USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Preakness and the Preakness Reformed Church : a history 1695-1902 : with genealogical notes, the records of the church and tombstone inscriptions > Part 1
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HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Brigham Young University
https://archive.org/details/preaknesspreakne02laba
THE REV. GEORGE W. LABAW.
974,923 LUIZP
PREAKNESS AND THE PREAKNESS REFORMED CHURCH, PASSAIC COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
A HISTORY.
1695-1902.
With Genealogical Notes, the Records of the Church and Tombstone Inscriptions.
BY
GEORGE WARNE LABAW,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
NEW YORK : BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA, 25 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET.
I902.
COPYRIGHT, NOVEMBER, 1902, BY GEORGE WARNE LABAW.
PRESS OF CHAUNCEY HOLT, 27 ROSE STREET, NEW YORK.
AMIE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Early Days
CHAPTER II.
Some Old Preakness Families, and Genealogical Notes
11
CHAPTER III.
Some Later Preakness Families, with Brief Notes.
80
CHAPTER IV.
Early Preaching, Preachers and Churches, in the Neighborhood of
Preakness
107
CHAPTER V.
The Old Church, and the Earliest Preachers in it. 117
CHAPTER VI.
The Union of Preakness with Ponds and Wyckoff, and the Pastorate of Rev. Z. H. Kuypers. 150
CHAPTER VII.
Rev. John Woods, S. S. 157
CHAPTER VIII.
The Pastorate of Rev. John A. Staats. Part I. .159
CHAPTER IX.
The Pastorate of Rev. John A. Staats. Part II.
174
CHAPTER X.
The Pastorate of Rev. C. B. Durand. 190
CHAPTER XI.
The Pastorate of Rev. S. T. Cole.
CHAPTER XII.
The Pastorate of Rev. A. A. Zabriskie 199
CHAPTER XIII.
The Pastorate of Rev. B. V. D. Wyckoff. 205
CHAPTER XIV.
The Pastorate of Rev. J. Russell Verbrycke.
.210
CHAPTER XV.
Rev. T. A. Beekman, Stated Supply . .213
CHAPTER XVI.
The Pastorate of Rev. Geo. W. Labaw. 216
195
1
SOME OF THE AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
The Consistorial Minutes and records of various churches, and, among these especially, the notes of Rev. Garret C. Schanck (about 1850), in Consistorial Minutes of the Pompton Plains Church. The Minutes of the Classes of Bergen before 1838. The Minutes of the Classis of Passaic.
Memorial Discourse at Opening and Dedication of the Reformed Church of Pompton Plains, Nov. 22, 1871. Published 1872. By Rev. J. V. N. Schenk.
Semi-Centennial Discourse of the Pompton Reformed Church. By Rev. J. N. Jansen.
Manual of the Reformed Church in America. Third edition, 1879. By E. T. Corwin, D. D.
The Corwin Genealogy, 1872. E. T. Corwin, D. D.
East Jersey Under the Proprietors. William A. Whitehead.
A History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, 1882. By W. Woodford Clayton, assisted by William Nelson.
Historical Articles in the Paterson Daily Press, Dec. 16, 1871; July 14, 1873; July 16 and 17, 1873.
Historical Paper, by Rev. J. H. Duryea, D. D., in the Paterson Daily Guardian, June 9, 1869.
New Jersey, Past and Present. John W. Barber.
Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey, 1844. John W. Barber and Henry Howe.
Annals of the Classis and Township of Bergen. Third edition, 1857. Rev. B. C. Taylor, D. D.
Historical Discourse, by Rev. Wm. B. Van Benschoten, Wyckoff, N. J. In Bergen County Democrat, March 5 and 12, 1869.
The Pastor and the Church. By Rev. Theo. W. Welles, D. D., 1896.
Historical Sketch. By William Nelson, in Atlas of Passaic County. E. B. Hyde & Co., New York.
History of the Old Dutch Church, at Totowa. William Nelson, 1892.
Early Days and Early Surveys of East New Jersey. By William Roome, 1897.
Genealogy of the Doremus Family in America. William Nelson, 1897. The Indians of New Jersey. William Nelson, 1894.
Rev. J. F. Folsom, Kearny, N. J., Newspaper Articles.
Colonial New York. Philip Schuyler and his Family. By George W. Schuyler, 1885.
The Physical Geography of New Jersey. By Rollin D. Salisbury, 1895.
Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, N. J. By Cornelius Burnham Harvey.
History of the First Reformed Dutch Church of Jamaica, Long Island By Henry Onderdonk, Jr.
New Jersey as a Colony and as a State. Lee.
A History of the Kip Family, 1890. By Rev. P. E. Kip.
PREFACE.
The author gives this work to the public for what it is worth. It could not but be incomplete, for all written history is incomplete. There are inaccuracies and imperfections in it, of course, but we have done as well as we could. Leading a busy life, in this busy and exacting age, we have been greatly hampered amid all our varied pulpit, pastoral and other duties, both in gathering our data as well as in afterwards arranging them.
The idea of the book herewith presented originated in connection with our preparation for the Historical address, delivered Oct. 29, 1901, on the occasion of the celebration of the Preakness Reformed Church Centennial Anniversary, and which address was published in full in the Paterson Call, November 2, following. Occasions like these in these days are com- mon, and we believe they cannot be made too much of, notwithstanding the extra work and expense they entail; for they bring up the past, estab- lish the present, and in a way, open the future. It would be well, likewise, if, as a rule along with these celebrations, some more permanent record were made of facts, frequently most important, then brought to the public attention, but which otherwise inevitably soon pass beyond the ordinary human recollection.
More time, labor and patience have been required in the compilation of this volume than at the beginning we supposed would be necessary; but it is at last, with great relief to us, in the shape you have it. Anyhow, it is something which will give much light on the early and later conditions prevailing in this locality and neighborhood. Few churches or congrega- tions have any memorial of the kind, works surely which, when furnished, should be somewhat appreciated, as we trust this will be more or less.
We have in a cursory way gone over as we were able all the early his- tory, both secular and religious, of Preakness and vicinity, and gradually Jed up to the building of the church here, and the organization of the con- gregation. Then we traced the progress and growth of the community, and of the ecclesiastical body as well, bringing in the Lord's laborers in the ministry with the manifold conditions by which, from time to time, they were surrounded; while later we have taken up the several pastorates, and brought the history down to date.
The ' Genealogical Notes," which are a prominent feature of the book, were mainly an after-thought. These are not genealogies, but simply "notes" as they profess to be. One name or family traced at first only a little way led to another and another, and, as we became interested, the "Notes" were expanded, and in some cases carried farther back. The older families, but not all of them, have received more notice than the later ones ; and those we took up later are in some instances more fully treated than those we gave attention to at first. We have not taken up any family a second time to any extent, considering when our first work was done that that should suffice. Necessarily there has had to be a great deal of cur- tailment, and a leaving out of many names altogether, particularly of
iv
PREFACE.
later generations. Nevertheless, much information concerning nearly all these can be supplemented from the Church Records given in the appendix.
However, we could ourselves have done comparatively little with our genealogical work, nor would we have done it, had we not had the very efficient help of Mr. John Neafie, of New York, who is a born gene- alogist. We have been days with Mr. Neafie, besides being in correspond- ence with him for years. The Hon. William Nelson, of Paterson, also both personally and through his printed works, has greatly helped us, not only in the genealogical, but in other departments of our production. Like- wise the Rev. E. T. Corwin, D. D., of New Brunswick, especially through "The Corwin Genealogy," and his "Manual of the Reformed Church" (third edition; the fourth was not out until our work was about finished) ; the Rev. T. W. Welles, D. D., of Paterson, principally through "The Pastor and the Church;" the Rev. J. F. Folsom, of Kearny, N. J., through news- paper articles; Mr. William Roome, of Butler, in different ways, as well as in his "Early Days and Early Surveys;" Mr. Samuel R. Demarest, of Hackensack; and many others have been of great service to us. And, yet, with all our help and pains, we could get little, if any, information in some directions. Naturally, we have culled from various original sources ; most of these, together with the printed authorities referred to, having been indicated in the progress of our writing.
In the body of the history we have been as particular in the giving of facts as we thought proper-perhaps in places a little too much so, while in other places it may be we have not been particular enough. But as we have said, we have done as well as we could, or as our judgment prompted.
In the Appendix of this work will be found much information that is better in printed form than if left confined solely between the covers of old dusty and more or less worn church books, or on marble slabs and other monuments, which are liable to suffer, not only from the ravages of time, but from all sorts of accidents. Because of these conditions, al- ready in our researches and endeavors, we have been much hindered and baffled, and how much more will this be the case with others in the future, unless such information is put in more permanent form ?
The cut of the church, the same as we had on the Centennial programme, was made from a picture taken by Rev. J. F. Folsom, of Kearny, and the cuts of the Dey and Van Saen houses, the parsonage and the interior of the church, from pictures taken by S. R. Merrill Bensen, son of C. D. Bensen, of Preakness. GEO. W. LABAW.
November, 1902.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY DAYS.
Preakness, first and last variously spelled, is an Indian name. According to a tradition in the Berdan family, (James D. Berdan being our authority), the original Indian spelling was Pra-qua-less, and meant "quail woods." The forests of this section, as a fact, it is said, were full of quail and partridge in early times. Mr. William Nelson, of Paterson, however, claims that the original spelling of Preakness was Per-ukunces, and meant "a young buck," a name applied to Second Mountain and the valley west of it, and that, in accordance with this designation, the Dutch, early in the eighteenth century, called Second Mountain, near Little Falls, the Harteberg, or Deer Mountain.
Probably both these spellings are or were correct, referring to different periods. By a slow and gradual process of transforma- tion, in the years that have gone, we have the present spelling, Preakness. General Washington, in his letters while at the Dey house known then as "Bloomsbury," or "Bloomsburg," * in Lower Preakness, spelled the name Preckiness. A few other spellings have been : Praquaness, Preaquaness, Perckenos, Perekenes, Perike- nes, Perikeness, Prikenis, Parikenis, Parikenes, Parekenis, Parake- nis, Pracaness, Precaness, Priekenis, Prekniss, Preackness, Prake- ness, Preckeniss.
The district of country designated by these spellings was origin- ally obtained by letters patent from the Crown of Great Britain. After the surrender of New Netherlands by the Dutch, to the British Crown, in 1664, James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, on March 2nd, of that same year, secured from his brother, King Charles II, of England, a charter, which, with other parts, included all the territory between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. James, a little over two months later, June 24, by indenture of lease and re-lease, granted, bargained, and sold unto John, Lord Berkley, and Sir George Cartaret, all of what has since been known as the State of New Jersey; and this, as had been the case with James, carried with it powers of government, as well as possession of the territory. Berkley, after a while becoming dissatisfied with
* See under "Tomlinson Collection .? "
2
HISTORY OF PREAKNESS
the pecuniary prospects of his venture, March 18, 1673, sold his interest in the country to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byl- linge, which interest was designated as the Western half of the Province, Cartaret retaining the Eastern half. On July 30, of that year, the Dutch, through war, having regained the Jerseys, the country was restored to England again by treaty the following year, February 9, 1674. But, as this temporary change of rulers now gave rise to doubts in regard to the validity of the title of the Duke of York, the Duke, June 29, 1674, obtained of the King, his brother, a second charter, confirming the former grant. James, immediately after he received his renewed title, July 29, 1674, executed a grant to Sir George Cartaret individually for East Jersey alone, he being owner of that territory before the late war with Holland. Later, however, it having been discovered that this individual grant to Cartaret gave him more than belonged to him, or more than his share of the territory, he soon relinquished his title to the Duke, that there might be a more equitable division between him and the assigns of Lord Berkley. Then, on the first day of July, 1676, a new deed to Cartaret, "for a more equitable division," was executed, permanently, for those days at least, divid- ing the Jerseys into East Jersey and West Jersey. Sir George Cartaret, after this sole Proprietor of East Jersey, who died January 13, 1680, in his eightieth year, by will, dated December 5, 1678. ordered the Province to be sold to pay his debts ; which was done in 1681-2, to the celebrated Twelve Proprietors, all Quakers, one of whom was Thomas Hart; the consideration of the sale being less than $17,000 (£3,400). These Twelve, later on, each at different times, took a partner, when the Proprietors numbered Twenty-four. Some difficulty still arising about rights and titles, under date of March 14, 1682, the Duke of York gaye these latter a fresh grant of the Province, in confirmation of their claims. Subsequently, in order to be left in undisturbed possession of their title in the soil, the Proprietors surrendered to the Crown their right of government, which arrangement was perfected and accepted by Queen Ann, April 17, 1702, she having succeeded William, who, after the revo- lution under James, occupied the English throne.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, most of the inhabitants of this region of country were Indians, and particu- larly of the powerful tribe of the Minisi, who occupied nearly all of Northern Jersey, their chief settlement being on the flats along the Delaware above the Water Gap, from which their name had its
3
AND PREAKNESS REFORMED CHURCH.
rise. It is indeed believed, and was in Indian times believed, that these flats, in very early days, before the river broke through the mountain, had been a deep lake, and this circumstance led to the name Meenesink, or Minisink, which means "the water is gone." (Barber). Until 1655, the attitude of these Indians toward the whites had been uncertain; but a short and bloody war occurring about then, the supremacy of the whites was established, and a different order of things prevailed. (Nelson). Yet there were no permanent settlements of whites in what is now Passaic County, until the close of that century. Acquackanonk was first settled in 1678 and thereafter, by the Dutch; and then came the settlement at or in the vicinity of Pompton. This latter settlement was made by Major Anthony Brockholst and Captain Arent Schuyler and their associates, Samuel Byard, George Ryerson, John Mead, Samuel Berrie, and David and Hendrick Mandeville,-mostly, though not all of them, Hollanders, or of Holland descent. Schuy- ler, Ryerson, and Mead were pure Dutch. The first Mandeville and Byard, or Bayard, also came from Holland, but were originally French Huguenot, emigrating from France to Holland, at the time of the St. Bartholemew's massacre. The Berrys were probably of English extraction. Brockholst came from Lancashire, England, and was a Roman Catholic. (Neafie).
The persons here specified agreed among themselves to pur- chase of the Twenty-four Proprietors of East Jersey 5,500 acres, east of the Pompton or Pequannock River, and which comprised what is at present the greater part of Wayne Township, named after General Anthony Wayne, "Mad Anthony," as he was some- times called because of his recklessness in riding and in battle, and who was very active in these parts during the Revolutionary War. In order, however, to perfect their title to this land, afterwards known as the Pompton, Upper Pacquanac, and Lower Pacquanac Patents, when it should be vested in them, since the Indians, already referred to, also laid claim to the territory desired, Captain * Arent Schuyler, acting for his associates, June 16, 1695, for mer- chandise, wampum, etc., to the value of £250, first purchased of them their right in the tract ; and, as they would not sell that alone, more with it, on the other side of the Pompton, which extra terri- tory, included a large portion of Pequannock Township, in Morris
* "Not Aaron, as some have translated it in English, but Arnold." Colonial New York. Philip Schuyler and his Family.
4
HISTORY OF PREAKNESS
County,-in other words, much of the lowlands in the upper part. of Pompton Plains.
The text of the Indian deed, with explanations, as given by Rev. G. C. Schanck, in the Schanck Manuscript, to be found in the rooms of the New Jersey Historical Society, at Newark, is as follows :
"Beginning at the mouth of a small creek, in the Indian language called Sinkaak, which said small creek is a branch that falls into Pequannoc Creek, ('meaning no doubt at that time th- Passaic River, as the Singac Brook, still retaining its name, falls into the Passaic River, at a short distance below the mouth of the Pequannock, or Pompton, as now called'), and lies opposite the great hill, called by the Indians Meelonagkas, extending from said mouth of Sinkaak Creek northward along the said small creek as far until it meets the Indian path that goes towards Pompton, called the Minisink Path,* and so along said Path toward Pompton Creek, ('evidently what is now called the Pompton River') and then running again northward, along the east side of said creek, taking in a stroke of land on said east side, till it meets with the falls," (at the Steel Works), "in the Indian language called Awar- igh, and from said falls westward, comprehending all the low land, then to the hill, calledby the Indians, Hackaeckonck, and then south- ward along the foot of the hills to the great hill called by the Indians, Simpeck, ('probably the highest mountain on the western border of the Plains, now called Mine Mountain'), and from said hill Simpeck, castward to Pequannock Creek, and then all along down said creek, till it comes to the first station, called the mouth of the Sinkaak Creek before mentioned, as may more fully appear by a map or card made by the description of the said natives annexed to the said deed." Here follow quite a number of Indian signatures.
This tract included, as we have said, the Pompton. the Upper Pacquanac, and the Lower Pacquanac Patents, east of the Pompton, (or Pequannock River, as it has been called), in Wayne Township, except 240 acres belonging to the Lower Pacquanac Patent lying east of the Singac below the Two Bridges,-in other words, all the territory east of the river south of Pompton, and north of the
* "This path was probably where the Newark and Pompton Turnpike now is; and also ran from Totowa to Singac about where the present road runs."-Nelson. That is, via Laurel Grove, south along the base of Second Mountain, to Bunn's Corner, and thence to Mountain View and Wayne to the Pompton River.
5
AND PREAKNESS REFORMED CHURCH.
Passaic, (in one place spelled *Pasawack), to a line along the hills east, or that range in the middle of Wayne Township designated as the Third Range, which divides Pacquanac from Preakness, and taking in all the land along the river around the southern end of said range, (or rather spur), which belongs to the Watchung Sys- tem, to the mouth of the Singac, together with a considerable portion of Pequannock Township, in Morris County, or the low- lands in the upper part of Pompton Plains, where, under this same Indian deed, the same parties, by another transaction, somewhat later, purchased 1,500 acres more of the Proprietors.
Wachung is derived from the Indian Wachtschu, or Wadchu, meaning "hill" or "mountain." In the Minisink dialect wachunk signifies "high." (Nelson). Wesel or Garret Mountain is the First Mountain in this system. Second Mountain is that west of it, between Preakness and Paterson,-the range to which High Mountain belongs. (Geological Survey of New Jersey. Vol. iv, 1895, p. 35.)
The 240-acre tract, already referred to, on the east side of the Sinkaak, as part of the Lower Pacquanac Patent, was not covered by the Indian deed here given. It may be, however, that an earlier, or a later, deed covered it. (William Roome.)
The Patent from the Proprietors for 5,500 acres to Brockholst, Schuyler, and their associates, was dated November 11, 1695, about five months after the purchase from the Indians. This Patent, as we have observed, was soon divided into three others, viz: the Pompton, the Upper Pacquanack, and Lower Pacquanack Patents, and the country at once began to settle up rapidly ; while Preakness was naturally benefited, and began to open up, or to be settled more or less at the same time, (or rather it may be about twenty years later, as we can find no earlier records), likewise by Hol- landers, or the Dutch, some of whom were of Huguenot origin.
Captain Arent Schuyler and Major Anthony Brockholst them- selves came, in 1697, or thereabouts, to live in the Township, the first upon property now (1900) occupied by William Colfax, son of the old doctor of the same name, and the second on the site of the residence occupied at present by the widow of the late Major W. W. Colfax. The old well on this property is the original one
* Heckwelder, according to Nelson, says the Indian Pasawack means "Valley." But Nelson himself claims that it means "where it divides," referring most likely to the separation from the Hackensack; although it may refer to the split or chasm in the rocks at the Falls-the Great Pas- saic Falls, in Paterson.
6
HISTORY OF PREAKNESS
dug by Brockholst, and must therefore have been in constant use about 200 years. Brockholst, already for many years before coming to Pompton, had been a prominent officer of the Province of New York, being indeed Acting Governor from 1681 to 1683, and Mayor of New York City in 1687. Captain Schuyler was scarcely, if any, less prominent, being the fourth son of Philip Schuyler and Mar- garita Van Slichtenhorst, and was born in Beverwyck, (Albany), June 25, 1662. He was prepared in the schools of Albany for a business life. November 26, 1684, he married Jenneke Teller, and began housekeeping in his native city. He obtained his commission of Captain from the English in 1691-2, for courage and bravery in the Indian wars of the French and English in Canada. Captain Schuyler was always very successful in his intercourse and negotia- tions with the Indians, whether in peace or war. In February, 1694, he removed to New York. The way he happened to get into New Jersey was on account of his success in dealing with Indians. The Governors of New York and of New Jersey selected him to go on a special mission to the Minisinks ; and while on this mission, he passed through, and was no doubt attracted by the advantages of, the country around Pompton, which caused him again to change his residence. Captain Schuyler's first wife died in 1700; and in 1703, he married Swantie Dyckhuyse. He lived in Pompton until 1710, when he went to New Barbadoes Neck, on the east side of the Passaic River, a little above Newark. On his property there, a copper mine, which made him very wealthy for those days, was discovered by one of his negro slaves. After the death of his second wife, Captain Schuyler married again, taking for his third wife Maria Walter, probably in 1724. He himself died in Novem- ber, 1730, leaving a large estate to the various members of his family. During Captain Schuyler's lifetime he gave £450, as a fund for the pastor's salary, to the Reformed Church of Belleville, of which he was an officer. After his death, the members of his family added £400 more to the fund. Captain Arent Schuyler was not the ancestor of all the New Jersey Schuylers, as has been claimed. (Colonial New York. By George W. Schuyler, 1885.) This man left eight children. Mrs. William S. Williams, (Eliza- beth Schuyler Williams), late of Pompton Lakes, who died October 13, 1900, in her seventy-eighth year, was his great, great grand- daughter.
The Brockholst name is now extinct. Brockholst Mill stood somewhere at the foot of the present Steel Works dam.
7
AND PREAKNESS REFORMED CHURCH.
Through the Schuylers, the Colfax family became connected with the early history of Wayne Township. The Colfaxes were originally from Connecticut, and were first represented in the county by General William Colfax, Commander of the Washington Life Guards, during the American Revolution. While at the house of Casparus Schuyler, a descendant.of Captain Arent Schuyler, in company with the General-in-Chief and his staff, General William Colfax met the only daughter of his host, Hester, whom he married in 1783, after which he made the county (Bergen County then) his residence. His sons were Schuyler, father of Schuyler Colfax, the Vice-President of the United States, Dr. William, and George W. The last two were residents of the Township. "Major William W. Colfax, son of George W., was for many years a prominent and useful citizen of Wayne Township, his death, which occurred in 1878, being the occasion of sincere mourning, not more as a conse- quence of his acknowledged ability, than because of his integrity, high sense of honor, and kindly nature." (Nelson, in Hist. Bergen and Passaic Counties.) In 1700, there were only five or six families of whites in Pompton, we do not know how many, if any, in Preakness, and about ten at the Ponds; while Totowa was not settled until about 1720, when the Van Houtens came there. "The first settler within the limits of the present (1896) city of Paterson, was probably Simeon Van Winkle, a son of the Acquackanonk patentee, who located on the river bank at the foot of Willis Street, at least as early as 1719." (Pastor and Church, By Welles, p. 60.) Besides the two families of Brockholst and Schuyler, at Pompton, just before the eighteenth century opened, were those of George Ryerson, Samuel Berrie, John Mead, and Hendrick Mande- ville. At least, if these were not settled there then, they came a year or two after, and have all left descendants in the neighborhood.
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