# Pittstown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1800s

> A creek-side mill village, tavern stop, and farming neighborhood in a New Jersey county still living close to slavery and revolution.

- Place: Pittstown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey (40.582, -74.959)
- Years: 1800 to 1809
- Known then as: Pitts Town
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/pittstown-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1800s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Pittstown%2C%20Hunterdon%20County%2C%20New%20Jersey&at=40.5821,-74.9591&year=1805

## Looking around

Stand by Capoolong Creek[1], where the old name Hoff’s Mills[1][2] still explains the place better than a map label. The village is small enough that the new Century Inn[1] can command attention as a traveler’s house and licensed tavern. Roads lead out toward Quakertown, a mile away[1][6], toward Flemington and the county courts, and toward farms with stone houses, barns, and outbuildings[1]. Around the village are fields like those worked across Hunterdon, with grass, grain, clover, dairying, cattle, pigs, and sheep[4]. Nearby churches mark older settlements: Bethlehem Presbyterian, the Quaker meeting, and St. Thomas Episcopal[6] belong to the religious map of this corner. This is not yet a railroad village; news, goods, and strangers come by road, post, tavern, courthouse business, and farm exchange.

## Work: Mills, farms, tavern

The older name Hoff’s Mills[1][2] points to water-powered work on Capoolong Creek[1]. Around it, mixed farms raised grass, grain, clover, dairy cattle, pigs, and sheep[4].

## Faith: Old meeting grounds

The religious landscape was older than the United States: St. Thomas Episcopal, Bethlehem Presbyterian, and the Quaker meeting[6] all dated from the 1720s and 1730s. Quakertown’s meeting house and cemetery[1][6] lay only about a mile away.

## Law & power: Freeholders and courts

A tavern keeper needed the Hunterdon County Court of Common Pleas[3] and a $10 license fee. The petition’s reliance on neighborhood freeholders[3] shows how property-owning men helped decide who could keep public houses.

## In the air: Who counted as voters

Politics touched even small villages because New Jersey still allowed some property-qualified unmarried women and free Black men[7][8] to vote early in the decade. In 1807, that right was cut back to tax-paying white male citizens[7][8].

## What people feared: Slavery still present

Freedom and unfreedom existed side by side: in 1800 Hunterdon County had 1,790 Black residents, about 70 percent enslaved[5]. The 1804 abolition act did not free most enslaved people at once; slavery continued in the county during this decade[7].

## Home & table: Stored food, stone farms

Households on nearby Hunterdon farms preserved meat heavily; one account called salted pork and beef for winter and summer use[4] a general custom. The surrounding farm country included stone houses, barns, and outbuildings[1].

## Money: Ten dollars for license

The most precise local price found is the $10 fee[3] paid with an 1801 tavern petition. Farm improvement also cost effort and cash, as neighbors hauled gypsum plaster fertilizer from New Brunswick[4].

## Roads & news: Roads before rails

This was not yet a railroad village. Strangers and information moved through the Century Inn[1], the tavern license system, church networks, and roads toward Flemington, the county seat[1].

## Year by year

- **1801** (here): The Century Inn was built by Moore Furman and became a new landmark in Pittstown.[1]
- **1801** (here): Peter Vankirk petitioned the Hunterdon County Court of Common Pleas to keep a tavern of entertainment at Pittstown.[3]
- **1803** (the country): The Louisiana Purchase doubled the claimed size of the United States and would have been national news even in rural New Jersey.
- **1804** (the country): New Jersey passed gradual abolition, but it applied only to children born to enslaved mothers from 1804 onward.[7]
- **1804** (the country): Lewis and Clark began their western expedition, a national event reported and retold far from the route itself.
- **1807** (the country): New Jersey narrowed voting rights to tax-paying white male citizens, ending the state’s early voting rights for women and free Black men.[7][8]
- **1807** (the world): The British attack on the American frigate Chesapeake sharpened talk of war with Britain.

## What the sources say

- Pittstown stood along Capoolong Creek in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County. (from the sources)[1]
- The settlement had earlier been called Hoff’s Mills, after the Hoff family’s mills and local landholding. (from the sources)[1][2]
- The Century Inn was built in 1801 by Moore Furman, so it was a new landmark through most of the decade. (from the sources)[1]
- In 1801, Peter Vankirk petitioned the Hunterdon County Court of Common Pleas for permission to keep a tavern of entertainment at Pittstown, paying a $10 fee. (from the sources)[3]
- The local tavern license depended on county court approval and on the signatures of neighborhood freeholders, showing how male property holders helped police public business. (from the sources)[3]
- Flemington had been Hunterdon County’s county seat since 1791, making it the place for courthouse and jail business rather than Pittstown itself. (from the sources)[1]
- Quakertown, about a mile from Pittstown, was an eighteenth-century Quaker settlement dominated by its meeting house and cemetery. (from the sources)[1][6]
- The wider Pittstown area had three early churches: St. Thomas Episcopal established in 1723, Bethlehem Presbyterian organized in 1730, and the Quaker meeting established in 1733. (from the sources)[6]
- North of Pittstown, the Rockhill Agricultural Historic District preserves evidence of eighteenth-century farms, stone houses, barns, and outbuildings. (from the sources)[1]
- As across nearby Hunterdon farms, ordinary mixed agriculture included grass and grain crops, clover, dairying, cattle, pigs, and sheep. (from the sources)[4]
- A nearby Hunterdon farming account in 1793 described salting large quantities of pork and beef for winter and summer use, calling it the general custom there. (from the sources)[4]
- Gypsum plaster fertilizer was hauled from New Brunswick to a Flemington-area farm in 1798 and continued in use in the early 1800s, showing the reach of market farming ideas in Hunterdon. (from the sources)[4]
- In 1800 Hunterdon County had 1,790 Black residents; about 70 percent were enslaved and 30 percent were free. (from the sources)[5]
- New Jersey’s 1804 gradual abolition law applied only to children of enslaved people born in 1804 or later, so slavery continued in the county during this decade. (from the sources)[7]
- Until 1807, New Jersey voting law could include property-qualified unmarried women and free Black men; in 1807 the legislature restricted suffrage to tax-paying white male citizens. (from the sources)[7][8]
- A Pittstown postmark is documented by 1827, but an online source found here does not prove whether a Pittstown post office operated during the 1800s decade. (not known)
- No online source opened here gives a house-by-house count for Pittstown in the 1800s decade. (not known)
- No railroad served Pittstown in this decade; transport and news depended on roads, taverns, courts, churches, neighboring villages, and the post routes that linked rural Hunterdon. (inferred)

## Sources

1. Historic Sites and Districts of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Hunterdon County. https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/DocumentCenter/View/1304/Historic-Sites-and-Districts-in-Hunterdon-County-NJ-PDF
2. Pittstown Historic District, Franklin Township, Hunterdon County. Living Places. https://www.livingplaces.com/NJ/Hunterdon_County/Franklin_Township/Pittstown_Historic_District.html
3. Pittstown Inn, Part 3. Goodspeed Histories, 2022. https://goodspeedhistories.com/pittstown-inn-part-3/
4. The Case Family: 18th Century Farming in Flemington (2). Hunterdon Land Trust, 2019. https://www.hunterdonlandtrust.org/2019/11/20/the-case-family-18th-century-farming-in-flemington-2/
5. A History of Settlement and Land Use. Mercer County. https://www.mercercounty.org/home/showpublisheddocument/15275/636930922485070000
6. Franklin Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Township,_Hunterdon_County,_New_Jersey
7. A Short History of New Jersey. State of New Jersey. https://www.nj.gov/nj/about/history/short_history.shtml
8. Did You Know: Women and African Americans Could Vote in NJ before the 15th and 19th Amendments?. National Park Service, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/articles/voting-rights-in-nj-before-the-15th-and-19th.htm

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1830s](https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1830s/md) (13 km)
- [Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/somerset-county-new-jersey/1780s/md) (29 km)
- [Point Pleasant area, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/point-pleasant-area-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1780s/md) (30 km)
- [Greenwich, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-warren-county-new-jersey/1780s/md) (30 km)
- [Nazareth Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1790s](https://yorehistory.com/place/nazareth-township-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1790s/md) (34 km)
- [Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1770s](https://yorehistory.com/place/lower-nazareth-township-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1770s/md) (35 km)
- [Greenwich or Lopatcong area, Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-or-lopatcong-area-sussex-county-new-jersey/1780s/md) (66 km)
- [Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the 1820s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mauch-chunk-carbon-county-pennsylvania/1820s/md) (73 km)

---
Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Pittstown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1800s", https://yorehistory.com/place/pittstown-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1800s