USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Essex county, N.J., illustrated > Part 3
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
over the history of the brown stone interests of Essex County it has been found that quarries have been opened as early as 1700, and stone taken therefrom to construct the substantial old farm houses, mills, etc., which remain to this day, showing evidences that give warrant of qualities good for another century. Long before marble came into vogue here as a mater- ial from which to make grave-stones, tablets and monuments, brown stone was used.
Quarries for getting out these stones were worked in several townships, beginning at Newark and extending as far north as Franklin and including Belleville, Bloomfield and Orange. The Belleville quarries, which are located on the west bank of the l'assaic river, now the town of Franklin, are about one- quarter of a mile from the Avondale station, on the Newark and Paterson railroad. The first opening was made in or near this place for the purpose of procuring stone for building, more than a century and a half ago. Since 1857 they have been vig-
almost breathless with excitement over the discovery of the remarkable geological fact that somewhere away back in the past ages, there had been a slip, the west side appearing to have slipped down, as the corresponding beds on either side would indicate. It will be remembered that when the earth trembled and shook so extensively all along the Atlantic coast several years ago, nearly destroying Charleston and doing great injury all along the sea, that many of our scientific men attrib- uted the trouble to a general slipping of one rock form- ation over another, with its " dip " toward the sea, caused by a sort of general commotion among the forces within the earth. But as we have no business in this field of exploration, where every fact established must be worked from the processes car- ried on in the great laboratory of nature, we leave scientific reasoning out of the why and the wherefore of this, or that, where it belongs, or, in short, in the hands of men better able and more willing to cope with it.
ULY EAGLE
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CURDY'S COACH LACE KFERRYSC.
3
VIEW ON BROAD STREET, LOOKING SOUTH FROM MARKET STREET IN 1840.
orously worked. The production has been greatly increased since that time. From three to five hundred men are employed steadily in quarrying the blocks and in dressing the stones in yards nearby. Cook's Geological report for 1881 (and probably the last ever made by that eminent scholar) says: " The work- ings move in a generally westward direction, extending from within a few rods of the river road into the gently rising ridge. All of them descend below the tide level of the river. The overlying earth is glacial drift, containing much red sand-stone and in places, imbeded sands and gravel." One fact has been made patent to every quarryman, viz .: That the deeper he goes the better the stone, the quality improving with the increasing depth of earth and consequent increase of pressure to which the stone is subjected. He also says that what is termed the " dip " of the strata is toward the northwest and at an angle of from 10 to 11 degrees. The Professor is said to have been
A fact which grows sterner as the workings of these quarries, where the stores of wealth lie packed away in such enormous quantities as to be, and remain for even thousands of years incalculable, and as the depth from whence they come increases the more Herculian-like, becomes the work of the elevation of the great blocks from their beds to the surface without the least assistance from gravity, all the workings moving with the " dip."
In moving the stone, mighty derricks are used to first lift the blocks. These are run by steam and consequently must be sound in every part. A weakness in any plate, or flaw any- where pointing to danger and disaster, as certain as the mag- netic needle to the pole. The latest United States schedule placed the value of the stone quarried in a single year from one quarry. at a quarter of a million, placing the selling price of the light grey stone at one dollar per cubic foot, and the fine grained reddish colored sand-stone, suitable for rubbing, was
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
fixed at one dollar and fifty cents per cubic foot. The Mills building, lately constructed at the corner of Broad street and Exchange place, New York city, consumed almost the entire output of the Belleville quarries during 1880 and 1881.
What is known as the Joyce quarry, having taken to the hill more than the others, has now a depth of about 100 feet. The Robinson and Philips, which have a united opening of 500 square feet, averages only about 50 feet in depth. Newark is repre- sented by four great openings, from which excellent stone is being quarried, giving a handsome return to those who have made investments. It is remarkable, and to the investor, no doubt, a pleasant fact, that these quarries when worked out of paying stone have not been troubled with the dip to such an extent as to interfere with their availability for building sites.
The supply of cheap brown stone for foundations, etc., has been the source of quite an income to quarrymen, they realizing
TRAP ROCK.
NEXT in importance to the brown stone which adorns, beauti-
fies and enriches the dwelling houses and business places of the fortunate possessors of the hills and mountains of Essex County, comes the trap rock, which makes durable and smooth our highways and pathways, the streets and avenues, where the carriages of the citizens may roll, bringing comfort to their bodies who first seized upon the fact which had long been made a manifestation through accident. The accident made itself manifest in this wise. Through the outcropping of this peculiar kind of stone in places where highways in course of time were opened for the purpose of giving the settlers access to places which were springing up in different sections of the county. These highways or public roads, when opened, were sometimes worked as 'twas said, and sometimes not. Here it was where the not came in that these roads or public highways crossed these
EN FERSISCO
CLOTHING WARE HOUSE
VIEW ON MARKET STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM BROAD STREET, IN 1840.
from five to twenty-five cents per cubic foot. Not alone in the money value are these cheap stones to be considered, but they have long been found useful and valuable to the builder and will increase in this direction as the dial of time keeps on moving.
In all probability, the largest blocks of brown stone have been raised from the quarry of F. W. Shrump, which is located further westward than any other in the county. The stone is of gravish color and blocks have been taken out measuring 30 feet long, 113 feet wide and 10 feet thick. All the heavy work of this quarry is performed by steam power. The stone is then transported via. Morris Canal, two and one-half miles distant, and by railroads at Montclair, Orange, etc. Builders use the stone from this quarry chiefly for church building and trimmings. Many representative structures can be seen in New York, Newark, the Oranges, etc.
outcroppings of trap rock and showing no evidence of necessity for repairs, but which gave abundant evidence, in the course of time, of the great value of this peculiar kind of rock material for road making by the wonderful durability and smoothness of wear it was discovered to possess. To this material Essex County is, no doubt, to a great extent indebted for the wide, smooth and broad avenues of which she boasts to-day. That she has a just right to boast, one has only to take a ride or drive over these avenues, and conviction will follow with rapid strides.
Then a debt of gratitude is due the men who have been found willing to open the quarries, get up the stone crackers, attach the steam power and furnish to the road builders stone in all the sizes which long experience has proved the most available. While the stone men or the men who have delved in the Orange Mountains' rough sides in search of the quality of stone the
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
most desirable for the uses and purposes set forth in the order from unknown parties or from wherever it may have emanated.
Among the quarrymen there has ever been a generous rivalry, and the orders for the largest consumers of the broken " trap " has led to a business competition which has driven the price per ton down with each new call for competitory bidding, the fortunate winner often securing the prize on a big quantity and fine quality with a margin of only a half dollar or less on the ton to secure the contract. Many have travelled far and crossed the ocean to reach and enjoy such a sight as the Giant's Causeway presents. A similar wonder can be seen any time in O'Rourke's trap rock quarry, on the face of the First Orange Mountain.
ESSEX COUNTY ROADS AND AVENUES.
THE exact time when the roads and avenues in the county of Essex were laid out is involved in considerable obscurity, but certain it is that the fine wide streets known as Broad and Market streets, in the settlement of Newark, were the first roads laid out hy the early settlers of the county. The first road on record that was laid out by the Commissioners of Highways is in the Essex County road book, and bears date December 3d, 1698, and refers to a road in Elizabethtown, which at that period formed a part of Essex County. In 1705, a road was laid out connecting the towns of Newark and Elizabethtown. High Street was laid out as a legal road in 1709, although it had been used for a highway previous to that date. In 1717, several roads had been laid out on the Newark " Neck " to enable the farmers to get in their salt hay, and the old Ferry road was extended to Hudson County, with the old-time rope ferry boats to convey passengers and freight across the Passaic and Hacken- sack rivers. In 1806, the Newark and Pompton Turnpike Company was incorporated. This thoroughfare ran from North Broad Street, now Belleville Avenue, in a northwesterly direction to Bloomfield, which at that time was in the town of Newark ; thence to Craneston, now Montclair, and over the First Mountain, through Caldwell to Pompton Plains. This road is now Bloom- field Avenue and is under the care of the Essex County Road Board, within the county limits. In 1811, the Newark and Morristown turnpike was laid out, extending the old South
BALDWIN HOMESTEAD, AN OLD NEWARK LANDMARK.
THE OLD PLANK ROAD FERRY-HOUSE.
Orange road which was in existence years before. The princi- pal roads and avenues running through the county, connecting its cities, towns and villages, are all fine and broad avenues, well paved and under the care of the Essex County Road Board.
This Board had its origin in the far-sighted and public-spirited Llewellyn S. Haskell, the founder of Llewellyn Park, West Orange. Some years after he had completed that beautiful park, Mr. Haskell conceived the idea of making all of Essex County one grand park with Newark as a centre. His idea was to take the principal thoroughfares leading out from Newark, grade and pave them so as to make easy and pleasant drives and then connect them by lateral roads. In pursuance of this plan, Mr. Haskell procured from the legislature of 1868, a law incorporating the Essex County Road Board. The first members of the Board were Llewellyn S. Haskell, William H. Murphy and Francis McGrath. The law was found to be defective and a supplement was passed in 1869, increasing the number of commissioners to five. The first commissioners so ap- pointed were A. Bishop Baldwin, of South Orange, William H. Murphy, of Newark, Jesse Williams, of Orange, George Peters, of Newark, and Robert M. Henning. of Montclair. Mr. Mur- phy soon resigned, and Mr. Timothy W. Lord, of Newark, was appointed in his place. To these five citizens is due the credit of the magnificent system of county roads in charge of the Road Board, which forin in Essex County a system of drives that is unequalled anywhere in the vicinity of New York. The avenues in charge of the Road Board are, Frelinghuysen ave- nue, extending from Astor street, Newark, to Elizabeth ; Springfield avenue, from the Court House in Newark, through Irving- ton, South Orange and Millburn, to the Morris county line ; South Orange avenue, from Springfield avenue, Newark, through Vailsburgh and South Orange, and up to the county line; Central avenue, from Broad street, Newark, to the Valley road, West Orange ; Park avenue, running from Bloomfield avenue, Newark, to Llewellyn Park, West Orange; Bloomfield avenue, from Belleville avenue, Newark, to the county line in Caldwell, and Washington avenue, from Belleville avenue, Newark, "through Belleville and Franklin, to Passaic.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J. ILLUSTRATED.
SLAVERY IN ESSEX COUNTY.
THE fact that negro slavery was first introduced into the American colonies in the year 1619 is well authenticated, and as will be seen when compared with the records, this event so portentious to the weal and the woe of the great republic, occurred nearly fifty years before the settlement of Essex County. Eggleston's School History, which, no doubt, has the correct version, gives the account of it, as follows : " The same year in which the great charter reached Virginia, there came a Dutch ship in the James river which sold nineteen negroes to the planters. They were the first slaves in Amer- Ha" In those days it was thought right to make slaves of negroes because they were heathen ; but for a long time the number of slaves that came into the colonies was small. White bond servants did most of the labor in Maryland and Virginia until about the close of the seventeenth century, when the high price of tobacco (which had become the staple con-
few slaves, passed acts of emancipation and set their negroes free. Very different was it where the burden of labor fell on the shoulders of him who had been purchased for the purpose.
Out of this situation of affairs grew the slavery question -- the differences between the free and the slave states, and finally led up to the late civil war. At first the slaves did not speak English, and they practiced many wild African customs. Some of them were fierce and the people became afraid of their peculiar manœuvres. Great harshness was used in many places to sulxlue them. Eggleston reports one of these in New York City, in 1712, when twenty-four negroes were put to death, In 1740, an uprising of them in South Carolina led to a battle, in which the negroes were routed. By a reference to the record it will be found that Queen Anne gave encouragement to the Royal African Company of England, of which the Duke of York was president, offering as a bounty for each able African slave introduced, sixty-five acres of land, as a further inducement and to encourage and make their inhumanity more inhuman,
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VIEW OF NEWARK FROM ST. FRANCIS STREET, IN 1875.
modity, of which large quantities was raised for exportation) caused a great many negroes to be brought. About the same time the introduction of rice in South Carolina created a great demand for slaves.
It didn't take long for the institution, barbarous though it was, to reach all the colonies. Even New Jersey failed in the hour of trial, and in the face of large profits to be derived from slave labor, to keep her skirts free. Nor did Essex County offer any serious resistance to its introduction, even among her Puritanic families, who had grown rich and independent. Even New England, over which the breezes from Plymouth Rock came over hill and dale and spread its religious influences broadcast, failed to set up any stable barrier against it. For tilling the soil, New England, as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, soon found negro slavery unprofitable, and it was carly abandoned, except where they could be made use of as house servants. After the Revolution, the colonies which had
by keeping up a full supply of merchantable negroes at (mark the stain) reasonable rates.
One fact stands out prominently all through the conduct of this nefarious business-so long as England profited by the traffic in African slaves, she held out a liberal encouragement to those who had sunk so low in the scale of humanity as to be- come slave traders. Thus the stain sank deeper, until the pen, proving mightier than the sword, broke the galling chains asunder, and the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln set the slaves free.
The wealthy people of Essex County were not slow (even though of good old Puritan stock) to give countenance to the weakness for getting cheap labor through the channel of human slavery, and while they did not drain it to the very dregs as they did in the tobacco and rice growing colonies, no house of preten- sions but had its servants from among those of whom Bryant sang:
Men from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
Neither was their broad acres properly tilled without labor bought in the markets. When taken as a whole, slavery in New Jersey didn't pay, and while New York, Pennsylvania and others of the sisterhood early compelled their legislatures to pass acts abolishing the practice of purchasing and holding humans in bondage, New Jersey satisfied her conscience by acts of gradual emancipation.
In 1790, the census reported 11,423 slaves as held in New Jersey, the larger number of these being owned and used as house servants in the territory of the "State of Essex." Notwithstanding this situation of affairs, there were many who dared to raise their voices against the inhuman practice.
In 1804, public opinion had been so far swayed that an act of gradual emancipation was passed. This gave freedom to the
nearly all of whom are descendants of those who had seen service as slaves, mostly in the southern states.
Many other features of the institution of slavery which would be of interest to our readers might be introduced here, but space will not permit.
WATER SUPPLY.
T "HE water supply of Essex County is not a question of how long or from whence, but is an old established institution found complete in all its details and rippling all over the hill tops and down the mountain sides, when the intended affianced bride of farmer Josiah Ward, the 19-year-old daughter of Captain Swaine, had stepped ashore, thus winning the position of honor, and kissed the consecrating kiss which needed but the
VIEW IN NEWARK, N. J., LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM FREEMAN STREET.
men and women, but the masters were compelled, under the law, to maintain them as long as they lived. This act gave freedom to all children born in slavery, the boys at 25 and the girls at 21 years of age. A short time afterward an amendatory act was passed reducing the ages to 21 for boys and 18 for girls. There is now living in Essex County several of those whose freedom came through the workings of the amendatory part of the act. Mrs. Hannah Mandeville, the widow of Anthony, now in her 77th year, and still hale and hearty, is living in Newark, at No. 14 Hacket Street, where she enjoys the competency her good man left her, and is never happier than when rehearsing the history of her life.
Essex County has quite a large number of colored people,
wedded bliss to wake the bud of hope nestling snug in the blos- som of good wishes now ready to bloom for the Connecticut farmers on the soil of Essex County. First, the Pasayic river had started away back where the delicate squaw and the wee little Indian papoose (baby) had sipped the cool draught along- side the white lily pad where the wild deer raised no objections, here and there covering a hiding-place for the wild duck, the wild goose and the plover, slowing down till she formed the big and the little piece of meadow, that muskrats, the mink, and now and then a beaver, to take time by the forelock and get things in readiness to meet winter's cold selections, and then beckoned on by the rocky way, called Little Falls, in order to make preparations for the final leap at the great falls in
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
Paterson, to be caught in the arms of her cystal vested lover, where the tide ebbs and flows a few miles below, and timidly glides on to the Hackensack, Newark bay, Kill von Kull and the ocean.
Next in importance to the Passaic river, (which for many years supplied the people of the City of Newark for domestic, economical and various others, the most important among them being for fire purposes) comes the east and west branches of the Rahway river, the Elizabeth river and other small spring brooks, brooklets, etc., etc. The above named covering the natural water resources of the county of Essex, we turn to the water supply made available through the genius of the engineering craft. Their work resulted in the introduction of aqueduct water into the peoples' houses through the medium of wooden pipes. On November 17, 1800, the first water company was formed. Its board of directors consisted of John N. Cum- mnings, Nathaniel Camp, Jesse Baldwin, Nathaniel Beach, Stephen Hays, James Hedden, Jabez Parkhurst, David D. Crane, Joseph L. Baldwin, Luthur Goble, Aaron Ross, John Burnett and William Halsey, all honored names. Wooden pipes were
excellent for domestic purposes. Experiment proved pretty conclusively that the driving must continue to a point far below the tide level in order to get the benefit of nature's filters. After expending nearly $50,000, the wells were boarded up in order to keep man or beast from unwittingly or unwillingly tak- ing their death of cold through a bath taken out of season, and so have remained as a monument to mark the beginning of a project (however meritorious it may have been) in a hurry, and left to moulder away like all things earthy and the recollections thereof left to fade through the lapse of time.
BRANCH BROOK.
THE first supply which came to the people of Newark was gathered from a pert little stream, known as Branch Brook, which gathered the waters of many springs which abounded in the region lying to the north and northeast of the Morris & Essex R. R., and when the little reservoir on Orange street, and the other reservoir-a combination designed by the architect and the builder-the latter making sure in laying its foundations and
VIEW ON LINCOLN PARK AND WASHINGTON STREET, NEWARK, N. J.
used until 1828, when steps were taken for substituting iron therefore. Under an act of the legislature, approved March 20, 1860, the Newark board was constituted, and by that authority the transfer was made to the City of Newark " of the capital stock and all the rights and franchises, lands and property, real and personal, of the Newark Aqueduct Company," the con- sideration being $100,000.
About this time the driven-well craze came into vogue, and the company, anxious to advance the best interests of the city, had about forty of these sand crabs driven, varying in depth from forty to forty-eight feet. By dint of extraordinary exertions they managed to make them yield about 100,000 gallons every forty-eight hours of what was doubtless Passaic water, though somewhat improved by being filtered through the bed of sand and gravel provided by the river. The water was clear and had a pleasant taste and would have proved, no doubt,
rearing the superstruction, that there should be nothing in the way of its drawing a certain percentage of the water to keep her full to the brim, and which might, under pressing conditions, be drawn from the Morris canal, which took water from Hopatcong and Greenwood lake, which was far better than the later introduced,
PASSAIC SUPPLY.
A S Newark, the chief city of the County of Essex, grew in population, and the people grew rich and important, the pert little brook was no longer sufficient for the manufacturers' and peoples' wants, and the demand arose for a larger supply. and without the care and caution which all great undertakings usually command, the Passaic river was tapped just above Belle- ville, that the increasing water needs of Essex's chief city should have its water supply increased for its wants. Not long after, or in 1868-'69, a pumping station had been built and furnished with
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
atl the late improved pumping apparatus, and great reservoirs had been constructed to contain the combined energies of the entire apparatus. It began to leak out (not the water, but the faet) that the sewage from the great capital city was chiefly responsible for certain contaminations of the Passaic's-once crystal fluid-which not alone could be seen, but which it was said had grown so strong as to be easily felt as the tides ebbed and flowed across the sill of its wide open door.
PEQUANNOCK.
W HILE it cannot be said that the great Pequannock water sheds, reservoirs, ete., belong in reality to Essex, yet it comes booming down the mountains and winding through the valleys until when it reaches the boundary line and opens its flood-gates of pure mountain spring water into the great receiv- ing reservoirs near Belleville, which were closed to Passaie's polluted_waters (late discovered) but stood with outstretched
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