Ayers-Smallbone House

Picture
Ayers-Smallbone House
Historical Overview
Situated at 528 Village Road West is an old house contributing to the historic character of the West Windsor community of Dutch Neck and a member of West Windsor's "100 Club". Township records date this structure to 1780[1] and if true, then it is one of West Windsor's oldest buildings. 

This house wasn't always at its current location. It originally stood where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church's parking lot off of South Mill Road exists today.[2] Its first known owners were William Tindall and his wife, Letty Story. In 1831, they sold the 8-acre lot - which, per the deed, contained a house - to Nathaniel Labaw and his wife, Elizabeth Stout, for $575.[3] In the 1820s and early 1830s, Nathaniel served as Township "Pound Keeper" (animal control), Constable, and Overseer of the Highways.[4]

A decade after they bought the property, Nathaniel and Elizabeth sold it to George G. Bergen.[5] Like Nathaniel, George served town government in a variety of roles - notably as West Windsor's very first Clerk, beginning in 1797.[6] Also like Nathaniel and Elizabeth, Geroge owned the property for ten years, before he passed away in 1851.[7],[8]
Picture
The Ayers-Smallbone House on South Mill Road, likely in the 1910s or 1920s.
Thereafter, a series of owners bought and sold the property:
  • Charles Rogers and  Ann Elizabeth Butcher from 1851-54.[9]
  • Nathaniel Cain and his wife, Eure Ann Cain (1854-55).[10]
  • John Reid and Mary Ann Reid (1855-56).[11]
  • Peter Anderson and Leothelia Anderson (1856-61).[12]
  • William Howell and Mary Ann Howell (1861-65).[13]
  • Charles Rogers and Ann Elizabeth Butcher (1865-69)[14]
  • Samuel H. Ayers (starting in 1869).[15]

Prevailing research suggests that Samuel lived in this property with his wife (Lydia Ann Howell), two children (Mary and Willard) and perhaps a few boarders.[16],[17],[18] Samuel served the township as an Overseer of the Highways for most years between 1873 and 1895.[19]

Alice Smallbone and her husband, Wyndham, likely purchased the property from the Ayers around 1906.[20] Wyndham, a farmer,[21] was a founding member of the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Company in 1921.[22] He was also a Sunday School instructor at the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church for over 60 years.[23] Alice was a Sunday School teacher as well[24] and operated Dutch Neck’s post office out of this very home in the 1930s and 1940s.[25] The couple also owned the property at 140 South Mill Road before 1911.[26]
Picture
Print of the Ayers-Smallbone house.
Wyndham died in 1948,[27] and soon after Alice passed in 1957, the house was sold[28] and moved to its current location at 528 Village Road West.[29],[30] The Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church acquired the house's former site off South Mill Road in 1958[31] and built its Christian Education Building and associated parking lot in 1965.[32] Meanwhile, since being moved to its current location by Lester Reed, the relocated Ayers-Smallbone house passed through the Reed family over the decades.[33] However, the building has since found new owners. It remains at its "new" location, but still as an old landmark with centuries of underlying history.
Bibliography
  1. "West Windsor Tax Assessor Address List, 2019.” West Windsor, 2019. List of all residences in West Windsor with dates of construction, according to tax assessor. Sent to the Historical Society by Lorraine Jones and Dawn Moretti. For this specific citation, look at 528 Village Road West.
  2. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1959.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1959.
  3. Labaw, Elizabeth, Labaw, Nathaniel, Tindall, Letty, Tindall, William. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1831. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 23 Page 710.
  4. ​​“West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
  5. Bergen, George G., Labaw, Elizabeth, Labaw, Nathaniel. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1841. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book D Page 141.
  6. ​​“West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
  7. Bergen, George G., Rogers, Ann Elizabeth, Rogers, Charles. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1851. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book V Page 310.
  8. Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church. (n.d.). Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church graveyard. West Windsor. Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church graveyard gravestones, which often list birth dates, death dates, and ages of those buried there - including those of many of West Windsor's oldest families.
  9. Bergen, George G., Rogers, Ann Elizabeth, Rogers, Charles. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1851. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book V Page 310.
  10. Cain, Eure Ann, Cain, Nathaniel, Rogers, Ann Elizabeth, Rogers, Charles. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1854. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 31 Page 116.
  11. Cain, Eure Ann, Cain, Nathaniel, Reid, Joseph N., Reid, Mary Ann. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1855. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 31 Page 577.
  12.  Anderson, Leothelia, Anderson, Peter P., Reid, Joseph N., Reid, Mary Ann. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1856. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 37 Page 117.
  13.  Anderson, Leothelia, Anderson, Peter P., Howell, Mary W., Howell, William J. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1861. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 50 Page 530.
  14. Howell, Mary W., Howell, William J., Rogers, Charles, Rogers, Ann Elizabeth. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1865. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 60 Page 257.
  15. Ayers, Samuel H, Rogers, Charles, Rogers, Ann Elizabeth. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1869. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Mercer County Deed Book 70 Page 104.
  16. "United States Census, 1860 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1860.
  17. "United States Census, 1870 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1870.
  18. "United States Census, 1880 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1880.
  19. ​​“West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
  20. Ayers, Samuel H, Smallbone, Alice. "Indenture." West Windsor, 1906. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 293 Page 145.
  21. "United States Census, 1930 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1930.
  22. "Minutes and Records of the West Windsor Township Volunteer Fire Company, Organized March 21, 1921.” West Windsor: West Windsor Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 firehouse, n.d. Minutes detailing the first 11 years (1921-1932) of the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1’s development.
  23. “Wyndham E. Smallbone.” Trenton Evening Times, February 13, 1948. Page 4. 
  24. “Mrs. Alice A. Smallbone.” Trenton Evening Times, April 29, 1957. Page 4.
  25. White, Carey C. “Broadside,” 1987. Historical Society of West Windsor newsletter, Fall & Winter, 1987. History of the Dutch Neck community.​
  26. Groendyke, Isaac, Groendyke, Sarah E., Smallbone, Alice A., Smallbone, Wyndham. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1911. Deed for 140 South Mill Road. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 320 Page 428.
  27. “Obituary - Wyndham E. Smallbone.” Trenton Evening Times, February 13, 1948. 
  28. “Mrs. Alice A. Smallbone.” Trenton Evening Times, April 29, 1957. Page 4.
  29. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1959.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1959.
  30. “West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1965” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1965.
  31. Cubberly, Edger L., Cubberly, Mabel T., First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck. "Deed." West Windsor, 1958. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1456 Page 393.
  32. Sesquicentennial History: 1816-1966. West Windsor, New Jersey: First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck, 1966.
  33. Dow, Elvin, Dow, Linda Reed, Moomaw, Mildred Reed, Reed, Clifford, Reed, Lester S.. "Deed." West Windsor, 1996. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1456 Page 393.
  34. Dow, Elvin, Dow, Linda Reed, 6806 4th Realty Corporation. "Deed." West Windsor, 2018. Deed for the house originally where the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church parking lot is in 2023, but moved to 528 Village Road West between 1959 and 1963. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 6342 Page 418.
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