History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 161

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 161
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 161

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The goods thus turned out are sold by the company exclusively, the main dealers being those like Stewart and Claflin, of New York, and with these the goods rank next to imported in reputation and price. In quality and true worth they are superior to the im- ported, and would crowd the latter out of the market ifit were not for the names " domestic" and " foreign," which mean so much to some classes of people. It is a fact, however, that the demand is greater than the factory can supply, and is rapidly increasing.

The following is a description of this immense es- tablishment, the largest in the world, covering fully six acres of ground :

Mill No. 1

50 by 222 feet, 4 stories.

50 4

209

46 " 5

54 4

110

Storehouse No. 3.

26 4

290

Offire ...

38 4

Office in rear

10 4

17 1 story.

Picket-room

50 4

50 4 stories.

Carpenter-shop

Engine-house, No. 1.

92 46 4 stories.

Picket-room

50 €

Dye-house ..

1 story.

Bleach-house.

20 4

Blacksmith-shop

12 4

Brick tower.

110 feet high.

The buildings are all brick, and kept in complete order and repair. Over three million pounds of wool are used in the manufacture of hosiery, and over two thousand tons of coal consumed. This immense es- tablishment employs one thousand men, women, girls aud boys.

The following comprise the board of directors: Johnson Letson, president; John N. Carpenter, see- retary and treasurer; Mahlin Runyon, Lewis T. How- ell, James Neilson, Christopher Meyer, Augustus F. Libby, William W. Welch, John Van Deventer.

The head manager, who has charge of the entire establishment, having a large number of foremen superintending over one thousand operators, Henry McMurtry.

JOHNSON LETSON, merchant and manufacturer, of New Brunswick, N. J., was born in that place Dec. 8, 1806. He is the son of Thomas and Ann Letson, both of whom were natives of New Jersey, the former having been born at the Raritan Landing, Oct. 12, 1763, the latter at Piscataway in 1774. The father, while yet a young man, removed to New Brunswick, where he established the leather manufacturing busi- ness, pursuing it until about 1832, when he retired to his farm at Three-Mile Run, where he resided until his death, May 13, 1851. The mother died in New

Brunswick, October, 1856, at the residence of her son, the subject of this sketch.

Young Johnson Letson was educated in New Bruns- wick, closing his education at the grammar school auxiliary to Rutgers College, in the main building of which it was then held, under the Rev. John Mabon, D.D. His education, though not polite, was solid, like the understanding it trained, and afforded, on the whole, a fair preparation for the long and active and useful life before him. When about the age of fourteen he went to New York as clerk in a hardware store, where he remained for some three years, after which he returned to New Brunswick, where he served in the same capacity until 1827, when he again went to New York, engaging this time in the book busi- ness, which he pursued for about two years, and then sold ont, returning once more to his native city.

The needle in his life's compass now began to rest, and seeing his way clearly, he followed it hence- forward steadily.

In March, 1830, he started the hardware business in Burnet Street, New Brunswick, and prosecuted it there till 1855, a quarter of a century, when, content with his large success, and desiring a more quiet and retired life, he disposed of all his interests in it, and has since devoted himself mainly to the discharge of his duties as an officer of various corporations, con- spicuously the duties devolving on him as president of the New Brunswick Rubber Company, an office which he has held since the organization of the com- pany in 1850. In connection with several other gen- themen he organized in 1863 the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery Company, of which he was then made one of the directors; and upon the deccase of Lucius P. Porter, its first president, in 1876, Jacob S. Carpenter was chosen president pro tem., and filled the office until 1877, when Mr. Letson was chosen president of the company, which position he has held since. He has been one of the directors of the National Bank of New Jersey at New Brunswick since its organization, was chosen one of the directors of the Willow Grove Cemetery Association upon its organization, and for several years has been its president.

In 1863 he was elected a member of the board of trustees of Rutgers College, and for several years past has acted as chairman of its finance committee.

In April, 1870, upon the organization of the Par- ticular Synod of New Brunswick (Reformed Church), Mr. Letson was appointed its treasurer, and has con- tinued the incumbent of the office since. In Janu- ary, 1875, he was induced to take the treasurership of the Middlesex County Bible Society on account of some irregularity in its former accounts.

There would seem to be no relief for him when he accepted an office at the hands of a corporation. Such is the sense of his business capacity and of his general trustworthiness, that if he serves once he has no choice but to serve as long as he is able to.

30 €

27 4

44 1 story.

Johmon Strow

Lucine Q. Porter

661

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

Glorious servitude, in which the fetters are forged of bonor and fastened by esteem. Mr. Letson has never taken an active part in politics, although long ago he served as a member of the City Council for several years, and was always identified with the Whig party before it was dissolved, as he has been with the Re- publican party since its organization. He is, indeed, as little of a politician as is consistent with good citi- zenship, his catholic tastes and his broad feelings chafing against the limitations set up by political or- ganizations. In 1830 he married Eliza L., daughter of Cornelins and Eliza W. Shaddle, of the city of New York. Their two surviving daughters are Amelia L., wife of Rev. Theodore B. Romeyn, of Hackensack ; Mary S., wife of William H. Acken, of New Brunswick. One daughter, Ann Elizabeth, died a young lady, another died an infant.

LUCIUS PHELPS PORTER .- His father, Capt. Henry Porter, was a prosperous farmer of Coldbrook, Conn., and removed to Norfolk, in the same State, with his family in 1823, where both himself and wife died. The family consisted of four sons and two daughters, of whom only Frederick E. Porter, superintendent of the Norfolk Hosiery Company at Norfolk, survives in 1882.

The maternal grandfather of Lucius P. Porter was ! Capt. Jeremiah Phelps, a prominent and influential citizen of Norfolk. Lucius P. Porter was born at Coldbrook, May 14, 1818, and remained at bome, spending his time between the routine of farm-work and attending school until the age of seventeen years, when he began a business life for himself, and for two years was a clerk in a store at Norfolk. He was a clerk afterwards for a few years for Paulus Warner at Plymouth, Conn., and subsequently for Henry Terry, of Colchester, with whom after one year he formed a copartnership in business.

During the continuance of his business relations with Mr. Terry he first took an interest in mannfac- turing, the firm being the owners of the Plymouth Woolen-Mills. In 1848, Mr. Porter removed to New York, retaining his connection with the mills, and in 1851, with two other gentlemen, who also with him had become possessed of valuable patents, organized the New York Rubber Company, which has since become one of the most prominent in the country. He superintended the building of the branch mills at Fisbkill, N. Y., was the principal in developing the large business of the company, and remained a trus- tee and actively connected with the concern to the time of his death, April 2, 1876.

In 1857, Mr. Porter, with several other capitalists, among whom was Jonathan Letson, Esq., present president of the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery Company, of New Brunswick, and the late Charles P. and James Dayton, of the same place, organized the Norfolk Hosiery Company at Norfolk, Conn., with a capital of seventy-five thousand dollars, of which he was chosen as treasurer. In 1859 the

stock of the company was increased to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the company arranged to manufacture fully fashioned hosiery by steam-power. In 1863 the demand for the company's goods so increased that it was found necessary to enlarge their facilities for manufacturing, and after prospecting in New York, Brooklyn, and other places, Mr. Letson was authorized to purchase the property now occupied by the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery Company in New Brunswick, where a large branch of the business has been carried on since. Mr. Porter was chosen president of the company, whose capital stock was subsequently increased to five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and soon after took up his residence in New Brunswick, where he resided until his decease. He was public-spirited, enterprising, and largely instrumental in establishing the largest and one of the most important of the manufactories of the city. Always interested in every worthy local enterprise that tended to the prosperity of the city and the welfare of its citizens, he supported them morally and liberally financially, and from his first settlement in New Brunswick until his death he was known as kind-hearted, upright, and a promoter of good society, and given to deeds of charity. He was a much-esteemed member of the First Presbyterian Church for many years, and one of its board of trustees.

Mr. Porter was twice married, and left a widow and two daughters.

On April 3, 1876, following his decease, the Board of Water Commissioners of the city held a meeting for the purpose, and among other appropriate resoln- tions passed the following :

" Resolved, That in his official relations as a director of the New Brunswick Water Company from June 24, 1868, to April 30, 1873, and as president of the Board of Water Commissioners of the city of New Brunswick from that time to the close of his life, he has given his time, already overoccupied, and hie superior executive abilities to the business of the Board of the city, without other compensation than the satisfaction of seeing a public work of the bighest importance to all of our citizens wieely and economically conducted, and in such a way as to best meet the present and future demands to be made upon it. As those who well know the valuable services of Mr. Porter in this work, we desire to express, for ourselves and for our citizens, the high estimate we put upon his labors for this cause."

On the same day, at a meeting called for the pur- pose, the directors of the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery Company, with other resolutions, passed the following :

" Resolved, That since the organization of this company Mr. Porter hae been its trusted and faithful president, and to his untiring devotion and wise and prudent management it owes its growth and prosperity. In all their relatione with Mr. Porter the members of this Board have found him a noble and sympathizing friend, a public-spirited citizen, sacrificing private conveniences to public intereste, and a high-minded, unimpeachable officer, who gave the best energiee of his life to the faithful discharge of hie dutiee."

JANEWAY & CARPENDER, MANUFACTURERS OF PAPER-HANGINGS .- This firm is characterized by a strong determination to excel those who can date back their organization a score or two of years. The

662

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

factory was established in 1863, their office in Neil- son Street above railroad bridge, by Messrs. Belcher & Nicholson, the latter being a retiring partner of the firm of Janeway & Co. It turned out principally bronzes and what are technically known as French drawn stripes and mouldings. In January, 1870, Mr. Charles J. Carpender bought out the interest of Mr. Belcher, and the firm of Nicholson & Carpender con- tinued the business until July, 1872, when Mr. Nich- olson retired and Col. Jacob J. Janeway, formerly with Janeway & Co., formed a copartnership under the name of Janeway & Carpender. The business was at once extended to include the printing of blanks and satins, and the firm has met with such success that further additions to the size and capacity of the works were found needed. Sales have been made by the firm all over this country and in Canada to jobbers and to the trade, and the products of the establishment are circulated far and wide. Their works occupy large buildings and employ a large number of hands.

They turn out the different varieties of blanks, satins, tints, gold and silver paper, and French drawn stripes and mouldings. It is not necessary, since we have already described the process of printing, to enter upon any delineation of this kind of work at this factory.

simple style, without blurring or running together. Mouldings are commonly made in this country by printing, but by that process each pattern requires as many impressions as there are colors, and by this simpler process of using pans the whole is done at once and better, and of course cheaper.

The firm shows its enterprise and appreciation of public taste by bringing out nearly one hundred pat- terns in the different goods every year, besides work- ing over old rollers in brown blanks. This paper- hanging factory is one of the best in this country, doing excellent work with novel designs in French monldings and stripes as are to be found in this country or in Europe.

ROLFE & SON'S SAW-MILL .- This city possesses but one saw-mill, that of Isaac Rolfe & Son. In the year 1863, Mr. Rolfe established himself, with Mr. G. W. Metlar, in the saw-mill at the foot of New Street, in Burnet Street. The old Neilson mill for years had stopped work. The necessity of a mill for the con- venience of many having use for sawed timber, be- canie urgent, and this mill was built. Since then the grounds have been enlarged to meet the grow- ing demands of business, and now measure one hundred and eighty feet on Burnet Street by three hundred feet deep, the canal front being about three hundred and forty feet. The mill does a large amount of sawing and planing required by the sales of the firm, and most of the timber-white pine, hemlock, oak, chestnut, ash, etc .-- is brought direct from Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Illinois, and from Canada, and the total cost per year reaching over $100,000. Mr. Rolfe's son, John Rolfe, the junior partner, has the active superintendency, and employs nearly one hundred men throughout the year.

But the great specialty of this factory is its French drawn mouldings and stripes, which we have not yet had occasion to describe. The former are used in paneling off a room in imitation of fresco, the mouldings being surmounted by caps and corners to complete the panels. The French drawn stripes, which are made by but one other concern in the country, are exquisite combinations and shades of stripes which take the place of figures in wall-paper. The process of making the stripes and mouldings is THE MEYER RUBBER COMPANY .- Established at Milltown in 1844, incorporated in 1861, for the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes. President, Christopher Meyer; Treasurer, John R. Ford; Su- perintendent, John C. Evans. the same, though several considerations unite to make the cost of production of the latter greater than of the other. In mouldings corners are printed by hand separately, and they with their corresponding mould- ings are fitted round a centre of plain or fancy paper In the year 1839 Mr. Meyer came to New Bruns- wick from Newark to put up for Mr. Horace H. Day the first steam-engine and machinery for the first rubber operations ever carried on in this city. Mr. Day was then making carriage-cloth and rub- for the interior of the panel. In making the stripes and mouldings the colors, which are a'l mixed on the premises, are poured into "pans," a separate one being required to be made for each pattern. The pan is a tin box as long as the pattern is wide, and its section ber shoes, but his carriage-cloth was so odorous as is triangular. It is divided into compartments, which to be intolerable, and was moreover so soft that when the carriage top was put down the folds of the cloth stuck together and peeled off, and his shoes in sum. mer were similarly unfit for use, while in winter they became hard as bricks. It was here that Mr. Chris- topher Meyer, who had begun his investigations soon after Goodyear and Day, made his first essay at manu- facturing, and here obtaining his right under the Goodyear patent, and fighting the battles with Day under the Goodyear banner, he went on inventing and improving machinery and perfecting the prog- ress of rubber shoe making, and to-day no man in the world more thoroughly understands all the are of course triangular in shape, and are open at the base and have apertures at the apcx. Each of these compartments is filled with a separate color, and a succession of them contains all the colors of a pattern in consecutive order. The pan then is only to be set on edge and the paper to be passed under it for each color to flow out of the aperture of its compartment and imprint itself upon the paper, the color being fed as fast as used by little gutters at the side, from which separate slits in the tin lead to the various compartments. Thus the colors in the order of the pattern are printed in what appears to be a very

THE MEYER RUBBER COMPANY, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.

663

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

branches and details of the rubber trade than Mr. Meyer. He is the leading spirit of three companies here,-the Meyer Works at Milltown, the New Jersey Rubber Shoe Company, and the Novelty Hard Rub- ber Works,-every one in a prosperous condition and occupying an important place in the rubber trade.

And Mr. Meyer discovered a plan by which the odor was almost entirely obviated, and the cloth and shoes rendered more durable,-a plan, in fact, which was only surpassed by the subsequently-dis- covered process of vulcanization. Mr. Day refused to recognize the value of this process, and Mr. Meyer thereupon decided to leave his employ, a deter- mination he insisted upon, even when Mr. Day re- considered his refusal. In 1840, therefore, Mr. Meyer started on his own account near the Landing Bridge, and stayed there three months. Messrs. Hutchinson & Onderdonk had meanwhile dissolved partnership in their Water Street rubber-factory, and the latter started the rubber-manufacture in the old saw mill of James Neilson, near what is now the upper lock of the canal, the former going to Newark. Mr. Onder- donk failing in his experiment, Mr. Meyer bought him out, and ran the works with his own machinery for two years. He was so successful that Mr. Onder- donk bought him out in turn, and, associated with Mr. Johnson Letson, started the works under the name of Onderdonk & Letson (this firm subsequently merging into the New Brunswick Rubber Company ).

Mr. J. C. Ackerman now proposed to Mr. Meyer to build him a factory on the site of the old Milltown grist-mill, and this was done, Mr. James Bishop joining with Mr. Meyer in the management. This was in 1843. The next year the works were started, and engaged in the manufacture of shirred goods, carriage-cloth, and rubber shoes with leather buttons, the latter being soon substituted by the Goodyear " metallic" or all rubber shoes, for though Mr. Good- year had a patent it was not respected, the process immediately becoming common property.

Before this process of vulcanization was understood the rubber had to be dissolved in turpentine and acids. The caoutchouc was received from Para in three forms,-in sheets, in bottles, and in rough shoes made by dipping clay moulds in the sap. These three forms were all utilized by Mr. Meyer; the rough shoes were fur-tipped and prepared for sale, the gum bottles were dissolved and spread over cloth for carriage-cloths, the imported sheets were cut into fore-uppers and joined with cloth quarters to cover leather soles for shoes. In this manner the works turned out some one thou- sand pairs of shoes per week. They also turned out rubber ponton-bridges and boats for government use in the Mexican war. In 1845 the factory was burned down with Mr. Meyer's residence, leaving him abso- lutely without a cent of capital or stock or ma- chinery. Mr. John R. Ford then came in and fur- nished capital to start the works anew, and under the name of Ford & Co. they continued in operation for

several years. The new buildings measured twenty- five by one hundred and thirty and thirty by forty feet, and with them the business steadily grew and improvements were made until 1851, when a second fire visited the works. In the following year a stock company was formed named the Ford Rubber Com- pany, and the present buildings were occupied. In 1858 the name of the company was changed to the Meyer Rubber Company, and so it still remains.

The process of manufacturing boots and shoes we have already described in detail, and for all its branches this factory is perfectly equipped, even sawing its own boards and making its own packing-boxes.

As we have already remarked, it is at this factory that most of the improvements in machinery have been invented and perfected. For example, the sole of a rubber shoe was formerly made in three parts, because there were needed three different thicknesses for the sole, the shank, and the heel. Here a machine was invented which converted a sheet of rubber at once into shoe-soles of three thicknesses in one piece all ready for the uppers. The machinery for making the present style of sandal was prepared here, and also the patent engraved steel-roll, hy which a permanent impression is made upon the upper to re- semble the ridge effect obtained in other factories by laying rubber cords on top of the fore-upper. This machine, by saving the manufacture of the cord. cheapens the cost over a cent and a half per pair, and saves a large amount per year to the companies who have the right to use it. Altogether the Meyer Rubber-Works are interesting, not only for the large extent of their business, but as the birthplace of most of the improved machinery for making rubber shoes, and as the origin of all the new styles of shoes which the market brings out.

CHRISTOPHER MEYER, son of John Christopher Meyer, was born in Hanover, Germany, Oct. 15, 1818. At the age of fifteen he left his native country think- ing to better his condition in life, and, as others had done before him, find in America a reward for faith- ful toil and a competency for the industrious and self-reliant man. He landed in New York in 1834, where he remained for two years. Being of a naturally ingenious turn of mind, and having some knowledge of machinery, he, in 1836, went to Newark, where he engaged in a machine-shop, and had worked one year when he was intrusted with the superintendence of setting up a mill at Ramapo for Hugh Maxwell. In 1838 he was selected by Mr. Connoson, his employer at Newark, to assist Horace Day, of New Brunswick, in perfecting patterns, machinery, etc., for operating in the manufacture of rubber goods. Mr. Day found in young Meyer a valuable assistant, who not only designed but completed just what was wanted for the purpose, and engaged his services for two years, prom- ising him large returns. When this time was nearly served, Mr. Meyer saw that his most valuable talent was being used for the benefit of his employer with-

664

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

out any prospects of the promised return, and he re- solved, although without capital in money, to start business for himself.

He spent his evenings, after days of hard labor, in making his patterns, and soon had his machinery ready for a beginning. Through the assistance of James Bishop, who lent him three hundred dollars, he started business in a small way at Landing Bridge, on the canal, and manufactured rubber shoes and rubber carriage cloth. After six months he removed to Weston's Mills, and that location not proving suitable he rented of Peter C. Onderdonk the upper part of his saw-mill at the upper lock, where he car- ried on business for two years, and sold the busi- . ness to Peter C. Onderdonk, which was the germ that

Outside of his rubber interests, Mr. Meyer has been identified with many other important interests in New Brunswick and other places. He was a director and large stockholder in the old State Bank of New Brunswick, is a director of the New Brunswick Gas- light Company, was one of the projectors and owners of the Painesville and Youngstown Railroad, which developed into the New Brunswick Rubber Company. ! he built in 1868 in connection with Mr. Ford, and Mr. Meyer then rented a place of Messrs. Ackerman sold out the same in October, 1881 ; a director of the New York and Boston and New York and Northern Railroads, a director and president of the Nashua- nick Company, of the East Hampton Rubber Thread Company, and of the Glendale Elastic Fabrics Com- pany of East Hampton, Mass; a director of the German-American Fire Insurance Company, of the Municipal Gaslight Company, and of the American Bank-Note Engraving Company of New York. & Bishop, erected on purpose for him at Milltown, which, after he had carried on business one year, burned down, and swept with it nearly his entire effects. He rebuilt the works, and associated with him in business in 1845 John R. Ford, a dry-goods merchant of New Brunswick, and the firm of Ford & Co. continned business until 1850, when the com- pany was organized under the general law as a joint- stock concern, under the name of "Ford Rubber Company," with Judge Ford as president and his son, John R. Ford, as treasurer. After four years the name was changed to "Meyer Rubber Company," and Mr. Meyer has been president since, with John R. Ford as treasurer, they holding and controlling since its organization the majority of the stock.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 161

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