Delaware’s Cemeteries, Part 1 in a Series

There are 25 known cemeteries in Delaware Township, many of them dating back to the 18th century. They contain the graves of our earliest settlers along with their descendants. Most are little known, but can lead us to the history of our town.

Over the years, many historians and genealogists have gone looking for the old cemeteries, and thankfully, they wrote down the names and described the cemeteries. Based on these writings and on cemeteries I’ve been able to visit, this seems to be a complete list of known township cemeteries.

Anderson-Hunt Family
Bosenbury Family
Barber’s Cemetery
Canal Workers’ Cemetery
Cherry-VanCampen Family
Holcombe-Riverview
Jones/Johnes Family
Kitchen-Thatcher Family
Locktown Baptist Church
Locktown Christian Church
Lower Amwell Old Yard 
and New Yard
Moore Family
Opdycke Family
Pine

…

Delaware’s Cemeteries, Part 2 in a Series

Before reading this post don’t miss the part I of Delaware’s Cemeteries.

SEMI – PUBLIC CEMETERIES
These are fairly large cemeteries that are seemingly public, but the organization that created the cemetery has gone out of existence. As a consequence, maintenance of these cemeteries is problematic, often relying on the work of volunteers.

BARBER CEMETERY
Located on the Lambertville-Headquarters Road, this cemetery, one of the oldest in the township, was begun by members of the Barber family who settled in the area as early as 1740. When Samuel Barber died in 1751, he left his farm to his wife Eliada until his minor children were 21. It was offered for public sale in 1766, and was purchased by Samuel’s son John (c.1720-1795).

Barber Cemetery is a good example of …

Delaware Township Mills in the 19th Century

Mill Owners and Operators

The earliest mill owners were millers themselves. But the more successful the mill, the more help was needed to run it. Millers hired laborers or indentured servants, and it was fairly common for millers to own one or two slaves. In the 1780s, there were about 50 slaves in Amwell Township, many of them owned by millers. In Delaware Township, Samuel Opdycke owned the mill that later was known as Sergeant’s Mill. His slave was named Robbin and was bequeathed to him in his father’s will, written in 1777. When Robbin died, he was buried on the hillside near the mill. Other early mill owners of Delaware Township who might have owned slaves were Peter Rittenhouse and his son Elisha, Charles Woolverton and his son John, …

Headquarters Farm: A Center of Historic Preservation in Delaware Township

The flowers planted in the right of way along Rosemont-Ringoes Road are just the most visible signs of new life in this old hamlet. They are one of several cooperative efforts by Roger Byrom, who owns the farm associated in legend with General Washington, and Marilyn and Kenneth Cummings, who built a home on a lot subdivided from the old farm.

The Cummings are also founding members of the Delaware Township Historical Society. Their home, a comfortable evocation of the colonial vernacular style, reflects their interests in local history. Their many interests and activities include cataloguing and measuring the township’s historic buildings, and collecting and passing on the history of the township.

Roger Byrom, who owns the mill and farm house and other outbuildings, has several irons in the …

The mills of the Delaware Township

Delaware Township, like all other communities in Hunterdon county, was once Water-fed. All the coves and streams were set to use for mills of several kinds. The Wickecheoke and its tributaries, the Lockatong, and the coves of Alexauken, the Plum Brook and Sand creek, and the branches of the Neshanic all provided power to the mills in the eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries.

Several years before 1838, when the Delaware township was created by the New Jersey legislature, the settlers in that area were residents of Amwell township, which today included reritan, Flemington, East and West Amwell, Stockton and Lambertville. The first families of Amwell were able to be self-sufficient in most things, but to grind the grain, the solid fabric or the press oil demanded more equipment than the …