| This dirt-floor
log cabin then served as a 'counting house' for a farm and orchard on this
site that provided food for the Oxford Mine workers. The Oxford Furnace
produced 'cannon & ball' for the French & Indian, the Revolutionary and
the Civil wars. Some years later it again became a residence and a
gathering place for local families and farmers to meet and exchange news
and gossip of the day. Very early in the twentieth
century, a young boy named John Lundy came to live and grow up here with
his mother and sister after his father passed away. When he was old
enough, he went to work in the Edison Cement Plant in New Village and
worked his way up to become 'yard boss' and caught Thomas Edison's eye as
a good worker. These were the days when Edison was experimenting with
concrete and put down the first mile of
cement highway in the world as a test of its strength and durability.
That cement highway is still part of what is now Route 57 in the town of
New Village (Washington), NJ. The rest is history -- and Edison's concrete
experiment took this country by storm.
His association with Tom Edison made John Lundy a local
celebrity and very popular in the area. Lundy added the bar-room
onto the log cabin as a business for his retirement days and a few years
later, The Country Meeting Hall where Lundy and his friends would gather
for their Indian Arrow Head Club meetings -- which these lands were rich
in yielding -- by the thousands.
Your hosts, George and Carol Wilson, acquired the
building and began restoration in 1989. Do you know much
about Roger's Rangers? Do you know that many came from this area, which at
the time was in Sussex County? Click here for
more info and why Roaring Rock and Roger's Rangers go together. Check the
Warren County
Cultural & Heritage Commission
WEB Site at http://www.wcchc.org/views1.htm
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