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Archiver > NJ-SOM-BOUND-BROOK > 2002-04 > 1019431048


From: "Carl Suk" <>
Subject: Re: [NJ-SOM-BOUND-BROOK] bits of early Bound Brook and some surnames
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 18:17:28 -0500
References: <E16z18Z-0000py-00@flamingo.mail.pas.earthlink.net>


Jan,

Love the brief historical bits about Bound Brook, While this may not relate
to my ancestors per se it does give us former Somerset Countians a better
understanding of our heritage and the community from which many of our
ancestors settled. Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing
more.

My Suk's settled in Bound Brook in 1900 and moved on to Somerville. Suk,
Kolbeck, Vadimsky, Schamberger, Zavetta and others remain there still, all
part of the Bohemian emigration. Would love to hear from others researching
these and other related surnames.

I might add that I have found cousins that I did not existed from this list
and everyone on this list has been most helpful. If I can help some one
else, I am happy to do so.


Also researching Lewis, Wiegand, Van Arsdale, Stryker, Mattison, Rowland,
Opie, Hewett, VanZandt, Bird, Messler(Metselaer), Simonson, Hoagland in
Somerset, Hunterdon Counties.

Again Many thanks,

Carl W. Suk
Leitchfield, KY
born and raised in Belle Mead, Somerset County, NJ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan Jacot" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 3:06 PM
Subject: [NJ-SOM-BOUND-BROOK] bits of early Bound Brook and some surnames


> Hello fellow Listers,
>
> In light of posts relative to Bound Brook and some surnames that have
> appeared here in recent days, I am taking a Lister posting liberty today
in
> offering up the following (kind of interesting) snipits taken from pages
> 169-173 relating to The Story of an Old Farm or Life in New Jersey in the
> 18th Century (Andrew D. Mellick), which I sincerely hope may hold some
> reading interest for you, and, to which I am also hopeful our list
> administrator does not hold too harshly due to length...
>
> Good luck and enjoy, Jan in CA
>
> Excerpts as follows:
>
> In the year 1666, after certain portions of the Elizabethtown patent had
> been set off to the Woodbridge, Piscataway and Newark settlers, it became
> necessary to define the limit of what was left of this grant; consequently
> it was declared to extend from the mouth of the Raritan on the west to the
> mouth of the Passaic on the east, and from the Rahway river on the south
to
> the brook emptying into the Raritan on the north, which was from
thenceforth
> known as Bound brook. This is the stream that is crossed by the Central
> Railroad just below the station, and in after years it gave its name to
the
> hamlet that grew upon its banks. Bound Brook has the honor of being
> Somerset's oldest settlement, the land on which the village stands having
> been purchased, in the year 1681, by Governor Philip Carteret, and others,
> from two Raritan Indians named KONACKAMA and
>
QUEROMAK....................................................................
> ....
>
> ........................... Only two of these eight purchasers seem to
have
> appeared in the county--Thomas Codrington and John Royce. The former had
> apportioned to him eight hundred and seventy-seven acres on the westerly
> side of the grant, fronting on Middle brook. Soon after 1683, he built
upon
> it a large mansion, giving his homestead the name of Racawackhana, an
Indian
> word meaning a meadow or flat by a rapid brook. This is the same property
> now owned and occupied by George La Monte. Codrington was a man of
> considerable influence; before removing to Bound Brook he had been sheriff
> of the city of New York, and after becoming a citizen of the province of
New
> Jersey he was appointed a member of the governor's council, which position
> he seems to have been still holding in 1698. The name of John Royce is
> preserved in that of Roycefield, southwest of Somerville, where he owned
> twenty thousand acres of land.
>
> That portion of this Indian grant, which is the immediate site of Bound
> Brook, became the property of Thomas Rudyard, one of the original
> twenty-four proprietors of East New Jersey and its first deputy-governor.
It
> was his daughter who, while the widow of Samuel Winder, became the wife of
> George Willocks. About the year 1700 George Cussart, Samuel Thompson and
> Jacob De Groot purchased Rudyard's land, together with eight hundred and
> seventy-seven acres adjoining, belonging to John Royce. George Cussart
built
> his residence where now stands the village hotel; and Thompson's house
stood
> where the Central Railroad line crosses the highway, and was extant until
> the construction of the
railway............................................
>
> .............................The Scotch and English multiplied in this
> vicinity, and by the year 1700 they were in sufficient numbers to warrant
> forming the "Presbyterian Congregation of Bound Brook," which before long
> became one of the most flourishing and important religious organizations
in
> the colony. We have no record of where the first services were
> held--probably in one of the log dwellings that were distributed along the
> willow-fringed banks of the river. It was not until 1725 that the
> congregation erected its first edifice, a low one-storey house which stood
> within the present church grounds, and was preserved until far in this
> century, the uses of its later years being that of a school-house.
Itinerant
> preachers served the needs of the people until 1741, when the Reverend
James
> McCrea was appointed by the Presbytery as a supply, which service he
> continued till 1749. A second and more pretentious building was completed
> about the year 1760, the funds having been obtained from the proceeds of a
> public lottery........................................
>
> ........................When in 1752 our wayfarer rode down this ancient
> highway--the Great Raritan Road--through Bound Brook, he found a village
of
> about twenty houses, all of one storey, guarded at either end by a
spiritual
> and material sentinel, for at the extreme south stood the church, while
> equally far north was William Harris's
> tavern............................................................
>
> .................................Among the citizens of this ancient burgh
in
> the year 1752, besides those already mentioned, was Peter Williamson, who
> lived in a house on the bank of the river, just south of where now is the
> railroad station, built in 1684 by John, son of Lord Neil Campbell; John
de
> Groot, whose house, built by his father in 1700, stood just north of the
> main street,--his son Jacob, who lived to be ninety-four years of age,
died
> in this dwelling, which was preserved until the year 1839 when it was
> destroyed by fire ; John Anderson, the remains of whose house are still to
> be seen on the property of Isaac J. Fisher; William Moore, a hatter; John
> Castner, a shoemaker; and Tobias Voorhees. It was a long building of but
one
> storey, with two dormer windows in its sloping gambril roof. Van Norden
> continued as Bound Brook's storekeeper until after the Revolution, and
wVan
> Norden, who built a store in 1849, upon the site of the one now or lately
> owned by John D. e can imagine Johannes dismounting, either going or
coming,
> in order to fill some little commissions from home, as at this time it was
> the nearest shop to the "Old Farm." A grandson of Van Norden says that for
> some twenty-five years previous to 1765 his grandfather was extensively
> engaged in baking ship bread, which he exported direct to the West Indies,
> carting it in wagons to New Brunswick where it was transferred to vessels.
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> ==== NJ-SOM-BOUND-BROOK Mailing List ====
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infraction will earn you immediate removal from the list.
>
>

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