Soul of a River Town

Thanks to his natural curiosity and love for working with details, Edward Cohen spent two years researching and writing Lambertville’s Legacy. The 200-plus page text is accompanied by more than 100 graphics, maps, photographs, genealogical charts and historic documents.

By: Susan Van Dongen
   One of the most interesting tidbits Edward Cohen discovered while researching his book, Lambertville’s Legacy (New Dimensions, $20), was the fact that so many of the town’s residents seem to live into their 90s — even past 100.
   "If Ponce de Leon was looking for the Fountain of Youth, he might have been looking in the wrong state," says Mr. Cohen, 72.

Photo by Bryan Grigsby

Author Edward Cohen at his historic home in Lambertville.

   Even John Coryell, the original owner of the house at 45 York St., lived to be 90. Digging a little further, Mr. Cohen realized that this Coryell fellow was the grandson of Lambertville’s founder — John Emanuel Coryell, who first ran a ferry across the Delaware to Pennsylvania in 1733, and dubbed the town Coryell’s Ferry.
   "Finding an old newspaper clipping tucked away on a high closet shelf, and learning that one’s home was built by a grandson of the town’s founder, and that the builder was himself a leading developer of Lambertville triggered the quest initially," Mr. Cohen writes.
   This direct connection with the town’s history really put the hook in the author, who moved to Lambertville from Pennington in the 1960s.
   Thanks to his natural curiosity and love for working with details, Mr. Cohen spent two years researching and writing Lambertville’s Legacy, which will be going into its second printing in the near future. The 200-plus page text is accompanied by more than 100 graphics, maps, photographs, genealogical charts and historic documents. Using the archives of the Lambertville Historical Society, the Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission and the Hunterdon County Historical Society, Mr. Cohen dug through deeds, marriage records, wills and family archives, and conducted interviews with a host of longtime Lambertville residents.
   "It gave him something to do when he retired," says Mr. Cohen’s wife, Patricia Firth, offering a wife’s perspective of watching a husband totally immerse himself in a lengthy project.
   The couple moved unknowingly into the old Coryell residence about 20 years ago. In the course of researching the history of the house on York Street — and in order to get the plaque denoting it as historic — he stumbled on the line of ownership dating back to 1799, when the property was "granted to John Coryell, Storekeeper" for 100 pounds.
   The charming wooden structure maintains its wide, wood-planked floors, touches of decorative etched milk glass, and a 1940s-era kitchen that looks out onto a neat and natural-looking postage-stamp garden and pond.
   The sunlit study where Mr. Cohen wrote his book doesn’t seem to have a computer, but it does have a magnificent Mission-style roll-top desk, reading stand and a beautiful view of the backyard gardens on York Street. He says part of the reason he decided to retire and write the book was because just being in the room and looking out the window was so relaxing.

The cover of Lambertville’s Legacy features a reprint of "Coryell’s Ferry, 1776" (above) by famed naive painter Joseph Pickett, of New Hope, Pa.

   Mr. Cohen is also fond of primitive-style oil paintings, which dot the walls of the living room and study. In fact, the cover of Lambertville’s Legacy echoes his interest in folk art, and features a reprint of "Coryell’s Ferry, 1776" by famed naive painter Joseph Pickett, of New Hope, Pa. The original painting hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
   It shows George Washington atop "Washington’s Rock" on Goat Hill, looking from the New Jersey side of the river through his spyglass, making sure the British wouldn’t be able to see the longboats hidden behind the Island of Malta. The story goes that Gen. Washington, with the help of the Coryell family, gathered a fleet of 35 boats and hid them behind the heavily wooded island (which no longer exists, due to construction and naturally shifting sandbars). As students of the Revolutionary War should know, the boats were an integral part of Gen. Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River.
   The famed Marblehead, Mass., boatmen rowed the troops and ordnance through the night, surprised the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, captured most of their men and critically wounded their commander.
   "The Christmas Day 1776 victory at Trenton gave a psychological lift to the colonial provinces and new spirit to Washington’s forces," Mr. Cohen writes.
   Mr. Cohen illuminates many other facets of Lambertville’s history. He writes of the location’s importance as a resting place along an ancient Indian trading trail, the construction of a succession of bridges as well as the Delaware & Raritan Canal, Lambertville’s importance as a transportation and manufacturing center, and its close sister-city relationship with New Hope.
   "I admired the entrepreneurial initiative and persistence of the Coryells, as well as Ashbel Welch, who married into the family," says Mr. Cohen, referring to the engineer and businessman who designed and oversaw the construction of the Delaware & Raritan Canal.
   Before his retirement in mid-’90s, Mr. Cohen was founder and executive director of New Jersey’s Science and Technology Commission. Previously, he was assistant chancellor for the state’s Department of Higher Education. His positions in state government came after some 13 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, which included work in Venezuela, Yugoslavia and other countries. Mr. Cohen has a bachelor’s degree from City College of New York and a master’s from Columbia University in political science. Lambertville’s Legacy is his first book.
   "My wife and I have just always loved the area, meandering along the back roads and hiking along the canals," Mr. Cohen says. In an age of suburban sprawl, bland strip malls and superstores, the author also admires Lambertville’s small-town soul and the sense of community.
   "You develop a sense of family with your town," he says.
Lambertville’s Legacy by Edward Cohen (New Dimensions, $20), is available directly from Mr. Cohen at 45 York St., Lambertville, 08530. $2.50 shipping and handling charge. The book is also available at Phoenix Books: (609) 397-4960; Dresswell’s: (609) 397-2229; and The Trading Post: (215) 862-9644.