Ellisburg/Ellis
Meat Market
In the late 1700s or early 1800s, the exact time
is probably unknown, surveyors planned the most direct route possible
from
Trenton to Salem. This road crossed a crocked lane in a region
now
know as Cherry Hill. The intersection was on farm land owned by
an
Ellis family. In later years an enterprising Ellis built a tavern
and wayside inn at the junction. Thus Ellisburg was born.
Another
enterprising offspring opened a meat market in a nearby village of
Haddonfield,
which became an institution in the town as well as the nearby
countryside.
The first proprietor of this market was Llewellyn Ellis who eventually
passed the store on to his son Charles who expanded the store to the
making
of sausage, hot dogs, cold meats and lard. He also built up four
routes to do door to door selling throughout the town which was divided
into four sections. The salesman driving the horses and wagons on
their routes were on the streets two or three times a each week, and
the
rest of the week they spent working in the two small buildings in the
rear
yard of the meat market making sausage, hot dogs, scrapple, lard and
cold
meats. Ellis's was located on East Main Street opposite to where
Tanner Street dead ends. The two houses in the rear originally
was
a private school operated by a Mrs. Kirby who lived in the frame house
that stood between the meat market and the Baptist Church. Mr.
Ellis
secured the two buildings and used them for his ice house,
slaughtering,
and pork products which he could then manufacture. Stan Redman
was
a teenager learning the meat cutting trade, and with two helpers would
walk to the railroad station certain morning to meet the trains
bringing
a load of several dozen pigs. They would get out of the car by a
chute and be driven down Main Street with Stan and his aides using
sticks
to guide them. There was no traffic in those days but
occasionally
animals would get under a trolley car which was always a problem.
When the market was reached, up the alley the herd was driven to be
placed
in one of the little houses until slaughter time. Two big metal
tubs
wee in the yard filled with scalding water, and when the pigs were
slaughtered
they were doused in the scalding water so that the hair would come off
easily. When the butchering was done the meat was divided into
whatever
it was meant to be used for. The pigs were all corn fed and were
not those from neighboring farms as Mr. Ellis would not have them.
Note:
back in those days there were two separate refuse collections.
One
was garbage (waste food stuffs) which as kept in a separate can with a
top and collected by the “garbage men” to be fed to hogs.
One building was where the sausage and hot dogs
and other products were made. Brine barrels were there for the
curing
of the hams, and stoves that burned oak logs to give them the
flavor.
In there, too, was the pot where the fat was boiled for lard. The
other building was an ice house where ice chopped from the frozen Evans
and Hopkins Ponds (imagine the winters we had then!) was lined up
in rows, then rows piled up on top with sawdust in between, so that in
the summer time the wagons going around town had their ice in bin
sections
cold to preserve their fresh meat. All these operations were
dispensed
with when wholesalers in Philadelphia could supply dressed pigs and
beef.
Then the employees could stop being jacks of all trades. However,
this was not done until after World War I, as Stan Redman remembers the
local prize fighters coming to the store to drink the blood that was
part
of their conditioning. Also how the Chinese in town would take
the
flaky fat off the intestines to use them in preparing some of their
native
dishes. Stan Redman supplied all of the material used for this
recount
of a business which was once an institution in Haddonfield, and its
passage
should not go unmentioned.
[update in 2003 by Charles H. Ellis II]
In 1903 Charles and his second wife, (his first
wife Clara passed away) Louisa Hilbert Ellis had a son Frank (NMN) (my
father) (1903-1967). Frank was a four letter man for four years in High
school and wanted to pursue a career in sports perhaps going to college
and becoming a coach. However, upon finishing High School, his
dad,
Charles told him that “you are my last son and you have to take over
the
business”. Ultimately they employed William Stevenson who worked
for them for thirty-two years. Frank and Bill worked the retail
store
and Charles (grand pop) worked in the rear buildings manufacturing the
famous Ellis’ Scrapple, sausage, etc.
In 1928 Frank married Darthea Grace Ash.
(1902-1953).
In 1937 they had their only child, a son, Charles Howard Ellis II,
me.
Somewhere around the late forties Charles sold off the rear portion of
the market property 118 Kings Highway to the city which built the
parking
lot there today. In 1948 Charles passed away. In 1949
Louisa
sold the property to George Westcoatt, Realtor® who sold the
land for an A & P market and moved the house and market buildings
back
on the west side of the parking lot. Another Interesting Note: In 1959,
Mr. Westcoatt rented part of the market, now back next to the city
parking
lot, to the father of a very promising young printer. In the basement
you
could still see meat hooks used in the original meat processing.
That promising young printer is none other than my best friend, Bill
Mormann
now retired and living in the lap of luxury in Fort Myers, FL.
The business was given to Bill Stevenson who
moved it down to the Estates area on Haddon Avenue. Interesting
note:
in the back yard behind the market and my grandparents home was a large
box wood hedge. Those boxwoods are now in front of what was
Governor
Driscol’s house overlooking Hoppies Pond.
My father always said “if you ever become a
butcher
it will break my heart!”. I am eternally grateful to him for allowing
me
to choose my own career. So in 1955 I joined the Navy and learned
electronics. In 1967 I moved to Ventura. In 1974 I moved to West
Loa Angeles and went to UCLA for three years and got a BA and MBA and
opened
a real estate office in Westwood (L.A.). In 1984 I was Los
Angeles
Realtor® of the Year. I now live in Northridge (I made the San
Fernando
Valley My Home) and I am semi retired selling an occasional home and
teaching
at UCLA. I often wonder how much the California market near our store
and
the San Fernando Valley song of the forties influenced my decision to
move
to California.
The only Ellis butcher left is my cousin George
who has a market out on Route 38 in Mount Laural.
Charles Howard Ellis, II