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Legend says that Sam Braen acquired the Valley of the Rocks quarry as payment for a gambling debt. CAPTION TITLE HERE: Apitat. Pis et facerit eos resciae eos reribus, sum sit labo. Bus.Pid mi, ommod milique odiscim agnatem rem latur sequam sitas res sit et mod ut et enihictatur, que rerferit, offictae si o 14 SECTION TITLE
From Samuel Braen, Road Builder, to Samuel Braen’s Sons Legend says that Sam Braen acquired the Valley of the Rocks quarry as payment for a gambling debt. If true, the loser would likely have been another son of Dutch immigrants. Jacob Sandford and Sam were the same age. The parents of both were Ouddorp exiles. The Sandiforts arrived three years after the Aart Breen family. The Sandfords and the Breens were remotely related by marriage: Jacob being brother-in-law to one of Sam’s cousins. And both Sam and Jacob had tried their hands at various jobs. Jacob had gone from peddling vegetables from a wagon in 1880 to quarrying in 1895. Paterson began sprouting stone quarries during the 1890s. The first, New Jersey Blue Stone and New Jersey Brown Stone, appeared on the slopes of Garrett Mountain at New Street and Grand Street. Another company, owned by two sons of Dutch immigrants, Cornelius Verduin and Abram Hartley, worked a site at the foot of Van Houten Street, across the river from the Valley of the Rocks. Sandford worked this exposed cliff face off and on for about eight years. That he might have become indebted to Sam Braen, either at the gaming table or in the ledger books, would not have been an unusual situation, given how closely the various contractors and suppliers worked with, and lived near each other, and very often socialized together. As Paterson continued growing, construction methods changed. Already during the 1880s the local cities, Passaic being among the first, began replacing their wooden sidewalks with ones of more durable concrete and cement. These new wonder materials inspired Thomas Edison, to heavily invest in the business of building cast concrete houses. Although his company failed, concrete did catch on as paving material. Given the number of Dutch immigrants toiling as masons, it was only natural that some of them successfully bid on the sidewalk projects. Jacob Van Noordt of Passaic, another first generation Dutch-American, secured enough business to incorporate as the Union Building and Construction Company. He also enter politics to win a seat on the county Board of Freeholders. Soon after 1900 his nephew, Dow Drukker, became the head of this firm. Drukker lured in more investors, bought control of the local newspaper and Passaic’s largest bank, and added quarries and sand pits in Clifton and Riverdale to his holdings. When he became director of the board of freeholders he oversaw the county’s various construction projects: especially bridges and roads. In 1914 he won a seat in the United State House of Representatives. Drukker’s idea to link construction and supply together in one company provided a template Sam Braen would follow. Another early influence on Sam’s career was one of Paterson’s notable boosters, Nathan Barnert. An immi- SECTION NUMBER 15
Page 1 and 2: Braen: A History Built on Stone The
Page 3 and 4: Braen: A History Built on Stone The
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Prelude xx From Breen to B
Page 7 and 8: Preface Braen, with an outsized A i
Page 9 and 10: From Breen to Braen On April 30, 18
Page 11 and 12: to New Orleans, steaming north on t
Page 13: Sam moved to the Paterson Iron Comp
Page 17 and 18: ...Sam proudly hired a photographer
Page 19 and 20: As the demands and opportunities fo
Page 21: Enduring the Great Depression would

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