About the year 1720 he purchased land lying between the Orange mountains, in what was afterwards called Pleasant Valley. We have the authority of tradition that this land was purchased of the Indians; its first private ownership, as the records show, was vested in Samuel Condit, and its extent was such that during his lifetime he gave to each of his five sons fifty acres, and on each lot thus donated he erected a house, and also gave to each son a family Bible. He reserved to himself the homestead with about seventy acres of land. Three of the farms have ever since remained in the family line of descent.
It is probable that Samuel Condit had little apprehension of the great influence in civil and church relations in life which awaited his descendants in Orange, N. J. They have had a continuous representation in an official capacity in the churches of this place for more than one hundred and eighty years.
Like his grandfather John, his first care was that each son should possess a copy of the Holy Scriptures, an act which, combined with the meagre items of his history, which are still preserved, indicate the sturdy Christian citizen. His selection of a farm was a fortunate one. Taking the Livingston road west from Orange, by way of Eagle Rock, and by a long ascent reaching the top of the mountain, the valley beyond stretches out in a panorama of neat and productive farms, with comfortable and tastefully built farm houses. Here was Samuel's home--where,
"In sober state,
Through the sequestered vale of mortal life,
The venerable patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way."
From here, during the many years of his manhood, was he wont to take his way over the mountain to the Orange church, as often as the time arrived for Divine worship; and from here was borne his sacred dust to the Orange burying ground, where a simple slab bears the inscription, "Samuel Conduit, Sr., died July 18, 1777." He had survived his first wife more than twenty years; he outlived the second wife, Mary Nutman (widow of Amos Williams, born 1700), whom he married in 1756, and who died Feb. 18, 1777. Their graves are near their husband's, while in close proximity is that of his third son, Samuel, whose monument bears the name "Samuel Conduit, Jr." Here, also, repose the ashes of many useful members of the Condit family. As we pause and remove from the stones the accumulated moss of a hundred years, we can read the names of benefactors whose pure lives were worthy examples to succeeding generations.
3Buried in First Presbyterian Church Old Burying Grounds, Orange, NJ. Tombstone reads: “In memory of Samuel Conduit Senior who departh this Life July 18, 1777 aged 81 years.
167“The grandfather of Col. Condit was Samuel Condit, who was born in the original home of the family, near the River, on December 6, 1696. When he was about twenty-five years old, he purchassed, from the Indian proprietors, a large and fertile tract of land, between the mountains. The locality is still known as ‘The Pleasant Valley.’ Here he raised a family of six chldren, and to each of the five sons he gave a copy of the Bible, and a lot of fifty acres, with a dwelling thereon. He died in 1777.”
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