Ezra A. Dunn and his Pottery

Ezra A. Dunn (1821-1898) was one of my great great great (3X) grandfathers.  Last month I visited his grave at Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Ezra is buried with his wife, Hermoine Dunlop, and some of their children.

From the 1850s until his death in 1898, Ezra owned and worked at his pottery business in Middletown Point (which became Matawan Township in 1857, but is now Aberdeen Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey).  The business was originally called Van Schoick and Dunn, but morphed into Dunn and Dunlop and then Dunlop and Lisk.  William A. Dunlop (1833-1910), one of the eventual owners, was the brother of Hermoine Dunlop, wife of Ezra A. Dunn.

An example of the pottery can be found at this online auctioneer or here.  Ezra painted the images on the pottery.

I found a picture of the Pottery workers, circa 1870, in the book, Images of America, Around Matawan and Aberdeen.  Ezra Dunn is supposedly one of the people in the picture, but I don't know which one.

1874 notice in local newspaper
Van Schoick and Dunn became Dunn and Dunlop

I don't know where Ezra Dunn came from.  On his death certificate from 1898, his parents are listed as Nathaniel H Dunn and Sarah.  I need to explore the business partner, Josiah van Schoick, as well as Ezra's wife, Hermoine Dunlop.

The Monmouth County Historical Association has the books from this pottery business.  I was able to go through them.

The books look and feel quite old.  Inside are manual ledgers of accounts receivable and payable.  The customers are listed with their addresses and dates of purchases and payments.  Someone could go through these and transcribe the people in these books- a great way to place someone at a location in a given month and year.

It is amazing and fortuitous that someone kept these records and then donated them instead of tossing them.

Spring Seminar 2012 in Newton, New Jersey

Saturday (May 19, 2012) was the Spring Seminar of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey at the First Presbyterian Church in Newton, followed by a tour of the Sussex County Historical Society.

The Presbyterian Historical Society told us about their physical repository in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 425 Lombard Street. The records are not indexed, so you will need to know names, dates, and specific churches to conduct an effective search.  Records may also be maintained at the original location, so check before driving to Philadelphia.

Joseph R Klett discussed how to use the records of the East and West Jersey Proprietors, which were incorporated original landowners.  These early records are now housed in the Archives at Trenton.  Some are searchable online, but most are not digitized, indexed, or abstracted.  (You can't find everything online!)  I did not realize that in the 1600s, Burlington County stretched as far north as the New York State border; or that the East Jersey Proprietors dissolved in 1998 while the West Jersey Proprietors is still an active organization.


Online link to the index for some early proprietor records at the Archives.

Gerald H Smith advised us to use a property description in a deed to draw the lot and then use land maps to locate ancestors and the neighbors that they often married.
 

Typical property description.  Although the trees are likely long gone, use the lengths, angles, and neighboring properties to draw out an approximate shape for the lot.  Main roads and rivers as borders may still exist.



Old property descriptions use a length of "Chains." The Historical Society had such a measuring device on display.

The Historical Society has files on many local families from Sussex County and neighboring counties of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Your original family photographs could be waiting for you here.