History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 129

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 129
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 129

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).

HIGH BRIDGE.

HIGH BRIDGE, one of the smallest of Hunterdon's townships, contains a population of 2210 and ineludes ninety-eight farms. It is bounded north by Lebanon ; south by Clinton ; east by Tewksbury; west by Beth- lehem and Union. The South Branch of the Rari- tan flows diagonally through the town from northeast to southwest, and in its course provides fine mill- power, especially at the village of High Bridge, where it drives the powerful machinery of the great Taylor Iron-Works.

High Bridge is a station on the New Jersey Central Railroad, and one of the termini, also, of the High Bridge Railway, reaching from the latter point to Port Oram, with a branch from German Valley to Chester. The high bridge, from which the locality took its name, was a massive and costly structure thrown by the Central Railroad Company across the South Branch of the Raritan and contiguous valley at High Bridge village during the construction of the railway route previous to 1852. The bridge was re- garded as a model of its kind, and, costing upwards of $200,000, the supposition was that it would endure for a long while. This conclusion was, however, a mistaken one, for the great length of the bridge- 1300 feet-operated against durability, and in 1859 it was determined that some more substantial work must be substituted. There was some agitation in favor of a solid stone bridge, but the decision was eventually for the filling up of the space with an earthen embankment, through which the river was to havo passage by means of a double-arch culvert. The task of constructing the embankment was accord- ingly begun in 1859. Five years were required to complete it, and it cost fully $500,000, the stone arches alone costing $80,000. As to the bridge, the declaration is made that the engineers were compelled to bury in the embankment $60,000 worth of iron that could not possibly be recovered. The embank- ment is about 1300 feet long, and 112 feet from the road-bed perpendicularly down to the river.

High Bridge township, near the village, was once rich in iron-mines which are still valuable, although not worked at present to a very great extent. Plum- bago ore lias long been known to exist, but it has been only lately utilized.

EARLY TIMES.

The history of High Bridge township, so far as con- eerns the whites, began about 1700, near the present village of High Bridge, and on the land occupied by the Taylor Iron-Works. Upon that spot, in 1700, or at all events not far from it, Allan & Turner, of Phila- delphia, established the first iron-works known to what are now called the United States. They owned 10,000 aeres in the neighborhood of High Bridge and 17,000 near Andover, where they had a furnace, and thence to the forge at Iligh Bridge they caused the pig-metal to be conveyed by means of pack-horses or mules, for in that day wagons could not be employed, since there were no wagon-roads except in populous localities. Of course, under the circumstances, there could not be other than a limited amount of iron- working carried on at the High Bridge forge.

Including the present one, five forges have stood upon nearly the same ground. The first, a one-fire bloom-forge, was situated about 100 yards west of the present one; the second near the embankment of the dam; the third abont 200 yards above; the fourth (known to have been in use during the Revolution), on the site of the one now used.

The history of the iron-works, or, properly speak- ing, the forge, between 1700 and 1758, can be but briefly alluded to. The product, at first small, as means of travel began to grow better, increased, being at no time, however, of great importance. Although not before mentioned, the fact has, of course, been understood, that the occasion of the establishment by Allan & Turner of the High Bridge forge and furnace at Andover, Cokesburg, and near High Bridge was the presence on their lands of iron ore in considerable

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quantities. The available ore in the mines is still plentiful, and, although not used for the works, is mined for distant iron interests.

In 1758, Robert Taylor, grandfather to Lewis H. Taylor (now the head of the iron-works, and always a resident there, as was his father before him), came upon the scene as an active participant in the enter- prise. He was born in Ireland, and, being the young- est son, determined at an early age to carve out his own fortune. In 1758, therefore, at the age of seven- teen, he embarked for America with but a few guineas in his pocket, bound to make his way by force of his school education, which happened to be a valuable one. Directly upon landing he got an engagement to teach school in the township of Kingwood, in Hun- terdon Co., N. J. Col. Hackett, then superintendent at the iron-works, and a man of local importance, was made acquainted with young Taylor's capacity, and engaged him as chief bookkeeper towards the close of 1758. Robert went to live with Col. Hack- ett in a house now a portion of the Taylor man- sion, and still occupying the spot upon which it was first erected,-as early, doubtless, as 1725, and perhaps before.

Mr. Taylor continued as Allan & Turner's book- keeper until 1775, when, Col. Hackett dying, he was chosen superintendent and given charge of the busi- ness at Andover as well as at High Bridge. Although slave labor was chiefly employed at the works, there were also paid laborers, as is evidenced by the exist- ence, within Mr. Lewis H. Taylor's knowledge, of account-books dated as early as 1729. From those and others (the latter going back only to 1770) there appears to have been a supply-store at the works, and there, too, it is likely, farmers living in the neighbor- hood did their trading. During the Revolution, Mr. Taylor cast cannon-balls for the American army and sent them in wagons to Trenton, New Brunswick, and Philadelphia.

There were, besides the Andover Furnace, two other furnaces connected with the iron-works. There was one on Beaver Brook, called the Amesbury (built, so the date-mark on the ruins says, in 1754), and the. second on the Union farm (supposed to have been built about 1725), where Col. Charles Stewart once lived, but since 1811 owned by the Exton family. The ruins of that furnace may yet be seen near the residence of Mr. Jos. H. Exton.

The old homestead of the Taylors, built, as already recorded, abont 1725, still forms a portion of the Tay- lor mansion. One room therein is substantially the same as it was at the beginning. It is moreover an apartment replete with historic interest, for it was not only the scene of the birth as well as the death of Archibald S. Taylor, father of Lewis H. Taylor (seventy-nine years elapsing between the two periods), but it was also the abode for six months, during the Revolutionary cra, of John Penn, the last colonial Governor of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Chew, his attorney-

general. Penn and Chew were sent thither by the Federal government as prisoners of war, and their safe-keeping charged upon Robert Taylor.

Although Mr. Taylor was an ardent patriot, and caused the forges to be known far and near as the "Union Forge," Allan & Turner, the owners, were far from being devoted to the Federal government. Policy, however, kept them from manifesting their sentiments in a way likely to bring confiscation upon their property, although such a result did eventually overtake them.

Mr. Taylor's patriotism was well known and trusted, and he remained for six months the custodian of the prisoners at "Solitude," as the Taylor mansion was called. Penn and Chew were not especially miser- able during their imprisonment, for they were allowed not only to roam at will to any point within six miles of "Solitude," but had among their servants an Italian fiddler who ever and anon cheered with his music the souls of Penn and his friend. Mr. Penn marked his respect for Mr. Taylor by presenting to him a copy of "The Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland from the dissolution of the last Parliament of Charles II. until the sea-battle of La Hogue, by Sir John Dalrymple, Bart." Upon the fly-leaf appears Governor Penn's autograph and the inscription, " Presented to Robert Taylor by John Penn, the last Colonial Governor of Pennsylvania, while a prisoner on parole at Union forge." The book is still in possession of Lewis H. Taylor.

Aaron Burr and his daughter Theodosia once paid a visit to Union forge, and remained for some time the guests of Mr. Robert Taylor, and there were also many other distinguished occasional visitors, among whom were Brig .- Gen. Maxwell, of the Revolutionary army, and Col. Charles Stewart, Washington's com- missary-general.

Shortly after the close of the Revolution the works were abandoned because of the exhaustion of the wood-supply, the near presence of coal being then not known. The forty slaves who had been em- ployed there were prepared for transportation to Virginia, but in the interim one, Mingo by name, escaped. An old darkey called Peter, too feeble to endure the prospective journey, was allowed to re- main behind, and served afterwards as a servant in the Taylor family.

Not long after the abandonment of the works the landed and other interests of Allan & Turner were sold (presumably under confiscation), and Mr. Taylor, by reason of his long connection therewith, was chosen one of the commissioners to divide and sell the prop- erty. In the division he purchased the forge and lands adjacent thereto, aggregating 366 acres, for which he paid £800.

After the sale of the property and abandonment of the works there was no hum of busy industry in that locality for many a year. Lack of transpor- tational facilities made the water-power and mines

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valueless as motives to iron manufacture, and they lay just as sound and solid as they were the day they dormant until the New Jersey Central Railway opened communication between that region and the outer world. In 1851 the works were restored by Mr. Lewis HI. Taylor. Their history since then will be found in another article, treating of the town's in- dustries.

Since 1758 the Taylors have been closely identified with the locality and especially with the iron-works. Robert's son, Archibald, was born and died in the old mansion in which his son, Lewis H., was born, and where he still lives. Gen. George W. Taylor, a son to Archibald Taylor, served in the Mexican war, and, entering the Federal service at the outbreak of the Rebellion, was killed at the battle of Manassas in 1862, while in command of the First New Jersey Bri- gade.

Judge Johnston once owned the Union farm, and his daughter Mary, whom Col. Stewart married, was considered in her day one of the best-read women in the country. Robert Taylor lived on Union farm at one time.

Col. Charles Stewart was prominent in the Revolu- tionary struggle, and from 1776 to the close of the war was attached to Washington's staff as commissary- general. ITis residence on Union farm was but brief. He lived chiefly during his later life at Lansdown and Flemington. The Union farm passed from Allan & Turner into the temporary possession of more than one person, but in each case the property reverted to Allan & Turner (through inability of purchasers to complete promised payments), until Hugh Exton came along in 1811, and, buying the thousand acres for about $30,000, paid the money down in gold, much to the surprise of Mr. Taylor, Allan & Turner's agent. Hugh Exton came to America from England about 1790, and, according to documents now in pos- session of a descendant, was naturalized in 1802. He lived at Pittstown until he became the owner of the Union farm. At his death he divided the farm be- tween his four sons, Thomas, Joseph, John, and Hugh. All but John, who located in Delaware, oc- cupied their possessions, and on them their sons Joseph H., Joseph C., and Lewis now reside. Joseph HI. lives in the old homestead, now somewhat changed, but yet containing the structure once the home of Col. Stewart,-in his time a one-story house with a thatched roof so low in front as to leave barely room for entrance at the doorway. It is said that Col. Stewart, coming to his home on a furlough during the Revolution, was compelled to make his escape hur- riedly upon receipt of information that a band of Tories was then en route toward him, intent upon his capture. He got away safely, but his family suffered indignity at the hands of the baffled Fories, who, en- raged at the escape of their prey, visited their spite upon the heads of wife and children.

Although the ohler portion of the house must be more than 120 years old, the floors, of yellow pine, are

were laid. A carriage-house on the place contains the most of the material once in a store-house that stood near the house until 1864, and was supposed to have been the supply-store kept by Allan & Turner as'early as 1757 in connection with their forge at High Bridge. The ruins of the furnace stand on Joseph II. Exton's farm, and near them the old black- smith's shop does present duty as a sheep-house. Upon the walls of the shop appear the date-mark of 1757 and a word whose characters cannot now be defined. Near the furnace are traces of the presence of an old burial-place in the long ago. Among the broken headstones the only one bearing a legible inscrip- tion is of cast iron, upon which appear the characters "N. I., 1717."

On the creek near there Hugh Exton built a saw- mill, but long before his time there must have been a grist-mill there, as relics found by him proved. About a mile to the northward was an old tavern, built no one knows how long ago. Gabriel Kane was its landlord about 1800, and after him Thomas Banghart and his son Thomas presided over it. The Bangharts were among the earliest comers to that neighborhood. So was Daniel Starker, who kept a blacksmith's shop at the place now known as Tuni- son's Corners. Starker sold out to William Alpaugh and moved to Warren County, where he died.

Over at Cokesburg (or Cokesbury, as it used to be called) the Apgars, the Huffmans, and the Alpaughs were among the pioneers as early as 1760, and prob- ably before. Caspar Apgar, now aged ninety-three, living just west of Cokesburg, says he was born near there, and that the first of the Apgars in that locality was his grandfather Glasgow, who, with his wife, came from Germany about 1760 and settled on a farm bought of Allan & Turner. Eleven children-ten boys and one girl -- were born to them. The girl mar- ried John Emery, one of High Bridge's early settlers. Among the boys were Henry, Peter, Conrad, William, Herbert, and Jacob. Jacob had eleven children, of whom the only one now living is Caspar, above men- tioned. The Apgars, Huffmans, and Alpaughs may be found in abundance in Hunterdon County. In 1850 it was estimated that there were in this country, or had been, sixteen hundred Apgars who had de- scended from old Glasgow Apgar and wife.

John Iluflman, who came to the Cokesburg neigh- borhood about the time Glasgow Apgar made his ap- pearance, was the ancestor of a long line of Huff- mans. One of his grandsons, Peter I. by name, lives now in Tewksbury, and, although in his hundredth year, is quite active and hearty. When HutIman. Apgar, and Alpaugh began their lives in the New Work they found pioneer existence in America full of rough places, and as late as ISOs, when Caspar Apgar married and settled on the farm now occupied by his son Andrew, he lived in a log house in the dense forest, without even a road to convenience him.

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John Seale, an English school-teacher, came to America, perhaps in 1760, and soon afterwards settled in the neighborhood of the old Taylor forge, where he rented a lot of Allan & Turner, and devoted him- self to school-teaching, but his grandson Daniel can- not say where. John's son Daniel, born near "Soli- tude," became a charcoal-burner under the tuition of his uncle, Philip Locke, and lived near where Mr. J. Seale now resides. Charcoal-burning was an almost universal occupation with the High Bridge settlers at an early day, for at the works of Allan & Turner there was constaut demand and pay ready at hand for charcoal. The only child of Daniel Seale the collier, now in High Bridge, is his son Daniel.

About or before 1800, John W. Sharp lived in Clin- ton township, near Lebanon, and pretty soon moved to a place in High Bridge township now occupied by his grandson, David. David, son to John W. Sharp, married a daughter of Morris Sharp, living on Bray's Hill, in Clinton, but of no known kin to John W. Sharp. The grandsons of John W. Sharp now living in High Bridge are David, Morris, and John W. The former two live on land owned by their grandfather, the latter on a farm originally occupied by Henry Emery. Peter Hoppock, who lived in 1800, or earlier, on the farm now occupied by William Hackett, inherited the place from his father, Peter Hoppock, of Flemington, who at his death left a hundred-acre farm to each of his four sons and daughters. Peter Hoppock, the son, died in Clinton in 1850, aged eighty, leaving seven sons, all of whom but one are dead. Of the daughters of Peter Hoppock, the elder married John Cregar, Jr. (near whom, west of William Yauger's present place, lived his father, an old Revolutionary soldier) ; another married Barnet Fox, of Clinton; and a third William Hann, with whom William Yauger took service in 1816, remaining until 1832; in 1833, him- self occupying the place as a settler, he has resided upon it to the present day.

The Cregars are numerous in High Bridge, and rank high among the worthiest and most intelligent citizens, but they do not prevail so plentifully in that locality as in Clinton and other townships.

There are also among the descendants of early set- . tlers the families of Fritts, Beavers, Lances, and Phil- howers.

ORGANIZATION.

High Bridge was not organized until 1871, previous to which its territory occupied portions of Clinton and Lebanon townships. The act creating it is numbered 386, and was approved March 29, 1871. The region set apart was described as follows:

" All that 'part of the townshipe of Clinton and Lebanon contained within the following bounds : Beginning at a point in the middle of Spruce Run Brook, a corner of Clinton and Lebanon townships, and in the line of Union townships; thence, first, In a sontherly course down the middle of said brook, the several coureee thereof to the boundary line of Clinton borough ; thence, eccond, along the line of said borough in an castorly course to tho northeast corner of said borough ; thence,

third, in a direct line, to a stone bridge over the Beaver Brook, near the residence of David Sharp; thence, fourth, in a direct line to a plank bridge south of the residence of Emannel Sutton; thence, fifth, in a direct line to a point in the middle of the road leading from the village of Lebanon to the village of Cokesburg where it is intersected by the road leading from Fairview school-house to said road; thence on the same course until it intersects the westerly houndary of Tewksbury township; thence, sixth, along the line of said Tewksbury township in a northerly course to a corner of Tewksbury and Lebanon townships in the middle of the south branch of the Raritan River at the village of California; thence, seventh, along the road leading from California to the Puddle Hotel to a corner in the road near the residence of Jacob M. Trimmer; thence, eighth, in a direct line to a point in the public road leading from the village of High Bridge to the village of White Hall, fifty feet north of Philip Terreberry's dwelling-house; thence, ninth, in a direct line to a point in the line of Lebanon and Bethlehem townshipe where the public road leading from the village of High Bridge to Clarks- ville first intersects the same ; thence, tenth, in a southerly course along the dividing line between the townshipe of Lebanon, Bethlehem, and Union to the place of beginning."

Peter A. Beavers, George W. Honness, and Am- brose Fritts were appointed judges of election, and Isaac Hummer town clerk.

At the first election, held at the American Hotel, in the village of High Bridge, April 10, 1871, the total votes cast numbered 355. The officials chosen were as follows: Town Clerk, William C. Beavers ; Judge of Election, L. H. Taylor; Assessor, Ambrose Fritts ; Collector, Oliver Bunn ; Freeholder, Peter A. Beavers; Overseer of the Poor, Thomas Banghart ; Town Com- mittee, A. S. Banghart, J. T. Conover, Harrison Apgar, Edgar Lance, and Nelson Bennett ; Commissioners, John T. Lance, William J. Taylor, J. D. Cregar ; Surveyors, Jacob Hackett, Peter Cregar; Justices of the Peace, Eleazur Smith, J. P. Bailey, Thomas B. Apgar; Poundkeepers, Thomas Banghart, Mark Devlin ; Constables, A. S. Farley, J. B. Cramer, Silas Hockenbury; Overseers of Highways, J. C. Sager, Frederick Fritts, Abraham Crozatt, George P. Apgar, Oliver Bunn, George Flomerfelt, Richard Philhower, William Robinson, William Hildebrant, D. E. Conover, David Alpaugh, Daniel Hartman, D. L. Everett, Isaac Cramer, J. R. Apgar, Harrison Apgar, J. M. Apgar, Isaiah Apgar, C. W. Hoffman, William Lance, Thomas B. Apgar.

Those who have been annually chosen as judges of election, town clerks, freeholders, and collectors from 1872 to 1880, are named as follows :

JUDGES OF ELECTION.

1872, D. Neighbour; 1873, no record; 1874-76, P. A. Beavers ; 1877-78, J. Fox; 1879-80, D. R. Alpaugh.

TOWN CLERKS.

1872, E. Terreberry ; 1873, no record; 1874-76, O. W. Chrystie; 1877-78, I. Hummer; 1879, R. C. Farloy ; 1880, J. A. Apgar.

FREEHOLDERS.

1872-73, P. A. Beavers; 1874-75, A. A. Apgar; 1876-77, J. T. Lance; 1878-80, J. T. Dorland.

COLLECTORS.

1872, 0. Bunn ; 1873, no record ; 1874, J. T. Lance ; 1875-76, W. K. Tay- lor; 1877-78, B. Apgar; 1879-80, J. F. Sharp.

HIGH BRIDGE VILLAGE.

Although the New Jersey Central Railroad was completed in 1852, there was no station at what is

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now High Bridge village until 1856, in which year the Taylor fron-Works began to widen and develop in enterprise. Beginning with 1851, when Lewis H. Taylor restored the works, a village began to grow about them, but slowly at first. In 1856 there was an enlargement of the works, and consequently of the village. Previous to that there had been a supply- store at the works, but in that year a store was built by 1 .. H. Taylor & Co., near the railway station, and opened as the "company's store," with Isaac Ilum- mer as manager, and William Lance and John Mc- Cloughen as clerks. The store was the third building put up on the present site of the village, the first having been a dwelling-house occupied by Isaac Zeck, a collier, and the second, a grain-house, near the track, built by Peter A. Beavers. In 1856, John Anderson built a tavern, and in 1854 a post-office was established, with D. L. Everett as postmaster, and W. J. Taylor, son of L. H. Taylor, as deputy ; he acted as postmaster till the latter part of 1856, when he removed to Philadelphia.

The "company's store" was the only one in the village until 1860, when Johnson & Lance embarked in trade, and in the same year the " company's store" passed into the possession of Nicholas Emery.

High Bridge village contained, in 1880, a population of 1034. The business carried on by the Taylor Iron- Works, in which nearly 200 men are employed, makes the village a stirring place, and of itself contributes greatly toward sustaining the village interests, while two extensive plumbago-manufacturing establish- ments close at hand, and the support furnished by the adjacent rich agricultural region, render valuable assistance in encouraging a prosperous growth.

Besides being a station on the New Jersey Central Railroad, Iligh Bridge is connected with Port Oram and Chester on the northeast by a branch of the Cen- tral Railroad, known as the High Bridge Railroad. This was opened in 1876, and in the fall of 1880 was being extended toward Dover and Rockaway.

Referring to the post-office succession, it may be briefly stated that William Lance succeeded D. L. Everett in 1865, and was in turu followed by William K. Taylor and Elias Terreberry, the latter being the present incumbent.

High Bridge's first physician was William C. Al- paugh, also the first resident physician at Cokesburg. Ile was in the latter place from 1868 to 1869, and has been in High Bridge from 1869 to the present. Wil- liam Hackett was a physician in High Bridge from 1869 to 1872, and Alfred Walton from 1879 to ISSO.

CHURCHES.

HIGHI BRIDGE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHI.

There was a Methodist Episcopal class in High Bridge as early as the year 1854, at which time the preacher in charge on the Clinton Circuit held ser- vices in the Albright Methodist church, built in High Bridge in 1854. This, the first church edifice erected

in High Bridge, was built by the Albright Methodists, but they failing to prosper, were compelled to dis- solve their organization, and gave up the property, which was for a few years used in common by the Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, and Dutch Re- formed congregations, and called a union church. As recollection serves now, it recalls the members of the High Bridge class in 1854 to have included J. R. Bowns, Thomas Day, Amy Hustleton, Mrs. Mary Philhower, Barney Philhower, Maria Dilts, J. A. Cregar, William S. Apgar; J. R. Bowns being the leader.

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History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 129

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170