Cream Ridge Holmeses share family heritage Family devised way to hide horses during the Revolutionary War

Cream Ridge Holmeses
share family heritage
Family devised way
to hide horses during
the Revolutionary War

UPPER FREEHOLD — Ruth Holmes Honadle and her son George Holmes Honadle have left a legacy to the people of Upper Freehold. It is a book titled Twixt Crosswicks Creek and Burlington Path — Glimpses of Life, Nature, Change on a Cream Ridge Farm.

Mrs. Honadle’s family has lived in Upper Freehold for 281 years and in other parts of Monmouth County before that. She is a descendant of Obadiah Holmes, a Baptist minister who left England in 1638, and settled in Salem, Mass., in 1639. In 1651, the ruling authorities forbade his preaching as a Baptist, and Holmes and two others were arrested and publicly flogged. Holmes moved on to the religious sanctuary offered by Rhode Island and became a minister in Newport.

His son, Obadiah Holmes Jr., was one of the original 12 patentees to whom the Monmouth Patent was granted in 1665. It is not certain that he ever lived in Middletown, but other members of his family did, helping to establish the Middletown Baptist Church.

Holmdel, which was part of Middletown until the mid-19th century, is named for the Holmes family.

A branch of the Middletown church was established in Crosswicks or Upper Freehold in the early 1700s and in 1766, erected the Yellow Meeting House, which still stands. Richard Salter Jr., who married the daughter of Capt. John Bowne and Lydia Holmes, a daughter of the senior Obadiah, gave land for the church and cemetery about 1720, according to the History of Monmouth County. Salter’s daughter, Hannah, married Mordecai Lincoln, and their great-great-grandson was the 16th president.

Another ancestor was Jonathan Holmes, whose house stood on Holmes Road, the Upper Freehold road which bears his name. Jonathan Holmes was a captain in the Continental Army and was home on leave when he was warned that the "Pine Robbers" were en route to his house. Honadle explains that while the Pine Robbers were Tory sympathizers, they were primarily just robbers. Holmes knew that if caught, he would be hanged, so he hid himself under the hay in his barn.

Unfortunately, although he managed to elude the robbers, Holmes caught pneumonia during the ordeal and died.

Honadle also relates another story occurring during the Revolution. Knowing that the British might confiscate their horses, the family devised a clever way to hide them. A section of the wall of Jonathan Holmes "Red House" was taken down, and, using a system of pulleys and slings, the horses were hoisted onto the second floor. Honadle remembers a bedroom in the house, which burned down 30 years ago, which had a specially designed floor that was raised in the center with a trough around the periphery, where the horses were kept.

The Honadles’ 185-page book took 13 years to complete, and many of the photographs in it were taken by George Holmes Honadle. Mrs. Honadle makes it clear that the work was a collaborative effort between her and her son, who lives in Ohio. It was his idea to put things down in writing for the family, and his influence is especially felt in the book’s emphasis on the natural world.

From her years of doing research in libraries and archives, Mrs. Honadle believes that nothing similar to this book was written in the past regarding the history of Cream Ridge.

The book is dedicated both to her grandchildren and "to the future of Crosswicks Creek Park: for its protection of the meadow and its potential to generate a sense of wonder, historical and scientific knowledge, and an appreciation of nature within the general public." Crosswicks Creek Park is part of the Monmouth County Park System.

"We don’t own land; it is stewardship. We should think about passing it on in as good a condition as we received it," Mrs. Honadle said.

Mrs. Honadle has had a lifelong interest in history, encouraged by her father and grandfather. "It seemed a natural thing," she said.

Many local family names are found in her lineage. Her mother was a Meirs, and she is related to the Meirs who married into the Waln family, which owned what is now Walnford Park. Other names in the family tree include Imlay, Conover and Giberson.

Her family history literally surrounds her. She was born in the house next door to her current home, and the house beyond that is the one that her grandparents lived in from their marriage until the time they died. Nearby is what the family refers to as the "Mill House," the home of the miller who operated her father’s mill.

She belongs to the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society and the Monmouth County Historical Society. She has given talks to the Monmouth County Historical Society and served as hostess at tours of the Old Yellow Meeting House. Mrs. Honadle plans to donate copies of her book to the Allentown High School Library and the Allentown Public Library.

The book, which sells for $19.95 plus tax, is available at the Artful Deposit in Allentown as well as at the Ocean County Historical Society and the Cream Ridge Winery.