Where was Anweil, New Jersey in the 1750s?

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I have references that refer to German immigrants settling in "Anweil in northern New Jersey", but I can't figure out just WHERE in northern NJ it was. Anweil, NOT Amwell, just to be clear. It doesn't google as a currently existing community. Can anyone help me with information?
in Genealogy Help by Michael Kerstetter G2G6 (9.2k points)
What are these  references where you see "Anwell"?
Ellen, see my reply to Hilary.

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Hi Michael,

Is it possible that your references are to Avenel, New Jersey? Though Wikipedia says the community was founded in 1901, a Tour Map of Historic Sites for Woodbridge Township (PDF) notes that the name is older than 1867, when a railroad station with that name was founded. Woodbridge Township itself may have been known to German immigrants as "Avenel" (conjecture), and it was definitely settled as early as 1664.

Is there also any particular reason it cannot be Amwell? It appears there's quite a large German population there, including the Myers, Daniel Shuster, Christopher Slusher, the Gardiner brothers and others. The Amwell German Baptist Church has been around since 1733. I also see a source referencing German settlers in Pennsylvania, as well as settlers in Anweil, New Jersey. In the biography of the church mentioned above, it seems that the German immigrants who founded the church originated from Germantown, PA. That leads me to think that Anweil might well be Amwell, but I don't have all the information of course. 

Let me know if any of this helps!

All the best,

Hilary

by Hilary Conybeare Marsh G2G3 (3.3k points)
selected by Michael Kerstetter

Hi Hilary, so I did some leg work and it appears that all my sources refer to the same 1756 ad in a German language newspaper, probably:  Pensylvanische Berichte, Oder, Sammlung Wichtiger Nachrichten Aus Dem Natur-Und Kirchen-Reich. I don't have a copy of the actual item itself, just a translation of it and that only refers to it as being from "Sower's newspaper".

One source describes the area this way: When the family first came from Germany, this was a part of the larger Greenwich Township in Morris County. In a re-distribution, Amwell formed out of Greenwich and was placed in Sussex County, the location of the family at the time of the American Revolution. In the next division (1825), the part where the Buchner family lived was named Green Township, the area of the village of Greensville. Hermann T. F. Chambers in The Early Germans of New Jersey, referred to the area of the Buchner settlement as Spruce Run.

This leads me to wonder if "Anweil" is some archaic version of "Amwell" or maybe a now defunct community in the now defunct Amwell Township... I just don't know. But this circumstantial evidence leads me to believe that we're talking about the area in and around today's Green Township, Sussex County.

Ahh, I see! It's possible that Anweil is indeed some archaic version of Amwell; I could also see it being in reference to a topographic feature around the settlement that would be known to the German migrant community there. 

After looking through some maps on the Library of Congress website, I'm starting to piece together a possible location for "Anweil", and indeed, the current day place-name! Follow me for a moment.

I'm going to work backwards in time, using the relevant maps to illustrate the possible location of Anweil. I'm using your references as quotations in each part.

(1825), the part where the Buchner family lived was named Green Township, the area of the village of Greensville.

1. 1860 Map: This map of Sussex County includes Green Township and the village of Greensville. You can see how close to the border with the neighbouring county it is (at this time, Warren County). Using your mouse, if you go due east from Greensville, and cross the border into Newton Township, you can see the small town of Andover.

In a re-distribution, [Anweil] formed out of Greenwich and was placed in Sussex County, the location of the family at the time of the American Revolution

2. 1780 Map: Jumping back 80 years, you can see the town of Andover by its lonesome, right on the West-East Jersey dividing line. It is also close to the border with Morris County (presumably, the county due south in this map), which would make Andover a place whose municipal divisions would keep changing. Though neither Greensville nor Green Township are pictured here, you can assume they're slightly due west of Andover, according to the 1860 map.

3. 1778 (?) Map: In this map from around the same time, you can see Andover in the middle of the screen, under the "I" in MORRIS COUNTY. The nature of the messy map and the various county lines makes it hard to see, but it looks like Andover could be in Morris County? It's hard to tell, but again, it seems like an ideal candidate where county lines could shift from map to map.

When the family first came from Germany, this was a part of the larger Greenwich Township in Morris County.

4. 1769 (?) Map: Andover is centered again in this map, but the "Tav."(presumably meaning town) has been crossed out and replaced with "Ferry". If you look back at the other maps, you can see that the Paquese/Pequest River is due north of Andover, but due south is the Musconetcong River. If you follow the dividing East-West Jersey line that is due west of Andover Ferry, you'll hit the Musconetcong River and what looks like another Andover Tav.! Though the cartographer has struck out the Tav. on the northern "Andover", we know that the northern Andover (or Andover Ferry) has to be the correct one, as the other maps show it as close to Pequest River. For the southern Andover (or Andover Tav.), it's close beside the Musconetcong River. That same river is shown in the 1860 map to be the border between Morris and Sussex counties.


Alright, now this is pure conjecture, but I'm guessing that the 1769 southern Andover (or Andover Tav.) could have been mistaken as such, because of the cartographers' unfamiliarity with the town of "Anweil". They simply approximated its form to the nearby town of "Andover", and then realized their mistake and added "Andover Ferry" to the northern Andover, so that it would appear that there were two Andovers, instead of one. "Anweil" would then be that approxiamate spot on the map, slightly west of Andover, which would then become part of Green Township when the maps were redrawn in 1825. That 1860 map shows how close Andover and Green Township are, I believe that it's quite possible.

However, I do acknowledge that that position in 1769 does not show "Anweil" in Morris County. That's the biggest issue with my theory. 

At the very least, I think the area where "Anweil" once was or could be has been substantially narrowed down! For lack of any other documentation, I have offered a possible location for it, which would match up with your supposition that it's somewhere in southern Green Township, Sussex County.

This was really fun to get into! It was a blast looking at all the maps, and at the very least I hope that 1860 one is helpful with all the different landowners and houseowners' name on it.

  

And also, to clarify, I was doing this detective work using the references you provided, rather than to trying to fix a position for "Anweil" in Amwell township. With everything you've described, it doesn't seem like "Anweil" would be close to it!
This is UTTERLY fascinating! I can't thank you enough for taking so much time on this. I love pouring over the maps, switching back and forth between them and trying to find commonalities. But it has been frustrating because there are so FEW commonalities beyond Andover and the Pequest River. So I have one bit of extra data that it didn't occur to me to give to you until I saw the 1860 map. All of this is in service to Johann Martin Buchner, a 1753 immigrant from Germany. Martin's (and other Buchner) grave marker (death 1780) is located in the Huntsville Cemetery and looking at the 1860 map, there is Huntsville (which doesn't exist anymore). See the road that crosses the river? Just south of that crossing, another road intersects with it? The cemetery is right at that intersection. And that's in the township area we've been talking about. Between the 1756 mention of Anweil and his death, he could have moved around, but odds are...

It's very possible Huntsville was named something different by the time Thomas Wolverton bought the land in 1750, because it wasn't even named Huntsville until the early 1800s. But I'm glad I came close to Huntsville before knowing about the cemetery! I had a quick look at Google Maps for the cemetery, and it's right where you said it is. I may poke around a bit more to see if I can get anything concrete...

Thomas Woolverton, who is mentioned as having located at Huntsville in 1750, had neighbors then, or about then, in the families of the Youngs and Buchners, who were probably, with Woolverton, the earliest comers into Green.

[...]

Similarly,  the  present  recollections  or  traditions concerning  the  history  of  the  Buchner  family  in Green  are  exceedingly  meagre.  John  Buchner  lived upon  the  place  now  owned  by  Joseph  Ayers,  having come  to  America  from  Germany  about  the  time Darius Young landed  here  from  England.  A  Frederick Buchner,  who  was  probably  John  Buchner's  son,  enlisted from Green in the war of 1812, and rose to the rank of colonel. His  period  of  service  extended through  the  war,  and  is  said  to  have  been  distinguished by  many  brilliant  and  heroic  experiences. Like  Darius  Young,  John  Buchner  was  great-grand-father to  Theodore  Young,  now  of  Green.  Several of  the  descendants  of  Darius  Young  fought  in  the war  of  the  Revolution,  but  who  they  were  cannot  be ascertained. 

- History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey by James Snell & W.W. Clayton, p. 427.

And there it is! I think I've found at least two of your Buchner's, and they were definitely in Green township!

If you go back to the 1860 map here, and follow the road leading west out of Huntsville, you'll see two "J. Ayers" on the top side. Dollars to donuts, that's Joseph Ayers, and that's the land the Buchners used to live on!

I'll be darned, you may be right about J. Ayers, I didn't notice that. I think John Buchner may be Johannes Buckner, Martin's son. I'll have to think about how to verify that.

The other thing is Thomas Wolverton?? I have Hunterdon County Wolvertons in my family. Isaac Wolverton (1732-1778). They almost have to be related.
Hilary, I finally incorporated what you found for me in a bio. It's in a paragraph following the newspaper article in the bio of: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buchner-671

Thank you SO much!
My pleasure Michael! This sort of experience is exactly why I love genealogical research. There are tons of mysteries out there, but I'm glad this one was solved! Maybe someday down the line, someone will dig up another Anweil reference or a little Anweil map and we'll know definitively. In the meantime, good luck with the rest of your research!

All the best,

Hilary

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