USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The history of Newark, New Jersey : being a narrative of its rise and progress, from the settlement in May, 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut to the present time, including a sketch of the press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878 > Part 14
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" Be to their virtues very kind,
Be to their faults a little blind."
129
THE OGDENS ON THE AMERICAN SIDE.
The Ogden blood told on both sides of the Revolutionary struggle, as we have intimated. Strictly speaking, neither Matthias nor Aaron Ogden was a Newarker, but, like Caldwell, they were closely related to the Newark Ogdens. They were grandsons of Jonathan Ogden, one of the original associates of the Elizabethtown Purchase, grand nephews of David Ogden, who removed from Elizabethtown to Newark, about the year 1676, and nephews of Judge David Ogden. As already stated, at the breaking out of hostilities they espoused the American cause. Matthias, as early as December, 1775, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the First regiment of the Jersey line, and, with Aaron Burr, was with Mont- gomery at the storming of Quebec. There he was wounded. Throughout the war he displayed great bravery and military capacity, and became colonel of his regiment and brigadier-general by brevet. The epitaph on his tombstone, in the First Presbyterian church-yard of Elizabeth, reads as follows :
Sacred to the memory of General MATTHIAS OGDEN who died on the 31st day of March 1791, aged 36 years. In him were united those various virtues of the soldier, the patriot, and the friend, which endear men to society. Distress failed not to find relief in his bounty ; unfortunate men, a refuge in his generosity.
If manly sense, and dignity of mind, If social virtues, liberal and refined, Nipp'd in their bloom deserve compassion's tear, Then, reader, weep ; for Ogden's dust lies here.
Weed his grave clean, ye men of genius, for he was your kinsman! Tread lightly on his ashes, ye men of feeling, for he was your brother !
Aaron Ogden, the General's brother, was born at Elizabethtown, in the year 1756. Before he reached the age of seventeen he graduated from Princeton College and became an assistant teacher in Francis Barber's grammar school, the pupils of which included William Livingston and the brilliant but ill-fated Alexander Hamil- ton. Early in 1777 teachers and pupils joined the Continental army. Ogden became lieutenant and paymaster in the first regiment, and continued throughout the war as aid-de-camp, captain, and brigade major and inspector. Previous to this, in the winter of 1775-'76, he joined a volunteer company, organized at Elizabethtown, which took part in several dashing and successful exploits. He was present at the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth and Springfield, behaving in each, and particularly the last named engagement, with great gallantry. He was also with Lafayette, in Virginia, when Cornwallis
I30
COLONEL AARON OGDEN'S LIFE AND CHARACTER.
made his ineffectual attempt "to catch the boy," as he sneeringly termed the youthful hero-marquis. At Yorktown his conduct was such as to win the personal commendation of General Washington. Upon being mustered out of the army at Newburg, in 1783, he returned to Elizabethtown and began the study of law. He was called to the bar in due time, and in 1787 married Elizabeth Chetwood. While suffering from a bayonet wound received during the war Miss Chetwood had nursed him. The fair girl healed him in one sense, but wounded him afresh in another, with a shaft from Cupid's quiver.
Like Pennington, he entered the political arena, but unlike Pennington became a leading Federalist In 1801 he was chosen by Legislature a Senator of the United States to fill an unexpired term made vacant by the resignation of Senator Schureman. At the time of his election he held the position of Clerk of Essex County. In 1812 he was chosen Governor by the Legislature in joint meeting, his opponent being William S. Pennington. He had thirty votes to Pennington's twenty-two. The year following the vote was reversed and Pennington was chosen instead of Ogden. In 1797, when a provisional army was raised, in consequence of the belligerent attitude of the French, Ogden was appointed Colonel of the Fifteenth regiment-a title he ever afterwards retained. During the war of 1812 he was commissioned by President Madison a Major-General, the object being to send him to operate against Canada. The emergency requiring his presence there did not arise, however. Princeton College complimented him with the honorary degree of LL. D. It appears that instead of devoting himself to the practice of the law, he entered into a steamboat speculation and lost his fortune through unscrupulous opposition and ruinous litigation. The late Cornelius Vanderbilt was once employed by Colonel Ogden as captain of one of his boats. The loss of his fortune broke the Colonel's spirit. He died in 1839, aged eighty- three, holding at the time of his death, under President Andrew Jackson, the position of collector of customs at Jersey City. As a patriot, a statesman and a professional man, Aaron Ogden was an honor and a credit to his name, his state, and his country.
While searching among the descendants of early settlers and Revolutionary patriots of Newark for material with which to garnish these pages, the author discovered a curious business
131
WASHINGTON'S BUSINESS MEMORIAL.
memorial of General Washington, which now sees the light of print for the first time, and which will serve here as the introduction to an interesting bit of Newark family history possessing general interest. It is the dim, faded, almost worn out remnant of a receipt given by Washington to Captain Levi Holden, of the General's life or body guards. Time and neglect have eaten away the upper part, and all that remains is a scrap of dingy paper about the size of an ordinary human palm, bearing the following in the neat, plain and well known chirography of the Commander-in-chief :
5 Guil's yesterday Io half Joha'ns 2 Doubloons
29- 37-4 64-
£9: 6: 0 32 : 0 :0
5-16 5:16 : 0
2 Pistoles
2 18 0
£50 : 0 :0
G. WASHINGTON.
The possessor of the relic, though a grandson of Captain Holden's, could give no explanation of the receipt. On it is marked the date 1783 in characters drawn by some other hand than Washington's That was the date of the disbandment of the American army at Newburg. It seems probable therefore, that it is part of a receipt given the Captain in settling up his accounts. He may have become possessed of the money receipted for through the mutations of war. Some royalist treasure may have been seized or captured and a portion been placed in the official charge of Captain Holden. The money, it will be observed, is a curious mixture of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. These coinages were largely in circulation among the Colonies prior to and at the time of the war. The guilder (Dutch) represents one shilling and eight pence sterling, or about forty cents American money ; the half Johannes (Portuguese) or "half Joes," as they were colonially called, about sixteen shillings, or four dollars ; the pistoles (Spanish) about the same, and the doubloons (Spanish and Portuguese) about from fifteen to sixteen dollars of American money. Altogether, according to present standards, the whole amount of guilders, half Johannes, doubloons and pistoles, in the Washington-Holden paper, would represent only about eighty-one dollars and a half, or less than sixteen pounds sterling. The pounds used by Washington in his computation were not sterling but Colonial pounds.
Captain Levi Holden early enlisted in the American cause. He
I32
CAPTAIN LEVI HOLDEN-HIS ESCAPE FROM BOSTON.
came of the same stock which produced boys in Boston whose liberty-loving spirit is said to have touched the heart and won the admiration of the British commander, General Gage, prior to the evacuation. He was a native of the suburbs, but was hemmed in in Boston when the British landed there in force. He made several unsuccessful attempts to escape from the city by secreting himself in scavenger boats. In the same house with him, on friendly terms, stopped a British officer. The latter displayed a deep interest in Holden's business, that of chocolate dealing, and seemed disposed to engage in it. One day he procured a horse and chaise and started with Holden for a drive in the outskirts of the town, beyond the line of the British sentries. Holden saw that his time to strike for liberty had come. Commanding all his resolution, he seized the reins, and told the officer in tones admitting of no doubt as to his determination that he must alight and allow him (Holden) to pursue his own way. Courteously, but with great firmness, he informed the officer that he was going to fight against him, was going to take up arms and join the American forces under George Washington. Taken wholly by surprise, the officer made no resist- ance, and did as directed. He walked back to Boston and Holden pushed on to his native village. Before nightfall Holden had begun to enroll a company of brave young spirits like himself. Within two weeks he had a band of seventy-four, the youngest being but fourteen years of age, and the oldest not yet out of his teens. Captain Holden's company is said to have borne a reputation for gallantry second to none in the service. With their spirited com- mander they served in nearly every battle of the Revolution except Bunker Hill. When that was fought the Captain was still in Boston. The Captain's name is regularly down in the official roster of the Jersey line as compiled at Trenton, in 1872, and is credited to Essex County ; but his family state that he did not come to Newark to settle until about the year 1800. They are also our authority for mentioning him as of Washington's Life or Body Guard, whose commander at one time was Captain William Colfax, of Pompton, and whose motto was "CONQUER OR DIE." For twenty-five years after settling with his family in Newark, Captain Holden conducted a profitable business here. He died in 1825, and was buried in Trinity church-yard at the rear of the chapel in Rector street. The tooth of Time has eaten away much of the legibility
.
133
A PATRIOT'S EPITAPH -- PASTOR MACWHORTER.
of the inscription on his marble head-stone, so that it was with difficulty the following lines were deciphered :
SACRED To the memory of LEVI HOLDEN
Who departed this life 19th April 1825 in the 70th Year of his age.
He was a revolutionary soldier, a tried and gallant officer, a man of temper firm and reso- lute, of affection, temperate, steady, and benevolent, of industry, active and unreserved. His amiable character shone most conspicuous in the domestic circle. He adorned the several relations of husband, father, and neighbor. Through a life of unvaried integrity, his candor, frankness, and love of truth, endeared him to all. Those qualities, united with faith in the Redeemer, upon whose merits he alone relied, and whose presence supported him in his last moments, afford persuasive evidence that his spirit has entered that mansion of the blessed, and that in the morning of the resurrection his body will rise to immortal life.
Returning again to the main thread of our narrative, we find that as regards the effects of the war on the material interests of Newark, no fact could be cited showing the inroad made on the prosperity of the place more suggestive than this: The people-that is to say, the major portion of them, the Presbyterians-were unable to properly provide for their esteemed and greatly loved pastor. The records of the Board of Trustees of the First Church, under date of March IIth, 1779, contain this minute :
At a meeting of the Board held on the IIth of March, 1779, present Joseph Alling, President, Caleb Wheeler, Samuel Pennington, Benjamin Coe jr and Samuel Curry it was decided as follows :
Whereas a quantity of wood has been cut off the Parsonage for the use of the Troops and no regular account kept thereof, and whereas the present high price of every article of life renders it very difficult for our worthy minister to subsist, it is agreed by this Board that the . Rev Dr Alexander M'Whorter be authorized to agree and compound with the Quarter Master for the said wood or take such other steps as he thinks proper for the recovery thereof and apply the money to his own use.
The good man's means of support had become entirely inadequate to his wants.
To prevent surprise by British incursionists, during the war, and secure some measure of protection, Dr. Macwhorter was obliged to have a sentinel almost constantly in front of the parsonage when he was there. In the year above quoted he accepted a call from a congregation at Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, the North Carolina "rebel hornet's nest," whence emanated a Declaration of Independ- ence earlier even than that adopted in 1776 at Philadelphia. Thither with his family he proceeded in October. Singularly enough, he had scarcely become settled in his new quarters when he was forced
10
I34 HOW NEWARKERS BORE THEMSELVES DURING THE WAR.
again to fly from the approach of the British, and under the same Cornwallis before whom he had fled with Washington from Newark in 1776. Lord Cornwallis took possession of Charlotte, and Dr. Macwhorter lost his furniture, library and almost everything he possessed. Within a year he made his way back as far as Abington, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the spring of 1781, when, in accordance with an urgent invitation from his old flock, he returned to Newark, where he remained until his death.
In the earlier pages of this chapter a distiguished national historian is quoted as declaring that, previous to the battle of Trenton, the men of New Jersey displayed a craven, cowardly spirit-proved recreant to the call of country and servile to its powerful enemies. Certainly, as made manifest by the State Council of Safety testimony, incorporated in these pages, Mr. Bancroft had some warrant for reflecting upon the spirit of some Jersey people, but surely not sufficient for the sweeping indictment drawn against a whole State. There were Jerseymen, Newarkers, " tis true, 'tis pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true," who were woefully lacking in patriotism, but for all that the people of New Jersey as a whole, whether wearing the uniform of the Continental soldier or the garb of the Jersey Blues-whether in the pulpit or the council-whether generously furnishing the commissary department or participating in
" -- most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents, by flood and field, Of hair breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach "-
men, women and striplings bore a part in the great struggle from 1774 to 1783 uneclipsed by the people of any other State as regards valor, gallantry and whole-souled devotion to the loftiest sentiment of patriotism.
And, in all the severe trials of those long and terrible years, through all the bitter hardships, biting sufferings and privations- amid all the noble and exalted heroism of the entire Revolutionary period-the people of Newark, of both sexes and of nearly all ages and conditions, sustained themselves as became the descendants of a people who, more than a century before, regarded no sacrifice too great in order to secure civil and religious liberty for themselves and generations then and yet unborn.
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CHAPTER VI.
1783 TO 1836.
Peace !- Its Effects in Newark-Rise in Manufactures, Decline in Morals-"Will you go Dancing to Hell? "-Reformation-A New First Church-The " Fancuil Hall" of Newark -Jersey Justice in Days of Old-A Local Election Impossible to Describe-Petticoats and Politics in 1806-Women Voters and Ballot-Box Ethics-An Old-Fashioned Saturnalia of Fraud-Gov. Pennington and "A Strapping Negress"-Rise and Growth of Tanning, Shoemaking and other Industries-Trade and Tradesmen-Colonel Rutherford's Story- "Little Black-eyed Man " Combs-Sad Fate of Newark's First Manumitted Slave-Luther Goble and William Rankin-Early Roads and Ferries-Newark's First Banks-Elisha Boudinot-The War of 1812-War Brings Prosperity and Pcace Disaster-Town Jubilee and Census in 1826-A Memorable Fourth of July-Archer Gifford and the Port of Newark-Religious and Moral Growth-Sketch of Trinity Church-The Hessian Patriot and his Pastoral Descendant-New Churches in Newark-Methodism Established Here- Early Educational Institutions-The Newark Academy-A Black Man Sold to Aid the Cause of Education-"Old Gripus " and the " White School "-Slavery in Newark-A Clarion Note for Freedom-Abortive Attempts to Enforce Sumptuary Laws-General Scott and the Moralists-Fire Department Infancy-Talleyrand, Chateaubriand, Shelley's Grandfather and Minister Van Berckcl-Visits to Newark of Lafayette and Henry Clay- Transition from Town to City.
P EACE was proclaimed on the nineteenth of April, 1783, eight years to a day after the battle of Lexington. The war had virtually ended a year and a half earlier, when, at Yorktown, on the nineteenth of October, 1781, the coroneted Cornwallis met his Nemesis in the form of the allied armies of France and America, and suffered the humiliation he had himself meted out to General Lincoln, at Charleston, in May of the preceding year. But hostili- ties were not entirely ended until the date of the proclamation of peace. The ratification of this measure of joy and gladness took place in Paris, on the third of September, the same year, when the Commissioners signed the Treaty which embodied the acknowledg- ment by Great Britain that the United States was a free and independent nation.
The return of the white-winged bearer of the olive branch found Newark, in common with the country generally, suffering from the thousand ills that revolution is heir to. Peace had come, but the miseries and evils which inevitably follow in the train of war were far from being ended. The country was exhausted; agriculture,
136 AFTER THE REVOLUTION-MANUFACTURES AND MORALS.
commerce, and industries of all kinds had necessarily been neglected ; forty millions of debt-an enormous sum in the days when our population numbered only about three millions-had been con- tracted ; and the infant Republic was without any proper fundamental system of government-was, despite the paradox, in a state of orderly anarchy. Nowhere in the land, perhaps, was there a speedier recovery of its energies and a quicker development of resources than in Newark. Dr. Macwhorter is authority for saying that the town "soon recovered from its damages, increased fast in its popu- lation, and quickly began to flourish, especially in manufactories." The year which witnessed the restoration of peace appears to have witnessed also a large increase in the number of those who lived in part or in whole upon the bread of charity. That year, at the annual Town Meeting held at the Court House, on March 1Ith, it was " voted that three hundred and fifty pounds be Raised for the use of the Poor the ensuing year." The year before the amount ordered to be raised was one hundred and fifty pounds less ; and the following year one hundred pounds less. With peace, and a revival of material prosperity, there came also a sad relaxation of morals. Speaking of the year 1784, an oft-quoted authority says : "It was a time of great religious declension everywhere, and especially in this congregation "-the First Presbyterian. "Dancing, frolicking, and all sorts of worldly amusements absorbed the thoughts of the young even in the most respectable and religious families ; and among the lower class, vice and dissipation, the bitter dregs of the long and demoralizing war, which had just ended, prevailed to a frightful extent." Soon there came a change, however. One evening, in the old Presbyterian Church, a strange clergyman occupied the pulpit in place of Dr. Macwhorter. Directing his remarks particularly to the youthful occupants of the gallery, he asked in startling tones, "Will you go dancing to Hell?" From that time on a marked change was observable. Seriousness sup- planted gayety, and topics of a religious character took the place in general conversation of light and thoughtless secular subjects. In different parts of the town praying circles and conference meetings were held, and altogether "an almost universal reformation of outward habits was effected."
Under the spur of a revived interest in things spiritual, the people of the parent church turned their thoughts to the erection of a new
NEWARK'S CRADLE OF ORATORY AND STATESMANSHIP. 137
edifice. The old one had long become inadequate to the wants of the congregation. As early as 1755 a proposition was made to repair and enlarge it. There seems to have been a praiseworthy reluctance to demolish the venerable structure. It was endeared to the people by recollections which the memory loved affectionately to dwell upon. There it was that the College of New Jersey was nursed into a healthful infancy. Within its walls the saintly Burr was chosen first actual President of the College, and there Governor Belcher, the patron of letters, "was pleased to accept of the degree of Master of Arts;" while Richard Stockton, the subsequently renowned New Jersey patriot-statesman, was with others invested there with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Under its sacred roof, too, David Brainerd, the hero-pastor, was consecrated to the ministry. Once the walls had rung with the fervid eloquence of the evangelist Whitefield, and the building was always the theatre of the town's most important proceedings, temporal as well as spiritual. It was the Faneuil Hall of Newark-the cradle of its oratory and statesmanship. Here had first been raised New Jersey voices destined-
"The applause of listening senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read their history in a nation's eyes."
What wonder, then, if a spirit prevailed inimical to the obliteration of the venerated structure, or that it was not until 1774 that a proposition to erect a new and larger church was seriously consid- ered ? About that time £2,000 were subscribed and a site selected on the south side of Market street, west of Broad. Materials were gathered, and a trench for the foundation actually dug. The war came, and the matter of erecting a church yielded to the more pressing duty of erecting a nation. Once the temple of liberty was finished-grander by far than Solomon's gorgeous House of the Most High at Jerusalem, or St. Peter's magnificent model of ecclesi- astical architecture at Rome-the congregation of the old church of Newark revived the project of rearing a new, more commodious and more imposing structure. Under an awakened sense of religious duty the work went on with great zeal. There now sprung up a most commendable spirit of rivalry between the members of the congregation as to which should contribute the most in " the work of
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138
A SERMON OF SENTIMENT AND REPROACH.
the Lord," according to their opportunities and abilities. It is scarcely necessary to say that foremost among the laborers was the Rev. Dr. Macwhorter, himself. During September, 1787, the ground was broken on the present site, Dr. Macwhorter, in the presence of a large assemblage, turning the first spade of earth for the foundation trenches. The next spadeful was turned by Deacon Caleb Wheeler, whose marvelous escape from British bayonets has been described in a previous chapter. Soon there were at work scores of lusty delvers, and, in a few hours, the opening of the trenches was completed. Speaking of the indomitable zeal and perseverance of Dr. Macwhorter in the work of building the new house of worship, Dr. Griffin, one of his worthy successors, says : "So zealous was he to serve and animate the congregation, that during the following winter he was daily in the forest selecting the timber which had been given him, and encouraging the workmen." The church was not entirely finished and regularly opened per- manently for public worship until January I, 1791. It cost about £9,000, New York currency, and was thus described by Rev. Dr. Macwhorter himself: "Its dimensions are one hundred feet in length, including the steeple, which projects eight feet. The steeple two hundred and four feet high. Two tiers of windows, five in a tier, on each side; an elegant large Venetian window in the rear behind the pulpit, and the whole furnished in the inside in the most handsome manner in the Doric order." The external appearance of the sacred edifice is noticeable in its freedom from ambitious ornamentation and its tout ensemble of solidity and Christian-like simplicity. If, as we believe, there are
tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything,"
surely there are tongues and books and sermons combined in this stately, venerable and substantial pile of masonry. Standing, as it does, upon a part of the "home lott" of Robert Treat, the chief founder of Newark, it is continually preaching at once a sermon of sentiment and of reproach. It stands a noble evidence of the Christian zeal of the good men and women who, nearly a century ago, built it ; and it is a grand and appropriately situated monument to the memory of those most worthy and estimable persons who rocked the community in its cradle. It speaks to their descendants
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