A renewed focus of the Somerset County Historical Society in collaboration with other societies in the area is to encourage greater engagement by the local community in understanding the importance of our local history and to ensure continued public funding in a climate that is becoming increasingly diverse and less likely to identify with the traditional cast of characters and narrative associated with the Revolutionary War and the Van Veghten house.

The strategy therefore is to pivot the narrative from heroes and villains to an emphasizes on key learnings and the importance of the location of the house during the revolutionary war, independent of the nature or character of the people involved. 

The concept was launched in collaboration with several historical societies in Somerset County with a symposium held on March 16th 2024 at the Raritan Valley Community Center. The focus of the symposium was How New Jersey won the Revolutionary War, a logistics perspective, with the concept being introduced by the video of the same name. A link can be found to the video in the section titled Publications & Videos. This was followed by a booklet published by the author making the case for Central New Jersey’s key role in this war. The book also covers the Forage Wars, which was the subject of the next symposium on March 15, 2025 at the same venue. A second video on the Forage Wars was presented on this topic at the symposium and can be found in the section Publications & Videos.

The author and videographer has taken this presentation on the road and to date has shown the video at the Basking Ridge, Warren and Manville Libraries, and was also invited to present at the the Meadows Foundation and the Descendants of the Founders off New Jersey (at the Militia Military Museum in Sea Girt, NJ) annual general meetings.

Future venues and opportunities for presenting the concept are being planned. To date 75 copies of the book have been published. The book can also be found under in the local history reference section in the Bridgewater Library, 974.903 BEC.