BULLETINof

Museum and HeadquartersLAMBERT CASTLE

Garret Mountain ReservationPATERSON, N. J.

THE PASSAIC COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Vol. 3 February, 1951 I\[o. 9

TWO FAMOUS COLTS

The name n0oltt? has been intimate-}y connected with the founding and thedeveloprnent of Pat€r$ono This distin-guished family had its origin Ln Con-necttcut .

Peter Coltra nat lve of LymerCorr l r Iserved lttashington in the Revoiution.Bei_ng f luent in French r his service swith the French off iceis who assistedthe Americans in the Bevolution lrereof great value,

After the Revolution, he returnedto his natlve state r' lhere he was madestate-Treasur€re Meanwhire the $ocletyfor Establishing useful Manufactureswas organized with the Hon. Elias Bou-dinot as one of the most influentialmembersr Mr. Boudlnot had met Petercort at Boontonr N. J" , dur ing the r arand. knew of his abil i ty.

At thi s time , the Soe iety $rErs inneed of e new superintendent. 0n theurging of Flr.Boudinot, Peter colt eaneto Paterson and aeeepted the postt ionof superintendent of trre s.u.M.in Feb-ruary, L793. He resLded in a smallhouse on the south side -6f MarketStre€t r near Main Street. He had twosons, John and Roswel l L. Colt .

Shorl ly_ after Mr. Colt arr ived, thesoclety built a small temporary woodenstructure about 60 x 30

- feet- in size

qlong the lower race wayrabout tHrenty-five feet we st of Mill Street . AbrahamH. Godwinrs ml l l was located on thissi te in later yearsr Here cottCIn wasspun, the power being supplied by oxen$tlr lch operated a tread nrt l l . This miIIwas known as the nBull Houset? or t lBullIt 'I i1l?f and was the second cotton-spirlrning e stabli shment tn America.

Meanwhile, a larger mil l was beingconstructed of cut stone a l i t t le tothe northwest, Iater occl tpied by Oat-rnants mLI l . This was a 90 x I l0 footstructure of four storles and poweredby wat€rr f t began operat ing in L79b,Cotton cal ico was pr inted and yarns,

JOHT{ CO[?I S ?IMANSION HOUSE'I

candlewtck and cott,on fabri.c s weremanufactureq-but not, for long. 0n Jan-uary 25 tL796, the directors of the So-ciety ordered all manufacturing halt-ed. It{oney wag needed but after severalunsuecessful attempts at lotteries andother means, Superintendent Colt wasdischargedrthe ni l l was leased to ssv-eral individuals, and the employees ofthe Society were laid off .

The tenants of the mirr continuedspinning yarn and candrewiek at themtll however, until 1807 when it burn-ed. I t was never rebui l t .

Meanwhile, the Soclety proceededwith the laying out of streets and inbui ld ing act ivt t ie s. In L797, Horr.EIi sha Boudinot uras elected superin-tendent and in 18llr, Peter CoIt t b son,RosweII L. CoIt , took over that of f icecontinuing for rnany years with slightinterruptiors.

John Colt began the erection of a?rMansion Housen for hi s famlly on thesand hilt to the north of MarketStrest. A street was run from Ell i .sonStreet to a short di stanc e beyond hi snew home, but not through to Broadway.This imposing residence was begun in1811 and was constrt icted of stone tak-en from the ruins of the mi}l burned

Cout t d. on page 39

38. The Passal,c County Historical Soelety

MI'SET'M T{STES

Anong the lnter€ sting artiele s, nouon display in the Huseum, is a gavelln the nllobart Roomn. ?his gavel has ahead of rnahogany and a handle of pl,ne"

fhe head ffi.s turned fron a pleccof the mahogany desk used by the firstYlee Presldent tn the $enate Chamberat our l[atlonf s eapttol.

fhe pLne handle l.s of espeelal ln-terest inasmueh as lt eontitns smallwood tn1ays. fkrese f"nlays ere frompieees of very htstorte Hood$. Theplne of the handle was unado from eplece of the o1d stalnray leadlng tothe Senate Chasb€rr fnlays ere fronwoods grown at Ht" Ilernon: -Ghefryr boxwood aad magnolla. Fordrs ?heatre isropresented by pl,ne. tLve oak from thefrl"gate, ilUnlted Statestr; hlekgry fromHakefield and oak fron the trCharterOakn &re enong the pteo€sr

A-sk to see thls love1y exhlblt and,m€,$y others on exhtbLtion"

*****Iflttddy-noddy; nlddy-Boddytbo treads and on6 bodyr

$o runs the aneieat riddle.Shat ie tt?You may see one of theee queer

Eypes of reels ln one of the ceses inthe nlt{usie Roomil. Htddy-BoddLes rf,ersmade of three pieces of woodo set to-gether in rather queer angles.On thesereels, neny of our grandraothers woundby hand thelr flax and wool after theyspun lt on the r*reel .

?he body of the reel was graspedby the left hand and by using aR oddwobbltng tw:ist, the spun yarne es ttwas pulled from the wheel wtth theright hand, was reeled on the nlTiddy-noddyF.

*****

The l€mbert Dining BooB has manyehoiee portraits done in oil and otherworks of art on its rrall. Aroong theseis a small eolleetlon whtch werepalnted by the great Paterson artiet,Ju1ian Blx.

fhis eollectlon was e glft of lt{[rs.Peter Bylenuhoee husband met the youngarttst in Callfornia and urged hinn tocome to Patereono Rlx wes born in Yer-mont in 1850 but hts parents removedto Callfornia when Julian was only aIad.

He aecepted Ffr. Bylef s suggestlon

and came to Patersonrwhere he opened astudLo. Some years later he removed toSew Tork clty- but frequented the RyIesummer home it t{or*bh Ca1dwell . Hany- ofhis best landseapes were paLnted nhenbe uras in that area.

Blx was a great lover of the out-of-doors and most sf hls sork Haslandseap€sr both in oils and etchings.He ehose bis subjecte largely from NewJersey and Haine. He partieularlyloved to paint deep shadows, shadytrees and vast skies. F{any of his sub-Jects were destroyed by hlm as he sesonly,,satlefled dren his works showedfeellng and atnosphere .

Hts patntlngs of nPaterson Fallso,nPompton Plalns r I[. J. o , n$oon Dayo ,ilSunsetff, trGolden Gatenand nHigtr Tldenare emong his best known. ?he eanv&srilPospton-ffai,ns, $. .I . n done Ln 1S98hangs in one of the great galtreries l-nWashingbon, D. G.

Mr. Blx dled ln Hes Tork on tifo-venber Zht 1903, but hls rernaLns 'urerebrought to Paterson and Has lnterrodin the Byle plot at Cedar Lawn.

Hhen you vl,slt at the SoeLetyt sbcadquarters ln the Gastle, look forthe Ju1iaa Rlx exhlbit.

*****oLD HORDS, $frtt HEH

In the nswspapcr flles at the Ulu-geun under date- of JuIy L2 rL867 , ls .eBartlcle eommentlag upoa tbe oLd his-torl,eal soe5.ety, rftich sas then Ln @x-Lstehc€r It esysr nlf the Htstorl,ealsoeiety. . r . rf€€eives tbe eaeour&getsentof the eonmunlty tfileh lt deserres, ltrill aceompllsh an lnportant work.Loea1 hts€orleal events nhLeh are notrecorded, soon slip fron Benorlr ldanyeventsrr..have already passed tnto ob-livtonr "Others are fading and Lf notspeedlly amested in theLr fllght,willbe forgotten..n

How tnre these rords ere in L95L,nearly one hundred years laterc Thecltizens of PassaLc eouaty J.n 1951 toofrequently sefr Htet someone elee dothts worka. al,et someone else supportthts workff. Hembershlp is as low estwo dollars a y€f,rr Hueh work needs tobe done. A great grranttty of materLalof great qalue, ftfty or one hundredyears hence, i,s being destroyed, }ftrehhas already been accomplished by hardworking people in the past. You eannow eontribute for the futur€r Honttyou?

Thc Passaic County Historical Society 39.

I'HAI{ILTON H0USEr

Conttd. from page 37

in 1808. He moved into hts ttManst.onHqustsF r as tt hras calIed, on July I+,1813. The nagniflcent lawn of hls pro-perty sloped dorrn to Main Street tothc west rwhlle the gardens at the rearof his house extended almost to ChurchStreet. Mr.Aaron S. Penntngton acquir-ed this property later and then theresldenee took the name, nPenningtonIlous€n. ( See photograph on page 371

John CoIt subseguently erected &B-other Eansion which was sttlI more lm-posing and elaborate. ?his mansionstood on lttrarket Street at o1d Colt$treet. Direetly opposite, facing lttlar-ket Street wes $t Pau1r e EpiscopalGhureh. On the plot bounded by Mark€t,Church, gLlison and old Colt Streetsthere was only one other resldence-that being the home of illr. Atterburlc

I{f,. Colt t s new horne uras three sto-ries in height rrith the upper floore;rbending for*ard over the two loweroneso The ttrtrd floor was supported bybeauttful cslunns. Glant elms gracedboth Market and Colt $treets. Thetracks for the horse car$ of thosedays ere seen ln the picture. HereJohn Colb lived for many years. A fewyears before his death at $eabright,N.J" phe sold the property to }.{r.GeorgeOatB s r

After Mr.Colt vaeated his manston,the plaee was converted into a hoteland it was known as the nHarniltonHousen untl l i ts removal. ?his hotelwas the most promlnent one in the cityfor many years. fn the LSSOt s and1S9O n s, the ellte of the tovrn gathered

both day and night.George Gravelius, a barber for the

ttupper tenff , had a shop ln an ad junctof the hotel and several off iees €x-tended along CoIt Street to EllisonStreet,

During 1891 ,there was constderableagitation tn the eity for a new eityhall and corunissioners were appointedto report on a proper sLte for the newmunlcipal bullding. It reported in }{ay1892 and almost irumediatelyr the cttypurehased the properby of St Pault sChureh and the HHamllton Houser traet.0n i l lay 19, L892, the buildlngF.of theill{arnilton Housenwere sold for $807. 30.?he columns were removed and plaeed onthe resLdence of Mrn I. A. HalI whilettre main bui,lding was removed to Har-rison Street where it sttll stand,s.

A new city haII was erected on thesltes of the ehurch and the westerlyportion of the nHarallton Housen tract.CoIt Street was moved eastward to theline of the old $econd National Bankbuilding, now in 1951 an office buJ-ld-ing.

*****

PATERSON ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The population of Paterson in 1850was 13 1969, It had a townshtp fonn ofggvernnent. fn the faIl and winter of1854-5L, many of the leading eit izensof the torrn frequently discussed theadvisabillty of changing the form ofgovernment froin that of a townshlp toan lncorporated city, A b111 was pre-pared for that purpose and introducedln the Legistature. 0n March 19, I85Ltthe governor approved the b111, whlchhad passed both houses, and a charberwas granted for a Ctty of Patersorle

The persons no st aetive in thisproject wer€i - Dr. El ias J. Mar$h, Ex-Gov. Phtlemon Dickerson, Ifrftr. Gledhill tRobert Barkalow, Dr. Chas. Ing1i s, Jr.and Ellas Boudinot Dayton 0gden.

*****This ad appeared in the Paterson

IntelHgencer i; 1S48:trBeady Made Coffins

A large assortment, comprislngevery kind made of different Ba,-ter la ls and neat ly f in ishedrcan beat all tLnne s found at

J. F. Colv int s2T Van Houten $t.i l

,10. 3he Passaic County Hlstorical $oeiety

NNEE HIn the early part of the 19th c€n- 5, 18ltl.

turyrnany lrls! innigrants camc to the In October of the sa&e year, thevillage Located at the Passaic FalLs congregation of the chureh irt a-meet-to geeure enplolment ln the nllIs re- lng ln the Sehool House eLected ascently established.. Theser. with the trustees:-SamueL Colt, Esq., Chairnan,few wtro already llved ln the region Brown King, Secretarlr,and-M6ssrs. Johnadjacelt to_the_Falls, wtro were of the CoIt, Oshei Wilder, l ivan tl i lcox, JohnRornan Catholtc__Falt!, w-erg obliged to R. Gould and Wl1llim Dickey.travel to New York for their devotions The buildtng was ready for oceu-and splrttual guidance. On rather ln- pancy in I8I9.frequent oceasions an ttlnerant prtestmight stop at the vlllage and rninisterto those of his falth.

ft appears that the flrst house ofworship for tho se of the R, c . faithwas a small ehapel set up ln a prlvateresldence of one I{r. Donnelly. Mr.Donnelly lived on Broadway, near trdul-berry Street. Father Laughlin was oneof the first prtests to offtciate inthis chapel .

By tbeO, the congregati.on outgrewthe Donnelly chapel and Fatlrer Bu1gersecured a plot of ground from theS.U.M, on Congress Stre€t, now at Hlar-ket and MllI Streets nfor the purposeof maintaLning and keeping e buildingor house for the publie worshtp ofGodt?. Funds were soon ralsed for theerection of a one-story bqilding, 25by 3A f t . in s ize, and in 1882 the- in-eorporetlon of ilThe Catholtc Chapel ofSt Johnn sras effected.

In 1S33 a plot of ground was pur-ehased on Oliver Street oppostte MlII$treet for a larger building. However,funds came in slowly and this buildingwasnrt eompleted unti l 1sl}7. Thtsehureh buildi,ng was used eontinuouslyuntil Father Wm. Mc Nu1ty built thelarge edifice which is now the Cathe-dral of St John.o

* *As early as 1813 a group of Pres-

b:rterians becarne interested Ln fonninga church unlt in Patersor. A fomalorganization took place in the r€$i-dence of $amuel colt who lived on Mar-ket Street (quite llkely ln the housewhich stood third east from UnionStreet l . This meeting was held on Jan-uary L8,1811*. The small group of Pres-byterians deeided to butld a ehurch Ir0by 5h ft. tn stze on a square formed!y the lf lntersection of Cross Streot,Spring street (now known as OllverStreet ) , Ward $treet ( as lt is eontern-plated io be run) & the Turnpike (nowMain Street ) tt.

Rev. Samue1 Fisher, with ttre trus-tees of the new church meeting, latdthe cornerstone of the ltFirst Pre sby-

***Prior to Lgl+7 rthe Jeryish residents

of Paterson held ihetr religious ser-vices in pr!-vate homes, but in Lgb7, afor"mal temple organizaiion was effeit-ed-the cgngregation of BtNai Jeshurun.

In L853r ten Jewish citLzens gath-ered regularly tn a resid.enee on MainStqe€t r near Bank $tre€t r wtrere theyheld services for several years. Short-ly afterward they changed their mest-ing place to another home, vrhich wason West Streot. Menbers of

-the eongrs-

gatlon officlated as they were withoutthe serviees of a regular rabbi.

About the year 1E60rBs the congre-gation gfew and felt the aeed of apernanent place wtrerein to worship, ltbought a $naIl brown stone house at 9Hulberry Street. Thts llttle butldingwas fttted up as a synagogue and re-mained the only synagogue Ln Patersonfor nearly twenty yedrs. Durlng thabeginning, however, the congregationmet without benaflt of a rabbi.

A lot tras purehased by the congre-gqtion at LZI* Van Houten Street inL877 for the purpose of the erectionof a synagogue- and school. It was herethat the Jews worshipped until theIate !{athan Barnert maae it possiblefor the ereetion of the Barneit Merno-riel Temple on Broadr+ay and Straight$treets,

The congregation of this templehas since occupied a very i.mportantplace in the religious life of theci ty.

***The first house of worship, organ-

i-zed in what is now Passaie eountyrwasa small Dutch Reformed Chureh at

-Ac-

quackanonk (passale) in L693. ft isthe seeond oldest chureh tn the north-qrn part of New Jer$€yr the Dutch Re-formed Church at Hackensack havingfirst plaee. The pastor at Acquacka-nonk was Guillaum Berthorf, eatechi-ser, voorle ser and sehooknaster.