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Warren County Cultural & Heritage Commission

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Historic Views Of Alpha, Harmony,
And Franklin Township

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Alpha Region

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The formation of the borough, Alpha finds its roots in the 1891 realization by A.B. Bonneville that a quarry containing large supplies of a blue rock necessary necessary for the making of portland cement was located in the alpha area. Shortly after he made the discovery, Bonneville established the Alpha Cement Company, and funded the opening of a quarry on the property and the construction of a number of factory buildings. Bonneville's plant was the first in the nation devoted to the production of Portland Cement. It consisted of two fourty foot long kilns with an annual output of 100,000 barrels, various storage and office buildings, and the rock quarry.
By 1895, after several reorganizations, the company now took the brand name as its own name. Meanwhile, Bonneville opened another plant nearby, The Vulcanite Cement Company. By 1900, this plant covered an area of 300 acres.
Unfortunately, soon after World War I both the Vulcanite and Alpha plants were closed and their buildings torn down.
Unlike the other major population areas of Warren County, Alpha is solely a product of modern industrialism. As recently as 1890, there were only seven dwellings in the area that would become Alpha.

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Police On Horses.
This picture was copied from Shampanore's History Of Warren
County, published 1929.

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Alpha Post Office.
The first post office was established in 1903 in a building on Sigsbee Street.
This picture, taken about 1925, shows it when it was located at Sampson Street
and Lee Streets from 1916 to 1959. After one more move, the present post office
was built on Warren Street in 1973.

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Alpha Vulcanite Portland Cement Plant.
Limestone rock was discovered in 1891 in the central section of Pohatcong
Township led to the production of cement. The Vulcanite Cement Company was formed in 1894 and Alpha Portland Cement Company organized in 1895. The brand name "alpha" was chosen as the name of the new community in 1903. The cement business declined in 1912-1914 and reopened during World War I, but both plants were torn down after the war.

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Franklin Region

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The township of Franklin came into being as a political entity when portions of Mansfield, Oxford and Greenwich were set off on February 15, 1839, by an act of the state legislature. Incorporated on April 8, 1839, by a meeting of citizens at the inn of Benjamin McCullough in Broadway. Settlement began in the second quarter ot the eighteenth century after the last purchase of land from the Indians by the West Jersey Proprietors in 1713. Numerous mills, forges and dams were built along the Musconetcong and Pohatcong Creeks.
Lacking the available waterpower of the Musconetcong and the Pohatcong, New Village had no real industry. Most, if not all these early settlers included farming in their activities.
In 1782, Adam Hall bought a two acre parcel, fronting along the Musconetcong River, where he built a mill which he sold to William McCullough in 1792. This area was then developed into the town of Asbury.
Several additional mills were built on both sides of the river. These formed the nucleus of the major industrial area of Franklin Township.
The Pohatcong Creek offered somewhat less water power and so was unable to support an equal amount of industry. It was, however, the site of Warne's Mill which remained active for many years and still stands on the north side of route 57.

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Edison Quarry.
Quarrying for limestone to supply the Edison portland
Cement Plant located between Broadway and New Village.

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Edison Cement Plant.
A birds eye view of the Edison Portland
Cement Plant, now extensively demolished.

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Edison Cement Plant.
Another view of Thomas Edison's cement plant.
This view was taken in 1931.

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Mill In Broadway.
Benjamin Warne built his stone home on the homestead in Broadway
and a mill which he operated from after the Revolutionary War
until his death in 1810. The present mill was built and operated by his widow.

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Mill In Asbury.
This mill was built in 1865 to replace the earlier one built in 1782-1792.
The mill in background has long since been demolished. The bridge has been replaced
by a modern steel and concrete structure.

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Harmony Region

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The township of Harmony was incorporated on February 15, 1839. Harmony was formed by taking parts of Greenwich and Oxford Townships. Villages within Harmony include: Harmony, Lower Harmony, Montana, Brainerds (Martin's Creek), Roxburg, Hutchinson and Harmony Station. This area was settled prior to the Revolutionary War. Early industries operated within the township included the clover mill established by Godfrey Person at what would become Lower Harmony, taverns, grist and saw mills and smithies. Communities arose around the locations advantageous for enterprise, including Upper and Lower Harmony, Rocksburg and Allen's Mills. During the nineteenth century, the line of the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad was established along the eastern bank of the Delaware River, and although stations were established at Hutchinson, Martin's Creek and Harmony Station, little development actually occurred as a result.

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Roxburg Academy.
The Roxburg Academy was built in 1860.
It was probably in use until 1926 when the township erected
a new combined school. It's gone now, but the foundation remains.

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Union Chapel.
The Union Chapel was located in Brainerds.

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The Quaker Meeting House.
Many of the original settlers in the Southwestern part of the present Warren County were Quakers. This two hundred year old house was known as the Smith Quaker Meeting House or Hoser House. It is located on the Merrill Creek Resavoir property.

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