USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 12
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It will be noticed that these records establish indubitably three certain facts: one, the origin of the first settlers of Montville, their names found in these records, with one ex-
DUTCH COUNTRY PEOPLE.
ception, being all Holland; second, this section of country was settled sometime early in the eighteenth century, prob- ably as early as 1710; and, third, there was a mill of some kind, doubtless a grist mill, as early as 1745, probably much earlier, possibly in 1720.
Late in the eighteenth century distilleries and cider mills had been in use in Montville, and for several years an ex- tensive business was carried on in the manufacture of cider and distilling of cider brandy or apple whiskey, as it was called. In 1812 a tannery and bark mill were erected at Montville village, which at that time was a hamlet with
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MONTVILLE FAMILIES
about sixteen dwelling houses, two bark mills and tanner- ies, three saw mills, one grist mill, a cider mill and distil- lery, a blacksmith shop, and a carpenter and wheelwright shop. These appliances for industrial employments denote that the village must then have been a center of trade for the surrounding country. It has not lost any of its activity, but is still a thriving and busy place.
The names of the present inhabitants give proof that the old Dutch element of population has in a great measure given way to another, which now takes the lead in public affairs. The names of Pierson, Baldwin, Cook, and Miller abound. It is a well settled fact that the Piersons, Bald- wins, and Cooks came from Caldwell, in Essex County, in the eighteenth century, and established themselves here. With them came representatives of the Dod aud Condit fam- ilies. There are, however, some descendants of old Dutch families still resident here who trace their lineage back to Holland ancestors, such as Kanouse, Zabriskie, Doremus, Van Duyre, and Jacobus.
The hopes which were at first entertained of the great benefit to be gained by the inhabitants from the construc- tion of the canal were never realized, and the few manufac- tories which sprung up languished and died. The canal, in fact, was not intended by its projectors to be used for the carriage of manufactured commodities. They expected to realize remuneration for their ontlay in its construction in the freightage of iron and coal from the mines in Pennsyl- vania. The demand for both of those articles had become an established fact, and the acute mind of Mr. MacCullough, its real founder, had forecasted the future when the City of New York and its vicinity would almost entirely depend upon this mode of transportation to bring these two neces- sary products within their reach.
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The people of Montville, when they ascertained the failure of their expectations, wisely turned their attention to their farms and utilized what was at their hand. There were some natural products of the earth stored away by nature for the use of man, ready for him when the time came to meet his needs. Limestone of excellent quality and very white has been quarried in the northern part of the town- ship in large quantities, and used at Boonton to supply the furnaces there, and also for agricultural and other pur- poses. A quarry of red sandstone, belonging at one time to John H. Vreeland, a lineal descendant of Hartman Vree- land, one of the first settlers, was found near the Pequannock line, and considerable quantities of stone taken from it. Rocks were quarried here of great size with the apparent tracks of a bird as large as an ostrich on them. Specimens of these rocks are de- posited in the geological museum SEAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM. at Trenton. Some asbestos and some good specimens of serpen- tine have also been found in portions of the township.
But the greatest source of gain to the population has been their farms of excellent soil, upon which they have been enabled to raise good crops, more than sufficient for their own wants, and also to increase their stock of cattle. In this manner they have been able to send large quantities of milk and other farm products to Newark.
Taylortown is a very small hamlet named after one of its principal inhabitants. Several roads come together here, and pass out into different parts of the township. The dis- trict school house is situated at this locality, affording facili-
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WHITEHALL AND BEAVERTOWN
ties for a common school education to the children of a very sparse population, almost entirely agricultural in their pur- suits and scattered over a large district.
Whitehall is a village of larger size, with a school house and a postoffice, in
the northeast- ern part of Montville, and a station of the Dela- ware, Lacka- wanna and Western Rail- road. It also has one of the Methodist Churches of the county.
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There is a larger ele- ment of thede- scendants of Holland set- tlers here in proportion 4 than in any other part of THE "HALF MOON" LEAVING AMSTERDAM. the county, as is shown by the prevalence of the names of Van Duyne, Ja- cobus, Vreeland, Zeliff, and Mandeville.
Beavertown, now called Lincoln Park, is in the extreme northeastern corner of the township and on the line of Pe-
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
quannock. It is a hamlet of considerable antiquity, but it is impossible to fix any date for its first settlement. It has undoubtedly shared in the impulse which sent Hollanders from Manhattan into the valleys of the Hackensack and its tributaries, and at first was one of the outposts of advancing civilization. Holland names, those of old families, abound in this locality, especially that of Zeliff. It has a large por- tion of the Great Piece Meadows on its southern borders and the Bog and Vly Meadows on its northern. A station of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which passes through the village, and a postoffice are established near. The public school house of the district, called the Beavertown, is also built here. The Reformed Church of Pompton Plains has erected one of its three chapels at this village and is successfully sustaining this appliance for Christian worship. The village has possibilities of growth in the near future, and is feeling the impulse which is awak- ening such localites to the advantages of their situations.
In the extreme southern part of Montville Township, and in a portion of it almost entirely surrounded by the Passaic River, which here forms a horseshoe-like bend, is to be found a village for many years called Pine Brook, situate in a level and fertile extent of country, surrounded on all sides except on the west by the Hatfield Swamp, and lying be- tween it and the river. One of the Methodist Churches of the township has long been established here. The locality at one time was of much importance, as it was on the direct line of travel to Newark, and here a bridge crossed the river. Within the last few years the inhabitants of Morris and Es- sex Counties have awakened to the importance of good roads, which are the modes of travel from the country dis- tricts to great centers of trade and business, and this high- way has felt the impulse of this march of improvement. An
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MODERN CHARACTERISTICS
excellent road formed according to modern ideas of road- making now passes through Pine Brook, and is extensively used by the farmers of Montville as they seek a market for their milk and farm products at Newark and other large towns.
Early Dutch settlers have left their impress here in the survival of many old family names, undoubtedly Holland in their origin, such as Van Ness, Van Duyne, Van Worth, Vreeland, Spier, and others. Near the center of the village the Rockaway pours its volume of water into the Passaic, which at this point assumes a course more winding than in any other part of the progress of this most tortuous of all streams.
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OLD SNUFF BOXES.
CHAPTER XIV
BOONTON TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH
® OONTON is the smallest township in Morris County, containing only 3,490 acres, mostly of a mountain- ons character. There is some good arable land on the Rockaway River, upon both sides of which the town of Boonton is situated. The township is bounded on the north by Pequannock and Montville, on the east by Montville, on the south by Hanover and the Rockaway River, and on the west by Rockaway and Hanover. It con- tains the Borongh of Boonton and the small village of Pow- erville, both situated on the Rockaway.
The northern and western parts of the township are hilly, rocky, wild, and fitted only for timberland and pasturage. The eastern part and that just north of the town of Boon- ton are of the same character.
Some years ago excavations were made in a rough eleva- tion in the eastern part with the hope of finding iron ore. Veins of it were discovered and some quantities mined, but the expectation of obtaining iron in sufficient quantities and of proper quality to make it profitable was blasted and the enterprise abandoned. More than a hundred years ago it was known that ore did exist there, and the elevation therefore was known by the name of Mine Ridge. A pecul- iar species of fossil fish, admirably preserved with fins, tails, and even scales, was discovered on the southern edge
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
of the township, on the bank of a small stream running into the Rockaway, in the crevices or seams of a soft, grey sand- stone. Many years ago several fine specimens of this fos- sil rewarded the efforts of some enthusiastic explorers, espe- cially those of a professor of Columbia College, who spent considerable time and money in digging and excavating. The fossils were found imbedded in a hard black substance somewhat resembling coal, which, when placed on a blazing fire, would burn with a smoke and odor like bituminous coal.
Boonton was formed in 1867 from the territory of Pequan- nock. The township itself, outside of the borough, is insig- nificant in importance as to population and resources. The number of inhabitants in the whole township, outside of the town of Boonton, does not exceed three or four hundred. There were some years ago evidences of iron mines in the northeastern part, but they have never been worked to any great advantage.
The land is well watered. The Rockaway River washes a large part of the boundary line between Boonton and Han- over and Rockaway. Many smaller streams flow across the township into this important river, of which Stony Brook is the largest. The Rockaway has an immense water power at the town of Boonton, which has been utilized for the use of large manufacturing plants, and has aided in making that locality what it is. The falls at and near Powerville and Boonton and the descent in the river of about thirty feet have created this extensive water power.
In 1823 William Scott, who a short time before that date had purchased the old Boonton tract, opened a new road on the east side of the river towards Powerville. At that time the Erie Canal in New York was approaching comple- tion. Its supposed great benefits turned the attention of
NEW AMSTERDAM IN 1656.
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
thoughtful minds to the desirability of connecting the an- thracite coal beds of Pennsylvania, which had then been opened for a sufficient length of time for business men to learn the value of this new combustible, with the great emporiums of trade. This could best be done by means of a canal from Easton to tidewater at Jersey City. It was for those times an enterprise which staggered the judgment and challenged the energy of capitalists. It was, however, undertaken, and successfully completed. A charter was granted by the Legislature, December 21, 1824, work was be- gun in July, 1825, and in 1830 the canal reached Newark and Jersey City in 1836.
Colonel John Scott, a brother of William Scott, then lived at Powerville, and he became largely interested in the canal. He owned land there on the river which covered large milling interests. He was a shrewd business man, fully alive to the advantages of this new method of trans- porting goods and of the location of his real estate on the river. In August, 1829, he conveyed to the canal company so much land as it required for its purposes and also the right of damming the river above the falls, so that the canal might be fed from the water thus accumulated, as well as from the other sources of its supply. In consideration for this conveyance he received a large sum of money and also, what was really more valuable, the right of using the water above the dam and the canal as a raceway to convey this motive power to any mills which he or his heirs or assigns might erect below the dam. By this arrangement he could ntilize all the headwater of the river gathered by the dam and that which passed through the canal, and all at the expense of the canal company, who built the dam and constructed the canal. The only condition annexed to this arrangement to be performed by Scott was that the water
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BOONTON AND ITS IRON INTERESTS
used by the mills should be returned to the canal below the planes after it had served the purposes of the mills.
It is quite certain that neither party to this scheme fully anticipated its ultimate results, or appreciated the immense advantages it finally secured for both. There was no mill then erected at Boonton, and no estimate could possibly be made of what the water thus obtained would be worth. Not a pound of coal nor a ton of iron ore had been deliv- ered at Boonton, and the originators of the canal in their wildest dreams never estimated the vast profit eventually to be derived from the trade in iron and coal landed at that village. But the arrangement thus made was really the foundation of the subsequent prosperity of Boonton.
At about the time of the completion of the canal the at- tention of some capitalists in New York was turned towards Boonton. An examination was made of the location and of the superb water power thus gained by Scott. A cor- poration was formed, called the New Jersey Iron Company, land was bought from William Scott and others, and a mill was begun in 1829. This mill was completed and the first iron rolled in 1831. There was a lack of skilled workmen in this country to meet the demand of this new enterprise. Paddlers and rollers were imported from England, some coming as early as 1830 and others later on. This organiza- tion was not a success. The expenses were great. No ma- chinery of the kind necessary could at that time be man- factured in this country, and that, like skilled workmen, must be brought from England. Other causes intervened, leading finally to failure, and to a failure which, at the time, seemed to be of such a character as to paralyze all future efforts in that direction.
The property of the company was sold by the sheriff of Morris County to Dudley B. Fuller, of New York City, for
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
$160,000. Mr. Fuller had been the commission merchant of the company in New York, and was largely its creditor. He had previously purchased the personal property for $125,- 000. This was about the year 1851. The company had built extensive works, mills, furnaces, and other erections, and had branched out into different kinds of the iron trade. Their plant was exceedingly valuable, but the demand for cut nails, the principal part of their manufacture, was so divided with other establishments of a like character, and
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the prices obtainable were so ruinons to the producer, that the company was obliged to suspend their business, and Mr. Fuller became purchaser in self-defence.
Fortunately the price of nails went up, and Mr. Fuller, who had offered to sell the property at a sacrifice of $20,000, was enabled to recuperate his losses and to enter upon a career of unexampled prosperity. He soon associated Mr. James Couper Lord, his partner, with him in the business, and the iron works of Fuller and Lord became the one great
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GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE
industry of Boonton and almost the sole dependence of the town. Mr. Fuller died in 1868 and Mr. Lord in 1869, but by the provisions of their wills the business was conducted un- til 1876.
Boonton was known in Revolutionary times, but it was then a mere hamlet hardly deserving even that name. A few straggling farms, nestling in the valley of the Rocka- way, with one or two dwellings at the foot of Sheep Hill, served to demand a name for the locality. At the begin- ning of the nineteenth century a few houses had been added, but no importance was as yet attached to the place.
In 1850 the town had assumed larger proportions. Sheep Hill was a rough, rocky eminence, lifting its head almost perpendicularly from the edge of the Rockaway. It was of no use for any farming purposes except, perhaps, as a poor pasturage for sheep, but as the manufacturing interests grew at Boonton it began to be utilized for dwellings for the workmen and for erections connected with the mills. A few dwellings were clustered in any available spot at the foot of the hill for boarding houses and for residences for the workmen. These workmen, mostly English and Welsh, were of a very superior class, both as operatives and as citizens. They desired their own homes; they needed churches for religious worship and schools for their chil- dren; they and their families must be clothed and fed. Many of them were readers and loved the companionship of books.
Abont 1850 a young man was requested by a kinsman, who owned an interest in this manufacturing establishment, to accept, temporarily, a subordinate position in its office. He not only filled the place for a time, but remained and soon became the chief manager of the whole enterprise. This young man was William Gerard Lathrop, and from
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the moment he assumed the important position to which he had been elevated he became the head and front of the establishment. He made himself acquainted with every detail; nothing, however trivial, escaped his eye, and under his wise and energetic management the business assumed enormous proportions. Its products were of the very best quality, and were soon recognized as such all over the world.
Many branches of iron manufacture were introduced, and the products sold in Europe and Asia as well as in North and South America. The company went into com- petition with the produ- cers of England in the manufacture of rails for railroads.
While Mr. Lathrop was thus energetically provid- ing for the interests of his employers he was not un- mindful of the workmen. AN OLD RESIDENCE. He became their best friend, and was acknowl- edged to be such by all of them. He established a library filled with choice books for their use; he secured lecturers for their entertainment in the winter evenings; he looked after the education of their children, and secured the erec- tion of school houses and the selection of the best teachers obtainable.
Fostered by such influences, with such appliances, and based upon such substantial foundations, Boonton grew and prospered; the inequalities, the roughness of Sheep Hill, its rocky sides, its wild elevations were conquered. The will
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MODERN BOONTON
of man was masterful and triumphed, and now the town has climbed to its topmost height, and what a few years ago was a wilderness is intersected by streets lined on each side with dwellings filled with a busy, industrious population. Stores, factories, churches, and school houses meet all the varied wants of the people.
The stoppage of the iron works, which was total, created for a short period great distress among the workmen, who had increased to several hundred. They and their fam- ilies felt the loss of wages very acutely. Many of them had acquired little homesteads, in which they had lived happily and contentedly. The cessation of this important industry paralyzed all other occupations, and for a period it seemed as if Boonton would never regain its former prosperity. But its important water power could not be overlooked, and soon other manufactures became established there and the town has again revived and assumed its former prosperity. The location of Boonton is very beautiful, and the town itself occupies a commanding situation and is seen from all the surrounding country. Some years ago, before Sheep Hill was crowned with buildings, some persons climbed a large chestit tree then standing on its topmost point and declared that with a good glass the Atlantic Ocean could be seen. The view from this point is exten- sive in every direction up and down the Valley of the Pas- saic-southward, eastward, northward, and westward it reaches to the Blue Ridge of the Alleghanies. Boonton Borough has passed across the Rockaway and occupied its western bank and some part of Hanover Township, making its way nearly to old Boonton and covering the land with comfortable dwellings for workmen and others.
Boonton has now a population of four thousand people of various races invited hither by the very great number of
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
manufactures carried on there. It has five churches : Metho- dist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian, Re- formed (Dutch), and Roman Catholic, all well supported with excellent and substantial edifices. It has two schools, one public and the other private, the public school house being a modern structure well provided with appliances for its purposes. Its manufactures are of various kinds : numerous iron fab- rics, silk, hard rub- ber, agricultural implements, and paints. It is an in- corporated bor- ough, governed by a mayor and com- mon council. There are two newspa- pers here : the Bul- letin, established in 1870, of Repub- lican politics, and the Boonton Times, neutral, and estab- lished in 1895.
INDIAN CHIEF.
Old Boonton was well known in the
Revolution. It is one of the most romantic of spots, situated in a deep ravine through which the Rockaway brawls and dashes in swift course down a very steep descent. The ham- let-it can hardly be called even that-is found in the nar- row valley of the river at the foot of steep, almost precipi- tous, hills, which here bound the stream. The access to it on either side of this valley was down winding roads, ascending
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JOHN JACOB FAESCH
and descending elevations of perhaps a hundred feet high. Recently a bridge of excellent structure and of some artistic beauty spans the gorge and lessens materially the labor and danger of the passage from the top of one hill to the other. The bridge has not detracted from the wild grandeur of the scene, but the art displayed in its erection has added a feature which enhances its beauty.
John Jacob Faesch, a Swiss, who came to New Jersey several years before the Revolution, retired to this romantic spot after peace was declared and died there in 1799. He was an ardent patriot and a member of the convention called to pass on the Federal constitution. He controlled several furnaces, especially the Mount Hope furnace, and made a contract to furnish Congress with iron cannon and cannon balls and supplied the army with the munitions of war in great quantities. Many unsuccessful efforts were made by the Tories to capture the works, and also to plun- der Mr. Faesch's dwelling at Mount Hope. Mr. Faesch left children surviving him, but none of his descendants now known are in New Jersey. He was a noted man in his day, much respected for his private character and for his enthu- siastic and active patriotism. His recognized ability in the manufacture of iron had secured for him a place in this country of great influence and a contract never before made with any other artisan. He was induced to leave his native country and come to America by the offer of a very large salary and perquisites. He came here several years before the Revolution and had effected material changes in the methods of manufacturing iron.
CHAPTER XV
THE TOWNSHIP OF PEQUANNOCK
P EQUANNOCK was originally the largest township in Morris County, but by the formation of Mont- ville, Boonton, and Rockaway, whose territory have all been taken from it, it has been reduced to its present dimensions. A small part of Jefferson was also taken from Pequannock.
It once contained more than 70,000 acres, but now has only 20,942, an acreage less than some of the townships taken from it. It was at first formed by the action of the County Court of Quarter Sessions on the 25th of March, 1740, almost immediately after the county was created. It is bounded on the north by the Pequannock River, which separates it from Passaic County, on the east by the Pequan- nock and Pompton Rivers, on the south by the Passaic River, Montville, and Boonton, and on the west by Rocka- way.
The eastern part of the township is almost entirely level ground called by the general name of Pompton Plains. In the southeastern corner, where the Pompton River empties into the Passaic, the two rivers form a horseshoe-like loop, inclosing an extensive tract of land, into which the Hook Mountains pass, extending from Montville. For some dis- tance the Great Piece Meadow extends over from Essex County, bordering on what is there the north bank of the Passaic. North of this part of the township, and almost
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