USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Jersey City > History of Jersey City, N.J. : a record of its early settlement and corporate progress, sketches of the towns and cities that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality, its business, finance, manufactures and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 48
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The Other Side of Press Room No. 3 of The Jersey City Printing_Co.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
Sometimes, in cases of very large orders, the electrotype plates are curved to fit the cylin- ders of a rotary perfecting press. In such a case the paper is fed in from great rolls, being separated into sheets by rapidly-revolving knives that may be adjusted to cut any length of sheet required. C There are but one or two printing offices in the country where presses of this descrip- tion are used, but The Jersey City Printing Company has two machines of this kind in constant operation. To one of them an ingenious mechanism is affixed by which the sheets are folded as fast as printed. In most cases, however, the sheets reach the bindery unfolded, and then they are immediately taken to the folding-room. There rows of machines and rows of girl operators alternate. The sheets are fed into the swiftly-running machines and come out folded. They are peculiar in shape at this stage. On opening the fold, each page will be found dupli- cated, perhaps even triplicated. In the majority of cases the The Folding Machines and " Gathering " Tables in Bindery of The Jersey City Printing Co. work now goes to the assemblers, girls, who, with paper knives in their hands, with marvellous celerity shoot the folded sheet into the already folded covers, piles of which stand at their left. In case, however, the customer is particular, and does not like to see the wire stitches that fasten the covers to the inside pages showing through the covers, the sheets go at once to the stitchers, the covering forming a subsequent operation.
These stitchers are odd-looking machines, not much unlike a sewing machine, each attended by a girl, and using wire instead of thread. An expert girl will easily feed 10,000 double books per day, each requiring four stitches. Each machine, therefore, feeds, cuts off, drives and clinches 40,000 staples per day. The stitching of the covered pamphlet being complete, the books are then taken to the trimming machines. Here they are placed on a revolving table and C clamped down by a wooden block the exact size of the finished duplicate or trip- licate, a screw pressure is applied, and the face of the pile brought in con- tact with a large knife that works like a guillotine. The blade, driven by steam, and manipulated by the man who runs the ma- chine, glides through a cubic foot or more of paper as easily and noiselessly as if it were cutting cheese. The table is turned until each face of the pile has The Stitchers and Stitching Machines in Bindery of The Jersey City Printing Co. been trimined, and the pamphlets are ready for the cutter. lle places piles of them on a cutting machine, and the double pamphlets are eut apart as accurately and as quickly as they were trimmed. Another
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
department then receives them, and they are made up into convenient packages for shipping or sent to the mailing department and wrapped, addressed and bagged for the post-offiee.
The printer who prints has disappeared.
Trade necessities have been met by inventions.
Speed and accuracy made subdivision
of labor and automatic machinery in- dispensable. The result is the modern printing estab- lishment-the complex or- ganization which pro- duces millions of pages
and 70 York Street, Jersey City, New Jer- sey. This com- pany now con- trols what was once the job printing de- partment of The Evening
where the old time
Journal Association.
printer printed hun- dreds. Perhaps the
most perfect exam-
ple of this evolution that can be found in the United States
When business began to revive after the depression of 1873, this department of The Even- ing Journal's business took large strides. Orders
flowed in from local business houses and from firms in the great city across the Hudson, until it be- came evident that increased facilities would be required to meet the demand.
is shown in the immense plant of The Jersey City Printing The Sheet Cutters and Book Trimmers in Bindery of The Jersey City Printing Co. Company at 68 Mr. Edward M. Watson, then foreman of the job printing department, was selected to take charge of the growing business, and he has superintended the work most successfully ever since. By 1878 cvery inch of available space in the Journal building on Montgomery Street and an adjoining building fronting on Greene Street had been pressed into the service. Still the business grew, and the Greene Street building was raised and a large basement built beneath it to afford more room. In 1884 the business assumed such proportions that a separate company was required to conduct it. This company was organized with Major Z. K. Pangborn, president ; Samuel Hague, secretary ; Joseph A. Dear, treasurer and general manager, and
Edward M. Watson, su- perintendent. Originally a concern with a local husi- ness only, it soon became one of the institutions of the country, known wherever large contracts were made for printing. It was not long before the two buildings, though en- larged and strengthened, were again inadequate, and additional space had to be secured. After much negotiation the double lot .on York Street in the rear of the Journal building, formerly occupied by the old Washington Hotel, was secured. This afforded a site for a building 47 feet The Machine Folding Room in Bindery of The Jersey City Printing Ch front and 90 feet deep. The building put up was erected in the method recommended by Mr. E. Atkinson, the insur- ance expert, and known as the slow-burning plan of construction. Solid brick walls, heavy
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
hewn timber pillars, immense square beams, solid floors and no hollow spaces are the charac- teristies of the structure. The plans were drawn by L. H. Broome, architect; the mason
work was done by James Whelihan & Sons, and the woodwork by Henry Z. Niblet. The result is ad- mitted to be the strongest, most substantial building in Jersey City. It is equipped with all modern devices for preventing and extinguishing fires. Perfect as it is in construction, still the building is only the rind tliat encloses the core of a marvellous organism, r complex but harmonious. What the prophet Ezekiel had in his mind when, writing about his sublime vision, he said, " the spirit of the living creature was The Hand Folding Room in Bindery of The Jersey City Printing Co. in the wheels," can only be surmised ; but no one can make a tour of this building without receiving a similar impression. Machines, intricate as the mechanism of a chronometer, and ponderous as locomotives, throb and whir with tireless energy, exercising apparently irresistible force, yet controlled by the slightest movement of the hand.
Some of these machines are unique, and are the inventions of Mr. Joseph A. Dear. One of thein is a web press, to which has been added a folder capable of folding pamphlets at newspaper speed. Another novel machine is a press for printing on tissue paper. This turns out 48,000 orange wrappers an hour. It is also from designs by Mr. Dear, and is so successful in speed and accuracy that there is no longer any competition in this branch of the business.
1
E M WATSON.
Superintendent J. C. P. C ...
S. HAGUE, JR., Asst. Superintendent J. C. P. Co.
These machines are in the basement of the building. Besides these big presses there is a machine-shop in the basement, where the repairs required in the establishment are made.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
A 75-horse-power boiler generates steam and drives a 60-horse-power Ball & Wood engine in this basement.
The second floor is entirely devoted to flat-bed perfecting presses built by Huber and Campbell. The third floor is occupied by flat-bed presses from the Campbell, Huber and
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JOHN S. WATSON. Salesman.
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WM. Y. DEAR, Salesman.
Miehle manufactories. Among them are specimens of the largest printing machines in the country, and all are capable of the finest work.
The fourth floor is used for the bindery, and it has the greatest capacity of any pamphlet bindery in the United States. Among the machines on this floor are three straight paper cut-
JERE. VANDERBECK. Foreman Composing Rooms
HENRY BUNDV. Foreman Press Rooms
ting machines, five book trimmers, a large punching machine, a ponderous smashing machine, twenty point and edge folders, seventeen stitching machines, with capacities ranging from books of one-eighth of an inch to books of an inch in thickness. More machinery connected with this department hums and works on a mezzanine floor above the upper story, but a list of the
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
machines in the building would convey no information to an outsider. The capacity of the plant is 400,000 printed sheets daily. The several departments are all arranged on a scale that produces that output. The business now comes from all parts of the country. The leading patent medicine men from every seetion now solicit bids for their printing, and the orange growers of Florida and California draw heavily on the resources of the company. Almanacs in all languages are turned out by the million, and commercial printing of every kind is done with speed and accuracy only hoped for in concerns which have not the best mechanical facilities. From the basement, where electric light enables the workers to direct the machinery, to the upper floors, where rows of good-looking girls operate the binding and folding machines in high- ceiled, well-lighted rooms, the whole building is filled with labor and time-saving machinery, and pulsating with tireless activity.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE MEN WHO ARE PROMINENT IN THE CITY'S AFFAIRS TO-DAY.
ETER F. WANSER was born near New Brunswick, Middlesex County, N. J., Janu- ary 24, 1849. His parents removed to Jersey City soon after his birth, and he was educated in Public School No. 1. under Principal George H. Lindsley. He left school at the age of eighteen, and began his business career as an employee of the importing firm of Brown & Co., of New York. He remained with them a year and a half, and resigned to ac- cept a position with his father, At that time his father, William H. Wanser, was engaged in the foreign fruit business, and was the inost extensive importer in that line in New York. His father went out of business a few years later, and he accepted a position with John E. Stone, in the same business. He re- mained with Stone ten years, resigning to accept an appointment as United States enstom inspector, which had been tendered to him by Collector Merritt. He remained in the cus- toms service until the elec- tion of President Cleve- land, when he resigned. At the November election of 1882 he was elected a member of assembly, and served acceptably during the legislative session of 1883. He declined a re- nomination. He was sub- sequently appointed by the joint meeting of the legislature as a police justice of Jersey City, and at the end of his first terni of three years was reap- PETER F. WANSER. pointed for a second term. His administration of the office gained him much popularity on account of his integrity, and he was chosen as the republican candidate for surrogate.
There is little doubt that he was elected, but the manipulation of the ballot boxes, which was common at that time, caused his defeat. After leaving the bench he formed a partnership
338
HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
with James H. Love, formerly city collector of Jersey City, and they built up a large business in real estate and insurance. In 1892 he was induced to accept the nomination for mayor of Jersey City. He did so unwillingly, but when he did consent, he entered heartily into the work of the canvass. He was at that time the most popular man in the city. Everybody knew that the city affairs would be honestly administered if he was in charge. They put him in charge, and their expectations have been fully realized. Since his election as mayor, the ex- penses of the city government have been reduced ; its business has been promptly and efficiently attended to; its debt has been very materially reduced ; many miles of streets have been paved and repaired, and new public buildings and school-houses have been erected. The general reorganization of the city government has been carried on by his direction and under his per- sonal supervision.
In spite of a busy career in mercantile and civic matters, he has been a member of the National Guard for a quarter of a century. He enlisted in Company E, Fourth Regiment, on June 1, 1870, as a private, and served through all the grades in the regiment. He was a sergeant in his company, and soon rose to command the company. He was very popular as captain, and was promoted to major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel. In 1892 he· became commandant of the brigade. His position as brigadier- general made him a member of the State military board, and it is largely due to his efforts in this board that Jersey City now has a fine armory for the Fourth Regiment. It has been truly said that "Farm" Wanser has had many opponents but no enemies. He was married to Miss Abbie Mabie, but has no children.
He is a member of the Union League, Arion, Crescent and New Jersey clubs, and of the Veteran Association of the City Guards.
DAVID STOUT MANNERS was born at East Amwell. Hunterdon County, N. J. His ancestry was honorably mentioned in the military record of the Revolution. His grandfather, Capt. John Schenck, made an honorable record in the battles of Mon- DAVID STOUT MANNERS. month and Princeton. His father, Capt. David Manners, was an officer in the War of 1812, and won honorable mention in several engagements. The early years of David S. Manners were spent on his father's farm and in aiding his father in land surveying. In 1840, when in his thirty-second year, he sold the family homestead and engaged in the wholesale grocery trade in New York. He achieved competence in fourteen years. He located in Jersey City in 1844, and in 1848 was elected a member of the board of aldermen. Later he was elected a member from the second ward, and was made chairman of the common council and, ex-officio, a inember of the board of water commissioners, at that time engaged in constructing the city water-works. In 1852 he was elected mayor, and was re-elected for five terms. In 1854 he was elected president of the New Amsterdam Fire Insurance Company of New York, and served for many years. He was married in 1843 to Miss D. P. Johnes, of New York City. She died in 1876. Mayor Manners died August 19, 1884, after an illness of several months. He left surviving four daughters and three sons : Virginia, wife of John W. Beekman, a member of the Middlesex bar, residing at Perth Amboy ; Marie Louise, Helen, Blanche, Sheridan, a civil engineer ; Edwin, a member of the Hudson County bar, and Clarence.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
Mayor Manners was a public-spirited citizen, and was prominently connected with the long contest to preserve the Jersey City water fronts from the encroachment of the monopolies that now control it. He was a member of Grace Church, and an active agent and worker for the advancement of the city's interests.
CHARLES SIEDLER was born on May 24, 1839, in the fortified town of Munden, Westphalia. Germany ; his father emigrated to this country in 1842 and located in New York City; his mother died when he was but nine days old ; his father died in 1851, when the subject of this article was twelve years old. What little school education he received was at Grammar School No. 16, in the seventh ward of the city of New York, then located in Madison Street, near Gouverneur. As soon as his father died he realized the necessity of earning his own living, and engaged as retail clerk in a house which dealt in imported cigars, at 22 Nassau Street, ad- jacent to where the post-office and custom house were then located. After about four years' service in this place, he was engaged by the late Peter Lorillard, who then had a retail and wholesale establishment at 42 Chatham Street, New York City, and remained with that house until he was twenty-one years of age, when he became a partner in the establishment. In this business he continued until about six years ago, when he retired therefrom. After about four years of retirement he was requested, by parties in control, to take charge, as receiver, of the Lorillard Brick Works Company, which concern had become financially insolvent.
It must not be inferred that because he was only permitted to attend school for about four years that his education is of a very limited nature ; on the contrary, he realized early in life that if he wished to make himself valuable to others, that he must improve his mind, by stor- ing up knowledge; consequently, he devoted himself faithfully to acquiring whatever he could obtain from books, and he has always been a diligent student of every matter which interested him. He also learned at an early day, that if he would make his employers valuable to him, that he must become valuable to them, and, consequently, has always been a diligent worker, faithfully attending to every detail of business, and conscientiously executing whatever duties were imposed. Another lesson which he learned, and which he always endeavored to put into practical execution, is, that in order to live peaceably and pleasantly in the world, he must "deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God."
He was the Centennial Mayor of Jersey City, in 1876, the only political office which he ever held ; this was not of his own choosing ; the nomination was forced upon him at a time when the republican party could scarcely induce anyone to accept the position, because of the probabilities of certain defeat, as the party was, at that time, in a minority ; no republican mayor had been elected for many years, consequently he took up the banner at a time when it appeared a forlorn hope ; and although one of the strongest candidates of the democratic party was nominated against him, he was elected by a very decisive majority. Mr. Siedler found, however, that the environments of a political life were not congenial to his taste, and the many arduous duties incumbent upon him caused him to positively decline a renomination ; in order to avoid the importunities of his friends and partisans, he purposely absented himself from the city, and remained absent during the entire canvass ; sent one declination after another to his friends and to the nominating convention, as well as notices throughout the papers, but, despite his refusal to run, he came very near being elected a second time, in which event the city would have been obliged to bear the expense of a new election, as he had positively agreed not to ac- cept any further political emoluments at the hands of the people. He always expresses grati- tude to the people of Jersey City for having honored him, and says that he feels that, having borne his part of the burden of public duty, he is entitled to relief from any further service.
He was a resident of Jersey City and Hudson County for a period of thirty years, and now resides at Morristown, N. J.
EDWARD F. C. YouNG. No history of the progress of Jersey City in the past fifty years would be complete without reference to the lifework of Edward F. C. Young. His career af- fords a striking example of the possibilities afforded by American institutions to young men of perseverance and determination. Beginning in life as a poor boy, he has, by his own efforts. and a strict attention to business principles and methods, reached a high position of honor and esteem among his fellow-men. Mr. Young's ancestors on the paternal side were English, and the first one to settle in this country was the Rev. John Young, who emigrated to Connecticut
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
in 1638, and in 1640 crossed Long Island Sound and made his home in Southold. He lived to the age of seventy-one years, dying in 1692. On the maternal side the grandparents of Mr. Young were Scotch. Edward F. C. Young was born in Morris County, New Jersey, in 1835. In 1844 he moved to Jersey City, and has been a continuous resident ever since. After receiv- ing an education in the public schools, Mr. Young began his financial career in 1852, at which time he accepted a position as clerk in the Hudson County Bank, being made receiving teller in 1853, and paying teller in 1858. During 1856 he held the office of collector of assessments. In June, 1864, he was called to the Mechanics and Traders Bank, and January 2, 1865, he was made assistant cashier of the First National Bank, the two banks having been consolidated at
EDWARD F. C. YOUNG.
that time. In November, 1865, he was elected city treasurer, which position he held for five years. In 1873 he took his seat as alderman of the fifth ward, which was strongly repub- lican at that time. In 1874 and 1875 he was elected freeholder, and was an active member of that board until May, 1876, when he was made the first director-at-large. Mr. Young was made cashier of the First National Bank in 1874, and in 1879 became its president. In 1880 he was chosen as an elector on the democratic ticket, and cast his vote for General Hancock. In 1889 he was appointed State railroad director, which position he has filled four years con- secutively.
A glance over the posi- tions held by Mr. Young at the present time is ample proof of his sagacity as a successful business man. Among them are the .fol- lowing : president of the First National Bank, president of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, president of the New Coal- dale Coal Company, presi-
dent of the Cleveland Seed Company, president of the Construction Traction Company, and the North River Bridge Company. He is a director and chairman of the executive committee of the New Jersey Title Guarantee and Trust Company, director and chairman of the executive and finance committees of the American Type Founders' Company, a director in the Liberty National Bank of New York City. Ile is receiver for fifteen different corporations. Mr. Young's recognized ability in financial matters has been of great benefit to the First National Bank, and under his guidance it has rapidly pushed to the front, and to-day it stands as the largest and most important in the State, its deposits being in excess of $4,000,000.
Mr. Young is probably a member of a greater number of social clubs and other organiza-
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
tions than any other citizen of Jersey City. He is extremely popular, and has a legion of friends in every walk of life. He is a member of the Carteret, Palma, Jersey City Athletic, Cosmos and Hudson County Democratic elubs : the New Jersey Athletic Club, of Bergen Point : Man- hattan and Lawyers' clubs, of New York City ; honorary member of the Split Roek Club and Washington Association, of Morristown, N. J., and the Chamber of Commerce, of New York. He was one of three persons who organized the Children's Friend Society, of Jersey City. his colleagues being the Rev. Dr. R. L. Dashiell and James Gopsill. Outside of business circles Mr. Young has received many flattering evidences of the esteem in which he is held by the people and his political associates, and, among other offices in the gift of the people. he has been asked to allow his name to be used as a candidate for United States senator for New Jer- sey and for governor of the State. In either position he would be an honor to both the people and the State.
Mr. Young has a charming family, consisting of his wife, son, daughter and grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Young hold a prominent position in the social, church and philanthropie circles of the city, and dispense a generous hospi- tality from their beautiful home on Glenwood Avenue. It is to such men as Edward F. C. Young that Jersey City owes her prosperity. His many good deeds, and his standing as a citizen in this community, will be a lasting monument to his memory in generations to come.
JOHN D. CARSCALLEN was born in Canada, and removed to Jersey City in 1852, before he was of age. The city at that time had a population of about 12,000, and was growing rapidly. He grew up with it and was an effective force in shaping its affairs. He was possessed of rare husiness ability, ceaseless industry and a tenacity of pur- pose which easily brought him to the front in any movement for the betterment of the city. In business, in politics, and in finance, he has accomplished as much as any citizen who has devoted himself solely to one branch, and yet for a quarter of a century of his busy life he was an officer in St. Paul's M. E. Church, and found time to attend public meetings and to take an active interest in all public questions. He entered the employ of James Warner, JOHN D. CARSCALLEN. in the flour and grain business, soon after he arrived in Jersey City, and his industry was soon rewarded with a partnership in the business. For thirty years this partnership was continued, during which they established an up-town firm under the name of Carscallen, Cassedy & Company. After the dissolution of the firm of War- ner & Carseallen, the Co, was dropped from the firm of Carseallen & Cassedy, and it still con- tinues one of the most prosperous in the city. The firm founded the Pavonia Mills and the Elevator Company. It owns half of the block bounded by Henderson, Provost and Eleventh and Twelfth streets, which it has covered with immense storage warehouses and flouring mills The Jersey City Milling Company came from the West, and the firm owning the land and buildings joined in the new corporation, taking twenty-five per cent. of the stock. Mr Cars- callen was elected president, and under his management the business has prospered, and the output is now seven hundred harrels daily. The business of the Elevator Company has also grown until it is one of the leading industries of the city. The business of the firm, independ. ent of the manufacturing of flour, amounts to an average of a million dollars annually. These
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