haskell electric organ was installed in 1910, the gift, in part, of Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Rev. J. B. Edmondson has been the pastor for many years.
Zion Episcopal Church was founded in 1833, and a building was erected on the south side of the Park before 1836, which was rebuilt after a fire occuring on May 5, 1900. The first missionary services were held here in 1816, by the Rev. Dr. Bayard. The Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane held his first visitation here in 1832. Rev. George H. Young ministers to the congregations at Belvidere, Hope and Delaware.
The cornerstone of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church was laid in August, 1891, by Rt. Rev. M. T. O'Farrell. The first mass cele- brated in Belvidere was in the house of Michael O'Neil, in 1851, by Father Reardon, of Easton, and after this services were held in the old academy, and for twenty-two years in a frame church on Hardwick Street. During the pastorate of Father McConnell this church estab-
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lished stations at Harker's Hollow and Delaware Water Gap. Father Peter Kelley ministers to the wants of this place and of Oxford.
A Baptist church led a precarious existence here from 1859 to 1903, when the building was demolished and on its site was erected the hand- some residence of George P. Young:
Besides the physicians already mentioned, the following have served many years in Belvidere: Philip F. Brakeley, S. S. Clark, Will- iam H. Magee, F. P. Lefferts, William J. Burd, William C. Albertson and G. W. Cummins. The last four are still practicing.
The first school house of which we have any record was a building fourteen by twenty feet, on the Croxall property. Hyman McMiller taught in it from 1815 to 1820. In 1822 a stone school house, twenty- four by twenty-six feet, was erected on Water Street. In 1860 this structure was torn down, and a larger frame building erected on the plot. This served all purposes of the growing population until, in 1892, a handsome brick school was erected at the intersection of Mans- field and Fourth Streets. An extensive addition was made to this in 1904. The old wooden school building burned down in March, 1911. Professor C. H. Reagle is the present efficient principal.
Belvidere takes considerable pride in the Park, which was present- ed by Garret D. Wall, to be "always kept and continued open as a Public Square, walk or promenade, for the free common and uninter- rupted use of the citizens of the County of Warren forever." It con- tains three and six-tenths acres, and is bounded by Second Street, Hard- wick Street, Third Street and Mansfield Street. Around it are the Court House, the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Methodist churches, and many fine residences. It is pleasantly shaded by native forest trees, set out about 1840.
In 1909 the Captain Henry Post, G. A. R., unveiled, on Decora- tion Day, a cannon presented to them by the Government. The cannon previously formed a part of the defenses at Sandy Hook.
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In 1910 a drinking fountain was set up opposite the Court House by the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
In the early days several public hangings were held in the Park, the most famous of which was that of Carter and Parks. The last hanging in Warren County was that of George Andrews, colored, for the murder of his wife. This hanging took place in the jail yard, with none but the necessary witnesses present.
The present Belvidere Cemetery had its origin in the donation of a plot of ground by John P. B. Maxwell and William P. Robeson, in 1834. The first interment was that of Mrs. Maxwell, the five-weeks' bride of one of the donors. The cemetery has been enlarged at various times, and at present it is all owned by the Belvidere Cemetery Asso- ciation, which has made provisions for its perpetual care.
CHAPTER XV.
BLAIRSTOWN.
Blairstown is named in honor of John I. Blair, its most prominent citizen, and was erected from Knowlton in 1845. A small portion of Hardwick and Frelinghuysen was added later.
A tract of 1, 100 acres was surveyed to John Hyndshaw in 1729, lying on both sides of the Paulins Kill, below Walnut Valley Creek, and partly in Knowlton Township. Hyndshaw still owned the tract in 1762.
Alexander Adams early took up 1,700 acres of land now partly in Knowlton and partly in Blairstown and Hope, reaching from the Union brick school house to near the Delaware River. His home is said to have been at about where the three townships come together. The history of his family is found under Knowlton Township.
A tract of 5,000 acres lying in Blairstown, Hope and Freling- huysen was surveyed to William Penn before 1718. This was sold by his heirs to Jonathan Hampton, and after his death commissioners divided the tract into fifty farms, which were owned later by the Wild- ricks, Shipmans and Cressmans and others.
One of the earliest settlers in this township was Lodewick Ditman, or Ludwig Titman, who in 1737 bought 400 acres of land at the foot of the Blue Mountains, six miles from the Water Gap. Here he, his son, George, grandson, Baltus, or family, lived until 1844, when the homestead farm came into the possession of Walter Wilson, a great- great-grandson, whose family owned it until recently.
Ludwig Titman had three sons,-George, Philip and John, and a daughter, Christina. His will in 1772 mentions his wife, Mary, neigh- bors, John Van Etten, and John Van Nest and witnesses, Christopher Krop, John Fite and James Moody. Ludwig Titman's son, George,
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was born in 1726, and died in 1792. He lived on the homestead, and had two sons, George, born 1750, died 1796, and Baltus, born 1751; and a daughter, Mary, who married, about 1780, the Rev. Ludwig Chitara, who preached to the German Reformed congregations at Knowlton and Newton. George Titman (2nd.) moved to Oxford Township. Baltus Titman and his family lived on the old homestead at the foot of the mountain. He had: (1) John, father of Jacob, Catherine, Jeremiah, John, Marie and Charles; (2) William, father of Baltus, George and William; (3) Abraham; (4) Catherine; (5) Elizabeth; (6) Margaret; (7) Anna; (8) Lanah, and (9) George, father of Catherine, Elias, Baltis, John, George, Philip, William, Abraham, Isaac, Mary Ann and Jacob. Many of the Titman family are in the township to this day.
The ancestor of the Wildrick family in Warren County settled in Hardwick Township, not far from Blairstown, long before the Revolution. Several of the family have become prominent in the State and Nation.
Hon. Abram Wildrick was a member of the Assembly and a State Senator. His daughter, Isabella, married Hon. George B. Swain, recently State treasurer of New Jersey. Hon. Isaac Wildrick, a twin brother to Abram, was an inveterate politician. He is said to have filled every elective office in the State except that of Governor. He married Nancy Cummins. Their daughter, Huldah, is the wife of Major Carl Lentz, of Newark. A son, Abram C. Wildrick, graduated from West Point in 1857 and has a brilliant war record, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general. Another son is Colonel John A. Wildrick, who was commissioned first lieutenant of the Sussex Rifles in 1861, and later of Company B, Second Regiment New Jersey Volunteers. In General Kearney's First New Jersey Brigade he went through many campaigns, and was promoted to the command of the Twenty-eighth New Jersey Regiment before the battle of Chancellorsville. He was in Libby Prison for thirty-two days. He served as clerk of the County of
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Warren from 1890 to 1895. Two of his nephews are at present in the United States army.
The first grist mill built here "long before the Revolution," gave to the place the name of "Smith's Mills." Later, when Michael Butts, and after him, his grandson, Jacob Butts, owned most of the land on the site of the town, we find it called Butts' Bridge. The post-office, of which William Hankinson was first postmaster, bore this name from 1820 to 1825, when John I. Blair was made postmaster of the place, with "Gravel Hill" as its new name. This name it bore until the citi- zens, at a public meeting on January 23, 1839, changed it to Blairs- town.
On March 8, 1821, Joseph R. Ogden and M. Robert Butts (rep- resenting Jacob Butts, deceased) conveyed to William Hankinson, Amos Ogden, Joseph R. Ogden, Peter Lanterman and Wilson Hunt, trustees of the Gravel Hill School House, a tract of land on the road from Butts' Bridge to Hope, and 242 yards from said bridge over Paulins Kill. This later became the public school.
Blairstown is the trading center for a large portion of northern Warren County. It soon will have three railway stations, as the Lehigh and New England, the New York, Susquehanna and Western, and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, all pass through the place.
The most important event in the history of this place was the arrival of John I. Blair, in 1819. The Hon. John I. Blair is noted as being the wealthiest native Jerseyman. He was born at Foul Rift, in 1802, and early developed marked ability as a merchant at Hope and at Gravel Hill, which was christened Blairstown in his honor in 1839. His great fortune was made mainly in building railroads, and his great business opportunities were offered freely to his friends, many of whom were also made wealthy thereby.
He founded the Belvidere National Bank in 1830, which institu- tion became the parent of the great banking house of John I. Blair & . Co., of Wall Street, New York. His home was maintained at Blairs-
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town all his long life. He died December 5, 1899. His great-grand- father, Samuel Blair, came to America from Scotland about 1730, and married into the family of Dr. Shippen, of Philadelphia, who owned large tracts of land in Oxford Township, on Scott's Mountain. Here on Scott's Mountain Samuel Blair passed the remainder of his days, and here were born his son, John, and grandson, James, who was the father of John I. Blair. Mr. Blair left his great fortune mainly to his son, the Hon. D. C. Blair, of Belvidere and New York, and to his grandson, C. Ledyard Blair.
Blair Presbyterial Academy, or, as it is more familiarly known, Blair Hall, is the most important institution in Blairstown.
"In 1848 Mr. John I. Blair donated the grounds and provided the means for the erection of a stone edifice in Blairstown, to be used as a private school or academy that should uniformly uphold the New Testament ideal of character. This is the nucleus, both as to the inward and the outward character of the academy as it is today. The only deviation from the original design was the change from a day to a boarding school."
In 1883, by a timely and generous gift, a new era was brought to the school. "The campus consists of one hundred acres, and is picturesque in its diversity. Including beautiful Blair Walk and the lake, it makes a delightful place of recreation." The lake is five acres in extent, with an average depth of seven feet, and provides a noisy cascade at the dam seventeen feet in height and forty-five in width." The buildings excel in beauty of design and attractiveness of location those of other American preparatory schools.
Especially beautiful are Locke Hall and Insley Hall, named in honor of Mr. Blair's wife and mother. The institution is generously endowed.
Blairstown owes to the generosity of Mr. Blair an electric light plant and a water system, designed particularly for the convenience of Blair Hall, but whose advantages were extended to the whole town.
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A noted figure in Blairstown was Dr. John C. Johnson, who located there in 1850, and for more than half a century served the population faithfully for many miles around. He was president and, for many years, secretary of the County Medical Society, and was presi- dent of the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1867. Dr. H. O. Car- hart has practiced his profession in Blairstown since 1887, and has been for several years collector of the County of Warren. Dr. William Allen and Dr. F. S. Gorden have been more recently established here. `
The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first one to be erected in Blairstown. It was not built until 1838, although the Methodists had stated preaching appointments in this place as early as 1811. In 1873 the original stone structure was torn down, and the present frame church was erected on nearly the same site. This church was connected with the Harmony circuit from 1838 until 1862, when it became a separate charge. Soon thereafter a commodious parsonage was erected. An excellent Jardine pipe organ was installed in 1902. The present pastor is Rev. D. H. Gridley.
The Blairstown Presbyterian Church was erected in 1839-40. "It was furnished with a 218-pound bell, for many years the only church- going bell to be heard by the citizens of the beautiful valley in whose midst the church was planted." The first structure was built of stone, and, although in good repair, was demolished in 1870 to make way for the present building. The Presbyterians in this vicinity early went to the Knowlton church or to the Yellow Frame Church, a few miles away. In 1848 a parsonage was erected. Dr. John C. Johnson was organist for many years on the well built Jardine pipe organ. The present pastor is the Rev. J. N. Armstrong.
De Witt C. Carter is the editor and publisher of the Blairstown Press, the only newspaper published in the northern part of Warren County.
The First National Bank of Blairstown was established in 1900. Theodore B. Dawes has been its cashier for ten years, and William C.
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Howell its president. The People's National Bank was opened for business in August, 1910. John A. Messler is president, and E. J. Divers cashier.
The farming in the neighborhood of Blairstown takes mainly the form of dairying. The Empire State Dairy Company has creameries at Hainesburg, Vails, Marksboro and Blairstown, which serve as a market for most of the milk produced in the Paulins Kill Valley.
CHAPTER XVI.
FRELINGHUYSEN.
Frelinghuysen is named in honor of the Hon. Theodore Freling- huysen, attorney-general of New Jersey, a United States Senator, and president of Rutger's College. The township was created from a part of Hardwick in 1848.
I quote from Judge Swayze's address :
"In 1760, Jonathan Hampton advertised for sale 6,000 acres of land at Hardwick, in the County of Sussex, about two miles from the old jail, on both sides of the Pawling's Kill, within half a mile of Samuel Green's mill. He describes it as well stored with white oak timber, of which quantities of staves and headings are made and transported down Pawling's Kill and Delaware to Philadelphia."
Early settlers in Frelinghuysen were the Shafer, Wintermute, Arm- strong, Van Horn, Thompson, Lanning, Hazen, Lundy, Dyer, Edger- ton, Green, Luse, Rice and other families, some of whom were English Quakers, some Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, some German, and others Dutch.
Samuel Green, who chose to make this township his home, had been a deputy surveyor of West Jersey for many years, and as such located for himself and his family some valuable tracts in Hope, Ox- ford and Frelinghuysen. He was the first white man to tread the soil of this township, and later settle on it. On May 17, 1715, he was one of a party of three surveyors to go along the old Indian path leading from Allamucha to "the cleft in the hill where the Minnisink path goeth through," taking him past Pahuckquapath, which was the name
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of the region about Johnsonburg, and on to Marksboro, where the Tohockonetcong Indians would not let them survey any land.
Samuel Green was a voter in Hunterdon County in 1738, and died in Frelinghuysen in 1760. One of his sons was Samuel Green, Jr., who settled at Hope, and sold one thousand acres of land to the Moravians in 1768.
Richard Lanning settled near the Yellow Frame Church before the Revolution. His sons were Richard, Edward and John. Edward bought three hundred acres of land, from which he cleared the original forest. He was born in 1764, and died in 1841. His children were : Richard, born 1793 ; Jeremiah, 1794; David, 1795; Isaac, 1797; Levi, 1799; Peggy, 1801; Sarah (Dodder), 1803; Huldah (Teel), 1805 ;. Edward, 1806, and Hannah (Hart), 1810.
Nathan Armstrong, a Scotch-Irishman, came from Londonderry about 1740, and settled in 1748 on the farm bought of Samuel Green and others, which is one mile northwest of Johnsonburg, and was held by three generations of the family till 1880. All of the Armstrong families of this region are descended from his twin sons, George and John, between whom the homestead was divided. George Armstrong (1749-1829) was town clerk, assessor, county collector, clerk of the board of freeholders, a member of the Legislature, and an elder in the Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church. One son, John, was father of William Armstrong, Sheriff of Warren County, and of Richard T. Armstrong, whose son, William Clinton Armstrong, A. M., was edu- cated at Princeton, is Superintendent of Schools at New Brunswick, and is the author of the Armstrong and Lundy genealogies.
Johnsonburg first came into prominence in 1753, when it became the county seat of Sussex, under the name of "The Log Jail." The first courts were held in the log hotel of Jonathan Pettit, who, to accommo- date his increasing trade, built a row of log houses as annexes to his hotel. The log jail, which gave its name to the place for many years, was the first county building erected for Sussex County.
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On March 21, 1754, an election was ordered to be held at the house of Samuel Green, on the 16th, 17th and 18th of April, "to elect a place to build a jail and Court House." A jail was ordered built near Pettit's tavern, on lands of Samuel Green. Jonathan Pettit and Richard Lundy were to superintend its construction, but no Court House was ever built here, the courts being held in the tavern of Pettit or of Wolverton. The log jail cost thirty-seven pounds two shillings and ten pence, but soon had to be made stronger at an expense of forty-one pounds three shillings one penny. This building was used for nine years, and had a watchman night and day to watch prisoners, most of whom were in for debt. Many escaped and rendered the county liable for their debts to the amount of six hundred pounds. The log jail continued in use until 1763, when a new one was completed on the pres- ent site of the Sussex County Court House, on Hairlocker's plantation, that being on lands owned by Jonathan Hampton. It is said that only one execution ever took place at the log jail, that being the hanging of a negro wench.
The first store was a log structure built by William Armstrong, who was succeeded by a Carr, and he by a Johnson, from whom the town received its present name. This store was. on the site of the one now kept by Elbridge Hardin. It was kept for many years by Robert Blair, brother of John I. Blair. He purchased the farm on which most of the village now stands, of William Armstrong.
Johnsonburg is at present the seat of much activity, owing to work on the D., L. & W. R. R., whose new main line will have a depot here. There are four stores, one owned by George Van Horn, others by Elbridge Hardin and Frank Garrison; a hotel, whose landlord is Mr. Kice; a grist mill, run by Edward Hardin, and build originally by Will- iam Armstrong before 1774; two wheelwright shops, and two black- smith shops.
The Christian Church at Johnsonburg was organized on July 15, 1826, as the result of the labors of Mrs. Abigail Roberts, a missionary,
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who had been here for two years. It is the mother church of those in Hope, Vienna and of some in Sussex County. The building was begun in 1838 and finished ten years later. The parsonage was built in 1878. The present pastor is the Rev. Joseph McManniman. One of the evangelists of the Christian connection came here in 1838 and died of smallpox, after preaching one sermon. He was known as "the white pilgrim," who rode a white horse and dressed all in white, even to his shoes.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Johnsonburg resulted from meetings held at the house of Amos Mann and of B. S. Kennedy. The Rev. George Banghart and others who rode on long circuits came here frequently and preached in the groves in summer and in barns or large houses in winter. This continued until the Episcopal Church was built, in which the Methodists were allowed to hold services. The present church was built in 1850, on a lot given by Isaac Dennis. The present pastor is the Rev. J. L. Brooks. An Episcopal church was here before the Revolution.
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