The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-08-15
History Of the Quaker Bridge.

The little wooden structure which had
the honor of safely carrying Washington
and his army over the historic Assam
pink, on the early morning of January
8. 1777, has been barely mentioned by
our historians Quaker Bridge Is on the
ancient Quaker road from Crosswicks
Via Hamilton Square, to Stony Brook
Meeting House and on to Princeton
The Friends had a meeting house at
Crosswicks as early as 1884, and at Stony
Brook in ITO, SO we may judge for our
selves as to how long this road and bridge
have been used.
The English, who settled at the mouth
of the Assanpink, called the creek the
Derwent, of course, after the Derwent-
water in England, on the banks of which
they had probably spent their youthful
days, but the old Indian name rightly
prevailed. 1t means "Stone in the wa
ter" There is ford at Quaker Bridge,
and no doubt this was first used, but
fords are often impossible, and bridge
was built. 1t is highly probable that the
expense, or the name would not be sig
nifcant. There haYe probably been five
or six bridges on this same spot, all ex-
cept the present one being made narrow :,
80 as to allow the use of the ford to water
horses or swell up rickety wagon wheels
The bridge which carried Washington
over was of wood, with row of piles to
hold up the center. Here it was that
John Flock killed the Hessian who was
trying to drive him to camp, and pinned
his body down in the creek with stake.
Here lived Patrick Lamb, who was one
of Washlngton's guides that night, and
it is highly probable that he kept a tav-
ern here. There were two houses at the
bridge at that time.
This bridge was the "head of naviga-
ton" for the "Assanpink Navigation Com
pany," VIXEN, nearly hundred years ago,
they, by means of slack water dams and
locks, attempted to navigate this stream
and proposed eventually to cut canal
to the Milestone. A boat load of wood
started for Trenton from this vicinity,
but the trip Though the locks and SO on
did not prove to be a success, and all the
work came to nought. At Abner Hughes
corner, few hundred yards south of
Quaker Bridge, it was. in 1888, seriously
proposed to erect the county buildings for
the then new county of Mercer. The act
provided that the Court House should be
located in Nottingham township, which
then included all of the county south of
the creek and west of the province line.
A petition was circulated and meeting
was held at this place, which was at
tended by many. The late Colonel Hal
stead remarked at this meeting that the
county buildings should be at Trenton,
where the lawyers lived. The late John
West replied that they wanted to get the
Court House as far away from the lawyers
as possible, but Halstead retorted that
where the carcass is, there will the ea-
giles be gathered together"
The vicinity of Quaker Bridge was set
tied toward the middle of the last CEN
fury. To the north and east came the de-
scendants of the Dutch from the older set
Elements, and to the southeast came the
descendants of the English. But to the
south and west the country, up to the time
of the Revolution and later, was much
like a wilderness. Here was the big tract
of shrub oaks, called the "Barrens," and
west of this the gloomy Bear Swamp, into
which some families retired to escape the
foraging parties Some of the best truck
farms in the country are now in the
| "Barrens"
Soon after the Revolution, John Voor-
hes came to the Quaker Bridge farm and
kept the tavern. 1t then passed to his
son-in-law Christopher S. Vannest. and
the tavern was discontinued. The farm
has been in the Vannest family ever since.
Christopher Vannest offered to give
$1,000 toward the county buildings, if
located in that vicinity.
None of the old road which Washing
ton took from Trenton to Quaker Bridge
now exists, excepting, perhaps, little at
each end. All accounts OF maps which
Sandtown, are wrong. The old road from
the Eagle tavern to Sandtown was a
crooked one, and ran a little north of the
present Hamilton avenue road. Wash
ington followed this as far as the late c..
" Meade property, but here road
turned to the left and led direct to Quaker
Bridge, leaving Sandtown half mile to
the right.
This road crossed Miry run little west
of ]. X. Reeds mill, and continued
through the Barrens hundred yards or
more west of the present road. There
was woods the most Of the way after leav-
ing the Sandtown road, and, as the army