| The Bowlbys of Hampton The land from Asbury to Hampton Junction and extending over the Musconetcong into Warren County, a tract of 5,088 acres, was purchased by John Bowlby from the first proprietors, about the year 1740. John Bowlby came from England and selected this spot as favorable for a mill site. His house stood near where Peter Cramer now lives. It was once considered as the grandest house in the settlement. It consisted of logs hewn on two sides and notched at the ends; was one and a half stories high and had two large rooms below stairs, while the other houses had only one. It was the first house built here. John Bowlby was quite young when he came to this country. His two brothers, Thomas and Richard, and their sisters came with them. Joseph Bowlby, now 83 years old, living at New Hampton, can remember when there were nothing but log houses in the whole valley. When John Bowlby was running the boundaries of his land, Col. Daniel Coxe was also laying out a tract east of him. There seems to have been some strife between them as to who should get his survey entered upon record first, and at the same time as much of the creek as possible. Coxe became alarmed, mounted his horse and rode towards Burlington as fast as he could, while Bowlby ran his lines so far as to take up the whole stream, keeping Coxe out of every foot of it. He then mounted a horse and followed Coxe, who rode one horse to death, and borrowed another, and thus reached Burlington first. But Bowlby �kept him out of the creek� and that was all he desired, for he now had the mill site, and the most valuable portion of the land. Before the mill was built, Bowlby went to Pittstown to mill, a distance of ten miles, through the wilderness, following an Indian path. Sometimes he had to wait his turn, and would not get back for two or three days. In some families hand mills were in use, consisting of two circular stones about 14 inches in diameter, worked with a crank like the handle of a coffee mill. We have seen one of these in the library of the Historical Society at Newark, and have been told that they were quite common among the first settlers of our state. The Bowlby Land Deals John Bowlby had three sons, Samuel, who lived at the homestead, and owned the mill; John, who took a part of the land that lay in Warren County, and Thomas, or �Esq. Tom,� as he was called, by virtue of his office, who lived on this side of the stream, where Jacob Skinner now lives. Thomas was an important man in the settlement. He was a surveyor, Justice of the Peace and Judge of the Court, but with all these �blushing honors upon him,� his wife was even more powerful than he; for she could pick up a barrel of cider and drink from the bung-hole. Her maiden name was Cowell. Samuel Bowlby was an officer in the expedition that was sent to Wilkes Barre after the massacre of Wyoming. The party had to cut their way through the forest. Joseph H. Bowlby had his father�s commission for a number of years. The three brothers, John, Samuel and Thomas, all lived to be over eighty years of age. Hannah, a sister, married Mr. Piatt of Lebanon. Two others married brothers named Lacey, in Warren County, and one, Mr. Hess of Philadelphia, and lived to be over ninety. John Bowlby sold many hundreds of acres of land for 2s, 6d. per acre, because he did not wish to pay the tax on it. John C. Lake, Esq., of Hampton Junction, has now in his possession a deed from John Bowlby to his son Thomas, dated 1767, for a tract of land. Parties now living at the Junction can remember hearing their grandfathers tell about the time when they could have bought land from Bowlby for 50cts. per acre. It must be remembered that in those days taxes were high in proportion to the value of land; and while land was plentiful, money was scarce. Some not very old men in that section would have sold land for $25 per acre, less than forty years ago, and in Pennsylvania, not ten years ago, thousands of acres of good heavily timbered land would have been bought for $5. So greatly did railroads alter values. We call attention to this, from the fact that what was true of this particular locality was comparatively true of all the northern portion of our county before the railroad was in operation. It is the very plan and purpose of history to show by what toils and perils of those who have lived before us we have arrived at the possession of the comforts and conveniences we now enjoy; and also to teach us the value of inventions before our time undreamed of, that we may in our turn be encouraged to strive for further progress. Surprised in the Forest A little more than a hundred years ago on the very track where locomotives constantly thunder along, John Bowlby�s sons chased the deer�sport of which they were very fond. There was in the settlement a man named Stephen Jarvis, who was terribly afraid of a gun. Thomas and Samuel went out after deer one day, when they saw Stephen standing on a prostrate tree, chopping away so industriously that he did not perceive them. Immediately behind him was a surface of soft mud. One of the young men hid behind a tree, while the other, stealing up unobserved, placed the barrel of his gun near the seat of Stephen�s breeched, and fired. The startled and terrified man gave a leap of about six feet into the air and come down on his back in the mud, half deprived of his wits. The young men came and lifted him up, and affected great concern. One of them asked him if he was hurt. �Oh, yes!� said he, having felt the water of the slough coming through his breeches, and putting his hand down to the spot supposed to be injured, and feeling the mud that stuck to his homespun linseys: �I�m afraid I�m done for, my pants are full of clotted blood!� This became the standing joke of the village, and is told yet at the mill where Samuel Bowlby ground the neighbors� grist. Joseph H. Bowlby, now of New Hampton, is the oldest living representative of the family. He felicitously assert that he and his amiable wife have lived together for fifty-three years and have raised eleven children, ten of their own, and one who came to live with them when small. They had eleven of their own, but lost one. From pages 85-87. Lequear's "Traditions of Hunterdon" were originally published as a series of articles in the Hunterdon Republican from 1869-70. Visit the Bowlby Family Organization webpage at www.bowlbyfamily.org |