History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 104

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466

USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey > Part 104

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1 In 1729. N. J. Archives, XI., 176. 2 Ib., 178; X.,31.

409

BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

clared that this was a revenue measure, and that it was a first step in the direction of imposing on and collecting from the American people a revenue to be applied at the discre- tion of the home government for the support and protection of the Colonies. Although we have no account of any for- mal action by the people of this locality, there can be no doubt that they were as strenuously opposed to this import- ant measure as were the people of Boston, New York and other places. The subsequent successive steps of the Brit- ish Ministry in pursuance of the general plan for taxing the Colonies without their consent were steadily resisted by the people of Acquackanonk. When the first mutterings were heard of the approaching storm of the Revolution, Acquack- anonk found a ready leader in Henry Garritse, who lived in the stone house still standing, at the northwest corner of the Wesel road and the cross road leading to Clifton.1 At a meeting of the inhabitants of Essex county (then including all of the present Essex and Union counties, and old Ac- quackanonk township), held at Newark, on Saturday, June II, 1774, the following action was taken:

This meeting taking into serious consideration, some late alarming measures adopted by the British Parliament, for depriving his Majesty's American subjects of their undoubted and constitutional rights and privileges; and particularly, the Act for Blockading tbe port of Boston, wbich appears to them, pregnant with the most dangerous consequen- ces to all his Majesty's Dominions in America; do unanimously resolve and agree,

I. That under the enjoyment of our constitutional privileges and im- munities, we will ever cheerfully render all due obedience to the Crown of Great Britain, as well as full faith and allegiance to bis most gracious Majesty King George the Third; And do esteem a firm dependence on the Mother Country, essential to our political security and bappiness.

2. That the late Act of Parliament relative to Boston, which so ab- solutely destroys every idea of safety and confidence, appears to us, big with the most dangerous and alarming consequences; especially as sub- versive of that very dependence which we should earnestly wisla to con- tinue, as our best safeguard and protection; And that we conceive, ev- ery well-wisher to Great Britain and her Colonies, is now loudly called upon to exert his utmost abilities in promoting every legal and pruden- tial measure, towards obtaining a repeal of the said Act of Parliament, and all others subversive of the undoubted rights, and liberties, of bis Majesty's American subjects.

3. That it is our unanimous opinion, that it would conduce to the restoration of the liberties of America, sbould the Colonies enter into a joint agreement, not to purchase or use any articles of British Manufac- ture; and especially any commodities imported from the East Indies, under such restrictions as may be agreed upon by a general Congress of the said Colonies hereafter to be appointed.

4. That this county will most readily and cheerfully join their breth- ren of the otber counties in this Province, in promoting such Congress of Deputies, to be sent from each of the Colonies, in order to form a gen- eral 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 Committee, to meet with those from the other counties, at such time and place, as by them may be agreed upon, in order to se- lect proper persons to represent this province in the said General Con- gress.

5. That the freeholders and inhabitants of the other counties in this Province be requested speedily to convene themselves together, to con- sider the present distressing state of our public affairs; and to corres- pond, and consult 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 ac- cept of that trust, and accordingly do appoint them our Committee for the purposes aforesaid, viz .: Stephen Crane, Henry Garritse, Joseph Riggs, William Livingston, William P. Smith, John De Hart, John Chetwood, Isaac Ogden and Elias Boudinot, Esqrs.1

In Bergen county, also, there was a large body of the intel- ligent 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:

tst. That they think it their greatest happiness to live under the Gov- ernment of the illustrious House of Hanover, and that they will sted- fastly 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 Representa- tives; and that we consider the late Acts of Parliament, declarative of their right to impose internal taxes on the subjects of America, as mani- fest encroachments on our national rights and privileges as Britisb sub- jects, 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 Dele- gates 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 evidently calculated to destroy that mutual harmony and dependence between Great Britain and her Colonies, which are the basis and support of botb.

And we do appoint Theunis Dey, John Demarest, Peter Zabriskie, Cornelius Van Voarst and John Zabriskie, junior, Esquires, to be a Committee for corresponding with the Committees of the other coun- ties in this Province, and particularly to meet with the other County Committees at New Brunswick, or such other place as shall be agreed on, in order to elect Delegates to attend the general Congress of Dele- gates 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 Pas- saic, 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 Con- tinental Congress held at Philadelphia in September, 1774, having among other measures recommended an "associa- tion" or agreement among the Americans to use no British importations, and that any person not conforming therelo should 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 Essex County Committee of Correspondence issued an address, Nov. 28, 1774, to the

1 New York Journal or General Advertiser, June 16, 1774. These resolutions are reprinted in Force's American Archives, Fifth Series, III., 726; and in Minutes of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, 34.

2 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 pub- lished 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 pro- ceeding "was conducted with that regularity and decorum," a newspa- per of the day gravely assures us, "that ought to be observed in all pub- lic punishments."-N. Y. Journal, Dec. 28, 1775.

.1 For a sketch of Henry Garritse, see p. 86, ante. 51

410

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

people of the county, calling three neighborhood meetings, for Newark, Elizabeth and Acquackanonk, to select local committees for the better enforcing the recommendation of the Congress. The meeting for "Achquakanung" was called for Monday, Dec. 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 session 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 Feb. 13, 1775, and for which the four representatives from Essex and Bergen counties voted. In its statement of the grievances of the Colonies, this address was one of the forerunners of the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress 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 inju- rious 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 Par- liament 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 Dec. 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 un- til the ensuing May, when the following proceedings took place:

At a meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town- ship 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 Town- ship, being verbatim the same as that entered into by the Freeholders and inhabitants of Newark, in said County,1 the following gentlemen

1 "We, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Newark, baving deliberately considered tbe openly avowed design of the ministry of Great Britain to raise a revenue in America ; being affected with bor- rour at the Bloody Scene now acting in the Massachusetts Bay, for car- rying that arbitrary 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 sensible of the necessity in the present exi- gency of preserving good order and a due regulation in all public meas- ures ; 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 meas- ures may be recommended by the Continental Congress or agreed upon by the proposed Convention of Deputies of this Province, for the pur- pose 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 be-

in number twenty-three were then chosen or elected a General Commit- tee agreeable to said Association.

Michael Vreeland, Esq., in the Cbair.

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, agree- able to the aforesaid Association, to represent said Townsbip: Henry Garritse, Robert Drummond, Michael Vreeland and John Berry, Esquires.

Peter Peterse, Esquire, Daniel Niel, Richard Ludlow, Thomas Post and Doctor Nicholas Rocbe, are appointed a Committee of Correspond- ence for said Township; Daniel Niel, Deputy Chairman to the General Committee, and Richard Ludlow, Deputy Clerk.

Let us pause for a moment to see where lived these twenty-three men who were selected by their neighbors be- cause 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 devo- tion to the cause; he occupied at this time the Passaic hotel, at the foot of Bank street; Cornelius 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; Stephen Ryder, who lived near Garret Rock, aud who subsequently became a Tory, and was accused of being a party to the massacre of Jonathan Hopper, at the Wagraw mill, in 1779.1

From the present city of Passaic there were Robert Drum- mond, a merchant, 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 meet- ing; 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, liv- ing 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 mnile 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 We- sel 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.

tween Great Britain and America, on constitutional principles can be obtained."-N. Y. Journal, May 11, 1775.

1 See p. 346.

411

THE RETREAT OF SEVENTY-SIX.

Thus the different sections of Old Acquackanonk were carefully recognized and admirably represented in the selec- tion of this important committee.

The Bergen County Committee met May 12, 1775, and appointed a Standing Committee of Correspondence of fif- teen members, of whom Theunis Dey, Esquire, of Lower Preakness, was one.

At the next sitting of the General Assembly, held at Bur- · lington, 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 re- corded. 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 rep- resentation, to impose revenue taxes on the American peo- ple 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 Gar- ritse, Michael Vreeland, 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 corpora- tion, and for equipping the same. This same Congress met again, August 5, 1775, when Messrs. Garritse, Vreeland, Drummond and Merselis were found in their seats as be- fore. Further measures were taken for organizing the mili- tia, besides a body of minute men. The latter were to serve four months at a time, and Bergen county was re- quired to furnish four companies of 64 men each, officers included, and Essex county six companies, constituting one battalion in each of these counties. An incident at this session is of special interest to our county. Robert Erskine was managing the iron works at Ringwood and Charlottes- burgh for a London Company of capitalists. The eager- ness of sundry recruiting officers led them to persuade some of liis 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 Pro- vincial Congress gratefully accepted his company, and made him captain, Aug. 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 Bur- lington, 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 utter- ly 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.

WASHINGTON'S RETREAT THROUGH ACQUACKANONK,

IN 1776. 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 !"1

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, 2 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,3 and how skilfully they were commanded by Washington; dismay, when the disastrous defeat and the ominous retreat were heralded abroad. With painful apprehension they followed the course of the American leader and his diminishing band of heroes as they fell back to New York, and thence to Westchester county. After the battle at White Plains, on October 28, 1776, Washington, seeing the concentration of the British forces in that neigh- borhood, under Lieutenant-General 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 cer- tain," and avowed his intention, as soon as he should be satisfied on this point, to forward part of his own forces into New Jersey, to counteract the project of Howe.4 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

1 "Passaic, a Group of Poems touching that River: with other Mus- ings : by Flaccus," New York, 1842, p. 146. The author was Dr. Thomas Ward, a native of Newark, but afterwards for many years a physician in New York city. These poems were originally published in the Knickerbocker Magazine, in 1839-40.

2 Two battalions were ordered raised by the New Jersey Provincial Congress, Oct. 26, 1775, and a third, Feb. 6, 1776. In the first and third were men from this vicinity.

3 Col. Philip Van Cortlandt's battalion of Essex county militia, 269 men strong, participated in the battle of Long Island. See "The Cam- paign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn" (Memoirs L. I. Hist. Soc. III.), by Henry P. Johnston, Brooklyn, 1878, p. 130; Minutes of the Pro- vincial Congress of N. J., Trenton, 1879, P. 574.

4 Force's American Archives, 5th Series, III., 543 ; Ford's Writings of Washington, V., 4.

412

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

the way.1 They advanced with such extreme deliberation, however, that although they were at Princeton on the 8th2 , and although Gen. Mercer ordered them forward "with all expedition" to join Gen. Greene at Fort Lee, 3 they never ad - vanced further than Amboy.4 Gen. Greene counted confi- dently on their support. "I shall order Gen. Stephen on as far as Equacanock at least," he wrote to Gen. Washington, on Nov. 9; "that is an important post. I am fortifying it as fast as possible. "5

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 conven- ient 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 (Nov. 10) to Washing- ton : "Gen. Mercer is with me now. About five hundred more are marching from Amboy directly for Dobbs's Ferry."6 The men brought by Gen. Mercer were probably the first considerable body of soldiery to march through Acquackanonk.

In the meantime Washington, in order to protect the Jer- seys against the threatened British invasion, had ordered Gen. Lord Stirling to march from up the Hudson into New Jersey,7 to interpose his tried and true brigade between New Brunswick and Philadelphia, in order to cover the sit- tings of Congress. On Nov. Io Stirling crossed the Hudson at Haverstraw, 8 and at once began his march down the west side of the river, passing Fort Lee on the 13th, 9 and proba- bly passing through Acquackanonk on the 14th, with eight regiments of foot, three of which he left at Rahway, and ar- rived with the other five at New Brunswick on Nov. 17.10

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 invaders.

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 notice. If they are not, the calamities they will suffer will be be- yond description, and the advantages derived to the enemy immensely great. . . The article of forage is of great importance to 'em;11 not a blade should remain for their use. What cannot be removed with convenience should be con- sumed without the least hesitation."12 His Adjutant Gen-

1 Force, 510, 519. 2 Ib., 599. 3 Ib., 6or. 4 Ib., 706.

5 Ib., 619. 6 Ib., 629. 7 Ib., 750. 8 Ib., 634, 639.

9 Penn. Archives, V., 66. 10 Force, III., 740, 750.

11 The British light horse in New York at this time were "perishing for want of hay," and to relieve their necessities a number of gondolas to carry one eighteen-pounder, were being constructed to fetch "hay from Newark meadows." -- Force, 638.

12 Force, 557 ; Sparks's Washington, IV., 163-4: Ford's Writings of Washington, V., 9.

eral, Joseph Reed, v rote 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. "1 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."2 Many a farmer of Acquackanonk and vicinity sorely lamented three weeks later that he had not heeded this timely warning.3 On November 9 Washing- ton 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 indus- try." 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."4 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 No- vember 13.5 The next day he wrote that he proposed to quarter his troops at Brunswick, Amboy, Elizabethtown, Newark and about Fort Lee.6 Gen. Greene at this time had 4,682 officers and men on the Jersey shore, nearly half (2158) of whom, however, were on outguards or detached duty, 168 being stationed at Hackensack, Bergen, etc .? On November 15 Washington was at Hackensack, 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. 8 The next day, to his intense mortification, and to the dismay of the Amer- icans, that Fort was captured by the British, after a brief but fierce engagement, with its garrison, 2634 officers and men, besides great quantities of army stores.9 This disas- ter opened the way for the British to enter New Jersey, which they did by a very adroit movement on the rainy night10 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. 11 By ten o'clock the startling news reached Washington, at Hacken- sack, 12 who hastily galloped over to Gen. Greene's head-

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 104

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 466

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466