USA > New Jersey > Ocean County > Historical reminiscences of Ocean county, New Jersey > Part 7
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During this day, Sunday, Dankers again visited Burlington, and at night re- turned to Falkinburg's house, and this time he says he slept on a good bed, the same that on the previous evening had been occupied by the guide and his wife, " which gave us great comfort and re- cruited us greatly."
Falkinburg seems to have been so fa- vorably impressed with the Quakers that, it is said, he joined their Society, and re- moved to Little Egg Harbor by, or be- fore 1698, settling a short distance below Tuckerton. Mrs. Leah Blackman, in her valuable contributions to the NEW JERSEY COURIER, relating to the history of Little Egg Harbor, published in 1866, says that after Falkinburg had concluded
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a treaty with the shore Indians, his first | Island about 1712 to Little Egg Harbor, dwelling was a cave on the Down Shore tract, on that portion of it now known as the Joseph Parker farm, the site of which is still discernible, and that after he got his dwelling fixed up he went back to West Jersey, and returned with his intended wife, whom he married by Friends' ceremony in the presence of the principal Indians thereabouts ; and that their first child, Henry Jacobs Falkin- burg, Jr., born in this cave dwelling was the first white child born in that section, from whom descends the numerous fami- lies of Falkinburg in Ocean and else- where.
BARNEGAT.
The village of Barnegat derives its name from the inlet, which was original- ly called Barende-gat by the first Dutch discoverers on our coast. Barende-gat, meaning an inlet with breakers, was sub- sequently corrupted by the English to Barndegat, and finally to Barnegat.
Among the first whites who settled at Barnegat and vicinity, tradition says, were Thomas Timms, Elisha Parr, Thom- as Lovelady, Jonas Tow (pronounced like the word now) and a man named Vaull. Thomas Lovelady is the one from whom Lovelady's island, near Bar- negat, takes its name. The first settlers seem generally to have located on the upland near the meadows, on or near the Collins, Stokes and Mills' farms. There was a house built on the Collins place by Jonas Tow, at least as early as 1720. The persons named above as the first comers, do not appear to have been permanent settlers, and tradition fails to state what became of any of them, with the exception of Jonas Tow, who it is said died here.
Among the first permanent settlers, it is said, were William and Levi Cranmer, Timothy Ridgway, Stephen and Nathan Birdsall and Ebenezer Mott ; and Eben- ezer Collins followed soon after. The Cranmers and Birdsalls came from Long
and not long after members of the fami- lies located at Barnegat. The Craumers are said to be of the stock of the cele- brated Archbishop Cranmer, and the Ridgways descend from Richard Rilg- way, who came with other Quakers to West Jersey two hundred years ago. He first took up, about 1678, a tract of 218 acres of land, on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, nearly opposite Trenton ; his descendants were among the earliest settlers of Little Egg Harbor. Ebene- zer Mott, it is said, came from Rhode Island about 1745, and shortly after located at Barnegat. Ebenezer Collins was a native of Connecticut, came to Goodluck, and about 1749 married a daughter of David Woodmansee, and in 1765 he moved to Barnegat. He subse- quently went to New York to sail for South America, to look after some dye wood lands he owned there, and was never afterward heard from. From his two sons, John and James, descend the Barnegat Collins. Ebenezer was not a Quaker, but his son John became a noted and influential member of the Society. On the place now owned by Captain Howard Soper, an ancient settler named Cassaboom lived ; his residence was sur- rounded by woods, and probably was the first within the limits of the present village, the other settlers living a mile or so distant on the Mills, Collins and Stokes places. The ancestor of the shore Rulons was also an early settler ; he probably lived in the house which once stood close by the old one, back of Captain Ralph Collins' in which twenty years ago lived David Rulon, a descend- ant.
The first member of the Cox family in this vicinity, was Jonathan who original- ly located at Littleworth Mill ; he had a son Jonathan whose descendants now live in Barnegat. James Spragg, father of the late Jeremiah Spragg, during the Revolution lived on the beach, by the inlet, in a house built Thomas Rogers,
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and after the war he located on the farm a mile or so south of Barnegat, some- times called the George Applegate place, and subsequently owned by Messrs. Predmore and Bodine and others. James Spragg married a daughter of John Per- kins, the first settler at Sopers Landing, a mile or so above Barnegat. Perkins had been a soldier of the old French war ; he sold the place to Joseph Soper, an cestor of the Soper families at Barnegat, Waretown and elsewhere, and it is said he was buried near Soper's Landing. Two brothers named Stephen and John Conkling, were early settlers in the vicin- ity of Barnegat, Stephen once owning the place on the northerly edge of the village, in late years owned by Capt. John M. Inman, deceased. The Inmans first located at Manahawken, and then members of the family branched off to Barnegat. James Mills, ancestor of the Mills families, was born in West Jersey, and before the Revolution, when a boy, came to Forked River, and lived on the place subsequently owned by the late James Jones ; from thence Mr. Mills moved to Barnegat, where he lived to an advanced age. Mr. Mills remembered many incidents of Refugee raids in old Dover township, which then extended to Oyster Creek.
A dwelling was built in 1793 by Wil- liam Camburn, along the main shore road, west side, by Camburn's brook, on the place owned during the late Rebel- lion by Captain Thomas Edwards, de- ceased. William Camburn was a de- scendant of the Waretown early settler, and from him, it is said, the brook de- rives its name.
The first permanent settlers at Barne- gat, as well as at other places along shore, appear not to have purchased titles of the proprietors until several years after they came. The first land taken up from the proprietors, it is said, was the tract of 500 acres, bought by Tim- othy Ridgway and Levi Cranmer, Sep- tember 9th, 1759, of Oliver Delancey
and Henry Cuyler, Jr., agents for the proprietor, William Doekwra. This tract included the lot upon which the Quaker church is built, but the main portion lay south-easterly. The land along shore was originally divided off into two tracts of about a thousand acres, by John Reed, surveyor, and allotted in alternate divisions to the proprietors ; William Dockwra having for his portion a large part of the land on which stands the village ; next north came Robert Burnett's, and then Lord Neill Camp- bell's. Lochiel brook, between Barne- gat and Waretown, it is said, was named in compliment to Campbell's locality in Scotland.
The first Cranmer family at Barnegat, lived in the tract purchased as above mentioned, and their dwelling was on or near the site of the one owned in modern times by Captain Isaac Soper and subse- quently by Captain John Russell.
The Rackhow road was laid out by Peter Rackhow, a son of Daniel Rack- how, who once lived in the place now owned by Samuel Birdsall, Esq., Ware- town. Rackhow, it is said, was a Dutch- man, who eventually changed his name to Richards ; he had two sons-Peter above named who was a reputable young man, and died quite young, and another who joined the Refugees, went off with them and was not heard of afterwards.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
The first church built at Barnegat was the Quaker meeting house. The deed for the land on which it is situated, is dated June 11, 1770, and is from Timo- thy Ridgway and Levi Cranmer to Stephen Birdsall and Job Ridgway, of Barnegat, and Daniel Shrouds and Joseph Gauntt, of Tuckerton. The deed calls for one acre and half a quarter- consideration money, twenty shillings. The meeting house was then already built, as the deed calls for the beginning of the survey at a certain course and dis- tance " from the south-east corner of the
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meeting house." The Job Ridgway named in the deed, we presume, is the same person who died July 24, 1832, aged 89 years.
The principal settlers of the place were Quakers, and, before their place of worship was erected, traveling ministers visited our shore, and occasionally held meetings at private houses. Among those who first preached at Barnegat, was the philanthropist, John Woolman, who was here in August, 1746, and again in 1765. After the house was built, among noted preachers who have record- ed their visits here in their published journals, may be mentioned Patience Brayton in 1772, Job Scott in 1785, and Elizabeth Collins in 1807. The early Barnegat Quakers were regular in their attendance upon the monthly meetings of the society at Tuckerton. As an in- stance, the late John Collins, born in 1776, for sixty years regularly attended the Egg Harbor monthly meetings, and his father before him was as regular in attendance, but probably not for so long a period.
The second John Collins was among the most prominent and useful men of his day. In his early life, he was master of a vessel, and made his first trips out of old Cranberry Inlet; but in his later years he settled down to the more con- genial business of farming. For sixty years he missed attending but two elec- tions, and probably no man was ever so often selected to fill township offices. His duties often called him to old Mon- mouth Court House, as Freehold once was usually called, where he was well known and respected. Mr. Collins had a remarkably retentive memory, and to him, more than to any other one man, is the writer indebted for valuable tradi- tionary information of olden times in Ocean county. He seemed to be a con- necting link between the past and pres- ent.
and about 1760 they commenced holding regular or occasional services. Among the first preachers were Rev. Messrs. Chesnut, Green, McKnight and John Brainerd. From a letter written by Rev. John Brainerd in 1761, it seems the Presbyterians held their meetings at the house of Mr. Rulon.
The Presbyterian Society now at Bar- negat is of recent origin, having been or- ganized in February, 1876, with nine members.
The first effort to introduce Episcopal- ianism in Barnegat, was by Rev. Thomas Thompson, between 1745 and 1750, which he mentions in his published account of missionary services in old Monmouth in those years. He made four trips to Bar- negat and Manahawken, and, after his return to Shrewsbury, he sent Christo- pher Robert Reynolds, a schoolmaster of his faith, to labor from house to house at Barnegat and Manahawken. Reynolds remained here one year, and then, ac- count of age and infirmity, he went back to Shrewsbury.
The Methodist pioneers held regular or occasional services probably as far back as the Revolution. The first Meth- odist Society was organized in 1829, with the late Rev. Job Edwards as the first class leader and local preacher. Mr. Edwards' grandfather, James Edwards, who had been a soldier in the old French War, was one of the earliest and most earnest converts to Methodism along shore, and in more modern times the so- ciety in this section has had no more zealous, successful laborer than Rev. Job Edwards. "He still lives" in the cherished remembrance of his fellow- members, and in the evidences of his works in the cause of his Master.
INDIANS AT BARNEGAT.
Long after the first whites settled at Barnegat, Indians from West Jersey would frequently visit the place and re-
The Presbyterians were among the early religious pioneers of the village, main a part of the year. One called
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Indian John, with his squaw, had a wig- ' since morning ; he was invited to dine wam near the northerly edge of the vil- with them, and being very hungry he ac- lage, on the road to the Hamilton place, cepted the invitation, but he speedily and another Indian, name not remem- changed his mind when he found the savoury smelling dish was hop-toad soup ! An old Barnegatter once tried to teach Indian Charles the names Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego ; the words were too much for him, but he replied " give me cider and to bed me go," which was as near as he cared to come to them. bered, had a wigwam close by. The last and most noted Indians who visited Bar- negat were Charles Moluss or Moolis, and his wife Bathsheba or Bash as she was commonly called. They had their wig- wam on the place now owned by Cap- tain Timothy Falkinburg, a few hundred yards northwesterly of his residence, by The remains of shell beds on the farm of James Mills, Esq., and at other places show that the Indians at Barnegat, long before the whites came, caught shell fish in great quantities. Some of course were eaten here, but the principal object of the Indians appeared to be to prepare a quantity to take back with them ; this was generally done by roasting and then taking them out of the shell, stringing and drying them in the sun. On their journeys back to West Jersey, they some- times slung these strings around the neck to carry them conveniently ; when they were wanted for food they were often soaked and boiled. the edge of Camburn's Brook. They had two papooses or children, and Bash's sister, named Suke, was generally with them. Among the Quakers of Burling- ton county Bathsheba was considered as a kind of Indian queen, and Mrs. Leah Blackman, in her sketches of Little Egg Harbor, says she was quite a favorite with the Quakers at Medford, and when she visited Tuckerton on her annual visit to the shore, she was not permitted to camp out with other Indians, but always invited to the dwelling of some one of the Little Egg Harbor Friends. Bathsheba belonged to the remnant of Indians who once lived at Edgepelick The appearance of the shells here in- dicate that the colored portions were taken out to be prepared as wampum, or Indian money, which was so much prized by the Indians that fifty years after the whites came to New Jersey a shot bag full of wampum was worth one-fourth more to the Indians than the same quan- tity of silver. about three miles from Atsion, in Bur- lington County. At Barnegat, her hus- band, Indian Charles, made baskets to sell, and himself and family were on good terms with the whites. They probably left New Jersey with the remnant of their tribe in 1802. While the Quakers of Burlington viewed Bathsheba in the light of a Indian Queen, and she was probably superior to other Indian wo- MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. men, the Barnegat traditions give no The first inn or public house in Barne- gat was established in 1820 by David Oliphant, on the site of the present one at the corner of the main shore road and the road to the landing. very romantic idea of her, as may be in- ferred from the unpoetic name of Bash, by which she was generally known. The late Uncle Eli Collins, an aged citizen of Barnegat, informed the writer that one The well-remembered old public house of Eli Collins was occasionally patron- ized forty or fifty years ago by distin- guished visitors, among them the noted Prince Murat with quite a train of ser- vants. He was one of the most expert hunters of his day. Murat was a large, day when he was a young man he had been from home all day, and on his way back he stopped at Indian Charles' wig- wam. Bash was boiling something in a pot that sent forth an odor that was de- lightful to him, as he had eaten nothing
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powerful man, and of remarkable powers | dog's eyes by suddenly darting his sharp of endurance-able to tire out almost bill in quick succession. any other hunter or gunner he met. He would make his head-quarters at Mr. Collins' inn, for his gunning expeditions on the bay, being generally gone about two weeks, during which time he would sleep in his boat, or camp on the beach, or on islands in the bay, and rough it in a manner surprising to our shore gun- ners, who had no idea a scion of royalty had so much physical endurance.
Another celebrated personage who oc- casionally stopped here was Lieut., or Captain Hunter, of Alvarado fame. Once as he drove up, an hostler stepped out to attend to his horses and addressed him by name. Capt. Hunter was sur- prised to find himself addressed so famil- iarly by so humble a personage, and upon inquiry found that the hostler had once held some office in the Navy, and been on a man of war with him up the Mediterranean, and while there had acted as Hunter's second in a duel. Hunter replied, "Proctor, I know you, but I don't know your clothes !" Proctor had considerable natural ability, but it was the old story, liquor sent him on the down grade. Frank Forrester (William Henry Herbert) the great authority and noted writer on field sports, was evi- dently well acquainted here, as his writ- ings show wonderful familiarity with this section. Uncle Eli Collins' house and the lower tavern once kept by David Church were old well-known headquarters for gunners from distant places. Speak- ing of gunners, reminds us of one who stopped once at the lower tavern with a fierce bull dog; the landlord told the gunner to keep his dog away from a yard where he had a loon wounded in his wings, as the loon might hurt the dog. The idea of a loon or any other wild fowl hurting his bull dog amused the gunner, and he offered to bet fifty dollars that his dog would kill the bird. The landlord took the bet, the dog was let in, but in an instant the loon picked out the
Among the traditions handed down by old residents of Barnegat, is one relating to a man named Bennett, who lived on a strip of land called Bennett's Neck, in late years occupied by Solomon Burr, deceased, situated about a mile below the village on the road to Manahawken. It is said that Bennett was only an as- sumed name, and that when he was a youth he was bound apprentice to a sea- faring man who afterward joined the pi- rate Kidd in his cruises, and compelled his apprentice to go with him ; that when the pirates were captured, taken to Eng- land and tried, some were convicted and executed, but this apprentice was cleared because it was proved that he did not join the pirates from choice, but was compelled to do so by his master. After being liberated, wishing to lead an hon- est life where he was not known, he came to America, and wandered down along shore to this place, where he erected a small habitation, and lived an honest life by himself until his death. A reference to the trial of Captain Kidd and his men shows that this tradition is not improba- ble. Captain Kidd was tried at the Old Bailey, London, in May, 1701, with some of his men-ten in all. They were all found guilty but three, named Robert Lumly, William Jenkins and Richard Barlicorn, who proved themselves ap- prentices, and that they were forced to go. It is not unreasonable to suppose one of these apprentices, disliking the odium attached to his name on account of the company he had been forced into, would abandon his country, and under an assumed name seek a retreat in some retired place like Bennett's Neck.
Another ancient tradition relates to Jonas Tow, whose name has been men- tioned among the first settlers. His neighbors seemed to be suspicions of his character-some supposing him to be a counterfeiter, and others that he was or had been a pirate, but there was nothing
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ever proved against him. The reasons given for these suspicions were that Tow had a shop on the place owned in late years by Samuel Leeds, in which he kept a curious, miscellaneous lot of articles, which some supposed could only have been obtained by a rover of the seas. This shop was separated from the house by a thick swamp, and as he would never allow any of his neighbors to visit it, they surmised he might be engaged in counterfeiting or other unlawful busi- ness. As before stated, nothing was ever proved against him ; but while he lived, and after his decease he was always spoken of as a suspicious character, and what added to the suspicions was the fact that the energetic measures against pi- rates generally before Tow came here, had caused them to disband, quit the sea and seek retreats where they were not known ; and as the pirates had known all the inlets on the Atlantic coast, it was possible that Tow had been a rover, and sought retreat here, bringing some of his miscellaneous plunder with him and probably burying the most valuable.
During the Revolutionary war, parties of both Refugees and Patriots, as they traveled up and down shore, would stop at the houses of the Barnegat Quakers, and demand victuals ; but on the whole, the residents suffered less during the war than did those of any other place along shore, except perhaps West Creek. They had, however, but little reason to congratulate themselves on this score, as they suffered enough after the war closed ; for then in time of peace, on ac- count of their conscientious scruples against militia training and paying fines for non-attendance, they were continually harassed by lawsuits, arrests, fines and executions, and imprisoned or property sold for non-compliance with militia laws. The once notorious Esquire Wil- liam Platt, of old Dover township, bore no enviable name among the Quakers for his vexing them with suits on this account.
During the Revolution, quite extensive salt works were carried on at Barnegat, on the meadows near the farm of Mr. James Mills, by the Cranmers, Ridgways and others. The usual plan to manu- facture salt was to seek some place on the salt meadows where no grass could grow. By digging wells in these bare places, the water was found to be strong- ly impregnated with salt. The water from these wells or springs was put in large boilers with a kind of arched oven underneath, in which a fire was built'; after most of the water was boiled away, the remainder, thick with salt, was poured into baskets of sugar-loaf shape made to allow the water to drain out. One of these curious-shaped baskets was pre- served, and in possession of the late Uncle Eli Collins as late as 1860.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM TOM.
In regard to the origin of the name Toms River we have two distinct tradi- tions ; one alleging that it was named after a somewhat noted Indian who once lived in the vicinity ; the other at- tributes it to & certain Captain William Tom who resided on the Delaware river over two hundred years ago, and who it is said penetrated through the wilderness to the seashore on an exploring expedi- tion, when he discovered the stream now known as Toms River ; upon his return he made such favorable representations of the land in its vicinity that persons were induced to come here and settle, and these settlers named the stream after Capt. Tom, because he first brought it to the notice of the whites.
Captain Tom lived many years before Indian Tom, and in view of the disagree- ment as to the origin of the name Toms River, some may be disposed to compro- mise by conceding that it originated with Captain Tom, and was perpetuated by Indian Tom. Reserving the discussion of this question to another article, it seems an opportune time to give an outline of Captain Tom's life. It will be seen that
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he was a confidential officer of the Eng- lish army, and subsequently held various civil positions of trust, such as commis- sary, justice, judge, town clerk, keeper of official records, collector of land rents, agent for lands, etc., and that he stood high in the estimation of Governors Nichols, Andross and Lovelace, and of the Swedes, Dutch, English and Indians.
Captain William Tom came to this country with the English expedition un- der Sir Robert Carre and Col. Richard Nicholls, which conquered the Dutch at New Amsterdam, (New York), August, 1664. Immediately after the English had taken formal possession of New York, two vessels, the "Guinea" and the " Wil- liam and Nicholas," under command of Sir Robert Carre, were dispatched to at- tach the Dutch settlements on the Dela- ware river. After a feeble resistance the Dutch surrendered about the first of Oc- tober of the same year (1864). Captain Tom accompanied this expedition, and that he rendered valuable service, there is evidence by an order issued by Gov. Nicholls, June 30, 1665, which states that for William Tom's "good services at Delaware," there shall be granted to him the lands of Peter Alricks, confiscat- ed for hostility to the English. Captain Tom remained in his majesty's service until August 27, 1668 ; during the last two years of this time he was commissary on the Delaware. He was discharged from his majesty's service on the ground, as is alleged, "of good behavior." In the early part of 1668, a servant of Mr. Tom's was killed by some evil disposed Indians, who it is said also killed one or more servants of Peter Alricks at the same time. The Indians generally were disposed to live on amicable terms with the whites, and these murders were the result, it would seem, of selling liquor to the Indians, the majority of whom seeing its evil effects requested the white au- thorities to prohibit the sale of it among them. The perpetrators of these out- rages were not apprehended ; and
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