The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-10-05
AROUND ELIZABETH
Tales of the Once Beautiful
River That Winds
Through the Town.
P~oLLUTIoN's 7 WORK
Streams Ancient ATTRACTIONS
Gone = Big Fish
Stories.
P%OLLUTION's 7 WORK

Many years ago, says the Newark
Sunday CALI when Elizabeth was a
little ountry village, a beautiful stream
wound through it and emptied into the
sound at Elizabethport. 1t was and Is
still known as Elizabethport River, and is
a stream of many sources. One of its
branches takes its rise in the Hammock
swamp, hear Union, and another has its
origin north of South Orange avenue, IN
East Orange, and flows through Belcher's.
Durand's and brakes ponds, in Clinton
township, into Lake Ursino. which is the
| supply reservoir of the Elizabeth Water
Company. Other ramifieations of the
stream trend in from various directions
through farm and woodland, villages and
towns. 1t is not a nice stream anywhere
now. but nothing purer or more attractive
could be desired a third of a century ago
The river must soon be abandoned as a
source of water supply owing to the in
crease of population in the territory
through which it flows. The water be-
conses worse each year, and will soon be
positively undrinkable In fact, there is
a serious question whether it is not dam
| gerous to life now.
1t was a great river for fish in the early
years of this century. The salt tide flow
ed up and back through a mile of mead
ow, and another mile or more of upland
| well into the old town and almost to the
point where the Pennsylvania Railroad
now crosses the river. Smells, shad, her
ring and striped bass were then caught
in the river in season, and shrimp, crabs
,n1 IL LalN,,r7 THAN in tho 11nnar
| stretches there was most exciting sport
for those who used brook spears under
| the torch or jacklamp. 1t was a famous
| stream for cells and suckers until about
twenty years ago, when several families
! were badly poisoned by eating the cells
speared in the river below Morris avenue.
Since then the cells have been poisoned
by drinking the water in the. river. 1t
was thrilling sport spearing big cells in
this stream twenty-five years ago, and
many Newarkers remember with pleasure
the fights they had with three and four
| Founders under the bridges, and even
| under the flooring of one or another of
/ the mills. Suckers did not count for much
and the common usage was to lab a
sucker with the spear and throw him out
upon the bank, to be picked up or not.
If not picked up by the spearer the
| sucker was almost sure to be priced by
somebody walking along the bank next
morning, and if it escaped a human con-
sumer it at least fed some wandering cat,
or failing that, was food for the ants ana
other insects, and really there We're alto
gether too suckers in the brook.
A night trip up the river was never mo-
notonous. The start would probably be
made below Jersey street bridge, ana
the spearers were fortunate if in passing
through the town they escaped the upes
| and pebbles of the half grown hoodlums
| loafng on the bridges. The way was
| clear to the old milldam below the water
| works. and then detour had to be made.
to strike the stream again up by Morris
| avenue, where rifle after rifle would be
waded with varying success until Lige
Bruen's dam was reached. This was at
the old gunsock mill. where quantities
| of Jersey walnut knees and burls We're
| sawed and shaped for butts of shotguns
and muskets.
Passing the Bruen pond, which is now
| a part of the reservoir, the spearers came
to a stretch of good shallow stream me-
andering through pasture land and woods.
Here occasionally the smell of fresh GU
cumbers would make the spearer suddenly
wary. and flashing his lamp from side to
side he would find the ource of the odor
in a threatening comprehend snake frog
cling under the banks. In the town the
only diversion from fish spearing was an
occasional sthurst at a rat dazed by the
glare of the torch or lamp, but out in the
| country there were always water snakes,
| black snakes. and occasionally pilots or
/ copperheads TO relieve the monotony. a
good nights tramp Would pc from sHe
! heart OF Elizabeth to brakes Mill, and a
| good nights fishing was something more
han fifty pounds to the spear. suckers
were regarded as eatable only when the
| water was cold in April. put eels We're
| good any time they could De found. linen
| there was occasional variety in spearlng
a big green head frog, a brook PIKE OF a
speared a o~ne-pound trout in the race at
! Kean's mill. and Bot Huntsman sad tnat
he remembered the time when the llii1a-
beth River was a famous trout streain;
| Mr. Brlfen. who had charge of keaf Ali.
wears ago. used to have a peculiar way OF
catching cells. When the Shiny creatures
were running upstream in the spring ne
would bore several augur holes through
the gates over the apron OF the dam, anu
.put baskets behind the streams OF water
| which spouted out from the NOES. LIZ
eeIs would try to climb or jump up the
archdng lets of water, and wouid almost
inyariabiy fall into the Ihey
were fresh run ettS llOii inS R<As, "N
those days they did not nave 10 SWIM
through sewage. as they did later
Ali the way down through, the city,
th;rtv wears ago, the banks OF the stream
w,sre made attractive by green terraces.
bandsoTne stone retaining walls and occa-
SINAI rustic seats and summer houses.
| Now the Elizabeth River IS an open sewer
from which people hurry away with hanu-
kerchiefs held tightly to their noslrlls.
Just now the water is extremely low. "A
few weeks ago the river had a mighty
| HE now. Last week the water was gray
With curdled sewage, and under each
bridge a stream of filthy water was pour
| ING into it. The stencil everywhere along
| tbe river was sickening, and vet the ar
was cool and dry all last week. When
the eyeniugs are warm and mists are us
ling the stencil from this vile river is nor
| rihle. and people are nauseated IN cross
| ing the bridges. On several not ana
| humid evenings this summer people nv
ing within several hundred yards of the
| river were compelled to close their win
| dows because of the stencil from this
river. The nuisance increases perceptibly
| with every hundred feet from Morris ave-
knue to Elizabethport. and the sluggish
Hide cannot cleanse the foul stream.
Something will have to be done very
soon to remedy the existing evils, and II
is quite natural to turn to the local Board
of Heath for relief. There is nothing in
| natural conditions to prevent restoring
| the river to its condition of twenty-five
| Years ago. The trouble exists entirely
Hin the fact that the city Is using the river
| as an open sewer. If the sewer water is
intercepted nature will do the rest, and
| the river will again become an attractive
4 feature of the pretty town.