USA > New Jersey > Union County > Elizabeth > History of Elizabeth, New Jersey : including the early history of Union County > Part 57
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* Ms. Records of Presb. of N. York, II. 24, 31, 34, 59, 98, 105, 110, 136, 9, 144, 162; III. 11- 14; IV. 161, 172-8. Records of Presb. Chh., p. 490. Minutes of G. Assembly, pp. 211, 231, 252, 3, 4, 325. Riker's Newtown, pp. 231-5, 868. Doc. Hist. of N. York, III. 1114, 5.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
On Saturday of the same week (10th), at six P. M., he had departed this life. He and his wife, with some others of the family, had been ill for some time, probably with bilious fever. He had preached, on Sunday, Sep. 28, in a neighbor- ing church, from "This year thou shalt die." He was taken ill the next day. On Friday, Oct. 9th, he was regarded as convalescent. Soon after he was struck with death. He gathered his family and neighbors about his. bed, and gave them his dying counsel. He appeared to be filled with joy and peace, bearing the most impressive testimony, so long as his strength allowed, to the truth and blessedness of religion. At his own request, Dr. Macwhorter preached, on Monday, 12th, his funeral sermon, from Prov. 18 : 10, Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Hillyer taking part in the service. He died at the early age of thirty-two, greatly lamented. "Perhaps," says a correspondent, " no man ever lived more beloved, or died more lamented, by the people of his charge, than Mr. Smith." He left " a tender wife and helpless family." *
His successor in the pastorate was the
REV. STEPHEN OGDEN THOMPSON.
He was a native of Mendham, N. J., and a descendant of " Goodman Thompson," one of the founders of this town. He was the son of Jacob Thompson and Hannah Beach (daughter of Elisha). His grandfather, Stephen, was 19 years old, when his father, Joseph, migrated from the old home here to the head spring of the Passaic, in what is now known as the village of Mendham. Joseph, the great grandfather, was the son of Aaron, and the grandson of Goodman Thomas, of whom mention is made on page 94. The grandfather of Stephen O., having died, at 30 years of age, the widow mar- ried Dr. Joseph Ogden, from whom he derived his middle name. He was born, December 17, 1775, and graduated, in 1797, at the College of New Jersey.
HIe was taken under the care of the Presbytery of New York, Oct. 18, 1798; and was licensed to preach, Oct. 9,
* R. D. Minutes, pp. 1S3, 197, 200, 290. Records of Presb. of N. Y., IV. 193, 122, 3, 260, 274. N. J. Journal, Nos. SS6, 937. N. Y. Miss. Mag. II. 471-5
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1800. A call for his services as pastor was presented to the Presbytery, June 15, 1802, from the church of Connecticut Farms, and he was ordained their pastor, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1802, at 11 o'clock A. M .; the Rev. Asa Hillyer, of Orange, N. J., presided ; the Rev. Aaron Condict, of Hano- ver, preached the sermon, from Col. 4 : 17; and the Rev. James Richards, of Morristown, gave the exhortation to the people. A few months later (Feb. 24, 1803), he married Henrietta, a daughter of Maj. Nathanael Beach, of Newark. The ceremony was performed by Dr. Mcwhorter, with whom, probably, he had studied for the ministry. Thrice during his ministry, in 1808, 1813-14, and in 1817, the con- gregation were favored with a revival of religion. He was dismissed in 1834, removed to the N. E. part of Indiana, and became a member of the Presbytery of St. Joseph (N. S.), of which he continued a member until his death, May 31, 1856, in his 81st year .*
# Records of Presb. of N. Y., IV. 170, 232, 293, 304.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
CHAPTER XXX.
A. D. 1801-1844.
Political Parties - Flag Presentation - County House Agitation - Female Vo- ters - Political Corruption - Trial of Cornelius Hatfield - Gen. Elias Day- ton-Town House burned and rebuilt - Streets regulated - Anti-Sabbath- Profanation - Thomas' Ferry - Casualty - Steam Navigation - Monopoly - Gov. Ogden and the Livingstons - Thomas Gibbons - Opposition Line - Lawsuit -Decision of U. S. Supreme Court - Monopoly brought to an end - Daniel Dod- War of 1812-15-Paper Currency - Peace Celebration - Gen. Wm. Crane-Lt-Gen. Winfield Scott - Mayor Jeremiah Ballard - Gen. Jona. Dayton - Gov. Williamson.
THE early years of the present century, in this town as elsewhere, throughout the land, were marked by political agitations growing out of the change, attempted and accom- plished, in the administration of the federal government. The greater portion of the people, attached to the memories and traditions of the Revolution, adhered to the Federalists ; while a respectable minority, of whom Abraham Clark, the Signer, had been a distinguished leader, and of which the N. J. Journal was a powerful advocate, were known as Re- publicans, or Democrats. The latter sympathized deeply with the French Democracy, and were often spoken of as the French party. The accession of Mr. Jefferson to the Presi- dential chair, March 4, 1801, was the occasion of great re- joicings in this town, on the part of his political friends. Party-spirit ran high, and bitter animosities were created among neighbors and in the same family .*
Record is made in the annals of this town, of a pleasant incident that occurred on the following Fourth of July,
* N. J. Journal, No. 907.
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adapted to keep alive the spirit of gallantry and martial glory :-
On Saturday, Miss Susan Williamson and Miss Abigail Hatfield pre- sented to the 4th regiment commanded by Col. Crane a superb standard, ornamented with a spread eagle on one side, and the arms of New Jersey on the other. *
A few years later, the town, in common with the whole county, was greatly excited on the question of locating the new County Court House. The County Courts had, from an early period, been held at Newark. The Court House, built originally for the Presbyterian church, 1708-13, had long been deemed insecure and otherwise unfit for occupa- tion. It had been repeatedly presented as a nuisance, and a new building called for. The Board of Freeholders re- fused both to repair and rebuild. Newark was regarded as too far north and east,-a more southern or western location was demanded by the lower towns. A law was passed by the Legislature, November 5, 1806, by which the question of determining the site of the new Court House for Essex Co. was to be submitted to the Electors of the County, on the second Tuesday and Wednesday of February, 1807, a previous nomination of places to be voted for having been made. Eleven nominations were made. The choice, how- ever, by common consent, was to be between the old loca- tion at Newark, and Day's Hill, near Camptown, north of the turnpike from Newark to Springfield-the land being owned by Jonathan Day.
To such an extent was the rivalry carried on this occasion, that nothing was left undone to secure a majority of votes. The old Constitution provided, that
All inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money, clear estate in the same, and have resided within the county in which they claim a vote, for 12 months immediately preceding the election, shall be entitled (to vote,) &c.
This was construed literally, as admitting all persons, male and female, white or colored, having otherwise the
* N. J. Journal, No. 925,
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
proper qualifications, to the privilege of voting. When, in 1797, John Condit, of Newark, and William Crane, of E. Town, were rival candidates for the Legislative Council, seventy-five women voters were polled in this town for Mr. Crane ; but Mr. Condit was elected. In the Presidential canvass of 1800, the partisans of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson availed themselves alike of this provision ; and females, especially where the Society of Friends were in strength, voted in considerable numbers throughout the State. The precedent was sustained, year by year. At first only single women voted; afterwards, married women, also ; colored, as well as white. In Hunterdon Co., a citizen was chosen to the Legislature, by a majority of two or three votes, and these were cast by colored females.
The political agitation in the winter of 1806-7 affected thus every class in the community, and both sexes. The two rival weeklies of this town and Newark entered warmly into the canvass. A correspondent of the Newark Sentinel, " Manlius," under date of Jan. 27, 1807, indulges in the fol- lowing strain of gossip :-
It has been said that the people of Newark opposed the establishing a ferry some years since, from Elizabethtown Point to Bergen Point; and since that, the erecting of bridges from and to those Points .* ... So far as the opposition arising from Newark, the facts are the reverse. Newark had their ferry established, and stages running from New York to Phila- delphia daily passing them ; the Elizabethtown people started the opposi- tion, and persuaded the then proprietor of the line stage to join them, cross their ferry and leave Newark ; finding this to be the case, the peo- ple of Newark for self-preservation established a new line of Stages, run them through Newark, and by that means defeated the Elizabeth plan, to the injury and ruin of the first stage proprietor, who had been deluded by them. So when the people of Elizabeth strove to get a law author- izing the building of a bridge across Newark Bay, the people of Newark, with the northern part of the county opposed it, because it would deprive Newark of the travelling between N. Y. and Phila. ; and because it would obstruct the navigation of Newark Bay, Hackensack and Passaick rivers,
* A writer in the Sentinel, in July, 1843, makes this comment on the above project " Elizabethtown must have been a piace of remarkable enterprise, at that time, to entertain the idea of so stupendous an undertaking." Little did he dream that the undertaking would ever be, as it has been for years, an accomplished fact.
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the convenience of which greatly interested Orange, Caldwell, Acquac- kanonk, as well as Newark.
Elizabethtown people were charged with envy at the in- creasing prosperity of Newark, and with a design of drawing away its trade and travel. When the days for deciding the contest arrived, Feb. 10, and 11, the excitement was intense. Everybody that could possibly claim to vote was brought to the polls-not males only, but females, also, both white and colored. It was charged that not a few of these, by change of dress, voted more than once; and this whether worth £50, or not. The population of the county was computed to be 22,139. Never before had more than 4,500 votes been cast in the county, at any one election. On this occasion the votes polled were 13,857-more than half of the whole popu- lation. So glaring were the frauds practised, and so profli- gate the corruption, that the Election was set aside by the Legislature, Nov. 28, 1807, and the law authorizing it annul- led. The qualifications of voters, also, were more strictly de- fined, and none but free white male citizens, of 21 years, worth £50, henceforward allowed the elective franchise.
The following occurrence belongs, also, to the year 1807 :-
Elizabethtown, October 13 .- Cornelius Hatfield, an obnoxious refugee character, who came here a short time since from England, via Nova Scotia, to possess a valuable landed estate left him by his father, was ap- prehended by the civil authority last week, and conveyed to Newark · gaol, on a charge of being a principal in the brutal murder of Stephen Ball, a citizen of this state, during our revolutionary war, who went into the British lines under assurances of protection ; and, on Thursday last [8th], was brought before judge Pennington on a writ of habeas cor- pus. Aaron Ogden, Isaac H. Williamson, and William Chetwood, Esqrs., appeared on the part of the culprit; and Alexander C. McWhorter, Wil- liam Halsey, and Elias Van Arsdol, Esqrs., on the part of the prosecution, when, after a patient hearing of the argument on both sides until yester- day, the judge discharged Hatfield, being of opinion, by the spirit of the treaty of 1783, he was not now answerable for that transaction ; but we hear that the friends of Ball are still determined to prosecute him be- fore another tribunal.
In January, 1789, his associate, John Smith Hatfield, had been arrested on the same charge, and brought before a
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
magistrate at Bergen, N. J., on a writ of habeas corpus. After the hearing of the evidence, the Judge, looking upon it as a case involved in the Treaty of Peace, concluded to refer it to the judgment of the Court, and remanded the pri- soner to the same Newark jail, " where he had nearly lost his life by his debaucheries." At the meeting of the Court in August, the case was adjourned on account of the absence of the witnesses, and the prisoner admitted to bail. He fled the country, and the recognizances were virtually discharged.
Of these proceedings, Mr. Hammond, the British Minister, in a letter, March 5, 1792, to Thomas Jefferson, Secr. of State, made complaint, as an infraction of the Treaty of Peace. Mr. Jefferson sought to justify the procedure, by recapitulating the facts, as stated in a letter from Mr. Boudi- not, April 11, 1792. The case was never finally issued. Capt. Cornelius returned to England, where he died at an advanced age-a loyalist, of course, to the end .*
One of the most venerated citizens of the town,
GEN. ELIAS DAYTON,
was, October 22, 1807, called to his rest. He was the son of Jonathan, and born, in this town, in 1737. He entered the Military service of the Province as a Lieutenant, March 19, 1759, and was made Captain, March 29, 1760, serving with the British Troops in the French War on the frontiers. In 1764, he conducted a successful expedition against the In- dians, near Detroit, of which he has left a journal, commen- cing with April 30, and ending with Sept. 15, 1764. He took an active and patriotic part in the measures that led to the Declaration of Independence. As Colonel of militia, he had command of the E. T. Volunteers who captured, Jan. 23, 1776, the Blue Mountain Valley. Feb. 9, 1776, he was com- missioned as Colonel of the Third N. J. Regiment of Regu-
* Brown's Am. Register, II. 823-4. Am. Stato Papers, I. For. Relations, 1 : 232. " Eliza- bethtown, Jan. 7. 1789. Last evening was brought to this town, under an escort from New York, where he was apprehended, Smith Hetfield and this morning was sent off to Newark, to be entered on board tho standfast, Capt. Gifford, there to remain (in a region as dreary as the one he camne from, viz. Nova Scotia) until he takes his trial for his offences against the good people of this state, which aro said to be of an enormous naturo." N. J. Journal , No. 273.
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lars, and took part with his regiment in the defense of Ticonderoga. His gallant conduct through the war has been already related. On the resignation of Gen. Maxwell, July 20, 1780, he was put in command of the N. J. Brigade. He took part in the affairs of Brandywine, Germantown, Mon- mouth, and Yorktown, and accompanied Gen. Sullivan, in 1779, on his Western Expedition. He was commissioned as a Brigadier General, Jan. 8, 1783 ; and, June 5, 1793, as a Maj. General of the Second Division of N. J. Militia.
In 1779, he was chosen a member of Congress, and de- clined, but was a Delegate in 1787-8. He was, for several years a member of the N. J. Legislature. He would have been appointed to the U. S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, but declined in favor of his son Jonathan. He was frequently appointed to office in his native town, as a mem- ber and President of the Board of Trustees, for many years, of the Presb. chh .; as a member of the corporation ; and, from 1796 to 1805, with the exception of a single year, as Mayor of the Borough. He was the first President of the Cincinnati of N. Jersey. In person and bearing he strongly resembled Gen. Washington.
He died of gout in the stomach, and, on Saturday, 24th,
The corpse was removed to the Presbyterian Church, where a funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. John McDowell, from Joshua, 23: 14 -" And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth." The assem- blage of citizens was more numerous than we ever knew on the like oc- casion in this town. Military honors were performed. The whole pro- ceedings were marked with uncommon solemnity, and evinced the unfeigned affliction felt by all classes of citizens. In this solemn dispen- sation of Providence, we behold the uncertainty of sublunary things, a fellow-mortal, in health in the evening, and a corpse before the next ris- ing sun.
Both before and after the revolutionary war he was suc- cessfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, part of the time alone, and afterwards as "Elias Dayton & Son .*
The Court House of the Borough, which had risen on the
" Berrian's Memorial of A. O. Dayton, Esq., pp. 4-6. N. J. Journal, No. 1252. Brown's Am. Register, II. 75 b. Murray's Notes, pp. 84-6. Allen's Am. Biog. Dict. Appleton's Am. Cyclopædia.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
ruins of that burned during the revolutionary war, and which had been occupied only about eleven years, was reduced to ashes, Ap. 26, 1808, and a poor lunatic, Andrew Ross, per- ished in the flames. Moses Austin, High-Constable of the town, had been the occupant and keeper of the house for several years. Measures were immediately taken by the Corporation for its reconstruction. Aldermen Thaddeus Mills and Richardson Gray, with the Recorder, Andrew Wilson, were appointed a building committee, and means taken to obtain the needed funds. A year passed and the work was not done. Capt. Wm. Dayton, of the Council, was substituted on the Committee for Mr. Wilson. It was not until the winter of 1810-11, that the building was in a con- dition to be occupied. Portions of it were left unfinished for years .*
But little attention had thus far been given to the condi- tion of the streets. Overseers of highways had been appoint- ed by the town from a very early day, roads had been laid out, and the road-ways kept in passable condition. But in the town plot, no statute regulations had been made for foot- paths, side-walks, and similar conveniences. A committee was, at length, appointed, Ap. 24, 1810,
To report an Ordinance for the appointment of a Street Commissioner & regulate the laying out, Paving, Gravelling & keeping in repair the side walks or foot-ways in the principal Streets of Elizabeth Town and to prevent obstructions in the same.
Care was taken by the Corporation for the proper obser- vance of the Sabbath-Day. Ap. 24, 1812, a Committee was appointed,
To examine the Stato Law for the suppression of Vice and immorality, & to report by law, or otherwise, to this body, whether ways & means cannot be devised to suppress the profanation of the Sabbath day.
A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of the borough (Aaron Lane, Chairman, and Isaac Crane, Secretary), was held on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1813, at which a vigorous determination was expressed, in the form of Resolutions, to
* N. J. Journal, No. 127S. Corporation Book.
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suppress by all lawful means, the growing profanation of the Lord's Day .*
An eventful change in the facilities for traveling was now inaugurated. From the founding of the town, intercourse by water with the City of New York had been kept up, with considerable regularity, mostly from the Point, at the mouth of the Creek. Dankers and Sluyter, as already related, found. there, in 1679, a tavern, or ferry-house, kept by a French Papist. This must have been one of the men from the Isle of Jersey, brought over by Gov. Carteret. Frequent reference is made in various documents to this ancient ferry. Several of the planters and of their descendants had, also, boats running from various landings on the Sound and the Creek, to Staten Island, and New York. Constant inter- course was thus maintained with the great emporium of trade, until and after the revolutionary war.
The boats employed in this traffic were propelled, as a matter of course by sails and oars. The barge, the yawl, the scow, the skiff, the yacht, the sloop, the schooner, the pettiauger [petiagua ?], were all employed. After the revo- lution, in 1790, the ferry came into possession of Edward Thomas, and was known by the name of Thomas's Ferry.
Casualties were not of infrequent occurrence. One of the E. Town ferry-boats upset, near Bergen Point, on Saturday, Nov. 10, 1798, and Benjamin Bonnel, James Carter and wife of Chatham ; David P. Tuttle of Morris Co .; the wife of Daniel Moore, of Rahway; the wife of Ezekiel Smith, of Scotch Plains ; Mrs. Abigail Maxwell and child, of New York ; and Mr. Hedges, of Turkey, were drowned.}
In August, 1807, Livingston and Fulton succeeded in their experiment of steam navigation, and the "Clermont " be- came a regular packet between New York and Albany, her name being changed, when enlarged the next year, to the "North River." An exclusive right to navigate the waters of New York by steam had been obtained by Chancellor Livingston and Robert Fulton, by Act of the N. York Legis- lature, Ap. 5, 1803, and extended, Ap. 11, 1808. The right
* Corporation Book, N. J. Journal, No. 1604,
+ N. J. Journal, No. 787.
-
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
to run a steam packet from New York to New Brunswick, N. J., was, in 1808, conveyed to Jolin R. and Robert J. Liv- ingston ; who thereupon built the steamer "Raritan," 130 by 20 feet, and put her on the route.
The ferry at the Old Point had, some years before, passed into the hands of Col. AARON OGDEN, one of the honored ci- vilians of the town. He was the son of the Hon. Robert Ogden, and was born, Dec. 3, 1756. He graduated at the College of New Jersey, in 1773, joined the Army in 1777, served with distinction during the war, and, at its close, en- gaged in the practice of law. In November, 1796, he was chosen one of the Presidential Electors of N. Jersey, and, February 28, 1801, he was appointed to the U. States Senate to fill a vacancy of two years. The owners of the " Raritan " agreed with Col. Ogden, for the privilege of receiving and landing passengers at E. T. Point, to give him for every pas- senger what he would have received as profit in his own boats. The " Raritan " thus became the first boat that con- nected this town with New York by steam.
Not content, however, with this arrangement, Col. Ogden, early in 1811, contracted with Cornelius Jerolaman, of North Belleville, N. J., a boat-builder, to construct a vessel of 14 ft. beam and 75 ft. keel, of the form of a pettiauger ; and with Daniel Dod, of Mendham, N. J., (who, in consequence, re- moved at the time to this town), to furnish the boat with a steam engine of 12 horse power. In the mean time, Col. Ogden was chosen, by the Legislature, Oct. 29, 1812, to suc- ceed the Hon. Joseph Bloomfield, as Governor of the State of New Jersey ; and, Feb. 27, 1813, he was appointed by President Madison, one of the six Major Generals, provided for, Feb. 24, by Act of Congress.
Before, however, Ogden's boat, the "Sea Horse," had been completed, an Act was passed, Ap. 9, 1811, by the N. York Legislature, by which it was put in the power of the Liv- ingstons to seize any steamboat that should be found infring- ing on their monopoly. An Act had, also, been passed, Jan. 25, 1811, by the Legislature of New Jersey, " for the protec- tion of steamboats owned and navigated by citizens of this
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State." For the more effectual enforcement of this Act, and to counteract the New York law of 1811, another Act was passed by the Legislature of New Jersey, Feb. 12, 1813.
Ogden had designed running his boat to New York, where . he had obtained the lease of a wharf where his sailing boats were moored. In order, however, to avoid the seizure of his steamboat, he determined to run her to Jersey City. It was publicly announced, May 18, 1813, that " An elegant STEAM- BOAT has been also provided to run between Elizabeth Town Point and Paulus Hook. Fare 4s. At 9 A. M. and 2 P. M. from the Point, and at 11. 30 A. M. and 4. 30 P. M. from Paulus Hook."
The fare was reduced, June 22d, to 3/6. The boat was taken off, Nov. 23d, and laid up for the winter. The next summer it was announced, June 21, 1814, that the "Steam. boat Sea Horse will run to Jersey City, and meet at Bed- low's Island the Team boat Substitution." In the mean time, the Legislature of New Jersey had granted, by Act passed, Nov. 3, 1813, "To Aaron Ogden and Daniel Dod, and the survivors and their assigns, an exclusive right to navigate steamboats in the waters of this State."
The Livingstons, thus excluded from the waters of New Jersey, and in danger of losing the " Raritan," which had cost them $26,000, presented a Memorial and Petition to the Legislature of New Jersey, Oct. 1814, giving their repre- sentation of the case, and asking to be heard by counsel. Ogden and Dod presented a Counter-Memorial, also asking to be heard. Leave was accordingly granted, and the ex- clusive attention of the Legislature was given to the case, Jan. 24-9, 1815. Thomas Addis Emmet appeared as counsel for the Livingstons ; Ogden appeared in his own behalf, as- sisted by Mr. Hopkinson of Philadelphia, and Samuel L. Southard of New Jersey. In consequence, the Act, grant- ing to Ogden and Dod a monopoly of steam navigation in New Jersey, was repealed.
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