USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Warren County, New Jersey > Part 11
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Marksboro is named from Colonel Mark Thompson, who at one time owned the site and built a grist mill here before 1760. A fulling mill had previously been erected on the other side of the Kill. A son of Mark Thompson, named Jacob, later had charge of the mill, and in 1787 we find Mark in charge of a forge at Changewater, where he made pig iron into bar iron.
William Shafer kept the first store here. He was a descendant of Caspar Shafer, who came to this region with his father-in-law, Bern- hardt, in 1742.
An academy was built here, but not being a success, the building was used as a hotel as early as 1810 by a Mr. Shepherd, who was fol- lowed by Crockett Hunt, Wildrick, and Ball.
The Marksboro Presbyterian Church was organized November 1, 1814, as the Second Congregational Church of Hardwick. . The ser- vices were held in the barn of Frederick Snover for one year, by which
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time a brick church had been built. It was dedicated in 1822, the pres- ent building replacing it in 1859, under the pastorate of Rev. William C. McGee.
Shiloh is the name applied to a locality about two miles east of Hope, and in the extreme southwestern corner of Frelinghuysen. A saw mill and a grist mill formerly flourished here.
Southtown is a locality a mile and a half southwest of Johnsonburg.
Kerr's Corners is at a cross roads a mile or more southwest of Marksboro. The new line of the D., L. & W. railroad passes through it.
The Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church, on the road from Hope to Marksboro, was built in 1859, on an acre given by Thomas West. Meetings had been held in the White Stone school house for six years previous to this.
The town of Paulina dates from the building of the first grist mill there by William Armstrong, about 1768. There was a grist mill on the site for more than a century, or until the water power was utilized by Blair Hall for the generation of electricity and for a laundry.
The Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church was until 1904 situated on the border line between Sussex and Warren counties, in such a way that the pastor was in one county and the congregation in the other. It was organized about 1763, and was known as the Upper Hardwick Presbyterian Church until 1782, when it became the Hardwick Pres- byterian Church. In 1859 its name was changed to what it had always been called locally, and which name refers to the fact that it was one of the earliest frame buildings in the county, and was painted yellow. The original log church was replaced by the frame structure in 1784-86, which was remodeled in 1841, and finally torn down in 1904 to be re- placed by the present beautiful structure, visible with its parsonage and cemetery for miles around. At present the church and parsonage are in Sussex County, and the cemetery in Warren. The first stated pastor of the church was Rev. Francis Peppard, who was installed pastor of this
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church and of the one at Hackettstown in 1773, and served for ten years. Rev. B. I. Lowe was pastor for thirteen years after 1824. Rev. Will- iam C. McGee was installed pastor of this and the Marksboro Church in 1841, and served until his death in 1867. He was the father of Dr. William H. McGee, of Belvidere, and of Flavel McGee. Levi Lanning, in 1871, gave a parsonage and land to the church.
The Dark Moon Tavern was many years a place of ill repute, situated one and one-half miles east of Johnsonburg. It gave its name to the neighborhood. A cemetery is near the spot, and known by the same name, and also as the Dyer Burying Ground, which contains a great many dead of a nearly forgotten generation. Here was once a log meeting house before Yellow Frame was built.
The earliest physician in what is now Warren county was Samuel Kennedy, who was born about 1740, spent all his professional life at Johnsonsburg, whither he came before the revolution and died in 1804. Dr. William P. Vail came to this vicinity in 1828 and followed his pro- fession at Johnsonsburg, Paulina and Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He married Miss Sarah Locke, a sister of Mrs. John I. Blair, and was the father of Dr. William Vail and John Vail.
CHAPTER XVII.
FRANKLIN.
Franklin Township was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, when it was erected as a township in 1839 from a part of Greenwich.
New Village is situated on the Morris Canal, and the D. L. & W. rail- road and the new trolley line from Phillipsburg passes through it. "The first settlers were John Andrews and John Wooster," the one a hatter, the other a blacksmith. James Bell, a weaver, Abner Parks, and John MacElroy, came soon after. Landlord McEntire kept the first tavern. Melick and Hulshizer operated a foundry here sixty years ago. New Village grew but slowly until a dozen years ago, when it was found that a valuable deposit of cement rock underlay the valley, which induced Thomas A. Edison to locate his cement mill here.
John Cline came to New Village in 1824 from Greenwich, and bought altogether five hundred acres of land. His father and grand- father were each named Lewis, and lived two miles west of Stewartsville, where some member of the family has resided ever since the first arrival in 1740. John Cline served one term in the legislature, and was the father of Holloway H., John W., and Garner A. Cline. Jacob and Philip Weller, two brothers, came with their father from Germany about 1740 and, investing in land, owned finally 2,000 acres in the vicinity of New Village. Jacob was a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and was the father of thirteen children of whom, three-Jacob, Samuel and John-lived in Franklin. None of them have left descendants bearing the name in this township.
Asbury is a village owing its origin to the water power of the Musconetcong, on which a grist mill was built long before the Revo- lution. The place was then called Hall's Mills. South Asbury is a
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name sometimes applied to that part of the village south of the Mus- conetcong, now having a population of about two hundred.
On the Hon. Martin Wyckoff's land in Asbury, on the road to Washington, is an elevation called "Church Hill," where in the for- gotten long-ago was a log church and, around it, a cemetery which would have given us the key to much of the ancient history of this vicinity had not irreverent hands more than fifty years ago hauled the gravestones away by the wagon load and thrown them into the Mus- conetcong. It was owned by the Richeys at that time. We have abso- lutely no written records of this church, but it was probably one of the churches at which services were held by riders of a circuit, with no estab- lished pastor. Might this not have been the church "in Mr. Barber's neighborhood, near Musconnekunk," which the members of both the Mansfield Presbyterian and the Greenwich Presbyterian churches feel equally positive is their church? Since both claim it, it possibly belongs to neither.
The First Presbyterian Church of Asbury was organized in 1860, when twenty-eight members of the Musconetcong Valley church desired to have a separate organization. The latter church in turn came from the old Mansfield church in 1837. The Rev. E. B. England has been the efficient pastor for a number of years.
There are two stores in Asbury-one owned by Edgar H. Smith, and the other by James Riddle, the son of Elijah G. Riddle. The only manufacturing industry in the place is the Asbury Graphite Mills, oper- ated, in what were two grist mills, by H. M. Riddle, the son of James Riddle and son-in-law of the Hon. Martin Wyckoff, both of very old New Jersey families. A woolen mill was operated here successfully. until it burned down about 1880.
The first physician to settle at Asbury was Dr. James Holmes, who came about 1790 after serving as a surgeon in the Continental army. Dr. John Ball practiced here for forty years beginning in 1794. He was succeeded by Drs. Southard, Darling, Mccullough and Brown.
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Dr. S. A. Welch was located here from 1869 till his death in 1890, and Dr. Gale from 1834 until after 1890, so that Dr. Holmes and Dr. Gale together more than rounded out a century of practice at this place. Dr. E. H. Moore has been at Asbury for several years.
Christeon Cummins arrived at Philadelphia in 1741, and in 1755 bought 150 acres of land east of Asbury. This is the original seat of this branch of the Cummins family in Warren county, and the property remained in possession of some member of the family for a century and a quarter, or until Wesley Cummins sold it about 1880. Christeon's brother Jacob settled at about the same time at Delaware, New Jersey, but none of his family in the county have kept the name, although many of his descendants by female branches are in Warren County. Christeon Cummins lived on his farm at Asbury until his death at the age of 65, in 1781, by which time he was possessed of 625 acres of land. Four of his children-Christeon, Philip, John F. and Mrs. George Beatty- settled at Cumminstown, now Vienna. Daniel and Michael went west. Another daughter, Annie, wife of Joseph Groff, is ancestor of many of that name in Warren County, and owned the Cummins homestead here for many years.
For more than half a century the most prominent name in this locality was Mccullough. William McCullough came to Hall's Mills, now Asbury, in 1784, at the age of twenty-five. In July, 1776, when seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Revolutionary army in Cap- tain Mellick's company, of which his father, Benjamin Mccullough, was a lieutenant, in Colonel Mark Thompson's First Regiment Sussex militia, and served from 1777 till 178 1 as brigade quartermaster. On June 5, 1793, he became lieutenant-colonel, Lower Regiment, Sussex militia, and was ever after known as Colonel Mccullough. William Mccullough was a member of the Assembly, of Council of New Jersey, and a county judge from 1803 until 1838. "He built a noble mansion at Asbury, on a bluff overlooking the Musconetcong, and dispensed a gracious hospitality there for many years."
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In 1786 the Mcculloughs became Methodists, and Bishop Asbury, Rev. George Banghart and others, used to come and preach at their house on their circuits. In 1800 the old Methodist church was com- pleted, and the church and town was christened Asbury, in honor. of Bishop Asbury, who laid the corner stone on August 9, 1796. Bishop Asbury says in his journal :
"Tuesday Aug. 9, 1796, we made our way 25 miles to Brother Mccullough's near Schooley's Mountain probably a remnant of the Blue Ridge. After a good meeting at Brother MC's we went to lay the foundation of the new Meeting House. We sang a part of Dr. Watt's hymn on the 'corner-stone' and prayed. I then had to lend a hand to lay the mighty corner-stone of the house."
Of another visit he records :
"Thursday May 9, 1811, we came to Asbury and I preached and added a special exhortation. Were it not for the brewing and drinking of miserable whiskey Asburytown would be a pleasant place."
The present church building in 1842 replaced the original /struc- ture. Rev. Lewis Gordon is the present pastor.
The Mcculloughs owned a good deal of property between here and Washington, and in 1811 William McCullough built the Washing- ton House, a brick hotel, and moved to that place, then called Mans- field.
Members of the Richey family were formerly residents in the vicinity of Asbury. John and Daniel were the first comers. John's sons, William, John and George, passed their lives in this vicinity.
Abraham Shipman came from Harmony township in 1807, after the death of his father Harmon, and bought 380 acres of land near Asbury. His son William settled on a part of this farm, and was father of Abraham, William W., Charles, and James H.
Peter Wooliever, one of the earliest settlers in Franklin, is regis- tered as a voter in Amwell, Hunterdon County, in 1738. Shortly after
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that he settled here, and in 1755 he transferred some property to Christeon Cummins. Peter is the ancestor of all of the name Willever in this part of the county.
The site of Broadway was originally owned by a family named Probasco, and later by William McCullough. A log school house was located as early as 1820 near the present depot. The first store was owned by William Warne, who also managed a plaster mill, a grist mill, and a woolen factory, to which people brought their wool for miles to have it carded, etc.
With the advent of the trolley from Phillipsburg, Broadway has taken on a new lease of life. An appeal to the railroad commission recently forced the D. L. & W. railroad to re-establish its station at this point for the accommodation of the public. The Morris canal passes through Broadway, and was formerly a great benefit to the place.
The first physician at Broadway was Mrs. Margaret Warne, known as Aunt Peggy, who was a sister of General Garret Vliet, of the Revolutionary army. She rode on horseback for miles to attend ob- stetric cases, and was a very able woman in her day. The Peggy Warne Chapter, D. A. R., was named in her honor. Years later Dr. Weller practiced here, from 1840 to 1843. He was followed by Dr. Glenn, and he by Dr. Creveling, who settled here in 1858, married Elizabeth Lomerson, daughter of James Lomerson, and practiced here until 1881, when he removed to Oxford, and later to Washington and Phillips- burg. He returned to the site of his first practice here in 1910, where he continues practice with his son-in-law, Dr. S. D. Crispin, who prac- ticed here from 1881 until 1897, and after several years' practice at Bloomsbury and Phillipsburg returned to Broadway in 1910.
The Methodist Episcopal Church at Broadway was built in 1842, and for twenty years was connected with the Harmony charge. Rev. C. D. Whitman is at present the supply.
Benjamin Warne, a grandson of Thomas Warne, who was one of the twenty-four proprietors of New Jersey, came about 1753 from
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Monmouth County with his cousins, Cornelius, Jacob and Richard Car- hart, and settled near Broadway, on the place known ever since as the Warne Farm. Cornelius Carhart settled on land now partially the site of Washington, New Jersey, some of which is still owned by his descendants, while Richard and Jacob Carhart came no farther than Hunterdon County. Benjamin Warne built a log house and later a substantial stone one. He also built a grist mill, and his widow, a sec- ond one. He died in 1810, having had seven children : Thomas, born in 1796; Stephen, 1798; William, 1800; Elizabeth (Warner), 1802; Richard, 1804; Nicodemus, 1806, and John, 1809. Richard Warne operated the mill and also a tannery until his death in 1834. Stephen married his brother's widow, and conducted the mill and tannery. He was the father of Nicodemus Warne, who was born in 1841 and came into possession of the property of his father. He has one daughter, Mrs. Keziah Brill, of Stewartsville.
William Mckinney was born in Ireland in 1723, and, when a young man, bought about 500 acres of land west of Broadway and lived on it until his death in 1777. One of his sons, John, born in 1757, succeeded to the homestead and in 1805 built substantial stone farm buildings thereon. He had a distillery, which was operated after his death in 1838 by his son, William. William McKinney built a second stone house on the farm in 1835, and a frame dwelling in 1865. His sons were John, George W., Henry and James. The old stone dwelling is now occupied by William Mckinney.
The Lomerson family so long identified with the history of War- ren County is descended from one Lambertson, who settled at an early date on Scott's Mountain. Lawrence Lomerson, one of his grand- children, who was born in 1770, bought in 1799 the farm near Broad- way where his son James and grandson William lived before the recent removal of the latter to Phillipsburg. Lawrence Lomerson was father of Jane (Weller), William, Robert, Elizabeth (Weller), Margaret, who married Cornelius Carhart; Julia Ann (Carhart and Weller),
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James, Rebecca (Weller), Mary (Wandling), Caroline, Sarah ( Will- iam Mccullough), and Lawrence, Of these the only one to leave children bearing the name was James Lomerson, who lived at Broad- way until his death in 1890.
James Lomerson was a man very prominent in the community in which he lived. He was for many years president of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church at Washington, and was one of the founders of the Washington Cemetery Association and president of its board. His only son, William Lomerson, lived at Phillipsburg until his death in August, 1910, as does his son, James, who is cashier of the Phillipsburg National Bank. Thomas Lommasson, another grandson of the original Lambertson, is the ancestor of those of that name near Belvidere.
The Cole family of Franklin, Washington and Oxford comes from the family of Christian Cole, who came from Germany and set- tled on Scott's Mountain, in the extreme northeast corner of Franklin. He had one daughter and three sons. One of the sons, Christian, lived on the homestead all his life and had six sons: John, Stauffle ( Chris- topher ), William, Samuel, James and Jacob. Of all these sons, Samuel alone remained in Franklin, and he lived at the old homestead.
CHAPTER XVIII.
GREENWICH.
Greenwich is one of the oldest townships of the county, and at its earliest and greatest extent included all of the western and central part of the county from the Kittatinny Mountains to the Musconetcong. It was formed before 1738. At that date Samuel Green, Henry Stewart and John Anderson, of Greenwich, voted in Hunterdon County (which then included Warren) for representatives to the General As- sembly. In 1754, by the formation of Oxford and Mansfield Wood- house, Greenwich was cut down to the limits of Pohatcong, Lopatcong, Phillipsburg, Franklin, and a part of Harmony. Of these, Franklin was set off in 1839, and Phillipsburg, including Lopatcong, in 1851. Harmony was formed the same year from parts of Greenwich and Oxford. Finally, in 1881, Greenwich was cut down to its present size by the formation of Pohatcong. Greenwich seems to have been named in honor of a Mr. Green, a settler here before 1738, for the locality is referred to in early records as Mr. Green's, or Green's Ridge, Green- ridge, Greenage, Greenidge, and finally Greenwich.
The fattest person ever known was born in Greenwich Township, in 1816, the daughter of Anthony and Catherine Learch. When nine- teen she married William Schooley, also of Greenwich, and they moved to Ohio. She weighed 764 pounds, and had a waist measure of nine feet six inches, and an arm that was three feet two inches in circum- ference.
Two very old burial grounds in this township are that of the Lutheran or Straw Church and that of the old Greenwich Presbyterian Church, which is one mile down the Pohatcong from the present church
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and burying ground. In both of these cemeteries interments were made one hundred and fifty years ago.
The three schools in the township are at Kennedyville, Still Valley and Stewartsville, and employ five teachers. At Bloomsbury the school is in Hunterdon County.
Kennedyville is chiefly noted for being the site of one of the three oldest Presbyterian churches in the county, the others being Oxford and Mansfield-Wood-House. The first Presbyterian Church of Greenwich built its first meeting house between 1739 and 1744-between the time when a call was first made to the Presbytery of New Brunswick for a supply and the time when David Brainerd records in his journal that he "preached in Greenwich twice on Sabbath, December 9, 1744." The first church was a log structure, and stood on the south bank of the Pohatcong, near where the Central railroad crosses the stream a mile from the present structure. It stood upon land formerly owned by John Riley, and more recently by Henry R. Kennedy.
Among the supplies of the three earliest churches are Rev. Robert Cross, Rev. John Cross, Rev. James Campbell, Rev. Daniel Lawrence, Rev. Azariah Horton, and later Mr. Boyd, Mr. John Clark and James McCrea. "The Rev. John Roseborough was, previous to 1770, pastor of Greenwich, Oxford and Mansfield Woodhouse." He served till 1769. The churches were vacant until 1775, when Rev. Joseph Treat preached every other Sabbath in Greenwich Church. He remained until his death in 1797 or 1798. Rev. Francis Peppard and Rev. John Hanna also occasionally preached in the three churches.
The second church, a substantial one built of stone, was erected in 1775 on the present site, near where the New Brunswick turnpike crosses the Pohatcong. The present church was built in 1835 from material in the second church, under the pastorate of Rev. D. X. Jun- kin, to whose centennial discourse we are indebted for much of the history of the church. He served the church from 1835 to 1851.
William Kennedy, who was born in Londenderry, Ireland, of
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Scotch ancestors, in 1695, and emigrated to America in 1730, was the founder of the Kennedy family in the United States. He married Mary Henderson, in Ireland, and lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Their son, Robert, married Elizabeth Henrie, and settled in Green- wich Township. During the Revolution he was active in furnishing supplies to the army of Washington at Morristown, and for that pur- pose gained control of most of the mills in our county and Hunterdon. He was born in 1733 and died in 1813. His son, Robert, and grand- son, Henry Robert, followed in his footsteps and amassed comfortable fortunes. The latter was president of the Bloomsbury National Bank, and thrice a member of the Legislature. His wife was a daughter of General John Frelinghuysen, and their sons are John F., Robert H. and Theodore F. Robert H. Kennedy is the father of Charles E. W. and Frederick F. Kennedy.
Besides Robert, there came to Greenwich Township in 1771, Thomas and William Kennedy, and their father, from Tinnicum, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Thomas had six children, of whom one was the Hon. Robert S. Kennedy, who was born in 1802 and became very prominent in the county and State. He was a lay judge of Warren County and judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals. He died in 1879. His children are Thomas, Mary, Mrs. James McWilliams, Mrs. Charles T. Kellogg, John S., Henry M., Mrs. S. D. Carpenter, James M. and Robert S.
Bloomsbury is situated mainly south of the Musconetcong, and is named for the Bloom family, who were formerly influential here. It was early known as Johnson's Iron Works, which were carried on as early as 1750 by Robert Johnson, on the north side of the Musconet- cong. The name appears as Bloomsburg on a map in 1769, and even at that early date the main road from Phillipsburg to the southeast passed through the place. Captain Benjamin Mccullough owned the mill and several farms in this vicinity, most of which he obtained by marrying the widow of their former owner, William Henry, in 1758.
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He was a member of the committee of safety and of the New Jersey As- sembly, and was father of Colonel William McCullough, of Asbury and Washington. Mrs. Benjamin Mccullough was "the first lady who kept her carriage" in this part of New Jersey.
Stewartsville is the largest town in Greenwich. It is pleasantly situated on Merritt's Brook, is a station on the Morris and Essex divi- sion of the D., L. & W. railroad, and has the Morris Canal and the Phillipsburg to Washington trolley line passing through it. That por- tion of the town north of the railroad was formerly called Cooksville. Here Dr. Silas Condict Cook practiced medicine from 1814 till 1842, and then went to Easton. He was the father of Dr. Lewis C. Cook and Dr. John S. Cook, of Hackettstown. Here also one of the name ran a grist mill in 1850. Dr. James C. Kennedy practiced in Stewarts- ville from 1829 to 1851, Dr. P. F. Hulshizer from 1851 to 1894, Dr. S. S. Kennedy from 1859 to 1888, and for a short time Drs. McCosh, Knecht, Beatty, Bartholomew and Warrington. Dr. Frank W. Curtis is the present efficient physician, who has been here since 1895.
Stewartsville is named after two brothers, Thomas and Robert Stewart, who came from Tinnicum, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Greenwich, in 1793, and who have left many descendants in Warren County. Thomas was judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county (then Sussex). His children were Robert, Samuel, William, Thomas, Mrs. Joseph Carpenter, Jesse, John and James. Jesse Stewart married Mary Roseberry, and was the father of Thomas, Michael, Jesse D., Mrs. Richard Wilson, of Belvidere; Mrs. Peter Pursel, of Ohio; Mrs. William Carter, Mrs. Andrew Lommason, of Belvidere; John, and Mrs. George Lance, of this township.
The First Lutheran Church of Stewartsville is a daughter of St. James Lutheran, known better as "the Straw Church." The corner- stone was laid in 1851 for the splendid brick structure. Its pastors have been Revs. Pitt, Henkel, Barclay, Sheeleigh, Sikes, Sizer, Kelly and others.
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