I read the article on Ghost Chicks at the Red Mill in the Hunterdon Democrat and thought, why not?  Ghost hunting is fun, and maybe it’ll stimulate people to connect with their past.  I enjoy these TV shows and even as a confirmed skeptic I’ll admit to a thrill at an unexplained action or if some spirit seems to manifest.  The current attraction to ghost hunting reminds me of the popularity of séances in the mid-19th Century with the rise of Spiritualist religion.  Even Mary Todd Lincoln, grieving her son, held a séance at the White House attended by President Lincoln and other prominent people.  We all know if you focus attention and engage your imagination, especially when you’re with a group of like-minded people the mind has a tendency to fill the gap, to provide a perception.  A paint smear or moldy bread becomes an apparition if you only look at it the right way, with feeling.

I’m happy to let people have their fun but I also have a nagging suspicion that if they’re serious about touching the past they’re probably missing the boat.  I’m not equipped to debunk ghosts but this I do know:   If you’re looking for traces of past lives and you live in Hunterdon County you’re in the right place.  You can experience the sensation of touching past lives even during daylight hours.  In fact there’s no escaping the past as you drive over the pony truss bridge in Clinton or walk past the Flemington Courthouse and literally hundreds of other sites, homes, village districts, scenic vistas and museums, if you just look at it the right way, with feeling.

This may be enough but you don’t have settle for a fleeting sensation.  If you do some research, engage your historic imagination, maybe even work with a group of like-minded people, you can gain a multifaceted appreciation for what life was like at that time, who those people were and what they went through.  If you’re intrigued by traces of the past that surround us here in Hunterdon County, consult a house historian, a genealogist, an architectural historian, the local historic society or commission.  Find out more at your library, at the Hunterdon Historical Society library, on the Internet, the state archives.  Visit a local museum.  Ask the tough questions: who, what, when, why and how? 

A popular book by a local author (Stephanie Stevens) asked a simple intriguing question:  Who lived in the Round Valley before it was flooded a few decades ago?  Exhibits at local museums interpret artifacts to make the past manifest itself in the present.  At the Vought house, we want to know as much as we can about what happened in the decades before and after the Revolution.  The artifact that speaks to you may be of another time.  But the result may be the similar.  The real ghosts of Hunterdon County left traces but they cannot speak, exhibit, or write; they rely on us to speak, to show, to be their ghostwriters. 

Don Sherblom, President
The 1759 Vought House, Inc.

Our first meeting in 2010 will be January 14th, 2010. 
(The second Thursday, every second month, at 7pm.)______________________________________________________________________
It’s been a long haul over the past four years and we’ve all shown great determination.
And as a group, we’ve accomplished a lot in just the past six months: 

• We reached a milestone in June with the unanimous school board vote.
• In November, we increased awareness with a successful mailing to the entire township.  See both sides of mailer below.
• We have a new, more dynamic and more complete website at 1759House.org (open for suggestions and critiques - to Adam).
• Further research by our genealogist, Fred Sisser III, funded by the County Cultural and Heritage Commission, has uncovered more about the Vought family’s daily life.
• Adam and I retrieved two doors from a supporter of our project that had been salvaged from the house and restored.  Absolutely beautiful wood and hardware.
• Terri is pursuing 10 Most Endangered status with Preservation NJ.
• My talk and powerpoint presentation at the CTMS assembly was a great success (estimated snooze ratio of 2/100).
• An article in the December CTMS student newspaper asked: The Vought House, What Happens Now? (appearing soon with quotes from Adam  Wengryn and Superintendent Kevin Carroll) (Written by my daughter, Zoe Carpentier.  All’s fair in love and war.)
• The quotes from district educators, which appeared on the mailing, should help us in this year’s request for funding of an 8th grade appropriate booklet for use in classrooms throughout Hunterdon.
• I’m scheduled to address the northern Hunterdon County social studies teachers (sending districts to North and Voorhees High Schools).  I’ll give them a presentation on the Vought House museum and booklet.
• The subdivision plans are done.  A meeting of the Planning or Board of Adjustment could happen in January or February.
• The school board has been reminded -yet again- that they need to start work on the historic preservation easement.  

This year offers even greater challenges/opportunities. This year, The 1759 Vought House nonprofit will finally take possession of the most significant Revolutionary War site in Hunterdon County.  We’ll finally be able to start the arduous tasks of preserving and restoring the house, of transforming it by creating a vibrant local history museum, and we’ll uncover even more traces left by the Vought Family and neighbors like Thomas Jones that can tell us about life in this part of New Jersey in the late colonial and early Republican period, and, essential to the above, we’ll be raising funds to fulfill these goals.

This is year one! It’s a great time to help protect the future of Hunterdon County’s Revolutionary War past.