USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 58
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It is said that in 1740 there was only a bridle path or Indian trail between Roxiticus and West Hanover (now Morristown), passing through Drake's clearing and Pit- ney's clearing, thence toward the mountain and by Smith's mill-now Connet's. The only buildings on this trail were a small blacksmith shop in Drake's clearing, Henry Axtell's and James Pitney's houses and Smith's mill, at the east end of what is now Brookside. Jacob Drake's nanie appears in papers as early as 1742. Joseph Thomp- son bought of the Ogden brothers, of Newark, in 1740.
243
THE McILRATHS AND DODS OF MENDHAM.
Nathan Cooper probably bought of the proprietors. Robert Cummins is said to have been an Irishman. He died in 1780, aged 80 years. The Thompsons were Scotchmen.
Samuel McIlrath was a Scotchman. Sarah, one of his daughters, married and went with her husband to Pennsylvania. It came to light after her marriage that her husband had murdered a peddler to get money to come and marry her. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hung. She traveled on foot and alone to the governor of the State to solicit his pardon She failed; came back; remained with him to the last moment, and for three nights slept on his grave to pre- vent the doctors getting his body. She afterward re- turned to Mendham; married a Mr. Shaw, an English- man; went with him to Washington county, Pa., and from there to near Cleveland, O .; became wealthy; was a ruling elder, in fact, of the Presbyterian church at Euclid, O., and died at a good old age, beloved by all who knew her. She never had children, and her prop- erty was left to found the Shaw Academy, seven miles east of Cleveland. She was one of the noblest, bravest, most unselfish souls that ever lived.
Another daughter of Elder Samuel McIlrath, the old Scotch Covenanter, was cruelly betrayed in her youth and left that most wretched being-a sensitive, conscien- tious mother, whose poor babe has no legal father. What Elder Samuel McIlrath would do under such cir- cumstances any one who has read Scotch domestic his- tory of that day can well understand. The old man, who would have torn out his own heart or held his right hand in the flame rather than tolerate iniquity in himself, could not countenance sin in his daughter. When she was able to walk after her babe was born he told her to take it up. He led her to the road in front of his house, and told her never again to darken his door. She never did; but begging her way westward found a home among the hard working German farmers of Western Pennsyl- vania, who had no more religion about them than to pity her misfortunes and by their kindness to heal her broken heart. She told her story, was trusted, believed and loved by a young farmer, who married her and adopted her son. They afterward also moved to Ohio, and when her son was a grown man Aunt Shaw and her sister Isabella Woodruff heard for the first time in twenty years of this sister who had been driven for her sin from their father's door. They immediately saddled their horses, rode through an almost unbroken wilderness a journey of nearly a hundred miles and found her. This story the writer of this article had from Aunt Shaw's own lips.
Saunders, who came from London to Bridlington or New Beverly (afterward named Burlington) with Daniel Wills about 1680, is the ancestor of the Sanders family.
Stephen Dod was born April 4th 1703. His mother was Elizabeth Riggs. He came to Mendham from New- ark in 1745. He married Deborah Brown, and had five sons and six daughters. One of his daughters, Keziah, married Ephraim Sanders, father of Captain Ephraim Sanders. The Dods possessed rare mathematical and mechanical genius. They could both invent and execute. They made all the clocks used in Mendham. They re- paired all the guns. They were among the first to apply steam to navigation. Unfortunately for Mendham she was too far inland to retain men of their breadth and genius and she early lost them all. Of the Dods Mr. Hastings says: "The family were remarkable for their ingenuity. There was almost nothing which they could not do, almost nothing which they could not make. They were self-taught." A grandson of Lebbeus, eldest son of Stephen Dod, of Mendham, Lebbeus B. Ward, now resides in Morristown. His mother was Phebe Dod, born in Mendham in 1768. Lebbeus Dod was attached to the Revolutionary army during the whole war, with the rank of captain of artillery. He was detached from active service by order of General Washington and di- rected to establish an armory for the repair and manu- facture of muskets, for which his mechanical talent par- ticularly adapted him. For this purpose he erected a building at his own residence which was still standing in 1814. He was constantly exposed to the attempts of the British to capture him, and was compelled to remove his works to a secluded portion of his own land. On one occasion he was surprised by the enemy and was only saved by the self-possession and presence of mind of his wife (Mary Baldwin). While they were at the barn prob- ing with their bayonets the hay under which he was con- cealed, she placed her wheel at a window where she could watch them and began to spin and to sing a hymn with the greatest composure. Her conduct convinced them that he had escaped, and they left without firing the barn, which they were on the point of doing. Rev. Al- bert Baldwin Dod, D. D., professor of mathematics in Princetown College, was also born in Mendham. He was one of New Jersey's most honored sons.
Captain Ephraim Sanders inherited from his mother much of the Dod ingenuity. He learned his trade of his uncle Dod, and was long a leading mechanic in iron, and general blacksmith. Major Lewis Loree, who lived to be upward of ninety, learned his trade of Captain Sanders. The wife of Captain Sanders was Sarah Rodgers. Her mother was a Sweazy and her father a direct descendant of John the martyr. There were born to them numer- ous sons and daughters. Their eldest daughter, Nancy, who married Samuel Loree Axtell, is still living (1881), in the 89th year of her age-sole survivor not only of
It is noticeable that many names are differently spelled in the old records from what we spell them now. As already noticed Mendham was spelled both om and um. Axtell is found Extil, Extel and Axtel. The Mendham Dods spell with one d, while the Newark Dodds use two. Ephraim Sanders's family usually spell their name with- her father's family but almost of her generation. Two out the u, while his son Rev. Ephraim Dodd Saunders, of Captain Sanders's sons graduated at Yale. One of them, Rev. E. D. Saunders, D. D., of Philadelphia, was of Philadelphia, as well as many of his ancestors, spells the name Saunders. It is probable that Christopher the founder of the Presbyterian hospital in that city.
33
244
HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
Dr. Frank Ford Sanders, M. D., of Morristown, a grad- uate of Princeton, is a grandson of Captain Sanders.
The Careys originally spelled their name Cary. There is a full account of this family in the history of Bridge- water, Mass., published by Nahum Mitchell. It says John Cary, from Somersetshire, England, settled in Dux- bury as early as 1639, and was an original proprietor of Bridgewater and its first town clerk. He died in 1681. He had twelve children-six sons and six daughters- namely, John, Francis, Elizabeth, James, Mary, Jonathan, David, Hannah, Rebecca, Sarah, Mehitabel and Joseph. John, a son of Jonathan and father of Jonathan 2nd, who came to Mendham in 1744, and was the builder of Mendham church, owned a mill at Orr's works and was called "Old Miller Cary." The following distich was common in after times:
"Experience and Mary, Susannah and Sarah, These were the wives of old John Cary."
Ghosts and witches, both old and young, prevailed to unlimited extent in those days. Sam Turner was walk- ing quietly along the road, with both hands in his pockets to keep them warm, when he stumbled without any cause or provocation and fell down. He could not get his hands out of his pockets, and it was a long time before he could get up. He did not consider himself supersti- tious, and did not wish to believe himself bewitched, although the evidence tended strongly that way; so he went back and walked several times over the same ground with his hands in the same position, but did not again fall down. He was now satisfied beyond controversy that he was bewitched. At another time he was riding on a load of oats, from his back fields to his barn. Near the same spot he met an old woman, who said to him, " Mr. Turner, that load will fall off before you get home;" and sure enough it did, although it had been carefully loaded. The sheaves, as the old man declared, "just seemed to jump right out." But churns were oftenest bewitched, and ghosts delighted of course in churchyards and in the old meeting-house. These stories are legion, and, while they would perhaps cause a smile at the credulity of our ancestors, would scarcely serve to point a moral or adorn a tale.
Uncle Dave Blank, of Brookside, will long be remem- bered for his drinking sprees and pungent wit. Once when overtaken by the bottle he was lying beside the road as old Boss Fairchild came along and called out, "Uncle Dave ! Uncle Dave ! get up and go home." "Oh," said the poor old man, "I'm so sick," "Get up, I tell you; don't you know me ? I'm Deacon Fairchild." " Ugh !" said Uncle Dave with horrible retchings, "I'm sicker'n ever."
The old Black Horse tavern on election and training days was full of life. Once a noisy, brawling fellow be- came a public nuisance and the landlord abated him by knocking him down with the dinner-bell. The boys took him out to the pump to wash off the blood, and bind up an ugly scalp wound. He said he did not so much mind being knocked down, but he hated "to be dingle-dongled over."
David Thompson, grandfather of Hon. George H. Thompson, was captain of an organization of Mendham citizens in the Revolutionary war. They were not in constant service, but held themselves in readiness to go out at a moment's notice. They were called minute men. Major Henry Axtell, son of Henry the blacksmith, was also in this organization. Captain Lebbeus Dod, as we have seen, was also an officer in Washington's army. This portion of New Jersey was deeply interested in that heroic struggle, and was true blue to the cause of Amer- ican independence. The men then on the stage were the immediate descendants of those who had been per- secuted for opinion's sake, and driven from England, Scotland, Ireland and France because they loved liberty. It can readily be understood on which side they would be found in such a contest.
The Guerins are rather a Morristown then a Mendham family, but they intermarried with Mendham families. They were French Huguenots. They were then as now a high-spirited, brave, liberty-loving family. They were not as straight-laced as the New England Puritans who settled in Mendham. They were fond of the chase, and the older members of the family were great fox hunters. Jockey Hollow is named for them to this day. Stephen Ogden Guerin married a daughter of Captain Ephraim Sanders, and Rev. Ephraim Dod Saunders married Anna P. Guerin, their only child. Captain Courtland Saunders tell at Antietam bravely fighting for the Union and for liberty to all men.
The Guerins are worthily represented by their descend- ants. The present proprietor of the Mansion House in Morristown, B. C. Guerin, is one of their sons.
Major Lewis Loree was also of French stock. He was fond of sport, a man of influence, and a mighty hunter in his day. His sons David, Lewis Mills, Stephen and Aaron are still here.
Phoenix is also a noted Mendham name. William was for many years the host of the Black Horse tavern. One his daughters, Lydia, married Hon. Henry C. Sanders, youngest son of Captain Ephraim Sanders. At his death he was the largest landholder in Mendham. His widow lives on the old Sanders homestead, and is not only an able and interesting woman but one of the very best and most successful farmers in Mendham township. Other daughters of this family are successful business women. The Phoenix House at Mendham, established and con- ducted by daughters of this family, is one of the best houses for summer boarders in the county. A son, Hon. Theodore W. Phoenix, has been a member of the New Jersey Legislature. He is a merchant and collector of internal revenue.
At the east end of Brookside there was settled in early days an Englishman by the name of Stevens. He established a woolen mill. His granddaughter Mrs. Martha Schenck, now a widow, resides on the turnpike, near the old Stevens homestead. She is also a most estimable woman and an excellent farmer.
Of the early doctors of Mendham the first, Dr. John Leddle, was an old man in 1800. He was in active prac-
245
OLD FAMILIES OF MENDHAM-HOUSEHOLD INDUSTRIES.
tice in the Revolution. The second Doctor Leddle, his son, practiced there all his life. His children still reside in the township. Dr. Absalom Woodruff was a noted man when Elder Samuel McIlrath's children lived in Mendham. He was rough and ready in wit and ways, and is affectionately remembered, as all original, natural characters are apt to be. The writer remembers hearing his father say that for ten years' doctoring in one family -in which time five children were born, and raised (that is what they were born for), and one broken thigh was set and attended to-on final settlement Dr. Leddle's charges amounted to but $20. The Elmers, father and son, were physicians in latter days. Dr. Upson was both physician and farmer. Ziba Sanders Smith, a great grandson of Stephen Dod, resides on the old Dr. Upson farm. It adjoins the Pitney and Drake homesteads and is one of the most valuable and pleasing homes in the township or county. His wife was a daughter of Henry Axtell, son of Silas the carpenter. Their son John Henry is a graduate of Ann Arbor and a lawyer in San Francisco.
Mendham never sustained a lawyer, and, though there is no apparent connection, it is said that in one neighbor- hood at least there is not kept a dog. Among lawyers hailing from Mendham Henry Cooper Pitney and George W. Forsythe are worthy of honorable mention. Her
The early families of Mendham were very superior people-industrious, intelligent and moral. Nor is it be- ministers are much more numerous, and her business lieved that their descendants have degenerated; at home men are found everywhere. H. O. Marsh, president of and abroad they compare to-day favorably with the sons the Iron Bank in Morristown, is a specimen of the latter class.
The Pitney family, as we have seen, are English. They were tall, noble looking men, full of vigor, indus- try and thrift. They long carried on a forge for making pig iron, and were also large farmers and landowners. The Pitney homestead is preserved and improved by a worthy descendant, Henry Cooper Pitney, a leading law- yer of Morristown.
The brothers Nathaniel, Henry and Jesse Clark lived on the mountain. They came from Long Island, and were men of substance and influence in their day. Henry married a daughter of Major Henry Axtell. His grandson, S. H. H. Clark, of Omaha, is a prominent of- ficer in the Union Pacfic Railroad Company, and one of the leading railroad men of the west.
It is related of Dr. Franklin that he said New Jersey was like a cider barrel tapped at both ends-it would all run out into Philadelphia and New York. This is partly true of Mendham; she has nourished and brought up children, but they have found their fields of usefulness and honor elsewhere. The population of Morris county in 1810 was 21,828; in 1820 it was but 21,368-nearly 500 loss in ten years. After the war of 1812 there was great activity in emigration to the west, especially to Ohio. Whiteheads, Schencks, Condits, Daytons, Wood- ruffs, Axtells, Cozads, McIlraths, Meekers, Beerses, Merchants and numerous other Mendham families are to-day more numerous in Ohio and Michigan than in New Jersey. Dayton in Ohio is named for Mendham Daytons, and Licking county, Ohio, has a Jersey township.
The Mendham Daytons are an old and honorable English family. Their name furnishes yet another signal instance of variations in spelling. We find that Rolph Dayghton settled at Easthampton, Long Island, in 1649. Jonathan, grandson of Rolph, settled at Elizabethtown, N. J., in 1701, and from this branch are the Daytons of Mendham.
John and Joseph Marsh came to New Jersey from New England early in 1700. John married Sarah Clark and had a son John, who married Elizabeth Dunham. Their son Amos, born in 1767, was the Mendham wagonmaker. He married Sophia Oliver-written Surphia. We also have Mendham Roffs-the Virginia Rolf-undoubtedly the English Rolph; and Endsleys and Enslees-the Scottish Ainsley, or Ainslie. What shall we say of Bob- bit for Babbit, or Akstyle for Axtell ?
The Drakes are worthily represented in Morristown by J. A. Drake, and in Newark by Edward Courtland Drake, son of Colonel James W., of Mendham. These families, with worthy filial affection-and, it may be said, with excellent business sense-still retain and improve the lands which their ancestors bought and settled in 174I. This is also true of the Pitneys and Thompsons. The Drake family came originally from Holland.
and daughters of any portion of our country.
INDUSTRIES.
The early settlers of Mendham were industrious and ingenious. Their circumstances compelled them to manufacture for themselves. It was with extreme diffi- culty that they could get cash to buy with, and then it was necessary to go to Elizabethtown, on horseback or with ox carts, to bring up their goods. This state of af- fairs compelled them to make wool and flax into cloth- ing and leather into shoes. They brought ore on horse- back from Dickerson's mines, near Dover, to the mills on their streams; and with the charcoal of the heavily wooded hills made their pig iron, and carried that again on horseback to a market. It was their currency. Theirs was truly an iron age. The value of money may be understood when it is stated as a fact that John Cary came from Bridgewater, Mass., to build the first church, and worked for thirty-one cents per day. Carding, spinning, weaving and making shoes were carried on in nearly every house, and so scarce were purchased articles that thorns were constantly used in place of pins. With all other industries and economies to correspond, we can easily comprehend that our ancestors of Mendham town- ship were not consumed by sloth nor enervated by lux- ury. With them all useful industries were honorable and all idleness and extravagance disreputable. They were independent, honorable and self-reliant, and their chil- dren's children rise up and call them blessed.
The business of making fine carriages was established in Mendham village by John Marsh, and afterward con-
246
HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
tinued by his son, H. O. Marsh, the president of the Iron Bank at Morristown. These carriages were built for the southern trade. The war of the Rebellion destroyed the business. The sales reached at one time about $25,000 per annum. The shops were closed in 1862. There was manufacturing in quite early times both at Ralstonville and Brookside. At the latter place John and Abraham Byram had a mill for carding wool and fulling cloth. Ebenezer Fairchild-known as " Boss Fairchild "-had a tannery and shoe shop, and Charles Thompson carried on the same business. In fact shoes were made in nearly every house in that peaceful and industrious hamlet, and exchanged with farmers for provisions. The bread of idleness was not eaten in those days. There were also mills at Ralstonville, and there was in early days a forge on the mountain, owned and carried on for many years by the grandfather and father of Henry C. Pitney, of Morristown. In 1840 the manufacturing and educational interests were summed up in the New Jersey "Historical Collections " as follows: "2 grist, I saw, I fulling-mill; I woolen, I cotton factory; capital in manufacturing, $29,800; 3 academies, 95 students; 5 schools, 183 schol. ars." The home manufactures were always considerable. The mother of a family in those days not only worked up wool and flax into cloth, but also made that cloth into garments. "She worked willingly with her hands; she rose while it was yet night and gave meat to her house- hold; her loins were girded with strength, and she strengthened her arms." But the hum of the big wheel, the whir of flax-spinning and the sound of the loom have ceased in the township; whether for better or worse is an open question, but it is an accomplished fact.
Mendham is strictly an agricultural township. There is neither commerce, mining nor manufacturing. The population has not increased, because under the present system of farming all the tillable lands are fully occupied. The value of farming lands in the township has greatly increased, as also their productiveness. The annual report of the controller of the State for 1880 gives the acreage of Mendham township at 13,525 acres, valued on the assessors' books at $837,665. This is an average consider that land is not usually assessed at over half the price for which it could be sold. The lands in
As the first church is the most striking feature in the landscape of Mendham village so is the history of its establishment and progress the most interesting part of the records of the township. It will be necessary there- fore to devote some space to the history of this church. It is noticeable that our ancestors called these buildings simply meeting-houses. They were neither temples nor Lord's houses nor churches-they were simply " meet-
ing-houses." Whatever may have been their creeds, their form of government was a pure Congregationalism; that is, the congregation-the people-met and decided all important questions relating to building, paying salar- ies, etc. The place adjoining the church, where they buried their dead, was the property of the society or congregation. It was a church yard. Services were held both in the forenoon and afternoon, and during the inter- mission in pleasant weather those who came from a dis- tance went into the church yard, to eat their luncheon, to chat, to shake hands, to read inscriptions on old head- stones, to kneel down and shed bitter tears by new made graves, to criticise the doctrinal points of the sermon, and -barely possible-occasionally some worldly matters would creep in.
We have seen that Ebenezer Byram with his family came to Mendham in 1743. His second son, Rev. Eliab Byram, was the first pastor of " Mendum " church. He graduated at Harvard in 1740, and was installed by the presbytery of New York pastor of Mendham church in 1744. We find from the journal of Rev. David Brainerd that he selected the Rev. Eliab Byram to be his assistant and traveling companion in his journeys among the Indians on the Susquehanna. We find the following entry in Brainerd's journal: "Monday Oct. 17th 1744. -Was engaged this day in making preparations for my intended journey to Susquehanna. Towards night rode four miles to meet Brother Byram, who was come at my desire to be my companion in travel to the In- dians." A note says Mr. Byram was "minister at a cer- tain place known as Roxiticus." Rev. Thomas S. Hast- ings says: "That such a man as Brainerd should select Mr. Byram as his companion in his travels, and should speak so warmly of him in his journals, and that Mr. Byram should be willing to brave so many hardships and dangers with him, these things are high testimony to the piety, devotion and ability of the first pastor of Mendham church."
In 1745 the people of Mendham began to build a new house of worship on the site of the present church, upon a plan, says the Rev. Dr. Armstrong, very liberal and ex- of $6r per acre, certainly a very high figure when we tensive for those times and the circumstances of the congregation. Ebenezer Byram prior to this had built the Black Horse tavern, and the village had changed Rockaway township barely average $30 per acre, and from Roxiticus. Of the site of this church Rev. Mr. those of Chester $50. Mendham compares favorably for farming lands with any portion of the Union, east or west; and for beauty of scenery, health and comfort cannot be surpassed in the United States. Hastings says: "I know of no church in any village which has so beautiful and picturesque a location." It is said on good authority that Mr. Byram returned to Bridgewater to secure the services of a carpenter to THE FIRST CHURCH. build this church, and that he engaged John Cary to do the whole work at two shillings and sixpence per day. Reckoned as federal money, this was only thirty-one cents per day for a boss mechanic. This church stood seventy-one years. It was a frame structure. Its timbers were cut and hewed in the adjoining forests. It was covered both top and sides with shingles riven and shaved by the very men who were to sit under their shelter; and the very nails to fasten these shingles were made by them of wrought iron, which they themselves had also made
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