Millstone

History

Millstone, then called Somerset Courthouse, was the county seat of Somerset County from 1738 until the British burned it to the ground in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. After the victory at Princeton on January 3, 1777, General George Washington headquartered at the Van Doren house, while the army camped nearby that night. The next day, they marched to Pluckemin on the way to their winter encampment at Morristown. Millstone was briefly connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad when the Mercer and Somerset Railway was extended to the town in the 1870s and connected via a bridge across the Millstone River to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad, but that arrangement did not last into the 1880s. Remnants of the railroad bridge can still be seen.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 0.70 square miles (1.82 km2), including 0.68 square miles (1.76 km2) of land and 0.02 square miles (0.05 km2) of water (2.86%). According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Millstone would have an Appalachian Oak (104) vegetation type with an Eastern Hardwood Forest (25) vegetation form.

Race & ethnicity