Jaeger Lumber & Supply
Company has
been a consistent presence in Union, NJ for more than seventy five
years. The company, now operating in seven locations throughout New
Jersey, opened its flagship location in 1937.
Jaeger's first location, located at
2322 Morris Ave., Union, NJ, was formerly occupied by Fred Stone
Lumber Company. Adolph Jaeger purchased Fred Stone's property in
1937 but kept the nature of business here quite the same. Stone was
a seller of lumber and building materials. Part of the allure of
purchasing this property was the availability of rail service. The
Rahway Valley Line was constructed through the area from 1914 to
1918 and a siding was constructed for Fred Stone, later utilized by
Jaeger.
Lowell Jaeger, son of Adolph Jaeger
and current President of Jaeger Lumber, shares some early
recollections of rail service, "One of my first jobs around 1954
would be climbing into a box car loaded with pine boards and
shooting the boards through the open doors – there was no hotter job
when the sun beat down on the car roof. Flat cars eventually
replaced boxcars carrying dimensional lumber; their increased size
and weight also spelled the end of our siding. #2 Pine also was no
longer purchased by the rail car; oak flooring went to flooring
specialists; we stopped selling bricks. I forgot to say that the
earliest use for our siding was delivering coal – that was probably
in the earliest days of Jaeger Coal and Supply; lumber came later.
We had a cement and cinder block plant also in those earliest days.
That was closed down in the early 40’s. In those early days a siding
went right into a pine shed but I can’t recall ever seeing a rail
car in there – there wasn’t enough room to serve customers and
unload."
In addition to stocking general
building supplies, Jaeger also expanded into the home heating fuel
industry in those early days. Lowell Jaeger remembrs, "Coal: my
earliest recollections probably back to 1943 or so are of an
elevated siding up which coal cars were backed. Once up, they dumped
the coal into bins. Not sure you can trust the recollections of a 3
year old. We did stock, I believe, three grades of coal, soft
(bituminous), hard (anthracite)and coke – same caveat. Probably
before I was ten, we had switched to oil only." The original name of
the company was Jaeger Coal & Supply Company but as local
residents switched to oil and natural gas, the 'coal' in Jaeger's
name eventually was dropped in favor of
'lumber.'
As the years wore on it became
apparent that better, and cheaper, opportunities were presenting
themselves for shipping lumber and building materials to their Union
location. Lowell Jaeger tells us, "It was normal to have a few cars
on our siding in the 40’s even into the 60’s. Eventually our siding
deteriorated and reload points opened allowing our cars to be
shipped to more efficient unloading points then having the lumber
brought in by truck."
Jaeger's siding became silent and
unused during this time but only to be reactivated once again. By
the mid-1980's the Rahway Valley Railroad was well onto its downward
spiral. The Union County Transportation Advisory Board, fearful of
the railroad's possible abandonment, stepped in to find additional
freight customers for the line. With the county's intervention and
Jaeger's willingness to help out, Jaeger Lumber once again became a
Rahway Valley Railroad customer in 1985. Inadvertently, Jaeger may
of helped the railroad just hang on just a little bit longer. The
Delaware Otsego Corporation took over operations of the line in
1986. Customers continued to dwindle and Jaeger, as well as Ply-Gem
(another lumber shipper), became the only remaining customers north
of Route 22. Service to these two lumber companies would have
continued but deteriorated track conditions prevented this. In
February of 1991 the DO embargoed all service north of Route 22 and
direct rail service to Jaeger Lumber ceased once
again.
Jaeger Lumber &
Supply Company continues to do a lively business in Union, NJ as
well as at its six other locations in New
Jersey.
