USA > New Jersey > Ocean County > Historical reminiscences of Ocean county, New Jersey > Part 5
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What a terrible day to the inhabitants of Toms River, was that memorable Sab- bath ! Probably not less than from sev- enty-five to a hundred women and chil- dren were rendered houseless and home- less ; household goods and necessaries of life destroyed ; the killed and wounded demanded their attention ; husbands and fathers were carried away captive. Some families were entirely broken up, the heads killed and mothers and children scattered, to be cared for by strangers.
THE GARRISON AT TOMS RIVER. .
Captain John Huddy was stationed at Toms River at the request of the citizens of Old Mommonth, made in a petition to the Legislature, dated December 10, 1781, recommending him as a suitable person to command a guard at Toms River. The State Council of Safety, it is supposed, gave him his orders in the month following, and as it must have taken a little time for him to colleet men he could not have been long at Toms River when attacked. The British, after
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garrison of the block-house consisted by some one in the block-house shooting of twenty-five or six twelve months' men. the negro through the port holes, as a negro was killed and left lying there. This, probably, was about the number of men they found in and around the block-house, but several did not belong MEMORANDA RELATING TO PERSONS MEN- TIONED IN THE FOREGOING. to Captain Huddy's Company. They were volunteers from the citizens of the Daniel Randolph, Esquire, who re- sided at Toms River at the time of the attack, was well-known throughout Old Monmouth as a man of prominence and influence among the Whigs. He was taken prisoner and carried to New York, where two or three weeks after he was exchanged for a Refugee captain, named Clayton Tilton. Jacob Fleming was ex- changed for a Refugee, named Aaron White. On the 15th of April, about three weeks after the attack on Toms Riv- er, Esquire Randolph was in Freehold and made the affidavit before referred to. village, who responded to his notice the evening before, and hastily joined him to aid in defending their homes. Among them were Daniel Randolph, Jacob Fleming and David Imlay, and also Ma- jor John Cook and Captain Ephraim Jenkins, who appear to have been home on leave. From Randolph's affidavit, it would seem that most of the remaning citizens volunteered to join the guard, and went down the river road and were thus cut off from aiding, by the enemy getting between them and the blockhouse.
In the official register of officers and men of New Jersey, in the Revolution, the following names are given of men be- longing to Captain Huddy's Company. As the privates are termed "matrosses " it is probable they had experience in ar- tillery service. The names in italics de- note men who had also served in the Continental army.
Captain, Joshua Huddy ; Sergeant, David Laudon.
Matrosses : Daniel Applegate, Wil- liam Case, David Dodge, James Edsal, John Farr, James Kensley, Cornelius McDaniel, James Mitchell, John Morris, John Niverson, George Parker, John Parker, Joseph Parker, Jonathan Petti- more, Moscs Robbins, Thomas Rostoin- der, Jacob Stillwagne, Seth Storey, Thomas Valentine, John Wainright, John Wilbur.
Of the above named, John Farr and James Kensley were killed in the fight, and Moses Robbins and John Wainright dangerously wounded ; and of those who volunteered the previous evening, Major Cook and Captain Jenkins were killed.
In regard to Major Cook's murder by a negro, after surrendering, it is possible that his death might have been avenged
Captain Ephraim Jenkins was an active patriot ; he had commanded a company of the Monmouth militia, and June 14th, 1780, he had been commissioned as Captain in Colonel Holmes' regiment of State troops. From the fact that the writer has not been able to find any mention of him after the fight, and that his children were afterwards scattered along shore to be cared for by strangers, it is probable that he was one of the two captains said to have been killed. One of his daughters was adopted by Major John Price, of Goodluck and she subsequent- ly married a man named Springer.
Abiel Aikens suffered severely for his patriotism during the war. In his old age (1808) the Legislature passed an act for his relief. He was the first friend Methodism found at Toms River, and a prominent citizen of the place many years after the war.
Aaron Buck, was also a well-known Whig. The Dillon, whose daughter he married, was not known as a Tory, and was a much better man than his brother William, who acted as guide to the Tories. Aaron Buck left two daughters, one of whom married Judge Ebenezer Tucker, formerly a member of Congress,
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after whom Tuckerton was named. An- On the last day of March, 1813, Hardy in the Ramillies, eame close to Barnegat Inlet, and sent in barges loaded with armed men after two American vessels lying in the Inlet. They boarded the other daughter married John Rogers, father of the late James D. and Samuel Rogers. It is said that in a fit of tem- porary insanity Mr. Buck committed suicide by hanging himself on board of schooner Greyhound, Capt. Jesse Rogers, his vessel at Toms River.
William Dillon, the Refugec guide, had been once tried and sentenced to death at Freehold, but pardoned ; soon after he aided as pilot to the British ex- pedition which came from New York to recapture the ship Love and Unity, as described in a previous chapter.
Captain Joshua Huddy was taken to New York and confined until the 8th of April following, when he was taken on board a sloop and carried to Sandy Hook, and on the 12th of April he was barbar- ously hung by the Refugees near the Highlands.
THE LAST WAR WITH ENGLAND.
CAPTURE OF OCEAN COUNTY VESSELS.
of Potter's Creek, and attempted to take her out, but she grounded ; the enemy then set fire to her, and slie was burned, together with her cargo of lumber. They then set fire to a sloop belonging to Capt. Jonathan Winner, Hezekiah Soper and Timothy Soper, of Waretown ; this vessel was saved, how- ever, as signals were fired by the Com- modore recalling the barges in haste, that he might start in pursuit of some vessel at sea. As soon as the barges left, tlie Americans went on board the sloop, and extinguished the fire. The name of the sloop has generally been given as the Mary Elizabeth, but one or two old resi- dents insist that it was the Susan; the probability is that vessels of both names were fired, but at different times. While the barges were in the Inlet, a party landed on the beach, on the south side, and killed fifteen head of cattle belonging to Jeremiah Spragg and John Allen. The owners were away, but the British left word that if they presented their bill to Com. Hardy, he would settle it as he generally did similar ones ; but the own- ers were too patriotic to attempt anything that seemed like furnishing supplies to the enemy.
During the war of 1812-14, Ocean county vessels trading to New York and elsewhere, found their business seriously injured by British cruisers on our coast. Occasionally some bold, fortunate mas- ter of a yessel would succeed in eluding the enemy's vigilance, and arrive safely at New York ; but generally they were not so fortunate. Commodore Hardy, in his flag-ship, the Ramillies, a 74-gun ship, had command of the British block- ading squadron on our coast. All ac- At another time, the schooner Presi- dent, Captain Amos Birdsall, of Ware- town, bound to New York, was taken by Com. Hardy, who at once commenced to counts, written and traditional, concede that he was one of the most honorable officers in the British service. Unlike the infamous Admiral Cockburn, who take from the schooner, her spars, deck commanded the blocking squadron fur- planks, etc. Capt. Birdsall with his crew had liberty to leave in their yawl ; but on account of a heavy sea, they were detained a day or two on board, when they succeeded in getting on board a fishing smack and thus got home. Be- fore Capt. Birdsall left the Ramillies, the ther south, Hardy never took private property of Americans, except contraband in war, without offering compensation. By his vigilance, he inflicted considerable damage to our coasters, and by nearly stopping this trade, injury also resulted to a large portion of other citizens, then masts of his schooner had been sawed in- depending on the lumber trade. to plank by the British.
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The sloop Elizabeth, Captain Thomas Bunnell, of Forked River, was captured by barges sent into Barnegat Inlet, and towed out to sea ; but it is said she was shortly after lost on Long Island. The captain saw the barges coming, and he and the crew escaped in the yawl. She was owned by Wm. Platt and Capt. Bun- nell. At another time, Capt. Bunnell was taken out of another vessel, and de- tained by the British some time, and then put on board a neutral vessel, said to have been Spanish, and thus got to New York. The sloop Traveler, Captain Asa Grant, was set on fire by the British, but the fire was extinguished after the British left. At another time, two sloops, one named the Maria, the name of the other not known, were chased ashore near Squan Inlet.
A vessel commanded by Capt. John Rogers, who lived near Toms River, was also captured, and Rogers himself de- tained for a while on the British man-of- war. Capt. Rogers used frequently to relate his adventures on this ill-starred trip which cost him his vessel, and among others to the late well-remembered Billy Herbert, or Harbor as he was generally called, at the old Toms River hotel. The British, he said, treated lıim with civili- ty, and one day, an officer, who believed in the superiority of his ship, asked Rogers, rather boastingly, " What would an American man-of-war do alongside a ship like this?" "And what did you tell him ?" asked Uncle Billy. "I told him she would blow the Ramillies to h-1 mighty quick !" said Rogers.
Capt. Jesse Rogers, of the Greyhound, who lived to quite an advanced age, made efforts to have his losses re-imbursed by Congress, as did also Messrs. Spragg and Allen and others, but they were unsuc- cessful.
In giving reminiscences of Waretown, mention has been made of the excitement created by the barges of Com. Hardy en- tering the inlet and burning the Grey- hound. At Forked River, a new dwell-
ing and store had just been erected at the upper landing by Charles Parker, father of Gov. Joel Parker. Mr. Parker informed the writer that though his house was unfinished, yet the roof was filled with persons watching Hardy's proceedings. Judge Jacob Birdsall, then a boy, was among the children sent to dwellings back in the woods for safety.
The war of 1812 did not seem to be a very popular one in New Jersey, as the political party opposing it generally carried the State. To raise troops, a draft was at one time ordered along shore, which called for one man in every seven. This draft, however, seemed to work but little hardship, as seven men would club together to hire a substitute, who could generally be engaged for a bonus of fifty dollars. Most of the men obtained under the orders for drafting, were sent to defend Sandy Hook, where, from the reports they subsequently made, their time was principally occupied in uttering maledictions on commissaries for furnishing them with horse beef and other objectionable grub. Among those who volunteered, the last survivor at Forked River was the late Gershon Ayres, who served under Gen. Rossell. At Waretown, Ralph Chambers was the last survivor. He was properly entitled to extra pension for wounds received in the battle of Plattsburg ; but as he had money of his own when wounded, he hired medical attendance at a private house to insure good attention, by which means his name escaped being embraced in the official report of wounded. At Barnegat, Tunis Bodine is a survivor of the war of 1812, and is in receipt of a pension for his services. In September last, Mr. Bodine completed his eighty- sixth year, and was so remarkably well and hearty that he made quite a round to Philadelphia, Trenton and other places, transacting business, writing letters, etc. as well as most men twenty years lis junior.
Referring to losses of our citizens by
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the war of 1812, reminds us of an anec- his anti-war creed, and he made up his dote of Capt. Winner, a rather eccentric mind to obtain it peaceably if he could, citizen of Goodluck, who before the war was possessed of some property ; but his vessel was burned by the British, his business ruined, and he was about stripped of everything. One time lie was travelling some distance from home, quite depressed with his misfortunes. The landlord of an inn, where he stopped, asked him his name. Winner replied, " I am ashamed to tell it, for it is a con- founded lie !" The landlord then asked, " Well, where are you from ?" Winner replied, "I am ashamed to tell you that, for it is another confounded big lie !" The landlord and bystanders began to think he was drunk or crazy, when he Colonel. He was now in the midst of explained : "My name is Winner, but I am always a loser; I live at a place called Goodluck, but I never found any thing there but infernal bad luck!" forcibly if he must. He took a captain's commission of the Continental Congress, January 6th, 1776, for which he was at once disowned by the Quakers. He left his home, his society, his mill, to do battle for his country. He served under General Wayne, in Canada, and per- formed the hazardous duty of carrying an express from General Sullivan to Arnold, when before Quebec. On his re- turn next year he resigned on account of a difficulty with General Wayne. He was then appointed by the Pennsylvania Legislature to organize the militia of Bucks County. He was soon elected Tories and Quakers, who were acting in concert with the enemy, some of whom threatened him with personal vengeance. These threats he disregarded as the idle wind. He brought his regiment into the field and performed feats of valor that at once raised him to a high standard in the list of heroes. His conduct was GENERAL JOHN LACEY. particularly noticed by Washington, and he was honored with the commission of FOUNDER OF FERRAGO FURNACE - A YOUTHFUL BRIGADIER - A QUAKER IN THE WAR PATH. Brigadier General, January 9th, and or- dered to relieve General Porter. He was then but twenty-two years old. Probably influenced by Refugee neigh- bors, the British, in Philadelphia, de- termined upon taking him, dead or alive. His duties were onerous and his watch- fulness untiring. On the first of May, following, he was stationed at a place since called Hatborough with less than 500 men, mostly raw militia. Owing to to the negligence of the officers of the picket guard, his little camp was sur- rounded just at the dawn of the morning, by about 800 British rangers and cavalry. He formed his men quickly and ent his way through with such impetuosity that he threw the enemy into confusion, and escaped with the loss of only twenty-six men and a few wounded and prisoners, who were treated with a barbarity that casts savage warfare in the shade. The
After hearing a detail of his losses, the bystanders were satisfied that in his case both names were misnomers.
LACEY TOWNSHIP, WHENCE ITS NAME
Lacey township derives its name from General John Lacey, who established Ferrago Forge, in 1809, and the well- known Lacey Road from Ferrago to Forked River landing must have been laid out soon after. General Lacey was quite a noted man in the Revolution, and the following outline of his life will show that he was deserving the honor of having his name bestowed on a part of the county he endeavored to benefit.
John Lacey was born in Bucks Coun- ty, Pa., February 4th, 1755. His pa- ternal ancestor was from the Isle of Wight, and came to this country with Win. Penn. General Lacey's ancestors and all his descendants were Quakers. At the breaking out of the Revolution, his love of freedom predominated over
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bold maneuvre of Gen. Lacey and and his men by the British, alluded to his brave Spartans was a matter of ap- above, Lacey writes as follows : plause throughout the country. He was "Some of my men were butchered in the most savage and cruel manner ; even while living, some were thrown into buckwheat straw, and the straw set on fire. The clothes were burnt on others, and scarcely one was left without a dozen wounds with bayonets and cutlasses." In He says he retreated upwards of two miles, fighting all the way, until he reached a wood and extricated himself, losing thirty killed and seventeen wounded. constantly employed by General Wash- ington in hazardous enterprises, and in every instance receive his unqualified approbation. After the evacuation of Philadelphia, Gen. Lacey was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and served three consecutive sessions. 1781 he closed his military career, and like a good citizen married an amiable daughter of Col. Reynolds, of New Jer- sey, and commenced a successful career of domestic felicity. He filled various Gen. Lacey and his corps were dis- charged by the Executive of Pennsylva- nia, Oct. 12, 1781, with the thanks of the Council. civil offices, lived in the esteem of every patriot (not of all his Quaker relatives) and died at the village of New Mills, (now Pemberton) New Jersey, Feb. 14th, 1814, in his 59th year.
The foregoing notice is substantially from a work by L. Carroll Judson. In Niles' " Principles of the Revolution," is to be found considerable correspondence between Gen. Lacey and Gen. Washing- ton, which shows the responsible duties General Lacey had to perform, princi- pally in preventing Tories from furnish- ing supplies to the British. Both of these Generals distrusted the Quakers of Bucks county, a notoriously Tory section which furnished Refugees to attack Toms River, and in one letter General Washington orders Gen. Lacey to pre- vent all Quakers from the surrounding country from going to Philadelphia year- ly meeting, as he " fears the plans settled at these meetings are of the most perni- cious tendency." The Whigs at this time suffered so much from information and supplies to the enemy, that, on re- ceipt of Washington's letter, Lacey at once issued orders to stop all Quakers and others from visiting Philadelphia, and "if they refused to stop when hailed to fire upon them and leave their bodies in the road." This order was afterward modified by Congress, to confiscation only of horses and provisions.
In regard to the surprise of Gen. Lacey
Samuel H. Shreve, Esq., who in past years has furnished many valuable his- torical items to the NEW JERSEY COUR- IER, says in a communication dated Janu- ary, 1868 : "Ferrago Forge was erected by Gen. Lacey in 1809, and the same year Dover Forge was built by W. L. Smith, the father-in-law of Lacey."
From this it would appear that Gen. Lacey was twice married. We have heard it stated that Lacey expended ten thousand dollars at Ferrago in building the dam alone, and the contruction of the forge and other buildings and of the road to Forked River must have required a very considerable outlay of money.
INDIAN WILL.
AN ECCENTRIC ABORIGINAL OF THE SHORE.
In days gone by, the singular char- acter and eccentric acts of the noted In- dian Will formed the theme of many a fireside story among our ancestors, many of which are still remembered by older citizens. Some of the traditionary inci- dents given below differ in some particu- lars, but we give them as related to us many years ago by old residents. Indian Will was evidently quite a traveler, and well known from Barnegat almost to the Highlands. At Forked River, it is said
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he often visited Samuel Chamberlain on them he had found it in a trunk along the neck of land between the north and the beach, and there was plenty of yellow middle branches, and was generally fol- money beside ; but as the yellow money lowed by a pack of lean, hungry dogs was not as pretty as the white, he did which he kept to defend himself from his not want it, and Longstreet might have Indian enemies. The following tradition it. So Longstreet went with him, and was published in 1842, by Howe, in His- found the money in a trunk, covered over torical Collections of New Jersey :
with a tarpaulin and buried in the sand. Will kept the white money, and Long- street the yellow (gold), and this satis- factory division made the Longstreets wealthy."
" About the year 1670, the Indians sold out the section of country near Eat- ontown to Lewis Morris for a barrel of cider, and emigrated to Crosswicks and Cranbury. One of them, called Indian It is probable that Will found money along the beach ; but whether it had been buried by pirates, or was from some shipwrecked vessel, is another question. However, the connection of Kidd's name with the money would indi- cate that Will lived long after the year named in the first quoted tradition (1670). Kidd did not sail on his pirati- eal cruises until 1696, and, from the traditionary information the writer has been enabled to obtain, Will must have Will, remained, and dwelt in a wigwam between Tinton Falls and Swimming River. His tribe were in consequence exasperated, and at various times sent messengers to kill him in single combat ; but, being a brave, athletic man, he al- ways came off conqueror. On a certain, while partaking of a breakfast of suppawn and milk with a silver spoon at Mr. Eaton's, he casually remarked that he knew where there were plenty of such. They promised that if he would bring lived many years subsequent. The late them, they would give him a red coat and Jolin Tilton, a prominent, much-re- spected citizen of Barnegat, in early years lived at Squan, and he was quite confident that aged citizens who related to him stories of Will, knew him per- broad-shouldered, with prominent In- dian features, and rings in his ears, and a good-sized one in his nosc. cocked hat. In a short time he was ar- rayed in that dress, and it is said the Eatons suddenly became wealthy. About 80 years since, in pulling down an old mansion in Shrewsbury, in which a sonally. They described him as stout, maiden member of this family in her lifetime had resided, a quantity of cob dollars, supposed by the superstitious to have been Kidd's money, was found con- ccaled in the cellar wall. This coin was generally of a square or oblong shape, the corners of which wore out the pockets."
The following are some of the stories related of him : Among other things which Will had done to excite the ill-will of other Indians, he was charged with having killed his wife. Her brother, named Jacob, determined on revenge,
A somewhat similar, or perhaps a vari- ation of the same tradition, we have fre- He pursued him, and, finding him un- quently heard from old residents of Ocean county, as follows :
" Indian Will often visited the family of Derrick Longstreet at Manasquan, and one time showed them some silver money which excited their surprise. the ground, Will tauntingly exclaimed, They wished to know where he got it, and wanted Will to let them have it. Will refused to part with it, but told
armed, undertook to march him off cap- tive. As they were going along, Will espiad a pine knot on the ground, man- aged to pick it up, and suddenly dealt Jacob a fatal blow. As he dropped to "Jacob, look up at the sun-you'll never see it again !" Most of the old residents who related traditions of Will,
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spoke of his finding honey at one time starving before he could stomach it. on the dead body of an Indian he had killed; but whether it was Jacob's or some other, was not mentioned.
One time when he was alone on the beach lie was seized with a fit of sickness and thought he was about to die, and
At one time to make sure of killing not wishing his body to lie exposed, he Will, four or five Indians started in pur- succeeded in digging a shallow grave in snit of him, and they succeeded in sur- prising him so suddenly that he had no chance for defence or flight. His cap- tors told him they were about to kill him,
the sand in which he lay for a while, but his sickness passed off and he crept out and went on his way rejoicing. In the latter part of his life he would never and he must at once prepare to die. He kill a willet, as he said a willet once heard his doom with Indian stoicism, saved his life. He said he was in a canoe and he had only one favor to ask before one dark stormy night crossing the bay, he was killed and that was to be allowed and somewhat the worse for liquor, and unconsciously about to drift out the which had just been filled. So small a Inlet into the ocean, when a willet to take a drink out of his jug of liquor
favor the captors could not refuse. As screamed and the peculiar cry of this bird seemed to him to say " this way, - Will ! this way, Will !" and that way Will went, and reached the beach just in time to save himself from certain death in the breakers. When after wild fowl he would sometimes talk to them in a Will's jug was full, it was only common politeness to ask them to drink also. Now if his captors had any weakness it was for rum, so they gratefully accepted his invitation. The drink rendered them talkative, and they commenced reasoning with him upon the enormity of his of- low tone : "Come this way my nice bird, fences. The condemned man admitted Will won't hurt you, Will won't hurt the justness of their reproaches and you !" If he succeeded in killing one he would say ; "You fool, you believed me, eh? Ah, Will been so much with white men he learned to lie like a white man !" begged to be allowed to take another drink to drown the stings of con- science ; the captors consented to join him again-indeed it would have been cruel to refuse to drink with a man so Near the mouth of Squan river is a deep place known as "Will's Hole." There are two versions of the origin of the name, but both connecting Indian Will's name with it. Esquire Benjamin Pearce, an aged, intelligent gentleman, residing in the vicinity, informed the writer that he understood it was so called soon to die. This gone through withi, they persuaded Will to make a full con- fession of his misdeeds, and their magni- tude so aroused the indignation of his captors that they had to take another drink to enable them to do their duty becomingly ; in fact they took divers drinks, so overcome were they by his because Will himself was drowned in it. harrowing tale, and then they were so' The other version, related by the late completely unmanned that they had to well remembered Thomas Cook, of Point try to recuperate by sleep. Then crafty Pleasant, is as follows :
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