[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 77 (Thursday, May 20, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E901-E902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE TOWNSHIP OF PEQUANNOCK, NEW JERSEY

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 20, 2010

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Township 
of Pequannock, in Morris County, New Jersey, which is celebrating the 
270th anniversary of their incorporation.
  The Township of Pequannock, with its northern portion Pompton Plains, 
is one of the oldest European settlements in northwestern New Jersey. 
Its lands were purchased from the Lenni-Lenape Indians between 1695 and

[[Page E902]]

1696 and it was incorporated as a township in 1740, making it at the 
time the largest township in Morris County.
  Evidence reports tool-making and hunting activity by Paleo-Indian 
hunters as early as 3000 B.C.E. Examples of Paleolithic tools are part 
of the town's historic collections. Later, the area was occupied by 
Lenni-Lenape Indians who camped, hunted, fished, settled and tilled the 
fertile lands along the river plains formed by the confluence of the 
Ramapo, Pompton and Pequannock Rivers. Dutch and English farmers began 
to settle and farm its flat plains by 1710.
  During the Revolutionary War, the Township was an important interior 
travel route and convenient rest stop for George Washington and other 
Revolutionary War patriots. Nearby ``Poquanic Knob'' was the site of a 
lookout during British Generals Clinton's and Cornwallis' occupation of 
New York City. Hessian soldiers from the American victory of Saratoga 
were temporarily imprisoned in the Township. Soldiers of Washington and 
French General Compte de Rochambeau camped in the town on their march 
from Rhode Island to the Yorktown Battlefield in Virginia in 1781. 
General Lafayette and his soldiers passed through Pequannock to 
Virginia in his quest to capture Benedict Arnold. In June of 1782, 
General Von Steuben reviewed the troops on the ``flat fields'' of 
Pompton Plains.
  Once encompassing a sprawling 176 square miles, Pequannock now 
consists of 6.8 square miles of suburban community. The Township has, 
within its confines, a portion of one of the remaining historic New 
Jersey turnpikes, the Newark-Pompton Turnpike, built between 1806 and 
1811. Earlier during the colonial period, this road was known as the 
``King's Highway.'' And, shortly after America's independence it was 
known as the ``Road through the Plains.''
  In addition, the Township is part of the remains of a long extinct 
glacial lake called ``Lake Passaic.'' There are wooded walking and 
horseback riding paths that overlook a ``feeder dam'' of the historical 
1827 Morris Canal, an engineering marvel of its day, and rivers for 
fishing and canoeing that exist along this historic dam site. A State 
Green Acres mountain park, containing the remains of Indian trails, 
enables hikers to see the New York City skyline.
  Pequannock is home to the First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains 
founded in 1771, with a churchyard containing the graves of veterans 
from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The community features 
an early 19th century general store, a recently restored historic site 
and National Registered railroad station, which currently serves as the 
Township's history museum, and many privately owned houses dating back 
to the 18th and 19th centuries.
  Between 1943 and 1946 Pequannock Township was the home of the plant 
and rocket test site of Reaction Motors, Inc., a pioneer manufacturer 
of liquid-fueled rocket engines. Reaction Motors designed, produced and 
test-fired in Pompton Plains the XLR-1 rocket engine, which ultimately 
powered the first aircraft flight to break the sound barrier and the 
Bell X-1 rocket aircraft, the Glorious Glennis, piloted by Air Force 
Captain/Test Pilot, Charles (Chuck) Yeager, at Mach 1 speed. This event 
served as a precursor to the Nation's space program.
  The Township of Pequannock has been a vital part of the history of 
our Nation from the Revolutionary War through the infancy of mass-
transportation of goods to the beginning of the space age.
  Madam Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating the Township of Pequannock as they celebrate their 270th 
anniversary of their incorporation into the State of New Jersey.

                          ____________________