USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I > Part 19
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"The following is a new plan for a stage waggon, from Powlas Hook, proposed by the subscribers, viz: A waggon to set off every day in the week (Sundays excepted), one from Powlas Hook, and another from Mr. James Banks in Newark [probably the Rising Sun tavern which stood about where North Canal street and River street meet] precisely at half an hour past 7 o'clock in the morning, and half an hour past 4 o'clock in the evening; meet at Capt. Brown's ferry, and exchange passengers; and every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, Ward's waggon returns immediately from the said ferry, through Newark to Elizabethtown; stays there till 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then returns back again, through Newark for Powlas Hook. Passengers from Bank's will be always on a sure footing on the Elizabethtown days, for if the waggon should be full from Elizabethtown for New York, Ward will have other waggons ready at Bank's, for the passengers who will wait there at the appointed times.
"All persons who are pleased to encourage.this undertaking are desired to be punctual to the times above mentioned, as the waggons must be very exact in meeting Capt. Brown's ferry [at Paulus Hook] ; and they may depend (God willing) on constant attendance and good usage.
"Fare for passengers from Powlas Hook to Newark, 1s. 6d .; from Newark to Elizabethtown, 1s. To begin (if God permit) on Friday the 15th instant."
The rule was at that time and for several years thereafter, for the stage to travel once a day to Paulus Hook from Newark, and return, every day except Sunday, in the summer, and four times a
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week during the winter. In 1769 an improvement was made by the establishment of two stages, one leaving Newark at 8 in the morn- ing and the other starting from Paulus Hook at the same time, exchanging passengers at Dow's ferry over the Hackensack, "which," as an old advertisement reads, "entirely takes off the inconveniency of detaining passengers by ferrying of the waggons over said river." The stages left their home stations at 4:30 in the afternoon, meeting at Dow's ferry as in the morning. By this arrangement it was only necessary to ferry the passengers across, something that could be done in far less time than that required for the transportation of the clumsy stages.
NEW YORK-NEWARK-PHILADELPHIA STAGE, 1769.
The first notice of a New York-Philadelphia stage passing through Newark, appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Sep- tember, 1769. It was in part as follows: "The new stage to New York on the old York road sets out tomorrow, the 26th instant, from the sign of the Bunch of Grapes in Third street [Philadelphia] at sunrise, proceeds by the Crooked Billet, Coryell's Ferry, Bound Brook, Newark, and from thence to Powle's Hook, opposite New York. It will set out regularly every Tuesday morning during the winter season, perform the journey from Philadelphia to Powle's Hook in two days, and exchange passengers at the south branch of the Raritan on Wednesday morning, when one stage returns to Philadelphia and the other to Powle's .Hook."
The rates on this new line were to be as follows:
"Each passenger to pay ten shillings from Philadelphia to the south branch of the Raritan, and ten shillings from the south branch to Powle's Hook, ferriage free, and three pence a mile for any distance between ; and goods at the rate of twenty shillings per hundred weight from Philadelphia to New York.
"That part of the country is very pleasent; the distance and goodness of the road not inferior to any from this to New York. There is but one ferry from this [Philadelphia] to Newark. The road is thickly settled by a number of wealthy farmers and mer-
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chants who promise to give every encouragement possible to the stage. And as the principal proprietors of said stage live on the road, the best usage may be expected."
Such were the beginnings of transportation in this section of New Jersey. Considerable space has been given explaining the early and crude struggles to open up communication through the Province, for it was by these clumsy, and to us, ridiculously inade- quate means for travel, that New Jersey now began to increase in population and to thrive in various ways.
THE EARLY FERRIES.
As for the ferries, it is plain enough that travelers dreaded them, and a stage line that could contrive to eliminate one or more from its route was sure to meet with ready patronage. They were slow and wearisome, and no doubt tried the patience of the exhausted stage passengers to the utmost. The first ferry in New Jersey of which there is any record was that established in 1669 at Communipaw, under the charge of Pieter Hetfelsen, for the accom- modation of the people of Bergen, Communipaw and New York. Hetfelsen was required to keep his ferry boat in readiness for use at all times, but especially on three days in the week. The ferries across the Passaic and Hackensack must also have been in operation at a very early date, probably within a decade or so after the establishment of Hetfelsen's ferry. But the ferryman came on call ; that is, if you wished to cross you had to dismount from your con- veyance and hunt about until you found him, 'in case he did not happen to be in evidence. It is pretty certain that a systematic ferry system was not created until the building of the Plank Road already described in this chapter.
THE FIRST POST OFFICES.
Getting one's mail was a haphazard sort of business during the first three-quarters of the eighteenth century, indeed, until some time after the War for Independence. For a long time the only post offices were at Perth Amboy and Burlington. At first, letters
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for persons in practically all sections of the provinces were sent to one or the other of these towns for distribution. In the late 1750's announcements were made in New York and Philadelphia news- papers that mail for residents of various places could be obtained from residents of the district, whose names were given, and to whom the mail was forwarded from Perth Amboy or Burlington.
There now began to appear occasional evidence of the awaken- ing of industrial activity in Newark. In 1768, there appeared in a newspaper this announcement: "Wanted. A person that under- stands the nailing business in its different branches, or has been employed in that manufactory. Such a person bringing proper recommendations will meet with good encouragement, by applying to Joseph Riggs, Esq., or Joseph Hadden in Newark, New Jersey, who are entering largely into the business."
AN OLD NEWARK IRON FOUNDRY.
As early as 1768, and probably a little earlier, Newark had an iron foundry, located on the north corner of Washington and James streets, where the Second Presbyterian Church now stands. "Hol- low ware of all kinds," reads an advertisement, "made at Vesuvius furnace, at Newark, in New Jersey, and allowed by the best judges to be far preferable to any made in America." Thus "made in Newark" had a meaning of commercial value nearly a decade before the War for Independence. This "hollow ware" was shipped to New York in large quantities and was sold there, precisely as many Newark manufacturers still maintain offices and warehouses in New York. Moses Ogden was one of the first proprietors of this indus- try, and James Abeel of New York handled the goods there. In 1769 the plant was owned by Ogden, Laight & Company, who in that year issued the following instructive advertisement:
"Makers all kinds of hollow ware and other castings usually made at air furnaces; such as forge hammers, anvils, pots, kettles, griddles, pyepans of various sizes, potash kettles and sugar boilers, calcining plates, plain and ornamental chimney backs, jaumb and hearth plates neatly fitting each other, Bath stoves for burning
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coal, iron stoves for work-shops and ship cabbins, Dutch and per- petual ovens, boiling plates, boxes for carriages of all kinds and sizes, half hundred and smaller weights. As their metal is of the best quality, and the construction of their furnace, manner of work- ing and moulding of the most improved; their ware is equal if not superior to any made in America or imported ; particularly the metal for hammers and anviles for forges is excellently well tempered, and found on repeated trials to be in general superior to English hammers, &c.
"Any person wanting any of the above articles, may have them from either Edward Laight at his store in New York near Cowfoot Ilill, or of James Abeel near Coenties Market, or Gabriel and Lewis Ogden at the furnace in Newark, New Jersey. Castings of any particular kind may be made by applying to any of the above per- sons. N. B. Bar iron will be taken in payment for hammers and anvils, at market price."
The plant was known far and wide as the "Newark stove foundry." The iron was chiefly obtained from the mines of Morris and Sussex counties, which later proved such a valuable resource to the Continental army for the manufacture of cannon balls.
A CATTLE FAIR OF 1768. :
While what is now Washington Park was set aside by the first settlers as a market place, it was not intended by them as a market such as we mean by the word today. It was to be a sort of clear- ing house for the disposal of live stock. After its abandonment for that purpose for several generations, the practice was apparently revived in 1768, when a market or fair was instituted. There is no definite statement that what is now Washington Park was utilized for the purpose, but it is reasonable to suppose that such was the case. The following announcement made on August 16, shows how the business was conducted :
"Whereas many inconveniences frequently attend the sale of horses, horn cattle, sheep and swine, for want of some publick con- venient stated market or fair, where sellers and buyers may meet for that purpose. And as the town of Newark, from its vicinity to New York and other circumstances attending its situation is by
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many esteemed a most proper place for such a cattle market: It is at the request of the inhabitants of New York and New Jersey that publick notice is hereby given, that on the Third Wednesday in October next and on the Thursday and Friday following, and on the same days yearly, and every year thereafter, will be opened and held at Newark aforesaid, a publick market for the sale of all kind of horses, fat and store horn cattle, sheep, swine, and for other purposes whatsoever (except it be for the sale of the products or manufacturies of the country). Proper officers will attend for the preservation of decorum and good order."
This was an important departure. It shows that Newark was becoming more widely recognized as a business centre for a large section of upper Jersey.
ST. JOHN'S LODGE OF FREE MASONS.
On May 13, 1761, the first lodge of Free Masons in the State, St. John's No. 1, and the sixth in all America, was organized, in Newark, its first lodge room being located in the Rising Sun tavern. The same year the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist "was observed here by the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free Masons. They walked in regular procession from the Lodge to church, where an excellent sermon was preached by the Reverend Mr. Brown. After church they returned back to dinner, accom- panied by several of the clergy and magistrates, and concluded the day in decent mirth." The services were held in Trinity Church, so that the procession most probably moved from the tavern near the junction of North Canal and River streets, up the hillside to the upper end of Military Park.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NEWARK HOMES.
We are fortunately able to get a general idea of the home equipment of the Newarkers just before the War for Independence, from the "to let" and "for sale" advertisements of the times which were more or less common in the newspapers of the day. It may be said in this connection that there were practically no poor people in the town at that time. No one was very wealthy, but all had
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ST. JOHN'S LODGE OF FREE MASONS OBSERVING ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME 1761
From a drawing made for the Newark Sunday Call by Edwin S. Fancher
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their homes. There were very few squalid or mean habitations. There was plenty of land for everyone; none was crowded and there were no homes of extreme magnificance or grandeur. The people lived in comparative comfort; their wants were few and simple. One of the more pretentious of Newark's homesteads was put upon the market in 1767, and the published description of it was as follows :
"This is to give notice, that there will be sold on the first day of April next, in the town of Newark in the county of Essex, and province of East Jersey, by Samuel Huntington, senior; A large, stately stone dwelling house, with five fireplaces, a very large cellar, and a smaller one, very convenient for a gentleman, being on the main road, and within less than half a mile of Newark [First Pres- byterian] church, and has a good well and brook before the door that never freezes; there is a large barn and a good distil-house [for making apple whiskey] ; a neat apple orchard, peach orchard, and a variety of other fruit trees; also a 6-acre lot of good mowing ground. It is very convenient for distillers, as there is a dam already made on the brook, with a gentle descent so as to fill his cisterns without the help of a pump; there is likewise 14 acres of good mowing ground within a quarter of a mile of the house, with 60 apple trees on the same."
The following year a house was offered for rent, for one year, "to be entered upon immediately. The pleasently situated and convenient dwelling house and lot of Philip Van Cortlandt at New- ark," reads the notice, "the house is new and large, being two stories high, with four good rooms on each floor, a large kitchen, barn, stable and garden adjoining; There may be cut hay enough off the lot for a horse and two cows, besides pasturing for them for the summer the whole extremely well contrived and calculated for a gentleman's country seat ; especially as it is only the short distance of eight miles from New York, to which place a stage waggon goes from Newark every day in the week during the sum- mer season, (except Sunday) and four times a week during the winter season. The house is three hundred yards distant from the Passaic river and about half that distance from the English [Trinity] church."
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NEWARK A PLACE FOR "COUNTRY SEATS."
The propinquity of Newark to New York was thus recognized even before the War for Independence, and the fact that stages ran between the two communities was quite as much an asset to the Newark real estate owner of those days as is the high speed McAdoo line of today. Indeed, the property last described was well within what is now the Park Place terminal zone.
Another estate was offered for sale in 1769, in the neighbor- hood of Fourth avenue, as follows: "To be sold at private sale, and entered into immediately, the farm of Captain James Gray, lying on the banks of the river Passaick, about one mile from the [First] church at Newark, which from its location has perhaps more incitements to induce a gentleman who wants a country seat, to pay his attention to it, and will more probably please any elegant taste than any in the country, as it is capable of almost every improvement. There are on the farm two good dwelling houses, barn, stable and coach house. It contains 20 acres of excellent land, which is well manag'd and improv'd, will afford bread corn for a small family, besides grass and hay for three horses and four or five cows, a good orchard and a large garden.
"It commands a most extensive view of the river, and over- looks Capt. Kennedy's farm, garden and deer park, at Petersbor- ough, to which it is opposite. The river abounds with fish and wild fowl in their season, which may be taken within a few rods distant from the house. There is about one mile from the said farm, about 10 acres of good wood land that will be sold with said farm or separate, as may best suit the purchasers.7
A good idea of what a house in the very centre of the town was like in 1769 may be gained from the "to-let" advertisements of property to the east of Washington Park: "A very genteel house in Newark, in East New Jersey, two stories high, containing eight rooms with fireplaces, a spacious garret and a cellar under the whole house, with a handsome kitchen and a new barn. Also about
" Newark was but a village at that time and many New Yorkers estab- lished their summer homes or country estates here. Capt. Kennedy was an officer of the British Navy. His manor house stood where Kearny Castle does to-day (1913).
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3 neres of land adjoining the same. The house is beautifully situated in the front or market square, leading to Passaick river and about 10 yards distant from the English church."
Another evidence of Newark's mechanical ingenuity is given in the announcement, made in 1769 in a New York newspaper, to this effect: "We hear from Newark, that Ezekiel Ball, an ingenious mechanic, has invented a new machine for levelling the roads with great expedition. It is made in the form of a triangle with a small expense, and is drawn by horses; cutting off the ridges and filling up the ruts to admiration, and deserves to be highly recommended to the public. If any gentleman is desirous of knowing in what manner it is made, the model may be seen at his house." It is highly probably from this notice that a very familiar type of road scraper to this day was the product of a Newarker's genius. Ezekiel may be set down as Newark's first inventor of record.
NEW JERSEY'S FIRST TRAMPS.
For several decades previous to the War for Independence large numbers of men, and many women, anxious to get to this side of the world from the British Isles, and not possessing sufficient funds, were in the habit of binding themselves out to several years of service to someone here, the understanding being that after they had "worked out" their time they should be at liberty to go and do as they pleased. Not a few of those who came under these condi- tions broke faith with their employers, and as a consequence the newspapers of the day were filled with notices of runaways, always closing with the request that if the missing individuals should be identified they be held and their "owners" notified. The runaways usually decamped with as much of the wearing apparel of their master's household as they could carry, and from the minute descriptions given of these goods for the purpose of identification, we may get some amusing glimpses of the apparel of the times. Besides the indentured servants there was always a sprinkling of negro slaves being sought. These notices were often accompanied
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with a little woodcut, showing a darkey boy trotting along briskly with a cudgel across his shoulder from which his worldly goods, done up in a handkerchief, depended. A few of the notices are as follows :
1754. "Run away from George Mumford of Fisher's Island * four men servants, a white man and three negroes. The white man, named Joseph Heday, says he is a native of Newark in the Jerseys, a short well-set fellow, of a ruddy complection; his cloathing when he went away, was a red Whitney great coat, red and white flowered serge jacket, a swan skin strip'd ditto, lapell'd, a pair of leather breeches, a pair of trowsers, old shoes, etc."
1758. "Run away on Monday, the second instant, from Benja- min Williams, a negro man named Bristol, about 5 feet, 7 inches high aged about 46 years. Had on when he went away, a red jacket, a brown great coat, brown Camblet breeches and wide trowsers, a pair of new shoes with strings and a new felt hat. Whoever takes up said negro fellow and brings him to his master at Newark * * shall have forty shillings reward and all reasonable charges." The owner, Williams, by the way, while pre- tending devotion to the cause of the colonies during the War for Independence, was secretly in sympathy with the British, and as many of his neighbors were of the same kidney, the vicinity became known as "Tory Corners."
1765. "Run away, from David Ogden of Newark in East New Jersey, a servant man named James Van Winkle, aged 26 years, about 5 feet, 10 inches high, well set, something pock-pitted in his face, speaks English and low Dutch. He took with him a blue cloth coat, two red vests, one pair of leather breeches, two pair of yarn stockings, two ozenbrigs shirts, and a gun."
These runaways were something of a pest upon the whole countryside. They were, in fact, the first tramps in the colonies; yes, the first burglars, in all probability, as this notice published in 1763 indicates: "Several robberies have been committed within a few days past at Newark, Elizabeth-Town and Rahway. "Tis said some persons have been committeed on suspicion; and 'tis hoped justice may take place. Meanwhile, this should caution people to be a little more careful, as great numbers of stragglers are about the country."
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DEATH PENALTY FOR HORSE STEALING.
Horse racing had become a common pastime in Newark and the neighboring towns, in the 1760's. Money prizes were often given and sometimes the contests were of the sweepstakes variety. Now and then a prize of a beaver hat or a saddle, was awarded. The race course is believed to have been in Broad street, below Market. Horse thieves were abroad, too, and in 1766 two men were con- demned to death by the court of oyer and terminer sitting in Newark, for stealing horses.
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CHAPTER XII. THE GATHERING OF THE STORM.
CHAPTER XII.
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM.
T HE previous chapters of this work fail woefully of their purpose if they have not made it clear to the reader that the War for Independence was in the making so far as New Jersey was concerned, from the time of the first English settle- ments, nearly eleven decades before Concord and Lexington. Simi- lar forces, varied by local conditions chiefly, were of course at work in the other twelve colonies. The struggles of the settlers with the Governor and his Council for their rights as they saw them; the revolts against the payments of quit-rents to the Lords Proprietors
and the popular reluctance to take out patents for the land for which they had already settled with the natives; the long-drawn- out and at times furious remonstrances against the succeeding generations of Lords Proprietors in their efforts to force the people to acknowledge the Lords' title to the land and to establish the prin- ciple that the Indian titles were worthless; these and many other minor elements worked, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes successively, to bring about the great struggle for liberty. While the French and Indian wars were still going on, the British min- istry, noting with great satisfaction that the colonies were rallying to the flag of Great Britain with remarkable devotion, giving their best blood and expending large sums of money without complaint, evolved a plan, as early as 1754, to unite the colonies for the pur- pose of establishing a system of taxation. The protest to this was immediate and pronounced, and the measure was withdrawn for the moment, as the ministry decided the times were too critical, with the French and Indian aggressions still continuing to make heavier demands upon the colonies wise or feasible.
TEMPER OF THE COLONISTS MISUNDERSTOOD.
In 1761, the war with the French over and the power of France in America at an end, the ministry began the preparation of a system of taxation of the colonies. Had it stopped with the
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imposition of one tax to defray the cost of the war, all would have gone well, but a permanent system of taxation by the mother country was felt to be intolerable. The service of the colonies during the struggle with the French and Indians had been constant, in the highest degree courageous and self-sacrificing. They had maintained throughout the war a force of about 25,000 men, on the average; had lost 30,000 men and had expended £3,500,000 sterling, in support of the cause. Four hundred of their privateers had made war upon French territory and shipping. "Their troops," says Gordon in his History of New Jersey, "preserved the re- mains of the army wrecked by the folly of Braddock; and under Monckton, captured Beau Sejour, in Nova Scotia. Commanded by William Johnson, they destroyed the army of Baron Dieskau; and subsequently reduced Fort Niagara, one of the most important posts on the Continent. The merit of these actions is ascribable to them solely. In all their marches and battles they were the principal sufferers; and where honor was to be gained, the pro- vincial was distinguished by his fortitude in adversity and his promptitude and courage in the hour of peril."
NEW JERSEY'S DEVOTION TO THE CROWN.
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