REVOLUTIONARY WAR SITES IN TEWKSBURY, NEW JERSEY

Site of Colonel John Mehelm House
New Bromley Rd.
Map / Directions to the Site of John Colonel John Mehelm House

This sign marks the site of the John Mehelm house, where General Washington stopped in July 1777 while en route from Morristown to Philadelphia. Mehelm served as a member of the Colonial assembly, and on the committee which deposed William Franklin (the son of Benjamin Franklin), the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. He was a Colonel in the 4th Regiment of the Hunterdon County Militia. He served as a Freeholder from Readington after the Revolutionary War. [1]

A letter exists in George Washington's handwriting from August 15, 1777, in which he writes, "When I was at Col. Mehelm's..." A scan of this letter can be seen at the Library of Congress website. [2]

Colonel Mehelm died at age 75 on October 6, 1809, and is buried at Lamington Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Lamington.

Those interested in further information about the history of this house are recommended to the article, Looking Back... George Washington Slept Here, by Stephanie B. Stevens, Historian for the County of Hunterdon. This article, which includes a photo of the house taken circa 1960, appeared in the Readington News in February 2010. It can be read online here.

Source Notes:

1. ^ Stephanie B. Stevens - Historian, County of Hunterdon "Looking Back... George Washington Slept Here", The Readington News, February 2010, Page 6
This article, which contains a photo of the house taken circa 1960, can be read online here

• William S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton: Wm. T. Nicholson & Co., 1872) page 343                  
▸ Lists John Mehelm as having served as a Colonel in the 4th Regiment of the Hunterdon County Militia
Available to be read at Google Books here.

2. ^ George Washington to Ephraim Anderson, August 15, 1777. George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799: Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799
A scan of the letter is available on the Library of Congress website here.