History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 31

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830

USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 31
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 31

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" Grant that benrath thune eye securely, Our sonis awhile from life withdrawn, May in the darkness, stilly, purely. Like sealed fountains, rest till dawn."

In after-time, Master Abraham Harrison, a Presby- terian licentiate, conducted the services and preached his own sermons. About 1824, in the summer, the first Sunday-school was commenced in this place. My memory recalls Ira Harrison, Jeptha Harrison, Miss Alice Gaston (afterwards Mrs. Lindsley, mother of Thomas G. Lindsley Esy.) and Abraham Williams as teachers connected with it. There may have been other teachers ; I do not remember.

Extracts from Old Documents, contributed by John C. Williams of Newton, N. J. The Benjamin Williams referred to was subsequently known as Giov- ernor " Ben" Williams, Governor of New Jersey.

THE LAYING OUT OF EAGLE ROCK ROAD.

" Whereas application hath been made to us, surveyors for the county of Era. for the laying of Highways in the Mounds of Newark. We have Luy 'd out u ertain highway, Beginning at the house of David Pay, thence running, as the road now runs, to a certain Chestnut tree stand- ing neut the home of Amos Williams, and tree standing on the north- east side of and highway ; thetice running, as the road now gour, between the forces of Amos Williams and Thomas Williams; thence turning to the left-hand over a small brook, and as running up said brook to the mountain ; thence running north of n certain Notch, called and known by the name of the Grent Notch, to the top of the mountain.

" April yº 2d, anno 1733.

" DANIEL. DOD,

"MAJITEL PIERSON.

"JONATHAN ALLEN

" JuEN POTTER.

" BRUM VAN WINKLE.

" PIFTER STIMMES."

813

WEST ORANGE TOWNSHIP.

The following extracts of accounts are from an old look now in possession of the Williams family :

Benjamin Williams to the Estate (1 Samuel Sattmio, Dr.

T . Laals of Ja. Beach For Rent

three yunng Cattle Vest al Validue .

To pail Jobn Vittiman

pill the Widow Nutiman .

Paid Jumnes & Amos Williams. .

0 0

May 13, 1787 To Charg Ifr I this day , Benjamin Williams.

Tu Jonathan trane's au Abrun Og i n. .

1 12 U

Received of Benj'm Williams ye sixth Day of June 17

1 half --

1 half g ans.

The h le

for me, 1 siude i'ruDe.

Ilereised, y. 3 July lia.1, of Beny mn Wil sans the sum of Seventy funds, on the AAce mut of the Land fri, lesar ('maur.

November, 17KL.

Mr leaac ( rane, Dir. £ .

Tu makin 20 Cy ler Barrils . Makin 22 Barrilx 0'silest Onder tu Peter Willinnan

Cash uf Janus Cox.

Cash uf Caleh Parkhinmet, pr Dantl Mer 3

Cash f Natt I Brach pr Rent ut cal

()

Cash of Doctor Comlit.

Cash of C'hleb Pirkhunt.

·211 7

salt meadow.

l'ash of Caleb Parkhurst.

1786, bet. 27, Renj. William Ir 1 10

& his whole charge in this dns. erron Excepted. . 104

£41

The estate of sammel Vittiman to Benjan Williams, Dr

October ye 17th, 177

To Cash pas Ion nel Condit.

60 foot 2 ich plank

Paustring one Colt & S Lattle.

Paustring our t'olt & 2 Cattle.

Paustring one U'reture.

Cash pand fon proving the mini

Cash pand Lewis Ogden for writing Lear of Down 5001 sharpened Ra IN Carred on the place.

Ion jwiets hold.

7 Days seting fence on the place

16 0

Cash jaud Justice Harrison for apprising nova- bilen.

Cash paid Doctr Burnet

fash pand Nath Andres,

1.3 6

Paid Josinh Quinby for Selling at Van lue.

Paid Josinh Quinhy for poor Rate

Paid John C'okrfair for pa Hring bu is.

30 posts, 200 of which was hold .

" Shingles, shaved, Jointed & bor'd.

4 18

10 pound nails.

4 Dayy' Work Shinglin the hous

150 fost of Bounds to mend the barn

Paul Justice Ugden fur writing De ofs.

J'aid Just attjeden for writing and Services. I'nid to lasparras Vanwinkle

Paard on tarty of Suit of Danil Ball.

Paid ou ( wts of arbitration of Joseph He lden 0

Paid Justir . Perk as arbitrator .

Paid John Dod for Surveying ut Bailing Irving

Paid Ephrus Morris .

Patd Jonathan Sayres for app ving mosabals

Paid The. langworth

C'MI

£17

2 4

Paid to the Legatees. .

7 10

To l'ash paid sarah Pod.

1 1, 11

Paid Sarah Ihn! . .

Paid Furulı Įkal, L).10.2.

£1 11 6

10 6 3

£11 17 9

Bron Kittle .

lash of Jullie Car.

Rent of Sat meadow, 2 year

l'ush ut himiah Quinly.

Reut of Salt meudon, 2 year Note of Joseph Beach .

1.5

"J Int hereby Certity that Benjamin Williams, of the Milita of tho City of New York, hier in my Prevent voluntarily taken Oath to bear Faith aint due Allegiance to HIM MAJ TY KING; GFORAt the Thin! - and & defend to the student of his Power, His Sacred Perwen, Crown and Government against all Persons whatsoever

"Given under my Hand at New York, this Lith Day of Teby, in the Seventeenth Yearof His Master's Reign. ANN. Dom. 1777

" MIATHYWA, " Mayor of New York.

"These I Certify that the Bearer beread, Benjamin Williams, Came Before ma & Signed the Declaration Contain'd in the proclamation lord by him Majestlead commissioner for Preserving the peace of his Majesties l'olunies in Math America. Dated the Thirtieth Day of Ne- ember Lust,

" JOHN MAC DONELL,

" Major Commanding Flat Reg't.

" Given at New irk

the 7th of Dec'r, 1776."

Williams Family.1-It is a family tradition, that Matthew Williams, progenitor of the Williams fa- mily, came from Wales, about 1630, that he sailed from Glasgow, that he made the acquaintance of a Scotch girl on shipboard, and that she became his wife.

He settled in Weathersfiehl, Conn., as stated in Sa- vage's Genealogical Dictionary. He had a son, Amos born in 1645; Matthew, born in 1647, and died young ; another son, Matthew, born in 1651; and Samuel, born in 1653. This son Matthew came to Newark and was admitted a planter by a vote of the town, Nov. 29, 1650, fourteen years after the first settlement of Newark, when he was twenty-nine years old; he had no trade, and was written down "yeoman."

It is probable that his brothers, Amos and Samuel, one or both, came to Newark also about the same time, but there is no record on this point except that the name of Amos appears among the grand jurors of Essex County in 1700, and among the signers to the agreement for the third Indian purchase of over- mountain lands in 1701, on which lands he may have settled and became the progenitor of the Williamses of the Northfield region (now Livingston). He may have been the father of David Williams, lieutenant in a troop of horse, who purchased half of the An- thuny Olive farm May IS, 1726 (of Jonathan Linds- ley, who bought the same of Peleg Shores), and in 1730 bought the other half.

1 By John C. Williams, of Newton, N. J.

227 Lath, Is frut long .

Carry the Shingles & Lath to the place

Paid Josiah Quinby tor pour Rate.

50 Rails Sharpen t & Carry on the place

I'and on Costs of Suit of Jou ph led len.

0 Paid Justice P'eck as arbitratur.

11 U

The above are't appears to be .

~14

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

According to the records, Matthew received the customary allotment of land in Newark, in the neigh- borhood of High and Hill Streets (see town map of 1 -06), and outlands at the mountain, bounded, prob- ably, by a line beginning on Wigwam Brook, at the mill dam; running west up the ravine to the mountain top; thence north along the rest to a fault, or off- set a little south of Eagle Rock; thence east to Wigwam Brook, and south to place of beginning, containing forty or fifty acres.

In 165 the heirs of George Day had set otl' to them, by W. Camp, surveyor, sixty acres, bwounded with the mountain, west; Matthew Williams, south ; Wig- wam Brook, east and the Common, north ; "pro- vided they pay the purchase for their lands as others have done."

In 1688-89, George Day exchanged lands with Mat- thew Williams, the latter parting with a dwelling- house, shop, other edifices and orchard and lands near Newark, and receiving two tracts at the moun- tain,-one bounded east by Wigwam Brook and the other on Parrow's Brook.1

For some reason the lands near Eagle Rock, so ac- quired, were known to the later descendants as the David Day fields.

Matthew had four sons,-Amos, born 1690; Mat- thew, born 1695; Gershom, born (about) 1698, and Thomas, born 1701, the last, said to be the first white child born in Orange. Also daughters,-Jo- anna, born 1680, married John Condit (their wed- ding is said to be the first in Orange); Jemima, born 1686, married Samuel Harrison ; Rebecca, horn -- , married Joseph Hedden; Ruth, born 1708, died 1724.

Some time previous to the birth of Thomas (1701) and after the birth of Matthew, Jr., (1695), the elder Matthew moved to his mountain lands, and built a dwelling on the south side of Eagle Roek road, near where the mountain stream unites with Wigwam Brook,-at that time a dense wilderness, inhabited only by bears, wolves and panther (alias eougar or puma), for whose destruction bounties were offered as late a- 1751.

Garven Lawrie writes to the proprietors in 1684 from Elizabethtown,-

"Here wants nothing but people. There is not a pour boly in the provinces, nor that wants. Here is abundance of provisions, pork and be of at dwa fence per pound, fish and fowl plenty, oysters, I think, would Me ve all England. Indian wheat (maize) two and alx ponce per hinshel ; it is exceeding good for food every way, and two or three hundred fuld inercast . ider good und plenty for one penny per quart, good venison plenty brought us for eighteen jene per quarter, eggs at three pence per dozan, fand very good as ever I saw, vines, walnuts, punches, straw- berries and many other things plenty in the words."

And yet with all this abundance and cheapness of beef, the story goes that the tract of land bounded by Washington Street, Harrison Avenue, Bloomfield road and Dodd Street, on which Rosedale Cemetery is

located, say four miles around it, and containing six hundred and forty acres, was soll for ten eows and a bull, which would indicate that land was plenty and cheap also. Lawrie describes the mode of building thus: "They build with cloven timber, eight or ten inches broad, like planks, one end on the ground and the other nailed to the raising, which they plaster within." Whether Matthew built in this way or with logs we have no knowledge, but timber was plenty for any style of architecture. His son Matthew was a mason by trade, and it is probable that the stone house, erected about 1720, on the north side of the road and stream (where Mr. Bramhall now owns), was built by him or with his assistance, as he was then about twenty-five years of age.

This house was built of quarried stone, disposed to crumble, say twenty-five feet front and twenty-eight feet deep, one and a half stories high ; a clumsy chim- ney, like a stone fenee, set on end ; a roomy garret, containing a large grain bin with a spout at the bot- tom to draw off the contents; two small windows in the front of the house, and an entry eight feet wide across the eastern end,-a cavernous and gloomy house, but comfortable and secure. It was demolished about 1822, and at that time looked as though it was one hundred years old. It was then replaced by a frame structure, still standing, by Zenas, a great-grandson of the elder Matthew.

The headstone of Matthew, in the old burying- ground at Orange, shows that he died Nov. 12, 1732, aged eighty-one years. The memorial of his wife, Ruth, is also to be seen. She died July, 1724, in her sixty-seventh year.

The following is a copy of a paper explanatory of itself :

"TH AIL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

" Be it known that, Whereas :

"Gershom Williams, Amos Williams, Matthew Williams and Thomas Williams, of Newark, &c, are under obligation mutually and joyatly to stand by and for each other in the maintaining, securing and defonding such right and property of lands as they and each of them have and hold, of, ly, from and under their Hon rd father, Matthew Williams, of New- ark, &c., dercased, &c. These presents now show and declaro that Anos Williams, his heirs and executors and administrators, above said, is hereby released and discharged from the obligation above said, so fur as it may concern or have respect uuto the right, interest and property of the above said Gershom Williams, bis heim, executors and administrator, uver or alive the mountain.

"In witness whereof the said Gorwhom Williams hath herounto set his hand und seal, this thirteenth day of March, in the eleventh year of hin Majesties Reign, Anno Dom. 1738.

" GERSHOM WILLIAMS. [1. 8.]

" Sigard, souled and delivered in the presence of JUAN DOL, her JEMIMA A POD." mark.

After the death of Matthew, in 1732, Amos reigned in his (home) stead. Thomas seems to have occupied the lands south side of Eagle Rock road, where some of his descendants live to this day. Gershom and descendants occupied lands from the corner of Valley and Washington Streets, with some intervals, down

I lloyt's " History Presbyterian Church, " page 28.

$15

WEST ORANGE TOWNSHIP.

to the corner of North Park Street, and Matthew, Jr., from Day Street to Park Street, both families re mainier to this day.

Amos was a cooper by trade, also a justice of the peace. He married Mary Nutman, daughter of James Notman, whose name appears in Newark in 1995. James Nutman came from Edinburgh, Scotland. His second wife was Sarah daughter of Rev. John P'ru- den, of First Church, Newark, This James Nutman seems to have been concerned in the third Indian purchase of over-the-mountain lands in 1701, and for love and affection, deeded one hundred acres of it to hisson-in-law, Amos Williams (see old deed). He died March 8, 1739, aged seventy seven years. Ilis will names John, Samuel, James, Isaac, Ephraim, Abigail Mary Williams and Hannah Sargeant. His son, Rev. John Notman, married Mehetalle Mitchell ; was pas- tor of the church at Whippany, and died September, 1751, aged forty-eight years. His will names ( no chill- ren of his own) Nathaniel, James, Benjamin and Sarah, children of his sister, Mary Williams; Phebe, child of sister, Abigail Tuttle ; Rachel, child of sister, Rachel Eagles; the children of his brother Isaac, (deceased), and of his sister Hannah Sargeant, (de- ceased ), and gives ten pounds to Hanover Church. The name of Amos Williams appears in Newark town records as surveyor of highways in 1737-85; assessor in 1741-42. He died in 1754, aged sixty-four years. Ilis children were Nathaniel, 1733; Benjamin, 1740 ; and Sarah, second wife of Joseph Dodd, born in 1742. Enos, James and another Sarah died young.

Nathaniel married Sarah Pierson, and lived in the old homestead. He learned the cooper's trade of his father, who desired him in his will to instruct his brother Benjamin, then fourteen years of age, in the same trade, which he did. Township records say he was overseer of highways in 1756. His children were Zenas, Amos, James, John, Uzal and Nathaniel.

After Benjamin became of nge he took, by his father's will, the upper part of the farm, then a wilder- ness, and commenced clearing and building a home. The brothers built a dam and erected a saw-mill on Wigwam Brook about 1760 or '70. Benjamin married, first, Elizabeth Condit, who soon died, leaving a dangh- ter Elizabeth. He then married Phebe, daughter of Caleb Crane, Esq.

When the Revolutionary war broke out, the bro- thers, together with their uncle, James Nutman, for good and sufficient reason thereunto them moving. espoused the unpopular English side. James Notman was imprisoned in Morristown and Sussex County jails by the Committee of Safety. Nathaniel went to New York. His wife petitioned the Committee of Safety not to be sent to her husband, but asked to be allowed to remain with her children at home. He died there in 1782, of smallpox. His property was confis- cated, but as his action was the result of an honest opin- ion, there was no personal ill-will against him by his former neighbors, but rather sympathy for his family,

and at the sale no one would bid against the widow. Hisson, Amos, went to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where he ended his days, leaving ch Liren.

Benjamin took out a written protection from a British officer, which owing to the situation of the opposing armes, could have been of but little value.

At the last moment by law allowed he was induced by his father-in-law to take the oath of allegiance to the new government and save his property, but he never surrendered his convictions. He always said that " the Declaration of Independence was as big a lie as was ever written," and would never accept an office under the new government, although prominent as a business man.

After the war of the Revolution he acquired con- -idlerable real estate, started a tan-yard, built a bark mill, carding mill, distillery, currying-shop and cider mill. Among other lands, he purchased the Col. Peter Schuyler farm (Schuyler's daughter, {'atherine, married Capt. Kennedy ). This farm was next north above tien. Philip Kearny's place, over the river, above Newark, at what was then known as Barbadoes Neck .

The old man finished his last barrel while a grand- child held the candle, for the day was too short, and " I will never make another " he said. Now and then his stooping form may be seen, walking with feeble step over the fields, leaning on his cane, and followed by his faithful dog, Ponto, or he reads the New York Spectator, and New Jersey Engle.

He has made half a dozen mills, and outlived them all. He makes a social call on his con-in, son of Matthew, Jr., who is about the same age. Their chil- dren have intermarried-C'apt. Tom, the patriot ; Governor Ben, the loyalist,-a busy stormy life of over eighty years; each has exhausted his energies, and they live their eventful lives over again, they differ. the dim eyes Hash, the indomitable old Welsh blood is up; ah! but it is all blown over ; blood is thicker than water; they part with mutual respect.

Another scene. \ winter night ; the hospitable kitchen fire-place piled high with blazing logs ; one hy one the neighbors drop in, till the semicircle is full. Among them sits the tiovernor,

" His head all witverod o'or with age. And long experience made him wage.

A cloud of -moke rolling up from white clay pipes and hissing backlog goes mingling, Raming, roaring up the huge-throated chunney. They talk of obser- vation days, 11th, 12th, 13th of November, D. S. ; that new cider mill and press the Harrisons, Baldwins and Dodds are introducing will never do; the Morris Canal, some day we will be taxed to fill up the big ditch ; some folks are trying to use stoves to cook with ; they are trying to banish liquors from the side- board, forming temperance societies, going to quit making cider, abolish distilleries, cut down orchards ; the Methodists are going crazy with revivals, the Presbyterians, tou ; they say New York is going to

816

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

sink ; Gen. Lafayett is coming ; "bury me plainly," -ays the old man. He died in September, 1826, aged eighty-seven years. The following children lived, married and had children : t'aleb, Enos, Josiah, Phebe, Benjamin, Samnel, Amos, Alethea, Philip, James and Mary Elizabeth.

His son Benjamin inherited the homestead, and married Joanna, daughter of his cousin Zenas, and died in 1842, aged sixty-six years.

The homestead of 1680-1700 is part of it, still in the Williams family, and three generations left for future record. The whole family history in all its branches would spread out to such an extent as to be unsuited for this volume; hence the necessity of fol- lowing it by a single thread in its later details. Will some future historian "gather up the fragments that nothing be lost," before it is too late ?

In a record of two hundred years we find very few instances of official life in the family. One colonel, one captain, three lawyers (Gude forgive them !). an occasional justice of the peace, two doctors, two cler- gymen, some few deacons, some mechanics (good ones). Mostly the Williamses occupy the post of honor known as private citizens.

" Je that holds fast the goblen mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door, Embittering all his stute. "

It would be strange indeed if evoluting protoplasm meandering adown the centuries should have escaped contact with miasmatic influences and destructive cataclysms entirely every time, and the roadbed full of them. Perhaps the only insurmountable evil in the family has been a very few cases of alcoholic dis- eases, and as we conjecture the amount of buried evil and contrast it with the known good, the Pharisee within us murmurs, " Well done."

Within the family were several blacks, always well treated, sharing with the family its hardships and comforts, never punished, but treated like men and brothers. If one ventured to run away and seek his fortune by his own efforts, he was not pursued and brought back, but connted as among the foolish ones. Elsewhere in this chapter is a receipt from Schuyler Colfax for "$200 in part payment of negro man Charles." Notice that he is not called a slave ; neither was he considered so. The Schuyler Colfax men- tioned lived near Pompton l'lains, and was the grand- father of our late Vice-President of same name. Abraham Williams, who took the money to New York and brought back the receipt, married a daugh- ter of Mr. Colfax; hence his appearance in the trans- action.

One striking feature, apparent at a glance, is the number of men in the family. This enabled the fathers to secure, clear up and cultivate much land, build houses, and carry on the different industries mentioned.

Time has effaced nearly every evidence of the basy shops which clustered in the Corner, along the banks of the Wigwam Brook. They exist to-day only in the memories of the sexagenarians.

Much of the real estate, though divided among the children, and subdivided among the children's chil- dren, and less some sold, still remains in the family.

The first coach that ever came to Orange was said to have belonged to Benjamin Williams, the "Old Governor," as he was familiarly called. This was used by him and his family many years in atten ling Trinity Church, Newark.

The first Episcopal Church services in this vicinity were held in his house, and many of his children and children of the neighbors were there baptized. When st. Mark's Church, Orange, was organized his child- ren took an active part, and contributed largely, as will be seen by a perusal of St. Mark's history.

Essex County's Last Slave .- Anthony Thompson, the oldest and best-known colored man in the Oranges, died at his residence, at the junction of Washington Street and Eagle Rock Avenue, Tory Corner, West Orange,-on Tuesday night, Aug. 1884. He was the last of the old slaves of Essex County, and died of old age and a complication of troubles.

Uncle Anthony, as all his neighbors called him. was a tall, powerfully built man of great strength and ¡ endurance. His great-grandmother was the queen ol an African tribe, and his grandmother, when a young girl, was stolen, with a number of others, by a slave- trader and brought to this country. Uncle Anthony

was born in Raritan, Somerset Co., in 179%, his mother being a slave in the family of Rev. Dr. Philip Duryee, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of that place. Two of Dominie Duryee's grandsons, John G. and Joseph D. Harrison, are now living and carry on the flour and feed business at No. 502 Broad Street, Newark. While U'nele Anthony was a baby, Dominie Duryce sold out and removed to Little Falls (now Passaic County ), and Anthony's mother was sold to one David Still, Anthony being sold with her. About a year after Anthony and his mother were sold to Sammel M. Ward, of Cranetown (now Montclair.) They lived with Mr. Ward until the latter's death, in 1822. In his will MIr. Ward gave Ant yny his free- dlom, but requested he should remain with Mrs. Ward until her death. She died in September, 1828, and Anthony, beiug then twenty-four years of age, was his own master. His mother was too old to begin life anew, and was a town charge. In those days the poor were sold off to whoever bid the lowest price for taking care of them.

Anthony, though he was just starting out in life bought his mother for one hundred dollars, took her home and cared for her until her death in a most filial and kindly manner. In 1828 he moved to Orange and bought a little place on Washington Street, East Orange. lle lived there till 1633, when he bought the place where he ended his days. Soon after remov-

MAN GEN GRO B MCCLELLAN. U.S.A.

Car ROW Pillan

$17

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ing to trange he began working for Benjamin William-, in Tory Corner, which is now in West Orange. With the exception of a few short intervals, he has worked for the descendants of Benjamin Williams ever since, until 1881, when he gave up active work, and devoted himself to the care of his pretty little place. He had known five generations of the Williams family, and was always regarded by all that family with the greatest esteem and confidence. At the age of nineteen years Anthony joined the First Presbyterian Church of Orange, and from that time to the time of his death was an earnest, devoted and consistent Christian, and a man ofexemplary character. Hle subsequently united with the Second Presbyterian or Brick Church, and when the First Reformed Church was organized, joined that. He was beloved and respected by all who knew him.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 31

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 830

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830