From "The Kuhl Family of Hunterdon County, New Jersey", Michael Gesner and John William Kuhl (3.358, child i), 2012 BEGIN Introduction by John W. Kuhl, Pittstown, New Jersey To provide a bit of background for our joint project, Michael suggested this introduction. Born in the small town of Three Bridges, N.J. in 1934, I grew up amidst a large family of farm oriented aunts, uncles, and cousins with only the general sense that the family had been in the area for some length of time. Educated in Readington Township grammar schools and Flemington High School, I graduated from Penn State in 1956 with a Navy commission as an Ensign in the regular Navy. My wonderings about the origins of our Kuhl/Cool family of Hunterdon County, N.J. began in earnest six months later in the Weddell Sea of the Antarctic in December of 1956 in the first of what would be three years in pioneering operations down there aboard the U.S.S. Wyandot, first as its gunnery officer and later its navigator. During the limited leisure time we had available, I was indulging my lifelong interest in things Civil War and read of the battle death at Spotsylvania, VA. in 1864 of Hunterdon native 1 st Sgt Paul Kuhl of the 15 th NJ Volunteer Infantry. It seemed likely he had been a relative but how connected? With no mail for over three months at a time there was little chance of pursuing it. When my service obligation was fulfilled and I left the Navy in 1959, in part for family reasons, there was finally opportunity to begin the quest in earnest. It was suggested I visit the dean of Hunterdon genealogists, Hiram Deats in his huge Victorian house (since demolished) at Flemington Junction several miles out of town. This then 89 year old man was sitting on his large front porch and in his unique, abrupt personal style, asked what I wanted. He then proceeded to unfold verbally from his remarkable mind the basics of the Hunterdon Kuhls as he had developed it. His findings on ours and many other families are now available at the library of the Hunterdon County Historical Society My efforts were generously assisted by a sister of my father, Mrs. Edna Kuhl Bauer of Pleasant Run, N.J. A hard-working farm-wife with limited education, she possessed an acute mind and memory right up to the end of her life in 2000 at age 96. She had carefully conserved what family records existed of our side of the family. The limit of my father's words on the subject had been that we were of Dutch origin. This proved to be false (perhaps a result of the local anti-German hysteria of WWI & II) , as did other accounts implying Spanish connections. All that was generally accepted when I was young, was that there were two branches of the family, one of them centered in the area just south of Flemington, the other just north. The reader will remember that this was long before today's computers changed research forever. Every thing had to be done by hand and in some cases, even hand copied as photocopiers were not yet universally available. But, the real picture did emerge slowly despite the demands of a family health situation and my career in the commercial agriculture of northwestern New Jersey. Immigrant brothers, Paul and Christian (Crest) Kuhl appear in early Hunterdon records, Paul to the Copper Hill area just south of Flemington by 1728 and Crest a bit later to settle first in the Montgomery Township area of Somerset County and in 1754 just north of Flemington in the Cherryville area. Both were farmers and fathered large families of similarly named offspring to make early differentiation difficult. Equally confusing was the presence in Hunterdon of Dutch Cools, German Kohls and even English Coles. Most of these latter three groups eventually morphed to Cole. By the time the understandably bewildered early clerks butchered the spelling of all these foreign names, they were all commingled on the early records with our Kuhls. One major problem was the loss by fire years ago of the records of the old German church at Larison's Corner to which most of the early Kuhls belonged. Using the standard tools of bible records, baptisms, census records, land deeds, surrogate's records, cemetery records, and whatever else could be found, a picture began to slowly form, though with many gaps evident. It soon became obvious that though descendants of both immigrants still reside in Hunterdon, many moved on, pushed by space requirements and opportunities elsewhere, first northward to Sussex (now Warren) County, and by 1790 to (West) Virginia) and the Finger Lake region of New York. From Warren County, succeeding generations crossed the Delaware into north central Pennsylvania. Ultimately this wave pushed on to Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, and many other points west. In general, those who left the county did so when "Cool" was in popular usage, and most retained this spelling as they and their descendants moved ever westward. By the time of the Civil War, those who remained in Hunterdon, had returned to the original spelling and Kuhl is the name in use here today. With connections gained by my volunteer efforts on the genealogical committee of the Hunterdon County Historical society, contact with many family correspondents resulted in my receiving reams of records from all around the country, in exchange of course, for what I could send them. Some of this information is included here in Michael's computer record. The rest will be available upon my death, at the library of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. A good illustration of the perils of research is afforded by the records of the early Kuhls who went north. By 1761 immigrant Paul Kuhl had prospered and his large family needed more room. He bought for his son William, 514 acres in the Knowlton area of Sussex (Warren in 1824). When immigrant Crest died in 1770, his will mentioned that his son William had already taken his share of the estate. This second William shows up also in that Knowlton area. Both had large families with similar given names and while Knowlton Baptismal records spell out the name as Kuhl, most all other sources from then on list them as Cool. Paul's son William was known then and there as Sr., Crest's William as Jr. even though they were cousins. It got so bad that the oldest grandson of William Sr. was known officially as William the 5 th. Confusion persisted. William Sr. died in 1815 and Sussex County Surrogate records indicate that settlement of his estate dragged on until 1823 when cousin William Jr. died. Predictably the papers of both the deceased appear in that same docket of William Sr. The paucity of local information on some of those who moved out of state, made it necessary to look to their areas of eventual settlement. Good information was obtained by four seven-ten day trips starting in 1968 out through Pennsylvania from the coal regions west, down into that state's Somerset and Washington counties plus visits to West Virginia and even Coolville, Ohio. Disappointingly, that town proved to have no family connection. Despairing of ever visiting Germany and being totally ignorant of the geography and the classical German of their old records, I contracted with Henry (Hank) Jones who had made huge strides in searching out the many Palatine families with whom the Kuhls immigrated here. He termed his German researcher (Carla Middelstaedt-Kubaseck) "the world's greatest digging lady". Within a few months and at an unbelievable low cost, she came up with several more generations of Kuhls who had lived in Maxsain in the Westerwald region of southwestern Germany. The basics are presented in this book but more can be found in Jones' More Palatinate Families, Universal City, CA 1991. The years rolled on and competing areas and activities of history consumed my time. While bits and pieces of information were gradually added to the total, it seemed improbable that there would ever be a comprehensive formal printing of all that had been found to date. Along came Michael Gesner. On the heels of a successful production of the Carkhuff family history, he was offering to do the same for our Kuhl family. This seemed a good opportunity that might never come again. This work is a blend of the old and new, and features the advantages of both. My efforts had been concentrated only on the male Kuhls. For the most part, I did little lateral research. Only through Michael's extensive computer effort could such a broad picture as this have emerged. The sheer volume of his entries is simply just amazing. I never realized how many "cousins" we had. In my own research, I had never completed a family sheet unless I could prove each entry with a source, all of which were listed on that particular family sheet. The sheer volume of Michael's material has precluded listing most sources and with that I am admittedly a little uncomfortable even though I understand the reasons. In any event, upon my death, all my records will be deposited into the collection of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. Those seeking further substantiation of my own work, can search there. It should be mentioned that there may be an early ghost or two in all this. There are some almost spectral hints that perhaps there was a third Kuhl/Cool immigrant to the Hunterdon area. And, he may have been a third brother as the two immigrants had a third brother named Peter. Or he may not have been related at all. Within the Larison's Corner cemetery is a badly eroded headstone for Peter Cool born in 1730 (nearly illegible) and died in 1801 (see husband of # 51). The last of his local descendants died single on her Voorhees Corner area farm in 1880. They had maintained a separate origin from the other local Kuhls and Cools. There is an entry on the Readington Reformed Church baptismal records that has a Frederick Cule baptized in 1773 as the son of a Peter Cule. From sheer lack of information, these are as yet undeveloped and further work is necessary. Thankful acknowledgement must be given to the many correspondents from across the country and over the years, for all the information they supplied to help make this as complete as possible. Most of all though, this work is a creation of Michael Gesner with the forbearance of his wife Janet. His computer is a fount of genealogical information, almost unbelievable in its content and scope. The massive input required has been a testament to his dedication to the subject. Our thanks are scarcely enough. This would not have been possible without him. He and his computer have woven a richer, deeper, fabric than would otherwise have been practically possible. END