USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Warren County, New Jersey > Part 14
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Vienna is a beautiful country town, whose two streets are lined
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with sugar maples, planted many years ago by Hampton Howell and others, with an eye to their future beauty. A macadamized road ex- tends the length of the town, and is part of the best route from New York to the Water Gap.
The first settlers at Vienna were the brothers Philip, Christeon and John Cummins, who settled on land purchased by their father, Chris- teon, who lived at what is now Asbury. Philip and Christeon Cum- mins came here about 1770, and John shortly thereafter. Philip lived where his grandson, A. J. Cummins, now resides; John built his log house on the opposite side of the road, and Christeon built his on the site of Lewis Merrell's fine residence. Philip Cummins' son, Jacob, inherited the homestead in 1828. The stone part of the house on the homestead was built in 1794, previous to which a log house near by was the only dwelling.
During the Revolution the notorious Tory leader, James Moody, frequently visited this vicinity for the purpose of making the unpro- tected patriots swear allegiance to the crown. "Moody would call on Philip Cummins at regular intervals to make him take the oath, although it was well known among his relations that his sympathies were with the colonies. These visits would generally occur in the night, and Moody was often accompanied by some of his Tory associates, one of whom, on one occasion, discharged his gun at Philip, but Moody struck up the barrel and saved his life."
It is many years since Vienna has had a hotel. John P. Merrell, and later Philip Hopler, kept the only one ever built here, and from its frame has recently been erected a residence.
The Vienna foundry was built by Fleming and Carr before 1860, and sold to Simon A. Cummins in 1866, who manufactured here the double corn plows that were widely known. He sold it to John Green in 1875, and he to Morris Parks. Daniel Wolfe at present does mis- cellaneous casting in the old foundry. David and John Hoffman have been blacksmiths here for many years.
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Among the industries that once thrived here was a saw mill on the Pequest, a half mile above the bridge. It was rebuilt in 1839 by Sted- man, Vreeland and Vanness, and destroyed by fire in 1865. Fisher Stedman was the inventor of much of the wood-turning machinery that is in use throughout the world today. Benjamin Hall had a steam saw mill whose ruins still are seen in the rear of the foundry. It furnished material for wagon wheels. After it burned in the eighties, the busi- ness was carried on at Hackettstown. The Bulgin Brothers had a chair factory that prospered before it burned down in 1870.
The first of the Fleming family to come to what is now Warren County was Andrew Fleming, who bought 220 acres of land in the Pequest Valley in 1768, and settled on it before 1771. We believe that none of his descendants in the county have borne the name Fleming since 1824. All of the Fleming family at present in Warren County are descended from Thomas Fleming, a brother to Andrew. Thomas Fleming was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, about 1720, and came to Bethlehem, Hunterdon County, with his brothers in 1751 and moved to Cumminstown, now Vienna, in 1783, with his three children, Thomas, James and Margaret, and settled on a tract of 1,400 acres of land, which was a part of the tract formerly belonging to Samuel Hackett, from whom a neighboring town was named.
Thomas Fleming (2nd.) was born in 1753 and died in 1829. On his tombstone in the Presbyterian churchyard at Great Meadows is inscribed: "Here lies the remains of a soldier of the Revolution, one of the heroic band who with Washington crossed the Delaware on the 25th of December, 1776, and conquered the British and Hessians at Trenton." His sons were David, Alexander, Thomas (3rd.), Josiah, John, Aaron, Moses and James.
James Fleming, the son of Thomas ( Ist.), died at Vienna in 1840, aged eighty-five. He married the granddaughter of the original owner of Coryell's Ferry, at Lambertville, and was the father of. John C., Harvey and William. Mrs. Amelia Fleming Albertson, a daughter
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of Harvey Fleming, owns the old homestead farm, on which is still standing the stone house built by her grandfather.
The Pequest Methodist Episcopal Church had its origin in ser- vices held by itinerant preachers in the stone house of Philip Cummins. Here Bishop Francis Asbury, Rev. George Banghart and others occa- sionally preached. In 1810 a church was built on land purchased of John Cummins. It was not completed until 1824. The original name of the church was New Jerusalem. In 1854 the old church was torn down and the present structure was erected on its site and dedicated by Rev. John L. Lenhart, who was later chaplain of the United States Senate, and of the United States ship "Cumberland" when she was sunk by the "Merrimac" on March 8, 1862. He refused to leave the ship and sank with her.
In 1867 the present parsonage was erected. The present pastor is Rev. R. Lake. The centennial of the church was celebrated on August 7, 1910, when the Rev. Dr. Buttz took part, here, where years ago he preached his first sermon.
Half way between Vienna and Hackettstown is a meadow which has of late years been used for raising onions, of which as many as 15,000 bushels are produced. At the end of the meadow is a cider mill operated by Philip Bell. This was for many years known as the Martin tannery. A mile down the little stream is another tannery, operated until thirty years ago by Charles Titus, at the place called White Hall, where for a hundred years a grist mill was operated, mostly by mem- bers of the Ayers family. A woolen mill was also run here many years ago.
There is only one pond in the township, and this is called Mas- tondon Pond, from the discovery of a splendidly preserved skeleton of a mastodon by a Mr. Ayers, while engaged in hauling muck from the pond for use as a fertilizer. The skeleton is now in Boston.
Great Meadows, which bore the name of Danville for seventy- five years, is situated at the southeastern extremity of the fertile tract
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of land of the same name. For many years most of its prosperity was due to activities connected with the Kishpaugh mine. Here was the company store, and here many teamsters lived who hauled the ore to" Oxford. Now all interests center in the meadows, from which are shipped as much as $200,000 worth of celery and onions in a single sea- son, one-half of which is shipped from Great Meadows Station. The largest individual shipper is J. S. Mundy, who has 1,500 acres of the meadow land under cultivation.
The first postmaster of Danville was Sheriff Daniel VanBuskirk, who built the hotel later owned by Lewis Martenis and Aaron B. Leigh, and now kept by John Reed.
The Crane Iron Company's store building was built about 1875. It was later kept by Martenis & Hance, and now by E. W. Almer, who, as an undertaker, was succeeded by Lyman Hiles. Another store is owned by Albert Snyder. The Woodbridge Manufacturing Company operates a plant on the meadows for drying muck used as a filler in fertilizer. They employ about fifty men. George Williams and Will- iam Bird have saw mills near the station. A coal and lumber yard is owned by George Williams, son of Lewis Williams, who kept them for many years.
The Presbyterian Church at this place was built in 1824 and re- modeled in 1863 to its present condition. Until 1831, when it was regularly organized, it was connected with the Hackettstown church. The Rev. Ephraim Simanton between 1851 and 1867 built the church up to a membership of 124. A parsonage was added to the church property in 1868. The present pastor is Rev. O. R. W. Klose.
The name Great Meadows is used as early as 1764 in records of the Quaker church. From the earliest times the possibilities of the meadows were recognized, but the difficulties connected with subjugating the luxu- rious wild growth seemed almost insuperable. The first active movement in this direction was made by Dr. J. Marshall Paul, of Belvidere, who in 1850 reclaimed 200 acres of bog land in the vicinity of Schmuck's
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saw mill. He burned the bogs and used the ashes as fertilizer, and dug ditches to. drain the land. He bought of Fisher Stedman the water power at Vienna for the purpose of destroying the dam that caused the waters to flood the meadows. But the task seemed too great for in- dividual owners to accomplish. In 1872, in consequence of a petition of many land owners, the Supreme Court appointed commissioners for the purpose of draining the Great Meadows. They were Amos Hoagland, James Boyd and William L. Johnson; with Abram R. Day as their engineer. After spending much money in fruitless efforts to enlarge and deepen the Pequest Creek by hand, the task was finally accomplished by using a steam dredge, which, operated by contractors Stephens and Fagan, opened a channel from Long Bridge to a mile below Vienna. To meet the unnecessarily large cost it was necessary to assess the 6,000 acres affected as high as twenty-eight dollars per acre. Most of the land owners did not care to meet this payment, and the commissioners sold the land for terms of ninety-nine or 999 years to new owners. From that time those connected with the meadows have met with alternate failure and success. A J. Swayze and E. G. Bulgin, Pegg and Davis and others, spent large sums of money in developing the new enterprise of raising celery and onions, which now are estab- lished on a finely paying basis. Many Hollanders came in from the celery lands of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and find here that they can com- pete successfully with growers in their old home and have the advantage of near markets.
The Vliet family of Warren County is descended from John Van Vliet, who had four sons, named John, Benjamin, Daniel and William, The homestead was at Post's Island. The son John lived in the stone house at the entrance to Post's Island, and was the father of Benjamin Vliet, who was very active for many years at Townsbury. A daughter of John Vliet married John Bird, the father of Norman Bird, Vliet Bird, Stewart Bird and E. Fowler Bird, who now lives at Post's Island.
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Daniel Vliet was a soldier in the Revolution, and both he and his brother, William, were called captain from their connection with the militia, in which Daniel was major. Daniel owned Post's Island, which is still in possession of Mrs. Docia Hoagland, one of his descendants. Captain Daniel Vliet was the father of Daniel, William, John and another son, who went to California. As a soldier he was entitled to a land bounty, and he also purchased the last 600 acres of land remain- ing to Samuel Hackett at his death, making him a large property holder. He built five substantial stone houses along the Meadows : one near Post's Island; two at Long Bridge, one owned by "Doc" Runyon, and another by Mrs. Ford Hibler; one near Allamuchy, lately owned by Arch Ayers; and one owned by the late Polhemus Cummins. A daughter, Sarah, married David Vreeland, the father of Daniel and Elizabeth. The latter married E. J. Post, whose estate till 1910 owned the original Vliet homestead. William Vliet settled on the farm one mile east of Vienna, now owned by Mrs. Carrie Bounds.
Trimmer's Island, or Roe's Island, and Young's Island, are farms of upland in the center of the Great Meadows.
The only mill in the township was built about 1815, and was long known as Barker's or Gibb's Mill.
Petersburg, once familiarly known as Catswamp or Caddington, is a hamlet two miles from Hackettstown. Its public school building was once a Christian church. From it grew the Christian Church at Vienna, which was built on land given by Jacob Cummins, who also gave the parsonage. This church was organized April 14, 1839, at the house of Matthias Cummins, and the house of worship was erected at Petersburg at once. In 1858 the new church building was erected at Vienna, after which time only occasional services were held at Peters- burg. Among the pastors who have served the church may be men- tioned the Revs. Nicholas Summerbell, C. A. Beck, John McGlauflin, William D. Lane, and the present pastor, Rev. Mr. Brands.
CHAPTER XXIV.
KNOWLTON.
Knowlton Township is supposed to have derived its name from the prevalence of knolls and hills within its borders. It was set off from Oxford in 1764, and originally included also Blairstown, which was erected in 1845, and a part of Hope, which was formed in 1839. The pioneer families of the southern part of this township are Albert- son, Adams, Cummins, Ribble, Engle, Robeson, Allison and Appleman; and of the northern part, Leida, Snyder, Cool, Barnes, Craig, Brands, Bartow, Beck and Brugler.
The schools in this township are at Hainesburg, Mount Pleasant, Walnut Corner or Brandsville, Columbia, Chapel Hill and Delaware. The pupils at the Water Gap are transported.
Ramsaysburg is named from James and Adam Ramsay, who came from Ireland and settled on land now owned by Mary Van Kirk in 1795. It had formerly a post office, three saw mills, two blacksmith shops, a Baptist church, an Episcopal church, a hotel, conducted by L. Albertson; a wheelwright shop, a clover mill, a school house and a physician, Dr. L. C. Osmun, who was here from 1861 to 1873. It now has none of these, the name being limited to a small group of houses one mile south of Delaware. Joseph Kimenour conducts here the Spring Brook Place.
A Baptist church was built at Ramsaysburg in 1835. the remains of which are seen in the large brick building near Hartung's saw mill. It flourished until 1867, when the vicinity of the railroad made it desirable to close it as a place of worship.
The Ramsaysburg Cemetery is on land given for the purpose by Robert Allison. There is also a smaller and older cemetery given by
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him at the site of the old Episcopal church; across the river, too, is a cemetery that was early used.
Delaware, for many years called Delaware Station, has over- shadowed Ramsaysburg and taken the growth that would have come to the latter owing to the possession of the railway station. It is built on a fertile level tract of land between the mountain and the river, that once formed the farms of Dr. Jabez Gwinnup, who moved here from Belvidere in 1816; and of Cornelius Albertson, whose farmhouse is now the Presbyterian parsonage. John I. Blair purchased the farms at Delaware in order to secure the right of way for the Warren railroad. In 1856 he surveyed the town into streets and lots, and built in 1860 the brick storehouse successively occupied by James R. Dye, James Prall & Company, and at present by Charles Quig. The store owned by the late Theodore McCollum was built in 1871 by Charles Hartung. The Delaware House, built in 1858 by Charles Cool, is now used as a residence by Mrs. Ayers, whose family has owned it since 1867. In 1860 George G. Flummerfelt built the restaurant now owned by Will- iam V. Lundy, and called the Lackawanna House.
Lieutenant James Prall was an active business man here for many years. In 1863 he was appointed postmaster, the office being in his brick store, where he conducted a business of a hundred thousand dollars each year. In 1863 he built the bending works conducted for several years by C. T. James. When he retired he bought the handsome prop- erty now occupied by Joseph Kimenour, which he afterwards exchanged for the latter's house in Belvidere. Mr. George Prall has long been in business here. He now has a large feed store, and ships large quan- tities of sand from the farms which he bought of the John I. Blair estate. He was the purchaser of the rights of way for the Lackawanna cut-off from the Water Gap to Lake Hoptacong. The blacksmith shop of Ward Ammerman was started by his father, Albert, in 1866. John Hoyt conducts a large factory for making bent hickory shafts, succeed- ing Mr. Troxell.
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Delaware is the junction point of the New York, Susquehanna and Western railroad with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. There are at present two iron railroad bridges across the Delaware. The first was built in 1855, and was abandoned when the new one was erected a few years ago.
James Hutchinson operates a grist mill built by his father, Will- iam F. Hutchinson, in 1850. It took the place of a saw mill that had been there for more than half a century. Henry Hartung built the saw mill known by his name in 1840. It was rebuilt in 1862 by Charles Hartung.
The St. James Protestant Episcopal Church was originally built one-half mile south of its present location, in 1784, on land given by Robert Allison for a church, school and cemetery. It was rebuilt of stone in 1841, and dedicated by Bishop Doane in 1842. It was burned in 1866. Its location is still marked by the headstones near the rail- road culvert. The present edifice was built and dedicated by Bishop Odenheimer in 1869. The parish is under the care of Rev. George H. Young, of Belvidere, who succeeded the Rev. Charles Douglas.
The Presbyterian Church of Delaware is a branch from the Knowlton church, which held its services in the Union Stone Church here, along the Delaware, from its organization until 1802, when the present Knowlton church was built. In 1871 the new congregation was organized, and the church in Delaware completed in 1875, the Hon. John I. Blair giving one-third of the cost of the church and parsonage.
The first physician in this vicinity was Dr. Gwinnup, who came from Belvidere in 1816 and built the house now owned by Mr. Smith. He died in 1843, and is buried at Ramsaysburg, where also lie Drs. Larrabee and Leeds, practitioners of long ago at Belvidere and Hope. Dr. Gwinnup was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Warren County.
Other doctors at Delaware were J. S. Stiger, A. A. Van Horn, S. H. Johnson, L. C. Osmun and William C. Allen, now of Blairs-
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town. Jacob Cummins, who was a brother to Christeon Cummins, of Asbury, New Jersey, was one of the pioneers of this township. He settled on a farm at Ramsaysburg, sold it to Coursen, and he to Henry Hartung, and he to Charles Hartung. Jacob, Sr., and Jacob, Jr., signed a certificate of organization of the Episcopal Church in 1789. The sons of Jacob Cummins were: Matthias, born 1762, died 1831, the father of fourteen children; Dr. Peter, born 1761, died 1856 at Hope, New Jersey; Jacob, Jr., Mary, and a Mrs. Cox. Jacob Cum- mins, Jr., was the father of George and Shipman, and of four girls. He moved from here to Green Township, Sussex County, in 1794. The last of the name in the township was Matthias Cummins, who recently died.
Robeson, one of the pioneer settlers, owned the land, later Hutchi- son's, at Robeson's Rift, which name commemorates an occurrence ending in the death of Elam Robeson, a son of the pioneer, in 1777. He and a hired man were cultivating some fields over in Pennsylvania, when they were surprised by some Indians, who secured the guns they had taken along. The hired man swam the river. Young Robeson ran to the rift, and when half way across was shot by the Indians.
Alexander Adams was one of the pioneer settlers of Knowlton Township. He came from Hunterdon County, married Ann Bellis, of another pioneer family, took up 1,700 acres of land, and had seven- teen children, to each of whom he gave a farm. One of these was Alexander Adams, who was born 1780 and died 1811. He married Phoebe Lundy, of the Quaker family at the Settlement, in 1801. One of their three children was Daniel Curlis Adams, who was born in 1807 and died in 1891. He married Catherine Snyder in 1833, and resided two miles from Delaware. Three of his sons were George Crockett Adams, who was born in 1834 and died in 1902; William S. Adams, who was born in 1837 and died in 1864, and John Adams, born April 30, 1842 and who married Miss Bair, of Philadelphia. George Adams left two children : Katherine Mary and Amy Elizabeth,
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of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. None of the Adams name are now residents of the township.
The Harris family of Warren County came originally from Somersetshire, England. The ancestor of one branch of the family was William Harris, who located about 1760 on the farm where Albert Silverthorn lives, one mile from Delaware. Thomas, a son of his, was a shoemaker who lived near the mountain in Blairstown. Thomas Harris's son, Nicholas, settled on the George Hartung farm, above Ramsaysburg, and was the father of George Harris, a veteran of the Civil War, of Belvidere; and of James R. Harris, who was a farmer living near Knowlton Church, and was the father of Nicholas Harris, Esq., ex-Mayor of Belvidere. Another son of Thomas Harris was James, who lived at Swartswood Lake, and was the father of the Rev. Abram M. Harris and the Rev. Sylvanus D. Harris.
Columbia is situated on the Delaware River, at the mouth of the Paulins Kill, opposite Portland, Pennsylvania, with which it is con- nected by a substantial wooden bridge, which was the only one of its kind to withstand the great flood of 1906. The bridge was built by the Columbia and Delaware Bridge Company in 1869. It is 796 feet long, having four spans of about 200 feet each, and has a passageway eighteen feet wide. The place was for a long time known as Kirk- bride's, from the fact that Joseph Kirkbride located a large tract of land here. He was not a settler. It was also known as Dill's Ferry, from a ferry operated for many years a few rods above the site of the bridge. The others who operated the ferry were named Decker, Lamb, Weller and Ott.
Columbia has service on the D., L. & W. railroad, the Bangor and Portland railroad and the Lehigh and New England railroad, by stations in Portland, where also a trolley line begins that connects with the Northampton County system of trolleys. The New York, Susque- hanna and Western railroad has a station at Columbia. The Lehigh and New England railroad crosses the Delaware over a newly con-
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structed iron bridge. A mile above the town the Lackawanna Cut-off, which will be the main line of the D., L. & W. railroad when com- pleted, crosses the Delaware on a reinforced concrete arch bridge of the very best design and at a cost of one million dollars. It is one of the most beautiful bridges in America.
Ex-Sheriff Michael Weller has a fine residence along the river. Lester Brands and Mr. Weidman conduct the two stores of the place.
The Paulins Kill offers a fine water power, which is being developed by the Eastern Pennsylvania Power Company. A fine dam has been built to replace one built a few years ago by another company.
The Methodist Episcopal Church in this place was built in 1840 as the result of efforts by two evangelists, Hevenor and Colbert. The present pastor is the Rev. Mr. Fowler.
A block house was built at the mouth of the Paulins Kill at the time of the French and Indian war, to guard what was then the frontier from attacks by the savages. A number of cavalry horses that were pasturing in "the marsh" were overwhelmed by a flood due to a cloudburst in 1756. Twenty-five men formed the garrison of a block house, who had dogs to go along with the sentries to scent out any Indians that might be in ambush and to follow up their track as they ran away.
In 1812 a German named Francis Myerhoff and thirty of his countrymen built a glass factory here, and ran it until 1825, after which it changed hands several times and was finally abandoned.
Across the Delaware River from Columbia is situated the town of Portland, Pennsylvania. The site of Portland was early owned by Adam Ott as a farm. He sold it in 1816 to Michael R. Buttz, who built a saw mill and apple and rye distillery and a grist mill. He sold it all in 1831 to George and John Troxall.
In Northampton County the first to settle between the Lehigh River and the Water Gap were three brothers named Peter, Charles
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and Abram LaBar, who settled at Slateford and made friends with the Indians before "the Indian Walk" was made in 1737.
The Slate quarries at Slateford were opened in 1805 by Hon. James M. Porter.
Hainesburg, on the Paulins Kill, four miles from the Delaware River, is a station on the N. Y., S. and W. railroad, and will soon have the main line of the D., L. & W. railroad passing through it. As a town it dates back to 1843, when the Beck brothers acquired the site which Andrew Smith had owned for thirty years, and cut it up into lots. Hainesburg was early known as Sodom, but the first post office was given its present name "in honor of John Haines, who made a liberal donation to the school."
The water power of the Paulins Kill was utilized before the Revolution, to run the old stone grist mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1908, when owned by Wolf Brothers. In 1840 Jacob Hibler built a tannery, which Aaron Keyser owned at the time the Civil War broke out, and made a fortune in the rise in leather which occurred during its months-long treatment in vats. Later Levi Albertson owned it. A saw mill was built on the site by George Adams in 1881.
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