History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 141

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 141
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 141

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"ITEM-It is votent that Thomas Hayse. Joseph Harrison, Jasper Crane and Matthew l'anfield shall view whether Azarinh i'mam may have room for a Tan Yard at the front of John Plane's home Last, out of the Common, and in case the Men above mentioned agree that Azariah Crabe shall have the land, he the said Azariah d'une shall enjoy it - long as he doth follow the Trade of Tanning '

Mr. Crane, as cited above, was not the only tanner in the town at this period. Hans Alber- and Hugh Roberts were also tanners.

From a piece of woodland owned by Deneon Isaac Alling, situated about a mile west of the present conrt-house, there arose from a number of spring- a stream of water. According to the maps before us, it trickled down over High Street, along Market, until it reached Washington, which street to any considerable extent.

it crossed diagonally and then ran in an oblique southerly course until it reached the swamps south of Broad Street. The portion running from High Street to Washington Street was known, in common with it was that the tanners congregated. The second tannery established after Azariah Crane's was, areord- ing to tradition, by one of the Johnson family. Then Curry. About the year 1780, Moses N. Combs began tanning.

A few years later Samuel Curry was established in the same business, and still later there were also en- gaged in the leather-making trade t'ol. Nathaniel "ark, he stopped at the Gifford tavern, which was kept Beach, David Campfield and Jonathan Keen. Long after the war the same industry was followed by I-ruch Curry, Ira Vuth, David Nichols. Eliphalet „Johnson, the handsomest buildings and most stable institutions James Black and a few others. This was from 1503 in the State,-the Fireman's Insurance Building. to abont 1812. During the eight years or so following, In conversation with Mr. tiifford, Col. Rutherfurd the leading leather men of Newark were David Nich-

tunmingham, Alexander N. Dougherty, Oliver Wade, Charles T. Shipman William Garthwave. John Dey, Baldwin & Henderson, James H. Robinson, C. J. Fowler, Hugh Cumack, John Hartskerne, Ebenezer C'ondit, Stephen Howel, Conra I Teese and Joseph A. Halsey. But, to return to the period not following the war of the Revohdios, careful research fails to discover that those especially flourishing " manuthe- tories" which excited Dr. Me Whorter's admiration extendled beyond considerable cider-making, as of old, some tanning, some currying, come weaving, and, perhaps, a little shoemnking more than the local population required. Soon, however, tauning here

facture of shoes.

Shoemaking in Newark .- Shoes were made in Newark, after a manner, from the settlement ; but the first record of any one among the " planters" earning his bread by following solely the calling of St. Crispin is found in the proceedings of the town-meeting of June 30, 1650. The third item recorded says:

" It is agreed, that the Town is willing samuel Whit head hould come anl Inhabit among us powidel he will supply the Two with Shoes, Go' for the I'mest we know jet of any Place of Land nvenient."

This pioneer of the Newark shoemaking industry came here from Elizabethtown, of which place he was town clerk as early as February, 1666. It is doubtful if his work extended much beyond Newark. Long after his ume the people of this and other towns were -hod by the literal journeyman shoemaker, who periodi- cally passed from house to house and from place to place, until the home-tanned hide was transformed into shoes. It was not until some years subsequent to the declaration of peace with Great Britain, and to the firm establishment of tanning. that the manufacture of shoes for a market outside of Newark was engaged in

MOSES N. COMES-The first to so engage was Moses N. Combs, the tanner, a somewhat eccentric, but altogether remarkable and valuable citizen and n most successful business man. Upon the authority of other parts, as "the watering-place for cattle." Here an esteemed and venerable Newarker, a descendant of one of the original settlers and a noted repository of local reminiscences, a story is related in which Combs, the manufacture of shoes and the early characteristics there was a t'umming, a Baldwin, a tomba and a of Newark (yea, and the fair Elizabethtown) are

humorously associated. It runs as follows. After the Revolution, about the year 1790, Col. John Ruther- furd made a tour of East Jersey with a view of select- ing a home for himself and family. Coming to New- by Arthur Gifford, and stood on the northeast corner of Broad and Market Streets, where now stands one of

stated that he had passed through New Jersey during

572

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

the war and was favorably impressed with the country and climate, so that he now felt desirons of purchasing an estate and settling in some prosperous locality where an investment would grow with the prosperity of the place. It is fair to assume that Gifford's eyes twinkled with pleasure as he remarked: "You've just come, sir, to the right place." To prove it, he pro- ceeded to expatiate upon the virtues of Newark, and brought matters to a clinching climax when he proudly stated that there were just then in course of erection five two-story frame houses, and that an in- dividual of the town had just taken an order for two hundred pairs of shoes to be sent to Georgia.

Some thirty years later the authority for the fore- going was employed in a store in Augusta, Ga. One «lay a gentleman entered the store and something was said about Newark, which brought out the fact that in 1790 the gentleman had been in Newark and had purchased there, " from a little black-eyed man named Combs," two hundred pairs of seal-skin shoes, the first that were ever hought in Newark and taken to Georgia. The " little black-eyed man" afterwards received as high as nine thousand dollars for a single sale.

('ombs' Eccentricity .- During the first quarter of our existence as a republic, Moses Newel Combs was a noted Newarker in every sense of the term. He was a regularly ordained preacher, as is vouched for by the town records, which, in the minutes of April 9, 1792, declared it to have been voted "That Rev. Moses Combs be keeper of the pound." He was a liberal subscriber to the fund for the erection of the present First Presbyterian Church edifice, was a man of the strietest morals and the straitest sect ; but for reasons which do not appear, he abandoned the ministry and devoted himself to the business, first of tanning and then of shoemaking, as set forth.

But, while a strong churchman, a temperance advo- cate and an ardent friend of education, he was dis- posed to rebel against a church discipline which he considered arbitrary and tyrannous. He was the leader in a movement to establish a separate church in which Presbyterianism could be practiced some- what differently from the form and faith required to be accepted under Dr. MeWhorter. "For a time," as Dr. Stearns states, "Mr. Combs' association at- tended worship and were admitted to occasional con- munion with the church in Orange, and afterwards commenced separate worship in Newark.'

Being possessed of considerable wealth, Mr. Combs erected a wooden building on Market Street, near Plane, the lower part of which was used for public worship and the upper part as a school-room. "Sil- ver was showered on him so plentifully that he did not know what else to do with it," he said. After a few years his religious society-he was its preacher- broke up, and the members returned to the old fold. ITis great principles were emancipation of the body from slavery and the mind from ignoranee and error.

Combs' Free School .- MFr. Combs was a believer in the sure reformatory influences of universal education. About the time of his Georgia sale he established a free school for his apprentices, of whom he had a number. Ilis is claimed to have been the first school of the sort in the United States. True to his princi- ple of emancipation of the body from slavery, he set free a black man he owned, named Harry Lawrenee. It is sad to have to relate that upon Friday, Oct. 4, 1805, the living proof of the philanthropy of Mr. Combs was hanged in Newark for the poisoning of his wife. Many others of Mr. Combs' apprentiees turned out to be leading and valuable citizens and business men.

To return to the subject of shoemaking, the indus- try made rapid strides during the years immediately preceding and following the opening of the present century. Undoubtedly this was the result of im- proved traveling facilities, the Passaie and Haeken- sack Rivers having been bridged and the highways between here and Jersey City greatly improved. It required very little capital to start business. As the trade increased in volume it improved in quality, so that soon the town became celebrated far and near for its fine boots and shoes. These went to New York, to Philadelphia, and as far south as Savannah in wagon-loads. Other industries sprung up as well as tanning, currying and shoemaking, but the latter took and kept the lead. In 1806, Mr. Charles Basham, an instructor, and afterwards principal of the Newark Academy, published a map of Newark (a fac-simile of which is herewith reproduced), in the corner of which the town was fittingly emblematized, for the time being, by the figure of a shoemaker hard at work.

At a period a little later than the publication of Mr. Basham's map it is reliably stated that fully nineteen-twentieths of the industrial population of Newark were employed in some department of labor in which leather was the leading artiele used. An- terior to this a number of the leading shoe manu- facturers of Newark carried on business in the southern part of the town. Foremost among these were the Goble Brothers,-Luther and Calvin,-Aaron Roff, David Crowell, Jonathan Belden, David Hays, Joseph Case and Ephraim Bolles and his brother Enoch. The two latter introduced great improve- ments in the trade and became the fashionable makers of the town in both boots and shoes.

LUTHER GOBLE was born in Morris County, N. J., May 22, 1771, and was descended from a Huguenot family of that name who settled in the vicinity of Morristown in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury. The name was very common in that place as far back as 1692, and its possessors appear to have been at a later period prominently active people, both in the church and in the community, many of them, indeed, having been enrolled as soldiers in the Revo- Intionary war.

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

573

Young Luther giving early evidence of an enter- prising spirit, left his home at the age of thirteen with intent to obtain an education and business knowledge in Newark, N. J., and it would seem that from the very commencement of his career it was his ambition and aim to make for himself an honorable and useful position in the world. Taking advantage of the opportunities afforded him, and at the same time cultivating habits of industry and sobriety, he found himself, on reaching his majority, not only pos- sessed of a good education, but of a practical know- ledge of the business which he conducted so suc-

name worthy of that nobility which is composed of those who by their sagacity are able to gather wealth, and by their large-heartedness to make it a blessing to their fellows. llis liberality was proverbial, and one of the chief enjoyments of his later years was to build houses for his workmen, making the terms of sale to them so easy that they were encouraged to be industrious, frugal, and interested in the publie wel- fare.

It was while engaged in giving some orders concern- ing the erection of one of his numerous buildings that Mr. Goble met with the accident that resulted in his

Luther Goble

cessfully throughout his life, With such valuable } death. In mounting a ladder in the attic story of this acquirements he began his career, and by judicious unfinished building he lost his footing and fell through it to the cellar. He lingered for a month, and then died July 6, 1833. The Sentinel of Freedom, the prin- cipal newspaper in Newark at that time, in an obitu- ary notice of him, published a few days after, thus speaks of him,- management and well-directed efforts became in time the proprietor of one of the most extensive shoe manu- factories, not only of New Jersey, but of the whole country, winning for himself a high reputation for business talent and sterling honesty. It is to Mr. Goble and to his eotemporaries of similar spirit that Newark is so much indebted for the high rank which it has so long maintained as a great manufacturing city. The influence which he exerted has not yet ceased to be telt, and although few are now living who were witnesses to his achievements, he has left u

" This denth is a serions lves tu the towo. Mr Guble was one of its most useful as well as most estested citizens, and his death in a subject of common regret. He commeneral business here in a humble sphore many years ago, but by well-directed enterprise and industry his own businew way son enlarged, and with it the business of the place And wo have no doubt that a faithful history of his life would show that the present size and prosperity of the town is more owing to bis individual

574

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

and public enterprises than to any other single cause His history fur- mishes a remarkable . vample of the influence which one individual may exercise in the advancement of society. In the pursuit of his private aims Mr. Goble always seropulously regarded the rights of others, and the paramount interests of the country. His influence was always on the side of public order and Christian morals. He contributed largely and habitually to the various political and religious interests of society, and hundreds among the laboring and poorer classes of the town have occasion to remember with gratitude his judicions compris amt liberal benefactions; and whatever may be the extent of his possessions, the most precious legary he leaves to a numerous family is an unsullied char- acter, a name associated with probity and honor."

The manufacture of shoes, as we have already seen, was extensively carried on during and subsequent to the period when Combs and the tobles flourished. J. & I. Tichenor, the Shipmans, Halsey & Utter, J. C. Crane, Harley Watson, J. Honnewell. David Nichols, Peter Mead, Moses Bigelow, J. Gardner, Aaron Young, Hiram Freeman, Moses Lyon, Dunn & Tucker, Dunn & Stewart, James. William and John Terhune, Jabez C'ampfield, Stephen Haines Plum and Matthias Plum, Richard M. Crane, Richard Sweasy, .John S. Peshine, Jonas Agens, II. M. Baldwin and Jabez Geiger were all active shoe manufacturers of Newark more than a generation ago. As will subse- quently appear, the great industry nurtured by them became strong and lusty in years following under other trained and restless energies.

Of the leading firms in existence in 1876, the first established was that of M. B. &. I. Canfield, of Mar- ket Street. This firm was started about the year 1836 by I & M. B. Canfield. In 1845, Isaae Bannister began business, and founded the firm which subse- quently, under the title of Bannister & Tichenor, has done so much to place Newark in the forefront of those places which produce the very finest grades of work- manship. The firm was awarded the only medal of merit given by the Vienna Exhibition Universelle (1873) for their class of goods.

IN 1857, LEOPOLD GRAFI established a business here which has grown to be the most extensive boot and shoe manufactory, not only in Newark, but in the country. In 1860, Herman Graf (since deceased) united with his brother, under the firm-title of L. Graf & Brother. The factory on Lincoln Street was one hundred and fifty feet long, thirty-six feet deep, four stories high, with an additional wing building fully halt as large. Such is the perfection of the machin- ery used that a pair of boots or shoes can be cut from the stock and made ready for wear in about twenty minutes. As many as four hundred hands have been employed at one time in the factory, the business car- ried on in prosperous times reaching as high as six hundred thousand dollars per annum, and the weekly wages disbursed amounting to over four thousand dollars. This firm finds a market not only through- out the Union, but in Europe, large orders being reg- ularly sent to Germany and other countries on the Continent.

1. BOYDEN & Co. is another Newark house of very high repute and early establishment, the date being about 1844. Yet another firm which has reflected credit on the industry of Newark by its excellent workmanship is that of MILLER, MCCULLOUGH & OBER.

Altogether there were running here in 1870 no less than twenty boot and shoe factories, great and small. In these factories were produced everything in the shape of boot and shoe wear, from a heavy cavalry or frontiersman's boot to a child's tiny kid shoe, from the gentleman's shapely calf-skin boot to the demoi- selle's daintiest gaiter or slipper. No less than ten thousand pairs per week of all kinds of shoe goods have been manufactured. This excludes work done by retail shoemakers. Lynn, the great shoe-shop of the East, has been cast in the shade by Newark, and is unable to compete with Newark in fine goods especially. Under a normal state of trade the total sales per annum in Newark have been about two mil- lion six hundred thousand dollars, and the number of pairs of boots and shoes made about five hundred and twenty thousand.

Newark Leather Industries. Of Newark leather establishments now existing, the oldest is that which does business under the firm-title of S. Halsey & Son, on the extensive premises on the corner of Shipman Street and Springfield Avenue. The enterprise was first started in a modest way, about the year 1826, by David B. Crockett, who had been in the employ of Seth Boyden. Crockett started in a building on the north side of Springfield Avenue, near the corner of High Street, and just above the present site of the county buildings, but before he had fairly begun, his factory was destroyed by fire.

The business was then removed to a factory erected on the site now occupied by that of Halsey & Son. After being engaged with various partners and meet- ing with very indifferent success, Crockett disposed of his concern, about 1840, to Samuel Halsey and Charles Taylor. Crockett is said to have been du- bious from the very first as to the successful manufac- ture of patent leather. He judged the future by his own experience, it seems. Eight hides per week were about the average of his sales, and it is stated that he predicted that the manufacture of patent leather would never be remunerative. Nevertheless, the busi- ness grew under the wise and skillful management of those who succeeded bim, so that there were eventu- ally turned out over four hundred hides per week. giving remunerative employment 'to about one hun- dred hands, taking in for factory purposes a very ex- tensive piece of ground, and having a market extend- ing as far as Cuba, England, Australia and Japan. The first " fancy " and "bronze enamel " leather made in the United States for the market is claimed to have been manufactured in this factory. In 1866, Mr. Taylor retired from the firm, and Hon. George A. Halsey, the son of the senior member, took the va-

1 Now "The 1 .. tiraf Manufacturing Company," Norfolk, near Bank Street.

575

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK

cant place. The remarkable success of the business is due in no small degree to the energy, activity and skill of the superintendent, James Perry, who he- came connected with the establishment as early as 1841.

Long before Samuel Halsey removed hither from Springfield township (then in Essex County) his brother, Joseph A. Halsey, came here and entered himself as an apprentice with Oliver Wade. This was in 1812. After having thoroughly mastered the business of tanning and currying, Joseph A. Halsey, in 1819, started business for himself in Market street.

1. IT. HIVEY & SMITH .- In 1821 another bright, ac- tive and intelligent Spring- firkl youngster came here to learn the tanning and curry- ing. This was James Har- vey Halsey, a nephew of .Joseph A. and Sammuel, and long the senior member of another of our most pros- perous and prominent lea- ther firms. James Harvey learned his trade with his unele, Joseph A. In 1836 he formed a copartnership with James Tucker, and the firm of Halsey & Tucker carried on business for many years in the factory, on Market Street, formerly occupied by Joseph A. Halsey. In 1860 the firm removed to its pre- sent location on Washing- ton Street. In 1863, Mr. Tucker died. A beloved son of his had come home from the war prostrate from dis- ease contracted in the fieldl. While watching him the father caught the disease and lied. His son, strange to_relato, recovered in time to attend his father's funeral. The firm-title was then in 1863 J. Il. Halsey & Co., and in 1879 changed to J. H. Halsey & Smith, J. Harvey Halsey and James Smith, Ir. They employ one hundred and thirty men and annually convert ten thousand hides into carriage leather.

Prominent among the patent-leather manufactur- ing establishments of Newark, is the firm of T. P. Howell & Co., whose works are located on New Wilsey and Nutman Streets, covering five acres of ground. The business was commenced here in 15-45, by S. M. & T. P. Howell, and subsequently the firm- name was changed to the above. This is probably the largest establishment of the kind in the world, consuming annually over 40,000 hides, 150,000 sheep, 10,000 deer, and 10,000 calf skins. All kinds of patent

leather, bridle-leather, sheep skin skiver, roans, har- ness-leather, and all other kinds known to the trade are made at th's factory. The most of the hides and skins used are from their own slaughtering, an unusual feature in the tanning business. The firm give employment to nearly five hundred pers ms, and the annual productions amount to over one million dollars.

THEODORE P. HowELL was born at Suckastinny Plains, Morris Co., N. J .. Jan. 6 1819. He was the son of Jacob Drake Howell, an officer in the regular army of the finited States, who died in 1826. To- gether with his mother, he soon after made his home in the family of his uncle, Samuel M. Howell who was at that time conduct- ing business in Newark as a tanner and currier. At a proper age young Howell wa- placed in the school of Rev. Stephen R. Grover of Caldwell, N. J., which was then regarded as one of the best private arnde- mies in the vicinity of New- ark. In his studies he manifested the same am- bitious spirit which subse- quently governed him in his business, and, as may be supposed, became pro- ficient in all the branches of learning to which he was here introduced.

SAMUEL HALSEY.

On leaving school he en- tered the harness manu- facturing establishment of Smith & Wright, in New- ark, where he remained until he had attained his majority, and then entered the tanning and currying establishment of his uncle in the same place. Here he made himself thoroughly famihar with every branch of an industry in which he afterwards became so successful, and which, al- though at that time comparatively in its infancy, was beginning to assume great importance. This fidelity with excellent business qualifications soon won for him high consideration, and in 1840 his uncle ad- mitted him to partnership, and under the firm-name of S. M. & T. P. Hlowell, they soon after began the manufacture of patent-leather, a terman invention which was introduced into America by the late Seth Boyden, who contributed so much to the advancement of the mechanical arts in this country.

I'mtil 1848 the business of the firm had been con- ducted in suitable buildings situated at the corner of Washington and Market Streets, but in that year these buildings were destroyed by fire, and immediately

576

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

afterwards five acres of land were purchased near the county jail, then outside of the city limits. IIere large buildings were erected, and subsequently added to as occasion required, and here the operations of this great establishment are still conducted.

Soon after resuming business at their new location, Mr. S. M. Ilowell died, and Mr. T. W. Dawson became interested with Mr. T. P. Howell in the busi- ness. This partnership continued until 1855, when Mr. Dawson withdrew, and Mr. Howell organized a company composed of five individuals, including him- self, and since that time the establishment has become the largest in the world in that line of manufactures, many of its products finding a market in England, Germany and other countries. Besides the works in Newark, the company, under the management of Mr. Howell, erected extensive works at Middletown. N. Y., for the manufacture of Russian and other leather, and established, moreover, a slaughter-house in New York covering seven city lots, where a quarter of a million of skins were handled annually. To all this compli- cated business Mr. Howell gave his personal attention, and by means of telegraph wires terminating in his office in Newark was in constant communication not only with the various departments of the great manu- factory, but with the company's warehouse and sales- room, at No. 77 Beekman Street, New York.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 141

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