The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-05-22
A Town at sheriR,s Sale.

1t is not often that a whole village, in
Guiding huge railroad shops, churches,
school. stores and residences, is sold at
SherIff's sale, but that is the condition of
affairs that confronts the citizens of Man
chester, Ocean county, to day. The sale
has been arranged by Sheriff Chambers
for tomorrow, and consequently no little
excitement prevails. A mortgage given
by John Torrey, now deceased, in Janu-
airy, 1867 to the Mutual Benefit Life In
surance Company. of Newark, is the paper
upon which foreclosure proceedings have
been carried on. This mortgage was
given before much of the present town of
Manchester was built, and as it covered
the site of the whole town at that time,
and many building lots have been sold
from it since, under the blanket mortgage,
those who have built their homes upon
such lots will have to suffer with the Tor
rey estate.
The present town of Manchester was
practically founded by John Torrey,
though there bad existed mills and a
forge" for reducing bog iron ore that an
tedated the Revolution. Mr. Torrey was
an influential New York financier and
carried on real estate speculations on a
scale the magnitude of which would al
most paralyze the operators of to-day. He
bought up many thousands of acres of
pine lands in Manchester township, Ocean
county, and laid out the town of Man
chester He carried through successfully
the project of building the old Raritan
and Delaware Bay railroad, breaking up
after years of fighting the monopoly that
had been granted to the old Camden and
Amboy route. In fact, he was the only
man who succeeded in coping with Com
modore Stockton and John and Robert l..
and Edwin A. Stevens, who so long dom
mated the New Jersey Legislature and
caused the state to be dubbed 1.-The Cam
den and Amboy State.'
In building his railroad from the Rari-
tan to Bayside on the Delaware Bay, John
Torrey negotiated famous loan of $780,,
600 with the Bank of England, through
Brown Bros. & Co., on his less than 10000
acres of pine land, the like of which then
or now, would hardly bring IS an acre in
the open market The sequel of this deal
was the formation of The Manchester
Land Company, formed of members ofthe
firm of Brown Bros & Co., who since the
Bank of England called in the loan, have
been the owners of the broad miles of
| pine woodland.
After beating the Camden and Amboy
lobby and building his railroad, Torrey
| tbtdDllSlCu btlC OnSinC oHOBb VI
the new road on his property at Manches-
ter, on part of the tract covered by the
Mutual Life Company's mortgage, and
when the old P. K. K d. B. r. r. was
merged into the New Jersey Southern,
and the latter into the Central Railroad of
| New Jersey, the shops were kept at the
old place. Employing between 200 and
300 men in prosperous times, they, with a
jute factory and several saw mills, have
been the backbone of Manchester's indus
tIal life.
AS the Torreys were the founders of the
place, the owners of the lands and the
employers of most of the people. large
number of lots were bought from them by
settlers, under the present mortgage, the
buyer knowing of the mortgage, hut
thinking that sit was all right" But now
the crash has come, and for the past
month there has been great overhauling
of old records and searching of deeds and
titles, to see if property was included.