History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 41

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 41
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 41

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The part taken by the inhabitants in the Revolu- tion, while not sufficiently prominent to draw much attention to the locality from the outside world, was marked enough to prove its thorough loyalty to the cause of independence. Elijah Squier, son of Jona- than, served as captain of a militia company, and did excellent service in the eause. Timothy Mecker, with eleven sons and one son-in-law, all fought in the battle of Springfield, and drew much attention to themselves by their zeal and bravery. The raids of the British soldiery on several occasions caused serious loss, but nothing in comparison with that of the people below the mountain. The latter many times were obliged to abandon their homes, and then they were wont to take refuge in a natural hiding-place known as the Round Hollow, which is situated on Cedar Street, a short distance north of Northfield road. The place was also used on many occasions as a place of worship before the publie school-house was built.

Taverns .- The first hotel or public house in the place was kept by Samuel Burnet, grandfather of Samuel N. Buroet, and it oceupied the spot where the latter's house now stands. This old sign-post stood in front of the place until 1836. The old hotel was a great convenience to the people traveling by the old stage line. After the opening of the turnpike, in 1807, as it was kept in better condition, the stages took that road to Orange. Newark and New York.

Then the old hotel, corner of Canoe Brook Avenue, was established, and it became a famous hostelry both for the stages and for farmers ou their way from Sussex, Warren and Morris Counties to the Newark market.

About fifty years ago considerable business was carried on in the place in the manufacture of shoes. Nearly every farmer learned shoemaking, and worked at it during the winter months, and one or two per- sons carried on business and employed quite a number of hands. Among these were Samuel H. Burnet and Smith Barnwell, both of whom are living. A great many individuals took out work from the large shoe manufactory of Ichabod Condit, subsequently .Joseph A. Condit, in Orange, who were engaged almost entirely on Southern work. The breaking out of the war, and the introduction of machinery in shoemak- ing, put an end to that kind of work here.

In the war of the Rebellion Livingston did not take a conspicuous part, but to its eredit, be it said, it was always prompt in responding to the calls of the government. At no time was a draft forced upon the town. As each eall was made for troops its quota was promptly tilled, and that mainly through the exertions of Samuel HI. Burnet, who represented the county of Essex at Morristown, and looked after its interests in the matter of disbursing the county bounty and procuring volunteers.

In the year 1879 a grange was formed in Livingston, which has had a membership of upwards of seventy at some times, and for a long time its membership has steadily exceeded fifty. Its first Master was Rufus F. Harrison, and its present Master Joseph Il. MI. Cook. It has done a valuable work in the matter of educat- ing farmers in the more advanced methods of farming, and there are growing evidences of thrift which can be attributed to its influence. It has still a further work to perform in that direction, and will doubtless suc- ceed in doing it.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.I

BLOOMFIELD took its name, in 1796, from Gen. Jo- seph Bloomfield, afterwards Governor and chancellor of New Jersey. Local names had become attached previously to separate settlements during the slow growth of a hundred years. "Seeond' River" was designated by the Newark Town Council as a district of Newark in 1743-44 for that portion of the later Bloomfield now known as Belleville. "Cranetown" became a popular name for the western portion to- wards the mountains at about the same carly time. " Watseson Plain" and "Wattseson Hill" were the

I By Rev Charles E. Knox

ISTONE I HOUSE I PLAINS.

BLOO

FIELD

Third

River

Watsessling

Second

River

Passaic

"Boiling Spring

Green Island.

FRANKLIN

Eagle Rock

4 Watseson

377 / 1 3 7

River

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.

hill and the plain in the southern part. " Newtown" was applied to the strageling settlement castwards well down the present Belleville Avenue. The " Mur- ris Plantation" had drifted into " Morris's Mill" or the " Morris Neighborhood." The " Stone House Plain" for the northern end appears as early as Hi !.. "('rab Orchard," as colloquial for land then covered by crab-apple trees north of the old church, and " Hopewell" as an invention of the young men for the same region, had died a natural death.

If a native man was to be selected, Waterson br Watressing should have been chosen. This Indian name is said to mean crooked or elbor-like, and to have been applied to Third River, the principal stream of the present town, which is very crooked throughent its course, and which makes a large elbow near the centre of the town.

Gen. Bloomfield, who had come into sotice during the Revolutionary war, was now recognized through- ont the State as a rising man, llis public services and personal popularity directed attention to him at the critical time. His name was chosen, and the honor tendered was acknowledged in circumstances alike creditable to the prople and to him. The choice was the act of the Presbyterian congregation then worshiping for some time in " the Joseph Davis house:" and inasmuch as the people were then begin- ning the ercetion of a houseof worship, a white marble tablet, with the inscription, "Blomnfield, 1796," was set in the brown free-stone tower, to mark the begin- ning of a new township.

The next year Gen. Bloomfield paid the town a visit with a military escort, in formal recognition of the honor done him. The civil township, however, was not erected until 1512, when it included the terri- tory from the crest of the mountain to the Passaic River.1

Earlier and Later Outlines -The tongue of land bounded by the curve in the Passaic River was originally divided between the Puritan and the Dutch colonies. The mountain was the ridge of the tongue. The whole breadth of the muldle and the southern

1 Th . Bon Ific de were of the , Head my of Warelbridge Woman Bhom- fold, M. D., the father of cion Bloomfield, was " an Influential member uf the Legislature, and of the Pre vin inl ''ingress before the Res lution."

Jimeph Bloomfield was aptuin in the Tlund Regiment of the New Jer- Hey Regulere In 1775 The reglerat, commanded by Col Elias Dayton, WAN Mint that Year to mye rt the Northern army in Cumda, but it was diverted from Alleiny to the Mohawk Valley Capt Bbwinfield brenght Lady Johnston, of J. hurtown Hall, as a prisoner to Allany The next- ment went on to the German Plats and to Fort Stanwix Rome, > Y . To which place Capt Bloomfield returned from Allwany, bringing the news of the Declaration of Independence Sie was made major in Decem- In.r. 1774, atul was proment in the Justtlen of Brandywine and Monmonth, and resigned his commision in 1"is to accept the clockalop of the Aumldy In 1% he was attorney general of the site, and was re-elect of to that office in 17>> In 1744 he was general of militia, and took part In the uppre ion of the " whiskey insurrection ' in l'apisylvania. The who Governor and also . hanceller off New Jersey in Is01, and fromn 14 to 1-12. In the war of 1×12 he was appointed a brigadier general. He died In 182), and was buried in Burlington, when he lunt resided for many

portions was Newark, and its settlement proceeded from the "town on the Passaic." The smaller por- tion of the tract-the tip of the tongue-was .\(- quackanonck, and its etthement proceeded from the Bergen colony, through Hackensack and through the nearer Indian village of Acquackanonck Passaic , at the head of navigation. The line between the two was the original line of the Newark colony in 1666. The eastern line at that time was defined to be the " l'esayac River," and to reach northward "to the Third River above the town," and the northern boundary "from theonce upon a northwest line to the monntaine."

The mountain was the west line of the Newark colony, or the Newark town proper.

The purchase from the Indians in 1666 did not de- line a west line. The corrected deed of sale in 1677- 78 specifies "that it is meant, agreed and intended that their bounds shall reach or goe to the top of the said Great Mountaine and that Wee, the said Indians, will marke out the same."

The Town Patent or Charter was not given till 1713, and has a complete boundary. It specifies the land

" Purchased from ye Indians, now known by y. name Natu . of Ne warke, Bounded easterly by great ereck that runs fr in Ha -kingsa. k Bay, through ye Salt Meadow Called by the Indians Wegnabak and is w Known by ve Natie of Bound Crock, and continuing from the bead of yr Said Creek tu the head of a C'ove to a Markt Tree from thene it Extended Westerly nju n a straight Line. Un Computation seven Mile be the Same more or Less, to the End of fruit of the fir at Mountain and to the Ridge Thereof, called by the Indians Wachung Near where He is a branch of Rahway River from thene extending n & Neithery Comune along the Ridge of the Sad Mountain to a heap of stones, Erect to Ascertain the Boundary between the i'd Town of wark & lt e Town of Shquickatunek. fr m then " Running a Suthen une By Achowic kinnock Bound have to where the look of Ris let ( led by the Indians Yant kalı, but now Known by the Name of the Thirl River, Emptieth itself into Psnyack River, and from French. Contir ning Down along by the mid Pasack Hover and Hawkingpark Bast the mouth of the ward Bound ( reck." :

This gives us the west and north and east line of what became afterwards Bloomfield.

For one hundred and thirty years, however, before Bloomfield received its nmine the territory was iden- tified with the Newark township, and it was not un- til one hundred and forty-six years from the first settlement that it received a separate town charter.

The township of Newark, designated for provincial convenience, was much broader. It extended far westward beyond the upper Passaic.

The town definition for the use of the province, first made in 1693, is as follows :

" The township of Newark shall include all the land from the mu nth of the Bound riek, and fri thence to Bouil ilill, from th De \ rth- west to the partition line of the Free, and from the mouth of the al Hand crock up l'imjack River to the third river, and from them Is the partition four of the Province 's

The southern line of Bloomfield was established in 150g, when the township of Newark was divided by

" Fant Jermy How arda, liber A A A. foto 14'

Lemming and per the. ..

$60

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

its own authority into three wards, -- the Newark Ward, the Orange Ward and the Bloomfield Ward. The Orange Ward became that same year the town- ship of Orange and the Bloomfield Ward became the township of Bloomfield in 1812. The line between the Orange and the Bloomfield Wards was established in 1406, as follows:

" Beginning ut the Green Island in Passaik River, and running from thurner to the Boiling Spring on Innds of Phinchas Baldwin, dec'd .. and from theuer to the Bridge at the Slongh between the houses of Jona- than Baldwin and Elihn Pierson, and from thener to the bridge neur Martin Richards', and from theure to Turkey Eagle Rock, on the top of the first Mountain ; which we agree shall be the line between the Bloom- fieldl Wart and the wards of Newark and Orange."

Internal Divisions .- The benevolent care of the poor was the occasion of the first internal division of the Newark township. The "inhabitants of Second River and the Body of Newark" acted separately "in all affairs relating to the Poor" for fifty-three years. The line of division established, was in part the line which afterwards divided Belleville from Bloomfield. The description given in 1743-44 is as follows :

· Beginning at Pasik River at the Gully near the house of Doctor Piget thene northwest to Second River, thence up the same to the Saw Mill belonging to George Harrison, thence a direct line to the north est corner of the Plantation of Stephen Morris, thence to the Notch in the mountain, Jenving William Crane's house to the south ward thener on a direct line to Stephen Van Sile's Bare, and Abraham Fran ben's to the Northward of saidline , and it was agreed that all on the Northward at said lines should be extermed Inhabitants of So mat River, and all on the Southward of the Body of Newark."

This Notch is not the Great Notch, which is beyond the town limite, Inuit undoubtedly the little opening in the mountain just north of the preset Mountain Hans.

This line crossed the mountain to the upper Passaic and so recognized vither the provincial division of Newark or the aspiration of the Newark settlers for further territory. The division continued until Bloomfield had received its name in 1796, and until within three months of the time when Second River took the name of Belleville, on July 4, 1797. 1

Belleville became a separate township in 1839. It took from the township of Bloomfield about one-third of its territory, and established the line between them as follows :

From the great boiling spring at the corner of the township of Orange " northerly on a straight line to a point on the northerly side of the old road leading from the village of Bloomfield to Newark, midway between the dwelling-houses of Charles R. Akers and Nicholas Coughlin ; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of the roads nearest to and north of the bridge across Randolph's pond; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of the roads lead- ing to Franklinville and Morris's Mill, near Peter Groshong's dwelling-house; thence along the west side of the road leading to Franklinville to the divi- sion line between said Groshong and lands late of Abraham Pake, deceased ; thence, westwardly along

said division line and the northern line of lands of Stephen Morris, to the centre of the Morris Canal ; thence, along the middle of said canal northwardly, to the southern line of land of Christopher Mandeville, thence along said Mande- ville's line to the western line of said road, to the corner of the road leading from Franklinville, to Stone House plains ; thence northwardly on a straight course to a point in the eastern line of the road near the late dwelling-house of Garret P. Jacobus, de- ceased, where the line of Acquackanonek township, in the county of Passaie, crosses said road."

"Cranetown " by popular designation became after 1812, West Bloomfield, but was incorporated as Mont- clair in 1868. The incorporation took away another third of the original Bloomfield, on its western side. The line between Bloomfield and Montclair was lo- cated as follows :

" Beginning at a point in the centre of the tone arch bridge over the stream crossing the road west of and near to the residence of Henry Stucky, on the Orange line ; thence, frem mid Marting-point in a straight line, about north thirty-one degrees five minutes east, to a point in Pas- saic County line which point is five hundred feet west, on said county line, from the centre of the rund running in front of the residener uf Cornelins Van Houten."

The present township of Bloomfield is four and a half miles long, by an average breadth of one and three-quarter miles.2

The township of Acquackanonck lies on the north, Belleville and Newark on the east, Newark and Orange on the south, and Montelair on the west.

Surface, Streams and Soil .- Between the natural boundary of the mountain crest on the west and the natural boundary of the Passaic River on the east lies an unusually diversified and beautiful expanse of country. Parallel waves or ridges of land run from north to south. The mountain slope descends into plain and valley, and rises again upon a wave nearly the length of the township, known now as the Ridge- wood line. This territory forms the beautiful region of Montelair.

The Ridgewood eastward slope spreads out into a level plain between the Second and Third Rivers and along these little streams, and swells upwards again in knolls and crests to the brow of another eastward ridge. This territory forms the picturesque and diversified region of Bloomfield.

The eastward ridge, broken by the Third River valley at the north and by the Second River valley at the sonth, slopes to the Passaic, and constitutes the attractive town of Belleville.

The water system of Bloomfield is simply tributary. Only two small streams, dignified by the historieal names of Second and Third Rivers, traverse the region and empty through Belleville into the Passaic. They furnish numerous sites for mills and manufactories, but their insufficient water-power has long since been supplemented by steam.

For statiation of square miles, population, etc. see the end of this historial sketch ·

River

Pasayack

HORSENECK

GREA

TAIN OR

WACHUNG .

ELIZABETHTOWN

First River

Second R K raumtacak

Town

Elizabeth

Creek

Bound.

. Acquackanonc

STATEN.

ACHTER

KOL

Hackingsack

River.

BERGEN

ISLAND

HACKINGSACK

NEW YORK.

Fall. Great

Third River ACQUACKANONCK

River

Pasayack

Z Newark.

860

IHISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

its own authority into three wards,-the Newark Ward, the Orange Ward and the Bloomfield Ward. The Orange Ward became that same year the town- ship of Orange and the Bloomfiehl Ward became the township -4 11 :- 1015 1 . 1 the Oran in 1506. 2

said division line and the northern line of lands of Stephen Morris, to the centre of the Morris Canal ; thence, along the middle of said canal northwardly, to the southern line of land of ...

" Bà gritti 1 theuer to th from the thai Baldini Martin Rich the hout Mot field Ward a

Intern

poor was the Newa River al "in all years. ] the line Bloomtio follow- :

· Beginni Pigat thene Mill belung east corner

Flan 1 8 all on the 3 Số nd Riv. This Note but umloni

Newark . further Bloomtie within th took the Bellevi tuok fron of its terr as follow From t township point on from the between 1 Nicholas northwes the bride straight 1 ing to F Groshoug side of th sion line Abraham

-61

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.

The geological formation is sandstone, with trap underlying the mountain. The loamy soil was rich formerly in timbered uplands, in orchards, meadows> and farin lands; but the undulating surface is so diversified in attractive sites for residences that the whole town is being rapidly occupied as a suburban home of the cities.

Indian History .- The carly Indian history is connected with the general purchases of the Newark colony. Few native names have been preserved as specially connected with this portion of the tract - hardly more than Yauntakah as the name of Third River, Wachung as the mountain, and Watseson, Watt- sexon or Watxessing, the crooked stream. The Hack- rusacks continued numerous for some years. Outbreaks were sometimes feared, as in the time of King Philip's war in Connecticut in 1783, but no disturbance or curred here. As the natives were a peaceable tribe and their lands were honestly purchased, they quietly withdrew. The last one left the region for t'anada tn 1761.

Early History .- The period of the carly history may be considered as extending from the year of settle- ment on the Passaic to the times of the Revolution.

THE DUTCH MOVEMENT .- The Holland colony at Bergen flowed northward to Hacken ack, then westward to Acquackanonck ( Passait ), and thence still westward over the mountain, and southward into the Newark colony. The strongest Dutch settlement within the region which became Bloomfield was "Second River." The northeast portion of the town- ship was filled with Dutch farmers. That portion became known in more recent times as Franklin, and fell within the boundaries of Belleville. The north- west settlements became Stone House Plains and Speertown.

The Dutch purchase at Acquarkanouck was from the Indians in 1679, and from the proprietors in 1684. The lands laid out in strips for farms ran parallel with the northern boundary of Bloomfield, and the migration swept over the boun lary and possessed the northern part of the town. The northern end of Horseneck was filled almost exclusively with Hol- land people down to about I�, and their reactionary southeast movement gave the township of Bloomfield some of its best citizens. At length the Holland blood was mixed with the Puritan, and the Holland families are now found in all parts of the town.

Some of the oldest names are Speer or Spier, Thomason, Arent, Vreelandt, Criansen, Van Siles. Francisco, Kiper, Cadmus, Garrabrant, Van Riper. Jerolemon, Low and Kidney.

Vincent is a very old name of French Huguenot extraction, but at first was associated with the Hol- landers.

Their church was established at Second River in 1727, and another Reformed Dutch Church was built at Stone House Plains on the opening of the present century, 1801.

THE PERITAN OR NEW ENGLAND COLONY .- The principal carly population, however, was a per- tion of the Newark colony. The New England colonists were neither petty settlers of a little village nor were they great lande I proprietors. They aimed at the possession of a large tract, but their purpose was a division into small plots for equal citizen. Many of those who established themselves on a "home lot' in the first village, and took up a meadow lot in the salt marshes, took up also an " out-lot " or a ' mountain lot " in the northern and western part of the town. Their children found their way to these lands and became the first out settlers. Once past the swamps behind the Newark hill, they pitched on the Watseson lands or on the Second River sites, and followed the fenceless wagon tracks which forked to the mountains.

THE EARLIEST NAMES. Owners of land are found in the southern part of the Bloomfield region within nine years after the Newark settlement.

In 1675, Stephen Davis, Robert Lyman, Hans Albert, Jonathan Sergeant and Matthew Canfield have land " in the mill-brook >wamp-,' northwest of the Newark settlement, in the region along the present Morris Canal.

In 1679, Samuel Ward and John Gardner and Jabez Rogers have land at the mouth of the second River.

John Ward, dish-turner, Elizabeth Ward (Ogden), Elizabeth Morris, John Ward, Sr., Samuel Harrison, Edward Ball and Thomas Pierson have land from 1675 to 1979 at or near the Second River

Samuel Dod takes land in 1678-79 " on Watseson "' and Daniel Dod. Thomas Richards and Thomas Pierson near or on " Watseson plaine" or "on Wat- scon Hill;" and at about the same time Benjamin Baldwin at Watseson Hill and Second River.

Jasper Craine. Thomas Huntinton, san uel Kit- chell and Aaron Blachley are owners of land " at the head of the Second River," " in the branches of the Second River," "by the first branch of the Second River." In 177, Robert Lyman, John Baldwin, Sr., Richard Harrison, Samuel Swaine, John Catlin, Hannah Freeman, Thomas Johnson, Anthony Olitt, "at the mountain," probably on the borders of the present Orange and Montelair.

Elizabeth Ward and Samuel Plum locate lands also on the Third River in 1629, and Samuel Plum "by the Orquekanune lyne."

We do not know that there was a house built in all the region before 1095, but these were the Inhabitants in the sense of land-owners who used the tracts as wild lands or woodlands or grazing lands. There are nt the Jenst about sixty of them definitely known in the general territory extending from the present Orange border to the Acquackanonck line from the mountain to the Passaic.

Towards the end of the first quarter of the new century houses begin to appear.

862

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

EARLY ROADS .- A highway is to pass through"

in the summer of 1695. It has been supposed that the lands of Elizabeth Ward Ogden), and of Eliza- this was the saw mill on a site near the pond above Leth Morris " near" and " by" the Second River in 1575. Wheeler's paper mill, in Montclair. The existence of a saw mill points to coming houses. Thomas Pier- There is a "third going over." supposed to be a third crossing or ford of Second River. on Thomas Pier- m's land about 1678. A north and south high- way bounds Matthew Camfield's land on the Third River, next to Benjamin Baldwin. in 1695. son's ' fence " appears below Watseson Hill in 1695. Anthony Olive's house, on the border of Orange, near Wigwam Brook, makes its appearance in 1712, and the same year a saw mill, near or on " Bushie Plain Brook," which brook crossed the road "from the town to the mountain."

A highway is to pass through Elizabeth Ward's {Ogden's) land "by the Third River," which land adjoins samuel Plum's land by the "Vequekanune lyne" by the great river, in 1679.

Thee points in roads indicate rough wagon tracks. during the first early years of settlement, northwest towards Watseson, through the present centre of the town towards the "Morris plantation," and north- ward- from the Newark village through the present Belleville to the Acquackanonek line.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 41

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