Millstone, NJ

At the 2020 census, Millstone was a Somerset County borough of 448 people on the Millstone River, with a past much larger than its present footprint. The settlement was called Somerset Courthouse and served as Somerset County’s seat from 1738 until British troops burned it during the Revolution in 1779. George Washington headquartered at the Van Doren house after the victory at Princeton, and the county seat moved to Somerville in 1784. Millstone became a borough in 1894, but its old river crossing and courthouse-era roads still shape the village.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal brought a second burst of trade. After it opened in 1834, farmers brought grain to Millstone, warehouses held as many as 100,000 bushels, and the river valley filled with stores, hotels, harness shops, and lumberyards. The canal faded after railroads took over, leaving the church, school, Borough Hall, Van Doren houses, and coverlets as pieces of a former country center. Millstone is tiny on a modern population table, yet the road, river, and canal show why this corner of New Jersey once handled county government, military traffic, farm commerce, lectures, and a surprising amount of grain.