The sign outside for years has claimed that the King George Inn (now The Inn at Mount Bethel) dates to 1692. An historical marker installed above the main fireplace in the dining room in 1986 proudly repeats that assertion. But the truth is, alas, that the 1692 date is nothing but the wild figment of a publicist’s dream. Historical research reveals that the oldest part of the structure may date to about 1785-86. The original building, until about1800 the home of one of Warren’s pioneer families, was never used as a tavern or inn until about 1804 when John Smalley became its owner. Benjamin Enyart, a soldier in the Revolution, is the first owner of the land upon which the inn stands of whom there is a record. Enyart was the son of John Enyard of Woodbridge (the family name is spelled variously in the public records as Engart, Inyard, Ingard and Enyard, but Enyart is correct), who died in 1763, the father of four sons and four daughters, Silas, John, David, Benjamin, Annah, Rachel, Elsie and Alche. Benjamin, born May 28, 1741 in Woodbridge Township (then much larger than it is today), was married before 1764 to Johanna Tombs (Feb. 28, 1747 – 1808) and died July 7, 1818, in Butler County, Ohio. According to John Littell’s early history of the area, Benjamin lived "between Alexander Kirkpatrick’s and Benjamin Alward’s," that is, between the old Wagner dairy farm and the present site of the new Chelsea Assisted Living Residence. Enyart’s Revolutionary War service is well-documented. In 1777 he served as a corporal in Capt. Jacob Ten Eyck’s company, 1st Regiment, Somerset County Militia. A "Benjamin Engart" (no doubt the same man) served also in the 1st Regiment of Middlesex County Militia and in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, of the Continental Line. Enyart’s name appears often in the early records: In August 1777 Benjamin Enyart and John Conger, both of Somerset County, signed a bond for Ebenezer Ford, allowing him to serve as the guardian of a minor. Daniel Hampton and Henry Alward were witnesses. A list of taxpayers in Bernards Township (Warren was then part of that township) in 1778 lists Benjamin Inyard as owning 150 acres, three horses, seven cattle and six hogs. Again, in 1793, Benjamin and Samuel, his son, appear on a list of Bernards Township taxpayers. In 1795 Enyart was a trustee of the Mount Bethel Baptist Church. On October 6, 1786, George Cooper, Jr., William Alward and Benjamin Enyart "for and in consideration of our good wishes towards the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ" conveyed to the trustees of the Mount Bethel Baptist Church a small plot at the crest of the Second Mountain, on Mount Bethel Road, "in the township of Bernard, and at a place known by the name of Stony Hill, and where the meeting house now stands," for "a house or houses of worship and a burying-place." This plot, where the Meeting House now stands, was at the corner of lands owned by the Cooper, Alward and Enyart families. Toward the end of the 1790s Enyart and his family caught the "Ohio fever," deciding to pull up stakes in New Jersey and head west to the new Northwest territory. Records in the County courthouse indicate that on December 17, 1800, Benjamin Enyart sold 126.25 acres "south of the Passaic River" to Col. Ephraim Martin. Three days later, on December 22, 1800, Benjamin bought 200 acres of land in Butler County, Ohio, from the same Ephraim Martin for $555. Most likely, this land "south of the Passaic River" was the farm upon which the family resided since it is between Alward’s and Kirkpatrick’s homestead. On December 12, 1800, Benjamin’s son, Rufus, sold a ten acre lot on the north side of Stony Hill to Elijah Stites Enyart and his eldest son, Samuel, also owned land at the crest of Stony Hill – what was left after he conveyed out that small plot to the Mount Bethel church. On March 9, 1804, Samuel Enyart and Anna, his wife, Benjamin Enyart and Joanna, his wife, sold 22 acres to John Smalley for 280 British pounds. The land is described as bounded by George Cooper and the meeting house lot to the north, Isaac Stites to the west, John Worth to the south and Thomas Terrill to the east. Plotting out the description of the 1804 conveyance produces a rectangular plot at the intersection of today’s King George and Mount Bethel roads, precisely where the King George Inn stands. As noted, Benjamin Enyart did not live on this 22 acres; possibly it was the home of his son, Samuel, and his wife, Anna. The 1804 deed is somewhat misleading as by that date the Enyart family was in Ohio. According to research there, the family had left New Jersey by 1801. Probably, the acreage at the top of Stony Hill could not be sold until three years after the family had left New Jersey. Enyart probably bought his land from the Elizabethtown Associates, not the Proprietors. The 1804 deed to Smalley describes the northerly line as "the Tear [Tier] Line of the Elizabethtown Lots." Benjamin and Anna Enyart were the parents of eleven children, all born in New Jersey: Samuel, b. 1764, Sarah, Hannah, Mary, Perces, Rufus, John, David, Rachel, Cornelius and Susannah, b. 1786. Based on family names, the Enyarts may have been of Dutch origin. John Smalley owned the Enyart property at the crest of Stony Hill until his death, probably in 1824. On March 24, 1825, Thomas Terril, administrator of the Estate of John Smalley, sold at public auction 53 acres (including the original 22 acres Smalley bought from Enyart) to John M. C. Schureman of Chatham Township for $650. This included the tavern. Schureman and his wife, Sarah, now of Warren Township, sold the same land to Andrew Smalley and Israel Vail on February 14, 1826, for $625. On April 24, 1826, Israel Vail of Bernards Township sold his interest in the land, including the "Tavern Stand," to Mahlon Smalley for $325. In 1829, Andrew Smalley conveyed the other half of the property to Mahlon, who was now sole owner. Smalley and his wife, Elizabeth, owned the land until September 15, 1842, when they in turn sold it to David and Harvey A. Bird. Interestingly, that deed was not recorded until 1887. Between 1843 and 1849 John Coryell of Warren Township held a mortgage on the property. David Bird and Janette, his wife, apparently inherited Harvey’s interest in the property (the deed records are not clear) and on February 1, 1862, sold the tavern property to Werner Heidelhoff for $750. Werner Heidelhoff subsequently died, owing a $2622 mortgage to Lewis Mundy, who foreclosed. At the Sheriff’s sale held in June 1883, one of Werner’s children, John J. Heidelhoff, bought the property. Later, John Jacob Heidelhoff conveyed the land to partners Eugene Pavillard and John Burgold. The records here are also unclear; in any event, on October 11, 1895, the Somerset County Sheriff, who had foreclosed on a mortgage held by Robert Zergiebel, sold the land to Zergiebel. Less than a month later Zergiebel sold the inn to John A. Frech of Somerville for $2,100. Mary Francis Young of Madison became the next owner, purchasing the tavern property from Frech on May 12, 1897, for $6,000. The large disparity between the $2,100 Frech paid for the land and the $6,000 he sold it for would indicate either that a large mortgage had been cancelled or that sometime between 1895 and 1897 the building had been substantially enlarged. If the latter is the case, this might well be the period when the large addition to the right of the earlier three-story structure was built. In any event, Mary Francis Young and her husband, David, sold the property to Arthur H. Lovejoy of Flushing, NY, on September 20, 1900. On March 5, 1902, Arthur and Alice, his wife, now of Warren, sold the land to Frank J. Rice of Massachusetts for $6,500. Rice and his wife, Mande, then sold the site to Guy Pierre Coquille and Alfred E. Binz on September 19, 1903. The many transactions involving the inn continue into the new century: Binz sold his share of the inn to Coquelle in l905 for $2,000; in 1906, Coquille and his wife, Florence, sold the property back to Binz, a single man, and Catherine, probably his mother. Binz disposed of the inn seven years later, selling it to Rinaldo di Pietro of Plainfield on August 9, 1912. DiPietro held the tavern only a short time, selling it to Andre and Clementine Calosso on February 14, 1913, subject to two mortgages totaling $5,600. The Calossos owned the inn for a good many years, finally selling it to Frederick H. and Minnie Zimmerman, his wife, by two deeds, dated March 1940 and December 1943. The Zimmermans owned the land until October 30, 1953, when they sold the "Mount Bethel Inn" to M. James and Dorothy Hayden for approximately $30,000. We know little of the history of the inn during the 19th century. Fron 1806 until 1855 the township’s annual meetings were held in various inns, a practice that changed in 1856 when the Township Committee met at the Cedar Grove Schoolhouse. Meetings held at the inn at Mount Bethel are recorded in 1818, when Alexander B. Campbell was the proprietor, 1831, Mahlon Smalley, innkeeper, and 1845, Isaac Titus. In 1850 the Mount Bethel church experienced a great revival, adding 107 to its rolls by baptism. One of those who joined the church at that time was innkeeper David Bird. When he joined the Baptists, Bird closed down the bar, rolling barrels of his best whiskey into the street where he smashed them with gusto. After the Civil War the inn was a watering place as well as country hotel for folks, many of them from New York City, seeking escape among the green hills of Warren from the heat of the metropolis. In 1873 Jacob Blimm, then innkeeper, advertised a stage coach line that ran from the railroad depot in Plainfield to his Mountain Hotel. One of those who lived there was Charles Schaeffer and his wife and daughter, Josephine, a talented singer who later performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Throughout this period the inn doubled as a poling place and tax collector’s office (Warren had no town hall then, and didn’t until the l950s). On August 23, 1884, French emigrants who had settled at Mount Bethel sponsored a "Dramatic Entertainment in Aid of the Cholera Epidemic in France…." Music was by the Mt. Bethel Orchestra. In the early years of this century the inn was known as the Mountain House. During the summer of 1912 Walter Palmer advertised his Palmer Picture Dances, with orchestra and hand-tinted slides to entertain the dancers. Admission was 15 cents. Palmer’s Picture Dances were a feature at the Mountain House from 1905 until at least 1912 and possibly beyond. Palmer, incidentally, was an electrician employed by the New York Times, and it was he who lowered the ball atop the newspaper’s building on New Year’s Eve when it was done by hand. Palmer lived out the last years of his life at Mount Bethel with his daughter, Hazel Palmer Zeglio. The three-story part of the inn housed guests, with any overflow bedded down in the yellow house to the rear. They ate and bathed at the inn proper. The two-story structure to the right of the main house was used for dining, social events and, from 1911 to 1913, was the temporary home of what would become Our Lady of the Mount R. C. Church. Alfred Binz, then the inn’s owner, donated the land on which the fieldstone church would be built. A barn sited south of the present inn was also built into the bank to a lesser degree. The stone rubble wall one sees today on the bank was the back foundation of the main part of the barn. To the right of this wall was a section of the barn where the Calossos garaged their Model "T." Between the two world wars the inn was known as the Villa Calosso. In the l940s, when the Zimmermans owned it, it was the Sans Souci. When James and Dorothy Hayden bought the Mt. Bethel Inn from Fred Zimmerman in l953, it was a dream come true. During World War II Hayden had owned the Milton Restaurant in Rahway, where he doubled as chef. From there he bought Plainfield’s Park Diner. Owning a genuine country inn had always been his dream, realized when Zimmerman put the place up for sale. "The inn was a real mess when we got it," recalled Hayden’s son in 1986. "There was a soda machine in the middle of the dining room; several of the rooms on the second floor were rented and the meals were cooked on an old cast iron stove." Working seven days a week, the Haydens with a crew of carpenters, electricians, masons and plumbers spent four and a half months putting a modern kitchen and creating a colonial-style bar and dining room. During the renovation the hand-hewn beams and fieldstone walls were exposed in what would be the Tap Room. Repairing the dining room ceiling, they found that it was suspended with the help of huge wrought-iron rods. Finally, on Washington’s Birthday, 1954, the new King George Inn was opened to the public. "Warren Township at the time was considered the boondocks by many and it was several years before enough people found out about the inn to make it more than a philanthropic endeavor," remembered sons Max and David. But catch on it did, and during the coming years the kitchen was expanded, a dining room added and the second floor open porch replaced by an addition to the ballroom. Beneath the enclosed porch stood an 8/10th scale replica of an old stage coach, similar to the ones that had stopped at the inn a century before. Dorothy and Jim Hayden retired to Florida in 1970, turning the business over to their sons, Max and David, and Max’s wife, Jane. Dot and Jim died in 1995, 15 days apart. In its heyday, the King George Inn was Warren’s most popular gathering-place. With its menus designed like old newspapers, its blazing hearths, colonial wallpaper and collection of rickety early American furniture, it was the picture of a true country inn. Nearly 200 could be accommodated in the public dining rooms; the banquet rooms seated another 134 and the staff, numbering 40 in 1979, had served over 1.5 million years by the time of the inn’s 25th anniversary. The Inn Book: A Field Guide to Old Inns & Good Food, published in 1974, gave the King George high marks. "The inn is high in the Somerset Hills, overlooking a wide, satisfactory sweep of countryside, across the street from an old cemetery. If you [want a view}ask to eat upstairs in the new Crow’s Nest, but if you want to dine where those early patrons put it away, hug the hearths downstairs, especially in the taproom. When it comes to restorations Dorothy Hayden is something of a gourmet herfelf: Everything in the place reflects her passion for authenticity -–tables, chairs, the many collector’s items…." "In the kitchen Maximillian Hayden…can still be found, supported by a large cast of Haydens and old-faithfuls. He’s supervising now, and one son is a chef…. Raw materials are the best available, especially the meats, and much of the butchering is done on the premises. Soups are good home brews, vegetables like ther creamed spinach generally fresh, mashed potatoes earthy and not poured out of a cardboard box. Fried oysters in their jackets of brown crumbs are juicy inside…so are the pork chops, grilled-to-order and generous in size. Little hot biscuits are homemade…. [The] rice pudding [is] both meltingly creamy and al dente and never too sweet." Sauerbraten, steamed King crab and broiled duckling were highly recommended. After the Haydens sold the inn in 1987, it fell on hard times. A company aptly named the Royal Adventurers bought the King George Inn in 1987, renovating it in grand style with a more elegant colonial look. For a brief time, Truffles, formerly of Meyersville, held forth. In late 1989 new management took over, renaming it "The King George." All of these ventures [including Italian and Portugese restaurants, one with a purple game room] struggled unsuccessfully; in the late l990s the inn was empty for a time until Chez Cheese, which had sold cheese, gourmet foods and kitchen utensils near the post office for a number of years, took over, renaming the place The Inn at Mount Bethel. [Ref: NJ Archives, 1st Series, Vol. 34; Do., Vol. 5, p. 49; Somerset County Ratables, 1778, 1793; Littell, First Settlers of the Passaic Valley; genealogical research by Roberta Pierson on the Enyart family; Villages at the Crossroads; records, Somerset County Clerk; K. Neuer, The Inn Book, 1974; articles, Echoes-Sentinel, 11/27/1975, 2/22/1979, 6/12/1986; T. S. Griffiths, A History of the Baptists in New Jersey, 1904; letter, Frank R. Freehauf, 1/2/2000] |