History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 138
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 138

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EDMUND L. JOY was born at Albany, N. Y., Oct. 1, 1835, and is a descendant of Thos. Joy, who emigrated

557

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

with Winthrop and his great company from Hingham, England, to this country in 1630, settling in and about Boston, Mass. On his mother's side he is descended from Anthony Stoddard, who also emigrated from Eng- land, and settled in Boston in 1639. Ilis father, Mr. Charles Joy, a well-known and highly-respected citi- zen, established himself in Newark, N. I., in the wholesale provision business, in 1855, conducting the same with great success until 1873, when he died. The subject of this sketch, after receiving a preparatory education in his native city, entered the I'niversity of Rochester, New York, whence he was graduated in

the capture of Vicksburg. After two years' service in the field he was appointed by President Lincoln major and judge advocate, and assigned to duty in the Seventh Army Corps, headquarters at Little Rock, tho capital of Arkansas. In this capacity he had much to do in the administration of justice in that rebel State, as well as in the Indian Territory, which was also within his jurisdiction. In this service he was en- gaged for two years, and in the reorganization of the government of Arkansas took an active and a prom- inent part.

At the close of the war Col. Joy returned to New-

C devant

1856. In 1857 he was admitted to the bar of New York, and soon thereafter removed to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he established himself in the practice of his profession. He met immediately with great success, and was appointed city attorney, which office he held for two years. On the breaking out of the Re- bellion Mr. Joy espoused at once with great warmth the Union cause, and became very active in the work of raising troops, and otherwise aiding and assisting the government in the West. In 1862 he was made a captain in the Thirty-sixth Regiment of Jowa Infantry. and participated in nearly all the movements on both sides of the Mississippi River which culminated in

ark. Long and arduous service, together with oft- occurring exposure, had so seriously impaired hia health that the resumption of his practice as a lawyer was for the present wholly impossible, and yet, to lead an idle life was for him a matter equally impos- sible. His profession had for him many charms, but with eyes greatly injured by his recent hardships, be must bid farewell to it for a time, and, perhaps, for- ever.

Fortunately, the business in which his father was engaged was one with which, from boyhood, he bad been familiar. The opportunity was now given him to turn to advantage the knowledge which he had

IHISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

acquired as a lad. His father offered to take him into partnership. The offer was accepted. The law was abandoned, and since the death of this honored parent Col. Joy has, with great success, continued the business alone, but the old weather-beaten and now scarcely legible sign that was placed over the factory door in 1855, has been held too sacred to remove.

With an excellent education and such a diversity of experience, Col. Joy has been quite naturally called upon to make himself useful in the community, and it thus happens that he was elected a member of the General Assembly of the State in 1871, as well as in 1872, and during the latter year he was chairman of the judiciary committee. For eight years past he has been a member of the Board of Education of the city of Newark. In 1875 and 1876 he was president of the Board of Trade of the same city. He is at present a director of the Manufacturers' Bank, also a. director of the Manufacturers' Fire Insurance Com- pany of Newark. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and in 1884 was appointed a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Col. Joy married, in 1862, Theresa R., daughter of Homer L. Thrall, M.D., of Columbus, Ohio.

COL. JAMES E. FLEMING. - Hon. John Fleming was appointed an associate justice, in 1798, by Governor Mifflin. He was a native of Chester County, Pa., and born in 1760, near London Cross Roads, Pa., his father, John Fleming, being a descendant of the Earl of Wigton, of Scotland, who, about the year 1760, purchased a tract of land of Dr. Francis Allison, containing about sixteen hundred and fifty acres, situated between the Bald Eagle Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, on which tract is the borough of Lock Haven and part of the town of Flemington, now in the county of Clinton. Johu Fleming died February, 1817. Ilis wife was Sarah Chatham, a daughter of Col. Chatham, who owned a large estate at Chatham's Run, and was active and prominent in the Indian war of 1777-78. Mrs. Fleming was born in the city of Dublin in 1763, and came to this country an infant. She died in 1824. They had six sons and three daughters. Gen. Robert Fleming, of Lycoming County, held prominent positions under the State government, among which were those of Senator and member of the convention that recommended and adopted the present Constitu- tion of the State of Pennsylvania. John Fleming, a brother of Robert, was one of the first two associate judges in the courts of Clinton County. Another brother, Algernon Sidney Fleming, and the youngest, was at one time high sheriff of Clinton County, and succeeded by his fourth son, John Wister Fleming, at the age of twenty-two.

Judge Fleming was quick in the perception of the real point in the case before him, and prompt in his decisions, often dissenting with the other judges on

the bench. He was a genius by nature, modest in his deportment, but with a keen enjoyment of his family circle and the society of his friends and acquaintances.

Algernon Sidney Fleming was born Ang. 17, 1807, at the old homestead, which stands on the banks of the Susquehanna River, a half-mile below Loek Haven. He resided in Clinton County, with the ex- ception of a brief period, during the year 1836 in Ohio, and again from 1845 to 1850, when in Illinois and Kentucky, engaged in State contracts for the im- provement of navigation. He was sheriff of Clinton County for twelve years, his term not having expired at the time of his death. He possessed a genial tem- per, was correct and prompt in his duties as an officer, and as a citizen he was universally esteemed. lle married Julia A. t'arskadden, daughter of James Carskadden, Esq., a connection of the well-known family of shipping merchants of Londonderry, Ireland.

Mrs. Fleming was a woman of undaunted courage, and, though lithe of form, her spirit of endurance was remarkable, as illustrated in the fact that she made the journey from Clinton County, Pa., to Trumbull County, Ohio, on horsback, for the purpose of joining her hus- band. Her feats of horsemanship were the pride of the county, both before and after marriage. She fol- lowed the hounds, and frequently resigning her horse to some one less courageous than herself, with an un- tried animal gained the brush despite the change. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming had nine children. Their eld- est son. James E. Fleming, the subject of this bio- graphieal sketch, was born July 24, 1836, in Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, his boyhood having been spent in Illinois and Kentucky with his father, who had busi- ness interests in those States. Returning to Pennsyl- vania, after some months of instruction under the care of Mr. Charles Berkley, an English gentleman of education, he was sent to Philadelphia for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of business. He began the study of law in the office of J. Moore Dubois, Esq., and was thus engaged at the breaking ont of the war. Ile at once volunteered, and through the assist- ance of his family and relatives organized a company of cavalry, which he took to Washington. Here an effort was made to force it into a regiment of New York cavalry. This was frustrated by Fleming's prompt decision to fight his way out of the eamp if not allowed to go peacefully, declaring that his com- pany had volunteered from Pennsylvania, and woukd not sacrifice their State pride to fill the quota from New York. The offer of a captaincy if he would remain without his men was promptly declined by him. Col. Fleming served in Harlan's celebrated Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, and received promotion to the othees of first lieutenant and assistant inspector- general. Hle was wounded and taken prisoner May 30, 1862, and was a prisoner of war at Salisbury, N. C., and Libby prisons, Richmond, Va. He escaped,

559

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

and having been subsequently exchanged, was or- dered on staff duty, serving on the staff's of Gen. Alfred Gibbs, Brig .- Gens. Terry and I. J. Wister, and acting on the staff of the latter during his celebrated expedition to capture Jefferson Davis by a boll dash into the city of Richmond. He was also on the staff's of Gen. William F. (Baldy) Smith, E. O. C. Ord and John Gibbon. He was wounded at Blackwater Bridge, Va., at Longstreet's siege of Suffolk, at Cemetery Hill and in front of Petersburg, Va. Ile resigned on account of wounds on the 13th of February, 1865, and in July of the same year engaged in the shipping business at New-

tered the employ of the Wilkesbarre Coal and Iron Company the following year. He organized their business in Newark and has since managed their in- terests at that point. Here he has held official posi- tion as frecholder and member of the City Council. He was also a member of the State Committee of Veterans during the Hancock campaign. Col Flem- ing was married, April 28, 1879, to Isabella Penn, eldest daughter of the late Richard Penn Smith, of Phila- delphia, Pa., a lady of brilliant intellectual gifts. She is the great-granddaughter of Dr. William Smith, founder of the University of Pennsylvania. The children of this marriage are six in number, of whom

I. I. Fleming

berne, North Carolina. He subsequently purchased a plantation, and was actively engaged in the conser- vative side of politics, filling the military appointment of sherifl' of Craven County, N. C., under Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, Col. Fleming, while filling this office, cleared the county of highwaymen, having organized a body of ex-Confederate soldiers, captured and exe- cuted the notorious outlaws, Louis Albritton, Wash. Hicks and George Davis, who had murdered Col. Wethercutt and other citizens of that section. His administration met with universal approval, after which he retired from office under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, and returning North in 1872, cn-

one, a daughter, Maria Lonis Smith, survives, The families of Fleming and Smith were united by mar- riage in the year 1660, through the union of the second Earl of Weemys to Lady Eleanor Fleming, daughter of John, second Earl of Wigton, of Scotland. The early members of the Fleming family espoused the faith of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, while the Smith family were Episcopalians.

Among the prominent merchants not heretofore mentioned, Theodore Macknett & Co., E. G. Faitoute & Co., L. L. Fuitoute, Wilkinson, Gaddis & Co., Cro- well & Co., A. S. Reeves & Sons, Bailey & Alling, E. W. Whitehead, E. P. Backus, Bartlett & King, J.

560

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

S. IL, Clark & Co., W. II. Drummond, C. T. Miller, (. W. Compton, Connelly & Caniff, J. Van Name & Co., Taylor & Williams, R. Gray, Jr., A. A. Fiffel, L. S. Plant, Ilahme & Co., Martin, Dennis & Co., A. P. Littell, Hanson, Van Winkle & Co. and E. B. Wood- rufľ.

CHAPTER XLIV.

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK .?

THROUGH the manufacturing of the various lines of goods in constant use in different parts of the world, Newark has taken a front rank, both as to quality and quantity. Several large towns in the United States have been popular away from home merely by their manufacture of special line of goods, but in none other is there such a combination of the whole as in Newark.

The settlement of Newark having been made in May, 1666, by a small band of sturdy pioneers from Connecticut, their sound common sense was displayed in the location, nine miles from New Amsterdam (New York) by land, and twenty-seven by water, the latter giving them communication with not only all the towns on the Hudson River, but with all the world beside. As the Yankees have ever been known for their inventive genius, it is fair to suppose that they brought that talent with them to the banks of the Passaic. Still, it was many years folded in a nap- kin before it was brought out and given a fair chance for development. The first manufactured goods of Newark-i.e., the old township of Newark, as it then was bounded -- that gained a reputation was its excellent cider. Soon after the first colony located here, apple seeds brought from Connecticut were planted in this, their virgin soil, and the first notice we have of the excellence of the quality of goods made by the Newarkers was in 1682, sixteen years after the settlement was made, when Governor Carteret, in writing to the proprietors in England, said: "At New- ark is made great quantities of eyder, exceeding any that we can have from New England, Rhode Island or Long Island." Thus, over two hundred years ago was Newark's reputation established for its excellent quality of manufactured goods, and may it be said to the credit of the manufacturers here that that reputation has been maintained to the present day. Shoemaking was commenced here as early as 1676, and the pioneer tannery was established here in 1698, in what was then known as the "swamp," now a part of Market Street. Previous to 1800 the manufacturing of good- in Newark was very slow, and scarcely any beyond what was needed for home consumption.

Towards the close of the century the most promi- nent branch of business carried on here was that of

shoemaking, and many shoemakers were also farmers. attending to their farms during the summer season and in winter would work at shoemaking. As wagons and carriages began to be needed, mechanies turned their attention to that branch of industry, and pre- vious to 1800 Newark carriages and wagons had quite a reputation for their good quality. In a description of the town in 1806, the author represented it as "one of the most flourishing towns in the United States, noted for its fine cider, carriages, coach lace and quarries." He also said "that at least one third of the population, both in the town and adjoining coun- try, are employed in making shoes," He made no mention in his sketch of the individual features of any part of the business, the amount of capital employed. the number of men, or the amount of products.

From the year 1806 until 1830 the town grew rapidly both in population and wealth, with a very noticeable increase in the variety of articles manufac- tured for other than home markets. In 1830 a com- mittee, of whom Charles HI. Ilalsey, a lawyer, was chairman, and four others, made a careful canvass of the town to learn the magnitude of the manufactured products. In that report it was stated that among the leading industries carried on in Newark, were carriages, shoes, hats and saddlery hardware. There were then sixteen establishments, manufacturing harness and saddlery hardware, having a capital of $217,300, oni- ploying 272 men, paying out in wages $70,000 per annum, which would be less than one dollar per day for each man, and turning out an annual product of $346,280. There were ten carriage factories, with a capital of $202,500, employing 779 men, producing annually $593,000; eighteen shoe factories with a capital of 8300,000, employing 1075 hands, paying in wages $175,000, and yielding an annual product of $607,450; there were nine hat factories with a total capital of $106,000, employing 487 hands, paying in wages, $142,000, and yielding an annual product of $551,700; there were then thirteen tanneries, capital $78,000, with 103 hands, giving a product of $503,000; two soap factories, capital $21,000, product $165,000; there were, besides these enumerated, seven iron and brass foundries, employing 125 men; two malleable iron foundries, giving work to 60 men; two spring factories having 150 men ; one hardware manufactory with fifty hands; and included in skilled labor, there was then in the town 350 tailors, 140 carpenters, 26 sash and blind makers, 100 masons, 60 cabinet makers, 51 coach-lace weavers, 42 trunk makers, 9 looking-glass makers, 10 iron turners and 50 jewelers, making a total of 3179 persons employed in the branches of industry and trades. That committee reported that there was then in the town, two grist mills, two breweries, one saw mill, one dycing estab- lishment, besides, carried on in a small way, silver plating, mechanics' tools, brushes, whips and cooper ing. There were then four printing-offices, employing

Compiled from P T. Quinn's reports.

561

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

22 men and publishing three weekly and one daily newspaper.

Two years later, in 1832, the Morris C'anal was opened, giving the town the advantage of direct, casy and cheap communication with the Delaware at Easton, and the coal mines at Mauch Chunk.

The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Com- pany opened their railroad from Newark to Jersey City on Sept. 15, 1834, which was of great benefit to the residents of the town, especially to those engaged in manufacturing. The passenger traffic over this road during the year ending May 1, 1836, was $178,751, and the following year it reached $339,351. There were then in the town three banks, with a capital of $1,300,- 000, and in 1837 another was added, with a capital of $1,500,000, There were also three insurance com- panies.

In 1835 another careful canvass was made of the manufactured products of the town, and the commit- tee says, "That the annual exports of the town to the southern ports of the United States, South America and the West India Islands exceed the immense amount of eight million dollars." These exports, the committee report, consist of saddlery and harness, carriages, shoes, hats, caps, springs, lamps, plated- ware, brass and iron castings, cutlery, coach-luce, patent-leather, malleable iron, window-blinds and sashes, cabinet-ware, sitting chairs, jewelry, planes, ready-made clothing and trunks.

Every branch of business was prospering, and the difficulty was to find skilled labor enough, for in these days everything was made by hand, and those who had served an apprenticeship in learning the trade found plenty of work.

The following table gives the number of factories and workshops then in Newark :

Bout and Shoe Manyfuturies 14 Saddle mal Harness Manufactor-

Whip Manufactory . . 1

Dyeing Establishuneut 1

Coloring Establishment 1

Carriage Manufactorirs =

Brewery

Clothing Manufactories

Cabinet Manufactories =

Master Buildery 14 Leather Dealers 24

Hat Manufacturies

Spring Mannfactorles

Lumber Dealers

Jewelry Manufactories 4

Sash and Blind Manufactories . Trunk Manufactories .

Silver and Bruns plating Maun-

Fuuudrive

2 facturien

Box Manufacturing 2

Coach-lace Manufactories 3

Bouk and Juh Printers 4

Stationery aml Binder. 3 : Total 16.3

In giving the estimated annual products of these establishments in Newark, in the following table, Jabez G. Goble, Esq., used every means to get the returns accurate. At that period competition in manufacturing the same kinds of goods for the South- ern and Eastern markets was active, and the manu- facturers were more or less afraid of each other, so that it was a ditticult task to get even at an approxi- mate estimate of the annual products. Mr. Goble classifies and tabulates them as follows :

No. uf 3len Employed.

Product.

C'arringes

1.0002,000

Suldles, Harnew and White

Clothing for the South

Tanning and Currying

Axles and springs

Malleable Iron, coach C'estin , efe

A abbriet Manufacturing Gamle

145

225,00000

Trunks and (hairy

Silver-plating

Nushare and Minds. .

Min .Haneons

Total .

$7.924,700

An increase in the number of hands employed, in five years, of two thousand four hundred and eight.

These totals are, no doubt, as accurate as it was pos- sible to get such returns at the time they were col- lected, and a fair representation of what Newark factories and workshops were turning out in 1836, when everything was "booming" and apparently prosperous.

The following year, 1837, came the great business crash, which paralyzed every branch of industry, wiping out many of the weaker houses, and sadly crippling the largest establishments then in this town.

The manufacturing of shoes, which was one of the first industries started in Newark, kept abreast of the steady increase in population, giving at all times profitable employment to hundreds who lived in the town, besides to hundreds more whose homes were in the adjoining villages of Bloomfield, Belleville, Orange and Camp Town (now Irvington), and was both prox- perous and profitable to the houses engaged in the shoe business until the crash of 1-37. Other branches of manufacturing industries rallied after a few years of very hard times, not only regaining their former vol- ume of business, but greatly increasing the same. The shoe business received at that time a staggering blow, which left it prostrate in Newark for nearly twenty years. It was revived by the energy of some of the houses who are now prospering, confining them- selves to the manufacture of only tirst grade-articles, for which they find a ready market, with a healthy and steady increase in demand for this class of goods. The New England manufacturers, after 1837. took possession of the manufacture of shoes, and it has been kept there ever since, more especially the cheaper grades of goods.

The statistics of the United States census returns, taken in 1840, show a noticeable falling off in the total products of every branch of manufacturing industry carried on in Newark. There was a falling off' in some of the branches of one-third, and in many others fully one-half. In the manufacturing of carriages, that in 1836 gave a gross amount of sales of $1,002,000, in 1840 falls to $788,969; jewelry from $225,060 drops

2.00,10 1)

112

Jewelry

$10

1,005,000

ن Chair Mannfactories 4

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

to $158,302, and so with many other articles that held prominent places among the industries of the town. The only exception is that of hats; they seem to have held their own. The sales of these foot up in 1840 within $53,752 of the gross products in the most pros- perons year up to that date; that was 1836. Furniture and cabinet, which in 1836 is rated at $180,000, four years later appears from the figures to have fallen down to $80,500 as the total amount of the business of that year. The whole amount of capital invested in man- ufacturing in Newark in 1840 was given at $3,170,658, and the total prodnets at $5,350,558,-a falling off in four years of $2,574,202.

The three years, froui 1837 to 1840, might be justly termed the " Black Friday " of the manufacturing in- dustriesof Newark. All were hit alike, the rich as well as the poor. No man or corporation escaped from the depression and times that tried men's souls and made them feel the uncertain character of worldly goods. Men now living in Newark, who were then actively engaged in business, assure us that the hard times fol- lowing the depression of 1837 were the most general and severe of anything before or since. The whole business of the town was carried on under a long credit system, and all suffered alike. It was not until six years after the crash that there were any marked signs of better times,- in 1843 and the follow- ing year, 1844 .- that the manufacturing interests be- gan to show signs of activity again, shrewd business men moved slowly and cantiously in every new enterprise, and many of them were still stag- gering from the effects of their misfortunes of seven years' standing. But under this cautious policy and selling goods on shorter time, business improved each succeeding year, and in looking over the fragmentary returns of the United States census taken in 1850, the

tion that Newark was destined to become prominent as a manufacturing centre. While these returns, or rather estimates of the products and labor, are not positively acenrate, still they are near enough to indi- cate without doubt a large increase in the volume of business, a much larger number of different kinds of products mannfactored, with better facilities for re- veiving raw materials, including coal, as well as more channels and more favorable rates for shipping manu- factured goods.

The population, which in 1840, was 17,290, had in- creased in ten years, 1550, to 38,894, and in 1860 to 71,841,-doubling its population between 1840 and 1850, and nearly so between 1850 and 1860.

The increase in the industries was greatly in excess of the population. The number of workshops and factories that in 1836 was 163,-the most prosperous year up to and passing that date,-had in 1860 reached 730, with 34 more factories outside of the city lines, making a total for Essex County of 765 establishments, giving an increase of over 400 per cent. in twenty years.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 840

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840