USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume II > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02255 6507
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofn02urqu_0
490
A HISTORY
OF THE CITY OF NEWARK
NEW JERSEY V.2
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INC
1836
ORPORATED
EMBRACING PRACTICALLY TWO AND A HALF CENTURIES 1666-1913
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II.
PUBLISHIERS THE LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK CHICAGO
1913
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CHAPTER TEV
COPYRIGHT, 1913 THE LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO.
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CHAPTER XXV.
FAREWELL TO THE VILLAGE-THE WAR OF 1812- ELISHA BOUDINOT.
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CHAPTER XXV.
FAREWELL TO THE VILLAGE-THE WAR OF 1812-ELISHA BOUDINOT.
A CHAPTER, at least, is needed in which to say farewell to the village days of Newark, in which to take a last look backward, before setting one's face toward the forces and influences that make directly for the Newark that we know today. The process of organizing the industries went on steadily through- out the first decade of the last century and more rapidly than ever during the next few years, but the charming village lost little of its attractiveness. Gifford's Tavern was in the height of its fame by 1810. Writing of the period between 1805 and 1810, William C. Wallace speaks with enthusiasm of it.
"Owing to the uncertainty of crossing the North River," he says, "it had of necessity to be well kept, as all comfortable travel was in private carriages, and I have seen foreign ambas- sadors drive up to it and pass the night rather than risk the raging waters of the Hudson. It probably had very much to do with the early prosperity of Newark, and aided in showing the advantages of Newark to strangers. * *
* Southerners visited here in great numbers. *
Wealthy men of pleasure made it their frequent resort. * * The land east of New Jer- sey Railroad avenue was in farms on rolling ground, and more densely populated by game, large and small, than by man. * * I emphasize the hotel for the opportunities it gave vis- itors to see the beauties, advantages and industries of Newark. It gave my father the opportunity to make excursions to other places, and to become perfectly acquainted with Newark. He found it pleasantly located on the Passaic River, with its beautiful bluffs, then only three depressions in its banks for docks, and it also possessed the great advantage which he required in a home for his family, religious and educational privileges. *
"In those days there were distinctly two classes of society. One a limited class of educated and wealthy men, the other a large class of mechanics, and between them there was a strong bond of sympathy and the highest respect, and the capital and counsel of the former was freely given and accepted by the latter to the mutual advantage of all. * * *
"Crossing the North River was a great barrier to intercourse with New York. The rowboat and the pettiauger st: were
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the only means of transportation. The pettiauger was a two-masted vessel, without a deck, a little shelter in the stern, almost imprac- ticable for conveying horses, which had to be hoisted in and out, unless you could make them jump. In unfavorable weather in crossing this boisterous water there was more observation and caution before starting than an ocean steamer would make now.
"I remember my father, about 1810-12, moving his family to New York, reaching Paulus Hook about noon expecting to go right over, found the ferry-master and a small crowd consulting, and deciding it was too dangerous. We were obliged to lodge there for the night. When there was much floating ice, the rowboat was the only means of conveyance, by a series of dragging and launching by the sailors as you met floating ice or clear water, to the great discomfort and danger of the passengers.
"The first improvement was in the use of twin boats driven by horse power, the horses first moving in a circle, afterward on a tread power. I am under the impression, and am almost certain, that until the twin boats were put on the North River, the travel to Philadelphia went chiefly by way of Elizabethtown. The horse power soon gave way to steam power." * *
About the time Mr. Wallace has reference to, the following interesting statement as to the health conditions of the community appeared in the Centinel of Freedom, on January 2, 1810:
"The remarkable and increasing healthiness of the town of Newark can not better be attested than by the following exhibition of deaths for the last five years :
"1805-Grown persons, 47; children, 43; total, 90.
"1806-Grown persons, 27; children, 29; total, 56.
"1807-Grown persons, 38; children, 31; total, 69.
"1808-Grown persons, 38; children, 32; total, 70.
"1809-Grown persons, 19; children, 16; total, 35.
"Thus, notwithstanding the rapid increase in population in this town, the deaths in 1809 have been considerably less than one-half the number in 1805 and much fewer than in any year for five years."
NEWARK'S FIRST WATER COMPANY, 1801.
"Previous to 1812," says William C. Wallace, "there had been laid water pipes to conduct water; almost every house, too, had its well till Mr. Sheldon Smith undertook to supply Newark with drinking water drawn from the many springs around into two reservoirs in Orange street, west of High street, and on his own
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grounds west of High street. He replaced the wooden logs with iron pipes, which sufficed until the present system was organized."
The "present system" mentioned above was that of pumping Passaic River water into reservoirs. As a matter of fact, Newark relied upon its wells exclusively for drinking water only until 1801. An aqueduct association or company was organized in 1800. It was a patriotic enterprise, like all the other movements for public benefit at that time. Its promoters agreed to supply each family with water for $20 a year, and a book for the subscription to stock was opened in Tuttle's Tavern on February 5, 1800. Before subscribing to stock the people of the village were asked to go and view the place from whence the water was to be drawn, apparently to satisfy themselves of its good quality. The first reservoir was about 150 feet south from the line of what is now Seventh avenue, where there were a number of springs. The water area also extended some little distance northward and westward from High street, and probably took in one or more of the most ancient quarry holes, close by Mill Brook. The first directors were: Colonel John N. Cumming, Nathaniel Camp, Jesse Baldwin, Nathaniel Beach, Stephen Hays, James Hedden, Jabez Parkhurst, David D. Crane, Joseph L. Bald- win, Luther Goble, Aaron Ross, John Burnet and William Halsey.
"This Company," says Alden's New Jersey Register and United States Calendar, published in 1811 and 1812, and perhaps longer, and printed by William Tuttle, here in Newark, "furnishes about two hundred families with water, conducted two miles and a half by bored logs, from three springs situate in the Western part of the town. The company meets annually in March to choose its officers." At that time Nathaniel Camp was president of the company, Caleb Bruen, superintendent; Stephen Cooper, engineer; Jabez Bruen, treasurer, and Joseph Walton, secretary. Not long after the first wooden pipes were laid (some of which are occasionally dug up by street excavators to this day, 1913), it is believed that the system was extended westward to take in some of the ponds and springs back of the Court House. In 1804 a dividend of $3 a share was declared. About the time the water supply was put in running
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order, the association adopted a by-law which shows that it found necessary at the very start to protect itself against greedy and unscrupulous individuals. The by-law explained that a stockholder would forfeit his stock if he supplied any other than his own family, "manufactory, beasts, etc.," with water from his house connection. After a time there were as many as seventy-three different springs and wells in the system.
Sheldon Smith's iron pipes, referred to above, were not laid until 1828. The Newark Aqueduct Board was established in 1860, under an act of Legislature, and by that authority the transfer was made to Newark of the stock, franchise, real and personal property, etc., of the old Newark Aqueduct Company. 1 "Driven wells were also tried by the Newark Aqueduct Board, near their pumping station above Belleville, in the alluvial sand and gravel on the west bank of the Passaic. A large number of them, about forty, were driven to depths varying from forty to forty-eight feet, and they yielded to steady pumping one hundred thousand gallons each twenty-four hours. The water in the tubes rose and fell with the rise and fall of the tide, though not to the same extent. The water was probably Passaic River water which had filtered through the sand and gravel. The water is raised by means of steam pumps, and forced into reservoirs in the city of Newark."
The real estate owned by the Newark Aqueduct Company when it turned over its plant to the city in 1860 consisted of: "Eighteen different parcels, including the Branch Brook, Spring lots, Mill properties along Mill Brook, several smaller tracts in the neighbor- hood, and the reservoir property on South Orange avenue." In 1889 the Branch Brook property was dedicated by the city for a public park, but it did not become one until after the Essex County Park Commission began its great work in 1895. (See Appendix B.) Newark has been blessed with its present water supply since 1892. (See Appendix C.)
1 See Shaw's History of Essex and Hudson Counties, vol. i, pp. 17-18.
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INCREASING INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY.
In 1815 a traveler wrote of Newark: "It is a beautiful village, regularly laid out in broad streets, on a fine plain, and contains nearly two thousand inhabitants. The public buildings are two places for public worship, a Court House, and an academy. Consid- erable manufactures are carried on here, particularly of leather. The inhabitants have likewise a pretty extensive inland trade, and have a bank to facilitate their commercial operations. The country is well cultivated in the neighborhood."
The community was just then emerging from the turmoil of the War of 1812. The war had, however, injected new life into the town's industries. 2 "At this time, too, the South had become a profitable market for the handicraft of the town. To increase trade the manufacturers put forth their best efforts. A Newarker whose memory is still green with the recollections of the period states [1878] that, 'the enterprise and energy of the manufacturers of Newark and the neighborhood, together with the superiority of their carriages, boots, shoes, hats, etc., had created a demand for all that could be manufactured.' The army contractor was abroad at the time. From 1812 to 1815 he was kept very busy hereabouts furnishing boots, shoes, harness and other military supplies. In front of his place of business on Broad street, north of Green, Robert B. Campfield, a Newark contractor, made an imposing display of profit and patriotism. He had arranged there fourteen six-pounder cannon, one for each county then in New Jersey. It was a United States government contract."
NEWARK READY FOR WAR, 1807.
As early as 1807 Newark and all Essex County declared itself ready for war. A mass-meeting was held in July of that year, at Day's Hill, to protest against British outrages on the sea. The specific cause for the meeting was the taking of American citizen's from the ship Leopard in Chesapeake Bay. Resolutions were drafted, and a copy of them sent to President Thomas Jefferson. Two sections of these resolutions were as follows:
" Atkinson's History of Newark, pp. 158-159.
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"Resolved. That although this meeting greatly deprecates the calamity of war, yet should this become necessary for the preserva- tion of the personal rights of their fellow citizens, the defence of the country, and the maintenance of the sovereignty and independence of the Union, they will engage in it with alacrity, and solemnly pledge to our country and our government, our lives and fortunes in defence of the rights of an independent nation.
"Resolved. That Thomas Ward, Silas Condit and Joseph Horn- blower, William S. Pennington, David D. Crane, John N. Cumming, James Vanderpool, Isaac Andruss and Robert B. Camfield, be a committee to correspond with committees of a similar nature at other places if the same should become necessary, and that future public meetings on the subject of the resolutions if deemed neces- sary, be convened by the said committee."
As the last-quoted section shows, one of the first thoughts at that moment was the restoring of the old system of committees of correspondence, which had been so useful a generation before, on the eve of the War for Independence.
MARTIAL SCENE IN MILITARY PARK, 1812.
On Friday, July 3, 1812, another meeting of the people of Essex County was held at Day's Hill, no doubt in the open air, when resolu- tions were adopted sustaining the government in its resistance against British oppression and in its decision to fight, made on June 18. A copy of the resolutions were sent to President Madison.
On November 16 all uniformed companies of militia in the State were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to move on twenty-four hours' notice, each man "to take the Field duly equipped, each man having one good Blanket, and four days' provi- sions, ready cooked."
In the New Jersey Journal for December 1, 1812, we find the following:
"The Uniform corps of the County of Essex, commanded by Brigadier General Gould, paraded on the lower [Military] Common, at Newark, on the 26th instant for the purpose of being reviewed by Governor Ogden, Commander in chief of the State of New Jersey, who was escorted to the field by Captain [John P.] Decatur's horse artillery, accompanied by the Field officers of the Brigade; and after executing the orders of the day, and saluting him with artillery, musquetry and rifle, the Governor delivered a short and
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patriotic address appropriate to the momentous crisis of our country."
The Governor concluded his address as follows: "I have only to add, gentlemen, that if circumstances should ever make it neces- sary (which I pray may never be the case) for me to call you into the field of danger, that you will there find me among you." This was Colonel Aaron Ogden, seventh Governor of the State after the downfall of the royalist government, and a gallant officer in Max- well's Jersey brigade of the Continental Army. In announcing to the Essex militiamen that he expected to take the field with them he was really following a precedent laid down by the State's third Governor, Richard Howell, who went to Pennsylvania at the head of the Jersey forces in the Whiskey Insurrection of 1791. It was not necessary for Ogden to buckle on his sword, however.
At the conclusion of the Governor's address, "they all adjourned," reports the Journal, "to Captain Gifford's [tavern], where there was a very splendid dinner prepared on the occasion. The officers of the brigade, with the officers of the different corps, were highly honored with the company of his Excellency the Gov- ernor, and a number of citizens to partake of the dinner, and were attended by an elegant band of music."
There were the customary toasts, and no doubt the usual heavy drinking.
Newark and the entire State continued in a state of excitement for many months thereafter, with war's alarms resounding, but never menacing the commonwealth, until midsummer in 1814. Then, in the New Jersey Journal for August 16, we find this:
"Two hundred men of the patriotic uniform company of New- ark have volunteered to New York to aid them in erecting their fortifications. [Brooklyn Heights was then being prepared for defence.] We wish we could see a similar spirit in Elizabethtown."
It was there that the Journal was published. Immediately below appeared the following:
Newark, August 9.
"Patriotism of the Country Rising .- It is with pleasure that we are enabled to state that Capt. [John I.] Plume's company of inde- pendent artillery have volunteered their services to his Excellency
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the Governor, as a part of the quota required by the requisition of the General Government. This company in point of numbers, bril- liancy of dress, and general respectability, is not exceeded by any in this town-and, perhaps, not by any in the State.
"We also learn that in Orange, capt. Kilburn's artillery, capt. Day's volunteers, and capt. Lindsley's rifle company, have volun- teered; as also, capt. Crane's rifle company at Caldwell, capt. Ball's Columbian Greens at Bloomfield, and capt. Mitchell's rangers at Paterson Landing."
President Madison had just called for five thousand men from New Jersey.
PREPARED TO MEET INVASION, 1814.
Immediately thereafter General Gould, commanding the Essex Brigade, published a most interesting "plan for alarm in case of a threatened attack." Newark and all Essex anticipated that if the British took New York they would enter Newark Bay and strive to land hereabouts. The older inhabitants could remember well when Washington had sent word to the people of Essex to remove their valuables to the hills and to destroy all forage and other material that might be useful to Cornwallis' army. But the county was in a far better state of preparedness for invasion than in November, 1776, and proposed to make a plucky resistance.
General Gould directed that detachments of artillery be located at once at the following points: Elizabethtown, Springfield, Bloom- field, Caldwell and Paterson. Small details from the mounted militia were stationed with the guns. If one of these posts discov- ered the foe, the orders were to fire three shots from a cannon, in quick succession, this to be repeated at all the other stations. The horsemen at the station giving the alarm were to gallop through the country giving details of the nature of the enemy's demon- stration.
If the alarm came at night, the alarm guns were to be fired, and in addition beacon fires prepared in advance were to be lighted at the following vantage points : At Short Hills; "near the toll gate back of Cranetown," on Montelair mountain on what is now Bloomfield avenue, in all probability ; at Caldwell; on Weazel Mountain. "All to be lighted as soon as the guns are heard." The rendezvous for
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the several commands were to be as follows: "First regiment, Caldwell [Presbyterian] church; Second regiment, on the parade ground, Westfield; Third [the Newark] regiment, on Military Com- mon ; Fourth regiment, 'at the Schoolhouse back of General Crane's' [Roselle Park] ; Fifth regiment, 'in front of Bloomfield Academy.'" Each company of cavalry was to attach itself to the regiment in whose district the greater number of its members lived.
"DON'T GIVE UP THE SOIL."
As the State's quota of 5,000 men did not fill up as rapidly as was desired, a draft was made. Most of the troops from this section of the State, however, were volunteers from the militia. On Sep- tember 3, 1814, the Morris and Essex companies left Newark, as the Centinel of Freedom explains, "on their way to the camp, and with- out flattery, we must say, their appearance was the most brilliant and warlike we have ever witnessed in Newark. The drafted militia marched yesterday [September 5]."
A few days later the Centinel said:
"The citizens of Newark performed their tour of labour on Saturday last." The following complimentary notice is from the New York Columbian of Saturday evening:
"Extraordinary Patriotism .- Nearly eight hundred (probably increased much beyond that number) citizens of Newark, trans- ported in a line of wagons nearly covering the causeway on the road, reached Powles Hook ferry, crossed the North river and passed through this city to Brooklyn ferry, before 6 o'clock this morning. They had several bands of wind and military music, with flags, and a label on each hat, 'Don't give up the soil!', and proceeded to work on the fortifications at Brooklyn, with an alacrity truly admirable and gratifying. Such an instance of patriotic enthusiasm in the inhabitants of a neighboring State from a distance of nine miles can not be too highly appreciated or recorded in terms too honorable to the zeal and disinterestedness of our fellow citizens of New Jersey. Newark will forever live in the grateful remembrance of the people of New York."
Lawrence, who went to his death crying "Don't give up the ship!" on June 1, 1813, was responsible for the apt expression noted above as being worn on the hats of the militia. The word "citizen"
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is interesting in the connection in which it is used, for the people of that day were immensely proud of their "citizen soldiery." They were even then getting a tremendous lesson as to the need of a standing army, but they persisted in believing that the salvation of the country was in the hands of its militia.
"For several days past," said the Centinel of Freedom on September 13, 1814, "companies of troops have successively passed thro' this town to the camp now forming at P. Hook. To the honor of the military spirit of New Jersey we have it in our own power to record that most of these have been volunteer corps. The ardor thus displayed to engage in the defence of the neighboring metropo- lis of N. York is worthy of the glorious days of ancient Rome; in those perilous times when every citizen was a soldier and their country the camp of the Consul. Go on, ye brave men; our hopes and our prayers are with you; and should it be your fate to meet the enemy, may your exertions for your country be crown'd with the success and glory of the Roman legion."
RETURN OF "THE HERO OF PLATTSBURGH."
Major General Macomb, "the hero of Plattsburgh," returned to New York late in November, 1814, from the front, bringing with him a band of music which had left the British just before their defeat. Macomb then lived in Belleville, and the New York Evening Post for November 14 told of his return in the following paragraph :
"The inhabitants of Belleville, N. J., on the return of Major General Macomb to his family, received him in a manner the most gratifying and complimentary. *
* They fired a national salute and illuminated the village. * * The General came forward and courteously acknowledged the compliment. * * * In return the General ordered his most excellent Band of Music to play Hail Columbia and other national airs."
On February 21, 1815, Newark celebrated the coming of peace with great enthusiasm. Salutes were fired at dawn and at sunset and the church bells were rung for an hour in the morning and in the evening. Services were held in the churches at 11 in the morn- ing and, with far-seeing shrewdness, the committee of arrange- ments advised that collections for the benefit of the poor be taken, knowing well that the joy of the hour would work to open purse
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strings. There was a general illumination of the town's buildings, public and private, and for a week before the celebration the local tallow chandlers did a big business in candles.
The Essex Brigade was at Brooklyn but a few days, in fact its real camp was at what is now Jersey City and at Hoboken. In little more than a week it was stationed at Sandy Hook with other militia ready to meet the British should they sail from the Chesa- peake and attempt to land. A letter from an officer in the Essex militia while it was at Sandy Hook, published in the Centinel of Freedom, discloses the fact that the soldiers were without ammuni- tion and that many of their muskets were out of order. He insisted that special town meetings should be called throughout the State to provide funds for the purchase of ammunition.
THE MUSTERING OUT OF "JERSEY BLUE."
As the first quarter of the last century drew toward its close, Newark began to lose by death some of the men of light and leading who had been of incalculable benefit in shaping the town's prosper- ity. One of these was Elisha Boudinot, and the facts concerning him now given are of importance far beyond that of the personality of the man, because they serve to bring us closer to the real charac- ter of the development of Newark in the years immediately follow- ing the War for Independence.
ELIAS AND ELISHA BOUDINOT.
Elias and Elisha Boudinot were brothers, of French Huguenot descent. Elias was the older and was born at Burlington, N. J., in 1740, and Elisha at Philadelphia in 1749. Both lived to good old age, Elias dying in 1821 and Elisha in 1819. Both studied law. Elias opened a law office in Elizabethtown, in 1760, and some time thereafter Elisha hung out his shingle in Newark, just when, nobody today seems to know.
Both were staunch patriots and were warm personal friends through life. We have little more to do with Elias in this narrative, except to say that he was a member of the Provincial Convention
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