USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 25
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
and to persuade Kieft that his treatment of them would re- sult in bloodshed.
Governor Kieft turned a deaf ear to all warnings and ad- vice and continued to goad the Indians by cruel treatment and harsh methods of taxation. In 1643 an Indian-no doubt under stress of great provocation-shot and killed a member of the Van Vorst family. This first act of murder furnished a pretext for the whites and precipitated what is called " The Massacre of Pavonia," on the night of February 25, 1643, when Kieft, with a sergeant and eighty soldiers, armed and equipped for slaughter, crossed the Hudson, landed at Communipaw, attacked the Indians while they were asleep in their camp, and, without regard to age or sex, deliberately, and in the most horrible manner, butch- ered nearly a hundred of them.
Stung by this outrage upon their neighbors and kinsmen, the northern tribes at once took the warpath, attacked the settlement, burned the buildings, murdered the settlers, wiped the villages out of existence, and laid waste the coun- try round about. Those of the settlers who were not killed outright fled across the river to New Amsterdam. Nor was peace restored between the savages and the whites until August, 1645, when the remaining owners and tenants of farms returned to the site of the old village, rebuilt their homes, and started anew.
-Petrus Stuyvesant was made director-general July 28, 1646. Under his administration the settlement at Bergen was revived, grew rapidly, and prospered. Between his ar- rival and the year 1669 the following named persons pur- chased or leased lands, though all of them did not become actual residents :
Michael Pauw, Michael Paulesen, Jan Evertse Bout, Cornelius Van Vorst, Myndert Myndertse, Van Der Heer Nedderhorst, Abraham Isaacsen Planek
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
(Verplanck), Claes Jansen Van Purmerend (Cooper), Dirk Straatmaker, Barent Jansen, Jan Cornelissen Buys, John Evertsen Carsbon, Michael Jansen (Vree- land), Jacob Stoffelsen, Aert Teunisen Van Putten, Egbert Woutersen, Garret Dircksen Blauw, Cornelius Ariesen, Jacob Jacobsen Roy, Francisco Van Angola (negro), Guilliaem Corneliesen, Dirk Sycan, Claes Carsten Norman, Jacob Wal- lengen (Van Winkle), James Luby, Lubbert Gerritsen, Gysbert Lubbertsen, Jolın Garretsen Van Immen, Thomas Davison, Garret Pietersen, Jan Cornelissen Schoenmaker, Jan Cornelissen Crynnen, Casper Stinets, Peter Jansen, Hendrick Jans Van Schalekwyck, Nicholas Bayard, Nicholas Varlet, Herman Smeeman, Tielman Van Vleeck, Douwe Harmansen (Tallman), Claes Jansen Backer, Egbert Steenhuysen, Harmen Edwards, Paulus Pietersen, Allerd Anthony, John Vigne, Pau'ljus Leendert- sen, John Verbrug- gen, Balthazar Bay- ard, Samuel Edsall, and Aerent Lau- rens.
All these persons re- ceived their deeds, or such titles as they had, from the Dutch, through the - STUYVESANT'S BOWERY HOUSE. different direc- tor - generals. The titles of the settlers were confirmed by Governor Philip Carteret and his council in 1668. In 1669 Carteret also granted other portions of the lands in Hudson County to the following persons :
Maryn Adrianse, Peter Stuyvesant, Claes Petersen Cors, Severn Laurens, Hendrick Jansen Spier, Peter Jansen Slott, Barent Christianse, Mark Noble, Samuel Moore, Adrian Post, Guert Coerten, Frederick Phillipse, Thomas Fred- erick de Kuyder, Guert Geretsen (Van Wagenen), Peter Jacobsen, John Berry, Ide Cornelins Van Vorst, Hans Diedrick, Hendrick Van Ostum, Cornelius Ruy- ven.
431
THE QUEEN ANNE CHARTER
" The Town and Corporation of Bergen," as appears by Carteret's charter, had an area of 11,500 acres. Up to the end of 1669 scarce one-third of this area had been patented to settlers. The balance, more than 8,000 acres, was used in common by the patentees, their heirs, devisees, and grantees, for nearly a century before it was finally divided and set off to those entitled to it. Many of the patentees and their descendants and grantees encroached upon these com- mon lands. A number caused surveys to be made, pre- sumed to " take up," and used divers parts of the public domain " without any warrant, power, or authority for so doing, without the consent of the majority of the other patent own- ers," so that in the course of time it could not be known how much of O these common lands had been taken IMPETV ARTE up and appropriated.
This state of things caused great NON confusion and numerous violent dis- putes between the settlers, who, in to Hunter January, 1714, petitioned Governor Hunter for a new charter empower- ing them, in their corporate capacity, to convey or lease their common lands, in fee, for one, two, or three lives or for years. Governor Hunter accordingly procured a new charter for the town and corporation, known as " The Queen Anne Charter." The power given by this charter had little or no effect in putting a stop to encroachments upon, and disputes between, the settlers. Thus matters con- tinued until 1643, when another effort was made by the set- tlers to protect their rights in the common lands. An agree- ment was made, dated June 16th, of that year, providing for a survey of the common lands and a determination of how
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
much of the same had been lawfully taken up, used, or claimed, and by whom.
For some reason this agreement was not carried out, and matters continued to grow worse until December 7, 1763, when the settlers appealed to the Legislature for relief. That body passed a bill, which was approved by Governor Franklin, appointing commissioners to survey, map, and
CASTLE POINT.
divide the common lands of Bergen among the persons en- titled thereto. These commissioners, seven in number, made the survey and division and filed their report and maps on the 2d of March, 1765, in the secretary's office at Perth Amboy, copies of which report and maps are also filed in the offices of the clerks of both Hudson and Bergen Counties.
In the division thus made by the commissioners the com-
433
EARLY SETTLERS
mon lands were apportioned among the patentees, herein- before named, and their descendants, as well as among the following persons :
Michael de Mott, George de Mott, Gerebrand Claesen, Joseph Waldron, Dirk Van Vechten, James Collerd, Thomas Brown. Andries Seagaerd, Dirk Cadmus, Zackariah Sickels, Job Smith, Daniel Smith, Joseph Hawkins, John Halmeghs, Philip French, Ide Cornelius Sip, Herman Beeder, Nicholas Preyer, Sir Peter Warren, Anthony White, Michael Abraham Van Tuyl, Walter Clendenny, John Cummings, David Latourette, John Van Dolsen.
Other families, those of Day, De Grauw, De Groot, Hes- sels, Hopper, Banta, Huysman, Van Giesen, Earle, Franzen. Morris, and Swaen, had become residents of the county with- out having lands granted them. It may therefore be safely said that the families above named constituted nearly all of the original settlers of Hudson County east of the Hack- ensack River.
SHILLING OF GEORGE II.
CHAPTER XXXII
HUDSON COUNTY-CONCLUDED
HE westerly portion of Hudson County was included in the purchase by Captain William Sandford, who came from the Parish of St. Mary's in the Island of Barbadoes. Governor Carteret and council granted this tract to Sandford on July 4, 1668. It contained within its bonndaries an area of 15,308 acres, extending from the point of union of the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers about seven miles northward along said rivers to a spring now known as the Boiling Spring, or Sandford Spring, near Rutherford. This purchase was made by Sandford for himself and Major Nathaniel Kingsland, also from the Island of Barbados, and the same was subsequently divided between Sandford and Kingsland. Kingsland, who became the owner of the northern part, including a portion of the present County of Bergen, resided at what is now known as " Kingsland Manor," south of Rutherford, in Bergen County, while Sand- ford, who became the owner of the southerly part, resided at what is now East Newark, in Hudson County. Much of this large section of territory remained vested in the respective descendants of Sandford and Kingsland for many years after their deaths.
This western portion of the county was originally organ- ized under the name of Harrison by the act creating the County of Hudson, being set off from Lodi Township. li
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
embraced the land between the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, including the Township of Union in Bergen County. Kearney Township was set off in 1867.
This neck of land, extending from the junction of the Passaic and the Hackensack northward to the Boiling Spring ( Rutherford Park) was known among the Indians by the name of " Mighgectilick." It was estimated to con-
Porwill ısı2
FORT WADSWORTH AND THE NARROWS.
tain 5,308 acres of upland and 10,000 acres of meadow, and was sold by the proprietors to Captain William Sandford, July 4, 1668, for twenty pounds sterling yearly in lieu of the halfpenny per acre quit-rent, and on condition that he should settle on the track six or eight families within three years. On the 20th of the same month, with the consent of the lords proprietors, he bought of Tantaqua, Tamak, Anaren, Hanyaham, H. Gosque, and Ws. Kenarenawack, representatives of the Indians, all their right and title in
437
PETER SCHUYLER'S FARM
the tract, paying them " 170 fathoms of Black wampmu, 200 fathoms White wampum, 19 black Coates, 16 Guns, 60) double hands of powder, 10 pair of Breetches, 60 knives, 67 Barrs of Lead, one Anker of Brandy, three half Fats of Beer, Eleven Blankets, 30 Axes, 20 Howes, and two cookes of dozens."
New Barbadoes Neck, as this section was called. was un- der the jurisdiction of Newark from this time until the di- vision of the Province. Afterward it was within the Conn- ty of Essex until January 21, 1710. Shortly after this Arent Schuyler purchased a plan- tation opposite Belleville ano opened his copper mine, as described in a previous chap- ter. The farm op. posite Newark owned by Colonel Peter Schuyler was known as Peters- borough, and cou- PETER SCHUYLER. tained nine hundred and six acres, of which two hundred and sixty-five were covered with timber, three hundred and ninety-three were under cultivation, and the remainder was salt meadow. It was later owned by Archibald Kennedy, who married Colonel Schuyler's only child. This farm con- tained a two-story brick dwelling, a large greenhouse, coach house, stables, barn, overseer's house, ciderhouse, icehouse, etc., an excellent garden, and a large orchard, which in
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
1800 produced three hundred barrels of cider. It also had a deer park.
In 1802 the land was laid out into ninety building lots of about one acre each and advertised as " New Town "; and on July 4, 1815, the people of the place resolved that they " would henceforth distinguish the small district of country formerly known as Kennedy's Farm, and to the extent of one mile north of the northerly bounds thereof, by the name of 'The Village of Lodi.'"
The first road in Hudson County was one leading from
NEW YORK CITY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Communipaw to Bergen (Jersey City), and was laid out as early as 1660. In 1682, by art of the general assembly, the first " street commission " in the province was organized, consisting of John Berry, Lawrence Andries (Van Bos- kerek), Enoch Michielsen ( Vreeland), Hans Diedricks, Mich- ael Smith, Hendrick Van Ostrum, and Claes Jansen Van Purmerend. What is known as the Bergen plank road was laid out in 1796. The Newark plank road was original- ly constructed about 1765 and the Hackensack turnpike in 1804. During the last French war Colonel John Schuyler
439
KEARNEY AND HARRISON
built the causeway from the upland near Belleville to the Hackensack River at Donw's Ferry " at a very great ex- pense."
The Township of Kearney contains the thrifty. attractive village of Arlington, which has become not only an impor- tant business center for that part of the county, but a place of permanent residence of many men of means and influence in New York, JJersey City, and Newark. It has a popula- tion of about twelve hundred. It contains excel- lent churches and schools, several thriving business es- tablishments, a few manufactures, and many handsome and well kept dwellings. It is a station on the New York and Greenwood Lake division of the Erie Railroad.
The township also contains the New Jersey State Sol- diers' Home, which was removed thither from Newark in 1880. This institution was organized under a legislative act approved April 12, 1862, and opened in Newark on the Fourth of July, 1866. The Legislatures of 1886 and 1887 appropriated $175,000 for the erection of the new home, which now contains over three hundred inmates. The pres- ent site consists of seventeen and a half acres, with a front- age of six hundred feet on the Passaic River, upon which six now and commodious buildings have been erected.
Harrison is a large business and manufacturing munici- pality with a population of about ten thousand. It is sit- nated on the east bank of the Passaic, directly opposite Newark. His interests are varied. embracing some of the largest mannfactures in the State, which furnish employ- ment to hundreds of skilled workmen. It has several churches and excellent schools. The locality known as East Newark adjoins Harrison on the north, and is also a manufacturing center of importance. It was created as a town in IS98,
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
In the Revolutionary War the present County of Hudson was important territory. It early became a recognized gateway to Jersey City and New York, and Lord Stirling took measures to place it in a condition of defence. He de- vised the works o n Paulus Hook and Bergen Neck, which were ordered constructed by Washing- ton, and which were after- ward under the command of General Hugh Mercer and later of Colonel Dur- kie. Washing- CENBO ton frequently visited the region during this period. In October, 1776, GENERAL WASHINGTON RECONNOITERING. the Americans evacuated the defences and they remained in possession of the British until the end of the war, who held them with great tenacity.
2
On the afternoon of the 12th of July-eight days after the Declaration of Independence-the " Phoenix," forty guns, and the " Rose," twenty guns, came sweeping
441
PAULUS HOOK
up the bay, and for the first time the thunders of civilized warfare burst from the sand-hills of Paulus Hook, its bat- teries being trained upon the enemy. But the English ves- sels suffered little damage, as their decks were protected by
HASBROUCK INSTITUTE.
sand-bags. On the same evening Lord Howe sailed up the harbor. On September 15th the post again had a skirmish with the British vessels " Roebuck," " Phomix," and "Tar- tar." Under the English, in 1777, it was under the com- mand of Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk, of Saddle River, who had deserted the patriot cause and gone over to the enemy. The works on Bergen Neck were named Fort de
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
Laneey in honor of Oliver de Lancey, the great Tory of Westchester County, New York.
The inhabited territory now comprised within the limits of Hudson County was subject to numerous raids during the war, Whig and Tory, friend and foe, both participating in these predatory excursions. Early in January, 1777, Captain Kennedy's house opposite Newark was plundered by soldiers returning from Morris- town to New England. In April of the same year a body of Americans from Secaucus " carried away all the grain, horses, cows, and sheep they could get together." Other raids oc- curred from time to time, that of Sir Henry Clinton, in September, 1777, being especially noteworthy. Sir Henry divided his forces into four col- umns, which entered the present County of Hudson from the general rendezvous at New Bridge, above Hackensack. On the 12th the expedi- tion set out. Clinton himself fol- A HIGHLANDER. lowed, passing up Newark Bay to Schuyler's Landing on the Hackensack (Donw's ferry), whence he marched over the Belleville turnpike to Schuy- ler's house, where he found Captain Drummond with two hundred and fifty men. During the night General Camp- bell arrived with his detachment and the cattle he had col- lected en route. The different columns met as designed on the 15th. On the 16th General Campbell marched his force from English Neighborhood to Bergen Point, whence he passed over to Staten Island. The result of this raid was the capture of four hundred cattle, four hundred horses, and
443
EVACUATION OF BERGEN NECK
a few sheep, taken mostly from the people of Bergen and Essex Counties, They had eight men killed, eighteen wounded, ten missing, and tive taken prisoners.
On July 28, 1778, the Americans retaliated, coming down as far as Bergen Point, visiting Roelmek on their way, and carrying off " a great number of Cattle from the Inhab- itants."
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S DESK.
But the most brilliant episode in connection with Panlus Hook occurred in the antumn of 1779, when Major Henry Lee (" Light Horse Harry "), stationed at New Bridge, made a spirited attack on the post, capturing one hundred and fifty-nine of the garrison, including officers. This was early in the morning of August 19. The affair was very galling to the British and Tories, but the Americans were overjoyed. and Major Lee received the thanks of both Congress and Washington. the former placing in Lee's hands $15,000 to be distributed among the soldiers engaged in the attack and also awarding him a special medal commemorating the event.
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
Early in September, 1782, Fort de Lancey on Bergen Neck was evacuated and burned, and on October 5 Major Ward embarked for Nova Scotia with his despised and motley crew of refugees. From this time until the close of the war Paulus Hook was the only foothold which the British had in New Jersey, and from here they continued to forage and raid over the county. But this, too, was evacuated by the enemy on the 22d of November, 1783, and a few days later General Washington passed through the Hook on the way to his home at Mount Vernon.
EXITUS ACTA PROBAT George Washington
WASHINGTON'S BOOKPLATE.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE COUNTY OF UNION
NION COUNTY was taken from Essex and incor- porated by an act of the Legislature dated March 19, 1857. Up to that time it was an integral part of the mother county, allied to it by the close con- nection extending over a long series of years, by the com- mon bond of the hardship and struggles incident to a new life in the wilderness, and by the brotherhood arising from a union of hearts and hands in the vicissitudes of the strug- gle for independence. What has been said historically of Essex can be said, therefore, for Union. The one is the child of the other, which has gone out from the home to take up an independent life for itself.
Union County is a locality of residences. The capital, Elizabeth, has a special history of its own, different from that of any other town in the State. That history has, in part, been written on these pages. Plainfield is one of the most sightly and beautiful cities in the State, and deserves better mention of it than can be given in this volume, but it is entirely outside of the Valley of the Passaic. There are really only two municipalities in the county which are connected in such a manner with the river that they ought to be noticed. Of one of them very little can be said.
The small township of New Providence is intimately con- nected with the Passaic. Its whole western boundary is
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
washed by that stream. It was a locality of quiet neigh- borhoods, made up mainly of descendants of the original settlers who are still found there. But the introduction of the Delaware and Passaic Railroad, now a branch of the
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THE BOUDINOT HOUSE: ELIZABETH. (Now the Home for Aged Women.)
Lackawanna, has introduced a new order of affairs. Vil- lages for residences have sprung up along the line of this road, such as Murray Hill and Berkeley Heights. Feltville, on the border of Westfield, was at one time a scene of great activity.
New Providence, the most ancient hamlet in the town-
447
NEW PROVIDENCE
ship, is situated on the east side of the Passaic and has two churches, a Presbyterian and a Methodist. The inhabit
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: ELIZABETH,
ants are mostly agricultural in their pursuits and make very few changes.
SAINT JAMES'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: ELIZABETH.
449
NEW PROVIDENCE AND SUMMIT
li once was connected with Elizabethtown until Febru- ary 4. 1791. when it was annexed to Springfield, but in 1801 was made an independent township. At one time it had some industries of importance. It owes its settlement mainly to the Elizabethtown associates, a company of citi- zens who took up a large extent of land here and indneed others to join them in inhabiting it. Besides the two churches at New Providence the Roman Catholics have es- tablished a congregation at Stony Hill.
The names most prominent among the early settlers were Bonnel. Littell, Day, Stiles, Wilcox, Lyon, Elmer, Valen- tine, Roll, Bailey, and Carlt. Many descendants of the early settlers have gone ont from their native seats, united them- selves with other families, and the industry and thrift of those early comers into this beautiful country have been preserved.
While New Providence was connected with Essex it gave many of its citizens to the good of the public, in county of- fices and as members of the State Legislature, and all of them performed the duties of their respective offices with fidelity.
Summit is so called from the fact that when the Morris and Essex Railroad was constructed, and before its con- nection with the Lackawanna road, this locality was the highest ground reached. It was the summit of the road, hence the name. In 1837, when the Morris and Essex Com- pany began running trains, Smmmit could hardly be called even a hamlet. It had very few dwellings situated within any near distance of the station there established.
Jonathan C. Bonnel, known better as Crane Bonnel, was a large landowner at this point and in its immediate vicin- ity. He lived on the west bank of the Passaic, in a large, commodions, old-fashioned dwelling, like many of the farm
VIEW IN NORTH PARK: ELIZABETHI.
451
JONATHAN C. BONNEL
houses of his day. He was a man of great energy and perse- verance, and keenly alive to the benefits to be derived from the existence of a railroad running over his large estate. It is asserted by many engineers that the proper route for the road was to leave Milburn at the road running west- ward from the station, to follow the ravine extending along the northern side of Short Hills, and so to reach Morris County at the eminence known as Hobart Hill. That plan would have saved two or three miles to the company, but it did not suit the far reaching views of Mr. Bonnel. So he bent all the strength of his determined will to the laying of the road over the hill lying east of his LIBERTY HALL: ELIZABETH, land. In the end he succeeded, and the present flourishing town of Summit is the result.
Like many other localities of its kind it is a town of resi- dences, with broad avenues lined with dwellings of the very best architecture and elegant and commodions in all their appliances. In 1900 it had a population of 5,302, a large proportion of whom are business men of New York, who have added moral strength and the sinews of wealth to this city on a hill. It has six churches: Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran. Baptist, and Roman Catholic. Its people are alive to all modern demands for improvement, sanitary and otherwise. They have built
1776 HERE.IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION STOOD THE SIGNAL BEACON,AND BY ITS SIDE, THE CANNON'KNOWN AS "THE OLD SOW" WHICH IN TIME OF DANGER AND INVASION SUMMONED THE PATRIOTIC MINUTE MEN
OF THIS VICINITY TO THE DEFENSE OF THE COUNTRY AND THE REPULSE OF THE INVADER
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THE NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTS OF NEW JERSE
1896
REVOLUTIONARY MONUMENT AT SUMMIT.
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THE BEACON AND SIGNAL GUN
school houses, churches, a town hall, a public library, ma- cadamized their streets, sunk sewers in their thoroughfares, adorned their town with shade trees, and placed substan- tial sidewalks for the comfort of pedestrians.
Within the bounds of this municipality, on its eastern bor- der and on an eminence overlooking the valley spread out from the foot of the commanding elevation on which Sum-
HOTEL
CENTRAL PART OF RANWAY.
(From an Oki Print.)
mit is situated, is the spot where, during the Revolution, a beacon and a signal gun known by the pleasant name of " Old Sow " were placed to warn the minutemen of the vi- cinity of approaching danger from incursions of the enemy. The New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revo- Ition have placed an appropriate monument on the identi- cal spot once occupied by these interesting memorials of the times when the minds of the people were at tension heat.
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