Casper Shafer: Difference between revisions

File:Caspershaferhouse1741.jpg

Home built by Casper Shafer in Stillwater, New Jersey. The architecture is typical of colonial-era and early America houses built by the German emigrants who settled in the Paulins Kill valley. The log cabin portion of the structure (left) dates from circa 1742, and the stone portion (right) from circa 1750.

Casper Shafer (1711-1784) constructed the first mill here in 1764, after an 1844 fire, it was reconstructed.

Casper Shafer (1712 - 17 December 1784) was among the first settlers of Stillwater along the Paulins Kill in Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. A successful miller and early tavern owner, Shafer later served in the first sessions of the New Jersey state legislature during the American Revolution.

Shafer was born in 1712 in the Rheinland-Pfalz. He emigrated from Rotterdam to the American colonies aboard the ship Queen Elizabeth commanded by Alexander Hope, and entered Philadelphia on 16 September 1738. At sometime after 1741, Shafer married Maria Catrina Bernhardt (1722-1794), the daughter of Johan Peter Bernhardt (d. 1748) and his wife (unknown). Shafer, his father-in-law, Bernhardt, and his brother-in-law John George Wintermute (1711-1782), and their families settled along the Paulins Kill in northwestern New Jersey circa 1742. This settlement became the village of Stillwater. The first year the conditions were spartan, and the settlers shared a log cabin located over a large stump which served as the family's table. Shafer's four children were all born in Stillwater—Peter (1744-1799), Margaretta (1745–1815), Abraham (1754–1820) and Isaac (1760–1800).

A few years after settling, Shafer erected a rudimentary gristmill along the Paulins Kill approximately 900 yards north of the site of the larger mill he built in 1764. This first mill ground out five bushels of flour per day." In later years, Shafer built a saw mill, oil-mill and tannery at the site and later purchased slaves to assist him with the farming and industrial production. He also established large orchards, mostly of apple trees that were later described as growing to "a majestic size, some of them attaining to over three feet in diameter at the butt." When Sussex County was established in 1753, the first session of the government granted Shafer and a few other early residents with licenses to operate taverns. Each year, Shafer would navigate down the Paulins Kill and Delaware River by flatboat "carrying flour and other produce down to the Philadelphia market" and returning with "such goods as the wants of the country in its primitive state seemed to demand." The pattern of trade in the region was focused toward Philadelphia, and for several years Shafer did not have any knowledge of English coastal cities in Newark Bay. The local Munsee tribe of the (Lenape) informed him of a town they called Lispatone—that is, Elizabethtown (present-day Elizabeth, New Jersey)—which he had not heard of. According to Schaeffer, "he journeyed in that direction some fifty miles over the mountains and through the almost trackless wilderness, until he finally arrived at the veritable town...where he commenced trading in his small way. And thus he was the pioneer in opening a profitable and important commercial intercourse between the south eastern sea-board, and that part of New Jersey." It was not until 1756 that a military supply road built by Jonathan Hampton opened up connecting Elizabeth and Morristown with the northwestern frontier.

In 1775, Shafer was a member of the Committee of Safety for Sussex County, and was charged with raising £10,000 to "purchase arms and ammunition and for other exigencies of the Province." The following year, Shafer, Thomas Peterson and Abia Brown represented the County in the Provincial Congress whose session began at Burlington on 10 June 1776 establishing the government as the former colony became an independent state, deposed the Royal Governor, William Franklin, and established the state's first constitution. In August, the Provincial Congress met in Princeton and transformed into the state's first Legislature. Shafer represented the county for the next three years, and was described as "faithful in his attendance at the various meetings at Princeton, Trenton, Burlington and Haddonfield. His vote is recorded on almost every question, and always in favor of the most vigorous and aggressive measures for carrying on the war."

Casper Shafer died on 7 February 1784 in Stillwater and was buried in Stillwater Cemetery. His service was conducted by Rev. Ira Condict who then supplied the Presbyterian congregation of Upper Hardwick (now Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church). His tombstone reads:

C. S.
In memory of
Casper Shaver, who
departed this life Dec.
the 7th, 1784, in the 72
year of his age.

On 10 December 2009, the Grist Mill built by Casper Shafer, and operated after his death by his son Abraham, was listed as the Casper and Abraham Shafer Grist Mill Complex on the state and National Register of Historic Places. The site is currently owned by the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to local environmental protection and historic preservation. It is frequently open for public visitation and educational events.