Sowing the seeds of preservation

A farming family with deep roots gives land for open space

January 14, 2007

BY CURT YESKE

THE TIMES OF TRENTON

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP -- For 200 years, eight generations of descendants of Revolutionary War soldier Charles Sergeant have enjoyed their rural homestead on the meandering Wickecheoke Creek.

If a few of the original Sergeants were to return today to the crossroads village that bears their family's name, they would find the setting hasn't changed much.

There's a covered bridge that once served the horse-drawn farm wagons headed for the crossroads settlement of Sergeantsville. From Rosemont west of Sergeantsville, the view for the most part remains vintage farms, set among the rolling hills that have long been a magnet for landscape artists.

The only major change, in addition to a smattering of homes, has been the paving of the quarter-mile-long road from the covered bridge to town and the stop light at the crossroads.

The people who make up Sergeantsville, pronounced "SIR-jints-vil," live in attractive, variable architectural-style homes that are well maintained and tend to attract the interest of big city buyers. And if the family that inherited this proud past has its way, Sergeantsville will remain as resolutely bucolic as it is now.

Sergeant descendants Alan Johnson, 49, and his mother, Rosa, have recently made sure that 11 acres of their remaining property will never be developed and will be enjoyed as open space for future generations.

The land was acquired by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and follows a series of other acquisitions of 40 acres and additional easements from the Johnsons. Including the Johnson family's total transactions, 25 percent of the township's 37 square miles is preserved open space or dedicated for agricultural use, according to township officials. "We've grown very attached to the area," said Alan Johnson. "Two hundred years or so and you sort of get used to things, and it would be right for them to remain as they are."

Despite the attachment to the land and the family legacy, Alan Johnson is convinced the wooded tracts and creek banks belong in the public domain.

"What we have done is not about the past. It is about the future," said Johnson. "Obviously, it makes our family feel very good in doing this. It was the right thing to do for the area and the community. But this is about the future, hopefully even for children not yet born."

The public has enjoyed some of the Johnsons' lands for years.

"When we owned the property it was the community ice-skating pond. On the opening day of trout season, the creek was crowded with fishermen. They used parts of the land except the areas nearest our dairy operations," said Johnson.

Alan Johnson, center, has ensured that his remaining property in Sergeantsville will be conserved by selling it to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. He is flanked by the foundation’s Fred Feiner, left, and Alix Bacon near the Green Sergeant’s Covered Bridge.

The family's kinship with the land prompted them to become involved in a series of preservation projects over the years to protect the area along the Wickecheoke Creek.

"My (late) husband did not want houses mushrooming across the land," said Rosa Johnson. "We have farmed here for generations. We want to see the area protected for present and future generations."

She recently donated 2 acres adjacent to the covered bridge to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. About the same time, her son sold 7 acres of woodlands to the foundation. They were part of an 11-acre site that included the family's original stone home built in 1754, which they retained.

The foundation said it bought the property for $299,512.50, which it said was 50 percent of the land's appraised value. Alan Johnson donated the remaining land value to the foundation.

The newly preserved creek bank property is across the road from 22 acres the family sold to the foundation in 2002.

In 2003 Rosa Johnson and her husband, Larry, also sold an easement to the State Farmland Preservation Program, ensuring that 42 of their 66 acres would remain exclusively for agriculture use.

Alan Johnson said he and his father had many spirited discussions on the merits of preserving the land.

"After those many discussions on the benefits of preservation, toward the end of his life he came to realize the benefits of it," said Alan Johnson. "As for me, one of the most distressing things I experience is driving toward town and seeing a development there that is named after a farmer who sold his land."

"We had a (30-head) dairy farm for many years," said Rosa Johnson of the Rosemont-Ringoes Road farm that today produces hay and corn.

"We never went on a vacation because my husband never trusted anybody else to milk the cows," she said. "We all had our work to do. I helped feed the calves and baled the hay. I drove the tractor and my husband loaded hay on the wagon," said Rosa Johnson, who is retired.

Alix Bacon, a regional manager for the Conservation Foundation, praised the Johnsons and other landholders on both sides of the creek who have placed easements on their properties and sold them to preservation organizations to ensure they remain as open space.

She repeated a plea that has been made by other conservation-minded organizations in New Jersey, that the state will need to undertake a referendum to get voters to approve borrowing to replenish the preservation funds that will be depleted sometime this year.

Ancestors of the Johnson family have lived in the Sergeantsville area since the 19th century. In 1805 the homestead containing the site of Green Sergeant's Covered Bridge, the surrounding hamlet and mills, passed from John Opdyke to Charles Sergeant. The crossroads village was named for Charles.

The properties later passed to Green Sergeant, who built the covered bridge in 1872. Green's daughter, Sara, married George Johnson, which is how the property passed into the Johnson family. About 30 members of the Johnson family still live in the area, including three of Rosa Johnson's four children.

The newly preserved creek property is at the corner of Pine Hill Road and Route 604. The area beside the free-flowing creek is marked with beautiful cliffs and flat land at the top of the hills, offering bucolic views of Rosemont Valley. The land was preserved in partnership with Delaware Township.

"We just can't say enough about the generosity the Johnson family has shown to our town," said Delaware Township Mayor Rich Madden.

"Their property is adjacent to other preserved lands and the environmentally sensitive Wickecheoke Creek, so we truly appreciate the commitment they have displayed to our community for so many years."

Bacon said the Johnsons' generosity has helped protect the foundation's 1,000-acre Wickecheoke Creek Greenway, which is open to the public. It follows the course of the creek, a Delaware River tributary, from the headwaters on the Croton plateau, descending dramatically to enter the river at Stockton.

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