Just in case anyone else is interested in old families of Milltown, I'm sending this along. I am related to Joseph Booraem (d.1827), through his daughter Siche Maria.---Robin RLCww@aol.com --------------------- The Sunday Home News, June 21, 1964 New Jersey's Tercentenary Who Came First: Kuhlthaus or Booreams? MILLTOWN---Prominent families in this once sleepy little village can trace their ancestors back beyond the year that Milltown became a borough and among them are the Booreams and the Kuhlthaus. Although the Booreams beat the Kuhlthaus to the United States, it could be that the Kuhlthaus hold the record for having ancestors actually living within the present borough boundaries before the Booreams. Arrived in 1848 Miss Mae E. Kuhlthau of 25 Richter Ave. and her brother, G. Wilbur Kuhlthau of 34 Foch Ave. can pinpoint the date when the first Kuhlthau came to America. Philip Kuhlthau, their grandfather, landed in New York from Germany in 1848. Former mayor Charles V. Booream, currently borough attorney, can go back further than that but he can't come up with a definite date of when his ancestors arrived. Charles' great, great, great grandfather, and you could add a fourth great for his children, lived in Matchaponix back in the 1700s. He was Joseph Booream, a farmer, who married Abigail Potter in 1798. She was more than 100 years old when she died April 11, 1865. Matchaponix in Monroe Township later became Texas. Actually, Jonathan Booream, of Holland Dutch ancestry, was born in Milltown when it was called Bergen's Mill and that was before Philip Kuhlthau set sail for America. But Jonathan was from a different branch of the family than Charles' Matchaponix ancestor. Had Six Children Among Joseph and Abigail's six children was Henry H. Booream, born Oct. 6, 1811 in Matchaponix, the borough attorney's great, great grandfather. "He's the one who looked like an Indian," Charlie says. Henry Booream spent his early days on his father's farm and then took up masonry. He have this up because of failing health and went into marketing. Most of Henry's adult life was spent in North Brunswick, where he was married Feb. 28, 1833 to Maria Van Liew. They had two children and one was Garret Van Liew Booream, born Dec. 7, 1833. Garret was the borough attorney's great grandfather and the Van Liew is where Charles and his father, Charles Van Liew Booream, former postmaster, got their middle names. Garret's son John, was the older Booream's father. Getting back to Henry, who died Jan. 10, 1879---the old house on Nassau Street behind Selover's gas station in North Brunswick was his home. Henry bought the property in 1837 and the house is among the oldest in North Brunswick. Henry is credited with keeping North Brunswick's "expense account" down by his "watchfulness and executive ability." Was Tax Collector He held many elective positions to the township, serving 20 years as tax collector and was a chosen freeholder when he died. The difference between this generation of Kuhlthaus and the Booreams: Henry Booream was a Republican, Philip Kuhlthau was a Republican. Somewhere down the line, the Booreams turned Democratic. But the Kuhlthaus are still Republican. Too, somehow one branch of the Booream family changed the spelling from e-a to a-e, Booraem. Philip Kuhlthau's family lived in Oberzell, Kurhessen, Germany, and his mother was a Lins. That is also a prominent family in Milltown. Philip, one of 11 children, was born in Oberzell Oct. 22, 1829, and went to work when he was 16, serving as clerk on the public highway. Philip was 18 when he took off for America and spent the first two years in the New World working on a farm. Then he worked for three years at the Ford Rubber Co. here and saved enough money to return to Germany where he spent nearly a year. When Philip came back in 1853, he brought his parents and their family. He went back to work for Ford until April 1855 when he opened a grocery store in a 16-by-22-foot building at the corner of W. Church Street and N. Main Street. In 1856, he built his home adjacent to the store. "I was born in that house 79 years ago," Philip's granddaughter, Miss Mae Kuhlthau said. Part of the house has long since been taken to enlarge the store but there is living quarters upstairs. The last Kuhlthau to run the store was the late Conrad W., an uncle of Miss Mae and father of the former Borough Attorney K. Yarnell Kuhlthau, now living in Piscataway. Like Henry Booream, Kuhlthau was active in politics in North Brunswick. He was a freeholder for two years, a township committeeman 10 years, justice of the peace five years, commissioner of deeds six years, collector, and postmaster 1[digit missing] years for the village of Milltown. He was also trustee of the Methodist-Episcopal Church. Booream was a deacon of the Reformed (Dutch) Church of New Brunswick. ===end=== Corrections: Booraem was the earlier spelling, not Booream. From census records, it looks like Abigail Potter Booraem was more likely in her 80s when she died, not 100. ---Robin Chalmers