History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 6

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

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1 In Algonkin, michi, great ; wabos, hare. Whence, the Great Rabbit or Hare; but the root wab yields the words wabi, wape, wompi, waubish, oppai, dialectic forms for " white"; the same root yields other words for morning, east, dawn, light, etc .- Myths of the New World,. 165.

2 Ib., 166.

3 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as illustrated by the Religions of India (Hibbert Lectures, 1878), by F. Max Muller, New York, 1879, pp. 138, 209. "We, too, feeling once more like children, kneeling in a small dark room, can hardly find a better name tban: 'Our Father, which art in Heaven.'"-Ib., 209. History of the People of Israel, by Ernest Renan, Boston, 1888, p. 40.

4 Brinton and Dorman, passim ; Reville, 38.

· 5 Brinton, as cited ; Tbe Religious Sentiment, by D. G. Brinton, New York, 1876, pp. 62-72 ; Reville, as cited, 38, 65-9, 204. Dorman, however, insists that Manabozho is the deification of some former distinguished ancestor .- Primitive Superstitions, 82. This is improbable. Of late years there has arisen a school of writers who are imbued with a single idea, and would have us believe that all tbe symbolism in every religion, ancient and modern, in the Old World, and the New, in the tropics and in the coldest climates, has but one meaning, which is expressed in India by the ling-yoni ; in Ireland by the famous round towers and the Irish cross ; in Egypt by the pyramids; in Mexico by the pyramidal teo- callis and the calendar stone ; in Central America by the stone cross and the image of Centeotl (the Goddess of Agriculture, holding in her arms an infant, the male Centeotl, the maize); in North America by the snake dance and sundry totems; by the sacred " groves" of Palestine , Assyria, and Chaldea ; by the " garter" which formed the occasion for the motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense ; by the brazen serpent in the Wild- erness, and the rod of Aaron ; by the Druid circles at Stonehenge and else- where; by the priest's stole and his chasuble; by the campanili of Italy, and the spires of modern Christian churches-in short, by every object in nature and art to which a lively, not to say prurient, fancy can impart a questionable significance. See Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, by Thomas Inman, M. D., New York, 1884 ; Primitive Sym- bolism, etc., by Hodder M. Westropp, London, 1885; Crux Ansata, etc., London (privately printed), 1889; Cultus Arborum (Tree Worship), etc.,

THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT.

The similarity that exists between the races of the Old World and the New, in respect to the character of their stone implements, their pottery and architecture, their social customs and their religious myths, are explained by the parallelism in the development of mankind. The in- habitants of neither hemisphere borrowed from the other. The civilization of America was developed on independent lines. So were the American languages. This proves that the first races on this Continent must have separated from the primitive stock at a very early period. But the fact that the development was so similar in character proves likewise that the Americans had the same physiological and mental structure as their European relatives, and is addi- tional evidence of the truth of Paul's declaration, that "God hath made of one blood all nations of inen for to dwell on all the face of the earth." As Roger Williams quaintly puts it, " More particular :"

Boast not proud English, of thy birtb and blood Thy Brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee, and All. As wise, as faire, as strong, as personall.1

When the whites came to America they found that one great family of Indian nations-the Algonkins2 -occupied the country from frozen Labrador to sunny Savannah, and from the shores swept by the Atlantic's surges to the snow-

privately printed, 1890; Serpent and Siva Worship and Mythology, by Hyde Clark and C. Staniland Wake, New York, 1877; Serpent Worship, etc., by C. Staniland Wake, London, 1888; The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, etc., by Hargrave Jennings, London, 1879. Some of these writers combine great industry in the collection of facts with a marvelous credulity and riotous imagination in the interpretation of them. There is no sense in seeking a far-fetched explanation for an object or a rite wben a more obvious, simple meaning is at hand. In tbat amusing and interesting work, " Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and Quiches, 11,500 years ago, their relations to the sacred mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India; Free Masonry in Times Anterior to the Temple of Solomon," by August Le Plongeon, New York, 1886, the writer gravely asks us to helieve that the uræus figured in Egyptian sculp- ture on the beads of the royal family, was so worn hecause wben dis- tended in anger the asp took the shape of the isthmus of Yucatan, wbere lived the Mayas, whom he assumes to have been ancient relatives of the Egyptians !

1 A Key into tbe Languages of America, etc., by Roger Williams, London, 1643; reprinted, Providence (R. I.), 1827, p. 61. Tbe writer concludes each chapter with some verse, having a pious application, under the head " More particular."

2 " The term Algonkin may be a corruption of agomeegwin, people of the other sbore."-Brinton, "Myths of the New World," p. 27, note. Tbe Narragansett Indians spoke of England or Europe as Acarmenoa- kit, "from the land on the other side."-Roger Williams, as cited, p. 28. This would correspond with the Cree akamik, from the other side of the water. But may it not be derived from the Cree root kona (k being suhsti- tuted for g), French neige, snow ; and kiwihuw, French il est errant, sans residence; or homeless, referring to the wanderings of this people in the frozen regions of the far North? The Algonkins collectively were called by the nations west, north and south by the name of Wapanachki, Apenaki, Openagi, Abenaquis or Abenakis, " Eastlanders," a name still retained hy a small tribe in Maine. The word comes from tbe Cree root wab, white, whence wapan, dawn or day, wapanok, at or from the east. The Delawares in the far West still retain a tradition of the an- cient confederate name, and speak of themselves as O-puh-narke. See Brinton's Lenapé, pp. 19, 256; Lacombe's Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris, sub voce; Heckewelder, p. xli; Lenapé-English Dictionary, sub voce.

capped Rocky Mountains. The only exception to this un- disputed sway was the territory occupied by the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in Central and Northern New York, and southerly along the Susquehanna valley to Virginia. Among the innumerable independent nations of the Algon- kins was one which its members proudly called the Lenâpé, or Lenni Lenâpé 1 -"our men,"2 "Indian men,"3 "the Indians of our tribe or nation,"4 "the original or pure Indian."5 The Lenape occupied most of New Jersey-at least the southern part, which they called Scheyechbi6 (pro- nounced Shay-ak-bee), " loug land water ;" probably re- ferring to the waters enclosing the Southern peninsula of the State .? It is improbable that the Indians had any general name for the whole territory now known as New Jersey, and it is quite likely that S cheyechbi merely designated the shore of the Delaware Bay.

Whence came the Lenape? When did they first occupy New Jersey ? Questions more easily asked than answered. As already remarked, they were one of the many nations belonging to the great Algonkin stock. This is shown by the similarity in physical structure, in language, customs, religious cults and myths, their agriculture, pipes and im- plements. Many modern scientists incline to the belief that the language spoken by the Crees (inhabiting the

1 Lenapé is pronounced Len-ah-pay, the accent on the second syllable, wbich has a nasal inflection. See " Tbe Lenâpé and their Legends," by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., Philadelphia, 1885, P. 35; " On Algonkin Names for Man," hy J. Hammond Trumbull (From the Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1871), p. 9.

2 Brinton, as just cited, P. 33.

3 History of the Mission of the United Bretbren among the Indians in North America, by George Henry Loskiel, translated from the German by Christian Ignatius La Trobe, London, 1794, P. 2.

4 Trumbull, as just cited. The phrase "our Indians" is used in the early Pennsylvania records in sucb connection as to suggest tbat it is a translation of the Indian Lenapé. It is first used in 1690; again in 1694 and in 1712 .- Penn. Col. Records, I., 334, 436; II., 557. In 1693 a delegation of these same Indians declared: "although wee are a small number of Indians, yet wee are men & know fighting;" the word " men " here appears to be a translation also. They were called " Delawares " as early as 1694, and again in 1709, 1712, 1715, by wbicb time the name bad evidently become established .- Ib., I., 447 ; II., 469, 510, 546, 557, 599, 603. In 1712 the Delawares were also called “ Our Nation."-Ib., II., 559. In 1728, in one paper Gov. Patrick Gordon, of Pennsylvania, refers to them as " our Indians," and as " Our Lenappys or Delaware Indians."-Penn. Archives, I., 230. They still use the name Lenapé .- Morgan's Systems of Consanguinity, p. 289.

5 A Lenâpé-English Dictionary, edited hy Daniel G. Brinton and the Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony, Philadelphia, 1888, p. 63 ; A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States, etc., by Albert Gallatin, in Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Cambridge, 1836, Vol. II., p. 44.

6 An Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian Nations wbo once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighbouring States, by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in Transactions of the Historical & Lit- erary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, etc., Pbiladel- phia, 1819, Vol. I., p. 32 ; reprinted as Vol. XII of Memoirs of the Histo- rical Society of Pennsylvania, with introduction and notes by the Rev. William C. Reichel, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 51. The references bereafter to Heckewelder will be to the latter edition. Tbis devoted Moravian Missionary spent most of his life, from 1771 to 1810, as an evangelist among the Indians, especially among the Delawares and Monseys.

7 The Lenapé and their Legends, 40.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

southern shores of Hudson's Bay) has probably preserved most fully the characteristics of the parent language in use among the common ancestors of all the Algonkin nations.1 The migration legends of the Lenapé apparently indicate a northern origin of their nation, although it has been commonly interpreted otherwise. Their people, they say, resided many hundred years ago in the far West. Resolving to migrate eastward, they came, after many years, to the Namaesi Sipu,2 where they fell in with the Mengwe,3 who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck this river higher up. The region east of the river was iuhabited by a warlike people, who had many large fortified towns. These people called themselves Talligeu or Talligewi.4 They refused to per- mit the Lenapé to settle among them, but allowed them to pass through their country to the East. However, when they saw the many thousands of the Lenape they took alarm and made war on them. After many years of contest, the Talligewi abandoned their country, and retreated to the South. The Lenape and the Mengwe occupied the country for hundreds of years, gradually spreading out, till in time the former migrated, in small bodies, further South, and finally settled in New Jersey and along the Delaware river 5 and bay. Such is the legend as gathered by Heckewelder from the Lenapé themselves. 6

In 1822 the eccentric Rafinesque procured in Kentucky an original Lenapé record, pictured on wood, giving some primitive legends of that people. This record is called the Walam Olum, or Red Score, from the fact that it was doubtless painted in red on wood or prepared bark, whence it has been sometimes called the Bark Record. The original is not known to exist. What is preserved is a manuscript copy made in 1833 by Rafinesque. Of this, imperfect extracts have been frequently printed, but the first accurate reproduction-figures and text-was published in 1885 by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, under the title : "The Lenâpé and their Legends ; with the Complete Text and Symbols of the Walam Olum." After describing the creation, the record goes on to say :

I. Pehella wtenk lennapewi tulapewini psakwiken woli- wikgun wittank talli.

After the rushing waters (had subsided) the Lenape of the turtle [clan] were close together, in hollow houses, living together there.

2. Topan-akpinep, wineu-akpinep, kshakan-akpinep, thupin-akpinep.

1 Ib., p. 10.

2 Heckewelder interprets this to be the Mississippi, or fish river. The name might be applied with equal propriety to most rivers. The Creeks called the Mississippi Weokufke, muddy-water, from uewv, water, and okhufke, muddy .- Brinton, " The National Legend of tbe Chahta-Muskokee Tribe," Morrisania, N. Y., 1870, p. 10.

3 The Iroquois and the Five or Six Nations were called Mengwes or Mingoes by the Delawares.

4 The Tsalaki or Cherokees, the letters / and r being frequently inter- changed in Indian tongues, and especially among different tribes of the Delawares.

5 Called by the Delawares or Lenape the Lenapewihittuck, "the rapid stream of the Lenapé."

5 Heckewelder, pp. 47-51.

It freezes where they abode, it snows where they abode, it storms where they abode, it is cold where they abode.

8. Wemiako yagawan tendki lakkawelendam nakopowa wemi owenluen atam.

All the cabin fires of that land were disquieted, and all said to their priest, "Let us go."

I7. Wulelemil w' shakuppek, Wemopannek hakshinipek, Kitahikan pokhakhopek.

On the wonderful, slippery water, On the stone-hard (icy) water all went, On the great Tidal Sea, the mussel-bearing sea.

20. Wemipayat gunéunga shinaking, Wunkenapi chanelendam payaking, Allowelendam kowiyey tulpaking.

They all come, they tarry at the land of the spruce pines ; Those from the west come with hesitation,

Esteeming highly their old home at the Turtle land.

And so the record goes on to say :

"Long ago the fathers of the Lenâpé were at the land of spruce pines."

A long succession of Chiefs (Sakimas) followed : Beau- tiful Head, White Owl, Keeping-Guard, and Snow Bird, "who spoke of the South, that our fathers should possess it by scattering abroad." Then many more Chiefs (each probably representing a period of twenty-five years), among them Tally-Maker, "who made records ;" and Corn Breaker, "who brought about the planting of corn." From time to time southern and eastern migrations are noted ; then the war with the Talligewi, "who possessed the east ;" then, " all the Talega go south ;" "they stay south of the lakes." The Lenape spread south and east to the seashore, winning their way by frequent wars. 1

Dr. Brinton thus summarizes the narrative of the Walam Olum : At some remote period the ancestors of the Lenâpé dwelt probably at Labrador. They journeyed south and west to the St. Lawrence, near Lake Ontario. Next they dwelt for some generations in the pine and hemlock regions of New York, fighting often with the Snake people, and the Talega, agricultural nations, living in fortified towns, in Ohio and Indiana. They drove out the former, but the latter remained on the Upper Ohio and its branches. The Lenape, now settled on the streams in Indiana, wished to remove to the East to join the Mohe- gans and others of their kin who had moved there directly from northern New York. So they united with the Hurons to drive out the Talega from the Upper Ohio, which was not fully accomplished for many centuries, some Cherokees lingering along-there as late as 1730.2 Other writers think the Lenape migrated from the woody region-Shinaking- "land of the spruce pines," or "fir trees"-north of Lake

1 The Lenape and their Legends, pp. 181-217.

2 Ib., 165.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE LENAPE IN NEW JERSEY.

Superior, and crossed the Detroit river-Messu-1 sipi, or " Great River"-and so came into Northern Ohio. 2

It is not to be expected that we shall ever determine the periods of the successive wanderings and sojournings of the Lenape in the course of their migration south and east. Allowing twenty-five years as the average life of each Chief, we would have five hundred years as elapsing from the time the nation set out on their southward journey till they ac- quired the art of planting corn ; about five hundred years more ere they reached the upper St. Lawrence, and encoun- tered the Talligewi ; about seven hundred years more when they reached the "great sea," the "Mighty Water ; " one hundred and fifty years more, when "the whites came on the Eastern sea ;" about three hundred years more, when "from north and south, the whites came." Here we have a total of two thousand one hundred and fifty years as cover- ing the whole period of the migrations of this people. The more adventurous spirits were of course always pushing on ahead of the great body of the nation. From the crude data at hand, and making due allowance for the delibera- tion with which an entire nation must have moved, it is probable that the advance guard of the Lenape reached New Jersey at least as early as the eighth or ninth century, or one thousand years ago. 3

On the other hand, the testimony of archaeology demands a far greater antiquity to account for the innumerable traces of primitive human habitation within the bounds of Scheyechbi. All along the New Jersey shore are shell-heaps, refuse thrown up by the aboriginal villagers through unknown cen- turies. Some of them have accumulated on the fast ground, but are now several feet below the ocean level, in swamps, and in some instances covered with earth to a depth of six feet. Estimating that the New Jersey coast is subsiding at

1 In the Delaware mechen, big, large; or machen, great. Tbe gut- tural ch is softened to ss. In the Cree, misaw (inanimate form), great.

2 Horatio Hale, in American Antiquarian, 1883, p. 117. Prof. Cyrus Thomas regards these migration legends of the Lenape as strongly con- firmatory of his theory that at least part of the ten thousand mounds in Ohio and part of the thousands in adjacent States were built by the Cherokees (the Tallega or Tallegewi), whose territory was invaded via Northern Ohio by the Lenape and the Hurons, by whom they were finally driven southward, where (in Georgia, at least) they still built mounds in the sixteenth century. See articles by Prof. Thomas: "The Cherokees probably Mound-Builders," in Fiftb Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-4, pp. 87-109; "Cherokees probably Mound-Builders," in Magazine of American History, Vol. XI., 1884, pp. 396-407 ; "The Problem of the Ohio Mounds," U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, Wash- ington, 1889. In an admirable paper by Judge M. F. Force, “Some Early Notices of the Indians of Ohio. To what Race did the Mound- Builders Belong?" Cincinnati, 1879, the writer inclines to the view that the Mound Builders were attacked by invading tribes from the north- west, and concludes that they were flourishing about a thousand years ago, and earlier and later. In David Cusick's " Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations," etc., Lockport, N. Y., 1848, he says (p. 19) it was perhaps about 2,200 years before Columbus discovered America that the northern Indians "almost penetrated the Lake Erie," and that the ensuing wars lasted about 100 years.

3 The Cherokees had a tradition in 1669-70 that they reached Georgia more than four hundred years before, which would be about the close of the twelfth or the early part of the thirteenth century .-- Discoveries, &c., by John Lederer, London, 1672, quoted by Thomas in Mag. Am. Hist., as cited above. This would allow them four or five hundred years to make their way gradually South, after their first encounter with the Lenape.

the rate of two feet in a century, as calculated by Prof. Cook, the evidence is strong that the beginnings of these shell- heaps must date back far beyond a thousand years, and that the aborigines must have occupied this land long before they began to throw up these piles of kitchen refuse so sys- tematically.1 But there are no signs that any race since pal- æolithic man has inhabited New Jersey other than the. Indians whom the whites found here, and so it is very prob- able that David Cusick's vague tradition of the period of the encounter of the Northern Indians with the Tallegewi is nearer the truth than the estimate based on the imperfect record of Chiefly successions of the Lenape, and that it was "perhaps about two thousand two hundred years before the Columbus discovered the America,"2 that the Northern nations began their migration to the South and East, and hence fully three thousand years since the Lenapé saw the shining sea, from Scheyechbi.

Whatever the wanderers may have learned from their long contact with the Tallegewi there is no indication that they ever patterned after them in the building of mounds, for none have been found in New Jersey. It is pos- sible that some terraces supposed to be of natural origin may prove to be the handiwork of man. But there is no reason to believe that the Lenape ever reached that stage of development when it would have been possible for them to have organized, disciplined and supported an industrial force capable of constructing such vast mounds as are scat- tered over the prairies of the West.

The earliest white travelers in this part of the country looked upon the natives as simply savages, but little different from the wild beasts whose skins they wore. Hence they did not trouble themselves to study their insti- tutions, religion, mythology or traditions. That has been done of late years better than was possible then. How- ever, for descriptions of the actual manners and cus- toms of the people, as far as they were obvious to the casual observer, the accounts given by the first visitors to these shores are of value. So we read that the Indians of New Jersey (and the same was true of the aborigines generally) were well built and strong, with broad shoulders and small waists; dark eyes, snow-white teeth,3 coarse, black hair, of which the men left but a single tuft (scalp lock) on the top of the head, convenient for an enemy's scalping knife, and which the women thrust into a bag be- hind. There were few or none cross-eyed, blind, crippled, or deformed.4 "They preserved their Skins smooth by anointing them with the Oyl of Fishes, the fat of Eagles, and the grease of Rackoons, which they hold in the Summer the best antidote to keep their skins from blister- ing by the scorching Sun, and their best Armour against the

1 Abbott's Primitive Industry, as cited, pp. 448-450.

2 Cusick's Six Nations, as cited, p. 19.

3 The New and Unknown World, or Description of America and the Southland, by Arnoldus Montanus, Amsterdam, 1671, reprinted in N. Y. Documentary History, Vol. IV., 76.

4 Wassenaer's Historie van Europa, Amsterdam, 1621-32, reprinted in N. Y. Documentary History, Vol. III., 22.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

Musketto's * * * and stopper of the Pores of their Bodies against the Winter's cold."1

The men painted or stained their bodies, using colors extracted from plants or finely-crushed stones, or found ' along the seashore. 2 The women, not having the advantage of Christian training, and being therefore less wise than their white sisters, were wont to paint their faces ; and in gen- eral they adorned themselves more than did the men, for a proud squaw3 would sometimes display her charms set off by a petticoat ornamented with beads to the value of one hundred dollars or more. 4

As they lived mainly by hunting or by fishing, their huts or wigwams5 were temporary structures, which could be moved or abandoned as occasion or convenience required, 6 a practice which militated against the development of per- manent buildings of durable materials, and also against the cultivation of orchards.7 Unlike the Iroquois, the New Jersey. Indians did not commonly build large wigwams or "loug houses" for several families, but merely small huts

1 A two Years Journal in, New-York, etc., hy C[harles] W[olley], London, 1701 ; reprinted, New York, 1860, p. 28. Mr. Wolley was Chap- lain in the Fort at New York, 1678-80.

2 A Short Description of the Province of New Sweden, etc., hy Thomas Campanius Holm, translated from the Swedish hy Peter S. du Ponceau, and published in Memoirs Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila- delphia, 1834, Vol. III., Part I., p. 119. History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, hy George Henry Loskiel, translated hy Christian Ignatius La Trohe, London, 1794, P. 48. Loskiel's hook is a record of the Moravian mission work among the Indians, 1735-87. Although written in Germany, it presents the hest and fullest account we have of the Delaware Indians, having heen compiled with great care from the reports of the pious missionary, David Zeisherger, transmitted hy him to the head of the Moravian church, at Herrnhut, Germany.

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 6

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