[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] towns of Woodbridge and Piscataway (New Jersey Archives, Liber 1:251[89]-250[90] on verso). People living in the settlement that grew up around Matockshoning subsequently used a variety of spellings that included Matuchen, Mettuchinge, and Metuchin when referring to their community. Newspapers read by Metuchen area residents containing reports of diplomatic efforts undertaken by a Mahican leader named Metoxen to end fighting between Indians and Americans in the Midwest during the early national period may account for the local tradition holding that similar-sounding Metuchen was originally a sachem’s name. MINNEAKONING (Hunterdon County). The Delaware place name Minneakoning adorns a one-mile-long creek and the road that runs alongside the stream at the north end of the Borough of Flemington. Rising near the Hunterdon County Medical Center, Minneakoning Creek flows almost due east to its junction with the South Branch of the Raritan River. It first appeared as a run or brook variously noted as MajsWonawayskowong and Mawaonawoghkonong in an Indian deed to land in the area dated June 5, 1703 (New Jersey Archives, Liber AAA:443-444). The name next appeared as a brook called Mineaukoning that formed the southern boundary of an adjoining tract sold on October 7, 1709 (New Jersey a part of a southerly branch of Rarington River” where he spent the night before traveling on the next day to “Essakauqueamenshehikkon, an Indian plantation on the back of the Great Swamp.” The name was soon applied to what was identified as the Mansaloque Branch of the Rariton River in a will written in January 1719 (State of New Jersey 1880-1949 23:175). Local residents referred to the stream as Mensalaughaway Creek well into the twentieth century. MUSCONETCONG (Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties). Heckewelder’s (1834:376) identification of Musconetcong as a Munsee word, maskhanneccunk, “rapid running stream,” has long been accepted as a most plausible etymology of the name. Revisiting the word, Whritenour thinks it sounds more like *maskaneetkung, Munsee for “strong fertile lowland.” The name Musconetcong currently adorns the 46-mile-long river that serves as a boundary line for four counties, a mountain ridge that runs parallel to the river, a lake, a multi-unit 1,520-acre state wildlife management area, and much else in the river’s valley. Rising at Lake Hopatcong (see above), the river flows as an upland stream into Lake Musconetcong past the Borough of Netcong (see above) and the historic village of Waterloo to Hackettstown. Below Hackettstown, the river follows a generally straight and narrow southwesterly course through the valley between the Pohatcong (see below) and Musconetcong Mountain ridges as it flows through a series of small river hamlets to its junction with the Delaware River at Riegelsville. northern bounds of the aforementioned November 11, 1703, Indian purchase (New Jersey Archives, Liber AAA:434-435). The mouth of a stream identified as Neshasakaway was subsequently mentioned as a feature marking the southern bounds of the land sold in 1703 in a confirmatory document written on August 16, 1711 (New Jersey Archives, Liber BBB:206-207). NETCONG (Morris County). Netcong is a part of the place name Musconetcong (see above) resembling what Whritenour thinks was a Munsee variant of a Northern Unami word, neetgunk, “fertile lowNESHANIC (Hunterdon and Somerset counties). Nora Thompson land.” Today’s Borough of Netcong is located along the Musconet- NATIRAR. See RARITAN 60 Beyond Manhattan, Robert S. Grumet cong River just below Lake Hopatcong (see both above). Workers Raritan River. The settlement built around the locale’s mill and limestone kiln gradually became large enough to support a post office of its own in 1826 (Kaiser 1965). Residents in the area incorporated their community as the Borough of Peapack-Gladstone in 1912. See entries for Paunpeck (in New Jersey North above) and Peenpack (in New York above) for similar-looking place names. PEQUEST (Sussex and Warren counties). Whritenour thinks that Pequest sounds like the Munsee word aapiikwus, “mouse.” This matches Heckewelder’s (1834:356) identification of the similarsounding place name Poquessing in Philadelphia (see in Pennsylvania South below) as a Delaware Indian word, poquesink, “the place abounds with mice or the place of mice,” from a Southern Unami word, poques, “mouse.” The Pequest River is a 36-mile-long stream that flows from a spot just north of the Sussex County seat at Newton south through stretches of black dirt lands at Allamuchy (see in New Jersey North above) and the Great Meadows. From there, it flows into Warren County past the 4,811-acre Pequest Wildlife Management Area to the Borough of Belvidere, where the on state maps. Reading’s description of Pophannuck as a considerable stream located about a mile below Penungachung Hill (see Manunka Chunk above), however, much more closely matches the course of the Pequest River several miles north of Pophandusing Brook. PRESCOTT (Hunterdon County). Prescott Brook is a four-milelong tributary of the South Branch of the Raritan River. The brook 61 was one of several streams dammed to create