Morgan, New Jersey

Desk of Mr. D. W. Vanderbilt of New York City from the Snead & Co. Sales Brochure. Image Courtesy of Mr. Robert “Nick” McWhorter of Springfield, KY.

In late 2009, I stumbled across a “Victory Lamp” on an auction site on the internet.  I had never heard of such a thing and no one I knew in the area of Morgan, where and when I grew up there, had one or likely knew about them either.  Yet all the “Victory Lamps” assembled and sold by Snead and Company of Jersey City, NJ shortly after the Great War, later renamed to “World War I”, originated in Morgan, NJ.     

Before we go much further, an enormous “Thank You” needs to go to Mr. Robert “Nick” McWhorter of Springfield, KY.  Mr. McWhorter was kind enough to mail me not only photos of his Victory Lamp but copies of the original advertising brochures and assembly instructions his aunt, Thelma McIntyre, kept after she purchased Victory Lamp #822 for $18.40 in 1919 ($3 down payment, $3 a month for four months with a $3.40 final payment).  Mr. McWhorter was also kind enough to send a copy of a draft of a letter his aunt hand wrote to Snead & Co. regarding the lamp and a short bio about her.  She was quite an accomplished lady: Legal Secretary, Medical Technologist in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) during World War II, College Professor then Laboratory Head at two hospitals before getting married at 57, retiring, and living to over 100! This documentation, which survived 91 years only because of the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of his aunt, greatly helped me gain a full understanding of the history of the lamps, tie some disparate research together, as well as provided some interesting “threads” to look into further.     

The essence of these lamps, and their main component, was a 75mm artillery shell recovered from the remains of the beyond enormous series of explosions at the Morgan, NJ based T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant. This catastrophe (to be featured in a future posting) started in the early evening of October 4, 1918 and went on for something like three horrifying days.  The gigantic “Morgan Plant” was quickly built in 1918 to load explosives, e.g., Trinitrotoluene (TNT) and Amatol (TNT mixed with Ammonium Nitrate), into a wide range of sizes of artillery shells and casings for use by the US and its allies during World War I.     

Another distinct feature of the lamp was the lampshade which was designed specifically for the lamp by a noted artist of the time (see posting from May 9, 2010).  Snead and Company offered three options for how the lamps could be lit. Though pretty much unheard of these days when purchasing a table lamp for the home, these options were probably typical for the time period.  You could choose between either electric, kerosene (oil) or gas (not gasoline). My mother still remembers the gas street lamps which were installed on her street in Jersey City in the early twentieth century. San Diego, California features a “Gas Lamp District” celebrating the days when lighting was done by gas.  Berlin, Germany has many thousands of gas lights illuminating the city.     

Mr. McWhorter’s World War I “Victory Lamp”. Photo Courtesy of Mr. Robert “Nick” McWhorter of Springfield, KY.

The Lamp     

This unique and original lamp was composed of the following components:     

• Open top lamp shade patterned with specially designed art work.
• The 75mm artillery shell.
• Hardware to accommodate the light source option chosen: electric, oil or gas.
• Statuary finished spun brass base.
• Label on the bottom of the brass base.

The lamp in its entirety was patented by Angus S. MacDonald, Assignor to Snead and Company, in order “to prevent unscrupulous imitation” and so “… none but GENUINE “75’s” saved from the Morgan explosion will be used or CAN be used.” There were actually two patents for the lamp, one had the open top lampshade, and the other had a doughboy helmet as a lampshade. Filed for on March 6 and 14, 1919, respectively, patent numbers 53,224 and 53,225 were issued on April 22, 1919.    

The Shell
As stated, all the shells were recovered from Morgan after the explosions and reworked by Snead & Co. As per the brochure, “the economic conditions arising from the sudden stoppage of our war-work that made it possible, for the only time in the history of Snead & Co. (or of any other firm for that matter), to let their employees busy themselves with the fashioning of these shells into lamps and made possible their sale at less than HALF what a lamp of this class would cost.”     

The Inscriptions
The Snead & Co. artisans modified each shell in preparation for the lamp. Two engravings were made on each shell. The first one, located about half way down the shell, indicated “VICTORY NOV 11, 1918 75 M/M SHELL”. The second, significantly longer, was engraved on the copper driving band which is located about a fifth of the way up from the bottom of the shell and completely encircles it. This second inscription is from Isaiah 2:4 in the Old Testament: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”  Each 75mm shell was then finely polished and finished with dull ebony black baked enamel.     

The Lamp Shade
It appears that there were ultimately two types of lamp shades offered. The first lamp shade type featured a metal doughboy helmet. Quite likely this was the shade provided with the first lamps made available. The second one had an open top and was composed of Strathmore Vellum Parchment. The art work on the open top lamp shade was designed by Franklin Booth, a noted period artist best known for his stylized ink line drawings which captured the “feel” of wood engravings (see posting from May 9, 2010).  It was open on the top to allow for the venting of the burned oil or burned gas and, as the brochure states, “to allow light to be reflected from ceiling”. The helmet version was more suitable to the electric version it would seem.     

Franklin designed the lamp shade to have a different mood depending on whether the lamp was lit or unlit.  Without light, the shade portrayed a war scene.  With light, the lamp transformed to a scene of peace. This was done by having artwork both on the outside of the lamp shade as well as the inside. Franklin utilized design and color to create this transformation.  The antique tan and brown shaded drawings on the outside of the lamp and the rose colored tinted drawing on the inside of the lamp, while different, were designed to overlap when lit.     

Each shade was hand sewed and hand colored.     

The Label
One of the things to look for if you buy a Snead & Co. Victory Lamp is a paper label on the bottom of the brass base.  The label says:     

“75 M/M VICTORY LAMP”
Manufactured by the Snead & Company (some added “Iron Works” and some didn’t).
Founded 1849   Jersey City, NJ
This lamp was made from a genuine U.S. Government French-American 75 M/M Shell saved from the Morgan explosion.
Snead Lamps are patented as follows:
April 22, 1919   May 10, 1919   June 3, 1919
Other patents pending     

Of all the lamps sold on the on-line auction sites (e.g., eBay, Manions, Worthpoint), and they have been showing up at the rate of around one per month, they have all been electric and I have not seen one which still had the original Franklin Booth shade available. I did see one which had the doughboy helmet though.     

Interestingly enough, while most everyone in 1919 was familiar with what the “Morgan explosion” was, by the time 2010 came along, most people had no idea – including many who live in Morgan.  Hopefully this web site will help change that.     

Snead Stationary Logo. Image Courtesy of Mr. Robert “Nick” McWhorter of Springfield, KY.

Illustration of Book Stack and Shelving Manufactured by Snead & Co. Iron Works.

My Son Sean at Age 10, at the USS Constitution in Boston, MA.

Regarding Morgan’s Bayview Manor (see April 24, 2009 posting), according to the testimony of Captain Oliver A. Phelps, an officer in the Bureau of Ordnance at the 1919 Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations of the US House of Representatives, “It was build by an old sea captain at a place where it commanded a view of a wide sweep of the ocean [he meant bay], clear around to Sandy Hook and all that section of the ocean. That was built by an old sea captain by the name of Conover.” 

OK, so who was Captain Conover? 

According to what records I am able to find on the internet (I live in California and do research for an area in New Jersey so I can’t just pop over to the South Amboy Library), Thomas Anderson Conover died in South Amboy, NJ on September 25, 1864.  Note that as of 1864, Morgan was part of South Amboy.  Sayreville, the borough which Morgan is part of, didn’t separate from South Amboy until 1876. South Amboy now borders Morgan to the north (and provides postal service to Morgan). Being that the population of South Amboy was 4,000 in 1886 (7,913 in the year 2000) and Thomas Anderson Conover had been in the US Navy for over 50 years and commanded a number of naval vessels, it seems most probable that he was the “old sea captain by the name of Conover.” How many old sea captains by the name of Conover could there be in a city with a population of under 4000? 

Thomas Anderson Conover was born in nearby Monmouth, NJ on April 17, 1791 to James Conover and Margaret Anderson Conover.  

Since we’re on the topic of population, according to the 1790 census, the first census of the newly formed United States and the year before he was born, there were 184,139 inhabitants of New Jersey including 11,423 slaves.  In South Amboy specifically, there were: 

• 642 Free white Males of 16 years and upwards, including heads of Families.
• 597 Free white Males under 16 years.
• 1196 Free white Females, including heads of families
• 8 All other free Persons.
• 183 Slaves
• 2626 Total number.

We’ll get to his naval career in a moment – first his family.  

He married Elizabeth Juliana Stevens on July 31, 1821.  Don’t know where they met or got married.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Col. John Stevens and Rachel Cox.  John Stevens is significant in New Jersey history for many reasons; the most significant relating to Morgan is that he was the visionary that initiated the creation of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. The “Amboy” in this name is South Amboy. While her brother Robert Livingston Stevens was sailing to England to purchase the locomotive now known as the John Bull (which in a way ultimately inspired me to pursue the history of Morgan/South Amboy which in turn lead to the creation of this web site – see the posting from August 19, 2009), he invented an improvement to the railroad track which is still in use today through Morgan and all around the world, the T-rail.  Robert and another brother, Edwin Augustus Stevens, constructed the Camden and Amboy Railroad – the first railroad in New Jersey – which began limited operational service on October 1, 1832. As a matter of interest, her third brother, John Cox Stevens, was the main player in the New York Yacht Club syndicate which designed, built and raced the yacht ‘America’ around England’s Isle of Wright. That race, run on August 22, 1851, was later named for the winning yacht and is now known as “The America’s Cup”. 

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ was started by an endowment from Elizabeth’s brother Edwin Augustus Stevens after he died in 1868. Some point of time in the early 1800’s the Stevens family lived in South Amboy in a mansion known as Mount Sterling somewhere near present day Christ Church. 

John and Elizabeth Conover had five children.  You’ll note that three of them had “Stevens” as their middle name, a practice still done today by descendents of famous families: 

• Francis Stevens Conover, 1822 – 1901
• Mary Rachel Conover, born 1826
• Caroline Conover, born 1830 – 1875
• Richard Stevens Conover, 1832 – 1912
• Sophia Stevens Conover, 1835 – 1914

The following are some highlights of Commodore Conover’s 50+ year Naval Career: 

• Joined the US Navy as a Midshipman on Jan 1, 1812, just five months before the beginning of the War of 1812.  This was well before the US Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Maryland in 1845. His first cruise at sea was on the frigate Essex during the war.
• Commanded the gunboat Borer during the second battle of Lake Champlain in 1814 during the War of 1812. 
• Served on the Frigate Guerriere (named for a British ship sunk by the US Frigate Constitution in 1812) in the Mediterranean.
• Commanded the Frigate John Adams starting in the mid 1830s.
• Captain of the USS Independence starting in mid 1849 as part of the Mediterranean Squadron ironically under the command of a senior officer named Charles Morgan.
• Assumed command of the USS Constitution on September 18, 1849, after the previous Captain died in Palermo, Italy, until January 16, 1851. Constitution’s nickname is “Old Iron Sides” and it is the oldest commissioned vessel afloat in the US Navy and also the world. It is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts and is available for visitors.
• Commanded the African Squadron starting in 1857 on board the flagship USS Cumberland. The purpose of the African Squadron was to suppress the slave trade by intercepting ships ferrying captured Africans from the western coast of Africa.  Ron Soodalter, in his book “Hanging Captain Gordon: The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader”, gave a scathing account of Commander Conover’s time while in command of the African Squadron, “After 26 months at sea, Conover had spent fewer than 26 days on active patrol of the Slave Coast. He arrested but one slave ship…” Note that during the Civil War, the USS Cumberland became the first wooden ship sunk by the new technological wonder the ironclad CSS Virginia (which was built from the remains of the USS Merrimack). This sinking happened the day before the ironclad USS Monitor battled with the CSS Virginia in the world’s first battle between ironclad ships. One other piece of trivia regarding ironclad ships, brothers-in-law Robert & Edwin Stevens designed an ironclad ship for the US government at their Hoboken, NJ estate years before the Civil War.
• He was one of the first officers to be promoted to the newly created rank of Commodore on July 16, 1862.

Commodore Conover died at age 73 in 1864.  Elizabeth Conover far outlived her husband.  She died in 1912 at age 114 – just 15 days short of her 115^th birthday. 

We don’t know yet exactly when Bayview Manor was built. I must presume that present day Conover Street in South Amboy was named for the Commodore.