The History of Port Colden

Native Americans Woolston Morris Canal Dusenberry Business Related to Canal Schoolhouse & Church Decline of Port Colden Trolley Abandonment of Canal Port Colden Today

Native Americans The late Harvey Mowder, a Warren County historian, was born and raised in Port Colden on a farm where the chief of the Pohatcong Indians is said to have lived. His grandfather was a canal boat captain on the Morris Canal. According to Mr. Mowder, Port Colden was part of an old Indian trail that ran from Perth Amboy to the Delaware Water Gap. About a mile up Port Colden Road is a road that was once known as the Old Port Murray Road and today is known as Hilltop Road. At one time, this road was a through road to Port Murray. By following it into the woods towards Port Murray three huge boulders, with inscriptions niched by the Indians, can be found. These boulders were known as the three Council Rocks in Headquarters Village. In this area no hostility was permitted and pow-wows were held around the Council Rocks. The last known Indian celebration held in the Port Colden area was in 1794. Eventually, the Indians retreated into the Pennsylvania wilderness as the influx of more and more white people gradually changed the hunting and fishing lands of the Indians into farmlands. Woolston Newbold Woolston, as the first settler in the area, owned most of the land we now call Port Colden. His house and barn were evidently the only buildings in the immediate vicinity. The stone house built by him or his son, Abraham, survives today as the district’s oldest building. At the time of the 1828 canal survey, the site of the future village of Port Colden was vacant, mostly wooded land, in the ownership of several individuals; George Creveling, John Parke, Col. William McCullough, and Newbold Woolston. It was crossed by the Washington Turnpike (now Route 57) and the road from Changewater to the Oxford Furnace (Port Colden Road). Morris Canal The Morris Canal was completed in 1831. The middle of the 19^th century was a prosperous period of expansion for Port Colden due to the canal. It was home to a large boat basin, a lock, and an inclined plane. Extensive improvements were made to the canal in the 1840’s. Work included widening the prism and rebuilding the locks and inclined planes to accommodate larger boats (the rebuilt Port Colden plane was one of only three double-track planes on the canal). Dusenberry William C. Dusenberry (1807-1867) joined the ranks of local entrepreneurs inspired by the economic promise of the canal. His father, Major Henry Dusenberry, had been part owner of a local spa, the Mansfield Mineral Springs, which subsequently failed and which the younger Dusenberry purchased from his father’s executors in 1831. The son is said to have demolished the old hotel there and transported the materials to Port Colden. He used them in constructing a house, which he built as his residence, across from the hotel. In addition, he acquired considerable property at what became Port Colden between 1833 and 1838. Dusenberry energetically sought to develop his new property on the canal and promote the community. He erected the settlement’s first storehouse and the Port Colden Hotel on a turnpike corner lot acquired in 1835. Dusenberry also erected a number of houses and a chapel at Port Colden; one local source credits him with the construction of over 32 buildings there. His plans led skeptical neighbors to call the place “Dusenberry’s Folly,” and to counter-mand this Dusenberry is said to have named it Port Colden in honor of Cadwallader D. Colden, second president of the Morris Canal and Banking Company. Regardless of its origins, the name Port Colden was in use at least as early as February 2, 1834 when a post office was established there with William C. Dusenberry as the first postmaster. It supposedly was located in his store. While living in the Port Colden area, he tried many other business ventures, none of which had any lasting success. He eventually left the area and died a poor man in New York City in 1867. Businesses Related to the Canal The boat basin was the center of much activity both for the canal and the townspeople. By 1860 the village was home to three boat builders. Asabel Gaylord established his boat yard in the 1850’s on property on the east side of the basin. His boat yard flourished for more than a decade, becoming the community’s most important business. The lumber used in this business is said to have been milled at a saw mill owned by the canal company near Plane 6 West. Another mid-nineteenth century industry was the apple distillery established by John Opdyke before 1860 on the creek at the north edge of the village. A brickyard was established at Port Colden before the 1870’s which operated at least until the 1880’s. A number of artisans settled at Port Colden during the period including a shoemaker, blacksmith, wheelwright, tinsmith, tailor, and a mason. Port Colden also attracted several merchants. The village had three general stores in 1860. The most successful of these being the one owned by Andrew M. Nunn. He was succeeded by Simon W. Nunn who carried on an extensive business well into the early twentieth century when his store was touted as “the Wanamaker of Warren County.” Schoolhouse and Church Before 1869 village children had attended a small, stone, octagonal school just east of the village on the turnpike. That the middle of the 19^th century was a prosperous period for the community is evident in the substantial brick schoolhouse erected in 1869, quite possibly from locally manufactured bricks. Local residents who left the Methodist church at Washington used the second story of the new schoolhouse for religious services for many years. In 1893 a church of "modern design" was built next to the schoolhouse overlooking the canal basin on a lot donated by Simon W. Nunn. Decline of Port Colden By the 1870’s, with the exception of the Methodist church, Port Colden had realized its maximum nineteenth century development, and thereafter began a period of slow decline. Although the Morris and Essex Railroad, constructed in the 1860’s, passed just south of the village no stop was established there and business activity was drawn to the growing town of Washington. While in 1881 the village contained a hotel, the Ebro House, two or three stores, a blacksmith-shop, wheelwright-shop, brick kiln, and a distillery, the boat yard had been abandoned and one or two stores closed. This decline culminated in the closing of its various commercial and industrial enterprises by the early 1900’s. Trolley There was a spurt of activity in the early 20^th century when the Phillipsburg to Port Murray trolley line was built in 1906. In Port Colden, a power house and car barn were erected by the trolley company just south of the inclined plane, and a picnic grove called “Silver Spring Forest” was established in a nearby wooded ravine during the following year in an attempt to attract customers to the line. While several houses were erected and/or remodeled before and after 1900, no new commercial or industrial development occurred. The lack of rail connections put Port Colden at a competitive disadvantage; a situation, made worse by declining traffic on the canal and the invention of the car. The financially strapped trolley company ceased operations in 1925. Abandonment of Canal The canal was abandoned in 1924 and sold off in sections. The boat basin was purchased by Washington Township Board of Education who built a consolidated school of modern design on the property in 1931. Port Colden Today The "new" Port Colden school, much enlarged and remodeled, remains in use today, as does the Methodist Church. In recent decades Port Colden, along with other villages of northwestern New Jersey, has attracted new residential development. Scattered building has occurred around Port Colden and many of its dwellings have been renovated. The old hotel has undergone renovations, which respected its historical architectural character, and was converted into professional offices in the 1980’s. Presently the Washington Township Board of Education has begun restoration of the Old Port Colden Schoolhouse. Also, the Port Colden Methodist church has recently added an addition and continues to serve its delicious pancake breakfasts and suppers. Back