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HERE. LIES THE BOOM Cf Anthony olie V Viho depared this
Veak 1723 . deed 1.37 Yeare
GRAVE OF ANTHONY OLEF ; 1723.
HISTORY
OF
THE ORANGES
IN ESSEX COUNTY, N. J.
FROM 1666 TO 1806,
BY STEPHEN WICKES, M. D. 11
SOCI
INT
1870
1629
OF OR
M
Newark, D. J. : PRINTED BY WARD & TICHENOR, For the New England Society of Orange. 1 892.
. .
.
PREFACE.
D URING the last fifteen years of his life, the author of this work devoted most of his leisure time to collecting the materials necessary to its preparation. His labors in this direction resulted in gathering, and perhaps rescuing from oblivion, reminiscences that had never been placed in writing ; as well as many docu- ments that were so hidden away as to be almost wholly inaccessible, and apparently destined to be ultimately lost. To the general reader, they cannot fail to be in- teresting ; and their value cannot fail to be appreci- ated by the indwellers of the region whose history he purposed to preserve. The materials thus gathered consist largely of local incidents ; of facts that tend to fix places, boundaries and historic paths almost lost to memory ; of descriptions of the homelife and char- acter of the earliest settlers of New Jersey ; of mat- ters appertaining to their first efforts in commerce and manufactures ; of their religion, and meeting houses ; with sketches of prominent individuals among them. All these materials, obtained from the most reliable sources, and carefully arranged by the author, were, with a few exceptions, made ready by him for the
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iv
Preface.
printer's hand, when death put an end to his earthly labors. Under the direction of a Committee of the New England Society of Orange, assisted by Mr. Frederick W. Ricord, the work thus done by him has been passed through the press; the praise for its con- ception and preparation being wholly due to its ven- erable author.
The illustrations in the book were printed by the DeVinne Press, of New York, from plates made by the Gill Engraving Company, after photographs taken by Mr. Frank P. Jewett. The other printing is by Messrs. Ward & Tichenor.
Orange, N. J., May, 1892.
PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Grave of Anthony Olef, (1723) Frontispiece Dodd Saw Mill. . To face 40
Early Roads, (map of) .. To face 46
Joseph Riggs' House. To face 48
Samuel Harrison's Saw Mill To face 68 Graves of Matthew Williams, (1732,) and his wife, Ruth, (1724). To face 84
Extract from Samuel Harrison's Account Book. To face 96
Tomb of Rev. Daniel Tayler, (1748-8) To face 110
Page from Sermon by Rev. Daniel Tayler (1743-4) To face 114
The Old Parsonage, (1748) To face 134
The Second Meeting House, (1754) To face 138
Tomb of Rev. Caleb Smith, (1762,) and Grave of his wife, Martha, (1757) To face 146
Tomb of Rev. Caleb Smith, (1762). To face 148
Page from Sermon by Rev. Caleb Smith, (1760) To face 152
Matthias Pierson's House To face 170
Aaron Harrison's House . To face 178
Page from Jemima Cundict's Diary, (1774) To face 182 Notes for a Sermon by Rev. Jedidiah Chapman, (1791) To face 204 Subscriptions for building Parish Sloop, (1784) To face 232
Grave of Elizabeth Joens, (1729). To face 234
Graves cf Nathaniel Wheeler, (1726,) and his widow, Esther, (1732) To face 236
Grave of Hannah Jones, (1732) To face 238
Survey of the Parish Lots and the Common, opposite the Old Parsonage House. To face 248
The Third Meeting House, (1813) To face 268
Thomas Williams' Grist Mill, as re-built by Jesse Williams. To face 272
Graves of Dr. John Condit, (1834) ; his first wife, Abi- gail, (1784) ; his second wife, Rhoda, (1834,) and two of his children. To face 298
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
The Purchase of Lands ;- The Puritans from New England ;- The " Half-way Covenant ; "-The " Fundamental Agreement ; "- Rev. Abraham Pierson
I
CHAPTER I.
Topography of the Mountain ; - Water Sheds ;- Swamps ;- Flora and Fauna ;- Indians and their Religion ;- Indian Paths ..
9
CHAPTER II.
The Early Settlers ;- The Division of their Lands ;- Their Ves- sels and Shipping ;- The Settlement at Newark ;- Essex County Established ;- The Town at the River ;- The Third Division of Home Lots ;- The Newark Mountains ;- Trade with New York ;- Small Pox ; -- Their Plantations and Farm Implements ;- Their Horses ;- Their Apple Orchards ;- Their Saw Mills ;- Building Materials ;- Home Life ; - Construction of Houses ;- Furniture ;- Wearing Apparel ;- Tools ;- Food ;- Domestic Animals .
CHAPTER III.
Early Roads ;- Main Street ; - South Orange Avenue ;- Valley Road ;- Road to Cranetown ;- Eagle Rock Road ;- Swinefield Road ;- Washington Street ;- Park Street ;- Prospect Street ;- Scotland Street ;- Centre Street ;- Harrison Street ;- Early Method of Constructing Roads.
CHAPTER IV.
Early Local Industries ;- The First Steam Engine ;- Mining Epidemic ; Copper Mines in Orange and Bloomfield ;- Manufacture of Hats ;- Distilleries ;- Products ; - Currency ;- Traffic.
CHAPTER V.
Legislation and the Laws, public and private ;- Schools and School Houses ;- The First School House ;- Land Tenures ;- The Lords Proprietors ;- The First Settlers at Orange-Contro- versy with the Lords Proprietors ;- The Purchase from the Na- tives ;- The Elizabethtown Associates ;- The Surrender of the Proprietary Government to the Crown ;- Anti-Renters ;- Contest between Grantees of Berkely and Claimants under Indian Titles ;- A Brief Vindication of the Purchasers against the Proprietors ... 72
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45
54
vii
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER VI.
"The Mountain Society," its first years ;- Ministry of Rev. Joseph Webb ;- Rev. Nathaniel Bowers ;- Rev. Alexander Mac- Whorter ;- Rev. Jedidiah Buckingham ;- Rev. John Prudden ;- The Organization of the Society ;- Rev. Daniel Taylor ;- The First Meeting House ;- The Church Service ;- Death of Mr. Taylor ;- " De Vigilantia," a Sermon by Mr. Taylor
97
CHAPTER VII.
Rev. Caleb Smith ;- His Sermon on the Death of Rev. Aaron Burr ;- Elizabethtown Lottery ;- The Rating of the Parish ;- The Glebe ;- Mr. Smith's Grammar School ;- The Parsonage, its erection and cost ;- The Second Meeting House, its erection and cost; - The Parson in the Parsonage ; - Death of Mr. Smith, and his estate ;- Members in Communion prior to 1756 ;- Mem- bers after 1756 ;- Baptisms by Mr. Smith, 1756 to 1762 ;- A Ser- mon by Mr. Smith .
118
CHAPTER VIII.
Essex County in the War of the Revolution ;- Meeting of Citizens June 11, 1774 ;- The Convention at New Brunswick July 21,1774 ;- Meetings of Citizens December 7, 1774, and May 4, 1775; -Raising Funds for the Expenses of the War ;- Washington at the Newark Mountains ;- The Price of Food ;- The Raids by the Hessians ;- Revolutionary Incidents ;- Houses used as Head- quarters ;- Capt. Thomas Williams' Pewter Mug ; - Dinner at Ned Tomkins' Inn ;- An Act of Courtesy has its Reward ;- Avenging the Insults of a British Officer ;- Brave Men from Belleville :- Self-Detection of a Thief ;- Lafayette Angry in Cranetown ;- Parson Chapman's Game Cock ;- Parson Chapman Cheers for Freedom ;- Pluck of Samuel Harrison ;- John Durand Repairs Washington's Field Glasses; - Whiskey Lane ;- Jemima Cundict : Extracts from her book ; her Death ;- Samuel Harrison, his Miils and Occupation
158
CHAPTER IX.
Rev. Jedidiah Chapman ;- The Condition of the Society before the War ;- Mr. Chapman's Education, Characteristics, Marriage and Resignation ;- Notes for a Sermon by Mr. Chapman ;- Mem- bers Received into Communion by Mr. Chapman, 1766-1783 ;- Baptisms by Mr. Chapman
190
V111
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER X.
After the War, Peace ;- The Refugees at Bergen Neck ;- The Condition of the Mountain Society ;- The Church at Caldwell ;- The Church at Bloomfield ;- The Baptist Church at Northfield ; The Rev. Asa Hillyer ;- Bottle Hill ;- The Society under Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin ;- Dr. Hillyer a Trustee of the College of New Jersey ;- The Resignation of Dr. Hillyer, and his Death.
211
CHAPTER XI.
The Orange Academy, its organization and growth ;- The Par- ish Sloop, the subscription for its building, and sale of the same ;- The Orange Dock ;- The Parish Nailery ;- The Old Grave Yard ; Saint Mark's Grave Yard ;- The First Church Bell, and the Bell-ringer ;- Building Lots in 1795, and the advertisement for sale of same ;- Century Day, 1801 ;- The Parish Lands, and deeds for same ;- The Glebe ;- The Common ;- The Parsonage Lands ;- Working the Land ;- The Sale of Lots from the Glebe ;- The Meeting-House Lot ;- The John Cundict Lot ;- The Parsonage House Lot ;- Surveys ;- The Lower Parsonage ;- Disputes con- cerning the same ;-- The Lease and its Revocation ;- The Final Adjustment of Differences and the Conveyance of the Land ;- The Name of Orange ; the first use of the Name ;- Orange Dale. 229
CHAPTER XII.
The Township of Orange, its Incorporation and Boundaries ; - Newark and Mount Pleasant Turnpike ;- The Third Meeting House, its erection and cost ;- Modern Local Industries ;- Grist Mills, Leather and Tanneries, Saw Mills, Timber, Wool, Boots and Shoes, Hats 265
CHAPTER XIII.
Disease and Pestilence ;- Small Pox, Inoculation, Diphtheria, Dysentery ;- The First Physicians at Newark Mountain, Drs. Deancey, Turner, Pigot, Burnet, and Dickinson; Dr. Matthias Pierson ;- Midwifery ;- Dr. John Condit ;- Dr. Isaac Pierson ;- Dr. William Pierson, Sen
282
CHAPTER XIV.
A Few Notable Men :- Bethuel Pierson ;- Thomas Williams ;- Benjamin Williams ;- John Peck ;- Stephen D. Day. ... ... 305
INTRODUCTION.
N TEWARK TOWNSHIP was founded in 1666, arrangements having been perfected the year before with Governor Carteret, by a committee of prominent men of the New Haven Colony, for the possession of lands in New Jersey. These arrange- ments were based upon the terms of the "Conces- sions," and contained the stipulations and guarantees of the proprietors, Berkley and Carteret. Further- more, to provide against any future difficulties with Indian claimants, a purchase of all Indian rights was made, by authority of Governor Carteret, and all Indian claims were extinguished. 1
The lands thus purchased were bounded on the east by the Passaic River, on the west by the base of the first mountain, on the north by the Yountakah, or Third river, and on the south by Bound Brook, which marked the line between the Newark and Elizabethtown purchases. In 1678-9, a second purchase was made,
I. The price paid was "fifty double hands of powder, one hundred barrs of lead, twenty Axes, twenty Coates, ten Guns, twenty pistolls, ten kettles, ten Swords, four blankets, four barrells of beere, ten paire of breeches, fifty knives, twenty howes, eight hundred and fifty fathem of wampem, two Ankors of licquers or something equivolent, and three troopers Coates."
2
History of the Oranges.
and the western line of the township thereby extend- ed to the top of the "Great Mountain Watchung." 1 Thus the regions now occupied by the towns of Belle- ville, Bloomfield, Montclair and all the Oranges, was added to the original territory of Newark. The last- named place, originally called "The Towne at the River," was laid out in six-acre lots, and these were equitably distributed to the associated settlers. 2 Sixty- six heads of families were rated "for the payment of every man's share of the purchase," to be judged of by seven chosen men, "that should have full Power to hear, examine and judge of every Man's Estate and Persons, as their Rule, by which they will proceed in Time Convenient to pay for their Lands bought of the Natives, with the necessary Charges of setling the Place, and Mr. Pierson's Transport, and the Divisions and Subdivisions of all their Lands and Meadows be- longing to the same." 3
From a careful study of the genealogies, it is esti- mated that this new colony embraced about 500 souls. They were not adventurers seeking to make or mend their fortunes in an untried and, except by Indians, an untrodden wilderness. They were men of worldly means, and of rank and standing in their former New England homes. At that day, when money bore a high value, they were a wealthy community. Their
I. The price of this purchase was "two Guns, three Coates, and thirteen kans of Rum."
2. It had been the early custom in New England to settle and plant near together, in order to secure mutual aid and protection against the Indians. The territory purchased was commonly divided into three parts, the first part being small ; the second, twice the first in dimensions ; and the third, three times the first. The Newark planters adopted substantially the same method, making, however, the second and third divisions more in accord- ance with their needs and the extent of territory granted.
3. See Records of the Town of Newark, p. 7.
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Introduction.
total rating amounted to £17,344, or about $64,000 present currency. The names of Robert Treat, Robert Creat Jasper Crane, and many others, adorn the pages of early New England his- tory. They came from the towns of Milford, New Haven, Branford, Guilford, all being of the New Haven Colony. These towns were settled by these men. They had subdued the lands, built them- selves houses and barns, erected their churches, added to their wealth, and made them, in the course of twenty-five years, prosperous and thriving places. 1 These men had not fled from persecution, as had their fathers, forty-six years before. On the contrary, hither had they come, having abandoned their once- cherished homes, and the house of God, so dear in their memories of the past, to lay again, on a new soil, the foundations of a community, which, as they viewed it, should be in accordance with the law of God, which was to them supreme.
The people of the New Haven Colony were uncom- promising Puritans, determined to maintain their in- dependence, and, above all things, to preserye their . doctrine in perfect purity. They first settled, about 1635, in Hartford, Weathersfield and Windsor. From the first they distrusted the more lax and liberal methods of the Connecticut Colony. Their motto was Ecclesia Regnans. None but church members should have a voice in elections of governor, deputies
I. The lands in the plantation of New Haven were purchased by the principal men, in trust, for all the inhabitants of the respective towns; every planter, after paying his proportional part of the expenses arising from the laying out and settling the plantation, drew a lot, or lots of land, in propor- tion to the money or estate which he had expended in the general purchase, and to the number of the heads of his family. Trumbull's Connecticut, I, 107. Edition 1818.
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.
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History of the Oranges.
or assistants ; none should be magistrates, officers or jury men but those admitted to the church. They came to America to find an opportunity to develop their religious and civil convictions on these lines of thought and belief. Such strictness of policy was not satisfactory to the churches of the Connecticut Col- ony. Great and wearisome dissensions were the result, and finally these people, in about 1638, left the above-named towns and settled, some on Long Island, and some on the northern shores of Long Island Sound, constituting the New Haven Plantations. In five years thereafter, 1643, they assumed an organized existence as the New Haven Colony, and enjoyed un- interrupted peace in the churches, as well as worldly prosperity, for twenty years.
In 1662, through the agency of Gov. Winthrop, the people of Connecticut obtained from Charles II. a char- ter 1 with the amplest privileges. It was designed to embrace that Colony and New Haven under one juris- diction. In the negotiations which followed, between these colonies, Rev. John Davenport took a leading part. He was strongly and conscientiously opposed to the union with Connecticut, believing that the con- stitution of the civil state in the New Haven Colony was more in accordance with the mind of God, and better adapted to the great ends of government than any other in the world. He thought that the Consti- tution provided by the Connecticut Charter, contained no sufficient safeguard for the liberty and safety of the churches. 2
The controversy between these Colonies was sharply continued from the date of the charter to January,
I. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, Vol. I., 518.
2. Ibid., Chap. xiii.
5
Introduction.
1665, when it ceased, New Haven having submitted to the claim of Connecticut. The main cause of the dif- ference was the adopted tenet "that all baptised per- sons, not convicted of scandalous actions, are so far church members that, upon acknowledging their baptis- mal covenant and promising an outward conformity to it, though without any pretension to inward and spiritual religion, they may present their children for baptism." Against this Pastor Davenport, and many of the peo- ple of the New Haven Colony, stood in determined opposition. The question was, indirectly, one of pol- itics, no less than of ecclesiastical polity, for the question, who should be church members, involved the question, who should partake of the right of suffrage.
Thenceforward the "Half-way Covenant," as it was called, began to be practiced in the churches, and continued to be for more than a century. It is only since the last years of the last century that the views, of which Davenport was champion, have triumphed.
Such was the condition of public affairs under which Richard Denton and his church at Stamford migrated to Long Island, while Abraham Pierson, with his church at Branford, and with men of kindred spirit from Milford, New Haven and Guilford, became the Newark Church, and the fathers of this Newark region.
It is not the author's purpose to write the history of the early settlement of Newark. This is already written. He has simply aimed to illustrate the char- acter of the early settlers, and to answer the inquiry which arises in every mind, why the Newark associ- ates left their well-appointed homes and well-tilled lands in Connecticut, for new homes in the primitive
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History of the Oranges.
wilderness of New Jersey.1 They were sturdy Puri- tans, robust in thought as in purpose. They made a solemn covenant in New Haven that in all their town affairs they would be governed, not merely by relig- ious motives, but by such "rules" as they derived from the Bible, which was their religion. How far they understood, and in what respect they misunder- stood, the Bible as a rule of duty, we need not here consider ; but when they covenanted to govern them- selves, in all their work of founding a Christian Church, and a Christian State, by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, they only professed dis- tinctly and explicitly what all Christian men believe implicitly. It was the last effort made in America to build a civil state upon the narrow basis of the old Puritan ideas. "What was good in our Puritan an- cestors sprang from the Gospel ; what was eccentric was no part of the Gospel." They came to Newark, having adopted the following "Fundamental Agree- ment."
Ist. That none shall be admitted freemen or free Burgesses within our Town upon Passaick River, in the Province
Deut., 1-13. of New Jersey, but such Planters as are members of Exod., 18-21. Deut., 17-15. some or other of the Congregational Churches, nor shall any but such be chosen to Magistracy or to carry on any part of Civil Judicature, or as deputies or assistants, to have power to Vote In establishing Laws, and making Jerem., 36-21. or Repealing them, or to any Chief Military Trust or Office. Nor shall any But such Church Members have any Vote in any Such Elections; Tho' all others admitted to Be planters, have Right to their proper Inheritance, and do and shall enjoy all other Civil Liberties and Privileges, According to
I. The towns of Branford and Milford were deserted by all the inhabi- tants, and remained so for twenty years, after which time they began again to be occupied.
7
Introduction.
all Laws, Orders, Grants which are, or hereafter shall be made for this Town.
2nd. We shall with Care and Diligence provide for the mainte- nance of the purity of Religion professed in the Congregational Churches.I
To the Rev. Abraham Pierson, more than to any other man in the Newark Colony, is due the unity
Abraham Pierfon.
and harmonious action attendant upon its estab- lishment. Pierson came with his Branford Church. The Milford Church soon followed, accepting him as their pastor ; and those of Guilford and New Haven, who were in sympathy with the former towns, cordially united in the new migration. They all had the utmost confidence in his piety, his learning, and his steadfast purpose in the conservation of the interests of the Church as they understood them. He was a native of Yorkshire, England, graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1632, and was ordained a minister in the Church of England at Newark, near Nottingham. Becoming an intense Puritan, he led to New England, in 1640, a company of devoted followers, with whom he settled, first at Lynn, in the Massachusetts Colony. After a short stay there he migrated, with his com- pany, to Southampton, Long Island. The eastern end of Long Island was a part of the Connecticut jurisdic- tion, and when his people there, against his convic- tions and earnest protest, sided with the Hartford churches under the "Half-way Covenant," he, with his followers, withdrew from Long Island and settled in Branford, 1647, establishing a civil government
I. See Records of the Town of Newark, N. J., p. 2.
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History of the Oranges.
among themselves. During the twenty-three years of his ministry at Branford, he gave himself to active missionary work among the Indians, with whose lan- guage he made himself familiar to such a degree that he prepared a Catechism for instructing them in Gos- pel truths. His success in his missionary work is said to have been almost as great as that of Eliot and May- hew in Massachusetts .. The title of his book is as follows: "Some Help for the Indians, showing them how to Improve their Natural Reason, to know the True God and the Christian Religion, by Abraham Pierson, Pastor of the Church at Branford .- Cam- bridge. Printed for Samuel Green, 1658."
Only two copies of this book are known to exist- one in the Lenox Library, New York; the other in the British Museum.
Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia Book, III., 95, notices his learning, his ability and "his illuminating tongue," closing his record with this "Epitaphium."
" Terris discessit, suspirans Gaudia caeli, PIERSONUS Patriam scandit ad astra suam."
He died in Newark, N. J., August 9, 1678. His son, Abraham, was graduated from Harvard College in 1669. He was for a time an assistant to his father, and finally his successor in the Newark church. He became, subsequently, the first rector and president of Yale College, in which office he continued till his death, in 1707.
None of the lineal descendants of Pastor Pierson, senior, are in these parts. The family of Pierson in Essex, and counties contiguous, is from Thomas, a kinsman of the old pastor.
CJho: Easierfor-
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE MOUNTAIN.
THE red sandstone, stretching its broad belt from Nyack, on the Hudson, down to Jersey City, and thence across the State of New Jersey to the Del- aware, is the geological substrate of the Newark Mountain. The trap overlying it commences at Pluck- emin, Somerset County, continuing through Plainfield, Scotch Plains, Springfield and Milburn to the west bank of the Rahway River, twenty-three miles. From the latter point, it continues in the east and west sides of the Rahway N. N. East, about thirteen miles, to Little Falls and Paterson. 1 The trap forms the crest of the two ranges, known as the First and Second Mountains. The sandstone underlies the trap from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet from the crest. The breadth of the First Mountain is from one to two miles, and its height is from three hundred to six hundred and fifty feet above tide water. At Mount Pleasant Avenue, Orange, it is six hundred and fifty feet. 2
I. The measurement of distance is taken in straight lines from the map, allowing for curves in the trap line. The whole length is about forty miles of its eastern face.
2. See Geology of New Jersey, by Geo. H. Cook, p. 20.
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History of the Oranges.
The First Mountain bounds on the west the plain lands described in the original "Patent or Charter of ye Township of Newarke," 1713. ( The purchase was made in 1666, but the patent was not executed till later.) It includes South Orange, Orange, Bloomfield, Montclair, to the bounds of Acquackanonck and to the Passaic River.
The surface of the region is of drift worn from the trap and sandstone, and bearing evidence in numerous places of having been brought from the region of primitive rocks. The soil is a sandy loam, light, friable and absorbent, easily cultivated, and well adapted to farming, gardening and fruit-growing purposes.
A casual survey of this mountain district at the present day conveys a very imperfect idea of its prim- itive topography. The upland and the swamps were quite equally distributed. The former was easily sub- dued. The heavy growth of timber upon it was sparsely set, and being void of undergrowth, it was fit for immediate use as pasture land. "Two or three men, in one year, will clear fifty acres, in some places sixty, and in some more. They sow corn the first year, and afterwards maintain themselves. The trees are not many to the acre, except in the hill country, and there is very much meadow."1 The swamps were impassable and impenetrably wooded. The planters first settled upon the ridges and on the mountain side.
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