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 7
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 7
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EARLY HISTORY OF OLD MONMOUTH.
the country, which is now called New Jersey ; and we travelled we supposed nearly 40 miles. In the evening we got to a few Indian wigwams, which are their houses ; we saw no man, nor woman, house nor dwelling, that day, for there dwelt no English in that country then.
" We lodged that night in an Indian wigwam, and lay upon the ground as the Indians themselves did, and the next day we travelled through several of their towns, and they were kind to ns, and helped us over the creeks with their canoes; we made our horses swim at the sides of the canoes, and so travelled on. Towards evening we got to an Indian town, and when we had put onr horses out to grass we went to the Indian King's house, who re- ceived us kindly, and showed us very civil respect. But alas ! he was so poorly provided, having got so little that day, that most of us could neither get to eat or drink in his wigwam; but it was because he had it not-so we lay as well as he, upon the ground-only a mat under us, and a piece of wood or any such thing under our heads. Next morning early we took horse and travelled through several Indian towns, and that night we lodged in the woods; and the next morning got to an English planta- tion, a town called Middletown, in East Jersey, where there was a plantation of English and several Friends, and we came down with a Friend to his house near the water-side, and he carried us over in his boat and our horses to Long Island."
It is impossible to read the accounts of travelling at this early period without being forcibly reminded of the contrast in traveling then and now. Many of the Quaker preachers speak of crossing streams in frail Indian ca- noes, with their horses swimming by their side ; and one, the fearless, zealous John Richardson, (so noted among other things for his controversies with "the apostate George Keith") in substance recommends, in traveling across New Jersey, "for safety, travellers' horses should have long tails." The reason for this singular sugges- tion was that in crossing streams the frail canoes were often capsized, and if the traveller could not swim, he
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
might probably preserve his life by grasping his horse's tail. Mr. Richardson describes how one man's life was preserved by this novel life preserver; in this case the life-preserver being the long tail of Mr. R.'s own horse ; and in commenting upon it he quaintly observes "that he always approved horses' tails being long in crossing rivers.'
Long before Fox and Burnyeate crossed the state, the whites, particularly the Dutch, frequently crossed our state by Indian paths, in going to and fro between the settlements on the Delaware and New Amsterdam (New York), though they have left but meagre accounts of their journeyings, and there are strong probabilities that the Dutch from New Amsterdam, after furs and searching for minerals, crossed the state as far as Burl- ington Island, Trenton, and points far up the Del- aware from forty to fifty years before the trip of these Quaker preachers.
That their journeyings were not always safe, is shown in the following extract of a letter written by Jacob Al- ricks, September 20th, 1669 :
" The Indians have again killed three or four Dutch- men, and no person can go through; one messenger who was eight days out returned without accomplishing his purpose."
The next day he writes :
I have sent off messenger after messenger to the Manhattans overland, but no one can get through, as the Indians there have again killed four Dutchmen.
At the time of writing these letters Alricks resided in Delaware, and they were addressed to the Dutch au- thorities at New York.
TRADITIONARY STORIES OF THE INDIANS.
Of the different accounts by ancient writers of the manners and customs of the Indians of our part of the State and West Jersey, about the clearest and most readable is by the celebrated Swedish traveller, Professor
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TRADITIONARY STORIES OF THE INDIANS.
Kalm, who visited our State in 1748, and from whose writings the following extracts are taken :
INDIAN MODE OF FEELING TREES.
When the Indians intended to fall a thick, strong tree, they could not make use of their clumsy stone hatchets, and for want of proper instruments, employed fire. They set fire to a great quantity of wood at the root of the tree, and made it fall by that means. But that the fire might not reach higher than they would have it, they fastened some rags on a pole, dipped them in water, and kept constantly wetting the tree a little above the fire.
MAKING CANOES-A SERIOUS TASK.
Whenever the Indians intend to hollow out a thick tree for a canoe, they lay dry branches all along the stem of the trees as far as it must be hollowed out. Then they put fire to these dry branches, and as soon as they are burned out, they are replaced by others. While these branches are burning, the Indians are very busy with wet rags and pouring water upon the tree to prevent the fire from spreading too far in at the sides and at the ends. The tree being burnt hollow as far as they found it sufficient, or as far as it could without damaging the canoe, they took their stone hatchets, or sharp flints, or sharp shells, and scraped off the burnt part of the wood, and smoothed the boat within. By this means they like- wise gave it what shape they pleased ; instead of using a hatchet they shaped it by fire. A good sized canoe was commonly thirty or forty feet long.
PREPARING LAND FOR CORN-RUDE FARMING.
The chief use of their hatchets was to make fields for maize plantations; for if the ground where they in- tended to make corn fields was covered with trees, they cut off the bark all around the trees with their hatchets, especially at a time when they lose their sap. By that means, the trees became dry and could not partake any more nourishment, and the leaves could no longer obstruct the rays of the sun. The small trees were pulled
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
out by force, and the ground was a little turned up with crooked or sharp branches.
MAKING FLOUR-INDIANS ASTONISHED.
They had stone pestles about a foot long and as thick as a man's arm, for pounding maize, which was their chief and only corn. They pounded all their corn in hollow trees ; some Indians had only wooden pestles. They had neither wind mills, water mills, nor hand mills to grind it, and did not so much as know a mill before the Europeans came to this country. I have spoken with old Frenchmen in Canada, who told me the Indians had been astonished beyond expression, when the French set up the first wind mill. They came in numbers even from the most distant parts to view this wonder, and were not tired with sitting near it for several days to- gether, in order to observe it; they were long of opinion that it was not driven by wind, but by spirits who lived within it. They were partly under the same astonish- ment when the first water mill was built.
TOOLS OF THE INDIANS.
Before the coming of the Europeans, the Indians were entirely unacquainted with the use of iron. They were obliged to supply the want with sharp stones, shells, claws of birds and wild beasts, pieces of bone and other things of that kind, whenever they intended to make hatchets, knives and such like instruments. From whence it appears they must have led a very wretched life. Their hatches were made of stone, in shape similar to that of wedges used to cleave wood, about half a foot long, and broad in proportion ; they are rather blunter than our wedges. As this hatchet must be fixed with a handle, there was a notch made all around the thick end. To fasten it, they split a stick at one end, and put the stone between it, so that the two halves of the stick came into the notches of the stone; then they tied the two split ends together with a rope or something like it, almost in the same way as smiths fasten the instruments with which they cut off iron, to a split stick. Some of
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INDIAN WILL.
these stone hatchets were not notched or furrowed at the upper end, and it seems that they only held these in their hands to hew or strike with them, and did not make handles to them. Some were made of hard rock or stone. Fish hooks were made of bones or birds' claws.
INDIAN WILL.
AN ECCENTRIC ABORIGINAL OF THE SHORE.
In days gone by, the singular character and eccen- tric acts of the noted Indian Will formed the theme of many a fireside story among our ancestors, many of which are still remembered by older citizens. Some of the traditionary incidents given below differ in some par- ticulars, but we give them as related to us many years ago by old residents. Indian Will was evidently quite a traveler, and well known from Barnegat almost to the Highlands. At Forked River, it is said he often visited Samuel Chamberlain on the neck of land between the north and middle branches, and was generally followed by a pack of lean, hungry dogs which he kept to defend himself from his Indian enemies. The following tradi- tion was published in 1842, by Howe, in Historical Col- lections of New Jersey :
" About the year 1670, the Indians sold out the sec- tion of country near Eatontown to Lewis Morris for a barrel of cider, and emigrated to Crosswicks and Cran- bury. One of them, called Indian Will, remained, and dwelt in a wigwam between Tinton Falls and Swimming River. His tribe were in consequence exasperated, and at various times sent messengers to kill him in single combat ; but, being a brave, athletic man, he always came off conqueror. One day while partaking of a breakfast of suppawn and milk with a silver spoon at Mr. Eaton's, he casually remarked that he knew where there were plenty of such. They promised that if he would bring them, they would give him a red coat and cocked hat. In a short time he was arrayed in that dress, and it is said the Eatons suddenly became wealthy. About
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
80 years since, in pulling down an old mansion in Shrewsbury, in which a maiden member of this family in her lifetime had resided, a quantity of cob dollars, supposed by the superstitious to have been Kidd's money, was found concealed in the cellar wall. This coin was generally of a square or oblong shape, the corners of which wore out the pockets."
A somewhat similar, or perhaps a variation of the same tradition, we have frequently heard from old resi- dents of Ocean county, as follows :
"Indian Will often visited the family of Derrick Longstreet at Manasquan, and one time showed them some silver money which excited their surprise. They wished to know where he got it and wanted Will to let them have it. Will refused to part with it, but told them he had found it in a trunk along the beach, and there was plenty of yellow money beside ; but as the yellow money was not as pretty as the white, he did not want it, and Longstreet might have it. So Longstreet went with him, and found the money in a trunk, covered over with a tarpaulin and buried in the sand. Will kept the white money, and Longstreet the yellow (gold), and this satisfactory division made the Longstreets wealthy.
It is probable that Will found money along the beach ; but whether it had been buried by pirates, or was from some shipwrecked vessel, is another question. However, the connection of Kidd's name with the money would indicate that Will lived long after the year named in the first quoted tradition (1670). Kidd did not sail on his piratical cruises until 1696, and, from the tradition- ary information the writer has been enabled to obtain, Will must have lived many years subsequent. The late John Tilton, a promient, much-respected citizen of Bar- negat, in early years lived at Squan, and he was quite confident that aged citizens who related to him stories of Will, knew him personally. They described him as stout, broad-shouldered, with prominent Indian features, and rings in his ears, and a good-sized one in his nose.
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INDIAN WILL.
The following are some of the stories related of him : Among other things which Will had done to excite the ill-will of other Indians, he was charged with having killed his wife. Her brother, named Jacob, determined on revenge. He pursued him, and, finding him unarmed undertook to march him off captive. As they were going along, Will espied a pine knot on the ground, managed to pick it up, and suddenly dealth Jacob a fatal blow. As he dropped to the ground, Will tauntingly exclaimed, "Jacob, look up at the sun-you'll never see it again !" Most of the old residents who related traditions of Will, spoke of his finding honey at one time on the dead body of an Indian he had killed ; but whether it was Jacob's or some other, was not mentioned.
At one time to make sure of killing Will, four or five Indians started in pursuit of him, and they succeeded in surprising him so suddenly that he had no chance for dle- fence or flight. His captors told him they were about to kill him, and he must at once prepare to die. He heard his doom with Indian stoicism, and he had only one favor to ask before he was killed and that was to be allowed to take a drink out of his jug of liquor which had just been filled. So small a favor the captors could not refuse. As Will's jug was full, it was only common politeness to ask them to drink also. Now, if his captors had any weakness it was for rum, so they gratefully accepted his invitation. The drink rendered them talkative, and they commenced reasoning with him upon the enormity of his offences. The condemned man admitted the justness of their reproaches and begged to be allowed to take another drink to drown the stings of conscience ; the captors consented to join him again-indeed it would have been cruel to refuse to drink with a man so soon to die. This gone through with, they persuaded Will to make a full confession of his misdeeds, and their magni- tude so aroused the indignation of his captors that they had to take another drink to enable them to do their duty becomingly ; in fact they took divers drinks, so overcome were they by his harrowing tale, and then they
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
were so completely unmanned that they had to try to re- cuperate by sleep. Then crafty Will, who had really drank but little, softly arose, found his hatchet, and soon dispatched his would-be captors.
It was a rule with Will not to waste any ammuni- tion, and therefore he was bound to eat whatever game he killed, but a buzzard which he once shot, sorely tried him, and it took two or three days' starving before he could stomach it. One time when he was alone on the beach he was seized with a fit of sickness and thought. he was about to die, and not wishing his body to lie ex- posed, he succeeded in digging a shallow grave in the sand in which he lay for a while, but the sickness passed off and he crept out and went on his way rejoicing. In the latter part of his life he would never kill a willet, as he said a willet once saved his life. He said he was in a canoe one dark stormy night crossing the bay, and somewhat the worse for liquor, and unconsciously about to drift out of the Inlet into the ocean, when a willet screamed and the peculiar cry of this bird seemed to him to say " This way, Will! this way, Will !" and that way Will went, and reached the beach just in time to save himself from certain death in the breakers. When after wild fowl he would sometimes talk to them in a low tone : "Come this way, my nice bird, Will won't hurt you!" If he succeeded in killing one he would say : " You fool, you believed me, eh ? Ah, Will been so much with white men he learned to lie like a white man !"
Near the month of Squan river is a deep place known as " Will's Hole." There are two versions of the origin of the name, but both connecting Indian Will's name with it. Esquire Benjamin Pearce, an aged, intel- ligent gentleman, residing in the vicinity, informed the writer that he understood it was so called because Will himself was drowned in it. The other version, related by the late well remembered Thomas Cook, of Point Pleasant, is as follows :
Indian Will lived in a cabin in the woods near Cook's place ; one day he brought home a muskrat which he or-
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INDIAN WILL.
dered his wife to cook for dinner; she obeyed, but when it was placed upon the table she refused to partake of it. "Very well," said he, " if you are too good to eat musk- rat you are too good to live with me." And thereupon he took her down to the place or hole in the river spoken of, and drowned her. Mr. Cook gave another tradition as follows : Indian Will had three brothers-in-law, two of whom resided on Long Island, and when, in course of time, word reached them that their sister had been drowned, they crossed over to Jersey to avenge her death. When they reached Will's cabin, he was inside eating clam soup. Knowing their errand, he invited them to dinner, telling them he would fight it out with them afterward. They sat down to eat, but before con- cluding their dinner Will pretended he heard some one coming, and hurried to the door, outside of which the visitors had left their guns, one of which Will caught up and fired and killed one Indian and then shot the other as he rushed to close in. In those days the Indians held yearly councils about where Burrsville now is. At one of these councils Will met the third brother-in-law, and when it was over they started home together carrying a jug of whiskey between them. On the way, inflamed with liquor, this Indian told Will he meant to kill him for drowning his sister. They closed in a deadly fight, and Will killed his antagonist with a pine knot.
Mr. Cook said, Indian Will finally died in his cabin above mentioned. From the traditions related to us .many years ago by Eli and John Collins and John Til- ton of Barnegat, Reuben Williams of Forked River, and others, and from Thomas Cook's statements, it is evident . Indian Will must have lived until about a century ago, and if he protested against any sale of land, it must have been against the titles ceded about 1758. At the treaties then, an Indian called Captain John, claimed the lands from Metedeconk to Toms River, but other Indians said they were also concerned.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
INDIAN PETER.
A TRADITION OF IMLAYSTOWN.
About a century ago an Indian named Peter, said to have been connected by relationship and in business with the noted Indian Tom, after whom some, we think erroneously, considered Toms River to be named, re- sided at Toms River, but owing to an unfortunate habit of mixing too much whisky with his water, he became unfortunate, and about the time of the war removed with his family to the vicinity of Imlaystown, where he built a wigwam by a pond not far from the village.
Shortly after he located here his wife sickened and died. Peter dearly loved his squaw, and was almost heart-broken on account of the unlucky event. He could not bear the idea of parting with his wife, of put- ting her under ground out of sight. For a day or two he was inconsolable and knew not what to do; at length a lucky idea occurred to him; instead of burying her where he never more could see her, he would put a rope about her neck and place her in the pond and daily visit her. This idea he at once put into execution, and as he daily visited her, it somewhat assuaged his poignant grief. On one of his melancholy visits to the departed partner of his bosom, he noticed in the water around her a large number of eels. To turn these eels to account was a matter of importance to Peter, for though he loved his wife, yet he loved money, too. So he caught the eels daily, and for a week or so visited the village regularly and found a ready sale for them among the villagers.
But at length the supply failed-his novel eel trap gave out. A few days thereafter he was in the village and numerous were the inquiries why he did not bring any more of those good eels.
" Ah," said Peter very innocently, drawing a long sigh, " me catch no more eels-me squaw all gone-boo -hoo!"
His grief and singular reply called for an explana- tion, and he, thinking nothing wrong, gave it.
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AN INDIAN DINNER-A SAVORY DISH.
The result was a general casting up of accounts among the villagers, terrible anathemas upon the In- dian, and a holy horror of eels among that generation of Imlaystown citizens, and even to this day it is said some of their descendants would as soon eat a snake as an eel.
(The above tradition we have no doubt is substan- tially correct ; we derived it from Hon. Charles Parker, for many years State Treasmer, father of Gov. Parker, who some sixty years ago, while at Toms River, met with some of the disgusted purchasers of Indian Peter's eels.)
AN INDIAN DINNER-A SAVORY DISH.
BETHSHEBA, THE INDIAN QUEEN.
The last remnant of the Indians who frequented the lower part of old Monmouth, had their principal settle- ment at a place called Edgepelick or Edge Pillock, about three miles from Atsion in Burlington county, from whence they removed to Oneida Lake, New York, 1802. Before their removal, members of this tribe with their families would visit the shore once a year and spend some time fishing, oystering, making baskets, &c. The most noted among the last Indians who regularly visited the shore were Charles Moluss, his wife, and wife's sister, who bore the euphonious names of Bash and Suke, among the ancient residents of old Stafford township, but in Little Egg Harbor, Burlington county, where they also were frequent visitors, Moluss' wife was known as Bath- sheba, and considered as a kind of Indian Queen, on ac- count of the great respect shown to her by her people and by the Quakers of Burlington, because of her pos- sessing more intelligence, and having a more prepossess- ing personal appearance than the rest of her tribe. At Tuckerton, when her company visited there and put up their tents, Bathsheba was generally invited to make her home with some one of the principal inhabitants of the place. At Barnegat, her company generally camped on the place lately owned by Captain Timothy Falkinburgh, where they were on friendly terms with the whites and quite disposed to be hospitable, but Bathsheba, Indian
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH AND OCEAN COUNTIES.
Queen though she may have been, occasionally pre- pared Indian delicacies for the table which the whites seldom appreciated. Some thirty years ago Eli Collins, a well remembered aged citizen of Barnegat, told the writer of this, that when he was a young man, one time he had been out from home all day, and on his way back, stopped at the hut of Moluss. His wife Bash, or Bath- sheba, was boiling something in a pot which sent forth a most delightful odor to a hungry man, and he was cor- dially invited to dine. As he had been without anything to eat all day he willingly accepted the invitation ; but he soon changed his determination when he found the savory smelling dish was hop told soup.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM TOM.
A WEST JERSEY PIONEER-AFTER WHOM WAS TOMS RIVER NAMED ?- THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH-INDIAN JUSTICE -DISCOVERY OF TOMS RIVER.
In regard to the origin of the name of Toms River, we have two distinct traditions; one alleging that it was named after a somewhat noted Indian, who once lived in its vicinity; the other attributes it to a certain Captain William Tom, who resided on the Delaware two hundred years ago, and who it is said penetrated through the wilderness to the seashore, on an exploring expedition, where he discovered the stream now known as Toms River ; upon his return he made such favorable repre- sentations of the land in its vicinity, that settlers were induced to come here and locate, and these settlers named it Toms River, after Mr. Tom, because he first brought it to the notice of the whites.
While the writer of this, after patient investigation, acknowledges that he can find nothing that conclusively settles the question, yet he is strong in the belief that the place derives its name from Mr. Tom, for the follow- ing reasons: First-Though there was a noted Indian residing at Toms River a century ago, known as "Indian Tom," yet the place is known to have borne the name of
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CAPTAIN WILLIAM TOM.
Toms River when he was quite a young man; it is not reasonable to suppose the place was named after him when he was scarce out of his teens. Second-The posi- tion and business of Captain William Tom, was such as to render it extremely probable that the tradition relat- ing to him is correct. Much difficulty has been found in making researches in this matter, as Capt. Tom was an active man among our first settlers before our West Jer- sey records begin, and information regarding him has to be sought for in the older records of New York and New Castle, Delaware. In his day Southern and Western Jersey were under control of officials whose headquar- ters were at New Castle, Del .: these officials were ap- pointed by the authorities at New York. In his time Capt. John Carr appears to have been the highest official among the settlers on both sides of the Delaware, acting as Commissioner, &c. But at times it would seem that Capt. Tom was more relied upon in managing public af- fairs by both the Governors at New York and the early settlers, than any other man among them. In the various positions which he held, he appears to have unselfishly and untiringly exerted himself for the best interests of the settlers and the government.
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