USA > New Jersey > Salem County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 3
USA > New Jersey > Gloucester County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 3
USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 3
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HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER, SALEM, AND CUMBERLAND COUNTIES.
baps further study and comparison may hereafter reveal. or deer-horn, which, slightly yielding to the stone embraces an exposed edge, and determines the direc- Let us examine a collection of such relies, and read in them the mode of life of their former owners. At onee we diseern two principal classes into which they are divided. The first are stones, the shape of which bas been more or less modified by pecking, pounding, tion of cleavage. The most familiar examples are the "darts" or arrow-heads. Beginning with the size of the little finger nail. we can arrange a beautiful series of leaf-shaped, triangular, stemmed, barbed, twisted serrated, and other forms, increasing in size until the or grinding. A flat stone has a shallow eavity on its , line is passed when they can be called arrow-heads. upper surface, and with this is an elongated pestle, and these constitute the mills of the Indians in which, according to size, eorn and other food was pounded into meal or elay into paint. Oval and flattened natural stones have depressions on each side for thumb and finger, and on the circumference marks of bruising, and these are hammers, Cylindrical or oval stones are found with a groove pecked out around the middle for the reception of a handle, the " poga- moggen" or war-club. Of the same form, but with . the larger portion ground evenly to an edge, are the ! and they are evidently spears. These are generally from five to eight inehes in length, and of strong and effective proportions. There is one form, however, very common along onr water-courses, not larger than some arrow-heads, but long and narrow, and evidently Used as a "gig" for spearing fish. Next to the spears come the much larger and broader implements of similar make, which were spades or hoes according as they were lashed to a straight or bent handle. All arrows and spear-heads have a flat, chisel-like end opposite to the point, and many were inserted well-known Indian hatehets of innumerable variety . into the split end of a shaft, which was then strongly bound with green sinew, which contraeted as it dried. Fish-scaling knives, sealping-knives, and skinning- knives were made by the same process, the latter eu- riously similar to the peculiar curved knife now used
in weight, form, and finish. These axes were not used for chopping trees, for which they are totally unfit, but for barking them, and, after burning, for cutting away charred wood. They were also effee- tive weapons of war. Smaller stones, of like shape, 1 by furriers for cutting up their skins. Long, slender, and triangular flint perforators or awls were made for piereing hides in the process of sewing. We have { seen a magnificent dagger, hett and blade in one piece,
but without the groove for a handle, are called " celts" or chisels. When what we might call axes or piek- axes are found with a hole drilled for a handle, as in modern tools, they are always finely made and pol- ! made ont of choice red jasper. We can readily see ished, and never intended for hard work. They have , the handiness and use of the relies above described. been called "banner stones," and are believed to have been badges of office. Thin; flat stones of ob- long shape, with rounded ends and drilled in two or more places as if for cords, are supposed to have been ornaments for the breast. Stones with varionsly-sized grooves are found, which were adapted for finishing,
: but every collector of such specimens has other sin- gular objeets, evidently wrought into shape with defi- nite purpose, but what that purpose was is yet to be discovered. For over two centuries these imperishable riches of the Indians have laid in the soil, and only now are eagerly collected and carefully compared with as with sand-paper, the shafts of arrows, or for round- | almost identical remains from the lake- and eave-dwel- lers of pre-historie times in Europe.
ing sinews into threads and bowstring .. And, lastly, the precious tobaeco-pipe is found in all forms from the rudest to the most elaborate. One, found in this county, represents a beautifully-carved tortoise. A deep cavity in the baek is the bowl, and three pro- portions on either side of the shell would admit long reeds to radiate ont to each of six sociable smokers squatted around it.
The second class is that of chipped or flaked im- plements. In these the Indians exhibited their highest i skill and most artistic taste. Every variety of mineral is brought into noe, but the best were those which have a distinetly couchoidal fracture, such as jasper and ehalcedony. The art of making them was in producing at will this eonehoidal fracture, breaking
The only other relies commonly found are of pot- tery. The Indian tribes were quite expert in making a certain kind of earthenware more or less perfectly burned. The Sonthern and Southwestern tribes ex- eelled in this and kindred arts. and the more as we approach the Mexicans or Aztees. Our own Indians, though inferior to them, were no mean potters. Just : as the modern faience-worker, having selected his best elay, mixes therewith a "degraissant" of some refractory material to counteract shrinkage, so the Indian tempered our natural clays, and mixed therein miea seales or washed quartz sand, where the Florida Indians used pounded shells. Sometimes the plastic material was monlded on the inside of a woven bas- finished vessel. Generally the vessels were moulded by hand, quite thin, and ornamented by rolling a corn- cob over the soft surface. by stamping it with circles from the end of a hollow reed, by tracing line, with
off flakes of mineral, and leaving a series of larger ' ket and then fired, the basket-marks remaining on the or smaller concave surfaces over the formed imple-' ment. Sneh tools show no signs of bruising or grind- ing on their edges. They are sharp, serrated slightly on the edges, and thickened in the middle. The frac- tures were produced by cunningly-directed pressure, ; a sharp stick, or by impressions of thumb-nails. not from stone or metal, but from a piece of hard wood | Holes were provided near the rim for suspending such
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GENERAL HISTORY.
weeks by cords. They were then burnt, more or less, Samuel Argall entered New York Bay, and found but never, so far as we have seen, to anything like four traders' houses ou Manhattan Island, and in vientaction or glazing. Such vessels were very frag- 1614 the Dutch built a fort on the southern extremity of that island for the protection of their trading de, whether buried or left on the surface, but their fragments are almost imperishable. They sometimes . establishment. mark the spot of burial, where they were placed by Although the discovery of America by Columbus pon, hands, and often mark the site of ancient vil- ; was made in 1492. more than a century elapsed be- fore any successful and permanent colonies were
lages. None are very large, yet quite a eurious col-
lection ean be made of their various kinds and mark- ! planted here. In 1607 the first was established at ing -. | Jamestown, in Virginia, by the English, under a
Such are the remains of our predecessors in this | charter granted by James the First to Sir Thomas county. May we not hope that their zealous gather- ' Gates, Richard Haekluyt, and others. Under an- ing and contribution to the centres of seientifie study : other charter granted to the Plymouth Company in will, along with further research into the languages | 1620, the settlement of New England was com- and myths of the American tribes, make possible in | menced, and a permanent colony was established in the near future a more thorough knowledge of the | that year. people who so long ago faded from the land before the advance of our civilized life. They left no ill name in New Jersey, nor is New Jersey stained by any dark records of crime or cruelty on the part of white men towards its " original people."
CHAPTER II.
FIRST DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE RIVER.
Ix 1609 Delaware Bay was first discovered by Hen- drick Hudson, an Englishman in the service of a Dutch trading company. He had sailed west in , volved in hostilities it was to defend itself at its own quest of a passage to the Indies, reached Newfound- land, turned south, discovered Cape Cod, which, in I without the concurrence of the States. To this com- pany the States made a present of half a million of guilders, and subscribed half a million more to its stock.
ignorance of its previous discovery, he named New Holland, and proceeded southward till he reached the shore near Chesapeake Bay. He then turned northward, and on the 28th of August entered Dela- ware Bay. There he found shallow water and sand- bars; and deeming navigation unsafe, he sailed out
and proceeded north till he came to New York Bay, I made, not only in the vicinity of the Hudson, or North which be entered. He sailed up the river which | River, but on the Delaware, or Sonth River, as they
bears his name as far as Albany, then returned, and started on his voyage to Holland in October of the same year.
The next year Lord Delaware, on a voyage to Vir- ginia, touched at Delaware Bay, which thus came to bear his name.
As before stated, the trading-post at Manhattan Island was fortified in 1614, and at about the same time Fort Orange was ereeted on an island in the Hudson, near Albany. The settlements thus made were for purposes of trade only, and nothing having the character of a colony was established during several years. Even as late as 1625 there was but one European family residing on Long Island in the near vicinity of the principal trading-post.
The commercial operations established and carried on here were quite successful. and in 1621 the States- General granted a charter to the " West India Com- pany," with extensive powers and privileges, but without any grant of specific territory, or any guar- anty of its possessions. If the company beeame in- expense, but it was not empowered to declare war
It was at onee seen that, although commerce was the objeet of this corporation, colonization was essen- | tial to its suceess, and efforts in that direction were
were then called.
It is said that in 1616, Cornelis Hendrickson, in the ship " Restless," a vessel of light draft, that was built at Manhattan in 1614 by Adrian Block, sailed up the Delaware River as far as the mouth of the Schuylkill. No other European is known to have explored this stream till 1623, when Cornelis Jacob- son Mey, with Adrian Joris second in command, was sent by the West India Company with a number of emigrants from Holland. He brought a stock of mer- chandise, and means of subsistence and defense. He
The report which Hudson gave of his voyage and the country which he visited induced the merchants of Amsterdam to send another vessel, in 1610, freighted with goods for trade with the natives at Manhattan Island and its vieinity. This adventure proved profit- able, and they obtained from the States-General the sailed along the coast from Cape Cod, entered New exclusive privilege of trading during four years with York Bay, which he christened Port Mey, then sailed sonth to Delaware Bay, which he named New Port Mey. The cape at the north of the entrance to Dela- ware Bay he ealled Cape Mey (now Cape May), and the natives of Hudson River and that vicinity. Here a remunerative commerce was carried on, and agents were left to eare for the interests of the trading com- pany during the winter of each year. In 1613, Sir i that at the south Cape Cornelis (now Henlopen).
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HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER, SALEM. AND CUMBERLAND COUNTIES.
IIe ascended the stream as far as the mouth of Tim- Here De Vries, by the timely information given hi. by an Indian woman, eluded a plan to murder in and his crew, as the erew of an English boat that li. been sent there by the Governor of Virginia had ley and sailed for Manhattan, and thus ended the air- attempt to colonize the country on the Delaware. ber Creek, near which he landed and erected a fort, which he named Fort Nassau. This was the first at- tempt to establish a settlement on the Delaware River. The object of planting this settlement was trade with . entrapped and murdered. He descended the rive the natives, but it is presumed the adventure was not successful. No reliable history remains as to subse- quent proceedings here, and it is only known that ten years later no whites were found here, but that the fort was occupied by the Indians.
In 1629 the West India Company, to promote col- onization in New Netherland, offered to patroons, or founders of settlements, not only exclusive property in large traets of land but extensive manorial and seignorial rights. Encouraged by these offers, sev- eral of the directors of the company sought to make large territorial acquisitions here. In 1629 the agents of Samuel Godyn and Samuel Bloemart purchased from three Indian chiefs a tract of land extending from Cape Henlopen thirty-two miles and two miles in breadth, and the next year another tract was pur- chased for the same persons on the opposite side of the bay, at Cape May. This purchase was made from nine chiefs, and was sixteen miles in length by the same in breadth.
In 1630 two vessels were titted out and laden with emigrants, animals, implements, grain. seeds, etc., for settlement on the Delaware or South River. The command was given to David Pretersen de Vries, and the vessels arrived at their destination early in 1631. The settlers, thirty-four in number, landed at Hore Kill,1 now Lewis Creek. Here a palisade fort was erected, and, in the antnmn, De Vries returned to Holland, leaving the colony in charge of Giles Osset. In the absence of De Vries, Osset, who appears to have been an indisereet man, quarreled with the In- dians, and one of their chiefs was killed. It has been said that the arms of the States-General were set up, painted on tin, and that a chief, attracted by the ' shining metal, took it to convert it into trinkets. This was regarded as a national insult, and to appeare the wrath of the settlers the head of the chief was brought by the Indians themselves. The truth of this story is doubted. Probably the chief had been wantonly killed for some trifling offense. On the re- turn of De Vries, in December, 1632, he found nothing of the colony he had left but the skulls and bones of the colonists strewn on the ground. The Indians had fallen on them when unsuspicions of danger, killed them all, and burned their fort and other buildings.
After lingering a few weeks in the neighborhood of Hoornkill, De Vries, in January, 1633, sailed up the river to Fort Nassau, which he found occupied by Indians. The Hollanders, left there by Mey ten years before, had voluntarily removed to New Amsterdam.
CHAPTER III.
SWEDISH RÉGIME.
THE first project of planting a Swedish colony i- America was formed during the reign of the renowne Gustavus Adolphus. Upon the representation o' William Usselinx, a Hollander, that America offere. great advantages for profitable trade, a company wa. formed, and in 1626 a favorable ediet was issued by the king. Ships and all necessaries were provided and the preparations were made for the accomplish- ment of the work, but the breaking out of the Ger- man war, and the subsequent death of the king, at- rested the proceedings, and for the time defeated the project.
Although the idea of establishing a trading colony ou an extensive scale was not revived, that of a colon! for settlement was not long dormant. Peter Minuit who had been Governor of the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam, went to Sweden and urged the project o: a settlement on the Delaware. Count Oxenstier .. favored the project, and laid the plan of a colony before Queen Christina. It met her approval, and in 1636-37 she gave orders for its execution. Minuit was made commander of the colony, a ship, called the "Key of Calmar," was fitted out at Gottenburg. and sailed, accompanied by a smaller vessel. the " Bird Grip" (or "Griffin" ), both laden with colonist and supplies. On their arrival they purchased from the Indians a tract of land on the west side of the river, extending from Cape Henlopen to the fall- ai Trenton, and settled on Christina Creek, at the mouth of which they built a fort, which they named. in honor of their queen, Fort Christina.
Historians differ with regard to the time when this fort was built, but the weight of evidence scem- to fix the time not earlier than 1636 nor later than 163. probably the latter year. On the death of Minuit the government of the colony devolved on Peter Hol- lendare, who, after eighteen months, returned to Swe- den, and was succeeded by Lient .- Col. John Printz. who came over in 1642 in the ship "Fame," ac- companied by two other ships, the "Swan" and "Charitas."
In the instructions given to Governor Printz the following article is noteworthy in its bearing on the early settlement of the eastern side of the Delaware River:
1 Variously written Horeskill, Hoatkill, Whorekill, doubtless corrup- tions of Hoornkill, from Hoorn, a city in Holland, and Kill, a river or creek.
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GENERAL HISTORY.
46. Recently, and in the year last past, viz, 1641, several English fonalies, probably amounting to sixty persons in all, have settled and teguh to build and cultivate the land elsewhere, namely, nyon the Fast side of the above-mentioned south river, on a little stream named F-rien's Kit,1 so have also the above-named subjects of Her Majesty, s'. I j orticipants in the Company, purchased for themselves of the wild Inhabitants of the country the whole of this enstein side of the river, from the mouth of the aforesaid great river at Cape May up to a stream natned Narraticen's Kil,2 which tract extends about twelve (12) German unb+, including also the sand Ferkeu's Kil, with the intention of draw- j' K to themselves the English afore-aid. This purchase the governor y'all always, with all his power, keep intact, and thus bring these fam- ilies under the jurisdiction and government of Her Royal Majesty and the Swedish Crown, especially as we are informed that they themselves are not indisposed thereto, and should they be induced, as a free people, untarily to submit themselves to a government which can maintain and protect them, it is believed that they might shortly amount to some I undred stroug. But however that may be, the Governor is to seek to lving these English under the government of the Swedish Crown as [ artners in this undertaking, and they might also, with good reason, be driven out and away from said place, therefore, Her Most Royal Majesty aforesaid will most graciously leave it to the discretion of Governor l'rintz so to consider and act in the premises as can he doue with pro- priety and success."
sertion and maintenance of their rights which they elnimed to the whole of Delaware River.
Governor Printz selected as his residence the island of Tenackong, otherwise known as Tutaenung and Tenieo,3 and here he erected a fort, with considerable armament, which he named New Gotheborg. This location was selected because of its relation to Fort Nassau, by the occupancy of which the Dutch might interfere with passage on the river.
It may here be remarked that a portion of the Swedish immigrants were called freemen, because they came with liberty to settle and remain in the country or leave it at their pleasure; while another portion came in the service of a trading company, and received wages. Malefactors were also seut over at first, but the influx of these was arrested by Gov- ernor Printz.
The traffic with the Indians, which the Swedes de- sired to control, was interfered with by the Dutch, who came with permits from Governor Stuyvesant, of New Amsterdam. One of these, named Thomas chased from the natives land on the eastern shore : adjacent to this. Printz protested against this, and made a purchase from the Indians of the land from Mantas Huck, nearly opposite Tenaekong, to Narriti-
It is not known whether the English settlers spoken of were squatters from New Haven, adventurers from Maryland, or the pioneers of Sir Edmund Ployden. , Broen. associated with some Swedish freemen, pur- With regard to the Indians, the instructions received by Governor Printz were to regard them as the right- ful owners of the country, to obtain land from them only by purchase, and to treat them in the most equitable and humane manner, that no injury should : cons, or Raccoon's Kihl. On this land he set up a be done to them by any of his people. Thus was in- .
angurated the just and humane poliey toward the na- tives that was afterward pursued by William Penn.
post, to which he affixed the Swedish coat of arms, and thus. for a time, the plan of the Hollanders was frustrated.
As soon as it became known to the Dutch author- ities at New Amsterdam that the Swedes were erect- ing a fort at the month of Christina Creek, a protest was made by Governor William Kieft, "that the whole south river of the New Netherlands, both above and below, hath already for many years been our property, occupied by our forts and sealed with our blood, which was also done when you were in service in the New Netherlands, and you are, there- fore, well aware of this. But whereas you have now come among our forts to build a fortress to our injury and damage, which we shall never permit, as we are also assured that Her Royal Majesty of Sweden has never given you authority to build forts upou our rivers and coasts, and to settle people on the land, nor to traffic in peltries, nor to undertake anything to our injury, we do therefore protest against all the disorder Governor Printz having by the erection of the fort on Tinienm Island blocked the passage of the Hol- landers to Fort Nassau, the latter, in the name of the States-General, made a treaty with the Indians in 1651, for the land between Mingua's Kihl and Bambo Hook. This treaty was probably made with the Delawares, whose title to the soil was not admitted by the Mingos or Iroquois. Soon afterwards they built Fort Casimir, at Sandhuk (now Newcastle, in the State of Delaware). Governor Printz protested against the erection of this fort, but without effect. To overcome the advantage which the Dutch had thus | gained, Governor Printz erected, on the eastern shore, ; at a place called Wootsessung Sing (Salem Creek ), . another Swedish fort, which he named Elfsborg. From this fort the district in that region took the name of Elsinborg. The fort was a Swedish mile and injury, and all the evil consequences of bloodshed, ; (more than six English miles) below Fort Casimir, uproar, and wrong which our Trading Company may thus suffer, and that we shall protect our rights in : dish ships were saluted as they passed, and Dutch wuch manner as we may find most advisable." and two miles below Christina. From this fort Swe- vessels were compelled to lower their flags. This fort Beyond this protest, and the repair and reocenpa- tion of Fort Nassau, it does not appear that any ae- ! tive measures were adopted by the Dutch, during the administration of Minuit and Hollandare, for the as- was afterwards called Myggenborg, because of the abundance of gnats, or mosquitoes (Myggor), which rendered it almost untenable. It was afterwards abandoned and destroyed by the Swedes. Several other fortifications were erected by the Swedes on the western side.
" " Varken's Kil," i.e, "Hog Creek," now Salem Creek.
2 Raccoon Creek. The Naraticongs are mentioned by O'Callaghan as an Indian tribe.
3 Now Tinicum, about nine mllea south west from Philadelphia.
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HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER, SALEM, AND CUMBERLAND COUNTIES.
The Dutch historian, Adrian Van der Donck, thus speaks of Governor Printz's doings at this fort :
"The Swedish governor, thinking that now is the right time, has built a fort called Elsinborg. There be holds a high hand over each and all, even over the vessels of our trading company, and all those who sail up into Sonth River, compelling them to strike their flags, without exception. He sends two men on board to inquire where they come from, which is scarcely better than searching us, to which it will come at last. We cannot understand what right those Swedes have to act so, or how the officers of another power, as these give themselves out to be with full powers, can take upon themselves such high an- thority over another people's lands and wares which they bave so long had in possession and sealed with their own blood, especially as we hold it by a charter."
However jealous the Swedes and Hollanders were of each other, they were always united in excluding the English from the river. Says Acrelius, " Already in those times the Englishman sought to settle him- self on those coasts, and had so far a claim to it as the western shore was regarded as the rear of Virginia, especially as the times then gave him the best right who had the most strength. The year before Gover- nor Printz landed the English had fortified a place apon the Schulkihl," whom the Dutch commissary at Fort Nassau was ordered to drive out. Again, Van der Donck says, "There lies another creek (kihl) on the eastern shore, three miles down towards the mouth of the river, called Varcken's Kihl (Hog Creek, or Salem Creek), where some English settled (the ones referred to in Governor Printz's instructions), but Di- rector Kieft drove them away, and protested against them being in that part, supported by the Swedes, for they had both agreed to drive the English away."
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