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Our Sponsor The writings of Belleville native Anthony Buccino |
Remembering our town one bit at a time! Belleville, New Jersey
A brief history |
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BELLEVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: THE HISTORY OF BELLEVILLE 1800s * In 1811 Nicholas Roosevelt brought steam to the western waters and opened up a way to the West. He set out on his steamboat, the New Orleans, the first steamboat to ply the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers. He sailed from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and returned, proving that a steamboat could go upstream as well as down. Steam reigned supreme on America's inland waterways for nearly a century. The waterways provided transportation for people and goods, and they fostered thriving ports. In the early days, steamboats were dangerous. They were slapped together hurriedly, and ran at full steam to make the most profit in the least time or to win a race. Defective boilers, drunken crews, and reckless racing contributed to the hazards of early steam-boating. It was also true of the steamboats that dried the Passaic River. They all lasted about a year. The first was the Olive Branch, which made its appearance in 1838. Then followed the Wadsworth, the Gilpin, the Proprietor, Confidence, the Laura Keen, the Connecticut, the Queen Mab, the Passaic Queen, the Rockaway, and the General Runyon. The steamboat era ended in Belleville when the first steam locomotive came in 1868. Josiah Hornblower was clerk of the meeting that changed the name. Belleville still remained a part of Newark until 1812 when it was placed under the jurisdiction of Bloomfield. In 1839 Belleville obtained its independence. * The years between 1812 and 1839 saw Belleville change from an agrarian society to an industrial based economy. The Hendrick's Copper Mill, from 1813 to 1928, made Belleville the nation's major copper manufacturing center. Other concerns were The Stevens Brass Rolling Mill, The Grey's Calico Cloth Printing Company, and Duncan and Cunningham's Silk-Printing Firm. In 1847, John Henry Eastwood opened a factory for making dyes. The Stephen's Firm manufactured the nation's first wire cloth. In 1857, three members of the DeWitt family joined the company, and in 1876 the operation was called the DeWitt Wire-Cloth Company. The nationwide panic of 1837 put a sudden end to hopes of industrial expansion. The Engle Printing Company, which bleached and printed calico in a "stone factory of several hundred feet in length" on the old stout tract closed, together with their auxiliary industries. The fire went out in the Forge of William Gibbs, who had produced anchors and other hardware for the ship builders and brass buttons for the coats of mariners. Also idle were the North Belleville Quarries of Cornelius Thomas, William H. Harrison, John D. Robinson, Abraham Joralemon and Alex Philip, which had produced stone not only for buildings and road foundations but also for ballast in the sea-going vessels that came off the ways in Belleville. * The banks along the Second River have been a mill site for more than 100 years. The first on record was the Grist Mill of Captain Bennett, and next came Captain Stout, who rebuilt the Mill. About 1824, the mill and land were sold to Eagle Printing Company, which erected a large factory for the printing of calicoes. The concern employed several hundred hands and conducted a business of great magnitude for those times, but it finally fell on evil days and failed about 1855. After this, Gray and Wright successfully conducted the business, and finally George and Jonathan Bird became the proprietors. Later, Jonathan Bird sold to a stock company of which John Eastwood was a member. This company put in some expensive machinery. But owing to internal strife, the business was abandoned after a brief existence. After remaining idle for some time, the hat manufacturing firm of Moore and Seeley purchased the building, but before they did, much of the factory burned and was never rebuilt.
Woodside was a part of Belleville until 1871. There were four roads at this time: 1) the River Road, 2) the Back Road into Belleville, 3) Old Bloomfield, or Long Hill Road, and 4) Lower Road from Belleville to Bloomfield, known as Murphy's Lane. Decatur Powder Works was on North Bank of the Second River. * In the 1830s, the Morris Canal and the Passaic River provided means of transportation, and the Second River afforded power for factories. In the 1850s steamboats plied the Passaic River, carrying passengers as well as goods. In 1864, Washington Avenue was opened from Mount Pleasant Cemetery to the Second River, now part of Broadway. It was a continuation of Newark's old Broad Street and made it possible to reach Belleville without turning down the Fully Road to Main Street. Its opening consisted merely in setting back the fences of the adjacent properties, after which a narrow cut was made through the hill just north of Carteret Street. The earth from the cut was used to fill in the ravine farther north.
In the 1870's, the steam railroad came to Belleville. In 1884, thirty-four of the DeWitt's Wire-Cloth Company's 50 wire weaving looms were powered by steam engines. In 1889, Thomas Alva Edison opened a plant in Silver Lake that made materials used in battery manufacture.
South of The Mill stood the Miller's house, where Captain Henry Benson was born. His death at Malvern Hill in 1862 in the Civil War furnished Belleville with its first military funeral. He is buried in the Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery.
Dr. Greenville M. Weeks was a surgeon on the Monitor. He credits Dr. Theodore Ruggles Timby as the inventor of the Monitor. Fifteen years before the Civil War, he perfected his plans for the vessel, but no one would believe that an iron ship would float. When war came, President Abraham Lincoln got John Ericson, the best engineer in the country, to build the Monitor in 100 days and, thus, was able to battle the Merimac and save the Union.
The Belleville Quarry, owned by Morris Phillips, furnished the stone used in building Fort Lafayette, Castle William on Governor's Island, St. John's Church in New York and the Old State House in Albany.
The National Grain Yeast Corporation began in 1927. The management of this maker of Bakers' Compressed Yeast included two sons of President Roosevelt, James and Franklin Jr. Railroad progress was accompanied by some development of the road system.
Source Belleville Historical Society
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