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.

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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 Trowbridgewas 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.



Video of Clara from 1985 in Randolph, NJ.

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