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 25
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 25
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The earliest notice of old Potter Church at Goodluck is found in the following extract from the Journal of John Griffith, a preacher of the Society of Friends, found in Friends' Library, vol. 5, p. 428 :
" On 3d day, 22d of 4th month, 1766, had a large meeting at Little Egg Harbor. Next day had a meeting in a new Presbyterian meetinghouse near Barnegat. It was large and held more than an hour in silence which the people were not accustomed to. At length the word was given with authority and cleverness, showing the ad- vantage of silence in worship. # # We travelled by the seaside to a place called Goodluck where we found a large meetinghouse not quite finished, erected by one Thomas Potter, intended by him, it seems, for all preach- ers to make use of, who would preach freely, except Pa- pists, who would not be admitted even on those terms. We had a meeting in it, but notice not coming timely, it was small and to little satisfaction. We met him that afternoon on his return. He seemed sorry he happened to be out at that time ; he was beyond hireling ministry. CENTENARY CELEBRATION AT GOODLUCK.
Rev. Abel C. Thomas a noted and an aged minister of the Universalist Society furnished the following
THE OLD POTTER CHURCH AT GOODLUCK.
.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
account of the Centennial Celebration of Universalism in Goodluck, Ocean county, in 1870, for the New Jersey Courier, soon after it occurred :
"We had no expectations of large delegations of our members at the late celebration in Goodluck. Our centenary had been attended the week previously in Gloucester, Mass., the number present being variously estimated from ten to fifteen thousand, including two hundred and fifty out of six hundred an'l fifty clergymen.
"On the 28th of September, 1770, Rev. John Murray. a disciple of Relly (in the sense that Relly was a disciple of Christ) landed on the coast of New Jersey.
"The late great convocation in Gloucester antedated the landing of Murray by the space of one week, and a few of us determined to spend the exact Centenary at Goodluck, Ocean county. This was what took us there : precisely one hundred years from the landing of Murray, we held a memorial service in the old church, and also at the Grave of Thomas Potter-the order being substan- tially the same that we had used in Gloucester. The only change was this: "We strew this evergreen and these flowers, in memory and honor of Thomas Potter, the friend and patron of John Murray, our early preacher of Universalism in America."
After a brief address by the Rev. Abel C. Thomas. who conducted the services, a hymn was sung, and the services were appropriately closed.
.
PARSON MURRAY OF THE GOODLUCK UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
CAPTAIN ADAM HYLER.
THE DARING PRIVATEER OF THE REVOLUTION.
Among the captains of privateers who came into Toms River during the Revolution was Captain Adam Hyler. At the time Toms River was burned, one of his barges was found in the stream and carried away by the British.
It is rare to find, in fact or fiction, more daring exploits recorded than those performed chiefly in the waters around old Momouth by Captain Adam Hyler, who resided at New Brunswick during the latter part of the Revolutionary war. From some unaccountable cause, the heroic deeds of this man have received but little notice from historians ; indeed, we remember of but one modern work that makes any allusion to them, and that gives only two or three of the items published below.
Captain Hyler's operations were carried on in Rari- tan Bay, and aloug our coast as far down as Egg Harbor ; chiefly, however, in the first named place. Though he sometimes used sail craft, yet he generally depended upon whale boats or large barges, rowed by skillful crews. These barges were generally kept at New Bruns- wick, but some were at times concealed in small streams emptying into Raritan Bas and River, which place was then reached by old Cranberry Inlet.
Though the Refugee band which had its headquar- ters at the settlement on Sandy Hook, around the light- house, gave great annoyance to the patriots of Monmouth ; yet their operations were much circumscribed by the efforts of Captain Hyler and his brave compatriots, who seriously interfered with the vessels of the Refugees, as well as of the British, and when opportunity offered, as will hereafter be seen, hesitated not to attack their settle- ment, and even the lighthouse fort itself. The Refugees would sometimes boast of successful midnight maraud- ing expeditions into the adjacent country, but the bold, skillful exploits of Hyler far eclipsed their best planned efforts.
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CAPTAIN ADAM HYLER.
A clear idea of Captain Hyler's manner of harassing the enemy is given in the following extracts, copied from various ancient papers published at the time. They serve to aid in completing the picture of life and times in and around old Monmouth during the Revolution.
"October 7, 1781. On Friday last, Captain Adam Hyler, from New Brunswick, with one gunboat and two whaleboats, within a quarter of a mile of the guard- ship at Sandy Hook, attacked five vessels, and after a smart confliet of fifteen minutes, carried them. Two of them were armed, one mounting four six-pounders, and one six swivels and one three-pounder. The hands made their escape with their long boats, and took refuge in a small fort, in which were mounted twelve swivel guns, from which they kept up a constant firing, notwithstand- ing which he boarded them all withont the loss of a man. On board one of them was 250 bushels of wheat and a quantity of cheese belonging to Captain Lippen- cott, bound to New York. He took from them fifty bushels of wheat, a quantity of cheese, several swivels, a number of fuses, one cask of powder and some dry- goods, and stripped them of their sails and rigging, not being able to bring the vessels into port in consequence of a contrary wind and tide ; after which he set fire to all save one, on board of which was a woman and four small children, which prevented her from sharing a similar fate."
On the 13th of October, a week or ten days after the above-mentioned affair, Captain Hyler, with one gunboat and two whaleboats, boarded a sloop and two schooners, which all hands, except two, had previously left, and which lay under the cover of the lighthouse fort at Sandy Hook, and brought them all off; but the sloop being a dull sailor, and being much annoyed from a galley lying near Staten Island, she was set on fire about three miles from the fort. One of the schooners running aground by accident, was stripped and left ; the other, a remarkably fine, fast sailing, Virginia built pilot, mounted with one four-pounder, was brought, with two prisoners, safely off.
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On the 24th of the same month, he started with one gunboat to surprise the "refugee town " at Sandy Hook. He landed within three quarters of a mile of the light house, but found the refugees were out in Monmouth county on a plundering expedition. He, however, fell in with six noted villains who he brought off and lodged in a safe place. A subsequent notice of Captain Hyler, says that at one time he captured the Captain of the guard at the light house, with all his men, but whether it was at this or some other time, is not stated.
November 14th, 1781. On Saturday night, Captain Hyler, with a gunboat and a small party of men, went to the Narrows, where he captured a ship with fourteen hands, and brought her off with the intention of running her up the Raritan river, but near the mouth she unluckily got aground, and, as the enemy approached in force, he was obliged to set her on fire. She was loaded with rum and pork ; several hogsheads of the former he got out and brought off with the prisoners.
The ship captured was probably " The Father's De- sire," as twenty hogsheads of rum and thirty barrels of pork were advertised by the U. S. Marshal to be sold a few days after; which the advertisement states were taken from a ship of this name by Captain Hyler.
"On the 15th of December, Captain Hyler, who commands seven or eight stout whale boats, manned with near one hundred men at the Narrows, fell in with two refugee sloops trading to Shrewsbury, one of them commanded by the noted villain, 'Shore Stephens,' and had on board £600 in specie, besides a considerable quantity of dry goods; the other had similar articles, also sugar, rum, etc. They were taken to New Brunswick."
The many daring exploits of Captain Hyler, follow- ing so close one after another, aroused the British at New York, and they fitted out an expedition with the determination of destroying his boats, and, if possible, capturing him. The following account of this expedition is derived chiefly from Philadelphia papers of the dates of January 15th and 16th 1782 :
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CAPTAIN ADAM HYLER.
"A party of the British lately (about January 9th) made an incursion to New Brunswick with the design, it is said, of carrying off the boats of the celebrated partisan. Captain Adam Hyler. They landed at New Brunswick and plundered two houses, but were gallantly opposed by the neighboring miltia, and the enemy were driven off with some loss. Further accounts say there were some 200 refugees and British, and that they succeeded in destroying the whale boats. No Americans were killed, but five were wounded and six taken prisoners. Several Tories were killed-four known to be, and several were seen to be carried off. The British made the attack about five o'clock, A. M., just before daylight, and the American account says the expedition was well planned. and that the Tories held the town for about an hour. The British regulars were detachments from the 40th and 42d regiments, under command of Captain Beckwith, in six boats, and they took away all of Hyler's boats. The British alleged that Captain Hyler was a deserter from the Royalists."
It is probable that at this time, besides his boats at New Brunswick, Captain Hyler had others concealed elsewhere, as we find early in the following spring he was at work as usual, apparently but little inconveni- enced by the loss of the boats taken by the British. though he may have built some in the meantime. In March following, when the British attacked and burned Toms River, they boasted of having captured there a fine large barge, belonging to Captain Hyler.
In April, 1782, Captain Hyler, in an open boat. boarded and took a large cutter, almost ready for sea. lying near Sandy Hook, and near the Lion man-of-war. sixty-four guns. This eutter mounted twelve eighteen pounders, and was commanded by one White, formerly of Philadelphia, but turned apostate. Hyler blew up the vessel, which was designed as a cruiser, and took forty prisoners. Another account says the number of prisoners was fifty, and the cutter's armament was six eighteen pounders and ten nine pounders. At the same
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time he took a sloop which was ransomed for £400. The Captain of the cutter gives an amusing account of the Way Hyler captured his vessel.
"On the 25th of May, 1782, Captain Hyler, with his armed boats, being in Shrewsbury river, a party of British troops, consisting of twenty-five men, under Cap- tain Shaak, was detached to intercept him in the gut. Hyler discovered them, and landed thirteen men with orders to charge ; when four of the enemy were killed or wounded, and the Captain and eight men taken prisoners. By the firing of a gun it was supposed others were killed, as they were seen to fall. Just before this affair Captain Hyler had met with a hurt, or otherwise he probably would not have let a man escape."
On the 2d of July, Captain Hyler, assisted by Cap- tain Story, another brave partisan, in New York bay, with two whale boats, boarded and took the schooner "Skip Jack," carrying six guns, besides swivels, and burned her at noon, in sight of the guard-ship, and took the Captain and nine or ten men prisoners. About the same time he also took three or four trading vessels, loaded with calves, sheep, &e.
These were probably about the last exploits in which Captain Hyler was engaged, as we find no further men- tion of his name in ancient papers until the announce- ment of his death, some two months after. He died at New Brunswick on the 6th of September, 1782.
The following from an ancient paper gives a graphic account of his manner of conducting his operations. It was originally published June 19, 1782 :
"The exertions of the celebrated water partisan, Captain Adam Hyler, have been a considerable annoy- ance to the wood shallops, trading vessels and plunder- ing pirates of the enemy about Sandy Hook, Long Island and Staten Island for several months past. You have heard that his effort to take an eighteen-gun cutter was crowned with success. It was indeed a bold and hazard- ous attempt, considering how well she was provided against being boarded. He was, however, compelled to
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blow her up, after securing his prisoners and a few arti- eles on board. His surprising a captain of the guard, at the lighthouse, with all his men, a short time ago, was a handsome affair, and gained him much credit. He has none but picked and tried men. The person who dis- covers the least symptom of fear or diffidence, be he who he will, is immediately turned on shore and never suf- fered to enter again. In the next place, they are taught to be particularly expert at the oar, and to row with such silence and dexterity as not to be heard at the smallest clistance, even though three or four boats be together, and go at the rate of twelve miles an hour. Their cap- tures are made chiefly by surprise or stratagem ; and most of the crews that have hitherto been taken by these boats declare they never knew anything of an enemy being at hand till they saw the pistol or cutlass at their throats."
After the notorious Refugee, Lippencott, had barba- rously murdered Captain Joshua Huddy, near the High- lands, General Washington was anxious to have the murderer secured. He had been demanded of the British General, and his surrender refused. Captain Hyler was determined to take Lippencott On inquiry he found that he resided in a well known house in Broad street, New York. Dressed and equipped like a man-of- war press gang, he left the Kills, with one boat, after dark, and arrived at Whitehall about nine o'clock. Here he left his boat in charge of three men and passed to the residence of Lippencott, where he inquired for him . and found that he was absent, having gone to a cock pit. Thus failing in his object he returned to his boat, with his press gung, and left Whitehall, but finding a sloop lying at anchor off the battery, from the West Indies, laden with rum, he took her, cut her cable, set her sails, and, with a north-east wind, sailed to Elizabethtown Point, and before daylight, had landed from her and secured forty hogsheads of rum. He then burned the sloop to prevent her re-capture.
The fact of Captain Hyler's having been formerly in
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the British service, increases our admiration for his bold operations. Had he been taken by the British he proba- bly would have received a deserter's punishment.
NEW JERSEY WATERING PLACES -THEIR ORIGIN.
The first seaside resorts in New Jersey in all proba- bility were Long Beach, in Monmouth, and Tucker's Beach, in Little Egg Harbor. The first named place, now in Ocean county, is opposite the villages of Barnegat and Mannahawkin, and the latter opposite Tuckerton. Of these places Watson's Annals of Philadelphia says :
" We think Long Beach and Tucker's Beach in point of earliest attraction as a seaside resort for Philadel- phians must claim the precedence. They had their visi- tors and distant admirers long before Squan and Deal, and even Long Branch itself, had got their several fame. To those who chiefly desire to restore languid frames, and to find their nerves braced and firmer strung, noth- ing can equal the invigorating surf and general air. Long Branch-last but greatest in fame, because the fashionables who rule all things have made it so-is still inferior as a surf to those above named."
Before the Revolution, Philadelphians and others from a distance who visited Long and Tucker Beaches, went in old-fashioned shore wagons on their return trips from the city, and took with them their stoves, blankets, etc. Some people on the beaches began to make pro- visions to receive these transient boarders, and so origi- nated this business in New Jersey in which now annually is spent such an immense amount of money. The shore wagons carted fish and oysters to Philadelphia, Trenton and other places over a hundred years ago, and these primitive conveyances on their return trips were first used to convey health or pleasure seekers to our earliest seaside resorts. What a contrast between then and now -- between an oyster wagon and a palace car !
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NEW- JERSEY WATERING PLACES.
Long Branch comes next in order, being first known as a watering place about 1788.
Cape May began to be known as a watering place about 1813. Atlantic City was founded some forty years later, about the time of the completion of the Camden and Atlantic railroad.
The foregoing watering places from Long Branch to Cape May, it is said, were all brought into notice by Philadelphians.
LONG BRANCH-WHO FIRST BROUGHT IT INTO NOTICE.
The earliest mention of Long Branch as a watering place in any historical works that the writer of this has found, is in Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, published in 1830, as follows :
" This place, before the Revolution, was owned by Colonel White, a British officer, and an inhabitant of New York. The small house which he occupied as a summer residence was existing among a clump of houses owned by Renshaw, in 1830. In consequence of the war the place was confiscated. The house was first used as a boarding house by Elliston Perot, of Philadelphia, in 1788. At that time the whole premises were in charge of one old woman left to keep the place from injury. Of her Mr. Perot begged an asylum for himself and family, which was granted, provided he could get beds and bed- ding from others. Being pleased with the place he re- peated his visit there three successive years, taking some friends with him. In 1790-1, Mr. McKnight, of Mon- month, noticing the liking shown for the place, deemed it a good speculation to buy it. He bought the whole premises containing one hundred acres for £700 and then got Mr. Perot and others to loan him two thousand dol- lars to improve it. He then opened it for a watering place and before his death it was supposed he had made forty thousand dollars by the investment. The estate was sold to Renshaw for $13,000."
According to Watson it would seem that Elliston Perot was the founder of Long Branch as a watering
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place. The Perot family has been a prominent one in Philadelphia annals. During the Revolution the Perot mansion at Germantown was used by Lord Howe as a residence, and after the war, while General Washington was President, he also occupied it for a time during the prevalence of the yellow fever in the city in 1793.
THE LAST INDIAN CLAIMANTS.
At a conference between the whites and Indians held at Crosswicks, N. J., in February, 1758, two Indians known by the whites as Tom Store and Andrew Woolley claimed the land " from the mouth of Squan river to the mouth of the Shrewsbury, by the streams of each to their heads and across from one head to another." This claim was satisfactorily settled at a subsequent confer- ence held at Easton. Pa .. in October of the same year.
HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF LONG BRANCH.
The following extracts are from the New York Gazette. Morris' Guide and other authorities, to which some comments are added :
From the best sources we find a tradition generally credited among the best informed descendants of old settlers, that a party of Indians, whose grounds lay back of this portion of the coast, visited the shore in the fall of 1734. So well pleased were the red men with this inaugural visit to the seaside, that like many of their modern white brethren. they became habitues of the place, still adhering to the original camping ground, a location near the Clarendon Hotel. Here they made their annual pilgrimage for fishing, &c., and welcoming, after a long march, the termination of the land, called the place "Land's End."
A few years thereafter settlers bought crown lands for twenty shillings per acre, and to protect their dwell- ings from the winter winds upon the coast, located them a short distance from the shore, pursuing the double calling of farmers and fishermen. They opened the Burlington pathway to Moumonth Court House and attracted other settlers, thus establishing old Long
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NEW JERSEY WATERING PLACES.
Branch Village, one and a half miles from the beach and within a radius of this distance embracing a popula- tion of over three thousand.
When the old settlers had opened the Burlington pathway to Momouth Court House, intersecting a road to Burlington, communication was then opened with this point of the Atlantic coast, possessing advantages as a salubrious seaside resort far superior to any other. No other portion of this coast commands a bluff of more than from half a mile to a mile in extent, while Long Branch has a continuous range of five miles of bluff, which extends over a rolling country of increasing eleva- tions back to Monmouth Court House at Freehold, a distance of seventeen miles. At the early period indi- cated, Philadelphians availed themselves of the oppor- tunity thus presented to drive over the new road and enjoy the luxuries of a sea bath.
ORIGIN OF NAME-THE GREAT WRESTLING MATCH.
" Long Branch takes its name from a brook, a branch of the South Shrewsbury river, which runs in a direct line northward with the coast. It is of little use except for gathering ice for the hotels and cottages.
Tradition points to an Indian fishery, established in 1734, as the first occupation of this place, which was styled at that time 'Land's End.' A legend tells us that in those early times four men named Slocum, Parker, Wardell and Hulett, came from Rhode Island in quest of land. They found the Indians friendly but not dis- posed to sell. It was proposed by the Yankees that a wrestling match should be made up between one Indian and one of the whites, to be decided by the best in three rounds. If the champion of the white men won, they were to have as much land as a man could walk around in a day; if otherwise, they were to leave peacably. Jolin Slocum was selected for the struggle-a man of great proportions, athletic and of great strength, courage and inflexibility of purpose. Great preparations were made to witness the encounter. The chosen Indian
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wrestler practised continually for the event. The day long expected proved cloudless and auspicious. The spot chosen was the present Fishing Land. A circle was formed and the Indian champion, elated, confident and greased from head to foot, appeared. Slocum ad- vanced coolly and the struggle began; it was long and doubtful ; finally Slocum threw his antagonist, but in an instant the Indian was again on his feet. A murmur ran through the circle. Again the Indian made a violent ef- fort and both fell. Another murmur was heard. Silence prevailed as they came together again, broken only by the roaring of the surf. A long struggle. Slocum inured to toil, hardy and rugged, proved too much for the Indian and threw him, to the intense disappointment of the Indians and undisguised joy of the whites. The terms were then all arranged. John Slocum had two brothers and they located that part of Long Branch reaching from the shore to Turtle Mill brook, embracing all lands lying north of the main road, from the sea to Eatontown, between these two points to the south of Shrewsbury, except Fresh Pond and Snag Swamp, which was located by one of the Wardell family. A considerable portion of these lands continued in the possession of the Slocums until fifty or sixty years ago. All are now gone into other hands. The Parkers placed themselves on Rum- son's Neck. Hulett lived for a time at Horse Neck, but afterwards left this region. Indian warrants, it is said, still exist in the county conveying these lands to the white owners.
After some years a few hardy settlers from neigh- boring provinces purchased lands from the agents of the Crown at the rate of twenty shillings per acre, deeds for which, it is stated, are in existence over the signature of King George III or his agents."
Probably the most noted Indian in this section of Old Monmouth was the celebrated Indian Will, of whom a number of traditions were published and which are given elsewhere. He was well known at Eatontown, Long Branch and vicinity, at Squan and along the coast down
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