USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Paper read before the historical society of Hudson County. 1908 > Part 3
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The first settler at Weehawken was Maryn Adriansen. Weehawken was an Indian name, probably meaning "The Land of the End," because the Palisades, which lift their pillared rocks as a wall to the lower Hudson, here dip towards the river. In the primitive days of New York Weehawken invited excursionists from the city, who rowed across the river and then climbed its heights. Among these was the book- keeper poet Fitz-Greene Halleck, who writes:
"Weehawken! In thy mountain scenery yet, All we adore of nature in her wild And frolic hour of infancy is met; And never has a summer's morning smiled Upon a lovlier scene than the fuil eye Of the enthusiast revels on, -when high
"Tall spire, and glittering roof, and battlement, And banners floating in the sunny air;
And white sails o'er the calm blue waters bent, Green isle and circling shore are blended there In wild reality. When life is old,
And many scenes forgot, the heart will hold Its memory of this."
The older inhabitants of Bergen well remember a creek, which, starting from Tuers Pond, not far from the Bergen Re- formed Church, found its way to the bay between Cavan's Point and Greenville. It derived its name from the first prop- rietor of the territory at its mouth-Derick Zieken. Patents were also given to several families along the Bergen Neck, now Bayonne. They were described in the deeds as situated between Communipaw and Kill von Kull.
These settlements, however, had no political existence, save as they formed part of the New Netherlands under the domination of the Governor sent out by the West India Com- pany. There was never a time when the government was sat- isfactory. The citizens of the Dutch Republic had been ac-
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customed to political freedom in their own country, and resent- ed with ceaseless protest the attempt of the commercial com- pany through despotic governors, to subject them to laws and ordinances of their own individuality.
After the patroons had abandoned their attempts to estab- lish a feudal system, the restrictions of the company upon the free sale of land discouraged colonists from attempting to find homes in Manhattan and vicinity. The company saw their mistake after a while, and the conditions were changed so that immigration was encouraged, and better people began to colonize. In order to encourage the colonists by a representa- tive government, Governor Kieft invited the appointment of Twelve Men; but when, like the Douma, they criticised the ruling Czar, the body was dissolved. In 1643 Kieft invited Eight Men instead of Twelve to advise him, and Bout from Communipaw was the representative of Pavonia. Kieft, how- ever, became impossible, and the company superceded him by the famous governor whose name is linked with the closing years of Dutch New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant.
Stuyvesant was a soldier who had done duty under his country's flag. He had lost a leg in his battles, and he carried around with him that famous wooden leg, with which he is said to have stamped upon the floor when the members of the council dis- agreed with him. He arrived in May, 1647. He came like a peacock with great state and pomp. Washington Irving calls him "A valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leath- ern-sided, lion-hearted old governor." He promised to gov- ern the colony as a father would his children. But even pater- nal rule was too strong for the burghers of New Amsterdam, and Peter was constantly quarreling with his neighbors. He admitted to share in his administration a Council of Nine Men, but they seemed to have little voice in the real government of the colony, and the discontent was not allayed until the muni- cipality was chartered by the appointment of a Schout, two Burgomasters, and five Schepens, in the year 1652.
The City Fathers met the same problem which disturbs the Greater New York to day. The drinking habits of the set- tlers invited the opening of a comparatively large number of taprooms. It is said that at one time one-fourth of the houses clustered around the fort were open for the sale of intoxicating drinks. The excise fees were used to support the church.
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The church in the fort was built by a subscription signed on the night when Dominie Bogardus' danghter was married, while the guests were in an hilarious condition. The free use of alcohol roused the phlegmatic Dutchmen to numerous quar- rels, and these were continued even on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday.
In the old home the intensity of religious differences made every man a zealot for the reformed faith, but the wildness of a new life had a tendency to make people careless. The Gov- ernor, as a defender of the faith, issued several decrees on the subject of church attendance, and from time to time called the people together to listen to fast-day discourses, or to give thanks for the prosperity of the colony and the quietness of life.
In 1647 Stuyvesant complains "that men are getting drunk, quarreling, smiting each other on the Lord's Day of rest, of which on last Sunday we were ourselves witnesses." The old Governor seems to have set an example to Dr. Parkhurst and Mr. Samuel Wilson by personally inspecting the city with a view to the discovery of infractions of the law. He, therefore, issues a new order that the lid is to be put down until two o'clock in the afternoon, thus giving everybody a chance to at- tend divine service in the morning. If a second service is to be held in the afternoon, then the taverns must remain with closed doors until four. Every evening the curfew is to ring at nine o'clock, and all good citizens must hie them to their homes and remain in quietness until morning. For selling in- toxicants after curfew a fine of 200 guilders was to be imposed. It was further decreed that all occupations were to cease dur- ing the service on the Lord's Day, all games must be suspend- ed, and the ordinary operations of the farms must be neglect- ed, while woe to any wicked boy who should be caught play- ing ball, or even seen throwing a fishing line from some con- venient headland on the river!
The municipality also had its building laws, commanding the removal of wooden chimneys and thatched roofs. They re- strained the hogs and goats from tresspassing on neighbor's property, or running on the streets. They arbitrarily enacted laws concerning the currency. Indian wampum and beaver skins were used in trade. On the shores of Long Island may still be found a deposit of shell dust. In my first parsonage at Flatlands I had several loads of it carted for the walk around
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my house. It is the result of the pounding of pieces of shell in order to get at the heart of the shell, which, being strung upon a rude cord, made from the fish, became the currency, not only of the Indians, but of the white settlers. In the big chest where the church kept its relics at Flatlands, I found several strings of the old wampum, which had been used by the mem- bers of the congregation in payment of church expenses.
Laws were also enacted to regulate the size and fineness of a loaf of bread. All imports and exports paid a duty at the customs, and trade in furs was forbidden, because this most profitable of all ventures must remain forever as the preroga- tive of the West India Company. These ordinances, of course, were to be respected and obeyed in the outlying bouweries as well as within the limits of New Amsterdam.
A marked feature of the New Netherlands was the begin- ning of that mingling of European peoples, which has ever been a characteristic of New York. One might roam in New England from Greenwich to Cape Cod without hearing a single sentence save that of the pure Old English tongue. But the hos- pitality of New Amsterdam had been extended to people of every clime and nation, and while Dutch prevailed, all the languages of Europe might be heard in the streets. A census taken in 1652 showed that there were only 800 people living on Man- hattan Island, and in all the colony, including Rensselaerwyck, Esopus, Long Island, and Pavonia, only 4,000 souls.
During the ten years of peace in Pavonia, only one in- stance of Indian depredation occurred, although we can im- agine that the loaded rifle always hung over the fireplace in the great kitchen, and wives and mothers knew how to shoot should occasion be demanded. On the 9th of March, 1649, the body of Simon Walinges Vanderbilt was found pierced by Indian arrows within the Paulus Hook region. The matter being duly considered by the council, it was agreed that the outrage should not be revenged. The inhabitants had reason to dread a second Indian war, and wisely concluded that a sin- gle crime, committed perhaps by a wicked Indian, could not be charged against the tribes.
In 1665 a change came over the peaceful spirit of the col- ony. Hendrick Van Dyck, who by the way, was also one of my ancestors, occupied a lot on what is now Broadway, extend- ing westward to the river. He had come to the colony during
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the governorship of William Kieft, commissioned as an ensign in the little Dutch army which manned the fort. When his only son Cornelis was born, the baptism was an event of great importance. It was recorded on the first page of the records of the Church of New York. Governor Kieft himself was god- father. Van Dyck returned to Holland, where he received the promotion as Schout Fiscal under Peter Stuyvesant. Both the governor and his lieutenant were of irascible temper, and the quarrel between them began on the ship before they left port. It was continued during the whole official life of Van Dyck, whom old Peter forced out of office. On his capacious city lot he had planted a valuable orchard, and one night, when the peaches were ripening on the trees, Dame Van Dyck noticed skulking thieves among her much beloved trees. Her husband yielded to the impulse of the moment, brought out his rifle and fired at the intruder. An Indian girl dropped from the tree. The rash deed was like fire in a mass of tow. The news spread among the Indians of the western river, and within a few days they came to take their vengeance. Canoes filled with Indian braves, gay with paint and feathers, landed on Manhattan. Van Dyck fell wounded with an arrow, while his friend and neighbor, Van Der Grist, who had come to protect him, was slain outright. The assault was the signal for a terrible war. One hundred colonists were killed and one hundred and fifty were taken captive. The inhabitants of Pavonia fled aghast, and twenty-eight bouweries were destroyed, while three hun- dred families, homeless and in abject poverty, were thrown upon the hospitality of their neighbors on Manhattan. "Not one white person was left in Pavonia." It is a wonder that the savages held their hands from the utter extermination of the colonists, who had thus on two occasions called them to the warpath.
When prisoners had been exchanged at a pow-wow at Paulus Hook, and when peace between the white men and the Indians had been restored, the Council of New Amsterdam took advantage of the happy hour to repurchase from the In- dians the land on the west bank of the Hudson. The deed was executed in 1658 and signed by the Indian chiefs and the tribes which claimed to be the proprietors. The land is de- scribed as beginning at the Great Clip above Weehawken, re- ferring to the rock at which the Palisades dip into the Hudson,
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thence westerly to Siskakes or "the place where the snake hides," thence to Kill von Kull and Constable's Hook, and back along the river to the place of starting. This is the first mention in any record of the name Snake Hill, of whose form- ation Washington Irving has given us the legendary narrative already noted. Both the name and translation remain in Se- caucus, a well-defined locality in our county, and Snake Hill, the seat of our county institutions. The compensation given to the Indians for what is now Hudson County is included in the following memorandum :
Eighty fathoms of wampum Twenty fathoms of cloth. Twelve brass kettles Six guns Two blankets One double brass kettle One half barrel of strong beer
And further, the Indians bound themselves to move from the land, which they had conveyed, at the first opportunity.
The planters of Pavonia, restless within the confines of New Amsterdam, and homesick for their devastated and deso- lated homes, began once more to creep back again. They were, however, warned by edict from the council, dated January 18, 1656, that residence outside of the pale of protection was at their own peril; while a second edict places a heavy fine upon any who should attempt to live on an isolated farm. The in- habitants of all the outlying farms were commanded to "con- centrate themselves in villages and hamlets," so that they might the more effectually protect themselves against the as- saults of the savages and barbarians. The former settlers of Communipaw presented a remonstrance against these edicts, and asked permission to return to their own lands. Permission was immediately granted, but with the reiteration of the old order that no settlements were to be made without concentra- tion and protection.
For at least two years these good people waited in idleness, or pursued other occupations in New Amsterdam, and mean- while, on the 16th of August, in the year 1660, the advantages of the heights were suggested, and a petition, coming from sev- eral inhabitants of the province, prayed for the privilege of cultivating the farms behind Communipaw and forming there
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a village. The petition was promptly granted on three condi- tions :
Ist. A spot must be selected which they can defend with ease.
2nd. While lots are to be given freely to actual settlers, each colonist must bind himself to begin to build his house within six weeks after he has drawn his lot.
3rd. From each house there must be at least one enlisted soldier, able to bear arms in defence of the village.
There is no record of obedience to this order, but there is documentary evidence that it had been obeyed in a deed convey- ing a certain piece of land near the village of Bergen, inthe "open maize land." This Gweykonk or "Open Maize Land" was a clearing which the Indians had cultivated before the arrival of the white men, and was situated near the corner of Bergen Avenue and Montgomery Street. It is significant that pass- ersby in the early autumn and late summer may still see a lit- tle plot of maize, its purple tassels floating in the summer breeze, surrounding the stately mansion of our fellow citizen, Mr. John Winner, which stands on the site of the Indian wig- wams.
Another document in evidence is a letter from Stuyvesant to the directors of Holland, which calls their attention to three or four villages still needing preachers, and until the need be supplied deprived of religious services. He names New Ut- recht and Gravesend on Long Island, New Harlem of Manhat- tan, and the newly-planted villages of about thirty families across the river. This document is dated Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 6th of October, 1660. On that day Ber- gen was like an infant for which no name had yet been found, but of whose existence there could be do doubt.
These data fix as accurately as possible the date of the foundation of the village of Bergen. In some of our histories of New Jersey, written by men who had never seen a Dutch document or its translation, it is asserted that Bergen was founded by the Danes as early as 1617, and one author with brilliant imagination asserts that some of Hend- rich Hudson's men went ashore, climbed the hill, and built their first homes in Bergen.
There was no settlement of white men on our heights un- til the late summer of 1660, and then, complying with the con-
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ditions of the Council in New Amsterdam, the sound of adze and hammer was heard, and all at once a village rose, surrounded by a palisade, and included within the four blocks around our present Bergen Square. Like Minerva from the head of Jove, Bergen sprang full-armed from the will of Father Wood- en Leg. Its boundaries, naming the streets as we know them at present, were Newkirk Street on the north, Tuers Avenue on the east, Vroom Street on the south, and Van Reypen Street on the west. These boundaries included a space of eight hun- dred feet square. It has retained the old plan to the present time, and from its centre afterwards was laid out from the Kill von Kull northward the Old Bergen Road, which is now Bergen Avenue. The surveyor was Jacques Cortelyou, who is probably the first surveyor to arrive in the colony.
The colonists brought with them their church and their school. The vexed question of the first house of public wor- ship will perhaps never be definitely settled; but after weigh- ing all evidence, I am prepared to accept the tradition that a log church was erected at a very early day outside the Pali- sade, on the high ground within the cemetery of the Bergen Reformed Church, overlooking Vroom Street, at the corner of Tuers Avenue.
At the centre of the town an open space had been left where the cattle might be tethered at night. This is our pres- ent Bergen Square. On one of the central corners a lot was set apart for the coming schoolhouse. The colonists were so fully occupied in the building of their own homes, that for several years the school site was left vacant; but they must have en- gaged a schoolmaster at the very beginning. In the court records of New Amsterdam it appears that on December 17th, 1663, the authorities of Bergen appeared before the council praying that an order be issued to compel Engelbert Steen- huysen to perform his contract as voorleser. It is represented that "more than a year ago he was employed, not only as voor- leser, but also to keep school. The said Steenhuysen accepted this, and has now served for more than fifteen months, being allowed a salary of 250 guilders in wampum annually, and some other emoluments beside school fees considered proper and fair." He was, according to his contract, to select himself and provide a convenient place to keep school in. He wishes to throw up his contract, because the community has failed to pro-
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vide the lot for the schoolhouse, and because they expect him to pay taxes on the two bouweries which he owns, and also to do military duty when required for the defence of the palisade. The Council patiently heard the case and then ordered that En- gelbert Steenhuysen must keep his contract to the end of his term of office. The discontent of the schoolmaster probably hurried the schoolhouse, which must have been erected within two or three years.
On the 4th of September, 1661, a court, consisting of a Schout and three Schepens, was installed. The villagers were allowed to choose their own magistrates; but continued, how- ever, to choose only honest and intelligent men, professors of the Reformed religion. Tilman Van Vleeck was the first Schout. Michael Jansen, Harman Smeeman, and Caspar Stymets were the first Schepens. With this Michael Jansen we have met be- fore, as the ancestor of the Vreeland family, having added the surname at a later date. Appeals from this court are taken to New Amsterdam; but cases are dismissed in the higher court, when it is shown that they are under consideration in Bergen. On one occasion a case is dismissed in New Amsterdam Decem- ber, 1662, because the deponent lives in Bergen, and it is too stormy to come over.
In February, 1662, a well was dug at the centre of the square, so that the people might be supplied in their homes without the labor of digging individual wells, and the cattle watered at a common trough. The well was dug by the co- operation of all the men, each taking his turn in a labor for the common weal.
Encouraged by the success of Bergen, the proprietors of Communipaw came back to their deserted homes, and formed a second village, and in the winter of 1661 a ferry was estab- lished between Communipaw and New Amsterdam. Prob- ably the first extensive road ever laid out in the county con- nected the people on the shore front behind Gibbet Island, through Communipaw and Summit Avenues with Academy Street and the eastern gate of the palisaded town. Bergen and Communipaw were rival towns, and a suit between them to establish the title to a certain meadow land was tried before the Council on Manhattan.
A document on file with the Secretary of State in Albany shows that a subscription was raised in 1662 for the support of
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a minister. But the wilds of the New Netherlands presented few attractions to the scholarly men who filled the pulpits of the Netherlands, and as the colonists would not have for a minister one who had not been educated in one of the univer- sities, as well as fully ordained by the Classis of Amsterdam, they were not able to secure a learned and pious pastor in re- sponse to their call. The worship of God, however, was not neglected. Every Lord's Day the people assembled, were led in prayer by the voorleser, sang one of the Psalms set to the familiar old tunes in the fatherland, and listened to a sermon from one of the old Dutch Books of Homilies. From time to time also the ministers of New Amsterdam were ferried over the Hudson, administered the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and solemnized the rite of matrimony. The church records began with the roll of members in 1664, and from the following years baptisms and marriages are recorded. The first male member to be recorded was Nicholas Verlett, brother-in-law of Peter Stuyvesant, who seems to have bought the deserted brewery at Hoboken.
In connection with the founding of Bergen, two questions have been asked: "Who were these settlers?" and "Whence came they?" The answer, gathered from a scrutiny of their names, so far as they have been preserved, shows that they are principally emigrants from the Netherlands, while perhaps a few were Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. The theory finds acceptance that many were old soldiers from the Netherlands, who had fought under Orange, and who were rewarded for their faithful service by a city lot in the new town on the Grand Scarp.
The origin of the name is also a question of interest. It has been claimed that the capital of Norway was honored by making the town its namesake; but there is no ground for this. Nor is there any evidence that any of the settlers came from the little town of Bergen-Op-Zoon.
Mr. Winfield suggests a fanciful derivation from the Dutch verb "berger," to be safe. This would have been significant, because there was certainly safety from Indian arrows behind the palisades. But it is more likely that the verb "berger" had its origin in "berg" (the mountain); for "as the mountains are round about Jerusalem," so find men safety in the eternal hills. The high ground suggested the name. As we find the
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early Frenchmen pointing to the Anormée Berge, corrupted into Norumbega; so in their own language the Dutchmen cry out on beholding the hill, "Bergen."
There seems at first very little connection between the great events which form the history of Europe and these little colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. But a philosophic view of history shows the inter-relation of outlying districts with the throbbing centres of national life.
Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. Had he lived, or had his weakling son been able to sustain the burden of the protector- ate, there would probably have been no quarrel between Eng- land and Holland, and the States-General would have remained in peaceful possession of their beloved settlements. But when the protectorate failed, and on that merry Mayday of the very year in which Bergen was founded, Charles II. came back to England and set up his licentious court in Whitehall, misun- derstandings between the countries separated by the Northern Sea began to agitate the world.
Finally war was declared. The Dutch navy bad almost driven from the seas the ships of Great Britain. Pepys's Diary tells us how poorly prepared were the navies of Charles to grapple with the victorious ships that had destroyed the sea- power of Spain. The Dutch vessels entered the Thames River and laid the towns towards the sea under tribute to their prow- ess. But reprisals must be made in America. England claimed the whole of North America by virtue of the early discoveries of the Cabots.
In England the New Netherlands were still included un- der the Virginia Charter. The only rival flag from Newfound- land to Florida was that of the States-General over Fort St. Nicholas. It was easy for Charles to make good this claim by executing a deed for the provinces which the Dutch claimed, to his brother James, the Duke of York, and it was almost as easy in the absence of a Dutch fleet from the Atlantic Ocean to send over an expedition heavy enough to silence every gun on Manhattan. It is on record that credit was given to Bergen for two charges of their cannon fired about eight o'clock of the morning of October 18, 1664, to warn the country of the ap- proach through the Narrows, a view of which their watchers enjoyed, of the hostile ships. When the fleet arrived in 1664, the burghers in New Amsterdam, headed by their minister,
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