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 53
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 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Ludlam's Beach lighthouse is situated at Sea Isle City, about twenty nautical miles southwest of Absecon lighthouse and was erected in 1885. The lantern has an elevation of thirty-six feet above sea level, and gives a white light of the fourth order, flashing every quarter minute, visible from a distance of eleven and one-quarter nautical miles.
Hereford Inlet lighthouse, established in 1874. is situated on the north- ern extremity of Five-mile Beach, and is ten and three-quarters nautical iniles north of Cape May lighthouse. The height of the tower is forty- nine and one-half feet, and the elevation of the lantern is fifty-seven feet above sea level. The light is a fixed red, of the fourth order, and is visible from a distance of thirteen nautical miles.
The Cape May lighthouse is situated on the northeastern side of the entrance to Delaware Bay. It was established in 1823, the next lighthouse erected on the New Jersey coast after that at Sandy Hook, and it was rebuilt in 1859. The height of the tower is one hundred and forty-five feet, and the elevation of the light is one hundred and fifty-two feet above sea level. Its leris is of the first order, giving white flash-light at inter-
494
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
vals of thirty seconds, visible from a distance of eighteeen nautical miles.
Guiding the way of the mariner to Delaware Bay is the Five Fathom lightship, located near the shoal known as the Five-fathom Bank, seventeen and three-quarter miles from Cape May lighthouse. The vessel was first moored here in 1839, and she was refitted in 1855. She bears two white lights, one on each side of her masts, at heights of forty and forty-five feet, respectively, which are visible from a distance of eleven nautical miles. She is also provided with a twelve-inch steam fog syren, giving a blast of four seconds during each half minute.
And so these sentinels of the sea stand, silent, yet impressive and com- manding, ever pointing the way to the safe and quiet harbor. Among all the hosts who are called to the service of the government in its various de- partments, perhaps none is charged with duties of such moment, and of such universal usefulness, as is the lighthouse keeper. The soldier and the states -? man protect the national honor and the person and property of the citizen, and their acts are performed in the gaze of the world. But the quiet man who trims and lights the shore and harbor lights, and watches them through the long night watches lest they fade out, stands his vigils for all humanity, asking no questions as to the nationality or purpose of him whom he directs to safety. Nor is there, in all the annals of the service, an instance where he has failed in his duty. On the contrary, on many occasions, he has faith- fully performed his tasks when his life was going out in the effort, and dying at his post at the very moment when came the relief which was too late to be of avail.
1
CHAPTER XX.
A CHAPTER OF LITERARY HISTORY.
Until well toward the beginning of the Revolutionary war, American literature-or what then passed for such-was in greater measure con- fined to Massachusetts, and the men of letters in the colony affected little else than dogmatic disquisitions upon theological and metaphysical topics. Somewhat later newspapers appeared in Philadelphia and New York. They were noticeable for their paucity of what is now considered news, that is to say, intelligence of current events, their columns being devoted to dreary essays upon abstruse or unimportant subjects, apparently written for the purpose of exploiting the classical knowledge of the author.
The practical Jersey character afforded no encouragement to such writers, nor do such seem to have presented themselves. But, hitherto laggard in literary affairs, that character was profoundly affected by the mental stimulation which marked the controversial period preceding the actual struggle between the mother country and the colonies, and hence- forth the Jerseys were to be a fertile field for essayists and pamphleteers, who exerted a potent influence during the Revolutionary war and in the following formative days of the new government. The most remarkable scholarly essayist of the war time was John Witherspoon, a noted divine, president of the College of New Jersey, a member of the State constitu- tional convention and of the continental congress. His brilliant erudition was displayed in numerous newspapers and pamphlet publications in the discussion of religious and political topics, and he was eloquent in the pulpit and upon the rostrum. He made his college a nursery of patriotisni -a hotbed of rebellion, the tories called it-and his voice was an inspira- tion in the councils of the new nation.
An essayist and poet, Francis Hopkinson was one of the graces of his time. One of the first graduates of the University of Pennsylvania and a ripe scholar, he became one of the foremost lawyers. He entered upon political life under the patronage of Lord North, and turned aside from what would appear a pathway to high preferment under the crown, to
496
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
cast his lot with his liberty seeking countrymen. He was favored in social position through his marriage with Ann Borden, a descendant of Joseph Borden, the founder of the town of Bordentown, New Jersey. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and after- ward was an associate supreme court justice of New Jersey. In 1775 ap- peared "The First Book of the American Chronicles," which, affecting the quaint style of the Chronicles of scripture, dealt with the condition and grievances of the colonies. This was attributed to his pen, but he never avowed its authorship. In the previous year, during the session of Con- gress, was printed in pamphlet form "A/ Pretty Story," a lightly veiled and somewhat humorous narrative of the differences between Great Britain and its rebel colonies, which was undoubtedly his production and is pre- sumably the first work of fiction written and printed in the region. A recent bibliographer says of this that he has been able to trace but one copy. In "A Pretty Story," England is represented as a nobleman pos- sessed of a valuable farm, and as the parent of a number of children for government over whom he had entered into various compacts. The for- tunes of the American colonists under these arrangements are vividly portrayed. Hopkinson's pen was active during the entire war period. Among his stirring political tracts were "A Letter to Lord Howe," "A Political Catechism," which served as a sequel to his "Pretty Story," and "Beasts and the Bats," and several of these were caustic satires upon the home tories. He was less industrious as a versifier, and while his verse was of less literary merit than his prose, it was remarkably pointed and became widely popular. His "Camp Ballad," containing the stanza
"On heaven and Washington placing reliance, We'll meet the bold Briton and bid him defiance ; Our cause we'll support, for 'tis just and 'tis glorious ; When men fight for freedom they must be victorious"-
was in rhythm and sentiment alike to the "Star Spangled Banner" of later days and was sung in every patriotic camp.
Hopkinson's "Battle of the Kegs" is now his most widely known piece of verse, and has been recited by schoolboys in every generation from the day it was written. This was founded upon the incident of the powder- filled kegs which were set afloat in the Delaware river, occasioning great consternation among the British vessels at Philadelphia. Not far from a century later the stanzas were parodied by a writer who witnessed, during the Civil war, a mock Union gunboat run past the rebel batteries at Vicks- burg, creating such dismay that the enemy blew up their best iron-clad. fearing its capture.
497
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
While Thomas Paine does not figure as a local literateur, much of his most effective political writing was performed within the State, and is to a degree illustrative of conditions therein and of the sentiments of its people. He participated in Washington's campaign in the Jerseys, and he was at Perth Amboy, Bergen and Fort Lee. He was in Newark when he began writing the first of the sixteen numbers of "The Crisis," upon which he worked at every bivouac and camping ground, and which he pre- sumably completed while in Trenton. These papers are not only remarkable for their stanch and inspiring patriotic fervor and appeal, but for the light they throw upon the miserable condition of the patriot army, but half- clad, poorly provisioned, without medicine chests, paid in a currency which would purchase little if anything for the subsistence of the soldiers' fam- ilies, and hinting at the indignities to which many of those families were subjected by hireling soldiers and tory marauders in the absence of their natural protectors. It is pitiful to reflect that the gifted author, who ad- vantaged the cause of liberty far more than did some of high rank wearing a sword, passed the evening of his life in poverty and hopelessness, neg- lected by the nation he had served so well, and that his memory is more generally held in execration because of his "Age of Reason" than in honor and gratitude for his "Common Sense" and "Crisis." Even the plea made for him by Washington liimself -- "Can nothing be done for poor Paine? Must the merits and services of 'Common Sense' be unrewarded by this country ?"-made by letter to Madison, went disregarded. True, he blackened his own memory by his personal excesses, but such faults have been frequently condoned in soldier, statesman or author who has borne a useful part in less momentous scenes than those in which poor Paine figured.
The Revolutionary period presented no more interesting literary celeb- rity than Philip Freneau, whose name has been given to a pleasant little hamlet in Monmouth county, and whose memory is treasured as one who- was "the popular poet of the days of the Revolution; who cheered the hearts of the people by his rhymes in behalf of the good cause and in oppo- sition to its foes while patriots were struggling for independence," whose patriotic verse was perhaps more directly effective than were the tracts of Thomas Paine.
He was born January 2, 1752, in New York City, where, in Trinity churchyard, repose the remains of his father and grandfather, the latter a French Huguenot. He was of scholarly disposition, and after completing a four years' course in Princeton College, he was honorably graduated when nineteen years of age, in class companionship with James Madison and others who became illustrious in public life and letters. He displayed
32
498
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
proficiency in verse at the early age of seventeen years, when he wrote "The Poetical History of the Prophet Jonah," and during his student days he produced many compositions in varied metrical form on classical and historical themes. At his graduation from college, he and a classmate, Hugh H. Brackenridge, who was afterward a noted jurist and author, re- cited together "A Poem on the Rising Glory of America," in blank verse, which they had written jointly, and Freneau's stanzas appear on the first pages of the edition of his poems published in 1865.
In 1775 Freneau contributed patriotic verse to various journals. In the following year he made a voyage to the West Indies, and during this time he wrote some of his most masterly poems, among them "The House of Night," and "Beauties of Vera Cruz." In 1779 he became a leading writer on the "United States Magazine," of which Mr. Brackenridge, his close friend and former college classmate, was editor. The following year he undertook another voyage, but the vessel in which he sailed was cap- tured by a British cruiser, and he was confined for a time on a prison hulk in New York harbor. His experiences while so restricted of his liberty were afterward narrated in one of his most effective poems, "The British Prison-ship." He subsequently became an industrious contributor to the "Freeman's Journal," published in Philadelphia, his verse being principally upon patriotic themes, and during the same period he made an interesting addition to Revolutionary war literature in his translation from the French of the "Travels of M. Abbe Robin," who, as chaplain to Count Rocham- beau, had accompanied the French allies from Newport to Yorktown.
In 1786 the first collection of Freneau's poems, written chiefly during the Revolutionary war times, was published in Philadelphia, and the little volume was so favorably received that in 1788 a second volume came from the press under the title of "The Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Philip Fre- neau, Containing his Essays and Additional Poems." This work, follow- ing the custom then existing, was published by subscription, and among the patrons were DeWitt Clinton, Edward Livingston and other distin- guished men.
In 1791 Freneau was called to the editorial chair of the "New York Daily Advertiser," but soon resigned to take charge of the Philadelphia "National Gazette," at the same time occupying the position of translat- ing clerk under Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State of the recently formed government. His sympathies being with the French revolution- ists, he became an active supporter of Genet, the Minister from France who endeavored to entangle the United States in the foreign complications then at their height. This led to his turning his pen against Washington,
499
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
whom he had warinly championed, and his journal soon passed out of existence.
Soon afterward Freneau took up his residence in Mount Pleasant, in Monmouth county, on an estate derived from his father, and there he passed the greater part of the remainder of his life. At his coming he was not forty-five years of age, and his mental powers had not reached the zenith. He printed a prospectus, July 4, 1794, in which he proposed the establish- ment of a newspaper to be called "The Monmouth Gazette and East Jersey intelligencer," provided five hundred subscribers could be obtained, but it does not appear that his plans were carried to fulfillment. However, May 2, 1795, he issued the initial number of "The New Jersey Chronicle." at Mount Pleasant, and this was the first newspaper printed in Monmouth county. It was certainly a curiosity of typography, eight pages of seven by eight inches, printed by Freneau himself from an odd assortment of various sizes of type. In the same year he printed in the same office a volume of "Poems written between the years 1768 and 1794, by Philip Freneau, of New Jersey." It was a really handsome specimen of typography, and is much in demand by bibliographers. About 1885 a copy was advertised for sale by a bookseller in London, Engand, the price being given at three pounds and ten shillings, and about the same time a collector in Washington placed a value of thirty-five dollars upon a copy.
At the expiration of the first year the newspaper was discontinued on account of lack of patronage. In 1797 Freneau edited and assisted in the printing of "The Time-Piece and Literary Companion," a periodical of miscellaneous literature printed in New York City, three times a week. In 1799 he produced from a Philadelphia press a small volume, "Letters on Various Subjects, etc.," under the pen name of "Robert Slender, O. S. M." In 1809 he published at Philadelphia in his next volumes his fourth col- lection, "Poems Published During the American Revolution." The list of subscribers to this work is headed with the names of James Madison, who was then President, and Thomas Jefferson, who had but just retired from the presidency. The names of the following named residents of Monmouth county also appeared on the subscription list: Monmouth, Hon. James Cox; Freehold, jolin Quay and David Cook; Middletown, Jehu Patterson, Captain Hendrick Hendrickson, James Mott, Colonel Garrett Stillwell, Captain Isaac VanDorn, Captain Denise Hendrickson and Brigadier-General Richard Poole; Middletown Point, Cornelius P. Vanderhoof, Dr. William Reynolds, Captain John Hall; near Middletown Point, John Van Pelt, Peter Johnson, William Walton; Allentown, Rich- ard Stout.
In 1815 Freneau published in New York two small volumes entitled
500
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
"A Collection of Poems on American Affairs and a Variety of Other Sub- jects, etc," and in various of these he gave vent to his hatred of Great Britain, the events of the war with that nation in 1812 having served to rekindle the flame of passion which began to burn in him with the commence- ment of the Revolutionary struggle. His verses in celebration of the naval victories of Hull, Porter, Macdonough and others displayed much dramatic force and were excellent pieces of descriptive sea literature. A collection of his poems were reprinted in New York in 1865 and was prefaced by a memoir of the poet from the pen of Evert A. Duyckinck, and an edition was also printed in London, England. The late Dr. John W. Francis had previously written the story of his life for the "Cyclopedia of American Literature," and he quoted appreciatively a remark made to him by Jeffrey, the Scotch reviewer, that "the time would arrive when Freneau's poetry., like that of Hudibras, would command a commentator like Grey."
Freneau was described by his contemporaries as somewhat below the ordinary height of man ; thin, yet muscular; with a firm step, though some- what inclined to stoop. His forehead had more than ordinary elevation ; his eyes were a dark gray, and lay deep in their sockets. Various efforts were made to paint his portrait and, on one occasion, the artist, Rembrandt. Peale, sought him for the purpose, sent by a number of leading gentlemen, of Philadelphia. He was inexorable in his refusal to sit, and the only representation of him in existence is a portrait made after his death, painted from recollection and description of his appearance. He was free from ali ambitious displays, and his habitual expression was pensive. He was the foe of all shams, frivolties and injustices. In a poem written in 1795, "On Emigration to America," he broke into a protest against the foul blot of slavery, mourning that
"The African complains, And mourns his yet unbroken chains."
When, in coming into possession of the patrimonial estate, he found himself the owner of a number of slaves, he treated them with kindness and manumitted them prior to the abolition of slavery by legislative enact- ment, and also charged himself with the care of those of their number who were too aged or infirm to care for themselves.
The latter years of his life were passed about two miles from Free- hold. December 18, 1833, when he had nearly completed his eightieth year, he came to his death by miring in a bog meadow, which lay between the village and his home, which he attempted to walk across by night during a severe snow storm.
50.1
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
Philip Freneau was married when he was about thirty years of age to Eleanor Forman, a daughter of Samuel Forman, and four daughters were born of this marriage. His wife was of a poetic temperament, and for years prior to her marriage she corresponded in verse with him who be- came her husband. She survived him some seventeen years, and her re- mains were laid to rest by his side, a short distance in the rear of their old home at Mount Pleasant, and a monument to the memory of the poet has been erected upon the spot which covers their ashes.
The first original source of information pertaining to the Province of Jersey is found in the invaluable compilations made by Aaron Leaming and Jacob Spicer, by virtue of an act of the legislature of New Jersey, and which were printed in Philadelphia in 1758. These papers embodied the grants and concessions made by the first English Lords Proprietors, together with other official documents, legislative enactments and miscel- laneous records, beginning with the grant of King Charles I, in 1664, and coming down to the surrender by the Proprietaries to Queen Anne, in 1702.
Leaming and Spicer were both admirably well qualified for their im- portant task. Leaming entered the Assembly in 1740 and, with two or three short intermissions, was a member of that body for about thirty years. Splendidly educated, he was a man of great industry and excel- lent judgment, and his manuscript was a model of clearness and beauty. Spicer, but a year his junior, was a man of good practical education. He was a member of the Assembly with Leaming, his intimate friend, for about twenty years. The two were men of large business affairs in the Cape May region. They separately made minute entries of their transac- tions and careful record of events, and their diaries afford the earliest and most authentic information with reference to the people in the southern part of the Province, their industries and their modes of living. This material has been preserved through the effort of local investigators and of the New Jersey Historical Society.
Daniel Coxe, who, as one of the grantees of West Jersey and an as- sociate supreme court justice, is written of elsewhere in this work, made a substantial contribution to the early literature of the Province. His work was an unpretentious pamphlet, comprising but a few pages, but it was pregnant with mighty political thoughts.
Coxe's pamphlet was designed to attract immigrants to the lands cov- ered by his patent. Its descriptions afford a curious revelation of the ignorance of the best informed men of that day with reference to the geography of the region described. An instance of this appears in Coxe's statement that there was easy communication between the Mississippi river and the South Sea, which lay between America and China, by means of
502
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
several large rivers and lakes, "with the exception of about half a day's land carriage."
But the great interest in the pamphlet lies in the plan of the author for a union between the several American Colonies for purposes of mutual protection and defense. His proposal was that all the North American Colonies should unite in a common union, to be presided over by an officer who was to be known as a Lieutenant Governor or Supreme Governor. A general council was to be formed, and its members were to be two dele- gates from each Colony, who were to be chosen by the Legislature thereof. This council was to be convened, whenever necessary, by the Supreme Governor, and to it was committed all measures and preparations neces- sary for the mutual defense, and for offensive operations against the com- mon enemy, by means of an armed force and means for its support. The acts and proceedings of this council were to be subject to the veto of the Supreme Governor, who was, however, inhibited from taking any ag- gressive action without the consent of the council. This plan was almost identically that which was afterward proposed by Benjamin Franklin and known as the "Albany Plan of Union."
In 1765 Samuel Smith published a "History of the Colony of Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey from Its First Settlement to the Year 1721," which was printed in Woodbridge, from the press of James Parker. It is worthy of note that Samuel J. Smith, who was a grandson of Samuel Smith, the author of this work, was a poet of no mean order, and editions of his works, edited by a relative, were published in 1836 in Philadelphia and Boston.
George Chalmers, in 1780, published "Political Annals of the Present United Colonies," which was followed two years later by another work entitled "Introduction to the Revolt of the Colonies." A supplement printed from the manuscript of the author appeared in the "New York His- torical Society's Collections."
The period between 1830 and 1845 was marked by the accomplish- ments of a number of capable writers who placed in preservable form a large fund of historical matter, in large part drawn from original sources, and which belongs to the permanent literature of the State. In various in- stances some of these writers were similarly engaged at about the same time, their works, however, appearing at different dates, rendering it diffi- cult to refer to them in altogether correct chronological order. Special interest attaches to the work of Nicholas Murray and William A. White- head, and in view of the patriotic enthusiasm which they displayed in their self-appointed tasks, it is a fact worthy of note that the one was an Irish- man by birth, and the other was of English parentage.
503
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
About 1833 Nicholas Murray, a young Presbyterian minister resid- ing in Elizabethtown, began the delivery before his congregation of a series of historical discourses concerning their church. His narratives necessarily included many events and incidents pertaining to the community at large, during the Colonial and Revolutionary war periods. A's . his interest in his theme deepened, and his fund of information became more copious, he amplified his discourses and writings into a published volume, "Notes of History and Biography Concerning Elizabeth-Town, Its Eminent Men, Churches and Ministers," the best local history of its time, compris- ing 166 pages, and imprinted "Elizabeth-Town, 1844."
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.