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 24
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230
THE BRILLIANCY OF NEWARK WORKMANSHIP.
appreciate the workmanship of American artisans. Jewelry needed a foreign stamp in order to command here a generous sale. In time, however, native skill, wedded to native art, broke down false prejudices, and moved steadily on to a grand triumph. For many years, jewelry made in Newark by such houses as Durand & Co., Carter, Howkins & Dodd-now Carter, Howkins & Sloan-Enos Richardson & Co., Wheeler, Paxson & Hayes, and others, met with a ready sale in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and the Western cities, when palmed off as Parisian or London made goods. Lately, however, it has proved a benefit instead of an injury, except in rare cases, to proclaim our wares home-made, rather than of foreign manufacture. The eyes of the blind have been opened and dazzled by the brilliancy of Newark workmanship, as displayed at Tiffany's and other great jewelry bazars in New York and elsewhere. In . 1860, according to the United States census, the value of the jewelry produced in this country was about $12,000,000. Ten years later, the figures given by the same authority for New Jersey were : factories, 39; hands employed, 1,502 ; capital invested, $1,844,900; wages, $942,801 ; material, $1,622,201 ; products, $3,315,679. That these figures are grossly inaccurate, is susceptible of ample proof. In July, 1869, a carefully prepared report in the Newark Daily Journal gave an aggregate approximate amount of capital employed, work turned out and men engaged in the jewelry business, as follows: Capital, $2,259,000; work turned out, $4,432,000; number of men, 1,493 ; wages paid, $1,791,600. This was for Newark alone. In 1874 there were in Newark about fifty factories, large and small, doing a business estimated at a little over $6,000,000. One firm alone (that which was originally established by Carter, Pierson & Hale a quarter of a century ago, and is con- ceded to be the largest jewelry factory in the world), has employed as many as six hundred hands, paying $6,000 weekly wages, and doing a business of about $2,000,000. About the same time the latter firm started, James M. Durand founded the establishment of which he is the senior partner. Under his remarkable genius the firm has achieved in the trade a name and reputation that are international. No man has done more for Newark's exalted fame, as a producer of the finest jewelry, than Mr. Durand.
The first gold and silver smelting and refining works established in Newark were those founded by Edward Balbach and long con-
231
SMELTING-ZINC-CLOTHING-HATTING.
ducted under the firm title of Ed. Balbach & Son. Mr. Balbach started about 1851. In 1874 it was claimed that the establishment did a ycarly business to the enormous sum of $5,000,000. Some years after Balbach begun business, L. Lelong & Brother started in the same industry, and succeeded in running it up to a business of about a million a year. C. S. Dennis began later.
The New Jersey Zinc Company began active work about the year 1850. The ore used is taken from the Company's own mincs at Ogdensburgh and Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey. The works are capable of turning out yearly $1.300,000 worth of products-over 12,000 tons of oxide of zinc, spelter and iron. In 1874 Newark had within its boundaries a total of manufacturers in metal other than iron, 81 establishments, employing about 2,685 hands, paying $38,811 weekly and $2,018,172 yearly wages, with annual products valued at $14,289,500.
Clothing for the general outside market, the South and the West, began to be extensively manufactured in Newark years before its incorporation. In 1837 there were established Waldron, Thomas & Co. (T. A. Waldron, F. S. Thomas, C. T. Rae, Luke Reed and F. F. Mygatt); C. Alling & Co. (Charles Alling and J. C. Garth- waite); Merchant, Davis & Co. (Silas Merchant, J. R. Davis and Lewis Dunn); Robinson, Bigelow & Co. (C. E. Robinson, Moses Bigelow and H. K. Ingraham) ; S. B. Potter & Co. (S. B. Potter and Temple T. Hall) ; Meeker & Lewis; Heaton & Perry (S. O. Heaton and Nehemiah Perry) ; I. R. Carmer & Co. (Isaac R. Carmer, Albert Carmer and Elijah B. Price). The "drapers and tailors" were William B. Ross, Charles Hoyt, John C. Littell, Albert Munn and Ross & Bennett. A few years later William B. Guild, Albert Alling, Benjamin Ross, Henry K. Ingraham and William G. Lord were in the same list.
During the same period hatting was extensively carried on by William Rankin & Co., Mr. Rankin's partners being John Ogden and Peter S. Duryee ; J. B. Pinneo, John Ogden, Isaac N. Rankin, James Berbeck, Thomas Evans, Andrew Rankin, Nichols H. Bab- cock and Hay & Agens. About 1852 James W. Corey entered the field. The firm of Yates, Wharton & Co., which does a business of half a million dollars annually, was established about 1858. Moore & Sealy Brothers, another extensive firm, were established earlier.
Furniture, the manufacture of which was quite largely carricd on
232
SETH BOYDEN AND HIS TEEMING BRAIN.
at the same time, was made by L. M. & A. B. Crane, Nathan Muzzy, Charles Merchant, Thomas L. Vantilburg, John Jelliff, Peter G. McDermitt and Eli Holloway.
During all the important years of Newark's industrial growth there was among its noblest sons of toil one brain more than all others that teemed with inventive genius, and of a character as singularly varied as it was marvelously active-one body that rested from severe labor, mental and physical, only when nature com- manded. That restless, ever-busy brain-that vigorous, tireless physical organization-belonged to SETH BOYDEN. Born at Fox- boro', Massachusetts, November 17th, 1798, Boyden removed to Newark in 1815. On a farm his earliest years of toil were spent, but soon his quick and active mind and nature yearned for wider fields of development. He abandoned farming, and, at the age of 15, turned his attention to the repairing of watches. Half a dozen years later he invented a machine for making wrought nails. Soon after that, in 1813, machines for cutting files sprang from his imagination. Then came his inventions for cutting brads and machines for cutting and heading tacks. About the latter part of the year 1818 a piece of patent leather, of German manufacture -- a military cap front, it is said-came into Mr. Boyden's possession. From this sample he produced the first side of patent leather ever manufactured in this country. He was engaged in it off and on for several years, his first year's sales being $4,521, and his sales for 1824 being $9,703.06. To give a list of the many branches of industry which Mr. Boyden brought to perfection would occupy a larger space than can be afforded in this work. He was the pioneer in this country of brads for joiners, of patent leather, of malleable iron ( his first success in this being upon the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence ), of daguerreotypes, and of locomotives and steam machinery. He also greatly aided Prof. Morse in his perfection of the electric telegraph. His later years were devoted to horticulture, at his home at Middleville, Irvington, the strawberry being particularly the subject of his wondrously improving attention, size -- and he brought the rich fruit to enormous growths-being entirely secondary to flavor. He died March 31st, 1870, aged 82 years, and was interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. His funeral, which took place on Sunday, April 3d, from the Fair street Universalist Church, was an
Respectfully Seth Boyden
233
-
BOYDEN'S DISCOVERIES-THE CRASH OF '57.
exceedingly imposing demonstration, and an impressive tribute to the memory of the dead inventor. It was no exaggeration for his funeral eulogist ( Rev. A. A. Thayer,) to say, in the course of his eulogy : "The memory of Seth Boyden belongs to the American people. Nearly every family throughout the land have had their labors lightened by his inventions. It would be difficult to find a cunning workman in leather, in brass or iron whose toil has not been made lighter by Boyden's discoveries. The iron horses and chariots, with their thousands of travelers, which follow the iron threads from the Atlantic to the Pacific, feel the touch of his genius in every vibration. As a man and a citizen, his praise was on every lip. He was absolutely without avarice, as he was without wealth." " His grand ideas," wrote another, at the time of his death, " were scarcely perfected before they were applied, frequently with profit, to others. His was a quiet, natural life, without great trouble or sorrow. He was respected by every one that knew him, his kindly nature and genial disposition rendering him a friend to all." And yet another has said, with equal justice: "Few men have lived lives of more unobtrusive usefulness, or been more regretfully remembered at death, than he." To the exceptionally remarkable genius of Seth Boyden Newark is indebted in a degree at least equal to that in which the world esteems James Watts, Isaac New- ton, Robert Fulton and Professor Morse ; and it is creditable to her manufacturers' sense of what they owe him, that they contemplate in the near future the erection to his memory of a suitable monument.
To return. From the period immediately succeeding the troubles of 1837-which set back Newark's growth in people nearly 4,000 -- from 20,079 in 1837 to 16,128 in 1838-the population of the city had steadily increased until in 1857 it numbered about 64,000. Early in the fall of that year the financial horizon lowered threat- eningly, and soon the Ohio Life and Trust Company was caught by the first gust of the storm. The Illinois Central and the Erie Railroads suffered next. The general crash soon followed. So unlooked for was the trouble, at least to the eyes of the Newark press, that farsightedness in others was set down as "manifest rascality." Early in September, for instance, the New York Herald, being then under the management of its remarkable founder, the renowned James Gordon Bennett, saw what was coming, and said :
234
" MANIFEST RASCALITY " AND PROPHECY.
We are, beyond all question, in the midst of a fearful revulsion : and where it will end the wisest among us cannot tell. We do not look for any mitigation of our embarrassments and difficulties until scores upon scores of failures have taken place, and a long period of prostration. The recovery from this collapse must be very gradual, and it will leave marks of its existence and power for years. The end is by no means yet. We have just entered upon it, and as it extends it will gather force.
"To countercheck the manifest rascality which prompted " the foregoing, the Newark Daily Eagle of September 4 "joyfully " reproduced from the New York Mirror an account which began saying in staring capitals : " Wall street easier. Stocks improving. No more failures." This view, as time speedily proved, was of the couleur de rose order. Inside of a few weeks the Eagle echoed the sentiments of the Boston Herald and said :
The Boston Herald truly says that the country presents an anomalous picture. It has abund- ant and overflowing granaries ; is supplied in every quarter with all the means of sustaining life, and has a large surplus for exportation; it is alive with industry and enterprise ; full of strength and labor; of means and opportunities, and yet there is wide-spread trouble in com- mercial circles ; labor is not in demand, prices of the necessaries of life are maintained at a high figure; exorbitant and ruinous prices are paid for money ; specie is scarce ; confidence is almost entirely withdrawn, and a very little thing, a breath almost, may precipitate a panic that will sweep over the country and involve thousands in hopeless ruin.
The "very little thing" came, and after it " the sweep " involving " thousands in hopeless ruin." Values of all kinds depreciated enormously. Financial institutions suspended, factories stopped, and on all sides distress set in. As for the causes, opinions varied. Some said it was the natural outgrowth of stock-gambling, extrava- gance, and unnatural inflation of values. " Indeed," said the Philadelphia Bulletin, "we defy any one to give a sound philosophical reason for the prevailing uneasiness. We cannot find the cause for it, but everybody is feeling its effects. Some of the best manufac- turing and mercantile houses in the land, whose honor and credit have never been questioned, and whose assets are far above their liabilities, have been obliged to succumb to the pressure. Others, in equally good credit, and with equally abundant resources, have thus far sustained themselves, but have been obliged to go into the market and offer enormous rates for money, and this very fact has tended to increase still further the general distrust. The panic is no respecter of persons; rich and poor, honest and dishonest, the trustworthy and the untrustworthy stand on the same platform.
235
"THE CRISIS IN NEWARK."
The credit system, on which the life of business depends, seems to be, for the time, completely overthrown."
In New York, within twelve days, the banks felt constrained to reduce loans to the extent of eight millions, thus seriously adding to the embarrassment of the public. It was the same elsewhere. An instance of the vicissitudes of commerce at this period is shown in this single instance. Within eighteen months, a property worth $800,000 fell away in value until it was sold for $50,000. Governors of States called special sessions of the Legislatures to devise, if possible, means of relief. The condition of affairs is outlined in the following opening part of the call issued by Governor Pollock, of Pennsylvania :
Whereas, a serious financial revulsion has occurred, resulting in the suspension of specie payments by the banks of this and other States of the Union, and the failure of many long- established commercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence, and to the general embarrassment and depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the credit of the Commonwealth, and the great industrial interests of the people, &c.
" The crisis in Newark" was thus described by the Eagle of October 4 :
Owing to the crash in New York, all four of our Newark Banks yesterday resolved to sus- pend specie payments. The Directors met, previous to 10 A. M., and decided upon this course. Immediately upon opening, a rush was made to the counters by billholders, whose requests for specie were in every instance refused. The excitement was great, but among reasonable men the action of the Directors met with an unanimous approval. Our worst fears have now been realized, but all agree that suspension was the only alternative. All the New Jersey Banks have now suspended. The bills, as well as those of New York and Eastern Banks, will pass current as usual in trade. Our citizens need be under no apprehension, as they cannot in any event be losers. The run on the Savings Bank on Tuesday was severe.
Thus, the " manifest rascality " of the Herald turned out to be a manifestation of prophecy on the part of the latter, and of great short-sightedness on the part of the Eagle-eyed Newark journalist of the period. On Friday, October 23d, " in view of the great financial panic, the unexampled derangement of the Money Market, and the entire absence of any settled plan for relief," a large number of leading citizens, including Moses Bigelow, James M. Quinby, O. S. Halsted, Stoutenburg, Day & Reock, Hedenberg & Littell, Joseph Day, Courter, Garrabrant & Co., A. Lemassena, Weeks & Co., John Kennedy, Samuel Tolles, Agens & Co., C. G. Campbell & Co., Henry N. Parkhurst, Elihu Day, Nichols, Sherman & Co.,
236
POVERTY AND DISTRESS-A CRY FOR BREAD.
T. P. Howell & Co., A. G. P. Colburn, E. C. Aber, J. F. Remer, Dawson & Lewis, Jos. Shipman, J. H. Woodhull, Geo. M. Dawes, Cornelius Mandeville, Chas. E. Young and others, issued a card for a public meeting, " to consider, and if possible adopt such measures as may tend to relieve the present embarrassment, restore confi- dence, and maintain the high character and public credit of our city and monied institutions." After one or two adjournments, the meeting was finally convened, and the report was adopted of a special committee, which report set forth "that the banks were doing all in their power to benefit the community, and recommended that the public authorities take some measures to afford employ- ment to those needing such, and that the various benevolent organizations be requested to aid at once in the relief of the suffering." How great the distress was in Newark, especially among the working portion of the population, is shown by heart- rending items in the press of the day, the following being a sample :
The following incident will show that our city is not entirely destitute of poverty and suffering. On Saturday a young man seized a piece of meat from one of our butcher stalls, for which lie was promptly arrested by the proprietor aided by a policeman. He begged piteously before going to the Station House to be permitted to see his family, whom, he said, were starving. His request was finally granted, and the parties proceeded to his house. There they found his wife and two children, who had no food since Friday morning, and who were now bitterly crying as they entered. The young mechanic had been without labor for several weeks, and, without credit, he was too proud to beg. The butcher promptly placed the meat upon the table, and a purse of some six dollars was afterwards made up for him.
Matters had become so distressing among the unemployed work- men of the city, that a meeting was held on Military Park, November 18th, which was attended by about 2,000 persons, and which adopted resolutions appointing a committee " to wait on the city authorities and ask them to give work to the unemployed," and respectfully asking all citizens who had work to be performed, to give it immediately. The meeting echoed the sentiment of a similar meeting at Trenton, about the same time, to wit : " We ask not alms, but work, that our wives and children may not starve. Peace and good-will is our motto."
How history repeats itself! With what unerring certainty like causes produce like effects in all times and among all people ! Who that peruses the foregoing outline and spirit of the financial troubles and distresses visited upon this and every American community in
237
HISTORY'S REPETITION-THE COMING STORM.
1857, will not be startled by the almost exact reflex of the entire picture as presented in the mirror of history twenty years later? As we write, a leading press of the country opens an article by saying: "The existing industrial disorder in this country is of a most peculiar type. It is a distinct case of national starvation in the midst of national plenty. History is full of cases of national suffering caused by short crops, by an actual want of the necessaries of life, resulting in famine and famine prices. But here we have the land fairly groaning under the weight of its crops, all good gifts showered upon our people with a lavish hand, and yet thousands of able-bodied men are beggars meditating crime among us." Happily the night of distress, destitution and darkness soon passed away, and the dawn of restored prosperity and plenty appeared." Before the close of the year 1859 the trade and industry of Newark had resumed their normal pulsation and activity ; the machinery of her factories made as healthful music as ever, spreading happiness and contentment among the thousands and tens of thousands of her population. With abiding faith and confidence in the sure recur- rence of history, the long prayed for repetition is now earnestly and ardently looked for, hoped for, prayed for.
Meanwhile, let us pass to another chapter and to another epoch-the visitation upon the whole country of a storm incom- parably weightier and more terrible than that which, for a time shattered business, paralyzed trade, upset all commercial calculations and frustrated the wisest schemes of finance. Now let us brace our nerves and face the fearful civil storm which began brewing long before 1861, and which, when it burst, shook the pillars of the Republic to their very foundation-but, under a directing Providence, only to prove their wondrous stability, their grand power to defy the " crack of doom"-almost to survive
"The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds."
CHAPTER VIII.
1861 TO 1865.
The War Period-Self-Interest and Patriotism-Southern Sympathy and Speaker Pennington's Defeat for Congress-A Patriotic Mayor-Lincoln's Reception in Newark-After the Firing on Sumpter-The Authorities and the People-Grand Union Demonstration-The Women, the Banks and the Soldiers-On to Washington and Across the Potomac-Bull Run and General Runyon's Brigade-The First Regiment's Return to Newark-Action of the Legislature-Local Politics and " A Carnival of Patriotism "-The Newark Regiments at the Front-The Second and the Eighth-Chiekahominy and Williamsburg-Chaplain Chambre's Testimony-The Thirteenth, Twenty-sixth and Thirty-third-Newark's Valor- ous Vetcrans-Instances of Gallantry-" Fighting Phil." Kearny-From Cherubusco to Chantilly-Character of "The One-Armed Devil "-His Intemperate Comments on MeClellan-A Soldier's Death-Magee, the Drummer Boy-His Signal Heroism at Murfreesboro'-Sad Sequel to a Brilliant Beginning-The Return of Peace-How it was Hailed in Newark-Lincoln's Assassination-Turning a High-Noon of Joy into a Mid- night of Sorrow-Obsequics of the Martyred President-Heavy Local Bercavements- Governor Pennington, Senator Frelinghuysen and General Darey-Their Lives and Characters.
T THROUGH more than one crisis, at widely distant periods, we have witnessed how the people of Newark bore themselves. In the early days, when fierce contentions with the Proprietors" stirred the public passions, we have seen how the inhabitants ever maintained a manly bearing. Again, with just and natural local pride, we have borne witness to the fact that during the long and terrible crucial experience of Revolution the men of Newark maintained themselves throughout with fortitude, courage and patriotism, leaving to posterity the proud bequeathment of a manhood sans peur and a reputation sans reproche. Yet again, in the periods of peace, crowned as they have been with " victories no less renowned than war"-in times of business and financial tribu- lation -we have seen that the citizens of Newark continuously held aloft, free from blot or stain, the pure white banner of probity and public virtue. Now we are on the threshold of another crisis, one which, in the enormity of the consequences involved, dwarfed into littleness all other American epochs, even that of the Revolution. WVe approach the awful crisis of SIXTY-ONE !- the portentous question of National unity and existence or the severance of that great American sisterhood of sovereignties, the UNITED STATES!
MAJ. GEN . KEARNY OF N. J.
239
THE TRUE POSITION OF NEWARK.
We are about to see the curtain lifted on the great tragedy of the Civil War-about to witness the part Newark sustained in tlie thrilling scenes precipitated upon the Republic by the memorable firing upon Fort Sumpter. The better to reach a just judgment, let us examine for a moment the true position of Newark towards the two great geographical sections of the nation previous to the opening of the conflict.
Newark, though situated at the North, was essentially a Southern work-shop. For about two-thirds of a century the shoemakers of Newark shod the South, its planters and its plantation hands, to a large extent. For generations the bulk of the carriages, saddlery, harness and clothing manufactured in Newark found a ready and profitable market south of Mason and Dixon's line. And so it was to a greater or lesser extent with all our other industries. Newark, therefore, was substantially interested in the South. Indeed, the defeat of Governor William Pennington for Congress in November, 1860, was attributed to that interest by some of his partisans. A publicist of the day, who sorely felt the Governor's defeat-he was then Speaker of the National House of Representatives-went so far as to declare that "his (Governor Pennington's) friends wish to express their thorough and hearty contempt for that band of mer- cenary and unprincipled men, engaged in Southern trade, who have been foremost in producing this result." "If," continued the same writer, with the emphasis of italics, " they had been slaves themselves, and every morning had been lashed into humility, they could not have worked more heartily to carry out the wishes of their Southern masters." While this decidedly vigorous language had for a basis, doubtless, more partisan chagrin and disappointment than fact, it is not unlikely, nevertheless, that bread and butter, like blood, proved thicker than water, and that Newark's interest in the South cost Mr. Pennington the comparatively few votes which defeated him. Be that as it may, the undoubted fact remains that Newark had material reasons for being kindly prejudiced towards the South. When called upon to act her part in the dreadful drama then about to be enacted, did she allow these kindly prejudices to warp her judgment and enervate her patriotism? We shall see presently.
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