USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
527
HISTORY OF NEWARK
BOYDEN'S MALLEABLE IRON DISCOVERY.
"What is called malleable iron," said General Runyon, "was known before Mr. Boyden discovered it, but he invented it as truly as ever a man invented anything wholly new and previously unknown. Cast iron was brittle, and on that account many articles of common use could not be made of it, and they were necessarily made of wrought iron. If they could be made of cast iron their cost would be much lessened. Hence it was a disideratum to so treat cast iron that it should regain its fibre and softness.
"The history of his discovery is this: While he was a lad he was employed in a furnace. The fire bed of the furnace being worn out, it was torn down, and during the process he discovered that part of a cast iron bar which had been near the edge of the fire bed and had been subjected to the action of the fire, had the appearance of wrought iron, while the rest, the part which was in the wall, had not. He took the bar to a blacksmith's shop and experimented with it. He found that by heating the part which had been in the fire of the furnace he could draw it, but the other part was hard and brittle; that is, he discovered that by some process unknown to him but undoubtedly through heating, part of the cast bar had regained fibre and softness, while the rest had not. What the process was he, years afterwards, while engaged in manufacturing patent leather here, set out to ascertain.
"After the day's work in the patent leather factory was done, he would engage in melting and refining a small quantity of pig iron at the forge and casting it into spikes, which he would try to anneal in a small furnace containing a small quantity of anthracite coal, in his kitchen fireplace.
"It was on Independence Day, as mentioned above, that he finally discovered the process."
Later he engaged actively in the manufacture of articles out of malleable iron in the foundry at 28 Orange street. His catalogue of articles manufactured shows that he made more than one thousand different things. He sold out the business in 1835, to a Boston firm, which became a corporation and was long known as the Boyden
528
HISTORY OF NEWARK
Malleable Cast Iron and Steel Foundry. He received $25,000 for the business. There were at one time no less than eight malleable iron foundries here. In 1828, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia awarded Boyden a premium for an exhibit of buckles, bits and other articles of annealed cast iron which are understood to have been remarkable for their smoothness and beauty.
THE BOYDEN LOCOMOTIVES.
When he gave up the making of malleable iron, Boyden applied himself to the making of locomotives. It was about that time that the Morris & Essex Railroad was in process of construction. The officers of the road believed it impracticable to haul cars up the steep grade from a little west of Broad street, with a locomotive, and they were disposed to do it by means of a stationary engine. James Vanderpool, president of the road, called upon Boyden to advise them. He went over the ground carefully, and modestly said he thought he could build an engine that would do the work. He did it. He built three locomotives shortly after, the "Essex" and the "Orange" for the Morris & Essex road, and the "Cometa" for the Cardenas Railroad in Cuba, going to Cuba to set up the latter. His were the first locomotives built in New Jersey and were made at his shops in Orange street, near High. His first locomotive, "Orange," did the work of drawing the train up the grade, which was one hundred and forty feet to the mile, a feat that hitherto had been regarded as impossible. The locomotive "Essex" did as well, later. Before Boyden's time the power was communicated by means of a crank axle, the crank inside of the wheel. He attached the con- necting rod to the driving rod, outside, in place of the crooked axle inside, thus gaining the highest possible leverage, the most direct action, the least friction and much greater economy in the cost of construction.
"His claim to this great improvement has been questioned," says General Runyon, "but never successfully."
"My first improvement in stationary steam engines," wrote Boyden himself, "was the cast iron frame or bed ; my next the intro- duction of the straight axle to the locomotive in place of the crank,
529
HISTORY OF NEWARK
which is now universally used; my greatest invention in the steam engine was the cut-off in the place of the throttle valve, and con- necting the cut-off and the governor together."
This last invention was an invaluable discovery, and Boyden applied for a patent in 1845. But when the Patent Office demanded a model he paid no attention to the request and thus his invention became common property.
BOYDEN AND S. F. B. MORSE.
He made the first daguerreotype made in this country; "this he did," explains General Runyon, "not by discovery, but from a description of Daguerre's process for producing the sun pictures. As usual with him, he improved upon the process. Professor Sam- uel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, hearing of Boyden's improvement, asked permission to witness the process, and he and two other gentlemen interested came to Newark for the purpose, and were gratified. Mr. Boyden was the first to use a reflector in taking a daguerreotype. He used the reflector from his telescope.
* * Out of the acquaintance with Professor Morse, formed in connection with daguerreotyping, grew relations between the men in reference to the electric telegraph, as to which Morse consulted Boyden who aided him in many very important respects."
Boyden once made a fire engine for the City of Newark, and when it was finished the city fathers found fault because it differed in construction from other engines in that the pipes from the cylinder to the air chamber were of a curved instead of a rectangular form. He said to them: "Gentlemen, you read your Bibles, no doubt, more than I do; you go to church, no doubt, more than I do; but I observe the laws of God as well as you do. God, in all His works, never made a right angle."
SMELTING ZINC ORE.
New Jersey zinc ores were for a long time of little value, because it was not possible to smelt them. Large sums were spent trying, fruitlessly, to find a workable process. Boyden discovered a method to produce the spelter from the ore, about 1848. Shortly
530
HISTORY OF NEWARK
after this he succumbed to the "gold fever" and went to California, staying there two years and returning as poor as he went. He devised a process for making Russia sheet iron, whose manufacture in this country had previously been too expensive to compete with the foreign manufacture. Influential men negotiated with him for his secret process, and they got it, he exacting only a pledge that they reveal it to no one else. But many others got the benefit, through his proverbial carelessness or indifference to the acquire- ment of money.
Seth Boyden's last invention was a contrivance for forming hat bodies. This he made in his old age. It was one of the few inventions for which he obtained a patent. Just before he died he said that he had enough undeveloped ideas to occupy two lifetimes.
In his later years he removed to Hilton. There he bent himself to the development of the strawberry. It was he who first grew the famous "Hilton" berries. It was at Hilton that he established the faet, with a piece of copper wire, that electricity traveled from the earth to the clouds as well as from the clouds to the earth. Benjamin Franklin's achievement with his kite has been world- wide knowledge for much more than a century ; but few are aware of Boyden's discovery.
Seth Boyden died on March 31, 1870, at the age of eighty-two, and was laid to rest in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. At his funeral it was said of him:
"The memory of Seth Boyden belongs to the American people. Nearly every family throughout the land have had their labors lightened by his inventions. It would be difficult to find a cunning worker in leather, brass or iron whose toil has not been made lighter by Boyden's discoveries. The iron horses and chariots with their thousands of travelers, which follow the iron threads from the Atlantic to the Pacific, feel the touch of his genius at every vibra- tion. As a man and a citizen, his praise was on every lip. He was absolutely without avarice, as he was without wealth."
Another wrote of him at the time of his death: "His grand ideas were scarcely perfected before they were applied, frequently with profit, to others. His was a quiet, natural life, without great
531
HISTORY OF NEWARK
trouble or sorrow. He was respected by everyone that knew him, . his kindly nature and genial disposition rendering him a friend to all."
"Few men," wrote another, "have lived lives of more unob- strusive usefulness, or been more regretfully remembered than he."
A few more telling paragraphs from General Runyon's address at the unveiling of the Boyden statue seem essential in order that Newarkers of this and of succeeding generations may attain to a full and clear understanding of the character of this, in any age and clime, remarkable man:
A TIRELESS WORKER FOR THE COMMON GOOD.
"The education which he obtained in his youth and childhood was very scant. He was at school but two months in a year and throughout his life he labored under the disadvantage which the want of early instruction entailed upon him. It was, of course, at the outset of his business life, difficult for him to understand the terms used in scientific books and conversation. While he was con- scious daily of his defects and disadvantages, that consciousness did not deter him from effort, which was eminently successful, to supply the one and overcome the other. He was poor, but poverty could not extinguish his zeal for knowledge. Nor were his industry and perseverence ended with the nightfall or when he had retired to rest, for in bed his thoughts were upon his studies, or the problems he was endeavoring to solve, and he wrote in the darkness by the aid of a contrivance of his for guiding his hand, the thoughts that came to him in the night season.
"He never asked for nor expected pecuniary compensation. His experiments and discoveries were not made as a means of gaining wealth. There was nothing sordid in his nature. What he did sprang from the very highest motives, the love of knowledge and the desire to promote the public good. He relinquished to others the benefit of his acquirements and his discoveries almost as soon as they were made.
"The site for his statue is well chosen. In this immediate neighborhood he lived a considerable part of his life. When he came to Newark he lived on Broad street, between Bridge and Orange streets. He made the first side of patent leather in his shop , on Broad street, a few doors above Bridge street. To enlarge his business, he moved to a place on Bridge street, near the river, and it was there that he made the first malleable iron castings. His machine shop was on High street, near Orange street.
532
HISTORY OF NEWARK
"When he made a useful discovery he announced it, and, giving it to the world, set at work to make another. His nature was full of benevolence. He served his Maker by serving his fellow-men. It has been well said of him that his anvil was his altar. He was of a kindly nature. He loved man and bird and beast. The little bird whose nest was in the branches of the tree near his house, tamed by him, would take food from his hand and feed it to her young. He taught the fish in his pond to come to him to be fed, and they became so familiar with him that they would not shrink at his touch. Even some of the wilder animals that would flee at the approach of others, learned to treat him as their friend.
"He was a true philosopher, and noble illustration of what a man may accomplish by his own unaided effort. He well deserved the praise which the late Secretary Frelinghuysen, who formed no hasty judgment nor pronounced any unmerited eulogium, bestowed upon him when he declared him 'the peer of any man.'"
Boyden's first Orange street plant was near High street, on the north side of the former, to the west of the church (1913). There was a pond there, long known as Boyden's pond, and part of the source of the town's original water supply. It was there that he built the locomotives. His last malleable iron foundry was at 28 Orange street and was established in 1822. It was acquired in 1871 by John Barlow, who had worked with Boyden. In 1913 the Barlow Foundry Company erected a large plant on New Jersey Railroad avenue, between Hunter and Alpine streets.
NEWARK'S FIRST INDUSTRIAL CENSUS.
On that memorable Independence Day, 1826, when Seth Boyden was perfecting a process that was to send the town's prosperity upward by leaps and bounds, there was announced Newark's first industrial census, prepared by the town assessor, Isaac Nicholls. It gave the population as 8,017, and contained the following informa- tion :
Three Iron and Brass Founderies, twelve workmen; one Cot- ton Factory, six workmen ; three Tin and Sheet Iron Factories, nine workmen ; one Coach Spring Factory, ten workmen; one Chocolate and Mustard Factory, eight workmen; one Tobacco Factory, thir- teen workmen ; one Looking Glass Factory, four workmen ; one Soap and Candel Factory, four workmen; one Earthern Pottery, three workmen; one Rope Walk, two workmen.
533
HISTORY OF NEWARK
Besides these, three Distilleries, two Breweries, and two Grist Mills. The number of hands employed not given. All those employed in trades and other branches are enumerated as follows: Shoe Makers, 685; Carriage Makers, 64; Carriage Trimmers, 48; Carriage Painters, 21; Carriage Smiths, 77; Carpenters, 89; Chair Makers, 79; Hatters, 70; Curriers, 61; Saddlers, 57; Masons, 46; Coach Lace Weavers, 36; Cabinet Makers, 35; Tailors, 35; Jewelers, 22; Blacksmiths, 19; Plane Makers, 17; Tanners, 17; Silver Platers, 15; Bakers, 15; Carters, 12; Saddle Tree Makers, 12; House Paint- ers and Glaziers, 10; Wagon Makers, 8; Trunk Makers, 7; Coopers, 7; Stone Cutters, 6; Last Makers, 6; Butchers, 5; Plough Makers, 4; Pump Makers, 1; Morocco Dressers, 3; Brush Makers, 3; Gun Smiths, 2; Watch and Clock Makers, 2; Tallow Chandlers, 1; Lock Masons, 1; Printers, 7.
RAPID GROWTH IN THE 1830's.
In 1796, Newark was called the "seat of the largest shoe manu- factory in New Jersey," and was turning out two hundred pairs a day. In 1832, the town was making about two million pairs annually. The quickening effect of the industries is clearly shown in the growth of population. It rose from 8,000 in 1826 to nearly 11,000 in 1830, and it increased 1,500 in the next year. In 1835, just before the city government was created, it was 18,000. In 1833, a resident of Schenectady, N. Y., who had visited Newark about 1826, returned, and, according to the Daily Advertiser, was astounded at the improvement made since his first visit. He "found things wonder- fully altered-entire new streets laid out, crowded with tenements, elegant ranges of buildings put up several stories in height, and its strong arm of Industry visible on whichsoever side the visitor turns his eyes."
The industrial activity brought growth and prosperity in many phases. In 1830 it was recorded that a building lot, "sold a few years ago for $800, sold two or three months ago for $8,000. Sat- urday last, a part of it sold at auction for $3,000. In that year a business man, apparently a commercial traveler, who had traveled much and visited many cities and towns throughout the United States, remarked, while in Newark that he did not believe there was a city in the Union, or town, where so many inhabitants are to be
٢
534
HISTORY OF NEWARK
found in the same number of houses. "The people are remarkably industrious," he remarked, speaking of Newark. "We find them hammering away at their trades from 5 a. m. until 10 or 12 p. m. And they are looking forward to the possession of a domicile when- soever they can be satisfactorily accommodated."
In 1777 there were 141 dwelling houses in Newark. In 1832 there were 1,542. Newark's first real "land boom" flourished in 1834, and for two or three years thereafter. Speculators began to buy up land right and left. There was a great inflation of realty in what is now the Roseville section, and extravagant prices were paid for land there, as it was thought the development was to move rapidly in that direction."
" For further information concerning the industries of Newark, see the chapters upon them from the establishment of the city government and those dealing with the Germans in Newark.
CHAPTER XXIII. NEWARK, MOTHER OF TOWNS-THE COURT HOUSE ELECTION SCANDAL-LAW AND ORDER.
CHAPTER XXIII.
NEWARK, MOTHER OF TOWNS-THE COURT HOUSE ELECTION SCANDAL- LAW AND ORDER.
A S Newark grew and waxed strong, the administration of the township's affairs became increasingly cumbersome because of the wide area over which the population was distributed. So the partition of her domain began. Newark, mother of towns, was now to part with large stretches of her great acreage, and she, as well as the smaller townships thus created, was to benefit thereby.
Springfield Township was established in 1793, being set off from Newark and Elizabethtown, and comprehending what are now (1913) the townships of Springfield and New Providence, Millburn and a portion of Livingston. It took the ancient English name of the region.
Next, in 1798, was Caldwell, being set off from Acquackanonck, and including the present Caldwell and a portion of Livingston. This was the old "Horseneck" section of the county and was named after the heroie Parson Caldwell of Revolutionary fame.
Orange Township was the third. This partition came in 1806. The whole area covered by all the four Oranges grew steadily from the close of the War for Independence. The township of Newark showed its appreciation of that fact in 1798, when it decided that on one of the three days devoted to the annual election for members of the Legislature, the proceedings should be held in Orange. The name "Orange Dale," or "Newark Mountain," was used as early as 1782. The settlers were familiar with the name Orange, for Albany, N. Y., under the dominion of the Dutch, was known as "Fort Orange" and New York City was at one time "New Orange." In all probability the name was first given to the section west of Newark because of the popular enthusiasm over the deeds of William, Prince of Orange.
Bloomfield Township was formed in 1812, being named after Governor Bloomfield. It comprised a number of "neighborhoods,"
538
HISTORY OF NEWARK
including Cranetown, now Montclair; Wardsesson Plain, Second River, Newtown, Morris Neighborhood and Stone House Plain. It included practically all of what is now Belleville.
Livingston Township was set off from Springfield and Cald- well in 1813.
In 1821 Clinton Township was established, Newark, Elizabeth, Orange and Union being drawn upon to make it. Four years later a portion of Clinton was annexed to Orange. The boundary line between Newark and Clinton was again altered in 1852, and still again in 1869.
Belleville Township was created in 1839, out of a generous section of what had previously been Bloomfield. The name, a com- bination of French words, means "Beautiful View."
Millburn Township was set off from Springfield in 1857. The name is of Scotch origin-the mill by the "burn," or spring.
South Orange Township came next, in 1861, being made up of portions of Clinton and Orange.
A year later Orange, Caldwell and Livingston were drawn on to make Fairmount Township, and the following year South Orange was increased by being given a part of Millburn. In the same year, 1863, the name of Fairmount was changed to West Orange, and the boundary lines altered. Simultaneously East Orange was created out of Orange. The fiftieth anniversary of its establish- ment was celebrated in mid-June, 1913.
Montelair Township was made up out of Bloomfield in 1869. The name was taken from the French, meaning "clear mount" or mountains.
The territory long known as Woodside was partitioned between Newark and Belleville in 1871. It had been a part of Belleville from the time that township was created until 1869, when it became a township, but two years later was absorbed by Newark. For a few years before its absorption it was known as Ridgewood.
Franklin Township was established in 1874, and the section known as Nutley was known until a generation ago as the "Nutley" Estate of Thomas W. Satterthwaite and his heirs.
539
HISTORY OF NEWARK
Newark has, in the course of all these changes, and since, drawn back to itself small portions of its original area, acquiring parts of Clinton Township in 1869, 1897 and 1902; of Woodside, as already seen, in 1871, and Vailsburgh in 1905.
It was out of a generous slice of Clinton Township (so named in honor of De Witt Clinton, who at that time, 1835, was Governor of New York and was famed because of his energetic promotion of the Erie Canal project) that "Camptown," the present Irvington, was made. Just how it got the name of Camptown is not definitely known. Members of the Camp family, of the second generation of Newarkers, settled in the Irvington region, and it was very common in that day to give a locality the name of the dominant family, as the present Montclair was for many generations known as "Cranetown" because of the large sprinkling of the descendants of one of Newark's leading founders (Jasper Crane) who made their homes there. The theory that Camptown was so named because Washington once camped there has no standing in history, for Washington did not camp there, and if any of his soldiers pitched their tents in that section it could only have been for a brief interval. The first theory is no doubt closest to the fact.
"Camptown Navy Yard," a phrase nearly a century old, seems to have had a facetious origin in the fact that periaugers were built in the so-called Vinegar Hill section between Irvington and South Orange, launched in Bound Creek (then much larger than the streamlet that now feeds Weequahic Park lake) and thus found their way to the bay. They are said to have been built for the New York trade, and carried freight and passengers. A small schooner, the "Enterprise," was built in Camptown in 1812, brought on wheels to the bay, and used for smuggling between Canadian and Maine ports during the War of 1812.
Bound Creek was for many decades before and a few years after the War for Independence a very useful and highly important means of shipment. Farm products were brought down from the countryside, from even as far away as Morristown, in ox-carts and loaded on the periaugers, near what is now the western edge of
540
HISTORY OF NEWARK
Weequahic Park, and in the same way goods brought from New York on the periaugers were transported inland.
Irvington was so named in 1852, at a mass meeting, in response to a general feeling among the inhabitants that "Camptown" was hardly in keeping with the dignity and prosperity of their village. The works of Washington Irving, the creator of "Cockloft Hall," were then becoming very popular, and it was decided to honor him by giving the community his name. He was invited to attend the ceremonies but politely declined.
Jefferson Village was another Essex County settlement, origi- nally a part of Newark. It got its name about 1800, when Thomas Jefferson had become the idol of the so-called plain people. It is now a part of Maplewood.
Lyons Farms and Connecticut Farms are noticed in one of the chapters on the War for Independence. Waverly is a com- paratively modern name for a portion of Lyons Farms and the Weequahic region. All these sections were at one time part of Clinton Township. There was also Headleytown, a mile and a half east of Springfield. Connecticut Farms is about two miles and a half west of Lyons Farms.
ESSEX COUNTY.
While Essex County was established as early as 1675 (as noted in previous chapters), definite boundaries were not fixed, the Assem- bly simply ruling that Newark and Elizabethtown should consti- tute a county. In 1682 an "aet to erect County Courts" gives the old English name "Essex" to this county, and directs that court shall be held in Newark and in Elizabethtown. But it was not until 1710 that boundaries were first defined, as follows: "That the County of Essex shall begin at the mouth of the Raway River where it falls into the Sound, and so to run up the said Raway River to Robeson's Branch; thence west to the Division Line between the Eastern and Western Division [of New Jersey] and so to follow the said Division Line to the Requaneck [Pequannoek ?] River, where it meets Passaick River; thence down
541
HISTORY OF NEWARK
Passaick River to the Bay and Sound; thence down the Sound to where it began."
In 1741 a part of Essex was joined to Somerset County. On February 7, 1837, Passaic County was formed out of the northern part of Essex. On March 19, 1857, Union County was taken from the Southern portion. Townships were not formed in the New Jersey counties until 1692, when Essex was divided into three townships; first, Acquackanonck, and New Barbadoes, the latter comprising the settlements on the east side of the Passaic; second, Newark ; third, Elizabethtown.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.