Читать книгу Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J - C. G. Hine - Страница 41

Next in order stands the Esley Melius house. Old deeds in the possession of Mr. Theo. Melius tell us that on December 11, 1799, Abraham Van Emburgh and Rhoda, his wife, sold to John P. Sandford for the sum of $3.84, at a place called Belleville, a part of a water lot, which the said Abraham Van Emburgh purchased from Elisha Boudinot, Esqr., by a deed bearing date November 12, 1799; this adjoined the lot “now conveyed” to Charles Hedenburgh.

March 20, 1866, John I. Sandford and Rhoda, his wife; Asa Torry and Mary, his wife; Catherine Udall and Sarah Hopson quitclaimed the above water lot to Rachael Sandford, this being part of the real estate of the late John P. Sandford.

March 20, 1860, Rachael Sandford deeded the above water lot to Ezra Gould for the sum of $500.

These transfers show the ownership of the waterfront of the Melius place since 1799, and possibly some time before that date.

The north part of the present Melius house was erected by John Stimis, probably at the same time that he erected his own house, just above, 1805. Amos Munn, son of Benjamin, of East Orange, and father of Silas Munn, ancestor of the River road branch, born 1763, died 1808, was at the time of his death building a dwelling on the lot now occupied by the Foster Home; his executors exchanged the unfinished building for a two-acre lot, which is now part of the Melius homestead. In 1811 the executors sold the lot to Jean Baptiste Bacque. Later there dwelt here one Hedenburgh, if I am correctly informed; then a Vincent whose daughter, Dorcas, married Gilbert Pullinger—the Pullinger reign lasted from 1830 to 1836. Mrs. Pullinger appears to have been a character with more loves than come to most of us. After her came the Duncans, a Zeiss, William Patterson, Ezra Gould and Esley Melius.

By a deed dated October 1, 1853, John R. Sked and Sarah C., his wife, sold the property, which was in shape like the letter L, and which inclosed on two sides the property of Charles Daugherty, to Ezra Gould, subject to several mortgages held by William Patterson and others. And on May 1, 1857, Charles Daugherty and Rachael, his wife, sold to Ezra Gould a lot purchased in 1849 from William Patterson, which squared the Gould property.

April 12, 1866, Peter M. Myers and wife sold the Ezra Gould property to Sarah A. Melius, wife of Esley Melius, and the property has since remained in the Melius family.

Mrs. Melius was a daughter of Samuel Rust, the inventor of the Washington press, which was the foundation on which the great firm of R. Hoe & Co. was builded. The daughter received the best education that the times afforded girls, being placed first at a leading school in Poughkeepsie, then at the West Point Academy on Lake Champlain, and was given a finishing polish at Mrs. Jackson’s school on Broadway, New York, which was located just above Prince street on the site later occupied by the Metropolitan Hotel. She was a woman of strong convictions and was in her day a magazine writer of some note.

There is a story current that Mrs. Melius once held the Erie Railroad up at the point of her parasol by standing in the middle of the track and shaking that weapon at the approaching engine, which naturally stopped all a-tremble, whereupon the lady climbed on board a car and enjoyed a ride to New York. Just how much of this is fact and how much is fancy is not altogether clear at this distance.