Since I was a child, I’ve wanted to know what it would be like to live in a small town. I imagined that it would be cozy somehow, like the town in Jan Karon’s books. When I was assigned to work at Hightstown’s public library, I found myself in a cozy little town! As a reference librarian, I sometimes helped people find information about local history. The library has some amazing local history books that can be borrowed. My favorites for this area include:

• Hightstown and E. Windsor by Peggy Brennan- a picture collection


• Reflections from the Shrine - colorful stories about Hightstown and E. Windsor as long ago as 1850 by John Orr


• Deepening the Chasms by James Barlow- a fascinating explanation of clashes between black and white residents in Hightstown and surrounding farms since the 1800’s


• Pemberton & Hightstown: A Chronicle of Railroading in the Farm Belt of New Jersey by John Brinckmann


• Hightstown Gazette newspaper on microfilm: 1849-1899

It was intriguing to imagine Hightstown 150 years ago, so I joined the Hightstown-East-Windsor Historical Society. After updating the group’s website, I got involved in research for the ever-popular house tour using materials stored in the Sarah Hutchinson West Museum and Library, located on North Main Street in Hightstown. This building was once a freight station that served the last of two train companies shipping mostly potatoes north and south until the mid-twentieth century.

Historical societies exist in most towns. Societies often own historical homes that are open to the public. Mercer County boasts societies in Lawrence, Hopewell, Robbinsville, West Windsor, Princeton, Hamilton, Ewing and Trenton. The historical society for all of New Jersey is located at http://www.jerseyhistory.org/. Two other societies focus on the D&R Canal and railroads which were essential to economic growth beginning in the early 1800’s.

I once asked Bob Craig, who grew up in Hightstown and who now works for the NJ Historic Preservation Office, whether the presence of newspapers covering the goings-on of this area since 1850 was unusual. He replied that Hightstown-East Windsor history was special because so many people took an interest in it. They wrote their own interpretations and journals, which added to what’s available in the newspapers. These prescient historians collected all kinds of documents and local photographs.

The Sarah Hutchinson Library is like a treasure chest. Only a fraction of the preserved documents and very few of the objects are yet described in the database. Can you imagine holding the document which freed a local slave? I held and read this document with reverence.

The tree-pipe and the autobiography of a local man’s first twelve years are my favorite objects in the society library. The wooden water pipe is a three foot section of what was once a large tree, about 18 inches across. Its center was drilled out to form a passage for water about 3 inches wide. Mr. Craig explained that pieces were “glued” together with natural materials like hog fat and worked quite well. This sample was unearthed when a drainage problem occurred in front of the Tavern on the Lake in the center of Hightstown. The pipe may be as old as the early 1800’s. In 1817, Major James Cook was authorized to draw water to his accommodation near the Tavern location. The story is told by “Hutch” Richard Hutchinson in a Hightstown East-Windsor Historical Society Newsletter.

Growing up in a tiny town situated on a dammed creek in the early 1910’s was pretty exciting. Remembering it produced stories about a furious bull, the night the dam burst and racing horses across the frozen creek. This story, filled with humor, was given to the society by a 90-year-old man who wanted that kind of life preserved in words. I enjoyed it so much that I typed it. Unfortunately, I am stuck in the editing stage. Are there any editors out there looking for a project? (jworringer@yahoo.com).

If you are a reader who shares my interest in small-town life, you may like Jan Karon’s At Home in Mitford or Philip Gulley’s Home to Harmony. Adriana Trigiani sets her characters in a small mountain town called Big Stone Gap, the first book in the series. My favorite cozy mysteries include M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembly and Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

- Jennifer W.