History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 205

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 205
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 205

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Copper-Mines .- About the year 1784 a rich copper- mine was discovered nearly on the line of this and Woodbridge townships. It is just a short distance from Menlo Park and near the track of the Pennsyl-

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

vania Railroad. Mr. Ellis Ayres can yet remember seeing it when being worked, and he says that plates of native copper were taken from between the seams of the rocks two feet wide by six feet long. He says they had arrangements for hoisting up the water by mule- power, the mule backing and lowering a tnb, which would fill at the bottom and be hoisted ont again, just as horses are now used in unloading vessels at the present time. But the shafts and drifts filled so fast with water that the miners became discouraged on being " drowned out," and Mr. Edison, the electric light inventor, recently obtained the property for prospecting, and has commenced to work them. He has opened the shaft, and found it to enrve with the hill as a convex, keeping eighteen or twenty feet from the surface, and extending three hundred feet or more till it again came out on the other side of the hill. They also discovered a shaft which had also been worked before. Mr. Edison instantly set a force to work, and after digging almost fifteen feet down at the spot they came to the cross-timbers which had been laid across and covered up the old shaft. Strange to say, the chestnut timbers were in good preservation. A steam- engine had been set to work to pump out the water, and soon had it clear one hundred and twenty feet down. When forty feet were cleared they came to a drift which crossed the shaft at right angles and went both ways, in one direction running into the first drift above alluded to. It was in these drifts the ancient miners worked. At one hundred and twenty feet down the drift is clear and has not yet been followed to its endways, going like the other drift both ways from the bottom of the shaft.

It was at this bottom that a wheelbarrow was found of very primitive construction, and some home- made picks and shovels, just as left by the workmen. They were evidently the work of blacksmiths of the period, and not like the factory-made shovels and picks of to-day. The shovels had nearly corroded away, however, but the wooden handles were as sound as ever. The wheelbarrow also was in a good state of preservation. Mr. Edison values these relics very highly, and has kept them all.

In pumping out the water from the main shaft, ladders, formed of chestnut, with split chestnut sap- lings for the rungs, were found leading down entirely to the bottom of the big shaft in a perfect state of preservation. There were six or seven of these lad- ders, and there must be a preservative quality in the water of this mine, or it would not so well have kept these saplings.

As these mines must have filled rapidly with water, and steam had not been invented at the early time these mines were worked, may have been the cause of their desertion, leaving these tools behind them.

Mr. Edison expects to secure the copper enough needed in his factory near by, and it is somewhat strange that so little is known of the early workers. No traditions have been remembered save by an old

resident, Mr. Ellis F. Ayres, and his memory in lo- cating the site of the old shaft. It may probably be that his ancestors may have told him about the mines, as they were not worked in his memory.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

ISRAEL THORNAL.

The origin of this family in this country is thought to be Scotch-Irish. Israel Thornal, the fourth gener- ation from the present Israel, came to Woodbridge, N. J., in the second quarter of the seventeenth cen- tury. Little is known of him. His son Benjamin settled in what was then Woodbridge, now Raritan township, near the site of the present Thornal home- stead. Benjamin had one son, named Israel, of whom we have some account.

In the war of 1776 a detachment of British troops stationed at Perth Amboy came to the residence of Benjamin Thornal and took him and his son Israel prisoners. At the same time they drove from the farm twenty-seven head of cattle. The prisoners were taken to New York City, to what was then known as the "Sugar-House." Benjamin died in prison. His son was exchanged and returned home, became a large and prosperous farmer, and a promi- nent man in the township. There is a record of his renting a pew in the Presbyterian Church in Me- tnchen, June 2, 1784. His children were Louis, Ephraim, Benjamin, Manning, Margaret, Betsey, Mary, and Lockie.

Manning, the youngest son, the father of the sub- ject of this sketch, was born May 21, 1793, and died Jan. 19, 1868. When sixteen years of age he moved to Uniontown, and there spent five years, learning the trade of a hatter. On reaching his twenty-first year he came home to Woodbridge, and began farm- ing with his father. He was married, June 11, 1816, to Deliverance Freeman, who was born April 18, 1793, and died June 23, 1858. The issue of this mar- riage was eleven children,-Sarah F., born Feb. 3, 1817; William, Feb. 25, 1818; Eliza E., Nov. 15, 1819; Israel, Aug. 22, 1821; Arold F., Feb. 13, 1823; Margaret R., Nov. 16, 1824 (died in infancy) ; Ben- jamin C., Jan. 3, 1827; Rachel A., June 20, 1828; Margaret R., 1831; Mary J., May 18, 1833; Joanna, Oct. 31, 1836.

Israel, the subject of our sketch, is the fourth gen- eration in regular descent having the Thornal name who has owned and lived upon the place he now oc- cupies. While a boy he attended the district school and worked on the farm, as was the custom of those times. After finishing his studies at school he turned his whole attention to farming, and had sole charge of the farm for eight or ten years before his father's death. By his will his father gave him the farm, and

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RARITAN TOWNSHIP.

made him sole executor of the estate. His Aunt Lockie made her home with him. She died April 25, 1878, aged eighty-six. She used to relate many interesting incidents of the dark days of the Revolu- tion, as told by her father and his friends.

ISRAEL THORNAL.

Israel Thornal was married, April 11, 1872, to Georgie Williams, who was born June 1, 1836. The children of this marriage are Dillie F., born Aug. 13, 1873; Georgie F., Oct. 9, 1874; Manning, Feb. 9, 1877.

Mr. Thornal united with the Presbyterian Church of Metuchen in the spring of 1862, and has been a member of the board of trustees of that church for the last ten years. He has a large, well-cultivated farm and a pleasant home. He has been a life-long Democrat, and although not taking an active part in politics he has repeatedly refused to accept office. He is now chairman of the town committee. Mr. Thornal is a gentleman well thought of in his town- ship, and is a good representative of the careful, thrifty, progressive farmer. He has always lived on the Thornal homestead.

WILLIAM T. EDGAR.

The paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch came from Scotland and settled in Wood- bridge, N. J. He was the father of twelve children. Albert, the third son, was the father of the subject of our sketch, and started life in Woodbridge as a mason, subsequently became a farmer. In the last days of his declining years he retired from business on a com-

petency won by industry and good management. Mr. Edgar was highly respected by the people of his na- tive town. He died in Woodbridge in 1878, aged seventy-four. He was married three times. His first wife was Miss Martha Laforge, by whom he had one child. For his second wife he married Susan Tappin, who bore him four children. His third wife, who still survives him, was Emiline Tappin.

William T. Edgar, the subject of this sketch, was the second child of Albert and Susan Edgar, and was born Jan. 17, 1847. He attended school at Bonham- ton. After leaving school he went to work on a farm. In 1863 Mr. Edgar's patriotism called him to shoulder his musket in defense of our nation's honor and our nation's life. He enlisted Feb. 15, 1863, and remained until peace was proclaimed. After being " mustered out" he returned to his home in Raritan township and began farming. Soon after he opened a clay bank, and has been in the clay business ever since. He recently purchased the Burgen estate, and has opened and is working a fine bank of good terra- cotta clay. There seems to be a large quantity of this clay on the farm. He is building a good house on the place, and expects to move there as soon as the build- ing is completed.

Mr. Edgar was married in 1870.

WILLIAM H. CALLARD.

William Callard, the father of the subject of this sketch, emigrated from England in 1819, and settled in Piscataway township, N. J., near where his son, William H. Callard, now lives. He was married Aug. 31, 1819, to Miss Harriet Smith, of Bound Brook, N. J. Two sons were born unto them, viz., William Henry, born March 26, 1834, and George S., born Oct. 25, 1839.

Mr. and Mrs. Callard were hard-working, frugal people, and by their united industry aud frugality became possessed of a considerable property. Mr. Callard died April 19, 1860. His wife still survives him. She lives with her son, William Henry, to whom his father left his farm.

George S. died Oct. 6, 1861 ; William H. was mar- ried Nov. 28, 1860, to Miss Sarah E. Hodge, of Bound Brook, N. J. Miss Hodge was born Sept. 9, 1835.

The children of this marriage were Harriet E., born March 7, 1862; George S., Feb. 24, 1864; Lillie, July 25, 1866; William H., Dec. 29, 1868; Ella Adelia, Jan. 3, 1872; De Witt, June 14, 1874; Mary Eugenia, April 17, 1877. Harriet was married to Mr. Harry Copperthwaithe, of New York, by the Rev. J. W. Sarles, in the Baptist Church at Stelton, Oct. 27, 1880.

Mr. Callard has added to the homestead, so that the farm is much larger than when it came into his pos- session. Mr. Callard's residence is situated ou the north bank of the Raritan River, with a fine view of the river.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

He has terra-cotta clay of a superior quality and a large quantity of the best fire-sand on his farm.

Banks have recently been opened, from which terra- cotta clay and fire-sand are shipped. He rents the clay banks and conducts his farm himself.

CHAPTER CVI.

SAYREVILLE.1

Situation and Boundaries .- Sayreville is situ- ated in the eastern portion of Middlesex County, a little north of the centre, and is the last civil deriva- tion to date from the township of South Amboy. It is very irregular in form, and is bounded as follows : North by Raritan, Woodbridge, and South Amboy, east by Raritan Bay and Madison, south by Madi- son, and west by East Brunswick. Its area is twelve hundred and forty acres. The population in 1880 was about nineteen hundred.

Natural Features .- South River flows along the entire western border of Sayreville, and Raritan River and Bay wash its northern boundary. Chees- quake Creek flows along the east side to its junction with Raritan Bay. Deep Run, near its mouth, crosses the extreme southern point of the township, and Ten- ant's Creek crosses a little farther north. Along the northern, eastern, and western sides are several small streams tributary to Raritan River and Bay, Chees- quake Creek, and South River.

The surface is mostly low and level, though very slightly rolling in the portion adjacent to Madison. Much of it is covered with a sparse growth of timber, such varieties being represented as are indigenous to the soil of Middlesex County bordering the rivers, oak and cedar predominating.

The soil is sandy, and abounds in an excellent quality of clay, much of which has been shipped to various parts of the country, some of it having been early employed in the manufacture of delftware in Jersey City, and in the fabrication of china at Tren- ton and Philadelphia, large quantities now being used within the township in the manufacture of common and fire-brick.

The old Camden and Amboy Railroad traverses the township in a nearly north-and-south course, the nearest stations being at South Amboy and Old Bridge, in South Amboy and East Brunswick town- ships respectively. The principal highways crossing Sayreville are the roads from South Amboy to Wash- ington, and from South Amboy to Old Bridge, the latter dividing Sayreville and Madison for some dis- tance.

In 1880 the taxable valuation of real and personal property in this township was $287,000. The amount of real estate was $232,000; the amount of personal

property, $82,000. The polls numbered 314. The rate of taxation for specified purposes was as follows: State, .20 per $100; county, .60 per $100 ; poor, .38 per $100; ways and means, .10 per $100; roads, .22 per $100; schools, $1.50 and $1.90 per $100, in different districts. The amount of tax ordered to be raised was $5589.72. The expenditures during the year closed at date of statement were as follows: For State purposes, $551; for county purposes, $1678 ; for schools, $474.64; for the poor, $1200; for ways and means, $300 ; for roads, $700.

As an agricultural township Sayreville does not take high rank, most of its surface being either cov- ered with timber or devoted to the clay and sand trade and brick manufacture. The extreme western portion is rendered an island, and to a degree isolated from the remainder of the township, by the old Wash- ington ship canal connecting South River and the Raritan.

Settlement .- Land in Sayreville township adjoin- ing the South and Raritan Rivers was taken up as early as 1683 to 1686 (the date of John Reid's map of the Raritan River and the regions north and south of it) by the following-named persons : G. L. (probably G. Lawry, an extensive land-owner in the vicinity), 850 acres, including 550 acres embraced in the " Roundabout Meadows," bounded east and north by the South and Raritan Rivers respectively at their confluence ; P. Sonman's two lots of 200 and 300 acres respectively ; T. Rudyard, 300 acres; A. Galloway and W. Gerard, 300 acres ; Thomas Robison, 300 acres. These allotments were narrow lots extending north and south and bordering on the Raritan. Farther east several other lots were laid out which had not been taken up at the time Reid's survey was made. At a point which must have been nearly opposite the borough or town of Washington, East Brunswick, D. Violent and G. Gordon had taken up two long and narrow lots, extending east from the South River, containing 100 and 150 acres respectively. Portions of two tracts of 300 acres and 200 acres each, also then the property of "G. L.," and of a tract of 600 acres indicated on the map as belonging to R. Town- ley, and three tracts of 100, 150, and 180 acres each, designated as the property of "I. L.," "W. L.," and "N. L." respectively, were undoubtedly within the present boundaries of Sayreville.

None of these land-owners were ever residents of the township, and none of their descendants are known to have since lived within its borders. Doubt- less the land was bought cheaply, as large tracts of land have been bought in all new countries, with the idea that money would be made upon their probable subsequent increase in value. Their commercial value, as now estimated, was probably not considered, for the basis upon which it is computed must have been then undreamed of. A knowledge of the avail- ability to manufacturing purposes of the extensive beds of sand and fire-clay with which these lands

1 By M. O. Rolfe.

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SAYREVILLE.

abound is referred to. Or, if the character of the soil was known, it is improbable that at that remote date the purchasers had any prophetic advice of the immense demand for these materials which has been developed by a subsequent growth of interests of which they must have had no conception at that time.

It is probable that settlement began in Sayreville as early as 1770, and it is possible some one may have located there prior to that time. After it had begun it was slow, and until the brick and clay industries brought numerous laboring men within its borders the township was sparsely inhabited. There was no town of any size near it that was not isolated by water. The land was low and sandy, and not well adapted to agriculture. Surely there was little to attract the pioneers.

It is believed that not far from the date above mentioned Elijah Disbrow made an opening in the forest about midway between the site of the present Sayreville and Washington bridge and the locality of the Burt's Creek settlement. He had two sons, An- drew and Stacy, who inherited their father's prop- erty and lived and died there. Both married. The wife of Stacy was a Miss Applegate, who survives him, aged about ninety-five. The children of Stacy Disbrow were named Gamaliel, William, Elijah, Henrietta, Maria, Sarah, Margaret, and Eliza.

Roundabout Landing, as a landing on the project- ing point of land between South River and the Rari- tan has come to be known, was the place selected by Ebenezer Price for his future liome. He was one of the earliest settlers in the township, and his house stood within the present boundaries of Wood's brick- yard. It was built there considerably earlier than 1800, and its builder has been dead many years. Many of his descendants are living in Middlesex County and elsewhere. Xerxes, Ebenezer, and Ma- ria were the names of his children.

Xerxes Price married Nancy, daughter of Francis Letts, and located on land near his father. His children were George, John, and a daughter who be- came the wife of Capt. Isaac Fauratt; George mar- ried and removed to New Brunswick, where he is yet living; John went to the West.

On a portion of the Morgan estate, near the mouth of Cheesquake Creek, the father of Gen. James Mor- gan was a very early resident. Some of his descend- ants are well-known citizens of South Amboy.

For some time Xerxes Price was engaged in the manufacture of pottery in Sayreville township, and he was well known to the business men of the vicin- ity during his active career. His death was a sad one, and his suicide by hanging was for many years the topic of occasional conversations among his ac- quaintances.

Ebenezer Price married and, living near his father, reared a family, two of whom, Abial and Abraham, are residents of Washington; East Brunswick. The former married a daughter of Henry Smith, a promi-

nent hotel-keeper of New Brunswick, the latter a Miss Connet.

The daughter, Maria, married Henry French, who built a tavern at Roundabout at an early date, and kept it until about 1820, selling it to a mau named Brookfield, who sold it and the land about it to James Wood in 1851. Since then it has been at times occu- pied as a tenement-house, but is now in an advanced stage of dilapidation. This hostelry was for years a favorite resort of the watermen who stopped at Round- about Landing, and Mrs. French, who is said to have been a woman more than ordinarily prepossessing in appearance and nncommonly attractive in her manners and conversation, was known far and near by the appellation of the " handsome landlady."

The pioneer on the south side of the road at the end of the bridge between Sayreville and Washington was Christopher Van Deventer, who purchased a good-sized farm there and took up his residence on it at an early day. His family was large and became well known and respected. The names of the sons were Isaac, Peter, Abraham, John, Jacob, and Zenas.

Isaac Van Deventer married into the Ackerman family, was a sloop-owner and captain and a farmer, and lived in East Brunswick. His sons were Abra- ham, Garline, and Charles. Abraham married, and for a time lived on a portion of his father's property, but subsequently removed from the township. Gar- line is living on the homestead. Charles lives in East Brunswick. Isaac also had three daughters. Of these, Jane married Samuel Martin, of Piscataway.

Peter Van Deventer also came into possession of part ot his father's original farm, and lived on it until his death. His family was large. Three of his sons were named Freeland, Peter, and Dean, the latter receiving as a Christian name the surname of his mother's family.

Another of the sons of Christopher Van Deventer who inherited a portion of his land was Abraham, who lived upon the property and reared a family, of which Warren, Watson, and others were members. John Van Deventer never married. He died while en voyage by water from Philadelphia, about twenty years ago. Jacob Van Deventer married a daughter of David Provost, and took up his residence in Madi- son. Two sons of his were named Jacob and Zenas.

Zenas Van Deventer, son of Christopher, espoused Julia Ann Martin, daughter of Samuel Martin. Both he and his wife are dead, leaving no issne. Tina Van Deventer, Christopher's daughter, married twice, the last time James Ivins, and lived for a while on the old Taylor place, opposite the Van Deventer home- stead. At his death Christopher Van Deventer owned considerable land, which was divided among his children. Most of his sons bought more, and the family became known as quite extensive land-owners. The old homestead was sold by Abraham to Henry F. Worthington, who for some years carried on an extensive brick manufactory there.

854

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

An early owner of the Taylor farm, on the opposite side of the road from the Van Deventer place, was Robert Montgomery, a wealthy gentleman of Allen- town, N. J., who was a non-resident in Sayreville, and probably acquired the property in some business transaction with a former owner. Later it came into the possession of Joseph M. Taylor, who sold a part of it to Robert L. Serviss and John Tuttle about 1853. The latter replaced the old house by a new one of more modern architecture, turning the land into a brick-yard. Subsequently the house was removed to another portion of the farm. Some years ago this brick-yard was sold to William Fisher, who now oc- cupies the honse. The other portion of the original farm is now the residence of a married danghter of Peter Fisher.

Near the Elijah Disbrow farm, about half-way from the Sayreville and Washington bridge to Burt's Creek, Francis Letts was an early resident, and it is not im- probable that his father was there before him. He married Polly Van Deventer, and their children were Isaac and Nancy Letts, who married a Miss Hoffman and Xerxes Price respectively. Isaac succeeded to the farm of his father, and had a numerous family.

Benjamin Peterson, a native of New Egypt, N. J., settled in Sayreville in 1810, and purchased a tract of land and engaged in farming, remaining there until his death in 1840. He had seven sons and six daughters. The brothers, with two exceptions, were watermen, and died quite young. One of the daugh- ters died in infancy. The others lived to a ripe old age. James Peterson, son of Benjamin, is an aged and respected resident of Washington, in East Bruns- wick.

Who was the first settler in Sayreville of the name of James is not now ascertainable. Thomas James, a native of the soil, was living two miles from South Amboy, on the road to Washington, early in the pres- ent century. Lawrence and Gamaliel were his sons. Lawrence died unmarried; Gamaliel married and had a family of children, some of whom are among the residents of South Amboy.

On the road which was afterwards converted into the Bordentown turnpike, three miles from South Amboy, James Applegate was living eighty years ago. His sons were James and Lewis. James owned and kept a tavern on what is now known as the "Poor- house Farm," which later became the property of South Amboy township. This tavern was a stop- ping-place for stages in the days when staging was brisk, and was a fairly-conditioned and kept wayside inn. James Applegate, the landlord, died there abont fifty years ago. He had sons named James and Wil- liam Applegate.

A property at Burt's Creek was early owned by two brothers named Bennett and resident upon Long Island, but was bought by other parties who operated clay banks upon it. Another property in the same neighborhood was purchased fifty or sixty years ago

by Perrine & Everett. Perrine sold his interest to Samuel Gordon, and Gordon & Everett sold the prop- erty to Samuel Whitehead, from whom it passed to members of the Brick family. In 1806, Thomas Roberts was living at Burt's Creek, and owned a little land there. Isaac Roberts, a son of his, is a resident of South Amboy.

Organization .- Sayreville township was created and its boundaries defined by an act of the Legislature passed April 6, 1876. The act provided that the first town-meeting of the inhabitants of Sayreville should be held at the school-house in School District No. 37 of Middlesex County on the second Monday in April following. The town committees of the town- ships of South Amboy and Sayreville were directed to meet May Ist next at the inn of Mrs. Clark in South Amboy, to allot and divide between the said townships all property or moneys on hand or due in proportion to the taxable property and ratables as valued and assessed by assessors within the respective limits of the two townships at the last preceding as- sessment, and it was provided that the inhabitants of Sayreville should pay their just proportion of any debt against the mother-town at the time of its division, and that the panpers dependent on the two townships should be divided in accordance with the law then in force determining the legal settlement of the poor.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 205

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