FERRIES – The first record of a ferry at what is now Frenchtown is of London Ferry in 1741. The boat was poled across. The name of the ferry and the name of the location changed with the names of the family operating it. In 1764 we find Mechlenburgh's, then Erwin's, Calvin's, Sherod's (or Sherrard's) and finally Prevost's.
It was Sherod's/Sherrard's ferry that played a role in the American Revolution. It carried Gen. William Howe, commander of the British forces in America, across the river on Oct. 2, 1777, after he'd won the Battle of Brandywine and captured Philadelphia.
On that day, British Gen. John Burgoyne's invading army, coming south from Canada, was in between losing both the Battles of Saratoga in Upstate New York. (He'd been counting on Howe's support.) Burgoyne's captured British and German troops, numbering 4,916, were marched south. Despite escapes, at least 3,600 were poled across to Pennsylvania on Sherrard's ferry in 1778.
“...during high waters and when the wind blew hard down the river… it became necessary to go up the river some distance before starting over, and then probably reach the opposite shore some distance below the landing, and have to get up, sometimes by grasping the bushes and limbs of trees that lined the shore and thus pull themselves up,” recalled Franklin in 1877. (He was an anonymous contributor to the Hunterdon Independent.)
Ferry service was discontinued with the opening of the river bridge in 1844. But after a flood washed out two spans of the bridge in October of 1903, the Frenchtown bridge company lost no time in negotiating with the Roebling company in Trenton for a 1,150-foot “wire rope” for use by a ferry. Meanwhile John M. Crosby, toy manufacturer, was ferrying passengers with his boat.
Ferry service began early in November. The boat was 40 feet long by 10.5 feet wide and could carry two teams of horses and 25 passengers. The bridge re-opened in 1905.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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