History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 158

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 158
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 158

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We condense the following respecting the war in New Brunswick from Dr. Steel's Historical Discourse and other sources :

New Brunswick suffered during the war to an ex- tent to which few towns were subjected. It lay in the path of the two armies crossing and recrossing the State, and in the varying fortunes of war was at one time in the hands of the enemy, and at another under the protection of friends. During the winter of 1776-77 the city was in the possession of the British army, who occupied it by a large force. Lord Howe, the commander-in-chief, had his headquarters in the Neilson house, in Burnet Street, while the Hessian commander occupied the Van Nuise house, on Queen Street. The hill beyond the theological seminary was fortified ; a post was erected at Raritan Landing, overlooking the river, and another on Bennet's Island, two miles below the city. Many of the British offi- cers were quartered upon the inhabitants; the citizens were compelled to abandon their residences ; all busi- ness was suspended ; schools and churches were broken up, and the whole town was under the absolute sway of the enemy. On the property of William Van Deur- sen, below New Street, there was an encampment, with a redoubt thrown up for their protection.

The soldiers remained in possession of the city about six months, Lord Cornwallis having command of the post. During the months of February and March they were shut up in the town and cut off from their base of supplies at Amboy. To relieve them a fleet was sent up the Raritan with provisions.

The fate of that fleet was a matter of anxious inter- est on both sides, the British expecting it, yet fearing it would fall into the hands of the enemy, and the Americans planning for its destruction. Receiving timely information that the fleet had started up the Raritan, the Americans in the night planted a battery of six cannon on the shore below New Brunswick, and in the morning, as Lord Cornwallis was watching eagerly for the approach of the boats, and they were just rounding the point below the city, the battery opened upon them, "when five of the boats were im- mediately disabled and sunk, and the remainder re- turned in a crippled condition to Amboy."

Gen. Howe at this time made an unsuccessful at- tempt to open communication by land.

The farmers throughout this whole section of coun- try were compelled to deliver over their stores into the hands of the British. At Three-Mile Run the build- ings were all plundered and frequently fired. Barns were torn down to supply timber for the construction of a temporary bridge over the Raritan, and some of the most wanton cruelties were inflicted.

" But they were not allowed to remain in the un- disturbed possession of the town. Cols. Neilson and Taylor gave them constant trouble; Capt. Guest was on the watch for a favorable opportunity to pounce upon the Hessians ; James Schureman, who had learned something of war at the battle of Long Island, gave them no rest, while Capt. Hyler, whose adventures with his whale-boat around Staten Island seem almost romantic, and who could fight on land as well as on water, kept them in constant apprehension. These officers watched every movement of the enemy, drove back their foraging parties into the city, and often skirmished with their outposts.

" Deeds of personal valor were of frequent occur- rence, and traditions are preserved in the families of the town of heroism unsurpassed in the whole history of the conflict.

" Col. Neilson organized a secret expedition against the outpost of the British on Bennet's Island, now known as Island Farm. With a picked command numbering two hundred men he stealthily approached the works on the morning of February 18th, some time before daybreak. It was a clear, cold night, and a fresh fall of snow rendered the undertaking ex- tremely hazardous. But they reached the works with- out being discovered, and Col. Neilson was the first man to leap the stockade. Capt. Farmer saved the life of his commander at this moment by aiming a well- directed blow at the sentinel, who was in the act of discharging his musket into his breast. The short engagement lasted only a few minutes, when the works were surrendered by Maj. Stockton, who was the acting commander of the post in the absence of Col. Skinner. One captain, several subordinate officers, and fifty-five privates were taken prisoners, and a quantity of munitions of war were captured. The British knew nothing of the event, as only a few guns were fired, until some time during the morning, when the Americans with their prisoners and booty were far on their way towards Princeton, where Gen. Putnam was stationed, into whose hands they deliv- ered their spoils. Col. Neilson and his men received from Gen. Washington a very high compliment for the wisdom with which he had planned, and the secrecy with which he had executed, this most suc- cessful expedition.

" On the 28th of May, Washington, who had spent the previous winter at Morristown, marched his army of seven thousand five hundred men to the heights of Middlebrook. Here he lay for two weeks, watching

1 Guest's Journal, pp. 144, 146.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

the movements of the enemy at Brunswick from a position which has since been called 'Washington's Rock.' In the mean while the route to Amboy had been opened, both by land and water, and troops had been pushed forward to this point in large numbers, until by the 12th of June, 1777, an army of seventeen thousand British and Hessians was assembled, under those veteran commanders, Gens. Howe, Cornwallis, and De Heister. Both the English and German com- manders were agreed that they had never seen a more splendid army, or one so well disciplined and equipped, and in better spirits.1 On the 14th they marched out of the city in the direction of Middle- bush, with the design of drawing on an engagement with Washington, if they could induce him to leave the strong position which he occupied. Remains of the fortifications which they hastily threw up are still visible on the farm of Mr. John Wilson. Here the enemy remained until the 19th, when, failing in their design, they returned to New Brunswick, and made immediate preparations to evacuate the State. They were pursued by the Americans, and so greatly harassed on their retreat that it was not until the 1st of July that they were able to cross over from Amboy to the place of their destination on Staten Island."

Governor Dowain, of Massachusetts, bore the fol- lowing testimony in regard to the firmness and pa- triotism of the people of New Brunswick during the struggle for independence: "With respect to the political principles of the inhabitants of New Bruns- wick, it may be proper to do them the justice of add- ing that they have, throughout the whole course of the war, approved themselves firm and distinguished Whigs, and inflexibly preserved their attachment to the cause of America in the most gloomy and perilous times of her conflict with Great Britain."

Capt. Hyler, to whose romantic exploits reference is made by the historians, had his rendezvous at New Brunswick. He had under his command one gun- boat, the " Defiance," and several large whale-boats, with which it was his custom to proceed down the Raritan, and among the trading-vessels, transports, and plundering parties of the enemy around Staten Island, Long Island, and in the neighborhood of Sandy Hook. He selected only the bravest men, so expert in the use of the oar that when rowing at the rate of twelve miles an hour they could be heard only at a short distance. He had the faculty of in- fnsing into his men his own spirit of adventure and daring. On one of his excursions he captured five vessels, two of them armed, in about fifteen minutes, within pistol-shot of the guard-ship at Sandy Hook. In another enterprise he captured an eighteen-gun

1 For its numbers that army had not an equal in the world. Every soldier was eager for a battle .- Bancroft, vol. ix. p. 351. The time was eventful and critical. About the time when these two armies confronted each other, viz., June 14th, Congress adopted the flag of our country. The historian remarks, " The immovable fortitude of Washington in his camp at Middlebrook was the salvation of that beautiful flag." p. 352.

cutter, which he was forced to blow up, after remov- ing a quantity of stores and ammunition. His plan was to sally ont of his berth near the upper lock, pass rapidly down the river, make his captures, and dash back again, often pursued by the enemy, who made slow progress with their heavier vessels, and dared not to follow him along the tortnous channel of the Raritan.

" The annoyance was so great that an expedition of three hundred men in several boats was fitted ont to proceed to Brunswick and destroy his whale-boats and recapture some of the ammunition. The plan was carried into effect Jan. 4, 1782. The river was clear of ice, and proceeding cautiously up the Raritan, they had nearly reached the town, when, at midnight, Mr. Peter Wyckoff was awakened by the barking of a watch-dog, and, holding his ear to the ground, he heard the measured stroke of muffled oars, and at once concluded that an attack was to be made upon the city. Mounting a fleet horse, he gave the alarm to Capt. Guest and spread the word from house to house, warning the inhabitants of danger. A scene of great excitement now ensued. Lights flashed through the town, and in a short space of time all the able-bodied men were under arms. But the enemy had reached the whale-boats and set them on fire, when our men came up and driving them off pre- vented them from accomplishing their purpose. They now found that their only safety consisted in a hasty retreat. The night was dark, and a running fight took place in the streets. The British endeavored to reach their boats by passing down Queen Street to their rendezvous at the foot of Town Lane. But they were intercepted at the Dutch Church, from behind the walls of which a volley was fired as they passed on eager only to escape. The principal skirmish took place near Mr. Agnew's, but they succeeding in reach- ing the river and made their way back to Staten Island. The enemy's loss in this encounter was four men killed and several wounded. On the side of the Americans there was the loss of six men wounded, none fatally, and five or six prisoners. A ball was shot through the body of John Nafey in this skir- mish, but the prompt attention of Col. Taylor saved his life. The enemy completely failed in the object of their expedition, and Capt. Hyler was on the water in a few weeks, more daring than ever." He died in New Brunswick in 1782, but the place of his burial is not known.2

James Schureman, a young man at the Revolution, was very prominent soon after in civil affairs. He graduated at Queen's College about 1773, and through his eloquence chiefly a company was raised in New Brunswick, which served with great credit in the battle of Long Island. He had command as a cap- tain in the early part of the war, and was offered a high position in the regular army. But he preferred

2 Dr. Steele's Historical Discourse, pp. 64, 65.

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to serve as a volunteer, and held himself ready to go out at a moment's warning against the enemy. Being one of Capt. Guest's company at the interception of Col. Simcoe, on the 25th of October, 1779, he saved the life of that officer by knocking up the musket of a comrade, who was in the act of running him through with his bayonet, as Simcoe had fallen wounded un- ' the close of the war.

der bis horse, which had been pierced by three balls. Schureman averted the deadly thrust and took Sim- coe prisoner. The dastardly conduct of the British a few moments later in taking the life of Capt. Peter Voorhees while a prisoner in their hands excited the indignation of the citizens to such an extent that vengeance was threatened against the person of Col. Simcoe, and during the night the town was searched for him. " He was concealed in the old stone house on the corner of Neilson and Albany Streets, from whence he was removed to Burlington, where he re- mained a prisoner until honorably exchanged."

Mr. Schureman was taken prisoner during the war near the mills on Lawrence Brook, and after being confined for a few days in the guard-house near the Neilson mansion be was removed to the notorious " Sugar-House" in New York, whence he made his escape to the American army at Morristown. After the war was closed he was elected a member of Con- gress in 1789, after which he was chosen to the United States Senate for a full term, and was again returned to the House of Representatives in 1812 as a colleague with Richard Stockton. He served sev- eral terms as mayor of New Brunswick, and as a citizen was held in high esteem. He was a grandson of the schoolmaster, Jacobus Schureman, who came from Holland with Dominie Frelinghuysen, and died Jan. 22, 1824, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

New Brunswick in 1799 .- From the newswaper of that period, The Guardian and New Brunswick Advertiser, which commenced its eighth year Oct. 29, 1799, we learn something of the condition of New Brunswick at the close of the last century :

At that time New Jersey was divided into congres- sional districts as follows : Eastern District, Essex, Bergen, and Middlesex ; John Condit, representative. Northern District, Morris and Essex ; Aaron Kitchell, representative. Western, Hunterdon and Somerset ; James Linn, representative. Middle District, Mon- mouth and Burlington ; James H. Imlay, representa- tive. Southern, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May ; Franklin Davenport, representative.

above places, as Raritan, Cranbury, and Somerset, were sometimes sent to the Princeton post-office. Oc- casionally letters brought up at this office intended for the British province of New Brunswick, as we notice letters advertised here for well-known Tories who had fled to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia at

News from Europe averaged about six weeks in reaching the city, and when it arrived it was eagerly read at this time, as the citizens were deeply inter- ested in the wars of France and England then in progress. Most of the citizens who had business at New York went by private conveyances, leaving their teams at Powles Hook (Jersey City) or Hoboken. "The Hobuck House and Ferry," kept by John Town, at Hoboken, seems to have been well patron- ized by New Brunswickers. Mr. Town took care of the teams while the owners crossed over in sail- or. row-boats. A New Brunswick merchant would usu- ally require the best part of three days to go to New York, transact business, and return. Much of the merchandise taken to and from the city was in sloops and schooners, and by them a large amount of lumber was brought from Egg Harbor, Virginia, etc. Some of these sailing-vessels were regular packets, carrying passengers and freight. The sloop " Hope for Peace," Capt. Nicholas Auten, and the " Independence," car- ried passengers as far as Albany.

Among the principal merchants of New Bruns- wick at the close of the last century may be men- tioned the following : Robert Eastburn, Church Street; Jacob R. Hardenbergh, Samuel Clarkson, Samuel Barker, Church Street; William Lawson, Jr., near the market; Perez Rowley, S. J. & H. Rudderow, Albany Street; George Young, Jr., Peace Street, all dealers in dry-goods, groceries, medicines, etc. ; Willett Warne, Albany Street, hardware ; James Richmond, lumber, plaster, grass-seeds, etc. ; Michael Pool, Queen Street, hats and furs ; John Dennis, Jr., lumber, plaster, paints, etc., houses to let, agent for packets, etc .; William Forman, lumber; Williams & Leslie, watch- and clock-makers, plated ware, silver knee-buckles, etc., had also a branch store at Trenton ; Timothy Brush, auctioneer, land and intelligence office, houses, lots, plantations, negro men, wenches, and children for sale, let, or hire, etc .; Miss Hay Burnet, young ladies' high school, French, music, dancing, etc.

Among the now almost forgotten articles then sold by merchants were knee- and shoe-buckles, bellows, and snuffers; and in dry-goods, rattinets, calaman- coes, sballoons, wildboars plain and figured, peelongs, durants, dowlass, moreens, etc.

Then letters for the following places were directed to the New Brunswick office : Somerset, Scotch Plains, Raritan Landing, Amboy, North, South, and Middle Branches, Cranbury, Bonhamtown, Millstone, Stony At that day it will be remembered that women under certain circumstances were allowed to vote. It is a sad commentary on the frailty of human nature that even the fair sex were then charged with illegal voting ! In the New Brunswick paper it is charged Hill, Piscataway, Basking Ridge, Spotswood, Bridge- water, Six-Mile Run, etc. Imagine the residents of these places at the present day depending on the New Brunswick office for mail facilities on account of its having the nearest post-office ! Letters for some of the | that the Jefferson candidate for Congress in Essex

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

was elected by the large number of fraudulent or illegal votes given by married women and girls from fifteen years old upwards. It is consoling to know that the Middlesex ladies were above cheating at the ballot-box !

A singular adjunct to the business of the publisher of the New Brunswick paper at that day was the acting as agent for the sale of so many things adver- tised in his paper, and at the present day the most singular of all seem such as the following :

" To be sold, a negro man about 45 years old, with his wife aged 32, and child 3 years old; and, if wanted, a fine boy 6 years old; also a negro wench, husband and child, 2 years old; a negro fellow, 21 years old; a fine wench, 15 years old, etc. Enquire of the printer. Wanted to purchase a healthy negro man for farm work. Enquire of the printer."

Stray negroes were occasionally put in jail, their owners advertised for, and if none came forward they were sold to pay expenses of arrest and jail fees.

Connected with the early history of the place when it was known as Inians' Ferry is the following inci- dent : Thomas Budd, from whom Budd's Lake took its name, purchased a large tract of land from the Indians, which he supposed was in West Jersey, as the division between the provinces was not then very certain. This was in 1687, or about that time, before Coxe and Barclay had agreed upon their compromise line. Budd had been to New York to purchase goods to pay off the Indians for the laud, and when on his way back, at John Inians', he was met by the sheriff and posse of East Jersey, armed with a warrant from the Governor and Council for his arrest. He was charged with having contrary to law convened the Indians within the bounds of East Jersey and pur- chased lands of them which belonged to the East Jersey proprietors. He refused to be arrested, clain- ing that he was then within the bounds of West Jer- sey, locked himself in, and defied the authorities to take him. Some of the people of West Jersey came over ostensibly to visit him, but with the design of effecting his rescue. The Governor being informed of this state of things sent up from Amboy a stronger force to assist the sheriff. Budd stood out for five days, incarcerated in some room of Inians' tavern, but finding it useless longer to resist he surrendered, was taken before the Governor and Council, and bound over in the sum of one thousand pounds to appear and answer at the Court of Common Right to be held at Perth Amboy in October.

We are not informed how the case was finally set- tled, but it is probable that Budd gave up his Indian purchase, as before the convening of the court in Oc- tober the partition line had been agreed upon.

CHAPTER XCIV. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK .-- ( Continued.)

a small place. "The little hamlet," says the Gazette, "hugged the river, and even Albany Street above Neilson was sparsely settled." In 1811 on the south side were the old Revolutionary stone house, on the corner the old Gazette printing-office, just above, and after- wards occupied by Justice Henry, and the carriage manufactory of John Van Nuis ; above that, opposite, were the roomy old place, afterwards occupied by Justice Nevius and the Leupp estate, whose old white wooden building has been torn down within a few years. The north side was several feet above the south, so that the road shelved decidedly. It was very steep in its descent to the river. The door of the present Nevius residence was but one step from the sidewalk, now it is a dozen. While the ground was higher above than at present, it was much lower be- low. The old yellow building next to the Times news- paper office, now even with the sidewalk, was formerly three steps above the ground, and a pavement las been found several feet below the present surface. About the year we speak of, 1811, the street was graded, the upper part cut down and the lower filled up. But to make the north side of the street even with the south would have left the foundations of the Nevius residence clear above ground, so that to this day one side of the street in that vicinity is two feet higher than the other.

In 1828 there were about five thousand population, seven linndred and fifty dwellings, over a hundred large stores, including a dozen grain-stores and twenty taverns. What rare old times for Bonifaces were the stage-coach days! The hotels were of two kinds,-for farmers and for through travelers. The former flocked in for trade, the latter rested on their journey. The city was then bounded by George and New Streets. South of New Street the houses could be numbered upon the fingers of one hand, barring out, of course, Burnet Street, which led to the steamboat-dock. West of George Street there was but one house. The old stone mansion which stands on the corner of Livingston Avenue and Carroll Place was then quite in the country, as were the two famous old Adrain willows, near making many a stage-coach tumble in the hollow, which were recently cut down in the work of widening and leveling the avenue. The house, the residence of Mr. Edward S. Vail, was built, according to the inscription on a stone over the front portico, in 1760 hy Henry Gnest. The walls were made three feet thick, and "old Guest" himself, according to tradi- tion, " said to his son that if his descendants would only keep a roof on it the house would stand till Gabriel blew his trump." Tom Paine was barri- caded in the house by his hosts, the Guests, from the violence of the loyal mob of Brunswick, who sought to punish him for his treasonable writings. Here, too, were written those wonderful " poems" of the son of Moses Guest, afterwards published iu Cincin-

Review of the City's Progress .- About the be- ginning of the present century New Brunswick was | nati, among which figure that gem, " To Pave or Not

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to Pave," and that highly humorous satire on the old " Toll Bridge."

Farther up the Trenton turnpike, and then as far out of town as it is now in, stood the old frame building oc- cupied by the ex-mayor, McDonald, which was built at the close of the last century by the father of the late John Van Nnis. From it stretched ont south to the Mile-Run Brook the large Van Nuis farm, which has been within some twenty-five years divided into city lots and built upon. The house was later the resi- dence of the sainted Livingston, president of the college, who is yet remembered as an exceptional specimen of the muscular Christian, a giant in form and in faith, strong in muscle and mind, a man all over and a Christian all through. Still later the Adrain family came into possession of the place and planted those two wonderful old willows at the foot of the hill, which the local iconoclasts, the street commissioners, have removed to make way for im- provements.

At this time Dennis Street was a skating-pond in winter and a swamp in summer. Commons ex- tended north of Somerset Street. The aristocracy lived on Little Burnet Street and the little alley crossing it, a fine row of elaborately-finished brick houses standing there. The generous resideuce of Governor Paterson occupied the site of the present Paterson Block. The dry-goods marts were on Bur- net Street below the post-office, the shops on Church Street, grain warehouses on Water Street, the hotels for the traders there ranged on Water Street also, and were always crowded.

The trade was then very largely wholesale. The city drained Warren, Hunterdon, Sussex, and Som- erset Counties, and Northumberland County, Pa., and the country along the upper Delaware, of grain, while it supplied them with fish and salt, dry-goods and merchandise. Old Monmouth and the country to the south was little better than a desert of sand, before the mines of marl were married to the virgin soil, and the latter brought forth in such abundance as to make Monmouth the second county in the Union. The grain was brought by the Jersey turnpike road in great wagons carrying twenty-eight barrels, and drawn by four and six horses. They made two trips a week, and an old resident remembers counting forty- two of these great wagons lying in Water Street, the pole of each under the wagon before it, remaining there groaning with grain overnight, to be emptied at morn into the great warehouses, of which Mr. Run- yon's, formerly the business house of James Bishop, Sr., is now the sole remaining relic. Elias Runyon stands as the survivor or relic of our solid men of Brunswick, like James Bishop, Sr., and John Bergan, and Jolin Brush and Holcombe Cox. These merchants and their peers sold direct to New York dealers, and shipped to them by the dozen sloops, which at that time were constantly plying between our docks and the metropolis. There were three hundred thousand

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 158

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224