USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 1 > Part 8
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The surface of the ground within its 02 bonnds is rolling. with elevations scat- tered about Trom which beautiful pros- pects are visible and where desirable build- ing sites are found, surrounded by pic- turesque landscapes. The soil is generally light and warm, capa- ble of a high state of cultivation, with sand and gravelly forma- GEORGE II. tion. Madison is a favorite place of resort for summer visitors, who find ample and delightful homes for their accommodation. It is eager- ly sought by the wealthy for summer residences. Business men still engaged in active life in Newark and New York, and some who have retired from business, have selected Madison for permanent homes, and have built beautiful mansions where they spend the entire year. Elegant structures for dwelling houses are seen on every side where
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taste has embellished the dwelling places of the wealthy and art has been lavished in adding appliances for every comfort known to civilized life.
The borough has not had many years of existence, but they have been years marked by progress, vigor, and great public spirit. Pure water has been introduced and made accessible to all, the streets are well lighted, police for the preservation of peace provided, and the general interest of the municipality protected. The best men in the commu- nity are selected without distinction as to party poli- tics for officers. The bor- ough has had but one mayor, James P. Albright, Esq., a lawyer practicing in New York, but long a resident in Madison, who has conducted the affairs of his responsible office so wisely and so well that he has been re-elected from time to time with very great unanimity.
James Madison
There are four churches in Madison, all strong and vigorous: Roman Catholic, Epis- copalian, Methodist, and Presbyterian. A costly chapel, of a high order of architecture and connected with the Presbyterian Church, has been erected by Mr. James A. Webb, a wealthy and public spirited citizen, as a memorial of his son, who died several years ago. Mr. Webb lives in a stately residence at Madison, surrounded by beautiful grounds, where he spends the whole year enjoying the re- sults of a life not yet beyond its prime, and enabled by
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MADISON BOROUGH
wealth gained by business talents and energy to carry out many benevolences.
D. Willis James, another New York merchant, who has selected Madison for his summer residence and lives in a spacious dwelling erected on one of the most conspicuous points in the borough, has added materially to the appli- ances for good in two directions, one in the purchase of many acres, almost in the heart of the town, which he has laid ont as a public park and made it one of the greatest attractions in this beautiful borough, the other the found- ing of a public library, built of stone, admirably adapted for the purposes of a library, constructed in the most artis- tie manner, and adding an ornament of the highest order to the locality. Mr. James has provided it with all the apparatus for successfully conducting such an institution, and has filled the building with choice volumes selected ex- pressly for the use of readers. Besides all this he has crowned his benefaction by providing an endowment fund for the future needs of the library, and settling this fund on such a substantial basis that there need be no failure hereafter of money for its maintenance.
Among the many citizens of Madison who are foremost in public affairs may be mentioned Jeremiah Baker, who soy- eral years ago became a permanent resident of the borough with ample means gained by many years of industry. He is one of the pillars in the Presbyterian Church, and over ready with advice, action, and, if necessary, money to aid in carry- ing forward every good enterprise.
In 1833 William Gibbons, then living in Elizabethtown, bought a large tract of land situate on the west side of the road from Madison to Morristown. The tract was a large one, containing several hundred acres, and was called " The Forest." The property occupied a very commanding posi-
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tion, one of the highest in that vicinity. Mr. Gibbons was a man of great wealth, and soon began the erection of a very large and stately edifice intended for a dwelling. It was finished in 1836, and then occupied by Mr. Gibbons and his family for several years. At his death in 1852 the prop- erty came into the possession of his son, who bore his fath- er's name, by whom it was sold to
GEORGE III.
Daniel Drew, a broker in New York, who bought it with the inten- tion of founding there a seminary for the education of young men for the ministry of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, of
which he was an enthusiastic mem- ber. The noble edi- fice called " Mead Hall," built by the former owner, was utilized for the use of the seminary,
and in it were located the chapel, library, reading room, offices, and lecture rooms of the professors. Other buildings required for the institution were erected on the grounds, such as dormitories for the students, dwellings for the pro- fessors, rooms for the societies, and a dining hall. Mr. Drew devoted $500,000 to his benovolent project, of which
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DREW SEMINARY
one-half was to be used for building purposes and the bal- ance was to be invested as an endowment fund. Mr. Drew, however, retained this fund in his own hands, paying over the interest annually to the seminary until 1876, when he failed, and the institution was without an income. An ap- peal was made to the church universal, which nobly re- sponded and subscribed so generously in aid of the semi- nary that over $300,000 was raised and the institution re- lieved. The school was formally opened in November, 1867, and has been eminently successful. The views of the great church which it represents have materially changed as to the education of its ministers. Drew Seminary, as the institution is called in honor of its founder, is the ablest school of its kind in the Methodist Church, and has estab- lished a curriculum of the highest character. It has been eminently successful in answering the demands upon it for the highest order of education. The seminary is at present under the leadership of the Rev. Heury A. Buttz, D.D., an eminent clergyman of his church, of great executive ability, and of culture and learning. He is assisted by a very able corps of professors, and it may be predicted, with great certainty, that there lies before this noble ap- pliance for education a future fruitful in successful useful- ness.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century Madison re- ceived an addition to its population of a very desirable ele- ment. The revolution in France drove from that country many of its best citizens, who sought refuge in other climes from the violence and bloodshed so disgracing to this move- ment, originally intended to obtain freedom from oppression for the citizen. Among the first to reach Madison was a noble Frenchman known as Vincent Boisanbin, but who in his native land and in Belgium was known by several
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titles of nobility. He was a man of wealth and of distinc- tion in France and a member of the bodyguard of Louis XVI. He had obtained leave of absence from the court and had retired to his ancestral possessions in Guadaloupe, where he married. His influence in the court of the king was so great and his condemnation of the revolutionary measures so outspoken that measures were taken to arrest him and try him for what was then called treason against the new republic. He received notice of his intended arrest in time to escape to a British man-of-war, which lay some four or five miles off the shores of the island. His escape, made in an ordinary row boat, was so precipitate that he was unable to make any preparation for his future. Before he reached the friendly vessel which was to carry him away from Guadaloupe he DE noticed an object on the surface of the water apparently fol- lowing in the wake of the boat. Directing SHILLING OF GEORGE II. the rowers to lay on their oars, he soon discovered that his body servant, a faith- ful slave, who had been given to him when he was a boy, had taken this desperate method of following his mas- ter. The nobleman and his devoted servant made their way to the United States, and finally to Madison, where Mr. Boisaubin made his residence. He and his black friend earned their living by carting goods from New York to Madison and vicinity. Mr. Boisaubin was afterward joined by his wife and family, and permanently settled at Madison, remaining there until his death. At the Restora- tion Louis XVIII wrote an autograph letter to the French nobleman requesting him to return to France, promising
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VINCENT BOISAUBIN
to restore his titles and offices to him. His fortune and property were returned to him, but he declined the offer, preferring the life he had found in the American republic. Nine sons and daughters were born to him, and he has left many descendants, many of whom are found in Madison. Beauplain and Thebaud beside Boisaubin are the names of some of his descendants.
Mr. Boisaubin was a man of unbounded benevolence. After his death, when an inventory of his estate was made, between $30,000 aud $40,000 of small evidences of indebted- ness, made mostly by poor persons who had borrowed money from him, were found among his assets. He lies buried in the graveyard of the old Presbyterian Church at Morristown. As his funeral cortege reached the outskirts of Morristown on its way from his home it was met by representatives of the best citizens of the town, who took the horses from the hearse and dragged the vehicle in which was deposited the coffin containing his body to the grave- vard, where the interment was made with imposing core- monies and amid the sorrowing multitude which filled the cemetery to overflowing. As the procession made its way the streets were lined by the people with uncovered and bowed heads, the bells of the churches were tolled, places of business were closed, and one universal feeling of sor- row pervaded the entire community. These circumstances attending his burial give undoubted evidence of the pro- found respect felt for this estimable man. The grace of manner, the gay, joyons temperament, the bonhomme of this Freuch element thus interjected into the community at Madison, had a powerful inthence for good npon the people.
CHAPTER IX
MORRIS TOWNSHIP AND MORRISTOWN
ORRIS TOWNSHIP was formed in 1740, a year after the erection of the county, and ont of it, and entirely surrounded by it, has been carved the City of Morristown. This township is a small one, being one of the smallest but the most important in the county, not only from its size and from the fact that it is the county seat, but also from its history. Its situation is beautiful beyond comparison. Four distinet ranges of mountains can be traced within its borders, and resting among these the inhabitants have made their homes, some in elegant villas crowning the hill tops and standing ont in beauty from the mountain sides. Whippany River winds through the northern portion on its way to the Pas- saic. Along the banks of this stream, in a narrow valley, the first settlers built their homes, but soon they climbed up to the tableland on an elevation some fifty feet above the bed of the river and clustered around the " Green," and eventually scattered in all directions, until now there is a compact city of nearly twelve thousand people gathered within the bounds of Morristown. Ontside of it in the township is a population of two or three thousand more.
In the time when the Lords Proprietors were seeking for immigration into the Province of New Jersey all knowledge of the interior of the new colony must have been of the most meager character possible. As late as 1684 some of
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these proprietors wrote thus about what is now supposed to have been Morris County or its vicinity: "There are also hills up in the country, but how much ground they take we know not; they are said to be stony and covered with wood, and beyond them is said to be excellent ground." This description, so far as it goes, is quite accurate, but not at all definite.
The first record which gives any reliable evidence on the
10
20
THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
subject of the first settlers is in the form of a deed, based upon a survey made in 1715. This conveyance was for 967 37-100 acres within the bounds of the township, dated June 1, 1769, by the Earl and Countess of Stirling to Staats I. Morris for £2,902. In the same year the land on which Morristown is now built was sold to Joseph Helby, Thomas Stephenson, and John Keys or Kay, in these proportions: to Helby and Stephenson each 1,250 acres, and to Kay
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MORRIS TOWNSHIP
2,000 acres; the present park in the heart of the town and the ground on which are erected the First Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist Churches being included in the con- vevance to Kay. The land conveyed to Helby ran from Mount Airy, near Collinsville, and the Evergreen Cemetery, in the eastern part of the town, toward Speedwell, and southwest in the direction of General Doughty's former residence on the road to Basking Ridge, or Mount Kimball road. Stephensen's portion was in the direction of Wash- ington Valley. The deeds are all curiosities. The orig- inal survey on which that to Kay is founded is copied to give some idea of the method used for conveying real estate at that carly time in the history of New Jersey :
By virtue of a warrant from ye Council of Proprietors hearing date ye tenth day of March last past I have surveyed this Tract or Lott of land unto John Kay within ye Western Division of ye Province of New Jersey, in ye last Indian purchases made of ye Indians by ye said Proprietors. Situate upon and near a Branch of Passamisk River called Whipene, beginning at a small hickory corner standing near a Black oak marked K. ten cha : distance from a corner of Wm. Pen's Lands, thence North West one hundred sixty and five cha: crossing ye said Whipene to a corner white oak, marked also K .: thence South West one lundred twenty and seven eha: and twenty-five link to a poast for a corner under ye side of a hill called Mine Mountain, from thenee South East one hundred sixty and five cha: to a poast, then North East one hundred twenty seven cha : and twenty- five links and by ye bounds of Govn. Pen's land to ye place of beginning contain- ing Two Thousand acres of Land besides one hundred acres allowance for High- ways. Surveyed April ye 28th 1715 per me R. BuHl, Survey.
Ye 22 of April 1715 Inspected and approved of by ye Council of Proprs: and ordered to be entered upon Record
T'es'ts, JOHN WILLS, Clerk.
A slight examination of this description reveals an inter- esting fact : that William Penn's name is mentioned as the owner of land at Morristown. He was at one time a pro- prietor of West Jersey, and owned, personally, large tracts in that Province and also in Pennsylvania, but no local his- tory has mentioned the fact that he was the possessor of
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land in Morris County. The three grantees, Helby, Stephen- son, and Keys or Kay, do not seem ever to have settled in Morris County or at Morristown. It is impossible, with any certainty, to state when the first settlement was made here, or who were the first settlers. No records were kept by the town authorities. There were probably no township offi- cers until long after the original immigrants came here.
There was no church estab- lished until 1742, when the Rev. Timothy Johnes became the pas- tor of the Presby- terian Church and began the records of that congregation, and carefully and re- ligiously kept them during the fifty years and more of his pas- torate. To them reference can safely be made to
learn who were residents of Morris Township at the time they began. Prior to that period tradition alone affords any knowledge of the names of settlers. Even these records do not, nor does tradition, tell from whence the first immi- grants came. Familiar names, however, are found among them which give some intimation of the places of their former abode. There are also some well known and well
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SETTLEMENT OF MORRISTOWN
settled historical facts which aid in determining this question.
The first inhabitants in Newark, who came there in 1666, soon dispersed, as their numbers increased, into the sur- rounding country. Orange, Bloomfield, and Campiown (or Irvington as it is now called) were early settled by the descendants of the men of Connecticut who had come to Newark from their New England homes. Some adven- turous spirit climbed to the summit of the mountain west of Orange and surveyed the land on the east side of the Passaic which lay at his feet. He returned to Newark and reported to the town meeting what he had seen, described the beautiful land, and dilated on the apparent fertility of the soil. The honest Puritans had not yet learned how to defrand the Indians. All the lands occupied by the new- comers had been honestly bought from their dark browed owners. After proper examination and favorable report negotiations were opened and successfully conducted with the aborigines for the purchase of the newly discovered country. Some fancied resemblance between a horse's arched neck and the land purposed to be bought gave it the name of Horse Neck, but that name has been since lost and other names have been given to different localities within the bounds of the tract thus bought.
News came thai iron ore in abundance was to be found on the other side of the river, and many courageons men crossed the stream and settled in Morris County. Among these were some citizens from Elizabethtown, and perhaps from other adjacent localities. In all probability, although the first settlement, which was made at Whippany, or Han- over as it was then called, was very small. some stragglers found their way to the valley of the Whippany, or " Whipene " as it is called in the survey of the lot conveyed
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to John Kay, which has already been copied in these pages. Probably a log hut or two was erected for the temporary and immediate wants of the colonists and their families. Then came another, and accretions were made from time to time until the hamlet grew large enough, and then a black- smith shop was added; all, however, crowding into the nar- row valley of the small river. This was in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the earliest date which can possibly be fixed being 1710. So soon as the settlement from its importance deserved a name it received that of West or New Hanover.1 The character of these people can be determined by the results of their action. A Presbyterian Church had been formed at Whippany, to which, for re- ligious worship, went the people of New Hanover and of the few settlements formed within a circle of eight or ten miles. When this church was first instituted can not be told, but it was certainly in existence as early as 1718. It was a rude structure, capable of containing perhaps a hun- dred people, standing on the bank of the Whippany. It answered the simple wants of the people, and thither they resorted over the rude paths of the day, for there were no roads. Carriages were almost unknown; the only vehicles approaching them were the uncouth carts used for farming operations. So the husband and father, if he owned a horse, mounted him, with his wife on the pillion behind the saddle, with perhaps an infant in her arms.
But New Hanover grew and its inhabitants became rest- ive under the enforced travel from Sunday to Sunday to Hanover Church, and they began to discuss the question of an independent church of their own. About this time, in 1733 as near as can be ascertained, the church edifice at Hanover became dilapidated and it was necessary to erect
1 There is some confusion in these names. Records vary. In some of them they appear as New, and then as West, Hanover,
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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES
a new one. Then began a struggle which resulted in a tedious and troublesome quarrel. There were three com- munities which insisted that the new building should be placed within their bounds. Madison, then known as East Hanover, desired that it should be built nearer to them. Morristown or New Hanover claimed that it should be placed at their growing village, while Hanover or Whip- pany protested against any removal. The fight waxed sharp and hot, and when it was ascertained that the diffi-
MORRISTOWN IN 1828.
culty could not be amicably settled it was determined to leave it to the " casting of the lot." The lot was cast with great solemnity, after prayer to Almighty God, and the New Hanover people lost. They were not satisfied with the result, refused to submit, and a new church organization was formed.
An appeal was taken to the Synod at Philadelphia, and
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after several meetings of that body and a committee from it had been sent to Whippany it was finally decided that the Morristown people be left to themselves to form a new con- gregation. This certainly was in 1733, a date established by the minutes of the Synod. But the new congregation was an unrecognized body and stood alone without any ecclesiastical connection. When it is recollected that this sturdy people could not have numbered more than two hundred, or perhaps two hundred and fifty at the outside, it is a matter of astonishment that they undertook the es- tablishment of a new church organization with its attend- ant burdens. But they were God fearing, church loving people; they desired to bring the privileges of the sanctuary nearer to their families and neighbors, and they were equal to the task they thus imposed upon themselves. They took instant measures to obtain a pastor and invited Mr. Jolin Cleverly to assume that position, but he had not been or- dained, and the Hanover people objected so strongly to the new enterprise that he was neither ordained nor installed. Ordination and installation, in his case, would have been simultaneous, so the end was not yet.
The pastor and people at Hanover were not idle. The Synod was again called and the subject was discussed at six different sessions of that body. It was a vexed, trouble- some question. On one side was an impecunions pastor, with a congregation unable, in consequence of the witli- drawal of so large a part of their members, to support him; on the other a young congregation determined to sever the connection, and destined to become a strong and vigorous body, far outstripping the mother church, needing the ministrations of the gospel, and determined to have them at their own doors.
In the end pluck and energy won the victory and Morris-
-
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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES
town was triumphant. A committee of six clergymen, the ablest then connected with the Synod, travelled on horse- back to Whippany, one coming from Philadelphia, one from New Brunswick, one from Neshaminy, one from Basking Ridge, one from Trenton, and one from Abingdon; and after a careful examination of the whole subject, and patiently hearing both parties, decided that it was best for all parties that there should be two churches. But the Presbytery had already declined to ordain Mr. Cleverly and the new congregation was still without a pastor, and here was another obstacle in the path of the Morristown people. They were, however, not to be moved from their
ERT
3
AMER
1894
SILVER DOLLAR OF 1794.
determination, and their unordained minister continued to preach to them until about the year 1740. The date, how- ever, notwithstanding this irregularity of the ecclesiastical organization of this First Presbyterian Church at Morris- town, was July 26, 1738, the time when the committee of six clergymen already mentioned declared it regularly con- stituted. This they were authorized by the Synod to do. The first regularly ordained and stated pastor of this con- gregation was the Rev. Timothy Johnes, who was recom- mended to the congregation by the authorities of Yale Col-
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lege, to whom application had been made some time before for some competent minister to be sent to them. Dr. Johnes was Welsh by descent, was born on Long Island, and had preached for some short time before he was called to Morristown. He came to his new field of labor on horse- back from Connectient, and was installed February 9, 1743, but had preached for some time before that date to the people.
From the beginning of his pastorate until the end of his long ministration, in fact until his death, regular and ac- curate records were kept by him of all statistics connected with his congregation, such as births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, membership, and removals; his first entry, a baptism of a child, was made ten days after his installation, February 19, 1743; the name of this child's father was Bai- ley. It is only by reference to these records that any di- rect information can be found as to the names of the orig- inal inhabitants of Morristown. If the presumed date of its first settlement be correct, that is about 1710, then there is a hiatus of at least thirty years, during which time nearly a whole generation could have passed away when no records existed of any kind whatever. \There were no county rec- ords up to 1743, although the county had been created nearly five years before that date. In the first entries made by Dr. Johnes the following names appear: Bailey, Park- hurst, Conger, Pruden, Lindley, Ford, Tichenor, Stiles, John- son, Allen, Clark, Easton, Haines, Fairchild, Losey, Hatha- way, Holloway, Frost, Coe, Day, Pierson, Tompkins, Peck, Condit, Howard, Mills, Freeman, Cutler, Wheeler, Moore, Mahurin, Wood, Beach, Davis, Arnold, Dickerson, Goble, and Halsey. All these names are entered between Febru- ary 19, 1743, and June 16, 1745, a period of a little over two years. Many of these names represent old and prominent
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