History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 69

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

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1 > Part 69

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Joseph Scudder was the father of John Scudder, com- monly called " Missionary John," because he was the pio- neer of missionaries in India early in the present century. John was born at Freehold. He had eight sons, all of whom were in the ministry, and seven of them mission- aries. His two daughters were also missionaries until their marriage.

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

is not known, but the fact that it was still at Topanemus in 1751 is proved by the journal of the Rev. Thomas Thompson, missionary ; and that it was erected near the court-house prior to 1763 is clearly shown in the history of the church, elsewhere given. This old church edi- fice, which stood through all the years of the great struggle between America and Britain, and was at different times occupied by troops of the Royal and patriot armies, is now the oldest build- ing in Freehold village.

After an existence of more than sixty years as the county-seat, the little settlement at Mon- mouth Court-House was still but an insignifi- cant hamlet, containing less than a hundred inhabitants of both sexes and all ages, at the opening of the Revolution; but during the progress of that great conflict its relative impor- tance was considerably increased, and it received some additions to its population, though it is impossible, at the present day, to name more than a very few of its inhabitants at that time. Among them, besides Dr. Scudder and Dr. Thomas Henderson, were two cousins, both named David Forman. Both of them, how- ever, as also Dr. Henderson, lived a short dis- tance outside the present corporation limits ; the residence of "Black David," who became the general (already mentioned in the Revolu- tionary history), being the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Henry Brinkerhoff, and that of "Sheriff David " being located on the Jonathan T. Forman farm, a little more than a mile southeast of the court-house.

Tunis Forman, a son of Sheriff David For- man, was the hero of a Revolutionary adven- ture which made him famous. In May, 1780, while the family were at breakfast, a soldier entered the room in great haste, and informed the sheriff that he (the soldier) and a comrade had that morning been sent as a guard to con- duct two prisoners1 from Colt's Neck to Free-

1 These prisoners had been taken the night before by John Statesir, then a youth of about eighteen years of age, who belonged to a company or detachment of soldiers who were quartered in Jacob Fleming's barn, one and a half miles below Colt's Neck. At the time referred to he was on his way to join his detachment at the barn, and seeing two men approaching, he advanced his musket and demanded the countersign. They could not give it, and

hold, but that on the way the prisoners had knocked his comrade down, seized his musket and escaped. The sheriff at once mounted his horse and galloped to the court-house to order out the guard stationed there to pursue the fugitives. Meanwhile, young Tunis Forman, then only seventeen years old, seized his gun (which was only loaded with small shot for blackbirds) and started out alone on the pursuit. He soon overtook the two men, sitting on a fence, and having with them the musket taken from the soldier. On seeing him, they took to a swamp, but the boy followed, and finally found them perched in a tree top. One of them fired on him, but missed. Tunis then presented his piece, and ordered the man to throw down his empty gun, or he would certainly shoot him. The order was obeyed. The boy then loaded the gun, and forced the two desperadoes to come down from the tree, and march in front of him to the court-house, where he de- livered them to the guard. While on his way to the court-house, driving the captured men before him, young Forman heard his father, with a mounted posse, pass in the other direc- tion on a road near him, but out of sight, and he shouted to him, but the noise of the horses' hoofs prevented his voice from being heard, and he was obliged to proceed alone with his pris- oners. They proved to be John and Robert Smith, two desperadoes who had recently robbed and murdered Mr. Boyd, the collector of Chester County, Pa. Sheriff Forman and his son Tunis took them to Philadelphia, for delivery to the officers there. On their arrival in the city, when the circumstances of the capture became known, Tunis Forman became the hero of the day, and the soldiers stationed there carried him in triumph through the streets on their

as they also acted in a suspicious manner, he took them prisoners, they being unarmed, and marched them before him to the barn, where he delivered them to the officer in command. Each one had a bridle with him, and it was evident that they were out on a horse-stealing expedition. They were kept at the barn till morning, then placed in charge of two soldiers, named respectively Buck and Lake, to be taken to the jail at Freehold, and on the way they escaped, as narrated. The musket which young Statesir carried on that night is now in possession of his son, Wil- liam Statesir, president of the Freehold Banking Company.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

shoulders. He lived to an advanced age, resid- ing on the old Forman farm, southeast of the court-house. Another son of Sheriff David Forman was Dr. Samuel Forman, who, at the opening of the Revolution, was a lad of eleven years of age. A more extended mention of him will be found in the history of the Mon- mouth Medical Society and elsewhere in this chapter.

Jacob Wikoff (son of William Wikoff, of Shrewsbury) was also a resident in the vicinity of the village in the time of the Revolution, and his house was one of those burned by the British troops during their occupation of the place, from the 26th to the 28th of June, 1778. It is related of the burning of this house, that " as the lurid flames swept high and fierce, "a voice was heard above the rest, shouting "Oh, do save brother John !" upon which the efforts were redoubled, and resulted in the saving of "Brother John," which was no more nor less than an excellent portrait, executed by the famed painter, Benjamin West. The owner of the house, Jacob Wikoff, served creditably in the war, and lived nearly thirty years after its close, dying in 1812. His son, William, was also a soldier in the Revolution, and was pres- ent in the battle of June 28, 1778. Peter Wi- koff, brother of Jacob, served under Washing- ton, and was one of the guides of the commander- in-chef at the battle of Monmouth.

James Wall was the keeper of a tavern at Monmouth Court-House in 1778, and William Snyder was an inn-keeper there in the following year. The house of Captain James Green, which stood in the immediate vicinity of the court-house, is found frequently mentioned in records and elsewhere, in a way that shows it to have been, at one time during the Revolution, one of the principal places where meetings were held for the transaction of public business. A number of trials were held there, notably of cases in Admiralty, to try claims on prizes cap- tured by the American privateers. One of these trials was held at Green's house, a week before the final capture of Captain Joshua Huddy, at the Tom's River block-house. It was held by Abiel Akin, Esq., of Tom's River, to try the 'claims for the prize " Lucy," of which William

Dillon had been master. Dillon was one of the eight men in Freehold jail under sentence of death to whom the Rev. Abel Morgan preached in June, 1778, but he somehow escaped death. The next week after Esquire Akin had the ex- amination at Captain Green's house, at Free- hold, for claims against this vessel, Dillon piloted the British expedition into Tom's River, which destroyed the black-house, captured Huddy and others and burned the village, and Esquire Akin's house among the rest. Less than three weeks afterwards the corpse of Cap- tain Huddy was brought from the place where he had been murdered by Captain Lippincott and his Refugee followers, and laid in the house of Captain Green, preparatory to the funeral, which was held in the court-house, where the Rev. John Woodhull preached the funeral ser- mon to a very large audience of people, who had gathered there from all parts of the county.

It is not shown, however, that Captain Green was an inn-keeper at that time, but it appears probable that he was not, from the fact that in some of the notices of meetings, sales and courts held at his residence, it is mentioned as "the dwelling-house of James Green." It appears likely that he had been or was a seafaring man, as it is found that at one time, in a Court of Ad- miralty, he was prosecuting a prize claim on a captured vessel called the " Betty." His subse- quent career is not known.

In 1780 certain sales of property were ad- vertised to be held at the house of Daniel Ran- dolph, at Freehold. It is supposed that this was the same Daniel Randolph, Esq., who was captured two years later with Captain Huddy. A very prominent man at Tom's River in the early part of the war was James Randolph, extensively engaged in saw-mills and other business. He died about 1781, and Daniel Ran- dolph's appearance then at Tom's River sug- gests he might have gone there to manage the estate. The place where he lived in Freehold in 1780, cannot now be designated.

In 1788 John Anderson and Samuel P. For- man (the last named of whom became sheriff of the county in 1799) were inn-keepers at Mon- mouth Court-House village. In May of that ! year the Board of Frecholders met at Ander-

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

son's, and adjourned to meet at Forman's in the following June. The location of their houses is not known, but it is supposed that they were the stands since known as the " Washington " and " Union." Lewis McKnight was an inn- keeper at Monmouth village in 1789. Meet- ings of the freeholders were held at his house in that year.

There can be no doubt that there were stores and country merchants at Monmouth Court- House many years before the Revolution, for although the village itself is insignificant, yet | business for a few years, but was ruined finan-

the surrounding country had become tolerably well settled and prosperous, and its natural trading-point would be the county-seat, located, as it was, on a principal highway from Burling- ton to Raritan Bay. Yet the writer has been unable to learn the name of any merchant or the location of any store in the village prior to the year 1793, when William Lloyd, who had been a soldier in the Revolution,1 and who,

1 In an affidavit made by William Lloyd, in 1832, for the purpose of obtaining a pension, he said -

" ... . That his first service rendered was at an early period of the Revolution, and thinks at the second monthly call of the Monmouth militia, but cannot recollect the pre- cise time. He distinctly remembers serving in the Foot, four monthly tours of duty at different times in the vil- lage of Freehold, at Monmouth Court-House, and one month in the vicinity thereof as a light-horseman, but cannot recollect the company officers sufficiently certain to make oath to; the first he believes and feels sure was under the command of Colonel Samuel Forman, and the latter under the immediate command of General David Forman, who kept his headquarters in said village, and had also the command of some companies of enlisted soldiers. He performed one month's service at Shoal Har- hour, in Middletown, under Captain Nathaniel Polhemus, Lieutenants John Conover and Jonathan Pitman ; also served three monthly tours of service in the township of Shrewsbury, the frontier of the county at different times, under command of the following officers : one under Cap- tain Baird (subalterns not recollected) ; that he com- menced another monthly tour at Freehold while the British army lay in Brunswick, and was ordered to march to General Washington's headquarters after a few days' ser- vice ; that he marched with the militia then on duty at Freehold to Princeton ; from there to Souriand Mountain ; there met with General Sullivan, and marched under his command nearly all night to Steel's Mountain, the head- quarters of General Washington ; that after being a few days there I turned out as a volunteer with a considerable body of men, said to be commanded by General Heard, to reconnoitre the enemy, who had retired from Somerset Court-House, and was on their retreat to Amboy ; .I

having succeeded Elisha Walton as sheriff of the county, came from Upper Freehold to the court-house, and opened a small merchandising business in a low wooden building that stood on the northwest side of the main street, near the place now occupied by the store of E. B. Bedle. From this humble building he afterwards re- moved to a store on the same side of the street, on or near the site of the present post-office, where, with his brothers, Corlies and James Lloyd, he carried on a very large and profitable

was also on duty at Freehold about a week before the bat- tle of Trenton ; the whole on duty were discharged by Colonel Oke [Auke] Wikoff, who commanded at the time on the apprehension that British and Refugees would make an attack on us. On the march of the British army from Philadelphia, in the year 1778, I went as a volunteer to General Maxwell's headquarters at Crosswicks; went with a reconnoitering party under Major David Rhea, near to a place called the Clark house, in Burlington County ; next day I took a letter from General Maxwell to Colonel Nelson, who commanded the Middlesex militia at Allen ; attached myself to Captain Alexander Montgomery's com- pany of horse and did service; was sent to procure wag- ons for the army ; continued doing what I could till the battle of Monmouth ; was in the midst of the same, and at the first retreat of the enemy, after their - commander, Colonel Monckton fell, pursued and collected as many of the enemy's guns (with bayonets fixed on them) as I could conveniently carry on my horse, and gave them all to the soldiers of the regular army as they stood in rank on the field of battle; this service occupied the day. I performed about a week's service under Major Elisha Lawrence by marching to Egg Harbour, a distance of sixty miles, as a volunteer, with about a hundred others, to protect the inhabitants of that place from the ravages of two or three companies of Refugees. I would further remark that I never missed going out when called upon, to my knowledge (except once; that was the time of the battle of Germantown or Brandywine, I do not recollect which, and then I was confined to my bed with sickness), during the war from 1776 to the end of the war. During the period of my services I was never drafted ; served when called upon by regular calls ; my services were con- fined to the county of Monmouth, except when called to headquarters, as above stated, and services rendered in the county of Burlington previous to the battle of Mon- mouth. I was acquainted with many of the militia officers during the war, namely, General David Forman, Captain David Hay, Captain James Brewer, Captain Nathaniel Polhemus, Captain David Baird, Colonel Asher Holmes, Colonel Oke [Auke ] Wikoff, Colonel Samuel Forman, Colo- nel John Smock and a great many others ; and served with a number of them at different times. When I entered the service I lived in Upper Freehold ; was born there in April, 1757, and served there during the war."

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

cially by the operation of the embargo act. He purchased a farm lying south of what is now McLean Avenue, and on the southeasterly side of the Burlington Path, which, at a point a lit- tle above where ex-Governor Parker's residence now stands, deflected considerably to the south- ward of the line of the present main street of Freehold. The farm was of about two hundred acres, and included the ground on which now stand the Roman Catholic Church, the Free- hold Institute and a great number of dwellings in the same vicinity. It was then called the " Factory Farm," from the fact that a hat-factory had previously been in operation on it. The residence of Mr. Lloyd on this farm, was an old- fashioned Dutch house of good size, which stood east of the Path, about thirty rods back of the site of the parsonage of the Reformed Church, and between it and where the institute now stands.

Caleb Lloyd and Corlies Lloyd, both lawyers, came to locate in the village about two years earlier than their brother William. James Lloyd, another brother, came a little later. James Lloyd succeeded his brother William as sheriff in 1796, and was again elected in 1805, and still again in 1820. Caleb Lloyd was surrogate from 1797 to 1804, county clerk from 1812 to 1817, and again surrogate from 1817 to 1822. Corlies Lloyd was prosecutor of the pleas from 1828 to 1833. Richard Lloyd, a Revolutionary officer of some prominence, succeeded his brother James as sheriff in 1823. Dr. Robert Laird, in writing of Freehold village as it was between 1820 and 1830, says: " At that early day the family of Lloyd-Wil- liam, James, Caleb and Corlies-held all the im- portant offices in the county. William Lloyd was judge of the court; James, the high sheriff; Caleb, the clerk and surrogate; Corlies, the dis- trict attorney. No business of a legal char- acter could be done excepting through this family."

Joseph Scudder, son of Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, and afterwards one of the most prominent lawyers of Monmouth County, was a resident of Freehold in 1794, being appointed surrogate of the county in that year, and was elected clerk .

Forman now lives. The date of the erection of the old mansion is not precisely known.

As early as 1785 the village around the court-house began to be called simply " Mon- mouth." This is the name by which it is designated in various entries made in the years 1785-86, 1791 and 1795, in the journal of the Rev. Francis Asbury, who was then making preaching tours through this part of the State. And in an entry of the last-mentioned year he gives an uncomplimentary notice of the shire town in an account of a scene he witnessed there, as follows :

"October 28, 1795 .- We came to Monmouth ; we would have gone to Shrewsbury, but time and our horses failed us. . . . I was shocked at the brutality of some men who were fighting; one gouged out the other's eye ; the father and son then both beset him again, cut off his ears and nose, and beat him almost to death. The father and son were tried for a breach of the peace, and roundly fined ; and now the man that has lost his nose is come upon them for damage. I have often thought that there are some things prac- tised in the Jersies which are more brutish and diabolical than in any other of the States; there is nothing of this kind in New England-They learn civility there at least."

On the 1st of January, in the year (1795) of the occurrence narrated as above by Asbury, the post-office of the village was established, and designated on the department records as " Mon- mouth." The first postmaster was Samuel Mckinstry, who held the office but three months, and was succeeded on the 1st of April following by Samuel McConkey. Whether these gentlemen were merchants of the village or not has not been ascertained ; nor is it known where the post-office was kept at that time.

The public-houses of Major James Craig and Samuel Coward are found mentioned in the records of 1797, 1798 and 1799, and meetings of the Board of Freeholders were held at both during that period. Craig's stand was the same as is now called the Washington Hotel, and Coward's was on the site of the present Union (or Taylor's) Hotel.

In April, 1798, John A. Laird was appointed postmaster of Monmouth village, but was sue- ceeded in that office, in July of the same year,

in 1798. His residence was where Dr. D. M. | by David Craig, who held it for seven years.

391

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

John A. Laird was the eldest of four brothers, of whom the others were Benjamin, Samuel and Elisha Laird, all of whom were well-known and prominent citizens of Monmouth County in the early part of the present century. Benjamin, who was widely known as a hotel-keeper, was the father of Dr. Robert Laird, now of Mana- squan ; and Samuel was the father of Joseph T. . Laird, now president of the First National Bank of Freehold.

In 1801 (January 1st) the name " Mon- mouth," which had been given to the post-office on its establishment, six years before, was changed to " Freehold;" but the old name still clung to the village, and for more than a quarter of a century afterwards it remained in more frequent and common use than that by which it was superseded. As late as the year 1836 (on the 31st of December) a public meeting of citizens was held " to take into consideration the pro- priety of changing the name of the village of Freehold to that of Monmouth," and the prop- osition lacked little of the support necessary to secure adoption.

Mr. William Lloyd (son of the William Lloyd who served in the Revolution, as before mentioned), who was born in the year 1800, and who is now (November, 1884) living in Freehold, with a good memory, which reaches farther back in the history of the village than that of any person known, relates the following with regard to the inhabitants, dwellings and business places of Freehold at the time of his earliest recollection-about 1810 to 1812-viz .:

Commencing at the northeastern end of the village, and proceeding up the main street on its southeastern side, the first dwelling was that of William H. Bennett-an old-fashioned red house, which stood on or very near the site of the present residence of Mrs. William V. Ward. William H. Bennett (who was the father of Henry, Charles A. and Hudson Bennett) came from "Sandy New " to Freehold early in the year 1801, and located at the place mentioned. Near the old red house, and farther back from the street, was an old bark-mill ; but it does not appear that the business of tanning was ever carried on by Mr. Bennett, who was a black- smith, and had a shop near his house and on the

same side of the road ; but it was removed (or another one built by him), a few years later, on the opposite side. He was the contractor for the iron-work of the court-house and jail building, which was completed in 1808. He afterwards built and removed to another house, standing on the spot now occupied by the residence of his son, Hudson Bennett. He made two purchases of land, contiguous to his first location, from Major James Craig, in 1805 and in 1812.

Next above the red house of Mr. Bennett was the hatter's shop of John Bowne, which stood partly on the site of the present American Hotel.

The old "Red Tavern" of Major James Craig was the next building above Bowne's hatter's shop. This tavern, which had then been kept by Major Craig for at least fifteen years (and probably much longer), was the same which was afterwards known as the Washington Hotel, the oldest tavern-stand in Freehold. Above the tavern, Major Craig owned the land up to the road, which is now South Street. On it stood his stables and behind them was an orchard extending back a long distance on the road.1

On the south corner of the road and the main street of the town, the site of the Union Hotel of later years, was the tavern of Samuel Coward, who had then kept it several years, as mention is found in the records of this, as well as Craig's tavern, in 1797. Coward's tavern was a small, two-story wooden building, which now forms a part of Taylor's Hotel. To the rear of this tavern, on what is now South Street, the" old court-house of the Revolution was re- moved in the year 1809, soon after the comple- tion of the new one. It was fitted up as a dwelling-house and was then, or a few years later, occupied by Joseph Thompson. It was also the publication office of the Monmouth Star newspaper for a short time.

The next building above Coward's inn was

1 Reference to certain old deeds from James Craig and John Craig (among them being the deeds to William H. Bennett, before referred to) shows that about the year 1800, James and John Craig had owned all the land on the south side of Main Street, from South Street northeasterly to the present limits of the town.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

the dwelling-house of Caleb Lloyd, an old- fashioned wooden building, which is still stand- ing, and now occupied by his nephew, Mr. Wil- liam Lloyd, on whose recollection this description of Frechold, three-fourths of a century ago, is based.

Samuel Throckmorton's residence was the next southwest of Caleb Lloyd's; it was a wooden building, and (with some changes and additions) is still standing and in use as the office of Dr. O. R. Freeman. The widow of Samuel Throck- morton became afterwards the wife of Joseph Phillips, Esq.

Passing on beyond where the railroad track now crosses the main street, there stood a small wooden building, owned and occupied by Re- becca Forman (familiarly known as "Aunt Becky"), who met a terrible death by falling into the fire. The site is the lot now occupied by B. White's tin-shop and stove-store, and a part of the ancient building is still standing.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 69

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