USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Morristown > Historic Morristown, New Jersey : the story of its first century > Part 16
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According to an ordinance passed by the Provincial Congress, which met at New Brunswick, in the months
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of February and March, of the year 1776, those free- holders were qualified to vote for representatives in General Assembly "who had signed the general asso- ciation recommended by this Congress," and all other persons of full age who had resided for one year pre- ceding the election in any county of the colony, and was worth at least fifty pounds proc. money in personal estate, and had signed the association aforesaid, should be admitted to vote. The deputies of representatives, were to be freeholders, with at least 500 pounds proc. money.
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CHAPTER XI.
"Hail! independence, hail! heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul! The life of life, and to the banquet high And sober meal gives taste; to the bow'd roof Fair dreams, repose, and to the cottage charms."
HAT these colonies are, and of right, ought to be, free and independent T States ; and that all political connec- tion between us and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved"-such was the bold resolution presented by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, in the Continental Congress, in session at Philadelphia, on the seventh day of June, in the year 1776. Owing to the momentousness of the matter, its formal discussion was deferred until the month of July following. A committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, was meanwhile ap- pointed to prepare the form of a Declaration for pres- entation to Congress as a basis of discussion. Such
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a Declaration was, on the second day of July, presented to Congress. The opening sentence was :
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separa- tion."
Following these words was a detailed statement of the wrongs which had induced the people of the Amer- ican colonies to thus declare themselves free and inde- pendent to the mother country. Surpassing in thrilling effect the opening sentence of the immortal document whose presentation to Congress has just been noted, were its closing words, which were:
"For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of July 4, after its serious consideration, paragraph by paragraph, for nearly four days, the Declaration of American Inde- pendence was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Continental Congress, assembled in the old State House, at Philadelphia. With a hundred animated strokes of the iron-tongue of the old bell in the tower of what is now known as "Independence Hall," this epoch-
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making and far-reaching act was proclaimed, the prompt response to which were the enthusiastic ac- clamations of the people, followed by cannon peals, bon- fires and illuminations, not in the Quaker City only, but through the united colonies.
That Morristown joined in these demonstrations of exuberant joyfulness, it would be superfluous to add. Animated and supported in spirit by the consciousness that they were then, and thenceforth were to be, the United States of America, the people bravely renewed their determination to prosecute the pending war to a successful issue.
Early in the month of July, of the year 1776, Wash- ington was in New York and vicinity, with an army whose numbers did not exceed 17,000 men. With a combined force of 35,000 men, including a large body of Hessian troops, General Howe took possession of Staten Island. Landing soon afterward on the western end of Long Island, the British forces surrounded and captured 2,000 of the American troops, under General Putnam; less the killed and wounded. Wash- ington, under cover of a dense fog, quietly withdrew his entire force from Brooklyn, across the East River, to New York. Acting upon the advice of his officers, he retreated to White Plains, where an engagement oc- curred with the enemy, the result of which was disad- vantageous to the American forces. Again the Amer- ican army fell back, this time upon North Castle. The enemy did not pursue. Leaving one detachment at North Castle, a second at Fort Washington and a third
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at Peekskill, Washington crossed the Hudson, and, by way of Hackensack, Newark, Elizabethtown, New Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton, retreated through that portion of the State, crossing the Delaware with his diminished and disheartened army, at the point last named on December 8.
With the foregoing necessary, and meager review of events transpiring since the opening of the year 1776, we must return with our readers to the consideration of occurrences in Morristown. The presence at the county seat of Morris of a powder mill, whose monthly output was a ton of first-class gunpowder, a due pro- portion of which was made into cartridges under the supervision of bustling Benoni Hathaway, was no or- dinary allurement to the enemy, then in undisputed possession of New York and vicinity. Through in- formation furnished by spies, or resident tories, or per- haps by both, the enemy was aware of the local circum- stances mentioned. It is very doubtful, however, that either spy, or enemy knew the exact whereabouts of the mill, whose product was in future to be used in propelling bullet and ball against the ranks of British redcoats, and Hessian mercenaries.
The first attempt upon the part of the enemy to reach Morristown, with a view of destroying Ford's powder mill, by blowing it up with its own product, was made soon after its erection. Through the vigilance of Col- onel Jacob Ford, Jr., and the efficiency of his battalion of Morris County militia, the attempt was successfully thwarted. Hitherto the attempts of the British to reach
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Morristown, for the destruction of the powder mill, had been made by small detachments of horsemen, but dur- ing the month of December, in the year 1776, General Leslie, with a considerable force, was sent out on the same important errand. Intelligence of this movement of the enemy having in some way been conveyed to Colonel Ford, he, with his battalion of militia, marched to Springfield, where on the fourteenth day of the month last mentioned, a sharp en- gagement took place with the force commanded by General Leslie. The British commander re- ceived so convincing a demonstration of the high quality of Morristown gunpowder, and of the corres- ponding efficiency of Morris County militia, that he unceremoniously retreated toward Spanktown, now Rahway. Withdrawing his battalion from Springfield, Colonel Ford encamped at Chatham, to watch the fur- ther movements of the enemy. It is said that "when the French Government heard of the battle of Spring- field, fought as it was, by militia alone, they made up their minds to assist our struggling forefathers. I mention this to you as important historically, and also as a tribute to the patriotism of the Morris County men, who were mainly the force employed on that oc- casion. There is another important fact. The French Government supposed the war of the Revolution was got up by selfish, designing men, and that they hired the soldiers who fought the battles. But when they saw the earnestness of the farmers and country people of our county and State, they made up their minds that
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it would be a long, earnest and truly patriotic fight, and they resolved to help."
Retracing our steps somewhat, chronologically, it will be ascertained that Colonel Ford's battalion of militia had, previously to the engagement at Springfield, dem- onstrated its efficiency. Anticipating his retreat through New Jersey, after the disastrous campaign in New York State, Washington called upon New Jersey for troops to cover his rear against Cornwallis, who, with an ample force, was in pursuit of the American army. This important service was, in part, performed by the Morris County men, with credit alike to the State and to Colonel Ford and his battalion, which had been detailed for that object. The "mud rounds" is the significant term by which the campaign including the movements above mentioned has since been known.
On the fourteenth day of December, in the year 1776, Morristown was visited by an American officer of high rank, General Alexander McDougall, whose pres- ence at the county seat, at that period of local history, was an occurrence of no ordinary interest .. The ar- rival, on the seventeenth day of the same month, only three days after the date above mentioned, of three reg- iments of eastern troops from Ticonderoga, seems to indicate that General McDougall was in Morristown under instructions from Washington, for the purpose, perhaps, of arranging for an encampment. And, as the arrival of Washington himself, with his decimated army, in Morristown, occurred only about three weeks later, it may be inferred that the presence of General
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McDougall at the county seat was also in some way connected with that interesting event. The three reg- iments of eastern troops, which, as we have seen, ar- rived in Morristown on the seventeenth of December, were in command of Colonel Vose, and comprised Greaton's regiment of about 250 men, Bond's regi- ment of about 100 men and Porter's regiment of about 170 men ; a force aggregating about 520 men. On the twentieth day of December, following the arrival of the regiments in command of Colonel Vose, Washington in a letter to the president of the United States Congress, said :
"I have directed the three regiments from Ticonderoga to halt at Morristown, in Jersey (where, I understand, about 800 militia have collected), in order to inspirit the inhabi- tants, and, as far as possible, to cover that part of the coun- try."
In view, however, of all the circumstances, as now understood, it is almost certain, notwithstanding the reasons given in the letter above mentioned, for the presence of "the three regiments from Ticonderoga," that the force in command of Colonel Vose was in Mor- ristown chiefly for the protection of Ford's powder mill, which the enemy, in spite of repeated but futile at- tempts to reach and blow up, were still determined to destroy. In war, no less than in diplomacy, language is not infrequently employed with the design of hiding the real intent and Washington was no stranger to this art of concealment. Morris County troops would un-
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questionably have been fully equal to the protection of the invaluable powder manufactory at Morristown, particularly in conjunction with Colonel Ford's bat- talion, but for the absence in the regular service of a county regiment in command of the brave Colonel Winds.
It was not until the twenty-second day of December, five days after the arrival of the three regiments from Ticonderoga, that Colonel Ford arrived in Morristown with his battalion from Chatham, where they had been watching in vain for a second opportunity to demon- strate their efficiency as soldiers. Nine days after the arrival home of Colonel Ford's battalion-that is to say, on the thirty-first day of December, they were on parade, presumably on the grounds to the south of the village Green, between the present site of the national bank and Bank street, and including a portion also of the South street of the year 1905. Doubtless the bat- talion of militia, which had returned so recently from its highly creditable engagement with the red coats at Springfield, was disbanded soon after the parade above mentioned. It was a parade which was proudly wit- nessed, the writer ventures to suggest, by the assembled patriots of the county seat and vicinity.
Before the parade closed, Colonel Ford, to employ the quaint language of his day, was seized "with a de- lirium in his head and was borne off by a couple of soldiers, after which he never rose from his bed." On the tenth day of January, in the year 1776, he died of
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inflammation of the lungs-lung fever, as it was then termed, or pneumonia, as the medical profession would now call it. His illness was without doubt induced by the exposure and hardships of his recent services in the field. His body, by order of Washington, was bur- ied with the honors of war, Captain Rodney's light in- fantry company acting as an escort to the remains.
In the midst of exceptional usefulness, and in the full vigor of young manhood, there thus passed away one of the most promising men ever produced in Mor- ristown. In view of the brilliancy exhibited by this early martyr to freedom, during his brief public career, it would have been safe to predict for him almost un- limited achievement as a military officer, in the war which, at his untimely disease, had been in progress but little more than a year.
Born on the nineteenth day of February, in the year 1738, Colonel Ford had, therefore, at the time of his decease, scarcely attained the thirty-ninth year of his age. On the twenty-seventh day of January, in the year 1762, he married Theodocia, the accomplished daughter of the Rev. Timothy Johnes. Five children were the result of this union of hearts, namely: Tim- othy, Gabriel H., Elizabeth, Jacob and Phebe. Colonel Ford's remains now lie in the older portion of the bur- ial grounds of the First Presbyterian Church, of Mor- ristown. The inscription upon his monument, as care- fully transcribed by the writer, is as follows :
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Sacred To the Memory of Colo. Jacob Ford Jun'r, Son of Colo. Jacob Ford Sen'r. He was Born February the 19th, Anno Domini 1738, And departed this life January the 10th, Anno Domini 1777, And Being then In the Service of his Country, Was Interred in this place With Military Honors. In vain we strive by human skill To avoid the Shaft of Death;
Heav'n's high Decree it must fulfil And we resign our Breath. The friends who read our Tomb and mourn And weep our Early Fall, Must be lamented in their day And share the fate of all.
On the sixth day of January, in the year 1777, there arrived in Morristown one whose presence has from that hour to this, rendered sacred the ground he trod, and the very atmosphere he breathed. It was none other than Washington. He came fresh from the bril- liant and decisive victories of Trenton and Princeton. For his headquarters he promptly selected the Arnold tavern. This tavern, the exceptionally interesting story of which would of itself make a volume of rare value, was erected, as nearly as can now be ascertained, by Samuel Arnold, the father of Colonel Jacob Arnold, about the year 1740, and by the father it was subse-
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quently conveyed to the son. A necessarily brief de- scription of the building will in due time be given.
Prior to the commencement of the Revolution this tavern was kept by Thomas Kinney, a prominent man in county affairs, and the owner of no little landed prop- erty. Jacob Arnold, however, had resided in Morris- town village since the year 1772. It seems to have been about the month of June, in the year 1775, that Jacob Arnold assumed the proprietorship of what is now known as the Arnold tavern. From the com- mencement of the difficulty between the American col- onies and the mother country, the name of Jacob Arnold had been the synonym of intense patriotism; and that his large and well kept hostelry should have become the favorite rendezvous of the patriots of Mor- ristown and Morris County, was but an almost inev- itable sequence. Washington was doubtless in some measure influenced in the selection of headquarters by the reputation of the tavern, and its proprietor, for their well-known loyalty to the growing cause of free- dom. Either prior to, or closely following, the arrival in Morristown of the commander-in-chief, Jacob Ar- nold was appointed aide and paymaster. That the unique personality of this patriot was an additional attraction to the distinguished guest who sought the hospitality of his ample roof, is the writer's opinion. From a descendant of Mr. Arnold, the writer has learned, that in height he was about five feet and eight inches. He was a thick set, broad shouldered man, with a large head and neck. His eyes were blue, and his hair dark.
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Attached to this tavern, and running back to the Jockey Hollow road (now Western avenue), extend- ing also northeastward as far as the present Speedwell avenue, was a farm of considerable area, the products of whose soil contributed in no small measure to the bountifully prepared table of this famous hostelry. The Arnold tavern was a three-story building, with a large chimney at either end. Running back from the main portion of the building, which was 43 feet in length and 25 feet in depth, was a two-story L or wing, which did not extend entirely across the rear of the structure. This wing was about 20 feet in depth by 25 feet in width, and two stories in height.
The main portion of the building was divided by a wide hallway running from front to rear, through the centre. Access to the second floor was by means of a broad, winding stairway leading out of the hallway mentioned. On the southern end of the building were a front and back parlor, while on the opposite end were a bar-room, dining-room and kitchen. Over the dining- room and kitchen, both of which seem to have been in the rear extension, was a commodious hall, in which assembly balls were not infrequently held. In this hall, the army Masonic lodge held its meetings during the winters of 1777 and 1780. During his winter's so- journ at this famous tavern, Washington occupied the two rooms on the second floor, over the bar-room (the bar-room was at the northeast of the building, to the right of the main front entrance) ; the front room being used as an office, and the one directly back of the
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office as a sleeping room. "The commander-in-chief appointed the light infantry to be his personal body- guard, requiring 26 men to mount sentry around the Arnold tavern. That this guard might always be with- in a more convenient distance than was the general camp (at Lowantica Valley) the entire regiment was installed about one mile away, in the large Ford man- sion, now the well known 'Headquarters.' General Green quartered with a Mr. Hoffman, whom tradition mentions as a good-natured man, whose charming wife was a great lover of the clergy. A few days after the army reached Morristown, Colonel Daniel Hitchcock, of Rhode Island, who had fought and marched under Washington from the outset, fell a vic- tim to the fatigues and exposures of the campaign. At Assunpink and Princeton he had commanded a brigade of five regiments and was congratulated by his Chief after the battles."
On the eleventh day of January, smallpox (said by some to have been deliberately introduced by the British authorities ) broke out in Morristown, the first victim being Martha, the widow of Joshua Ball. Dur- ing the same month two more deaths occurred from this disease, and within the period of one year the list was increased to sixty-eight, including old and middle- aged and young. Nor were sex or condition regarded by this dire disease. Putrid sore throat, dysentery and other maladies swelled the number of deaths in the vil- lage to 205.
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Among the soldiers, the ravages of the smallpox be- came so prevalent, that establishments for inoculation were provided near Morristown, some of which were in private houses. So numerous did smallpox cases be- come, that the Presbyterian and Baptist churches in Morristown, were used as hospitals. The use of the Presbyterian church as a smallpox hospital, necessi- tated the holding of divine services on Sunday in priv- ate houses, and when the weather was suitable, in the open air. A favorite place for these open air services was in a somewhat secluded dell in the rear of the res- idence of Rev. Timothy Johnes, which was also par- tially protected from the elements by a copse of trees, and by the ground elevation between the meeting place and the Whippanong River beyond.
It was on the thirteenth day of January, one week after his arrival in Morristown, that Washington opened a brief, but notable correspondence with Lord Howe, the subject of which was the inhuman treatment of captured American soldiers and sailors. Against this Washington vigorously protested. If tradition from two distinct sources may be relied upon, and in this particular case there seems to be ample ground for reliance, the serious phase of the correspondence be- tween the two distinguished gentlemen alluded to, was relieved by the employment of a vein of humor on both sides. It is said that Lord Howe sent to Washington, while the correspondence was in progress, a copy of Watt's version of the 120th Psalm, which reads :
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"Thou God of love, thou ever blest, Pity my suffering state; When wilt Thou set my soul at rest From lips that love deceit?
Hard lot of mine! my days are cast Among the sons of strife, Whose never ceasing brawlings waste My golden hours of life.
O! might I change my place, How would I choose to dwell In some wide, lonesome wilderness, And leave these gates of hell!"
Washington, so it is said, returned to Howe Watts's version of the IOIst Psalm, of which two stanzas are quoted :
"In vain shall sinners strive to rise By flattering and malicious lies; And while the innocent I guard The bold offender sha'n't be spared.
The impious crew, that factious band, Shall hide their heads, or quit the land; And all who break the public rest, Where I have power shall be supprest."
On the nineteenth day of January, in the year 1777, Colonel Jacob Ford, Sr., died of fever, at the age of seventy-three years. Immediately to one side of the monument of his son now lie the remains of Colonel Jacob Ford, Sr.
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"Sacred To the Memory of Colo. Jacob Ford He was born April the 13th, Anno Domini 1704 And departed this Life January the 19th, Anno Domini 1777,"
is the simple inscription upon his monument. His memory will be cherished so long as the freedom for which he toiled is appreciated.
2II
CHAPTER XII
"They pitched their camp and through it made A main street passing wide; And in the midst a flagstaff set For all the country side." Ballads of New Jersey in the Revolution.
T was on the sixth day of January, in the year 1777, that Washington, I with his patriot army, reached Mor- ris County and went into winter quarters. Washington's army was encamped chiefly at Lowantica Val- ley; or Spring Valley as it is now called, about three miles east of the Morristown Green. Not a few of his soldiers were, however, quartered, or "billeted," in private houses in various portions of the county. Some of the officers were quartered at the Arnold tavern in Morristown, and at other houses in the village, and outlying country.
The condition of this army is well described by the Rev. William Gordon, D. D., in "The History of the American Revolution." He says :
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"The army under General Washington marched on to Pluckamin in their way to Morristown, pulling up the bridges as they proceeded, thereby to incommode the enemy and secure themselves. By the time they got there (Morris- town), the men were so excessively fatigued, that a fresh and resolute body of five hundred might have demolished the whole. Numbers lay down in the woods and fell asleep, without regarding the coldness of the weather. The royal army was still under such alarming impressions, that it con- tinued its march from Trenton to Brunswick, thirty miles, without halting longer at least than was necessary to make the bridges over Stony Brook and Millstone passable."
There is but a single flaw in Historian Gordon's esti- mate of the efficiency of Washington's "excessively fatigued" army, and it is this: His understanding of the stuff of which they were made, differed radically from that of the British commander, who had so re- cently received a practical demonstration of the fact on several battle-fields in New Jersey. From a letter written by Washington from Morristown to General Philip Schuyler, on the eighteenth day of January, of the year 1777, the following extract is given:
"The enemy by two lucky strokes, at Trenton and Prince- ton, have been obliged to abandon every part of Jersey except Brunswic and Amboy, and the small tract of country between them, which is so entirely exhausted of supplies of every kind, that I hope, by preventing them from sending their foraging parties to any great distance, to reduce them to the utmost distress, in the course of this winter."
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