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 15
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EXDEUXEXEN
-U.P. M.LEIA
"THE FIRST CHURCH."
I39
THE NEW FIRST CHURCH.
with mute eloquence, forcibly suggesting that if posterity has thus far failed to perpetuate in stone or ornate bronze the memory of those who, with Treat and Crane and Pierson, laid the foundation of this metropolitan city of the State, God's temple never ceases to perform that holy office. It is, therefore, at once a monument and a mentor; a sermon touching duties performed and unperformed.
Leaving sentiment, we return to facts, and note that in the front wall of the tower, just above the entrance, there is inserted a tablet bearing the following inscription, ascribed to the pen of Hon. William Peartree Smith, the treasurer of the society at the time of the erection of the church :
Adem hanc amplissimam cultui DIVINO dicatam, ex animo religioso et munificentia valde præclara, NOV ARCÆE habitantes, cura sub pastorali rev. Alexandri Macwhorter, S. T. D. primum qui posuit saxum, construxerunt, anno salutis, 1787 ; Amer. Reipub. Federate 12. AUSPICANTE DEO, LONGUM PERDURET IN ÆVUM.
In our day, when distance is almost annihilated and when an electric girdle has been placed around the earth in less than Puck's forty minutes ; when the loftiest rock-ribbed mountains are pierced, when the widest rivers are tunneled or bridged, when oceans are reduced to mere ferries, and when thickly populated towns and villages filled with handsome buildings are erected as with the wand of a magician, the erection of a church, be it ever so grand and imposing, is ordinarily not considered a work of great difficulty. At all events, it is almost impossible for the present generation, accus- tomed as it is to the celerity and efficacy of steam and machinery, to fully realize how great an undertaking it was for Pastor Mac- whorter and his people to build the edifice just described. The expenditure of nine thousand "York pounds" was a matter which excited, doubtless, more serious thought and consideration than would in our day a public work involving millions. Everybody was made to feel and take an interest in it. The subscriptions, generally in material or labor, were considered very generous. As was ever the case in church work, the women vied with the men in bearing their proportion of the cost. On the highway and across the ferries the building materials were exempted from tolls. Such was the universality of aid given in the labor and cost, that when, at a period subsequent to its completion, an effort was made by the managers to establish a graded value on the seats, strong objection
.
140
A BIRTHPLACE OF "JERSEY JUSTICE."
was made on the ground that the desire and intent of the founders and original subscribers to the fund was to leave the church as free as possible from what may be termed the reserved seat system. It was insisted by the trustees that they had a perfect right to assess the congregation for seats, "according to their value." This was disputed, and, while some submitted for the sake of peace, one person took the matter into court and obtained a decision against the trustees.
Now that the new edifice was completed, the old building was used almost entirely for the administration of justice. For three- quarters of a century it had been used alternately as a court-house, a place of worship and for the transaction of town business generally. Over the door was placed the coat of arms of New Jersey, and over the seats of the judges hung on the wall a painting of Justice holding a pair of scales and a sword. With the painting went the couplet :
"In equal balance Justice weighs her cause, And wields a sword to vindicate her laws."
We have spoken of this ancient habitation of piety and town legislation as the Faneuil Hall of Newark-a nursery of New Jersey oratory and statesmanship. Well and rightly may it be spoken of also as a fostering place of that judicial character which constitutes one of the brightest jewels in New Jersey's crown of glory. Here, doubtless, more than anywhere else in the Province or State, was laid the foundation of that exalted reputation for dispensing even- handed justice which is the just pride of every Jerseyman, and which has given enviable fame to New Jersey among her sisters in the galaxy of States. Writing more than half a century before Newark was settled, a distinguished English writer on ecclesiastical polity said : "Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power." Such, it may be assumed, was the character of law aimed to be administered " in the bosom of God's" house here in Newark. Here, for five days in each year, during the period above described, the Supreme Court judges, in their imposing scarlet robes and powdered wigs, sat and heard appeals from the lower courts, and decided the most important cases.
SVEIKYORK
TWO SHILLING'S and EIGHT PENCE,
New York Currency.
12%
ONE THIRD of a DOLLAR.
FNEW
ANDOLER
PRINTED by Samuel Loudon.
NEW CAND
THINGS
WORK
ONE THIRD of a DOLLAR.
No. 24354
ASdollar
T HIS BILL fell pafs cur- Aren't in all PAYMIJNTs in this Colony, for TWO, SHILLINGS and EIGHT PENCE, being equal: to One 2. of a Spinifh Milled. Dollar) or the Values, thereof in Gold or Silver; according to the Refolution of the Provincial Con- grefs of New-York, qin the fifth
ONE THIRD (OF)
Day of March, 1776.
%: kai
2 s. 8 d.
2/8.
"LORD'S MONEY."
"This is Contribution monney which I Rec'd of Deaken Alling."-Fac simile of a bill, one of a bundle belonging to the First Presbyterian Church, contributed during the Revolu- tion, The bundle was inscribed as above, in Joseph Alling's handwriting.
.
141
FAREWELL TO NEWARK'S "FANEUIL HALL."
The code established by the General Assembly of 1682 made swearing punishable with a fine of one shilling ; drunkenness, one shilling fine for the first offence and sitting in the stocks till sober for the third; witchcraft, rape and kidnapping were each punishable by death. To the honor of Newark be it noted, that there is no evidence that any executions took place here for the three last named offences. The fact, however, that the early court records were long ago lost, and the additional fact that those from the date of 1724 furnish evidence that the townsfolk of a century and a half ago, and later, were fully as liable to err as are people of our own generation, suggests the prudence of boasting softly and sparingly about the superior virtues of the people of that period. Many who figured as leading citizens of the place are on record as having been indicted and punished for cock-fighting and such offences. At the beginning of the present century, the temple, by turns of religion, justice and home-rule, had become very much worn and dilapidated. In the Town Records it is last mentioned in connection with the holding of the annual Town Meeting upon Monday, April 14, 1806. At that meeting the first of the " Resolves passed" was: "That the Township Committee be authorized to make good all damages done to the Court House at the time of holding Town Meetings therein, and to cause the same to be swcept and cleaned after each meeting." The record of the next annual meeting specifies no particular place for its holding except "at Newark, on Monday the 13th day of April, 1807." A similar omission occurs in the record of the annual meeting for 1808. The report for the year 1809 resumes the old form and mentions that the meeting was held "at the Court House." meanwhile the worn out building had been abandoned and a new Court House erected on the site now occupied by Grace Church, on the corner of Broad and Walnut streets, which site was presented to the town by Governor Pennington. Although the Town Records are completely silent on the subject, there is connected with the building of the New Court House a very entertaining and suggestive bit of local election history.
At this period Essex County, which was formed in 1675, though its boundaries were not definitely fixed until the passage of an act approved January 21st, 1710, included all the territory of the townships of Newark and Elizabethtown. When the crumbling condition of the old Court House and County Jail pressed upon the
142
ADIEU TO DAYS OF "DIVIDENT HILL."
people the necessity of providing other quarters, there broke out between the two townships a dispute of considerable bitterness as to which one should have the honor and profit of furnishing the site for the new buildings. The days of " Divident Hill " and "loving agreements," alas! had passed away, and the days of envious contentions had set in. It is said by some who participated in the dispute that Elizabethtown was jealous of Newark, because of the superior growth and prosperity of Newark, and it was thought that conditions in this respect ought to be changed by the removal of the county buildings to Elizabethtown. In the Board of Chosen Freeholders Elizabethtown had a preponderating influence, and was able to prevent repairs on the old building or to erect new ones. Elizabethtown, in fact, was master of the situation. Finally it was agreed to submit the question to a vote of the people, authority for which proceeding was obtained by special act of the Legislature. Strange as it may seem, considering the fact that the majority of the men who framed the early laws of New Jersey were of that church which, above all others, holds fully with St. Paul, that women shall keep silent in the churches-men who had estab- lished a code of church-laws which deemed it " unbecoming " and " highly immoral " in tendency for women to sing in church, or " sit on the men's side,"-all single women and widows, at the time under consideration, were entitled to the right of suffrage-wives only being placed on a political level with infants and idiots! Nor was there any restriction because of color. Seven localities were placed in nomination for the site. These were distributed in Newark, Elizabethtown and Day's Hill. The contest was nominally between the first and the last, Elizabethtown being at the back of Day's Hill, in a double sense. It is almost impossible to imagine the excitement which not only attended the election proper, but the canvass preceding and the count and proceedings following it. The election was to last three days, beginning at Day's Hill on February 10, 1807. Prior to that time, mass meetings were held in all parts of the county and the claims of the respective townships were urged by local orators with a vigor, a virulence and a fullness far from being excelled by the very fiercest of political controver- sialists in our day. Everybody was enlisted for the war. Even the school children for days before the dawn of battle did nothing but write election tickets-printed ballots being unknown, or at all
I43
A MEMORABLE LOCAL ELECTION.
events not generally used in those days. Such was the height to which locality feeling ran that it became dangerous for Newarkers to visit Elizabethtown, and vice versa. It is related that two highly respectable young Newarkers, William Halsey and Seth Woodruff, rode to Elizabethtown in a gig during the pendency of the election and were assaulted with a bucket of tar thrown on them by one Austin Penny, who, it is believed, was afterwards indicted and punished.
Election day dawned bright, clear and bracing, and soon the whole county was astir-big with the fate of Newark and of Elizabeth- town. Everybody everywhere was up and doing. It was optional with voters what poll they voted at. They had a choice of seven. At Day's Hill the battle began on the morning of the 10th. During the forenoon the voting is believed to have been conducted quite fairly. The afternoon experienced a sad change, however ; illegal voting set in and continued till the close of the polls at night. Next day the struggle was transferred to the Elizabethtown polls, and there the illegal voting at Day's Hill was made pure and honest by comparison. Now came the tug of war. It was Newark's chance next. Here people were up betimes. The poll opened at the old Court House, as early as one o'clock in the morning. A full day was to be made of the final rally. Aaron Munn, Judge of Election, and the other poll officers were promptly on post. And then began voting, which culminated in a perfect saturnalia of ballot-box frauds. The women vied with the men, and in some instances eclipsed them, in " stuffing" the ballot box. Two young ladies, they are still living in Newark-voted each no less than six times. Married women, too, defied the law and rose superior to the political status of idiots or infants. Governor Pennington- the same who, as a dashing young Revolutionary army lieutenant, wrote in his diary so tenderly and admiringly of the Newark belles- is said to have gallantly escorted " a strapping negress" to the polls, where he "joined her in the ballot." Men and boys disguised themselves in women's attire and voted in droves. Challenges were not thought of, or, at all events, not considered safe indulgences. The very beasts were pressed into service ; horses were driven all over the township, transporting voters from one poll to another- voting at several polls being as common as voting early and often at one poll. In a word, as the sequel shows, never was there held
144
A SATURNALIA OF BALLOT-BOX FRAUDS.
in New Jersey such an electoral farce and burlesque. It beggars description. The result was announced from the judges' stand in the old Court House, by William Tuttle, an estimable citizen. The place was crowded with all sorts and conditions of people. Eliza- bethtown was found to have cast her entire vote for Day's Hill, with the exception of twenty-nine votes for Newark. The total vote of the county was announced : For Day's Hill, 6,181 ; for Newark, 7,666 ; majority for Newark 1,485. The result was received by the Newarkers with the wildest expressions of joy. The old structure trembled with the shouts sent up by the great crowd present. Bells were rung, tar barrels burned, houses illuminated, and even the steeple of the new Presbyterian church was radiant in a blaze of jubilation. Judged by the demonstrations made upon their announcements, the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown was a mere bagatelle as compared with the victory won by Newark over Elizabethtown at the polls. There are spots on the sun, however, and there proved to be large blurs on Newark's popular triumph. The beaten party cried " fraud !" with a loud voice-a custom not altogether obsolete. Every effort was made to have the result set aside and to prevent the board of Chosen Freeholders from making any appropriations with which to build a new Court House in Newark. The matter was taken before the Legislature, and there the election, to the disgust of the Newarkers and the corresponding joy of the Elizabethtown people, was pronounced corrupt and illegal and was, therefore, set aside. To estimate fully the character of " the great Court House election " it is necessary to know that the population of Newark, in 1810, was about 6,000. At the election there were cast at the Newark polls proper, 5,039 votes, or 961 less than the total population three years afterwards! The figures of the Elizabethtown polls and population show, relatively, an equal degree of ballot-box virtue and purity !
A few years subsequent to the election, about the years 1810 or 1811, the erection of a new Court House with jail and county offices attached was commenced on the site presented by Judge Pennington. It was finished in 1812, the October term of Court being held there that year. The Court House itself was a com- modious, double three-story brick building. While the new Court House was in course of construction Court was held in the large room of the old Eagle Tavern already described. The new
145
THE FIRST TANNERY IN NEWARK.
Court House was destroyed by fire about the year 1835. Another was commenced on a site occupying a part of what is now Lincoln Park. Ere the work had fairly begun it was stopped, the site abandoned, a new one purchased, and upon it the present Court House was erected.
Another election was held about the year 1812. The issue was one of interest in a double sense. The Dutch of Bergen held large money-loans on Newark property, the interest being seven per cent. This, it was contended, was too much. Six per cent. was claimed to be sufficient. In the election the six per cent. men won. It was really a defeat, however, for the seven per cent. capitalists withdrew their investments from Newark, and thereby caused con- siderable inconvenience and distress among business men in Newark.
As already quoted, Dr. Macwhorter tells us that soon after the close of the Revolutionary war Newark " began to flourish, especially in manufactories." What were these "manufactories?" From the very earliest period of the town's settlement there were established here industries outside of farming. As stated in an earlier chapter, the settlers and those who came after them included builders, millers, shoemakers, weavers, turners, tanners, &c. As early as 1676 leather was made in Newark, as is shown by the following extract from the Town Records, meeting of June 5th, 1676:
ITEM-Deacon Lawrence is chosen to be the Sealer of Leather for this Town, according to the order of the Gen'l Assembly.
The following September two " Sealers " were chosen, John Curtis and John Baldwin, "sen'r." Twenty-two years later a tannery was regularly established "at the Watering Place." The proceedings of the meeting held April 19th, 1698, contain the following:
ITEM-It is voted that Thomas Hayse, Joseph Harrison, Jasper Crane and Matthew Canfield shall view whether Azariah Crane may have room for a Tan Yard at the front of John Plum's home Lott, out of the Common, and in case the Men above mentioned agree that Azariah Crane shall have the Land, he the said Azariah Crane shall enjoy it, so long as he doth follow the Trade of tanning.
Mr. Crane, as earlier cited, was not the only tanner in the town at this period. Hans Albers and Hugh Roberts were also tanners. And quite a business was done as early as 1721 in freestone quarrying. As before remarked, however, it was not until after the war for Independence that Newark began to command attention as a growing centre of manufacturing skill and industry.
From a piece of woodland owned by Deacon Isaac Alling,
I46
WHERE THE TANNERS CONGREGATED.
situated about a mile west of the present Court House, there arose from a number of springs a stream of water. According to the maps before us, it trickled down over High street, along Market, until it reached Washington, which street it crossed diagonally and then ran in an oblique southerly course until it reached the swamps south of Broad street. The portion running from High street to Washington street was known, in common with other parts, as "the watering place for cattle." Here it was that the tanners congre- gated. The second tannery established after Azariah Crane's was, according to tradition, by one of the Johnson family. Then there was a Cumming, a Baldwin, a Combs and a Curry. About the year 1780, Moses N. Combs began tanning. A few years later Samuel Curry was established in the same business, and, still later, there were also engaged in the leather-making trade Colonel Nathaniel Beach, David Campfield and Jonathan Keen. Long after the war the same industry was followed by Israel Curry, Ira Vuth, David Nichols, Eliphalet Johnson, James Black and a few others. This was from 1803 to about 1812. During the eight years or so follow- ing, the leading leather men of Newark were David Nichols and son, Moses Smith, Eliphalet Johnson, John Cunningham, Alexander N. Dougherty, Oliver Wade, Charles T. Shipman, William Garth- waite, John Dey, Baldwin and Henderson, James H. Robinson, C. J. Fowler, Hugh Cumack, John Hartshorne, Ebenezer Condit, Stephen Howell, Conrad Teese and Joseph A. Halsey. But, to return to the period just following the war of the Revolution, careful research fails to discover that those especially flourishing "manufactories" which excited Dr. Macwhorter's admiration extended beyond considerable cider-making, as of old, some tanning, some currying, some weaving, and, perhaps, a little shoemaking more than the local population required. Soon, however, tanning here became a trade of some importance. The manufacture of leather was quickly followed by the manufacture of shoes. Shoes were made in Newark, after a manner, from the settlement; but the first record of any one among the "planters " earning his bread by following solely the calling of St. Crispin is found in the pro- ceedings of the Town Meeting of June 30th, 1680. The third item recorded says :
It is agreed, that the Town is willing Samuel Whitehead should come and Inhabit among us, provided he will supply the Town with Shoes, tho' for the Present we know not of any Place of Land convenient.
147
PIONEER SHOEMAKERS-COLONEL RUTHERFURD.
This pioneer of the Newark shoemaking industry came here from Elizabethtown, of which place he was Town Clerk as early as February, 1666. It is doubtful if his work extended much beyond Newark. Long after his time, the people of this and other towns were shod by the literal journeyman shoemaker who periodically passed from house to house and from place to place, until the home- tanned hide was transformed into shoes. It was not until some years subsequent to the declaration of peace with Great Britain, and to the firm establishment of tanning, that the manufacture of shoes for a market outside of Newark was engaged in to any considerable extent. The first to so engage was Moses N. Combs, the tanner- a somewhat eccentric, but altogether remarkable and valuable citizen and a most successful business man. Upon the authority of an esteemed and venerable Newarker still living, a descendant of one of the original settlers and a noted repository of local remi- niscences, a story is related in which Combs, the manufacture of shoes, and the early characteristics of Newark (yea, and of fair Elizabethtown), are humorously associated. It runs as follows: After the Revolution, about the year 1790, Col. John Rutherfurd made a tour of East Jersey with a view of selecting a home for himself and family. Coming to Newark, he stopped at the Gifford tavern, which was kept by Archer Gifford and stood on the northeast corner of Broad and Market streets, where now stands one of the handsomest buildings and most stable of financial institutions in the State-the First National Bank. In conversation with Mr. Gifford, Col. Rutherfurd stated that he had passed through New Jersey during the war and was favorably impressed with the country and climate, so that he now felt desirous of purchasing an estate and settling in some prosperous locality where an investment would grow with the prosperity of the place. It is fair to assume that Gifford's eyes twinkled with pleasure as he remarked : " You've just come, sir, to the right place." To prove it, he proceeded to expatiate upon the virtues of Newark, and brought matters to a clinching climax when he proudly stated that there were just then in course of erection five two-story frame houses, and that an individual of the town had just taken an order for two hundred pairs of shoes to be sent to Georgia. That same evening, as it is stated the Colonel used to be fond of relating, he stopped at Elizabethtown. The same interchange of words took place between
148
REV. MOSES NEWEL COMBS.
Colonel Rutherfurd and the tavern keeper. The latter, like his brother-host of Newark, dwelt upon the beauties of Lady Carteret's village namesake. It was just the place for Rutherfurd's investment. In proof of the life and enterprise of the place, the landlord, in his most persuasive language, told him that upon that very evening a meeting was to be held to make arrangements for the establishment in the place of a coffee house with billiard tables. Some thirty years later the authority for the foregoing was employed in a store in Augusta, Georgia. One day a gentleman entered the store and something was said about Newark, which brought out the fact that in 1790 the gentleman had been in Newark and had purchased there " from a little black-eyed man named Combs," two hundred pairs of seal skin shoes, the first that were ever bought in Newark and taken to Georgia. The "little black-eyed man" afterwards received as high as $9,000 for a single sale.
During the first quarter of our existence as a Republic MOSES NEWEL COMBS was a noted Newarker in every sense of the term. He was a regularly ordained preacher, as is vouched for by the Town Records, which, in the minutes of the meeting of April 9th, 1792, declared it to have been voted "That Rev. Moses Combs be keeper of the pound." He was a liberal subscriber to the fund for the erection of the present First Presbyterian Church edifice, was a man of the strictest morals and the straightest sect ; but for reasons which do not appear, he abandoned the ministry and devoted himself to the business, first of tanning and then of shoemaking as set forth. But, while a strong churchman, a temperance advocate and an ardent friend of education, he was disposed to rebel against a church discipline which he considered arbitrary and tyrannous. He was the leader in a movement to establish a separate church in which Presbyterianism could be practised somewhat differently from the form and faith required to be accepted under Dr. Mac- whorter. "For a time," as Dr. Stearns states, "Mr. Combs' association attended worship and were admitted to occasional communion with the church in Orange and afterwards commenced separate worship in Newark." Being possessed of considerable wealth, Mr. Combs erected a wooden building on Market street near Plane, the lower part of which was used for public worship and the upper part as a school-room. "Silver was showered on him so plentifully that he did not know what else to do with it," he said.
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