USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 66
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277
SLAVERY IN PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP-PIONEER FARMING.
the expedition in which he was engaged was bringing him too near home, and if successful might result in the capture or killing of some of his old neighbors or his own kin, confidentially informed the captured man of the destination and object of the detachment under his com- mand; and then, under some plausible explanation to satisfy his company, he allowed the man on horseback to proceed on his way. As soon as the latter got out of sight he turned and went back to Parsippany, where he arrived just in time to allow the company of provincial his own support, the manumission would be allowed upon soldiers to escape.
After the close of the war this Samuel Ryerson re- turned to his native place and bought land at Beavertown, in Pequannock, near where David Benjamin lives; but he remained there only a short time. The bitterness of an indignant public sentiment rendered it so uncomfort- able for him that he went to Canada and settled near Toronto; some of his brothers, who likewise had joined their fortunes with the cause of George the Third, after their return found it so uncomfortable to live here that they emigrated to Nova Scotia. Thus it was in many similar cases, and hence it came to pass that so many in the States had relatives in Nova Scotia and Can- ada. These emigrants to those places no doubt sought to better their condition, but their going in that direction was not altogether the prompting of a free choice.
SLAVERV.
the impoverishing burden of increasing numbers. When a master wished to free a slave, and clear himself from future responsibility for the support of such slave should he become a public charge, he must take the slave before the overseers of the poor and two justices of the peace of the township, and if upon examination they were sat- isfied that the person intended to be freed was over 21 and under 35 years of age, and free from any mental or physical disability that would prevent him from earning a proper certificate and declaration signed by the master and approved by the overseers and the justices, and when duly acknowledged would be admitted to record.
AGRICULTURE.
Agriculture was the chief employment of those who settled in the eastern, middle and southern parts of Pe- quannock, and is so to-day except at a few points where in later years some branches of manufacture have been established.
The character and purpose of the men who first came to settle in the wilds of this western world are doubtless familiar to the mind of almost every intelligent person. They came principally from Holland, Germany, Switzer- land, England and Ireland, countries considerably ad- vanced in civilization and where the lands were perhaps better cultivated than any others in the world. They came to settle and establish homes, under many circum- stances entirely new to theni and with a climate and soil unlike any which they had known before; amidst many difficulties they found themselves compelled to com- mence, as it were, life anew. They entered into a vast wilderness, the home of the savage Indians; the natives were to be conciliated, the land was to be cleared of the heavy forest trees to prepare the way for cultivation. Here and there was found a small opening which had been used by the Indians in their rude way in cultivating corn, beans and tobacco, and some few apple trees called an Indian orchard were found in such openings near the east shore of the Pequannock River at what is called Pacquanack, near where some of the name of Ryerson first settled.
African slavery was introduced among the Dutch col- onists in New Jersey at a very early date. Many of the first settlers came to this colony under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company, the object of that company being to open and establish a trade in furs with the In- dians. The States General of Holland especially charged that company to take care to have ready at hand a sup- ply of good merchantable slaves for the use of the colo- nists. Many of the early settlers in Pequannock bought and owned slaves, but never to any great extent-seldom more than from one to four in any one family; probably because the masters were comparatively small landholders and had no use for a larger number. But the records show that slaves were pretty generally distributed among the leading families on Pompton Plains and in that vi- The rigors of the northern winter, the wilderness state of the land, the danger of attacks and depredations not only from the savages but from the wild beasts of the forest, ready to prey upon their livestock or destroy their crops, the want of roads for safe transportation and travel, and the absence of many comforts and conven- iences enjoyed in their native countries were serious em- barrassments to the pioneers, under which it is no wonder progress in agriculture was slow. Hard work was the order of the day. The soil it is true was naturally rich in mould, the accumulation of ages of decay of vegetable matter, and therefore at first did not require the most careful cultivation to give an abundant return of crops; but it had to be cleared of the heavy forest trees and to planting. That in those early days the prevailing ideas [ and practices in farming were of a rude and primitive cinity, such as the Roome, Vanness, Berry, Colfax, De- Bow, Mandeville, Mead, Cook, Schuyler, Terhune, Ryer- son, Doremus, Jacobus, Vreeland and Fredericks families, and (in the central and western parts) those of Van- duyne, Duryea, Dod, Miller and others. As appears by the records, the first person who manumitted his slaves in Pequannock was Adam Miller, who lived in Rockaway Valley, the same at whose house town meetings were held. He freed his slaves May 5th 1776, and gives as his reason that " he is persuaded they by nature have a right to their freedom, and ought not to be deprived of it." From that time the opinion expressed by Adam Miller appears to have been a growing public sentiment as regarded slavery, and manumissions continued to be be broken up amid the remaining stumps for the first made, some from a sense of justice, and others by the force of sheer necessity in order to free the owners from
278
HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
order there is no doubt; the wants of the early settlers Notwithstanding the comparative scarcity and high price were too many and pressing, and required too vigorous of cattle one hundred years ago, it is said a quart of milk could then be had for a penny, and four eggs. for a like sum, while now, with all the increase in number and quality of stock, milk commands six or eight times as much and eggs in like proportion. exertions to provide what was indispensable, to allow time for experiment or searching out and applying new principles to farming. That was a work reserved for their descendants many years afterward and under cir- cumstances far more favorable.
As regards farming implements in use among the early In this township, as well as in the county generally, agriculture, so far as regards any marked improvement in farming implements or the general manner of cultiva- tion, was in a state of depression for more than one hun- dred and twenty-five years after the first settlements here. Owing to the imperfect provision for schools for the masses of the people, during the first hundred years the boys generally were trained up to a narrow routine of labor ; many grew up unable to read or write ; there were few books in those days and scarcely any papers that circulated among the people, consequently there was little mental activity and much obstinate adherence to prejudice. The chief aim of the young farmer in those early days and for many years after appeared to be to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, to settlers, and even up to the beginning of the present cen- tury, it is said a strong man could carry on his back all the farming tools generally in use on an ordinary farm save the wagon, or cart, and plow. The first settlers in the eastern part of Pequannock were of Dutch origin, and the harness first used by them was principally made with a Dutch collar of leather, rope traces and rope lines. Bridles were used without blinds, and were made with bits attached to headstalls of rope. With this simple and cheap rig they did their work, and when Sunday came the same kind of harness served to attach the horses to the farm wagon, which, swept out clean and with chairs placed in for seats, furnished the conveyance for the family to church. There were few good roads, and horseback riding was largely practiced, the same plant and to sow at just such a time, and in many of his horse often carrying two at once to church. All kinds
operations to be governed by the old and the new of the moon. He appeared to know nothing of the rotation of crops, and to have little regard for the use of manure ; and that man who was bold enough to step outside of the old rut, do a little thinking for himself, try some experi- ment or adopt some new implement or different mode of culture, was derided and hooted at as a visionary. We recollect a manifestation of this stupid prejudice that oc- curred in our State Legislature as late as 1850, when a resolution was under consideration to accept the invita- tion of Professor Mapes to attend his lectures on agricul- ture, especially on the value and use of fertilizers. A member from one of the oldest counties rose in his place and objected to the resolution, because he said it was of no use to spend time în listening to these "visionary schemes of book farming." Notwithstanding his objec- tion the resolution was adopted with few dissenting votes. Within fifty years past a vast change has taken place ; it has been truly said that now " obstinate adher- ence to prejudice of any kind is generally regarded as a mark of ignorance and stupidity," while less than a hun- dred years ago the reverse was the case.
In the early settlements here as well as elsewhere cat- tle were scarce and commanded comparatively high prices; cows were small, and the ox of that day was di- minutive and ill-shaped compared with those we find now. But when we consider that very little attention was given in those days to the cultivation of grasses, that the main dependence was on natural coarse grass, and that but few if any of the vegetables now so much used as food for stock were then known or had been intro- duced here, we can easily understand why it was that the cattle of the early settlers were ill-shaped, and their average weight was only about four hundred pounds, while now, with improved agriculture and better treat- ment, the average weight is over eight hundred pounds.
. of spring wagons were unknown in those days, and in- deed it was many years after the beginning of this cen- tury that spring wagon's were brought into use.
The farming implements consisted almost wholly of the shovel, spade, plow, wooden fork, and hoe of rude and clumsy form, made by a common blacksmith. The plows in use in the last century were mostly made by blacksmiths, and had a clumsy wrought-iron share, a land- side and standard made of wood and a wooden mould- board. The handle was a single upright, held by two pins, and a strong man was required to hold it. With it they managed to tear up the ground, but could rarely turn a smooth furrow. This style of plow continued quite generally in use, with but little improvement, until about twenty years after the beginning of this century.
The harrow was a rude frame with wooden teeth, but generally a stout limb with the brush attached was used in place of a harrow, because more convenient and effect- ive about the numerous stumps for a long time remain- ing after the removal of the heavy timber.
For cutting the grain the sickle was the only tool used for a long time, until the grain cradle was brought into use. Mowing is one of the severest labors of the farm, and the only instrument used for that purpose by the first settlers and their descendants during a hundred years or more was the common scythe, made in a rude form by some of the more skillful blacksmiths, in finish nothing like those made at the present day; yet it ap- pears that in quality and durability they were suited to the work. Levi Stiles, now 85 years old, living in Mont- ville township, says that when he was a young man he went to Thomas Conger, a blacksmith at Rockaway, to get a scythe; that he got one for which he paid three dollars, and Conger warranted it for six years; that he used it every season for five years, and then sold it for two dollars and a half; showing that in those early days
RESIDENCE OF THE LATE S.W.LEDDELL, MENDHAM TP.
RESIDENCE OF C.D.V.ROMONDT, M.D.POMPTON PLAINS, N.J.
RESIDENCE TANNERY, STORE AND SAW MILL OF JOHN F. POST, POMPTON, N.J.
279
MANUFACTURING IN PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP.
there were workers in metal who understood their busi- ness.
The axes made in those early times by some of the more skillful blacksmiths, although not so sightly as those now in use, were well suited for their purpose. There were many who followed wood chopping as a business, being paid at the rate of 2s. 6d. to 3s. per cord. To pre- pare land for tillage the forest must be cleared away, and large quantities of logs were rolled into heaps and burned. The ashes found a ready market at potash manufactor- ies, of which there was one at Charlotteburgh and another at Ringwood, carried on by the London Company, an as- sociation of capitalists in England formed for smelting iron ores, raising hemp and making potash in America. In the first growth of heavy timber wood-chopping was a kind of work that required a great amount of muscular power. But as those were days of hard work, and the people were simple in their habits and accustomed to a plain and substantial diet, the boys grew into vigorous men. It is said that George Stickle, the forefather of the Stickles in this region, who lived and died in Rocka- way Valley within the present limits of Boonton town- ship, when he was a young man could cut and put up a cord of wood before breakfast. We venture to say it would be difficult to find now a young man capable of doing.the like.
MILLS AND FACTORIES.
There are in Pequannock township four saw-mills, one grist-mill, one paper-mill, two rubber factories, one bark- mill, one woolen factory, one factory for turning and en- graving rolls for printing calicoes and cloths, and one distillery. The first mills erected were grist-mills and saw-mills. The first grist-mill was built at Pompton, where now stands Slater's woolen factory. When it was built and by whom we are unable to state, but it appears by the township records that in 1757 a public road was laid in the vicinity, "running along lands of Henry and Giles Mandeville, Paul Vanderbeck and Garret De Bow, to the road that goes to Nathaniel Foard's mill." Foard and Simon Vanness owned lands adjoining. It is said this mill was owned at one time by Garret De Bow, and also .by Robert Colfax, who lived near by. There were also here at an early day a saw-mill and a carding and fulling-mill. It is probable that a saw-mill and a grist- mill were built here as early as 1712.
About a mile west there is a lot called the millstone lot, on which there is a quarry from which millstones were taken in the early days of the settlement that served in the place of the French burr stones. About the be- ginning of the present century this property was pur- chased by Peter Jackson, who kept a store. there and bought hooppoles; he sold the property to his son James, who held it until 1844, when all the mills, store and dwelling were burned. The mill site was then purchased | iness. In 1873 the old grist-mill seat was sold as the by James Pewtner and Apollos Terris, who put up another grist-mill, which they operated a few years and then dis- posed of it to Joseph Slater, who converted it into a woolen factory.
About a mile below Slater's woolen factory, on the same stream, are a saw-mill and a bark-mill, where bark is ground, which is sold principally to tanners in Newark. On this site once stood a grist-mill, a carding-mill and a distillery, probably erected between 1780 and 1790 by Simon Vanness. In 1807 they were sold by the sheriff to pay a judgment of $400 in favor of Robert and Wil- liam Colfax. This property changed hands frequently, and in the course of thirty years the mills became dilapidated, and by sheriff's sale came into the possession of the State Bank of Morris. In 1843 they were pur- chased from the bank by John T. Speer, who erected a bark-mill on the site of the old grist-mill. In 1850 Speer sold this property to his son and son-in-law, Rich- ard Speer and Stephen Post; these mills, now belonging to the estate of Stephen Post, are operated by his son John F. Post.
About a mile up the river from Slater's woolen factory is a. grist-mill built many years ago; the exact date we are unable to state. This, the only grist-mill within the present bounds of Pequannock township, was a few years ago owned by the late Samuel Vanness, sheriff of Morris county. Here also was formerly a saw-mill.
About a mile farther up, opposite the village of Bloom- ingdale, a small stream called Stone House or Trout Brook, the outlet of Stickle's Pond, empties into the Pe- quannock River. A tract of one hundred acres was sur- veyed to George Ryerson on the 20th of November 1745, and from this ten acres, including a mill seat on this brook, were sold in 1810 to John Taylor, who erected a grist-mill there, which was sold to T. R. Hill in 1822; by him to Jacob A. N. De Baun, and by him to Peter De Baun his son, who sold the same to the Newbrough Hard Rubber Company August 16th 1869, to which time it continued in use as a grist-mill.
A mile higher up on the Pequannock River is an old paper-mill, now owned by James White & Son. This was the first paper-mill in Pequannock township. Paper was made here by hand probably as early as 1810. The mill was enlarged and machinery added in 1845 by John Logan. After passing through a number of hands the manufactory came into the possession of James White in 1862, and in 1880 his son Fred. S. White was taken into partnership.
About eighty rods below this paper-mill the New- brough Hard Rubber Company built a dam, having pur- chased a large strip of the land lying along both sides of the river, but mostly on the west, for about one mile. About fifty rods from the site of the old grist-mill this company erected a rubber factory, which is driven by water taken from the dam above through a canal and emptied into Trout Brook below. Hard rubber goods, such as combs and other small wares, are manufactured, and a large number of hands are employed in the bus-
- site for a paper-mill, which was started in August 1874, under the management of the Pequannock Paper Com- pany; this mill was in part destroyed by fire June 24th 1881. Just below on the same stream and near its mouth
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280
HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
Mr. Robinson purchased a site and built a mill for manu- facturing soft rubber goods.
These manufacturing industries have caused quite a village to grow up within ten years past on the Pequan- nock side of the river, opposite the old village of Bloom- ingdale on the east side. This new village contains per- haps sixty dwellings, with about 300 inhabitants, two stores and several shops. It has a post-office and has assumed the name of Butler. The Midland Railroad passes through it.
A short distance above on Trout Brook is a saw-mill that was built many years ago and is one of the four in Pequannock now in use ; there is another near the west side of Pompton Plains, and one at Beavertown. At the lower end of Pompton Plains James Comley has erected a small factory for turning and engraving rolls used in printing calicoes and cloths.
The paper-mill at Bloomingdale was established for the manufacture of roofing felt in 1874 by A. Robinson and others. In 1878 F. J. & H. W. Mather purchased the business and they have since conducted it. The capital is about $30,000. These parties employ twelve or fourteen hands. The capacity of the mill is about three tons per day. Messrs. Mather have another mill in Stanley, about a mile from Chatham, where they began business early in 1880.
Demorest & Russell erected a manufactory and com- menced the manufacture of excelsior in the spring of 1881. They employ about fifteen men and are doing a business of about three tons per day. This is the first and only excelsior manufactory in New Jersey.
In the northern part of this township, a little south of Charlotteburgh, is quite a large pond, known as Stickle's Pond, once owned by Hubbard Stickle, who drove a bloomary forge here about sixty-five years ago. His brother Adam Stickle about 1842 built a forge on the out- let of this pond a short distance below, but both of these forges were long since abandoned and have disappeared.
Uriah Roe located a tract on the west side of the river in 1715, and Joseph Helby located a tract here in 1716. It is possible that either one or both of these tracts in- cluded the grounds where the iron works were at Old Boonton, and that such iron works were in existence some time before David Ogden came into possession of them, which was about 1759. David Ogden sold the Boonton tract to his son Samuel, who in 1770 bought from Thomas Peer about six acres of land lying on the east side of the river and in Pequannock township. On this he erected a rolling and slitting-mill, said to have been the first or one of the first mills of the kind built in this country ; it was probably put in operation in 1772 or 1773. As the laws of England did not allow iron to be manufactured in that form in the colonies the work was carried on secretly in the basement of the mill, while the upper part was fitted up ostensibly for a grist-mill. The bloom iron was taken from the forge to this mill, and when heated was rolled into plate, and then slit into rods, which were used for making nails of different kinds by hand ; these were wrought nails, and there are
some old buildings yet standing in the erection of which this kind of nail was used. Although there were several hands employed in shops at Old Boonton making nails, the nail rods were not all used there ; in those days the trade of a nailer was almost as common as that of a blacksmith, and these nail rods commanded a ready sale. We find in books of ac- count kept at Old Boonton for Samuel Ogden in 1775 and 1780 that nailers were credited with shingle nails at one shilling per pound, and with clapboard nails at one shilling and two pence per pound, the retail price being IS. 4d. to Is. 6d. per pound.
After the American colonies were free from English control there was no longer necessity for having a grist- mill on the first floor to conceal the rolling and slitting of iron in the basement. In 1792 Samuel Ogden purchased from Th. Peer about an acre of ground lying along the northeast bank of the river and immediately below the slitting-mill lot. About fifty rods below the slitting- mill Ogden proceeded to build a dam across the river, and below it on the southwest side of the river erected a grist-mill. About ten years after the completion of this mill there came a great freshet and breaking up of ice in the spring, which swept away this dam. The impracti- cability of maintaining a dam at this point secure against similar freshets led to its abandonment, and another grist-mill was built higher up the stream, by the side of the old forge. It has been the prevalent belief that Samuel Ogden was the sole owner of the slitting-mill and the only person interested in operating it, but the county records show to the contrary. In book A of deeds, page 21 etc., we find the copy of a deed dated May Ist 1784, from Abraham Kitchel, agent of Morris county, to Samuel Ogden, and we copy from the record the following, which explains itself:
" In the term of June 1779, in the court of common pleas held at Newark for Essex county, final judgment was entered in favor of the State of New Jersey pursuant to law, against Isaac Ogden, late of the township of New- ark in the county of Essex, on an inquisition found against the said Isaac Ogden for that the said Ogden did on or about the first day of January 1777 join the army of the king of Great Britain, contrary to the form of his allegiance to this State; and in execution of the judg- ment Abraham Kitchel, agent, was by a law of the State of New Jersey commanded to seize, sell and dispose of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all other the estate of whatever kind soever of the said Isaac Og- den."
Kitchel sold to Samuel Ogden, for £30 proclamation money, one equal sixth part of the slitting-mill lot and slitting-mill and all his interest in the buildings and stock of coal and iron. It is quite probable that Isaac Ogden was a brother of Samuel. And further the record shows that in the court of common pleas in Morris county final judgment was entered against Nicholas Hoffman, "late of Newark," on an inquisition found against him "for that on the .2Ist of September 1777 he joined the army of the king of Great Britain; and in execution of said judg- ment Abraham Kitchel as agent seizes and conveys to Samuel Ogden for £30 proclamation money one eighth
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