Robert "Bob" Trowbridge
Born: Aug. 7, 1899, Millbrook, Randolph Township, Morris Co., New Jersey
Died: Apr. 21, 1967, Dover, Morris Co., New Jersey
Parents: William Francis Trowbridge & Anna Mae Southard
Buried: Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Randolph Township,
Morris Co., New Jersey
Occupation: driver, Dalrymple's Ice House
Religious Affiliation: Millbrook United Methodist Church, Randolph, Morris Co., New Jersey
Marriage: Dec. 21, 1933, Parsonage, United Methodist Church, Millbrook, Randolph, Morris Co., New Jersey
Wife: Clara Delinda Flornes
Born: Sept. 20, 1913, Ironia, Randolph, Morris Co., New Jersey
Died: Apr. 25, 1988, Dover General Hospital, Dover, Morris Co., New Jersey
Parents: Sigurd Mander Olsen Flornes & Lydia Jane Stoll
Buried: Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Randolph, Morris Co., New Jersey
Religious Affiliations: Millbrook United Methodist Church, Millbrook, Randolph, Morris County; New Jersey,
Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, Ledgewood, Morris Co., New Jersey (Morman)
Children:
Doris Caroline Trowbridge
Robert William Trowbridge
Living Trowbridge
Barbara Marie Trowbridge
Living Trowbridge
Born: not available
Living Trowbridge
Born: not available
Robert & Clara Trowbridge.
Clara Trowbridge & one of her grandchildren inext to her flower garden.
(The child is the author of this webpage.)
Robert Trowbridge in his strawberry garden sometime during the 1960s.
ROBERT TROWBRIDGE AND CLARA DELINDA FLORNES
Robert Trowbridge and Clara Delinda Flornes lived in a house
located at 343 Millbrook Avenue in Millbrook, Randolph Township, Morris
Co., New Jersey,
between 1934 and 1988, about a quarter mile down from where Robert’s parents lived.
The picture on the upper left is a recreation of what the house may have lookedlike in the 19th century, the picture
on the upper right was taken around 1950, and the pictureon the bottom was taken shortly before the house was torn down in 2004.
Robert Trowbridge, his wife Clara, and their
landlord Bill Todd around 1935.
343 MILLBROOK AVE. , RANDOLPH, NJ
Originally owned by Bill Todd, Robert and Clara started renting the
property around 1934.In 1940 Bill Todd passed away, and in his will, in
his will he gave the house to Robert and Clara in exchange for covering
his funeral expenses, which came to $200.00, a real bargain. Seventy
years later, property in the same neighborhood now sells for over
$300,000 for a single family home.
The house may have been built around 1760, but Robert Trowbridge's deed
for the property lists the first owner as Knapp Sisco, who owned it
around 1820. Subsequent
owners included the Corby family, who are
mentioned in an 1868 Beers map of Morris county (to see the Randolph
portion of the map, click here.
The next owner mentioned in the deed is Abraham Pierson, who
owned the property in the 1870s. Pierson also owned property located
across Millbrook Avenue on a street and hill which still bear his last
name, Pierson's Hill Road. Pierson also owned property across the
Millbrook adjacent to the house, which he gave to Randolph for the
construction of a school, which Robert, his brothers Eddie, Walter, and
sister Minnie attended (see the above picture). The school still
stands, and is currently a private residence. Interesting enough,
Robert's great uncle, Edward Youngs Trowbridge
was Pierson's neighbor, was a carpenter who owned a house at the corner
of Millbrook Avenue and Fords Road, as well as property across the
street known to Robert's family as "the Meadow". Edward died six years
to the day Robert was born on Aug. 7, 1893, and was a brother of
Robert's grandfather David Austin Trowbridge.Sometime after the 1880s,
the house came into the possession of Bill
Todd and his family, first with his mother, his sister, and by 1920
with Todd himself
The Millbrook.
Thirteen years after Clara passed away, the family finally sold the
property to Randolph Township in 2002. Although the house was part of
the Motts Hollow Historic District, Randolph demolished the house on
Dec. 7, 2004, and will convert the now vacant property to a trail along
the Millbrook, a part of the proposed Millbrook Valley Linear Park.
According to Robert's sister, Winnie Trowbridge, a carriage house was
located in front of the house dating from the 1800s. Located at the
foot of Trowbridge Mountain, or Trowbridge Hill in Randolph. 200 years
after Jabez Trowbridge settled in Randolph,last property owned by the
family on Millbrook Avenue was sold to the Township of Randolph. The
house was demolished in 2004.
The class of the Millbrook schoolhouse around
1915. Robert Trowbridge is located in the middle of the photograph
under the shudder, his younger brother Eddie is right of him, his face
partially obscured by a fellow student standing in front of him.
Standing in front of Eddie is another brother, Walter, and their
sister, Minnie (later changed to Winnie), is located on the upper right
corner of the photo, the only student in the group wearing a bonnet.
The same school house today, which is now a private residence.
Clara as a child.
The Millbrook United Methodist Church, which Robert and Clara attended.
The headstone of Robert (left) & Clara Trowbridge (right) at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Randolph, NJ.
