USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 24
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
The name Acquackanonk, or Aquickanucke, as it was then written, is first found in an Indian deed of sale, dated April 4, 1678, wherein Captehan Peeters, an Indian sachem, conveys to Hartman Machielson "a great Island lyeing in the River Pisaick near by Acquickanucke by the Indians called Menehenicke." Machielson obtained a patent from the East Jersey Pro- prietors for his purchase, January 6, 1685, in consideration of the yearly payment of "the chief or quit rent of one fatt henn," forever, if demanded. The island was subsequently known as Hartman's Island. It contained about nine acres. The next mention of Acquackanonk is in a deed dated July 15, 1678, from Sir George Carteret, one of the original two proprietors of New
186
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Jersey, to one Christopher Hoagland, a wealthy New York merchant, for two adjacent tracts of land at "Haquicquenock," on the Pisawick river-one plot of 150 acres lying east, and another of 128 acres being on the west side of the Wesel brook, in what is now the city of Passaic. This tract may be roughly described as bounded on the east by the Passaic river; north by Monroe street ; west by Lexington avenue and Prospect street ; south by River street and the river. The consideration was the annual quit-rent of half a penny per acre, or eleven shillings and six pence in all. This tract was long called Stoffel's point, Stoffel being a contraction of the purchaser's first name. It is not likely that Hoagland ever saw it. He sold the property some months later to Hartman Machielson, the owner of the adjoining island. People were not very particular in those days in their descriptions of prop- erty ; according to Secretary Nicholls, of New York, writing to England about 1680, the size of this island was a thousand acres.
March 28, 1679, Captehan, "Indian Sachem or Chief, in the Pr'sence and by the approbation and consent of Memiseraen, Mindawas, Ghonnajea, In- dians and Sachems of the said Contry, for an In Consideration of a certain P'rsall of Coates, Blankets, kettles, powder, and other Goods," conveyed the tract "known by the name of Haquequenunck" unto Hans Dederick, Gerret Garretson, Walling Jacobs and Hendrick George. The purchase was in behalf of themselves and associates of Bergen. George, or Joris or Jorissen, was the second son of Joris Dircksen Brinckerhoef, who settled on Staten Island, whence he removed in 1641 to Long Island. Hendrick bought land on Bergen Hill in 1677, but afterwards settled permanently near English Neighborhood, and was the progenitor of the numerous Brinkerhoff family of Bergen and Hudson counties.
The first real glimpse of Acquackanonk is afforded by the narrative of two Labadist missionaries, who came to this country in 1679 to prospect for a favorable site whereon to form a colony of their co-religionists. While they were sojourning temporarily among the Dutch at Bergen in the fall of 1679 they heard glowing accounts of the richness of "Ackqueenon," where "Jacques of Najack, with seven or eight associates, had purchased from the Indians," for about $50, a tract of 12,000 morgen, or 24,000 acres. This was the Saddle River tract, bought by Jacques Cortelyou, of Long Island. It is described by various writers of the time as a great island, possessing especial advantages for settlement. In March, 1680, these Labadists sailed with an Indian guide from Gowanus Bay to Acquackanonk, landing about where the Rusling bridge now is, at Dundee, the voyage occupying the better part of two days. They then journeyed on foot to the Falls, of which they give a description, the first of which there is any account.
The Newark people, who had made their settlement in 1666, had appar- ently long considered "Hockquekanung" as almost their own; they held a town meeting to express their chagrin, as soon as they learned that the plod- ding Dutch had been ahead of them in securing the Indian title to the land. But they consoled themselves by resolving to buy at "Poquanuck."
In 1680 there were no white settlers within hearing of the roar of the
187
PASSAIC COUNTY
Great Falls of the Passaic, and even the native sons of the soil were few in this neighborhood. The primeval forest clothed the hills about, and the meads and vales afforded pasture for the bounding deer, which as yet knew not the rifle's snap. The river and its minor tributaries flowed seaward, utterly free and unhindered, dancing over shingly beds, tumbling over rocks, dashing down precipices, or pausing in deep pools wherein the shiny deni- zens of the water loved to linger. No thought of curbing or utilizing the stream had ever occurred to the indolent Indian, as he lazily floated in his canoe or angled in the rivulets for the wherewithal to stock his scanty larder. All was free and unconfined, as it had existed from all antiquity.
Hartman Macheelsie or Michielson, who in February, 1679-80, bought Stoffel's Point, appears to have shared it with his brothers, Johannes, Elias and Cornelius, in 1698, and they are said to have been the first settlers in Acquackanonk, one of their houses being near the river bank, east of the Wesel brook and south of Passaic street, in the city of Passaic. Elias was of such prominence in the settlement in March, 1683, that he was appointed a justice of the peace. He was also a member of the Assembly in the same year, indicating that a number of families had taken up their abodes on the tract within two or three years preceding.
December 3, 1683, the Governor and Council authorized the "Inhabitants of Aquaninoncke" to join with those of New Barbadoes Neck in the "Choyce of a Constable"-another evidence of the populating of the country. On the same date, Major William Sandford, of New Barbadoes Neck, was ordered to appoint "officers to exercise the Inhabitants of Aquaninocke," the first reference found to a Passaic county militia.
The people of Newark do not appear to have yet recovered their equanim- ity over their failure to annex the fair lands on their North, and were sup- posed to be captious about dividing the line ; at a town meeting, held March 22, 1683-84, a committee was chosen "to lay out the Bounds between us and Hockquecanung, and to make no other agreement with them of any other Bounds than what was formerly."
The next reference to Acquackanonk, from the official records, is of such interest and importance that it deserves to be given in full:
Att a Councill held att Eliza Towne the 30th May Anno Dni 1684
The petic'on of Hans Dedricke Elias Mekellson and Adrian Post in be- halfe of themselves and other Inhabitants of Aquaquanuncke setting forth that they had purchased by order of the late Governor Carteret A Tract of Land Containeing 5520 Acres wch is to bee Devided amongst fourteen ffamelys of them, those settled pray they may have a gen'all Patent for the same,-It's ordered that the Indian sale being Recorded-Arrerages of Rent paid, that a pattent be made and granted them att one halfe penny p. Acre yearely Rent.
Accordingly, about ten months later, or March 16, 1684 (N. S. 1685), a patent was issued by the East Jersey Proprietors to Hans Didericks, Gar- rett Garrettson, Walling Jacobs, Elias Machielson, Hartman Machielson, Johannes Machielson, Cornelius Machielson, Adrian Post, Urian Tomason,
188
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Cornelius Rowlafson, Symon Jacobs, John Hendrick Speare, Cornelius Lub- bers, Abraham Bookey-fourteen persons in all. The consideration was " £ 50 sterling the same being in full payment and discharge of all arrears of quit-rent," and a yearly quit-rent of half a penny per acre, of £ 14. It will be observed that Hendrick George, who was associated in the Indian pur- chase, is not named in the patent. He had doubtless concluded to settle in English Neighborhood.
By the Indian deed the boundaries were given as follows: "Beginning from the northermost bound of the towne of Newark from the Lowermost part thereof to the Uppermost as fare as the steep Rocks or Mountaines, and from thence to Run all along the said Pisawick River to a White Oake tree standing neere the said River on the north side of a small brook, and from thence run up to the steep Rocks or mountains, Which said tree was marked by the said Captehan In the Psence of La Prairie Surveyor General."
The patent from the Proprietors described the boundaries thus: "Be- ginning att the northermost bounds of the Towne of Newarke and soe ruen- ing from the Lower most part to the uppmost part thereof as far as the steepe rocks or mountains and from the sd Lowermost part along the Pisaick River to the Great Falls thereof and so along the Steepe Rocks and Moun- taines to the uppmost pt of Newark bounds afores'd as it is more plainly demonstrated by a chart or draft thereof made by the late Surveyor Gen- erall."
With all the particularity common in ancient deeds it is set forth that the conveyance includes "all Rivers, ponds, creeks, Isles, Islands (Hart- man's Island w'ch particularly belongs to Hartman Machielson only ex- cepted), and also all inletts, bayes, swamps, marshes, meadowes, pastures, fields, fences, woods, wunderwoods, fishings, hawkings, huntings, fowlings, and all other appurtenances whatever thereunto belonging or appertaining (halfe part of the gold and silver mines and the royalty of the Lords Pro- prietors also excepted)." Stoffel's Point was likewise excepted from the scope of the patent, by mutual agreement of the grantors and grantees. The patent bore the names and seals of Gawen Lawrie, Isaac Kingsland, Thomas Codrington, Benjamin Price, and Henry Lyons, attested by James Emott, Deputy Secretary of the Province. William Sandford's name is appended only to the memorandum relative to Stoffel's Point. The foregoing were a majority of the Executive Council.
While the order of the Governor and Council was to grant a patent for 5,520 acres of land, the rent named in the patent implies that 6,720 acres were conveyed. In fact, the tract actually comprised about 11,000 acres, according to the surveys of the present day : to wit, all the Acquackanonk township, 6,420 acres ; 300 acres from Passaic and about 4,000 of the 5,357 acres of Paterson. The westerly line in Paterson perhaps ran from the mouth of a brook near the foot of Prospect street, to Garret Mountain, or perhaps to the "steep rocks" back of the upper raceway.
In ancient deeds it was usual to make a liberal allowance for "highways and barrens ;" the number of acres specified referred to the good arable land,
189
PASSAIC COUNTY
generally. The 5,520 acres granted by the Governor and Council probably comprised about all the really good land in the Acquackanonk patent ; the rest was, for the most part, sandy, swampy or rocky.
There is some reason for believing that the first house built by white men in Passaic county was on Passaic street, near the raceway at Dundee.
It was doubtless a fair day in the Indian summer of 1683 when the dozen families which had resolved to set up for themselves new hearthstones away in the wilderness took leave of their relatives in Bergen and embarked in the tub-like craft which was to transport them to their new homes. Sailing early in the morning, and favored by wind and tide, they would be able to reach their destination before night-fall, and perhaps begin the removal of their household goods to the rude dwellings already prepared for their recep- tion.
It was the custom in those days when a company bought a large tract of land, so set off to each partner a home-lot large enough for his immediate use, the rest remaining in common, to be likewise divided up from time to time as necessity seemed to require. This rule obtained in Acquackanonk. A lot ten chains wide and a hundred chains deep, fronting on the Passaic river and extending westerly towards Garret Mountain, was parcelled out to each patentee. The rest of the purchase remained in common for about ten years, when the increase of population called for a new division, and the second parcel of fourteen lots as laid out, very irregular in shape, on both sides of the present Wesel road or Dundee drive, extending from the corner of Main avenue and Prospect street, Passaic, near the Erie railroad crossing, to Ack- erman's lane, Clifton. According to tradition, which finds confirmation in occasional references in old deeds, this neighborhood was called Gotham, or the Gotham Patent .. But it was not a patent, being merely a sub-division of the Acquackanonk patent, and the "Seven Wise Men of Gotham," who "went to sea in a bowl," as related by that veracious chronicler, Mother Goose, were not Dutchmen, but Englishmen, or the gazetteers err in locating that ancient town. Now, it is not likely that the Dutch proprietors would call one of their tracts after an English place, and the probability is that the name they gave the new place was Goutum, after a village about an hour's journey from Leeuwarden, in the North of Holland, and doubtless endeared to some of them by family associations. Goutum would be readily corrupted into Gotham by the descendants of the first settlers.
When these lots were partitioned off there was left an odd triangular plot, which it was concluded to consecrate to religious purposes and the interment of the dead, a church being organized in 1694, and a modest build- ing erected within the next six or eight years for religious worship. "Domi- nie" Guiliam Bertholf, at the time a schoolmaster in the village, was called in 1693, and was the first regularly-settled Reformed Dutch pastor in New Jersey.
The new settlement continued to thrive and prosper, and about 1701 another partition was called for, fourteen more lots being laid out, from Goutum to a line drawn from the Market street bridge across just south of
190
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
the Passaic Rolling Mill, and so on to Garret Mountain. This settlement was called Wesel, after a town on the Lippe river, in Westphalia, not far from Holland. The lots were ten chains wide, and stretched from "river to mountain," 100 to 150 chains deep.
CHAPTER II.
Organization of Passaic county-First courts and elections-County buildings-A glance at the history of the various civil subdivisions. The county's list of officers.
On February 7, 1837, the Legislature of New Jersey constituted the County of Passaic by the enactment of the following law :
All those parts of the counties of Essex and Bergen contained within the following boundaries and lines: Beginning at the mouth of Yantekaw or Third river, at its entrance into the Passaic river, being the present bound- ary of the township of Acquackanunk; running thence northwesterly along the course of the line of the said township to the corner of said line, at or near the Newark and Pompton turnpike ; thence in a straight line to the bend of the road below the house now occupied by John Freeman, in the township of Caldwell, being about one and a half miles in length ; thence to the middle of the Passaic river ; thence along the middle of said river to the middle of tlie mouth of the Pompton river, by the two bridges; thence up said river along the line between Bergen and Morris Counties to Sussex County ; thence along the line between Sussex and Bergen counties to the State of New York; thence easterly along the line between the two States to the divi- sion line between the townships of Pompton and Franklin ; thence along said line dividing said townships and the townships of Franklin and Saddle River, to where it intersects the road commonly called Goetschius' lane; thence down the centre of said road or lane to the Passaic River ; thence down the middle of the Passaic River to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, to be called the county of Passaic ; said lines shall hereafter be the division lines between the counties of Essex, Morris, Sussex, Bergen, and the State of New York, and the county of Pas- saic respectively.
It will thus been that the lower part of Passaic county consists of what had been the township of Acquackanonk in Essex county since 1693; the upper part of Passaic county was taken from Saddle River township in Ber- gen county. Seven townships constituted the original civil subdivisions of Passaic county : Manchester, which was taken from Saddle River township, Bergen county, in 1837; Pompton, taken the same as Manchester, having been constituted a part of Bergen county in 1797; West Milford, taken from Pompton in 1834; Paterson, taken from Acquackanonk in 1831, made a city in 1851, and enlarged in 1854, 1855 and 1869 by taking territory from Acquackanonk and Little Falls; Little Falls, taken from Acquackanonk in 1868; Passaic, taken from Acquackanonk in 1866, made a village in 1871 and a city in 1873. The townships and cities thus constituted did not change until borough governments were created in a number of the townships.
191
PASSAIC COUNTY
The law required that the first courts should be held in Paterson, at the house of Ira Munn, on River street ; this house was subsequently changed to the Passaic Hotel. But the courts only organized there, the first session for the transaction of business being held in the basement of the Cross Street Methodist Church, where the courts remained until a court house was ready for their occupancy in 1839. The first Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace consisted of nineteen justices and the principal business for some days was the granting of licenses to keep taverns. On April 5, 1737, the first session of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and the Orphans' Court was held, eight justices being present. The Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery met on April 25, 1837, Mr. Justice Joseph C. Hornblower presiding; there were eight justices present in addition to the presiding judge. Robert O. Robinson was sheriff and Elias B. D. Ogden prosecutor. The Circuit Court of Passaic County organized on the same day, but found no business awaiting it. On June 26, 1837, the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures presented the county with a tract of land on the southwest corner of Main and Oliver streets. The court house was erected immediately afterwards. It was opened for business, a meeting of the board of chosen freeholders, on May 8, 1839; it was dedicated on July IO. The jail was ready for occupancy in the spring of 1855, although not completed until 1859. It was enlarged in 1881 and still occupies a part of the original site. In 1886 the board of chosen freeholders purchased from the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures the property known as Colt's Hill, being a considerable tract lying on Main street, opposite the court house and jail, the Main street frontage being reserved by the society. Colt's Hill lay at a considerable elevation from the adjoining property ; it was the intention of the county board to erect a new court house on the top of the hill and thus far removed from the turmoil of Main street traffic, which had frequently been found a serious interference with the transaction of business by the court. A number of taxpayers entered a vigorous protest against this transaction, objecting to the cost of the site and the threatened interference with the progress of Paterson by eliminating so much valuable real estate from the centre of the city. It was claimed that the freeholders had made themselves amenable to the criminal law by exceeding their powers and the grand jury, then in session, threatened to find indictments. The freeholders promptly returned the property to the society and the grand jury suspended its investigations. The hill was subsequently taken down and the county purchased a city block of the levelled territory and there the present court house stands. The post office, the Paterson high school and numerous other buildings now occupy a part of what formerly constituted the site of Colt's Hill. On April 27, 1898, the cornerstone of the new court house was laid; the building was not ready for occupancy until November, 1903, on account of legal entanglements and delay in securing the building material specified by the architect in his plans.
Until 1844 the elections in Passaic county were held under a provision of the constitution which required that each voter should be "of full age and
192
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
worth fifty pounds proclamation money, clear estate in the same, and hav- ing resided in the county for twelve months preceding the election."
The second settlement in the county was made at Pompton, by two of the most distinguished men in the New York annals of the day-Major An- thony Brockholls and Captain Arent Schuyler. The former had been for many years a leading member of the Colonial government of New York, at one time being lieutenant-governor and acting governor of the colony for some months. During the great revolution of 1666, in England, the colonies were distracted, and one Jacob Leisler, a wealthy resident of New York City, at the request of many people assumed the government of the colony in the spring of 1669, in the interest of William and Mary, the new sovereigns of England. Brockholls and Schuyler, who were members of the colonial government, resisted and were denounced as traitors by Leisler, and a price was set on their heads. They were thus compelled to flee from the province, and it is not unlikely that during this period of enforced absence from home they conceived the idea of founding a new settlement in New Jersey, remote from the turbulent little metropolis. However, Leisler having been executed for treason in 1691, the fugitives were able to return in triumph to their homes, and again became prominent in the affairs of the colony. In the spring of 1694 Schuyler was sent by Governor Fletcher, of New York, to visit the Minisink Indians, to forestall any efforts of the French to incite them to raids on the English and Dutch settlements. It is very likely that on this trip he passed through the Pompton valley, and was again led to contem- plate locating there, and perhaps made partial arrangements with the Indians for buying. The following year he and Brockholls formed a company, associating with them Samuel Bayard, George Ryerson, John Mead, Samuel Berrie, David Mandeville and Hendrick Mandeville, and on June 6, 1695, they bought of the Indians 5,500 acres of land "at or near Pekquaneck and Pomtan creek." The Indian grantors were Taepgan, Oragnap, Mansiem, WViackwam Rookham, Paahek, Siekuak, Waweigin, Onagepunk and Nes- kilanitt, Peykqueneck and Pomton Indians, and Iaiapogh, Sachem of Mini- sing. The last-mentioned chieftain's name was long preserved in Yawpaw, later supplanted by the meaningless Oakland. The consideration for these 5,500 acres, "to be taken up by him the said Arent Schuyler to his best Lik- ing at or near Peckquaneck and Pontam and the Low Land Lying on both sides of the Creek between Peckquanack and Pontam aforesaid," was "a cer- taine quantitie of Wampom, and other goods and Merchandise to the value of £240, Current money of New York." A patent for the tract was ob- tained from the Proprietors on November 1I, 1695, and in the succeeding August they bought 240 acres more "on Spring Brook, called by the Indians Singanck," where the stream was crossed by one trail of the great Indian highway, the "Minisink Path." The region thus acquired from the Indians embraced most of the present Wayne township and the western half of Man- chester. The purchase was subsequently divided into three parcels, improp- erly termed patents. The first was called the "Lower Pacquanac Patent," running from the Pompton river to the Passaic, about three miles, and a mile
193
PASSAIC COUNTY
and a half wide, containing 2,750 acres. Brockholls and Schuyler sold their third of the interest to Nicholas Bayard, and the tract was then halved- Brockholls, Schuyler and Bayard taking the upper half, and Mead, Berrie, Ryerson and the Mandevilles taking the southern half, which accounts for the location of the Ryersons and Meads about Pacquanac. The second grand division, called the "Upper Pacquanac Patent," lay east of the other, to a line running southeast from the mouth of the Ramapo river, and contained 1,260 acres. Nicholas Bayard bought a third interest in this also. The tract re- mained undivided until 1755, when it was partitioned between Henry Brock- holst, son of Anthony ; Philip, son of Arent Schuyler, and the four sons of Samuel Bayard, heir-at-law of Nicholas Bayard. The third grand division, the "Pompton Patent," contained 1,250 acres, and extended from the mouth of the Ramapo river a mile and a half up the Pequannock, and east from the river about the same distance Nicholas Bayard bought a third interest in this also, and it was then divided in the same way as the Lower Pequanac Patent had been. The several tracts were subdivided into farms and partitioned among the respective families settling. Brockholls and Schuyler are sup- posed to have taken up their abodes at Pompton about 1696 or 1697. There have been no changes in the boundary lines of Wayne township since it be- came a part of Passaic county.
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.