Sandor Fekete

Sandor Fekete I (1879-c1970) aka Sándor Fekete, was the last bridge tender at the Blackwells Mills Canal House for the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
Biography
He was born in 1879, in Sokoró Pátka, Hungary to József Fekete and Paulina Pár. He emigrated from Hungary via Antwerp, Belgium to New York City. He left Antwerp in 1906 at the age of 27. His final destination was the Hungarian community in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Sandor married and his children include: Anne Fekete; Sandor Fekete II (1906-1983) who was born in Hungary and lived in Princeton and worked as a bridge tender also; Mary Fekete; Helen Fekete; Frank Fekete; Elizabeth Fekete; John Fekete who married Regina Marie Case; and Margaret Fekete.
By 1907 he saved enough money to send for his wife who was still in Hungary. It would be another fifteen years before his two oldest children would come to the United States. His first job was laying brick and breaking up rocks along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Later he was promoted to a supervisor for a work boats that made repairs along the canal. He was then promoted to foreman of a twenty-eight-man work crew. During this time he lived in an apartment on Conduct Street in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1916 he was promoted to locktender in Griggstown, New Jersey.
Legacy
When he became Bridge Tender he lived in the Blackwell Mills Bridge-Tender House. When the D&R Canal closed in 1933, he was allowed to remain in this house, until he died in 1970. The Blackwells Mills Canal House Association then restored the home.
In 1971 the Blackwells Mills Canal House was turned into a museum.<ref name=house/>

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu