USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 5
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55
THIE GORGE AT MILLINGTON
the sides are so steep yet they are covered from the top to the stream below with a thick growth of trees and under- brush.
Some theories have been advanced by geologists as to when and how the river accomplished the feat of creating this gorge, but their examination and research have not enabled them to determine definitely the vexed question. It was probably done during the time when this part of New Jersey was covered with a heavy mass of ice. The waters of the upper river were dammed by its immense ar-
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GREAT SEAL OF GEORGE I.
cumulation, and in their efforts to escape they broke through the hill and thus formed the ravine for the passage of the water.
A bridge of some artistic taste, used by the Passaic and Delaware Railroad, spans the river near Millington.
The pure air and beautiful scenery of this region have in- vited several summer visitors to locate their country resi- dences here, and more will surely follow. One of the most notable of these residences is that built by Frederick Nish-
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
wish, now deceased. Mr. Nishwish was a man of prom- inence and influence. His power was manifested in public affairs and in political circles. His energy was felt in all matters relating to public interests. His honesty com- manded universal respect and inspired confidence. He was the inventor of an improved harrow, which he called the " Acme," and a manufactory of this useful agricultural im- plement was established by him at this village some years before his death which is still in profitable operation, its
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GREAT SEAL OF GEORGE II.
products being in great demand for their usefulness in all parts of the country.
There is a Baptist Church of some antiquity at Milling- ton, but on the Somerset side, which is an influential factor in controlling the religious sentiment of this part of the State.
After leaving Millington, and before reaching Union County, there are some named localities in Somerset : Mount Bethel, Warrenville, Coontown, Smalleytown, Mount
57
FORMATION OF COUNTIES
Tabor, and Union Village. These are small villages, or hamlets, of inconsiderable size and in farming districts. At Mount Bethel is another Baptist Church and at Mount Tabor a Methodist, with a numerous congregation and very commodious building.
Somerset County was named probably from Somerset- shire in England. This is conjecture, based somewhat ou tradition and on one or two significant facts confirmatory of this tradition. There were undoubtedly some early settlers in the county who immigrated from Somersetshire. An imaginative resemblance between the scenery of their former home and that found in their new abode, or per- haps a desire to perpetuate in New Jersey a name left in England, led them to call that new home Somerset. It can not be ascertained when that name was first applied to any locality in New Jersey. It was not probably known until the creation by statute of the county. The first mention by the colonial Legislature of any division of the colony into counties is to be found in an act passed November 13, 1675, by the Assembly of the whole province held in Elizabeth- town; but that mention is exceedingly indefinite. It ap- pears in this manner in the preamble of an act :
Having taken into serious consideration the great Change, that hath been oe- casioned by a Necessity of keeping Conrts within the Province as also the Ne- cessity that Courts of Justice be maintained and upheldl amongst us, which said Courts may go under the denominations of County Courts.
Therefore it was enacted :
That there be two of the aforesaid Courts kept in the year, in each respective County, viz .: Bergen and the adjacent plantations about them, to be a County and to have two Courts ina Year, whose Sessions shall be the first Tuesday in September; Elizabethtown and Newark to make a County and have two Courts in a Year, whose Sessions shall be the first Tuesday in March and third Tuesday in September ; Woodbridge and Piseataqua to be a County and to have two Courts, the first of them the third Tuesday in March and the second Tuesday in
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
September. The two towns of Nevysink to make a County, the Sessions to be the last Tuesday in March and first Tuesday in September.
There was no legislation prior to this time relative to the creation of counties. It is not probable that the Legis- lature by this act intended to set apart any particular sec- tion of the colony for the purposes of a county. It would have been exceedingly difficult at that time, in the then un- settled state of the country, with so much uninhabited land, with no knowledge of what might be taken for boundary lines, to have defined with any exactness any region of country for the creation of a county. But at a session of the Legislature of East Jersey beld in March, 1682, at Eliza- bethtown, four counties were created, their boundaries very imperfectly described, and their powers somewhat de- fined. These four counties were L'OF Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and TION Monmouth. Middlesex County was thus described in that act:
Middlesex County to begin from the part- ing line between Essex County and Wood- bridge line, containing Woodbridge and Pis- SEAL OF EAST JERSEY. cataway and all the Plantations on both sides the Raritan River as far as Chesequake Har- bor Eastward, extending South West to the utmost bounds of the Province.
This description is most indefinite, but a glance at it re- veals the fact that, indefinite as it is, it contains much more territory than is now found in the modern county. It is quoted here because Somerset County, when erected, was taken from Middlesex. " Chesequake" Harbor is now known as Cheesequake, a small stream flowing from near Jackson- ville, in Middlesex County, into Raritan Bay, a few miles south of Amboy.
On the 11th day of May, 1688, the Legislature for East
59
ERECTION OF SOMERSET COUNTY
Jersey met at Perth Amboy. The third act passed at that sos- sion was one which erected Somerset County, and was thus entitled : " An act for dividing the County of Middlesex into two Counties." The preamble which recited the reasons for passing the statute is too curious to be omitted :
Forasmuch as the uppermost Part of Raritan River is settled by persons whom (sie) in their Husbandry and manuring their land, foreed upon quite different ways and methods from other Farmers and Inhabitants of the County of Middle- sex because of the frequent Floods that carry away their Fences on their Meadows the only arable land they have and so by consequence their interest is divided from the other Inhabitants of said County.
It was therefore enacted that the
Said uppermost Part of the Raritan beginning at the mouth of the Bound Brook, where it empties itself into the Raritan River and to run up the said
DE
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CROWN OF GEORGE II.
Brook, to the meeting of the said Bound Brook with the Green Brook and from the said meeting, to run upon a North West line into the Hills, and upon the South West side of the Raritan to begin at a small Brook, where it empties itself into the Raritan, about seventy chains below the Bound Brook and from thence to run upon a South West line to the uttermost line of the Province, he divided from the said County of Middlesex and hereafter to be deemed, taken and be a County of this Province; and that the same County be called the County of Somerset.
It would have been very difficult at the time this act was passed to have located the boundaries of the new county; it would be impossible to do so now. Very soon it became necessary to secure further laws to remedy the many evils
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
caused by such a crude method of legislation. There is no county in the State which has been the object of so many statutes of the Legislature passed for the purpose of alter- ing, changing, defining, and settling its boundaries as Somerset. It was not until 1876 that the county's bonnda- ries were defined and it became finally established in its present territory with certain defined division lines be- tween it and the adjoining counties.
For twenty-five years after its creation Somerset had no independent courts; in fact it had no entirely independent existence as a municipality. For courts it was dependent upon Middlesex, and it would seem also that it had no county offices of its own. Certainly up to 1710 it had no township. In 1693 an act was passed providing for the di- vision of the several counties into townships, but by the same act it was enacted that "the County of Somerset, as it is already bounded by a former act of Assembly," shall be a township. There are now nine townships in the coun- ty: Bridgewater, Bedminster, Bernard, Branchburg, Hills- borongh, Franklin, Montgomery, Warren, and North Plain- field. Of these Bernard and Warren are directly connected with the Passaic, which forms the boundary line between them and Mendham and Passaic Townships in Morris.
Somerset County has always been remarkable for its cul- tured and educated people. Early in its history, even be- fore the Revolution, many families of this class were num- bered among its inhabitants. The residence of Lord Stir- ling, his bounteous hospitality, and his charming and beau- tiful daughters attracted many visitors. Several pur- chases of land in different parts of the county had been made by wealthy individuals, and some of the nobility of Scot- land had been induced to become proprietors. Among these was Lord Neil Campbell, brother of the Duke of Argyle,
Haga by WG Jackman, BY
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61
THE FRELINGHUYSEN FAMILY
who bought an extensive tract of several hundred acres on the Raritan and settled there with ninety-tive servants. Two sons of Argyle, John and Charles Campbell, and a cousin, Archibald Campbell, all of whom had participated in the attempt to seat the Pretender, Charles Edward, on the throne of England, ted from their native fand to escape death, and settled also on or near the Raritan. Each was accompanied by a retinne of followers more or less in num- ber. William Pinhorne, at one time governor of the colony, was also a purchaser, but he never resided in the county. The Duchess of Gordon was led, probably by the presence of so many of her countrymen in Somerset, to invest in the purchase of land in that county. Her title of " duchess " is still attached to this day, by the old inhabitants in its neighborhood, to the land she bought.
The Frelinghuysen family has been and is now prominent in social and religious circles. The Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the first of the name known in New Jersey, came to this country in 1720. He was a Dutch Reformed minister, educated at Amsterdam in Holland, and preached the gospel in Somerset, Middlesex, and Hunterdon Counties. llis wife was the daughter of an eminent and wealthy mer- chant in Holland, and was a marked character of pro- nounced piety and great intellectual ability. One of their grandsons, Frederick Frelinghuysen, became a represent- ative in the Provincial and Continental Congresses and a senator in the United States Senate from New Jersey. Hle was a captain of artillery early in the War for Independ- ence and rose to the rank of general before its close. He was present at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Mon- mouth, and other great conflicts. Another grandson, Theo- dore Frelinghuysen, was eminent in church and State. He was licensed as a lawyer early in life, was appointed attor-
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
ney-general of the State, and was offered a seat on the Su- preme Court bench, which he declined. He became United States senator and was the candidate of the Whig party for Vice-President with Henry Clay as President. Later in life . he accepted the chancellorship of the University of New York and subsequently was president of Rutgers College. He was also president of the American Bible Society, and held the same executive office in the Board of Foreign Missions, the Tract Society, and the Temperance Union. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen was the grandson of General Frederick Frelinghuysen and the nephew of the senator, by whom he was adopted when only three years old. He also was licensed as a lawyer, and practiced his profession at Newark. He was appointed attorney-general of the State, became a member of the Peace Congress, as it was called, then Thro Aning boy for. United States senator, and finally Secretary of State under President Arthur. Represent- atives of this family are still to be found in Somerset and elsewhere. Three sons of the late Secretary of State are living, two of whom are lawyers: Frederick, now president of the Howard Savings Institution at Newark, one of the largest and most prosperous institutions of the character in the State; George, a successful lawyer practicing his pro- fession in New York City; and Theodore, treasurer of the Coates & Co.'s thread business in New York City.
Other families also prominent in social life, in ecclesias-
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OTHER OLD FAMILIES
tical and political circles, are still represented in Somerset County. Among them may be mentioned those bearing the names of Dumont, Elmendorf, Vanderveer, Veghte, Stelle, Gaston, Bergen, Nevius, Vroom, Voorhees, Schenck, and Wyckoff.
In 1876 two members of the Smith family, Abraham Smith and Peter Z. Smith, resident in Bernard Township, in connection with some other members of that largely seat- tered and very numerous family known by the name of Smith, formed an association called " The Smith Family and Friends Reunion." Since that time these " reunions " have been regularly held on the Smith farm in Bernard Township, near Peapack. This association has proved to be one of the most popular of the kind in the coun- try. It is estimated that ten thousand Smiths have attended at one of these meetings.
Somerset County at one time incorporated within its bounds J.J. Fulaughingsom New Brunswick and Princeton and a large part of Middlesex County. Then the Stockton family were resident at Princeton, so that Richard Stock- ton, the signer, can be said to have belonged to Somerset.
Several men distinguished in the colonial history of New Jersey were either residents in Somerset or largely inter- ested in its affairs. Among these was Peter Sommans, a Hollander, who went to England under William and Mary, and came from there to this country, settling in New Jersey. lle was for many years surveyor-general of the province, became a member of the Governor's Council, and was one
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
of a committee to prepare an ordinance for a "High " Court of Chancery. He purchased land in Somerset Coun- ty, and, although a member of the Church of England, do- nated valuable tracts to aid in erecting both a Presbyte- rian and a Reformed Dutch Church.
Garven Lawrie was also prominent in Colonial history. He was a merchant in London before he became interested in the new world. He was appointed one of the trustees of Edward Byllinge, an original proprietor of West Jersey.
1
AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND.
William Penn and Nicholas Lucas were associated with him in this trust. He succeeded Thomas Rudyard as gov- ernor of New Jersey. He brought with him a new code of laws called the " Fundamental Constitution." This code was considered at the time as superior to the far famed "Concessions " of Berkeley and Carteret, but they do not seem to have been put into operation. It is quite doubtful whether Lawrie was its author, as he was not supposed to have possessed the ability to have prepared so excellent a
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THE VAN NEST FAMILY
system. He was one of the Council of Lord Neil Campbell, who succeeded him as governor. Like his successor, he owned land in Somerset.
The Van Nest family at one time exercised considerable influence in the county. It had been exceedingly useful in public affairs in Holland, especially during the time of Will- iam the Silent. One of the name became attached to the Court of Philip II as his private Nolanseres secretary while the great stadt- holder was carrying on his terrible struggle for freedom and religious toleration with the Spanish tyrant. He then became acquainted with all the plans and purposes of the monarch. Philip was a most voluminous writer, scratching in his miserable chirography, on the margins of every state paper or other document com- ing into his hands, notes and annotations, generally of the most frivolous character.
Van Nost copied at night every thing which came under his notice during the daytime, and transmitted his work to William, who in this manner was enabled to thwart many of the plans of his antagonist. Strange to say, after many years of this wonderful activity on his part Van Nesi escaped from Spain and returned to Holland. Another of the family was in command as vice-admiral with Admiral de Ruyter in one of those terrific sea engagements between the English and Dutch which added so nich renown to the sea " beggars " of Holland.
The first Van Nest in America came here in 1647, and settled in New Amsterdam, as New York was then called.
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
His name was Peter, and he was the ancestor of all of his patronymic in this country. About thirty years afterward an immigrant of the same name, probably his son, came to Somerset and settled on the Raritan River.
The presence of so many names in the records of the coun- ty denote that its population has been derived from many sources; Dutch, Scotch, and English patronymies are most numerons, but other names are found, evincing that there is a strain of other blood from other sources.
The Rev. Mr. McCrea, the father of the unfortunate Jane McCrea, was at one time pastor of a church at Lamington. The house in which he resided was still standing a few years ago.
Somerset is not without its Revolutionary memories. It gave many distinguished men to the Councils and to the army of the country in that time when men SEAL OF NEW NETIIERLANDS. were needed. Besides General Frelinghuysen and Lord Stirling, already noticed, Hendrick Fisher, John Mehelm, John Bay- ard, Peter D. Vroom, and others were among the officers from Somerset who were honorably mentioned from time to time during the war.
A very large majority of the people of Somerset County were true to the cause of American Independence, and did not fail in showing their patriotism by their services in the field, by their sufferings from the presence of the patriot army, and from the inroads made by the enemy while they were near and at New Brunswick. In the winter of 1778 and 1779 the Revolutionary Army was encamped near
67
THE WALLACE HOUSE
Somerville and Washington occupied the Wallace house at that place as his headquarters. This house is still stand- ing, in most excellent condition, having been bought by " The Revolutionary Memorial Society of New Jersey," a patriotic association of ladies and gentlemen formed in 1897 under the leadership of General Richard F. Stevens, who is still its president. The Wallace house is so called because it was built by William Wallace, a merchant, of
THE WALLACE HOUSE, NEAR SOMERVILLE.
New York, who inherited the land upon which it was built from his father, John Wallace, who bought the property in 1775 from the Rev. Dr. JJacob R. Hardenburgh. Peter Van Nest, already mentioned, had purchased, in 1693, a larger tract of which the land sold to John Wallace formed part. The house at the time of its erection was deemed to be the most elegant edifice in Somerset. It certainly was erceted in the most substantial manner, as its present condition
GEORGE WASHINGTON (PEALE'S PORTRAIT).
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THE WALLACE HOUSE
fully proves. It is a two-story frame dwelling, with a wide hall passing through its center, with two rooms on each side. One of these, in the front, was occupied by Washing- ton as a parlor, and that in its rear for a bed chamber, the front room on the other side of the hall being used as a re- ception room. The house is built on a massive stone founda- tion, with thick oak-hewn timbers and large chimneys. The hall is entered through a wide double door, on which is the old fashioned brass knocker. Several small buildings near the mansion were once the slave quarters, but they have now disappeared.
On the lawn in front of the dwelling stood a superb live oak tree, eight feet in diameter, the largest of its kind and, perhaps, the oldest in America. Beneath it, in its shade, whenever the weather permitted, " Lady " Washington was fond of sitting with her boek and work. From this house were issued all the general orders of the Commander-in- Chief in the winter of 1778-79 and spring of 1779 and dated " Head Quarters, Middlebrook." Here, too, Washington planned one or two important campaigns.
Rooms in the building have been surrendered to several local loyal societies which have ornamented them with patriotic designs and many mementoes of Revolution- ary times. The grounds have been put in excellent order, and with the beautiful trees found there, and the many memories clustering around the house, invite all lovers of their country to become pilgrims to this reminder of the virtues and services of the great leader in the struggle for American independence.
معة لز را.و
CHAPTER V
MENDHAM AND OTHER TOWNS
ENDHAM, near which locality the Passaic River rises, is a beautiful, thriving village situated in the southern part of Morris County, immediately adjoining Somerset. It is placed on a command- ing position, some six hundred feet above mean tide. The township, also called Mendham, is one of the smallest in the county, containing 14,764 acres. Its land is mostly hilly, some of it being almost mountainous. A small extent of its surface near the source of the Passaic is marshy, but all the rest of it is free from swamp. Many streams drain the whole county, and springs of pure, fresh water are found in almost any direction. The brooks which flow over the west- ern part of the township add their waters to the Raritan; those from the eastern side empty into the Passaic. The soil, as a general rule, is fertile, and almost any product of the temperate zone can be raised at any point within its borders. It was established as a township in 1749, being among the earliest to be formed. The north branch of the Raritan rises only a short distance from the source of the Passaic, but the two rivers diverge immediately after leav- ing their natal springs.
When and by whom Mendham was first settled cannot be definitely ascertained. It is quite difficult for those who live at the present time, enjoying the comforts and often the
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THE PASSAIC VALLEY
luxuries of modern life, to understand or appreciate the in- ducements which led the first white man to select an un- broken wilderness as a dwelling place for himself and his family. Even the impulse which drove those who sought
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refuge from religious persecution is not always nor ever, perhaps, properly estimated. This impulse did not send the first settlers to Mendham, and it is a matter really of con- jecture as to what was the impelling force which sent the
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FIRST SETTLERS OF MENDHAM
first immigrants thither. That part of the country where Mendham is situated is remarkably well watered. Numer- ons streams run over it into both the Passaic and Raritan. The trapper and hunter may have found peltry and game in abundance in the forests and waters of this region when there were no settlements to disturb the solitude or to frighten away the objects of their pursuit. The alert and quick-eyed Anglo-Saxon, ever since he has been known to history. has been fond of adventure, eager to explore other lands than his own, sometimes not over honest nor careful to regard the rights of others in the possession of country and home, and never has he more manifested his restless energy than in his migrations in this western continent. Perhaps the fertile soil, the pure air, the healthful climate may have induced immigration to the beautiful mountain land. The trapper and the Inter never kept written ree- ords of their genealogy, of their race, or lineage, nor noted upon the written page the births of their children, the mar- riages of their maidens, the death of their ancestors. They did not trouble themselves abont vital statistics; the storn realities of their rude life, of their present wants, simple though they might be, were the objects of their con- sideration. The warlike Anglo-Saxon carved his record with his sword, so the brave men who went out into the wilder- ness and helped found an empire of freemen have given no information of who they were, what was the place of their nativity, or what was their race or lineage.
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