Multi-Town History Tour Touches on Montville's Past

Montville returned to its 18th Century roots on Saturday as the township took part in the multi-town "Following the Pathways to History" event.

The event, which continued on Sunday, was held in conjuction with Boonton Borough, Boonton Township, Butler and Kinnelon and featured historic reenactments at local historic sites.

In Montville, sewing and musketry reenactments were held at the Doremus House on Route 202, while colonial cooking was the topic at the Nicholas-Vreeland Outkitchen on Jacksonville Road.

The Doremus House was built in 1760 and is the oldest Dutch Stone house in Montville, according to Kathy Fisher, of the towship's historical society. George Washington stayed at the house for about three days following the Revolutionary War battle of Springfield in 1780 and wrote a number of letters to the Continental Congress and others while there. Other visitors to the house included Alexander Hamilton and the French statesman Rochambeau. 

"The house was part of a larger farm estate owned by the Doremus family," Fisher said. "This area was originally called Doremustown."

The Doremuses were French Huguenots who came from Paterson to what became known as Montville in 1730, Fisher said.

Recent renovations to the house were completed in 2009 under grants totaling about $350,000. More work is being planned on the property, Fisher said.

"We would like to do some yard work, erect a barn where we [the historical society] can hold meetings, put in a privy and erect a fence around the property," she said.

While Fisher gave visitors a tour of the house, a spinning demonstration by Brenda Osborn and Patty Chrisman was taking place inside and outside re-enactors Alex Pena, Mike O'Brien and Dick Gamsby were demonstrating colonial life of militiamen.

"It was a very strenuous time being in the militia," said Pena, explaining that  troops fighting in the Revolutionary War often were without proper clothing, food and supplies.

Disease was also a major concern and many troops died of sickness and not from wounds suffered in battle.

"You didn't want to go to the hospital," O'Brien said. "If you did, chances are you didn't come out alive.

"It was a treacherous time to live in," O'Brien added.

Meanwhile, over at the Nicholas-Vreeland Outkitchen, Meta Janowitz was explaining colonial cooking techniques.

The Outkitchen is located on the private property of Ed and Elizabeth Menzies and is one of the last of its kind in New Jersey.

"Outkitchens were quite common in New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries," Janowitz said.

The Outkitchen dates back to the 1770s or 1780s and was part of a large complex on the Vreeland property.

"The Vreelands were a prosperous family," Janowitz said. "They had a rather comfortable life and were solid farming people."

Although no longer in use, the building contains an oven built into the wall and a hearth area that can be adjusted by moving stones depending on whether large or small meals are being cooked.

Cooking was done on the open hearth and that, Janowitz said, could be dangerous.

"It could really get hot in here in the summer and that could start a fire," she said.