USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 13
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
200
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
immediately adjoining, the Bog and Vly Meadows are found coming over also from Montville. In the northwest- ern part the land is more mountainous. A large portion of the township is fertile, especially that on the Pequannock, Pompton, and Passaic. There are between one and two thousand acres of good arable land in Pompton Plains. It is quite certain that this part of the township was once covered by a body of water.
Pequannock has one borough, that of Butler, and several villages and hamlets within its borders.
Butler is a very active, thriving, pros- perous town in the ex- treme central northern part, on the Pequan- nock. It has about three thousand people of very mixed nation- alities, invited thither by the variety of manufactures which have been established at this locality. But- ANCIENT DUTCH CHURCH. ler has had a very rapid growth. A quar- ter of a century ago it was a hamlet opposite the village of Bloomingdale, in Passaic County, and situated on the Mor- ris County side of the Pequannock. The Rubber Comb and Jewelry Company, established in 1876, succeeding two other companies, was the real nucleus around which the present town has assumed such proportions. This company manu- factures hard rubber and gives employment to nearly one thousand workmen.
201
BUTLER AND POMPTON PLAINS
The lonely mountain valley began to resound with the echo of the dashing waterwheels and the buzz and whirr of machinery. Crowds of busy workmen came trooping into the village; land was bought, streets were laid out, and dwellings erected for the accommodation of the employees and their families. One, named in honor of the artist, San- ford B. Gifford, who died the day the last house was fin- ished, is devoted exclusively to this purpose, and is lined on both sides by neat and substantial edifices, all occu- pied by the workmen. Each house has a small yard in front for ornamental purposes and a lot in the rear for a garden. A race two miles in length supplies the extensive factories with all needed power. A public hall for meeting purposes, churches, and school houses attest the intelligence and thrift of the workmen.
The town was named Butler some years ago in honor of Mr. Butler, president of the rubber factory, when postal facilities were granted by the lon. Thomas L. James, then Postmaster-General. Prior to that all mail matter was re- ceived at the postoffice in Bloomingdale. Butler is a center for the mannfacture of hard rubber and has been of immense benefit to the surrounding country, affording a near and sure market for the products of the farms in the vicinity.
On Pompton Plains there is one continuous village ex- tending from its southern extremity northward, along the Pompton and Pequannock Rivers, to where the last named stream changes its course to a westerly direction. Just at this point the country is more thickly settled. At the south- ern end is found the hamlet of Pequannock, where there is a postoffice. A little less than midway between this ham- let and Pompton another locality, called Pompion Plains, is reached, and here, too, is a postoffice and a Reformed Church, one of the oldest in the State, held in great rever-
202
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
ence by the representatives of the old Holland families, and which in times past has wielded, and still wields, great in- fluence over the surrounding country. It has established three chapels and now substantially supports them : one at Lincoln Park, one in Wayne Township in Passaic County, and the other at Stony Brook. The population still con- tains representatives of many of the old Dutch families, as is evidenced by the recurrence of such names as Van Saun,
TEN POUNDS.
Numb. 22876
NEWYORK
RY A Mam of the Colony of Metus york, this Bill fhall be received in all Payments in the TREASURY, for Cen paths. New-York, February
H
16,1771.
Jam Vorplanck
X.L
SIG
ThreatBache
CTC
V
VITAT . NO
CCS.
2005. 'Tis Death to counterfeit.
5555 *********************** 5555
COLONIAL CURRENCY.
Van Ness, Roome, Ryerson, De Bow, Mandeville, Berry, Beam, Post, and others.
A short distance sonth of Pequannock village Lincoln Park extends over from Montville. The postoffice for this village is located in that part of it found in Pequannock Township.
There are two other hamlets of undefined proportions, one on the borders of Montville, called Jacksonville, and the
.EBORAC
203
PEQUANNOCK AND RIVERDALE
other known as Stony Brook, whose farm houses are seat- tered along a small stream of the same name, with a post- office. Near the southern extremity of Stony Brook is an- other insignificant hamlet called Brook Valley, also with a postoffice.
The names of the families now resident at these small lo- calities and most numerous then undoubtedly indicate their Dutch origin.
Pequannock is well supplied with facilities for travel and transportation. Three railroads traverse it in as many dif- ferent directions. The New York, Susquehanna and West- ern follows the Pequannock River on its northern border; the New York and Greenwood Lake enters it just south of Pequannock village and follows the river as far as Pompton village, where it again crosses that stream and passes over into Passaic County; the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- ern enters the township at Lincoln Park from Montville, and crosses the Pompton River at Mountain View station. The presence of these roads and the facilities they offer for quick and cheap travel have induced the locations of several stations at places convenient for the surrounding country, and in this way many villages in this part of the State are springing up and gathering around these stations.
Riverdale is one of these localities situated on the Rocka- way a short distance west of Pompton. Before the rail- roads invaded this part of the country it was considered a part of Pompton, and was inhabited by a permanent agri- cultural population. It is now increasing, several elegant residences having been erected. Here is a long established woolen mill, formerly conducted by Joseph Slater, now by his son Robert. Connected with this mill is a large mill pond now called a lake, and in the immediate vicinity a quarry has been opened where many workmen are employed.
204
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
A postoffice has recently been placed here for the accommo- dation of the people at Riverdale and their neighbors. There are one hundred and fifty residents at this locality and sure evidences are given of future growth.
The original settlers of Pequannock were Hollanders, who came from Bergen County, which had been peopled by immi- grants from the Dutch settlements at New York and from
HUDSON IN THE HIGHLANDS.
other localities on the Hudson River. These people were attracted to the country in Bergen and at Pequannock by its similarity to that of Holland; the many streams with their low lying valleys, the level lay of the land and their surroundings, all reminded them of their native land. As near as can now be ascertained the first purchase was made by Arent Schuyler from the Indians; the deed was dated June 6, 1695, and signed by " Onageponck," " Hielawith of
205
EARLY LAND TITLES
Pequannock," and "Sajapogh of Minisink." These were three tribes of Indians then occupying the northern part of New Jersey-the Pequannocks, the Pomptons, and the Minisinks. Another small tribe, called the Rockawacks, had their fishing and hunting grounds farther south. These names will all be recognized in the nomenclature of rivers and localities still retained.
The English government claimed the title to the land within the bounds of New Jersey by virtue of the right of discovery. Sir Henry Hudson, sailing in the " Half Moon " under a Dutch flag and in the employment of the Dutch East India Company, in 1609, landed on the coast of New Jersey, probably at or near the present town of Eliza- beth. He was, so far as can be definitely ascertained, the first European to put his foot on the land of New Jer- sey. But although this was done by a Dutch vessel and under the Holland flag, England contended and sus- tained by force of arms its GREAT SEAL OF JAMES II. contention that the whole of the northeastern part of North America belonged to that government by right of discovery, and on the 12th of March, 1633-34, Charles II granted to his brother. the Duke of York, afterward James II, an indeti- nitely described country in the continent of North America, but sufficiently explicit to determine that the whole of the Province of New Jersey was included within its bounds. This grant is the foundation of the title to all lands in New Jersey, so far as any such title could be given by the crown
· 206
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
of England. According to international law as it then ex- isted and was understood the right of the English King to make this grant was undisputed, if it could be substantiated that England was the first discoverer of the granted land; and according to the law governing such grants existing at that time the King held such lands as " Crown " lands. The claim made by Holland, a weaker power, was thrust aside.
However this may be, quite a complication arose. The aborigines were in peaceable and quiet possession and had held that possession for centuries, and it would seem that their title was paramount. . In the meantime the Duke of York had conveyed to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret that part of the land he had received from his royal brother, Charles, included within the bounds of the present State of New Jersey. The conveyance to Berkeley and Carteret was absolute and unconditional, and vested them not only with the title to the land, but with all governmental powers.
The two Provinces of New York and New Jersey were under the rule of the same royal governors, and the Duke of York, by virtue of the grant CARTERET ARMS. to him by Charles, had the right of appointment. The duke's grant to Berkeley and Carteret was made on the 12th of March, 1664. On the 2d of April of the same year York commissioned Colonel Richard Nicholls governor of the whole country granted to him, and in the commission he authorized Nicholls " to perform and execute all and every the Powers which are by the said Letters Patents [that is the grant made to York by Charles] granted unto me to be executed by my Deputy agent or as- sign."
207
SCHUYLER AND BROCKHOLST
Under the power thus granted to him Nicholls claimed the right to sell and convey all lands within the borders of that granted by James to Berkeley and Carteret, and did actually attempt to make conveyance of some lands near or at Elizabethtown. He made proclamation to intended set- tlers of liberal offers to convey lands west of the Hudson River. This state of affairs created complications not easily settled. There were four titles to land in New Jersey : First, the Indian title; second, the Dutch claim; third, the claim of Colonel Richard Nicholls as governor; and, fourth, that of the Lord Proprietors as Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret were called.
It was, however, agreed by all parties that there was suf- ficient basis for the Indian title tomake it important that that should be secured. When, SOIT+ QVIA therefore, Selmyler made his MAL+ PENSE I . EBORAC SIGILL*PRO purchase he was wise enough to secure its extinguishment. The purchase was a large one. * JAON EINIAOX INOH covering five thousand five hundred acres. In the same year Schuyler and six others, all Hollanders, entered into an DUKE OF YORK'S SEAL. agreement to buy from Berke- ley and Carteret five thousand five hundred acres of land, and for the purpose of fortifying the Indian title Schuyler and Brockholst, two of the six, secured a patent, as it was called, to cover the same land as bought from the Indians. Other purchases were soon afterward made by Schuyler and Brockholst, especially in December, 1696, until nearly ten thousand acres were held by those two men, all in the neigh-
208
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
borhood of or bordering on the Pequannock and Passaic. About 1712 William Penn bought a large tract near Pine Brook and covering almost the whole of the southern part of Montville and some of Hanover. These large tracts of Schuyler and Brockholst were afterward sold out in parcels to actual settlers.
The most prominent names of the first immigrants were Schuyler, Brockholst, Vanderbeck, Van Ness, Ryerson, Bay- ard, Berry, Mandeville, Rycker, Mead, Roome, Slingerland, Vangelder, De Bow, De Mott, and Jones, all well known Holland patronymics except perhaps that of Jones. These first settlers must have located in Pequannock about 1700. There are no certain records which determine that date, but that is a reasonable conclusion, taking into consideration such facts as are known to have really existed. They were as a general rule all farmers, and their descendants have almost FİLyP PIETERSEN SCHUYLER COMMISSARIS 5858. all universally followed the same peaceful occupation. These people possessed some of the very best characteristics SCHUYLER ARMS. found in any race. They were peaceful, law-abiding citizens, fearing God, and loving their neighbors. They were phlegmatic, not fond of change, with very little of the dash and energy of their fellows of the Anglo-Saxon blood. They have, however, impressed them- selves and their habits of thought upon all the communities where they have been found, and have dominated those communities by the sheer force of their silent but persistent
209
DUTCH CHARACTERISTICS
action. Their influence in many directions for good has been masterful and never will be effaced.
All over the northern part of Morris County Dutch names, Dutch peculiarities of thought, of character, of manners, prevail; even the Dutch language is still spoken in many of the representative families, and until within a half century it has been used in religious service in their churches. They and their descendants have been content to remain quietly in their comfortable homes, satisfied with the sure results of their agricultural labors and freed from the anxious, carking perplexities of a feverish existence. They have not originated great schemes nor established great enterprises, but they have been most excellent citizens, true as steel to the best interests of the republic, and ever ready to defend its honor and its integrity with fortune and with life if necessary. Though they have not inaugurated courts nor published codes of law nor formulated systems of jurispru- dence, yet they have been a law-abiding people, governed by principles of justice, acknowledging at all times the claims of the government. The very best blood in New Jersey is derived from this immigration from the land of William the Silent.
THE "HALF MOON."
CHAPTER XVI
MORRIS COUNTY-CONCLUDED
m ORRIS COUNTY in many respects is one of the most interesting in the State, certainly in its Revolutionary history. It was formed by a spe- cial act of the Legislature in 1738-39, from ITun- terdon. That county had been created by another special act of the Legislature March 11, 1713-14, with this deserip- tion :
All and singular the Lands and upper Parts of the said Western Division of the Province of New Jersey lying Northwards of, or situate above the Brook or Rivulet commonly called Assanpinek be erected into a County to be called the County of Hunterdon; and the said Brook or Rivulet shall he the Boundary Line between the County of Burlington and the said County of Ilunterdon.
This description is made intelligible by its very generali- ties. It is confined to the lands and upper parts of the Province of West Jersey. What West Jersey contained was intended to be settled by the boundary line between East and West Jersey, but the exact courses of that line have never yet been ascertained and perhaps never will be. Several attempts have been made by competent surveyors to run the line according to its original descriptions, but such attempts have failed. The various courts of the State have grappled hopelessly with the problem and it still re- mains really unsolved.
The description of Morris County appearing in the act of
-
212
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
incorporation is made apparently with great particularity, and undoubtedly was understood at the time, but it men- tions so many localities unknown at the present, and whose names give no definite information of their position, that
FIRST STATE HOUSE AT TRENTON.
it may, perhaps, bewilder the reader. Still it is so quaint, so peculiar, and withal so interesting to the historian that it is deemed advisable to copy it and give it to the reader for what it is worth. It reads thus :
All and singular the Land and upper parts of the said Hunterdon County lying to the Northward and Eastward, situate and lying to the Eastward of a well known place in the County of Hunterdon, being a Fall of Water, a Part in the North Branch of Rariton River, called in the Indian Language or known by the name of Altomatonek to the North Eastward of the Northeast End or Part of the Lands called the New Jersey Society Lands, along the line thereof cross-
213
ORGANIZATION OF MORRIS COUNTY
ing the South Branch of the aforesaid Rariton River and extending Westerly to a certain Tree marked with the Letters L. M. standing on the North side of a Brook emptying itself into the said South Branch, by an old Indian Path to the Northward of a Line to be run Northwest from the said Tree to a Branch of Delaware River called Muskeneteong River and so down the said Branch to Delaware River; all which said Lands being to the Eastward, Northward and Northwestward of the above said Boundaries to be ereeted into a County to be called Morris County.
However indefinite this description may be and unin- telligible to modern readers it is very certain that it in- cluded the modern Counties of Warren and Sussex.
When Morris County was first established, and for several years after, its citi- zens were obliged to go to Trenton, as be- fore, to vote at all elections. Repre- sentatives to the Leg- islature were chosen from Hunterdon and represented both counties. Deeds and mortgages were still recorded at Trenton, and wills were sent also to the county seat of Hunterdon; in fact the new coun- ty had no independ- ence of its own ex- cept in the name. AN INDIAN CHIEFTAIN.
This state of affairs was soon changed. The new county elected its own citizens for members of the law-making body and virtually assumed an independent existence. But it was not until 1785 that the record of deeds and mortgages
214
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
began in Morris County, and wills were not recorded until as late as 1804. Prior to that they were sent to Trenton and there retained, originals as well as the recorded copies. The records of deeds began on the 19th of February, 1785, and the deed first recorded was one executed by Elijah Pierson and others, heirs of Benjamin Pierson, deceased, given to Mary Spinnage and others for land in Hanover, and the will first probated was one made by Nathaniel Horton, of Chester, dated August 27, 1800, and proved Feb- ruary 4, 1804.
The first meeting of any county court was that of the Gen- eral Quarter Sessions, composed of John Budd, Jacob Ford, Abraham Kitchell, John Lindsley, Timothy Tuttle, and Samuel Swesy as judges. It met at Morristown, March 25, 1740, and its first judicial act was the division of the county into three townships: Pequannock, Hanover, and Morris- town. The court not only apportioned the land of the new county into these municipalities, but it also appointed the officers, and this was done until 1756, when the inhabitants of the county were permitted to elect their own officers. The officers then appointed by the court for Pequannock were Robert Goll, "clark " and bookkeeper; Garret de Bough, assessor; Isaac Van Dine, collector; Robert Gold and Frederick Demont, freeholders; Matthew Van Dine and Brant Jacobus, surveyors of the highways; Peter Fred- ericks and Nicholas Hoyle, overseers of the poor; Hendrick Maurisson and Giles Mandeville, overseers of the highways; John Davenport, constable.
For Morristown :- Zachariah Fairchild, town " clark " and town bookkeeper; Matthew Lum, assessor; Jacob Ford, collector; Abraham Hathaway and Joseph Coe, Jr., free- holders; Benjamin Hathaway and Jonas Osborn, overseers of the poor; Joseph Briddin and Daniel Lindsly, Esq., sur-
CITY HALL, AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND, BEFORE 1615.
216
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
veyors of the highways; Stephen Freeman and John Linds- ly, Esq., overseers of the highways; Isaac Whitehead, Alexander Ackerman, and William Dayless, constables.
For Hanover :- Timothy Tuttle, Esq., town clerk and town bookkeeper; David Wheeler, assessor; Caleb Ball, col- lector; Joseph Tuttle and Caleb Ball, freeholders; John Kinney and Samuel Ford, surveyors of the highways; Paul Leonard, Robert Young, Benjamin Shipman, and Edward Crane, overseers of the highways; Joseph Herriman and Stephen Ward, constables.
The orthography as it appears in the records is faithfully given, but although some of the names are undoubtedly spelled incorrectly they will all be recognized, with perhaps one or two exceptions, as familiar and borne by many in- habitants of the localities from whence they were ap- pointed. Some present residents may be able to trace their lineal genealogies back to many of the very persons named in these lists of officers.
It will be noticed that Jacob Ford, one of the judges who sat at this session of the court, was appointed collector of Morristown. He was also licensed at the same time to keep an inn or tavern, and it is tradition that the court was held at his house in Morristown.
It is impossible to fix definitely any date when the first settler came to Morris County, or anything about his race or former residence. There were three distinct streams of immigration into this part of New Jersey : one reaching the northern portion of the county, one coming into the cen- tral part, and the other settling in the southern end of the county. Reference has already been made to the two immi- grations in the central and northern parts.
Very early in the seventeenth century the Hollanders made a lodgment upon the Island of Manhattan, built forts,
217
DUTCH IMMIGRATION
and founded a town with the apparent intention of becom- ing permanent residents. But they were merchants and traders, and did not come for the purpose of occupying the land as agriculturists. They very soon ascertained that they could establish a profitable trade with the aborigines by bartering such commodities as were valned by the In- dians for peltry and furs. They extended this trade up the Hudson and soon came over into New Jersey to meet their customers on their own ground. In course of time a trading post, or rath- or a stockade, rudely fortitied, but suffi- ciently so to repel any attacks of the wily savages, was built on the west side of the Hudson River near enough to the fort at Manhattan to obtain succor from thence if necessary, and at the same time convenient to receive the visits of the In- dians and exchange commodities.
This Jed the Dutch into Bergen County, where they found a THE " NEW NETHERLAND." land very similar to that left behind them in Holland-a land of fertility fit for the purposes adapted to the tastes and habits of those Dutch settlers. So they came into New Jersey, brought their fam-
218
THE PASSAIC- VALLEY
ilies with them, and reared their substantial quaint dwell- ings in the valleys of the streams and there their descend- ants have remained to this present. The Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam claimed the right to grant lands on the west side of the Hudson as well as on the other bank, and actually did make such grants. These settlers increased in numbers, their land grew valuable; but beyond the Passaic were other fields unoccupied save by some scattered tribes of Indians, and the Hollanders came over the river into Mor- ris County, and there their descendants have also remained. Their great characteristic was permanence. A single case out of many that could be named will give an idea of the grip which the posterity of these early settlers retain on their land.
Harrison Van Duyne, a prominent citizen of Newark, is now occupying as a summer residence the same identical farm which his ancestor of the same name bought in 1730, and which has since been occupied by his descendants.
The first immigrants into the central part of Morris Coun- ty were of a different mould and possessed other character- isties than those of the Dutch. They were of the same race and blood, belonging to the great Teutonic family, but they had been environed by other circumstances than those. which had surrounded the Dutch. Like the Hollanders, they elung with the tenacity of death to their cherished religious faith, and would rather relinquish life and all that man holds dear than give up the right to worship God in the way their consciences taught them was right. They did not possess in so great a degree as did the Dutch that dogged, persistent, and masterful resistance to wrong and oppression which crowned the character of the Hollanders, but they were alert, active, and keenly alive to any en- croachment upon their political or religious rights. Wher-
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.