History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 132

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth county, New Jersey > Part 132

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DAVID M. HILDRETH .- The most successful pro- prietor of any hotel upon the sea-beaches of the United States is D. M. Hildreth, of the West End Hotel, at Long Branch. To his hotel and the elegant society it annually attracts is due, in great part, the settlement of the southern part of Long Branch and the peerless residences there, to whose inhabitants the West End Hotel is the Casino.

A man as well recommended to the citizens of Mon-

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

mouth County as Mr. Hildreth, by long sojourn, en- terprise and cordiality, requires a few lines of his an- tecedent history.

His ancestor eame to Massachusetts in the earliest years of that colony, where, in 1640, Richard Hildreth, probably the emigrant, became a founder of the town of Chelmsford. From him the manly spreading tree of the American Hildreths is generally derived. In the fifth generation eame Samuel Hildreth, who mar- ried Jerush Mendel, and their children were Daniel, Alvin, Samuel, Paul and Jane. Samuel, of this number, was born in 1795, in Chesterfield, N. H., and grew up in the nurture of our Revolutionary fathers. He married Mary, the daughter of David Morgan, who lived in Manchester, Mass., and their children were David Morgan, Samuel Mendel, James Alonzo, Thirza Jane, Ann Martha and Caro- line, all of whom grew up to mature life. Our neigh- bor, David Morgan Hildreth, was born at Spring- field, Windsor County, Vt., December 28, 1821. He was fifty-two years old when he acquired hotel inter- ests at Long Branch.

At three years of age he removed with his parents to Salem, Mass., and at eleven, to Lynn, Mass., where he remained till the age of twenty-four, attending the Lynn Academy until sixteen years of age, when he began to earn his own living, and in 1845, soon after becoming a man. he was one of the proprietors of the Veranda Hotel, New Orleans, with Mr. E. R. Mudge, and this association lasted five years, when Mr. Hil- dreth and O. E. Hall opened the mammoth hotel of the South, and, indeed, of the whole country, the St. Charles, at New Orleans. There was the cen- tre of the power, fashion and multiform life of the Southern States, in all the episodes and dramas of steam-shipping, internal navigation, cotton and sugar- planting, banking, the imperial period of American slavery, filibustering, the gold-fever, carnival festivity, the outbreak of the great Rebellion and the capture of the city. The St. Charles Ilotel, with its massive stories and classical portico, rose above the Crescent City like a palace. For twelve years Mr. Ilikfreth controlled this house, and was for a part of the time proprietor of the rival establishment, the St. Louis Hotel, which was afterward the Capitol of Louisiana.

Mr. Hildreth and his partner bought the St. Louis Ilotel; their business was one of the best in the country until the civil war had affected New Orleans generally. Mr. Hildreth sold out his New Orleans interest, and went with his family to Europe.

After spending two years in Europe, Mr. Hildreth returned in 1864, and bought a half-interest in the New York Hotel, on Broadway, from Hiram Crans- ton ; he did not dispose of his New Orleans interests

until 1865. The New York Hotel afforded a remark- able opportunity to see the public events in the North at the close of the war, the assemblage of many of the exiled or broken leaders of the Confederate States, and here Mr. Hildreth became sole proprietor from 1867 to 1871.

The circumstances of Mr. Hildreth's settling at Long Branch are interesting enough to give in a his- tory of Monmouth County. The West End Hotel was originally called the Stetson House, and was built by the Astor House Hotel Company in 1867; it was built at a time of high prices and speculative ex- citement, was unsuccessful with its original proprie- tors, and oue of its mortgages was foreclosed by Mr. Presbury, of Baltimore and Washington, in 1870. This gentleman, so long identified with Long Branch, had been the financial partner of Willard's Hotel, at Washington, during the whole period of the civil war and afterward. He was induced to shoulder the Long Branch property by two of his business associates, Messrs. Gardner and Sykes; the former of these married the daughter of Peter Gilsey, of New York, and had no further desire for hotel life. Mr. Sykes' health was not good, and Mr. Preslmry seriously thought of getting rid of the property. In this emer- gency he sent Judge Robert Gilmore, of Baltimore, to see Mr. Hildreth, and invite him to become his partner. Mr. Hildreth had never seriously considered summer hotel keeping ; there were, indeed, but few important summer houses in the country.

Immediately following the civil war he went, how- ever, to Long Branch for the second time in his life, and Mr. Presbury was emphatic that he should make a proposition of some kind. To Mr. Hildreth's as- tonishment he closed at once with an offer; Mr. Hil- dreth assumed one-half the mortgage on the hotel, which had been reduced to two hundred and ten thousand dollars. This agreement was made at the beginning of spring in 1873. Up to this time the West End Hotel had known but a single prosperons season. For nine years Presbury and Hildreth carried on the property, and in 1882, Mr. Hildreth bought Mr. Presbury's interest. The growth of the hotel has been as steady as that of the city of New York ; to a considerable extent it has been the summer capital of the United States, as well as the financial centre in the summer, with its brokers' offices, extensive tele- graph connections, messenger dispatch. post-office and convenient railway station. Here several of our Pres- idents, as Grant, Garfieldl and Arthur, have whiled away their happiest hours. General Garfield, several years before his death at Long Branch, could he seen playing billiards in the West End Hotel.

Assisted by his sons, the proprietor has been the

Лилия

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agreeable magistrate of the house, and the successive additions to the property continued in some cases through the dullest years to show its attractiveness. There were originally about fifteen acres in the hotel tract; the first addition was an extensive laundry, and the bachelors' quarters were built in 1875. The next spring hot and cold water baths were opened on the sea-front ; the working department of the house was steadily developed, and it may be said, as an instance of the training obtained in this hotel, that one of the elerks, who consented in an emergency to take the steward's place, has been employed by the Windsor Hotel, New York, during the present year at a salary of six thousand dollars.

The beautiful cottages frouting the house were built in 1880, at which time six acres of ground were added to the tract, at the price of fifty thousand dollars. There are now from twenty to twenty-one acres in the West End area and grounds. In 1881 a line of stores and a post-office were put up. In 1884 the stabling was greatly enlarged, and in 1885 additional cottages have been erected.

The West End Hotel presented a remarkable scene during the autumn when General Garfield was lying near at hand upon the bed of death. The newspaper press of all the United States, desirous of being accommodated, came to the West End Hotel, and Mr. Hildreth consented to keep the house open and to take care of the correspondents and their families. There were more than one hundred of these corre- spondents at the hotel during that long vigil. There are accommodations at the West End for one thou- sand persons, and the hotel has lodged as many as one thousand and thirty-nine in a single night. In the season it keeps four hundred and fifty employés, of whom nearly two hundred are waiters. The ex- penditures of the establishment sometimes reach two hundred thousand dollars in a season.

Mr. Presbury, long Mr. Hildreth's partner, died in 1883. While conducting this hotel, Mr. Hildreth has held several useful and honorary positions in general life, and was long the president of the Urbana Wine| Company, and is a director of the Farragut Fire In- surance Company. During most of his life, Mr. Hil- dreth was a Whig. His intelligence on personal and public events qualifies him for the various ranges of society he entertains. He has a farm at Flushing, Long Island, and a winter residence in New York City. In 1840 he married Elizabeth P. Washburn, and their children were Charles Allen and Sallie ITildreth (the latter deceased). In 1853 he married Annie L., daughter of Colonel S. H. Mudge, of New Orleans, and their surviving children are Walter E., David M., Jr., Alexander MI., Philip R. and Minnie. Mr. Hildreth frequently makes excursions to Europe. He is a little over six feet high, and now, at the age of sixty-four, can laugh as heartily, listen as atten- tentively and talk as impressively as any of the lads from town or country.

CHAPTER XXVII.

WILL TOWNSHIP.

THE township of Wall is situated in the southeast corner of Monmouth County, having for its eastern boundary the Atlantic Ocean and for its southern, the county of Ocean. On the west it is bounded by the township of Howell, and on the north by the townships of Atlantic. Shrewsbury and Neptune. Its principal streams are Shark River, which marks its northern bonndary against Shrewsbury and Neptune townships, and Manasquan River, which is a part of its southern boundary against Ocean County. The sea-shore railway line, which ex- tends southwardly from Sandy Hook along the coast of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, passes through Wall township on its entire ocean- front, from Shark to Manasquan River. An- other line is that of the Farmingdale and Squan Village Railroad (now operated by the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company as a part of its united lines). This road enters Wall from Howell township, and intersects the sea-shore line at Squan village. The population of this township, by the United States census of 1880, was three thousand eight hundred and twenty- nine, but has increased largely since that enu- meration.

Wall township (so named in honor of the Hon. Garret D. Wall) was erected from a part of the territory of Howell, by an act passed in 1851. The description is as follows:

" All that part of the township of Howell lying within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the sea or ocean in the middle of Shark River In- let, and from thence running up the middle of the main stream thereof, along its general windings, to a place called and known by the name of the Horse Pond, to a certain pine-tree standing by the edge of the brook in said Horse Pond lettered I. P., said to be the beginning of a tract of land returned to Joseph Potter, deceased; thence westerly along the line be- tween the townships of Howell and Atlantic, sixty- one chains ; thence southerly on a straight line to the mouth of Squancum Brook, where it empties into Manasquan River on the south side thereof; thence from the mouth of the aforesaid Squancum Brook, south three degrees and thirty minutes east. to the north line of Ocean County; thence northerly along

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTHI COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

said line to Manasquan River, near old Squan Bridge; thence down the middle of said river to the ocean at Manasquan Inlet ; thence northerly along the ocean to the beginning."

Following is a list of chosen freeholders of Wall township from its formation to the pres- ent time :

1851-59. Thomas H. Lafetra. 1860. William II. Craig. 1861-62. Thomas H. Lafetra. 1863-69. John E. Tilton.

1870-76. Samuel M. Gifford. 1877-84. Theodore Field.

As carly as 1685 a large area of lands, now of Wall township, bordering the south shore of Wreck Pond, the sea-shore from Wreck Pond southward to the Manasquan and up the north side of the Manasqnan nearly to the present site of the Long Bridge, was purchased from the Indians, and afterwards patented from the pro- prietors by a company formed for the purpose, and composed of men who had previously located lands at Shrewsbury and Middletown, then called the "two towns of Navesink." The official doeu- ment issued by the Governor of the province of East New Jersey, granting permission to these land speeulators to make the purchases from the Indians, is as follows :

" By the Governonr :

"To all Persons to whom these presents shall come and whom the premises do or may con- cern : Know Ye, That I have Licensed, author- ized and empowered, and by these Presents doe license, authorize and empower Richard Harts- horne, John Hance, Judah Allen, Eliakim Wardell, Tobias Hanson, Ephraim Allen, John Woolley, William Woolley, Remembrance Lip- pincott, William Lawrence, John Williams and Edmund Lafetra, all of Neversinks, in the county of Monmonth, to purchase the native or Indian right to such a quantity of land as they shall see meet, and lying and being at a place called by the Indians Manasquan, provided they exceed not the quantity of two thousand five hundred acres, and that the said purchase-deed be to and in the name of the Lords Proprietors of this Province, in order that Patents may be made thereof to the said respective persons of such parts and parcells thereof as may answer

an agreement this day made between them and the Lords Proprietors.

"Given under the seal of the said Province this ninth day of July, Anno DM. 1685."

Under this authority the Indian right and title was purchased, but prior to that purchase some patents to these lands had been granted.

A tier of lots, that in old records were called "Squan Lotts," were laid out along the river and ocean-front, running inland sixty chains, and varying in width on the river and sea.

In the division of these lands William Law- rence received patents for four traets of land, bearing date January 19, 1692. The northern- most tract of this company's land was taken by him in two lots, described as follows: " All that tract of land situate on the north side of Mana- squan River, in the bounds of Shrewsbury afore- said, coasting south west and north east, in breadth twelve chains, and in length, south east and north west, on one side, sixty chains, which, with allowance, is to remain for sixty acres, bounded on the south west with land formerly of Remembrance Lippincott, on the south east with the sea, on the north west with the high- way and on the north east with the plain."

The tract below deseribed lies to the north of the one given above, and is irregular in form, viz. : " And also all that tract lying and ad- joining to the above-mentioned tract, containing forty acres, beginning at ye northeast corner of ve land of John Lawrence by the sea, and run- ning northwest six and twenty chains, thence northeast eleven chains to ye Rack (Wreck) Pond; thence cast-southeast and half a point more easterly, as ye pond lyes, twenty-four chains to ye sea, and following ye sea to where it be- gan ; the which two tracts of land were con- veyed to him, the said John Lawrence, by two certain deeds of conveyance from his father, William Lawrence (deceased), relation to them severally being had, as may more fully appear." The deeds from William Lawrence to John, his son, bear date December 22, 1701. Thedate of patents, with sea or river- front, and also the number of acres, are given as they lie adjoining each other south from Wil- liam Lawrence's two traets.

The patent of Remembrance Lippincott, next

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south of Lawrence, bears date February 20, 1685. It is twelve chains wide on the front and contains sixty acres.

Tobias Hanson's patent is dated November 4, 1687. The land lies south of Lippincott's front, next south, was conveyed to John Hance, lot and is twelve chains in front and contains sixty acres.

John Hance's tract, next south, was twenty- chains on the front, which was embraced in four chains on the front and contained one hun- Joseph West's patent of July 13, 1686.

dred and twenty acres. The patent for this traet is dated November 4, 1687. This prop- erty was afterwards conveyed to John Morton, who conveyed it to Thomas Sherman, and is a part of the Sea Girt property.

The traet next below was twelve chains ini width and contained sixty aeres. This lot be- longed to William Lawrence, and was embraced in the patent of 1692.

Richard Hartshorne's land was next south of Lawrence's and was twenty-four chains in front and contained one hundred and twenty aeres. forty-two chains on the river-front and con- This patent bears date January 18, 1685.

Adjoining Hartshorne was the land of Judah Allen, also twenty-four chains on the front and containing one hundred and twenty aeres. This traet was patented February 16, 1685.

Next south was a tract patented by Joseph side of Manasquan River, adjoining lands of West in right of Eliakim Wardell, patent dated July 13, 1686 ; six chains on the front and con- , Lafetra on the north, by the river on the south- taining thirty acres.

Joseph Lawrence, son of William Lawrence, patented, October 7, 1695, in right of William Woolley, a lot six chains on the front, containing thirty acres. William Woolley sold his right to Joseph Lawrence, September 23, 1691.

Next south, a patent for sixty acres of land, twelve chains on the front, was granted March 22, 1687, to Frances Lafetra, widow of Edmund Lafetra. Jannary 25, 1688, " Frances Lafetra, late wife of Edmund Lafetra, Deed., of Shrews- bury," conveyed the property " to John West, her son, of Shrewsbury." This tract was on the point from the river to the sea, as the boun- daries indicate.

Ephraim Allen's traet lay next south. It was patented Angust 15, 1686, and contained sixty acres ; twelve chains on the front.

A tract of thirty aeres, six chains on the and embraced in his patent of November 4, 1687. Next was a tract of thirty aeres, six

William Lawrence's patent of January 19, 1692, embraced the tract of land next west, containing one hundred and eighty aeres, being thirty-six chains on the river-front. This tract he afterwards conveyed to his two sons, Joseph (the east half') and John (the west half). The latter was conveyed to Thomas Ellison, Richard Longstreet and Samnel Osborne,

The last and most westerly tract, lying on Manasquan River, and embraced in Richard Hartshorne's patent of Jannary 18, 1685, was tained two hundred and ten acres.

April 6, 1692, Edward Woolley conveyed to John Leonard, of Shrewsbury, "all that tract of upland and meadow situate, lying and being in ye county of Moumouth, lying on ye north John Hants [Hance] on the south, Edmund

east, and northwest by the highway." This tract, containing sixty aeres, was probably one that was patented to John Woolley, who was one of the company, though his name does not appear in the list of lots assigned.

In 1763 the freeholders of the county changed John Williams, one of the company, sold his right, September 26, 1694, to John West, who received his patent dated October 7, 1695. This land lay south of Joseph Lawrence, It was the route of a road then called the "Old Squan road," which ran from Long Branch to the Man- asquan. On the 28th of January, 1768, a petition for a road from Tom's River Bridge to the Man- six chains on the front and contained thirty acres. . asquan was granted by the freeholders, and the

road was built. There is nothing to show that. the " Old Squan Bridge " over the Manasquan was in existence before that date, and it was doubtless built soon afterwards, to connect the roads above mentioned. It was in use during the Revolution, and a bridge has been main- tained there from that time. A school-house was erected near the bridge about 1825. On June 28, 1857, the citizens met at the school-

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

house and organized a Free Church and elected trustees for the purpose of erecting a house of worship. A lot was purchased of William Gifford and a house built, which is still used. Services were held monthly by the Methodist Protestants, and the church is now under the charge of the Rev. J. K. Freed.

AAllenwood is a station on the railroad near the Old Squan Bridge. A post-office was es- tablished there several years ago, with David Allen as postmaster. He was succeeded in 1883 by William Lafetra, who now holds the office.

The " Long Bridge " over the Manasquan was originally built about 1816, and the first mail-route through this section passed over it. It was rebuilt about 1830. The first post-of- tice in this part of the present township was established at this place February 25, 1819. Samuel F. Allen was the postmaster. The Os- bornes were large owners of land in this section.

MANASQUAN is the most important village of Wall township, located in the southeast corner, near the Manasquan River and the sea, and at the junction of the sea-coast line of railway with the road running thence to Farmingdale, Frechold and Jamesburg.

In the year 1815 the site of the present vil- lage of Manasquan was heavily timbered, ex- cept a small clearing, where the Osborne Honse now stands. Here, soon afterwards, a tavern- honse was built, and in 1818 the mail-route was established from Freehold to Tuckerton, by way of what is now Manasquan. Timothy .I. Bloom- field, who had previously kept a store farther inland, came to this tavern, and was keeping it in 1825. By that time a few dwellings and other buildings had clustered round the tavern, and the landlord, Bloomfield, named the settle- ment " Squan Village." In the same year Dr. ,lohn Morford settled at Squan as a physician, and remained there in practice until his death, in 1839.

In 1853 he was one of the firm of Brannin, Bailey & Co., at the same place. In 1878 the present building was erected. Another early merchant was Benjamin D. Pearce, previously a school-teacher, who opened a store here, in 1839, at the place where now is the store of Erriekson & Wainwright. He also carried on a lumber business in a small way.

Dr. Robert Laird, in a communication having reference to the condition of this place in early years, says,-

"Within the recollection of the writer, Squan, a> it is now called, was known is Crab Town, the name having its origin from an old man named Hays, who came from Freehold to the shore for fish, clams and crabs. When, onee, his wagon was loaded with these commodities, some of the boys helped drink his Jersey lightning and upset his wagon, and covered the streets or roads with crabs, which circumstance caused every one to exelaim-Crab Town ! This name was retained until it was changed to Squan village. At this time the village consisted of a public-house kept by Peter Bailey, a small store kept by Jacob Curtis, and three or four dwelling-houses,-the residences of Benjamin Pearce, Sr., William McKnight and the Curtis family. Elder John S. Newman, assisted by Matthias Barkalow and Taber Chadwick, of Red Bank, used to hold service in the old school-houses and at private residences. There were no post-offices, A mail-boy eame once a week from Freehold to Tom's River, by way of Squan Bridge, and the vener- able Samuel F. Allen was postmaster at that place."

Gordon's "Gazetteer " of 1831 says of Squan, evidently referring to a large extent of country extending to the coast: "It is much frequented for sea-bathing, and comfortable accommoda- tions are found at the farm-houses, of which there are several where boarders are received."

In 1830, or about that year, there were but thirty-six houses between Wreck Pond and what was then called New Squan Bridge (now Middle Bridge), this being about three and a half miles along the coast and river, and two and a half miles from the sea. About 1835 the people who owned the land between what is now the Middle Bridge and Wreek Pond were Abram Osborne, Hendrick Longstreet, 'Squire The first store in the village was kept by Lewis Pearee, and in May, 1837, Osborne Cur- tis began the mercantile business on the corner Derrick Longstreet, Derrick Longstreet, Jr., Samuel Longstreet, David Curtis, James Morris, Benjamin Pearce, John Longstreet (who owned where now is the store of Curtis & Conover. where Manasquan village now is and New-

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berry's Pond), William Newberry, Thomas Sherman and William Parmeter.

The Osborne House was built on the site of the old Bloomfield tavern by Forman Osborne, and was opened in July, 1867, by his son. Frank Osborne. It is now kept by T. Z. Zim- merman.

The Hunsinger House was built in 1881, and is now kept by D. L. Hunsinger.

About 1840 a school-house was built (about a hundred yards from the present one), which was used until the present two-story brick build- ing was completed, in 1881, at a cost of six thousand dollars.

The Independent Methodists had been hold- ing religious worship in private dwellings and in school-houses in this neighborhood for several years prior to 1842. On the 19th of February in that year several of the congregation met at the house of Asher Pearce, near the store of . Lawrence Newberry, and elected the follow- ing-named trustees of Manasquan Church : Abram Osborne, Lawrence Newberry and Eben- ezer Allen. The society was incorporated JJune 18th following. There was no church edifice in the village at this time, but in the same year the citizens united in erecting the Free Church, on the high ground in the northwest part of the village. In this the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists held meetings. The ground was donated by Nesbit Mount, and was deeded to the trustees of the Independent Methodist Church. Matthias Barriclo, John S. Newman, Ralph Thomson, Taber Chadwick, Clark New- man and John Reynolds were preachers to this congregation from 1835 to 1850, at which time this denomination merged into the Methodist Protestant Church, and conveyed the property to the trustees of that church, since which time the following ministers have served them, viz. : Samuel Hill, E. D. Stultz, William B. Van Leer, Joshua Burch, J. W. Langhlin, E. D. Stultz, H. Bradford, A. J. Apgar, E. D. Stultz, and L. D. Stultz, who is the present pastor. The church building was remodeled in 1874.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 132

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148