My regular readers will know that my 4x great grandma Charlotte Phillips and her husband Samuel Trewartha are two of my fav ancestors, and I’ve written about them from time to time.

Born in the 1820s, they grew up in Cornwall, England and in the English 1861 census Samuel Trewartha’s occupation was given as Copper Miner, while Charlotte’s was Confectioner. This is followed by an entry in the 1866 Directory for Redruth (England) where Samuel is listed as a Sugar Boiler, so obviously they were making candy to supplement his income from mining.

It was in 1867 that they made the lifechanging decision to move from England to the United States, ending up in Rockaway and Dover, Morris County, New Jersey, and they opened a candy store there … which from what I can tell was a wonderful store, with an incredible reputation and ran for at least several generations, with her son John and his wife Minnie running it in her later year, and I believe some granddaughters did after that, with Black Rock Candy being their signature treat.

While I know a fair bit about Charlotte’s life from records, one thing I didn’t have is any photos of Samuel,  Charlotte, the candy store. That is, at least until cousin bait worked, and some distant relatives saw my previous posts, and have sent me some photos, and have kindly allowed me to share them with you here.

So I must say a HUGE, HUGE thank you to Glenn Rush who sent me the photos below, and has allowed me to share them with you. And also to Eric Bullfinch who has sent me a map showing the exact location of the store in Sussex Street, Dover.

Mrs S. Trewartha’s Confectionery Store in Dover, New Jersey, late c.1800s
as for who is in the photo – possibly Zella (far left) and Minnie (far right) and possibly Charlotte (second from left)

a 1970s candy box of Trewartha’s Black Rock Candy, complete with biography of Samuel Trewartha “Candy Sam”

Charlotte and Samuel’s son, John Trewartha’s memorial card

obituary for Minnie Trewartha with photos of her and John

obituary for Minnie Trewartha

Zella May Trewartha, at age 20

1899 Robinson Map of Dover, Morris County, New Jersey – showing Sussex Street with Mrs Trewatha’s shop circled

So now I’m hoping that with help from my new family contacts, I’ll be able to construct a tree of the US side of the family, which of course are half-siblings to my George Phillips who emigrated to Australia.

To view my earlier related posts, you can find them here:
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: N is for … Never-Ending New Stuff and New Jersey
Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: P is for … Charlotte PHILLIPS
Christmas Time at the Candy Store

For my Christmas-related post this year, I decided to go trawling through New Jersey’s old newspapers. In particular The Iron Age. This is a small town newspaper for the area of Dover, in Morris County. Lucky for me these have been digitised and put online (for free), so I have spent a couple of days browsing through them looking for adverts of my 4x great grandma’s candy shop. And what fun I have had!!!

Over a period of 25 years (1872-1897), I have found 16 adverts! I won’t put them ALL here, but rather I’ll just choose a few to share with you.

But first let me tell you a little about my 4x great grandma.

Charlotte Phillips was born in Redruth, Cornwall, England in 1822, and married Samuel Trewartha in 1847. He had tough life as a miner, while according to census records Charlotte was a ‘confectioner’, no doubt to supplement the family income.

In 1867 the family made the life changing move to New Jersey, USA where they set up a candy store in Dover, Morris County, New Jersey.

She ran this for years with husband Samuel, though after his death in 1885, her youngest son Richard helped out.

While I’ve never seen any photographs of the shop, I am picturing from the adverts that it was a popular place. For one thing it was there for YEARS! And Samuel (also known as “Candy Sam”) was famous not only for his Black Rock Candy, but also his cough drops.

Enjoy the vintage adverts from 4x great grandma Charlotte’s shop.

And for more on Charlotte herself, you can read an earlier article I wrote about her here.

The Iron Era, 13 December 1879

The Iron Era, 2 December 1882

The Iron Era, 12 December 1885

The Iron Era, 15 December 1888

The Iron Era, 13 December 1889 (**see below)

The Iron Era, 12 December 1890

** As the advert from 1889 is rather hard to read, it is worth transcribing here so you don’t miss the bit about drugs and poison! Yes, truly!!

————————-

Christmas Opening
at
Trewartha & Sons
Dover, N.J.
Toys, Dolls, Games
and articles in general, suitable for Holiday Presents,
Playful, useful and ornamental. Presents for the baby,
for the lady, for the fondest mother, for the sternest teacher,
for the dearest —, for anybody. We also have the largest
stock of CANDIES, FRUITS, NUTS, ORANGES, LEMONS,
GRAPES, BANANAS, FIGS, DATES, to be found in Dover.
We wish to state to the people of Dover and vicinity that we
make all of our own Candies, which we will warrant to be
made of the best sugars, and not from drugs. Buy of us
and save your children from being poisoned.
Parties, churches, socials, furnished with pure Candies,
our own make, at wholesale prices. We also sell a 5 lb box
of Christmas or Mixed Candies for 65c. Come and sam-
ple our candies.
MRS TREWARTHA & SON
Sussex St., Dover, N.J.
[The Iron Era, 13 December 1889]
————————-

Don’t those adverts make you want to see Charlotte’s shop? Well, it does me anyway. Maybe one day I’ll find a photo of it. But at least I have the adverts, and that’s a bonus.

I want to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas. I do hope you have a wonderful time spending it with family and/or friends.

The end of the year is looming, and once the excitement and recovery from Christmas is over, many start think about goals or resolutions that they’d like to do (or at least aim for) in the coming year. Yeah, I’m not one of those people. Maybe it’s because everyone else did – and therefore I didn’t want to, and I wanted to be different. Who knows, but for whatever reason I have never particularly done the whole New Year’s resolution thing.

I do however set myself some genealogy goals. For these I don’t bother waiting till the end of one year or the beginning of the next.

After thinking about what to do for the letter X for weeks, I still hadn’t come up with anything. So the fact that this post has even happened is a tribute to Wendy who commented on the Gould Genealogy Facebook page for the Family History Through the Alphabet, the letter X, and gave me the idea for this post.

X is for … Signatures

Actually technically this post is about the lack of signature, as in those that were illiterate and used X for a signature (ie. X is the mark of _________ ) was the actual wording that was used on certificates.