Lemuel Kayhart

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Lemuel Kayhart

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

Lemuel KAYHART, proprietor of the Hotel Boonton, Boonton, Morris county, New Jersey, is a member of a family which has been resident in this country for several generations, and the various members of which have amply proven their worth as valuable and desirable citizens. The grandfather of Mr. KAYHART was born on the ocean in 1757, and died in Morris county in 1857. He was a millwright by occupation, and also owned and cultivated a farm in what was at that time known at Stony Brook. His son, Elijah, father of Lemuel KAYHART, was born in old Pequannock township, and was a farmer all his life. In addition to this he was a lumber and charcoal dealer, making the latter himself. He was an extensive land owner, and died on the old homestead at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He married Elizabeth LEACH, who died at the age of eighty-five years, and they had nine children.

Lemuel KAYHART was born in old Pequannock township, July 6, 1845. The schools of his native county furnished him with education advantages, and he was reared on the homestead farm until he had attained the age of eighteen years, when he was apprenticed to learn the trade of wagon making and was identified with this industry for a period of a quarter of a century. He then established himself in the hotel business, seven years at Montville, New Jersey, and then bought the Hotel Boonton, December 24, 1894, and opened it April 1, 1895. It is the oldest hotel in the town, and has a well established reputation. The hotel has twenty-eight rooms, and everything pertaining to the conduct of the place is attended to with the utmost accuracy and dispatch. In political matters, Mr. KAYHART is a man of independent opinion, and will not allow himself to be bound by party ties. The first vote he ever cast was for Lincoln as president. His fraternal affiliation is with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, of which he has been a member for many years. Mr. KAYHART married Mary F. WRIGHT, and they have had eight children, of whom six are living at the present time. The children are all musical, and the youngest son is now traveling abroad.