BOONTON on ITS 100Th ANNIVERSARY

MAY WE EXTEND OUR BEST WISHES TO THE TOWN OF BOONTON ON ITS 100th ANNIVERSARY Our Town has reached an important milestone • •• its 100th birthday. We• the officers, directors and members of the Chamber of Commerce are proud tc particioate in celebrating this achievement, We have confidence in our town, and will strive to maintain Boonton' s record as an outstanding community. OFFICERS E. E. Baldwin, President John Pi sarcik, 1st Vice President Frank Gaudioso, 2nd Vice President Louis Curcio, Treasurer Mrs. Susan L. Coppola, Secretary DIRECTORS Anthony Marcello Vincent Chadwick Lawrence Carey Powell Thomas M. A. Clifton Vladimir Scerbo Walter Worrall Thomas Licciardi Bruce Trethaway Edward Zdawczynski Samuel Taylor Felix Wolfe LIST OF PAST PRESIDENTS 1947 • '48 • Edward Maraziti 1954 • Douglas W. Anderson 1959 • Nathan Goldberg 1949 • Raymond Dawson 1955 • Anthony J. Marcella 1960 • '61 • Albert M. Maraziti 19S0 • Arthur Grambling 1956 • Vincent B. 0,adwick 1962 • Louis Curcio 1951 • J. Stewart Fay 1957 - Arthur Grambling 1963 • '64 • Rocky F. Cerbo 1952 • Howard Rasmussen 1958 • Gilbert ~chnabel 1965 • '66 • Louis O,isena 1953 • James W. Heaney · 1967 • Edward Baldwin compiled for the Boonton Centennial Committee by ~c~ OJ ,..0.ltlS COUNTY MAUDIE FISCHER Editor This booklet does not purport to be an historical textbook. It was written to convey tbe spirit, the essence of the people who built the Town of Boonton. This is tbe Town's story, Table of Contents Into the Wilderness Came the People . • . 1 And the Mills . • . 2 And Industry Came . 9 They Built Their Homes . • • • 14 To those countless They Bunt Their Churches . 18 good citizens of Boonton . to those who contri buted their writing talents They Created A Community . 26 ... to those who scoured their attics for priceless ol_d pictures ... to those They Fought Their Wars . • . 56 who shared their know ledge and their memories goes the deepest gratitude Look to Tomorrow . • . • . 62 of the editors of The Boo'lton Years. To mention all hy name would be irrz· possible, but two in par ticular, Peter Wendt and Alex Fowler • enabled us to give this booklet the substance and character of Boonton;s proud berit.· age. Into the Wilderness Came the People • • The vi /loge of Boonton is beautifully situated - so for as charming orosoect is .::mcemed - uoon the - a/most precipitous - face of a bluff, which forms one of the sides of a deep ravine through which the Rockaway River emo ties its waters into the p/ain below. Harpers Magazine, July, 1860 .,-·~ •,1·.r•:, .. " • • And the Mills Boonton to 1903 The History of the Iron Works, the rolling mills, the blast furnaces of The almost-forgotten village of Old Boonton was ideal. There was, of course, a limited demand tor mer founded about 220 years ago on the Rockaway Ri•rer, chant and bar iron by local farmers, all of whom had about a mile and a half downstre2m below tbe present blacksmith shops wher-, they made their own nails and Town of Boonton. Since 1903, the site of the village has other hardware. The big markets, however, were the been covered by the Jersey City Reservoir. From the cities of Newark and New York. To reach them, It was south end of the present Washington Street bridge across necessary to transpon the iron first by pack-horse, and, the inlet, the center of the village would be found at a dis later, when roads were Improved, by wagon. Although tance of about 1,000 feet toward the reservoir. inconveniently removed by some 25 miles from herprin Distinguished for Its iron works of forges and rolling cipai markets, Old Boonton had a slight advantage over and slitting mill, Old Boonton owed is existence primarily forges in the remoter hills in the nonhwest pare of the to the water power facilities afforded by the Rockaway county. River. At the site chosen for Old Boonton, the fall of the Old Boonton had only a modest claim to fame, Con cascading river and the steeply sloping banks were deemed trary to Isaac S. Lyon's ardent speculations in his "His ideal for small power dams. At one time there were at torical Discourse on Boonton" (Newark, 1873), the iron least three such dams, not very far apan, furnishing works at Old Boonton was not the first in the 13 colonies. power to water wheels, which operated bellows and trip Its principal c:laim to being historically first rests on hammers of the forges, and gave motive power to the having been the fir.;t in Morris County to have a rolling rolling and slitting mill, as well as to a grist mill and and slitting mill, which was erected in 1770. The iron a saw mill. works at Saugus, Mass., complete with forges and slitting Equally imponanc was the availability .of raw materials mill, had been In operation more than a century earlier; a for producingwroughtiron. Not too far away were the rolling and slitting mill in Bethlehem Township, Hunterdon mines of Hibernia and Mount Hope where iron ore could County, N. J., anteda:ed the one at Old Boonton by be obtained; the surrounding dense forests could furnish 20 years. the wood for making the enormous quantities of charcoal W!thin its limited capacities, Old Boonton furnished a for the forges; and nearby outcroppings of limestone fair quantity of supplies to the patriot forces during the could supply flux for the refining process. · Revolutionary War. There are records showing that Old Easy access to markets for iron products was also im Boonton furnished axes, iron rods, sheet iron, iron tires, oonar.t, but in that respect the site of Old Boonton was not a number of iron cups, 6,000 pairs of horseshoes, 1,800 Boonton is a history of Boonton itself by Alex Fowler I Rolling mill, storehouse and blast furnaces, prior to 1875 I::- .... •' kettles, and 20,000 flints, the lase obtained from Boston. of the refinery when Thomas Boone, the new Royal The more substantial "sinews of war", such as cannon Governor of the province, arrived in July, 1760. Those and cannon balls, were furnished, in this area, by Hibernia circumstances support the Ogden-family tradition thatthe and Mount Hope, where large furnac"s and casting village was named in honor of the new Governor; and the facilities wer" then operating. Governor's transfer co South Carolina in the fall of 1761 The possibility of Old Boonton furnishing some three makes that year the plausible one for the name to have pounder cannon was considered at one cirne, but there is been given. Neither the name, Boone-Town, nor any of its no record that any were actually supplied. Although Old variant!'. (Boon-Town, Boonetown, Booneton or Boonton) Boonton contributed but little of· the mar" glamorous has, so far, been found In writings made prior to 1771, in muniticns co the war effort, it did contribute substantially which year Samuel Ogden wrote it, "Boon-Town", but to vital needs of Washington's army. soon after settled upon "Booneton." ' In 1765, David Ogden bought a large tract of land ad The First Iron Works jacent to his holdings along Rockaway River at Old Boon ton. That tract of 3,656 acres, together with his other When Old Boonton was first settled, or when the iron lands and those later acquired by Samuel, amounted to works was first escabllshed, we do not know with certainty. more than 4,000 acres. Known as the Great Boonton We can be fairly certain that there was neither settler Tract, it included substantial parts of what are now Moun nor iron works In the Boonton area as early as 1715. ln tain Lakes, Town of Boonton, Boonton Township, and the s pr Ing of cha c year a pa ny of surveyors for the Taylortown. Apart from being a venture in real estate, Proprietors of West New Jersey came intothisarea, laid the purchase of so large a tract made available ample o•Jt a number of lots, and made note of what they saw. forests required for making charcoal. John Re:iding Jr., chief of the party, kept a diary in which he mentions the few settlers they encountered: cwo or Samuel Ogden three in the Whippany area, one 1n Montville, and one in Pompton. There was no mention of any settler in the The year 1765 also marked the date of Samuel Boonton area, which he described as a wilderness, and Ogden's graduation from King's College (now, Columbia no menticn of any iron works anywhere, None of the pro University). There ts a family tradition that Samuel prietors who had accompanied the survey parry would was then not In very robust health, and that his doctor accept the tract which contained the site of Old Boonton. had recommended a sojourn In the country. Perhaps The earliest notice, discovered to date, ofan iron works it was for that reason that David Ogden induced his 20- at Old Boonton is contained in the records of James Alex year old son to become resident-manager of the iron works ander forthe year 1747-8. He was Surveyor General of the and the Boonton properties. Proprietors of East New Jersey, which group had come No description has been found of the iron works exist Into the possession of all the unsold parcels of land in ing in the time of Obadiah Baldwin or at the time when Morris Councy after 1742. That notice mentioned the iron Samuel Odgen took charge. From later descriptions, we works on Rockaway River, in Morris County, operated infer that the early installation was probably limited to by Obadiah Baldwin.

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