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 5
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SELECTING THE TOWN SITE.
Thus the discontented members of the recently extinguished New Haven Colony found their opportunity disclosed to them. A way was now opened for them to go and abide in the region which had attracted them for many years. They sent a small committee, composed of Robert Treat and John Gregory, to confer with Gov- ernor Carteret at Elizabethtown. Satisfied with their welcome, Treat and Gregory started out upon the selection of a suitable town site. They proceeded in their boat down the coast to the Delaware, and viewed with some favor the spot where Burlington now stands.
THE VISIT TO THE DELAWARE.
They knew of the Delaware river and valley from the efforts of some of their neighbors in the New Haven Colony to set up trading posts there. Possibly they had another motive which has
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never before, the writer believes, been touched upon. They were, as we have seen, Pilgrims going out into strange lands to rear a community around their church and to worship God according to their own ideals. The first Puritans who came to America, the Pilgrim Fathers, had started from Holland with the intention of locating much further south than they did; it is believed they proposed to make their homes upon the Delaware. But wind and wave were against the Mayflower and forced her to make landing at Plymouth, after two or three ineffectual efforts to cruise south- ward to a milder climate. As it had been intended to first set up Puritan ideals on or near the Delaware, the Newark colonizers seem to have felt that it might be that God intended them to proceed as the Puritan pioneers of over forty years before had striven to do and failed.
But the little committee was not to be controlled by sentiment. At Burlington the new town would have been almost alone in the wilderness. Philadelphia was as yet unthought of and there were only a few Dutch and Swedish hamlets along the river shores, upon whose friendliness and assistance in time of stress the New Englanders must have felt they would not be able to rely. There were warlike Indians, too, not in New Jersey, but uncomfortably near in the Pennsylvania that was to be. So they returned to Elizabethtown and from there proceeded up the bay and into the Passaie, inspecting the region as closely as was possible from their boats. They were charmed with what they saw. To an extent at least-although not of course with a prescience that could picture the territory as we now know it-they realized its possibilities. The Indians thereabouts were peaceful; a town, an English town and the seat of the governor, peopled partly by Puritans, was struggling into life but a few miles away, at Elizabethtown, and from there it was but a short cruise along the narrow channel of the Kill van Kull, out into the greater bay and thence to New York. Their minds were made up, and back to Connecticut they hastened in their little sailing vessel, to report what they had found, carrying Governor Carteret's personal assurances in sup-
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plement of the "Concessions." Their decision was of infinite importance. They had with an unerring insight and good judg- ment, elosely akin to inspiration, selected the best spot in all New Jersey for a town.1
And how did they describe the region to their people waiting anxiously in the homes they were so soon to leave? Fortunately, we know how the region impressed others at that time, and we may be very sure that Robert Treat and his companion on the voyage of investigation gave a description somewhat similar.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ESTIMATES OF THE NEWARK REGION.
The following, written in 1661, was found among the official documents of the Dutch government of New Netherland, done into the quaint English of the time and designed to apply to all of what is now New Jersey, but undoubtedly referring especially to the "Achter Col," or Newark Bay neighborhood, since that was the section of New Jersey with which the Dutch were most familiar :
"It is under the best climate in the whole world; seed may be thrown into the ground, except 6 weekes, all the yeere longe; there are five sorts of grapes which are very good and grow heere naturally, with divers other excellent fruits extraordinary good, and ye fruits transplanted from Europe far surpasseth any there, as apples, pears, peaches, melons, etc., and the land very fertile produceth a great increase of wheat and all other game whatsoever ; here groweth tobacco very good; it naturally abounds with all sorts of dyes, furrs of all sorts may bee had of the natives very reason- able: stores of saltpeter; marvellous plenty in all kinds of food; excellent veneson, elkes very great and large; all kinds of land and sea foule that are naturally in Europe are heere in great plenty, with severall sorts yt Europe doth not enjoy; the sea and rivers abounding with excellent fat and wholesome fish which are heere in great plenty ; the mountainous part of the country stored with severall sorts of mineralls; great profit to be derived from traffique with the natives * *
* heere may likewise bee great profitt made by fishing whereby abundance of people may bee imployed with great and notable advantages."
' In his address at the unveiling of the Robert Treat tablet, on Nov. 4, 1912, Mayor Jacob Hanssling spoke of the wisdom of the founders as extra- ordinary, as they had located their town at a place practically immune from the storms, floods and other disasters of Paterson and from the occasional tornadoes of Elizabeth.
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A delightful account of the Achter Col region was written in 1670 by Daniel Denton, one of the English settlers of Elizabeth- town, who came from Long Island. Like the Dutch account given above, Denton's narrative is manifestly prepared to attract settlers. Both are what to-day would be considered "publicity" circulars, devised to popularize the region and attract colonists ; and yet, both are clearly quite faithful to the facts, as the old observers saw them :
"I may say," begins Denton, "and say truly, that if there be any terrestrial happiness to be had by people of all ranks, especially of an inferior rank, it must certainly be here: here anyone may furnish himself with land, and live rent-free [he had not yet felt the goad of the quit-rent] yea, with such a quantity of Land that he may weary himself with walking over his fields of Corn and all sorts of Grain and let his stock of Cattel amount to some hundreds he needs not fear their want of pasture in the summer, or fodder in the winter, the woods affording sufficient supply." And he continues :
"For the Summer season, where you have Grass as high as a man's knees, nay, as high as his waste, interlaced with Pea vines and other weeds that Cattel much delight in, as much as a man can pass through; and these woods every mile or half-mile are furnished with fresh ponds, brooks or rivers, where all sorts of Cattel, during the heat of the day, do quench their thirst and cool themselves; these brooks and rivers being invironed of each side with several sorts of trees and Grape-vines, the vines, arbor-like, interchanging places and crossing these rivers, does shade and shelter them from the scorching beams of Sol's fiery influence.
"And how prodigal, if I may so say, hath nature been to furnish the Countrey with all sorts of wilde Beastes and Fowle, which everyone hath an interest in and may hunt at his pleasure; where besides the pleasure in hunting, he may furnish his house with excellent fat venison, Turkeys, Geese, Heath Hens, Cranes, Swans, Ducks, Pidgeons and the like; and wearied with this he may go a fishing * * where besides the sweetness of the air the Countrey itself sends forth such a fragrant smell that it may be preceived at Sea before they make the land; where no evil fog of vapour doth not sooner appear but a Northwest or Westerly wind doth immediately dissolve it and drive it away. I must needs say that if there be any Terrestrial Canaan, 'tis surely here, where the Land floweth with milk and honey."
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INCENSE OF THE FOREST PRIMEVAL.
Several of the old navigators tell how they knew the land of this region was nigh, long before they came within sight of it. One voyager wrote, in 1632: "Threw the lead in fourteen fathoms, sandy bottom, and smelt the land, which gave a sweet perfume, as the wind came from the northwest, which blew off land, and caused these sweet odors. This comes from the Indians setting fire at this time of year [December 2] to the woods and thickets, in order to hunt; and the land is full of sweet-smelling herbs, as sassafras, which has a sweet smell. When the wind blows out of the northwest, and the smoke is driven to sea, it happens that the land is smelt before it is seen."
One ordinarily associates experiences like the above with the coasts of the Far East, but it is pleasant to know that the pros- pectors for the Newark home-site returned with impressions of sense and smell like those just quoted. Treat and Gregory could not have come to New Jersey much before September, and it may have been later. It must have taken two or three weeks, probably longer, for them to complete their investigations, so that they could not have returned to New England before October and very likely not until November.
THE COMING OF THE PIONEERS, MAY, 1666.
The colonizers deliberated upon their plans throughout the winter, and the first group of settlers left New Haven Bay some time before the middle of May, 1666. They came in at least two vessels, possibly it may have taken more of the small craft then used to transport them and their goods. The journey was short, for those days, and no particular hardship attended it, since it was over inland waters and at a gentle time of the year. Two days, three at the most, must have seen the Pilgrims finding their way up the Kill van Kull from New York Bay, toward Elizabethtown Point, where a few humble houses announced the headquarters of the government of the new colony.
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The pioneer settlers were headed by their master-mind, Robert Treat, called "Captain" from the very beginning of the negotiations with Governor Carteret. Indeed, he had been captain of a train band in the New Haven Colony. With him were heads of several families from Milford and adjacent plantations. It is doubtful if many of the women, children, or old and decrepit people came at that time or for several months, until the first rough work of providing shelter and getting into the ground what crops they could, had been accomplished. Some of those who remained on the site the first summer were allowed extra concessions of land when the actual, individual allotments were made.
REFUSED POSSESSION BY THE INDIANS.
When Captain Treat completed his arrangements for the settle- ment with Governor Carteret the previous fall, it is said that he bore back to Connecticut with him a letter to be presented to the chief sachems of the Hackensack Indians at the time the settlers should be ready to take up the land. This letter was supposed to quiet all title the natives claimed and was to act as a warrant from the Governor, as was required under the "Concessions." In that letter Carteret assured the red men that he would see that they were reimbursed. But Treat is believed not to have had that letter about him when the vessels arrived in the Passaic alongside the land they proposed to occupy. Whether he had lost it or had forgotten to bring it, history does not tell. In any event the red men were on the ground, or arrived while the settlers were engaged in landing their goods, and said the ground was theirs, that they had not been paid for it. It is possible the missing letter might have explained everything to the satisfaction of the natives, but this is doubtful.
The settlers were downcast. They were at first inclined to believe they were the victims of a breach of faith upon the part of the Governor. They were disposed to return to Connecticut forthwith. They replaced their goods upon their vessels and headed for Elizabethtown Point, and Treat and others of the leaders were
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soon in conference with Carteret. He protested vehemently against their giving up the enterprise, and if he had had any thoughts that they could be drawn into any transaction that was not strictly in accordance with the highest principles of right conduct and fair dealing toward savages as well as to civilized men, he must have been completely disabused of such impressions then and there. The settlers must have clear title to the land or they would have nothing to do with it or the Governor. The conference seems to have closed with the settlers resolving to arrange matters with the Indians themselves, as Carteret then and there refused to pay the red men anything for the territory that was to be Newark, and as they had now concluded that they would not go back to New England without first seeing if they could themselves arrive at some equitable under- standing with the Indians.
WHY DID CARTERET DECLINE TO PAY THE INDIANS?
But why did Carteret refuse to be responsible for paying the Indians? This is an indistinct spot in Newark's history. Some historians have been inclined to think it was sharp practice on the Governor's part and that he was disposed to ignore the red man's claims upon the land. But this view is not at all consistent with his conduct in other sections of his proprietorship. The real reason for his attitude probably lies behind the fact that the Newark territory was believed by the first settlers of Elizabethtown to be part of the grant they received from Governor Nicholls, of New York, prior to Carteret's arrival, for which they paid the Indians about $200 in goods and for which Governor Nicholls required nothing. While Governor Carteret and the proprietors who suc- ceeded him contested the right of Nicholls to dispose of land in New Jersey, Carteret was at first probably willing to accept the validity of the Nicholls grant in so far as it was thought to effect the title to the Newark territory, partly in order to avoid the expenditure himself.
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The Elizabethtown grant from Governor Nicholls had the following boundaries:2 "On the South by a river commonly called Raritan River, and on the East by the river which parts Staten Island and the Main [Kill van Kull], and to run Northward up After Cull [Achter Coll, or Newark Bay] Bay till we come at the First River [which was quite generally construed to mean the Passaic River] which sets Westward out of the said Bay afore- said, and to run West into the country twice the length as it is broad from the North to the South of the aforementioned bound."
Now, this great stretch of country, comprising nearly half a million acres, was claimed by two distinct tribes of Indians, all below Weequahic or Bound Creek being in the land of the Raritans, and that above being part of the domain of the Hackensacks. Naturally enough, the Hackensacks objected to their land being . sold without their consent, and to the Raritans receiving compensa- tion for it. Carteret seems to have felt that all obligations had been discharged to the Indians when he satisfied the Raritans as we have seen. So there was nothing else for Treat and his follow- ers to do but to enter into negotiations with the Hackensacks if they wished to possess the land they had chosen.
ROBERT TREAT'S ACCOUNT.
We are fortunate in possessing Captain Treat's own narrative of part of the proceedings at the moment when the settlement of Newark hung wavering in the balance:
"No sooner was the company present got on the Place and landed some of their goods, than I with some others was by some of the Hackensack Indians warned off the Ground and [they] seemed troubled and angry that we landed any of our goods there tho' first we told them we had the Governor's order; but they replied that the land was theirs, and it was unpurchased; and therefore we put our goods on board the vessels and acquainted the Governor with the matter."
Of his visit to the Indians, Treat says that he, "with some others, went up to the Hackensack [the village and headquarters of the local tribe of Lenni Lenape] to treat with the Sagamores
" Elizabethtown Bill of Chancery.
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and other Indian proprietors of the land lying on the West of the Passaick River. One Perro laid claim to the said land which is now called Newark."
The result of the meeting at Hackensack was an agreement that a company of Indians would meet the settlers on the ground. At this meeting there were present, besides the settlers and their Dutch interpreters, "all the Proprietors,"3 [continues the affidavit] "viz: Perro and his kindred, with the Sagamores that were able to travel; Oraton [the grand sachem of the Hackensacks] being very old but approved of Perro's acting. And then we acted by the Advice, Order and Approbation of the said Governor (who was troubled for our sakes) * * * and I, with some others, solicited the Governor to pay for our Purchase to the Indians, which he refused, and would not disburse anything unless I would reimburse him again; and a Bill of Sale was made, wherein the Purchase of said land will at large appear."
HONEST DEALINGS WITH THE NATIVES.
We would lose sight of one of the most significant lessons to be learned from all Newark's early history if we failed to note at this juncture that the settlers paid the Indians for every foot of land; that it was a straightforward business transaction, carried out with quite as much exactitude as if the sellers had not been untutored savages. It was do doubt a very solemn occasion, the arrangement for the purchase. The settlers conformed to their consciences in paying the red men what they asked, as well as adhering to the letter of the English law that colonizers satisfy all claims of the savage inhabitants of a new country. It is a source for profound gratification to us to-day that Newark started with a clean record for fair and square dealing. Indeed, the same procedure was followed throughout all New Jersey. This, however, cannot be truly said of all the Colonies.
Perro, according to the laws of the tribe was the titular owner of the land out of which all of Newark, and in fact most of Essex
3 Affidavit of Treat in Elizabethtown Bill of Chancery.
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county has been reared. He was recognized by tribal customs as its representative to whom the purchase price should be paid, although the proceeds of the sale were not to be held by him alone. Perro, then, stands for the earliest owners of Newark soil. The city should perpetuate his name in some lasting form.
While the agreement to sell was made by the Indians in May, 1666, the bill of sale was not signed until July 11, 1667, when practically all of those who are of right called the founders were on the ground.
Captain Treat and Samuel Edsal, the latter an interpreter of the Lenni Lenape tongue and a land owner living on Bergen-Neck, acted as agents for the settlers. Edsal was the pioneer in the settlement of Constable Hook. John Capteen, a Dutchman, was also on hand as interpreter, while Perro was the principal for the Indians. The following natives signed the document with their marks or individual totems: Wapamuck, Harish, Captamin, Ses- som, Mamustome, Peter Wamesane, Wekaprokikan, Cackmackque or Cacknakrue, and Perawae. These were the settlers who signed: Michael, or Micah, Tompkins, Samuel Kitchell, John Brown and Robert Denison. Besides Edsal, there were as witnesses: Pierwim, sachem of Pau; Edward Burrowes and Richard Fletcher.
THE FIRST PURCHASES OF LAND.
The traet purchased, as the bill or deed of sale describes it, was "bounded and limited with the bay eastward, and the great river Posayak northward; the great creek or river in the meadow, running to the head of the cove and from thence bearing a west line, for the south bounds, which said great creek is commonly called Weequahick; on the west line, backwards in the country to the foot of the great mountain, called Watchung [the Lenni Lenape name for Orange mountain, meaning 'the place of the mountain'], being, as is judged, about seven or eight miles from Pesayak Towne. The said mountain, as we are informed, hath one branch of the Elizabeth river running near the above said foot of the mountain. The bounds northerly up Pesayak river reach to the third river
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above the town. The river is called Yauntakah, and from thence, upon a northwest line to the aforesaid mountain."
The price paid for this superb area was, according to the East Jersey records : "fifty double hands [as much as the two hands held together hold, undoubtedly] of [gun] powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, ten pair of breeches, fifty knives, twenty hoes, eight hundred and fifty fathoms of wampum, twenty ankers' of liquors, or something equivalent, and ten troopers coats."
This odd catalogue represents the Indian's idea of what the white man calls wealth. Probably the savages felt they were making a good bargain. In money these goods had a value of about $700, as we would reckon it to-day. That sum to-day (1913) nearly two hundred and fifty years after the purchase, would not buy two inches of front near the corners of Market and Broad streets. Ten years later, on March 13, 1677, the settlers made another purchase, extending the western boundary, from the base to the top of the mountain, giving two guns, three coats and thirteen cans of rum.
Thus the original owners of the soil received goods valued at about $700 for the greater part of what is now Essex county. No more eloquent illustration of the mighty changes wrought in two centuries and a half can be given anyone of the present gen- eration who feels himself passably familiar with this region as it is to-day. The payment was not made immediately upon taking possession.
The deed of sale was not signed, as we have seen, until the following year. The purchase price was assessed upon each family, not only those who first came, but all who arrived in the next year who were entitled to be considered among the "associates," or makers of the original settlement. And they were, indeed, very well able to pay, for it is reckoned that the thirty families in the
' An anker was ten wine gallons.
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first group of settlers from Milford "and neighboring plantations" had a combined wealth (real and personal) of about $64,000, an average of over $2,000 for each family, no mean sum indeed for the time.
DATE OF SETTLEMENT-SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
We date the settlement from the first landing, which, as we have seen, was not the permanent landing. Did the first appear- ance of the settlers in the Passaic and the landing of part of their goods, fall on May 17, or on May 20, 1666, or on either date? In the writings of a number of historians we find May 20 favored. May 17 was used on the occasion of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement, in 1866. May 20 was adopted as "Founder's Day" at the time of the Newark Industrial Exhibition in May, 1912 There is nothing in any record now [1913] known to exist that fixes it
There are but two really direct sources of the history of the beginnings of Newark's settlement: the Elizabethtown Bill of Chancery, copies of which may be seen at the New Jersey Historical Society's building in West Park street, Newark, and the old Newark "Town Minute Book," containing the records of the town meetings from 1666 to 1775, with two short omissions in 1714 and 1715. In the archives of the Municipal Library at the Newark City Hall is a copy of the minutes made by Joseph Hedden, junior, in 1775, by order of a publie town meeting, for which he was paid ten pounds, "proclamation money." All trace of the original min- utes has been lost since that time. It is to be doubted that anyone then thought these ancient original records of any value. If they were preserved, either in the Court House or in the home of the village pastor of Revolutionary times, the Rev. Dr. Alexander Macwhorter, the British made short work of them, as they did with others of Newark's almost priceless records.
In neither Minute Book nor Elizabethtown Bill of Chancery proceedings is the date of the founding given. The Minute Book - (Hedden's copy) begins with an "Imprimis," believed to have been
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written by Captain Treat, who was the first Recorder and keeper of the minutes, explaining that the settlers deliberated together, in what was virtually the first Newark town meeting, although it was held either on one of their vessels or on land in or near Elizabethtown, and on May 21. They no doubt took this common action as soon after their ejectment from the land by the natives as possible, probably the very next day, if not on May 21 itself. One thing appears certain, that the seven days ending with May 21 should be considered as "founders' week." This comprehends both dates that have in the past been considered as the anniversary of the eventful day, May 17 and 20.
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