History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 12

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

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In a description of East New Jersey, pub- lished by the proprietors for the purpose of promoting the settlement of the province, they | and dangers occasioned by the violence and

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THE INDIAN OCCUPATION.

fury of the Indians in their drunken distem- pers and for the maintenance of the peace of our Sovereigne Lord, the King, doe hereby order and enact that noe person whatsoever shall, either directly or indirectly, sell or trade any sort of wine, strong liquor or strong bearre to any Indian within the limits of this towneshipp, upon the penalty of the forfeiture of ten pounds for every such defalt; and that after due proces made, to be forthwith levied upon his estate; the one-half to the informer, and the other to bee disposed of at the discretion of the Court. It is likewise ordered that all Indians that any time shall bee found drunke in the towne or neere about shall bee sett in the stocks till they bee sober."

In the above there is nothing tending to show that the people of the settlement had any more to fear from the Indians than they would 'have had from the violence of drunken white men of the ignorant class ; and the fact that they enacted laws to punish Indian drunkenness by setting the culprit in the stocks, as they would have done to one of their own countrymen, shows that the savages were under their con- trol and could hardly have been regarded as dangerous enemies. The truth is, that though the Indians were troublesome when intoxicated, the English settlers in this section of country had no more trouble with them than they would have had with the same number of vaga- bond neighbors of the white race.

In 1675, when the Indian King, Philip, was waging his war of extermination against the New England settlements, the news of those bloody atrocities coming to New Jersey created a general feeling of alarm and fear of an Indian uprising, on which account the Governor, Council and General Assembly of the province declared that " Forasmuch as it is requisite of Necessity amongst all men to be in a Posture of Defence against Enemies or Dangers that may accrue, and especially we being invited hereunto by the Insolence and Outrages of the Heathens in our Neighbouring Colonies, not knowing how soon we may be surprised," and promptly proceeded to pass a militia law requiring all able-bodied men, from sixteen to sixty years of age, each to . be armed at his own expense, and to hold him-

self in readiness for immediate service, under severe penalties. And it was also at the same time enacted : "That there shall be a place of Fortification or Fortifications made in every Town of this Province, and a House therein for securing of Women and Children, Provision and Ammunition in case of eminent danger by the Indians." Under the provisions of this enactment a strong block-house was built at Middletown, and for a time, details of militia- men were kept on duty to guard against sur- prise ; but this did not continue long, for no signs of an Indian outbreak could be discovered, and the excitement and alarm gradually passed away.

At about this time Thomas Budd came to settle at Burlington, where the Indian alarm was then great. Budd and some others held a conference with the Indians to ascertain what grounds of complaint they had, if any, and the result of the "talk" is given (in a pamphlet afterwards published by him) as follows :

" The Indians told us in a conference at Bur- lington, shortly after we came into the country, that they were advised to make war on us and cut us off while we were but few, for that we sold them the small-pox with the match-coats they bought of us; which caused our people to be in fears and jealousies concerning them. There- fore we sent for the Indian Kings to speak with them, who, with many more Indians, came to Burlington, where we had a conference with them about the matter. We told them we came amongst them by their own consent, and had bought the land of them, for which we had honestly paid them, and for what commodities we had bought at any time of them we had paid them for, and had been just to them, and had been from the time of our first coming very kind and respectful to them ; therefore we knew no reason that they had to make war on us; to which one of them, in be- half of the rest, made this speech and answer : 'Our young men may speak such words as we do not like nor approve of, and we cannot help that ; some of your young men may speak such words as you do not like, and you cannot help that. We are your brothers, and intend to live like brothers with you. We have no mind to

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

have war, for when we have war we are only skin and bones ; the meat that we eat doth not do us good ; we are always in fear ; we have not the benefit of the sun to shine on us; and we hide us in holes and corners ; we are minded to live in peace. If we intend at any time to make war upon you we will let you know of it, and the reasons why we make war with you ; and if you make us satisfaction for the injury done us, for which the war was intended, then we will not make war on you ; and if you in- " tend at any time to make war on us we would have you let us know of it, and the reason ; and then if we do not make satisfaction for the in- jury done unto you, then you may make war on us; otherwise you ought not to do it. . And as to the small-pox, it was once in my grandfather's time, and it could not be the Eng- lish that could send it to us then, there being no 'English in the country. And it was once in my father's time ; they could not send it to us then either ; and now it is in my time, I do not believe that they have sent it to us now. I do believe it is the man above that hath sent it us!' . The Indians have been very service- able to us by selling us venison, Indian corn, peas and beans, fish and fowl, buckskins, beaver, otter and other skins and furs. The men hunt, fish and fowl and the women plant the corn and carry burthens. There are many of them of a good understanding, considering their education, and in their publick meetings of business they have excellent order, one speaking after another, and while one is speaking all keep silent and do not so much as whisper, one to the other."

In 1742 the chiefs and sachems of the Iroquois nation met the Governor and others of the prin- cipal men of Pennsylvania in council at Phila- delphia, the real object of their having been called there by the Governor being to induce them to order the Delawares (who, in fact, were, and had been for many years, their conquered vassals), to remove westward from their domain in the valley of the Delaware River. The object was accomplished, and the order was given in open council by the Iroquois Sachem Connos- satego, addressed to the few Delaware chiefs who were in attendance. They had no alterna- tive but to obey, and the remnant of the ancient

and proud nation removed from their domain, many of them going to the Ohio River.

But this forced exodus of the Delawares had reference chiefly to the Minsi branch of the nation, whose country lay northwest of the Mus- conetcong Mountains, and had little, if any, effect on the feeble bands in the eastern part of the province, for they had already become wholly insignificant in numbers, as is indicated in a letter written in April, 1749, by Governor Belcher, of New Jersey, to the Lords of Trade, in which he said : "Of Indians, about sixty families reside in the province, who are quiet and easy under his Majesty's Government." About three years prior to this, however, an alarm had been created among the people of this part of the province by a report that stranger Indians had come here from the North- west secretly, and in considerable numbers, being supposed to have been sent by the French in Canada to stir up the few New Jersey In- dians to hostility, and to take part with and assist them in depredation and bloodshed. Another theory was that the strange Indians who appeared so suddenly in this region had come as allies of a large body of white insurgents who had formed a partial organization to resist enforcement of the laws concerning land titles, and (as was alleged) had threatened to call the Indians to their aid. The following, having reference to the matter in question, is from the records1 of the Governor and Council of New Jersey :

"1746, April 9th .- The Council received in- formation that tho' for Six years past no In- dian men had lived near Cranberry but Andrew and Peter, and that only two more had Lived for many years before that, who both, for misde- meanours by them Committed, removed thence to Crosswicks, yet within a few weeks before that information there were come forty fighting men of Indians to live there; that about three weeks before that information, one Indian came who had a blue Laced Coat on, which, it was Said, he had got from the Governour of Canada, and he Lodged in the Informant's house one Night, and some of the other Indians told the

1 Col. Doc. 1, vi. 406.

THE INDIAN OCCUPATION.

Informant that he was a King of some Indians on Delaware, and that he was come to View that place and was to come and Settle there with his Indians, and that they expected they would be about Three hundred Indians there in all ; that the Neighbours thereabout were ex- tremely alarmed at this Number of Indians Coming to Settle there, where it's Esteemed impossible for such a Number to Live without Stealing or killing their Neighbours' Creatures. That the Cause pretended for Such a Num- ber of Indians coming to Live there is, that they are to be taught the Christian Religion by one Mr. Braniard, and for that purpose they are to build a Town, a Church and a School- House upon the Land there of one John Fal- conar, of London, Merchant, upon which In- formation, upon Oath, a Copy was given to one of the Members of the Assembly to Shew it to the rest. Whatever truth there may be in the pretence for these Indians gathering together in that place near the very Centre of this Province We know not, as we are well assured that the said Mr. Braniard has never made any applica- tion to this Government for Leave to gather those Indians there or to give any Notice to it of Such design, but . . . these things being compared with the threats of the Rioters given out at their Riot in September, 1745, Demon- strate that the Threat of their having the As- sistance of a hundred Indians to Support their pretentions, which was Esteemed ridiculous and impossible, is by these means likely to become possible, and as the Same [Indian] Andrew, whom the committee of the Rioters were tam- pering with, is the head of them, and pretends to give those Indians the Land they are to Live upon, it's Submitted how probable it Seems that this gathering of those Indians there may be in Consequence of what has been Concerted between the Said Andrew and the Said Com- mittee, which matter so Concerted, most probably, have been the foundation for the Threat afore- said "

The " Mr. Braniard," to whom reference is made in this extract, was Brainerd, the famous missionary, who labored among the Indians in New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and . others of the provinces, and who preached

for a long time at Cranbury, and at the old Presbyterian Church northwest of Monmouth Court-House. The description of the Indian wearing the " blue-laced coat," and represented to be a King, corresponds exactly with that frequently found of the Delaware King, Teedy- uscung, who had doubtless on this occasion come down from the Susquehanna Valley to see and hear Brainerd,1 whom he had before met in Pennsylvania, and with whom he was on terms of cordial friendship. It is said that during Brainerd's term of preaching in this part of the province there were at times quite large numbers of Indians gathered to hear him. If so, the audiences must have been made up of those who came with Teedyuscung or of some other stranger savages, as it is shown by the preceding quotation from the Council record that at the time in question the resident Indian population in this vicinity had dwindled to almost nothing. The Indian Peter, referred to, was a well-known character in the southern part of Monmouth County prior to and during the Revolution. The record of him is that he was remarkably fond of whiskey, and in conse- quence became a vagabond, though not a vicious one. About 1775 he moved to the vicinity of Imlaystown, and built a cabin on the shore of a pond, from which he took large numbers of fish, which he sold to the white people, realizing in that way a sufficient amount to keep him quite well supplied with liquor. During his residence by the pond his squaw died and he was left alone. He lived some years after his bereavement, and was one of the last, if not the very last, of his race living in Monmouth County. The reason why he remained here living alone, so long after the other New Jersey Indians had been collected and placed together on a reservation, is not known, but it was doubtless his love of whiskey and the free life of a vagabond.

The right of the Indians to the ownership of the lands in New Jersey was recognized by the government of the province, and, as has already

1 The fact that Teedyuscung was also an owner of unsold Indian lands in this vicinity, as before mentioned, might have been a partial cause of his coming to Cranbury.

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

been mentioned, it was always required that the Indian lands should be fairly purchased before settlements were made on them. This was done, and large purchases were made from the natives from time to time, as the need of settlers required, so that most of the Indians had sold most of their lands prior to 1758, in which year, at a treaty council held at Crosswicks for the purpose, the whole of their remaining titles were extinguished, except that there was reserved to them the right to fish in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan, and to hunt on all unin- closed lands. A tract of three thousand acres of land was also purchased at Edge Pillock, in Burlington County, and on this the few remain- ing Indians of New Jersey (about sixty in num- ber) were afterwards collected and settled. They remained there until the year 1802, when they removed to New Stockbridge, near Oneida Lake, in the State of New York, where they joined the Stockbridge tribe. Several years afterwards they again removed and settled on a large tract of land on Fox River, Wis., which tract had been purchased for their use from the Menominee Indians. There, in conjunction with the Stockbridges, they engaged in agricul- tural pursuits and formed a settlement, which was named Statesburg. At that place, in the year 1832, there remained about forty of the Delawares, among whom was still kept alive the tradition that they were the owners of fish- ing and hunting privileges in New Jersey. They resolved to lay their claims before the Legislature of this State and to request that a moderate sum (two thousand dollars) might be paid them for its relinquishment. The person selected to act for them in presenting the matter before the Legislature was one of their own na- tion, whom they called Shawuskukhkung (mean- ing "wilted grass"), but who was known among the white people as Bartholomew S. Calvin. He was born in 1756, and was educated at Princeton College at the expense of the Scotch the Revolution he left his studies to join the patriot army under Washington, in which he served with credit through the war. At the time when his red brethren placed this business in his -hands he was seventy-six years of age, yet he

proceeded in the matter with all the energy of youth, and laid before the New Jersey Legisla- ture a petition in his favor signed by a large number of respectable citizens of the State, together with a memorial, written by his own hand, as follows :

"MY BRETHREN,-I am old and weak and poor, and therefore a fit representative of my people. You are young and strong and rich, and therefore fit representatives of your people. But let me beg you for a moment to lay aside the recollections of your strength and of our weakness that your minds may be prepared to examine with candor the subject of our claims.

"Our tradition informs us-and I believe it corre- sponds with your records-that the right of fishing in all the rivers and bays south of the Raritan, and of hunting in all uninclosed lands, was never relin- quished, but, on the contrary, was expressly reserved in our last treaty, held at Crosswicks in 1758. Having myself been one of the parties to the sale,-I believe in 1801,-I know that these rights were not sold or parted with.

"We now offer to sell these privileges to the State of New Jersey. They were once of great value to us, and we apprehend that neither time nor distance nor the non-use of our rights have at all affected them, but that the courts here would consider our claims valid were we to exercise them ourselves or delegate them to others. It is not, however, our wish thus to excite litigation. We consider the State Legislature the proper purchaser, and we throw ourselves upon its benevolence and magnanimity, trusting that feel- ings of justice and liberality will induce you to give us what you deem a compensation. And as we have ever looked up to the leading characters of the United States (and to the leading characters of this State in particular) as our fathers, protectors and friends, we now look up to you as such, and humbly beg that you will look upon us with that eye of pity as we have reason to think our poor, untutored forefathers looked upon yours when they first arrived upon our then extensive but uncultivated dominions and sold them their lands, in many instances for trifles, in compari- son, as 'light as air.'

"From your humble petitioner, "BARTHOLOMEW S. CALVIN, " In behalf of himself and his red brethren."

Missionary Society. At the breaking out of to a committee, which, after patient hearing,

In the Legislature the subject was referred reported favorably; whereupon the Legislature granted to the Delawares the sum of two thou- sand dollars-the full amount asked for-in consideration of this relinquishment of their last claims and rights in the State of New Jersey.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND TITLES.

Upon this result Mr. Calvin addressed to the Legislature a letter of thanks, which was read before the two Houses in joint session, and was received with repeated rounds of most enthusi- astic applause. The letter was as follows:

' "TRENTON, March 12, 1832.

"Bartholomew S. Calvin takes this method to re- turn his thanks to both Houses of the State Legisla- ture, and especially to their Committees, for their very respectful attention to, and candid examination of, the Indian claims which he was delegated to present.

"The final act of official intercourse between the State of New Jersey and the Delaware Indians, who once owned nearly the whole of its territory, has now been consummated, and in a manner which must re- dound to the honor of this growing State, and in all probability to the prolongation of the existence of a wasted, yet grateful people. Upon this parting occa- sion I feel it to be an incumbent duty to bear the feeble tribute of my praise to the high-toned justice which, in this instance,-and, so far as I am acquainted, in all former times,-has actuated the councils of this commonwealth in dealing with the aboriginal inhabitants.

"Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle; not an acre of our land have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for themselves and need no comment. They place the character of New Jersey in bold relief and bright example to those States within whose territorial limits our brethren still remain. Nothing save benisons can fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni Lenapè.

"There may be some who would despise an Indian benediction; but when I return to my people and make known to them the result of my mission, the ear of the great Sovereign of the universe, which is still open to our cry, will be penetrated with the in- vocation of blessings upon the generous sons of New Jersey."

While this Indian claim was under consider- ation the cause of the Delawares was volun- tarily supported by the Hon. Samuel L. South- ard, who, at the close of a most powerful and eloquent appeal, made before the committee in favor of the petitioners, said,-"It is a proud fact in the history of New Jersey that every foot of her soil has been obtained from the In- dians by fair and voluntary purchase and trans- fer, a fact that no other State of the Union, not even the land which bears the name of Penn, can boast of."

CHAPTER V.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND TITLES.

THE first time that the soil of Monmouth County was ever trodden by the feet of white men was on the 5th of September, 1609, when a boat's crew belonging to Captain Henry Hud- son's little ship, the " Half-Moon," landed upon the southern shore of Sandy Hook Bay (at a place which cannot now be identified), and trav- eled thence a short distance inland, returning later in the day to the ship, and there giving en- thusiastic accounts of the majestic forest-trees, and the strange wild flowers and fruits, and people that they had seen in their short journey of exploration. The incidents of this land trip by Hudson's sailors into the woods of what is now the county of Monmouth have already been more fully mentioned in a preceding chap- ter, as also the subsequent killing of one of their number-John Colman-by the Indians, and the interment of his body in the sands of the Monmouth shore, at a place which they named in his memory "Colman's Point." It was the first burial of a white man in the soil of the present State of New Jersey ; but the location of the spot where his comrades made his lonely grave can never be known.

From that time, for more than half a century, the Dutch, claiming the right to all this region by virtue of Hudson's discovery, held possession of it (though only nominally as concerned the interior portions) undisturbed, except tempo- rarily by the appearance of Captain Samuel Argall with his ship and soldiers at New Am- sterdam, in 1613, as has already been noticed. During all that long period the Hollanders had established a town where New York now is, and another at the site of the present city of Albany, with straggling settlements at several interme- diate points on the Hudson River, and two or three small ones along the Hackensack, as far south as Newark Bay, called by them the Ach- ter Koll ; but these remained their frontiers, while beyond them, to the west and south, and also southeastwardly to the ocean shore, the country still remained a wilderness, and in pos- session of the native Indians. Among them a .

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

few of the more adventurous Dutchmen from New Amsterdam had penetrated for a short distance up the kills and rivers ; but their visits were for purposes of trade only, and not made with a view to the forming of settlements.

The Dutch colonists at that time living along the Hudson were merely traders, and most of them had come to America for that especial purpose. But they had about them none of that bold spirit of pioneering enterprise which impels men to seek new homes in the forest ; and so, although for the sake of gain they frequently ventured on trading journeys among the Indians, whom they (not without good cause) regarded with distrust and dread, they chose to smoke their pipes and drink their schnapps in quiet and comparative safety at their settlements on the Hudson, the Hackensack and Long Island, rather than take the trouble and incur the dan- ger of opening new plantations and forming new settlements in the interior. And these are the reasons why the region of country now eni- braced in the county of Monmouth remained without white inhabitants until the Dutch power was overthrown in New Netherlands, and the country was brought under English rule.

of this party, during their visit to the Navesink and Raritan Indians, is to be gained from the following extracts from vol. xxi. of the Albany Records ; being an account of a trip to the same region, and within two or three days of the same time, by a party of Hollanders (evidently traders) from New Amsterdam, viz .: "1663 .- Voyage to Newesing [Navesink] made in the Company's sloop, and what happened during the trip. There were on the sloop Captain Martin Creger, Govert Loockermans, Jacques Cortelyou, Peter Zevel, with ten soldiers, two sailors and the Sachem, with a savage from Staten Island. " 6th December .- Wesailed from the Manhat- tans [New York] about three o'clock and arrived about evening, at 6 o'clock, at Staten Island, where the Sachem of said Island, with the savage, went on shore. They remained about an hour and then returned. Hoisting again our sail, we sailed through the Kil Van Kol, arrived at the back of Shutter's Island upon shallow water, cast our anchor and stayed there until next ebb tide. We raised our anchor again about three in the morning and rowed down with the ebb to the Creek behind Staten Island. Somewhat later in the morn- ing we hoisted our sail and tacked until the ebb tide was over, and then again cast our anchor. The flood tide being gone about two o'clock in the afternoon, we raised the anchor and tacked again.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 12

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