Dallas Ferry and Coffee Jones
In
the 1600s, the area now known as Port Norris, Bivalve and Shellpile were
settled by the Lenni Lenape Indians. Later they were moved aside by English
settlers looking for fertile ground along the Delaware Bay and River. The
settlement was eventually taken over by William Dallas, a farmer who found that
he could float cordwood over the waterways to the cities north, including
Philadelphia. He established a ferry business and renamed his new venture
Dallas Ferry. He soon added hay farming and shipping. After Dallas' death in
1784 his son Jonathan sold the area to Philadelphia coffee merchant Joseph
Jones, who renamed it Port Norris after his son Norris.
Coffee
built a tavern near the ferry landing for John Ogden and Norton Harris. The
area was known as Peak of the Moon, as this is the highest ground in the area
so the first place to see the moon rise. Coffee had the largest sheep ranch on
the east coast, with almost 7,000 in his heard, though most were lost to
disease.
During
the War of 1812 with England, the British captured one Coffee's boats, the Plowboy, which was carrying lumber to Philadelphia. They held it the ransom
of $1,000 in gold, a small fortune in those days. These events discouraged Coffee and he auctioned off the town, most of which was won by John Ogden.
It
is not known what happened to Coffee and his family after the auction, though
it is presumed that they left the area.
Contact us at:
Port Norris Historical Society
PO Box 187
Port Norris, NJ 08349
(856) 785-9148
donna_moore@comcast.net
