R-MC 140

Guide to the Frederick A. Canfield Papers, 1858-1923

By Kate Mahoney

May 2012

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University

Finding aid encoded in EAD, version 2002 by Kate Mahoney, November 6, 2012

Biographical Sketch of Frederick A. Canfield, 1849-1926

Frederick Alexander Canfield was born on the Canfield family estate known as Ferromonte in Randolph, New Jersey on April 7, 1849 to mother Julia Ann Halsey and father Frederick Canfield (1810-1867). He graduated from Rutgers College in 1870 and subsequently attended the Columbia College School of Mines in New York, receiving the degree of Engineer of Mines in 1873.

Frederick Alexander consequently came of age in the tumultuous Industrial Era in America. Such booming industrial endeavors and rapid transformations in manufacturing and transportation likely influenced Canfield’s own trajectory and ultimate mining and related railroad pursuits. Morris County, New Jersey where Canfield grew up was also particularly significant for its iron industry which had been active during the prior century as well (1).

By the later years of the nineteenth century, however, the iron industry had to adapt to greater demands and became increasingly subject to the whims of the larger fluctuating market (2) . Further, iron railroads began to be widely established during this period when it became apparent that the Morris Canal and iron-transporting wagons would not be enough to handle the iron mines’ great increases in production (3). Frederick Alexander was involved with one such railroad as one of its initial incorporators alongside his brothers Augustus Cass and Edmund; this was the Ferromonte which served the Dickerson Mine of the Dickerson Suckasunny Mining Company (4).

Jonathan Dickerson (1747-1805), Frederick Alexander’s great-grandfather established the Dickerson Suckasunny Mining Company after buying shares in the Morris County iron mine (later known as the Dickerson Mine). Frederick Alexander also ultimately took this over as secretary and one of its general managers. Dickerson’s nephew and Frederick Alexander’s father were the other two managers of the mine (5).

In mineralogical and mining pursuits, Canfield specifically also spent much time researching minerals and participating in mining operations in Potosí, Bolivia. He maintained mining and mineral interests during his years living throughout Morris County, New Jersey as well. He was a member of the Society of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Numismatic and Archaeology Society, and the Brooklyn Institute. He was ultimately also a life member and trustee of the New Jersey Historical Society, vice president of the Mineralogical Society of America, New Jersey Commissioner to the 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition and an honorary doctorate of science degree recipient at his alma mater Rutgers College (6).

These mining and mineral interests further dovetailed with his involvement with the family business pursuits and his employment as an engineer for various mining and iron companies. Such companies included the Allentown Iron Company, the Cranberry Furnace Company, the Empire Steel and Iron Company, the Glendon Iron Company, the Hibernia Iron Mining Company, the Lehigh Zinc Company, the Mount Pleasant Mining Company, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Mining Company, and the Tilly Foster Mines (7).

Additionally, Canfield was invested in research related to his family’s lineage in New Jersey. Proving to be an avid genealogist, Frederick Alexander compiled enough family history and traced enough family names to publish his findings in a complete work. This is work was published as A History of Thomas Canfield and Of Mathew Camfield: With A Genealogy of their Descendants in New Jersey.

Notes

(1)Larry Lowenthal. Iron Mine Railroads of Northern New Jersey. (Dover, NJ: The Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc., 1981), 4.

(2)Ibid.

(3)Ibid.

(4)Ibid., 133.

(5)Canfield-Dickerson Family, (Morris County, NJ), Manuscript Group 249, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey.

(6)Ibid.

(7)Ibid.

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Scope and Content Note

Most of the records, comprising .5 linear feet of one manuscript box and ranging from 1858 to 1923, include correspondence and Canfield’s handwritten reports and notes on mineralogical and mining projects. However, some records are apparently unrelated to other known activities, organizations, or individuals. For instance, the ledger of Folder 5 in Series I: Mineralogy and Mining and containing figures labeled “Cranberry” appears likely related to the Cranberry Furnace Company for whom Frederick Alexander worked as an engineer. In the same vein, the volume of Folder 12 of Series III: Personal Subject Files appears to be a family day book containing unclear financial records and possible real estate notes and figures.

Alternatively, the records of Series I: Mineralogy and Mining concern the mining work and material Frederick Alexander conducted and compiled in both Bolivia and New Jersey. Those related to his work in Bolivia are likely related to the Royal Potosí Silver Mining Company located in Potosí, Bolivia. However, it is significant that the bulk of these documents were subsequently written and reported in Spanish. The accompanying visuals, including maps, diagrams, and charts, were additionally written and labeled in Spanish.

The materials related to the family business, found in the Correspondence and Family Papers folders of Series III: Personal Subject Files instead of Series II: Genealogy in order to keep separate Canfield’s genealogical research from other family affairs, are very likely related to the Dickerson Suckasunny Mining Company.

The bound volume in Folder 6 of Series II: Genealogy is similarly very probably the manuscript and notes that later became A History of Thomas Canfield and Of Mathew Camfield: With A Genealogy of Their Descendants in New Jersey.

Lastly, in Series I: Mineralogy and Mining, the eight booklets of the metallurgy project folder appear to comprise Canfield’s “Metallurgical Project given to the Class of 1875 School of Mines New York.” They contain estimates of machines, lists of associated supplies, the costs of running those machines, treatment procedures for mattes, and various details concerning the choices of location and methods for metallurgical processes and procedures.

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Arrangement Note

The material in this collection has been divided into three series: I. Mineralogy and Mining, II. Genealogy, and III. Personal Subject Files. Within each series, the folders are organized chronologically with the exception of the Personal Subject Files folders which are organized alphabetically.

Additionally, the metallurgy project folder in Series I contains eight booklets which were originally arranged in a seemingly random order and have since been rearranged to follow their sequential pagination within their own folder.

Of further significance is the presence of some penciled notations, such as “Canfield ’70,” on some of the material. These notes were presumably written by an individual to aid in identifying the material prior to its acquisition by Rutgers University’s Special Collections and University Archives.

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Related Collections and Publications

A History of Thomas Canfield and Of Mathew Camfield: With A Genealogy of their Descendents in New Jersey, Frederick Alexander Canfield, compiler. Dover, NJ (1897). Available from Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University, CS71.C222 2005. (Full text available from Hathi Trust.

Canfield Family Papers, 1853-1901 (MC 805). New Brunswick, NJ. Available from Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

Canfield-Dickerson Family (Morris County, NJ) Papers, 1738-1928 (Manuscript Group 249). Newark, NJ. Available from the New Jersey Historical Society.

Dickerson Mine, Mine Hill, NJ: Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, and Photographs. Newark, NJ. Available from the New Jersey Historical Society, Manuscript Group 101.

George T. (George Theodore) Werts, Letters, 1885-1895. Newark, NJ. Available from the New Jersey Historical Society.

Mahlon Dickerson (1770-1853) and Philemon Dickerson (1788-1862): Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, and Photographs (Manuscript Group 13). Newark, NJ. Available from the New Jersey Historical Society.

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Name and Subject Tracings

Personal Names

Corporate Names

Subjects

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Container List