Goodspeed Histories: Mining Companies buying Farms

Good morning.
My last post concerned the Raritan Township property of Joseph and Jane Sergeant, which they divided between their sons John P. Sergeant and Gershom C. Sergeant. I described John and Mary Sergeant first, mostly because of the wonderful photo taken at the time of their 60th anniversary.

But to get back to the planned route of the Delaware Flemington Railroad, I must turn my attention to Gersom C. Sergeant and his family, as well as his neighbors George & Sarah Hastings. While researching the Hastings’ property I discovered that Baptist ministers were a little more worldly than I expected, often supplementing their income with real estate investments.
Sergeant & Hastings (https://goodspeedhistories.com/sergeant-hastings/)
One other observation—Gershom C. Sergeant takes up half of this week’s article, even though I have written about him in previous articles. Truth be told, I tend to lose track of what I’ve published. When I realized what I’d done, I decided to let it go, since the Sergeant-Hastings article takes a new look at Mr. Sergeant. And I suspect many of you have forgotten too. However, I will try to be more careful in the future.

Fictitious Works
Because of my interest in American history, I do not read much fiction. But I would not go quite as far as the Literary Association of Flemington. The Hunterdon Gazette reported on January 4, 1865 that the Association was to meet that evening to debate the following question:  Resolved:  That the reading of Fictitious Works should not be encouraged.”
Arguing in favor was John C. Besson and Flemington’s Baptist minister Thomas Swaim, who features in this week’s article. Arguing the opposite were Richard S. Kuhl and William K. Sherwood. I cannot say whether these men believed in what they were arguing. The Gazette did not follow up with a story on who won the debate.

Family Trees
Some of you have already noticed this, but I have very belatedly published a 6-generation family tree for Daniel & Mary Robins (https://goodspeedhistories.com/robins-robbins-tree/) , the original owners of property at Buchanan’s Tavern. After all the articles I published about the Robins and Buchanans, all I can is—it’s about time. However, there is some question about the Jonathan Robinses, who failed to leave enough information behind them to allow us to be able to distinguish them with certainty.

Updates:  I was contacted by Thatcher descendant Faith Howe, who pointed out that I was missing a branch of The Thatcher Tree (https://goodspeedhistories.com/thatcher-family-tree/) —i.e., descendants of Nathaniel Thatcher. That has now been remedied. One of the families most closely connected with the Thatchers was the Taylors, so The Taylor Tree (https://goodspeedhistories.com/the-taylor-families/) has also been updated. In addition I have updated The Larison Tree. (https://goodspeedhistories.com/larison-tree/)

The State Christmas Tree
Speaking of trees, this story appeared in the news last week: Christmas Trees Line Pathway of Peace (http:// https://www.wcax.com/2020/12/02/state-christmas-trees-line-pathway-of-peace/) . Every year, each state and territory contributes decorations for a tree to line the “Pathway for Peace” in the President’s Park near the White House. This year, because of Covid-19, students drew ornaments and submitted them to the National Park Service, and this year, the NPS chose for the State of New Jersey the ornaments designed by the students at Delaware Township School. Congratulations, kids! (My own kids attended that school some years ago, hence the bragging.)

There has not been a lot of peace and good will in the country this year. But now is the season for wishing friends and neighbors well, so to all of you who read this newsletter,
Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for the holidays and for the coming year.