Jacob Corter Sr. operated one of the excursion steamboats on Greenwood Lake when the lake was a popular vacation location. (
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Physically exhausted after working nine or more hours a day underground in Peter’s Mine in Ringwood six days a week, Jacob “Jake” Corter, Jr., an iron miner, finally listened to his wife, Alice, who “coaxed” him to take a day off from work. He joined Alice and their children on a walk in Sterling Meadow to gather strawberries. It was not an easy decision for punctual Jake, who prided himself with always arriving at his job site early, with an exemplary attendance record. He began working in the mine in the early to mid 1920s and by 1929 with his leadership qualities recognized, he was chosen foreman for a crew of over 75 mine workers.
The couple and their children were excited and happy as they looked forward to family time together on a sunny, warm day in the pristine countryside. Family berry-picking outings were a popular activity in early Ringwood, West Milford and neighboring community settlements. Besides wild strawberries there were wild patches of cranberries, blackberries, blueberries and elderberries. Some of the berries gathered during outings were soon eaten. The rest went into jams, jellies, and pies and some were canned. for use during the winter months.
The Corter family returned home happy, but their neighbors met them with devastating news. During the day, while they were away, an accident on the 13th level of Peter’s Mine, involving a roof collapse, killed four men. Forty years ago, Jake, then in his early 90s, when telling me about his experiences as a miner, recalled that if he had gone berry picking instead of going to work as usual that day, he would have been with the mine workers who were killed, and he certainly would have died too.
Peter’s Mine had openings and closings through the years, burdening workers and their families, leaving them without a paycheck. Jake said the mine was open in 1907, then shut down in 1922, reopening again in 1929. He remembered the difficulties for the miners and their families when they were suddenly out of work in 1931. Corter and others then supported their families by building vacation home log cabins at developing Lake Erskine and Cupsaw Lake. He oversaw a 50-to-60-man building construction crew in the lake area. Today many of the cabins are beautiful, remodeled upgraded year-round homes. Jake Jr. also worked at the Greenwood Lake Icehouse.
Jake’s father, Jacob Corter Sr., married Elizabeth “Bessie” Thompson, born to a family of early settlers. The couple had a total of 17 children, with 11 of them living to adulthood. Bessie’s parents were Charles Thompson and Henrietta Whitmore. Bessie was born in. Sterling Forest N.Y., and lived to age 85. The home where Jake Jr. grew up was in Boardville, a small six-home community. He said the stone house where his family lived is among those covered by the waters of the Wanaque Reservoir. Jake Jr. went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, where the teacher had to teach all subjects to 82 students in all eight grades. He said he was three years old when his father, Jacob Corter, Sr., was the operator of an excursion steamboat on Greenwood Lake. Ambitious, Jake, age 12, was earning 50 cents a day “getting chunks of coal for the train.” Among his memories was a two-engine train collision in Midvale.
After his wife, Alice McGreiff, died, Jake Jr. married Mary, known as a warm, loving woman, who raised the younger children from Jake’s first marriage and the children born to Jake and her. After the federal government closed the mines permanently in the 1940s, Jake bought the Sehulster family farm off Sawmill Road in West Milford. The Sehulster children, Theodore (“Dorie”), Alice and Martha lived there into their senior years, after their parents died. None of the Sehulster children ever married. There were two additional sisters who became Nuns in a religious order. The Corter children who grew up in West Milford received their grade school education at the two-room Echo Lake School on Germantown Road. The Sehulster children were also educated there when it was a one-room school before the second room was added. Jake Corter, Jr., died at age 97 in 2009. His wife Mary passed on a few years before him.
