Some Rhinesmith children were born in this house in Stonetown in the late 1800s. The photo was taken in 1949 by Harry Rhinesmith, who was born there in 1892. (Photo provided)
The late Mary Maud Rhinesmith Fredericks (1888-1980) is an example of strong women who faced obstacles while living in a rural place during trying times.
They handled difficult problems by staying strong and somehow finding solutions to situations that were critical to their well-being and those who depended on them for survival.
Many of their descendants still live in the West Milford, Ringwood and Wanaque, while others have moved to other parts of the nation.
They can be very proud to have descended from Fredericks, known as Mamie to her family and friends, and others like her.
Fredericks was born into a large family in the Stonetown section of Ringwood. When she was about 10, her father was killed in a train accident at the Wanaque Reservoir.
I have not been able to find details about that accident but did learn about a serious train accident six years later. In 1904, local radio and newspaper reports about another train accident must have been traumatizing for her.
On July 11, 1904, a chartered special 12-car Erie Railroad train carrying the First Plattdeutsch Club of Hoboken to Greenwood Lake had stopped while on the railroad tracks near a water tower in Midvale.
A regular Erie Railroad train also bound for Greenwood Lake rounded a curve and crashed into the stopped train. No signal had been set out to warn the oncoming train crew that the special train was not moving.
The engineer of the oncoming train could not stop in time to avoid a collision, which caused the rear car of the special train to be lifted and pushed through the body of the next rail car. There were 17 fatalities and 40 serious injuries. All the dead and injured were passengers on the chartered train.
According to a Wikipedia entry about the crash, the division superintendent, J.F. Maguire, blamed station agent William Richards for failing to change the signal and flagman Ernest Heller for not doing enough to warn the approaching train.
While both men were charged with manslaughter, they were both acquitted. The jury’s decision on Richards was influenced by a belief that the railroad was negligent in maintaining the semaphore signal. Some jurors believed that Heller could have done better but was not the only one to blame for causing the tragedy. Nearly all jurors thought others should have been indicted along with them.
Fredericks suffered a second loss three years after her father was killed when her mother died in 1901. After their mother’s death, all seven Rhinesmith children moved to West Milford to live with their grandmother.
Fredericks was just 15 when she married William Fredericks. Two of her brothers went to live with the couple.
The young newlyweds raised the two brothers. No children were ever born to them. The new family of four lived in a rented a house on Cherry Lane, now known as Wooley Road. The home was owned by an uncle in the Rhinesmith family.
The couple also purchased and enlarged a former blacksmith shop on Macopin Road. After enlarging the building, they built a home and icehouse behind it. In 1910, they opened Fredericks General Store in the Macopin community. Cars were becoming popular and there were two gas tanks in front of the store for those who needed to buy fuel.
This was a time when people used their leisure time to go to local halls to dance and socialize. The second floor of the Fredericks’ business building had a dance floor and people attended weekend dances there.
A few locals put dance bands together and there was always live music at the Fredericks’. Other local places for socializing and dancing at the time were Struble’s Hotel in Apshawa and John Mathews’ roadstand near the corner of Weaver (Mathews) and Macopin roads.
The roadstand had a large dance floor where square dancing was very popular. The place where the stand sat recently was cleared of brush by current owner Rocky Hazelman.
After Mathews died at age 63 in 1934, his building became a bar. Among its changing names when new owners took over were Amber Tavern and the Tom-Tom Tavern. Two of the tavern owners were named Markowski and Kievit.
The last commercial owners were Tom and Margaret Clark, who operated a tavern and restaurant there before building their new restaurant building diagonally across the street on Macopin Road.
Margaret Clark also was a kindergarten teacher at Hillcrest School. The Clarks retired and sold their business to Judy and Bruce Ziegler, who operated it for 52 years. New owners are working to renovate the building and open a restaurant there.
Many of the general stores throughout West Milford were places where customers would come to shop, then stay awhile and talk about local news and politics. Fredericks General Store was an example of this.
Mamie Fredericks was a Republican, and she served as a representative on her party’s county committee. There was no end to this woman’s ambition.
Along with her work at the store, she also was employed as a cook for employees at Echo Lake Mountain Ice Co. Her uncle was foreman there for 25 cents an hour. The workers earned seven cents an hour and her pay was probably less.
William Fredericks died in 1941, and his wife kept the business open. She had a soda fountain that especially delighted the young crowd.
The Mathews and Genader kids and friends from their Echo Lake community rode their bikes north to the store on Saturday mornings for one of her ice cream sodas, then peddled home going south via Westbrook Road to Otterhole Road, then heading west. When they reached Weaver (Mathews) Road, they made a sharp turn north onto Macopin Road to reach their homes.
Fredericks stayed up late at night to make syrups for her fountain sodas and the long trip on bicycles was well worth the effort. There were very few vehicles on those roads in the 1930s and ’40s so there wasn’t traffic to put the bikers in danger.
Fredericks continued to run the store and filled customer’s fuel tanks. She was just 4 feet 9 inches tall, but she always got the job done. She wrote daily in a book, where she recorded information about everything that was sold in the store.
Her method of bookkeeping was something she learned from an aunt. A significant number of customers had charge accounts and could not always pay their bills immediately. The bills always were paid eventually.
In 1967, Fredericks celebrated her 50th year in business at a surprise testimonial dinner at Windemere Restaurant, formerly McKennys Tavern on Macopin Road (now a parking area for Bubbling Spring Park). She said she would use a $250 gift certificate to buy a convertible sofa bed.
The West Milford Chamber of Commerce honored her with a plaque recognizing her years in business. There were greeting cards and messages from dignitaries and families in town who had depended on her store for years.
She sold it in 1970, retiring so she could care for her sister, who was ill. Today, the building that was the Fredericks store has been reconstructed for use as a home.
There was a fire there recently but the residents were dedicated to rebuilding their home.