History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 144

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 144
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 144

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Mr. Jenkinson, although an earnest Republican, and during the Rebellion an active worker in the I'nion cause, has never sought political preferment, but, on the contrary, has repeatedly declined positions of trust and honor. In 1873, without his knowledge or con- sent, he was appointed by the Common Council to fill a vacancy in the Board of Education, and was subso- quently elected to that office by the people. In 1878 and Is80 he was president of the Board of Trade. Of the People's Fire Insurance Company he was a director from its organization until it went into liquidation. At the present time he is president of the Newark Electric Light and Power Company, a very extensive and flourishing enterprise. In 1878, Mr. Jenkinson was sent by Governor Met'lellan as one of the com- missioners of New Jersey to the great exhibition at l'aris to look after the interests of the manufacturers of that State, and the duties of the mission were sntisfactorily performed. In the establishment of the Technical School in the city of Newark he took A prominent part, and was one of the largest contribu- tors to that noble work. Of the High Street Presby- terian Church he is a member, and one of its heartiest supporters.

Joux N. OSBORN was also in the trade, his place in 1836 being in the rear of No. 14 Orchard Street.

The firm of EDGAR FARMER & Co., which still flourishes at 27 and 29 Mulberry Street, was founded some forty-three years ago, and conducted under the title of Galpin & Farmer. This was only for a few years, after which the present title was adopted. The head of the firm (recently deceased) was a man of unblemished reputation. He served several years as director of the Essex County Board of t'hosen Freeholders.

Other leading Newark trunk firms are William 0. Headley & Sons, established in 1859 by Randolph & lendley ; J. Lagowitz & Co., established about the same time, being now one of the largest factories of the kind in the world, producing annually goods worth

half a million dollars ; William Roemer, and Elward Simon & Brothers. Simon's manufactory is a very extensive one. It was founded in 1863 by Edward Simon. Subsequently he took as partners his brothers, William and Samuel. At a Jater period Morris Schwerin entered the firm. Their four-story brick factory on Main and St. Francis Streets covers an area of twelve thousand eight hundred square fert, and affords room for eight hundred workmen. One and a half million feet of lumber are used annually by the firm, and every day fifty hides of leather. The wages paid when the factory is fully employed amount to four thousand dollars per week, the sales per an- num being over half a million dollars.

The market for the goods manufactured includes Cuba, South America and Europe, as well as the I'nited States.

Saddlery Hardware .- The manufacture of sad- dlery hardware was begun in Newark upwards of forty- five years ago. It has steadily kept pace with all other industries, until now it is a most important branch of Newark skill and trade. The founders of the business now conducted in Oliver Street by Crane & Co. are said to have been the pioneers in this trade, starting about the year 1834. The factory of N. Van Ness, in Mechanic Street, was established about 1845. Joseph Baldwin & Co. began business about a year or so later. R. M. Grummon followed next. Samuel E. Tompkins, the inventor of Tomp- kins' patent gig-tree, laid the foundation of his ex- tensive business in 1855. W. L. Starr began about 1844 ; the house is now at 42 and 14 Lawrence Street. Subsequently there were established in this same business Kuehnhold & Wright, August Buermann. G. & T. Simonson, Charles M. Theberath & Brother, ('. Beck, F. Beck, W. Blum, Wiener & Co., T. Brab- son, Brown & Adams, V. L'ahoon Manufacturing Com- pany, Dodd & Dovell, Gl and 62 Mulberry Street, H. Forrester, M. Guacen & Co., J. W. Grummon, P. Hayden, Kelly & Pelin, and about twenty other firms.

Carriage and Coach Hardware .- The manufac- ture of coach and carriage hardware is yet another department of labor in which the artisans of Newark greatly excel. The oldest house in the trade is that of C. N. Lockwood and Co., of Mechanic Street, es- tablished in 1845. A. Stivers & Son began business in a small way before 1840. Orlando Greacen, of 74 Lawrence Street, produces a rich and costly style of goods. Others in the same line of mannfacture are G. L. Brandley, J. S. Crane, A. Howell, F. B. Kuchn- hold & Co., HI. M. Stieby & Co., Tuttle Manufactur- ing Company, and Weiner & Co.

Coach lamps and fire-engine signals are made by I. Richardson, Lockwood & Co., and Rumer & Co.

THOMAS BRANSON, manufacturer of saddlery and carriage hardware and nickel-plating, established in April, 1881, at No. 13 Mechanic Street, and in January, 1582, removed to his present place of business, 359 Mulberry Street. Mr. Brabson was born in Birming-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

ham, England, and came to America in 1868, where he was employed with P. Hayden for ten years.

THE SARGEANT MANUFACTURING COMPANY was established in 1869 by S. S. Sargeant and A. V. Sar- geant, and until 1871 manufactured only specialties in buckles, at which time they began the manufacture of a general line of saddlery hardware. Additions were gradually made, until now their productions em- brace almost every variety of goods known to the trade. The specialties of this house consist of a number of patented articles, many of which are due to the inven- tive genius of Mr. A. V. Sargeant, and include parts of

dollars, and their sales reach the large amount of over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. The trade of the company is largely in the West (though they have by no means a small trade in New York, Philadelphia, and the New England States), and is constantly increasing.

The chief executive officers of the company are A. V. Sargeant, president, and S. S. Sargeant, secretary and treasurer.

Both these gentlemen have long been identified with Newark, having resided in the city for over twenty- five years.

harness and coach-pads, patent buckles, gig-trees, etc. | The factory now occupied by the company was built | from the beginning, was born Nov. 30, 1835, in Som- from plans made for the especial convenience of the business. The building nearly covers the entire ground, which has an area of two hundred and sixty- three feet by one hundred feet. About two hundred hands are employed on the premises. All the ma- chinery in use is very exact, and is the best adapted to the purpose for which it is used. An engine of one hundred horse-power, and two boilers of forty horse- power each, give heat to the building and power to the machinery.

The capital of the company is seventy-five thousand

SAMUEL S. SARGEANT, of this house, its treasurer

erville, N. J., and was the son of Edmund L. and Maria (Voorhees) Sargeant. His boyhood was spent at Raritan, but at the age of eighteen he removed with the family to Newark. It had been his parents' intention that he should enter the medical profession, and with that end in view he had not only attended a classical school, but had studied with a minister and a physician ; but the death of an uncle in Pennsyl- vania, who was a member of the medical profession, and to whom he had looked for early assistance, changed his plans, and the young man decided to

Dompteury

550

INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

devote himself to business pursuits. lFe began as a clerk with the clothing-house of T. A. Wahlron & C'o., of Newark, with whom he remained until 1854. From that year until 1857 he was with the same house in New York, and from 1857 to 1861 again with the house (though it then bore another name) in Newark. When Sumter was fired upon, this house like many others in the city, having a large Southern trade, failed, and Mr. Sargeant, thus thrown sud- denly upon his own resources, went to Pennsylvania and engaged in general merchandizing. In 1863 he removed to New York, and from that time until the organization of the Sargeant Manufacturing Com- pany, in 1869, was engaged there in mercantile busi- ness. Since its inception the company has chained almost his entire business activity, and he has been the chief in control of its monetary atlairs, serving from the beginning to the present uninterruptedly as treasurer and secretary. Mr. Sargeant has taken, however, an interest in varied institutions, and has held high place in them : as, for instance, holding the presidency of the Board of Trade, a director in the Essex County Bank, and in the Peddie Institute. Ile is a Republican in politics, but takes no more than a good citizen's interest in the management of public affairs, and has never sought, but, on the contrary, several times declined, otlices of distinction which few men would put aside. Mr. Sargeant was married, in 1858, to Miss Nancy Emmeline Haring, of Newark. From this union there are three children,-E. Eugene, Sylvanus llaring, and Mariana V. The elder son is now superintendent of the company's manufactory.

SAMUEL E. TOMPKINS, CAHOONE & CO .- This saddlery hardware house was established by MIr. Sammel E. Tompkins in 1857, he having obtained his first patent and having begun business two years before in New York. After coming to Newark he took into partnership Samuel C. Northrop, whom, however, he soon bought out. Then Jeremiah H. Hallock became associated with him, and remained for four years. Peter Hayden then became a partner, and remained in the house for twelve years. During this period the firm had not only the Newark factory, in which one hundred hands were employed, but a contract in Sing Sing prison, employing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men and a house in New York City doing a business of about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This partnership was dissolved in 1876, and the present company was then formed. The house confines itself strictly to a manufacturing business under about sixty patents. They own about seventy- five, and have been greatly annoyed by infringements upon them, having to protect themselves by litigation, at a total cost of not less than one hundred thousand dollars. The manufactory, which is at Nos. 58-60 Ferry Street, employs in good times about one hundred and fifty men.

SAMUEL, E. TOMPKINS .- Mr. Tompkins is the son of Isaac Morris Tompkins, a farmer, and his wife, Eliza.

daughter of Capt. Ware Branson, from whom he in- herited his mechanical genius. He was born April 27, 1820, in Greenburgh, Westchester Co., N. Y., and at the age of five years removed with his parents to New York, where his brother engaged in the grocery business. The lad received a common-school educa- tion, but was deprived of a more thorough course of study by the death of his father, which necessitated his becoming, at the age of fifteen, an apprentice to the saddle and harness trade with his uncle, Elisha Crawford, at White Plains. He worked assiduously at this trade for six years, employing much of his leisure time in study and thus informing his mind on subjects of general interest apart from his vocation. Mr. Tompkins acquired proficiency as a workman, and eventually became an extensive manufacturer of, and dealer in, saddlery and saddlery hardware, employing a large number of workmen and exercising a very perceptible influence in this special department of manufacturing. Ile is the patentee of many valuable inventions, and controls others by right of purchase, especially those relating to gig-trees and coach-pads. These inventions have made his name a household word to the American trade, and involved him in much litigation. With a determination to defend what he regarded as right, he has been ultimately success- ful in most of his cases. For a number of years he was associated with Peter Hayden, having a house in New York and one in Newark. A manufactory was also established at Sing Sing, where convict labor was employed, and the business reached a degree of success seldom attained. Mr. Tompkins' assiduous devotion to business has left no leisure for participation in matters of public concern, for which his peculiar abilities render him well titted. He has, however, permitted the use of his name for minor offices in the village and town where he formerly re- sided. Ile is in politics a Democrat, though not bound by the ties of party, voting always conscientiously for the candidate best suited to the office, irrespective of his platform or views. lle at an early age became connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has held for many years the offices of class-leader and trustee, giving liberally as God has prospered him, and co-operating in many philanthropic and benevolent enterprises. Mr. Tompkins married Miss Elizabeth Ann Dickerson, daughter of James and Martha Dickerson, a lady of unusual qualities, who has, during a married life extending over a period of thirty-six years, been, in every sense, a helpmcet to him. Their two children died in early youth.

Rubber-coated Harness Hardware .- Among the important industries of Newark, and one which has recently grown to mammoth proportions, is the rubber- coated harness trimming goods. This industry is the result of the inventive brain of Andrew Albright, who obtained his first patent for this peculiar process Feb. 12, 1867. He was two years in experimenting before the process was brought to anything like per-

590

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY. NEW JERSEY.

fection, but it is now one of the important branches of industry of Newark, and its merit is acknowledged by the trade.

The first effort to manufacture rubber-coated trim- ming was at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1868, and in 1-70, when the success of the enterprise was as- sured, the works were transferred to the extensive and commodious buildings corner of Prospect and Ferry streets, Newark. Since then Mr. Albright has not only carried the rubber-coating branch to com- plete success, but has invented and added to his works a shoe-heeling machine, which has also taken a place in the front rank of the industries of Newark. In ad- ‹lition to the above enterprises may be mentioned

reported to be one of the wealthiest men in Tompkins County. He was, moreover, a man of great intelligence. as well as of remarkable ingenuity and skill, being able, without having learned any trade whatever, to shoe a horse, make a pair of boots, put "new wood " to his plough and perform almost any kind of work as neatly as could be done by any skilled mechanie. His son, Andrew, was expected to follow in his footsteps, not, however, as a universal genius, but as a farmer, and to him was afforded such an edueation as could be obtained in the country schools of his neighborhood. Without being a drudge, he performed the duties assigned to him on the farm, and grew up to the age of thirty without expectation

RESIDENCE OF ANDREW ALBRIGHT, High St., Newark, N .J.

another, equally as important to consumers, viz. : the of entering any other sphere of life. With enough "soft-coal cooking-stove," one of the greatest and most economical inventions of the age.

The firm known as the Greene Stove Com- pany, of which Mr. Albright is president, are also the manufacturers of rubber-coated carriage trimmings of all kinds.

ANDREW ALBRIGHT was born in Dryden, Tomp- kins Co., N. Y., June 23, 1831. Ilis father was of German, and his mother of Dutch descent, and both were natives of Belvidere, N. J., whence they re- moved at an early age to the place first named above. Mr. Albright, Fr., was a farmer, noted for his industry and enterprise, and at the time of his death

however, for present wants, and at ease as to the fu- ture, he was free to indulge in those speculations which require chiefly the capital furnished from a fer- tile and observant mind. To make improvements, or to remedy defeets, in the implements which he used, was an exercise in which he delighted, and it hap- pened one day that a harness buckle with its leather covering half torn off, attracted his attention. He at onee asked himself, " Cannot a harness buekle be cov- ered and ornamented with something more durable than leather?" To answer this question became at once his study, and experiment after experiment re- suited in the discovery that hard rubber was the best

Autism Allright,

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INDUSTRIES OF NEWARK.

and cheapest substitute. But he was neither a manu- patent, and was ready to manufacture rubber-coated mountings for the trade. He now established him- self in Newark, N. J., where he went to work. The business, of course, proceeded slowly at the outset. His sales for the first six months amounted to less than eight hundred dollars. Three years afterwards, during 1869, they amounted to fifty-five thousand dol- lars, and at the present time, with a large factory and more than one hundred hands, he has difficulty in supplying the demand for his goods, which have found their way into every part of the United states, as well as into England, Australia, and South Amer- vica. In his contest with the Celluloid Harness Trim- facturer of saddlery hardware nor a manipulator of rubber, and the difficulties, therefore, under which he found himself compelled to labor, would have utterly discouraged the great majority of men. With unlim- ited confidence in his discovery, and despite the re- monstrances of his father and family, he left home in the carly part of 1867, and, going to the Novelty Rub- ber Company's factory, in New Brunswick, N. J., continued his experiments to better advantage. Here, however, he began ere long to incur the ridi- rule of experts, who declared that his experiments would only bring him to ruin, and that he would show far more sense by abandoning his impracticable | ming Company for infringement upon his patent, MIr. Albright was victor, and the result was a consolidation for mutual benefit, and the formation of a company, of which he was chosen president.

notions and returning to his farm. But not dis- couraged by men whom he considered no wiser than himself, he simply smiled at their taunts, and bade them execute the work, for which he promptly paid. His slender resources, in the mean time, were becoming exhausted. He was a stranger in a strange place, and neither the materials nor the work so indispensable to his designs could be obtained without the ready cash. But he was not to be deterred by the want of money. He had an abiding faith in his conception, and every obstacle thrown in his way seemed only to add strength to his determination to embody and to utilize it. He was persistent ; he was pertinacious. They grew wenry of him in the factory, where it seemed im- possible to carry out his orders. They culled him a fool, and told him to go home and attend to his farm. All his means were at last exhausted, and he could no more either beg or borrow. lle left New Brunswick, but by no means in despair, telling those who had be- friended him that he would soon return and pay all his debts. Home he went, to be met at first only by ridicule and upbraiding, but at the end of a week to return with two thousand dollars in his pocket to prosecute his work. It was a brave fight, and he carried the day ; but even then he was opposed in procuring a license from the controller of the Good- year patents, to use vulcanized rubber in the manu- facture of his goods. The vice-president of the com- pany langhed at the idea of covering harness mount- ing with this material, and was unwilling to grant a license for any such absurd purpose. But Mr. Al- bright persisted in his application, assuring the vice- president that his success was already such as to con- vince him that he would be able to overcome remain. ing difficulties, if he could but obtain his license. The vice-president, in order to satisfy himself that he was correct in his own judgment concerning the matter, ordered one of his most experienced men to make cx- periment«. The results of these experiments were against Mr. Albright, but the license was neverthe- less granted. And now applications for his patents having been obtained, he continued with renewed energy the labor of bringing his invention« to perfec- tion. Finally, after a year of toil in the face of the most trying discouragements, he secured his first

lle is also largely interested in other extensive manufacturing establishments. His rare business qualifications made him president of the tireene Stove Company, as well as of the Newark Boot and Shoe Heeling Company. He also became president of the Hattenroth Electric Company, and of the Hard Electric-Storage Company. But his multifarious employments have not prevented Mr. Albright in the discharge of his duties as a citizen. He takes an ac- tive interest in the work of the Board of Trade, and for several years has been a patron of the Newark Library Association.

In matters affecting the interest of the city he has not been indifferent, and more than once has he been named as a suitable person for the office of mayor, but this he has steadily declined. In 1874 he was nominated without solicitation and by acclamation as a candidate for the Legislature. At another time he was, in a similar manner, nominated as the Democratic cundidate for Congress, but in a district so strongly Republican that an election by a mere party vote was hopeless. Before the convention which nominated Mr. Ludlow for Governor, he was named as a candidate for that high office, and in the convention which gave the nomination to Mr. Abbett it seemed certain for n time that he would carry off the prize. Mr. Albright is yet in the prime of life, and is certainly a remarkable example of successful perseverance and self-reliance.

Being a man from the people, with a kind- ly heart for his fellows, the hard battle, which he has been compelled to fight for himself, has led him to sympathize with other strugglers for life, and there is, perhaps, no man in New Jersey, or elsewhere, who has so generously extended aid and comfort to penni- less, yet deserving inventors, some of whom have conferred great benefits upon society.

Mr. Albright married, in 1868, Elmira, daughter of William Crapser, of Dryden, N. Y., by whom he has tavo children, a son and a daughter, with whom, in his hospitable mansion, he quietly enjoya the fruits of a heroism worthy of record and of imitation.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Foundries, Iron and Machine Works.1-Of found- ries now existing, the oldest in Newark is that con- dueted by John H. Barlow, No. 28 Orange Street. The history of this foundry is the history of iron work in Newark. It was started by Seth Boyden, and here, on July 14, 1826, it is said, he first succeeded in mak- ing malleable iron castings. A Boston firm pur- chased Boyden's concern, and after them came a continuous succession of firms down to 1871, when Mr. Barlow, who had long worked in the foundry, be- came its proprietor.

During all the important years of Newark's indus- trial growth there was, among its noblest sons of toil, one brain, more than all others, that teemed with in- ventive genius, and of a character as singularly varied as it was marvelously active; one body that rested from severe labor, mental and physical, only when nature commanded. That restless, ever-busy brain, that vigorous, tireless physical organization, belonged to SETI BOYDEN. Born at Foxboro', Mass., Nov. 17, 1798, Boyden removed to Newark in 1815. On a farin his earliest years of toil were spent, but soon his quick and active mind and nature yearned for wider fields of development. Ile abandoned farm- ing, and at the age of fifteen turned his attention to the repairing of watches. Half a dozen years later he invented a machine for making wrought nails. Soon after that, in 1813, machines for cutting files sprang from his imagination. Then came his inventions for cutting brads and machines for cutting and heading tacks. About the latter part of the year Is18 a piece of patent leather of German manufacture-a military cap front, it is said-came into Mr. Boyden's posses- sinn. From this sample he produced the first side of patent leather ever manufactured in this country. lle was engaged in its manufacture for several years, his first year's sales being $4521, and his sales for 1×24 being $9,703.06.

To give a list of the many branches of industry which Mr. Boyden brought to perfection would occupy a larger space than ean be afforded in this work. He was the pioneer in this country of brads for joiners, of patent leather. of malleable iron (his first success in this being upon the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence), of daguer- reotypes, and of locomotives and steam machinery. He also greatly aided Professor Morse in his perfection of the electric telegraph. His later years were devoted to horticulture at his home at Middleville, Irving- ton, the strawberry being particularly the subject of his wondrously-improving attention : size-and he brought the rich fruit to enormous growths-being en- tirely secondary to flavor. He died March 31, 1570, aged eighty-two years, and was interred at Mount Pleasant C'emetery. His funeral, which took place on Sunday, April 3d, from the Fair Street Universalist Church, was an exceedingly imposing demonstration, and an

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 144

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