History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 156

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 156
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 156

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He finally removed to Cleveland, engaging in the manufacture of brick, which business he continued successfully for fifteen years. He took an active part in the public affairs of Cleveland during his residence in that city, filling the position of alderman and member of Council.

Although in politics a Democrat, his public spirit, sterling integrity, and practical ability were so widely and heartily recognized that he received the support of his fellow-citizens irrespective of party considera- tions. In 1842, while still in business in Cleveland, he invented and patented a brick-moulding machine, which was adopted generally by the trade throughout the country and is still in use. Leaving Cleveland he removed to Coxsackie, N. Y., where he remained three years. In 1845 he visited England, being occu- pied most of that year in securing patent rights in that country for his brick-machine. He returned the latter part of the year and located at Perth Amboy, where he commenced the erection of buildings for the manufacture of fire-brick. Ten years later, in 1856, a portion of these buildings was destroyed by fire, and he at once erected in their place an exten- sive brick building comprising all desirable improve- ments, and in this structure the work is carried on all the year round. The former buildings being of wood, continuous work throughout the entire year was im- practicable. The ground floor is heated by four fur- naces, by which the bricks are dried, the upper story being used for the manufacture of Rockingham- and yellow-ware. The works also include extensive kilns for burning the bricks and the ware. These are per- fect in their way, embodying many improvements which are the inventions of the proprietor ; among them may be mentioned a patent hinge-grate of his invention, which renders the burning much more speedy and less expensive than heretofore. Beside the works at Perth Amboy the firm of A. Hall & Sons have a similar fire-brick works, of about the same

capacity, at Buffalo, N. Y., and ten miles below Buf- falo, at Tonawanda, extensive works for the manufac- ture of red brick, which produce about two million two bundred and fifty thousand annually, a million of which are of the style of Philadelphia face brick. When running in full force the several works employ about two hundred and fifty men and boys, and pro- duce about five million fire-brick and two million two hundred and fifty thousand red brick annually. The works in Buffalo are in charge of Edward J. Hall, a son of Alfred Hall. Another son, Eber H. Hall, is associated with his father at Perth Amboy. A fine specimen of the colored building brick produced by A. Hall & Sons was presented by the large chimney erected by them adjoining the New Jersey building on the Centennial grounds, and it deservedly attracted much attention and admiration.

Having retired from the presidency of the Perth Amboy Terra-Cotta Company during the fall of 1880, he conceived the plan of a new terra-cotta works, upon which he immediately began work and proceeded to organize a stock company. The success of this un- dertaking was guaranteed through the co-operation of Mr. Hall's experience of forty years and men of ex- perience in this line. The company was incorporated in July, 1881, and the work of building begun in August of the same year ; at the present time is well toward completion. These works when completed will be the most extensive of any in the United States. The capacity when completed will be for three hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of work annually without any extra exertion ; buildings cover an area of five acres independent of dockage ; the machinery, modeling and moulding building, facing the south, is two hundred and seventy-two by forty feet, two stories ; facing the east are the office build- ing, forty by twenty, two stories high ; the flue-honse, in which is done the pressing and finishing, one hun- dred and twenty by fifty, three stories high. This is one of four buildings of same dimensions ; to the north fronting this is the end of the kiln building, which is two hundred and twenty by sixty feet, con- taining seven terra-cotta kilns. Still to the north is another flue-house and a store, two hundred and eighty by forty feet, fronting the north, Buckingham Avenue ; to the west of this on Mechanic Street appears the stowing and coal-sheds; these buildings are of fire- proof construction, all of the partition walls being made of brick.

Mr. Hall has been assisted greatly in plans by Mr. R. W. Taylor, his foreman, a man of large experience in this line of work. Mr. Hall's letter to the State geologist, published in their annual report, shows how thoroughly he has studied the resources, and the prog- nostications have up to this writing been more than realized :

" I am doing all I can to develop and bring into use the great varie- ties of clay, which should be a great aource of wealth to the State of New Jersey. We have in our employ men of all nationalities, who are

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

familiar with the working of clay in all parta of the world, and their opinion ia unanimous that the red and other colored clays of New Jersey are anperior for making terra-cotta to any in the world. There are also many clays that ere now considered worthless that show qualities that I think will be of great value when applied to the nses for which they are adapted.

" Perth Amboy is the natural centre for the manufacture of architect- ural terra-cotta, both on account of the abundance of the raw material and the great facilities for shipping, the docks here having been unimpeded by ice all through the last severe frost. The present worka cannot sup- ply the increasing demand, the sales of the six monthe ending Deceni- ber 31st amounting to $72,916. January lat there were orders exceed- ing $55,000, and several large worke for which terra-cotta is specified for which estimates have been given aggregatiog nearly $200,000 more, and Perth Amboy ought to become as noted for terra-cotta as Treoton is for pottery.

" ALFRED HALL.

" PERTH AMBOY, February 2181, 1881."

The manufacture of brick has been very much ben- efited by various improvements introduced by Mr. Hall, many of them being his own inventions. From 1863 to 1869 he was mayor of Perth Amboy, and three times he was elected without the opposi- tion of any other candidate. He is, and has been since its organization, a stockholder, director, and the president of the Middlesex Land Company. He was for many years a member of the board of free- holders of Middlesex County, and is president of the Fire-Brick Mannfacturers' Association of the United States.

During the war of the Rebellion he was an active Union man, aiding the government effectively with money and influence. While residing in Loraine County, Ohio, the location of the old forest home- stead, he married Sarah Buckingham, a native of Connecticut, and in their pioneer home the two sons now associated with him in business were born. Their family consisted of three sons and three daughters, of whom only two sons and one daughter are now living.

She (the mother) died in 1853, highly esteemed by all who knew her. Subsequently he married Parmelia F. Robinson, a widow with three young children,-one son and two daughters,-whom he reared as his own. She is a native of New England, and a daughter of Col. William Pearl, of New Hampshire. Mr. Hall is possessed of literary tastes, and his writings are always graphic and to the point. An article written by him on the " Manufacture of Fire-Brick," and published in the Scientific American in January, 1870, and re- published in several English papers, is characteristic. He is a supporter of the Episcopal Church, which he attends with his family. He is no sectarian, and is a member of no particular denomination, but a liberal contributor to all religious societies in his vicinity.

CHAPTER XCIII.

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

Original Site .- Where New Brunswick now stands during the greater part of the seventeenth century there was a dense cedar forest and a swamp called

" Prigmore's" or "Pridmore's swamp." The latter name often appears in old records. The first inhabit- ant is said to have been Daniel Cooper, who resided where the post-road afterwards crossed the river and kept a ferry.1 This Cooper was one of the very early purchasers and settlers under the proprietors, and his name appears as such in the schedule to the Eliza- bethtown Bill, but the record does not locate him at the site of New Brunswick, where a misty tradi- tion only places him. Daniel Cooper had a tract of two thousand acres of land on " Pasaick" River.2

When New Brunswick was first called "Inians' Ferry" cannot be determined exactly. Gordon and other annalists state that on the 1st of November, 1681, John Inians and company bought two lots where New Brunswick now stands, containing a mile of river front by two miles in depth. On the 1st of March, 1682, he was a petitioner to the Governor and Council, in connection with Joseph Benbridge, requesting that " lands which they and their associates had purchased of the Indians, which had by the late surveyor-gen- eral been surveyed and a return of the survey made into the secretary's, might be patented according to said survey." The warrant was for six thousand acres, and it appearing that the surveyor had laid out seven thousand six hundred and eighty acres without reserving the sevenths that were the proportion of the proprietors, further consideration of the petition was deferred till the next day. On the following day it was determined by the Council that "John Inians and Joseph Benbridge and associates should have patents for the land, according to the proportion mentioned in the warrant for the survey,-John Inians one thousand and all the others five hundred acres apiece,-at one halfpenny per acre, and that the whole overplus of the tract shall be appropriated to the pro- prietors in lieu of their seventhis to be laid out by the surveyor-general, and that the proprietors shall pay and allow to the said Inians and associates an ap- portionable part of the Indians' part of said overplus.""

A map is extant a literal copy of which is in the possession of Mr. Charles D. Deshler, of New Bruns- wiek, made in 1685 by John Reid, first deputy sur- veyor under the proprietors, and afterwards surveyor- general, which gives the situation and outline of nine- teen lots known as " The Raritan Lots," lying on the south side of the Raritan, and stretching from the mouth of South River past the site of New Brunswick to Bound Brook, seventeen of which have each about a half a mile of river front by about two miles in depth, and extend in a southwesterly direction in- land. Beginning at the mouth of South River, the first of these lots is marked to " Law Baker" and con- tains thirteen hundred acres ; the next to " C. P. Son- mans," one thousand acres; the next to "Governor Barclay," five hundred thousand acres ; the next to " C.

1 Gordon's Gazetteer, p. 195.

2 Elizabeth Bill, p. 88.

3 Recorda of Governor and Council of E. J., pp. 8, 10.

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CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

Longfield," five hundred acres ; the two next to "John Inians," each six hundred and forty acres. This last is shown in the map to be the "fording-place" (and the original site of New Brunswick) by a hand point- ing toward it, and also by the word " falles" written opposite. These "falles" are within the memory of many, and were more properly a rocky rift, extend- ing across the river just below the upper lock, mak- ing the stream so shallow as to be easily crossed at low tides in a wagon or on horseback.

On the 3d Tuesday of September, 1686, John Inians appears in the minutes of the County Court of Mid- llesex as plaintiff in an action against Mordecai Boudinot. He is again spoken of as "Capt. John Inians" when he acted as one of the justices of the Court of Sessions held at Piscataway March 15, 1686- 87. Afterwerds his name often appears in these min- utes in connection with that office. He was unques- tionably a man of some consequence, for besides being an associate justice of the court he was one of Governor Hamilton's Council from October till No- vember, 1693, and again from July, 1695, till March, 1697, and also of Governor Basse's Council from the 8th till the 11th of March, 1698.1 Inians became the owner of this property, as has been seen, certainly as early as March 1, 1682, and it is probable that he very soon afterwards started the ferry, for on the 19th of April, 1686, we learn from the "Records of the Governor and Council of East Jersey"2 "a paper was given in here by Mr. John Inians, therein setting forth that he has been at considerable expense to ac- commodate the Country in making out a Road to the ffalls from his house on the Raritan, which is six i miles shorter than formerly, and hath furnished him- self with all accommodations, as boats, canoes, etc., fitting for fferrying over the Raritan River all Trav- elling with horses and cattle, etc. Desiring that this Board will be pleased to order its being a publicke road for the use of the country, and settle the rates for the fferry, etc., which being Read, Its agreed and ordered that the Commissioners appointed by Act of the General Assembly for laying out of all Highways, Landings, and fferries, in some short time repair to the said fferry, and there inspect the same and make Returne to the Secretarye's office, and as to the said fees and Rates for the flerry, the same must be settled by Act of the General Assembly, to which end this , Board will take care to recommend the same to the House of Deputyes." So that, as this quotation es- tablishes, Inians' Ferry was in operation before the date of this petition, April 19, 1686, whether one or more years can neither be asserted nor denied. " When it was legally established as a ferry," says Mr. Deshler, "so as to empower the collection of fees, I have not been able to ascertain with certainty." Gordon says (and the statement has been adopted by all later an- nalists), "The ferry was granted by the Proprietor,

Nov. 2, 1697, for the lives of Inians and his wife, and the survivor, at a rent of five shillings sterling per annum." 3

The place continued to be called Inians' Ferry- variously corrupted Inions, Innions, Onions, and Inyance-in all the public acts and records as late as 1723, at which time a road and two streets were laid out in the place on petition of "the inhabitants of Innionces' Ferry." Before this there was one other street, called " the Broad Street," which undoubtedly was the one now known as Burnet Street.4 As the minutes of the commissioners relative to the laying out of these streets are very interesting, we copy them from the "Minutes of the County Court," as follows :

" Whereas complaint hath been made by the Inhabitants of Inionses ferry to us the Surveyors of the County of Middlesex concerning a Road Beginning att George's Road about three chains from the River (from thence running to the Northeast corner of Jacob Oakey's house, thence along Lawrence Williamson's House to Freelaod's, Northwest corner of his house), thence along ull of the houses to the front of Court Van Vories Honse, and there the said Road ends as witness our hands this twenty- second day of July in the ninth year of his majesty's Reign Annoys Dumi, 1723. Said Road being a Rod and a half wide.

" HIENBY FFREEMAN, " WILLIAM HARNIS, " TIMOTHY BLOOMFIELD, " DIRICK VAN AERSOALEN.

" Another street laid out beginning at Lawrence Williams House (from thence running down to Low water mark) which said street is to be one Rod wide (half of the said Rod of Lawrence Williamson Laod and the other half of John Van ardsden Land) Laid ont by us Surveyors witness our hands this twenty-second day of July in the ninth year of his majes- tyes Reigo Annoys Dumi 1723.

" HENRY FFREEMAN, " TIMOTHY BLOOMFIELD

" WILLIAM HARRIS " DIRICK VAN AERSDALEN.

" Another Road Laid out by us whose names are underwritten Sur- veyors of the Connty of Middlesex. Beginning att Samuel Mulfords and so along dildine's House and Abraham Lefogs house into the Broad Street Leading to Court Van Vories house witness our hands this twenty- second day of July in the ninth year of his Majesty's Reign Anno Domi 1723. Said Road being a Rod wide. HENRY FFREEMAN, WILLIAM HAR- RIS, DIRIK VAN AERSDALEN."5

"The earliest use of the name 'New Brunswick' which I have been able to discover in any public record is found in the minutes of the County Court, from which we learn that on the 7th of April, 1724, two surveyors of the roads and two constables were, for the first time, appointed by the Court of General Quarter Sessions for New Brunswick, and after this date it ceases to be called by the name of Inians'. So that the title New Brunswick was not applied to it by those who were most familiar with the facts until at least ten years after the accession of the House of Brunswick to the throne of Great Britain. At this early period the settlement at New Brunswick must have been a very small one, although it was already beginning to overshadow the older settlements of

1 Records Governor and Council East Jersey, pp. 166-217. 2 Page 132. '

3 Gazetteer, p. 195.

4 William Burnet, after whom the street was named, was appointed Governor, and arrived in this conotry in 1720.

5 Connty Record of Roads.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

Woodbridge, Perth Amboy, and Piscataway, and its prospect of becoming an important place was con- sidered to be very flattering. In August, 1730-31, James Alexander writes to ex-Governor Burnet : ' As to New Brunswick at Inians' Ferry, it grows very fast, and the reason is the country grows very fast back of that place; for when I came to this place in 1715 there were but four or five houses in the thirty miles between Inians' Ferry and the Falls of Delaware, but now the whole way it is almost a continued lane of fences and good farmers' houses, and the whole country is there settled or settling very thick ; and as they go chiefly upon raising wheat and making of flour, and as New Brunswick is the nearest landing, it necessarily makes that the store-house for all the produce that they send to market, which has drawn a considerable number of people to settle there, insomuch that a lot of ground in New Brunswick is grown to near as great a price as so much ground in the heart of New York.' The frequency with which the necessity for a way to Inians' Ferry is at this date presented hy the people of comparatively remote sec- tions as an argument for the opening of new roads, and the readiness with which this plea is accepted by the road commissioners as a sufficient reason for granting the petitions, show the importance of the landing and ferry there to the rest of the province. Notwithstanding all this, the embyro town must have been of very diminutive proportions in 1730, for thirty- four years later, in 1774, John Adams describes it as follows: 'Went to view the city of New Brunswick. There is a Church of England, a Dutch Church, and a Presbyterian Church in this town. There is some little trade here; small craft can come up to this town. We saw a few small słoops. The river is very beautiful. There is a stone building for bar- racks, which is tolerahly handsome ; it is about the size of Boston jail. Some of the streets are paved, and there are three or four handsome houses ; only about one hundred and fifty families in the town.'" 1

Inians procured his grant in November, 1681. At that time a single road, or, more properly, a bridle- path, afforded the only means of communication with West Jersey, crossing the Raritan at this point. The different rivers and streams were the principal avenues whereby intercourse was kept up in other directions. In 1675 William Edmundson made a journey southward from New York. IIe says that in going from Middletown to the Delaware River, al- though directed by an Indian guide, he was unable for a whole day to discover the proper course, and he was obliged to go back until his guide could strike the Raritan. They then followed its margin until they came to a "small landing from New York,"-no doubt the crossing of the path at Inians' Ferry,-and thence wended their way along a small path to Dela-

ware Falls. He says, "We traveled that day and saw no tame creature ; at night we kindled a fire in the wilderness and lay by it ; ... next day, about nine in the morning, by the good hand of God, we came well to the falls." 2

Dutch Immigration .- About 1730 several families immigrated from Albany, N. Y., and the tradition is that they brought with them their building materials, according to the Dutch custom, and located along the public road, which they called, after their former home, " Albany Street." Among these settlers we find the names of Dirck Schuyler, Hendrick Van Deursen, Dirck Van Veghten, Abraham Schuyler, John Ten Broeck, Nicholas Van Dyke, and Direk Van Alen. These were men of considerable property and enter- prise, and their arrival gave a fresh impulse to trade. The city was now a growing town of much activity. The principal streets were Burnet, Water, and Al- bany, with perhaps a few buildings on Church Street. The inhabitants lived along the river as far south as Sonman's Hill, extending north for about one mile, or a short distance above the ferry. A few of the ancient buildings are still standing, but most of them have given place to more modern structures. The old house recently standing in Burnet Street near Lyle's Brook, known as the property of Dr. Lewis Dunham, was built by Hendrick Van Deursen, one of the Al- hany settlers, who owned several acres of land in the vicinity.3 John Van Nuise, of Flatbush, L. I.,4 bought a farm of one hundred acres of Enoch Freland, April 28, 1727, having its front on Neilson Street, its north- ern line along Liberty Street, its southern along New Street, extending west as far as the Mile Run. For this property, in connection with five acres of “salt meadow" at the mouth of South River, he paid the sum of eight hundred pounds. In the summer of that year he erected a large farm-house on what is now Neilson Street, between Schureman and Liberty, and sur- rounded it with suitable outbuildings. This house was used as the headquarters of the Hessian commander during the occupation of New Brunswick by the British army in the Revolutionary war, and is still remembered by nearly every middle-aged man. Some of the older citizens will remember the Appleby House, a stone edifice with gable roof and broad hall, on the corner of Church and Peace Streets, now Van Pelt's drug- store; the Gibbs House, an antique stone mansion, built by Ilendrick Voorhees, standing between Bur-

2 Edmundson's Journal, p. 106. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, p. 91,-note.

3 Abeel and Hasser owned twenty or thirty acres above Van Denrsen's. Judge Morris owned a large farm on both sides of Commercial Avenue. Mr. Van Deursen was offered about forty acres of land lying below Mor- ris Street, west of the lots on Burnett Street, between them and George, for two hundred and fifty-six dollars.

4 " The ancestor of the Van Nuise family in this country is Aucke Jan- sen Van Nuise, who, with his wife, Magdalen Pieterse, and children, emi- grated from llolland in 1861 and settled in New York. Ilis place of birth is supposed to have been Nuise, in Groningen ; hence the surname Van Nuise. He was a carpenter by trade, and built the first church of Midwont (now Flatbush), completed in 1660."-Bergen Family, p. 157.

1 Life and Works of John Adams, vol. ii. p. 355, Charles D. Deshler, article on New Brunswick.

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CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

net Street and the river, near Miller's Brook, crossing the street near Town Lane; the French property on George Street, in front of the hotel near the depot, and the large apple-orchard on the hill, where now stand the buildings of Rutgers College.

One of the oldest frame buildings in New Bruns- wick is the old Vanderbilt House, No. 143 Burnet Street. Like the old City Hall in Liberty Street, it is a little the worse of wear. The oldest preserved deed of the property was " made by William Cox to Court Van Voorhuise, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Lord George II., and in the year of our Lord 1725." With the house was included all the mill property from the brook at its lower line up along the river about two hundred feet to the south- erly line of the Hicks property. For all of this the sum of forty pounds was paid. In 1778 the property belonged to Richard Gibbs, and was at his death by will devised to his three grandchildren, John, James Neilson, and Ann Gibbs. The latter thereafter mar- ried Thomas Perkins, of Philadelphia, who pur- chased the shares of the other two grandchildren for sixteen hundred dollars, and in 1795 sold the house to John Schureman, who the same year sold it to David Aheel. The property was afterwards sold by the then sheriff to Joseph Sequine, who in 1828 sold it to Cornelius Vanderbilt (price not named). By him it was sold in 1830 to John Hicks for two thon- sand one hundred and fifty dollars, and by his execn- tors deeded to Isaiah Rolfe, April 22, 1872, for forty- five hundred dollars. The house has been vacant since 1871, and is now alone in its old age, the pro- prietor being unresolved whether to repair or re- move it.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 156

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224