Metuchen Edison History Features

Recollections of

Boyhood Days

In Old Metuchen

By

David Trumbull Marshall

Published by The Case Publishing Co., Flushing NY 1930

(Second Edition)- (c) 1930

Rev. Doctor Mason.

Rev. Dr. J. G. Mason wrote me in October, 1929, when he was 88 years old:

"I have been refreshing my memory of those long ago days.

"You were born just seven months before two events, one the founding of the first building of the Methodist Church in Metuchen and my ordination to the Ministry in New York City, so your beginning is notably coordinated.

"You came when you were twelve with your family to live at the Manse.

"You were one of my boys.

"You may have forgotten this.

"I have not forgotten the thrill I got out of it.

"I took you and your younger brother Bruyn to New York City to see the sights.

"It was the first time you and Bruyn had been to New York.

"We rode on the top of a bus up and down Fifth Avenue.

"We saw the animals and the lakes and the Museum in Central Park.

"That was thought to be great before 1877.

"We went to the old Aquarium, which was up-town.

"We saw the 'Cardigan Giant', which afterward turned out to be a fake, for it was made of cement.

"We saw the seals and you came near having your hand snapped off when you reached over to pat a pretty mild-eyed seal on the head."

[I may mention an incident which Dr. Mason does not mention, and that is, that on the way home in the cars I and my brother were much worried for fear the conductor would put us off because we had no tickets. Dr. Mason had gone back in the train to look up a pretty girl, whom he afterward married, and left us poor kids to worry about the tickets.]

Continuing Dr. Mason's letter:

"Metuchen was 'Far from the maddening crowd' in those days. Save for the commuters, not many went to the city.

"Many had never seen the city sights at all.

"Metuchen was very suburban then.

"On Sunday mornings the long row of sheds in the rear of the Presbyterian Church was filled with horses and carriages.

"Besides sheds there were hitching posts along the fence by the cemetery.

"Now hitching posts are gone.

"Last Sunday (1929) all the spaces were filled with automobiles.

"I counted fifty.

"The city is very near.

"It was necessary for me to have a horse and carriage.

"One-half the congregation lived in the country.

"You took care of my horse.

"Your brother Trumbull worked his way through college.

"Money was worth more then than now.

"I remember as I would a glad song, a 'hurrah' he shouted when, near Christmas, I put in his hand a five-dollar bill.

"I recall afterwards when I was raising money to paint the steeple he asked me how much was lacking. I told him.

"He put in my hand a hundred dollars.

"That is the Lord's money. It may just as well go to that."

"That fellow was one of the finest personalities I remember.

"In this connection I think of Jamie Clarkson and Ed. Dana, boys a little older than you.

In 1889 I had a call to go to a church in Jacksonville, Florida. The people did not want me to go.

"Jamie Clarkson got up a subscription of $125 with which a beautiful watch was bought for me. Sequence: I remained in Metuchen. I am still wearing the watch. It keeps me 'up-to-date.'

"I passed the 88th milestone October 31st, 1929.

"You know I have been in India (where my daughter Irene is a missionary) for the last two years. In those early days Metuchen was a considerable factor in the politics of Middlesex County.

"We had three sheriffs- two Ackens and Charley Campbell. Manning Freeman was a lay judge in the County Court at New Brunswick.

"I must tell you how once the fire company came to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting at our church.

"The bell of the Presbyterian Church was used as a fire signal.

"The fire signal was the long roll, a continuous ringing of the bell, unlike the four strokes and then a rest and then four more, of the regular church service ring.

"One Wednesday night the bell was not rung.

"The janitor had forgotten.

"I attempted to ring the bell, but being wholly untrained in that art, I rang the long roll.

"Soon the fire company came and James Oliver, the Captain, came with a rush and demanded angrily why the fire signal was rung. It is not of record that the fire company stayed to the prayer meeting.

"When I came to Metuchen I organized a book reading club.

"For twenty-five cents you used to take my horse and phaeton every two weeks and move the books along one notch from house to house."

[I remember once I skipped a notch on my rounds and the Dominie had to go over most of the route and straighten things out.]

"This was the seed of our Borough Library.

"When we organized the Library the books, 200 volumes, were donated by the Club.

"Mr. George H. Lindsley (grandfather of Mayor F. Clarkson) was a public-spirited citizen. To him we owe most of the trees now shading the older streets of the Village.

"He also inaugurated our first street lights: Kerosene lamps."

For a number of years - ten altogether- I blew the pipe organ at the Presbyterian Church. For this work I was paid.

When there was a wedding at the church occasionally some bridegroom, when he was feeling particularly good, would slip me a couple of dollars. Sometimes the bridegroom forgot the poor guy who furnished wind for the music.

The bellows on the Presbyterian Church organ was a double-acting affair. One had to lift the handle as well as press it down. It was pretty hard work for a small boy.

There were about 400 pounds of flagstones on the top of the bellows. These, of course, had to be kept up by the boy and when the organist pedalled the 16-foot pipes which sounded the lower "C", believe me the wind went out of the bellows very fast.

I used also to blow the organ several hours a week for the various organists, some of whom had the use of the organ for practice as part of their stipend.

I soon learned the trick of lifting about 100 pounds of the stones off the top of the bellows. This lessened the work of the boy without noticeable diminution of the sound. I will say that I never had the stones off the bellows during church service.

I rigged a little shelf just in front of where I stood as I blew the organ and on this I could place a book and read while pumping.

I read all Shakespeare's plays, besides dozens of other books while pumping the organ.

Sometimes in the evening during sermon time I would tilt back my chair and go to sleep.

On several occasions someone had to come back from the choir loft and wake me up.

When I first began blowing the organ the organ set further forward than it does now.

In order to make more room in the choir loft, the organ was set back. This did not suit me for at first there was a passage out through which I could pass, but when the organ was moved back I had to pass in through the choir loft. This made it necessary for me to remain and listen to the sermon, like the other poor guys in the body of the church.

On several occasions Mr. Judson Gilbert, while playing the organ, was annoyed by the loud talking of some members of the choir.

One day when the talking was particularly loud Mr. Gilbert lifted his fingers from the keys and several words of the lady's loud voice were heard all over the church.

The lady was as mad as hops about it. Let us hope she has recovered her temper by this time.

Once when we were getting ready for some church celebration Dr. Mason and Mrs. Clem Bloomfield and Miss Ruth Thomas were conversing just in front of the front pew of the church.

Overhead there was a chandelier carrying six kerosene lamps with their glass chimneys and glass fonts. The chandelier hung from a hemp rope which passed through a hole in the plaster ceiling and over a pulley fastened to the roof above that. The pulley was fastened to a pair of rafters about a foot off the vertical line of the hole and the chandelier was counterweighted with a couple of iron plowshares and one or two flat-irons.

As the pulley was not exactly over the hole the rope had chafed for years against a beam until it was nearly worn through.

As I attempted to raise the chandelier the rope parted and the whole thing came down.

The flat-irons and the plowshares came within a foot of hitting Dr. Mason on the head. They made a dent in the seat which is probably there yet.

The lamp chimneys were broken.

Mrs. Clem Bloomfield promptly fainted and had to be carried out.