Bound Brook to mark its 325^th Anniversary on May 4, 2006

May 4^th, 1681 the day Bound Brook was founded!  May 4, 2006 the day we celebrate 325 Years as the oldest community in Somerset County New Jersey.  There is a long and significant history we are about to celebrate along the Raritan River.

The public is invited to join the community of Bound Brook on May 4^th 2006, at Billian Legion Park, 6:00PM as the town commemorates this important date.  We would welcome your participation in this ceremony.  The program will include a history of our 325 years, remarks by dignitaries, Time Capsule Ceremony and a blessing by Borough religious leaders.  A location in Billian Legion Park will be designated to receive the Time Capsule on a date to be announced.

The Council Oak tree, unusual in appearance but well preserved, is as­sociated with the earliest history of Somerset County. On the fourth of May 1681, the first land title in Somerset County was secured from the Indians. The land included chiefly what is now Bound Brook. It is tradition that the purchase of this tract was consummated under this old oak.

The deed to this tract recorded in Perth Amboy recites “that Knoackama and Queromak, two Indian Kings, for the consideration of 100 pounds paid them in goods, at the foot of the same deed acknowledged by them to have been received of Captain Philip Carteret, Governor of New Jersey, John Palmer, a Staten Island gentleman, Gabriel Minviefle, Thomas Codrington, John ­White, John Deiavelle, Richard Hall and John Royce, of the city of New York, did sell to them and their heirs, a tract of land on the north side of the Raritan river, beginning at the mouth of the rivulet called Bound Brook, and by the Indians Sacunk, and thence up along the river Raritan to a brook called Raweigh­-weros; and from thence north to a stony hill; thence easterly to Metape's wigwam; and thence southerly along the Bound Brook aforesaid to the beginning; as might more plainly appear by the trees marked by the grantors, and by the Indian deed recorded In Liber 1, page 146”.

This old oak grows less than a mile from the Heights of Middlebrook where the American flag was first flown over the Continental Army, and where the army was encamped on several occasions, once over the winter. The encampment was located on the First Watchung Mountain and this strategic location gave Washington’s troops a decided advantage. The movements of the enemy could be very easily detected from this vantage point.

Species: White Oak
Circumference: 20 feet 3 inches
Age: 350-400 years
Location: From Route 22, South on Route 527 (Mountain Ave) about 1/2 mile to second street on right (Maple Ave.), right on Maple Ave. Tree is located near second house on left. 118 East Maple Avenue Bound Brook, Somerset County, NJ.

http://www.stockton.edu/~forestry/council.htm

More info on the Council oak http://www.boundbrook.com/Content/161.aspx

For over 400 years this fine specimen of white oak, eighty-five (85) feet high and nearly eighteen (18) feet in circumference, has stood here on the property of its numerous owners. Although several of its branches have been removed in order that two houses could be built under pits protecting shade, it still has a spread of one hundred three (103) feet.

According to a deed recorded at Perth Amboy, then the capital of East Jersey, it was at the foot of this tree that Governor Philip Carteret' a others bought the land that is now Bound Brook from , Lenni-Lenape (Raritan) Indians for 100 pounds sterling, paid in goods.

All these years the oak has drawn water from the soil and daily dispensed over a ton of moisture into the surrounding air. It has seen Indians come and go, and witnessed several generations of inhabitants live under and around it while Bound Brook has grown from a few houses scattered along the banks of the Raritan to a commuters' bedroom, and now an industrial community. Too, it has witnessed transportation develop from pack horses to wagon trains, canoes to canal boats and mules; railroads-electric, steam and diesel, to trucks, buses and automobiles; and the two Indian trails, said to have c