USA > New Jersey > Union County > Elizabeth > History of Elizabeth, New Jersey : including the early history of Union County > Part 2
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CHAPTER XXXI.
A. D. 1804-1868.
ECCLESIASTICAL - First Presb. Chh. - Rev. John McDowell, D.D. - Rev. Nicho- las Murray, D.D. - Rev. E. Kempshall -Second Presb. Chh. - Rev. David Magie, D.D. - Rev. Wm. C. Roberts-Third Presb. Chh. - Rev. Robert Aikman - Fourth Pres. Chh., Elizabethport -Rev. Abm. Brown -Rev. Oliver S. St. John -Rev. Edwin H. Reinhart - Westminster Presb. Chh. - Siloam Presb. Chh. - Rev. John C. Rudd, D.D. - Rev. Smith Pyne -Rev. Birdseye G. Noble - Rev. Richd. C. Moore -Rev. Samuel A. Clark -New St. John's -Chapel - Grace Chh. - Rev. David Clarkson - Rev. Clarkson Dunn - Christ Chh. - Rev. Eugene A. Hoffman, D.D. - Rev. Stevens Parker - Trinity Chh. -- Rev. Daniel F. Warren, D.D. - First Baptist Chh. -- Rev. George W. Clark - Broad St. Baptist Chb. - Rev. D. Henry Miller, D.D. - Congregational Chh. - Rev. John M. Wolcott. - Rom. Cath. Chhs. - Mora- vian Chh. - Rev. Christian Neu - Lutheran Chh. - Swedenborgians, . 666
16
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXII.
A. D. 1855-1868.
City Charter -- Town of Linden set off-Rail Roads -Elizabethport - Old Farms sold for City Lots-Street Improvements - New Market House - County House - Population - The Great Rebellion - Finances of the City - Prospective Growth - Conclusion, 685 .
THE
HISTORY OF ELIZABETH,
NEW JERSEY.
CHAPTER I.
A. D. 1609-1664.
Natives of the Soil - Discovery by Europeans - Early Traders - Werckhoven s Manorial Purchase - Failure to perfect a Title - Restoration of Charles II -- Alarm of the New Haven Colony - Attempts to Colonize in New Netherland - Petition of John Strickland and others - Dutch Proposals - Negotiations of Fenn and his Associates-Failure thereof - Long Islanders frustrated in planting a Colony on the Raritan.
THE territory now occupied by ELIZABETH, in New Jersey, was formerly the abode of savage tribes, unknown to fame. Whence they came, and how long they had dwelt on these shores, are questions that neither authentic history nor plau- sible tradition pretends to answer. They have long since passed away, without memorial. Another, and a very differ- ent, population have taken their place, possessed their lands, and made the wilderness, in which they dwelt and roamed, a fruitful field. The history of the town dates back to the coming of these new settlers-the era of its occupation by civilized and cultivated humanity.
It was on Sunday, the sixth day of September, 1609, that the eye of the stranger from the old world first rested on this goodly site. Three days before, the two-masted " clic- boat," called the "Half Moon," of eighty tons' burden, under the command of the renowned Henry Hudson, had cast
2
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THE HISTORY OF
anchor in Sandy Hook Bay. The adventurous craft was manned by twenty men, Dutch and English, in the service of the East India Company of the United Provinces. Their design was to explore a passage to China and the Indies, by the northwest. The day after their arrival, they were visited by the natives, who seemed, as the journalist describes it,
Very glad of our comming, and brought greene Tobacco, and gaue vs of it for Kniues and Beads. They go in Deere skins loose, well dressed. They haue yellow Copper. They desire Cloathes, and are very ciuill. They haue great store of Maiz or Indian Wheate, whereof they make good Bread. The Countery is full of great and tall Oakes.
The day following, some of the crew landed, who
Saw great store of Men, Women and Children, who gave them Tabacco at their comming on Land. So they went vp into the Woods, and saw great store of very goodly Oakes, and some Currants. One of them came aboord, and brought some dryed. Many others, also, came aboord, some in Mantles of Feathers, and some in Skinnes of divers sorts of good Furres. Some women also came with Hempe. They had red Copper Tabacco pipes, and other things of Copper they did weare about their neckes.
On Sunday, the 6th, John Coleman and four other men were sent out in a boat to explore the harbor. Sailing through the Narrows, they found
Very good riding for Ships; and a narrow Riuer to the Westward betweene two Ilands. The Lands were as pleasant with Grasse and Floweres, and goodly Trees, as euer they had seene, and very sweet smells came from them. So they went in two leagues and saw an open Sea, and returned .*
The " narrow river," through which they sailed, was The Kills, between Bergen Point and Staten Island; and the " open sea " was. Newark Bay. That part of the town that borders on the Bay was, of course, in full sight. These five men, therefore, of whom John Coleman + was one, were the first discoverers of this particular tract. The name by which the land was known among the natives, was Scheyichbi. The account of the natives, as given by Juet, applies to those
* Juet's Narrative, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col., I. 135.
t Coleman was slain, the same day, on his return, by the treacherous arrow of one of the natives; an augury of no pleasant import.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY
then occupying this locality, as well as those further down the coast.
Public attention was soon called to this inviting region, and a profitable trade in peltries was presently opened with Holland. The Dutch merchants established a post at Man- hattan, as early as 1613, and thence dispatched, from time to time, small boats or shallops into the creeks and bays of this vicinity, to traffic with the natives for skins and furs,- the country then abounding with game and herds of wild beasts. These traders were thus made acquainted, at an early day, with this particular locality, its beauties, its capa. bilities, and its desirableness. But no attempt, for various reasons, was made to occupy and cultivate the soil. At that period the natives were too numerous, and too treacherous, for a mere handful of foreigners to undertake any thing like permanent settlements. It was not until 1623, that, stimu- lated, probably, by what the English had accomplished at New Plymouth, the Dutch undertook to plant colonies of agriculturists in what they called New Netherland. But these enterprises were few and feeble -- confined mainly to the neighborhood of their military posts. Their relations to the natives were not always very amicable, and sometimes decidedly hostile. It was not deemed safe, therefore, to ven- ture as far into the wilderness as the western shores of Achter Kol,* as Newark Bay was called by the Dutch. The difficulty was still further increased by the cruel and unprovoked mas- sacre of the unsuspecting natives, fourscore in number, at Pavonia, or Paulus Hook, by the Dutch of New Amsterdam, on the night of February 25, 1643. An end was thereby put, for several years at least, to all thoughts of extending the settlements into the interior.
But the land was too attractive not to provoke the greed of the Dutch Colonists. An attempt, and, so far as can now be discovered, the first attempt, was made to plant a colony in this locality, at the close of the year 1651. The policy of the Dutch government had been to encourage the settlement
* Behind the Bay, i. e., the second bay ; since corrupted to "Arthur Cull," a perversion that ought to be at once corrected.
20
THE HISTORY OF
of colonies or manors, similar to the lordships and seigniories of the old world, by men of large fortunes, known as patroons, to whom peculiar privileges, both of trade and government, were accorded. These manors were of great extent, and their proprietors were looked upon as an order of nobility- much like the old barons of the feudal period. The most desirable tracts, both on the North and South Rivers, had thus been colonized, principally by several shrewd and enterprising directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Com- pany. The whole of the neck opposite New Amsterdam, as far as the Kills and Newark Bay, together with Staten Island, had been appropriated for years.
Directly west of these colonies stretched, for miles, along the waters of Achter Kol, and the estuary to the west of Staten Island, one of the most inviting regions in all New Netherland. To this fair land was now directed the cager attention of the Honorable Cornelis Van Werckhoven, one of the Schepens of Utrecht in Holland. He duly notified the Amsterdam Chamber of his intention to plant two colonies, or manors, in New Netherland. A commission was thereupon given to Augustine Heermans, of Bohemia,-who had made New Amsterdam his home since the year 1633, and had become an influential and wealthy citizen,-to pur- chase these lands from the natives. Accordingly Heermans negotiated with the resident proprietors, and purchased, for Van Werckhoven, the whole of the tract extending from
The mouth of the Raritan Creek westerly up unto a creek, Mankack- kewachky, which runs Northwest up into the country, and then from the Raritan Creek aforesaid northerly up along the River behind States Isle, unto the Creek, namely, from the Raritan Point, called Ompoge, unto Pechciesse, the aforesaid creek, and so the said creek Pechciesse up to the very head of it, and from thence direct westerly thorowe the Land untill it meets with the aforesaid Creek and Meadow Ground called Man- kackkewachky aforesaid .*
Possession was given, and the trees in each hook of the tract were marked with the initials of Werckhoven. The land thus described included the region west of Staten
* East Jersey Records, Lib. I. 9.
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ELIZABETHII, NEW JERSEY.
Island, from the Raritan to the Passaic Rivers, and extended back into the country indefinitely."
Three other tracts, one to the south of the Raritan, and two on Long Island, were purchased for the same good old Dutchman, with the hope of large gains from each. But, objection having been made on the part of other as greedy speculators against the accumulation of so much territory in the hands of one owner, the case was referred to the Amster- dam Chamber, who decided that Van Werckhoven could re- tain but one of the tracts in question. IIe chose to locate himself on Long Island, and so commenced there the colony of New Utrecht, so named from his native city in Holland. The title to the land above described reverted, therefore, to the original owners.
It was a happy providence that defeated the attempt to plant a Dutch manorial colony, under a lordly patroon, on these fair shores ; and reserved the land for settlement by a very different class of colonists, under happier auspices. It remained unoccupied, save by the natives, for another con- siderable term of years. The slaughter of the Dutch colonists, in September, 1655, at Pavonia, Hoboken, and Staten Island, in retaliation for the massacre of their kindred by the Dutch in 1643, struck terror into the hearts of the new settlers every- where, and filled New Amsterdam with panic-stricken refugees ; thus putting an end to all schemes for occupying the country round about.+
The Restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his ancestors, May 29, 1660, very naturally turned the attention of the disaffected in Great Britain to the fertile fields of the New World of the West, and gave a new impulse to Ameri- can emigration. It awakened, too, well-founded fears among the hitherto-peaceful Colonists of New England in respect to their dear-bought liberties. Under the Protectorate, they had enjoyed the utmost freedom in the administration of their civil affairs, exercising, without the slightest interference from the Home Government, the right of choosing and appointing their own magistracy, of making their own laws,
* O'Callaghan's New Netherland, II. 1S6, Note.
t Brodhead's New York, I. 852-3, 607
22
THE HISTORY OF
and of regulating their own taxation. In all these respects, they had reason to apprehend a serious conflict with the new government. Jealous of the prerogative of self-government, so happily enjoyed from their earliest organization as English Colonies in America, it was with extreme reluctance that these stern old Puritans consented to proclaim the new mon- arch, and to congratulate him on his accession to the throne. More especially was this the case in the Colony of New Haven, where the republican sentiment had been most fully developed, and none but members of the church were en- trusted with the rights of freemen. The project of an in- corporation by charter with the Colony of Connecticut, where these restrictions were unknown, greatly alarmed the leaders of the New Haven Colony, and led a portion of them to think of securing a home under the Dutch government in New Netherland, where they might perpetuate their peculiar principles without molestation.
Special attention was now directed to the unoccupied and attractive region lying between the North and South Rivers, and especially its eastern portion. Among the first to make application to the Dutch authorities for the settlement of a plantation at Achter Kol, was John Sticklan [Strickland], a resident of Huntingdon on Long Island, in behalf of himself and a number of other New England people. The most of the settlers in that part of Long Island, including Strickland himself, were from the New Haven jurisdiction, and, in all probability, partook of the prevalent feelings of the people of that colony. The application was in the words following :
Worthy Sir : after my due respects prsented vnto you these few lines ar to request a keindness of you. taking you to be my spetiall frend, and know no other like your selff to intrust in such a Case as this : the thing I dezier and som others with me is this : that you woulde be pleased to take the first and moste sutable oppertunity to speake with the honered governor, deziring him to resolue you in these particulars first. whither or no. that place vpon the mayne land which is called Arther Cull be free from any ingagements : secondly if free : then whither or no he will be plesed to grant it to a Company of honest men that may dezier to sit doune ther to make a plantasion vnder his gouerment and that you would be pleased hauing so done to return an answer by the first. which we
23
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
shall waight for, and hauing incoragement we shall forthwith adres our selues to treate further with him aboute the matter thus not doubting of your faithfullness herin I take leaue and rest yours to Comande
John Sticklin
from Huntington february 15th 1660.
lett me intreate you to send the answer to Samuwell Mathies at Rus- dorpe, that it maye be convoied to me in safety : and that you woulde be pleased.that it may be kept secret houeuer it goe.
Sr if you can wth convenience I would intreate you to send me an an- swer by ye bearer of this, all convenient speede being requisite.
The second letter follows :
Worthy Sir : after my due respects prsented vnto you, these few lines ar to intreate a Courtesi of you, that you woulde bo plesed to speake with the honered gouerner, and lorde Steuenson. to know of him if that place which is called Arther Coll be free to be disposed of. and whither or no he will giue incoragement to a Company of the inglish nasion there to settle themselues, if vpon a vew made they shall take satisfaction. and when you know his minde herin. that you woulde be pleased to return me a few wordes in answer by this bearer samwell mathews, and accordingly my selff with sum other frends, whoe haue an y that waye will adress our selues : I shall trubble you no furder at prsant, bat to intreate you to pardon my bowldnes and so rest your louing frend to comand
John Stikland from huntington Aprill 29 : 1661.
These letters were addressed to Capt. Bryan Newton, one of Gov. Stuyvesant's council, by whom they were duly pre- sented, and an answer, of which the following is a transla- tion, was given :
The preceding requests being delivered to Capt" Lieutenant Brian Nuton, and being by him communicated to the Honble Director Gen- eral and by his Exelly delivered to the Council, it is after question put. resolved to give said Capta Lieutenant for Answer, that he may let the Petitioners know that they may freely come to look at the indicated parcel of land, and if they like it, that further disposition would then be had on their application and proposal. This 2 June 1661 .*
Their High Mightinesses, the Dutch rulers, sent over, in the spring of 1661, a general invitation to " all Christian peo- ple of tender conscience, in England or elsewhere oppressed. to erect colonies anywhere within the jurisdiction of Petrus Stuyvesant, in the West Indies, between New England
* Albany Records, IX. 639, 641-3. O'Callaghan's New Netherland, II. 446.
24
THE HISTORY OF
and Virginia, in America." A charter of Conditions and Privileges, of exceedingly liberal import, had been drawn up by the West India Company, and approved, February 4, 166ยบ, by the States General .*
In June following, the General Court of Connecticut in- structed their Governor, John Winthrop, to proceed to Eng- land, and procure from the king a charter for the colony, to include the whole territory "eastward to Plymouth line, northward to the limits of the Massachusetts colony, and westward to the bay of Delaware, if it may be," + and, also, the islands contiguous. These lines included, of course, the colony of New Haven, and the proposition excited there, as might have been expected, no little discontent and indigna- tion. Several of the newly-chosen magistrates declined to serve and take the prescribed oaths, and the disaffection was widespread.
It is not strange, therefore, that the liberal proposals of the Dutch government, just then made public, should have met with a warm reception in New Haven and the adjacent towns. A deputation was sent to New Amsterdam to make further inquiry, and to ascertain the character of the lands to be settled. The deputation was so "courteously enter- tained," and made so favorable a report of the country, as to induce Messrs. Benjamin Fenn and Robert Treat, magistrates of Milford, Dr. Jaspar Gunn, one of the deacons of the church of Milford, and Mr. Richard Law, one of the magistrates of Stamford,-all of them being of the New Haven jurisdiction, and originally from Wethersfield, on the Connecticut,-to come down, in November, 1661, with full powers, to nego- tiate with Governor Stuyvesant for the settlement of a plan- tation in these parts,-" within the limits of the [West India] Company's jurisdiction behind Staten Island, about the Rari- tan River."
Among the conditions insisted upon by the New Haven people, were, liberty to gather a church "in the Congrega- tional way, such as they had enjoyed in New England
** O'Callaghan's N. Neth., II. 444-6. N. Y
+ Brodhead's New York, I. 695. Colonial Documents, III. 37-9.
4
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY
about twenty years past ;" the right of calling a synod by the English churches that might be gathered in New Neth- erland, for the regulation of their ecclesiastical affairs ; " the right to administer justice in all civil matters within them- selves, by magistrates of their own selection," without ap- peal to other authorities ; the purchase of the lands by the Dutch government from the natives, and a full conveyance thereof to the associates forever ; none to "be allowed to settle among them except by their own consent ; the right to collect debts ; " and a written charter stipulating these rights in full .*
To all these the Governor readily consented, except the con- cession of full powers of self-government without appeal ; Stuyvesant being unwilling to grant them, in this respect, greater liberties than were enjoyed by the other towns and colonies of New Netherland. But the deputation was stren- nous in securing a full concession of popular rights, inasmuch as a controversy between Stuyvesant and his people had for years been carried on, and with some considerable asperity, on this very point; the people demanding that no laws should be enacted, and no magistrates appointed, but with their consent and approbation ; and the governor stoutly re- sisting the demand. The conference, thus broken off, was renewed in March, 1662, with the same result. The whole matter was then referred to the Directors at Amsterdam. They would have been pleased, they say, in their reply, March 26, 1663, with the arrangement, as the "settlement might serve as a bulwark to our nation against the savages on the Raritan and Minisink." They instruct Stuyvesant to insist on retaining appellate jurisdiction in certain criminal cases, "as long as it is tenable ; " but, "if the object in view is not obtainable without this sacrifice," then the Governor was "authorized to treat with the English on such terms as in his opinion are best adapted to promote the welfare of the State and its subjects." The negotiations were re- newed in June, 1663, but with what result the record does not state. As no settlement was attempted during the con-
* O'Callaghan's N. Neth., II. 447-8. Albany Records, IX. 897, 829, 907 ; X. 73, 77.
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THE HISTORY OF
tinuance of the Dutch dominion, it is altogether probable that the disagreement remained .*
Later in the year, the English towns on Long Island had succeeded in throwing off the authority of the Dutch Govern- ment, and had put themselves under the jurisdiction of Con- necticut. Early in December, a party of twenty Englishmen, from Jamaica, Flushing, and Gravesend, proceeded, in Stof- fel Elsworth's sloop, to the Raritan River, with the intention of purchasing a plantation from the Indians. But the design was arrested by an armed party under command of Captain Kregier, sent out for the purpose by Governor Stuyvesant, in the Company's yacht.t
These were the only attempts, so far as we can learn, by any parties previous to the year 1664, to occupy this part of the country. Denton, in 1670, says :
Whilst it was under the Dutch Government, which hath been till within these six years, there was little encouragement for any English, both in respect to their safety from the Indians, the Dutch being almost always in danger of them; and their Bever-trade not admitting of a War, which would have been destructive to their trade which was the main thing prosecuted by the Dutch. And secondly, the Dutch gave such bad Titles to Lands, together with their exacting of the Tenths of all which men produced off their Land, that did much hinder the populating of it ; together with that general dislike the English have of living under an- other Government.}
* O'Callaghan's N. Neth., II. 448-9. Whitehead's E. Jersey, pp. 183-4. Brod- head's New York, I. 707-8.
+ Whitehead's E. Jersey, p. 177. # Denton's New York, Ed. of 1$45, pp. 16, 17.
.27
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY
CHAPTER II.
A. D. 1664-1665.
Charter of Connecticut - Royal African Company -Grant to the Duke of York -Expedition against New Netherland -Surrender of New Amster- dam - Gov. Nicolls -Petition of Bailey, Denton, and others for leave to plant a Colony - Indian Purchase and Deed - Nicolls' Grant -Proposals for Settlers - Early Descriptions of the Country - Extent of Nicolls' Patent - Date of the Settlement - Tradition of four Families - Associate Purchasers - Rev: Thomas James.
For several years previous to the Restoration of Charles II., serious differences had existed between the Dutch and English Colonies in North America. The latter were far the more numerous and powerful. Having settled on the sea- coast of New England, and their patents for land giving them an indefinite extent of territory westward, they found themselves brought into collision with the Dutch who claimed on both sides of the North River to its source. Re- peated conferences resulted more and more unfavorably for peace. The new charter of Connecticut, obtained from the king, and bearing date April 23, 1662, expressly granted them all the territory between the Massachusetts line and the sea, extending from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The Dutch were, accordingly, told, by the Hartford people, that " they knew of no New Netherland province, but of a Dutch governor over the Dutch plantation on the Man- hattans." Representations were, also, made to the Court, designed to further these claims, and to lead to the extinguish- ment of the Dutch government in America .*
Charles had, for some time, meditated the reduction of the American Colonies to a state of immediate dependence on
* Brodhead's New York, I. 721.
28 .
THE HISTORY OF
the crown, and the extension of his power along the whole coast of America. He was ready to embrace the first opportunity, therefore, that might offer for extending his jurisdiction over the coveted territory. "The Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading with Africa," more commonly known as "the Royal African Company," had just (January 10, 1663) been chartered, with the Duke of York as their President. They were nothing more nor less than slave-traders. In the prosecution of their nefarious traffic, they had been greatly annoyed, and very seriously damaged, by the powerful and monopolizing West India Company of the United Provinces. Early in the following year, therefore, an expedition was secretly sent out, by the Royal African Company, against the African possessions of the Dutch Company ; the two countries being at peace."
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