Roxbury Township History

The Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum

PO Box 668,  Landing, New Jersey  07850

“THE LAKE HOPATCONG BREEZE” – Various Issues plus Oral Histories from Tom Valiante, Barb Seckler, George Vesel, Charlie B., Joe F. and Veronica B. shared with the Website Editor

The history of Roxbury Township in Morris County, New Jersey. Our Town was founded in 1740 and has a rich heritage. Originally a center for Iron Mining and forges that supplied George Washington and the Continental Army, our community grew with the cutting of roads east and west and the building of the Morris Canal in 1827. Roxbury was a major hub for the Canal, with Lake Hopatcong as a water source. Four Canal inclined planes and two locks were located within Roxbury, with many businesses established during the 19th century to service the Canal. Local explosives plants would supply dynamite for the mines and railroad building and employ generations of Roxbury Township residents. By the 1880’s the Railroad would overtake the Canal for Commercial transportation and Roxbury exploded in growth with 2 major and competing rail lines.

By 1890 Roxbury was ‘the’ gateway to the busy resorts of Lake Hopatcong, which remained one of the region’s most popular summer destinations for over 60 years. The coming decades brought a ‘boom time’ of new train stations, schools, homes and businesses, yet always in an orderly sort of way.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD:

1600’s– Much of the common knowledge of these early years comes from the Morris County History books by Honeyman (1927), by Munsell (1882) and articles by Dr. Wolfe (see below) several years later in which he, with sharp wit, corrected Munsell ! However, they agree on the basic timeline:

They say there were several villages of Lenni Lenape Indians located on Suckasunny Plains. “One a furlong (1/8 mile) northeast from our present school house (Gray Building), another near the great spring on the grounds of the Hercules Powder Company, a third on the east side of the present Black River pond and others farther south along the Black River.” The Nariticong clan of the Delaware Indian Nation lived on the east shore of Lake Hopatcong, with a large village on Halsey Island, which was at that time connected to the mainland. Dutch trappers start to have contact with the Nariticongs and with other Lenape Indian clans. In 1633 the Dutch established trading outposts in what became northern New Jersey.

1664- New Jersey becomes an English colony. Groups of Puritans settle Newark in 1666 and move inland.

1700’s- In the early 1700’s, Native Americans began to sell off their land and leave the area, some moving as a group to Ontario. In 1708 they sold a large piece of land that included Roxbury Township. The deed for this transaction was written on an 18″ x 28″ piece of parchment and is still quite legible. It is stored at the New Jersey Historical Society Museum in Newark.

1710’s- Around this date the first group of white settlers established homes in the area that became Roxbury. They belonged to a Christian group known as Rogerenes (or Rogerines), named after their founder, John Rogers of Connecticut (1648-1721). Some date their arrival here as early as 1702, others as late as 1736. Their theology was similar to the Seventh Day Baptists and their practices much like the Quakers. The center of the settlement of about 20 families was Mountain Pond, its name changed around 1912 to Lake Rogerene (or Lake Rogerine), and long after the group had left. Their modest farms extended to what is today the Shore Hills section of Landing at the  southern end of Lake Hopatcong. By 1800 most had left the area, some joining another Rogerene group in South Jersey, others heading for Ohio or Virginia, while some others stayed in the area, blending in with the general population.

1715- Around this time the Roxbury area was first surveyed by John Reading, who also had a keen eye for the business possibilities of the area. Iron Ore laid close to the surface in various areas of the Township, and before long an Iron Ore Mine and small forge was in operation. Wolfe relates that the name “Suckasunny” was originally applied by the Indians to the hill that forms a natural boundary on the eastern edge of Roxbury. The name was first recorded by Reading and is made up of the Lenni-Lenape words for Black: “suka”, and the word for Stone: “assun”, hence the Black Stone of the abundant Iron Ore.

1730’s- The valley of Suckasunny Plains grows in population as settlers come north following the Black River. They were originally from Connecticut, had come by boat to New Brunswick, and then over the lowlands to the fertile fields of Suckasunny.

1740- On December 24, 1740 Roxbury was incorporated as the fourth township in Morris County. Within its boundaries at that time were the areas that later would become Chester Borough, Chester Township, Mt. Arlington, Mt. Olive Township, Netcong Borough and Washington Township, in addition to parts of Hopatcong Borough and Stanhope. As a result of several of these communities pulling away and becoming independent over the years , Roxbury Township is now comprised of Succasunna (formerly Suckasunny, name changed 1888), Ledgewood (formerly Drakesville, name changed 1891), Kenvil (formerly McCainesville), Port Morris, Landing and Lower Berkshire Valley. Roxbury Township is just under 22 square miles in size.

1745- Presbyterians first started meeting in homes in Succasunna about this time. In 1756 the Succasunna Presbyterian Church was organized by the New York Presbytery, with the first building constructed on the current site around 1760.

1750’s- Lake Hopatcong was called Great Pond. Around 1750 an iron forge is built by New York City businessman Garret Rapalje near the southern end of the Lake at the point where it flows into the Musconetcong River. Called the Brookland Forge, it was located on what is now the Hopatcong State Park and it operated for over 30 years. A dam built for the forge raised the Lake level by 6 feet, submerging areas of shoreline and cutting off Halsey Island and Raccoon Island from the mainland. The Lake became known as Brookland Pond.

1758-  The “Treaty of Easton” in October marks the pullout of the Delaware Indian Nation from the French & Indian War. The previously peaceful Delaware had joined the French against the Colonial/British settlers in New Jersey and had massacred members of almost a dozen families who had settled in Sussex County, causing alarm in Roxbury. The Treaty completes the sale of Lenape Delaware land to European settlers and called for Tribe members in New Jersey & eastern Pennsylvania to move to the Ohio Valley or join other Native Americans in Ontario.

1776 thru 1783- Roxbury Township and the surrounding area become an important hub for producing Iron Ore and cannonballs to supply General George Washington and the Continental Army. During the Revolutionary War, the Succasunna Presbyterian Church served as barracks and a hospital for the Continentals. A tradition relates how George Washington visited his wounded soldiers there.

THE CANAL & RAILROAD COME TO TOWN:

1799- The newly incorporated Chester Township takes 30 square miles and separates from Roxbury Township.

1804- The Essex – Morris – Sussex Turnpike is completed, running through Roxbury Township, a reliable Wagon Toll Road that sped up the movement of people and goods from the cities of the northeast to the wilds of northwest New Jersey. Specifically, the road went from Elizabeth, through Chatham, passed through Madison in almost a straight line, skirted  Washington’s headquarters in Morristown; ran along Sussex Avenue through Randolph and into Roxbury, and continued through Succasunny Plains, Drakesville (Ledgewood) and Stanhope to Newtown.

1809- The first school in Roxbury of which we have firm evidence came into being. The ‘Roxbury Academy’ was a private boarding school on Main Street, Succasunny that not only accommodated local students, but also lodged young scholars from neighboring towns and states due to its excellent reputation and location away from the “corrupting” influence and vices of larger towns.

1822- While fishing at Lake Hopatcong, George P. Macculloch (whose house in Morristown still stands) dreamed up the idea of what was to become the Morris Canal. The canal was chartered in 1824 and would be an inexpensive way of moving large quantities of coal, timber, iron ore and other goods across New Jersey. It was designed by Professor James Renwick of Columbia College, the first American canal to climb hills. The Morris Canal would run for 103 miles joining the Delaware River at Phillipsburg with the Hudson River, a mule-drawn barge trip that took about 5 days. The Morris Canal would dramatically increase the development of Roxbury Township.

1826- A building lot in Drakesville (later renamed Ledgewood) was purchased and a General Goods store was built by Woodruff and Crane, now known as the King Store.

1827- The canal company, having acquired the property, builds a new dam on the Lake to use the large body of water as a canal reservoir. A lock is built that raised boats to the level of the Lake. A bypass valve controlled the water flowing into a feeder canal that connected the Lake to the main canal. Lake Hopatcong was the Morris Canal’s largest reservoir. The Lake was entered through a feeder of the Morris Canal. It then went to the lock at Brooklyn (a little settlement which gave the Lake the name of Brooklyn Pond.) Hopatcong State Park contains Morris Canal remains.  In this park, to the left of the beach, is a huge iron waterwheel on display, from Plane No. 3, which operated chains, later wire cables, pulling up the boats. At the gate control house, the visitor can see the locks under water at the edge of the Lake. Also here are the gatekeeper’s and paymaster’s house (built about 1826, still standing). West of the pumping station and the turbine, the broad open space was the basin of the old canal, which from here went to Lake Musconetcong. There were 23 separate inclined planes along the Morris Canal. Set in giant cradles, boats were hauled up rail tracks by chains to water levels as high as 100 feet. As different sections of the canal were completed, they were opened up for local use. On November 4, 1831, the first complete trip from Newark to Phillipsburg was completed. The canal was 90 miles long; and, the trip from Newark to Phillipsburg took about five days. The first full boating season was 1832. When it was completed to Newark in 1831, the actual cost was $2,104,413. In 1836 the eleven mile extension to Jersey City was added. In Roxbury, there were 3 inclined planes for the Morris Canal east of Lake Hopatcong; two in Ledgewood and one in Shippensport. There was also the Port Morris inclined plane west of the Lake. An 1827 planning map for the Canal shows 2 sawmills in ‘Drakesville’, now called Ledgewood.

1830’s- A small community known as Brookland develops around the canal lock in what is now Hopatcong State Park. Another dam raises the Lake water level 6 more feet and the Lake becomes known as Lake Hopatcong and over time the name Brookland changed to Brooklyn after NYC’s Brooklyn.

1834- A one-room log schoolhouse was constructed in Lower Berkshire Valley; it was replaced in 1871 by a frame building in the same location.  Also in 1834, Charles Shipman, a partner in the Morris Canal Company, builds a sawmill near the top of Canal Inclined Plane Number 1 East, in the area now known as Shippenport. The Mill was powered by the ‘bypass’ water from the Plane.

1844- At Shippenport an Iron Forge was built by John Slade, to run by the ‘bypass’ water of the Morris Canal in summer after it powered the sawmill, and by a small natural stream at other seasons. This forge was enlarged by Anson G. P. Segur in the 1870’s, and was still in working order when Munsell wrote of it in 1882. Alternate names for this area were Shippensport, Shippmansport, & Shippingport.

1849- Rev. T.T. Campbell organized a Methodist class meeting in Succasunna. On July 3, 1850, the members of the church met and elected a Board of Trustees and authorized the building of a church.  Construction of the existing sanctuary and bell tower was begun in 1850 and was dedicated on February 1852. The Rev. William Day was appointed the first pastor.

1850’s- The tracks of the Morris and Essex (later taken over by the Lackawanna) Railroad are laid through the area in 1854, but no station is built in Landing. Passengers going to Landing/Lake Hopatcong left the train at the Drakesville (now Ledgewood) crossing, and were carried by horse drawn carts over the bumpy roads up to the Lake.

1853- The present Presbyterian Church building in Succasunna was constructed to replace the old.  The first service held was the funeral for Mahlon Dickerson, former New Jersey Judge, US General, New Jersey Governor, US Congressman, and Secretary of the Navy. He is buried in the Church cemetery.  Mr. Dickerson had previously brought President Van Buren to worship in the Church.

1865- The Ogden Mine Railroad was built to carry iron ore from the mines in the hills of Jefferson Township to Nolan’s Point at the north end of Lake Hopatcong, a distance of ten miles. This ore was transferred to canal boats which were towed by a steam tug across the Lake to “Brooklyn” lock. The boats went through the feeder to the main canal and then east or west depending upon their destination. The Canal company derived at least 50,000 to 60,000 tons of ore freight a year from this business.

1866- The most prosperous year of the Morris Canal as it carried almost a million tons of freight. Among the commodities carried were lumber, coal, and iron ore. The canal’s business will now dwindle as the faster railroads start to lure away the canal’s customers.

1871- On March 22, Mt. Olive Township was created by splitting away from Roxbury Township.

1874- Ledgewood Baptist Church was founded in 1874 and built a frame church building shortly thereafter at the western edge of Main Street. The present building of natural stone was constructed in 1917 at a site a quarter mile east, also on Main Street.

1881- Much of the Canal Iron Ore business was lost when the Central Railroad of New Jersey took over the Ogden Mine Railroad and laid track to connect it to the Central’s High Bridge Branch in 1881. Commercial shipping on the Canal would dwindle during the next 2 decades, the quicker railroads having taken much of the business.

1880’s- Hundreds of local residents are employed in the Lake Hopatcong Ice Industry, cutting Ice on the lake and shipping it by rail to Newark, Paterson and New York City areas before the days of electric refrigeration. Five commercial Ice Houses are around the Lake, with the ‘Mountain Ice Company’ having a very large Ice House in the Silver Spring section of Landing, off Yellow Barn Ave., near the site of today’s Nixon Public School.

A detailed 1887 map of Landing shows Dynamite and Gunpowder works on the grounds of the American Forcite Powder Mfg. Co., later renamed the Atlas Powder Co., located on the southeast shore of Lake Hopatcong. Eventually Atlas would have almost 130 buildings, barns & sheds on their 400 acres that spanned the area along the Lake & up the hill from Shippensport Road to what is today Rogers Drive.  A Railway spur from the Lackawanna served both the Ice House and the Explosives Company. The King brothers, Theodore F. King and William E. King, ran 2 stores on the corner of Lakeside Blvd. and Landing Road. During this time the bridge over the canal and railroad in Landing was made of Iron with wooden planks as a roadway. In the early 1880’s the Lackawanna  Railroad built a Passenger Station at  Drakesville (modern day Ledgewood). Horse drawn carriages would then take people up the bumpy road to the lake.  By 1886 the Landing/Lake Hopatcong Railway Station on the Lackawanna Line was built. Steamboats would wait on the Morris Canal in Landing for the passengers to disembark from the train.

1886- The “Lake Hopatcong Steamboat Company, commonly known as the Black Line, was founded. The company provided service from the “new” Landing railroad station, built around 1886, to all areas of the Lake by means of a ‘feeder canal’ that traveled from the Lake at the area of the State Park and connected to the Canal in the area of the current Landing Shopping Center. (The Canal ran parallel to the RR tracks in this area) From there the boats used the Canal to come right up to the Rail station platform, where passengers simply crossed the platform to board the boat sitting in the Canal. (the south end of the Lake was extremely shallow at that time with only rowboats able to pass). The trip back to the Lake took them through the Canal Lock, where the boat was raised to the Lake’s higher level. The Lackawanna Railroad, the Black Line & the Canal cooperated in business.

THE LAKE BECOMES A SUMMER RESORT:

1890’s- This era saw the blossoming of Lake Hopatcong as the Summer Resort of choice by both the wealthy and the newly middle-class. The wealthy would rent large furnished houses, (called cottages!!) on the waters edge. The middle-class would often set up large canvas tents on wooden platforms and dwell in these for a week or more. All would enjoy the cool “mountain air” afforded by the advertised “1,200 foot elevation of the Lake” (an exaggeration of its’ actual 926 foot elevation), a welcome summertime relief from the sweltering cities.

Many would come up for the weekend and stay in one of the Hotels or rooming houses that sprang up around the Lake. Most everyone traveled to the Lake via Train, disembarking either at the  Central Railway of New Jersey Station at Nolans Point or at the Landing Station of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western  Railroad. From there they most often traveled to their Lakeside destination via Steamboat!! The roads were poor to non-existent, and besides, the Steamboats were part of the attraction of the Lake! With a growing cluster of Hotels and luxury homes, Mount Arlington was created on November 1, 1890 by splitting away from Roxbury Township. The odd, twisting border between Landing/Roxbury Township and Mt. Arlington seen on maps was created when certain precincts voted to secede, while others did not.

In 1890 the “Hopatcong Steamboat Company”, known as the ‘White Line’ was founded by Theodore King to compete with the established “Black Line”. This was a bold move, as the

“Black Line” was owned by the same financial syndicate that owned the Lackawanna Railway and the Morris Canal. In a stroke of  entrepreneurial inspiration, King dredged the shallow lower area of Landing Channel to allow his steamboats to come right up to the dock at “The Landing”. The Black Line charged passengers to the lakefront hotels a fifty cent fare each way from the railroad station, a sizeable amount in 1890 ! Experienced travelers knew that after they got off the train they could walk across the bridge at Landing and board one of King’s boats which only charged a twenty-five cent fare to go out to the hotels and forty cents to return. The trip was also faster, as Kings’ boats avoided the trip through the Canal Lock at Lake Hopatcong.