USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Perth Amboy > Contributions to the early history of Perth Amboy and adjoining country : with sketches of men and events in New Jersey during the provincial era > Part 28
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The following are the names of the various Postmasters since the establishment of the office under the United States government ; with the dates of their respective appoint- ments :-
July 1, 1793-John Thompson, Nov. 1, 1794-Edward John Ball,
Sept. 1, 1795-Joseph Golding,
Nov. 1, 1796-George Wright,
June 20, 1798-Robert Rattoone,
April 15, 1801-Simeon Drake,
May 29, 1812-Robert Arnold,
March 10, 1827-Lewis Golding,
October 23, 1830-James Harriott, Lewis Golding, Benj, F. Arnold, W. S. Russ, John Manning.
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
The following items will show the gradual progress made in providing for the comfort and convenience of the traveller, and for the accommodation of the mercantile community in the transportation of merchandise.
The first public packet, noticed as "set up " by Lawrie in 1684, carried freight as well as passengers, but how frequently her trips were made is not stated.
The rates to be charged on this route were proscribed in the general Act of 1716, which has been mentioned, and were as follows :-
"Passage-boat Hire from Amboy to New York, Twelve shillings. Passengers in Company, Man and Horse, if above two, Five shillings. Common Passenger, Fourteen pence.
Flour, per barrel, Five pence.
Beer, Cider, and other Liquors, per barrel, Ten pence.
Rum, Molasses, &c., per hogshead, Four shillings and six pence.
Wine, per pipe, Five shillings and six pence.
Every thing, per bushel, Two pence.
Iron, per hundred weight, Four pence half penny.
Beef, per quarter, Nine pence.
Dry Goods, per ton, Eight shillings.
And so in proportion for greater or smaller quantities." 10
The first advertisement noticed relating to the transpor- tation by this route is in Bradford's Philadelphia Mercury, of March, 1732-3, as follows :-
" This is to give Notice unto Gentlemen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Tra- vellers, and others, that Solomon Smith and James Moore, of Burlington ; keepeth two stage waggons intending to go from Burlington to Amboy and back from Amboy to Burlington again, Once every Week or offt'er if that Business presents : They have also a very good store house, very Com- modious for the Storing of any sort of Merchants Goods free from any Charges, where good Care will be taken of all sorts of Goods."
In April, 1734, Arthur Brown gives notice that he plies in a boat between New York and South River in New Jersey, and that he will carry goods to Allen's Town, Burlington or Philadelphia as cheap as other lines via Amboy or New Bruns- wick ; from which it would seem that boats then ran to both those places. At South River, Samuel Rogers would take charge of the goods and transport them for one farthing per pound to " Borden's landing [Bordentown] on Delaware
10 Nevill's Laws, I., p. 59. In 1704 the value of the Spanish dollar in the Colonies was fixed at six shillings.
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River "-where his boat would receive them on board for Phil- adelphia. Arthur Brown would be at New York "once a week, if wind and weather permit, and come to the Old Slip." This was the first line between New York and Philadelphia by way of Bordentown.
In October, 1742, William Atlee and Joseph Yeats peti- tioned the General Assembly that their stage wagon, which they had been at the expense of running between Trenton and New Brunswick, might be continued under such Legislative enactments as might be thought advisable, desiring, it is pre- sumed, to have it vested with particular privileges ; but the application was laid upon the table and not acted on.
No new arrangements appear on record from this time till June, 1744 ; when William Wilson of New Brunswick noti- fied the public that he had purchased the stage wagon belong- ing to Atlee, and would run it twice a week, leaving Tren- ton on Mondays and Thursdays, and New Brunswick on Tues- days and Fridays. It is uncertain how long Atlee's wagon had run. In the correspondence of Governor Morris, mention is made by him of the receipt of a box via New Brunswick in 1742.11
In October, 1750, a new line was established, the owner of which, Daniel O'Brien, resided at Perth Amboy. He in- formed all gentlemen and ladies " who have occasion to trans- port either themselves, goods, wares, or merchandise from New York to Philadelphia," that he has a "stage boat " well fitted for the purpose, which, " wind and weather permitting " -that never-forgotten proviso-would leave New York every Wednesday (" and at other times if occasion ") for the ferry at Amboy on Thursday, where on Friday a " stage wagon " would be ready to proceed " immediately " to Borden's Town, where another stage boat would receive and carry them to Philadelphia-nothing being said (very wisely) of the time when they might expect to arrive there. He states, however,
11 He complains that the box (con- taining bottles of beer) had not been sent by way of Philadelphia, " whereas at New York it was first landed, then carted up the Broad-way, then down
again to the water side, then put on board a boat to New Brunswick, and then carted 30 miles to this place (Trenton)."
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that the passages are made in forty-eight hours less time than by any other line. His rates were the same as charged via New Brunswick and Trenton-indicating a continuance of that route-and he adds "as the passages are much shorter and easier performed, and the roads generally drier, it is hoped this way will be found the most deserving of encouragement."
The next year, 1751, the route having been found to an- swer, O'Brien might be " spoke with at the house of Scotch Johnny" in New York, every Monday, proceeding the next day to Amboy, where "at John Cluck's, John Richards' wagon " would receive the passengers, &c. A notification is given that after March, 1752, they purposed going twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, and that arrangement seems to have been carried into effect. The proprietors promised they would " endeavor to use people in the best manner they are capable of"-keeping them, be it observed, from five to eight days on the way !
The success of this line seems to have led to an opposition in 1751, originating in Philadelphia. A boat left "Crooked billet wharf" once a week for Burlington, whence "a stage wagon with a good awning"-kept by Fretwell Wright, at the " Blue Anchor in Burlington,"-John Predmore at Cran- berry, and James Wilson at Amboy Ferry -- ran to the latter place, where " good entertainment for man and horse would be found " at the house of Obadiah Ayres. Great dependence seems to have been placed upon the attractions of their pas- sage-boat between Amboy and New York, which was com- manded by Matthew Iseltine. She is described as having "a fine commodious cabin, fitted up with a tea table, and sundry other conveniences." It was believed that by this route pas- sengers could go through in twenty-four or thirty hours less time than by any other, but nevertheless they seem to have required the same number of days as O'Brien's line.
In June 1753 Abraham Webb makes his appearance with a boat "exceedingly well fitted with a handsome cabin and all necessary accommodations."12 He probably merely took
12 As indicative of the speed attained esewhere, it may be noticed that Gov- ernor De Lancy of New York in June
1754, attended a conference with the Indians at Albany-His departure is announced in the paper of the 10th as
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the place of O'Brien on the line ; for the next year (July 1754) the latter had two boats leaving New York for Amboy on Mondays and Thurdays unconnected with the route through, as he offers to forward goods either via Burlington or Borden- town, as parties might choose ; both lines meeting at Amboy.13
The New York stage via Perth Amboy and Trenton was instituted in November, 1756, by John Butler, at the sign of the " Death of the Fox " in Strawberry Alley, Philadelphia, to arrive at New York in three days.
In October, 1762, Mary Lott advertises in the Philadelphia papers, that "the magistrates having forbid the Bordentown boats sailing on Sunday as usual," she is obliged to change her stage days, and the boat would thereafter leave on Tuesdays and Fridays.
In May, 1763, a would-be wit, who styles himself "Lord Thomas Story," announces his return from a six months' cruise against his Majesty's enemies, and "desires it may be made known to all, that he attends his old employ of Amboy stage, and that all ladies and gentlemen desirous of freight or passage in his ship, lying at Whitehall, will please to inquire for him on board, or at the "Fighting Cocks," at " Whitehall slip."
In 1765 a second line of stages was "set up" at Phila- delphia for New York, to start twice a week, and to go through in three days at two pence per mile. The vehicle used was a covered Jersey wagon without springs ;- but the lapse of nine years seems not to have worked any increase of speed. The following year a third line of "good stage wagons, and the seats set on springs," was established to go through in two days in summer and three in winter, at three pence per mile, or twenty shillings for the whole route. These lines it is thought
having taken place " on Friday last." On the 17th it is announced that he was spoken on the Wednesday after his departure about 104 miles up the river ; and the next week his arrival at Al- bany on Thursday is made known. He had thus been six days on the way, but his safe arrival was not announced through the newspapers at New York until three weeks after his departure. 13 Shortly after this, O'Brien makes his last appearance in the public papers
as Captain of the Sloop Thomas and Elizabeth. He had made a voyage to Philadelphia, and on his arrival there reported having experienced a most severe gale, in which he had expected to founder-his vessel having been on her beam ends for half an hour-lost his boat, &c. He may not have been out of his reckoning, but this storm is said to have been felt "'off the Capes of Virginia"-He subsequently was lost at sea, never having been heard of.
.
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ran to the Blazing Star ferry, on the sound below Elizabeth- town. The wagons used were modestly called "Flying Ma- chines "-and the title soon became a favorite.
Mr. Watson in his interesting Annals of Philadelphia, gives to that city the credit of originating the enterprise which prompted the establishment of the several travelling convey- ances to New York. So far as the lines of stages are referred to, the praise is certainly due to Philadelphia, but the majority of previous schemes and improvements evidently originated with individuals in New Jersey-not a few of them residents of Amboy or its vicinity.
From 1765 to 1768, attempts were made by the Legisla- ture to raise funds by lottery for shortening and improving the great thoroughfares, but without success. 14 Governor Franklin, alluding to them in a speech to the Assembly in 1768, states that "even those which lie between the two principal trading cities in North America, are seldom passable without danger or difficulty."
Such being the condition of the roads, it was a great im- provement to have John Mersereau's "flying machine," in 1772, leave Paulus Hook three times a week, with a reasonable expectation that passengers would arrive in Philadelphia in one day and a half. This time, however, was probably found too short, for two days were required by him in 1773-4. From November till May the machine left only twice a week. The advertisement conveying this information to the public is or- namented with a representation of a covered country wagon,
14 In 1765, Commissioners were ap- pointed to survey the roads (for the pur- pose of shortening and straightening) from Burlington to Amboy, through Bordentown and Cranberry ; - from Bordentown to Kingston, New Bruns- wick, Elizabethtown and Newark, to Second River ( Belleville) ;- from New Brunswick to Perth Amboy, and from the latter place to Elizabethtown. In 1763, many of the Commissioners. b.c- ing members of the Assembly, they notice the remarks of the Governor, in their answer to his speech. They say they had not been able to draw the lottery granted for the purpose of rais- ing the requisite funds, -that straight-
ening the roadsin many places had been found impracticable from the nature of the soil, and from the great detriment that would arise therefrom to many in- dividuals ; obstacles that could not con- veniently be removed.
The amount to be raised by lottery was only 500 pounds, and it does not tell well for the public spirit then pre- vailing, that the Commissioners should have been unable to realize that sum for so desirable an object :- " the first attempt of the kind on the continent," as it was then considered. The distance between New York and Philadelphia was expected to be shortened twelve or fifteen miles.
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
with four horses attached, and it is stated, that "as the pro- prietor has made such improvements upon the machines, one of which is in imitation of a coach, he hopes to merit the favor of the public."
In 1773-4, another step in the scale of improvement was taken-a line of " stage coaches " was established by Merse- reau, leaving Paulus Hook every Tuesday and Friday morning at or before sunrise, and proceeding as far as Princeton the same day, where passengers were exchanged with the coaches from Philadelphia. Inside passengers paid thirty shillings : those riding outside twenty shillings proc, each passenger being allowed fourteen pounds of baggage, and paying two pence per pound for any extra quantity. " The flying machine " still continued to perform its trips in the same time and manner as the coaches, leaving on different days ; thus affording opportunities four times a week. The passage by this con- veyance was twenty-one shillings. Passengers were requested to cross over to Paulus Hook the night before leaving.
During the Revolution all regular lines of transportation were, of course, broken up, and when re-established a retrograde move- ment was made in some instances, both as to speed and comfort.
The establishment of the stages in 1765 and 1766, put an end to the travelling from Philadelphia to New York by way of Amboy ; the packets continued however to run for the trans- portation of merchandise and for the accommodation of way passengers, but became less numerous, until about 1775, when there was but one sailing between Amboy and New York, commanded by Captain John Thompson.
In 1785-6, the " Sloop Eliza " performed the service. The following account of the number of trips and the passengers carried by her for several months, is derived from memorandum books in my possession.
1786. To New York.
From New York.
January, 5 trips, 36 passengers.
6 trips, 57 passengers.
6 " .30 66
66
5 17 66
April, 7 66
36
66
66 6
6
66 22 66
34
66
February, 5 " 35
29 66 March, 6 66
66 7 27 66 May, 5 66 35
25 66 June, 7 66
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
In November and December, 1785, there were received from Bordentown by the stages, and forwarded to New York by the boat, 240 packages, weighing 284 cwt. and 60 packages sent on to Bordentown from New York. This line was via New Brunswick, Princeton, Maidenhead and Trenton.
In this connection it may not be uninteresting to give some idea of the facilities for intercourse between Newark the chief town of the colony, and New York, prior to the revolution.
It is probable that, for some time subsequent to the settle- ment of Newark, the principal, if not the only, means of com- municating with the city of " Manhadoes " was by water ; at least, no account of the road between the two places at an earlier period can be found.
The first ferry established across the North River, as has been stated already, was at "Communipaw," a commission being granted to P. Hetfelsen to be ferryman in June, 1669 ; but this seems to have been merely for the accommodation of the inhabitants of Bergen. No others appears to have been legally established until 1716, when the one to " Weehawk" was authorized ; but that at Communipaw seems to have been the one used so soon as a land communication westward was opened.
Two roads about this time were travelled from Newark towards Bergen ; one following the bend of the river, running along the south bank, and the other pursuing a more direct route, to the " transporting place," afterwards known as " the ferry," and as such remembered by our old inhabitants. From this point it is presumed the two united, and ran eastwardly to the Hackensack. In 1718, the Assembly proposed to set- tle " several controversies and disputes " concerning the two roads from Newark, and decided that the most direct should thenceforth be considered " the public road," and it continued to form part of the main route to New York till the construc- tion of the present causeway. The principal intercourse must still have been by water, from the great difficulty attendant upon crossing the great swamps and low meadows which inter- vened : but the licenses to Stephanus Van Cortlandt and
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
Archibald Kennedy, which have been mentioned, indicate a growing want of other and more direct routes. 15
The first attempt to form a continuous route from Newark to New York was made in 1765. In June of that year, the Assembly passed an Act, directing a road to be laid out, four rods wide, to connect with one already existing between Ber- gen Point and Paulus Hook, several of the most distinguished men of Newark being among the trustees ; they and their successors being erected into a body corporate, with autho- rity to receive donations, construct the necessary causeways, establish the two ferries required over the Passaic and Hack- ensack, &c. This was what is now recollected as "the old road," leaving Newark from the south end of the town, and following a course corresponding in whole or in part with the road prescribed by the law of 1718. After crossing the Passaic, a straight causeway led to the road from Bergen Point, which it joined about three fourths of a mile south of the town of Bergen,-the Hackensack being crossed some distance be- low, where the bridge is at present, which is at a point then known as " Dow's ferry." At some subsequent period previous to the Revolution, two other roads left Newark from points opposite " Hedden's dock" (the site of the present bridge), and " Camp's dock" (now the Stone dock ); these avoided the ferry over the Passaic, and crossed the Hackensack at Dow's. 16
In 1772, an Act was passed authorizing the sum of 1050 pounds to be raised by lottery, for covering with gravel the causeways forming part of the main road, but it did not re- ceive the sanction of the King (which was made necessary) until April 1774.17 Allison, in his edition of the laws, pub- blished in 1776, gives Col. John Schuyler, of Belleville, the credit of constructing this causeway.
It was a work of considerable magnitude, and Brissot de
15 'In 1754 a regular packet sailed between the two places commanded by Isaac Ogden.
18 In May 1769, Ezekiel Ball, of Newark, advertises an "ingenious machine," invented by himself, "for
levelling roads ; in the form of a tri- anglo drawn by horses, cutting off and filling vr " e ridges to admiration."
". .. Mayres Crane, of Newark, drew the highest prize in the lottery ($5000).
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
Warville, the French traveller, speaks of it as exciting his as- tonishment : "Built wholly of wood," he says, " with much labor and perseverance, in the midst of water, on a soil that trembles under your feet, it proves to what point may be carried the patience of man, who is determined to conquer nature." An- other traveller thus describes the delights of the road : "All the way to Newark (nine miles) is a very flat marshy country, intersected with rivers : many cedar swamps abounding with mosquitoes, which bit our legs, and hands, exceedingly ; where they fix they will continue sucking our blood, if not disturbed, till they swell four times their ordinary size, when they absolutely fall off and burst from their fulness." " At two miles we cross a large cedar swamp: at three miles we intersect the road leading to Bergen, a Dutch town, half a mile distant on our right : at five miles we cross Hackensack River : at six we cross the Passaic River (coachee and all), in a scoul, by means of pulling a rope fastened on the opposite side."
The traveller now, can form but a slight conception of the inconvenience that then attended a journey to New York. In 1791, an act was passed authorizing the construction of a new and more direct route, the Revolution having prevented an earlier attention to the subject. Commissioners were appointed for erecting bridges over the two rivers-selecting the proper route, &c. The different courses covered by the preparatory survey are exhibited in a map appended to the N. Y. Maga- zine for July, 1791 (from the original in the possession of John Pintard, Esq., who was one of the commissioners), the route selected was that by "Hedden's Dock." The bridges were commenced in 1791, during which year £14,000 were raised by lottery, under the management of John N. Cumming and Jesse Baldwin of Newark, and John Delvey of New Brunswick, for the laying out and improving the road, but two or three years elapsed before the undertaking was suffi- ciently advanced to admit of travelling on the route. A tra- veller in June 1794, says, " I went a mile out of the town (meaning a mile from the old Gifford House where he stopped) to see the new bridge over the Passaic. It is neatly framed of
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
wood, with a drawbridge, &c." The Duke De Rochefoucault travelled over the road a year or two later, and speaks of it as very disagreable to the traveller and difficult for carriages, being so narrow in some places as not to admit of passing, and exceedingly rough : "it consists," he says, " of trees having their branches cut away, disposed longitudinally, one beside another, and slightly covered with earth." It is this road, however, improved, which has continued to the present time as the great thoroughfare between Newark and New York.
It is not so easy to trace the progress of the public means of transportation of passengers and merchandise. Newark not being on the main route to Philadelphia, until some time after the Revolution, did not profit as much as Elizabethtown and other places, from the improvements made previous to that time in transporting passengers between that place and New York. The first regular conveyance by stage, so far as I have ascer- tained, were the " flying machines," established in 1772, and the subsequent lines gave of course the means of communica- tion to and from New York. In 1782 a stage ran from Pau- lus Hook to Elizabethtown via Newark, connecting with the Philadelphia line : and soon after this other facilities existed, and not only the Philadelphia stages, but such as were for the sole accommodation of the inhabitants of Newark, ran to and from New York. Speed, however, was not then so much re- garded. In 1794 passengers left New York at 5 o'clock in the morning-were an hour and a half crossing to Paulus Hook-breakfasted at Newark, at the old Gifford House at the corner of Market and Broad streets, which many yet living recollect. Its sign is remembered by the writer as exciting his youthful admiration ; the red coats of the hunters, the num- ber of the hounds, the beauty of the horses and the brightness of the landscape, are all vividly impressed upon his memory. Dinner was taken at New Brunswick-they supped and slept at Princeton, after a most fatiguing day's journey, and arrived at Philadelphia about noon of the next day. At that time one stage, for the accommodation of those who "lived in New- ark and carried on their business at New York," left the former place every morning in summer at 6 o'clock, returning from
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TRAVELLING FACILITIES.
New York at three o'clock in the afternoon ; putting up in the city on the corner of Cortlandt street and Broadway. "It is very convenient for those who live at Newark, and carry on their business at New York," says the traveller Wansey. The number of individuals then travelling daily in that one stage between the two places, are now represented by more than thrice as many hundred.
Chapter IX .- Gliscellaneous Topics.
EARLY EDUCATION SCHEMES.
PREVIOUS to the war of Independence but little legislative supervision was exercised over the instruction of children in the Province, the different towns being left to form such plans and perfect such measures as might be deemed expedient or best suited to their local circumstances. So far as can be dis- covered, no law was passed relating to the subject during the entire period of the existence of the royal authority in New Jersey, covering seventy-five years. This may excite less sur- prise, however, when it is recollected that this period was ushered in by an order that, "Forasmuch as great inconveni- ence may arise by the liberty of printing in our said Province, you [the Governor] are to provide by all necessary orders that no person keep any press for printing, nor that any book, pam- phlet, or other matters whatsoever, be printed without your especial leave and license first obtained." 1
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