History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 198

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 198
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 198

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(1) yellow sand and gravel, 7 feet ; (2) " black stuff" (sandy earth, lignite, and pyrite), 2 feet; (3) blue quicksand, 5 feet; (4) good clay, 4} feet ; (5) good clay (red streaks at top), main drift, 8 feet ; (6) good

clay, 4 feet. The bottom is at high-water level. The stoneware-bed includes (4), (5), and (6), or a thick- ness of 163 feet. The place of the drift is represented by (5), while (4) is left as a roof, and (6) as flooring to the mine.

The middle shaft, put down in 1868, is 100 feet east of that above described, and 240 feet west of that of 1876. In this the stratification is as follows :

(1) yellow sand and gravel, 13} feet; (2) sandy earth, containing lignite, 2 feet ; (3) blue quicksand, 3 feet ; (4) good clay, 3 feet; (5) sandy clay, 2 feet; (6) dark-colored clay, 2 feet; (7) red clay, 2 feet ; (8) good clay (main drift), 9 feet ; (9) good clay, 5 feet ; (10) clay (boring), 13 feet.

The top of the drift (8) is three feet above high- water level. Here the worked portion of the bed is represented by (8), but, as this section shows, there is good clay five feet under it.

The following is the order of succession of the strata and their thickness in the east shaft, sunk in 1876 :

(1) yellow sand and gravel, 17 feet; (2) quicksand, 33 feet ; (3) blue gravel, 2 feet; (4) good clay (lower 6 feet main drift), 10 feet; (5) sandy clay, 5 feet ; (6) black stuff, 2 feet.

The top of the good clay (4) is four feet above high- water level. Most of (5) and (6) were determined by borings.

The composition of the best average clay in these mines is as follows :

Alumina, 20.20 ; silicic acid, 28.80 ; water combined, 5.80; sand (quartz), 39.95; titanic acid, .90; potash, 1.58; soda, -; lime, traces; magnesia, .50; ses- quioxide of iron, 1.45; water (moisture), 1.20. Total, 100.38. The specific gravity of this clay is 1.971 to 2.138. It has the " fly-speckled" appearance charac- teristic in this stoneware clay bed. The sand in it is very fine-grained quartz. Mr. Ernst's practice has been to keep his mining considerably ahead of the immediate demands, keeping a large stock of clay on hand, which, in his opinion, has been improved by some months' exposure. The mining operations have consisted in sinking vertical shafts to the clay substra- tum, and the removal of the clay by a system of hori- zontal drifts, the ventilation being effected through a board flue built up in one corner of the shaft, and run- ning from the surface down to within three feet of the bottom. A current of air is created by the heat of two or three kerosene lamps burning at the lower end of the fine. As the clay bed is impervious to water, and the shafts which cut the overlying strata are water-tight, there is practically no water to be raised, except that which comes in as the result of occasional unavoidable accidents. The clay thus obtained is carted half a mile to Mr. Ernst's dock on Cheesquake Creek, and shipped to all points on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Texas. It is known in the market as " mine clay," in distinction from " pit clay."

About half a mile southeast of Ernst's mines is the old bank of Noah Furman, which was described in

1 Commonly referred to as the cholera 808800.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

the report of the State geological survey of 1855 as showing : (1) sand, 3 to 10 feet ; (2) black clay, 10 to 15 feet ; (3) stoneware clay, 14 feet. This bank has not been worked mnch since the report referred to was made. The top black clay includes in its mass a great deal of lignite and pyrite.

The clay bank of the Morgan estate is situated southwest of the above-described locality and at the border of the marsh. According to the same report this bank cut the following-named materials: (1) sand, 15 to 16 feet ; (2) black clay, 7 feet; (3) stone- ware clay, 10 feet.

No work has been done here lately. At this and the last-mentioned bank the clay was found partly below tide-water level.

Near the old Morgan bank, and about a mile north- west of Jacksonville, are the clay mines of Noah Fur- man, which were opened about 1867. They are in the upland, near the marsh, and the surface is twenty to thirty feet above mean high-tide level. In one of the shafts the top of the stoneware clay is found at an elevation of twenty feet; in a second shaft, one hundred yards west of the first, it was at nearly the same height,-19.5 feet above the same plane. The surface here is sand and gravel ; then there is a black clay full of wood and pyrite, and containing some leaf impressions, three to six feet thick; then the stoneware clay, five to seven feet, and at the bottom a white sand. The extraction here is mostly by un- derground tunneling or mining proper. A vertical shaft is sunk to the bottom of the clay bed, and drifts generally one hundred feet long are cut from it into the clay, which is in this manner taken out. By means of a succession of such drifts the bed is worked out, excepting a stratum left at the top as a roof and another at the bottom as a floor. This clay has the same characteristic physical qualities that belong to the stoneware clays in general. The specific gravity is 2.012 to 2.022, and it is, on the average, a little more sandy than that taken out at Ernst's mines. A selected specimen has the chemical composition represented in the following analysis :

Alumina, 21.13; silicic acid, 29.23; water (com- bined), 6.81; sand (quartz), 37.85; titanic acid, 1.00; potash, 1.81 ; soda, 0.18; lime, -; magnesia, 0.22; sesquioxide of iron, 1.68; water (moisture), 0.69; total, 100.60.

This clay, also known in the market as " mine clay," has been sold for stoneware, being carted to the dock on the creek, whence it is transported to various points by water.

Theodore Smith's clay pits are half a mile east of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and a mile and a half northeast of Jacksonville. The ground here and towards the south is 30 to 40 feet high, rather flat, and drained by the head-waters of a small brook, a tribu- tary to South River. The bearing of the clay is about 9 feet thick, of which the surface layer, 2 feet thick, is a moulding sand. The remaining 7 feet is

common yellow sand. The top of the clay bed has an average elevation above tide-level of 40 feet, its thickness being between 3 and 10 feet. The top spit is very sandy, and is thrown aside as waste. Towards the bottom also it grows sandy, and under it there is a laminated sand and sandy clay. There is some pyrite and lignite in the lower part of the bed. All of the clay is carefully sorted so as to avoid the pyrite, which occurs occasionally in all parts of the bed. Most of the clay dug in these pits is sold for stoneware and shipped by rail.

Charles B. Reynolds' pits are near the head of Jernee's mill-pond, about two miles southwest of Jacksonville. The surface of the ground hereabout is flat, and does not exceed 30 feet in height above tide-water. The clay dug here is covered by a sandy loam and yellow sand to the depth of 3 feet. It is 5 feet thick and quite sandy, and near the sur- face streaked with yellow earth. The best is drab- colored, sandy, and dries quite white, and is lacking in the speckled appearance observable in some of the stoneware clays previously described. Only a few small pits have been dug. The clay from these has been carted to a pottery at Matawan, Monmouth Co., where it has been mixed with Furman's clay in making stoneware.

The excavation and traffic in the clays in Madison began early, and has continued more or less exten- sively to the present time, affording employment to many men in mining and transporting it, and taking rank commercially above every other interest. It has made possible the manafacture of pottery in the vicinity of the beds, which in the past, as will be seen by reference to other pages, has been carried on to a considerable extent. The lands containing it are very valuable, and must grow more so in proportion as the demand for such clays increases through the more and more extensive sale of the domestic wares and bricks manufactured from them.

PRE-REVOLUTIONARY ENTERPRISES .- At a date probably considerably anterior to the Revolution a paper-mill was established on the site of Skinner's Te- cumseh Snuff-Mills. It is stated on good authority that at this mill was manufactured the paper on which the Continental money was printed which was issued by governmental authority during the struggle of the colonies for independence.

This property seems to have been in three portions, the first of which was transferred by Samuel Neilson to James Dorset and John Earhart, June 20, 1786 ; and the second by Garret Dennis to the same, March 5, 1792. The third passed from William Searle and Margaret Kenous to Messrs. Dorset and Earhart, who by its purchase became possessed of the entire prop- erty. Later, portions of the property seem to have passed to other hands, but the lot containing the "paper-mill and other buildings and houses" at- tracted the attention of Messrs. Phineas Mundy, Lewis Carman, and James Bishop, who purchased the

27 H Brown

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MADISON.

interest in it of James Dorset, deceased, from his widow, at the time the wife of Peter Wilmurt. May 17, 1821, John Earhart, mother and sister, the heirs of John Earhart, deceased, disposed of their interest to Cornelius Johnson, from whom it was sold by the sheriff July 21st following, and bought by Messrs. Mundy, Carman, and Bishop, who thus obtained a title to the entire paper-mill property. May 26, 1825, Phineas Mundy bought the interest of James Bishop, and June 1st following that of Lewis Carman, becom- ing some owner. From him the property passed to Phineas M. Skinner, Jan. 9, 1854.

There was a pottery near the head of Cheesquake Creek before the Revolution, which was owned and operated by the father of the late Gen. James Morgan.

THE TECUMSEH SNUFF-MILLS .- The Tecumseh Snuff-Mills were established in May, 1854, by Phineas. M. Skinner & Son, on the old paper-mill property, which Phineas M. Skinner had purchased of Phineas Mundy on the 9th of the preceding January.

In 1872, Mr. William A. Skinner succeeded the firm of Skinner & Son, subsequently admitting Lewis E. Skinner to a partnership in the business, the title of the firm changing to Skinner & Co.

At these mills about one hundred thousand pounds of tobacco are annually converted into snuff, and eight hands are employed. The machinery is turned by a water-power equal to that of seventy-five horses. The works are situated on the Matchaponix, in the western part of the township, and about three-quar- ters of a mile from the centre of the village of Spotts- wood, East Brunswick, in a northeasterly direction, and consist of a drying-house, thirty-two by thirty- five feet ; a mill, twenty-five by thirty-five feet ; a curing- and packing-house, thirty by sixty-five feet ; and a fermenting-house, twenty-five by thirty feet, with a wing attached, thirteen by thirteen feet, occu- pied as an office, all ranging in height from a story to a story and a half.

MANUFACTURES AT "BLOOMFIELD."- On the site of the Bloomfield Mills, about midway between Old Bridge and Spottswood, on South River, Messrs. Embley & Keyser began the manufacture of powder about 1805. After a number of years Jacob R. IIar- denbergh purchased the property and established a large saw-mill thereon, continuing to manufacture powder till 1833, when the concern blew up. He did an extensive lumber business for some years, and the property passed into the possession of his son, Cornelius L. Hardenbergh, who, after manufacturing lumber a few years, sold out the water-power and lands connected therewith to Anthony C. Rosier, of New York, who introduced the manufacture of lin- seed oil there, the business being under the immediate supervision of parties who managed it for him or had an interest therein. At length the mill-site passed into the ownership of Judge John Perrine, who car- ried on some manufacturing enterprises there, and soon after 1870 disposed of it to the present proprietors.

The Bloomfield Mill Company was organized in 1872 by R. Atkinson, R. S. Conover, and F. S. Cono- ver, who began the manufacture of liquorice in a fac- tory fitted up for that purpose. Two years later they were succeeded by a stock company under the same name.

The works of the company are contained in a num- ber of substantial buildings, which cover about four acres of ground. Fifty men are employed, and the motive-power of the machinery in use is furnished by an engine of two hundred horse-power and a water-power of half that capacity.

The raw material used consists principally of liquo- rice-root, which is imported from Spain and Asia Minor, and about five million pounds are consumed annually. About one million pounds of other mate- rials are used in the composition of flavors for the use of tobacco-manufacturers. About one million pounds of mass liquorice is made annually, which is used chiefly in the manufacture of plug tobacco. A portion of the root is crushed, ground, and pressed for nse in the preparation of smoking and chewing tobaccos.

THE DILL SNUFF-MILL .- On Deep Run, near its month, and near the Mount Pleasant and Old Bridge turnpike, is located the Dill Snuff-Mill. It was erected by John Dill about 1830. In 1870, Mr. Dill was suc- ceeded by his son, William R. Dill. In 1878 the establishment became the property of Richard Brown, of New York, and since that time has been idle.

OTHER MANUFACTURES .- Gen. James Morgan erected the Morgan Pottery near the head of naviga- tion on Cheesquake Creek, not far from the site of his father's former pottery, in 1785, and was an exten- sive manufacturer of potter's wares there until 1810, when he leased it to Josiah Letts, who operated it until 1815. From 1815 to 1825 it was managed by different parties under a lease from the proprietor. Since that date it has been idle, and the building has gone to decay.

About 1840, Noah Furman started a pottery in the same neighborhood, and was operating it from that date to 1856, when it was destroyed by fire. Peter Jernee's grist-mill on Tenant's Creek has been built a good many years. Clarkson Brown was an early pro- prietor.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

HON. HENDRICK H. BROWN.

The grandfather of Judge Brown was Whitehead Brown, who resided in what is now Madison town- ship, where he was owner of an extensive tract of productive land and followed farming employments. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Warne and had one son, Abram W. Brown, who spent his youth under the paternal roof, and married Miss Maria,

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

daughter of Ebenezer Price. Their children were George W., Hannah (Mrs. Johnson), Elizabeth (Mrs. Vanderveer), Ebenezer, Lorinda ( Mrs. Croft), White, head, Hendrick H., Parker, who died in childhood, Maria, (Mrs. Bisset), and Sarah (Mrs. Reid). Mr. Brown engaged in agricultural employments during his lifetime, but also manifested much interest in public affairs. He was an active Democrat, and held the offices of justice of the peace and freeholder. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1836, and in 1843 -44 represented his constituency in the State Senate. He was honored hy Governor Haines as a member of the Privy Council during his administration. He was an influential citizen, and remarkable for soundness of judgment, which rendered his services much in demand in the settlement of estates.

He was a regular worshiper at the Baptist Church of Jacksonville, and one of its board of trustees. Mr. Brown's death occurred in 1857, in his fifty-eighth year.

His son, Hendrick H., was born June 23, 1833, on the homestead farm, where the years of his child- hood were spent. He first attended the public school of the district, and later repaired to Matawan, Mon- mouth Co., where his studies were continued.

Having decided upon the life of a farmer, he culti- vated the paternal acres until the death of his father, when he purchased the property. He was married May 15, 1861, to Miss Sarah A., daughter of David Crowell, of Perth Amboy. They have children,- Amelia C., George M. (deceased), Howard H., Gracie, (deceased), and Josephine A.

In politics' Judge Brown is a pronounced Demo- crat, and has been actively engaged in public life for many years. He has officiated as surveyor of high- ways of the township, was a member of the township committee, has been for three years freeholder, and was later appointed one of the lay judges of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he held for a period of ten years. He manifests a deep interest in the cause of education, and has been foremost in promoting its advance in the township of Madison.

His family are among the supporters and regular worshipers of the Presbyterian Church at Matawan, of which Mrs. Brown is a member.

The judge is actively engaged in Sabbath-school work in the immediate vicinity of his home, and con- tributes in many ways to the growth of the community in morality.

CHAPTER CIII. SOUTH AMBOY.I

Situation and Boundaries .- South Amboy is situ- ated on the eastern border of Middlesex County, and is separated from Staten Island and Perth Amboy by

Raritan Bay, which forms its northern and north- eastern boundary. Southeast, south, and west the township is bounded by Sayreville.

Descriptive .- This is one of the oldest, and was formerly one of the largest townships in the county. By successive reductions of its area in the formation of other municipalities it is now the smallest of all, occupying only a little spot on a map of its former territory. Yet the small portion that remains is by far the most important commercially, and by virtue of its admirable location enterprise first took root there, and extended its civilizing and improving in- fluences far inland in every direction, the South Am- boy of to-day being not simply the parent, but the feeder as well of all its once extensive area, and at the same time a point of much importance to a large sweep of country beyond.

The surface of the township is rolling and uneven, sloping gradually towards the bay. The soil is sterile and unproductive, but beds of valuable sand and clay abound and extend in all directions inland, which have from early in the history of the locality been important factors in the commerce and manufactures of South Amboy, and of which it is the purpose of the writer to speak at greater length hereafter. The two principal highways in the township are the Bor- dentown turnpike and the South Amboy and Wash- ington road, which begin at two points in the central and western portions respectively, long known as the Upper and Lower Landings, crossing the township in a southerly course, and afford a means of communica- tion with the interior. The most noticeable thorough- fare traversing any portion of South Amboy east and west is a road known as Broadway, beginning at the western border of the township, forming the principal street of South Amboy village, and intersecting with Main Street not far from the northern terminus of the latter.

The Camden and Amboy branch of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad and the New York and Long Branch Railroad afford excellent facilities for travel and transportation, the former, which caused the growth of the village and gave the place its present impor- tance, supplying employment, on its trains, its tracks, and its coal-docks, and in its shops, offices, and im- mense freighting industry, to a good share of the population of the village and township.

In 1880 the real estate of South Amboy was esti- mated at $609,300. The personal property amounted to $81,400. The total amount of taxable property was $690,700. The amount of funded debt, com- posed of bonds and interest at six per cent. due in 1882, was $2137.16. The amount of floating debt was $3120.28, due the county collector. The rates of taxation for specified local purposes were as follows : Poor, 24 cents per $100; ways and means and interest on bonds, 18 cents; roads, 8 cents. For state pur- poses the rate was 20 cents.

The population of South Amboy in 1810 was 3071;

1 By M. O. Rolfe.

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SOUTH AMBOY.

in 1820, 3406 ; in 1830, 3782; in 1840, 1825; in 1850, 2268 ; in 1870, 4526 ; in 1880, 3648. The fluctuations which have not been due to gradual growth are ex- plained by the formation from the former territory of South Amboy of townships and parts of townships. At this date most of the population consists of labor- ing men and their families, and much of it is trans- ient in consequence of the number of boatmen tarry- ing for a longer or shorter time within the township limits, but not becoming permanent residents.

The range of hills overlooking South Amboy vil- lage offer some finely located sites for residences. The daughter married Andrew K. Morehouse, of New

scenery is magnificent, with Raritan Bay lying at the beholder's feet, the southeastern shore ot Staten Island skirting the horizon to the left, Sandy Hook visible to the right, reaching out into the bay like a long finger pointing the way up the Narrows to New York, and Coney Island just discernible in front across the blue waters of Lower Bay, which forms the foreground of the picture, and in fair weather is speckled far and near with white sails, sometimes momentarily obscured by the smoke of passing steam- ers, while the sloping promontory upon which the cottages and churches of Perth Amboy have found lodgment rises up at the extreme left, covered in the summer with verdure and plentifully dotted with um- brageous trees, all mingling in a land and water view scarcely equaled elsewhere.

Settlement .- In 1683 the proprietors made stren- uous exertions to open a road from Perth Amboy to Burlington, to draw off the travel that was then taking the road from near Elizabethtown Point to the Delaware via New Brunswick, and in 1684 Dep- uty Governor Laurie succeeded in opening the road which is still used, connecting it by a ferry-boat at South Amboy. Notwithstanding aid was sought from the Assembly to compel people to travel by this route, the old Dutch road was long the more popular. It would not require any stretch of the imagination to presume that the establishment of this ferry was the first step taken at South Amboy in the gradual pro- gress to the present. The pioneers within the pres- ent township limits were few in number, but there were some of them full of enterprise, and it was the ferry and inland travel that they seized upon for a means of livelihood and profit, for the soil was too poor to tempt the agriculturist, and it must have been early evident that if South Amboy was to be a place of importance it was in consequence of its location rather than of any promise which it gave of ever being the centre of a farming country. It might some day

Amboy village having been a marshy jungle of stunted pines.

One of the first settlers in South Amboy was Lazarus Wilmurt, who located very early on the property now owned wholly or in part by Mr. R. S. Conover, where he resided a number of years, His children were Daniel, Joshua, Elizabeth, and Sally.

Daniel Wilmurt married and had quite a family of children, named Jacob, Lewis, Thomas, and Sally Ann. Jacob and Lewis died young. Thomas mar- ried a Miss Applegate and had one child. The York.

Of Daniel Wilmurt, who was well known early in the present century as a hotel-keeper and the pro- prietor of lines of boats and stages, further mention will be found farther on, his enterprises having ranked with the foremost of that time.

Joshua Wilmurt married and located in Brooklyn, and does not seem to have borne any part in histor- ical events in South Amboy. Elizabethi married Capt. William Rose, a somewhat well-known early water- man at South Amboy, and had children named Gar- ret, Catharine, Phœbe, Sally, Maria, Hannah, and Ann. Sally, daughter of Lazarus Wilmurt, married Peter Johnson, and early located near her father's place. Her sons were, some of them, James, Peter, and Wilmurt Johnson.

The land of Wilmurt extended beyond the present limits of South Amboy into Sayreville, but for reasons which must be obvious to any one at all familiar with the history of that part of old South Amboy border- ing the bay, all of which, in common with the South Amboy of to-day, has ever been and is devoted to the same interests which have made the present township what it is, it is deemed best to treat that part of the township as formerly bounded without reference to the boundary lines of the present. On the Kearney tract, west of the village, located a pioneer named Rose, whose descendants intermarried to some extent with the Wilmurts. His son, Timothy Rose, resided there from about 1804 to 1811, and about the latter date purchased land on the Bordentown turnpike. His family consisted of sons named Elias, Ephraim, John, and William, and two daughters. Ephraim married and remained on the homestead a number of years, until the death of his wife. He was a second time married, and soon after removed to Jacksonville, in Madison, where he lived until his death. By his first wife he had sons named Elias, John, and William, and two daughters. The former took the old home-

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 198

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