A Brief History of Smithville (Shreveville) New Jersey
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The history of the settlement that became Smithville, Burlington County, New jersey began with the purchase of a 37 acre mill site by Jacob Parker from Solomon Southwick in October of 1776. Parker proceeded to construct a dam, a grist, and saw mill, and a dwelling house. The site was known as Parker's Mills. Although he received official permission from the state legislature in December 1780 to build his dam, his neighbors kept him in court for the next twenty years challenging his right to flood their land and insisting upon their right to use the water in his pond. Finally, burdened with court costs and damage payments Parker was bankrupted and his mill property was sold in November 1802 at sheriff's sale by Mahlon Budd, High Sheriff, to John Mullen, Parker's millwright.
In 1816 Mullen sold the property to Charles French of Chester township, NJ, who later co-owned it with William Roberts of Evesham Township. During this period it continued as a saw and grist mill site and was presumably run by a hired miller.
The first party to explore the full potential of the site were two brothers, Jonathan E. and Samuel Shreve, originally from Mansfield Township, later, village storekeepers in Columbus, and later still, in business in Trenton where they amassed sufficient capital to purchase the site, in 1831, for the purpose of developing it as a cotton cloth manufacturing center.
The Shreves purchased the original 37 acre tract plus an additional 7 acres to the north on a rise of land which they would use for building workers' housing and their mansion. By 1850 their works included a greatly enlarged mill pond, a canal to Mount Holly for transportation and shipping, and two industrial complexes. The larger complex, a cotton spinning and weaving plant and a spool cotton manufactory was under the direction of Samuel Semple, a Scottish master weaver. It employed 175 persons. The other complex was for printing cotton yard goods and employed 23 persons. In addition to this, there was a machine shop as well as the grist and saw mill. Altogether it represented an investment of over $200,000, employed 106 men and 103 women, and had a gross annual production of 1/4 million dollars.
The village of "Shreveville" at that time included a school, a store, a barn, and stables, smoke and slaughter houses, about 50 workers' houses (mostly double units) and the mansion, which consisted of the three story hipped roof structure seen today with a one-story wing to the west and a few separate out buildings behind.
Despite all this success Shreveville was not to fare well in the 1850's. A nation-wide depression hit the cotton industry during those years and the Shreves were forced to meet expenses by mortgaging their property. Early in the decade both brothers died within a few months of each other, Samuel leaving a wife and eight children. In 1858 the property was again offered at sheriff's sale in order to satisfy creditors. The Civil War years extended the plight of the cotton industry and Shreveville lay nearly abandoned, well on its way to becoming a forgotten town.
Then, in 1865, Hezekiah Bradley Smith, a successful machinery production entrepreneur from Lowell, Massachusetts visited central Burlington County, in search of a new location for his business which had outgrown its old quarters. Shreveville struck Smith's fancy - located as it was in a rural area where labor costs would be low and yet close enough to Philadelphia and New York to allow for effective marketing and shipping of his product. Smith bought the town on December 6, 1865 for $23,000.
To this new setting Hezekiah brought Agnes Gilkerson, a young woman who had been a mill worker in Lowell. Finding her charm and talents wasted there, Smith had sent her to Penn Medical College in Philadelphia. At Smithville Agnes would serve as Smith's partner in developing a unique workers' community. She became the editor of the weekly journal, the "New Jersey Mechanic", a trade journal published at Smithville and distributed nationally. Agnes also helped found the Smithville Lyceum. Further, Agnes, who was known to all as Madam Smith. developed, produced and marketed her own hair restorative lotion.
Immediately upon arrival, the two set about the task of converting the all but (deserted village into a national industrial center. The task would eventually cost more than $500,000.
The first area to receive attention was the factory complex which Smith converted for the production of a wide variety of woodworking machines. The mill pond was enlarged, threadmills became machine shops, a foundry was built and new turbines replaced antiquated water wheels, The H.B. Smith Machine Company (incorporated 1878) would eventually manufacture 150 different styles of machines, hold patents for some 30 inventions and produce one, quarter of the nation's woodworking machinery.
At the same time. Smith turned his attentions toward the town which he renamed Smithville, and to his employees.
Workers' houses were renovated and new ones built. A boarding house was added to hold the many apprentices who came to work in the shop. Included in the building were a dining room, a reading room, and a large theatre (referred to as the "Opera House"). Nearby a bandstand was erected where the "H.B. Smith Military Band" played for the entertainment of the town's residents.
Working conditions were very progressive - Smith is said to have paid top wages, required only a nine hour day and closed the factory at noon on Saturday for the weekend. An early credit union, "The Smithville Beneficial Association" was also created for the exclusive use of Smith employees.
During the 1870's Smith systematically bought the surrounding farmland to the south and east, combining them into one large operation. The main barn, granary, and other farm buildings, many of them brick, were erected across the main road from the mansion. Most noteworthy was the 110 foot brick and iron observation tower constructed in 1878. Even though Smith was unable to purchase all the land he wanted, the farm constituted one of the largest in the county, having more than 300 acres under cultivation. The production of the farm was varied and supplied many of the meats, vegetables and dairy products consumed in the village.
Finally, "H.B." sought to adapt the Shreve Mansion to his own style of living, creating additional servants' quarters, and annexing a wing which engulfed or replaced an existing ice house, carriage house, and stable. "The Annex", which would serve as a political meeting place, included a game room, an immense billiard room with a vaulted ceiling, and a bowling alley. New stables and carriage houses were built and an enlarged school and town meeting house replaced an older school building on the grounds. Smith surrounded his Mansion with a high brick and stone wall surmounted by cast iron pickets. An extensive boxwood garden was laid out inside the wall and nearby a caretaker's house and glass conservatory were built.
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Through the 1880's the H.B. Smith Company blazed trails in new areas with great emphasis upon the mechanical means of transportation. A number of bicycles and tricycles were produced, including one which was steam powered. In 1887 a kerosene burning tricycle was assembled which included a three speed sliding gear and a high speed piston valve motor. Accounts relate that Smith, feeling the invention too far ahead of its time to be marketable, had further development tabled.
Of far greater success was the "Star" bicycle which was invented by George W. Pressey of Hammonton. The "Star", which differed from all previous high wheelers in that the larger wheel was in back with a smaller, guiding wheel in front, was created to insure greater stability. H.B. Smith produced the first "Star" in 1881. and following an impressive ad campaign (including the hiring of a well known athlete to ride down the steps of the capital building) the bicycle became one of the Company's most lucrative products.
Hezekiah blazed sonic new trails of his own during that time. He ran for Congress in 1878 on the Democratic and Greenback ticket and, with the help of "a moose, a rebel, and the company hand" he won. The moose, whose name was February, harnessed to a carriage was a novelty: the rebel, Alexander H. Stephens, former Vice-President of the Confederacy, was a curiosity and the H.B. Smith Military Band was always a pleasure to hear. Combined with Hezekiah Smith in 1878 they made an unbeatable team. Two years later, however, when Smith sought reelection, the novelty had worn off - his second bid was unsuccessful. Undaunted, he ran for and served a term in the New Jersey State Senate from 1883-1885.
Much of the joy, though, had gone out of Hezekiah Smith's life by that time, for in 1881, Agnes Gilkerson died. Her disconsolate benefactor mourned endlessly at the marble likeness he had created of her, which stood under a protectivecanopy in the Mansion's garden. Finding little solace in this, Hezekiah Smith died six years later, on November 3, 1887 at 71 vears of age and was buried under what seemed peculiar circumstances, in an unmarked grave beside that of Agnes. Smith's wooden casket was encased in an iron coffin and this was sealed in a block of concrete. H.B.'s precautions became apparent only after the wife, and son, with whom he had long since parted company, appeared to contest his will. In that document, Hezekiah Smith had bequeathed the entirety of his property and estate "to be held in trust, to be used in establishing and constructing a school for apprentices and young mechanics." The Smith heirs laid claim to the estate and a court battle ensued which was to last a decade.
During those years, the Company continued to function under the direction of William Kelley, a long-time Smith associate and a whole new chapter evolved in the history of the Company due to the invention of the "Bicycle Railway" by Arthur E., Hotchkiss. The railway, which was created to carry Smith Company employees who had to commute, to the factory from Mount Holly, resembled a rail fence upon which glided bicycles designed especially for that purpose. The rider sat between two wheels working the pedals up and down, rather than in a rotary motion. A third wheel, pressing against the bottom rail kept the bike in balance. Travelling at top speed (18 makes per hour) the rider could reach his destination in a matter of minutes. A number of problems developed almost immediately. Because a second track was never completed, when riders travelling in opposite directions met, one had to pull off onto a siding. Further, faster peddlers frequently lost patience with slower ones who would not pull over to let them pass. Finally, with the growing popularity of the safety bicycle, the restrictions inherent in a vehicle which could transport the rider only along a prescribed route eventually spelled the death of the line. Opened amidst great fanfare in 1892, the railway was in severe disrepair in 1898 when the Mount Holly and Smithville Bicycle Railway Company declared bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, H.B.'s son, Captain Elton A. Smith was to learn that his father's will was not as iron-clad as his coffin proved to be. While the younger Smith failed in his attempts to have his father's body exhumed for reburial at the family plot in Woodstock, Vermont, the courts decided the suit in the son's favor, and Smithville became once again the property of the Smith family. In 1899, Elton announced plans for yet another renovation of the mansion, for the installation of a new heating system and for the reduction of the wall around the mansion to a less formidable two feet. While the latter never came to pass, Captain Smith did succeed in granting one of his mother's final wishes (Eveline Verona Smith had died just prior to the court settlement). The marble status of Agnes was pulled from its pedestal. sinaslied into fragments, and scattered along a half mile stretch of the deepest part of the creek!
Following this, E.A. Smith set his mid to the rebuilding of the Smith Machine Company business which had deteriorated over the years. Sizeable sums were poured into the factory, long unused machinery was put back into working condition and in short order, Captain Smith, who displayed a respectable share of Yankee ingenuity in his own right, worked the Company's annual production up to an impressive $30,000,000. Thus, through the 1920's, at least. Smithville, under second and third generations of the family approached, again, the brilliance it had known in H.B.'s time.
Then came the Great Depression and the business was struck a blow from which it never really recovered. The vast world-wide markets disappeared, scores of workers were laid off, and the companies annual production plummeted to a dismal $8,000. For the, third time in its short history, Smithville waned.
But the company, now known as Smith Machine, did Survive and continues to operate today in Pennsylvania, employing a handful of people producing drum sanders.
Descendents of the Smith family continued to occupy the mansion until 1962 when it was aquired by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Thomas, tinder whose direction parts of the annex were converted into attractive apartments and who refurbished the mansion and grounds.
In 1975 the site was acquired by the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders for the purpose of its development as the County's first park. The Mansion, the Annex, and the village, all of which are listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, are currently under development for use by the County's residents as a county cultural and heritage center. With all of this newfound attention, Smithville is more than a place with a past, it has a future as well.
Brief History of Smithville Mansion, Eastampton, New Jersey,
http://www.burlco.lib.nj.us/county/smithville/