Surname Saturday: Folger
This surname is interesting to me because as I began to research it I discovered that one of its spelling variations is the same as some of my ancestors (Fulcher). I would have never made the connection, but I will soon be researching that further.
The Folger surname is believed to be of Germanic origin and probably first seen in England when William the Conqueror and his forces crossed the English Channel. The spelling at that time might have been slightly different as “Foulger” or “Fulcher” (or “Fulchar”). The theory about those bearing the surname is plausible since Fulcher/Fulchar broken down translates as “Folk” (people) and “Hari” (army), or “people’s army”.
Spelling variations include: Fulcher, Foulger, Folger, Fulker, Folker, Futcher, Fuge, Fudge, Fullager and many more. The name first appeared in Lincolnshire and Derbyshire around the time of William the Conqueror. According to House of Names, “the Fulchers were known as the Champions of Burgundy and records were found of the name spelt Fulchere in Normandy (1180-1195). They also note that the Folger surname could have been derived from an Anglo-Saxon word “folgere” which means a free man who attended someone else.
The Folger name is, of course, synonymous with “the best part of waking’ up is Folgers in your cup”™. First though, a little about the earliest Folgers to come to America. John Folger and his son Peter immigrated to America, landing in Boston and eventually settled on Nantucket Island. Peter was also the grandfather of one of the most famous Americans, Benjamin Franklin.
Peter Folger
Peter Folger was born in 1617 in England to parents John and Meribah (Gibbs) Folger and his family came to America around 1635, first settling around Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1644 Peter married Mary Morrell (or Morrill). Peter may have attended university before immigrating because he was skilled in mathematical sciences, working as a surveyor of both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
At one point Peter became a Baptist and after moving to Nantucket was said to have evangelized the local Indians and performed baptisms, assisting Reverend Thomas Mayhew. Peter and Mary had several children: Joanna, Bethiah, Dorcas, Eleazar, Bethsheba, Patience, John, Experience and Abiah (Benjamin Franklin’s mother).
As Nantucket was in the beginning stages of settlement, five persons were chosen to survey it, Peter being one. For his services apparently he was granted a half share of land in July 1663, provided he came to live there within a year with his family and agree to serve as interpreter with the Indians. Peter agreed and spent the rest of his life on Nantucket, immersing himself in the civic affairs of his community.
In addition to his mission work with the Indians, he also served as clerk of courts for several years. Peter made his mark, garnering recognition from Cotton Mather, who believed him to be a learned and pious person. A poem Peter wrote and published in 1675/1676 was included in his grandson’s autobiography, entitled A Looking Glass for the Times, or the Former Spirit of New England Revived in this Generation. He may have established himself as one of the first to advocate freedom of religious belief for all, be they Quakers, Catholics, Anabaptists or Puritans.
James Athearn Folger
James Athearn (J.A.) Folger was descended from Peter Folger through his son Eleazar, and was born on June 17, 1835 to parents Samuel Brown and Nancy Hill Folger. Samuel was a master blacksmith who invested in the manufacture of tryworks, a trywork being the most prominent feature located aft of the fore-mast on a whaling ship, and also purchased two ships.
In 1846 a fire destroyed the family business and eleven year-old James helped his family rebuild. In 1849 gold fever gripped the nation and fourteen year-old James set out with his older brothers Henry and Edward that fall to seek out their fortunes in California. They boarded a ship for Panama, hiked across the Isthmus and caught a ship to California on the other side, arriving on May 8, 1850.
By the time the three Folger young men arrived, there wasn’t enough money left to allow all three to travel from San Francisco to the gold mining towns. James remained in San Francisco to earn his way to the mines while his brothers proceeded without him.
Commercially roasted coffee had been around since the beginning of the nineteenth century, but considered a luxury by most. Ground coffee had not even been conceived of yet. That would soon change, however, when William H. Bovee hired James to erect the first mill in San Francisco to produce ground coffee, The Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills.
James worked for Bovee for almost a year before he saved enough to join his brothers. He agreed to also take samples of coffee and spices and take orders from general stores throughout mining country.
When James returned to San Francisco in 1865, he had apparently succeeded well enough to become a full partner of Pioneer. In 1872 he bought out his partners and renamed his company J.A. Folger & Co. In 1861 he married Eleanor Laughran and together they had four children.
After James became the sole owner his focus turned to producing bulk-roasted coffee which was delivered in drums and sacks to stores. His son James, Jr. worked in the family business and took over after his father died on June 26, 1889.
I’ve been conducting research for a friend this year (see my articles here and here) and found she was related to a host of famous families who all lived on Nantucket, including the Folgers, Macys, Bunkers, Coffins and Starbucks. With this new insight on the origins of the Folger name and its possible roots in the German name Fulcher, I’m excited to see if perhaps I might have a connection to the Folgers further down the line. Stay tuned . . . if perchance I find out someday I’m also related to Benjamin Franklin, you’ll definitely hear about it here!
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Feisty Females: Mary Ann Bickerdyke (Part One)
General William Tecumseh Sherman declared at one point during the Civil War that she outranked him. She was not a push-over and wasn’t about to be pushed aside by Army regulations either. The Union soldiers she tended called her “Mother Bickerdyke” and they cheered her presence as they would their commanding generals.
She was born Mary Ann Ball on July 19, 1817 in Knox County, Ohio to parents Hiram and Annie Rodgers Ball. Annie died when Mary Ann was about seventeen months old, so Mary Ann was sent to live with her mother’s parents until Hiram remarried a few years later. Mary Ann, however, decided she preferred to live with her Rodgers grandparents.
This article is no longer available on this web site. It will, however, be published (complete with footnotes and sources) in a future issue of Digging History Magazine.
I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Joseph Oklahombi
His name literally meant “man-killer” or “people-killer” in Choctaw – and even today he is still considered the most heroic Oklahoman who served in World War I. As one web site put it, Joseph Oklahombi was a “Choctaw, Doughboy, Code Talker and Mighty Warrior.”
Joseph Oklahombi, a full-blood Choctaw, was born on May 1, 1894 (or 1895) in the Kiamichi Mountains of McCurtain County, Oklahoma Indian Territory. He married Agnes Watkins and they had at least one child, Jonah. The book Comanche Code Talkers of World War II, states that Joseph, an orphan, was underage and lied about his age. Not sure about that because if he was born in 1894 or 1895 he would have been over twenty-one years old in 1917 — hardly underage.
It is implied on his World War I draft registration record that perhaps Joseph and Agnes hadn’t been married long and had no children yet because the reason he gave for exemption from service was “support of wife”. A bit of puzzlement, however, as his registration record says that he was a “Farmer (in Jail)”.
Joseph and Agnes lived in a remote area with few neighbors, and according to the Choctaw Code Talkers Association, Joseph walked from his home to Idabel, county seat of McCurtain County, to enlist. I couldn’t find any official records as to when he actually entered the service, but he joined hundreds of Native Americans, who although not yet citizens of the United States at the time, volunteered to go overseas and fight the Germans. As the Texas Military Forces Museum web site described it, Choctaw warriors were faithful to serve along American soldiers, “fulfilling a prophecy by Pushmataha, a Choctaw chief who died in 1827, that the Choctaw ‘War Cry’ would be heard in many foreign lands.”
Private Joseph Oklahombi joined the army and was assigned to the Thirty-Sixth Division, Company D, 141st Infantry, probably sent to Europe following training sometime in the spring of 1918. In October 1918 several Choctaw soldiers (including Joseph), in both the 141st and 142nd, were called upon to send and translate messages in their native tongue to thwart the Germans who had already broken radio codes several times. According to The American Army and the First World War, the Choctaw language had no words for such terms as “machine gun” and “casualties”, so instead they used phrases like “little gun shoot fast” and “scalp”.
On October 8, Joseph and twenty-three fellow soldiers who had been cut off from the rest of their company came upon a large group of Germans (a machine gun placement). Joseph is said to have crossed “No Mans Land” several times going back and forth with coded messages and assisting the wounded.
At one point he went about two hundred yards in the open against artillery and machine gun fire. After rushing one of the German gun nests, he seized the machine gun and began firing on the enemy. The Americans held the enemy at bay for four days and captured one hundred and seventy-one Germans. For his acts of bravery, Joseph was awarded the Silver Cross by General Pershing and the Croix de Guerre by the French.
Oklahombi was a skilled marksman, believed to have killed the enemy by the dozens according to several accounts. One day he had come upon a group of Germans pausing for a meal and resting in a cemetery that was surrounded by high walls and a gate. Joseph covered the gate with intense fire and may have killed as many as seventy-nine.
After returning home from the war, Joseph went back to his life as a farmer. He didn’t talk much about his war experiences, but as the world again began assembling for war again in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, he was prepared to serve again if necessary.
By that time Joseph was in his mid-forties and son Jonah was working with the Civilian Conservation Corps in Idabel. He followed world events and in October of 1940 was quoted as saying, “The United States must prepare and do it immediately.” He believed “the European war is more horrible than the World war.” He added that he wasn’t in favor of war, “but if the peace of the United States is molested, we must be prepared to defend ourselves.”
As all men of a certain age were required at that time Joseph registered for the draft in 1942, but never called to serve. He was said to have been reluctant to talk about his war experiences, at one point deciding he would no longer speak English. When honored at a public reception at Southeastern State College, he only spoke in his native Choctaw language. At one point he was offered a Hollywood movie role, turning it down because he refused to leave his home in Oklahoma.
According to the Miami (OK) Daily News-Record, Joseph applied for a pension but wasn’t successful in receiving one until 1933 when he received twelve dollars a month. After the pension was terminated, Joseph was left destitute and appealed for help in 1937. A newspaper article about his plight brought job offers and he took one at a Wright City lumber company. His fellow Choctaw tribesman often honored him at their tribal dances and celebrations.
Sadly, Joseph Oklahombi was struck and killed by a truck while walking along a road on April 13, 1960. The man driving the panel truck was charged with manslaughter. Joseph Oklahombi was buried with military honors in Yashau Cemetery near Broken Bow, Oklahoma. His name appears with his fellow Choctaw Code Talkers at the Choctaw War Memorial in Tuskahoma, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma.
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Surname Saturday: Thing
This surname was a bit of a challenge to research. The word “Thing” is so commonly used today, even in a slangy-sort-of way, it’s definitely hard to find a way for a search engine to yield the desired results. But there is at least one interesting theory as to the origins of this somewhat unusual surname.
It is believed to have been a medieval surname, dating back hundreds of years, and could have been a nickname for a slender or lean person, according to the Internet Surname Database. The name may have derived from an Olde English word “thynne” which could have also referred to a location, a village in East Yorkshire by the name of “Thwing” and literally meaning “long and thin.” A spelling variation related to that theory may have been “Thying”.
House of Names had the most interesting theory, however, because they believe it derives from a name which is not even close in spelling or pronunciation. Their theory is that the name was originally “Botfield” or “Botville”, introduced in England when two men named Geoffrey and Oliver Bouteville arrived from France around 1180.
From their lineage came a man named “John Boteville” who counseled at Lincoln’s Inn and was referred to as “John of th’Inn”. House of Names admits, however, that the name could just have well arisen out of intermarriage between the Botville and Thynne families.
If that’s the case, then there are several unusual spelling variations, including: Botfield, Botville, Boteville, Botfeld, Botevile, Thynne, Tyne, Tine, Tynes, O’Tyne, Thinn, O’Thinn, Thin, Then, Them and many others. (House of Names)
Early Things in America
One of the earliest Things to come to America was Jonathan Thing, born in 1621. It does get a little confusing, though, because there were several people with that exact name, at least two of them with the rank of Captain. Another Captain Jonathan Thing appears to have been born around 1654 and died in 1694, supposedly by a self-inflicted gunshot as he was falling from his horse. Those two Jonathan Things may have been father and son as both appear to have lived in Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
There seems to have been a concentrated population of Things in both Maine and New Hampshire, and perhaps a few of the Things intermarried with some of the historic Nantucket families. For instance, Abigail Coffin married Bartholomew Thing. For more on the Coffin surname and history you can read an article here.
Unusually Named Things
Just browsing through Find-A-Grave entries, I saw some unusual Thing names. For instance, Blanche Arlene Thyng Thing was born in 1896 and died at the age of one hundred in 1996. She is buried in York County, Maine. Her father William Thyng married Georgia Coffin (some of the Coffins migrated to Maine from Nantucket). Blanche’s husband was Ralph Shepley Thing.
Ralph’s parents were Ether and Adelaide Thing. Apparently someone transcribed Ether and Adelaide’s marriage record incorrectly and he is referred to as Esther S. Thing quite often. The official Massachusetts marriage record clearly spells his name “Ether” and the Methodist Church record sort of looks like “Esther”. Nevertheless, I’m betting Blanche and Ralph were perhaps distant cousins, each with a slight variation in the spelling of their surname.
Datus Thing was born in Maine in 1847 and died at the age of seventeen. Converse M. Thing was born in Maine in 1834. Hannah Thing Thing, another likely cousin marriage, was born in York County, Maine in 1805. A couple of “royal names” I ran across: King David Thing who was born in York County, Maine in 1858 and Prince Thing born around 1853 in Maine. These two “royals” were probably cousins because they don’t appear together in the same family on the 1860 census records.
Sad Things
Prince may have been the son of the last Thing I’ll mention – Levi, born around 1807 in Maine – since the name appears on the 1860 census, right above his brother “No Name Thing”, said to have been one year old(?). Levi was a farmer and according to the census records of 1850, 1860 and 1870 held property valued from $250 to $500 over that span of years. By 1870 several of his children, including Prince, still lived with him and his wife Roxanna.
However, by 1880 something radical had happened to Levi. Roxanna is not enumerated with him, even though Levi is listed as married and a boarder with the William Charles family of Rome, Kennebec, Maine (same town and location Levi had been enumerated in for the previous three censuses). There must have been a sad story, for Levi’s occupation was listed as “town pauper” . . . poor Thing.
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Far-Out Friday: Memento Mori (It Was A Victorian Thing)
Today it sounds kinda creepy, but post-mortem pictures were not uncommon, especially during the Victorian era. I’m not talking about taking pictures of the dearly departed in their casket – that is practiced even today as a way to have closure when a loved one passes. The term used for the practice is “memento mori”, which in Latin means “remember death.”
This article has been removed from the web site. It will, however, be updated and published in the September-October 2019 issue of Digging History Magazine. The article will include pictures, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Ghost Town Wednesday: Cayuga, Oklahoma
Today it’s still considered a census-populated area but there’s not much left of the original town site. Mathias established successful businesses and made some shrewd land deals while a resident of Kansas, a place he migrated to after being removed from the Sandusky, Ohio area with a large group of Wyandot Indians in 1843.
This article is no longer available for free at this site. It was re-written and enhanced, complete with sources and has been published in the September 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine. This particular issue features several stories related to Oklahoma history, including the state’s radical past. Other articles include: “When Red Meant Radical: Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Socialism”, “Give Me That Old Time Socialism”, “Dying (or Lying) to Get on the Dawes Rolls (or how my ancestors were Indians one minute and the next, not so much)”, and more. Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.
I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Mathias Splitlog
The subject of today’s Tombstone Tuesday article has been referred to as the “millionaire Indian”. By all accounts, like the 1980’s Smith-Barney advertisement, he “made money the old-fashion way” – he earned it. His story is widely available, but this article is a summary highlighting his life and accomplishments in honor of November being National Native American Heritage Month.
Most family historians believe that Mathias Splitlog was born in 1812, although exactly where he was born is unclear. Some believe he was born in Ontario, Canada and was one-half Cayuga Indian and one-half French, while others believe he was born in New York. One source indicates that some believe he might have been stolen by Indians and reared by Wyandot Indians in Ohio.
This article was enhanced, complete with sources, and featured in the September 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine, an issue featuring the great state of Oklahoma. Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.
I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Military History Monday: Native American Code Talkers of World War I
November is the month we celebrate Veterans Day and it’s also National Native American Heritage Month. In honor of those designations and Military History Monday, today’s article will honor the Native American code talkers of World War I.
The first thing to be noted is these Native American soldiers were not officially United States citizens at the time, nor were they allowed to vote, yet they served honorably and with distinction. According to research conducted by the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, over twelve thousand Native Americans, representing about one-fourth of the entire male population of American Indians at that time, were serving their country during World War I.
The United States reluctantly entered the war in April of 1917. Throughout the war, the Germans had been able to break radio codes being transmitted from the other side. With secret codes being broken, runners between companies were used, but that didn’t work very well either because they were subject to German capture.
Choctaw Code Talkers
According to Bishinik, the official publication of The Choctaw Nation, near the end of the war a group of Oklahoma Choctaws serving in the 141st and 142nd Infantry were called upon to help the American Expeditionary Force win several battles in the Mousse-Argonne campaign. One day a captain walking around the camp overheard Solomon Lewis and Mitchell Bobb talking in their native language.
He took Corporal Lewis aside and asked how many more Choctaw were serving in their battalion. Lewis and Bobb were asked to send a message in their native language to Ben Carterby, another Choctaw soldier stationed at headquarters. Upon receiving the message, Carterby translated it and delivered it in English to the commander – a successful secret transmission, undecipherable by the enemy.
Just hours later, eight men fluent in the Choctaw language were shifted around so that at least one of them was stationed in each field company headquarters. Messages were also written in Choctaw and delivered by runners between the companies. The strategy worked and within twenty-four hours the tide had turned in favor of American forces. The new American code had accomplished its goal – confound and confuse the Germans.
After their initial success, another eleven Choctaw Code talkers were pressed into service. The list of all Choctaw Code Talkers is as follows:
Albert Billy
Ben Carterby
Benjamin Colbert, Jr.
Benjamin Hampton
Calvin Wilson
George Davenport
James Edwards
Jeff Nelson
Joseph Davenport
Joseph Oklahombi
Mitchell Bobb
Noel Johnson
Pete Maytubbe
Robert Taylor
Solomon Lewis
Tobias Frazier
Otis Leader
Victor Brown
Walter Veach
You can read more about their service here. Look for an article next week on Tombstone Tuesday (also Veterans Day) honoring Joseph Oklahombi.
Cherokee Code Talkers
Cherokees serving in the 36th Infantry Division were also pressed into telephone service, tasked with the same mission – confound the enemy. One Cherokee soldier in particular, George Adair, was intensely patriotic and proud to serve.
George could trace his roots back to a Scottish ancestor by the name of James Adair. According to History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore, he counted “this service among the proudest days of his life, for was he not fighting shoulder to shoulder with his kilted kinsmen of Scotland.”
In 1924 Congress granted United States citizenship to all Native Americans. For years, identities were kept secret, but in 2002 long overdue honors and recognition were accorded to all Native American code talkers of both World War I and II. Although many had passed away by that time, we still honor their service to our country. God Bless them all and God Bless America!
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Surname Saturday: Danforth
Danforth
The Danforth surname is a locational or habitational name, possibly meaning “ford in the valley” or someone dwelling in a hidden ford or settlement. It may refer to locations in England such as: Darnford in Suffolk, Great Durnford in Wiltshire or Derford Farm in Cambridgeshire (House of Names).
The name Derneford first appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 without a surname and may have been a form of the Old English word “Dierneford”. In 1200 the name Darneford (no surname) was recorded in Surrey. There are several spelling variations: Danforth, Danford, Danforde, Danforthe, Damforth and more.
Four early immigrants of the Danforth clan came to New England in 1634: Nicholas Danforth, father and sons Thomas, Samuel and Jonathan Danforth.
Nicholas Danforth
Nicholas Danforth, a minister, was born in 1589 in Suffolk. He married Elizabeth Symmes, but she died in 1629 before the family emigrated in 1634. Nicholas brought his children Thomas, Samuel, Jonathan and daughters Anna, Elizabeth and Lydia. The Danforths were conservative Puritans who fled England to escape religious persecution.
After arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Nicholas immersed himself in civic affairs as a member of the general court, and became one of Cambridge’s leading citizens. When he died in 1638 he left his land to Thomas, as well as the care of his younger children.
Thomas Danforth
Thomas Danforth was born in 1623, so at the time of his father’s death he was but fifteen years old. By 1643 he had been admitted as a freeman to the colony, granting him the right to vote and to participate in civic affairs. He married Mary Withington in 1644, and like his father, was a conservative Puritan.
At that time, most Puritans would have been especially critical of the Quakers – in 1659 three Quakers were executed by public hanging in Boston. King Charles II was not pleased about the mistreatment of Quakers and demanded they be allowed to express their religious beliefs freely. Thomas helped draft a response to the King, declaring that colonists believed their government ultimately triumphed except in specific cases where there was conflict with English law.
Thomas participated in the founding of Harvard College, serving as its treasurer from 1650 to 1669. By the 1670’s King Charles was placing more demands on colonists regarding trade and freedom to express one’s religious beliefs. Thomas staunchly opposed those demands and even ran for governor in 1684 – narrowly losing. The loss, however, did grant him some power with the post of deputy governor.
For a brief time in 1692, Thomas Danforth, as acting governor, played a small part in the initial Salem witch trial proceedings. Thomas served as one of the presiding judges of the Superior Court beginning in April.
Having inherited his father’s lands, Thomas started out well and continued to amass wealth and property. He lived near Harvard and also owned a large tract of land (ten thousand acres) in Framingham, once called “Danforth’s Farms.” Thomas and Mary had several children: Sarah, Mary, Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan (two named Jonathan), Joseph, Benjamin, Elizabeth and Bertha. Mary died in 1697, followed by Thomas’ death in 1699.
Samuel Danforth
Samuel Danforth, born in 1626, came to New England with Nicholas in 1634. Following Nicholas’ death, Samuel went to live with Thomas Shepard, pastor of a Cambridge church. By 1643, he had graduated from Harvard, remaining there until 1650 as a tutor. According to Danforth Genealogy, “he was destined for the ministry in accordance with the expressed desire of his mother, who died when he was but three years old.”
Samuel studied astronomy at Harvard and later published three almanacs containing his own original poetry, as well as calendars, tide and astronomical dates and brief bits of New England history. Samuel kept meticulous church records and a journal which contained details of significant events such as the comet Orion in 1652, eclipses and more.
In 1651 he married Mary Wilson and together they had several children, many who died in infancy (and their names used again): Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Samuel, Sarah, Thomas, Elizabeth and Abiel, born after Samuel died. Samuel Danforth, pastor of a church in Roxbury at the time, died at the age of forty-eight years in 1674.
Jonathan Danforth
Jonathan Danforth, youngest son of Nicholas and Elizabeth Danforth, was born in 1628. He married Elizabeth Powter in 1654 and a few years later moved to Billerica, a new town established by residents of Cambridge. Like his father and brothers, he participated in civic affairs as a selectman, town clerk and captain of the local militia.
His skills as a land surveyor were put to use as the town of Billerica was settled. He helped lay out farms, towns and highways in Massachusetts and throughout the region. Records indicate that he surveyed parts of New Hampshire as early as 1659. His last survey was dated March 1702, so Jonathan was active well into old age. His surveys of New England helped further expansion and settlement throughout Massachusetts and beyond.
Jonathan and Elizabeth had eleven children: Mary, Elizabeth, Jonathan, John (twice and both died in infancy), Lydia, Samuel, Anna, Thomas, Nicholas and Sarah. Elizabeth died in 1689 and the next year Jonathan married Esther Champney. Jonathan died in 1712 at the age of eighty-five.
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Feudin’ and Fightin’ Friday: The Great Hopewell Frog War
While doing some family research last week, I came across something called a “frog war”. What’s a frog war? I’ve done some “frog” stories, one called “The Battle of the Frogs” and one about an old horned toad named Rip, but this one isn’t about an amphibious creature or a lizard. This one had to do with railroad lines.
Hopewell Frog War
In the late eighteenth and into the early nineteenth century, the fledgling new American government began building a series of turnpikes, toll roads and canals to facilitate transportation of goods, as well as westward expansion. A Revolutionary War veteran, lawyer and politician by the name of John Stevens III experimented with steam in the early 1800’s and was the first to construct a steam-powered locomotive in the United States, testing it on a track which ran around his Hoboken, New Jersey estate.
The railroad boom between 1830 and 1860 saw numerous long-distance and regional rail lines established, accompanied by fierce competition for business and less dependence on waterways for transporting goods. New Jersey, on the eastern seaboard, was an important launch point to transport goods westward.
In April of 1846 the Pennsylvania Railroad, or “Pennsy” as it was sometimes called, received its charter to begin the process of surveying and laying track. Its main objective was to provide a link between Philadelphia and the West, as well as compete with the likes of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O). By 1852, the Pennsy was on-line and doing well – revenues greatly exceeded expectations.
In 1850 the Pennsy had also become the first railroad to operate its own coal mining operations in northeastern Pennsylvania. Steadily the Pennsy would grow to be one of the largest railroads in the country, with an operating budget exceeding that of the United States government, according to Pennsylvania Railroad History. With control of ten thousand miles of track and affiliations with hundreds of other rail lines, the Pennsy was one mighty railroad – considered by some to hold a monopoly.
The Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad (DBB) was established in 1874, a year after New Jersey had passed a law allowing smaller lines to challenge the likes of the Pennsy and compete for routes taking passengers from Philadelphia to New York. The Delaware and Bound Brook would connect Jenkintown in Pennsylvania to Bound Brook, New Jersey and then connect with the New Jersey Central line to Jersey City and beyond.
The Pennsy had a branch in the Hopewell, New Jersey area called the Mercer & Somerset Railway, lying directly in the path of the right-of-way for the Delaware and Bound Brook. To accommodate the “conflict”, the DBB would need to construct a “frog”. In simple terms, a frog refers to the common point where two rails cross, or as the Scotch Plains Times described it in a 1963 article: “an intersection whereby trains on one line cross the tracks of another.”
That shouldn’t have been a big deal, as the newspaper continued, “normally frogs could be laid with no more noise than the sound of sledges striking spikes.” This frog was different because it audaciously challenged the Pennsy monopoly in western New Jersey. On the morning of January 5, 1876 the DBB would lay down the gauntlet, so to speak – but not without a show of Pennsy might.
The Pennsy had little regard for the law passed in 1873 and sent a train to sit idling at the exact spot where the frog was to be installed. When the 7:15 a.m. southbound Mercer & Somerset was approaching (an affiliate of the Pennsy), the Pennsy train was backed onto a siding. However, DBB workers had been watching from surrounding bushes and suddenly ran out toward the sidelined train.
DBB workers placed steel rails and wooden ties in front of the Pennsy train, chained it to the tracks, and erected a barrier to prevent other trains from coming through until they were able to lay down the frog. Pennsy headquarters got wind of what was happening and sent their own men to board a locomotive at Millstone, proceed to Hopewell and ram through the barricade.
The train from Millstone headed west to Trenton and then turned northward toward Hopewell at an incredible speed for that day – thirty-one miles in thirty minutes! A DBB locomotive had been pulled up to protect the area where the frog was to be installed, but the Millstone train, seeing no impediments at all, rammed through the barricade and into the DBB train. As you might imagine, this little “frog war” caused quite a stir in the surrounding area.
Both railroads sent reinforcements, the Pennsy sending a train which could feed up to six hundred men if necessary. Seeing hundreds of railroad workers facing off, with hundreds of spectators and the press watching, the Mercer County sheriff called on New Jersey governor Joseph Bedle to send the militia.
The militia arrived around midnight and you’d think things would calm down and no further challenges from either side would be made. However, the next morning it became apparent that the locals were standing with DBB when they helped ripped up Pennsy track, forcing the Pennsy engineer to head out over a trackless area – the crowd cheered at the departure.
The courts, enforcing the law on the books, quickly ruled that the Pennsylvania Railroad had no right to interfere with the frog-laying by the Delaware and Bound Brook. The Pennsy agreed to abide by the law, and the militia made a regal affair out of their “victory” by dressing up in full uniform and reading the court order at a ceremony.
he Pennsy wrecks were hauled away, and as the crowd watched, the frog was put in place at 2:00 p.m. on January 8. DBB Locomotive No. 37 was the first train to cross the frog. The “Great Hopewell Frog War” was thus concluded and had brought an end to railroad monopolies in New Jersey. Perhaps the Reading Railroad liked the DBB’s “moxie” – in 1879 they leased the Delaware and Bound Brook for 999 years, essentially merging the two lines.
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