He decided to review the Hunterdon Republican, since this was also one of the newspapers to which his family subscribed while he was growing up. Because of the experience with the Gazette, he felt it important to note all items that "he believed" would be of interest to other family researchers. Instead of putting out a CD of the material, he decided to put it up to the Internet, free, for all to query. He is retired and has plenty of time and anticipates that this project will take at least 5 to 10 years to complete! Please note that the Web site has been supplied free of charge by "rootsweb.com" otherwise the expense and duration would be prohibitive.
You may ask, "Why wasn't the newspaper scanned and the images displayed on these pages, instead of typing them?" "Wouldn't that have saved a lot of time?" The answer would be - YES! However, when you see some of the digital images (Click to see a sample) you will know that no scanning program could convert them to readable text. And, the names would still have to be typed in order to create an index. Yes, an INDEX - the most useful and essential component of this Web site! With the Year 1901, abstracts will no longer be written due to the inordinate time necessary to type, proof and prepare the index. Instead, microfilm images of the newspaper will be displayed and you will be required to scan the items for your names.
This project when completed, will contain abstracts or digital images of items that contain names of persons related to Hunterdon County, found in all extant issues (microfilmed copies) of the Hunterdon Republican newspaper from the start in 1856 to the last publication in 1953. The original text will NOT BE TYPED in full, however, the content of the items will be abstracted - see below. Selection of items and articles from the newspaper is solely at the discretion of Mr. Hartman. But, all items will have some genealogic or historic significance - especially the location of where the person lived, if that fact was noted in the item. Microfilm copies of the newspaper are available at: Hunterdon County Library, Hunterdon County Historical Society [both in Flemington], Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick, at the NJ State Archives in Trenton, and someone at the Rutgers Library indicated that the U. S. Library of Congress also had a copy - Not verified by WHH.
The newspaper added social news from various parts of the county during the latter part of the 1800s. These continued to the end but the areas from which they were collected changed over time, as other newspapers were published at Clinton, Frenchtown, Lambertville, etc. The local correspondents from these outlying areas ceased to send the news to Flemington (or Flemington stopped printing them!). And then, due to the sheer volume of these entries and the fact that the vast majority were nothing more than this person visited that person, or this person went somewhere on vacation, etc., digital images of these items were no longer obtained after 1928. The bottom line, is that not all the names of people printed in the newspaper will be included. So, to emphasize the point, everything in the newspaper about people in Hunterdon County will not appear in these abstracts!
The abstracts are organized and written to include the following information.
Category: A brief description of the topic of the abstract - Death, Marriage, Engagement, Birth, and miscellaneous items, most of which are under the title - 'Trivia'. That is not to say that they were trivial, since they included fires, accidents, elections, etc.
Dates: The date of the event is entered when present in the article, or if it could be determined from the text. If a date could not be found, it is so noted and guesstimates are noted by "??"
Persons' Ages: All ages noted in the articles are included in the abstracts, including those obtained from US Census Records. Sometimes ages varied when comparing newspaper entries with the Census Records - You should verify ages with official documents. And at this point, I would suggest that the US Census records are not always accurate for ages, name spellings, etc.
Names of people: All names in the article are included if they could be discerned. Some of the microfilm was blurred and 'a best guess' was attempted and duly noted. All names are listed in this order: SURNAME - first and in capital letters, followed by first name, initials, and other distinguishing titles. [Primary reason was logistics - it made completing the Indexes much easier and the names to be indexed were easier to find when capitalized. Please note this order when doing searches!]
Relationships: The familial relationship of names to other names in the article are included, if known. These relationships are generally abbreviated to conserve space, with a key on each page containing the abstracts. After 1880, names from marriages and deaths were generally checked against the US Census Records, since there is an index on the Internet for this Census Year.
Location: Each name in the abstract will contain either the location where the person lived, came from, or with which there was an association - such as a business or property ownership, if given in the original article, or given on a Census Record. The location name should be considered in New Jersey - NJ, unless otherwise noted. I used 2 sources to check unfamiliar location names: 1. "Precision Mapping Streets", V. 3.0.4 and 2. Hunterdon County Place Names by Phyllis B. D'Autrechy, updated by W. H. Hartman, 2005. [The latter will only be found on the DVD of the complete newspaper, or CD #4 (1857-1866) of the Hunterdon Gazette newspaper.] Based on the information in No. 2., I changed the spelling of locations from the old form to that in common usage today [White House to Whitehouse; New Market to Linvale; New Germantown to Oldwick; Bloomsburg to Bloomsbury; etc.] Note: Some articles that include towns on the border of Hunterdon County with neighboring Counties contain names of persons who may not reside in the County. I did not purposely check for this and so some names in the "Location Index" may, in actuality, reside outside Hunterdon County!
Comments: Additional information may be included in the abstract regarding the person(s) or event described in the article, some of which may have been obtained from the Hunterdon Democrat or Hunterdon Gazette newspapers, the US Census records, or the Internet.
Spelling: The original newspaper had spelling errors. Every effort was made to ensure the correct spelling of names when the abstracts were typed. Proofing occurred during construction of the Indexes and when the abstracts were reviewed. Please note that some surnames were split and some were not; e.g.: Van Liew - Vanliew. You must look for both possibilities. Also check for alternate spelling of names. Names that to me were unfamiliar and that appeared to be misspelled, were proofed against the 1825-1866 Index of names from the Hunterdon Gazette Project. As the text pages were typed, and the cumulative indexes for the HuntRepNews Project were created, they were used to confirm spelling of names. Any names that could not be verified will be noted by insertion of - [sp ?] - in the text. Please search all possible spellings, including the possibility of the surname starting with a different letter. 'H' might be a 'B'; 'B' an 'R'; 'O' a 'Q'; 'N' an 'M'; 'I' an 'L', 'S' and 'L'; 'I' a 'J' and so forth. I've seen a 'u' for an 'n' because the words were hand, type-set. And later with the linotype, spelling errors persisted. And, sorry about that, but I could also have made errors while typing!
In some of the issues, the item "Letters at the Post Office" listed names of people who had letters waiting to be picked-up. In the early days, letters were not delivered, so about once a month, the postmaster submitted a list of these letters. We now have another possibility of names misspelled and perhaps sent to the wrong P.O.! The name at the designated P.O., only means that someone sent a letter to someone who they thought resided in the area served by this P.O.!
An additional note about how names were handled - I have tried to identify the status of female names by using the 'Miss' and 'Mrs.' designations if so noted in the original item. If a child with parents or the word "a minor" was in the item, then a female was given a "Miss" designation. If there was no way to determine the marital status, then I have added "Ms." after the name, so you will know this was not clear in the item. There are many names where the surname is followed by initials, the first, etc. names were not spelled out. If I knew the identity of the person from the inferences in the original item, then I put "Mr." after the name. You will find surnames with only initials and no added "Ms." or "Mr.". In these cases, I could not determine the sex of the person. There were surnames without any additional information. In this case "?" was used as the first name to designate that either no first name or initial was present, or in a few cases, that the name or initial could not be determined due to blurred microfilm.
Parentheses ( ) found in the abstracts will indicate that the source of the information is from the newspaper. If brackets are used [ ] these will always include comments made by WHH!
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Home page: Introduction, links and important notes with date the note was posted.
Project Details: (this page), Information explaining the background, content and organization of the Project and a brief history of the newspaper with names of the various editors and publishers.
Index Files: All surnames found in the abstracts are organized alphabetically in the indexes. The Index Files are first created in MSWord from the typed abstracts. These listings are put in MSExcel to facilitate formatting. These files are converted into PDF [Portable Document Format] files so that the Adobe search menu may be used. There are an assortment of Indexes to facilitate your search: Overall Index [All names for all Years - consolidated]; Name/Location and Location/Name Indexes [Names associated with a location in Hunterdon County] Marriage Indexes [All marriages noted in the newspaper]; Couples [Index of married persons who were not specifically listed under the "Married" category.] Death Index [All names that had some indication that the person had died.] Occupation/Position Index [Names of those people who had some indication of an occupation or one of a selected list of elected or appointed positions.] All of these were created to aid your research and to help me proof the names.
Text File: The text file contains the abstracts listed by Year and by Weekly Issue of the newspaper. Each year was combined onto one Web Page and prior to putting-up to the Internet, all the Years were combined into one Web page to facilitate your search. The Text Files were created in MSWord and then converted into PDF files, again to utilize the Adobe search menu. To reiterate, the original typing was generally abstracted to eliminate extraneous, useless information, or information that was repetitive in the case of legal notices, etc. However, some items were so interesting that they were typed in full. I always tried to include: names, dates, locations, relationships, and the essential facts included in the original item.
Digital Images: This is a new section, now under development and will include copies of the digital images of the microfilm. They will be put up chronologically, starting with the Year 1901. There are two versions of the microfilm. One was done with the unbound collection, which in many cases included folded newspapers. This copy is on file at the Hunterdon County Library and contains many instances of obliterated text where the newspaper was folded. The other copy was made from bound copies of the newspaper. Copies of this microfilm are at the Hunterdon County Historical Society, which has both copies of the newspaper [bound and unbound] and at the archives at Trenton. I used the microfilm copies which were loaned to me by the Hunterdon County Library to do the abstracts and after 1900, to do the microfilm copies. When I determined that there were poor reproductions, I purchased copies of the microfilm from Trenton and have made and will make appropriate corrections in what you will be searching! The New Jersey State Archives has the entire microfilm collection which were made from the bound issues of the newspaper. Although the images are more complete since the pages were not folded, many of the images were very dim and sometimes out of focus. Since I have purchased many of the microfilms from the Archives, when I am finished, they will be donated to the Hunterdon County Library.
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HUNTERDON REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY
This section updated 2 Nov. 2011
The newspaper was first published on Wednesday, 15 October, 1856 by BARTOW, Thomas E., who was Editor and Publisher. Publication on Friday began on 30 December 1859 and continued until 17 September 1868, when publication on Thursday began. Bartow continued the newspaper alone until a notice on 15 November 1861, that BARTOW, George W., joined the staff as Assistant Editor & Publisher. George's name was dropped on 8 August 1862, no reason given. Then on 12 September 1862, ALLEN, George A. and CALLIS, William G., took over the newspaper as Editors and Publishers. There was a management change starting with the 27 June 1872 Issue (Vol. 17 No. 39). With this issue, Mr. Allen leaves and Mr. Callis continues as Editor and
Publisher for the next 38 years. On 2 May 1883, publication of the newspaper was changed from Thursday to Wednesday, no reason given for this change, although the Hunterdon County Democrat continued publication on Thursday. [To be continued as the text entries are typed.]
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UPDATES
This section updated 26 July 2010; edited 10 Mar. 2011 & 15 Dec. 2011
This section will be developed as the yearly text pages are typed and the material becomes available.
During the early years, the newspaper layout and content was very similar to that of the two other major Hunterdon Newspapers - The Hunterdon Gazette and The Hunterdon County Democrat. All were 4 pages and contained a page of general information, usually with a serial story, a page of national and international news, a page of state & local news and the advertisements. Over the years, some long-term advertisements were located on page 1 and page 4 was generally composed of the remaining long-term ads. New ads were grouped together, which made it easy to review. They sometimes appeared on page 2, but were more often found on page 3. Ads generally migrated to the last page where they were located until the contract ended.
The 1870s saw an expansion of local news and near the end of the decade, reporters, or contributors started to send in routine information from specific areas. The first consistent reports were from the Glen Gardner area of Lebanon Township. An amusing entry, which cannot be found by using the Indexes since there are no names, will be found in the Issue for 25 Oct. 1877, page 61, which I call "Twitters" from the 19th Century - hope you will be as amused as I was, and the reason it was typed in its entirety. As you peruse the yearly issues, you will note the increase in names and "down-home" items - Go to "Project Statistics" to see this increase.
Coverage of the news was limited to what was sent or communicated to the newspaper staff. There were occasional appeals to "please send in the news." Reports of the marriages and deaths compared to the vital statistics indicate that the newspapers reported less than a third of those that took place in the County. Unfortunately, births were not consistently reported until well into the 20th century.
Below, added 26 July 2010, revised 14 Oct. 2010
Local news certainly picked up during the 1880s with 93 pages of abstracted text in 1880, 116 pages in 1881 and 129 in both 1882 & 1883. This was due to the addition of a number of local reporters who sent in periodic reports of "what was happening" in the vicinity of the reporting locations. They were Glen Gardner, which included news mostly from Lebanon Township, but also High Bridge, Tewksbury and Union Townships. Bloomsbury, with news from Alexandria, Bethlehem and Holland Townships and some news from Warren County, which was generally not so noted! Also, sporadic reports from Frenchtown, Kingwood, Lambertville, Reaville, Ringoes, Rosemont, etc. The category "local news" was from the vicinity of Flemington, but did have some county-wide reports. It is now taking over a month to type, index, proof and put to the Internet, one year of the newspaper. It should flatten out since the number of digital images remains fairly constant from 1883 through 1894, with about 825 to 970, before going over 1,000 in the 1900s!
An item appeared in the January 13, 1881 Issue which also contributed to the volume of local news: “When anybody dies, gets married, runs away, steals anything, builds a nice house, makes a big sale, whips his man, or his wife, breaks his leg, or gets the senses kicked out of him by a mule, or does anything that is in any way remarkable, and you have reason to believe that you know as much about the occurrence as anybody else, don’t wait for some other person to report it or trust us to find it out by instinct, but come and tell us about it, or send the facts on a postal card. This is the way news is supplied, and it takes a goodly supply of that necessary article to make a good home paper. See if you cannot improve it this year, and let us know every item of news that transpires in your neighborhood.”
I also started checking the 1880 US Census Report for the names of additional persons. Very often in the newspaper items, when a nameless person was mentioned, the report would say, "son of" or "child of" or "wife of" - without adding the names - they would only include the name of the husband or father. So, I would look them up and add the names of the wives or children if a positive relationship could be made.
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Below, added 10 Mar. 2011 modified 10 Aug. 2011
Hunterdon County Historical Society - HCHS
On 11 Sept. 1885, the HCHS was organized; see details in the 1885 Issue. [Search on "Historical Society"] Over the next year, the members collected and gathered information of historic interest to the County. Members either volunteered or were assigned to present information to the group. Most of the meetings and the speakers were listed in the newspaper during 1886. Starting in the 1887 Issue, many of these reports were published and they have been typed in full and included in the 1887 Text pages. You may want to take the time to read them to get an idea of some of the early events and people who settled this part of the country. Because of these reports, there were about 578 names added to the index from these historical papers. I believed it important to add a designation to these names so you would know that they lived anywhere from the 1600s up to the middle 1800s and the events were historical rather than current events. [current for the 1880s!].
To be consistent with the convention of adding information to the names in the index, by placing that information in brackets - [ ] - I chose this: -[Hx] to designate such names. Please note that there were short historical sketches, scattered throughout the earlier issues of the newspaper. So there are names of historic interest rather than current interest in the Index and I have no intention of going back over 40,000+ names to identify them for you! However, from 1887 forward, I will add -[Hx] to names of historic interest. Enough said!
Names of historic interest are listed with similar names in the Overall Index where I have combined ladies with the same name, eg.: Miss Mary Smith and Mrs. Mary Smith are listed as: SMITH, Mary -[Miss/Mrs.]. And, John Jones, Jr. and John Jones, Sr. are listed: JONES, John -[Jr./Sr.], etc. The Historic Names that did not have a corresponding current name will be found with just -[Hx] after their name. If a name was both current and historic you will find: John Jones and John Jones -[Hx] will be listed as JONES, John -{[Hx]}. Note the double brackets. A lady could be listed as SMITH, Mary, Miss -{[Hx-Mrs.]} This means that the historic lady was Mrs. Mary Smith and the current lady is Miss Mary Smith.
The issue of Race!
I have not yet commented about how African Americans or Black People in general are identified in the abstracts, but I wanted them identified to facilitate your research. When I started to type, way back a couple of years ago, I used the word (colored), since that was how the original text identified "people of color." That was the convention that I chose and since we now have over 50,000 names indexed, I do not want to change this designation. If you are searching for "Black - African American" ancestors, please note that when the newspaper identified the person as "colored" that is what I typed. There were instances when the editor did not use the designation. However, if I believed the text referred to the previously identified "Black" person, then (colored) followed the name. You will find a number of names in the index that are identical, one with no designation and one with (colored) next to it. The first one is BARTON, William and BARTON, William (colored). They could be 2 different people, one White and one Black, or they could both be Black! As with any of the names in the Index and abstracts, you are ultimately responsible for their verification! I am doing the best that I can to type & proof and to check things that don't look right, or add clarifying information! And please, continue to enjoy history as it happened and don't try to change it!
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Highlights of the Year 1888
* Dedication of the new Flemington M. E. Church on the corner of Main St. and Maple Ave. - Page 25: Feb. 22, 1888. Comprehensive information with many names.
* The Blizzard of ’88 - Page 31: March 11 & 12, 1888. Most of the information has to do with the impact of the snow storm on transportation . There were some accidents and a great deal of inconvenience to the natives.
* Terrific Explosion at the Quarry of the Twining Brothers, at Prallsville - Page 63: May 17, 1888. There was only one death, some injuries, but extensive damage; the blast was heard about 20 miles distant - as far as New Brunswick, NJ.
* Revolutionary War Soldiers - Page 69: Item dated June 13, 1888. A list of the burials of some soldiers in the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
* Graveyard on the farm of Maurice Wolverton, near Stockton - Page 75: Item dated July 4 1888. A listing of some of the graves [about 10] of persons buried here.
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Highlights of the Year 1889
13 Feb. 1889: page 24
History of Brooks and Creeks along the Delaware River.
Various names of the Capoolong Creek, near Pittstown
13 Mar. 1889: page 36.
History of Brooks and Creeks along the Delaware River.
Various names of the Wissahawken Creek, near Milford
1 May 1889: pages 54 & 55 and 26 June 1889: page 74.
The phonograph comes to Flemington. Recording and playing back voice and music for the entertainment of the citizens at the Opera House. Index: “phonograph”
5 June 1889: starting on page 66.
Hunterdon County Items concerning the flood at Johnstown, PA, which occurred on 31 May.
Search on the word “Johnstown” to read the various items.
Read Internet review by Wikipedia: Search words: "Johnstown Flood"
14 Aug. 1889: page 87
Celebration of the 40-year pastorate of WILLIAMSON, Joseph Gilliard, Rev., of the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church at Grandin, with brief history of the church.
23 & 30 Oct. 1889: pages 107, 110 & 113.
Different versions of the death of a man who was cutting down trees. Can you really believe what you read in the newspapers, today or over 100 years ago? Search on “BREWER, Cornelius”.
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Highlights of the Year 1891
7 Jan. 1891: page 8
Vital Statistics for Hunterdon County for the Year 1890:
302 marriages; 510 births and 522 deaths.
For the Year ending June 30, 1891; page 143:
299 marriages; 455 births and 515 deaths.
11 Feb. 1891: page 3
Historical item on Descendants of Robert Rittenhouse
18 Feb. 1891: page 6
Historical item on Pittstown in 1764
25 Mar. 1891: page 40
German Swiss Bible: Surname: Ballesfelt - Bellis
Report to Freeholders regarding Tramps in Hunterdon County
8 Apr. - page 44; 20 May - page 63 & 9 Dec. - page 138
20 May 1891: page 64
Short historical sketch on James W. Marshall who discovered Gold in California
26 Aug. 1891: page 93
Origin of the name “Bungtown” for Lambertville
4 Nov. 1891: page 123
Fire in Clinton destroys most of the shopping center, details include
names of building owners and amount of losses sustained.
9 Dec. 1891: page 139
Brief history of the Flemington Presbyterian Church, with list of pastors.
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Highlights of the Year 1893
Page 54: Flemington Financial Statement for the Year ending 2 May, 1893
Pages 76 & 78: Bankruptcy of Hon. James N. Pidcock
Page 82: St. Thomas’ Church Lot. A Historical sketch by RACE, Henry, Dr.
Page 106: The Old Lebanon Church. A Historical sketch
Page 117: Obituary of Judge Joseph Thompson; b: 30 Sept. 1808; d: 23 Oct. 1893.
Pages 117 & 120: Holland Tp. - A Historical Sketch
Page 125: Advertisement. Date: 22 Nov. 1893. BODINE, Jesse P. & Sons., Flemington
Page 126: A Reminiscence of the Revolution - The MAXWELL family. A Historical Sketch
Page 144: Marriage Statistics for 1893, some interesting findings.
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Highlights of the Year 1894
Page 3: Slavery in New Jersey, historical sketch
Page 4: Flemington Presbyterian Church; Centennial
Page 6: Readington Reformed Church; 175th Anniversary
Page 26: List of Baptisttown Postmasters since start
Pages 62 & 67: Origin of the name Lambertville
Page 65: Old relics at home of VAN DOREN, Jacob, Tewksbury Tp.
Page 74: Location of Higgins School; Raritan Tp. or Delaware Tp.?
Page 122: Old relics of Hunterdon exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair
Page 130: Political history of the past 40 years in Hunterdon Co.
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Highlights of the Year 1895
Page 6: Electric Light in Flemington; Issue: Jan. 2, 1895. Search on Electric or Light to see related items
Page 29: Historic Sketch - Early Hunterdon; Issue: Feb. 20, 1895
Page 69: Map of the Route of the Rockaway Valley Railroad; Issue: May 15, 1895
Page 102: Lightning destroys the Methodist Church at Quakertown during Sunday Service; Issue: Aug. 7, 1895
Page 166: Vital statistics for Hunterdon County for the Year ending 30 June 1895: Marriages - 267; Births - 531 and Deaths - 514.
1895 Death Issue: When comparing date of death between the newspaper listing and those found at Ancestry.com, I found that all the deaths that occurred from January to June 1895 which were listed at Ancestry.com had been transcribed incorrectly from the original with the date 1894 and not 1895. See the Special Table of the 228 deaths, Click here: DEATHS
Ancestry.com sent a computer generated acknowledgement that my email notification of this finding was received, but no person has contacted me. I did receive an email from someone on the NJHUNTER List, which made a lot of sense, here it be: Helen says, "I have found the same problem with records on familysearch.com.
There is actually an explanation for this. The records were not filed or
filmed on a Jan-Dec yearly basis during this time period. If you look at the
films, you will see that the recording year ran midyear of one year to
midyear of the following year - that is to say, for example, June 1888 to May
1889. There were several variations - I've seen June - May, July - June and
also May to April. I have no idea why they did this, but the problem now is
that someone reading, and transcribing the records is looking at the top
line of the page and stops as soon as they see the beginning of the date. So
the film might be for June 1888-May 1889, and all the transcriber sees is
1888 and assumes everything on the film is 1888. This confusion is
compounded by the fact that the change of year isn't always recorded in the
date column. I guess it was assumed that anyone using the records already
knows the system." Well folks, now you know another reason to go to the Source Documents!
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Highlights of the Year 1896
REPUBLICAN
