Samuel Townsend, “Radical Abolitionist”

This is the second of my posts about Samuel and Nancy Townsend, who owned Feltville during the period when it was first becoming known as “the Deserted Village.” As I mentioned last time, I came into these posts intending to write about Nancy, since she was the one who actually bought the village, which seemed unusual for a woman of her time, and on whose watch it appeared the village went deserted. Nancy purchased and lost the village at least twice, the second time after Samuel’s 1870 death at the age of 57—apparently still trying to make a go of things at Feltville even without Samuel. As I went looking for Nancy, I found Samuel taking over, reaching out, it felt with a treasure trove of his own words, to give me a sense of who he was and what he was thinking.

You may also recall that Dr. Samuel Townsend made his fortune producing and selling sarsaparilla, which he claimed to be the “Wonder and Blessing of the Age/The Most Extraordinary Medicine in the World.” ¹ The biographical sketch for Samuel, on the Virtual Museum site of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC) at Dr. Townsend’s Sarsaparilla Albany N.Y. – FOHBC Virtual Museum of Historical Bottles and Glass indicates that he sold the sarsarparilla business in 1855. Three years later, in 1858, his partner’s widow won a large (especially for that time) award of $108,000, for her husband’s portion of the business, which Samuel had apparently failed to hand over after the sale.

When did the Townsends arrive in Feltville? The Bertland property report for Feltville ² which I mentioned in my last post found S.P. Townsend on an 1862 map of Feltville, although it was not until 1864 that Nancy actually formally purchased the property. It also seems to be in 1864 that Samuel sold that fabulous mansion in New York, to A. T. Stewart, who had made his fortune opening what Charles Lockwood describes as America’s first department store, which allowed women, for the first time, to buy many kinds of merchandise in one store. Stewart promptly razed Samuel’s mansion, to build an even more outrageous one, which Charles Lockwood describes as being constructed of white marble, with a mansard roof, costing $3 million, and requiring ten years to build and furnish. ³

Samuel was still rather young at the time he sold the sarsaparilla business—age 42, and at the time of the court judgment—45. He would have been 49, if we have a 1862 arrival, when he and Nancy took on Feltville. I will turn first to the two previous written histories of Feltville and some tour guides from the 1960s, which all describe Samuel’s and Nancy’s time at the village.

In the first published history (other than newspaper accounts) of the Deserted Village, Dr. Arthur L. Johnson, County Superintendent of Schools, Union County, N.J., starts his account with a misconception that Samuel himself warned against, calling Samuel the “Original Doctor Jacob.” ⁴ I noted in the last post, that in his 1849 circular concerning his product, Samuel cautions against being taken in by the concoction of a competitor, under the name “old Dr. Jacob Townsend’s Sarsaparilla.” ⁵

Johnson goes on to note that it was reported that Samuel had swapped his “famous Sarsaparilla Palace on Murray Hill on Fifth Avenue” for Feltville. ⁶ But Johnson himself suggests that this report may be inaccurate with an enumeration of property transfers that show David Felt selling Feltville to Amasa S. Foster 1860, albeit possibly (as suggested in the Bertland Property Report) with the intention of transferring it to the Townsends. ⁷

Johnson describes Samuel as a “man of pleasing personality, very much liked and generally respected.” ⁸ He says that “evidently” Samuel’s intended use of Feltville was for the production of sarsaparilla, but that the machinery and equipment in the Feltville mills proved to be not suited to this purpose. He cites a succession of operations by Samuel: planting of peach and apple trees, and of tobacco, use of the church/store for processing the tobacco, and the mill to house “negroes” to do the processing. At the same time, Johnson indicates the mills were closed, and the workers had moved away, without a clear indication of when or how that fit in with the enterprises he lists. ⁹

James Hawley, in his book, The Deserted Village and the Blue Brook Valley, says that Samuel and Nancy “struggled nobly to establish a successful industry.” ¹⁰ Like Johnson, Hawley states that their first effort was “to produce bottled sarsaparilla which they manufactured so profitably in New York City.” Hawley lists succeeding enterprises as growing of fruit, then cultivation of tobacco, which was made into cigars, but adds that they went on to use the factory as a turning mill. Hawley says all the efforts failed and the Townsends became bankrupt. He finishes with the following:

By 1882 the economy of Feltville was worthless. The residents had moved away and most of the cottages had fallen to decay, the factory, store house and other large buildings had become ruins. It was now showing signs of being a Deserted Village, and attracted many curious visitors for miles around. 11

Two tour guides from the 1960s add some other tantalizing details, for which I have been unable, as of yet, to find original sources. In Guided Tour to Glenside Village in Connection with N.J. Tercentenary, 1964-1065, the unidentified author reiterates much of the Johnson material (including identifying Samuel as the original “Dr. Jacob”) but adds the following: “tobacco fields planted; negro workers imported; upper mill becomes dorm for negros, lower mill curing barn for tobacco; store converted to cigar factory; Cuban cigar makers imported from N.Y.C.; Ailanthus silk moth and tree imported.”

Another tour guide, dated August 1968, entitled Tour Guide to Watchung Reservation’s Deserted Village, was almost certainly written by my grandfather, Edwin A. Baldwin, since in it, he references the work he had done that year to document the burial at the village of three Revolutionary War soldiers (also, I found quite a few copies of the guide in my grandfather’s files, when I inherited them). It doesn’t add new material, except to note that it was William H. Trafton, not the Townsends, who operated the turning mill at the village. Because of multiple dissimilarities to the tour guide of 1964-5, I do not believe that my grandfather also authored that one. Interestingly, I have a copy of a third tour guide, which is mainly a hand drawn map and key, clearly indicating that the tour leader was James B. Hawley, and dated 5/15/49, which doesn’t even mention Samuel or Nancy.

Possible confirmation of some of the farming activities comes from an undated offer of sale or lease, a copy of which is found in the Day family file folder at New Providence Historical Society.

At Feltville, containing 500 acres of excellent Land situated 2 miles from Scotch Plains Depot and same from Summit by good road one of the prettiest places in N.J. Large Factory (good water power) 21 ft. wheel, ample water power with a head or reservoir dam 30 dwellings, one fine mansion stone &c 6000 peach trees, 200 cherry trees, large quantities of every variety of choice fruit, 22 miles of N. York. Most of the land under the best cultivation a good fence, well waterd, all in good order the bal in good timber and wood. A portion of the purchased money can lie on BondMortgage. Buildings all in good order 1 = 33 x 133, 3 story and attic 1 = 15 x 133 I story, 1 = 30 x 40-2 story. Stone house, & Store, School-house &c. or sell 50 acres acrost the middle including all the buildings, water power &c for 55,000 ~ or will lease the Factory, Stores, Tenant houses for 10 years at $2500 firm.

Some questions or issues arise from this document: here, the land is offered for sale by S.P. Townsend, although Nancy was actually the owner of record. As noted, the offer is undated. Finally, the address is “Feltville, N.J. or 23 Day St.”—where is Day Street? Presumably someplace would-be purchasers would know of? An online search for that street name in the local area around Feltville doesn’t turn up likely local candidates. Nor does there appear to be a Day Street in New York City, unless this is a misspelling of Dey Street.

Samuel himself gives us some apparent glimpses into his time at Feltville in his writings (which will be discussed below). In a speech given in 1864, Samuel gives the following details about a place that seems like it must be Feltville:

[U]p in the city of Union, among the hills of New Providence, where I reside during the summer, the taxes are very nearly as high as they are in the city of New York; and in our city the streets are not lighted with gas; we support no grand palaces for the entertainment of foreign paupers; have no splendidly equipped police; no City Fathers; no Governors; no grand dinners; no steamboat excursions; no turtle soup, steaks or Green Seal. In fact we had only about twenty-five inhabitants at the last census, yet our town, county and State taxes are just about as extravagant as they are in the Metropolis. 12

Note that he indicates he resides, presumably in Feltville, only during the summer.

In an 1867 pamphlet, Samuel talks about farming—but no fruit trees or tobacco are mentioned:

The writer breeds sheep and sells wool and knows whereof he affirms. He has a beautiful flock of fine sheep, two hundred and fifty in number, and the most he could sell their wool for was 55 cents per pound. The average weight of their fleeces was 4 ½ pounds, making about $2.50 per head as income, which paid nearly three-fourths of one cent per day for keeping each sheep, or about what it costs to take a single puff of a Havana segar. 13

But, in that same pamphlet, Samuel states that his “office” is “in William, between Wall-street and Exchange Place.”

Twenty five inhabitants, and 250 sheep! So what, indeed, did Samuel actually do between 1860 or so and the date of his death, 1870? I don’t currently have evidence to allow me to form conclusive ideas of what he was doing at Feltville, but of course, I intend to keep on digging. However, one thing I can be sure of is that he was a prolific author of pamphlets, and simultaneously, an avid speech giver. His subject was not sarsarparilla, or even, how to make (and perhaps lose) a fortune. Instead, his pamphlets and speeches give a window into public sentiment and policy making during and after the Civil War. Samuel was, of course, an individual, but his works illuminate the things on the mind of Americans at the time.

Samuel as “Radical Abolitionist”

In my previous attempts to write about this chapter of the village, I assumed, given the large financial hit Samuel took with the 1858 verdict, that he was humbled in fortune and spirit when he arrived at the village. His words seemed to contradict the view I had previously held of him, as someone who came to the little castoff industrial village of Feltville hoping to make a fresh start after an ignominious defeat in New York.

Between 1861 and 1868, Samuel wrote 15 apparently self-published pamphlets; the two I have been able to find were each about 60 jam-packed pages long. In the last of them, entitled Our National Finances. A Mirror in which “Trees can be seen as Men Walking”(hereinafter Men Walking), he tells us the following about the series:

It will be observed that this pamphlet is number fifteen. These little works have been published and scattered without compensation, at a cost of several thousand dollars. They were commenced with the commencement of the Rebellion. 14

During the same period, from 1861 to 1868, Samuel was being asked (or volunteering?) to give speeches on many of the same topics covered in his pamphlets. I have found two transcribed speeches—both of which Samuel claims were extempore, which begs the question of how they became transcribed. One from 1862, ¹⁵ includes the following claim on its cover:

Note by the Publisher—This is a verbatim report of an extempore speech made by DR. TOWNSEND. It is but justice to say it was delivered with great earnestness, power, and eloquence, and was received by a large, highly appreciative and respectable audience, with enthusiasm, laughter, applause and cheer.

Indeed, as will be clear in further excerpts from the speech below, the referred to audience reaction is described in parentheses.

In both the pamphlets and the speeches, perhaps the foremost of Samuel’s chosen topics was that of finance. The Civil War prompted the (North’s) federal government to take extraordinary measures to finance an expensive and protracted war, including printing and distributing the first real paper money, creating national banks, raising tariffs, and other mechanisms which led to a more powerful central federal government, shifting financial control away from states. Understanding and setting out Samuel’s thoughts on that topic is massive, because it requires an understanding of what was going on in the administration and finance at the time. It will require its own separate post. In this post, I will look at some of Samuel’s other equally fascinating opinings—starting with his views on abolition, including the relationship between freeing the slaves and labor rights. I will also explore Samuel’s views on Native Americans, and show the contrast between them and his abolitionist views. I will mostly let Samuel do the talking, and you can judge of his ideas for yourself.

In his 1862 speech which appears to have been made at some event for the support of candidates facing an upcoming election, Samuel starts with an observation that, until this evening, he never realized the extent of New Jersey conservatism. The speakers who preceded him at this event “referred to the institution of slavery as one not to be truthfully and plainly spoken of, I suppose from fear of being called radicals.” ¹⁶ He goes on with a bit of humor:

Mr. President, I am certain, if Barnum would engage a real live Abolitionist, and exhibit him in the towns of this State, he would make a fortune. (Laughter) I believe there are a great many people in New Jersey that never see one; perhaps you never had a sight; if so, you have an opportunity of seeing one to-night—for I am a Radical Abolitionist. 17

Samuel indicates that he has resided in the city of New Orleans and done considerable business in the South and “I am well acquainted with their manners and customs, and with their peculiar institution. I am thoroughly posted—know more of the South than most Southerners do themselves.” He goes on to tell his observations regarding the treatment of individual enslaved persons, each of which made him detest slavery more.

The image of one noble-looking woman (she was almost white) has hunted me for twenty years; she stood upon the auction-block in the great bar room of the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans. Several hundred men were smoking, drinking, and examining human chattels. It was a scene of confusion, and to me, a scene of horror, for there were numerous lots of men, women, and children being sold at the same time. This woman was of commanding figure, expressive eyes, a roman nose. But oh, what a sad, disconsolate countenance! In every lineament of her face was written despair and anguish. With each hand she held, or rather grasped, a child of lighter complexion than herself. The men felt her limbs. She stood erect, and as immovable as a statue. The big tears streamed down her cheeks. It was too much for me. I rushed from the room, choked with rage and tobacco-smoke, cursing the diabolical system, and I have cursed it ever since. 18

Samuel goes on to recount a trip up the Mississippi River on a steamer.

All on board were gay—music and dancing in the ladies’ cabins, cards and wine in the gentlemen’s. I partook of the hilarity, for I was returning to my Northern home, after a long absence, as gay as the gayest. Early one morning I went on the lower deck. It was a cold, damp, chilly morning. I saw a colored man fastened to the boat by a heavy chain around his ankle. He was crouched down, yet resting on his feet. He had no hat or shoes. In fact, he had no clothing on whatever, excepting a pair of pants made out of an old coffee-sack. He was furnished with no seat or bed, and had been entirely exposed to the cold night air. He was the most abject-looking human being I ever saw, before or since. I supposed, of course, he had committed some heinous crime, for he appeared to me to be a penitent culprit. His appearance was so sad he excited my pity and compassion, and I inquired of one of the deck hands what crime the man had committed. He surveyed me a moment with a look and a smile which plainly said, “You are a very green young man,” and said he had committed no crime; he was a slave. But if he has committed no crime, why is he so heavily ironed and fastened to the boat. His answer was—“His master is afraid that the d—d fool will jump overboard and drown himself. His owner is taking him up to his plantation in Mississippi.” I looked at the poor slave for a moment with feelings of indignation too big for words. This indignation was increased, vastly increased, with the thought that I could not help him, and my country would not. I felt ashamed, humiliated, and degraded, and again in my inmost soul cursed the institution of slavery. That is why I am an Abolitionist. (Applause). 19

Samuel goes on to show how the Constitution is anti-slavery, and declares that the Bible is also anti-slavery, through the Golden Rule, and the Bible teaching that “the laborer is worthy of his hire.”

Samuel goes on to tie the institution of slavery to depressed wages for Northern workers—starting his argument off with one of my favorite of his turns of phrase—revealing the depth of his belief in the “truth” he speaks:

Mr. President, we may learn by these instances and circumstances that unpopular truth, when faithfully placed before the people will prevail. If our Northern workmen can only clearly perceive that four millions of colored people, working without wages, greatly reduces the wages of every Northern worker, they will refuse to sustain the system of American slavery. And this fact can be demonstrated, for it is as true as truth, and as clearly seen as sunlight; let us endeavor to get this important fact fairly before the minds, and impressed upon the consciences of the masses of our people. Emancipate those millions and the “bosses will have to shell out.” (Applause and cries of Good; that is the doctrine.) The laborers and mechanics will pay a little more for their tea, coffee &c., but it must and will be more than made up by the increase of wages and demand for labor.20

Townsend has more to say on providing increases of wages to laborers and mechanics:

The banker may raise the rate of interest for the use of money, the merchant the price of his goods, the farmer the price of his grain and pork, and they invariably take advantage any circumstances that enhance the value of their commodities to demand the highest possible price they can obtain, and no one complains. It is received by the community as a fair business transaction. It is reported that A.T. Stewart & Co. have made over a million of dollars on the rise of goods since the war commenced. The people say they are very fortunate men. No one complains. But if the poor man, the laborer, or the working mechanic demands a few shillings per day added to his scanty wages, there is a hue and cry reaise and it is considered a great misfortune, or revolution, or something worse. The Scripture saith, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” If I had written the sentence, I would have added, and rousing big wages. 21

In his 1868 pamphlet, Men Walking, Samuel looks from his perceived view of the understandings held by the now-freed slaves, and indicates that they “have a clear perception that their interests are closely connected with the trading and industrial classes, and that they can and should be protected by legal enactments.” ²²

Samuel talks about the preconceptions that he believes most white people about negros. In his 1862 speech, he notes that Northerners are fearing both that negros will come north and “overrun the country,” but the same Northerners hold in their mind the contradictory belief that negros are unable to take care of themselves. From his own personal observation he “know[s] that there are hundred of thousands who have quick perceptions and bright intellects, and have managed to pick up considerable education, although it is contraband in the South.” ²³ He cites as examples the thousands of “colored men like the one that piloted the generous and gallant General Burnside when he captured Roanoke Island, the city of Newbern, &c.” He dismisses a report, in a New York paper, of a female slave who claimed she knew only how to keep the mosquitos off her former owner, making her seem an imbecile, noting that she “had been designedly brutalized to make her unconscious of her degradation, that she was kept principally to breed human beings to be sold as chattels.” ²⁴ In the same speech, given before the slaves were freed, he seems to be arguing that if they are freed, and begin to draw wages, they will quickly become consumers, since they will be starting with so little clothing or furniture—or books. This can only add to the market for American goods (Samuel’s preference, wherever possible, over foreign goods), which will increase employment and wages of Northerners, and generally enrich the North.

In 1868, Samuel perceives that there are still some who perceive former slaves in the following way:

If you make slaves freemen, you convert them into savages; if you educate them, and allow them to vote, they will become barbarians; that they are only brutes and cannot be enlightened and civilized, and that if five hundred thousand of them are allowed to vote they will rule the five or six millions of white men, and destroy the country. 25

I suspect that Samuel knew whereof he spoke, and that there were many people who indeed saw black people, before or after emancipation, as savages. It would be interesting to know if Samuel indeed brought “negros” in to work in a tobacco growing and processing operation at Feltville, as indicated in past histories of the village, and if so, whether he put his principles into practice.

Samuel and the “Savages”

But, in the meantime, there was another class of people in the United States that Samuel did view as savages. In his 1864 speech,The Nation Saved, Samuel starts with a description of the United States before white colonization began:

How truly wonderful that this great continent, which was very properly called at the date of its discovery, “The New World,” should have remained sleeping in the daylight for near six thousand years. How strange that the mighty mountains of America looked down for ages upon a scene of silent majestic grandeur, such as was never pictured by poet, painter or historian. Mr. President, think you this was the result of accident? In the old world, cities, kings and kingdoms, and dynasties, had risen and fallen on the tides of time. … yet this mighty continent lay calmly sleeping, embraced by the two great oceans of the glove, waiting for God to open the doors of these great chambers, if not to hide, to let his people in. 26

He gives an example of the aid of Providence:

The [Puritans] were only a handful of men escaping from Europe—from which they were hardly allowed either to remain or depart. They landed on the shores of Cape Bay, amid the terrible drifts of winter. The mounds they discovered on landing contained the seeds of life, for in them, the natives had housed the Indian corn. This grain they carefully preserved for seed. It subsequently was planted, and saved the colony. Then how truly marvelous that the small pox had just preceded them, and swept the savages from the forest and earth, leaving this corn, their huts and skins, to protect and save these children of persecution from starvation and destruction, supplying them with seed, and removing the savages, the only obstacle to their permanent settlement and success. 27

He circles back to slavery from the lucky extermination of the savages, giving us a clear view of the distinctions between his views on Native Americans and African Americans:

All historians, orators, and observers of our astounding progress have acknowledged that Divine Providence directed and protected our fathers in laying the foundations of our Republican Institutions; and none but a dwarfed intellect ever believed that this wonderful land was designed by the Almighty to become a breeding pen to multiply human beings, to be treated as chattels and bartered as slaves. No! When God constructed this mighty throne, he evidently erected it for the citadel and home of liberty. 28

I will leave Samuel (and Nancy) now, until my next post!