BraenBook-TemplatePages

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