The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 84

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

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Samuel Coles and his wife, Elizabeth, had two children-Samuel (who married Mary, a daughter of Thomas Kendall) and Sarah (who married James Wild). Samuel and Mary Coles' children were Samuel (who married Mary Lippincott), Joseph (married Mary Wood), Thomas (married Hannah Stokes), Kendall (married Ann Budd), Elizabeth (married Jacob Buckman and Benjamin Cooper), Mary (married Edward Tonkins), Susan- nah (married William Budd), and Rachel (married Enoch Roberts).

James and Sarah Wild had two children-James and Sarah. Within the bounds of the land that Samuel Coles owned at the time of his death is situated the historic St. Mary's Episcopal Church, better known as the old Colestown Church, in Delaware township. Elizabeth Coles, his widow, afterward married Griffith Morgan, a mariner, of Philadelphia, December 10, 1693, whose only son, Alexander, married Hannah, the daughter of Joseph and Lydia Cooper and granddaughter of William Cooper, the first settler.

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Kendall Coles, who married Ann Budd, was the second son of Samuel and Mary Coles and grand- son of the emigrants, Samuel and Elizabeth Coles, and the great-grandfather of Chas. B. Coles, who is the great-great-great-grandson of Samuel Coles, the emigrant. Joseph Coles, the grandfather of Charles B. Coles, was married to Sarah Heulings. Their son Charles was born July 7, 1807, and died February 25, 1837; married Rachel Burrough, daughter of Joseph and Martha (Davis) Burrough, and had two children,-Joseph, who died in child- hood, and Charles B. Coles, who was born on August 7, 1836, at the homestead now owned by himself, and known as the Coles Mill Farm, in Chester township, Burlington County, near the Camden line, to which place his father moved upon his marriage with Rachel Burrough, whose ancestors for six generations had owned the same property. His mother died in the Eleventh Month 29, 1869, aged sixty-five years.

Charles B. Coles' father died when he was less than a year and a half old. When eight years of age he went to reside with an uncle on a farm, and in early life followed the occupation of farming. In 1864 he engaged in the active business of life and has since followed it with unabated prosperity. He has filled various positions of responsibility and trust and has always shown a great interest in the moral and material welfare of the commun- ity with which he has been identified and has been keenly alive to the greater questions of public polity. Reared an Abolitionist, he became one of the warmest supporters of the Republican party when it came into being and was one of its foremost local organizers. As a Republican he was elected to the Camden City Council in 1864, and was by far the youngest member of that body, being but twenty-eight years of age. The temperance cause had ever in. him a devoted advocate and of late years he was frequently sent to the State Capital to use his influence in securing temperance legisla- tion from his party. Becoming at length con- vinced of the futility of this method of procedure, he, in 1884, openly espoused the cause of prohibi- tion and became a member of that party, the suc- cess of which he has since done all in his power to advance. In thesummer of 1886 he was appointed by Supreme Court Judge Joel Parker as the rep- resentative of his party in the board of three com- missioners, constituted under a recent law, to ad- just the back taxes of the city of Camden. Mr. Coles was one of the incorporators and is one of the directors of the Camden National Bank and also a director in the Colestown Cemetery Com- pany.

Mr. Coles was married, on June 8, 1865, to Mary M. Colson, daughter of Jonathan and Hannah (Lippincott) Colson, of Gloucester City. They have two chidren-William C. and Henry B.

CENTRAL LUMBER-YARD, situated at Second Street and Cherry, was opened by Volney G. Bennett, who, in 1876, bought the property and erected the various buildings, sheds, office and stables necessary in the business of a general lumber dealer. The yard has a frontage of one hundred and twenty-two feet on Second Street, with a depth of one hundred and eighty feet to Spring Street and one hundred and eighty by twenty feet on Front Street. The drying-sheds covef an area of one hundred and six by one hundred and twelve feet, and cover a stock of seasoned lumber repre- senting ten to fifteen thousand dollars in value. Six hands are employed. The proprietor has ex- cellent facilities for shipping direct from Western mills and yards.

VOLNEY G. BENNETT, the owner of this lumber- yard, is a descendant of Stephen Bennett, who immigrated prior to the Revolution from Connec- ticut, and settled near what is now Palmyra, Pike County, Pa. His wife, Mary (Gates) Bennett, also of New England parentage, witnessed the stirring scenes incident to the Wyoming massacre, and gave the alarm to the settlers of the approach of the murderous Indians, on that historic occasion. Stephen and Mary Bennett had eight children, whose names were Frederick, Stephen, Francis, Jared, Rufus, Lebbeus, Mary and Samantha.

Jared succeeded to the homestead and engaged in farming and lumbering. He married Esther Killam, by whom he had six children, viz .: Gib- son, Jane, Isaac (who served in a New York regi- ment during the late war), Frederick, Harvey and Volney. After the death of his wife he was mar- ried a second time, to Louisa Curtis. By this marriage he had three children,-Stephen, Esther and Fanny ; all of these children are living except Frederick, and married but Stephen and Fanny, settling in different parts of the country. Gibson settled in St. Joseph County, Mich .; Isaac, Stephen and Esther reside in Pike County; Harvey is in Camden ; and Fanny in Jamesville, Wis.

Volney G. Bennett was born April 9, 1837. He remained with his father until he became of age, when he removed to Camden, where he has since resided. He entered the employ of McKeen & Bingham, lumber merchants of Camden, and re- mained with them until 1876, and upon June 1st of that year began the lumber business on his own account at the corner of Second Street and Cherry. By persistent efforts he has become successful, and

Notneyse Benne!

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THE CITY OF CAMDEN.

has increased, by close attention, his business interests.

On July 27, 1864, he was married to Emeline, daughter of Captain Thomas and Angeline Davis, of Port Elizabeth, N. J. By this marriage he has five children,-Killam Edgar (who is associated with his father in the lumber business), Emily, Volney, Alfred and Olive.

Mr. Bennett and his family are members of the First Baptist Church of Camden. In politics he is a Democrat. He is treasurer of the Franklin Building Loan and City Loan Associations, and is esteemed by his fellow-citizens as a man of careful business methods, excellent judgment and exem- plary habits.

THE PLANING-MILL on Liberty Street, under the management of Thomas R. Arrison, was pur- chased by him in 1882. In 1880 he bought and operated the Doughten Mill, at the corner of Front Street and Chestnut, until 1882, at which time it was entirely destroyed by fire. He then bought the machinery and buildings of the present loca- tion and made many improvements to suit the production of builders' material. The mill is one hundred by ninety feet, and is supplied by a thirty-five horse-power engine and improved machinery for making doors, sash, blinds, shutters, mouldings, brackets, scroll and other sawing. Thirty-six workmen are employed. The products are shipped through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and adjacent States.

STANTON & BRANNING, in 1872, began the manufacture of lumber at the foot of Walnut Street, on their grounds, which cover an area of ten acres. The saw and planing-mill is a large frame structure one hundred and thirty-two by forty feet, with two wings, one hundred by twenty- four feet each, and is fitted up with the first-class machinery for sawing and planing lumber, and since the introduction of Sterns' patent steam- carriage, has a capacity for cutting fifty thousand feet of lumber daily. Two engines, aggregating one hundred horse-power, run the machinery. The annual sales amount to one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, the trade extending, along the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, to Atlantic City, to Cape May, also in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and over a long line of the river route. Fifty hands are employed. In February, 1886, J. W. Branning withdrew from the firm and the business was con- ducted by Mr. Stanton until the time of his death.

LEWIS N. STANTON was born in Wayne County, Pa., and is a son of William G. Stanton, a native of Orange County, N. Y., who, upon his removal to Pennsylvania, early in life, married Martha J.

Holbert, of Pike County, Pa. By this union five children were born,-Lewis N., Benjamin D., Mary E., Martha and Harriet. At the age of fifteen Lewis N. began his successful business career, locating at Narrowsburg, Sullivan County, N. Y., where he opened a grocery store. This he managed successfully until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he sold out in order to enlist in the army, which he did in 1862, becoming a first lieutenant of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-third New York Volunteer Infantry, and was promoted to the captaincy the same year for gallant and meritorious services. He served with his regiment in the Peninsular campaign under General Keyes, and the subsequent campaigns of the Potomac army up to Gettysburg, and was then transferred to the West to the army of General Hooker, and was present at the battles of Chatta- nooga and Missionary Ridge. During bis three years of military service he never had a leave of absence from his command.

On July 3, 1861, he was married to Sarah A, daughter of C. K. aud Phoebe A. Gordon, daughter of John and Sarah Monroe, of Monticello, Sulli- van County, New York, by whom he had three children,-May, the eldest, is married to C. J. Baldwin, of Hopewell, Dutchess County, N. Y .; Lulu, died when an infant ; and William G., living at home.

Immediately after the war Mr. Stanton embarked in business, becoming largely interested in tracts of timber-land in New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, aud in 1876 he formed a co-part- nership with John W. Brauning, of Camden, but retained his place of residence at Monticello until ten years later. His fellow-citizens of Sullivan County, N. Y., honored him by electing him super- visor for five and county clerk for three successive terms. He was a director in the First National Bank of Oneonta, and also in the Second National Bank of Port Jervis, N. Y., and he was a promi- nent member of the Masonic fraternity.

He died on June 2, 1886, and his remains were interred in a new cemetery on his own land, near the scenes of his early days at Narrowsburg. He was a man of many excellent qualities, was suc- cessful in his business life, a brave and patriotic soldier and an exemplary citizen.

C. W. PATTERSON & Co. are the proprietors of a saw-mill and planing-mill on West Street, corner of Washington. The large demand for finished material to meet the wants of the many contractors and builders in the rapidly-growing city of Cam- den offered inducements to this firm, and they founded their industry in 1883. The mill is amply

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

provided with planers, circular and band-saws, turning lathes, upright moulders, boring and tenoning machinery, for the manufacture of build- ers' materials in all its different branches. The machinery is driven by an engine of fifteen horse- power. Seven workmen are employed. The mill is running to its full capacity, to meet the demands of contractors and builders.

THE TIMBER, SPAR AND PILING BASIN of David Baird is located on the Delaware River and extends two hundred feet in front and one thou- sand two hundred feet in depth at the foot of Pearl Street. The enterprise was established in 1872 by the present proprietor and designed especially for the storage of large timber, spars, piling, Oregon heavy timber and Eastern spruce lumber, as also hackmnetack knees, for general supply to ship and boat-builders. The large Oregon pine timber, some of which is one hundred and ten feet in length by three feet in diameter at the butt and two feet at top, is shipped direct by the proprietor in large timber vessels from the Pacific Coast, while the spruce for small spars, masts and flag- staffs is shipped from Nova Scotia and from Clear- field County, Pa. He also ships pine and oak timber from Michigan and other States bordering on the Great Lakes and also from Canada. He is part owner of the large timber tract formerly owned by Governor Bigler, in Clearfield County, Pa., has large timber tracts in Western Virginia and in Northwestern Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and is sole owner of a large tract in Lewis County, New York State, where he operates a lumber camp and saw-mill, employing over fifty hands. The products of this mill are sold in New York. He is also en - gaged in shipping hackmetack knees for vessels, receiving them direct from Bangor, Me,

DAVID BAIRD is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather, James Baird, a farmer, whose resi- dence was in County Derry, Ireland, married Ann Mac Jenkin, to whom were born children-An- drew, William, James, Samuel and a daughter Eliza. James Baird was born on the ancestral land in County Derry, and during his active life was engaged in the business of road contracting. He married Ann, daughter of David Robinson, of the same county, and their children were William, Mary, David, James, Andrew, Ann Jane, Eliza and Margaret. The death of Mr. Baird occurred in 1858, and that of his wife the year previous. Their son David, the subject of this biography, was born on the 7th of April, 1839, in County Derry, Ireland, and there spent his early years. His brother William having previously emigrated to America, he was soon afterward induced to join

him in Baltimore, Md. He speedily engaged in labor on a farm, meanwhile improving his educa- tion by study and acquiring habits of observation and reflection which proved of great value in after- life. In 1859 he entered the employ of Messrs. Gillingham & Garrison, lumbermen of Phila- delphia, with whom he remained until 1872, his duties being connected with the floating and raft- ing of lumber on the Susquehanna River to their mills in the city. He then embarked in the same business, and has been since largely interested in floating, rafting, buying and selling heavy timber and spars for vessels, with offices in Camden. The central field of operation for this increasing busi- ness is with New York, Boston and Philadelphia. To this lumber interest, which, from modest begin- nings, has grown to large proportions, he gives his personal attention. He has also made extensive purchases of timber land in Pennsylvania, all of which ventures have been exceptionally successful.

Mr. Baird was, on the 23d of January, 1868, mar- ried to Miss Christianna, daughter of William and Mary Beatty, of Philadelphia, their children being William James (deceased), David, Jr. (deceased), Mary Beatty, Irvin C. Beatty, Christianna J. and David, Jr. Mr. Baird is a pronounced Republican, and, although influential with his party, has de- clined all offices other than that of member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders for four years fron the First Ward of Camden. He is vice-president of the Economy Building and Loan Association and director of the North Camden Building and Loan Association. He is a member of the Ionic Lodge No. 94, of F. and A. M. of Camden, and con- nected with various beneficial associations and a supporter of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife and daughter Mary are menibers. He has been a resident of Camden since 185.9.

THE LUMBER-YARD of Colson & Mulford oc- cupies the ground on the Delaware River front above Kaighn Avenue, and was started in 1850 by William S. Doughten, afterwards carried on by Doughten & Coles and later by Doughten, Son & Co. In 1880 the present firm (the individual mem- bers of which are Benjamin F. Colson and Albert L. Mulford) purchased the entire business and have since conducted it. The ground occupied is ninety by one thousand feet. Since the purchase this firm has constructed on the premises a saw and planing-mill, which are operated by an engine of twenty-five horse-power. The trade extends throughout the adjoining States.

THE LUMBER-YARD of Shivers & Moffett is lo- cated on the west side of Delaware Avenue, below

David Baird

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THE CITY OF CAMDEN.

Market Street. It was first started in January, 1885, by the present firm, the individual members being William M. Shivers, who had been for a long time with Mr. Morrison, the lumber dealer, above Market Street, and Henry C. Moffett, late with C. B. Coles. The yard has a frontage of four hun- dred and fifty feet on Delaware Avenue and is one thousand five hundred feet in depth to the port warden's line. The stock consists of all kinds of builders' lumber. The trade extends to Penn- sylvania, through Southern New Jersey and to points along the Delaware River.

S. H. MORRISON's lumber-yard is located upon the site of the saw and planing-mill which was established by John F. Starr, in 1871, for making doors, blinds, sash, etc., and builders' materials. In 1873 the present proprietor leased the mill and operated it until it was totally destroyed by fire, on Sunday night, January 17, 1886, since which time the site has been used for the storage of lumber, while the builders' materials are shipped direct from the mills in Buffalo. The yard has an area of eighty feet front by seven hundred and fifty feet in depth. The trade is quite large, principally with Philadelphia. In the past year Mr. Morrison has furnished the lumber and building material for nine hundred houses in Philadelphia and two hundred and sixty-two in Camden.

OIL-CLOTH MANUFACTURERS.

The manufacture of oil-cloths and carpets was not engaged in by the early settlers in this country. These articles were then considered as household adornments imported from Europe, which only the wealthy classes could enjoy, and were used in small quantities previous to the Revolution. The earliest mention of the manufacture of carpets in America was by William Calvery, at his fac- tory in Philadelphia, and the date is supposed to be 1774, when it was asserted that the carpets were superior to those imported. By the year 1791 carpets were made quite extensively in Philadel- phia; about that time people took great interest in furnishing their houses with them. In order to supply the demand, John Dorsey, a merchant of Philadelphia, in 1807, at a factory on Chestnut Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth, began to make " floor oil-cloth and carpets." In his estab- lishment were two looms for making a strong cloth of a quality between sail-duck and Russia sheet- ing. One of these looms could weave a piece seven yards in width, and one man could turn out from thirty-two to forty-five yards per day. The kind of goods produced at this establishment "was sim- ilar to Hare's patent imported oil-cloth." It was

made plain and in colors, and was sold at from one dollar and a quarter to two dollars per yard. In 1808 Isaac McCauly established a factory in Philadelphia, on Market Street, near the Schuyl- kill bridge, for the manufacture of " oil-cloths and carpets in various colors." The next year he pur- chased the Dorsey factory, on Chestnut Street, and moved his establishment to the northeast corner of Broad and Filbert Streets. In 1815 he moved to the Hamilton mansion, on Bush Hill, and there, with enlarged facilities, by the year 1820, " his success in making oil-cloth was very great," and the same year he "undertook the manufacture of carpets." He spun his own yarn for carpets and oil-cloth. Canvas then was used as the basis for oil-cloth, some of which was made twenty-one feet wide. In 1825 the government issued him a patent for "an improved method of making oil-cloth," and he continued the business with success. Most of the work in the process of making oil-cloth for many years after this was done by hand.

In 1820 David Powers, at Landisburg, N. Y., began to make oil-cloth with some change in the process used by his predecessors in the business, and nearly like that in use at the present day, only that steam-power was not then brought into requi- sition. While engaged at his business one day, he was accidentally burned by a pot of varnish, which caused his death, and his widow, Dinah Powers, continued the business.

The firm of D. Powers & Sons, of that town, is still known as manufacturers of oil-cloth on an extensive scale. The American oil-cloth of the present day is made in the States of Maine, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The num- ber of factories is not numerous, there being prob- ably no more than fifty in the United States. Of the four factories in the State of New Jersey, three are situated in the city of Camden.

Prominent in this industry in Camden are the Messrs. R. H. & B. C. Reeve, who own and operate the Camden Floor Oil-Cloth Works, situated on Pine Street, east of Haddon Avenue. These works were originated by the present proprietors, at the same location, in the year 1868. The individual members of this firm, who have, by their own efforts, established their industry in Camden, and the largest oil-cloth factory in the State of New Jersey, are Richard H. Reeve and Benjamin C. Reeve. The former is the son of William F. Reeve and the latter the son of Emmor Reeve, two brothers, who, in connection with an elder brother, Josiah M. Reeve, under the firm-name of Reeve & Bros., were extensively en- gaged in ship-building and owners of saw-mills and

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

grist-mills at Alloway, Salem County, N. J., and who built the large steamer "Columbus," which plied the Atlantic Ocean between Philadelphia and Charleston, the "Stephen Baldwin " and many other vessels and large schooners. The Messrs. Reeve, inheriting the enterprise and executive ability of their fathers, were quite young men when they moved from Alloway to Camden, in 1868, to establish their manufactory. The evidence of their success is shown from the substantial growth and development of the business. They began on a limited scale in two small buildings with twenty workmen, and an annual product of about one hundred thousand yards of manufactured oil-cloth, all of one variety. They now possess one of the three largest oil-cloth manufactories in the United States, covering an area of four and a half acres, own and occupy nine different buildings on this tract, employ one hundred workmen and produce annually about one million yards of manufactured oil-cloth of five different kinds and varieties. The seasoned and perfected oil-cloth is sold by travel- ing salesmen, and shipped to every section of the Union.

As the demand for the oil-cloth of the Cam- den works increased, owing to the superiority of its quality and the reliability of the firm, new buildings were added in order to increase the ca- pacity of manufacture. Originally most of the work was done by hand, which was followed by the introduction of improved machinery, boilers and engines, and the application of steam as a motor, and steam heat in the process of drying the cloth and for heating the various buildings. In order to get pure water, better adapted to the pur- pose of manufacture, a few years ago an artesian well was sunk a hundred feet in depth, which sup- plies the large boilers where the steam is gener- ated and conveyed to the various departments. After the condensation of the steam it is returned to the boiler and utilized again.

The process of manufacture as now applied in the production of oil-cloths of various kinds, and executed in hundreds of different designs, is quite complicated, and requires about six weeks to com- plete it from the raw material. The textile arti- cle known as burlap, which forms the basis of the cloth, is a foreign production, and is manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, from the jute plant, which is grown in such abundance in India. The Messrs. Reeve import their own burlap from Dundee in large quantities and keep it in stock. The build- ing erected in 1870, and designated by the firm as Number 1, is a three story frame structure, thirty- three by one hundred and fifteen feet, and is used

as the sizing department. On the second floor of this building the crude burlap is passed over and between moving cylinders, thus rendering it smooth and capable of receiving the applications of paint. The grinding and mixing of paints is done in building Number 5, erected in 1874, ad- joining which is a two-story brick structure with basement, used for the mixing of paints and the storage of material. Attached to building Number 5 is an apartment in which is placed an eighty- horse-power boiler and a thirty horse-power en- gine, for driving the machinery to grind the paints and for the sizing, coating and rubbing of the ma- terial. The coating department is in building Number 1, which is thirty-three by one hundred and thirteen feet, and was erected in 1870, and in Number 2, one of the original buildings. The first coats of paint are placed on the sized burlap by means of machinery, and the cloth thus pre- pared for printing, before which, however, in an adjoining apartment, the coated cloth is again rubbed smooth, in the preparation of it for printing.

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 84

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