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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02232 9327
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofmiddles01pick
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JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD ESOR Governor of New Jersey
HISTORY
OF
MIDDLESEX COUNTY,
NEW JERSEY
1664 =- 1920
UNDER THE ASSOCIATE EDITORSHIP OF JOHN P. WALL AND HAROLD E. PICKERSGILL ASSISTED BY AN ABLE CORPS OF LOCAL HISTORIANS
HISTORICAL == BIOGRAPHICAL
VOLUME I
1921 LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
FOREWORD
1204213
T IS now nearly half a century since the publication of a history of Middlesex, one of the most historic and progressive counties of New Jersey. The present work is designed to be at once a well digested resumé of its former history, but more particularly a continuation down to the present time, and covering a period of phenomenal development along all the many lines which go to make up the complex community of to-day.
The value of the work rests in larger degree upon the intelligent labors of Messrs. John P. Wall and Harold E. Pick- ersgill, who out of their abundant local knowledge have not only provided much of the matter assembled upon its pages, but have otherwise abundantly aided the field editors, Messrs. Frank R. Holmes and Peter K. Edgar, in pointing out most useful sources of information. Of especial value are various historical papers contributed by residents who are recognized as entire masters of the subjects upon which they treat, and among whom may be named Mr. H. Brewster Willis, on Pub- lic Education; Mr. Adrian Lyon, on the Board of Proprietors ; President W. H. S. Demarest, on Rutgers College; Dr. D. C. English, on the Medical Fraternity; Dr. Fred B. Kilmer, on Christ Church.
The genealogical and personal memoirs have been pre- pared with all due care from such data as were accessible, and in each case has been submitted to the immediate subject or to his proper representative for verification as to fact. It is believed that the work, in all its features, will prove a real addition to the mass of annals concerning the people of the historic region under consideration, and that without it, much valuable information therein contained would be irretrievably lost, owing to the passing away of many custodians of records and the disappearance of such material.
THE PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS
NOTE-The History proper is paged continuously, extending into Volume II, and concluding with Index at page 503. The Biographical Department follows immedi- ately thereafter in Volume II, and is paged continuously into Volume III, concluding with a Biographical Index.
Page
CHAPTER I-The Leni-Lenapes-Indian rights to the land, and how disposed of.
I
CHAPTER II-Occupation by the Dutch-Character of the Immigrants from Holland
7
CHAPTER III-Coming of the English-Title of the Duke of York and his land conveyances to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.
I )
CHAPTER IV-Settlement of the Raritan Valley-Woodbridge and Piscataway -Settlers at New Brunswick and Perth Amboy.
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CHAPTER V-The East Jersey Proprietors-Acts passed by the General Assembly
CHAPTER VI-The Proprietary and Colonial Governors-Franklin the last CHAPTER VII-Organization of Middlesex County-Changes of Boundaries CHAPTER VIII-East and West Jersey-The final division.
27 39 49 57
CHAPTER IX-The early Courts-Crimes and Misdemeanors 63 CHAPTER X-Study of the Soil-Mineral products 69
CHAPTER XI-Transportation-The Indian trails-First roads and ferries- Water transportation-Stage wagons-Steamboats and railroads. 73
CHAPTER XII-Revolutionary days-Home life of the people-The dawn of the Revolution-Occupation by British troops.
81
CHAPTER XIII-Middlesex men in the Revolutionary War-Notable names -Roster of State troops. 97
CHAPTER XIV-After the War-Organization of State government. 113 CHAPTER XV-First half of the Nineteenth Century-Political contests. 117
CHAPTER XVI-War between the States-Middlesex men bear a splendid part 129
CHAPTER XVII-Finale-The Spanish-American War-The political land- slide of 1920. 165
CHAPTER XVIII-Visitors, Natives and Residents-Washington and Lafay- ette-Other notables 171
CHAPTER XIX-Institutions of higher education-Rutgers College-Theo- logical Seminary of the Reformed Church-Academies and Private Schools. 185
CHAPTER XX-Public Education-Thirty-three years' growth of Public Schools
203
CHAPTER XXI-The Press-First newspapers-Later journals. 229
CHAPTER XXII-Bench and Bar-Early lawyers and jurists-Notable trials 233
CHAPTER XXIII-The Medical Fraternity-Pioneer physicians-First Medi- cal Society-Various professional bodies-Founders of County and State
Medical Societies-Prominent Deceased Physicians-Hospitals and Clinics .. 243 CHAPTER XXIV-Manufacturing Industries-At Perth Amboy and New Brunswick 271
MIDDLESEX
Page
CHAPTER XXV-City of New Brunswick-Settlement-During the Revolu- tion-Early Industries and Merchants-Development of City to its present proportions 279
CHAPTER XXVI-City of New Brunswick, concluded-Notable Characters ... 347
CHAPTER XXVII-Perth Amboy-Settlement-Old Buildings-In the Revo- lution-The City of to-day 361
CHAPTER XXVIII-City of South Amboy 397
CHAPTER XXIX-Woodbridge and Piscataway Townships. 401
CHAPTER XXX-North Brunswick, East Brunswick and South Brunswick Townships 423
CHAPTER XXXI-Monroe, Madison, Raritan and Cranbury Townships. 437
CHAPTER XXXII-Boroughs of Middlesex County. 455
APPENDIX-Military Rolls 483
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LANDING OF CARTERET.
CHAPTER I. THE LENI-LENAPES.
When Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Com- pany, sailed up the broad waters of what was then known as the Great North River, now named for its discoverer, he found on its banks Aborigines occupants. They were members of the Algonquin family, and by writers on Indian antiquities have been considered as branches of the general Delaware nation known as the Leni-Lenapes, which in the Red Men's language means "original people," a title they had adopted under the claim that they were descended from the most ancient of Indian ancestry. This claim was admitted by other tribal organizations, who accorded to the Leni-Lenapes the title of "grandfather," or a people whose ancestry antedated their own.
Among the numerous traditions, the leading one of their origin was that their ancestors lived in a country far to the westward of the rising sun, and in the hopes of finding a red man's paradise, land of deer and beaver and salmon, they left their western home and journeying across great rivers and mountains, at last came to the western banks of the Namisi Sipu (Mississippi), where they met another nation migrat- ing like themselves. This adversary for a settlement in the east was the Mengwes, and for centuries these two aboriginal nations became rivals and enemies. Their explorations, however, were to receive a check, for beyond the great river lay the domain of a nation named Allegewi, who disputed their passage. This opposing nation, while not strong in numbers, was skilled in the arts of war and had reared great defenses of earth enclosing their village and strongholds. An alliance, offensive and defensive, was formed by the Lenapes and Mengwes, and after a severe struggle for supremacy the Allegewis were humiliated and exterminated and their country occupied by the victors.
The two victorious nations then journeyed eastward. The Mengwes taking a northern route, finally reached the Mahicannick, "River of the Mountains" (Hudson river), while the Lenapes, traveling more in a southerly direction, rested on the banks of the Lenapi Wihittuck, the beautiful river, now known as the Delaware, and here they thought they had found their long-wished-for elysium of an Indian paradise for which they had left their far western home. This tradition may have some truthful foundation ; the unfortunate Allegewis may have been the mound builders of the Mississippi Valley, but this is only one of the many profitless conjectures which have been indulged in by historical researchers. Indian tribes were fond of narrating long journeys and great deeds of their ancestors, tracing their ancestors for centuries, but
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their traditions are so clouded and involved in improbabilities and inter- woven with superstition that it is simply speculative on the part of antiquarian writers to form a decided opinion of the origin of the Amer- ican aborigines.
On the arrival of the emigrants from Netherlands at the Isle of Man- hattan, they found dwelling there the fierce Manhattans whom De Laet calls "a wicked nation and enemies of the Dutch." In the adjacent territory the Minsie and Mohican nations were located. The Manhattans, who were members of the Mohican nation, occupied the range of country on the east side of the Hudson river to its mouth. On Long Island, called by the natives Sewanhacky, "the land of shells," were the savage Metonwacks, divided into tribes of which names of thirteen have been preserved; the Canaise and Nyack were settled at the Narrows; the Mantinecoes in Queens county ; and the Nissaquage, Setauket, Corchaug, Secataug, Patachogue, Shinnecoe and Montauk, in Suffolk county.
The Minsies, who received Hudson with peaceful overtures and came daily on board his vessel to barter furs, oysters, Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes and apples, in exchange for gewgaws and trifles, inhabited the country from the Minisink (a place named after them, where they had their council seat and fire), to Staten Island, and from the Hudson to the Raritan Valley. They were members of the Leni- Lenape, or Delaware nation, which occupied a domain extending along the seacoast from Chesapeake Bay to the country bordering Long Island Sound. Back from the east it reached beyond the Susquehanna Valley to the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, and on the north joined the southern frontier of the hated and dreaded Iroquois. In this vast domain was included all of the present State of New Jersey.
The principal tribes of the Delawares were the Unamis or Turtle, Unalachtgo or Turkey, and Minsi or Wolf. The latter was the most powerful and warlike of these tribes, and occupied the most northerly portion of the Delaware's country, keeping guard along the Iroquois border; their territory extended southward to the northern boundary of the present county of Hunterdon. The Unamis and Unalachtgo branches comprising the Assanpinks, Matas, Schackamaxons, Chiche- quaas, Raritans, Nanticokes, Tatelos, and many others, inhabited all that part of New Jersey south of the northern boundaries of the present Hunterdon and Somerset counties. Statisticians have computed that the Indian population at the time of the settlement of the Dutch at New Amsterdam was probably not more than two thousand souls in the territory comprising the present State of New Jersey.
Before the arrival of the European explorers, the country of the Leni-Lenape had been invaded by the Iroquois, who had reduced the former nation to the condition of vassals. The Iroquois attitude, how- ever, was not wholly of conquerors, it was more of the character of
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THE LENI-LENAPES
protectors or masters. Their overlordship was tempered with paternal regard for the interests of the Leni-Lenapes in their negotiations with the whites, care being taken that no trespasses should be committed on their rights and that they should be justly dealt with. This anxious solicitude on the part of the Iroquois was simply to see that no others than themselves should be permitted to despoil the Lenapes. They exacted from them an annual tribute, an acknowledgment of their state of vassalage, and on these conditions they were permitted to occupy their former hunting grounds. Bands of the Five Nations were interspersed among the Delawares to keep a watchful eye upon them and their move- ments.
The Delawares regarded their conquerors with feelings of inextin- guishable hatred, though held in abeyance by fear. They had, however, a feeling of superiority on account of their ancient lineage and their removal from original barbarism. The Iroquois maintained an air of haughty superiority towards their vassals, and no longer spoke of them as men and warriors, but as women. This opprobrium was removed from the Delawares by the Iroquois through the exertions of their most noted chief, Teedyuscung, who by his masterly oratory and diplomatic shrewdness defeated the schemes of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in their attempts to defraud the Delawares of their rights in that province.
The Indians were tenacious of the common right in which they claimed the ownership of the soil. They did not recognize even in their chiefs any right to convey lands without the general consent of the tribe, and often refused to submit to treaties unless they were made by their representatives chosen by popular vote, who met the whites in council and for their respective tribes ratified the deeds disposing of their lands. The New Jersey settlers at all times were conciliatory of their rights, dealing with them in a justifiable and legal way, hence there was no occasion for hostilities on the part of the Indians. The white settlers of New Jersey, however, suffered on account of the outrageous manage- ment of Indian affairs by the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam. The Mohawks in 1643 were at war with the Weekquacsgecks, Tanki- tekes, and Tappeans. Director Kieft espoused the cause of the Mohawks, and on the night of February 23, 1643, he dispatched a force of eighty men to attack the Hackensacks, who were bivouacked one thousand strong at Pavonia, New Jersey. The unsuspecting Indians, unaware of the Director's secret league with their enemy, were suddenly aroused from their sleep by a murderous attack by the Dutch soldiers, who spared neither babies nor women in their inhuman massacre. This kind of war- fare could not fail to exasperate the natives, and in retaliation seven tribes entered into an alliance for a relentless war. They killed all the men they could find, dragged the women and children into captivity, burned houses, barns, grain and haystacks, and laid waste the farms and
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plantations. From the Raritan to the Connecticut not a white person was safe from the murderous tomahawk and scalping knife, except those that clustered around Fort Amsterdam. The war continued in all its fury for several months, when a peace was concluded which lasted only until October, 1643, when the Indians again went on the warpath and peace was not permanently secured until 1645.
There were no further Indian troubles of any magnitude until 1655, when during an absence of Governor Stuyvesant to expel the Swedes from Delaware, five hundred warriors on the night of September 15 landed at New Amsterdam. They were repulsed by the garrison and driven to their canoes. In retaliation they landed at Pavonia, which they laid in ashes. From thence they passed down Staten Island, where one hundred persons were killed, one hundred and fifty carried into captivity, and over three hundred deprived of their homes. The savages of the tribes of Hackensack, Tappaen, Ahasimus and others, were present and took part in this fearful devastation, and perpetrated inhuman barbarities, notwithstanding their solemn pledge to adhere to the terms of the treaty. Governor Stuyvesant made a treaty with the Indians which proved a final settlement of all difficulties as far as the Dutch were concerned. During these Indian troubles the inhabitants of the ancient territory of Bergen county were the greatest sufferers.
The Pomptons and Mennes having sold their lands, removed from New Jersey about 1737. They became engaged in the Indian war of 1755 in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, which was carried across the Delaware river into New Jersey. The Indians raided the settlers on the east bank of the Delaware in the winter of 1757-58, and twenty-seven murders were committed by them in Sussex county. Governor Bernard in June, 1758, took measures to put a stop to this hideous warfare; through Teedyuscung, king of the Delawares, he obtained a conference with the Minisink and Pompton Indians on August 7, 1758, at Burlington, New Jersey. This resulted in a time being fixed for a conference at Eas- ton, Pennsylvania, and a treaty was finally signed, the Indians relin- quishing all their claims to lands in New Jersey, reserving the right to fish in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan and to hunt in all unen- closed lands. A tract of land comprising three thousand acres was pur- chased in Burlington county by the province, and on this the few remain- ing Delawares of New Jersey, about sixty in number, were collected and settled. They remained there until 1802, when they joined their grand- sons, the Stockbridge tribe, at New Stockbridge, near Oneida Lake, in the State of New York. Several years after, they again removed and settled on a large tract of land at Fox River, Wisconsin, which had been purchased from the Menominee Indians. Here they engaged in conjunction with the Stockbridge Indians in agricultural pursuits and
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THE LENI-LENAPES
formed a settlement named Statsburg. There were alive in 1832 at this settlement about forty of the Delawares, who still kept alive the tradi- tion that they were owners of fishing and hunting privileges in New Jersey. They resolved to lay their claim before the legislature of the State, requesting that $2,000 be paid them for the relinquishing of their rights. The Legislature referred the petition to a committee who reported favorably upon the request, whereupon the Legislature voted the amount asked for, in consideration of their relinquishment of their last rights and claims in the State of New Jersey.
CHAPTER II. EARLY OCCUPATION OF THE PROVINCE BY THE DUTCH.
The Dutch East India Company of the United Netherlands, who employed Hudson on his voyage of discovery, combined military with commercial operations, and was divided into five chambers established in five of the principal Dutch cities. Its attention was devoted more especially to making reprisals on Spanish commerce, purchasing slaves, the conquest of Brazil, etc. New Netherland was committed to the charge of the Amsterdam chamber.
Five years after Hudson's voyage, a company of merchants under the title of the United Company of New Netherland, procured from the States-General of Holland a patent for the exclusive trade on the Hudson river. They established a trading post at New Amsterdam, on the present site of the Battery. A small redoubt on the site of what is now a part of the city of Kingston, New York, was also built; it was known as the Ronduit, from whence comes the name of Rondout. In the upper valley of the Hudson a fort was erected upon Castle Island, near and below the present city of Albany. One of their navigators, Adriaen Block, extended the sphere of discovery by the way of the East river, tracing the shores of Long Island and Connecticut as far as Cape Cod. He sailed up the Connecticut, named by him the Fresh river, and built a trading post to which he gave the name of "The House of Good Hope," on the present site of the city of Hartford. It was more than probable as early as 1618 that another trading post was erected in the territory now comprising the State of New Jersey, which the Dutch called Achter Kull (or Kill); the spelling of the second name of this title by some historians is Coll.
The Dutch also claimed as a part of New Netherland by right of dis- covery, the territory adjacent to the Delaware river, which they named the South river. This claim was based on Hudson having sailed a short distance up the waters of that river prior to his entering New York Bay. As early as 1623 a ship under the command of Cornelius Jacobse May was dispatched to take possession of this territory and effect a settle- ment. May entered the Delaware Bay and gave his name to the northern cape-Cape May. After exploring the river he landed and erected a fort which he named Fort Nassau, situated on the banks of a small stream called by the Indians Sassacknow, below the present city of Camden, New Jersey.
The States-General, on the expiration of the grant of the United Company of New Netherland, refused to renew it, but they continued to trade in the territory until 1623, when the Dutch West India Company, a powerful mercantile association, chartered in 1621, took possession of
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the lands temporarily granted to their predecessors. The following year Peter Minuit was appointed director of New Netherland; he built Fort Amsterdam, and brought over new colonists who settled on Long Island. Staten Island and Manhattan were purchased from the Indians, but the settlements for the next five years were merely trading posts.
It was in 1629 or 1630 that the council of the Dutch West India Company adopted plans for a more extensive colonization of New Neth- erland. They granted to certain individuals extensive seigniories or tracts of land, with federal rights over the lives and persons of their subjects. These tracts of land were granted, provided that a settlement should be effected within a specified time, besides other conditions. Under these provinces Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a pearl merchant of Amsterdam, secured in 1630 and subsequently, a tract of land twenty-four by forty-eight miles in extent, comprising the present counties of Albany, Rensselaer and part of Columbia. Other wealthy patroons obtained larger grants for similar seigniories in other portions of New Netherland.
The first Indian deed to territory along the west side of New York Bay and the Hudson river is dated July 12, 1630. It was for a purchase made by the Director-General and Council of New Netherland for Michael Pauw, Burgomaster of Amsterdam and Lord of Achtrenhoven, near Utrecht, Holland. The burgomaster also in the same year obtained a deed for Staten Island. The purchase on the Jersey shore of the Hud- son was named Pavonia. The colony established by Pauw was not a success, and his interests were purchased by the directors of the West India Company, and it became known as the West India Company's Farms.
David Pieterson de Vries, who had made two unsuccessful attempts to establish Dutch settlements on the shores of the Delaware in 1640, turned his attention to New Netherland. He purchased in that year of the Indians a tract of about five hundred acres at Tappan, on the Ackter Kull shore of the Hudson, and gave it the name of Vriesendall. Located along the riverside, sheltered by high hills, with a stream to supply mill sites winding its course through its center, it had all the charms of nature, and with the erection of buildings became an ideal home, where the energetic owner lived for several years. Settlements were also made at Communapaw, Hoboken, Ahasamus, Paulus Hoeck, and throughout the territory were individual settlements, many of which were, however, destroyed in the Indian War of 1644.
The policy of the Dutch government was to encourage the settlement of colonies or manors similar to lordships and seigniories of the Old World, by men of large fortunes, known as patroons, to whom peculiar privileges of trade and government were accorded. These tracts were sixteen miles in extent along the seashore or banks of some navigable river, or eight miles when both banks were occupied with an indefinite extent inland, the company, however, reserving the island of Manhattan
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OCCUPATION BY THE DUTCH
and the fur trade with the Indians. These patroons were within four years from the granting of the tract to settle them with fifty persons upwards of fifteen years of age, and upon all trade carried on by them were to pay five per cent. to the company. They were also to extinguish the Indian titles to the land; their tenants were not to acquire a free tenure to the lands, and were prohibited from making any woolen, linen or cotton cloth or to weave any other material, under a penalty of ban- ishment. This restriction was to keep them dependent on the mother country for the most necessary manufactures, which was in spirit with the colonial system adopted by all the nations of Europe. This scheme of colonization met with favor, and several members of the Dutch West India Company selected and purchased the most desirable tracts both on the North and South rivers, as well as the whole neck opposite New Amsterdam as far as the Kills and Newark Bay, together with Staten Island.
Directly west of these tracts stretched for miles along the waters of Achter Kull and to the estuary west of Staten Island, one of the most inviting regions in New Netherland. To these lands, in 1651, Cornelius Van Werckhoven, one of the schepens of Utrecht in Holland, directed his attention. He duly notified the Amsterdam chamber of his intention to plant colonies or manors in New Netherland. A commission was thereupon given to Augustine Heermans, who resided in New Amster- dam, to open negotiations with the Indians to purchase these lands. After negotiations with the resident proprietors, Heermans purchased for Van Werckhoven the tract extending from the mouth of the Raritan creek westerly to a creek known by the name of Mankackkewacky, running in a northwest direction, and then from the Raritan creek north- erly along the river into the creek, namely, from Raritan Point, called Ompage, now the city of Perth Amboy, and following the line of a creek named Pechelesse to its head, where it met the Mankackkewacky before named. The land thus described included the region west of Staten Island from the Raritan to the Passaic rivers, and extended back into the country indefinitely. Three other tracts, one to the south of the Raritan and two on Long Island, were acquired by this enterprising Dutchman. This wholesale grab of territory aroused objections on the part of other greedy speculators, who contended it was too much terri- tory in the hands of one owner, and on its being referred to the Amster- dam chamber it was decided that Van Werckhoven could retain but one of the tracts in question, and he chose to locate himself on Long Island, and the title to the land described above reverted therefore to the original owners.
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