USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 22
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
In the days of the Indians, rivers were crossed by canoes or fords. The white settlers adopted the same course for many years, until the necessities of public travel made it desirable to bridge the more important streams. At first this seems to have been left to the immediate neighborhood interested to accomplish in its own way. In 1683 the East Jersey Assembly appointed commissioners for each county, to "make, lay out, fit and Place" roads and bridges, where they saw fit, the bridges to be "made, maintained, repaired and kept up at the respective Charge of every respective Person, Town or Township to whom or where they are most serviceable, or do or shall most immediately belong or appertain." In 1716 it was enacted that the overseers of the highways should call out the inhabitants of their respective towns, divisions or precincts annually, "for the mending and repairing of all such High-Ways, Bridges, or Causeways" as might have been laid out. In 1719 the Legislature recognized the fact that "there are many large Bridges within this Province, which belong to particular Towns and Precincts to amend and repair, which cannot sufficiently be repaired by Day Labour, without the Assistance of particular Handicraftsmen," and accordingly enacted that where there were such bridges two justices of the peace of the county, the
169
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
two chosen freeholders of the town, precinct or division adjacent to such bridge, and the surveyors of the highways of the town, upon the call of the overseers of the highways, should assemble together and contract with com- petent tradesmen and others for building, rebuilding or repairing the bridge ; the expense was to be assessed and collected in the town or place where the bridge belonged. If the bridge lay between two towns, both shared the cost. This law worked hardship in many instances, as for example in Acquacka- nonk, whose inhabitants prayed the Legislature for relief, with the result on November 4, 1741, an act was passed, the preamble of which sets forth that "the Precinct or District of Achquachanack, in the county of Essex, is, for a considerable Space in Length, bounded on the River Pissaick, which divides the said County of Essex from Morris County and Bergen County, over which River Pissaick several very large bridges are already built, and more Bridges over the same River may hereafter be thought necessary to be built, the one half of the Expence and Charge whereof the Inhabitants of the said Precinct or District of Achquackanack are,, by the General Laws of this Province, liable to, whose Situation being very particular, the Taxes on the said Inhabitants to the Purposes aforesaid, are thereby much greater than those to which the Inhabitants of the other Townships in the said County of Essex are subject, for whose equal Use, Conveniency and Advantage the said Bridges are and may be built and maintained." The act therefore provided that where any bridge over the river Passaic required carpenter work, in the building, rebuilding or repairing, in the county of Essex, one-half the cost should be assessed on the county at large. The other half was presumably a charge upon the township. In 1760 the whole cost of bridge work was made a county charge. By an act of March II, 1774, it was enacted that small bridges should be built and kept by the townships, only the large bridges being maintained by the county. This act remains substantially the basis of the existing law.
The first bridge erected across the Passaic river, above Newark bay, was at or near the foot of Bank street, in Paterson. From occasional references in the records, this bridge would seem to have been built prior to December 10, 1737. It is again alluded to under date of December 22, 1761. The earli- est account of any public expenditure upon it is in the shape of the following receipt, on an irregular fragment of paper, browned with age :
Couynty Van Bergen Januwarij th 16-1762
Dan ontfangen Van Magiel Enoch Vreelant De Volle Betaelingh Voor het timmerhout Van De Groote Brugh tot totowa Bij Aberaham God-Win Bij getuge Van onse handen.
DIERCK VAN GIESEN REYNIER VAN GIESEN GERREBRANT VAN HOUTEN ROBBERT VAN HOUTEN HELMIG VAN HOUTEN his
CORNL C GARISON
mark
ABRM : GODWIN CORNELIUS VAN HOUTEN
170
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
On May II, 1774, the Bergen county board of chosen freeholders ordered "that the County Collector Do pay unto Derick Van Giesen for Bolts and Spikes applyed for the Bridge at Totowaw the sum of 5s. 3d N. Y. money." The next official notice of action with reference to this bridge does not occur until November 1, 1791, when the Bergen and Essex boards of chosen freeholders met on the spot and unanimously agreed "that the said Bridge be Rebuilt and that the same be built of wood, the Width of the Bridge to be fourteen feet, the Posts to be 14 by 8 inches Square Split or Sawed & 14 feet long the Standing Timber to be framed with the but ends downwards 2 Butment Sills 6 by ten Inches Square 20 feet long 4 posts 6 by 6 Inches Square 4 feet long 4 Braces 4 by 5 Inches Square 5 feet long the Rabiting Pieces to be of Chisnut 8 inches square the hand rails also of Chis- nut 6 Inches Diameter to be put on Round with a Stud under Each hand Rail White Oak plank clear of sap 2 1-2 Inches thick 14 feet long All the Other timber to be of good white Oak Except the mud Seals to be of same Dimen- sions as that of the present Bridge to be built after the same Model Except what is herein Ordered to the Contrary. Ordered that John Benson, William Colfax, Esq., and Samuel Van Saun and Christian Zabriskie from Bergen, and Jacob Smith, Esq., & John Vreeland, Johannes Neafie & Amos Harrison from Essex be the Committee to Sell the said Bridge at public sale at lowest Bidder to be built as above described and that the counties aforesaid pay each one half of the money." On May 22, 1802, the two boards ordered the bridge to be rebuilt, of wood, on the same spot, to be fourteen feet in width in the clear. The new bridge was swept away in the great flood of Novem- ber, 1810. The Paterson and Hamburgh Turnpike Company had not yet built a bridge where their road crossed the river, at West street, and now came forward with a proposition to build a turnpike bridge, in partnership with the two counties, or otherwise. This was laid before the two boards of chosen freeholders, at a meeting held January 7, 1811, but the boards decided to build a new bridge on the site of the old one, and entered into a contract (dated January 12, 1811) with Judge Gerrebrant Van Houten for that pur- pose, agreeing to pay him $1,000. A special meeting of the two boards was held July 27, 1818, to decide whether to repair or to rebuild the bridge ; it was concluded to repair. The same subject came up again November 27, 1821, when it was once more decided to repair instead of rebuilding the structure. The reluctance to rebuild was doubtless due to the fact that the bridge was still used by the Paterson and Hamburgh Turnpike Company, and it was felt that that company ought to build a bridge of its own. This matter was once more presented to the two boards on January 4, 1822, and committees were appointed to cooperate with the company in the erection of a new bridge. The arrangement seems to have fallen through, however, and the old county bridge was again repaired. On February 25, 1822, Main street was extended northerly from Bank street to the river, with a view to moving the old bridge to that site. This project remained in abeyance until 1827, when a number of the inhabitants on both sides of the river subscribed the money requisite to remove the old bridge, and to rebuild it at the foot of
171
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
Main street. The freeholders gave their consent, May 23, 1827, and entered into an agreement with Gerrebrant Van Houten and Abraham Godwin for the purpose. The work was given out by public competition, June 21, 1827, and was accepted by the freeholders in the ensuing November. This bridge was about forty feet longer than the present structure, the street at the southerly end having been filled in to that extent. Formerly, the first pier rested on a large rock in the river ; that rock is now under the southerly abut- ment. The bridge was repaired and rebuilt from time to time until 1871, when the present iron structure was erected, by the Watson Manufacturing Company, Sam Thompson doing the mason work. The masonry cost about $6,500, and the superstructure $23,750. A wooden block pavement was put on the bridge, at a cost of $1,250, but was subsequently removed.
The Paterson and Hamburgh Turnpike Company erected a wooden bridge, in a single span, in 1822, at the foot of West (then called Bridge) street, but it fell down as soon as the supports were removed. Another bridge was built within a few years, and was still standing in 1826. In 1834 the bridge was rebuilt. Two spans of the bridge were destroyed by a freshet, August 3, 1853. In 1854 the Company vacated its road through Paterson, and the bridge became a county charge. It was rebuilt and repaired from time to time until 1869, when the first iron bridge in the city was erected there.
The residents at Acquackanonk Landing were so accustomed to rely upon their numerous boats for transportation across the river that it was not until 1766 that they petitioned the Legislature to authorize the erection of a bridge at that place. At their request the boards of chosen freeholders of Essex and Bergen counties were empowered, by act passed June 28, 1766, to "build a Bridge over Passaick River, near the Dutch Church at Acquacka- nonk." As it lay near the house of Walling Van Winkle on the Bergen county side of the river, it was frequently referred to as "the New Bridge at Wallince's." For the first eight years the bridge seems to have sustained but little damage from wear and tear, the cost of repairs being trifling. At a meeting of the two boards, May 15, 1776, it was ordered that the bridge be repaired in a thorough manner. The bridge was cut down, November 21, 1776, by the American troops, on their retreat through the Jerseys. It was doubtless rebuilt soon, for in 1780 Washington speaks of having ridden from Preakness "as far as the Acquackanonk bridge." Probably in the winter of 1781-82 the bridge was destroyed by the ice. On June 18, 1782, the Legis- lature passed "An Act to empower the Justices and Freeholders of the Coun- ties of Bergen and Essex to erect a Bridge over the River Passaick, near the Church at Acquackanunck." The preamble sets out that "sundry Inhabitants of the Counties of Essex and Bergen have, by their Petition presented to the Legislature, prayed that a Law may be passed to empower the Justices and Freeholders of the said Counties to erect a Bridge over the River Passaick, from the Place where the Highway, leading from New-Barbadoes, in the County of Bergen, strikes the said River, to the fast Land in the County of Essex," and the act therefore authorizes the two boards to "erect and build
172
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
a Drawbridge over the River Passaick, directly at the Place where the High- way, leading from New-Barbadoes, in the County of Bergen, strikes the said River, and a little to the Southward of the Dwellinghouse of the Widow Jannetje Van-Winkle, and so across the said River in the shortest and most convenient Manner to the fast Land in the County of Essex." The expense was to be shared equally by the two counties. It was not until April 8, 1783, that the two boards met, viewed the site and agreed to build the bridge, of wood. The committee appointed to carry out this resolution consisted of Isaac Vanderbeck, Esq., Adrian Post and Edow Merselis, of Bergen county, and James V. Campbell, Esq., Colonel Matthias Ward and Jacob Van Riper, of Essex county. The bridge was swept away the next year. The freehold- ers tried to induce the people in the vicinity to rebuild it, and Bergen county offered to contribute £25 for the purpose, provided the bridge should be rebuilt within six weeks. This offer was not accepted. The Bergen county board met again November 19, 1784, and renewed its offer "to pay £25 towards rebuilding the bridge at Achquacnunck above Where part of the former Bridge Now stands. Otherwise to bear our Equal proportion With Essex county to built it across the Passaick at the place Where one Mr. Blanchard now Lives where this Board Judge there Can stand A Bridge With Less Danger of ice & freshets than Where part of it Now stands." This offer was not accepted by Essex county. The Bergen county board met on the spot again, May 18, 1785, and "resolved that no repairs should be Done to the Bridge at Ahquacnuncks ; we are of opinion that no Bridge can be kept there," and they renewed their offer to share the cost of rebuilding at Blanchard's. The issue of the controversy does not appear in the records, but it is believed that the bridge was rebuilt at Blanchard's, or in the rear of the building formerly used as Speer's wine warehouse. At low water the posts of the old bridge can be seen in the river at that point. The bridge was again destroyed, in February, 1792, and the remains of it gathered on either side of the river, and sold. The two boards failed to agree, either as to their power to rebuild, or as to the proper location, until May 14, 1793, when they decided to build "oppisite the house now occupied by Cornelius Stagg at or near as may be on either of the sites where the first Bridge stood;" to be built of wood, the piers to rest in stone boxes ; the bridge to be sixteen feet wide, and to cost the two counties not more than £ 100-or $250. Doubtless the people of the neighborhood had to contribute the rest. The draw in the new bridge was 20 feet wide, and was fixed between the first and second bents on the Essex county side. The contract was awarded to Eldric Yorks, for £483. The new structure was badly damaged during the next winter, and still more in the great freshet of August, 1795. In the flood of November, 1810, it was entirely swept away. The freeholders held several meetings to discuss the situation, and after repeatedly voting that they had no power to build a bridge across a navigable stream, and that it was inexpedient, anyhow, they finally voted, May 23. 1811, to rebuild. The two boards agreed, November 25, 1834, to build a new bridge, and tried to get the pecuniary assistance of the turnpike companies which used the public bridge; this effort did not suc-
173
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
ceed. The bridge was rebuilt in 1841, 1853 and 1857, each time of wood. In July, 1886, a contract was made with the Passaic Rolling Mill Company, for rebuilding the substructure of stone and the superstructure of iron, for $15,809.
The Paterson & Hackensack Turnpike Company was incorporated by act of the Legislature, February 6, 1815, and laid out a road across the Passaic river from the foot of Market street, and built in 1826 a turnpike bridge to span the river at that point. Messrs. John N. Terhune, Richard Alyea and Cornelius Van Riper sold the road, bridge and franchises to the two counties, September 23. 1869, for $1,000. The superstructure was rebuilt of iron, in 1884, by the Passaic Rolling Mill Company, for $5,620. Some of the piers having settled, a contract was made in June, 1893, with Dean & Westbrook, for rebuilding the entire substructure and superstructure, for $26,550. It is known as the Wesel bridge.
The turnpike met with bitter opposition from John Anderson, of Hack- ensack, and others, who caused a new road to be laid from the end of Broad- way to Hackensack, passing through Red Mills, and raised a fund for the building of a new bridge, at Broadway. A meeting of the subscribers to this fund was held at the house of Garret Oldis, at Red Mills, January 27, 1816, when a committee was appointed, consisting of George Doremus, John Van Blarcom and John Anderson, to "receive proposals and attend to the building of said bridge across the river at Garrabrant's [Garrabrant Van Riper's] lane." This committee gave out the contract for the bridge in April, to James Blauvelt, of Godwinville. It was several years ere the boards of chosen freeholders accepted the bridge as a public charge. On August 26, 1822, they voted to rebuild the bridge, and in July, 1828, they contracted for its repair. It was then known as "the new bridge across the Passaic river near the house of Abraham Van Winkle," who kept tavern at the Bergen county end of the bridge, on the premises now owned by Colonel William Barbour. It was not till many years later that it came to be known as the Broadway bridge. In 1835 the road over the hill was for the first time cut down several feet. The bridge was rebuilt in 1847-48; again in 1872-73, at a cost of about $13,000, at which time it was also raised five or six feet. The present iron superstructure was erected in 1891-92, the substructure being rebuilt at the same time, and the bridge raised somewhat. The cost was about $9,600.
Before the erection of these several bridges there were numerous fords across the Passaic river : one about a mile or two below Passaic, where a ledge of rock afforded sure footing at low tide; another just above the Dun- dee dam, at the lower end of a large island; the next was at the foot of Park avenue; another near the site of the Broadway bridge ; also one where the Wagaraw bridge is now ; then one about on the site of the West street bridge.
The earliest bridges were only ten or twelve feet wide, the piers being of hewn logs resting in boxes of stone. Every freshet damaged them seri- ously ; in particular, the spring freshets, breaking up and bringing down the
174
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
ice, usually carried away a bent or two. The bents, or spans, were twenty to twenty-four feet long, and the numerous piers were an added obstruction to the irver and menace to the bridges.
CHAPTER VI.
Human slavery in Old Acquackanonk-Red and black slaves executed by burning at the stake-The whipping post as a means of punish- ment for slight offences-Advertisements for the sale of slaves-Two slaves in Paterson in 1860.
God * hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth .- Acts xvii, 26.
Through departing from the Truth as it is in Jesus, through introduc- ing Ways of Life attended with unnecessary Expences, many Wants have arisen, the Minds of People have been employ'd in studying to get Wealth, and in this Pursuit some departing from Equity have retain'd a Profession of Religion, others have look'd at their Example, and thereby been strength- en'd to proceed further in the same Way: Thus many have encourag'd the Trade of taking Men from Africa, and selling them as Slaves .- John Wool- man, 1754.
There is little or no evidence that slavery existed among the first settlers of Old Acquackanonk. As the shrewd old Mount Holly Friend indicates, it was one of the evils attendant upon increasing prosperity, which usually seeks the aggrandizement of self. In the first settlement of New Jersey, the Proprietors, "that the Planting of the said Province may be the more speedily promoted," granted to every Freeman settling in the Province before January I, 1665, 150 acres of land, English measure, "and for every weaker Servant or Slave, Male or Female, exceeding the Age of fourteen Years, which any one shall send or carry, arriving there, Seventy five Acres." Similar grants, of lesser quantities, were promised to subsequent settlers. It may be doubted whether the "slaves" here referred to were other than white persons, sold into servitude for a term of years, or sentenced to penal servitude in the Colonies for offences felonious, political or ecclesiastical. Negro slavery, however, was recognized as an institution existing in East Jersey as early as 1682. In Queen Anne's instructions to Lord Cornbury, whom she sent out in 1702 as Governor of New Jersey and New York, she expressed a solici- tude that New Jersey might have "a constant and sufficient supply of mer- chantable Negroes, at moderate rates, in money or commodities." The first settlers of Acquackanonk were too sturdy and self-reliant to care for slave labor on their farms or in their houses, and there are few indications of the blight in their neighborhood until the second quarter of the eighteenth cen- tury. Possibly the lack of capital may have been another reason why slavery was so little known hereabout at first. However, an examination of the wills and inventories will show that comparatively few of the settlers who died before the Revolution make any mention of slaves in their wills; although this is not conclusive it tends to confirm the belief that slavery
175
THE EARLY WHITE SETTLERS
was by no means general in this vicinity at that period. The "Barbarism of Slavery," so vividly depicted years before the Civil War, by Charles Sumner, is shown in the legislation which it caused to disgrace the statute books of New Jersey. "An Act for Regulating of Slavery," passed March 17, 1713, provided that any negro, Indian or Mulato slave, found five miles from his master's habitation, without a pass, "shall be Whipt by the Party that takes them up, or by his Order, on the bare Back, not ex- ceeding Twenty Lashes; and the Taker up shall have for his Reward Five Shillings," besides costs of transportation of the slave to his home. Any negro, Indian or mulatto slave coming from another Province without the written license of his master, was to be whipped by the nearest constable, not exceeding twenty lashes, on the bare back, for which service the constable was to have three shillings, paid by the master. Any negro, Indian or other slave, who should murder, "or otherways Kill (unless by Misadventure, or in Execution of Justice) or conspire or attempt the Death of any of Her Majesties Leige People, not being Slaves, or shall commit any Rape on any of the said Subjects, or shall willfully burn any Dwelling-House, Barn, Stable, Out-House, Stack or Stacks of Corn or Hay, or shall Willfully Muti- late, Maim or Dismember any of the said Subjects, not being Slaves, as aforesaid, or shall willfully Murder any Negro, Indian or Mulatto Slave within this Province," might be tried without indictment by a grand jury, by three of the justices of the peace and five freeholders of the county, and upon conviction by any seven of this summary court, should "suffer the Pains of Death in such manner as the Aggravation or Enormity of their Crime (in the Judgment of the Justices and Free-holders aforesaid)" should merit and require. The master or mistress of any slave so accused might demand a jury trial. The penalty in extreme cases was usually death by hanging, but sometimes, such was the brutality of the times, resulting from the debasing influences of slavery, the justices and freeholders, for the purpose of strik- ing terror into the hearts of other slaves, would order the offender to be burnt at the stake. Inasmuch as the owners might be induced to send their slaves out of the Province, to avoid losing them by capital punishment, it was further provided that they should be reimbursed by the county, to the amount of £ 30 for a man, and £20 for a woman so executed. The county also paid for the firewood used at the burning. A careful examination of the court records of that century fails to reveal any instance of the infliction of the death penalty on any negro slave within the bounds of the present Passaic county. Other localities were less fortunate.
In January, 1729, a negro was tried at Perth Amboy, on a Saturday, for the murder of an itinerant tailor, was convicted, and on the following Mon- day was burnt at the stake. Peter Kip's negro man "Jack," probably living at or near Polifly, Bergen county, or nearer to Rutherford, threatened sev- eral times to beat his master and his son, and to burn his master's house, and when arrested, on August 13, 1735, tried to destroy himself. He was con- victed, and the next day was burnt alive, "on the road between the court house and Hackensack." In January, 1739, a negro slave of Robert Lettis
176
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Hooper, at Raritan, Somerset county, shockingly mangled the little son of his master's overseer, and set fire to his master's barn. He was taken, tried and the third day was burnt alive. In 1741 the inhabitants of New York City were alarmed by rumors of a threatened servile insurrection ; the alleged plot was believed to have spread into the adjacent country. On May I, 1741, Albert Van Voor Hezen's negro man "Jack," and Derreck Van Horn's negro man "Ben," were arrested on suspicion of having set fire to several barns in the vicinity of Hackensack; they were tried May 4, by three justices and five freeholders, convicted, and burnt at the stake the next day, at "Yel- low Point, the other side of Hackensack river, near the house of Derreck Van Horn."
The law also provided that any negro, Indian or mulatto slave stealing to the value of sixpence and under five shillings, might be tried by two jus- tices of the peace, and on conviction should be "whipped on the bare Back at the Publick Whipping-Place with Thirty Lashes, by the Constable of such Township or Place where the Offence was committed, or by such Person as he shall appoint." Larceny to the value of five shillings or above was punish- able by forty lashes, in the same manner ; the constable received five shillings for each whipping, to be paid by the master or mistress of the slave. Evi- dence of slaves was admissible "on Tryals of such Slaves on all Causes Crimi- nal." To check their aspirations toward independence it was enacted that no freed slave should have the right to hold real property within the Province. The same act provided that any person manumitting a slave should enter into security to the Queen, in the sum of £200, to pay yearly to such freed slave £20 for his or her support; and if any slave was made free by will, the executors of the testator should give like security, or the manumission should be void. By an act passed May 10, 1768, the preamble of which simply states that the foregoing mode of trying slaves for capital offences "hath, on Ex- perience, been found inconvenient," it was enacted that slaves accused of murder or conspiracy to murder, or ravishing, or wilfully burning any dwell- ing-house, barn, etc., and who should be convicted by confession or by verdict in the supreme court, oyer and terminer or quarter sessions, should suffer death without benefit of clergy; and any slave convicted in either of said courts of manslaughter, larceny above the value of £5, or any other felony or burglary, should suffer death, or such other penalty as the court should think proper to inflict. The proceedings on a trial for petit larceny are shown in the following record :
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.