USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Warren County, New Jersey > Part 2
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IO
WARREN COUNTY.
The land of Warren county was obtained from the Indians by what is known as "The last purchase made by the Council of Propri- etors above the branches of Rarington between the River Delaware and the bounds of the Eastern Division of the said Province."
For this purpose, Governor Robert Hunter, on December 5, 1712,
"Lycensed and authorized Daniel Coxe, Thomas Gard- ner, Joseph Kirkbride, Thomas Stevenson, Peter Fretwell and John Wills, to call together the Indians or native inhabitants that profess to be or call themselves owners of any tract or tracts of Land in the Western Division of the said province and to treet with, bye, purchase and accept of a deed or deeds of sale from said Indians or natives in behalf of themselves and of such others of the proprietors of the said western division as they shall associate to themselves before the making of such purchase eranging of such deed or deeds such quantity or num- ber of ackers of land or lands yet unpurchased as they by virtue of those proprietyes are entitled to take up or to make further purchase of, provided the said purchase be made and entered in the proprietors' office of this province within two years after the date hereof and for soedoing this shall be a sufficient warrant."
In accordance with this warrant, the Commissioners called together the Indians of what is now Warren and part of Sussex counties, and on August 18, 1713, secured four deeds from the Indian owners of that territory. The deeds were recorded on December 4, 1714, on the last day allowable by the commission from Governor Hunter. The follow- ing is an abstract from the Indian deed for the Southern part of War- ren County. It is recorded in book BBB of deeds, page 144, in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton :
"On August 18, 1713, Sasakamon, Wowapekoshot and Wenacci- koman, Indian Sachemas and owners of land in the western division of New Jersey sold to Daniel Coxe, Matthew Gardner, Thomas Stev- enson, Joseph Kirkbride, John Budd, John Wills, and Peter Fretwell all of them proprietors and commissioners empowered by his excellency, Col. Robert Hunter, Governor of the province of New Jersey to pur- chase-lands of the Indians, for and in consideration of ten guns, fiveteen blankets, fiveteen kettles, twenty matchcoats, twenty shirts, eight
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WARREN COUNTY.
strouds, ten paire of stockings, three paire of shoes and buckles, ten pound of powder, twenty-five barrs of lead, ten hatchets, twenty knives, tive pounds in silver money, three coates, ten hilling hoes, ten pounds of red lead, ten looking glasses, fivety awles, one hundred botls, fiveteen paire of tobacco tongs, five gallons of rum, ten tobacco boxes, and one hundred needles, all that tract of land bounded with the River Dela- ware on the south and southwestwardly sides on the north with the land late Matamyska's now sold to the proprietors, on the eastward by the land purchased of the Indians by Col. Loursmans and the last purchase made by the proprietors on the lower side of the Musconetcong river. "In witness whereof we the above named Sasakamon, Wowa- pekoshot, and Wenaccikoman have hereunto Set our Hand and Seales the eighteenth day of August in the yeare of our Lord one Thousand Seven Hundred & thirteen and in the twelfth yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereign Lady Anne Queen over Great Britain, France and Ireland, etc."
The Indian possessory rights to the northern portion of Warren County were transferred to the proprietors by a deed recorded in book BBB of deeds, page 140, in the office of the Secretary of State at Tren- ton. It is, in part, as follows :
"On Aug. 18, 1713, Menakahikkon, Mattamiska, Lappawinza and Ungoon, Indian Sachemas, for and in consideration of, sixteen strouds, twenty duffles, one and twenty blankets, thirteen guns, three large kettles, fourteen small kettles, three coates, twenty shirts, twenty paire of stockings, five pounds in silver money, six caines, fourty pounds of gunpowder, fourty barrs of lead, six hatts, twenty hatchets, twenty hoes, six drawing knives, six hand saws, twenty paire of tobacco tongs, three hundred tobacco pipes, one hundred knives, one hundred paire of sissers, six frying pans, fourteen pounds of red lead, twelve looking glasses, five paire of spectacles, twenty tobacco boxes, five pewter por- ringers, fourty jews harps, two hundred awles, one hundred neadles, two hundred fishhooks, twenty-one gallons of rum, one barrell of cyder, ten gallons of molasses, five gallons of wine, twenty-four glass bottles, one hundred small botls, and three pounds in black and white wampum sold land bounded northwards with the land of Queneemaka, eastward with the river Musconetcong or the lands of Taphow and his relations southwards with the lands of Sasakeman, Wowapekoshot, and Wanka- nicoman, and westward with the River Delaware."
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WARREN COUNTY.
The land of Queneemaka referred to was "about four miles higher upon the river than Pahaqualong, unto or neare the upper part of the Minnisinks."
A "stroud," mentioned in the consideration, was a kind of coarse blanket; a duffle was a kind of coarse woolen cloth having a thick nap, and is a name still applied to a square of soft woolen cloth which is folded around the ankle and foot instead of a stocking.
On October 26, 1758, at Easton, Pennsylvania, at a great confer- ence of 507 Indians with Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, Sheriff Orndt, of Northampton County, and the New Jersey Commissioners for Indian affairs, the Indians acknowledged and delivered deeds that gave up all their claims to land in New Jersey. One of these deeds was dated September 12, 1758, for "All the lands lying in New Jersey south of a line from Paoqualin mountains at Delaware River, to the falls of Alamatung on the north branch of Raritan River thence down that river to Sandy Hook." This deed was acknowledged by Teedyus- cung, Unwallacon and Tespascawen, and witnessed by three chiefs of the Six Nations. The other deed was dated October 23, 1758, and was for all land in New Jersey north of the same line, which ran from the Water Gap to Sandy Hook, and was given by sixteen chiefs of the Munsies, Wopings, and Opings or Pomptons, endorsed by Ninham and approved by the Six Nations. Although this gave up the last of the Indians' title to the lands of New Jersey, yet in 1832 the legislature made a payment of $2,000 to the Delaware Indians, who were then living in Wisconsin, for any remaining rights they might have to or in New Jersey.
The Indians living in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania called themselves the Lenni-Lenape, but are more commonly referred to as the Delawares, from one of the rivers upon which they dwelt, and which they called the Lenape-Wihittuck. In New Jersey they num- bered in all less than two thousand, but, since they moved frequently from place to place, these few were able to occupy the whole State.
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WARREN COUNTY.
The Lenni-Lenapes were acknowledged as ancestors by forty mighty tribes inhabiting the country from Labrador to Hudson's Bay, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi as far south as Roanoke, Vir- ginia. The only Indian tribes in the northeast that did not acknowledge them as ancestors were the Mengwe, better known as the Iroquois, of Central New York, who had formed a powerful confederation known as the Five Nations, just before Hudson made his great discovery. The Mengwe and the Lenni-Lenapés were hereditary enemies, which fact explains why, in time of war, some Indians were hostile and others. friendly to the white settlers.
The Iroquois were always faithful to the treaty they had made with the Dutch in 1617, called the treaty of Corlear, and to the one made with the English in 1664.
The Delawares in a similar way made a treaty with William Penn at Philadelphia, on November 4, 1682, and, since William Penn and his Quaker friends had acquired the greater part of the proprietary rights to New Jersey, this treaty had its effect also in that State.
The Delaware Indians were subdivided into numerous tribes, which were commonly distinguished by the names of creeks, plains, or mountains of the district they frequented. Those along the upper Delaware were the "Minsi," having the name of Mount Minsi at the Water Gap. Those further south were the "Unami," or Tortoise. Samuel Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," published in 1765, discusses the Indians, saying :
"Their houses or wigwams were sometimes together in towns, but mostly moveable, and occasionally fixed near a spring or other water, according to the conveniences for hunting, fishing, basket making or other business of that sort and built with poles laid on forked sticks in the ground with bark, flags or bushes on top and sides, with an opening to the south, their fire in the middle; at night they slept on the ground with their feet towards it; their clothing was a coarse blanket or skin thrown over the shoulder, which covered to the knee and a piece of the same tied around their legs, with part of a deer skin sewed around their feet for shoes;"
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WARREN COUNTY.
"In person they were upright and straight in their limbs the color of their skin a tawny reddish brown; the whole fashion of their lives of a piece; hardy, poor and squalid. * * * They got fire by rubbing wood of particular sorts (as the antients did out of ivy and bays) by turning the end of a hard piece upon one that was soft and dry; to forward the heat they put dry rotten wood and leaves; with the help of fire and their stone axes, they would fell large trees, and after- wards scoop them into bowls, etc."
After the possessory rights of the Indians had been bought, ex- plorations and surveys were made on behalf of the proprietors. We are fortunate in having a diary recording the experiences of a survey- ing party in Warren County in 1715. It was written by John Reading, Jr., son of John Reading, a deputy surveyor for West Jersey, and is in possession of the New Jersey Historical Society, to whom it was pre- sented by Mr. John Rutherford. That part of the diary referring to Warren County is as follows :
"1715 May 15th. We designed for Pahackqualong but at our departure father and several others came; we set out, thirteen in com- pany, and lodged that night in an Indian town * * on Joseph Kirkbride's land.
"16th we passed over Suckasunning where some gathered iron stone; we crossed the head of both branches of Rarington, and over Musknetkong river, being part of the Delaware river; when we had crossed this river we met with limestone, being the first we saw. We arrived at Allamuch Ahokkingen in the afternoon being an Indian plantation * * Just before we came to said plantation we had sight of Pahackqualong and of the cleft where the river Delaware passes through the same * * *
"May 17. Samuel Green, Joshua Wright and I set out for Pahauckqualong. On our way we crossed the main branch of Paquas- sing [Pequest] and about three miles on the other side in Pahuckqua- path [Johnsonsburg ] we met with John Cramer and Marmaduke Wat- son who went into the woods the night before to seek lands and now returning Marmaduke went back with us * * We went as high as Tohockonetcong River [Paulins Kill] being a branch of the Delaware a considerable big stream. Marmaduke pitched a lott there. I would have surveyed it but was obstructed by the Indians. We viewed the land and lodged there that night.
I5
WARREN COUNTY.
"May 18th. Marmaduke on the morning returned homewards and we set forwards for Pahuck [Indian village in Pahaquarry]. We crossed the above said Tohockonetcong kept the path for the cleft in the hill where Minnisinks path goeth through. We ascended the hill up the same which is caused by a considerable brook which issueth from the top of the same and with difficulty got to the top thereof where we had a prospect of the Indian Plantations below us at the foot of the northwesterly side of the said hill. We descended the same and took view of the land with an intention to survey it. The Shawwenoe Indians came from their towns across the river to us. We went near the river side down to the low end of the lowerland of which about 100 ac. is very rich but the rest indifferent. All the plantations upon the same by the Shawwenoe Indians. We went still down the river along a narrow piece of lowland about one and one-half miles till we came to one of our Indian Plantations where the owner of the same opposed our surveying and would not let us proceed on the same. After some dis- course concerning the purchass of the land we departed and set forward for Penungauchongh (Manunka Chunk). We got an Indian to put us into the path which crosseth the aforesaid mountains. We then re- turned back again and ascended the said mountain in the said path. The hill riseth by steps which are in some places very steep and rocky. We judged the hill to be about three-fourths of a mile high, the top of which is very rocky and not above 2 rods across the very ridge of the same before it descended the other way. We took the course of the river having a fair view of the same upwards and it seems to run N. E. The hill itself runs E. N. E. We likewise took the course of the Penungauchongh lying upon the Delaware river about a mile above Pophanunk river [Pequest ] and it bore S. W. 70° from us. We went on the top of the mountain towards the river about one-half of a mile where in our way we killed a rattle and a green snake. We had the sight of a piece of low land lying down the river but it seemed to belong to Pensilvania and an Island. From the top of the mountain we had a view of both provinces viz. Pensylvania and Jersey. Pensilvania seems very montainy and barren very thin of timber and most of that pine. After this respite we descended the mountain and followed the path to the foot of the same but then left it and went near the said mountain. We went down to Tohockonetcong river where we lodged that night.
"May 19. We set forward in the morning for the cleft in the aforesaid mountain where the river passes through. In our way we could not find any good land. We arrived at the same about ten of the clock-the passage of the river here is narrow but it runneth deep. S[amuel] G[reen] and I went up the same to a rock which shoots
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WARREN COUNTY.
from the hill to the river and deneys a passage for a path any further, which is about 20 foot high, against which we set an Indian ladder; [a tree with limbs cut short for steps]. We ascended the same and at the top thereof left those letters R. S. 1715 and descended. We kept the river side * * * to the aforesaid hill where we got our din- ner and took up our quarters it raining very fast part of the afternoon and lodged there all night.
"May 20. We surveyed a tract of land for father at the head of which we met Thomas Stevenson [another surveyor] including the above said hill called Penungauchong which hill gathers itself out of a piece of low land, very handsomely proportioning in shape the high roof of a house and in height 700 foot. We also surveyed a lott for Robert Field adjoining to the above said tract and fronting upon the river Delaware. At our return to the aforesaid hill we met father and R. Bull, Z. Wetherill and John Chapman who were gathering slate at the foot of the same. We all went to the [quarters ] we had made the night before and there slept, father relating the discoveries made by them viz, of a large lake called Huppachong [Hopatcong] and of a rock at the end of the other branch.
"May 21. In the morning a dissention arose among the people. * We parted near Penunqueachong, [Manunka Chunk] * father and I making our way for Allamuchahokking the rest going down the river * * We went up a river called Pophanunk [Pequest ] a considerable big stream about 2 or 5 rood over and is the same which above is called Paquassing. We kept up the same river until we came to the path which comes from Rarington and goeth to Pahukqualong * *
"May 22. Taking a path which leads to Pepeck we crossed Mus- conetcong which divides the purchases and kept the path which lead us to a very pleasant pond [Budds Lake] lying upon the head of a branch of Rarington * * * * We kept the path about two miles farther to an Indian plantation called Chanongong were we slept that night.
"May 23. We went back in the morning to the aforesaid pond where we laid out a tract, having got an Indian to help us, and lay there by the pond all night.
"May 25. Father set forward to go home *
* and I went back for Allamucha where I arrived two hours before night and whither after awhile came Joseph Wright, Thomas Weatherill and John Chapman who had been surveying a lot for William Penn. All lodged there that night.
"May 26. Wright set forward for home. I and the rest having an Indian for our guide called Nomalughalen went upon the discovery.
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WARREN COUNTY.
Ve took the path toward Tohockonetcong river crossing Paquessing river) .. Then the Indian seemed very unwilling to go any further lat way saying that the Tohockhonetcong Indians would be angry with m for showing their land; he went home again * * we returned Allamucha.
"May 29. We had a design to leave these parts. We took the ith to Paquessing where Samuel Green had promised to leave a note ith information of their proceedings at an Indian Wickwam, but e found nonc. We baited our horses and refreshed ourselves while, and then set forward. Arrived at Muskonetkong about half 1 hour after sunset, went a little below the path and lodged there 1 night.
"May 30. Explored down the Muskonetkong * We und an Indian called Nopuck and his son a fishing; they had two h ready roasted, one they gave us and told us if we would stay till s sons caught more (who then went out with their bows and arrows shoot the same) he would give us some * * We still kept ong the river side running in a pleasant stream until we came to an dian path which leads to Monsaloquaks [in Hunterdon County] at I old Indian plantation called Pelouesse. Here we refreshed our- lves *
* We lay along the side of the river all night, by mputation from our night's lodging before about twelve miles.
"May 31. Surveyed along said Muskonetkong river. June I e traversed the river still higher with intention to lay out a lot for [ahlon Stacy, and completed the same, when after our arrival at our orses Thomas Stevenson and Samuel Green came up the river in quest : us and told us that our labors there bestowed upon the river was all vain, for they had surveyed the land before us.
* After a tle refreshment we set homeward. * * *
"The reasons for our return so soon, our provisions were spent our orses had cast their shoes and our own shoes were worn out and our parel gone to decay, so that we wanted to recruit.
"June 2. We arrived home in health and safety a little after noon. aus Deo."
Reading between the lines of this journal, we see that in all of e present Warren county there was no trace of a white settlement in 115. There were Indians in every valley, probably a little more imerous than formerly, because they had just been crowded out of . unterdon county and were soon to be crowded out of Warren, for
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WARREN COUNTY.
after the purchase of the possessory rights from the Indians in 1713, surveys were made of the best lands very rapidly.
Smith said in 1765, in his history :
"The proprietors of West Jersey, soon after their arrival, divided among them * * the first dividend * * and four other dividends *
* * amounting in the whole, with allowance of five percent for roads, to 2,625,000 acres conjectured by many to be full as much land as the division contains; of this the greater part is already surveyed."
Since all of Warren County was not settled in any way when Queen Anne in 1702, April 17, affirmed to the twenty-four proprietors by name their title to the lands in New Jersey after they had in April, 1688, and again in April 15, 1702, surrendered to the Crown all of their rights, it would seem vain to go back of that grant for a basis for titles to lands in Warren county. To this grant may be added the pur- chases from the Indians of their possessory right, by the proprietors in 1703, 1713 and 1758.
Francis J. Swayze, in his Sesqui-centennial address, describes the method adopted by the proprietors in dividing the territory of the State among them :
"West Jersey was sold in hundredths * * Upon exhibit- ing to the register of the Board of Proprietors a title to unlocated rights, a warrant was issued to survey and locate the same. A survey was then made by the Surveyor General or one of his deputies of any land that had not already been located or taken up. This survey was returned to the Council of Proprietors, inspected by them, and, if approved, ordered to be recorded. This made a title to the lands." "All titles are founded first upon rights derived through the proprietors to locate land; second a warrant to survey the land; third the actual survey; the return duly inspected and recorded by the Board of Propri- etors."
One of the very earliest grants to an actual settler in Warren county was given to George Green, after a survey made November 17, 1725, as shown in the following copy :
19
WARREN COUNTY.
BY VIRTUE of a Warrant from the Council of Proprietors to me directed bearing date the tenth day of March one Thousand Seven Hundred and fourteen Requiring me to Survey to the Heirs of Ben- jamin Field the quantity of Eighteen Hundred forty and five Acres and a half of Land in the Western Division of New Jersey and by Virtue of an assignment of Six Hundred and Ten acres Thereof to George Green by Nathan Allen Executor of the said Field I have caused the Said Six Hundred and ten acres of Land to be surveyed to the Said George Green by my Lawful Deputy Samuel Green as by return of the survey to me bearing date the Seventeent day of November one Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty-five in the County of Hunter- don in the last Indian Purchase made by the Council of Proprietors Above the branches of Rarington Between the river Delaware and the bounds of the Eastern Division of the Said Province and is bounded as follows
Beginning at a black birch tree marked for a corner and runs thence South thirty-four chains and a half to a White Oak marked for a corner Standing by the foot of a great Hill then South Westerly thirty one degrees fifty six chains to a black oak corner tree then South West- erly nineteen Degrees thirty two chains to a White Oak marked for a corner then West forty eight chains to a chestnut Tree marked for a corner Standing near to a branch of Pohanunk River which said Small Branch Runs out of a large Pond, Thence North Thirty nine chains to a White Oak marked for a corner then North Easterly Twenty Seven Degrees and Sixty nine chains to a great Rock Lying near the afore- said Pond of water then East fifty nine chains across the said Pond of Water to the first Station.
Containing Six hundred and ten acres of Land and Water With allowance for highways.
Witness my hand this Twenty-fourth day of January One Thou- sand Seven Hundred Twenty and five.
Jas. Alexander, Sur. General.
Burlington y 2nd: 12 mo. 1725-6.
Inspected and approved y above Survey by the Council of Pro- prietors and ordered to be recorded. Test.
John Burr, Clerk.
A true copy taken from Lib. II in the Sur. Generals office at Bur- lington, Page 57. Examined on behalf of Robt. Smith, Dept. of ye Surveyor General.
Z. Daniel Smith, Jr.
Allowant of 18463/4 acres by the heirs of Benjamin Field; 810 acres to George Green.
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WARREN COUNTY.
The date y 2nd 12 mo. 1725-6, means February 2, 1726, as at that time they were beginning to consider January as the first month of the year, while previously the new year began with the month of March as the first month, so that for many years between January and April it was necessary to put down both years to avoid uncertainty.
The Pohanunk river is the Pequest, the upper part of which was known as Paquessing. The Samuel Green mentioned as deputy sur- veyor later lived at Johnsonsburg, and gave the land for the old log jail. John Anderson, a lineal descendant of George Green, owns the original farm. The "Large Pond" is, of course, Green's Pond, or, if you choose, Mountain Lake.
From the archives of New Jersey, Vol. IX, we learn that the early official records were originally kept by the Secretary of the Colony of New Jersey at Elizabethtown, the first seat of government. When the Colony was divided into East and West Jersey, the records of the two divisions were preserved in their respective capitals, Perth Amboy and Burlington, and there they remained for upwards of a century. By an act passed by the legislature, November 25, 1790, the seat of govern- ment of the State of New Jersey was located at Trenton, and it was provided that the records of conveyances and wills pertaining to gov- ernment should be transferred from Perth Amboy and Burlington as soon as proper quarters should be provided for them at the New Capital. The, records of warrants and surveys were retained in the offices of the registers of East and West Jersey respectively, at Perth Amboy and Burlington, where they are still to be found in charge of the Surveyor General. The record of wills continued to be kept in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton until 1804, after which they were kept in the Surrogate's offices of the various counties. So . that wills of people who died within the limits of the present Warren county are recorded at Trenton till 1804, at Newton from 1804 till 1824, and at Belvidere since 1824.
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