USA > New Jersey > Salem County > Salem > History and genealogy of Fenwick's colony > Part 29
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over fifty feet in length, and squared twelve to fourteen inches, they being to all appearance as sound as when put there-one hundred and fifty-six years ago. They were of white oak. The creek since that time has changed its channel northerly fully sixty feet. The first bent on the south side of the stream, with the piling and land ties, are at this time imbedded under the mud fully three or four feet deep, extending under the present tide bank.
I previously mentioned that the work was done by contract by Josiah White. Tradition says the dam was cut on the night before the year expired. The company contended that the stopping broke, but their statement found little or no credit, and was never believed except by those persons who were interested in the meadow company, and they decided not to pay him. Josiah was under the necessity of selling his large patri- monial estate to pay the debt he had ineurred in erecting the works for their benefit. At that time he was only twenty-three years old. Many persons in the same adversity would have become dispirited, but not so with one who had inherited from his father and his grandfather those qualities of heart and mind, which made him capable of withstanding more than ordinary trials. After disposing his estate to Joseph Stretch and others, he was enabled to pay his indebtedness and have £500 left. He then determined to leave his native county, not having any family. His widowed mother, Hannah White, had died a short time previous. He went and settled in Burlington county, at or near Mount Holly, and there purchased land on the head waters of Rancocas creek. Soon after he made a dam across the creek for the purpose of raising a head of water, and then built a fulling mill, in which, I think, he carried on the manufacturing of cloth the greater part of the remainder of his life. He married 1st of 10th month, 1734, Rebecca, the daughter of Josiah and Rebecca Foster, a highly respected family of Burlington county; she was a descendant of the Borden family, from whom Bordentown, on the Delaware river, derives its name. She was born 1st of 10th month, 1702.
Josiah and his wife, Rebecca F. White, had six children. Their eldest daughter, Amy, born 13th of 5th month, 1737, died when she was about thirteen months old. Hannah, the second daughter, born 28th of 11th month, 1739, married Thomas Prior, in 1763; her second husband was Daniel Drinker. Josiah,son of Josiah and Rebecca White, born 24th of 4th month, 1752, died when two years of age. Rebecca, the daughter of Josiah and Rebecca, born 15th of 3d month, 1745, married a
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young man by the name of Redman, of Haddonfield. John, the son of Josiah and Rebecca, born 9th of 7th month, 1747. Josiah White, the youngest son of Josiah and Rebecca, was born 20th of 8th month, 1750. The father of the above named children was a minister in the Society of Friends, recommended as such in the year 1743. On the same day the celebrated John Woolman was also recommended by the Mount Holly Monthly Meeting. Josiah had the happy faculty of condensing what he desired to express either in his public communications or his private conversation, and his company was much sought after. He and Dr. Benjamin Franklin were on quite intimate terms, as he was also with Governor William Franklin, the son of Dr. Franklin, whose country seat was near Mount Holly. Josiah imbibed the idea similar to Homer, the father of poets, that there were plants and herbs that grew to cure all diseases the human family is liable to. I have been informed that for a number of years of his life he used no other medicine in his family but what he made of herbs, and he was frequently seit for by his neighbors to administer the same to their families. He received the appellation of herb doctor. He certainly was a man of clear and comprehensive judgment, and was well calculated to leave his foot-prints on the sands of time, and those great qualities were transmitted to his descendants to a remarkable degree to the first, second and third generations, as their lives and their undertakings for the public good (all of which they accomplished) fully demonstrate.
Josiah lost his wife about nine years before his death; she died 6th of 12th month, 1771, aged nearly sixty-three years. He was born at Alloways Creek, 21st of 6th month, 1705, and died at Mount Holly, 12th of 5th month, 1780, aged nearly seventy-five years. He descended from an ancient family of the name of White, in the county of Cumberland, in England. Thomas White, his great-grandfather, became converted to the principles of George Fox, and soon after that event left his native county and removed to London. In the year 1664 he was taken from the Bull and Mouth meeting, in that city, and taken before Alderman Brown. He told the Alderman that he thought he had filled up the measure of his wickedness, at which the Alderman, incensed, struck him in the face, kicked him and sent him to Newgate prison. His grandfather, Chris- topher White, also suffered much violence and persecution in the city of London on account of his religious opinions. It is probable for that reason he concluded to leave his native conn- try and emigrate to the wilds of America, where he could enjoy
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civil and religions liberty. He accordingly purchased 1,000 aeres of land of John Fenwick before he left England, in the early part of the year 1675, and with his family arrived at New Salem in the 6th month, 1677. He became an active and use- ful citizen in Fenwiek's infant colony. He died on his planta- tion in Monmonth Precinet, now Alloways Creek township, about the year 1696. His son, Josiah White, who was born in London in 1675, succeeded him and became the owner of his real estate in said township.
John, the son of Josiah and Rebecca White, born 9th of 7th month, 1747, married 7th of 6th month, 1775, Rebecca, daugh- ter of Jeremiah Haines, of Burlington county ; she was born 28th of 7th month, 1744. John and his wife Rebecca White had four children. John, the eldest, lived to grow up to man- hood and died unmarried; Christopher, their second son, died a minor ; Josiah was born 4th of 3d month, 1781; and Joseph, the youngest, was born 28th of 12th month, 1785. John, their father, died 22d of 8th month, 1785, aged about thirty-eight years.
Josiah White, well known as the pioneer of introducing the Schuylkill water for the use of the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, also one of the first projectors of the Schuylkill canal, and also the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The latter he commenced and completed nearly or altogether by his own individual exertions, so as to enable the different coal com- panies, which were then organizing in the anthracite coal regions, to carry it to the Philadelphia market for common uso as fuel. Before that period it was not much used, owing in a great measure to the high price of transporting it to market, which put it ont of reach of the common people, it being from $25 to $40 per ton. Josiah was the third son of John and Rebecca H. White, and was born 3d of 4th month, 1781. He was married twice; his first wife being Catharine Ridgway, of Burlington county, whom he married in 1805. She died a few years after her marriage, leaving no issue. Josiah's second wife was Elizabeth, the daughter of Solomon and Hannah White, of Philadelphia. There were five children by that connection- Hannah, the eldest, married Richard Richardson, of Wilming- ton, Delaware; she is still living. Their next child was a son, who died young. Solomon, their third child, lived until he was in his nineteenth year. He has been represented as a young man of uncommon promise, and was possessed of a mind above mediocrity, and consequently his untimely death was a great loss to his aged and beloved parents. Josiah and Elizabeth
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White's fourth child was a son, who died young. Rebecca, their youngest child, is still living, unmarried. Josiah White, the father, died 14th of 11th month, 1850, aged nearly seventy years.
Joseph White, the youngest son of John and Rebecca H. White, was born 28th of 12th month, 1785. Like his elder brother, Josiah, he inherited from his ancestors that great energy of character and a cast of mind which made them pio- neers in new and important improvements for the benefit of mankind. He married Rebecca, the daughter of Daniel D. and and Elizabeth Schooley Smith, of Burlington county. Daniel D. Smith was a descendant of Richard Smith, M. D., who was baptised 18th of 5th month, 1593, and died at Branham, York- shire, England, in 1647. Elizabeth Schooley Smith was the great-grand-daughter of Samuel Jennings, first Governor of West New Jersey. Rebecca Smith, her daughter, was born 29th of 3d month, 1787. Joseph and Rebecca S. White had eight children-John Josiah, Daniel S., Elizabeth, Sarah S., Anna (who died young), Howard, Barclay and Anna Maria. John J. White, the eldest son, resides in Philadelphia, in the house on Arch street that was formerly occupied by his uncle, Josiah White. He is a lawyer by profession. He has been twice married, his first wife being Mary Kirkbride Shoemaker, and his second wife Abigail Weaver.
Daniel S. White, the second son, married Rebecca L. Shreve. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, married Joshua Lippincott, of Philadelphia. Sarah S. White died unmarried ; Howard died unmarried ; Barclay married Rebecca Merritt Lamb, daughter of Restore Lamb, of Burlington county. She died several years ago, leaving issue. His second wife was Benlah Sansom Shreve. Barclay at this time is one of the Government's Su- perintendents of Indian Affairs, and is located at Omaha, Nebraska. Anna Maria, the youngest child of Joseph White, married J. Gibbon Hunt, M. D. During the year 1808 Joseph White and Samuel Lippincott purchased Josiah White's stock of hardware and commenced business as importer of and dealer in hardware, under the firm of White & Lippincott, at No. 111 Market street, Philadelphia. The following interesting narra- tive of Joseph White, written by his youngest son Barclay, and forwarded to me a few months ago, shows that his life had been extended to threescore years and ten ; he had the ability and energy to have risen as high on the pinnacle of fame in the history of his country as his elder brother. He died at the age of forty-one years in the prime of his life.
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In the year 1811 Joseph left Philadelphia with the intention of traveling on horseback to St. Louis, Missouri, and other places in the Western and Southern country, for the purpose of extending the business of the firm, and collecting debts due to it. Stopping at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, he stabled his horse and strolled through the streets to view the town. Passing a store, he noticed a man standing in its door, clad in such cus- tom as denoted he was a member of the Society of Friends; and being a stranger in a strange place, Joseph was attracted towards this member of his own religious Society. Asking for some trivial article of merchandise as an excuse for opening a conver- sation, he entered the store. This new acquaintance proved to be Elisha Hunt, who, with his brother Caleb, were conducting a mercantile business there. The conversation that ensued was interesting to both Friends, and when supper was announced, Joseph was invited to join the family circle. The Hunts made a proposition that if Joseph White would give up his journey on horseback and assist them in building and freighting a keel boat, Caleb Hunt would in the spring join him on the trip to St. Louis, thus making a more pleasant journey, with favorable prospects of a successful mercantile venture. Such an arrange- ment was agreed upon. Joseph White spent the winter at Brownsville, the boat was built, and freighted with general mer- chandise, and in the spring of 1812, Caleb Hunt and Joseph White, with a crew of French-Canadian boatmen, started her from the landing at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, bound for St. Louis, Missouri. During the previous 11th month an earth- quake, which is known as the "earthquake of New Madrid," had changed and rent the banks of the Ohio river, adding to the risks and labors of the voyage. As they pursued their course with the current of the river, there was much leisure time, and the boatmen noticed that Joseph frequently interested himself by reading from a volume which he carried in his pocket, and they asked that he would read to them. The volume was the Bible, and by commencing his readings with the narrative por- tions, they became so interested in the book that the readings were made regular and systematic during the remainder of the voyage.
As far as the mouth of the Ohio the voyage was compara- tively easy, requiring only watchful care to keep the boat in the current and avoid obstructions, but from the Ohio's mouth to St. Louis, against the rapid current of the Mississippi river, was another kind of labor. They now doubled the number of their men, and pulled the boat up stream with a long rope, a
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number of hands on shore dragging it. This was called "cor- delling" and " bushwhacking," as the men would catch a bush with one hand and pull the rope with the other. This arduous labor was well calculated to lead the reflective mind to consider if some other power could not be successfully applied for pro- pelling boats against such a current.
After reaching St. Louis the merchandise was sold, partly for cash, the balance to be paid for in lead, which was to be deliver- ed at St. Genevieve, Missouri, during the spring of 1813. Having successfully disposed of their goods, and ascertained that the St. Louis merchants, who were indebted to White & Lippincott, were unable to pay the debt, the friends turned their keel boat down the Mississippi river homeward bound. They entered the mouth of the Ohio river, and proceeded up it as far as Smithland at the month of the Cumberland river, where, not finding an opportunity to sell their keel boat, it was com- mitted to the charge of Joseph Wood, to sell, freight or charter.
Joseph White bought a horse of Wood for $50, and with Caleb Hunt, left Smithland on the 6th of 7th month, 1812, at six o'clock A. M., on horseback for the journey home. From the notes of this journey, which are now before me, they passed through Louisville, Kentucky. At Hopkinville they received the intelligence of war being declared with England. The diary notes :- " We were much shocked thereat; this un- "expected intelligence overelouded my prospects, and makes " my ride gloomy." "At Bowling Green, Kentucky, I fell in " with the proprietor of a cave, who wanted me to purchase it. " He asked $10,000. With five men he makes one hundred " pounds of saltpetre per day ; to manufacture it costs him from " five to six cents per pound ; it is now worth twenty-five cents " per pound in Lexington, Kentucky."
At Sheppardsville, Kentucky, the friends separated, and Joseph White proceeded to Louisville, where he found consider- able commotion on account of a man being arrested on suspicion of being a British spy, and fomenting the negroes to insurrec- tion. He passed through Frankford, the seat of government, which he describes as "a smart town, containing about one " hundred and fifty houses." "Cynthina contains about fifty " houses," thence to Lexington, which he found to be " a delight- " ful place, with hospitable people and luxurious soil." Passing through the gap of the Cumberland range of mountains, he traveled on to Knoxville, Tennessee, which is mentioned as "a " lively town, with from two hundred to three hundred houses ; " here I was introduced to the Governor of the State and several
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"principal people." "Near Rogersville I exchanged horses " with William Lyons, gave him $50 to boot, and am to pay $10 " more if he should think it a hard bargain." From Abington, Virginia, he passed up the Valley of Virginia, or Shenendoah Valley, through Lynchburg, stopping to view the Natural Bridge; then on to "Strasburg, containing sixty or seventy " houses," through "Winchester, a fine place with about four " hundred houses," passing by Harper's Ferry, where he found an extensive manufactory of arms, producing nine hundred stand per month, rating at $12 each. Thence to Frederickstown, Maryland, which he supposes " contains eight hundred or one thousand houses,"thence through Columbia, Lancaster and Down- ington, in Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia, 16th of 8th month, 1812. This horseback journey from Smithland, Ken- tucky, to Philadelphia, appears to have occupied forty-one days.
During the autumn of 1812 Elisha Hunt visited Philadelphia, and while there arrangements were made and a stock company formed to construct steamboats and carry passengers and freight by steamboats between Pittsburg and New Orleans. The stock of this company was divided into six shares, of which Joseph White owned two or one-third of the whole amount of stock. Daniel French, a Connecticut man, owned a patent for steam- boats, and had built a little stern wheel steamboat on his plan, which was then running as a ferry boat between Cooper's Point, Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
French said he could construct steamboats that would run five miles an hour, against the current of the Mississippi river, and an arrangement was made with him by which he sold to the company the right to use his patent west of the Alleghany mountains. The services of French were engaged, shops were erected at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, tools for working in iron were made, logs were cut into plank with whip saws, and with the ferry boat above mentioned as their model, they constructed the steamboat Enterprise, costing about fifteen thousand dollars, and in the latter part of the summer of 1813 she left Pittsburg for New Orleans, under the command of Captain Henry Shreve, who was the son of Israel Shreve, of Burlington county, New Jersey, a Colonel in the Revolutionary army.
The Enterprise reached New Orleans, and was there seized by the State Marshal, at the instance of Fulton and Livingstone, for coming within the limits of Louisiana, they having obtained from the Legislature of that State a charter, granting them the exclusive privilege of running steamboats on the waters of that State. Captain Shreve gave security for trial, the Enterprise
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was released, and returned up the river with a full cargo of freight and passengers. The charge for carrying freight was eight cents per pound, and one hundred and twenty-five dollars for each passenger. It was announced in the Pittsburg papers, and copied into Cramer & Spears' Almanae that the steamboat Enterprise had just arrived with a full cargo of passengers and freight, in the remarkable short passage of twenty-six days from New Orleans, thus proving the practicability of navigating the Mississippi river by steam.
The Steamboat Company labored under a great disadvantage on account of fuel and had axemen on board to chop wood, which they took on the banks of the river and from drifts, as they could find it. This occasioned great detention, but arrange- ments were made for a supply at several landings against the next trip. The next time the Enterprise landed at New Orleans, General Jackson pressed her into the service of the United States, and sent her up to Alexandria, on the Red river, with provisions, ce., for the army there.
The Enterprise made about three round voyages between Pittsburg and New Orleans, when peace was declared between the United States and England. Passengers and freight then went around by sea. The Enterprise finally reached Shippins Port, below the Falls of the Ohio river, and the river being low above, and freights dull, the Captain anchored the boat in deep water, and hiring two men to take care of her, went by land to Pittsburg. One of the men went ashore and the other got drunk and neglected the pumps, the weather was hot, the seams of the boat opened, and the Enterprise filled and sank to the bottom, where, as Elisha Hunt, in a letter written during the year 1851, says " she still is." Elisha further states that while he was down in Kentucky, in 1818, a man offered him $1,000 for the wreck, as he thought he could get her engine out to run a saw mill.
Fulton & Livingston obtained judgment against the Company in the State Court, but on appeal the United States Court set that decision aside and left the navigation of the Mississippi free, and open to all. Said suit cost the Company between $1500 and $2000.
The Steamboat Company then built a second boat called the Despatch, designed for shoal water, she soon sank in the Ohio river, after which the stockholders became discouraged, and the Company dissolved.
The Enterprise was the first steamboat that ever went out of the Monongahela river to New Orleans, and returned up against the current.
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One of Elisha Hunt's letters says : "The amount of dividend " paid to the stockholders out of the profits of the boats I am " not able to give, for no book account was ever kept by the " Captain. On his return to Brownsville he brought his funds "in several shot bags, of Spanish dollars, which were poured "out on the counter of E. & C. Hunt's store, and laid off into " six piles to the stockholders, with which they were satisfied at " the time."
In consequence of the sinking of the boats, the stockholders lost all their investment, which was about $20,000. The Steam- boat Company manufactured the tools necessary for the con- struction of steam machinery, and also constructed a cotton mill at Brownsville, in which they placed a steam engine, manufac- tured in their shops. After the close of the war the cotton mill failed.
After Captain Henry Shreve left the service of the Steamboat Company, he constructed a boat at Wheeling, called the Wash- ington. Shreve was employed by the government to remove the snags out of the river, and afterwards entered into an engagement with the United States to remove the Red river raft. He invented a powerful snag boat, and with it improved the navigation of the Red river to Shreveport, which town was named after him.
One of Elisha Hunt's letters states : "The little office con- " nected with our Brownsville store was the rendezvous of many "intelligent and enterprising young men, and there all the "recent inventions for improving travel, etc., were argued and " discussed." Among the regular visitors there he mentions Neal Gillespie Blaine, grandfather of Ex-Speaker Blaine, of the House of Representatives, Robert Clark, Stephen Darling- ton and others.
The lead which was to be delivered at St. Genevieve in part payment for the keel boat merchandise, was on hand according to contraet, when the Enterprise stopped for it. The boat carried it to Pittsburg, whence it was freighted to Philadelphia in Conestoga wagons, and there sold, netting over one hundred per cent. profit on the keel boat venture.
In 1813 or 1814 Elisha Hunt sent to Josephi White one barrel of "Seneca Oil" gathered at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, which Joseph sold to Daniel Smith, a druggist in Philadelphia. The oil was gathered by damming up the rivulets, and spreading a blanket over the water to absorb the oil. The blanket was then wrung over barrels, which caught the oil.
Joseph White was extensively engaged in coal operations in
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the Lackawanna region during the latter years of his life, and died in Philadelphia 25th of 5th month, 1827, aged forty-one years.
After many years of mercantile life at Brownsville, Elisha Hunt returned to his native place, Moorestown, New Jersey, where he passed many of his later years, and died in the summer of 1873 in the ninety-fourth year of his age. It was my privi- lege and pleasure on several occasions during those years to con- verse with him upon his social and business connections with my father, and the incidents above narrated have been chiefly derived from such conversations.
It is more than probable that if Josiah White, Jr., had not been defrauded of his just dues by the inhabitants of the Upper Precinct of Monmouth, he would have remained in his native county of Salem, a district of country for which nature has done so much. The inventive genuis and uncommon energy of character possessed by him and his descendants would have been an incalculable advantage to this section of the State ; for as William Penn wrote in one of his maxims respecting human life : " Great minds were destined by Providence to be the pio- "neers of all that is good and useful for the benefit of " mankind."
Josiah White, while in his twenty-eighth year, sold all his goods to his brother, Joseph White, and Samuel Lippincott, he having by this time obtained the amount of property he desired as being sufficient for him. It appears he was out of business about two years, and in 1810 he married his second wife Eliza- beth, the daughter of Solomon and Hannah White. Her father had been a successful merchant in Philadelphia, but was then deceased. Notwithstanding his plans of life, it seems he was designed for active life, and about two years after he sold out his interest in Market street, there was a water power offered for sale at the Falls of Schuylkill, belonging to Robert Kennedy, comprising about four feet available fall, with all the water of the river, with the right to construct a lock for navigation, charging fifty cents toll on each boat for passing; also, there was four acres of ground on the east side of the river, and seven or eight acres and an old tavern house on the west side adjoin- ing the bridge. He built a large mill for the manufacture of wire, and a smaller one for making nails, and entered himself in the manufacture of these articles about that time. He asso- ciated with him Erskine Hazard, who became a partner in the manufacture of wire. In 1801 he took out a patent for rolling iron, and in 1812 another patent for making wire and heading
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