USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Atlantic City > The Daily union history of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey : containing sketches of the past and present of Atlantic City and County > Part 2
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$24,195 45
By the census taken in 1830, the county of Gloucester contained 28.431 inhabitants, of that number 8,164 were contained in the townships of Galloway, Egg Harbor, Weymouth and Hamilton. composing the new county of Atlantic, its proportional share or part was placed at.
6,947 75
Gloucester County's proportional share.
17.247 69
Total
24,195 45
CHARLES EVANS.
15
SKETCH OF OLD GLOUCESTER COUNTY.
The above report was submitted to the respective Boards of Freeholders of the counties of Gloucester and Atlantic, with the sincere wish, now that their in- terests are about to be separated, that in all the future transactions and intercourse of the officers and inhabitants of the said district with each other, they may ever be actuated by the same charity, forbearance and goodwill, that we trust and believe, have governed us in our labors to arrive at the conclusion as above stated.
The above report was signed by all of the commissioners and approved by the respective Boards of Freeholders.
COUNTY ASYLUM AT SMITH'S LANDING.
Atlantic County has been still further divided up into cities and boroughs, till now it has 28 voting precincts instead of the original four of 60 years ago. Atlantic City was incorporated in 1854, Egg Harbor City in 1858. Hammonton in 1865, Buena Vista in 1867, Absecon in 1872, and Somers Point, Pleasantville. Linwood, Brigantine City, and South Atlantic City more recently.
HON. JOHN J. GARDNER.
Sketch of Old Gloucester County.
G
ORDON'S History of New Jersey, published by Daniel Fenton, of Trenton, in 1834, contains the following inter- esting sketches of Gloucester County, of which at that time Atlantic County formed a part.
Absecum .- A post town of Galloway township, on Abse- cum creek, about two miles above Absecum bay, contains a tavern, a store and 8 or 10 dwellings, surrounded by sand and pine forests. .
Absecum Beach (Atlantic City), on the Atlantic Ocean, extends eastwardly from Great Egg Harbor Inlet, about 9 miles to Absecum Inlet: broken, however, by a narrow inlet near midway between its extremities.
Bargaintown, in Egg Harbor township, 4 miles from Egg Harbor bay, contains 2 taverns, I store, a grist mill, Methodist Church and about 30 dwellings.
OLD BARGAINTOWN GRIST MILL.
2
(17)
HON. LEWIS EVANS.
19
SKETCH OF OLD GLOUCESTER COUNTY.
Gravelly Landing (Port Republic), of Galloway township, 40 miles southcast of Woodbury, the county seat, and 79 miles from Trenton, on Nacote creek, contains a tavern, a store and 10 or 12 dwellings.
Leeds Point, post town, in Galloway township, 83 miles from Trenton, con- tains a store and tavern and 4 or 5 houses.
Martha Furnace, on the Oswego branch of Wading river, about 4 miles above navigation, in Washington township, Burlington County, has a grist and saw mill and iron furnace: makes about 750 tons of castings annually, employ- ing 60 hands, making a population of nearly 400, requiring 30 or 40 dwellings. There are about 30,000 acres in the estate.
Mays Landing, of Hamilton township, on the Great Egg Harbor river, at the head of sloop navigation, 16 miles from the sea and 35 miles southeast from Woodbury and 73 miles from Trenton, built on both sides of the river, contains 3 taverns, 4 stores, a Methodist Church and 25 or 30 dwellings. Considerable trade in lumber, cordwood and shipbuilding is carried on at this place.
Pleasant Mills, of Galloway township, on the Atsion river, contains a tavern, 2 stores, a glass factory, belonging to Coffin & Co., a cotton factory with 3,000 spindles, and from 20 to 30 dwellings.
Somers Point, port of entry for Great Egg Harbor district, on Great Egg Harbor bay. Tavern and boarding houses and several farm houses here. Is much resorted to for sea bathing in summer and gunning in the fall season.
Smithville, village in Galloway, 2 miles from Leeds Point, contains a tavern, a store, Methodist meeting house, and 10 or 12 dwellings, surrounded by pines and near salt marsh.
Tuckahoe, on both sides of the Tuckahoe river, over which there is a bridge, 10 miles from the sea, contains some 20 dwellings, 3 taverns and several stores. It is a place of considerable trade in wood, lumber and shipbuilding. The land immediately on the river is good, but a short distance from it is swampy and low.
The post towns of Gloucester County are Absecum, Bargaintown, Camden, an incorporated city, Carpenters Landing, Chews Landing, Clarksboro, Glass- boro, Gloucester Furnace, Gravelly Landing, Haddonfield, Hammonton, Jack- son Glassworks, Leeds Point, Longacoming, Malaga, Mays Landing, Mullica Hill, Pleasant Mills, Smiths Landing, Somers Point, Stephens Creek, Sweedes- boro, Tuckahoe, and Woodbury, the seat of justice of the county.
There are several academies for teaching the higher branches of education and primary schools in most of the agricultural neighborhoods. There are also established Sunday-schools in most, if not all, the populous villages; a county bible society, various tract societies and many temperance associations, which have almost rendered the immoderate use of ardent spirits infamous.
In 1832, the report of the county assessors gave 3.075 householders, whose ratables did not exceed $30 in value: 978 single men, 102 stores, 21 fisheries, 45 grist mills, 2 cotton and 2 woollen factories, 4 carding machines, 4 blast furnaces, 3 forges, 63 saw mills, 4 fulling mills, 8 ferries, 9 tan yards, 29 distilleries. 7 glass factories, 2 four-horse stage wagons, 967 covered wagons with fixed tops, 204
.
HON. JOSEPH THOMPSON.
21
SKETCH OF OLD GLOUCESTER COUNTY.
riding chairs, gigs, sulkies and pleasure carriages, 4 two-horse stage wagons, 31 dearborns with steel, iron or wooden springs; and it paid a county tax of $10,000; poor tax, $5,000; and road tax, $15,000.
By the census of 1830 Gloucester County, twelve large townships, contained 28,431 inhabitants, of whom 13.916 were white males; 12.962 white females; 14 female slaves; 835 free colored males; 714 free colored females. Of these there were deaf and dumb, under 14 years, 64: above 14 and under 30, 73; above 25 years, 80; blind, 205 white, 22 black; aliens, 3.365.
There is a county poor house on a farm of 200 acres near Blackwoodstown, in Deptford township.
The following extract from the records of the county presents singular features of the polity of the early settlers. It would seem that they considered themselves a body politic, a democratic commonwealth, with full power of legis- lation, in which the courts participated, prescribing the punishment for each offence as it was proven before them.
GLOUCESTER, the 28th May, 1686.
By the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants of the third and fourth tenths (alias county of Gloucester), then agreed as follows:
Imprimis .- That a court be held for the jurisdiction and limits of the afore- said tenths, or county, one time at Axwamus, alias Gloucester, and at another time at Red Bank.
Item .- That there be four courts, for the jurisdiction aforesaid, held in one year, viz: Upon the first day of the first month, upon the first day of the fourth month, upon the first day of the seventh month, and upon the first day of the tenth month.
Item .- That the first court shall be held at Gloucester, aforesaid, upon the first day of September next.
Item .- That all warrants and summons shall be drawn by the clerk of the court and signed by the Justice, and so delivered to the sheriff or his deputy to serve.
Item .- That the body of each warrant shall contain or intimate the nature of the action.
Item .- That a copy of the declaration be given along with the warrant, that so the defendant may have the longer time to consider the same, and prepare his answer.
Item .- That all summons and warrants shall be served and declarations given at least ten days before the court.
Itcm .- That the sheriff shall give the jury summons six days before the court be held in which they are to appear.
Item .- That all persons within the jurisdiction aforesaid bring into the next court the marks of their hogs and other cattle in order to be approved and recorded.
22
DAILY UNION HISTORY OF ATLANTIC COUNTY.
REX vs. WILKES
Indicted at Gloucester Court, N. J., Ioth Sept., 1686, for stealing goods of Dennis Lins, from a house in Philadelphia. Defendant pleads guilty, but was tried by jury. Verdict guilty, and that prisoner ought to make payment to the prosecutor of the sum of sixteen pounds. Sentence: The bench appoints that said Wilkes shall pay the aforesaid Lins £16 by way of servitude, viz: If he will be bound by indentures to the prosecutor then to serve him the term of four years, but if he condescend not thereto, then the court awarded that he should be a servant and so abide for the term of five years. And so be accommodated in the time of his servitude by his master with meat, drink, clothes, washing and lodging according to the customs of the country and fit for such a servant.
The four townships then comprising what is now Atlantic County had area and population as follows, according to the same authority:
ACRES.
1810
1820
1830
Egg Harbor
85,000
1,830
1,635
2,510
Galloway
147,000
1,648
1,895
2,960
Hamilton
106,000
877
1,424
Weymouth
50,000
781
1,270
388,000
3,478
5.188
8,164
Sketch of Old Weymouth.
EYMOUTH IRON WORKS, on the Great Egg Harbor river, six miles above Mays Landing, were established in the year 1800 by Joseph Ball, Charles Shoemaker, and two associates, Ashbridge and Duberson. The works consisted of a saw mill and an iron forge and a furnace for rendering and manufacturing bog iron ore. Weymouth was in the heart of a wild country. The native Indian still hunted the cunning beaver along the numerous streams and was paid a premium by the authorities for the wolf or panther heads which he captured. The original. heavy growth of timber covered the country and the streams and swamps carried very much more water than since the iron horse came snorting through the land, blowing sparks and landing the careless pioneer from whose clearing many a destructive forest fire has spread, working havoc among the trees and consuming the vegetable accumulations of centuries on the surface of the soil. Bricks were made of the clay found at Weymouth in the early days, but their manufacture seems to have been limited.
One Jacob Wintland, a German, built the first iron furnace and cast the first iron pipes. The furnace stood where the new paper mill now is. It was made of stone from neighboring quarries and was twenty- five or thirty feet high. It was twenty or OLD ETNA FURNACE, TUCKAHOE. thirty feet square at the bottom, tapering to about fifteen feet square at the top. The circular opening in the top was about eight feet in diameter. The inside was lined with long, heavy stone that would withstand the heat. Up a long wooden bridge or incline, with barrows, men carried the charcoal and iron to charge the furnace. It required eight large wagon loads of charcoal daily to keep up the blast. Two men were kept constantly busy dumping six large baskets of charcoal every few minutes in at the top with a lot of ore. This was called a charge, and soon as it had settled sufficiently was charged again, while a blast of air from below forced the combustion and maintained a smelting heat. and other men removed the molten metal as it ran out below.
(:3)
GEORGE ALLEN.
25
SKETCH OF OLD WEYMOUTH.
The air blast was maintained by a huge bellows driven by water power and connecting with the furnace just above the molten metal by means of iron and leather pipes. Huge tanks were necessary as air chambers to maintain a steady blast.
Stoves, cannon, cannon balls, pipes of all sizes and other articles were made at Weymouth from bog iron ore for many years. Bog iron, formed by chemical action, is without the slag or rock which characterizes the ore from the mines, and is of a superior quality. Hitching posts still stand along Delaware avenue, Philadelphia, which are old cannon made at Weymouth in 1812. They bear the imprint W for Weymouth.
For forty years iron pipes of all sizes from one and a half to twenty inches in diameter, but mostly of the smaller sizes, were made at Weymouth, where sand for the moulds, hay for winding the cores and charcoal for smelting the ore were cheap.
At the forge with two powerful trip hammers, operated by water power, two men could turn out a ton each per week of malleable iron. By a later process a ton a day was possible. This was before rolling mills were more than thought of. On clear winter mornings the sound of these triphammers could be heard in coalings a dozen miles away. To obtain the ore, canals were dug and scows were run into the swamps where it abounded, and where it may still be found. There are two kinds, one in large sheets from two to six inches thick, and the other in fine particles which is known as shot ore. It was smelted in the larger furnaces just as pig iron was smelted in the smaller cupulas.
The late John Clements, of Haddonfield, in his sketch of Atlantic County, printed in a volume of the West Jersey Surveyors' Association, in 1880, says:
"The manufacture of iron in New Jersey from bog or meadow ore may be traced to a very early date, and gave employment to many laborers and artisans. Much of the largest deposit of this peculiar formation was on the western tribu- taries of Atsion or Little Egg Harbor river, in Atlantic County, extending from near the sources of these streams as far southwest as where Egg Harbor City now stands. As late as 1830 fourteen furnaces and cupulas, and as many forges, were in active operation in New Jersey, using only the bog ore found in the swamps and low lands. Many conveyances are on record showing the purchase of land merely for the purpose of removing the surface ore, and after such ore had been removed, reverted to the grantor.
The supply in South Jersey seems to have been pretty nearly exhausted. but the old bog ore swamps are again filling up and one hundred years hence may find the same places supplied with ore, ready for the furnaces, but never again so valuable as it was to our ancestors. The same elements are still there and the waters that permeate the soil bringing to the surface the oxide of iron which they precipitate when in contact with the atmosphere, is doing the same work and producing the same crude material as that used so advantageously by the first emigrant settlers in this region. How curious and how interesting would be the history of the discovery of iron in West Jersey!
WILLARD WRIGHT, M.D.
27
SKETCH OF OLD WEYMOUTH.
The discovery of ore in the bogs was perchance by some metal worker fresh from his native soil, who for the time, in search of game in the forest, found himself knee deep in a slough, covered with a red slimy substance, that stained his clothes and hindered his progress; and while contemplating his sad plight. discovered what he thought were particles of iron ore adhering to his dress. From inquiry among the Indians, he found they knew nothing of its ingredients, and only used it. mixed with bear's oil. for war paint. daubing their naked bodies and thus making themselves hideous to behold. A more careful examina- tion proved that in the dryer parts of the swamp, the substance was hard and could be dug with facility, confirming his suspicions as MANAGER'S HOUSE, ETNA FURNACE. to what it was and deserving an experiment how to utilize it. In due time a rude furnace is built and a few pounds of metal produced to his surprise at the great discovery."
At Etna and old Ingersoll on the Tuckahoe river, at Walkers Forge and Mays Landing, Old Gloucester, and at Batsto, Atsion, Washington, and Martha in Burlington County, similar works were successfully operated for many years. These furnaces opened up in March, soon as cold weather broke, and were in constant operation :till the end of the year, not excepting Sundays.
When Stephen Colwell succeeded his father-in-law, Samuel Richards, as part owner of Weymouth, he resolved to try the experiment of closing down
COLWELL MANSION WEYMOUTH.
HON. S. D. HOFFMAN.
29
SKETCH OF OLD WEYMOUTH.
he fires on Sundays and found that it worked successfully. After that Sunday ork stopped and religious people were highly gratified.
In 1807, the religious work at Weymouth culminated in the erection of the ttle church which has served its objects so well up to this day. The estate reely granted the use of the land for a church and cemetery for the equal use f both Presbyterians and Methodists on alternate Sundays, and bore the prin- ipal share of the expenses afterwards for maintaining the services. In this song ttle edifice which stands in a beautiful oak grove, the ninety-second anniversary as celebrated with appropriate ceremonies on Sunday, September 24, 1899. Friends gathered from various points and renewed the pleasant associations f other years. On the headstones in the adjacent cemetery names once familiar hroughout the county may be found. No deed for this property was ever given o any religious body. It still belongs to the Weymouth estate.
..
O
OLD CHURCH AT WEYMOUTH, 1807.
Lewis M. Walker was the first manager for the founders and owners of Weymouth. Later he started a forge and saw-mill for himself at South River, hree miles southerly from Mays Landing, in Weymouth township. Walker was succeeded by John Richards, who was manager for sixteen years, when with a cousin, Thomas S. Richards, he engaged in a similar business for himself at Old Gloucester. John C. Briggs succeeded him at Weymouth for an equal period.
When William Moore succeeded Briggs, in 1846, he built the mule tram- vay for the better transportation of freight through the woods to and from Mays Landing. Previous to that time most of the iron was transported to tide water on scows, down the Great Egg Harbor river. These flatboats were carried down by the current and poled back by hand with whatever supplies in the way of
JOHN B. CHAMPION.
31
SKETCH OF OLD WEYMOUTH.
groceries it might be convenient to carry. There are to this day "Lock Rights" in the cotton mill dam at Mays Landing, in behalf of the Weymouth estate.
W. Dwight Bell and Stephen Colwell, whose wives were daughters of Samuel Richards, were then the owners of the estate, which comprised 80,000 acres, in- cluding the greater portion of Hamilton and a considerable part of what is now Mullica and Galloway townships.
Not less than one hundred vessels were built at Mays Landing from Wey- mouth forests and foundry during the half century beginning with 1830. There were two shipyards and as many as four vessels were built in one year. The hulk of one of these, the Weymouth, named in honor of the estate, built by Richard S. Colwell about 1870, lies in the river at Catawba, a few miles below the spot where it was built. One of the last ships to be built at Weymouth was the barkentine Jennie Sweeney, still owned and sailed by Capt. S. S. Hudson, the builder.
One hundred or more families lived and prospered on the Weymouth estate, in the coalings, saw-mills, foundries and shipyards. Three six-mule teams oper- ated the tramcars to and from Mays Landing, and there was a one-horse passen- ger car for use as needed. Two or three yoke of oxen were used on the estate and half a dozen four-mule teams in hauling wood, charcoal and lumber, besides two-horse teams and several driving horses.
During the Harrison administration, beginning in 1840, business was at a standstill. There was no sale for iron pipes, but Samuel Richards, the wealthy Philadelphia merchant, kept his men at Weymouth at work, thereby accumulating a large stock of iron pipes, before he found a market for it.
Waterworks was started at Mobile about that time. By subscribing for stock and paying in iron pipes Mr. Richards found a market for the accumulated products of his estate. He died January 4, 1842, and his successors completed the contract.
William Moore continued as manager for more than twenty years. One of his sons, M. V. B. Moore, who was employed in the Weymouth store, declares that it was no unusual thing on a Friday or Saturday, when the week's supplies were given out to the men, to weigh out four or five barrels of pork, and a ton or more of flour, and to measure out forty or fifty bushels of potatoes and a hogs- head of molasses. Mr. Moore remembers to have seen, more than once, as many as twenty-five double teams loaded with fresh pork from Salem and Glou- cester Counties, drive into Weymouth in one string. This pork was salted down in large tanks in cellars and retailed as needed. The woodmen were great lovers of fat pork. It required 90,000 pounds a year to supply the estate.
The old iron forge accidentally burned down in 1862, and the old foundry three years later, when the iron industry was abandoned. The war had closed the markets in southern cities, and improved methods and railroad transportation and the use of anthracite coal, made it no longer profitable to ship pig iron into the charcoal districts of South Jersey to be manufactured.
In 1866 Stephen Colwell built the first stone paper mill near the site of the
CARLTON GODFREY ESQ.
33
SKETCH OF OLD WEYMOUTH.
old stone forge and furnace, and leased it for ten years to McNeal, Irving & Rich, who were operating the paper mill successfully at Pleasant Mills. In 1876 the control of this mill reverted to the Colwell estate and the manufacture of manila paper from old ropes, the abandoned rigging of vessels, was successfully con- tinued till 1887.
WEYMOUTH PAPER MILLS.
A second frame mill was built in 1869, which burned down in 1876, and was replaced by a substantial stone structure. Natural causes or the relentless laws of trade have operated very largely against the old industries of South Jersey during the last half century. Cheap labor in the South depreciated the charcoal market. Forest fires and cheap transportation from the South and West, cut down the price of lumber. Iron bands supplanted wooden hoop-poles, which was quite an industry. Cedar lumber which sold for $25 per M., now brings but $16. Boatboards have dropped from $40, $50, $60 per MI. to $30. Cedar shingles which once brought $15 per M., now bring $8. Measured by these products money has become higher and harder to get, while interest and mortgages have suffered no such decline.
The Weymouth estate is still rich in wood and timber, bog iron and valuable clay beds. Its water power is immensely valuable and may soon be more fully developed and utilized.
3
M. A. DEVINE.
The West Family.
One of the noted characters of Atlantic County forty years ago was known by the name of Joe West. He was a man of powerful build and fine personal appearance, with many a complishments, a lawyer by profession, having but little practice. His father George West, lived in a mansion at Catawba, two miles or more below Mays Landing, overlooking the Great Egg Harbor river, where in those days many vessels were constantly passing. The old-fashioned mansion, just back from the road opposite the little church which is still stand- ing, was elegantly furnished and the family lived in princely style. Joe West became known throughout the county for his transactions, and was both feared and despised by people who came in conflict with him. His father, mother and two brothers died at about the same time, under peculiar circumstances, and people had their suspicions as to the causes of their sudden deaths. In the rear of the little church may still be seen the large marble slabs which covered the brick vaults holding the mortal remains of the suddenly-reduced West family, inscribed as follows:
I
1215354 1
JAMES S. WEST, Son of George and Amy West. born April 7, 1810; Died August 24, 1829.
GEORGE S. WEST, Son of George and Amy West, born May 7, 1806; Died September 3, 1829.
GEORGE WEST, Esq., Born August 1. 1774: Died September 10, 1829.
AMY WEST, widow of George West; Born January 26, 1777: Died September 15, 1829.
(35
M. A. DEVINE.
PO JONED FOR HIS MONEY ALONG WITH FATHER, MOTHER AND BROTHER NEARLY A CEN- - TUR Y AGO.
Wthile rambling through the country yesterday a party of Atlantic City peo- ple discovered that some heartless van- deal had deseerated the grave of a man One of the noted chat,who had been buried nearly a century ago In an old abandoned cemetery at
by the name of Joe West. appearance, with many accCatawba by tearing off the marble little practice. His father, miles or more below Mays where in those days many
ago was known nd fine personal ion, having but slab of the tombstone in order to steal at Catawba. two a quantity of bricks from the founda- tion.
There is no means of knowing how mansion, just back from thelong ago the vandalism was perpe- ing, was elegantly furnishedtrated, but the matter will be called to became known throughout and despised by people who two brothers died at about A GRUESOME THEFT. people had their suspicions
the attention of decendants of the dead man if any can be found living ther, mother and in Atlantic County.
g Harbor river, The old-fashioned ch is still stand- style. Joe West was both feared cumstances, and iths. In the rear hich covered the
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