LAND VALUES BEFORE THE PANIC OF ’73.
This property was purchased by Peter H. and John H. Ballantine just before the panic of 1873 (the deed is dated January 31, 1873) when prices were greatly inflated, and they paid therefor the sum of $217,000, paying $50,000 down and giving a mortgage and bond for the remainder. It was not long before the new purchasers saw the error of their ways and desired to relinquish the property and the $50,000, but to this the Smith estate would not agree. It is hardly probable that they will ever see a profit on the investment, as interest at 5 per cent (and it was more than five in those days) would in itself now amount to almost twice the original outlay, and when the taxes and assessments to which the property has fallen heir are added to the loss of interest, even eighty dollars a foot can hardly seem a large sum to the Ballantine estate.
WHERE JOHN MORRIS LIVED.
Passing the Robert Smith place we come to the home of the Bartholfs, which was erected more than sixty years ago, as it is so designated on the map of ’49. Who Mr. Bartholf was or where he came from I have not ascertained. The records show that John G. Bartholf purchased the property from Samuel Morris, who had it from Zebulon Morris, to whom it came from John Morris. This was probably that John Morris who was a resident of the old Bloomfield road during the Revolution.
Mr. John Morris Phillips, in the Daily Advertiser of February 19, 1880, stated that John Morris was his great-grandfather, and that it was to his house that the son of Joseph Hedden came when he fled from the British (referred to elsewhere), having nothing on but his night clothes and a pair of stockings. His feet were frozen to the bone as a result of the exposure.
Some time in the sixties Mr. Albert Beach acquired this property which he at first used only as a summer home. The house was taken down in November, 1909.
KEEN FAMILY TRADITION.
The Keen homestead adjoined the Beach property on the north. Just when the farm house was erected is not known, but that it is pre-Revolutionary there is no question.
The Keen Farm House. Pre-Revolutionary. This shows the building as it stands to-day.