The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-09-29
TEE VAN Worst LANDS
interesting History Re-
called by the Announce
ment of the Sale.
DIVIDING A GREAT PROPERTY.
The Late Mrs. Jonathan Dixon
Miller's Valuable Kitchen
Garden.

by the late Mrs. Jonathan Dixon Miller,
has created considerable interest among
business men, especially the real estate
dealers, and revived intense historical in
terest among the older residents OF Jersey
city.
1t Is claimed that the sale will be the
most important transaction in real estate
that has ever taken place in Jersey City,
being the largest valuable vacant private
property now remaining within the city
limits below the Hill
It has been divided into thirty-two lots,
100x25 feet, twenty-three of which are to
be sold at auction, each separately, with
no privilege given to the purchaser of one
to choose others at the same price. The
sale will take place on Tuesday, October
10. William J. Rouget is auctioneer.
The nine lots reserved include those
upon which stand the Miller homestead
and barns, the only buildings on the en-
closed grounds. These, according to the
will Of the late Mrs. Jonathan Dixon Mil
Ter, are also to be sold, but the negotia-
tions Will doubtless be separate and pri-
yate
called last evening at the old Miller
homestead, at the corner of Second and
Henderson streets, and learned from Mr.
John Van Worst, the executor of the late
Mrs. Millers estate the history of the old
Van Worst property.
THE VAN WORST HISTORY
LEARNED that in 1882 John Van Worst,
the father of the gentleman to whom 1
addressed my questions, died, leaving
considerable property in the lower por-
tion of Jersey City in the section desig-
mated at that time as Harsimus.
The estate included the tract extending
from Erie to Warren streets and from
Seventh street TO Newark avenue. This
tract, with their immense properties, was
divided among four children, who gave
the square upon which Grace p. f..
Church now stands to Grace parish in
1S45.
The four children were:-John Van
Worst, yet living; Mrs. Miller, who died
last April; Mrs. Linau, deceased, and
Mrs. Henry A. Booraem, who resides at
The corner of Grove and First streets.
THE -FOUR SQUARES.
The strip of property between Grove
and Henderson streets, extending from
First to Seventh streets, was so divided
that each inherited, in addition to other
property one of the squares included in
the strip designated, Mrs Booraem's ex-
tending from First to Second streets
Mrs. Miller's from Second to Third,
Johns from Fourth to Fifth, and Mrs.
Linau's from Fifth to Sixth. Mrs. Linau
sold hers to the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, whose trestle work runs
through the property.
Mrs Booraem's square is partially built
up, and John, who inherited the square
upon which stands the old Van Worst
homestead, involved himself in financial
ruin while building up his block in 1872.
He has resided in the Miller homestead,
erected by Mr.. Jonathan Dixon Miller. a
prominent New York lawyer, in 1865, for
the past twenty years.
Mrs. Miller, after the death of her hus-
4 - ALL T.
Guiding Princeton and Elizabeth till
about two years ago, when she came back
to her old home and died last April.
The Miller homestead is the only resi-
dence in the square. 1t is q substantially
built brick structure, two-stories high,
with an immense cellar. The dimensions
are 45x45 feet The roof is fiat 1t sets
back from the corner of Second and Hen
derson streets. The remainder of the
square has been enclosed ever since by O.
high brown fence, and utilized solely for
the production of garden vegetables,
while its value has been steadily increas-
ing, until the area occupied by good
sized cabbage in this queer old garden
threatened to be worth more than the
entire crop.
Fronting as it does on Grove street,
next to Newark avenue, the main bust
ness thoroughfare of the city, it has for
many years been eagerly. sought after for
F ..
never consent to have the property pass
from the hands of the Van Vorsts. tt is
thought the lots will bring immense
prices.
IN THE EARLY DAYS.
I was unable to ascertain from Mr. Van
Worst an accurate history of the Van
Worst property prior to the death of the
late John Van Worst, in 1882 The lot
upon which the Miller homestead is To-
Gated, the same which is to be sold, was
purchased from the Merchants Bank of
New York in 1916 by the late John Van
Worst for $500. The lot between First and
Second streets, now owned by Mrs. H. d.
Booraem, was purchased at the same
time, for the same price, from the same
company. Both were originally portion
of the old J. B. Coles estate.
On the walls of the room in which / sat
talking to Mr.. Van Worst last evening,
hung a number Of old paintings and the
framed original patent in Dutch signed by
Peter Stuyvesant in 1864, granting to Cor
nelius Van Worst the ground upon which
stands the old Van Worst homestead on
the square now bounded by Henderson,
Grove, Fourth and Fifth streets.
A portion of the original walls can yet
be seen near a. northwest corner of the
square. The original building projected
into Fifth street and was burned TO the
ground in 1886.
It is recorded in history that Van T.
Miller, Director General of the East
India Trading Company, visited Corne-
lius Van Worst, head commander for
Michael Paw, the PATRON, at Pavonia,
across the river, and, becoming jolly after
testing some old Bordeaux wine, Van
Worst fired salute in honor of Van
Twiller's departure.
A spark from the swivel set fire to the
Van Worst homestead land it burned to
the ground an hour after leaving some
portions of the walls standing, which
were subsequently rebuilt
As a matter of Typographical interest
Mr.. ID. M. Van Worst, who is conpara-
lively young man, remembers when the
water edge reached Henderson street, and
has passed many an hour catching crabs
among logs that fioated along where Hen
derson street now is.
In 1855 Mr.. Jonathan d. Miller erected
a stone dock in that vicinity. which is
now underground. On the enclosed lot
advertised for sale, Mr.. Van Worst told
me last evening" stood the first school
house erected in Jersey City. 1t was an
old wooden structure, and among those
yet living whose first instruction
was impaired therein, are:-William S.
Gilbert, Francis Jenkins, Robert South
way, Jack Southway, of Orange, and DIR.
Josiah Gautier, of New York. Mr.. Van
Worst surfnises that it was erected by one
Kennedy, an agent of ]. b. Coles.
what Is the Color of Your Eyes?