1714 – 1908

THE ASTONISHING BIRTH OF A TOWN

Long ago the Minisink Indians were the main folk here. They lived in tepees and stopped here occasionally on their way from the land up north to the southern area. They camped mainly where the new American Legion apartment is now, on WOLF PIT HILL, so named by the Indians. They called the area near the bay, FISHING POINT, but the folk further inland, such as Middletown, described it as "the key port of Monmouth County."

John Bowne, Jr., of Middletown, was the first Monmouth Patentee, having power to sell land he bought from the Indians to the early settlers. It was he whom the two New York merchants, Thomas and his brother, Michael Kearny, interviewed when they found some land they wanted to buy, in 1714. They had an appointment with Bowne at the Brown's Point Inn, where much business was carried on.

The New Yorkers were delighted with Fishing Point on that July day and bought 140 acres—2/3 to Thomas and 1/3 to Michael. However, before long Michael sold his third to Thomas, who had put his slaves to work building a beautiful mansion on Wolf Pit Hill with a dock into Luppatatong Creek. The house was completed by 1717 and the family moved down from New York.

The Kearny's enjoyed the bountiful sea food, especially the oysters, and the wild nut and fruit trees, and the bay. Before long they bought a couple of sloops for pleasure and travel to New York on business, and they named their dwelling KEY GROVE MANSION, for their home in Ireland.

Came a time, however, when Thomas, Sr. realized he was aging. He loved Key Grove Plantation and had been buying more and more acres. He made his Will to leave the Plantation to the oldest male Kearny, "for ever and ever."

Thomas, Jr., was the first Squire to inherit the Plantation and his son, James, a bachelor, became the third Squire. James had no son, of course, but as he grew older he felt his younger brother, Edmund, would serve. Edmund had been educated in England, where he married and continued to live and where his close friend, Lord Horatio Nelson, lived. So Edmund was made Squire at James' death in 1811. Edmund and his seven children soon settled on the Plantation.