Last month we paused in the Brookville section of Ewing to consider the “Asylum.” This month, we glance across the street, and consider Oaklands, the Woodruff Family Estate — better known to us as the Trenton Country Club.
It’s always struck me as being rather ironic, traveling down Sullivan Way towards Trenton, to have Trenton Psychiatric Hospital on one side, and directly across the street, the Trenton Country Club.
One thinks of the “patrons” of each: in so many ways, polar opposites on the spectrum of life and luck; yet each institution providing a safe place or home for those patrons, with support, attention, meals, activities and other individuals similarly disposed with whom to spend time. In any case, they are both there, the Asylum and the Club, unusual neighbors.
Winter’s lack of foliage provides a glimpse of the stunning home at the heart of the Trenton Country Club, if you’ve never visited it in person. At the core of the current structure is the home built by the Woodruff brothers, completed around 1808.
The Woodruffs were a fairly prominent family in Trenton in the mid-1700s. Elias Woodruff moved from Elizabethtown (Elizabeth) to Trenton, and served as steward of the College of New Jersey (known to us now as Princeton University). He and his wife had three sons and three daughters.
The sons of course attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton. The eldest son, Aaron Woodruff (b. 1762), was valedictorian of his 1779 class, studied law, and was admitted to the N.J. Bar in 1784. He lived in Trenton, became state attorney general in 1793 and remained in that post until his death in 1817.
Son George Woodruff (b. 1765), Class of 1783, also became a lawyer and was admitted to the N.J. Bar in 1788. However, he decided to head south to work in the less developed, rapidly growing and lawyer-needy state of Georgia. In 1795 he was appointed the first solicitor general in Georgia, and was also named as federal district attorney by President John Adams.
There he also met, and married in 1796, Miss Jean Houstoun, the eldest daughter of a prominent and successful merchant. My sources say that George was also very successful, and traveled frequently, as there was no fixed seat of government in Georgia at the time. He evidently also returned home to Savannah frequently, as he and Jean had 11 children.
However, four of them died before the age of 5, and only four of the eleven lived beyond the age of 35.
As prosperous as George was in Georgia, he must have missed New Jersey, because in 1802 he purchased a 126-acre tract of land north of Trenton so that he could establish a residence here. (One wonders if he intentionally purchased land over which Washington’s troops had marched on their way to Trenton in 1776!)
While the family did not move to Trenton until 1808, the two oldest boys moved to Trenton to live with Uncle Aaron and attend school here. They returned to Savannah for holidays, traveling overland for more than a week each way.
During the years between 1802 and 1808, brothers Aaron and George exchanged many long letters in planning and building Oaklands, as the estate/farm came to be called. They determined the placement of the home and outbuildings, and the types and locations of the crops, plants and fruit trees. Aaron took on the role of general contractor for his brother, and saw to the barn raising, fence building and tree planting — and getting the nephews to school. Not surprisingly, the letters also reveal some tension between the brothers over the course of this project.
Finally, the family moved to Oaklands in 1808. Although it was not finished, it was quite a showplace, including a main house of stone, nine outbuildings and many fine amenities. Rice, sweet potatoes and oranges were shipped regularly from Savannah.
George continued to travel, often to Savannah. Later he became interested in New Jersey politics and law and eventually ceased traveling. He died at his home in 1846, the oldest member of the N.J. Bar, and survived by his wife and four sons — and an asylum under construction across the way.
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