Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Hopewell Valley
    Hopewell Valley
    Hopewell Valley
    Ebook195 pages1 hour

    Hopewell Valley

    By Jack Seabrook and Lorraine Seabrook

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The picturesque Hopewell Valley is one of New Jersey s finest treasures. Sprawled over more than sixty square miles, the valley encompasses the boroughs of Hopewell and Pennington, the village of Titusville, and the township of Hopewell. From Christmas night of 1776, when George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River, to the twentieth century and the saga of Charles Lindbergh s
    missing infant son, Hopewell Valley has been steeped in history and drama. Rare images gathered from the Hopewell Valley Historical Society and local residents make up this monumental pictorial journey. Hopewell Valley combines the famous and not-so-famous elements of these communities nestled between the Delaware River and the Sourland Mountains. Home to key figures in American history, the Hopewell Valley has also seen important developments in architecture and industry. Although modernization has
    taken hold, the rural character of the area remains intact. And although the area has been home to well-known faces and events, Hopewell Valley is peppered with the lesser-known faces and places that bring out the full flavor.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 28, 2000
    ISBN9781439610503
    Hopewell Valley
    Author

    Jack Seabrook

    Jack and Lorraine Seabrook are writers, independent researchers, and lovers of history and of Hopewell Valley. Their engaging and informative history captures all that makes Hopewell Valley home.

    Related to Hopewell Valley

    Related ebooks

    Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Alcohol Insanity:

      Oct 8, 2021

      Alcohol Insanity:
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Praise of Darkness

      Aug 15, 2018

      HEATHER LANIER is the author of the nonfiction book Teaching in the Terrordome as well as two poetry chapbooks. Her essays have appeared in Salon, the Sun, Fourth Genre, Brevity, and elsewhere, and her TED talk on the incomplete stories we tell ourse

      8 min read

    • Article

      Wendell Berry

      Nov 6, 2017

      The writer, activist and farmer on his new book, The Art of Loading Brush, and the future of American land

      2 min read

    • Article

      I Will Follow In The Direction Of Hope

      Sep 27, 2022

      I Will Follow In The Direction Of Hope
      5 min read

    • Article

      Still Dancing

      Feb 13, 2019

      Still Dancing
      12 min read

    • Article

      Cry Out with a Woman’s Voice: Love, Resistance, and the Erotic Verse of Syria’s National Poet

      Feb 14, 2019

      It’s impossible to separate the personal from the political in Qabbani’s works. The post Cry Out with a Woman’s Voice: Love, Resistance, and the Erotic Verse of Syria’s National Poet appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      R2d4’20

      Jan 7, 2020

      R2d4’20
      29 min read

    • Article

      Back Draft: Sterling HolyWhiteMountain

      Jul 23, 2021

      The fiction writer discusses Native art, breakup phone calls, and the line between politics and propaganda.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Summer Escapism

      Dec 29, 2019

      Summer Escapism
      14 min read

    • Article

      Setting Boundaries

      May 20, 2024

      Setting Boundaries
      4 min read

    • Article

      “A Man Worth Killing”

      Jul 20, 2019

      “A Man Worth Killing”
      18 min read

    • Article

      Buried histories

      Oct 4, 2022

      Buried histories
      14 min read

    • Article

      In An Age Of Screens, Looking For 'Attention' In All The Wrong Places

      Apr 8, 2020

      Casey Schwartz writes of her reliance on Adderall and her realization that the focus it brought was not genuine. But she leaves readers wanting to hear more on the relationship of attention and love.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Horrocks, Russo, Lenz, Zink, and More

      Jul 30, 2019

      New Richard Russo and Nell Zink, a darkly humorous coming-of-age novel, and a powerful debut on the faith and politics of Middle America. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Horrocks, Russo, Lenz, Zink, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      9 min read

    • Article

      The Wildflower

      Jan 15, 2022

      The Wildflower
      19 min read

    • Article

      Show Up In A Good Way

      Nov 23, 2021

      Show Up In A Good Way
      4 min read

    • Article

      Absolute Beginners

      Jul 16, 2020

      Absolute Beginners
      9 min read

    • Article

      That damned smile Brandon Flynn

      Jun 3, 2018

      That damned smile Brandon Flynn
      3 min read

    • Article

      John Jeremiah Sullivan

      Mar 9, 2021

      John Jeremiah Sullivan
      27 min read

    • Article

      This Is Love

      Jan 10, 2019

      This Is Love
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Hopewell Valley

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Hopewell Valley - Jack Seabrook

      love.

      INTRODUCTION

      Hopewell Valley lies in the western part of central New Jersey, bordered on the west by the Delaware River. One of the largest municipalities in the state, it spans 58 square miles. Within its borders are two separate municipalities, the boroughs of Hopewell and Pennington, as well as the village of Titusville, which has never officially split off from the township.

      The name Hopewell has been found in documents as far back as 1688, where it is mentioned in a land purchase made by Andrew Smith. Hopewell officially became a township in 1699. The name Hopewell is of uncertain origin. Legend has it that two farmers would call greetings to each other along the lines of Hope you are well and I am well, leading to the local names Hopewell and Amwell. Other sources speculate that the name Hopewell comes from a place in England from whence early settlers came.

      The area was settled in the 18th century. In those days before speedy travel, distances that today are considered small were more substantial, and villages sprang up around the township at crossroads and near sources of water. Washington Crossing began at the site of a ferry across the Delaware. Pennington began as Queenstown, at a crossroads. Hopewell Borough grew up around the Baptist congregation who settled and later built a meetinghouse there.

      John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, had a farm near the Baptist meetinghouse, and George Washington planned the Battle of Monmouth at a nearby farmhouse. Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware occurred in the western end of the township, and British soldiers had an outpost in Pennington. The Hopewell Valley played a significant part in the United States of America’s national birth, and this is the subject of the first chapter of Hopewell Valley.

      The township continued to grow with the new nation in the 19th century. Roads were laid out, and new villages arose; although they were not yet separate entities, Hopewell and Pennington Boroughs saw the most rapid expansion. Titusville grew up as a river town north of Washington Crossing in the 1800s and hamlets, such as Mount Rose and Woodsville, also began to attract more settlers. Some of the crossroads communities that have come and gone in the Hopewell Valley are examined in chapter 9.

      In the middle years of the 19th century, improvements in travel began to cause major changes in the township. The bridge at Washington Crossing was built in 1834, signaling the end of the ferry and making travel to and from Pennsylvania much easier. In that same year, the Delaware and Raritan Canal was completed. A feeder canal ran through Hopewell Township parallel to the Delaware River, and this canal spurred the growth of Titusville.

      The most important development of the 19th century in the Hopewell Valley had to be the arrival of the railroad. The first trains went through Titusville and Washington Crossing in 1851, followed by another line that ran through the villages of Hopewell and Pennington in 1873. A third, more successful line replaced this earlier line only three years later.

      The railroads changed the face of the Hopewell Valley. The hamlets that had been bypassed by the train lines began to decline, while the villages of Hopewell and Pennington experienced a boom. The two villages grew so quickly that their residents voted to withdraw from Hopewell Township and become separate municipalities. The borough of Pennington came into being in 1890; the borough of Hopewell followed suit in 1891. Chapter 4 details the developments in transportation that affected the Hopewell Valley.

      With the expansion of the two boroughs and Titusville came a need for new services; chapter 6 features a selection of commercial establishments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Also important were the various schools that appeared throughout the township to educate children as well as young men and women; many are included in chapter 7.

      With the 20th century came automobiles, electricity, telephones, and more war. Some of the men who fought in World War I are seen in chapter 8, along with soldiers from the Civil War, in which Hopewell Valley citizens played a part. The popularity of cars led to expansion of the road network, which really took off in the 1920s. Route 29 had been laid out along the Delaware River through Titusville and Washington Crossing during World War I, and Route 31 was completed in 1927.

      In 1932, tragedy struck Hopewell Valley when the son of world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family home, located just north of the Hopewell Township border. Though Lindbergh did not live in Hopewell Township, the borough of Hopewell was the closest downtown and the baby’s corpse was later found in the woods near Mount Rose. Newspapers across the world ran front page stories about the events in Hopewell, making this the valley’s most famous event since Washington crossed the Delaware.

      Since the Lindbergh trial ended, Hopewell Valley has been quiet on the world stage. Another world war came and went, followed by economic expansion fueled by cars and more roads. The second half of the 20th century saw the population of the township continue to grow as farming declined. The rural character of the community remains in many places, however, and echoes of its past can be seen in chapter 2.

      Today, the Hopewell Valley remains a place of contradictions, from the Sourland Mountains in the northeastern section to the lowlands by the Delaware, from the farms that remain to the heavily developed area south of Pennington. Many of the people who inhabited the valley in years past can be seen in chapter 5, and some of their homes appear in chapter 4, along with many of the churches that have guided the spiritual lives of the community.

      This photographic history of the Hopewell Valley owes much to two men who worked hard to document and preserve its images. One was George Hart Frisbie, whose photographs make up the Frisbie collection of the Hopewell Valley Historical Society. The other was Christopher Bannister, who spent many years working to preserve and reproduce historical photographs for the Hopewell Museum, the Hopewell Valley Historical Society, and local authors. Together, they were responsible for many of the photographs that make up this book.

      One

      THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ERA

      THE JOHN HART MONUMENT. Rising above the gravestones

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1