USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the early settlement and progress of Cumberland County, New Jersey and of the currency of this and the adjoining colonies. > Part 3
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
was a graveyard. At or near the place where Pearl Street crosses Commerce Street, the roads forked, one branch . running north- wardly to Deerfield. It was necessary to go thus far east of the bridge before turning northwardly, to avoid going up Laurel Hill, then impassable, without the outlay of much labor and expense. At the Indian Fields the road then and now running north and south, originally an Indian path, became the king's highway from Fairfield to the seat of government at Burlington. It is the most ancient road in the county, and is even yet known to the old in- habitants as the old Burlington road, and in 1769 was laid out as a public road, four rods wide.
The mill-pond, now owned by Jonathan Elmer, was in 1748 owned by Ephraim Seeley, commonly called Col. Seeley. The mill stood in the low ground back of the house occupied by Mrs. Du Bois, and the dam crossed above from the hill diagonally to the point where there is now a brick kiln. The old mansion house stood on the hill northeast of Mrs. Du Bois, near the pond, and the road from the bridge over Cohansey, to the house and mill, ran about where the back part of Jonathan Elmer's house now stands. There was a bridge across the saw-mill pond, back of the Metho- dist meeting-house lot, over which the road to Fairfield passed, which was laid out as a public road in 1763. This road crossed Mill Creek near Fairton, at Joseph Ogden's mill-dam, which was lower down the stream than the present dam.
Seeley's mill was erected at an early date, but when or by whom has not been ascertained; but the writer recollects that fifty years ago the remains of an old fulling mill were visible near the mid- die of the dam, and he has heard that Col. Seeley's wife was accus- tomed, in her youth, to ride on horseback as far as Cape May, carrying with her fulled cloth, and returning with a horse load of cloth to be dressed. At that time nearly all the clothing and the bedding used by the people was spun in the family, and often woven there also, or by persons who followed the business. The straight road to Millville, now a turnpike, was laid out in 1805, commencing at the bridge; and in 1809 Jeremiah Buck erected the dam and flour and saw-mills now standing, and it may be mentioned that Mr. French, the millwright, from near Bordentown, lost his life at the raising of the saw-mill, having been crushed by falling timbers.
Besides Sceley's mill and house, the old Hancock mill still re-
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
mained in 1748. It was removed to a site just below the present stone bridge, and the existing race-way cut in 1772. This saw-mill and the pond above, upon which the writer has often skated, re- mained until 1809, when Mr. Buck lowered the race-way and pond, as low as the tide would permit, to obtain a better head and fall at his mills above, and the mill was taken down. There was a house near this saw-mill on the northwest side of Pine Street, long owned and occupied by Col. Enos Seeley, a relative of Col. Ephraim, and grandfather of the late Governor E. P. Seeley, which probably stood there in 1748. It was long occupied by the widow Jay, and was taken down about 20 years ago. Col. Enos Seeley, in 1772, owned all the property where the glass-houses now are, his north- · ern line being about where Jefferson Street now is, adjoining Alexander Moore's line, and included a house standing where Mrs. Buck's house now is, fronting Laurel Street. This house was there in 1748, and upon the creek, an old wharf, the first erected, called in old writings Smith's Wharf, used, probably, in connection with Hancock's mill. At this time the dam leading to the stone bridge was not made, but the tide flowed up the old channel of Mill Creek to the neighborhood of the mill. Col. Enos Seeley put up the dam about the year 1774.
Nearly opposite Col. Seeley's house, now Mrs. Buck's, was a good house facing the south, in which a store was afterwards kept by Mr. Boyd and his widow. There were also two or three houses nearly opposite, on the east side of Laurel Street. These are be- lieved to have been all the houses on the east side of the river, until Alexander Moore built his dwelling-house, on the north side of Commerce Street, about half way between the hotel and the bridge. His store-house of cedar logs stood where Potter's store- house now is. Judge White told the writer he took it down, and found in it an old horn book; that is to say, a printed card contain- ing the alphabet and a short lesson in spelling, which was pasted to a piece of board and covered with a horn pressed flat and scraped thin, so as to be transparent enough to leave the lessons visible to the urchins who were to learn them, and thus protecting them from being defaced. Such books, made however after different patterns, were in common use a century ago. Moore is believed to have settled here between 1730 and 1740. He married a de- scendant of Mark Reeve. Most of the site of East Bridgeton, north of Commerce Street, was an open woods in 1748, and so continued until after the Revolutionary War.
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
On the west side of the river, a good two-storied house, with what was commonly called a hip roof, stood a little south of Com- merce Street, facing the east, the back part of which was about where the east side of Atlantic Street now is, in front of which was the road which ran a southwest course up the hill, having a south fork running down the river, and between the road and river was a garden. This was built about 1725, by Silas Parvin, and was for several years licensed as a tavern, and stood there about one hundred years, when it was removed by the late Smith Bowen. South of this and near the river, a little north of Broad Street, at the place now owned by James B. Potter and used as a ship-yard, stood a good house fronting the north, owned in 1748 by Capt. Elias Cotting. It was afterwards for many years owned and occupied by Enoch Boon, and has been taken down some twenty years and more. When first erected it was a mansion of considerable pretension. Another house stood a little back of where the court-house now stands, on a road early used to the marshes, upon which the early settlers depended almost exclusively for hay, and belonged to one Jeremiah Sayre, cordwainer. Neither Broad Street nor Commerce Street was opened up the hill until many years after this period. These three dwelling-houses and a small store-house of cedar logs standing north of Parvin's house and a farm-house on the property above Muddy Branch, were all the buildings on the west side of Cohansey Bridge.
The Court was first held at Isaac Smith's who probably kept a tavern in the Parvin house, in February 1748, old style, and gene- rally met at eight o'clock in the morning. Cotting was commis- sioned by the Governor as clerk, at first to hold during the plea- sure of the Governor, but in 1755 he presented a commission to hold during good behavior, which continued the mode until 1776. He died in 1757, and was succeeded by Daniel Elmer, who died in 1761, and was succeeded by Maskel Ewing, who, having taken an oath of allegiance to the king, declined to serve under the new government. In 1786 Jonathan Elmer presented a commission from Governor Livingston as clerk, and in the ensuing fall he was elected by the joint meeting for five years pursuant to the consti- tution; Alexander Moore and Ephraim Seeley appeared as judges. The September term does not appear to have been held. The terms were held four times in the year, and until 1752 the February term is always entered of the same year as the preceding Decem-
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
ber term, it thus appearing that the old style was changed that year. According to the old style, the year commenced on the feast of the conception of Mary or Lady day, March 25th, which still continues to be the customary day of commencing leases in this county, although in other parts of the State it is the first day of April according to the Pennsylvania usage, and in some places the first day of May agreeably to the New York usage.
Cohansey Bridge is mentioned in the minutes until 1765, when Bridgetown is first named. Constables for the town were first ap- pointed by the court in 1768. It may be noticed that the whole region from the source of the river near Friesburgh, to its mouth at the Delaware Bay, was commonly called Cohansey, up to and even after the Revolution. It was common to write Fairfield in Cohansey, or Greenwich Cohansey. Upon the establishment of the Bank in 1816, its first president, Gen. Giles, had the name of the town printed Bridgeton on the notes, and this soon became the adopted name. Bridgetown, however, still remains the official name of the port, under the laws of the United States.
The following named persons have been the clerks, after those above named, from 1776 appointed by joint meeting for five years, vacancies filled by Governor, until 1846, and since by election in the county :-
James Giles, appointed in 1789 Dr. Azel Pierson, 66 1804 died
Jonathan Holmes, by Governor 1812
Dr. Edo Ogden, appointed in 1813 died
Ebenezer Elmer, by Governor 1813
Josiah Fithian, appointed in 1838 died Enos Seeley, by Governor 1842
D. M. Woodruff, appointed in 1842 66 elected 1847
Ephraim E. Sheppard, “ 1852
Providence Ludlam, 1857 Ebenezer Seeley, appointed in 1814 died Samuel Seeley, 66 1833
Theo. G. Compton, 1862
The following named persons have been surrogates, appointed until 1822 by the Governor to hold at his pleasure; then until 1846 by the joint meeting of the legislature, to hold for five years, vacancies happening being filled by the Governor to hold until the legislature met ; since 1846 by election in the county :-
Elias Cotting, appointed 1748
Daniel Elmer, 66 1757
Maskel Ewing, 1761
Jonathan Elmer, 66 1776
George Burgin 66 1804 died 1810
Ebenezer Elmer 1810
Jonathan Elmer, " 1812
Sam'l M. Shute, app'ted 1813 Timothy Elmer, 1815 died 1836 Wmn. S. Bowen, 66 1836 H. R. Merseilles, 1837
Joseph Moore, elected 1852
H. R. Merseilles, 1857 died
Alphonso Woodruff," 1861
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
At a session of the Assembly in 1690, an act was passed "that the tract of land in Cohanscy purchased by several people, lately inhabitants of Fairfield, in New England, be erected into a town- ship." One of the vessels containing these immigrants came up the creek now called Back Creek, and gave it the name of the Tweed. Their tract was at the head of this strcam, and between it and the Cohansey, which probably occasioned the extension of Salem County, so as to include them. The precise date of the arrival of these New Englanders is unknown, but it was probably from 1682 to 1690. The Bellers tract was first surveyed in 1686, and it was from Thomas Budd, agent of that proprietor, they leased. No records of the town-meetings-prior to the early part of the present century-are extant, but there can be no doubt that these inhabitants, isolated as they then were, instituted a local government sufficient for their immediate purposes, after the model of the towns of Connecticut-from which province most of these came-in which the affairs of church and state were curi- ously blended, with a most happy effect. Several of them-con- sisting of Congregationalists, or Presbyterians and Baptists- crossed the river to Greenwich, and were joined there by settlers from England, Scotland, and Ireland, mostly of the Presbyterian order.
It appears by the court records at Salem that at least as early as 1720 Fairfield and Greenwich were recognized as regular town- ships. The inhabitants in other neighborhoods, not considered as belonging to those townships, were provided with precinct officers appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions. In 1709, the grand jury ordered a tax of 75 pounds to be levied, for county purposes, and appointed an assessor and collector for the north side of the Cohansey, and the same for the south side. In 1720, officers were first appointed for the precinct of Maurice River, and afterwards they were appointed in like manner yearly, until the county was organized. The Quarter Sessions in England were accustomed to appoint constables, where they were considered necessary, to pre- vent a failure of justice, and the same custom prevailed in New Jersey, except where townships were regularly organized and em- powered to choose them.
Much inconvenience being experienced by the inhabitants living remote from Salem Town, several unsuccessful efforts were made to obtain a new county, which were rendered the more difficult by
·
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the desire of the royal governors to keep up the equality of repre- sentation in the Assembly, between East and West Jersey. In January, 1747-8, the attempt succeeded, but with the condition that members of Assembly should continue to be elected in con- junction with Salem. It was not until 1768 that two members were allowed to be chosen in Cumberland, which were balanced by two chosen in Morris County. It was not, however, until 1772 that writs were issued for a new election.
The act divided the new county into six townships, assigning to them their respective boundaries-three on the west, or north side of Cohansey, and three on the east, or south side. At least half the inhabitants then resided west of Cohansey, although the terri- tory east of that river is about five times larger. Only Deerfield and a part of Fairfield contained more than a few settlers. Fair- field at first included all the present township of Downe. This township was set off by letters patent granted by Governor Frank- lin, in the year 1772, recorded in the Secretary of State's office at Trenton. This power was occasionally exercised by the governors of the province as a part of the royal prerogative, delegated to them by their commissions. His wife's maiden name was Eliza- beth Downes, and the new township was named in compliment to her. It is spelled Downes in the record, but by a clerical or typo- graphical error, the name was printed, in the law passed in 1798 incorporating the township, Downe, and has been so printed in all the laws since.
Some of the old surveys call for the line of the township of Pam- phylia, at or near the place where the line between Fairfield and Deerfield was established; but this old Grecian name is retained only by the spring so called on the banks of the Cohansey, about a mile below the bridge. Maurice River contained originally all the large territory east of the river so called. Millville was set off from it, including parts of Deerfield and Fairfield, on the west of the river by a law passed in the year 1801. Bridgeton was set off from Deerfield by law, in 1845; and Cohansey from Hopewell by law, in 1848.
The legislature of the colony was convened, adjourned, and dis- solved at the pleasure of the Governor and his Council, and the members of the Assembly were elected by virtue of writs under the great seal of the colony, directed to the sheriff's. By a law passed in 1725, the sheriff was required to give notice of the day
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
and place of election, and then to proceed by reading his writ; and he was not to declare the choice by the view (that is, merely from a vote by holding up of hands), nor adjourn without the consent of the candidates ; but if a poll was required, proceed from day to day, until all the electors present be polled ; and he was required to appoint a clerk, who should set down the names of the electors, and the persons they voted for. There was, of course, but one place of election-generally the court-house in the county-and the election commonly closed the first day, but was occasionally kept open several days or even weeks. The voting was, of course, viva voce, ballots not being introduced until about 1790.
This power of the candidates to control the election, in some respects, gave rise to the system of making nominations in writing, which prevailed from 1790 until 1839, and was, it is supposed, peculiar to this State. At first the names of candidates were re- quired to be posted up in some conspicuous place the first day ; then they were required to be nominated on the election day before three o'clock, by some person entitled to vote; the name was then enrolled by the clerk, and fixed up in full view at the door of the house where the election was held. Elections being required to be held in each township in the year 1790, the clerk of the county was required to attend at the court-house on the first Monday in September, and there receive, from any person, entitled to vote, a list of the persons proposed as candidates, and the clerk then made a general list of all the candidates nominated, a certified copy of which was sent to each of the township clerks, and no person could be voted for unless he had been thus nominated. Of course, many were nominated who were not expected to be voted for, but occa- sionally the person who would have been preferred was found to have been omitted. After newspapers became common, it was cus- tomary to publish the list of nominations, often containing many names of low and vicious characters, nominated by way of joke by foolish persons, and the names of those who declined were so marked.
In the journal of Ebenezer Elmer, he enters under the date of September 21, 1775, "County met to choose two delegates and a county committee. Delegates chosen by poll, when Theophilus Elmer had a great majority, and next highest Esq. Jona. Ayres." Theophilus Elmer had been previously elected in 1772. To en- title a person to a seat in the Assembly at this time, he was required
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to have 1000 acres of land in his own right, to be worth £500 of real and personal estate. A voter must be a freeholder, and have 100 acres of land in his own right, or be worth £50 in real and per- sonal estate. The members chosen for Salem and Cumberland in 1749 were William Hancock and John Brick. In 1751, William Hancock and Richard Wood. In 1754, Hancock and Ebenezer Miller. In 1761, the same. In 1769, Ebenezer Miller, and Isaac Sharp. In 1772, for Cumberland, John Sheppard and Theophilus Elmer. Afterwards one member of Council, and three members of Assembly, were chosen annually. For 1776, they were Theo- philus Elmer, Council, Ephraim Harris, Jonathan Bowen, and John Brick, Assembly. In 1778, Ephraim Harris, Council, Buck, Bowen, and James Ewing, Assembly. In 1779, Buck, Council, Jas. Ewing, Joel Fithian, and Timothy Elmer, Assembly. In 1780, Jonathan Elmer, Council, same members of Assembly. In 1781, Samuel Ogden, Council, Joshua Ewing, Joshua Brick, and Josiah Seeley, Assembly. In 1782, Theophilus Elmer, Council, Joshua Ewing, Ephraim Harris, Speaker, Jonathan Bowen, Assembly. Theophilus Elmer was a member of the Council of Safety during most of the Revolution.
The following persons, residing in the county, have been mem- bers of Congress :-
SENATE .- 1789 to 1791, Jonathan Elmer; 1826 to 1827, when he died, Ephraim Bateman.
HOUSE .- 1776-7-81-82-83-87-88, Jonathan Elmer; 1801 to 1806, Ebenezer Elmer; 1815 to 1821, Ephraim Bateman; 1831 to 1835, Thomas Lee; 1843 to 1845, Lucius Q. C. Elmer; 1845 to 1849, James G. Hampton ; 1859 to 1863, John T. Nixon.
The Constitution, adopted in 1776, instead of requiring every voter to be worth fifty pounds of real and personal estate, required only that he should be an inhabitant of the State, of full age, and worth fifty pounds clear estate. The word inhabitant was proba- bly adopted instead of citizen, under the impression that as a new government was initiated it was proper to recognize all the inhabit- ants as citizens thereof. Under this broad provision, females and colored persons were allowed to vote if worth the requisite sum, and cases occurred when the voter presented himself or herself with fifty pounds, $133 33 in hand in cash. No married females voted, and few others. Very few colored persons were worth the requisite sum. In 1807 an act of the legislature was passed, re-
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citing that doubts had been raised, and great diversities of practice. obtained throughout the State, in regard to the admission of aliens, females and persons of color, or negroes, to vote in elections, and also in regard to the mode of ascertaining the qualifications of voters in respect to estate, to remedy which it was provided that none but free white male citizens of the State should vote, and that every person who should have paid a tax, and whose name was enrolled on the tax list, should be adjudged to be worth fifty pounds. The late Dr. Lewis Condict, of Morristown, who recently died at a very advanced age, was at the time an active member of the Assembly, and had the credit of bringing forward this measure, which, however questionable as to its strict accordance with the Constitution, met the views of a great majority of the people of all parties, and continued the law until the adoption of the present Constitution, which contained substantially the same provisions. It was, however, occasionally decided by officers of the election that the law was unconstitutional and void ; and it was under such a decision that at the contested election for the court-house, votes of aliens were admitted in one or more of the townships, and the same thing was done at a subsequent county and congregational election, which, with other circumstances, brought on what was called the broad seal war in 1837.
From 1809 to 1845 the polls were kept open two days, and the town meetings, which then and now fixed the place of holding the elections, were accustomed, in the larger townships, to order that they should be held on the first day at one place, and on the second at another, much to the convenience of the voters. It may indeed be doubted whether as many evils have not grown out of the change as have been cured. No careful observer can have failed to per- ceive that the practice of bribing voters, by means of direct pay- ments of money, confined at first to a sufficient sum to defray the voter's expenses, but gradually enlarged until there are voters who are known regularly to sell their votes to the highest bidder, has greatly increased. Forty years ago a candidate for office was ex- pected to remain quietly at home; now he would find favor with very few by such a course.
The county business was transacted by a board consisting of two freeholders elected in each township, as provided for in an act passed in 1714, and all the justices of the peace of the county, or any three of them, one whereof being of the quorum. All the
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GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
justices for each county were generally included in one commission, as is the practice in England, and one or more were designated as of the quorum, without whose presence no business could be done. In case any town or precinct should neglect to elect freeholders, the justices were authorized to appoint them. The name precinct appears to have been applied to neighborhoods, without definite boundaries, not included within a defined township. The justices were appointed by the Governor and Council, until 1776, and held their offices at their pleasure. A book containing the proceedings of the freeholders and justices is still extant. The boards of free- holders were incorporated and organized, as they now exist, in 1798.
The following named persons have held the office of sheriff. Before the Revolution they were appointed by the Governor and Council, to hold for three years or during the pleasure of the Governor; and since they have been elected yearly, but can only hold the office three years in succession :-
Ananias Sayre,
appointed in 1747-8 |William Rose,
elected 1810
Samuel Fithian,
66
1750-1
John Sibley,
1813
Ananias Sayre,
66
1754
Dan. Simpkins,
66
1816
Maskell Ewing,
1757
William R. Fithian,
66
1819
Silas Newcomb,
66
1760
John Lanning, jr.,
66
1822
Howel Powell,
66
1763
Robert S. Buck,
66
1825
Theophilus Elmer,
66
1766
Josiah Shaw,
66
1828
Thomas Maskell,
66
1769
Daniel M. Woodruff,
66
1834
Jonathan Elmer,
66
1772
Cornelius Lupton,
66
1837
Joel Fithian,
elected
1776
Levi T. Davis,
66
1839
William Kelsay,
1779
Harris B. Mattison,
66
1842
Daniel Maskell,
1784
Cornelius Lupton,
66
1844
Joseph Buck,
66
1787
Stephen Murphy,
1845
David Potter,
1790
Theophilus E. Harris,
66
1848
Reuben Burgin,
66
1793
James Stiles,
66
1851
George Burgin,
66
1796
Nathaniel Stratton,
66
1854
Jeremiah Bennett, jr., "
1799
Jonathan Fithian,
66
1857
Enoch Burgin,
66
1802
Lewis H. Dowdney,
66
1860
Timothy Elmer,
66
1805
Charles L. Watson,
66
1863
John Buck,
66
1808
Samuel Peacock.
66
1866
66
1831
David Bowen,
1775
David Campbell,
The first court-house and jail were small wooden buildings. In 1753 money was raised for building a jail, to be of brick, 34 by 24 feet, and also stocks and a pillory. In 1755 an account was allowed for digging a dungeon and for stone. Much complaint was made of the insecurity of the jail, so that in 1757 a petition was
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