USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The history of Newark, New Jersey : being a narrative of its rise and progress, from the settlement in May, 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut to the present time, including a sketch of the press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878 > Part 22
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CHARLES KIESELE, long known in Newark as a veterinary surgeon, served with Camerer as a member of the Wohlfahrts- Ausschuss, and as a member of the Common Council of Carlsruhe. He received a sentence of two years' solitary confinement.
Captain DIETZ, of Pforzheim, and ADAM WERNER, of Baden, were also somewhat prominent in the Revolutionary movement. Dietz served as Assistant Civil Commissioner, and Werner-who still survives and resides in Newark-was a non-commissioned * officer of the Third Regiment of the regular army of Baden ; had considerable influence with the rank and file of his regiment ; joined the Revolutionists in the hope that private soldiers would receive better treatment from their superior officers, and that the latter might be chosen by ballot from among the enlisted men. Werner was sentenced to two years' solitary confinement.
Besides those described there were several other political exiles who came and settled here and in the neighborhood, but about whom even their surviving compatriots could communicate nothing reliable.
An interesting incident is related of one group of Germans who, in a highly commendable effort to win bread and competency, united classical scholarship and cultivated intelligence to rough manual labor. About the year 1852 a company consisting of Paul Huber, an architect, Anton Winter, a civil engineer, Frederick Schrag and Franz Haefeli, a practical potter, engaged in the manufacture of terra-cotta ware-statuary, house ornaments, drain pipes, &c. Before this, in 1851, Franz Haefeli, of Switzerland; Franz Adam, of Baden, and Rudolplie Kauffmann, started the same business on property at the corner of Pacific and Nichols streets, but owing to a lack of capital, the enterprise was unsuccessful.
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TERRA-COTTA-THE GERMAN PRESS.
One of the causes leading Huber, Winter and the others to engage in the same business, was their inability (owing to their imperfect knowledge of English, and of the tastes and wants of our people) to command success in their own professions. Among those who assisted in the manual labor of the enterprise was Franz Umbscheiden. It is stated that among themselves, during the hours of labor, these gentlemen used to sweeten their tasks by reflections upon the Renaissance-classical conversations in Latin, Greek, French and German. This party, like the first, failed of the desired success ; and it is not unreasonable to assume that if they had possessed less mental culture-if they had been poorer scholars and better terra-cotta makers-success would most likely have been the sweet solace of their labor, and they might have been able to appropriately adopt as their trade motto : Labor Omnia Vincit. Mr. Winter, it may be added, subsequently removed to Memphis, Tennessee, and, upon the breaking out of the civil war, became, as it is stated, a colonel in the Confederate service, and was killed in battle.
The Germans had now gathered here in such force that a want began to be felt for a press in the German language. The founder of German journalism in Newark was Dr. Carl Friedrich Benjamin Edler, a native of Saxony, who came here in 1850. He edited the ' first newspaper published here in that language-a humorous weekly journal, called Die Friedenspfeife ( The Pipe of Peace). He next conducted a paper called the New Jersey Staats Zeitung, which paper was issued up to the time of the doctor's death, October 18, 1865. The first German daily newspaper in Newark was started by Mr. Fritz Anneke, on February 9th, 1853. This paper was called the Newark Zeitung. Five years later the paper passed into the hands of Mr. Benedict Prieth, who changed its name and started it anew on April 26th, 1858, as the New Jersey Freie Zeitung. Under this experienced journalist's management, the paper founded by Mr. Anneke has become a prosperous and valuable property, the leading German-American newspaper of New Jersey, having "a voice 'potential " in the direction of public affairs considerably beyond the limits of its place of publication. As already noticed in the sketch of Mr. Hollinger, there was published by him, in 1851, a humorous weekly paper called Der Nachbar (The Neigh- bor). Five years afterwards, in 1856, he established the New
2II
NOTHING LIKE LEATHER IN LOCAL POLITICS.
Jersey Volksmann. First it was a weekly, then semi-weekly, and finally a daily newspaper. In its early years it had a hard struggle for existence, but at length became quite a success. After Mr. Hollinger's death it passed through a curious range of vicissitudes, and ultimately followed its founder to the grave. The New Jersey Democrat was conducted by Franz Umbscheiden in 1868, but lived only about one year. There have also been published in Newark at various times, the New Jersey Reform (1872), edited by Dr. C. F. J. Lehlbach ; the Newark Post (October, 1874, to May, 1875), and, still later, several other German prints of more or less merit.
Leaving the German population, their distinguished patriots and their press, let us take up anew the industrial thread of our narrative. Leather, from the days of Combs and his contemporaries, as we have already seen, was the chief staple of manufacturing industry in Newark. It is worthy of note in this connection, as marking the very decided influence of the leather men in the community, that for many years they held the balance of power in political as well as in industrial concerns. Public men were made and unmade in the " Swamp." No one could be elected to any important office in the county, such as Sheriff, &c., unless he had the good will and support of the Newark tanners and curriers.
Of Newark leather establishments now existing, the oldest is that which does business under the firm title of S. Halsey & Son, on the extensive premises on the corner of Shipman street and Springfield avenue. The enterprise was first started in a modest way about the year 1826, by David B. Crockett, who had been in the employ of Seth Boyden. Crockett started in a building on the north side of Springfield avenue, near the corner of High street, and just above the present site of the County buildings. Before Crockett had fairly begun his factory was destroyed by fire. The business was then removed to a factory erected on the site now occupied by that of Halsey & Son. After being engaged with various partners and meeting with very indifferent success, Crockett disposed of his concern about 1840 to Samuel Halsey and Charles Taylor. Crockett is said to have been dubious from the very first as to the successful manufacture of patent leather. He judged the future by his own experience, it seems Eight hides per week were about the average of his sales, and it is stated that he predicted that the manufacture
212
PATENT LEATHER-THE HALSEYS.
of patent leather would never be remunerative. Nevertheless, the business grew under the wise and skillful management of those who succeeded him, so that there were eventually turned out over four hundred hides per week, giving remunerative employment to about one hundred hands, taking in for factory purposes a very extensive piece of ground, and having a market extending as far as Cuba, England, Australia and Japan. The first "fancy " and " bronze enamel" leather made in the United States for the market is claimed to have been manufactured in this factory. In 1866 Mr. Taylor retired from the firm, and Hon. George A. Halsey, the son of the senior member, took the vacant place. The remarkable success of the business is due in no small degree to the energy, activity and skill of the superintendent, James Perry, who became connected with the establishment as early as 1844.
Long before Samuel Halsey removed hither from Springfield township (Essex County), his brother, Joseph A. Halsey, came here and entered himself as an apprentice with Oliver Wade. This was in 1812. After having thoroughly mastered the business of tanning and currying, Joseph A. Halsey, in 1819, started business for himself in Market street. In October, 1837, Mr. Halsey accepted the Presidency of the Mechanics' Bank, to which position he had been chosen in place of President Pennington, who retired to enter upon his duties as Governor of New Jersey. At the ripe age of over four score years, President Halsey is still able to attend to his duties, and to contribute his share of information to our narrative.
In 1824 another bright, active and intelligent Springfield young- ster came here to learn the tanning and currying. This was James Harvey Halsey, a nephew of Joseph A. and Samuel, and long the senior member of another of our most prosperous and prominent leather firms. James Harvey learned his trade with his uncle Joseph A. In 1836 he formed a copartnership with James Tucker, and the firm of Halsey & Tucker carried on business for many years in the factory on Market street formerly occupied by Joseph A. Halsey. In 1860 the firm removed to its present location on Washington street. In 1863 Mr. Tucker died. A beloved son of his had come home from the war prostrate from disease contracted in the field. While watching him the father caught the disease and died. His son, strange to relate, recovered in time to attend his father's funeral. The firm title was then changed to J. H. Halsey & Co.
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OTHER PATENT LEATHER MANUFACTURERS.
There were also engaged in the patent leather business in Newark, from 1836 to 1861, the following: The brothers Joseph, Robert N. and Richmond Ward, the founders of the firm which, upon the death of Robert N. (who was killed in 1837), became J. & R. Ward, and, still later, in 1857, when Joseph withdrew, R. Ward & Co .; Ebenezer Francis, who was established in 1842, doing business on Market street ; S. M. & T. P. Howell, who, on Market street, in 1845, laid the foundation of one of the most prosperous and exten- sive businesses in the country-a concern taking up nearly five acres of ground, employing several hundreds of hands, using 40,000 hides, 150,000 sheep skins, 10,000 deer-skins and 10,000 calf-skins annually, turning over about one million dollars of capital every year, and finding a market in Europe, South America and the West Indies ; William Dunn, who began business in 1845; Charles H. Harrison, who began in 1849, entered into a most prosperous partnership two years later with his brother John D. Harrison, and, with the latter, has built up a business which has used as many as 15,000 hides annually, employed over 90 hands, and has produced goods in a year worth nearly $400,000; Michael Hartel ; J. H. & T. W. Dawson; George Allan; Christian Stengel; T. G. Palmer ; S. Dunn; Finley & Wilde ; Charles Smyth, and N. F. Blanchard. As years rolled on and success set in, many of the old firms changed their titles. J. & R. Ward, for instance, became Richmond Ward & Co., (the Company being B. J. Wood, J. C. Littell, E. H. Reynolds and Mortimer S. Ward), and still later, Reynolds & Wood; E. Francis became E. Francis & Co .; S. M. & T. P. Howell became Theodore P. Howell & Co .; Finley & Wilde became H. L. Wilde; and N. F. Blanchard became Blanchard, Brother & Lane, (N. F. and F. S. Blanchard and P. Van Zandt Lane). Subsequent to 1861 a number of concerns in the same business were started, as follows: Cogan & Reilly, J. F. Coburn, John Dwyer, J. F. Hesselbarth, Henry Lang, Loehnberg & Neumann, Mandeville & Prest, Meis & Co., McClatchy & Smith, Palmer & Smith, John H. Perry, Star Leather Works (Moutier & White, proprietors), Charles Smyth, James Stanford, M. Straus, Smith, Carr & Brothers, Hugh Smith, Abraham Trier & Co.
Another highly important branch of the leather industry of Newark is the manufacture of morocco. Morocco leather was nowhere made in this country until some years later than the Revolution. The first effort at its manufacture is said to have been
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214
MOROCCO-TRADE-FATHER DOUGHERTY.
made in Philadelphia. The first trace we have of the manufacture of morocco in Newark is the establishment of the business on a small scale by Charles T. Shipman. Before Newark became a city, George and John Dougherty; natives of Donegal, Ireland, came here and purchased Shipman's factory on Washington street. This was in 1834. Of the morocco industry as now established, George Dougherty may justly be regarded as its founder. He is the trade- father of all the manufacturers who have made Newark famous as a chief seat of the production of morocco. Most of them learned their trade in his employ. With various partners, and sometimes alone, Mr. Dougherty conducted business in Newark for upwards of forty years, and when he retired from active pursuits, in the closing month of the Centennial year, there was not a blemish on his record. A few years after the brothers Doughtery established themselves here, John withdrew and went into business in New York. George Dougherty then took into partnership with him John Young, a clerk in his employ, and Thomas Garthwaite. The firm was Dougherty & Young. Subsequent to 1850 Young withdrew from the firm and started business on his own account in Market street. After a time he took in as a partner his son, Charles E. Young. Upon the death of John Young his son continued the business under its old title of John Young & Son, conducting it to a high plane of success. When Dougherty & Young were in partnership there were also in the morocco business: Wickliffe G. Broadwell, Brady, Grafton & Co. and George Watts.
What, under shrewd and able business management, combined with practical knowledge and extensive experience, has grown to be the largest and most completely equipped morocco-making concern, not alone in the United States, but, as is claimed, in the world, was was founded in 1859 by Christopher Nugent, James Kelly, James Nugent, Thomas Farrell, Thomas Hughes and Bernard Moran-all practical morocco makers, who had served their apprenticeship with George Dougherty. These formed a partnership under the title of C. Nugent, Kelly & Co., and began business on Market street. In 1871 the firm dissolved and formed anew under the title of C. Nugent & Co., Messrs. Kelly, Hughes and Moran having retired, and the remaining partners being the brothers Nugent and Thomas Farrell. Farrell was killed in 1874 by an elevator accident in the new factory on Halsey street, near Market, to which the firm had
215
NUGENT'S GREAT MOROCCO WORKSHOP-CARRIAGES.
removed a short time previously. A visit to this great morocco workshop is equally interesting as it is instructive. The ma- chinery . used is the completest that American genius can concieve and that liberal capital can procure. Every arrangement or equipment which can be obtained is used in the factory, even to the detail of a telegraphic system, which enables the manager to sit in his office and, by a touch of the electric knob, regulate and govern a force of over seven hundred men, women and boy employes, distributed in various departments, over premises which cover acres of ground in the heart of the city. An idea of the " vastness of the concern may be had from the figures of the daily products, which are ten thousand skins, including five thousand goat-skins and five hundred calf-skins. Only the very finest grades of morocco are made, and in no less than forty-two different shades of color. The material used is gathered from Asia, Africa and Continental Europe, and the goods manufactured find a market almost as wide. In this connection it may be stated as an inter- esting fact, that in the widest reach of the beau monde-from New York to San Francisco, and wherever European civilization and dress have penetrated South America,-from London to Paris and from Paris to St. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, and the seven-hillęd city of the Cæsars and the Popes-wherever, in short, beauty and fashion congregate, there are to be found the beautiful feet of beautiful women daintily encased in elegantly finished boots and shoes made from morocco manufactured in the city of Newark.
For considerably more than half a century the manufacture of carriages and coaches has been a leading and important depart- ment of local industry. The pioneers were Stephen Wheeler, Robert B. Campfield, John C. Hedenberg (Campfield's son-in-law), and later, G. & A. K. Carter and the lately deceased James M. Quinby .. Campfield's labor was at first confined to the making of stage- coaches-huge, unwieldy vehicles, with long bodies hung upon massively constructed iron jacks. His principal customer was General John N. Cumming, then a great mail contractor. In politics the General was a strong, earnest and active supporter of Jefferson and Madison. Such was the extreme zeal of his political partisan- ship that he allowed it to influence his business conduct. Because Campfield was a Federalist, Cumming proscribed him in business, and refused to patronize him longer. This bitter proscription-
216
CUMMING AND POSTMASTER-GENERAL GRANGER.
most unworthy of an otherwise most worthy citizen-drove Camp- field elsewhere for a market. He went to New York, and found one infinitely more satisfactory and profitable than that which he had heretofore been depending on. Persecution for opinion's sake proved a blessing in disguise, primarily to Campfield and secondarily to Newark. The work turned out by him and his son-in-law gave wings to the fame of Newark. Such was the celebrity of their handiwork that state carriages costing $2,000 each (a very large sum in those days), for Santa Anna, of Mexico, and Captain-General Tacon, of Cuba, were made by them upon orders from New York dealers, the work being superintended by John Clark, who after- wards took a front rank in Newark as a master carriage maker. Of General Cumming a story is told worth preserving: It seems that during the Postmaster Generalship of Gideon Granger, from 1802 to 1809, under Presidents Jefferson and Madison, serious irregularities occurred in the distribution of letters ; and as the business was not yet systematized, with its agents, detectives, &c., he determined to travel in disguise over the mail-routes, in order to discover what contractor was amiss in the performance of his obligations. General Cumming, the New Jersey mail contractor, was privately informed of the movements of his superior by a friend in the General Post. Office (probably chief clerk O. B. Brown, a Newarker), and instructed his negro driver how to proceed when he should happen to have a passenger answering to a certain description. Not long after Granger entered the stage at Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), and the dark-skinned driver, with a wise countenance, mounted to his seat, and gathering up his reins gave his horses a tremendous crack of his long whip. Away they bounded with fearful celerity over the " corduroy" road. Presently Granger put his head through the window and requested the driver to go slower. "Can't do it, Sir ; I drive the United States mail," was the reply, accompanied by another crack of the whip over the heads of the leaders. Again and again did Granger implore the obdurate black to moderate his speed, and every time came the response, "Can't do it, Sir; I drive the United States mail," with renewed application of the whip. Granger did not recover from the bruises of his John Gilpin ride for weeks, and was quite satisfied that one contract at least was honestly fulfilled.
The oldest carriage-making firm in Newark, and the oldest in the
QUINBY-NEWARK CARRIAGES ABROAD AND AT HOME. 217
United States except one (an Albany firm), is that of J. M. Quinby & Co., of Broad street. The founder of the firm, and for forty years (up to the time of his death) the senior partner, James M. Quinby, was born at Orange, October 4th, 1804, and died in Newark July 20th, 1874. He came to Newark when a lad, and served his apprenticeship with John Hedenberg. Upon the failure in 1834 of G. & A. K. Carter, in whose shop Quinby was foreman, the latter continued the business on his own account, subsequently taking in as partners George M. Spencer and Mr. Young. Though holding positive political opinions, Mr. Quinby was in no sense a partisan politician. In consideration of his worth as a citizen and a business man of the highest probity, he was thrice chosen Mayor of Newark, serving the three one-year terms from 1851 till 1854. In 1860 he was chosen to the State Senate, and most satisfactorily served a three years' term, representing his native County, Essex. During this estimable gentleman's time, and largely owing to the surpassing excellence of the work manufactured under his eye, Newark-made carriages became famous throughout America and even in Europe. In a lesser degree this was the case before Mr. Quinby's time, as the following complimentary note explains :
NEW-YORK, Nov. 10, 1836. Mr. J. C. Hedenberg, -- NEWARK.
DEAR SIR :- - I am happy in having it in my power to inform you that my friend in England is delighted with the Buggy you built for him ; and so much pleased with it is his particular friend, that he has ordered a fac simile to be built there, cost what it would.
Very respectfully, yours,
On one occasion a Newark carriage was drawn into the domain of national politics. It was the year in which the "Sage of Kinderhook " ran for President against William Henry Harrison. Party feeling ran very high at the time. No stone was left unturned by the partisans whereby a point could be made for or against the . candidates. The Newark Daily Advertiser vigorously supported Harrison, and printed a statement to the effect that Mr. Van Buren was not satisfied with American coaches, but must needs go to England for them, and so indulged in "an English coach and horses, likewise servants with splendid liveries." A gentleman vouched for as " a familiar friend of Mr. Van Buren's," and who might "be supposed to be well-informed on the subject," considered the matter of sufficient importance to publish a contradiction setting forth
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218
PRESIDENT VAN BUREN'S NEWARK CARRIAGE.
"the injustice of the charges made against Mr. Van Buren," and saying: " It is not true that Mr. Van Buren ever purchased an English coach and English horses in England, or elsewhere; it is not true that any of his servants wear 'splendid liveries or lace coats, hats, &c.,' or that he has 'outriders.' On the contrary, his carriage was made at one of the Newark coach-factories, I think Hedenberg's or Carter's. His horses, of which he has only one pair, were bought at his native place, Kinderhook, and his servants have never worn the least particle of livery." It is probable that upon his inauguration the following March, President Van Buren drove to the Capitol at Washington to take the oath of office in that same carriage " made at one of the Newark coach-factories." Other carriage-making firms, established subsequent to those particu- larized, have done much to maintain and increase the reputation of Newark in the trade. Willison Lloyd, John B. Sayres, James Turnbull, John Gardner, Gilbert Vanderworken, Johnson & Crane, Joseph Colyer & Co., Golder & Post, Ezra Marsh, M. C. Green, Leverich & Enders, S. B. Sanders, and Dobbins & Van Ness are among those carriage manufacturers whose handiwork always found a market wherever ease, elegance, lightness and durability were the desire of discriminating purchasers.
Coeval and co-extensive with the manufacture of carriages in Newark, is the manufacture of saddlery and harness. In this department of labor Newark workmanship also achieved, many years ago, an enviable reputation for excellence in strength, style, finish and beauty. It may be said that for a long period the largest part of the South was supplied with saddlery and harness by Newark. The earliest important establishment of which we have any trace is the one founded about the year 1823, under the title of Smith & Wright, the firm some years later consisting of Hanford Smith, . William Wright, Edwin Van Antwerp and William Faitoute. Their extensive factory (a portion of which is still standing) occu- pied the southeast corner of Broad and Fair streets. The founders of the firm, like the founders of Newark, originally came from Connecticut. They are said to have long conducted here the largest business in their line in the country. One member of the firm was destined not only to contribute largely to the development of New- ark as a manufacturing centre, but to figure conspicuously in the affairs of the State and nation. This was William Wright, who died
219
THE SADDLERS-SENATOR WRIGHT.
on November Ist, 1866, while holding the position of Senator in the Congress of the United States. Mr. Wright was a native of Rockland County, New York, where he was born about the year 1790. He engaged in the saddlery trade at Bridgeport, Connec- ticut. After a very active business life of thirty years in Newark, and having amassed a splendid fortune, Mr. Wright retired from business about the year 1854. Meanwhile he had taken a deep interest in public affairs and served three terms as Mayor of the city, (in 1841, '42 and '43). In 1842 he also ran for Congress, and was elected over William B. Kinney. He was re-elected in 1844, and in 1847 ran for Governor of the State, but was defeated by Daniel Haines. In politics he was a Whig, supporting Henry Clay in 1848, but in 1850 he withdrew from that party, joined the Democ- racy, and in 1853 was elected United States Senator by that party. At the expiration of his term he was succeeded by a Republican, the Republicans having control of the Legislature ; but in 1863 the Democrats had the majority and sent Senator Wright back to the Senate. He died three years later at the ripe age of 76. Senator Wright left behind him a reputation, not as an orator, but as a "prudent counsellor," one who was "endowed with great good sense and sound judgment," and "faithful in all the relations of life." The marble memorial placed in the House of Prayer (of which church he was "the benefactor"), is authority for saying that " charity was the rule of his life."
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