Careful restoration in progress
Photo below courtesy Geoff Gove
The
Collins Family
John
Collins (1754 - 1806) emigrated from Ireland and fought in the Revolutionary
War. He was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Society of Bloomfield from
which Bloomfield got its name. John Collins married Mary Baldwin of the
prominent Baldwin family that owned three of the first mills in Bloomfield.
Baldwin Street that borders the Collins property was named after the family.
John’s son Isaac (1786 - 1841) is credited with building the main section of
the present house. Isaac was a carpenter who worked on the Morris Canal bridges
and Inclined Planes and Isaac’s son John (1824 - 1906) was also a carpenter on
the Morris Canal.
John
Collins (1824 - 1906)
JOHN
COLLINS, one of the oldest and most prominent citizens of Bloomfield, N. J.,
noted in his day as a bridge builder of exceptional ability, was a native of
the place named, where his entire life was spent and where he was born July
4th, 1824, in the old Collins homestead, near the paper mills. He was the son
of Isaac Collins and Jane Wykoff, and was descended from an old and respected
New Jersey family. John Collins (1824 -
1906). Courtesy of Robert Goller. He received his education in the common
schools of the locality and as a young man was apprenticed to the carpentry
trade, acquiring a skill that was unusual and which marked him as a master
workman. Entering the service of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, he was
employed by that enterprise for many years as master carpenter and boat
builder, and it is noteworthy that in this connection he constructed every
bridge that crossed the canal between Easton, Pa., and Jersey City, N. J. ,
acquiring wide reputation as an expert at bridge building. He was subsequently
appointed supervisor of the Jersey City division of the canal, serving in that
responsibility for several years and resigning from the office in order to
accept a place as master carpenter at Oakes & Co.’s Woolen Mills, with
which enterprise he remained for a quarter of a century, finally retiring from
the activities of trade seven years before his death. Mr. Collins was a veteran
of the civil war, having served in that great conflict with credit. He enlisted
in the 26th New Jersey Volunteers as a corporal on September 18, 1862, and was
mustered out June 27, 1863. He was one of the oldest members of the First
Presbyterian Church, of Bloomfield, and was esteemed in the community as a man
of upright, Christian character, generous in his charities and worthy in every
way of the respect in which he was held. He was a Republican in his political
views but he was content to serve as one of the rank and file of his party,
neither seeking nor holding public office. He was domestic in his tastes and
habits, proving an affectionate husband and a loving father, and he was devoted
to his home and family interests. He was married to Ann Law, daughter of James
and Jane Law, by whom he was survived, with one daughter, Emma J., who became
the wife of Jesse I. Taylor, of Bloomfield. Mr. Collins died at his home in
Bloomfield, in a house where he had resided for fifty-five years, November 19,
1906, and in his death the community lost a leading and public spirited citizen
who had always lent his hearty support and active co-operation to every public
movement that tended to benefit the common welfare, as well as to the local
philanthropic activities and other interests that made up the life of the town.
It is
a notable fact that there had been a John Collins in every generation of this
family for 120 years, and is now represented by John Collins Taylor, son of
Mrs. Taylor, only child of subject of this sketch who has two other children.
The
Memorial Cyclopedia of the Twentieth Century Comprising Memoirs of Men and
Women who Have Been Instrumental in the Progress of the Industries,
Professions, Arts, Literature, Legislation, Society and Charities of the United
States (unpublished), the Publishing Society of New York, 1906. Courtesy of
Robert Goller.
