It took more than five years and a heap of litigation, but in 1973 Somerset County finally had its way, demolishing one of Warren's oldest houses to make way for what was then called "the Warrenville by-pass." It was in 1967 that the County announced plans for a $400,000 road project in Warrenville that would extend Mountain Boulevard westward to meet Washington Valley Road at North Drive, eliminating a jog in the road that for many years had bedeviled drivers. From time immemorial Mountain Boulevard had dead-ended at Mount Bethel Road. Anyone driving toward Martinsville had to turn south onto Mount Bethel Road, then make a right onto Washington Valley Road. The project, which included Warren's first traffic light, made sense from a traffic standpoint but there was one problem: Smack dab in the way of an extended Washington Valley Road stood one of Warren's oldest houses, owned by the Herlich family. The Herlich house was an unprepossessing, somewhat dilapidated woodframe dwelling of uncertain age, although it looked old. It (or at least the property on which it sat) had been in the family since 1853, and the Herlichs were fixtures in the township, one of its oldest families. After the project was announced, the County condemned the land and offered to move the house, but Robert and Lillian Herlich Sr. declined, choosing instead to fight the County's condemnation offer. After the Herlichs died in l972, their daughter, Ruth Harris, continued the battle. Just when it appeared the fight was over, the township's Historical Society took up Mrs. Harris' cudgels, making an 11th hour appeal to save the building. After Eileen Cameron appealed personally to the County Freeholders, they relented, giving the Historical Society a week to move the building. In mid-January 1973 George Bebbington, society president, appeared before the Township Committee seeking funds to move the house and land on which to relocate it. But time had run out, no funds were forthcoming, an appropriate site could not be found and in March 1973 the house was reduced to a pile of rubble. Three months later the neighboring Warrenville Tavern, owned by Julio Rubinetti, was also leveled, and construction of what is now known as Mountain Boulevard Extension began. The age of the Herlich house was never determined, although from appearances it could have dated to the mid-19th century. What we do know is that on October 18, 1790, Adam Jobs and his wife Cathherine, bought the land (then a farm of 185 acres) from Jacob Jennings Sr., then of Virginia, for at least £500, giving back a mortgage for £500 payable £100 per year plus interest. Adam and Catherine apparently moved to Warren (then Bernards Township) in 1790 as their names do not appear in any earlier records. They may have lived in Bound Brook prior to coming here. In 1794 Adam Jobs witnessed the will of Frederick Vermeule, who lived near the Green Brook, and in 1797 he witnessed the will of Henry Doty, his neighbor. Jennings (whose daughter Ann married Ebenezer Tingley) had returned to Somerset County by August 1791, when he died. Adam Jobs died on March 10, 1798, aged 50, and was buried in the Bound Brook Presbyterian Church cemetery. His will, witnessed by his neighbors Moses Coon, Jacob Tingley and John Vermeule, provided that his real estate would be sold when his children were of age, with the proceeds divided between his wife and children. On April 8, 1811 (probably the year Jobs' children came of age), Frederick Vermeule and Luke Covert, executors of Jobs' estate, conveyed 117 acres to John Jobs of Warren Township for $2968, described as land "whereon the said Adam Jobs lived and died"…"lying between the mountains" (that is, in the valley) bounded by lands of Samuel Doty, Jacob Tingley, David Stewart, John Mirex, Benjamin Manning and Samuel Cosad. William D. Stewart Esq. and his wife, Ann, bought the property in 1817, then sold it to Freeman Cole in 1827. Cole in turn sold the land to Zakariah J. Wilson in 1834 and he sold it to William M. Drake and his wife in 1842. Drake, who later founded the Plainfield Gazette in 1848, lived most of his adult life in what is now North Plainfield. Adam Herlich and his wife, Catherine, bought 12 acres (and possibly the house that was demolished in 1973) on March 15, 1853. Born in Germany in 1815, Herlich married Catharina Goos in 1840 and they had at least six children, Elisabetha, Ana Maria, Heinrich, Johann, George and Johanes, all born between 1841 and 1852. The Herlichs were one of the founding families of the Coontown Church and he served as Elder and Church Clerk there for many years. Adam died in 1890, followed by his wife in 1891. Heinrich or Henry Herlich advertised as "the traveling grocer" in the l890s (see Warren History, Vol. II, No. 6). Robert and Lillian Herlich, the third generation to live in the house, both died on the same day in 1872 in the middle of their long fight to save the family farm. They had protested that a traffic light would eliminate the perceived traffic problem at the T-intersection, and that a by-pass could be built behind the Bardy Farms shopping center connecting Washington Valley Road with Mountain Boulevard near the Hofheimer house. Descendants of Adam Herlich still live in Warren Township. © Warren Township Historical Society |