USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
Hessel Ryerson conveyed to John Westervelt, May 5, 1789, for £81, a tract of 15 acres on the Passaic river, adjoining Cornelius Westervelt, and on February 10, 1797, for £ 1,620, he conveyed to Laurence Van Buskirk, of Harrington, Bergen county, a tract of 158 acres, adjoining Passaic river and the Wagaraw brook. John Westervelt conveyed to Richard Degray, May 1, 1800, for $3.525, a tract of 141.14 acres, on the Passaic river and Wagaraw brook. John Van Allen sold 96 acres adjoining lands formerly of Cornelius Westervelt, on June 10, 1782, to Jacob Ackerman, for £ 245. Ackerman bought other lands on the Passaic river and on Wagaraw brook, and carried on extensive milling operations for a number of years.
The land in the northern part of the township, along the Wagaraw or Goffle brook, was taken up about 1730 by the Gerritsens, as mentioned on a previous page. From the Gerritsens, the title to a large portion of this tract passed to the Van Winkles, in whom it still remains.
The wave of population that overflowed from Acquackanonk and spread through Wesel and the Bogt, that rose even to the heights of Totowa, and then settled satisfiedly for a time on the lower levels of Wagaraw and the Goffle, had ever and anon beat vainly against the base of Watchung's precipi- tous wall that lifted its sheer cliff like an escarpment to the eastern approach. In time the more venturesome whites acquired the Indian practice of hunting the deer on the mountain by driving them into a corner and forcing them to leap to their death over the precipices. From hunting on the mountain they came to know its value for wood, for pasture, for tillage, and for water power. Then, the whole mountain, from the loftiest summit on the east to the Passaic river on the west, and from the steep rocks at Spruce street to the headwaters of the Peckamin river, was covered with a dense growth of primeval forest, with here and there an open glade inviting settlement. Brawling streams and forming cascades relieved the silence of the sombre woods, and gave added promise of the fertility of the soil when it should be subject to the farmer's plow. So it came to pass that eight of the owners of Acquackanonk-owners either by descent or purchase from the original patentees-formed a partnership for acquiring the title to Garret Mountain and the headwaters of the Peckamin river. Peter Sonmans, of Elizabeth- town, the son of Arent Sonmans, of Holland, one of the East Jersey Pro- prietors, had taken out a warrant for the tract himself, and it was from him that the purchase was made, by deed dated November 27, 1711. The grantees were Frans Post, Jan Sip, Harmanus Gerritse, Thomas Jurianse, Christopher Steenmets, Cornelis Doremus, Peter Poulusse and Hessel Pieterse, all yeo- men. Speaking generally, the purchase included all of Garret Mountain from the foot of the steep rocks on the east and northeast, from the cliffs to the river, extending southwesterly to the Peckamin river, and up that river
129
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
to and beyond Cedar Grove, and thence over to the edge of the precipice, embracing three or four thousand acres. The consideration was £660 New York money, besides which the grantees obligated themselves to pay to the East Jersey Proprietors a yearly or quit-rent of "one peppercorn if lawfully demanded." There is no record that this rent has ever been paid! The fol- lowing is the precise description of the tract :
Beginning, at ye top of a High Clift at a Ceder Bush Marked:H:S: and Runs north thirty degrees East Tenn Chains as ye Hill Runs Thence North Twenty-five degrees East Thir Chaines Thence North Six degrees East twenty Chains & thence a Brest of ye Great falls thence North twenty degrees West fourteen Chains Thence North Seventy Degrees West Tenn Chains Thence North, Eighty five Degrs West Tenn Chains thence North Twenty Nine Degrees West Twenty two Chains to the side of Pesaick River Just Below a small Isle about a mile above ye Great Falls of Pesaik River Thence up against the streame of ye sd River as it Runns North seaventy six degrees West fourteen Chaines Thence South Eighty five degrees West ten Chains Thence South Seventy five Degrees West tenn chaines Thence South forty four degrees West Seven Chaines thence South eleven Degrees West Ten Chains to another Isle Then South three degrees West three Chaines thence South forty degrees West fourteen Chaines then South Sixty five degrees West fourteen Chaines thence South fourteen Degrees West Ten Chaines then South five Degrees West thirty five Chaines thence South twenty Three degrees west tenn Chaines thence South fivety degrees west five Chaine then West Eight thence North fivety Nine Degrees West thirty Chaines thence North Seventy two degrees West Nine Chaines to ye mouth of peckamen River thence up Againe ye stream of ye sd Pecka- men River South fourteen degrees West faiv Chaines thence South Thirty two degrees East Twenty three Chaines thence South four degrees East five Chaines thence South forty Eight degrees West tenn Chaines thence West Seven Chaines Thence South forty Six degrees West tenn Chaines thence South Sixty seven degrees West tenn Chaines thence South fourty degrees West tenn Chaines thence South thirty Eight degrees, West tenn Chaines then South four degrees West tenn Chaines then South Tenn degrees West Nine chaines then South Twenty seven degrees West fourteen Chaines then South Twenty three degrees West fifty Chaine thence South twenty three degrees West tenn Chaines then South thirty six degrees West tenn Chaines to a Chestnutt tree marked :A :G: About two Chaines from ye Edge of ye sd River Near ye falls thereof Just at ye foot of ye mountaine thence over ye sd mountaines & marked Trees South Sixty degrees East Seventy Eight Chaines to ye Edge of ye East of ye sd Mounte And on ye sd Course South Sixty degrees East two Chaines to ye foot of the said Mountaine, to a Black oake tree marked of four sides :A :C: thence North forty three degrees East one Hundred & fourteen Chaines with ye Rainge of ye sd Mountaine And thence North twenty six degrees East twenty Chaines thence North forty three degrees East thirty Chaines Thence North twenty two degrees, East thirty Chaines to ye place where it first Begann Being bounded on ye south East with The Line of Agguegenonk on ye North West & North East with Peckamen and Pesaik Rivers & on ye South West with Lands unsurveyed Containing : Within ye Bounds & Lines aforesd Two Thousand Eight Hun- dred Acres of Land English measeour as by ye Survey thereof be ye sd Land more or Less Remaining on ye Records in ye Secretarys office of ye province of New Jersey aforsd Relation thereunto being had may more fully and at
P -- 9
130
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Large appear. Together with all mines minerals privileges Prehemmi- nences, etc.
The following agreement relating to this transaction has been preserved in the original, frayed and yellow :
Whereas Frans Post Jan Sip Harmanus Gerritse Thomas Jurianse Christopher Stymetz Cornelis D'Oremus Pieter Poulusse and Hessel Pieterse all of Achquequenock have bought a parcel of land of me underwritten and this day given their respective bonds for the payment of each of their pur- chase money payable the first day of May next ensuing. And whereas it is agreed by and between the sd Frans Post Jan Sip Harmanus Gerritse Thomas Juriaanse Christopher Stymetz Corneilus D'Oremus Pieter Poulusse and Hessel Pieterse and me underwritten that if they or any of them sell any part of their shares of the said land to any of their neighbors and the said neighbors should not be ready to pay the purchase money for the share they so should buy the said neighbors bond should be given in discharge and pay- ment of so much as the share they have so bought amounts to. These are therefore in pursuance of said agreement to declair that I or my heirs shall be obliged to take the bond of such new purchaser in part of discharge; such bond shall be payable in six months and interest for the money remaining unpaid shall be paid by such defaulter.
Witness my hand in New York, the 28 day of November 171I. Peter Sonmans.
The new purchase was laid out in tracts extending from the river to the mountain, and ten chains in width. It thus happened that in some cases the owners of lands at Wesel, or in Old Acquackanonk, also came into pos- session of one of these mountain farms which joined their other lands, so that it was their proud boast that they owned "from river to river." The Van Wagoners had one of these great stretches of land. The Van Ripers, at Wesel, also owned "from river to river." Along the Peckamin river the land was in all probability laid out in a different manner, and with more regard to its peculiar character and situation, and the value of the water- power. Henry Garrison owned the farm next to the Falls; then came what was recently known as the Merselis farm; then the "Deep Hole," where Vreeland owned, and so on. For fully a century after the purchase the land seems to have been regarded as valuable chiefly for the wood.
A word as to the name "Garret Mountain." In the early records the references are to the "steep rocks," meaning the bold escarpment facing the east. Occasionally we find the phrase te Gebergte or Gebarrack, "at the Mountain." After the settlement of Wesel, it was frequently called "Wesel Mountain," and this was the more common appellation until the early part of the nineteenth century. The name "Garret Mountain" has not been found in use earlier than the year 1820 or 1830. There is a curious story about the origin of this name. In 1810 or 1812 a number of jovial Newarkers organ- ized a secret society, which held weekly conclaves, with a prodigious preten- sion of mystery, in the garret of an old building, whence the society came to be known as "The Garret." It was suspected that the whole affair was a hoax, concocted by some jocular spirits, partly to mystify their neighbors,
131
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
and mainly to indulge their own conviviality behind closed doors. John Crawford, of Newark, a master carpenter, was a member of the alleged society, and when he came to Paterson in 1812 to complete the wood-work of the Peter Colt mansion (which was occupied, 1871-1896, as the city hall), he soon found some congenial associates whom he straightway organized into a branch "Garret" Society. Free, jovial and convivial, fond of com- pany, and of discussion, he was nevertheless temperate himself. On one occasion he decreed that the "society" should meet on Wesel mountain and salute the rising sun on the Fourth of July morning, with a salute from a four-pounder or six-pounder cannon. Crawford himself, a man six feet high, of powerful physique, tugged hard with the piece of ordnance up the mountain, and had the pleasure of touching it off in the early dawn, and of seeing the amazement and consternation with which the inhabitants of the little village at his feet rushed out of their houses to inquire the meaning of the explosion. When the story got abroad, the association of "The Garret" with the Mountain was inevitable, and the name soon came into general use. It may be added that Crawford injured himself so badly by his prodigious exertion in hauling the cannon up the rocky heights that it was months before he recovered his health. The motto of the society was "Keep dark," and it was jocularly remarked that he was "going up to the Garret to 'keep dark'." He was so reticent about the cause of his illness that he was dubbed "Keep Dark." He remained in Paterson but a short time, returning to Newark, where his wife belonged.
There is little or no evidence that any of the purchasers of the Garret Mountain tract ever settled on it. Doubtless it was regarded as chiefly avail- able for the wood, and for letting hogs and cattle run wild. Some of them found it convenient for portioning off their younger sons and daughters, but most of them sold their interest as opportunity afforded. There was one exception. Cornelius Doremus appears to have given a share to his son Thomas. The latter settled in the vicinity of Cedar Grove, on the Peckamin river, and became the progenitor of a numerous family.
CHAPTER III.
Pioneer life in Old Acquackanonk-A local White House-Origin of the name Kill von Kull-Mode of erecting dwellings and furnishing the interiors-Prices of the day and festal days-The country store. Some home industries-A foreign invasion-Mining operations, superstitions and boundary disputes.
We level that lift, to pass and continue beyond. . Ages, precedents, poems, have long been accumulating undirected materials, America brings builders, and brings its own styles. "Leaves of Grass."-Walt Whitman.
The family histories given in the preceding chapters abound in incidents throwing a vivid light on the people, the manners and customs of the former
I32
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
days. Let us frankly accept the fact that the original settlers of Acquacka- nonk were plain, hardworking people-sturdy tillers of the soil, or artisans in such lines as were most likely to find a footing in so primitive a neighbor- hood-weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, or workers in leather. There was no room for idlers or mere "gentlemen," in a settlement of this character. Too much of the sternest toil was needed to subdue the virgin forest and the untamed soil. Trees were to be felled and hewn into logs wherewith to build the first shelters of the pioneer settlers. Forests were to be cleared and the ground broken up for the first crops. Roads had to be made for the passage of such rude vehicles as were absolutely necessary in the farm work. Taken as a whole, the soil of the Acquackanonk Patent was far from fertile. For the most part, it was either sand, marsh or clay-black, yellow or blue. This was particularly true of that portion of the Patent embraced within what is now Paterson. Only by the most unremitting exertion was it possible to extract a sustenance from such land, and as the new settlers had no capital but their own strong arms and stout hearts -- despite the vague traditions that have come down to our day of fortunes left by the emigrants in the Vaderland-it is not to be wondered at that their manner of living was the very simplest. Withal there was a certain fascina- tion about life in what was then a wilderness-so utterly different was it in every respect from what they had known in the dike-enclosed fields of Hol- land, or along the shores of the stately Hudson.
How interesting it must have been for the succeeding generation to gather about the fireside, for instance, of old Simeon van Winkel, of de Witte Huis-which stood at the foot of what is now Park avenue-the son of the last survivor of the historic fourteen patentees of Acquackanonk, and hear him tell the story over and over again, as it had been told to him by his father, of that first voyage from Bergen through the Kil van Kol, across Achter Kol bay, and up the Passaic river to the new country which they had selected for the future home; of the long and perilous trips they took occa- sionally in periaugers down the river and across the bay to New York, to Long Island, or even as far as Albany-a voyage occupied a week or two of fair weather; of the long and lonely rides in the saddle to Newark, to discuss some dispute about the vexed boundary between the two towns; or to Elizabethtown, to meet the Governor and Council on matters of state; or even to Perth Amboy, to get a deed or will recorded. Few ever took so long a journey as this last, and when one had it in contemplation it was generally kept in that state for such a length of time as to allow everybody in the settlement to learn the fact, and then all who had like business deputed the venturous traveler to attend to it while transacting his own.
The derivation of the name Kill von Kull is probably as follows: Kil, "a channel," particularly in a shallow place; Kol, an old Dutch word for witch. Hence, Kil van Kol, the "witch's channel." The word kil was also applied to creeks and rivers, such as the Hackensack. Achter Kol, "behind the Kol." The writer inclines to the belief that the word Kol, used in this connection, refers to the Indian superstitions attaching to Snake Hill, as the
I33
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
dwelling place of a being of supernatural powers. The first mentions of Achter Kol or Coll refer to the vicinity of Hackensack. Later, the name was applied in general to that part of New Jersey near New York, even as far south as Shrewsbury. Egbert Benson, in his Memoir on place-names, read before the New York Historical Society, December 31, 1816, says the Dutch called Newark Bay "Het Achter Cul, literally the Back Bay ; Cul, borrowed from the French Cul de sac, and also in use with the Dutch to signify a bay." The writer has found no authority for this statement.
For more than a century after the English occupation of New Jersey, all deeds, wills, road returns, official commissions and other documents relat- ing to East Jersey were required to be recorded in the office of the Register of East Jersey, at Perth Amboy. Similar records relating to West Jersey were required to be recorded at Burlington. In 1795 these records were removed to Trenton, where they are now kept in the office of the Secretary of State. Since 1790 deeds have been recorded only in the offices of the several county clerks. Since 1804 wills have been recorded in the offices of the several surrogates for each county, but the original wills are still filed in the office of the Secretary of State.
And old Simeon might tell of the glorious sport they used to have when the Indian Summer cast its witching glamour o'er the land, in sallying forth with dog and gun out into the wilderness of Totowa, or even as far as Preak- ness, or the Harteberg, or the Gaffel, or beyond to the Kaalberg, and occasion- ally the most daring would hazard a trip among the Indians of Pompton and Pequannock, in search of the larger game. And he would narrate the hair- breadth escapes they would have in the Greenbos, a name applied by the Dutch to much of what is now Paterson, as in the vicinity of Vreeland ave- nue and Park avenue, and particularly in the Falls neighborhood, owing to the prevalence of green trees. Here the lofty trees have long ago been replaced by a forest of chimneys of Paterson's great mills. Of how the Indians were wont to surround the deer then browsing over Watchung, now Garret Moun- tain, and having hemmed them in would stampede them, and drive them terror-stricken to the point of rocks now overlooking the raceway at the southern end of Spruce street, and compel them in their flight to leap to cer- tain death from the precipice, which hence was long known as "The Deer's Leap." Or perhaps his theme would be the fierce fight some bold fellow had with a bear in the thick brush then covering the origin of the Donker Val, near where the Dwars Lijn of the Bogt passed through.
The Donker Val, the Dutch for "Dark Brook," was a notable stream which rose in the marsh in the vicinity of Madison and Twenty-first or Twenty-second avenues. Perhaps on account of its origin, or because its course was generally through a bed of black muck, its water seemed dark. It flowed quite directly south, nearly parallel to the present line of the Erie railroad, to the vicinity of Grand street, where it passed under the railroad to the west side of Railroad avenue, and there was joined near Ward street by the "Railroad spring brook" (having its origin in a powerful spring near the corner of Grand and Spring streets). The united stream ran under the
I34
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
present Dale mill and the Hamil mills, crossed Market street just west of Paterson street, thence in quite a direct course to Broadway just east of Bridge street, and thence southeasterly to the river, which it entered some distance east of Straight street. It was diverted into a sewer in 1868 and 1869.
Here "Case" Doremus interrupts to tell how he and his neighbors had been troubled of late by wolves, which had the temerity to come up to the houses and carry off the carcasses of deer or hogs left hanging out of doors; and how they had captured a big wolf the other night, in a trap, and had pinned his head up on a post as a warning to his cruel and treacherous tribe to keep at a safe distance from the abodes of men. And being in a reminis- cent mood he laughs over his own recent exploit in bringing down a dozer. wild ducks at a single shot, on the island in the river almost opposite his house.
As late as 1825 a huge wolf was caught in a trap by one of the residents on the Wesel road, near the Cedar Lawn cemetery. The wolf had come after a hog that had been just killed and hung on a post near the house. Even in 1836 the inhabitants of Paterson township voted to offer a bounty of one dollar for the capture of foxes within the township. In 1819 the inhabitants of Saddle River township (then including the First and Second wards of Paterson, Manchester and Wayne) somewhat ambiguously "Resolffed that if any Wholleff is Chased and Killed in the said township is to Receive ten Dollars from the Treasher of the Poor." In 1820 the bounty was reduced to $5.00. In 1837 bounties were paid for eight foxes killed in the township.
Formerly there was a large island in the river, about opposite Cedar Lawn cemetery; it was submerged by the raising of the river, caused by increasing the height of the Dundee dam in 1828, and again in 1858. This island was a famous nesting place for wild ducks, and fabulous stories are told of the incredible number of ducks that have been shot there at a single discharge of a fowling piece.
And that reminds Simeon van Winkel again of certain of his own suc- cesses in bagging some fine wild turkeys at the Kalkoenberg-Dutch for "Turkey Hill," about where the Paterson General Hospital and the Paterson Orphan Asylum are now located-where that savory bird was wont to breed most plentifully, and he chuckles as he reminds his good wife Annetje how she and her daughters adorned themselves for many a day with the gay bronze feathers from those same turkeys.
Then Annetje takes up the story, and tells how many a time she had stood at nightfall, with her heart in her throat, awaiting anxiously the home- coming of her "man" from some of those hunting expeditions to far-off Totowa and farther Preakness, fearful lest he might have fallen a prey to some monster of the wilderness. And she would speak of the troubles they had to get their children baptized, frequently waiting for months e'er some Dutch Dominie from New York, Long Island, Kingston or elsewhere would journey through the country, baptizing and administering spiritual consola- tion as he went, until Hackensack and Acquackanonk united to call a Dominie
I35
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
of their own. She would tell, moreover, of the formidable preparations the people made to venture down to their former home at Bergen twice a year to partake of the communion in the old church there. Of the pains all the women and maids took to get themselves up in their best gowns and finery when the trip to Bergen had to be made, and what feastings and family reunions they enjoyed on such important and rare occasions. And some- thing she would say, perchance, of the lonely lives the women lived at first, and of how some of them pined away in the dreary waste, of sheer home- sickness, when for thirty years after they came there was no white family north of the Passaic river ; of how, when the men were far away in the fields, the women would sometimes be startled at seeing a little band of Red Men stealing noiselessly along their ancient "path," which was not replaced by a formally-laid road until 1707. And then Simeon would laugh at his wife's old-time fears, and would recall with pleasure the friendly relations which had always existed between him and the dusky Sons of the Forest; and he would remind his wife that when the few remaining Indians in this part of New Jersey had come for the last time to revisit their ancient burying-place in Passaic, and were bidding farewell to the land of their fathers, as they passed mournfully along the river bank opposite his house, on their way to the Western country, they waved their hands to him as he stood at his door, and called across the river to him, in a voice that was a wail, "Adieu, Simeon," and as they disappeared in the far distance, so vanished the last of their race from Acquackanonk !
It is not difficult to conceive a birdseye view of the new settlement-a dozen rude log huts scattered along the river, from the Yantecaw to the present city limits of Passaic, at intervals of about an eighth of a mile ; next north, a cluster of another dozen houses, of somewhat better construction, as they were of a later period; then, in turn, the Goutum, Wesel and Bogt neighborhoods, the last-named being occupied at an interval of perhaps forty years from the first settlement at Acquackanonk. Tradition has come down telling us that the hillsides along the river were gradually denuded of their lofty trees, which when felled were rolled down into the river, and floated to market. It may be that some of the earliest comers constructed rude dug- outs in those same hillsides, and therein passed the first year or two of their residence in Acquackanonk. Certain it is, that the log cabin was not a rarity within the present limits of the city of Paterson so late as 1830. At that date there was at least one on the Wesel road, where Cedar Lawn now is; another within a stone's throw of the Barclay street bridge; three or four on Totowa, and one or two near Riverside. Its successor in natural sequence was the stone house. This was built of the red sandstone of the country, usually taken out of some outcropping ledge, supplemented by weather-worn fieldstone of the same material, or the Green Pond comglomerate scattered by prehistoric glaciers far and wide over the land. It is not probable that any quarry of sandstone was regularly worked in this region before the Revolu- tion. At first, the stone was laid up in clay, plastered also thickly inside and out in the interstices, as had been the custom in building log huts. It is a
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.