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 7
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DEATH OF COL. OGDEN.
few in comparison of the Presbyterians ; yet there were two leaders, one on each side, who were pretty equally poised in point of abilities, wealth, connections and ambition." " This religious brand," adds the Doctor, " kindled a flame which was not extinguished till the conclusion of the late war "-the Revolutionary war.
During the Ogden excitement, Pastor Webb seems to have had small influence, either as a controversialist or as a pacificator. We are told that he possessed no gifts for controversy, and was hated and contemned by the new party, while sinking into neglect and disrespect with the other. Upon application of a majority of the congregation he was dismissed by the Presbytery in 1736. Mr. Webb appears, however, to have been a good, faithful, pains- taking pastor. In 1741, while visiting friends in Connecticut in company with his son, both were drowned in crossing Saybrook ferry on Connecticut river.
Col. Ogden, the founder of Trinity Church, died in 1763 at a ripe old age. He was buried somewhere in the old Burying Ground. In emulation of Azariah Crane and his bequest to the First Church, Col. Ogden said, in his will : "I give to the rector, church wardens, and vestry of Trinity Church, in Newark, my silver cup or porringer with two handles to the same, for and to the only use of said . Church." His tombstone, which still preserves itself in the old Burying Ground pile of such memorials, despite the vandals, bears the following simple inscription :
Here Lyes Interred ye body of COL. JOSIAH OGDEN Who died May 17th 1763 In the 84th year of his age.
The death list during Mr. Webb's pastorate includes a number of familiar names. Caleb Ward, son of John Ward, "the turner," died in 1735, leaving the reputation of
An honest, pious soule
Who all that knew his virtues did verole."
Deacon Azariah Crane, Jasper's son, died November 5th, 1730, aged 83. Anthony Olive, Nathaniel Wheeler, Robert Young, Mrs. Joanna Crane, wife of Jasper, Jr., daughter of Samuel Swaine and sister of Elizabeth; Deacon Joseph Camfield, John Browne and Joseph Johnson were all gathered in during the same period. Joseph Johnson was the town's first " drummer boy." He was 15
59
JOSEPH AND REBECCA.
years old when the town was settled. He lived to reach four score years and three. He was buried beside his parents, away from his wife. Upon his tombstone, which, marvelous to relate, is still in position in the old Burying Ground, as is also that of his parents, is inscribed the following :
JOSEPH JOHNSON Son of Thomas and Eleanor Johnson He died Mar 11th 1773 in the 83rd year of his age.
His wife Rebecca, who was the daughter of first pastor Pierson, and sister of Abraham, junior, died a short time before her husband and was buried alongside her parent. The inscription on her tombstone (now disappeared,) informed posterity as follows :
Here lyes a faithful loving wife She loved her husband as her life. Sharp Deth hath snached her soon away For we are all but Dust and Clay So nessery would it be to live in Love As well as shee.
Rebecca, wife of Joseph Johnson, aged 78 years. Deceased Nov. ye 8th 1732.
CHAPTER IV.
1736 TO 1775.
Rev. Aaron Burr-His Pastorate in Newark-Effect of his Oratory on a Boston Belle-The Evangelist Whitefield-Princeton College Established in Newark-Interesting Early History of the Alma Mater of Illustrious Americans-Pastor Burr its Real Founder- Burr's Courtship and Marriage, "The Talk of the Town " in 1752-The " Person of Great Beauty " who Lived in his " Sincerest Mutual Affections"-Burr's Removal with the College to Princeton-His Death in 1757-Benjamin Franklin on "The Great Scholar " and " Very Great Man"-The "Two Great Newark Riots" of 1745-Bitter Contest over Land Titles-Causes, Consequences and Merits of the Dispute-First Charter of the First Church-Aaron Burr, the Second-His Birth-place in Newark, his Virtues and his Frailties-Young Burr's Bravery at Quebec, and how he Saved Putnam's Army from the Clutches of Lord Howe-Was he the Miscreant his Contemporaries Certified him to Posterity ?- What "might have been " had his Mother Lived-Col. Burr's Death and Burial-How the Lost Burr Portraits were Found-Infant Industries and Population of Newark-Rev. Alexander Macwhorter-The Parsonage Property- Orange and Newark in Battle Array-Orange Victorious.
T HE seventh pastor of the First Presbyterian Church was Rev. Aaron Burr. His coming here was fraught with important results, not alone to Newark, but to America and the great cause of education. His first appearance in Newark was in November, 1736. The Town Records show that at a meeting held December 2Ist, 1736, a vote was taken "whether the town desired Mr. Aaron Burr should have a call for further improvement in the work of the ministry among us as a candidate for further trial, which was carried in the affirmative, nemine contradicente." Mr. Burr had not yet reached manhood, being only in his nineteenth year. But though a youth in years and small in stature, he had the head of a Samuel or a Timothy, as the good people of the First Church seem to have early discovered. After a year's trial he was unanimously called to the pastorate, and on the 25th of January, 1737, was regularly installed.
The time of Mr. Burr's arrival in Newark was, as we have seen, one of serious contention and disorder. These, though apparently what Dr. Macwhorter styles " a pious bustle," formed a source of trouble which partook in reality quite as much of a secular as of a religious character. It was "a day of temptation and darkness " in
ENGRAVED BY J. CARTAIN.
Aaron Burr
61
AARON BURR, THE PASTOR.
the church, says a reverend writer of the period, when Mr. Burr came to Newark, "but his coming soon dispersed the cloud which hung over them." The young pastor himself seems to have had great diffidence as to his pastoral capacity. In his journal he wrote : "I can hardly give any account why I came here. After I had preached some time at Hanover, I had a call by the people of Newark, but there was scarcely any probability that I should suit their circumstances, being young in standing and trials. I accepted - their invitation with a reserve that I did not come with any views of settling. My labours were universally acceptable among them, and they manifested such regard and love for me that I consented to accept of the charge of their souls."
There is no name in American church history more suggestive of all that is sweet and pure and holy in man, than that of the elder AARON BURR. It is not enough, though, to say that he was sweet in disposition, pure in life and godly in his holy office. He was a really great man, as well as a really good one. Mr. Burr was born at Fairfield, Connecticut, January 4th, 1716. Parton, in his life of Col. Aaron Burr, says : " He came of a Puritan family which may have originated in Germany, where the name is still common, but which had flourished in New England for three generations, and had given to those provinces clergymen, lawyers and civilians of some eminence." Dr. Stearns declares the suggestion regarding the Burr family extraction to be "unquestionably fabulous," and adds that "' Daniel Burr, of upper meadow,' as the baptismal register designates him, was no German, but the descendant of a race intensely Puritan in all its instincts and sympathies." No proof is furnished, however, to sustain this emphatic contradiction of a reasonable supposition. Daniel Burr might easily have been of "upper meadow " and " of a race intensely Puritan," &c., and yet have been the descendant of a native of Germany, perhaps, but Holland more likely. Holland was no stranger to Puritanism. Fourteen years before the landing on Plymouth Rock most of the precious freight of the " Mayflower " sought and found a sure refuge in Holland, from whence came names that are historic in America, and which furnished New Jersey with the reverend founder of the Frelinghuysen family.
Aaron Burr was the youngest of six sons, and early displayed aptness and inclination for study. He entered Yale College, and
62
" THE GREAT AWAKENING" IN NEWARK.
graduated in 1735. Three years before that, the learned and large- hearted Irish Protestant divine, Rev. Dr. George Berkley, then Dean of 'Derry, and afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, founded three scholarships at Yale. For that purpose he transferred certain property to the College upon consideration that the income from the same should be appropriated to the maintenance of the three best scholars in Greek and Latin, resident at College at least nine months in a year, in each of the years between the first and second degree. The fact that young Burr sought and secured one of these scholarships, proves his high standing in College and his fondness for classical studies. During the summer of 1736 there was quite a religious revival in New Haven, under the influence of which, it is believed, Burr was "brought to the footstool of sovereign grace," as described by himself. He had been a strong Arminian. Now, to use his own words, he "seemingly felt the truth of the Calvinian doctrine." In September, 1736, he was licensed as a candidate for the ministry. His first sermon was preached at Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Rev. Mr. Burr's entire ministry in Newark, from 1736 to 1755, a period of nineteen years, was attended with the most gratify- ing results to both people and pastor. It included the period of "the great awakening" of religious fervor which obtained not only in America but in the Mother Country. Writing to Mr. Nicholas Spence, in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1741, Dr. John Nichols, a New York physician, speaks of Mr. Burr as one of seven ministers whom " the good Lord has stirred up and spirited " to continue the work begun by the great evangelist Whitefield. The latter visited Newark the first time in November, 1740. In his own words he " preached to a considerable congregation but with little effect." In the evening, however, there was a great change. "But now," wrote Whitefield, " did the Word fall like a hammer and like fire ! What a weeping was there! One poor creature in particular was ready to sink into the earth." In illustration of Mr. Burr's character as a preacher the following incident is related : In Boston there was a young lady of culture, accomplishments and wealth, the " observed of all observers" in her gay, fashionable and frivolous " set." One day, while proceeding to join some festive party, she saw a great multitude passing into a church. Prompted by idle curiosity, she paused and passed in. Soon after a gentleman of not
63
BURR'S POWER AS A PREACHER.
particularly remarkable presence, as she thought, ascended the pulpit. The young lady looked at him contemptuously, supposing that "such a person could not say anything worth such crowding after," and but for the restraint of a decent regard for the house of God she would have passed out. Soon, however, as the narrator sets forth, she felt " what she never felt before, for the spirit of God accompanied the Word in a most powerful manner." Such was the effect on the young lady that she at once altered her course in life, and became a devout Christian. The preacher was Rev. Aaron Burr.
Touching this incident there seems to be one discrepancy. Mr. Burr was a man of " particularly remarkable presence." It is true, he was small of stature, but still, as his portraits denote, he was very handsome in features, " with clear, dark eyes, of a soft lustre, quite unlike the piercing orbs of his son; a figure completely formed but somewhat slender, and with the bearing of a prince." The fascinating manner and lofty style of Mr. Burr are frequently mentioned in the letters of the period.
Rev. Mr. Burr, says the famous and patriotic Governor William Livingston, "was none of your 'downy doctors' who soothe their hearers with delusive hopes of divine acceptance, or substituted external morality in the room of vital godliness. On the contrary, he scorned to proclaim the peace of God till the rebel laid down his arms, and returned to his allegiance." Such was the affection between the Newark people and their pastor that they regretted even his occasional absence, even when the pulpit was "not meanly supplied." During Mr. Burr's pastorate, in May, 1744, David Brainerd, the distinguished early Indian missionary, was ordained in the First Church.
We now approach a most important period in Mr. Burr's life, the time of the founding of "The College of New Jersey," better known as Princeton College
Very early in the settlement of the Province the need of more clergymen was felt. Many years before the period we are con- sidering, James Johnstone wrote from New Jersey to his brother an Edinburgh druggist : "What I most earnestly desire of you for the encouragement of the plantation, is that you would be instrumental to send us over some ministers, who, I dare engage shall ever after be thankful." As years and population increased
64
PRINCETON COLLEGE IN EMBRYO.
this need grew greater. Out of these religious needs and consider- ations sprung the famous institution which has shed so much lustre on American history and which is surely destined to shed infinitely more. Ecclesiastical jealousy, or at all events some unseemly synodical disputations, appear to have been a quickening cause in the establishment of the College. Young Brainerd, the Indian missionary, had been expelled from college for a trifling indiscretion, and nothing he or his friends, including Rev. Mr. Burr, could do was sufficient to induce the College authorities to relent and allow him to graduate. In spite of this, as stated, he was duly ordained in Newark. This, and other matters, brought on a synodical separation. Mr. Burr himself is traditionally quoted as saying that " if it had not been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, New Jersey College would never have been created."
The germ of the College was planted at Elizabethtown, under the care of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, an eminent divine and scholar. For a number of years he had a classical school for young men which he conducted in connection with his ministerial duties. Measures were taken to turn his school into a College where young men could be trained for the ministry as well as other pursuits. On October 22d, 1746, a charter was obtained from acting Governor John Hamilton, attested by the great seal of the Province of New Jersey. The incorporators named included Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, Ebenezer Pemberton and Aaron Burr, ministers, and a number of laymen. The institution was to be known as "The College of New Jersey." At once the Trustees began work, so that by the following February they were able to advertise the institution as about to be opened. Rev. Mr. Dickinson was appointed President, and in the latter part of May, 1747, the College was opened at Elizabethtown. Scarcely had it started, however, when President Dickinson died. This was in October, 1747, a year after the granting of the charter. The enterprise was chilled into a sudden suspension. The students, eight in number, were removed to Newark and placed under the care of Rev. Mr. Burr, who, like Mr. Dickinson, had established a classical school in connection with his pastorate. As a matter of fact the College of New Jersey ceased to exist. No President was chosen to succeed Dickinson. Happily the project was not abandoned. About the time of Mr. Dickinson's decease there arrived from England a true
.
65
VIRTUALLY FOUNDED IN NEWARK.
friend of religion and learning, Governor Jonathan Belcher. He early took a deep interest in the suspended College. The old charter had never been filed. A new one was drafted by Belcher and granted in September, 1748. A month later a majority of the Trustees met at New Brunswick, chose a clerk and adopted an address proposed by Mr. Burr, thanking Governor Belcher. The meeting adjourned, to meet in Newark the following month. In Newark they met, accordingly, assembling in the edifice of the First Presbyterian Church. This was on Wednesday, November 9th, 1748. Governor Belcher, as President ex officio of the Board of Trustees, presided. Rev. Aaron Burr was unanimously chosen President of the rehabilitated college. "He was pleased modestly to accept the office " and duly took the oath required by the charter. By express request, Governor Belcher received the degree of A. M., the first honor of the kind conferred by President Burr. That same day the College held its first Commencement, and a class of six young men graduated, namely: Enos Ayres, Benjamin Chestnut, Hugo Henry, Israel Reed, Richard Stockton and David Thane. All of these, except Stockton, joined the ministry, and he became not only an eminent jurist but one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In Newark the College remained eight years, flourishing marvelously under the care of President Burr. It sent forth from fifteen to twenty graduates every year, the total while here being about ninety. Among this number was the renowned pulpit orator, Samuel Davis, who was himself President of the College afterwards, and from whom, it has been asserted, the immortal Patrick Henry caught considerable of the fire of his eloquence. In 1756 the College was removed to Princeton, where it has ever since remained.
Thus was virtually founded here in Newark an institution which, more than a century and a quarter ago, Governor Belcher prophet- ically referred to as "a 'noble design, and destined, if God pleases, to prove an extensive blessing;" "an alma mater to this and neighboring Provinces." It may not be inaptly said that Newark is the mother, as Aaron Burr was the father, of the venerable seat of learning which has sent forth host after host of men, fitted to take positions of leadership in all the important walks of life. The number of distinguished public men this grand old educational nursling of Newark has given to the country is remarkably large.
.
66
PRINCETON'S SONS-BURR'S MARRIAGE.
In the Continental Congress ten of the thirteen colonies were represented by graduates of Princeton. At one time one-sixth of the members of the United States Senate proudly called her their alma mater. She has given the nation one President, (James Madi- son), two Vice-Presidents, one Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, four Associate Justices, four Secretaries of State, four Secretaries of the Treasury, three Secretaries of War, four Secreta- ries of the Navy, five Attorney Generals, one Postmaster General, twenty-five Governors of States, one hundred and seventeen Judges of State Courts, one hundred and fifty Members of Congress, and seventeen Foreign Ambassadors. Princeton, besides, is the mother of about a dozen other Colleges, and has educated forty-two Presi- dents of Colleges, and over one hundred Professors.
During the stay of the College in Newark it gave importance and reputation to the place. Synod meetings were generally held here, attracting distinguished divines and laymen from a wide section of country.
"The talk of the town " in June, 1752, was the marriage on the 29th of that month of President Burr. He was then in his thirty- seventh year. His bride was a New England beauty, one who appears to have been as lovely in her life and disposition as she was winning and attractive in manner and beautiful in face and form. This was Miss Esther Edwards, third daughter of the distinguished Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who sub- sequently, like his illustrious friend and son-in-law, became President of the College of New Jersey. Miss Edwards was only nineteen years of age, but was "matured in the beauty of true womanly virtues as well as in form." President Burr's wooing and wedding was assuredly something out of the beaten way of courtships and marriages. The following humorous and interesting narrative of the matter, written by one of Mr. Burr's students, is by no means void of exemplary suggestions :
Dear and Honored Sir :
NEWARK, 6th July, 1752.
The best piece of news I have now to furnish you with, is the marriage of our President. As this must come very unexpected to you, I shall give you an account of his proceedings as brief as they were themselves. In the latter end of May, he took a journey into New England, and during his absence he made a visit of but three days to the Rev. Mr. Edward's daughter, at Stockbridge; in which short time, though he had no acquaintance with, nor indeed ever saw the lady these six years, I suppose he accomplished his whole design; for it was not above a fortnight after his return here, before he sent a young fellow, who came out of College last Fall, into New England, to conduct her and her mother down here.
67
ยท REMOVAL OF THE COLLEGE-BURR'S DEATH.
They came to town on Saturday evening, the 27th inst., and on the Monday evening following the nuptial ceremonies were celebrated between Mr. Burr and the young lady. As I have yet no manner of acquaintance with her, I cannot describe to you her qualifications and properties; however they say she is a very valuable lady. I think her a person of great beauty, though I must say that in my opinion she is rather young (being only twenty-one (?) years of age,) for the President. This account you'll doubtless communicate to Mammy as I learn she has Mr. Burr's happiness much at heart. I conclude with my love and duty to her, love to- &c., &c., and am with due esteem
Your very dutiful and affectionate son,
N. B .- Mr. Burr was in his thirty-seventh year. J. SHIPPEN, jr.
A few weeks later this same College reporter of the period wrote as follows : "I can't omit acquainting you that our President enjoys all the happiness the married state can afford. I am sure when he was in the condition of celibacy the pleasure of his life bore no comparison to that he now possesses. From the little acquaintance I have with his lady I think her a woman of very good sense, of a genteel and virtuous education, amiable in her person, of great affability and agreeableness in conversation and a very excellent economist. These qualifications may help you to frame some idea of the person who lives in the sincerest mutual affections with Mr. Burr."
The ministry of Mr. Burr continued till 1755. Finding the labor of managing the affairs of the rapidly growing College, and the demands of pastoral work also, too burdensome, he applied to the Church for dismission. With great reluctance it was granted, the affection of the congregation being so great that many members insisted that the relationship between pastor and people was as indis- soluble and inviolate as that between man and wife. A year later, in the Autumn of 1756, the College was removed and permanently located at Princeton, the result of four or five years' consideration. President Burr and his family moved with it. The College was scarcely established in its new quarters before a genuine calamity befell it, the death of President Burr. This occurred September 24th, 1757, shortly after the death of Governor Belcher, and about one year after the removal from Newark. In accordance with his death-bed wishes, Mr. Burr's remains were interred with as little parade as possible, and no expense beyond that necessary to decent burial, the place of interment being Princeton. The highest eulogies were heaped upon the departed President's memory in public and in private. On his tombstone was chiseled a glowing tribute to the great man's worth. In his Pennsylvania Gazette the
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THE "TWO GREAT RIOTS" OF 1745.
illustrious Benjamin Franklin printed the following just estimate, written (it is believed) by himself :
SEPT 29th, 1757-Last Saturday died the Rev. Mr. Aaron Burr, President of the New Jersey College, a gentleman and a Christian as universally beloved as known, an agreeable companion, a faithful friend, a tender and affectionate husband and a good father; remarkable for his industry, integrity, strict honesty and pure, undissembled piety ; his benevolence as disinter- ested as unconfined ; an excellent preacher, a great scholar, and a very great man."
During the early years of Mr. Burr's pastorate considerable fame of a rather questionable character was achieved for Newark through- out this and the neighboring provinces. Between the English proprietors and a large number of the descendents of the settlers sprung up a violent dispute regarding land titles. The former claimed that they and their predecessors alone could give legal titles, while the latter insisted that the Indians were the genuine original owners, and titles derived from them were full and undoubted. The controversy led to breaches of the peace, breaches of the peace . to arrests, and arrests to riots and jail deliveries. "It is with concern," declared "the Council of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey," at their meeting at Perth Amboy, March 25th, 1746, " that we see in the Public Papers that in September last (1745) the Gaol of Newark was, in a riotous manner broke open, and a person rescued from thence who had been committed on a common writ of Trespass, upon his refusing to give bail or an Appearance thereto; and that afterwards upon the apprehending of some of the Rioters another Riot was committed in January last, in which the Gaol of Newark was again broke open, and the Prisoners therein rescued." At a subsequent meeting of the Council reference was again made to the "Two great Riots at Newark," and the statement recorded that the sheriff of the county "and other persons whom he had called to his assistance, were beat and abused." Similar disturbances took place in adjacent counties, the records of the period averring that the "rioters" were mostly those who created the trouble in Newark. In Bergen, it is declared, the rioters went to the house of one Edward Jeffers and threatened to beat him with clubs unless he consented to take a lease from Indian owners of title, instead of one from the Proprietors. They were also accused of having "beat and wounded " some tenants of John Burnet in Essex County, and of having, to the number of about one hundred, proceeded to Somerset County and rescued from the sheriff there one Abraham Anderson, one of their sympathisers.
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