The Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Mansion is part of The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant Geocache Series which give an in depth history of this important and distinguished american family and the gilded age in New Jersey.
These two nearby locations, The Stuyvesant Mansion and The Rutherfurd Mansion were located within Tranquility Farms massive 5000 acre estate which was divided by the construction on interstate 80. Those individual titled cache pages will give a complete history.
The Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Mansion
Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Mansion
This Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Mansion geocache is located near the actual location of the original Stuyvesant Mansion. The Mansion burned in 1959, there is no trace left, but the property has many old outbuilding ruins throughout the location. This group of caches in the series showcases the original Tranquility Farm.
Rutherfurd Hall Mansion ~ See GC6PC8N
The Rutherford Hall Mansion geocache series showcases the historic family and is just South of route 80. The geocache series gives an in depth history of the the family's stately home.
Family History
The Rutherfurd ~ Stuyvesant family had occupied what is now Allamuchy and Green Townships, spanning both Warren and Sussex Counties or hundreds of years, since 1758, when Walter Rutherfurd married Catherine Alexander and joined in ownership of this portion of her family's extensive holdings.
The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant family were ancestors of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director General of New Netherland before it was ceded to the English in 1664 and renamed New York, and John Rutherford was an American politician and land surveyor, then moved to a farm near the village of Tranquility in Sussex County. After the boundary for a new county was drawn in 1824 his former holdings now straddled Sussex and Warren counties.
In 1902 Rutherfurd Stuyvesant's brother when Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd (1862-1944) decided to build a country home for his new bride, Alice Morton, Allamuchy, New Jersey was a natural choice. He commissioned an 18,000 foot manor to be built on the estate, known as Allamuchy Farms near Allamuchy Pond. The home know by the family as the "big house" now known as Rutherfurd Mansion. Winthrop’s father originally owned the nearby, 460-acre Tranquility Farms, which had been in the family since the mid-1700’s. Winthrop’s older brother Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, twenty years his senior (who later changed his name to Rutherfurd Stuyvesant to meet the terms of inheritance for the Stuyvesant fortune), increased his father’s original land holdings in the 1890’s.
Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, at the turn of the twentieth century expanded the family’s ancestral estate, made successive purchases of farms and forests, expanding upon his father’s original agrarian ideals. When he was through, Tranquility Farms encompassed 5000 acres and consisted of 20 farms and the fenced 1000-acre Deer Park on Allamuchy mountain that was used as a private hunting preserve stocked with deer, elk and English pheasant. On the farms, there were herds of Dorset sheep and Jersey, Guernsey and Holstein cows.
Rutherfurd Stuyvesant was a great collector of Italian paintings and collections of armor. He spent his life as a country gentleman and as a connoisseur. He was the director of the Metropolitan Museum. His activities were those of fine nature and his personality won many warm friends. His schooner-yacht was named "Palmer". He and his wife would spent many of his later years in Europe.
His kennels won many prizes, and his sheep could not be equaled in America. His game preserve first made the English pheasant known in our county. A deer park of hundreds of acres is part of the estate.
Stuyvesant also tripled the size the original 18 Century Mansion to create the "Stuyvesant Mansion" The estate became a fall retreat for New York Gilded Age Society. At the center of the operation was a 65-room mansion, which burned to the ground in 1959. In the 60s land was purchased by the state for highway construction, and later the expansion of Allamuchy State Park. Tranquility Farm’s remaining structures have been slowly settling into the wilderness ever since. Just a few are still standing, and many collapsed into their foundations long ago.
"Descendants"
Peter Stuyvesant c.1612—1672) served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 who was the last Dutch colonial Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch territory between the Delaware Bay and the Connecticut River (including what is now New Jersey) until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City.
John Rutherfurd (September 20, 1760 – February 23, 1840) was an American politician and land surveyor. He represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1791 to 1798. Rutherfurd attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied law. He practiced law in New York City for several years, and then moved to a farm near the village of Tranquility in Sussex County (after a boundary for a new county was drawn in 1824 his former holdings straddled Sussex and Warren Counties) in New Jersey in 1787. He entered politics, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1788 to 1790. He was then elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate from New Jersey and served in the Senate from 1791 to 1798.
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