TRASH DISPOSAL – There was a big dump south of town on the old river road, but there were also lesser dumps.
Marguerite Sipes said that when she first came to Frenchtown in 1911 “there was no garbage collection. We took the trash to Nishisackawick Creek and dumped it ourselves.”
Asie Anderson, recalling the early 1920s, said, “Each alley used to have a dump at its end, facing the Delaware River. People would bring their stuff to the dump nearest their homes. Art (his brother) and I would sort through the dumps and find all sorts of things to sell.” Dr. Harry Harman, who owned a pharmacy, would give them 2 cents apiece for old medicine bottles.
I can attest that the riverbank at the end of Twelfth Street is full of broken glass and crockery. A neighbor found, among the shards, an intact bottle that, according to raised lettering, had contained Williams Magnetic Relief. It was a liniment concocted in Frenchtown by druggist Albert P. Williams in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In August of 1922 the Frenchtown Star urged, “People who dump refuse down on the riverbank should burn it – not leave it there to slowly rot and create a stench. The river road is one of the shadiest places for a walk on a hot day and people should be compelled to keep it clean by the health authorities.” Editor and publisher William Sipes was especially interested in this problem because he lived there – on the corner of the river road and South Washington Street.
In May of 1925 the Star, Sipes opined again, “It seems only a question of time when the borough will have to employ a garbage collector. Notices are now posted forbidding dumping of garbage in various places. The river front has for several seasons had a foul smell from decaying matter hauled and dumped there.”
In 1928 he wrote again of “the promiscuous dumping of garbage in the creek, river, alley and backyard,” but this time could announce that George Hartpence “is now collecting garbage on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 25 cents per week. He will not take away ashes and tin cans mixed with the garbage for he is disposing of the collection by feeding his pigs.”
Sipes' dream was fully realized on Jan. 3, 1935, when the borough began collecting garbage and ashes. Hartpence got the contract and held it at least into 1950.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"