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 4
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Eleven years later, on the 13th of March, 1678, the western limits of the traet were extended to the top of the mountain by a deed from two other Indians, the consideration for the extension being "two guns, three coats and thirteen eans of rum." The boundary line of the town on the south, separating it from Elizabethtown. as agreed upon on the 20th of May, 1668, ran from " the top of a little round hill named Divident hill : and from thenee to run upon a northwest line into the country " until
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
it reached the Wateling Mountain. The commissioners appointed for this work from Newark were Jasper Crane. Robert Treat. Matthew Camfield, Sanmel Swaine, and Thomas Johnson : from Elizabeth- town. John Ogden. Luke Watson. Robert Bond. and Jeffrey Jones.
It was proposed by the Milford settlers to call the new settlement after their own town in the New Haven Colony, and it was called Milford until the arrival of the Branford people. Then, upon a formal organization of the town government, the name was dropped and Newark substituted. The substitute appears to have been agreed upon in honor of Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first Pastoral Shepherd of the place, who came originally from Newark-on-Trent. and who, although second on the fist of the Branford emigrants, was second to none in the esteem and reverence of the entire community. In the old " Town Book " which is still preserved. the name is written NEW-WORKE.
The territory thus acquired by moral right from the natives, and by a legal right from the proprietors, embraced the present townships of Newark, Orange. Bloomfield, Belleville, Clinton, and Montclair.
In the division of the lands, each settler received a "home lot " in the town laid out on the river. for which lots were drawn, the division being in striet conformity with Hebrew precedents-always the Puritanie model. There were, also, first. second. and third divisions of the " upland." with an equitable distribution of the " bogged meadow."
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Chapter VI.
GOVERNMENT OF THE "NEW-WORKE" COLONISTS .-- LIBERAL TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS AND NEW SETTLERS WHO COULD NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THE " FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT."-CAPACITY OF THE COLONISTS FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT : EXISTING FOR TWELVE YEARS WITH NO OTHER GOVERNMENT THAN THE " FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT." -- EXTRACTS FROM THE TOWN RECORDS RELATING TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT .- JASPER CRANE, ROBERT TREAT AND MATTHEW CAMFIELD CHOSEN MAGISTRATES .- ORGANIZATION OF THE " FIRST CHURCH OF NEWARK."-REV. ABRAHAM PIERSON AND HIS SUCCESSORS .-- INCREASE IN POPULATION .- LAYING OUT OF THE HIGHWAY AS FAR AS THE MOUNTAIN .- APPLICATION OF DEACON AZARIAN CRANE FOR LAND FOR A TANYARD .- ESTABLISH- MENT OF ADDITIONAL PLANTATIONS .- CRANETOWN. WATSESSING, ETC .- " EARLY OUTLANDS AND HOUSES."-OLD ROADS.
HE little band of expatriated New Haven Colonists, after nearly thirty years of wander- ings, found at last their ideal "Canaan." Without counting the exodus from England to Lynn. Mass., there were then three removals within thirty years and each time in search of a " Government according to God." 1. From Lynn to Southampton, L. I. 2. Thence to Branford. 3. From Branford to New Jersey. It has been stated that Branford moved bodily to Newark ; this, however. is an exaggeration. Mr. Pierson was a more bitter partisan than Mr. Davenport, and the history of his flock was indeed a " moving " one.
"Our Towne on Passaick " was fitly named by its founders " New-Worke." It was to be a work of love. Recognizing as they did the " Fatherhood of God" and the " Brotherhood of Man," they built accordingly. A government was established in the wilderness, the fundamental principles of which were drawn from the Mosaic Law. The history of this people for more than a quarter of a century was a repetition of God's chosen people under the rule and guidance of the judges and prophets. On entering the " land of Canaan," however, they did not attempt to " drive out the heathen," but lived at peace with their Indian neighbors. In the testimony of the Conneil of Proprietors at a later period it is stated that : "We are well assured that since the first settlement of New Jersey, there is not one instance can be assigned of any breach of peace with the Indians thereof (though very few of the other provinees can say so as to their Indians) ; nor that any proprietor ever presumed to dispossess one of them. or disturb him in his possession : but have alway amicably paid them for their claims, from time to time. as they could agree with them."
There was nothing false, nothing Pharisaical about these Puritan settlers. They were brave and honest enough to say exactly what they meant and what they desired, and while they encouraged honest settlers to come among them, they embodied in their Fundamental Agreements the following article : " The planters agree to submit to such magistrates as shall be annually chosen by the Friends from among themselves, and to such laws as we had in the place whence we came." AAnother provision was as follows :
" Item, it is agreed upon that in ease any shall come into us or rise up amongst us that shall will- ingly or willfully disturb us in our Peace and Settlements, and especially that would subvert us from the Religion and Worship of God, and cannot or will not keep their opinions to themselves, or be reclaimed after due time and means of conviction and reelaiming hath been used ; it is unanimously agreed upon
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and consented unto, as a Fundamental Agreement and Order that all [such ] persons so ill-disposed and affected, shall, after notice given them from the town, quietly depart the place seasonably, the Town allowing them valuable consideration for their Lands and Houses as indifferent men shall price them, or else leave them to make the best of them to any Man the Township shall approve of."
The capacity of thi- people for -elf government was early tested. " Will you know." inquires Bancroft. " with how little government a community of husbandmen may be safe ? For twelve years the whole province was not in a settled condition. From June, 1689. to August, 1692. East Jersey had no government whatever." The maintenance of order during this period rested wholly with the local authorities and with the people themselves. A town meeting was accordingly convened. March 25. 1659 90, to provide for the exigency. Hamilton, the Deputy Governor, having left for Europe the preceding August, it was " Voted, that there shall be a committee chosen to order all affairs, in as prudent a way as they ean, for the safety and preservation of ourselves, wives. children and estates. according to the capacity we are in." The committee consisted of Mr. Ward, Mr. Johnson, Azariah Crane (son of Jasper Crane), William Camp. Edward Ball, and John Brown, " with those in military capacity." It was well for the little commonwealth, in those times of disorder. that they were qualified, not only for " the carrying on of spiritual concernments," but also for the regulation of " civil and town affairs, according to find and a gully government." It was not simply that they were a community of husbandmen, as intimated by the historian. that made them safe without the protection of provincial laws ; they had a higher law, a more imperative role of action, written upon the heart.
Among the inducement- held ont to emigrants at an early period to settle in New Jersey was that it was " worthy the name of Paradise," because in addition to its natural advantages it had " no lawyers. physicians or parsons." At this period. however, lawyers were in great demand, and it was said that " no men grow rich here so fast as gentlemen of the bar." The " parsons" too exercised a potent influence on the local government.
Jasper Crave and Robert Treat, whose descendants (the latter through the marriage of Dea. Azariah Crane with Robert Treat's daughter, were the first settlers of Cranetown flater West Bloomfield and now Montelair Township), were leaders in the civil and religious affairs of Newark during the first quarter of a century after its settlement. Their influence in the community is shown by the varion positions of honor to which they were elected. The following extracts relating to their public service are taken from the Town Record- of Newark compiled by Mr. William A. Whitehead and Mr. Samuel 11. Conger for the New Jersey Historical Society :
Tows MEETING. JJan. 166>. Mr. Crane and Mr. Treatt are Chosen Magistrates for the Year Iusneing for our Town of Newark.
Hem, Mr. Crane and Mr. Treatt are Chosen deputies or Burgesses for the General Assembly, for the Year Insneing : and Lient. Sammel Swaine is Chosen a Third man in Case of either the other Failing.
TOWN MEETING, the first of January 1969. Mr. Jasper Crane and Mr. Robert Treatt and Mr. Matthew Canfield are chosen Magistrates for our Town for the ensueing year. Item. The said Mr. Crane and Mr. Treatt are chosen Deputies for the General Assembly if there be any. Item-Mr. Robert Treat is chosen Recorder in our Town for the Year eusneing, and the Salary is the same as it was last Year.
TOWN MEETING, 2nd Jung, 1670. Mr. Jasper Crane is chosen Magistrate in our Town for the Year Insneing. Mr. Crane and Mr. Treatt are Chosen deputies for the General Assembly and Lient. Swain is the Third Man.
Town Meeting 20th Deer 1650. Mr. Jasper Crane Had Given Him a Little piece of Land Adjacent to His Home Lott upon the Ace't of His Second Division of Land.
TOWN MEETING Ist Jan'y, 1672 Mr. Jasper Crane is Magistrate for the Year Insueing. Item. Crane and Mr. Bond are chosen Deputies for the General Assembly, for the Year ensneing.
Towx MEETING, Sep. 6, 1673-It was thought fit and agreed upon, that a Petition should be sent to the Generals at Orange, that if it might be. We might have the Neck.
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Item .-- Mr. Crane and Mr. Johnson are chosen to carry this Petition, and treat with the Generals about the Neck.
Item .- Mr. John Ogden, Mr. Jasper Crane, Mr. Jacob Molynes, Mr. Samul Hopkins, Mr. John Ward, Mr. Abrahm Pierson, Senior, and Stephen Freeman are chosen to take the Pattent in their Names in the Town's Behalf and to give Security for the Payment of the Purchase.
Item-Captain Swain is chosen to be joined with Mr. Crane to sue for Easment in Respect of Payment for the Neck and what is else needful concerning that Matter.
TOWN MEETING June 29, 1674. It is voted that there shall be a Petition sent to the Governor (and Council) for the obtaining a Confirmation of our bought and paid for Lands, according to the Gen- eral's promise.
Item. Mr. Crane and Mr. Pierson Jun'r is chosen to carry this Petition, and present it to the Governor and Council at N. Orange, in order to the obtaining a Confirmation as above said.
Jasper Crane continued to hold office down to 1674. He was a Deputy to the Provincial Assem- bly from 1669 to '73. Magistrate 1669 to '74, President of the Town Court 1671, Town's Men 1681, '87, 'SS. '93, '97.
Mr. Treat, or " Major Treat." as he was known. served the town in various capacities about six years, returning to Connectient in 1672. The records show that " Major Treat was dismissed from the church of Christ at Newark," and recommended to the church at Milford. He found a wider field in Connectieut for the display of those remarkable traits of character that distinguished him through life. Besides taking a commanding military position in early colonial Indian warfare he served the Colony for thirty-two years, as Deputy Governor and Governor. During the exciting scenes in the Assembly Cham- ber at Hartford, when Sir Edmund Andros attempted to wrest from Connecticut her original charter, to prevent which the lights were suddenly extinguished and the charter seized by Captain Wadsworth and hid in the Charter Oak, Governor Treat was in the chair. He died July 12, 1710, in his S5th year. Trumbull, the Connecticut historian, says of him: "Few men have sustained a fairer character or rendered the publie more important services. He was an excellent military officer ; a man of singular courage and resolution. tempered with caution and prudence. His administration of government was with wisdom, firmness and integrity. He was esteemed courageous, wise and pions. He was exceedingly beloved and venerated by the people in general. and especially by his neighbors at Milford, where he resided."
Mary, the daughter of Governor Treat, became the wife of Deacon Azariah Crane (eldest son of Jasper Crane), who left his " silver bole." to be used by " the church in Newark forever."
The " First Church of Newark." of which Azariah Crane afterward became " Deacon." was aetu- ally established before Newark was settled, it having been organized in Branford in 1644. In October, 1666, the church, with its pastor, its deacons, its records, and the major portion of its congregation, was simply translated from Branford to Newark ; so that its " church work" was really continned uninter- ruptedly. Dr. Stearns says of it : " The First Church in Newark appears to be the oldest fully organized church in the State of New Jersey. On Sep. 10 1668 steps were first taken to erect a place of worship. It was voted in the town meeting to . build a meeting house as soon as may be.'" This was the central object of interest in every community of the Puritans. A joint letter sent in 1684 to the Proprietors in Scotland by David Barclay, Arthur Forbes, and Gawen Lawrie, says : "The people being mostly New England men, do mostly ineline to their way ; and in every town there is a meeting-house, where they worship publicly every week. They have no public laws in the country for maintaining publie teachers. but the towns that have them make way within themselves to maintain them."
The whole town helped in the erection of the building. It was 36 feet in length, 26 feet in breadth, and 13 feet between the joists, " with a leuter to it all the length, which will make it 36 feet square." The site selected was on the highway leading to the mountain ; it was said to be nearly opposite what is now Mechanic Street, or in the corner of what is known as the old town burying-ground. It stood then with its gable ends pointing to the north and south, and the broadside " nigh pointing on a
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IHISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
square with the street." in the preeise spot which Mr. Pierson. the elder. Deacon Ward and Mr. Treat had assigned for it. It was Newark's first church edifice, and first place of general business-the theatre of all important transactions, religions, civil, military, during the first half-century of its existence. There the townsmen, "after lecture." held their stated meetings, and there, on any alarm, the brave soldiers of the little community assembled with their arms at the beat of the drum to defend their homes and altars, their little ones, and their wives.
In the Newark Town Records, it is recorded January 1, 1666-7. " that John Baldwin Junior, Thomas Pierson Junior. Thomas Pierson Senior. John Catlin, William Camp, AZARIAH CRANE and George Day are chosen townsmen for the year ensuing. These townsmen are appointed to meet every lecture day in the afternoon."
Rev. Abraham Pierson, the " Moses" who led his people out of the wilderness to this New C'anaan, was an old man when he came to Newark, and after twelve years' faithful service, he was " gathered unto his people." He was succeeded by his son, who was his assistant during nine years of his pastorate. Others followed the younger Pierson, and continued in the good old way. The sixth regular pastor of the First Church was Rev. Joseph Webb, a graduate of Yale, who was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Oct. 224. 1719. The Presbyterian ordination and settlement of Mr. Webb is the first indication which appears of the people turning aside from " the Congregational way." Though the leanings of the second Pierson were toward Presbyterianism, the form of worship in his time and during the time of his successors, until Mr. Webb's advent, was Congregational. There is no record of the precise time of the change. The difference between the two forms was comparatively so slight, that from the first. in New England and in New Jersey, persons of both persuasions lived in peace, har- mony and good fellowship together, except when firebrand zealots appeared in their midst and sowed discord. About the year 1652, when half the twenty-four Proprietors were Scotch, great numbers of that race arrived and settled in New Jersey, and the historian Grahame remarks that " American society was enriched with a valuable accession of virtue that had been refined by adversity and piety, and invigorated by persecution."
As the population increased. the settlement on the Passaic River began to spread itself toward the mountain and in other directions. At what time the settlement of the mountain district began is not definitely known, but in the year 1681 the town ordered the laying out of the highway as far as the mountain. It is highly probable that some of the original settlers had taken up quarters in that direction. In 1715 Deacon Azariah Crane (who " in the overturn of the government by the Dutch," in 1678, was " betrusted with the concerns of his honorable father-in-law. Mr. Robert Treat ") is spoken of by himself as having been " settled" for many years at the mountain. So, at the same time testified Edward Ball. At a town meeting held Jan. 1. 1697->, it was "voted that Thomas Hayse. Joseph Harrison, Jasper Crane and Matthew Cantield shall view whether Azariah Crane may have land for a tan yard at the front of John Plum's home lot, out of the common, and in case the men above-mentioned agree that Azariah Crane shall have the land, then he, the said Azariah Crane, shall enjoy it so long as he doth follow the trade of tanning." , is shown by the Towne Book that he and Edward Ball had been settled near the mountain many years it is to be supposed that the decision of the examiners in the matter of the tan vard was against him.
Jasper Crane, Thomas Huntington, Sanmel Kitchell, and Aaron Blatchley, are owners of land " at the head of Second River."
Sammel Swaine 40 acres at the foot of the mountain with John Baldwin Sen'r on the north.
" By warrant April 27. 1694. there was laid out by John Gardner a tract of land at the foot of the mountain, having Azariah Crane on the northeast and Jasper Crane on the southwest."
Cranetown and Watsessing, which were subsequently inelnded in the township of Bloomfield, were simply ontlying plantations of the "Towne on the River." taken up and occupied by a few of the original settlers of Newark. While it is evident that there were other settlers in this locality, the name of Cranetown was doubtless given in honor of Jasper Crane and Deacon Azariah, his son, both of whom
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IHISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
were held in high esteem throughout the entire community. At just what period the name was given. and the exact boundaries included in the original purchase is not known. Rev. Charles E. Knox, in his History of Montelair Township, under the head of the EARLY OUTLANDS AND HOUSES, says: "Even before the sceond purchase from the Indians had fully established the right to the slope of the mountains the first land owners had made their way from the Passaic to the top of the mountain. In the proprietory records the first name on the list of surveys of these outlands is Jasper Craine, in 1675. Besides his . home lot ' in the settlement, his lots on the . Great Neck,' and his lot near the head of Mill Brook, he has land that year 'at the head of ye Second River,' twenty acres, with Mr. Samuel Kitehell on the north, with Thomas Huntington on the east, and with common land south and west. Another adjoining land-owner is Aaron Blackley. This group of four land-owners, three with surveys in 1675 and one with a survey in 1679, is located, according to the descriptions, 'at the head of Second River,' . lying in the branches of Second River,' . by the first branch of the Second River,' with a highway running east and west along the side of one of the traets. This location was, no doubt, in the heart of the present Montclair, some- where between the old Fordham Crane mansion [on the Valley Road] and south end of the town, along the Second River. The east and west road may have been the present Church street or a road con- meeting eastward with Watseson as Bloomfield was then called.
" In addition to these owners of ontlands in the centre of the present population, there were also extending along the mountain from the northern part of Orange to the northern part of Montelair a good number of others whose names can be traced. There were near the mountain. in 1675, John Ward (turner) and John Baldwin Sr. At the mountain, in 1675, Robert Leyman, Sergt. Richard Harrison and Sammel Swaine; in 1684 Azariah Crane and John Gardner, and in 1686 Nathaniel Wheeler, John Johnson, Mr. Ward and the Widow Ogden. Between the mountain and Wigwam Brook. in 1685, Mathew Williams, Paul, George and Sammel Day, and Mary Day, 'now Mary Oliff.' Upon the mountain, Robert Leyman and John Baldwin. At the mountain, with land reaching to the top of the mountain, in 1675 John Catlin and Jolm Baldwin, Sr., Hannah Freeman and Richard Harrison. At the foot of the monntain, in 1679, Samuel Harrison, Anthony Ollif (Olive) Jolm Catlin and Thomas Johnson ; in 1694, John Condner, AZARIAN CRANE, and John Baldwin Jr. Along the mountain, Edward Ball in 1694; [Dr. Wiekes, in his History of the Oranges, places the residence of Azariah Crane, near the present Valley Road, a little south and west of Church street ; and that of Edward Ball, at or near the corner of Valley Road and Church street] between Third River and the mountain at the Aequackanonek line, at abont the end of the century. John Cooper and Samuel Kitehell ; and between Toney's Brook and the mountain, in the new century, in 1724, Joseph Ogden, adjoining to the plantation of Vanneuklos, on which he now dwells."
" These land-owners, who had penetrated beyond the land-owners at Watseson and Wigwam Brook. did not venture to build houses. We have hints of the woods and the swamps, of the wigwam and the ford, but no intimation as yet of a house. Although the Indians were friendly, the apprehension of 'a rising' on the part of the natives had been one eanse to prevent immediate settlements in the out-lands. There had been Indian wars in Connecticut, and this colony was directly connected with those who were engaged in bloody battles against the native tribes there.
" The saw-mill which Thomas Davis had liberty to set up in 1695 is supposed to have been located near the Peter Davis land, the site being not far from the ruins of the Crane or Wilde woollen mill : the saw-mill implies honses soon after. Anthony Olive had a honse in Wigwam Brook, in Orange, in 1712: Joseph Jones a house in 1721. on the mountain road, (probably in East Orange) ; Daniel Dodd a house in the present Bloomfield, in 1719: Capt. John Morris, a grist mill, 'lately built,' in 1720, on the Morris plantation ; but no anthentic date of a honse appears here earlier than that of a dwelling of one Van- neuklos, near Toney's Brook, in 1724. Stone houses which were then antiquities were one hundred years ago all along the Orange and Paterson and Bloomfield roads. There were two stone houses on the Vincent property. There were the Charles Crane, the Phineas Crane, the Samuel Jedediah Ward, and the Joseph Baldwin houses along the old Orange Road in the same vicinity. There were the houses of the Cranes :-
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
Benjamin, Stephen, Eliazer. Nathaniel. Aaron (¿o known afterwards) built some of them before the Revo- lution, and some of them, it can hardly be questioned. in the early part of that century. The William Crane house, ealled afterwards the Amos Crane house, or the Fordham Crane house [. Washington's headquarters '] appears in 1743. and Levi Vincent. John Low. Johannes Kiper and Thomas Cadmus are residents that year. The Egbert houses. the Joseph Baldwin house. the houses of the Van Giesons, of Jacob Kent, of the Seiglers and the Speers, along the Valley and the Falls roads northward. go back undoubtedly before the Revolution. The Parmenus Dodd house, on the site of the Presbyterian Church. facing the road southwards; the Nathaniel Dodd house, half way down from the church to the depot. facing the old road northward: the John Smith house and the Peter Davis house, farther east on the same road, were built probably between the middle of the century and the Revolution. The most of these houses, two rooms long and one story high, were built of field stone rudely dressed. The freestone first began to be quarried in 1721 but was not used for honse-building.
" In the account of a hurricane which swept along the mountain. reported in a New York news- paper in July. 1756, orchards, fences, cornfields and woodlands, for a mile and a half along the mountain and Doddtown region are mentioned. with twenty-five houses and barns as being injured or destroyed. This shows a great advance in improvement and building."
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