History of Morris County, New Jersey, Part 16

Author: Halsey, Edmund Drake, 1840-1896; Aikman, Robert; Axtell, Samuel Beach, 1809-1891; Brewster, James F; Green, R. S. (Rufus Smith), 1848-1925; Howell, Monroe; Kanouse, John L; Megie, Burtis C; Neighbour, James H; Stoddard, E. W. (Elijah Woodward), 1820-1913
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 540

USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 16

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November 14th 1809 the Parsippany and Rockaway Turnpike Company was incorporated, Tobias Boudinot, Israel Crane, Benjamin Smith, Lemuel Cobb, John Hinchman and Joseph Jackson being the incorporators. It began at Pine Brook, ran up through the Bondinot Meadows-the dread of all travelers until filled in through their entire length-Troy, Parsippany, Denville, Rocka- way, and across the mountain to Mount Pleasant, where it joined the Union turnpike. July 22nd 1822 this turn- pike was abandoned as such and was laid out by survey- ors of the highivay as a public road, and it is still the main thoroughfare from that part of the country to New- ark etc.

February rith 1811 the Newark and Morris Turnpike Company was chartered, John Doughty, Benjamin Pier- son, Caleb Campbell, Setli Woodruff, Moses W. Combs and Jabez Pierson being the incorporators. The road was to pass through South Orange to Bottle Hill (Madi- son) or to Morristown.

The Columbia and Walpack Turnpike Company was incorporated in 1819.

These turnpikes had a great influence in developing the resources of the county-how great they who live at the present day of steam railroads can hardly appreciate. They were not profitable to the incorporators, and the benefit which accrued from them was to the community at large.

Some idea can be gotten of the means of communica- tion in those days by the stage route advertisements. April 3d 1798 Pruden Alling and Benjamin Green advertise the Hanover stage to run from William Par- rot's to Paulus Hook (Jersey City) every Tuesday, stopping at Munn's tavern in Orange and William Broadwell's in Newark, returning the succeeding day. The fare was one dollar. At the same time Benjamin Freeman and John Halsey advertised stages to run from Morristown to New York every Tuesday and Friday, returning every Wednesday and Saturday. The stage started from Benjamin Freeman's at 6 in the morning, stopped at Stephen Halsey's at Bottle Hill and Israel Day's at Chatham, and from thence to Mr. Roll's, at Springfield, from whence the stage went to Paulus Hook by Newark, but passengers desiring to go by Elizabeth- town Point could have a conveyance furnished. The

HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.

Ten years after, May 30th 1808, John Halsey adver- tised a stage from Morristown to Elizabethtown Point, to start from his house at Morristown at 6 A. M. Mon- days, Wednesdays and Fridays, to arrive at the Point for the first boat and to return each succeeding day. The fare was $1. A four-horse stage ran to " Powles Hook " as usual on Tuesdays and Fridays of each week; and the next year (April 4th 1809) John Burnet & Co. advertise a stage to run from Seth Gregory's tavern, on Morris Plains, through Morristown, Whippany, Hanover, Orange and Newark, to the " city of Jersey," starting at 6 A. M. Mondays and Thursdays and returning the succeeding days. They claimed that the route was shorter than any other and was on the turnpike nearly all the way. The fare was $1.50.

In 1812 William Dalrymple's stages were carrying people from Lewis Hayden's tavern to Elizabethtown Point three times a week for St each, and from the Point they took steamer to New York. December 22nd of this year notice is taken of Governor Ogden's beautiful steamer, just completed, which went from Elizabeth to Amboy on Friday, December 19th, to take out papers. Returning she made the distance of thirteen or fourteen miles in two hours. The machinery, "which differs in many respects from any heretofore built," was made by Daniel Dod, of Mendham, a very celebrated inventor and clock-maker.

Sixteen years later, April 26th 1828 McCoury, Drake & Co. advertised a stage "to run through in one day and by daylight," for $2 fare, from New York to Easton, via Elizabethport, Morristown and Schooley's Mountain Springs. Passengers could leave New York by the steamer "Emerald " at 6 A. M., and returning leave Easton at 4 A. M. and arrive in New York at 6 P. M. While this was the through route the Morris and New York mail stages left Morristown Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and went by way of Hanover and Orange to Newark, whence passengers were taken to the city by steamboat. They arrived at New York at 3 P. M., and returning, at Morristown at 5 P. M. The fare through was $1.25.

Ten years later the Morris and Essex Railroad was in operation, and there was an improvement in point of time and comfort, but, as will be observed, little in the cost of travel.

The idea of making the Morris Canal was first con- ceived by George P. McCulloch, of Morristown, while on a fishing excursion to Lake Hopatcong, well known as the Great Pond. This lake was 925 feet above the level of the sea, and originally covered an area of five square miles. To dam up its outlet and husband the winter rains, and then lead the accumulated waters westward down the valley of the Musconetcong to the Delaware, and eastward to and down the valleys of the Rockaway and Passaic to Newark, was the object he thought at- tainable. The region to be traversed was rich in its mineral products, and iron was manufactured in abund- ance in the fifty forges and three furnaces which were still in existence. Thirty forges and nine furnaces in

this neighborhood had fallen into disuse, principally for lack of cheap transportation. Mr. McCulloch attempted to interest the State in his project, and by an act of No- vember 15th 1822 the Legislature appointed him, with Charles Kinsey, of Essex, and Thomas Capner, commis- sioners with authority to employ a scientific engineer and surveyor to explore, survey and level the most practicable route for this canal and to make an estimate of the cost thereof. The commissioners reported in 1823 and re- ceived the thanks of the Legislature; but the latter could not be induced to make it a State affair, and left it to private enterprise.

Mr. McCulloch communicated an account of the enterprise to Cadwallader D. Colden in 1832, in which he speaks as follows of Professor Renwick, of New York, who planned the construction, as well as of others con- cerned in the business:

" Be it here broadly stated that up to the time when the Morris Canal became a Wall street speculation he was considered by every person connected with the en- terprise as the chief engineer; and that without his zeal, talent and science it would not within our day and generation have emerged beyond a scheme transmitted to a more liberal and enlightened posterity.

"In April 1823 I went to Albany, and with Governor Clinton's concurrence obtained from the Legislature of the State of New York a grant of its engineers to join in the Morris survey. But even this co-operation did not seem to me sufficient to counteract the apathy of friends or the prejudices and party spirit of opponents. I there- fore wrote to Mr. Calhoun, then secretary of war, for the aid of General Bernard and Colonel Totten, heads of the U. S. engineer department. This reinforcement, with the volunteer services of General Swift, constituted a weight of authority sufficient to overpower cavil, igno- rance and hostility. From Albany I proceeded with Judge Wright, chief engineer of the Erie Canal, to Little Falls, for the purpose of engaging Mr. Beach to take the levels and survey the route, having previously conversed with him, and agreed with Professor Renwick to entrust him with that task.

"The spring and summer of. 1823 we're spent by me in collecting topographical and statistic information, as also in reconnoitering the various routes, in company with the inhabitants of their vicinity. Here a singular fact should be stated, that the plain good sense and local information of our farmers staked out the most difficult passes of the boldest canal in existence, and that in every important point the actual navigation merely pursues the trace thus indicated. In July 1823 Mr. Beach appeared for the first time on the scene of action, guided by Mr. Renwick, to whom the deliberative department was confided."

December 31st 1824 the "Morris Canal and Banking Company " was incorporated, with a capital of $1,000,000, for the purpose, as stated in the preamble, of constructing a canal to unite the river Delaware near Easton with the tide waters of the Passaic. Jacob S. Thompson, of Sus- sex, Silas Cook, of Morris, John Dow, of Essex, and Charles Board, of Bergen, were the incorporators named in the act; and George P. McCulloch and John Scott, of Morris county, Israel Crane, of Essex, Joseph G. Swift, Henry Eckford and David B. Ogden, of the city of New York, were appointed commissioners to receive sub- scriptions to the stock. The company was also allowed

MORRIS CANAL-MORRIS AND ESSEX RAILROAD.

to do a banking business in connection with its canal, and in proportion to the amount expended on the canal.

Relative to the financial features introduced in the organization through stock-jobbing influences Mr. Mc- Culloch speaks as follows:

" It may be well here to remark that, anticipating the danger of throwing the whole concern into the control of mere foreign capitalists, the draft of a charter provided that a certain number of directors should be chosen resident in each county penetrated by the canal. # * * Several gentlemen from Wall street had volunteered their good offices and very kindly took post in the Tren- ton lobby after my departure. Upon their suggestion the draft of the charter was transformed into its present shape, nor did I receive the most distant hint of any alteration until the bill was finally passed. A company was formed and myself included in its direction. The precarious position of a canal coupled to a bank and directed by men of operations exclusively financial was obvious. The interests of the country and the develop- ment of the iron manufacture were merged in a reckless stock speculation. I did all in my power to arrest this perversion, but soon found myself a mere cipher, stand- ing alone, and responsible in public opinion for acts of extravagant folly, which I alone had strenuously opposed at the board of directors. * * * I clung to the sinking ship until every hope of safety had vanished, and then vacated my seat by selling out, thus saving myself from ruin, if not from loss. From the moment the charter, altered without my knowledge, was obtained, the whole affair became a stock-jobbing concern, the canal a mere pretext; my efforts to recall the institution to its duty were regarded as an intrusion, and every pains was taken to force me to retire." * * *

"Not only was the project itself first conceived by me, but I employed five years in exploring the route and con- ciliating friends. The newspaper articles, the correspond- ence to obtain information, the commissioners' report, and an endless catalogue of literary tasks were from my hand. I claim to have single-handed achieved the prob- lem of rendering popular, and accomplishing, a scheme demanding vast resources and stigmatized as the dream of a crazed imagination."

The route of the canal was selected and the estimate made by Major Ephraim Beach, under whose direction the work was executed. The greatest difficulty experienced was in the inclined planes, which were not in successful op- eration until many costly experiments were made. The first completed was at Rockaway, and passed a boat loaded with stone, computed to weigh fifteen tons, from the lower to the upper level, 52 feet, in twelve minutes. It was not considered complete either in mechanism or workmanship, and it was not till 1857 that the present plane was adopted there.

meet the payments in constructing the canal the company borrowed in Holland $750,000, which was known as the " Dutch loan," and secured its indebtedness by a mort- gage on the canal. This mortgage the company was un- able to pay, and a sale under foreclosure was had, by which the regular stockholders lost their stock, the unsecured creditors their debts, and the State of Indiana, which held a second mortgage, much of its loan. The canal was bought in by Benjamin Williamson, Asa Whitehead and John J. Bryant, October 21st 1844, for $1,000,coo. The pur- chasers reorganized the company under the same name, and the new company immediately undertook the en- largement of the capacity of the canal, which has been carried on. more or less every year since. While in its beginning its boats carried loads of 25 or 30 tons, they now carry loads of 65 and even 70 tons. Its tonnage (as appears by the reports to the stockholders) had in- creased from 58,259 tons in 1845, when only open part of the year, and 109,505 in 1846, to 707,572 in 1870. Its receipts for tolls and other sources in 1845. were $18,997.45; in 1846 $51,212.39; in 1870 $391,549.76.

On the 4th of May 1871 the Morris Canal Company made a perpetual lease of the canal and works to the Le- high Valley Railroad Company,-a Pennsylvania cor- poration, that desired it as an outlet to tide water. This company has since operated and treated the canal as its OWD.

The Morris and Essex Railroad Company was incor- porated by the Legislature of New Jersey January 29th 1835, the incorporators named in the act being James Cook and William N. Wood, of Morristown, William Brittin, of Madison, Jeptha B. Munn, of Chatham, Israel D. Condict, of Milburn, John J. Bryan and Isaac Bald- win. The capital stock was fixed at $300,000, with power to increase it to $500,000, and the professed object of the company was to build a railroad from one or more places "in the village of Morristown " to intersect the railroad of the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company at Newark or Elizabethtown. The rate for freight was limited to six cents per ton for each mile, and for passengers at six cents for each passenger per mile. A provision was also inserted in the charter that the State might take the road at its appraised value fifty years after its completion. The next year the company was authorized to build lateral roads to Whippany, Boon- ton, Denville, Rockaway and Dover, and to increase its stock $250,000. In 1838 the company was allowed to borrow money for the purposes of its road, and in 1839 to increase the par value of the shares from $50 to $75.

The canal was completed from Easton to Newark, 90 miles, in August 1831. It was estimated to cost $817,- Besides those named in the act of incorporation there were prominent and active in forwarding this enterprise from the beginning Hon. Lewis Condict, of Morristown, Jonathan C. Bonnel, of Chatham, and James Vanderpool, of Newark (father of Beach Vanderpool, afterward for so many years treasurer of the road). The difficulties met with in building the road were numerous and formidable, and were only overcome by enlisting in its behalf all who lived upon its proposed route. Changes were made in ooo -- it actually cost about $2,000,000. The canal was adapted to boats of 25 tons only, which in many cases proved too heavy for the chains of the planes. The pas sage from Easton to Newark was said to have been per- formed in less than five days. There were twelve planes and 17 locks, aggregating an elevation of 914 feet, the highest planes being those of Drakesville and Boonton Falls, which were each 80 feet. The continuation of the canal to Jersey City was not completed until 1836. To its location to gain it friends, and the directors exhausted

HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.

every effort to carry the work to a successful termination. this at once, but made an arrangement with the New They frequently pledged their individual credit to supply Jersey Railroad to run a branch of that road over the Passaic to the present Morris and Essex depot, so that trains ran by steam uninterruptedly through Newark and so on to the New Jersey Railroad, and as formerly to to Jersey City. It was not until 1863 that the com- pany built its own road to Hoboken, getting an act passed in 1864 to enable it to buy the Passaic bridge, etc., of the New Jersey Railroad. the necessary funds. The engineer was Captain Ephraim Beach, who had been the engineer of the Morris Canal. The track was at first the " strap rail," consisting of a flat bar of iron spiked on the edge of timbers running parallel with the road bed, and causing occasional acci- dents by loose ends curling under the wheels and some- times going through the bottom of the cars. There was at the outset no idea of its ever being a "through road " across the State, or of the immense traffic of the present day ever passing over it. The engines were small and two sufficed to do the work. The depot at Morristown was on De Hart street, the railroad approaching it through the present Maple avenue-formerly called Rail- road avenue and, before the time of the railroad, Canfield street. At Newark the cars were hauled from the depot on Broad street through Center street to the track of the New Jersey Railroad at the Center street depot.

The business done by the new road was not sufficiently remunerative to pay for its construction or to induce capitalists to loan the company money as it needed, and in 1842 the road with its franchises was sold, chiefly to pay about $50,000 or $60,000 due its directors for money advanced by them. The sale was so made, however, that all the original stockholders had an opportunity to come in and redeem their stock (a privilege which a ma- jority availed themselves of ) and all the debts of the company were paid.

A reorganization followed, and the new company at once proceeded to relay the road with iron rails of more modern pattern, and to make other and greater improve. cents. In 1845 the continuation of the road to Dover, agreeably to the supplement of the charter passed in 1836, was undertaken. There being some doubt as to the power of the company to build the road after the lapse of so many years, an act of the Legislature was obtained in 1846 reaffirming and continuing the com- pany's priviliges and allowing it to build a road from Dover to Stanhope. Work was at once begun, and in July 1848 the road was completed to Dover, an event which was celebrated by a grand dinner at the latter place. To get beyond Morristown the road was taken up from the "Sneden place," below Governor Randolph's to De Hart street, and laid anew where it still runs. Con- templating to run from Denville directly to Dover, the people of Rockaway contracted to give the right of way from Denville to "Dell's Bridge," where the switch is now between Rockaway and Dover, if the road was laid through their place, which agreement was fulfilled.

Dover was the end of the route for a year or two, but in 1850 the further continuation of the road was begun, and in 1853 or thereabouts it was finished to Hacketts- town. Here the work rested until 1861, when the road was completed across the State to Phillipsburg.

The tedious method of getting through Newark to the New Jersey Railroad by horse power was submitted to until 1851, when the company was authorized to con- tinue its road to Hoboken. In did not, however, do

In 1866 an arrangement was made to lease the road to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, and it was the intention to make it a part of a great through route to the west; an enterprise which entirely failed, owing to the failure of Sir Morton Peto or the other parties interested. December 10th 1868 a lease was made to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Rail- road Company, which is still in force. By it the lessees agree to operate the road, making it a part of their own line to tide water, and to guarantee the payment of inter- est on its funded debt and at least 7 per cent. per annum dividends on its stock.

Many collateral or branch roads have been built to the main line. Shortly after the continuation to Hacketts- town the Sussex Railroad was built from Newton to Waterloo, hitherto owned and managed by a separate board of directors and kept entirely distinct from the main line. In 1864 the people of Boonton were accom- modated with a branch from Denville to take the place of the stage line which had previously been their means of conveyance. This was largely through the influence of J. C. Lord, half owner of the Boonton Works and a director in the Morris and Essex. The Chester Railroad was constructed in 1867, mainly through the efforts of Major Daniel Budd, by the Chester Railroad Company, an organization distinct in name but in reality an ad- junct to the Morris and Essex road. Shortly afterward the Hibernia Railroad, which was built during the war from Hibernia to the Morris Canal at Rockaway as a horse road, was extended to the Morris and Essex line and made a steam road. It is a separate corporation in every respect, the Morris and Essex not owning or con- trolling its stock. The Ferromonte Railroad is a spur of the Chester road built in 1869 to the Dickerson mine. The Mount Hope Railroad, from Port Oram via the Richards, Allen and Teabo mines to Mount Hope, was built just after the war, to carry the immense ore freights of these mines along its route. It supplanted in use a tram railway from Mount Hope to the canal at Rocka- way.

Since the Morris and Essex has been under the con- trol of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company very great changes have been made in it. The Paterson branch, beginning at Dell's Bridge over Mill Brook between Rockaway and Dover, and running thence with double track to Denville, where it crosses the main line, thence to Boonton, mostly on the bed of the old "Boonton branch," and so by way of Paterson to the tunnel; the new Hoboken tunnel, and the double track- ing of the old road its whole length except between Mor-

MINOR RAILROADS-EARLY CHURCHES.

ristown and Rockaway, have been the work of the lessees.

Under the leading of Dr. Jacob Green, in 1780, he The expense of these improvements and additions has with three other ministers withdrew from the Presbytery been charged to the Morris and Essex road, so that, while its stock and bonds amounted at the time of the lease to about $12,000,000, they now amount to about $36,000,000.

Besides the Morris and Essex Railroad and the branches mentioned in connection therewith, there are in the county of Morris the New Jersey Midland Railroad, which skirts the northern edge of Pequannock, Jefferson and Rockaway townships; the Greenwood Lake Railroad, which crosses Pompton Plains; the Green Pond Railroad, which is a branch of the New Jersey Midland running from Charlotteburgh to the Copperas mine; the High Bridge Railroad, a branch of the Central of New Jersey, running from High Bridge through German Valley and McCainsville to Port Oram, with a spur to Chester; the Dover and Rockaway Rail- road, connecting the High Bridge Railroad at Port Oram with the Hibernia Railroad at Rockaway; and the Ogden Mine Railroad, running from the Ogden and Hurd mines to Lake Hopatcong-all built since the last war, and which properly come within the province of the histories of the several townships in which they lie.

CHAPTER XII.

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.

of New York and formed what was called the Presbytery of Morris county. For twelve years it stood alone; but in 1792 the Westchester Presbytery was formed, and in 1793 the Northern Presbytery, and the name " Associ- ated " was adopted. They were properly Congregational bodies, not holding the authority of synod and being Presbyterians in little but in their name. One of the first ministers ordained by this Morris County Presbytery (in 1783) was Joshua Spalding, said by Dr. Johnson, of New- burgh, to have been the means of converting more souls than any other man since Whitefield's day. Rev. Albert Brundage, who was taken under care of the presbytery in 1715, was one of the last. In 1830 the Presbytery of Westchester, the last of this group of Associated presby- teries, ceased to exist. Their history has been only par- tially preserved; but enough remains to show that they were instrumental in doing a great amount of good in a region which required a class of ministers who were willing to endure hardship, and whose work was quite as acceptable although their education had been not of the best. These men were ordained by these Associated presbyteries, and this was one cause of their separation from the synod.

In Alden's "New Jersey Register" of 1812 it is said that the churches and pastors of that day were as follows:

Presbyterian-Black River or Chester, Rev. Lemuel Fordham; Hanover, Rev. Aaron Condict; Mendham, Rev. Amzi Armstrong; Morristown, Rev. Samuel Fisher; Rockaway, Rev. Barnabas King; Pleasant Grove and Hackettstown, Rev. Joseph Campbell; Boonton and Pompton, vacant.

Baptist-Morris and Randolph, vacant.

N 1765 there were in the county, according to the historian Samuel Smith, fourteen houses Methodist-Asbury charge, which embraced a part of this county, had as ministers James Moore, Charles Reed and John Van Schaick. of worship. There were nine erected by the Presbyterians-those of Hanover, organized in April 1818, and then presided over by Dr. Congregational-Split Rock and Newfoundland, Rev. Jacob Bostedo; Chester and Schooley's Mountain, Rev. Stephen Overton. Jacob Green; Mendham, where Rev. Francis Peppard preached; Morristown, organized from Hanover in 1738, and whose pastor was the celebrated The Society of Friends held meetings at Mendham. Dr. Timothy Johnes, who began his ministry in 1743 The history of these various churches and of those which were afterward organized will be found in more or less detail in the sketches of the different townships. The following is a list of all the churches at present in the county, and the names of their respective pastors: and who maintained his connection with the church till his death, in 1798; Madison, where Rev. Azariah Hor- ton was pastor; Parsippany, Rockaway and Chester, at that time without settled pastors. The other two Pres- byterian churches were probably at Sucasunna and near Presbyterian-Morristown, First church, Rev. Rufus S. Green (now resigned); Morristown, South street.church, Rev. Albert Erdman, D. D .; Chatham, vacant; Dover, Rev. W. W. Holloway; Boonton, Rev. Thomas Carter; Madison, Rev. Robert Aikman, D. D .; Whippany, Rev. David M. Bardwell; New Vernon, Rev. Nathaniel Conk- lin; Parsippany, vacant; Succasunna, Rev. Elijah W. Basking Ridge. The Evangelical Lutherans at German Valley had erected a church there in 1745. The Baptists had built a church at Morristown in 1752, and the Con- gregationalists a church at Chester in 1747. The Quaker meeting-house about a mile south of Dover, erected at that time, is still standing. The Rogerines, a peculiar, fanatical sect, had at that time an organization, most of Stoddard, D. D .; Chester, Rev. James F. Brewster; Mendham, First church, Rev. I. W. Cochran; Mendham, Second church, Rev. James M. Huntting jr .; German Valley, Rev. E. P. Linnell; Mt. Freedom, Rev. W. W. Holloway sen .; Flanders, Rev. Daniel W. Fox; Hanover, Rev. James A. Ferguson; Mt. Olive, Rev. O. H. Perry

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