Somerset Hills Most Famous Families & Residents

With our Board of Trustees settled into Central New Jersey, isn’t it fun to know what famous people live or have lived in the area? We’re about to show you what we’ve found from our research. The New Jersey towns comprising the Somerset Hills include Bernards Twp (Basking Ridge), Bernardsville, Bedminster, Far Hills, and Peapack/Gladstone). Starting back in the late 1800s, many of the richest and most famous people lived in the Somerset Hills.

Remembering who they are is one thing.
Remembering what they did is another.
Remembering where they live(d) is tougher still.

The Somerset Hills in New Jersey is one of the most affluent areas in the United States. From Bernardsville Mountain in the Gilded Age to the Bedminster fox country, the area has long been an area “at the end of the Peapack/Gladstone rail line” that has drawn the rich and famous. See how many you know or didn’t know.

In 2016, the most famous person ever to grace the Somerset Hills chose his summer home in Bedminster and became the most famous resident in the Somerset Hills. It’s none other than the 45th President of the United States – Donald J. Trump – Bedminster in what is known now as the “Summer White House”, but local history remembers the estate as the Lamington House.

Gone – But Not Forgotten

• John Honeyman (1729–1822) was an alleged “spy of Washington” during the American Revolutionary War. He lived the last 30 years of his life in the Lamington area and is buried in the Lamington Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
• William Alexander, Lord Stirling (1726–1783), was a Continental Army major general during the American Revolutionary War. Post:1770s Festival – Lord Stirling’s Lost Estate
• John Roebling– Bernardsville- Grandfather designed the Brooklyn Bridge
• John Forest Dryden– Bernardsville- Founder of Prudential Insurance 1950
• Francis Lloyd– Bernardsville – Developed Brooks Brothers into a major retail chain.
• Brooke Astor (1902-2007), lived here during her marriage to John Dryden Kuser (1897–1964)
• Percy Pyne– Bernardsville- Banker (Upton Pyne Estate)
• Tommy Dorsey – “Big Band” leader – Dorsey was married three times. His first wife was 16-year-old Mildred “Toots” Kraft, with whom he eloped in 1922 when he was 17. The couple had two children, Patricia and Thomas F. Dorsey III (nicknamed “Skipper”). In 1935, they moved to “Tall Oaks,” a 21-acre estate in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
• Robert L. Stevens – Bernardsville, Inventor (Steven’s Tech)
• Charles Pfizer –  Bernardsville, Son of Founder / Drug Inventor 1881 (MLH Story)
• J. William Clarke – Bernardsville, – Founder of the thread company
• George B. Post – Bernardsville – Famous Architect – 1896
• James Brady – Bedminster – Peapack – Wall Street Financier -1921
• Cyrus Vance – Bernards Twp (Liberty Corner) – Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter.
• Clarence Dillon – Bedminster – Read & Company, Purchased Dodge, National Cash Register 1928
• C. Ledyard Blair – Peapack – Investment Banker, Blair & Co., Made it on Erie Lackawanna Railroad. – 1898 – Also the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club (MLH Story)
• John McGraw – Bedminster, Founder of McGraw Hill Companies – 1968
• Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. – Bernardsville – The Famed “Goldfinger” from the Bond Series
• Malcolm Forbes – Bedminster, Publisher of Forbes Magazine
• Bill Moyers – Bernardsville – Broadcaster (Sold and Moved in 2015)
• Charles Englehardt— Bernardsville—was a minerals speculator whose personality was used in Ian Flemming’s “Goldfinger.” During his career, he tried to corner the gold market.
• John Morton – Known as the “Rebel Banker”, John funded the building of the Army hospital in Basking Ridge in 1779 and was key target of the British Army throughout the war. Move from NYC to Basking Ridge during the Revolutionary War. Morton Street in NYC is named after him. (MLH Story)
• Jacqueline Mars-Bedminster (born October 10, 1939) is an American heiress, investor, and philanthropist. (MLH Story)
• Jackie Kennedy Onassis – Bernardsville – Former First Lady – (MLH Story)
• Millicent Fenwick (1910-1992), U.S. Congresswoman, United States representative to the United Nations
• Zippy the Pinhead – Yes the comic book hero did have a real life and lived in Liberty Corner. c. 1842–1926), turn-of-the-century sideshow performer, was born in Liberty Corner. (MLH Story)
• George Ludlow Lee Sr. – President and Owner of Red Devil Paint Company – Basking Ridge – Farm and house were called Cedar Hill Farm. (1940-1946)
• John Jacob Astor IV– Died on the Titanic and purchased the Bissell’s Maple Way home – Basking Ridge – Astor died in the sinking of RMS Titanic during the early hours of April 15, 1912. – American Tobacco Company Founder – (1950-1968) – (MLH Story)
• Elizabeth (Betty) Merck – Bedminster – Heir to the Merck Pharmaceutical family
• John DeLorean – Bedminster – Former GM Exec, Automaker (later sold to Trump as now Trump National Golf Club) (MLH Story)
• Scott Fischer (1955–1996) – climber and guide who died on May 11, 1996, in an attempt to climb Mount Everest in the 1996 Everest Disaster.
• J. Geils Jr. – Bedminster – the founding member of the J. Geils Band. BHS Grad 1964. Actually dated Meryl Streep at Bernards High School (quite the power couple). Moved in 1964. (MLH Story)

Alive but Gone

• Christine Todd Whitman – Far Hills – Former Governor of NJ and great-granddaughter to Grant Schley.
• Andrew McCarthy – Bernardsville – Actor and part of the new “brat pack.”
• Roger Bart – Bernardsville – Grew up in Bernardsville. Broadway actor. He graduated from Bernards High School in 1980 and was later inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.[
• Meryl Streep – Grew up in Basking Ridge from 1955. Moved to Bernardsville in 1962. – Actress – Bernards High School 1967 graduate.
• Mike Tyson (born 1966) and Robin Givens (born 1964) lived in Bernardsville for a few years and then left. They lived in one of the town’s grandest homes.
• Tobin Heath – Soccer player and member of the United States women’s national soccer team who won a gold medal as the youngest US team member in the 2008 Olympics.
• Marc Ecko – Bernardsville – Entrepreneur – owned the iconic Stronghold Estate until 2017.
• Jared Isaacman  – Basking Ridge – A great American history success story about a man born in Westfield, raised in Basking Ridge, and has become one of the most interesting billionaires in the world. (MLH Story)
• Kienast Quintuplets—Liberty Corner—On February 24, 1970, the first quintuplets were born using fertility drugs at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, making international headlines (MLH Story).
• Steve Pagliuca (RHS ‘73) Basking Ridge – Celtics co-owner & Managing Partner and Chairman of the 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics. Pagliuca was also involved in creating Bain & Company’s turnaround practice.
• Page McConnell – Basking Ridge – American multi-instrumentalist, most noted for his work as the keyboardist and a songwriter for the band Phish. Formerly a member of Phil Lesh and Friends.

Those still alive and living in “The Somerset Hills”

• Donald J. Trump – 45th President of the United States – Bedminster in what is known as the Lamington House. (MLH Story)
• Woody Johnson – Bedminster – (aka Robert Wood Johnson IV) Owner of the New York Jets
• Thomas Kean – Bedminster – Former NJ Governor
• Steve Forbes – Bedminster – Publisher -American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of Forbes, a business magazine. 
• Patrick Hobbs – Basking Ridge – Rutgers Athletic Director
• Chris Daggett – Basking Ridge – Ran for NJ Governor 2010 – former President & CEO of Geraldine Dodge Foundation.
• Jessie Watters – Far Hills /Bernardsville – Fox News TV host of Watters Prime Time
• Neil Cavuto – Bernardsville – Fox News Business TV host
• Don Daylor – Bernardsville –  is an American journalist and author. Dahler held various correspondent and anchor positions at three major networks: ABC, CBS, and FOX.
• Suzanne Scott – Bernardsville – CEO, Fox News

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Related MLH Stories

The Founding Families of Bernards Township (Basking Ridge)

J. Geils Was From Bedminster -Cut his Chops at Bernards High

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Retrospective: Meryl Streep Was From Basking Ridge BEFORE Bernardsville

Basking Ridge’s Isaacman – A High School Dropout Who Went to Outer Space

Where Are the Kienast Quintuplets from Liberty Corner – 53 Years Later