History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 4

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994

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Samuel Laird, third son of Robert, was born February 1, 1787. In 1817 he became pro-

prietor of the hotel at Colt's Neck, which he kept continuously for forty-two years, and died there July 5, 1859. His wife was Eleanor Tilton, who was born May 16, 1795, and died June 1, 1848. She was a daughter of John Tilton, a Revolutionary soldier, who lived in what is now Atlantic township, north of Colt's Neck. He was living there at the time of the battle of Monmouth, and had his cattle taken from him by the British troops, who were guided by his Tory neighbors to the place where he had concealed the cattle in a swamp. In the latter years of his life Mr. Tilton lived with his son- in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Laird, and he died in their house at Colt's Neck about fifty years ago.

The children of Samuel Laird were eleven in number, viz.,-Sarah, Benjamin (who died in infancy), Alice, John T., Joseph T., Elizabeth, James, Malvina, Mary (died May 29, 1839), Robert and Mary S. Laird, of whom only the three brothers, Joseph I., James and Robert, at present are living.

Joseph T. Laird, son of Samuel and Eleanor (Tilton) Laird, was born at his father's house at Colt's Neck, February 12, 1824. His earliest education was obtained at the public schools ; afterwards he attended for about two years at the old Freehold Academy, then under charge of Professor A. W. Hobart, and a shorter term at the same academy under W. W. Woodhull. During all the years of his boyhood and youth he lived with his father, whose hotel at Colt's Neck was the stopping-place for the lines of stages then running from Bordentown to Long Branch. Mr. Laird also usually had in his charge many valuable blooded horses, in which his son Joseph very naturally took considerable interest, and being tlien young, light and active, he became a very expert rider. Among Mr. Laird's horses was one which was managed and trained by himself, and which became the most famous racer then in America. This was the celebrated mare "Fashion," which, in her memorable eontest against the noted horse " Boston," at Union Course, L. I.,'on the 10th of May, 1842, was ridden by the boy "Joe Laird," making the best race which up to that time had ever been run on this side of the Atlantic. He was also

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for J. Laine

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

the rider of " Fashion " in all hier other public contests on the turf.

In 1846, Joseph T. Laird became a partner with his unele, Elisha Laird (under the firm-name of Elisha Laird & Co.), in a general merchandise business, which the latter had established about 1830, in a store which had been occupied for the same purpose during the Revolutionary strug- gle, it being part of the historic old house which was the home of the patriot Captain Joshua Huddy until he was murdered by Tory Refu- gees, in 1782.

The partnership of Elisha Laird & Co. re- mained without change until about 1859, when, by the admission of James, brother of Joseph T. Laird, the firm-name was changed to E. & J. T. Laird & Co., and so continued until the death of Elisha Laird, in 1863. From that time it was J. T. & J. Laird until 1865, when the business was sold out, and Joseph T. Laird re- moved to Freehold, where, in the previous year he had been elected one of the first board of di- reetors of the then established First National Bank of Freehold. He was one of the original stockholders, and has been continuously a direc- tor of the bank from its organization to the present time.

For about two years after Mr. Laird's removal to Freehold he was an active assistant in the bank. In 1868 he formed a partnership with C. C. Bowne in the house-furnishing and furniture business, which was continued until 1872, when the firm was dissolved by the retirement of Mr. Laird. In 1875 he was elected cashier of the bank, Jacob B. Rue being then its president. On December 31, 1882, Mr. Rue retired and Mr. Laird was elected president, in which office he . still continues. He is a working president, giv- ing as elose attention to the details of the busi- ness as when lie was eashier, and under his in- cumbency the bank has reached a condition of prosperity and strength altogether unusual in its history.

Mr. Laird was one of the first assistant com- missioners of the town of Freehold, elected in 1869, the year of its iucorporation. In the fol- lowing year he was elected commissioner of the town (a position without salary or emolument of any kind), and hield the office continuously

until 1875. During that term a large part of the public improvements of Freehold were made (including the construction of sidewalks and ereetion of lamp-posts), and the Fire De- partment was organized. When the steam fire- engine had been procured, in 1874, it was neces- sary that there should be a place to house it, and as there was no suitable building to be had for the purpose, and the town had no authority under its charter to build one, Messrs. Josepli T. Laird, Thomas W. Ryall, D. C. Perrine and Gilbert Combs purchased a lot on Throckmor- ton Street, and erected upon it the engine-house now in use, paying for the lot and building out of their own private means, trusting to the probability of the passage of an amendment to the town charter authorizing payment for the house and lot. At the ensuing session of the Legislature the amendment was passed permit- ting the issue of bonds, from the proceeds of which they were reimbursed for the expendi- ture which they had made on their own responsi- bility for the publie good, amounting to nearly seven thousand dollars.

In October, 1872, Mr. Laird was married to Mary, daughter of John Evans, of Fryeburg, Me. Their surviving children are, Marion, Joseph T. and Eleanor, their youngest child, Samuel E., having deceased September 16, 1884.

THE MONMOUTH COUNTY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY was incorporated Feb- ruary 18, 1858. Names of corporators,-Joseph Combs, Horatio Ely, George Taylor, Daniel H. Ellis, Henry C. Patterson, Joseph H. Rosell, William V. Ward, John R. Haley, William D. Davis, Austin H. Patterson, James Cooper, Charles Butcher, Charles H. Conover, John Barriclo, William P. Forman, James M. Smith, Elisha Laird, Jolm N. Conover, Jacob Herbert and Peter S. Conover. The charter named the persons1 who should be the first directors of the company until an election for directors should be held, accord- ing to the provisions of the charter, viz,- Joseph Combs,* Horatio Ely, Joseph H. Rosell, John R. Haley, William D. Davis,* James

1 Those marked with * are dead.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Cooper, Charles Butcher,* Charles H. Conover,* William P. Forman, James M. Smith, John N. Conover, Jacob Herbert and Peter S. Conover .*

On April 10, 1856, the directors held their first regular meeting, and Joseph Combs was chosen president, William T. Hoffinan secretary, and Joseph H. Rosell treasurer. At a special meeting held March 12, 1859, William T. Hoff- man was relieved from the office of secretary, and Charles A. Bennett was appointed secretary in his place.

The present directors of the company (in the year 1884) are George W. Shinn, James Cooper, Joseph H. Rosell, James M. Smith, Henry Ben- nett, Horatio Ely, John N. Conover, William N. Sickles, William Spader, Peter Forman, Charles E. Hall, Charles H. Snyder, James Lippincott. The officers are George W. Shinn, president ; Charles A. Bennett, secretary ; and Joseph H. Rosell, treasurer.

The company has been in sueeessful operation from its beginning, and, although it has paid a large amount of money for losses, it has never, during the thirty-six years of its existenee, had to resort to an assessment to pay any of its obli- gations.

According to the report made to the Secretary of State, December 31, 1883, the company had : insuranees outstanding, $2,234,212; premium notes on hand, $121,637; risks written during the year 1883, $261,390 ; premium notes received, $17,745; total cash assets, 86076.39; losses during the year 1883, 1429.50 ; eash receipts, $3451.58.

Expenditures, including payment of losses of 1882, $4586.09 ; number of members in the company or notes, 1627.

THE FREEHOLD GAS-LIGHT COMPANY Was incorporated March 20, 1857. Corporators,- James S. Lawrence, Enoeh L. Cowart, David C. Perrine, Charles A. Bennett, John R. Haley, William H. Conover and Aaron R. Throek- morton. The capital stock, is thirty thousand dollars.

Books of subscription were- opened June 6, 1857. Charles B. Waring subscribed for four huudred shares, amounting to ten thousand

dollars. He assigned shares to Oliver R. Willis, James S. Lawrence, William H. Conover, Alfred Walters, on September 28, 1857. These constituted all the stockholders of the company. October 19, 1857, the stockholders met at the hotel of Conover & Carson, in Freehold, and elceted five directors, viz. : James S. Lawrence, Oliver R. Willis, William H. Conover, Alfred Walters, Charles B. Waring. At the first meet- ing of the directors, October 24, 1857, James S. Lawrence was elected president, Oliver R. Willis secretary and treasurer, and Alfred Walters superintendent. At a subsequent meeting, October 29, 1858, Charles B. Waring was appointed under an agreement, in writing, with full control to carry on the enterprise, and he proceeded to ereet tlie gas-works in their present location and lay down the street mains, etc., and lighted the town of Freehold with gas on the first of the year 1859. Some of the citizens of the town of Freehold not being able to get Mr. Waring to extend the mains of the gas company so that they might get the gas served to them in their dwellings, applied to the Legislature 2 for a charter for another gas

? The following petition was presented to the General As- sembly, February 16, 1860:

"The subscribers, residents of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, hereby respectfully petition your honorable body to grant to the citizens of our village a charter for a gas company, for the purpose of supplying. at a reasonable price, a good quality of gas. There is already a company. with gas-works built in our village, but we respectfully represent that the whole stock of said com- pany (with the exception of enongh nominal stockholders here to make up the number of directors required by the charter) is owned by a person or persons outside of the State of New Jersey, whose object seems to be wholly for profit, without a proper regard to the wants and situation of the villagers. That the gas most generally furnished is of an inferior quality, emitting at times such an odor that some of our citizens have been compelled to turn it off, and be deprived of its use. That the price charged for it is so exorbitant that some of our merchants are about to abandon its usc for the present. That we believe that a much better article, and at a much lower price could be furnished. That the said company has been remonstrated with upon the quality and price of their gas, and that no change has been made. We further represent that the amount of main pipe put down in said village is very in- adequate to the wants of the citizens. For these and other reasons we petition that a new Company may be chartered, with most of the stock to be owned in Freehold, so that we may be fully supplied with a good article of

Those marked with * are dead.

471

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

company, and in March 14, 1860, an act was passed to incorporate " The Citizens' Gas-Light Company of Freehold," the incorporators being John R. Haley, William H. Conover, Daniel H. Ellis, Joseph D. Bedle, Isaac MeNulty, David C. Perrine, Daniel B. Ryall, Thomas P. Barkalow, Rowland A. Ellis, Jolin R. Con- over, Henry C. Patterson, Charles A. Bennett and Henry Bennett. This latter company did not fully organize. On May 14, 1860, Mr. Waring, then and at the organization of the Free- hold Gas-Light Company owning all the capital stock except four shares, sold his entire interest in the company to Daniel H. Ellis, Jolın R. Haley, Charles A. Bennett, Joseph D. Bedle, David Clark Perrine, John R. Conover, Row- land A. Ellis and Isaac MeNulty. All the old directors resigned, and Daniel H. Ellis, Joseph D. Bedle, C. A. Bennett, Jolin R. Haley and John R. Conover were elected directors for the new owners, and Daniel M. Ellis was chosen presi- dent, Charles A. Bennett secretary, and David C. Perrine treasurer. The gas-works con- tinued to be run under the first charter np to the present time. The present officers of the company are David C. Perrine, president; Charles A. Bennett, secretary and treasurer; and William S. Freeman, superintendent. There are five direc- tors,-D. C. Perrine, Alfred Walters, Henry Bennett, Chas. B. Ellis and Chias, A. Bennett.

On April 14, 1869, the gas-works were all burned down, which was caused by the acts of the agents of the Pneumatic Gas Company, who were trying to introduce their oil gas into these works. The company resolved to rebuild and put up large works of a very substantial char- acter, sufficient to supply a town three times as large as Freehold. The gas was furnished from the new works February 4, 1870. The town is supplied with a good quality of gas, and the company is very liberally patronized by the citizens. Their gas is used in all. the public buildings, and in nearly all the better class of stores and private buildings. It is also used to some extent for heating and cooking purposes, and for running gas-engines.

gas at a fair price." This petition resulted in the pas sage of the act incorporating the Citizens' Gas-Light Company.

THE FREEHOLD FIRE DEPARTMENT is of recent origin, having been in existence less than twelve years. With the exception of some two or three dozen buckets, which had been purchased and kept for some years in Freehold, to be used in case of fire by passing them, filled with water, along a line of men to the place where needed, and then returning them empty along another line of persons of less physical strength, there was no apparatus for the extinguishment of fires until about 1850, when a small hand-engine was purchased. This machine, whichi, as is said by those who remember it, was never of much, if any, practical utility, was in existence (and presumably kept ready for nse) in 1854, as a reference to it is found in the newspapers of that time. But it appears that such was not the case in 1855, for in that year, at a meeting of citizens held at Cox's Hotel on the day when the court-house was partially burned, it was stated by Mr. Vredenburgh that Freehold had then no fire apparatus, and he urged that some measures be taken at once to supply the need, which was the object for which the meeting had been called. David C. Perrine, Joseph Combs and W. H. Conover were then appointed a committee to solicit subscriptions for the pur- pose, but the effort did not prove successful, though the people were several times in that year reminded of their insecurity by the occur- rence of several fires,-of Danser's barn, Burns' shoemaker-shop, on South Street, and others. The matter was kept in agitation at intervals, but without result, for a considerable number of years.

The purchase of the hook-and-ladder ap- paratus, in June, 1872, was the first effectual step taken towards the formation of a service- able Fire Department in Freehold. A company was organized called the Good-Will and a house built for the truck in the rear of the block next below the conrt-house. At the great fire of October 30, 1873, which destroyed the court-house and all the buildings on the north side of Main Street, up to the First National Bank building, this company and apparatus performed invaluable service in demolishing the building between the Vought mansion and the bank, thus clicking the progress of the fire in

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

that direction, and probably saving the town from the disaster of widespread conflagration.

The great fire in 1873 reawakened the people to a sense of their danger from lack of sufficient fire apparatus and to the necessity of procuring a steam fire-engine. In the spring of 1874 a steamer was purchased conditionally, and on Friday, May 22d, in that year, the machine, witlı two hosc-carriages, reached Freehold, and was put on trial the same day. With imperfect arrangements for firing, the gauge showed sev- enty pounds of steam in seven minutes. The engine (weighing four thousand five hundred pounds) was warranted by the builder, Richard Harrell, of Paterson, to throw one stream two hundred and forty feet or two streams one hundred and. ninety feet, through one hun- dred feet of hose, and one hundred and fifty feet through one thousand feet of hose. The trial resulting satisfactorily, the steamer was accepted by the commissioners, and a company was organized, the first officers of which (elceted at a meeting held on the 3d of June) were: Foreman, W. H. Hendricks; first Assistant, B. White; Second Assistant, John W. Hulse; Engineer, Edwin Bawden; First Assistant En- gineer, John Buek; Second Assistant Engincer, W. H. Hart.

The new Fire Department, consisting of the steamer Freehold, No. 1, the Good-Will truek; with their companies and the corporation officers, joined in a parade on the 10th of June, making an excellent appearance and receiving general commendation. The first chief was John Bawden, who held the office seven years. The steamner was kept in the barn of Honorable Holmes W. Murphy during the construction of the present engine-house, on Throckmorton Avenue, and on the completion of the building, in the fall of 1874, it was occupied, as at pres- ent, by the steamer, the truck and other appa- ratus of the department. In the same year a number of cisterns of large capacity were con- strueted at the most accessible and convenient points in the town, with facilities to keep them filled with water for the use of the steamer when needed.

The steamer company now numbers forty members; that of the truck, thirty-two. The

following named are the present (1884) officers of the department and of the companies :

President, I. J. Grimshaw ; Vice-President, D. V. Perrine; Secretary, W. W. Cannon ; Treasurer, Charles H. Butelier ; Chief, G. C. Hulett ; Assistant, J. W. Hulse.

Foreman of Truck, H. H. Clayton; Assistant, A. H. Schanck ; Foreman of Stcamer, William Brown; First Assistant, C. P. White ; Sceond Assistant, William Burrell ; Third Assistant, P. De Roche.

THE FREEHOLD FOUNDRY AND MACHINE SHOPS, now owned and operated by Combs & Bawden, were started in the summer of 1856, by John Bawden, whose first advertisement, dated November 6th, in that year, announced that he was prepared to furnish iron railing, mill-work and agricultural castings. The business was not very remunerative, and not long afterwards Mr. Gilbert Combs became associated with Mr. Bawden, under the firm-name of Combs & Bawden, as at present. For fourteen years from the commencement the business contin- ued to languish, and in 1869 and 1870 it seemed extremely unpromising. Additional capital was then invested, the buildings and facilities were enlarged from time to time; prosperity followed and has continued until the present time. Their specialty now is grate, fender, and other kinds of ornamental iron- work. A single order, for the Palace Hotel, at San Francisco, was taken (through New York parties) and filled by this firm, amounting to twenty thousand dollars,-the heaviest order for that kind of work ever filled in America or Europe. The works (foundry, machine-shop and planing-mill) embrace four brick buildings, located on the tracks of the Pennsylvania Rail- road, near the Freehold Station. Messrs. Combs & Bawden give employment to about fifty men.

JOHN BAWDEN .- The history of Mr. John Bawden, the founder of the Freehold Iron Foundry and Machine-Shop, is one that well deserves to be recorded as an example of true heroism in a struggle with adverse cir- cumstances in early life, and of triumph over difficulties encountered in maturer years. His success has been achieved through a

John Banden

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

display of courage, perseverance and close attention to honest business principles rarely equaled. He was born in the town of Gwin- car, in the county of Cornwall, England, on the 10th of April, 1827. His father was John Bawden and his mother was Sally Malachi, both of the same county. His father was a blacksmith and contractor for furnishing black- smith work for the tin-mines in the county. By the financial failure of mining operations there about the year 1830 or 1831, he was re- dueed in eircumstances, when he resolved to emigrate to America. The family, which con- sisted of father, mother and seven children, went first to Pottsville, and then to Philadel- phia. Of the latter city the subject of our sketch has a distinct recollection. It was dur- ing the "eholera year" (1832), and he remembers seeing the sick and dying carried through the streets on stretchers. About 1834 the family removed to New York, and he remembers being there when the great fire, during the winter of 1835-36, occurred. They then removed to Yorkville, where his father was employed in making tools for the quarrymen, who excavated the tunnel at that place for the Hudson River Railroad, and he was one of a party of boys who, when the quarrymen met in the centre of the tunnel from opposite sides of the work, were the first to crawl through the opening. This year his mother died, and the care of the children devolved upon the elder sisters. The children were now thrown largely upon their own resources. Mr. Bawden; then a boy of ten years, obtained employment with a gold-beater, and afterwards as an errand-boy in a shoe-store, and as an assistant in a rope-walk, going to the publie schools at intervals until he was fifteen, when he went into William Buckley's brass foundry, in Cannon Street, still carried on by Buckley's grandson on the same spot. Hc worked here for two years, and one year at another brass foundry in the city. In 1845 he went into James L. Jackson's iron foundry, then on Stanton Street, where he served as apprentice and journeyman until he removed to Freehold in 1856. Here, in the fall of that year, he commeneed business in a small building twenty-four by thirty-six feet, on the site of the

present main building. At first his work was con- fined to the jobbing of the neighborhood, such as plow-castings, iron railings and light machinery. He worked with his own hands in every detail of the business, and for several years scarcely suc- cceded in maintaining his family. In fact, lie was more than once on the verge of abandoning the struggle. Subsequently he formed a eo-part- nership with Mr. Gilbert Combs, and the busi- ness was enlarged by adding to it the sale of agri- cultural implements and farm machinery, which was then coming into use in this section. Sup- plicd now with necessary capital, and with the relief from a portion of the labor of the enter- prise which the partnership afforded, Mr. Baw- den was enabled to give his entire attention to the development of the mechanical branch of the business, in which he excelled. The super- iority of the work of the foundry, especially in the line of light castings, soon attracted atten- tion, and brought contracts which obliged the firm to enlarge their facilities from time to time, and to increase the number of their employés, until it has grown to the ample proportions that it now enjoys, the little frame structure having given way to the extensive brick one that now occupies its site.

Mr. Bawden was married, July 26, 1847, to Miss Eleanor H. Blair, of New York City, whose mother was a native of Middletown, in Monmouth. She died December 9, 1856, at Greenpoint (now a part of the city of Brook- lyn), L. I., pending the removal of the family to Freehold. Four children were the fruit of this union, two of whom are living,-Mr. John H. Bawden, who is associated with the firm of Combs & Bawden in the management of the foundry, and Eleanor H., wife of Mr. E. B. H. Tower, of Washington, D. C. Mr. Bawden's present wife was Miss Charlotte L. Conover, daughter of Cornelius D. Conover, of Lower Squankum, in this county. They were married on the 7th of December, 1859, but have had no children. Mrs. Bawden's mother was Johanna Rogers, daughter of Samuel Rogers, of Manalapan; her maternal grand- mother was Mary Freeman, who was born, in 1777, in the old Tennent parsonage, on the battle-field of Monmouth, and died in 1865,

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

aged over eighty-eight years. Her parents resid- ed in the parsonage at the time the battle was fought, and it was a family tradition that the family vacated the premises on that occasion and took refuge in the woods.

Mr. Bawden became a member of the Metli- odist Episcopal Church at Greenpoint in March, 1855. Upon his removal to Freehold, he transferred his membership to the church here, and has sinee remained a consistent, active and zealous member of it, having for a number of years been connected with its official board as steward and trustee, and a liberal eontributor, according to his means, to the support of tlie church and its institutions. Politically, he has been identified with the Republican party on national questions but in local matters he has

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 4

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 994

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994