McGetrick Lane
McGetrick property, probably 1970s-80s.
Drive east on Princeton Hightstown Road, and before you get to Southfield Road, you'll see a narrow lane cutting off the angle to Southfield. This is McGetrick Lane - named after a Civil War soldier who owned a small farm there. The house was only torn down in 2020; this is its story.
Historical Overview
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Until April of 2020, an old, decaying house stood just a few hundred feet south of the intersection of Southfield Road and Princeton-Hightstown Roads. Overlooking McGetrick Lane - a small, quiet side street – this building, although empty for decades and falling into dilapidation, nevertheless retained the legacy of one of its original inhabitants - a Civil War soldier.
Patrick McGetrick was born in Ireland some time in the 1820s. Prior to the year 1850 he immigrated to the United States, escaping the Great Famine that killed roughly a million people in his home country and displaced millions more in the 1840s. He married his wife Mary (1833-1901) at an unknown date and the two eventually settled in West Windsor, New Jersey. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the couple raised at least nine children. Possibly as a result, the McGetrick homestead was constructed some time between 1849 and 1860 (according to old maps) along Princeton-Hightstown Road and near several other properties. |
From 1875 West Windsor map. Note "Mrs. McGettrick."
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At ths time the house was built, McGetrick Lane was actually the original portion of Princeton-Hightstown Road (see adjacent map). The road was only straightened to its current figuration in the early 1900s, whereupon McGetrick Lane became a side street. The 5-bay center hall plan I-house featured a 3-bay Victorian porch, two interior end chimneys, shingle cladding, and horsehair plaster walls. It had seven rooms in total with two bedrooms and was a somewhat simple abode on a small property that encompassed fourteen acres in 1875 with only a few outbuildings.
Nevertheless, it was enough to provide for the family – at least for a time. On April 12 1861, the Confederate States Army bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina, signaling the start of the Civil War. Two years later, Patrick McGetrick, age 36 or 37, left his family to join the Union Army. Mustering in on February 23 as a private, he served for over two years in Company D, 10th Regiment, NJ Infantry. This regiment took part in nearly twenty battles and skirmishes in Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. A few months after the start of the Civil War, this regiment was created by William Bryant of Beverly, New Jersey, to recruit from residents from that state, but was not under the control or supervision of the State authorities. It was originally known as "Olden Legion" after New Jersey Governor Charles Olden but changed names and command several times over the years. The group organized on October 9, 1861 in Bryant's hometown and left for Washington DC on December 26. On February 23, 1863, Patrick joined as a private (and stayed the same rank during his entire enlistment). Over the years the group was involved in at least the following battles and skirmishes - and perhaps more; sources differ: |
Piece of wall from recently-demolished McGetrick house, 2020.
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Conflicts that Patrick was involved in or witnessed.
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By the time Patrick returned to his family after mustering out in late June/early July of 1865, he had witnessed at least seventeen battles over just twenty-eight months. The family continued to farm the land, reaping the benefits of a modest pension. By the time Patrick died in 1878, Mary and Patrick had raised four girls and six boys, although their youngest daughter, Emma (born 1868) sadly died at the age of 5 in 1873. Mary died 28 years later, in 1901. They and three of their children – Emma, Mary (1863-1896), and Benjamin (1854-1915) – are buried in the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church’s cemetery, marked by a tall, dark gray granite obelisk. A few more McGetrick siblings rest nearby.
Over the decades after the McGetricks moved out (some time after 1875), the farmhouse passed from family to family, remaining a modest house on a modest plot surrounded by larger farmsteads. Both a 1905 and a 1918 map show ownership of the property by a "J. E. Nutt," followed at an unknown point by an "Ellis Warren." Princeton-Hightstown Road was straightened sometime between 1918 and 1930, turning McGetrick Lane into a quiet side avenue. Henry Searles purchased the farm some time prior to 1964. Finally, around 1974, the house's last resident owners - the Goldmans - acquired the property. During their residency, the property contained the house, a grape vine, barn, an old shed, and a long metal "Morton"-brand barn (the Morton barn still exists at the time of this writing - late 2020). It remained a quiet area, but the echoes of the house’s first family may have provided some company: before the Goldmans sold the property in 1992 – a few years after moving and renting the house out - they found an old cannonball in the backyard. This was presumably a relic from the time of Patrick’s residence. |
McGetrick gravestone at the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church.
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In mid-April 2020, the landowner demolished the McGetrick farmhouse (and adjacent barn), well over a century and a half after its construction and 28 years after its last tenants moved out. The only structure that remains at the time of this writing is the comparatively modern Morton barn. However, both the adjacent road’s name, as well as documentation preserved over the years, has let the memories of the McGetricks live on.
Thank you to the Goldman family for providing helpful information and leads on the building's history. Additional thanks to Joyce Miller, great-great-granddaughter of Patrick, as well as Carol Apperson, for their efforts to research and preserve this slice of West Windsor and Civil War-era history. |
Mid-1980s metal Morton barn, photographed in 2018.
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Bibliography
Coming soon!
