History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 51

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 51
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 51

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The lodge meets on the second and fourth Well- nesdays of each month in Masonie Hall, corner of Cortlandt and Schuyler Streets. Its present mem- bership is sixty-three

The officers for Ist were John B. he vie. W. M .; Robert ti Minion, S W . Isaac R, men, JJ. W. : Hierrge T. Carbolt, Treas .; Walter M. S att. ~ 1 : W. V. W. Vreeland, P. M Senior Desen ; Charge H. Wilson, Junior Descon; John C. Llave I. M., S. M. C .; William H Jackson I M. C. D.M. Skinner, P. M., Chaplain, William D Huposer Or. ganist ; Israel Chamberlin Tyler : Trustees, Daniel M. Skinner, P. M .. Elias Gi, Heller, Jonh ( Lyd, P. MI

The Past Masters of Beleville Lalo are Dr. M Skinner, S. V. c. Van Rensselaer, Hugh Holt.s. W A. W. Vreeland, W. H. C. Onderdonk, Ihn ". Lloyd, Jann . F. Bull.

Opp-FELLOWS. The Order of Old-Fellow- is rel - resented in the township of Belleville by Harmony La lge, No. 25, 1. 0. 0. F., which was originally in- stituted in Newark, Feb. J, 1814, with a long list of charter members, among whom were the following well-known citizens. Joseph I. Alder. - la- H. Kitehell, Alexander A. Davis, Alexander Lazles, Simon Searing. David Campbed. Levi HI. Sandford. Henry L. Brown, William Svev. Lewi- B Baldwin Elias Norwood, Alfred Eagles, Frederick A. Perry, James Salvey, Hezekiah Thompson, Jach ering. Caleb S. Wall, JJacob Bush, tyrus Currier, Benjamin Myer, Thomas Clearmay and John L. Warl.

The original officers were as follows . Joseph L. Allen, N. G. : Silas II. Kitchell, V. G. ; AL xan ler 11. Davis, Ecc. ; Mexander Eagles, R. S. ; Simon Sparing. Tress.

The lodge suspended operations on the goty of De. cumber, 1857, and disposed of all its effects, dividing the proceeds equally among the members.

It wa- reinstituted June 7, 1871. in the hall of Columbia Lodge, Newark, and on the same evening the lodge was opened in Passaic Hall, in this town. The resuscitation of the lodge was due to Virus Currier, Il. B. Mar hbanks, JJohn Cle. ronan, Sinon Wiener and John I. Brigg who were desirous of having a lodge located in Belleville. The Noble Grand was HI. B. Marchbanks, Ve-Grand, John 1. Briggs; Secretary, Simon Wiener; and Treasurer, John O'learman.

Hall.

The Past Grands from 1971 laiv been Hugh Donnelly, II. B. Marchbanks, Richard Bramev, John Boyd, George Schmidt, John F. Tayler. Gicette Schears, William A Bradford, Wil am HI. Bu kley, 0. E. Crisp. E. W. Snow, Peter Ha kell, ( Tortsa 1, W. L. Gilbert, Samuel Clark, and P. D. Ackerman.

i By Mbo ury Formuer

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

CHAPTER LXX.

MONTE LAIR TOWNSHIP.1

The MOUNTAIN" was the earliest designation of the western order of the original cobroy of Newark. This highlandl, which is i self a spur of the Highlands of the Hu lson, extending from the "steep rocks" near the " Great Fall" of the Passaic to the head- willys of the Raritan, the Hackinsacks called Wat- chung or Atchung or Atchunk. The Indian word is understoodt mean mountain, and its root is the same as that of Mass-atchu-setts, the land of mountains. The central part of the ridge and slope. with its ad- joming foot-lands, has been rescued from the some what rough guttural of the aborigines, and has re- Lived in recent times the more melodious name of Montelair. Although the "mountains" of New Jer- sey are ouly hills of moderate height, yet the beauti- fu outlook from many points along the top, the clear- Hess and sweetness of the air, the charm of the rural landscape just at hand, and of the cities and harbor in the distance, render the name most appropriate. From " Eagle Rock" on the south to "the Notch " on the north the mountain summit and its slope are seat- of vision, and the valleys at the foot share the associations of the heights.

Geographical and Topographical. - The township is tour and one-sixth miles in length on the western mountain crest, four and a half miles on the eastern ridge of Bloomfield, and has an average breadth of one and one-sixth miles.

The township of Caldwell lie- west of the moun- tain summit, Acquackanonek lies ont he north, Bloom- field on the east and Orange on the south.

Above the village rise two rivulets, which flow southward and castward to form in Bloomfield the little stream anciently known as Second River. In the northern en t of the town rises another rivulet, which pushes its elbow over the northern line of the town and enters the northeast corner of Bloomdiehl. It was known in the early settlement of the colony a Third River. These rivers or brooks discharge their waters into the Passaic at the northern and south- ern limits of the former township of Belleville. In the territory of Montelair they are too small for water-power, although in ancient times their better water sujjoy gave power to two small mills.

These streams run in the line of broad and shallow valleys lying at the foot of the monat. in, and from the valley- the land swells eastward to the Bloomfield border.

The geological formation of the mountain is true. It is overlaid with sandstone. The soil above the freestone, prevalent throughout the town, is a mixel gravel and wam. The farms, however, are every where disappearing, and the suburban residence is everywhere rising, so that the visitor sees the taste

and elegance which indicate the proximity of the great city.

Early Descriptions .- The original colony tract of Newark extended, to use the Indian names in the earliest title, from Weequachick to Yauntokah, and from the Passaic to Watchung. Wecquachick was the creek which runs from the cove of Newark Bay between Elizabethtown and Newark. Yaun- tokah was the Third River.

The original description of the tract, if strictly con- strued, had no west line. The mountain was as- sumed for a boundary. A second purchase was made to avoid misapprehension. There was much debate ten years after the first purchase of 1666 abont buy- ing the land to the top of the mountain. The second deed, of 1677-78, reads :

" Whereas, in the original ded of rukt made by the Indians to the inhalatante of the town of Newark, bearing date the ch venth day of July. 1667, 11 is said to the foot of the Great Mountaine, call-l Watch- ung. alias Atchunch, Wre Winockrop and Shenocktem Indians and owner of the mid ferrat Mountaine, Gar and in consideration of two Gun, Three Coates, and thirteen Kans of Rum, to us in land paid, etc .. don cor want and declare, et . that it is meant, agreed and intenled, that their Donnais shall reach and got to the top of the said firent Moen- tame, anul that WIR tho Nod Indians will make out the same to romaine to them, the said inhabitants of Newark, their heir- er Amigues for Ever."

Although John Curtis and John Treat, surveyors, were chosen by the town that same year "to run" this " west line with the Indians," it has been a very indefinite boundary in the detail even down to half a century ago.

All the present territory of Montelair was included within the colony or " town" of Newark for one hun- dred and forty-six years. At the end of that time, in 1812, the township of Bloomfield was erected. It in- cluded all the northern end of the colony, and com- prised about two-fifths of its territory. For twenty- seven years Bloomfield extended from the ridge of the mountain to the Passaic, until Belleville was joined, in 1839. Twenty-nine years later, in 1868, the town of Montelair received its separate organization. The line between the two towns of Montelair and Bloom- field is defined as follows :

"Beginning at a point in the centre of the stone arch bridge over the stream crossing the road west of and near to the residence of II nry Stucky un the Orange line ; thenre from said starting-point in a straight line about north thirty-one degrees and five minutes east, to a point in Passar County line, which point is five hundred feet west on and county line of the road running in front of the residence of Cornelins Van Hout- ten."

The Hollanders .- When the Hollanders, who had gained influence at the Indian-trading place of Ac- quackanonck, on the Passaic, nende the purchase of the Acquackanonek tract, in 1679 and 1684, they laid their farm- in parallel strips along the northern New- ark border back to the mountain. The Dutch came at onee into acquaintance with the Puritan manager, and at an carly day secured land this side the town- ship line. Aequackanonck and Newark were within the one county of Essex, and the relation- soon be- came as if the two kinds of people were fellow-colo-

×90 m

MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP

niste They did become, and have since continued to man, Seret Rieford Harrison and Sand Swaine; be, G How-townsmen. Nearly one-half the territory in 3694, Azaniah Crane and John Gardner, and in of the present town of Montelair was settled by the Dutch. In later days the more dense Holland settle- mont of North Caldwell, or Fairfield has had a reac- tionary mo ument eastward over the mountain. 'The relations of the Puritan and of the Dutch descend- ants have always been most cordial, and no one has ever thought the Hollanders specially deserved to hav . pointed at them Camung's couplet .- 1956, Nathaniel Wheeler John Johnson, Mr Ward and the Widow Ogden. bebreen the mondtam und Wigwam Brook, in 16%, Mathew Willian - Paul George and Samuel Day, and Mary Day . now Mary olitt." Upon the mountain, Robert Leyman and loha B Wwin. At the mountain, with land reaching to the top of the mountain, in 1675, John C. tlin ind John Baldwin er , Hannah I rectan and Richard Harrison " It matter of commerce, the faldt of th Fritch I- gning too little and ukinh En much " At the foot of the mountain, in fact, Samuel Harrison, Anthony Olhit (Olive), John t'sthin and Thener Johis- The Put hi name often covers English blood, and the English family goes back to Dutch ancestor ;. son ; in 1694, John Conner, Azarigh Crane and 1 dan Baldwin, Jr. Along the mountain, Edward Ball in 1094; between Third River and the wooun a nat the Vegnack- anome k line, at about the end of the century, John tooper and Sammel Kitchel ; and between Toney's Brook and the mountain, in the new century, in 1724, Josiah Ogden "adjoining to the plantation ot Van- neuklos, on which he now dw Us."

The Early Out Lands and Houses. Even before the second purchase from the Indians had fully established the right to the slope of the mountains the first land-owners had made their way from the Passaic to the top of the mountain. In the proprietors records the first name on the list of surveys of these out-lands 's Jasper C'raine, in 1675. Besides his " home lot " in the settlement, his lots in the Great Neck " and his lot near the head of Mill Brook, he has that year land " at the head of ve Second River," twenty adres with Mr Samuel Kitchell on the north, with Thomas Huntington cast and with common land south and west. Another adjoining land-owner is Varon Blackley. This group of four land-owners, three with survey- in 1675 and one with a survey in 1679, is located, according to the descriptions, " at the head of Second River," "lying in the branches of Second River," "by the first branch of the Second River," with a highway running cast and west along the side of one of the tracts. This location was, no doubt, in the heart of the present Montclair, some- where between the old Fordham Crane mansion and south end of the town, along the Second River. The east and west road may have been the present Church Street or a road connecting eastward with Wat-cson, as Bloomfield was then called.

This Jasper Craine Dr. Stevens describes as " an active, energetic, and perhaps a witless man, who had aided already in the commencement of two or three new settlements," and, as early as the year 1051, had been only prevented by the "injustice and violence of the Hotel" tso we thought it) from establishing another on the banks of the Delaware, " whereby," he said, " the gospel might have been published to the natives and much good done, not only to the colonies at present, but to posterity." He was, therefore, both by character and by experience, the man to lead the pioneer movement to the mountain.

In addition to these owners of out-lands in the centre of the present population, there were also extending along the mountain from the northern part of Orange to the northern part of Montelair a good number of others whose name- can be traced. There were near the mountain, in 1675, John Ward (turner) and John Baldwin, Sr. If the mountain, in 1975, Robert Ley-

These land-owners, who had penetrated bevon like land-owners at Watseson and Wigwam Brook, did not venture to build houses. We have hint of the woods and the swamps, of the wigwam and the for l, but no intimation as yet of a house. Although the Indians were friendly, the apprehension of " a rising" on the part of the natives had been one cause to prevent immediate settlement in the out-lands .There had been Indian wars in Connecticut, and this colony was directly connected with those who were engaged in bloody battles against the nativ tribes there.

The saw mill which Thomas Davis had liberty to set up in 1695 is supposed to have been located near the Peter Davis land, the site being not far from the ruins of the Crane or Wilde woolen-mill; the saw- mill implies houses soon after. Anthony Olive had a house on Wigwam Brook, in Orange, in 1712; Joseph Jones a house in 1721, on the mountain road, (probably in East Orange); Daniel Dodd a house in the present Bloomfield, in 1719; Capt. John Morris, a grist-mill, "lately built," in 1720, on the Morris plantation ; but no authentic date of a house appears here earlier than that of a dwe Hling of one Vannenklo -. near Toney's Brook, in 1724. Stone house - whi h were then antiquities were one hundred years ago all along the Orange and Paterson and Bloomfield roads. There were two stone houses on the Vincent property. There were the Charles ( rane, the Phineas C'rane, the Samuel Jedediah Ward, the Samuel Miller Ward and the Joseph Baldwin houses along the old Orange road in the same vicinity. There were the house of the Cranes; Benjamin, Stephen, Eleazer, Nathaniel, Aaron (so known afterwards) built some of them before the Revolution, and some of them, it can hardly be questioned, in the early part of that con- tury. The William Crane house, called afterwards the Amos t'rane house of the Fordham Crane house, appear- in 1743, and Levi Vincent, John Low, Jo- hannes Kiper and Thomas Cadmus are residents that

800-0

IHISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

year. The Egbert houses, the Joseph Baldwin house, to leave the field under a shower of bullets, in ficates the houses of the Van Giesons, of Jacob Kent, of the that citizens here early entered the military service. From 1777 the enlistments were common throughout the county. Among those known to have been from the Montelair region were Capts. Abraham Speer and Thomas Seigler, Second Lieut. Joseph Crane, Sergt. Obadiah Crane, and the Privates Jonathan and Joseph Baldwin, Aaron, Matthias, Nathaniel, Joseph, Eliakim Benjamin, Oliver, William and Phineas Crane, Peter Davis, Nathaniel and Parmenas Dodd, Moses Har- rison. Amos Tompkins, Abraham and Francis Speer, John, Levi Vincent, John Smith and a Van Gieson. Seiglers and the Speers, along the Valley and the Falls roads northward, go back undoubtedly before the Revolution. The Parmenas Dodd house, on the site of the Presbyterian Church, facing the road south- wards: the Nathaniel Dodd house, half-way down from the church to the depot, facing the old road northward: the John Smith house and the Peter Davis house, farther east on the same road, were built probably between the middle of the century and the Revolution. The most of these houses, two rooms long and one story high, were built of field-stone rudely dressed. The freestone first began to be quar- ried in 1721, but it was not used for house-building.

In the account of a hurricane which swept along the mountain, reported in a New York newspaper in July, 1756, orchards, fences, corn-fields and woodlands for a mile and a half along the mountain and Dodd- town region are mentioned, with twenty-five houses and barus as being injured or destroyed. This shows a great advance in improvement and building.

Indian Titles and Riots .- Excitement in re- -pret to Indian titles over the mountain in Horseneck tilled the ancient township during the middle part of the century. The Cranes, Harrisons, Morrises and Dodds had been among the subscribers for the pur- chase from the Indians of land west of the mountain, northof the Minisink path and within the upper Passaic at the beginning of the century. A stren- nous contest of more than half a century followed. The proprietors of the province denied the validity of the Indian deed. The residents in Horseneck and the owners resuling this side of the mountain asserted their claim. The pastor at Newark Mountains took the side of the subscribers and residents. Riots broke out. The Legislature was unable to meet them. Arrests, indictments, convictions followed. John Vincent and Levi Vincent, Jr., John Dodd and .Jonathan Davis, Jr., Were among the indicted. Those committed to jail were liberated by the people, and great confusion prevailed. The number of re- spectable citizens engaged was no doubt large, and the excitement high. Daniel Pierson, a man well- informed on the subject, stated "that three-fifths hold lands under proprietors title> ; one-fifth have no pretension to any title, and these were the chief de- strovers of timber; and the other fitih holds muler Indian titles ; but that not more than one-third first settled their lands under an Indian title, and the other two-thirds purchased the Indian title within a few years past." The contest took its place among the historic title contests of the State.

The Revolution and Revolutionary Traditions .-- This part of the Newark colony touched the Revolu- tionary contest at several points. The fact that Na- thaniel t'rane, a private,-after the Revolution well- known as Maj. Nathaniel Crane,-was in the battle of Long Island on sept. 15, 1776, and one of the last

After the retreat of Washington from Acquackan- onek, through the lower part of the town, to New Brunswick, universal consternation prevailed. The people fled to the mountains and over the mountains. The pastor of the Mountain Church was marked for capture. The seonting-parties of the British car- ried devastation everywhere. But not till the reac- tion of the next year, 1777, did the people venture back to their desolate lands and plundered houses.

Nathaniel Crane-and we may infer that others were with him-was at the battle of Monmouth in 1775, where was also tien. Joseph Bloomfield.

When Gen. Anthony Wayne-according to tra- dition-left his camp at Second River, just south of the ruins of the copper-works. his troops took their march in the famous snow-storm of January, 1779. up the old road to Horseneck, posting a picket at Bloomfield and abandoning their cannon embedded in the snow in Caldwell.

The encampment at the Fordham Crane house, near the Mountain House, was probably in ITS0,- some months after the battle of Springfickl .- when the troops returned from the Hudson. .

The troops from this region were in that battle, in June of 1780, and Washington was greatly pleased with the patriotic spirit of the militia. Ilis main en- campment from October 7th to November 27th was at Totowa, near Paterson. Col. Mayland's regiment of cavalry was stationed near Little Falls, and Maj. Paul's rifle corps was stationed in a ravine near the Great Notch. He was ordered to watch the roads through the Notch into this region and into AAcquaek- anonek, and to guard against surprises. Lafayette's headquarters were at Gaffel, near Centreville. During October the light infantry was ordered to a new posi- tion, the better to watch the Notch and the ('rane- town Gap. This agrees with the tradition well as to the time when Washington, with a detachment, was at the ('rane mansion. He was scouring the country on his blooded Virginia horses, looking after the stragglers and correcting the mutinous tendencies of his wretched soldiers. The bold hill on the vast side of the notch was, it is said, a favorite lookout. From that height he onee detected a raiding party of British sallying from Elizabethtown to the mountains. He dispatched at once a troop of cavalry behind the hill to Springfield, who cut off the foragers and reclaimed

MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.

the fine lot of cattle they were driving off. The army here was in that deplorable condition which led, in 17X1, to the mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops at Pompton. The detachment extended along the road and mountain southward from the Crane homestead. Confiscated householdl furniture taken from the British is still in possession of a family here, purchased with l'omtinental currency earned by working for the sol- dier4.

The Churches-Tur: Two EARLY CHURenEs,- There were two churches which the people attended in the early times, one a Puritan and the other a Holland Church. After the society at Newark Moon- tains was organized, at about 1718, the greater portion of the people here, as well as of those in I menerk.

Connected with the movement for an organization of a church was the giving a name to the town. The selection of the name of Gien. Joseph Bloomfield was in good part due to influence proceeding from were attracted to this new centre. Besides the power of Cranetown. Maj. Nathaniel Crane was in the battle religious associations, the first pastor, the Rev Daniel Taylor, zealously expoused the claims of their Indian titles. To him succeeded the Rev. Caleb Smith, in 174%. The stone parsonage had been finished during the year 1749. During his pastorate thes ceond church at Newark Mountains was created, which the people attended until long after the third pus- tor, the Rev. JJedediah Chapman, was installed, in 1700. He was more zealous for the people's right- during the Revolution than their first pastor had been for their Indian titles. Rev. Mr. Chapman and probably Rev. Mr. Smith catechized the child- ren from house to house, and preached in the origi- nal Montelair school-house above the Presbyterian Church.

The Holland population had their religious associa tions with Acquackanonek and Second River. Their associations tended towards Second River, where a Dutch Church was erected in 1727, with reference, in the arrangements of pews, to a former church. Al the northern end of the town from the house of Wil- liam C'rane was placed by town legislation with the inhabitants of Second River matown arrangement for the care of the poor. Levi Vincent, a French Ilugue- not, John Low and Thomas Cadmus, from among th I'uritan population in the south end of the town, were also made exceptions, and assigned to the Holland enumeration. This arrangement continued for fifty- three years, from 1744 to 1779. The pastors of the Holland people at Second River were Rev. Guillome Bertholf, 1699 or 1700 to 1724 at both Acquacka- nonck and Secondl River, Rev. - Morinus, Rev. - Leydt. Rev. - Schoonmacher, Rev. Coens -, Rev. Peter Stryker.

During this time the Reformed Dutch Church of Horseneck, afterwards called the Fairfield Church, was organized. The Presbyterian Society of Horse- neck was also organized in 1781, and subsequently a Mr. Crane united with Cornelius Hatfield, of Eliza- beth, in the donation of parsonage land to that church. This land has been retained and bas become valuable.

THE TWO HOME CHURCHES .- At the end of the

century two other churches were built at Bloomfield and at Stone House Plain. The Bloomfield Church became shortly a strong church, and was located in the natural centre of the out-lands dest ned t form a new township. The building of the church was a large enterprise and made a broad provision for the future. It was begun in 1796, and was opened for worship in 1799. The tower was not completed until 1×19. Oliver C'rane represented the Cranetown neighborhood in the trustees of 1797, and Nathaniel Crane among the managers of the building.

of Menmouth, in which Gen. Bloomfield was. lanne Watts Crane, as a teacher and politician, was an admirer of Bloomfield and an advocate of his name. tien. Bloomfield was a frequent visitor among his re - atives in Orange Dale, and was associated in t'ranttown with the church and civil life there. There was a touch of the politic in the minds of those like Isaac Watts Orane, and the result was seen when, in 1797. Lien. Bloonsfield came to the town and made a hand- some donation towards completing the rising walls of the church. In the dignified cavalcade which escorted the honored visitor on that occasion was Capt. ('rane's elegant company of infantry, and when tren. Bloomfield addressed the people on the virtues of patriotism and of political and Christian union, it is said Mr. Isaac Watts C'rane made a response in behalf of the souety re-echoing the same senti- ments.

The congregation had been formed at the Joseph Davis house in 1794. The church edifice was berun, the trustees of the society were first elected and the selection of the house was made in 1796 ; the common was laid out before the church lot in 1997; the ecclesin -- tical organization of the Third Presbyterian Society of Newark was made in 1798; the original church of the Newark columny became the First Presbyterian Church of Newark in 1720, the Mountain society beenme in 1753 the Second Presbyterian Church in Newark ; and worship under the first pastor was begun on the first Sunday of the year 1 500.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 51

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