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 6
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effect, the plan was devised of heating the boilers necessary to drive a powerful steam engine, by means of the same fires that heat the iron, which fully succeeded, so that the dam was never erected, and after a time the rolling of iron at the works on the west side, which required so great a supply of water, was aban- doned.
About the year 1825 those persons in the town who kept a horse were so much annoyed by applications to lend or hire him, that a livery stable was started by a joint stock company, and so carried on five or six years, until like most concerns of the kind it was found unprofitable and the stock was sold at a loss of more than half the original capital. This start, however, effected the object, one or more livery stables, kept by different individuals, have been continued ever since. For several years past the busi- ness has been rather overdone, there being now four.
The glass works were established in 1836 by the firm of Stratton, Buck & Co. After the death of Mr. Buck, in 1841, the business was carried on by a joint stock company which did not succeed. For a time window glass was made. After passing through several hands it was enlarged, in 1855, and is now in successful operation, the yearly product being about $130,000.
It may be remarked that for about twenty years the firm of Stratton & Buck carried on the largest business that was done in the county. This firm and that of Bowie and Shannon from 1812 to 1836 in the stone store at the corner of Broad and Atlantic Streets, transacted a heavy retail business, and brought to the place customers from all the surrounding districts.
It is doubtful whether any newspapers were regularly received in Bridgeton until after 1775. In that year an association was formed, of which Ebenezer Elmer, then a student of medicine, was the Secretary, by the members of which weekly papers on various topics were written, and these being copied, were left at the tavern kept by Matthew Potter (believed to have been the house next east of the present Cohansey Hotel), to be there perused by such as chose. Among the writers of those papers were Dr. Jonathan Elmer, Joseph Bloomfield, Dr. Lewis Howell, and his brother Richard, afterwards Governor of the State.
Previous to this time, about 1773, a society existed, which generally met in Bridgeton, but of which several young persons residing in Greenwich, Fithians and Ewings, who were then dis-
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tinguished for intelligence, and for the beauty of some of the fe- males, were members, called the Admonishing Society. Commu- nications were made to this society in writing, anonymously, admonishing members of faults, and on other subjects, which were read at the meetings. If the members admonished thought it necessary, they were allowed to defend themselves, or replies might be made in writing. Of this society, Robert Patterson, from Ire- land, who then kept a store in Bridgeton, was a member. By way of enlivening the proceedings, he sent in written proposals for a wife, giving the requisite qualifications, which left one young lady, from whom, in her old age, this detail was received, who it was said had refused him, too young. Another lady, however, spor- tively answered the challenge, and what was thus begun in sport ended in marriage, and a long and happy union. The husband after studying medicine for a short time, and serving during the war for several years as an assistant surgeon in the army, and after settling for a short time on a farm at Carll Town in Hopewell Township, was in 1779 appointed Professor of Mathematics in the University of Philadelphia, and afterwards, by Mr. Jefferson, Director of the Mint. In 1819, he was chosen President of the American Philosophical Society, ending a long and honored career in 1824, at the age of 82. The writer well remembers him, having had the benefit of his instruction in mathematics and philosophy more than fifty years ago.
In 1794 James D. Westcott started a newspaper, which was called the Argus, and continued nearly two years. Afterwards his brother, John Westcott, tried another about 1803, but it did not succeed. In 1815 a political association, composed of Demo- crats, and called the Washington Whig Society, set up in opposi- tion to a Washington Benevolent Society formed by the Federalists, established a paper called the Washington Whig, published at first by Peter Hay, Esq., now an Alderman in Philadelphia, who was by profession a printer. It has been ever since continued, under different names and under the patronage of different parties. In 1817 Mr. Hay sold to Wm. Shultz, who in 1821 sold to John Clark, during whose time the paper supported the administration of John Q. Adams. Clark sold in 1826 to J. J. McChesney.
In 1822 S. Siegfried started a second paper, called The West Jersey Observer. In 1824 he sold out to Robert Johnston, and in
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1826 he purchased the Whig and consolidated them into one paper, called The Whig and Observer.
The Washington Whig was then revived, and after several changes, both being purchased by James M. Newell, he merged them in a new one, called The Bridgeton Chronicle, about 1837. He carried it on until his death in 1851, and different proprietors and editors have published it until the present time.
About 1846 another paper was started, called at first The . West Jersey Telegraph, but it was soon changed to The West Jersey Pioneer, by which name it is still published. This paper and the Chronicle for several years have been conducted as neutral in politics.
In 1862 Fayette Pierson, who was connected with the Wash- ington Whig in its early days, started the Aurora, now pub- lished as a democratic paper; so that there are three papers, where only one really good one can thrive, this being a case where, as in most of the towns of the State, too much competition has not tended to increase the value of the article produced.
As the early settlers of Bridgeton were mostly of Puritan lineage, there was always a disposition among them to encourage education. The first school of which any notice remains, was one kept by John Wescott in 1773, in which mathematics were taught. About the year 1792 Mark Miller, heir of Ebenezer Miller, deeded to trustees the lot on Giles Street for school purposes. In 1795 the Academy was erected on Bank Street, by a joint stock com- pany, and for many years a good classical school was taught in it. Rev. Andrew Hunter, father of the present Gen. Hunter, taught a classical school in the town about the years 1780 to 1785. The public school-house on Bank Street was first erected in 1847. The number of youths between the ages of 5 and 16 in the township of Bridgeton, was then 540. In 1851, the number between 5 and 18 was 637. In 1862 there were between the same ages 9:7. The public school-house in Cohansey Township was built in 1848. Number of youths that year, 241. In 1853 the number was 301. In 1862 the number between the ages of 5 and 18 was 407. The school in Bridgeton employs 8 teachers, all females but one, and that in Cohansey one male and two females.
The Presbyterian Academy was built in 1852-53, and first opened in 1854. It is an incorporated body, governed by trustees
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elected by the Presbytery of West Jersey. There is, besides, an excellent school for young ladies, conducted by Mrs. Sheppard.
Cumberland Bank was first chartered in 1816, and commenced business in September of that year, with a capital of 52,000 dollars ; James Giles, President, and Charles Read, Cashier. Giles died in 1816, and was succeeded by Daniel Elmer, and he having resigned in 1841, James B. Potter was appointed President. Mr. Read died in 1844, and was succeeded by the present Cashier, William G. Nixon. About 1857 the surplus earnings enabled the capital to be raised to 102,000 dollars, without the advance of any money by the stockholders; and so well has the institution been managed from the first, that it has always deserved and obtained the entire confidence of the community, and maintained its notes par with those of Philadelphia, often continuing to pay specie when the banks in the city could not. During the first fifteen years the deposits averaged about 20,000 dollars; then for the next fifteen they averaged about 30,000, while for the last fifteen they have averaged 50,000, often reaching 100,000 and 150,000 dollars. For the first thirty years there was a regular dividend of three per cent. half yearly, besides an extra dividend in 1844 of 24 per cent. Since that time 4, 43, and 5 per cent. have been divided semi-an- nually. The surplus earnings, besides the regular dividends, have amounted to about 86,000 dollars, of which near 25,000 remains unappropriated.
Until within the last twenty years there were but few foreigners in the place, and they were persons born in Ireland or Scotland, who came to America in their youth. One young German who deserted from a Hessian regiment is remembered, who married and raised a large family. A very considerable number of Germans came into the county before the Revolution, and settled in the upper part of Hopewell, and in the adjoining part of Salem County, some of whose descendants took up their residence in Bridgeton. Most of these, it is believed, were glassblowers, who were employed to blow glass at the works early erected not far east of Alloways- town, said to have been one of the first established in America. Among these settlers was Jacob Fries, whose two sons, Philip of Friesburg, and John of Philadelphia, became men of considerable wealth. The writer remembers to have heard that when Inde- pendence was declared by the American colonies, old Jacob Fries was much concerned as to the possibility of getting along without
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a king, and advised that one should be brought over from Ger- many. That country, it is certain, has a plenty of rulers to spare, such as they are, but judging from the experience of the Grecians, it is doubtful whether one could be found worth a trial. An excel- lent teacher, a preceptor of the writer in his youth, was quite as much impressed with the impracticability of a republican govern- ment as Mr. Fries, and predicted that the writer would live to see a king inaugurated. The race of these doubters, it would seem, it not yet extinct.
About 20 years ago a German butcher, named Christian Cook, came to this place from Salem, and still carries on the business. Since his arrival, the number of families from different parts of Germany has so increased, that it is quite a common thing to hear the language in the streets, and the total number of that nation is not less than four or five hundred. They are in general an indus- trious, frugal race, and adopting a different usage from that which so long prevailed in Pennsylvania, by encouraging their children to learn and use the American language, it is hoped they will be a valuable addition to the population.
Most of the original settlers in the region called Cohansey, were Baptist or Presbyterian from the New and Old England, and hap- pily their influence upon the religion and morals of the people was good, and is still apparent. Mr. Fithian enters in that journal, so frequently quoted, of the date June 26, 1776, while he was engaged in making a missionary tour up the Susquehanna River, in Penn- sylvania : "I met on the road a tinker, on the way to what is called the new purchase. He has been at Cohansey, knows many there, at Pittsgrove, Deerfield, and New England Town. He told me that he had been acquainted in seven colonies, but never yet saw any place in which the inhabitants were so sober, uniform in their manner, and every way religious, as at New England Town, and Mr. Ramsey was his favorite preacher." While in Maryland he mentions a collection having been taken up, and says, "There were 34 pieces of silver in cut money." His summing up of this tour is, " Wherever I have been their character is mean, dishonest, and irreligious. A Jerseyman, and an impertinent every way trouble- some scoundrel, seem to be words of nearly the same meaning." Under date of August 16, he writes: "I saw Mr. Farquar, a Scotch Presbyterian ; he pronounced one sentence from his observation which is a most solid truth, and which I will record, 'I have dis-
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covered since my arrival that there are no slaves in America. but the Presbyterian clergy.'" In April, 1774, on his visit to Green- wich, after he had spent some months in Virginia, he enters, " The morning pleasant and Cohansie looks as delightsome as it used to be, and I went to meeting. How unlike Virginia. No rings of beaux, chattering before and after sermon on gallantry; no assembling in crowds after service to drive a bargain, no cool spiritless harangue from the pulpit; minister and people here, seem in some small degree to reverence the day; there neither do it." In the suc- ceeding July, after his return, while residing as a tutor in the family of Mr. Carter, a wealthy gentleman, whose large mansion and possessions were on the west side of the Potomac in Westmore- land County, he enters : " A Sunday in Virginia don't seem to wear the same dress as our Sundays to the northward. Generally here by 5 o'clock on Saturday, every face, especially the negroes, looks festive and cheerful; all the lower class of people and the servants and slaves consider Sunday as a day of pleasure and amusement, and spend it in diversions. The gentlemen go to church to be sure, but they make that itself a matter of convenience, and account the church a weekly resort to do business."
Before dismissing this interesting journal, affording us so many glimpses of transactions in days long past, it may be interesting to make a few more extracts from it. His journey from home, on horseback, commenced October 20, 1773, when he left Greenwich by six, morning, rode to Michael Hoshel's, 8 miles, then to Quin- ton's Bridge, over toll bridge to Penn's Neck Ferry, then by North East to Baltimore. Then forded Patapsco to Bladensburgh, ferry at Georgetown, Alexandria, Colchester, ferry at Dumfries, Aquia, Stafford C. H., on the 28th arrived at Col. Carter's, Nomini Hall, Westmoreland, in all 260 miles, expense £3 6s. 6d. Returning next spring, he crossed the Potomac to Port Tobacco in Maryland, and then to Annapolis, and from there in a boat 25 miles to Rock- hall, then to Chester Town and to Georgetown, Delaware. "Lodged at Mr. Voorhees ; had evening prayers ; since I left Cohansie have not heard the like. By Port Penn and Elsenborough to Green- wich. Stopt to see the forsaken Mrs. Ward." Her husband, Dr. Ward, had recently died. She was a Holmes, afterwards married Dr. Bloomfield, of Woodbridge, father of Gov. Bloomfield, and upon his death came to Bridgeton, where she died, quite aged. " Many had died the past winter-a very mortal winter." May 4,
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" Last night fell a very considerable snow ; 5th, last night was very cold, ice two inches thick; 6th, still very cold, the leaves on the trees are grown black, the fruit must be past recovery." In Vir- ginia, he states, "the frost of May was very severe, killed the peaches, and in the upper counties the wheat and rye." May 11, " an ox killed to-day in Bridgeton which weighed upwards of 1000 lbs., supposed to be the largest ever killed in, the county."
The poor of Cumberland have for a long time been mostly sup- ported in a poor-house, situate about a mile and a half westwardly from Bridgeton. The question of having an establishment of this kind began to be agitated as early as 1799, but it was not until 1809 that Moore Hall and the property belonging to it was pur- chased. The present building was erected in 1852.
During the latter part of the last century it was quite common for persons in good circumstances to own one or two slaves, generally as house servants. Acts of the legislature passed as early as 1713 and from time to time until 1798 had sanctioned and regulated the owning and treatment of them. In 1804 an act was passed for the gradual abolition of slavery, which declared that those born after the 4th of July of that year should be held to service if a male until the age of 25 years, and if a female until the age of 21 years. After this some of those who were slaves for life, were manumitted. A few have remained nominally slaves until comparatively a recent period. The number in the county in 1790 was 120; in 1800 they had decreased to 75; in 1810 to 42; in 1820 to 28; in 1830 there were only two.
Very few newly-settled districts of country are healthy. The southern part of New Jersey was for many years an unhealthy region. Fever and ague were almost universal in the latter part of the summer and during the early part of the fall, generally dis- appearing after the nights became frosty. Until comparatively a recent period, scarcely a young person of either sex escaped the fever and ague. Every other day, and sometimes every third day, the person would be able to attend school or other avocation, but about the middle of the second or third day would be taken with a chill, which in the course of an hour or two would be fol- lowed by a hot fever. Often very violent intermittent or bilious fevers were epidemic. A healthy summer .or fall was the excep- tion and not the rule.
In a journal kept by Ephraim Harris, of Fairfield, who was born
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in 1732, and died in 1794, he enters: "That fatal and never to be forgotten year 1759, when the Lord sent the destroying angel to pass through this place, and removed many of our friends into eternity in a short space of time; not a house exempt, not a family spared from the calamity. So dreadful was it that it made every ear tingle, and every heart bleed; in which time I and my family was exercised with that dreadful disorder, the measles; but, blessed be God, our lives were spared." It is quite probable that the dis- order here called measles, was in fact the smallpox.
Mr. Fithian enters in his journal under the date of July 4, 1774, when he was in Virginia : "We have several showers to day ; the weather is warm, funky, very damp, and I fear will not turn out long to be healthful. With us in Jersey, wet weather about this time is generally thought, and I believe almost never fails being a forerunner of agues, fall fever, fluxes, and our horse dis- tempers." Under the date of August 9, 1775, when he was in Western Maryland, he enters: "News from below that many dis- orders, chiefly the flux (by which he means dysentery), are now raging in the lower counties, Chester, etc. I pray God Delaware may be a bar, and stop that painful and deadly disorder. Enough has it ravaged our poor Cohansians. Enough are we in Cohansey every autumn enfeebled and wasted with the ague and fever. Our children all grow pale, puny, and lifeless." The dysentery was very prevalent and fatal in Cumberland County in 1775, and again in 1806.
After the enlargement of the mill-pond east of Bridgeton, in 1809, and the raising of the new pond northward in 1814, inter- mittent and bilious fevers were common in Bridgeton for succes- sive years. In 1823 these diseases prevailed to a fearful extent; but after this, in the course of three or four years, they ceased to prevail either in the town or other parts of the county. This improvement has been ascribed to more perfect draining, and to the use of lime for agricultural purposes. But while it is proba- ble that these causes have had some effect, the change was too sudden, and has been too great to be ascribed mainly to them. Atmospheric, telluric, or other influences far more potent, must have occurred. What these are we do not know. The important fact, for which our people cannot be too thankful, is, that the pro- vidence of God has, for thirty years past, given us healthful seasons, instead of the sickness formerly so common. Our fall
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seasons are now as generally healthful as any other part of the year. In those years when the cholera was so fatal in many parts of the country, we were mostly exempt. Thirty years ago it could not be said with truth that Bridgeton was as healthy a place as most of the towns in the northern part of the State; but now this may be affirmed without fear of contradiction.
But little is known of the early physicians in Bridgeton or its vicinity. The first of whom there is any notice was Elijah Bowen, who, in 1738, was one of the founders of the church at Shiloh, and who had considerable practice afterwards in that vicinity. He was of the Baptist family, which settled and gave their name to Bowentown. After and partly contemporaneous with him was James Johnson from Connecticut, who was a practitioner as early as 1745, and appears to have resided near Bowentown, and died in 1759. It may be mentioned as characteristic of the habits of that time, that among the accounts of his executor are charges for wine for the use of the watchers, and of wine and rum for the funeral. After him was Dr. John Fithian, who in 1751 built the house on the south side of Broad Street, next above the residence of Charles E. Elmer, Esq. Dr. Jonathan Elmer commenced practice in 1768.1
1 Jonathan Elmer was son of Daniel Elmer second; was born in 1745, and died in 1817. He was one of the first graduates of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of M. B. (Bachelor of Medicine) . in 1768, and of M. D. in 1771. In 1772 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, of which Dr. Franklin was the President, and was con- sidered the equal in medical knowledge of any physician in the United States. His health being infirm, he turned his attention more to politics, and was much in office until the change of parties in 1800. With all the family he was an ardent Whig, and entered earnestly into the measures of opposition to the en- croachments of the British Government on the rights of the people of America. Although not a military man, he took a commission as commander of a company of militia, and was active in organizing measures of defence. He was one of the Committee of Vigilance, which, in fact, was for some time the governing power of the county ; and in 1776 was a member of the Provincial Congress, and a member of the committee which framed the first constitution of the State. During most of the time the war lasted he was a member of Congress, and afterward one of the first senators. For many years he was the presiding judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of the county, and was, in fact, a well-read lawyer. He became an elder of the Presbyterian church in Bridgeton. His descendants in the city are still numerous ^and highly respectable.
Ebenezer Elmer was a brother of Dr. Jonathan, was born in 1752, and died at the age of ninety-one in 1843. Having studied medicine with his brother, and when about to commence practice, the Revolutionary War broke out, and in January, 1776, he was commissioned as an ensign, and shortly after as lieutenant in a com-
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He was probably the first regularly educated physician in the county, unless Dr. Ward of Greenwich, from Connecticut, who died young in 1774, may have been of that class. Dr. Thomas Ewing studied under Ward, and after practising a short time in Cape May, returned to Greenwich, and was an officer in the conti- nental army. He died in 1782. His son, Dr. William B. Ewing, after a thorough education, settled as a physician in Greenwich in 1799. Dr. Elmer graduated in the newly-established medical school of Philadelphia as a Bachelor of Medicine in 1768, and in 1771 took the full degree of Doctor, his thesis in Latin having been printed. Dr. Rush said of him, that in medical erudition he was exceeded by no physician in the United States. He built, in 1772, a dwelling on the site of Charles E. Elmer's house; but being of feeble health, and not able to endure the long horseback journeys to which a physician was then exposed, he turned his attention to political life, received the appointment of sheriff, and was a member of Congress, and afterwards of the Senate. His brother Ebenezer commenced studying with him in 1773, and in 1775 began to visit patients in all parts of the county. He how- ever entered the army at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and did not return to practice until it was over. In 1783, and for a few succeeding years, he was in full practice in Bridge- ton and the neighborhood; but he soon became engaged in public life, and was afterwards only consulted in special cases and as a surgeon.
What physicians there were in other parts of the county, before the Revolution, is not known. There were probably very few. Jonathan Elmer, during the first year of his practice, appears to have gone to all parts of the county and more than once to the sea-
pany which soon joined the northern army; and in this capacity he served more than a year. During the remainder of the war he served as a surgeon, having been in service altogether seven years and eight months.
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