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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
At the same time, swamps throughout southern New Jersey were utilized as an important source of iron deposits. Iron-laden water impregnated the marshy soil; the Indians had long used this ore, mixed with bear
grease, to make an excellent war paint. The ore was hauled to charcoal-heated furnaces built on the banks of streams, which provided power for
the bellows and an easy means of shipping the finished product. Weymouth, Batsto, and Atsion were typical iron centers -- thriving little communities a century or more ago but ghost towns today. The bog-iron
industry lasted until the middle of the nineteenth century, when competition
from the iron mines and coal-burning smelters gradually smothered it.
Copper mines were worked in New Brunswick, and in 1768 the discovery that the marl of Monmouth County could be used as fertilizer led to
the establishment of another new industry. Steel manufacture at this time
was concentrated principally in Trenton.
Another famous early industry in New Jersey was glass making. The
first glass factory was founded at Allowaystown in 1740 by Caspar Wistar, a German immigrant. The sand of the southern part of the State
proved especially suitable for the manufacture of glass, and within a few
decades Salem County was a leading producer of bottles, jugs, pitchers,
and other glassware.
The selection of the Falls of Passaic (now Paterson) for the site of a
gigantic manufacturing enterprise marked New Jersey's emergence as an
important industrial State. Sponsored by Alexander Hamilton in 1791,
this undertaking to utilize abundant water power was part of a scheme to
make the new Nation independent of foreign industrial products. Although this grandiose aim was not realized, the Society for Establishing
Useful Manufactures did succeed in attracting a large part of the textile
industry to Paterson.
The first census of manufactures taken in New Jersey in 1810 placed
the total industrial wealth at $4,816,288, listing textiles, hides, leather,
iron products, and liquor as the most important goods. Cotton manufacture and cotton machinery s0 completely dominated Paterson at this time
that it earned the title of "The Cotton City." Twenty-five forges indicated
the growth of mining, while items like 36,000 packs of playing cards and
300,000 pounds of chocolate candy illustrated the diversity of industry.
The invention of new processes in the manufacture of iron, notably
Seth Boyden's discovery of a method for making malleable iron in Newark in 1826, brought increased prosperity to this flourishing business. In
1830 the East Jersey Iron Manufacturing Company established a $283,000
plant at Boonton, capable of producing 1,000 tons of malleable iron annually.
Boyden also contributed to the growth of the leather industry with his
process for making patent leather. Moses Combs had earlier founded the
shoe industry in Newark, and by the end of the eighteenth century a
majority of the city's industrial population was engaged in the leather
trade. Combs was also famous as the first slave owner in local history to
teach his slaves a trade in order to raise their economic and social level.
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