USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the early settlement and progress of Cumberland County, New Jersey and of the currency of this and the adjoining colonies. > Part 5
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Before the Revolution very few covered carriages were in use. Travelling by men was almost exclusively on horseback, the women riding on side-saddles, and frequently behind their male friends on pillions. Sleighs and sleds were used in winter, before carriages were common. Philip Fithian, whose journal has been referred to, travelled to Virginia on horseback in 1773, crossing the ferry from Elsinborough to Port Penn, Delaware, which was then much in use, but has been long discontinued. Dr. Jonathan Elmer travelled the
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BRIDGETON.
same route to take his seat in Congress at Baltimore, in November, 1776, returning in February by way of Philadelphia, not being then able to cross the river lower down in consequence of the ice. A memorandum of his expenses still remains, from which the following items are extracted :-
1776.
Dec. 27, Paid J. Housman, 12s. 6d.
Dec. 29, at Rogers',
6s. Od.
at Port Penn,
3 3 at Bushtown, 2 6
at Aiken's,
3
0
at Buck's, 9
28, at Boid's, 6
6
at Rush's, (Balt.), 1 9
at Charlestown, 6
6
at Stevenson's, . 1
9
1777.
Feb. 15, for keeping horse
in the country five weeks, £1 17s. 6d.
17, Rodger's ferry, 12
at Stevenson's,
1
6
at Cooper's ferry, 3
at Bird's, 3
2
at Haddonfield, 3
6
" 18, at Newport,
6 3
at Pine Tavern, 2
6
at Wilmington, 4 3
Dec. 18 at Marcus Hook, " 20, at Indian Queen, (Phila. ) 10
3s. 9d.
at Sally Westcott's, 2
6
0
at Eldridge's, 4 5
0 at Christeen, 5
The Charlestown above mentioned was in Cecil County, Mary- land; Rodger's ferry was over the Susquehanna ; Eldridge's is be- lieved to be the old death of the Fox Tavern in Gloucester County, near where Clarksboro' now is. The currency was the proclama- tion money at seven and sixpence the dollar.
Another memorandum details the expenses of a horseback journey from Bridgeton to Morristown, the head-quarters of the American army, which he visited as one of the committee of Congress on Hospitals. It commenced March 12, 1777, the first item being at Champney's 2s. This was at the Pole Tavern, then kept by the Widow Champney, mother of Dr. Champney; then comes Pine Tavern and Eldridge's; 13th was spent in Philadel- phia ; 14th and 15th visit to Haddonfield, where some of our troops then were; 16th to Burlington; 17th at Rocky Hill (near Prince- ton), 18th at Col. Potter's quarters (he then had the command of a regiment of militia); 20th and 21st at Baskenridge and Morris- town, 22d to Trenton, and then to Philadelphia, which he left on the 31st, and home by Eldridge's, Pine Tavern, and Widow Champ- ney's. The total expense of the trip was £7 10s., or nearly $20. In April it is noted, paid Tybout for a hat (no doubt a beaver)
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BRIDGETON.
£3 5s., or $8.66. Such a hat of good quality lasted on careful heads five or six, and even ten years.
The land titles in Bridgeton are held under four different sur- veys. A tract called the eleven thousand acre survey was located for the West Jersey Society in 1686, but was not then recorded. In 1716 this tract was resurveyed. It begins at a pine tree on the northeast side of the Cohansey, about two miles below the bridge ; runs from thence east about two miles; then north, then west to the Cohansey, some two miles above the bridge, and then down the river to the beginning. Jeremiah Basse was for some time the agent of this Society, and seems to have had, or claimed to have, some right to the property; but the right of his heirs and devisees was released to Alexander Moore, including the old Hancock mill and adjoining property.
One of the London proprietors of West Jersey was named John Bridges. The Rev. Thomas Bridges graduated at Harvard in 1675, then went to England, and returned in 1682 with testimo- nials from Owen and other eminent dissenting ministers. He was for a time a merchant, but after he became a preacher went to the West Indies. He was probably a son or near relative of John Bridges. He came to Cohansey, and preached in the old Fairfield church. In 1697 Thomas Revel made a deed to him reciting, " Whereas the Honorable West Jersey Society in England have, upon the consideration mentioned in their letter to Thomas Bridges, dated July 19, 1692, therein and thereby given, or pro- posed to give, to the said Thomas Bridges, in fee forever, 1000 acres of land of and belonging to the said Society within the said province of West Jersey, in what situation he should please to take up the same," and that said Revel being seized of 4000 acres by virtue of a deed from Jeremiah Basse, agent of said Society, he therefore conveys to him 1000 acres. By virtue of this deed a survey was at the same date made by Joshua Barkstead for Bridges, beginning at a pine tree standing on the north side of Mill Creek, about half way between the saw-mill and then going over across the run to the Indian Fields (which was a little above the present road to Milville); thence north 336 perches to a corner tree. The side lines run east and west, and the tract was surveyed for 1050 acres, of which 50 acres were for one Collett, to be held in common with Bridges, and he to have a proportional share of the Indian Fields. This tract was afterwards known as the Indian
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BRIDGETON.
Fields tract, and was the first settled in the neighborhood, the titles being held under Bridges. The beginning corner was back of the Commerce Street Methodist meeting-house, the only part of the north line now marked being the fence between the graveyard and the parsonage lot, and it runs thence so as to strike the house fronting Bank Street, west of the railroad, and thence (it is sup- posed) to the tree so well known as the umbrella or sunset tree. Col. Ephraim Seeley for many years owned the land east of this line, up to Irving Street; he devised it to his son Ephraim, from whom it descended to his children. Upon the division of the latter property in 1800, this line, which in 1697 was run due north, was run N. 43 W .; and in 1848 it was run N. 2} W., thus showing the variation of the compass, as practically used, between those dates. Bridges had also a survey made for him on the Cohansey, bounding on Fuller Creek, since called Rocap's Run. This survey calls also for the line of the township of Pamphylia. Such a town- ship was never formed, but it is probable there was a fulling-mill on the run, such a mill being almost as indispensable for the new settlement as a saw mill.
Bridges' Indian Field tract appears to have been subdivided for him into tracts of fifty acres, which he sold out as purchasers and settlers offered. One William Dare, described as of Cohansey, in the county of Salem, who probably came into this region with the Fairfield people, had located a tract of 100 acres of cedar swamp on Lebanon, as early as March, 1695-6. About 1700 he became the owner of two fifty acre tracts, as set off by Bridges, comprising a part of the farm northeast of Elmer's mill-pond, recently occu- pied by David Dare, one of his lineal descendants, who died April, 1863. About 1753 William Dare, son of the William first above named, and Col. Ephraim Seeley, purchased of the agent of the West Jersey Society several hundred acres lying south of Bridge's tract, and east of the tract sold to Moore. Most of the Indian Field set- tlers, who were the first in the eastern part of Bridgeton, were from Fairfield. Among them, besides Dare, were Riley and Loomis- or Lummis, as the name has been since written-and Hood. Hobert Hood's tract was a part of the Society land, purchased by him at an early date.
In 1752 Alexander Moore, of Cohansey Bridge, purchased of the agents of the West Jersey Society 990 acres, part of their 11,000 acre tract. This purchase begins on the Cohansey, a little
49
BRIDGETON.
above Pamphylia Spring, and runs several courses to Bridges' Indian Fields tract, striking it a little east of the beginning corner, thence along said tract, and several courses north of it to the Cohansey, something more than a mile above the town. By means of this deed, and of a release from one Pigeon, a claimant under Basse, of the tract connected with the Hancock mill, he became the owner of all that part of East Bridgeton lying west of Bridges' line. That line was probably so run in consequence of the mill tract being held by Hancock. Moore was of Irish de- scent, and was the first person who transacted much business at Cohansey Bridge. His grandson, the late Judge John Moore White, thought he came here about 1730, and married into the Reeve family. He accumulated a very handsome estate, built himself a good house near his store, on the north side of Commerce Street, near the corner of Water, in which a tavern was kept for many years after his death, and which was removed to make room for the present brick building about 1830. He died at a good old age in 1786, on the farm now attached to the poor-house, where he, and his son after him, had an establishment known as Moore Hall. At his death there was a protracted lawsuit about the pro- bate of his will. It appears by the depositions on file, that he had been paid by several of his debtors in depreciated continental money, when it was a legal tender, and he used to carry about him, and very frequently show to others, what he called his rogues' list of these debtors. The will, however, was confirmed. He devised his Bridgeton and much other property to his three grandsons, the three children of his daughter, a beautiful woman, who mar- ried an Englishman, a merchant in Philadelphia, named John White, who, during the Revolutionary War, was aid to Gen. Sulli- van, and was killed in the attack on Chew's house in Germantown. Mrs. White died in 1770, leaving an infant, and lies buried with her father and mother in the graveyard at Greenwich. John Moore White, her youngest child, became of age in 1791, just pre- vious to which time the land, except that in Bridgeton, was divided between the three brothers, by order of the Orphans' Court. In the course of a few years the two elder brothers, Alexander and William, died without issue, so that the Bridgeton property be- came vested in John. All of the tract within the limits of the town, lying south of Commerce Street, appears to have been sold by Alexander Moore in his lifetime, or released to persons who
50
BRIDGETON.
claimed it; but all the land north of that street became the pro- perty of John Moore White, who commenced selling lots in 1792, and in 1810 conveyed all the unsold residue to William Potter and Jeremiah Buck.
The titles west of the Cohansey, are held under three different surveys. The first was made for Robert Hutchinson, May 27th, 1786, for 950 acres. The north line of this tract cornered at a white oak on the Cohansey, marked H, standing in the hollow near the river, above the place of going over to Richard Hancock's mill. Above this was a survey made for Cornelius Mason, in 1689, for 5000 acres. As originally described it began at the bound tree of Robert Hutchinson, standing in a valley by the west-northwest side of the north branch of the river Cohanzick, thence up the river, to a white oak tree standing upon a hill near the branch in an Indian old field, thence W. N. W. 800 perches. Mason, who was a London trader, called this tract " Winchcomb manor," after a manor of that name he owned in England. The original survey was taken to England and never recorded until 1764. The farm lying above Muddy Branch, as the stream, now a pond, just above the iron works was formerly called, appears to have been partially cleared by the Indians, who had a burial place on it, since called Coffin Point. As early as 1697 one John Garrison settled and built a house on it, and about 1715 built a house of cedar logs, near the bridge, in which Benjamin Seeley lived. About 1734 Silas Parvin purchased the land of Garrison south of Muddy Branch, and in 1741 that lying north of the branch. But Parvin's right to the property was disputed by Mason, and about 1741 suits were commenced which were in some way compromised. After this the persons claiming to be Mason's heirs conveyed the whole tract to Israel Pemberton, a friend, residing in Philadelphia, and he commenced suits. In the progress of the controversy the land was resurveyed, and a jury of view settled the corner to be twenty perches south of the bridge, where it has been ever since held to be. The south line runs thence through at the middle of Oak Street, and a little south of the academy. It was supposed for a time that the Hutchinson survey cornered at the same place, and Cotting took a conveyance for a considerable tract under that title in 1739. It was, however, ascertained that the true corner of the Hutchinson survey was at the place formerly called the shipyard, now the lumber yard of Messrs. Mulford. This left a considerable
4
51
BRIDGETON.
tract of land between the two surveys unclaimed, which Ebenezer Miller, a deputy surveyor, residing in Greenwich, and a Friend, in 1749 covered with a survey containing 427 acres, under whom the titles of the land, from Oak Street on the north to a consider- able distance south of Vine Street are held.
Silas Parvin laid a survey of 20 acres on the land where his house stood; and dying in 1779, his son Clarence remained in possession of the house, and set up a claim to all the land between Muddy Branch and the Mason line, a part of which he transferred to Dr. Jonathan Elmer. During the war of the Revolution, Pember- ton, being ranked as a Tory, took no steps to vindicate his title ; but in 1783 he commenced an ejectment against Parvin, which does not appear to have been tried. In 1788 Parvin died insol- vent, and shortly afterwards Parvin died; and his heir proving insolvent, his property was sold by the sheriff, and purchased by Jonathan Bowen, who released to Dr. Elmer the part lying west of Franklin Street, and these persons, or those claiming under them, have ever since been in possession of the property, now of great value. It is probable that the Parvin title was also sold by the sheriff, but no deed is on record, or now known to exist. Jonathan Bowen conveyed a part of the property, including the old Parvin house, to his son Smith in 1790, and, dying in 1804, devised the remainder retained by him, including the sites of the iron works and grist-mill, to his said son and to his grandchildren.
It is probable that Ebenezer Miller laid out Broad Street its present width of 100 feet, like the Main street of Greenwich, but there is no record of either. No law having for a long time existed authorizing streets so wide, the overseers declined to keep them in order, and hence a section was inserted in the general road act, declaring these two streets to be lawful highways. Com- merce Street, above Franklin, was not opened until about 1805, when Dr. Elmer opened it. Since, it has been regularly laid out. An old plan, which was never carried out, proposed to lay out that part of the town west of the river into regular squares.
The first notice of a stage to Philadelphia that has been disco- vered, occurs in the journal of Mr. Fithian, April 22, 1774 ; he re- cords: "Rode to the stage early for the papers." His father, at whose house he was then on a visit, lived in Greenwich, near to Sheppard's mill. It is supposed the stage stopped at Roadstown. May 2, he records : "Very early I rode over to Mr. Hollinshead's
52
BRIDGETON.
(he was the minister at New England Town, and then lived on the parsonage in Sayre's Neck) at Miss Pratt's request, to carry her to Mr. Hoshel's, to be ready to-morrow morning for the stage. Dined at Mrs. Boyd's (Bridgeton), and after dinner we rode to Mr. Hoshel's. 3d, I conducted Miss Pratt to the stage this morning by 5 o'clock."
A letter from Martha Boyd, afterwards Mrs. Ewing, to her mother, dated Allentown, March 16, 1778, says: "We left Mr. Hoshel's at 12 o'clock night; we had eight passengers, middling clever, and arrived at Cooper's ferry at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The next morning at nine o'clock, set sail in the stage boat for Bordentown where we arrived at noon."
Mr. Hoshel lived in Upper Hopewell, not far from the Salem County line, and probably kept a tavern, and was the proprietor of the stage. During or not long after the Revolution, this or some other stage line was started from Bridgeton, making two trips a week, at first by the way of Roadstown, but afterwards one trip on that route, and one by the way of Deerfield ; and so it continued to go until about the year 1806, when it went up one day and down the next. In 1809, when Mr. White's house was changed to a hotel, a stage was started from there to run up and down on the alternate days, and to go through in a shorter time .- The two lines were afterwards consolidated, and there has always since been, until the opening of the railway, a daily stage both ways between this place and Philadelphia. For many years the time for starting was at sunrise.
Until after the establishment of the federal government, all the correspondence in this part of the State had to depend upon private conveyances. There was indeed before this time no post-route in New Jersey, except the main road between Philadelphia and New York. In 1792, while Jonathan Elmer was senator, a post-route was established from Philadelphia to Salem, and thence to Bridge- town. Between the latter places the mail was carried once a week, on horseback or in a sulky, for ten years, the post-office being kept by John Soulard, at his house on Broad, near the corner of Fayette Street. In 1802, after Ebenezer Elmer became a member of Congress, a mail-route was established from Woodbury to Bridgeton, Millville, Port Elizabeth and Cape May. The first carriers, beginning in 1804, were Benaiah Parvin and son, who kept a tavern in the old mansion house of Alexander Moore. James Burch, who built and owned the house opposite, now James
53
BRIDGETON.
B. Potter's, was the postmaster; and it is remembered that the letters were kept in the front parlor and handed from the window, then so high above the walk as to be barely reached by the raised hand. The mail was carried on Monday by way of Roadstown, and re- turned on Wednesday by the same route. On Thursday it was carried by way of Deerfield, returning on Saturday the same way. A daily mail commenced about 1816. The postmaster who suc- ceeded James Burch was Abijah Harris, who lived nearly opposite. After him, Stephen Lupton kept the office in his shoemaker shop, on the north side of Washington Street, about half way between Laurel and Pearl. About 1818 he resigned, and was succeeded by Curtis Ogden, who held the office longer than any other incumbent, keeping it in his tailor shop, south side of Commerce Street, about where Brewster's store now is. Jeremiah Lupton superseded him in 1842, then Daniel B. Thompson from 1845 to 1850, then S. P. Kirkbride until 1854, then Henry Sheppard until 1861, when Geo. W. Johnson, the present incumbent, was appointed.
A steamboat company was incorporated in 1845, and a fine steamboat, called the Cohansey, ran regularly to Philadelphia; but the length of the water route, about 80 miles, made it difficult for a day boat to compete with the route by way of Salem, partly by stage and partly by boat, and with the regular daily stages, and it was soon found that the enterprise must be abandoned. The boat was therefore sold, and after running a year or two by private parties, was withdrawn. A night boat, which ran for two or three years recently, was more successful.
The West Jersey Railroad Company was incorporated in 1853, and contemplated a road from Camden to Cape May; but owing to financial and other difficulties, it was at first completed and put in operation only to Woodbury. But in 1859 the road from Glass- boro' to Millville was made, and the impetus thus given to the original West Jersey Company, brought about the completion of their road from Woodbury to Bridgeton, which was opened in July, 1861. The terminus of this road, it is supposed, will always remain at Bridgeton, and the original design of connecting Phila- delphia with Cape May will be carried out by extending the road to the latter place from Millville, now nearly complete.
A gas company was incorporated, and succeeded in completing the present works in November, 1858. Soon after this, the town- ship committees of the townships of Bridgeton and Cohansey were
5
54
BRIDGETON.
constituted a joint board, with power to raise money by tax for lighting the streets, which is now done, and also with power to grade and regulate the streets. A grade has accordingly been adopted, in accordance with which Commerce Street, west of the bridge, and other streets in Cohansey were graded in 1861, at an expense which has been much complained of, as was the first attempt at this kind of improvement, made by Dr. Buck, a quarter of a cen- tury sooner.
In the year 1814 Messrs. James Lee, then of Port Elizabeth, and Ebenezer Seeley, of Bridgeton, who had purchased from Abraham Sayre, Esq., the land lying on the east side of the main stream of the Cohansey, joined with Smith Bowen, who owned the property on the west side of the stream, in erecting the dam, thus forming the water power still in use. Bowen sold his half of the water power to Benjamin Reeves and David Reeves of Camden, who commenced the erection of the iron works the same year, and commenced making nails in 1815. They were cut for many years of the best Swedish iron, across the grain of the metal. The writer remembers to have seen, in the year 1805, the first machine for cutting and heading nails at one operation ever invented. It was on Crosswicks Creek, in Burlington County, and was compara- tively very complicated. The patent having been obtained by the Messrs. Reeves, was soon very much simplified.
At first the nails sold for from 10 to 15 cents per pound, now they sell for 3} cents. Very soon the Cumberland nails obtained a preference in the market, which has never been lost. In 1824 a fire having consumed the building first erected, the works were rebuilt and enlarged and the whole establishment greatly im- proved. Seeley and Lee not having the capital to use their half of the water power to advantage, were obliged to reconvey it to Mr. Sayre. He erected a flour mill on the east side opposite Coffin Point, which was used as a grist-mill for a few years, but on his death in 1820 the mill and water power were purchased by Messrs. Reeves, who then became the owners of the whole water power. The grist-mill was taken down and removed to the works on the west side, where after a few years it was burned up.
. The rolling-mill operated by steam on the east side of the creek was erected in 1847 and in 1853 the building used for manufac- turing gas pipe was put up. About the year 1843 a great change was made in the mode of cutting the nails, by means of which a
55
BRIDGETON.
much superior nail can be made from inferior iron. The iron is rolled in sheets 12 or 15 inches wide, which are then slit into strips of a width, corresponding with the length of the nail to be pro- duced. Then the nails are cut lengthwise of the grain of the metal instead of crosswise as before. This establishment has always been well conducted and has been one of the principal means of advancing the growth and prosperity of the town. When in full operation about 400 hands are employed, mostly heads of families, who have been profitably employed, and have contributed in their turn to the business of other mechanics and traders. There are twenty furnaces, two trains of rolls and 102 nail machines, the annual product, in favorable years, being 100,000 kegs of nails and 1,500,000 feet of gas pipe.
Benjamin Reeves, one of the original founders, died in 1844. Other partners have been from time to time admitted. In 1856 the concern became an incorporated company, by the name of the Cumberland Nail and Iron Works, and is under the management of Robert C. Nichols, Esq. The value of its real estate, as assessed, is 266,000 dollars; the capital of the company being 350,000 dollars.
About the year 1818 Benjamin Reeves conveyed to the late Daniel P. Stratton the undivided half part of a lot of land, where the grist-mill stands, and half a sufficient quantity of water to drive a first class merchant flour-mill, it being the intention that Mr. Stratton and Mr. David Reeves should erect the mill together as joint owners. But doubts soon arose whether water power for such a purpose could be safely spared, without endangering the iron works, and Mr. Reeves declined to build the mill. Mr. Stratton then applied for a division of the lot, and one half being set off to him, he proceeded to erect the existing flour mill in 1822. The quantity of water he had a right to use was adjusted by an arbi- tration.
As the business of the iron works was from time to time increased, and as the quantity of water furnished by the seven distinct streams entering into and forming Cohansey River, dimi- nished, it was found that the water power sometimes failed. To remedy this it was at first proposed to increase the power by putting a dam across the river where the bridge now is that con- nects the works; and for this purpose an act of the legislature was obtained in 1839. But before this purpose was carried into
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