USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Montclair > History of Montclair township state of New Jersey; including the history of the families who have been identified with its growth and prosperity > Part 2
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The Wolf. commonly called the Minsi (corruptly called Minsey) had chosen to live back of the other two tribes, and formed a kind of bulwark for their protection. watching the nations of the Mung- we, and being at hand to afford aid in case of rupture with them. The Minsi were considered the most warlike and active branch of the Lenape.
Those most intimately connected with this region were the Minisies and Mohicans-the former being the inhabitants of the range of country from Minisink to Staten Island, and from the Hudson to the Raritan Valley. The latter inhabited the east side of the lower Hudson to its mouth. The Dutch called them respectively Swannekins and the Manhicans. According to Brodhead the former were called Wabingi or Wappinges, the latter name, as Ileckewelder claims, being derived from the Delaware word waping, signifying opossum. These were divided into numerous tribes, and the latter again into clans. In this section of New Jersey they were called Raritans, Hackensacks (or Ackinkes-hacky). Pomptons, and Tappaens. On Manhattan Island dwelt the fierce Manhattans, whom De Laet calls " a wieked nation," and " enemies of the Dutch."
These names, together with their chiefs, appear in the treaty between the Dutch and the Indians soon after the war in 1644 (brought on through the harsh and unjust treatment of the latter by Kieft), as follows :
" This day, being the 30th of August, 1645, appeared in Fort Amsterdam. before the Director and Conneil. in the presence of the whole Commonality. the Sachems of the savages as well in their own behalf, as being authorized by the neighboring savages, namely: ORATANEY, Chief of Aekinkes-hacky (meaning low lands), SESSEKENICK and WILLIAM. Chiefs of Tappuen and Reckguwawank, PACHAM and
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
PENNEWINK (who were here yesterday and gave their power of attorney to the former, and also took upon themselves to answer for those of Onaney and the vicinity of Majanwetinnemin. of Marechowrick, of Nyaek and its neighborhood) and ALERJEN, who personally appeared, speaking in behalf of Wapping, Wigunechecks, Sintenick's and Wichtucons."
Whitehead, in his " East New Jersey under the Proprietary Governments," concludes that there were not more than two thousand Indians within the province while it was under the domination of the Dutch. Fifty years later it was stated that they-the Indians-are greatly decreased in numbers. And the Indians themselves say that " two of them die to every one Christian that comes here."
Before the European explorers had penetrated the territories of the Lenape. the power and prowess of the Iroquois had redneed the former nation to the condition of vassals. and when in 1742 they were commanded by the old Iroquois chief. Connosseitigo, at the treaty of council in Philadelphia, instantly to leave the court house, and to prepare to vacate their hunting grounds on the Delaware and its tributaries. the ontraged and insulted red men were completely crestfallen and crushed : but they had no alternative, and must obey. They at once left the presence of the Iroquois, returned to their homes, which were now to be their homes no longer, and soon afterward migrated to the country bordering the Susquehanna, and beyond that river.
The Indians of this locality were quiet, peaceable and domestic in their habits, and there existed among them a code of honor-engraven on their hearts by the Great Spirit-which would put to shame their white neighbors, who were kept in restraint only by wholesome laws vigorously enforced, and all attempts by the Dutch to corrupt and demoralize their savage (?) neighbors by the introduction of " fire water" met with a manly resistance on the part of the Indian Chiefs, as appears by the following :
" WARRANT EMPOWERING ORATAM, CHIEF OF HACKINGKESHIACKY. AND MATTANO, ANOTHER CHIEF, TO SEIZE ANY BRANDY FOUND IN THEIR COUNTRY, AND TAKE IT, WITH THE PERSONS SELLING IT, TO NEW AMSTERDAM.
" Whereas, Oratam, Chief of Hackingkeshaeky, and other savages, have complained several times, that many selfish people dare not only to sell brandy to the savages in this city, but also to carry whole ankers of it into their country, and peddle it out there. from which. if it is not prevented in time, many troubles will arise, therefore the Director-General and Council of New Netherland, not knowing for the present a better way to stop it, anthorize the said chief. together with the Sachem Mattenonck, to seize the brandy brought into their country for sale, and those offering to sell it, and bring them here, that they may be punished as an example to others."
Loeal Indian names, and other evidences, clearly indicate that the territory comprised within the present township of Montelair was at one time the habitation of one or more of the several clans of Indians. Early surveys show that Indian paths led through this region of country, and that the route of the various tribes in passing from the seashore to the interior led along this line. On one of the early maps is shown the Indian path which led to the Minisink. From the Shrewsbury north-west it crossed the Raritan west of Amboy, and thenee northerly to Minisink Island in the Delaware. This was the great path from the sea to the Minisink, the Indian council seat. The most direct route from the Hudson to Minisink Island was through the great noteh on the first mountain, four miles north of Montelair, which struck the main path near Little Falls. There were also intersecting paths through the same terri- tory. The several routes led to the Minisink, about seven miles west of Watehschunk Mountain, through the notch at Eagle Rock and other openings through the mountain.
LOCAL NAMES.
Nearly, if not quite all the Indian names in this locality indicate their origin from the language of the Delaware Indians, most of them being mispelt as well as misinterpreted. Wachung, referring to the First Mountain, is evidently a corruption of Wachtsehunk, meaning " on the hill." The name of
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
" Watsessing " or " Wardsesson " as early applied to Bloomfield, is doubtless from the word Waktschieehen. meaning crooked. Mr. D. G. Brinton, author of " ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUC- TIONS." writes : " I would say that you are quite right in supposing Waehnng-Wachtsehunk-on the hill, or, at the mountain, or, the hilly spot. The name Watsessing I take to be a form of Waktsehicehen. it is crooked (i.e. a road, a stream, etc.). In this case the traditional rendering you give seems to me well founded."
Pachseyink-in the valley-is doubtless the original of " Passaic." or " Pesavie," as spelled in the early records. Hachkihacanink-in the field ; Sepunk-to or on the river; Hatink-in or near the earth : Meechekachink-at the big rock : Tekenink-in the woods ; Tapewi-on the river bank.
HABITS AND GOVERNMENT OF THE DELAWARES.
The ordinary form of salutation of the Delawares was : " I thank the Great Spirit that he has pre- served our lives to this time of our happy meeting again. I am indeed very glad to see you."
"They do not fight with each other: they say that fighting is only for dogs and beasts ; they are, however, fond of play and passing a joke. yet are very careful that they do not offend."
" They have great respect for the aged : they have a strong innate sense of justice."
A well-known writer says: " The Delawares were eminent for valor and wisdom, and held a prominent place in Indian history, but on the rise of the Iroquois power, they lost their independence and fell under suspicion because many of them applied themseves to agriculture.
" It may justly be a subject of wonder, how a nation without a written code of laws, or a system of jurisprudence without any form or constitution of government, and without even a single elective or hereditary magistrate, can subsist together in peace and happiness, and in the exercise of the highest virtues-how a people can be well and efficiently governed without any external authority. The seeret of it is found in the early education of their children. The first step that parents take toward the edu- eation of their children is to prepare them for future happiness by impressing upon their tender minds that they are indebted for their existence to a great. good and benevolent Spirit, who has not only given them life, but has ordained them for certain great purposes. That he has given them a fertile, extensive country, well stocked with game of every kind for their subsistence, and that by use of his inferior spirits he has also sent down to them from above coon, pumpkins, squashes, beans, and other vegetables. for their nourishment. That this great Spirit looks down upon the Indians to see whether they are grateful to him, and make him a dne return for the many benefits he has bestowed ; and, therefore, that it is their duty to show their thankfulness by worshiping and doing that which is pleasing in his sight. They are taught in everything to please the Great Spirit. When the child does a commendable act the father will say : . May the Great Spirit who looks upon him grant this child a long life.'"
TREATMENT OF THE WOMEN. An Indian loves to see his wife well clothed, which is a proof that he is fond of her. In bartering the skins and pelfry with the trader, when the wife finds an article which she thinks will suit or please her husband she never fails to purchase it for him ; she tells him that it is her choice, and he is never dissatisfied. The more a man does for his wife the more he is esteemed in the community.
Chapter II.
OUTLINE OF NEW JERSEY .- ORIGIN OF THE NAME .- PHILIP CARTERET APPOINTED GOVERNOR-GOV- ERNOR ANDROS OF NEW YORK CLAIMS JURISDICTION OVER NEW JERSEY .- RESISTANCE BY TILE PEOPLE .- RE-AFFIRMATION FROM ENGLAND OF CARTERET'S AUTHORITY .- GOVERNMENT UNDER THE TWENTY-FOUR PROPRIETORS .- UNION OF EAST AND WEST NEW JERSEY .- LORD CORNBURY'S RULE -THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT TO ITS TERMINATION.
CRISS
N' the 12th of March, 1664, Charles 11., of England, granted to his brother James, Duke of York, inter alias, all that part of New Netherland lying east of Delaware Bay, and sent a force under Sir Robert Carr and Col. Richard Nicoll to dispossess the Dutch of their territory in the New World. General Stuyvesant, of New Amsterdam, was, by reason of his defenseless condition, compelled to surrender without resistance, and the conquest of the colony on the Delaware was accomplished by Sir Robert Carr " with the expenditure of two barrels of powder and twenty shot."
The Duke's squadron was yet on the Atlantic, and the country yet in possession of the Dutch, when he, by deeds of lease and release, dated the 24th of June, conveyed to John, Lord Berkeley, a brother of the Governor of Virginia, and Sir George Carteret, the tract of land lying between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers, " which said traet of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of New Carsarea or New Jersey." [The name was given in compliment to Sir George Carteret, who had defended the island of Jersey against the long Parliament in the civil war, but the powers of government which had been expressly granted by the Duke were not in terms conveyed, though it would seem that both parties deemed them to have passed by the grant. ]
The proprietors formed a constitution, or, as it was termed, "concessions and agreements of the lords proprietors," which secured equal privileges and liberty of conscience to all; and it continued in force till the division of the province in 1676. In August, 1665, Philip Carteret, a brother of Sir George, was appointed governor, and he made Elizabethtown the seat of government. The constitution established a representative government, and made liberal provision for the settlers. In a few years domestic disputes arose, and in 1672 an insurrection occurred, compelling General Carteret to leave the province.
In 1673 England and Holland were at war, and a squadron was sent by the Dutch to repossess New Netherlands, which was surrendered without resistance by Captain Manning, in the absence of Governor Lovelace. On the conclusion of peace between England and Holland, New Netherlands was restored to the former. The Governor of New York, Major Edmund Andros, elaimed jurisdiction over New Jersey, insisting that the Dutch conquest extinguished the proprietary title ; but carly in 1675 Governor Carteret returned and resumed the government of the eastern part of the province. He was kindly received by the people, who had become dissatisfied with the arbitrary rule of Governor Andros. A new set of concessions was published, and peaceable subordination was established in the colony. Governor Andros, however, continued his efforts to enforce his claims of jurisdiction, and issued a proclamation abrogating the Carteret government, and requiring "all persons to submit forthwith to the King's authority as embodied in himself." To this the people of Newark replied : "The town being
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
met together, give their positive answer to the Governor of York's writ that they have taken the oath of allegianee to the King. and fidelity to the present government, and until we have sufficient order from his Majesty we will stand by the same." Subsequently Carteret himself wrote to Andros : " It was by his Majesty's commands that this government was established. and without the same commands shall never be resigned but with our lives and fortunes, the people resolving to live and die with the name of true subjects, and not traitors." The ditheulty was finally >ettled by a reaffirmation from England of Carteret's authority, and a complete rennneiation by the Duke of York of governmental right in New Jersey.
Sir George Carteret died in 1679. By his will he directed the sale of that part of the province for the payment of his debts, and it was accordingly sold to William Penn and eleven others, who were termed the twelve proprietors. A fresh impetus was given to the settlement of the country, especially by the people of Scotland. Each of the twelve proprietors took a partner, and they all came to be known as the twenty-four proprietors, and to them the Duke of York, on the 14th of March, 1682. made a fresh grant.
Under the new regime in New Jersey. Robert Barclay, one of the proprietors, was chosen Governor for life. with power to name his deputies. There were, in snecession. Thomas Rudyard (1683), Gawen Lawrie. Lord Neil Campbell, and Alexander Hamilton.
In West New Jersey Samnel Jennings was commissioned deputy governor by Byllinge in 1680, and during the next year he convened an assembly which adopted a constitution and form of government. His successors were Thomas Olive, John S. Keene, William Welsh, Daniel Coxe and Andrew Hamilton.
In 1701 the condition of affairs in both provinces had arrived at that state when the benefits of good government were not attainable. Each had many proprietors, and their conflicting interests oecasjoned such discord that the people became quite willing to listen to overtures for a surrender of the proprietary goverment. " The proprietors, weary of contending with each other and with the people, drew up an instrument whereby they surrendered their right of government to the crown, which was accepted by Queen Anne, on the 17th of April, 1702. The Queen at once reunited the two provinees. and placed the government of New Jersey, as well as of New York. in the hands of her kinsman, Lord Cornbury."
Cornbury's rule was terminated by the revocation of his commission in 1708. He was snecceded by Jolin. Lord Lovelace, who soon died, and the functions of government were discharged by Lieutenant- Governor Inglesby till 1710, when Governor Hunter commenced his administration. He was followed in 1720 by William Burnet, who was removed to Boston in 1727. John Montgomerie then became Governor, and continued until his death in 1731. The government then devolved on John Anderson, President of the Conneil, who died in about two weeks, and was succeeded by John Hamilton (son of Andrew Hamilton, Governor under the proprietors, who served nearly two years. In 1738 Lewis Morris. Exq .. was appointed Governor of New Jersey. " separate from New York." His successors were Jolin Reading. Jonathan Belcher, John Boone, Josiah Hardy, and, in 1763, William Franklin, the last of the royal governors, and a son of Benjamin Franklin.
Chapter III.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF ESSEX COUNTY.
(From Prof. George H. Cook's Geology of the State.)
IlAT portion of New Jersey which is of the Triassie or Red Sandstone Age, is included in a belt of country which has the Highland range of mountains on its north-west side, and a line almost straight from Staten Island Sound, near Woodbridge, to Trenton, on its south-east. It has the northern boundary and the Hudson River on the north-east, and the Delaware on the south-west. The area within these bounds is entirely free from roeks of an earlier age, and also from any extensive formations of a later period. The strong and decided red color of the prevailing rock of this formation has given name to the whole, and while most of the names of the kind have been discarded by the geologists, this is so striking and suggestive that it receives the approval of all.
Prominent in the Triassie district are the two long and parallel ranges of trap-rock, known in Essex county as the First and Second Mountains. The eastermost or outer ridge we shall eall, for convenience of description, the First Mountain, while the inner parallel range may be termed Second Mountain. The former, rising at Pluckamin, in Somerset county, has an cast-southeast trend, for seven miles, to the gorge through which passes Middle Brook. The continuous ridge runs thenee on an east and north-east course to Millburn, in Essex county, a distance of sixteen miles, where the gap between the two ends of the disconuceted range is about one and a half miles. From Millburn to Paterson, a distance of fifteen miles, its course is a little east of north. The whole length of this mountain from its rise at Pluckamin to its terminus near Sieeomae is forty-eight miles, and its general trend is north-northeast.
The prominent and characteristic feature of this mountain is the great difference between its inner and outer slopes. That toward the Second Mountain is gentle, while that toward the red sandstone country is steep, and in many places precipitous. The former corresponds to the dip of the shale or sand- stone which forms the basis upon which the trap rests, and at nearly all points trap constitutes the rock of this deelivity. The steep outer slope shows sandstone or shale at the base, and up to the precipitous bluffs of trap, covered, however, in places, by the debris from the rock above. The breadth of this range is quite uniform, from one to two miles. The height is also remarkably uniform, ranging from three hundred to six huundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea.
Everywhere the trap forms the erest and upper portion of this slope, under which is the sandstone, generally covered by trap débris. The top of the sandstone is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet below the top of the mountain. The located line marks the base of this steep faee, and is at the same distance from the top of the mountain. It is plain on all roads crossing the ridge, e.g., on the old South Orange Turnpike, the mountain road, Mount Pleasant Turnpike, near the Llewellyn S. Haskell place, also in the Park, in West Orange Township.
The western boundary line of the trap of the First Mountain follows the general direction of the valley inelnded between the First and Second Mountains. The drift here, also, renders the tracing of a geological line quite difficult. But from the known uniformity of the trap slope, and an examination of the surface configuration of the county, and a few points of outerop, the line can be quite accurately fixed
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
and described. Generally it follows the line of least elevation, or at the bottom of the valley, and this is in most cases at the foot of the first mountain slope. Beginning at the northern end of this range, the Old- ham Creek is coincident with a line almost to the pond north of Haledon, thenee running east of this village, and at the same side of the creek. it meets the Passaie River west of the mouth of Oldham Creek, and follows the river for a mile to the Morris and Essex Canal, which constitutes the west boundary of this range to the Little Falls and Notch Road. The trap appears at several points along the river from the month of the creek to the bend in the former, where the line leaves it. East of this the First Mountain is made up of several rocky ridges. separated by narrow valleys.
From the Notch Road southward the trap boundary follows the same general direction as the mountains: crosses the county line, the crest forming the boundary line between Caldwell and Montelair townships to the east of Verona Village to the watershed of the Verona Valley, near the upper side of Llewellyn Park, west of Eagle Rock : thence down the valley of the west branch of Rahway River as far as the old South Orange Road. Approaching the stream. it at length crosses it, and intersects the Morris and Essex branch of the D .. L. & W. R. R .. about three-quarters of a mile west of Millburn Village. Along the line just mentioned, drift knolls and beds rest upon the lower portions of the trap slope ; near the erest of the main and subordinate ridge- the rock is frequently seen. Near Millburn the slope is less obseured by drift. although west and south-west of the village it hides all rocks.
The features of the Second Mountain are similar to those of the First. The boundary line between them is of the same general course as that of the mountain itself, and also parallel throughout with the First Mountain. The prolongation of the range, at each extremity beyond the ends of the outer range, makes this mountain longer than the other by five miles. Throughont a portion of the range its structure is apparently complicated by one or more subordinate ridge, quite similar to the main or outer one. There can scarcely be a doubt that the whole mass is one unbroken body of trap-rock.
Chapter IV.
THE NEWARK COLONISTS. - THEIR PREVIOUS HISTORY .- ROBERT TREAT AND JASPER CRANE-THEIR IN- FLUENCE IN THE NEW HAVEN AND CONNECTICUT COLONIES .- INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR DITIES AS MAGISTRATES OF THE NEW HAVEN COLONY .- WARRANTS FOR THE ARREST OF WHALLEY AND GOFFE, THE REGICIDE JUDGES .- NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE UNION OF THE COLONIES OF NEW HAVEN AND CONNECTICUT, AND THE IMPORTANT PART TAKEN BY ROBERT TREAT AND JASPER CRANE .- DISSATISFACTION OF THE BRANFORD PEOPLE WITH THE UNION .- OPPOSITION TO THE "HALF-WAY COVENANT" AND THE "CHRISTLESS RULE OF CONNECTICUT."-CAUSES OF DIVISION IN THE MILFORD, BRANFORD, GUILFORD AND STAMFORD CHURCHES, WHICH LED TO THE EXODUS OF THE DISSENTERS AND THE FORMATION OF THE NEWARK COLONY.
HAT is now the State of Connectient originally consisted of two colonies-Connecticut and New Haven. The settlement of the former began at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1631, under a patent granted to Lord Say and Scal and Lord Brook -- the location receiving the name of Saybrook. The free planters of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield (emigrants from the Mass. Colony) resolved to form themselves into a distinct commonwealth, and on the 14th of January, 1639, they convened at Hartford and adopted a constitution. The preamble of this instrument set forth that it was to preserve " the liberty and purity of the Gospell," as they understood it, "and the regulation of civil affairs."
This was the first constitution adopted in the New World, and it recognized among its fundamental principles the great bulwark of American freedom. It has been said of it that it was "simple in its terms, comprehensive in its policy. methodical in its arrangement, and beautiful in its adaptation of parts to a whole."
The same year-1639-Fairfield and Stratford were founded under the jurisdiction of Conneeti- eut, and in 1644 the Colony of Connecticut purchased from Colonel Fenwick the jurisdiction right in the Colony of Saybrook. This then embraced the territory of the Connecticut Colony.
On the 4th of June, 1639, the free planters of Quinnepeae, or New Haven, met and formed a civil and religious organization. The constitution, if such it may be termed, of this colony, was original, and in some of its provisions nnique. It was widely different from that of Connecticut, and was in many respects similar to the old Jewish theocracy.
In Deeember, 1639, the planters of this colony purchased of the Indians a tract of land called Totoket or Branford. Among the purchasers were Jasper Crane, Lawrence and George Ward and Daniel Dod. The same year the towns of Milford and Guilford were added to the colony.
Conspicuous among the New Haven settlers, in civil affairs, were Robert Treat and Jasper Crane. who afterward became leaders in the new enterprise or " New Worke."
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