USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Annals of Morris County > Part 20
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the war was ostensibly managing a little grist miil, but really a contraband rolling and slitting mill. On a window pane at Mt. Hope written in a beautiful hand with a diamond ix still to be seen the sentence "Samuel Ogden Aug. 1778." At Mt. Hope for two years resided Col .. Jacol Ford, Jr., and atter hun John Jacob Faesch, surrounded with many workmen among whom were thirty of the Hessian prisonerx taken at Trenton. At " Horse Pound " resided Benjamin Beach in the house just east of that now occupied by his grandson Dr. Columbus Beach .* Not far from the place where stood the house of Col. S. S. Beach burned in 1856. stood & dwelling owned and occupied by Capt. Aaron Bigelow. At Hibernia in a house, the foundations of which are vet to be seen, resided first Mr. Joseph Hoff, and afterward Mr. Charles Hoff and his wife Hannah daughter of Moses Tuttle. Mr. Joseph Hoff was manager of the iron works in 1776, in which year he died and was succeeded by bis brother Charles who was surrounded by a retinue of miners, colliers. choppers, and furnace men. He remained there until 1781. (Johne's Letter in my Scrap Book.) Deacon Jacob Allerton lived where Mr. David Anderson now does, Deacon () adıatı Lum resided in a house just below the ok Palmer house at Franklin, and I presume he was the owner either of the Frankhn Forge or the Colvrain Forge on the same stream oppe - sit, where the Union School House stands. Richard Dell lived where Miller Smith now does, Gen. Winds on the farm which still bears his name, Wm. Ross where John Dickerson now lives, and Josiah Beman at Dover. The farm houses were plain affairs, not designed to be air tight, and the cabins were not very com- fortable, but all the houses had great fire places in which were burnt fabulous amounts of wood. In these humble homes our father's lived, and loved, and 'enjoyed, and died, and perhaps their share of reat enjoyment in their homes was not less than we claim to have in our more pretentious way of living. In those houses men and women lived till many of them were near a hundred years old. They did many things well and suffered many things nobly, but their toils and sufferings were well
*HORSE POUND. Col. Beach tells me the origin of this singular name to have been this. In early times the people of this region, as also those in Parsippany and Hanover were accus. tomed in the Spring to turn their young cattle and horses into the wood above Rockaway to find pasture during the Summer. In the Fall the horses were driven into & POUND built at the upper end of the Glen Forge Pond. This was made of logs and spread out wide and was contracted to a small space in which the horses were easily caught. Hence the name of HORSE POUND which preceded the more elegant one by which now it is called BEACH GLEN.
ANNALS OF MORRIS COUNTY.
rewarded in the health, contentment they had, and especially in the eburch which they carried in their arms as a unrse her child. Were they here now they would say, "this is the chief oy and reward of our labors."
The history of the iron business in this conf: munity during the period under review is im- portant and interesting, but of necessity minst be condensed. So tar as I am able to ascertain the facts, the Dickerson Mine on Mine will, lately owned by Gov. Mahlon Dick- erson, is the MOTHER MINE in this county. That property waa returned in 1716 by John Reading and sold bv him the same year to Joseph Kirkbride, and it remained in the pos- session of his sons, Joseph, John and Mahlon, until the late Governor Mahlon Dickerson's tather Jonathan Dickerson aud Minard LaFever bought it. The ore was very rich and very ac- cessible. As early as 1710 the mine was worked and ore packed in leather bags to the first forge built in the county, that at Whippany, and afterwards to another forge on the small stream between Mr. Edward Howell's farm and the Morris Plains station. The ore was so abun- dant and the means of transportation so small that Gov. Dickerson once told me that the mine was not regarded as very valuable even as late as 1807 when he bought it. I think it probable that this mine furnished the ore for the forges at Dover, Ninkie an] Shaungum, and perhaps some for those at Franklin and Rockaway. How early the Mount Hope veins of iron ore were worked I am not able to say. I have heard Col. Jackson say that when a boy he has assisted to cart ore from Mt. Hope and that it was so accessible that the cart could be be backed up to tho vein which then cropped out of the side of the hill. Col. Jacob Ford, Jr., bought the property in 1770 but no doubt ore had been dug there a long time previous. The real development of the mines at Mt. Hope was begun by Mr. Faesch. Previous to 1760 ore was dug at Mt. Pleasant and Col. Jacob Ford, Sr., had built a forge at the place. Pre- vioas to 1758 the same enterprising man had built forges at Ninkie and Sbaungum. It is possible that he built the Colerain Forge also. The mines at Hibernia and the Glen were worked previous to 1765. I have been told by Col. Joseph Jackson that the works at Hibernia were built by Lord Sterling and Samuel Ford but when I am unable to determine. In 1765 Samuel Ford and Grace his wife conveyed to Benjamin Cooper of Newtown, Sussex County "one equal and undivided third part of all and every of the Respective five following lotts of land hereinafter mentioned and des- eribed scituato in the township of Pequanack in the County of Morris aforesaid about one mile and a half above John Johnson's
Iron works." These tracts are described as in the vicinity of " the Horse Pound Mine." (E. Jersey Records Liber. D. 3 p. 46.) Some deeds in possession of Dr. Columbus Beach shew that Samuel Ford was a partner in certain mine lots at, Hibernia, so that it appears prob- ably that be did help start the Hibernia works previous to 1765. Col. Jackson set the date down as 1770 or '72. The upper forge in this village was built previous to 1758, and is called " Beman's Forge " in the carliest subscription paper of this parish. Col. Jackson says that it was built by Isaac Bearb. As before stated in 1748, it was called " Job Allen's Iron Works." The lower forge was not built until after Stephen Jackson had erected the old grist mill in 1783 which is yet standing. Denmark forge was built in 1768 by Cot. Jacob Ford, Jr. The facts about other torges and mines belonging to that early period I am looking for and hope to find.
Yon have noticed the fact that in several instances in hiring a minister, the parish re- served to itselt the right to pay in iron in one case at 20s. per cwt. and in another at 24s., that is at $50 and $60 per ton. As a contrast between the forges of that day and either the forges or rolling mills which are in the same territory, let me stare a fact which I have from William Jackson. Esq. Col Ford once boasted in Morristown "that in his forge at Denmark he had made and shingled a loop that day which weighed twenty-eight pounds." As another contrast between the business in that day and this, take the paek horse of 1758 or the heavy vagon of a later period taking from two to fonr days to reach Elizabethtown Point and com pare it with the facilities for freighting now furnish: d by the canal and railway. The pack- horse may have carried from two to three hun- dred pounds, and the team aided over " Pinel Hill' by an extra team may have carried a ten. One horse ou the canal will draw fifty tons, and the "Delaware " freight engine in four hours will move a load of four hundred tons to Newark surmounting tho heavy grades of the Short Hills. That one engine will take at 01le load as many pounds as 2000 pach horses conld carry, or as many as 200 teams could draw. The small forge of that day contrasted with our blast furnaces and rolling mills, the pack horse of that day contrasted with our freight locomotives, these show that something has been accomplished in our region siuec the first ore was dng at Mine Hill.
This aketch would be incomplete were Ito omit the facts of onr Revolutionary history. Here too I must of necessity be brief. From the very beginning of the contest between this country and Great Britain the people of this region took a very decided stand in favor of
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their country. I have not yet heard of one prominent man in the parish of Rockaway as constituted during the Revolution who sympa- thized with the enemy. In 1764 William Winda, one of his Majesty's Justices of the l'race, bad such a disgust for the stamp art that rather than use the stamped paper, tradi- tion say he used white birch bark for his legal Business, and when Great Britain enforced the savage Boston Port Bill, the feelings of the people were well expressed by the father of Joseph and Charles Hoff when in a letter to one of them ou business he begs him to let him know "how the poor Bostonians are coming ou ?" Our parish in 1775-6 furnished in Col. Win. Winds one of the most efficient officers in the patriot army, and Col. John Munson* also serving with bonor, and at different periods of the war Captains Bigelow, Jackson, Hall and other officers. As for our men there were very few who were not enlisted in the service of the country at some time during the war, and many of them were in bittle. Among the members of " the Associated Whigs " in Pe- qnanoc Township in 1776 are to be found nearly all the men known to have been in this region. The Committee of Safety was com- arsed of Robert Gaston, Moses Tuttle, Stephen Jackson, Abram Kitchel, and Job Allen, all of whom were members of this congregation.
"The articles of the Association and the names of the signers are published in Revolutionary Fragments, Morris County, No. 8. There was xnch a public sentiment in this community at that time that nothing was so odious as a Tory or the suspicion of a leaning in that direction.
When the war began the American Congress made contracts with Mr. Faesch at Mt. Hope and Lord Stirling at Hibernia for large quanti- ties of cannon balls. At the latter place some small cannon were cast in 1776. (Jos. Hoff's letter, Sept. 2d, 1776.) After the battle of Trenton, Faesch took into his employ thirty of the Hessian prisoners, and the government furnished him with arms to keep them in sub- jection. An attempt was made by Moody's party to burn down the Mount Hope Furnace, (Col. Jackson's statement in my Scrap Book) and in the year 1777 or 8 Mr. Charles Hoff, the manager of Hibernia, had his house robbed by a party led by the notorious Claudius Smith. Many of the men werc enrolled "as minute men " and it was no unusual occurrence for some of these men to come to the church.on
Sabbath armed and ready for instant march it case of alarm.
In 1778 a part of Gen. Sullivan's army eu- camped opposite Mr. Halsey's residence and some of the officers lodged with Capt. Jackson. They were on the way to avenge the horrible massacre at Wyoming. Once our illustrious Washington passed through the place on bis way to Mount Hope where he and bis suite dined with Mr. Faesch. On his way up he honored Capt. Jackson by alighting and partak= ing of some refreshments in his house .*
To the general period now under considera - tion belongs a series of very interesting events which are parts both of our parish and onr county history. For many years previous to the Revolutionary War the currency of New Jersey was in a greatly deranged condition. As in all new countries the people had more land than money, population was sparse, and products of the country above what was needed for home consumption were small in amount, and less still in their actnal sale for cash. New York and Philadelphia were then small towns, and not the great markets they now are. To render this state of things worse the British government had land destructive restrictions on all manufactures in this country which should in any manner compete with the same produc- tions at home. Iron, one of our greatout natural resources, we could have made to great advantage if we had been permitted to do so. Our immense forests would yield the coal, our mines the ore, our streams the power, and our people the enterprise of making iron in all forms and quantities profitahlv. So sovere were these restrictions on this mannfacture of iron that a small slitting mill at Old Boonton for making railroads and that kind of iron was concealed beneath a grist mill. The manager and joint owner of the establishment was Cof. Samnel Ogden, who was a man of considerab' tact. On one occasion he received an nnex- pected visit from Gov. William Franklin and his suite, in order to investigate the rumors which hinted that there was a contraband iron establishment at Boonton. Col. Ogden re- ceived his visitors with great cordiality, and according to the customs of the day brought out the liquors from his well-stocked celler. Dinner was also forthcoming and the visitors did justice to their host's good meats and his good drinks also. Meanwhile Ogden's men had closed up the slitting-mill carefully and started the mill-stones above. After so good a dinner it is said Col. Ogden's visitors were in no mood to make a very critical examination of the prom -
*Col. John Munson built Guinea Forge, on the stream north of Hubbard Stickle's bouse. Sept. 12th, 1778, Minutes of Privy Council show that "one class from Col. Munson's Regi- ment of Morris was with others to guard the frontiers to the northward from the incursions of the Indians and disaffected persons.
*One of General Washington's letters on file in the State Library and published some few years since by order of the Legislature is dan d from Rockaway.
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ises, and the Governor seeing the mill-stones ; naces, mines, and minerals " ax amiong the at- at work, said, " be knew there was nothing in the rumor about a contraband iron mill!" I may add that another rumor says that Gov. Franklin was a silent partner in the mill and if so his judgment in the case is easily accounted for.
It is a somewhat singular fact that nearly all the more pretentious iron establishments of that day failed. The London Company, Faesch at Mt. Hope, the Hibernia Company, and others became embarrassed and in some cases failed. Many of the forge owners working at their own fires and anvils, were able to make money, but even then it was only by extraor- dinary effort and economy. The result was a very great scareity of money. To meet this difficulty the Legislature occasionally issued limited amounts of paper currency. These bills were printed on very common paper and were easily counterfeited. On every bill as is said it was distinctly printed "'Tis death to counterfeit," and yet the death penalty was not sufficient to deter many persons from making and circulating counterfeit coins and bills. As confirming what has been said about the em- barrasstents of people in this State I may quote a paragraph from the address of Gov. Franklin to the General Assembly iu Aprit 1768. ·· There is at tins time a considerable number of debtors confined in the different Gaots iu this Province. The condition of many of them 18 deplorable." The cotemporaneons records of the Morris County Courts show the sune fact.
I have already mentioned that previous to 1765 Samuel Ford of Morristown was the owner of the property at Hibernia. Ou the 28th of October, 1765, he and his wife Grace executed two deeds, in the first of which they conveyed to " Benjamin Cooper of Newtown, Sussex County, New Jersey" "one equal and undi- VKled third part of all and every of the Res- pective five following lots of land hereinafter mentioned and scituate in the Township of Pequanack in the County of Morris aforesaid about one mile and a half above Jolin John- sull's Iron Works, &c."* Four of these lots contained "ten acres strict measure " each, and the fifth contained ten acres and thirty- four one-hundreth's of an acre. The second deed it in precisely the same terms as the former one, naming tho same " equal and un- divided share " of five lots which are named as before. The price in each case £265:13:4, but the grantee in the second deed is "James An- derson of Newtown, Sussex County. "Both deeds mention "outhouses, buildings, barns, Fur-
ticles inchuled in the conveyances. From these deeds it is evident that iron works bad been built both at Horse Pound ( cach Glen) and at Hibernia as early as 1765. Who the owner of the other third part of the property at Hibernia was I am not able to state. Lord Sterling was a j.ant;owner of that property at a subsequent date, but whether as early. nr 1765 1 have not been able to ascertain. 1
The sale of this property to Cooper and de- derson in 1765 matches into other well kuowa facts. About this time Ford and a confederate. one Joseph Richardson, sailed to Ireland as in alleged to perfect, " themselves in their pro- fession." Mr. Whitebead puts the date down as 1 769, but I suspiet it was not later than 1765. Undoubtedly bis- sale of the Hibernia lands gave him the means for bis voyage, and in th, Minutes of the Privy Council for this State under date of June 28th 1766, the Governof signed a warrant on the treasury " to the Hon. John Stevens, Esq., for sending an express iuto this colony to inform the inhabitants of a large sum of counterfeit Jersey Bills of credit being arrived in a vessel Irom England.". Whilst io Ireland Ford married a young Irish lady who ... be brought to this country and abandoned, his wife Grace Kitchel being still alive. Dr. Timothy Kitchel of Whippany tells me that his father tokl him that this young woman was afterward married to an Irisman and resided in Whippany many years. This crime and his final abandon- ment of his wife seem to mark him as a heartless villain. He was the grandson of a most esti- mable lady, and was closely connected by blood and marriage with several of the most influen- tial and excellent families in the county, and as one who knew him well said, "his condnet was a grief to his friends." He was the son af Samuel Ford and nephew of Col. Jacob Ford, Sr. In 1768 he was residing in New York and Wax there arrested " on a charge of uttering false New Jersey Bills of Credit." (Proceedings N. J. His. Society, 5. p. 52.) He was never brought to trial on this charge. His residence was in Hanover Township and for several years previous to 1773 he is named as an Overseer of Highways. He owned a farm of 130 acrew known as " the Hammock " botween Columbia and Morristown. Records of Morris Co. Courts vol. 1.) Ford's workshop "was in the midst of an almost impenetrable swamp about a mile distant from his residence at Hanover, in which the water for the greater part of the year was a foot deep and through which the operator was obliged to creep on his hands and knees for some distance to get at bis work." (Proceed. N. J. His. Soc. vol. 5. p. 54.)
There was another transaction in which Ford according to popular opinion became interested.
*Jobn Johnson's Iron Works were at Beach Glen. The Glen Forge is built where Johnson's orks were.
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whether right or wrong cannot now be deler- mined. On the 21st of July, 1768, the treasury of East Jersey was phundered of £6570:9:4, and ali efforts to fix the crime ou any person lailed. The treasurer, Stephen Skinner, was sus. pwcted, but withont good reasons. Several ar- rests were made, but they only left the mystery unexplamed. These facts will enter into our subsequent inquiries.
The emission of counterfeit money had become an alarming evil, and on the 16th of July, 1773, Ford was arrested and committed to jail in Morristown. The night of the next day he escaped, being aided as some say, by ode ot his own gang named John Kug, and as others allege, being assisted by the Sheriff himself to the extent that he took no great precaution to prevent it. About the same Lime several other persons were arrested on suspicion of being engaged in the same busi- ness. Four citizens of this county, Benjamin Cooper, Dr. Beru Bndd, Samuel Haynes, and David Reynolds, and one of Sussex County uamed Ayres, were indicted, tried. convieted and scienced to death .* All except Reynolds were persons respectably connected, and Cooper and Haynes were Justices of the Peace. Benjamin Cooper at the time of his criminal conduct was a prominent man in this community, and one of the judges who tried him was his own father Daniel Cooper. From the fact that he passed some spurious bins as early as 1769 ( Procced. N. J. His. Soc. v. p. 55. note) I suspect that Que sale of land to lum by Ford mn 1765 Waz part of the same general scheme winch had
" ist mother of DE. Ddud las Uved descrived to me by Mrs. Cot. Joseph Jackson who knew bel, as a person of extraordinary dignity, even Marenness of manuers. Di. Budu's Wue was aunost beside bersen with griet on account of ner husband's muictment, conviction and sen tence, and on her knees m the most pathetic manuer she besongut Gov. Fraukhu to pardon
Bnt Budu's mother reproved her Laughter-in-law for her excessive grief and among other things uttered the following very sinhlug sentiment, " He has broken the laws of the land and it is just that he should suffer by them." The tramons of the county still preserve anecdotes indicating that Dr. Budd was a kind and generons mau. His patients uut not always have a delicate forgetfulness of uns former misfortune. One woman thought to be dying revived at signt of the Doctor and said, "Dr. Budd, how did you kind a' feel when you was gomg to be hanged?" In a letter to E. Atkinson bis London correspondent. Robert Erskine of Ringwood, under date of Vet. 6th, 1773, writes, "I have been sworn in and acted as a justice of the peace in the Jerseys for some time past which as justices turn out is no great honour. One man has been hanged and several are under sen'ence ol death for counterfeiting paper currency as you will see by the papers, among whom are two justices of the peace. Cooper, one Justice, I nad a slight acquaintance on, being partner in Hibernia with Lord Stering."
been in progress several years before it was arrested. The letter of Cooper to Lord Stir- ling after the conviction is a curions affair. In it he traces his crime back to 1771 at which time " Ford called me to Morristown. There he told me first of the villainous scheme of passing bad money. My necessities distressed to distraction led me into it." This was not true as to time since there is now a counterteit bill in existence which Cooper passed in 1709. Of conrse he puts the best lace on his conduct. aud further intimates to Stirling that he can be of great service to him in case he is pardon- ed. His letter concludes in these words. "But. God's will be done. I am endeavoring to pre- pare for the worst to come. It is my chics aim. Now I believe it is time, I fear I am to depart. I have no ole but your Lordship to place the least dependance on, and thus only from your natural human benevolent disposition toward all n.ankind. Here only I hope for your interest which if properly obtained and applied would no doubt lengthen my days. Many things in the course of my perplexity I could say more concerning your interest as also my present situation. Now I pray you my good Lord if you can possibly do me any service in this present situation of mine, grant me your aid for God's sake." On the morning of the day on which he was to be hung, Cooper Was reprieved, as were also Haynes and Budd,* and it is said that all of them in view of the gallows made confessions which pointed to Ford as the mysterious robber of the Treasury In 1768, but aside from the confessions of these dishonest confederates, no proof was found 10 susiam the charge.
Previous to his arrest Cooper had left Hiber- nia and was living in Hunterdon County, Unt his arrest took place at Hibernia. What be- came of him afterwards I cannot learn, except that in 1774 he with Haynes, Budd and others were summoned as witnesses by Lord Stirling to charges which he made in the Privy Council against Col. Samuel Ogden, and Samuel Tuthill, Esq's, Justices of the Peacc, for unfair dealings in the taking of affidavits and confessions " in the county of Morris in or about the months of August, September and October last, relative to the counterfeiting of the paper bills of credit
*The minutes of Privy Council Dec. 3d, 1773, show that an attempt was made "to send for and examine the convicts in Morris County Gaol" in reference to their alleged knowledge of the robbery of the Treasury, but the House of Assembly being of the opinion that such a course is not proper, " the Council advised bis Excellency to issue his Majesty's Royal pardon to said convicts, Benjamin Cooper, Bern Budd, and Samuel Haines." Dr. Bern Budd died of putrid fever Dec, 14th, 1777, aged thirty- nine years. (Morristown Bilt of Mortality. p. 41.)
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of this province and to the Robbery of the Eastern Treasury of this Province." The minutes of the Privy Council show that in the trial just mentioned, " Wilham De Hart, Esq., is to bring with hnm the affidavits of Budd and Haines taken after they were released from Gaol and the original paper wrote by IIaires in Gaol which he, De Hart, received from Ilaines' wife," and a letter from Ford himself to Cooper shows that the latter also had made confessions, all of which charged Ford as having robbed the Treasury.
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