May was a very busy month for the farmers of Pleasant Valley. It was prime planting season for corn and tomatoes. Weather was always a concern and caused variation from year to year when planting could be done. A 1909 notice in the Hopewell Herald gave the folk wisdom that “A man should be able to sleep without any covering before the proper time for corn planting arrives. There is nothing to be gained by too early work in this line. There is too much chance of the grain rotting in the ground.” Too much rain, as well as cool temperatures, could bring on corn rotting in the ground as it was reported in 1892. Rain could simply delay the planting as well as ruin it. In 1895 there was a late May frost that severely damaged the very young crops.

Weather could delay other crops as well and in 1901 farmers were still planting oats in May which delayed getting started on corn. Potatoes were also planted in May – again weather permitting.

In the 1890s local farmers were growing tomatoes for the Titusville canning factory. In May 1899 Stephen B. Moore was noted for having set out 1400 tomato plants. Farmers also kept an eye on the weather for any possible effects on their fruit orchards.

When not involved in plowing and planting, farmers often enjoyed fishing the shad that came up the Delaware in early May. For various reasons the shad were scarce in some years while plentiful in others. In 1889 the paper reported that local fishermen were of the opinion that the shad would not be plentiful and 1901 was another poor year. The same was true in 1902 but then in 1903 things seemed to turn around. Rachel Williamson reported in her May 13 column that “A.B. Hart is the champion shad fisherman of his neighborhood. He takes them right out of the creek as far up the stream as the Joe Johnson farm, while his team of men were working along the road wall near there.” The stream referred to is Moore’s Creek and the Joe Johnson farm was across Valley Road from today’s Howell Farm. Andrew B. Hart was the local road supervisor for the Valley.

The annual Union Sunday School opened in late April or early May and involved people of all generations. Officers were elected and Gershom L. Ege served as Sunday School Superintendent for many years. Joseph K. Leigh was also a leader in the Sunday School serving frequently as assistant superintendent or secretary. The Sunday School was held at the schoolhouse on Sunday afternoons.

Regular attendance by children at the public school was increasingly emphasized after the turn of the 20th century. A notice in the Hopewell Herald on May 29, 1901 called the attention of parents to a recent amendment to the New Jersey school laws. Under this amendment the money received by a township from the State for its schools was to be based on actual attendance, not the number of school age children in the township. Therefore, noted the paper, absence from school was “not only a loss to the pupil in neglecting lessons, but it also adds to the local tax that must be paid for maintaining the school.” The first decade of the 20th century saw ever increasing efforts to get kids to be in school.

Every month in Pleasant Valley saw a number of accidents, illnesses and deaths among the population. Families often had multiple problems, such as Samuel P. Hunt in 1899. Not only did Mr. Hunt develop a severe case of blood poisoning contracted from treating a lame horse while having a wound on his finger but his son Artie fell through a fence and broke his arm. Rachel Williamson described an accident in 1902 when a Valley resident was returning from attending church in Titusville.

Last Sunday morning as Mrs. Chas. Hunter and son, Wilmer, were returning from church, just above Moore’s Station, on the Valley road, their horse became frightened at some clothing which the Italians had washed in the creek and placed on the bushes by the roadside to dry. The horse started down quite a steep embankment when Mrs. H. jumped from the buggy and called to Willmer to jump out, but he very manfully hung on to the lines, when the horse stumbled and fell, breaking one of the shafts and leaving them stranded about two miles from home. Albert Phillips kindly took Mrs. Hunter in his carriage and carried her to her home, while Wilmer led the horse home, leaving the broken wagon by the roadside. This is not the first horse that has been frightened at the same object, for it is an every Sunday occurrence, as that is the day the Italians (working in the quarry during the week) do their weekly wash. Now, if they must wash on the Sabbath day they should be compelled to hang their clothes farther away from the road before some more serious damage is done.

May 1901 was a difficult time for Benjamin L. Miller who lived at today’s Howell Farm. The Miller family had been having financial difficulties for several years and Benjamin’s parents had died in the late 1890s. The Hopewell Herald reported on May 8, 1901 that Benjamin had been arrested for forgery and that there was to be a sheriff’s sale of personal property at the farm later in the month. Benjamin lost the farm at it was purchased by blacksmith A.B. Coleman of Titusville who rented the farm out to tenants for the next decade. This ties in with the fact that tenant farming was increasing throughout the nation at the time as reported in the same edition of the Herald that carried the information about Benjamin Miller. The cycle of tenant farming at Howell farm was not broken until 1913 when tenant farmer Wilson Leming purchased the farm after leasing it for about four years.

Tenant farming was increasing during the period 1890-1910 but blacksmith was going through a decline. Blacksmith shops had been very much a part of Pleasant Valley from the time the Phillips family arrived in 1737 until the 1880s. In May 1893 the owners of the former blacksmith shop, the Lawyer family, attempted to reopen the business by renting the old shop. The person who answered their ad was William H. Myers who had worked for the local quarry as a blacksmith and he reopened the blacksmith shop and also pursued the business of wheelwright. Unfortunately, the business was not profitable and did not last very long.

One reason the art of the blacksmith and wheelwright was declining was the advent of the automobile. This change was also causing change for farmers and anyone else who drove horse powered vehicles. New Jersey passed a law in 1909 that was reported in the Herald on May 26 that required horse drawn vehicles to carry lighted lamps from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise and the lamp should be visible up to 250 feet. The law specifically noted that this in no way was to suggest any change in the laws regarding lights on motor vehicles.