The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 55

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

USA > New Jersey > Camden County > The history of Camden county, New Jersey > Part 55

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

THE WEST JERSEY RAILROAD was in- corporated February 5, 1853, by an act of the Legislature, which authorized the con- struction of a road from Camden City, through Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland and Cape May Counties, to a terminus at or near Cape Island, in the last-named county.

The incorporators were Thomas H. Whit- ney, Lewis Mulford, John W. Mickle, George M. Ward, Samuel S. Movey, David Potter, E. L. B. Wales, Richard P. Thomp- son, Charles E. Elmer, Richard C. Holmes, Newcomb J. Thompson, Francis N. Buck, Benjamin F. Lee, Samuel J. Reeves, Abra- ham Browning, John A. Elkinton, Joshua Swain,Jr., Richard D. Wood, Benjamin Ac-

355

PUBLIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

ton, Jr., Thomas Mills, Thomas Jones Yorke, Samuel A. Whitney, Mark Devine and Daniel E. Estell.

Books were opened for receiving stock subscriptions, but, although great efforts were made by the commissioners, or incorpo- rators, to interest the public, very few people came forward to lend financial aid to the en- terprise, and it appeared as if failure was in- evitable. It was then, when only five hun- dred and twenty-five shares had been taken, all told, that Commodore Robert F. Stock- ton exhibited his faith in the ultimate success of the project by subscribing for four thou- sand shares, which amounted to two hundred thousand dollars. This encouraged others, and the affairs of the West Jersey Railroad Company were in a promising and constantly improving condition.

On the 3d of May, 1853, a board of thir- teen directors was organized, consisting of Robert F. Stockton, Edwin A. Stevens, Robert L. Stevens, John P. Stockton, John W. Mickle, Thomas H. Whitney, John G. Rosenbaum, Thomas Jones Yorke, Richard P. Thompson, George M. Ward, David Por- ter, Samuel J. Bayard and Joshua Swain, Jr. The first meeting of the board was held on the 9th of May, when Commodore Robert F. Stockton was elected president, Thomas Jones Yorke secretary, and General William Cook chief engineer.

Prior to the organization of the company, and following the decline of the Camden and Woodbury Railroad, which had been opened since 1837, the question of a railroad leading southerly had been much agitated, and early in 1852 General Cook made preliminary surveys over three routes, and in his report mentioned the distance over each and the comparative cost. The first route, via Wood- bury, Glassboro' and Millville, seventy- eight miles ; estimated cost, seven hundred and seventy-five thousand two hundred and eighty dollars. The second and still more eligible route, via Woodbury, Glassboro',

and Millville, eighty-five miles ; estimated cost, eight hundred and eighty thousand dol- lars. The third and longest route, by way of Salem, with an estimated cost of one mil- lion one hundred and eighty-one thousand eight hundred and forty dollars. The esti- mated cost of engines, cars, depots, tanks, stations, etc., was one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

After the granting of the charter and valu- ation of the route, ground was broken on Seventh Street, in Camden, by Thomas Jones Yorke, who threw the first spadeful of earth, and the work of laying the rails began at the north end in July, 1855, and the section, between Camden and Woodbury, was completed in August, 1856, and, April 15, 1857, regular trains for passengers and traffic began to run.

In 1862 it was finished to Bridgeton, and from Glassboro' reaches Cape May by connec- tions with the Millville and Glassboro' and Cape May and Millville Railroads. The line from Glassboro' to Millville was built under a separate charter, and opened in April, 1860. In 1868 a consolidation took place, which is thus described in the preamble to the act,-

" Whereas, the West Jersey Railroad connects di- rectly with the Millville and Glassboro' Railroads, and by means of the latter with the Cape May and Millville Railroad, and also connected directly with the Salem Railroad, forming altogether one entire system of railroads, which can be operated with greater economy under one management ; and whereas the West Jersey Railroad Company and the Millville and Glassboro' Railroad Company have entered into an agreement, bearing date of October 12, 1867, providing for a consoli- dation of the two companies, so that all their cor- porate powers and franchises shall be merged into, and all their corporate property owned by, the West Jersey Railroad Company; therefore, be it enacted, etc."

The company then leased the Salem Rail- road, and has since added to its leased lines the Swedesboro' Railroad, the Woodstown and Swedesboro' Railroad and the West Jer- sey and Atlantic Railroad, which latter ex-

356

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

tends from Newfield to Atlantic City, was opened in 1881 and includes the Somers Point Branch. Besides its Bridgeton Branch, the West Jersey owns branches to Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Townsend's Inlet. It owns one hundred and nineteen miles of road and leases eighty-one. Its capital stock is one million four hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars and its funded debt two million seven hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars, of which two million dollars is in bonds, guaranteed by the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, which furnished most of the money for the construction of the original line. The West Jersey was in- cluded in the lease of the United Lines to the Pennsylvania Railroad and has since been operated by that corporation. The officers of the road are George B. Roberts, president; William J. Sewell, vice-president ; William Taylor, secretary and treasurer. The direct- ors are George B. Roberts, Coleman F. Leaming, Charles E. Elmer, John M. Moore, Thomas H. Dudley, George Wood, J. N. DuBarry, N. Parker Shortridge, Edmund Smith, Henry D. Welsh, Benjamin F. Lee, James H. Nixon and William J. Sewell.

GENERAL WILLIAM J. SEWELL was born in Ireland in 1835. Left an orphan at an early age, he came to the United States in 1851 to join his brother, Mr. Robert Sewell, now a prominent lawyer in New York, who had preceded him. He engaged in business in New York City, and subse- quently, entering the mercantile marine ser- vice, visited all parts of the Eastern world, and the west coast of North and South Amer- ica, and became at an early age an officer of one of the American clipper ship fleet of those days.

On his return from one of his voyages he visited Chicago, settled there and engaged in mercantile business. On the breaking out of the war he came to New Jersey, where he was offered a commission as captain of the Fifth New Jersey Volunteers, accepted the

same, and participated in all of the great bat- tles of the Army of the Potomac. General Sewell was twice wounded during the war,- at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg,-and was promoted, step by step, until he reached the colonelcy of his regiment.

He led the celebrated charge at Chancel- lorsville of the Second New Jersey Brigade, which he commanded, capturing nine stand of colors from the enemy. At the close of the war he was mustered out of service as a brevet major-general, his brevet reading "for distinguished gallantry on the field of Chan- cellorsville." Returning home to New Jer- sey, he took charge of the business of the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company at Camden, and was in a short time transferred to the superintendency of the West Jersey Railroad Company, from which he was pro- moted to the office of vice-president of that road. He has also been appointed president of the Long Beach Railroad Company, of the Salem Railroad Company and the Woodstown and Swedesboro' Railroad Com- pany ; also vice-president of the West Jersey and Atlantic and the Camden and Atlantic Railroad Companies, and a director in several other railroad companies. General Sewell was the originator of one of the most flour- ishing banking institutions of the State, that of the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Com- pany. Early seeing the want of a savings bank for the accommodation of the mass of the people, he obtained a charter from the Legislature, and, with some friends, started this bank, which has met a want long felt in Camden, and the success of which has ex- ceeded the anticipations of its promoters. He is also director of the Camden Iron Works, which he helped to start up after a long period of idleness and depression.

The political career of General Sewell shows the manner in which his business qualifications, his untiring energy and fealty to his party and the best interests of the State are appreciated by the people of his

357

PUBLIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

home, and, in fact, of the whole State. He was elected as State Senator from Camden County in 1872, re-elected in 1875 and again in 1878, and for three years was presi- dent of the State Senate. He also represented the party as delegate-at-large to the National Republican Conventions of 1876, 1880 and 1884, on each of which occasions he was complimented by being made chairman of the State delegation. During his long service in the Senate of New Jersey, General Sewell took a leading part in all the important leg- islation of that time, which included the change in the State Constitution, the adoption of general laws and the passage of the Gen- eral Railroad Law. He was made United States Senator in 1881, succeeding Mr. Theodore F. Randolph, which position he occupies at the present time. One of the last acts of the late session of Congress was a recognition by that body of General Sew- ell's services in the field, by electing him one of the managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, as the successor of General Mcclellan.

THE CAMDEN AND WOODBURY RAIL- ROAD AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANY was chartered on the 1st of March, 1836, with an authorized capital of one hundred thon- sand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars each. It was authorized to build a road not exceed- ing sixty-six feet in width from Camden to Woodbury, a distance of eight miles. The persons named as corporators were James Matlack, Joseph Ogden, Robert L. Arm- strong, Jesse Smith, Joseph Fithian, Joseph Franklin, John M. Watson, Charles F. Clark, Joseph Saunders, John C. Smallwood, Sam- uel Webster and others.

The road was built and operated. A sup- plement to the original act was passed in the winter of 1837-38, authorizing branches to be built to Gloucester Point Ferry, to Kaighns Point Ferry and to Haddonfield, but they were never constructed ; and March 1, 1839, a supplement also was passed, 42

authorizing the extension from the southern end of the road to some point on Delaware Bay between the mouth of Stow Creek and the light-house on Cape May. Soon after this time the road passed into the possession of Henry R. Campbell, wlio associated with him his brother, John D. Campbell, who advertised April 1, 1840, that they were run- ning steam-cars on the road. Benjamin Wilkins was superintendent of the road. In February, 1847, the Campbells petitioned the Legislature for a charter for the " Camden and Woodbury Railroad Company," to in- clude all the rights and privileges of the Camden and Woodbury Railroad and Trans- portation Company, " now greatly dilapidat- ed," and also asked authority to extend the road from Woodbury to Carpenters Landing. The petition was granted and an act was passed February 24, 1847. The road was repaired and partially reconstructed and run for a time, but business was not sufficient to sustain it and it was sold to Amos Campbell, who replaced the steam-cars with horses and operated it for a time, when it was aban- doned and the tracks torn up: The line is practically that of the present West Jersey Railroad.

THE CAMDEN AND BURLINGTON COUN- TY RAILROAD extends from Camden to Pemberton, twenty-two and one-half miles, and from Burlington to Mount Holly, seven and one-quarter miles. It was leased to the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company June 1, 1868, and sub-leased in 1871 to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It cost to build seven hundred and thirty-one thou- sand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars, which is represented by three hundred and eighty-one thousand nine hundred and twen- ty-five dollars in capital stock and three hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars in bonds. This road embodies the franchises and work of four companies which preceded it and were finally merged with it.

The first of these was " The Mount Holly

358

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

and Camden Railroad Company," which was chartered March 4, 1836, and re-chartered February 11, 1848, and subsequently united with the Camden, Moorestown, Hainesport and Mount Holly Horse-Car Railroad Com- pany, which was chartered March 15, 1859, and which, notwithstanding its title, had authority to use steam, and was built as a steam road.

The Burlington and Mount Holly Rail- road and Transportation Company was char- tered February 11, 1848, and by the act of March 20, 1857, its name was changed to the Burlington County Railroad Company.

On the 28th of July, 1854, the Camden and Pemberton Agricultural Railroad Com- pany was chartered, with authority to build a railroad from some point in Camden through Camden and Burlington Counties to some point in the borough of Pemberton. On the 1st of June following, the stockhold- ers met at the hotel of James Elwell, in Camden, to elect nine directors. In the No- vember following a route was surveyed from Camden to Freehold and right of way ob- tained. The route was through Mount Holly and Moorestown, thence to Pemberton, where it branched,-the north branch leading to South Amboy and the south branch to Toms River. This road was completed, and in time merged with the others.

Finally, by an act passed February 6, 1866, the Burlington County and the Cam- den, Moorestown, Hainesport and Mount Holly Company were permitted to consoli- date as the Camden and Burlington County Railroad and to connect with the Camden and Amboy outside of Camden.

THE NEW JERSEY SOUTHERN RAILROAD, which extends from Port Monmouth to Atco, Camden County, was chartered March 3, 1854, as the Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad Company, and was finished in 1863. In 1867 it fell into the hands of a receiver, was sold September 19, 1869, and reorgan- ized under its present name. March 31,

1879, it was again sold under a second fore- closure, the first mortgage bondholders buy- ing it for seven hundred and fifty-two thou- sand dollars. It was then leased to the Cen- tral Railroad of New Jersey, and thus passed to the control of the Philadelphia and Read- ing Company, which guaranteed the interest on the bonds. The capital stock is one mil- lion five hundred and ninety thousand six hundred dollars, and its bonded debt one million seven hundred and ninety thousand six hundred dollars.

The Williamstown Railroad is a branch of the New Jersey Southern, and extends from Atco to Williamstown.

THE CAMDEN AND HADDONFIELD PAS- SENGER RAILROAD COMPANY was chartered March 4, 1859, with an authorized capital of fifty thousand dollars, twenty-five dollars per share. As projected, the line was to begin at the foot of Market Street, pass through Market and Federal Streets and near the Haddonfield turnpike to the village of Had- donfield, but it was not built.

THE CAMDEN, GLOUCESTER AND MOUNT EPHRAIM RAILROAD was built, in 1875, from Camden to Gloucester, by an incorpo- rated company, but was, in fact, the individ- ual enterprise of David S. Brown, who bought the great majority of the stock and furnished most of the money for its construc- tion, in order that he might have steam trans- portation between his extensive cotton mills and bleacheries at Gloucester, and the railroad and ferry facilities at Camden and Philadel- phia. In 1878 it was extended to Mount Ephraim, but worked only as a local road. It was built as a narrow gauge, the width be- tween rails being but two and a half feet, the narrowest at that time of all the roads in the eastern part of the United States. In 1884 it was bought by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company as the South Cam- den link tothe system which it was endeavoring to perfect in South Jersey through the Phila- delphia and Atlantic City, the Jersey Southern

359

PUBLIC INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

and the Vineland Railroads. This purchase necessitated a change to the standard gauge, and in May, 1885, the alteration was made, and a connection with the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Road accordingly established. James P. Michelon has been president since 1879, W. Bertolet is secretary, and the other officials are those of the Philadelphia and Reading Company.

THE PHILADELPHIA AND ATLANTIC CITY RAILWAY COMPANY was chartered March 24, 1876, and on July 1, 1877, the first train was run through from Camden to Atlantic City, which by this line is a distance of fifty-four and a half miles. It passed into the hands of a receiver, and on September 20, 1883, the road was sold under foreclosure and reorganized with the word "railway" in its title changed to "railroad." The authorized capital stock of the new company is one million two hundred thousand dollars. It was originally constructed as a narrow- gauge road, which, after the company's re- organization, was changed to the standard gauge. It has been associated with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- pany, whose officers control it through the ownership of a majority of its stock. The road is now well patronized and is in ex- cellent condition.

THE PHILADELPHIA, MARLTON AND MEDFORD RAILROAD COMPANY was organ- nized January 7, 1880, for the purpose of building a railroad between the city of Philadelphia and Medford, by way of Had- donfield and Marlton, a distance of about eighteen miles. Previous to this undertaking a line had been built between Medford and Mount Holly, but did not accommodate those wishing to go to Philadelphia, and a line of railroad was contemplated between Keyport, on Raritan Bay, in Monmouth County, and Philadelphia, partly graded and then aban- doned. This was intended to pass through Medford, Marlton and Ellisburg to Kaighns Point, Camden.

In view of these failures, a few gentlemen about Medford and Marlton solicited the directors of the Camden and Atlantic Rail- road to assist in building a line of railroad from their road at Haddonfield to Medford ; and after the route had been adopted and the approximate cost ascertaincd, they con- sented to do so, and the work was commenced the same year (1880). The first board of officers were,-President, Charles D. Free- man ; Secretary and Treasurer, Daniel M. Zimmerman ; Directors, Charles D. Free- man, Benjamin Cooper, George T. Da Costa, Elijah B. Woolston, John Lucas, Henry W. Wills, Samuel C. Cooper, Elwood Evans, William C. Houston, Joseph Evans, Enoch A. Doughty and Edmund E. Read.

J. Lewis Rowand was appointed chief engineer, and the line first run by him was, after considerable discussion, adopted and the road built thereon, and with the ordinary hinderances, the work progressed and was finished in 1881, and ready for use. This road opened one of the best agricultural dis- tricts in the State, and was at once patronized by the people of the towns along and near the route and the thrifty farmers in that region, they well understanding the difference be- tween the speed and comforts of transporta- tion on a railroad and that of bad highways and jaded teams for such long distances.

The connection made at Medford with the Mount Holly Branch completes the line be- tween Philadelphia and that point, with con- tinuous lines to various important connections in other places. The Camden and Atlantic Railroad having come under the government of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, this road is now likewise controlled. Its officers are :

William L. Elkins, president; D. M. Zimmer- man, secretary ; and William Taylor, treasurer. Directors : William L. Elkins, Daniel M. Ziminer- man, Edmund E. Read, William C. Houston, Ben- jamin Cooper, Ellwood Evans, Elijah B. Woolston, Joseph Evans, Joshna S. Wills, Crawford Miller, Charles J. Walton, Sr., Job Braddock, David D. Griscom.

360

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

CHAPTER XIX.

NAVIGATION AND SHIP-BUILDING.

NAVIGATION ON THE DELAWARE .- In 1786 Camden was not much more than a scattering of ferrymen's houses on the shore, and farm mansions a little farther back ; but such members of its scanty population as were on the river-front on the 20th of July of that year joined with the spectators from the Philadelphia side in witnessiug the first attempt made anywhere in the world, there is reason to believe, to propel a boat by means of a steam-engine. The inventor and exper- imenter was John Fitch, born in Connecticut in January, 1743, a clock-maker by trade, who, after failing as a potash manufacturer, armorer to the State of New Jersey, sutler in Washington's army, land speculator in Kentucky and surveyor in Pennsylvania, conceived the notion of driving a wagon on land or a boat on the water by steam, although at that time, April, 1785, he knew nothing of the invention of the steam-engine, but had noticed the expansive power of steam. He was then living in Bucks County, Pa., and made a model with brass machinery, which worked so well when he tried it on a small stream on Joseph Longstreth's farm, in Southampton township, that in August he brought it to Philadelphia, where ex-Con- gressman William C. Houston, of New Jer- sey, and Provost John Ewing, of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, saw it and were convinced of its practicability. Fitch sought encouragement from Congress and from the Legislatures of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, all of which refused him any money ; but New Jersey generously granted him for fourteen years the exclusive right of making and using every kind of boat or water-craft which might be urged or propelled by the force of fire or steam in the waters of the State.

However, he persuaded twenty men,

among whom was Richard Stockton, to take a share each in a stock company which he formed, each subscriber paying about twenty dollars down, and with this fund he started to build a steam-boat, having first engaged as assistant machinist Henry Voight, a Phila- delphia clock-maker, who was willing to ac- cept stock in payment of his services. At their second attempt they turned out an en- giue with a cylinder three inches in diameter, and placing it in a small skiff, they went out on July 20, 1786, to navigate the Dela- ware.

FITCH'S FIRST STEAMBOAT.

The diminutive craft was tried with pad- dles fitted on an endless chain, with what Fitch called in his journal " a screw of pad- dles," with a screw propeller and with side- wheels turned by the chain, but it would not respond to any of these devices satisfactorily, and this experiment, was a failure. That night he thought of substituting a crank for the chain movement applied to the oars or paddles. On July 27th the skiff was moved with this mechanism, and Fitch's financial backers were sufficiently assured of the suc- cess of his invention, that during the winter of 1786-87 they provided him with the means for building an engine with a twelve- inch cylinder and a boat forty-five feet long and twelve feet beam. August 22, 1787, saw the fruition of his labors, for then the boat steamed along the river-front in the presence of many members of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, and within a short time Governor Randolph,

361

NAVIGATION AND SHIP-BUILDING.

David Rittenhouse, Dr. John Ewing and Andrew Ellicott attested over their signa- tures his success, Rittenhouse writing that he had been " on board when the boat was worked against both wind and tide, with considerable velocity, by the force of steam only."

Fitch had to defend his rights against the claims of James Rumsey, of Virginia, to priority of invention of the steamboat, but on April 23, 1791, he was granted his patent. Meanwhile he fixed his old machinery in a boat eight feet beam and sixty feet long, and changed his paddles from the sides to the stern of the boat, and in July, 1798, set out for Burlington. After making that port the boiler leaked so that no steam could be raised, and the boat was suffered to drift back with the tide. On October 12th the boat ran to Burlington, twenty-three miles distant, in three hours and ten minutes, with thirty pas- sengers and against a tide setting two miles an hour. In March, 1789, Fitch built an

FITCH'S SECOND STEAMBOAT.

engine with an eighteen-inch cylinder, and with a new boat the run to Trenton was made at a speed of eight miles an hour on May 11, 1790. On June 14th the " steam- boat" was advertised as "ready to take pas- sengers from Arch Street ferry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown and Trenton, to return on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Price for passage, 2s. 6d., to Burlington and Bristol ; 38. 9d. to Bordentown; 5s. to Tren- ton." Trips were also made across to Cam- den during the summer, and to the Schuyl- kill, Chester and Wilmington. A still larger boat, to be called the "Perseverance," was planned, but was destroyed by a storm before completion, and Fitch, becoming involved in pecuniary troubles, left this neighborhood, going to Kentucky, where he had purchased lands. His death occurred at Bardstown, Ky., July 2, 1798.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 55

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