Roadstown is part of Cumberland County in South New Jersey, a district of large land area and relatively few people. Before and after the Revolutionary War, the settlement was known as Sayre's Cross Roads, named for Ananias Sayre, who operated a stage line and was the first sheriff of Cumberland County, from 1747 to 1748. The Colonial style home he built in 1761 still stands, with an old building to the rear that shows the remains of a loft and cooking fireplace.
Another well-preserved home of the Revolutionary era is the Dr. Elijah Bowen Hospital Farm. Dr. Bowen was a physician and surgeon who believed he had a cure for cancer and treated people in his home, assisted by local tribe members, who gathered herbs and other vegetation for his medicines. Bowen's 18th-century residence was used to treat the wounded when Salem and Cumberland County militias were defeated by the British at Quinton's Bridge and Hancock's Bridge in 1778. With additions to the original structure, the house became eight rooms on eight different levels. Today the sturdy structure still has hand-hewn beams and floors, a walk-in fireplace with a beehive oven, and some original paneling.
Roadstown's most famous native son doesn't have a building to commemorate him. Charles E. Hires, inventor of the root beer that still bears his name, grew up in Roadstown . Hires indisputably developed the formula that made him wealthy and gave the mid -1800s temperance movement a major boost. How this liquid invention came about is the topic of wildly varying stories--Hires discovering the formula on his honeymoon , for example, or while working at a confectionery store in nearby Millville. Bridgeton Antiquarian League President Joseph DeLuca, however, firmly maintains that Hires developed his famous concoction at his father's farm in Roadstown.
Garrison Farmhouse
Love at first sight: it happens all the time. Sometimes it crashes and burns, but in the case of the Garrisons and their 1728 brick farmhouse, it has endured and deepened over the years.
John and Sally Garrison saw the potential beneath the farmhouse's whitewashed-brick exterior. Below the paint, they saw the pattern brick, a rare type of brickwork that no longer exists, and they were determined to preserve it. Faced with the dilemma of deciding which period's renovations to change and which to retain, the Garrisons finally settled on an 1800-era restoration.
The result, a lovingly restored relic of the area's agrarian past, nevertheless fits comfortably in the 21st century. Today, the Garrison home's initialed gables can be seen from across the southern New Jersey countryside, where Quaker farmers once struggled to bring order to the wilderness.
Guests Penelope Watson
Architectural Consultant, Watson & Henry Associates
Phone: 856-451-1779
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