Summer 2004 Edition

The Mysterious Death of George Morlot  By Jane Lyle Diepeveen, Borough Historian George Morlot was a prosperous silk dyer who built himself an elaborate Victorian-style mansion in what is now Fair Lawn.  Much is known about his life, but his death remains a mystery.  There have lately been tales that he jumped or fell into the Passaic River. Another story says that one of his friends received a letter from Morlot addressed from Cuba, 10 years after he disappeared. But newspaper accounts of the time tell a different mystery story. Morlot was born in 1836 in Lyons, France, a city that had already been a silk weaving center for 300 years. Morlot started in the silk business at the age of 17 after studying chemistry and mathematics at the university in Lyons. At 21 he was appointed superintendent of a Lyon dye works where he worked for many years until he departed for New York City in 1864. In 1865 he started his own business there on Third Avenue and moved to Paterson in 1869. The next year he established a partnership with Jacob Stettheimer, and built the Morlot and Stettheimer dye works on land that extended from 10th Avenue to the Passaic River between East 32nd and East 33rd Streets. The business prospered because of the purity of the property’s well water which was important in light-color dyeing. Several large silk manufacturers became customers of the firm. The dye works expanded over the years and by the early 1890s employed more than 200 men. Some of the mill buildings remain and are occupied today. Sometime after establishing his business, George Morlot built his mansion and stables across the Passaic River from his factory. He called his estate “Bellaire” but the road on which his home faced became known as Morlot Avenue. Morlot was known as a genial man, but apparently never had a family in this country. There was at least one other Morlot in the Lyon silk business, according to a letter from the relative’s descendant received by this writer. On the morning of March 3, 1894, George Morlot boarded a train for New York after having drawn $3000 from his Paterson bank to pay wages. According to newspaper reports at the time, he was carrying a large parcel and appeared nervous. He spoke to his seatmate, fellow Paterson industrialist Samuel Newman, only to ask for a piece of string to tie his parcel. Newman told the press later that he looked for Morlot after leaving the train at the end of the line, but he had disappeared “as if the ground had opened and swallowed him up”. George Morlot was never seen again. The Paterson Evening News at the time theorized that that he may have been killed for whatever money he carried. Another possibility noted by Paterson historian Vincent Waraske is that, since workers were striking at the time over low wages and poor working conditions, Morlot may have been killed by disgruntled strikers. Waraske noted that he could have been killed near the train station or on the train and thrown off, although he “was a big heavy man”. The mystery of George Morlot’s disappearance was never solved, although investigations were conducted on both sides of the Hudson River. His mills were later occupied by other companies and his mansion, after being vacant for a long period, was refurbished as the private Hamlin School. In 1964, the house was torn down. Today, the former estate is occupied by homes on a new street called Hamlin Court and only Morlot and Bellair Avenues remain to recall it. But the disappearance of George Morlot remains one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in the City of Paterson.