VIEW OF PATERSON, N. J. The Episcopal and one of the Reformed Dutch Churches are seen on the left; the First Presbyterian Church, the Court House, the Catholic and Methodist Churches appear in the central part. Passaic river is seen in front of the factory buildings. sole charge of the works, completed the race-way, conducting the water to the first factory erected by the society. The canal to tide-water had been abandoned before the departure of the engineer. "The factory, 90 feet long by 40 wide, and 4 stories high, was finished in 1794, when cotton yarn was spun in the mill; but yarn had been spun in the preceding year, by machinery moved by oxen. In 1794 also, calico shawls and other cotton goods were printed; the bleached and unbleached muslins being purchased in New York. In the same year the society gave their attention to the culture of the silkworm, and directed the superintendent to plant the mulberry-tree for this purpose. In April of this year, also, the society, at the instance of Mr. Colt, employed a teacher to instruct, gratuitously, on the Sabbath, the children employed in the factory, and others. This was probably the first Sunday-school established in New Jersey. "Notwithstanding their untoward commencement, and the many discouragements attending their progress, the directors persevered in their enterprise; and during the years 1795 and 1796, much yarn of various sizes was spun, and several species of cotton fabrics were made. But, at length satisfied that it was hopeless to contend, successfully, longer with an adverse current, they resolved, July, 1796, to abandon the manufacture, and discharged their workmen. This result was produced by a combination of causes. Nearly $50,000 had been lost by the failure of the parties to certain bills of exchange purchased by the company, to buy in England plain cloths for printing; large sums had been wasted by the engineer; and the machinists and manufacturers imported, were presumptuous and ignorant of many branches of the business they engaged to conduct; and, more than all, the whole attempt was premature. No pioneer had led the way, and no experience existed in the country, relative to any subject of the enterprise. Besides, had the country been in a measure prepared for manufactures, the acquisition of the carrying-trade, which our merchants were then making, was turning public enterprise into other channels. The ruin of the company, under these circumstances, cannot now be cause of astonishment. But to this catastrophe the children of Mr. Colt, now deeply interested in the operations of the company, have the just and proud satisfaction to know, that their parent was in no way auxiliary. On closing their concerns, the directors unanimously returned him their thanks for his industry, care, and prudence in the management of their affairs, since he had been employed in their service; fully sensible that the failure of the objects of the society was from causes not in his power, or that of any other man, to prevent. "The cotton-mill of the company was subsequently leased to individuals, who continued to spin candle-wick and coarse yarn until 1807, when it was accidentally burned down, and was never rebuilt. The admirable waterpower of the company was not, however, wholly unemployed. In 1801, a mill-seat was leased to Mr. Charles Kinsey and Israel Crane; in 1807, a second, and in 1811, a third to other persons; and between 1812 and 1814, several others were sold or leased. In 1814, Mr. Roswell L. Colt, the present enterprising governor of the society, purchased, at a depreciated price, a large proportion of the shares, and reanimated the association. From this period the growth of Paterson has been steady, except during the 3 or 4 years which followed the peace of 1815. "The advantages derivable from the great fall in the river here, have been improved with much judgment. A dam of 4 feet high, strongly framed and bolted to the rock in the bed of the river above the falls, turns the stream through a canal excavated in the trap-rock of the bank, into a basin; whence, through strong guard-gates, it supplies in succession three canals on separate planes, each below the other; giving to the mills on each a head and fall of about 22 feet. By means of the guard-gate, the volume of water is regulated at pleasure, and a uniform height preserved; avoiding the inconvenience of back-water. The expense of maintaining the dam, canals, and main sluice-gates, and of regulating the water, is borne by the company; who have expended, in raising the main embankment, and constructing the feeder from the river and new upper canal, and for works to supply water to the third tier of mills, the sum of $40,000. "The advantages which Paterson possesses for a manufacturing town are obvious. An abundant and steady supply of water; a healthy, pleasant, and fruitful country, supplying its markets fully with excellent meats and vegetables; its proximity to New York, where it obtains the raw material, and sale for manufactured goods; and with which it is connected by the sloop navigation of the Passaic, by the Morris canal, by a turnpike-road, and by a rail-road-render it one of the most desirable sites in the Union."* The first church incorporated in Paterson was the 1st Presbyterian church, in 1814. There was at that time a Reformed Dutch church at Totowa, now Manchester; and the services at that place were in the Dutch language. The united population of the two places was then about 1,500. From a mere village Paterson has now got to be the second town in importance in the state. There are in Paterson 14 churches, viz: 2 Reformed Dutch, 2 Methodist, 2 Presbyterian, 1 Free Independent, 1 Episcopalian, 1 True Reformed Dutch, 2 Baptist, 1 Primitive Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 oreo sretnomist. There is a philosophical society of young men, who have a respectable library, and a mechanics' society for the advancement of science and the mechanic arts, with a library and philosophical apparatus. The Morris canal passes near the town. The Paterson and Hudson railroad gives it an easy access to the city of New York. This road will ere long be extended northward and united with the Erie railroad. There were by the census of 1840, 104 stores; machinery manufactured, value $607,000; 4 fulling-m.; 1 woollen fac.; 19 cotton fac., 45,056 spindles, with 2 dyeing and printing establishments, cap. $926,000; 1 tannery; 2 paper fac.; 1 saw-m. ; 2 printing offices; 2 weekly newspapers. Total capital in manufactures, $1,792,500. 1 acad. 80 students; 16 schools, 1,006 scholars. Pop. including Manchester, about 9,000. Paterson is celebrated as affording one of the most romantic waterfalls in the country, and the neighboring scenery is of a highly picturesque character. A late traveller thus describes this wonder of nature: The fall in the river, which was originally 70 feet, has been increased to about 90 feet by a dam above. From this dam, a short sluice conducts the water into a basin or reservoir, partly prepared to the hands of the proprietors, and partly made by art and labor. A * Gordon's Gazetteer. causey has been raised across an immense chasm, walled in by rocks, presenting almost perpendicular sides from the bottom of the chasm to the upper edge of the precipice. The rocks, being of basaltic character, are of rectilinear form, and perpendicular in their position; and this accounts for the comparatively smooth sides of this immense excava tion. The causey serves two very important purposes: it is at once a dam which detains the water in the basin from which the milling power is drawn, and the bed of a turnpike road. Below the causey, the terrific chasm continues in its natural state, unchanged by human art, and, a few rods below, receives the remaining waters of the Passaic, after it has supplied the heavy demand of the mills. Branching off from the larger opening there is another, running nearly parallel with the river, which gradually diminishes to a mere crevice between the perpendicular sides of the rock. Into this crevice, or opening, the waters of the Passaic, suddenly turning from their course, leap and dash with an impetuosity which converts the whole mass into foam. It is an awful, grand, and terrific sight, even now; and we can readily imagine what it must have been when the whole flood of the river, swollen by rain and the melting snows, threw itself into the yawning gulf, from whose depths the bellowing thunders of the mighty flood, struggling for an outlet, and resisted by the walls of its prison-house, were reverberated by the surrounding hills with deafening roar. The waters escape, and, rushing to the wide bosom of the immense chasm first described, hurry over its rocky bed until they are tranquillized in the passage over a less precipitous descent below the town. Some miles from Paterson, the river passes through the romantic and picturesque village of Acquackanonck, and soon reaches the immense flats which border the North river and the Bay of New York, on the Jersey side. Thence it moves slowly and sullenly along, as if unwilling to mingle its pure stream with the salt water of the ocean. The short time allowed us for viewing this grand scenery, would not authorize us to form any conclusive opinions as to the causes which have produced the phenomena which present themselves at and near the Paterson Falls; and even a part of this brief space was devoted to the complicated works of human skill and ingenuity which the factories contain. But we were led to think that the deep ravine in the rocks, which we have described, has been made by the waters of the river, which originally fell into it at the place where the basin now is. The regular and uniform position of the rocks on its |