By Susan Stout Weart, Historian for the Colonel Joseph Stout Chapter, N.S.D.A.R
Mount Rose was called Stout’s Corner in the long ago. It received the name of Mount Rose from the garden of beautiful roses that belonged to MAJOR HOUGHTON. Beautiful roses – surely they were not at all like the ones we know today. Some of the oldest roses in this community were the damask, really the rose of Damascus , the maiden blush, a double flower with a pale pink center, the old…red rose with five or nine petals and a large yellow center, the Hermosa, a pink rose, the sweet brier or eglantine of course has one corner of the garden. All of these varieties spread along the ground similar to our common wild rose. The yellow rose grew tall and was trained over a frame. No garden was complete without it. The family history of roses might be intriguing as genealogy if one made a hobby. Perhaps some day a record of this fine garden may come to light. All we have now are two water color drawings of roses that were among the local historical data left for the Library-Museum by MISS SARAH D. STOUT. She had written on the back of each picture, “Painted sometime before 1820 by MISS SANSBURY.”
Meanwhile our neighboring village on the hill prospered, pretty name given it by RALPH SANSBURY, formerly a school teacher, must have attracted tradesmen. History tells there was a store, a blacksmith, a wheelwright, a shoemaker, a distillery, a warehouse for agricultural supplies, a harness shop, and twenty dwellings.
RICHARD STOUT of the line of JUDGE JOHN STOUT built the store in 1822. He was succeeded by JOSIAH COOK and JOHN SAVIDGE. ELIAS GRIGGS was the next merchant, followed by PAUL M. TULANE, next came PHILEMON GOLDEN, and about 1858, REUBEN SAVIDGE became the proprietor. ALEXANDER WATERS built a hotel in 1835 but after two years it was converted into a dwelling. JOSIAH COOK was the first postmaster. Later REUBEN SAVIDGE held the office. Now the place is served by rural delivery from Princeton . It is on the Hopewell telephone exchange. Direct roads connect it with Rocky Hill, Princeton, Pennington, Glenmore, Hopewell, and perhaps the oldest of all “Aunt Molly’s Road”, a direct line of communication between the families of STOUTs and a trail to the northern part of the state. These roads suggest the village was an important center of trade long before cultivated roses were imported from China.