THE HANOVER SETTLEMENT -1710
Historical Notes

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Before 1710, a few pioneers from Newark had pushed up the Pesayak and settled on the banks of Whippanong, west of the "great mountain Watchung," now Orange Mountain. The settlement began in the parish of Whippany, in the township of Hanover, and soon overflowed upon the Neck of territory that lay wedged between the two rivers. here Abraham Kitchel early made his home, and by-and-by the Mulfords from Eastern Long Island, and the Farrands; and these conspired to people the region. Hanover has been ever since a prolific hive of these names. They fill the graveyards, and through the changes of six generations (to 1913) they still hold the old homes of Whippany and The Neck. Over the river, south of Whippany street, stands and old and very old-fashioned dwelling, known on the Morris County maps as the "Kitchel homestead," occupied by a grandson of Abraham, now in his ninety-fourth year (in 1913). For Abraham left it to David, the son of his old age, and to his seed after him.

How early Abraham Kitchel removed to Whippany is not clear. he sold what seems to have been his homestead in Newark in 1714. His deed of certain meadow lands also in Newark, to Joseph Baldwin, is dated Dec. 13, 1729. on May 20, 1724, Rebecca Wheeler of Burlington, deeded him 1075 acres east of the Whippany, a part of which is still occupied by Joseph Kitchel of Hanover Neck (1913), one of his descendants. But these transactions might easily be after his actual removal, which all tradition very positively fixes in 1710.

It is a comfort to go from that pell-meil heap of old headstones in Newark, to these decent rural grave-yards of Whippany and Hanover, where you are permitted to know the spot where they laid Abraham by his Sarah, and their Samuel nearby, and David and Ruth, and Stephen and Hannah; and just where Rachel sleeps, in the Hanover ground with her children around her; and Aaron the Honorable, and Captain Obadiah and John, Joseph and Benjamin.

The will of Abraham Kitchel provided for his wife Sarah, left the homestead to David, the youngest, specifying the sums he should pay to the other heirs, viz 10 pounds each to Joseph and John; 40 pounds to Grace Lindsley; 25 pounds to Mary Leonard; 35 pounds to Abigail Crane; and "the plantation," if David dies without issue, to be divided equally to Joseph and John.

The dignities to which Abraham attained in his day were those of Lieutenant in Hanover, in 1722; Justice of the Peace for Hunterdon, in 1725; and Deacon of the Whippany Church.
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