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They Built Homes By the Millburn Centennial Committee
Originally appeared in 1957 |
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Before all of the legal arguments and negotiations were over, pioneers
moved out from Elizabethtown and New Ark and settled in the short
hills and around what was to become the center of Millburn. They
were attracted here by the fertile soil, the natural beauty, and particularly by the abundant water supply provided by the many brooks
interlacing the country, filled with clear water, filtered and purified
in its journey through the loose gravel of the glacial moraine. Here
they built their homes and soon many saw mills, grist mills, and forges
were in operation.
As a matter of fact, the colonists had much more to fear from the
wild animals which roamed the countryside. Wolves, bears, panthers,
elk, deer, raccoons, beavers, and otters were plentiful, and some were
so troublesome that bounties were paid for bears and wolves.
The first house of which there is a record, was built by Thomas
Parsil, at what is now No. 365 White Oak Ridge Road. The house
is still standing, and the date 1709 is carved in the chimney stone.
His brother, Nicholas Parsil, built a house nearby. Some of the other
early pioneers were named Ross, Parkhurst, Denman, Morehouse,
Dean, Meeker, Brant, Thomas, Nichols, and Drew.
Unfortunately, these early settlers left few written records, and we
must glean our knowledge of their names and lives from old maps,
gravestones, and a few tales, gathered mostly from hearsay. They
were simple people, farmers, artisans, and craftsmen, for the most
part homogeneous in race, religion, and economic status. Sheltered
behind their mountain, in a land flowing with many brooks, plentiful
game, and gentle slopes covered with fine stands of oak, chestnut,
ash, hickory, walnut, elm, birch, beech, flowering dogwood, tulip,
and many others, the busy world outside must have seemed far away.
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