The Bolmer Family in Washington Valley



This chapter of North of the Raritan Lotts, published by the Martinsville Historical Society, documents the early history of the Bolmer family in the Washington Valley.

 Wilbur Fraser Bolen was a contributor to this story.


It is difficult to document the original presence of the Bolmer family in Washington Valley, though it is clear that they were among the first settlers, if not the very first. In the late 1600's, the Dutch settlers1 on Long Island and Staten Island left those places for the wilderness of New Jersey. Virtually all of these new settlements grew up along the Raritan River, but one did not follow this pattern; instead it grew up in the valley between First and Second Mountains of the Blew Hills. The Bolmers were among these early Dutch settlers of the fertile Washington Valley, having arrived about 1700. Documentation is scanty, but the early records show that Gerrit Bolmer left Long Island in the period 1681-1699 and settled at "Three-Mile Run" in what is now Franklin Township. Gerrit next appears as having witnessed a baptism accompanied by his wife at the First Reformed Church of Raritan on August 1, 1704, and he and his brother Robert witnessed the baptism of Robert and Maria Bolmer's first child, Antien, in 1715. It appears that the Bolmer brothers, Gerrit and Robert, married Antien and Maria Spoonheymer2 respectively, daughters of Jerry Johan Spoonheymer, also a Somerset County resident. There is no other record of Gerrit and Antien Bolmer; apparently they had no children.

1 It is suggested by Mr, Wilbur Bolen (grandson of Augustus Bolmer) that the Bolmers were German, and had first immigrated to Holland, and thence to New Amsterdam. Note too that the Bolmer (Bulmer) family is listed prominently in Chambers' book "Early Germans of New Jersey."

2 Maria Bolmer appears in the old records occasionally as Mary or Rosina.


Robert and Maria did somewhat better in this regard, with 12 children having been baptized at the First Reformed Church. These children, born between 1715 and 1740 were undoubtedly born in the Raritan River area, but no specific information is available on where the Bolmers lived during those years. On a map dated 1725, the Martinsville area is simply described as "wild horse pasture," The presence of the stone marked "F,B. 1742" in the Bolmer Cemetery in Spring Run makes it likely that at least the youngest of the Bolmer second generation were born at the "Bolmer Farm" site in Spring Run.3 Far better evidence in this regard is a deed filed in Kings County, New York, dated August 25, 1713, in which Peter Sonmans sells to Cornelius Sebring 1000 acres in Somerset County, "beginning 2 chains from the west branch of Middlebrook," bounded on the southeast by the property of Robert Bolmer, and extending to the foot of Second Mountain. More than likely, this property adjacent to the Sebrings' was the birthplace of the second-generation Bolmers.

Biographically, the following information is available on the children of Robert and Maria:
  1. Antien, born 1715, married John Fausey, and had at least one daughter.
  2. Johannes, born 1717, died November 19, 1768. In his will, all of his holdings were left to his brothers, sisters and mother, suggesting that he had no other family at that time, He owned a modest acreage, there being approximately 22 acres along Middlebrook, about which more will be said later.
  3. Rosina, born 1719, married Willem Clausen and had three children by him: Jesaes (born 1743), Marya (1745) and Willemptje (1749). She appears later as the wife of a Mr, Albright. In Mary Bolmer's will of 1766, she leaves her smoothing irons to her grandchild "Williantic Clausen" (age 21 at that time), suggesting that Willemptje was a girl rather than a boy. Indeed, it is said that Willemptje is the feminine form for the name William.
  4. Gerrit, born 1720, left very little trace. He is recorded in Janeway's account book4 for the period 1735-1740 as Robert's son, and as having made several deliveries of rum to Hannis Miller, a neighbor, while in the tax ratables for 1778-1780 he is listed as a "single man."
  5. Albertus, born in 1724, joined with Folkaert Sebring and Denyse Tunison to purchase 527.319 acres between First and Second Mountains from Robert Hunter Morris on March 21, 1759, Albert's share was 114.8 acres. Morris received this land from the Council of Proprietors two years earlier and for his parcel was paid $237 "current money of New York." Albertus died in 1771, having had a son, David, born after 1751 and at least one other child.
  6. Maritye, born 1726, married a Mr, Wilson and had a daughter (Anne) born prior to 1745.
  7. Magdalena, born 1728, first married John Kastner of a local family in 1748, but she then appears as "Merlane Titsworth" in her mother's will dated May 30, 1766.
  8. Of Lisabet it is known only that she was born in 1731, and was unmarried at the time her mother's will was written in 1766.
  9. Abram, born 1732, appears repeatedly in the records, Following in his father, Robert's, footsteps, Abram served as a Bridgewater Township freeholder in 1790. He and his wife Elizabeth had three children, Robert (born 1755), Garret (1758), and Aberham (1765). The elder Abram died at age 73 leaving an estate inventoried by friend Cornelius Tunison at $170.24.
  10. Janette, born 1735, married a Compton some time before 1766, for she is identified in her mother's will as "Jane Compton." She also received $5 in the will of her brother John (1768).
  11. Of the 12 children, the family line was propagated most effectively through the youngest son, Robert (1737-1820), who married Sarah Van Tuyl, a sister to Abraham Van Tuyl. They in turn issued seven children (Maryte, born 1766; Pelye, 1767; Madlena, 1770; Robbert, 1777; William, 1779; Isaac, 1782; and Sarah, 1785), the most prominent of whom was again the youngest son, Isaac. In the tax ratables list for 1789, Robert Bolmer is credited with owning 167 acres on which there were 4 horses and 12 horned cattle, resulting in a tax bill for $4.15. Robert served under Capt. Jacob Ten Eyck in the Revolutionary War at different times from 1775 to 1781, and as a Bridgewater Township freeholder in 1790. It was to brother Robert that John (Johannes) left the family house and four acres of land, to be given to him after the death of their mother (1771).
  12. Sufya is reported born in 1740, never to surface again, She is the only child not mentioned in the will of her father (1754), and so it would seem that she died at an early age. Were Sufya to be called "Fietje",she might lie beneath the stone marked "F. B, 1742" in the Bolmer cemetery.5


3 It has been reported that a stone bearing the inscription 1724 was taken from the cemetery by a collector, If so, it is difficult to see how it could have been that of one of the Bolmers. Note also that the plot was also used by the Bishop family and possibly by the neighboring Brown family as well, Thus we cannot even be sure that F. B. was a Bolmer.

4 Jacob Janeway was a local merchant, with a shop that opened in the Bound Brook area. His record books for 1735-1746 list many valley residents as credit customers, with sons and/or slaves making deliveries to their own and neighbors’ farms, (See the Van Horne chapter for further Material on the Janeway store.)

5 Chambers does not even list Sufya as among the 12 children, but instead replaces her with Willemptje, who we feel instead is the offspring of Rosina and William Clausen.


The first generation Bolmers, Robert and Maria, were buried on the farm, and their gravestones can still be seen in the small cemetery maintained on Ridge Road.6 Because the Bolmers were not historically famous, it is difficult to find any details of their lives from this great distance, but those scraps available give a measure of the life of a farmer in those times. The first detailed picture of their life is contained in the inventory of the estate of Robert's son, Abraham, written in 1805. Among many other items, the inventory lists and appraises the following: cow bell and small hammer ($0.20), 2 hand saws ($0.60), Dutch cupboard ($4.00), 1 box and 6 old chains ($0.60), 1 lamp and 1 iron candlestick ($0.20), 2 common tables ($0.60), ironbound wagon ($5.50), saddle ($4.00), red cow ($16.00), young bay horse ($25.00), 3 sheap (sic) ($5.55), 2 large and 6 small pewter plates and spoons ($3.70), iron griddle ($0.80), and large gun and 3 barrels ($1.00). Such an inventory contrasts with those of his wealthier neighbors' items such as Bibles, silk clothes, clocks, swords, and slaves. The Bolmers appear never to have owned slaves, but in the wills and inventories of their contemporaries (Tunisons, Sebrings, etc,), there is frequent mention of "black wench" and "young black man," the former being only half as valuable as the latter.



6 It is said that Mary Bolmer was actually buried in the small cemetery adjacent to the Gianotti property on Newman's Lane, and that her stone later was moved to the Ridge Road location. Leana Bolmer was also buried in that cemetery with Mary Bolmer.



Abraham's father, Robert, maintained a credit account at Janeway's store in Bound Brook, and records of his purchases during 1735-1747 are also consistent with a simple life. Purchases were largely for molasses, rum, hogs, nayles (sic), cloth, buttons, powder and shot, dishes and tools. The only frivolous items were a few sheets of paper and a skein of silk,

The marriage of Isaac Bolmer, youngest son of Robert, to Leana Brown (1787-1845, daughter of Jacob Brown), produced three children. The eldest, Robert I, Bolmer, married Eliza Martin in 1839, and so brought these two Martinsville families together. Marriages of their children and grandchildren into the Van Nest, Coddington, Bolen, Van Nostrand, and Mundy families linked them to other early prominent names in Washington Valley. There are so many people today who can trace their ancestry back to Robert I. and Eliza Martin Bolmer that it is impractical to list them all here. Robert I. and Eliza were buried in Bound Brook, where their stones can still be seen, together with those of several of their children and grandchildren.

Samuel Kenida Bolmer, one of the ten children of Robert I. and Eliza, is believed to have been the "Kennedy Bolmer" who was the last of the family to own the Bolmer Farm property, which figured so prominently in the Revolutionary War history of our area. Eliza probably named her son Samuel Kenida after the locally-prominent pastor of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, Samuel Kennedy, who was her great-uncle by marriage, and after whom her cousin, Dr. Samuel Kennedy Martin was also named. There is no explanation for the peculiar spelling (Kenida) of his middle name Kennedy, and in legal documents in later years, he writes his name as Kennedy. According to the will of Eliza Bolmer (1886), the farm went in equal parts to Samuel and his sister Henrietta Laforge, and remained in their hands until 1895, when Samuel bought his sister's share and then sold the farm to Harvey L. Schmeyer for $2,350.00.

Samuel Kenida'ts oldest brother, Augustus (1840-1918) married Ann Eliza Wadsworth and they produced seven children, who in turn were the parents of the present-day Bolmers, Bolens and Wicks, living in the Washington Valley area. Several of the children were born in the Bolmer farmhouse near Somerville, a structure now incorporated into the club house of the Raritan Valley Country Club on U.S. Highway 28. Augustus and his wife also were buried in the Bound Brook Presbyterian cemetery, along with more than a dozen other Bolmers.

The general migration of the offspring of the older families in Washington Valley to farther places involved the Bolmers no less than any other family. Thus, Robert Bolmer (oldest and only living son and heir to the estate of Abraham Bolmer) and his wife, Mary Allen, sold 103 acres on Middle Brook in 1806, while listing their address as Senecia County, N.Y.

Robert, brother to Augustus and Samuel, apparently took his new wife (Mary Mundy) from the Washington Valley area to Kansas some time in 1886-1887, for their five children and successive grandchildren were born and died in small towns such as Sedan, Conway Springs, Clay Center, and Winfield, Kansas. Interestingly, the prominent Isaac Bolmer was buried not in Bridgewater, N.J., but in Manchester, Ill. (1869), supposedly having left Washington Valley some time after his wife Leana died (1845).

Much has been written about Albert's having welcomed General Washington in 1777, and offering him not only the hospitality of his home, but his land for the redoubts which were thrown up. One of these redoubts can still be seen on
Bolmer Farm Road near the West Branch, and the other, no longer in existence, was placed near Washington Valley Road. A structure known as "The Fort" was also built near Camp Middlebrook guarding the road between Martinsville and Pluckemin, but it was torn down by a later owner who felt it marred his pasture field! However attractive it may be to picture George Washington enjoying Albert's hospitality at the Bolmer farmhouse, it seems unlikely since Albert died six years before the event. Therefore, the Bolmer who welcomed Washington and his troops more likely was Albert's younger brother, Robert. Though there was known to be considerable passive resistance to Washington and his cause from the Tories in the valley, the Bolmers appeared to be supporters; the records show that Garret and Robert both served in the First Battalion of the Somerset Militia (under Capt. Jacob Ten Eyck) at various times between 1775 and 1781. Garret (son of Abram and Elizabeth) at the time was 17-23 years old and served as private, whereas the Robert who served as lieutenant was either Garret's brother (born 1755), or more likely Robert (born 1737), father of Isaac and brother of Albert and Abram.

The Bolmer name appears again in the war records during the unpleasantness with Great Britain in 1812-15, when Isaac Bolmer served for 10 days as a lieutenant in a Volunteer Company of Rifleman (Third Regiment, New Jersey Detailed Militia), and John Bolmer spent four months as a private in the light infantry.

Stryker's record of New Jersey men in the Civil War lists several Bolmers as participants, but none can be integrated into the family tree so far. A John T. Bolmer served for three years as a private in Company I, Third Regiment, and Albert and George Bolmer served for nine months (1862-1863) with the ranks of musician and private, respectively, in Company A, 3lst Regiment. Henry B. Bolmer also was a private for one year (1865-1866). Possibly they were part of the Bolmer family known to have settled in Hunterdon County7. At this time (1863-1865), Garret Bolmer of Somerville is listed as a member of the pro-Union Somerset County Union League.

The earliest Bolmer to hold office in Somerset County was Robert, who was a freeholder in 1753. Son Albert served along with 10 others as a Commissioner of Highways, Somerset and Middlesex Counties in 1756, and his brothers, Abraham and Robert, also were freeholders in 1790. About 50 years later, Robert I. Bolmer, son of Isaac, served as Somerset County coroner, for perhaps five years. Apropos of the political life, Mr. W. Bolen, grandson of Augustus Bolmer, relates an interesting story told him by Joseph Martin. In the 1880's, it was the custom of a Pennsylvania Railroad official to visit each of the New Jersey counties during election years and to leave with a certain person in each county $1000. Augustus was a freeholder at that time, and was that certain person for Somerset, and in this regard Martin described him as being extremely honest — he used every cent of the $1000 for buying votes and kept none whatsoever for himself! Thus did he express how strongly he felt for the Republican Party.

Our closest present-day link with the Bolmers of 250 years ago is the Bolmer farmhouse standing at the corner of Bolmer Farm Road and West Circle Drive in Spring Run. First, it must be said that this Bolmer farmhouse is only one of several, which were situated close to one another, and described at different times stretching from the earliest days of the eighteenth century. In addition to the present Bolmer farmhouse, there is mention in the literature of a Bolmer house that burned in 1705, and a foundation has been reported just south of the redoubt on Washington Valley Road. Another Bolmer house sat on the westernmost side of the present Spring Run development, and a very old house occupied a site on the present Rannelils' property with its barn on that of the Surko's, These structures sat beside the small creek that runs southward to Middlebrook along the eastern edge of West Circle Drive, and were razed only in 1952. Access to this house could be had only via a road passing to the north of the present farmhouse, and then over a bridge built over the creek.

7 Albert E. Glasser says that the Bolmers were also located in Cokesbury, Hunterdon County, and that most of one generation was wiped out in a terrible fire, Bolmers are buried in Cokesbury Cemetery and at the cemetery near Five Corners, in Clinton, N,J.


The earliest clue to Bolmer property is contained in the Sebring deed of 1713, mentioned earlier in this chapter. In this deed, Sebring acquired 1000 acres from the large block of land held by Peter Sonmans, the 1000 acres being bounded on the southeast by the property of Robert Bolmer. Inasmuch as Sonmans originally held a single large parcel of land purchased from the Indians in 1708, it seems highly likely that Robert Bolmer also purchased his property from Sonmans in 1709-1713. Further, the swindle worked by Sonmans on Sebring whereby his sons had to repurchase the 1000-acre tract some 40 years later from the East Jersey Proprietors, would also have stung the Bolmers. This fits in nicely with son Albert's purchase of 114 acres from the Proprietors in 1759, for this parcel bounds the Sebring property on the southeast (see map, page vi). Thus it is our contention that the property lines so well defined for Albert in the Benjamin Morgan map of 1766 were also those of his father's property over 50 years earlier.

After Robert's death in 1755, records show that in 1766, besides Albert's 114 acres, son John holds a peculiar sliver of property (22 acres) abutting Albert's and lying along the west branch of Middle Brook. This land was originally purchased by John from James Parker, In John's will, he leaves the house and four acres to brother Robert, and it is abundantly clear from the Morgan map and the survey of this property in 1756 by Daniel Cooper (New York Historical Society Museum papers) that any such four acres plus its house must lie to the west of the small creek running southerly into Middle Brook. Thus this house, passed to Robert in 1764, correlates with the house presently situated west of the brook, rather than with the older house on the east side8. This house appears again in Robert's will of 1817, in which he specifies that son Isaac is to take this "old homestead," while daughters Sarah Bolmer and Margaret King are to get the house vacated by Isaac. (This latter house eventually passed into the hands of Cornelius Van Nest; see that chapter). The will also instructs that Sarah be given “one bed and bedding, bedsted and curtains as it now stands in the west room of my house." This would appear to refer to a small room now used as a study, but which was said by a contemporary Bolmer to be two bedrooms separated in the early 1900's by a wall since removed.

What then of the older house on the east side of the small creek? It is clearly on Albert's property in 1766, and may well have been the house of his father. Nonetheless, in Albert's will of 1771 he decrees that his estate be sold and the money used to bring up his children9 Thus the house seems to have passed out of the Bolmer family at a very early date. A photograph dated about 1880 (page 36) shows an Old Bolmer farmhouse, which was no doubt the older house by the creek, and not the one presently standing.

Albert E. Glasser, husband of the late Annette Bolmer, tells of a most exciting aspect of the older farmhouse on the Rannells property. In the 1930's when he and his wife visited the house, they found that Mrs. George Cloke, the owner, had removed 12-20 gravestones from the cemetery in an attempt to pave a wet, muddy cellar. They saw the stones but were unable to read them due to the overlying mud. When the house was razed in 1952, the foundations were pushed into the cellar and the hole filled, and W. Eckert, one of the workmen, understandably says the stones could not be seen there. Presumably then, these fascinating stones are still buried 10 feet below the Rannells' lawn, buried in the remains of the house in which all of the second-generation Bolmers were probably born!10


8 Assuming that son John built the house in question, it would have been built after the purchase from Parker, but before 1764, Details of the purchase are recorded in Proprietors' Book AB4, p.215.

9 John Compton bought 17 acres of this land for 69.8s.,

10 However, in a newspaper interview dated 1950, George Cloke denies this, saying the stones disappeared from the cemetery before he took possession of the house,


The present Bolmer farmhouse is far larger than the original, It is clear from the construction that the original house was a two-room, two-story affair, without a basement. It is most striking how closely the original part of the Bolmer house resembles the general description given by Snell, speaking of the homes of the Dutch settlers:

"The style of their buildings they doubtless brought with them from Holland, their Fatherland, They were built with one story, with low ceiling, with nothing more than the heavy and thick boards that constituted the upper floor laid on monstrous broad and heavy beams, on which they stored their grain, it being used as a granary and for the spinning of wool; sometimes parts of it would be divided into sleeping apartments. Their fireplaces were usually very large, extending generally without jambs, and sufficient to accommodate a whole family with a comfortable seat around the fire, The chimneys were so large as to admit of having their meat hung up and smoked within them, which was their usual practice.

...The floors of their houses were scrubbed and scoured and kept as white as their tables, which were used without cloths, Their floors were sanded with sand brought from the beach for that purpose and put in regular heaps on the floor and, becoming dry, it would be swept with the broom in waves or so as to represent other beautiful figures."

To the old structure there was later added a basement with large fireplace (serving as a summer kitchen) and several other larger rooms, one of which is thought to be the west bedroom of the old homestead described in Robert's will of 1817. We could neither confirm nor refute 1739 as the year advertised by many as that in which the original house was built; however, it is consistent with this analysis.