Morgan, New Jersey

The second documented source is page 339 from a land record index known as the “Colonial Conveyances in the Providence of New Jersey, 1664-1794″ which was provided to me by my school friend, Joe. On this page are the following two entries:

• 27 May 1710 – a tract of land “On S/si of Raritan River” from Richard Townley to Charles Morgan.
• 26 August 1730 – a tract of land “near Cheesequake, Middlesex” from George Leslie to Charles Morgan.

While the above is all well and good, it still doesn’t answer the question. Thus far the closest documented description of the location of the mansion/manor is contained in the 1932 book “This Old Monmouth of Ours” by William S. Hornor. This book is composed of reprints of articles from the defunct newspaper The Freehold Transcript which means the information is even older. One portion of it discusses the location of the mansion of the Morgan Family:

“Captain James Morgan, (the wealthy General Morgan of Revolutionary times) [VJ: they are confusing Captain James Morgan, Sr. and Major General James Morgan, Jr.], lived on the high bluff immediately north of the mouth of Cheesequake Creek, where the fire-blackened ruins of his mansion and the noble lines of trees marking the long avenue of approach to it could still be seen but a few years ago. The Morgan burying ground is about a quarter of a mile away, and there are to be seen the tombs of General Morgan and of many of his family.”

The only other tidbits of information I have presently on this subject are from two sources. My first source, Sue, was one year ahead of me at Jesse Selover through Sayreville War Memorial High School. She has amazed me with the amount of Morgan research she has performed and material she has accumulated. It has been a real pleasure reconnecting with her and learning from each other. Incidentally her father is a master model builder and is presently at work on a model of the Old Spye Inn so if you have any photos, diagrams, etc. of the Old Spye Inn, please forward them to me so I can forward them to her (or post a comment below so I can contact you). Her research indicated that the Morgan mansion burned in 1865. This sounds plausible especially if one takes into consideration that James Rutus Morgan was a Confederate sympathizer who reportedly was friends with Confederate General Robert E. Lee and was said to have provided supplies such as gun powder to the Southern cause. Note that the Civil War ended in 1865 the same year Sue indicated the mansion burned down. James Rutus Morgan named his son Robert E. Lee Morgan. Robert E. Lee Morgan is the person that sold Henry Luhrs the property on Cheesequake Creek where Henry started his famous boat businesses (see posting from 10 January 2010) and probably was the inspiration for the owners of the Robert E. Lee Inn to name it such.

The final piece of information I have comes from Ed, my Morgan family contact who wrote to me, “The original family home was where Lockwoods Marina is today. It was about twenty feet higher than it is today. The Lockwoods had the hill leveled.”

Ed’s information matches the description from “This Old Monmouth of Ours” in that Lockwood’s is about a quarter of a mile away from the “Morgan burying grounds” as the sea gull flys. However, does this location match “high bluff immediately north of the mouth of Cheesequake Creek”? That description more aptly matches what is now the south most portion of Morgan Ave or Cliff Avenue, the portion south of Route 35. This location seems much more plausible if you take into account what the mouth of Cheesequake Creek looked like during the time period of James Morgan, Sr. and James Morgan, Jr. (see posting from 19 September 2010). However, the southernmost part of Morgan Avenue is also closer to the “Morgan burying grounds” than a quarter mile.

Click on this image to go interactive!

The final enigma relates to “the noble lines of trees marking the long avenue of approach to the fire-blackened ruins of his mansion”. If you look at the 1940 photo from one of my all time favorite web sites, HistoricAerials.com, you will see rows of mature trees lining what are now named Tyler Street, Robinson Place, Dodd Place, Willow Street and even a little of Morgan Avenue. None if any of these trees remain today. If they were so mature in 1940 as to be easily seen in an aerial photograph, they would surely have had to have been planted at least 100 years prior – or more. Also take into account that present day Tyler Street was, according to the 1919 Sanborn Map of Morgan (see posting from 2 January 2010), named Main Street. Before Route 35 was built in the 1920s, Main Street ran all the way down to Cheesequake Creek to the site of the Old Spye Inn. Is it possible that these were “the noble lines of trees marking the long avenue of approach”?

Many thanks to Joe, Ed & Sue for contributing information for this posting. I hope to have more information in the near future regarding the early land holdings of the Morgan family and how they relate to present day Morgan. In the mean time, if you have any information or insight about the mansion, PLEASE post a comment below.

Man Standing at the Bottom of a 200' x 150' x 50' Deep Crater Created Near what was Building 9-1 by One of the October 1918 Explosions at the T. A. Gillespie Shell Loading Plant in Morgan, NJ. Photo Taken on October 11, 1918 at 11:00 A.M.

In 1918, 92 years ago as of the day of this posting (October 4, 2010), the biggest thing that ever happened in Morgan happened… well, in Morgan.  On October 4, 1918 at approximately 7:40PM the first of what would be nearly three days of explosions with subsequent fires ripped through the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant, the largest ammunition shell loading plant in the world.  The small hamlet of Morgan and the entire town of nearby South Amboy, the nearest population center, were evacuated and not an unbroken window was to be found for miles.

Here are some of the dry statistics, from various sources, regarding this facility which has been the subject of previous postings and will be the subject of numerous future postings here on Morgan-NJ.org.

• The plant reportedly cost $18,000,000 to build.
• Acquisition of the properties commenced in late 1917 from a virtual list of early Morgan Who’s Who including the Morgan, Furman and Ernst families.
• The amount of land comprising the plant was approximately 3980 acres.
• Building of the plant was begun in March 1918. The construction of the first production unit was complete in May. Loading of 50/50 amatol, a combination of TriNitroToluol (T.N.T.) and Ammonium Nitrate, into 155mm rounds began immediately on an experimental basis. Production scale loading began in mid June. Shell deliveries started in July.
• The plant was in existence for only 9 short months and in production only 5 of those months.
• Enclosing the operating part of the plant and the main storage magazines required 8 miles of fencing (over 6 feet high).
• Approximately 40 miles of railroad track was contained within the limits of the plant.
• There were 13 shell loading units built in hilly country to the northwest, 7 of which were operational at the time of the explosion.
• The administration buildings and housing (barracks) were built on high ground to the northeast, facing what was then known as the Morgan Road (it is now known as Route 35). These buildings spanned from Old Spye Road to the point where present day Ernston Road starts its descent from Route 35.
• The 41 main storage magazines were built in isolated positions to the south along Cheesequake Creek.
• The ordnance being loaded that fateful evening with amatol were 75mm, 155mm shells, 8″ and 9.2” shells, and 240mm Trench Mortars.  Nitro Starch power was being loaded into 3” Stokes Trench Mortars.
• At the time of the explosion, the plant’s production rate was 32,000 shells per day.  Production projections for when the plant was completed ranged from 50,000 per day (1 million per month) to 74,000 per day (1.5 million per month).

RESULTS

• After several days an official report was issued, fixing the number of dead at 64 (of the 76 employed in the 6-1 building), including 12 Government Inspectors.  Two United States Coast Guardsmen were also reported killed during the time period following the first explosions.
• The number of injured as reported by various sources, ranged from 50 to 100.
• Of the 700 building on the plant, 325 were destroyed, including all cottages and residences.
• On the date of the explosion, there were over 30,000,000 pounds of high explosives contained in magazines, storage, and operating units, and on freight cars throughout the plant. Nearly 12,000,000 pounds were destroyed by fire or explosion.
• On the date of the explosion, there were 1,013,458 loaded shell in magazines, storage and operating units and on freight cards on tracks throughout the plant.  308,239 were detonated or destroyed.
• Ordnance items had been located at a distance of 1 1/4 miles from the center of the explosion.
• Each of the production unit sites had craters associated with the explosions ranging in depth from 5 to 25 feet and from 10 to 200 feet across
• 12 United States Coast Guardsmen received the Navy Cross for their efforts to stop further destruction at the plant.
• A request for 1,500 laborers to repair the plant was made immediately after the explosions stopped.
• The explosions destroyed enough ammunition to supply the western front in France for six months, hence the urgency to start reconstruction immediately.
• Ordnance is still being located in Morgan, NJ on occasion to the present day.

The exact cause of the plant’s destruction has never been fully identified.