The grave of Jacob Bodine at Sand Brook Cemetery.
The grave of Jacob Bodine at Sand Brook Cemetery.
Some information on this family comes from the 1850 New Jersey Census (roll 453, p. 112). They were living in Delaware Township in Hunterdon County. Jacob was listed as 43 years old. The children are John (18), Samuel (16), Mary (13), Henry (10), and David (7). All were born in New Jersey. Catherine, Jacob's wife, is 43 and born in New Jersey.
LDS records listed a Samuel Bodine, born in 1834 to a Jacob Bodine and Catherine Francis. Samuel was born in Hunterdon County. I believe these must be his parents (see www.FamilySearch.com). LDS also listed a David Bodine born in 1843 to a Jacob Bodine and Catherine Francis. This Jacob's wife must be Catherine Francis. The 1860 Census says he is 58 years old.
There is an obituary for a Jacob Bodine in the Hunterdon County Democrat of September 4, 1867 (v. 30, no. 2, p. 1502): In Delaware township, August 8, after a lingering illness, Jacob Bodine, aged 60? years, 11 months and 8 days. This must refer to this Jacob. Most of the articles in that newspaper had to do with his sons.
I've seen Catherine's last name given as both Francis and Fauss. However, it seems to be Fauss rather than Francis. Since I have information on her Fauss parents (from Deborah Naylor-Farhar), I'm assuming the name Francis is an error. Maybe Francis is her middle name.
The grave of Catherine (Fauss) Bodine at Sand Brook Cemetery.
With a whole lot of circumstancial evidence, but nothing from an original source, I believe all the Bodines buried in the cemetery behind the Sand Brook German Baptist Church must be from this family. More evidence would be needed to prove this assumption. Sand Brook is located in Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The cemetery is on-line at www.sandbrook.org.
I would also venture to guess that Jacob is the grandson of Peter Bodine and Sabillah Ent. Peter and Sybilla are buried in the cemetery that adjoins the Sandy Ridge Baptist Church. Jacob and Catherine also appear to have been Baptists. It was constituted October 24, 1818. It is two miles northeast of Stockton, in Delaware Township, which was set off from Amwell Township in 1838. Both Bodine families lived in the area of Stockton in Hunterdon County. Peter and Sabillah had a son Jacob, supposedly born on November 29, 1781. That would make him old enough to be this Jacob's father. One further piece of evidence is that I think this Jacob's son, David, had a son William who may have married a Jerusha Ent.
I have now found in Death Records of New Jersey that Jacob's father is listed as John Bodine. No mother is listed in the online data I saw.
I'm also guessing that this Jacob Bodine may be the older brother of the William Bodine who married Julia Smith.
Here is some history of the Sandy Ridge German Baptist Church and the Sand Brook German Baptist Church. This information came from the Internet. There are also pictures of these churches at "http://www.njchurchscape.com/". As one can see, these churches do have a lot in common.
In 1812, the Baptist minister at Flemington was persuaded to spend part of his time preaching on Sunday afternoons and during the winter on weekdays in the Sandy Ridge area, about eight miles south of Flemington. The first Sandy Ridge German Baptist Church was built near the present site in 1818 and the present church in 1866, at a cost of $5,500. It's a substantial stone structure, 44 x 60, with little ornamentation except for the stained glass windows.
1848, a fellow named Moore led a number of followers in a split from the Sandy Ridge German Baptist Church a few miles away. This plain stucco over stone building was erected the following year, in 1849, and was known as the Moorite Church. It is essentially without adornment, although it has the two front doors characteristic of the period. When it was photographed several years ago, there was no floor, a couple of the shutters were barely hanging on, and several of the windows were broken, but a restoration effort was underway.
From: Jeff and Sherry Perine [jperine at triad.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011
Subject: Hunterdon County Bodines
Hi Dave,
Thanks for all that you are doing to keep up the website and family research. I haven't been in contact with you lately - or, for that matter, done much genealogy in many years. My kids were preschool-age back then, they're teenagers now, and life just seems to have gotten in the way of doing anything serious beyond just capturing bits of information in a shoebox. Maybe I'll be able to get back into it in a couple of years when they're in college.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I have always found something intriguing in the way my father and grandmother pronounced the name 'Bodine'. I assume most people would pronounce it as rhyming with either 'so fine' or 'go lean', with the accent on either syllable. My family always pronounced it with a strong accent on the second syllable, rhyming with 'the wine'. In addition to their association with the German Baptist community at Sand Brook, I have become aware of a few other facts about Germans in the Delaware Valley (eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey).
· Most Germans in the region (misnamed 'Pennsylvania Dutch') were Pietists (including several Anabaptist sects) who followed the Quakers around 1675 - 1725. They genuinely sought religious freedom (unlike the Puritans in Massachusetts Bay, whose goal was religious domination) and the Quakers who governed the Pennsylvania colony guaranteed it to any group who desired to live peacefully with their neighbors. They included Amish, Mennonites, Moravians and others.
· There were so many Germans in and around Philadelphia that Benjamin Franklin was famous for complaining about Germans overrunning the country and refusing to learn English or assimilate into our culture. Sound familiar? (Franklin was actually of New England Puritan stock and not a native Pennsylvanian.)
· Notwithstanding Franklin's assertions, many of the German immigrants were so thankful to the English-speaking Quakers that they eagerly learned the language and commonly anglicized their names. I wish they hadn't done this, because it obscures our research. Schumacher became Shoemaker, Mohr became Moore, etc. As a result, we have a harder time ascertaining these links to the Old World.
· My family's pronunciation of 'Bodine' is exactly the same as the German pronunciation of 'Bedein', which is also found in the region during the same time period.
So my hypothesis is that my family's Bodines were originally Bedeins, who probably thought 'Bodine' was a more suitable English spelling. They might even have known of Bodines in the area or elsewhere in New Jersey. I don't know exactly how to test the hypothesis from my remote perch in North Carolina, and as I mentioned am unlikely to have much time to go exploring in the next few years. But I thought I would put it out there, and hopefully someone will make a connection to either of the two lineages.
Take care!
Jeff Perine