USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Within a Jersey circle : tales of the past, grave and gay, as picked up from old Jerseyites > Part 14
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At this time the leader was subjected to a renev of persecution and had a narrow escape from arrest, ev when they had all packed their belongings ready for sa ing the next day. A few friends were chatting with M and Mrs. Davenport that afternoon, when suddenly lady friend rushed into the house.
"Oh, Mr. Davenport! fly!" she cried in great citement and in a tragic whisper. "The officers are co ing to arrest you; they are already in the garden wall
"Let them come!" said the reverend gentlem calmly; "I'll not attempt to elude them."
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f "No, no!" cried two or three of his adherents, who « vere all ready to sail with him on the morrow. "For pur sakes, for the sake of the cause, fly or hide-anything rut be arrested !"
"I have it!" cried Mrs. Davenport. "Come, sister, Help me!" And in a twinkling an immense packing-box € which as yet only contained a few things, was overturned Ind emptied. "Now, John, dear, we mustn't lose you at ¡ the eleventh hour. All is lost if we do. For my sake, do you sit down on the floor and allow us to cover you with this box and take tea over your head, and we'll jdefy them."
1
Down the great man sat and the large box was quickly turned over him, a tablecloth spread over it and tea
( „ things set, in half the time it takes to tell it. When the emissaries of his persecutors were admitted, the company U were seated around this improvised table, apparently en- joying their afternoon tea. When the officers asked for her husband Mrs. Davenport truthfully informed them:
"Mr. Davenport left the house immediately after our Į midday dinner." But she did not feel called upon to add that he had returned again.
"Well, our orders are to search the house, madam," the leader said.
"Search the house by all means," said the lady, "if it 1 is your duty. Mary!" she called to her maid, "show 1 these persons into every room, please."
They searched every place in the house but the right j one, of which they did not have the least suspicion, and went away as they came. As soon as they had gone, Mr. p Davenport lost no time in getting aboard their chartered
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ship, where in the bay he safely rode at anchor until all joined him before dawn the next day. That packing-box in the fair hands of Mrs. Davenport was a maker of history. If her husband had been taken, possibly neither he nor any of his illustrious companions would ever have seen America. As it was, they hoisted sail for the New World early that morning in the spring of 1637, and after a tempestuous voyage of three months landed at Bos- ton.
As these immigrants were known to be highly con- nected, of great learning and rich, strong inducements were offered to persuade them to settle within the con- fines of the Plymouth colony, but after full discussion it was deemed best to form a new colony. This they did on the Connecticut seaboard, founding New Haven. All authentic records fully accord to Mr. Davenport the honor and credit of leadership in the great movements toward civil and religious freedom, which resulted in establishing and developing that important colony.
A continuous line of ministers have succeeded in the family, and others have met success as members of col- leges and other institutions of learning. They have also served their country in the army, navy and legislative halls, both in national and State government. They were whole-hearted supporters of the colonial cause in the Rev- olution as well by pen as sword, and fought in the Con- tinental army as officers and private soldiers. Two of the name were in Congress in the administrations of Washington, Adams and Jefferson. The Rev. James Davenport (grandson of the Connecticut pioneer), sta- tioned at Southold, Long Island, was a preacher of great
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power. His fame it was that attracted Whitefield hither from England, in 1739. Shortly after his arrival on this side the latter wrote home:
"I am comforted exceedingly and encouraged by meet- ing my dear Brother Davenport, by whose hands the Lord hath already done such mighty things here."
They organized a great missionary tour, and for a while together held immense meetings in the leading cities of New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. After the end of the tour, Davenport preached to a congregation of over three thousand in con- nection with the church of Mr. Cross at Basking Ridge. Here Whitefield again joined him and aided in the work with wonderful success. In the fall of 1739 these two evangelists passed along the Old York road here, through Reaville and Three Bridges, on their way to New York. Their coming had been anticipated, evidently, for at the Presbyterian church at Reaville, then the only church of the denomination in the Amwell Valley, they preached in the open air to a great concourse of worshipers. In Whitefield's diary it was noted that "some thousands of people" awaited them "at the small village of Reaville." In after years Davenport preached for a time in Con- necticut, and finally was stationed at Hopewell, just be- low here in Mercer, near the border of Somerset, where he died in 1753.
Another celebrated member of the family was John I. Davenport, a direct lineal descendant of the founder of New Haven, who distinguished himself for fearless fidel- ity and honesty as chief supervisor of elections in New York, toward the end of the eighteenth century. As an
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honest man, he naturally met tremendous difficulty and opposition in that office. But in the end he triumphed by causing his worst enemies, as well as committees of Congress, to fully acknowledge that, although he had been strictly right in law, justice and honesty in his great fight for an honest and free ballot, in and through all of which he fully exemplified the true, sterling qualities he had inherited from his righteous ancestors.
To Jersey people, however, the chief interest in the past of the distinguished family must centre on John Davenport, of the same lineal stock as the great Con- necticut Puritan, but who came among his many rela- tives in that State half a century after their first Ameri- can progenitor had landed there. The newly arrived John first lived at Danbury, in the same State, but after a short stay there he decided to look further afield for a more favorable locality for trade. Being young and ad- venturous and of shrewd observation, he soon perceived the superior advantages of New Jersey in her milder cli- mate and prolific soil, but particularly in her geopraphi- cal position between the two great cities-New York and Philadelphia. He traveled considerably in Jersey, exploring toward the centre of the State. On arriving at Pluckemin, already a thriving little village, he judged it to be full of promise of becoming in time a good busi- ness centre. After fully studying the situation, he set- tled there in 1800 and engaged in general merchandise.
After three years, noticing the rapid rise of Somerville, the county seat having just removed there, he concluded to branch out in that town, with a view to possibly per- manent removal to it as a more promising centre. He
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bought a fine farm facing on Main street and running north a full mile. The next year he built and occupied a house on the farm. Then entering into partnership with George Vannest (one of that numerous family mentioned in my last article, and whose son afterward married Mr. Davenport's daughter Margaret), he ex- pended much capital in establishing a hat manufactory in Somerville, while still conducting the Pluckemin busi- ness, traveling to and fro in the arduous work of attend- ing to both. After a few years' experience, he found many and great difficulties in managing two plants thus separated. Without severing in the least their warm friendship, Mr. Davenport wound up his business affairs with Vannest, sold his Somerville farm, moved back to Pluckemin and permanently concentrated his energies there.
He purchased an extensive farm adjoining the village and commenced its improvement. There were tanneries and currying works on the place, and these he had thor- ough repaired and enlarged. He also built a flouring and grist mill, also a cider mill and distillery, and erected as well a new and extensive hat factory, putting into it the most improved machinery, with buildings properly ad- justed to every department. Over and above all these, he embarked in a perfectly new and separate trade, that of chemically treating sumac to meet the requirements of morocco factories in Philadelphia. This itself grew into a large and profitable trade.
Operating all these branches of business at the same time, Mr. Davenport employed a great many hands, and by his industries alone made Pluckemin a place of con-
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siderable importance at that time. Splendid as was his constitution, the strain of constant application necessary to successfully conduct so many distinct enterprises brought on a sudden calamity. While in apparently full vigor of health and strength, he was stricken with apoplexy and died at his homestead at Pluckemin on September 18, 1830, in the fifty-second year of his age.
John Davenport was twice married, first in 1804, to Margaret Traphagen; she died in 1811, leaving two chil- dren, Ralph and Sarah Ann. The latter died in 1829, un- married. Ralph, born in 1805, married Phoebe A. Voor- hies, in 1827; in two years she died, without issue. Ralph married again, in 1838, Sarah Drake; they had two chil- dren, Ralph and Mary; the former married Ellen Van- nest; Mary became the wife of William Jeroloman. The father, Ralph, born in 1805, lived twenty years in New York, after which he spent the rest of his life farming at Pluckemin.
John Davenport's second wife was Mary Boylan whom he married in 1813; she was the daughter of John Boylan, of Pluckemin, and according to tradition was a most estimable woman. She died in 1848, leaving six children, namely, Margaret, born 1814, who married George Vannest in 1839. He died in 1864, leaving six children, most of whom made their homes in Somerset county. John married Hester Voorhees in 1838; he died in 1848, leaving five children. Of these James proved himself a brave and patriotic youth. He enlisted when scarcely eighteen years of age for service in the Civil War; was captured and shut up in Andersonville prison, where he died in delirium from inhuman treatment in cap-
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tivity. Thomas married Frances Smith in 1851 and had six children ; Eleanor married William L. Jones in 1836, lived in Plainfield and had two children, one of whom died in infancy; the other, Eliza, married Lieutenant-Col- onel Janeway, of the First New Jersey Cavalry, who fell bravely leading a charge at the battle of Jettersville, Va., the last battle of the War of the Rebellion. James S. married Maria Remsen in 1845, lived in Raritan and had three children; Samuel W., born in 1822, married Amelia Besteda in 1846 and lived in Somerville. They had seven children, four daughters and three sons.
These are the first branches from the New Jersey stem of the Davenport family tree. The aged lady who kindly furnished this information and who is herself a Daven- port, says that it was impossible for her to keep track of the multitude of younger generations. She also says that so far as her knowledge goes the members of the family of Davenport in this country waste but little if any time thinking about their ancient lineage. But they do take sincere pride, she says, in the fine representation of the name among those who, in the hour of their country's greatest need, responded with heart and hand to the call of Abraham Lincoln.
OLD DAYS AND WAYS IN PATRIOTIC
PLUCKEMIN.
HOW THE SOLDIERS WERE FED AND CLOTHED IN THE WINTER OF 1776-THE CAPTORS OF ANDRE.
Emerging from exceptional winter scenes in Plucke- min, where for a number of days lately neither bread, meat, potatoes nor oil could be had for love or money, and when no roads were opened through the snow to enable people to help themselves, one is strongly prompted to hark back to that other and historical January, 133 years ago, and wonder whether, in this section at least, the world has really advanced along the path of progress.
There are probably more houses than when Washing- ton sent a commissary in advance asking the people to prepare food for his victorious soldiers coming hither from Princeton ; but if such a demand were made to-day, would it or could it be as liberally responded to as it was then? In those days few country people did not have well-filled beef and pork barrels. Mrs. Sarah Connover, late of Pluckemin-a daughter of Ida V. Gaston, of the historic Van Arsdale family-used to repeat what her mother of- ten related of those stirring days in Pluckemin.
When word came about the coming of the troops, she used to tell, all the farmers and villagers filled their great ovens with bread and pies and hung huge pots, measuring about two and one-half feet in diameter, filled with meat over their open hearths. But the half-clad and starving soldiers came before the meat was sufficiently cooked,
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and, as famishing men might be expected to do, unable to wait, they fished out great collops of beef from the pots with their bayonets and devoured it raw.
If such a call had come in our late weather siege, every- body would have had to wait for Williams, the butcher, to come from North Branch and wait in vain; then run to the grocery store for a few little cans of trust corned beef and find, as villagers did even for their own supply the other day, that it was all sold out. Is it not wonderful to think how substantial and self-contained country peo- ple were in those old days, when hundreds of soldiers were not only well fed upon short notice, but clothed as well?
Robert Little was a big Scotchman in the ranks that came that time to Pluckemin. Although "of powerful build and a lion in courage," big Bob was handy with the needle. (It is a queer thing that in such companies it always happens to be a Scot that can do a bit of sewing at a pinch.) Long after the war was over Little used to tell his children and friends many a tale about the shifts of the patriot army. He lived all his later life in Branch- burg Township, just below here, where descendants of his live still.
"When we got to Pluckemin," he used to tell, "our company was as ragged as beggars. How could we help it? Our pay was poor; our clothes worn out, with nothing to replace them. At last the colonel issued an order that our men were to be sewed up a bit. I was then the tailor of the company. It was easy to issue the command; to carry it out was a different matter. We could easily sew and patch, but cloth was required and where was it to come from? We hunted around and
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gathered what we could from families and friends, who gave wonderfully of their stout homespuns and linen, and with my assistants I went to work.
"We overhauled, patched and mended until we got the clothes so far decent that no rags were seen. A grand dress parade was then ordered. Our boys marched with heads erect and proud step. For once in a long time they had clothes without any bad holes in them. The light-horse saw them and were envious. Then came a second order, 'Private Little must fit up the light-horse in as good shape as the infantry.' This was harder to fulfil than the first order. We ransacked all the houses a second time and again found cloth enough; so we patched up the light-horse. But something more was here wanting. The cavalry wore helmets, in which were intended to be worn tufts of horsehair. We had no more horses' tails to borrow from; but I hit on a plan. Select- ing twenty of the smartest men, I woke them up at mid- night. Together we scoured the country 'round for miles, looking for cows. Every cow we could find lost about eight inches of her tail end that night, and the light- horse were turned out with plumes that looked fine." Where could cows enough be found now by which to do such a thing?"
Stewart Brown, who came here from Ireland about the middle of the nineteenth century, as a lad eleven years old, tells me that even as late as that, Pluckemin had three large, well stocked general stores, a hat manu- factory, a first-class millinery store, two shoe shops, two tailor shops, a slaughter-house and butcher shop, two wheelwrights, two blacksmith shops, a cooper shop, a
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paint mill and brickyard. All that remains of these to- day is one slenderly stocked grocery and blacksmith shop. Even as late as 1863 this village made and supplied large quantities of clothes and shoes for the army in the Civil War, Mr. Brown says.
In Revolutionary days the two storekeepers, John Boy- lan and William McEowen, one at each end of the vil- lage, were merchants carrying immense stocks and doing very extensive businesses. John Boylan's was for many years the only store of any account between Somerville and Newton. He had everything "from a needle to an anchor" in his capacious store, at the same time operating a large granary and an extensive potash manufactory.
Mrs. Paul Van De Vort, of Burnt Mills, is the oldest living descendant of John Boylan, who was her grand- father, and acted as a commissary for Washington's army. General and Mrs. Washington were several times entertained at Mr. Boylan's house, and Mrs. Van De Vort's grandmother had the distinguished honor of danc- ing with the general. The white satin slippers, with square silver buckles, which she wore in these dances are still preserved in the family. The china, a beautiful blue and gold set, together with the silver service, used in en- tertaining General Washington, are or were in the home of Horace Bannard, of Long Branch. The old secretaire used by John Boylan throughout his business career and many of his account books Mrs. Van De Vort has at Burnt Mills.
When the British raided Pluckemin Mrs. Boylan had been baking, Mrs. Van De Vort tells me, and had just withdrawn a lot of bread and pies from the oven. She
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hurriedly hid all she could of these in the window seat, and, taking her knitting, sat over her hoard, hoping it would not be found. But when the Hessians came their scent was too keen to miss the freshly baked food. They made her get up and cleaned out not only her baking, but everything else eatable in the house. They also helped themselves to a favorite and very valuable horse from the stable.
I am told that social life in Pluckemin in those days was at its most refined stage, and that the Boylans were its acknowledged leaders. There were sixteen children in the family. One daughter married Mr. Parker, a clothier, of New York. Their daughter, Eliza, was sent to an academy at Litchfield, Conn., at the same time that Harriet Beecher Stowe attended there. Eliza used to talk a great deal about the afterward famous Harriet, long before her celebrity, and often related how exceedingly smart and bright she was, and that she never came to school with an imperfect lesson. Miss Parker, who was an accomplished musician, inherited the old Boylan piano, upon which she used to play most exquisitely at the age of ninety. She died at ninety-six.
Mr. Van De Vort has the powder horn that belonged to and was used by his uncle, John Pauling, and which hung at his side when he and two others captured Major Andre. History gives the three men's name who did this as "John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wert." The correct spelling of the three names is John Pauling, David Williams and Isaac Van De Vort; the latter also being an ancestor of my informants.
On the powder horn is inscribed "Daniel Hay, his
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horn, 14th, 1758. Gift by John Pery." The rest of the horn is covered with rude figures of animals and hieroglyphs, which might have been done by Indians.
Mr. Van De Vort has also a musket with bayonet, which was hidden by the British in a haymow. It has the letters T. H. roughly cut on the stock. The barrel alone measures six feet.
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DOMINE FRELINGHUYSEN
OLD TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS IN AND NEAR READINGTON-THE DEATH OF ONE INSTRUCTOR.
Readington School, whose known history dates from 1805, had been taught for the first seventy years almost exclusively by male teachers. That is to say, out of for- ty-five instructors employed in that period only four were women.
The record of the school as to its product of scholars over that time, seems well worthy of mention. Twenty- seven of them became successful teachers, nine of them clergyman, three lawyers, two judges and two physicians, while many others rose to an enviable place in the busi- ness world.
From these statistics it seems that Myron T. Scudder's statement as to the desirability of employing male teach- ers in country schools might be well worthy of earnest consideration. For certain it is that during the long male administration of Readington School its record is one that much larger educational establishments might well be proud of. Perhaps, too, there is something in the uneventful monotony of the real country village life that helps boys in the absorption of learning, in the same way that the dim serenity of the sequestered cloister was con- sidered an indispensable aid to the studies of the monks of old. There is at all events even to this day an earnest and reverent belief in the serious things of life in this village which, whatever may be said or thought of it in
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other places more "careful and troubled about the many things" of rushing modern civilization, has at least turned out many men of the true sterling stamp, men who have left or will leave behind them splendid records, who were as certain to rise in whatsoever spheres their lots were cast as sparks are to fly upward.
It is always interesting to trace back to their origin such useful institutions as Readington School has been. I stated lately that prior to 1806, little or nothing was known about school matters there. On further research, however, I find that unquestionably the first schoolmas- ter who taught the people's children of what is now Read- ington Township, was Jacobus Schureman, who came here from Holland in company with Theodorus Jacobus Fre- linghuysen early in the year 1720. They were married to sisters. Schureman was a finely educated and pious man. It was an arrangement between the brothers-in-law that wherever the one preached the other opened and taught school. So Mr. Schureman's labors were not confined to one place, but distributed wherever Dr. Frelinghuy- sen preached.
History says: "Before 1717, about which time the Readington church was organized, the people of that township had to go to Raritan church (Somerville) for public worship." The first church organized was the Reformed Dutch Church. It was started perhaps two years before there was any place of worship for the regu- lar use of the inhabitants. Their first church edifice was begun in 1718 and was a log building; it was com- pleted the following year. It stood near the junction of the North and South branches of the Raritan River,
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about two and one-half miles distant from the present vil- lage of Readington, in what is now Branchburg Town- ship.
The first sermon preached in the original Readington log church was delivered by the celebrated Dominie Fre- linghuysen, who was its first settled minister. That building, under the name of the North Branch Church, was used for about twenty years, on Sundays as a church, and on certain week days as a school, which was taught by Jacobus Schureman. He was indubitably the very worthy and accomplished pioneer schoolmaster of Read- ington.
In the olden time or beginning of things, many com- munities had to make great efforts in order that their children might receive instruction. For instance, in the district covering what is now known as New Centre Dis- trict, Flagtown Station and part of Bloomingdale, in Somerset, it was determined in 1790 to build a school for the benefit of the large numbers of children there. A building about twenty-four feet square, with a thatched roof, was put up, having an immense wide fireplace on one side and desks around the others. It was painted red, with white casings to the door and windows. It was known as the Red Schoolhouse, and in later times as the Old Red Schoolhouse.
Old "Master John Warburton" was the first teacher. He was English by birth and had served in the British army in the Revolution. He had taught school there in a barn before the schoolhouse was built, and was a well-known and respected man everywhere. While gen- erally kind as a teacher, he was something of a martinet
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on discipline and believed thoroughly in the efficacy of the birch. Tradition says that some of the boys after a can- ing, when they got well clear of the school, used to shout back loud enough for "Master Warburton" to hear, some- thing like this:
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