USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. II > Part 23
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One of his best friends was the Rev. Isaac Stelle, pastor of the Baptist
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Church at Piscataway, whose people were Huguenots from La Rochelle, France. Some of his relatives lie buried in the churchyard beside Christ Church, Shrewsbury, New Jersey.
Prior to the Revolution, New Jersey began to send out colonists to the frontiers, to the Mohawk Valley, to Pennsylvania, to Western Virginia, to Kentucky, to the Carolinas and to Georgia. "In 1788 Colonel John Cleve Symmes, of New Jersey, with a party of about thirty persons, in eight four-horse wagons, from New Jersey crossed Pennsylvania and descended the Ohio to Maysville, Kentucky. Here he was joined by Benjamin and Elijah Stites, originally of New Jersey, Judge Goforth and General John Gano, of New York, with others, all prominent Baptists. While Colonel Symmes was absent exploring with the intention of founding a great city at the North Bend, near the Miami River, Major Stites, accompanied by his little party, descended the Ohio River to the mouth of the Little Miami, within the city limits of Cincinnati. * * About 1810 a large party gathered at Freehold, New Jersey, from the surrounding county of Mon- mouth. Having sold their farms, they started, with only necessary per- sonal effects, in sixty wagons to make the weary trip via Philadelphia, Pitts- burg and down the Ohio River to the Miami Valley, where friends and relatives had preceded them with Colonel Symmes and Major Stites. These emigrants bore into the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois many names that have become famous in their history, as Schenck, Voorhies, Cox, Cooper, Stillwell, Holmes and many others." ["Liberty of Conscience," M. C. Murray Hyde, in "The Spirit of '76," November, 1899.]
Hard times followed the Revolution, property changed owners rap- idly, and the promise of the Northwest Territory was alluring. New Jersey recovered slowly until in 1830, when the railroad, the steamboat and the bank changed all things. Local commerce was crushed. Quick trans- portation made New Jersey the garden of New York and Philadelphia; agriculture became more important. The farm was no longer simply a home and the support of the necessities of life; its products increased in value, and, having a market, could become a source of wealth. Slavery had Jong been abolished in New Jersey. The building of railroads and the development of the farms demanded labor and famine-stricken Ireland supplied the demand.
Many Irish people had come to America from its earliest settlement -- many as exiles and prisoners of war, to be sold as slaves. The voluntary emigrants were chiefly Protestant or Scotch-Irish. They were school- masters, tailors, shoemakers, masons, etc. No class of the Irish people
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could be anything but poor, because of the merciless oppression of the British government. "The frightful visitation of famine in 1846, suc- ceeded by an unparalleled emigration, swept from the Irish soil more than a fourth of its people." [May's "Constitutional History of England."] Between 1841 and IS51 "The total loss, however, was computed at 2,466,- 414. The decrease amounted to forty-nine persons to every square mile .- ("Census Report," 1851.") Thousands of those who landed at New York were hired at Castle Garden as laborers by the New Jersey farmers, whose ancestral homes became the tenements of the emigrant laborers, while they built for themselves more ambitious residences-usually large double houses, painted white with green blinds. The Irish emigrant was deplor- ably poor and ignorant, but he was shrewd, intelligent, kind-hearted and light-hearted. He made little complaint of the sorrows and privations of the past. Among the first that came were many old men and women who could scarcely speak English. They were often not as ignorant as they seemed to be. Lady Dufferin, in her beautiful ballad of the "Lament of the Irish Emigrant," has told the heart-story of thousands :
"I'm sittin' on the stile, Mary, Where we sat side by side, On a bright May mornin', long ago, When first you were my bride; The corn was springin' fresh and green, And the lark sang loud and high ; And the red was on your lips, Mary, And the love light in your eye.
'Tis but a step down yonder lane, And the little church stands near- The church where we were wed, Mary, I see the spire from here. But the graveyard lies between, Mary, And my step might break your rest- For I've laid you, darling, down to sleep, With your baby on your breast.
"I'm bidding you a long farewell, My Mary-kind and true! But I'll not forget you, darling, In the land I'm going to; They say there's bread and work for all, And the sun shines always there- But I'll not forget old Ireland, Were it fifty times as far !
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"And often in those grand old woods I'll sit, and shut my eyes,
And my heart will travel back again To the place where Mary lies; And I'll think I see the little stile Where we sat side by side,
And the springin' corn and the bright May moon, When first you were my bride.'
With his own sorrows buried deep in his heart the Irish emigrant brought laughter and sport to the farms of New Jersey. It was only in the hour of trouble that his sorrow appeared as the most tender, warm and delicately-given sympathy for others. There are few who knew these peo- ple who cannot recall many such instances. Their record during the Civil war was honorable. They were good soldiers of the rank and file. The drafts of the later years fell heavily upon them. Many a good man lost his life and his widow and children were obliged to give up the little home they had been years trying to win.
The general changes brought by the Civil war and the agricultural development of the west, southwest and south, have radically altered New Jersey and its people of the old stock. By the depreciation of the value of the land for agricultural purposes many of the old farmers lost their lands, while the younger men sold them and sought some other more prom- ising occupation. Some of the large farms of fifty years ago have been cut up into small tracts and are to-day owned by the descendants of the Irish emigrants who came to them penniless from the "Potato famine." The people of Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey are scattered all over the Union. Sometimes becoming wealthy, some branch of the old stock will return to an old home and restore its prosperity and comfort. New Jersey is no longer an agricultural commonwealth. As in the earliest days of its colonization, it is becoming the home of merchants from the great cities. Its towns are becoming manufacturing centers. It is fast coming to be a great commercial Commonwealth.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF NEW JERSEY.
The social life of a community is but the reflection of the personality of its members. Where the leaders in affairs are men of strong char- acter, whose conduct is dominated by stern moral convictions, recitude of conduct prevails, coloring the present life of the community and affording an example for the guidance of succeeding generations.
Law is the product of social life, rather than its maker. Law is gen- erally enacted only after urgent necessity, when moral tenets and personal influences seem powerless to eradicate or mitigate an evil which threatens society. Hence, the statute books of a nation, in whatever era, may be understood as indicating a widespread existence of those misdemeanors and crimes for which penalties are provided. The Mosaic law is the most convincing instance in point in all human history. Its minute regulations for the conduct of the individual, even to the details of personal cleanliness and diet, reveal an existent condition of real savagery, from which the chil- dren of Israel were upraised by their great law-giver, ultimately becoming models in these respects for all mankind.
Among the earliest laws enacted in the province of the Jerseys were those for the guarding of the public morals. The fact is significant. For the greater part, the people, who were mostly Protestants, were deeply imbued with religious sentiments which had been their heritage from many preceding generations. The community was in its formative stage, and the laws were framed rather to establish a standard for conduct, and more especially for later immigrants who were beginning to arrive, than out of immediate necessity. Again, the legislators of the day were familiar with the vicious conduct of the worst classes in the mother country, and they did not clearly discriminate between the conditions in an old and thickly populated land, with its diversified classes and those in a new com- munity where all were practically upon a common level, and where all must struggle for an existence, practicing industry and economy, with little time or means, and less of inclination, for debasing pursuits. Perhaps, too,
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those legislators, free livers as they were, were actuated by that very hu- man idiosyncracy which sometimes moves those in authority to sternly reprobate in others such frailties of the flesh as they deem themselves, in their more exalted social position, privileged to indulge in.
Among the first laws enacted was one regarding a proper observance of the Lord's Day, by abstaining from all servile work, unlawful recrea- tions and unnecessary travel. "All liars" were brought under ban, but we are unenlightened as to what was deemed falsehood . in those days.
AN OLD FIREPLACE.
"Taking God's name in vain" was forbidden. Drunkenness was another offense. For infractions of any of these laws, penalties were provided, usually fine or imprisonment, but in some cases the offender was put in the stocks or publicly whipped.
These laws were re-enacted in greater part at a subsequent date (1682), by a legislative assembly sitting at Elizabethtown. "The Pen- alty of a Drunkard" was the caption of a law passed at that session. This imposed a fine upon the offender, and if not paid, he "or she" was put in the stocks. In a somewhat later day, the general use of ardent spirits finds recognition in an enactment which forbade keepers of public houses to allow tippling on the Lord's Day "except for necessary refreshment."
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It is curious to note that these laws, enacted under English rule, and requiring the approval of the crown, during the time of that "Merry Monarch" who was, to use the unique phrase of Macauley, "much ad- dicted to women," and whose profligate behavior on the Sabbath, and in public gaze provoked the pained indignation of Pepys and Evelyn. Per- haps the framers of these laws had a premonition of the conditions which were soon to prevail. Perhaps the crown representatives, who had much to do with their enactment, were providing against the disorder which they foresaw as an accompaniment of an immigration of their own invitation. However this may have been, the population of the colony was soon consid- erably increased. Among the immigrants were yet more Scotch Presbyter- ians, with Quakers and Baptists from England, and Huguenots from France. Men and women of deeply religious temperament and strict sense of duty, the blood in their veins was warm with love of God and His creatures, and they gave their effort to every useful and noble purpose.
Evidence of the religious spirit prevalent in these same times is found in the action of the General Assembly, which in 1676 appointed the sec- ond Wednesday in November as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings of peace and other mercies. November 26, 1696, was similarly designated as a day of thanksgiving for the discovery of a purpose against the life of King William and against the lives of Protest- ants.
In a remarkably interesting volume a graphic writer (Judge Beekman) has shown of what noble stuff was made the early Dutch settlers of Mon- mouth county, and his epitomization of their virtues is most significant. It is premised that they were industrious, frugal, honest and hospitable. They were also, as a rule, fixed in moral and religious principles, clinging to the Protestant faith of their fathers, and proving their faith by their works. Their stern integrity appears in their dealings with the Indians in the acquisition of lands. In all cases they made bona fide purchases, albeit they were close and shrewd in making a bargain. These facts are affirmed by all annalists of repute. Indeed, there appears to be but one who seeks to scandalize this splendid old stock. That one was Lewis Morris, of Tinton Falls, who (1702) wrote to the Bishop of London, say- ing that in Middletown "there is no such thing as a church cr religion. They are, perhaps, the most ignorant and wicked people on earth. Their meetings on Sunday are at the public house, where they get their fill of rum and go to fighting and running races." Morris' bitter animus was long ago recognized, and his strictures were proven false by examina- tion into the lives of those whom he denounced. The population was not
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large, and among its leading men were Andrew Bowne, a Baptist, Richard Hartshorne, a Quaker, and others of irreproachable character, all of whom had followers. Looking back upon these and such as these and upon their descendants, it may be safely said that with scarcely an exception their history is remarkably free from dishonorable stains. The Van Dorns, in the words of the author before named, "neevr claimed any holiness and perfection from all sins, and never boasted of being Pilgrims or the sons of Pilgrims, and above earthly things, with their homes fixed on a crown of gold and harp in heaven, yet they tried to live without wronging other people in word or deed, to improve and build up the country and start their children on an honest and industrious path in life." It is curious to note that an exemplification of the truthfulness of this estimate is found in the person of a Van Dorn of the sixth generation, who went to the west prior to 1850, and who was in all respects such a character as has been described. The Van Maters are referred to as seldom engaged in litiga- tion, as not being concerned in divorce or criminal suits, and as enjoying an honorable record. One of this family. Joseph C. Van Mater, by will executed December 31, 1832, manumitted his slaves, nearly one hundred in number. In line with these delineations of character, and referring to the respect in which women were held among the Dutch, Judge Beekman avers that he has never seen or heard of a single case of wife beating by a man of true Dutch descent.
Another element which exerted a powerful influence in the formation of society in New Jersey is found in the Scotch Presbyterians, who "came out of great tribulation," victims of a cruel persecution in their heather- land-a people who, by no means free from weaknesses of the flesh. were God-fearing and conscientious.
The great majority of the immigrants-Dutch, English and Scotch -- primarily sought the shores of America to enjoy freedom in religion. and their social life necessarily centered in their church. Equally devout and conscientious, they differed in forms of religious express on, in per- sonal tastes, and in habits of life. The Dutch lived after a broader fash- ion, more intent upon personal comfort at the table and in social pastimes. The more austere Scotch were self-denying, esteeming as frivolous all which they deemed inconsistent with the teachings of sacred scripture.
Whether English, Scotch or Dutch, the early settlers brought with them the manners and customs of their respective mother-lands, and in their daily lives and in their homes endeavored to reproduce what they had been accustomed to before crossing the Atlantic. Unlike as they were in most things, and different as were their habits of thought and their notions of domestic comfort, the pioneers were all alike in at least one respect-
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they were essentially religious communities. The first thing done in any settlement was to provide for a place of worship-a house in which they might unite in the praise of God and meditate on His Goodness and His commands, and near which their bones might be laid while waiting for the resurrection and the final judgment. They were each a religious people, and, though differing very widely, very radically, on their views as to church government and on many non-essentials, they united in a com- plete acceptance of the Bible as the sole Book of Law, as the guide for this life and the only sure guide to the life that is to come. They interpreted the Bible and its promises literally, had no worriment over doubt, no conception of the perplexities of the higher criticism. The Dutch version was an inspired Book to the Dutch; the English version was equally regarded as inspired by the English. Verbal criticism they never paltered over; translators' errors, if they could have conceived them, they would have deemed an impossibility. The Bible said so, and so it was; and this implicit faith, this firm reliance, this complete subservience of their daily lives and inmost thought to the Book of the Law made them even in their own day stand out in bold relief as honest, God-fearing men and women-people whose word could be implicitly relied upon, people who would have willingly wronged no man; and while they strove hard to acquire a share, perhaps more than a share, of this world's goods, while they treated the Indians as irresponsible children and gave them sugar plums for land, they at least treated them in accordance with the spirit of the age. Each community was a moral one; the laws were implicitly obeyed, and, as a result, the history of New Jersey as a whole, presents, as far as its own land-owning settlers were concerned, a much more peaceful picture than is furnished by most of the early settlements of Europeans in America.
In their domestic life the utmost simplicity prevailed, yet a high degree of comfort was attained, and many a comparison has been drawn between their mode of living and that which now prevails, to the dispar- agement of the latter as less satisfying, and even as less moral. Increased wealth has begotten artificial wants, and it may be that, in ministering to these, the grace of contentment has been lost.
The wealth of the people lay in land and stock. not in the beauty of their homes or the magnificence of their furniture. The home of the Dutch settler was square, built with a high, sloping roof, with overhanging eaves that formed a shade from the sun and a shelter from the rain. A stone house, however, was the height of perfection. It was a rare thing to see a house more than a single story high in the Dutch settlements; and even in the English sections a story and a half or two stories, though more
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common, was at first regarded as a wonderful work. Locks were unknown until after civilization had considerably advanced. In summer the Dutch family was sure to gather outside of the house, beneath the shade of the eaves, and there exchange greetings or discuss the events of the day; while the English settlers were wont to gather in the town square, and women gossiped in the gardens, and the children played in the little bit of lawn, a feature as inseparable from an Englishman's notion of domestic comfort as was the long pipe of the Dutchman.
The old "Towne Book" gives us one partial description of a house in Middletown in May, 1670. John Hawes sold his town property to Rich- ard Hartshorne, then residing at Waakaack, but John Hawes was to reside in this house "during the time that his wife liveth," and was to keep the house in good condition. He promised to make the house sufficient, viz. : "I John Hawes ame to daube the house within and without; and to make the chimney; and one Outlett; and to lay the ffloores (the above said Richard Hartshorne finding boards and nails and allsoe shells to make lime for the doing of the above said worke) and further I the afforesaid John Hawes am to make a cellar under the outlett; and allsoe one window in the house with foure lights; wherein I am to make shutts to the lower lights ; all wch I doe engage myself to perform."
In the interior of the house the general sitting-room and the kitchen were the important features. Bed-rooms were small, and sleeping bunks were common where the family was large; but improvements in this re- spect came with the extension of the dwelling. Sanitary arrangements there were none, but cleanliness and good order were everywhere appar- ent. The Dutch housewife scrubbed everything that would bear scrub- bing, and polished her treasures of pewter and brass with unfailing regu- larity. Carpets were unknown, a sanded floor was deemed the perfection of cleanliness and comfort, and the ashes from the wood fires were zealously swept up with feather brushes and carefully gathered.
The furniture at first was naturally of the most primitive kind; and as each house was a little community of its own, making its own bread, curing its own meats, preparing its own cloth and manufacturing its own furnishings and household utensils, the aim was strength and usefulness rather than beauty. Some of the pioneer families brought with them many household articles whch they deemed especially valuable or beautiful, and these were accorded a place of honor among the lares et penates of the new home. In 1673 "Margaret Smith, the wife of Bernard Smith (of Portland Point), formerly wife to the late deceased Randall Huitt of same place, gave in a true inventory" of the household stuff which was to be sold by
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Mr. Huitt's successor, viz .: "Two brasse kittles; one 1 ttle Iron kittle; five pewter dishes ; one pewter bason; four pewter plates; one quartt pott ; one pintt pott ; one pewter salt cellar." These were luxuries. Household utensils were largely made of wood and of home manufacture. The con- trast between the life of the citizen of the old world cities and the provinces
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DUTCH SILVER TANKARD.
of the new world was not in many ways as great as it would seem at the present time. There was little difference between the candle, the tallow- dip and the pine knot. The difference between the corrupt city well and the pure, clear hillside spring was in favor of the latter. The great open fireplace was the means of heating and cooking in both, with the difference again of abundant fuel in the woodland home. The abundance of deer, turkeys, quail, pheasants, wild ducks and geese, and fine fish brought to the pioneer by the Indian for little cost. supplied his larder with better food than any citizen of Europe could obtain. Then, somewhat later, merchants and seamen sailing from the Jersey coast with cargoes of "pipe staves,' salt fish, whale-oil and fins for Madeira, the Canary Isles and the West Indies, returned with cargoes of salt, pipes and barrels of old Madeira and Canary wine, West Indian rums, etc. In the cellar under the outlet of his house in Middletown, the captain or merchant often stored pipes of wine
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such as only princes sometimes drink to-day. He drank them himself freely and gave them to his friends. One drink would purchase the dan- gerous friendship of an Indian or valuable peltries, game and even lands. These were often temptations too strong to men who did not appreciate the wrong and did not fear the consequences. There were then many hon- est men who would give all that they held dearest, and even their lives, for some religious opinion or doctrine, but who thought it no wrong to drive a sharp bargain with an enemy or a savage. The -world has not yet been purged of such honest but stupid selfishly-blind inconsistencies. Not one sect or race can yet say to the rest of the world "I am consistent always."
Home-made garments of buckskin, of homespun wool and linen, were more comfortable than the ruffles of lace, the velvets, the satins, the rib- bons and plumes of cavaliers and city gentlemen, especially with minds at peace concerning the latest modes.
The Quakers and Anabaptists of Monmouth enjoyed the peace of mind in such troublesome matters described in Sir Thomas Moore's "Utopia," where all men and women dressed alike after one unchanging form and fashion. Who would exchange such peace for the agonies endured by Samuel Pepys over the style, color and form of his coats and periwig!
The primitive farmer had no other world than his home, and in this he was a king. His buildings were substantial and his farms were well kept up. Crops were industriously cultivated, and the products of field, orchard and cattle pen were carefully husbanded, and cellars and smoke- houses were well stocked with the choicest meats, vegetables and fruits. The owner took great pride in his property holdings, and nothing so delighted him as to gather his friends and neighbors about him at his bountifully laden table and in front of his cheery fireplace with its huge pile of blazing logs. Nor was his hospitality restricted to those whom he knew, and who rejoiced in repaying him in kind in their own homes. The wayfaring man-he would be termed a "tramp" to-day-was ever well en- tertained and was ever welcomed. If only needy, he was fed and lodged for sake of that dear Lord who loves and pities all his children, and who said "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." If he were a man of intelligence he was gladly hailed as a messenger from an outer world, and the news which he brought and the views which he expressed were heard with interest and respectful attention.
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