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 7
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He was for a few years in business as a physician in Bridgeton, after the war, but soon relinquished it, and was much in public life as a member and Speaker of both branches of the legislature of New Jersey, a member of Congress, and supporter of Mr. Jefferson ; collector of the customs, clerk, surrogate, and magis- trate. In 1814 he commanded a brigade of militia called out for the defence of Philadelphia, and was usually known as General Elmer. In early life, as he has recorded in his journal, he " became a believer in the gospel plan of redemption by faith in Jesus Christ;" and afterwards was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was the writer's father.
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shore. In 1775 Ebenezer Elmer, then a student with him, visited Fairfield frequently to prescribe for the sick, and also Hopewell, Greenwich, and Deerfield. Dr. Otto, from Germany, who during the war lived in Gloucester County, and whose house and barn were burned by the British troops in March, 1778, and who was known as the Prussian Doctor, was called upon in difficult cases, not only in the neighborhood of his residence, but in other places in the adjoining counties of Salem and Cumberland.
Benjamin Champneys, a descendant of John Fenwick, studied with Ebenezer Elmer in 1793, and after a few voyages to sea mar- ried a daughter of Col. Potter, and settled as a physician in Bridge- ton. He was much esteemed, but died young in 1814. Samuel M. Shute, who had been for a few years at the close of the war an officer in the army, studying medicine with Jonathan Elmer, and having married his daughter, was a leading physician until his death in 1816. They were succeeded by Isaac H. Hampton, whose father was a physician at Cedarville, but who commenced practice at Woodbury. He married a daughter of Gen. Giles and removed to Bridgeton in 1814, where he was in good practice until failing health obliged him to give it up about ten years ago. William Elmer, a son of Dr. Jonathan, commenced business as physician in 1812, but gave it up in 1817 upon the death of his father. He was succeeded by Dr. Ephraim Buck, Dr. William S. Bowen, and after some years the present Dr. William Elmer took a large share of the business. Besides these, there have been from time to time others, whose business was less extensive.
For some time after the formation of the county, the lawyers residing in Salem and in other parts of the State, were relied upon to transact the business. An old man named Husted told the writer many years ago, that when Geo. Trenchard, of Salem, was the king's attorney, and was examining him as a witness in a case of assault and battery, on trial in the Court of Quarter Sessions, he asked him several times how the accused struck him, and that having no better mode of explaining the matter he struck Mr. Attorney on the face and knocked him down. The lawyers in those days, as is still the practice in England, were required to stand up while they examined the witnesses. One of the Salem lawyers named Van Leuvnigh, who was very tall and slender, had the nickname of the Devil's darning needle. Samuel Leake, who was born in this county but resided in Trenton, and Lucius H.
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Stockton often attended the courts here. Cortland Skinner, who was attorney-general at and before the Revolution, was in the habit of granting a nolle prosequi in petty cases, for a fee of half a joe, $8. Several are on file in the clerk's office.
Before the Revolution the judges wore gowns and wigs, and the lawyers wore gowns and bands, while in court. The sheriff, with as many justices and freeholders as he could conveinently summon, met the Justice of the Supreme Court, when he came into the county to hold a Circuit and Oyer and Terminer, which was com- monly once in a year at the county line, on horseback, and escorted him to his lodging. This was the practice in England, and was required by the Governor's ordinance in this State. It was men- tioned in the newspaper a few years ago, that one of the English Judges had fined the sheriff 100 pounds for neglecting this duty. The general introduction of railways has, however, abolished the practice in most cases. At the opening and closing of the court, from day to day, the sheriff and constables, with their staves of office, escorted the Judges from and to. the tavern at which they dined, to the court-house, a practice which has been only recently abolished.
Courts of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery were, until 1794, held by virtue of a special commission under the great seal, requiring, generally, two justices of the Supreme Court by name, the presence of one of whom was indispensable, and the county judges, and sometimes one or more justices of the peace by name, to hold the same for a number of specified days. Until 1845, the justices of the peace constituted the court of General Quarter Sessions of the peace, which had jurisdiction in all crimi- nal cases, except those of a high grade. Judges of the Pleas were commonly also commissioned as justices; but only a small part of the justices were judges. For many years it was the practice for most of the justices, as well as the judges, to attend at least the first day of the term and dine together, all the court fees payable to them being appropriated to pay the expense, and in case these fell short, as was commonly the case, the justices were all assessed with their share of the balance, whether they attended or not.
The first attorney who is known to have settled in Bridgeton was Joseph Bloomfield, whose father was Dr. Bloomfield, of Wood- bridge, the same who married the widow of Dr. Ward. The former
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attended for a time a classical school kept by Rev. Enoch Green in Deerfield. Having been admitted an attorney, he took up his residence in Bridgeton about 1770. In the spring of 1776 he left as captain of a company of soldiers. He remained in the army two or three years, and then resumed his profession, making Bur- lington his residence, where he married. In 1783 he was appointed Attorney General. In 1801 he was elected Governor by the Demo- crats, and held the office, with the exception of one year when there was a tie between the political parties, and the State was without a Governor, until 1812, when he was appointed a Brigadier General in the army. Richard Howell, of this county, became a lawyer, and sometimes attended our courts, but did not reside in the county. He was Governor from 1793 to 1801.
After the war James Giles, a young officer of artillery, attached to the corps commanded at the close of the war by Lafayette, whose father was an Episcopal clergyman, studied law, and having mar- ried a sister of Gov. Bloomfield, took up his residence in Bridge- ton about the year 1787. . In 1791 he built the house in which he resided until his death in 1826. He transacted a large business as an attorney for many years. In 1791 John Moore White com- menced, and continued until 1808, when he removed to Woodbury, where he resided until his death in 1862, at the age of 91. Daniel Elmer was licensed in 1805; in 1808 married a daughter of Col. Potter, and took up his residence for a short time in White's deserted mansion. He had a large and lucrative business until 1841, when he was appointed one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. About 1809 Isaac W. Crane came from Salem, and con- tinued until 1839. Elias P. Seeley and Lucius Q. C. Elmer were licensed in 1815. The former was Governor in 1832 and died. The latter was appointed Attorney General in 1850, and in 1852 one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. Henry T. Ellet practised law here from 1833 to 1837, when he married a daughter of Governor Seeley, and moved to Port Gibson, Mississippi, where he still resides. James G. Hampton was licensed in 1839, and died in 1861. Charles E. Elmer was licensed in 1842. In 1845 John T. Nixon was licensed, and he, together with Charles E. Elmer, James R. Hoagland, James J. Reeves, John S. Mitchell, Franklin F. Westcott, William E. Potter, and J. Leslie Lupton, are now, in 1869, the lawyers of the place.
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But little is known of the military organization previous to the Revolution. Upon an old map of the farm lying on the west side of the road to Irelan's mill, as the mill now used for sawing staves was long called, and north of the run emptying into Jeddy's pond, there is laid down a lot of half an acre, about where the road to Shiloh now goes, marked as "town barracks." The precise mean- ing of this is now unknown.
The journal of Ebenezer Elmer, kept in 1775, shows that the county was alive with military preparations, especially after the news of the bloodshed at Lexington on the 19th of April. Com- panies were organized and officers chosen, and frequent drills took place. Richard Howell, afterwards Governor, raised the first com- pany of one year men that left the county, by recommendation of the Committee of Safety, in October, 1775. Sunday, December 10, the entry is, "Went to meeting at Greenwich ; Capt. Howell's soldiers there ; came and went away in form. Coming home, Mr. Bloom- field proposed to me to send a petition to the Provincial Congress for himself Captain, Josiah Seeley 1st Lieutenant, and myself 2d, which was agreed to." The entry 13th of December is, "The sol- ' diers went on board the Greenwich packet at evening, to sail for Burlington." 14th, "Cloudy day. The soldiers, captain, and all but eight or ten, went off in the dead of the night, on foot, to get clear of their creditors; their going aboard the vessel turned out only a sham."
It would seem from this last entry that Capt. Howell's men were, many of them, like those that gathered themselves unto David at the cave of Adullam, in distress, in debt, or discontented. The suspicions of the journalist, however, may not have been warranted by the facts. It appears from several previous entries that he had been desirous of procuring a commission in this company, and his disappointment may have produced his unfavorable surmises.
In the succeeding spring another company was raised, as pro- posed by Bloomfield, except that Josiah Seeley, having concluded to take a wife and stay with her, another person was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant, which marched for the northern frontier in March, 1776.
Several times during the Revolutionary War, fully half the militia of this county was in actual service. Col. Newcomb, of Fairfield, commanded a regiment, and so did Col. Potter. The latter was taken prisoner near Haddonfield, but was soon exchanged. John
6
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Gibbon, the uncle of Mrs. Seeley, was also taken prisoner, and was among those who died on board the Jersey prison ship at New York. The British troops never reached this county.
During the war with Great Britain in 1814 a brigade of the militia of. South Jersey was drafted, and encamped at Billingsport for the defence of Philadelphia, under the command of General Ebenezer Elmer, then the Brigadier General of the Cumberland Brigade. During the summer of that year the Poictiers, an English ship of the line, under the command of Sir John Beresford, lying in Delaware Bay, succeeded in breaking up the navigation as high up as the Cohansey. No serious engagements, however, took place between the hostile forces.
The inhabitants of Bridgeton suffered a terrible fright, which, alarming enough at first, in the end partook more of the ludicrous than the serious. To prevent boats from the enemy's ship coming up the river in the night, and plundering the town, a nightly guard was detailed and posted at a point on the river two or three miles from the town, but more than twice that distance by the water. All the vessels and boats passing the guard-house during the night were hailed and required to give an account of themselves. If an enemy appeared, a messenger was to be sent to a prudent officer at the town, who was intrusted with the duty, if needful, of giving the alarm by firing a cannon, and ringing the court-house bell, that being then the only bell in the place. About two o'clock of a midsummer night the gun was fired, and the bell rang with great animation. The scene that ensued may be imagined; but cannot easily be described, and great was the consternation. No one doubted that an enemy was close at hand. One or two persons threw their silver down the well. The militia, except some who as usual were among the missing, were assembled, and an attempt made to organize them for action. Happily, however, their prowess was not tested. The alarm, although not sounded until all doubt of its necessity seemed to be removed, turned out to be a false one, originating in the fright of a family near the guard-house, the head of which was absent, and in the fool-hardiness of the skipper of a small sloop, who took it into his head to pass the guard with- out answering their challenge, and who succeeded in bringing on himself and his crew a volley of musketry, and running the risk of being killed by a ball which passed directly over his head.
During the first quarter of the present century, the annual train-
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ing day was the festival day next in importance to the fourth of July. The companies met for drill twice a year, and the regiments or brigades for inspection and review by the commanding general. On this latter day there was commonly a great turn out of men, women and children. Many evils grew out of the system, so that in South Jersey, although the law remained unaltered, after about 1830, the whole system fell into disuse. It is by no means certain, however, that the change has been for the better. The evils of the system, as happily is the case with most human affairs, were com- pensated by many advantages. The habit of bearing arms, and meeting for exercise, produced a spirit of self-reliance of no little consequence, while the holiday, which occurred on the day of the "great training," served to bring the people together and to cultivate kind and generous feelings, at a time when the means of intercourse were far more limited than they now are. It has been well remarked, in reference to the people of the Northern and Mid- dle States, that the three things which had enabled them to carry on a republican government so successfully, were the congrega- tional meetings and preaching on Sunday, the town meetings, and the training of the militia.
Bridgeton was incorporated as a city in 1865, with a Mayor and Common Council, and is divided into three wards, covering the territory of the former townships of Bridgeton and Cohansey. The number of inhabitants is estimated to be about 7,500.
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CHAPTER IV.
MAURICE RIVER, MILLVILLE, AND LANDIS.
THE Indian name of the principal river running into Delaware Bay was Wahatquenack, and there has been a tradition, which like many other errors has passed into history, that its present name Maurice, was derived from the circumstance that a vessel called the Prince Maurice was burnt at an early date by the Indians, in the reach since called, "No Man's Friend." Whatever may be the truth, as to the burning of the vessel, while she was repairing, according to one version of the story, it is much more probable that the name was given to the river either by Mey, or De Vries, captains of Dutch vessels, who visited the bay, the former in 1623 and the other in 1631. A map of " Nieuw Nederlandt," published at Amsterdam in 1676, including New Jersey and Zuyd Revier, or South River, as the Dutch called the Delaware, marks very distinctly the entrance of Maurice River into the bay, and names it Mauritius Revier. The same name, evidently the Dutch or Latin name for Maurice, Prince of Orange, was given by some of the Dutch writers to the Hudson. When the county of Cape May was established by the legislature of West Jersey in 1692, they bounded it on the east side of Morris River, so spelled in the printed law. In the act of 1694 it is called Prince Morris' River. When the county was set off from Salem, the law describing the township, bounds it on Prince Maurice' River; but the township is called Maurice River precinct.
In 1691 John Worlidge and John Budd, surveyors from Bur- lington, in the employment of the principal proprietors of West Jersey, visited the streams on the lower part of the Delaware in a vessel, and set off large surveys on both sides of Maurice River. On the west side at the mouth they set off 10,000 acres for Wasse, on the east side one of 20,000 acres for Robert Squibb, most of which afterwards became the property of Thomas Byerly. Above Byerly's survey, 2500 acres were set off for a town plot and called
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Dorchester; it includes Leesburg, but no town was built or even commenced until more than a century afterwards. Above this was a survey to Bartlett, afterwards John Scott's, located for 10,000 acres, but containing more than double that quantity. All the early surveys contained many more acres than were returned.
But few permanent settlements were made on either side of Maurice River until after the formation of the county. There were, however, a sufficient number as early as 1720, to require the appointment of a constable "for Morris River," by the court of Quarter Sessions at Salem. Ten years after this one was appointed for the upper part and one for the lower. The old Cape Road, or as it was commonly called the King's Road, originally followed the Indian paths, crossing the Cohansey and Maurice Rivers above the tide, that is to say, the former at or near Bridgeton, and the latter about where the Union pond now is, thence across the Me- nantico at Leaming's mill, and the Manamuskin at the mill where Cumberland furnace was afterwards placed, now called Manamus- kin Manor, and thence over Dennis' Creek swamp, near where the railroad now crosses the same. The mill afterwards owned by and called Leaming's mill, was built as early as 1720 by Rawson. Scott commenced selling parts of his tract, about this time, adjoin- ing Manamuskin and Maurice River. The site of Port Elizabeth was sold probably about this time to John Purple.
Thomas Chalkley, a Friend from England, who married a sister of Jacob Spicer, states in his journal, 2d Month (April). 1726: "From Cohansey through the wilderness over Maurice River, ac- companied by James Daniels, through a miry, boggy way in which we saw no house for about forty miles except at the ferry; and that night we got to Richard Townsend's at Cape May." Town- send lived in the upper precinct, not far from Tuckahoe, but where the ferry over Maurice River was, at which Chalkley crossed, is unknown; it was probably below Port Elizabeth.
A road was laid out in 1705, from Salem to Maurice River, which crossed Alloway's Creek at Quinton's Bridge, the Cohansey at Greenwich, thence to Henry Brooks' at Fairfield, then keeping the road by the meeting-house, on the bank of the river, at New England Town to Grimes' bridge (probably over Rattlesnake Run at Fairton,) then keeping the old road until it cometh to the road going to Daniel England's saw-mill, to two oak trees marked M. M. Daniel England's mill was at Buckshutem, and was afterwards
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called Carmack's mill. It was probably this road that was travelled by Chalkley. Although all the roads were originally laid out for six rods, or four rods wide, they were seldom opened, and until long after 1720 were only travelled on horseback.
WVasse's tract west of the river was not sold out in parcels until after 1738. Prior to 1750, William Dollas, a Friend, purchased the land at the place since called Port Norris, and for many years a ferry was maintained there, this being one of the thoroughfares from Greenwich to Cape May, and may have been the ferry men- tioned by Chalkley.
John Peterson, of Swedish origin, located the land where Mau- ricetown now is and settled there in 1730. He laid surveys on several tracts in the neighborhood. Subsequently Luke Mattox owned the property, and from him it was called Mattox landing, until about 1814, when three brothers named Compton became the proprietors, laid out the village of Mauricetown, and built several handsome dwelling-houses. It is now a flourishing place, the principal inhabitants being engaged in the coasting and river trade, which although subject to occasional depressions, has been in the main prosperous.
The site of Dorchester was purchased by Peter Reeve just pre- vious to 1800, and he laid out the town and commenced selling lots. At that time there were but three houses in the vicinity. A saw-mill had been erected at an early date. Most of the original settlers here, as has been stated, were Swedes. Some of them appear to have taken leases under the proprietors. The names of Peterson, Lord, Errickson, Vanneman, Reagan (corrupted to Rig- gins) Hoffman, and others still remain.
Leesburg was established by two brothers named Lee, ship- carpenters from Egg-harbor, some time about the year 1800. An old graveyard on the bank of the river, partly washed away, indi- cates that there were several settlers in the neighborhood at a much earlier date. William Carlisle, now one of the wealthiest proprietors, went there in 1795, and found only two or three houses. It has been a place for building coasting vessels from the begin- ning. In 1850 James Ward built a marine railway, and now there are two there, besides one at Dorchester. Vessels are con- stantly on the stocks and undergoing repair at both these places. This region has advanced during the last year more perceptibly than any other part of the township. There is much good land in
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the neighborhood, capable of great improvement as an agricultural district. The new railroad to Cape May passes through an uncul- tivated district, where, although most of the land is poor, there is much that is good, which it is believed will be settled and culti- vated soon.
The bay shore and up the river for several miles was naturally a salt marsh. Above Port Norris it was banked and reclaimed at an early period. And it must be remembered that the first settlers established their farms on the banks of the streams, and depended on the natural marshes or embanked meadows for their hay. Laws were passed as early as 1760 for erecting banks by the joint efforts of the proprietors on the Cohansey. Until within the last thirty years, since when the introduction of lime and other fertilizers has enabled the farmers to raise hay of a better quality on their upland, the reclaimed meadows, notwithstanding the great expense gene- rally attending the maintenance of the banks, were almost indis- pensable, and commanded a high price. Those on Maurice River, which are easily renovated by the muddy sediment deposited from the water when allowed to flow over them, are of an excellent quality, and are still of much value. The relative price, however, of upland and meadow land has undergone a considerable change, the former having risen and the latter depreciated in value.
About the year 1809 Messrs. Coates & Brinton commenced an embankment on the east side and near the mouth of Maurice River, about four miles in extent. In 1816 they extended their bank at great expense along the shore of the bay to East Creek, placing a dam at the mouth of West Creek, making a bank about fifteen miles long and inclosing several thousand acres of land. The promise of remuneration for this great outlay, which was never very encou- raging, was entirely disappointed by the great storm of 1821, still remembered and spoken of throughout South Jersey as "the Sep- tember Gale," which swept away the greater part of the bank. It occurred on the first Monday of September, nomination day for members of Assembly, and blew down and injured much of the woodland in the county. Many of the Lombardy poplars, then very common around our dwellings, were blown down, but this proved to be no loss, the tree, although for a time very popular, not being desirable for any purpose. No attempt to repair the bank was made until 1849, when Gen. Cadwallader, of Philadelphia, who had
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been owner of the property, inclosed about 1200 acres, at the mouth of the river, which are now of much value.
Besides the natural oyster beds near the mouth of the river, this product of the waters has been greatly increased, by planting them in the cove. These oysters are esteemed the best that are found in the Delaware, owing no doubt to the fact that the water which flows out of the river has in it much vegetable sediment upon which they live and fatten. The proper habitation of a good oyster is where the salt water of the ocean is diluted by fresh water from an inland stream, bringing with it a sufficient supply of vegetable matter. A very considerable business employing many small sloops and schooners, has grown out of the planting, gathering, and carrying to market of oysters produced in Delaware Bay, which is susceptible of great increase, and would undoubtedly be far more advantageous to the citizens of this State, if the property of the soil under the water, suitable for producing them, could become private property. The tenacity with which the privilege of hold- ing a right to common property in the upland and in the water has been held not only in this country, but in Europe, although perhaps natural enough, has always proved detrimental to the com- munity. Those commons which were adjacent to all the villages in England, and which it cost years of conflict to divide by means of inclosure acts, have entirely disappeared to the great benefit of the people. And it cannot be doubted that the many thousand dollars expended by this State, in obtaining the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Martin vs. Waddell, decided in 1842 that the land under the navigable waters of the State is public property up to high water mark, and does not belong to the proprietors, was sadly misspent. Happily, how- ever, the whole subject is in the power of the legislature, and will some time be properly regulated. The right of private property, as human nature is constituted, is indispensable to induce an ener- getic and profitable use of the land, whether covered with water or susceptible of cultivation, and suitable for the habitation of man.
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