Looking East toward the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company Facilities of Morgan, NJ on May 6, 1918. Image Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

I am very certain this is the very first time you have seen this photo.  I had never seen it previous to my research, in fact finding any photos of the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company of Morgan, NJ plant – especially before the October 1918 explosions which destroyed the facility – is nearly impossible it seems.  This photo shows what a major portion of the plant looked like on May 6, 1918 as seen from what is now an apartment complex located just south of the Peterpank Diner on Route 9.

The whole purpose of the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant was to load explosives into artillery shells for use by allied forces during World War I.  The artillery shells were, I’ve read, manufactured in Pennsylvania mills and the explosives in NJ chemical facilities.  Both were transported to Morgan by train where the shells were loaded with the explosives then ultimately shipped out to Europe.

Prominent within this photo are three of the thirteen main buildings where the artillery shells were loaded or were to be loaded (the plant was still under construction when it blew up).  The closest building in the photo (on the right side) appears to be a private house which was located on Old Cheesequake Road.  I don’t know whose house this was.  It isn’t there today and likely was destroyed when the plant was destroyed.  Only a small portion of Old Cheesequake Road remains a road today and provides access into Oak Tree Village from Route 9, the road which replaced Old Cheesequake Road as the main thoroughfare.  The portion seen in the photo is no longer a road but from aerial photographs, such as can be seen on Google Maps Satellite view or Bing Maps Bird’s Eye view, you can still see the pathway of this road.  On the left front of the photo are three buildings listed as being “Shops”.  I don’t know what the shops contained but there were hundreds of buildings making up this facility with each of them having a specific purpose.

Building 6-1-1, the two story building shown at the top left within this photo, is the actual building where at approximately 7:40pm on the evening of October 4, 1918, an explosion occurred which set off a chain reaction of explosions and fires.  I have to say that I was very excited when I determined that this was the actual building.  I really don’t think anyone has actually looked at this photo and put these pieces together for over ninety years.  This calamity, one of the largest domestic disasters to occur during World War I, ultimately destroyed the operating portions of the plant, severely damaged and destroyed nearby buildings, broke windows as far away as Manhattan, caused a mass evacuation of the hamlet of Morgan and the city of South Amboy (the area was not very populated at the time, Laurence Harbor was at best was a summer bungalow get away location), and worst of all, according to the official report, 23 people were injured and 66 people killed.

The plant wasn’t even a year old at the time of its destruction.  As a testament to the ability of the US to mobilize in a time of war (war against Germany was declared on April 6, 1917), a large parcel of land with nearby railroad and water access was identified and acquired by December, ground was broken in January 1918, building of the plant was begun in March, construction of the first production unit (Unit 6-1) was complete by May, loading of 155mm rounds began immediately on an experimental basis, production scale loading began in mid-June, shell deliveries started in July, and seven of the thirteen production lines were up and running by the time the plant was destroyed in November.  That would mean that except for the private residence, none of the buildings seen in the background of the photo, and the extensive railroad network you can’t see in the photo, were there five months earlier.

Layout of the Primary Production Area of the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company. Image Courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

This image of the layout of the facility shows only a portion of the 3,980 acre facility.  Please note two items: an arrow on the left side showing the approximate location of where the photo was taken and the location of present day Eisenhower School. Not shown in the layout are the storage areas, housing, mess hall, hospital, administration, wharf, and power plant areas. The plant spanned from present day Morgan Firehouse all the way to south of the Route 9/34 intersection.

The portion shown in the image was the majority of the production facilities.  Twelve of the thirteen loading unit clusters are in this image. The thirteenth loading unit cluster of buildings, not shown in this image, was located further east and can be seen in the 26 June 2010 posting about the Power Plant building.  We’ll see in a moment how present day roads map onto this facility but in the meantime, let’s examine how to interpret the numbers shown next to each of the buildings.

Building Nomenclature

There were 13 clusters of buildings, called units, which did the shell loading, e.g., 6-1 unit, or 9-2 unit.  Six clusters were for loading shells with 6″ (155mm) diameters, four were for 9″ shells, two for 75mm shells, and one was for for 4.7″ shells. Of these 13 units, seven were producing shells at the time of the explosions (remember the plant was still under construction).  It looks as if Stokes Mortars were loaded in one of the 75mm shell loading buildings as well.

Each building in a unit had a specific purpose and a unique designation using a third set of numbers. Of the three sets of numbers, e.g., 6-1-1, each set of numbers was used for specific reasons.  Here are some tables to help understand the nomenclature:

• 1st set of numbers – Size of the shell being loaded
• 2nd set of numbers – Unit grouping
• 3rd set of numbers – Specific function of the specific building

The following table shows how to interpret the first set of numbers:

• 4-x-x – 4.7″ shells
• 6-x-x – 6″ shells (155mm)
• 7-x-x – 75mm shells and Stokes Mortars
• 9-x-x – 9″ shells

The following table shows the purpose of the building represented by the third set of digits. It appears that each unit didn’t necessarily have one of each building type:

• x-x-1 – Shell Loading
• x-x-2 – Empty Shell Storage
• x-x-3 – Adaptor and Booster
• x-x-4  – Paint and Shellac
• x-x-5  – T.N.T. (TriNitroToluene) Storage
• x-x-6  – N.A. (Nitrate of Ammonia) Storage
• x-x-7  – Smokeless Powder
• x-x-8  – Primers
• x-x-9  – Box Storage
• x-x-10 – Cartridge Case Storage
• x-x-11 – Cartridge Case Loading
• x-x-12 – N.A. (Nitrate of Ammonia) Crusher and Dryer
• x-x-13 – Conveyor Sheds
• x-x-14 – Switch House
• x-x-15 – Fresh Air Fan House
• x-x-16 – Vent. Exhaust Fan House
• x-x-17 – Vent. Exhaust Fan House
• x-x-18 – Vent. Exhaust Fan House
• x-x-19 – Fume Exhaust Fan House
• x-x-20 – Plant Office
• x-x-21 – Men’s Change House
• x-x-22-A – Men’s Lavatory
• x-x-22-B – Women’s Lavatory
• x-x-23 – Women’s Change House
• x-x-24 – Exhaust Fan House Cartridge Case Loading Building

The main building in each shell loading unit was the x-x-1 building which is where the actual loading of the shells was done, e.g., 6-1-1. The x-x-1 means it is the building which had the kettles where the TNT (stored in x-x-5) or Amatol (stored in x-x-6) was heated up (by steam piped in by elevated pipes from one of two heating plant buildings) and poured into the shells (empty shells were stored in x-x-2).  I believe the shells were also put into the boosters in the x-x-1 buildings but don’t recall actually having read that yet.  The purpose of all the other buildings in each unit was to support the loading.  After the artillery rounds were loaded, it appears as if they were then put in railroad cars.  4-x and 7-x units had an x-x-9 building (Box Storage) but the 6-x and 9-x units don’t show a Box Storage building (x-x-9).  I presume this means that the 6″ and 9″ would have been boxed at some point later.  I know that lighters (i.e., barges) were used to bring the shells to ships somewhere in Raritan Bay but I also think the finished shells were also brought to South Amboy docks by train.  I don’t recall having encountered this fully documented anywhere as of yet.

Overlay of the Current Streets over the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company. Image Courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

This last map shows the present day streets superimposed over the map of the facility.  The arrow on the left and Eisenhower School are also present for reference. You’ll note that since 1918, this whole area has now been developed.  The Garden State Parkway (shown from bottom right to top middle) and present day Ernston Road (shown from bottom left to top right) cut right through the site.  I find it nearly incomprehensible when driving through Oak Tree Village to envision what used to be there.  It is hard to imagine the railroad lines and the large buildings which once used to be there.  In the time since the disaster, trees have grown, bridges, roads, a school, stores, marinas, houses, condos and apartments have been built. It is hard to imagine the disaster occurring while in such a peaceful and tranquil place.

There have been other postings on this web site relating to the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company.  To see them, scroll backward below.

Own One of these Unique Morgan, NJ T-shirts!

Sue, the artistic person who dreamed up the themed Morgan, NJ T-shirts for the Morgan tour still has a few T-shirts left over – one Large, one XL, and one XXL.  They are $16.00 each + shipping. If you would like to order one from her, please write any comment below.  That comment will provide me with your email address which I will then forward to Sue.

Sue designed the shirt to represent some of the essential aspects of Morgan’s history.  The three corner hat represents the Minutemen from Captain James Morgan’s 2^nd Battalion Middlesex County regiment.  The pottery represents the various potters who were part of Morgan’s colonial and post-colonial days.  The blue swishes are for Raritan Bay and Cheesequake Creek.  The noose is in honor of the Revolutionary War spy hung at what would later be renamed Ye Old Spye Inn.

Morgan Station would certainly qualify as one of those things categorized as “Something which isn’t there anymore.”  In my early days of research for this web site, as I was reviewing the US Army Corps of Engineers documents regarding Cheesequake Creek, I kept encountering references to “Morgan Station”, e.g., “The soundings were taken with a graduated pole and reduced to the plane of mean low-water as established by the gauge at the draw-bridge near Morgan Station”.  Like probably nearly everyone else these days, I didn’t know there ever was an actual Morgan Station or exactly where Morgan Station had been located.  In my time in Morgan, there was no train station in Morgan, no observable remains of any type of station, and trains never stopped except perhaps in the off chance that the draw bridge over Cheesequake Creek might have been in the open position.  My mom used to talk about how people would come to Morgan Beach by train and walk over to the beach from the train station but the first time I ever saw a photo of Morgan Station wasn’t until my school friend Ken Durrua showed me a photo out of the excellent September 1985 book, The Unique New York & Long Branch by Don Wood, Joel Rosenbaum and Tom Gallo.  BTW, I highly recommend this book which gives the history of the railroad and has a great number of photos covering its history.

1882 US Army Corps of Engineers Sketch Showing the Location of Morgan Station, Original Mouth of Cheesequake Creek, and Earlier Road and Railroad Bridges over Cheesequake Creek.

In the horse and buggy days, when present day Old Spye Road was the “County Road,” composed of dirt, not highly travelled but was the main passage way to Monmouth County and shore line points further south from the north, it wouldn’t matter where a train would stop to load and unload people or cargo.  In the mid 1870’s, when the railroad was constructed then opened for operation, the railroad was the main form of transportation.  So when the New York & Long Branch Railroad (NY&LB RR) established the stopping point for Morgan, it put the station on the Morgan side of Cheesequake Creek right next to the at-the-time swing bridge crossing over it.  This would have meant that when the trains stopped, they would block the passageway of the county’s dirt road.  Since this was in the 1870’s, there were no cars, buses or trucks (or RVs) – only horses, horse drawn wagons, and pedestrians.  Bicycles didn’t become popular until the 1890’s, some 15 years hence.  In other words, it didn’t matter where the train stopped – it was the big dog.  That would change in the future.

1878 Map of the Central New Jersey Railroad, New York & Long Branch Division Highlighting the Location of Morgan Station.

The first and main photo for this posting is the same photo I saw in the book, The Unique New York & Long Branch.  This specific image is from a picture post card provided to me by Mr. Daniel Salvaggio.  I met Mr. Salvaggio, and his daughter Maria, at our August 27, 2011 Morgan Reunion Dinner at Teddy’s Bar.  Mr. Salvaggio had a folder full of Morgan post cards, newspaper articles and ads, restaurant menus, business cards, and photos which he graciously loaned to me.  Some of the rest of this fantastic collection will definitely be incorporated into this web site with much appreciation by me toward Mr. Salvaggio.  I would also like to give thanks to Randy Gabrielan for also providing me a copy of this same image which he recently found in the records of the Monmouth County Historical Society.  I was introduced to Randy in 2011 because we both have a shared interest in local New Jersey history as well as a specific interest in the Morgan based T. A. Gillespie Loading Company and the disastrous explosions there of October 1918.  Randy has authored a number of books on local New Jersey history which are available in many places, including Amazon.com, and I highly recommend them.  I was also able to meet Randy at our August 27 Morgan history tour where he stayed the whole day with us.

Randy has looked at photocopies of the handwritten deeds with [presumably James Rutus] Morgan as the grantor to the New York & Long Branch Railroad.  Randy must be amazing as I have enormous trouble being able to read handwritten deeds, much less ones which were photocopied however many times!  Per Randy,

The first deed was recorded in July 1872 and was a transaction which was only regarding a right of way. The key provision was that the Morgans were retaining the rights to the clay they were mining in the vicinity. In June of 1873 they sold a tract to the railroad for $1,000, which then was not exactly a gift considering what the railroad was going to do for property values. There is no mention of a naming consideration at a time when a station may not have even been determined.

When the June 12, 1875 Matawan Journal listed the stations which were to be on the about to open New York & Long Branch Railroad, they listed Cheesequake as the station 1.65 miles south of South Amboy.  The railroad time tables listed this station as Morgan and clearly the station’s name was Morgan Station.  I’m not quite sure what to make of this.  Could it have been the case that the station was originally going to be called Cheesequake but ultimately was called Morgan or did the newspaper just make a mistake that day?  There have been discussions that James Rutus Morgan sold the right of way to the railroad for $1 in lieu of the creation of a station with the name Morgan on it.  If this was the case, we haven’t found the supporting documentation yet.

Looking Southward Under the Jersey Central Traction Company Bridge Toward Morgan Station, Circa 1905.

The photo at the top of this posting is the best of only two photographs I am aware of – so far – which show what might have been the original Morgan Station building.  Both photographs were on picture post cards from the very early 1900’s and appear to have been taken around the same time frame. A very zoomed in portion of the second post card is also included in this posting showing what appears to be two buildings on the west side of the railroad tracks at Morgan Station as seen while looking southward under the Jersey Central Traction Company’s bridge spanning the NY&LB RR tracks in Morgan.  Since this close up photo doesn’t show the crossing gates where the county road crosses the railroad tracks, I conclude this photo is somewhat older than the photo at the top of this posting.  I have to say both of these post cards are among my personal favorites.  Mr. Salvaggio’s picture post card shows one building but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t have been a second building to the immediate left of the photographer.

I don’t have all the facts but I think there have been at least four different structures which have served as “Morgan Station.”  Photos of three of them are contained in this posting, unless two of them are actually the same building, as well as a map showing the location of the fourth.  Perhaps there were other structures.  If any of the readers have anything to add, by all means please contact me so I can add it.

First Schedule of the New York and Long Branch Railroad, Dated July 1, 1875, Showing Scheduled Stops at Morgan Station. Image from the Book The Unique New York & Long Branch. Used with Permission from the Joel Rosenbaum and Tom Gallo Collection.

I don’t really have any record of whether there was an actual station structure in Morgan when the railroad was opened in July of 1875.  However, the 1882 US Army Corps of Engineers proposed improvements to “Cheesequakes Creek” sketch shows a small Morgan Station rectangle at the intersection of the railroad and the county road bridge.  This is the same location as the small Morgan Station building with the “Morgan” sign seen on the picture post card.  While I don’t have an exact date of the picture post card photo, it could not have been much earlier than 1905.  The trestle crossing the railroad tracks in the background was for the Jersey Central Traction trolley company which, according to Joseph Eid’s book, Jersey Central Traction Co., had its initial run on Thursday, March 16, 1905 from Keyport through Morgan to the Morgan/South Amboy boundary line at present day Christ Church Cemetery where the line ended at that time.

The condition of the wood making up the Morgan Station building in the picture post card appears to be in excellent shape which would mean that it could not have been 30 years old thus raising the question of whether there had been a different structure there prior.  I love both the vertical stripes on the building, perhaps caused by the overlapping of the wood on the station, and the curved “Morgan” sign!  Maybe Mr. Joseph Siwiec (see posting on the model of the Old Spye Inn from November 29, 2010) would build a model of this someday.  This small station appears to have had a small enclosed room, perhaps for ticket sales or an enclosed waiting area, as well as a small covered waiting area.

The summer of 1913 was a very busy construction period in the area surrounding Morgan Station (see the February 23, 2010 posting regarding the Bridges of Cheesequake Creek).  The pivot type of railroad bridge was replaced by the current Sherzer type single leaf rolling lift draw bridge.  At the same time the second County Road bridge over Cheesequake Creek was replaced by a draw bridge, and as per the August 16, 1913 South Amboy Citizen,

The railroad station at Morgan has been moved several hundred feet northward, and the platform has been extended, making a decided improvement.  Electric lights will be placed along the approach to the station.

In the following week’s issue, the Citizen indicated the station also had a paint job,

Morgan Station now shows signs of improvement. It has received its yearly coat of paint and looks quite natty.

1919 Sanborn Map Showing the Location of Morgan Station at the Time. Image Courtesy of Princeton University Library Map Division.

I believe the new location discussed in the Citizen was as is shown on the 1919 Sanborn Map.  It seems that this new location of the Morgan Station would have allowed for trains – at least for south bound trains – to be less interruptive of the new-fangled automobile and truck traffic on the county road which crossed the railroad tracks at ground level at this location.

Morgan Station became a very important stopping point when the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company was built in 1918.  In April of the previous year, the US declared war on Germany which shortly thereafter caused the construction of the Gillespie “Morgan Plant” – one of the world’s largest, if not the largest, artillery shell loading plants in the world.  Eventual access for many of the plant’s workers was via the Jersey Central Traction trolley or the railroad which stopped at Morgan Station.  One of the Morgan-NJ.org readers wrote to me suggesting that perhaps the sluiceway over Back or Crossways Creek (see May 17, 2011 posting on the Sluiceway Bridge) right near where Morgan Station used to be was an entry way into the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant.  This seems possible.  I don’t have anything which confirms this or rules it out at this time so maybe.

The plant blew up in October of 1918 and the war ended five weeks later on November 11 thus significantly diminishing the need to have a ticket agency.  Less than two years later, the February 21, 1920 edition of the South Amboy Citizen reported that the ticket office at Morgan was going to be discontinued.

Discontinuance of the ticket agency of the New York & Long Branch Railroad at Morgan has been sanctioned by the Board of Public Utility Commissioners upon the application of the railroad and director general. It was contended by the railroad that travel at this point has decreased to such an extent that the maintenance of a ticket agency, as a war measure, is no longer a necessity. It was originally established to accommodate employes of the Gillespie loading plant.

In the early 1920s, with the advent and huge growth in the use of and private ownership of the automobile – thanks to Mr. Ford for making car ownership affordable to the average person – the intersection of what was then known as Main Street or Keyport Road (now known as Old Spye Road) with the railroad at Morgan Station was getting problematic.  The June 2, 1921 issue of The Matawan Journal stated that on Memorial Day between 16,000 and 18,000 cars passed through Matawan.  All of these cars would also have had to have passed over the railroad tracks at Morgan Station.

The grade crossing’s massive traffic jams of the early 1920’s became too great thus leading the state to come up with another approach – literally.  Ultimately the traffic jams, as well as the grade level railroad crossing itself, came to an abrupt end with the July 1925 opening of the present day Route 35 Pratt trestle bridge over the railroad.  This bridge and the land fill ramp leading up to it from Cheesequake Creek were built atop the site previously containing the Jersey Central Traction Company (trolley) trestle and bridge.  The trestle and bridge were removed sometime following the demise of the Jersey Central Traction Company which, again according to Mr. Eid’s book, ended operations almost exactly two years earlier at midnight on July 28, 1923.

This unexpected closing of the grade level railroad crossing came as a surprise to many – especially the local merchants – and decimated of all the businesses along this stretch of the road parallel to the creek.  Perhaps one of these casualties was James H. Cady who had a restaurant somewhere in Morgan as of 1922.  Mr. Cady opened his Cady’s House of Sea Food in early 1926 right along the new route of the “Shore Road” (present day Route 35) on the north side of the Cheesequake Creek channel between the Morgan Bridge over Cheesequake Creek and the base of the road’s incline.  As discussed in the December 30, 201 posting, Cady’s House of Sea Food later became the Robert E. Lee Inn.

The month following the opening of the new bridge over the railroad tracks, the residents of Morgan asked the railroad to replace the “present shelter shed at Morgan with an enclosed structure that can be suitably heated during the winter months.”  Here is the article from the August 7, 1925 South Amboy Citizen newspaper:

A petition is now being circulated among the residents of Morgan Heights and Morgan Beach favoring the replacement of the present shelter shed at Morgan with an enclosed structure that can be suitably heated during the winter months. The petition cites the fact that the popular resort is rapidly charging from one having a large summer population that dwindles to almost nothing in winter, to one that is being made the year-round residence of an increasing number of commuters to Newark, New York and other points in the metropolitan area. The inadequateness of the shelter that now [is] used is brought out by a comparison of its capacity to protect perhaps a dozen people in time of storm with a crowd that numbered nearly five hundred persons, all of whom boarded a single train on a Sunday evening recently.  The petition is being freely signed as endorsement of the idea by commuters and residents of Morgan and it is predicted that the railroad authorities will be influenced toward immediate action by the resentment held by many residents of Morgan because of the closing of the road crossing there recently.

Morgan Station Shelter and Cheesequake Creek Draw Bridge as Viewed Looking Southward Under the Route 35 Bridge Over the New York & Long Branch Railroad on February 3, 1928. Photo Courtesy of Mitchell Dakelmann.

As can be seen in this February 3, 1928 photo, by this time Morgan Station was still a partially enclosed shelter shed.  It isn’t clear yet when the location of the shelter was moved from the 1919 location on the southbound side of the tracks as shown in the Sanborn Map to the northbound side shown in this photo.  It would seem likely this was done in coordination with the July 1926 opening of the Shore Road as evidenced by there being a staircase from the road down to the shelter.  When compared to the above photos of this posting from the very early 1900’s, it appears as if the third track portion and the stair cases between the railroad and the residences at the top of the bluff between the new bridge and the road bridge intersection had been removed.

Passenger Train at Morgan Station in 1954. Photo by Don Wood. Image from the Book The Unique New York & Long Branch. Used with Permission from the Joel Rosenbaum and Tom Gallo Collection.

This 1954 Don Wood photo shows a southbound passenger train being pulled by Pennsylvania Railroad’s K4 locomotive #1120.  Based on the lack of foliage on the trees and the angle of the sun, this photo would have been taken a short time before sunset during the fall or winter thus likely making it a commuter train traveling from New York City to Long Branch.

Between the 1928 photo above and this 1954 photo, another major change to the Route 35 roadway had occurred.  The present day elevated Morgan draw bridge replaced the creek level draw bridge in the early days of World War II, another two lane bridge over the railroad tracks was later constructed to contain the two southbound lanes of Route 35, the landfill with a concrete interlaced support wall appears to have been widened between the two new road bridges to support the two additional lanes, and an access road was added on the Route 35 southbound lane side to connect to the remains of the old road along Cheesequake Creek.  Without this access road, there would have been no way to access the Henry Luhrs Sea Skiff facility, the Robert E. Lee Inn, the sewage pumping plant, and anything else in that area except by boat.  The location of the shelter shed appears to have been moved closer to Cheesequake Creek and, it seems, the shelter shed structure either altered or replaced by a new similar shed (hence why I’m not sure if that was Morgan Station #3 or #4).  By 1954, the Railroad also appears to have added a fence between the tracks.

Looking Northward from the Original Location of Morgan Station in May 2005.

With one exception so far (See October 11, 2010 posting), the last steam train passed through Morgan in late 1957.  I have not yet discovered when the last train – whether steam or diesel – stopped to pick up or let off passengers at Morgan Station but can’t imagine it was much later than the end of the 1950’s.  When I find the date, I’ll let you know and would ask for any of you to please do the same if you find out first.  Today, as it was when I lived in Morgan, there are absolutely no remains of any of the foundations or structures making up any of the Morgan Stations.  Based solely on the physical artifacts in this area between the Route 35 overpass and the NJ Transit bridge ver Cheesequake Creek, you would never know that there ever was a Morgan Station in Morgan.

Ye Old Spye Inn in December 1976 After the Fire and Before Demolition. Photos Courtesy of Robert Bender.

The more I think about what was the essence of Morgan, as I knew it from growing up in it, the more I think it was the Old Spye Inn.  Combined with what I have learned in my now nearly three years of research, it appears that Morgan “started” in the area right around where the Old Spye Inn was located.  In its original configuration, Cheesequake Creek emptied into Raritan Bay a few hundred feet away to the east.  To the west was where Crossways / Back Creek emptied into Cheesequake Creek from present day Oak Tree Village.  It was and still is between the site of the Old Spye Inn, and the bluff immediately next to it, where what is now Old Spye Road transitions from Cheesequake Creek’s sea level elevation to the 30 to 40ish feet of elevation at the top of the road in front of the Morgan Fire House.  For many decades until the 1926 opening of what is now the north bound lanes of present day Route 35, the main pathway from all points north to the shore lines of Monmouth County, indeed all of the Jersey Shore from Sandy Hook south, ran right past the Old Spye Inn.  With immediate access to a sheltered area right next to the mouth of Cheesequake Creek, the most logical place to put a building was right where the Old Spye Inn was located.  If it wasn’t the first building in Morgan, it certainly was, until the time of its destruction in 1976, the oldest.

This posting doesn’t contain – still – the definitive history of the Old Spye Inn.  I still don’t feel like I have accumulated a sufficient amount of factual information about this beloved structure.  I did manage to acquire a copy of the 1975 book by Stanley L. Wojcik about The Old Spye Inn but still don’t want to read it until I feel comfortable being able to differentiate  the fact from the fiction I assume it contains.  Kids in the neighborhood during my time there had known and passed down the name Abe Mussey as being the name of the spy for whom the building was eventually named.  We heard he had been hung on a tree next to the Inn.  We heard he had been doing some form of signaling to British ships in Raritan Bay when he was caught.  What he was signaling, who caught him, what form of trial – if any – occurred, who was the judge, was there a jury, did he actually do what he was accused of, what was the date, how old was he, where was he from, and many other specific questions remain to be answered.  Hopefully we’ll be able to eventually find this out.

When it actually became known as Ye Old Spye Inn vs. whatever it had been known as previously, when it was built, whether it was actually was the Morgan family that built it originally – and when – I don’t yet have confirming documentation.  Of the on-line research I have accumulated, the most interesting web site to read is New Jersey History’s Mysteries.  No doubt some of the information contained in it is true and I already know that some of it isn’t accurate but the real challenge is in knowing which is which.

The December 1976 photos contained in this posting are brought you courtesy of Mr. Robert Bender.  Mr. Bender, a longtime resident of the Morgan area, recently sent me three very faded slides taken by his father containing the originals of the images in this posting.  Mr. Bender also recalled finding mortar shells at the Samsel School sight on Ernston Road near the Sayrewoods Shopping Center as well as the building of the Sayrewoods Shopping Center.  At the time the shopping center was built, Route 9 was only a one lane road each way. Mrs. Bender is from Morgan and remembers the graves in the Morgan Family cemetery as well as the old chicken farms.  I am enormously grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Bender for sharing their Morgan memories and artifacts with all of us so they could have been posted on this web site.

I’ve been hearding what I hope to be only rumors regarding the possible paving of Old Spye Road with asphalt.  That would be truly sad – at least for me.

Drawing of the Front of Bayview Manor. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

In the April 24, 2010 posting on this Morgan-NJ.org web site, we were left with a nagging question regarding where Bay View Manor was located.  Bay View Manor was a three story mansion located in Morgan which was built sometime around 1860 and destroyed as a result of the catastrophic destruction of the nearby T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant during what was to become the closing phase of World War I.

Thanks – AGAIN – goes to two of my school friends, Frank Ludlow and Joe Grabas.  I’ll cite Frank’s contribution in a bit.  Thanks to Joe for providing me with the 1916 to 1923 Wessco Reality maps which show the planned layout and residential lots for nearly all of the Morgan, NJ streets east of South Pine Avenue between present day Christ Church Cemetery and Midland Avenue.  Joe didn’t realize it at the time but one of these charts clearly showed the exact location and dimensions of the ruins of the “Steuerwald Residence (Main Walls)”, also known as “Bayview Manor”, “Manor Crest”, or the “Conover Homestead”.

I received these maps just before my trip to NJ for our August 27, 2011 Morgan Historical Tour, Visual Presentation and Dinner.  On that morning, before the tour started, I went to that location and did indeed discover that the location continues to be the highest point of land within that 159 acre patch.  While there are no remains of that original structure in the current residential neighborhood, there is a very old and very tall tree at this location right next to where the building would have been located.  While it would make a nice story for that tree to have been there at the time of the mansion’s destruction, 1930’s aerial photography show no trees at that spot.

Portions of these maps were incorporated into my visual presentation and I was all set to reveal the manor’s long ago location at Morgan’s Teddy’s Bar but Hurricane Irene made sure I didn’t have the chance to!

According to testimony from the 1919 & 1920 Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations of the US House of Representatives, there were two significant items of information regarding this mansion located in Morgan:

“It was built 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.”

“There were originally 169 acres, and this old sea captain gave 10 acres to a church for a cemetery, right alongside him, leaving 159 acres.”

The 10 acre cemetery referenced is present day Christ Church Cemetery which was established in 1856 and is located at the very northern boundary of Morgan, where it borders South Amboy, on present day South Pine Avenue.  Logically this would have meant that Bay View Manor would have been contained within the remaining 159 acres, presumably and logically located on the highest point of land.  Ironically, it seems that none of the family of “this old sea captain”, who I believe to have been Thomas Anderson Conover (see May 2, 2010 posting), were buried in Christ Church Cemetery.

Comparison of the Drawing of Morgan’s Bayview Manor Compared to a Photo of the Ruins of Bayview Manor Destroyed by the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company Catastrophe of October 1918. Images Courtesy of the National Archives and the Archives of The Thomas Warne Museum & Library of The Madison Township Historical Society in Old Bridge Township, NJ.

While doing research on the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company at the National Archives with Frank Ludlow, another school friend who I hadn’t actually seen since we graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School (just a few years before), we encountered blueprints and drawings of the mansion.  Descriptive information about the mansion was also found in the minutes of the October 21, 1919 2^nd Gillespie Explosion Claims Board – which occurred just a few days past the first anniversary of the plant’s destruction.  This second claims board appears to have been the result of a request by US Senator Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr. to the Secretary of War to review and address the amount the government was offering to reimburse Charles L. and Ethel B. Steuerwald for damages to the building.  It appears that the Steuerwald’s did not agree with the amount which was proposed by the first claims board and contacted the senator from nearby Raritan, New Jersey to help get their concerns considered.

In advance of me being able to get to the Archives, I must note here that Frank did an incredible job of locating a lot of info about the Gillespie explosion which will make it to this web site over time.  You probably noticed that postings don’t happen as often as they once used to or as often as any of us would like for them to but we’ve reached the point where every posting takes a lot of research and writing time.  Frank has my enormous gratitude for his efforts on our behalf!

Bayview Manor Basement Layout. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

Here are snippets of descriptions of the mansion as [mostly] stated in the testimony from the October 21, 1919 2^nd Gillespie Claims Board.  They are primarily from Mr. Oscar M. Mundy, a Carpenter and builder hired by the Steuerwald’s to make repairs on the mansion; they had moved into it on June 1, 1918, only a few months before.  Ironically Mr. Mundy was nearly complete with finishing up repairs on the building (“… general overhauling, plastering inside, repairing the roof, taking down partitions, straightening up the floors…”) when the Gillespie plant blew itself up:

• …there was some material in that building which cannot be duplicated these days, and the character of the building was such, as is evidenced by the ruins of what is left of it, that although an ancient building, nevertheless it was a better building than we find today.  There was certain trim in that building and there was certain hard woods; there were certain doors and windows which could not be duplicated today for the reason that some have gone out of fashion and the facilities for making them do not exist and if an attempt were made to reproduce them, it would be like reproducing a piece of art work or an antique… For instance, there were expensive floors, hardwood floors, at thicknesses that are not made today…
• Well-built brick building.
• Walls was a double layer of brick composed of an 8 inch brick wall, an air space of 8 inches, then another 8 inch brick wall on the inside.
• The two brick walls were tied together by brick about every four feet.
• Built so that it offered a circulation of air from the basement up to the roof.  This not only allowed for temperature regulation, before the days of modern thermal insulation materials were available, as well as a perfectly dry building on the inside.
• The basement had four (4) finished off rooms and a boiler room that was in the hall.
• There was a cellar attached to the basement for coal and another small cellar.
• Blueprints additionally show a wine cellar.
• The image of the destroyed building shows some type of underground arched bricked roof. Could this have been the coal cellar or the wine cellar?
• There was a porch on all four sides of the building.  Remnants of where it connected to the brick walls can be seen just below the second floor windows in the photo of the ruined building.
• On the 1^st story were 4 rooms and a back stairway going up from the basement.
• House interior trim – called back band trim – was of pine.
• White pine floors.
• Parlor: Decorations or cornice work in the parlor.
• 9” wide white pine trim. It had about 5 members to it built up and was a continuation of the base board. “Member trim”.
• Parlors done up in white enamel.
• Decorations over the windows and doors and attached to these were ornamental heads – they were flower designs of presses brass – very thin.
• In the double parlors, they extended and formed a sort of cornice over each window.
• Wood ornament attached to the ceiling in each parlor – four feet square large design. Matched by smaller one in the dining room.
• Fancy black walnut pole curtain holders built over the windows in the parlor, dining room, bed rooms.
• 4 bedrooms on the 2^nd story.
• Curtains hung right back.
• Lighted by gas during Conover’s time, 12 years before. There were fixtures and a gas plant in the cellar next to the boiler room.
• Heavy 2 ½” thick doors; some were oak, some white pine and some were decorated with black walnut in the panels.
• Very expensive and large black walnut staircase continuing from the 1^st floor to the attic. George A. Shipman said [in 1919], “The staircase could not be replaced today [i.e., 1919] for $3000”.
• Black walnut treads, risers and railing.
• Dining Room: Built on a circle and finished off on a circle. Finished off in hardwood with center piece and cornice. Not paneled.
• Finished in white pine, studded around in a circle and the piece went around the casing.
• Two regular built in closets (not china closets), one in each corner, and the same style trim that was in the other rooms on that story.
• Wall base and so forth was finished in wood.
• Walls were plaster – hard finished wall.
• Studding inside the walls.
• Lathed and plastered.
• White pine base board trim.
• White pine door casings.
• White pine doors, some trimmed with walnut.
• Some were veneered oak “built up door”.
• Small wood ornament attached to the ceiling – matched the four feet square large design ones in the parlor but smaller.
• Front hall was tiled
• Tile floor laid from the front to the rear, 8‘ wide x 5/8” thick on cement floor with boarder around edge.
• Relaid lately [in 1918], some of the tile was loose and had been taken up and relaid.
• 12 fancy fire places
• Some built of marble and some of slate with cast iron backing.
• Parlor one was marble.
• Dining room fire place was replaced with a larger one made of pressed brick.

Here is some of what would have been needed in order to rebuild:

• 375,000 brick in itemized statement, no allowance for reuse of existing brick.
• Need a new foundation.
• The foundation there is practically all gone and is unsafe.
• You would have to take it down (remove all existing brick) and replace with new brick.

Bayview Manor First Floor Layout. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

The following is a portion of the testimony from the May 21, 1920 hearing before the BCommittee of House Committee on appropriations (no, I don’t know what a “BCommittee” is – that isn’t a typo):

One is the case of Ethel B. Steuerwald, where the original claim was $40,900.76.  It was appraised at $21,109.46. Senator Frelinghuysen asked the Secretary of War for a review of that case, and a hearing was held.  They were afraid that this board was not inclined to do them justice and would not give them a proper hearing.  Gen. Williams delegated Col. D. M. King as his personal representative to sit with the board to see that they had a proper hearing. They had a proper hearing, and from all that could be determined at that time, it would cost more than $39,000 to replace that building.  It was a very old brick house…

Portion of Page 106 from the June 9, 1919 “Damages to Private Property at Gillespie Plant” report for the 66th Congress, 1st Session, US Senate Showing the Original Amount of the Claim for Structural Damages for Ethel B. Steuerwald’s Bayview Manor.

It was a double-walled house, and very solid.  You could not replace it for anything like that amount in these days.  They did agree to accept $27,500.   There was a $6,000 insurance policy on the house, which being deducted left the amount of $21,500 which they would accept.  There was appropriated $21,500 which they would accept.  There was appropriated $21,109.46, leaving a balance there of $390.54, and the personal losses of Mrs. Steuerwald for her personal property, jewelry, etc., which ran up pretty close to $5,000, but that was not adjudicated at all by the former board.  We have allowed $3,000 for that, so that the total allowance by the board to Mrs. Steuerwald, in addition to the amount already appropriated, was $3,390.54.

Bayview Manor Second Floor Layout. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

I believe the illustrations of the building shown in this posting were created specifically for the Gillespie Claims Board.  If they were indeed the ones referenced in the testimony, then they were prepared by Mr. Jensen, an employee in the Ordnance Department prior to the explosion by the request of Mr. North or Major Peasley.  According to the testimony:

• Plan substantially represents the building as it stood before the explosion
• Stairway shows the platform and not the winders.
• On the east end there was one more window than it shows on the plan.
• Does not show the cornice.

Bayview Manor Third Floor Layout. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

This building and the 159 acres of land was reportedly acquired for $49,000 from the executors and heirs of the late Richard Stevens Conover, son of Captain Thomas Anderson Conover (see May 2, 2010 posting). Subsequently, 25 acres were sold to the city of South Amboy for $25,000.  I don’t know at this time which portion of present day South Amboy this corresponds to, perhaps it is the area south of Bordentown Ave, east of South Pine, north of Christ Church Cemetery and west of Raritan Bay?  The remaining acres were eventually all divided up and now make up the neighborhoods surrounding, as well as the land containing, Jesse Selover School.

Bayview Manor Blueprint. Image Courtesy of the National Archives.

The images of the mansion, except where otherwise mentioned, and the minutes from the 2^nd Gillespie Claims Board, which described the interior of the mansion, were all provided by the National Archives.

Bayview Manor was Located Here! Image Courtesy of Joe Grabas.

According to the testimony of the 1920 Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations of the US House of Representatives, “the house could not have been more than 300 yeards from where the fire took place, and it is supposed that it was set on fire by a flying shell, because at the time of this explosion the air was filled with those things… There is no question of this being a total loss.”  According to the testimony of Mrs. Steuerwald at the 2^nd Gillespie Explosion Claims Board, the building was destroyed when, “It took fire during the last explosion…between ten and twelve on Saturday morning, Oct 5^th [1918].”

Map Showing the Actual Location of Bayview Manor Superimposed with Today’s Street Grid. Wessco Realty Company, Section Three, July 1918. Map Courtesy of Joe Grabas, State of New Jersey Certified Title Professional.

All right, I know everyone wanted to know the answer to this question from the April 24, 2010 posting.   Well, if it had not been for Hurricane Irene, I would have blabbed it at Teddy’s Bar on August 27, 2011 during our Visual Presentation and Dinner.  So here it is now!

As I said in the November 25, 2011 posting, many thanks to my school friends Joe and Frank for providing various tidbits which, when tied together, revealed the answer.

I was so looking forward to telling everyone in Teddy’s Bar that Bayview Manor was located a mere 700 feet away from where we all were that night!

Note that now that location contains private residences on private property.  I have to say that I was very much expecting for it to have been located right near Christ Church Cemetery as opposed to being so close to Selover School.  Having said (or written that), I always remember that this portion of Woodland Avenue always felt higher up than the surrounding area.  Guess I always knew where it was but didn’t listen to my inside voice.

Regis Philbin, Mrs. Mary Beninato, Cyndi Garvey and Marvin Hamlish at Club Bené. Photo Courtesy of Donna and Tommy Andrejewski.

Sometime after it opened its doors for Broadway-like productions on October 8, 1968 with Carol Bruce in ‘Gypsy’ – after having previously been a bowling alley – the amazingly talented Marvin Hamlish appeared at Club Bené in little ole Morgan, NJ. A child musical prodigy, one of the early jobs of this living legend was as the rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand. Since then Mr. Hamlish has accomplished what only one other person, Richard Rodgers, has achieved, namely being awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and, finally, a Pulitzer Prize.

As was the unique and very personal custom at Club Bené, Mrs. Beninato, wife of Club Bené and Joe’s Kozy Bar founder Joseph Beninato, made dinner for and had a photo taken with the featured guests.  According to the above photo, one show or series of shows included Marvin Hamlish, Regis Philbin (see posting from 27 January 2010) and Cyndy Garvey (co-host with Regis on A.M. Los Angeles from 1978-81 then The Morning Show from 1983-1984 on New York’s WABC).  I have not yet been able to pinpoint the exact date(s) of this Club Bené event or, with such a unique combination of talent, the content of the show.  If any of you know, please post a comment below.

My wife and I had a phenomenal experience last evening (22 October 2011) at LA’s famous and fabulous Greek Theater.  We got to see Marvin Hamlish!  Good thing since I missed him when he was in Morgan long ago!  For the first part of the show, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in a musical medley of songs from his Tony award winning Broadway musical, A Chorus Line.  He next played variations of a theme of Happy Birthday using the iconic styles of Bach, Mozart then Beethoven on piano.  He makes playing the piano seem truly effortless and fun.  Finally, in tribute to the featured performer who was to appear after the intermission, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in another medley, this time from My Fair Lady.

Marvin Hamlish and Idina Menzel perform at the Greek Theater on October 29, 2011

After the intermission, the phenomenal Idina Menzel took the stage with Marvin moving fully into the conductor role.  Ms. Menzel is best known – so far – for her role as Maureen Johnson in the ground breaking off-Broadway play Rent, and especially for her unforgettable role as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked.  The rest of the evening was a magical combination of her singing and humor with Marvin’s conducting of tunes arranged by the very talented Rob Mounsey (Idina’s Musical Director who also accompanied on the piano). The pallet of arrangements included some tunes from Rent and Wicked as well as the encore finale of Marvin’s The Way We Were.  It was an unbelievable combination of stars under the stars on a crystal clear and very temperate evening in one of LA’s truly great outdoor theaters.

Morgan Family at the Morgan Family Cemetery in Morgan, NJ. Left to Right: EJ Campbell, Pam Campbell, Ed Campbell, Diane Brown, Richard Brown, Polly Petersen, Richard Petersen, and Tom Purcell.

One of the many highlights for me from my trip back to  Morgan this past August was actually getting to meet members of the Morgan family!

Eight members of the family joined us on the tour of Morgan and were kind enough to not only let me take their photo but also allowed for me to put the photo on this web site.  The group includes the direct descendants of Carel “Charles” Morgan, the patriarch of the family who purportedly came to Gravesend, New Amsterdam in “The New World” (present day Brooklyn, NY) from Wales in 1641 (see postings from February 13 and May 20, 2011) and some of their spouses.

Though I have been in correspondence a few of them since I started this web site in 2009, this was the very first time that I actually met any of them!  I went through my entire childhood and most of my adult life without ever having met anyone affiliated with the cemetery right near my childhood home!

Ironically no one in this photo or currently associated with the ancient and historic family cemetery in Morgan, NJ retains the last name of “Morgan”.  Perhaps there are others still with the “Morgan” surname from other branches of the family who descended from the first Charles Morgan.  In either case, we would love to hear from anyone who is part of the extended family with or without the “Morgan” surname.  It would be an excellent way to get in touch with their very distant cousins.

I would like to again give a big THANK YOU to everyone in the photo and express my appreciation for everyone’s help with this web site and especially their support and presence on August 27.  It was awesome that they came that day and opened up the family cemetery for us – especially since Hurricane Irene was about to hit the area and some had to drive a long way to be with us.

1710 Deed for Charles Morgan. Material from the New Jersey State Archives and Located by Joseph Grabas, CTP.

Morgan-NJ.org is excited to be able present this portion of the May 7, 1710 deed which transferred a big part of what is now Morgan, NJ to Charles Morgan.  For those that have trouble deciphering the handwriting, transcribed below are some of the important sections including information indicating what some of the phrases mean as well as what we now consider to be misspellings:

This Indenture made this twenty seventh day of May in ye Ninth Year of the Reign of our Soverein Lady Anne by ye grace of God Queen of Great Britain… between Richard Townley a resident of Elizabeth town in the County of Essex & province of New Jersey… & Elizabeth his Wife… and Charles Morgan of Westchester in the County of Westchester and province of New York, Yeoman…

… and in consideration of… of four hundred & fifteen pounds pure money…

… all that certain tract of Land, scituated Lying & being within the province of New Jersey aforesaid on Southerly side of Raritan River, commonly called and known by the name of Cheesequakes, beginning at the mouth of the creek towards the Bay & from thence running North West Fifty Chains (3300 ft) to a Spanish Oak Marked on three sides with PC [Property Corner] thence  West South West one hundred and Twenty Chains (7920 ft) to a walnut tree marked on four sides with PC, thence South South East Fifty Three Chains (3498 ft) to W P Creek, & from thence as up same Creek runnes to the place where it began.

Containing by estimation with allowance for Barnes swamps & Highways, Five Hundred acres of Land & marsh, adjoining to W.P Land, be the same more or Bit less & bounded on the West and North by Bowen Lands, North East by the Bay, & South East by the Creek;

A huge thanks goes to my school friend, Joe Grabas, one of only a handful of New Jersey Certified Title Professionals, for going to the New Jersey State Archives and retrieving a copy of this deed (B-B-B-54) which transferred a big part of what is now Morgan, NJ to Charles Morgan.  If you look at the “Simple List of Morgan Family Members Across the Generations” posting from 13 February, 2011, you will see that the Charles Morgan who purchased the property would have been Charles III, father of James Morgan, Sr.

It is also interesting to note that this deed was entirely hand written, unlike later deeds which appear to have been either typed or used a movable type printing press.  This also makes it harder to read!

In order to get a perspective of the boundaries defined by this deed, Joe also highlighted them on the below 1876 map.  Note the roads of Morgan which were already present as of 1876.  Today they would be known as Old Spye Road, Route 35, South Pine Avenue, Lorraine Ave, and part of Ernston Road.

1876 Everts & Stewart Map Showing the Boundaries of the 1710 Charles Morgan Deed

The next task: Determine exactly who was Richard Townley.