USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 25
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The Battalion of the West took charge of the monitor "Montauk" at League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, on May 4th. The detachment consisted of seven line officers, two engineer officers, five chief petty offi- cers, twenty-six seamen, sixteen firemen and coal passers and seven mess-
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men and cooks, all under command of Lieutenant Commander Harry R. Colien. The "Montauk" sailed from Philadelphia Navy Yard on May 7th, and anchored under stress of weather that evening inside the Dela- ware Breakwater. May 9th she proceeded on her way, heading for Mon- tauk Point, and anchored in Virginia Haven, Martha's Vineyard, on ac- count of the heavy fog. She proceeded thence to Portland, Maine, where she arrived May IIth. Several officers and men of this detachment re- mained on the "Montauk" at Portland harbor during the war; the re- mainder of the officers and men were discharged, and on their way to New Jersey enrolled themselves for service on the U. S. Ship "Resolute." May 13th the Battalion of the West proceeded to the Navy Yard, New York, to report on board the U. S. Ship "Resolute." May 24th the "Reso- lute" proceeded to Newport, Rhode Island, and loaded up with dynamite, mines and gunpowder for the fleet off Santiago de Cuba. The vessel joined the rendezvous, reported to Admiral Sampson off Santiago, and immediately began to carry orders for the bombardment of the forts at the entrance to the harbor. The "Resolute" was then sent to Guantanamo Bay, which was the base of supplies, and until June Ioth was constantly employed in delivering mines and ammunition between Guantanamo and Santiago. She made one trip to Tampa, Florida, July 10th, for coal, and on July 2d was again with the fleet before Santiago.
The Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera came out of the harbor that morning, and, engaging the American fleet, steamed to the westward. The "Resolute" was at that time about one and one-half miles out from Morro Castle and a little to the eastward. The first shot fired by the Spanish fleet struck about twenty-five yards on the starboard quarter of the "Resolute," which vessel, pursuant to orders, immediately steamed away to notify Admiral Sampson, on the U. S. Ship "New York." Another shot followed immediately under the stern of the vessel. On reporting to Admiral Sampson he ordered the "Resolute" to proceed to Guantanamo Bay and to notify the U. S. Ships "Massachusetts," "Marblehead" and "Newark" to proceed to the scene of conflict. She notified the U. S. Ship "Harvard" and the transports under her convoy, which immediately put to sea, and then notified the U. S. Ships "Indiana" and "Iowa." The "Resolute" was fired upon by the Socapa Battery at the western entrance of Santiago harbor, one shot passing between the foremast and the smoke- stack, and the other just over the two forward guns. After this en- counter, the vessel steamed westward and saw the complete destruction of the enemy, arriving at the scene of surrender of the "Cristobal Colon" be- fore she struck her flag. The "Resolute" received the prisoners from the "Colon," nineteen officers and four hundred and ninety-five men, and un-
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der instructions proceeded to Guantanamo Bay, transferring a portion of the prisoners to the U. S. Ship "St. Paul," and the remainder to the U. S. Ship "Harvard." Having transferred all the ammunition and mines on board the vessel to the U. S. Ship "Vulcan," she proceeded north, and July 15th, arrived off Tompkinsville, Staten Island. At this point she took on stores for the sick and wounded at Santiago and nurses for yellow fever sufferers, and on July 19th left for Santiago.
August 12th the "Resolute" was sent to bombard Manzanillo. The bombardment was opened by the U. S. Ship "Newark," but on the morn- ing of the 13th intelligence was received that the protocol of peace had been signed. Another trip was made north from Guantanamo Bay with the U. S. Marine Battalion, and the vessel was then refitted at the Navy Yard for the United States Evacuation Committee, which it conveyed to Havana and thence to Nuevitas. Yellow fever broke out at this place, and one officer, Lieutenant Frederick H. Pullen, died of fever. The vessel was thoroughly disinfected and proceeded under orders to Quaran- tine Station, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, and October 25th the Battalion of the West was discharged.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COUNTIES OF THE COAST.
In this chapter we are to deal with the counties of the coast. Their principal cities and towns, as well as those known as sea-coast resorts, are reserved for mention elsewhere.
The counties which may be included in the term "on the Jersey coast" are Union, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland. The claim of the latter named county, as its coast line is altogether on Delaware Bay, might not be allowed in a strict interpreta- tion, but is to be considered out of its relationship to the others.
The great stretch of Jersey territory facing on "the everlasting sea," buffeted, twisted, gnarled at for at least six months in each year by storms of all degrees, a coast line which is famous among seamen for its treachery, and which in summer presents one long line of white, glistening sand, has possibly, within the past forty years, had a more wonderful story of improvement than any similar length of water front in the United States. In 1850, roughly speaking, the entire region was a waste- solitary, solemn, yet grand even in its solitude. In places a little way back from the coast, dense masses of brush bade defiance to wind and weather, and defied the elements by the luxuriance and density of their growth, and won even a beauty of their own by the loveliness of the wild flower which somehow shot up in their midst and imparted a warmth of color which gave a charm even to the wildest bush forest-forest which had flourished and withered and flourished again from the most remote times, and attracted the attention of the first white wanderers who landed on the coast and left behind stories, of what they saw. They were full of wild game, too, until the advent of the white man, and even long after, for the Indian, while a "mighty hunter," was innocent of gunpowder, and in a perpetual contest with bows and arrows, and even primitive snares, the game had a chance. Here and there, too, there rose real forests still further back from the coast-forests of pine, hemlock, spruce, cedar, main- ly, with here and there a veteran which had stood defiantly the storms of a hundred years, and a worthy descendant of that dense forest which
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some assert covered the entire face of the country in times earlier than even tradition tells of ; a time that antedated the presence of the red man, and when the inhabitants-if there were any, as it seems there must have been according to ethnological report-belonged to a race which has long disappeared and been forgotten.
Still further back from the coast rise here and there glimpses of hills, but these as a general rule are of little account in any study of the coast, and, even where they are visible to the passing mariner, simply form a background for a picture which in summer is one continuous long line of beauty, and in winter an apparently hopeless scene of woe and desola- tion. Yet we are told that even in midwinter those who dwell along this coast find much to admire in the way of natural and scenic beauty, and that the sea tempers the wind and softens the cold. Still, at times, the elements break loose and work their will without giving much heed to the precautions of human skill. A storm which can lift an iron pier as easily as though it were a childish toy, which can sweep away a hundred feet of solid embankment "warranted storm proof," which can take up fifty feet of roadway at one swoop and cast it into the sea, is not likely to stand on ceremony with anything that opposes its progress.
The Jersey coast runs on the Atlantic seaboard from Perth Amboy to Cape May, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles, and about forty miles on the Delaware. Until the middle of the past century it was dotted with villages, a very few with manufacturing interests, but all more or less depending upon the sea. The soil, a rich sandy loam in places, was eminently suitable for agriculture and gardening, and a suc- cession of thrifty farms, generally small holdings, formed an almost con- tinuous line a little way back from the actual sandy bar-although that bar was itself a mile wide in places. But the main reliance of the people on the ocean and gulf fronts was the "harvest of the sea." Its oyster interest alone supported a large population, and the coasting trade was an exceedingly important one. But, in spite of their industry and thrift, the people moved along in primitive lines, and experienced many hard- ships-hardships which came from poverty-and each winter had many a dreary story to tell. The coast was also famous for its game, and many an enthusiastic city sportsman wended his way to points remote from "the haunts of men," but such visitors added little, if anything, to the local wealth. The era of fashionable sporting life and of huge individual for- tunes had not arrived, and the city sport was content to share in the shelter of the fisherman's hut, and cooked and ate the product of his skill.
New Jersey became a State on July 2d, 1776, by adopting a constitu- tion which altered but little the form of colonial government, and contained
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a provision that the document should not be operative after a possible reconciliation between England and New Jersey. Its counties then in existence were Essex, Monmouth, Bergen, Middlesex, Somerset, Cape May, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Morris and Cumberland.
Middlesex, the oldest of all the coast political divisions, was created under the Proprietors in 1682. This really presents but a very small front on the Atlantic, and hence needs little attention in this narrative. An incident of its history was its reduction, in 1688, by the territory which was made Somerset County. The preamble to the act is interesting as showing the reason :
"Forasmuch as the uppermost part of the Raritan river is settled by persons whom, in the husbandry and manuring their land, forced upon quite different ways and methods from other farmers and inhabitants of Middlesex, because of the frequent floods that carry away the fences on the meadows, the only arable land they have, and so by consequence of their interest is divided from the other inhabitants of said county; be it therefore enacted," etc.
Its bounds have been altered at different times, and the present area is about twenty-five miles long, with an average width of fifteen miles. The surface is diversified-the central and southeastern portion fairly level, the southern and southwestern hilly, and the northeastern quite mountainous. The soil of the hills is mostly clay loam, the plain is sandy loam and the mountain valleys are limestone. In 1810 the county had a population of 20,381 ; in 1830, 23,157; in 1890, 61,754; and in 1900, 79,762 ; so that its progress in that respect cannot be regarded as wonder- ful as such increases go. New Brunswick is the county seat.
The political history of Middlesex County is closely related to that of Perth Amboy, which was laid out in 1683 by Samuel Groome, one of the then proprietors. In 1684 the boundaries of the town were extended by Gawen Laurie, the deputy governor, who, from a close examination of the site and surroundings seems to have concluded that it was destined to become the mercantile depot of the new world, the seat of commerce and in time a mighty city. So it would undoubtedly have become had appearances on the surface controlled its destiny, but they did not; they seldom do so in fact. The laws of trade work out their own solution, seemingly independently of the notions of man. On the surface it cer- tainly seemed as though this little town offered a better chance for the movements of commerce than did New York itself, an island and situated further from the open sea. But, somehow, New York secured the trade,
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the traffic of the continent poured into it, and to its piers the navies of the world pushed their way, passing Gawen Laurie's harbor without so much as giving it a thought. Laurie, however, was hopeful of the future. He had named the new town Perth, in honor of the leader of the Pro- prietors, James Drummond, the fourth Earl of Perth. As the town still bears his title it may not be out of place to recall here a little of his per- sonal history. His life reads like a romance ; but to him the romance had. a good deal of stern tragedy in it.
He was born in 1648, was educated at St. Andrew's University, and succeeded his father in the earldom on the latter's death in 1675. When James II became King, Lord Perth announced that he had become a Roman Catholic, and he won a high place in that sovereign's regard. For a few years he was virtually ruler of Scotland, being not only Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom, but the holder of other executive offices. In Scotland, however, he was decidedly unpopular, on account of his cruel persecution of those who professed Presbyterianism. So when King James was forced to fly from his ancestral kingdom, the mob in Edinburgh rose in their might to retaliate on Perth for the cruelties he had inflicted, and to escape their wrath he was compelled, like his royal master, to fly. The mob, however, plundered his house. Perth tried to reach France, but was captured by some of King William's troops and taken to Sterling Castle, where he was confined as a close prisoner for some four years. On his release, in 1693, he went to France, formed the mimic court which James II maintained there, and received the barren honor of being made a Duke -Duke of Perth. The remainder of his life was passed in exile.
Laurie not only staked out the lots in the new town of Perth-its full title then-but he built several houses, and the Proprietors were so pleased with the outlook that they instructed him to make it the seat of government and to arrange for its incorporation into a city. It seems to have been so incorporated, but its municipal life did not really begin until the charter of 1718 was granted, and then was adopted the seal which has been used to the present day. This bears, dexter, a hunting horn, and above it the legend "Arte non Impetu;" and, sinister, a ship at anchor in harbor, and beneath it the legend "Portus Optimus." Enclosing these designs is the legend, "Sigilium Civitatis, Perth Amboyen Sis."
In 1747 the people sought to have the town made the residential seat of Governor Belcher, but he preferred Elizabeth Town, as did not, how- ever, his successors, who made Perth Amboy their seat.,
The first County Court of Middlesex County was held at Piscataway, June 19, 1683, with Samuel Dennis as President or Judge. The second court was held in Woodbridge, September 18, 1683, and the records show
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that courts were alternately held in these two places until June 28, 1688, when the first session in Perth Amboy was held. Thereafter, and until 1699, the courts alternated between all the three villages named.
The last session of the old County Court was held in September, 1699, at Perth Amboy. In 1703 Lewis Morris and others were consti- tuted "Her Majesty Queen Anne's Justices," under a commission issued by Lord Cornbury.
The "town house" in Perth Amboy, built in 1685, was replaced in 1713 by a court house, which was also used for the sittings of the Gen- eral Assembly. This building was destroyed by fire about 1765, and was rebuilt. In January, 1778, New Brunswick became the county seat.
Union County can scarcely be called one of the coast divisions of New Jersey, but, as it contains quite an extended water front and has more than one port of entry, it seems hardly fair to ignore it altogether. Its three principal cities are advancing rapidly in wealth and population, Elizabeth having in the census of 1900 credit for 52,130, Plainfield for 15,369 and Rahway for 7,935, and besides, it is impossible to write much of the history of the State without bringing in this old county, for it was, especially in the early days, the scene where most of the real history of the State (outside of mere colony planting ) was transacted.
Our interest, so far as the county is concerned, mainly centers in Elizabethtown and the villages on the Kill Von Kull. Sir Richard Nicolls had hardly done much more than consolidate his power on Manhattan and Long Island before he received a petition from residents at Jamaica asking permission to found a fresh colony in some other part of "his majesty's dominions," to which he at once agreed, promising to give "the undertakers all due encouragement in so good a work." So the signers of the petition crossed over to Staten Island and bought from the Indian Sachem there for two coats, two kettles, twenty fathom of trading cloth, two guns, twenty handfuls of powder and a few other things, a tract of land which, according to the deed, covered all the territory between the Hudson and the Delaware rivers in a general way, and more particularly the Achter Kol, or Newark Bay, and its southern estuary. The deed was dated October 28, 1664, and on December Ist following the Governor ap- proved it and the transaction was legally complete.
The new colony grew slowly. In August, 1665, there were only four families. On this point, however, there is much room for argument. The tract which passed into the hands of the original patentees was so large that the newcomers spread over it as their fancy dictated. Gov- ernor Nicolls, however, had issued a formal patent for the new township
.
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or colony, and while it was not so generous in its details as that secured from the unsophisticated Indians, it was extensive enough for all prac- tical purposes. It embraced over five hundred thousand acres, and in- cluded the whole of the present Union and parts of Morris and Somerset Counties.
In 1665, when the good ship "Philip" arrived in New Port harbor, bearing Philip Carteret and a party of thirty sailors from Old England, together with a copy of a patent showing that the region between the Hudson and the Delaware (to be henceforth known as Nova Cæsarea, or New Jersey) had been sold by the Duke of York to parties represented by Carteret, and that the Duke's servant, Governor Nicolls, had no longer any authority in that part of "his majesty's dominions." there was a flurry of trouble. Nicolls was inclined to be defiant at first, but yielded to the inevitable, and Captain Carteret settled upon the ground to which Gov- ernor Nicolls had given a patent, and gave to the territory the name of Elizabeth Town. He acknowledged the validity of the Nicolls patent, and confirmed it, in fact. In 1666 he laid off from the township, by a fresh grant, the ground on which the city of Newark stands and the townships of Woodbridge and Piscataway. He, however, exerted himself to develop Elizabeth Town, fixed upon it as the seat of government of the territory, and there the first General Assembly of New Jersey met, May 26th, 1668. It was a small gathering, but it aroused apparently as much excitement as could one of ten times its size. The Legislature did not continue to meet regularly in Elizabeth Town. It migrated between it and Perth Amboy and Burlington, until it became finally established at Trenton, but most of the public offices of the province were at Elizabeth (it was the provincial capital for twenty-one years) and for a long time it was the largest and most important town in New Jersey.
But even with all its attractions it filled out slowly. Gawen Laurie, writing in 1684, said, "Here wants nothing but people. There is not a poor body in the province or one that wants. Here is abundance of pro- visions-pork and beef at two pence per pound; fish and fowl plenty ; oysters, I think, would serve all England; Indian meal two shillings and sixpence per bushel-it is exceeding good for food every way, and two or three hundred fold increase; cyder, good and plenty for one penny per quart; good drink that is made of water and molasses stands about two shillings per barrel-wholesome like our eight-shilling beer in England; good venison plenty, bought in at eighteen pence per quarter ; eggs at three pence per dozen ; all things very plenty ; land as good as ever I saw, vines, walnuts, peaches, strawberries and many other things in plenty in the woods."
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Surely a land equivalent to the old Biblical encomium of "flowing with milk and honey."
It was not until 1693 that the township was fully organized, and in 1740 it became a borough. In the war of the Revolution it played, as we have seen in the section of this work dealing with that grand story, a. prominent part. Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, belonged to an Elizabeth family, and was born within a. few miles of the town, midway between it and Rahway ; and General Elias. Dayton, one of the military heroes of the war, was born in the good old town. When all was over, and liberty emerged triumphant from the strug- gle, Elizabeth Town was about depopulated, but she soon rallied, and when Washington made his memorable journey across New Jersey on his way to New York to be inaugurated as first President of the United States. he was nowhere more enthusiastically received than in this place, itself so full of memories of the war.
After the war there is little in the way of historic interest to detain, us in Elizabeth Town. It slowly became quite a manufacturing centre, adopted all modern improvements in the way of gas and water, education and municipal amenities from time to time, and, as it kept up frequent and rapid connection with New York, it became the home of quite a nuni- ber of wealthy business men from the great city. The port trade slowly increased, and when it was connected by railroad with the remainder of the country, large quantities of coal and iron were shipped from it.
Elizabeth, however, grew too ambitious, and as a result, in the late '70s, it became involved in financial troubles on account of adopting im- provements in excess of the ability of its revenue to bear. It has since managed slowly to emerge from that disheartening condition of confusion, and seems again fairly started on successful lines, and in spite of its draw- backs has proven attractive to manufacturers and home makers.
Monmouth, magnificent in its scenery, prolific in its soil, rich in its colonial and revolutionary history, is one of the most famous counties in the State, occupying a position pre-eminently its own, and in which it is without a rival.
The most northern of the seacoast counties, it has a double ocean water frontage. Including its peninsular projection terminating in the point world-famous as Sandy Hook, its northern shores, approximately twenty miles, are washed by the waters of the beautiful Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay, while its eastern shore, somewhat longer, stretches southward along the Atlantic, indented at frequent intervals by ocean in- lets or by the bay-like mouths of inland streams.
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The most important watercourses are Navesink (or North Shrews- bury) River, and the South . Shrewsbury River, both tidewater streams. The Navesink has its origin in numerous small streams in the central and northwestern part of the county, several of these uniting to form Swim- ming River (really the main part of the Navesink), which, at the point where it loses its identity, broadens out into a lake-like expanse bounded on the northeast by the shores pointed by the historic Highlands, and past which it flows to reach Sandy Hook Bay. The Shrewsbury River (more properly the South Shrewsbury) is formed by some small streams flowing into it from the west and south. The stream itself, with an average width of about one and one-half miles, flows almost northerly for a distance of six miles until it unites with the Navesink. It is about this region, pe- culiarly picturesque, that romance has worked out, upon threads of history and tradition, some of the most entrancing stories of love and adventure.
Three-fourths of the way southward from Sandy Hook, Shark River reaches the ocean. The river itself, an inconsequential stream, is in its lower part practically a narrow ocean inlet which three miles inland ex- pands into what is known as Shark River Pond, a lake-like sheet of mingled ocean and fresh water more than a mile in width at its broadest point.
The Manasquan River, which reaches the ocean at the southeast cor- ner of Monmouth county, forming a portion of its southern boundary, comes from far inland and receives many small affluents. Paralleling the upper part of its main stream are numerous watercourses, and, these, soon deflecting southward, reach the north branch of the Metedeconk River, which enters the sea in Ocean County.
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