Finesville
Finesville is a section of Pohatcong Township in New Jersey, USA, along the Musconetcong River between Pohatcong Mountain and Musconetcong Mountain. The village is about a mile east of the Delaware River and is in a section of the Musconetcong Valley called the Musconetcong Gorge. The village was named for Philip and John Fein (often misspelled Fine by locals)[1] who settled in the area from Germany.[2] The Fein family built a dam and ran an oil mill, gristmill, sawmill, hotel and a store.
History
The Musconetcong Valley was first settled by Paleo-Indians, where Herbert C. Kraft found stone knives and scapes near Asbury dating back more than ten thousand years.[3] The area was first built up as a permanent settlement due to the construction of Chelsea Forge, built in 1751,[4] a charcoal-iron forge on the Musconetcong.[5] The forge helped to provide the Continental Army with weapons to defend Valley Forge. The Shank Brothers ran a ferry across the Delaware River from the point where the Musconetcong empties into it prior to 1800.[6] The Fein gristmill burned and was later rebuilt as the Riegel Paper Corporation's paper mill[7] and became the Taylor Stiles and Company knife factory. On October 7, 2009, the Finesville-Seigletown Historic District was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.
Sites of interest
- Hunts Meadow - named for patriot Edward Hunt who dug the millrace here and wintered sixty cavalry horses for the Continental Army in 1778[8]
- Seigletown - named for Benjamin Seigle, a Revolutionary militia captain, who lived here and made red clay pottery called Seigleware. The family owned a farm, a gristmill, clovermill, blacksmith shop and hematite mine.
Wineries
Stores
- Chelsea Forge Antiques
References
- ↑ Musconetcong River Valley in New Jersey
- ↑ Pohatcong Historic District Commission
- ↑ Musconetcong River
- ↑ Wacker, Peter O. "The Musconetcong Valley of New Jersey: A Historical Geography". New Brunswick" Rutgers University Press, 1968.
- ↑ Finesvile Marker
- ↑ Musconetcong River
- ↑ Pohatcong Historic District Commission
- ↑ Finesville Historical Markers