It Happened in Hillsborough: The Millstone Trolley?

The Borough of Millstone recently celebrated its 132 nd birthday. The former Somerset Courthouse of
colonial times officially separated itself from Hillsborough Township on May 18, 1894. The enduring
question is, why? I have never read a good explanation for Millstone’s independence. But a newspaper
story from just 8 weeks after the divorce may hold a clue.

The Millstone Trolley?

On July 14, 1894, The New York Times - as well as the other daily newspapers - announced the
incorporation of "two monster trolley railway corporations" with a plan for a massive electric trolley
railway connecting New York with Philadelphia, running right through Millstone.
The line was to begin in Paterson by connecting to the street railway system already in place, then pass
through Upper Montclair, Montclair, Bloomfield, Orange, South Orange, Maplewood, Wyoming,
Springfield, Westfield, Millburn, Fanwood, and Netherwood, until reaching a connection with the
Plainfield electric railway.

Tracks would then run to Dunellen and Bound Brook before crossing the Central Railroad of New Jersey
tracks at Finderne and turning south past the Lehigh Valley Railroad station at Hillsboro and the
Philadelphia and Reading station at Weston. Then on through Millstone, Rocky Hill, Kingston, Princeton,
Lawrenceville, Trenton, and on to Philadelphia.

The two aforementioned companies were the New York and Philadelphia Traction Company, which was
capitalized at $10 million, and the Central New Jersey Traction Company, which contributed $500k to
the partnership. This project must have been in the works for months in 1893 and 1894, with inquiries
about land purchases and surveyors out on Millstone River Road. Could knowledge of the trolley project
be the thing that propelled Millstone’s secessionist movement behind the scenes?

Alas, the line was never built. Within a year, the Central NJ Traction Company was in trouble - with
unpaid construction bills flooding the ledger, while the balance sheet showed only one asset - a contract
with its partner, NY and Philadelphia Traction Company, to build and equip a trolley line. By that time,
NY&P was busy negotiating deals to build shorter trolley lines between towns in Somerset and
Middlesex Counties, and the contract with Central NJ Traction was worthless.

Can you imagine a rural trolley line on Millstone River Road?

Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column
“Gillette on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. A recipient of
the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award for Education/Leadership in
2018, he was named as Hillsborough’s first Local Historian in 2025.