History of Morris County, New Jersey, Part 51

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 51

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THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

As already stated, a portion of the early settlers of Black River were Presbyterians from Easthampton, Long Island. Previous to 1740 a Presbyterian house of wor- ship had been erected between Black River and Mend- ham, one and one half miles west of Mendham. In 1745 the church building was erected in Mendham village, and the Presbyterians of Black River soon after were or- ganized into a church, under the name of the First Pres- byterian Congregation of Roxbury, and erected an edifice first pastor was Rev. Samuel Harker, or Harcour, proba- bly of Huguenot descent. He graduated at Princeton College, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, and according to the records of that presby- tery was ordained and installed at Roxbury, on Black River, October 31st 1752. He was therefore probably the first pastor installed in the town. He is mentioned in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, where some of his family resided, as remarkable for size, vigor and strength. Some of his descendants have occupied most honorable positions. One of his daughters married Judge Symmes, of Marietta, Ohio, and was mother-in-law of ex-President

Harrison. The son of another daughter who married Dr. Caldwell, of Lamington, N. J., was Rev. Dr. Cald- well, at one time a teacher in the College of New Jersey, and for more than thirty years president (the first) of the University of North Carolina. In an autobiography of Dr. Caldwell, published at Chapel Hill by the editors of the university magazine, reference is made to his grand- father's settlement at Black River and the high estima- tion in which he was held by the community. Mr. Harker, however, unfortunately entertained some doctri- nal errors, which caused his separation from the church eleven years after his ordination. The presbytery was about to proceed against him in 1757 when it was found that he had left his charge and had gone for a time as chaplain in the army. In Hodge's history of the Pres- byterian church may be found full details of his case and his final deposition from the ministry by the synod of New York and Philadelphia in 1763. His case is regarded as particularly inter- esting as an illustration of the early practical administra- tion of Presbyterian government. Mr. Harker perished at sea by the foundering of a ship, with his son, who was on his way to England to receive Episcopal ordination. For five years after the removal of Mr. Harker the church was under the care of presbytery, but without a regular pastor until the fall of 1768, when it settled Rev. William Woodhull, of Brookhaven, Long Island. He graduated at Princeton College in the class of 1764, and studied theology with the celebrated Samuel Buell, of Easthamp- ton, Long Island. With his brother (afterward Rev. John Woodhull of Freehold), he attended the school of Rev. Caleb Smith, at Newark Mountains, Orange, N. J. The following items from a bill still preserved in the family illustrate the school bills which met the eyes of the fathers in the last century:

"1757, October 26th, to Billey's wood and candles, 16s .; to one Newark grammar, 2s. 6d .; to Clark's Intro- duction for making Latin, 3s .; to an old hat of mine, 5s. 2d .; to dressing the hat by Nehemiah Baldwin, 2s .; paid the steward for Billey's board, £5 8s. 3d .; to a taylor for making a banyan, 5s. 3d .; to - yard for cloath and trimming for banyan, 17s. 8d .; to one Tully's Orations for Billey, 135."

A few years after his settlement Mr. Woodhull was obliged to give up his pastorate on account of broncial trouble, and for a time the church obtained supplies about a mile north of the present village of Chester. The from presbytery. He afterward opened a Latin school, in which General Mahlon Dickerson, secretary of the navy under General Jackson, was a scholar. Mr. Wood- hull represented Morris county as Assemblyman in the first Legislature of independent New Jersey, which met at Princeton in August 1776. He was elected to the same position in 1777. In the Legislature at Perth Am- boy in 1789 and in that at Burlington in 1790 he again represented Morris county, as member of Council. He was appointed a judge of the common pleas in 1808, and was a prominent man in the town and county until his death, in October 1824.

During the stormy period of the American Revolution

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the church was again without a settled pastor. Near the end of the war was made the unsuccessful attempt to unite the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, already referred to. Among the records of this church is a paper dated May 24th 1786, bearing the signatures of sixty male members, declaring themselves " heads of families and members of the First Presbyterian Congre. gation of the Township of Roxbury, and supporters of the Gospel in said Congregation."

From the parish records of 1784 we learn that a call was extended to Rev. Nathan Woodhull, a cousin of the former pastor, but he had already made an engagement at Newtown, Long Island.

In 1785 Rev. Lemuel Fordham, of Long Island, was obtained as stated supply, and in 1786 he received a unanimous call. As with Mr. Woodhull, his time was divided between Roxbury and Succasunna. He re- mained pastor of the church thirty years. He was suc- ceeded in 1815 by Rev. Jacob Cassner, a native of Liberty Corner, N. J., and, like the previous ministers, a graduate of Princeton College and also of the theo- logical seminary. In the fall of this year the first Sun- day-school was established in Chester Academy, by James H. Woodhull, a grandson of the former pastor. The text books were the Bible and the Westminster Catechism. Mr. Cassner gave this church one-third of his time, preaching at Black River, German Valley and Fox Hill. He was succeeded in 1818 by Rev. John Ernest Miller, of Albany, N. Y. He left Chester in the spring of 1823 for the Dutch Reformed church of Tomp- kinsville, Staten Island, and was succeeded in the same year by Rev. Abraham Williamson, a native of New Jer- . sey and a graduate of Princeton College and seminary. During his pastorate of thirty years important changes occurred. Two colonies swarmed from the mother church. In 1738 48 members were dismissed to organ- ize the Presbyterian church of Mt. Olive, and in 1852 26

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

A Methodist Episcopal church was organized in the early part of 1881, and Rev. E. S. Ferry, of Orange, N. J., was appointed its first pastor. For five or six years previous services were held with more or less reg- ularity in the village academy, by the pastors of the Pea- pack church. During the winter of 1880-81 the M. E. church at Bedminster was removed and erected in Ches- ter. This house, originally a Baptist church, was bought by Bishop Janes under foreclosure, and donated by him to the Newark Conference in 1854. It was given by the conference to the Methodists of Chester and rededicated here in July 1881.

EDUCATION.

The work of education has kept pace with that of re- ligion. The earliest school of which we have any record was that taught by Rev. William Woodhull in a log house near his residence, and which was broken up by the Rev- olutionary war. He received a few boarders into his family, for whom the price per week was the same as the market price of a bushel of wheat. Private schools were early held in the residences of some of the principal in- habitants. One of the first of these was taught by Miss Phebe Jagger, of Long Island (afterward wife of Rev. Mr. Burt, of Lamington, N. J.). The building was on the Cooper estate, and the families of Cooper and Haines united in their support.

From 1800 to 1812 John G. Gardiner, of Connecticut, taught a school in the village. In 1812 we find his name enrolled as a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Jersey. Another teacher was Miss Hester Brackett, af- terward wife of Rev. Dr. Henry White, of Union Theo- logical Seminary, New York city.

The Legislature of New Jersey established a public school system in 1829, and under this system (modified

regulated according to the State law. At the Chester Cross-roads a substantial stone building was erected in 1830, the upper part of which was used as a chapel by the Congregational society, which still has an ownership in it.

were dismissed to form the Presbyterian church of in 1847) the town was divided into eight districts, and Flanders.

In 1851 the congregation abandoned the old edifice on the hill top and built and occupied the present church in the village. Mr. Williamson remained in charge of the church until 1853, in the autumn of which year Rev. In the year 1854 William Rankin, who had been teach- ing at Deckertown, N. J., purchased and enlarged the brick hotel and established a classical school. This school was liberally patronized by the surrounding country until his removal to Mendham, in October 1862. Mr. Rankin was an enthusiastic and successful teacher. While in Chester he had under his instruction nearly 500 scholars. In a schedule prepared a year or two before his death he tells us that he had prepared 76 students for college and 150 for teachers. Fifty of his students had become clergymen (two of whom were foreign mis- sionaries), thirty lawyers and twelve physicians. He probably taught more than two thousand youth in New Jersey. Rev. L. J. Stoutenburgh, Miss Susan Magie, George M. S. Blauvelt (son of Rev. Dr. William Blauvelt, for the last fifty-five years pastor of the Presbyterian church of Lamington, N. J.), a graduate of Princeton seminary, began a pastorate which continued until Oc- tober 1856. From June 1357 Rev. Josiah Markle, of the college and seminary at New Brunswick, was pastor of the church for nine months, until April 1858. In the following June Mr. James F. Brewster (a descendant of Elder William Brewster, one of the founders of the Ply- mouth colony of 1620), a graduate of Rutgers College and Princeton Seminary, became the stated supply. He was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Passaic October 12th 1858. During this pastorate the parsonage has been built, the church edifice renovated, and a hand- |Mrs. M. F. Hoagland, Rev. P. S. Smith, Mrs. C. Y. Bak- some chapel erected-the gift of James E. Hedges, of Elizabeth, N. J.

er and Rev. J. H. McCandless have successively been principals of "The Chester Institute." In 1869 Hon.

Eng& by H. B Hall & Guns, LS Rarcloy St N.Y.

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MATERIAL INTERESTS OF CHESTER-HON. DANIEL BUDD.

Daniel Budd erected a spacious three-story stone build- ing for the use of the school, in a conspicuous part of the village, and of this Miss Magie took possession in 1870. At present a private school is taught in the chapel of the Presbyterian church, under control of the pastor, Rev. James F. Brewster.

INDUSTRIES-IRON MINING.

For the most part Chester has been an agricultural community. In early times its abundant fruit employed several distilleries. Three or four flouring-mills and four or five saw-mills have long been in operation. Previous to 1827 a woolen-mill was built and operated by Stephen R. Haines, on the Haines estate, on Black River. This was bought in 1827 and carried on by Wil- liam Nichols, of Vermont. The business was continued by his son William H. Nichols, and the property is still held in the family.

From 1844 to 1861 John and Abraham Van Doren carried on a manufactory of threshing machines, and in 1 857 they introduced into the township the first steam engine. This industry is still carried on by William K. Osborn.

Chester, however, is principally important for its min- ing wealth. Its hills are filled with deposits of magnetic iron ore. For more than a hundred years the forge at Hacklebarney has been in operation. Hon. Daniel Budd, in partnership with Mr. Bartley, carried on this forge for many years. Their iron was classed with the best in the State, and drawn into all the shapes required in business. In 1867 mines were opened in various places, and the mining was facilitated by the building of the Chester Railroad in 1869. The veins of ore have been opened on some twenty-five or thirty different properties, and have yielded several hundred thousand tons, but they are yet only partially developed. There are four or five veins running through the township, the two principal of which are near the village and are called the North and South veins. The ores from these two veins are low in phosphorus but contain sulphur, and yield from 40 to 65 per cent. of iron. When separated from sulphur they are valuable for the manufacture of Bessemer steel, on account of being low in phosphorus.

The blast furnace is treated of on page 61. It employs about 100 men.

MISCELLANEOUS.

In 1872 and 1873 the tracks (about five miles long) which connect the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad with the Hedges mine and the Hacklebarney mine were built by William J.Taylor & Co. A part of the road was on a grade of 176 feet to the mile. This subsequently came into possession of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, who completed the road to High Bridge in 1876. In 1881 this track was extended through the village one and one half miles northeast to the Swayzee, Leck and Cooper mines; and surveys were made with a view to ex4 tending it to Pottersville, five miles to the south.

settled in Easthampton, Long Island, about 1649. He came to Chester about 1800, and married a daughter of Rev. William Woodhull. Their descendants to the third. generation have continued the profession in Chester.

Prospect Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M. was removed from Mendham to Chester in January 1874. The hall was dedicated during the same winter. This lodge num- bers 48 members, of whom J. M. Drinkwater is the pres- ent worshipful master.

HON. DANIEL BUDD.

Hon. Daniel Budd was one of the most influential of the citizens of Chester, both in business and political cir- cles. He filled many positions of trust, and did much to develop the resources and increase the prosperity of his native town. Like his father and his grandfather, he lived and died in Chester, and the activities of his entire life were closely identified with the interests of his ntive place. His ancestor, John Budd, five generations before, emigrated from England to New Haven, about the year 1632, and became one of the first proprietors of that set- tlement. He subsequently removed to Southold, Long Island, and thence to Rye, Westchester county, N. Y.

Daniel Budd, the grandfather of the subject of our sketch, moved from Rye, N. Y., together with his father, John Budd, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and purchased the old Budd farm, near Black River. His mother was Mary Strang or (L'Estrange), daugh- ter of a French Huguenot who fled from France, on ac- count of religious persecution, in the days of Louis XIV. and found refuge at New Rochelle, Conn. Romantic stories of danger and escape have been handed down from generation to generation. This Daniel Budd was for a long time assessor of the township of Roxiticus, and a captain in the reserves of the Revolutionary war. On one occasion, during his absence on duty, his house was burned, under circumstances which led to the sus- picion that it was an act of revenge, on the part of tories.

Joseph Budd, son of this Daniel and father of Hon. Daniel Budd. was a captain in the war of 1812. He commanded his company at Sandy Hook and other places of defense. His wife was Joanna Swayzee, and after her husband had lost his health in the war, which he never recovered, she endeavored bravely to fill his place in many of the active duties of farm life.

Their son Daniel was born June 8th 1809. When a boy he had much of the charge of his invalid father, and after his death remained with his mother upon the farm as long as she lived. He was married February 25th 1847 to Mary K. Hunt, daughter of John Hunt of New- ton, Sussex county, and sister of Hon. Samuel H. Hunt. He was engaged at various times in many avenues of active business-being a farmer, manufacturer, surveyor, drover, colonel of cavalry, and a general business man, settling estates and holding positions of confidence. He was always prominent in the political affairs of his town- ship, and for many years was returned as a freeholder,

The earliest physician of whom record is left was Joseph Hedges, M. D., a member of the family who | and in the board of freeholders always exercised .a com-

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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.

manding influence. In the years 1856 and 1857 he was a member of the New Jersey Legislature, and in the years 1860, 1861 and 1862 he filled the office of State senator. While senator he was chairman of the com- mittee on corporations, and a member of other import- ant committees, and was chosen State director of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. For many years he car- ried on the business of manufacturing malleable iron, and devoted much time and energy to the developing of the mineral resources of Chester. To him may be attrib- uted largely the building and completion of the Chester Railroad.

to their wants, and to assist those who were struggling in business, and he was a liberal supporter of the church and of public enterprises. He erected many buildings for manufacturing purposes, and took the warmest inter- est in the cause of education. In 1869 he erected in the village a large three-story stone building for the use of a boarding school, at a cost of many thousand dollars.

He died in June 1873, at the age of 64, leaving a wide breach in the community where he had lived and labored; and an immense concourse of people, gathered from various parts of the State, accompanied his remains to

He was a friend to the poor, ever ready to contribute | their last resting place in the cemetery of Pleasant Hill.

HANOVER TOWNSHIP.

BY MONROE HOWELL.

HE territory now known as Hanover township was formerly included within the boundaries of a far larger extent of country, which under the old colonial government was organized into a township bearing the name of Whip- panong, and at that time constituted a part of the county of Hunterdon.

Whippanong, now changed to Whippany, and Parsip- panong, now changed to Parsippany, are doubtless names of aboriginal origin, the exact signification of which is uncertain; although it may safely be assumed, upon evidence contained in the old deed for the Whip- pany burying ground, that both these names have some reference to the rather important streams known as Whippany River and Parsippany Brook. The township received the name of Hanover in the year 1740, and at that time comprised a far greater than its present extent of territory. The final touches to its present con- tour were given about the year 1844, at the organization of Rockaway township. It is bounded on the north by the townships of Boonton and Rockaway, on the east by Montville and the county of Essex, on the south by Chatham and Morris, and on the west by Morris and Rockaway. The Rockaway River forms the boundary from the extreme northerly point to its junction with the Passaic at or near Pine Brook, and from thence it has the Passaic for its boundary to the confines of Chatham.

The assessors' statistics for 1881 were as follows: Area, 29,747 acres; valuation of real estate, $1,742,641; personal property, $373,050; debt, $113,975; total valu- ation, $2,001,715; polls, 828; State school tax, $5,095.58; county tax, $4,756.83; road tax, $4,003.

This section, as indicated by the watercourses, has a general though slight inclination to the east, is somewhat hilly in the northwest, gently undulating in the middle, and consists in the east and southeast of bottom lands along the Passaic and its tributaries. Hydrographically considered, this township belongs to the basin of the Passaic, which important river receives all its streams, of which the most important are the Whippany River and Parsippany and Stony brooks. The first of the above named streams enters the township from Morris, flows through it in a northeasterly direction, and empties into the Rockaway River, about a mile above the confluence of that stream with the Passaic. Its volume of water is

considerable, and the slope of its bed is such as to afford numerous mill sites, advantage of which has been taken since the earliest settlement of the region. The. second is a beautiful rivulet, having its rise in the highlands in the northeastern part of the township; and, being fed mostly by springs, is of perennial and equable flow. Its continuous though gentle fall affords several mill sites, which were early economized. The third takes its rise in a locality known as Wheeler Swamp, pursues a short and rapid course, and empties into Whippany River at or near the Caledonia paper-mill. This stream is of con- stant and equal flow, affords a number of mill sites, and was the seat of ancient manufacture.

On the steep banks of the Rockaway River, in a for- mation of red sandstone, may be seen fossil impressions of fishes of various kinds. This point is well worthy the attentions of geologists and other specimen-seekers, as well as of those who enjoy the romantic and picturesque in nature.

This township was in former years relatively much better supplied with means of transportation than at present. In the days of turnpikes it had the advantage of being traversed by two such thoroughfares, and a heavy team transit was effected over them to and from the great market of New York; but with the advent of railroads the course of transportation was so changed as to barely touch at only two points the very borders of its territory, and its relative distance from the great markets was materially lengthened. The speedy opening of this region to the advantages of railroad transportation would effect a surprising advance in the already high valuation of real estate.

SETTLEMENT.

Although, from the lack of positive evidence in the matter, the exact date of the settlement of this region cannot be ascertained, yet, from scattered documents, as well as from reliable tradition, we are safe in setting it down as a little antecedent to the year 1700; and the first settlement was undoubtedly at Whippany, which place was also the first settled in the county of Morris. The first settlers were from Newark, Elizabeth, New England and England, drawn hither by the proximity of ores of iron, in the manufacture of which they at once engaged. Upon the Whippany River and its confluents

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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.

at least five forges were erected at an early date; and in the earliest documents relating to the matter the locality is referred to as the " Old Forge;" but to which of these old sites can be awarded the palm of prior occupancy is uncertain-evidence, however, would seem to point to Whippany. However this may be, many years could not have intervened between the erection of the first and last of these, as all of them were at work at an early date in the settlement, and all appeared of equal age. The whole region around these localities bears traces of this early industry. In recent clearings of forests which must have stood a century or more the black soil of coal-pit bottoms is frequently found, and long-buried cinders are often ex. humed in the vicinity of the old manufactories.

Doubtless after the forests had been cleared and burned into charcoal other settlers were soon attracted to this locality by the fertility of the soil and the advan- tages of a genial climate. So early as the year 1718 a church edifice was erected at Whippany, in the old bury- ing ground, this plot having been deeded for that pur- pose by one John Richards, a schoolmaster. The facts that a schoolmaster was already a resident among them and that a permanent church organization was contem- plated must lead us to infer the existence of a somewhat extended and localized population even at that date. Indeed, that agricultural enterprise early manifested it- self would seem evident from an old deed for a large part of Hanover Neck, a narrow strip of land lying be- tween the lower portion of the Whippany River and the Passaic. This tract was located under proprietary au- thority by Daniel Cox as early as 1715, contained 1,250 acres, and was conveyed by one Jonathan Stiles to Jos- eph Tuttle in 1734. No water power is available upon the sluggish streams of this vicinity, and the spot must have been located with an eye to agricultural advan- tages readily discerned in the rich and easily subdued soils of these bottom lands.

EARLY CELEBRITIES.

The fact that large manorial estates were purchased and occupied at least a quarter of a century before the Revolution indicates a state of society compatible only with somewhat continued and advanced civilization. Of these manorial seats the most noted, and perhaps at that time the most sumptuous establishments in the county, were Irish Lot, near Whippany, the residence of Captain Michael Kearney of His Britannic Majesty's navy; the Beaverwick, near Troy, owned by Lucas Von Beaver. houdt, and the Mansion House domain at Old Boonton. The dwellers upon these famous seats kept up a con- stant interchange of high-life civilities, rode in chariots, gave costly entertainments, and were the talk of the The following items from the New Jersey Gazette at the dates given may prove interesting to readers: whole country about. The Kearney mansion, now occu- pied by Mahlon Hubbard, was in those days sub- "Lost, between Princeton and Beaverwick, eight miles from Morristown, a dress sword, the hilt chased work and of solid silver, a red belt with swivels, one half of stantially what it is at present with the exception of the numerous outbuildings attached to these lordly abodes. The Beaverwick mansion has been modernized into the shell broken off. Whosoever will leave said sword with comely residence of B. S. Condit, but the long rows of Mr. Lott at Beaverwick, or with Mrs. Livingston at Prince- servants' lodges which skirted either side of the ample | ton, shall receive ten dollars reward. July 10th 1778."

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