REVOLUTIONARY WAR SITES IN FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY

Commissary-General Charles Stewart Mansion
Hamden Rd.
Map / Directions to the  Charles Stewart Mansion
Map / Directions to all Franklin Township Revolutionary War Sites

This house is a private residence.
Please respect the privacy and property of the owners.

Charles Stewart was born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1729 and immigrated to the United States  in 1750. [1] He served in a number of roles, both political and military, during the Revolutionary War era:

• Between May 1775 and March 1776, he served as a deputy (delegate) for Hunterdon County at four sessions of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. [2]
• On February 15, 1776, he was commissioned colonel of a battalion of Minutemen. [3]
• On June 18, 1777, he was appointed Commissary General of Issues of the army by the Continental Congress. [4]
• After the war ended, he remained politically active: in 1784 and 1785 he served as a member of the Continental Congress [5].

Charles Stewart died June 24, 1800. He is buried at the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown. [6] Charles' daughter Martha married a Revolutionary War soldier named Robert Wilson; the couple owned a house in Hackettstown, where officers including George Washington were entertained during the war. [7]

Captain Jacob Gearhart House and Smokehouse
River Rd.
Map / Directions to the Captain Jacob Gearhart House / Smokehouse
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The house is a private residence.
Please respect the privacy and property of the owners.

This house, which was built circa 1765, was the home of Revolutionary War soldier Jacob Gearhart. Jacob was born in Strasburg, Alsace, Germany, circa 1735. He emigrated to America with his parents, and the family settled in Hunterdon County. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, Jacob volunteered with the Hunterdon County Militia, where he rose from private to ensign to captain. He served at various locations in New Jersey, including Pittstown, Elizabethtown and Monmouth County. He fought at the Battle of Brandywine, and spent the winter of 1777/1778 at Valley Forge. [8]

The most notable act of Jacob's Revolutionary War service occurred before Washington's famous Crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas 1776. General Washington ordered all boats collected from along the river for use in the crossing. Jacob Gearhart was one of the officers who led parties of soldiers to collect the boats. (Among the other men involved with collecting the boats were Daniel Bray, who is buried in Rosemont; and Thomas Jones, whose tavern was in Annandale. Like Jacob Gearhart, both of these men served as Captains in the Second Battalion of the Hunterdon County Militia.) [9]

Across the street is a smokehouse that is believed to have been part of the Jacob Gearhart homestead. The smokehouse was built circa 1789, the year that George Washington was inaugurated the first President of the United States.  This smokehouse was restored in 2007 by Ethan Everett White for his Eagle Scout Project. [10]

Source Notes:

1. ^ Compiled by James B. Snell, assisted by Frank Ellis and a numerous corps of writers, History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881) p. 252
Available to read at Google Books here

2. ^ Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety of the State of New Jersey (Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar, 1879)
Available to be read at Google Books here
Stewart is listed as a deputy attending :
   • the May and June, 1775 session - on pages 169 - 170
   • the August, 1775 session - on pages 183 - 184
   • the October, 1775 session - on page 197
   • the January 31 - March 2, 1776 session - on page 325

3. ^ William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Wm. T. Nicholson & Co., 1872) page 356
Available to be read at Google Books here

4. ^ Compiled and annotated under the direction of Major General Henry C. Corbin, Adjutant-General of the Army, by Raphael P. Thian, Chief Clerk Adjutant-General's Office, Legislative History of the General Staff of the Army of the United States (Its Organizations, Duties, Pay, and Allowances), from 1775 - 1901 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901) page 238
Available to be read at Google Books here

5. ^ Andrew R. Dodge and Betty K. Koed, Editors, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005 (Government Printing Office, 2005) page 36
Available to be read at Google Books here

6. ^Grave marker at the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown.

7. ^ For more information and accompanying source notes about Martha and Robert Wilson, and their house in Hackettstown, see the Hackettstown page of this website.

8. ^ Ethan Everett White (Includes research reports by Marfy Goodspeed and the Cultural Resource Consulting Group), The Jacob Gearhart Farmstead of Franklin Township, Originally Kingwood Township, Hunterdon County, NJ, 1765-1791 (Eagle Scout Project of Ethan Everett White, Clinton Township Troop 401, November 30, 2007 - Court of Honor)
 ▸ Copies of this book are available to be read at the Hunterdon County Library, the Hunterdon County Historical Society, and the Library of Congress.

9. ^ William S. Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1898) pages 129-130
Available to be read at the Internet Archive here

10. ^ Research linking the house and smokehouse to Captain Gearhart was done as part of the Eagle Scout Project for Ethan Everett White Eagle referenced in Source Note number 8.
Section One ("Marfy Goodspeed's property research results") and Section Two ("Architectural analysis of the smokehouse," prepared by the Cultural Resource Consulting Group) of The Jacob Gearhart Farmstead of Franklin Township, Originally Kingwood Township, Hunterdon County, NJ, 1765-1791 are specifically concerned with the smokehouse.