USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Orange > The Mountain Society : a history of the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, N. J. organized about the year 1719 with an account of the earliest settlements in Newark > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
2. We shall, with care and diligence, provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion professed in the Congregational churches." *
Newark Town Records. Stearns' Hist., p. 14.
21
NAMES OF SETTLERS.
These articles were subscribed by-
JASPER CRANE,
RICHARD HARRISON,
ABRAHAM PIERSON,
SAMUEL SWAINE,
EBENEZER CANFIELD, JOHN WARD, SEN.,
LAURENCE WARD,
EDWARD BALL,
THOMAS BLACTHLY, JOHN HARRISON, JOHN CRANE,
SAMUEL PLUM, JOSIAH WARD,
THOMAS HUNTINGTON,
SAMUEL ROSE,
DELIVERED CRANE,
THOMAS PIERSON,
AARON BLACTHLY,
JOHN WARD,
RICHARD LAURENCE,
JOHN CATLING,
JOHN JOHNSON,
THOMAS LYON.
And upon being transmitted to the new settlement the inhabitants already there held a public meeting, June 24, 1667, when the following names, forty in number, were also subscribed to them :
ROBERT TREAT, OBADIAH BRUEN, MATTHEW CAMFIELD, SAMUEL KITCHELL, JEREMIAH PECK,
MICHAEL TOMPKINS, STEPHEN FREEMAN, HENRY LYON, JOHN BROWNE, JOHN ROGERS, STEPHEN DAVIS, 2*
GEORGE DAY, THOMAS JOHNSON,
JOHN CURTIS, EPHRAIM BURWELL,
ROBERT DENISON,
NATHANIEL WHEELER,
WILLIAM CAMP, JOSEPH WALTERS, ROBERT DALGLESH, HANS ALBERS, THOMAS MORRIS,
22
A DISAPPOINTMENT.
EDWARD RIGS,
HUGH ROBERTS,
ROBERT KITCHELL,
EPHRAIM PENNINGTON,
JOHN BROOKS,
MARTIN TICHENOR,
ROBERT LYMENS,
JOHN BROWN, JUN.,
FRANCIS LINLE, JONATHAN SEARGEANT,
DANIEL TICHENOR, AZARIAH CRANE,
JOHN BAULDWIN, SEN., SAMUEL LYON,
JOHN BAULDWIN, JUN., JOSEPH RIGGS, JONATHAN TOMPKINS, STEPHEN BOND.
The names thus brought from the Connecticut coast to the banks of the Passaic have since ra- diated in all directions over this portion of New Jersey ; while the church in Newark, whose roll they first constituted, and in which many of them are yet found, is still "like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Its leaf has not withered by an age of nearly two hundred years.
We have seen that, by the Concessions, all lands were to be purchased of the Indians by the Gov- ernor and Council in the name of the proprietors, while every person settling was to pay his propor- tion of the purchase money and charges. By this rule the colonists expected to find Indian claims pacified, and the way clear for the undisturbed occupancy of such lands as they needed. But when the Milford company arrived and commenced landing their goods, a party of the Hackinsacks appeared, who warned them off, saying the lands
23
PURCHASE OF LANDS.
were not yet purchased. This unexpected an- nouncement came near defeating the enterprise. For "on the subject of real estate in the New World, the Puritans differed from the lawyers widely ; asserting that the heathen, as a part of the lineal descendants of Noah, had a rightful claim to their lands."* And so, putting their goods back upon the vessel, they were about to return. The governor, however, dissuaded them from this, and as the Indians were not unwilling to sell their lands, resort was had to negotiation. The agents on the part of the town were Robert Treat and Samuel Edsal; on the part of the In- dians, the chief negotiator was Perro, a Sagamore, acting with the advice and consent of an aged Sagamore, not then able to travel, whose name was Oraton. John Capteen, a Dutchman, assisted the negotiations as interpreter. This was in 1666. The bill of sale was not made out till July 11, 1667. This was signed by Obadiah Bruen, Michael Tompkins, Samuel Kitchell, John Brown, and Ro- bert Denison, on the part of the town; and by Wapamuck, Harish, Captamin, Sessom, Mamus- tome, Peter, Wamesane, Wekaprokikan, Cacnack- que and Perawae, on the part of the Indians.+
* Bancroft, Vol. II., 319.
+ Stearns' Hist., p. 11. Was Perro, (whose name is variously spelled in the old manuscripts as Perro, Parow, Parrow, &c.,) the same person with Perawae ?
24
SECOND PURCHASE.
The purchase extended to the foot of the great mountain called Watchung." The price paid was " fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, ten pair of breeches, fifty knives, twenty hoes, eight hundred and fifty fathom of wampum, twenty ankers of liquors, or something equivalent, and three troopers' coats." A second purchase, March 13, 1677-8, extended the limits to the top of the mountain, for "two guns, three coats, and thirteen cans of rum."*
The second purchase was from " Winacksop and Shenacktos, Indians, the owners of the great moun- tain Watchung." The reader who knows the pres- ent worth of those mountain lands, would scarcely imagine that the whole broad slope which men of capital and taste are now so eager to purchase and
* It may interest the reader to find a fragment of the language spoken by these primitive masters of the soil. The following numerals are remembered by Aaron Burr Harrison, as communi- cated to him by his great uncle, Samuel Harrison, who was born in the year 1719, and lived to his 92d year. We can fancy how often they were repeated during the negotiations above described. We discover in them the decimal system.
1. een. 6. latter. 11. een dick.
16. een bumsack.
2. teen. 7. satter.
12. teen dick.
17. teen bumsack.
3. tether. 8. po. 13. tether dick.
18. tether bumsack.
4. fether. 9. debbety.
14. fether dick. 19. fether bumsack.
5. fimp. 10. dick. 15. bumsack. 20. enock.
25
CASTING LOTS.
occupy, was once valued at " two guns, three coats, and thirteen cans of rum."
The territory thus acquired, by a moral right from the natives, and by a legal right from the Pro- prietors, embraced the present townships of New- ark, Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Clinton.
In the division of the lands, each settler received a "home lot " in the town laid out on the river, for which lots were drawn; the Jersey Canaan being assorted in strict conformity with Hebrew prece- dents-ever the Puritanic model. There were, also, first, second and third divisions of the " upland," with an equitable distribution of the " bogged meadow," an indispensable accessory.
The settlement on the river began very soon to spread itself in this direction. The inviting plain between the Passaic and the mountain could not long remain an uncultivated woodland, with a race of hardy yeomanry growing up on its border. We give such names as we have been able to gather of those who first located or had lands surveyed to them in this part of the wilderness.
Robert Lymon, by warrant of Aug. 19, 1675, had "part of his third division on the mountain "-44 acres-bounded north-west by the mountain, north- east by John Baldwin, Sen., south-east by Capt. Samuel Swaine, south-west by Richard Harrison.
August 28, 1675. Samuel Swaine had 40 acres at the foot of the mountain, with John Baldwin,
26
ORANGE SETTLERS.
Sen., on the north, Robert Lymon and Richard Harrison on the west, Richard Harrison on the east, the common on the south.
Sept. 10, 1675. John Baldwin, Sen., had for his third division, near the mountain, 40 acres, with Capt. Samuel Swaine and John Catlin north, Ser- geant Richard Harrison east, John Ward (distin- guished as John Ward, turner,) south, the top of the mountain west. John Catlin had 60 acres, ex- tending to the top of the mountain. Richard Har- rison had fifty acres, with the widow Freeman south, and also 15 acres "upon the branch of Rah- way river," bounded west by John Catlin and John Baldwin, Sen., east by a small brook running from the mountain, north and south by the com- mon.
June 9, 1679. Thomas Johnson had a tract by the foot of the mountain, 50 by 13 chains, bounded north by John Ward, Jun., south by Mr. John Ward, Sen., east by the plain, west by the top of the hill. Said tract to remain for 50 acres, allow- ance being made for bad land.
John Ward, Sen., had 50 acres, with Thomas Johnson north, the plain east, John Catlin south, the hill west.
Anthony Oliff (or Olive) had 50 acres, with Sam- uel Harrison south, the mountain west, unsurveyed lands on the north and east. This farm included on its northern border the street now known as
27
ORANGE SETTLERS.
Williamsville. It appears, from the town-book, that the owner at first took possession of more land than the agreements allowed, confessed his fault, submitted the land to the town's disposal, and by his request was admitted a planter in 1678. He married the widow of George Day,-the orig- inal of that name in Newark and Orange-and died, without children, March 16, 1723, aged 87 years. His grave has the oldest headstone in the old burial-ground. The owner of the farm after his death was Peleg Shores, who, on the 23d of April, 1723, conveyed the eastern and southern portions of it (one equal half) to Jonathan Linds- ley, the deed being witnessed by (Rev) Daniel Tay- lor and Matthew Williams. In 1726, the same was sold to David Williams, who, in 1730, purchased also the other half.
June 13, 1679. Fifty-nine acres of upland were laid out for Joseph Harrison, bounded on the north- east by Benjamin Harrison, and on the north-west by "Perroth's brook."
If any of these farms were at this time under improvement, they were scarcely occupied as homesteads ; for it was not till Dec. 12, 1681, that surveyors were chosen, of whom Richard Harrison was one, " to lay out highways as far as the moun- tain, if need be, and to lay out the third division to all who have a desire to have it laid out, and passages to all lands."
28
ORANGE SETTLERS.
In March, 1685, Paul, George and Samuel Day, heirs of George Day, had surveyed to them by W. Camp, surveyor, sixty acres, bounded with the mountain west, Matthew Williams south, Wigwam brook east, and the common north; Matthew Wil- liams having been admitted a planter, with others, in 1680, " provided they pay the purchase for their lands, as others have done." In January, 1688-9, George exchanged lands with Matthew, the latter parting with a dwelling-house, shop, or- chard, and other edifices and lands near Newark, and receiving two tracts at the mountain, one bounded east with Wigwam brook, and the other (swamp land) with Parow's brook. The place to which he seems to have removed his residence about that time has since taken the name of Wil- liamsville, from his descendants.
By the will of Joseph Riggs, 1688, land at the mountain was given to his sons, Samuel and Zo- phar. The latter is supposed to have been the father of Joseph, who died 1744, aged 69. It em- braced probably the farm a little west of South Orange, on which an old stone house yet remains, in which Elder Joseph Riggs was born, in 1720.
By warrant of April 27, 1694, there was laid out for John Gardner, in right of Abraham Pier- son, a tract at the foot of the mountain, having Azariah Crane on the north-east, Jasper Crane on the south-west.
29
CRANETOWN.
Azariah Crane, brother of Sergeant Jasper, and son-in-law of Capt. Robert Treat, was a deacon of the Newark Church. His sons, Azariah and Na- thaniel (father of William and Noah), settled Cranetown, now West Bloomfield. At a town meeting, held January 1, 1697-8, it was “ voted that Thomas Hayse, Joseph Harrison, Jasper Crane and Matthew Canfield shall view whether Azariah Crane may have land for a tan-yard at the front of John Plum's home lot, out of the common ; and in case the men above-mentioned agree that Azariah Crane shall have the land, then he, the said Azariah Crane shall enjoy it so long as he doth follow the trade of tanning." As we learn from the Town Book that, in 1715, he and Ed- ward Ball had been settled near the mountain many years, we conjecture that the decision of the examiners in the matter of the tan-yard was against the applicant, and that it gave to Cranetown one of its first inhabitants, if it did not give to the Mountain Society one of its first deacons. Deacon Crane was by this time an old man. Whether his relations were ever transferred to the new Society, may admit of a doubt.
Nathaniel Wheeler obtained a warrant, April 10, 1696, for 100 acres at the mountain, which were surveyed in three tracts: one north of the high- way, with John Johnson north, Thomas John- son and Mr. Ward's lots west; one south of the
30
ORANGE SETTLERS.
mountain-path, with Robert Dalglesh east, Jasper Crane south, Harrison's lot west ; the third on the upper Chestnut hill, by the stone-house brook, bounded south by said brook, west by Samuel Freeman and unsurveyed land, north by Thomas Luddington; these several tracts to lie for 100 acres, because there was much barren in them. He was a son of Thomas Wheeler, of Milford, where he was married, June 21, 1665, to Esther, daughter of Henry Bochford. With his young wife, he came to Newark with the first company, signed the agreement with the Branford Company, came to the mountain, and lived just long enough to see the Mountain Society organized, and to con- vey to it "a parcel of ground for a burying-place," where he was one of the first to be interred. He died, Oct. 4, 1726, in his 87th year; his wife, March 14, 1732, at the same age.
Samuel Pierson, who was probably one of the first deacons of the church here, was born in Bran- ford, in 1664, a son of Thomas Pierson, senior, so called to distinguish him from a son of Rev. Abra- ham Pierson, His mother was Mary, daughter of Richard Harrison, Sen., of Branford. Coming to Newark, he married Mary Harrison, daughter of his uncle Richard, and sister of Joseph, Daniel, Samuel, Benjamin, George, and John Harrison, and settled probably in South Orange, where his descendants lived. He was by trade a carpenter.
31
ORANGE SETTLERS.
His children were Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, Caleb, Jemima, Mary, Hannah. In the line of Joseph were Deacons Bethuel and Joseph Pierson, of the next two generations. He (Samuel) was buried in the old church-yard of Orange, March, 1730, with an honorable memorial.
Samuel Harrison, one of the sons of Richard just mentioned, owned land at the mountain, but never resided on it. His wife was Mary, daughter of John Ward, Sen., and sister of Dorcas, his brother Joseph's wife. By his will, dated Jan. 7, 1712-13, he gave fifty acres to his son Samuel, bounded by Anthony Olive on the north, widow Abigail Ward on the south, a highway east, and the mountain west. The farm was improved by the son, whose descendants are now numerous in the township. He had another son, John, who is said to have settled in Bloomfield, and five daugh- ters, of whom Eleanor, the youngest, wife of Eben- ezer Lindsley, lived to the age of 100 years and two months. She was born about 1696.
The Lindsleys, of Orange, are descended from Francis, one of the Newark settlers. In the old colony records of New Haven, the names of Fran- cis and John Linsley, brothers, appear as early as 1644. The births of Deborah and Ruth, daugh- ters of Francis, are on record in Branford. His sons, Benjamin, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Ebenezer, (and probably a Daniel,) were born in Newark.
32
ORANGE SETTLERS.
Through Ebenezer, Benjamin, and John, we trace the line down to John M. Lindsley, the oldest liv- ing representative of the name in this locality. Ebenezer died in Orange in 1743, at the age of 78. Joseph, at Whippany, 1753, aged 77. John, (or one of that name, in whose will a brother Daniel is mentioned,) at Morristown, 1749, aged 82. Fran- cis, the ancestor, was living in Newark in 1704, when he must have been more than 80 years old. His grave is not found, and the writer is informed by Samuel H. Congar, that not one of the name has a headstone in the old burying-ground of Newark.
From Edward Ball have descended the Balls of South Orange, in the line of his son Thomas and grandson Aaron. From Caleb, another son, have sprung the Balls of Hanover. Those of East Bloomfield are from Joseph, another son. A daughter, Lydia, married Joseph Peck, ancestor of the Pecks of Orange. There were two other chil- dren,-Abigail, wife of Daniel Harrison, and Moses, who had no children.
Of the two Canfields, (or Camfields,) who were among the original settlers, Matthew died about 1673, and Ebenezer in 1694. From the latter, through his son Joseph, and his grandson Eben- ezer, who was buried in Orange at the age 73, have descended the Canfields who are now with us.
We find on a headstone in Orange, the name of
33
ORANGE SETTLERS.
" the very pious and godly Mr. Job Brown, one of the pillars of the church of Christ in this place," who was born in 1710. The man whose pious worth is thus honorably commemorated, was a great-grandson of one of the first settlers. Though he left children and grandchildren, the name (though not likely to become extinct in the world) has dis- appeared from our church list. His ancestor, John Browne, had a daughter Hannah, who married Joseph Riggs, and Elizabeth, who married Samuel Freeman. Both these names belong to our history, but we are unable to connect the latter with any of the lines that we have traced backward among the Freemans of a later day. He was doubtless an ancestor of Deacon Samuel Freeman, who was another " pillar of the church of Christ," contem- porary with " the very pious and godly Mr. Job Brown."
The Dodds, now a numerous race, are descend- ants of "Daniel Dod," (from England,) who died in Branford in 1664-5. He and his wife Mary having deceased before the emigration to New Jersey took place, and their sons being all minors, the name does not appear among the subscribers to the fundamental agreement. Of their children- four sons and two daughters-Mary was the wife of Aaron Blachthly (or Blatchly) ; Daniel had a home lot assigned him in Newark, and a farm on the hill west of the town; Ebenezer was admitted
34
DODDTOWN.
a planter (on subscribing the agreement) in 1674, and Samuel in 1679 ; Stephen settled in Guilford, Conn.
" In March, 1678, Daniel Dod and Edward Ball were appointed to run the northern line of the town from Passaic river to the mountain. About this time Daniel Dod surveyed and had located to him a tract of land on and adjoining to Watsessing plain [now Bloomfield], and bounded on the west and south by unlocated lands. A considerable portion of this land is yet in the possession of his descendants. He was chosen a deputy to the Pro- vincial Assembly in 1692, being then 42 years of age."* On this land his sons Daniel, Stephen, and John, and his daughter Dorcas, settled,-John building on the site occupied by the late David Dodd (and now by Josiah F.) in Doddtown. In the numerous family of the third Daniel was our elder and deacon, Isaac Dodd, whose name will appear at a later period.
Among the early accessions to the Newark col- ony were John and Deborah Cundit, or Condit. Their son Peter married Mary, daughter of Sam- uel Harrison, Sen., and was the father of Samuel, Peter, John, Nathaniel, Philip, Isaac and Mary. His place of residence is not known, but his son John was probably the John Cundit mentioned in
* Records of Daniel Dod and his descendants, by Rev. Stephen Dodd. The original orthography was Dod.
35
1705612
ORANGE SETTLERS.
1739, in connection with John Ward, to whom the court gave license to keep public-houses at the mountain. The Cundit House, kept at a more re- cent period by Isaac A. Smith, is identified in locality with the " Orange Hotel," now kept by T. A. Reeve. The name belongs to every period of our church and township.
David Ogden came to Newark from Elizabeth- town about 1677. John Ogden-probably his son- married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Wheeler, and their children were Hannah, Phebe, Jemima, Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Isaac.
Joseph Peck appears in 1699. In 1719 he was one of a commission, including Deacon Azariah Crane, Joseph and Moses Ball, Joseph Baldwin, and four others, appointed on the part of Newark to meet the commisioners of Ackquackonong for the purpose of renewing a boundary line. Joseph Peck, Jr., born 1702, became an elder and deacon of the Orange church. His son John, who held the same offices, was father of Mr. John Peck, one of the oldest living inhabitants of Pecktown, (East Orange,) which has taken its name from the family.
Besides these, among the first or second generation of settlers, we find the names Tichenor, Tompkins,*
* Michael Tompkins is supposed by S. H. Congar to have been the man who concealed the regicide judges in Milford, viz .: Goffe, Whalley, and Dixwell, concerned in the condemnation of King Charles I. See the account in Stearns' Hist., p. 35, note.
36
MEN OF MARK.
Kitchell, Lamson, Nutman, and others, now found in Orange. The Munns and Smiths have come in somewhat later. The Camps, of Camptown, lie within or near the ancient limits of our parish, but the name is not a frequent or prominent one upon any of its records that now exist.
These men had little thought that a historic in- terest could ever attach to them. Reared among the peasantry of England, or in the American wilderness before the schoolmaster was abroad, they had simply the knowledge that is unto salva- tion, and the ambition to live as members of a godly community. Some of them could not write their names. Thus, in signing the fundamental agreements, Thomas Lyon made his L mark, and John Brooks his B mark, and Robert Lymens his V mark, and Francis Linle his F mark, and Robert Denison his R mark. Yet did these same illiterate men make their mark also upon the institutions of New Jersey, impressing upon them a character they were never to lose. And they were the stock whence others have sprung, who have adorned the highest stations. They brought with them the energy of the Anglo-Saxon, and the somewhat rigorous yet vigorous and stable religious princi- ples of the Puritan. Entering the forest with bold hearts, they placed the rude cabin by the side of the wigwam, and made the woods vocal at once with praise to God and with the sounds of civilized
37
INDIANS PEACEABLE.
industry. While the institutions of Penn were spreading and taking form in the bordering prov- ince, and those of English Episcopacy in Vir- ginia ; while Eliot, " the morning star of missionary enterprise,"* was giving the Bible to the Mas- sachusetts Indians; while the Pokanokets, under King Philip, were spreading terror through settle- ments around which they hung " like the lightning on the edge of the clouds ;"} while Cotton Mather, with a cruel zeal for the Lord, was exterminating witchcraft from his parish at Salem; the Newark colonists, intermingling with the peaceful Hackin- sacks, whose rights they treated with justice and respect, were quietly engaged in felling the forest, breaking up the generous soil, building mills, dig- ging mines, exterminating the bear and the wolf; or, as often as the Sabbath came, assembling de- voutly at the beat of the drum in their rude but honored sanctuary.
To the peaceable temper of the Indians we have this testimony from the Council of Proprietors at a later period : "We are well assured that, since the first settlement of New Jersey, there is not one instance can be assigned of any breach of peace with the Indians thereof (though very few of the other provinces can say so as to their Indians) ; nor that any proprietor ever presumed to dispos- sess one of them, or disturb him in his possession ;
* Bancroft. 3
t. Washington Irving.
38
BEARS AND WOLVES.
but have always amicably paid them for their claims, from time to time, as they could agree with them ; nor was the Crown, nor the Legislature of the province of New Jersey, now for fourscore years past, since the settlement of this province, ever put to one penny of charge or expense for keeping the Indians thereof in peace, in bounties, presents, or otherwise; which is well known to be far otherwise in other provinces, and may, and probably will soon be, otherwise here, if some late tamperings with the Indians thereof be neglected and passed over with impunity."*
The bears and wolves, especially the latter, in the township of Newark, were more troublesome. From their ramparts in the mountains they would listen to no terms of negotiation. A peace with them had to be conquered by stratagem or prowess. And many a bounty, as tempting to the poor colo- nist as the excitement of the hunt, had to be offered. Repeatedly, for a considerable period, we meet with such votes as the following, in the min- utes of the town meeting: "September 6, 1698. It is agreed upon by vote, for the encouragement of those that will kill wolves, that they shall have twenty shillings per head allowed them in a town rate for this year." Four years later, the bounty offered was twelve shillings. This for a full-grown
* Publication of 25th March, 1746
59
BOUNTIES.
wolf; for a bear cub, five shillings. But the beast must be caught and killed within the limits of the town to secure the bounty. Sergeant Riggs, who had charge of a wolf-pit, seems to have directed his soldierly art and courage to this species of war- fare, as the mighty Nimrod did long before him. The wolf, being captured, was taken to a magis- trate, who took his ears to witness to the transac- tion, and gave to the captor, in return, a receipt that passed for the value of the specified bounty with the tax-collector. The town had one expedient for the relief of such as were out of purse, which Governor Carteret had not, perhaps, thought of, when he answered the objections originally made to the halfpenny quit-rent by saying : " As for the purchasers being out of purse, I cannot help them therein."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.