The DeMont Family

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

The DeMont Family

Source: J. Percy Crayon, Rockaway Records of Morris County, N. J. Families, (Rockaway, N.J., Rockaway Publishing Co., 1902)

In my collections made in the centennial year (1876) some account of the DeMouth family were given me by a member of that family, which I do not find in the Morris County history, which I will make mention here that the record may be preserved.

The De Mont, or De Mouth family were formerly residents of France, French Huguenots who fled from France on account of their Protestant faith and removed to Hanover in Germany, and from thence emigrated to America in June, 1709, and became the first settlers of Rockaway Valley, of this township. they were the first white settlers in the valley, and this family was in possession of old papers and deeds dating from 1709 to 1730, and an old relic, a razor hone of petrified wood, which came over with the family, and had traditionally been preserved in the family a long time during their residence in France. Several other relics were well preserved and of great antiquity.

The early family records had been lost, but history mentions Frederick, and Jacob a probable son. They were also among the earliest settlers at New Foundland in this (Rockaway) township. The mythical inscription "P. x S. 1773" on the triangular stone above the door of the old stone house now owned by Theodore Brown, may be interpreted that the building was erected by Peter SNYDER in 1773. It was an addition to the original stone house built just forty years previous upon the lands owned by a member of the DeMouth family, who located there from Rockaway Valley about 1730, and inherited by the wife of Peter SNYDER, who was a daughter of this early settler at New Foundland.

Mr. Thomas DeMOUTH, who gave me this information, lived and owned lands where the Clinton reservoir now is, these lands being occupied by his father, Thomas, a descendant of the original family in America. He was born Sept. 2, 1804, died July 2, 1881. Married Betsey LEVI, of Litchfield, Ct. Her people were among the first settlers of that county. She was born Oct. 1, 1799, died Sept. 8, 1887. Both buried at Oak Ridge. Children:

Wesley, who served in the was '61-5;
Electa, married Rev. Peter D. VREELAND Nov. 12, 1856;
Elizabeth, married Patrick BURNS Nov. 16, 1867;
Thomas, Jr., born Oct. 4, 1838, died Aug. 4, 1858;
Hiram, born Mar. 30, 1840, married STAGG, died about 1890;
Abner and
Minerva.