Joseph Harrison Brown; Harry

Ocean County Daily Times, Summer Festival Edition

Friday, August 2, 1974

Joseph Harrison Brown was his given name, but everyone called him Harry. He was born in the country town of Holmeson, Millstone Township. His parents were Charles and Anne Cottrell Brown.

Schooling at the Holmeson one room school was a hit and miss system for when the weather was since Harry had to work on the farm that was on Carrstavern Road. At the age of 14, his father made arrangements for Harry to live with a relation at Trenton that owned a operated a grocery store, where he would be able to lean about the functions of grocery business.

After serving his apprenticeship Harry was able to secure a job with a milk company at Princeton, NJ, where he met Margaret Margerum, his future wife.

In 1908 when Harry was 20 years of age he borrowed enough money from his father to purchase Ezekiel Thomas’ grocery business and rent the building where the business was situated, on Ridge Avenue, Lakewood, NJ.

There was no electricity, kerosene lights and lanterns were used for light, in this rented building. Refrigeration was a large brown wooden ice box at the rear of the store, which housed a 100-pound piece of ice, each summer day delivered y Bob Price Ice Delivery.

When the ice truck came down the avenue all the kids followed hoping to get a small piece of ice to suck on. In the summer the town of Lakewood was hot in the day time and nights were worse. People stayed up all night a rocked in their rocking chairs on the porch. In the distance you could hear the children singing and the young men whistling for it was too hot to climb the stair to bed.

Most everyone in the neighborhood had a milk man to deliver milk or a cow. The only necessity for ice, at the grocery store, was to keep the a large forty pound New York cheddar cheese, wooden tube of butter and lard from melting.

Slabs of salt pork were kept in a barrel of brine as well as the salted mackerel. Salt mackerel was a Sunday morning special for most families. Large, fifty gallon, wooden barrels of cider and white vinegar, molasses and a drum of kerosene were kept on the dirt cellar floor under the old wooden floor of the store.

Bread that was sold was purchased at Sillwell’s Bakery on Main Street. Dry beans, sugar, coffee beans (which had to be ground by hand), Indian meal, nuts, etc. arrived in large 50 or 100 pound cloth sacks and was stored in wooden bins that had a small glass window so one could see the nature of the contents. Loose tea arrived in a metal line wooden box, orange pekco, black, Ceylon, pekco, oolong and English breakfast teas. The favorite mixture was orange pekco and Ceylon – gun medal cut.

Cookies were in a large cardboard box or barrel – there were Mary Janes, Lorne Doones, Ginger Snaps, Fig Newton, Uneeda Biscuits, Trenton crackers and many more. Everything had to be weighed and packed in a brown paper bag and tied securely with white cotton string from a suspended overhead spindle.

Pickles and candy were sold for a penny a piece and sometimes, if the pieces of candy were small, one would be able to purchase five pieces for one penny. No on in our neighborhood had washing machine and soap powder was not sellable. Fels Naptha and Octagon bar soap was the necessity for the wooden or metal scrubbing board. Ivory bar soap was used for personal needs.

The following are the cost of some items sold at Harry’s:

1lb rice                                           .18

1/4lb tea                                        .11

2lb sugar                                        .14

½ gal kerosene                              .08

1 bottle mustard                           .15

1 bar soap                                      .05

2qt fresh peas                               .30

1 pc tobacco plug                          .12

2lb crackers                                    .07

1 qt fruit syrup                               .12

2 bottle Green Mount. Oil           .20

1lb oats                                           .09

1/4lb baking soda                         .02

2 qt beans                                       .24

1lb butter                                        .22

1lb lard                                           .11

1 bottle peppermint                     .10

½ gal molasses                               .30

The usual straw brooms were there, no one ever heard of a wet mop. Loose tobacco and chewing plugs plus De Gallopping Shorts chewing tobacco for the young man that card to adhere to the habit. Cigarette “Wings” were sold for 10 cents per pack. Fresh vegetables and fruits were in abundance in the summer months and purchased from the local farmers or accepted in lieu of money owed.

Fresh vegetables and fruits were in abundance in the summer months, that were purchased from the local farmers or accepted for a bill that was owed. If a customer lacked money to purchase groceries, all he had to do was bring some eggs or garden produce to Harry’s and would either give then credit on their bill owed or groceries in exchange. There was no such thing as cash and carry groceries. People had little money, those who could pay on the spot were few; most charged until they could pay the bill owed in some fashion.

There were farmers who paid their bill owed once a year when harvesting their crops. The bill may have amounted to approximately $1,000. Although Harry had a roll top desk to figure the bills, he kept all the bills owed on a long heavy wire hanging from the ceiling.

Vasoline was a big seller and if this did not work, Green Mountain Oil would. Milk of Magnesia, caster oil, Castoria (for the Friday night round up of kids), paregoric, camphor and peppermint oil for indigestion were also sold. The only transportation Harry had was a horse and buggy. It was a struggle for he was trying to work up a grocery delivery service and every time the horse came to the railroad crossing Harry had to blind fold the horse so he would walk over the tracks.

Heating the store was another problem in the winter months since these months were much colder than today. The roads were never scraped to remove ice or snow, the children skated to school and the tourist enjoyed the pine air while riding in an open sleigh, covered with woolen lap robes or fur blankets. In the middle of the store stood an iron pot belly stove where the neighborhood men would gather, spit tobacco juice into the embers and tell tall tales about coon hunting and Ty Pink Sea.

Harry’s deliver routes were Central Avenue, Whitesville, Cassville, Van Hiseville, Bennet Mills, Jackson Mills, Greenville, Pleasant Plains and immediate areas. Two years past and Henry felt that his business was gaining, and he married the girl that he had been engaged to, at Princeton, NJ. Harry and Maggie were able to purchase a house from Holmes Johnson at 322 Ridge Avenue where they could raise the children as they arrived.

Joel Cottrell Brown, Harry’s only brother, gave up his job at an Asbury Park Hotel to assist in the grocery store. Joel’s only motive seemed to be that of helping Harry. He stayed only for a short while and then decided to leave for a job as motor man on the Atlantic Coast Electric Railway that ran from Pleasure Bay to Sea Girt, NJ. Joel was discontent away from his family. Their Mother, Aner Cottrell Brown, told Uncle Joel, “if he was not going to marry and have a family, he must go to his brother, Harry, and help raise the children there.”

Uncle Joel married but was never blessed with children of his own. He devoted the rest of his working days to Harry and his family. There was never a morning that Uncle Joel didn’t stop by our home on the way to work at the grocery store, to make sure that the children were all well.

In the early 1920’s, Harry was able to purchase an automobile, Model “T” Ford, a truck to deliver groceries. His Mother financially helped with the purchase, she was determined that the grocery store would be successful, and the children would be raised well.

Harry would load bakery break on a wooden rack in the Ford and go from farm to farm selling bread and kerosene while taking food orders that would be delivered next time around.

In the 1920’s, Brown’s Grocery became a “united Service Grocer”, relocated in a new built store at the corner of Nowlan Place and Eats Seventh Street, Lakewood, NJ, it was an updated store in every way, in keeping with the times. But there still was no adding machine, the cost of the groceries purchased was figured on the side of the large brown bg. Had the best of all cash register’s but no one seemed to care about the amount when you pushed down a key, the only important thought was correct change. Each day the amount collected would be written on the current calendar.

This new store was not self-serving, one would bring their written grocery list and we would get the product from the shelf and place it on the counter before the customer. There was a large cooler that extended down the middle of the room where the customer could help themselves to lettuce or other vegetables of choice. Within was cold watermelon cut to desired size. Fresh fruits, Jersey tomatoes and other garden greens from the farms were kept in a wooden basket in the front of the store room, along the window front. A large electric cooler extended across the back of the store where the wooden tubs of fresh butter and lard were kept, along with the meats, such as pork products, hot dogs, ham cold cuts and the biggest wheel of New York cheese. Of course, there was always salt port for that pot of boiled Navy white beans. When everything else failed, a pot of beans saved the day, if fact, if a person came to our store and needed food for the family, we gave them a couple pounds of dried beans for supper, at no cost.

In 1930 when the depression arrived at Lakewood, Brown’s Grocery helped their customers, many of whom were supplemented with “poor” orders. Each family that obtained a “poor” order from the Lakewood Town Hall would bring the written instruction to our store stating exactly what they could purchase amounting to five dollars, all tolls. We would submit the orders to the Town Hall and receive monies for the cost.

Large barrels of salted meats were distributed, free, to the needy and there were many folks that would not accept help in any way, they were proud people and relied on their summer gardening and chickens that they raised.

Many of Lakewood’s Public School teachers were regular customers and were paid with “script”, in lieu of wages, during the depression. After the depression was over and the local banks reopened, Harry submitted the “script” to the Lakewood Town Hall and was paid in full, there were many stores in town that would not accept this “script”.

All of Harry and Maggie’s five children grew up working long hours at our grocery store, weighing, and packaging and putting up orders to be delivered the following day.

Hallowe’en nite, 1958, Harry Brown gave candy and cookies to all the people who entered his store dressed for the occasion and closed the doors after serving Lakewood community and outskirts for 48 years of continuous service, only closing the doors for a ride to Metedeconk River so the children could learn to swim, on a Wednesday afternoon in the summer. Sundays was the day for the family and a long automobile ride thru the country to visit relations.

WORKING HARD THRU THE WEEK BUT NEVER ON A SUNDAY.

Margaret Theresa Brown Forsberg