USA > New Jersey > Historical collections of the state of New Jersey : containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc. relating to its history and antiquities, with geographical desciptions of every township in the state. > Part 24
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ESSEX COUNTY.
town a few of the leading individuals declared themselves dissat- isfied with the Presbyterian form. and in favor of the Episcopal mode, as practised in South Britain. During this controversy. which occurred under the ministry of Mr. Joseph Webb, the im- mediate successor of.Mr. Bowers, the present Episcopal church was instituted. The church appears to have originated in 1734. with Col. Josiah Ogden and others, who took occasion to leave the Presbyterians, in consequence of the rigor with which he was treated for saving his grain in a wet harvest on the Sabbath. The present church edifice was built in 1808, on the site of the original building.
Mr. Webb was dismissed in 1736. The Presbyterian church then called the Rev. Aaron Burr, the father of the late Vice Presi- dent of the United States, who was subsequently born in the town. Mr. Burr was distinguished as an eminent scholar and divine. and enjoyed reputation abroad as well as at home. He established a Latin school soon after his settlement here, and the town in his time, we are told, " flourished exceedingly in trade, manufactures. and agriculture ; growing in wealth. population, and respectability, far beyond any thing which it had before attained."
In 1721, the first freestone was quarried for market; and this article, celebrated for its excellent quality, has long been a subject of export.
During the years 1745, '6, and '7, a great excitement existed in the vicinity, arising out of contentions between the settlers and the English proprietors concerning the title to the lands. The set- tlers held under their Indian title, and refused to recognise any other. In 1745 and '6, there were two great riots at Newark. in each of which the jail was broken open by large mobs, and the prisoners held by suits in favor of the English proprietors set at liberty. The same parties liberated other prisoners for the same cause, at Elizabethtown and Somerville.
In the year 1746, the College of New Jersey (now located at Princeton) was insti- tuted at Elizabethtown, under the presidency of Jonathan Diekenson, who is reported to have been an eminent scholar. Mr. D. died the next year, and the trustees then con- fided the students to the care of Mr. Burr, at Newark, who thus became the second president of the college. Here the institution continued to flourish for eight years, at the expiration of which period the trustees determined to locate it permanently at Princeton. After much controversy between the trustees and the congregation, Mr. Burr's pastoral relation was dissolved in the winter of 1755, and in the October follow. ing he removed to Princeton with the college, where he died in September, 1767. The congregation continued without a pastor until 1759, when they united in a call to the Rev. Alexander Mc Whorter. Mr. Mc Whorter preached his first sermon here on the 28th June of that year, and continued to preside over the church, with an intermission of one or two years. until his death in 1807-a period of nearly half a century. It would hardly be just to the memory of this estimable and eminent man, not to add that his labors, as a minister and a citizen, contributed largely to the character and increase of the town. He stood foremost among the men who adorned the American church during the latter part of the last century, which is no mean praise. A marble slab in the wall at the right of the pulpit in the church, which was built chiefly through his in. strumentality, worthily commemorates his worth, and the gratitude of the people for whom and with whom he labored. In 1765 the first public library was established.
At the commencement of the revolutionary war, the town was much divided upon
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ESSEX COUNTY.
the questions agitating the country ; and on the Declaration of Independence by the state, several families, among whom was Mr. Brown, pastor of the Episcopal church, who had ministered from its foundation, joined the royalists in New York. From its vicinage to that stronghold of the enemy, the town suffered greatly by the visitations of regular troops and marauders. On the 22d of November, 1776, Gen. Washington entered Newark on his retreat through New Jersey, having crossed the Passaic by the Aquackanonck bridge, with a force of 3,500, comprising Beal's, Heard's, and part of Irvine's brigades. Here the troops remained encamped until the morning of the 28th, when Lord Cornwallis entered the town from New York, and the American forces re- treated towards New Brunswick and the Delaware. Each army was thus for a season quartered upon the inhabitants of the town, and the British commander, in pursuing the Americans, left a strong guard behind, which remained here until after his discomfiture at Trenton. Foraging parties, and bands of plunderers in the garb of the enemy, kept the neighborhood in continual alarm through several years. On the night of the 25th of January, 1780, a regiment of 500 men, commanded by Colonel Lumm, came from New York, following the river on the ice, and burned the academy, then standing on the upper green. This was a stone building, two stories high, with apartments for the teacher. On the same night another British party, unknown to the first, fired the Pres- byterian church at Elizabethtown, the light from which alarmed the incendiaries at Newark, and caused their hasty retreat. They carried away with them Joseph Hedden, Esq., an active whig, who had zealously opposed their previous depredations; dragging him from a sick-bed, and compelling him to follow, with no other than his night cloth- ing. The party returned by the route by which they came; and a soldier, more humane than his fellows, gave Mr. H. a blanket, a short time before they reached Paulus Hook. At this place Mr. H. was confined in a sugar-house, where he perished in a few days, in consequence of his sufferings that night.
About this period, and during the war, the average population of the town was less than 1000. In the year 1777, there were only 141 dwelling-houses ; of which 38 were in that part of the town now comprised within the limits of the North Ward, 50 in the South Ward, 28 in the East Ward, and 25 in the West Ward.
The present public bridge over the Passaic was originally built about the year 1792. Previous to the Revolution, and up to this period, the business on the river was chiefly transacted at Lowe and Camp's dock, now known as the stone dock, some hundred yards north of the old bridge. The first public road to New York communicated with Market-st., and led across the upland and meadow by a ferry near the bay. On the con- struction of the present causeway, the "old ferry road" was abandoned.
The " Newark Academy" was established by an association in 1792 : it was subse- quently distinguished for many years as one of the largest and most prominent academic institutions in the country.
Soon after the close of the war, arrrangements were made by the Presbyterians for the erection of another and better house of worship. The corner-stone of the First Presby- terian church was laid by Dr. McWhorter in 1787: on the first of January, 1791, it was opened for public worship. After the completion of this building, the old church was converted into a courthouse, for which purpose it was used until the erection, in 1807, of the building destroyed by fire during the summer of 1835. In 1801 the Rev. Edward D. Griffin, now president of Williams College, was associated with Dr. Mc- Whorter, as colleague. The entire charge of the congregation devolved upon Dr. G. at the death of this venerable divine, in 1808. He resigned the station in 1809, for a pro- fessorship at Andover, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Richards, who removed to Auburn in 1823. The following year the church called the Rev. Wm. T. Hamilton, who resigned in the fall of 1834, and, was succeeded by the Rev. A. D. Eddy. The Second Presbyterian church was erected in 1808, and the Rev. Hooper Cumming installed its first pastor. He was succeeded by Dr. Griffing, who resigned the charge on being ap- pointed president of Williams College. The Rev. Philip C. Hay then became pastor of the church. After his resignation the Rev. Mr. Cheever was called to the station. In 1824, the Third Presbyterian church was organized, under the Rev. J. T. Russell, who was succeeded by the Rev. Baxter Dickinson. Mr. D. resigned the charge in 1835, for a professorship in Lane Seminary, (Cincinnati,) and the congregation soon after made out a call to Mr. Selah B. Treat, of Connecticut. The Fourth Presbyterian church was in- stituted in the year 1831. A fifth Presbyterian church, known as the 1st Free church, was organized during the year 1834. In 1836 a 2d Free (Presbyterian) church was or- ganized ; and in January of the present year another society, entitled The Central Pres- byterian church, was formed, and the Rev. C. Hoover, late of Morristown, installed its pastor.
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VIEW IN BROAD STREET, NEWARK, N. J.
This view was taken near the intersection of Market with Broad street, looking southward. The First Presbyterinn Church appears on the left ; other public buildings are seen on the right
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A PLAN OF THE PRINCIPAL PART OF BROAD ST., NEWARK, SHOWING THE BUILD INGS AND OCCUPANTS ABOUT THE YEAR 1796."
· Episcopal Parsonage.
-Dr. Griffiths.
Episcopal Church
Robert Young.
John Woods, Newark Gazette Office. _
John Nesbit, Farmer. ..
Poinier House, and carpenter's shop
P. Hill's residence, afterwards Rev. Dr. Ogden. .... Mrs. Hatfield ....
G. Pintard, gentleman.
Caleb Baldwin. ...
·Judge Elisha Boudinot.
Caleb Sayres.
Jon. Sayres ......
- Benjamin Johnson. 1.
Academy. -
Gifford cot, afterwards Wni. Tutile.
W. Rodger's house and saddiery .... Thomas Jones' store. ..
Jasper Tenbrook, house and store
9. Smith Burnet, watch store .-
4. Pennington and Bruen's st.n.
L"Archer Gifford's stage-house and tavern ST.
MARKET Jesse Baldwin, house ard str _w
FJo' Rummet, postmaster.
Jabez Parktırsı
-. Oh utiab Crane.
Josiah Congar's Short
=Cm. Ilay's house and store.
5. Johnson Tuttle's tavern
6. Old Presbyterian Clairet:
Old County Jail./
`New Presbyterian Church.
Luther Goble, shoemaker .--- Major Samuel Sayres, tavern ... 10. Rev. Dr. M'W horter's parsonage.
7. Alex C. M'W horter, lawyer.
Jabez Bruen, shoemaker." HILL ST. Peter Hill.
Samuel Congar, weaver .-- Matthias and Caleb Bruen, cabinet shop. -- Caleb Bruen's residence ....
Joseph Banks, Hatter.
-- Josiah Beach, farmer and weaver.
Eleazar Brown ....
8. Hon. Peter J. Van Berckel. -.
-- Judge William Burnet. 3.
Joseph Camp, farmer.
E
--- Capt. Nathaniel Camp.
1. Afterwards used for several successive years as a post-office by Matth. Day.
2. Gen. Cummings was a colonel in the Revolutionary army, and President of a bank in Newark, which was the first established in New Jersey.
3. Judge Barnet was a distinguished surgeon in the Revolutionary army.
4. William S. Pennington was Governor of New Jersey in 1813 : he was the father of Wm. Penning ton, late Governor of the State .- John Alling's blacksmith shop was next to his store.
5. Now Stewart's Hotel.
6. The old Presbyterian Church, after the erection of the new one, was used as a court house, and the old court house as a jail.
7. Now the Mansion House.
8. Hon. Peter J. Van Berckel was minister plenipotentiary from Holland to the United States.
9. Wm. Gardner's barber shop adjoined or was next to Smith Burnet's watch store.
10. Col Aaron Burr was born in this house.
* This plan was submitted to the inspection of some of the oldest and most intelligent citizens of New- ark, and is believed to be correct.
Dr. U'zal Johnson.
Ogden Mansion.
I-Gen. John N. Cummings. 2.
JEOffice of the Sentinel of Freedom, by Pet- nington and Dodge.
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ESSEX COUNTY.
The Episcopal church was placed under the care of the Rev. Uzal Ogden soon after the war. After him came the Rev. Joseph Willard, Rev. Lewis P. Bayard, Rev. H. P. Powers, and the Rev. Matthew L. Henderson. In 1808 the church edifice was rebuilt. In 1801 the First Baptist church was constituted under the Rev. Charles Lahatt : a meeting-house was erected in 1804, and rebuilt in 1810. The following are the succeed- ing pastors of this church, viz. : Rev. Peter Thurston, installed in 1808; Rev. Daniel Sharp, in 1809 ; Rev. Job Lamb, in 1812; Rev. Ed. Jones, in 1814; Rev. Daniel Put- nam, in 1822 ; Rev. Ebenezer Loomis, in 1826 ; Rev. J. S. C. F. Frey, in 1828 ; Rev. P. L. Platt, in 1830 ; Rev. Daniel Dodge, in 1832. A second Baptist church was or- ganized in 1833.
The first Methodist Episcopal society was formed in 1806, by the Rev. David Bartine. The first chapel, in Halsey-st., was erected in 1810, at which time there were but thirty members, who enjoyed only such ministerial serviees as could be rendered by two preach- ers, whose sphere of duty embraced large portions of Essex, Bergen, and Morris eoun- ties, including Staten Island, then known as " the Essex and Staten Island cireuit." In 1818 the Society was greatly increased, under the labors of the Rev. Joseph Lybrand, and from that time it has steadily progressed. It has sinee been under the pastoral eare of the Rev. Messrs. Cremer, Martindale, Thatcher, Lushing, Kennedy, Porter, Gelder, Higgins, Thompson, Matthias, and Atwood.
A Dutch Reforined church was established in the year 1834, and the Rev. Ransford Wells elected pastor. The society have since built a large and elegant brick church in Market-st. A Catholic church was commenced in 1824, and completed the year follow- ing. The Primitive Methodists also have a church ; and there are 2 African churches. The Universalists formed a society a few years sinee.
In 1804 the Newark Banking and Insurance Company was chartered, with a capital of. $400,000 ; and this was for a number of years the only bank in this part of New Jersey .*
Newark city, port of entry, and capital of Essex co., is situated 9 m. from New York, and 49 from Trenton. It is on the west side of Passaic river, 3 m. from its entrance into Newark bay, and is the most populous and flourishing place in the state. The river is navigable to this place for vessels of 100 tons burden, and the New Jersey railroad and Morris canal pass through it. The Morris and Essex railroad commences here. The place is regularly laid out, the streets are several of them broad and straight, and many of the houses are neat and elegant. Two large public grounds in the heart of the city, bordered by lofty trees, add much to the beauty of the place. The city is abundantly supplied with pure water, brought by a company from a fine spring 2 m. distant. Several of the churches are handsome buildings. The courthouse is built of brown freestone, in a commanding situation in the west part of the city, and is a large and elegant building of Egyptian architecture.
In 1843, there were 25 churches, viz .: Ist Presbyterian, A. D. Eddy pastor ; 2d Presbyterian, E. Cheever ; 3d Presbyterian, H. N. Brinsmade ; 4th Presbyterian, Wm. R. Weeks; Central Presbyte- rian, Wm. Bradley ; Free Presbyterian, Wm. L. Parsons; Associate Presbyterian ; Colored Presbyterian, S. E. Cornish ; 1st Methodist, J. B. Mckeever; 2d Methodist, Isaac Winner ; 3d Methodist, Wm. Roberts ; Primitive Methodist, Wm. Sanders; 1st African Method- ist, J. A. Williams; Trinity, M. H. Henderson ; Grace, Anthony Ten Broeck ; Reformed Dutch, James Scott ; 1st Baptist, Wm. Sym; 2d Baptist ; Salem Baptist ; Christ-ian ; Bethel, Frederick Pilch ;
* For the preceding historical sketch, the compilers are indebted to " Pierson's Direc- tory of Newark, for 1837-8."
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ESSEX COUNTY.
Universalist, Rev. Mr. Raynor ; Ist Roman Catholic, P. Moran ; 2d Roman Catholic, N. Balleis; German, John F. Maschop. There are 3 banks, an apprentices' library, a circulating library, a me- chanics' association for-scientific and literary improvement, and a young men's literary association. The commerce of Newark is
Front View of the Courthouse, Newark.
considerable and increasing. The coasting trade employs 65 ves- sels of 100 tons each. A whaling and sealing company, incorpora- ted in 1833, is prosecuting that business. The tonnage of this port in 1840, was 6,687. There were, in 1840, 2 foreign commercial, and 2 commission stores, cap. $15,000; 114 retail stores, cap. $321,250; 6 lumber-yards, cap. $38,000; fisheries, cap. $60,000 ; precious metals, value produced, $154,312 ; manufactures of leather, cap. $285,951 ; 2 breweries, cap. $13,000 ; carriages, cap. $218,700; 5 printing-offices, 2 binderies, 1 daily and 3 weekly newspapers, and 3 periodicals, cap. $32,300. Total cap. in manufac. $1,511,339. 6 acad. 319 students ; 30 schools, 1,955 scholars. Pop. in 1830, 10,950 ; in 1840, 17,290.
The following letter, giving an account of the outrages commit- ted by the British troops in 1777, was written by a highly respect- able inhabitant of this place to Mr. Wm. Gordon, of Roxbury, Mass. It is dated at Newark, March 12th, 1777.
The ravages committed by the British tyrant's troops in these parts of the country are beyond description. Their footsteps are marked with desolation and ruin of every kind. The murders, ravishments, robbery, and insults they were guilty of, are dreadful. When I returned to the town, it looked more like a scene of ruin, than a pleasant, well- cultivated village. One Thomas Hayes, as peaccable and inoffensive a man as in this state, was unprovokingly murdered by one of their negroes, who ran him through the body with his sword. He also cut and slashed his aged uncle in the same house in such a manner that he has not yet recovered of his wounds. Three women of the town were basely ravished by then, and one of them was a woman of near seventy years of age. Various others were assaulted by them, who happily escaped their lewd purposes. Yea, not only the common soldiers, but officers went about the town by night, in gangs, and forcibly entered into houses, openly inquiring for women. As to plundering, whig and tory were treated with a pretty equal hand, and those only escaped who were happy enough to procure a sentinel to be placed as a guard at their door. There was one Capt
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ESSEX COUNTY.
Nutman, who had always been a remarkable tory, and who met the British troops in the Broad street with huzzas of joy. He had his house robbed of almost every thing. His very shoes were taken off his feet, and they threatened hard to hang him. It was dili- gently circulated by the tories, before the enemy came, that all those who tarried in their houses would not be plundered, which induced some to stay, who otherwise would have saved many of their effects by removing them. But nothing was a greater falsehood than this, as the event proved : for none were more robbed than those that tarried at home with their families.
Justice John Ogden, whom you know, had his house robbed of every thing they could carry away. They ripped open his beds, scattered the feathers in the air, and took the ticks with them ; broke his desk to pieces, and destroyed a great number of important papers, deeds, wills, &e., belonging to himself and others; and the more he entreated them to desist from such unprofitable and pernicious waste, the more outrageous they were. They hauled a siek son of his out of bed, whose life had been despaired of sonie time, and grossly abused him, threatening him with death in a variety of forms. The next neighbor to Mr. Ogden was one Benjamin Coe, a very aged man, who, with his wife, was at home. They plundered and destroyed every thing in the house, and insult- ed them with such rage, that the old people fled for fear of their lives; and then, to show the fulness of their diabolical fury, they burnt their house to ashes.
Zophar Beach, Josiah Beach, Samuel Pennington, and others, who had large families, and were all at home, they robbed in so egregious a manner, that they were scarcely left a rag of clothing, save what was on their backs. The mischief committed in the houses forsaken of their inhabitants, the destruction of fences, barns, stables, the breaking of chests of drawers, desks, tables, and other furniture, the burning and carrying away of carpenters' and shoemakers' tools, cannot be described.
With respect to those who took protections and their oath, some of these they robbed and plundered afterwards ; but the most general way in which they obtained the effects of such people, was by bargaining with them for their hay, cattle, or corn, promising them pay, but none with us ever received any thing worth mentioning. I might have observed, that it was not only the common soldiers that plundered and stole, but also their officers ; and not merely low officers and subalterns, but some of high rank were abettors, and reaped the profits of their gallows-deserving business. No less a person than Gen. Erskine, knight, had his room furnished from a neighboring house, with ma- hogany chairs and tables ; a considerable part of which was taken away with his bag- gage when he went to Elizabethtown. Col. M'Donald had his house furnished in the same felonious manner, and the furniture was carried off as though it had been part of his baggage. But there is no end of their inhuman conduct. They have not only proved themselves cruel enemies, but persons destitute of all honor; and there is no hope of relief, but by expelling these murderers, robbers, and thieves from our country.
The following account of the exploits of Capt. Littell (which appear to have taken place in the vicinity of Newark) is from "Garden's ' Anecdotes of the American Revolution."
Capt. Littell, of New Jersey, was a partisan of great merit, and his personal appear- ance was remarkably fine and imposing. In the winter of 1776 and '77, Washington's successes at Trenton and Princeton gave a new turn to the war, and called into activity the partisan warfare, in which Capt. Littell was much distinguished. "On the day that the British force abandoned Newark, which they had occupied as a garrison, and marched to Elizabethtown, a company of Waldeekers was dispatched on some particular service towards the Connecticut Farms. Littell and his followers speedily discovered and fol- lowed them. Dividing his small force into two bodies, he placed one ambush in the rear, and appearing in front with the other, demanded an immediate surrender. The Ger- mans wished to retrograde, but meeting with the party expressly concealed to impede their retreat, and briskly assailed in front, surrendered without firing a gun. The Brit- ish general, exasperated by their capture, ordered out a body of Hessians to revenge the affront ; but the superior knowledge of Littell and his associates enabling them to goad the enemy at various points with spirited attacks, without any great degree of exposure, they were also driven into a swamp and compelled to surrender to inferior numbers. Mortified beyond measure at this second discomfiture, a troop of horse were ordered out ; but they in turn were routed, and were only more fortunate than those that preceded them, by being able, by the rapid movement of their horses, to escape pursuit. A tory, to whom a considerable reward was offered for the performance of the service, now led 300 men
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to the house of Capt. Littell, who, believing he was securely pent up within, commenced a heavy discharge of musketry upon it from all sides. The captain, however, was not to be so easily entrapped ; and while they were making preparations to storm the deserted dwelling, they were attacked in the rear, being previously joined by another body of volun- teers, and driven with precipitation from the field. Littell, in the interim, with a part of his force, had formed an ambuscade along a fence side, and perceiving the enemy slowly approaching, levelled and discharged his piece, and the commander fell. The British, unable, from the darkness of the night, to make any calculation with regard to the num- ber of their opposers, were intimidated, and sought safety in flight."
The following inscriptions, &c., are for the most part copied from Alden's Coll. American Epitaphs. The first, written by the Hon. William Peartree Smith, was copied from a tablet fixed in the front of the First Presbyterian church in Newark. The second, Dr. Mac- whorter's, was drawn by Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D., and placed in the wall of the church, at the right hand of the pulpit.
Ædem hanc amplissimam cultui DIVINO dicatam ex animo religioso et munificentia valde præclara Nov-ARCE habitantes, cura sub pastorali rev. Alexandri Macwhorter, S. T. D., primum qui posuit saxum, construxerunt anno salutis, 1787 ; Amer. Reipub. Foderatæ 12. AUSPICANTE DEO, LONGUM PERDURET IN EVUM.
[To GOD INFINITELY GOOD AND GREAT. This spacious edifice, consecrated to the ser- vice of God, the inhabitants of Newark, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Mac- whorter, who laid the corner-stone, with pious zeal and distinguished liberality, erected, in the year of our Lord, 1787, and of the independence of the United States of America, the twelfth. Through the good providence of God, long may it endure.]
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