The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 100

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220

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Mr. Sexton is in the prime of a vigorous man- hood, and is strictly a "Camden County man," never having lived out of it, and by all considered one of its best and most respected citizens. By his industry and perseverance he has contributed largely to the success of the large and important manufacturing industry of Gloucester City, with which he has so long been identified.

TERRA-COTTA WORKS .- On the river-shore, south of Jersey Avenne, are located the Glouces- ter Terra-Cotta Works, of Kehrer & Sons. These were operated many years ago by David S. Brown & Co., and afterwards by George H. Hammond, and by other parties without much success. About 1883 the present firm assumed possession and made a success of the enterprise. The product is terra-cotta pipe, of which eight thousand feet is made weekly, giving employment to twenty men. On the river-shore, below high water, is a valnable bed of clay, suited to the company's wants, but when they attempted to dig for it, an injunction, issued at the instance of the owners of the fishery right, restrained them, and the material now used in manufacturing is brought from a distance of nearly two hundred miles.

THE GLOUCESTER STEAM MACHINE-WORKS are situated ou Market Street, below King. In 1853 Hugh W. and Robert Lafferty erected a sugar refinery at Broadway and Mercer Streets, and for sixteen years carried on a flourishing busi- ness, producing five hundred barrels of refined sugar per week and giving employment to sixty men. They imported their raw material direct, and for a time Gloucester was a shipping port, several vessels at one time lying at the Mercer Street wharf unloading cargoes from the West In-

dies and other foreign parts. In 1879 this business was discontinued and Hugh W. Lafferty started the steam-engine and machine-works, his specialty being sugar machines for plantations and sugar- works. They are of his own designing, his inven- tions being many and various, and the demand for them from all parts of the world is increasing so that an enlargement of the works will be a neces- sity of the near future.

ONE LUMBER-YARD at a time has sufficed the little city, and there has never been competition in the trade. For several years Frank Mulford sold lumber, his place being on the north side of Market Street, east of King, when, in 1849, Henry B. Wilson and William C. Doughten opened a yard on the northwest corner of King and Market Streets, and Mulford abandoned the business. They built the frame store for the sale of hard- ware. In 1854 William S. McCallister became as- sociated with them, and, in 1858, sole proprietor, Wilson & Doughten removing to Kaighns Point and there engaged in the same business. In 1866 John C. Stinson became McCallister's partner, and on the death of the latter, in 1868, George W. Dickensheets succeeded him and the firm has since been Stinson & Dickensheets.

From the first the men engaged in the trade have been useful in public as well as private life. Frank Mulford was a leader in municipal and so- ciety affairs. Henry B. Wilson has been a leader in Camden, member and president of the City Council, postmaster and member of the Legislature. William S. McCallister was one of the most useful and trusted men in Gloucester, while John C. Stin- son and George W. Dickensheets have been pillars of the religious bodies to which they belong, and for many years in various municipal bodies sought the good of others rather than their own profit.

THINGS THAT WERE .- Jacob Sheetz, Abel Lu- kens, John H. Shultz, Peleg B. Savery and Abra- ham Browning, in 1858, procured a charter for the Gloucester China Company, to manufacture and sell porcelain, china, chemicals, drugs and other articles of which clay, sand and other earthy sub- stances form the bases or principal ingredients. The company built a factory on part of the ground now covered by the Ancona Print Works. Peleg B. Savery was the well-known Southwark hollow- ware foundryman and the product of the Glouces- ter works was largely used in lining his iron castings. John Siter & Brother carried on a factory for the making of woollen and cotton machinery, and the same site was occupied by Richard F. Lo- per, of propeller fame, as an iron ship yard.

In 1864 Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia, had

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

works built on the ground now occupied by the Gloucester Tron-Works. They were in charge of John H. Mystrom, an ingenious inventor, who turned out some excellent steel by a method of his own, similar to the Bessemer process. For some reason the enterprise failed.

In 1872 David S. Brown, George Jamison, Henry N. Paul, James P. Michellon, Benjamin Chew, Henry F. West, William Sexton, Daniel Schotichl and Samuel Chew procured a charter for the Cloneester City Savings Institution, which pros- pered for a number of years, but in 1884, when most of the original promoters had ceased connec- tion with it, it suspended, and its effects were placed in the hands of a receiver.

THINGS THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN .- March 8, 1845, Richard W. Howell, Charles Robb, Joseph Porter, Thomas S. Ridgway and Benjamin W. Cooper obtained a charter for a projected enter- prise under the name of the New Jersey Manuthe- turing Company of the County of Camden, for tho manufacturing, dyeing, bleaching and printing of wool and cotton and all goods of wool and cotton and other fibrous material. The proposed capital to be invested was six hundred thousand dollars. There was a proviso in the charter that all children to be employed in the establishment under sixteen years of age must have at least three months "schooling" each year. The place selected was Gloucester, but the enterprise failed to mature,

In 1855 the Union Manufacturing Company of Gloucester was chartered to manufacture flour, meal, barrels and kegs. The incorporators wero William B. Thomas, Thomas A. G. Stein, Samuel Z. Broek, Wm. S. Doughten, James L. Hines and Jeremiah Il. Banks, but the company was never organized and nothing came of the undertaking.

In 1865 a charter was granted to James H. Stevens, James P. Michellon, Peter 1. Voorhees, William Sexton and Lewis' 11. Bundick, to form the Gloucester Iron Foundry and Machine Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, but the project ended with the grant.

In 1871 the Gloucester Co-operative Benefit So- ciety, capital ten thousand dollars, was incorpo- rated, with Wm. Mellhenny, Wm. Wholstenholm, John Schules, Robert Booth, James Bartolle, Wm. Lce and James White as incorporators. The ob- jeet was to purchase direct from first hands and avoid the profits of middle men, but the project went no farther than the granting of the charter by the General Assembly.

THE GAS LAGHTING COMPANY OF GLOUCESTER was incorporated in 1878, the names of David S. Brown, James P. Michellon, Henry N. Paul,

Bonj. Chew and Wm, Sexton being mentioned in the act, and they comprised the company. The works were built by the Gloucester Iron Company and were located on Jersey Avenue, above Fifth Street. They were completed and began opera- tions January 1. 1875. The holder has a capacity of sixty thousand enbie feet of gas, and the an- nual production is sixty-soven million cubic feet, with three and a half miles of pipe, supplying sev- enty-six street lamps belonging to the city, be- sides private parties, The officers of the company for 1886 aro: President, George A. Heyl ; Seere- tary, James P. Michellon ; Treasurer and Superin- tendent, Harry B, Chew.

THE Post-OFFICE .- The following is a list of the postmasters of Gloucester, together with the dates of their appointment, as furnished by the Post-Office Department at Washington :

Postmaster.

Dato of Appt.

Postmaster.

Dateof Appt.

William C, Mutford. July 29, 1846,'

Albert J. Groene, Sopt. 7, 18bt.

William H. Emery. Feb. 20, 1849.

EdwinTomlinson,

Mar. 19, 1869. William C. Mullord, June 6, 18.3. |Chas, 11. Barnard. Nov. 17, 1881. William 11. Emtory. [ May 25, 1861,

Jus. Mebanghlin. July 28, 1885.

1 Dato of establishment.

RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

It is not generally known to the members of the present church at Gloucester that over one hun- dred and sixty-four years ago a congregation of the Church of England worshipped in that town, but such is the faet. In 1722 Thomas Bull, one of the proprietors of the town, in his will, makes the following bequest: " I give my file or tier of lots at Gloucester, including the burial-ground nour my house, to be set apart for a Church of England when the congregation see fit to build." There is no evidence that a church was ever built, and the sito of the burial-ground mentioned is unknown, A congregation was maintained, however, for many yours, and up to the time of the Revolution, if not later. The Rov. Nathaniel Evans, who was ap- pointed as missionary by the Society for the Prop- agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1765 was placed in charge of the parish at Gloucester, Colestown and Berkley. Ho pronchod at those places until his death, October 29, 1767. Five years later, November 19, 1.772, he was succoodod by the Rov. Robert Blackwell, who married Re- becen, a daughter of Josoph Harrison, a momber of the congregation. Ilo continned in the service until the Revolutionary War broke out, when he joined the army as chaplain and surgeon. Tho churches for a time were without regular services, and it is not certain that the church at Gloucester

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GLOUCESTER CITY.

was again revived. No further effort is known tending to re-establishing Episcopal services in it. The present church of that denomination was or- ganized in 1847. Some of the early emigrants who settled at Gloucester in 1689 were members of the Society of Friends, and they doubtless wor- shipped in the house of Mark Newbie, on the White Horse road, in Newton township, where an "indulged meeting" was held under the authority of the Society of Burlington.

Dr. Bangs, a Methodist historian, states that "Messrs. Boardman and Pilmore landed at Glou- cester Point October 24, 1769, and immediately set about their work of doing good."

They were English missionaries sent out by John Wesley, but whether they set about their work at Gloucester Point is not stated. There is no evi- dence of permanent results. Meetings under Meth- odist auspices were held in Gloucester as early as 1820, in the " eight-square " school-house, on the Woodbury road, north of Timber Creek, but no or- ganization was formed. About the same time meetings were held and continued for years in the old school-house on Market Street, east of the West Jersey Railroad. They were conducted by Frederick Plummer, of Philadelphia, a man of great eloquence and power in the pulpit, who drew large audiences. His efforts resulted in the con- version of hundreds during the fifteen or twenty years that he visited Gloucester Point. Many were baptized in the Delaware, but no church or- ganization was effected, and the converts, gathered from many miles of surrounding country, were scattered or joined other churches, when Mr. Plummer ceased his ministrations, about 1840. Among them were Arthur Powell, a trustee of the Methodist society in 1839, and his widow, Mary Powell, still living with clear mental powers and retentive memory, and an active member of the Baptist Church. Another of Rev. Plummer's con- verts is Alexander A. Powell, son of Arthur, now one of the leading members of the Methodist Church in Gloucester, with two sons, George W. and A. Aden Powell, local preachers.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH of Glou- cester originated in 1839, as the following minutes will show : "At the request of Robert W. Sykes, Esq. of Philadelphia, a meeting was called at the Glou- cester Point Hotel, Gloucester County, N. J., at three o'clock on Wednesday, June 5th, 1839, of the following gentlemen, viz .: Joshua P. Browning, John Whiteman, Edmund J. Yard, John Moore, Arthur Powell, Thomas Gitliens, Edward Daugh- erty, Reilly Barrett, Richard Benson, James Car- rigan and James Harmstead."

Of the above, Powell and Browning belonged to Gloucester, Githens, Barrett and Dougherty were from Camden and the others were Philadelphians. Browning was elected chairman and Harmstead secretary. Mr. Sykes then proposed to convey to the above-named gentlemen the house, twenty-five by fifty feet, erected on a lot of ground sixty-one by two hundred and sixty-six feet, on Market Street, above Third, for a place of religious wor- ship "for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church." The property was then presented to them as trustees. About three hundred dollars was raised and expended in furnishing the house. Robert W. Sykes, a generous donor, was a lawyer, and besides owning the ferry across the Delaware between Gloucester Point and Greenwich Point, possessed considerable land in Gloucester. He was not a member of the Methodist Church, but gave the new congregation encouraging support. The trustees gave the building the name of "Sykes' Chapel," but subsequently, at his request, it was changed to " Gloucester Point Chapel."

Rev. Levi Scott, who afterwards became a prom- inent bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Rev. Joseph Ashbrook, of Camden, were as- signed by Conference to conduct the religious ser- vices in this building. On October 20, 1839, an incendiary fire destroyed the chapel and all it con- tained except the Bible. This seemed to be a sad misfortune to the community and the young cou- gregation, buttheir good friend R. W. Sykes, second- ed by his wife, came promptly to their aid. Call- ing the trustees together the next day, October 21st, he informed them that he had insured the building for twelve hundred dollars, and that the money was at their disposal for the purpose of re - building. He also offered to exchange a lot one hundred by two hundred and eighty feet, on King Street, more centrally located, for the one on which the original building stood. These generous offers were accepted and a brick building, thirty by fifty feet, was constructed at a cost of eighteen hundred dollars,

The Gloucester Church was part of a circuit un- til 1845, when the membership having reached sixty, it was made a separate station under the charge of the Rev. Elwood H. Stokes, now presi- dent of the Ocean Grove Association. The so- ciety worshipped on King Street until 1851, when the opening of Somerset Street through the ground compelled the removal of the building. Land was purchased ou Monmouth Street, corner of Willow, and a two-story brick church, forty-five by seventy feet, erected thereon, and the year fol- lowing a three-story parsonage, the whole costing

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

about eight thousand dollars. Here the congrega- tion held religions services until the night of De- cember, 1882, when. in the midst of one of the greatest revivals that ever visited the congregation, a fire destroyed the structure, with all its contents, leaving nothing but blackened walls. The parson- age was damaged, but the insurance made good the loss. On the church there was a debt of twelve hundred dollars and an insurance of five thou- sand dollars. The Presbyterian and Baptist con- gregations of the town kindly offered to shelter the homeless society, but the use of the city hall, proffered by the City Council, was accepted, and there they met until the pastor, Rev. H. M. Brown, aided by the trustees, James L. Hines, president, in a few months placed on the site of the ruins a large and beautiful church building, fifty by eighty feet, at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars,

Like other churches and institutions of Glou- cester City whose population, dependent upon factory employment, comers and goers as trade ebbs and flows, this church has had its seasons of lesser and greater growth, and its membership has fluctuated. In 1880 it reached three hundred and seventy ; at the present time, six years later, it is two hundred and forty-two. The Sunday- school, with forty-two teachers and four hundred and ten scholars, is under the charge of George W. Powell as superintendent, with William J. Turkington as assistant.

The following-named ministers have served the Gloucester congregation since its organization, in 1839. Those marked with a * are dead.

1839 .- William Brooke .* 1861 .- William Walton.

1841 .- Socrates Townshend.

1863 .- Thomas C. Carman.

1843 .- J. W. McDougal .*

1865 .- Milton Relyea.

1845 .- Elwood Il. Stokes. 1868 .- Jesse Stites.

1847 .- John B. Dobhine.

1871 .- Abram K. Street.

1848 .- Robert Givin.

1874 .- Philip Cline.

1851 .- Joseph Ashbrook .*

1876 .- Enoch Green.

1853 .- Jefferson Lewis.

1878 .- George H. Neal.

1855 .- John Fort .* 1881 .- William Walton.

1857 .- Joseph Atwood. 1882 .- Henry M. Brown.

1859 .- Robert S. Harris. 1885,-Daniel B. Harrie.

In 1883, November 14th, the corner-stone of a Mission Chapel was laid in the southeastern sec- tion of the city. The burning of the church a few days after retarded work upon the chapel, but it was recently finished and services are now held in it regularly, the pulpit being supplied by local preachers from Camden.

CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION .- The Protestant Episcopal Church of the Ascension, of Gloucester, was organized in 1847, largely through the efforts of [Rev. Isaac P. Labaugh, assistant rector of the Episcopal Church at ; Haddonfield, assisted by Thomas S. Ridgway and Mr. and Mrs. Charles

Robb, of Philadelphia. A meeting was held in the district school-house November 29, 1847, when the congregation was organized and the following officers elected : Wardens, Jefferson Smith and Alan Sanford ; vestrymen, Nathaniel Demeritt, William S. McCallister, Thomas Higginbottom, George Nichols, Daniel F. Melcher, Hiram Brow- nell, Benjamin Browning, Albanus L. Clemens, Luther L. Cheeney and Benjamin Taylor. Two days later, on December 1st, Charles and Rebecca Robb, of Philadelphia, who owned large tracts of land at Gloucester, conveyed to this newly-formed parish a lot of ground one hundred feet square on Sussex Street, near Ridgway, " for and in consid- eration of the love and veneration for the Protes- tant Episcopal Church, and for the establishment of the same in the township of Union, commonly called the City of Gloucester." The lot was virtu- ally presented to the parish, as but ten dollars was charged. Another lot on Sussex Street, forty by one hundred and twenty feet, was afterwards bought of Daniel Lacey and a third on Ridgway Street, twenty by one hundred and twenty feet, of Isaac P. Labaugh, upon which a rectory has since been built. Thus organized, having selected the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Ascension as the name, Isaac P. Labaugh was chosen rector of the parish and continued to serve as assistant rector of the church in Haddonfield. A substan- tial stone building, with a seating capacity of three huudred and fifty, was erected, at a cost of three thousand dollars, and consecrated, free of debt, early in 1850, by Bishop Doane, of the diocese of New Jersey. Besides those already mentioned as active workers in the parish during its early strug- gles were Mrs. William S. McCallister, James Wil- son, Samuel Raby, Stephen Crocker, Henry B. Wilson and others.

The following is a list of the rectors and others in charge in the order of their succession : Isaac P. Labaugh, rector ; Josiah Bartlett, rector ; Mac- Gregor J. Mitcherson, missionary in charge ; The- ophilus Reilly ; John A. Goodfellow, lay reader; James A. Lamb, lay rector ; John A. Fury, priest in charge ; Reese C. Evans, priest ; Richard H. de Gorma, priest; Caleb Pease, deacon ; Thomas F. Milby, deacon ; Thomas Dickerson, priest ; Fran- cis D. Canfield, priest.

The parish has sixty communicants. The property is valued at ten thousand dollars.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH .- In 1847, Rev. John M. Rodgers, a Presbyterian clergyman of Woodbury, visited Gloucester and held meetings at Washington Hall, on King Street, and on the 26th of June called a meeting for the purpose of

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GLOUCESTER CITY.

organizing. Mr. Rodgers pre-ided and William C. Mulford, M.D., was chosen secretary. The trustees elected were William Melcher, William C. Mulford, Peter Du Bois (an elder), Elvin Jew- ell and Henry Van Fossen. Rev. Mr. Rodgers ac- cepted a call to become pastor of the young con- gregation and entered upon his duties on the 1st of October with about twenty members. Their meetings were held in Washington Hall until 1849. In the mean time land had been purchased on Monmouth Street, at the corner of Burlington, the Gloucester Land Company donating part of the purchase money, and October 11, 1848, the corner-stone of the present house of worship was laid with appropriate ceremonies, Revs. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., and George W. Janvier delivering addresses on that occasion. The building is of brick, two stories, and the main audience-room will seat four hundred persons. The cost was eight thousand dollars. Upon it was a spire, eighty-two feet high, which a hurricane blew down three years after its erection and it was not re- built. The congregation at first was weak, but the Presbytery of Philadelphia assisted and Rev. Mr. Rodgers himself raised fifteen hundred dollars for the building fund. Rev. Dr. M. B. Grier, one of the editors of the Presbyterian, and who sup- plied the pulpit during 1867 and 1868, did much for the interests of the congregation. He present- ed a lot of ground adjoining the church, upon which a fine parsonage was built in 1870, costing two thousand eight hundred dollars. Fifteen pas- tors have served the congregation since the organ- ization, in 1847. Their names and the dates that they each assumed charge are as follows :

1847. John M. Rodgers. 1859. T. F. Richmond.

1849. James Kirk,

1859. Joseph McMurray.

1850. A. Tudehope. 1866. John S. Hanna.

1951. Edward D. Yeomans. 1867. M. B. Grier, D.D.

1851. F. Knighton.

1869. Henry F. Reeves.

1853. W. E. Jones.

1881. John R. Milligan.

1854. David Longmore.

1885. James A. McGowen.

1856. W. E. Boardman.

The pastorate of Joseph McMurray was a happy one, and under his ministrations of nearly seven years prosperity attended, until his failing health compelled his resignation. His death soon there- after was deeply deplored. To rich gifts he united rare piety, which won for him universal love and reverence. The long pastorate of Henry F. Reeves, extending over twelve years, was blessed spiritually and temporally. Under him the entire debt of the church was liquidated and prosperity attended his efforts until the time of his resigna- tion to become principal of the Ivy Academy, a Presbyterian instutition at Bridgeton, N. J. The

church membership is one hundred and fifty- seven.

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH of Gloucester was constituted April 4, 1867, in Washington Hall, on King Street, where services were held until the frame meeting-house was built, with a seating capacity of three hundred.

The pastors have been C. D. Parker, William P. Maul, Thomas R. Taylor, E. V. Glover, Peter Mckenzie, John S. Te asdale, William C. Calder.

The officers for 1886 were,-Pastor, William C. Calder ; Deacons, George M. Cheeseman, John Budd ; Clerk, Clayton Sagers; Treasurer, Anna Farrel ; Trustees, Clayton Shuster, W. Budd, Geo. M. Cheeseman, John Budd, Frank Sagers, Harry Carter. The members number ninety-five.

The Sunday-school was formed June 18, 1867, and has one hundred and ninety officers, teachers and pupils, with a library of three hundred vol- umes. Superintendent, George M. Cheeseman.

ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, on the south- east corner of Sussex and Cumberland Streets, was built in 1849 by Rev. Father Waldron, appointed parish priest by Archbishop Kendrick, of Phila- delphia. Mass had been celebrated for some time in Washington Hall, on King Street, and in the old school-house near Broadway and Hudson. Rev. Waldron remained but a short time after build- ing the church, a stone structure, and was succeeded by Rev. Finnegan, who at the end of a year was removed and Rev. Harrigan appointed in his place. His pastorate of six years was very successful. The parish was strengthened and the debt of two thousand seven hundred dollars reduced to nine hundred dollars. He was removed to a parish in Cincinnati, where he died a few years afterwards. Such was the affection of his old parishioners for their former pastor that, raising the cost by sub- scription and obtaining the proper authority, they brought his body to Gloucester and buried it among their own dead. Rev. Daly was the next parish priest, and during the few years of his stay the debt was increased to nine thousand five hun- dred dollars. Rev. Father Wiseman was the next pastor and is kindly remembered as a good one, under whose administration the parish grew. The parish school-house was built, several teachers em- ployed and a large number of children instructed. He was removed to Crawford, N. Y., and Bishop Corrigan appointed Rev. Egbert Kars as pastor in 1873. Father Kars was the best loved and most . successful pastor the Gloucester Church has known, For thirteen years he administered its affairs with wise firmness, tempered with love, and gained the hearty co-operation of his parishion ers in whatever

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 100

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220