USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > Hardyston > Hardyston memorial : a history of the township and the North Presbyterian Church, Hardyston, Sussex County, New Jersey > Part 8
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
Samuel Edward Margerum was an iron man and had a blacksmith shop in Hamburg. His wife was Mary Ford, daugh- ter of Stephen, Sr., and sister of David. He built the house, oppo- site John L. Wood's present shop, afterwards occupied by Sheriff John Brodrick. David Ford induced his sister after the death of her husband to sell her house and with her children make her home with him, he being unmarried. About 1822 he enlarged his father's house in upper Hamburg and built what is now the main part, but leaving the long wing with dining room and kitchen, which belongs to Revolutionary times. Mrs. Mary Ford
89
IRON MANUFACTURE.
Margerum was born in 1772 and died in 1856. She possessed a remarkable memory and loved to detail the stirring events of her early life.
Stephen Ford Margerum, the son of Samnel Edward and Mary F. Margerum, was born at Hamburg 1793, and died in 1852. He inherited the enterprise of his family, and his business connections were very extensive. In 1827 he bought, at commissioners' sale, of the estate of William Smith, deceased, merchant of New York city, and partner of Elias Haines, 1,088 65-100 acres of the Colonel Seward tract upon Snufftown Mountain. He added to this purchase by others afterwards made. The venerable John Seward mansion was his home, and his mother, Mrs. Mary F. Margerum, resided with him. The old house has only recently been taken down to make room for the more commodions and tasteful dwelling ereeted by his son, Noah H. Margerum. After standing a century and a quarter, much of the old frame was sound and good.
Mr. Margerum had a saw mill and grist mill, and ran the forge, upon the Seward Creek branch of the Pequannock above his house and near the Vernon township line.
When John O. Ford relinquished the Franklin works he started a new forge, the Windham, near his home at Snufftown. He had several sons, among them Sidney, Horace and Mahlon, who were engaged in mining and forging. They worked the forges at Snufftown, Stockholm and Milton, and carried on their works to a late period, making blooming iron and ship anchors. The charcoal iron works were unable to compete with the anthra- cite furnaces of Pennsylvania, and eventually all the forges along the Pequannock River were closed.
The Clinton, or Pochunk Mine, lies within the limits of Ver- non township about two and a half miles from Hamburg, upon the summit and slopes of a white limestone ridge running parallel to the mountain a short distance from its base. The ore, which is brown hematite, is irregularly distributed through a mass of highly ferruginous clayey loam, which shows a great display of color, texture and composition. The ore itself presents an equa
90
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
diversity of appearance, but is all hematite. The mineral yields an iron superior to that of the magnetic ores and can be reduced with much less consumption of fnel. The ore was formerly carted fifteen miles to the Clinton Furnace and ten miles further to Pompton, and, after railroad connections were formed, was sent as far as Scranton. The Franklin Iron Company constructed a branch from the Susquehanna Railroad, at Hamburg, to Me Afec Valley, a distance of three miles, to connect the mine by rail with Franklin Furnace. The working has ceased for over ten years. and the branch to the mine now forms part of the Lehigh & IIudson Railroad.
The Edsall mine, at Rudeville, two miles from Hamburg, was discovered in sinking a well, and was opened a little earlier than the Clinton mine. It has the same valuable quality of ore. The excavation is nearly two hundred feet square, about sixty feet in depth, and is now mostly filled with water. A tunnel which once drained off much of the water has been closed. William Edsall was its former owner, and it is still in possession of his heirs. Some years ago they were offered quite a sum of money for it, but declined selling, and since then there has been no de- mand for the ore to invite purchasers. William Edsall raised large quantities of the ore, which he sold to the Franklin Mann- facturing Company, for some years previous to 1840. Other fur- naces and forges were supplied from it.
The Simpson mine, between the two, and just over the Ver- non line, has a large and valnable deposit of ore, but it has not been worked sufficiently for its development.
Iron ore has been found upon the Rosencrantz farm, and was one inducement for the Franklin Iron Company to purchase it, at $30,000 for three hundred acres, from Mrs. Mary Rosencrantz, who inherited it from her father, Col. Joseph Sharp.
The following letter, inserted by his permission, is from HON. JOHN I. BLAIR, now venerable in years, one of the most suc- cessful business men of his time, and who will be remembered by future generations for his large benificence in the cause of edu- cation :
91
IRON MANUFACTURE.
BLAIRSTOWN, N. J., May 5, 1888.
To Jacob L. Bunnell :
MY DEAR SIR :- I read in the New Jersey Herald of last week, with great pleasure, the early history of those intelligent and influential men, who, in the days of their generation, were the owners of those varions forges, iron and zine mines in the old county of Sussex. All these men have long since passed away and their property changed to other hands. Nothing remains now to remind this generation of the existence of those forges except the cinder-beds.
The narrative recalls to mind my first experience, seventy-one years ago, at the age of fifteen. I was then clerk in a store in the village of Hope, then in old Sussex, and went with a teamster with a load of barrel pork to exchange for iron. Early the first day we arrived at Sparta and stopped at the hotel of Dan Hurd, who was then the principal owner of Sparta, and owned and con- trolled a number of forges. Hurd had gone to New York and his son, a boy somewhat older than myself, asked me to stay until his father returned that evening, assuring us that he would purchase our cargo. The next morning I proposed the trade, when he re- plied " that he had all the pork he needed." This was a great dis- appointment ; the day and evening spent and a hotel bill to pay, and money scarce. I felt like fighting young Hurd for the deten- tion. We left Sparta and crossed the mountain, by what was called a monntain road, almost impassable, to Russia forge, where the people were hungry for pork. We stayed two days while they made iron for a part of our pork. They weighed out to the wood- chopper his share, then to the man who found the coal his share, then to the one that made the iron, then to the miner, while the balance went to the owner.
The next day we went to other forges without success. We then went to a place called "Newfoundland." I thought it was properly named, as it was the only land we had found since we left Sparta. We spent two days going from there to other forges with but little snecess until we arrived at Hamburg and Franklin, and finally sold ont to Joseph Sharp for iron.
Years after I grew up to manhood my business relations ex- tended more or less to them all and ended in friendship.
What unexpected changes have taken place since! In the seventy-one years all these eminent men, all long since gone, their property changed hands ! The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Com- pany, of Pennsylvania, has become the owner of the most valuable portion of these properties, including the Franklin Iron Company, the Zine Company, and various iron mines as was stated. The
92
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
great outlay in erecting furnaces, zine works, and other improve- ments has run into the millions, and all the main dividends have been paid to the county of Sussex, including some to the State for taxes, and, strange to say, whether fortunately or unfortunately, I am among the principal owners in all these properties. The ownership of this property caused me, on account of the company, to become one of the owners of the Sussex Railroad, which I ex- tended to Franklin and several miles beyond. Also the line to Branchville. I changed the line across the meadows at Newton. and made other valuable improvements for the terminus at New- ton, including a costly and convenient depot. We have since turned over the road to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Company, who has relaid it with steel rails, and it is now a first- elass road in every particular, including rolling stock.
Very truly yours, JOHN I. BLAIR.
LIME MANUFACTURE.
The white crystalline limestone of this vicinity furnishes a superior quality of lime. Many years ago Dr. Samuel Fowler wrote upon the minerals of Sussex Co., for Gordon's Gazeteer of New Jersey. The following is an extract from it :
" Perhaps in no quarter of the globe is there found so much to interest the mineralogist, as in the white crystalline, calcareous valley, commencing at Mounts Adam and Eve, in the county of Orange, and State of New York, about three miles from the line of the State of New Jersey, and continuing thence through Ver- non, Hamburg, Franklin, Sparta and Byram, a distance of about twenty-five miles in the county of Sussex. This limestone is higlily crystalline, containing no organic remains, and is the great imbedding matrix of all the eurious and interesting minerals found in this valley. When burned, it produces lime of a superior quality. A considerable quantity of this stone is burned into lime near Hamburg, and when carted to the towns below, as Paterson, Newark, etc., is sold for one dollar per bushel. It is principally used in masonry, for white-washing, cornice-work and wall of a fine hard finish, and is considered superior to the best Rhode Island lime. Some varieties, particularly the granular, furnish a beautiful marble ; it is often white, with a slight tinge of yellow, resembling the Parian marble from the Island of Paros ; at other times clouded black, sometimes veined black, and at other times arborescent."
93
IRON MANUFACTURE.
Around Hamburg on many farms are the remains of ancient lime kilns. The Sharps, Edsalls, Fords and Rudes burned lime. In 1810, and subsequent years, much of this lime found its way to market in our larger towns and the city of New York. But although an ancient article of production, the more extensive works now employed are of quite recent erection.
The old-fashioned kilns were approaching an egg-shape in the interior, and the wood and lime stone were put in, in successive layers. The kiln was built into the side hill to afford easy access to the top. It was covered with sods before the flame was kin- dled. The ashes and lime were drawn out at the bottom, and the fire went out after each burning.
The continuous kilns are constructed with the fire upon the side, so that the flame and heat may pass through the lime stone, and when the lime is burned it may be drawn off without ming- ling with the ashes or interfering with the continuance of the fire.
The Windsor Works, at Hamburg, were begun in 1876. Sayre & Van Derhoof are the owners and Richard Van Derhoof the superintendent. They have four perpetual kilns, one with its chimney seventy-four feet high, a second sixty-five feet, and two are thirty feet. The company employs about 150 men in the kilns, quarries and mountain. They have a tramway of two and a half miles in length from the Rudeville quarries to the kilus. They turn out about one hundred thousand bushels of lime a year, and are arranging to do still more.
The Hamburg Lime Works were also begun in 1876. Joseph E. Sheldon is superintendent. They have three perpetual kilns which are without flues. Twenty men are employed in the kilns and quarry, but much of the work is done by contract. They have no wood choppers and purchase wood by the cord. When in full operation the kilns produce 500 bushels of lime per day.
The HAMBURG PAPER MILL was erected in 1873, on the site of the old blast furnace, by James B. Davenport, who manufact- ured straw wrapping paper and tissue paper. The premises were rented to Tompkins & White, who were manufacturing quite ex- tensively, when the mill took fire and was consumed with a quan- tity of paper ready for shipping. The mill was rebuilt, and pur-
94
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
chased by the McEwan Manufacturing Co., who enlarged ,it, and employ about twenty hands in making straw boards, producing four and a half tons per day. The boards are cut of uniform size and sent to the box makers.
CHAPTER VI.
HAMBURG AND SOME OF ITS PEOPLE.
It is an error to suppose that Hamburg is a larger village now than it has ever been. Its relative importance has been diminish- ing with advancing time for nearly a century. We must go back some fifty, or even ninety years, to reach what may be called its palmiest days. These were about the time when the Post Office was established, October 1st, 1795, under Thomas Lawrence, and all the iron works were in operation ; when our citizens embarked in the enterprise of constructing a turnpike road fifty miles in length, to connect the village with the city of New York. When the Hamburg turnpike road was completed, about 1810, there was not a Post Office on the entire route to New York. Around the iron works many small houses were erected for the use of the workmen employed. These, with numbers of other dwellings then built, have mostly disappeared. For many years there were more stores here than at any other point in the county. Farmers brought their produce and did their trading, coming as far as from Andover and Wantage.
Mr. Sharp put up his store house about 1804, built the stone mill in 1808, and constructed the mill road running from his house and store to intersect the Newton road north of the North Church Cemetery. He stated that it was sixty-eight chains nearer by his road from Ryerson's (Walling house) than by Lawrence's. He made a strong effort to secure the office of Postmaster and bring the postal business to his store, but did not succeed.
He built the Haines homestead in 1800. Caleb and Issacher Rude were his carpenters, and he brought a man named Johnson,
96
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL,
from Salem, or Philadelphia, who did the joining and finer work.
Mr. Sharp had abundant means from the rise in value of his lands, and lived in good style, and what was esteemed luxury, in those days, until the losses attendant upon his iron works and other ventures diminished his income and he removed to another house, which he built along the Wallkill, in Vernon township, near the base of Pochunk Mountain, where he died in 1845, in his eighty-eighth year.
Ilis wife was Elizabeth Simpson, daughter of Henry Simpson, who lived near McAfee. She was born in 1771, and died in 1824 while Mr. Sharp was living at Hamburg. She was a member of the Hamburg Presbyterian Church and of the North Hardyston, after the union of the two churches. They had four sons, Thomas. Joseph, Anthony and Isaac. Of their daughters, Eliza married Dr. James Fowler ; Clarissa married Major Thomas B. DeKay, who lived in Vernon near the State line; Mary was the wife of Dr. Henry C. Rosencrantz, and lived in the house on the Rosen- crantz hill ; Deborah became the wife of Dr. Horace Vibbert, of Deckertown.
Issacher Rude, one of the carpenters who worked for Col. Sharp, was killed in the raising of a barn on the Conrad Tinker place. CALEB, his brother, also a carpenter, lived to the age of ninety-three and a half years, respected and beloved by all who knew him, and died in 1871. Their father, Caleb Rude, Senior, lived in Morris county and became a soldier in the Continental Army. The Tories made several raids upon his home, and that of his neighbors, so that he removed his family for safety to the vicinity of Stockholm, and took most of his pay in Continental money, in exchange for his house and farm. He had two sons in the army, Abner and Noah. When the war closed, his paper money was of no value, and he found himself poor. His wife died, and he bound ont his son Caleb as an apprentice to Simon Wade to learn the carpenter's trade. Caleb, Jr., married Elizabeth Simpson, daughter of the Henry Simpson 3d, who lived on the William Edsall farm.
JOSEPHI E. EDSALL was born in 1789 at Rudeville, in the log bouse where his parents, James Edsall and Mary Simpson lived,
97
HAMBURG AND SOME OF ITS PEOPLE.
He built the house on the creamery property in 1820, placing it directly in the road, which he crowded into the hill in front ; and built three tenement houses adjoining. He had on the same ground a distillery and a tannery, below the hill. For a time he kept a store in his dwelling, and in 1824 put up a store house, which stood in the creamery garden, and at the foot of the church hill. When not used for a store it was occupied as tenements for families. Christopher Longstreet was Edsall's carpenter.
When Robert A. Linn, in 1820, exchanged properties with his brother-in-law, Judge Thomas C. Ryerson, he came to' Ham- burg, and after a few years, by another exchange, acquired the property where Edsall had lived. Dr. James Fowler had gone south, and Edsall bought his lot of land, on the opposite side of the road from the present Presbyterian Church. Upon the lot were an unfinished dwelling, a store house and barn. Edsall set to work to complete this house, but before it was done it was de- stroyed by fire. He re-built the dwelling in 1830, and from that time, with the exception of a year or two, when he rented it, he made it his home until his death in 1865. His wife was Esther, daughter of James Hamilton, who died in 1842, at the age of fifty- four years. In process of time, Mr. Edsall became possessed of most of the adjoining property, consisting of farm, mill, forges, and buildings. He was County Clerk, a Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, a member of the Legislature, and a member of Con- gress for two terms, in Mr. Polk's time and during the Mexican war.
DOCTOR SAMUEL FOWLER was born in Newburg, N. Y., Octo- ber 30th, 1779. His ancestor, John Fowler, came from England and settled on Long Island as early as 1665. After completing his medical studies, at the age of twenty-one years, he began the practice of medicine in Hamburg, 1801. Of great versatility of talent, he engaged in many enterprises, and was successful in all. He was one of the most eminent physicians that our county has produced, and his was the leading mind in all medical consulta- tions, and at the meetings of the Medical Society.
He was a distinguished naturalist and mineralogist, collecting a most valuable private cabinet of American minerals, and corre-
i
98
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
sponded with scientific men at home and abroad. His valuable letters and papers were consumed in the destruction of the Fowler homestead, in 1884, and the store of information they might have imparted is lost.
He married in 1808, Ann Breckenridge, daughter of Colonel Mark Thompson, of Changewater, N. J., who was a member of Congress under Washington's administration. Their only daugh- ter surviving childhood, was Julia, who became the wife of Hon. Moses Bigelow, of Newark, N. J. Dr. Fowler built a house in Hamburg, which is still standing, and which he sold to Martin Ryerson. Soon after his wife's death he removed to Franklin, where he re-built and enlarged the house in which he lived until his death. This neighborhood had been called The Plains, from the flat lands beginning here and extending toward the North Church, which included the farm of Capt. George Beardslee. Dr. Fowler constructed a dam across the small stream that passed his house, and erected a grist mill, fulling mill, storehouse, black- smith shop, a tannery, and several small dwellings. To these he gave the name of Franklin, and from this, the valuable iron ore in the vicinity received the name of Franklinite, and the Post Office and furnace that of Franklin Furnace.
Dr. Fowler's second wife was Rebecca Wood Platt Ogden, daughter of Robert Ogden 3d, of Ogdensburg, to whom he was married in 1816. For a time he carried on the manufacture of iron at the Hamburg forges, and afterwards at Franklin Furnace, for a while in partnership with John O. Ford, but mostly by him- self. Through his sagacity and business tact, he made remunera- tive a hitherto failing business, and gave an impetus to this branch of manufacture in this county, which was unknown before and has been felt ever since.
IIe attended to the arduous duties of his medical profession, visiting patients many miles away. His practice extended over five counties of this State, and even into New York and Pennsyl- vania. He was constantly visited by patients who came long dis- tances, and was sought by his medical brethren in consultation on difficult cases. No man could exceed him in industry and careful attention to all he undertook. He was well known, a personal
99
HAMBURG AND SOME OF ITS PEOPLE.
friend and warm supporter of General Jackson, was twice elected to Congress, and was in Washington in the stormy time of Cal- houn and nullification. His celebrity as a mineralogist ranks him among the first in the country. He brought into notice the value of the minerals extending in the hill ranges from Sparta to Amity, Orange county, with their wealth of zinc and Franklinite. He was an honorary member of many of the scientific societies of Europe and America.
He was a liberal supporter of the North Hardyston Church, long the President of its Board of Trustees, a regular attend- ant upon its services, and left a legacy to the church.
It is due to place him in the first rank among those distin- guished citizens whose talents and lives have reflected honor upon their State and country.
Ile died at Franklin, February 20th, 1844 in his sixty-fifth year, and is buried in the North Church cemetery.
SIDNEY PHOENIX HLAINES, son of Elias and Mary Ogden Haines, was born in the city of New York in 1804, and was sent, when quite young, to Florida by his father, who was a partner in the company which obtained the Aredondo Grant from the Spanish government, and began the first American settlement in the ter ritory. Sidney acted as agent for his father, and traded for him with the Spaniards and Indians. The frequent voyages of their brig, which conveyed cattle and goods, and all the hazards of the early settlement, were well suited to his adventerous spirit ; and hunting and exploration added a charm to his southern life. At the breaking out of the Seminole war the settlers were obliged to flee for their lives, leaving all their property and improvements. When the United States government assumed possession of Flor- ida, it refused to recognize the rights of the settlers, and restore to them the territory to which they laid claim.
When driven from Florida, the young man came to Ham- burg, and, about 1828, became established in business. In 1830 John Brodrick was his partner, and they kept store in the house that once stood where the brick store of Edsall, Chardavoyne & Co. now is. Haines ran one of the Sharp forges for a time, and burned charcoal upon the mountain.
100
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
Ile married Diadamia Austin, second daughter of Alanson Austin, of Warwick, N. Y., in 1830, and lived in the Walling house. He was Post Master in 1833, and for some years after, the salary being $48.25. When Brodrick retired from the firm of Haines & Brodrick, Robert A. Linn entered into partnership with him, and the new firm of Linn & Haines conducted a thriv- ing business for a country store.
Mr. Haines was a very jovial man, and popular wherever he was known. For a time he entered warmly into politics, and at the meetings would get off many witty sayings. He had a four horse team and a large wagon, which he often drove to the polit- ical meetings, or the voting polls, with a full load of the men em- ployed in his works. They were all Jackson Democrats in those days. Later, when he became a christian man and a church mem- ber, the same team, with its driver, often carried as full a load to the extra religious meetings of Dr. Fairchild.
He started a Sunday School upon the mountain, near his " Coal job," in the vicinity of the Mud Pond, and rode on horse- back to attend it on Sunday afternoons. The "coal job families" were among the poorest and most destitute portion of our popu- lation, but the Sunday School bore precious fruit in leading some to Christ, as did the Log Chapel Sunday School, somewhat mod- eled after it, in later times.
The late John Riggs, a leading minister of the Free Metho- dist Church, learned to read and received his first religious im- pressions in this Sunday School. For nearly thirty years, he labored and preached through the mountains, in school houses and dwellings, reaching scores who were overlooked by churches and christians. His death occurred in April, 1888, and the large attendance from all denominations at his funeral attested the high esteem entertained for one who, with few advantages, accomplished much good.
Sindey Haines was benevolent, and interested in every chris- tian work, into which his good wife also entered most heartily. This earnestness characterized him all his days; and his widow, now at the age of eighty-five years, in her home in Denver, Colo- rado, is still engaged in good works. The sick and the poor find
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.