Goodspeed Histories: A Rockafellar Homestead

October 3, 2020

Even more mind-boggling developments this week. It’s time to take a mental health break and think a little about local history. Today’s post takes me back to my series related to the railroad that was never built.

This will be the second post on one particular property—the farm located on the south side of Johanna Farms Road. (See Hoagland’s Road, part one.)

The reason I saved the earliest part of its history for a separate post is that its earliest resident owner was Johann Peter Rockafellar, Jr. and his family, dating back to 1743. They required special attention.

The original Rockafellar homestead established by immigrant Johan Pieter Rockefelter and second wife Elizabeth Runkle and their children was located at Rocktown south of Ringoes. The farm further north in the Copper Hill neighborhood that I am writing about today was owned by their son Peter. It was one of many farms he acquired to pass on to his sons.

I regret taking so long to write this post, but that is a luxury I can afford since I do not write for some other publication the way my sons do. I was taking time out for summer-fall allergies, and also for the inconvenience of Covid-19 which closed the Surrogate’s Court to the public. It took a long time to get my hands on the survey map for the division of the lands of Peter’s son Jacob in 1820. But it was worth waiting for, I think.

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