Often, Mr. Local History doesn’t search for stories as those stories find us. Case in point is this weird little story about a man who comes to America only to find that his life is remembered after Basking Ridge’s Jack Welsh names a bar in Willie Howard’s honor over a century after his death. We take you to a small Jersey town called Bedminster, New Jersey, and tell you a story about one of the men who owned a small bar still serving today.
Like most stories, we start with a quick genealogy search. Usually, we go back a few generations to when the family emigrated to the United States. This most likely started when William was young, and his father, Henry, and grandfather, William, came to America, landing in New Jersey. Willie’s life began in England, where he was born. As we dug into Ancestry, we found one William after another throughout Willie’s family tree. Then came a few Henrys and a few other monarch names. We kept digging, going back generations. William Howard has been part of the Howard namesake in honor of four English Kings, King Williams of England (I, II, III, and IV), who shared the name William with our deer friend “Willie.” Did you have to bow when you met Willie? Only history knows.
Willie was born in Bury, England, and his father, Henry, had three children over 13 years old. Henry Alfred “Harry” Howard married Mary Jane Dunleavy in Manchester, Lancashire, England, on November 21, 1869, when he was 19. His son William Willie was born in Bury, England, on August 4, 1871. His second son, Fredrick, was born in 1871 in Blackburn, UK.
In 1880, the Howard family lived in Montclair, New Jersey. On July 7, 1884, Henry’s daughter Helen was born in Hillside. Willie was also living in Hillside at the time. Henry Howard died in Orange, New Jersey, on August 3, 1891, at only 41. So the family was very near the Montclair hunting scene of the rich and famous of West Orange’s Llewellyn Park.
Willie’s life changed when he met Charles Pfizer, the Pfizer pharma conglomerate. In 1890, in Montclair, the Essex County Country Club sold the Essex County Hunt Club and the Essex County Hounds to Charles Pfizer Jr.. Two years later, Pfizer moved to Bernardsville and relocated the clubs to Bernardsville, then Peapack, New Jersey. Pfizer Jr. purchased a 150-acre farm in Gladstone from Cornelius Wyckoff Schomp, converting the farm barns into large stables and kennels. The Essex Hunt Club reorganizes under the banner Essex Fox Hounds and leases the Essex Hunt Club in Peapack. That’s why a club in Somerset County is named after a club from Essex County.
It was stated in a ledger that in 1890, Charles “Charley” Pfizer Jr. was the Master, and William Howard served as Huntsman of the Essex Hunt Club. The huntsman would take control of the hounds, equipment, and the hunting territory. In 1893, with Willie Howard at Pfizer Jr’s side, Howard was nominated as huntsman for the actual Essex Hunt. Pfizer and the Essex Hunt Club trustees approved Willie Howard as the Essex Hunt Club huntsman. Based on our research, you could most likely call Willie Howard the first huntsman of the Essex Hunt Club in Somerset County.
Approximately five years after landing the Essex Hunt Club in the area in 1898, William and his wife Bertha wanted to expand their footprint there. They decided to purchase the Bedminster Hotel, as it was called at the time, for $5,000. The hotel was later renamed “Howard’s Hotel,” where Willie and his family served as proprietors for over 65 years.
The advertisement above shows J. (John) Kenneally, who became Willie’s hotel partner. This is why “Howard’s Hotel” was most likely renamed the “Bedminster Hotel.” Keneally was married in 1901 to Mary Ann Howard, Willie’s sister, so the hotel was still in the family. John Kenneally was born on September 13, 1872, in West Orange, New Jersey, so the families had connections in Essex County before Bedminster.
The Howard family owned the local hotel, the Bedminster Hotel (Howard’s Hotel), for over 65 years. But it wasn’t until 1989 when Jack Welch’s Growth Restaurants of Basking Ridge purchased the Inn, and in October 1989, the ‘Inn’ was renamed Willie’s Taverne, honoring Willie Howard. The establishment would hold the name for 22 years until 2011, when it was changed to the name we have today. Welch was one of the founding members of Growth Restaurants, which owned The Store, Willy’s, Thirsty Turtle, Bamboo Grill, Readington Road House, and the Public House.
As they say, the rest is history.
Isn’t it strange that in the 1900s, you can’t find a photo of a man, but when we look back centuries for Willies’ family members, we can find something? We contacted the Essex Hunt Club and the Essex Fox Hounds organizations and could only find a painting with a ‘possible’ Willie Howard sighting.
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