USA > New Jersey > Historical collections of the state of New Jersey : containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc. relating to its history and antiquities, with geographical desciptions of every township in the state. > Part 53
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The learned Dr. Mitchill says it contains a small quantity of carbonated oxyde of iron, a little more of the muriate of lime, more than three times the amount of either of the carbonate of lime, with very small quantities of extractive matter, muriate of soda, muriate of magnesia, sulphate of lime, and silex. All the carbonic acid it contains is combined, and not free. On the combination of iron with this water, a few particulars may be mentioned. The water, which issues at the rate of about one gal- lon in two minutes and a half, is at first transparent, but soon be-
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comes turbid on exposure to the air, and gradually deposits a fine , ochre. Notwithstanding its ferruginous impregnation, the metal is so precipitated and modified by boiling, that the infusion of tea- leaves is not blackened or discolored at all ; but is as good as that made with pure spring-water. When the hostess at the inn told me this, I was so incredulous that I offered to bet her a bonnet and a shawl that it would not turn out so. She declined the wager, but said she would make the experiment. Water from the spring was boiled, and employed for making an infusion of Chinese tea. There was no discoloration whatever: whence I found that, if she had had the courage to lay, I should have lost the stake. In like manner, when one of my friends requested me, a few years ago, to make some experiments on a bottle of water he had brought from the spring, I told him I would do so, and authorized him to oring as many persons as he pleased to witness the proceedings. The company assembled, and the tests for iron gave not the least indications of its presence. We were all puzzled and disappointed. Its virtues are more particularly extolled in cases of calculous con- cretion, and obstruction of the urinary passages. Though, in ad- dition to its nephritic operation, it may be considered as a tonic to the stomach, and gently strengthening the digestive organs, like other chalybeates. So that, in connection with a change of air, exercise, diet, and way of life, it may be productive of excellent effects, in the cases of patients from the seacoast and crowded cities.
PASSAIC COUNTY.
PASSAIC COUNTY was formed from the northern part of Essex, and western part of Bergen cos., Feb. 7th, 1837. Its extreme length is 30 m., and its breadth varies from 2 to 16 m. It is bounded N. by Bergen co. and part of Orange co., N. Y., E. by Bergen and Hud- son cos., S. by Essex and Morris cos., and W. by Sussex co. The surface is generally hilly, with broad and fertile valleys, excepting in the extreme southeastern part, where it is level. The county is watered by the Passaic, Pequannock, Ringwood, Pompton, and Ramapo rivers. The Paterson and Hudson railroad, 162 miles in length, commences at Jersey city, enters the county on the south- east, and terminates at Paterson. It will eventually be extended into the state of New York, and connect with the New York and Erie railroad. The Morris canal, also, passes through the south- ern part of the county. In the northern part are large deposits of valuable iron ore, extensively used in the numerous forges of that region. ' There is an excellent quarry of red sandstone at the vil- lage of Little Falls. This county, although respectable in point of agriculture, derives its chief importance from its extensive manu-
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factories, principally located at Paterson. The county is divided into the five following townships :-
Acquackanonck, Manchester, Paterson,
Pompton, West Milford.
The population of Passaic co., in 1840, was 16,721.
ACQUACKANONCK.
Acquackanonck is about 7 m. long, with an average breadth of 3} m. It is bounded N. by Paterson and Saddle river ; E. by Lodi,
Eastern View of Acquackanonck.
Bergen co., and Harrison, Hudson co .; S. by Belleville, Bloomfield, and Caldwell, Essex co., and W. by Manchester. The Paterson and Hudson railroad, and Morris canal pass through the township. The soil is generally fertile, and the surface mountainous and hilly on the west, elsewhere level. There are 8 stores, 1 cotton fac., 2 tanneries, 1 grist-m., 3 saw-m .; cap. in manufac. $73,600; 1 acad- emy, 3 schools, 130 scholars. Pop. 2,483.
The foundation of Acquackanonck was in March, 1679, when " Captahem, an Indian sachem, granted a deed for Haquequenunck, (afterward spelt ' Aqueyquinunke,') to Hans Diderick, Gerrit Ger- ritson, Walling Jacobs, Hendrick George, and company, of Bergen ; and another deed from the governor and council, for the same tract, with some small variation in bounds, is dated March 16th, 1684."
The village of Acquackanonck is situated on the west bank of the Passaic river, and on the line of the Paterson and Hudson rail- road, 5 m. SE. from Paterson, 9 m. NE. from Newark, and 11 m. from New York. The Passaic river is navigable for sloops to this village, 15 m. from its mouth ; beyond here, the river affords in -. numerable mill-sites in its meanderings to its source. A number of factories and mills are situated upon it, in its course through the township. The above view was taken on the east bank of the Pas- saic, just above the bridge, and shows the most dense part of the
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village, together with the Reformed Dutch church, and the acad- emy. In the west part of the place is another church, built of brick, and ornamented with a cupola, and a tablet upon its front bears the inscription, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us .- 1 Sam. vii. 12. The True Reformed Dutch church of Achquakanonk, erected A. D. 1825." There are also in the village 2 stores, and about 50 dwellings. A number of sloops are owned here, which trade with New York and other places. Blachley's mineral spring is about 1} m. west of the village, and Weasel is the name of a settlement extending several miles along the Passaic, in the north part of the township. An officer of the revolutionary army, who passed through Acquackanonck and Paramus in 1778, thus gives his impressions.
" These towns are chiefly inhabited by Dutch people; their churches and dwelling-houses are built of rough stone, one story high. There is a peculiar neatness in the appearance of their dwellings, having an airy piazza, supported by pillars in front, and their kitchens connected at the ends in the form of wings. The land is remarkably level, and the soil fertile ; and being generally advantageously cultivated, the people appear to enjoy ease and happy competency. The furniture in their houses is of the most ordinary kind, and such as might be supposed to accord with the fashion of the days of Queen Anne. They despise the superfluities of life, and are ambitious to appear always neat and. cleanly, and never to complain of an empty purse."
The village of Little Falls is on the Passaic river, 4 m. SW. of Paterson. It derives its name from the rapids in the river, which here descend 51 feet in half a mile, and may be used for turning machinery to a great extent. The Morris canal crosses the river by a beautiful stone aqueduct, of 80 feet span, and a height of 50 feet. The village contains 4 stores, several manufacturing estab- lishments and mills, 1 Reformed Dutch and 1 Methodist church, and about 60 dwellings. There is here an excellent quarry of red sandstone, which was used in the construction of Trinity church, New York. From it has been carved some beautiful statuary, by Mr. Thom, the sculptor, a former resident of the village.
MANCHESTER.
Manchester was formerly part of Saddle River, Bergen county, and was taken from that township at the time of the formation of Passaic county. Its extreme length is 9, and extreme width 8 miles. It is bounded N. by Franklin, Bergen co .; easterly by Saddle River, Bergen co., and Paterson and Acquackanonck ; S. by Caldwell, Es- sex co. ; and westerly by Pequannock, Morris co., and Pompton. Pop. 3,110. It is generally hilly and mountainous, and well water- ed, being coursed on the west by the Ramapo and Pompton rivers, and on the south and east by the Passaic.
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The village of Manchester, formerly called Totowa, is situated on the Passaic, in a romantic and picturesque region of country imme- diately opposite Paterson, with which it is connected by two bridges, and in a general description should be included as a part of that
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South View of Manchester.
town. It contains several manufacturing establishments, a Reform- ed Dutch church. a church for colored persons, and about 1,600 in- habitants. The above view was taken on the summit of the quar- ry, a short distance south of the village.
Mead's Basin is a small settlement and depot on the Morris ca- nal, in the SW. part of Manchester, where there are about a dozen dwellings. Goffle is a hamlet in the NE. part of the township.
A short distance from the village of Manchester are the Paterson Falls, anciently called Totowa Falls; a gentleman with the revo- lutionary army, after describing the falls, thus describes another natural curiosity then existing in this vicinity:
In the afternoon we were invited to visit another curiosity in the neighborhood. This is a monster in a human form. He is twenty-seven years of age, his face, from the up- per part of his forehead to the end of his chin, measures twenty-seven inches, and round the upper part of his head is twenty-one inches; his eyes and nose are remarkably large and prominent, chin long and pointed. His features are coarse, irregular, and disgust- ing, and his voice is rough and sonorous. His body is only twenty-seven inches in length, his limbs are' small and much deformed, and he has the use of one hand only. He has never been able to stand or sit up, as he cannot support the enormous weight of his head ; but he is constantly in a large cradle, with his head supported on large pil- lows. He is visited by great numbers of people, and is peculiarly fond of the company of clergymen, always inquiring for them among his visitors, and taking great pleasure in receiving religious instruction. General Washington made him a visit, and asked " whether he was a whig or tory ?" He replied, that he had never taken an active part on either side.
PATERSON.
Paterson was formed from Acquackanonck in 1831. Its popula- tion in 1840 was 7,598. The village of Paterson, the seat of jus-
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tice for Passaic county, is on the Passaic river, 13 miles N. of New- ark, and 17 from New York. The town plot lies partly on both sides of the river, and covers 36 square miles. It is "overned by a mayor, recorder, common council, &c. This flourishing manu- facturing town was established by a society incorporated in 1791, with a capital of $1,000,000, which owed its origin to the exertions of Alexander Hamilton.
The general object of the company was to lay the foundation of a great emporium of manufactures. The prominent purpose of the society was the manufacture of cotton cloths. At this period the great improvements introduced in the cotton manufacture by Ark- wright were but little known even in Europe, and in this country scarcely any cotton had been spun by machinery .*
The act of incorporation gave a city charter with jurisdiction over a tract of six square miles. The society was organized at New Brunswick in Nov. 1791, and the following gentlemen ap- pointed as its board of directors, viz : William Duer, John Dew- hurst, Benjamin Walker, Nicholas Low, Royal Flint, Elisha Boudi- not, John Bayard, John Neilson, Archibald Mercer, Thomas Low- ring, George Lewis, More Furman, and Alexander M'Comb. Wil- liam Duer was appointed the principal officer. Having been duly organized, the society, in May, 1792, decided upon the great falls of the Passaic as the site of their proposed operations, and named it Paterson, in honor of Gov. William Paterson, who had signed their charter. There were then not over ten houses here.
" At a meeting of the directors, at the Godwin hotel, on the 4th July, 1792, appropriations were made for building factories, machine shops, and shops for calico printing and weaving ; and a race-way was directed to be made, for bringing the water from above the falls to the proposed mills. Unfortunately, the direction of these works was given to Major L'Enfan, a French engineer, not more celebrated for the grandeur of his conceptions, than his recklessness of expense ; and whose magnificent projects commonly perished in the waste of means provided for their attainment. He imme- diately commenced the race-way and canal, designing to unite the Upper Passaic with the Lower, at the head of tide, near the present village of Acquackanonck, by a plan better adapted to the resources of a great empire than to those of a private company.
" In January, 1793, Peter Colt, Esq., of Hartford, then comptroller of the state of Connecticut, was appointed 'general superintendent of the affairs of the company, with full powers to manage the concerns of the society, as if they were his own individual property,' Major L'Enfan being retained, however, as engineer ; but he, after having spent, uselessly, a large sum of money, resigned his office in the following September. Mr. Colt, thus in
* The first cotton spun by machinery in America was at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Dec., 1790, by Samuel Slater, an English emigrant, who may be properly styled "the parent of the American cotton manufacture." As an evidence of the vast improvements in the manufacture and culture of cotton, it is stated that at this period good cotton cloth was fifty cents per yard. For a more full history of this subject, the reader is referred to the memoirs of Arkwright, Hargreaves, Cartwright, Slater, and Whitney, in the Memoirs of Eminent Mechanics, by the junior compiler of this work.
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VIEW OF PATERSON, N. J.
The Episcopal and one of the Dutch Reformed Churches are seen on the left; the first Presbyterian Church, the Court House, the Catho-
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lie and Methodist Churches appear in the central part. Dasssie river is seen in front of the factory buildings.
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sole charge of the works, completed the race-way, conducting the water to the first factory erected by the society. The canal to tide-water had been abandoned before the departure of the engineer.
" The factory, 90 feet long by 40 wide, and 4 stories high, was finished in 1794, when cotton yarn was spun in the mill ; but yarn had been spun in the preceding year, by machinery moved by oxen. In 1794 also, calico shawls and other cotton goods were printed ; the bleached and unbleached muslins being purchased in New York. In the same year the society gave their attention to the culture of the silkworm, and directed the superintend- ent to plant the mulberry-tree for this purpose. In April of this year, also, the society, at the instance of Mr. Colt, employed a teacher to instruct, gra- tuitously, on the Sabbath, the children employed in the factory, and others. This was probably the first Sunday-school established in New Jersey.
" Notwithstanding their untoward commencement, and the many discour- agements attending their progress, the directors persevered in their enter. prise ; and during the years 1795 and 1796, much yarn of various sizes was spun, and several species of cotton fabrics were made. But, at length satisfied that it was hopeless to contend, successfully, longer with an ad- verse current, they resolved, July, 1796, to abandon the manufacture, and discharged their workmen. This result was produced by a combination of causes. Nearly $50,000 had been lost by the failure of the parties to cer- tain bills of exchange purchased by the company, to buy in England plain cloths for printing ; large sums had been wasted by the engineer ; and the machinists and manufacturers imported, were presumptuous and ignorant of many branches of the business they engaged to conduct; and, more than all, the whole attempt was premature. No pioneer had led the way, and no experience existed in the country, relative to any subject of the enterprise. Besides, had the country been in a measure prepared for manufactures, the acquisition of the carrying-trade, which our merchants were then making, was turning public enterprise into other channels. The ruin of the com- pany, under these circumstances, cannot now be cause of astonishment. But to this catastrophe the children of Mr. Colt, now deeply interested in the operations of the company, have the just and proud satisfaction to know, that their parent was in no way auxiliary. On closing their concerns, the directors unanimously returned him their thanks ' for his industry, care, and prudence in the management of their affairs, since he had been employed in their service ; fully sensible that the failure of the objects of the society was from causes not in his power, or that of any other man, to prevent.
" The cotton-mill of the company was subsequently leased to individuals, who continued to spin candle-wick and coarse yarn until 1807, when it was accidentally burned down, and was never rebuilt. The admirable water- power of the company was not, however, wholly unemployed. In 1801, a mill-seat was leased to Mr. Charles Kinsey and Israel Crane ; in 1807, a second, and in 1811, a third to other persons ; and between 1812 and 1814, several others were sold or leased. In 1814, Mr. Roswell L. Colt, the pre- sent enterprising governor of the society, purchased, at a depreciated price, a large proportion of the shares, and reanimated the association. From this period the growth of Paterson has been steady, except during the 3 or 4 years which followed the peace of 1815.
"The advantages derivable from the great fall in the river here, have been improved with much judgment. A dam of 41 feet high, strongly framed and bolted to the rock in the bed of the river above the falls, turns
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the stream through a canal excavated in the trap-rock of the bank, into a basin ; whence, through strong guard-gates, it supplies in succession three canals on separate planes, each below the other; giving to the mills on each a head and fall of about 22 feet. By means of the guard-gate, the volume of water is regulated at pleasure, and a uniform height preserved ; avoiding the inconvenience of back-water. The expense of maintaining the dam, canals, and main sluice-gates, and of regulating the water, is borne by the company ; who have expended, in raising the main embankment, and constructing the feeder from the river and new upper canal, and for works to supply water to the third tier of mills, the sum of $40,000.
" The advantages which Paterson possesses for a manufacturing town are obvious. An abundant and steady supply of water; a healthy, pleasant, and fruitful country, supplying its markets fully with excellent meats and vegetables ; its proximity to New York, where it obtains the raw material, and sale for manufactured goods ; and with which it is connected by the sloop navigation of the Passaic, by the Morris canal, by a turnpike-road, and by a rail-road-render it one of the most desirable sites in the Union."*
The first church incorporated in Paterson was the 1st Presbyte- rian church, in 1814. There was at that time a Reformed Dutch church at Totowa, now Manchester ; and the services at that place were in the Dutch language. The united population of the two places was then about 1,500.
From a mere village Paterson has now got to be the second town in importance in the state. There are in Paterson 14 churches, viz : 2 Reformed Dutch, 2 Methodist, 2 Presbyterian, 1 Free Independent, 1 Episcopalian, 1 True Reformed Dutch, 2 Bap- tist, 1 Primitive Methodist, 1 Catholic, I colorea manoom. There is a philosophical society of young men, who have a respectable library, and a mechanics' society for the advancement of science and the mechanic arts, with a library and philosophical apparatus. The Morris canal passes near the town. The Paterson and Hud- son railroad gives it an easy access to the city of New York. This road will ere long be extended northward and united with the Erie railroad.
There were by the census of 1840, 104 stores ; machinery manu- factured, value $607,000 ; 4 fulling-m .; 1 woollen fac. ; 19 cotton fac., 45,056 spindles, with 2 dyeing and printing establishments, cap. $926,000 ; 1 tannery ; 2 paper fac .; 1 saw-m .; 2 printing offices ; 2 weekly newspapers. Total capital in manufactures, $1,792,500. 1 acad. 80 students ; 16 schools, 1,006 scholars. Pop. including Manchester, about 9,000.
Paterson is celebrated as affording one of the most romantic waterfalls in the country, and the neighboring scenery is of a highly picturesque character. A late traveller thus describes this wonder of nature :
The fall in the river, which was originally 70 feet, has been increased to about 90 feet by a dam above. From this dam, a short sluice conducts the water into a basin or reservoir, partly prepared to the hands of the proprietors, and partly made by art and labor. A
. Gordon's Gazetteer .
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causey has been raised across an immense chasm, walled in by rocks, presenting almost perpendicular sides from the bottom of the chasm to the upper edge of the precipice. The rocks, being of basaltic character, are of rectilinear form, and perpendicular in their position ; and this accounts for the comparatively smooth sides of this immense excava-
View of the Passaic Falls, at Paterson.
tion. The causey serves two very important purposes : it is at once a dam which de- tains the water in the basin from which the milling power is drawn, and the bed of a turnpike road. Below the causey, the terrific chasm continues in its natural state, un- changed by human art, and, a few rods below, receives the remaining waters of the Pas- saic, after it has supplied the heavy demand of the mills. Branching off from the larger opening there is another, running nearly parallel with the river, which gradually dimin- ishes to a mere crevice between the perpendicular sides of the rock. Into this crevice, or opening, the waters of the Passaic, suddenly turning from their course, leap and dash with an impetuosity which converts the whole mass into foam. It is an awful, grand, and terrific sight, even now ; and we can readily imagine what it must have been when the whole flood of the river, swollen by rain and the melting snows, threw itself into the yawning gulf, from whose depths the bellowing thunders of the mighty flood, struggling for an outlet, and resisted by the walls of its prison-house, were reverberated by the sur- rounding hills with deafening roar.
The waters escape, and, rushing to the wide bosom of the immense chasm first de- scribed, hurry over its rocky bed until they are tranquillized in the passage over a less precipitous descent below the town. Some miles from Paterson, the river passes through the romantic and picturesque village of Acquackanonck, and soon reaches the immense flats which border the North river and the Bay of New York, on the Jersey side. Thence it moves slowly and sullenly along, as if unwilling to mingle its pure stream with the salt water of the ocean.
The short time allowed us for viewing this grand scenery, would not authorize as to form any conclusive opinions as to the causes which have produced the phenomena which present themselves at and near the Paterson Falls ; and even a part of this brief space was devoted to the complicated works of human skill and ingenuity which the factories contain. But we were led to think that the deep ravine in the rocks, which we have described, has been made by the waters of the river, which originally fell into it at the place where the basin now is. The regular and uniform position of the rocks on its
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sides does not warrant the supposition that the excavation was made by any convulsion of nature ; and then nothing remains but to attribute it to the operation of water, from a stream often swollen into a flood of tremendous power, by rain and melting snow, during thousands of years in which it flowed in this channel.
The only facts which seem to oppose this opinion, are the evident appearances which indicate that the river once found an outlet a considerable distance below even the pres- ent falls ; which, as we have said, is below the point at which we suppose it originally escaped over the rocky barrier. But, allowing our supposition to be right, it may be rea- dily imagined that the river would gradually wear down the more yielding impediment of earthi and stones directly in its course to the place at which it is presumed once to have found an outlet ; and this outlet being subsequently blocked up by trees and earth, washed down by the river, the waters again found their way into the channel it had made in the rocks, but a little lower down than at the point from which it originally took its leap into the chasm. But these are speculations which, without the records of his- tory, cannot be reduced to any certain conclusion. The Indians have left us no records : and, if they had, it is probable that most of the phenomena which now present them- selves at the Falls of Paterson, existed at a long time anterior to that in which the red man,-whom the pale-faces have driven away or exterminated,-sung his war-song ; but where the busy hum of industry is now heard, the splendid creations of civilized life surprise us by their number and variety, interest us by the complication of their de- sign and structure, and astonish us by the magnitude and importance of their results.
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