THE

NEW JERSEY COAST

IN THREE CENTURIES

CHAPTER I.

THE RISE OF TOWNS—THEIR CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS.

In the following pages is epitomized the history and present conditions of the principal towns in the counties of the New Jersey coast. From this narrative are excepted, however, those known as seaside resorts, and which are written of elsewhere.

TOWNS OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

The Perth Amboy of to-day, at the head of Raritan Bay, occupies a position of importance peculiar to itself. An early newspaper, the "New Jersey Gazette," in its issue of August 5, 1819, said "the situation of Perth Amboy ranks pre-eminent to almost any other in the United States." The population was then something less than eight hundred. The journal quoted, in making the most of the natural advantages of the locality with a view of attracting increased population, had no discernment of its possibilities save as a place of residence, and was content with describing its healthfulness and extolling the virtues of its mineral springs.

Its natural advantages have enabled it to attain distinction as one of the most extensive and successful manufacturing points in New Jersey. With its magnificent water front and spacious harbor, with the Raritan river and its affluents reaching well into the interior, and with its network

of railways extending in all directions, its provisions for commerce and its facilities for reaching the markets of the world are not surpassed by any city in the Union. Opening out from the bay is egress to New York and abroad, while passenger and freight boats make it a midway point in plying between New Brunswick and the metropolis, and additional water communications are afforded by the Delaware and Raritan canal. The railways which also serve to distribute the products of its yards and factories are the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and the Central of New Jersey, the last named also operating a branch road extending along the Raritan river and into the clay-bearing section for a distance of ten miles. The passenger traffic is divided between these lines and the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad. The city is lighted by electricity and gas, and water is distributed by a perfect system of modern waterworks.

For many years the city developed but slowly. In 1860 the population was but 2,302, and this number was increased but 559 during the next decade. In 1880 it had increased to 4,812, but it nearly doubled in 1890, when the number of inhabitants was 9,510, and it had nearly doubled again in 1900, when the number was 19,450.

The statistics of population afford a reasonably accurate idea of the increase in manufacturing facilities. First of industries, in precedence of establishment and in present importance, are those of brick and terra cotta manufacture. These include the establishment of Henry Maurer & Son, the most extensive manufacturers of fire brick in the world, employing 350 workmen, and that of the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company, which operates the oldest and largest works of their class in the country, employing from 400 to 600 people. Other clay working establishments. are those of the Standard Fire Proof Company, employing 300 workmen; the Staten Island Clay Company, employing 250 workmen; the Raritan Hollow and Porous Brick Company, employing 300 workmen; the Standard Terra Cotta Works, employing 150 hands; the International Clay Manufacturing Company, employing 150 workmen; and numerous smaller works with one hundred workmen or less in each instance. In 1900 more than one million tons of workable clay were mined in the vicinity of the town.

In recent years Perth Amboy has become the seat of some of the most important metal refineries in the country. In the works of Guggenheim Brothers, established in 1895, are refined each week about 1,000,000 ounces of silver, and gold amounting to $10,000 in value, with, in addition, an annual output of 40,000,000 pounds of copper and enormous quantities of lead. Nearly 1,000 operatives are employed in these works. The Raritan Copper Company was organized in 1898, and in March of the

following year opened refineries which are recognized as the most extensive in the world, employing about one thousand people.

Among other industries are chemical works which are among the most extensive in the country; a cable manufactory making wire for electrical purposes, employing 500 men; a tile and steel and rolling mill, employing 300 workmen; machine shops for building and repairing marine engines and general machinery, and another engaged in the same lines, with a brass foundry in connection; boat building yards; saw mills; emery works, cement works, vulcanizing works, cork works, match factories, clothing manufactories, and other small establishments in various lines. A dry-dock has facilities for drawing out of the water and repairing vessels of two thousand tons burden.

The financial institutions of the city are the First National Bank, with a capital of $100,000; the Middlesex County State Bank; the Perth Amboy Savings Institution; and the Citizens' Building and Loan Association, organized in 1892, and having resources amounting to $209,447.51. An efficient Chamber of Commerce carefully guards commercial and financial interests and affords aid and encouragement to new industries.

Educational and religious institutions are liberally maintained. The public school buildings, including a fine high school edifice erected at an outlay of $37,000, afford accommodations for three thousand pupils, and two Catholic parochial schools accommodate seven hundred pupils. An ample and well supported public library is open to students and to the general public.

Various denominations occupy substantial and attractive houses of worship. The Protestant Episcopal churches are St. Peter's and the Church of the Holy Cross; the Roman Catholic churches are St. Mary's and St. Stephen's; and there are also a Presbyterian church, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Baptist church, a Lutheran church, a Danish Methodist church and a Danish Lutheran church.

The local newspapers are conducted with ability and are efficient factors in promoting enterprises conducing to the prosperity and development of the city and the advancement of its various interests. One daily newspaper is published, the "Middlesex County Herald." independent in politics; one bi-weekly, the "Chronicle;" and two weekly, the "Middlesex County Democrat," and the "Republican."

South Amboy lies immediately opposite Perth Amboy, on the south bank and at the mouth of the Raritan River. The village was unimportant and gave little promise of development until after the completion of the Camden & Amboy Railroad, in 1833. In the year following it contained only about a score of dwellings. The population in 1900 was

6,349. The railroads and coal trade afford employment to a large portion of the resident laborers. In the immediate vicinity are several large pottery works, and the Bergen Iron Works.

The public schools compare favorably with those of any city of similar size in the State, and a number of private schools are maintained. There are churches of the Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Roman Catholic denominations. Doane Memorial Chapel (Protestant Episcopal) about one mile from the village, on the Matawan road, was erected in 1866 by Mrs. R. S. Conover, as a memorial to the late Right Rev. George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey.

Sayreville, some miles westward from South Amboy, and also on the Raritan River, the home of a population of one thousand people, grew up under the influence of the extensive brick and pottery manufactories which were established there and in the vicinity. It also contains extensive greenhouses and nurseries, which are widely renowned.

The village was formerly known as Roundabout, taking its name for the reason of the very circuitous water route from the place to Sandy Hook Bay by way of the Raritan River and South River.

Sewaren, two miles north of Perth Amboy, on a bluff paralleling the waters of Staten Island Sound, and on the Long Branch Division of the New Jersey Central Railroad, affords delightful advantages to numerous

permanent residents, many of whom are connected with extensive manufacturing interests in the immediate vicinity. It offers nearly every possible attraction for a home in the country. In summer, yachting is one of the chief amusements of the place, for the inlet on which many of the docks stand makes a land-locked harbor, insuring good anchorage. The bathing facilities are unexcelled anywhere on Jersey waters. The long, sloping beach with its bath houses, is a delightful place for those who enjoy the salt water. There are excellent roads in all directions, to Perth Amboy, Plainfield, Elizabeth, Rahway and Staten Island. At this place are located the commodious Boynton works for the manufacture of brick drain pipe and tile and hollow brick for roofing fire-proof buildings. These works have been developed from a small beginning made thirty-six years ago. The property fronts on Woodbridge creek, and abuts on Staten Island Sound. The daily product during the busy season amounts in value to a half million dollars, and is extensively used in the best buildings in the national capitol and other large cities. The Vulcan Metal Refining Company employs fifty persons in converting tin scraps into steel.

WOODBRIDGE.

Woodbridge is one of the oldest towns in Middlesex, situated almost immediately north of Perth Amboy, and the township in which it lies was chartered June 1, 1669. Its settlers were mostly descendants of the Pilgrims, and from one of their number, the Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury, Massachusetts, the village derived its name. The grant privileged the inhabitants, among other things, to choose their own magistrates and ministers, authorized a court of judicature, guaranteed liberty of conscience "according to the terms of the concessions," and stipulated that the inhabitants should have "the privilege of a free trade, unburdened by any excise or tax save such as may be imposed by the government and general assembly for defraying public charges." Lots were drawn for May 8, 1717, under the supervision of John Parker, and Caleb Campbell was permitted to draw a lot in consideration of his wife having been the first Christian child born in Woodbridge.

June 24, 1769, a royal charter was issued incorporating the free schools of Woodbridge. However, schools had been previously existent, James Fullerton being mentioned as schoolmaster in 1689. John Brown, of Amboy, was engaged to teach a free school in 1694, but it is uncertain. whether he actually served, protest having been made against his appointment, and a few months later John Backer (or Baker) was employed. From this time, however, schools were maintained almost constantly.