I hope you all enjoyed last month’s
!
As we leave the “Brookville” section of Ewing, passing the Woodruff Estate/Trenton Country Club featured in November and December, and travel back along Sullivan Way towards Birmingham/West Trenton, there are a few additional locations that are of interest before we move on to other sections of Ewing.
One spot is the stone house that stands alone on a hill, across Sullivan Way from the main entrance to New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance Company. At the edge of the campus of the Katzenbach School, it served that institution for many years as the school superintendent’s house.
But the home was there long before the New Jersey School for the Deaf moved from its location in Trenton to farmland in Ewing in 1923. This unassuming stone farmhouse was once the home of a gifted, humble and industrious gentleman: The Rev. Dr. Eli Field Cooley.
You may know Rev. Cooley’s name if you have ever sought information about the early families living in Ewing and Trenton. Before he died in 1860, he compiled an incredibly thorough genealogy of the “Early Settlers of Ewing and Trenton,” which is still an irreplaceable reference. But prior to that, he had a lifetime of achievements which are, unfortunately, largely forgotten, yet many of which remain to this day.
Eli Field Cooley was born in Massachusetts in 1781, was schooled in classical studies in Connecticut and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1806. He studied Theology with the Rev. Dr. Smith of the College, and was licensed to preach in 1809. He soon received calls (job offers) to serve Presbyterian congregations, and spent several years serving in New York State and Middletown.
He returned to the Princeton/Trenton area in 1823 when he received a call from the Ewing congregation (founded 1709) to serve as their first full-time pastor, after sharing pastoral services with other congregations for over 100 years. He served the Presbyterian congregation at Ewing for 34 years, until 1857. His time with the congregation remains its longest pastorate to date.
The simple nature of life within the predominantly farming-based parish, the strong Scots influence of many of its members, and the times in general were likely some of the reasons why the congregation was never able to adequately support Rev Cooley, his wife, seven children and farmhand.
The congregation was unable to provide them a parsonage, and so in 1828 Cooley purchased a farm and late 18th century. Georgian-style stone farmhouse in the western part of the township. His family farmed the land to help support their needs.
The stone house on the hill was home to a life well lived and greatly beloved.
Rev. Cooley gave generously of his time and talents, and assumed additional work to supplement his income. He served as a trustee of both the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and the Theological Seminary at Princeton (founded 1812). He was also appointed as the secretary of the college’s board of trustees, and served as the stated clerk (a board-eecretary-type position) of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, a regional assemblage of Presbyterian congregations.
He was a founding member of the American Bible Society, and of the N.J. Historical Society. He was an advocate for social reform, including support and benefits for the deaf and blind, and an ardent advocate for temperance.
His legacy is more apparent today in some of his other roles. While a Trustee at the Princeton college, he oversaw the construction of several buildings on the campus.
The success of this responsibility resulted in a similar task for superintending the construction of the “State Lunatic Asylum” on farmland neighboring his own home in Ewing. Thus structures still standing in Ewing and Princeton owe their existence to this man known for his “integrity, prudence, perseverance and industry.”
Among other activities, Cooley spent his last years recording genealogical information of the families in the region, a project continued by his son and granddaughter after Cooley’s death in 1860, and posthumously published in 1883.
The stone house on the hill was home to a life well lived and greatly beloved.
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