USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 9
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The following are the rolls of these three companies, which formed part of Colonel John Frelinghuysen's regiment:
Captain William Brittin's company, which was in the United States service from September Ist 1814 to De- cember 3d 1814: Captain, William Brittin; lieutenant, Elijah Ward (appointed quartermaster September 7th); ensign, Lewis Carter: sergeants-Ichabod Bruen, William Thompson, Joseph Day, Alexander Bruen; corporals- Caleb C. Bruen, Elias Donnington, Richard R. Elliot, Charles Townley 3d; drummer, Jonathan Miller; pri- vates-John T. Muchmore, Alva Bonnel (Joel Bonnel went as his substitute), Seth Crowell, Samuel M. Crane, William Carter, Aaron De Hart, Israel Day, Stephen Freeman, Eleazer B. Gunning, John Pierson, John C. Price, Stephen Parcel, Aaron F. Ross, John Roll, Joseph Robertson.
Roll of Captain Samuel Halliday's Morris rangers, which company was in the service of the United States
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TROOPS IN 1812-14.
from the Ist of September to the 2nd of December 1814: Captain, Samuel Halliday; lieutenant, Benjamin Lindsley jr .; ensign, Joseph M. Lindsley; sergeants-Matthew G. Lindsley, William H. Wetmore, Joseph Byram jr., Ber- nard McCormac; corporals-Stephen Sneden, William Dalrymple, Samnel P. Hull, Stephen C. Ayers (John Odell substitute); drummer, Stephen James; fifer, Silas Ogden; privates-Samuel Beers, Jerry Colwell, David Cutter, Charles M. Day, Benjamin Denton, Peter Dore- mus, Stephen P. Freeman, Lewis Freeman, Sylvester R. Guerin, Horatio G. Hopkins, Luther Y. Howell, Ezekiel Hill, John Hand, Joseph M. Johnson, Abraham Ludlow, David Lindsley, Ira Lindsley (David Beers substitute), Moses Lindsley, Roswell Lomis, Lewis March, John Meeker, John Nestor jr., David Nestor, Elijah Oliver, Byram Prudden, Maltby G. Pierson, Eleazer M. Pierson, Jabez Rodgers, Ezra Scott, Ebenezer Stibbins, Peregrine Sanford, Seth C. Schenck, Charles Vail, Isaac M. Wooley.
Roll of Captain Carter's riflemen, who were in the United States service from September Ist to December 2nd 1814: Captain, Luke Carter; lieutenants-David W. Halstead, William Brewster (discharged September 19th 1814), Charles Carter; sergeants-Benjamin F. Foster, Elijah Canfield, Harvey Hopping, David Tompkins; corporals-Calvin Sayres, Samuel Hedges, John B. Miller, Moses Baldwin; musicians-Daniel Brewster, Luther Smith; privates-Lewis Baker, Cyrus Hall, Squire Burnet, William Canfield (died October 3d 1814), Mahlon Carter, Ellis Cook, Samuel Cory, Moses Condit, John Dixon, John Fairchild, Clark Freeman, John French, Thomas Genung, Elam Genung, Whitfield Hopping, Robert W. Halstead, Aaron M. Jacobus, Jacob Ogden, Richard Rikeman, Joseph Smithson, John Simpson, Ephraim C. Simpson, William Tucker (deserted), Stephen C. Woodruff, John Glover.
The regiment of militia which went to the Hook at about the same time was commanded by Lieutenant. Colonel John Seward, and was in the United States ser. viee from about September Ist 1814 to December 9th 1814. The following is a roster of the field and staff:
Lieutenant colonel. John Seward; majors-Jonathan Brown, John L. Anderson, Benjamin Rosenkrans; adju- tant, Ebenezer F. Smith; paymaster, David Thompson jr .; surgeon, Hampton Dunham; surgeon's mate, Timothy S. Johnes; sergeant major, Richard Reed; quartermaster sergeants-Jonas L. Willis, Nathaniel O. Condit (ap- pointed quartermaster September 13th 1814); drum major, William Fountain; fifer, John S. Smith; waiters-Israel Seward, waiter to the colonel; Benjamin Ayres, waiter to the surgeon; Matto Derbe, waiter to the surgeon's mate.
There were fourteen companies, which were in service as follows-the precise dates of their musters in and out not being the same: Captains William Vliet and Benja- man Coleman's company, September 9th to December 6th; Captain Joseph Budd's, September 9th to December 5th; the companies of Captains Vancleve Moore, Robert Perrine, Charles South, John S. Darcy, Thomas Teas. dale and George Beardslee, from September 6th to De- cember 5th; Captain Alexander Reading's, September 8th to December 5th; Captain Abraham Webb's, Sep- tember 3d to December 4th; Captain Daniel Kilburn's, September Ist to December 5th; Captain William Drum's, September 3d to December 6th; Captain William Swaze's, September 8th to December 7th.
On Sunday the 11th of September the uniformed com- panies of General Colfax's brigade, numbering 1,200
men, paraded and marched to "high ground " to hear Rev. Dr. Stephen Grover, of Caldwell, preach to them. About the 20th the brigade removed from Paulus Hook to the heights of Navesink, where and at Sandy Hook it remained until the last of November, when the men were paid off and ordered home. They arrived in Morristown Saturday evening December 7th 1814, and Halliday's Rangers paraded on the 8th and were given a public din- ner.
A singular incident of this war was the volunteering on the part of about four hundred citizens of Washington, Chester, Mendham and Morris to labor a day on the fortifications of New York. In the New York Gazette of September 10th 1814 is this acknowledgnient of their service: "We have the satisfaction again to notice the distinguished and practical patriotism of our sister State New Jersey. Between four and five hundred men from Morris county, some from a distance of nearly fifty miles, headed by their revered pastors, were at work yesterday on the fortifications of Harlem. Such exalted and dis- tinguished patriotism deserves to be and will be held in grateful remembrance by the citizens of New York, and recorded in the pages of history, to the immortal honor of the people of that State."
The war, as might have been expected, stimulated cer- tain manufactures, our commerce with foreign nations being almost entirely cut off. The Mount Hope furnace was started up, and Dr. Charles M. Graham advertised December 30th 1812 that the Hibernia furnace would be thereafter conducted by him. Matthias Denman, Abra- ham Wooley and Samuel Adams had been previously his partners in its operation. He also advertises thirty-five casks of New Jersey made copperas of the first quality, at the Hibernia store, for cash or grain at New York prices. The copperas was manufactured at the copperas mine near Green Pond, where Job Allen during the Revolutionary war carried on the business. The end of the war put an end to this industry and it never was re- vived.
CHAPTER VII.
THE IRON INDUSTRY OF MORRIS COUNTY-EARLIEST ENTERPRISES-FORGES AND BLOOMARIES.
HE history of the iron industry of Morris county reaches back almost to its first set- tlement. We have no positive knowledge of any actual settlement in the county until about 1700. Yet in 1714 the tract em- bracing the Dickerson mine was taken up on account of its minerals, from the proprietors of West Jersey, by John Reading, who in 1716 sold it to Joseph Kirkbride; and it is a matter of tradition that previous to that time the ore was manufactured into iron by the owners of forges, who were allowed to help them-
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
selves without charge. The presence of the ore was known to the Indians yet earlier than this; and their name for the locality " Suckasuna " (or, as some have it, "Sock-Soona "), meaning "black stone" or "heavy stone," has been given to the plains which extend to the westward of the hills wherein the mine is situated. Arrow-heads and utensils of various kinds made of iron by the Indians have been picked up in the neighbor- hood.
It is altogether probable that the presence of ore in great abundance, the forests which covered the whole land, ready for the collier, and the abundant waterfalls of the many rivers and brooks which traversed the mountainous region were the chief inducements which led the first settlers into its wildernesses. It is a circum- stance which has not failed to impress itself upon those familiar with the records of the proprietors of East Jersey that among the first lands to be taken up or purchased, especially in the northern part of the county, were the lots containing waterfalls, and where veins of ore cropped out on the surface, afterward pieces of natural meadow, and last of all the surrounding hills.
In the " brief account of the province of East Jersey, in America, published by the present proprietors " in 1682, it is said: "What sort of mines or minerals are in the bowels of the earth after-time must produce, the inhabitants not having yet employed themselves in search thereof; but there is already a smelting furnace and forge set up in this colony, where is made good iron, which is of great benefit to the country." This furnace and forge were probably the iron works at Tinton Falls, in Mon- mouth county, and the quotation shows that the minerals of Morris county had not yet been discovered. Of the seven " considerable towns " mentioned as being in East Jersey none are west of Orange Mountain, and the whole region was no doubt an unbroken wilderness.
The first forge within the present bounds of Morris of which we have any knowledge was erected at Whippany, on what was then called, by its Indian name, the Whip- panong River, just above the bridge which crosses the stream nearly in front of the church. Tradition fixes as early a date as 1710 for its erection. Mr. Green in his history of the Hanover church speaks of the old building in the Whippany graveyard as "about 100 rods below the forge which is and has long been known by the name of the Old Iron Works." It was no doubt a very small and rude affair, where good iron was made free from the ore by smelting it with charcoal, and without any of the economical appliances even of the bloomaries of a hun- dred years later. The ore was brought to it from the Succasunna mine in leather bags on horseback, and the iron was carried to market at tide water in bars bent to fit a horse's back-the only method of transportation. A single horse, it is said, would carry from four to five hundred pounds fifteen miles in a day. Not a vestige of this forge now remains, and its builder is unknown. The conjecture is that John Ford and Judge Budd built it. An aged Presbyterian clergyman, Rev. Isaac Todd, of Ocean county, who is still living, and is a descendant of
Colonel Jacob Ford sen., says the ancestor of the Morris county Fords was John Ford, of Woodbridge. While in Philadelphia in 1710, as a representative of his church to the presbytery, he made the acquaintance of Judge Budd, who had a large estate in Morris county. Budd offered Ford a large tract of land if he would remove to Monroe, between Morristown and Whippany, an offer which was accepted.
Following up the Whippany River forges were erected soon after near the site of Morristown, of the same char- acter as the Whippany forge, and getting their supply of ore from the same source. One was located just north of what is now called Water street and near Flagler's mill, called the Ford forge. Colonel Jacob Ford sen., who probably built this forge, and afterward forges on the two branches of the Rockaway, was called by Peter Hasenclever "one of the first adventurers in bloomary iron works." All the forges near Morristown were ex- tinct in 1823.
The first forge at Dover was built, it is said, by John Jackson in 1722, on what is still called Jackson's Brook, near the present residence of Alpheus Beemer. Jackson purchased a tract of 527 acres of one Joseph Latham, including the site of this forge and much of the land west of Dover. The venture was not a successful one, however, and in 1757 the forge passed into the hands of Josiah Beman, and the farm into those of Hartshorne Fitz Randolph.
It is to be noted, however, that in 1743 a tract of 91 acres was located by Joseph Shotwell which covered most of the village of Dover, on both sides of the river from where the Morris and Essex Railroad crosses it to below Bergen street, and it was said to be at a place called the "Quaker Iron Works." In 1769 Josiah Be_ man, " bloomer," mortgages to Thomas Bartow the same tract, "being that which John Jackson formerly lived on and whereon the forge and dwelling house which was his did stand," and which land was " conveyed to him by Joseph Prudden by deed dated April 7th 1761; except- ing out of this present grant nine acres on which the forge stands sold by him to Robert Schooley." It further appears from other deeds that the indebtedness secured by this mortgage was contracted in 1761, prob- ably when the purchase was made of Prudden. In 1768 Joseph Jackson and his son Stephen purchased of Robert Schooley one fire in this forge. The next year Joseph Jackson conveyed his interest in the forge to his son. Josiah Beman, the owner as it appears as early as 1761 of this Dover forge, was a brother of David Beman of Rockaway, the brother-in-law of General Winds and the grandfather of the late Thomas Green of Denville. He lived in the long, low house in the village of Dover still standing on the north side of the mill pond. He is described as a man of great piety, a regular attendant upon the church at Rockaway and of very simple habits. Stephen Jackson learned his trade of him, and in 1764 bought the last year of his time of him for $100-then considered a large sum-and with Andrew King leased and carried on the forge for a time. It is said the two
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EARLY IRON FORGES.
young men kept bachelors' hall, doing their own cooking, which was of the simplest kind, by turns. In a few years they both had capital to go into business for themselves, and both became prominent iron manufacturers. Beman sold his forge to Canfield & Losey in 1792, and the new firm enlarged the business by the erection of rolling- mills, etc.
In 1748 the land on both sides of the river at Rocka- way was located by Colonel Jacob Ford, and the tract was said to include " Job Allen's iron works." In 1767 letters of administration of Job Allen's estate were granted to Colonel Jacob Ford, his principal debtor; tending to the conclusion that the pioneer ironmaster of Rockaway had been no more successful than his neighbor at Dover. These iron works were built, as near as can now be as- certained, in 1730.
The little dam in the middle of the upper pond and covered ordinarily by water was that on which this earliest structure depended for its supply of water. In 1774 Joseph Prudden jr., of Morristown, conveyed to Thomas Brown and John Cobb one fire in this forge, the other being in the possession of David Beman. May 30th 1778.Cobb & Brown convey the same fire, with the appurtenances, " coal yards, dams and ponds," to Stephen Jackson. In 1780, January 2nd, David Beman conveyed his half of the forge to John Jacob Faesch; and January Ist 1782 Stephen Jackson conveyed his part also to him. Faesch retained possession of the works until his death, when they were bought back by Stephen Jackson. In 1812 Stephen Jackson devised this forge to his sons Wil- liam and John D. Jackson; but both interests were purchased by their brother Colonel Joseph Jackson, who had since 1809 been the owner of the lower forge at Rockaway. By him it was sold in 1850 to his son-in-law Samuel B. Halsey, to whose heirs it still belongs.
It is evident that about the years 1748-50 a great ad- vance was made in the manufacture of iron. In 1741 a humble " representation " was made by the Council and House of Representatives to the governor of the province, Lewis Morris, setting forth the abundance of iron ore and the conveniences for making the same into pig and bar iron which existed, and that with proper encourage- ment they could probably in some years wholly supply that necessary commodity to Great Britain and Ireland, "for which they become annually greatly indebted to Sweden and other nations "; but that hitherto they had " made but small advantage therefrom, having imported but very inconsiderable quantities either of pig metal or bar iron into Great Britain, by reason of the great dis- couragement they be under for the high price of labor and the duties by act of Parliament on these commodities imported from his Majesty's plantations in America. That should it please the British Legislature to take off the duties at present payable on importations, and allow such bounty thereon as to them in their great wisdom might seem reasonable, the inhabitants of this and other of his Majesty's colonies in North America would be thereby the better enabled to discharge the respective
balances due by them to their mother country, and greatly to increase the quantities of her manufactures by them exported (as their return would be in those only); where- by the annual debt by her incurred to Sweden and other foreign nations for iron would be considerably lessened, and the navigation and ship-building throughout the British dominions greatly encouraged and enlarged."
This very humble petition seems to have had no im- mediate effect; but in 1750 an act of Parliament was transmitted to the governor of the colony entitled " an act to encourage the importation of pig and bar iron from his Majesty's colonies in America, and to prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel, in any of the said colon - ies." The act corresponded with its title; and, while it permitted the colonists to manufacture and send to the mother country pig and bar iron under certain regula- tions, it strictly forbade, under penalty of £200, the erection of any such mill as was intended to be prohib- ited. They might make the crude article, but they must send it to the mother country to be reduced to such shape as to fit it for use. The forge man could make the iron bloom, but he must send it across the Atlantic to be rolled into the nail rods and horseshoe iron he and his neighbors required for their own use.
The governors were ordered to report the mills, etc., then erected, and accordingly Governor Belcher reported that there were in New Jersey that year one mill for slitting and rolling iron, in Bethlehem township, Hunter- don county; one plating forge at Trenton and one furnace for making steel in Trenton-of which only the plating forge was then used; and besides these, the governor adds, "I do also certify that from the strictest inquiry I can possibly make there is no other mill or engine for slitting and rolling of iron, or plating forge which works with a tilt hammer, or furnace for making steel, within his Majesty's province of New Jersey."
Whether as one of the effects of this law or not, several forges were built in the county about the time it went into operation. Colonel Jacob Ford, of Morristown, in 1750 "took up " or located the falls of the east branch of the Rockaway at Mt. Pleasant, and proceeded to erect two forges there. The same year he purchased the falls on the same stream at Denmark, where the "Burnt Meadow forge " was built. It is called " John Harri- man's Iron Works " in 1764, but a few years afterward was owned by Jacob Ford jr. In 1749 Jonathan Osborn purchased the falls midway between Denmark and Mt. Pleasant, and built what is known as Middle forge-the site of which is now owned by the United States. AII these forges were in the hands of the Fords before the Revolutionary war.
There was also a forge about half a mile below Lower Longwood in existence at the time of the war, which was called " Ford's forge," which was extinct in 1823; but exactly when it was built cannot be ascertained. In a deed made in 1803 from Samuel Tuthill to John P. Losey mention is made of the bridge that crosses the Rockaway
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
River "a little above where the old Speedwell forge formerly stood."
About this time, that is to say from 1750 to the break- ing out of the Revolutionary war, were also erected many other ancient forges. One stood on the Whippany River near Morristown, called the Carmichael forge, and one at Malapardis, about three miles northeast of Morristown. Both of these were extinct before this century began. The Hathaway forge on the Whippany, close to the Morris and Essex Railroad, and about a mile west of Morris Plains station, was built by Captain James Keene, who was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and who ran it until 1780. Jonathan Hathaway, from whom it took its name, owned and ran it for over twenty-five years, then Benjamin Holloway until 1806, when it was burned down. It was rebuilt, but a freshet in 1821 broke away the dam and it was not again in operation.
On Den Brook, a tributary of the Rockaway, were built Shongum forge, owned by Deacon John Hunting- ton; Ninkey forge (owned by Abraham and John Kin ney in 1796 and sold as their property in 1799 to Caleb Russel), built and rebuilt several times; Coleraine (or Cold-rain) forge, lower down the stream; and still lower Franklin forge, built by John Cobb, Thomas Brown and Stephen Jackson just previous to the war. Hubbard S. Stickle, who has just died at the advanced age of ninety- eight years, and who himself built one forge and assisted in building several others, said he could remember when all four of these forges were running.
Colonel James W. Drake writes in 1854 that, "princi- pally for the purpose of consuming the surplus wood, four forges for manufacturing iron were at different times erected in the township of Mendham, but the fires of all of them have been long extinguished. The ore for their supply was almost entirely furnished by the well known Suckasunny mine. A small amount of ore was at one time supplied by a mine in the village of Water Street, but at length the use of it was abandoned, as iron could not be made of it." From an old map made in 1823, showing the forges active and extinct in Morris county at that time, it appears that these forges were the "Rushes " and " Mendham " forges, on the north branch of the Raritan; "Leddle's forge," on a branch of the Passaic; and "Rye " forge, on the Whip- pany river at Water Street, all extinct. The mine spoken of by Colonel Drake was reopened and worked extensively since the last war by Ario Pardee and other lessees of the owner, Madison Connet.
In 1751 John Johnston bought of the proprietors the falls of the Beach Glen Brook at Beach Glen, and built the forge known for many years as "Johnston's iron works." It was sold by Job Allen to Benjamin Beach and Henry Tuttle December 30th 1771, and Beach shortly after bought out his partner and continued to operate it until his death. Benjamin Beach (son of Abner Beach) is described as a self-made man, who, beginning with very small means, by integrity, industry and systematic perseverance acquired a large estate, owning at the time of his death over a thousand acres of
land. Beach Glen before it was so called, in honor of himself, was called Horse Pound, because the early set- tlers, by building a fence from one high hill to the other, formed a pound into which they drove their wild horses to catch them. From Benjamin Beach the forge de- scended to his two sons Chilion and Samuel Searing; and the site is still in the family, being owned by Dr. Columbus Beach, the son of Chilion. The dam was swept away by a freshet in 1867, and has never been rebuilt.
There was also an old forge at Troy, near the present residence of Andrew J. Smith, built probably by John Cobb. It (or, rather, its site-for the forge has gone down) is still owned in part by some of the descendants of Cobb, one-half being owned by Andrew J. Smith, whose father, Ebenezer F. Smith, ran it as late as 1860. There was also an old forge at the head of Speedwell Pond, and another at the present dam at Speedwell where Arnold & Kinney erected their slitting-mill. Colonel Ford is said to have been the builder of these. .
White Meadow was also a place of importance at this time. A lot was located here in 1753 by David Beman, probably for the purpose of building a forge, and he and Thomas Miller were, no doubt, the builders of one. They or one of them conveyed to John Bigalow and Aaron Bigalow; for in 1769 the Bigalows gave a mort- gage of one-half of the forge " which was built at the place called White Meadow." October 18th 1774 the Bigalows gave a mortgage on a tract of 14272 acres (including the lot returned to Beman), said to be a tract which Thomas Miller bought of Thomas Barton and David Beman, and conveyed to said Bigalows by deed of even date with the mortgage. From the Biga- lows it fell into the possession of Abraham Kitchel, who conveyed it to Bernard Smith (the friend of Faesch) in 1792. Smith was obliged to part with it, and sold it to Isaac Canfield in 1802.
About a mile below White Meadow was the forge well known as "Guinea forge," built by Colonel John Munson before 1774. A recital by Benjamin Beach and Abrahan Kitchel, in the minutes of the board of proprietors in 1785, quotes an application of Munson and Benjamin Beach in 1774 for a large tract of land lying near these works, which tells the history of this forge for the ten years previous, as follows:
" To the Honorable the Council of Proprietors-A tract of land [was] surveyed by Thomas Millige to Ben- jamin Beach and Colonel John Munson of about 2,600 acres, but no deed has been given nor moneys paid except the surveying, recording, &c. Colonel Munson, being unable to carry on his forge, sold his forge and right to procure a deed in his name to Joshua Winget, who sold the same to Samuel Crane. Crane sold to Abijah Sherman, and when Sherman broke, Crane took the forge again and now Crane proves insolvent. Mr. Beach does not expect to take more than half of the land surveyed and recorded as above. Colonel Munson, not being able to attend, prays that his contract may be void. Abraham Kitchel and Mark Walton will take Colonel Munson's part provided they can have it for a reasonable sum."
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