USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 56
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 56
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Raum says, " About midway between the two mar- kets there was a horse-shoe firmly imbedded in the stoue flagging, and I well remember when a boy of the hours of amusement afforded me watching coun- trymen in their endeavors to remove it from its posi-
tion. Who put it there, or in what way it was fast- ened, was in those days a mystery."
A market-house stood in Market Street, fronting on Broad, but it is not known when it was built. The second story was used as a school-room, and was called the Mill Hill Academy. This market-house had but five stalls, and was used as a market only a short time after its erection. In 1837 the lower story was con- verted into an engine-house. The building was re- moved in 1841. after Mill Hill became a part of the borough of South Trenton.
A market was erected in Bloomsbury at about the same time, probably, with the one on Mill Hill. It stood at the corner of Warren and Bridge Streets. It was narrow and long, and covered the walk and gutter on the west side of the street. It had seven stalls.
The markets in State Street were taken down in 1845, and others erected in Greene Street, and in 1848 the capacity of oue of these was doubled, to supply the increasing demands of business.
In 1845 a market in Market Street east of Broad was crected by private enterprise.
Improvements in Greene Street and its vicinity came to require the removal of the markets there, and in 1870 the city authorities relinquished all control of them. The material of which they were constructed was sold, and they were taken down.
Markets were erected in various parts of the city by private persons and companies. One was built in Greene Street near Academy by John Taylor, and one in Chancery Street near Quarry, with a hall in the second story, by J. K. Freese and S. R. Wilson. The Central Market, at the corner of Front aud Stock- ton Streets, and the Washington Market, fronting on Front, Greene, and Washington Streets, near the As- sanpink, were built by companies. The first has fifty stalls, and cost about forty-two thousand dollars. Iu the second story of the last nine rooms for various uses were finished off, as well as a hall one hundred and eight by one hundred and thirty-five feet, with a seating capacity of twelve hundred. A brownstone statue of Washington, by Thorn, the Scottish sculp- tor, was presented to the Washington Market coul- pany and placed on the Greene Street front. On the first floor of this market were arranged two hundred and nine stalls and a restaurant. Its cost was one hundred and five thousand dollars. The joint-stock company which erected it was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, Dec. 15, 1870.
The market in Chancery Street was built with one hundred and nineteen stalls, and its hall, which was named " Freese Hall," was arranged for seating seven hundred persons.
Post-Office and Postmasters .- In 1791 there were in New Jersey but six post-offices, of which one was at Trenton.
During Washington's first administration a Mr. Pinkerton was postmaster here, and probably the
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
office was kept at the corner of Main (now Warren) Street and Pinkerton's Alley (now Hanover Street). During Washington's second administration John Singer was postmaster, and kept the office at the corner of Warren and Hanover Streets, in what was afterwards the Franklin House.
Maj. Peter Gordou became postmaster in 1801 by appointment of President Jefferson. He kept the office at the corner of State and Warren Streets. In 1804 he was succeeded by Charles Rice, who continued the office at the same place.
In 1825, James J. Wilson was appointed by John Quincy Adams, and kept the office at 105 Warren Street. After the death of Mr. Wilson, in 1826, his widow removed the office to State Street, but soon returned to Warren Street, near the place she left.
In 1835, Joseph Cunningham was appointed by President Jackson, and kept the office in his house in Warren Street.
President Tyler, in 1841, appointed Dr. John Mc- Kelway, who kept the office at No. 1 West State Street. In 1845, President Polk appointed Joseph Justice, Sr. He removed the office to the place where it had been kept by Mr. Wilson, in Warren Street, opposite the termination of Quarry Street. In 1849, John S. McCully was appointed by President Taylor. He removed the office to 153 East State Street.
William A. Benjamin was appointed by Franklin Pierce in 1853. He continued the office for a time where Mr. McCully had kept it, but afterwards re- moved it to the City Hall, corner of State and Greene Streets. He subsequently removed it to the corner of Front and Warren Streets.
Early in the administration of President Lincoln, Joshua Jones was appointed. He kept the office in Greene State near State, at a place known as Brear- ley's Corner. He was succeeded, during Johnson's administration, by F. S. McNeely, who served about four years, or till the middle of Gen. Grant's first term. He removed the office to Taylor Hall, in Greene Street.
In 1871 the present postmaster, Israch Howell, was appointed by President Grant. He kept the office during three years at Taylor Hall, then during about three years on the corner of Warren and Hanover Streets, where the Franklin House formerly stood. In August, 1877, the office was removed to the build- ing that had just been erected by the United States government on the corner of State and Montgomery Strects for a United States court-house and post- offiee.
This is an elegant stone structure, one hundred and ten by sixty-five feet, three stories in height. The lower story is used for the post-office, the second by ; third as a United States court-room.
the judges and officers of the United States, and the , tised three trips weekly between Hummel's tavern
Mails .- Improvements in mail facilities have kept even pace with the increase of population and the development of business interests. In former times
mails arrived here semi-occasionally on the backs of horses, then as tinie went on they came to arrive daily by stage-coach, and people did not look for improvements on the facilities they then enjoyed. Finally carriage of the mails by railroad was estab- lished, and now mails arrive and depart several times each day, and they are conveyed with a rapidity that was not dreamed of in former times.
Telegraph .- Time and space then came to be prac- tically annihilated by the establishment of telegraphic communication, and now there are two offices here through which messages may be seut or received.
Telephone .- By the introduction of that triumph of modern science, the telephone, the people in widely- separated portions of the city are able to eonverse as though face to face, and the thread-like wires through which conversation is carried on extend from point to point in all parts of the city.
Expresses. - Facilities for transportation have come from the ox-cart carriage of former times to the postal package and the safe and expeditious expresses of the present. There are two express- offices in Trenton, through either of which goods may, without risk to the sender, be transmitted to almost any part of the world.
Avenues of Travel, Transportation, Etc .- Com- municatiou between Trenton and Philadelphia was at first by means of the Delaware River in sloops, which came up as far as the Falls. A route led across the country to New Brunswick, and thus travelers passed to and from New York. During many years these were the principal avenues of travel and trans- portation between Trenton and these cities. In some, however, the uncertainty of river navigation led to the establishment of overland routes to Philadelphia, on which the speed was not wholly dependent on the weather.
In 1870, Edward Young and Ichabod Grummond informed " the publiek that they have erected a eom- pleat stage-waggon to go from this city (Philadel- phia)to Trenton and Elizabeth-Town, passing through Bristol." The fare was thirty shillings in specie, and it was added " No run goods to be admitted in this stage."
In 1781, Gershom Johnson and James Drake adver- tised " A convenient FLYING STAGE-WAGGON with four horses at the end of every twenty miles between Philadelphia and Elizabeth-Town via Tren- ton, tri-weekly." The fare was to be forty shillings, in gold or silver, or the value thereof in other money.
It is presumable that in the latter part of the eighteenth century other lines were established, the memory of which is lost.
On the 13th of April, 1801, Thomas Porter adver- (corner of Warren and Bank Streets) and Philadel- phia, with a pair of horses and a coacher, during the summer season.
On the 21st of the same month Joseph Vandegrift
i
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CITY OF TRENTON.
established a daily line of stages each way between Trenton and Philadelphia.
In 1802, Peter Probasco and John Dean ran also a daily line of coaches. The same year also John C. , from Monmouth Junction, it is in eonnection with Hummel and John Carpenter started a line of "ac- commodation coaches."
In 1807 a line of "coacher" stages was run by John Mannington, daily, at a fare of one dollar and fifty cents.
In 1819 a line of coaches was established by John Lafoucherie and Isaac Merriam, to connect with the steamboat "Philadelphia" at the Bloomsbury wharf; and in 1820, Charles B. Carman and Lewis Thomp- son ran a line between Trenton and Philadelphia, by steamboat ria. Bristol. Fare, one dollar ; break- fast, twenty-five cents.
In 1828 the Union Line of Trenton hacks ran to Bloomsbury to convey passengers to and from the steamboats "Trenton," "Burlington," and "Marco Bozzaris." Each boat made a daily round trip. The eoaches ran between Trenton and New Brunswick. C. H. Vandeveer also ran a line of mail-coaches be- tween Trenton and New Brunswick the same year; fare, one dollar. J. T. Thompson also ran a coach over the same route.
The Union Line of stage-coaches continued in oper- ation till the commencement of railroad travel, which, of course, superseded it.
In 1840 the steamboat "Hornet" plied between Trenton and Philadelphia ; fare, twenty-five cents; the " Proprietor" ran in 1843, and the " Edwin For- rest" commenced in 1850, and still continues, regu- : lating her run by the tides.
The Delaware and Raritan Canal was constructed between 1830 and 1840, and facilities for transporta- tion such as had not before been enjoyed by this city were thus afforded. At about the same time railroad communication began to be established, and this means of travel and transportation has effected the same revolution here as elsewhere.
At that time the passage of travelers and goods through Trenton had assumed an importance not known before, and those were the palmy days of hotel- keeping.
Freight and passengers were carried between Tren- ton and Philadelphia on the river in vessels, and taken across the State in stage-coaches and what were known as Brunswick wagons. From four to eight stages, twice daily each way, were required for pas- sengers, and freight-wagons were passing constantly.
The first railroad passed this place at a distance of six miles. It was operated by horses.
Trenton is now in direct communication by way of the Pennsylvania Railroad with Philadelphia, New York, Camden, Cape May, Atlantic City, and points on the eastern shore of the Delaware River south, and with the Water Gap and points on the eastern shore of the Delaware north.
It is also connected by a spur road with the Bound 44
Brook route of the Pennsylvania and Reading Road at Delaware Junction, and thus east and west on that road. By way of the Freehold and Jamesburg Road Long Branch.
Delaware Bridge .- In 1801 a charter was granted for a bridge across the Delaware River, but the eom- mencement of its construction was delayed till 1804. It was completed in 1806. During the construction of this bridge a freshet occurred, which admonished the builders of the necessity of building the piers higher than they had planned. The result was a bridge which has withstood the most disastrous floods that have since occurred. In the great freshet of 1841 five bridges above Trenton were carried away and floated under this with but little damage to it. The length of this bridge is eleven hundred feet.
Although the Bridge Company still exists pro forma, the bridge has in fact become the property of the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and has been leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In 1875 the wooden superstructure was replaced by one of iron.
Trenton City Bridge .- The Trenton City Bridge Company was incorporated by act of the Legislature iu February, 1840. A supplement to this aet was passed in 1859, and the bridge was soon afterward built. The eapital stock of the company was forty- eight thousand dollars, and the cost of the bridge was about sixty thousand dollars. It is a substantial wooden structure, and has not required any more than ordinary repairs. It was at the time of its erec- tion higher above the water than any other bridge over the Delaware River.
The superstructure rests on six piers, and has two carriage-trseks and two footways. The officers are John S. Comfort, president ; Philip P. Dunn, secre- tary ; and Jonathan Steward, treasurer.
Trenton Horse Railroad Company .- This com- pany was chartered March 9, 1859, by an act of the Legislature. The corporators were Timothy Field, Robert Aitken, William M. Force, Lewis Perrine, Thomas P. Johnson, Jonathan S. Fish, Charles Moore, Joseph Whitaker, and James T. Sherman. By an ordinance of the Common Council of Trenton, the company wn+ authorized to lay its track " in Clinton and State Streets, with such other branches through such other #reets as they shall deem necessary." The authorized capital of the company was $30,000, with power to increase the same to $100,000. The capital lias been increased to $36,100.
In 1863 the construction of the road was com- menced, and the track was laid from the Pennsyi- vania Railroad Station on Clinton Street through State Street as far as Calhoun. A spur was also laid through North Warren Street as far as Hanover. . A few years later the track was extended along State Strect to Prospect Street, making a total length of a mile and fire-eighths.
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676
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
Six cars are constantly operated on this railroad, fire department passed July 15, 1879. The fire war- running at intervals of eight minutes. The city bag- dens, one for each ward, are appointed by the Com- mon Council. gage express is conducted by this company.
The directors are Lewis Perrine, Strickland Kneass, A. M. Fox, Dr. Charles L. Pearson, E. F. Green, H. D. Welsh, Ashbel Welch, president ; Hugh B. Ely, secretary and treasurer. The superintendent is Thos. S. Morris.
The City Railway Company .- This company was incorporated under the general law in 1875. Ordi- nances were enacted by the Common Council author- - izing the construction of this road, and the work was commenced in 1876. The cars commenced to run in August of that year.
A double track extends through the city from Chambersburg to Millham, on Broad, Greene, Perry, and Clinton Streets. The authorized capital is fifty thousand dollars, and of this forty -two thousand has been taken.
The company has ten cars constantly running, be- sides an open summer-car for special occasions. The officers are Adam Exton, president; William H. Charles Y. Bamford, treasurer.
Skirm, vice-president ; H. B. Howell, secretary ; and | P. Kennedy, William J. Idell, Jonathan S. Fish,
Fire Department of Trenton .- Prior to 1846 there was no organized fire department in the city of Tren- ton. A fire company had been organized ninety-nine years before that time, and other companies had from time to time come into existence as the necessities of the growing town and city required, but these com- panies acted independently, and of course their effi- ciency was not as great as it would have been under a regularly organized system.
On the 5th of May, 1846, the first ordinance for the regulation of the fire department was adopted. It provided for a chief engineer, two assistants, and eight fire wardens. This ordinance was not entirely satis- factory, and the companies did not all adopt its pro- visions, but continued their independent action.
In 1854 a new ordinance was enacted providing for a board of engineers, consisting of one from each company, who were to elect a chief engineer and two assistants. This ordinance was at first satisfactory, and received the assent of the different companies, 1 but in 1859 dissatisfaction arose, and it became a dead letter.
In 1866, at the suggestion of the different companies, another ordinance was passed by the City Council similar in its provisions to the one of 1854, but re- quiring one of the assistant engineers to be located north and the other south from the As anpink Creek.
By an ordinance of May 7, 1872, the appointment of chief engineer and assistant engineers was vested in the Common Council.
An ordinance of March 5, 1878, provided for the election of these officers by a biennial convention consisting of five delegates from each engine, hose, and hook-and-ladder company ; and this plan was also embodied in the ordinance for the regulation of the
The police and fire alarm telegraph of the city of Trenton is under the charge of a superintendent, who is appointed once in three years by the Common Council.
The fire department consists of a chief engineer, two assistant engineers, seven fire wardens, and mem- bers of engine, hose, and hook-and-ladder companies. It has seven steam fire-engines, nine hose-carriages, and one hook-and-ladder truck, all drawn by horses.
The supply of water for the extinguishment of fires is ample. In addition to the hydrants of the city water works that are distributed through the city there are the Delaware and Raritan Canal, the Feeder, the water-tower, the Assanpink Creek, and the Delaware River. With such an abundant supply, and with seven steam fire-engines to throw it, there seems to be, in an ordinary conflagration, more danger from water than from fire.
The following have been the chief engineers : John
Charles Moore, John G. Gummere, Samuel P. Par- ham, A. S. Livingston, Levi J. Bibbins, Charles C. Yard, Jolin C. Weart, Thomas E. Boyd, William Os- senburg, Elward Mitchell, Charles A. Fuhrman, and the present chief, Edwin S. Mitchell.
UNION FIRE COMPANY .- This is believed to be the only company in the United States that has maintained an unbroken organization during one hundred and thirty-five years.
At a meeting held in a blacksmith's shop on the corner of Greene and Front Streets, on the evening of the 7th of February, 1747, by Messrs. Obadiah Howell, George Ely, John Hunt, William Praskett, and Thomas Tindall, preliminary arrangements for the organization of a fire company were made. The next evening they again met at the same place and completed the organization under the above name. William Praskett was made president, captain, and treasurer, and George Ely, clerk. On the 29th of December, 1824, the company was incorporated by an act of the Legislature.
The first apparatus consisted of buckets, baskets, fire-hooks, and ladders. In 1772 the company pur- chased a small engine, worked by two men. In 1786 a larger one was purchased. In 1798 one of the en- gines was stationed in Trenton and one on Mill Hill. In 1813 six fire-ladders and seven fire-hooks were added to the apparatus. In 1832 a double-decker was purchased from a fire company in Philadelphia, and in 1849 it was rebuilt. In 1855 it was sold, and in 1856 a new engine, "piano style," was purchased at a cost of twelve hundred dollars. In 1864 this engine was sold, and in 1865 the company received their first steamer, and this was in 1880 replaced by their present steam-engine. They purchased a pair of horses in 1870.
677
CITY OF TRENTON.
In 1788, Hezekiah Howell donated to the company a lot on which to build an engine-house. This house was removed in 1790 to near the present location of the Third Presbyterian Church. In 1823 the company erected an engine-house in State Street, near the gov- ernment house, at a cost of three hundred and fifty dollars. The present engine-house is in Perry Street, near Greene.
During its long existence this company has num- bered among its members many citizens of general as well as local celebrity. James Ewing, Benjamin Smith, and Isaac Barnes were among the early presi - dents of the company.
The present officers are Aug. K. Forman, president ; Wilsou E. Allen, secretary ; Joshua J. Jeffries, treas- urer; Jonathan R. Ely, foreman.
A company named the " Restoration" was in exist- ence at some time after the organization of the Union, and previous to the organization of the Hand-in- Hand, but the only records concerning them are some incidental entries in those of the Hand-in-Hand.
HAND-IN-HAND FIRE COMPANY .- The organiza- tion of this company took place at the house of Rens- salaer Williams, on the 2d of April, 1772. The orig- inal members were Joseph Toy, David Cowell, M.D., Renssalaer Williams, Isaac Pearson Rodman, Archi- bald William Yard, Joseph Clunn, Richard Borden, and Samuel Bellerjeau.
The company was equipped with five hooks and ladders, in addition to which each member was re- quired by the constitution to " provide himself at his own proper cost and charge two leather buckets, onc bag, and one convenient basket," and these articles were to be used for no other purpose "thau for pre- serving our own and our fellow-townsmen's houses, goods, and effects from fire." The rules which this constitution prescribed for the guidance of the mem- bers of the company would now excite a smile. .
A lottery, called " The Fishing Island Lottery," was instituted to raise money for the purchase of an en- gine, but a sufficient sum was not realized. Regular semi-monthly meetings were held till 1776, when the Revolution scattered the members, and no meetings were held till 1779. In that year an arrangement was made with the Resolution Fire Company for the use of its machine till that company should reor- ganize. This was probably a small engine, as only two men were required to work it. It appears to have been the custom at that time to locate an engine- house on any vacant lot, and to remove it to suit the convenience of the owner. In 1780 the company had an engine-house, but it had no doors or locks. In 1784 they were notified by the clerk to assist in re- moving their engine-honse to the lot of Abraham Hunt, and in 1798 it was ordered "that the engine- house be removed from the road and placed on stone pillars close by the house where Mrs. Taylor lives (in State Street), over the old cellar, and flush with the fence."
In 1804 a new engine was purchased at the price of three hundred and sixty dollars. This engine required six persons to work it. In the same year the old en- gine and enginc-house were removed to a point on Warren Street, near the present Feeder, and a new house was built on its old site on the " government lot."
The first hose, fifty-two and a half feet, was pur- chased in 1806. In 1810 the subject of constrneting cisterns and pumps for a supply of water was agitated, and this was done soon afterward, or previous to 1814. In 1815 buckets were procured for the company, and members were no longer required to purchase them.
The company was incorporated with the usual corporate powers by an act of the Legislature passed Dec. 29, 1824.
In 1839 the Common Council appropriated a room in the City Hall for the meetings of the fire companies. of which there were then three,-the Union, Hand- in-Hand, and Resolution.
In the same year both this company and the Uuion organized companies of boys, and turned over to them their small engines.
In 1848 the company purchased a new engine, and iu 1854 it was thoroughly repaired.
In 1868 this company received its first steam fire- engine. Its prosent steamer was purchased in 1879.
The engine-house was removed from the govern- ment lot to the southwest corner of the academy lot, in Academy Street : then to the rear of the American Hotel, where, in 1850, it was sold, and a building in Chancery Street, in the rear of the Chancery buildings, was rented. In 1861 the city built the present engine- house, in Willow Street near State, and the company took possession of it in September of that year.
In 1868 a heating apparatus was introduced in this engine-house for the purpose of keeping the water in the boiler heated, so that the engine conld quickly be ready for work.
In 1867 the company purchased a bell of nine hun- dred pounds' weight, at a cost of two hundred dollars.
In 1851 a hose-carriage was purchased, and the company was divided, a portion taking charge of the hose-carriage, though both were under the same gov- ernment. The two organizations were merged in one again in 1854. This hose-carriage, which was known as the Neptune, was in nse until it was worn out. The company purchased a team in 1870.
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