HISTORY

Black Forest Restaurant

Standing on the same Allentown site where the area's first Settler, Nathan Allen, build his grist mill in 1706, is the mill which was totally reconstructed by Abel Cafferty in 1855 and has become know to Allentown and Upper Freehold Township residents as Conine's Mill. When Nathan Allen died in 1773 the mill ownership changed hands in a lineage that reflects the history of Allentown.

Since its sale to Stoffel Longstreet by Allen's Son, Nathan, in 1750, the mill record of ownership included: James English, 1761; Jhon Rhea,1774; Joshep Height, 1776; Arthur Donaldson,1779; Peter Imlay, 1781; Robert Pidgeon, 1788; John Imlay, 1792; Robert Evilman, 1792; Aaron and George Steward, 1796; Richard Brewer, 1835; who sold it to Cafferty, who in 1855 supplanted the most historic structure in Allentown with a new grist mill using 300,000 bricks made on the Cafferty farm. In 1895, the new owner, Henry A. Ford, refurbished the mill to produce three grades of flour - White Satin, Magnolia and Old Gold. The Head Miller was John Conine, who with his brother, acquired total ownership of the mill in 1918 from shareholders Thomas Evernham and Westley Burtis. The mill was sold to Frank Drialo in 1951.

An old Philadelphia newspaper dated November, 1902, describes the Mill as "located in a country with history and which during Revolutionary time held a population strongly devoted to the Royalist cause..."

The rendering and brief history of the Allentown Mill made available by the current owners, Barbara Meade Illmensee and George Illmensee, Jr,. to help celebrate the Western Monmouth Colonial Fete. September 20, 1975.