The Warren Township Historical Society’s genealogical collection is small but steadily growing. A recent addition is The Ancestors and Descendants of Charles Edmund Sage by Ann C. Sweezy Tate. Published in 1977, Tate’s work is an example of family history at its best. The Sage family of Warren Township is descended from David Sage, born in England in 1639, who settled in Middletown, CT, sometime before 1652. The first of the family in Warren was Charles E. Sage, born 1838 in CT., who served in the Civil War in the 5th Connecticut. He moved to Newark after the war, then came to Warren in 1878 with his father, Edmund, and three sons, Walter, Edmund and Frederick. Charles E., who died in 1903, lived in Union Village on the old Tucker farm on Mountain Avenue. Edmund E. Sage (1871-1944) attended the old Smalleytown School, then the N.J. State Normal School in Trenton. From 1907 to 1912 he served as tax assessor here, then was township supervisor of schools from 1911 to 1916, retiring to the family farm due to poor pay and poor health. Edmund and his family lived in the Sage home on Mountain Avenue with his brother, Frederick, and his family. The family attended the Union Village Methodist Church. Frederick Sage (1874-1956) also graduated from the Trenton Normal School. He was supervisor of schools in Warren in l908, then served in Oakland, NJ, as school principal from 1909 to 1915, returning to live on the Sage farm with his brother and family. Merwin Sage, the youngest son of Edmund E., his brother, Edmund M., and his cousin, George C. Sage, subdivided the family farm and began building homes there in 1950. During the next 24 years they developed Indian Rock Road, Sage Drive, Edmund Drive and Wolf Hill Road, all once part of the family farm. Merwin Sage, born 1915, was a member of the Township Committee for five years, served on the Planning Board and Board of Health, and was president of the Republican Club. Interestingly, Edmund E. and Frederick H. married sisters, Anna and Harriet, the daughters of George and Julia Armbruster. Another Armbruster sister, Julia, married William Lang, the son of Henry Lang, the millionaire mayor of Newark who bought land along the Passaic River in Warren and may have intended to retire here. Genealogical material related to Warren families is welcome and will be added to the Society’s collection. |