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From: <>
Subject: [LONGWELL-L] Peterson NJ Fire - JOHNSTON - RAE of Scotland
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 12:23:26 EDT

Hello all! Just saw this story and thought I would pass it on - Dont know if
this JOHNSTON is related to the JOHNSTON we've been posting about, or what
part of NJ Paterson is in... but thought it was interesting anyhow:
(ps - I know, I stole this story from http://www.bergen.com, so smack me.
You can see the photos at this site)
***

This is the story of an immigrant who died in Paterson, 150 years ago
today.
The story begins where it ends, in a hilltop graveyard in southern
Scotland and a family monument that marks the lives of the otherwise
forgotten. Among the names:
"ROBERT JOHNSTON, Merchant, New York, died at Paterson, N.J., 28th
June 1848, aged 44 years."
Those sculpted letters on an old stone marker raised all sorts of
questions. Why had my ancestor come to New Jersey? How had he lived, and
how had he died?
As it turned out, the answers to those questions were full of
revelations. Yet at least one mystery continues to this day ...

* * *
Dear Sir,
It is my painful duty to announce to the relatives in Scotland the
sudden and awful death of my uncle, Robert Johnston, at Paterson.

Robert Johnston
In the early morning of June 28, 1848, a fire erupted at a foundry in
the heart of Paterson. With a terrible swiftness, it leapfrogged across
rooftops and engulfed several blocks along Market Street near Main.

By the time the blaze burned itself out five hours later, several
landmarks were in ruin -- including St. Paul's Episcopal Church and a
tavern where the great orator Daniel Webster once spoke.

In its next edition, the Paterson Intelligencer reported that "if men
ever feel their littleness and impotence, it must surely be during such
a scene of resistless destruction." The newspaper described the
conflagration as one of the worst fires in Paterson's young history.

Another local paper, the Guardian, dubbed it "The Great Fire," although
a blaze that devastated Paterson 54 years later would ultimately claim
the title.

1998, Robert Fletcher, Warwick, N.Y.

Great efforts were made by the members of the church to save
whatever could be saved from the flames. Robert had attended the church
regularly since he resided in Paterson, and being much attached to the
minister, Mr. Thompson, was induced to join in these efforts.
Accompanied by three others, [Robert] mounted the gallery directly under
the tower of the church to lower down the organ.
Whilst so occupied the belfry fell in & the others escaped with
burns, bruises & one broken arm, but Robert was crushed where he stood .
. .

At first glance, the death of Robert Johnston may seem unremarkable.
Nasty fires, alas, were commonplace in Paterson in those days. Furnaces
increasingly drove the wheels of progress. Most buildings were wooden
and highly combustible. And fire-fighting was limited to primitive
equipment and well-intentioned but disorganized bucket brigades.

The Intelligencer's front page of that era typically featured a fistful
of advertisements for fire insurance, and no wonder: By one account,
Paterson was averaging five fires a day.

Nor was an immigrant's death considered major news in a town swarming
with newcomers. The Intelligencer's story neglected to mention until the
end of the 11-paragraph story that someone had been killed. In contrast,
the tabloid noted in the third paragraph that the fire had spared the
house of John Colt, one of the town's most powerful businessmen and
relative of Colt .45 inventor Samuel Colt.

The Intelligencer's fire coverage was sandwiched between an endorsement
for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor and running mate Millard
Fillmore, a short article about the increasing numbers of immigrants
streaming into nearby New York City, and an item from Princeton College
announcing the graduation of the Class of 1848 -- 71 students.

I have satisfied myself that he must have perished instantly, & it
is not the least shocking part of the calamity that such a thought can
be a satisfaction. Not a sound was heard after he fell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Johnston had sailed to America in 1821 at the age of 17. After 23
years as a merchant in Richmond and Manhattan, he settled in Paterson.

Although Paterson, the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton, was founded in
the 1790s as the nation's first planned industrial community -- the
Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures -- it never gathered steam
until the 1830s. That's when the railroad and the Morris Canal arrived.
In the wake of the infamous national economic Panic of 1837, two huge
industries emerged -- textiles and locomotives.

>From 1838 to 1848, Paterson's economy chugged along like one of the
Rogers Locomotive Works' newly minted engines. By 1848, John Ryle's mill
was making 1,000 tons of silk a week. The Rogers works was building 100
railroad engines a year. And the town's population was nearing 10,000.

Even so, Paterson remained rustic. "If someone from today were
transported in time to Paterson back then," says Ed Smyk, the Passaic
County historian, "they would think they were on a different planet --
no cars, no congestion, no television, no electricity or other
utilities. At night, Paterson was a town enveloped in silence. The only
sounds you would have heard were maybe barn animals, and horses and
wagons on the unpaved streets."

While residents seldom worried about crime, disease was a constant
concern. "If people lived into their sixties, that would have been
considered old," says Smyk.

>From June 7, 1848 to June 7, 1849, the municipal clerk of Paterson
recorded 350 deaths. Only seven people died from old age. The other
fatalities included 55 cases of consumption, 35 cases of dysentery, 29
cases of cholera, 17 cases of measles, 15 convulsions, and 16 cases of
croup. Of the deceased, more than half were age 10 or younger. A
front-page ad in the Intelligencer offered coffins "made to order on the
shortest notice."

Despite the rampant childhood deaths, Paterson's population continued to
expand -- fueled by thousands of immigrants who had left the uncertain
circumstances of their European homelands.

Ireland was in the throes of the great potato famine and much of
mainland Europe was in shambles. In 1848, Revolutions toppled
governments in France, Austria, and Germany, and shook Italy, Hungary,
and Denmark. In England, meanwhile, German expatriates Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels issued their "Communist Manifesto," a program urging
the proletariat to unite and overthrow capitalism.

For America, 1848 was a watershed year. The United States signed a
treaty that ended the Mexican War and expanded the nation's borders to
include what would become California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts
of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Soon after, New Jersey-born James
Wilson Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in the California
territory, spurring the push westward.

Major social changes were also aboil. The nascent women's rights
movement would convene for the first time that July in Seneca Falls, New
York. And the first loud rumblings of the anti-slavery struggle, and
America's Civil War, could be heard in New York, where a runaway slave
named Frederick Douglass published the abolitionist newspaper North
Star.

Word [of Robert's death] was instantly sent to New York, & by first
train I was on the spot.

An instant in 1848 was actually quite a bit longer. The telegraph,
invented less than a decade earlier, was not yet in general use. No
Hudson River bridges or tunnels existed. News of the fire and Robert
Johnston's demise must have traveled by way of the Paterson and Hudson
River Railroad to Jersey City, then to a ferry bound for Manhattan's
Battery, and finally on to Washington Square and the residence of Robert
Johnston's nephew John, the writer of the letter.

The 16.5-mile train ride took an hour, according to an account by former
conductor John M. Garrison, "and frequently a longer period was
consumed, as it was often the custom to bring the train to a standstill
on the meadows, while passengers and crew indulged in a hunt for
snapping turtles, which at that time were plentiful. There were also
many unavoidable delays, as the rails had an unpleasant habit of
spreading, resulting in derailments."

Local fire-fighting techniques were just as primitive, no doubt
contributing to the fire's devastation. Thomas Dayspring, historian of
the Paterson Fire Department, says that since no fire hydrants or water
mains existed back then, fires that weren't detected early were almost
impossible to contain. The gooseneck hand-pumpers of the day, Dayspring
says, were so weak "the water thrown on the fire would have amounted to
that of two garden hoses."

The other fire-fighting method involved an old-fashioned bucket brigade.
Every home and business was required to keep a supply of leather buckets
near the door, and when the town crier sounded the alarm, every citizen
would throw the buckets into the street. As many as 100 people would
transport the filled buckets, hand to hand, from the nearest cistern or
stream to the fire.

In describing the fire, the Guardian pointed out "a fire could not have
broken out at a more unfavorable point of the town. The neighborhood is
almost wholly devoid of the necessary means for extinguishing it. One
engine alone could be brought into play upon the flames, the other five
being engaged in line to conduct the water.

"We have in this instance an exemplification of the 'penny wise and
pound foolish' policy. An expense of a few hundred dollars, in the
erection of a reservoir in such an exposed situation, would doubtless
have confined the fire in the building where it originated."

Symbolic of the futility was the fact that the blaze consumed the fire
house of volunteer Neptune Company No. 2 on Hotel Street.

Search was made in the place where [Robert] fell but so complete was
the destruction that a part of the back & a few other fragments said by
the surgeon to have pertained to a human body were all that remained of
his manly form.

All told, the fire destroyed at least eight residences, two stables, and
three historic buildings:

The Paterson Machine Works on Market Street. The sprawling wooden
structure, built by Paterson's founders as a hotel, had played host to
Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette when he visited the city in
1824. The building became the Paterson Machine Works in 1837 and
expanded. At the time of the fire, the factory employed 100 workers and
built locomotives, as well as textile machinery for Mexico and Central
America.

The Intelligencer noted the old building "has long been an object of
dread to the neighborhood, and many and fearful have been the prophecies
of evil for the day of its destruction by fire. We believe the community
in general rejoice that the nuisance has been removed."

Congress Hall
Congress Hall on the corner of Market and Main streets. The tavern was
long the town's most popular. The centennial edition of the Paterson
Evening News, published in the late 1800s, reported the second floor had
featured a rostrum "whence many a distinguished orator addressed the
people of the little village. There are many still alive who heard
Daniel Webster hold forth from the modest platform, who recollect his
massive head, his dome-like brow, and his deep sonorous voice."

In 1832, the two-story wooden building was the site of historic
negotiations between a committee of workers and their employer,
fledgling locomotive manufacturer Thomas Rogers. They won a
10-hour-a-day, six-day work week -- the first victory for working men in
a town that would become famous for its epic labor struggles. It would
take decades for women and children who toiled in the cotton mills to
get their oppressive six-day work weeks reduced.

St. Paul's Church on Market Street. Built in 1825 on property donated
by Roswell Colt, the patriarch of the Colt dynasty that controlled much
of Paterson, the church was a modest wooden structure with a square
belfry. According to a history of St. Paul's, "Simple as the church was
to the parishioners who made up its first congregation, the little wood
building was as beautiful as any of the stately cathedrals of their
native England."

But we have some reason to hope, in the language of the clergyman,
"his spirit was carried as in a chariot of fire to the mansions of the
blessed." Though not a member of the church, the child had been early
trained in the way he should go & the man did credit to his training.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Johnston was born near Castle Douglas in the Galloway region of
southern Scotland on July 7, 1804, the fifth of 10 children of John and
Margaret Rae Johnston. According to a family history, the Johnstons
"were of gentle blood and fallen fortunes -- a combination only too well
known in Galloway . . ." The family operated two mills by their
Barnboard cottage, a stream-driven grist mill and a mill to process flax
into threads to make linen.

When the lease expired, they moved to the small village of Haugh on the
River Urr and lived in a stone house called Millbank Cottage. An unused
loft above the kitchen was home to rats displaced from the cellar, "and
when the noise of the rats frightened the little ones, their father used
to reassure them by saying that great preparations were being made for a
rat wedding."

Each day ended with a Bible reading at nine p.m. sharp, and, according
to a family history, "from this ceremony none of the children ever dared
to be absent, or even to be late."

With a large family and an unfortunate habit of lending money to needy
friends and relations, Robert Johnston's father, John, sometimes had
trouble paying the rent to the wealthy laird who owned the property, and
at one point went to jail over his debts.

Noble hearted, generous, humane, [Robert] was beloved by all who
knew him, & the mournful end which has so suddenly been put to his his
life has awakened a general sympathy by no means bounded by the circle
of his relatives, friends, & acquaintances.

Robert Johnston settled in Paterson in 1844 and helped to establish the
American Hemp Manufactory -- commonly called "the Scottish Mill" --
which produced canvas bags, sailcloth, and other nautical articles.
Bankrolled by other first- and second-generation Scottish immigrants,
the mill was in an enormous new two-story stone building on Spruce
Street near Oliver Street, not far from the Great Falls. In a sense, it
was perhaps inevitable -- or, given Johnston's Calvinist upbringing,
pre-destined -- that a miller's son, born and bred near water and
grindstone, would work at a mill in a young nation 3,800 miles away.

What is known of Robert Johnston is the result of his correspondence to
his family on the other side of the Atlantic. In one letter home, he
asked his brother Samuel to send copies of the Dumfries newspaper. He
suggested Samuel read the newspaper first, however, and pay for half the
subscription.

In an 1825 letter to Samuel, who had become a grocer in England, he
commiserated with the younger Johnston concerning "the comparative
disregard of the Lord's Day in Liverpool," adding that the situation was
similar in America, and that "it requires a person to be very careful in
his choice of associates."

Another major concern was Robert's younger sisters' education, and he
sent money home to help pay for their schooling. After his brother
William died in Virginia, Robert -- a bachelor -- brought William's
daughter, Mary, to Paterson and educated and cared for her.

A futility appears to have attended this event. Robert was never
known to put himself in any situation where the least peril could be
incurred & yet he wantonly periled his life where the object to be
attained was totally impracticable.

The Intelligencer story on the fire explains part of that mystery. While
Robert Johnston and others scrambled to rescue the church's contents,
the worst of the fire raged unseen in the crawl space between ceiling
and roof. The newspaper reported that "to all appearance inside, there
was no danger in the work in which they were engaged. But the fire
doubtless burnt off the support of the ceiling, and let the whole mass
of timbers down to the body of the church below. . . . We have no doubt,
judging from all the circumstances, that the fall of the ceiling proved
fatal to Mr. J. at once."

A paragraph in the history of St. Paul's Church may also explain Robert
Johnston's apparent folly. The church, which had struggled for years,
was proud of a recent expansion. But dearest to the hearts of the mostly
poor congregation was the church organ, custom-built for St. Paul's by
Peter Erben, the organist of Trinity Church in Manhattan. Erben and his
entire choir had even ventured to Paterson to sing an oratorio to raise
money for the new organ.

[Robert] had returned from a fishing excursion four days sooner than
he had expected owing to some slight cause; the carrying out of his
plans would have kept him away from Paterson till the day after the
fire. But his time had come . . .

A larger mystery may never be answered. The Intelligencer, several
paragraphs below the story on the fire, ran a one-paragraph item,
seemingly an afterthought, announcing "a reward of $500 is offered for
information as will lead to the conviction of the incendiaries who set
fire to the Paterson Machine Works . . ."

The Guardian was more explicit: "It is not known how the fire
originated, but it is presumed to have been the work of some malicious
person, as it was discovered in a portion of the Paterson Works where
there had been no necessity for the use of fire in any form."

The reward notice appeared in two more editions of the Intelligencer,
and then both the story and Robert Johnston faded from memory.

May God grant that when we are called, we may be found ready.
I remain, very truly yours,
John T. Johnston

* * *

Epilogue

John T. Johnson
John Taylor Johnston was age 28 at the time of the above letter. A year
later, he became president of the newly formed Central Railroad of New
Jersey. Under Johnston's 35-year stewardship, the rail line expanded
mightily, running from the coal region of Pennsylvania to the edge of
New York Harbor at Jersey City and Bayonne.

The younger Johnston also took over the hemp mill. He named it the
Dolphin Manufacturing Co. and expanded it to produce jute twine and
carpeting. By the late 1800s, it was the largest mill of its kind in the
world, turning out enough carpeting in a year's time to make a footpath
across the Atlantic Ocean. The building still stands on the west side of
Spruce Street near Oliver Street, 150 yards from the Great Falls.

John Taylor Johnston's name also lives on, as a founder and first
president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church was rebuilt on the site of the fire, this
time out of brownstone instead of wood. The church eventually relocated
to 18th Street and Broadway, where it remains a cornerstone of the
community.

City Hall
Paterson officials bought the site of the old church and built their
City Hall there. That structure was gutted in the Great Fire of 1902.
The conflagration killed one person, left 500 families homeless, and
also destroyed police headquarters, three schools, a library, a theater,
and 30 office buildings. Paterson's current City Hall stands on the site
of the original church fire.

As far as can be discerned, the motive for the 1848 fire was never
determined, and the arsonist was never brought to justice. No police or
fire records for Paterson exist from that era, and the 1848 archives for
the Passaic County coronor's office contain no record of an inquest into
Robert Johnston's death.

Less than a month after the fire, the Intelligencer reported an eerily
similar event: In the early morning hours of July 22, the building that
housed Engine No. 3 and Hook & Ladder No. 1 was destroyed -- by an
arsonist's fire.

Robert Johnston was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His name
was later carved into the soft red sandstone of the Johnston family
monument an ocean away.

* * *
Author's note

Helping with the research of this article were historians Edward Smyk
and Thomas Dayspring; Giacomo DeStefano of the Paterson Museum; Johnston
family archivist Vincent Bellis; Bruce Bardarik of the Paterson
Library's Local History Room; and Stefanie Rotsaert of St. Paul's
Episcopal Church.

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