The foodies among us know the name -- Delmonico’s. The New York eating establishment, open from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, was the first successful fancy restaurant in the United States. (It’s credited with bringing the concepts of a wine list and an a la carte menu to America. It was the spot where fine dining started).
Though the restaurant has long shuttered, and different iterations been opened by other owners, the legend of the original eatery lives on. What hasn’t survived, though, is the sad tale of Charles Delmonico -- the restauranteur who inherited his family’s business -- who met a sad and mysterious end in New Jersey 135 years ago.
Joe Fagan, West Orange’s township’s historian, said he only learned about the story 10 years ago, when he was surfing eBay and came across an article about his town in the New York Illustrated Times.
The story, dated Feb 4, 1884, carried this headline: “Delmonico’s Sad Death.’’
The man was found frozen to death in January at the bottom of a ravine off Northfield Avenue by two boys from Orange. He was 44.
“There was bit of a mystery as to why he wound up in West Orange and face up in a ravine," Fagan said.
The incident was covered heavily in the New York Times, which had several reports of Delmonico turning up missing from his home on West Fourteenth Street in New York. That account, however, differs from Yale history professor Paul Freedman, who wrote a chapter about the Delmonico’s in his book, “Ten Restaurants that Changed America." He said Delmonico, who suffered from mental illness, escaped from the home of a friend in Long Branch where he had been taken for help.
“It was a place where they took care of people undergoing mental problems," Freedman said. “He couldn’t just come and go, but he escaped."
Freedman said a similar account is in another book, written in 1967 by Lately Thomas, that is titled, “Delmonico’s: A Century of Splendor.”
Still, in the newspaper reports, those who knew Delmonico, feared he may have attempted suicide when he couldn’t be found for eight days.
Pinkerton’s Detective Agency followed up on several leads that Delmonico had been in Montclair, Jersey City, and an insane asylum in Philadelphia. The most promising tip was in Newark, where Freedman said two boys playing near train tracks found letters and telegrams that belonged to Delmonico.
After he left Long Branch, Freedman said Delmonico boarded a train and was overheard saying that he was going to visit Civil War General George McClellan, who had retired from the union army and lived near Montclair.
Freedman wound up on Northfield Avenue in West Orange, where he was eventually found in the morning by Franklin Hollum, 17 and Edward Peer, 13, who both went rabbit hunting on January 14, 1884.
A rendering of Charles Delmonico's death from an 1884 edition of "The New York Illustrated Times."
With a large dog in tow, the boys walked up Northfield Avenue and separated along the road that was 25 feet wide with ravines nearly 12 deep on each side. Hollum was on the left side with the dog and Peer was on right side.
Each boy had a long stick to help them navigate the terrain and to poke around the underbrush looking for small game that might have been hiding.
After nearly a mile up the roadway, Peer spotted something unusual by the estate of Davis Collamore, which Fagan said would intersect with Gregory Avenue today.
At that spot, Peer pushed a small bush aside and was frightened when he saw a man’s face. A thick layer of frozen mud covered Delmonico’s body from his face to his feet, according to news reports. His lips were blue, his hair was matted and tangled in ice.
Peer ran to tell Hollum, then the boys ran down the mountain to find Orange Police Chief McChesney. Fagan said West Orange didn’t have a police department and was under the jurisdiction of Orange. News reports, however, mistakenly refer to the location where Delmonico was found as being in Orange.
Hollum, according news accounts, recognized Delmonico from his picture on flyers that had been circulated in New Jersey about the disappearance of the restaurateur.
The chief went to the area with Hollum and one of his officers. When they arrived, McChesney determined that the body was indeed Delmonico.
News reports said he may have been there for a week, because his face was frozen when McChesney touched him. McChesney sent a telegraph to the Delmonico family and his close friend, John Hoey, who identified him when he arrived at the scene from New York.
A crowd had gathered as the undertaker’s wagon came to take his body, but that wasn’t easy. Delmonico’s body was frozen until two men with crow bars loosened the dirt.
“I was blown away," Fagan said when he learned about the story. “I still am."
This article is part of “Unknown New Jersey,” an ongoing series that highlights interesting and little-known stories about our past, present, and future -- all the unusual things that make our great state what is it. Got a story to pitch? Email it to local@njadvancemedia.com.
Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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https://www.nj.com/news/2019/04/his-familys-restaurant-introduced-america-to-fine-dining-but-few-know-of-his-mysterious-death-in-nj.html 2019-04-14 14:28:00Z
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