USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 2
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In the banking circles of New Jersey in the latter part of the past century there were two sons of New Brunswick who gained prominence in the financial interests of neighboring cities. Augustus A. Harden- bergh was a son of Cornelius L. Hardenbergh, one of the most eminent members of the bar of the State, a grandson of Rev. John R. Harden- bergh, the founder of Queen's College, afterwards Rutgers College, and its first president. The younger Hardenbergh was born in New Brunswick, May 18, 1830, and became a student at Rutgers College in 1844. He, however, was obliged to relinquish his studies before the end of the course on account of the sudden blindness of his father, to act as his amanuensis. His banking career commenced in 1846, when he became connected with a banking firm in New York City, and from this time he became a resident of Jersey City. He became connected in 1852 with the Hudson County Bank in that city in the capacity of a teller, and four years later was made cashier. Being an eloquent speaker, he soon attracted political attention, and although a Democrat, he was elected in a strong Whig district in 1853 to the State Legisla- ture, and though the youngest member of that body, he became one of the most prominent by his services in securing the passage of the General Banking Act, and in opposition to granting further powers to the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company, which at that time was a gigantic monopoly. He was nominated in 1874, without solicitation on his part, for the Forty-fourth Congress, and was elected by a large majority. He was reelected in 1876, but having been elected president of the Hudson County National Bank in 1878, he declined to serve. Two
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years later, on the imperative demand of the leaders of his party, he again became a candidate and was elected to the Forty-seventh Con- gress, five thousand majority. During his first term of Congress he was a member of the military, centennial and District of Columbia committees, and during his second and third terms he was on the banking and currency committee. Mr. Hardenbergh's six years of congressional life were full of activity and energy ; he discharged his duties with all the thoroughness and fidelity which characterized his action in his private business, and during his term of service he did not miss a single vote in the House of Representatives. His death occurred at Jersey City, October 3, 1889.
The active career of Edward Stelle Campbell was distinguished by exceptional business ability and sagacity. He was born in New Bruns- wick, January 8, 1854. He attended the public schools of that city, graduating in 1868, and two years later found employment in the National Bank of New Jersey, where he spent fourteen years, during ten of which he was cashier. In January, 1894, he became vice-president of the National Newark Banking Company, the oldest banking organiza- tion in the State, and on its merging with the Newark City National Bank in 1902, when the capital stock was made $1,000,000, Mr. Campbell became president, which position he held at the time of his death at Lake George, New York, July 2, 1905.
In the army circles of the present day, New Brunswick is represented by William Weigel, who was born in the city, August 25, 1863, a son or Philip and Anna (Slizer) Weigel. A graduate of West Point in 1887, his first military duties were in Indian warfare in the West. At the breaking out of the Spanish-American War he was assistant to the chief-quartermaster of the Division of Cuba. He was transferred in 1901 and became chief-quartermaster in the Philippine Islands and participated in the campaign against the Ladrones. In the insurrection in the Island of Samar, he held Samar with forty-eight men for sixteen days against the insurgents. He returned to the Uunited States in 1903, but was again assigned for duty in the Philippines from 1907 to 1909. General Weigel was on duty on the Mexican border in 1913 and 1914. At the time of the entrance of the United States in the World's War, after serving as commander of the Seventy-sixth Division and Canton- ment at Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts, he sailed for France, and from May 5, 1918, to the demobilization, June 14, 1919, for the greater part of the time was commander of the Eighty-eighth division. He participated in the Champagne-Marne defensive, the Aisne-Marne offensive, Oise-Aisne offensive, and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He was awarded two croix-de-guerre by France, was made a commander in the Legion of Honor, and "for exceptionally meritorious and distin- guished services" was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
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Brigadier-General Joseph C. Castner, who commanded the Ninth Infantry Brigade in all its operations as a part of the Fifth Division, American Expeditionary Forces, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, November 18, 1869, son of Cornelius W. Castner, who was captain of one of New Brunswick's first companies in the Civil War. Joseph C. Castner in 1891 was graduated from Rutgers College with the degree of Civil Engineer. On August 1, 1891, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the United States Army and assigned to the Fourth Infantry for duty. He has since been promoted as follows: First lieu- tenant, Fourth Infantry, April 28, 1898; captain, Squadron Philippine Cavalry, April 23, 1900; captain, Fourth Infantry, February 2, 1901 ; major, Twenty-first Infantry, August 27, 1913; lieutenant-colonel, Sixth Infantry, May 13, 1917; colonel, Thirty-eighth Infantry, August 5, 1917; brigadier-general, Ninth Brigade, April 12, 1918. He attended the Infantry and Cavalry School in 1895, and was in the War College in 1915.
Prior to the World War, General Castner had already distinguished himself. While a lieutenant he rendered great service to the American government as an explorer in Alaska. In the Philippines, for his serv- ices with the Tagalog scouts, he was promoted to a captaincy in the Philippine squadron of cavalry, which commission he held until receiving a captaincy in the regular army. Later he served as constructing quar- termaster in both Honolulu and in Yellowstone National Park. While yet a captain, he commanded the Second Battalion, Fourteenth Infantry, and under his training that battalion made an unequaled record in known distance firing. While a major he was adjutant-general of the National Guard of the District of Columbia, which he developed to a high state of efficiency. As colonel of the Thirty-eighth Infantry he instilled that fighting spirit which won for that regiment its fame as the "Rock of the Marne."
As brigadier-general he took command of the Ninth Infantry Bri- gade. In the quiet Anould and St. Die sectors he gave the units of the brigade effective training for the big operations that were to follow. In the St. Mihiel offensive, General Castner's brigade was at first in reserve with the Tenth Brigade in line. When passage of lines was made he pushed his outpost lines up near to the Hindenburg Line. In the first phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive his brigade captured Cunel, and drove the enemy from the Bois-de-la-Pultiere and the north- western Bois-de-Foret. In the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, General Castner's brigade captured Aincreville, Clery-le- Grand, Clery-le-Petit, Bois de Babiemont, the Punchbowl and Doulcon. Then the brigade forced the difficult crossing of the river Meuse, and fighting northward captured in succession Dun-sur-Meuse, Milly-devant- Dun, Lion-devant-Dun, Cote St. Germain, Charmois Chateau, Mouzay. and the Foret-de-Woevre.
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In appreciation for his services in the Meuse-Argonne operation, General Castner was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He has been cited in Fifth Division Orders. General Castner is a man's man, a soldier and a leader. In mental and physical alertness, in devo- tion to duty, in zeal and energy, he is an example, alike to men and officers. There is no man in his brigade who will not gladly join him at any time for any duty. While his brigade formed part of the Army of Occupation, General Castner took the course of instruction at the Army Center of Artillery Studies at Trier, Germany.
It was on April 2, 1917, that President Wilson appeared before Congress, advising a declaration of war against Germany. On the same date Edward F. Farrington, mayor of New Brunswick issued a proclamation, which was printed in six different languages-English, German, Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Greek-in which he assured the foreign born residents every protection as long as they remained loyal. There was not, however, during the entire period of the war, the least sign of disloyalty shown by any of the inhabitants. Every precaution was taken to insure public safety ; a Home Defense League was formed, and the water plant, bridges, factories and public buildings were placed under guard. The Pennsylvania railroad bridge was carefully watched; the first real sign of threatening war was the placing of guards and the building of guard houses at each end of the bridge, on the tow path and on the bridge proper.
It was on April 6, 1917, that Company H of the Second Regiment of New Jersey, sixty-eight men strong, under command of Captain J. Bayard Kirkpatrick, left New Brunswick for Trenton, thence to Cam- den, and were detailed to points to be guarded. Events followed in quick succession. June 5, 1917, was registration day; the total for the city was 2,423 whites, 162 blacks, 1,713 aliens; totalling to 4,298. Ex- emption was demanded by a very small percentage of native-born Ameri- cans. Statistics show that of the 2.701 men first called for examination, 240 failed to appear, while 71 had previously enlisted ; rejected for physical disabilities and other causes, 1,380. The registration for young men reaching twenty-one years of age since June 5, 1917, added 256 to the list of draft registrants. The registration of September 12. 1918, for between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, enrolled for the New National army was 5,545 in New Brunswick proper, and in Mid- dlesex county, outside of Perth Amboy, 20,223 men. Of the men registered in New Brunswick, 2.574 were native-born citizens, 573 naturalized citizens, 133 citizens by father's naturalization, making a total of 3,280 citizens eligible for military service. Of the other men registered, 766 had taken out first papers, and 1,389 were non-declarant aliens, 5,204 were white, 216 black, 15 were Chinamen. The aliens were mainly Austrians and Hungarians, 578 of these being non-declarant,
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while 338 had taken out first papers ; 118 declarants and 184 non-declar- ants were Italians; 115 declarants and 143 non-declarants claimed Russia as the country of their nativity; the Greeks were represented by 23 declarants and 169 non-declarants; Turkey by 18 declarants and 134 non-declarants; while the German Imperial Government was rep- resented by 31 declarants and 15 non-declarants. The remainder were divided between France, Portugal, China, Japan, Denmark, Netherlands, Roumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Central and South America and Bulgaria. The new recruits left for the training camps as they were called, where they were organized into regiments, eventually becoming a part of the United States forces in France.
The statement of New Brunswick's World War activities -- con- tributions of men and means-will be found in the Appendix, on con- cluding pages of this History.
JOHN P. WALL.
THE N. PUBLIC LIBRARY
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FOOT OF STATE STREET. PERTH AMBOY
WATER FRONT, PERTH AMBOY
CHAPTER XXVII. PERTH AMBOY.
The early settlement of Perth Amboy, the hopes of its progenitors and the way in which the prospects of the carefully planned settlement at the mouth of the Raritan river were not realized, suggest the life of the average human being. Born to fond parents, what dreams there are of future greatness and of wonderful accomplishments, and how seldom do subsequent developments agree with the plans and predictions of those who were interested in our advent into the world. The settlement of Perth Amboy, its location, the planning of its institutions and its thoroughfares, were in no way a matter of accident. Wise heads in Scot- land and England planned the new home for their settlers, and figured that they were founding a city which was to rival London as a commer- cial port and as one of the great cities of the world. Men and women were sent here of the sturdy Scotch stock; the infant Amboy was given the impetus of official approval, and funds were not lacking for all neces- sities ; but for two centuries it proved a laggard, and only within the last three decades has Perth Amboy given any intimation that the hopes of those who thought and planned for a great city may ever be realized. In early writings reference to the country at the mouth of the Raritan river is found, and more than thirty years before the first shipload of settlers crossed the Atlantic for the new home in America, the region was char- ted and an estimate of its advantages and its resources sent back to London for the edification of the royal owners of the land and their retainers.
What is now the land within the corporate limits of Perth Amboy was set aside as the particular property of the Lords Proprietors as early as 1669, so reserved in the charter granted to Woodbridge in that year. The reservation of this tract of land, accessible from tide water, high and dry, without an equal anywhere in the entire State, is credited to the fore- sight and judgment of Governor Carteret. Its position, as early histor- ians have pointed out, presented facilities for almost every pursuit that an enterprising people might adopt ; and the failure to make it a place of more extensive trade than it has yet become, takes nothing from the credit due the first Governor for selecting so eligible a situation for a town. The thoroughness with which the royal proprietors of the prov- ince planned the settlement of Amboy, or Amboy Point, as it was first called, may be realized by reading the following "proposals" for building and settling the town:
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Forasmuch as Ambo Point is a sweet, wholesome and delightful place, proper for trade, by reason of its commodious situation, upon a safe harbor, being likewise accommodated with a navigable river, and fresh water, and bath, by many persons of the greatest experience and best judgment, been approved for the goodness of the air, soil and situ- ation.
We, the proprietors, purpose by the help of Almighty God, with all convenient speed, to build a convenient town, for merchandise, trade and fishery, on Ambo Point; and because persons that hath a desire to plant there, may not be disappointed for want of proposals, we, the proprietors, offer these following :
First; We intend to divide fifteen hundred acres of land upon Ambo Point into one hundred and fifty lots; which lots shall consist of ten acres the lot, one hundred of the lots we are willing to sell here, and fifty we reserve for such as are in America, and have long desired to settle there.
Secondly ; The price of each lot shall be fifteen pounds sterling, to such who purchase before the twenty-fifth of December, 1682; and to such who purchase afterwards, before the twenty-fifth of December, 1683, twenty pounds sterling.
Thirdly; Every lot is to be divided equally as the goodness of the place doth require, and the situation can admit.
Fourthly; The most convenient spot of ground for a town, shall be divided into one hundred and fifty equal shares, and set out into streets, according to rules of art; and no persons shall be preferred before another in choice, whether purchaser or proprietor.
Fifthly; We reserve four acres for a market place, townhouse, etc., and three acres for public wharfage.
Sixthly; Each purchaser is obliged to build a dwelling house in the place designed for the town, and to clear three acres of upland, in three years, or else the proprietors to be reinstated in such lots wherein default is made, repaying the purchase money.
Seventhly; We, the proprietors, do within a year hope, by God's assistance, to build for each of us one house upon Ambo Point; which we intend shall stand in an orderly manner, according to the best and most convenient model; and in pursuance of the design of the proposi- tion abovesaid.
Eighthly; And for the encouragement of carpenters, joiners, brick and tile makers, bricklayers, masons, sawyers and laborers of all sorts, who are willing to go and employ themselves and servants, in helping to clear ground, and build houses upon the general acount of and for the proprietors.
The said proprietors will engage to find them work, and current pay for the same, in money or clothes and provision of which there is plenty (as beef, pork, corn, etc.) according to the market price at New York, during the space of one year at least, next after the twenty-fifth of December 1682; in which time (in God's blessing and through their industry) they may have got wherewith to buy cows, horses, hogs and other goods, to stock that land, which they in the meantime may take up, according to the concessions; neither shall such persons pay rent for their said land, so long as they are employed in the proprietor's work; and their wages shall at all times be so much as other such artificers and
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laborers, in the said province usually have, nor shall they be obliged to work for the proprietors longer than they find encouragement so to do.
Ninthly; And for the more ready and certain employing those work- men and laborers that shall transport themselves to East Jersey, this is to let all laborers and persons that shall transport themselves know, they must upon their arrival upon that place, repair to the register of the above said province, and enter themselves according to their respective qualities and designs and thereupon they shall be entered into the service and pay of the proprietors.
So slowly were the hopes of the owners of the land realized, that it was not until the census of 1840, a century and a half after the original settlement, that the population reached 1,000, the figures at the end of that decade being 1,303. An even halfdozen of the royal governors, whose line began with Carteret and ended with the gifted Franklin, made Perth Amboy their home during at least a part of their terms. The first was Robert Hunter, prominent as a soldier and as a writer, besides being of high rank as a statesman. William Burnet, polished and accomplished son of the great bishop of that name, honored the people whom he gov- erned by living among them for a time. Then came John Hamilton, Francis Bernard and Thomas Boone, the latter followed by Franklin, who, like most of those who came to the Jerseys at all, lived part of the time in Burlington.
As a city, Perth Amboy came into corporate existence in the year 1718, when, under date of August 24th a royal charter was granted upon the recommendation of Governor Hunter. The seal adopted was that in use at the present time, and on which the name of Perth Amboy is used. Perth was taken as a compliment to the Earl of Perth, who was one of the original owners of the land by royal grant. The attempt was appar- ently made to call the settlement by that name alone, but the designation "Ambo" or "Amboy Point" had become so fixed by constant usage that Perth Amboy was easily agreed upon as the title to be used in the char- ter. The right to select the mayor was reserved to the royal governor, and it was not until all the prerogatives of the crown were abrogated that the people of the city were allowed to select by ballot their chief magistrate. The governor also named the sheriff and the water bailiff. The recorder and the clerk were also designated by the governor, but the people were allowed to choose the aldermen, assistant aldermen, cham- berlain, coroner, overseers of the poor and constables, but none was allowed to vote except he be a freeholder.
The device on the city seal is thus described : "On the dexter a hunt- ing horn, and over it Arte non impetu; on the sinister a ship riding at anchor in the harbor, under it Portus Optimus." The connection between the hunting horn and its motto and the past history or future destinies of the city might afford matter for discussion for a whole college of
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heraldry, were not the clue presented in Governor Hunter's own escutch- eon. The petitioners for the charter for the city missed no chance to win the favor of His Excellency, and placed upon the seal of the cor- poration the arms of the governor's family.
The careless handling of public affairs, which is a curse of American municipalities, manifested itself throughout the history of Perth Amboy. Documents pertaining to the establishment of the city and its institutions are wholly in private hands, if they remain at all. A comparatively few are preserved in the New Jersey Historical Society's vaults in Newark, but even in recent years important papers that should never have been outside the City Hall of Perth Amboy have turned up at auctions and in book stores in various parts of the country, even now to become the property of private collectors, rather than of the municipality to which they belong by a right and title which cannot be set aside. There are practically no records of the city before 1880, and many since that date are incomplete. This is deeply regretted by every student of local his- tory. Were it not for the records of the State, none too faithfully kept as to detail, and the writings of William Dunlap and later of Whitehead, scarcely anything would be known of the first century and a half of Perth Amboy. Both of these writers gave us reminiscent sketches rather than detailed or consecutive historical record, but those interested in the sub- ject are deeply grateful for the morsels that have been transmitted to this generation by these two gifted writers.
The real industrial life of Perth Amboy began with the decision of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company to make the city its tidewater terminus. Coal wharves were erected, and in 1876 the shipment of anthracite coal to eastern and foreign ports was commenced. After a few years the shipments of coal aggregated more than two million tons annually, and for a long time the total amount handled has been in excess of that total. The coming and going of coal carriers brought other industries to the awakened city. A shipbuilder, Hugh Ramsay, came here and built barges for the railroad company and then for other concerns, private parties and foreign governments. Dry docks were brought here, others were constructed, and for thirty years Perth Amboy has been a center of much activity in this important line of industry.
There came the tremendous Guggenheim interests and established the gold, silver, copper and lead plant of the American Smelting Com- pany, with the United Lead Company, which closed twenty-six refineries when it opened its Perth Amboy plant. The Lewisohn Brothers estab- lished the Raritan Copper Works, which almost at once became the largest electrolytic copper refinery in the world. The Barber Asphalt Paving Company erected huge refineries and subsidiary plants, refined all
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC &AMORY
DRUGS
THE HEART OF PERTH AMBOY
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SMITH STREET. PERTH AMBOY
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the asphalt it uses east of the Mississippi here, and turned out thousands of rolls of roofing paper annually. The United States Cartridge Company naturally followed the United Lead Company, and the Cheesebrough Manufacturing Company secured a site on the Raritan river, within the limits of the city, where the vaseline preparations used by the world are produced. Attracted by the transportation facilities and the large pro- duction of copper in Perth Amboy, came the Standard Underground Cable Company, with its parent plant at Pittsburgh and a branch at Oak- land, California, to manufacture tens of thousands of miles of wire of all sorts and employ hundreds of men and women in its various departments.
More than thirty years ago the Roessler-Hasslacher Chemical Com- pany came to America and erected a small plant in Perth Amboy, in which a variety of chemicals were produced by methods in use in Ger- many. To-day the company operates three large plants which turn out coloring materials, cyanides and other equally important chemical com- modities, to supply the American market, in addition to fathering the General Bakelite Company, which has its large and important plant here.
From the beginning, clay products have played a large part in the industrial development of Perth Amboy. Beds of clay in and about the city produce that quality of mother earth best adapted for fine brick, conduits, building blocks of all sorts and for all uses, and terra cotta. The terra cotta products of Perth Amboy adorn the buildings of this and other lands erected when that was a popular form of architectural orna- mentation. To-day the skyscrapers of the great cities of America are being constructed of blocks and tile made in and about Perth Amboy. Calvin Pardee, of the prominent Pennsylvania family of that name so long identified with the mining and shipment of coal, established a tile manufactory and later a steel rod mill, both of which are now in other hands.
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