USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Pleasant Mills > Pleasant Mills, New Jersey, Lake Nescochague, a place of olden days > Part 4
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Notes to Chapter Two
The attempt made by Charles II to establish episcopacy in Scotland was a flagrant breach of faith with his Northern subjects and an outrage on their national feelings. Accustomed to the simple service of the Kirk, they looked upon the showy ritual of the Anglican establishment as no better than idolatry and protested vehemently against the change. Their objections were answered with sternly repressive measures, until harassed beyond en- durance by brutal soldiery and venal magistrates, the covenanters arose in arms to battle for their rights. In some instances they were successful, but the superior discipline and numbers of their foe were triumphant in the end, and the last armed resistance was crushed at the battle of Bothwell Bridge. in 1679.
The demons of persecution were then loosed upon the hapless chil- dren of the covenant, who without respect to age or sex, were done to death with a ruthlessness that would have shamed Nero or Domitian, but all suffer- ing was endured with a heroism rarely equalled in the history of the world.
"The flaming pyre that round the martyr rose Blazed like a torch to light him to repose, The ocean wave, the scaffold, and the sword, Were but a stormy passage to the Lord."
Many of these sorely tried people found a home in America, and gave to the land of their adoption a heritage of faith and virtue that was of untold value in the formation of our national character. Can we forbear a thrill of pride when we remember that of this noble stock were the founders of Sweet- water.
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From data that appears reliable, I learn that the builder of the Sweet- water mansion was named Reid. His daughter, Honoria, a girl of rare love- liness in person and character, was educated in England, and returned home after the death of her father, in 1778. She was the Kate Aylesford, of local legend, and married an American officer, in 1782.
The pioneers of Sweetwater had their share of Scotch thrift. In those days immense shoals of herring were found every spring in the Mullica and its tributary streams and the settlers added to their stock of provisions by dry- ing and smoking the toothsome fish by thousands. The surplus stock found a ready sale in the markets of Philadelphia and New York, thus building up an important local industry. The curing of herring in this manner was taken up in other settlements along the Mullica and continued until comparatively re- cent times. Within the memory of the writer, no family considered their winter store complete unless it included several hundred smoked herring.
Notes to Chapter Three
The capture of Chestnut Neck, and the ambuscade that checked the British advance on The Forks, were good illustrations of the fighting meth- ods used by the opposing forces. The highly trained British soldier of the day was master of the bayonet, and the best troops of Continental Europe could not withstand the terrible Anglo-Saxon charge. Our forefathers, hardy and courageous as they were, frankly acknowledged their dread of the cold steel in stalwart British hands. On the other hand the American rifleman in his native woods was a foe that the boldest Briton did not care to face. The celerity of his movements and the deadly accuracy of his aim were well known and the general sentiment among the King's men was:
"I'd rather fight the bravest lads That e'er came over seas Than meet the blasted Yankee D- - - Is, Among the rocks and trees."
The crack marksmen of the American service were armed with the Deckard rifle, the most efficient small arm of the period, having more than twice the range of the smooth bore service musket, or "Brown Bess" used by the Royal troops.
In the course of time, the Americans learned the trick of their En- glish cousins, and used the bayonet with success, notably at Stoney Point and Cowpens.
Major Ferguson, who led the British expedition against Little Egg Harbor, was brave and ruthless. He hated the "rebels" and showed scant courtesy to such of them as fell into his power. He was an expert in gunnery and invented a breech-loading rifle which proved an efficient weapon, in rapid- ity of fire, surpassing the muzzle loader of the time, three to one. A bat- talion of British troops was armed with these rifles at Brandywine and the Americans opposed to it were astounded and dismayed by the terrific fusil- lade poured upon their line.
Ferguson directed the movements of his men when in action by the sound of a silver whistle and there was joy among the patriots when that whistle sounded for the last time at King's Mountain, where Ferguson was slain and his forces decimated by the woodmen of North Carolina.
"Their sharp reports upon the wind our deadly rifles hurled,
And one bold life was stricken then from out the living world. But almost sped he raised his head and grasped his silver call,
And one long blast, the faintest last, wailed round the mountain wall."
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Notes to Chapter Four
The noted refugee leader, Joe Mulliner, came of a good family, two of his brothers served with honor in the patriot army, and his lawless career was apparently due more to love of adventure than to inherent wickedness. He was tried and condemned for robbery and correspondence with the enemy, and it is true that his plundering raids were many and frequent, but there is no proof that he killed or inflicted physical injury on any one.
Shortly before his death he confided to a friend that he had buried a considerable sum of gold and silver near the road leading from Green Bank to Lower Bank, and many have searched for his money, but so far as known, it was never found.
The people of these parts, a few generations back, were firm believers in ghosts, and it was averred by many that Mulliner's spirit walked. Some of the most credulous claimed to have seen him in dim and shadowy form walk- ing beside the river near the Buttonwoods, and looking from, side to side as if in search of something. As the ghost has not appeared for many years, we may believe that he found the object of his quest.
Notes to Chapter Five
In 1645, Rev. John Campanius, a Lutheran minister from Stockholm, Sweden, went as a missionary to the Leni Lenape, but was unsuccessful in his efforts to convert them, though his personal popularity with them was great:
A century later, David Brainerd, in the short space of four years, brought them to accept the tenets of the Gospel, and few, if any, of them for- sook the faith.
Twenty years after David Brainerd had entered into rest, another Brainerd, bearing the Christian name of John, preached the Word in South Jersey. He devoted much time to work among the Indians, thus amplifying the work of his predecessor. An old record states that in 1769 John Brain- erd was pastor of the church at Cold Spring, Cape May County. ' In his diary for the year 1774, he tells of holding service at Clark's Meeting House. He describes the interior of the building, making special mention of the large red cedar beams overhead.
Notes to Chapter Seven
" Captain Jack "
An old-timer whose mortal remains lie beneath the mould of Pleasant Mills churchyard, was Jack VanDyke, seaman by profession, and master of the brigantine "Gypsy Jane."
He was engaged in the West India trade and from his good fortune in bringing his cargoes to port was known as lucky Jack VanDyke. For- tune at last, as she has a way of doing, played him a scurvy trick, when he was voyaging home with a freight that promised exceptionally large returns. A British frigate came along, seized his ship and made him and the crew prisoners. The loss of the "Gypsy Jane" and his liberty aroused Captain Jack to a white heat of fury and in a burst of sulpherous profanity he consigned King George and all his crew to a region of exclusively high temperature.
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The English commander ordered him to be more respectful of his Majesty's name, but the reply of the irate Yankee was:
"D- the King, and double d- him, and d- the man that wouldn't d- him."
The British captain, a rough specimen himself, admired the spirit of his prisoner, and treated him like a brother. When Captain Jack was re- leased, his late captor took his hand and wished him better luck next time.
"Never fear about that," said Jack. "Be sure I'll get my pay and King George will be the paymaster."
As soon as possible, he obtained command of a privateer, and in due time compensated himself for the loss of. the "Gypsy Jane."
In speech and manner Captain VanDyke was rough and boisterous as the element in which he sailed, but beneath his rugged exterior beat a heart of gold. He was generous to a fault, and was a favorite with young people of the neighborhood, who delighted in hearing the story of his ad- ventures. Time softened his once fiery temperament, and in his declining years he was wont to say that he felt nothing but good will to all the world. Of his old enemies he often said, "The English are brave lads, and good fellows, and though I'm American to the core I can say 'God Save the King', for like the rest of us, he needs it."
Notes to Chapter Nine
The First Shot at Bunker Hill
(This is Mr. Johnson's account of the incident, given verbatim.).
"We were behind the breastwork and the Britishers were marching up as cool and unconcerned as you please, a pretty show they made, I'm telling ye. In their first rank opposite to me was a strappin' big feller that I didn't like the look of. Says I to myself, if I come to grips with that lad, it may go hard with me; so I up gun and cut him over. The lieutenant hit me a clip with the flat of his sword a'most knocked me off my feet.
"'Fire without orders will ye?' says he; 'I've a mind to shear your fool head clean off.'
"Then came the order to fire and I guess you've heard what happened after that.
*Joseph Johnson was the son of a Danish immigrant, who settled at Beechwood, Pa., about 1749. In 1770, Joseph then twenty years old, came to New Jersey. Hearing of the fight at Lexington in 1775, he and five other youths journeyed, mostly on foot, to Massachusetts and joined the patriot army in time to participate in the battle of Bunker Hill. After serving thru the war with credit, Mr. Johnson spent the rest of life in the vicinity of Pleasant Mills, dying in 1853.
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