Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-07-14

the past few years they have aban-
doned the pillow and have turned
their corn6elds into clay mines and
are now growing rich. The clay lies
but a few feet below the surface, and
in many instances right on the sur
face, and seems to go down to all un-
limited depth. 1t was poor soil up
on which to raise crops, but it makes
excellent fire brick and terra Gotta.
These great clay deposits naturally
drew those industries which use that
material in their business. AS a re-
suit the Raritan river is lined with
factories where hollow and porous
bricks are made. The %fireproofing
which lines all the sky-scrapers OF
New York, Chicago and all the great
cities, comes from Perth Amboy.
Likewise the beautiful terra Gotta
trimmings which break the p~lainness
of these great structures and add
beauty to their architecture come
from the Perth Amboy shops. Meth
er are these shipments limited to this
country for orders are sent abroad
and all over the world. The clay is
exhaustless and as the demand for
the bricks and terra Gotta increases,
more factories are established.
Not only do the water and the enor-
nous clay deposits make Perth Am
boy important as a manufacturing
city, but its railroad accommodations
are equal to the best. There are four
different railroads touching at Perth
Arnboy. One of these has its termi-
nal OH Staten Island ard reaches this
city by ferry. The other roads run
direct to this city ard no matter where
the mandatory is located, it is with
in easy reach of one or the other of
the lines and in some instances the
factories have sidings from two rail
roads running into the plant. Some
of these industries are situated along
the water font and have the choice
of three outlets for their products.
This is highly appreciated by the
manufacturers.
True to the nature of the place,
the first known industry, aside from
that of ship-building and Clustering
was pottery. 1t is not strange, there
fore, that the advancement of the
city should be along those lines. The
earliest settlers began collecting theil
food from the adjacent waters and
the oyster industry has developed IN
til many hands are employed and its
business amounts into the
thousands of dollars. Last season q
wholesale firm opened a branch
here and oysters, by the thousands,
were shipped to all parts of the west
besides the sloop loads which were
disposed of in the New York markets
Shipbuilding also began with the
settlers for in those days most
of the traffic was by water. The hon
or Of having built the first vessel in
East Jersey was held by Samuel
Groom. This vas in 1898 although,
history says, he died leaving the vessel
still on the stocks. This, evidently
was not at Perth Amboy, for this
same history gives to Miles Forester
the credit of having built the first
craft here. 1t says, in speakingof For
that, Sin December 1909, he re-
ceived from the Board of Proprietors a
grant for a town lot, in consideration
of his having built the first sloop
launched at Amboy."
In modern times all kinds of crafts
have been launched. A few years
ago when the shipyard of Hugh Ram
say was at its height the launching
of large vessels was a common oc-
currence. At present the principal
business in this, line of work is done
by the two dry dock companies. Be
sides repairing all kinds of crafts, they
build many scows, canal boats and
car floats. Across the sound, in the
Tottenville shipyards, many tugboats
are built, the hulls being brought to
this side, after launching to have their
boiler and machinery installed.
The first pottery, which, as has
been SAID, was the first industry in
Perth Amboy after the oystering and