USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Narratives of Newark (in New Jersey) from the days of its founding > Part 12
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Christmas the post would leave the two cities three times a week, at 8 o'clock A.M. and arrive the next day at 5 o'clock, thirty-three hours being the most rapid transit between the two commercial centres. There were only six post offices in the State, in 1791, one being in Newark.
The quiet of the town life was shocked by an occurrence in the late summer of 1733.
Prospects were bright for reaping bountiful harvests and the husbandmen were happy over the expected rich yield. Rain clouds appeared during a certain week in September and fears were ex- pressed for the safety of the grain standing in stacks upon a number of farms. Among the town leaders, and a large land owner, was Colonel Josiah Ogden, son of David Ogden and Elizabeth Swaine Ogden. He pos- sessed a strong personality, was respected for his good qualities, and feared for his temper. He had represented Newark in the General Copper Mine, in East Orange Assembly and was "looked up to" as a man of influence.
Flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder foretold more rain on an eventful September Sabbath morning. The Colonel, scanning the sky, ordered out his hired men, horses, and oxen. The good folk of Newark who passed the estate on their way to the morning devotions spread the news through the town.
Could it be possible? Did their eyes deceive them? Labor in the field was being pursued with all the vim of week-day activity! The people stared in wonder at this violation of the moral law. As the rain drops fell the last load of grain was drawn into the barn and the Colonel, breathless but cheerful, was called upon to prepare for a worse storm gathering at the Meeting House.
Few of the congregation heard the sermon preached by Rev. Mr. Webb that day. Divine worship gave way for the
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moment to consideration of the awful act. How would the " town authorities proceed? This was the question upper- most in the minds of all as they sat at the frugal noon-day meal (it was a sin to serve warm food on Sunday). What would happen to town morals if the Colonel was not brought to book for this desecration of the Lord's Day? was another question frequently asked by the town men.
Dramatic must have been the scene at the Meeting House when the case was duly considered. The committee handling it decreed that Neighbor Ogden had fallen from grace and public censure administered by the town pastor was the pre- scribed form of punishment.
Proud Colonel Ogden, when acquainted with the result of the conference, was humiliated. Rev. Mr. Webb refrained from participation in the discussion of the offender's sin, for he enjoyed intimate terms of friendship with him, and often broke bread at the mansion where Ogden's hospitality was tested on innumerable occasions. Now he was to offer the rebuke which would sting and rankle within the breast of Newark's distinguished son.
How this quiet man of God felt his inability to meet the situation ! Eschewing strife, always the "gentleman," he suffered mental tortures as he pronounced publicly the words of reproach upon one of his supporters and counsellors.
The Colonel declared he would never set his foot in the Meeting House again. He was the enemy of all who par- ticipated in his ignominious arraignment and he would spend treble the cost of the summer's crops in securing redress for his injured feelings. Oh, the bitterness of it all! High he held his head, higher than ever before, as he went among the townspeople, bowing stiffly to his supporters and ignoring his opponents. The controversy raged; leading men of the Meet- ing House offered the olive branch, but he would have no communication with them. He was biding his time. An appeal was made to the Synod. The Presbyterian Church was not very strong at this period and the leaders appreciated that a blow had been struck at its very foundation. More to
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heal the wound than to consider ecclesiastical law, the de- cision of the Meeting House Society was reversed by the Synod.
The trip to Philadelphia was by stage coach, but those active in the dispute counted not the sacrifice of time or money. The vindication was the beginning of a well-laid program. Ogden proceeded to organize a parish of the Anglican Church, and Rev. John Beach, a Connecticut Episcopalian, was invited to conduct services for the people
Trinity Episcopal Church in Colonial Days
pledging allegiance to the Church of England. Another furor was created and the tempest continued till human argu- ment spent its force. Strong sermons were preached by the visiting divine and apprehension was felt for the spiritual safety of the congregation assembling at the Meeting House. Rev. Mr. Webb was unequal to the task of replying to the Episcopal darts, and the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabeth Town, was selected to controvert the power of logic advanced. This added fuel to the fire, and how it spluttered and blazed!
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Dr. Dickinson took for his text one Sabbath morning this sentence from the seventh verse of the seventh chapter of St. Mark: "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." The sermon was the most widely discussed of any preached in Newark. Printed in pamphlet form it was sent broadcast through the colonies. The New England Weekly Journal published in Boston con- tained this advertisement:
JUST PUBLISHED
The Reasonableness of Nonconformity to the Church of England in Point of Worship. A Second Defence of a Sermon Preached at Newark, June 2, 1736. Intitled "The Vanity of Human In- stitutions in the Worship of God. Against the Exceptions of Mr. John Beach, in his Appeal to the Unprejudiced. Done in the form of a Dialogue wherein Mr. Beach's Arguments are all expressed in his own words. By Jonathan Dickinson, M. A. Sold by Kneeland & Green in Queen Street.
Rev. Mr. Webb, figuratively, was tossed about in the maelstrom of public opinion. Unhappily he closed his pastorate. His resignation was accepted by the Synod in 1736, and he departed with little sympathy from the people whom he served so faithfully. He met his death in 1741 by drowning at Saybrook in Connecticut. The Colonel had se- cured a reversal of town meeting judgment, indirectly caused the dismissal of the one administering the rebuke, and had the satisfaction of inaugurating a flourishing parish of another denomination-Trinity Episcopal Church.
Ample means were furnished by an influential and grow- ing congregation for building the edifice, of freestone, on the north end of the Training Ground, now Military Park, in 1743. The identical tower stands to-day and is the oldest physical structure in Newark. It is 95 feet in height and 25 feet square. The main edifice was 63 by 45 feet in size and 27 feet in height. The charter, bearing the seal of George II, is dated February 10, 1746.
There were then four churches in the original settlement.
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The settlers at Second River (now Belleville) had established a Dutch Church, the one in Orange was prospering under the Congregational form of government, and the first Meeting House was strongly Presbyterian. Colonel Ogden continued in the enjoyment of his honor as founder of Trinity Church for twenty years, till 1763. He died in the esteem of nearly all the surviving townsmen who combated him on that memorable Sabbath morning, when the community was rudely disturbed by the defiance of his harvest spirit.
This simple engraving was placed upon the tombstone over the burial place at the entrance of the church Colonel Ogden served so faithfully:
Here Lyes Interred ye body of COL. JOSIAH OGDEN, Who died May 17th 1763 In the 84th year of his age
CHAPTER XXXI
SETTLERS RISE AGAINST LANDLORD TYRANNY
E SSEX COUNTY was in a tempest for about ten years in the middle of the Eighteenth Century over the long- disputed land titles between owners and Proprietors. New- ark was the scene of nearly all the encounters, and blood was shed upon more than one occasion. The animosities con- tinued till the dawn of American Independence.
Though an act of the Assembly prohibited the purchase of land from the Indians and only through the Proprietors could titles be perfected, a town meeting on October 2, 1699, discussed fearlessly, and without molestation, the acquisition of more territory direct from the natives. The influx of Scotch and other immigrants in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century was responsible for the occupation of nearly all the available farm area in the two tracts from the river to the mountain.
The settlers were determined to act independently of the Proprietors. Their government was weakening, anyway, it was argued, and the time was not very remote when the Crown would control and the people he permitted to conduct their affairs in a more liberal manner. This was the result of the meeting:
First-It was agreed by the generality of the Town that they would endeavor to make a Purchase of a Tract of Land lying Westward of our Bounds, to the South Branch of Passaic River; and such of the Town as do contribute to the purchasing of the s'd Land shall have their Proportion according to their Contri- bution.
2ndly-that Mr. Pierson and Ensign Johnson are chosen to go and treat with the Proprietors about the same, to obtain a Grant.
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Negotiations were accordingly made with the "heathen Indians," for the land described as being "westward or north- west of Newark, within the compass of the Passaic River, and so southwest unto the Minnisink Path viz .: all lands as yet unpurchased of the heathen." The deed was executed in March, 1701; by Loantique, Taphow, Manshum and other Indians, in accordance with a request of a town meeting held September 3, 1701, when articles of agreement were adopted by 100 principal men of the town, and one woman.
These were subsequently known as the "Articles of the First Committee." A new committee was selected to
Arent Schuyler Mansion overlooking Passaic River (about 1735)
look after the town's interests. John Treat, Joseph Crane, Joseph Harrison, George Harrison, Eliphalet Johnson, John Morris and John Cooper were appointed, with full authority, to "treat, bargain and agree with such Indians as they find to be the right owners thereof by their diligent inquiry, the major part of the committee to have full power to act." The sum of 130 pounds, York currency, was paid for the land, which, with a later purchase, extended from Swinefield
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Bridge on the south to a point near Little Falls on the north, the Passaic River and the mountain being the western and eastern boundaries, respectively. The Proprietors, in April, 1702, vacated the government, but not their rights, to Queen Anne.
By an act of the Assembly in November, 1703, after Lord Cornbury became Governor, all Indian purchases not made by the Proprietors before that time were declared null and void, unless grants for them were obtained within six months. All who thereafter made purchases of the Indians, except Proprietors, were to forfeit forty shillings for every acre so purchased. The settlers were not deterred by this mandatory act. They went about their every-day affairs unconcernedly, attending with regularity the Meeting House on the Sabbath, and each season reaping bountiful crops from their Indian purchases till 1744. The Proprie- tors were now making life very uncomfortable for them by demanding payment on the broad acres under cultivation from the mountain westward to the Passaic River. The deed, destroyed in a fire which burned Jonathan Pierson's house in Newark on March 7, 1744, hastened the settlers to defend their titles. One of the prominent persons inter- ceding for them was Rev. Daniel Taylor, pastor of the Mountain Meeting House, who with Samuel Harrison of the district secured a new deed from the Indians, signed March 14, 1744, by King Quiehtoe, King Tischenokam, Shaptoe and Vaupus, descendants of the Sagamores. Wit- nesses to the instrument were Isaac Van Gieson, Francis Cook, Rev. Mr. Taylor, and Michael W. Vreelandt. The Proprietors would not recognize the titles, nor had they the old ones. Now, however, there was a stronger pretext for taking these homestead tracts, occupied over two score years by a God-fearing people. Samuel Baldwin was arrested on his land by the King's officers while sorting saw logs on September 19, 1745, and brought to the Newark jail on Broad Street, near Market Street. The party was accompa- nied by a crowd of angry neighbors. Shouts of derision were
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continually heard as the procession passed along the Indian trail. An official account is herewith given of the acts com- mitted upon that eventful day :
Men Armed with Clubs, Axes, & Crow Bars, came in a riotous & tumultuous Manner, to Gaol of the County of Essex, & having broke it open took from thence One Samuel Baldwin, committed on an Action of Trespass, wherein he had refused to give Bail or enter an Appearance.
These riotous People boasted of the great Numbers they could bring together on any Occasion & gave out many threatening expressions agt. the Persons that sho'd endeavour to punish them for this, their Crime, saying if any of them were taken they would come to his Relief with twice the Number they had & bring with them 100 Indians.
Well did the Proprietors time their action. It was the season when the settlers were drawing wood up the lanes to their back doors, harvesting crops, and in other ways preparing for the long winter of cold and snow. The Proprietors thought the opposition would not be very determined, but they failed to reckon with that lofty spirit, born of the Puritan régime, and constantly abiding in the community life. They failed also to perceive that the dislike of English aristocracy and its domineering acts, though long endured, was now chaf- ing under a restraint, attempted in a most arbitary manner.
Depositions were taken in the autumn by Joseph Bonnel, wherein the settlers, asserting their claims, denied the right of the Proprietors to compel them to repurchase land law- fully secured from the Indians.
Governor Lewis Morris "was so justly apprehensive," reads an account of the period, "of the dangerous Conse- quences, of so open and notorious a Contempt of His Maj- esty's authority, & the Laws of the Land, that he thought the aid of the Legislature necessary to prevent them & therefore recommended, in the strongest Terms, to the Assembly, the granting of such Aid." The Governor, on October 18, "issued his Warrant directed to the Sheriff of
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the Co. of Essex, commanding him to make Diligent Search for & to apprehend the sd. Rioters & thereby farther com- mand.g all Officers & others of his Majesty's Liege Sub- jects, to be aiding & assisting to the sd. Sheriff in the Execu- tion of the sd. Warrant."
The following well-known citizens were taken into cus- tody at that time: Nehemiah Baldwin, Joseph Pierson, Daniel Williams, Nathaniel Williams, Eliezer Lamson, Gamaliel Crane, John Here Lyesy Body of Mary Daul of Joseph & Jahr Ruggs Aged 17 Days Dex® Ogrodyso Tompkins, Abraham Riker, William Williamson, Ebenezer Farrand, Stephen Young, Thomas Sergeant, Thomas Gardner, Job Crane, Robert Young, Sloup Lovely Bab & Tahe Thi Pea- fol Jonathan Squire, Robert Ward, John Vincent, Johannes Van Winckle, Hendrick Jacobus, Thomas Williams, Tombstone in Old Burying Ground Joseph Lawrence, Levi Vincent, Jr., Samuel Crowell, William Crane, Samuel Stevens, and Elihu Ward.
Fear of arrest and imprisonment, even for a long period, did not alarm the rioters. They had Rev. Mr. Taylor as their chief counselor.
He even encouraged the people to form an association and purchase more land of the Indians. This was done in 1745, the holdings obtained, as the Proprietors sneeringly asserted, "for the valuable consideration of five shillings and some bottles of rum from Indians who claimed no right, and told them that they had none; but no matter for that- it was enough that they were Indians and they had their deed."
Rev. Mr. Taylor in reply wrote his famous pamphlet of forty-eight pages, entitled "A Brief Vindication of the Pur- chasers Against the Proprietors in a Christian Manner." Robert Young, Thomas Sergeant, and Nehemiah Baldwin were arrested for rioting on January 15, 1745. As the sheriff and citizens called to his assistance were taking the prisoners before the Court for trial another outbreak oc-
Jona Dickinfor.
Rev. Jonathan Dickinson of Elizabeth Town
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curred. This is told in the New York Weekly Post Boy of January 20 :.
We have just now received the following Account of a very Extraordinary Riot at Newark on Thursday last, viz .: The Day before one Nehemiah Baldwin, with two others, were apprehended there by Order of the Governor and Council for being concerned in a former Riot and committed to Gaol.
In the Morning one of them offered to give Bail, and the Sheriff for that Purpose took him out in order to carry him to the Judge, but on their way thither a great Number of Persons appeared armed with Cudgels, coming down from the back Settlements, who immediately rescued the Prisoner in a very violent Manner, contrary to his own Desire.
Upon this the Sheriff retreated to the gaol, where he raised 30 Men of the Militia, with their Officers, in order to guard it; but by two o'clock in the Afternoon the Mob being increased to about 300 strong, marched with the utmost Intrepidity to the Prison, declaring that if they were fired on, they would kill every Man; and after breaking through the Guard, wounded and being wounded, they got to the Gaol, which they broke open, setting at Liberty all the prisoners they could find, as well as Debtors and others.
Then they marched off in Triumph, using many Threatening expressions against all those who had assisted the Authority. Several of the guard, as well as that of the Mob, were much wounded and bruised, and 'tis thought one of the latter is past Recovery. What may be the Consequence of this Affair is not easy to guess.
The people returned to their homes in an orderly manner, those living in the back country going by way of what is now Market Street, and the highway through the Oranges to the point near the Meeting House, where John Cunditt, a rioter, conducted the public house or tavern. His license was granted six years previously. Good cheer was dis- pensed and huzzas were given time and again for the people and their rights
While the Governor and his council were considering the granting of a general pardon for the rioters, West Jersey's
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aggrieved settlers also arose in their might. The Proprie- tors seized upon the 100,000 acre grant in Hunterdon County, and encouraged by Newark's resistance they, too, stoutly contested the dispossession. The sheriff informed the court that he had seen ten or a dozen men riding con- tinuously from and to Newark, Elizabeth Town, and other places, and it was their purpose, he believed, to unite all in opposition to the Proprietors. John Hamilton, who suc- ceeded Governor Morris, upon the latter's death, attempted to quiet the insurrectionists by admonishing them of the dangerous consequences liable to follow their treasonable actions. Rioters held sway in Bergen County on August 5, 1746. This was followed by another Essex County out- break one month later.
John Burnet, who held land in the disputed western Essex section, was raided very unceremoniously on a late summer day and ousted from his possession because he was too friendly with the Proprietors. "A Multitude of People," reads an account of the affair, "said to be of those called the Newark Rioters, had, in a forcible Manner, turned out of Possession sev.] People that were settled on a Tract of Land in Essex County, called John Burnet's 2000d acre tract, & put other People in Poss'ion of the Places they were settled on, & that Sundry of the People guilty of those riots were indicted by the Grand Jury of the County of Essex at the Court which began there 4th Day Sept., 1746." Scarcely a county in the colony was unaffected by the disturbance. Dissatisfaction was everywhere expressed.
Stay of proceedings against the persons engaged in rioting, tumults and other disorders were recommended by the Legislature and authorized by the Governor, on February 18, 1747. Those guilty of the above acts were to receive pardon if they agreed to abide by provincial laws, an opportunity for so acting being given from March 25 to October 1, 1748.
The contestants were without a leader since the death of Rev. Mr. Taylor on January 8, 1747, a month before the Governor issued his order. Conferences were frequently held
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at Cunditt's Tavern in the mountain district and in other sections of the county. Gradually the opposition to the Pro- prietors was strengthened. The executive committee of nine, representing the land owners, sent broadcast a pamphlet in August, 1747, giving their side of the case, now attracting attention in every colony in America. Widow Catherine Zenger was the printer, her office being on Stone Street in New York City. The writing was. believed to have been produced by Rev. Mr. Taylor, and was probably one of his last efforts in behalf of his people.
Individuals seeking pardon were ordered to enroll their names for examination on September 29, 1748, two days be- fore the expiration of the time limit. Rioters numbering 200 or more, therefore, appeared before Commissioners Uzal Ogden and Matthias Hetfield, appointed by the Governor to administer the oath of allegiance. Only fourteen, however, promised to renounce the cause for which they had been fight- ing. The others would not desist till their rights were re- stored.
Sheriff Chetwood imprisoned Amos Roberts in the Newark jail as the leader of the up-county rioters on Monday, November 28, charging him with high treason. Dis- contented land owners came down the mountain passes in large numbers during the late afternoon, determined to liberate the prisoners. John Styles, deputy sheriff, believed to be in possession of the key to the jail, heard a commotion out of doors at "early candle light," and upon opening the door to investigate the cause, was hurled unceremoniously into the roadway by the mob.
Mrs. Styles was locked in her kitchen, so that she could not give the alarm. According to a witness of the affair, Bethuel Pierson, afterward a deacon in the Meeting House at the Mountain, and a member of the Committee on Observation in 1774, cut the nails off the hinges of the oaken door leading to the jail. Styles, in his testimony, stated that "after they had broke the Gaol & Rescued the said Roberts They went off Huzzawing but not for King George, as they had done at
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former Breakings of the Gaol," and that he did not hear the King's name mentioned once by them in their "huzzawing."
The disputes were finally transferred to the courts, where they made the longest case of record, and are known as "The Long Bill in Chancery."
One of the last of the riotous acts was committed early in November, 1749, when Abraham Phillips, at Horse Neck (now Caldwell) was removed from his home and the torch applied to part of his property. Nearly all the rioters pleaded guilty at the June term of the court in 1755, and compelled to furnish bail of 100 pounds for their good behavior during the succeeding three years. Ten years of persistent effort were for naught. The settlers lost their homes and the suffering from the resultant poverty was acute. The Proprietors were the victors, but if they derived any real satisfaction in taking away the homes and sending adrift the men, women, and children the recorder of the period failed to testify.
CHAPTER XXXII
COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY IN NEWARK
D URING the pastorate of Rev. Aaron Burr the Meeting House Society, metamorphosed into a Presbyterian or- ganization, was separated forever from civil control. Indeed for thirty years or more this religious form was in vogue, till June 7, 1753, when Governor Belcher granted the new char- ter. No more would the minister's salary, firewood and other necessaries of life be solemnly voted upon at annual meeting of all the people. That act was now associated with the his- torical past.
Serving one year as a candidate at his own request, Rev. Mr. Burr was on January 25, 1737, duly installed into office by the Presbytery of East Jersey. Just arrived at the age of twenty-one, slight of stature, studiously inclined, he pos- sessed scholarly attainments far in advance of his years. Large congregations were attracted by the brilliancy of his preaching and his interpretation of the Scriptures was con- sidered marvelous. He held spellbound for an hour or more those assembled at the Meeting House each Sabbath.
In his intense desire to be of service to his people in the matter of mental equip- ment, he opened a school for the higher education of young men. A fluent Latin scholar, he wrote a grammar in that lan- guage, which became a popular text-book.
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