USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > A history of Monmouth and Ocean counties : embracing a genealogical record of earliest settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and their descendants, the Indians, their language, manners and customs, important historical events. > Part 2
USA > New Jersey > Ocean County > A history of Monmouth and Ocean counties : embracing a genealogical record of earliest settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and their descendants, the Indians, their language, manners and customs, important historical events. > Part 2
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CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES IN OCEAN COUNTY-Presbyterianism at Toms River ; Methodism do .; Baptist Seaside Association ; Island Heights ; Lava. lette City ; Episcopalianism at Toms River ; Baptist Church at Toms River. Presbyterianism at Bricksburg.
CREATION OF TOWNSHIPS in Ocean County ; Jackson, Plumsted and Union Townships ; Interesting Records.
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, Banks, Roads, Railroads, Stage Lines, Seaside Resorts, Cranberry Statistics, Fish, Fowl, Game Laws, Forest Fires, &c.
THE WAR OF 1812-An Old Monmouth Preacher ; Ocean County Families ; First Families of Old Monmouth ; Freehold in the Revolution ; Historical Reminiscences, &c.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-Forman, Seymour, Holmes, Birdsall, Parker, Ashfield, Wright, Luyster, Remsen, Rev. Obadiah Holmes, Earl, Tiltons and others.
FIRST SETTLERS OF OLD MONMOUTH-Founders of Families ; One Thousand Surnames ; Interesting Historical Incidents.
COMMENCEMENT OF SETTLEMENTS-Warrants for lands granted ; Churches.
FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL at Forked River ; Presbyterianism and Method- ism at Forked River, and Churches ; Holmes' Old Mill ; Lacey Township ; Civa. Lacey.
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CONTENTS.
Ocean County Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion ; Names, periods of Enlistments, Names of Companies, discharges, transfers, deaths, &e.
CHURCHES IN OCEAN COUNTY -Cedar Grove, Manchester, Collier's Mills, Pleasant Grove, Staffordville, Point Pleasant, Metetecunk, Manahawken, Cedar Run, Herbertsville, Kettle Creek, Bethel, Whiting, Pleasant Plains, Bayville, Toms River, Bricksburg, Cassville, West Creek, Barnegat, Wares- town, Quakers, Rogerine Baptists, &c.
DOVER TOWNSHIP-Roman Catholic Church ; Bible Christian Church ; Cedar Grove M. E. Church ; Pleasant Plains M. E. Church.
LAKEWOOD M. E. CHURCH Organized ; Methodists at Lakewoo.l; Epis- copalianism in Ocean County ; First Baptist Church at Bricksburg ; Liberal Christian Society at Lakewood.
LAKEWOOD-Hotels ; Joseph W. Brick ; Hotel and Land Association ; Tobacco factory.
PRESBYTERIANISM along shore as early as 1746 ; The Potter Universalist Church at Goodluck ; Baptist Church at Manahawken.
TOWNSHIPS ; Plumsted Township ; New Egypt; Churche; in Now Egypt ; Sons of Temperance, Division No. 12; Plumsted Institute.
BRICK TOWNSHIP-Burrsville ; Metetecunk; M. E. Church; Point Pleasant Churches ; Herbertville ; Point Pleasant Land Co .; Arnoldl City ; Baptists in Briek Township ; do. at Kettle Creek ; Silverton M. E. Church ; Mantoloking ; Bay Head ; Churches, &c.
FERRAGO-BAMBER ; Forge built 1800; Gen. John Lice; ; Licey Township ; Eagleswood Township ; West Creek ; Staffordville ; Churches.
Rich" Julter Es BARBADOS
THE SALTER FAMILY CREST.
The publisher is indebted to JAMES STEEN, Esq., Counsellor-at-Law, of Eatontown, N. J., for the Crest, or Coat-of-arms, of the Salter family. It was pasted in a law book over one hundred and fifty years old, owned by Lawyer Steen, which he generously loaned the publisher, and from which the above electrotyped cut was made. In his letter referring to the plate, Mr. Steen says :
EATONTOWN, N. J., Sept. 28, 1889.
MIR. E. GARDNER -DEAR SIR:
Yours of 27th received. While the picture is undoubtedly the Coat-of- arms, it is technically called a " book plate " when used as in this case. Richard Salter of ' Barbados,' came to Monmouth county and was a Jus- tice here for many years, I think. The first time he appeared at Court was on May 23. 1704, when the Court sat at Shrewsbury.
I have in my possession a manuscript book of accounts of the Over- seers of the Poor of Shrewsbury township, containing six signatures (autograph) of Justice Richard Salter, auditing the overseers' accounts, as was required by law at that time. The first was April 3, 1746; the last June 23, 1748.
My impression is, that among Mr. Salter's sketches you will find one of the Salter family, and will be able to trace relationship.
Perhaps Richard Salter of 1704, was father of Richard Salter of 1746.
Yours truly,
JAMES STEEN.
INTRODUCTORY.
The renowned Diedrich Knickerbocker in his famous History of New York contended that in order to give a proper understanding of the origin of the settlement of New York, it was necessary to begin with an account of the creation of the world, for said he "if this world had not been formed it is more than probable that this renowned island on which is situated the City of New York, would never have had an existence!" and after establishing the fact that the world really was formed, he proceeds to give an outline of various noted events in its history from that time down to the commencement of the settlement of New York.
In giving an account of the settlement of Monmouth, the writer will venture to depart from the precedent set by so noted an author and will take it for granted not only that the world was created and that many important events had happened in its history, but also, for the present, will assume that the county was discovered be- fore any attempt to settle it was made !
The various accounts by the first whites who are known' or supposed to have discovered the shores of Monmouth, or landed on its soil, undoubtedly should have a place in the history of the County, but inasmuch as most of these have been published in general and local histories of the country, it is thought sufficient to com- mence directly with an account of the first efforts to es- tablish settlements in the county.
Some writer says that Richard Stout and family and five other families made an attempt to settle in Middle- town in 1648, but after remaining four or five years they were compelled to leave on account of threatened attacks from Indians. This does not correspond with the version of the story published over a century ago in Smith's History
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
of New Jersey. That states that there were about fifty families in the infant settlement at the time of this threat- ened attack, and that they were not frightened off but remained. This indicates that the affair occurred after the settlement had been permanently established.
At the time of the first settlement of Monmouth, the difficulties between the Dutch and the English relating to the ownership and sovereignty of New York and New Jersey originated in the question of earliest discoveries by navigators. The English based their claim on dis- coveries made in the reign of Henry 7th, by Cabot, and the Dutch based theirs on the discoveries made by Sir Henry Hudson in 1609. There is nothing on record to show that Cabot ever landed on the soil of the disputed territory. The first account of Whites landing in this section is contained in Verazzana's account of his voyage in 1524, to the King of France, under whose auspices his expedition had been fitted out.
The Nevisinck or Navisink Indians occupied the tract of land in Monmouth between the Atlantic and the Rari- tan Bay. It is evident that the Dutch of New Amster- dam, at an early period in the settlement of that place, carried on a trade in their small sloops with the Nevisink Indians. The noted Patroon, Van Rensallær, had a land- ing place, known as Rensallæer's Pier, near the High- lands. In 1643, the Indians, for some cause, were aroused against the Dutch ; one of their traders named Aert Theunnisen, said to have been from Hoboken, prob- ably not knowing that the Navesinks were among the hostile tribes or bands, crossed over in his sloop to Shrewsbury Inlet, then called by the Dutch Beeregat, where he was surprised and killed.
O'Callaghan's History of New Netherlands, says a patent for an Indian tract on the Raritan was granted to Augustus Heermans, March 28, 1651, and for a colony at Nevesinks to Cornelius Van Werekhoven, November 7th, 1651.
The writer has found no mention of any attempt to settle on the land purchased by the Dutch, but as the pre-
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INTRODUCTORY.
sumption is that one object in view was to found a sottle- mont, it recalls the statement made in one version of the familiar story of Penelope Stout to the effect that shortly after she married Richard Stout they settled where Mid- dletown now is, and there were at that time but six white families in the settlement, including their own, and that this was about 1648, and that after a few years they were compelled to abandon the place on account of threatened Indian troubles. The version given in Smith's History of New Jersey, says that at the time of this threatened Indian trouble there were some fifty families at Middle- town; but this version evidently gives the traditional number of families at Middletown when the permanent settlement was effected a number of years later, and it is not probable that this threatened Indian trouble occurred after that, as if it had been the case, there would in all probability have been some allusion to it in ancient rec- ords, such records for instance as the old Middletown Term Book.
In 1643 a war existed between the Dutch and In- dians during which a party of eighty Indians at Pavonia were massacred in their sleep, by Dutch sollers, an act which greatly excited the indignation of De Vries, who says : "This was a feat worthy of the heroes of old Rome, to massacre a parcel of Indians in their sleep, to take children from the breasts of their mothers and to butcher them in the presence of their parents, or throw their mangled Embs into the fire or water! Other sucklings had been fastened to little boards and in this position they were ent to pieces ! Some were thrown into the river and when their parents rushed in to save them, the soldiers prevented their landing, and let parents and children drown." The killing of Theunisen in Shrews- bury Inlet was undoubtedly an act of retaliation by the Navesink Indians for this and similar acts.
To refer again to the Stout tradition: This states that after the six families had lived at Middletown five or six years, they were compelled to leave on account of troubles between Indians and whites. This time corre-
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
sponds very nearly to the time of the fearful Indian upris- ing in New York in 1655. The Indians then massacred all the inhabitants of Pavonia, now included in Hudson County, and then passed over to Staten Island and left it without an inhabitant or a house. In three days over a hundred Dutch were killed and a hundred and fifty taken prisoners, and property to the amount of two hundred thousand florins was destroyed.
In August, 1664, the Dutch at New York surrendered to the English expedition under Col. Richard Nicolls, and by September 3d the English were fairly established in the fort, and from that time New Amsterdam became known as New York.
The Gravesend people then made another and a suc- cessful effort to purchase lands of the Nevesink In- dians for the purpose of establishing a settlement, and shortly after, during the same year, made two other pur- chases. The abandoned maize or cornfields of the In- dians, referred to by Tienhoven, may have saved the set- tlers some trouble in clearing lands.
HISTORY OF
ONMOUTH AND
CEAN
OUNTIES.
DISCOVERY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY.
ARRIVAL OF SIR HENRY HUDSON.
In the year 1609, Sir Henry Hudson visited our coast in the yacht or ship Half Moon, a vessel of about eighty tons burthen. About the last of August he entered the Delaware Bay, but finding the navigation dangerous he soon left without going ashore. After getting out to sea he stood north-eastwardly and after awhile hauled in and made the land probably not far distant from Great Egg Harbor. The journal or log book of this vessel was kept by the mate, Alfred Juet, and as it contains the first no- tices of Monmouth county by the whites, remarks about the country, its inhabitants and productions, first land- ing, and other interesting matter, an extract is herewith given, commencing with September 2d, 1609, when the Half Moon made land near Egg Harbor. The same day, it will be seen, the ship passed Barnegat Inlet, and at night anchored near the beach within sight of the High- lands.
Their first impression of old Monmouth, it will be seen, was " that it is a very good land to fall in with, and " pleasant land to see ; " an opinion which in the minds of our people at the present day shows that good sense and correct judgment were not lacking in Sir Henry Hudson and his fellow voyagers !
Extract from the Log-Book of the Half Moon.
Sept. 2d, 1609 .- When the sun arose we steered
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
north again and saw land from the west by north- to the north-west, all alike, broken islands, and our soundings were eleven fathoms and ten fathoms. The course along the land we found to be north-east by north. From the land which we first had sight of until we came to a great lake of water, as we could judge it to be, ( Barne- gat Bay,) being drowned land which made it riso like islands, which was in length ten leagues. The month of the lake ( Barnegat In'et) had many shoals, and the sea breaks upon them as it is cast out of the month of it. And from that lake or bay the land les north by east, and we had a great stream out of the bay; and from thence our soundings was ten fathoms two leagues from land. At five o'clock we anchored, being Eght wind, and rode in eight fathoms water; the night was fair. This night I found the land to haul the compass eight degrees. Far to the northward of us we saw high hills ( Highland ?) ; for the day before we found not above two degrees of variation.
This is a very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see.
Sept. 3d .- The morning misty until ten o'clock; then it cleared and the wind came to the south-southeast, so we weighed and stood northward. The land is very pleasant and high and bold to fall withal. At three o'clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers (Narrows, Rockaway Intet and the Raritan ); so we stood along the northward ( Rockaway In'et,) thinking to have gone in, but we found it to have a very shoal bar before it for we had but ten feet water. Then we cast about to the southward and found two fathoms, three fathoms and three and a quarter, till we came to the southern side of them ; then we had five and six fathoms and returned in an hour and a half. So we weighed and went in and rode in five fathoms, ooze ground, and saw many salmons and mullets and rays very great. The height is 40 deg. 30 min. (Latitude.)
First landing of the Whites in Old Monmouth.
Sept. 4th .- In the morning as soon as the day was
7
DISCOVERY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY.
light, we saw that it was good riding farther up; so we sont our boat to sound, and found that it was a very good harbor and four or five fathoms, two cable lengths from the shore. Then we weighed and went in with our ship. Then our boat went on land with our not to fish, and caught ton great mullets of a foot and a half long, a plaice and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. So we trimmed our boat and rode still all day. At night the wind blew hard at the north-west, and our anchor came home, and we drove on shore, but took no hnrt, and thank God, for the ground is soft sand and ooze. This day the people of the country came aboard of us and spemed very glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco leaves and gave us of it for knives and beads. They go in deer skins, loose and well dressed. They have yellow copper. They desire clothes and are very exil. They have a great store of maze or Indian wheat, whereof they make good bread. The country is full of great and tall oaks.
Sept. 5th .- In the morning, as soon as the day was light, the wind ceased and the flood came. So we heaved off the ship again into five fathoms, and sent our boat to sound the bay, and we found that there was three fathoms hard by the sonthern shore. Our men went on land then and saw a great store of men, women and chil- dren, who gave them tobacco at their coming. on land. So they went up into the woods and saw a great store of very goodly oaks and some currants, ( probably huckle- berries). For one of them came on board and brought some dried, and gave me some, which were sweet and good. This day many of the people came on board, some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs. Some women also came with hemp. They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper they did waar abant their nocks. At night they went on land again, so we rode very quiet but durst not trust them.
The First White Man Kil'ed.
Sunday, Sapt. 6th .- In the morning was fair weather,
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
and our master sent John Colman, with four other men, in our boat over to the North side to sound the other river (Narrow's), being four leagues from us. They found by the way shoal water being two fathoms ; but at the north of the river, eighteen and twenty fathoms, and very good riding for ships, and a very narrow river to the westward between two islands (Staten Island und Bergen Point,) the land they told us, was as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as ever they had seen, and here very sweet smell came from them. So they went in two leagues and saw an open sea (Newark Bay.) and returned, and as they came back they were set upon by two canoes, the one having twelve men and the other fourteen men. The night came on and it began to rain, so that their match went out; and they had one man slain in the fight, which was an Englishman named John Colman, with an arrow shot in his throat, and two more hurt. It grew so dark that they could not find the ship that night, but labored to and fro on their oars. They had so great a strain that their grapnel would not hold them.
Sept. 7th .- Was fair, and by ten o'clock they re- turned aboard the ship and brought our dead man with them, whom we carried on land and buried and named the point after his name, Colman's Point. Then we hoisted in our boat and raised her side with waist boards, for defence of our men. So we rode still all night, having good regard for our watch.
Sept. 8th .- Was very fair weather ; we rode still very" quietly. The people came aboard of us and brought to- bacco and Indian wheat, to exchange for knives and beads and offered us no violence. So we fitting up our boat did. mark them to see if they would make any show of the death of our man, which they did not.
Sept. 9th .- Fair weather. In the morning two great canoes came aboard full of men ; the one with their bows and arrows, and the other in show of buying knives, to betray us; but we perceived their intent. We took two of them to have kept them, and put red coats on them,
9
THE WHITES ENTERING SANDY HOOK.
and would not suffer the others to come near us. So they went on land and two others came aboard in a canoe; we took the one and let the other go; but he which we had taken got up and leaped overboard. Then we weighed and went off into the channel of the river and anchored there all night.
The foregoing is all of the log-book of Juet that re- lates to Mommouth county. The next morning the Half Moon proceeded up the North River, and on her return passed out to sea without stopping.
In the extract given above, the words in italics are not of course in the original, but are underscored as ex- planatory.
THE WHITES ENTERING SANDY HOOK.
The earliest accounts we have of the whites being in the vicinity of Monmouth county is contained in a letter of John de Verazzano to Francis 1st, King of France. Verazzano entered Sandy Hook in the spring of 1524 in the ship Dolphin. On his return to Europe, he wrote a letter dated July 8th, 1524, to the King, giving an account of his voyage from Carolina to New Foundland. From this letter is extracted the following :
"After proceeding a hundred leagues, we found a very pleasant situation among some steep hills, through which a very large river, deep at its mouth, forces its way to the sea, from the sea to the estuary of the river any ship heavily laden might pass with the help of the tide, which rises eight feet. But as we were riding at good berth we would not venture up in our vessel without a knowledge of its mouth; therefore we took a boat, and entering the river we found the country on its banks well peopled, the inhabitants not differing much from the others, being dressed out with feathers of birds of various colors."
Historians generally concede that the foregoing is the first notice we have of the whites entering Sandy Hook, visiting the harbor of New York or being in the vicinity of old Monmouth.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
The first deed from the Indians was dated 25th of 1st month, 1664. This was for lands at Nevesink, from the Sachem Popomora, and agreed to by his brother, Mishacoing, to James Hubbard, John Bowne, John Til- ton, Jr .. Richard Stout. William Goulding and Samuel Spicer. The articles given to the Indians in exchange for the land were 118 fathoms seawamp, 68 fathoms of which were to be white and 50 black seawamp, 5 coats, 1 gun, 1 clout capp, 1 shirt, 12 Ibs. tobacco and 1 anker wine : all of which were acknowledged as having been received ; and in addition 82 fathoms of seawamp was to be paid twelve months hence.
Popomora and his brother went over to New York and acknowledged the deed before Governor Nicholls, April 7, 1665. The official record of this deed is in the office of Secretary of State at Albany, N. Y., in Lib. 3, page 1. A copy of it is also recorded in Proprietor's of- . fice. Perth Amboy, as is also a map of the land em- braced in the purchase, and also in the Secretary of State's office. Trenton.
Two other deeds followed and were similarly re- corded, and on April 8th the Governor signed the noted Monmouth Patent. This instrument gives the names of " the rest of the company," referred to in the third deed ; they were Walter Clarke, William Reape, Nathaniel Sil- vester, Obadiah Holmes and Nicholas Davis, twelve in all, to whom the patent was granted.
One of the conditions of the Monmouth Patent was " that the said Patentees and their associates, their heirs or assigns, shall within the space of three years, begin- ning from the day of the date hereof, manure and plant the aforesaid land and premises and settle there one hundred families at the least.
It seemed imposible for the Gravesend men alone to induce that number of families to settle within the pre- scribed time, but they had warm personal friends in Rhode Island, Sandwich, Yarmouth and other places in Massachusetts, in Dover, New Hampshire, and also in different Rhode Island towns, and the stipulation was complied with.
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AN ANCIENT PATENT.
The founders of the settlements in Momouth were not only honorable, conscientious men in their deal- ings, but alsoexceedingly careful ard methodicalin their business transactions. This is shown by the very com- plete account, still preserved in the County Clerk's office at Freehold, of the purchase of the lands of the Indians, the amount paid and to whom, and also the names of those who contributed money toward paying the Indians and for incidental expenses in making the different pur- chases.
Among the purchasers were a number who had been victims of persecution for their religious faith ; some had felt the cruel lash, some had been imprisoned and others had been compelled to pay heavy fines ; others had had near relatives suffer thus. Among those who had suffered were William Shattock, Edward Wharton, Samuel Spicer and Mrs. Micall Spicer, his mother, Eliakim Wardell and wife, Thomas CEfton and daughter Hope, Nicholas Davis, William Reape, John Bowne (the Quaker of Flushing,) Robert Story, John Jenkins, John and George Allen, and Obadiah Holmes. And a number of others named among purchasers, some of whom did not settle in the county, had many years before been disarmed and banished from Massachusetts on account of adherence to Antinomian views.
The principal reasons that caused the founding of the settlements of Monmouth may be summed up in the following extracts :
"THIS IS A VERY GOOD LAND TO FALL IN WITH AND A PLEASANT LAND TO SEE."-Sir Henry Hudson's Log-Book, 1609.
"FREE LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE WITHOUT ANY MOLESTA- TION OR DISTURBANCE WHATSOEVER IN THE WAY OF WORSHIP." - Monmouth Patent, 1665.
AN ANCIENT PATENT.
Shrewsbury township in old Monmonth originally extended to the extreme southern limit of the present county of Ocean. In the year 1749, a portion of the lower
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
part of Shrewsbury was set off and formed into the town- ship of Stafford. The patent creating the township of Stafford is dated March 3d, 1749, and was issued in the reign of George the Second, and is signed by Governor Jonathan Belcher, who was governor of the province of New Jersey from 1757 to 1767. As this patent is the first public official document relating exclusively to the pres- ent county of Ocean, it is a matter of gratification to know that it is still in existence and in a good state of preser- vation. It is on parchment with the great seal of the province attached, the impression of which still shows to good advantage.
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