Introducing Warren

INTRODUCING WARREN

I have set the stage over the last six months or so for the story of the people who created and enjoyed the resort known as Glenside Park, which had been the Deserted Village of Feltville. I will be starting with Warren Ackerman, who bought the village and transformed it into a resort.

As you have read in my posts, nineteenth-century folks of every class in America had created and adopted a “gospel of leisure” which made it almost an obligation to take time off from work and return refreshed and able to work even harder. Wealthier individuals could afford more or less lengthy stays at fashionable resorts. But, even working class individuals could become “excursionists” for a day, using the expanding rail system to visit the shore or places like Lake Hopatcong. I can now place the individual story of Glenside Park, the resort that Warren Ackerman built, in context.

THE ACKERMANS AND NEW NETHERLAND

We generally think of New Jersey as just another English colony, one of the original 13. But, before it became an English colony, it had been part of the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands, which stretched roughly from current day Albany to the southern part of New Jersey, at Delaware Bay.

Warren’s family was descended from colonists who had immigrated to New Netherlands before the English colony came into existence. There is a two-volume genealogy and a whole society based around David Ackerman, the first (along with his wife, Elizabeth) of Warren’s ancestors in America. David and Elisabeth Bellier Ackerman, set out from Amsterdam with their 6 children in 1662, landing in New Amsterdam, present day New York City.¹ New Amsterdam was the unofficial center of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands.

David died either on the voyage or soon after arrival; Elisabeth and the children had only been in the New Netherlands colony for two years when it was taken from the Dutch as part of a land grab by rival colonial power England.

One of the research questions on my agenda has long been what happened to Dutch colonists in the newly renamed colony of New Jersey, now under English control. This seemed especially relevant once I discovered that Warren Ackerman came from a Dutch family which preceded the English taking of New Netherlands. I found much insight in a wonderful book which I recommend for your reading list, brought to my attention by Paul Soltis, the New Jersey State Park Service historian at Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites in Somerville, New Jersey. In The Island at the Center of The World, author Russell Shorto sets out the story of the Dutch colony and what he believes to be its crucial influence on the country we became. He has the following bold declaration regarding the way Dutch history and influence were written out of the American story:

To talk of the thirteen original English colonies is to ignore another European colony, the one centered on Manhattan, which predated New York, and whose history was all but erased when the English took it over. . . . It was founded by the Dutch, who called it New Netherland, but half of its residents were from elsewhere. Its capital was a tiny collection of rough buildings perched ion the edge of a limitless wilderness but its muddy lanes and waterfront were prowled by a Babel of peoples—Norwegians, Germans, Italians, Jews, Africans(slaves and free), Walloons, Bohemians, Munsees, Montauks, Mohawks, and many others, all living on the rim of empire, struggling to find a way of being tighter, searching for a balance between chaos and order, liberty and oppression. . . .

As far as the earliest American historians were concerned, that date [1664 conquest] marked the true beginning of the history of the region. The Dutch-led colony was almost immediately considered inconsequential. When the time came to memorialize national origins, the English Pilgrims and Puritans of New England provided a better model. The Pilgrims’ story was simpler, less messy, and had fewer pirates and prostitutes to explain away. It was easy enough to overlook the fact that the Puritans’ flight to American shores to escape religious persecution led them, once established, to institute a brutally intolerant regime, a grim theocratic monoculture about as far removed as one can imagine from what the country was to become.²

Shorto notes the brief coverage of Dutch activity in the New World prior to their colony being taken by the English which is taught to every school child. Henry Hudson, not actually a Dutchman, but rather an English explorer hired to sail for the Dutch, sailed up both the Delaware and Hudson Rivers in 1609. This gave the Dutch their basis for a claim to the land which became New Netherlands. In 1626, Colony Director Peter Minuit “bought” Manhattan Island for the Dutch colony from local natives, using trade goods which the Dutch calculated to be worth about 60 of their guilders, and which an enterprising nineteenth century historian, Edmund O’Callaghan, calculated to be worth about $24³.

Shorto is dismissive of the familiar idea that the Dutch got Manhattan on the extreme cheap. He compares the price Minuit paid for Manhattan to other land transactions between Dutch sellers and buyers of the time, i.e. transactions not involving native sellers, and determined that the purchase trade goods were more in line with the prices of the times than the $24 calculation would suggest. Shorto also suggests that there was a lot of feasting and gift giving over many days that preceded the famous Manhattan purchase, which one might consider part of the cost of the purchase. Moreover, since the natives did not understand the concept of fee simple ownership and saw themselves as simply allowing shared use of the land, and creating an alliance at the same time, they remained a presence—and often sought new trade goods to evidence the continuing alliance and use of the land.⁴

New Amsterdam had grown into a town when, in 1664, Richard Nicolls sailed into Manhattan Harbor, ready to go to battle on behalf of the English. Nicolls was under orders to take both the city and the colony from the Dutch. Peg-legged Colony Director Peter Stuyvesant had a decision—fight or surrender. Shorto indicates Stuyvesant dearly wanted to fight but knew he was outgunned by the combined force of the soldiers that Nicolls had brought and additional English settlers on Long Island, also ready to take up arms.⁵ Those settlers, originally from New England, had approached the Dutch, asking for the opportunity to trade with the Indians for land across the Hudson in future New Jersey, but had been offered only what they considered unacceptable terms. Now, their own country was in a position to be the party with whom they could bargain, so it was in their own best interest to indicate willingness to fight.

Stuyvesant stood alone in his desire to preserve the colony for the Dutch, and in the end decided to surrender, in part, Shorto suggests, to avoid the looting and leveling which he knew would surely be the aftermath of a successful English battle. Such destruction, common in wars of the time, would surely have meant great harm to the settlers for which he was responsible.

For the Dutch residents of New Amsterdam, and some few in Pavonia, Hoboken and Bergen, New Jersey, the surrender paid off well. In his history, The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey, author Adrian C. Leiby indicates that Dutch New Jersey, in particular, never really got off the ground until after English takeover. It was only when the English, including those waiting on Long Island began to go over in groups to purchase land from the natives, that the Dutch too found themselves able to purchase land as well, often in resale from English land speculators.⁶

Shorto indicates that the takeover of New Netherlands did not stop the flow of Dutch immigrants to the New World. Indeed, he says, “Notaries in Amsterdam blithely ignoring the political changeover, continued writing ‘New Netherland’—or sometimes ‘New York in New Netherland’—on immigration papers well into the 1680s.”⁷ The English Proprietary government of New Jersey extended religious freedom to would-be settlers as an inducement to settle. The Dutch, along with the English, spread into the new lands. Leiby lists nearly twenty communities to which the Dutch spread, becoming familiar as “Dutch New Jersey,” one of which was New Brunswick, where Warren would be born.⁸

WARREN’S FAMILY SPREADS INTO NEW JERSEY

Warren was six generations removed from those original Dutch ancestors who brought the family to New Netherlands just in time for the turnover to British control. The story of how his family got to New Brunswick, New Jersey, epitomizes the Dutch spread across the state.

As described in Barbara Tobey’s genealogical compilation entitled The Ackerman Family, compiled for the David Ackerman descendants, and noted above, David Ackerman and Elisabeth Bellier Ackerman had six children when they decided to emigrate to America.⁹ The family left Amsterdam on September 2, 1662, on a ship owned by the Dutch West Indies Company, and reached New Amsterdam on November 14, 1662. David died either on the voyage itself, or very shortly thereafter. Elisabeth married again in 1668, and remained living in what had become New York until her death, apparently soon after her second marriage.

David and Elisabeth’s youngest child, Abraham, purchased tracts of land in New Jersey extending from the Hackensack River to the Saddle River, comprising, according to Tobey, most of current day Woodridge and Hasbrouck Heights and several other small towns. This may have included a property on Essex Street in Hackensack where he built his home, or that may have been an additional purchase. Two of Abraham’s brothers and their wives were among the founders of the Dutch Reformed Church at Hackensack, N.J.. Abraham and his wife Aeltie Van Laer Ackerman were received into the congregation of that church in 1696 and 1697 respectively. Their son Guilian married Rachel Van Voorhees, and continued living in Hackensack.

At least one of Guilian’s and Rachel’s children moved to Warren’s birthplace in New Brunswick, New Jersey. New Brunswick had already seen an influx of people of Dutch descent in the 1730s, creating a Dutch community there. Warren’s ancestors, Abraham and Janet Romeyn Ackerman joined this community in 1773. The Tobey genealogy lists 12 or perhaps 13 children (one may have been a sister, not a child), all but four of whom were born before the move. Warren’s grandfather, Gelyn, the second of Abraham and Janet’s children, was about 13 at the time of the move. Along with other men of Dutch origin in New Brunswick, Gelyn and his brother John fought on the patriot side in the American Revolution. Gelyn was likely still a teenager.

After the war, at age 26, Gelyn married Jane Coombs, and had seven children. The fifth child, Jonathan Coombs, was born in 1793, and married Maria Smith in 1816. Warren Ackerman, the center of this post, was the seventh of Jonathan and Maria’s nine children.

THE DUTCH COMMUNITY IN NEW BRUNSWICK CREATES TWO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Warren’s biography in F. W. Ricord’s History of Union County, New Jersey, describes his father, Jonathan, as a “prominent financier and merchant.”¹⁰ His father is also given credit for having “sent him to private schools in his native city, where he acquired a thorough preparatory education for mercantile life.”

I wanted to know where Warren went to school for this preparation for his future as an entrepreneur. My research has suggested that he attended Rutgers Preparatory School (although it may have still been called Rutgers College School at the time), although I cannot definitively prove that. Tim Cohen, Historian for Rutgers Prep, indicates that the school’s alumni records do not go back as far as the period of time when Warren would have been in school. However, Tim provided me with alumni records that showed that Warren’s youngest brother, James Hervey Ackerman, the next boy in line after Warren, was a graduate of the school’s class of 1852.¹¹ James went on to be a successful lawyer.

Further evidence for Warren’s attendance at Rutgers Prep lay in the school’s origin, starting with efforts by members of the Dutch community in New Brunswick. These Dutchmen who worked to start the school were staying true to their Dutch roots, which in Netherlands had produced an emphasis on providing education more than was true in other European countries of the time.

Frank V. Sperduto’s A History of Rutgers Preparatory School, Volume 1, indicates that education was vital to Dutch identity, and that it had “played a vital role in the national consolidation of the Netherlands.”¹² At the time of the founding of New Netherlands, and for many years thereafter, the Netherlands was alone among the countries of Europe in being a republic. That republic was the result of consolidation of various provinces which had come together to fight for independence from Spain for 80 years, finally achieving recognition in 1648.¹³

Sperduto goes on to note that schools—for both sexes, at least at the grammar school level—had enjoyed the financial support of both the government and Dutch Reformed churches of the Netherlands. The Dutch saw schools as a way to instill religious practices and beliefs and at the same time to inspire loyalty to the consolidated Netherlands. Higher education institutions were necessary to train men for church pulpits, and also for commercial careers. Shorto indicates that it was the Dutch who invented the stock market, one of the indicators of Dutch interest in all things economic and commercial.¹⁴

In the New World, as the Dutch continued to spread into English-governed New Jersey, any Dutch-led school could not count on the financial support of the government but had to find other means of support, including tuition and fees, and often becoming partly reliant on individual Dutch Reformed Churches for support. Colleges (and perhaps affiliated grammar schools) each had to receive a charter from the English colonial government. Prominent Dutch men transplanted to New Jersey saw the creation of a colonial college as a necessity to remedy the scarcity of trained ministers for the Dutch Reformed churches in New Jersey. The mother church in the Netherlands was reluctant to let the colonists train their own ministers, wanting them to come home for their training.¹⁵ In spite of this opposition, the Dutch forged ahead with their efforts to create a college.

In the 1700s, all these interests came to a head in New Jersey, as two Dutch communities, Hackensack/Bergen and New Brunswick, each sought to establish a college. The resulting charter, for a college to be called Queens College, was granted in 1666 by New Jersey’s royal governor, under an order of King George III of England, but the location was still undetermined. Each of the two competing communities sought to enhance their being chosen as the college location by first establishing a grammar school. A grammar school could create a pool of educated young men capable of moving on to college level study. Hackensack opened a grammar school in 1766.

Simultaneously, a group of men of Dutch origin in New Brunswick were actively working there to create a grammar school, which they hoped would bring the college to their town. It is not clear why New Brunswick was eventually selected as the site of a colonial college, but it may have been because, recognizing the urgency of getting the two schools off the ground, Dutch proponents of a grammar school and college in New Brunswick successfully found prominent supporters from outside their Dutch Reformed religious community. Indeed, one of the supporters was a man originally from Connecticut, “reared in the Puritan tradition,” but who had since converted to the Anglican faith and become an Anglican minister.¹⁶ Rutgers Prep Historian Tim Cohen characterizes the intent of these individuals to bring in non-Dutch supporters as “an effort to bridge the local Dutch and English communities.”¹⁷ This suggests that the two communities may still have had some differences, regardless of the way Dutch communities were able to prosper after the colony was taken by the English. The fact that some Dutch colonists did not speak English might also have created difficulties.

Queens College Grammar School was able to open its doors in 1668. Queens College received a second charter in 1670 and began operation in New Brunswick.

The first “tutor” for the grammar school, Caleb Cooper, had trained both at King’s College, present day Columbia University, and at the College of New Jersey, present day Princeton University.¹⁸ Historian Tim Cohen indicates that Cooper, who was an English language tutor, found his first pupils to be “several Dutch boys who had little or no fluency in English.”¹⁹

I am guessing that Warren might have entered the school as early as 1832 or 1833, as a five or six year old child. By then, the school had changed its name to Rutgers Preparatory School, following the lead of the college, which had become Rutgers College. Rutgers Prep school was using two rooms in a new college building completed in 1830, on the corner of College Avenue and Somerset Street.²⁰ The grammar school was, from the start, nonsectarian, but there was still a religious and moral emphasis.²¹ Students, who paid an entrance fee and tuition to attend, could choose one of two tracks of learning at the school, either the “classical program” or the “English school.” In 1835, one of the peak years of enrollment during what was otherwise a time of somewhat inconsistent enrollment, there were fifty-six boys total, forty of whom were in the classical program. Sperduto describes the schedule and organization of the school at the time:

A majority of the students were residents of New Brunswick. A long school day was broken into two sessions, 6 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. and 2 P.M. – 4 P.M. Those in the highest class remained for an additional hour or more after 4 p.m. The practice of having two annual examinations endured as did vacations in the spring and fall.

The student body was divided into nine classes or sections: six Latin, two Greek, and one English. Each morning the rector presided over separate recitations in each section. In the afternoon the entire student body joined for work in English.

The classical program, with an emphasis on developing proficiency in one of the classical languages, was apparently still a prerequisite for any boys who hoped to go on to one of what had been the colonial colleges—Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and others. I have not found details on how the English school curriculum differed, nor which of the two tracks Warren would have pursued.

WARREN FOLLOWS IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HIS ENTREPRENEURIAL FATHER

As noted, Warren’s biography in Ricord suggests that his father recognized some entrepreneurial streak in him early on, and so enrolled him in a school program meant to further that.²² Jonathan Ackerman was probably pleased to have a son who seemed to mirror some of his own character. In particular, Jonathan had made a series of early investments in the burgeoning India rubber business, starting with efforts going on in New Brunswick. The following is what I have taken away from somewhat confusing descriptions of these efforts in two sources, one a chapter entitled “The Rubber Industry in New Jersey,” from Pau Medrano-Bigas’ 2015 doctoral dissertation at the University of Barcelona²³ and the other, material from the entry for Jonathan Coombs Ackerman at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46511164/jonathan_coombs-ackerman, for which I have not found the original sources of the biographical information there.

Horace H. Day moved to New Brunswick from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, along with his uncle, Samuel H. Day, who had been importing Brazilian rubber shoes to sell in a New Brunswick store. Horace, as with many early rubber entrepreneurs, was experimenting with ways to treat rubber products for longer life and suppleness. He opened his own establishment in 1826. Horace was accused by Charles Goodyear of patent violations. Apparently, Horace began working with John Christopher Meyer, a German immigrant, who made improvements to Horace’s products under the Goodyear patent. As a result of litigation against day by Goodyear, Meyer ended up with ownership of Day’s factory.

Jonathan Coombs Ackerman built a new factory for Meyer, apparently around 1843. Both the factory and Meyer’s home burned to the ground in 1845, but Jonathan had moved on to working with other rubber entrepreneurs, creating a new company under the name, The New Brunswick Rubber Company. He also acquired stock in the Newark India Rubber Company, achieving success with both companies. The latter, which would be a significant part of Warren’s life, was started by New Brunswick native Hiram Hutchison around 1846. The Newark India Rubber Company manufactured goods under the Goodyear patent.²⁴

WARREN LEAVES SCHOOL EARLY FOR NEWARK

Warren likely never graduated from Rutgers Prep, leaving off formal schooling in favor of something more like on the job training in business. At age 15, he moved to Newark, clearly as a career move. Warren’s father, with his long-time experience in the fast-developing “India Rubber” industry, had given his son some shares in the Newark India Rubber Company. Warren moved as the guest of his older sister and her new husband. This move proved exceedingly successful, likely because of help from the new couple and their connections—and, of course, the fact that Jonathan had probably already introduced Warren to Hiram Hutchison, founder and President of Newark India Rubber, while Warren was still in New Brunswick.

At age 25, the eldest Ackerman child, Caroline, described as “beautiful and accomplished” (the field of accomplishment is unspecified),²⁵ married Dr. Abraham Coles, and moved with him to a newly purchased home at 222 Market Street, in Newark, New Jersey. In Abraham’s biography, Caroline is further described as “very saintly and lovely in character, and much beloved by those who knew her.”²⁶ Abraham, at 29, was already becoming famous as both a physician/surgeon and a poet and author of hymns, and sometime sermonist. His family was among the earliest English settlers of the Scotch Plains area, and Abraham was raised on “the ancestral farm,” which the family had owned since before the Revolution, and which Abraham’s father had inherited ²⁷ In his Family Records or Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley (and Vicinity), John Littell (who shows the family surname as Cole, not Coles), describes Abraham’s father as having been a member of the Legislature, a Justice of the Peace, and “much engaged in settling estates as Executor, Administrator, and other public business.”²⁸

Abraham apparently had not thought well of the grammar schooling he could receive in Scotch Plains and had traveled to a better school he had identified in more distant Plainfield, evidencing a lifelong propensity toward self-guided education. After his early schooling, he went on to first pursue an interest in the law by working in the Newark office of Chief Justice Joseph C. Hornblower. Subsequently, Abraham decided that his career interest lay instead in the area of medicine, and first attended lectures in New York City at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and then enrolled at Jefferson College in Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1835. He began practicing medicine shortly thereafter in Newark.

At the time of his marriage, Abraham Coles, was already successful in the medical field, but was equally passionate about a second lifelong career as a poet, sermonist and hymn-writer. The couple’s new home was in a fashionable part of Newark and Abraham undoubtedly had contacts with the wealthy and up and coming of Newark and the surrounding area.

It is easy to imagine the draw of Newark and of the company of Caroline and Abraham for Warren, especially after his father gave him his first shares in the Newark India Rubber Company. Regardless of how thorough was the education which Warren had been receiving at Rutgers Preparatory School, whether in the English or Latin course track, it is hard to imagine the school had coursework which could compete with on the job training at the Newark India Rubber Company. It is easy to see both Caroline and Abraham advising Warren and introducing him to people who could further his career. Abraham probably lauded Warren’s efforts at his own self-guided education for his future career.

The Newark India Rubber Company had a factory in Newark and a retail operation in New York City. Warren built on his first shares, and reportedly took such an active role in the company that he was quickly elected to its Board of Directors.²⁹ An 1851 advertisement for “India Rubber Goods” for the Newark India Ribber Company identifies him as “Secretary” at age 24.³⁰ A subsequent 1857 advertisement shows him as “President,” at least by age 30.³¹

Warren’s biographical sketch in Ricord suggests that there was an issue with quality of the rubber goods produced by the company around 1850, but that Warren was able to secure enough stock to take control of the company, improve the products and give the company a “reputation for uniform excellence,” from that time on. Ricord also indicates that Warren had contracts to supply many of the rubber goods for the use of the Union army during the Civil War, which assured his status as a wealthy man. I have developed a fascination for the gum blankets supplied to Union soldiers, the history of which has been mostly forgotten, and will take that as the topic of my post for next month.

DEATH STRIKES IN NEWARK

Abraham had been practicing medicine in Newark for about six years before he married Caroline, from the time he was 23 years old. Abraham, Caroline and Warren settled into their Newark home. Abraham’s medical and surgical practice thrived. Caroline and Abraham welcomed their first child, named Jonathan Ackerman Coles, after Caroline’s father.

Caroline and Abraham soon had a second child, Emilie. Emilie was not even a year old when Caroline suddenly died in 1847. Abraham, in grief, went abroad, pursuing again a regimen of self-study, working with various eminent European physicians and surgeons. His biographer drily notes: “He was in Paris during the Revolution of June 1848, which gave him special opportunities for surgical study.”³²

After his return, Coles continued practicing in Newark, and by 1849 “had already found his practice sufficient to admit a partner, which he did all the more readily because seeking to secure more time for literary study, and the indulgence of his taste both in art and literature.”³³

WARREN PURSUES NEW INTERESTS

In 1860, Warren bought a farm in Scotch Plains, N.J., adjacent to the Coles property there.³⁴ This was the first in a series of land purchases over the remainder of his life. He often bought failing farms or properties and rehabilitated them.

Two years after Warren’s first purchase, Abraham Coles began laying out an estate on part of the family property in Scotch Plains, which he called Deerhurst.³⁵ His son and daughter, neither of whom ever married, lived with him at the estate for the remainder of their lives. Deerhurst was clearly meant to be a showplace:

In 1862, under the direction of an eminent English landscape gardener, he began the laying out and beautifying of seventeen acres of the ancestral farm at Scotch Plains, selecting for his plantings the choicest varieties of foreign and domestic trees, plants and shrubs. In one portion of this park, he located a reproduction of the famous labyrinth at Hampton Court, near London. In another part, he enclosed a large paddock for a herd of deer of his own raising. He built, subsequently, a house of brick and stone and native woods, in harmony with the grounds. In this he resided with his son and daughter, and was a most genial and entertaining host. His large library with its lofty roof was the special admiration of his many guests. Among the imported copies of antiques on the lawn is one of Aesculapius, and in the entrance hall of the mansion is Horatio Stone’s marble bust of Harvey.

On the highest point of his mountain-land opposite his home, he erected a handsome rustic tower, two stories high . . .

After Warren’s brother George died in 1874, Warren married George’s widow, Lydia Platt Ackerman.³⁶ Lydia, the youngest daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, Isaac L. Platt and his wife Marion Erskine Ruthven, was an heiress in her own right. Only then did Warren build an estate of his own, on his first purchase, the farm adjoining the Coles estate. Warren renamed his estate Lyde Park, in honor of Lydia, but there is no record anywhere of him undertaking construction of anything like the excesses of the Coles estate next door. A photo, included with this post, of a building at Lyde Park from the time shows a large home, and a group of ladies—likely including Lydia—on the porch.

WARREN BUYS THE DESERTED VILLAGE

Warren had already amassed a large collection of land when the Deserted Village of Feltville came onto the market. Twenty-two years had passed since David Felt abandoned his carefully constructed village to its fate. With its factory/mill and its worker housing, it had proven attractive to other entrepreneurs, who had each failed at their schemes. On July 7, 1882, the Constitutionalist of Plainfield, New Jersey carried an advertisement for a public auction of Feltville, to be held in Elizabeth on August 9, 1882. Globe Mutual Life Insurance Company, which had foreclosed on Nancy Townsend’s Feltville mortgages, had itself gone into receivership, and the bank was trying to make good on its loss. Warren Ackerman bought the village for $11,450, a fraction of what David Felt had sold it for 22 years earlier.

The New York Times carried a nearly blow by blow account of the sale,³⁷ which many other newspapers across the country picked up pieces of—shocking to me, to see how Feltville reverberated across the country. I include most of the Times article here, because it is alternately funny and colorful:

A DESERTED VILLAGE SOLD

THE RISE AND FALL OF FELTVILLE, IN NEW JERSEY

A CHURCH, A SCHOOL-HOUSE, A PAPER MILL, TWENTY-FOUR COTTAGES, AND 600 ACRES OF LAND BRING ONLY $11,450—A ONCE PROSPEROUS HAMLET NOW DESERTED.

About two score of capitalists, a number of farmers, with a fair sprinkling of lawyers and New-York speculators, gathered at the Court-house in Elizabeth, N.J., at 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon to bid for the village of Feltville, known for years as “The Deserted Village,” and over 600 acres of land. While awaiting the arrival of the auctioneer from New-York, the farmers related reminiscences of Feltville, which is picturesquely situated in Union County, N.J., at the south-east base of the Orange Mountain, near Plainfield. All the country for miles about is wild and romantic. Far above the village towers Washington Rock, from whence Gen. Washington watched Gen. Knyphausen and his British troops march from Elizabeth to give him battle in the Short Hills. A little to the north may be seen the old church at Springfield, where the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, the “fighting Pastor,” gathered armfuls of hymn-books when the loyal soldiers ran out of wadding at the battle of Springfield. He tore up the books and shouted to the soldiers: “Give ‘em Watts, boys, give ‘em Watts!” Near by is Wald House, in which the brave wife of the heroic clergyman was shot dead by a British soldier. In the wildest part of this romantic region, David Felt, a New-York stationer, purchased a tract of over 600 acres of land nearly 40 years ago and began the manufacture of paper. He built two large mills and a dam to retain water from the mountain stream for power, and also erected 24 pretty cottages, a comfortable church and school-house, a handsome dwelling for himself, and also put up a union store. For 15 years the village was prosperous. Children played about the school-house and on the “green,” religious services were held in the church by clergymen of different denominations, the men gathered at the village store on evenings and settled the affairs of the State and Nation as they sat about on barrels and counters, and the young folk danced to their heart’s content in a pretty picnic grove along the stream. The village was several miles removed from other villages, and there was not even a farm-house within two miles on any side, so that the Feltville rustics were happy in their retreat. Occasionally a pack peddler happened to drop in on pay-day, but as a rule few visitors lingered in the cozy hamlet more than a couple of hours.

Such was Feltville in the palmy days, but it has been for years deserted except by one old man named Thompson, who yet lives in one of the cottages. Mr. Felt sold the place to Townsend, the sarsaparilla man, who manufactured sarsaparilla there for several years. But after a time he became financially embarrassed, and borrowed $60,000 from the Globe Life Insurance Company of New-York, giving a mortgage on the entire property and on land in Elizabeth. He failed to pay the interest, whereupon the Globe Company foreclosed and took the property. That was about 12 years ago. Thereafter the village began to decay. The villagers moved elsewhere in search of employment as there was nobody to run the mills. The store had no customers, children played no more about the door-yards of the cottages, the church had no congregation, and the school no scholars. Decay and desolation began to be seen on all sides. . . . Even the tramps kept clear of the deserted village for they could get no food in the vicinity. Finally, the Globe insurance Company went into the hands of a Receiver, and therefore the village was entirely neglected. It rapidly went from bad to worse.

Some time ago Mr. James D. Fish, President of the Marine National Bank, of New-York, who was appointed Receiver of the Globe Life Insurance Company, decided to sell the Feltville property to the highest bidder. . . . It was that which drew the capitalists and farmers to the Court-house in Elizabeth yesterday afternoon. Ex-Congressman Amos Clark, Jr., ex-Assemblyman E. A. Wilkinson, J. Harvey Ackerman, and Warren Ackerman of Plainfield and other capitalists were at the sale. At 1:30 o’clock auctioneer Mr. Richard V. Harnett, of New-York, took a position on the steps of the Court-house and announced that he would sell all the property clear of incumbrance, the conditions being that 10 per cent. of the purchase money and $25 for the auctioneer for each plot sold be paid in cash on the spot, and that 90 per cent. be paid in the office of Wingate & Cullen on Sept. 15.

“Now, gentlemen, I will sell to the highest bidder the village of Feltville and more than 600 acres of good land,” shouted Auctioneer Harnett. “It is claimed that there are 774 acres in the tract. It ought to be started at $50,000 at least.” In an instant the crowd closed about the auctioneer, and whispering began. Each man appeared to be waiting for the other to bid. Finally, Lawyer Frank B. Allen, of Newark shouted: “I will start it at $3,000.” His bid was followed up rapidly in one-thousand-dollar offers until the figures reached $6,000, when there was a pause. “That is only $10 an acre,” said Auctioneer Harnett, “and there are houses, a church, a school, a dam, and two fine mills filled with machinery.” His eloquence brought up the bids until the total amounted to $8,000. “Why don’t you bid more?” he asked. “One of the Directors of the Globe Insurance Company offered $200,000 for the property just before he died.” “Don’t wonder he died after makin’ such an offer,’ remarked a knotty old farmer, “an’ you’d better be keerful you don’t see the graveyard after sich stories.” Although the auctioneer exerted himself the bids dropped to $500 until the total reached $10,000, when there was much hesitation. Finally, bids of $100 raised the figure to $11,400, where it stuck for some time. Somebody raised it $25, and Warren Ackerman saw him $25 better, and got the property for $11,450. It was said that it cost Mr. Felt over $200,000.

Mr. Ackerman is one of the wealthiest men in New-Jersey. He was bondsman for Director Condit, of the Mechanic’s Bank, of Newark, where Condit was required to make good $250,000. He lives in Plainfield. He said to THE TIMES’s reporter that he bought the property because he has land adjoining it, and he proposed expending considerable money in improving both properties. He said there was no prettier place in New-Jersey for a Summer residence, but it would take much money to make it as attractive as he intended.

“Ackerman made a spec on that ‘ere land,” remarked the old farmer, “but it won’t be worth much for 10 years yit. ‘Tain’t worth a rotten apple for factory purposes, but the water rights is worth a fortune. Plainfield must get water from that stream up there at Feltville in time, and Ackerman now owns the whole thing. It will make a rattlin’ place for city folks to live in Summer. But the old place has been deserted so long that the young folks don’t go nigh it now for fear of ghosts.”

Perhaps with the addition of the Deserted Village to his holdings, Ackerman became, as reported by Ricord, the largest landowner of the time in Union County.

The Deserted Village had found an owner who would give it a new chapter.

Until next month!