account-books dated as early as 1729. From those
and others (the latter going back only to 1770) there
appears to have been a supply-store at the works, and
there, too, it is likely, farmers living in the neighbor-
hood did their trading. During the Revolution, Mr.
Taylor cast cannon-balls for the American army and
sent them in wagons to 1 Trenton, New Brunswick, and
Philadelphia.
There were, besides the Andover Furnace, two
other furnaces connected with the iron-works. There
was one on Beaver Brook, called the Amesbury (built,
so the date-mark on the ruins says, in 1754), and the
second on the Union farm (supposed to have been
built about 1725), where Col. Charles Stewart once
lived, but since 1811 owned by the Exton family.
The ruins of that furnace may yet be seen near the
residence of Mr. Jos. H. Exton.
The old homestead of the Taylors, built, as already
recorded, about 1725, still forms a portion of the Tay-
lor mansion. One room therein is substantially the
same as it was at the beginning. It is moreover an
apartment replete with historic interest, for it was not
only the scene of the birth as well as the death of
Archibald S. Taylor, father of Lewis H. Taylor
(seventy-nine years elapsing between the two periods),
but it was also the abode for six months, during the
Revolutionary era, of John Penn, the last colonial
Governor of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Chew, his attorney-
general. Penn and Chew were sent thither by the
Federal government as prisoners of war, and their
safe-keeping charged upon Robert Taylor.
Although Mr. Taylor was an ardent patriot, and
caused the forges to be known far and near as the
" Union Forge," Allan & Turner, the owners, were
far from being devoted to the Federal government.
Policy, however, kept them from manifesting their
sentiments in a way likely to bring confiscation upon
their property, although such a result did eventually
overtake them.
Mr. Taylor's patriotism was well known and trusted,
and he remained for six months the custodian of the
prisoners at " Solitude," as the Taylor mansion was
called. Penn and Chew were not especially miser-
able during their imprisonment, for they were allowed
not only to roam at will to any point within six miles
of " Solitude," but had among their servants an Italian
fiddler who ever and anon cheered with his music the
souls of Penn and his friend. Mr. Penn marked his
respect for Mr. Taylor by presenting to him a copy of
"The Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland from the
dissolution of the last Parliament of Charles II. until
the sea-battle of La Hogue, by Sir John Dalrymple,
Bart." Upon the fly-leaf appears Governor Penn's
autograph and the inscription, ," Presented to Robert
Taylor by John Penn, the last Colonial Governor of
Pennsylvania, while a prisoner on parole at Union
forge." The book is still in possession of Lewis H.
Taylor.
Aaron Burr and his daughter Theodosia once paid
a visit to Union forge, and remained for some time
the guests of Mr. Robert Taylor, and there were also
many other distinguished occasional visitors, among
whom were Brig.-Gen. Maxwell, of the Revolutionary
army, and Col. Charles Stewart, Washington's com-
missary-general.
Shortly after the close of the Revolution the works
were abandoned because of the exhaustion of the
wood-supply, the near presence of coal being then
not known. The forty slaves who had been em-
ployed there were prepared for transportation to
Virginia, but in the interim one, Mingo by name,
escaped. An old darkey called Peter, too feeble to
endure the prospective journey, was allowed to re-
main behind, and served afterwards as a servant in
the Taylor family.
Not long after the abandonment of the works the
landed and other interests of Allan & Turner were
sold (presumably under confiscation), and Mr. Taylor,
by reason of his long connection therewith, was chosen
one of the commissioners to divide and sell the prop-
erty. In the division he purchased the forge and lands
adjacent thereto, aggregating 366 acres, for which he
paid £800.
After the sale of the property and abandonment
of the works there was no hum of busy industry
in that locality for many a year. Lack of transpor-
tational facilities made the water-power and mines
II Kill BRIDGE.
527
valueless as motives to iron manufacture, and they lay
dormant until the New Jersey Centra] Railway
opened communication between that region and the
oilier world. In 1S">1 the works were restored by Mr.
Lewie If. Taylor. Their history since then will be
found in another article, treating of the town'- in-
dustries.
Since 1758 the Taylors have been closely identified
with the locality anil especially with the iron-work-.
Robert's son, Archibald, was burn and died in the old
mansion in which his son, Lewis EL, was born, and
where he still lives. Gen. George W. Taylor, a son
to Archibald Taylor, served in the Mexican war, and,
entering the Federal service at the outbreak of the
Rebellion, was killed at the battle of Manassas in
1862, while in command of the Firs! New Jersey Bri-
gade.
Judge Johnston once owned the Union farm, and
his daughter Mary, whom Col. Stewart married, was
considered in her day one of the best-read women in
the country. Robert Taylor lived on Union farm at
one time.
Col. Charles Stewart was prominent in the Revolu-
tionary struggle, and from 177H to the close of the
war was attached to Washington's staff as commissary-
general. His residence on Union farm was but brief.
if lived chiefly during his later life at Lansdown
and I'Tcmington. The I'nion farm pa - ed from Allan
& Turner into the temporary possession of more than
person, bu1 in each case the property reverted to
Allan & Turner (through inability of purchasers to
complete promised payments i, until Eugh Exton
came along in 1811, and, buying the thousand acres
lor about £"0,111 in, paid the ney down in gold, much
to the surprise of Mr. Taylor, Allan >v Turner's
agent. Hugh Exton came to America from England
about 1790, and, ace. .riling to document- now in pos-
ses-ioii of a descendant, was naturalized in 1 soj. He
lived al Pittetown until he became the owner of the
Union farm. At his death he divided the farm be-
tween bis four sons, Th a-, Joseph, John, and
lluy.li. All but John, who located in Delaware, oc-
cupied their possessions, and on lliein their sons
Joseph 11., Joseph C, and Lewis now reside. Joseph
H. lives in the old homestead, now somewhat changed,
but yet containing the structure once the 1 le of
Col. Stewart,- in his time a one storj house with a
thatched roof so low in from a- lo leave barely room
for entrance at the doorway, li is said that Col.
Stewart, coming to Id- hoi n a furlough during the
Revolution, was compelled to make bis escape hur-
riedly upon receipt of information thai a baud of
Tories was tben m route toward him. intent upon his
capture, Segol away safely, bul his family suffered
indignity at the hands of the baffled Tories, who. en-
raged ul the e-eape of their prey, visited their spile
upon the heads of wife and children.
Although the older portion of the house must be
more than I 20 \ car- old, the floors, "I J elloW pine, arc
SOUnd and solid a- they wen- the day they
were laid. A carriage-house on the place contains
the most of the material one in a store-house that
stood near the 1 c until 1NI>4, and was supposed to
have been the supply-store kept by Allan & Turner
as'carly as 17"o in connection with their forge at
High Bridge. The ruins of the furnace stand on
Joseph H. Exton'e farm, and near them the old black-
smith's shop does present duty as a sheep-house. Upon
the walls of the -hop appear the date-inark of 1757
and a word whose characters cannot now be defined.
Near the furnace are traces of the presence of an old
burial-place in the long ago. Among the hroken
bead-tones the Onlj one bearing a legible inscrip-
tion i- of east iron, upon which appear the characters
••N. I.. 1717."
On the creek near there Hugh ExtOH built a saw-
mill, but long before his time there must have been
a grist-mill there, as relics found by him proved.
About a mile to the northward was an old tavern,
built no one knows how long ago. Gabriel Kane
was il- landlord about 1800, and after him Thomas
Bangharf and his son Thomas presided over it. The
Bangharts were among the earliest comers to that
neighborhood. So was Daniel Starker, who kept a
blacksmith's shop at the place now known as Tuni-
son's C'oruci-. Starker sold out to William Alpaugh
and moved to Warren County, where he died.
Over al Cokesburg (or Cokesbury, as it used to he
called) the Apgars, the Huflmans, and the Alpaughs
were among the pioneers as early as 17'io, and prob-
able before Caspar Apgar. now aged ninety-three,
living just West of Cokesburg, says he was born near
there, and that the first ofthe Apgars in that locality
was his grandfather (ilasgnw, who, with his wife,
came from Germany about 1760 and settled on a (arm
bought of Allan & Turner. Eleven children — ten
boy- and one girl — were born fo them. The girl mar-
ried John Emery, one of High Bridge's earlj settlers.
Lmong the boys were Henry. Peter, ( lonrad, William,
Herbert, and Jacob. Jacob bad eleven children, of
whom tin ly one now living is ( laspar, above men-
tioned. The Apgars. Hulfmans, and Alpaughs may
be found in abundance in Hunterdon County. In
I860 ii was estimated thai there were in this country.
or had been, Sixteen hundred Apgars who had de-
scended from old (lla-gow Apgar and wife.
John Huffman, who came to the < lokesburg neigh-
borh I about the time ( HasgOW Apgar made his ap-
ice, was the ancestor of a long line of Buff-
mans. One of his grand-oii-. Peter I. by name, lives
now in Tewksbury, and, although in his hundredth
year, is quite active and hearty. When Huffman,
Apgar, and Alpaugh began their lives in the New
World thej found pioneer existence in America full
I, plae,-, and as late as 1808, when Caspar
Apgar married and settled on the farm now occupied
by his son Andrew, he lived in a log house ill the
dense forest, without even a road to convenience him.
528
HUNTEKDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
John Seale, an English school-teacher, came to
America, perhaps in 1760, and soon afterwards settled
in the neighborhood of the old Taylor forge, where
he rented a lot of Allan & Turner, and devoted him-
self to school-teaching, but his grandson Daniel can-
not say where. John's son Daniel, born near "Soli-
tude," became a charcoal-burner under the tuition of
his uncle, Philip Locke, and lived near where Mr. J.
Seale now resides. Charcoal-burning was an almost
universal occupation with the High Bridge settlers at
an early day, for at the works of Allan & Turner
there was constant demand and pay ready at hand
for charcoal. The only child of Daniel Seale the
collier, now in High Bridge, is his son Daniel.
About or before 1800, John W. Sharp lived in Clin-
ton township, near Lebanon, and pretty soon moved
to a place in High Bridge township now occupied
by his grandson, David. David, son to John W.
Sharp, married a daughter of Morris Sharp, living
on Bray's Hill, in Clinton, but of no known kin to
John W. Sharp. The grandsons of John W. Sharp
now living in High Bridge are David, Morris, and
John W. The former two live on land owned
by their grandfather, the latter on a farm originally
occupied by Henry Emery. Peter Hoppock, who
lived in 1800, or earlier, on the farm now occupied
by William Hackett, inherited the place from his
father, Peter Hoppock, of Flemington, who at his
death left a hundred-acre farm to each of his four
sons and daughters. Peter Hoppock, the son, died
in Clinton in 1850, aged eighty, leaving seven sons,
all of whom but one are dead. Of the daughters of
Peter Hoppock, the elder married John Cregar, Jr.
(near whom, west of William Yauger's present place,
lived his father, an old Revolutionary soldier) ;
another married Barnet Fox, of Clinton ; and a third
William Hann, with whom William Yauger took
service in 1816, remaining until 1832 ; in 1833, him-
self occupying the place as a settler, he has resided
upon it to the present day.
The Cregars are numerous in High Bridge, and
rank high among the worthiest and most intelligent
citizens, but they do not prevail so plentifully in that
locality as in Clinton and other townships.
. There are also among the descendants of early set-
tlers the families of Fritts, Beavers, Lances, and Phil-
howers.
ORGANIZATION.
High Bridge was not organized until 1871, previous
to which its territory occupied portions of Clinton and
Lebanon townships. The act creating it is numbered
386, and was approved March 29, 1871. The region
set apart was described as follows:
" All that 'part of the townships of Clinton and Lebanon contained
within the following hounds: Beginning at a point in the middle of
Spruce Run Brook, a corner of Clinton and Lebanon townships, and in
the line of Union townships; thence, first, in a southerly course down
the middle of said brook, the several courses thereof to the boundary
lino of Clinton borough ; thence, second, along the line of said borough
In an easterly course to tho northeast corner of said borough ; thence,
third, in a direct line, to a stone bridge over the Beaver Brook, near the
residence of David Sharp ; thence, fourth, in a direct line to a plank
bridge south of the residence of Emanuel Sutton ; thence, fifth, in a
direct line to a point in the middle of the road leading from the village
of Lebanon to the village of Cokesburg where it is intersected by the
road leading from Fairview school-house to said road; thence on the
same course until it intersects the westerly boundary of Tewksbury
township; thence, sixth, along the line of said Tewksbury township in
a northerly course to a corner of Tewksbury and Lebanon townships in
the middle of the south branch of the Baritan River at the village of
California; thence, seventh, along the road leading from California to
the Puddle Hotel to a corner in the road near the residence of Jacob M.
Trimmer; thence, eighth, in a direct line to a point in the public road
leading from the village of High Bridge to the village of White Hall,
fifty feet north of Philip Tei-reberry's dwelling-house ; thence, ninth, in
a direct line to a point in the line of Lebanon and Bethlehem townships
where the public road leading from the village "f High Bridge to Clarks-
ville first intersects the same ; thence, tenth, in a southerly course along
the dividing line between the townships of Lebanon, Bethlehem, and
Union to the place of beginning."
Peter A. Beavers, George W. Honness, and Am-
brose Fritts were appointed judges of election, and
Isaac Hummer town clerk.
At the first election, held at the American Hotel,
in the village of High Bridge, April 10, 1871, the total
votes cast numbered 355. The officials chosen were as
follows : Town Clerk, William C. Beavers ; Judge of
Election, L. H. Taylor; Assessor, Ambrose Fritts;
Collector, Oliver Bunn ; Freeholder, Peter A. Beavers;
Overseer of the Poor, Thomas Banghart ; Town Com-
mittee, A. S. Banghart, J. T. Conover, Harrison Apgar,
Edgar Lance, and Nelson Bennett ; Commissioners,
John T. Lance, William J. Taylor, J. D. Cregar ;
Surveyors, Jacob Hackett, Peter Cregar; Justices
of the Peace, Eleazur Smith, J. P. Bailey, Thomas
B. Apgar ; Poundkeepers, Thomas Banghart, Mark
Devlin; Constables, A. S. Farley, J. B. Cramer,
Silas Hockenbury; Overseers of Highways, J. C.
Sager, Frederick Fritts, Abraham Crozatt, George
P. Apgar, Oliver Bunn, George Flomerfelt, Richard
Philhower, William Robinson, William Hildebrant,
D. E. Conover, David Alpaugh, Daniel Hartman,
D. L. Everett, Isaac Cramer, J. R. Apgar, Harrison
Apgar, J. M. Apgar, Isaiah Apgar, C. W. Hoffman,
William Lance, Thomas B. Apgar.
Those who have been annually chosen as judges of
election, town clerks, freeholders, and collectors from
1872 to 1880, are named as follows :
JUDGES OF ELECTION.
1872, D. Neighbour; 1873, no record; 1874-76, P. A. Beavers; 1877-78,
J. Fox; 1879-80, D. R. Alpaugh.
TOWN CLERKS.
1872, E. Torreberry ; 1873, no record ; 1874-76, 0. W. Chrysrio; 1877-78,
I. Hummer; 1879, R. C. Farley; 1880, J. A. Apgar.
FREEHOLDERS.
1872-73, P. A. Beavers; 1874-75, A. A. Apgar; 1876-77, J. T. Lance;
1878-80, J. T. Dovland.
COLLECTORS.
1872, 0. Bunn ; 1873, no record ; 1874, J. T. Lance ; 1875-76, W. K. Tay-
lor; 1877-78, B. Apgar ; 1879-80, J.F.Sharp.
HIGH BRIDGE VILLAGE.
Although the New Jersey Central Railroad was
completed in 1852, there was no station at what is
men i;i:ii)i;i;.
:>-><j
now Sigh Bridge village until 1856, in which year
the Taylor [ron-Works began to widen and develop
in enterprise. Beginning with 1851, when Lewis II.
Taylor restored the works, a village began to grow
abonl them, but slowly at first. In 1856 there was an
enlargement of the works, and consequently of the
village. Previous t" thai there had been a supply-
store al the works, bul in that year a store was built
by L, IT. Taylor & Co., near the railway station, and
opened as the "company's store," with Isaac Hum-
mer as manager, and William Lance and John Mc-
Cloughen as clerks. The store was the third building
put up on tin- present site of the village, the first
having been a dwelling-house occupied by Isaae
Zeek, a collier, and the second, a grain-house, near
the track, built by Peter A. Beavers. In L856, John
Anderson built a tavern, and in 1854 a post-office was
established, with D. L. Everett as postmaster, and
W, I. Taylor, son of L. II. Taylor, as deputy; he
acted as postmaster till the latter part of 1856, when
he removed to Philadelphia.
The "company's store" was the only one in the
village until 1860, when Johnson & Lance embarked
in trade, and in the same year the " company's store"
pa—ed i in 1 1 the po-scssion of Nicholas Emery.
Sigh Bridge village contained, in 1880, a population
of 1084. The I hi, in, - carried on by the Taylor Iron-
Works, in which d earl 3 200 men are employed, makes
the village a stirring place, and of itself contributes
greatly toward sustaining the village intere-ts, while
two extensive plumbago-manufacturing establish-
ment- close al hand, ami the support furnished by
tie adjaci ni rich agricultural region, render valuable
assistance in ene aging a prosperous growth.
Besides being a station "ii the New Jersey Central
Itailroad, High Bridge is connected with Tort Oram
and ( Ihester on the northeast by a branch of the Cen-
ir.il Railroad, known as the High Bridge Railroad.
This was opened in lS7li, and in the fall of 1SSII was
being extended toward Dover and Roekaway.
Referring to the post-office succession, it may be
briefly stated thai William Lance succeeded D. L.
Everett in 1865, and was in turn followed by William
K. Taylor and Klias Terreherry. the latter being the
present incumbent .
High Bridge's first physician was William C. Al-
paugh, also the first resident physician ;i
lie was in the latter place from I so- to [si'.'.t, and has
been in High Bridge from isiill to the present. Wil-
liam Hack, it was a physician in Sigh Bridge from
1869 to 1872, and Alfred Walton from 1879 to L880.
CHURCHES.
HIGH BBtDOI Mi:TII0l>lST EPISCOPAL 'in BOB
There was a Methodist Episcopal class in High
Bridge as early as the year 1>.",|, at which time the
preacher in charge on the Clinton Circuit held ser-
vices in the Albright Methodist church, built in High
Bridge in is;, i. This, the firs! church edifice erected
in High Bridge, was built by the Albright Methodists,
bul they failing to prosper, wet.- compelled to dis-
solve their organization, ami gave up the property,
which was for a few years used in common by the
Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutheran-, and Dutch Re-
formed congregations, and called a union church. As
recollection serves BOW, it recall- the member- of tile
High Bridge class in 1854 to have included J. K.
liowns, 'lie, mas Day, Amy Hustlcton, Mrs. Mary
Philhower, Barney Philhower, Maria Hilt-, .1. A.
Cregar, William S. Apgar; J. R. Bowns being the
In 1869 the High Bridge Methodist Episcopal
Church was established, at which time the member-
ship was about SO. Rev. William S. Sari- was then
the pastor, and succeeding him to 1880 came Revs.
Theodore lb Frazee, John Faull, and Jacob Tindall.
In 1873 the erection of the present house of wor-
ship, costing 17000, was begun and completed, so that
the basement was used for meeting- in 1^74, but not
fully finished until 1870. The membership is now
claimed to be 200, and church affairs are in a pros-
perous condition. Rev. Jacob Tindall is the pastor;
(o-i.i >iin|,-on, William C. Simpson, Wesley Vp-
gar, and C. S. Hummel are the class-leaders; John
Strobel, John W. Summer, Nicholas Conover,
Jerome 1'.. McLean, E. J. Cregar, and Matthias
Vgen, (he trustees; and William G. Simpson, super-
intendent of i he Sabbath-school, in which the attend-
ance averages 160.
THK REFORMED CHURCH IN HIGH BRIDGE.
Member- of the Reformed Church living in High
Bridge and vicinity prepared a petition, Jan. 2 1. 1 866,
and transmitted it to the Classisof Karitan, asking to
be organized as a Reformed I hitch ( Ihurch, the peti-
tioners reciting that there had been Reformed Dutch
preaching in the vicinity " for the past twenty-live
Those who signed the petition were D. L.
Everett, Edward John-ton, Isaac Summer, Charles
Fox, Nichola- Emery, W. 0. Beavers, W. J. Boff-
man. A. V. ( 'rcgnr, Samuel ( 'arhart, Jacob Cregar, P.
A. Beavers, Henry Rockafellow, J. c. Scale, J. J.
Tunison, C. B. Hummel, William Hackett, Benjamin
Cole, J. H. Cregar, Jacob Cole, Charles Conover,
Newton Holl'man, J. 11. Bennett, William Lance,
Andrew Cregar, Nelson Bennett, 1'arish Apgar, Mrs.
Jane Holl'man, Thoma- Conover. Jacob llackctt.
In accordance with the petit ion. the church was or-
ganized Feb. 18, 1866, Rev. 1". M. Doolittle, president
of the t ilassis Of Karitan. presiding. < 'hail,- < otiover
ami Isaac Hummer were eh,, -en elders, and John G.
Scale and J. II. Bennett deacons. Rev. Robert Van
Amburgh preached a while for the church, and May
27, L866, Rev. Cornelius Wyckoff commenced his
labor- a- stated pa-tor. In 1869, Rev. Robert Van
Amburgfa became pa-tor, and in ls7i>a church and
parsonage were built, worship having previously been
held in the church built in 1854 by the Albright
530
HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
Methodists and sold to the Reformed Dutch congre-
gation some years after. In 1871, Rev. Jacob Fehr-
man took charge, and remained in the pastorate until
his death, March 1, 1874. At that time the member-
ship was 78. In 1875, Rev. Artemas Dean, the present
pastor, began his labors.
November, 1880, the elders were Charles Conover,
David Neighbour, James H. Walker, and David
Apgar; the deacons, Thomas Richards, Frederick
Apgar, William H. Day, and John Alpaugh. The
superintendent of the Sunday-school is James H.
Walker. In the church the membership is 107 ; in
the school the attendance is 125.
ST. JOSEPH'S (ROMAN CATHOLIC) CHURCH.
There was no Roman Catholic preaching at High
Bridge until 1876, when Rev. Francis O'Neil, sta-
tioned at the Junction, began to hold occasional ser-
vices, and for six months preached once a month or
so in a public hall and in the old Methodist Episcopal
church building. After his departure no regular ser-
vices were held until Rev. J. F. Brady took charge of
the congregation at Clinton in the summer of 1879.
At that time he began to preach at High Bridge also,
and, the congregation purchasing the old Albright
Methodist church building, remodeled and made of it
a neat house of worship, which they dedicated Nov.
25, 1880. Regular services are now held three times
each month. In November, 1880, St. Joseph's con-
gregation included forty-six families.
SOCIETIES.
" Rialto Lodge, No. 161, 1. O. O. F." was chartered
Nov. 8, 1871, with six members, as follows : N. G.,
Henry Rockafellow; V. G., Theodore Perry; Sec,
J. B. Everett; Treas., J. B. Cronce; Allen Apgar
and A. B. Valentine. Among those who have served
the lodge as Noble Grands since 1871 have been
Henry Rockafellow, Thomas Perry, Thomas Rich-
ards, William P. Frey, C. C. Apgar, William J. Iliff,
A. B. Valentine, Henry K. McLean, J. B. Everett, J.
K. Naughright, T. H. Dunn, D. L. Apgar. In No-
vember, 1880, the membership was 60 and the officers
D. L. Apgar, N. G. ; George Simpson, V. G. ; J. B.
Everett, R. Sec. ; F. A. Apgar, P. Sec. ; J. T. Dor-