USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 19
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Having taken into serious consideration the great charge that hath heen occasioned by the necessity of keeping courts within this Province, as also the necessity that courts of justice be maintained and upheld amongst us, which said courts may go under denomination of County Courts, it is therefore enacted by this Assembly that there be two of the aforesaid courts kept in the year in each respective county, viz .: Bergen and the adjoining plantations about them to be a comity and to have two Courts in a year, whose sessions shall be the first Tues- day in March next and the last Tuesday in September. Elizabeth Town and Newark to make a county and have two courts in a year, whose sessions shall be the second Tuesday in March and third Tuesday in September. Woodbridge and Piscataqua to be a county and to have two courts, the first Tuesday in March
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and the second Tuesday in September. The two towns of Nevysink to make a county, their sessions to be the last Tuesday in March and first Tuesday in Sep- tember.
No names are given to these counties, no description of any bounds, but in each section of the aet wherever refer- ence is made to courts, they are called county courts. It would have been extremely difficult at that time to have made any division into any well defined bounds by intelli- gible description of the territory of the Province into coun- ties.
At a later meeting of the Legislature, held at Elizabeth- town, March 28, 1682, Essex County was created by name with somewhat definite bounds. The preamble of the act creating the four counties is indicative of the fact that the Legislature did not deem the statute of 1675 as sufficient to form a county, although no reference is made to it. This is the preamble :
Having taken into consideration the necessity of dividing the Province into respective Counties for the better governing and settling Courts in the same, Be it enacted by this General Assembly and the authority thereof that this Province be divided into four counties as followeth.
The bounds of Essex County are thus described in this act: "Essex and the county thereof to contain all the settlements between the west side of Hackensack River and the parting line between Woodbridge and Elizabeth Town, and so to extend westward and northward to the utmost bounds of the Province." A name is given to the new coun- ty, and its bounds are so described and settled that there can be no mistaking them. They included the whole north- ern part of the Province of East New Jersey from the di- vision between Woodbridge and Elizabeth west to the boundary between the two provinces of East and West Jer- sey, east to the Hackensack River, and north to the Province of New York.
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INDIAN GROUP IN LINCOLN PARK : NEWARK. (C. B IVES, SCULPTOR. J. ACKERMAN COLES, M.D., DONOR.)
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The division line between the two provinces of East and West New Jersey was uncertain and ill defined. It may have been understood at the time it was first attempted to be described, but that is doubtful. It has been the origin of controversy for nearly two hundred years and has never vet been determined. The various courts of the State have endeavored to settle the vexed question, and, as yet, have failed. The determination of the direction and exact course of this line was at one time quite important, and there are
ELIZABETHTOWN IN 1840. (From the Broad Street Bridge.)
occasions at the present when titles to real estate are some- what dependent upon its proper adjustment, but in the county lines, the boundaries between them, there is, per- haps, now no real necessity that the true course of this line should be established. Those boundaries have now been too long acquiesced in to admit of any possible question.
The present territory of Essex has been greatly reduced since the time it was made an independent county. Somer- set has taken some part from its southern borders, Union
317
ESSEX COUNTY
County has been formed entirely from it, the part between the Passaic and Hackensack has been added to Bergen, and Passaie County has largely encroached upon its northern portion. It has an area of 83,025 acres, of which 6.431 are tide marsh, 1,646 are covered by water, and about 4,000 are still foresi.
It has thirteen townships and cities: Belleville. Bloom- field, Caldwell, Clinton, East Orange, Franklin, Livingston, Milburn, Montelair, Newark, Orange, South Orange, and West Orange, and the boroughs or villages of Irvington, South and West Orange, Nutley, Verona, Glen Ridge, Call- well, and North Caldwell.
Almost the whole of the county is within what may be properly called the Valley of the Passaic. That river in its tortuous course washes both its western and its eastern borders, and is materially connected with its history and usefulness. The surface of the county is diversified. In the eastern part, on the river, the land is undulating, but within a few miles a range of hills, dignified by the people with the name of mountains, passes north and south through the county. Beyond this range and westward is an- other range running parallel with the first named, but not so extensive. Between these two ranges lie charming valleys, where nesile many farm houses and fertile fields. In Caldwell on the Passaic are large tracts of marshy land, called the Great and Little Piece Meadows and Hatfield Swamp, containing two thousand three hundred acres, and within the bounds of the City of Newark there are over four hundred acres of tide marsh.
Peckman's River runs through the eastern part of Cald- well into the Passaic. Pine, Deep, and Green Brooks also water the country in this township. Second and Third Rivers are found in Bloomfield and Belleville and empty into the Passaic. The main branch of the Rahway River
GATE-HOUSE AND DAM AT URSINO LAKE.
----
319
ELIZABETHTOWN
rises between Second and Third Mountains in Orange, and runs through Milburn and Springfield to Rahway and thence into Staten Island Sound. This stream at one time was exceedingly valuable because of its excellent water power, and long ago, and for many years, it was utilized by numerous mills and factories, especially for the manufac- ture of paper. The other parts of the county are traversed by several small streams, some of them tributaries of the Rahway, but nearly all flowing into the Passaic.
The whole of the colonial and a large part of the State history of Elizabethtown is connected with Essex County, of which during colonial times, and for nearly eighty years after New Jersey became an independent State, it formed an important part. It can not well be claimed that that municipality is within the bounds of the Passaic Valley, as it lies directly on Staten Island Sound and Newark Bay and has no direct connection with the river, but its relations with Essex County were so intimate, beginning almost with the very first settlement of Elizabeth and continuing for nearly two hundred years, and its position in the Province was so leading, that it is impossible to do justice to the scope of this history without giving it some mention.
It can not be ascertained with exactness when the first settlement in Elizabethtown was made. Records were kept by the first settlers, but unfortunately those records have mysteriously disappeared. If they had been preserved sev- eral vexed questions arising about the early history of this locality would be solved. It may be safely assumed, how- ever, that the settlement took place as early as 1664.
In 1633-34 Charles il granted his letters patent to his brother James, then Duke of York, afterward JJames !I, for an ill defined extent of country in this Western Continent, but certainly including New Jersey. The immigrants in
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
New England were told that fairer lands and more genial skies lay to their southward. Seductive proclamations were made by Berkeley and Carteret and their agents, and scat- tered broadcast among the settlements in New England, promising uncommon privileges and unexpected religions toleration to all who would settle in the new province. Glowing descriptions were given of the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the land, the wonderful varieties of its prod- nets, the salubrity of its climate.
All these inducements attracted the attention of the im- migrants in New England to New Jersey. Their country was sterile, its climate was harsh, its natural products lim- ited, and an element of its population had become prom- inent. They purposed to abrogate some of the laws which provided for a continuance of the strict enactments that established Puritan rule. So the attention of many settlers, especially in Connectient, was turned with longing eyes toward this new country, which, if accounts of it were to be trusted, was a paradise for the agriculturist and a haven of rest for those who sought a country where they might live under their own laws. So they came from the settle- ments on the Connectient River and Long Island, all, how- ever, New Englanders, into New Jersey, and settled at Elizabeth.
Prior to this negotiations had taken place between the colonists of Connectient and Peter Stuyvesant, the redonbt- able governor-general of the New Netherlands, looking to- ward a lodgment in what was afterward New York, but a refusal on the part of the Dutch governor to grant to the proposed immigrants independent civil courts without ap- peal from them to other tribunals put an end to the nego- tiations.
Philip Carteret, the first governor of the Province of New
VIEW OF OLD NEWARK.
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Jersey under Berkeley and Carteret, reached Elizabethtown in the month of August, 1665, with about thirty persons -- men and women. These immigrants who accompanied Carteret were not of the character which fitted them to brave the environments which surround the first settlers in a new country. Eighteen of them were laborers, called " servants " by Carteret. With very few exceptions they were all of French blood or bore French names. Two of them were what in those days were called gentlemen -James Bollen and Robert Vanquellin. The last named was a Frenchman. a sull'- vevor, and became surveyor- general of the Province, a member of the governor's council, and attended the sessions of the Legislature during the time he remained
STUYVESANT'S PEAR TREE.
in Elizabethtown. Bollen was a mere tool of the gov- ernor, cunning, entirely ob- sequions to Carteret, and al- ways acting in his interest.
Carteret and his thirty followers found quite a settlement at Elizabethtown scattered in rude dwellings along the stream, then and since called Elizabeth River. Many of these settlers met him at the landing and escorted him to the village, he marching at their head with a hoe on his shoulder, denoting thereby, as is supposed, that he meant that agriculture was to be the chief occupation of the people.
It has been claimed by some historians that Philip Car-
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CARTERET AND NICOLLS
teret and his motley band of followers, with four families found there, were the real founders of Elizabethtown.
But this is a mistake. Four men before Carteret's arrival had bought the land from the Indians and had secured a grant of it from Governor Richard Nicolls, of New York, who claimed the right to issue the grant. The purchase made by these four mon was, by the express words of the deed, for themselves and their " associates." Carteret dis- puted the right of Nicolls to make the grant, and his con- ·tention, judging of it by modern rules, was correct, but he (stopped himself from actually refusing to acknowledge the grant made by Nicolls, as he purchased from John Bayless, one of the four grantees, his interest in the land conveyed, Richard nicholls and made other purchases from those who could only claim title under the Indian deed and the grant made by Nicolls.
There is, however, a well authenticated fact of history which antagonizes the statement that Elizabethtown owes its settlement to Philip Carteret and his thirty followers and the four families. Six months before the governor made his appearance in New Jersey, and on the 19th day of February, 1665, a town meeting was held in Elizabethtown, at which all of the male inhabitants were obliged to be pres- ent, and on that day eighty-five residents in that town took the oath of allegiance. The names of those who subscribed to the oath are recorded, and many of them will be recog- nized as represented among the worthiest and most re- spectable citizens of Elizabeth of the present day. Among them were Woodruff, Ogden, Crane, Carter, Moon, Marsh, Oliver, Tucker, Price, Bond, Whitehead, Meeker, Bonnell, Hatfield, Headley, Barber, Parker, and others,
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On the day when this oath was taken the land of the col- ony was allotted among the colonists according to pro- visions made before that time. The real founders of Eliza- bethtown, the promoters of its best interests and most per- manent advantages, were to be found among these eighty-
LIBERTY HALL: ELIZABETHTOWN.
1
five citizens, who thus avowed their allegiance to the crown of England-all of them sturdy, self-denying, self-reliant, God-fearing Puritans.
Elizabethtown became really the capital of the Province, the residence of the colonial governors, and the place of
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THE SETTLERS OF ELIZABETHTOWN
meeting for several years of the Legislature. Its political importance in the early history of the colony was asserted by the lords proprietors and their agents and acknowledged by the colonists. It is to-day a growing, populous city, the county town of Union, and the abode of many representa- tives of these first settlers who laid its foundations so broad and deep upon the basis of justice, liberty, and religious principle.
Elizabeth, as at first established, was of very large dimen- sions. It extended from north to south over seventeen miles of country, running from the mouth of the Raritan to the mouth of the Passaic, and twice that distance westward into a then unknown country, and included the whole of what is to-day Union, a large part of Somerset, and a small portion of Morris county. Toward the north it took in Clin- ton Township in Essex County and considerable of the City of Newark.
The first settlers of Elizabethtown were of English stock, coming from the colonies in New England, mostly from Con- nectient. Some came from Long Island, but there were im- migrants there from New England. A year or two after the first settlement at Elizabethtown Robert Treat and his col- leagues appointed by the towns from whence were to come the expected colonists in New Jersey, and who were in search of a home for their constituents, visited Elizabeth- town and there found friends and former intimate asso- ciates, whom they had known in Branford, Guilford, Mil- ford, or in New Haven; and it is undoubted that they were largely inthienced by these old companions in making choice of Newark as their desired haven of rest.
The small French element introduced into Elizabeth in 1665, by Philip Carteret, had no appreciable influence in moulding and shaping the course of the colony. After-
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
ward, under the influence of the colonial governors who long made Elizabethtown their place of residence and really for a few years the capital of the province, another element soon crept in-English, it is true, but not possessing the same characteristics as were the peculiar property of the first comers; and they began to exert a controlling power in shaping affairs. The two elements worked side by side in harmony, as it seemed, without strife or attrition until the two became blended into one homogeneous whole, and now the dissimilar and distinguishing attributes of each are lost. The strictest scrutiny would fail in an attempt to de- tect any difference in the pres- ent population, whether they represent the first settlers or those who came after.
The people of this municipal- ity for generations have been re- markable for their courtly man- ners and for their old-fashioned grace of deportment. It is pos- Boudinoto sible that in this respect the im- press of the French immigrants who came with Carteret has not been lost.
The influence of the colonial governors, of course, in any controversy between the mother country and the colonists was cast in behalf of England, and it was natural that the element attracted to New Jersey by the real or supposed advantages to be gained by the presence of the representa- tives of the English crown should also remain true to the king. Up to a certain period in the colonial history this was the case, but at the time when the encroachments of the home government oppressed the other colonies the great
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ELIAS BOUDINOT AND OTHER FAMILIES
majority of the people of Elizabeth embraced the patriot canse with enthusiasm, and became its firm adherents, out- spoken and active in their resistance to the oppression of the English government. Many distinguished citizens en- tered the service of the Congress in the army as privates and officers.
Among the distinguished men in the Continental Army
from Elizabeth were Elias Dayton, Francis
Barber, Oliver Spencer,
Matthias Williamson,
Aaron Ogden, Elias Boudinot, William Clarke, Jonathan Day- ton, Philemon Dickerson, Matthias Ogden, Jona- than Condit, William De Hart, and hundreds of others. Many of these rose to eminence in the State as members of the Continental Congress and of the State Legis- latures. Abraham Clark, a signer of the Declaration, was an ex- press rider for the gov- ernment during the war. He and Elias Bondinot became members of Congress. Rev. James Caldwell, the " Fight- ing Parson," was also quartermaster. He resided at Eliza- bethtown. Aaron Burr resided there in early youth with some members of his father's family.
William Livingston, the first governor of New Jersey
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
after the passage of the State constitution of July 2, 1776, was connected with the Continental Army at the time of his election. He resigned from his command to accept the appointment and was then a resident of Elizabethtown. He made himself the object of the peculiar hatred of the few Tories of the town by his unwearied and effective exertions on behalf of the colonists. They vented their rage by burn- ing his residence, an elegant mansion with a large library, much valuable furniture, and other property.
While the British were at New York and Staten Island many raids were made from those points on the inhabitants of the town and of the ad- joining country, and an im- mense amount of damage was done. General Clin- ton at one time occupied the place with a portion of his army. But these efforts THE CRANE TAVERN. of the enemy to work in- jury to the stubborn and unterrified patriots only intensified them in their loyalty to the country.
Elizabethtown, during its history both as connected with the colony and the State, has given many distinguished men to the service of the country as ministers of the gospel, lawyers, judges, jurists, and representatives in the State Legislatures and in Congress. General Winfield Scott had been a resident for many years prior to his nomination as a
1 From this tavern of Colonel Will- iam Crane, at Elizabethtown Point, Washington embarked on his way to
his inauguration. The site is now occu- pied by the Singer sewing machine factory.
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ELIZABETHI AND ELIZABETHPORT
candidate for the Presidency and almost to the time of his death was a citizen of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is now a residential town with no large manu- facturing interests. At Elizabethport, which is fast becoming a part of the city, is situated the large plant of the Singer sewing machine works, where many hundred workmen are employed. The municipality was named in honor of Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret. It is now called Elizabeth, taking that title by virtue of an act of the Legislature.
FLAG OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
4
C
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CHAPTER XXV
THE PURITAN SETTLERS
€ SSEX COUNTY has a history which, in interest and importance, is surpassed by no other in the State. It has 83,023 acres, of which 4,631 are tide marsh, 1,646 are covered with water, and about 20,000 are still forests. It has thirteen townships, three cities, and sev- oral boroughs and villages.
The territory of Essex, as at first formed, was much larger than it is at present. It was created by act of Legislature in March, 1682, and, according to that act, comprised all the land within these bounds:
All the settlements between the west side of the Hackensack River and the parting line between Woodbridge and Elizabeth Town, and so to extend west- ward and northward to the utmost bounds of the Province.
This included all of the present Counties of Essex, Union, and Passaic, a large part of Bergen, and some of Somerset. If there had been no division of the Province into East and West Jersey at that time it would have taken in the whole of Morris and Sussex, most of Somerset, and a large portion of Hunterdon.
A great amount of the territory of Essex as it was orig- inally formed has been taken in the creation of other count- ties. When the boundary lines of Somerset were finally determined Essex was obliged to surrender some of its land. The large and important Township of Acquackanonk, in
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
1837, which since 1682 had been incorporated within Essex, was added to Passaic. The whole of Union, in 1857, was separated from Essex. Notwithstanding these changes it is now the second most populous and influential county in the State.
At the time when the Duke of York made his grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret the English colonies in Connecticut began to assume great importance and exer- cised a dominating in- fluence in the public affairs of that Prov- ince. Several towns had been settled, scat- tered in the Valley of the Connecticut River. New Haven, Guilford, Milford, and Brand- ford were some of these localities. Their inhabitants were all of the same religions be- lief, all enthusiasts, and tenacious of their JOHN WINTHROP, OF CONNECTICUT. rights, whether civil or religions. These peo- ple were bigoted and intolerant according to modern notions of tolerance. They were strict in the performance of every duty incumbent upon them, but they demanded the right to judge of their own liability as to duty, claiming that their conduct was to be governed by one infallible guide, and that was the revealed Word of God. In construing that Word they strangely mingled the severity of the Old Testament with the requirements of that divine love which Christ,
THE LOWER GREEN: NEWARK.
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
their only acknowledged leader and guide, proclaimed to be the sole foundation of His church upon earth. Implicit obedience was demanded from all who were within their jurisdiction. They loved their families, and guarded and cherished them with never failing tenderness, but within the family circle and in the household the head of the house was supreme, and he must be obeyed with instant and reverentia] submission. They were merciless to the unre- pentant sinner, in- flicted the harshest punishments for
JAMES I.
crime and contu- macy, and never for- gave those who con- temned authority. They were the Saints of the Lord, and as- sumed the right to dominate over the lives and opinions of those who dwelt among them, and who sought shelter. in their homes or in their community.
They required the strictest conformity with the opinions they cherished and commanded all to abstain from any transgression of the rules they established or the laws they enacted. They were superstitious, and hung poor girls and women for alleged witchcraft.
But they were honest in all their dealings with their neighbors and lived unblemished lives. They feared God, had faith in His promises, and worshipped Him lovingly
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THE PURITAN SETTLERS
and faithfully. They erected churches for His honor and glory and tilled them with His praise. By the side of the church edifice they built the school house and college, and made sacrifices to support their institutions of learning. While they refused liberty of thought or tolerance of opin- ion to others they claimed the right of exercising their own liberty of thoughi, of opinion, and action, and they laid broad and deep in their new home, and for all time, the foundations of freedom.
When judging of these men it must be remembered that they lived in an age when intoler- ance was universal and tolerance the exception fo the general rule. This, too, must be said in their be- half: they had braved the dan- gers of the ocean; they had fronted the privations and THE BRADFORD HOUSE AT PLYMOUTH. hardships of a new life in a sterile land, under an unfriendly sun, where savage beasts and more savage men surrounded them; they had surrendered the delights of civilized life, the comfort and solace of home, the associations of country, the protection and guardianship of organized government, so that they might isolate themselves and enjoy in their own way their peculiar notions of religious liberty. Having braved all this with a common purpose, with united hearts and minds, they claimed the right to select from those who sought admission to their communities such as would com-
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