History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 82

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

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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, which, as is said by those who remember it, was never of much, if any, practical utility, was in existence (and presumably kept ready for use) 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-honse 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 court-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 checking 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, with two hose-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 fect 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 (elected 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 Buck; Second Assistant Engineer, W. H. Hart.

The new Fire Department, consisting of the steamer Freehold, No. 1, the Good-Will truck, 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 steamer 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- ratns of the department. In the same year a number of cisterns of large capacity were con- structed 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.

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. Butcher ; Chief, G. C. Hulett ; Assistant, J. W. Hulse.

Foreman of Truck, H. H. Clayton; Assistant, A. H. Schanek ; Foreman of Steamer, William Brown; First Assistant, C. P. White ; Second 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- ned 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 nutil 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 abont 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- enmstances in early life, and of triumph over difficulties encountered in maturer years.

The steamer company now numbers forty members; that of the truck, thirty-two. The | 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 blaek- 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 circumstances, 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 "cholera year" (1832), and he remembers seeing the sick and dying carried through the streets on stretehers. 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 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 public 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. He worked here for two years, and one year at another brass foundry in the city. In 1845 he went into James L. Jaekson'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 commenced 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- ceeded in maintaining his family. In fact, he was more than once on the verge of abandoning the struggle. Subsequently he formed a co-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- plied 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 briek one that now ocenpies 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 children devolved upon the elder sisters. The 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 Meth- odist Episcopal Church at Greenpoint in March, 1855. Upon his removal to Freehold, he transferred his membership to the church here, and ha's since 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 contributor, according to his means, to the support of the church and its institutions. Politically, he has been identified with the Republican party on national questions but in local matters he has acted independently, supporting those men and measures, without respect to party that he deemed to be for the best interests of the pub- lic. He has never sought office, but when the Fire Department of Freehold was organized he was elected chief engineer, which post he filled ably and with fidelity until the annual election of 1883, a period of nine years, when he declined a re-election. During his incum- beney of this position he represented the de- partment at the annual conventions of engineers of the United States and Canada at Boston and Richmond. At the great fire in Freehold, in 1873, previous to the organization of the Fire Department, Mr. Bawden distinguished himself by his labors, and through his intelligent efforts and skill the fire was prevented from spreading below the court-house, and so the lower part of the town was saved from destruction. In 1883 he was appointed a member of the Board of Health of the town, and was made president of the board, which position he still fills accept- ably.

Mr. Bawden is still in the prime of life, giv- ing daily his personal supervision to the details of his large and increasing business. Some years ago he purchased the dwelling on the cor- ner of Manalapan Avenne. and Broad Street, and furnished it luxuriously, improving the grounds and adding a conservatory for flowers, which is the admiration of the neighborhood, and for the cultivation of which both himself

and his wife have a passion. Here, surrounded by family and friends, and with the respect and esteem of the community, he enjoys his hours of leisure.

OLIVE BRANCH LODGE, No. 16, F. and A.M., has had an existence of more than thirty-five years, and is the lineal successor of an ancient lodge which was organized here nearly a century ago. The history of Olive Branch Lodge, which follows, prefaced by a brief account of Freema- sonry in Monmouth County, was compiled and arranged by Major James S. Yard, of the Monmouth Democrat, and published by a com- mittee of the lodge appointed for that purpose.

There are no records of Freemasonry in New Jersey before the organization of the Grand Lodge in 1786. Previous to that time lodges derived their authority, directly or indirectly, from the Grand Lodges of England. During the War of the Revolution the records of these lodges were lost or destroyed. From the records of the Grand Lodge of England it appears that in 1730, Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, was appointed Provincial Grand Master of the provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but. it nowhere appears that he ever exercised any authority as such. This Daniel Coxe was a wealthy citizen of Gloucester County, a member of the Council of the notorious Lord Cornbury and Speaker of the Assembly during a portion of the administration of Governor Hunter. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1739, he was a justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1794 " The Grand Lodge of London, in Great Britain," established a Provincial Grand Lodge for the Province of Pennsylvania, and this Provincial Grand Lodge, according to its records, issued warrants to several lodges in New Jersey. At a meeting on December 20th, 1779, a warrant was granted to William Bost- wick, Master, Isaiah Wool, Senior Warden, and Motte, Junior Warden,1 " for a new lodge to be

I These were probably officers in the Continental army who were made Masons in an Army Lodge. as we find that Williato Bostwick was a lieutenant in Captain William Gor- dou's company of the Third Establishment, and John Motte was captain of the Fifth Company in the same or- ganization. The Mott family in Monmouth County came, from Rhode Island, and was related to Nathaniel Green

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held at Middleton " (Middletown), in Monmouth . Monmouth Lodge, viz. : "Richard Lloyd, County. This is the first lodge of which there Esq., Elisha Lawrence, Thomas Barber, Ben- is any record in this county. It had probably jamin Rogers, Barnes Smock, David Rhea, become extinct prior to the organization of the Benajah Osman, William Lloyd, James Eng- lish, General David Forman, James Rogers, Esq., A. Lane, tyler." 2 Grand Lodge of New Jersey, as no mention is made of it at that time.

The Grand Lodge of New Jersey was organ- ized at a Convention of Free and Accepted Masons of the State, held at New Brunswick, December 18, 1786. At this meeting were present from Monmouth, Richard Lloyd, hold- ing membership in Lodge No. 1, of Albany, N. Y., and Jonathan Rhea, of No. 19 on the register of Provincial Grand Lodge of Penn- sylvania. At a subsequent meeting, at the same place, January 30, 1787, a dispensation was granted to Jonathan Rhea to open a lodge at Freehold, a warrant to be issued at the expira- tion of that time. At the session of April 3d, the same year, there were present from Mon- mouth, Jonathan Rhea M .; Richard Lloyd, S. W .; and Thomas Leland, J. W. Among the visitors appears the name of Barnes H. Smock,-doubtless Captain Smock. The lodges represented balloted for their numbers ; Mon- mouth drew No. 3, and the dispensations were extended for three months longer. On July . 3d, of the same year, another session of the Grand Lodge was held at Trenton, when the Junior Grand Warden.

following minute appears upon the records:

" Ordered, That a warrant be issued, agree- ably to the above application, for a lodge to be hereafter held in the county of Monmouth, to be distinguished by the name of Trinity Lodge, No. 3; Brother Rhea having paid the treasurer the sum of £10 5s. Od., agreeable to the rule, for a warrant and one member who has been initiated."

At this session " Major Richard Lloyd " off- ciated as S. G. W. pro tem., and on the next day (July 4th) General David Forman, of No. 3, appears as a visitor.

At a session of the Grand Lodge held at New Brunswick, June 23, 1788, the names of the following persons appear as visitors from

At the session of July 3, 1789, Trinity, No. 3, was represented by Jonathan Rhea, M .; David Forman, J. W. ; and James R. English, Treasurer.

On January 5, 1790, the Grand Lodge met at Freehold, when David Rhea officiated as G. S. D., and Richard Lloyd as G. J. D. pro tem. The session of July 6th, following, was held at Trenton, and Trinity, No. 3, was represented by Jonathan Rhea, Anthony F. Taylor and James Rogers (no titles given). At this session the time of meeting of Trinity Lodge is recorded as on the first Monday in each month.

At the session of January 11, 1791, Jona- than Rhea, Esq., was elected Junior Grand Warden. At the session of December 27th, the same year, Trinity Lodge was represented by Hon. Elisha Lawrence, Master; William Lloyd, Junior Warden; and Elisha Newell. At the election of officers, Jonathan Rhea with- drew his name from the list of candidates, and Hon. Elisha Lawrence was unanimously elected

At the session of December 31, 1792, Elisha Lawrence appeared as Senior Grand Warden pro tem., but Trinity Lodge is reported not rep- resented. At the semi-annual session, June 24, 1793, it was represented by Jonathan Rhea, Master, and John Freeman. Eleven lodges appear upon the rolls. At this session the warrant of Trinity Lodge was surrendered. but its name was not >truck from the rolls until January 8, 1800. The Master, in surrendering the warrant, "prayed the indulgence of the lodge for time to make up their accounts, and assured the lodge that all monies due the lodge

the " Quaker General" of the Revolution. Gershom Mott is a common name on the old records of Monmouth, and General Gershom Mott, of Trenton, a distinguished officer of the late war, was a descendant of that family.

2 Nearly all of these brethren were officers in the ('onti- nen al army. Lane was an ensign : David Rhea, lieuten- ant colonel ; Jonathan Rhea, ensign ; Richard Lloyd, captain ; David Forman, colonel and general of militia ; Elisha Lawrence, colonel ; Thomas Barber, surgeon ; James Rogers, ensign ; James English, surgeon's mate ; Barnes Smock, captain ; Benajah Osman, lieutenant.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

should be honorably and punctually paid." These moneys, as appears by the records, were subsequently paid. After this time the name of Jonathan Rhea occasionally appears in the minutes of the Grand Lodge as a member of No. 5, at Trenton, of which he became an officer. He was also treasurer of the Grand Lodge for several years.

At the session held on November 10, 1807, a warrant was granted to John Mott, Master, Robert Shannon, S. W., Jesse Hedges, J. W., for a lodge at Middletown Point, in the county of Monmouth, by the name of Trinity Lodge, No. 20. A warrant for Shrewsbury Wash- ington Lodge, No. 34, was granted Novem- ber 14, 1815, Jolin P. Lewis, M .; Jonathan Morris, S. W .; and Alexander McGregor, J. W.

In 1832, out of fifty-seven lodges instituted up to that time, only four were represented in the Grand Lodge. This was probably in a great measure due to the Anti-Masonic excite- ment, which commenced about the year 1826, and raged for several years, during which time many of the lodges ceased labor. At the ses- sion of the Grand Lodge, Nov. 13, 1838, there were not funds enough in the hands of the treasurer to pay the tiler four dollars, voted for his services.

At the session held November 9, 1841, the Grand Secretary reported, of fifty-seven lodges warranted in the State, only eight were in work- ing order,-seven had been stricken off (among them Trinity, No. 20), nine had surrendered their warrants (among them Trinity, No. 3), thirty-three had ceased their work, but retained their warrants (among them Shrewsbury Wash- ington, No. 34). At the session of 1842 all the lodges were stricken off, leaving but eight lodges in existence within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge. These lodges were then re- numbered from No. 1 to No. 8. Washington Shrewsbury, although recorded among those stricken off, was allowed to rank as No. 9.

At the session of 1843 the Grand Master, in his report, states that he had received a com- munication from Worshipful John P. Lewis, Past Master of Shrewsbury Washington Lodge, and fourteen others, members of said lodge,

stating that they had not held any regular meet- ings since the year 1835, and that their lodge- room had been entered by thieves and their warrant and jewels stolen, and that they wished to reopen and resuscitate their lodge. He had accordingly granted them a dispensation for that purpose. At this session a new warrant was granted to that lodge.

The cloud under which the institution of Freemasonry had rested throughout the United States since the persecution, which began in 1826, had now dispersed, and it began to revive in this State. Among the first to feel the effects of it were Masons of Freehold. They made ap- plication to Worshipful Grand Master John P. Lewis, then a resident of Eatontown, in this county, and a member of Shrewsbury Wash- ington Lodge, who granted a dispensation to John B. Throckmorton, Samuel Laird, Rufus Bergen, Hugh Newell, James W. Andrews, William D. Davis, John D. Cottrel and David C. Conover, to form a lodge at Freehold to be hailed as Olive Branch Lodge, No. 16. This was the title and number of a lodge located "at Phillipsburg, in the county of Sussex," for which a warrant was granted January 9, 1799, and was among those stricken off at the session of 1842. It would seem that coming in as No. 16, the founders of this lodge accepted the old title anciently attached to the number. The dispensation was granted on the 20th day of October, 1849, and on the same day the Grand Master convened an emergent meeting of the Grand Lodge at Odd-Fellows' Hall, in Free- hold, and installed John B. Throckmorton Master, Samuel Laird Senior Warden, and Rufus Bergen Junior Warden of the new lodge, "with full power and authority to enter, pass and raise to the sublime degree of Master Mason such candidates as may be found worthy and well qualified ; " upon which the work was com- menced and progressed until the annual meet- ing of the Grand Lodge, on the 9th of January, 1850, when a warrant was granted to John B. Throckmorton, master; Samuel Laird, senior warden ; and John Vought, junior warden. In his address at this session the Grand Master, referring to this lodge while working under

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dispensation, said : " In company with a num- ber of brothers of Washington Lodge I have visited them and assisted them several times in making, passing and raising candidates of the first respectability and standing in society. The character and conduct of the officers and brethren of this lodge warrant the belief that it will do honor to the fraternity."

The following persons have filled the offices since then :

Worshipful Masters.

1850, John B. Throckmorton ; 1851, Samuel Laird ; 1857, Jehu Patterson; 1858, Holmes W. Murphy ; 1859, James S. Yard ; 1860, Isaac S. Buckalew ; 1865, Aaron R. Throckmorton ; 1867, Jacob C. Lawrence ; 1868, George C. Beekman ; 1871, Alexander A. Yard ; 1873, Aaron R. Throckmorton; 1874, William J. Butcher; 1875, James B. Craig ; 1876, Aaron C. Hart ; 1877, Henry W. Long; 1878, Henry W. Long ; 1879, Jacob C. Lawrence, P. M .; 1880, Alfred Walters ; 1881, Jacob C. Lawrence; 1882, Jacob C. Lawrence ; 1883, Jacob C. Lawrence, P. M.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 82

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