USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Narratives of Newark (in New Jersey) from the days of its founding > Part 14
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As every Day Brings New Troubles so this Day Brings News that yesterday very early in the morning They Began to Fight at Boston. The Regulars We hear Shot first at Boston; they kill'd 30 of our men. A hundred & 50 of the Regulars
War was now being waged and our patriotic Essex County householders were not unprepared for the fray.
CHAPTER XXXIV PERILS AND TRIALS OF EARLY REVOLUTIONARY WAR DAYS
Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life blood of her brave,- Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet, Upon the soil they fought to save. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
R UMORS of alarming character started in most in- stances by the Tories were frequently circulated in the spring of 1775. Minute men were drilling daily on the Training Ground, and the streets and other public places assumed a martial appearance as officers and enlisted men in buff, white and blue uniforms daily appeared on the streets. Startling news came on May day. A horseman dashed into town in the forenoon, announcing the destruction of the people and their homes. These alarms continued at inter- vals for five years. The awful visitation as proclaimed by the courier was chronicled by Jemima Cundict as follows:
Monday, May first (1775) this Day I think is a Day of mourn- ing. We have Word Come that the fleet is Coming into New York & to Day the men of our Town is to have a general meeting to Conclude upon measures Which may be most Proper to Be taken; they have chosen men to act for them & I hope the Lord will give them Wisdom to Conduct wisely & Prudently In all Matters.
The assembly referred to was held on Thursday, May 4, at the Meeting House. Dr. Burnet, who lived farther south on the main highway, and who was one of the highly respected citizens of Newark, stepped into the arena of public affairs at this meeting. He well sustained till the end of the war his unswerving loyalty to the Continental Congress and the
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cause of Liberty. Correspondence was regularly maintained by the leaders with those of other counties and colonies. Forestalling hostile attack by the British regulars was the burden of the dispatches conveyed back and forth. Though the alarm over the rumored arrival of the enemy's ships sub- sided, the meeting lost nothing in interest. Hopeful that a reconciliation would yet be made with Great Britain, this resolution was placed upon record:
We, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Newark, having deliberately considered the openly avowed design of the Ministry of Great Britain to raise a revenue in America; being af- fected with horrour, at the bloody scene now acting in the Mass- achusetts Bay for carrying that arbitrary design into Execution; firmly convinced that the very existence of the rights and liberties of America can, under God, subsist on no other basis than the most ani- mated and perfect union of its inhabitants; and being sensible of the necessity in the present exigency of preserving good order and a due regulation in all public measures; with hearts perfectly abhorrent of slavery, do solemnly under all the sacred ties of religion, honour and Capt. "Tom" Williams of the Mountains love to our Country, associate and resolve that we will personally, and as far as our influence can extend, endeavour to support and carry into execution what- ever measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress or agreed upon by the proposed convention of Deputies of this Province, for the purpose of preserving and fixing our constitution on a permanent basis, and opposing the execution of the several despotick and oppressive Acts of British Parliament until the wished for reconcilation between Great Britain and America on constitutional principles can be obtained.
Lewis Ogden was chosen chairman of the General Com- mittee "for the purpose aforesaid, and that we will be di- rected by and support in all things respecting the common cause, the preservation of peace, good order, the safety of in- dividuals and private property."
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The prevailing sentiment was in favor of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Freedom's Torch was illuminating the pathway of a new and enlightened era.
Forty-four men tried and true were named members of the committee, of which Dr. Burnet was selected deputy chairman and Elisha Boudinot the clerk. He lived on Park Place, the site now occupied by the Public Service Building, and later was also clerk of the State Council of Safety. The officials of the General Committee, Isaac Ogden and Isaac Longworth, were designated members of the Committee on Correspondence, which was to supervise all communications with the Continental Congress at Philadelphia and elsewhere about the colonies.
Isaac Ogden, Captain Philip Van Cortlandt, Bethuel Pier- son, and Caleb Camp were chosen representatives in the Pro- vincial Congress. Expected events, it was thought, would radically change the country's affairs, so this precautionary measure was adopted:
Agreed, that the powers delegated to the Deputies and General Committee continue till the expiration of five weeks after the rising of the next Congress and no longer.
Abraham Clark, of Elizabeth Town, wrote from the Con- tinental Congress at Baltimore on February 8, 1777, to John Hart, Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, that he expected :
"Congress will soon remove to Lancaster. Our chief reason is the extravagant price of living here. The price of board without any liquor, a dollar a day, horse keeping 4s. wine 12s. per bottle, rum 30s. per gallon, and everything else in proportion and likely soon to rise."
The Presbyterians observed fast on the last Thursday of each month, and a pastoral letter circulated widely in the colonies, prepared under the direction of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, was read by the pastors on a certain May Sunday at the Meeting Houses by the river, at the mountains and elsewhere. Clearly was the idea expressed
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"that the whole Continent are determined to defend their rights by force of arms. If the British ministry shall con- tinue to enforce their claims by violence a lasting and bloody contest must ensue. We exhort the people to be prepared for death, assuring them, especially the young and vigorous among them, that there is no soldier so undaunted as the pious man, no army so formidable as those who are superior to the fear of death." The concluding sentence of the letter, after counselling union among the colonies, declared that" that man will fight most bravely who never fights till it is neces- sary and who ceases to fight as soon as the necessity is over." On a late June day news was received of the engagement at Bunker Hill, on the 17th of the month. A day or two after- ward the people were informed that General Washington, of Mount Vernon, Virginia, selected by the Continental Con- gress as the commander-in-chief of the army, was traveling from Philadelphia to Cambridge, where he would assume his official duties.
The roadway, both sides, along the entire distance, was lined with cheering men and women. "The clattering caval- cade escorting the commander-in-chief of the army was the gaze and wonder of every town and village," says Washington Irving in his "Life of Washington."
The town folk attired in best clothes-all physically able and patriotically inclined-were in readiness to greet the leading man of the colonies an hour or more before his arrival. The General lodged in New Brunswick and started on his third day's journey shortly after sunrise.
Dressed in brown coats, light-colored trousers, high top boots, peaked helmets, and carrying glittering sidearms, the Philadelphia City Troop led the procession, which reached Newark about 9 o'clock. Showy uniforms had their at- traction, but all eyes were centred upon the stalwart man seated in a phaeton, drawn by a team of handsome horses. Washington purchased the outfit himself before leaving Phila- delphia. He paid 55 pounds for the carriage, 7 pounds and 15 shillings for the harness, and 239 pounds for five horses.
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With the General were Major-General Charles Lee, Major-General Philip Schuyler, Major Thomas Mifflin, aide, and Joseph Reed, military secretary. The Eagle Hotel, situated on the west side of Broad Street, south of William Street, was the patriots' headquarters, and it is not improb- able that the party tarried there for rest and refreshment. Rev. Dr. Alexander Macwhorter, the General Committee, and a committee representing the New York Provincial Congress officially welcomed the General. Information was received of Governor Tyron's expected arrival in New York from a visit to England, at noon. General Schuyler at once feared that too many royalists were about for Washington's safety and suggested a change of route. New York's Congress was called into session and a committee, consisting of Thomas Smith, John S. Hobart, Gouverneur Morris, and Richard Montgomerie, was sent to Newark to attend a council of war. It was there decided to cross the Hudson River by the upper ferry at Hoboken, and not at Paulus Hook (Jersey City) as originally planned. Over the meadow, on the rough corduroy road (ferried over the Passaic and Hackensack rivers) the phaeton bumped its way to the Hudson River, and proceeded thence by barge to New York.
Washington discovered while in New York a lack of mili- tary supplies. Writing to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, he said:
There is a great want of powder in the Provincial Army which I sincerely hope the Congress will supply as speedily and as ef- fectually as in their power. One thousand pounds in weight were sent to the camp in Cambridge three days ago from this city, which has left this place almost destitute of that necessary article, there being at this time from best information not more than four barrels of powder in the city of New York.
From river to mountain, homes loyal to the Continental Congress were preparing for the conflict. Looms and spinning wheels worked unceasingly every daylight hour,
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knitting needles were plied as never before, pewter was melted into bullets, and the women as well as the men dem- onstrated their patriotism in practical ways.
Men were enrolled in the Continental Line and the militia companies were recruited at every village green. Warm clothing, long stockings, and shirts were needed to equip the fighting force. Freely the noble women of the Revolutionary period gave of their stores and of their strength for the comfort of those in the army.
Essex County provided six companies of Minute Men in response to the request of the Provincial Congress, on August 31, 1775. Each man furnished his own equipment, con- sisting of rifle, hunting frock, made to conform as nearly as possible to that worn by the Continental riflemen, or a good "musket or firelock and bayonet, sword or tomahawk, steel ramrod, twenty-three rounds of ammunition in a cart- ridge box, twelve flints, and a knapsack; also one pound of powder and three pounds of bullets." Six months later, February 29, 1776, the Minute Men were merged into the militia.
Throughout Essex County a phalanx of brave-hearted men and women withstood unflinchingly numerous insults and privations in their espousal of the American principles. The call never came in vain to the men of Newark to fill the de- pleted ranks of soldiers.
Complaint made to the General Committee impelled it to pass a resolution allowing no person to move into or settle within the county unless bringing a certificate "that they had in all things behaved in a manner friendly to American Liberty."
"Persuaded of expediency of undue advantage being taken by reason of scarcity of sundry articles in consequent of the present contest with Great Britain," reads an order of March 15, 1776, issued over the signature of Lewis Ogden, "the General Committee have resolved to regulate the price of West Indian produce to be sold in this township.".
The committee met daily, corrected abuses, preserved
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order, and administered justice. One month later, May 20, 1776, it was:
Resolved, that it be recommended to the Inhabitants of this Township that they do not kill or eat any Lamb or Sheep of any Kind, from this Day until the first Day of August next, nor sell them to any Person whom they shall have Reason to suspect design to kill them within the said Time.
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And that on proof being made to this Committee of any Per- son or Persons contravening the above Recommendation the Delinquent or Deliquents shall be held up to the Public as Enemies to their Country, and all persons prohibited from having any Dealings or Correspondence with them.
The sheep were more of service in supplying wool than food; hence the order. Sacrifices were freely made for the prosecution of the war and Newark bore well its share.
Abraham Clark , signer of the Declaration of In- dependence from New Jersey
CHAPTER XXXV
RAVAGING OF NEWARK
N EW JERSEY'S Constitution was adopted by the Pro- vincial Congress July 2, 1776, two days before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Patriotism was in the air. Children played soldiers while the elders prepared for more serious activity. Hope was expressed in the instrument converting New Jersey from a colony to statehood that reunion with the mother country might be reestablished, in which case the Constitution would be immediately abrogated.
Official New Jersey at Trenton proclaimed the Declara- tion of Independence on July 8, 1776, "together with the new Constitution of the colony of late established, and the resolve of the Provincial Congress for continuing the ad- ministration of justice during the interim," says a report of the event. Continuing, this information is given:
"The members of the Provincial Congress, and the gentle- men of the committee, the officers and privates of the militia under arms and a large concourse of the inhabitants attended on this great and solemn occasion. The declaration and other proceedings were received with loud acclamations.
"The people are now convinced of what we ought long since to have known, that our enemies have left us no middle way between perfect freedom and abject slavery. In the field we hope, as well as in council, the inhabitants of New Jersey will be found ever ready to support the Freedom and Independence of America." An act proclaiming the right of citizenship adopted July 18, 1776, "in the convention of the State of New Jersey," as the Legislature was first named, contained this clause, "That all and every person, or persons, members of or owing allegiance to this Govern-
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ment, as before described, who, from and after the date hereof, shall levy war against this state within the same, or be adherent to the King of Great Britain or others, of this State within the same or to the enemies of the United States of North America, giving to him or them aid or comfort, shall be adjudged guilty of High Treason, and suffer the pains and penalties thereof, in like manner as by the ancient laws of this state he or they should have suffered in cases of high treason."
In accordance with the order of the Convention of the State of New Jersey, the General Committee of Newark proceeded to appraise the property of "all such persons as have or shall have absconded from their homes and joined themselves to the enemies of this State, causing all perishable goods to be sold, and the monies arising therefrom, and Dr. Macwhorter's chair and cane all other goods and estate of such persons, they keep in safe and secure custody until the further order of this convention."
One prominent Newarker declared "that the Declaration of Independence was the biggest pack of lies ever written." Sheriff and constabulary were unable to maintain peaceable conditions. Evil characters stalked forth under cover of darkness, and the Tories, whose homes were confiscated, damaged the property of their kindred and former neigh- bors.
Samuel Tucker, who presided over the Convention in the State of New Jersey, weakened in his faith and joined the adherents of the Crown. Isaac Longworth, a trusted member of the Committee on Correspondence, also went over to the enemy.
Tidings came on August 27, 1776, of a military engage- ment in the territory now a part of Brooklyn and known as the Battle of Long Island. Wounded and sick soldiers were
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sent to Newark and parceled among the homes. Ether had not been discovered for dulling the sensibilities of the wounded requiring surgical operations. Generous por- tions of the most available stimulant, generally apple whiskey, were administered, and then with crude instruments, but the best of the era; the surgeon proceeded with his work. Fre- quently the patient collapsed from the shock of the surgery.
As defeat after defeat of Washington's army apprised New Jersey families of their nearness to war's devastation, means were discussed for safeguarding themselves and
School house at Lyons Farm (1784)
their property. Dr. William Burnet, chairman of the General Committee, received an alarming message from Washington, at White Plains, on November 7. "The General advises all those who live near the water," said Dr. Burnet, in a circular letter sent around the township, "to be ready to move their stock, grain, carriages, and other effects back into the country. He adds that if it is not done the calamities we must suffer will be beyond all description
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and the advantages the enemy will receive immensely great. They had treated all without discrimination, the distinction of Whig and Tory has been lost in one general scene of ravage and desolation. The committee, taking into con- sideration the present alarming situation of the country recommended it to all the inhabitants living near the water, or the great roads leading through the country, to remove as soon as possible their stock, grain, hay, carriages, and other effects into some place of safety back into the country, that they may not fall into the enemy's hands. By order of the committee. William Burnet, chairman. Newark, November 10, 1776."
Even before receipt of this startling news, household effects and the contents of barns were transferred under cover of darkness to friendly homes on the mountainside and beyond. Vehicles of every description were brought into service; live stock was driven back into the hills. When it was positively known that Washington and his army were re- treating across the Hackensack meadows, women and children were removed to places of safety with friends at the mountain.
The exact hour of the army's entry into Newark is un- known. It was composed of Beal's, Heard's, and a part of Irvine's brigades. The General and his army werepiloted over the lower bridge crossing the Passaic at Acquackanonck (now Passaic) by John Post at night on November 21. The struc- ture was then destroyed; the timbers were falling into the water beneath the blows of axes wielded by strong-armed pa- triots just as the enemy arrived. Washington proceeded directly to Newark, where he had many friends. The King's army, foiled and exhausted, bivouacked for the night on the east side of the Passaic River. This accounts for the British failure to follow the American forces, affording the latter an opportunity for much-needed recuperation.
Hospitality was extended by the General Committee and friendly households to the' half-famished troops from Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, New Jer-
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sey, New York, and other colonies, comprising the army of about 3,500. The camp ground was on Summer Avenue, at the point now known as Elwood Park, but the head- quarters of the General are not known. It is probable that he stopped at the Eagle Tavern on the west side of Broad Street, near William Street.
Before the army continued its march to the Raritan River, at New Brunswick, where, it was expected, a stand would be made, James Nuttman, formerly a local captain of militia, and a well-known Tory, invited his friends and neighbors to observe thanksgiving over the expected early arrival of the King's army. Dinner was served, and toasts to the King, Cornwallis and other generals were drunk.
Fifes, drums, and trumpets were sounding and banners waving as the enemy, well-clothed and well-fed, marched into town on November 28. Washington's troops, refreshed, passed down the highway to Elizabeth Town as the advance guard appeared. Inquiry was made for Dr. Macwhorter by British soldiers who ransacked the parsonage in the hope of finding valuable records. The Meeting House, too, was entered. The clergyman, however, was being succored at a safe distance by a family friendly to the cause of Liberty. He no doubt would have paid the penalty of death for his allegiance to the new Government if hands had been laid upon him.
The retreat of the Continental troops, the militia and the recruits enlisted in the various towns, continued from Rari- tan River to the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware. Dr. Macwhorter, upon invitation of Washington, participated in the Council of War on the inclement Christmas night in 1776. While a penetrating December storm was raging the patriots discussed plans for attacking the Hessian forces occu- pying Trenton at dawn on the following day. Despite the con- tinuous defeats, beginning at the Battle of Long Island and the masterly retreat of an impoverished army from the Hud- son to the Delaware, Washington's brave and hopeful spirit ยท encouraged every man in the historic group.
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"Remember the words the hermit doth say,
'Tis the darkest hour before the dawn of day."
Victory on the morrow would mean new life to the cause of democracy. Defeat might bring the disaster which Corn- wallis was sure had already befallen the "rebels," for he was preparing an announcement to the English Government that the colonists were no longer antagonistic to its authority. The city and the troops guarding it were captured and Wash- ington was heralded as a strategist and the leading man of the infant Republic.
Peaceful and prosperous Newark was prostrated after the enemy had wreaked his vengeance. Wintry winds swept over sacked and burned homes when the people returned to pre- pare anew against the severe weather of the season. The ravages extended into the mountain settlement.
Members of the Continental Congress were aroused over the wanton acts of the British and Hessians, and a com- mittee was appointed to investigate and officially record the vandal acts. Dr. Macwhorter made the following arraign- ment, on March 12, 1777, in a letter written to a member of Congress, which was incorporated in the official records:
Great have been the ravages committed by the British troops in this part of the country. . Their footsteps with us are marked with desolation and ruin of every kind. I, with many others, fled from the town, and those that tarried behind suffered almost every manner of evil. The murder, robbery, ravishments and insults they were guilty of are dreadful. When I returned to the town it looked more like a scene of ruin than a pleasant, well- cultivated village.
One Thomas Hayes, who lived about three miles out of town, as peaceable and inoffensive a man as in the state of New Jersey, was unprovokedly murdered by one of their negroes, who run him through the body with his sword. He also cut and slashed his aged uncle in such a manner that he is not yet recovered from his wounds, though received about three months ago. The same fellow stabbed one Nathan Baldwin, who recovered.
Their plundering is so universal and their robberies so atrocious .
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Maphington.
U.S.GRANT
A.LINCOLN
Three of Newark's distinguished visitors
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that I cannot fully describe their conduct. Whig and Tory were all treated in the same manner, except such who were happy enough to procure a sentinel to be placed as guard at their door.
There was one Nuttman, who had always been a remarkable Tory, and who met the British troops with huzzas of joy, had his house plundered of almost everything. He himself had his shoes taken off his feet and threatened to be hanged, so that with dif- ficulty he escaped being murdered by them.
It was diligently propagated by the Tories before the enemy came that all those who tarried in their houses would not be plundered, which induced some to stay, who otherwise would probably have saved many of their effects by removing them.
But nothing was a greater deception or baser falsehood than this, as the events proved, for none were more robbed than those that tarried at home with their families.
John Ogden, Esq., an aged man, had never done much in the controversy one way or another. They carried everything out of his house; everything they thought worth bearing away. They ripped open the feather beds, scattered the feathers in the air, and carried the ticks with them; they broke his desk to pieces and tore and destroyed a great number of important papers, deeds, wills, etc., belonging to himself and others, and they insulted and abused the old gentleman in the most outrageous manner, threatening sometimes to hang him and sometimes to cut off his head. They hauled a sick son of his, whose life had been for some time despaired of, out of his bed and grossly abused him, threaten- ing him with death in a variety of forms.
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