USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Annals of Morris County > Part 11
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Washington stationed strong detachments. especially of the Militia, under General William Winds, in the region of Plockamm and Quib- bletown, in Somerset County, to witch the enemy; quartered in New Brunswick, and pro- teet that section of the country. I have the affidavits of soldiers, applying for pensions, which prove that these troops were engaged fletted at private houses, in the townships of in no sineenre business ; and that the too in- petnous Winds did very efficient service. The entire season was distinguished by severe skirmishes, in which our Militia behaved with great bravery,
General Isract Putnam was in conanand of the troops, in the neighborhood of the Dela- ware; and General Heath, in the Hudson Highlands. The enemy exhibitel the most ruthless disregard of the rights even of those who bad claimed safety, under " British Pro- tretions ;" and Washington wrote that the people "are exceedingly exasperated at the treatment they have met with. both from Hessian and British Troops." The religious
feelings of the people were shocked by seeing their Churches deserrated, the enemy destroy- ing the peas, and often stabling their horses in the Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch sane- mariex. Churches belonging to the English Establishment were exempted, since, was a body, the Clergy, the Church of England, in the Colonies, were either ventral in the con- test the case with the greater number -or ranged on the side of Royalty." (LITERARY WORLD. September 23d. 1818.) It was not strange that the people should, in these cir- cumstances, have becomes thoroughly wenned from the cause of Royalty. The appeals of such Ministers as MacWhoiter. of Newark. and Callwell, of Elizabethtown. and Green, and Jobnes, and Horton and Woodhull, of Morris conmiy, were Forcibly sustained by the sacrile- gions conduct of the enemy. The conduct of the Tories and refugees vas so inhuman and ontrageons, that the Rovat canse was iden- tified, in the popular esteem, with these vaga- bonds, guilty of treason, robbery. and murder. During that Wirter, Governor Livingston and bis Privy Council, were compelled to ninerate, secretly and frequently, now holding their meetings at Trenton, Princeton. Newark, Mor- ristown, or wherever it could be done, with safety, for the general good. The Governor was not a bold man, but a very persevering one ; and. well aware of the fact that the Tories were determined to seize bim, as a rare prize. to be carried to the enemy, he was usually attended, in his journeys, by a detachment of Arnold's Light Horse ; and very scklom slept two successive nights in one house. In several instances, the Tories made a descent on the house where the Governor had spent the pre- vions night ; bnt, whilst thus hunted, for years. be managed, in every case, to elde his enemies. This estimable officer was greatly estecanal by Washington, and rendered invaluable ser- vices to the country, in those perilous times.
Only a part of the Army was quartered in Lowantica Valley. Large numbers were bil- Morris, Chatham and Hanover. by Commis- siovers appointed for the porpose. This method, though necess rily arbitrary, was met by a people of "willing mind." Aaron Kitchel and his father, Joseph, of Hanover, bad two houses, and gave up the larger one, on condition that the old people might have the other. required only to take care of three sick English prisoners, of whom there was no danger of their catching the small pox. The late Res. Doctor Ashbel Groen remembers that his father's family "consisted of nine individuals : and, as well as can be recoliceted, fourteen officers and soldiers were quartered in the same dwelling." (Dr. Green, in THE CHRISTIAN
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ADVOCATE. ix. 522.) The Sayres, Richards, Ely. Beach, Kitebel, South, Tuttle, and other fami- lies, were served in the same way, making no complaints.
In Whippany, honored as the best village in the County to raise a Company of soldiers, for defence of liberty, Mrs. Anna Kitehel, dangh- ter of Damel Tuttle, devont believer that she was, was willing to " leave it all to the Lord ;" and, in this piety, Her husband was not a whit behind her. These worthy people never said to the soldiers, "be ye warmed and filled," merely, but always had rooms and free provis- ions for at least twelve soldiers, though they onee protested when an officer attempted to bilet sorty hungry fellows on them, for whon;, however, they hung over the fire, "the lang? kettle holding half a barrel, filled with meat potatoes, and other vegetables," so that they might not go away hungry. And there were hundreds of people in Morris County animated with the same spirit. Noble men ! noble wo- men ! your descendants are proud of their an- restry. These are precions relies of a heroic age, and ought to be garnered up safely in his- tory.
Meanwhile, as the Commissioners are pro- viding for the sokliers as best they can. let us look into the old "Arnold Taverb," then hos- ured in sheltering its greatest guest. Seated there att his table, with lips compressed and brow fearfully stern, Washington is "under the elisagreeable necessity of troubling hus Lord- ship, Gen. Howe, with a letter almost wholly on the subject of the cruel treatment which onr officers and men, who are unhappy enough to Fall into your hands, receive on board the pris- on ships in the harbor of New York ;" and did not the writer "endeavor to obtain a redress of their grievances. he would thunk Innsett ascul- pable as those who inflict such severifies npou them." "The distress of the prisoners," wrote one of them. "can not be communicated by words Twenty or thirty aic every day. They he in heaps nubaried. What numbers of my countrymen have died by cold and hunger, per- ished for want of the common necessaries of lite ! I have seen it. This, Sir, is the boasted British clemency ! * * * Rather than * again experience their barbarity and insults, may I call by the sword of the Hessians."_ (American Archives. V., iii., 1429. ) Just a week alter Washington reached Morristown, he wrote two noble epistles to Lord Howe, on the same day. (January 13th,) on the subject of "the barbarons usage" onr soldiers and sailors were receiving in New York, "which their ema- viated countonances confirm." (Sparks's Wash - ington. iv., 273-277.)
But wrightier matters than this are pressing upon hon. The term of enlistment for large
numbers of his men is expiring and most ur- gent letters are sent "to the Council of Safety of Prensylvania," "to the President of Con- gress," "to the Governors of the thirteen. States," calling for more men and munitions ; and it is cheering to find him able to say, on the twentieth of Jannary, "onr affairs here are in a very prosperous tram. Within a month past, in several engagements with the enemy we have killed wounded and taken prisoners between two and three thousand men. I am ver, confident that the enemy's loss here will oblige them to recall their forer from your State. If I am properly supported, I shall hope to close the campaign gloriously for America." (Letter to Governor Cook. in Sparks's Wash- ington, iv .. 256.) But the courageons and ever hopetn! Washington has yet to pass through some very distressing, dark scenes -- battles of Chad's Ford and Germantown for instance- and is yet to be deserted by the Rev. Jacob Duche, the first Chaplain of Congress, and en- dure the sharp agony of Benedict Arnold's trea- son, before he "closes the Campaign glorioush for America ;" but "with the smiles of Provi- dence," he will do it.
During this month of Jannary, he has "the satisfaction to say that General Philemon Dick- inson's behavior, in an action that happened near Somerset Court House, on Mill Stone riv- er, reflected the highest credit on lam ; for though his troops were all raw, he led them through the river, middle deep, and gave the enemy so severe a charge, that although sup- ported by three field-pieces, they gave way and left their convoy of forty wagons and upwards of one Imudred horses, most of them of the English draft bered, and a number of sheep and cattle which they had collected.". (Ibid. 289.)
But then it was not all or mainly sun-light in the "old Arnold Tavern :" for on the twenty - sixth of January Washington wrote, "reinforer- ments come up so extremely slow, that I am afraid I shall be left without any men before they arrive. The enemy must be ignorant of our numbers, or they have not horses to move their artillery, or they would uot suffer us to re- main nodisturbed." (Ibid, 301.)
At this point I may intro lace an aucedott which I nad from G. P. MeCallongh, Esq., Fa- ther-in-law of the late Hon. J. W. Miller, who had it directly from General Doughty, a Beso- lutionary officer residing in Morristown. A man had been employed by Washington, as a spy ; but some cneumstances hao led Cokmel Hamilton to suspect that he was carrying news to the enemy; and he determined to make some good use of the man. Accordingly when the man called one day at the Colonel's office be found him very busy making out a report of
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the condition of the army for the Commander- in-chief. The report was made out with great miuntoness of detail; such a division had so many men, and such a division had so many, ete., etc .; and then the whole was som- med up into a splendid aggregate at least four times as large as the actnal force. The condi- tion of the Magazines was detaile I in the same manner. Soon after the suspected spy entered the office, Colonel Hamilton pretended to have some errand and excused hunself saying he would be back in a few minutes. Apparently, iu his baste, he had h ft his report lying on his table, and no sooner was he gone than the fel- low, glancing over its pages, and sure that he had an invaluable document, through a most fortunate chance, pocketed it and left for the enemy ! General Donghty said that it was Col- OLel Hamilton's opinion that this happy stroke did not a little to keep the enemy from Morris- town, at a time when the American Army was in uo condition to receive them.
Thus passed the month of January, in plans to defend the country from its invaders; but ano her invader was approaching dreadful in- deed to contend with. Mr. Lossing intimates that while measures were taken to innoculate the . okliers in the Northern Department, such means were not taken at Morristown. Not bavng his book at band, Fean only give my impression from memory. But this is a mis- take. It was a common opinion, in this region, at that time, that the small-pox was will'utly and maliciously introduded by the enemy, hop ing to do us fatal damage by the means. But whatever were the means, the "Morristown Bill of Mortahty" shows that on the eleventh of Jannary, 1777. "Martha, widow of Joshua Bail, died of small-pox." "Gershom Hathaway, on the 24th," and "Ebenezer Winds, on the 31st" of the same month, by the same loathsome dis- case. On the titth of February, 1777, Washing- ton wrote, "the small-pox has made such head in every quarter that I find it impossible to keep it from spreading through the whole ar- mv in the natural way. I have therefere deter- mined not only to innoenlate all the troops now here that have not had it, but shall order Dr. Shippen to innoenlate the troops as fast as they come to Philadelphia. They will lose no tune, because they go through the disorder while their clothing, arms and accontrements are get- ting ready." (Sparks's Washington, iv , 311.) He was compelled to resort to this extreme measure by the experience of the previous year, especially in the Northern army, which suffered greatly from smallpox. "An establishment,' says Sparks, "tor innoculation was provided near Morristown for the troops in camp; en . at l'Intadelphia, for those coming from the South; another in Connecticut ; another in
Providence." (Ibid, 364.) So far as Morri -- town is concerned, it was not so much a place. as a series of innoenlating hospitals in different places in the townships of Morris and Hanover. The Rev. Samuel L. Tottle, in his Sketch of Bottle Hill, during the Revolution, from which I have already quoted, remarks that "severa! private hospitals, in this viemity, were used for the purpose of innoenlation. as a means of ar- resting the progress of the disease. One of these was the dwelling subsequently oecupreri by Jonathan Thompson. in the vicinity of the house belonging to Mr. David C. Milter. At that place an excellent surgeon was stationed : and thither all classes in and about this village. went to pass through the process of inocula- tior." "Another place which was set apart for the purpose of inoenlation. was the house which stood at that time on the farm of the late John Ogden, over the hill-about two miles South of Morristown- * * * * That house was then owned and occupied by Mr Elijah Pierson ; and for several months it was contin- nally filled with both soldiers and citizens, who had repaired thither in order to gnard them- selves, by inoculation, against the > mall-por. I have been informed by some of the BrookEchi family, residing but a little distance from the Lowantica camp ground, that they received it from their revolutionary ancestors, who lived and died on the ground, that Juring that same Winter, there was a small cucuopment or th hill back of the Bonsall mansion. a short dis- tance North of the place last described ; and 1 has seemed to me not impr bable that that was an arrangement also made for i .oenlating the army." "Another private house that was occupied for a hospital, was an old one which stood on the spot now occupied of the resi- dence of Mr. Bailey, on the road leading by the camp ground across the Lowaunea valley, and but a little distance from the road leading from Green Village to Morristown. * * sicians and nurses were stationed there also : and everything was done to save the lives of the poor fellows who were carried thither from time to time on hitters from the camp. All the rooms in the house wore contionally tilled wit. patients ; and a very large proportion, of the. ched and were buried in the orchard, abont tive hundred yards North- est of the house. Noth- ing now exists to mark the place of their burial." "ont the principal hospital in the vicinity of the camp, was a large boise which belonged, at that time, to a German gentk . man of the name of Harperee, on the tart which now belongs to J. J. Senfield, Esq .. ou the old road leading from Bottle Hill to Morris- town. That honst sto nl about a quarter et a mile South of the above thorough are, and on ground watch stop i towards the Soulb.
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so that it could not be seen from the road. It was a one and a half story bonse, having four rooms on the lower floor and a greater number on the upper ; abont one and a half miles North-west of the centre of the Camp ; ; and in many respects admirably adapted for the object for which it was used. Here, also, many of the soldiers saw the last of earth. The place where they were buried, it is said, is still to be seen in the South-west corner of the Harperce farm. A triangular piece of ground, containing at least three-quarters of an acre, surrounded by an old-fashioned worm fence and filled with mounds, as closely as they could be placed in regular rows, was the place where these unfortunate men, unblessed with the sympathy of wives, sisters, and mothers, were committed to the dust."
Such are the facts which Mr. Tuttle has res- cued Irom oblivion ; but, probably, in reference to the last two places which he describes, he is wrong in calling them inoenlating hospitals, Dr. Asbbel Green, whose father, "Parson Green, was a Physician, says, explicitly, that, during that season, the disease by inoculation was so light that there was probably not a day m which the Army could not have marched against the enemy, if it had been necessary." (CHRISTIAN AD .. Ix., 522.) There is other con- clusive testimony to the same effect ; but egnally conclusive is the evidener, that those who took the disease is the natural way suffered awlolly, and that a large proportion of them died. The Bailey and Harperce houses were probably hospitais for those who had the small- pox in the natural way, winch accounts for its fatality, at those places. And well might the' author of Bottle Hill, during the Revolution, exclaim, "Very sacred, as a consequence, are the associations which gather around these spots ! Very precious onght they to be in the estimation of all true American patriots !"
If we now return to Hanover. during this memorable season, we find that "Parson Green" is preaching regularly in the old Presbyterian Meeting-house, not from a " Carpenter's bench" as in former years, but from a real pulpit, built for him by Carpenter Jedidiah Beach, to which good act he had been specially incited, as is said, by the Parson's preaching on the some- what odd subject of " the Four Carpeuters." the main inference of which discourse was, " Why can't I have a pulpit ?" That pulpit witnessed the min istrations of its worthy occu- pant until carly in February, 1777, when the Church was converted into a temporary hos- pital for those soldiers "who had taken the discase-small-pox-in the natural way." Ashbel Green, eldest son of the Parson. was then almost lifteen years old, and was " train- ing for real battles, in a Company of boys from
ten to fifteen years old ; none I think were admitted under ten, nuless an individual or two of uncommon growth !" (Life of Dr. A. Green, 55.) It was a dismal time, in the whole region, as we may well imagine. In a valuable note appended to the autobiography of the Rev. Jacob Green of Hanover, Dr. Asbbel Green makes the following statements of facts, which he himself was witness to, in his boyhood : "After the memorable manœuvres and Battles at Trenton and Princeton, *
* General Washington quartered his whole army, not a large one, in Morris-county. The small-pox had broken out among the troops, and proved exceedingly fatal. The Church in which the Rev. Jacob Green statedly preached was used as an hospital for those who had taken the disease in the natural way : and the present writer ean never forget the appalling scenes which he there witnessed, produced by the ravages of that frightful malady, now so hap- pily disarmed of its terrors by the fortunate discovery of vaccination. The troops were distributed in the dwellings of the inhabitants, and the Surgeons of the Army mnoenlated both soldiers and citizens-the citizens withont charge. The family of the writer's father con- sisted of mine individuals ; and, as well as can be recollected, fourteen officers and soldiers were quartered in the same dwelling. All were inoenlated together, and all had the disease in a very favorable manner. Indeed, the disease by inoculation was so slight that there was probably not a day in which the Army could not have marched against the enemy, if it had been necessary ; but it providentially was not necessary." (CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, ix., 522. )
All, however, did not have the disease so lightly. Little Eunice Kitchel, afterwards Mrs. Pierson, a NOUOGENARIAN, had the small-pox, which left traces so deep as were not effaced as long as she lived. Electa Beach, daughter of Ciptain Enoch Beach, afterwards married to Silas Dickerson, of Stanhope, brother of Gov. Mahlon Dickerson, then to the late Colonel Joseph Jackson, of Rockaway, was apparently " sick unto death," with the same disease ; and when she was near eighty years old, she told about the lamentation made over her, by friends, and how that the Doctor tried to con- sole thera by the somewhat rugged words, " that they should not make such an ado about it, for if she got well, she would be so-ugly !" -prefixing one of his Infernal Majesty's derivatives. No doubt many other families were m the same distressing situation, and, perhaps, some of them did not fare as well.
The plan for inoculating the Army produced great alarm in the community ; and Doctor Green says, " My father, I well remember, went in a sleigh to Morristown, accompanied by
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some of the most respectable men of his con- gregation, to confer with General Washing- ton on the subject." The representations made by these gentlemen were answered by Washington with so much force, that they " came back perfectly reconciled to the meas- ure." He incidentally mentions the fact that " Doctor Bond of Philadelphia, then a Surgeon of some eminence, of rank in the Army." and Doctor Cochran, of New Brunswick, were en- gaged in inoculating and attending the sol- chers and citizens. In this connection, he also adds ; " for a short time, my father's Church was made a Hospital for the reception of those on whom the natural small-pox had appeared, before they could be inoculated ; and more frightful and pitiable human beings 1 have never seen. The heads of some of them were swelled to nearly double their natural size ; their eyes were closed ; anl their faces were black as a coal. The most of these died." (Life of Doctor Ashbel Green, 88-9.4. )
The private records of Parishes and Ministers of that day, in Morris County, are unfortunately very scanty ; and, in many cases, not a serap is to be found. In Hanover, Mr. Green left nothing ; and it is only through his son that we have anything to enlighten us in that dis- mal period of history. From las testimony, it appears that soldiers were quartered in every bonse in the Parish ; and that both soldiers and citizens were inoculated. at home, and not in In spitals. It seems that a different course was pursned in Chatham and Morris Townships, where particular houses were set apart as Hos- pita!s for inoculation, and, as is abundantly proved, in the latter place, with results far more dreadful than in Hanover. It evidently would be impossible to incenlate a whole com- mumty promptly in hospitals, so that many were exposed, whilst waiting their turn, or, through Year or some other cause, neglected the precaution, entirely.
The inference may ou plainly drawn from the records of death in the Morristown Bili of Mortality, for the year 1777. On the twenty- fourth of Jaunary, and also on the thirty-first, occurred a death from small -pox in the Parish of Morristown. During the month of Febru- ary, Doctor Johnes attendel eleven funerals m his Parish, caused by small-pox, an average of nearly three per week ; in March he attended nine ; in April, twenty-one ; in May, eleven ; in June, six ; in July, right ; and m Angust, one -all produced by small-pox. Sometimes, as in April, he attended two such funerals in one day, as on the second, seventh, and eighth of April ; and on the fourteenth and thirtieth of April, this unwearied Pastor attended to the grave, each day, three parishoners who had died of this foul disease. The Bill of Mortality
shows that no age, sex, or condition wasexempt -- the waiting inlant, the child just learning to prattle, the mother of littk children, the father, in the strength of manhood, the aged-two men died nearly ninety years old -- the freeman and bond-servant, all were laid under fear of death, in this most awful form. Sixty-eight victims of small-pox did faithful Pastor Johnes attend to " the honse oppointed for all living," in that memorable year of 1777 ; and the most of them between the seventeenth of February and the first of Angust. It was the saddest year the Parish of Morristown ever saw, before or sthec, during which the old bell, which still tolls the hours, in the steeple of the First Pres- byterian Church, tolled the departure from this life, of two hundred and five persons, residents in that community, which was one death in about every one and a half days, through the entire vear.
As already intimated, " Parsen Groen " had too much to do to keep bills of mortality, so that we shall never know how many of those pour soldiers-" more trightfut and pitiable Inman beings I have never seen"-died in the old Hanover Church, their heart-rending moans mingling with the cold, winter winds; nor shall we know how many families were deci- mated by small-pox, dysentery, and putrid fever, the terrible &courges of that year. The same was ire of the Bottle Hill Parish, In which Rev. Azariah Hertou, recent Pastor of the Church, died of small-pos on the twenty- seventh of Match, 1777. The same season, the devoted Pastor, Thomas Iwis. of Mendham, died, perhaps overtasked in visiting the sick and burying the dead. Conkt we bay Bills of Mortahty for each of the oldl Parishes in Morris County, for that year-Hanover, Parsip- pany. Black River. Mendham, Succasunna, Rockaway. Pompton Plains the, would donbt- less tell just such a tale as the Morristown Bill: sad, simple, afflictive, showing that that year. in Morris County, was there a voice heard, ""lamentation and great mourning."
We cannot intelligently appreciate the sitna- tion of Washington, the first Winter he spent in Morristown, without thus bidding the past rise from the dead, to go before ns, like a living drama, that we may look at things in detail- bankruptcy, disease, nakedness, death -just as they crowded upon Washington, his solchers, and their patriotic entertamers. Never wece there combinations of evil things better cal- enlated to undermine the courage of all con- cerned in the struggle ; and yet their faith in God never failed. Washington was not an nn- moved spectator of the griefs about him ; and often might he be seen in Hanover and Lowan- hea Valley, cheering the faith and inspiring the courage of his suffering men. His labors
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