USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Centennial history of Somerset County [New Jersey] > Part 3
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Beginning again at Holland's Brook, north side, there were twelve plots of land surveyed, and the deeds were given to the following persons ; viz : First to Andrew Hamilton Oct. 13, 1689, 250 acres ; next, Hendrick Cor- son June 10, 1688, 500 ; next, Thomas Gordon 500, May 10, 1703, and in the meantime Peter Van Nest seemes to have been the owner of the previous 500 acres of Thomas Gordon, for the plot is said to begin at the Van Nest cor- ner ; next Miles Foster had 466 and the deed dated the same time as the former ; next, Michael Hawden 466 acres saine date ; next, Lord Neil Campbell 1000 May 24, 1690; next, Johnson a small plot of 61 acres ; and again John
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Johnson 400 May 10, 1690 ; and the remainder running up to the Lamington river, and west to the township line belonging to Willocks, Johnson, Campbell an & Blackwood. On the other side of the North Branch, And West owned 912 acres. This land passed subsequently into the hands of the famous Duchess of Gordon, who married General Staats Morris a brother of Gouverneur Morris ; and this ownership has been the occasion of that neighborhood be- ing called "the Duchess "
Between Lamington River and North Branch, Maj. Ax- tell owned a large and valuable tract of land, ont of which Campbell and Blackwood purchased 3900 acres in 1693 ; Margaret Winuer 1000 on May 20, 1690 ; Johnson and Willocks 3150 June 6, 1701. This last survey included all the lands in Peapack valley ; and finally Andrew Ham- ilton obtained a deed for 875 acres on Lamitunk. Feb. 25, 1740. This brings us to the Morris County line.
The land north of Somerville, embracing the first and second mountain and the valley between them beginning at or near Pluckamin, was deeded to Alexander McDowell Dec. 12, 1727 ; and Margaret Tiepel, John Parker, Judi- ah Higgins, and others owned all the remainder until a point directly north of Bound Brook. North of the mountains on Dead River, Parker, Hooper, George Risca- rick, Joseph Jennings, Nathaniel Rolph and others owned lands. Northeast of Bound Brook and between the moun- tains, David Cosart. Daniel Hollingshead, the heirs of An- thony Sharp . and others, had in possession large tracts. South of the Passaic, William Dockwra and Robert Bar- clay had 2000 acres, Robert Morris in trust for Ashfield's estate, D. D. Dunstar and James Alexander were large owners in the same vicinity. Their purchases dated Oct. 1742 ; and Dunstar and Alexander, and Budd and Alex- ander extended their titles up north, into Morris county. We refer those who are desirous of more specific informa- tion ou the subject of early land titles on the North side of Raritan, to the Elizabethtown-Bill-in-Chancery, printed by James Parker, New York 1747, Library of the Histo- rical Society of New Jersey, with maps.
A remark seems here to be called for. It will be seen by
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adverting to the names of the original owners of land, by . Indian purchases, along the Raritan, that they appear to have been nearly all Scotchmen, and that none of them really became permanent residents. The explanation is this. The principal and most active proprietors of East New Jersey, were inabitants of Scotland, and their efforts to induce emigration and settlements upon their lands were made in their native country. As the effect of this Amboy was fixed upon as a site for a town and was named New Perth ; and from thence settlements of people from Scotland and England spread out northwest and west as far as Scotchplains, Plainfield and Bound Brook, and single families even further. From this immigration the Church- es of Bound Brook, Basking Ridge and Lamington pro- ceeded. It was an influx coming almost entirely, direct from Scotland ; and the first Pastors of these churches were all native Scotchmen ; Scotch Presbyterians of the Knox, Rutherford and Erskine stamp. Besides this, there were several families of German origin, and of the Lutheran Church, who settled about Pluckamin. The beginning of this influx is probably mark by one of the land titles which we have given above-that of Margaret Teiple 1727. The Lutherans built, at an early day, a house of worship in the village of Pluckamin, and in connection with New Ger- mantown and German Valley, engaged the services of a . minister, or ministers, of their own denomination for a term of years. Mr. Muhlenbergh in his youth, it is stated. ministered to them for a time.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SETTLEMENT AND SOME OF THE EARLY INHABITANTS.
When the title to the land on the Raritan had been se- cured, settlers at once came to occupy it. It was, of course, in a state of nature, clothed with its primitive for- ests and inhabited by wild animals, and wilder men.
The inducements leading those who came from Long Island and New York to seek a home in the wilderness, was, first, to enjoy full religious liberty in serving God. Gov. Lovelace favored tie Episcopal Church, and threw many obstacles in the way of those who belonged to the Dutch Church, of enjoying their own services in peace. Rather than yield one iota to his interference, they expa- triated themselves a second time and came into the Prov- ince of New Jersey, where the "Concessions and Agree- ments" secured ample religious toleration from the very be- ginning. We cannot but honor their spirit and commend their attachment to the truth as they had learned it and believed it.
Another and a second motive was no doubt found in the rich and unoccupied lands along our beautiful river, which seemed to invite the imigrant and promise him an abund- ant reward for his labor in their culture and improvement.
The earliest reliable recorded notice which we have seen of the Raritan river, is found among the Albany records, and is dated 1663, when the trade in turs with the Indi- ans had begun to excite the cupidity of the English, and led to remonstrances on the part of the Dutch of Manhat- tan Island. There is, indeed, said to be in the same rec- ords, a letter from Herr Van Werkhoven to Baren Vander Capellan, stating that the lands about Nevesink and the Raritan's Kill, had been purchased for him in 1649, and complaining that they had not been allotted to him, This only shows that the value of these lands was already
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known as early as 30 years after the first settlements were formed around the "Trading Post" on Manhattan Island. Ogilby says in 1671, "that both sides of the Raritan are adorned with spacions meadows, enough to feed thousands of cattle. The wood land is very good for com, and stor- ed with wild beasts ; as deer, elks, and an innumerable multitude of fowl, as in other parts of the country. This river is thought very capable for erecting of several towns and villages on each side of it ; no place in North Ameri- ca having better convenience for the maintaining of all sorts of cattle for winter and summer food."
As a matter of curiosity, and not from any idea of its value or importance in any historical sense, but only as an illustration of the way in which the Indians "romanced" and practiced on the credulity of white men, we shall quote a notice of our river from a description of New Albi- on (as New Jersey was then called,) by Beanchamp Plan - tagenet, Esq , dated 1648, a year earlier than Van Werk- hover's claim. He says. "the Indians of New Jersey were under the dominion of about twenty kings; that there were 1,200 under two Raritan kings ; that the seat of the Raritan king is said to have been called by the English Mount Ployden, twenty miles from Sandhay Sea, and ninety from the Ocean, west to Amara Hill, the retired Paradise of the children of the Ethiopean Emperor-a wonder, for it is a square rock, two miles compass, 150 feet high, a wall like precipice, a straight entrance, easily made invmcible, where he keeps 200 for his guards, and under is a flat valley, all plain to plant and sow."
If we were inclined to favor such romance, we should claim that no place so well answers the above description as the bluff in the gorge of Chimney Rock, north of the little bridge on the west and cast sides of which the two rivulets flow and meet a few var.ls southward in the main gorge. But we are not disposed to practice on the creduli- ty of our readers, as the Indians evidently did, on Bean- champ Plantagenet, Esq.
The savages who lived permanently on the Raritan (and there were only a few of the Raritan tribe who did so,) had very fertile corn lands on the meadows, which they
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appreciated and planted-proving that they were not generally wooded, but on the contrary, were of the nature of a prairie or savannah. This feature afterwards, formed one of the main attractions to settlers, and induced the first who came there to locate on the first upland, contiguous to these natural meadows, where they found at once abundant pasturage for cattle, and a soil ready for the plow. Hence in point of fact, all the first buildings from Bound Brook to the junction of the two branches, stood on the edge of this upland, and there our principal farm houses are still found standing.
Exceptions, are however mentioned, in three instances, of huts standing on the meadows, inhabited by Scotch people. Two north of the late residence of R. Veghte, Esq., and one near the former dwelling of H. Garretson, but we cannot imagine how they could have been inhabi- ted for more than one summer. Our beautiful river has a habit of inundating all its meadows in the winter, which would make living on them extremely inconvenient if not impossible.
The Indians living on the Raritan were only the remnant of the large and numerous tribe once located here. It is said they left and went to live at Metuchen, because the freshets in the river spoiled the corn which they were in the habit of burying in pits on the low lands. Another inducement was the fish, oysters and clams, so easily obtain- ed on the shores of the Raritan Bay. The immense heaps of shells found in several localities on its shores, attest the rich harvest which they had gathered out of its wa- ters. A few huts were found on the south side of the river opposite the village of Raritan ; and they had a "burial place" on the second river bank at the gate of R. H. Gar- retson.
We may imagine then, how the lonely river flowed on for centuries between its willow fringed banks, from sum- mer to winter, while the rich grass on its meadows wasted because there were no animals, except a few deer, who fed upon it ; and how the wild fruits afforded feasts for the squirrel and the forest bird, or perished untouched, be- cause there was no living creature present to enjoy the
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bountiful repast. It might almost withont romance be called a "retired Paradise," but without its "Ethiopi- an Emperor" to rule over it. That it remained untrod- den so long, is certainly marvellous, unless the few white men in the country, and the distance from New York made it too great an effort to reach such an inviting place. From 1524, when the Dutch began to colonize at first, until 1681 May 4th, when the first land title is dated, a period of 57 years, no one seems to have seen or been attracted by the beauty and fertility of our wide spreading valley, or ventured to endeavor to reclaim it from its wild, untrodden wilderness state. Its primitive inhabitants even, had deserted it almost entirely, and gone towards the sea shore, attracted by the abundant food; and only bird and beast claimed it as their home. But the time came when a different state of things began to exist.
The titles for the fertile lands had been secured and set- tlers came to occupy them. Some of these have been already mentioned and we find that from 1681 to 1699 there had arrived from Long Island the following heads of families mostly of Dutch, extraction :
Coers Vroom, Michael Hanson, Andrew Allyn, Michael Van Veghten, Dirk Middagh, Frederick Gar- retson, John Wortman, Peter Van Nest, Jeronemus Van Nest, Jacob Sebring Isaac Bodine, Edward Drink- water, James Tunison, Cornelius Tunison, Pieter Du- mont, Maurice Maurison, Johannes Dameld, John Roelet- son, Hendrick Rynierson, Thomas Possell. Cornelius Pow- elson, Jan Hans Coeverden, Folkerd Hendrik Harris, Jo- sias Merlet, Andrew Anderson, Elton Nyssen, William Olden, William Clausen, Lawrence Opdyke, William Mouersen, Reuben Jansen, Gabriel Leberstein, Folkerd Hendricksen.
At North and South Branch, Andreas Ten Eyck, Abra- ham Dubois, John Pussell, Josias Claesen, Jan Hendrick- son, Daniel Sebring, Coenrad Ten Eyck, Derick Van Veghten, Alexander McDowel, Jan Van Sieklen, Benjamin Bart, Jacob Stoll, Teunis Van Middlesworth, George Hall, Albert Louw, William Rosa, Paulus Buluer, Lncus Scher- merhorn, Pieter Van Nest, Emanuel Van Etten, Johanes
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Grauw, John Emens, Coert Jansen, George Dildine, John Reading, Garret Van Vleet, William Brown, John Cook, Hendrick Roesenboom, Frans Waldron, Godfried Peters, David Busum David Subair, Abram Broca, Jacob Rey- nierse, Garret Smock.
In the vicinity of New Brunswick, were Adrian Bennet, Aart Artsen, Roelif Sebring, Johanes Folkerson, Hen- drick Bries, Roelif Voorhees, Lawrens Willimse, Roelif Ne- vius, Jan Van Voorhees, Jacob Ouke, Johanes Stoothoff. Jages Fonteyn, Jacobus Buys, Thomas Auten, Thomas Davidts, William Klassen, Johanes Goevert, Hendrick Bries, Andrias Wortman, Bernardus Kuetor, Christopher Van Arsdalen, Jacob Corse, Cornelius Suydam, Joris An- dersen, Martin Vanderhoeve, Johanes Metselaer, Samuel Montfort, Jan Aten, William Moore, Nicklas Bason.
At Three Mile Run, Hendrick Bries, Roelf Lucas, Jan Voorhees, Aert Aertsen. Isaac Van Dyke, Johanes Folker- sen, Jan Aeten, Laurens Willimse, Roelif Nevins. Charles Fonteyn, Hans Stoothoff, Thomas Bouwman, Derck Vol- kerse, Garret Bolmer, Jan Lavor, Simon Wickoff, Pieter Hoff, Garret Dorland, Andries Bort, Jan Broca, James Fonteyn, Adrian Mollenar, Jacob Rapleyes, Joris Hael, Jan Laeten, William Lambers, Peter Kinne, Hendrick Traphagen, Luycus Schermerhorn, Jans Van Middles- worth. Johannes Fisher, Joeremias Field, Luycas Wessels, Jacob Koersen, Nicholas Hayman, Cornelius Jan Onwe- gen, William Harrise, Andreas Ten Eyck, William Dey, Manuel Van Allen, Abram Elemeteren, Johannes Seigeler, Jaurien Remer.
We are not able to indicate specifically or certainly the place of residence of each of these families. The Sebring's and Harris's lived in the vicinity of Bound Brook, Pieter Dumont on the south side of the Raritan, Powelson's near Pluckamin ; all of them evidently did not remain permanently or leave descendants. The names of others continue to occur in the records for many years, but some of them have at last passed away. All of them we judge were religious men, and aided in the formation of the Raritan Church, then a church in the wilderness. Most , of them are known to have imigrated to Somerset from
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Long Island ; and among them there are several names which indicate a Huguenot origin, Somerset County has had in fact a large infusion of this noble blood ; and among the family traditions, in many instances, linger interesting reminisences of the night of St. Bartholomew, at the time when they Hed from France to Holland, leaving their all behind an I never looking bick ; rescuing only their life their children and their silver from the deadly spoiler !
As a matter of curiosity we give a list of Hugenot names once residents on the Raritan and in the vicinity of Som- erville, viz : Jacob Gebring, Isaac Bodyne. Pieter Dumont, Johannes Dameld, Thomas Possell, Josias Merlette, Ga- briel D. Beten, William Breille, Jan Lavor, Peter La Fe- vre, Jacob Rappleyea, Jan La Far, Frans Lukas, Isaac Brillne, Pieter Petrie, Edo Montagne, Abram Lafoy, Ja- cob Probasco, John La Voss, Antonie Le Grange, Jan Fonteyne, John Brocauw.
It would seem as if the first settlers along the Raritan were left in a state of almost entire religious destitution for nearly 20 years. There are some notices of persons who labored in preaching the Gospel in the vicinity of Amboy and Elizabeth, but upon the Raritan no such labors are known to have been permanently afforded until March 9. 1699, when the Rev. Guliam Bartholfleft a record of his having been at Raritan, preaching, ordaining an Elder and a Deacon, and babtising three children, Judith Van Nest, Abraham Tunison, and Jaquemina Van Nest. Twenty years in a wilderness without the Gospel must certainly have left strong traces, and these not for good, upon the minds of the people so circumstanced.
Twenty years more and the inhabitants of "Old Rari- tan" as it was commonly called then, felt themselves able to do something for the maintenance of the christian ordi- nances of the church, and united with others in calling the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. About the same time they commenced the erection of a church on the land of Michael Van Veghten-who generously donated the site to the congregation-and on the 11th, of Decem- ber, 1721, this house was opened for divine worship. It continued to be the place where religious services were held
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until Oct. 27, 1779, when it was burned by the Queen's Rangers ander command of Colonel Simcoe. It stood on the north side of the river a short distance below the old bridge. Around it there were a few graves already almost. forgotten But the corn and the wheat growing over them, does not disturb the peaceful sleepers in their resting place. The principal interest, centering now in that almost for- gotten cemetery, is in the circumstance that, in an un- known grave there, rest probably the remains of Mrs. Van Burgh, the mother of Juffvrouw Hardenburgh, who came" from Holland-whither Dr. Hardenburgh had gone for her 1763-to reside with her daughter after the death of her husband, and died in the parsonage at Somerville. The year of her decease is not known by any of her descendants. If these precious remains are not resting there, then they must have been deposited on the bank of the meadows, near the old Parsonage, where John Hardenburgh and his wife, with others, are buried. But strange as it may seem to us, there is no monument in either place to commemorate one so loved and honored in her life time.
For half a century after the times of which we have been speaking, not much of any special interest seems to have occurred along the Raritan. The people were indus- trious and thriving, the church increased in strength under the labors of the two Frelinghuysens and Hardenburgh, and society began to be well ordered and law abiding. Be- fore the Revolution there were at least eight Dutch Church- es in the Valley of the Raritan and Millstone river, viz : At Brunswick, Six Mile Run, Millstone, Harlingen, Rari- tan, Neshanic, Readington and Bedminster ; besides a Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook, a Lutheran Church at Pluckamin, a Presbyterian Church at Lamington, and German Reformed Church at Amwell. All these had com- fortable houses of worship and a well ordered discipline. Less than a hundred years had passed since the European first established his home on our river and its branches, and all this had been done principally by a few emigrants from the old land of Dykes and Marshes, none of whom brought much besides their energies and thrift to help them on in life ; but they wrought earnestly and saw the effects
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of their efforts spreading around their homes. The County was formed in 1688 only seven years after the Indian titles to its lands were extinguished. Thus all the advantages of a well organized civil government were ezjoyed even al- most from the first year of its settlement by the inhabi- tants of Somerset County. The first things were small, but time has made them large and valuable.
CHAPTER III.
THE COUNTY FORMED.
From the time that the first settlers came to the Rari- tan until 1688, they were considered as included in Middle- sex and depended upon the courts there for the administra- tion of civil justice. The act providing for a new county and naming it Somerset, is a curious piece of primitive legislation. It recites in the preamble "forasmuch as the uppermost part of the Raritan river is settled by persons, whom, in their husbandry and manuring their lands, are forced upon quite different ways and methods from the other farmers and inhabitants of Middlesex connty. be- cause of the frequent floods that carry away their fences on the meadows, the only arable land they have, and so, by consequences of their interests, are divided from the other inhabitants of said county ; Be it therefore enacted, &c. : The bounds are described in the following manner : Begin- ning at the mouth of the Bound Brook, where it empties into the Raritan River, and to run up the said brook to the meeting of Bound Brook with Green Brook, and from the said meeting, to run a northwest line into the hills ; and upon the southwest side of the Raritan River, to begin at a small brook, where it empties itself into the Raritan about 70 chains below the Bound Brook, and from thence to run up a south west line to the uttermost line of the Province, be divided from the said county of Middlesex, and hereafter to be deemed, taken and be a county of this Province ; and that the same county be called the county of Somerset, any statue, law or usage to the contrary not- withstanding. See Leaming & Spicer's Grants, Concess- ions, and acts of the Proprietary Government p 305.
In June 21, 1709, a more definite description is given probably the result of an actual survey. It is to the fol-
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lowing effect : Beginning where Bound Brook empties in- to Raritan River, thence down the stream of Raritan to the mouth of a brook known by the name of Lawrence's brook: thence running up the said Lawrence's brook to the great road that leads from Innian's Ferry to Cranberry brook ; from thence south 44 degrees westerly to Sanpink Brook; thenee down said Sanpink Brook to the division line of the eastern and western division aforesaid; and so to follow the said division line to the limits of the above said county of Essex ; thence east along the line of Essex county to great Brook, and thence running down the said Great Brook and Bound Brook to where it began
These bounds were again modified Nov. 4th, 1741. the boundary as then given between Somerset and Middlesex Counties is the following : "Beginning at the south branch of Raritan River where the reported division line of East and West Jersey strikes the same; thence along the same to a fall of water commonly called Allamatunk; from thence along the boundary of Morris County to Passaic River ; thence down the same to the lower corner of Win. Dockwra's two patents on the same river ; thence on a line sontheast to the head of Green Brook, and thence down the same to Bound Brook ; thence along Bound Brook to the place where it empties into the Raritan river ; thenc . down Raritan river to the place where the road crosseth said river at lunian's Ferry ; from thence along said old road which leads by Jedediah Higgin's house towards the falls of the Delaware, until it intersects the division line aforesaid ; thence along said division line to the south branch of Raritan river aforesaid, where it began."
March 28, 1749 the bounds were thus defined : Begin - ning at a fall of water called the Alamatunk Falls; and from thence in a straight line in a course east and by north as the compass now points, to the main branch of Pass vic river, and so down the said river as the before sealed act directs.
By an act passed Nov. 24, 1790, it was again enacted that the middle of the main six rod road, from the Ferry at the city of New Brunswick, formerly called Innian's Fer- ry, to the boundary line of the county of Hunterdon, on
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the road to Trenton, shall be the boundary line of those parts of the counties of Middlesex and Somerset which are on the south side of the river Raritan, and that all the lands and tenements lying to the northward of this line and heretofore belonging to the county of Middlesex shall be and are hereby annexed to the county of Somerset, and all the lands and tenements on the southward of said lines, heretofore belonging to Somerset shall be and are hereby annexed to the county of Middlesex.
In 1838 a portion of the Township of Montgomery, sur- rounding Princeton, was taken from Somerset and annexed to the new county of Mercer ; and finally a part of Frank- lin east of the Mile Run and extending to the north side of Albany street, New Brunswick, was annexed to the city limits for the purpose of the better police supervision of the city ; since which time no further modification of our county has been attempted, if we except the annexa- tion of the Township of Tewksbury for a short time.
Somerset County embraces a portion of the most fertile lands in the State, and its productiveness is exceeded by no other of equal extent. For intelligence, culture and re- finement, its inhabitants are excelled nowhere. It has given the State and Nation some of their noblest men, at the bar, on the bench and in the pulpit. Society is no- where better ordered, property more secure, or comfort and happiness more generally diffused.
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