Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing "Old Hunterdon" County," New Jersey - Part 1

Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing "Old Hunterdon County," New Jersey by Eli F. Cooley and William S. Cooley.

In four parts, this being part one.

Preface

"At the re-opening of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton - now the Presbyterian Church of Ewing - after the edifice had been remodeled, the Rev. Dr. Eli F. Cooley preached a sermon, Sabbath morning, December 1st, 1839, on the text, "Your Fathers" where are they? and the Prophets: do they live forever?" - Zechariah, 1:5. In the preparation of this discourse, he gathered a large amount of genealogical information concerning the families of his congregation. This led him to engage in further research into the history of that section of the county and of families under his pastoral care. In 1842, he wrote for the "State Gazette," at Trenton, a series of papers relative to the first settlement of Hopewell, and in 1844, Barber and Howe's "Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey" was published, with much of the article on Mercer cunty known to have been prepared by Dr. Cooley. His information, he said, was collected from the examination of deeds and wills, from surveys and family Bibles, and from daily conversation with aged persons of his acquaintance. During the latter part of his life, it was his intention to publish the result of his labors, but this pleasure was denied him. At his death, his papers came into the hands of his son, Prof. William S. Cooley, of Philadelphia, a gentleman eminently fitted to continue the researches made by his father. For many years, he devoted much time to verifying and amplifying these family records. Among his papers, we find a quotation from Dr. De Witt's journal, "Though every one ought to rest on his own merits, yet it is pleasant to trace one's lineage over a line of honest and honorable ancestors, with here and there one, perhaps, overtopping the rest and shedding the lustre of his character on the whole line." And in another place, we find he noted such sentiments as "The honorable life of a parent operates as a perpetual stimulant to a similar career;" "It is our duty to keep alive the memory of distinguished worth, that others may derive from it an impulse to a nobler and higher life." Imbued with this feeling, Prof. Cooley did what he could to perpetuate the good lives of the men and women among whom he passed his boyhood, and whom his father loved. He, too, in the last years of his life, had begun to copy, for publication, the result of his own and his father's researches. He died February 7th, 1882, and the manuscript notes of both grandfather and uncle came into possession of Miss Hanah L. Cooley, of Ewing, Mercer County, New Jersey. Many efforts have since been made by persons interested in these records, to have them printed, and, at their urgent solicitation, Miss Cooley has prepared them for the press. Without any previously acquired skill in the ordinary compilation of family lineage, eschewing any responsibility for facts herein related, other than that, perhaps, of an accurate copyist, but actuated by an earnest desire that the many hours of pleasant labor given by her ancestors should not forever be lost, she has, with much care and patience, placed these notes of history and tradition in such a shape that they are now ready for the use of the public."