Was the area surrounding what is now O'Connor's Restaurrant on Mountain Blvd., at the Warren-Watchung border, once the site of the township's first village? Evidence collected by George Bebbington seems to point in that direction. According to Bebbington, General Erskine's route maps for Washington's army show the original location of the Mount Bethel Baptist Meeting House and Joseph Catterline's Tavern, both located in the valley between the First and Second Mountains near where O'Connor's stands now. Such buildings, says Bebbington, are usually strong components of a village center. Both the tavern and the church were on what would become a portion of Mountain Blvd.; a school house was less than a mile to the west on the same road, then called the Old Somerset Road. On the east side of today's restaurant can be found a cluster of very old houses, most of them on the Nesco property. One of these, said to be Watchung's oldest house, was built around the year 1700. Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Santucci owned the homes in the l970s. Could this also have been part of that early community? This neighborhood had strong ties with Scotch Plains for it was in l767 that 15 members of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church sought their dismissal so that they might constitute their own separate organization, what was to become the Mount Bethel Church. They wished to worship in the building where "they had been meeting." That building, on land supplied by Captain Samuel Dunn, had been erected in l761. Family names of the church members were Sutton, Jennings, Worth, Pound, Tingley, Coon, Cowart, Bloom and Hayden. Among their neighbors were the Tongler, Kingsley, Jones, Cox, Vermulen, Dunn, Smalley and Jobs families. Some of these families may have lived in the small community that probably surrounded the tavern, school and church. Was this tiny village ever called Mount Bethel? The area on top of the Second Mountain became known as Mount Bethel when the Baptists moved there in l785, and they may have taken their name to the area when they moved their church building to its new site. Or did the cross-roads village have a name associated with one of its well-known residents, possibly Joseph Catterlin, the local innkeeper? We do not know. Ancient records show that Joseph Catterlin was an innkeeper at least from l778 to l799. A newspaper extract shows that Isaac Morse, executor of the Estate of Joseph Morse, Jr., advertised that he was collecting and settling all notes and debts on April 3, l780, at the house of Joseph Catterling, innkeeper in Somerset County. Joseph Catterlin was also the witness to the will of one Francis Dunn (along with Nahun Dunn and Runah Tingley) on December 15, l776. Joseph Catterlin was an initial subscriber to the New Jersey Gazette in l777, some evidence that the newspaper would have been available to his inn's patrons, a common practice in Colonial times. In May 1778 a tax ratables list for Bernards Township (which then included Warren) lists Joseph Caterline as owning 93 acres, two houses, three cows and two pigs. Reignette March in her book, Scotch Plains (l936), reprints a newspaper notice about a Mr. Casterline of the Blue Hills: "On Friday morning (June l780), on the mountain near Scotch Plains, a party of villains from Staten Island, who had come over to the East Jersey hills to steal horses, were discovered by Mr. Casterline, an officer of the Militia, who killed one Inslee, and took three others - Lesegh, Hutchinson and Closson. A court martial is now sitting." This probably relates to Joseph Catterline. Records in the State Archives reveal that Joseph Catterline "of the Blue Hills" had an extensive and varied military record. Early in the war he was appointed to recruit mem in Somerset County for the Continental service. They were to rendezvous at the Somerset County Court House on October 10, l777. He was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Somerset County Militia, seeing active service under Captain Jacob TenEych in November 1777, and he later led a group of Continental Army enlistees to camp at Valley Forge on May 21, l778. In September 1778 he was serving in Captain Philip VanArsdale's company of militia. Catterline served eight days as a lieutenant in Captain David Smalley's company, recruiting men for the State Troops in June l779. He commanded a detachment of 25 men in service at Morristown in August 1780, then served as a lieutenant in Captain John Outwater's company defending the state's frontiers. Catterline was stationed in Bergen County from April 1 to December 31, l781, served in Captain Peter Ward's company until December 15, l782, which included an engagement with the enemy at Fort Lee, and then he rejoined Outwater's unit, serving with him from July 1 to September 16, l784. Lt. Joseph Catterline was also in charge of Signal Beacon #7 located "near the Quibbletown Gap," just south of his tavern. In all, Catterline's military record was an impressive one. Joseph Catterline's ancestry is a matter of some conjecture, although it is clear the name "Joseph" was a family favorite. One researcher reports a "Joseph" with 21 children who is also said to have served in the Morris County Militia during the Revolution. Supposedly members of the Morris branch are descended from one Francis Catterline (b. 1690) who was born in France, left because of religious persecution, settled near Union, N.J., where he had three wives and 26 children. A will dated June 5, 1760, proved Dec. 27, l768, of Francis Catterling of Morristown lists his children, Francis, Isaac, James, Benjamin, Jacob and Joseph. Warren's Joseph Catterline (or perhaps a son of the same name) is mentioned in Littell's Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Passaic Valley, where the author states that Hannah Willcox, the daughter of Daniel, married Joseph Casterline, and had a son Mulford Casterline, who married in l823. We know nothing else of Joseph's life although his ancestors may be among those recorded in the tax and Bible records of Woodbridge Township (1668-1781). There, we find four children born to Barnard and Alice Catterlin: Joseph, born Dec. 22, l703, Nathaniel, born Jan. 30, l705, Ann, born Feb. 19, l707, and Mary, born Aug. 30, l709. The first two were apparently born in the Woodbridge area, while the latter were Piscataway births. Records of another brother or perhaps uncle, Jonathan, can also be found. Barnet Catterlin's ear mark appears in the Piscataway records for l709. Moreover, a Caterline of Middlesex County leased land from John Parker in l720 which was probably a tract purchased from the Indians in the Blue Mountains "on the west side of Governor Lawrie's tract," that is, in what is now Warren Township. On June 8, 1733, Jennet Parker, creditor, was granted the administration of Barnet Caterline's estate. A list of Woodbridge's 3rd Co., New Jersey Militia, under the command of Col. T. F. Farmer in 1715 contains the names of Jonathan and Joseph Catterlin. On Aug. 23, l748, Jonathan Catterlin appealed to the East Jersey Proprietors to protect his interests from the claims of the Elizabethtown Associates, stating he had settled on Dockwra's 3,000 acre tract on the south side of the "Pisick River." He testified that he had held possession since about 1720, paying a yearly rent to Dockwra's heirs. Others living on Dockwra's land were Jonathan Casterlin Jr. and Vinson Casterlin. A Jonathan Catterlin is mentioned as a constable of the Somerset County Court of Oyer and Terminer on Aug. 8, l751. The Somerset County Road Book (l775-1805), on page 5, shows Joseph Catterline among the signers of a Oct. 27, l779, petition to the County Freeholders asking for the erection of a bridge of the Passaic River "past the one on the Dead River." When Joseph Catterline departed Warren, if he did, or where he moved, or when he died, has not been determined. We do not know whether he was related to the Catterlines of Morris County or to those who lived in Sussex County. What is clear is that the small village that clustered about his tavern gradually disappeared into history, its demise perhaps hastened by the decision of the Baptists to move their meeting house to Stony Hill (or did they move because the village had declined?). The old mushroom farm with its underground caves that was built near the spot nearly a century and a half later provided a new center of interest and the inns and steakhouses that followed it have continued to mark the spot. [By George Bebbington] |