South Bound Brook, New Jersey - History

History

Originally part of Franklin Township and named Bloomington, South Bound Brook was incorporated as a borough by the New Jersey Legislature in 1907.

The area was originally a Dutch community with apple orchards and just west peach orchards. The Abraham Staats House (c. 1740), located on the south side of Main Street, served as the headquarters of Baron Von Steuben during the American Revolutionary War., The house today is privately owned.

During the American Revolution, the Queens Bridge was used by both the American and British forces. At this spot in what is now known as Boundbrook on January 4, 1777, General Washington made the decision to abandon any intention to attack New Brunswick. Instead he moved his troops to Morristown for the winter, thus ending the victorious Trenton-Princeton campaign.

At dawn on April 13, 1777, Hessian Captain Ewald's assault over the Queens Bridge spanning the Raritan River between South Boundbrook and Boundbrook was pinned down by "murderous fire" from the American soldiers stationed at half moon battery. Advancing North along present day Easton Avenue, Hessian Colonel Donop pushed aside American outposts and arrived 15 minutes after Ewald's attack had faltered. Advancing over the Queens Bridge, Donop's troops engaged the Americans causing them to retreat from the battery. Donop, Ewald's, and General Grant's troops pursued the American troops as they fought through the streets of Bound Brook.

The Reformed Church, also on Main Street (near borough hall) was built in 1848 and has been declared a local historical site by the borough council. Originally called the Dutch Reformed Church of Bound Brook, it has gone through very few changes over the years. The one sad removal was a pipe organ received from Andrew Carnegie; and the stained glass windows, which had been added well after the original construction. The Reverend Thomas DeWitt Talmadge was a member and preached at the church. His home was in the Middlebush section of Franklin Township, not Bound Brook as listed on the Bound Brook site.

In the mid-1970s a teen from the town created a plan for an environmental commission and presented it to the council. James Manley (Bound Brook High, Class of '75) got his commission and the first order of business was to find out what the white piles of waste on the tow path between the Delaware and Raritan Canal and Raritan River consisted of. It turned out to be 17% crystal asbestos by volume. Since there was no New Jersey State regulation for the disposal, this became a landmark case. The waste was hauled in dump trucks through Bound Brook to the floodplain south of West Main Street and dumped. A trail of asbestos dust led from the old dump site to the new dump location.