Keith Strunk

Prallsville Mills and Stockton (Images of America: New Jersey) Keith Strunk

The Delaware River Valley has attracted industrial and political visionaries, thinkers, and artists for more than 300 years. In its taverns, political discourse fanned the flames of revolution, and its beauty has inspired artists, actors, and writers from Edward Hicks to Richard Rodgers to Dorothy Parker. In 1794, John Prall Jr. acquired a property nestled next to the river that included a corn or gristmill and a sawmill. The mills became the heart of Prallsville, a village industrial complex that would continue to function into the early 20th century. Early economic and community needs closely linked Prallsville to neighboring Brookville and Stockton, and in 1898, they incorporated to become Stockton. The vintage images in Prallsville Mills and Stockton provide a glimpse of the tenacious and generous people that survived floods, fires, and industrial mishaps to prosper in their home along the banks of the Delaware.