Martha Furnace and the diary with an uncertain author

A company changes hands

Isaac Potts established Martha Furnace in 1793 and named it for his wife. The New Jersey Historical Society’s guide records its sale in 1800 to John Paul, Charles Shoemaker, Morris Robeson and George Ashbridge, and dates the end of operations to 1844. This was a pig-iron works on the Oswego branch of the Wading River, part of the industrial landscape later remembered as a collection of vanished towns.

What survived the business

Hagley holds a combined daybook and diary, with operating information on one side and accounts of daily events on the other. Its catalog describes workmen’s time, materials and output, alongside accidents, illnesses, celebrations and visits. Some 360 people appear in the record. The missing companion accounts matter: the surviving volume does not give wages paid or other monetary totals. A workday can therefore be visible without revealing what a worker earned.

The author is a real research question

The familiar attribution to Caleb Earl Jr. is questioned by Hagley’s archivists. They identify one principal hand through 1811 and apparently three writers afterward. The New Jersey Historical Society likewise describes the employee behind its typescript as unknown. This uncertainty is a reason to compare handwriting and personnel records, not to assign a new author by guesswork.

The manuscripts themselves were not inspected for this entry. The two repository guides establish what survives and where the questions lie. A 1976 edited diary offers another route into the record, but its transcription and annotations should be distinguished from the original pages.