Who was Warren Ackerman?

WHO WAS WARREN ACKERMAN?

INTRODUCTION

Last month, I worked my way through profiles of some of Glenside Park’s most prestigious guests, as a means of determining whether the Deserted-Village-turned-resort was a success. In doing so, I gathered the sometimes scant traces that each guest had left, to create a picture of their status, knowing that in the nineteenth century, and probably, still today, the status of guests known to be frequenting a resort inspired others to visit, perhaps hoping some of that status would rub off.

Most of the traces I was using to put profiles together showed that the person profiled had been seen quite positively—except for the feuding Munns, and the intrigue they lent to the resort community.

This month, mindful of having less time to complete my post, and inspired by the process of creating those profiles, I am profiling Warren Ackerman, the owner of the resort, making an effort to discover who he was, and how he was viewed during his own time. Again, I will work through the existing sources and draw my conclusions from them. You will have my research, and can decide whether you would have drawn different conclusions about the man who took the village from “Deserted” to a thriving resort.

WARREN’S FORMATIVE EARLY YEARS

In a previous post, Introducing Warren, I outlined Warren’s early life. He was descended from Dutch settlers, who were part of a Dutch community in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He attended the Rutgers Preparatory School, affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church in New Brunswick. Warren left off pursuing this “thorough preparatory education for mercantile life” which the school was providing him to go live with his sister, Caroline, and her new husband, Abraham Coles, in one of New Jersey’s then premier business centers, Newark, New Jersey. Once in Newark, Warren built on shares his father had given him in one or more rubber companies. He was recognized by historian Frederick W. Ricord in his History of Union County, New Jersey, both for making his fortune through these companies, and, at least in one instance, getting the company out of near disaster caused by the company’s purchase of shoddy rubber products.¹

Ricord tells us that Warren moved on completely in 1879 (at age 52) from his early rubber manufacturing enterprises to the cement industry. As with his rubber interests, Warren had received his first shares in the Lawrence Cement Company of Ulster county, New York, from his father, in 1853. Interestingly, this was just about the same time that he was really beginning to build up his rubber interests, to the point that he was ready to pursue the lucrative contracts to provide the Union army with high quality rubber goods for the soldiers.

So there were more than 20 years after Warren received his first cement company interests, but was still working at the rubber industry. Yet, Ricord goes on to tell us that Warren worked quickly to acquire a controlling interest in the Lawrence Cement Company. Thus, even before the rubber company sell off in 1879, Warren was probably working towards the move to the cement industry.

Ricord makes it clear that, as with rubber manufacturing, once Warren switched to cement, he was all in. He did not content himself with shares in one company but went on to acquire control of two other cement companies, the Rosendale Cement Company, also of Ulster County New York, and the Cumberland Hydraulic Cement and Manufacturing Company of Cumberland, Maryland. Warren also owned quarries in Pennsylvania where the raw materials needed for cement could be quarried and transferred to the various cement companies in which he had interests.

I realized early in the course of my Deserted Village research that I had, as apparently many people apparently do, assumed that cement and concrete were the same thing. In an April 3, 2020 article for MIT News explaining the difference for people like myself, Andrew Logan starts by telling the reader three basic things: concrete is porous; it is the “world’s most-used material after water;” and concrete is not cement.² Concrete is a composite of materials, chief among them being cement. All cement involves limestone, which is fired in a kiln along with other materials containing silica, which could be industrial by-products such as slag or fly ash,³ or shale, iron ore and clay⁴ to produce a material called “clinker.” The clinker is ground to a very fine powder, and mixed with additives, which can include more limestone and gypsum or other materials to make cement.

Mixing cement with water results in “hydration,” where that word has an industry specific meaning—specifically, the clinker dissolves into the solid materials and “recombines with water and silica to form calcium silica hydrates.”⁵ These calcium silica hydrates both develop tight chemical bonds and at the same time, cause pores to develop in the spaces between those bonds. Concrete is a composite material containing aggregate, i.e. sand and rock, and cement and water. The cement and water mixture fills in the spaces between the aggregate particles and binds them tightly, while apparently porosity remains. Concrete will become harder and stronger over time.⁶

There is newspaper evidence that Warren was particularly successful in the cement industry, sometimes being characterized as the “lime king.” One newspaper account said the following:

Those presumed to know say that that sturdy old farmer, Warren Ackerman of Scotch Plains, is worth seven million dollars and controls all the cement business of the country as thoroughly as the Standard Oil Co., controls the oil business. Mr. Ackerman and that other many millionaire, Charles Hyde, have taken hold with others of the affairs of Hotel Netherwood, and are arranging for many improvements which will greatly add to the value of the locality. ⁷

WARREN AND THE RAILROADS

Warren died in August 1893 and his probate inventory was filed and proved August 29, 1894. If Warren was all in for his rubber manufacturing, and then, for manufacturing cement, the inventory shows that he was also deeply involved in the railroad industry.⁸

Ricord’s biography of Warren has only one brief mention of interest in a railroad. Ricord says, that as Warren had done in the past, Warren’s efforts were instrumental in helping save the Central Railroad of New Jersey from disaster. Ricord included it almost as an aside to a general description of Warren’s broad business and societal influence:

The most prominent banking, industrial, educational and charitable institutions of New York and New Jersey knew his as a wise counselor and also as a reliable friend. To the efficient help rendered by Warren Ackerman and others was due the prevention of the foreclosure of the mortgages on the Central Railroad, in 1877.⁹

The Probate Inventory confirms that at the time of his death, Warren owned a variety of types of interests in the Central Railroad of New Jersey, designated in four categories: “Cons. Mtg.,” “Conv. Del.,” “Gen. Mtg.,” and “shares.” The total value of al these interests was $222,879. But his interests in two other railroad companies, the Erie Railroad Company and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad were actually larger than those in the Central Railroad, at $255,220 and $226,025, respectively.

But Warren did not content himself with interests in a few railroads, as he had with rubber and cement. These are the names of the railroads in which he had interests, a sort of who’s who of the railroad industry of the time:

Buffalo and Erie Railroad Company

Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad Company

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company

Chicago and North Western Railroad Company

Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company

Chicago and South Western Railroad Company

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company

Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad Company

Central Pacific Railroad Company

Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company

Detroit, Monroe and Toledo Railroad Company

Erie Railroad Company

Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railroad Company

Kansas Pacific Railroad Company

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company

Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company

Morris and Essex Railroad Company

Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company

Michigan Central Railroad Company

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company

New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company

New York Elevated Railroad Company

North Missouri Railroad Company

New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company

Omaha and St. Louis Railroad Company

Pennsylvania Railroad Company

Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company

Pacific Railway of Missouri (Missouri Pacific)

Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad Company

Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad Company

St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad Company

St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad Company

Third Avenue Railroad Company

Union Pacific Railroad Company

United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company

Wabash Railroad Company

West Shore Railroad Company

Western Pacific Railroad Company

Warren Railroad Company

In all, Warren owned interests in 40 railroad companies. Exclusive of mortgages to individual people and cash, the Probate Inventory shows interests in a total of 78 businesses, which means that the railroad interests constituted more than half the listed items. The other 38 items included banks, bond companies, a land-improvement company and even ten dollars invested in the Newark Library Association.

WHAT WARREN’S WILL TELLS US

It should be noted that the Probate Inventory excludes a number of Warren’s assets, namely those passed by specific bequest through Warren’s will.

Warren and Lydia had no children. Each of them had siblings, some of whom had children. As will be seen in this post and the one next month where I write about Lydia, each singled out one or two nieces or nephews for special bequests. Warren, of course, additionally singled out Lydia—identified as “my beloved wife”—for a special bequest.

Lydia received all of Warren’s considerable real estate holdings ”wheresoever situated,” “for and during her natural life.” She also received all Warren’s “household articles, furniture, pictures, portraits, works of art, books, plate, silver and table furniture, wherever the same may be situated,“ again, “for and during her life.” In accepting this bequest, Lydia was required to give up dower rights or rights to thirds in the estate.

Lydia was losing nothing by relinquishing dower rights, which were established to protect women whose husbands predeceased them from rapacious heirs. During the nineteenth century, women who married lost rights to property during the marriage, and dower rights allowed them to have use of and income from one third of a dead husband’s real property during the remainder of their lifetimes. Generally, women exercising dower rights could not sell the property outright. Warren’s will gave Lydia the real property and the personal property, without apparent restrictions on what she did with it during her lifetime. She could even sell it. But any real property which was not sold would stay with the estate, and pass to the eleven Ackerman family heirs at her death.

A later estate document states that Warren’s real property was worth $845,387.02.¹⁰ I will be covering the real estate holdings in more detail in a future post, but the eventual auction notice for Warren’s real estate (or at least any real estate which Lydia did not transfer during her lifetime) says the following about Warren’s real estate holdings:

The property consists of about eighty parcels, situated in the townships of North Plainfield and Scotch Plains, in the Boroughs of Mountainside and Fanwood, Counties of Somerset and Union. It consists of handsome residences, small country homes, substantial farm houses and outbuildings, with farms under cultivation; acreage and timber lands.¹¹

Of course, this auction notice singled out Glenside Park for special mention–continuing a trend where the conversion of the Deserted Village was the achievement Warren was most remembered for.

As noted, Warren singled out two nephews, the sons of his brother, J. Hervey Ackerman, for special bequests. To Ernest R. Ackerman, Warren left one hundred thousand dollars, and all of his shares in the Lawrence Cement Company, which Ernest was already involved in. To Marion S. Ackerman, Warren left fifty thousand dollars, and all of his shares in the Cumberland Hydraulic Cement and Manufacturing Company.

Ernest and Marion were two of the trustees/executors of Warren’s will, along with Lydia. There were also two additional trustees: Theodore, one of Warren’s brothers (the others had died already) and one additional nephew, Jonathan Ackerman Coles. The latter, often called J. Ackerman Coles, was the son of Warren’s sister Caroline, and her husband, Abraham Coles. Two additional nephews, sons of Theodore, were not included as executors.

Warren could be generous and protective, as he was with his “beloved wife.” With his three nephews, was he showing favoritism? Ernest got the most money, Marion got half that of his brother, and J. Ackerman got nothing. Since neither of the cement company interest which were bequests to Ernest and Marion were listed in the Probate Inventory, we have no way of judging their relative value, and so no sense of whether Marion made up in Cumberland Hydraulic Cement and Manufacturing Company shares what he had not gotten in cash. Why was J. Ackerman left out for any special bequest?

WARREN’S WILL CHOICES INSPIRE DEFENDING

After Warren died, the Plainfield Constitutionalist published an editorial defending his choices of what to do with his assets, as evinced in his will:

Criticism is being made by thoughtless persons because nothing of Warren Ackerman’s immense fortune was left to charity. The will, which has just been submitted to probate, retains everything to the family. The estate, including personal property, stocks and cash, is estimated to be worth $2,000,000 to $3000,000. He bequeaths to his wife all his real estate and household effects, paintings, works of art, books, etc. for her lifetime; to his nephew, Ernest R. Ackerman $100,000 in cash and all his shared os stock in the Lawerence Cement /company of New York; to his nephew, Marion S. Ackerman, he gave $50,000 in cash and his stock in the Cumberland Hydraulic Cement and Manufacturing Company of Maryland.

 

To gossiping critics The Press would say that Mr. Ackerman has bequeathed his property wisely and well. His good wife and his good nephews can safely be trusted to use for no selfish ends the wealth left in their control, but to continue wisely, judiciously, faithfully, the bestowal of all such bounties as delighted the heart of the dead millionaire, and to administer abundant charities in all deserving quarters within their province.¹²

So, with the defense, came a gentle push towards philanthropy. As an aside, it should be noted that Ricord had lauded Warren’s liberal philanthropy during his lifetime, and specifically, the following:

At one time, while a member of the Collegiate Dutch church, New York city, he paid off the entire indebtedness of its board of foreign missions, and gave it an additional large sum with which to begin its work afresh.¹³

A CHARACTER DEFENSE BY A CLOSE FRIEND

Another character defense of sorts was written shortly after Warren’s death, by a friend, Dr. Chauncey B. Ripley, perhaps responding to the same “gossiping critics:”

Dr. Ripley’s Tribute

 

What He Thought of His Friend and Neighbor, Warren Ackerman

 

Warren Ackerman, aged sixty-eight, and for more than thirty years a resident of Union county, died at his residence, Scotch Plains, on Saturday last, 26 inst., of paralysis. Mr. Ackerman was much esteemed in our community and most so by those who knew him most immediately. Retiring in his manner, a man of few words, always busy, he was known as well as the average man of affairs, considering the large interests he represented in Union county and elsewhere. He was observing in his contact with men and business. He was prudent and conservative. He was scrupulous, governed by high moral principles in al matters of business. He was to be found on the right side, as he understood the right.

 

Warren Ackerman was regarded as the largest land-owner in the county, possessed of about 3,000 acres at the time of his death. Hew was believed to be a millionaire and more. Hew was a useful member of society, aiding, in many ways, to promote the prosperity of this section of the country. He was early an advocate of improved public roads, and was one of those who built and maintained good roads at his own expense. He purchased many farms, often in a very poor state of cultivation and repair, and bettered their productiveness and appearance. He took in hand the Deserted Village of Feltville, and made it bloom like the rose. The loss of Mr. Ackerman will be felt more and more, as we consider what he was and what he did. ¹⁴

Who was this friend who felt called to come to his friend’s defense? In the continuing spirit of you never know what you will find, my search for a bit of information on Dr. Chauncey B. Ripley reveals that he was a lawyer who was locally put forward by the Westfield Leader, first, as a candidate for Governor of New Jersey, and, later, for United States Supreme Court Justice. In reporting on these endorsements, the Jersey Journal did suggest that the Leader might have been “guying” Ripley.¹⁵

Ripley was also a “member of the advisory council of the world’s educational congress,” in charge of arranging representation for college fraternities and societies at the Columbian Exposition, also called the Chicago Worlds Fair, being planned for later in 1893. Also on the council were presidents and ex-presidents of Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell.¹⁶ He received four prizes for his “cattle exhibit” at some unspecified event in Chicago, which could have been the Colombian Exposition, which was ongoing at the time.¹⁷

But, within months of Warren Ackerman’s death, Ripley too was dead. His death was first attributed to “apoplexy.” However, after an initial suggestion that the death might have been suicide, motivated by an excess of debts, there was indeed a confirmation of suicide, reason unknown.¹⁸

PERSONAL GLIMPSES IN HIS OBITUARIES

Warren’s death inspired some individuals to defend or laud his character. Other obituaries and descriptions of his funeral which provided insights into his life and character. One of these was an obituary published on Monday, August 28, 1893 in the Plainfield Courier. After a discussion of some of Warren’s impressive business dealings, the article goes on to say:

Part of his leisure time lately has been occupied in the improvement and developing of his homestead property in Fanwood township and other adjoining real estate including the “Glenside Park. This attractive mountain retreat of some dozen cottages, was built up and beautified by him out of the old well known manufacturing site of Feltville, so long distinguished in this vicinity as the “Deserted Village.”

 

Mr. Ackerman was a self made business man, and lived an active and industrious life in an unobtrusive and modest way. He was conscientious and courteous in every relation, maintaining an enviable reputation for the strictest commercial honesty and to this may be attributed much of his success.

 

Mr. Ackerman was married about 17 years ago to a daughter of Isaac L. Platt, one of the founders of the Chemical Bank. His domestic virtues added to the many excellencies of his gentle nature rounded out a private life of peaceful and undisturbed happiness around the fireside. ¹⁹

Warren’s religious convictions, received special attention in the continuation of this same obituary:

His religion was not of words or boastful profession, but quiet and unostentatious like his business life of blameless record, controlled by an unswerving moral purpose. Through an attendant at the First Presbyterian Church of Plainfield, his formal church connections were with the Reformed Church of New York city, representing the spiritual faith of his orthodox Dutch ancestry. He died in perfect calmness and composure, leaving the memory of an unblemished character which will be cherished by those of nearest kinship and command the respect of all associated with him in commercial relations.²⁰

Another article described Warren’s funeral and noted that his pastor had “recounted the Christian virtues of his late friend, and said that Mr. Ackerman always carried in his pocket a copy of the Book of \Proverbs, as a guide to his life.”²¹

IN HIS OWN WORDS—A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

The one document I had access to, which was actually authored by Warren Ackerman, was a letter found by a current Warren Ackerman, a descendant of one of the original Warren’s brothers. Today’s Warren has done considerable research on his distant uncle. The text of the letter is as follows:

Cumberland Hydraulic Cement & Mfg. Co

New York, May 19, 1884

Hon., F.T. Frelinghuysen

Sec. of State

Washington, DC

 

My dear Sir:-

This will introduce to you Mr. M. A. Scull, Treasurer of the Cumberland Cement Co. This company is made up of your friends Ex. Gov. Ward, Dr. Abram Coles, Mr. Amzi Dodd and myself and has supplied considerable cement in times past for Gov. work in Washington.

 

But we feel that we are not being fairly dealt with at present not only as far as our company is concerned but the Government itself. All we wish to accomplish is to furnish an article that will stand all fair and proper tests at a less price than any other cement of approved quality. Mr. Scull desires to get access to the War Department in which the business is, and if you will give him a proper introduction into that Dept. you will confer a favor on Very truly yours. Warren Ackerman²²

A stamp at the bottom of the letter indicates that it was received at the Office of Building for State, War, & Navy Depts.

Reading this letter, I do not get a sense that Warren is asking for favoritism, but rather for a fair and equal chance to compete for government business. He seems the quiet but earnest businessman that his contemporaries saw. What this letter does reveal is some of the elite company Warren associated with: Marcus Ward, who was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in New Jersey, and served a term as its governor, and later as a Congressman; Abraham Coles, who was, of course, Warren’s brother in law, but also a very prominent physician and writer; and Amzi Dodd, who already had a connection to the recipient of the letter, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, and was also an officer of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company and a prominent lawyer in Newark, New Jersey.

Amzi Dodd is also mentioned as being one of the honorary pall bearers at Warren’s funeral, along with General Plume and Judge De Pue, whom I introduced last month.

WHO WAS WARREN ACKERMAN?

Everything I have found seems to confirm that Warren Ackerman was an influential and determined individual. He seems to have had a strong sense of right and wrong—albeit, as his friend Ripley indicated, perhaps his own sense of right and wrong. He was viewed as having “Christian” values, and guiding his life around the teachings of the Biblical book of Proverbs. When he felt unfairly treated, he would work to change that, as with the letter to Frelinghuysen.

He was tenacious and methodical in his business dealings, and ready to take action to save the businesses he had interests in from disaster. Once he devoted himself to an industry, he was decidedly all in.

But he was apparently not above playing favorites—at least in his will. As noted, he gave special bequests only to his wife and to two of his eleven heirs. All the others had to await the final resolution under the will, which could only take place after Lydia’s death. Perhaps Warren knew his heirs would fight over his estate—in the end, even though Lydia died in 1907, leaving the way open for settling the estate, it was not fully settled until at least 1919, after the sale at auction of the substantial real estate assets. There were various instances of litigation over rights of heirs during those years.

NEXT MONTH

Next month, I will continue this series of profiles of people I consider crucial to the history of the Deserted Village with a look at two of the women whose histories intersect with the Village, Lydia Platt Ackerman, and Anna Molloy Walsh. You have met both of these women at least briefly, but they not only are interesting in their own right, but insofar as they represent the status of women in the late nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth.

Until then!