USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Hudson County to-day; its history, people, trades, commerce, institutions and industries > Part 9
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Financially the Gardner & Meeks Company is one of the soundest firms in the country. It has extensive dealings throughout the big lumber pro- ducing regions and an order from the concern is regarded as "good as gold" by lumbermen generally.
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Charles Weber
HARLES WEBER, who conducts a window shade and picture frame manufacturing business with a splen- did and ever growing patronage at 612 Washington Street, Hoboken, was born in New York City, March 29. 1859. His edu- cation was limited and while yet a boy he learned the trade of lithographie printer. On August 29, 182, he established his pre- sent business at 518 Washington Street. On May 1. 1912, it had grown to such large proportions that it was necessary to seck larger quarters.
Mr. Weber is one of those men one has to know to like. The more one knows him the better he is liked. He "wears well," as the saying goes, and friends he has made during his long career as an honorable busi- ness man are lasting friends. He is a lover of art and good books and is never so happy as when he can rest from his busi- ness cares and indulge in the enjoyment of these two hobbies.
He is always ready to participate in a movement for the betterment of his town and its conditions. Ile is a member of the Board of Trade and be- lieves the city would be better if all the members lived up to the ideals of that organization. He believes in practical charity and is a member of Hoboken Lodge. No. 74. B. P. O. E., because there he can exercise his charitable in- clinations in an unobtrusive way. He does not care to have his name shouted from the housetops and prefers honest service to his patrons to pandering publicity. He regards photography as one of the highest forms of art and is an ardent member of the Hoboken Camera Club. He has some splendid photographic studies of his own work in this direction.
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Great Atlantic and Pacific Cea Company
D F ALL the concerns doing business in Hudson County today none is more prominent than the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Its stores are scattered throughout the county in places most con- venient for thrifty housewives, and it does a general grocery business on a magnificent scale which permits buying at prices so comparatively small to those charged by individual grocers that the stores of the company are always welcomed in any community and always largely patronized.
This business was organized in 1859. as the Great Atlantic Tea Com- pany. It was the first of the great companies doing a grocery business to become its own jobber to its many branches. Since organization its success compelled many imitators and now combinations such as this are quite common, but it is notable that the company has always kept in the vanguard of low prices to the consumer and with comparatively small publicity has grown to its present mammoth proportions.
The company is under the control and management of the well known Hartford family. The officers are: President, George H. Hartford; vice- president, John A. Hartford; secretary, Edward V. Hartford; treasurer. George L. Hartford. The capital of the company is $2,100,000, all paid in. None of the stock is for sale. In Hudson county alone there are about 1,000 employees, and one of its jobbing branches for the distribution of merchan- dise among its various stores in this vicinity is located in Jersey City.
To keep the prices down and the quality up has always been the one aim of the company. To this has been added a general efficiency and courtesy which make it a pleasure to shop at the company stores. In central locations where its stores are established there are jobbing houses. These operate to keep down expenses much better than if there was but one jobbing house. shipping its goods to all parts of the country. The groceries the company handles are shipped direct from the factory to these jobbing houses and from them are distributed to the stores supplied by jobbing branches in so sys- tematic a manner that the superintendent of each district can always know at a glance just what is needed in the various stores in his jurisdiction. The teas are imported direct from the company's own plantations. These are distributed to the jobbing houses and again to the retail branches as occasion demands.
With such an extensive organization and one central house buying for all, it is possible to buy at much closer margins than individual grocers can buy. With such gigantic operations the margin of profit in each store is kept much smaller than in individual enterprises. With its own jobbing houses the company is enabled to cut out the middleman's profit. With all these factors working together the company can, and does, make the cost to the consumer, appreciably less than the individual storekeeper could do and exist.
The company maintains a splendid publicity organization. Its advertising covers a large area, as practically the same prices prevail everywhere the company operates. The cost of advertising is large, but it is made infinitely small for each individual store because the prices quoted include those offered at all the stores. In this manner the cost of advertising is so infinitely small that it does not have to be reckoned in the cost and profits of goods bought and sold.
Buying, distributing and selling is carried on so efficiently that there is a minimum of cost in every department. This also operates to keep down the selling price of staple and fancy groceries, teas and coffees. The farm and dairy products are handled so that only the best at the very lowest prices are offered patrons of the company. Everywhere a strict system of inspection is in vogue to see that nothing but first-class products are sent to the jobbing department for distribution among the retailers.
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James Ar Caffery
J AMES MeCAFFERY, who conducts a model bakery at 131 Monticello avenue, Jersey City, is one of those men who has realized that business conditions and ideals have changed and in no business more so than in the preparation of bakestuffs for the community served by him.
His bakeshop is all that is claimed for it. It is entirely above ground. is splendidly ventilated, is operated by men whose spick and span cleanliness is the comment of hundreds of visitors who have inspected his shop. Every utensil is kept shining and and there is none of that repeated baking without washing of various batches in one utensil so common among the bakers of a few years ago.
Among the innovations in the modern bakery is an electric mixer ma- nipulating as much flour and dough as a thousand bakers with ten thousand wooden spoons could accomplish a few years ago. Machinery vibrating to the slightest push of an electric button, is doing the work much better. cheaper and in a more sanitary manner than ever was dreamed of by the old time baker of but a few years ago.
The progressive bakers, of whom MeCaffery occupies a prominent place. have brought together two essential factors for the success of business in- telligence and labor with a result that they occupy a position among the foremost business men of the county. They bake bread that is plain and wholesome and cake made with pure flour, fresh eggs and genuine extract flavoring.
McCaffery is among those bakers who voluntarily spend thousands of dollars in machinery and clean surroundings, insuring the public bread and cake untouched by human hands in its preparation because they realize that it is by this method that they will win the confidence of the public in their various enterprises. The boss baker of today, and more especially Mr. McCaffery, is a business man, as well as bakers. They sit in their offices managing their businesses and they see to it that among their workmen there is none of the perspiration and grime with dough and flour clinging to them as was the case a few years ago.
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Ammon & Person
HE FIRM of Ammon & Person, founded in 1891 by W. E. Ammon and I'm. Person, has done more, perhaps, to popularize the use of butterine (official name oleomargarine) than any other manufacturer and handler of this product in this country, if not in the entire world.
From its inception the firm of Ammon & Person began the education of the public in the processes which go to make up this product now so ex- tensively used as a substitute for butter. They showed how by sanitary manufacture a product even more clean and wholesome and altogether better for human consumption than ordinary butter could be obtained at a much less cost to the consumer. The one product during all this time of this firm has been handled under the copyrighted name of Baby Brand Butterine. Done up in neat and attractive packages this product has attained a remark- able sale throughout the East.
Some seventy-five employees are necessary to turn out the demanded product of Baby Brand Butterine at the present time. The firm is capitalized at $100,000.00, all paid up. None of the stock is for sale and the corporation is a close one, the business was incorporated in 1908. The officers of the . corporation are: President, J. J. Baumann : vice-president. C. D. Boyd ; sec- retary and treasurer, D. Van Ness Person.
The office and warehouse of the company are at Fourth and Henderson streets, Jersey City, and the factories are located in Columbus, O., and Chicago, 111. Here, under special sanitary conditions Baby Brand Butterine is churned. There is no secret in the process of manufacture. Visitors are welcome and shown through the plant at any time. The most cleanly conditions prevail. The workmen must all be cleanly dressed and their hands and persons must be scrupulously clean. Only the best and purest of butter oils and fats are used in the manufacture. The finished product is moulded in oblong bars and neatly wrapped in waxed paper. placed in an attractive carton and carried to the refrigerating plant where it is kept awaiting delivery.
So popular has the use of Baby Brand Butterine become that thousands of dealers throughout the East handle and sell this product. The business is constantly increasing and more than once the working force has had to be added to in order to supply the demand. By the process of manufacture as practiced by Ammon & Person this product is not only attractive to the eye, but to the taste as well. Many consumers prefer it to butter. There is none of the flat taste which used to characterize oleomargarine when it was first introduced. Baby Brand Butterine is a delicacy, as well as a necessity. to many well ordered tables.
Baby Brand Butterine has been recognized by pure food experts as an altogether satisfactory substitute for butter because of its purity and whole- some ingredients. Chemical analysis has shown it to contain only recognized health-giving foodstuffs. Those who have used the product are loud in their praise of it. It has given the utmost satisfaction wherever it has been used.
The campaign of the Ammon & Person Company has been unique. The company came into existence when butterine or oleomargarine was regarded as impure, unsanitary and unhealthy. Through persistence in manufacture and insistent publicity it has lifted its product to a level where it is highly respected as a foodstuff of the first quality. Of course. not everyone cares to use butterine, but it is no longer objected to on the ground of impurity or unhealthiness. Those who are conversant with its manufacture regard it as almost as perfect a dairy product as natural butter, and unless the butter be of the first quality as even superior to it, for butterine is made by an unvarying formula which insures uniformity of taste, purity and wholesome- ness, attributes which are never certain in the most careful manufacture of natural butter.
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F. Meizmann
A VISIT to the bakery conducted by F. Weizmann at 402-406 Iloboken avenue, Jersey City, is a revelation to those who have never seen the inside of a modern bakery. In the old time bakeshops, the scene was one which disgusted the man who was particular as to what he ate. Bakers in dirty aprons, perspiring freely and with underclothes which reeked with filth, kneaded the dough for bread and cake and performed the necessary operations for the preparation of bakestuffs. These were then baked in tins, swabbed with foul smelling grease and stacked up by hand in dirty places, to be delivered for consumption.
Today all this is changed. Men are attired in the cleanest of aprons. Their underclothing is clean. Their hands are washed. They are not re- quired to touch the breadstuffs by hand. Doughs are thoroughly mixed, cut into loaves and tinned by machinery. They are placed in the oven in a sanitary manner and when removed, are put in the cleanest spots imaginable and there kept in a purely sanitary manner for delivery.
This transformation is found in the Weizmann bakery. Instead of being an underground shop, it is all above ground. There is plenty of air, light and ventilation. Anyone may see the interior workings of the place, and visitors are welcome. The very sight of the careful cleanliness gives one an appetite for foodstuffs as they are now baked. Even the wagons are thoroughly cleansed before each trip. The break and cake are carefully packed. There is none of the hit-and-miss style of baking and delivering which existed but a few years ago.
Men of Weizmann's stamp are responsible for the changed condition of affairs. He has gone ahead and built his bakery along the most approved modern lines, has made it a model bakery. He has not made much of a stir about doing so, but one may rest assured that foodstuffs coming from Weiz- mann's are baked, packed and delivered under the most sanitary conditions possible.
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Thomas J. Stewart On., Inr.
NDOUBTEDLY the largest and most progressive business of its kind in Hudson County is that of the Thomas J. Stewart Company. Inc., at Erie and Fifth Streets, Jersey City. This is a combination warehouse and car- pet cleaning business established by Thomas J. Stewart in 1879. From its incep- tion the business has steadily grown making necessary increased storage and cleaning facilities. Today the business occupies a six-story building, 60x60 feet two wings, 20x60 feet and 20x100 feet respectively. There is also a branch at Broadway and Forty-sixth Street, New York City.
Mr. Stewart was the originator of the storage warehouse and moving van business in Jersey City. The success of his enterprise is due to business ef- ficiency, rugged honesty, and an earnest desire to give patrons full value for every dollar expended. It is a business which has grown because of the sterling character of the man behind it and is founded firmly because builded well.
The improved building of the Thomas J. Stewart Company represent: a tribute to nearly half a century of honest endeavor and good, hard, well directed work. The company has always operated under its time-honored puzzle (trade mark) motto, "Honesty Is the Best Policy." Every business courtesy and special advantage offered by the house is extended to its patrons. There are no secrets in the house of Stewart. Anyone who wants to see how furniture and pianos are stored or how carpets, rugs and all floor covering are cleaned. is welcome at the establishment at any time. The building has been erected with a special view of facilitating the business of the company.
The basement floors are paved with a heavy bed of cement ; dust-proof, rat proof, fire-proof. and water-proof. The other floors are of the most solid timbers and iron, including the graceful clock tower which surmounts the building.
In the basement is a powerful Corliss engine of a most superior make. No fire is permitted in the building or any smoking allowed, which is so often the canse of fires ; nor is any building better provided with means for extinguishing fire should any happen to break out.
In the separate building, which is devoted to carpet cleaning, are the ma- chines and appliances by means of which the work of cleansing and renovating is done. Special machinery for India and Turkish rugs, draperies and delicately woven fabrics. A glance at the operation of these will convince anybody how thorough and perfect is their work. The machinery beats on the back and brush- es on the face, acting uniformly on every square inch of the fabric. No violence is done to the face of the carpet.
The dust, moths, and refuse blown and driven out of the carpets are sent through a system of pipes and blowers into a closed room.
The arrangements for moth-proofing carpets are perfect. This is an im- portant consideration for those who are going away for the summer. The com- pany will take up your carpets, clean every vestige of dirt, moths, etc., from them, then by a patented process, belonging only to the company, render them thoroughly moth-proof, and store them safely. Then, when you want them they will be laid in the best style for you, all at reasonable cost.
The storage business includes all kinds. The compartments are of various sizes. Partitions are all of iron. Each room is tightly closed, but perfectly ventilated and each lot of goods is stored under separate lock and key. There are separate rooms for pianos, organs, mirrors, bronzes, statuary, bric-a-brac. trunks, carriages, in which special care is bestowed on these articles. Also rooms for general merchandise of every description.
In the moving of furniture, pianos, etc .. the same care and efficiency pre- vail. The vans are padded and enclosed and are in charge of capable and com- petent men. Goods are moved anywhere by road, rail or water.
In speaking of a business of this nature the man at the helm is to be con- sidered. Mr. Stewart was born in New York. November 23rd, 1856. He was educated in the public schools of West Hoboken, graduating with the highest
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honors when but twelve and a half years of age. He learned the carpet clean- ing business with his uncle, Thomas Marshall Stewart, in New York, starting as office boy and being repeatedly promoted until eventually a partner in the busi- ness. He is a member of the Carteret and the Down Town Clubs, and of all the civic and charitable institutions, including president of Newman Industrial Home : president Team Owners' AAssn. of Hudson County, of Jersey City. Mr. Stewart was married at West Hoboken, N. J., February 12, 1885, to Cornelia Banta, (daughter of George D. and Emily Banta) the union bringing seven children : Thomas J., Jr .; Cornelia: Arthur 1 .; Hlaxel; Robert G .; and Oliver R. Stewart. ( Russel 11 Stewart deceased.) They have a beautiful colonial residence in Jersey City. Mr. Stewart is a Republican in State and National politics, but is independent in local offices. He is an ex-vice-president of the Board of Trade of Jersey City. now the Chamber of Commerce.
American Novelty Printing and Embossing Works
A LTOGETHER interesting is the history and business of the American Novelty Printing and Embossing Works at Third and Clinton Streets, Hoboken. This business is carried on by John F. MeCowan, ex- ecutor of the estate of John McCowan. It consists of printing and em- bossing on fabrics manufactured for the domestic wholesale trade, at which one hundred employes are constantly engaged.
The founder of the business, John MeCowan, was born at Bar Head. Scotland, in 1839. He served his apprenticeship as block printer, the main style of textile printing at that time. He came to America in 1868, where he also worked as block printer. He founded the present business three years later in 1871, and successfully conducted it until his death 111 19II.
John F. McCowan, until his father's death, was general manager of the business, and has had a thorough training and experience in all branches of the business. Each department is supervised by a competent foreman under the direction of James Dunsmore, superintendent, who has had an international experience in the printing and finishing of textiles.
When the firm was founded it was as a block printing establishment. It then branched out into narrow ribbon, surface machine printing. It perfected the narrow warp printing for ribbons, and this gradually developed into its largest business. Within recent years the firm has put in a broad silk printing plant for the printing of broad silks, chiffons and warps. In 1910. when the firm bought the present plant, it had four printing ma- chines. It now has fifteen machines. It is the largest printer of narrow fabrics and warps doing business today. The firm has also intalled, the last few years, a large number of other textile machines for the handling of broad and narrow fabrics.
The firm acts as a converter and prints only on other people's fabrics which are sent to be printed or converted into artistic designs, such as floral effects, stripes, plaids or other designs which the trade may demand. It makes a specialty of warp printing with a reputation second to none. With the large equipment of machinery the firm is able to handle a large quantity of material at short notice.
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New York and New Jersey Crematory
N a section like North Hudson, where magnificent accomplishment is the rule rather than the exception, it is but fitting that the best equipped crematory in the world should have its home. The New York and New Jersey Crematory, situated on the Hudson Boulevard, opposite Humboldt street, is all that is claimed for it in this respect and all that the progressive management of able business men can make it. Its magnificent building stands far back in an extensive park of five acres, which gives the place the atmosphere of some restful institution rather than a place for last sad rites for the dead, yet it fairly breathes that dignity and refinement which we ac- cord loved ones passed before.
This building is fitted up in the most elaborate manner for the purposes for which it was designed. The company has spared no expense in its equipment for properly and impressively reducing the bodies of the dead to
ashes. Proper conception of the fitness of the location, the beauty of the building and the thoroughness of its equipment can be obtained only by a personal visit to the crematorium itself.
The main floor of the building is devoted to offices, reception hall and chapel; the second floor contains six columbaria for the retention of ashes and two waiting rooms; the basement contains a vault for the temporary retention of bodies and adjoining the basement are the retorts. There is nothing about the place to suggest or magnify the terrors of death. There are no graves or tombstones in the surrounding grounds, no niches or re- ceptacles for ashes exposed to view on the main floor of the building, and the chapel is provided with an organ, arranged so that such services may be held therein as may be desired. The fee for incineration includes the use of the chapel, with its noiseless elevator in the centre upon which the coffin is
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placed and lowered to the retorts. These are not ignited until the coffin containing the remains is safely placed therein and locked. Thus there is no flame to be seen or odor to be inhaled, and no one need see the reducing of the remains to ashes unless he or she so desires. The heat is generated by gas and when turned on averages about 2000' Fahrenheit, so that it requires but forty minutes to reduce the average remains of 150 pounds to ashes. The only thing removed from the casket is the name plate, and the casket, whether metal or wood, is placed in the retort and quickly disappears.
AAfter the reduction of the body the ashes are placed in a metal receptacle, the name of the deceased endorsed thereon and placed in the vaults subject to the orders of the nearest kin. Appropriate urns are provided by the company at a moderate cost, and samples may be seen any day at the crematorinn. which is always open and may be visited at any time. Niches in the colum- baria for the retention of urns may be secured at any time by any one, whether the remains were incinerated at this crematorium or not.
The New York and New Jersey Crematory is reached from New York by way of any of the ferries and is accessible from the Pennsylvania, Erie. Lackawanna, New York, Ontario and Western and West Shore depots. The officers of the company are: John Bruning, president ; George H. Steil, vice- president : John F. O'Hara, treasurer ; Francis 11. MeCauley, secretary.
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Anion Iron Works
A MONG the most important industries in the country is the Union Iron Works, which occupies practically three-quarters of an entire block, from 505 to 607 Monroe Street, Hoboken. This is a $75.000 company, organized in 1900 and incorporated in 1908 under the laws of the State of New Jersey. The corporation is a close one, none of its stock being listed for sale anywhere. The business done by the company is both enormous and far reaching. It employs regularly 100 workers and is one of the very busy hives of industry of the county.
This company turns out heavy machinery of all kind for regular and special purposes. Its output includes pile driving and excavating machinery. road builders' equipment, oil locks, tunnel shields, grout mixers, buckets, cars, pipe line supplies, contractors' equipment, special work of all kinds, etc.
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