The Scenic Lawrence Brook - History

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In the Lenni Lenape language, the name Piscopeek could be related to 'piske' ("dark, "it is dark", "light goes down"), also found in the name of the nearby Piscataway township (note that the ground is rich in dark-red Jurasic shale). This area south of the Raritan ( = sweet water) river was called 'Ramawan.' An "Indian bill of sale" states that Thomas Lawrence, a New York Baker, purchased the land around the Lawrence Brook from local Indians named Querameck, Kesyacs, Isarick, Metapis, Peckawan , and Turantecas (Indian Bill of Sale - Trenton State Museum). Nothing indicates was, if anything, was given in exchange for the land.

OLD MAPS : Source : http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MAPS.html

1777 Map of the Trenton-New Brunswick Turnpike Road (today's Route 27). The Lawrence brook appears, simplified, at the bottom of the map.

Click to enlarge, then click in the bottom right corner to enlarge again.

1917 Map of North Brunswick, bordered in the south (right hand side) by the Lawrence Brook..

Click to enlarge, then click in the bottom right corner to enlarge again.


		On several red shale outcropings (Triassic period) along the Lawrence brook are engraved the following enigmatic inscriptions : ' 1876 Centennial Year', skull-and-crossbones , 'Red Rover' , 'Elias Suydam M. Danbury' , and mysterious characters that nobody has ever deciphered. Can you decipher them? The name Suydam appears near the Lawrence Brook on old maps. 'The Red Rover' is a fiction pirate story written in 1839 by James Fennimore Cooper. The actual pirates Captain Kidd, Captain Morgan and Blackbeard used to roam the waters of the Raritan River. Note: Part of the inscriptions have been vandalized just after the Home News published an article on the subject.

	1907 plaque under the RRRR (Raritan River Railroad) bridge over the Lawrence brook, in Milltown. This railroad branch serviced the Michelin Factory, which closed in 1930. Text: "American Bridge Company of New York USA 1907"
	1965 plaque on Burnet Bridge, over the Lawrence Brook. Text: "New Jersey 1965"
	1874 plaque on the front of the Water works building. Text: "New Brunswick Water Works Erected by the water commissioners 1874 M.N. Oviatt Supt."

Related links: Davidsons Mill Pond Park history (1938-1968)