USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > Hardyston > Hardyston memorial : a history of the township and the North Presbyterian Church, Hardyston, Sussex County, New Jersey > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
His sons, Dr. Alexander Linn, and Dr. William Helm Linn, were eminent in their profession. All who remember them, know of their skill in medicine, their kindness in sickness, and that sterling worth inherited from their parents, which always distinguished them. The town is favored which has beloved physicians like them to administer in sickness, and bring relief in suffering and accident.
His grandson, Theodore Linn Byington, was born at JJohn- sonsburg, 1831. He graduated at Princeton College and Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. city, went as Missionary to Turkey 1858, was Pastor at Newton from 1869 to 1874, returned to the mis- sion field for eleven years, died in Philadelphia June 16th, 1SSS, and was buried at Springfield, Mass.
Robert Andrew Linn, son of Dr. Andrew and Ann (Carnes) Linn, was born near Monroe Corners, January 29th, 1787. IFis father removed to Newton, where his boyhood was spent. In early manhood he went South to live. In 1812 he joined an ex- pedition, organized of Americans, by a Mexican patriot, General Jose Bernardo Gueterrez, who invaded Texas in the interests of Mexican independence, and carried on a campaign against the Spanish army. All who served on this campaign, beside their bounty money and monthly pay, were promised one square league of land when the national independence was established. This expedition was so far successful that for a time the Spanish author- ities withdrew from a large part of Texas. In the battles which took place Mr. Linn's hearing was impaired by the artillery firing, to which he attributed the beginning of the deafness from which he suffered in after life. He was much attracted to Texas, and when Mexico became free, was inclined to go there to live and claim the square league of land to which his services entitled him.
42
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
Ile was at New Orleans when General Jackson commanded the forces there, participated with the citizens who volunteered in the defence of the city, and was an eye witness to the battle of New Orleans, January 8th, 1815. After the war he went to Nashville, Tenn., and engaged in business for several years. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Ryerson, daughter of Martin Ryerson, of Ilamburg, who was born December 19th, 1791, and died Sep- tember 18th, 1867. After his marriage he became a merchant in Newton, and lived in the stone house of his father. To this he added the larger part, a frame strneture with briek front. In 1820 he exchanged properties with his brother-in-law, Judge Thomas C. Ryerson, and came to Hamburg. He lived for a time in the Walling house and, abont 1824, by exchange with Joseph E. Edsall, he acquired the present Creamery property and made the house his home until his death, January 2d, 1868.
He was a Director of the Sussex Bank, and continued for more than fifty years one of the first business men of the place. Much of this time he was Postmaster. His business was conducted on principles of prudence, so that while many others failed, he was never overtaken with financial disaster.
His eldest son, Robert Andrew, Jr., was born in 1817, and died in 1838, a few days after completing his majority. Hle united with the North Church when he was sixteen years old, and showed much earnestness in his young religions life.
The second son, David Ryerson, was born in 1820, spent twenty years in California, and was killed in 1875, by falling aeci- dentally from a railway train, while it was in full motion, near Hamburg.
The third son, Thomas Ryerson, was born 1822, and died from heart disease, 1867. For many years of his life he was occu- pied in the care of his father's farm.
The fourth son, Theodore Anderson, was born in 1830, and his studions habits gave great promise of intellectual ability. Ile studied medicine and was admitted to practice in 1850, but soon after his health declined, and he died September 5th, 1852. The bright hopes entertained for his future success were thus suddenly ent off.
43
INDIAN INHABITANTS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
Ilis eldest daughter, Anna Mary, was born 1819 and died in 1876 ; a woman of great goodness of heart, and cultivated mind, she was held in high esteem by a wide circle of friends.
LAWRENCE MANSION --- 1794.
THOMAS LAWRENCE, Esq., Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Among the many who suffered great financial losses dur- ing our war for Independence were the Lawrence family, of Phil- adelphia. For three generations they had been merchants in that city, and had filled many public offices. One Thomas Lawrence was a member of Penn's Council, and Mayor of the city when the State House was built. His son Thomas was also Mayor five times, and his son John held the same office, it being of yearly appointment. The Thomas who was Mayor for five years had a large place called " Clairmont," on the north side of the city. He died in 1775, leaving three sons grown, and some younger chil- dren. It was impossible to keep the property together, taxes were enormous, and the family went elsewhere to seek a living. Thomas, the eldest son, came first to Princeton, where he lived for a few years on a farm. In 1784, he entered into partnership
44
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
with Mr. Robert Morris, of New York, but the business was not successful, and in Feb., 1787, he says: "The discouraging situa- tion of commercial affairs has determined me to retire to the coun- try for the support of my family."
His father-in-law, Lewis Morris, had a farm in Sussex Co., N. Jersey, called " Morrisvale." During the war Col. Morris was unfortunately sitnated, his home at Morrisania, in Westchester Co., being near enough to both armies to be in danger from each. As one of the signers of the Declaration, Col. Morris suffered most from the English, and was obliged to take up some vacant lands in Sussex Co. to provide a living for his family. He sent slaves to cultivate the farm, and they carried grain, vegetables and fruit over the mountain to Morrisania. It was this Sussex farm that Col. Morris rented to his son-in-law, Thomas Lawrence, who was also his nephew. In May, 1787, Mr. Lawrence brought his wife and children to Sussex Co. One of the little girls, then only seven years old, Mrs. Maria Shee, lived to tell in old age the story of the long journey in a carriage over the rough mountain, not then crossed by a good stage-road. In 1790, Mr. Lawrence bought the property at Morrisvale of his uncle, but it did not agree with the health of his family, so he decided to build on higher ground overlooking the broad meadow nearer the village. This he accomplished in 1794, and then turned his thoughts to establishing some communication with the outside world. Sussex C. II. was the only Post Office north of Morristown, but, in 1795, Mr. Lawrence and others succeeded in their efforts and a Post Office was opened in the village, and the name Hamburg chosen. He kept careful accounts of arrival and departure of mails, often carried on horse-back, and sometimes twenty-four hours behind time. It is interesting to see how an old gentleman of that time treasured everything in the way of literature that he could find. In a scrap-book he copied the verses that pleased his fancy, " An Elegy, wrote by Mr. Gray," " The Fireside, wrote by Dr. Cotton," show his poetical tastes, and his letters to friends and family con- tain many criticisms on modern literature.
In 1813, he purchased another farm near the village, so that at his death, in 1823, he owned between seven and eight hundred
45
INDIAN INHABITANTS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
acres in the county, which property is still in possession of his descendants.
Mr. Lawrence was first married to Rebecca, daughter of Dr. Thomas Bond, of Philadelphia. She had two daughters, and died in Philadelphia in 1771. Ile then married his cousin, Mary Morris, whose only son was born on that memorable day, July 4th, 1776. The mother died a month later, and, in 1778, her husband married her sister, Catherine V. Both were daughters of his uncle, Col. Lewis Morris, of Morrisania.
The two elder daughters were married soon after the family came to Sussex, Mary to Gabriel Ludlum, nephew of Robert Morris ; Rebecca to Warren de Lancy, of New York.
The eldest son served as Ensign in the Regular Army, and died a month after receiving his commission as Lieutenant, in 1799.
Lewis, the second son, died at the age of seventeen, in Goshen, where he was at school.
MARIA, the third daughter, was seven years old when they came to Sussex. She married, in 1810, her cousin, WALTER LOUIS SITEE, son of Gen. John Shee, of Philadelphia. For a few years after marriage they lived in Oxford, a suburb of Philadelphia, but Mrs. Shee was anxious to return to New Jersey. In 1814, her father purchased the Beach farm, and rented it to Mr. Shee. They removed to this property, in Hamburg, which was given to Mrs. Shee by her father's will, and here she spent the rest of her life. Mr. Shee became Postmaster in 1815, or soon after, and Judge of Common Pleas Court under five appointments, serving from 1817 to 1842, and took an active interest in county affairs. He died in 1856. His wife survived all her family, dying in the spring of 1870, as she entered her 90th year. Spending nearly all her long life in the place, she was closely identified with it, and seemed to the younger generation a connecting link with the past. In her manner she preserved the stately formality of the old school, and had no liking for modern ways. She never saw a locomotive engine, and the idea of a railroad in the place was very distasteful to her. Those who had heard her dread of it, thought it strange that on the day ground was broken for the Midland
46
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
Railroad, in sight of her window, she lay on her death bed.
RICHARD, the third son, studied surveying, and did much active work in the county. He lived with his sister, Mrs. Shee, and died at her house in 1858.
CATHARINE, the fourth daughter, never married. After the death of her parents, she lived in a cottage on the Morrisvale farm. Her benevolence was so universal, that " Aunt Kitty." as she was called by all who knew her, was appealed to in every trouble. Her home was like a happy family in its variety of pet animals. Ill health obliged her to leave "The Cottage " in her last years, which were spent with her sister, Mrs. Shee. She died in 1862.
When Mrs. Shee lived at Oxford, she met a young girl who had lost both parents in infancy by yellow fever. Mrs. Shee wrote often about this interesting young girl, and in a letter to her father said she " wished one of her brothers would come on and fall in love with her, as she would make so good a wife." Her brother THOMAS took her advice, and was married to Janet Will- son, by Bishop White, Dec. 1st, 1813. They lived on the Mor- risvale farm, where Mrs. Lawrence died in 1821, leaving two children, Thomas and Catherine. The son was adopted by his grandparents, and the daughter by her aunt, Mrs. Shee. Mr. Lawrence lived for many years with his sister, in the Morris- vale cottage, and died at the residence of his son, in Sparta, in 1851.
The youngest daughter in this Lawrence family, SARAH, mar- ried Dr. Jesse Arnell, a physician who came to Hamburg from Goshen. He practiced for a few years, and they were married in the spring of 1813. Doctor Arnell died in July, 1814, and his wife in the following November.
Mr. Lawrence had three other children, Jacob, William and Lena, who died in infancy, a few years after they came to New Jersey.
Samuel Beach, M. D., who sold to Thomas Lawrence, in 1805, the house and land which became the home and farm of Judge Walter L. Shee, came with his brother, Calvin, to Ham- burg from Parsippany, Morris Co., N. J., where their parents, Isaac and Mary (Bigals) Beach lived. Isaac Beach died in 1831,
+7
INDIAN INHABITANTS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
aged 89 years. Ilis wife died in 1830, aged 82 years. The grandfather of Samuel and Calvin Beach was Abner, and their great-grandfather, Benjamin.
Dr. Beach purchased lands which are described as five tracts. The first three were conveyed by Abraham Kitchel and Benjamin Lindsley to Jonathan Lindsley, in 1793. The 4th tract was con- veyed by Joseph Sharp and William Sharp to Jonathan Lindsley, in 1796. Said four tracts were conveyed to Dr. Samuel Beach by Jonathan Lindsley, in 1801. The fifth tract was the one on which the house was built, and is described as a part of that conveyed by heirs of Mary Alexander to Gov. Lewis Morris.
When Mrs. Shee made her home here, in 1814, the place was called " Oaklands."
The two brothers, Samuel and Calvin, returned to Parsippany, where Calvin remained until his death. Dr. Samuel was a resi- dent of Jeffersonville, Indiana, for more than twenty years. He was born Nov. 7th, 1774, and died in the city of New York, June 1st, 1836. The brothers were related to Judge Samuel Beach Halsey, of Rockaway, and to Dr. Columbus Beach, of Beach Glen.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES -- CONTINUED.
The Ogdens had much influence in Hardyston, and the history of the town requires no little mention of them. Going back to the first immigrant of the family, we find JOHN OGDEN, born in Northampton, England, whose descent is traced from John Ogden living in 1460. He lived in Stamford, Conn., in 1641, and con- tracted, in 1642, with the Dutch Governor, William Kieft, to build a stone church in the fort of New Amsterdam. The fort stocd within the precincts of the present Battery, in New York city. By grant from Governor Kieft, with Richard Denton and others, he made the settlement of Hempstead, L. I., in 1644. He removed to Southampton, L. I., in 1647 ; held office as Magistrate from Connecticut and New Haven Colonies, and represented Southampton in the upper house of King's Council, Conn. It is claimed for him that Charles II gave him armorial bearings with the legend : "Granted to John Ogden Esquire by King Charles the second, for his faithful services, to his Unfortunate Father, Charles the First."
In 1664 he came to Elizabethtown, and was one of the two original patentees who established the settlement of the town. A man of sterling piety, he was frequently called "Good old John Ogden." He died December, 1681. Five grown sons accompa- nied him from Long Island. Jonathan, his third son, was the father of Robert Ogden 1st, and grandfather of Robert Ogden 2d.
ROBERT OGDEN 2d was born at Elizabethtown, October 7th, 1716; married Phebe Hatfield, and had a large family of chil- dren. Mrs. Ogden was a woman of patriotic spirit, and three of her sons and two sons-in-law were in the army, and her husband
49
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
was a Commissary during the war of the Revolution. Upon their removal to Sussex, she gave the name of Sparta to their new home in the wilderness, expressing the wish that the youth of this vicinity might emulate the virtues of the ancient Spartans. The. name has traveled to the village four miles away, at the head of the Wallkill, whose Post Office is Sparta, while the site of the Ogden home is now known as Ogdensburg.
Robert Ogden 2d filled numerous offices of honor and trust under the royal government. At that time Elizabethtown was the state seat of government. He was a member of the Provin- cial Council and for several years Speaker of the House of Assem- bly. Being appointed one of the delegates from the Legislature of New Jersey to the Provincial Congress that met in New York in 1765, to protest against the Stamp Act, he, with the chairman of the convention, refused to sign the protest and petition to the King and Parliament, upon the ground that it should be trans- mitted to the Provincial Assembly, and through it be presented to the Government of Great Britain. This so displeased his con- stituents that he was burned in effigy on his return home. He convened the Assembly and resigned his Speakership and mem- bership, and in his address on the occasion said: "I trust Provi- dence will, in due time, make the rectitude of my heart and my inviolable affection to my country appear in a fair light to the world, and that my sole aim was the happiness of New Jersey." When the war of the Revolution began he took a firm stand on the side of freedom, and was a member of the Committee of Vig- ilance of Elizabethtown. He was so obnoxious to the Tories that they made great efforts to capture him. After the battle of Long Island and the occupation of New York by the British, it was no longer safe for him to remain in the vicinity. In a letter written Oct. 7th, 1776, to his son-in-law, Colonel Francis Barber, he says : . "We still continue in the old habitation, though almost surrounded by the regulars [British troops]. They have been on Staten Island, a month on Long Island, and three weeks in possession of New York, a large part of which is burned to the ground. A very serious part of the story-our troops yesterday evacuated Bergen-carried off the stores and artillery, moved off as many of the inhabitants as could get away, and fired all the wheat and.
50
HARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
other grain.
"Your mother still seems undetermined whether to stay here by the stuff, or remove to Sussex. A few days will determine her, but perhaps in a few days it may be too late to determine a matter of this importance."
The removal was forced upon them when Washington re- treated through the Jerseys, and was no doubt effected soon after this letter was written. A division of the British army entered Elizabethtown Nov. 29th, and the winter, which found Washing- ton in Morristown, found them in Sparta.
The following letter from his son, Matthias, is of interest as showing their residence here at the time of its date, and also Ogden's connection with the Continental army. He had years before served the King's army as Commissary, when General Amherst commanded the royal forces ; and again when General Abercrombie was commander-in-Chief before his defeat on Lake George. Much of the correspondence is still in existence :
" MORRIS TOWN, January 6, 1777.
" Honorable Sir: I send you Mr. Lowrey's letter, who, since it was written, has desired me to inform you that the way he does, and the method you must take, is to apply to General Washington, who will give a warrant for any sum of money you may apply for necessary for carrying on your commissary department. I am in- formed there is a complaint here for want of flour, and I think it best you should attend here yourself as soon as possible-where you will receive help from the military by General Washington's order, to take wheat or any other necessary for the army from sneh persons as have it to spare without distressing their families. General Washington will be here about noon. Forty Waldeckers were brought in yesterday by the militia. The killed, wounded and prisoners of the enemy at Princeton were about 600; our loss of men was about ten or twelve, and of officers six or eight, among which was General Mercer.
From yours dutifully,
M. OGDEN." "To Robert Ogden, Esq., Sussex."
The forty Waldeckers were the Germans, so called from Wal- deck, whence they were brought, captured January 5th, two days after the battle of Princeton, by Colonel Oliver Spencer, a son-in- law of Robert Ogden, near Springfield, N. J. For his gallantry
51
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
on this occasion, Spencer was rewarded with the command of a regular regiment.
Washington writing to Congress on the 7th of January, says :
" The most considerable skirmish was on Sunday morning [5th] when eight or ten Waldeckers were killed or wounded, and the remainder of the party, thirty-nine or forty, made prisoners, with the officers, by a force not superior in number and withont receiving the least damage."
One of Robert Ogden's descendants wrote : " My grand- father and his wife, Plebe Hatfield, lived on the rising ground toward the Snufftown mountain. He owned a great deal of land estate in this vicinity and some of 'Drowned Lands' of Wantage. There were no sawmills in the country when he emigrated from Elizabethtown. The house was built entirely of squared logs. I have often been in the house, but before my advent it was hand- somely covered with weather-boards, and wainscoted and plastered within. The house was a large one, with a hall running through the centre. Four rooms were on a floor and a very large kitchen .. My great-grandmother and her sister, Bettie Hatfield, made this house and its surroundings very beautiful. There was a large lawn and garden. Around the lawn were set rose-bushes, lilacs and syrin- gas in regular order. The whole country was at that time a dense forest. A clergyman who was a guest of the family when some- of the ornamental plants were in bloom exclaimed, 'Mrs. Ogden, yon have made the wilderness to blossom as the rose.'"
It was this house that was assailed by the gang of robbers- (called cowboys) ; and its ample cellars afforded them refreshment and booty. The leader of the gang was Claudius Smith, who confessed to participation in the robbery when under the gallows at Goshen, N. Y., where he suffered for his numerous crimes January 22d, 1779. It was a very cold night. A colorcd girl said that as she was milking, she saw a man raise his head from behind a log not far from the honse. But the family were not alarmed, as there were guards at a station two miles away, and they thought themselves safe from the Tories. The miscreants robbed the house of all the silver, but were disappointed in not finding the large sum of money which Judge Ogden was sup-
52
HIARDYSTON MEMORIAL.
posed to have received for purchasing provisions for the Conti- mental army. They drank freely of some whiskey kept in the cellar, were thrown off their guard, and found that they were recognized. One man said, "Judge, I have had many a good meal in your house before this." When they had ransacked everything and collected their booty, they took him, with the big family Bible, down into the cellar, and threatened to kill him if he did not take a solemn oath never to divulge who they were, or seek their punishment. Mrs. Ogden shrieked, thinking they were going to murder him.
The alarm was sounded next morning by one of the negro boys, who hid himself in the swamp all night, and ou going out informed the guards. The troops with the neighbors gave chase. They tracked the men in the snow, and saw where they had cooked and slept and thrown away some blankets. A silver sugar bowl which had been dropped was found. This is still in the possession of one of Mr. Ogden's descendants, a lady of the Oliver Spencer family, living in Ohio. More of the hidden plunder was afterwards recovered, but the Judge so regarded his oath that he refused to authorize any proceedings against his spoilers. He had his house barricaded, and was not afterwards disturbed. According to the date upon the chimney, this house was built in 1777, in the spring and summer after Mr. Ogden's removal here. It was destroyed by fire in 1845.
Here we find the germ of the Sparta Church. The record of legal organization at the County Clerk's office styles it, "the dwelling house of Rob. Ogden, Esq., the present and most usual place of meeting of said congregation." Here its owner and his pious wife would gather their tenants and neighbors for divine worship, he himself leading the services on the Sabbath when no elergyman was present. The New Jersey Legislature on March 10, 1786, passed an act for the incorporation of religious societies. This church was the first to avail itself of the new law, and, asso- ciated with the congregation of Cary's Meeting House, they as- sumed the name of "The First Presbyterian Church in Hardyston," November 23d, 1786. Steps had been previously taken towards the erection of a meeting house. Snow was on the ground in
53
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
the spring of 1786, when the first timber was cut.
Judge Ogden died January 21st, 1787, in his 71st year. Before the completion of the new meeting house, he was laid to rest a little in its rear. Before his removal to Sussex he had long been an Elder in the Elizabethtown church, and was a mem- ber of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, 1763 and 1766. His lands extended from the head of the Wallkill to Franklin Furnace, with large tracts of mountain land. Ogden Mine was worked in 1762, and named for him. The zinc mines were opened long after his death, upon lands once his. IIc owned por- tions of the Wallkill Drowned Lands. The turnpike bridge across the Wallkill, a mile and a half north of Hamburg, has always been called " Ogden's Bridge."
Mrs. Phebe Ogden survived her husband and died December 22, 1796. ITer remains were buried beside his in the Sparta church yard.
From Ilistory of the Cliosophic Society.
Memoir of ROBERT OGDEN.
By the Ilon. Daniel Haines, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Robert Ogden, Jr., one of the founders of the Cliosophic So- ciety, was the great-grandson of Jonathan Ogden, who was one of the original associates of the " Elizabethtown purchase," and who died in 1732, at the age of eighty-six.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.