Mellick / Schmidt, The Old Farm (Rutgers University Press) — edited from Andrew D. Mellick, Jr., The Story of an Old Farm

Transcription and notes

Cross-reference (added v190.5x10 2026-05-08): This is the Schmidt-edited 1990s Rutgers Univ Press abridgment of Mellick's 1889 original. The full unabridged original (Heritage Books Classic reprint preserving 1889 page numbers) is cataloged separately at I.56. I.56 captures content not present in this abridgment, including the Charity Hoff Cooper death-in-childbirth footnote (p. 574), Vincent Rongnion + 1690 Piscataway landowners list (pp. 194-195), and the full Aaron Maelick family chronology 1782-1788 (pp. 564-565). Use I.56 for primary-source verbatim work; this entry is preserved for the Schmidt editorial introduction + page-mapping continuity.

• Source files: multiple scanned pages under Books/Mellick - The Old Farm [edited]/ including:
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)
• (image held in the family archive)

• (image held in the family archive), (image held in the family archive), (image held in the family archive), (image held in the family archive)

• Identification (from title page):

• Title on title page: "THE OLD FARM"
• "Edited with an Introduction by HUBERT G. SCHMIDT"
• "from THE STORY OF AN OLD FARM by ANDREW D. MELLICK, JR."
• Imprint: "RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS / New Brunswick New Jersey"
• Library marking (pencilled, top right): "974.944 / M526 o"

• Publication year not visible on the scanned title page.

• Verbatim data from pp. 162–163 [Daniel Cooper and Barbara Margaret Gibbs] — end of the smallpox discussion continuing into the 1788 Cooper/Gibbs wedding narrative:

• (The top portion of pp. 162–163 continues a discussion of smallpox inoculation and the history of inoculation in America — not transcribed here; "Doctor Boylston" named as a standout physician.)
• "Let us abandon medical talk and turn again to the Old Stone House. There was a wedding in its best room in the autumn of 1788 which attracted much attention and caused considerable comment in the neighbourhood. It was the marriage of Aaron's wife's cousin Barbara Margaret Gibbs to Daniel Cooper."
• "Many guests were invited — at least we may so conclude, as traditions all concur in speaking of lavish hospitality on such occasions at the Old Farm."
• "The bidden relatives and neighbours did not find a timid or a blushing bride, for the Widow Gibbs was seventy-seven years old and had been married twice before. The bony groom was in his eighty-sixth year and was well acquainted with marriage ceremonies, this being the fifth time that he had deliberately placed the matrimonial noose about his neck."

• "We are led to believe, however, that Charlotte opened her house and made the occasion one of as much festivity as if the contracting parties were entering the bonds of wedlock for the first time." (continues onto p. 164)

• Verbatim data from pp. 164–165 — continuation of the wedding narrative, then the 1773 counterfeiting case:

• "time. Father Graff came over from New-Germantown to perform the extraordinary connection. Charlotte's cousin did not journey with her new husband to the end, but like her four predecessors fell by the way. The aged Mr. Cooper, however, was not discouraged, neither could he forget the sex and gave to the marriage relation his full countenance. Before receiving his final summons to relinquish wives and all mundane affairs he again led to the altar a blooming bride — his sixth wife, whom, when he died in his one hundred and first year, he left a disconsolate widow."
• "Daniel Cooper was born at sea late in the seventeenth century while his parents were emigrating from Holland. On reaching man's estate he settled on Long Hill in Morris County, becoming a farmer and a large land-owner; at one time he was high sheriff of the county and for many years sat on the bench as magistrate."
• "This inflexible judge — 'a second Daniel come to judgment' — had the unhappy experience of sentencing his own son to be hanged. On the nineteenth of August, 1773, over a thousand persons were assembled in the old courthouse at Morristown, which probably had never held a more interested audience nor one that exhibited a deeper sympathy with the course that justice had taken. They were there to hear the dread sentence of death pronounced upon four remarkably fine-looking men to whom were arraigned before the bar of the court. Among them was the son of Daniel Cooper, one of the magistrates sitting on the bench in judgment."

• "In all Mr. Cooper had eleven children. One of them, Benjamin, was interested with Lord Stirling in the Hibernia iron works. In 1773 a great number of forged bills began to circulate in Morris County; this led to the arrest and conviction of Doctor Barnabas Budd, Samuel Haines, David Reynolds, and Daniel Cooper's son Benjamin, they confessing to having received the bills from one Ford, a clever counterfeiter. This principal, who was also arrested, managed to effect his escape, but his accomplices were not so fortunate. Three of them, Reynolds, who seems to have been the least guilty of all, was executed. The influential connections of the others bore with great weight upon the pardoning power, resulting in a reprieve on the very morning set apart for the executions. Cooper's escape was largely due to his having furnished information regarding the robbery of the treasury of the eastern division of the province of six hundred pounds in the year 1768. For this confession, together with the influence exerted by Lord Stirling, the son of the upright judge and venerable bridegroom was subsequently pardoned."

• Notes on apparent internal inconsistency in Mellick's text (pp. 164–165):

• "Three of them, Reynolds … was executed" — the grammar suggests only Reynolds was hanged and the other two were reprieved along with Cooper (a total of three pardoned out of four: Budd, Haines, Cooper). This reading is not explicit in the text.

• Mellick gives Daniel Sr.'s age in 1788 as "eighty-sixth year"; a 1695 birth year (per DAR/other records) would put him in his 94th year in 1788. The two readings are not reconcilable without additional evidence.

• Descriptive notes for other pages scanned but not yet transcribed verbatim [desc]:

• Pages 22-23 — "The Crooked Billet Wharf" — context about Johannes Moelich.
• Pages 24-25 — context about Aaron Moelich (the "Aaron" whose wife's cousin married Daniel Cooper in 1788).
• Pages 26-27 — "State House" section.
• Pages 46-47 — "New Netherland" background.
• Pages 90-91 — "Matrimony" — general period context.
• Pages 124-125 — "Marriage Customs" — period context.
• Pages 130-131 — "Dutch Reformed Church" — period context.
• Pages 154-155 — "Jane Coriel and John Melick" — genealogy of the Melick family adjacent to the Daniel Cooper / Barbara Gibbs narrative.
• Pages 205–210 — Index pages.
• The descriptive contents of these pages have not been transcribed; if needed for cross-references, upgrade to verbatim on a later pass.