TRENTON'S INDUSTRIAL POTTERIES
Trenton was once home to a thriving pottery industry, with beehive kilns dotting the city’s landscape and smoke from burning coal filling the air. Trenton’s potteries produced all sorts of ceramic goods: kitchenware such as bowls, plates, cups and food molds; decorative art like vases, figurines and statues; sanitary wares such as toilets, bathtubs, sinks and urinals; and many specialty items including electric insulators, crucibles, and glove molds (for the rubber industry). At the peak of the industry, between roughly 1870 and 1920, only one other industrial center in the United States (East Liverpool, Ohio) came close to challenging Trenton as the nation’s leader in pottery manufacture.
The Delaware and Raritan Canal played a key role in the growth of the Trenton potteries during the second half of the 19th century. The city’s central location in relation to raw materials and markets, and its easy access to canals and railroads, were critical to the development and survival of its ceramic industry. The Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal, together with the Delaware Canal and the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad, brought coal from Pennsylvania to power equipment and to fuel the kilns. The main stem of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, along with the Camden & Amboy Railroad and the Delaware & Bound Brook Railroad, hauled clay and tempering materials in addition to coal. The canals and railroads were also used to ship finished products to consumer markets across the country.
Easy access to transportation was so important to the industry that the majority of potteries were located along the canal and/or the railroads. By the 1860s and 1870s, close to a dozen industrial potteries, including the City Pottery, the Etruria Pottery and the Excelsior Pottery, were ranged along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Just north of the city was a section known as Coalport, which emerged around a group of railroad sidings where shipments of coal were unloaded for industrial use. Some of Trenton’s largest potteries were based there, including the Etruria Pottery Works, Coxon & Company’s Pottery, John Maddock & Sons Coalport Works, and the Mercer Pottery. By the late 1870s, the pottery industry had also expanded southeast of the city along the canal and railroad into the neighboring community of Lamberton, with the dominant pottery in this area eventually being the Maddock Pottery Company’s Lamberton Works (later the Scammell China Company).
Sanitary Pottery
Sanitary pottery, also known as sanitary ware or sanitary porcelain, was an important ceramic product manufactured in Trenton. As indoor plumbing became widespread in the 1870s, the need for toilets, sinks and bathtubs grew. Since Trenton was already home to a thriving industrial pottery business it was a logical place in which to manufacture sanitary pottery. This was not lost upon Thomas Maddock, an English immigrant and pottery entrepreneur. He moved to Trenton from New York in 1873 to become part owner of the Carroll Street Pottery and began experimenting in the manufacture of sanitary pottery. Maddock was instrumental in developing the toilet flushing mechanism and had a number of patents for improvements to water closet design. Within a few years, the Carroll Street Pottery had switched to making predominantly sanitary wares.
The Enterprise Pottery
“The business of the Enterprise Pottery, on New York Avenue, was established in 1880. Earthenware closets, druggists’ vitrified ware, plumbers’ earthenware, stationary wash-stand basins, decorated toilet ware, and other earthenware in general are manufactured, a specialty being made of sanitary goods, and shipped principally to New York and Philadelphia. The manufacturing capacity of this establishment is one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars annually, and fifty hands are employed.”
— Woodward, E.M. and J.F. Hageman. 1883. History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. Everts and Peck, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Enterprise Pottery was the first factory in Trenton purpose-built for the mass production of sanitary wares. The origins of the pottery lie in the formation in 1873 of the Enterprise Land Company which purchased 228 acres along the canal in north Trenton for subdivision and development. Sometime between 1866 and 1873 a canal basin was built near the site of the present Enterprise Pottery building, and the Phillips Firebrick Works was subsequently established. Firebricks, essential building blocks for kilns and fireplaces, were made on the site until about 1880; the works produced 350,000 bricks in its final year in business (at which time it was known as the Trenton Fire Brick Company).
The Enterprise Pottery Company was founded around 1880 through the creation of a partnership by Charles H. Skirm, Richard Brian, William H. Umpleby and George Knowles. Skirm was a member of a prominent Trenton family and was involved in numerous business and real estate ventures in the city, many of them centering on the pottery industry. In addition to being President of the Enterprise Pottery Company, he served as Trenton postmaster (1872-1876), Mercer County sheriff (1879-1882), and President of the Trenton Water Association (1894-1900). Brian was born in Longton, Staffordshire, trained as an apprentice potter in England, and moved to the United States in 1870, where he found employment in Trenton’s pottery industry. Umpleby, like Thomas Maddock, experimented in the design of water closets and might have been responsible for the design of the sanitary ware produced by the Enterprise Pottery. In the 1880s he filed for and received three patents for water closet design.
The Enterprise Pottery was built on a tract of land comprising the lot formerly occupied by the Phillips Firebrick Works and an additional 100 by 300-foot lot. The pottery had a 350-foot frontage on the Delaware and Raritan Canal and a 300-foot frontage on the railroad. By 1887 it employed 120 workers, had five kilns and produced $200,000 in goods annually. It manufactured a wide range of items, such as earthenware closets, druggists’ vitrified ware, plumbers’ earthenware, sanitary washstand basins and decorated toilet ware.
“… the main building has a frontage along the canal of 350 feet, and along the railroad of 300 feet. There are several buildings on the premises, in all covering about five acres, and making one of the most extensive, if not the largest in its special line in the country. The output of the Enterprise Pottery consists of sanitary earthenware exclusively … The plant consists of seven 16 feet 6 inches kilns, which since their erection have been running to their full capacity; a seventy-five-horse power engine furnishes the motive power, and to its aid is called the services of one hundred and fifty skilled operatives. They have a decorating establishment, where customers can always find a full line of decorated washouts, basins, etc., equal to any produced in the country. ”
— J.M. Elstner & Co. 1889. New Jersey's Leading Cities Illustrated: Historical, Biographical, Commercial Review of the Progress in Commerce, The Professions and in Social, Municipal Life. J.M. Elstner & Co., New York, New York, page 90.
Comparison of historic maps indicates the site underwent a major reconstruction in the 1880s, after which the property included a three-story building (with elevator) housing a sagger shop in the basement, a first-floor office, ware rooms on the first and second floors and press rooms on the third floor. To this were attached a three-story molding and decorating building, a one-story engine house and grinding room, three-story structures containing slip shops, workshops, a green room, and dipping and biscuit rooms. Seven bottle kilns rose up from within three two-story wings. Two detached buildings held straw for packaging, and a one-story clay shed was served by a railroad siding. The siding crossed the mouth of the old canal basin on a wooden bridge. In the first quarter of the 20th century the complex expanded again. By 1927 another kiln had been added, new concrete clay bins were built over the filled-in basin, and another story had been added to the principal workshop building.
The Enterprise Pottery enjoyed a long and distinguished career as one of Trenton’s foremost industrial concerns. In 1892 it joined with four other sanitary ware potteries in Trenton (Crescent, Delaware, Empire and Equitable) to form the Trenton Potteries Company. The Enterprise Pottery was known as Plant No. 4, but continued to be listed in city directories under the name “Enterprise” until 1916. Although acting as one in terms of marketing and distribution of finished wares, each pottery continued to operate separately, managed by whomever owned the company before the merger.
Like most of Trenton’s potteries, the Enterprise Pottery was ultimately a casualty of the Depression and the decline in the use of ceramic materials that accompanied the rise of plastics. The number of potteries in Trenton dwindled to around 30 in the early 1930s and by the end of World War II only 18 were listed as being in operation. In 1941 the Enterprise Pottery was sold to a wholesale supply company and in 1971 to a moving and storage company. The buildings were demolished in 2022.
Trenton Potteries Company makers marks with the number 4 indicating manufacture at the Enterprise Pottery.
Example of a Trenton Pottery Company makers mark.
Examples of Trenton Pottery Company makers marks.
Enterprise Pottery Flythrough
Created By: Colliers Engineering and Design, Mount Arlington, NJ; 2022
References
Goldberg, David J, Preliminary Notes on the Pioneer Potters and Potteries of Trenton, N.J.: The First Thirty Years - 1852 - 1882 (And Beyond), Privately published, Trenton, New Jersey. 1998.
Naar, Day & Naar, A Review of the
Harney, W.J. Trenton's First Potteries. Sunday Times Advertiser, July 7, 14, 21 and 28, 1929.
Hunter Research, Inc., Teacups to Toilets: A Century of Industrial Pottery in Trenton, Circa 1950-1940, 1998.
J.M. Elstner & Co., New Jersey's Leading Cities Illustrated: Historical, Biographical, Commercial Review of the Progress in Commerce, The Professions and in Social, Municipal Life, 1889.
John Milner & Associates, Inc., Historic American Engineering Record Documentation of the Enterprise Pottery, Route 1SB Over New York Avenue, City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Library of Congress. 1995
Lee, Francis Bazley, Genealogical and Personal Memoir of Mercer County, New Jersey, Lewis Publishing Co., New York. 1907.
Lehner, Lois, Lehner's Encyclopedia of U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain & Clay. Collector Books, Paducah, Kentucky. 1988.
Naar, Day & Naar, A Review of the Department of Police, Trenton, New Jersey, with Copious Illustrations and Sketches Descriptive of its Economy, 1899.
Naar, Day & Naar, A Review of the Quarter-Century's Progress of New Jersey's Leading Manufacturing Centres, Dover International Publishing Company, New York. 1887.
Trenton State Gazette, "New Pottery on the Co-operative Plan," Saturday, February 21, 1880.
Trenton State Gazette, "City and County" Tuesday, July 27, 1880.
Van Hoesen, Walter Hamilton, Crafts and Craftsmen of New Jersey, Associated University Presses, Inc., Cranbury, New Jersey. 1973.
Woodward, E.M. and J.F. Hageman, History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. Everts and Peck, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1883.
Six Mile run
Reservoir? But Where's the Water?
Along South Middlebush Road in Franklin Township is a unique resource – a cultural landscape dating back to the colonial settlement of the area in 1702. From a hill top farm along Skillman’s Lane, a farmland vista unfolds toward the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Millstone River beyond. Not a strip mall, food establishment or subdivision is in sight. Instead, on the hills above Blackwells Mills Road is a glimpse into a past time, an undeveloped rural landscape and the remains of farmsteads and outbuildings that are relics of the Dutch pioneers who settled this area that we now call The Six Mile Run Reservoir Site.
The name might confuse those park visitors expecting to find a large body of water and the associated recreational activities that usually accompany a reservoir. If you’re looking for boating, swimming, fishing or even lakeside camping, you’ll be disappointed to learn none are available here. As the name implies, Six Mile Run is the “site” of a proposed reservoir; a site that until now has not been constructed.
But why build a reservoir? The need to supply water to NJ’s rapidly growing population in the 1950s was identified as a hot issue by our state leaders after the state suffered drought in 1953. A reliable source was needed and discussions quickly turned to reservoir building. Several locations were identified as suitable including the large farming community surrounding the Six Mile Run (a natural stream located 6 miles from the colonial settlement at New Brunswick and so named by the early 17th century settlers). The others were the populated farming communities we now know as Round Valley and Spruce Run Recreation Areas. Both the Round Valley and the Spruce Run projects pre-dated Six Mile Run and although plans were well underway in the 1960s and properties were purchased to make way for the new water supply, the Six Mile Run site was eventually tabled. As it turned out, the reservoirs at Round Valley and Spruce Run, as well as the waters of the D & R Canal, proved to provide adequate supplies of water for those in the northeastern and central area of the state at that time. The Six Mile Run reservoir was not yet needed and so the 3000+ acres that now belonged to the state were turned over to the Division of Parks and Forestry in the 1990s to be managed as open space and parkland until such time that the proposed reservoir was deemed necessary; something not likely to happen, according to the state, for several more decades.
Displacement
Creation of a reservoir is usually fraught with controversy and such was the case for the Six Mile Run site even though the run was never dammed nor the farmland flooded. Many families lost their ancestral homes as the state bought out privately owned properties and a total of 3000+ acres in preparation for the proposed reservoir. Several property owners were descendants from some of the original owners who date back to the early seventeenth century. Many others had purchased their properties decades earlier with little desire to sell to the state. Yet despite an efforts by those affected and a concerned community, the properties were slowly sold. Some owners opted to stay and lease their former homes and farmland for a time from the state. In other cases families moved on leaving only the structures and farmed landscape behind. The ghosts of many of those farmsteads can still be seen dotting the landscape. They stand as testament to those who called this “Pleasant Valley” their homes. The pristine landscape and the architectural remains of those structures can be seen by those hiking and biking the trails of the Six Mile Run Reservoir site today.
History of the Area
The colonists, who settled the area and built the first phases of some of the surviving structures can be found without looking very hard. Their names have survived into the 21st century and are printed on street signs that cross through the Six Mile Run area: Cortelyous, Jacques, Suydam, Skillman, Vliet, Van Cleef. Some names never made it to street signs but their influence on the agricultural landscape was no less significant: Polhemus, Vanliew, Nevius, Hagemen, Wycoff, Voorhees. These names are connected through culture and heritage as many were of Dutch origin. The first Dutch landowners from Staten Island purchased their extensive land tracts in 1702 from John Harrison – an early land speculator. Those 10,000 acres were subdivided into 16 lots by Jacques Cortelyou. The land was extensive running east to west from today’s Route 27 to the Millstone River. The 10,000 acre tract was split down the middle and 8 lots were laid on each side. The dividing line became South Middlebush Road. Those landowners were Jacques Cortelyou, Peter Cortelyou, Theodorus Polhemus, Garritt Stoothoff, Cornelius Wycoff, Hendrik Lott, Cornelius Van Wyckoff, Frederick Van Liew, Stoffel Probaskoo and Deneys Tennisson; Names that have endured into the 21st century.
Settlement was gradual as some held onto the land for speculation or to pass to their sons as inheritance. One of the earliest homesteads is the Wyckoff-Garretson house that was built by Cornelius Wycoff’s son John who moved to the area around 1710 and began the difficult process of tilling the land and establishing a farmstead. That 1730 Dutch style home has been restored and is maintained by the Meadows Foundation. As are two other Six Mile Run properties also restored and maintained by the Meadows Foundation - the Hageman House and the Vanliew/Suydam House. Each house has its own unique story but the Hageman House and Farm which also dates to the 1700s is worth mentioning because it was owned by only two families for over 200 years before being sold to the state – the Hagemans and Garretsons - both of Dutch origin. It is an example of the longevity of ownership that permeated the Six Mile Run district.
The three Meadow Foundation houses are examples of farmsteads that have been successfully restored and adaptively reused. Others that trail users might encounter while at the Six Mile Run site have not fared as well including the imposing J.J. Voorhees House, the Polhemus Farmstead, the Wyckoff Farm and the Dmuchoswki property to name a few. Abandoned and no longer in use, these structures are exposed to the elements and vandals. With limited resources, the State is unable to restore, reuse or staff these structures. While demolition through neglect is the likely outcome for the abandoned built environment of the Six Mile Run site, the upside is the preservation of the land from development. Had the 3000 acres not been purchased by the state in the 1960s and 70s, much of what is now open space would be dotted with homes, condos, supermarkets and strip malls.
Farming
Above all, the Six Mile Run district was predominately agricultural and the surviving landscape with its open fields, rolling hills and forested wood lots, hints strongly of that past. This was acreage where the people made their livelihoods from tilling the soil, raising livestock, cultivating orchards, running dairies and harvesting wheat, rye, oats and a variety of produce. These activities continued into the twentieth century and up until the state earmarked the land for a reservoir in the early half of the century. The state stepped in before the era of large scale development hit its prime. It does seem clear that had the land not been eyed by the state, developers would not have been far behind in an effort to sway farmers from the land with large payouts. Slowly land would have been bought up, farmers bought out and the vistas we now enjoy would be pot-marked with box stores, subdivisions, condos, shops and acres of small strip malls. Instead the landscape has been preserved and continues to be farmed through land leases with local farmers and dairymen. It is a time capsule, a throw-back to the days when the state earned the moniker “The Garden State.”
Trail Building & Recreational Use
Three pilot trails offering 7 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding officially opened to the public in the Spring of 1998 after several years of planning, trailblazing and unofficial access. Not unlike the rest of the Six Mile Run story, these trails were not implemented without their fair share of controversy.
Although the open space tract was handed over to the Division of Parks and Forestry in the early 1990s to be managed for public use, farmers, who for years leased a large percentage of the Six Mile Run fields, objected to the idea of trails skirting along and adjacent to their cultivated lands. Fears of trespassing, crop damage and liability issues were among their chief concerns. Despite these issues, the park staff along with local friends organizations began work in 1995 to layout and plan the paths that would become the first open trails to crisscross the historic landscape. At the same time discussions and public meetings were held in order to bring all sides to the table until agreements were reached and the pilot trail project could be successfully launched with the blessing of all involved.
It has been several years since the opening of official public recreational use at the Six Mile Run Reservoir site and in that time this preserved landscape has been discovered by many outdoor enthusiasts. With the help of JORBA, an off-road biking non-profit organization, the multi-use trail system has been improved and grownto just under 17 miles of trails. On any given day one is likely to see birders, bikers, hikers and horseback riders sharing the trails and enjoying the open fields and wooded paths.
Conclusion
It has been over 300 years since colonial settlement of the land now referred to as Six Mile Run. In that time this rolling landscape has been tamed, cultivated and built upon by the generations of people who set down roots here. The evidence of their inhabitance dot the landscape from the shells of their homes, outbuildings and cemeteries to the acres of agricultural fields now maintained and cultivated by a new generation of farmers. For the time being the landscape has been preserved and saved from development. Much of the land is still being put to its historic use through agriculture and a small portion can be used and enjoyed by the public – a happy compromise. It is an oasis surrounded by suburban sprawl. It will be decades before discussions of flooding this tract of land are brought back to the table. In the mean time discussions for an alternate site are not unlikely and the Six Mile Run Reservoir Site, listed as an Historic District on both the State and National Register of Historic Places registry, will likely remain an untouched agricultural and cultural landscape for the benefit of all.
Prallsville Mill
Located in a picturesque rural setting alongside the Delaware River in the historic town of Stockton, New Jersey, Prallsville Mills is a significant multiple structure industrial complex. It is significant as a representation of an early 19th to early 20th century village industrial complex, that has not been affected by the late 20th century suburban growth which has compromised the integrity of many other historical treasures. Significant in the areas of architecture, industry, community planning, transportation and commerce, its location on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, on land that is now protected as part of a state park, has ensured its protection for use by future generations. Prallsville Mills, along with several houses in the vicinity, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and is recognized as a cultural resource of statewide significance.
History of the Prallsville Mill
The buildings and structures date from ca. 1790 to the early twentieth century and include a 1790 linseed oil mill, a 1877 gristmill, a 1850 sawmill, a 1900 grain silo, a 1874 railroad trestle, a 1834 canal and several secondary outbuildings. Some structures, including the gristmill and railroad trestle, burned down and were replaced during the nineteenth century. The architectural integrity of the complex has been retained and serves as a good example of a mill complex. The industrial development of the area had begun by the time John Prall, Jr. purchased this site in the 1790s. A gristmill had been in operation for several generations and Prall, a local businessman and a veteran of the American Revolution, turned the small gristmill operation into an industrial complex that included the milling of linseed oil and lumber. Nearby, he ran a quarry that is believed to be the supplier of stone for the New Hope/Lambertville Bridge and numerous local structures. Prall, a leader in industry, was seen as a leader in the development of this community and a participant in the development of other communities in western New Jersey. After his death in 1831, the mills and surrounding land were sold to William Hoppock and John Wilson and significant advances in transportation took place under their ownership. The two most important transportation improvements of nineteenth century New Jersey, a canal and a railroad, crossed this site and served the industry's commerce needs. Hoppock and Wilson executed a deed with the Delaware & Raritan Canal Company in the 1830s to locate the canal on the property. Later in the 1850s, the Belvidere & Delaware Railroad, known as the Bel-Del, ran alongside the canal and gave additional transportation access to the industrial site. The mill changed hands several times during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until it ceased operations in 1969. Its ideal location is evidenced by its success during three centuries.
The mills were powered by the Wickecheoke Creek, which fed directly into the canal. This was a unique feat of engineering designed to ensure a sufficient supply of water to operate the mills. A close interdependence between the mills and the canal evolved under a special deed of right-of-way that allowed the canal to pass directly through the mill property. The relationship continues today as a wagon storage building has been restored and serves as the offices for the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission. Preservation of this site was intended to include all buildings and structures in order to interpret the full history of the site to the public. Remnants of the millraces, canal locks and the railroad bed remain amid the historic buildings of the complex. The Delaware River Mill Society has restored the Gristmill and the Linseed Oil Mill, which are used by the society and the community on a regular basis. The only major building still in need of rehabilitation is the sawmill.
The 1850 sawmill is a wood frame building built in three sections. The central unit is a large mid-19th century 2 1/2 story frame building, which probably served for storage space. The interior retains its massive 9x12 hewn oak timbers and weatherboards with cut nails and serves as a learning tool for 19th century construction methods. Under one end of this unit there are stone walled channels filled with water that may have provided power or canal access. The gable roof is covered with corrugated sheet metal. The second unit, ca. third quarter 19th century, runs along the linear façade of the earliest unit and has circular sawn framing and weatherboards with cut nails. The roof is shed-type. The last addition was provided in the early 20th century and runs halfway along the other linear façade of the original unit. This one story shed roofed section also has circular sawn framing, but has corrugated sheet metal walls. Large sliding doors provide access on the north and west facades. Most of the building is clad with wood clapboard, but there is also some vertical board and on the east addition some corrugated metal. The building was converted to storage some time ago and none of the machinery remains.
RELATED INFORMATION:
Goodspeed Histories:
Milling Industry at Prallsville Back of Year 1792
Bulls Island
Called Ponnacussing by the native people in the pre-colonial period, this parcel of land surrounded by the D&R Canal on the east and the Delaware River on the west is known today as the Bulls Island Recreation Area. This island was included in a 625-acre tract of land that was granted to Richard Bull and John Ladd by the proprietors of West Jersey in 1712. Starting in the colonial period, the Island came to be called Bulls Island (sometimes spelled “Bools”). Prior to the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in the 1830s, the Island was separated from the main land by a natural waterway aptly named Bulls Creek. This creek was dug out, dredged and enlarged to become the start of the canal’s feeder in the early 1830s.
The Island property went through a series of owners throughout the 17th century and into the 20th. Early owners of the Island included Isaiah Quimbey (who also acquired the lot where the Saxtonville Tavern now stands). Some fledgling enterprises were established here in the 18th century including a profitable shad fishery on the northern section of the Island. According to Marfy Goodspeed, who has done extensive research on Raven Rock and Delaware Township, a 10-acre mill lot, powered by the waters of Bulls Creek, was also in operation by the end of the 18th century. She identified the owners as Mahlon Cooper and Robert Curry. It is unclear whether Cooper and Curry built the mill site or acquired it from a previous owner. What is clear is that the business went through a series of owners in the early 19th century until it was finally acquired in 1835 by the D&R Canal Company who was purchasing property on Bulls Island for the purposes of building the canal’s feeder.
Another early recorded property owner was Nathaniel Saxton who began purchasing lots - eventually including the Cooper and Curry mill property - in 1808. Saxton, a land surveyor, lawyer, legislator and entrepreneur seemed to be a bit of a self-promoter as well. Although his time in and around Bulls Island was relatively brief (about 20 years), his influence on Raven Rock was considerable. Evidence of that is found a mere three years later on an 1811 map that refers to the area as Saxtonville and road returns of the same year make reference to “Saxton’s Mills.” Goodspeed speculates that applying the moniker of “Saxtonville” and “Saxton’s Mills” to the location might have been in an effort to draw business to his newly acquired mill and this sparsely populated community north of Center Bridge (now Stockton). Clearly, Nathaniel Saxton had an interest in the location as he purchased additional properties and extended his holdings around Bulls Island. The historic building located along Route 29 just north of Bulls Island still bears the name “Saxtonville Tavern” from Nathaniel’s period of ownership (1810 – 1836). In an effort to expand his business holdings in the area (which included “Saxton’s Ferry in addition to the mills), he extended the building and operated a tavern out of the old Quimbey homestead. It is not clear whether or not Saxton ran the tavern or the mills or even resided long-term in Saxtonville as his primary place of residence seems to have been Flemington.
Change was coming to the Island community. In the 1830s Bulls Island was established as the starting point of the Delaware and Raritan Canal’s feeder. A wing dam would be constructed at the northern tip of the island to efficiently direct water into the canal's feeder. As mentioned above, the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company began the process of purchasing the property it needed to construct the 66-mile waterway including holdings on Bulls Island (see attached map). In 1831 a sizable parcel was purchased from James Cox where the guard lock is now located. The mill lot (then owned by James Coryell) was added in 1835 and still others in 1847. In 1852 lots on the eastern bank of the feeder were purchased by the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad.
By the end of the 19th century much of the land was maintained by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company who since 1871 held a 999-year lease on all Canal Company property. In the 1890s the upper half of the Island was used by railroad employees and locals for picnics and was called Ellmaker’s Island. In fact, with the exception of several river front parcels which remained in private hands, much of the Island was owned by the railroad and likely used as a summer get-away by some employees. According to Edward Irons, grandson of the Ernest and Nellie Fogleman the last private owner of the river front parcels, several homes and summer cabins stood in the day use area one of which, “The Oaks,” was likely built in the early 20th century. It is speculated that this house may have been built and owned by the railroad and used by its employees before being sold into private hands (presumable to Frank Withington and then Edward Hack).
By the mid-twentieth century parcels along the pedestrian bridge road (a road bridge was first established between Raven Rock and Lumberville in 1856), the day use and campground areas were in private hands. Although the full deed chronology of the Island property is still to be completed and properly documented, evidence suggests that the Pennsylvania Railroad decided to sell off its Island holdings as the century progressed. Some of the family names associated with those first purchases in the 1920s and 30s are Carter, Withington, and Heath. All three were long-time employees of the railroad and lived in the greater Philadelphia area. Later owners included Stem, Robbins, Herholz, Hack and Tusche. A private campground on the northern section was established and maintained on the Island by the 1960s. The state began the process of purchasing the privately held lots, including the campground in the 1960s for the purposes of creating the Bulls Island Recreation Area and Campground. The newly created recreation area and campground facilities would eventually come under the management of D&R Canal State Park which was established in 1974.
Stockton
By Douglas Kiovsky
Unlike its neighbor Lambertville to the south, Stockton has remained a small, seemingly forgotten 19th century town located along the Delaware River. Not unlike Lambertville, it had all the ingredients in place by the late 18th century to become a thriving, productive industrial enclave surrounded by a farming population. However, it was Coryell's Ferry crossing to the south that steadily became the more desirable path across the River for travelers taking the Old York Road between Philadelphia and New York. The continuous volume of traffic passing through Lambertville contributed to the growth of the town throughout the 18th and into the early part of the 19th century.
Stockton may be still be a small river town but it has a long history and several notable local figures. Among them was John Deats who invented the iron plow in 1828 near the town on his farm. Before this, moldboard plows were made of wood. In 1831, his son Hiram started an iron furnace and factory in Quakertown (Hunterdon County) that manufactured plows, corn shellers, reapers, mowers, stoves, kettles, threshers and school desks. A branch factory was established in Stockton in 1852 and Hiram Deats ran it until his death in 1887. Deats was the first millionaire in the county thanks to his father. Deats' nephew took over after that until 1904 when the Deats era ended after 70 years.
Another Hunterdon county moment in agriculture was the egg and poultry production which was a success in large part due to the Bel-Del Railroad. (The rail line was built along the Delaware River in 1851 and later taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1871. It provided transport between Trenton to Philipsburg with connection lines reaching further north and east.) In 1892, a Stockton hatcheryman by the name of Joseph Wilson became the first person in the US to ship his day-old chicks by railroad to another city market. Destination: Chicago. Success in the poultry business thrived for several generations. The late former NBC News Anchor, Chet Huntley even bought a chicken farm near Stockton in the 1960s.
Another person who brought his interest in agriculture to New Jersey was Lloyd Wescott. Originally from Wisconsin, Wescott and his bride Barbara bought a farm along the Mulhocaway Creek in Union Township in 1936 and called it "Mulhocaway Farm." By 1937 the farm became the headquarters for the Artificial Breeding Association, a pioneering organization that developed the first artificial insemination program for dairy cows in the country. Mulhocaway Farm was lost however, when the State of New Jersey acquired it as part of the Spruce Run Reservoir in the 1950s. Undaunted, Wescott and his family moved to a beautiful 147 acre farm near Stockton in 1959 where he continued breeding Guernsey and Holstein cows. The previous owner of the Stockton area farm was the famous 1930s band leader, Paul Whiteman also known as "The King of Jazz" who lived there for 21 years before selling it to the Wescotts. Mr. Whiteman is credited with launching the singing career of Bing Crosby in 1926, paying the young crooner $150 a week.
Another important industry for Stockton was quarrying. The town had two quarries within its boundaries and a 3rd one north of town in Raven Rock which was called Bull's Island Station after 1850. Before that it was known as Saxtonville, whose oldest structure, a tavern, was built in 1782. It was always known as an early industrial town whose "trap-rock" or diabase industry took off after the advent of the canal and railroad. A dozen buildings survive today.
The most well-known structure in town is The Stockton Inn. The core of the building began its life as a private residence constructed from local quarry stone in 1710. By the early 19th century it was operating as a tavern and in the early 1830s extensive renovations by owner Asher Johnson included the addition of "The Farmer's Bar" which coincided with the construction of the D&R Canal. It operated successfully as a hotel throughout the 19th century. By the 1920s the building was in the hands of the Weiss/Colligan family who renovated the aging hotel yet again and added a garden restaurant with a waterfall and wishing well. The period from the 1920s - 1950s was the height of the Inn's "glamour years" as it became a mecca for writers, artists and thespians of all kinds. Songwriters Richard Rogers and Lorenzo Hart were among the famous guests and wrote a song about the inn and its wishing well for their 1936 Broadway show "On Your Toes" and the 1953 movie "Pal Joey". Band leader Paul Whiteman was a regular at "Colligan's." Other celebrities included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and friends of their famous Algonquin Roundtable Literary Group. The Inn was also utilized as an overflow hotel for reporters during the Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial in Flemington (Jan-Feb. 1935). Damon Runyon wrote his columns on the trial from Flemington's Union Hotel and The Stockton Inn. Lorenzo and Hart are not the only songwriters to grace Stockton. Songwriter and singer Robert Hazzard owns property in the area south of town. In the early 1980s the Inn acquired a new owner - Frank Smeal - who also applied more renovations to the now famous Inn and renamed it "The Stockton Inn". It has continued to thrive, profit and prosper into the twenty-first century.
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