Somerville Historic Advisory Committee

05/29/2026

Feed your inner archaeologist! Maybe it was a childhood fantasy or maybe Oak Island has you fascinated, whatever: Here's your chance to help uncover the original footprint of General Alexander (aka Lord Stirling)'s mansion, add to the thousands of artifacts already uncovered, and help the County Cultural & Heritage Commission get a better understanding of 'what lies beneath' Lord Stirling Park.

05/27/2026

05/26/2026

On Thursday, May 27, the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission will present one of several awards for “History In Action” to the Planing Committee who organized the recent Middlebrook Symposium Series. The ceremony will be at the Lord Stirling Environmental Center at 7pm. This biennial Award will recognize Somerville residents, Bob and Linda Barth, who chaired the effort of the Committee, along with individuals from Somerset County’s five Revolutionary War headquarters (Wallace House, Van Horne House, Van Veghten House, Staats House, Vanderveer House) and other sites. The Committee executed a four-year plan to raise awareness of the American Revolution in our midst. Additional Somerville residents being recognized include Cindy and Eric Blumenkrantz, Maureen and Brian Cote and Marge Sullivan, representing the Heritage Trail Association/Van Horne House), and Cynthia Hollod, representing the Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage Association. The Heritage Trail Association served as the non-profit lead for the project.
These day-long themed programs were held annually at Raritan Valley Community College from 2023-2026 to educate the public as well as local history enthusiasts about how and why Washington brought the Continental Army to our area twice during the struggle for independence. Well-known researchers and highly regarded first person re-enactors told the story of the people, places, and events by which New Jersey and our nation was defended. The Middlebrook Cantonment story promoted by the Symposia is continuing to be retold in published versions of the series proceedings, with the final one, the Legacy of Middlebrook, to appear later this year. The books, edited by Linda Barth, Kathy Ormossi, and Marge Sullivan are available from Amazon or at the Van Horne House. The Symposium series, funded in part by a grant from the Cultural and Heritage Commission, was a unique and sustained effort in heritage education leading up to this year’s 250th National Anniversary and furthered our state’s RevNJ 250 goals. It also broke new ground by awarding privately raised cash prizes for new research on the Revolution in our area. Congratulations to Bob, Linda and all the committee members from Somerville and the surrounding communities who undertook this effort so New Jersey can continue to celebrate our great national heritage for “the duration” of NJ’s 250 celebration,

05/25/2026

On Memorial Day Weekend, HAC recognizes with great appreciation the work of Eagle Scout Candidate JP O'Neill, of Somerville Troop 83. For his qualifying project, he cleaned Somerville's WWII monument surface, walkway, and plantings (location: William and Bridge Street, opposite the YMCA.) He upgraded it by adding benches and a solar powered spotlight, so the flag may be properly illuminated during evening hours. Thank you, Scout O'Neill for helping Somerville remember it's WWII veterans on Memorial Day and everyday. The Parade may have been cancelled due to inclement weather, but your work has returned one of Somerville's most visible Veterans Memorials to excellent condition.

05/22/2026

Thank you to our followers who contributed to our call for the names of Revolutionary Ancestors a couple of weeks ago.. Between those that we know are buried in our "Old" Raritan Cemetery and those who responded, we collected over 40 names. Members of HAC will read these during the Memorial Day Cemetery program at the end of Somerville's Memorial Parade on Monday, May 25. Thanks to the Parade Committee and Chairman Art Adair for allowing us to do this as a special 250th Anniversary tribute and thanks to you for connecting their service to our lives today.

05/21/2026

Somerville 101- 9b. The Path of the Reverend’s Son: John Hardenbergh.
If Joshua Maddox Wallace was difficult to trace, John Hardenbergh, eldest son and third child of Rev. Jacob R. Hardenbergh and Dinah Frelinghuysen Hardenbergh, is practically invisible. The only record available for him in this period is that sometime after 1776, he married John Wallace’s daughter, Ann. John was just 18 years old and Ann, sometimes called Nancy, was a few months older. Presumably, their romance blossomed during the construction of the new Wallace home. Their first child, Maria Maddox Hardenbergh was born in early December, 1778. They would move into the existing Van Neste -Tunison homestead on what is today South Bridge Street. They would remain a family of three until 1780, when a second daughter, named for her grandmother Dinah, was born.
It seems reasonable to think that young John supported the Rev. Hardenbergh's work during the unfolding, uncertain times of the early Revolution. Perhaps he managed the Hardenbergh farm which abutted the Parsonage lot where he had grown up; perhaps he assisted his father in ministering to the Churches of the Raritan valley. By 1770, the Harlingen and Neshanic churches had called their own pastors, but the Reverend was still responsible for the pastoral circuit between the three Raritan Valley congregations (Raritan, North Branch, and Bedminster) even as he became increasingly politically active. When New Jersey began to raise troops in December, 1775. Queens College closed because it lost its faculty to the Continental Army and the imminent British occupation of New Brunswick. After signing the diploma of the sole known Queens graduate in 1776, the Reverend packed his bags for Trenton. That June, he joined fellow delegates and his old friend Hendrick Fisher, at the state’s new Provincial Congress where they declared New Jersey an independent state (July 2, 1776) and subsequently drafted and signed New Jersey’s first state constitution, on July 18th.
It is probably not surprising that John Hardenbergh operated in his father’s considerable shadow, despite being close to these major events. He would come into his own after the War ended.

05/18/2026

Somerville 101.9a The Paths of the Sons: Joshua Maddox. As John Wallace continued his construction, the young men of the two Raritan Valley families set out on differing paths that their lives would follow during the Revolution. All three, Joshua Maddox Wallace, John Hardenbegh, and Hardenbergh’s step-son, Frederick Frelinghuysen, were young, educated men starting adult life at a very challenging time. The younger Wallace son, William, aged 14 in 1776, remained with his family. But the others: What did they do before and after Washington arrived at Wallace’s new home?
Joshua Maddox Wallace, is challenging but interesting to trace. Aged 24 in 1776 and college educated, he had been working in Philadelphia and Burlington at Wallace merchant warehouses. He doesn’t figure prominently in the Wallace family saga at this point, because he was already independent of his father. Or, was he?
There is no evidence Joshua ever resided at Hope Farm. It seems likely that he had his own place, since he had married Miss Trace Bradford of a prominent Philadelphia family in August, 1773 and they would soon welcome their first child. The Wallace Family in America genealogy (1914), tells us that Joshua’s home, Ellarslie, was on the Raritan but he relocated to Burlington city only after the Revolution in 1783. This suggests that Joshua lived within traveling distance of Hope Farm, but WHERE? No country house named Ellarslie existed in Somerset County or in Pennsylvania at that time.
Moreover, what did he DO during the Revolution? He doesn’t seem to have been in the army. A Johsua Wallace enlisted in the NJ Militia in 1777,, and again in 1779, but we can’t be sure that it’s him. There’s an 8-year gap between when the war was raging and when Joshua Maddox became prominent and politically active in Burlington and where he had many former patriots as friends including Elias Boudinot and bother-in-law Willaim Bradford, Washington’s second Attorney General. So, what Joshua did during those tumultuous, missing years is a mystery.
A guess needing further research by an aspiring intern or rising historian: Joshua may have continued the family business, in Trenton and Burlington, but engaged in shipping goods as part of the “Secret Trade Committee” authorized by Congress in late 1775 to supply the Continental army. It operated primarily from Burlington, which assumed greater importance as a Delaware River port when Philadelphia shipping was threatened by the British Navy. Burlington and Trenton, further north, became links in the supply chain of the Continental Army. Warehouses and riverboats for shipping cargo in both towns, but especially Burlington, were owned by merchants like the Wallaces and their Maddox relatives, the Smiths. In them, they could conveniently hide and later ship blankets, fabric for tents, hunting shirts, and uniforms, etc.; exactly the textiles the Wallace handled routinely in their mercantile business. Joshua Maddox Wallace just may have been a Patriot undercover.
https://trentonhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/History-of-Trenton-1679-1929-Ch5-Transportation.pdf
https://www.dia.mil/News-Features/Articles/Article-View/Article/566976/secret-committees

05/09/2026

8. Making His Move: Building and Moving in Wartime
John Wallace was racing against time as the Revolution crept ever closer to his family interests and he was cutting it close-- although he didn’t realize that at the time. Things kept getting complicated but he managed to work around them.
Exactly when the Wallace House was finished or the family moved in prior to November, 1778 is unknown. We may learn more as the historical restoration of the house is completed. For now, historians’ best estimate is that framing a single-family home in colonial America before the Revolution took several months to several years, depending on the complexity and elaborateness of the design and the availability of materials. The Wallace House is large, well-constructed, and although not very elaborate, has elegant Georgian architectural touches, especially on the first floor that are typical of a well-to-do home. It seems reasonable to think, especially considering the military events occurring between Philadelphia and New Brunswick, that it took a good part of 1776 -1777 for Wallace to build and move his family to Hope Farm.
He likely used locally sourced materials as much as possible—to save both time and expense. There was lumber readily available in the Watchung (then Blue) Hills, several saw mills operated in the Raritan River Valley basin and a local brick-making culture existed. Skilled carpenters were likely available for hire from New Brunswick and other nearby towns. The work would have been slow, but steady.
Non-local materials, supplies, and the shipping of the family’s personal belongings, required their movement from Philadelphia, to Burlington and Trenton via the Delaware River. This was the easier first leg. Thereafter, shipping was by wagon over roads, presumably in good weather, to New Brunswick, and then west through Bound Brook to the home site, just off Old York Road.
Several military events would have impacted the ability to safely ship goods across New Jersey during this time frame. The Battle of Long Island in late August, 1776 and Washington and the army’s forced retreat across New Jersey that November would have increased the urgency of Wallace’s move. British/Hessian control of Trenton and brief occupation of Burlington in December, 1776 likely stalled shipping that winter. The British then occupied Philadelphia from the Fall of 1777-June of 1778, so the Wallaces had to be out of the city by then.
It seems there were only limited “windows” when a move to their newly completed residence could be safely accomplished. It is possible, though, that the family might have had interim accommodations elsewhere in New Jersey with relatives’ friends, or rented property. Wallace and his son Joshua Maddox were merchants and their business was shipping. While we simply don’t know, Wallace, father and son, had networks and family connections in Burlington and Trenton. A reasonable “guestimate” is that by late 1777 or early 1778, Hope Farm became the Wallace residence.

05/05/2026

Somerville 101- 7. The Spring of Hope and Resolution
As Spring returned to the Raritan Valley in 1776, John Wallace began constructing the centerpiece of his “Hope Farm”. The Rev. Hardenbergh was also pursuing a different hope. The politics of New Jersey, always fractious, was rapidly heating up.
Barely a year ago, Hardenbergh’s friend and a co-founder of Queens College, Hendrick Fisher of Bound Brook, had used his authority as Chairman of New Jersey’s Committee of Correspondence to convene a meeting in Trenton following the news from Lexington and Concord. Hardenbergh’s own step-son, Frederick Frelinghuysen, along with another neighbor, Abraham Van Nest, represented Somerset County. Their purpose was to select delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in the Spring of 1775—which they did. This independent Provincial Congress continued to meet since Royal Governor Franklin refused to call the colonial general assembly into session even as the news from Boston deteriorated. The Governor belatedly tried to assert control, but it was too late. He was arrested in January 1776 by the NJ militia.
The next meeting of the new Provincial Congress, now the governing body of New Jersey was to convene in Burlington in June. Some of Somerset County’s previous delegates to the previous sessions could not return, including Fisher, who had served as Somerset County and a key Provincial leader since the forming of the Committees of Correspondence. So, Hardenbergh was elected. He and Frederick would set out for Burlington in May. That momentous meeting would draft New Jersey’s own declaration of independence, send a pro-independence slate of delegates to the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, and drafted the first state constitution. Despite that busy summer, he would return only to suspend classes at Queens college, so that students and Frederick, one of two faculty members, would be free to enlist in the coming fight for New Jersey's future.