Griggstown is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) located within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

.GCT-PH1 - Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2010 - County -- County Subdivision and Place from the 2010 Census Summary File 1 for Somerset County, New Jersey
,

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

. Accessed February 11, 2013.New Jersey: 2010 - Population and Housing Unit Counts - 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH-2-32)

, August 2012. Accessed February 11, 2013. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP's population was 819.DP-1 - Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data for Griggstown CDP, New Jersey
,

. Accessed August 28, 2012. The area was first settled around 1733. The

Millstone River The Millstone River is a tributary of the Raritan River in central New Jersey in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ''Garden State Canoeing'', Seneca Press, 2002. The Millstone River begins in western Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth Co ...

and the Delaware and Raritan Canal both flow through Griggstown.

History

Many of the earliest European settlers of the area came from

Gravesend, Brooklyn Gravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn, on the southwestern edge of Long Island in the United States, U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is bounded ...

. Among these settlers were four sons born to John and Elizabeth Griggs: Benjamin (b. 1690), Daniel, Samuel, and Thomas. Griggstown was named after Benjamin Griggs, who established a grist mill on the Millstone River that served as a meeting place for the European farmers of the area and as such the center of the community that would become Griggstown. From the 1970s to the early 2000s, Griggstown residents reported seeing a feral

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...

along the parallel Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Millstone River, said to be a ghost of one that was one of many herded along the canal in years past. An actual feral bull believed to be the phantom cow was found in a ditch in November 23, 2002, dying after being rescued.

Geography

According to the

, the CDP had a total area of 2.519 square miles (6.524 km²), including 2.447 square miles (6.338 km²) of land and 0.072 square miles (0.187 km²) of water (2.86%). Griggstown is adjacent to the communities of

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, Rocky Hill, Montgomery Township, Kendall Park (in South Brunswick), and Franklin Park. The closest city of note is

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

. Griggstown is accessible via Route 27 (

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

), County Route 518 and U.S. Route 206. The major roads in Griggstown are Bunker Hill Road and Canal Road. There is also a small access road with a one-lane bridge(at one time referred to as "twin bridges") known as the Griggstown Causeway that offers access to and from Griggstown as well. The D&R Canal State Park is located on this road in conjunction with the canal side tow-path.

Selected sites

* Griggstown Quail Farm * Griggstown Cemetery where nineteen Irish canal workers who died of cholera in an 1832-1833 epidemic are buried. William B. Brahms, Franklin Township, Somerset County, NJ: A History, FTPL; * Griggstown Volunteer Fire Company * Griggstown Lock of the Delaware and Raritan Canal * Griggstown Mine * Norseville * Sunset Hill Garden

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 819 people, 346 households, and 230 families in the CDP. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 364 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup was 86.81% (711)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.81% (23) Black or African American, 0.24% (2) Native American, 4.03% (33) Asian, 0.00% (0)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 2.56% (21) from other races, and 3.54% (29) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.23% (51) of the population. Of the 346 households, 25.7% had children under the age of 18; 57.2% were married couples living together; 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present and 33.5% were non-families. Of all households, 27.2% were made up of individuals and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.92. 18.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 32.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44.9 years. For every 100 females, the population had 101.7 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 101.5 males.

Historic district

The Griggstown Historic District is a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

encompassing the community along Canal Road from Old Georgetown Road to Ten Mile Run. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 2, 1984 for its significance in agriculture, architecture, commerce, industry, and transportation. The district includes 68

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

. The Griggstown Reformed Church was established in 1842 as the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Griggstown. The building was dedicated on August 8, 1843, and features

Greek Revival architecture Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

. The Bridge Tender's House, the Bridge Tender’s Station and the Lock Tender's House, all built for the Delaware and Raritan Canal, are contributing buildings. With

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Griggstown include: * Benjamin Griggs (1690-1768), founder of the grist mill after which Griggstown took its name. * John Honeyman (1729-1822), American spy for

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. He was primarily responsible for gathering the intelligence crucial to Washington's victory in the

Battle of Trenton The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal American Revolutionary War battle on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. After General George Washington's George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, crossing of the ...

. *

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he has been both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Professor in the Humani ...

(born 1951) writer, academic and educator, as well as

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

originally from

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

Gallery

File:Bridge Tender's Station, Griggstown, NJ.jpg, Bridge Tender’s Station File:Lock Tender's House, Griggstown, NJ.jpg, Lock Tender's House File:John Honeyman House, Griggstown, NJ.jpg, John Honeyman House Image:Griggstown Bridge over Millstone River.jpg, The Griggstown Causeway over the Millstone River

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Census-designated places in Somerset County, New Jersey Census-designated places in New Jersey Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey