The new day dawned to show several chimneys standing amid the smoking rubble. Little Charles Hummer was found, alive and well, in a ditch...

“It’s a bad thing to have a fire engine that won’t do what is required of it when most needed,” warned the Independent in 1871. The...

Theodore Powers Williams (1853-1934) was the son of man who built the National Hotel in Frenchtown. Everyone called him “Powers.” He grew...

During the Civil War, Frenchtown boys were at war with Uhlerstown boys. T. Powers Williams wrote, “I cannot account for the belligerent...

THATCHER Sgt. Jacob F. – (1842-1862) spent his early childhood in the house at 20 Bridge Street. As a teenager, he resided in the stately...

STUNTS, GAGS & SHENANIGANS The Man From Missouri This weird story was told in the Hunterdon Independent by “Franklin,” its anonymous...

READING, Joseph H. – (1849-1920) was a son of Frenchtown wagon-spoke manufacturer Philip G. Reading. Joseph was a storekeeper in various...

Appendix B: Raymond Fargo's 1906 diary Raymond's father, Frank B., died in 1902, so he is being raised by his mother and older brother...

FRENCHTOWN CORNET BAND – In the winter of 1868-69 William A. Person (1835-1887) organized a 10-piece Frenchtown orchestra. He was not...

SIPES, Jason V. – (1894-1960) eagerly enlisted to fight in the Great War. The letters he wrote home were published in the Frenchtown Star...

GHOSTS Ghostly trio – The Prushinski family resided at 311 Harrison Street, Frenchtown, from about 1987 to '97. For Jason that was...

BALLET – Roger Atkinson of Upper Black Eddy, Pa., a ballet heavyweight (figuratively speaking), established a ballet school in Frenchtown...

THE EDDY HARDWARE FIRE – Early on the morning of May 10, 1940, Bert Lacey, walking home from a night shift at Kerr's Chickery, attempted...

HARDWARE Slater & Hudnit rebuilt their hardware “store house” in 1871, producing a three-story building at 34-40 Bridge Street,...

MOORE, Mary Forman Warford – (1870-1954) was the daughter of Hugh and Sidney Forman Warford. She has the distinction of having resided in...

FRENCHTOWN COMMONS – Last summer I took a stroll around the grounds of these garden apartments off Trenton Avenue and the place looks...

FLOODS – Pumpkin Freshet of 1903 – It was a year for bad weather, full of rain storms and lightning strikes. Oct. 8 and 9 were days of...

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS -- Boiler explosion – Frenchtown's Sunbeam Lenape Park was the site of Jacob White's steam-powered sawmill when, on...

MANUFACTURING -- Porcelain – When Gabriel Slater and Samuel Hudnit mapped out Frenchtown north of Fifth Street in 1866, they reserved...

PIGEON SHOOTERS – I first met Russ Barton Sr. (1927-1987) when he was the mechanic at the GMC Truck dealership at 203 Harrison Street,...