Port Norris Hay Rope Company

Erected 1907. Former horse stable and 5500-gallon water tank on Port Norris Hay Rope Company site. The building was converted to an office. The small building housed fire hose and reel. This was before Port Norris, NJ had a fire company. Note the bell on the tank tower. Photo taken looking in a NWN direction probably around 1940. All Photos Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

 

The Hay Rope Company was located just south of the Port Norris Hotel. The building had 5 or 6 rope machines and loose salt hay piled to the rafters in the south half. The north half was little used in later years. Railroad tracks along the east side of the building made it easy to load the spools of rope for shipping. It was an easy to walk through the field from the back yard of the Carney house to the Hay Rope Company.

The J. W. Paxon Company of Philadelphia built the building in Port Norris about 1890. Salt hay was a cheap material. It was cheaper if it didn't have to be transported from where it grew. At that time pipe was made by coating hay rope with clay to use as the core when casting pipe. The rope core would burn away and the clay could be emptied out of the pipe.

After a method of casting pipe was invented using a centrifuge process the demand for hay rope fell off. The rope core and clay coating method of casting continued to be used by smaller foundries for some time. But later, hay rope was only needed for casting odd-shaped pieces.

When the Paxon Taggart Company went bankrupt in 1933 Owen J. Carney Senior and Addington B. Campbell bought the Hay Rope Company property and the duplex house on Main Street. Owen Carney owned the east-side half of the house. Ad Campbell owned the west-side half of the house. The Hay Rope Company property was owned jointly.

After Owen Carney's death March 23, 1952, Jack and Gilbert Carney together operated the Hay Rope Company as a part-time venture in 1952, 1953, and 1954.
Gilbert Carney alone operated the Hay Rope Company until his death August 29, 1962. He was hit by steel beams as he worked on the construction of the Millville Library.

After Gilbert's death Jack took over the hay rope business. The Hay Rope Company property was sold and the building was demolished. Using salvaged boards from the original building Jack constructed a small building on his property on the southeast corner of Brown and Maurice Streets. He operated the Port Norris Hay Rope Company as a part-time venture from his home until the early 1990s.

"HAY ROPE PLANT PAXSON-TAGGERT INC. MAIN OFFICE PHILADELPHIA" Port Norris Hay Rope Company. North side facing toward Main Street. Circa before 1933 when purchased by 0. J. Carney and Addington Campbell.
Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Port Norris Hay Rope Company. Postcard of hay rope maker. John Hollinger worked for O.J. Carney at the Hay Rope Factory in Port Norris, NJ. He was Commercial Twp. tax collector and lived in the house on the north side of Brown St. opposite Pearl St. were Billy Friswell lived in 1960s.
Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Port Norris Hay Rope Company. 1940. Gilbert Carney preparing hay for rope making. Hay needed to be dampened a day or so before using it. This makes it pliable. It also has to be separated since it naturally grows in tufts or clumps. The hay is shaken into a pile which is dragged with a pitchfork to the side left side of the seat where the rope maker is sitting. The rope maker uses one hand to feed the hay to his other hand which he uses to form the correct diameter rope. The machine spins the hay rope and a foot-controlled brake pulls the rope onto the spool. [Wm. r. frutchey (sic) photography, 118 Heming Ave. - Cranford, N.J. Negative no. 5-1323-3) Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Port Norris Hay Rope Company. 1940. Owen John Carney, Sr. "Carney". Making hay rope. The foot pedal on the right side of the machine activates the mechanism that makes the pulley travel along the threaded track to feed the rope onto the spool. The bin in the background was to hold coal to feed a furnace located to the left outside the picture. This was the only heat in the building.
[Wm. r. frutchey (sic) photography, 118 Heming Ave. - Cranford, N.J. Negative no. S-1323-1) Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Port Norris Hay Rope Company. 1940. Owen John Carney, Sr. "Carney" [hat] hay rope maker and Austin Berry Salt hay farmer.
[Wm. r. frutchey (sic) photography, 118 Herning Ave. - Cranford, N.J. Negative no. 5-1323-2] Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

 

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Not for reprint for any media.
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Jack Carney (Owen John Carney, Jr.) April 1967
Making hay rope at the Port Norris Hay Rope Company at his home on the SE corner of Maurice Ave. and Brown Street, Port Norris.
Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Port Norris Hay Rope Company. November 1971
At the home of Jack Carney SE corner of Maurice Ave. and Brown Street, Port Norris. Building constructed from materials salvaged from the original structure.
Photo: Jack Carney Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family

Home of Jack Carney SE corner of Maurice Ave. and Brown Street, Port Norris.

Building constructed from materials salvaged from the original structure.
Hay Rope building hiddenb by trees on right.

Photo: Ed Horseman Photo Courtesy of the Jack Carney Family