History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 15

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 15

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4 Brainerd's Life, as cited, 174, 247, 275, 298, 342 ; N. J. Archives, VI., 406-7; VIII., 140. The Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, who lived at Raccoon, New Jersey, for four years, about 1745-9, relates an anecdote, on the authority of an old Swede, illustrating the difficulty of attract- ing the Indians to any kind of a " talk" without liquid refreshments : " As a sermon was preached in the Swedish church at Raccoon, an Indian came in, looked about him, and, after hearkening to the preacher, said : ' Here is a great deal of prattle and nonsense, hut neither brandy nor cyder,' and went out again."-Travels into North America, etc., by Peter Kalm, London, 1771, II., 118.

5 Beatty's Journal ; A Star in the West, etc., by Elias Boudinot, Trenton, N. J., 1816, p. 278.

6 Brainerd, 201, 226, 274.

EXTINGUISHING THE INDIAN TITLE TO NEW JERSEY.

Indians" was formed by a number of Friends in West Jer- sey, who subscribed £175 toward buying a tract of 2,000 acres for the natives. The Indian War of 1755 following Braddock's defeat, and the incursion of savages on the northern frontier of New Jersey, disquieted the public mind too greatly to permit the furtherance of any project for the permanent settlement of any considerable body of Indians in the Province. Indeed, the Christian congregations at .. Cranbury and Bethel felt constrained to appeal, December 2, 1755, to the Governor for protection against the whites and the hostile savages. The Governor and his Council de- cided that "for the Safety of other His Majestys Subjects as of the sd Indians themselves," every Indian should be regis- tered, with their "Names & Natural Descriptions of the Persons as fully and Particularly as they can with the Number and Residence of their Family," provided the Indians should declare and prove their loyalty to the English King, whereupon they should be given a certifi- cate, and a red ribbon to wear on the head. Any Indian lacking such certificate might be committed by any jus- tice of the peace, until he could find security for his good behavior.1 The natives were naturally restive under such a drastic law, and Teedyescung demanded that the authori- ties should " throw down the Fence that confined some of his Brethren and relatives in the Jerseys. "2 A conference was held with the Indians at Crosswicks early in 1756, at which pledges were made in their interest, and the Legisla- ture in 1757 took steps to redeem them.3 Harcop, John Keyon and six Indians in the county of Bergen (probably about and north of Pompton) sent three belts of wampum to the Governor and Council, in March, 1756, in token of their loyalty, and of their desire to be included in the treaty of Crosswicks.4 The Legislature in 1757 appointed commis- sioners with power to inquire into the Indian claims to New Jersey, with a view to their settlement.5

Another conference was held at Crosswicks in February, 1758, at which Teedyescung, King of the Delawares, was present, with a large number of Indians inhabiting the Pro- vince, and some progress was made toward adjusting the differences between the whites and the red men.6 Still fur- ther advance was made in August, 1758, at a conference held at Burlington, when the Indians asked that a tract of land in Evesham township, Burlington county, be bought for the oc- cupancy of all the Delaware Indians living south of the Raritan river, in exchange for which they agreed to release all the rights of the natives to lands in New Jersey.7 The Pompton Indians did not attend this conference, although invited by Gov. Bernard.8 Within three weeks the Legisla- ture appropriated £1, 600 to carry the project into effect, and the land was bought (August 29, 1758), a tract of 3,044

acres, being the same as selected by John Brainerd in 1756. 1

A most memorable conference was held at Easton in October, 1758, attended by the Governors and other digni- taries of New Jersey' and Pennsylvania, and upwards of five hundred Indians, half of them women and children. Teed- yescung welcomed the Governor of Pennsylvania in the figurative language of his race : " According to our usual Custom, I with this String wipe the Dust and Sweat off your Face, and clear your Eyes, and pick the Briars out of your Legs, and desire you will pull the Briars out of the Legs of the Indians that are come here, and anoint one of them with your healing Oil, and I will anoint the other." The Mun- sies or Minisinks were present-Egohohowen, with men, women and children ; the Wapings or Pumptons-Nimhaon, Aquaywochtu, and men, women and children; the Che- hohockes or Delawares and Unamies-Teedyescung, with three interpreters, and men, women and children. All the grievances on the part of the English and the Indians were fully rehearsed, among them the continual encroach- ments on the lands of the natives. Teedyescung graphically phrased it thus : "I sit here as a Bird on a Bow ; I look about and do not know where to go ; let me therefore come down upon the Ground, and make that my own by a good Deed, and I shall then have a Home for Ever." At this. time the treaty made at Burlington was approved, and deeds were executed by five Indians, appointed by a Council of the Delaware Nation, for all of New Jersey south of Paoqualin mountain, at Delaware river, to the Falls of Laometung, on the North Branch of Raritan river, and down that river to Sandy Hook ; and from the chiefs of the Munseys and Wap- pings, or Pumptons, sixteen in number, for all of New Jer- sey north of the line just described. These deeds were ap- proved by the leading men of the tribes interested, and by the Six Nations, and thus the last foot of land in New Jersey owned by the Indians was fairly bought from them and fairly paid for-a record unequaled in any other State in the Union. 2

It was estimated that there were about three hundred In- dians in the Province at this time, of whom about two hun- dred located on the reservation at Evesham, which Gov. Bernard felicitously called "Brotherton."3 John Brainerd was appointed superintendent in 1762,4 and the authorities exercised a certain amount of supervision over their dusky wards. In 1796 their condition had become so unsatisfac- tory that the Legislature concluded to lease the tract, and apply the proceeds for the benefit of the Indians. In 1801 the Brotherton Indians were invited by the Mauhekunnaks (Mohegans), another Algonkin tribe, then settled at New Stockbridge, near Oneida Lake, to "pack up their mat " and to " come and eat out of their dish," adding that "their

1 N. J. Archives, XVI., 565-7, 571-3.

2 Penn. Col. Records, VII., 334.

3 Nevill's Laws, II., 125.

4 N. J. Archives, XVII., 4.

5 Nevill's Laws, II., 128.

6 Smith's N. J., 442.

7 Penn. Col. Records, VIII., 156; Smith's N. J., 449.

8 Penn. Col. Records, VIII., 140.

1 Allinson's Laws, 1776, p. 220 ; Liber O of Deeds, Secretary of State's office, Trenton, fol. 394 ; Smith's N. J., 449 et seqq. ; Fragmentary His- tory of the New Jersey Indians, by Samuel Allinson, N. J. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, Second Series, IV., 31.

2 Smith's N. J., 455 et seqq. ; Penn. Col. Records, VIII., 174-223.

3 N. J. Archives, IX., 174-6.

4 Ib., 355.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

necks were stretched in looking toward the fireside of their grandfathers till they were as long as cranes." The remnant of the New Jersey Lenape concluded to accept this invita- tion, and the Legislature ordered their land to be sold, 1 which was done, and the proceeds used to defray the ex- penses of their removal, the balance being invested for their benefit. In 1822 the New Jersey Indians removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Legislature of this State appropriating the fund ($3,551.23) then remaining to the credit of the Brotherton colony, for the purchase of their new home and their transportation thither. In 1832 there were but forty of them left, at Green Bay, and concluding to remove further West they again appealed to the New Jersey Legislature for aid, claiming compensation for the rights of fishing and shooting, in New Jersey, which they had reserved in the treaty of 1758. Their spokesman was Bartholomew S. Cal- vin, son of Stephen Calvin, a West Jersey schoolmaster iu the last century, and who was one of the Delaware inter- preters at the great council at Easton. The Legislature, by act passed March 12, 1832, appropriated $2,000, the sum asked by the Indians, for a final extinguishment of all the Indian claims in New Jersey. In acknowledgment, Calvin wrote a letter to the Legislature, in the course of which he said : "Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle -not an acre of our land have you taken būt by our con- sent. These facts speak for themselves and need no commeut. They place the character of New Jersey in bold relief, a bright example to those States within whose territorial limits our brethren still remain. Nothing save benisons can fall upon her from the lips of a LENNO LENAPE. "2

In 1768, at the council held at Fort Stanwix, the Indians bestowed upon Governor William Franklin, of New Jersey, the name Sagorighweyogsta, meaning the " Great Arbiter or Doer of Justice," in recognition of his and his people's justice in putting to death some persons who had murdered Indians in this Province. 3

These two incidents form a proud tribute to the fairness of the whites in dealing with the INDIANS OF NEW JERSEY.

INDIAN PLACE-NAMES.

Ye say they all have pass'd away, That noble race and brave ; That their light canoes have vanish'd From off the crested wave ; That, mid the forests where they roam'd There rings no hunter's shout ; But their name is on your waters, Ye may not wash it out.

Ye say their conelike cabins, That cluster'd o'er the vale, Have disappear'd, as wither'd leaves Before the autumn's gale ;

1 By Act passed December 3, 1801. Some particulars concerning this tract, and a curious litigation as to its subsequent taxation, are given in N. J. Archives, IX., 357-8, note.

2 This brief summary of the movements of the Brotherton Indians af- ter leaving New Jersey is condensed from the account by Samuel Allin- son, just cited. See, also, Barber and Howe's Historical Collections of New Jersey, 1845, pp. 510-II; minutes of the New Jersey House of As- sembly, 1832, passim,

3 N. Y. Col. Docs., VIII., 117.

But their memory liveth on your hills, Their baptism on your shore, Your everlasting rivers speak Their dialect of yore.1

The study of local nomenclature often opens up a mine of historical information. While this is not so true of Indian place-names as of those conferred by the whites, there is a natural curiosity regarding the meanings of the names of hills, valleys, rivers and streams all about us. The first systematic attempt to interpret the geographical names which the aborigines have left behind them was in a paper entitled :

Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, who once in- habited this country, had given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c., &c., within the now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Vir- ginia; and also Names of Chieftains and distinguished Men of tbat Nation ; with the Significations of those Names, and Biographical Sketches of some of those Men. By the late Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Communicated to the American Philosophical Society April 5, 1822, and now published by their order; revised and prepared for the press by Peter S. Du Ponceau. Pp. 351-396, Transac- tions American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1834.

It is from this work that most of the interpretations of aboriginal place-names in New Jersey have been copied from time to time. Unfortunately, Mr. Heckewelder took his names of places in this State from maps, with their usual errors, and hence gives Makiapier, instead of Mako- pin ; Bomopack, for Ramapo or Ramapock ; Pegunock, for Pequannock ; Muscomecon, for Musconnetcong. He was also unfamiliar with the localities named, wherefore many of his conjectural interpretations are clearly wide of the mark.

Another manuscript list of Lenâpe place-names in New Jersey, etc., by Heckewelder, copiously annotated by the Rev. William C. Reichel, was published at Bethlehem, Penn., in 1872.

In a note to the writer, in 1881, Dr. J. Hammond Trum- bull says : "Heckewelder's guesses are absolutely worth- less. He had a good speaking knowledge of the Delaware mission dialect, but was incapable of analyzing compound names even in that dialect, and was seldom correct in his interpretations of place-names in any other."

Dr. Trumbull has himself written the best work on the subject, brief and incomplete as it is : "Indian Names of Places etc., in and on the borders of Connecticut : with interpretations of some of them. By J. Ham- mond Trumbull. Hartford : 1881." This writer says : "Every [Indian] name described the locality to which it was affixed. This description was sometimes purely topo- graphical ; sometimes historical, preserving the memory of a battle, or feast, the residence of a great Sachem, or the like ; sometimes it indicated some natural product of the place, or the animals that resorted to it ; occasionally, its position, or direction from places previously known, or from the territory of the tribe by which the name was given. * * * The same name might be, in fact it very often was, given to more places than one. *

* * The methods of Algoukin synthesis are so exactly prescribed, that the omis-

I Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney.

INDIAN PLACE-NAMES.

sion or displacement of a consonant or (emphasized) vocal, necessarily modifies the signification of the compound name, and may often render its interpretation or analysis impossible. Yet almost every term used in the composi- tion of place-names appears under many and widely-differ- ing forms, in some of which it becomes so effectually dis- guised as to defy recognition." The place-names in the southern part of New Jersey were first reduced to writing . by the Swedes, while those near New York are given to us according to the Dutch pronunciation. To approximate to the correct sound of the word it is necessary to know by whom it was first written down ; allowance must be made, also, for the illiteracy of the writer. A knowledge of the facts and circumstances of the locality is also important, to avoid gross blunders in the interpretation. Many place- names are simply translations of the earlier Dutch or Indian appellations, a fact that is often helpful in getting at their meaning. The fanciful and romantic had little place in aboriginal terminology, which was, indeed, usually ex- ceedingly matter-of-fact in its significations. In the follow- ing attempts at interpreting a few Indian names of localities the foregoing principles have been held in mind.

Acquackanonk, Aquenonga, Hockquackanonk, etc.1 -The first mention of the name, in 1678, applies it to a place "on the Pisawack river" ; namely, the tract now known as Dun- dee, in the city of Passaic, just below the Dundee dam. In 1679 the name was used to describe a tract of land in Saddle river township, Bergen county ; in the same year it was used to designate the old territory, which included all of Paterson south of the Passaic river, and the city of Passaic. The Dutch name for the neighborhood along the Passaic river at the head of navigation was Slooter- dam,2 a dam with a gate or sluiceway in it. This sug- gests the meaning of Acquackanonk. It was the custom of the Indians, when shad came up the river, to run a dam of stones across, running from shore to shore at an angle to a converging point, leaving an opening in the middle, in which they placed a rude net of bushes, in which the fish would get entangled.3 The Indian word ach-quoa- ni-can signifies a bush-net ; taking the first two syllables, adding the connective and euplionic k; hanne, a rapid stream, and the suffix onk, meaning place, we have Ach-quoa-k-han- onk-a place in a rapid stream where fishing is done with a bush-net. Suggesting the above to the late J. Gilmary Shea, LL. D., he proposed as a modification : Acquonan,

Achquoanican, a bush-net, they take witli a bush-net, and gan unk, the locative "near where," "or in the direction of where. " Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, one of the few living scholars profoundly versed in the Indian languages, has kindly favored the writer with this definition : Ekwi, be- tween, below or under ; aki, land ; n, euphonic and con- nective ; onk, locative termination ; hence the free render- ing would be : "The place where the land is between or under. " The interpretation given first above is undoubted- ly the correct one.

Assenmaykapuck (1710)-"land called," near the "Big Rock," in Bergen county, four or five miles from Paterson. From achsun, stone ; macheu, big ; puck, locative suffix : "place of the Big Rock."

Assenmaykapulig (1709)-" spring called," -- " the north- eastmost head of a spring of the river called Peramp- seapuss." The word may be incorrectly written for assen- maykapuck. If applied to a spring, the last two syllables may be from pilhik, clean, pure, and the meaning would be " pure Big Rock spring."

Asacki (1681)-a small tract of land near Lodi.

Big Rock (1709)-a translation of the Indian name, Pam- maikaipuka, from pemapuchk, rock ; and macheu, big.

Campgaw-a neighborhood in Bergen county ; meaning uncertain ; perhaps the last syllable is from kaaka, a wild goose ; or gawi, a hedgehog. It is not unlikely a personal name (that is, of some Indian), applied to the locality.

Cantaqua (1686)-a personal name applied to a creek flowing into the Hackensack river.

Claverack-Dutch for packquechen, a meadow; a level stretch of land in Acquackanonk township.

Communipaw, Gamoenipa (1643)-a village on the New Jersey shore, opposite New York ; perhaps from gamunk, on the other side of the river ; and pe-auke, water-land, water- place ; meaning a principal landing-place from the other side of the river.

Crosswicks, Crossweeksung (1709)-house of separation.

Espatingh, or Ispatingh (1650)-a hill ; back of Bergen, or about Union Hill.

Goffle, a Dutch word, properly written Gaffel, the fork ; doubtless a translation of the Indian lalchauwiechen, fork of a road, referring to the forking of the two roads at that point-one going toward Pompton, and the other toward Hackensack.

Hackensack-Heckewelder defines it thus: "the stream which discharges itself into another, on low level ground ; that which unites itself with other water almost impercept- ibly. " But this is a characteristic of most rivers, and is not peculiar to the Hackensack. A more plausible derivation would be from haki, earth or place ; n, euphonic and con- nective ; gischi, already, now ; achgook, snake : a country full of snakes, referring to the most striking feature in the landscape, Snake Hill ; or from haki, place ; kitschii, great ; achgook, snake : the land of the big snake. The fable that the name is derived from the incident of an unsuccessful at- tempt to carry "eggs in a sack" is not sustained by any rules of etymology or philology.

Hoboken-probably from hopoacan, a pipe.

1 This name has been a stumbling-block to scriveners ever since the first attempt to reduce it to English spelling. Here are some of the varia- tions, gleaned from the records : 1678-Aquickanucke, Haquicqueenock ; 1679-Haquequenunck, Aquegnonke, Ackquekenon ; 1680-Hockqueka- nung ; 1682-Aqueyquinunke ; 1683-Aquaninoncke, Hockquecanung ; 1684-Aquaquanuncke ; 1685-Aquickanunke, Haquequenunck ; 1692- Acquicanunck ; 1693-Acquiggenonck, Hockquickanon ; 1694-Hack- .quickanon : 1696-Aqueckenonge, Achquickenoungh, Aquachonongue, Achquickenunk, Hacquickenunk ; 1698-Aqueckkonunque, Aquoechon- onque, Achquikanuncque, Achquickenunck; 1706-Acquikanong; 1707 -Hockquackonong, Hockquackanonk; 1714-Achquegenonck ; 1736 -- Haghquagenonck. A few years ago a Jersey City newspaper con- densed this sonorous Indian polysyllable into Quacknic.

2 Now often written Slaughter-dam.

3 Loskiel, 95.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

Hohokus-possibly from ho, a shout ; and hokes, some kind of a bark of a tree.

Horseneck-probably from the Indian achsin or assin, a stone ; and aki, place ; a stony place.

Krakeel val-the Dutch name of the Oldham brook, meaning a noisy or quarrelsome stream ; doubtless a trans- lation of the Indian name, and either referring to its turbu- lence, or to some fight that took place on its banks in pre- historic days.

Kinderkimack (1686)-in Essex county ; meaning un- known.

Maa eway (1709)-an Indian field so called, in the Ram- apo valley, now known as Mahwah.

Macopin-properly Macopan-from macopanackhan, place where pumpkins grow.

Maggagtayak (Magahktyake, Mawaytawekgke) 1710-an Indian field so called, on the west side of Pasqueck river.

Mainating (1710)-a little red hill or mountain in the Ramapo valley.

Mangcum (1709)-a river tributary to the Pequannock.

Maracksi (1734)-a large pond, now called Iron Works pond, north of Pompton, back of Federal Hill.

Menehenicke (1678)-the island in the Passaic river be- low the Slooterdam (now Dundee dam); from menach' hen, island ; and ock or aki, locative suffix : island, or island place.

Moonachie-a neighborhood in Bergen county near the Hackensack meadows ; from monachgeu, ground-hog ; or munhacke, badger.

Narashunk (1710)-a tributary of the Ramapo.

Pamaraquemq (1709)-a tributary of the Pequannock.

Pamrapo, Pemmerpough (1731)-probably from pema- puchk, big rock.

Parampseapus (1710)-or Perampseapuss, an Indian name for Saddle river ; perhaps from ploeu, by a permutation of consonants changed into peroeu, a turkey ; and amatschipuis, a buzzard or turkey buzzard. There is a local tradition that the name Paramus, sometimes pronounced Perrymus, means "place of wild turkeys." The termination seapus or sipus means river, so that the word appears to mean "turkey river."

Parhamus (1740), Paramus-near Ridgewood, Bergen county ; doubtless a contraction from Parampseapus.

Pascack (1740), Pasqueck (1710)-a river in the Ramapo valley ; probably from pachgeechen, where the road forks.

Passaic1 -the largest river in New Jersey. Heckewelder says the word means "valley." But it has always been ap- plied only to the river, not to the land. It is doubtless de- rived from the root pach, " to split, divide." In New Jer- sey the gutteral ch was softened into an s, as in Pascack, and other names. The termination ic is probably that of the suppositive form of the verb ; hence the meaning is: "where it divides, " referring, most likely, to the separation from the

Hackensack.1 It is possible that it refers to the split or chasm in the rocks at the Falls ; but the root pack is most generally applied in Algonkin dialects to the forks or branches of streams.

Peckamin-a river in Little Falls township, flowing into the Passaic a mile or two above Paterson. It is sometimes written Peckman's river. The name is Indian, from pakihm, or pakihmin, cranberries, indicating that those berries once grew in the low lands overflowed by this variable stream. The termination min appears in many geographical names ; it means any kind of small fruit.

Pequannock (Peaquaneek, 1709 ; Pagquanick, Pequanac, Packanack, etc.)-a name first applied, in 1695, to some In- dians, and in 1709 to a river, a tributary of the Passaic. It was very early used to designate the Pompton Plains. It is from pauqu'un-auke, land made clear for cultivation. There are several places of this name in Connecticut. " The name occurs, curiously disguised, in Tippecanoe (Ky. and Ind.), which is a corrupted abbreviation of kehti-paquonunk, 'at the great clearing,' the site of the Indian town on the Wabash river."2

Pompton-Heckewelder defines it : Pihmtom, crooked mouthed, for which there is no basis. The Delaware for oblique is pimeu; pihm is to sweat. The name may be personal, not geographical ; if the latter, it not unlikely re- fers to the fact that there was a natural reef which formed an open or wide space (pohque, clear, open), where Pompton Lake now is. The meaning is not at all clear.

Preakness (Parikenis, 175I)-a name applied to the Second Mountain, and to the valley west of that mountain. Toward Little Falls, this mountain was called by the Dutch, early in the last century, the Har teberg, or Deer mountain, which may be the meaning of the Indian name, from pilhik, clean, pure ; or pilsit, chaste, and awelemukunecs, a young buck ; or a combination of pil, changed into Pir or Per, and ukunees-Per-ukunces, Preakness, a young buck. It is quite possible that some of these Indian names were given to places or localities by an earlier race than the Lenâpe,. which would readily account for the difficulty of interpret- ing them by the dictionaries or vocabularies of the latter's language.

Rahway-a river separating the townships of Rahway and Woodbridge ; usually written Rawack or Rahwack in the earliest records ; possibly from the Algonkin nawakwa, in the middle of the forest. 3

Raikghawaik (1709)-"a small creek," apparently in the Saddle River valley.

Ramapo-one of the three rivers uniting at Pompton to- form the Pompton river, a tributary of the Passaic. Hecke- welder suggests its derivation from Wulomopeck, round pond or lake ; or from lomowopek, white on the inside. The ear- liest record of the name (1710) gives it as .Remopuck ; it

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 15

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