By Candy Willis for The Montgomery News | June 30, 2026
Van Harlingen Historical Society (VHHS) began a project last year to research and identify soldiers who lived in Western Precinct (known as Montgomery Township since 1798).
After countless hours of research, VHHS so far has discovered and confirmed 123 previously unknown soldiers (see names below). And there may be dozens more.
The Montgomery War Memorial in Veterans Park lists 22 soldiers who fought in the American Revolution.
So there had to be more troops from our township. The question became how to identify them?
VHHS will sponsor a talk on this subject at Somerset County’s Journey Through the Past on October 10 and 11. Details to be announced on vanharlingen.org.
VHHS partnered with the Montgomery Veterans Memorial Committee on the project. One of the guiding principles for inclusion on the memorial is the person had to live in Montgomery at the time of the American Revolution.
In the case of the Revolutionary War, Montgomery was known as the Western Precinct. Soldiers who lived in the Western Precinct during the war were included. They did not have to be born there. And it did not count if they moved there later.
For example, people traditionally associated with Princeton were actually from Somerset County and the Western Precinct during the Revolutionary War. This includes two signers of the Declaration of Independence: Richard Stockton and Rev. John Witherspoon. Those two were not soldiers, however, so they would not be included on the memorial.
Only soldiers are included.
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Geographically, Montgomery Township, then known as Western Precinct, stretched all the way south to the north side of Nassau Street in what is now Princeton.
It was bounded to the north by Hillsborough, which had just been separated off in 1771. To the east was Franklin (then known as Eastern Precinct), and to the west by Hopewell, then in Hunterdon County with that western boundary,
Province Line Road, being a more definitive demarcation than the average boundary.
It is difficult to determine the composition (age, sex, number/ name of people, etc.) in households because there was not a census enumerating those details. However, there were 250- plus entities enumerated in the township tax ratables (somewhat similar to tax assessments of today but with a twist).
And, it is important to note that not everyone was a staunch patriot — numbers vary from historian to historian with patriots 30% to 45%, loyalists 15% to 30%, and the rest neutral.
It makes sense a number of locals would have been involved in the conflict — and in some cases, it was father against son.
To further complicate the research process, Revolutionary War military records are good but incomplete and there have been transcription errors as time goes on. The 18th-century records sometimes used Dutch, phonetic spellings, and abbreviated names.
It became apparent there had to be more Revolutionary War soldiers than the 22 remembered on the Montgomery Veterans Memorial
In 1872, New Jersey Adjunct Gen. William S. Stryker published an official register of Jerseymen who served in the Revolutionary War titled “Official Register of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War.”
Nine years later, James P. Snell culled just the soldiers of Somerset and Hunterdon counties from that register and published that list. He identified close to 200 officers and 1200 enlisted men who served from Somerset County.
As with any secondary source, however, there are errors.
These men listed in the register were the heads-of-household and, generally but not always, white males at least 21 years old. Tax ratables did not include married women, children, nor the actual number of slaves (only males 16 and older who can work were taxable). But there were sometimes unmarried or widowed women or free black males.
John Witherspoon (left) and Richard Stockton (right)
It did include householders (non-farmers), single men, single men with good horses, horned cattle, horses, hogs, improved land (37 square miles), etc.
Well-known Revolutionary War Leaders such as Gen. Nathaniel Heard and Gen. Lewis Morris appear in [Montgomery Township] ratables along with Rev. John Witherspoon.
Candy Willis is a VHHS Librarian/Historian.
