USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of the county of Hudson, New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 4
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3 Breden Raedt, Doc. Hist. of N. Y. iv., 102. Vide Van Vorst Family.
4 O'Cal., N. N., ¿. , 264. The Greeks and Indians seem to liave entertained similar ideas of atonement.
" A son's or brother's death, By payment of a fine, may be atoned; The slayer may remain in peace at home, The debt discharg'd ; the other will forego, The forfeiture receiv'd, his just revenge."
Derby's Iliad, Book IX., lines 731-5.
5 O'Cal., N. N., ¿. , 263. The Tankitekes were the Haverstraw Indians, of whom Pacham was chief.
31
THE INDIANS FLEE TO PAVONIA.
Tappaens, whom they wished to place under tribute.1 Seventeen of them were slain, and many women and children made prisoners, " the remainder fled through a deep snow to the christians' houses on and around the Island of Manhattan. They were humanely received, being half dead of cold and hunger, and supported for fourteen days; even some of the Directors' corn was sent to them." Soon another panic seized them, and again they fled. part of them to Pavonia, where the Hackingsacks bivouacked one thousand strong .? They came over to this side of the river on the 23d of February, 1643, and encamped on the westerly edge of Jan de Lacher's Hoeck,3 be- hind the settlement of Egbert Wouterssen4 and adjoining the bouwerie of Jan Evertsen Bout.5 Here it may be proper to let the poor frightened savages rest for two days, and in the mean while take a glance at the condition of Pavonia, and learn what was taking place in New Amsterdam.
Up to this time, February, 1643, no settlement had been made north of Hoboken. At this place a farm-house and brew-house had been built and a bouwerie cleared and planted. Here Aert Teunissen Van Putten and his family resided.6
1 N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., ¿. , 267. 2 O'Cul., N. N., i., 265.
3 The encampment was a few blocks east of the Lafayette Reformed Church, and near the corner of Pine and Walnut streets, in Jersey City.
4 Col. Hist. of N. Y., i., 209 ; Broadhead, i., 351. Wouterssen, from Yselstein, was the first occupant of the present Mill Creek Point, or Jan de Lacher's Hoeck. He held it under a lease from Bout, June 20, 1640. N. Y. Col. MSS., ¿. , 201. On September 1, 1641, he married Engeltje Jans van Bresteede, widow. Valentine's Manual, 1862, 650. On May 10, 1647, he obtained a patent for a " tract of land called in the Indian Apopcalyck, extending from Dirck Straat- maker's Kil to Gemoenepaen or Jan Evertz Kil, northeast by east and south- west by west, behind the kil which runs through betwixt the upland and the marsh, extending west northwest to the woods." Land Papers (Albany), G. G., 216. This included all the land south of the Abattoir and east of Sycan's Creek. Winfield's Land Titles, 56. He was an Adelborster, or gentleman sol- dier, in the army in 1653. He removed from Pavonia and went to New Am- sterdam, where he died in 1680.
5 Bout's farm included all of the upland lying between Communipaw Creek, where the Abattoir now stands, on the south, and the meadow where the engine house of the Central Railroad now stands, or Maple street, on the north.
6 Van Putten was the first white resident of Hoboken. He leased the farm
32
HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY.
At Ahasimus was the family of Cornelis Van Vorst, now de- ceased, at the head of which was Jacob Stoffelsen, who had married Van Vorst's widow.
At Paulus Hoeck were Abraham Isaacsen Planck1 and his tenants, Gerrit Dircksen Blauw,2 Claes Jansen Van Purmerendt alias Jan Potagie,3 and Cornelis Arissen,4
At Jan de Lacher's Hoeck, or Mill Creek Point, as an under tenant of Bout, resided Egbert Wouterssen with his family.
At Communipaw lived Jan Evertsen Bout. After his arrival in 1634, he held this land as Pauw's representative until the pa- troon sold to the Company. Then, July 20, 1638, he leased the bouwerie for a term of six years for one quarter of the crops.5 He afterward received, as a gift, a patent for the farmn. The following is a copy of this grant:
February 15, 1640, for twelve years from January 1, 1641. N. Y. Col. MSS., i., 187. Kieft was to erect a small house, and Van Putten was to give as rent " the fourth sheaf with which God Almighty shall favor the field." He cleared the land, fenced the fields, erected the first brew-house in the county, stocked the place with twenty-eight head of large cattle, besides hogs, goats, and sheep, and planted a number of fruit trees., Col. Hist. of N. Y., i., 328.
1 Ibid, ¿. , 194, 195.
2 Blauw occupied one morgen of land for a " tobacco plantation," under lease dated October 21, 1638, for twelve years from the first of the month, at twenty- five carolus guilders annually, "with express condition that Gerrit Dircksen shall not keep for himself more than six goats and hogs for slaughter, and one sow big with young." N. Y. Col. MSS., ¿. , 55.
3 Jan Potagie, or " Soup Johnny," also occupied one morgen for the raising of tobacco. Ibid, 60. Vide Van Vorst Family.
4 Lease dated April 20, 1643, to run for six years from May 1, 1644, for the whole of Paulus Hoeck, with house and garden of Planck ; " on which Paulus Hoeck Abraham Planck shall cause a barn to be built at his expense, which barn and house Cornelis Arissen must keep water tight ; said lessee shall pay as rent for the first year 100 guilders, for the remaining five years 160 guilders annually, if Jan Potagie continues to reside on the Hoeck, but if said Potagie shall leave, the lessee shall pay for the aforesaid five years 180 guilders." _V. Y. Col. MSS., ii., 53.
5 This land must have been very productive. Van Der Donck says that Bout laid a wager that he could raise a crop of barley on a field containing seven morgens, which would grow so tall in every part of the field that the ears could easily be tied together above his head. Van Der Donck went to see the field of barley, and found that the straw was from six to seven feet high, and very little of it any shorter. N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., i., 159.
33
GRANT OF COMMUNIPAW TO BOUT.
" We, Willem Kieft, Governor General, and Council under the high and Mighty Lords States General of the United Netherlands, High Mightiness of Orange and the Honorable Directors of the authorized West India Company, residing in New Nether- land, make known and declare that on this day hereunder written, we have given and granted to Jan Everse Bout a piece of land lying on the North River, westward from Fort Amsterdam, before these pastured and tilled by Jan Everse, named Gamoenepaen1 and Jan de Lacher's Hoeck,? with the meadows, as the same lay within the post and rail fence, containing eighty-four morgens.3 " In testimony whereof are these presents by us signed, and with our seal confirmed, in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the which land Jan Everse took possession of in Anno 1638, and began then to plough and sow it. WILLEM KIEFT.
" By order of the Honorable Governor General and Council of New Netherland. "CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN, Sec'y.""
1 This is the first time the names of these two places are met with. It has been said that " Gamoenepaen" received its name from being the settlement of Pauw. Dunlap's Hist. of N. Y., i., 50. Gemeente, " community or commons." It is a possible origin rendered plausible by the modern orthography of the word, which is not older than the present century. But Pauw had sold out his interest some time previous, and it was the land, not the settlement, that was so named. Up to this time the place had been included in the general name of Pa- vonia. Now it was applied to the upland east of the hill and south of the mead- ow between Communipaw avenue and Walnut street. The orthography, and especially the final syllable of the word, precludes the idea of its being derived from Pauw. It is, I think, beyond doubt an Indian word. It has been written in many ways, e. g .: Gemeene Pus (common way ?), Gamoenepaen, Gamoenipan, Ge- moenupa, Gamoenepa, Gemoenepa, Gemeenapa, Gemoenepaen, Ghmoenepaen, Ge- meenepaen, Gmoenepaen, Commanepa, Commenapa, Communepah, Communipaw.
2 That is, John the Laugher's Point. It was a circular piece of upland at the mouth of Mill Creek, surrounded on three sides by salt marsh and on the east by Communipaw Cove. It is probable that this name immortalizes the jovial disposition of Jan Evertsen Bout, who was its first occupant, and, after Pauw parted with his interest therein, held it under a lease (dated July 20, 1638) from the Company.
3 For an explanation of this measure, vide Winfield's Land Titles, 26.
4 The original is now in possession of John C. Van Ilorn, in good preserva-
3
34
HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY.
On the bluff immediately in the rear of Cavan Point, and just where the Central Railroad crosses the Morris Canal, lived Dirck Straatmaker.1 It is possible there might have been a few other families than those above named, living along the shore between Hoboken and Cavan Point, but if so the fact has not survived. There was no building on the Heights, and, as far as known, none other in the county.
As soon as the Indians had fled to the Dutch for protection from the wild warriors of the north, Kieft saw the opportunity for which he had waited since the murder of the " Raadmaker," and intimated the same to De Vries. He had dissolved the representative " Twelve," and yet he feared the people, should he attack the Indians. Well he might, for besides the retaliation which would fall upon the scattered whites and outlying planta- tions, the savages were the guests of the Dutch, " strong both against the deed." Violent and unscrupulous men, however, soon opened a way for the slaughter of the savages. Among the former "Twelve " were Jan Jansen Dam (or Damen), Maryn Adriaensen, and Abraham Isaacsen Planck, " three inconsiderate boors."" Kieft's secretary, Cornelis Van Tienhoven, was a crafty, subtle, intelligent, sharp-witted man. "He was an adept in dissembling. Where he laughed heartiest, he bit worst ; where he hated most, he pretended the warmest friendship. In words and dealings he was loose, false, deceitful and lying ; promising every one, but when they came to the point 'he was not at home.'" Ile and Planck were brothers-in-law, and sons-in- law of Dam. Planck, Dam and Adriaensen were the cronies of Kieft. As Kieft was dining with Dam at Shrovetide, on the night of February 24, 1643, and had become mellow with drink- ing " mysterious toasts," and so open to the approach of evil counsel, the host, with Planck and Adriaensen, assuming to
tion. It is without date, but Van Tienhoven says the farm was given to Bout " long after the house was burnt." Col. Hist. of N. Y., i., 432. The house was destroyed in 1643.
1 Winfield's Land Titles, 58. This bluff took the name of Straatmaker's Point.
2 Breeden Raedt, Doc. Hist. of N. Y., ir., 102.
35
PETITION TO ATTACK THE INDIANS.
speak for the people, presented to Kieft the following ernel petition drawn up by Van Tienhoven, for the immediate slaughter of the unsuspecting Indians :1
" To the Honorable William Kieft, Director General of New Netherland, and his Honorable Council.
" The whole of the freemen respectfully represent, that though heretofore much innocent blood was spilled by the savages with- out having had any reason or cause therefor, yet your Honors made peace on condition that the Chiefs should deliver the murderer into your hands (cither dead or alive), wherein they have failed, up to the present time; the reputation of which our nation hath in other countries, has thus been diminished, even, notwithstanding innocent blood calleth alond to God for vengeance : we therefore request your Honors to be pleased to authorize us to attack the Indians as enemies, whilst God hath fully delivered them into our hands, for which purpose we offer our persons. This can be effected, at the one place by the freemen, and at the other by the soldiers.
Your Honors' subjects, MARYN ADRIAENSEN, JAN JANSEN DAMES, ABRAHAM PLANCK.
By their authority,
CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN, Secretary.">
Although the " Twelve" had been dissolved by Kieft himself, and he therefore well knew that no one could speak for them, he was weak enough to heed the voice of three men who falsely spoke in the name of " the whole of the freemen." In his anx- iety to perform what he thought a great and heroic deed, he yielded to their counsel, and resolved to " make the savages wipe their chops."3 On the following day Van Tienhoven and Hans Stein, at one time a deputy jailor in New Amsterdam, came
1 Col. Hist. of N. Y., i., 345.
3 N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., i., 269.
2 I bid, i., 193.
36
IIISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY.
over to Pavonia to reconnoitre the camp of the Indians.1 Cap- tain De Vries and Dominie Bogardus, having been informed of what was going on, remonstrated against the whole proceeding, but in vain. Kieft was ambitious " to perform a feat worthy of the ancient heroes of Rome."2 He immediately issued the fol- lowing order :
" Sergeant Rodolf is commanded and authorized to take under his command a troop of soldiers and lead them to Pavonia, and drive away and destroy the savages being behind Jan Evertsen's,3 but to spare as much as it is possible their wives and children, and to take the savages prisoners. He may watch there for the proper opportunity to make his assault successful; for which end Hans Stein, who is well acquainted with every spot on which the savages are skulking, accompanies him. He, therefore, shall consult with the aforesaid Hans Stein and the corporals. The ex- ploit ought to be executed at night, with the greatest caution and prudence. Our God may bless the expedition.
" Done 25 February, 1643."4
With such revolting blasphemy did the weak Director end such a ernel order ! A similar order was given to Adriaensen to attack the Indians at Corlaer's Hoeck. Most wicked and inop- portune were both. The settlers were seattered and entirely without notice of the impending blow. Their position and want of preparation for defence rendered them an easy prey to the savage. Under these circumstances the Dutch authorities were entering upon a course the end of which was destruction.
The light of the 25th of February, 1643, was fading, and the shadows of the black winter night were drawing over the beau-
1 N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S, i., 345; Doc. Hist. of N. Y., io., 103.
2 N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., i., 269.
3 De Vries says they encamped at Pavonia, " near the Oyster Bank." Ibid. i., 268. " On Jan de Lacher's Hoeck, near Jan Evertsen's bouwerie." Col. Hist. of N. Y., i., 209. " By the bouwerie of Jan Evertzoon." Ibid, i., 195. " Near Jan Evertsen Bout's bouwerie." Ibid, ¿. , 199. " Behind the settlement of Egbert Wouterssen, and adjoining the bouwerie of Jan Evertsen Bout." O'Cal., N. N., ¿. , 267.
4 V. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., i., 278.
JAN DE LACHER'S HOECK, OR MILL CREEK POINT.
37
COMMUNIPAW MASSACRE.
tiful bay. Huddled and shivering on the western slope of Jan de Lacher's Hoeck, under the protection of the Dutch, the unsus- pecting Indians thought themselves safe from the ficree Mo- hawks. But while they drew around the camp fires and talked or dreamed of their forsaken wigwams, Manhattan was all astir with the movement of troops and citizens. The noble-hearted De Vries stood beside the Director as the soldiers under Sergeant Rodolf passed by the fort on their way to Pavonia. "Let this work alone," said he ; " you will go to break the Indians' heads, but it is our nation you are going to murder." "The order has gone forth ; it shall not be recalled," was Kieft's dogged reply.1 The sergeant, with his eighty sokliers armed for the slaughter, marched down to the river. and, embarking in boats prepared for the purpose, silently rowed toward the shores of Pavonia. Round- ing the southerly point of Panhis Hoeck, under the guidance of Hans Stein, they pulled for the high point at the month of Mill Creek. Here they landed. Climbing the bank, they passed close to the house of Egbert Wouterssen, and cautiously ap- proached their sleeping vietims. Suddenly the sound of mus- ketry and the wild shrieks of the Indians rang ont in the mid- night. Even at this distance of time, "the horrors of that night cause the flesh to creep as we ponder over them." Captain De Vries, who, in contemplating the consequences of the expedi- tion, could not sleep, says, " I remained that night at the Govern- or's, and took a seat in the kitchen near the fire, and at mid- night I heard loud shrieks. I went out to the parapets of the fort and looked toward Pavonia. I saw nothing but the flash of the guns, and heard nothing more of the yells and clamor of the Indians, who were butchered during their sleep."2 Neither age nor sex could stay the hand of the unrelenting Dutch. Suek- lings were torn from their mothers' breasts, butchered in the pres- ence of their parents, and their mangled limbs thrown into the fire or water. Others, "while fastened to little boards"-the rude cradle of the papoose-were cut through, stabbed, and mis- erably massacred. Some were thrown alive into the river, and
1 O'Cal., N. N., i., 267.
2 N. Y. ITist. Soc., N. S., ¿. , 269.
38
HISTORY OF IIUDSON COUNTY.
when their fathers, obeying the promptings of nature, rushed in to save them, the soldiers prevented their coming to shore, and thus parents and children perished. The babe and the decrepid old man shared the same fate. Some succeeded in hiding among the bushes from their destroyers, but the next morning, driven out by hunger to beg for bread, were ent down in cold blood and thrown into the fire or river. De Vries says, " Some came run- ning to us from the country having their hands off, some, who had their legs cut off, were supporting their entrails with their arms, while others were mangled in other horrid ways, in part too shocking to be conceived ; and these miserable wretches did not know, as well as some of our people did not know, but they had been attacked by the Mohawks." Isaac Abrahamsen, a captain of one of the vessels which had brought over the soldiers, and was waiting for their return, saved a little boy and hid him under the sails ; but toward morning the poor child, overcome with cold and hunger, made some noise. Instantly he was " heard by the soldiers ; eighteen Dutch tigers dragged him from under the sails in spite of the endeavors of the skipper, who was alone against eighteen, cut in two and thrown overboard."1 Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia during that night, and this, says De Vries, was "the feat worthy of the heroes of old Rome."
Great was the rejoicing on Manhattan when the soldiers re- turned bearing the ghastly heads of some of the victims as the trophies of their brilliant exploit. Planck's mother-in-law went so far as to kick these heads in her yet nnappeased rage! But, closer than they knew, sorrow and mourning were following upon the heels of their unhallowed rejoicing. How could it be otherwise ? What though the slayers were "Christians" and the slain savages ? "Hath not a Jew eyes ? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the
1 Breeden Raedt, Doc. Hist. of N. Y., iv., 104.
2 O'Cal., N. N., i., 269.
39
RETALIATION OF THE INDIANS.
same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility ? revenge ; if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example ? why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute ; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."
How suddenly had briars sprung up in the trail !1 While yet the fiendish orgies were being enacted, the work of retaliation had begun. Direk Straatmaker, in company with some Englishmen and his wife, who had a baby? in her arms, came at an early hour upon the bloody field for the purpose of plunder. The surviving Indians, who now saw the soldiers filing off toward their boats, while the others tarried, fired upon Straat- maker's party, with what result the following certificate will show :
" We, the undersigned, sergeant, corporal, and soldiers, at the request of the Attorney General, attest that on the - February, 1643, in the morning, after we had beaten a party of savages at Pavonia, behind Egbert Wouterssen's, the wife of Dirck Straat- maker, with a few Englishmen, arrived on the spot where the slain were lying, with a view to plunder maize or any other arti- cle. We declare solemnly we warned said Direk Straatmaker and his wife and told them to go home, to which Dirck replied. ' There is no danger. If there were a hundred savages, none of them would hurt us.' Upon which the undersigned left the spot, according to their orders, to go to the house of Egbert. When they arrived there they heard a shriek ; then the sergeant ordered some of his soldiers toward the spot, where they found
1 " There are briars in the trail between us." An Indian proverb, signifying that trouble exists between the tribes.
2 This child was saved. He was named Jan Dircksen Straatmaker. Shortly afterward he was bound by the authorities in New Amsterdam to Claes Teu- nissen, with whom he had, on Feb. 28, 1659, been living for sixteen years. He was then in his seventeenth year. Minutes of the Orphan's Court, New Amst., 96. He must, therefore, have been very young at the time of the massacre. It is probable that from him came the family of that name which for a long time lived in Hoboken. He married Geesje Gerrits, Jan. 14, 1665. Winfield's Land Titles, 58.
40
HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY.
Direk, aforesaid, wounded (who died a while after of his wounds), and his wife dead. The soldiers saved the English, who had only one gun amongst them all.
" Thomas Willet declared that Dirck aforesaid, being asked, ' Why did you not come with us when we warned ?' answered. ' I might have well escaped by running, but I did not wish to leave my poor wife.'
" All which the undersigned declare to be true. Done 18th May, 1643, in New Netherlands.
" JURIAEN RODOLF, Sergeant,
" PETER PETERSEN, Corporal, " THOMAS WILLET. "1
So unsuspecting were the Indians of the treachery of the Dutch, that some of them fled from Pavonia to the fort in New Amsterdam for protection, believing for a time that they had been attacked by the Mohawks.2 They were soon undeceived, how- ever, and forthwith entered upon a relentless war. Eleven tribes resolved upon the work of destruction. They murdered all the men they could find, dragged the women and children into captivity, burnt houses, barns, grain, haystacks, and laid waste the farms of the whites. From the Raritan to the Con- nectient not a white person was safe from the tomahawk and scalping knife, except those who clustered around Fort Amster- dam. Says Roger Williams, " Mine eyes saw the flames of their towns, the flights and hurries of men, women, and children, and the present removal of all that could to Holland."3
The people laid the fearful responsibility of their present ca- lamities upon Kieft. He tried to shift it upon the shoulders of the three who had urged him to the great wrong. "I have," said he to Bout, " wherewith to defend my conscience, namely, Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Damen, and the man over there, your neigh- bor," meaning Planck. " You have done fine work," said Jacob Stoffelsen. "You must blame the freemen," responded Kieft. "You have now done fine work, in causing the murder of
1 Valentine's Manual, 1863, 541.
2 N. Y. Hist. Soc., N. S., i., 269.
3 Rhode Island Hist. Soc., iii., 159.
41
INDIGNATION AGAINST KIEFT.
Christian blood," said Blauw of Panlus Hoeck, alluding to his stepson, who had been killed. "You must put the blame on the freemen, of whom your neighbor, Abraham Planek, is one," replied the Director.1 Adriaensen became indignant at the at- tempt to place the responsibility of the war upon him and his associates. It was more than he chose to bear. Rushing upon the Director with cutlass and pistol, he demanded, " What dev- ilish lies are these you have been telling of me?" He was seized, disarmed, and committed to prison. His attack was the signal for a general rising, which was, however, readily subdued, and Adriaensen was shortly after sent in chains to Holland for trial.
Kieft, goaded by the stings of conscience and the taunts of those who had suffered, attempted to conquer a peace, but was unsuccessful. He then turned with suppliant voice to the same God whom he had mocked in his infamous order to Sergeant Rodolf : "Whereas, we continue to suffer much trouble and loss from these heathen, and many of the inhabitants find their lives and property in jeopardy, which no doubt is the conse- quence of our manifold sins ; therefore the Director and Council have deemed it proper that next Wednesday, being the fourth of March, shall be holden a general fast and prayer, for which every individual is solicited to prepare himself, that we may all, with true and incessant prayer, seek God's blessed mercy, and not give occasion through our iniquities that God's holy name may be contemned by the heathen."" Neither his attempt to lay the blame upon others, nor his attempt to force the natives into sub- mission, nor his humbling himself before God could screen him from the tempest of indignation that burst upon him. To such a pitch were the people aroused that the proposition was made to depose him from his office and ship him to Holland.3
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