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.

** 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!!

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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]
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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.