USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Bergen > History of Hudson county and of the old Village of Bergen > Part 3
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By 1813, four stage lines were in hot competition for the New York-Philadelphia business. The title "stage-waggon" became too tame for these fervid rivals, and one of them in- vented the title of "machine." Mightily stirred by this poetic imagery, another named his stages "flying machines." From that day so long as a stage survived, every self-respecting stage driver referred to himself as operating a flying machine. The fastest flying machine of 1813 left New York at I p. m. and did not fly into Philadelphia till 6 a. m. next day.
In 1820 the disintegration of Bergen Township began with the incorporation of the City of Jersey, re-incorporated in 1829 as Jersey City. Except for a moderate increase in popu- lation, the teritory in that period was little different from its aspect and manner in the old days. There were comparatively
43
and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
Park's Homestead. ( Vroom Street and Bergen Avenue)
few inhabitants not of Dutch descent, and Dutch habit and thought were dominant. There were no buildings except dwel- lings and farm structures, and practically all the dwellings were of the stoutly typical long, low, comfortable Dutch style. From their ridge the Bergen men, looking down on what is now lower Jersey City with crowded factories and piers, saw a shore-land that still was largely amphibious, and when high tide covered the marshes, they could still distinguish the three "islands" that originally comprised the only solid land in that tract. Paulus Hook was the same pile of sand as in the begin- ning, with little except fishermen's huts here and there besides
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The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
the race track and ferries. Northern Jersey City's water-front was practically empty save for a ferry house. Hoboken's Elysian Fields held unmarred the beauty which had won the high- sounding title, and a single little tavern sufficed to entertain holiday makers there. The placid population made barely enough employment for the single Court at Hackensack and for a few local Dutch justices of the peace. It was a happy land that made no history.
Steam was winning, however, and soon its early demands gave a great impetus to the mechanical hand-crafts that it was destined to destroy. Jersey City, which had only about 300 inhabitants at the time of its incorporation in 1820, is credited in a record of 1845 with having 4000 population at that date. Among its larger industries were the works of the American Pottery Company, the Jersey City Glass Company employing about a hundred men, a famous fireworks establishment, a candle factory and many shops owned by individual me- chanics. There were two foundries. One was Fulton's at the
The Monitor, 1862
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and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
corner of Morgan and Greene Streets, and it was at this foundry that some of the first ironclads for the Civil War were fabricated later.
Fulton also had a dry dock. It appears to have had ample business, for by 1845 the water-front business had become sufficient to justify the building of a vessel, the "Dudley S. Gregory," constructed at Burlington expressly for Jersey City trade. Two years later, Jersey City celebrated the docking of its first Cunarder, the "Hibernia."
Bergen adhered to its agriculture and other old ways longer than the surrounding communities. Its inhabitants looked serenely down on Jersey City's accumulating factory chimneys and saw its increasing bustle and wealth without apparent desire to emulate it. Years after gas had made the streets below their height look like far-trailed strings of beads, they remained content with candles and sperm whale oil, and as late as 1858 there were only 60 gas consumers on the whole ridge.
Bit by bit its less restful constituent parts broke away, much as the offspring of the good old burghers themselves was breaking away from the good old customs. In 1837, Bergen County's opulent girth was sharply reduced by taking away enough to make Passaic County. In 1840 another legal opera- tion set off the County of Hudson. Bergen Township was like a fine Dutch cheese exposed to busy mice. It was nibbled at from all sides. In 1841, two years after full rail traffic had been opened between New York and Philadelphia by the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, Van Vorst Township was nibbled off. Another nibble in 1842 bit off the
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46
The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
Bergen Square, 1852. (From an Old Print)
part north of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and made North Bergen from which Hudson City and Hoboken were set off before 1860. By the time Bayonne and Greenville had been cut out of Bergen, it was in much the same condition as the old families whose ancestral plantations had been reduced by suc- cessive street encroachments to mere town lots. When, in 1868, a new charter was given to the City of Bergen, its area had decreased in inverse ratio to its wealth and real estate valuations. Finally, on March 17, 1870, popular vote con- solidated Bergen, Hudson and Jersey City into the Greater Jersey City.
The Trust Company of New Jersey
HILE workmen were excavating at Sip and Bergen Avenues for the foundation of the W new eleven-story building of the Trust Company of New Jersey, they unearthed an ancient well. It was 45 feet deep, reach- ing down to a subterranean stream. The hollow logs that formed it fell apart as soon as they were handled. At such wells the early Van Vorsts, Van Hornes, Van Winkles and others drew the water for the houses within the old palisades; and it was such a well, with troughs for cattle around it, that was dug in the center of Bergen Square
Old Dutch Well
48
The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
by order of the Schout and Schepens of Bergen, ratified by the Council at New Amsterdam on February 9, 1662.
If these men of 1660 had returned to Bergen a hundred years later they would have found no marvelous changes. Even in 1860 they would have found much that was un- changed, despite steamships and railroads, streets lit with gas, and busy factories. All local transport still was done with horses, there were enough cattle, sheep, pigs and goats at large to keep a pound-keeper fully occupied, the salt meadows were lively with flights of duck and snipe, and sea fish and sea turtle still were being taken in the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, the Kill von Kull, and in Newark and New York Bays.
It was left for the period within our own generation to change the world so colossally that today those Dutch ances- tors would indeed imagine themselves to be among sorcery and witchcraft. Automobiles flash where they plodded behind oxen and fat slow horses. Where the old windmill on Paulus Hook ground corn less than a hundred years ago, there stand and float implements of commerce whose use they could not comprehend. Their descendants are shot in electric trains under that North River which they ferried with labor and fear.
Most amazing of all, however, would be the tall buildings; and it would be almost impossible for them to believe that the vastly reared piles of marble and granite are not palaces of their High Mightinesses the States General of rich Holland, but simply the modern successors of their little trading posts under trees where, with scales held in the hand, they weighed furs in exchange for wampum.
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and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
They would not know what to make of a modern banking stitution with mighty steel vaults; for wampum, the cur- ncy of sea shells, was the leading medium of the New Netherlands during more of a century, and what little gold ley possessed was "banked" in hiding places under the floors in the gardens.
The sea-shell currency was known by the Indian names of ampum or seawant. The first Dutch arrivals found it in eneral use among the savages, and adopted it partly from noice, but largely from necessity. Dutch currency was not hly scarce and precious, but it was unknown to the Indians, ad thus it occurred naturally that the financial system of the ew colony established itself on a shell basis instead of a gold asis.
The shells were of a special kind and occurred in two colors, lack and white. The Indians prized the black shells at a ratio out double that of the white. To the Dutch traders it seemed nmensely like making money by magic to obtain valuable rs for common shells; but as commerce grew, it happened evitably that wampum could not be confined to trading with he Indians, and it had to be accepted by the Dutch in dealings nong themselves.
Soon the "easy money" revenged itself as easy money ways has done. Wampum was held to be worth a stiver for ree black shells or for six white ones, and as twenty stivers qualed a guilder (about 40 cents) it encouraged many finan- ers to engage in the business of fishing industriously for the recious shell-fish. There was no law to forbid anybody from hus operating a submarine mint; and even if we repudiate
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The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
Washington Irving's libelous insinuation that Director- General Kieft gave grants to his friends to rake and scrape every shell-bed from the Delaware to Cape Cod, it remains undeniable that the wampum financial system became fright- fully inflated.
In 1690 there must have been almost a wampum panic, for the Council issued a Proclamation: "Whereas with Great Con- cern we have observed both Now and for a Long Time past the Depreciation and Corruption of the loose seawant, where- by occasion is given for repeated Complaints from the In- habitants that they can not go with such seawant to the Market, nor yet procure for themselves any Commodity, not even a White Loaf, we ordain that no loose seawant shall be a Legal Tender except the same be strung on one string: that six white or three black shall pass for one stiver; and of base seawant, shall pass eight white and four black for one stiver."
1
The Old and New Hudson County Court Houses, Jersey City
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and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
Today wampum seems a ludicrously worthless currency ; but centuries after wampum had vanished, governments and peoples continued to dream that government edicts and laws could establish values. There are no doubt many Bergen families that still possess, as historical souvenirs, such currency as the "shin-plasters" that were issued by Jersey City in 1862. Such money, issued by Federal, State and local governments, was, after all, simply a paper form of wampum; for, though it may have had more or less tangible value behind it, its chief characteristic was the value that had been given it by edict.
It was left for our own era to establish a financial system founded on a sound basis. How sound that basis is was proved when the great war broke on the world. This, the greatest economic catastrophe that the modern human structure has known, immeasurably more calamitous than any other that ever occurred, was borne by the financial system of the United States almost without a tremor.
Integrity of asset values is the one and only thing which made this extraordinary strength. The shock has been so tremendous that it tested the foundations of everything that man has devised, and only absolute soundness could resist it. But even had there been no catastrophe of war, the integrity of our modern American financial system has been tested in our time in a manner equally searching.
During the past quarter century we have had a growth of commerce that has led us from terms of thousands of dollars to terms of millions, and from terms of millions to terms of many millions until we have learned to contemplate even such gigantic sums as billions. There could be no better illustration
Bergen and Lafayette Branch Monticello Avenue and Brinker hoff Street, Jersey City
Hoboken Branch 12 and 14 Hudson Place Hoboken
Town of Union Branch Bergenline Avenue and Hackensack Plank Road Town of Union N. J.
People's Safe Deposit Branch Central Avenue and Bowers Street Jersey City
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Branch Offices of The Trust Company of New Jersey
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The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
of this great change and growth than is presented in the records of the Trust Company of New Jersey. It is only twenty-five years ago since four men, schoolmates in their youth, A. P. Hexamer, Henry Mehl, John Mehl, Jr., and William C. Heppenheimer met in the office of Russ & Hep- penheimer and organized the People's Safe Deposit and Trust Company. That was in the spring of 1896, and a bank was established at the corner of Hutton Street and Central Avenue, Jersey City, as Main Office, with a branch in the Town of Union. The venture was a success from its inception, as is evidenced by the first statement issued by the bank, cover- ing the nine months ending December 31, 1896:
CAPITAL $100,000.00.
PEOPLE'S SAFE DEPOSIT AND TRUST COMPANY,
COR. CENTRAL AVENUE & HUTTON STREET, JERSEY CITY, N. J. . COR. LEWIS STREET & PALISADE AVENUE. TOWN OF UNION, N. J.
OFFICERS :
President, WM. C. HEPPENHEIMER.
Vice-President, WM. PETER.
Treasurer. JOHN MEHL, Jr.
Secretary and Cashier,
WM. T. VIDAL.
DIRECTORS :
WM. PETER, HENRY BRAUTIGAM.
HENRY MEHL, RUDOLPH F. RABE, RICHARD SCHLEMM. M. D ..
JOHN MEHL, JR .. ALEX. P. HEXAMER,
WM. C. HEPPENHEIMER,
EDWARD RUSS.
LOVER)
STATEMENT
OF
THE PEOPLE'S
SAFE DEPOSIT AND TRUST COMPANY,
Jersey City, N J. and Town of Union, N. J.
FOR NINE MONTHS ENDING DEC. 31ST, 1896.
RESOURCES.
Cash on Hand and in Bank,
$143,441.03
Loans and Discounts, 69,838.07
Mortgages, 91,313.36
U. S. Gov. Bonds, 90,046.87
Municipal Bonds, 17:293.50
Banking House, Furniture and Fixtures, 25,117.18
$437,050.01
LIABILITIES
Capital,
$100,000.00
Deposits,
328,019.30
Certified Checks, 7,308.31
Undivided Profits (Expenses & Taxes Pald), 1,722.40
$437,050.01
Jersey City. N. J .
WM. T. VIDAL,
January løt, 1897
SECRETARY & CASHIER.
TOVERT
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The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
In the spring of the year 1899, the same group of business men concluded to organize a trust company in the city of Hoboken, operating as a branch of the People's Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Jersey City. They were met by the law of 1899, then on its final passage in the Legislature, pre- venting the operation of branches which theretofore had been permissible. Nothing daunted, they organized the Trust Company of New Jersey in Hoboken, which also was suc- cessful from the start.
In 1902, the Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company was founded in the Bergen Section of Jersey City, and in 1911, the Carteret Trust Company was organized and located in Journal Square at the Summit Avenue tube station, Jersey City. Both these companies were founded by the same men as the other two, and were similarly successful.
In 1913, the Legislature of the state of New Jersey passed an act permitting the consolidation of trust companies and their operation as branches with one main office. In accordance with this act, on the 20th day of September, 1913, the People's Safe Deposit and Trust Company with its branch in the Town of Union, the Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company, and the Carteret Trust Company all went out of existence and were taken over by the Trust Company of New Jersey, with Hoboken as the main office. Since that date the other institu- tions have been operated as branches under the names of People's Safe Deposit Branch, Town of Union Branch, Bergen & Lafayette Branch, and Carteret Branch.
The following gentlemen formed the Board of Directors of the consolidation which had thus become the Trust
55
and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
Company of New Jersey : F. E. Armbruster, George A. Berger, Ernest Biardot, Chas. A. Coppinger, Walter M. Dear, Robert R. Debacher, Lawrence Fagan, John Ferguson, Louis Formon, Ephraim De Groff, Joseph Harrison, Edward V. Hartford, Ernest J. Heppenheimer, Robert E. Jennings, Anthony R. Kuser, John P. Landrine, Edward P. Meany, Walter Meixner, Wm. L. Pyle, John T. Rowland, Jr., C. Howard Slater, Edw. H. Schmidt, Edward J. Schroeder, Emil Schumann and J. Hollis Wells.
The assets of the combined institutions at the date of their consolidation on September 20, 1913, were $17,656,778.78. On June 30, 1921, the total resources of the Company were $37,343,663.43.
With the completion of the new building at Bergen and Sip Avenues, Jersey City, it was decided by the Board of Direc- tors to move the main office there. The Hoboken office thus becomes the Hoboken branch, continuing the same line of business as heretofore.
,
-
New Main Office Building, Bergen and Sip Avenues, Jersey City
The New Building of the Trust Company of New Jersey
OWERING from the crest of Bergen Hill, with command of view that includes the whole T panorama of the Island of Manhattan, the Hudson River, the great harbor, and New Jersey inland to Newark and the Oranges, stands the new building of the Trust Com- pany of New Jersey.
Located on the southwest corner of Bergen and Sip Ave- nues, Jersey City, it has a situation that not only gives it the utmost convenience of access from New York and all sur- rounding suburbs and towns, but that also makes it central to all the business activities of this industrial and commercial New Jersey territory.
Past its doors go the principal trolley lines, as well as jitney and bus lines that radiate through Hudson County. It is on the lines of the Hudson and Manhattan River Tube trains, and branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Throughout its design and construction there has been a consistently executed plan for combining the most complete modern utility and comfort with the greatest beauty attainable in these tall structures which so admirably lend themselves to splendid effects. Its architects, Clinton & Russell, have made it a perfect expression of the Italian Renaissance style, attaining height and magnitude with effortless grace.
58
The HISTORY of HUDSON COUNTY
The Banking Room
The building is of eleven stories and basement. Of these, the basement, besides accommodating a part set aside for the mechanical plant that serves the building, contains the fully equipped large safe deposit and storage vaults of the Trust Company of New Jersey.
The banking room of the Main Office of the Trust Com- pany is on the first floor, the entrance to the offices being on Bergen Avenue and the entrance to the bank being on the corner. These premises are designed not only to give customers all modern banking conveniences, but to provide them with surroundings that shall satisfy a high sense of beauty. The decorative scheme is in the rich Italian marble known as Botticini, and the accompanying details are worked out in bronze and mahogany as the appropriate metals and
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and of the OLD VILLAGE of BERGEN
woods. There is a ceiling in plaster with finely wrought decoration in flat relief.
The upper ten stories are wholly for tenant purposes, there being about 60,000 square feet of space for offices. They are, of course, served thoroughly with all conveniences of the highly modern office building.
There are three elevators, and they are of the high-speed traction type, thus assuring adequate service under peak load conditions. The completely fire-proof construction is sup- plemented with two flights of fire stairs, fire stand-pipe, hose connections, and many exits.
Besides hot and cold water, steam and electricity, the building is provided with a system of pipes that convey hygienically cooled drinking water to all premises. The win- dow spaces are large, and plate-glass panes assure clearness of vision as well as good appearance within and without. The tiling and plumbing, as well as all other accessories for daily convenience, are of the best modern sanitary construction.
Safe Deposit Vaults
10
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9
SIP
12
CORRIDOR
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11## ***** 111
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0
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AVENUE
Typical Floor Plan, Fourth to Tenth Floors inclusive, New Main Office Building of The Trust Company of New Jersey
·
The TRUST COMPANY of NEW JERSEY BERGEN AND SIP AVENUES (JOURNAL SQUARE) Jersey City, N. J.
Resources, June 30, 192I
$37,343,633.43
HOBOKEN BRANCH 12 and 14 Hudson Place, Hoboken
PEOPLE'S SAFE DEPOSIT BRANCH Central Avenue and Bowers Street, Jersey City BERGEN AND LAFAYETTE BRANCH Monticello Avenue and Brinkerhoff Street, Jersey City
TOWN OF UNION BRANCH Bergenline Avenue and Hackensack Plank Road, Town of Union, N. J.
OFFICERS
William C. Heppenheimer, President MAIN OFFICE
Edward P. Meany, First Vice-president
Walter Meixner, Sixth Vice-president
Edwin H. Stratford, Secretary and Treasurer William C. Veit, Assistant Treasurer Henry C. Perley, Comptroller
PEOPLE'S SAFE DEPOSIT BRANCH F. E. Armbruster, Third Vice-president Eugene Huberti, Assistant Treasurer TOWN OF UNION BRANCH Louis Formon, Fifth Vice-president Rudolph Sievert, Assistant Treasurer
BERGEN AND LAFAYETTE BRANCH Joseph Harrison, Fourth Vice-president John T. Minugh, Assistant Treasurer HOBOKEN BRANCH
George A. Berger, Second Vice-president Edward A. O'Toole Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
DIRECTORS
F. E. Armbruster
Third Vice-president
George A. Berger
Second Vice-president
Ernest Biardot .
Retired
Chas. A. Coppinger
D. D. S.
Walter M. Dear
Treasurer Evening Journal Association
Robert R. Debacher .
President Wm. Schimper & Company
John J. Fagan . John Ferguson .
President F. Ferguson & Son
Louis Formon .
Fifth Vice-president
Ephraim De Groff
Physician
Fourth Vice-president
Joseph Harrison
Edward V. Hartford .
. President Edward V. Hartford, Inc.
Ernest J. Heppenheimer President Colonial Life Insurance Company
President
Wm. C. Heppenheimer Robert E. Jennings .
Capitalist Anthony R. Kuser, President South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company John P. Landrine Hardware
Edward P. Meany
. First Vice-president
Henry Mehl .
Treasurer John Mehl & Company
Walter Meixner
. Sixth Vice-president
Wm. Peter
President Wm. Peter Brewing Company
Physician
Architect
Real Estate
C. Howard Slater
Edw. H. Schmidt
E. H. Schmidt Hygiene Ice Company
Edward J. Schroeder .
Edward Schroeder Lamp Works
Emil Schumann
Real Estate
J. Hollis Wells
Clinton & Russell
Wm. L. Pyle .
John T. Rowland, Jr.
President Fagan Iron Works
Functions of The TRUST COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY
THIS COMPANY transacts a general Trust Company and Banking business, and
Receives Savings Deposits, and pays interest thereon, at the rate of 4 per cent per annum.
Receives deposits subject to check, as in a bank, payable at sight or through the clearing house, allowing interest thereon at the rate of 2 per cent ; also issues certificates of deposits bearing interest.
Lends money on approved security.
Acts as Trustee under any mortgage or deed of trust, or for any individual who desires to provide for members of his family or others.
Acts as Executor, Trustee, Administrator, Guardian, Receiver, Committee, Assignee or Registrar.
Acts as Fiscal or Transfer Agent for any State, municipality or corporation.
Accepts securities for safe keeping, remitting interest and divi- dends to the depositor.
Acts as Agent in this State for corporations organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey.
Rents Safe Deposit Vaults from $5.00 upward.
This Company makes a specialty of the accounts of per- sons who, through lack of experience, desire assistance and advice in the management of their investments.
HK227-78
111
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