It Happened In Hillsborough: Clawsonia

Hillsborough Township abounds in placenames. From 18 th and 19th-century villages such as Neshanic,
Clover Hill, and South Branch, to tiny hamlets like Higginsville and Zion, our 54-square-mile municipality
has a name for almost every crossroads! We can even boast of some great ghost towns such as
Montgomery Crossroads or Blackwell’s Mill. The 20th-century housing developments add many dozens
more to the mix. But there’s one more Hillsborough locale whose name never appeared on any map. In
fact, it was rendered most completely in the mind of one man – Clement C. Clawson.

Clawsonia

Clement Coleridge Clawson (1853-1928) first showed his aptitude as an inventor working for his father,
Henry, in their native North Carolina. One of his first inventions was a device to automatically measure
and cut paper in one step. But the invention that brought the family (Henry, Clement, and Clement’s
stepmother, Aurelia) to New York was an automatic weighing and filling machine that could package
1,000 bags of seeds or similar items in one hour, completely unattended.

It wasn’t long after they bought a factory in Newark that Clawson hit upon the invention that would
make him a fortune – the coin-operated vending machine. He was the first to come up with the idea
and used it in all sorts of devices, from automatic fortune tellers to countertop cigar sellers. But the one
that caught on big was called the Three Jack Pot.

This was more of a gambling device than a true vending machine. A customer placed a nickel, and if it
traveled down and landed just right, all of the previously played losing nickels would be won (minus a
percentage that was neatly diverted to the rear of the machine.

The machines sold faster than they could be made, inviting many copycats and outright trademark
infringers around the country. By the time Henry passed away in 1897, the authorities were beginning to
catch on and sought to outlaw the machines.

In any case, a small fortune was already made, and by the turn of the century, Clawson had purchased a
farmhouse and around 70 acres near Flagtown Station as a country retreat. He remarried in 1902 after
his first wife's death, and they moved permanently to Flagtown.

He remodeled the farmhouse in his own style, with a big wraparound porch and mirrored rooms inside,
and built a factory on the site to continue producing the less controversial standard vending machines.
He drew up plans for a fanciful neighborhood he called Clawsonia. It would have a large fountain,
extravagant landscaping, houses for his employees and family, and paved roads for automobiles.
It’s hard to say if Clawsonia was ever completed to Clement Clawson’s satisfaction. Today, the houses
and factory can still be seen on Clawson Avenue, and while the name Clawsonia appears on no map, it
can still live on in our imaginations.

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Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column
“Gillette on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. A recipient of
the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award for Education/Leadership in
2018, he was named as Hillsborough’s first Local Historian in 2025.