from https://goodspeedhistories.com/quakertowns-taverns/

Peter I. Case

Here I run into trouble. I have two men identified as Peter I. Case, only one of whom ran the tavern at Quakertown. My best guess is Peter (1794-1877), son of John Matthias Case and Margaret Buchanan of Amwell, who married in 1817 Sarah Little (c.1793-1867), daughter of John Little and Sarah Silverthorn of Kingwood, and sister of Christy Little.14

There is reason to think that Case did not have his heart in the job of keeping a tavern. His heart belonged to the horses, and he often advertised in the Gazette the “high-bred horse Godolphin,” available for breeding.

Then in 1837, Case took a new direction. He purchased the County Tavern in Flemington from Thomas and Mary Alexander for $5,000,15 and advertised the Quakertown tavern for sale in the Gazette. Since the notice says so much about what the Quakertown tavern was like in the 1830s, I am including it here:

    “TAVERN HOUSE AND LOT FOR SALE; THE subscriber offers for sale the valuable Tavern House and premises, now occupied by him, in the village of Quakertown, Kingwood township, Hunterdon county, New Jersey; 6 miles above Flemington. The house is large and commodious, in good repair, with stabling sufficient for 50 horses; to which is attached two acres of excellent land; Also, 20 acres of Land, 5 of which is first rate woodland. The whole will be sold together, or the Tavern House and Lot separate, as the purchaser may choose. For further particulars, apply to the subscriber, on the premises, PETER I. CASE.” January 11, 1837.

Case was overly optimistic. Only two years later, Case had to assign all his property to Charles Bartles and Joseph Case, who soon afterwards, on March 29, 1839, sold the Quakertown tavern to Samuel Trimmer of Kingwood. Adding insult to injury, the sale was held “at the house of Peter I. Case, innkeeper in Quakertown,” and Trimmer bid only $1,653.16


14. The alternative Peter (1797-1884) was the son of John Philip Case and Amy Robins, and married Sarah Holcombe (1804-1866), daughter of Robert Holcombe and Elizabeth Pidcock of Amwell.

15. H.C. Deed Book 230 p. 410.

16. H.C. Deed Book 72 p.725.