Martha Bell, Post Office Horse
In the early years of the 20th century, mail was delivered in Basking Ridge by horse and cart. The inscription reads “ ‘Martha Bell’ after 6 years service on Route 1, Basking Ridge, NJ” (Nettie Allen Collection). The post office started experimenting with Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the late 19th century and expanded it
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Basking Ridge in Revolutionary Days
Passages from the memoir of Eliza Susan Morton Quincy (d. 1850) were reprinted in this memorable booklet by the Basking Ridge Historical Society (now The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills) for Bernards Township’s 200th anniversary in 1960. Eliza’s father, John Morton, brought his family to Basking Ridge in 1776 from New York City to
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Somerset Hills Peaches, 1886
Peaches became a major cash crop in the Somerset Hills during the late 19th century. Farmers gained new markets with the arrival of the New Jersey West Line Railroad in Bernardsville (1872) and the Rockaway Valley Railroad in Pottersville and Gladstone (1889-90). Railroads were used to ship peaches and other commodities to cities all along
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Sanborn Insurance Maps
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps provide a treasure trove of local historical information and may be accessed free on the Library of Congress website. Originally created to allow fire insurance companies to underwrite properties, the maps provide detailed historical views of many cities and towns. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05418_002/ Olcott Square, Bernardsville, is shown on this 1909 map. There
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Belcher Family
UPDATE Oct. 27, 2023: Descendant Found! A friend spotted this lost family on the discard pile after the VNA Rummage Sale in Far Hills. On the back, the photo is identified as the family of Malcolm Belcher (1887-1987), who was the longest serving mayor of Far Hills (1938-1965). The fairgrounds in Far Hills is named
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Oak Stump Corner 1907
This 1907 photo shows the intersection of Mount Airy (Bernardsville Rd) and West Oak Street (Oak Stump Road). It appears to be taken from the Bernardsville side of the intersection where 161 Mount Airy now stands and shows (center) the old traffic triangle. More on the history of this intersection can be found in the
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The 1889 edition is can also be downloaded from the Internet Archive and from Google Books. The Bernardsville Library local…
Thanks for the post. I'll have to look at the land when I'm next up the hill.
Roy such an interesting article. I didn't know anything about Stonemere. Many of the mansions on the Bernards Mountain had…
Too bad it happened well before the bicentennial. It might have been saved 6 or 8 years later!
My family lived in the Old Pottersville Hotel in the late 60’s before Southfield Drive was built. Large pieces of…