We have another amazing reference source that gives us a view into the lives of people in the Hopewell Valley in 1914, through data on farming and from lists of the people and the businesses of the time.
The contrast to today’s lives could not be clearer in the classified business listings. One unique category is “Dead Animals Removed,” with a display ad for O. F. Niedt & Co. promoting themselves as “Always Ready / Day and Night,” and “The Reliable Man for Twenty-Five Years.” A century ago these were so many large animals as part of daily lives that you needed a professional to take care of them after they died.
In a statistical comparison to today, Mercer County has tripled in population density from 1914 to 2022. In that time, the number of farms decreased from 1,573 to 298, and the average farm size decreased from 78 to 64 acres.(See USDA 2020 County Profile)
In terms of the range of agricultural products from the farms, in 1914 the distribution in annual value was between grain crops, hay and forage $1.3M and dairy products, poultry and eggs $1.0M. The distribution in 2024 was crops $22M and livestock, poultry, and products $5M. So the emphasis on crops vs. animal production as farm products has increased from 56% to 82%.
The source document for this information is the 1914 Farm & Business Directory of Mercer and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey It was published by Wilmer Atkinson Company, the publishers of the Farm Journal.
The major portion of the book has two separate directories for each county, a directory of people, and a classified business directory including numerous display ads.
The book begins with an index of advertisers, statistics for each county on area farms and farmers, and lists of county officials and postmasters.
It concludes with a section on Handy Things to Know for farmers, including measurement conversions, measurement conversions (rods and miles, barrels and pounds, bushels and pigs), measuring hay and corn (cubic feet and bushels and cribs), seed to sow per acre, distances for planting trees (3 to 6 feet for berries, 16 to 25 for fruit trees), shingles required in a roof (double the rafters and multiply by the length of the building, then multiply by exposure), nails required for different jobs (shingles, laths, clapboards), and a page-long discussion of concrete.
In addition, the book includes wonderfully evocative photos of schools and school children, and farm scenes with different animals and crops, ranging from horse-drawn plows to more “modern” equipment and techniques.
The Mercer County section of the book has been scanned and is available for download (e.g., 173 of the 288 pages, with the front half plus shared front and back matter). Plus there is a separate short extract of Hopewell Valley materials, including county farm statistics and over 100 listings of local businesses.
Mercer County Business Directory
The Mercer County Classified Business Directory section of the book is 164 pages, including listings and display ads. The listings are alphabetical by business type, and then by town. The two longest listings are for the categories of Grocers and Saloons, with many listings in Trenton.
The Hopewell Valley Extract document reorganizes the local listings by town and then business type, with a total of 111 listings: Hopewell 50, Pennington 34, Titusville 21, Woodsville 3, and Glenmoore 3.
For example, the 21 Titusville listings are:
- Agricultural Implements – Vanartsdalen, Howard W.
- Blacksmiths And Wheelwrights – Harbourt, James R.; Hunt, Farley D.
- Butter and Eggs – Pagels, Chas. G.
- Carpenters – Harbourt, Wm. H.
- Coal – McKean, Aubrey, Scudders & Hunt, Van Artsdalen, H. W.
- Dry Goods and Notions – Shade & Weilman
- Fertilizers – Van Artsdalen, H. W.
- Fish and Oysters – Edge, J. D.
- Florists and Nurserymen – Blackwell, Alstyn
- Fruits – Blackwell, Wm. H
- General Stores – Phillips & Drake
- Grocers – Snook, Harry
- Hardware – Swift, C. H.
- Hotels – Stewart, Douglas P.
- Masons – Harbourt, Enoch A.
- Newspapers – The Pennington Post News
- Nurses – Knowles, Miss Mae Scarborough; Miss Florence Lee
- Paints and Painters – Drake, Benjamin Q.; Tice, A. H.
- Physicians – Simpson, M. S.
- Real Estate and Insurance – Trimmer, E. G. Rubber Companies – Raymond Rubber Co
Mercer County Directory
The Mercer County Directory section of the book includes an 89-page directory of residents of Mercer County, farmers, businesses, and landowners. Searching the Mercer County section shows the following number of references to local towns: Hopewell 513, Pennington 424, Titusville 170, Glenmoore 20, and Woodsville 18.
The listings include names (husband & wife), number of children (c), occupation, owner/tenant status (O/T), acres (a), phone company (B[ell] tel), House & Lot (H&L), rural route (R), township/town, and map index (Hope 19). Unfortunately, we do not have the separate map.
The directory is alphabetical by name across the entire county. For example, the first listings are:
- Aaronson, George R4 Trenton.
- Abbott, John H. (Susan E .) 2 ch farmer O 103a B tel R2 Lambertville Hope 96.
- Aaronson, John (Emma) 3 ch carpenter T H&L Mercerville.
- Abbott, T. C. (Mary) 1 ch ret farmer O H&L Yardville Ham 77.
- Abbott, Z. S. (Mary A.) farmer O 30a B tel Rl Hopewell Hope 1.
- Abott, Harry G. trucker bds Yardville Ham 77.
- Ackley, Ralph C. R3 Trenton.
- Ackors, Mattie F. (dau of Wm.) bds B tel Rl Pennington Hope 78.
- Ackors, Wm. H. (Nellie B.) farmer O 126a B tel Rl Pennington Hope 78.
- Ackroy, Tom R4 Trenton
Mercer County Farming Statistics
The book includes county-wide statistics on farms including sizes, values, and financing, and on farmers including numbers, ownership. This is included in the Mercer County Extract document. The Mercer statistics include:
Mercer County has a total area of 226 square miles, and a population according to the last census of 125,657, which gives 556 persons to the square mile.
Mercer County has 1,573 farms. The total value of farms in Mercer County is $15,349,204, and in Middlesex the total value is $13,399,662, showing that the average value of all property per farm in Mercer is $9,758. This valuation includes land, buildings, implements, machinery and domestic animals.
The average size of farms in Mercer County is 78 acres.
Of the men operating the 1,573 farms of Mercer County, 1,335 are native born., 220 foreign born and only 18 are colored.
Of the 1,573 farms of Mercer County, 1,065, or 68 per cent., are operated by owners, and 445, or 28 per cent., operated by tenants.
Of the tenant farmers of Mercer County, 178 operate their farms on shares, and 225 pay cash rent.
Of the farms operated by owners in Mercer County, 470 are reported free of mortgage debt, and 588 as having mortgages on them.
In Mercer County the value of grain crops for one year was $726,522; of hay and forage, $576,269; of dairy products, $579,409; and of poultry and eggs, $421,861.
– From the section Mercer and Middlesex Counties / Their Farms and Farmers
Thanks to Bob Lawless for discovering and sharing another wonderful resource.
Please contact us if you have comments or information on this document, or other related local materials that you can share.
More on Hopewell Valley References
Historical atlases and reference books with information on local towns including statistics, people, and businesses. These include Extract documents that include local information from books with a larger scope (e.g., county or state) and have edited versions of the text from the scanned documents.
See the Hopewell Valley References for a comprehensive list of these, plus history books on the local area and towns. These include links for more information and direct links to the full documents.
Hopewell Valley Atlases
- State Atlas of New Jersey, Beers (1872)
- Historical Atlas of Mercer County, N.J., Everts & Stewart (1875)
- Atlas of N. J., Geological Survey – NJ & HV, Bein (1888)
Hopewell Valley References
- Historical Collections of State of N. J., Barber & Howe (1865)
- NJ Railroad Gazetteer & Bus. Dir., Mitchell (1877) – Hw Valley Extract
- Industries Of N.J. – Part I, Edwards (1882) – Trenton & vicinity
- Industries Of N.J. – Part I, Edwards (1882) – Hw Twp Extract
- History of Burlington & Mercer Counties, Hageman (1883) – Hw Twp Extract
- Industrial Directory of N. J. (1901-18) – Hw Valley Extracts
- Mercer & Middlesex Farm & Business Directory (1914) – Mercer Cty & Hw Valley Extract
- Phila. Builders’ Guide (1888-1940) – Hw Valley Extract
