Kinnelon's History
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1769 New Jersey Highlands
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General History of Kinnelon
Kinnelon's history is written in its rugged hills.
Its nearly twenty square-mile area lies within the eastern, or Ramapo, belt
of the "Highlands" of New Jersey. These mountains, which once shaped the
destiny of colonial independence, which are prized today for their beauty
and serenity, are a curious mixture of the most ancient and most recent
rocks in the world. The bedrock of these ridges, heavy with minerals, was
formed nearly a billion years ago; compressed by the weight of mountains and
seas over the centuries; then uplifted and finally carved during the last
Ice Age. The Wisconsin glacier, retreating over 17,000 years ago, left a
glacial "till" of stony, fertile soil, spectacular ridges, rounded hills,
tumbling streams, and placid lakes. Forests thick with oak and hickory soon
covered the hills and sheltered an abundance of game.
Inhabitants
Into these wooded hills the Lenni-Lenape, a tribe of Delaware Indians,
ventured from their trails along the Pequannock River. They noticed a slant
to the rocks and so named the mountains "Ramapo." The land where thick mists
rose from the lakes, tradition says they called "place where smoke rises."
In 1664, King Charles the Second of England granted the territory to the
Duke of York, who conveyed it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.
Carteret, who had been Bailiff of the British Channel Isle of Jersey, named
the land New Jersey. Carteret's nephew Captain Philip Carteret was sent to
govern with a document called "Concessions and Agreements" to encourage
settlers to the area. In 1676 the Province of New Jersey was officially
divided into East and West Jersey. Six years later, after Carteret's death,
the East Jersey Board of Proprietors consisted of twelve men, one of whom
was William Penn.
In 1695, negotiating a purchase, first with the Indians, and then with the
Board of Proprietors, the first white settlers led by Arent Schuyler, came
to the Pompton region, and claimed the most desirable land--meadows and
streams. The hills of Kinnelon were a lovely frame for the valley farms and
were not appreciated for their mineral and timber wealth until just prior to
the War for Independence.
Among the families purchasing land grants from the Proprietors in the 17th
and 18th centuries were the Meads in the Meadtown area, the Stickles in the
Smoke Rise area, and the Cobbs. The old farmhouse and cemetery in Fayson
Lakes were built by the Federicks family on land bought from the cobbs'
patent. Sprawling Pequannock Township, which included Kinnelon, Butler,
Pompton Plains, Riverdale, Montville, and Lincoln Park, etc., was formed in
1740.
Industry
Early in the 1700's, the first iron forges and furnaces were built in
locations where the five essentials for smelting were available. These were
iron ore, charcoal fuel, limestone flux, water power, and nearness to
markets. The Charlotteburg Furnance was opened in 1766 on the Pequannock
River by Peter Hasenclever of the London Company. He was the first manager
to dam streams to conserve water power, to line the furnaces with durable
slate, and to roof the works for weather protection. Ruins of the furnace
still lie under the water of the Pequannock Reservoir, south of Smoke Rise's
North Gate. Other forges were built on the Pequannock River at Smith's Mills
and Butler, and on the outlet of Stickle's Pond (Lake Kinnelon) on Stony
Brook.
The typical furnace was a stone pyramid on the side of a hill. A platform
was built along which layers of ore, fuel, and flux were wheeled to the
opening atop the furnace. The mixture was dropped into the furnace and
ignited. Air blasts from bellows powered by water wheels kept the fires
intense. Gradually, the iron ore melted and the heavy metal flowed out at
the base of the furnace into troughs of sand on the casting floor. The
arrangement of these cooling beds resembled a sow and her piglets: thus the
term "pig iron." Slag floating above the iron was drawn off and discarded.
The pig iron was further purified and shaped in the forge.
Charcoal was painstakingly prepared in the surrounding hills. Trees had to
be cut down during the wintertime, trimmed to the proper size, stacked in
cone-shaped piles, and topped with earth and damp leaves. Once ignited, it
took three to ten days to char the wood properly. When furnaces were in full
blast, it took an acre of trees a day to feed the fires. Some of Kinnelon's
roads were once wagon trails where teams of oxen hauled charcoal to the
furnaces.
England demanded that the colonies ship all their iron to the mother country
and buy from her all their finished hardgoods. By 1770, one seventh of the
world's iron was being produced in this region, and England's unjust law
soon made rebels of the people of New Jersey. The Highlands' natural barrier
to transportation kept the mines and forges safe from British attacks, and
left the colonists with a plentiful supply of iron for guns, shot and tools.
A huge iron chain forged in this area stretched across the Hudson River near
West Point to bar British ships. The hills rang with the banging of trip
hammer, the rumble of wagons, and the roar of many fires.
Farming
As peace returned to the countryside, much of Kinnelon was cleared for
farming. Land too stony for cultivation was left for cattle. The opening of
the Morris Canal in 1830 was to signal the end of the charcoal industry, as
more efficient coal from Pennsylvania could be transported cheaply to the
furnaces. Local forges continued to use charcoal, however, and iron bearing
veins were explored in a futile attempt to revitalize the iron industry in
the area.
A turning point in Kinnelon's history came in 1883, when Hubbard S. Stickle
sold a large tract of land, including lake and mines. The buyer was Francis
S. Kinney, the wealthy manufacturer of Sweet Caporal cigarettes. Over the
years, he increased his estate to 5,000 acres by purchasing several
adjoining farms, the names of which survive as road names in today's Smoke
Rise community.
The Kinneys built a four-storied, eight-chimneyed "cottage" overlooking Lake
Kinnelon. Nearly a hundred men from the area were employed to work the farms
and serve the complex of stone buildings housing prize English sheep dogs,
horses, and Brown Swiss cows. Native stone was carried by sled across the
winter ice to a tiny island in the lake, and a chapel dedicated to Saint
Hubert, patron of hunters, was constructed. Its interior was exquisitely
crafted by Tiffany and Company. The infant Morris Kinney was baptized here.
At this time the neighboring town of Butler was undergoing its industrial
revolution. The Rubber Comb and Jewelry Company, under the management of
William Kiel, provided employment for a full third of the working people in
the area. Many more, no doubt, worked the mines, once again explored in a
flurry of activity during the 1880's. In the Jacksonville area, along Brook
Valley Road, a brief "gold rush" occured, complete with an assay house and
much secrecy and speculation about the minerals found there. Finally, the
venture was declared a hoax. The mines had been salted with nuggets to
increase land values in the area.
A thriving community then existed in the 1880's, with three schools provided
by Pequannock Township: the Jacksonville school; the Brook Valley school,
now a residence at the corner of Oakwood Trail and Fayson Lakes Road; and
the Meadtown school, now a residence called L'Ecole situated on Kiel Avenue.
Family homestead names on a map of Pequannock Township dated 1887 included
Smiths, Millers, Rickers, Deckers, and Meads, ancestors of many of today's
residents. Life was hard on the early farms, but there were large families
to share the chores and the joys.
The backbreaking toil of clearing land and of planting and harvesting crops
yielded most necessities, plus a little cash for such luxuries as coffee.
Summer's hectic pace left little time for socializing except for churchgoing
or an occasional picnic. Eggs, strawberries, and summer vegetables at their
peak had to be carted to Butler's market, and later there was little time to
waste preparing for winter. In winter, snow packed firmly on the trails by
means of oxen-drawn logs made transportation by horse and sleigh a delight,
and many long evenings were spent visiting, story-telling, sewing,
gossiping, and courting with apples and chestnuts roasting before the fires.
So Kinnelon weathered the seasons undisturbed by the progress and
development spreading up the valleys of the Pequannock and Rockaway Rivers.
Railroads tied the valley towns and industries to the metropolitan hub, but
the hills remained secluded and serene.
Change - The 20th Century
By 1920, the idyll was over. World War I had thrust many young men into the
world beyond their farms. The older Kinneys had passed on, their unwieldy
mansion having been replaced by a house, smaller and of stone, with central
heating. Some of the cast metal statuary adorning the avenues of the estate
had been melted down for the war, and Morris Kinney had returned from the
service with his lifelong friend, John Alden Talbot. The automobile brought
people out into the country. Summer farms soon became year-round homes, with
trains offering a speedy commute to the cities from Butler and Boonton.
The Birth of Kinnelon
Kinnelon's relative isolation from the rest of Pequannock Township was
blamed for the poor education, roads, and utility services in the rural
area, so in 1921 a movement began for separation from the large township. In
1922, the Borough of Kinnelon was incorporated, its name being adopted from
Kinnelon, the estate of its most prominent citizen, which later became known
as Smoke Rise.
The first Mayor, Warren Kinney, a son of Francis Kinney, appointed five
committees: Finance, Ordinance, Roads, Light and Telephone, and Recreation,
to handle the administrative work of the Borough Council. Within the first
decade, the fledgling borough, with a population of 400, accomplished its
primary goals. Both Kiel Avenue and Boonton Avenue were paved by the county
as through roads, and electrical and telephone lines were gradually brought
in along these routes from Butler.
In 1923, a central two-room school of native stone was erected on Kiel
Avenue to replace the ancient one-room schools in Meadtown and Brook Valley.
Its first graduating class in 1924 included Gifford Miller, who gave many
years of service to Kinnelon as Borough Clerk. The land adjacent to the
School was purchased for the new Kinnelon Volunteer Fire Company. Carnivals
and fund-raising events involved the whole community, and the new firehouse,
built with many materials contributed by Morris Kinney, was the only large
meeting room in town. Churches, shops, and public transportation were
centered in Butler.
During prohibition days, Kinnelon was a refuge for clandestine distilleries.
A speakeasy on the old Canty estate survives today as the refreshment hall
of Silas Condict County Park. Its carefully preserved mirrored mahogany bar,
band stand, and ice cream parlor chairs still charm the imagination. The
"stills" were detected by signs of smoke or by brown pollutants in the
streams flowing onto valley farms. One distillery near Jacksonville was
smashed the day before Prohibition came to an end.
In 1927 a subdivision map was filed by Frank Fay, Jr. For his planned summer
community, Fayson Lakes. He and his son had ridden by horseback over the
mountain from Pompton Plains and, struck by the beauty of the hills, had
purchased the old Frederick farm and lake from the Kitchell family, with an
eye toward development. The first log cabin built was offered to the hero of
the day, Colonel Charles A. Lindberg, as a promotional gimmick. It worked,
although the shy aviator had never responded. People came, attracted by the
idea of a summer cabin in the woods with a lake for recreation, but from the
start, some commuted all year. The first roads, still called trails, were
designed as loop roads for light auto traffic. Garages along Stonybrook Road
were maintained for residents' automobiles. When Mr. Fay was elected Mayor
in 1931, this road was hard-surfaced and its name changed to Fayson Lakes
Road.
During the Depression years, the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.)
built a reservoir for the Borough of Butler on land in Kinnelon east of
Kakeout Mountain, flooding an old roadway connecting the two boroughs. It
was completed in 1937. Electricity was brought to the southern end of the
borough from Boonton. Kinnelon's police department, under the marshall
system, was established in 1939.
The Suburban Era
The end of World War II saw the beginning of a new era for Kinnelon--a
suburban era. When Morris Kinney died in 1945, he left his estate to his
friend, John Talbot. The two men had shared a respect for the land and its
beauty, and fittingly, Mr. Talbot conceived of a way to develop the land
while yet preserving it. Quality homes on large lots, architecturally suited
to the terrain, was the guiding principle of the Smoke Rise Club Community.
From that time to the present, Kinnelon's growth has accelerated. A
Municipal Court, with a Magistrate appointed by the Mayor-Council, was
established in 1948. State Highway Route 23, skirting the northern border of
the borough, was completed the following year. In 1951 a full-time Chief of
Police was appointed, and authorization was given to a private firm to
provide for refuse collection.
In 1953, four years after the first addition was made to the Kiel School, a
renovation and second addition were completed. The borough's first municipal
building and garage were erected in 1955, behind the Kiel firehouse. The
Stonybrook school opened its first wing in 1957, and its second wing a year
later. Butler High School continued to be the receiving school for
Kinnelon's secondary grades. The first Zoning Ordinance, setting minimum lot
sizes, was adopted in 1954, and amended several times thereafter. In 1955 a
Planning Board was established to advise the local governing body on the
growth and development of the borough. The original Subdivision Ordinance
became effective late in 1956.
In 1958, Kinnelon contracted for a study of the borough to be made by
professional planning consultants. Land use, economic characteristics, and
population projections were considered in formulating objectives for the
Planning Board to follow in guiding future development.
The Master Plan was formally adopted in 1960. It recommended realignment and
expanded rights-of-way for existing roads, the immediate construction of a
secondary school, a borough hall and a library, improved recreational
facilities, an ambulance service, establishment of an industrial park,
shopping areas, and modern water supply and sewage treatment facilities.
Many of the Master Plan recommendations were implemented during the
following decade. Kinnelon Road, a new through road replacing a portion of
Kiel Avenue, opened new areas for development of a center for the borough.
The Junior-Senior High School was soon completed there, and work on the
Pearl R. Miller Middle School on Kiel Avenue was begun. The new Municipal
Building, containing administrative offices, a meeting room, and police
headquarters, was dedicated in 1966. Together with the Library and Borough
Garage, it rounded out a municipal complex of a single architectural design.
The Morris County Park System purchased the Canty estate on Ricker Road from
the Denberg family and converted it into a park dedicated to Silas Condict,
an important figure in Revolutionary times. From the hills overlooking its
lake, one may see Manhattan's skyline to the south, and the rolling hills of
the Ramapos to the east.
Kinnelon Today
The community today remains primarily residential, populated by a high
percentage of executives, professional people, and skilled workers, in the
middle and upper income ranges. Lying between the cultural and business
excitement of the metropolitan area (within an hour's drive) and the superb
recreational advantages of northern New Jersey, Kinnelon is poised between
the rooted past of the hills and the bright promise of future growth,
hopeful of preserving the best of both worlds.
text from the original Kinnelon town website http://www.sabra.com/kinnelon/history.html visited 9/1/98
Links:
revised 9/29/99 by Schoenherr for History 17
