USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 10
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When the English conquered New Netherland, in 1664, they were care- ful to cultivate the friendship of the Hackensack chief, and Governor Philip Carteret wrote two letters in 1666 to Oraton, as he called him, in relation to the proposed purchase of the site of Newark. The Hackensack chief was very old at this time, and unable to travel from Hackensack to Newark, to attend the conference between the whites and the natives. And so fades from our view this striking figure in the Indian of New Jersey. Prudent and sagacious in counsel, he was prompt, energetic and decisive in war, as the Dutch found to their cost when they recklessly provoked him to ven- geance. The few glimpses we are afforded of this Indian Chieftain clearly show him to have been a notable man among men in his day, and that he was recognized as such not only by the aborigines of New Jersey, but by the
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Dutch rulers with whom he came in contact. The name of such a man is surely worthy of commemoration, even two centuries after his spirit has joined his kindred in the happy hunting grounds of his race.
The Indian deed for Newark, July 11, 1667, is from "Wapamuck, the Sakamaker, and Wamesane. Peter Captamin, Wecaprokikan, Napeam, Pera- wae, Sessom, Mamustome, Cacanakque, and Hairish, Indians belonging now to Hakinsack," from which it is to be inferred that Oratamin had died during the year, and had been succeeded by Wapamuck, instead of by Hans, as he had anticipated.
Among the witnesses to this instrument was Pierwim, "ye Sachem of Pau," or Pavonia-probably one of the common chiefs, the head of a family at or near the latter place. In August, 1669, Perewyn-doubtless the same person-is mentioned as having been "lately chosen Sachem of ye Hacking- sack, Tappan and Staten Island Indians," and called on the Governor at New York "to renew & acknowledge ye peace between them & ye Xtians" there.
When the Dutch reconquered New Netherland, in 1673, "the Sachems and Chiefs of the Hackensack Indians with about twenty savages" came for- ward and asked "that they might continue to live in peace with the Dutch, as they had done in former times," to which the authorities cordially agreed, and presents were exchanged in confirmation of the treaty.
An Indian named Knatsciosan wounded a Dutchman at Bergen, April II, 1678; Governor Carteret and his Council met there April 24, with the Sakamakers of the Hackensacks: Manoky, Mandenark, Hamahem, Tante- guas and Capeteham, and the assault was settled on a pecuniary basis. This last named chief was one of the witnesses to the deed for Newark, in 1667. He joined in a deed for land near Lodi in 1671. It was from this same Sachem that the first purchases of lands within the present county of Passaic were made, in 1678, and in 1679. In the former deed he is described as Cap- tehan Peeters, Indian Sachem; in the latter as Captahem, "Indian Sachem and Chief." In a deed for land in 1678, Manschy, Mendawack, Hanrapen, Tanteguas and Capesteham (a variant for Capteham) are mentioned as "Sackamakers of Hackensack," and are the last of whom record has been found.
The Saddle River tract, from Lodi north to Big Rock, in Bergen county; which was doubtless part of the territory of the Hackensacks, was sold April 9, 1679, by Arrorickan, claiming to be the Sachem of the tract, and who was joined in the conveyance by Mogquack and Woggermahameck.
With the increase of the white settlements the Indians were crowded back into the interior-among the mountains of Northern New Jersey, into the Minisink country, and gradually beyond the Alleghanies. In 1679 there was but a single Indian family in the whole territory embraced within the limits of Passaic, Clifton and Paterson south of the Passaic river. In 1688 a prominent resident of the present Hudson county declared that he had seen no Indians in a long time. True, in 1693 the Hackensack and Tappan Indians were said to be threatening an attack on the whites, but they were then far removed from their former hunting grounds.
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In ,710 Memerescum claimed to be the "sole Sachem of all the nations of Indians on Remopuck River and on the west and East branches thereof on Saddle River Pasqueck River Narashunk River Hackinsack River and Tapaan," and joined with Waparent, Sipham, Rawantaques, Maskainapulig, Taphome and Ayamanngh (a squaw) in conveying the upper or northwest- ern parts of the present Bergen and Passaic counties.
Wappings, Pomptons, Pequannocks-North of the Hackinsacks were the Tappans, and then the Esopus Indians. The Wappingers occupied the east side of the Hudson river and the northern shores of Long Island Sound. They were frequently at war with the whites, especially the Dutch. Oratamy was repeatedly called on to intercede for them with the authorities at Fort Amsterdam. It is probable that in time they were driven west, and occupied the country about Pompton, for at the treaty of Easton, in 1758, the "Wap- ings, Opings or Pomptons" are mentioned. The name is evidently derived from the root wab, east, and indicates their eastern origin. The Indian names affixed to every mountain, hill and stream, and to every striking fea- ture in the landscape for miles about Paterson indicate that the country had been peopled by the aborigines for centuries. If the Wappings or Opings who were apparently identified with the Pomptons in 1758 were the remnants of the warlike Wappingers of a century earlier, they were doubtless wel- comed by the Pompton Indians when driven west of the Hudson. We have no account of the Sachems of the Pomptons in the seventeenth century. The earliest mention of them is in a deed in 1695 for lands at Pompton, con- veyed by Tapgan, Oragnap, Mansiem, Wickwam Rookham, Paakek Siekaak (or Paakch Sehaak), Waweiagin, Onageponk, Neskilanitt (Mek:quam or Neskeglat), Peykqueneck and Ponton-that is, Pequannock and Pompton Indians-and Iaiapogh, Sachem of Minissing. This instrument indicates that the Pequannock and Pompton Indians recognized the supremacy of the Minsi tribe, to which they and all the other sub-tribes of Northern New Jersey belonged.
CHAPTER VI.
The Indian title to the soil-Recognized by the Dutch-The English claimed title by right of discovery-Indian occupancy gradually restricted-The New Jersey State authorities finally bought all the rights of the Aborigines-The last claim extinguished in 1832.
Since mention has been made of Indian deeds for land, it may be well to say something of the practice in New Jersey in extinguishing the Indian title to the soil. When the Swedes settled in West Jersey in 1638 "a purchase of land was immediately made from the Indians," a deed was drawn up and signed by the grantors and "was sent home to Sweden to be preserved in the royal archives." That the Dutch recognized the Indian title is evidenced also by an ordinance of the Director General and Council of New Netherlands, passed July 1, 1652, wherein it was set out that many of the inhabitants,
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"covetous and greedy of land." had bought directly from the Indians, whereby the price had been raised "far above the rate at which the Director General and Council could heretofore obtain them from the natives; yea- (and here, we fear, is the real gravamen of the offence aimed at) yea, some malicious and evil disposed persons have not scrupled to inform and acquaint the Indians what sum and price the Dutch or whites are giving each other for small lots !" The implied keenness of the Indians in taking advantage of the current rates for land corroborates the declaration of the early traveler already quoted, "that there were no fools or lunatics among them." In 1664 King Charles II. granted to his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards King James II., the territory embracing New Jersey, with full powers of govern- ment, but the grant apparently implies that only the subjects of the King and adventurers seeking the new country were included under this authority, and not the aborigines. As evidence of what the understanding really was we may refer to the purchases made from the Indians of the site of Eliza- bethtown in 1664; of the site of Newark in 1666-7; New Barbadoes Neck in 1668; lands on the Raritan in 1669, and many other like instances. In 1674 Sir George Carteret, then owner of East Jersey, pledged himself to purchase the land from the Indians for the settlers from time to time, as required. It was not until 1676 that William Penn became interested in New Jersey, his first real estate venture on this side of the Atlantic, and it was six years later ere he set foot in America. He then found the practice of acquir- ing title in the first place from the Indians an old-established custom in this part of the new world. The subsequent Proprietors of New Jersey from time to time urged upon their agents here the importance of securing the Indians' title to the whole province, and in 1682 the Legislature passed an act "to regulate treaties with the Indians," providing that no person should buy lands from the Indians without a written authorization under the seal of the Province ; the grant was to be to the Proprietors, who promised to reimburse the purchaser, and the deed was to be duly registered. In practice, however, the Indian deeds appear to have been always to the buyer, who on presenta- tion thereof to the Proprietors could then purchase the title of the latter to the land. The actual title to the soil, however, was derived from the Eng- lish sovereign, who claimed it by right of discovery and conquest. The Indian title was a legal nullity, being merely that of occupancy, and was not to the fee Judge David A. Depue, of the New Jersey Supreme Court, in charging a jury in Newark, in May, 1892, said: "The title acquired by the grant from the Indians [ for the site of Newark] was a nullity. As a convey- ance of lands it was null and void. By the law of nations, established by the consensus of all civilized nations, and by the common law, title to the soil is obtained by discovery or conquest. By the English common law the title to lands in this State was vested in the English Crown ; and it is a fundamental principle in English colonial jurisprudence that all titles to lands within this colony passed to individuals from the Crown, through the colonial or pro- prietary authorities." In the case of Martin et als. vs. Waddell, in the Supreme Court of the United States, the validity of the Indian title to the soi!
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of New Jersey was also in question, and Chief Justice Taney held (January Term, 1842) : "The English possessions in America were not claimed by right of conquest, but by right of discovery. According to the principles of international law, as then understood by the civilized powers of Europe, the Indian tribes in the new world were regarded as mere temporary occupants of the soil ; and the absolute rights of property and dominion were held to belong to the European nations by which any portion of the country was first discovered." The first case raising this question in the Supreme Court of the United States was that of Fletcher vs. Peck, February, 1810, when Chief Justice Marshall said: "The majority of the court is of opinion that the nature of the Indian title, which is certainly to be respected by all courts, until it be legitimately extinguished, is not such as to be absolutely repugnant to seisin in fee on the part of the State."
Among the Indians themselves, there was no ownership in severalty. The land occupied by a tribe was owned by the tribe in common, although the cultivation of maize and plants tended to introduce individual proprietor- ship in cultivated land. Each nation had its own particular boundaries, sub- divided between each tribe. These boundaries were generally marked by mountains, lakes, rivers and brooks, and encroachments by neighboring tribes were strictly resented, whether on their lands or on their fishing or hunting rights. At the same time, there were common highways-Indian paths- through the territory of the several tribes and sub-tribes, and which in later years were widened into the public roads of the whites. The Indians had free access by these paths from the ocean to the interior, and the routes pur- sued from the sea to the ancient Council Fire at Easton figure numerously in the early records as the "Minisink paths.'
With the gradual disappearance of the red man from Scheyechbi, the few who were left became more and more helpless. The saintly David Brainerd gave his life in his efforts to improve the spiritual and moral condi- tion of the remnants of the Lenape in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but was hindered by the prejudice and suspicions of the whites on the one hand, and the evil example they set on the other. Although the early Proprietors pro- fessed a solicitude for the religious welfare of the natives, it was not until Brainerd began his mission in 1742, that any effort was made in that direc- tion. It is not to the credit of American Christianity that he was set apart for this work by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowl- edge. He gathered the scattered Indian families together at Crossweeksung (Crosswicks-house of separation), where he established a little church and school, with a view to getting the natives settled in one body, but in 1746 they removed to Cransbury. He also formed a congregation at Bethel. When he left his beloved Indians in the spring of 1747, to go home to die, his work was taken up by his brother John. The title of the Indians to the lands at Crosswicks was attacked by Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris, and although the Brainerds raised money to perfect the title, the natives were discouraged. In 1754 an effort was made, doubtless through Brainerd, to secure a tract of 4,000 acres in New Jersey, for the permanent settlement of
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the Indians. In 1756 a tract of 3,000 acres was selected, and arrangements made for its purchase by the Scotch Society supporting Brainerd. In 1757 "The New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" was formed by a number of Friends in West Jersey, who subscribed £ 175 toward buying a tract of 2,000 acres for the natives. The Indian War of 1755 following Braddock's defeat, and the incursion of savages on the northern frontier of New Jersey, disquieted the public mind too greatly to permit the further- ance of any project for the permanent settlement of any considerable body of Indians in the Province. Indeed, the Christian congregations at Cranbury and Bethel felt constrained to appeal, December 2, 1755, to the Governor for protection against the whites and the hostile savages. The Governor and his Council decided that "for the Safety of other His Majestys Subjects as of the sd Indians themselves," every Indian should be registered, with their "Names & Natural Descriptions of the Persons as fully and Particularly as they can with the Number and Residence of their Family," provided the Indians should declare and prove their loyalty to the English King, where- upon they should be given a certificate, and a red ribbon to wear on the head. Any Indian lacking such certificate might be committed by any justice of the peace, until he could find security for his good behavior. The natives were naturally restive under such a drastic law, and Teedyescung demanded that the authorities should "throw down the Fence that confined some of his Brethren and relatives in the Jerseys." A conference was held with the Indians at Crosswicks early in 1756, at which pledges were made in their interest, and the Legislature in 1757 took steps to redeem them. Harcop, John Keyon and six Indians in the county of Bergen (probably about and north of Pompton) sent three belts of wampum to the Governor and Coun- cil, in March, 1756, in token of their loyalty, and of their desire to be included in the treaty of Crosswicks. The Legislature in 1757 appointed commis- sioners with power to inquire into the Indian claims to New Jersey, with a view to their settlement.
Another conference was held at Crosswicks in February, 1758, at which Teedyescung. King of the Delawares, was present, with a large number of Indians inhabiting the Province, and some progress was made toward adjust- ing the differences between the whites and the red men. Still further ad- vance was made in August, 1758, at a conference held at Burlington, when the Indians asked that a tract of land in Evesham township, Burlington county, be bought for the occupancy of all the Delaware Indians living south of the Raritan river, in exchange for which they agreed to release all the rights of the natives to lands in New Jersey. The Pompton Indians did not attend this conference, although invited by Governor Bernard. Within three weeks the Legislature appropriated £ 1,600 to carry the project into effect, and the land was bought (August 29, 1758), a tract of 3.044 acres, being the same as selected by John Brainerd in 1756.
A most memorable conference was held at Easton in October, 1758, attended by the Governors and other dignitaries of New Jersey and Penn- sylvania, and upwards of five hundred Indians, half of them women and chil --
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dren. Teedyescung welcomed the Governor of Pennsylvania in the figurative language of his race: "According to our usual Custom, I with this String wipe the Dust and Sweat off your Face, and clear your Eyes, and pick the Briars out of your Legs, and desire you will pull the Briars out of the Legs of the Indians that are come here, and anoint one of them with your healing Oil, and I will anoint the other." The Munsies or Minisinks were present- Egohohowen, with men, women and children; the Wapings or Pumptons- Nimhaon, Aquaywochtu, and men, women and children; the Chehokockes or Delawares and Unamies-Teedyescung, with three interpreters, and men, women and children. All the grievances on the part of the English and the Indians were fully rehearsed, among them the continual encroachments on the lands of the natives. Teedyescung graphically phrased it thus: "I sit here as a Bird on a Bow; I look about and do not know where to go; let me therefore come down upon the Ground, and make that my own by a good Deed, and I shall then have a Home for Ever." At this time the treaty made at Burlington was approved, and deeds were executed by five Indians, appointed by a Council of the Delaware Nation, for all of New Jersey south of Paoqualin mountain, at Delaware river, to the Falls of Laometung, on the North Branch of Raritan river, and down that river to Sandy Hook; and from the chiefs of the Munseys and Wappings, or Pumptons, sixteen in num- ber, for all of New Jersey north of the line just described. These deeds were approved by the leading men of the tribes interested, and by the Six Nations, and thus the last foot of land in New Jersey owned by the Indians was fairly bought from them and fairly paid for-a record unequalled in any other State in the Union.
It was estimated that there were about three hundred Indians in the Province at this time, of whom about two hundred located on the reserva- tion at Evesham, which Governor Bernard felicitously called "Brotherton." John Brainerd was appointed superintendent in 1762, and the authorities exercised a certain amount of supervision over their dusky wards. In 1796 their condition had become so unsatisfactory that the Legislature concluded to lease the tract, and apply the proceeds for the benefit of the Indians. In 1801 the Brotherton Indians were invited by the Mauhekunnaks (Mo- hegans), another Algonkin tribe, then settled at New Stockbridge, near Oneida Lake, to "pack up their mat" and to "come and eat out of their dish," adding that "their necks were stretched in looking toward the fireside of their grandfathers till they were as long as cranes." The remnant of the New Jersey Lenâpe concluded to accept this invitation, and the Legislature ordered their land to be sold, which was done, and the proceeds used to defray the expenses of their removal, the balance being invested for their benefit. In 1822 the New Jersey Indians removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Legisla- ture of this State appropriating the fund ($3,551.23) then remaining to the credit of the Brotherton colony, for the purchase of their new home and their transportation thither. In 1832 there were but forty of them left, at Green Bay. and concluding to remove further West they again appealed to the New Jersey Legislature for aid, claiming compensation for the rights of
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fishing and shooting, in New Jersey, which they had reserved in the treaty of 1758. Their spokesman was Bartholomew S. Calvin, son of Stephen Cal- vin, a West Jersey schoolmaster in the last century, and who was one of the Delaware interpreters at the great council at Easton. The Legislature, by act passed March 12, 1832, appropriated $2,000, the sum asked by the Indians, for a final extinguishment of all the Indian claims in New Jersey. In acknowledgment, Calvin wrote a letter to the Legislature, in the course of which he said: "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. a 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 LENNO LENAPE."
In 1768, at the council held at Fort Stanwix, the Indians bestowed upon Governor William Franklin, of New Jersey, the name Sagorighweyogsta, meaning the "Great Arbiter or Doer of Justice," in recognition of his and his people's justice in putting to death some persons who had murdered Indians in this Province.
These two incidents form a proud tribute to the fairness of the whites in dealing with the Indians of New Jersey.
CHAPTER VII.
Indian place names-A location with plenty of choice in its spelling among early and also late writers-Streams, mountains, cities, vil- lages and roads in which the aboriginal nomenclature is still retained.
Ye say they all have pass'd away, That noble race and brave ; That their light canoes have vanish'd From off the crested wave; That, mid the forests where they roam'd There rings no hunter's shout; But their name is on your waters, Ye may not wash it out.
Ye say their conelike cabins, That cluster'd o'er the vale, Have disappear'd, as wither'd leaves Before the autumn's gale; But their memory liveth on your hills, Their baptism on your shore, Your everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore.
The study of local nomenclature often opens up a mine of historical information. While this is not so true of Indian place-names as of those conferred by the whites, there is a natural curiosity regarding the meanings of the names of hills, valleys, rivers and streams all about us. The first sys- tematic attempt to interpret the geographical names which the aborigines have left behind them was in a paper entitled :
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, who once inhab- ited this country, had given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c., &c., within the now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia; and also Names of Chieftains and distinguished Men of that Nation ; with the Signifi- cations of those Names, and Biographical Sketches of some of those Men. By the late Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Communi- cated to the American Philosophical Society, April 5, 1822, and now pub- lished by their order; revised and prepared for the press by Peter S. Du Ponceau. Pp. 351-396, Transactions American Philosophical Society, Phila- delphia, 1834.
It is from this work that most of the interpretations of aboriginal place- names in New Jersey have been copied from time to time. Unfortunately, Mr. Heckewelder took his names of places in this State from maps, with their usual errors, and hence gives Makiapier, instead of Makopin; Bomo- pack, for Ramapo or Ramapock; Pegunock, for Pequannock; Muscomecon, for Musconetcong. He was also unfamiliar with the localities named, where- fore many of his conjectural interpretations are clearly wide of the mark.
Another manuscript list of Lenâpe place-names in New Jersey, etc., by Heckewelder, copiously annotated by the Rev. William C. Reichel, was pub- lished at Bethlehem, Penn., in 1872.
In a note to the writer, in 1881, Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull says : "Heckewelder's guesses are absolutely worthless. He had a good speaking knowledge of the Delaware mission dialect, but was incapable of analyzing compound names even in that dialect, and was seldom correct in his interpre- tations of place-names in any other."
Dr. Trumbull has himself written the best work on the subject, brief and incomplete as it is : "Indian Names of Places, etc., in and on the borders of Connecticut : with interpretations of some of them. By J. Hammond Trumbull. Hartford: 1881." This writer says: "Every [Indian] name described the locality to which it was affixed. This description was some- times purely topographical; sometimes historical, preserving the memory of a battle, or feast, the residence of a great Sachem, or the like; sometimes it indicated some natural product of the place, or the animals that resorted to it ; occasionally, its position, or direction from places previously known, or from the territory of the tribe by which the name was given. * The same name might be, in fact it very often was, given to more places than one. * The methods of Algonkin synthesis are so exactly prescribed, that the omission or displacement of a consonant or (emphasized) vocal, neces- sarily modifies the signification of the compound name, and may often ren- der its interpretation or analysis impossible. Yet almost every term used in the composition of place-names appears under many and widely-differing forms, in some of which it becomes so effectually disguised as to defy recog- nition." The place-names in the southern part of New Jersey were first reduced to writing by the Swedes, while those near New York are given to us according to the Dutch pronunciation. To approximate to the correct sound of the word it is necessary to know by whom it was first written down ; allowance must be made, also, for the illiteracy of the writer. A knowledge
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