USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 14
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The mill is now owned principally by Benjamin F. Howell, the son-in-law of Mr. Willis, who leases the forge for the manufacture of scrap blooms. The rolling-mill is not at present in operation.
ANTHRACITE FURNACES.
BOONTON.
fashioned trip-hammer, a slitting machine and a small foundry. They were mostly engaged in the manufacture of sheet, hoop and bar iron. There was a refinery also, below, on the bank of the river.
There was a small furnace built in 1833, which was first lighted by the ladies residing at the agent's house, on the afternoon of February 27th 1834. What is now called No. I furnace, which uses anthracite coal, was built about 1848. The furnace of 1833 was of course a charcoal furnace; for George Crane of Yniscedwin iron works, in Wales, did not bring his experiments with an- thracite to success until 1838, the difficulty being in all previous trials that only a cold blast had been used. In the March 1838 number of the Journal of the American Institute the editor says in a note: "A sample has been shown us of good iron made solely by means of anthracite coal. It is the result of a long course of experiments, as we are informed." The next number of the journal con- tains a report from Mr. Crane of his successful work.
David Thomas was with Mr. Crane in Wales, and as his agent came to this country and started the Crane iron works, at Catasauqua, Pa. His son Samuel Thomas su- perintended the erection of the Boonton furnace until he left it to build the Thomas Iron Company's furnaces at Hokendauqua, when he was succeeded by George Jen- kins, who continued till his death at Boonton in charge of the furnaces.
For some reason the New Jersey Iron Company failed, and its property was sold by the sheriff July 19th 1852. The stockholders lost every cent of their investment, but every debt due to outsiders was fully paid. The pur- chaser was Dudley B. Fuller, the principal creditor, to whom it is said the company owed $165,000. Mr. Fuller some time after took into partnership with him James Cowper Lord, forming the firm of Fuller & Lord. This firm continued to own and operate the works until the firm was dissolved by the death of Mr. Fuller, which occurred in 1868. Mr. Lord died in 1869. The works were car- ried on a short time by the executors of the deceased partners, but at length, in 1876, the whole interest was purchased by the estate of J. Cowper Lord, which is still the owner.
In 1830 the New Jersey Iron Company, incorporated In 1853, when Dr. Tuttle visited these works, they were being operated by Fuller & Lord. The rolling-mill and puddling furnaces covered more than an acre of ground exclusive of the large nail and spike factory, the coopering mill and the blast furnace, then recently built. The Morris Canal and Rockaway River at Boonton run nearly parallel, and both make a rapid descent to the plains below. The canal by an inclined plane and locks makes a difference of 100 feet between its upper and lower levels, and the river falls a still greater distance in a series of cascades. These circumstances have been made the most of by the builders of the works which lie between the two. The coal, ore and limestone are taken under an act of the Legislature dated November 7th 1829 (the incorporators being William Green jr., Apollos R. Wetmore and David W. Wetmore), commenced the erection of the extensive iron works at Boonton two miles above the old slitting-mill of the Ogdens. These have grown to be by far the largest and most complete in the county. At first the works were under the supervision and management of Messrs. Green and Wetmore, who were large iron dealers in New York; afterward of Wil- liam Green and Lyman Dennison, forming the firm of Green & Dennison. The whole village with the excep- tion of one store and two or three dwelling houses be- longed exclusively to the company. In the beginning from the upper level of the canal to the top of the fur- most of the works were under one roof. They consisted, nace ; while the iron product passing through the pud- dling, rolling, heating and nail mills, is put up in kegs, made on the ground from the unsawed timber, and is says Isaac S. Lyon in his sketch of the town, of a rolling- mill, a number of puddling and heating furnaces, an old
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
ready for shipment by the side of the canal at its lower level. The water from the river and the waste water of the canal furnish motive power. William G. Lathrop was then the general manager, and his long experience made the business profitable and constantly increasing during the lives of the two partners.
From October Ist 1852 to May Ist 1853, a period of seven months, the following statistics show the extent of their operations: Pig iron puddled, 3,774 tons; nail plate, rolled, 3,000 tons; spike rods rolled, 885 tons; scrap iron used, 784 tons; ore used in the puddling fur- naces, 1,000 tons; anthracite coal consumed, 5,656 tons; amount of wages disbursed, about $36,000. During the same period six spike machines, employing 22 men and boys, made 1,874,000 pounds or 836 tons of iron spikes; 73 nail machines, worked by 100 hands, produced 56,179 casks of nails, of 100 pounds each, making a total of 2,800 tons. At the cooper shop casks were made at the rate of 120,000 per annum. The whole establishment, in- cluding blast furnace, ctc., gave employment to 400 hands, whose annual wages amounted to $120,000.
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ment was thoroughly organized and complete in itself. Over 700 men and boys were given constant employment.
The panic of 1873, occurring as it did shortly after the death of the two partners, brought about a complete stag- nation of business. This was too large a concern to be operated by any one man of less than enormous capital. The owners of the property could not agree upon a suit- able rent with any tenant who might be disposed to under- take it, so that except from 1873 to 1876, when it was run by the sons of Dudley B. Fuller, and a short time in 1880, when one furnace was in blast, the works have lain idle. The town, depending upon this single industry, suffered terribly at first in the loss of its citizens and the depreciation of property; but silk mills and other indus- tries have since been set on foot which have restored to the place something of its former prosperity.
PORT ORAM.
· So far as railroad and canal facilities are concerned Port Oram is that place in the county best adapted for the manufacture of iron. The Morris Canal and the Morris and Essex Railroad pass through the place and the Mount Hope and Chester branches terminate here. In addition to these within the last year the High Bridge. branch of the Central of New Jersey, and the Dover and Rockaway road, connecting with the Hibernia Railroad, have made this their junction. It is a place which has grown up almost entirely since the war, and is named from Robert F. Oram, who laid it out.
A correspondent of Harper's Monthly (J. R. Chapin), in the July 1860 number of that magazine, gives a very graphic and correct description of the Boonton works as they then were, and substantially as they had been for the seven years previous. Up to that time there had been expended on the works about half a million of dol- lars. In 1864 the number of kegs of nails turned out was 173,000, then considered a larger product than that of any similar establishment in the United States. Just The Port Oram Iron Company was incorporated March 31st 1868, its incorporators being John C. Lord, Robert F. Oram, William G. Lathrop, C. D. Schubarth, James H. Neighbour, W. H. Talcott, J. Covper Lord, Henry Day and Theodore F. Randolph, and the possible capital $300,000. Nearly all these gentlemen were connected in some way with the owners of the Boonton iron works, who also owned the Mount Pleasant and other mines in the immediate neighborhood. The furnace was much larger than either of the ones at Boonton, its capacity being 150,000 tons yearly. It cost with the land and improvements over $200,000, and was built in the years 1868 and 1869. It was first put in blast August 27th 1869 by its owners, but May 4th 1872 Ario Pardee leased the furnace for four years, and during that time it was in very successful operation. During the last year in which it was run it produced nearly 13,000 tons of iron. before the war the owners commenced the erection of the second blast furnace, which was completed after the war closed. In 1872-3 the works touched the highest point of their prosperity. There were then two blast furnaces, whose yearly capacity was 20,000 tons, under the management of George Jenkins, in which the con- cern continued until his death, when he was succeeded by his son H. C. Jenkins; the large mill, under Philip Wooten, was 375 by 275 feet in size and contained 12 double puddling furnaces, one scrap furnace, five trains of rolls, two squeezers, four nut machines, etc., etc. The upper nail factory, under James Holmes, contained 100 nail machines, producing 250,000 kegs of nails per annum. The lower nail factory, which was in charge of Nathaniel Jones and which commenced in 1855, con- tained 25 machines and produced ro,ooo kegs of nails per annum. In 1875 this mill contained 50 machines, The company originally issued stock to the amount of $150,000, which was entirely consumed in the construc- tion of the furnace and it became necessary to raise $100,000 additional; this was done by issuing bonds to. that amount, taken almost entirely by the stockholders. In January 1877 the furnace was sold under foreclosure of the mortgage given to secure these bonds, and bought in for the bondholders, who reorganized under the name of the Port Oram Furnace Company. It is now out of blast. with a capacity of 30,000 kegs per annum, but of a smaller size than those made at the upper mill. The saw-mill, in charge of George M. Gage, turned out about 3,000,000 staves and 400,000 keg heads per annum. At the cooper shop, of which Amzi Burroughs was the superintendent, the staves and heads were put up ready to be filled with nails. A new foundry built in 1857 turned out about 400 tons of castings each year, making all that were required for the uses of the other mills, etc. It was under the superintendence of Paul Glover. G. W. Eaton was outside superintendent and Henry W. Crane |in 1877-8 by John Hance and Robert F. Oram, where. had charge of the transportation. The whole establish-
Besides the furnace there is at Port Oram a forge built pig iron is rapidly refined by modern and improved ma-
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PORT ORAM IRON WORKS-CHESTER FURNACE-UNION FOUNDRY.
chinery. It was started August 5th 1878. The forge is now in operation, employing about 14 hands. The " run-out " connected with the forge has not been in operation recently. In detail, there are here one 6-twier run-out furnace, capable of producing 12 tons per day; four double-twiered fires for making anthracite blooms or blooms from pig iron, the four fires capable of produ- cing 200 tons of blooms per month; and four scrap- bloom fires, capable of producing 200 tons per month; all these estimates calculated upon double time, or run- ning day and night. Power is supplied by steam boilers of 80 horse power. The steam hammer has a drop
weight of 2,200 pounds, stroke 30 inches. Blast is pro- | for calamity came upon them. At half-past 10 in the duced by a double cylinder perpendicular blowing en- gine, built by Wrin & Brother, Lebanon, Pa., at a cost of $3,200. The capital stock of the company was $50,000, of which $32,000 was expended ,in the erection of the forge, leaving $18,000 unissued. The officers of the com- pany are as follows: Robert F. Oram president; John Hance, vice president; William G. Lathrop, treasurer; Edward Hance, secretary.
THE CHESTER FURNACE.
The Chester furnace, situated west of Chester village, was built in 1878 by the Jersey Spiegel Iron Company, for the purpose of making spiegel-eisen out of residuum which is the refuse of franklinite after the zinc is extracted.
The project was abandoned, however, after the com- pletion of the furnace, and in the spring of 1879 it was leased for a term of years to W. J. Taylor & Co., who ran it on iron until the summer of 1880, when the original stack, which was 11 feet bosh and 40 feet high, was found to be too small to be profitable. It was torn down by the lessees and rebuilt 60 feet high and 13 feet bosh, and it is now in successful blast, averaging a production of 240 tons per week red short mill iron, made from Chester sulphur ores after roasting in the Taylor kilns, brand "Jersey." The iron ranks very high as a mill-iron, and is used mainly for sheets and plates, and also as a mix- ture with poor cold-short English irons-one-third of this iron mixed with two-thirds of Middlesborough pig making a good common iron.
STEPHENS FURNACE.
On the north side of the Morris and Essex Railroad, just before reaching Drakesville station from the east, is an iron furnace and smoke stack erected in 1877 by Wil- liam A. Stephens, after a patent of his own. The process consists in introducing the ore, pulverized and heated, from the top of the furnace to the main fires below, and its inventor claimed that he could make a ton of iron with a ton of coal. About twenty tons of iron were man- ufactured when the furnace was first constructed, but since then it has been lying idle.
FOUNDRIES AND MACHINE SHOPS.
Besides the foundries which have been mentioned in connection with furnaces and other iron works there have been several independent establishments. Some of these had but a comparatively short existence. About the year
1835 Joseph C. Righter built one at Rockaway on Berry's Brook, and a little farther up the stream a manufactory for making iron axles. The foundry is still standing, but it has not been used for over twenty years for the pur- pose for which it was built. It belonged to the late Richard Stephens at the time of his death.
THE UNION FOUNDRY.
In 1845 James Fuller and Mahlon Hoagland erected a foundry on the bank of the canal in Rockaway, which was adapted to doing a large business. They had hardly gotten their works in complete order before an unlooked evening of September 18th 1850 a fire broke out which in an hour or two reduced their buildings to ashes. A large quantity of finely pulverized charcoal was in the corner of the foundry, and it is supposed that while the workmen were pouring the molten iron into the moulds some sparks fell into this charcoal, which slowly ignited until it was all aglow and from which fire was communi- cated to the building. An insurance of $3,500 did little toward making up a loss estimated at $20,000. Sixty hands were thrown out of employment. Fuller & Co. had been filling orders from Nova Scotia and New Mexico. They were then preparing castings for the new planes of the Morris Canal. The fire broke up the firm; Mr. Fuller went to California, and died on his way home. Mr. Hoagland remained. Freeman Wood, purchasing the property, built it over and rented it to Aaron D. Berry, with whom Mr. Hoagland was associated. In 1853 they were employing forty-two hands, and con- suming 500 tons of coal and 500 tons of pig iron per annum. More than 100 tons of the castings for the Crystal Palace in New York were made here.
From Mr. Wood the ownership of the property passed to the Morris County Bank, with the rolling-mill proper- ty, and from the bank Mr. Hoagland rented for a time and finally purchased. Associated with him in the ownership were Robert F. Oram and William G. Lathrop. The firm was called the Union Foundry Company, and, though in 1873 Mr. Hoagland became the sole owner, the buisness is still carried on in that name. For several years past the business has been constantly increasing, and throughout the dull times of 1874-7 the works were in constant operation. Heavy rolls etc. are made here for the foreign trade and for all parts of the United States. Here are manufactured also the ore and stone crushers patented by Chas. G. Buchanan, which have proved very successful wherever tried. Mr. Buchanan has very recently invented a train of magnetic rolls for the separation of ore from its impurities, which it is claimed will make many ores now worthless available for iron-making. The Swedish Iron Company, operating the Rockaway rolling-mill, uses these rolls to purify its sand ore at Block Island.
THE MORRIS COUNTY MACHINE AND IRON COMPANY.
This company was organized in the year 1868, and has erected its foundry and machine shop on Sussex -
62
HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
street in Dover, near the site of the foundry which Mr. McFarlan sold to Alexander Elliott and which the latter operated until it was destroyed by fire a few years since. It is doing a large business and gives employment to, about sixty hands. Much of its work is for the mines in the vicinity of Dover, building pumps, engines, air-com- pressors, etc. Hon. George Richards is president, William H. Lambert treasurer, and D. B. Overton super- intendent.
BARTLEY FOUNDRY.
This very complete though comparatively small estab- lishment is built on the site of the old Welch forge, near the Bartley station of the High Bridge Railroad. Its machinery is moved by water. William Bartley, the pro- prietor, is the owner of the patent " Bartley water wheel," and his principal business is its manufacture. It is a turbine wheel of great excellence. For power, economy of water and convenience of adjustment it is unsurpassed.
CHAPTER X.
IRON MINES OF MORRIS COUNTY.
N speaking of the iron manufactures it has been necessary to give more or less of the history of some of the principal mines con- nected with them, such as the Dickerson, Mount Hope and Hibernia mines. Prior to about the year 1850 the ore mined in the county was manufactured largely in the county and was raised for that purpose. The charcoal furnaces of the ore were shipped from this mine during each of the last century, the anthracite furnace at Boonton and the years 1879 and 1880. The low percentage of phosphorus charcoal forges-always running, but with their period admits the use of this ore in making Bessemer steel, and of greatest activity in the earlier part of this century -- it has been worked continuously since before 1873. There are several veins and many openings on this prop- erty, which may be considered as not one mine but sev- eral. The High Bridge Railroad has a branch to this mine, largely facilitating the transportation of the ore. were the principal consumers. The demand for ore was comparatively limited. After 1850 the demand for ore for shipment to other counties of this State and to other States began to assume importance, and that demand has increased until the mining of ore is now the principal de- partment of iron industry in the county.
Professor George H. Cook, State geologist, in his re- ports for the years 1879 and 1880 has given very com- plete lists of all the mines in the county and of their ca- pacity. He arranges the mines of the State in four belts, nearly parallel with each other, running northeast and southwest.
Ist, the Ramapo Belt, which begins near Peapack, in Somerset county, and extends in a northeast direction by Pompton to the State line. It is about two miles wide at the southwest and at the New York line its width is five miles. Mine Mountain, Trowbridge Mountain, the low mountains between Denville and Boonton, the mountain extending from Boonton to Pompton and the Ramapo Mountain are all in this belt. The belt includes the
following mines in Morris county: the Connet mine in Mendham township, already mentioned, and supposed to have been worked in the last century to some extent; the Beers mine, in Hanover township, on the farm of John H. Beers, from which only a small amount of ore has yet been shipped; the Taylor mine and the mine on the Cole farm, Montville township; and the Kahart, Lana- gan, De Bow, Jackson and Ryerson mines in Pequannock township, which have not been operated to any extent since 1874.
2nd, the Passaic Belt, next, to the northwest, which has a nearly uniform breadth of about five miles. It includes the principal mines of the county and State. In Chester township are the Pottersville, Rarick, Langdon, (R. D.) Pitney, Budd & Woodhull, Topping, Samson, Hotel, Collis, Creamer Ist, Swayze, Cooper, Hacklebarney, Gulick, Creager, Hedges, Dickerson Farm, Creamer 2nd, De Camp, Leake, Daniel Horton and Barnes mines. Some of these mines have never been developed, others only partially. The Swayze, Gulick, Cooper and Hackle- barney have been worked successfully. The Cooper mine was opened in December 1879, on the farm of the late General N. A. Cooper, and is operated by the Cooper Iron Mining Company as lessee. It is under the super- intendence of John D. Evans. From the 14th of De- cember 1879 to the ist of December 1880 over 12,000 tons of ore was shipped, and the supply seems almost limitless. For the first seventy-five feet the shafts pass through a soft granular ore, very much decomposed and of a reddish color, after which a rich granular blue ore was struck. The vein is from fifteen to thirty feet wide. The Hacklebarney mine is an old mine, but on account of the prevalence of sulphur in the ore was not worked ex- tensively until it came into the hands of its present owners, the Chester Iron Company. Over 20,000 tons of
In Randolph township are the following mines: Hen- derson, George (or Logan), David Horton, De Hart and Lawrence (worked by the Reading Iron Company) Dal- rymple (worked by the Crane Iron Company), Trowbridge, Solomon Dalrymple, Cooper, Munson, Lewis, Combs, Van Doren, Bryant (owned by D. L. and A. Bryant, and worked by the Bethlehem Iron Company), Connor Fow- land, Charles King, King McFarland, Evers (worked by the Saucon Iron Company), Brotherton & Byram (worked by the Andover Iron Company), Millen (owned by the Boonton Company), Randall Hill (operated by the Crane Iron Company), Jackson Hill (supposed to be worked out), Canfield's Phosphatic Iron, Black Hills, Dickerson, Canfield, Baker, Irondale (owned by the New Jersey Iron Mining Company, and which includes the Spring, Sul- livan, Corwin, Stirling, Hubbard, North River, Harvey
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IRON MINES IN RANDOLPH.
and Hurd mines), Orchard (owned by the estate of J. C. long. The vein averages from six to seven feet in width. Lord), and Erb and Scrub Oak (which are owned by the Andover Iron Company).
The King, Dickerson, Black Hills and Canfield mines are on the property of the. Dickerson Suckasunny Min- ing Company, and include the famous Dickerson mine, which is still in succesful operation. In the Geology of New Jersey, published in 1868, the estimated product of this mine to that date is given as 500,000 tons, since which time 300,000 have been raised, making a grand aggregate of over three-quarters of a million of tons. It is at present leased by Ario Pardee, and the ore is shipped mostly to his furnaces at Stanhope. There are slopes in this mine over 900 feet in length, and the big vein is over 25 feet wide in some places. The ore commands a ready sale on account of its richness, and brings a large royalty to the owners of the mine. The Dickerson Suckasunny Mining Company was incorporated February 24th 1854, with a capital stock of $300,000, its corpora- tors being Philemon Dickerson, Mahlon D. Canfield, Frederick Canfield, Jacob Vanatta, Edward N. Dicker- son, Silas D. Canfield and Philemon Dickerson jr., de- visees, or interested for the devisees of Governor Mah- lon Dickerson, the late owner of the mine; and their ob- ject was to continne the ownership of the property in the family, with more convenient management. This mine, as has already been stated, was " located " by John Reading in 1715 on West Jersey right, and sold by Read- ing to Joseph Kirkbride in 1716. Johathan Dickerson, the father of Governor Mahlon Dickerson, began to pur- chase of the Kirkbride heirs in 1779, and in partnership with Minard La Fevre he purchased nearly the whole. His son Mahlon purchased of his father's heirs in 1807 and bought out La Fevre and the remaining Kirkbride heirs. During the remainder of his life he continued to operate the mine, residing on the premises after his re- turn from Philadelphia in 1810. It afforded him ample means for the indulgence of his literary tastes and be- nevolent projects, and to lead unembarrassed a public life embracing higher political distinctions than have been attained by any other citizen of the county.
Dr. Tuttle, who visited the mine in 1853, the year of tne governor's death, says: "The appearance of the vein is very singular. It looks as if some powerful force from beneath had split the solid rock, leaving a chasm of from six to twenty-five feet, and that the ore in a fused state had been forced into this chasm as into a mould. But at the place where the ore was first seen there is a sort of basin with a diameter of thirty feet. This was full of ore, which looks as if the melted mass had gushed over the vein and flowed into this basin, as we sometimes see the melted iron run over from a mould which is full."
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