Welcome to Lënapehòkink, Kithane

Let us not forget, the land now known as Mercer County was originally inhabited by the Lenape people. European settlers referred to them as Delaware Indians. The Lenape lived in this region for approximately 12,000 years before Europeans arrived. Mercer County was established in 1838. Previously, the land that now comprises Mercer County included townships from Hunterdon, Burlington, Middlesex, and Somerset counties. Trenton was part of Hunterdon County, and Princeton was in both Somerset and Middlesex counties. Among today’s townships, Ewing was once Trenton, Lawrence was Maidenhead, and Hamilton was Nottingham in Burlington County. Before Princeton gained its name, the area south of the town was the Stony Brook Quaker Community in Windsor Township. Before Trenton became the state capital, it served as the capital of the early United States in 1784, and it officially became the state capital in 1790. And, in Colonial America, roads did not even have names. If you traveled from Trenton to today’s Lawrenceville, Route 206 would have been called the Maidenhead Road. To get to Princeton, the same route was known as the Princeton Road; to New Brunswick, it was the Brunswick Road, and so on. If you traveled south on that route, it would have been called the Trenton Road. Mercer County’s communities all have active historical societies.