Frenchtown

Frenchtown, New Jersey is a borough in Hunterdon County which is situated on the banks of the Delaware River. In 1747, a group of men bought a tract of land from the West Jersey Land Society and began platting and laying out streets and building lots. The town was called Alexandria, after William Alexander, Lord Stirling, who was one of the three owners. In 1776, they sold the budding town to a speculator, Thomas Lowrey, who sold it to Paul Mallet-Prevost, a Swiss fugitive from the French Revolution in 1794. Given that the town fathers and early settlers spoke French, the town was soon renamed Frenchtown. The town prospered over the next 40 years, and after Henri died, his sons sold off the property, leaving the town no longer privately owned. The local ferry did a bang-up business, and men who worked on the river added to the robust economy. The Belvidere Delaware Railroad arrived in 1853, and around that time, the town had three major hotels and a general store. The railroad caused the local mills to be converted to factories. And at the turn of the century, the poultry industry in town flourished, as did the Frenchtown Porcelain Works and the Milford plant of the Warren Paper Company.

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