USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 26
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2. That the late Act of Parliament relative to Boston, which so abso- lutely destroys every idea of safety and confidence, appears to us, big with the most dangerous and alarming consequences; especially as subversive of that very dependence which we should earnestly wish to continue, as our best safeguard and protection ; And that we conceive, every well-wisher to Great Britain and her Colonies, is now loudly called upon to exert his utmost abilities in promoting every legal and prudential measure, towards obtaining a repeal of the said Act of Parliament, and all others subversive of the un- doubted rights, and liberties, of his Majesty's American subjects.
3. That it is our unanimous opinion, that it would conduce to the restora- tion of the liberties of America, should the Colonies enter into a joint agree- ment, not to purchase or use any articles of British Manufacture; and espe- cially any commodities imported from the East Indies, under such restric- tions as may be agreed upon by a general Congress of the said Colonies here- hereafter to be appointed.
4. That this county will most readily and cheerfully join their brethren of the other counties in this Province, in promoting such Congress of Depu- ties, to be sent from each of the Colonies, in order to form a general plan of union, so that the measures to be pursued for the important ends in view, may be uniform and firm; To which plan, when concluded upon, we do agree faithfully to adhere. And do now declare ourselves ready to send a Commit- tee, to meet with those from the other counties, at such time and place, as by
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them may be agreed upon, in order to select proper persons to represent this province in the said General Congress.
5. That the freeholders and inhabitants of the other counties in this Province be requested speedily to convene themselves together, to consider the present distressing state of our public affairs ; and to correspond, and con- sult with, such other committees as may be appointed, as well as with our Committee, who are hereby directed to correspond and consult with such other committees, as also with those of any other Province ; And particularly to meet with the said County Committees, in order to nominate and appoint Deputies to represent this Province in general Congress.
6. We do hereby unanimously request the following gentlemen to accept of that trust, and accordingly do appoint them our Committee for the pur- poses aforesaid, viz .: Stephen Crane, Henry Garritse, Joseph Riggs, Wil- liam Livingston, William P. Smith, John De Hart, John Chetwood, Isaac Ogden and Elias Boudinot, Esqrs.
In Bergen county, also, there was a large body of the intelligent citizens who resented the foreign encroachments on American rights and privileges, and at a public meeting at the court house in Hackensack, on Saturday, the 25th day of June, 1774, it was resolved :
Ist. That they think it their greatest happiness to live under the Gov- ernment of the illustrious House of Hanover, and that they will stedfastly and uniformly bear true and faithful allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third, under the enjoyment of their constitutional rights and privileges.
2d. That we conceive it to be our indubitable privilege to be taxed only by our own consent, given by ourselves, or by our Representatives ; and that we consider the late Acts of Parliament, declarative of their right to impose internal taxes on the subjects of America, as manifest encroachments on our national rights and privileges as British subjects, and as inconsistent with the idea of an American Assembly or House of Representatives.
3d. That we will heartily unite with this Colony in choosing Delegates to attend at a general Congress from the several Provinces of America, in order to consult on and determine some effectual method to be pursued for obtaining a repeal of the said Acts of Parliament, which appears to us evi- dently calculated to destroy that mutual harmony and dependence between Great Britain and her Colonies, which are the basis and support of both.
And we do appoint Theunis Dey, John Demarest, Peter Zabriskie, Cor- nelius Van Voarst and John Zabriskie, Junior, Esquires, to be a Committee for corresponding with the Committees of the other counties in this Province, and particularly to meet with the other County Committees at New Bruns- wick, or such other place as shall be agreed on, in order to elect Delegates to attend the general Congress of Delegates of the American Colonies for the purposes aforesaid.
Theunis Dey, who thus became the leader of the patriot movement in the present Passaic county north of the Passaic, was a resident of Lower Preakness. So that this neighborhood furnished two of the principal men in both Essex and Bergen counties, in the American cause.
Events moved swiftly in those stirring times. The Continental Con- gress held at Philadelphia in September, 1774, having among other measures recommended an "association" or agreement among the Americans to use no British importations, and that any person not conforming thereto should
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be "held up to publick notice, as unfriendly to the liberties of his country, and all dealings with him or her be thenceforward broken off."
The ardent patriots were not always content with simply breaking off dealings with those whom they deemed enemies of the country. A Morris county citizen was "reasoned with" to such effect that he published a card, announcing his complete conversion to the American cause. A resident of Quibbletown was tarred and feathered and ridden about town in a cart half an hour, by which time he was ready to beg forgiveness and promise to agree with his neighbors. And this proceeding "was conducted with that regu- larity and decorum," a newspaper of the day gravely assures us, "that ought to be observed in all public punishments."
The Essex county committee of correspondence issued an address, No- vember 28, 1774, to the people of the county, calling three neighborhood meetings, for Newark, Elizabeth and Acquackanonk, to select local commit- tees for the better enforcing the recommendation of the Congress. The meeting for "Achquakanung" was called for Monday, December 12, 1774, "at the Bridge, opposite the house of Timothy Day." This address was signed by Henry Garritse, among others. The General Assembly having been called by Governor Franklin to meet at Perth Amboy, on January II, 1775, Essex county was represented by Henry Garritse and Stephen Crane, and Bergen county by Theunis Dey and John Demarest, they having been chosen at the general election for Assemblymen in 1772. Most of the ses- sion was occupied in the consideration of the great issues of the hour, which were forcibly summed up in an able and most admirable petition to the King, which was adopted by the House on February 13, 1775, and for which the four representatives from Essex and Bergen counties voted. In its state- ment of the grievances of the Colonies, this address was one of the fore- runners of the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Con- gress eighteen months later. It seems strange, therefore, to read in this forcible paper : "We do solemnly, and with great truth, assure your Majesty that we have no thoughts injurious to the allegiance which, as subjects, we owe to you as our Sovereign; that we abhor the idea of setting ourselves up in a state of independency, and that we know of no such design in others." And this declaration was undoubtedly sincere. The answer to this petition was the King's assent, two months later (April 13, 1775), to an act of Parlia- ment to restrain the trade and commerce of New Jersey and the Colonies to the South. No account of any meeting of the Acquackanonk people on December 12, 1774 (the day fixed by the Essex County Committee for the purpose) has come down to us, and it is probable that none was held until the ensuing May, when the following proceedings took place :
At a meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Acquackanonk in said [Essex] county, held at Mr. James Leslie's, near Acquackanonk Bridge, on Wednesday, the 3d day of May, Anno Domini, 1775, an Association was then and there entered into and subscribed by the Freeholders and inhabitants of said Township, being verbatim the same as that entered into by the Freeholders and inhabitants of Newark, in said
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County, the following gentlemen in number twenty-three were then chosen or elected a General Committee agreeable to said Association.
Michael Vreeland, Esq., in the Chair.
Henry Garritse, Peter Peterse, John Berry, Robert Drummond, Cap- tain Francis Post, Thomas Post, Daniel Niel, Richard Ludlow, Captain Abraham Godwin, John Spier, Jacob Van Riper, Lucas Wessels, Francis Van Winkle, Cornelius Van Winkle, Henry Post, Junior, Doctor Walter Degraw, John Peer, Jacob Garritse, Jacob Vreeland, Abraham Van Riper, Stephen Ryder. Doctor Nicholas Roche, Committee Clerk.
Of the same number were chosen the following Delegates to attend the Provincial Convention to be held at Trenton, the 23d instant, agreeable to the aforesaid Association, to represent said Township: Henry Garritse, Rob- ert Drummond, Michael Vreeland and John Berry, Esquires.
Peter Peterse, Esquire, Daniel Niel, Richard Ludlow, Thomas Post and Doctor Nicholas Roche, are appointed a Committee of Correspondence for said Township; Daniel Niel, Deputy Chairman to the General Committee, and Richard Ludlow, Deputy Clerk.
The Newark declaration, above referred to, reads as follows:
We, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Newark, hav- ing deliberately considered the only avowed design of the ministry of Great Britain to raise a revenue in America; being affected with horrour at the Bloody Scene now acting in the Massachusetts Bay, for carrying that arbi- trary design into execution; firmly convinced that the very existence of the rights and liberties of America, can, under God, subsist on no other basis than the most animated and perfect union of its inhabitants ; and being sensi- ble of the necessity in the present exigency of preserving good order and a due regulation in all public measures; with hearts perfectly abhorrent of slavery, do solemnly, under all the sacred ties of religion, honour and love to our Country, associate and Resolve,-That we will personally, and as far as our influence can extend, endeavour to support and carry into execution, whatever measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress or agreed upon by the proposed Convention of Deputies of this Province, for the purpose of preserving and fixing our Constitution on a permanent basis, and opposing the execution of the several despotick and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament, until the wished for reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on constitutional principles can be obtained.
Let us pause for a moment to see where lived these twenty-three men who were selected by their neighbors because of the special trust reposed in them as friends of their country :
From the present city of Paterson there were Michael Vreeland, whose house was near the junction of the present Boulevard and Twentieth avenue ; Captain Francis Post, from the Bogt, or near the present gas-works; Captain Abraham Godwin, who was to seal with his blood his devotion to the cause ; he occupied at this time the Passaic hotel, at the foot of Bank street; Cor- nelius Van Winkle, who was then running the grist-mill opposite the island, and lived in River street, between West and Mulberry streets; Henry Post, junior, who lived on the Wesel road, a few rods south of Market street ; Ste- phen Ryder, who lived near Garret Rock, and who subsequently became a Tory, and was accused of being a party to the massacre of Jonathan Hopper, at the Wagraw mill, in 1779.
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From the present city of Passaic there were Robert Drummond, a mer- chant, who within eighteen months was major of a battalion of men on the British side; Daniel Niel, who lived on the River road, near Brook avenue, and who fell at Princeton just nine months from the date of this meeting ; Richard Ludlow, a merchant, a short distance below Niel; Lucas Wessels, the tanner, who owned the Simmons homestead; Francis Van Winkle, who lived next to Daniel Niel, on the north, and who was afterwards lessee of the tavern adjoining the church; Jacob Vreeland, a farmer, living east of Main avenue.
Henry Garritse lived at the northwest corner of the Wesel and Clifton roads; Jacob Garritse was probably on the farm next north; he died in the ensuing September ; Peter Peterse lived on the Wesel road half a mile to the north, and John Spier at the southwest corner of the Wesel road and Crooks avenue, all four in the present Acquackanonk township. Dr. Nicholas Roche probably lived on the Wesel road, between Henry Garritse and Peter Peterse.
The Third River neighborhood was represented by John Berry and Abraham Van Riper, and Dr. Walter Degraw probably lived near the Notch.
Thus the different sections of Old Acquackanonk were carefully recog- nized and admirably represented in the selection of this important commit- tee. The Bergen County Committee met May 12, 1775, and appointed a Standing Committee of Correspondence of fifteen members, of whom Theunis Dey, Esquire, of Lower Preakness, was one.
At the next sitting of the General Assembly, held at Burlington, May 15, 1775, Messrs. Stephen Crane and Henry Garritse were again present, as the representatives of the great county of Essex, and Theunis Dey and John Demarest for Bergen county. As before, Messrs. Garritse and Dey appear on the side of the American cause in every vote recorded. The Assembly, in their address to Governor Franklin, maintained the ground, with dignity and force, that they could assent to no proposition that conceded the right of the British Parliament, in which they had no representation, to impose revenue taxes on the American people without their consent. The next step by New Jersey was the assembling of its first Provincial Congress, on Tues- day, May 23, 1775, at Trenton. In this body Henry Garritse, Michael Vree- land, Robert Drummond and John Berry, all of Acquackanonk, were among the deputies from Essex county ; from the upper part of the present Passaic county there was Edo Merselis, of Upper Preakness. At this Congress, measures were taken for organizing the male inhabitants, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, into companies of eighty men, in each township and cor- poration, and for equipping the same. This same Congress met again, Au- gust 5, 1775, when Messrs. Garritse, Vreeland, Drummond and Merselis were found in their seats as before. Further measures were taken for organizing the militia, besides a body of minute men. The latter were to serve four months at a time, and Bergen county was required to furnish four companies of 64 men each, officers included, and Essex county six companies, consti- tuting one battalion in each of these counties. An incident at this session is
MAJOR ROBERT DRUMMOND.
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ACTED PAYS
2
MRS. ROBERT DRUMMOND.
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of special interest to our county. Robert Erskine was managing the iron works at Ringwood and Charlottesburgh for a London Company of capital- ists. The eagerness of sundry recruiting officers led them to persuade some of his workmen to enlist in the Provincial militia, then organizing, they being hardy fellows, well fitted for active service in the field, and much inclined thereto. So he shrewdly organized a company of his own, which he hastened to place at the service of the Province. The Provincial Congress gratefully accepted his company, and made him captain, August 5, 1775.
Robert Drummond was the only member from this county who attended the Congress in October. The session was almost exclusively occupied with war legislation, which reads strangely like that of ninety years later.
Another sitting of the General Assembly began at Burlington, November 15, 1775, when Henry Garritse and Theunis Dey were again in their places. The House even at this late day directed the New Jersey members of the Continental Congress "not to give their assent to, but utterly to reject any propositions, if such should be made, that may separate this Colony from the Mother Country, or change the form of Government thereof." No doubt this was the sentiment of practically the whole body.
CHAPTER II.
Washington's retreat through Acquackanonk-Warning of the coming of the enemy-Anxious moments at a bridge over the Hackensack. British pursuit of American forces-The destruction of the bridge at Acquackanonk Landing.
Tramp !- Tramp !- Tramp !- Tramp !-- What flying band with thundering tread Along the bridge disordered led, With rapid and alarming stamp Now hurries o'er the tide, Waking the echoes far and wide? On-on they come-tumultuous come ! With rattling arms, and clamoring drum: Till all the wooden arches round Challenge around the intruding sound, And clank for clank, and stamp for stamp rebound!
-"Passaic, a Group of Poems Touching That River," by Flaccus (Thomas Ward).
While many a gallant patriot soldier from Acquackanonk, the Goffle, Totowa, Little Falls, Cedar Grove, Preakness, Pompton, Ringwood and West Milford, was to be found in the ranks of the American troops in those early days, still, War had not "reared his horrid front" within the present Passaic county, and it was not until November, 1776, that the peaceful region of Acquackanonk was desolated by the march of hostile armies. The battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776) had brought mingled hope and dismay to the patriots-hope, when they found how bravely our men could fight, and how skilfully they were commanded by Washington ; dismay, when the disas- trous defeat and the ominous retreat were heralded abroad. With painful apprehension they followed the course of the American leader and his dimin-
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ishing band of heroes as they fell back to New York, and thence to West- chester county. After the battle at White Plains, on October 28, 1776, Wash- ington, seeing the concentration of the British forces in that neighborhood, under Lieut .- Gen. Sir William Howe, conceived that it was the purpose of the enemy to march over into New Jersey. On November 6 he wrote that he regarded this design "as highly probable, and almost certain," and avowed his intention, as soon as he should be satisfied on this point, to for- ward part of his own forces into New Jersey, to counteract the project of Howe. He had already, indeed, some days before this date, ordered Brig .- Gen. Adam Stephen, then at Trenton, with a Virginia brigade, to march them forward to Gen. Greene, then at Fort Lee, and at this time they were understood to be on the way. They advanced with such extreme delibera- tion, however, that although they were at Princeton on the 8th, and although Gen. Mercer ordered them forward "with all expedition" to join Gen. Greene at Fort Lee, they never advanced further than Amboy. Gen. Greene counted confidently on their support. "I shall order Gen. Stephen on as far as Equacanock at least," he wrote to Gen. Washington, on November 9; "that is an important post. I am fortifying it as fast as possible."
From a military point of view Acquackanonk certainly was of great importance. It was on the only direct route from Fort Lee to Newark and points south of that town, and the bridge across the river there was the only convenient means of crossing the Passaic, without going so far out of the way as Totowa. The commanders of both armies appreciated the strategic importance of the Acquackanonk bridge, as we shall see presently. On the very day that Gen. Greene wrote thus, the bridge was being utilized by Gen. Mercer, in hurrying forward troops to the relief of Greene, who reported the next day (November 10) to Washington: "Gen. Mercer is with me now. About five hundred more are marching from Amboy directly for Dobbs's Ferry." The men brought by Gen. Mercer were probably the first consider- able body of soldiery to march through Acquackanonk.
In the meantime Washington, in order to protect the Jerseys against the threatened British invasion, had ordered Gen. Lord Stirling to march from up the Hudson into New Jersey, to interpose his tried and true brigade be- tween New Brunswick and Philadelphia, in order to cover the sittings of Congress. On November 10 Stirling crossed the Hudson at Haverstraw, and at once began his march down the west side of the river, passing Fort Lee on the 13th, and probably passing through Acquackanonk on the 14th, with eight regiments of foot, three of which he left at Rahway, and arrived with the other five at New Brunswick on November 17.
Thus did that rude structure already reverberate with the martial tread of the patriot soldiery, hastening in opposite directions, but all under the direction of the far-seeing Washington, and for the resistance of the in- vaders.
On November 7 the American commander wrote to Gov. Livingston, of New Jersey, advising "that the inhabitants contiguous to the water should be prepared to remove their stock, grain, effects, and carriages, upon the earliest
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notice. If they are not, the calamities they will suffer will be beyond descrip- tion, and the advantages derived to the enemy immensely great. * * The article of forage is of great importance to 'em; not a blade should re- main for their use. What cannot be removed with convenience should be consumed without the least hesitation." His Adjutant-General, Joseph Reed, wrote at the same time, with prophetic vision, of the prospective invasion of New Jersey : "My heart melts within me at the thought of having that fine country desolated, for it is of little consequence which army passes. It is equally destructive to friend and foe. In accordance with Washington's advice, the Essex County Committee issued an address, urging the inhabitants of that county, especially "those living near the water, or on the great roads leading through the country, to remove their stock, grain, hay, carriages, and other effects, into some place of safety back into the country, that they may not fall into the enemy's hands." Many a farmer of Acquackanonk and vicinity sorely lamented three weeks later that he had not heeded this timely warning. Washington, on November 8, in justification of this harsh order, wrote: "Experience has shown that a contrary conduct is not of the least advantage to the poor inhabitants, from whom all their effects of every kind are taken, without distinction, and without the least satisfaction."
On November 9 Washington advised the President of Congress (the sturdy John Hancock) that Gen. Howe "still has in view an expedition to the Jerseys, and is preparing for it with the greatest industry." To check this threatened manœuver he had ordered a division to cross the Hudson river, which he hoped would pass over at Peekskill that day, and another the next day, and he proposed to follow himself, "in order to put things in the best train I can, to give him [Howe] every possible opposition." The next day he hastened to Peekskill, to push the movement of his forces, and after two or three days of anxious inspection and direction, hurried down the river to Gen. Greene, at Fort Lee, where he arrived November 13. The next day he wrote that he proposed to quarter his troops at Brunswick, Amboy, Elizabethtown, Newark and about Fort Lee. Gen. Greene at this time had 4,682 officers and men on the Jersey shore, nearly half (2,158) of whom, however, were on outguards or detached duty, 168 being stationed at Hackensack, Bergen, etc. On November 15 Washington was at Hacken- sack, whence he rode in the afternoon to Fort Lee, on hearing that Col. Magaw had been summoned to surrender Fort Washington, on the opposite shore of the Hudson river. The next day, to his intense mortification, and to the dismay of the Americans, that fort was captured by the British, after a brief but fierce engagement, with its garrison, 2,634 officers and men, be- sides great quantities of army stores. This disaster opened the way for the British to enter New Jersey, which they did by a very adroit movement on the rainy night of November 19, landing six or eight thousand men under command of Lieut .- Gen. Earl Cornwallis, early next morning at or near Closter Dock, between Dobbs' Ferry and Fort Lee, and within five or six miles of the fort. By ten o'clock the startling news reached Washington, at
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Hackensack, who hastily galloped over to Gen. Greene's headquarters, where the intelligence was confirmed by a patriot farmer, who had hurried from the scene at the landing. To this man's zeal General Howe ascribed his failure to surround and capture the fort and garrison. Since the loss of the fortifi- cation on the opposite side of the river, Washington had been causing the stores and munitions to be removed from Fort Lee, with a view to distribut- ing them at "Acquaykinac Bridge" and other places further south, where they "would not be subject to sudden danger in case the enemy should pass the [Hudson] river." This removal had not been fully accomplished at this time, and on the first impulse he ordered out the troops to meet the enemy, but finding they were facing greatly superior numbers, they were withdrawn. This post, garrisond by only about 2,000 men, was obviously no longer tena- ble, so Gen. Greene hastily retreated, in some confusion, abandoning much stores and ordnance, and marched across the country for Hackensack, six miles distant. The "New" bridge (as it is still called) across the broad Hackensack river, about two miles above the town, was distant six miles from the Americans, and but three miles from the British advance. Wash- ington placed himself at the head of his troops, and marched them straight for the bridge. It was an anxious moment. Would the enemy dispute the passage? Fortunately they did not, and the greater part of the army crossed it in safety ; others by the ferry, and still others by a mill-dam on a small creek between the bridge and the ferry, making their way through the marsh and over the river. It was about dusk when the head of the troops entered the village-a dark, cold and rainy night, the men "ragged, some without a shoe to their feet, and most of them wrapped in their blankets." Washing- ton's headquarters had been located at Hackensack since November 15, in a private house, of Peter Zabriskie, his mess table being supplied by Archibald Campbell, the tavern-keeper hard by. Orders, reports and letters had been issued from these headquarters in a steady stream on November 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20; but now the situation was no longer safe. As he had been hemmed in between the Hudson and the Hackensack, so now he was similarly hemmed in between the Hackensack and the Passaic, with an overwhelming force opposed to him. He writes to Gen. Lee, from Hackensack, on the morning of November 21 : "As this country is almost a dead flatt, we have not an entrenching tool, & not above 3,000 men, & they much broken & dispirited not only with our ill success, but the loss of their tents and bag- gage, I have resolved to avoid any attack, tho' by so doing, I must leave a very fine country open to their ravages, or a plentiful store house, from which they will draw voluntary supplies." One more letter the general wrote from Hackensack, that same morning, to the President of Congress, giving substantially the same reasons for his course. Then the long-roll was sounded, and the sorrowful retreat was resumed. Before Washington left he rode down to the dock, where the bridge now is, near the court house, and viewed the enemy's encampment, stretched out in martial array on the opposite side of the river. Then he turned his horse's head and followed his diminished army. What were his emotions as he wheeled about from gazing
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