USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > Hardyston > Hardyston memorial : a history of the township and the North Presbyterian Church, Hardyston, Sussex County, New Jersey > Part 2
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In 1700 there were few if any white settlers in the territory of Sussex county except in the Minisink region bordering upon the Delaware River. They are said to have gone there in search of minerals. A road had been constructed from Pahaquarry to Esopus, a distance of one hundred miles. It was the earliest work of any considerable length constructed by Europeans in North America. It is still a thoroughfare and remains an enduring monument of the enterprise of the hardy Hollanders. [See Edsall's Centennial Address.]
The Minisink region forms parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It includes the townships of Montague, Walpack and Sandyston in our county. When Wantage extended to the Delaware river it embraced a portion of the Minisink country. It was called by the Indians the country of the "Minsies," or separate people, because long before they separated from the Indians at Columbia and Belvidere, and passed by way of the
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Indian Ladder through the Water Gap to the other side of the Pohoqualin Mountain, which is a part of our Kittatinny or Blue Mountain.
In 1682 and succeeding years, while New Jersey was under a Quaker Governor, many persecuted Presbyterians came from Scotland to New Jersey and found their way in time to the northern part of the province. About 1730, families of English origin began to arrive in our vicinity. Some of these came from Massachusetts Bay Colony, some from Connecticut, and others from Long Island by way of Amboy and Elizabethtown. The proprietors of New Jersey encouraged immigration, with a desire to enhance the value of their lands, and held out inducements to settlers by making grants of land on easy terms.
In David Brainard's diary, S May, 1744, he writes, "Travelled about forty-five miles to a place called Fishkill, and lodged there. Spent much of my time, while riding, in prayer that God would go with me to the Delaware. My heart was sometimes ready to sink with the thoughts of my work, and going alone in the wilderness, I knew not where." He crossed the Hudson, and went to Goshen in the Highlands ; and so travelled across the woods, from the Hudson to the Delaware, about a hundred miles, through a desolate and hideous country above New Jersey where were very few settlements ; in which journey he suffered much fatigue and hardship. He visited some Indians in the way, at a place called Minisink, and discoursed with them concerning christianity. "Was melancholly and disconsolate, being alone in a strange wilderness. On Saturday, May 12, came to a settlement of Irish and Dutch people, and proceeding about twelve miles further arrived at Sakhauwotung, an Indian settlement [near Easton] within the Forks of the Delaware," "28 May. Set out from the Indians above the Forks of the Delaware, on a journey towards Newark, in New Jersey, according to my orders. Rode through the wilderness ; was much fatigued with the heat ; lodged at a place called Black River [now Chester, Morris Co.]; was exceed- ingly tired and worn out." "17 Feb. 1745. Preached to the white people in the wilderness [somewhere in Warren Co.], upon the sunny side of a hill ; had a considerable assembly, consisting
e
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of people who lived, at least many of them, not less than thirty miles asunder ; some of them came near twenty miles."
Smith describes Sussex Co., 1765, or twenty years later, as "a frontier, not much improved and having but few inhabitants," while the act of 1768 giving Sussex the right to representation in the Legislature, says, "Whereas, the counties of Morris, Cumberland and Sussex are now become very populous, &c." When the Provincal authorities in 1709 defined the boundaries of West Jersey, they included the territory of Sussex within the limits of Burlington. When Hunterdon was formed in 1713 we belonged to that county ; when Morris, in 1738, we were included within its bounds. The Provincial Legislature by enact- ment, Sth June, 1753, established the county of Sussex. The name was given by Governor Jonathan Belcher in compliment to the Duke of New Castle, whose family seat was in Sussex County, England. Some English miners from Sussex, England, had also opened an iron mine at Andover, which they called the Sussex mine. Walpack and New-Town Townships embraced nearly all of the present territory of our county until Wantage was formed from New-Town, May, 1754. Hardyston from New-Town, 1762. Hardyston was named for Josiah Hardy, who was Gover- nor of New Jersey, 1761-1763. It included the present townships of Vernon and Sparta. Vernon was set off from it in 1792, and Sparta in 1845.
When in 1738 Morris county was erected, the northern part of New Jersey began to attract attention. This region from a remote period had been the favorite residence of the Indians, but the migration to hunting grounds more remote made their population sparse. The wise policy of the Proprietors of East New Jersey, under whom we now came after the county's erection, greatly promoted its early settlement. Representa- tions of the great fertility of the lands, the abundance of game, the fewness of the Indians, and the many other inducements offered, were freely circulated, and adventurous sons of the first European settlers, as well as many new comers, turned their faces northward. The tide of immigration flowed in until the people in 1750 petitioned the Provincial Authorities to form a new
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county, and relieve them from the inconvenience and expense of attending the courts at Morristown. The Assembly, Sth June, 1753, passed " An act for erecting the upper part of Morris county, in New Jersey, into a separate county to be called the county of Sussex, and for building a Court House and goal." The first court of justice was held November, 1753, in Jonathan Pettit's house in Ifardwick, near where Johnsonsburg now is, and in which vicinity the "Log Goal" was built. The courts continued here until February, 1756, when they were ordered to be held in New-Town. Henry Harelocker was a Hollander, who built a log cabin on the site of Newton, on lands of Jonathan Hampton, about the year 1750. There was not another cabin for miles around in any direction. The question of location for the Court House was under discussion. The courts had been held in Hardwick near Log Jail, now Johnsonsburg ; Stillwater put forth strong claims for the selection : but the act of Assembly, 1761, directed the Court House to be erected upon the plantation occupied by Harelocker, doubtless through the influence of Jonathan Hampton who owned the land. Several pieces of ground in the vicinity were donated and sold, and other dwellings were put up. This was the beginning of Newton, which was long called Sussex Court House, and bore that name for four years after it was given a post office, from March 20th, 1793 to July 1st, 1797. The Indians called it the " Side Hill Town," Chinkchewunska, in their language.
INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
Onr population was increased by the arrival of many new fami- lies, until 1755. In this year on the Sth of July General Braddock was defeated on the banks of the Monongahela river. This defeat gave the Indians very exalted opinions of French power and martial ability, and they listened more readily to the emissaries sent to induce them to plunder the English settlements. There was much alarm, and rumors came of the hostile disposition of the Indians, but this was not believed of those who had so long lived at peace with our settlers along the Delaware. Teedyuscung, the great Indian King, declared that they went upon the war path, not so much to please the French, as to maintain their own rights, and to retaliate for the wrongs they suffered. White men were
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everywhere imposing upon them, and would often induce the Indians to drink, that they might rob them while intoxicated, or gain their signatures to agreements giving away their lands. Claims were often set up, founded upon agreements made with Indians, who bargained away what did not belong to them,- the white men then driving off the rightful possessors. The evic- tion of the christian Indians from their settlements in Burlington County, and the dishonesty of William Penn's agents, aroused at last their resentment. They felt that nothing was secure and after many council fires, war upon white men was begun. The New Jersey Legislature, alarmned by the hostilities in Pennsylvania and the bloodshed along our western border, appointed commis- sioners who held a convention at Crosswicks, in 1756, and in accordance with an agreement there made, a bill was passed upon the assembling of the Legislature the next year, removing some of the difficulties of which the Indians complained. Among these were intrusions upon lands they had never sold, the insisting upon forged deeds, and the ruthless. destruction of the deer upon which they largely depended for subsistence. This commission pre- served the peace in the lower counties, but the Minisink and Wap- ping and other Indians committed twenty-seven murders on our side of the Delaware within one year from May, 1757, besides carrying away many captives.
The alarm was so great that two terms of court, which was now for the first time removed from near Johnsonsburg and ap- pointed at the house of Thomas Wolverton in New Town, were not held, " by reason of troublesome times with the Indians." Judge VanCampen repaired to Elizabethtown, by express, to lay before the Governor and Council the exposed condition of Sussex County. The Provincial Authorities " authorized the erection of four block houses, 27 Dec. 1755, at suitable distances front each other, near the River Delaware, in the County of Sussex," and ordered the enlistment of 250 men to garrison them. Westfall's block house was the most northerly, and the one at the mouth of the Pequest the most southerly, with two between them. The one in Walpack was named Fort Nomanock. The forts were rapidly built and garrisoned, and all preparations made for defense. Much
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zeal was shown for enlistment, and with tidings of every fresh murder new recruits offered themselves as avengers of their fallen countrymen. It is a matter of regret that our records of that garrison life are so meagre, and that we have so few of the names of the volunteers. This township was doubtless represented among the troops who formed the garrisons. Parties of Indians sometimes came in between the forts, and would attack isolated families, and murder or take them prisoners.
Robert Price, the grandfather of our venerable elder Samuel (). Price, of the North Church, was long in their hands. "When a small boy, he was taken a prisoner by the Indians at one of the massacres in the Eastern States. IIe and his mother were marched off together, and she being somewhat conversant with the language of the savages, soon learned from their conversation and gestures that she was herself to be dispatched, and told her son. She said to him that he must not cry when they killed her, or they would kill him too. She marched only a few rods farther before she was killed, and the boy was adopted by a squaw who had lost her own child a few days previous. He lived with the Indians until he was over twenty-one years old and was then rescued by his friends. It was a long time before he became thoroughly reconciled to civilized society, and he sometimes expressed a desire to return to the Indians, but the feeling gradually wore away. Several years after his release he removed to Frankford Township." [Barber & Howe]. He died 15th Jan. 1782, fifty-one years of age, and is buried, with Abigail, his wife, in the Plains burying ground.
His son John married for his second wife Susannah Hover, whose father, Manuel Hover, was also captured by the Indians and then rescued very much as Robert Price above mentioned. So that both the grandfathers of Mr. S. O. Price were in their boyhood captives in the hands of the red men. Manuel Hover, captain of militia, lived to quite an old age and told many incidents of those troublous times. Once a party of Indians had been driven off, leaving one of their number dead, and scalped. The scalp was brought into the house and hung on a nail in a closet. At night there was a great rapping at the door, but the inmates could see no
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one. Another night the dogs barked most furiously and an at- tack was expected, but none was made. They learned later that a party of Indians swam part way across the river and then turned back.
A son of Colonel Oliver Spencer, and grandson of Robert Ogden, Sr., of Ogdensburg, was, somewhat later, captured and carried far west, and thence to Canada. He was believed to be living, and great efforts were made to secure his release, but this was not effected until he was a grown man. His return to his friends was made a matter of treaty with the Indians, and through the interposition of the British authorities, who agreed that he should be given up at the request of the United States govern- ment.
In June, 1758, Governor Bernard, of New Jersey secured a conference which was held at the Forks of the Delaware, near Easton, which the Indians termed the place of their " Old Council Fire." IIe attended, himself, with the commissioners, and with magistrates and freeholders from both States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Fourteen different tribes were represented by five hundred and seven Indians who sat down in the council. Our State had already appropriated £1,600 to extinguish Indian claims, and it was agreed that £1,000 more should be added for damages, and the Indians should forever renounce all claims to lands on the east side of the river. Our frontier by these means was freed from Indian aggression from the time of the treaty until the war of the Revolution.
Through the labors of Brainerd and the Moravian missionaries, numbers of the Indians had already been converted to christianity, and the way was now open for more successful labor among them. The King, Teedyuscung, who had been a leader in the war, at the conference declared his purpose to settle with his people in Wyoming, where he would build a town such as white men live in, and have the religion of Christ preached to them and the children instructed in schools. He passed the winter at Bethlehem, and the next spring carpenters were sent to the site of his new town, who built him a house, around which his tribe put up many of their lodges. Here he lived for five years, until his house was
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fired at night by his treacherous enemies, the Iroquois, and the king of the Delawares was burned to death.
The following may be regarded as the closing history of the Delawares: " When first discovered by the whites they were living on the banks of the Delaware river. Early in the 17th century the Dutch commenced trading with them under friendly relations. Subsequently William Penn bought large tracts of land from them, moving them inland. A war followed this purchase, the Indians alleging they had been defrauded, but, with the assistance of the Six Nations, the whites forced them back west of the Alleghany mountains. In 1789 they were placed upon a reservation in Ohio, and in 1818 were moved to Missouri. Various removals followed until 1866, when they accepted lands in severalty in the Indian Territory, and gave up the tribal relation. They are now living in civilized fashion, and have become useful and prosperous citizens. They number between 1,000 and 1,100." [Encyclopædia Brittanica.]
WALLING HOUSE. 1750.
CHAPTER II.
SOME EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
No certain date can be given for the arrival of the first settlers within the limits of Hardyston. Several cabins were built on the site of the village of Hamburg near 1749. Colonel Isaac Cary had already built his log house on the site of the present North Church, where his son Isaac Cary, Junior, was born, 1742. By 1750 there were enough Presbyterian families in the vicinity to hold religious meetings in their own dwellings.
JOSEPH WALLING, SR., came in very early. He owned a tract of land extending from the Wallkill, and the lands of the Sharps and the Lawrences, for nearly a mile east. He lived at first in a log house, but, about 1750, erected his frame dwelling. Some have called this the first frame house in Hamburg. At any
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rate, it was superior to all that had preceded it, and standing on the State road, was for more than a century the central landmark of the village. The house was licensed as an inn, and on ancient maps the place is designated as " Wallings." It was consumed by fire in 1859 and the house of Richard E. Edsall now stands upon its site.
When General Washington, during the Revolutionary War, passed through from Newburg to Easton, he is said to have dined at the stone house of Colonel John Hathorn, this side of Warwick, to have spent the night in the Walling house, and the night following at New Town, where he was entertained by Thomas Anderson, assistant Quartermaster of the Continental army. The room is still shown in the Anderson house where he slept.
The story is rather mythical that Mrs. Washington accom- panied him, and after breakfast walked in the garden of the Walling house and brought back a roll of blue carded wool which had blown out of the hall, remarking " It was worth saving."
JOSEPH WALLING, JR., built what is commonly called the Samuel Riggs house, which is still standing. There he died at the age of twenty-four, leaving three children, Francis, Joseph and Polly. The land passed out of their hands. Francis, when grown, lived at Amity, but returned for one year to Hamburg and worked at the tanner's trade. They were ancestors of the Wallings now living among us.
Francis Inman, second son of Joseph Walling, Sr., removed to Montagne, and the daughter went to Western New York.
SAMUEL FITZ RANDOLPH removed from Piscataway, near New Brunswick, and came into possession of the Walling tract. He married Elizabeth Hull and lived in the Walling house for a few years, and there his son Jeptha was born in 1780. Samuel died in his thirty-third year, and his tombstone is in Papakating grave yard. Ilis widow married again and had children by her second husband. His son Jeptha, born in Hamburg, died near Beemer- ville in 1863. Jeptha's son, Samuel Fitz Randolph, owns the farm, formerly Colonel Cary's, at the North Church where he now resides. Reuben, son of Samuel, Sr., was Major of Militia during the late war with England. When a levy of Sussex troops
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was sent to Sandy Hook, he was in failing health, and paid quite a sum for exemption money.
HENRY SIMPSON, who had previously removed from Long Island to Baskingridge, came here in 1750. His lands lay east of the Walling tract extending to McAfee Valley. His second wife was the Widow Elizabeth Cross, supposed to have been related to the family of the celebrated Rev. John Cross, of Baskingridge She was a woman of some cultivation and an ardent Presbyterian. Henry Simpson's son, Henry 2d, married her daughter by her, first husband. From these ancestors are descended most of the Simpsons of this vicinity. They lived at first in log houses, but after a while Henry 2d built the frame dwelling which was only recently taken down to make room for the new house of Ora Simpson.
Henry Simpson 3d, was born in this house 1757. He died in 1841, on the William Edsall farm below the mountain, where lie lived. He married Marcy Pettit, who was born 1757, and died 1831. He was a Revolutionary soldier and is mentioned in N. J. Official Register, page 753. His son Jolin, at the time of his en- listment, was too young to serve in the ranks, and was transfered as teamster to Captain Dunn's Team Brigade.
Mary, daughter of Henry 2d, was born at McAfee Valley 1760, and died at Rudeville, 1851. She married James, commonly called "Coby," Edsall, a Revolutionary soldier and pensioner.
ISAAC CARY, SR., lived in a log house which stood, as nearly as can be ascertained, on the site of the present North Church. At that time most of the region was an unbroken wilderness inhab- ited mainly by Indians. The date of his arrival is unknown, but his son Isaac was born here in 1742. He came into possession of at least two extensive tracts of land, one in the vicinity of his dwelling and the other above Upper Hamburg, or Hardystonville, as it is now frequently called. He took part, it is supposed, in the French and Indian war in 1757, and was said to have been an officer in the army of the Revolutionary war, although his name does not appear in the Official Register among the New Jersey troops. He was known as " Old Colonel Cary," designating his venerable years and his military rank. Every mention of him is
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respectful, and we may regard him as a man of honor and piety. He was a leading man in Colonial times and exerted much influ- ence. He was largely instrumental in the erection of the first North Church, which stood in the grave yard and always bore the name of "Cary's Meeting House."
As early as 1750, Presbyterians in the vicinity held religious meetings in their own homes. When the matter of building a house of worship was agitated, Colonel Cary insisted that it should be on the hill above his house, and carried his point. This state- ment was made by the late Judge Richard R. Morris. The date of the erection of the meeting house is unknown, but the oldest date upon the tombstones in the yard is 1774.
Colonel Cary's grave is unmarked by any stone, but is still pointed out by his descendants and is near the old brown head- stone of his son.
ISAAC CARY, JR., was born in his father's log house on the site of the present North Church, February, 1742, and lived in the old house which stood on the corner of the road until taken down by J. B. Monnell. He married Eunice Beardslee, who was born in 1751, and who died in 1850, at the age of 98 years, at the house of Captain Goble, of Sparta, her son-in-law. Her recollection was very distinct of many occurrences of her youth. At the time of her birth her parents were living upon Hamburg Mountain. There were rumors of Indian troubles, and for seeur- ity her father built a log house against the rocks, where a cave behind made a second room, in which she was born. This was near where the Gate House stood in later times.
The North Church lands of Isaae Cary, Jr., passed into the hands of the Beardslee family, and he removed to upper Hamburg and lived upon another tract of land inherited from his father, now constituting the Rude farms in that vicinity, and adjoining the property of Henry W. Couplin. He lived in the log house which stood on the opposite side of the road from Jonathan Dymock's house. He had two sons, John and Mahlon, and six daughters. Maria, married a Rude ; Nancy, Captain Isaac Goble ; Hannah, William Reeves, who built the Jonathan Dym- ock house, became a Methodist minister, and removed to Newark ;
-
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INDIAN INHABITANTS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
Polly married Henry Edsall, and, after his death, kept the moun- tain turnpike gate and was the mother of Benjamin H. Edsall ; Phebe married William Osborne, a blacksmith, who changed the log house, after it came into his possession, into a blacksmith shop ; Emiline married a Heminover. Isaac Cary, Jr., was a mag- istrate, and his headstone at the North Church reads, "Sacred to the memory of Isaac Cary, Esquire, who died January 18th, 1791, aged 48 years and 11 months."
CAPTAIN JOHN B. CARY, the eldest son of Isaac, Jr., was born at the North Church and lived for many years in Upper Han- burg, until he removed to Sparta township. He commanded one of the four companies of the Second Sussex Militia that went to Sandy Hook in 1812. After the war he was Captain for a time of the Hamburg Cavalry Company. He married Hannah Ham- mond, who died in 1888, aged 85 years, and is buried beside him in Sparta church yard.
The Hamburg Cavalry Company was composed of young men who owned their own horses and accoutrements. They wore the Continental uniform with leather helmets and long horse-hair, feathers. Some of their uniforms were in existence until recently and a sword or two is yet shown.
CHARLES BEARDSLEE, SR., was born in 1742 and died March 5th, 1803. He was said to have been a Revolutionary soldier, and was called "Colonel." His parents were living on the Hamburg Mountain in 1751, at the time of the birth of his sister Eunice. He lived with Colonel Cary at the North Church and is supposed to have married his daughter. He was twenty years of age at the time of the birth of his son, Charles, Jr. All the Cary tract of land finally came into the possession of his descendants. Part of the lands came to the Beardslces by inheritance, and through intermarriage, and other portions by purchase. The North Church tract, comprising fifteen hundred or more acres, is now divided into eight good sized farms. Upon it Charles Beardslee built several houses for himself and his sons.
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