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The Van Veghten House was built around 1725 and served as the headquarters of Quartermaster General Nathanael Greene during the second Middlebrook encampment (1778–79). The Somerset County Historical Society owns the house and uses it as its headquarters, including a museum and library. The early 18th-century Old York Road passed by here connecting Philadelphia to New York City. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1979.
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In 1697, Michael Van Veghten (also spelled Van Vechten) purchased 834 acres along the Raritan River near Finderne. His first wife died and he married Jannetje Dumont on April 2, 1691. Their son Derrick inherited the property when Michael died in 1737.
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EST. 1725
During the second Middlebrook encampment, Derrick Van Veghten gave Quartermaster General Nathanael Greene and his wife Catharine Littlefield Greene the use of the house for his headquarters and the farm for an encampment of his troops, without asking for any compensation.
On March 19, 1779, General Greene described an event attended by General George Washington that was held at the Van Veghten House in a letter to Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth where Washington danced with Mrs. Greene danced 3 hours without sitting.
On August 30, 1781, the First Brigade of the French Army marched past his house, under the command of General Comte de Rochambeau, following the route to Yorktown, Virginia. The day's march was thirteen miles from the campground at Bullion's Tavern in Liberty Corner to the campground at Somerset Courthouse, now Millstone, New Jersey. The Second Brigade followed on August 31. The American Continental Armymarched nearby along different roads as part of this joint effort.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
Nathaniel Greene
Major General
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