CHAPTER V

Transportation

BY WILLIAM J. BACKES

I. River Navigation

IT IS obvious that the growth of any community is inextricably bound up with the growth of its means of transportation. Natural waterways, ferries, bridges, roads, canals, railways - all enter as vital factors into the expansion of a community from a village into a modern industrial center. Trenton’s rise among the cities of New Jersey provides but one more proof of this fundamental economic principle.

The great natural highway of commerce and travel in this section is, of course, the Delaware River. When New Jersey and Pennsylvania were unopened territory, wholly in the control of the Indians, the sole means of travel on the river was the canoe. Later came the bateau, a flat-bottomed boat tapering at the ends, in which it was possible to carry heavier and more bulky loads than in light birch-bark canoes. These boats lent themselves to short, quick water hauls, but they were quite ineffective on long trips or in river traffic above the Falls, where the problem of the rapids had to be met.

The Delaware has never especially favored transportation over its course. Between Easton and the head of the tidewater at Trenton there are no less than twenty-five rapids or falls, the head of the rapids at Bixler’s Rift (the first of the rapids) being 160 feet above low tide at Trenton. Those who travelled the river in the 1800’s found it difficult to follow the channel not only above the Falls, but below Trenton as well. From Trenton down, the river was dotted with islands, shoals and mud flats; a detritus deposit of many centuries made the channel a treacherous one.

GREAT FLOODS ON THE DELAWARE

It was due to the presence of this accumulation of silt that the Delaware often froze during the winter and choked the channel with ice, making any sort of navigation impossible. There were, too, the freshets, which now and again swept down the Delaware, leaving ruin in their wake. The earliest recorded freshet at the Falls was the “great land flood and rupture” of May 29, 1687, which brought about the separation of Vurhultsen’s (Delaware Works) Island from the Pennsylvania mainland at Morrisville. Five years later, on February 27, occurred “the great flood at Delaware falls,” which suddenly descended upon the many Indian families settled in the lowland along the Delaware in this section, sweeping men, homes and cattle away. Between 1692 and the terrible river flood of October 10, 1903, there were 43 freshets in the Delaware, the more disastrous ones occurring on January 8, 1841, and June 6, 1862. These freshets - and now we speak of abnormal rises in the river - came at no particular season of the year. At times we find a series of them occurring yearly over a long period. They made river travel a hazardous thing, and swept away many of the boats, wharves, and other river-front property.

EARLY WATER TRAFFIC

Of the larger craft commonly used in river traffic in the eighteenth century, the wind-propelled vessel was probably the first to appear on the Delaware. The first ship to come some distance up the Delaware was the Shield, which brought Mahlon Stacy, Thomas Lambert, Thomas Potts and others from Hull, England, to Burlington, on December 10, 1678. Most of the larger sail-rigged ships followed the example of the Shield and ventured up the river only as far as Burlington, fearing the shallows in the channel beyond. The few that did come up to Trenton were probably of smaller draught.

The shallop and the sloop made the reputation of Lamberton and Bloomsbury (earlier known as Kingsbury) as ports. We find these small sailing vessels on the Delaware in the early days of navigation on that river. The Swedish traveller, Kalm, mentions the “Trenton yachts” in his account of his trip here (1748). The inhabitants of this section, petitioning George II for a corporate charter back in 1746, set out the favorable location of Trenton and stressed the fact that it was at the head of sloop navigation. Located between New York and Philadelphia, at the head of the tide on the Delaware, close to the iron, timber and coal fields of north Jersey, and surrounded by fertile countryside, Trenton enjoyed advantages such as no other small, aspiring town of this section might boast. In the years to come these advantages were to tell heavily in Trenton’s favor and make her one of New Jersey’s greatest industrial and commercial centers.

The popularity of the sloop in river traffic grew with every passing year, and is mirrored in its constantly increasing use. These boats were very common in this section after the Revolution, especially during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. They carried the great bulk of the goods shipped between Trenton and Philadelphia; their activity made the fortune of many a family in Bloomsbury and Lamberton, among them those of General John Beatty, Alexander Chambers and Benjamin Fish.

It was Robert Lettis Hooper who foresaw the success of the river front south of the creek as a center of transportation. Hooper had large land holdings in that section; in 1759 he set them out in lots for a town. His project, planned in view of the contemplated growing river trade, was described as beginning at Trenton Ferry, being the head of navigation

. . . where there is a considerable trade extended from the city of Philadelphia, and great parts of the counties of Hunterdon, Morris, Middlesex, Somerset and Bucks, in Pennsylvania, deliver their produce and rafts of timber, boards, staves, headings, &c., come from 120 miles up the river. 1

1 Pennsylvania Journal, April 31, 1758; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XX, P. 273.

During most of the eighteenth, and for at least three decades of the nineteenth century, then, the sloop practically monopolized the upstream trade between Philadelphia and Trenton. Against the current, the value of the raft, the ark and the Durham boat was almost nil. It was in downstream transportation and, what is more important, in transportation on the upper Delaware along a channel filled with falls and rapids, that these boats proved their worth.

The raft put in an early appearance on the Delaware; in 1764 we find David Skinner navigating the first one over the 200-mile run extending from Cocheton, 40 miles above Port Jervis, to Philadelphia. This raft was made of six 70-foot pine tree logs, strung on poles, or spindles, which passed through holes bored in the ends of the logs. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, Skinner was given the freedom of the city and created “Lord High Admiral of the Delaware.” He sold the six logs of his raft for masts.

Rafts were used almost exclusively in getting timber from upstate and New York State down to the Philadelphia markets. The construction of these craft was simple; logs or timbers were laid side by side and lashed together; sometimes, as in the case of Skinner’s raft, holes were bored through timbers of approximately the same length and a connecting rod slipped through the holes, thus forming a rigid frame. The passage of the raft from the upper reaches of the Delaware down to Trenton was accomplished in swift and easy fashion. The current carried the raft down through the falls and rapids in short order, the raftsmen using their long poles merely to give a proper direction to the craft and to keep it off the rocks. Below Trenton the matter was not so simple; here the current was slower and the raftsmen had to push on their poles in order to hasten matters along. When the destination was reached, the rafts were taken apart and sold. Sometimes there was, also, a supercargo of barrel staves, hogsheads, and the like, but the practice of sending these down the river on rafts was decidedly risky and therefore uncommon.

Inhabitants of this region in the latter part of the eighteenth century and for the first half of the nineteenth were accustomed to the sight of long strings of rafts floating past Trenton on their way downstream. In some strings there were as many as thirty to forty rafts. The raftsmen invariably made an over-night stop in Lamberton, mooring their long files of rafts at the eddy just below the site of the American Bridge Company plant. There were several inns in Lamberton frequented almost exclusively by these rivermen ; of these, the “Red Tavern” (later known as the Delaware Inn and still standing) below Landing Street, and the Raftsman’s Inn, on the site known as “the prairie” south of Cass Street, were the most popular. When the raftsmen rose in the morning to continue their trip downstream, it was a common sight to see the river completely blocked by the rafts which had been moored in it the night before.

Rafting in this region reached its height just before 1845. In the spring of 1828 as many as one thousand rafts, containing fifty million feet of lumber, passed by Trenton. A great percentage of this footage was hemlock. The rafts were usually floated downstream during the four weeks of the spring freshet season and in the autumn. The great problem of the raftsmen was, of course, to avoid the numerous shoals below Trenton and to gain the channel in which the swiftest current flowed. At the height of the rafting era in the ‘40’s, the rafts were usually towed down the river in long strings by the Lenox Towing Company, a firm managed by the Lenoxes of Lamberton who were well known among the river people of that time. The Lenox family also owned a wharf and storehouse just above Lalor Street.

The rapid depletion of the forests on both sides of the upper Delaware, and the growth of railroad transportation facilities, put an end to the practice of rafting lumber to the Philadelphia markets. The raft had been an ingenious device whereby lumber practically transported itself from one place to another, and when the supply of timber waned the raft, too, ceased to be.

Another river conveyance in common use on the Delaware at one time was the so-called “ark.” Like the raft, it was invented to fill a special need - to carry the anthracite coal, which had just been discovered in the Lehigh fields, to the markets on the lower Delaware. The first ark, an experimental affair, was built by William Trumbull in 1806 at Lausanne, Pa. In that year it carried ten tons of coal down the river to Philadelphia, but when it arrived there, it was found that there was hardly any demand for the fuel. A good deal of the cargo was thrown away into the streets.

It was not until 1814 that transportation of coal in arks began in a practical way. The usual ark was a rectangular box, often pointed at one end, and made of heavy pine planks, 16 feet long, 2 feet wide, and half an inch thick, planed to a fair smoothness. Like the raft, it too was guided by means of long oars, or poles, placed at either end. Its dimensions were, roughly, 16 to 18 feet wide and 20 to 25 feet long. The arks, singly or in strings of eight or ten, were guided down the Lehigh and into the Delaware, past Trenton to Philadelphia. It was a common occurrence for two or three arks out of every string to have their bottoms staved in before they had even reached the mouth of the Lehigh. Yet, despite frequent loss of both arks and cargos, coal operators found the ark the most economical way of carrying their coal to market. On arriving at Trenton, or Philadelphia, the coal, ark and all were sold; the coal usually brought two dollars a ton and the ark was thrown into the bargain. Shipments by ark continued until the opening of the Lehigh and Delaware Division Canals in the ‘30’s; after that, coal was shipped in canal boats over the canal route.

THE DURHAM BOATS

The Durham boat, 2 known to history because it figured so largely in Washington’s Christmas Night crossing of the Delaware, was the first of the tide-propelled freight craft to appear on the river. The boat was used by the Durham Iron Company as early as 1727, to transport the product of the Durham forges to Trenton and Philadelphia and to bring back necessary provisions and supplies. The usual Durham boat was flat-bottomed and had vertical sides which ran parallel to each other up to a point 12 or 14 feet from the end, where they began to taper. It was constructed of sturdy inch-and-a-quarter oak planks, and measured 60 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 42 inches deep. Its draft was 3 1/2 inches when light and 28 inches loaded; it could carry 150 barrels of flour or 600 bushels of corn. Downstream it was possible to load it with as much as 17 tons, but 2 tons was the limit upstream. It took three men to direct its progress. In going downstream they made every use of the current and employed their 12- to 18-foot “setting-poles,” shod with iron, merely for steering. Going upstream, the poles were used for propelling the boat, the men walking back and forth on “walking boards” built on the sides of the Durham boat, the better to gain a maximum effect from the application of their strength at the ends of the poles.

2 John A. Anderson, Navigation on the Upper Delaware, p. 16.

The Durham boat was used extensively in carrying flour, whiskey, meat and iron products from Trenton and points north along the river to the markets lower down on the Delaware. The men who guided the heavy boats downstream made Trenton, or more specifically, Lamberton, their main stopping place.

WHARVES AND WAREHOUSES

The wharves and warehouses used in local transportation were located almost exclusively in Bloomsbury and Lamberton. References to them are so few that one cannot hope to reconstruct the scene of a century ago with any degree of completeness. The more ancient landings were situated in Lamberton.

Of the first two wharves to be built in Bloomsbury, one was located about 400 feet south of the lower bridge site and the other on the site of the municipal terminals at the foot of Ferry Street. The first-mentioned landing was built in 1803 by Alexander Chambers, to whom the historian, Hall, refers as the first man to establish Bloomsbury as a port for sloops. 3 Chambers owned and operated several sloops on the route between Trenton and Philadelphia. The wharf near the foot of Ferry Street seems to have been the “steamboat landing” referred to in many advertisements of the time. It was probably built about 1809, to accommodate the steamboat Phoenix.

3 Hall, History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. (rev. ed.), p. 96.

Adjoining the steamboat wharf and running north for 200 feet along the river front and for the same distance on Bloomsbury Street in the rear, was a lot owned by J. R. Smith and E. Evans, on which there was a wharf. It was probably built after the steamboat wharf was erected. In 1833 it was owned by Smith alone. To the north of it was the wharf owned by Benjamin Fish, who was a prominent figure in river transportation in the early decades of the last century. To this landing came his three sloops. His warehouse was located in the rear of the wharf, on the lot next to the southwest corner of what was Ferry and Fair (now Bloomsbury) Streets. Fish kept a store near his wharf where he took orders for the stove coal which the arks brought to his wharf direct from the Lehigh fields. This store, with its goods and groceries, was offered for sale in 1823. 4 Abraham Mershon also had a landing in this section, a few hundred feet north of the Trenton Ferry landing at the foot of Ferry Street. There were other landings nearby, but their owners and the years of their erection are unknown.

4 Federalist, June 16, 1823.

The first mention of a wharf in Lamberton is found in an advertisement 5 published in 1764. There was a storehouse attached to the landing. William Richards had a landing in Lamberton near the foot of Landing Street during the Revolution; from it ran his schooner, the Lamberton Packet, which carried passengers and goods to and from Philadelphia. 6 Very early in the 1800’s Philip H. Howell built a wharf in Lamberton near the steamboat landing. The wharf, along with his lumberyard, house and stores, was advertised to let in 1819. 7 Howell’s warehouse was opposite Benjamin Fish’s storehouse on Fair Street. Several other wharves existed below the steamboat landing. Among them may be noted the two docks at the foot of Lalor Street, one immediately below the line of the street and the other just to the north of it. There was a wharf situated on the river bank several hundred yards above the latter landing. At one time it belonged to the Lenox family of Lamberton, along with a warehouse of fair size. Both wharf and warehouse were destroyed in the ice freshet of 1852. Recent excavations have unearthed evidences of old warehouses and docks below Lalor Street, but who owned them is unknown. Elijah Bond had a small landing on his tract below the present site of Riverview cemetery, in the middle of the eighteenth century.

5 The Pennsylvania Journal, May 10, 1764; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, p. 361.

6 New Jersey Gazette, September 9, 1778; New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. II, p. 414.

7 Federalist, January 19, 1818.

The only record of a wharf north of the Falls is that referring to the one owned and operated by John Rutherford, the owner of Beatty’s ferry, of which further mention will soon be made. In an advertisement appearing in 1806, 8 Rutherford speaks of his large wharf as the only one above Trenton Falls for the Easton and Durham boats trading there. In an earlier day there were wharves in Little River, the stream which flowed between Gravel Island and the mainland. They were situated along the present-day Mahlon Stacy Wall, back of the State House.

8 ibid., September 29, 1806.

STEAM NAVIGATION

The eighteenth century, then, depended on the tide, the wind, and human energy to move its boats. The century was almost done when John Fitch came along with the first practical application of steam to the moving of a vessel. Fitch’s invention preceded Fulton’s Clermont by a round score of years. It is not until recently that he has received due credit for the part he played in the invention of the steamboat.

Fitch was born in what is now South Windsor, Conn., on January 21, 1743 (O.S.). As a boy he was apprenticed to a watchmaker; from this he turned to following the sea, but it, too, failed to hold him for long. Back home, he stumbled into an unfortunate marriage, and this, coupled with his father’s tyranny, drove him into leaving Connecticut forever. Fitch wandered down to Trenton in 1769, and was taken in as an apprentice by Matthew Clunn, a tinsmith and maker of brass buttons. This was in May. During the summer he worked under James Wilson at silversmithing, but in September he took to peddling brass and silver buttons around the neighboring countryside. As a member of the Continental army during the early years of the Revolution, Fitch managed a gun shop here in which he employed as many as 60 men in turning out work for the New Jersey troops. When the British came into this section, Fitch, along with many Trentonians, crossed the river into Bucks County. In 1780, and in the three or four years following, he made several trips into the territory now known as Kentucky; on one of these excursions he was captured by the Indians, turned over to the British, taken to Canada, and finally sent back to New York in an exchange of prisoners.

It was after his return home to Bucks County that he conceived the idea of applying steam to navigation. The date is usually indicated as April 1785. By August he was exhibiting his first boat - a small, crude affair, propelled by paddle wheels run by a tiny engine - to the provosts of the University of Pennsylvania and to the authorities at Princeton College. Later in the month he petitioned Congress for aid in completing his invention, “adapted especially for the waters of the Mississippi,” but the application was never reported out of committee.

JOHN FITCH’S STEAMBOAT

In September Fitch rigged up another model, fitted with long paddles on either side, moving on two endless chains running from stem to stern. Several weeks later he petitioned the Virginia Legislature for assistance, and then the Pennsylvania and Maryland Legislatures. None gave him aid. Perhaps the most bitter disappointment experienced by Fitch at this time came at the hands of Benjamin Franklin, the dean of American science, or natural philosophy, as it was then called. Most of the evidence comes from Fitch. He writes that he approached Benjamin Franklin for a certificate testifying to the merits of his invention, and though Franklin praised his endeavor, he evaded giving him a certificate. Instead, he made Fitch an offer of charity, which Fitch refused. In this connection, it is interesting to note a letter written by Franklin from Philadelphia in 1788:

We have no philosophical news here at present, except that a boat, moved by a steam-engine, rows itself against tide in our river, and it is apprehended that the construction may be so simplified and improved as to be generally useful.

Franklin, it would seem then, was impressed with the possibility of Fitch’s invention, but not with the crude plan which he presented to him. There were refinements to be made, plans to be modified, before he could testify to the practical and efficient qualities of the boat.

It was shortly after this meeting with Franklin that the New Jersey Legislature granted Fitch the exclusive franchise for 14 years

. . . of constructing, making, using and employing, or navigating, all and every species or kind of boats, or water craft, which might be urged or impelled by force of fire or steam, in all the creeks, rivers, etc., within the territory of this State.

Stacy Potts, Isaac Smith, Robert Pearson, Jr., Samuel Tucker, Abraham Hunt, Rensselaer Williams, John and Charles Clunn, and others of Trenton, lent their names to the petition for the franchise.

With this encouragement, Fitch went about the organizing of a company. Stacy Potts was among those who subscribed to the initial fund of $300. The builder of the boat, Henry Voight, of Philadelphia, received stock of the company for his work. The boat was a small one, with an engine possessing a single cylinder of 3-inch bore. The first trials on the Delaware, held July 20, 1786, were unsuccessful. Fitch had experimented with several methods of propelling the boat; the plan that succeeded was that in which the side paddles were moved by cranks worked by an engine. The first boat in America to be propelled successfully by steam moved on the Delaware on July 27, 1786. It was an enthusiastic Fitch who wrote to Stacy Potts from Philadelphia the next day. “We have tried every part, and reduced it to as certain a thing as can be, that we shall not come short of ten miles per hour, if not twelve or fourteen. I will say fourteen in theory and twelve in practice.” Fitch’s fond belief never materialized, even in the most efficient of his models. His first successful boat made several trips on the river near Philadelphia in the autumn of 1786.

JOHN FITCH'S STEAMBOAT

In need of further funds, Fitch applied to the Pennsylvania Legislature the same year, but he was unsuccessful. Delaware, however, confirmed his right to his invention. In February 1787, Fitch’s shareholders agreed to advance additional capital for the building of a 45-foot vessel; equipped with an engine containing a single 12-inch cylinder. Lacking skilled workmen, Fitch had to depend upon fumbling blacksmiths in the manufacture of this new engine. Their faulty work was the cause of many accidents and delays. Finally the boat moved on the river in full view of practically the entire Continental Convention (August 22, 1787). Fitch thought it an appropriate time for once again petitioning the Continental Congress for aid; this time the bill was reported out of committee, but died on the floor of the House.

The new boat traversed the Philadelphia-Burlington route for the first time in July 1788. At the end of the run, the boiler burst and the ship had to be floated back to Philadelphia. A new boiler was installed and on October 16 Fitch ran his steamboat, on which were a company of prominent guests, up the Delaware to Burlington, and then on to Trenton, returning to Philadelphia the same day.

In order to cut down the time on the Philadelphia-Trenton run to five hours, an auxiliary company was formed to finance the building of a new 18-inch cylinder engine. During 1789 the boat made several trips to Burlington and Trenton, but regular service could not be maintained because of the unreliable machinery. This steamboat was the last of Fitch’s boats and the most successful one. It made its last trips on the Delaware in 1790. An advertisement which appeared on June 14 of that year informed the public that:

The Steam Boat Is now ready to take Passengers, and is intended to set off from Arch Street Ferry in Philadelphia every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for Burlington and Trenton, to return on Tuesdays, Thursdays and .Saturdays. - Price for Passengers, 2/6 to Burlington and Bristol, 3/9 to Bordentown, 5/ to Trenton.

This craft was the first steam vessel anywhere to be employed in the business of transporting passengers and freight. The boat made more or less regular trips up and down the river during the summer and fall of 1790. Those who travelled on it placed its speed at eight miles an hour. 9

9 Watson’s Annals, Vol. II, p. 446.

Congress granted Fitch letters patent on his invention in April 1791. When Fitch visited France, Louis XVI granted him a patent, but the French Revolution put an end to whatever use Fitch might have intended to make of this right. Fitch’s plans, left behind in France, are commonly supposed to have furnished Fulton with ideas for his successful Clermont.

Tired and embittered, Fitch withdrew from a world that had shown him little kindness. He settled on his tract at Bardstown, Ky. There he died on July 2, 1798, the circumstances of his death pointing to suicide. His grave was soon forgotten, but in recent years the John Fitch Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution found it again and removed Fitch’s ashes to a new grave in front of the Bardstown Court House. The grave is marked with a monument. Fitch’s genius is also commemorated by a bronze tablet in the Hartford, Conn., capitol building. John Fitch Way and the John Fitch memorial boulder and tablet are Trenton’s tribute to the inventor. John Fitch Way runs from the municipal wharf along the river front as far as Assunpink Creek. It was formerly Commercial Avenue, but the name was changed by an ordinance passed early in 1921. The Fitch boulder was dredged from the river and set up at the lower end of John Fitch Way, near the municipal wharf. After an appropriate bronze tablet had been attached, it was dedicated on November 30, 1921.

OTHER EARLY STEAMBOATS

The work of Fitch and Rumsey and Fulton paved the way for the practical use of steam in river transportation. In 1809 we find a steamboat leaving Beatty’s wharf in Bloomsbury for Philadelphia, 10 every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and returning from that place the next day. 11 This steamboat was the famous Phoenix, built by John Stevens at Hoboken in 1808 for travel on New York waters. Fulton obtained an injunction against Stevens on the ground that his project would trespass upon Fulton’s exclusive right to the use of the waters of New York State. Stevens thereupon sent the Phoenix from Hoboken down to Philadelphia under her own steam in 1808. A storm came up, the pilot boat became separated from the steamboat, and the Phoenix, long overdue at Philadelphia, was given up for lost. The Phoenix, however, rode out the storm and ended up in Barnegat Bay, from which place she proceeded on to Philadelphia. She was the first steamboat ever to travel upon any ocean.

10 Federalist, August 7, 1809.

11 ibid., May 11, 1812.

The Phoenix belonged to the Swiftsure Line and was in the command of Captain Degraw. Her running time between here and Philadelphia was three hours running with the stream and five hours against it. The Phoenix was on this route until 1821, when she grounded on the mud flats at Kensington.

The presence of steamboats on the Delaware did not affect the extensive sloop trade to any marked degree at first. It was not until a decade later - about 1820 - that their competition began to tell. In 1810 the sloop Factor set out regularly from its Bloomsbury landing every Monday during the milder season, and returned from Philadelphia on Thursdays. 12 Captain McKean was in charge. The sloop Traveller, too, maintained a regular packet service weekly on the same route. 13 Like the Factor, it carried both freight and .passengers. Its wharf was the “upper Bloomsbury landing,” which Alexander Chambers had built back in 1803. This landing was also known as Beatty’s landing and Bloomsbury landing, and was the most important landing in Bloomsbury. In 1812 we find the sloop Try-All, under the command of Captain Johnston, maintaining a regular packet service to Philadelphia. This sloop had once been owned by Alexander Chambers and General Beatty, 14 but the partnership was dissolved in 1812 and Chambers became sole owner. Chambers’ assignees advertised his landing, the Try-All, his storehouse and lot of ground along the Delaware, for sale in 1817. 15

12 Federalist, May 10, 1810.

13 ibid., July 8, 1812.

14 ibid., March 9, 1812.

15 ibid., September 15, 1817.

The Trenton sloops played an important part in rendering the British blockade at New York and Philadelphia during the War of 1812 for nought. These sloops transported all sorts of military supplies from Philadelphia to Trenton, where they were loaded on wagons and taken to New Brunswick, there to be carried forward to New York.

From 1810 to 1820 there were several steamboats on the Delaware between Philadelphia and Bordentown, among them the Philadelphia. This boat was in the command of Captain Jenkins of the Union Line, and it travelled the Philadelphia-Bristol route. Stages met the boat at the latter place and carried the passengers forward to Trenton and New Brunswick. Boats stopping at Burlington or Bordentown were also met by stages at these places. Nathaniel Shuff of Bloomsbury was the proprietor of one of these stage lines. His stage carried the passengers to Trenton and points as far beyond as New York. 16

16 ibid., August 6, 1810.

The Philadelphia was also known as Old Sal, probably because of the grotesque female figurehead which she carried on her bow. In 1815 we find her on the Trenton route, running from Philadelphia every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8 a.m. and returning to Trenton on the next day. 17 The Philadelphia was on the Trenton route as early as 1814 and continued to make regular trips during the late spring, summer and autumn seasons until at least 1825. 18

17 ibid., April 17, 1815.

18 ibid., August 9, 1824.

AN ERA OF KEEN RIVALRY

With the ‘20’s a keen rivalry arose between the steamboat lines on the river, particularly between the Union Line and the Citizens’ Line. In the decade before, the Citizens’ Line had built the New York for service on the lower Delaware. The Union Line countered with the New Philadelphia, which it put on the same route in 1815. The next move of the Citizens’ Line was to build the Pennsylvania, about 1825, which ran from Philadelphia to Bordentown. The Union Line answered the challenge with the Trenton, running between Philadelphia and Trenton.

James A. Stevens, owner of the Philadelphia, did not permit this competition to pass unnoticed; he put the Franklin into the Trenton-Philadelphia service and lowered the fare to one dollar each way. 19 The next year another firm put the Congress on the same route, making trips daily, except on Sundays. Carriages met the boat at the Bloomsbury wharf and carried the passengers up to the Trenton hotels gratis. This service was imitated by all the boats - the Stevens-owned Philadelphia and Franklin, and the Trenton of the Union Line. Philadelphia-bound passengers were called for at their hotels on the morning of their departure and carried to the wharves free of charge. The Union Line stages were especially efficient in this service; those wishing to be carried to the Trenton or the Baltimore (which was put into service in 1827) on the morrow had but to leave their names at Joseph Bispham’s Trenton House, or at Aaron O. Shuff’s Steamboat Hotel near the wharf in Bloomsbury, or at the Union Line office proper, which was located opposite the Trenton House on Warren Street, several doors below the Rising Sun Hotel. 20 In the period when competition was great (1825-30) the Union Line hacks called for the passengers at their homes and hotels, but in 1832, when the line was having things pretty much its own way on the river, the stages went direct from the Union Line office to the wharf, taking up only such passengers as presented themselves at the office. 21

19 ibid., August 9, 1824.

20 ibid., March 19, 1827.

21 New Jersey Gazette, October 20, 1832.

The Union Line Company, of which Benjamin Fish was the president, also carried passengers in its stages between the steamboat landing and Princeton, New Brunswick and New York, at fixed rates. A. P. Atkinson was the Trenton agent for the Union Line coaches. After the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company was incorporated, the various lines on the river, including the Union, Citizens’ and Dispatch, were merged into the larger company. This company took over the Union Line Company’s stages and Trenton hack service. Many of the sloop lines also found their way into the hands of this corporation.

Before this huge merging process took place there were a few changes in the list of river steamers. In 1827 came the Union Line Baltimore, 22 mentioned above, and this was displaced in a few months by the steamer Burlington. 23 The Union Line added the Marco Bozzaris to its Philadelphia-Trenton route in 1828, 24 and in 1832 the line put the Robert Morris into the same service. 25 The Emerald, owned by the Dispatch Line, which had the backing of Cornelius Vanderbilt, is supposed to have been in the Trenton service at this time, but there is no corroborating record.

22 Federalist, March 19, 1827.

23 ibid., July 2, 1827.

24 ibid., August 11, 1828.

25 New Jersey Gazette, October 20, 1832.

In May 1841 the Major Barnet, a 110-foot boat, licensed to carry passengers, came to Trenton. Its owners intended it for the transportation of passengers and goods between Lambertville and Easton. The problem, of course, was to run the steamboat through the falls. Several unsuccessful attempts were made in the summer of 1841, but it was not until November that the Major Barnet achieved the upper Delaware. John H. Morris, a riverman, found the 22 inches of water necessary for navigating the boat, and steered it up through Trenton Falls to the foot of Wells Falls without difficulty. At Wells Falls it was necessary to use full steam, two men with poles, and men tugging at a rope which had been fastened to the rocks at the entrance to the falls, before the boat got through. It took the Major Barnet ten minutes to travel 110 feet, but it was done, and the boat was the first steamboat on the upper Delaware. She was active in the Easton trade, but the railroad put her out of business. 26

26 Trenton Times-Advertiser, March 28, 1909.

In 1840 the Hornet appeared on the Delaware and plied between Trenton and Philadelphia. The fare was 25c and persons leaving their name at the Rising Sun Hotel the night before would be called for by the omnibus the next morning. Abner Mershon’s Proprietor was on the same route in 1843, but ran only a short time. On May 7, 1849, the Edwin Forrest made her first trip to Trenton. She ran daily except in winter between Trenton and Philadelphia for many years, being obliged to regulate her departure by the tide because of the shoals at Perriwig Island below. Her wharf was in the rear of Bloomsbury House. The boat was owned by Joseph and Benjamin McMackin.

As a matter of fact there were two Edwin Forrests, the first one a wooden steam-boat and the second, which began to run in 1865, being of iron construction. The second one carried great quantities of freight and was well patronized by passengers, making the river trip for business or pleasure. Captain Joseph H. McIntyre succeeded Captain Benjamin McMackin and was on the bridge up to the time she was retired in 1895. Considering that there was an Edwin Forrest in service for forty-seven years, it is not surprising that many local memories are enshrined about the name.

All freight brought to Trenton by the sloops and steamboats during the first half of the century was transferred to heavy wagons and hauled to New Brunswick, where it was placed on ships to be carried to New York. Some of the goods were kept, for the time being, in the many warehouses along the river.

The steamboats which covered the Trenton-Philadelphia route in a later day included the Twilight, City of Trenton (which finally blew up because of a boiler explosion), Pokonoket, Burlington, Columbia and John A. Warner. During the 1910 decade, the Trenton Transportation Company operated the Queen Anne and the Dolphin. The landing for these boats was just below Lalor Street, and adjoining it was a warehouse.

TRENTON AS A PORT OF ENTRY

Trenton was created a port of entry by an Act of Congress, just before the Civil War. The official name was “Port of Trenton, District of Burlington,” and a Collector of Customs was appointed whose duty it was to register all vessels plying the Delaware River or the Delaware and Raritan Canal, between Trenton and Philadelphia. He also had to certify shipments of merchandise bought in foreign ports, and the license papers of every ship operating over the route just mentioned. Those who held the office of Collector of Customs were Captain Harry Ashmore, William Ashmore and Captain John A. Wilson. The office was later transferred to Camden and Philadelphia.

The ever-present obstacle to Trenton’s becoming a large port was the lack of a channel of sufficient depth to insure the safety of vessels venturing up the river from Philadelphia. The present mayor of Trenton, Frederick W. Donnelly, has been largely instrumental in bringing about the necessary deepening of the channel.

DEEPENING THE CHANNEL

There had been previous attempts to have the Delaware cleared. By Act of General Assembly, passed December 21, 1771, a commission was appointed to receive subscriptions for clearing the river above Trenton Falls as far as Easton. The commissioners had power to clear, open, enlarge, straighten or deepen the river. The work was subcontracted out, Major Robert Hoops actually doing the work near Trenton Falls and completing the task in 1791.

It was in the period immediately preceding the coming of the railroad that a real interest was manifested in improving the Delaware. In 1811 the inhabitants of Burlington and Hunterdon petitioned the Legislature relative to removing the sandbar on Perriwig Island. The committee of the House was averse both to recommending a grant from the Treasury for financing the work or permitting a lottery to be raised locally. It did, however, recommend that the petitioners be allowed to present a bill which would authorize them to go upon Perriwig Island and remove the obstruction themselves. Nothing, however, was done in the matter.

On November 13, 1809, the Legislature had passed an Act authorizing the building of a lock in the river at Trenton, for the improvement of navigation. The purpose of this lock is indicated by the text of a like Act, passed February 9, 1815, authorizing Daniel W. Coxe, Samuel Wright, Jr., and Peter T. Smith to build a wing dam in the river opposite Market Street, “to have a lock in the same, where it crossed that part of the river on the east side of Yard’s Island, of such size and dimensions that Durham boats of the largest size and other craft may pass up and through the same with ease and safety; the lock to be not less than twenty feet wide.”

The work of deepening the channel from Philadelphia to Trenton was not started until the present century. On June 25, 1910, the federal government adopted the project for a channel 12 feet deep at mean low water, and 200 feet wide, from Alleghany Avenue, Philadelphia, to Lalor Street, Trenton, and for the construction of dikes at Biles Island, Bordentown, and Mud Island. The work was completed, except for the Mud Island dike, in 1913, at the cost of $311,000. Annual maintenance was estimated at $20,000. The greatest amount of dredging by far was done in the channel between Trenton and Bordentown.

The project for deepening the channel above Lalor Street as far as the railroad bridge was adopted by the federal government on July 25, 1912. The plan called for a 12-foot channel, 200 feet wide, and a turning basin at the site of the municipal wharf, 300 feet wide and 400 feet long. By the River and Harbor Act of June 5, 1920, Congress combined this project and the one of 1910 into a single project. Work on the municipal dock was begun May 6, 1915; the upper section of the united project, including the excavation of approximately 20,000 cubic yards of rock, was completed August 1921. The estimated cost of the entire improvement is $825,000, with an estimated cost of maintenance of $25,000 annually. The wharves, warehouse shed and other property at the municipal wharf alone cost $280,000, while the additional land for John Fitch Way and contemplated future developments brought the total up to $365,000.

The 12-foot channel has made Trenton an important commercial center, since it enables larger ships to come all the way up the river. The improvement of the channel, however, will continue. The River and Harbor Act of March 3, 1925, adopted a new project providing for an increased channel depth of 20 feet at mean low water between Philadelphia and the Trenton municipal wharf, having a width of 200 to 300 feet. The esti­mated cost will be $1,326,000. This project is being urged by the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, which was organized in Philadelphia in 1907 and whose main object is the creation of an intra-coastal canal, extending from New England to Florida. In 1928, vessels could navigate inland from Trenton to Beaufort, N.C., over a 12-foot channel. A waterway across New Jersey from Morgan, on Raritan Bay, to the Delaware River just above Bordentown will complete the inland chain from Boston to Beaufort. Further mention of this waterway will be made under the discussion of canals.

At present the Philadelphia-Trenton-Norfolk Steamboat Company is operating barges and tugs for carrying freight, as well as the passenger boat William Penn which runs during the summer, over the 12-foot channel. Sea-going barges of 1000-ton capacity frequently find their way up to Trenton.

The municipal wharf and warehouses were dedicated on May 11, 1919. The dock is 200 feet wide and extends inshore 250 feet. The steel warehouse shed, whose flat roof is used as a recreation center in the summer-time, is located at the upper end of the dock and measures 115 feet by 195 feet.

II. Roads and Highways

AT THE time that the Shield came up the Delaware, there were no roads in this vicinity. Only paths led from one Indian settlement to another. The path beginning at “Inian’s Ferry” on the Raritan and leading to the “Falls of the Delaware” was the forerunner of the New Brunswick-Trenton road. This path is supposed to have been opened by the Dutch early in the seventeenth century. When William Edmundson, travelling minister of the Society of Friends, traversed this route in 1675 on his way southward, he found only a narrow path leading to the Falls. Of his trip he wrote:

We travelled that Day, and saw no tame creature, at Night we kindled a fire in the Wilderness and lay by it, as we used to do in such Journies; next day, about nine in the Morning, by the good Hand of God, we came well by the Falls. 27

27 A Journal of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, etc., of William Edmundson, 2nd ed., p. 107.

About seventy years later (1748), Kalm, the Swedish traveller, was to say of the same route:

On the road from Trenton to Brunswick I never saw any place in America, the towns excepted, so well peopled.

The book of minutes of the Supreme Court (1681-1709) provides us with interesting notes on the growth of the system of roads in this vicinity. The first overseers of highways in the first tenth were appointed May 22, 1683, and were John Woolston and John Shinn. February 20, 1690, saw the choosing of an overseer for the highways of Nottingham Township for the first time. John Lambert was the first overseer for Nottingham. The duties of this office must have increased by reason of the laying out of more roads, for in February 1692-93, two overseers were appointed to attend the roads in that township.

THE BURLINGTON ROAD

The grand jury of Burlington “presented” that County for not laying out and taking care of a lawful highway “where they are wanted - to ye ffalls,” in May 1692. Here is the earliest mention of a road leading from Trenton to Burlington. In 1693, the court ordered Nottingham and Chesterfield to lay out a road to East Jersey. Where this road was, or whether it was ever laid out, is unknown.

At the February 1696-97 sessions of the Burlington County Court, Maidenhead Township was formed from that part of Nottingham Township lying north of the Assunpink. The next year the court ordered the constable of Maidenhead to call “twelve sufficient men” to lay out the King’s Highway from a point on the Province line to the Assunpink. This minute in the court book is the first mention one finds of the path from “Inian’s Ferry” to the Falls being designated as the King’s Highway. The route of the present Lincoln Highway follows, approximately, that of the old King’s Highway, which ran down to the Assunpink along the present line of Broad Street. The constable returned the following description of the highway:

Beginning on ye sd line at Yorke old Roade at ye Corner of Joseph Worth’s land, thence to ye eight mile Runne thence through Jonathan Daviss his land Improved & Inclosed, thence over ye six mile Runn through Theophilus Philips land, thence over several mens lands and over Thomas Smiths land to ye five mile Runne thence over Mahlon Stacys land to Assanpink Creeke neare ye mill of Mahlon Stacy.

THE MAIDENHEAD ROAD

Dissatisfaction was widespread in Maidenhead in 1698 because of the existence of two roads running from the town down to the Assunpink. Accordingly, a precept was directed by the court to the constable to call the inhabitants together and put the matter to a vote, so that the “Road which shall be pitcht upon & approved of by the majority of votes shall be the Establisht road.” Maidenhead Road, as it existed in 1699, is given by the following abstract to be found in the Supreme Court minutes:

Begins at the partition line; by marked trees to 8 mile run; to a white oak in land of Johannes Lawrence; by marked trees to a white oak before Ralph Hunts door by the run; by marked trees to bridge over 6 mile run to Robt Lannings Land; thence direct through Wm Acres land and Jasper Smiths land and Thos Smiths land to 5 mile run to a hiceree tree; by Samuell Mathews and Saml Stacy to Shabakunck Bridge; thence through Mahlon Stacy to mill as trees direct.

Mention is again made of the road leading from Burlington to the Assunpink in the Supreme Court minutes under date of the 19th of the twelfth month (February), 1702. On that day the inhabitants of Nottingham presented the following petition to the justices sitting at Burlington:

Whereas there has been for more than twenty years past a Highway Leading from the ffalls towards Burlington over Croswick Creeke through the plantation now of Samll Overton which Much Shortens the journey as well as for the Convenancy of Travelers as also for ye Inhabitants of the township of Nottingham and Whereupon the Inhabitants at their Last towne meeting Were Unanimously Concenting and did there all Concent and agree (Excepting the said Samll Overton) that the same should be so Continued and remaine as a free Bridle Stye and way for travelers and therefore humbly prays the Concurrence of the Court in Confirmation of the same. –

Signed in Behalfe of the Town p. Willm Emley Clerk. Whereupon the Court Orders that it shall continue a Bridle Way.

The description of the Burlington Road as a “Bridle Way” incidentally indicates what most of the “roads” of that time actually were, - paths wide enough to permit of the passage of a man on horseback or a packhorse. These “roads” continued to be nothing more than bridle ways until 1716, when the Assembly passed an Act for the “Further establishment of Fees, and Ferriages.” It was not until almost 1800 that they were to become two-, four- and six-rod-wide roads.

The abstract set out above shows that the Burlington “Bridle Way” had existed as far back as 1682. In 1700, then, but two land routes of any importance existed in this section: the King’s Highway and the path leading to Burlington. The King’s Highway was variously known as the Old Yorke Road and the road to Maidenhead. The road to Burlington was sometimes referred to as the road to Crosswicks.

THE PENNINGTON ROAD

The proprietors, in order to encourage the building of roads throughout the Province, had been very liberal in their concessions. Thus, in 1676 the West Jersey proprietors agreed that:

We do also grant convenient Portions of Land for Highways, and for Streets, not under one Hundred Foot in Breadth, in Cities, Towns and Villages.

And for Wharfs, Keys, Harbours, and for publicly Houses in such Places as the Commissioners for the Times being . . . shall appoint, and that all such Lands . . . shall be free and exempt from all Rents, Taxes and other Charges.

It will be noted that the proprietors were especially interested in having wider roads built than those in existence at the time.

In 1681the General Assembly, in order to promote the building of roads and overcome the resistance shown by landowners through whose lands the roads were laid, directed that “reasonable satisfaction” be given “at the Discretion of the Commissioners” for land taken up for use as public highways. This is the first example of a law, directing that compensation be given for the taking of private property for public use, in the legal history of New Jersey. In 1683 it was enacted that all highways laid out in the Province of West Jersey should be maintained by “the respective Tenth’s, wherein the same lye . . . .” In May of the following year, the General Assembly appointed Joshua Weight, Thomas Lambert, Percifall Towle, Godfrey Hancock, Elias Farre and John Woolston, commissioners for the laying out of highways in the first tenth. In March 1713-14, the Assembly provided that no action for waste would lie against those who cut and carried away timber standing within the limits of the highways of the Province, if it were used for making or repairing bridges and highways.

By 1750, apparently, the King’s Highway had become a frequently travelled route. In 1745, John Dalley, a surveyor of Kingston, advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette that he had just made a survey of the road leading “from Trenton to Amboy and set up durable markers every two miles and at each branching road.” 28 As we shall see later, a stage had been running from Trenton to Philadelphia twice a week since 1737. The road must have become substantially wider and smoother to allow of this sort of travel, although there was still room for a great deal of improvement.

28 Pennsylvania Gazette, September 12, 1745; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XII, p. 273.

Our attention is narrowed down to the roads immediately in and around Trenton by the Minute Book of the Township of Trenton, containing the minutes of the annual meetings of the inhabitants f rom 1755 to 1816. At the first meeting, held March 11, 1755, the overseers of roads mentioned are: Alexander Chambers, “Overseer of ye roads”; Benjamin Hart, for “Rodger road”; John Burrows, for the “upper part of the Middle Road beginning a corner stone by David Howells & from thence up to ye Line of Hopewell.” In 1756, a new office of overseer was created, John Howell being chosen overseer for the “River Road” at the annual meeting held March 9. At that time we find that “The Town of Trenton agrees to take the river Road as far as Joseph Warrill, esq’s Gate before his doore of ye same to keep in repaire.” The minutes of the annual meeting held March 8, 1757, mention a different classification of overseers: “Richd Green & Joseph Green, overseers of Rodgers roads; John Chambers for Trenton Roads; Benjn Green for ye upper Roads.”

At this point in the minutes we find a “Retorn of Penny-town or Hopewell Road,” made back in 1741. It is interesting because in it we find the first written mention of Penny-town (Pennington) Road.

To all whome these may come, know yee that whereas, there was a proper application made unto us the Subscribers, Surveyors for ye Counties of Hunterdon & Burlington, to alter & Regulate ye Roads commonly known by ye Name of ye Middle or Rodgers Road, by Severall of ye Inhabitants of ye said Road, Rendering for reasons as followeth (viz.) that there is a retorn found of Late of said Road, wch said Retorn is dated in ye year 1700, wch is so long Since, that many of ye Inhabitants would be much prejudist at this time, by the former Retorn. And wee therefore, by vertue of a Law of the province to us Commited & in Such Case made & provided, Do disanull all former Retorns heretofore made weither they are Reccorded or not, for as much of ye abovesd Road, as followeth, from ye Lane wch Leads from said Road to Joseph Yard’s mill to York road wch leads through Maidenhead to Trenton, to all intents & porposes as though there never had been a Retorn made, And wee do Lay out that Road as folllweth (viz.) four Rods wide Beginning at ye End of the Lane abovesd & from thence by ye Severall Courses as ye Road now goes by custom or any other wise, till it comes to Land between Rober Laning & Joseph Greens then on ye Line between ye said Laning & Green as far as the sd Laning’s Land exstends & from thence by ye Severall courses as it now goes to the abovesade York Road, commonly known by ye Name of Maidenhead Road & along ye said Maidenhead road by ye East side of Joseph Higbey’s and Benjamen Smiths down to ye Line of Division between hunterdon & Burlington given under our hands this twenty Eight day of December & in ye year of our Lord Seventeen hundred and fourty one. 1741.

This document also reveals the highly important information that the Pennington-Hopewell Road was then known as “ye Middle or Rodgers Road” in its several parts. It also definitely identifies the York Road as Maidenhead Road, the highway leading from Trenton to Lawrenceville (once Maidenhead). Middle Road, as we shall see, is the present-day Scotch Road, and Rodgers Road was soon to be known as Pennington Road.

The commissioners for the laying out and altering of roads for Hunterdon County laid out a road from Samuel Henry’s grist mills to Maidenhead Road in May 1758. The description in the township minutes reads:

We do agree the Begining of ye said Road at the end of ye said Henry’s Ditch, thence to run a Four Rod road on ye Line between ye said Henry & Moore Forman to a Stake from thence on a Straight Line Between Peter Hankinson & Wm Eley to Maidenhead Road ....

The present line of Mulberry Street approximately follows the line of this road. A survey made in 1774 established the course now followed almost exactly by that street.

THE SCOTCH OR “MIDDLE” ROAD

The minutes of the annual township meeting, held March 10, 1761, mention that Benjamin Green was chosen overseer “for ye Scotch or Middle Road.” This is the first mention we find in the records of Scotch Road. In 1767 the minutes revert to the use of the old name of “Middle Road,” but in later annual meetings, the name is definitely dropped for “Scotch Road.” In the 1761 minutes one also finds the item that “Whereas there is a Road laid out to Samll Henry’s Mill, it is therefore agreed by said town that the overseer of ye Roads have power to warn any of the Inhabitants of said township to work on said road.” The roads in and about Trenton at this time were invariably repaired by the inhabitants, upon whom the overseers could call to contribute their share of manual labor to the completion of the task. The period when hired workers kept the roads in condition and were paid out of the money raised by taxes was still, in those days, a thing of the future.

“Shabicunk Road” is first mentioned in the township minutes of March 13, 1764. The road ran approximately along the route now followed by Prospect Street and continued north by east in the same line, across Shabakunk Creek.

Travel along the main highways during Colonial days was, at best, a very slow and uncomfortable experience. The roads were far from level, full of mire holes, rocks, stumps and pools of water. The bridges were not always in good repair; the roads wound this way and that, without any guide posts whatsoever to direct the traveller except in those cases where private enterprise had set up direction-posts and milestones. Private coaches rarely traversed the King’s Highway leading northeast out of Trenton; only the stages, His Majesty’s post, travellers on horseback or farmers carrying their produce to market on horses, used the route. In 1765 the General Assembly decided to act in the matter, and on June 20 passed the following Act:

Whereas the Shortening and Improvement of Roads will greatly facilitate the Conveyance of Letters by the Post, be of great Importance to His Majesty’s Service, and to commercial Interest and general Convenience of the Inhabitants of this Province . . . .

BE IT ENACTED . . . That John Berrien, Daniel Coxe, Azariah Dunham, Abraham Clark, junior and Ephraim Terrill, Esquires, be and are hereby appointed Commissioners to view the Grounds, make a straight and perfect Survey from Borden-town to Kingston, and from Trenton as near as may through Princeton, Kingston, New-Brunswick, Elizabeth-town and Newark to Second-River . . . .

The commissioners were empowered to draw a lottery for such sums as they might deem necessary for carrying out the project, not to exceed the sum of £500 proclamation money of the Province.

The notices advertising this lottery appeared in the New York and Philadelphia newspapers in 1765. The straight roads project was, however, delayed by the Stamp Act agitation. In the New York Journal or General Advertiser for December 1766, the lottery is again advertised. Daniel Coxe, of Trenton, is mentioned among those in charge of the drawing of the lottery, and is also announced as manager and commissioner of the road from Newark and Elizabeth-town to Trenton and Bordentown, agreeable to the Act of the year preceding. The contemplated improvement is spoken of as the “first thing of the Kind that has been attempted on the Continent.” The advertisement promised that the straightening of the road would lop 12 to 15 miles off the New York-Philadelphia route and would make the roads more passable in winter time. 29

29 The New York Journal or General Advertiser, December 18, 1766; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXV, p. 256.

Nothing came of the whole project in the end, for Governor Franklin, speaking before the Assembly in 1768 of this attempt to shorten the roads, said that “even those which lie between the principal trading cities in North America are seldom passable without danger or difficulty.” At about this time, stages travelled the route three times a week, advertising that the trip would be made in one and a half days. In practice, however, two days were required. The mails, carried on horseback, travelled at a faster rate.

THE NEW BRUNSWICK-TRENTON ROAD

In this period, the New Brunswick-Trenton road was considered the main thoroughfare from New York to Pennsylvania. Five or six miles south of the Raritan River a road branched off from this highway and, sweeping away to the east, arrived at Burlington. The proprietors ran this road as an opposition road to the Trenton route in the hope of drawing people and trade to the seat of their government. As early as 1700, however, it was clear that the Brunswick-Trenton road was in greater favor with those travelling between New York and Philadelphia.

Shortly before the Revolution a road was opened leading from Trenton “to Pond Run Bridge and Allentown,” as the road is designated upon a map drawn in 1789. This road was known as the road to Sandtown, and along it marched Washington’s troops on their way to Princeton after the second Battle of Trenton. Hamilton Avenue follows the line of this road.

At the time of the Revolution, that part of the King’s Highway below the Assunpink was known as Broad Street, Nottingham, or the road to Crosswicks. This highway is the South Broad Street of today, except for a slight shifting of the line of the street made when the Delaware and Raritan Canal was dug. At that time the road was shifted east for a short distance along its route. The road to Bloomsbury ran from this road down along the present line of Market Street, turning sharply to the left upon reaching the lodge-keeper’s gate at the Bloomsbury tract, and then following the course of what is Union Street today.

What we know as Ferry Street was precisely the road leading from Crosswicks Road to Trenton Ferry. About 650 feet down along the line of this road, one came upon the road to Lamberton, running off the Ferry road to the left and down to the projected town of Lamberton.

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS

The most important statute in Colonial days upon the subject of roads was passed March 11, 1774. It designated all roads of four and six rods width as public highways, and made it unlawful for anyone to alter these roads in any way. The election of overseers and surveyors of the highways in each township was provided for and their duties and powers set forth. The method to be pursued in applying for the laying out of the new road was detailed, and each inhabitant was required, upon the order of any overseer, to contribute not less than one, nor more than three, days’ labor annually towards the repair of the roads in his district. Such an inhabitant might send an able-bodied substitute, and if he provided a cart and horse, these were considered as equal to one man’s labor. The overseer was to keep the roads in good repair and clear of obstacles and was to dig necessary ditches and drains. Any person found removing any post, road-mark or milestone already erected was liable to a £5 fine.

In 1775 the question arose as to what overseer was to be held responsible for the “new Road . . . laid out from Samuel Henry’s Mill to Maidenhead Road.” The surveyors of Hopewell, Maidenhead and Trenton townships had just laid out this road, whose course differed in several respects from the one laid out in 1758. Mulberry Street, as has been noted, follows the line established August 6, 1774. 30 In 1775 all the overseers joined in caring for this road, and £10 was voted for the purchase of timber for the repair of the roads. In 1776, the road was assigned to the “overseers of the Middle & Rodgers Road,” who continued to attend to it until 1781.

30 Road Records of Hunterdon County, Book I, p. 92.

The minutes of the township meeting in 1781 note that William Harcourt was chosen “overseer of Penington Road.” It was in this year, presumably, that the name “Rodgers Road” was dropped and the name “Pennington” substituted. At the meeting held in 1786 it was agreed that each part of the town “maintain their own Road In Every Respect for the Ensuing Year.” In 1788 and 1789, £25 was voted for the repair of the roads; in 1790 £75 was needed. The money was ordered raised by a tax. At the annual meeting held April 11, 1791, an overseer “for the Town Spot” was chosen, and it was decided that thereafter roads in the district of the “Town Spot” were to be repaired by means of a separate tax, levied on the inhabitants of that district alone. £35 was ordered raised in this manner.

THE RIVER ROAD

The River Road finds frequent mention in the township minutes. It had two overseers, one to care for the “upper part” and the other for the “lower part.” The road ran from what is now Front and South Willow Streets, northward along the line of Willow to West Hanover Street (then Quarry Street), out along Hanover Street and past what used to be the estates of Rutherford and Colonel Dickinson, and thence in a northwesterly course through Trenton junction to Bear Tavern. In 1782 Second Street was extended westward past Willow, and became, in that part, a four-rod road leading to Beatty’s Ferry. In the fall of the next year, a forty-foot road was opened from Pennington Road to Beatty’s Ferry. From Pennington Road to about the point where the Feeder now crosses under Calhoun Street, the road followed the present course of Calhoun Street (then Calhoun Lane), but from that point on it curved away to the right and ran down to the ferry landing.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, travel and cartage became so great that turnpike companies were chartered in all sections of the East. The present Brunswick Pike is the result of the chartering of the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike Company on November 14, 1804. The incorporators were James Ewing, Joshua Wright, John Neilson, James Schureman and Thomas Hill. The road was to be four rods wide from Trenton to New Brunswick. Subscriptions were two thousand shares, $100 par value, five dollars to be paid down on each share upon subscribing. In 1807, the Princeton and Kingston Branch Turnpike Company was incorporated. It ran along the line of Princeton Avenue and up to Princeton, joining the old road at Kingston. In Revolutionary days Beakes Lane ran along the line of Princeton Avenue, from the Five Points site up to the Beakes plantation. The Pennington Road also became a turnpike road early in the 1800’s as did the Allentown route. The first turnpike to be chartered in Burlington County was the Bordentown to Trenton route, November 24, 1808. Tolls were charged on all these turnpikes, of course, but after a period of years the tolls were eliminated.

III. Stage Coaches

THE earliest method of land travel was by foot or on horseback. Where there were goods to be carried, packhorses were used. The roads, as we have just seen, were nothing more than paths. A traveller, journeying from New York to Philadelphia, proceeded to Elizabeth-town and followed the old Dutch road to New Brunswick, where the river was forded at low water. From there he continued on in an almost straight line to Trenton, where he and his horse forded the Delaware just above the Falls. Later, when the paths were widened and took on the semblance of roads, and ferries had been established along the river, the stage coach came into existence and travel became a less uncomfortable undertaking.

The earliest advertisement of a stage line on record appeared in the American Weekly Mercury for September 19-26, 1723. The notice ran:

If any Person or Persons may have occasion to pass or repass, or convey goods from Philadelphia to Trenton and backward, their Goods may be secured at the House of John Wollard at Trentown, in order for further Conveyance. Such Persons may enquire, or repair to the House of the said John Wollard in Trentown by the Mill there, or at the Crooked Billet in Philadelphia. Passengers may come, and Goods may be convey'd from Trentown, every Monday or Tuesday, and from Philadelphia, every Thursday or Friday. 31

31 American Weekly Mercury, September 19-26, 1723; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XI, p. 75.

William Atlee and Thomas Hooton went into the stage business in 1738. Their notice appeared in the January 31-February 7, 1737-38 issue of the American Weekly Mercury:

To Accomodate the PUBLIC

There will be a STAGE WAGON set out from Trenton to Brunswick, Twice a Week, and back again during next Summer: It will be fitted up with Benches and Cover’d over so that Passengers may sit ,Easy and Dry and Care will be taken to Deliver Goods and Messages safe. 32

32 American Weekly Mercury, January 31-February 7, 1737-38; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XI, p. 521.

The first trip was made on Monday, March 27, 1737-38, the stage setting out from Atlee and Hooton’s in Trenton. The stage ran every Monday and Thursday from Trenton, and every Tuesday and Friday from New Brunswick. The charge was 2s. 6d. the passenger.

The Atlee and Hooton stage ran during the summer of 1738 and was then discontinued. On April 10, 1740, the stage was revived: “The Stage-Waggon will be continued and go twice a Week certain, from Trenton Ferry every Monday and Thursday, and from Brunswick back again every Tuesday and Friday, during the Summer.” 33 The “stage-waggon” used was a covered one, and the rate per passenger the same as before. Goods were carried at 2s. the hundred-weight. William Atlee and Joseph Yeates were the owners.

33 Pennsylvania Gazette, April 10, 1740; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XII, p. 21.

It will be noted that the Atlee stage ran only during the summer season. It was well-nigh impossible to traverse the roads during the winter or spring because of their miry condition or the accumulation of snow and ice. It was not until a quarter of a century later that the winter stage line was to put in its appearance. At this time Joseph Borden of Bordentown announced the opening of his line of stage wagons “between Perth-Amboy and Bordens-town,” and a line of stage boats between Bordentown and Philadelphia. Borden was intent upon cutting off his growing rival, Trenton. The Trenton lines, like the Trenton-Brunswick road, were too popular with the travellers to be affected; in the end they won out in the uneven struggle for patronage.

Upon William Atlee’s death, his widow and administratrix, Jane, advertised his “Waggon with five Horses, and Appurtenances, well fitted for a Stage-Waggon, a Servant Man’s Time, for three Years, being us’d to drive said Waggon . . .” for sale. 34 William Willson, of New Brunswick, bought the wagon and reestablished the stage route which Atlee had so successfully managed. The stage ran twice a week as before, and on the same days. Persons sending goods from Philadelphia were asked to “direct them to the care of Thomas Hutton in Trenton, and those from New-York to William Willson in New-Brunswick, where care shall be taken to forward them speedily and in good Order.” 35

34 Pennsylvania Gazette, July 7, 1744; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XII, p. 224.

35 Pennsylvania Journal, July 7, 1744; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XII, p. 229.

In 1753, Andrew Ramsay, of Long Island Ferry, took over the Trenton Ferry and announced that he would open a stage line between New Brunswick and Trenton and a stage boat service between Trenton and Philadelphia. 36 He promised to give notice of the days on which his stage would run, but no further announcement of his stage schedule is to be found. In all probability, the stage never ran.

36 New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, June 4, 1753 ; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XIX, p. 265.

A NEW YORK-PHILADELPHIA STAGE LINE

A Philadelphia to New York stage line, running via Trenton and Perth Amboy and covering the distance in three days, was announced in 1756. This was the first through service between these two large cities of the eastern coast. John Butler of Philadelphia was the owner. 37 The trip was made in three stages, passengers and goods out of Philadelphia being shifted to another stage at the house of Nathaniel Parker at Trenton Ferry, and again at New Brunswick, and yet again at the Blazing Star Ferry at Amboy, where they were transferred to a stage boat which ran to Powle’s Hook on the New York side. In 1757 this stage ran twice a week, setting out from Philadelphia on Tuesdays and Fridays. 38

37 The Pennsylvania Journal, November 18, 1756; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XX, p. 78.

38 Pennsylvania Gazette, June 16, 1757; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XX, p. 116.

Jonathan Biles of Philadelphia established yet another Philadelphia to New York stage service in 1763. His stage wagons left Philadelphia every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, arriving at Trenton Ferry the same day. There the goods and passengers were transferred to other stage wagons to be carried to Brunswick, and from thence to Elizabeth-town or Amboy, as the passenger might choose. After October 1 and during the winter, the stage ran only on Mondays and Thursdays. 39

39 Pennsylvania Gazette, August 18, 1763; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, P. 223.

In 1764, John Barnhill of Philadelphia purchased Biles’s stage business and equipment and continued the stage wagon service between Philadelphia and Trenton Ferry. The stage set out for Trenton every Monday and Thursday. 40

40 Pennsylvania Gazette, June 7, 1764; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, P. 376.

Another Powle’s Hook-Philadelphia stage appeared on the scene in 1765, and was operated by John Mersereau, William Richards, John Downey and John Barnwell. The stage left Philadelphia for Trenton every Monday and Thursday; the next day passengers were carried forward to New Brunswick by another stage. On the third day they were conveyed from that place to the Blazing Star Ferry in yet another wagon, taking the stage boat for Powle’s Hook at once upon arrival at that point. Barnwell had charge of the Philadelphia-Trenton run. The stage from Powle’s Hook to Philadelphia started out every Wednesday and Saturday. The charge was 4s. the passenger for each stage, or 12s. for the entire trip. Goods were carried at the rate of 3s. 6d. per hundred-weight.

In 1766, Barnhill, who had been running his Philadelphia-Trenton stage for two years, opened a stage line from Philadelphia to New York, announcing that his “flying machine” would perform the journey in two days from April 14 to November 14, and in three days during the other five months of the year. The stage set out from Philadelphia every Monday and Thursday “punctually at sun-rise,” arriving at Princeton the same night. There the passengers were taken up by John Masherew, who conveyed them to the Blazing Star Ferry the next day while Barnhill returned to Philadelphia. The charge was 10s. for each stage, or 20s. for the entire distance, ferriage free. The rate per mile for persons travelling only a part of a stage was 3d. The wagon seats of the Barnhill stage were set on springs - an especial comfort in those days of travel. 41 The stage line prospered; a notice in the New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy of May 9, 1768, announced that:

There will be but two Waggons, but four sets of fresh Horses, so it will be very safe for any Person to send Goods, as there are but two Drivers; they may exchange their Goods without any Mistake. Persons may now go from New York to Philadelphia, .and back again in five Days, and remain in Philadelphia two Nights and one Day to do their Business in: The Public may be assured that the Road is much the shortest than any other to Philadelphia . . . .

41 Pennsylvania Journal, February 13, 1766; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXV, p. 25.

Abraham Skilman set out to duplicate Barnhill’s achievement in 1770. His route was the usual Powle’s Hook-Philadelphia route, covered in two days “with a good neat covered WAGGON and Horses suitable.” The rates were the same as Barnhill’s, but the stage ran but once a week, setting out from Philadelphia every Friday morning, with Skilman driving the entire way. To attract patronage, Skilman advertised that “he would never chuse to carry above 8 Passengers at a Time, though there might be Room for 1 or 2 more on Occasion . . . .” 42 Barnhill saw through Skilman’s attempt to establish an opposition line, and circulated an advertisement to that effect in Philadelphia, adding that Skilman’s line would not, as did his, run in the winter. Skilman immediately gave the lie to this statement, answering that his stage would run both in winter and summer, as advertised, and that opposition on his part was impossible, since his stage left Philadelphia a day later (Friday) than Barnhill’s.” 43

42 New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, May 28, 1770; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVII, p. 163.

43 Pennsylvania Gazette, August 8, 1771; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVII, pp. 537-8.

“FLYING MACHINES”

In 1772 John Mersereau (the Masherew in charge of the Blazing Star Ferry end of Barnhill’s stage, sometimes called Mercerow, as in Skilman’s answer to Barnhill, above) made the startling announcement that his “flying machine” would cover the New York-Philadelphia route in a day and a half, setting out from Powle’s Hook every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. From November 1 to May 1 the trip was to take two days. 44 As before, Barnhill was in charge of the Philadelphia end of the run. The stage had been running on a two-day schedule. 45

44 New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, January 13, 1772 ; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVIII, p. 23.

45 The New York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy, January 14, 1771 ; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVII, p. 341.

Joseph Hart of Philadelphia, announced in July 1772 that his “PHILADELPHIA STAGE COACH, a very pleasant, easy and delightful Carriage,” running between Philadelphia and New York, was about to open. 46 The fare was 30s. - l0s. more than Barnhill and Mercereau charged. The coach, equipped to carry “very commodiously eight persons,” set out f rom Philadelphia on Tuesdays, making the trip in two days and returning from Powle’s Hook on Fridays. 47

46 Pennsylvania Chronicle, July 13-20, 1772; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVIII, p. 189.

47 New York Gazette or Weekly Mercury, July 27, 1772 ; New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVIII, p. 204.

The next year Charles Bessnot (Bessonett, in other advertisements) established a Philadelphia-New York stage which set out from Philadelphia before dawn every Tuesday and Friday, making the trip in two days. Passengers changed at Princeton. The fare was $4 the passenger, half to be paid down at the time his name was entered on the books for the trip. Outside passengers were carried for 20s., and baggage weighing one stone or less was carried free. The charge was 2d. for every pound over. 48