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F 144 NoB8
History of Nutley
1800
Class
F144
Book
NY BE
Copyright N.ยบ.
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
HISTORY OF NUTLEY
OLD NUTLEY MANOR
THE HISTORY OF NUTLEY ESSEX COUNTY NEW JERSEY
COMPILED BY ELIZABETH STOW BROWN 11 MEMBER OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY THE WOMAN'S PUBLIC SCHOOL AUXILIARY
1907
F144 .. NGB8
LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Two Copies Received MAY 7 1907 Copyright Entry In ar. 9.19 0%. CLASS A XXC., No. 170668. COPY B.
Copyright, 1907 by The Board of Education of Nutley, New Jersey
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DEDICATED TO THE PEOPLE OF THE TOWN OF NUTLEY
"Industrious Persons, by an exact and scrupulous Diligence and Observations, out of Monuments, Names, Words, Proverbs, Traditions, Private Rec- ords and Evidences, Fragments of Stories, Passages of Books that concern not Story, and the like, do save and recover Somewhat from the Deluge of Time."- Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk. II.
INTRODUCTION
In January, 1906, a number of the members of the Woman's Public School Auxiliary and of the teachers of Nutley met to organize a Literary Section of the Auxiliary for the purpose of studying History. It was resolved to begin with the history of our own town.
The following program was accordingly drawn up and carried out by the writing of papers, several of which required original research :
I. The Settlement of Essex County. By Mrs. A. B. Meredith.
2. Franklin, the History of its Corporate Existence. By Mrs. R. W. Booth.
3. The Story of the Passaic River. By Miss K. A. Lambert.
4. Old Landmarks and Traditions of Nutley ( Franklin).
By Mrs. R. J. M. Chase and Miss C. E. Wallin.
5. Old Documents and Records bearing upon the History of Nutley (Franklin).
By Mrs. J. S. Brown.
6. Famous People who have lived in Nutley (Franklin).
By Mrs. H. W. Goodrich.
At the end of the season it was resolved to compile a History of Nutley on the basis of these papers and to offer it to the main society for publication. The
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Woman's Public School Auxiliary voted to assume the publication, deeming the work one peculiarly fitted to their aims.
The books for reference have been largely those ob- tained from the State Traveling Library which has been connected with The Park School Library.
To Mr. William Nelson, Corresponding Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society, and the first authority on historical matters of this neighborhood, we are indebted for verification in antiquarian re- search. The quotation from Bacon is also a contribu- tion from Mr. Nelson.
Acknowledgment for his courteous interest is due to Mr. John Cotton Dana of the Newark Public Library, whose success in popularizing Newark history has been a direct incentive to us.
To the Town Clerk, Mr. Frank Rusby, the Town Surveyor, Mr. Frank T. Shepard, and to Mr. George W. Symonds, we are greatly indebted for data in- volving consultation of records. Mr. Symonds has also helped us very generously by contributing the Nutley map, brought up to date.
Mr. James R. Hay kindly loaned the photograph of Old Nutley Manor from which the frontispiece is made.
For assistance in preparing the tablet on the old Vreeland or Van Zandt house, thanks are extended to Miss Schultz and Mr. Johnson Foy. The illustration is made from an impression taken by Mr. Frederic Dorr Steele, who generously placed his professional skill at our service.
For traditions and old documents we would express
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our thanks to Mr. Warren Vreeland, Mr. Silas Chap- pel, Miss A. L. Van Winkle, Mrs. J. R. Hay, Mrs. W. R. Nairn, Mr. Simon Tuers, Mrs. Barbara A. Hough, Mrs. Mary M. Booth, Mrs. Jared Speer, Mr. J. Fisher Satterthwaite, Mr. John Speer, Mr. and Mrs. Abram Stager; to Mr. C. F. Underhill of Newark; and to Mrs. Mary E. Tucker, Judge Theodore Sandford, and Mrs. S. W. Sargent of Belleville.
Mr. E. F. Bassford has kindly furnished the history of the newspapers of Nutley.
Mr. J. R. Hay, Mr. R. W. Booth, and Mr. A. B. Mer- edith, Superintendent of Schools, have very courte- ously assisted the compiler in the final revision of the manuscript.
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PREFACE
As I have worked upon the historical material of Nutley, some suggestions have occurred to me which I should like to send forth with this little book.
The first suggestion is that a public place be ap- pointed for the preservation of all historical material pertaining to the town. This should be not only for old documents of all sorts, but for the matter of the present day, for history in the making. The Public School Library might possibly have an Antiquarian Department and a Nutley Alcove. The Alcove should have not only shelves for Nutley authors, but files for all kinds of Nutleyana.
Another suggestion is, that our small connection with the Revolution and with the Civil War be no longer ignored. Neither monument nor tablet stands within the town limits. A simple tablet on the River Road might record the passing of Washington's army along that old highway; while the entrance hall of one of Nutley's public buildings might at least show the list of the Franklin men who were enrolled in the Union armies. Even though more than half the veter- ans are dead, it is not too late to give their names a place of honor in the town.
My thanks are extended to the group of "paper- writers" whose confidence and cordial co-operation have made possible this small public work, and to the society whose enthusiasm has undertaken its publi- cation. With such faithful friends and fellow-workers, the dream of a year ago became easily the reality of to-day.
E. S. B.
Nutley, March 1, 1907.
II
CONTENTS
Introduction
Preface
History of Nutley
Civil Organization Societies, Associations and Clubs Public Utilities Statistics
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Old Nutley Manor Vreeland Tablet Map of Nutley
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THE TOWN OF NUTLEY ESSEX COUNTY
NEW JERSEY
Natural Features .- Three gentle ridges called some- times the "Foot Hills of the Orange Mountains" lie nearly parallel to the west bank of the Passaic River. Scattered forest trees of great height suggest the dense woods that less than half a century ago covered these hills. The outlook to the western horizon gives the wooded outline of Wachung Mountain at Mont- clair, while to the east are seen the hills beyond the Passaic with the trees, the farm divisions and the scattered dwellings of Union Township.
Through the valleys run a number of little brooks, in some places rapid, in others slower and broadening to ponds. The main stream within the town limits re- ceives four tributaries, of which only two are known by name,1 and finally empties itself into the wide and tranquil waters of the Passaic. This picturesque rivulet shadowed by overhanging willows and bor- dered by luxuriant green was called by the Indians
1 Basking Brook, corrupted to Bearskin, and Snicker's Brook, the outlet of Nichol's Pond.
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Yountacah1 (also spelled Yountakah and Yantacaw) and by the English settlers, when they came, Third River or the third branch of the Passaic from its mouth.2
Geology .- This part of Northern New Jersey be- longs to the Triassic or Red Sand Stone Age. The two systems of hills of Essex County known as First and Second Mountains are of trap-rock formation.3
Changes in Town Ownership and Name .- The area which we now call Nutley was the northeastern por- tion of the original Newark. In 1812 the northern part of the Newark tract was set apart and named Bloomfield, in honor of the famous general of that name.4 In 1839, this area was divided and a new town- ship was formed from the eastern part and called Belle- ville from its principal village at Second River. The third "secession" was the separation from Belleville in 1874 of the present Nutley area, which was named Franklin from its leading village and post office. Nut- ley was the name adopted with the new charter of 1902.
Boundaries .- The boundaries of Nutley are on the north the township of Acquackanonck and the Passaic County line, on the east the Passaic River, on the
1 Meaning Ceremonial Dance. Near the mouth of the river in Pas- saic County was the Indian meeting place for all the tribes around, the point where many trails centered.
2 Second River was at Belleville. First River was Mill Brook in Newark.
3 Shaw's Hist. of Esser and Hudson Counties, Vol. I.
4 General Bloomfield was major in the Revolution, brigadier-gen- eral in the War of 1812, governor and chancellor of New Jersey.
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south the Belleville line,1 and on the west Bloomfield and the Morris and Essex Canal.2
The Old North Boundary Line .- From the mouth of Third River3 was surveyed the north line of the tract sold to the "Newark Men" by the Indians in 1667. Governor Philip Carteret then ruled East Jersey for the Lords Proprietors, and Charles the Second sat upon the throne of England.4
This line is described in the "Indian Bill of Sale" as follows : "The bounds northerly, viz .: Pesayack River reaches to the Third River above the town, ye River is called Yountacah, and from thence upon a northwest line to the aforesaid mountaine." This was First or Wachung Mountain at Montclair. When the Newark Patent or Town Charter was issued in 1713, this line is again described under "Boundaries of ye township of Newark," but from the other end, from "a heap of stones. Erected to Ascertain ye Boundaries between s'd Town of Newark and the Town of Ac- quackanong, Thence on a South East Course to ye brook or Rivollet Called ye Third River, Where it falls into Pasayack River. When Newark's original tract, which covered nearly the whole of Es- sex County, was divided and subdivided, Newark, Bloomfield and Belleville successively lost this old
1 The "Big Tree" on Washington Avenue is 150 feet south of the Nutley line.
2 Opened in 1832.
3 At the mouth of Third River is a swamp and also a considerable sand bar.
4 Charles gave Jersey to his brother James, Duke of York, after- wards James II, who assigned it to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley as Lords Proprietors. Philip Carteret was sent over as Gov- ernor of East Jersey in 1664. See Lee's Hist. of N. J. as a Colony and as a State.
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north line or portions of it. Nutley, however, holds the eastern portion of it as her entire northern bound- ary to-day. This is also a part of the present north- ern line of Essex County, established in 1837.
The Acquackanonck1 Grant .- North of the Newark tract the Dutch came. They made their purchase from the Indians in 1679 and received their grant from the Lords Proprietors in 1684-5. The southern boundary of the Acquackanonck Grant is described as the "northernmost bound of the town of Newark." Ac- quackanonck claimed as far down as Third River, while Newark claimed north of Third River to the line of the Indian Bill of Sale.
This disputed territory included about one-half of the present Nutley area, the northwestern part. It was claimed by both settlements until about 1795, and then Newark prevailed. Documents2 are in existence which refer to a survey and map of the boundary region in 1792 and to suits "against the Possessors of disputed Lands lying on the north side of the Line between New Ark and Acquackanonck." Says Mr. Nelson,3 "The dispute as to the Boundary Line between Acquack- anonck and Newark had been a standing grievance be- tween the people concerned for fully three-quarters of a century before this time (1792-95)."
1 An Indian name meaning sluice dam, Dutch schlotter dam .- Nel- son.
2 See Newark Toun Records, pp. 78, 94, 128 ; Van Houten Manu- scripts, Wm. Nelson, Ed., pp. 63, 64; N. J. Colonial Documents, N. J. Archives, Vol. XIII, pp. 315, 316, 324, 325.
3 See Introduction to Van Houten Manuscripts.
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Third River on old Maps.1-The identification of this locality, the Nutley area, on old maps of the state and colony is made plain by identifying the lower course and mouth of Third River, and the old north line of the Indian Bill of Sale and the Newark Patent.
Slow Growth of the Newark Colony .- The govern- ment of the Lords Proprietors lasted only 38 years, and in 1702 East and West Jersey were united into a Royal Province under Queen Anne. There were now but 600 inhabitants in the extensive tract called New- ark, and only 16,000 in both the Jerseys. Up to this time the greater part of the area which we now call Nutley was probably forest and so remained for many years more. Some of it was possibly even un- settled, for up to 1770 only one fifth part of East Jer- sey lands was "located".2
First Land Holdings .- The names of the men who first "took up" land in this area are few of them to be found in town or county records, though with a list of probable names diligent search has been made in all possible places of public registration or mention.
English Settlers .- There are a few records of small holdings on Third River in the Newark "schedules".3 These are Plum (1679 and 1696), Rogers (1696), Har- rison (1694), Ogden (1679), and Dodd (Dode) (1679 and 1697).
1 See Examination of old Maps of Northern New Jersey with Ref- erence to the Identification of the Nutley Area and Washington's Route across it, and to the Boundary Dispute between Newark and Acquack- anonck. By Elizabeth S. Brown .- Proceedings of the N. J. Historical Society, Jan., 1907.
2 Wayne Parker's Tares and Money before the Revolution.
3 Schedules of warrants of lands in Newark and Surveys of lands and to whom conveyed .- Bill in Chancery. (1747.)
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Dutch Settlers .- It was the Dutch who character- ized this area by their settlement upon it. The evidence rests not so much upon registration of deeds and grants, as upon the Dutch names, the Dutch stone houses, and the church records of the Dutch settle- ments upon our borders, Second River, Stone House Plains (Brookdale), and Acquackanonck (Passaic), where our familiar names appear.1
Landholders before the Revolution .- There is tra- dition that before the Revolution the river front had been divided among at least five proprietors, a Van Riper, Vreeland, Speer, Joralemon and King. Other names connected with farm or woodland holdings were Van Giesen (or Van Geesen, Van Giezen or Vangiesen), Riker (or Ryker), Pake, Van Winkle, Devosny, Cadmus, and Powelsson. Eleven Dutch names can be collected and nine English that probably represent the original hold- ers of title to lands in this little area. This may not be far from the whole number, for farms were large in those days and the Nutley area is less than four square miles. Besides those holdings of Newark men, who took land on Third River, presumably in this neighbor- hood, the Vreeland Estate on the Passaic River is the only one in the "Schedules of lands in Newark and Surveys of lands and to whom conveyed."2 The public registry agrees with the date given by a direct descendent.3 Old Nutley Manor stands upon the land
1 See Lloyd's Contribution to the Early History of the Reformed Church at Second River.
2 Bill in Chancery. See also Vreeland Genealogy, Winfield's Hist. of Hudson County.
3 Mr. Warren Vreeland.
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taken for home and farm by Jacob Vreeland in 1702, just as this region had passed from a Proprietary to a Royal Province. Such is the traditional date. A little stone house was built, trees were cut down, and a farm laid out, but Vreeland, until 1719, did not "take title" to his estate of 182% acres "to the Eastward of the Third River in Right of Johnston and Alexander."1
All the Vreelands of this region were descended from Michael Jansen who came from Braeckhuysen, North Brabant, in 1636, settled near Albany and assumed the name of Vreeland from Vreelandt the town in Hol- land. One branch of the family worked southward and eventually reached Acquackanonck and Newark. A grandson of Jacob was John M. Vreeland who in- creased his inheritance by purchase in 1783 of a part of the confiscated land of the Tory Van Giesen. The Van Giesen farm which was bought by Captain Speer was in the center of the town where the Town Hall. and The Park School now stand. The Vreeland pur- chase from Captain Speer was on the north side of Chestnut Street and included the homestead. The deed is in the hands of a descendant who received this land from his father and still lives upon it.2
Old Stone Houses .- A quaint and pretty feature of Nutley and its country roads is the old Dutch home- stead of red or brown sandstone, plain and low and small. The usual plan is a central hall with a room on either side and a loft above. Some of these little stone houses are two hundred years old, others a hun- dred or more. Some have additions of a later period,
'1 Newark Schedules, etc.
2 Mr. Warren Vreeland.
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but a number of them stand just as their owners built them from the sandstone which their thrifty Dutch eyes had so soon discovered.1 Some have a tablet set in the walls bearing date and initials. There may be stepping-stones leading to the door, cracked or broken or deeply pressed into the earth. Sometimes the old well is still in use and the tiny stone smoke-house stands at a little distance. Here and there one finds by a little cottage, half-dead fruit trees and overgrown shrubbery, or ancient and distorted box with the re- mains of a long neglected flower garden.
Three of the smaller stone houses of the town are of a special antiquarian interest. The Van Zandt or Vreeland House by the Passaic, also known of late years as Bend View, was of the small plain type. The tradition of a lineal descendant is that it was built by Jacob Vreeland in 1702, and that hither he brought his bride in 1703. Unfortunately a modern wooden structure has been built around the old stone dwelling entirely concealing it from the River Road by which it stands. Until about 50 years ago, the River Road ran on the east side of the house. The tablet at the back of the house is set into the masonry on a level with the top of the door and to the right. It was discovered under the shadow of the piazza, encrusted with many layers of whitewash, even partially covered with a moulding at the angle of the piazza and side wall. Re- peated washings and the removal of the moulding were necessary to disclose the inscription with its ornamen- tal border and decorations.
1 See Allbee's Historic Houses in Bergen County. Papers and Pro- ceedings of Bergen Co. Hist. Soc., 1905-1906.
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June y. 5170 2
VREELAND TABLET
A "rubbing" was taken from which an illustration was made by the "direct process." It has always been assumed in the town that this tablet read 1702.1 It has therefore been a surprise to find the date 1792. The initials belong to no one who ever owned the house or lived there so far as is known. It seems not improb- able that the present nine may have been an alteration from a zero, as such mischievous changes are not un- known on tombstones.
Judge Sandford of Belleville remembers a smaller stone house that stood opposite Bend View, nearer the river, when the River Road ran to the east of its pre- sent line.
The Van Riper House, also on the Passaic, is a ram- bling old homestead of different periods of construction It has long been known as Four Maples, from the great trees on its front slope. The original part, which has been torn down, was at the north end, and is believed to have been built before the end of the 17th century by one Bradbury, an Englishman. The house is con- structed of dressed stone and is in an excellent state of preservation. The Van Riper House2 also has a tablet in the rear upon which is inscribed
I. L. V R Pr May Ith 1788
The name of Van Riper3 (also spelled Van Reiper. Van Reyper, Van Ryper, Van Ripen, Van Reypen and
1 Mr. Warren Vreeland also tells of a sign which was on the Van Zandt House when it was a hotel, and which bore the date 1702.
2 Now occupied by Mr. Alexander II. Schultz.
3 See News' Hist. of Passaic.
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Van Reipen) is derived from the town of Ripen, in Jutland, Denmark, from which came the ancestor of the family of this vicinity, Juriaen Tomassen. With thirteen others he received the Acquackanonck Patent of 1684. His grandson was Abraham, born in 1716, who married Elizabeth Bradbury, of the stone house by the Passaic. John Abraham, their son, was born in 1753, and married Leah Winne in 1776, and came to live in the old stone house. Their initials are those of the tablet which is said to belong to the largest addition to the original Bradbury house. Some years ago a sil- ver spoon was found in the garden marked "Letche Van Riper."1
The Vreeland Homestead on Chestnut Street, op- posite the Town Hall, was built according to tradition in 1702 or 1704 by the same mason who built Bend View. The house bears no tablet. This was erected for the Van Giesen home and was lost with its sur- rounding fields when the property was confiscated at the close of the Revolution. After John M. Vreeland bought the land from Captain Speer, he made this house his home for the rest of his life. The situation of this old stone house by the wayside makes it a familiar object to every school child in the town. An old cherry tree stands before the door and stepping- stones lead to the worn stone threshold. The well with its weather-beaten, though modern, well-sweep,2 was dug when the house was built. As a reminder of the solidity and simplicity of the old days as well as of
1 Letche was Dutch for Leah.
2 Set up in 1901.
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the sacrifices of a New Jersey "loyalist," it is one of Nutley's most interesting colonial monuments.
The ruins of a little stone house stand on the edge of the slope on the east side of Washington Avenue, near the County Line. As one passes along, the end walls covered with ivy are outlined against the sky and the window holes and doorways frame bits of the distant landscape. The softened beauty of the little ruin suggests some romantic history, but the truth seems to be that it was only a barn belonging to the Van Riper estate.
The other small stone houses in the town limits are : the Captain Speer house on Bloomfield Avenue, owned by Mr. Simon Tuers; the John Stager house on Bloomfield Avenue; the Richard Stager house on Franklin Avenue and the Rutan house on Harrison Street, both owned by Mrs. B. A. Hough; the Van Winkle house on Franklin Avenue, owned by Mrs. Marsh; the Kingsland house on Harrison Street, owned by Mr. Abram S. Stager; the Pow house on the corner of Harrison Street and Passaic Avenue; the Sanderson house on Passaic Avenue, owned by the Methodist Church; the old Speer house on Avondale Road near the railroad.
Three stone mansions of a nobler fashion and a later date are found in Nutley. One of these, the Kings- land House, stands by a pond formed by the damming of the Yantacaw. It was built in 1796 by Joseph Kingsland, descendant of a younger son of Isaac Kingsland. He was a nephew of Major Nathaniel Kingsland, to whom was made the Kingsland Grant
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across the Passaic in 1668.1 Major Kingsland had estates in Barbadoes whence his West Indian pro- ducts were sent to the New York markets. Reports were brought back to him of these fertile New Jersey lands and of the liberality of the Grants and Conces- sions.2 He sent an agent from Barbadoes to secure a grant, but never came himself to Jersey. His nephew Isaac represented his uncle in New Barbadoes, as it was named, and inherited the estate at his death. After the Revolution, Joseph Kingsland came from New York to the west bank of the Passaic and purchased a tract of woodland, part of which was in the Nutley area.3
Mr. Kingsland set his slaves to cutting the timber, built a mill4 to saw it, and shipped it on his sloops to New York to make wooden curbs for the town. The dock was at the mouth of Third River. Some years later he left New York to make his home here. In 1796 Mr. Kingsland built a grist mill and the pictur- esque stone house by the pond, which was occupied by his descendants till 1902.
Another spacious stone house owned by Mr. J. R. Hay stands in the "Enclosure"" near the Third River. It was built in 1812 by John Mason, who also owned a cotton mill by the dam near by. The house, covered with ivy, stands on a knoll well back from the street,
1 For further account of the Kingsland family and grant, see Whitehead's East Jersey under the Proprietors.
2 The original constitution of Jersey under which the first settlers took land. See Lee's Hist. of N. J. as a Colony and as a State.
3 The Kingslands were most of them loyalists.
4 A grist mill was already there .- Mrs. J. R. Hay.
5 "Enclosure", a private park of 15 acres, containing nine rest- dences and the Nutley Library.
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and huge willows mark where the borders of the old pond once extended.
Old Nutley Manor by the Passaic is a large square stone mansion, overlooking one of the most beautiful views of the river. It was built in 1826 or 1828 by Peter Crary, then Mayor of New York, who gave it to his daughter, Mrs. James Morris.1 Mr. Morris was then building the Paterson and Hudson Railroad, now the Erie, and was President of the road.2 Mr. Morris bought the estate from Robert Rutgers, from whom Rutgers College was named, and Rutgers had pur- chased it in 1803 from the Dikes. Thomas W. Sat- terthwaite3 purchased the estate of 144 acres in 1844 and it is still in possession of the family.
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