USA > New Jersey > Ocean County > Historical reminiscences of Ocean county, New Jersey > Part 2
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In pursuance of these instructions, the land in this vicinity and elsewhere along Barnegat Bay was divided off into tracts of a thousand acres each, and the titles to land now are derived originally from the individual proprietors to whom the tracts were allotted. "Baker's Patent," so frequently mentioned in old deeds,
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and on which a part of the village of Forked River is located, was probably the thousand acres allotted to Thomas Barker, (sometimes called Baker in old records) who was a London merchant and one of the Twenty-four Proprietors ; but he never came to America.
The first settlers, who purchased from the proprietors, generally located some distance east of the main shore road and not far from where the uplands join the meadows. Their dwellings in this vicin- ity were generally situated about in a line from the old Captain Benjamin Stout farm, east of Goodluck Church across Stout's creek, by the Joseph Holmes and James Jones places, and thence to the south side of Forked River by the old James Chamberlain or Ezekiel Lewis place and James Anderson's ; then across Oyster Creek by the old Camburn home- stead. And the original main route of by these places. Then the little north branch of Forked River, now known as Bridge Creek, had a bridge over it, and there was a ferry across Forked River
A century ago, the most noted resi- dents appear to have been : David Woodmansee, who lived on the place now owned by Judge D. I. C. Rogers ; Thomas Potter, who lived on the farm east of Goodluck Church ; Samuel, James and Gabriel Woodmansee, sons of David, who lived on the James Jones and Joseph Holmes farms ; Samuel Brown, who lived on the old Wright place on south branch of Forked River ; and John Holmes, who lived at the upper mill, Forked River. William Price, who was a captain in the militia during the Rev- olution, and his brother John, who was made Major after the war, moved to Goodluck two or three years before the war ended. There was a tavern at Good- luck before the war, and one just over Cedar Creek during the war.
BUSINESS IN OLD TIMES.
The first permanent settlers at Forked River, as well as other places along shore, depended for a livelihood on culti- vating the soil and the products of the bay. After getting fairly settled, the next consideration was to find something they could send to New York and other places to exchange for articles they could not raise. About the first enter- prise of this kind they engaged in was cutting the cedar in the swamps for rails, shingles, etc., to export. Many vessels were engaged in carrying cedar-rails to different points on the Delaware River, and other places. It will surprise some who remember the thick, heavy growth of cedar on the branches of Forked River, Cedar Creek, Oyster Creek and other streams forty years or so ago, to learn that it was all a second growth, the first growth having been cut off along Barne- travel along here appears to have been ' gat Bay as long ago as 1760.
The next important business was in pine lumber, to prepare which saw-mills were built on the head water of the streams, generally a few miles west of the nearly opposite the old Wells swamp at main shore road-among them Double the place still called "the ferry," by old residents.
Trouble Mill on Cedar Creek, the Frank Cornelius Mill on Forked River, once owned by the noted Thomas Potter, Little Mill on Oyster Creek, and the Waeirs Mill near Waretown. To persons who remember. the obstructions in these streams in late years by branches of trees, logs, &c., it would seem a difficult task to float lumber down them towards the bay; but the streams then were cleared, and small rafts of lumber made and floated down towards their mouths ready for shipping. This business was quite flourishing just before the Revolu- tion, and also after that war until the early part of the present century when it began to decline, probably because the convenient timber was generally cut off, and also because of competition from places more convenient to market. While this business flourished along our bay, lumber from here was sent to New
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York, Newark, New Brunswick, and oth- er places.
came the inquiry " what business next could be found for vessels ?" This was satisfactorily answered to many by the starting of the charcoal trade. The long ranks of cord-wood near the upper and lower landings of north branch of Fork- ed River and on the middle and south branches, with which old residents had been familiar from childhood, gave way to piles of charcoal, the dust from which rendered it almost impossible to tell whether our seafaring friends in the business were white or black. When this trade gave out, trade from Virginia and other southern States became brisk. The great civil war interrupted that and apparently ruined it, but it soon opened other and more remunerative business in carrying supplies for the army. And now the coasting trade is again at a low ebb and those engaged in it, as their predecessors often have before, are won- dering if it is possible for anything to turn up to revive it.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES ALONG SHORE.
The first preachers who visited any
When the cedar swamps began to give part of the New Jersey shore, of whom ont, our shore people feared their vessels we have any account, belonged to the would no longer be of use, but the Ium- Society of Friends, commonly called ber trade sprang up and gave them am- Quakers. This Society established a ple employment. Then, in turn, the ' meeting at Tuckerton, in 1704, and built a lumber business began to fail, and again meeting house there in 1709.
our people feared ruin. But about this
The first religious society established time were rumors that Fulton, Fitch, and in Ocean County was probably that of others had made inventions by which the Rogerine Baptists, a company of vessels could be run by steam, and that whom came to Waretown about 1737, and these steam vessels would eventually remained here about eleven years, and then left. They were singular people in
take the place of sail vessels. The coast- ers were incredulous, and ridiculed the, their ideas of worship ; among other pe- idea of a vessel being driven by a "kettle culiarities, the members took work to full of boiling water." Nevertheless, steamboats proved a success, and not only that, but the salvation instead of
meeting with them, and during services the men made axe and hoe handles, the women knit, sewed, &c. The principal the ruin of the coasters, for they required member of the Society was Abraham before many years, an immense amount Waeir, from whom Waretown derives its of pine cord wood for fuel, which our name.
coasters could carry and did carry from
An Episcopalian clergyman, named varions places along the bay. Some Rev. Thomas Thompson, visited Barne- thirty odd years ago the cord wood along gat and Manahawken, while he was a shore began to give out, and then again missionary in Old Monmouth, from 1745 to 1751, and on his return sent Christo- pher Robert Reynolds, who was a school master of the " Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel in foreign parts," to labor at these two places, but on account of his age and infirmity he remained but a short time.
At Manahawken, according to the record there, three Baptists named James Heywood, and Benjamin and Reuben Randolph, settled about 1760; and Au- gust 25th, 1770, a Baptist Society was organized there.
A church, which tradition says was free to all denominations, was built at Manahawken as early as 1758, which was the first church built in Ocean County. This church is now known as the Baptist Church.
The second church built in Occan County, was the noted Potter Church, at Goodluck; built by Thomas Potter about 1763, which he intended to be free to all denominations.
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The third church built in Ocean Coun- labors, and am with all respeet, reverend ty, was the Quaker Meeting House, at . and dear sir, Barnegat, erected as early as 1770. This Your affectionate brother, JOHN BRAINERD. was the first church in the county built for a particular society. To Rev. Enoch Green.
PRESBYTERIANISM AT FORKED RIVER AND VICINITY.
The first preachers of any religious so- cicty who held meetings at either Forked River, Goodluck or Cedar Creek, of whom the writer has found mention, were Presbyterians. Ministers of this society visited Old Monmouth and Egg Harbor at least as early as 1746, and reg- ular supplies were furnished for Egg Harbor as early as 1755, during which time it is possible some may have held occasional meetings in this vicinity, and it is probable that ;Rev. Jolm Brainerd visited here about 1760.
The first notice of regular meetings in this vicinity and elsewhere along shore, is found in the following letter from Rev. John Brainerd to Rev. Enoch Green :
" Trenton, June 21st, 1761.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR : - It has not been in my power, by any means, to make a visit to the shore, since the ses- churches. sion of the Synod, and consequently could not make appointments for you. Your places of preaching, however, will be as follows :
Toms River will be the most northerly place. Then southward, Goodluck, ! either at Thomas Potter's or David tory of the Presbyterian Church, says : Woodmansee's ; Barnegat, at Mr. Ru- lon's ; Mannahocking, at Mr. Haywood's or Mr. Randall's (Randolphs. ) * * *
P. S .--- If you could consult with Mr. Thomas Smith and Mr. MeKnight, who will succeed you, and make appointments for them, it would be of use. I hope you will be kind enough to call and see me upon your return."
After the above named, the Rev. Ben- jamin Chesnut was appointed to supply this section, from the first Sabbath in September, 1763.
Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church says : " There was in 1767 a new Presbyterian meeting house at Barnegat, and probably as carly there was one at Manahawken." This is a mistake ; he evidently refers to the old Potter Church at Goodluck, then sometimes called Bar- negat, and to the old church at Mana- hawken, commonly known as the Baptist Church, both of which were built to be used free to all denominations. As they were always open to Presbyterians, Web- ster inferred they were Presbyterian
It would seem that the first Presbyte- rian ministers who visited this vicinity were Rev. Messrs. John Brainerd, Ben- jamin Chesnut, Enoch Green, Charles MeKnight and Thomas Smith.
Dr. Hodge in his Constitutional His-
" The effects of the Revolutionary War on the state of our church, were ex- tensively and variously disastrous. The young men were called from the seelu-
If you can begin at Toms River and be there a day or two before Sabbath, to sion of their homes to the demoralizing notify them, you might make your ap- atmosphere of the camp ; congregations were broken up; churches were burnt, pointments and send them seasonably before you. * * Thus, dear sir, in and in more than one instance, pastors were murdered ; the usnal ministerial in- tercourse, and efforts for the dissemina- tion of the Gospel, were in a great measure suspended, and public morals
in a minute or two, as I pass through town, I have given you these hints, which may perhaps be of some use to your tour on the shore, in which I hope the blessings of God will attend your in various respects deteriorated." The
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war seems to have suspended all Presby- that time up to the year 1800, the names terian efforts in this section, and the of preachers assigned to this part of the writer knows of no systematic attempt to renew them, until 1850, when Rev. Thomas S. Dewing commenced regular services at Forked River, Cedar Creek and Toms River.
METHODISM IN OCEAN COUNTY.
The first Methodist Society established in Ocean County held its meetings in the old Potter Church at Goodluck. In the dark days of the history of Methodism, when it not only met with opposition from other societies on account of differ- ence in religious views, but also when during the Revolution, their enemies un- justly charged them with being in sym- pathy with Great Britain, and wouldl allow them to hold meetings in but few places, the old Goodluck Church was al- ways open to them, and the people of
State, is given in the " History of Meth- odism in New Jersey." During the first thirty years of the present century, among the most noted preachers in this section were Revs. Sylvester and Robert Hutchinson, Ezekiel Cooper, Charles Pitman and Geo. A. Raybold. Rev. William Watters, above mentioned as the first itinerant of American birth, who was located in our State in 1774, pub- lished in 1807 an account of his labors here and elsewhere ; and the author of Methodism in New Jersey says he knows of but one copy in existence, and that in possession of a gentlemen in Balti- more, but the writer has a copy pur- chased by a relative over half a century ago, which is still in a good state of pres- ervation.
A METHODIST PIONEER.
Rev. Benjamin Abbott, who ex- this vicinity gave its preachers a welcome perienced considerable persecution else- which they rarely met with elsewhere.
where, for his Methodist views, without
It is probable that the pioneers of molestation preached at several places in Methodism visited our county within a our county in 1778, and we give his ac- very few years after the principles of the count of his visit.
The first mentioned society were first proclaimed in America, place was probably Manahawken : and that occasionally some preacher " At my next appointment I preached would hold forth in one of the free with great liberty from these words : churches, in school houses or in private ' If we say we have no sin, we deceive houses, possibly as early as 1774. Rev. ourselves, and the truth is not in us; if William Watters, the first itinerant of we confess our sins, he is faithful and American birth, was stationed in onr just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us State in 1774, and it is possible that he from all unrighteousness,' John 1:8, 9.
and the noted Captain Thomas Webb, of Pemberton, (then New Mills, ) may have visited this section. That zealous, self- sacrificing minister of the Gospel, Rev. Benjamin Abbott, is the first preacher who speaks positively of visiting this vicinity, though before his visit which was in 1778, it is probable that some if not all the following named, may have preached here, viz .: Captain Thomas
And many wept much. A Baptist being present when I had done, I asked him what he thought of what he had heard, and whether it was not the truth in Jesus ? He replied that it was, and ex- horted tlie people to believe it.
BENJAMIN ABBOTT AT WARETOWN.
"Next day I went to my appointment at Waretown, but a woman being dead, Webb, Revs. Philip Gatch, Caleb B. close at hand, I was requested to preach Pedicord, William Watters, John King, her funeral sermon. While I was speak- Daniel Ruff and William Dnke.
From ing, I observed to my hearers that the
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darkest time in the night was just before stantly delivered from that anxiety and the dawning of day ; and that this was despair that had attended her mind.
the ease with a soul groaning for re- demption in Christ; for just as they saw themselves on the very brink of eternal damnation, destitute of every power to extrieate themselves, the Sun of Righteousness, the Lord of Life and Glory, broke in upon their souls and set them at liberty. Up rose a Baptist wo- man and said that she had come twenty miles through the snow to hear me, and
ABBOTT AT GOODLUCK AND TOMS RIVER. "She rode next day with one of her friends to a place called Goodluck, where I preached from these words : 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; Christ shall give thee light,' (Eph. 5 : 14,) with great liberty, and the power of God attended the word.
"Next day I rode with one of our then related her experience to the fol- friends, about twelve miles, through a lowing purport :
A SINGULAR EXPERIENCE.
northeast storm of hail, to Esquire Aikens' on Toms River. When we arrived we were both wet and cold.
" I was standing on the hearth with After drying myself a little, I gave an ex- my husband and two children, and hortation to the few present, and tarried thought the earth opened before me, and all night. In the morning I went to my I saw hell from beneath opened and appointment, and had an attentive con- devils ready to receive me. I then gregation, and the Lord attended the started and ran into the room and eried word with power. A Frenchman fell to mightily unto God to have mercy on my the floor and never rose until the Lord sonl. Meanwhile my husband went after converted his soul. Here we had a hap- the cattle, and I continned in prayer un- py time." til the house was filled with the glory of
The foregoing is all we find in Abbott's God, brighter than the sun at noonday. Journal that relates to our county. The
I then arose and sat on the foot of the bed,
Esquire Aikens he mentions, was Abiel wishing for my husband's return. After Aikens, who lived on the south side of a while he came in ; I ran out to meet Toms River. He was an active patriot him and clasped him about the neck and in the Revolution, and his house, the told him what God had done for my first in which Methodism was preached sonl. The power of God came upon me at Toms River, was burned with others again as it had done in the house, and I by the British when the block house was cried out in such a manner that it taken March 24, 1782. In his old age, frightened my husband and the cattle, so our Legislature (1808) passed a law for that the cattle ran off again, and my hus- his benefit. Next year (1878) will be one band went away also. I went to the hundred years since Abbott visited our house, happy in God, and our people section, and it should be commemorated (meaning the Baptists) say it is only a by a Centennial sermon at old Goodhek delusion of the devil, for that God did Church, and from his old text : "Awake, not come to the people in such a manner thou that sleepest," &c. What a contrast now-a-days."
between now and then, when he was mobbed, when soldiers entered his meet- ings with drawn swords, &c., so sus- picious were they of Methodism.
" Then she asked me what I thought of it, 'for I feel,' said she, 'the same power in me now.' I told her it was the work of God, a change of heart, and that if the Lord ever had converted my AN OLD TIME METHODIST WEDDING. sonl, he had converted hers. She im- In 1785 a Methodist Quarterly Meet- mediately laid hold of faith, and was in- ing of unusual interest was held in the
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Goodluck Church, at which, on Sunday, a rain, I set out for Polhemns' Chapel James Stirling was married to Rebecca (Polhemus' Mills) where I preached." Budd in the presence of the congrega- Some modern Methodist writers have been puzzled to know where was the Pot- ter's Church to which Asbury alluded, and from whence its name, and seem ill- clined to think it was erected for work- men in some potter's ware establishment ! tion. We presume this was the James Stirling, of Burlington, the most noted and influential layman of the Methodist Church in his day in New Jersey ; and if so it was his second marriage. James Stirling was a merchant living at Bur- lington, and some of our shore store- keepers were supplied with goods by : METHODISM AT BARNEGAT. him, among them Major John Price, of The old church in the school house Goodluck. His business affairs and lane at Barnegat was built in 1829, to be his interest in Methodism would occa- used free for all denominations. The sionally bring him to the shore, and here, same year a Methodist society was estab- as elsewhere, he proved himself a most lished, and held regular meetings in it. energetic, nseful layman of Methodism.
BISHOP ASBURY AT GOODLUCK.
The late Rev. Job Edwards was the class leader and local preacher from the organ- ization of the society, and continued for over forty years to faithfully and accept- ably fill these positions, and during that
That noted, faithful, untiring minister of the Gospel, Bishop Francis Asbury, time no one was so well known from visited this vicinity twice. It is doubtful: Cedar Creek to Mannahawkin for labors
if any minister of any denomination ever performed so much labor in travelling
in meetings, exhortations and at funeral services. To him, and his relative, the and preaching as did he, and none ever late Joel Haywood, of West Creek, Meth- kept a more complete journal, which is a odism in the southern half of Ocean marvel when we remember the thousands county is probably more indebted than of miles he travelled in all parts of the to any other two men, for the compara- United States and his unparalleled phys- tively prosperous condition of the society. When he first The people generally showed their appre- ciation of both men, by electing them to represent the county in the Legislature,
ical and mental exertion. preached at Goodluck, it was after a tire- some travel through Old Monmouth ; and that he thought the people here so differ- and Joel Haywood was the regular Whig ent from what other Methodist preachers and Temperance nominee for Governor did, we are inclined to ascribe to his be- of New Jersey, in 1853.
ing worn down with labor himself. Of his first visit he says :
DOVER CHAPEL.
"Tuesday, Sept. 26th, 1786. I had Dover Chapel, near Bayville, was many to hear me at Potter's Church, but erected as a church free to all denomina- the people were insensible and unfeeling." His next visit was in 1809. "On Mon- tions, about the year 1825, as we are in- formed by the venerable Captain Samuel day, April 24th, 1809, I preached at R. Bunnell, himself one of the old land- Waretown. I staid awhile with Samuel marks of Methodism, whose voice was Brown, and came to Thomas Chamber- familiar to us in meetings almost a gen- lain's (Forked River) ; I was compelled eration ago, in exhortations in the cause by uncomfortable feeling to go to rest at of the great Master. Methodism has six o'clock. At David Woodmansee's long had a strong hold on the people in (Goodluck), on Tuesday, I preached on the neighborhood of Dover Chapel, 2nd Tim. 2 : 15. On Wednesday, after though in it Protestant Methodists, Pres-
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byterians and others have heldl stated or der of General Skinner, of the N. J. occasional meetings,
TOMS RIVER IN THE REVOLUTION.
During the greater part of the Revo- Intion, militia were on duty in Toms River or in its vicinity ; they were generally twelve months men, commanded by differ- ent officers, among whom, it seems from an ancient record in the library of the New Jersey Historical Society, were Captains Bigelow, Ephraim Jenkins, James Mott, John Stont and the well-remembered Joshına Huddy. Captain Mott had com- mand of a company called the Sixth Company, of Dover, and Captain Stout, of the Seventh Company, of Dover. The Fifth Company was in old Stafford township, and commanded by Captain Reuben F. Randolph, then of Manahaw- ken, but originally of Middlesex County.
following extract from the minutes of
Royalist brigade." And in another place he says : " Col. John Morris, of the N. J. Royalists in 1777, was sent by Sir William Howe to destroy the salt works at Toms River bridge, but when informed that the property was private in part, he declined to comply with the order." Sabine gives no explanation of the mean- ing of what he terms the significant let- ter R., but the inference is that persons who then favored the Royalist canse, were part owners of the buildings near the bridge. It will be remembered that at the outbreak of the Revolution, the people of Old monmouth unanimously protested against the tyrannical acts of Great Britian, and favored an armed re- sistance, but were divided in the policy of declaring independence. When the Declaration of Independence was
During the war salt works were quite adopted, hundreds of citizens of Old numerons along Barnegat Bay, and of so Monmouth protested against it, and much importance that the British and joined the Royalists, and this was pro- Refugees make several attempts to de- bably the case with some of the owners stroy them, and the first mention that of these buildings, From the following we have found of militia to be stationed we infer the Pennsylvania and other at Toms River was for the protection of works from Toms River to the head of the works in its vicinity, and is found in the bay were destroyed the following year.
An ancient paper says : "About the the Pennsylvania State Council of Safety, first of April, 1778, the British under November 2d, 1776, from which it ap- Captain Robertson with a strong force pears that that State owned works near the village :
landed at Squan and destroyed a number of salt works on the coast ; one building
" Resolved, that an officer and twenty- they said belonged to Congress, and cost five men be sent to the salt works at .£6,000." A letter in the New Jersey Toms River (erected by this State at Gazette, speaking of this raid, says': Toms River, N. J.,) as a guard, and "About 135 of the enemy landed on twenty-five spare muskets and two how- Sunday last, abont 10 o'clock, on the itzers and a sufficient quantity of ummn- south side of Squan Inlet, burnt all the nition to defend in case of attack."
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