History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 11

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974

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The principal tribes composing the Lenni Lenape or Delaware nation were those of the Unamis or Turtle, the Unalachtgo or Turkey, and the Minsi or Wolf. The latter, which was

by far the most powerful and warlike of all these tribes, occupied the most northerly portion of the country of the Lenape, and kept guard along the Iroquois border, from whence their domain extended southward to the Musconetcong Mountains, in New Jersey. The Unamis and Unalachtgo branches of the Delaware nation (comprising the tribes of Assanpinks, Mata-, Shackamaxons, Chichequaas, Raritans, Nanti- cokes, Tutelos and many others) inhabited the country between that of the Minsi and the sea- coast, embracing, of course, Monmouth and all the adjacent counties. The tribes who occupied and roamed through these counties were those of the Turtle and Turkey branches of the Len- apè, but the possessions and boundaries (if they actually had any boundaries) of each cannot be clearly defined.

The Lenni Lenape claimed that theirs was among the most ancient of all aboriginal nations. One of their traditions ran that, ages before, their ancestors had lived in a far-off country to the west, beyond the mighty rivers and moun- tains, at a place where the salt waters constantly moved to and fro ; and that, in the belief that there existed away towards the rising sun a red man's paradise,-a land of deer, and salmon, and beaver,-they had traveled on towards the east and south to find it; but that they were scourged and divided by famine, so that it was not until after long and wearying journeyings, during which many, many moons had passel, that they came at length to this beautiful coun- try, where the ocean tides forever ebbed and flowed like the waters from whose shores they had come; and that here, amidst a profusion of game and fish, they rested, and found that In- dian Elysium of which they had dreamed before they left their old homes in the land of the set- ting sun.

At the present day there are enthusiastic searchers through the realms of aboriginal lore who, in accepting the narrative as authentic, imagine that the rel men come hither from A-ia across the Behring Strait, through which they saw the tide constantly ebb and flow, as men- tioned in the tradici.a.

The fact is, that a". Indian tribes told of long pilgrimages and of great deeds performei by

' At a later period-soon after the commencement of the eighteenth century-the Tuscaroras, having been subju- gated and driven away from their hunting-grounds in the Carolinas, migrated northward and were received into the Iroquois confederacy, which from that time became known ' as the Six Nations.

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

their ancestors far in the shadowy past, and claimed to trace back their history and descent for centuries. Missionaries and travelers among them gravely tell us of Indian chronology ex- tending back to the period before the Christian era ; and some enthusiasts have claimed that the American aborigines were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.1 But it is not the province of the historian to enter any such field of spec- ulation. All their traditions were so clouded and involved in improbability, and so inter- woven with superstition, that, as regards their truth or falsity, it need only be said that they afford an excellent opportunity for indulgence in the luxury of dreamy conjecture.

It does not appear that the Indians inhabit- ing the territory of New Jersey were very num- erous. In the before-mentioned pamphlet, published in 1648 by Beauchamp Plantagenet, Esq., and entitled " A Description of the Prov- ince of New Albion " (by which was particu- larly meant the territory lying between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers, comprising the present State of New Jersey), is contained " a letter from Master Robert Evelin, that lived there many years." In that letter the writer gives an account of a number of Indian " Kings" located along the Delaware River, and having under them, in all, about eight hundred men. After this statement of Evelin, the pamphlet proceeds : " Now, since master Elme's [Evelin's] letter, and seven years' discoveries of the lord

governour in person, and by honest traders with the Indians, we finde beside the Indian kings by him known and printed in this Province, there is, in all, twenty-three Indian kings or chief commanders; and besides the number of eight hundred by him named, there is at least twelve hundred under the two Raritan kings on the north side, next to Hudson's River, and those come down to the ocean about little Egbay and Sandy Barnegate, and about the south cape two small kings of forty men apiece, called Tirans and Tiascons, and a third reduced to fourteen men at Roymont ; the Sas- quehannocks are not now of the naturals left above one hundred and ten, tho' with their forced auxiliaries, the Ihon a Does and Wico- meses, they can make two hundred and fifty ; these together are counted valiant and terrible to other cowardly, dul Indians, which they beat with the sight of guns only.

" The eighth seat is Kildorpy, neer the fals of Charles [Delaware] River, near two hundred miles up from the oceen ; it hath clear fields to plant and sow, and neer it is sweet, large meads of clover and honeysuckle, nowhere else in America to be seen, unlesse transported from Europe; a ship of one hundred and forty tuns may come up to these fals, which is the best seat for health, and a trading-house is to be built on the rocks, and ten leagues higher are lead-mines in stony hills.

"The ninth is called Mount Ployden, the seat of the Raritan King, on the north side of this Province, twenty miles from Sandhay sea and Ninety from the ocean, next to Amara hill, the retired paradise of the children of the Ethi- opian emperour ; a wonder, for it is a square rock two miles compasse, one hundred and fifty foot high, a wall-like precipice, a strait en- trance, easily made invincible, where he keeps two hundred for his guard ; and under it is a flat valley, all plain to plant and sow." But there is no place known answering this descrip- tion, though the Rev. G. C. Schenck, in a paper read before the New Jersey Historical Society, suggests that what is known as the Round Valley (north of Round Mountain, in the township of Clinton, in Hunterdon County) cor- responds in general with Plantagenet's de-

1 In a small, quaint and now very rare volume, entitled, " An Historical Description of the Province of West New Jersey in America, Never made Publick till now .- By Ga- briel Thomas, London, 1698," is found the following in reference to the aborigines of this region :

"The first Inhabitants of this Countrey were the Indians, being supposed to be Part of the Ten dispersed Tribes of Israel ; for indeed they are very like the Jews in their Persons, and something in their Practices and Worship ; for they (as the Pennsylvania Indians) observe the New Moons with great devotion and Reverence ; and their First Fruits they offer, with their Corn and Hunting Game they get in the whole year, to a False Deity, or Sham God, whom they must please, else (as they fancy) many misfortunes will befall them and great Injuries will be done them. When they bury their Dead, they put into the Ground with them some House Utensils and some Money (as tokens of their Love and Affection), with other Things, . expecting they shall have Occasion for them in the other World."

THE INDIAN OCCUPATION.

scription of the kingly seat.1 To concede this, however, requires a considerable stretch of im- agination ; and it is difficult to resist the con- viction that it was in Plantagenet's imagination, and there alone, that the impregnable " mount," the retired paradise of the children of the " Ethi- opian emperor," and the royal guard of two hundred men, had their existence. If the " King" ever had any such guard to his royal person, the detail for that service certainly re- quired fully one-eighth part of all the able- bodied Indian men south of the Musconetcong Mountain, in what is now the State of New Jersey.

The comparatively few Indians who, at the first coming of the white men, were found scat- tered through the territory of Monmouth and the lower part of Middlesex County were of the Raritan tribe, of the Unamis and Unalachtgo

' branches of the Lenape or Delaware nation. In still earlier times, the Raritans had been more numerous, and inhabited the country bordering the upper portion of the river of the same name, but they had migrated to the vicinity of the sea- shore, where they could more easily obtain the means of subsistence. " The Indians living on the Raritan," says the Rev. Dr. Messler,2 " were only a remnant of the large and numerous tribe once located there. It is said they left, and went to live at Metuchen, because the freshets in the river spoiled the corn which they were in the habit of burying in pits on the lowlands. Another inducement was the fish, oysters and clams, so easily obtained on the shores of Rari- tan Bay. The immense heaps of shells found

1 The Rev. E. T. Corwin, in a historical discourse deliv_ ered in 1866, said : " The seat of the Raritan King was upon an inland mountain-probably the Neshanic Moun- tain, which answers approximately to the description."

The late Rev. Abraham Messler, D.D., of Somerville, in his "Centennial History of Somerset County," says: "If we were inclined to favor such romance, we should claim that no place so well answers the description [of the ' seat of the Raritan King'] as the bluff in the gorge of Chimney Rock [near Somerville] north of the little bridge, on the west and east sides of which the two rivulets flow and meet a few yards southward in the main gorge. But we are not disposed to practise on the credulity of our readers, as the Indians evidently did on Beauchamp Plantagenet, Esq."

: " Centennial History of Somerset County," by Abraham Meseler, D.D.

in several localities attest the rich harvest which they gathered out of its waters. We may imagine, then, how the lonely river flowed on for centuries between its willow-fringed banks, from summer to winter, while the rich grass on its meadows wasted, because there were no animals, except a few deer, who fed upon it ; and how the wild fruits afforded feasts for the squirrel and the forest bird, or perished un- touched because there was no living creature to enjoy the bountiful repast. It might almost, without romance, be called a 'retired paradise,' but without its 'Ethiopian emperor' to rule over it. . . . Its primitive inhabitants, even, had deserted it almost entirely, and gone towards the sea-shore, attracted there by the abundant food, and only the beasts claimed it as their home."

The small and peaceable bands of the Raritan tribe, who inhabited the country contiguous to the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, were called the Navesink Indians, whose close con- nection with the other Raritans is shown by the fact that when the first party of Englishmen came to this region, in 1663, for the purpose of purchasing lands from the chiefs, these Nave- sinks were sent for to meet the upper Raritans and the English, at the Raritan town, located on the river a few miles above the site of Amboy. It is also made apparent that this section of country was frequented by other Indians than those who regarded it as their permanent home, as in the narrative given in a succeeding chap- ter of a trip made to Raritan Bay and Shrews- bury River, by a party of Dutchmen3 from New Amsterdam, in December, 1663, for the purpose of watching the movements of the party of Eng- lishmen before mentioned, there is found the following entry : " December 7 .-. . . The same evening, towards the end of Staten Island, we cast our anchors just opposite the Raritan River, where we found two houses with South- ern savages." From this, as also from some other references found in the annals of that period, it appears that Indians of other and re- mote tribes were in the habit of making visits

3 Account of " A Voyage to Newasing [Navesink] made in the Company's Sloop."-Albany Records, vol. rri. p. 401.

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

to the shores of the bay and ocean, but proba- bly not so much for summer recreation and sea- bathing as for the purpose of obtaining oysters, clams, sea-fish and fowl, and shells for the manufacture of wampum,1 which was taken in large quantities from the sea-shore, and found . tribes living west of the Mississippi.

Whatever may have been the causes which brought the stranger savages to the vicinity of the sea-shore, it is evident that the Indian population of this region was augmented (per- haps in as great proportion as is the white popu- lation at the present time) by the presence of non-residents, some of whom were, or claimed to be, landowners. Among these was the famous Teedyuscung, the Delaware King, whose home was on the North Branch of the Susque- hanna, in Pennsylvania, and also the somewhat celebrated Christian Indian and interpreter, Moses Tatamy, who lived in the valley of the Lehigh. At a conference between the whites and Indians, held at Crosswicks, in February, 1758, these two Delawares presented claims for certain lands which had not been sold by them. With reference to one of these claims to lands in the county of Monmouth, the min- utes of the Crosswicks conference read as fol- lows : " They have a tract of land beginning at the Old Ford, by John Fowler's ; then in a line to Doctor's Creek, above, but in sight of Allen- town ; then up the creek to the lower end of Imlaystown ; then in a line to Crosswicks, by Duke Horseman's; then along said creek to the place of beginning. Teedyuscung and Tatamy are concerned in the above lands."

From the northwest and the southwest, the Indians of the remoter tribes came to the Nave-

sink region by two principal paths (which in the early times were also used to a considerable extent as highways by the white settlers), called the Minisink Path and the Burlington Path. The first named started at Minisink, on the upper Delaware, and passing thence southeast- its way as a circulating medium even to the erly through the present counties of Sussex,

Morris, Union and Middlesex, crossed the Rari- tan River at a fording-place about three miles above its mouth, from which point it ran to the site of the village of Middletown, Monmouth County, and thence to Clay Pit Creek and to the mouth of the river at the Navesink High- lands. The Burlington Path came from the Delaware River by two branches, one starting at the Falls (Trenton) and the other at Bur- lington, and joining at or near Crosswicks ; thence continuing in one path, through the southwestern townships of Monmouth County, to where is now the town of Freehold (the main street of which is, for a considerable distance, on the line of the old path); and thence to its junction with the Minisink Path, at or near Middletown-with a branch leaving the main path below Freehold and running to Tinton Falls and the vicinity of Long Branch. Be- sides these main thoroughfares there were shorter and less important paths leading to Wakake landing and various points on tide-water.

Concerning the supposed locations of Indian villages in Monmouth County, there are in existence various traditions, on the mere strength of which more than twenty such sites have been recognized (satisfactorily, at least, to those engaged in the search), and descriptions of their several locations have, from time to time, ap- peared in print. Similar traditions are found in every county, not only of New Jersey, but of each and every one of the older States. In a great majority of these cases the tradition rests solely on the fact that at certain places there have, at some time, been found Indian arrow- heads, or supposed hatchets, or remains of abo- riginal domestic utensils, or indications of ancient Indian corn-fields, or of clusters of graves, sup- posed to be those of the native savages, upon which the conclusion was promptly arrived at that on or in the immediate vicinity of such a spot there must have been a village, which

1 Wampum was not only the universal currency of the Indians, but was also used to a great extent by the whites. For many years eight white or four black " peags " of wampum passed at the value of a stiver, or penny, but in 1673, the supply of wampum having materially decreased by reason of the Indians having carried it away to the in- terior. the Governor and Council of New York made proc- lamation that thenceforward six white or three black peags (instead of eight white and four black, as before) should be accounted and received as a stiver, "and three times so much the value in silver,"-the meaning of which latter .provision, however, does not clearly appear.

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THE INDIAN OCCUPATION.

supposition thereupon, stated as a fact, without any explanation, and then handed down from father to son for many years, is received with- out any question of its authenticity. But arrow- heads, sharp stones supposed to have been used as hatchets, stone pestles and other similar relics have been found in nearly every part of the United States and in nearly every kind of loca- tion ; on the summits and steep sides of hills, in the middle of parched, sandy plains and . along the edges of bogs and swamps, as well as in places which might have been fit for village sites. But neither these nor the Indian corn-fields and graves afford any guide to the location of their villages. The writer of this has had occasion to make some research as to Indian matters in the West, where the Indian occupation extended down to so recent a period that there are men still living there who lived among them, traded with them and thoroughly understand their peculiarities and mode of life. Two such men are Mr. Ephraim Williams, of Flint, Mich, and his brother, Benjamin O. Williams, of Owosso, in the same State, both of whom were for a number of years traders in the country of the Saginaw Indians, and both of whom speak the Indian language as fluently as English ; and they have given the following statement as to the Indian way of living :

The Indians located their villages with almost entire regard to their occupation in winter, for in summer-time they were often entirely deserted, the people, old and young, being at such times away in temporary camps, generally made at or near the good fishing-places. For this reason, their permanent villages were always, when practicable, located in open glades, surrounded by the heavy forest, which gave some degree of protection against the piercing winds and storms of winter. Their burial-places were always remote from the villages. Their corn-fields were made on fertile land, if such could be found, combining with that the necessary condition, which was that it be open, free from trees and bushes, soft and friable, and therefore easily worked. They took no pains to make their fields near their villages, and they were frequently located several miles away, they having no fear that their meagre crops would be stolen. If the

fields were far away, a temporary camp would be made near them, at planting and harvesting time, to be occupied by the squaws (who did all the work), and two or three old men, who re- mained there to keep them from quarreling among themselves. The able-bodied men never came to the fields at these times, being at their fishing camps when the planting was done, and engaged either in fishing or hunting at the autumn harvest. When the squaws had gathered their slender crops, and the frosts and storms of November heralded the approach of | winter, the whole Indian population returned to their comparatively comfortable villages, within the shelter of the woods. From these the young men of the tribe went out to the winter hunting and trapping grounds; and, at the approach of spring, all-men, women and children-went to the sugar-woods, pitched their camps, and spent two or three weeks in sugar-making, after which they prepared for removal to the summer camping-places, to hunt and fish, and plant maize, beans, pumpkins and other Indian crops, as before.

The most frequently mentioned (and there- fore supposed to have been the largest and most important) of the Indian villages in this part of New Jersey were the one (before mentioned) on the Raritan, not far from the crossing of the Minisink Path, and another located at Cross- wicks, both of which were outside the limits of Monmouth County. There were, however, several small Indian " towns" within the terri- tory of Monmouth, which are mentioned in several places in the ancient records. In the laying out of a roadway, in the year 1676, reference is made to "the Indian Path that goes from Wake cake to the Indian Town called Seapeckameck," but nothing is found showing the precise location of this or of any of the few other Indian villages in the region, all of which combined could not, at any one time after 1663, have contained more than two hundred inhabitants of both sexes and all ages.

It has already been mentioned that the Indians in this part of New Jersey, although they had always been more or less hostile to the Dutch, and had several times made open war upon them, were, and always continued to

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

be, friendly and well disposed towards the Eng- lish settlers. This was in a great measure due to the fact that the latter always purchased the Indian lands before settling on them, which, in fact, they were compelled to do by the instruc- tions given by the first proprietors to their Governor, Philip Carteret:

" And lastly, if our Governor and Councellors shall happen to find any Natives in our said Province and Tract of Land aforesaid, that then you treat them with all Humanity and Kindness, and do not in any wise grieve or oppress them, but endeavour by a Christian carriage to manifest Piety, Justice and Charity, and in your Conversation with them, the Manifestation whereof will prove Beneficial to the Planters, and likewise Advantageous to the Propaga- tion of the Gospel."-Instruction of the Lords Propri- etors to the Governor, Philip Carteret, dated February 10, 1664.

Smith, in his " History of New Jersey " (pub- lished in 1765), in mentioning the fact that Governor Carteret, acting under the proprietors' instructions, inaugurated the policy of buying the Indian lands in every case, as a matter of policy, to prevent the possibility of awakening their hostility, says that "though the Indians about the English settlements were not at this time considerable as to numbers, they were strong in their alliances, and besides of them- selves could easily annoy the out-plantations, and there having been before several consider- able skirmishes between the Dutch and them, in which some blood had been spilt, their friend- ship on this consideration, it was thought, stood but ticklish. Upon the whole the Governor so ordered it, that the comers were either to purchase of the Indians themselves, or, if the lands had been before purchased, they were to pay their proportions. The event answered his expectation ; for as the Indians parted with the lands to their own satisfaction, they became, from a jealous, shy people, serviceable, good neighbors ; and although frequent reports of their coming to kill the white people some- times disturbed their repose, no instance occurs of their hurting them (the English) in those early settlements."

said : "The Indian natives in this country are but few, comparative to the neighbouring colo- nies ; and those that are here are so far from being formidable or injurious to the planters and inhabitants that they are really serviceable to the English, not only in hunting and taking the deer and other wild creatures, and catching of fish and fowl fit for food, in their seasons, but in the killing and destroying of bears, wolves, foxes and other vermine and peltry, whose skins and furrs they bring to the Eng- lish and sell at less price than the value of time an Englishman must spend to take them."

It appears that, although the Indians in this region exhibited no hostility towards the Eng- lish settlers, the latter distrusted them to some extent for a number of years. That this was the case in the old settlement at Middletown is shown by the following extract from the records of that town, viz .:

"September 9, 1670 .- The Constable and Overseers, with the assistance of the towne Deputies, taking into consideration the danger- ous practice of selling liquors to the Indians, w'ch (for some years past) hath, at severall times, occasioned mischiefe in the towne; and, morever, considering that nott onely noe course is taken in the generall for the obstructing of the dangerous practice, but allsoe the eminent danger w'ch dayly hangs over our heads, the weaknes of the towne to withstand the rage and fury of the numerable Indians w'ch in- habites about us; for the present safety and preservation of his majesties subjects, the in- habitants of Middletown did, upon the 9th of this present month, upon this following ground, conclude upon the following order : 'Whereas, wee have found, as well by woeful experience, as allso. by severall complaints of many inhabit- ants of this towne of the mischiefes and dan- gers occasioned by some trading of strong liquor to the Indians by w'ch many of them have bin drunken and distempered with the said liquor have oftentimes offered violence and fury to several of the peaceable inhabit- ants, who have been endangered of their lives; for the future prevention of all such mischiefes

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 11

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 974

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974