KASTKIIX (iA15Li: OF THE OLD STONE HOUSE From a photograph by Percy Moran. THE STORY OF AN OLD FARM ^aww— —WM— iiMioni- OR Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth, Century By ANDREW D. MELLICK, Jr. WITH A GENEALOGICAL APPENDIX XLbc TIlnioni0t=(5a3ette SonierviUe, IKlew Jersey 1889. JAN 3 1907 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1889, by ANDREW D. MELLICK, Jr., of Plainfield. New Jersey, in the office of the Librarian of Congpress, at Washington. f»re:kace:. WHEN the writing of the "Story of an Old Farm" was undertaken it was not anticipated that the completed volume would find readers beyond a limited circle. The narra- tive it was supposed would prove interesting only to the descend- ants of the founder of the homestead which had been the inspiration of its pages, and, perhaps, also, to a few local read- ers. But as the work progressed its scope broadened, until the compilation gradually assumed a character calculated to interest lovers and students of general history. Finally, valuable material accumulating, the author found embodied in the chapters so much fresh information relating to colonial and Revolutionary times in New Jersey as to warrant his seeking readers beyond the realm of kinsfolk and township residents. It was still neces- sary to preserve the original plan of the narrative, but it is hoped that the general reader will take in good part, and not find objectionable, the slight filament of family annals that runs through the successive chapters. After all, it is but a gossamer thread, and one that has served an excellent purpose — now as a silken clue to the labyrinth of historical research, and always as the continuous cord upon which has crystallized a mass of interesting facts, traditions and incidents, illustrative of times and customs now long bygone. If there is any virtue in writing from an inward impulse , the pages of the "Story of an Old Farm" should furnish easy read- ing and bear the marks of a "free and joyous expression." Though not by birth a son of the soil, heredity, environment and sympathy had made the author a Jerseyman to the core, and in telling the story of this old Somerset farm he brought to iv The Story of an Old Farm. the task an enthusiastic love for the subject. Throughout boy- liood and youth all summers were passed in Bedminster township, in which this ancestral plantation is located ; thus was imbibed a deep affection for its waving grain fields, breezy uplands, broad meadows and babbling streams — an affection that has grown with each year of later life. This love for its physical aspects and natural beauties inspired a corresponding interest in, and regard for, the memories of those men and women of previous generations who had passed their lives on this old homestead. So it was that a desire for investigation and research was incited, tending to divulge all that could be learned of the daily walk and conversa- tion, not only of such persons as had called the " Old Stone House " home, but of their contemporaries throughout the county and state. This resulted in the collection of material that, though the writing of this book was not in contemplation at the time, ultimately powerfully promoted the completion of the work. All of the foregoing is not properly a preface but an explana- tion. The true preface is to be found in the two chapters that open the story. They will tell of this Jersey homestead and its early founder, and make plain the inspiration of this volume. And yet, all things considered, it is for these opening pages that the reader's most indulgent criticism is desired. The book con- tains forty chapters. Of thirty-eight but little apprehension is felt as to their accuracy, for the statements therein have been subjected to the most rigid tests of severe scrutiny and repeated investigation. But for Chapters I. and II. it is confessed that allowances must be made. The picture they present of the farm, of its approach, and of the surrounding country, is painted by the hand of affection — an artist always prone to be too lavish with color. Scenes that were witnessed by the boyish eyes of nearly thirty years ago are now reproduced with a faithfulness that is of the past, rather than of the i)resent. While writing these chapters the walls of the author's chamber, under the touch of a loving remembrance, fell away, disclosing the sunny slope of a Somerset hill on which an old country house, with low eaves and thick stone walls, lies back from the meadows that border the north branch of the Raritan river, just where Peapack brook loses itself in that stream. This sturdy dwelling — seen with the eyes of memory — has a wealth of old-fashioned accessories, and Preface. v its surroundings are in perfect keeping with its happy expres- sions of utilitarian simplicity and homely .picturesqueness. The short, thick turf of its dooryard is shaded by contemplative elms, and studded with tall, bulbous bushes of box and roses of Sharon. At its eastern gable, in an ancient garden, bloom hereditary lilies, sweet peas and many-colored asters. The little windows that pierce the western gable survey a colony of barns, haymows and strawricks ; while still beyond, an old orchard flanks the high- way which creeps up a long hill until it disappears over its crest, a quarter of a mile, or more, away. Plenteous harvests gladden the fields, fleecy sheep whiten the hillsides, cattle, deep in the clover of the meadows, are steeped in sweet content, while in the house, at the barns and on the surrounding acres is to be heard the voice of happy industry. This is memory's picture — one full of cherished associations. Now, alas, all is changed ! Adversity and the grave have played sad havoc with the aspect and condition of the "Old Farm," and a visitor would look in vain for much that is apparently promised by these pages. The warmest acknowledgments of the author are due to the many persons who by their knowledge and advice have aided in the preparation of this work. To enumerate them all would be to present a formidable list of coadjutors. It would be the sum of ingratitude, however, not to express the deep sense of obligations he is under to Doctor John C. Honeyman of New Germautown, N. J., whose patience and kindness have been unremitting. In the genealogical appendix his help has been invaluable, and the chapter treating of Zion Lutheran church would have been a mere skeleton of its present proportions without the information he has furnished. In many other ways the "Story of an Old Farm" has greatly benefited by Doctor Honeyman's intimate acquaintance with New Jersey's colonial and Revolutionary his- tory. It is also desired to make particular mention of the valuable services freely given by William P. Sutphen, Esq., of Bedminster township — a life-long resident on the "Old Farm" and an antiquarian by nature and habit. To him the author is indebted for many original papers, and much interesting lore regarding the old people and times of Bedminster. Much has also been learned from Adjutant-General William S. Stryker of Trenton, an eminent authority as to New Jersey's Revolutionary vi The Story of an Old Farm. period — from William Nelson, Esq. and the Honorable Frederick W. Rieord of the State Historical Society — and from the Reverend Henry P. Thompson of Readington, N. J. Efficient aid has been funiishcd by Charles W. Opdyke, Esq. of Plainfield, N. J., William O. McDowell Esq. of Newark, N. J., and the late S. L. M. Barlow, Esq. of New York, the latter having kindly placed at the author's disposal his valuable library of Americana. Here is also the proper place to recognize the courtesy of the editors of the Magazine of American History^ the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and the New Torh Evening Post, who have permitted the reproduction in this volume of considerable matter that has already appeared in their columns. On the coming pages there will be found numerous statements of a historical nature, sonic of which have not before been pub- lished, while many of them appear for the first time in a con- secutive or connected form or order. In reaching information that may appear fresh and new naturally some readers will deplore the omission of foot notes containing references to authorities. To such persons it is desired to explain that much care has been taken in preserving and tabulating the titles of books, the names of authors and individuals, and the evidence, generally, upon which all facts and statements, new or old, con- tained herein are based. The writer will at any time cheerfully turn to these notes in order to answer personal applications for sources of information. In addition, a very comprehensive list of authorities will be found in the appendix. And now ends this long and very personal prologue. The bell rings ! The curtain rises on the first scene, showing the Peapack stage, with horses harnessed and luggage strapped, only waiting for you, reader, to start for the '' Old Farm." Plainfield, New Jersey, October 23, 1889. CONTKNTTS. CHAPTER I. The Peapack Stage — Sunday Morning at Bedminster Church — A Retired Hamlet. 1-11. From Somerville to Bedminster — Scenes on the Way — A Loquacious Stage- driver — An Ancient Tavern — The Blue Hills— The Revolutionary Village of Pluckamin — A Picturesque Ford — Van der Veer's Mills — The Venerable Church of Bedminster — Incidents of a Morning Service — The Foot-Path through the Graveyard — A Motley Array of Vehicles — The Small Boy and the Delightful Old Lady — The Village of the Lesser Cross Eoads — Rusty Houses and Old- Fashioned Gardens — A Queer Little Shop — Wiseacres at the Village Store — The Old Schoolhouse — Boyish Reminiscences — The Admonitory Gad — The Mine Brook Swimming Hole — Over the Hills to the Old Farm. CHAPTER n. The Old Farm — Its Upland Acres, Broad Meadows, and Ancient Stone Homestead. 12-21. Walking North Fi-om the Village — Observations by the Way — The Charms of a Country Road — A Neglected God's-acre — The Confines of the Old Farm — A Royal Grove — The Landscape Full of Sentiment and Beauty — A Buoyant Country, and Grassy Cascades — The Outlook From the Long Hill — Summer Vegetation and the Lovely Mystery of Color — The Brawling Peapack Brook — A Grand Old Maple — The Old Stone House Rests on a Sunny Bank of Turf — Its Comely, Quaint Presence, and Wealth of Old-fashioned Accessories — A Charming Rural Picture — The Interior a Bit of the Old World — The Outer Kitchen and Dutch Oven — The Founders of This Old Homestead in 1752 — Why Their Story is Told in These Pages. CHAPTER III. Bendorf on t^he Rhine — Johannes Moelich Emigrates to America — The Condition of Germany in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. 22-34. Coblentz and its Ancient Town Wall— The Vast Fortification of Erhenbriet- stein — Terraced Vineyards and Valleys Stored with Legend and Romance — viii The Story of an Old Farm. Bendorf Surrounded by Apple Orchards — The Aspect and Architecture of the Town — One of the Oldest Churches in Germany — The Home of Johannes Moe- lick and His Wife Mariah Katrina — He Sets Sail for America The Great German Exodus and its Cause — German Happiness Before the Thirty Years' War — The Miseries of that Contest — The Country People Fly From Their Dis- mantled Villages and Wasted Lands — Peace Banquets are Spread in 1648 — But Little Comfort Comes to the Rhine Valley — Subsequent Continental Wars — Louis XIV. Devastates the Palatinate — Despotic Princes, Petty Persecutions and Cruel Conscriptions — The German Turns His Back on Fatherland — The Great Flootl of Emigration to America. CHAPTER IV. German Expatriation— The Distribution of Teuton Emigrants in the American Colonies. 35-49. First Movement to America — William Penn and Pennsylvania — Pastorious Settles Germantown — Neuwied — Settlement of the German Valley in New Jer- sey — Newburgh Founded by Kockerthal — The Great Hegira to England in 1709 — Cause of the Movement — Camping on Blackheath — Thirty Eight Hundred Palatines Remove to Ireland — The Sufferings of Heidelberg — Emigrants from Heidelberg Found Newbern, North Carolina — Governor Robert Hunter — Ten Ship Loads of Palatines Brought by Him to New York — Settlement at Living- ston Manor on the Hudson, and in Scoharie, Montgomery, and Herkimer Coun- ties, New York — Disatisfaction of the Colonists with Their Treatment by the New York Authorities — Pennsylvania Grows in Favor with Emigrants — Arri- vals between 1700 and the Revolution. CHAPTER V. Johannes Moelich Reaches Pennsylvania in 1735 — His Experiences In Philadelphia And Germantown. 50-64. The Crooked Billet Wharf — Arrival of the Ship Mercury with Johannes Moelich — The Aspect and Area of the City — Johann Peter Moelich — Impres- sions on Landing — A Walk on Chestnut Street — A Gang of Newly Imported Negroes — The Slave Auction — Colonial Houses — Quaint Interiors — Dogs as Meat Roasters — Whipped at a Cart's Tail — Stocks and Pillory — Flinging Eggs at Malefiictors — The New State House — Visits of Savages to the City — Indian King Tavern — Christ Cliurch — Odd Costumes — Quakers and Gallants — Old Gen- tlemen and Servants — Penn's House — His Second Visit to Pennsylvania — William Trent — The Founding of Trenton in 1719 — The Blue Anchor Tavern — Philadelphia Equipage in 1735 — Pack Horses — Introduction of Wagons — Johan- nes Starts for Germantown — The Ride Through the Woods — The Aspect of the Settlement. CHAPTER VI. Letters From The Old Country — Bendorf Comes Under The Dominion Of The Murdering Margrave of Anspach. 66-73. Job. Georg Hager, the Village Prscceptor Writes in 1745, Giving all the Contents. IK Bendorf Gossip- - A Great Fire Burns all the Houses Between the Stein-Gate and the Bach-Gate — Who Have Died, Who Have Married, Who Grown Rich and Poor — Bendorf Transferred to Anspach — The Many Separate Kingdoms of Ger- many — Frederick and Maria Theresa — Despotic German Princes —Their Taxes and Oppressions — The Idiosyncracies and Wickednesses of Bendorfs New Ruler — German Lawyers — A Letter from Cousin Joh. Anton Kirberger in 1749 — How the Second Silesian War Distressed the Inhabitants of Bendorf — The Banks of the Rhine a Highway for Troops Marching between Holland and Austra — Billets and Forages Impoverish the People — More German History. CHAPTER VII. Johannes Moelich Appears in New Jersey in 1747 — His Brother God- frey — Echoes from the Ancient Walls of Zion Lutheran Church AT New Germantown In Hunterdon County. 74-96. Johannes and Godfrey Moelich in Sussex County, N. J. — In 1750 Johannes Is Living on 400 Acres in Readington Tp., Hunterdon County — He and His Son- in-law, Jacob Kline, there Establish a Tannery — Our Ancestor Is a Warden and Trustee of Zion Lutheran Church — Ralph Smith Conveys the Church Property to Johannes Moelich and His Co-Trustees in 1749 — Balthazar Pickel^David, Jonas and Tunis Melick — The Religious Fervor of Early German Emigrants — " Father Muhlenberg" Comes from Germany to Take Charge of the American Churches — ^His Saintly Character and Life Labors — An Old Time Missionary Who Could Fight the Devil But Was in Terror of Women — The First Perma- nent Pastor of the Church Is Joh. Albert Weygand — A Pastoral Message from the Last Century — Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, Afterwards the Revolutionary General — Interesting Information Regarding Zion's Successive Pastors — The Worthies of the Congregation — A Letter from Father Muhlenberg to Johannes' Son Aaron and His Co-Trustees — William Graft's Long and Use- ful Pastorate — A Methodist Missionary Makes a Schism in Zion — Henry Miller and His Devout Wife — How Johannes Signs His Name to Church Documents — St. Paul's Church in Pluckamin, Somerset County — George III. Grants a Royal Charter to Zion and St. Paul's — Aaron Moelich, One of the Petitioners — The Varied Spelling of the Family Name — In 1751 Johannes Decides Where to Plant the Permanent Homestead — A Survey of His P'amily in That Year. CHAPTER VIII. Purchase of the "Old Farm" in 1751 — The Title and Early New Jersey History. 97-111. Johannes Buys 367 Acres of Land in Bedminster, Somerset Co. — Bedminster Indians — The Algonquins and Naraticongs — Present Traces of the Red Men — First and Last Indian Purchases — Fair Dealings with the Natives by New Jer- sey People — Early New Jersey History — Charles II.'s Grant to the Duke of York — He Presents New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley — Origin of the Name — Governor Philip Carteret at Elizabethtown — Pepys' Testimony As to the Virtue of Lady Elizabeth for Whom the Town Was Named — The Claim of the Elizabethtown Associates Under the Nicolls Grant — Concessions and Agreements Published in New England Increase the Popula- "x The Story of an Old Farm. tion — Settlement of Pisciitaway, Woodbridge and Newark — The Province Divided into East and West Jersey — Tiie Sale of West Jersey. CHAPTER IX. The Twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey — George Wil- LOCKS AND THE PeAPACK PaTENT. 112-128. Carteret Dies, and His Executors Sell East New Jersey — The Twenty-four Proprietors — Their Manner of Alienating the Whole or a Portion of Individual Interests — Perth Amboy, the Capital — The Origin of the Name — Population Under the Proprietors — Settlement of Monmouth County — Interesting Inform- ation Regarding the Morris and Stout Families — Ancient Dutch Settlers of Bergen — Governors Under the Proprietors — Surrender of the Government to the Crown — John Heywood, Robert Burnett and James Willocks — In 1683 Burnett Conveys One-eighth of Ilis Right to James Willocks — Doctor George Willocks Inherits from His Brother James — He Emigrates to East Jersey — His Posses-sions and Important Offices — Willocks's Ferries to Perth Amboy — Saint Peter's Church at Amboy and Its Benefactors — Thomas Gordon Settles near Plaintield — The Proprietors Convey to George Willocks and John Johnstone the Peapack Patent — Andrew Hamilton and John Johnstone — Scotch Emigra- tion to East New Jersey. CHAPTER X. The Story of the Title Completed — Early .Somerset Land Grants 129-144. The Peapack Patent Includes Nearly all of Bedminster Township — Dis- tinguished People As.sociated with Somerset Freeholds — Interesting Facts Concerning Gouverneur Morris and the Duchess of Gordon — The First Real Estate Purchase in Bedminster — Daniel Axtell, a Son of the English Regicide Buys a Large Slice of the Peapack Patent — Some Corrections as to Generally Accepted Beliefs in the History of Somerset Land Titles— The Value of Bed- minstef Acres in 1726 — William Axtell, Patriot and Royalist— George Willocks' Death — His Will and its Benefactions — It Directs Partition and Sale of Peapack Patent — No Record of Such Proceedings Can be Found— Disagreements Between the Proprietors and the Willocks Heirs — John Johnstone's Will — Authorizes a Compromise as to Peapack Patent — George Leslie, in 1744, Receives a Grant of 2,000 Acres Out of the Patent — Its Area Includes the Present Site of Bedminster and the Old Farm — the Deed from George Leslie to Johannes Moelich — Thomas Bartow, Secretary of the Province — Judge Samuel Nevill and His Laws — The " New American Magazine" — James Parker, New Jersey's First Printer— The Bonds Johannes Gave in Buying the Farm — His Signature and Handwriting — The Pleasures of a Manuscript Lover. CHAPTER XI. The Building of the "Old Stone House "—Redemptioners — Whxte Slavery in the Colonies, 145-155. Johannes Occupies the Bedminster Land — A Temporary I>og House is Contents. XI Erected — Scenes at its Building — The Raising Dinner — The Old Stone House is Built in 1752 — Preparing for the Work — Caspar Berger, a Redemptioner Stone Mason, Lays its Walls — His Advent in the Colony and Sale — He Obtains His Freedom by Building Stone Houses — All About Redemptioners — Indented Ser- vants and Freewillers — Fraud Practised on them in the Old Countries — Inhu- manities of Ship Captains — Colonial Laws as to Redemptioners^ — How this Class of Emigrants Thrived in the Province — The Walls of the "Stone House" go up Apace — Mariah Katrina Carries Mortar on Her Head — The Good Wife Objects to so Many Windows — The Completion of House and its Appearance — The Hanging of the Crane — The First Supper in the Living Room — A Home at Last on this Peaceful Bedminster Hillside. CHAPTER Xri. Johannes Goes to the Post Office — Bedminster and the Adjacent Townships in 1752, 156-168. Perth Amboy the Nearest Post Office — But two Post Offices in the Colony — Johannes Starts in the Capital of the Province — Bedminster Still a Wilderness — The Settlement of Morristown and Mendham — Lamington Church and Jane McCrea — Basking Ridge and its Flourishing Presbyterian Community — Lord Stirling's Residence — .Jacobus Van der Veer's Log House — Establishing Van der Veer's Mills — Ephraim McDowell's Homestead — .Johannes Dismounts at Eoff's Tavern at Pluckamin — Christian Eofl as Innkeeper — The Origin of the Name of Pluckamin — Aspect of the Village and its P'irst Storekeeper John Boylan — Early Families of the Neighborhood — Colonel McDaniel's Saw Mill — •Somerville Not Yet in Existence — The First Court-Houses of Somerset County — William McDonald's Grist Mill — Johannes Smokes his Pipe as He Follows the Trail Over Pluckamin Hills — Wild Beasts and Bounties for Their Extirpa- tion — Our Traveller Descends to the "Great Raritan Road" and Reaches Bound Brook. CHAPTER Xni. Bound Brook in the Olden Time— The Raritan Valley in 1752, 169-181. Somerset's Oldest Settlement — Indian Corn Grounds — How Bound Brook Derived its Name — The First Land Purchase in the County — Thomas Codring- ton's Homestead, Racawackhana — The Houses of George Cussart and Samuel Thompson — Lord Neil Campbell and his Plantation — The Presbyterian Church of Bound Brook is Founded in 1700— Michael Field's Bequests to the Congrega- tion — Colonial Lads and the Pedagogues — William Harris' Tavern — Van Nor- den's Folly — Citizens of Bound Brook at the Time of Johannes' Visit — Preva - lence of Lotteries — Johannes Rides Down the Raritan Valley — Country More Thickly Settled — English and Dutch Residents — Raritan Landing and its Industries — Mills in Franklin Township — Cornelius Lowe, Jr's., Stone Mansion — Johannes Reaches New Brunswick. CHAPTER XIV. From an Indian Path to The King's Highway — New Brunswick and Historic Piscatawav. 182-199. xii The Story of an Old Farm. The Oldest Highway in New Jersey — The Lenni-I.enape Path From tlie Hudson to the Dehiware — An Indian Thonmglifare From Minisink to the Sea —The Path up the Raritan— The Indian Patli Becomes tiie Dutcli Trail— The English Make it Their Road Across the Jerseys — Tlie CJrowth of Settlements Along the Path — Inians Ferry Established — The Founding of New Hrunswick — Its First Church in 1717 — The Aspect of the King's Highway in 1748 — New Bnmswick's First Charter — Its Early Citizens — The Appearance of the City at the Time of Johannes' Visit— Our Traveller Continues His Journey — Historic Piscataway — Its Ancient Importance and Present Torpor — Interesting Frag- ments of Antiquity From Its Town Records— The Baptists Build a"Meetinge- House" in 1685 — P^dmimd Dunham, in 1707, Forms the First Seventh-Day Bap- tist Church in New Jersey — St. James J4)iscopal Church is Established in 1704 — Early Missionary Work in New Jersey — A Graveyard Two Centuries Old — Johannes Rides Along the King's Highway Through Bonhamtown. CHAPTER XV. The Ancient Capita!, of The Province— Perth Amboy In 1752. 200-214. Perth Amboy in the Olden-Time — A Chartered City in 1718 — Governors under the Crown — The Pomp of the Advent of Royal Governors — The Early Beauty of Amboy — Love Grove — Old English Fairs — George Willocks's Long Ferry — The Town Green and the Royal Cross of St. George — The Town Hall, and the Scenes it Has Witnessed^Thomas Bartow, his House and Garden — The Homes of Doctor John Johnstone, and His Son Andrew — John Watson, The First American Painter — His House and Collection of Paintings — The Dwelling in which John Nevill Wrote the Laws of the Province — The Parker Homestead, Built in 1720 — George Willocks and the Old Parsonage — The Eflectiveness of Colonial Roofs — The City's Churches in 1752 — Gilbert Tennent and His Severe Text — The Religious Atmosphere of the Last Century. CHAPTER XVI. SociaIj Aspect of Perth Amboy in 1752 — The Gentry — Slavery' — Travelling. 215-232. The Picturesqueness of Colonial Times — Local Color of Civilization at New Jersey's Capital — Indians, Soldiers, Hunters and Redemptioners — The Sturdy German Yeomanry — Society Distinctions — The Magnificence of the Gentry — We Are Introduced to a King's Councillor — His Vain Hopes for Amboy's Com- mercial (irreatness — The Ladies of the Last Century — Hallam's Theatre Company at the Town Hall — Sunday Morning at St. Peter's Church — Pomp and Parade at the Capital — The Mayor's Mace Bearer — Judicial Wigs and Robes of Office — The Flouxish and Ceremony upon Opening Court — The Stately Minuet, and Royal Governor's Balls — The Many Negroes To Be Seen at Amboy — A Short History of Slavery in New Jersey — The British Government Fosters the Slave Trade — Extent of the Traffic in the Colonies — Cruel Punishments in N. J. — Burning, Maiming and Hanging Negroes — Somerset County Farmers and Their Slaves — Abolition of Slavery in New Jersey— Johannes' Choice of a Tavern — Travel Between New York and Philadelphia — The Miseries of the Journey — Clumsy Sloops, Springless Wagons, and Bad Roads. Contents. xiii CHAPTER XVII. Clearing the Bedminster Land — Life on the " Old Farm " From 1752 TO 1763. 233-246. German Farmers in New Jersey — Johannes Attacks his Timbered Hillsides — Manner of Clearing Land — Primitive Agriculture — Richness of the Soil — The Land Exhausted Ultimately for Want of Nourishment — Lime First Used as a Fertilizer — Natural Meadows the Only Grass Land — Introduction of Clover Seed into Somerset — Homemade Ploughs and Other Implements — Wheat, Rye, and Buckwheat are Cut with a Sickle — Establishing the Tannery — Horticulture in the Olden Time — Living, in the " Old Stone House " — What Colonial Farm- ers Had to Eat — Some Extraordinary Dishes — The Beverages of That Time — The Industries of Farm Families — Old-Fashioned Frolics and Amusements — A Visit to the Bedrooms and Garret— Picturesque Garb and Curious Fabrics — Mariah Katrina as a House- Wife — A Vipw of the Farm Kitchen — Flax and its Uses — Delicate Girls at a Discount — The Tribulations of Washing Day — Aaron Malick Marries Charlotte Miller — Changes in the Family — Another Letter from the Old Country. CHAPTER XVni. The Death of Johannes and Mariah in 1763— Changes in the Town- ship — The Dutch Congregations of the Raritan Valley — The Building of Bedminster Church. 247-265. Johannes in his Old Age — He and His Wife Die in 1763 — Aaron Succeeds Him in the " Stone House " — Changes in Bedminster — Settlement on the Axtell Tract — Jacobus Van Doren and Captain Joseph Nevius — The Dutch Reformed Churches in Somerset — The Log Church at North Branch — Raritan Church at Van Veghten's Bridge — Three Mile Run, Six Mile Run, and New Brunswick Churches — The Reverend Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen as Pastor of the United Congregations — His Son John Succeeds Him in 1750 — Dinah Van Bergh Marries Dominie Frelinghuysen — The Young Divinity Student, Jacob R. Har- denbergh— He succeeds His Pastor, and Marries His Widow — Disparity of their Ages — The Religious Character and Attainments of the Juffrouw Hardenbergh — Reformed Dutch Congregation of Bedminster Organized in 1758 — The Building of the New Church — Donations of Jacobus Van der Veer, and Guisbert Sut- phen — Description of the Edifice — The First Service. CHAPTER XIX. More Changes in Bedminster— The Mills on Peapack Brook — Boyish Reminiscences — Marriages and Deaths. 266-279. Aaron Improves the Farm, and Enlarges the Tannery — A Saw and Grist Mill Established on Peapack Brook in 1751— William Allen, the First Miller— His Sons Sell the Mill to Stephen Hunt in 1767— The Building of the '• Folley" — A Famous Rendezvous for Bedminster Boys — Penetrating the Hogback — A Picture of the Old Grist Mill with Its Pond and Rock-paved Stream— Youthful Remembrances— Fishing and Swimming in the "Jinny-Hole"— Miss Jane Bailey, Bedminster's Meg Merriles— Rural Sights and Sounds— The Loss of Water in Bedminster Streams — Aaron's Family Increases— lattle Elizabeth Is Killed in xiv The Story of an Old Farm. the Bark Mill — Philip and Peter Moelich Marry Sisters — Borrowing Money for Bedminster Church — The Ancient Bond of Jacobus Van der Veer, Marcus King and Aaron Malick — John Van der Veer Has Five Different Ways of Spelling^ His Surname — Mariah Moslich Marries Simon Ludewig Himroth, and Removes to Pennsylvania — More News from Bendorf — Another Interesting Letter from the Herr Prajceptor. CHAPTER XX. The Muttering That Preceded the Storm of the Revolution — Stamp Acts, Revenue Bills and Other Unjust Imposts Weaken the Loyalty of the New Jersey People — Arming for the Fray. 280-292. The Approach of the Heroic Period of New Jersey's History — The Stamp Act and Its Repeal — New Jersey's Attitude bf Hostility to Great Britain — The First Revolutionary Newspaper Is Printed at Burlington — The Boston Post Bill and Tea Duties — ^The British Government Applies the Torch of Coercion — Organiz- ing for Defence — The Province Sends Deputies to the Continental Congress in September, 1774 — Formation of Committees of Correspondence — The Meetings of the Provincial Congress — An Historic Journey — Minutes of the First Meet- ings of the Bedminster Committee of Observation and Inspection — Among the Members are Aaron Malick, Cornelius Lane, John Wortman — An Express- Rider Flies Through New Jersey Announcing the Battle of Lexington — Hud- rick Fisher as President of the Second Provincial Congress — Three Other of Its Officers are from Somerset County — John Wortman and Guisbert Sutphen of the Bedminster Committee Are Sent to the Congress at Trenton on May 25, 1775 — Bedminster Proceeds to Arm for Defence — A New Brunswick Man Employed to Drill the Men — Stephen Hunt Is Sent to New York to Buy Arms — The Difficulty of Obtaining Munitions of War — Leaden Window and Clock Weights and Pewter Dishes Are Run into Bullets — Treating the Men When Training — The Third Session of Provincial Congress Convenes on the Fifth of August, 1775 — A Committee of Safety Is Appointed — Among the Members Are Five from Somerset. CHAPTER XXI. The Declaration of Independence and the Overthrow of the Provincial Government — The Arrest of the Royal Governor, William Franklin. 293-303. The Third Session of New Jersey's Provincial Congress — The Agitations and Excitements that Ruled the Hour— Complaints of the People — Strengthening the Militia — Meeting, of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia — Declaration of Independence Submitted by Jefferson — The Appeal for the Docu- ment Made by John Witherspoon, of Somerset, Insures its Acceptance by the Members — The Most Important of all of New Jersey's Provincial Congresses Meets on June 10, 1776 — On July 18 it Assumes the Title of the Convention of the State of New Jersey — All the Ckjlonial Governors Adhere to the Crown Except Jonathan Trumbull of Conn. — Governor William Franklin is Arrested at Perth Amboy — His Character, Origin and History — William Livingston, the State's First Governor — He Holds the Position Owing to Repeated Re-elections Contents. XV until 1792 — A Tribute to His Services and Ability — William Patterson One of New Jersey's Great Men— His Residence on the Raritan — The Beginning of Things for the United States of America — The Condition, Area and Population of the Country in 1776. CHAPTER XXII. The Turbulent Sea of the Revolution — The Soldiers of Somerset — William Alexander, Lord Stirling ; Captain Andrew Malick ; AND Private John Malick. 304-318. Notwithstanding the War the Industries at the Old Farm Continue — Peter Malick Inherits from his Father Land Fronting on the Lamington Road — He Builds a House and Settles Where is now the Village of Bedminster — Aaron Retains the Tannery, Homestead and the Rest of the Farm — His Brother Andrew Settles in Sussex County — In 1770 he Aids in Founding St. James Lutheran Church Near Phillipsburg — Andrew is Commissioned as Captain in the First Battalion, Sussex Militia, and Serves During the W^ar — Aaron's Son, John, Enlists in Jacob Ten Eyck's Company of the First Battalion — Somerset Militia — Lord Stirling is its First Colonel — His Home in Bernard Township and His Military Record — The Noble Services of New Jersey Militiamen — John Malick as a Minute Man — The March of Colonel Nathan Heard on Long Island — The Tories of Kings and Queens Counties — a Special Regiment of Hunterdon and Somerset Militia is Organized to Re-inforce Washington's Army — It marches to New York Under Colonel Stephen Hunt with John Malick in its Ranks — The Battle of Long Island — The Death of Col. Philip Johnston — The Capture of John Malick by the Enemy — He is Thrown into a New York Sugar House — The Inhumanities of his Jailor, Provost-Marshall Cunningham — The Brutality of the Provost in Conducting the Execution of Nathan Hale — John Malick is Exchanged and Re-enlists in the Continental Line — Washington's Army Enters New Jersey. CHAPTER XXIII. The British In New Jersey — Washington's Retreat To The Delaware — General Lee In Somerset County. 319-334. Cornwallis Enters New Jersey — The Garrison at Fort Lee Joins tlie Main Body at Hackensack — Retreat and Pursuit — Tories and Whigs Alike Plundered by the Enemy — Washington Driven from New Brunswick — His Army Melts Away with Each Mile of the March — What Is Left of the Army Cross the Delaware on the Eighth of December — The British go into Winter Quarters at Bordentown, Trenton, New Brunswick, and Other Towns — The Rapine, Violence and Cruelty of the English Forces — Individual Instances of Sufferings in Somer- set and Middlesex Counties — The Ayres, Dunns and Dunhams in the Revolu- tion — The Ferocity Exhibited by Tories— Cavalry Raids on Pluckamin — Amnesty and Protection Ofi'ered by the Enemy — Many Become Disaffected — Aaron, Andrew, and Philip Melick Do not Waver in Their Colonial Sympathies — Peter Melick Accepts a Protection Paper from the British — His Disaffection Fostered by Frequent Visits to Perth Amboy — The Royal Sentiment Openly Displayed at That Provincial Capital— The Attitude of the Church of England During the Revolution— Methodists Considered Enemies to the Public Weal— xvi The Stoky of an Old Fakm. Quakers as non-Combatants — General Charles Lee's Army Reaches Bedminster on December 12— The Appearance His Troops Presented — Hunting-Shirts for Uniforms and Fowling Pieces for Guns — The Jersey Blues are Uniformed by Patriotic Women. CHAPTER XXIV. The Capture of General Charles Lee — His Army Encamps on Peter Melick's Land in Bedminster Township — The Battle of Trenton. 335-351. General Lee's Army on the Night of December 12, 1776, Encamps on Peter Melick's Farm — Because of His Disaffection tlie Troops Damage His Property — Peter's Daughter, Catherine, Lives until 1863 — Her Written Statement as to what Transpired on that Night — The "Old Stone House" Entertains a Number of Mounted Officers — Fresh Details as to the Capture of Lee at Basking Ridge — The Generally Accepted Belief that His Array Lay at Vealtown an Error — Lee's Cliaracter and Military Achievements — The Ridiculous Appearance Pre- sented by Colonel Sheldon's Connecticut Light Horse— All about the Sixteenth British Light Dragoons, which made the Capture — Aaron Malick is Suspected of Having Notified the Enemy of Lee's Whereabouts— He is Forced to go to New Germantown to Prove His Innocence — Sullivan Marches to Pennsylvania by Way of Jjamington and Clinton — The Effect on tlie Country of Lee's Capture — -The Darkest Days of the Revolution are those of December, 1776 — Washington Undaunted — By the Tenth of December His Array is Reduced to Seventeen Hundred Men — In Less than Two Weeks He Increases His Force to 6,000 — He Crosses the Delaware and Captures the Hessians at Trenton^The Effect of the Victory Upon the Country. CHAPTER XXV. The Hessians in New Jersey — Just a Little in Their Favor — A Cor- rection OF Some False Traditions That Have Been Fostered by Prejudiced Historians. 352-370. How the News of the Battle of Trenton Was Received at the "Old Stone House" — Some of the Hessian Prisioners Have Probably Been Fellow Towns- men of Aaron Malick at Bendorf — Sympathy for the Germans — Prince Charles Alexander of Anspach, Bendorf 's Ruler, Furnishes George III. with Two Regi- ments — Detailed Accounts of the British Army's German Auxiliaries — Repug- nance of tlie Hessians to Come to Araerica-IIow Germany's Despotic Princes Justified the Mercenary Traffic — Schiller's Protest Against His Countrymen's Lives and Services Being Bartered for Gold — The Hatred of the Americans for the Mercenaries — The Terror They Inspired Dissipated by Better Acquaintance — Many of the Barbarities of the British Unjustly Charged to the Hessians — Count Donop's Troops Treat the People of Mount Holly with Great Civility — Uniforms and Equipments of Hessians — General De Heister's Treatment of Lord Stirling— Tlie Courtesy and Good Breeding of Hessian Officers— Abundant Testimony That the Memory of the German Troops Has Been Held in Unde- served Obloquy — Many Desert and Settle in America — Some of Their Descend- ants Rank Among the Leading Men of the Country — How Christopher Ludwick Entertained Eight Hessians Captured at Germantown — Ludwick's Wise Policy Contents. xvii Eesulted in Many Desertions — President George "Washington's Coachman an Ex-Hessian Soldier. CHAPTER XXVI. Washington's March From Trenton To Morristown — The Battles Op AssuNPiNK And Princeton — The American Army Encamped At Plvckamin — Death And Bttrial of Captain William Leslie. 371- , 389. Cornwallis Marches his Army to the Delaware — The Americans Hold the British in Check on the Banks of Assunpink Creek — Washington's Army Steals Away under Cover of the Night of January 2 — Some Description of the Com- mands Forming this Little Army — The Battle of Princeton — Why so Many Commisssioned Officers Were Killed — Captain William Leslie of the Seventeenth British Regiment Fatally Wounded — John Witherspoon, the President of Princeton College and the Earl of Leven — Surgeon Benjamin Rush takes Charge of the Wounded Leslie — His Previous Acquaintance with That Officer's Family — The Exhausted Condition of the American Army Prevents an Attack on Howe's Base of Supplies at New Brunswick — Washington Marches Up the Val- ley of the Millstone Seeking the Protection of the Hill Country — The Encamp- ment at Millstone on the Night of January 3 — The Army Reaches Pluckamin on the Afternoon of Saturday the 4 — Leslie Dies on Entering the Village — Inci- dents of the Encampment — One Thousand Laggards Rejoin the Army— The Troops Spent Sunday, at Pluckamin — The Country-People Flock to the Village — 230 Prisoners in the Lutheran Church — Aaron Malick Visits the Camp — Leslie Is buried With the Honors of War — Captain Stryker's Troop of Light- horse Captures Cornwallis' Baggage Wagons — The Army Breaks Camp on the Morning of the 6th, and Reaches Morristown that Evening — Formation of the Column and Line of March. CHAPTER XXVII. Washington's Army at Morristown in the Winter and Spring of 1777— The Old Farm on a Military Thoroughfare. 390-407. Bustle and Activity in Bedminster — Continental Officers at the "Old Stone House " — Washington in Somerset — Farmers Made Welcome at Morristown Camp — The Different Spirit Animating British and American Soldiers — Form- ing a New Army — Where Different Generals Quartered at Morristown — Festivi- ties in Camp — The Death and Military Funerals of Colonels Hitchcock and Ford — General and Mrs. Washington Meet at Pluckamin — What Ladies Were in Camp — Mrs. Washington's Expenses in Going to and from Virginia — Successful Military Enterprises in January — Washington Orders the Disaffected to Deliver up their British Amnesty Papers — Peter Melick's Political Change of Heart — Different Cantonments in New Jersey — Somerset Maidens and the Handsome Major Burr— The Military Attainments of General Greene— His Division Moves to Basking Ridge— He Quarters at Lord Stirling's— The Ladies of the Household and their Guests— Governor Livingston's Three Bright Daughters at the Stirling Mansion — Revolutionary Society at Basking Ridge— Tiie Second Establishment of New Jersey — Colonel Daniel Morgan Arrives from Virginia— The Military Record of this Jerseyman. B xviii The Story of an Old Farm. CHAPTER XXVIII. The Coxtinestal Army in Somerset County in the Spring and Sum- mer OF 1777 — Scenes and Incidents at Bound Brook and Middle- brook— British Efforts to March to the Delaware Defeated. 408-426. Fighting at Bound Brook — General Lincoln Narrowly Escapes Capture — Brig- adier-General Muhlenberg Reaches Morristown — German Lutherans Give the Parson-Soldier a Warm Welcome— He Visits the "Old Stone House " — Dominie Muhlenberg in Virginia — Hunting with Washington— He Becomes a Political as Well as a Religious Leader — Is Commissioned Colonel of the Eighth Virginia Regiment — His Farewell Sermon — A Dramatic Incident — His Military Record — The British Display Activity in Their Camps — The New American Army and Its Generals — Colonel Clement Biddle and His Wife — The Continental Army Takes Possession of the Heights in the Rear of Bound Brook — Camp Middle- brook Established — Cider Vinegar as a Remedy for Fever — The Campaign Sud- denly Opens — Howe Advances in Force from New Brunswick — His Endeavor to Entice Washington from His Stronghold — Abandons the Attempt to Reach Philadelphia by Land— Falls Back to New Brunswick and Thence to Amboy — Greene, Muhlenberg, Wayne, and Morgan in Pursuit — Washington Advances to New Market — Howe by a Rapid Flank Movement Vainly Endeavors to Sur- round tlie Continental Army — Lord Stirling and Morgan Fight the Enemy at Plainfield and Woodbridge— Howe, Outgeneraled in Every Movement, Evacu- ates the State on June 30 — The British Embark on Transports— Anxiety Lest Howe Should Combine with Burgoyne — Washington Marches to the Hudson — The Fleet Sails out of "the Hook" — The Continental Army Hurries Toward the Delaware — Muhlenberg, Commanding Greene's Division, Marches Through Bedminster — Sword and Holster versus Prayer-Book and Sermon — After a Long Delay the Fleet Enters Chesapeake Bay — The Army Bids Good-bye to New Jer- sey for that Year. CHAPTER XXIX. The State of Religion in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century — The Effect of the Revolution on Public Morals — The Strong Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Congregations of Bedminster — Curious Church Customs and Practices. 427-447. The Continental Army Marches Down the Delaware to the Collision on the Brandywine — The Reader Abandons Historic Figures for the Companionship of Simpler Forms of Humanity — Bedminister People Are Not Checked in Their Ordinary Pursuits by the War — Rigid Views Held by Our Ancestors As to Amusements — The Low Condition of Religion Early in the C«ntury — The Preaching of Frelinghuysen, Dickinson, Whitefield, Edwards and Others Ani- mates the People to a More. Vital Piety — The Rerolution Has an Unfriendly Influence on Religious Affairs — Church Edifices Used for War Purposes — The R. D. and Pres. Congregations Hold Strongly Together — The Patriotism of Domine Ilardenberg and the Reward for His Arrest — Intellectual and lixluca- tional Influences of the Pulpit — Sunday at the Bedminster Dutch Church in the Olden Time — Introduction of Singing by Note Strenuously Opposed — Sunday a Dreary Day for Children — How Sunday was Observed in Ashbel Green's Family — Ministers and Church Members Oppose Sunday Schools — Aaron Contents. xix Malick's Church Connections — Reverend John Rodgers Supplies Lamington Pres. Pulpit ; His Character and War Experiences — Presbyterians During the Revolution— The Sacrifices and Sufferings of Its Clergy and Laity — Sunday at Lamington Church — Curious Practices and Observances — Betty McCoy's Appetite and Piety — The Elders Take a Drink with the Minister Between Ser- vices — An Installation Ball. CHAPTER XXX. Revolutioijary Events of 1777 and 1778— Washington's Akmy Again AT Camp Middlebrook in the Winter and Spring of 1779 — Inter- esting Incidents of the Encampment. 448-460. The Advantages Reaped by the Americans in the Campaigns of 1777 and 1778 — Burgoyne's Surrender and the French Alliance — The Enemy's Retreat Across the Jerseys — The Battle of Monmouth — Curious Scenes at the Sandy Hook Embarkation— Condition of the Country at the Close of 1778 — Washington, with Eight Brigades of Infantry, the Artillery and Some Separate Commands, Winters in New Jersey — The British make a Futile Effort to Recap- ture Burgoyne's Cannon — Camps Middlebrook and Pluckamin Established in December — Washington Quarters at the Wallace House at Somerville — Mrs. Washington Joins her Husband in Camp — Guests at Headquarters — The Daily Dinner an Affair of Ceremony — Table Service and Appointments — Interesting Facts as to Household Manners and Customs — The Open Winter and Warm Spring of 1779 — Parson General Muhlenberg Commands Putnam's Division — How Soldier's Log Huts were Constructed — Muhlenberg Gives a Ball and Supper on New Year's Night — Where the Different Generals Quartered — Uni- versal Testimony as to General Greene's ability — Derrick Van Veghten, the aged Patriot — Mrs. Greene's Brilliant Qualities Attract Many Visitors to the Van Veghten House — Middlebrook Tavern — Mad Anthony Wayne's Encamp- ment on the Weston Road — This Officer's Reputation in Somerset. CHAPTER XXXI. The Artillery Park at Pluckamin — General and Mrs. Knox at the Van der Veer House — The French Alliance Fete — General Steuben at Bound Brook. 461-473. An Attractive Military Village— The Capacious Academy and Its Uses — The Artillery Officers and Men are Uniformed in Black and Red — A Popular Error Corrected as to Revolutionary Uniforms — How the Different Regiments Under Washington were Dressed — General Knox Quarters with Jacobus Van der Veer near Bedmineter Church — His Popularity in the Vicinity — Mrs. Knox Spends the Winter with Her Husband — Social Intercourse at the Van der Veer House — Two Young Lady Visitors from Boston — Tea Drinkings and Hops at the Artillery Park — The Grand Celebration on the Anniversary of the French Alliance — Washington, his Staflf and Escort, Reach the Park at Three o'clock — Mrs. Washington and the President of Congress Arrive in a Coach and Four — Distinguished Guests — The Charms of Lady Kitty Stirling Attract William Duer to the Fete — The Banquet in the Academy — Balls in the Olden Time — Washington Opens the Dance with Mrs. Knox — Judge Linn's Daughter and the General in a Stately Minuet — The Society Reporter in Revolutionary Days XX The Story of an Old Farm. — The Death of Mrs. Knox's Infant Daughter in July — The Bigotry of the Con- fiistory of the D. R. Congregation Prevents the Burial of the Child in the Grave- yard — Drills and Inspections at Camp Middlebrook — General Steuben as a Disciplinarian — His Distinguished Appearance — He Quarters at the Sftaats House, Below Bound Brook— Entertainments at this Old Mansion. CHAPTER XXXIl. Festivities and Ceremonies at Camp Middlebrook — The French Min- ister, M. Gerard, and the Spanish Envoy, Don Juan de Miralles, Visit Washington— The Grand Review in Their Honor. 474-492. Social Intercourse in the Army — Frequent Reunions at the Difl'erent Head- quarters — Mrs. Greene's Guests and Their Amusements — Tea Drinkings and Little Dances at the Van Veghten House — The Close Friendships of Cornelia Lott and Mrs. Greene — Brilliant Young Men Connected with the Army — Colo- nels Tilghman and Hamilton — Captain Colfax and Washington's Life Guard — Colonel Scammell's Great Sacrifice — Lady Visitors at Washington's Headquar- ters — Light Horse Harry Lee at Phil's Hill — Philip Van Horn and His Five Handsome Daughters— The Arrival of M. Gerard and Don Juan de Miralles — The Spanish Envoy and His Mission — The Army Parades in their Honor — A Gala Occasion for Old Bound Brook — The Grand Stand and the Costumes of its Occupants — The Appearance Presented by Washington, His Generals, and Guests on the Field — Disposition of the Troops — Evolutions and Field Manoeuvres of the Army — Enthusiasm of the Multitude when the Battalions Pay the Marching Salute — After the Review Steuben Entertains Washington, the Foreign Guests and Sixty Officers — Merriment and Hilarity at the Banquet Under the Trees — ■ The Clever Young Men of the Baron's Military Family — Indians in Camp — Five Soldiers Sit on their Coffins Under the Gallows — The Jersey Brigade in the Indian Campaign — In July the Troops Break Camp and March to the Hudson. CHAPTER XXXni. The Wedding of William Duer and Lady Kitty Stirling — Prince- ton College in the Revolution — The Famous Raid of the Queen's Rangers Through the Raritan Valley. 493-510. Wedding Festivities at Basking Ridge — Civic and Military Guests — How Lord Stirling Lost His New Jersey Property — Princeton College Has Its First Commencement Since the Outbreak of the War — Nassau Hall and the Presby- terian Church Stripped by the Enemy — The Graduating Class of 1783 — Wash- ington and Continental Congress Listen to the Valedictorian, Ashbel Green — Echoes from the Walls of " Old Nassau " — The Name Occasioned by the Humil- ity of a Royal Governor — The Founding of Presbyterianism in New Jersey — Some Early Ecclesiastic History — In 1747 the CoUege.Removed from Elizabeth- town to Newark — Reverend Aaron Burr, Its Second President — The Beginning of Things at Princeton in 1757 — The Simplicity of the College Curriculum in Colonial Times — In October, 1779, the Queen's American Rangers Raid Through the Raritan Valley — Major Robert Rogers, the First Commander of This Parti- san Corps — Lieut.-Col. John Graves Simcoe Assumes Command in 1777 — This Raid Conceded to Have Been a Brilliant Military Enterprise — Its Object and the Details of the March — Destruction of Washington's Boats and the Dutch Contents. xxi Keformed Church at Van Veghten's Bridge — The Court House and Two Dwell- ings Burned at Millstone — The Rangers Meet Disaster in an Ambuscade — Sim- coe Is Made a Prisoner — The Raiders Charge Some Mounted Militia-men, and Kill Capt. Peter V. Voorhees — They Escape to South River, Joining Their Sup- porting Body of Infantry — Jonathan Ford Morris' Services to Col. Simcoe — The Sequence of This Raid Was the Founding of Somerville. CHAPTER XXXIV. The Cold Winter of 1780— Washington's Army Again at Morris- town — Varied and Interesting Camp Experiences — Fighting at Connecticut Farms and Springfield. 511-527. The Current of Bedminster Domestic Life — The Army Goes into Winter Quarters Between Morristown and Mendham — Family Ari-angements at Head- quarters — The Main Encampment on Kimball Hill — Watch Towers, Beacons and Alarm Guns — Nearly Five Months of Snow — The Frozen Raritan a High- way for Teams — The Great January Storm — Citizens and Militia Fighting Snow Drifts — The Army in an Extremity for Food and Clothing — Some Curious Examples of Currency Depreciation — Lord Stirling's Unsuccessful Enterprise on Staten Island — Elizabethtown Surprised and the Presbyterian Church Burned — Social Features of Morristown Camp Life — Elizabeth Schuyler's Arrival Causes a Flutter in Military Circles — Colonel Tilghman Describes her Fascinations — Her Engagement to Colonel Hamilton — Distinguished Foreign Visitors at Morristown — Another Grand Review and Public Ball. Don Juan de Miralles Dies at Headquarters — The Ostentation and Display at his Funeral — Dissatisfac- tion of the Soldiers at Remaining so Long Unpaid — A War of Plunder on the Inhabitants Threatened — Dramatic Scenes at an Execution — Fighting at Con- necticut Farms and Springfield — The Youthful but Gray-haired Captain Steele Commands Mrs. Washington's Guard — Members of Congress as Volunteers and Trencher men — The Jersey Militia Cover Themselves with Glory — Breaking Camp in Kimball Hill — Arrival of the French Army — The Treachery of Arnold and the Death of Andre. CHAPTER XXXV. The Mutinies of The Pennsylvania and New Jersey Lines — The French Army in Bedminster on the Way To Virginia — The Hang- ing of Captain Joshua Huddy and the Case of Captain Asgill. 528-546. The Last of Campaigning in Somerset and Morris Counties — The Penn. Troops Mutiny and March for Philadelphia under their Non-Commissioned Officers — The Country People Alarmed Lest Depredations be Committed --Gen. W^ayne's Admirable Behavior Prevents Excesses — Sir Henry Clinton Sends Two Tories, Offering the Rebels his Support, and Rewards for Desertion — Tlie Spies Delivered by the Soldiers to American Authorities — Congress meets the Insurgents at Princeton and Adjusts Their Difficulties — Two Weeks Later the New Jersey Line Mutinies at Pompton — The Revolters Are Subdued, and their Ringleaders Punished — Gates' Disasters, and Greene's Successes at the Soutli — La Fayette's Rapid March Through New Jersey — The American and French Armies Combine in July on The Hudson — How Washington Deluded Sir Henry Clinton— The Operations of Cornwallis in Virginia — In August the Allied xxii The Story of ax Old Farm. Armies Suddenly and Rapidly March Southward —The French Army in Somer- set — Itinerary and Halts — The Fine Appearance of The Foreign Troops Fill the Country People with Wonder — These Beaux Sabreurs of Lauzun's Legion Turn the Heads of American Girls — The Fall of Yorktown — The Provisional Treaty of Peace November, 1872 — The Story of Captain Josiah Huddy and his Murder by Captain Lippencott — Washington Decides upon Retaliation — Capt. Asgill of the British Foot Guards, a Prisoner Paroled on Limits, is sent to the Jersey Line at Chatham for Execution — His Approaching fate Enlists the Sympathies of Europe and America — By Order of Congress in November, He is Unconditionally set at Liberty — Why This Was Done. CHAPTER XXXVI. Peace — Prostration of the Country After the War — Asierican Loy- alists AND Their Experiences — The Inquisition Against William Melick, and the Confiscation of his Property. 547-562. Cessation of Hostilities April 18, 1783 — Final Treaty of Peace Signed in Paris September 3 — The Disbanding of the Army — The Country's Ungrateful Treatment of its Soldiers — The Pennsylvania Line Threaten Congress — The National Legislature Forced to Retire from Philadelphia to Princeton — Instant and Unbounded Prosperity Does not Follow the Close of the War — The Need of a Staple and Harmonious Government — The Confederation's Fragile Tie Almost Broken — New Jersey's Efforts to Secure Greater Powers for the General Government — Doctor John Witherspoon Labors to that End — The Deterioration of the Character of Congressmen — The Story of the Conception, Growth, Adop- tion, and Ratification of the Constitution of the United States — New Jersey an Important Factor in Founding the New Government — The Division of Families on Political Lines — Retributions Meted out to Loyalists — Aaron Malick's Letter to His Tory Cousins — Godfrey Melick's Son William, Adhering to the Crown, had Entered the British Army — In 1784 He and His Brother John Emigrate to New Brunswick, Canada — They Become Valued and Honored Citizens of St . John, N. B. — Some Account of Loyalists During and After the War — The Dastardly Acts of a Few Fasten a Stigma on the Whole Class — Whigs and Tor- ies Alike Intolerent of Each Others' Convictions — The Number Disaffected in New Jersey — A List of the State's Provincial Officers in the English Service — The Inability of the General Government, After the War, to Influence the States to Act Leniently Toward Tories — Many Thousands are forced to Fly the Country — AVhat England Did for Her Loyal American Subjects — The Confisca- tion of William Melick's Estate — His Cousin Captain Andrew Ma,lick Serves as a Juror on the Inquisition — Interesting Documents Relating to the Proceedings. CHAPTER XXXVII. The "Old Stone House" in 1788— The First Bedminster Tavern — John Malick, Innkeeper — The Practice of Medicine in the Last Cen- tury. 563-575. Fishing in Shallower Waters— Family Changes in the "Old Stone House" — A Survey of the Household in 178S — Bedminster Tavern Built in 178(i — John Malick, the Revolutionary Soldier As Innkeeper — Who Met in His Tap Room and on His Porch — The Bill That Doctor William A. McKissack Presented to John Malick — A County Practitioner of the Last Century — The Idiosyncracies Contents. xxiii of John's Physician — A History of Medicine in New Jersey — Ministers As Phy- sicians — Old Woman Doctors and Their Herbs — Prejudice and Female Modesty Retard the Science of Obstetrics — Medical Literature — John Wesley's Extra- ordinary Volume on Physic — Medical Progress in New Jersey Dates from the French and England Wars — Mode of Education in the Last Century — Some Curious Medical Indentures — Lack of Colleges and Schools — Public Sentiment Against Dissection and Autopsies — The Introduction of the Study of Anatomy — The Few Drug Stores and Chemist Shops Before the Revolution — Generous Doses of Obnoxious Mixtures — The People Will Pay for Drugs but Not for Visits — Copious Bleeding Resorted to on All Occations — Small-pox the Scourge of the Last Century — ^Inoculation and Vaccination Arrest Its Ravages — An Extraordinary Wedding at the " Old Stone House " — Charlotte's Cousin, Mar- garet Gibbs, Becomes the Fifth Wife of Daniel Cooper — An Inflexible Judge — Sentences His Own Son to Execution — How Benjamin Cooper Escaped the Gal- lows. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Some Old Manuscripts and their Story — The Militia and General Trainings — County Merchants of the Olden Time — Sloop and Stage Coach Travel at the Close of the Century. 576-592. Examining Old Papers Found in the Stone House — One of William Livings- ton's Earliest Gubernatorial Signatures — Civic and Military Commissions — The New -Jersey Militia after the Revolution — The Magnificence of the Rural Soldier — Scenes at General Training at Pluckamin — Drills, Ceremonies, Games and Horse Races — Plenty to Eat and Drink, and Sometimes a Fight — The New Militia Laws of 1815 — The Muster Rolls of Daniel Melick's Company of Infan- try in 1806 — Who composed the 1st Battalion, 2d Regiment, Somerset Brigade- Lieut. William Fulkerson Buys the Bedminster Tavern Property of Aaron Malick in 1800 — John Malick Removes to Schoharie County, N. Y. — A Wool Contract in 1784 and the Value of Sheep — The Number of Notes and Bonds Given in the Last Century — The Want of a Circulating Medium — Introduction of Financial Institutions — Country Storekeeping in Somerset — John Boylan, George I. Bergen and John Hunt — Some Interesting Old Bills — Aaron and Daniel Melick's Frequent Visits to New Brunswick — Bills of What they Pur- chased There — New Brunswick's Prosperity at the Close of the Century — Wagon Traffic Across the State — An Endless Procession of Loaded Teams Enter the City — Some of New Brunswick's Merchants — Carrying Trade of Sloops — How the Passenger Sloops were Constructed — The Industries of Raritan Landing — The Introduction of Steamboats — The Dangers and Delays of Travel in 1794 — The Palmy Days of Stage Coaching — Thirty Coaches Reach New Brunswick at One Time — The Bustle and Activity their Arrival Creates — Ayres' Tavern at Dunham's Corners — The Landlord's Pretty Daughter. CHAPTER XXXIX. The Old Papers Continue Their Story — The Reverend John Duryea OF THE Bedminster R. D. Church— The Tax On Carriages — Somer- set's Paupers — Daniel Melick Goes to Georgia— Slaveholding On The Old Farm. 593-612. The Reverend John Duryea Collects his Salary with Difficulty — He Soundly Berates his Congregation — Somerset's Few Carriages in the Last Century — xxiv The Story of an Old Farm. Aaron Malick Pays a Government Tax for the Use of One — The People's Pro- test Against this Impost — How Somerset's Paupers Were Treated — Aaron and Daniel as Overseers of the Poor — Some Interesting Bills and Papers Showing Their Care — Snuff for the Widow Bidderman, Pork for Joseph Nicholson, and a Shirt in which To Bury Thomas Gary — Nicholas Arrosmith Presents a Bill to the Overseers — All About This AVorthy Citizen — Dr. Eobert Henry and his Care of the Poor — His Eevolutionary Record — Lawyer Thomas P. Johnson Argues and liOses a Case for the Bedminster Overseers— In 1792 Daniel Melick Goes on a Trading Voyage to Georgia — Cutting Off Negroes* Ears and Branding their Foreheads — Raflles and Horse Races — He Boards at the Widow Spencer's at Savannah — The Goods He Buys and Sells — The Voyage Home On tlie " Ship Jenny " — In 1786 Aaron Malick Buys Yombo, His First Slave— His Wife's Quaker Nature Rebels Against Slaveholding — Unprepossessing Yombo, and his Idiosyncracies — A Survey of the Occupants of the Old Stone House in 1797 — Aaron Bays From General John Taylor a Whole Family of Slaves — Honest Black Dick, Nance, and their Many Children — Death of Charlotte Malick — Slave Life on the Old Farm — Pleasures and Privileges of the Bondspeople — Dick and Nance Give a Christmas Party — They and Their Flock go to "General Training," — The Death and Funeral of Aaron Malick— His Will Directs the Future Manumission of Some of his Slaves — Scenes at the Vendue of his Effects — Dick, Nance, and their Youngest Child are Bought by Daniel Melick — The Distribution of the Other Negroes — Daniel at the Head of the House- hold. CHAPTER XL. What the Old Papers Have to Say About the Drinkixg Habits of Our Forefathers— The Last Cexury's Tidal Wave of Intemper- ance — National Reform — Farewell to the Old Farm. 613-625. The Story of the Gi'owth of Intemperance in the American Colonies — Ancient and Modern Laws Concerning Drunkenness Compared — Intemperance tlie Grad- ual Growth of Many Hundred Years — Its Worse Stage is Reached at tlie Close of the Last and the Beginning of the Present Century — Tiie Introduction of Rum and Apple-Jack into the American Colonies — Sweet, Rich Brandies are Distilled from Peaches, Pears, Plums and Persimmons — Apple-Jack Becomes the New Jersey Standard Tipple — The First Still for its Manufacture is Set up in Morris County — Some Curious Examples of the Extent of the Drinking Vice — Tipsy Guests Dance at Weddings, Tipsy Mourners Reel at Funerals — Even Clergymen do not Escape the Contagion — Drinking at Installations and at Con- sociation Meetings — Ministers as Distillers — The Cultivation of Lands Neglected and Soil Planted with Orchards — Eight Distilleries in One Township Along the Raritan — Early Efforts to Stem this Overwhelming Torrent of Human Folly — The Lamentations and Warnings of John Wesley, John Adams, and Israel Put- nam — Doctor Benjamin Rush Becomes the Pioneer of Temperance Reform — His Protest, in 1777 Against the Government Supplying Liquor to the Troops — In 1785 He Issues His Famous Temperance Tract — The Doctor's Tireless Energy in the Cause Enlists Sympathy of Others — Lyman Beecher's Powerful Sermons for Reform — The First Temperance Society in 1808— The Progress of the Movement Exceedingly Slow — An Unpropitious Time for Instilling Restrictive Ideas in the People's Minds — Crude Views as to Moderate Drinking— It is 1826 Before the Cause is Recognized as a Power for Good — The Rearing of the Grand Superstructure of National Reform — Farewell to the Old Farm — What Our Searches Have Revealed — A Final Survey of its Generations. ILLUSTRATIONS. EASTERN GABLE OF THE OLD STONE HOUSE Frontispiece BEDMINSTER CHURCH facing page C EVANGELICAL HEAD-CHUKCH, BENDORP facing page 92 THE OLD STONE HOUSE facing page 154 [See ADDENDA, p. 713.] " This field is so spacious, that it Tvere easy for a man to lose him- self in it: and if I should spend all my pilgrimage in this walk, my time would sooner end than my way." — Bishop Hall. THE STORY OF AN OLD FARM OR Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century. CHAPTER I. The Peapack Stage — Sunday Morning at Bedminster Church — A Betired Hamlet. THE traveller by the old highway — the post or stage road — leading from Somerville to Peapack, in Somerset county^ New Jersey, will remember the village of the Lesser Cross Roads, which faces one when some eight miles on the journey, perched on the southerly side of a sloping eminence. "One of those little places that have run Half up the hill beneath the blazing sun, And then sat down to rest, as if to say, ' I climb no farther upward, come what may ! ' " Just here is located the '' Old Farm," whose story, or rather the story of whose early settlers and their contemporaries, it is purposed to chronicle. Let us visit this little hamlet and learn something of its history, and of the generations that have lived, toiled and died amid the cheerful hills and smiling valleys of the rolling country north of the village ; for it is the gateway of Somerset's most pleasing regions — the approach to scenes of quiet beauty and pastoral loveliness unsurpassed in this portion of New Jersey. We will choose one of those generous June days when early summer has veiled its youthful bloom in a maze of leaf, mystery and shade. That our approach to this secluded village may be with an humble spirit, in harmony with the rural calm of its homely atmosphere, we will journey down — or rather up — by the travel-stained stage-wagon that for so many years has lum- 1 2 The Stoky of an Old Farm. bered out of Somerville every afternoon about three o'clock. Squeezing in on the front seat by the driver's side, our legs and feet are soon seemingly inextricably entangled with mail bags, bundles, whiffletrees and the horses' tails. Well ! the stage is " loaded up," three on a seat — twelve inside — with quite a mountain of luggage piled up behind. Rattling down the main street, and turning north on the Peapack road, the town, with its outlying villas standing amid parterres of flowers and shaded gardens, is soon left behind. Pounding over a wooden bridge that spans a little stream the fair-ground is passed, and the team settles doM'n to its regulation jog of five miles an hour, over the pleasant levels of Bridgewater township. On either side lie well-tilled fields, rich Avith the promise of bounteous harvests. Barn-swallows twitter in a farmyard hard by ; a kingfisher, with a loud cry, sails away at our approach, and another little tenant of the air salutes us from behind a hedge with a flood of sweet harmony. From over the fences come the sound of whetting scythes, the rattle of mowing knives, and the talk and laughter of the liaymakers ; Avhile the breeze for miles away is fragrant with the perfume of freshly tossed clover-cocks. Insensibly the passengers grow more sociably inclined as they exclaim over the charming weather, the rustic beauty of the landscape, and the sweet sounds of nature on every side. Our driver proves to be loquacious, and familiar with all the gossip of the long road he has travelled twice daily for many years, so he soon has his passengers in animated talk as to the news of their respective neighborhoods. Stop after stop is made at farm- houses and cottages by the roadside ; now to leave a morning paper — twelve hours fi-om the New York press — now a bundle or package, which latter has to be fished from under the seats, calling out nervous giggles from the women, with numerous *' oh mys!'' — "that's my foot!" — and like ejaculations. Now and then some one is '' taken up,'' or " let down," the last stop for that purpose having been to discharge a stout farmer's wife from the rear seat of the stage ; the intervening passengers must need crouch, half standing, holding down the backs of the seats, while she wades to the door, dragging after her a large news- paper parcel, a spreading turkey-feather fan, and a huge paper bandbox encased in blue checked gingham. This impedimenta From Someuville to Peapack. 3 carries in its wake several hats and belongings of her fellow trav- ellers. The stout woman receives a warm welcome from two buxom girls and a sunburned farmer, who wait behind a paling fence, with a background of well-sweep, rusty clapboards, and porch o'erclambered with honeysuckle and June roses. The wide-open, brown eyes of the shorter and plumper girl take in with lively interest each occupant of the stage. While leaning gracefully over the gate, the sunlight burnishing her rich waves of chestnut hair, the maiden's glances rest a little longer, per- haps, on the younger men of the party. But her glimpse of the travelling world is transitory, for soon our Jehu, having collected his fare, has returned a fat wallet to his trouser-leg, and climbed over the front wheels to his seat. The stage rattles on, and reaching a short incline bounces over a " thankee-marm," send- ing the trunks on the shackly rack behind springing in air, and the rebound almost bumping together the knees and chins of those of us on the front seat. We are now on the new road — so the driver tells us. There is certainly nothing in the highway peculiarly applicable to new- ness, but like the New Forest in England, or Harper's New Monthly Magazine in New York, having once been new it never can grow old. Besides, it must be new — you can see for your- self the old road meandering off toward the foot hills on the east, taking in on its way an ancient weather-beaten tavern, that once did a flourishing business. But this ''cut off" was opened some thirty years ago, leaving the old hostelrie stranded in the shal- lows of deserted traffic. Should the ghost of its former pro- prietor, the genial Bill Allen, ever walk its crumbling porches, he could easily discern across the fields the tide of travel setting along the new road, which once paid tribute in a silvery stream to his now decaying till. By and by the horses are tugging and straining up the long ascent of a spur of the '' Blue" range of New Jersey hills, which the people hereabouts delight in calling ''the mountains." Reaching the crest, we pause for a breathing, and enjoy an extended view of a charminglandscape, richly diversified with the variegated hues of the luxuriant June vegetation. In the fore- ground lies the Revolutionary village of Pluckamin; church spires rising above the dense foliage of the clustering trees, 4 The Story of an Old Farm. mark the hiding places .of other little villages that dot the undu- lating western plain; while, far north, binding the horizon, are billows of verdure — the swelling hills and green valleys of Bed- minster and Pcapack. On descending the hill and crossing Chambers brook, which is the line between Bridgewater and Bed- minster townships, one of the oldest houses of the neighborhood is passed. It was built in 175G by an Irishman named Laferty, who afterwards became unpleasantly notorious as the father of a very beautiful and profligate daughter, who brought upon more than one prominent family in this part of Somerset much shame and grief. Her son, hung in Somerville the early part of this cen- tury, is the only white man who has suffered capital punish- ment in this county since the Revolution. Presently the stage is clattering through the main street of Pluckamin, and draws up in front of the tavern* door, offering to the village loungers who adorn the empty dry-goods boxes in front of the several stories, their daily ten minute dose of mild excitement. Here the mails are changed, and we embrace the opportunity to stretch our legs on the tavern porch. Some of the party, '^athirst with breezy progression," disappear inside, in search of what a jocose Californian would call "■ interior decora- tions," but in the vernacular of this part of the country is known as "a leetle apple." This is historic ground. On the open space facing us, where the different roads converge, Wash- ington, Knox, Greene and the conquerors at Princeton have stood about, and talked over the needs and plans of the Revolu- tionary army. Many of the ancient buildings in this vicinity are unchanged, save by the picturesque hand of time, since those doughty days. But we must be off! — the horses have been wat- ered, the driver is on his seat. While telling the story of the *'01d Farm," we shall more than once have occasion to visit Pluckamin, and repeople its streets with almost forgotten worthies, with whom we can gossip at our leisure over those stormy days of long ago. The next point of interest on the route is the North Branch of the Raritan, which the road crosses where it flows through a shady glen, near Van der Veer's mills. The banks are fringed with forest trees whose interlacing branches form over the *Since destroyed by fire. Crossing the North Branch. 5 devious stream a roof of almost impenetrable foliage. At times the waters brawl over the shallows, offering to thirsty cattle a convenient and picturesque ford ; but now, owing to early sum- mer rains, the river is brimming. Rumbling over the bridge we hear the musical sound of falling waters, and looking up under the overhanging boughs discover the torrent plunging headlong over the dam* in an impetuous flood. The cool after- noon breeze blowing down the river comes to us laden with deli- cious, woodsy, watery odors, which quicken our recollections and agitate our youthful remembrances. Again we are boys, with cork dobbers, buckshot sinkers and hickory poles, angling in the pond above for the slippery catfish, the darting dace, or the elusive sucker. Featherbed Lane is what they call the bit of road beyond the bridge. Successive years have brought succes- sive loads of stone, until the roadway has risen above the low- lands on either side, and travel is no longer impeded by the annual spring freshets, as of yore. Time was when just here and beyond stood a fine forest of over four hundred acres; bat that was during the life of that eccentric genius, Doctor Henry Van der Veer, who was blessed with the good old English prejudice against the felling of timber. But with his death came the iconoclastic heir, who soon robbed the estate of its chief pride and glory. Let us hope that the Doctor's rest in Bedminster' churchyard was undisturbed by the ring of the woodsman's axe, and the crash of the fall of the sturdy oaks he loved so well. Let us hope, too, for the hastening of the time when Somerset's farm- ers may learn the agricultural and climatic value of timber, and be as eager to set out new patches of woodland as they are now to denude the already tree-impoverished country. At the next turn in the road we are suddenly confronted by the venerable church of Bedminster, standing with stately dig- nity overlooking an attractive little green. No bewildering maze of tower, transept, clerestory, gable, or rich ornamentation impresses the beholder. It is an oblong wooden structure painted white, with green blinds covering its double rows of square cap- ped windows, and with an octagonal tower which supports a round-topped cupola. It is not, however, without good architect- ural proportions, or a general effect which is imposing; in fact, *Fire and flood have since destroyed both mill and waterpower. 6 The Story of an Old Farm. it is an excellent example of what Emerson calls the only orig- inal type of American architecture, the New England Meeting- House. But to appreciate what a religious and social factor is Bedminster Church in this well-ordered community, it should be visited on the first day of the week — on a pleasant Sunday morning, when a quiet spirit broods over field and wood, when even busy nature seems at rest and filled with calm repose. But the world awakens, when, with gentle swell, over the valleys and echoing hills sounds the sweet music of the swinging bell, peal- ing from the belfry windows, the old, old invitation, Come to prayer! Come to prayer! The}^ come, these country worship- pers, from ffirm, from village and from mill; they come on foot, in wagons, on horseback; some by the dusty highways, some over the peaceful meadows, some through the shady lanes — the immense congregation gathers. Many approach the sanctuary over the green, stepping from the elastic sward to the broad portico which hospitably faces the portals. Others, leaving the highway at the rear of the building, enter the churchyard through a little wicket, and following a foot path that lies in and out among the graves and winds along the side of the edifice they reach the porch through a second gate. Others, loitering among the grassy mounds, read the crumbling inscrip:ions on the ancient headstones; while little groups of twos and threes, in som- bre garb, stand with bent head and reverential attitude over where sleep their dead, awaiting resurrection. Not the least interesting feature of a Sunday morning at this old cliurch is the motley array of vehicles standing at the fences and trees on both sides of the road for a quarter of a mile or less. A strange collection, indeed, embracing every kind of trap in use for the past half century. Here, is a sulky, to which the spruce young farmer has driven his favorite colt to "meetin;" there, a long-bodied, black-covered Jersey wagon, with a rotund old lady backing out over the front wheel and whiffletrees, aid- ing her descent by clutching at the cruppers of the horses, who are passive enough after a week at plough or harrow. More modeni equipages are not wanting, and occasionally is to be seen the old-time, white-covered, farm wagon, carpeted with straw, with splint chairs from the farm-house for seats. An old country church like this, which draws its people from BEDMINSTER CHURCH. Sunday Morning at Bedminster Church. 7 miles around, means much more than one located near populous towns and cities. It is the beating heart, the life-giving cen- tre, around which all the neighborhood interests and hopes cir- culate. It is also a weekly interchange of news and gossip, and the people on Sunday morning lay in a store for the coming six days not altogether confined to uses of religious and spiritual comfort. As the hour for service approaches the women have passed inside, but the men gather about the door or under the trees, discussing their horses, the crops and whatever may have been of interest during the past week. This Sunday morning talk is not limited to the one sex, for, on entering, we would find the wives and daughters in animated converse over the backs and partitions of the pews. When the sexton has rung the last bell, by stoutly pulling two ropes depending from the belfry to the vestibule floor, the men come clattering through the doors, which face the congregation on either side of the pulpit. The elders and deacons, first depositing their hats on the sides of the tall pulpit stair, seat themselves to the right and left of the min- ister, their faces settling into the dignified composures due their official positions. Gradually a hush pervades the congregation, preceding the solemn invocation. The blessing over, a stir and bustle in the rear gallery proclaim the large choir to be stand- ing. The cheery-cheeked girls are shaking out their frocks, the stalwart youths are clearing their throats ; now is the ear of every child in the assemblage alert to hear the first twang of the tun- ing fork, following which comes the long concerted " do-mi-sol- c?o," of the choir. They have the pitch, and break away into a loud psalm of praise, or song of thanksgiving, the large congre- gation taking up the refrain, till the old church rings with that most jubilant of all music, hearty congregational singing. And so the service continues, with prayer and praise, and sermon and doxology, not forgetting the collection, taken up in funny little black bags poked down the pews at the end of long poles. I must acknowledge it is many years since I have been in this time-honored church ; but, doubtless, there have been few or no changes since the closing pastorate of Domine Schenck, some thirty or so years ago. How well I remember, in those days, the pleasure with wiiich a certain small boy, in a round- about brass-buttoned jacket and nankeen trousers, looked for- 8 The Story of an Old Farm. ward to a summer Sunday morning at the old church. His seat was well up toward the pulpit, and, did the service grow weari- some, through the open door could be seen the horses biting at the flies, the leaves stirring in the soft south breeze, and the hov- ering butterflies floating in the sweet sunshine over the close- knit turf of the green. Will ever be forgotten the delightful old lady who sat in a great sqifare pew immediately in front of the one occupied by that same small boy ; and who, when he, lulled by the monotone of the sermon, or the droning of the drowsy bees that circled in and out the open door, nodded with sleep, would surreptitiously pass behind little bunches of penny-royal, or other fragrant herbs, and on rare occasions — ah happy day! — a store-bought peppermint lozenge. But enough of boyhood and Bedminster church. It is quite time for us to be looking about the village. All this time our stage-wagon is still rolling on; not very rapidly it is true; the horses seem exhausted by a previous journey. You must remember they have dragged a heavy load •from Peapack — twelve miles — this morning; now, when thus far on their return, the slackening trace and more pronounced jog proclaim their protest against speed. Presently our goal is in plain sight, facing us as we drive along the straight road which stretches over a level country, 'twixt meadows, orchards and comfortable homesteads. The attractive parsonage, with its sur- rounding glebe, is behind us on the left ; beyond, on the right, down a tree-embowered lane, a glimpse is obtained of a substan- tial farm house and its old-fashioned garden. On we roll, pass- ing the forge with its waiting horses, loud-breathing fire, and dusky interior, until the stage creaks and strains as it mounts the side hill, and comes to a stand-still at the Bedminster tavern, which rests on the edge of the first terrace of the incline. Here ends our ride; Bedminster and the Lesser Cross Roads, owing to a recent fiat of the Post-office Department being one and the same. First impressions are not always to be relied upon. Perhaps you do not like my village? I must confess it has an air rather unkempt and forlorn: it can hardly be called a village, — ;]ust a wayside hamlet. In the last century, when these four roads met here, or rather, the two highways crossed each other, the nat- The Lesser Cross-Roads. 9 ural consequence was that industrial germ of ail new settlements — a blacksmith shop. Later came the store and tavern. Little houses have since dropped hap-hazard along the roadsides, but the village has long been finished, and now seems quite in the decadence of age. ' Its most pleasing aspect is along the north road, where the rusty old houses with their gable ends fronting the highway picturesquely cluster in patches of white and gray on the successive terraces that form the ascending hillside. Trees and generous shade wei'e evidently not considered adjuncts to rural beauty by ''the forefathers of the hamlet;" yet, notwithstanding the bareness of the place, it has a quaintness of its own, due to the antiquated houses with their old-fashioned gardens, which ofi^er a rather pleasing contrast to the newness of the buildings in so many of the New Jersey villages contiguous- to the railways. The small structure on the corner, opposite the tavern, is that magazine of wonders, a country store. Is it not a funny little shop ? Just like one of the wooden houses that come in the boxes of toy villages. Its interior is odd enough to satisfy the most diligent searcher after the queer and old. The counters are worn smooth by the dorsal extremities of the neighborhood Solons, who have gathered here for sixty years of evenings, to settle the affairs of the nation and comment on the gossip of the country for miles around. Many an ancient joke has here over again won a laugh — many a marvelous tale has been listened to with open- mouthed wonder by country lads, who have tramped miles for the pleasure of an evening in general society. Although it is a wee-store, here can be found everything, from a fishhook to a hayrake, from a quart of molasses to a grindstone. Dress pat- terns and calicoes — fast colors — rest on shelves ; nail kegs and sugar-barrels offer seats for waiting customers ; boots, pails and trace-chains decorate the ceiling ; while dusty jars tempt the school children to barter eggs for sticks of peppermint and win- tergreen, or the succulent Jackson-ball. Of the roads focusing here, the one from the south we have travelled, and with the one towards the north we shall soon grow familiar. The west road leads to Lamington, New Ger- mantown and the pleasant agricultural lands of Hunterdon ; while the one on ihe east stretches away beyond the North 10 The Story of an Old Farm. Branch of the Raritan river, over the historic hills on which rest Liberty Corner, Basking Ridge and Bernardsville, villages rich in Revolutionary reminiscences. Down this east road a little way — you can see it from the cor- ner — stands the school-house. Your guide has been soundly thrashed more than once in that little building, or in one on the same site ; but that was more than a quarter of a century ago, ■when he, a brown-cheeked, barefooted boy, trudged over these hills each morning before half past eight, carrying his dinner in a tin hlickie. The school teacher of that day would hardly have appreciated Anthony Trollope's suggestion, that those school- masters, insisting upon following the doctrines of Solomon, should perform the operation under chloroform. Surely the boys of that time have not forgotten the Cwss Roads pedagogue, who never spared the rod, or rather rods, for he had two. With one, a young sapling cut fresh each morning, he could plant a welt on the shoulders of a boy six feet away. This was but the admoni- tory gad. When serious business was meant the luckless cul- prit must mount the back of a larger boy, who, gathering the victim's legs under his arms, tightened his trousers over the point of attack; then would "the teacher" lay on with a short, sharp switch. The office of under boy was no sinecure, for did the descending birch miss its shining mark, it must needs fall upon the coadjutor's legs, to the great amusement of his com- rades, — boys are such unsympathetic wretches ! I wonder do the girls still have standing in the corner of the school lot the stone plaj'house, filled with broken bits of china ; and the old stone fort in the opposite corner, is it still intact, and well sup- plied with pebbles to resist assault ? I will go bail the boys of the present know, as well as did we old fellows, the short cut across lots to the Mine Brook hole, a deep pool guarded by gnarled oaks and overhanging sycamores. A plunge in its cool depths must at any time be the ultima thide of delight in a school boy's summer nooning. The day wears on. You will soon think me garrulous if I am allowed to continue talking of boyish times at the "Cross Roads." The stage has long ago lurched and jolted eastward, and is now creeping along the road that stretches over the bot- tom lands beyond the i-iver, thus avoiding the hills which we Farewell to the Village. 11 must proceed to climb. You are forgiven for not falling in love with the village — perhaps, it was hardly to be expected — ^^but now that we approach the ^'Old Farm," I shall be disappointed, indeed, if you fail to appreciate the singular and peculiar beauties of its grassy hillsides, interspersed with ancient orchards, its broad meadow spaces, its groves of oaks, and streams of sinuous course. '^^. CHAPTER II. The Old Farm — Its Upland Acres,, Broad Meadoivs and Ancient Stone House. He who loves his fellow man, and he who loves nature, must be fond of a country road ; it appeals in tones both human and divine, for it is the bond connecting the works of the Creator with the productions of humanity. This sentiment is peculiarly appropriate to highways that traverse distant and retired neigh- borhoods, such as we are at present visiting. The road run- ning north from Bedminster, up which we now bend our steps, is in happy accord with such suggestion, and gives most agree- able promises of rural loveliness as it leaves the village and wanders over the hills, hedged in by banks from which outcrop the shale forming the foundations of this part of the world. The reddish brown roadway lies on the sunny rise in pleasing con- trast to the flushed, time-stained grays of the gables of the bor- dering houses, which peer down over the banks from their set- tings of sweet briar, marigolds and snowballs. As we climb the hill, I, at least, am filled with the most delightful anticipations. In approaching a spot hallowed by memories of early associa- tions it is always better to alight from your carriage and pro- ceed on foot. You are thus nearer to nature's heart and better able, in "pedestrial observation and contemplation, to enjoy the pleasures of recollection." We mount for a quarter of a mile or less, and soon see, beyond, the rounded tops of a brave bit of timber. It is the confines of the "Old Farm." Originally its lines extended to and embraced much of the "Cross Roads;" had the early owners declined to sell, that settlement would have been a one-sided affair: different parcels have been conveyed, none within half a century, until the tract now includes about one Approaching the Old Farm. 13 hundred and forty acres. The farm lies to the right, on the east side of the highway. Before reaching it we pass a neglected ^' God's- Acre." It is the simple burial place of slaves and their posterity, who once formed an important element of the work-a- day world of this township. The headstones, if there ever were any, have long since disappeared ; the decrepit fences are cov- ered with a rambling growth of weeds and creeping vines, and the rains of many years have beaten level the humble mounds of the dusky toilers. But the hoary trees of the deep green wood beckon us on. Here we are — the ''Old Farm" at last. Did you ever see a finer patch of woodland? It is primitive forest. Venerable oaks have thrown their shade over the slopes, glades, copses and leafy recesses of this royal grove, since the days the Indians roamed at will over these fair lands. Looking far in the tim- bered acres to where the shadows and sunlight alternate, and " one leafy circle melts into another," does it not suggest Sher- wood Forest I Free from underbrush, with the majestic trees, standing at stately distances, one can well imagine seeing, where the sunshine darts through yon sylvan bower, Robin Hood and his merrie men kneeling on a soft bed of green moss, at the base of a sacred oak, while jolly Friar Tuck invokes a blessing on some new marauding enterprise. Let us push on over the breezy uplands. The road scales a small ridge, then lies along a short level, and sinks into a little dell, only to mount higher on the farther side. Its trend is now eastward, and the flanking banks are surmounted by rusty grey rail fences, whose straddling posts rise from a tangle of milk- weed, sumac, wild blackberry and alder bushes. Just here a long lane leads to a colony of farm buildings — the Abram D. Huff homestead — with a background of dark woods. The eye ranging south and west overlooks a charming prospect for miles away. The ebbing sunshine, flooding down wide streams of light, intensifies every shade of color in nature's wonderful mosaic of tillage and fallow, of level sweeps of pasture and waving fields of grain. On the other side of the road the hillsides of the ''Old Farm" fall away abruptly in great, grassy cascades, till they blend with the meadows that stretch to a line of waving trees, marking where winds a silvery stream hastening to join the Rari- 14 The Story of an Old Fakm. tan. One can hardly phrase the harmonies that dwell in the peaceful atmosphere of such a landscape. It possesses what some one has said of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky — "the quality of gracefulness." The face of the country is buoyant and rolls away in billowy undulations, now subsiding into quiet valleys, now gently ascending woodland slopes, the deep soil of the green fields lying in continuous, lawn-like surfaces, present- ing between the eye and the horizon in every direction a pano- rama of symmetry and beauty. On our left a cross-country road, running north and west, leads to the Holland neighborhood and divides the Huff and Oppie farms. The latter is a little fifty-acre homestead formerly a part of the "Old Farm." From here the main road runs due east over a high level, and soon has on both sides the broad upland acres of our ancestral plantation. Walking on, we reach the edge of a long, steep descent, known for a century past as the " Melick hill." Here the road plunges down over a series of plateaus, until, nearly two thousand feet away, it disappears around a graceful bend, where it crosses the brawling Peapack brook, in this direction the boundary of the farm. One may journey many miles in many countries without find- ing a lovelier outlook than from this hill-top. Perhaps you think that the fertile valley below, luxuriant with the freshness of gen- tle summer showers, smacks too much of utilitarian beauty? True, nature does not here present herself in a grand or majes- tic aspect ; precipitous rocks, bold declivities and long ranges of serrated peaks are not features of the landscape. But nature in its various phases fits all moods, and it has other charms than those of the wildly picturesque ; those unveiled in the homely and restful scene of these peaceful hillsides have a quiet fasci- nation, far more satisfactory than if emanating from gorge, chasm, or upheaved rocks. It is the domesticity of the scene that charms. As you watch the slanting sun illumine the mead- ows with their meandering brooks, the orchards, farmsteads and great barns, emblems of plenty ; as you watch the afternoon shadows settling in the valley and slowly creeping upward and backward on the opposite slope, you are reminded of one of those lovely vales in midland England; vales which Henry James describes as mellow and bosky, and redolent of human qualities. Descending "Melick Hill." 15 We are told that one born with a soul for the picturesque finds in American landscapes naught but harsh lights, without shade, without composition, without the subtle mystery of color. Is that true ? Standing here overlooking this charming country- side, do you discover anything garish, any tones that offend ? Color — why here is the very essence of the mystery of color. See yonder! that little island of cloud-shadow float over the field of bending grain, a field of a most delicious green interspersed with suggestions of yellow, the promise of golden harvests soon to come. Observe, beyond the river! how in those broad acres of young corn the tender green stands out against the rich dark loam from which it draws its lusty strength. See, too, the luxu- riant verdure of the woodland, topping the undulating rise beyond yon sloping pastures. Here are light, shadow, form and color, and all that go to make a picture of quiet, restful beauty, with an atmosphere of sweet content. Bear with my enthusiasm. I love these hills and all that can be seen from their kindly sides. Come ! we will go down into the valley. The terraces give pleasant breaks to the steep incline of the road. As we pro- ceed, the faint sound of mill-wheels and brooks comes up from below, and the air is fresh and cool with the palpable breath of the waters pouring over the dam. Presently, across the fields on the left, an antique orchard intervening, are to be seen the large barns, hovels and farm buildings, and not far beyond, a little lower down, wreaths of blue smoke curl above the long brown roof of the old homestead. Just before reaching the foot of the hill we come to a grand old maple, whose spreading branches have for a century of summers waved a leafy welcome to comers to the '^ Old Farm." To you, perhaps, it is but a fine tree, but I indeed would be devoid of all sensibility if deaf to the music of the leaves stirring amid its venerable branches. Their sound excites the most agreeable sensations, awakens memories of the many happy, youthful days that have witnessed my return to the refreshment of this old maple's shade, and to all the pleasure that invariably followed a visit to this cherished homestead. Here we leave the highway, and, turning to the left up a short incline, are in front of the Mecca of Our hopes — the Old Stone House. Facing an antiquated door yard and 16 The Story of an Old Farm. shaded by elms, it rests lovingly against the side of a sunny T^ank of turf, springing from the grassy slope as if part of the geological strata rather than a superstructure raised by the hand of man. They builded well in those old days, and now the walls of this sturdy dwelling, humanized and dignified by five genera- tions of occupants, are as stanch and apparently as well pre- served as when laid in 1752 ; as firm as when Johannes Moelich erected here in the then wilds of colonial New Jersey a home that should be to him like unto those ancient houses of masonry he had always known, bordering the banks of the winding Rhine, in far away fatherland. There is nothing pretentious about this dwelling ; nothing suggestive of the fine mansion ; just a quaint low house, with a -comely old-time presence. Almost a cottage in size — it has but nine or ten rooms — the whitewashed walls, massive enough for a citadel, are pierced in a hap-hazard sort of way with odd little windows, from which twinkle queer diminutive panes of glass. At the west end it is one and a half stories high, but the slope of the hill gives another storey at the eastern gable. Formerly the roof was thatched with straw, and among my many treasures prized as souvenirs of this old farm are a pair of the original thatching needles, made of iron and shaped like a sickle. Build- ings, like people, have facial expressions peculiar to themselves. This homely house bears on its aged face a gentle and benign expression of invitation and welcome, as if reflecting a great interior heart, beating with generous hospitality. There is an air of comfort and repose about this farm- house that renders it distinctive among dwellings. Without the osten- tation of a fine villa, or the pertness of an ambitious cottage, it has an atmosphere of friendliness and good cheer that fills all comers with pleasant anticipations. Crossing a wooden-seated porch the open door ushers us into an ample hall. An ancient time-piece ticks at the foot of the stair and the cool evening breeze draws through the upper half of the rear door, beyond which is a view of a pleasant stretch of meadow disappearing down a steep bank into a belt of trees bordering a mill pond. From the back porch you can see at the foot of the hill on the east the buildings of Schomp's grist and saw mills. Together with their contiguous dwelling, the dam and the beautifully shaded The Old Stone House. 17 stream below, they present a charming rural picture. Formerly the bottom lands on this side of Peapack brook were checkered with square vats, for the owners of the " Old Farm " have not only been farmers, but for four generations were tanners of leather and grinders of bark. But the tan vats have long been filled up, the bark mill is a picturesque ruin, and the waters that once turned its busy wheel now run to waste in their sluices and race-ways. But to return to the Old Stone House. You see it is only a plain farm-house, after all, with no remarkable staircases or ancient tiles to interest the visitor. It is true quaint cupboards with curious little panes of glass peer out from the corners of some of the rooms, and those extraordinarily complicated locks on the doors are of German manufacture, and were put on at the building of the house. The incline of the floors is not due to the old age of their supports or the weakening of the walls — the latter will not weaken till some inhuman one uses their foun- dations for a quarry. But when this old house was new, carpets were unknown among farmers, and these floors were laid on an incline in order that each morning, before being freshly sanded, the old sand and dirt could be more readily swept into the hall. By far the most interesting room is the farm kitchen, or living- room, downstairs. There is an outer kitchen resting against the east gable in which is built the great Dutch oven. What batches of rye and wheaten loaves have browned in this capacious sala- mander. On opening the furnace door the savory fumes of bak- ing cake seem in the air ; you almost see the plethoric pans drawn from the heated vault, the rich crusts, puffed with the pride of their own sweetness, towering till they burst in golden Crevices. Picture to yourself in all the years of generous living the endless procession of pies, puddings, creature-comforts and dainty delicacies that have been discharged from the mouth of this broad oven. Both tradition and memory bear witness as to there having always been good cooks in the Old Stone House. To the east of this outer kitchen is a neglected garden begirt by a crazy fence of ancient construction. Clambering hop and other straggling vines partially hide the weakness of the aged inclosure, while a luxuriant growth of currant and gooseberry bushes, intermingled with all sorts of weeds and creepers, give to the 2 18 The Story of an Old Farm. fence an air of substantiability which it is far from possessing. The black loam, enriched with years of rotting leaves, plants and vegetables, feeds patches of hereditary lilies and old-time flowers, grown from seeds brought from Germany. Several ancient plum and twisted quince trees cluster in one corner, their trunks grey with the lichen of time, though still thrifty from the long drinking of the rich juices of exuberant vegetation. Were it later in the season a few choice yellow pumpkins and crooked- necked summer squashes would be seen turning their ripening backs to the warm sun, swelling with the possibility of future pies ; and pale green cucumbers, fattening on the black soil, would sprawl among the beds. But now the narrow paths are bordered with pinks and sweet-williams ; between them stand early beets in sober rows, and young bean vines just reaching for their rusty poles, while blossoming potato and tomato plants contribute their bit of color, and give a finish to this old- fashioned picture. The threshold of the farm kitchen, or living-room, even in my time was guarded by a double Dutch door, but the demon of improvement has replaced it with a more modern entrance. We can step directly from the grass and trees of the dooryard to its interior, and at once are in a bit of the old world. Coming out of the daylight the room seems dark, with mysterious corners and outlets, for it is lighted by small windows set deep in the thick stone walls. As for the outlets, I know well that the cor- ner one farthest from the door leads into the large cool cellar, where are firm yellow pats of butter and pans of rich cream, where stone crocks stand on the earthen floor filled with moist pot-cheeses, nut-cakes and all manner of good things, while cor- pulent jars distended with sweets, and rows of pies stuffed with lusciousness, adorn wooden shelves hanging from the ceiling. How often have big-hearted housewives disappeared within its dark recesses only to return laden with good cheer for my delectation. Most of the furniture of this room dates back to the last century. The hugh press standing against the west wall was built in Germany before 1735, and is a curiosity in its way. Though the wood is of walnut it is black with age, and its height is so great as to preclude the use of its round black ball legs, which for years have served as children's playthings in the gar- The Old Stone House. ' 19 ret. This Passive piece of brass-mounted furniture is capped by an overhanging cornice that projects some twelve inches, and has stood in its present position since the house was built. What a wealth of old associations cluster about the dusky- corners of this low-ceilinged room. While these oaken beams were growing dark with the mellowing hand of time, golden- haired children have sat about this ancestral hearthstone, building in the glowing embers pictures wrought of their budding fancies. These same beams, still unbent by the burden of age, though brown with the deposits of years, have seen those same children, now old men and women, picturing in the ashes of the lighted logs the memories of their past lives. And so the generations have come and gone, and so they have moved ^' gently down the stream of life until they have slept with their fathers;" like trees of the forest, the old falling that the young may thrive, sending out offshoots into the world until, since the great crane was first hung in the cav- ernous fireplace, from the Gulf to the Lakes, from the ocean to the Rockies, nearly a thousand descendants of the builder of this dear old home have peopled our broad land. And who was the German immigrant who felled the forest of this Bedrainster valley I Nobody ! And who were his children and his children's children, who have wrested from these sunny slopes their treasures of grain and abundant grasses, and have dotted the pastures below with glossy cattle ? Just nobodies ! At least so the world would say. You do not find their names emblazoned on the pages of history, nor do they appear high among those of the counsellors of the nation. Neither have their vices or profligacies distinguished them as subjects for memoirs, plays or novels. An honest, simple. God-fearing folk ; with the homely virtues of industry, integrity, frugality and hospitality, they have tilled the soil, tanned leather, built churches, sup- ported schools, occupied modest positions of public honor and trust in the community, and fought the battles of their country. Quietly have many of them passed their uneventful but well- ordered lives, and quietly at life's close have they lain dowTi in Pluckamin or Bedminster churchyard, their memories embalmed in the respect and affection of their fellows. It is the characters and virtues of just such plain people that have constituted the 20 The Story of an Old Farm. bulwarks and strength of the American nation. The annals of families and communities are the real basis of all history. We are told that the history of a nation is to be read in its politi- cal life. An obviously true proposition, but to present to the mind the complete progress of a people, it is not only necessary to understand the superstructure of politics and civil life, but that substratum of society, as well, which cultivates the arts of peace and gradually develops the country; that substratum of liv- ing men and women of their time, whose acts and the daily rou- tine of whose existence form the true foundation of history. During the past ten years it has been my pleasure to make a study of that little slice of New Jersey embraced within Bed- minster township, or rather a study of its people as connected directly and indirectly with the settlers and occupants of the ^' Old Farm." As such investigations and researches continued the field they covered gradually widened until it embraced all the middle and northern counties, and to some extent included the state at large. Over two hundred ancient documents, letters, deeds, bonds, bills and manuscripts have been collected. In reading between the lines of these papers one finds almost a com- plete historical narrative of the "old times" of this section. Light is thrown upon the most interesting facts as to the cost and manner of living, the fashion in dress, the habits, characteristics, personal relations and daily life of the inhabitants of New Jersey in the last century. Knowing that throughout this country there are many descendants of Johannes Moelich, who have never vis- ited the "Old Farm" and have but little knowledge of its history associated with their own families, I have thought it a duty, and found it a labor of love, to give in a connected form the result of my researches. Having drawn on the preceding pages an outline picture of these homestead acres, and of the approach from the railway, in the coming chapters an endeavor will be made to give some idea as to what manner of people were their early settlers, from whence they came, and why they came. In like manner I shall hope to convey to the reader some impressions of the suc- ceeding generations that have called the Old Stone House home. With their story will be interwoven much fact and some tradition, regarding the experiences of the New Jersey people in the eighteenth century and such matters of local county his- Somerset's Historical Background. 21 tory as it has been my good fortune to gather. The story of the "Old Farm" is the easier told because of its setting. Somerset landscapes present a succession of beautiful pictures, whose charms are greatly enhanced by their historical backgrounds. Every corner of the county has a story of its own full of interest^ and as we walk abroad pursuing our task, we shall find on all sides pregnant facts and well-grounded traditions moving hand in hand down the long avenues of the past. CHAPTER III. JBendorf on the Rhine — Johannes Moelich Emigrates to America in 1735 — The Condition of Germany in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The storied beauty of the winding Rhine is nowhere more famed than in the vicinity of the ancient city of Coblentz — the *' Confltientes" of Roman days. Here have nature and man com- bined in forming a scene of rare and picturesque loveliness. On reaching this quaint settlement it is not the old town with its massive walls stretching along the banks of the Rhine that first impresses one ; nor is it the Moselle, whose waters here swell the flood of the greater river. It is the majestic fortress of Erhen- breitstein, crowning the almost perpendicular rocks on the far- ther shore, four hundred feet above the stream, that dominates the scene and dwarfs every object within its frowning presence. This vast fortification, the Gibraltar of the Rhine, is inaccessible on three sides, and dates back to the Franconian King Dagobert, in the seventh century. From its extensive glacies, fosses and towers the eye ranges over a charming and varied landscape, embracing hillsides terraced with vineyards, bold declivities stored with legends, and green valleys filled with the romance of the Middle Ages. Immediately below are the palaces, turrets and red roofs of the second city of importance on the river. The old basilica of St. Castor elevates its hoary towers above an angle in the town wall where the rivers join, and beyond the massive arches of a bridge of heavy blocks of stone take fourteen huge strides across the Moselle. On the south, in plain sight, are the stately, grey-stone battlements of the royal chateau of Stolzenfels, capping a timbered eminence, while down the river can be seen a succession of picturesque villages, whose long Rhine streets almost form one continuous settlement. About four miles away Bendorf and its Ancient Church. 23 in this direction the convent island of Niederwerth splits the current of the stream. A little beyond and a mile or so back from the right bank of the river, in a valley surrounded by apple orchards, rests the ancient village of Bendorf. With us a place of over four thousand inhabitants would feel entitled to be considered a town, but on the continent of Europe a settlement requires more than population to attain such dignity. Bendorf has the appearance of grey antiquity common to most of the old settlements along the Khine. Its narrow streets, without sidewalks, are lined with low, two-storey, stone houses, though the continuity is occasionally broken by a tall, steep, red roof studded with odd dormers, or an overhanging gable, which casts a deep shadow across the contracted roadway. Other architectural surprises are not wanting. The stroUer over the rough cobbles of the ill-paved streets comes again and again upon an antique turret protruding from the upper storey of some time-stained structure, or upon picturesque wooden houses, with their blackened constructive timbers exposed, enclosing panels of white plaster. Often the quaint facades are curiously carved with heraldic devices, grotesque conceits and odd German letter- ing. Ambushed behind a shadowy corner is a venerable Roman- esque church, its age-seamed walls and medisevel towers bearing in many places marks of the devastating hand of time. It may well look old, as it is claimed that the edifice was completed by the Counts of Sayn before the year 1205. It is certainly one of the most ancient in Rhineland, and although the early archives of the congregation did not escape the conflagrations of the Thirty Years' and other wars, the architecture of the main struct- ure bears abundant evidence of its antiquity. It is a three-naved basilica of purely Roman features showing no traces in its original outlines of the transition from that style to the Gothic. Its symmetry has been marred, however, by some "improver," who in the pointed period replaced a round window, that formerly adorned the circular-depressed place above the main entrance with a long one, and who destroyed the agree- able proportions of its facade by elevating and pointing the cen- tre of the front wall. At the same time a Gothic chapel was erected, and later a modern extension was constructed on 24 The Story of an Old Farm. the south-west, in which the Catholics worship. The con- gregation housed by the original, or main building, is entitled the Evangelical Head-Church — Evangelische Haupt-Kirche. To- gether with the congregation of the town of Winningen it was among the first in Germany to fall under the sway of the Refor- mation. In 1578, Count Henry IV of Sayn, who had become a follower of Luther, inherited Bendorf. He at once established a Lutheran congregation under the pastorate of Reverend Johannes Camerarius and from then till now this little town has been a stronghold of Protestantism. More than one American congrega- tion can trace its origin to this Rhenish Lutheran Society, and in its archives, referring to the first part of the last century, fre- quently appear names that a few years later became familiar in Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey. Among them those of MoELiCH (Melick), Klein (Kline), Himroth (Himrod), Fassbender, Wortman and others. To an appreciative American, one who having always lived amid the new loves and reveres the old, there are few experi- ences in foreign travel more satisfactory than the mere fact of being within the shadow of a building that has withstood the ele- ments for five or six centuries. So was the writer affected one summer morning a few years ago, while standing in the presence of this hoary temple, the church of his forefathers. Looking up at the crumbling window-arches that pierced its grey, gloomy facade, it was difficult to realize that when those walls were new the ruined castles which frequent this part of the Rhine were alive with steel-encased feudal lords and their armed retainers \ that Barbarossa, the red-bearded emperor, had just sunk beneath the Asiatic waves, while on the third Crusade ; that the sunny lands of what is now southern France were running with the blood of those devoted peasants, the Albigenses, in the unholy war fathered by that most cruel of all popes, Innocent III; and prosecuted by that most bloodthirsty of all commanders, Simon de Montfort, that the haughty English barons, on the banks of the Thames, were extorting from wicked and degraded King John, Magna Charta, that precious document that proved to be the foundation of the liberties of all English-speaking people. But a truce to mediaeval history; we will pass over five hundred years. Johannes Starts for America. 25 Here in Bendorf, in the early part of the eighteenth century, lived a sturdy burgher — a tanner and a freeholder of good repute — Johannes Moelich, who was born on the twenty-sixth of February, 1702. His family comprised four children, equally divided as to sex, and his wife Maria Catherina, a rotund Ger- man matron who prided herself upon being the daughter of Gottfried Kirberger, the burgomaster of Bendorf. Having been born on the sixth of January, 1698, she was nearly four years the senior of her husband, to whom she had been married on the first of November, 1723. As she is familiarly known in family annals as Mariah Katrina, by this name she will in future be designated on these pages. The children were : Ehrenreich (Aaron), born the twelfth of October, 1725 ; Veronica Gerdrutta (Fanny), born on the twenty-first of November, 1727; Andreas (Andrew), born on the twelfth of December, 1729 ; and Marie Cathrine, born on the sixth of December, 1 733. One morning, while the year 1735 was yet young, Johannes gathered together his family, his household goods and effects, including considerable furniture, and taking with him his young- est brother Gottfried (Godfrey), departed through the Bach-gsite of the to'UTi wall to the bank of the river. Here he embarked on one of the clumsy barges of that day and floated away, borne up by Father Khine, to Rotterdam, where he took ship and sailed for America. This emigrant was the son of Johann Wilhelm and Anna Katherine Moelich, who came to Bendorf in 1 688 from Winningen,* a town on the Moselle, four miles west of Coblentz. They had many relatives and friends in both places, and we can well fancy that the departure of Johannes and his family was an important event for these communities. It woidd be interesting to learn just what cause led to his emigration. It could not have been poverty, as was the case with many of the thousands of his countrymen who had preceded him across the water, for we know that he owned property in Bendorf and had ready money for investment in the new country. Perhaps he appreciated the responsibility of his little family, and hesitated to bring up his children under a government that had already brought much misery and distress on its subjects. * For description of Wiiiningen ami Bendorf see introduction to geiieaioijy in appendix, p. 6'ZS. 26 The Stokt ok an Old Failm. He had already established relations beyoimd the sea, his younger brother Johanu Peter having landed at Philadelphia in 1728, from the ship Mortonhouse. Doubtless he had received letters from this brother, and from friends among the many emigrants who had found an asylum in America, drawing an enticing picture of the liberal government of William Penn, which had secured to them in the fruitful valleys of Pennsylvania peacefril retreats where they no longer feared religious persecution or political oppression. Between the beginning of the century and the time of Johannes' emigration some seventy thousand Ger- mans had turned their backs on the mother coimtry and sought homes in foreign lands. The old world and its people, two hundred years ago, were well tired of each other. So some one tells us, and the student of early emigration to the American colonies soon discovers abundant evidence verifying this statement. He finds that in the latter part of the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries a countless host of dissatisfied and oppressed Europeans, turning their faces from the east, embarked on the frail vessels of that period. For weary weeks they rolled and staggered over the briny troughs of an almost unknown sea, whose western waves broke on the shores of a vast continent that beckoned them thitherward as a haven of security and peace ; a new world whose hospitable harbors, in the faith of these migrators, seemingly offered promises of an asylum free from political oppressions, and a retreat ftdl of that repose which they knew from bitter exper- iences would be denied them in their own countries. The birth of society is no older than is the love of man for the land of his nativity. All ordinary rules and principles govern- ing the actions of men seem contradicted by emigration from an old to a new country, whereby men voluntarily combat the dan- gers and difficulties of savage nature in a wilderness beyond the seas, after abandoning the graves of their ancestors, the friends of a life-time, and the hearth-stones around which have centred all the aflfections and sympathetic experiences of their own fam- ilies and those of their progenitors. Yet, at the time of which we write, notwithstanding the prevalence of this universal and world-wide sentiment, it was powerless to stem the great tidal wave of humanity that rolled irresistibly America-ward. Ship Why Germans Left Fatherland. 27 after ship, their decks crowded with Scotch refugees, dropped anchor off Perth Amboy, enriching, as Grahame writes, East Jersey society '' by valuable accessions of virtue that had been refined by adversity, and piety that was invigorated by persecu- tion." Quakers and Dissenters from Old England landed in Pennsylvania, and Puritans from that same little island joined their brethren in Massachusetts, augmenting that sturdy stock who were laying the foundations of the future American nation. The forests, which had for centuries fringed both banks of the Delaware, were felled by the brawny arms of fair-haired Swedes. Huguenots, among them the best blood of France, as well as her most skilled artisans, swelled the population of New York and the more southern provinces, while rotund Hollanders, smoking long Delft pipes, still sailed their high-pooped shallops up Hud- son's river, settling on its shores, and penetrating to the little Dutch settlement which has since grown to be the capital of a great State. Though home-seekers, these latter had not left Holland from religious or political motives. But nowhere on the continent of Europe did this spirit of unrest hover with greater persistency than over the beautiful val- leys of the Rhine and its tributaries. The cycle of the eighteenth century had not rolled away many of its years before thousands of Germans had turned their backs on all they would naturally hold most dear and sought homes in foreign lands. Expatriation is a severe ordeal even when the native shores of the exile are stertile and barren of fruitfulness ; how much more severe must be this experience to one who, by unjust laws and an unright- eous government, is forced to sever the invisible links of affec- tion that bind him to a land of pleasant abundance, and a home seated amid environments of picturesqueness and beauty. The Teuton is by nature stable ; his affections intuitively take deep root in the soil of his native land, and no one holds in greater reverence the sacred names of home and fatherland. How, then, do we account for this great exodus from Germany, especially from those fair regions bordering the valleys of the Rhine, the Moselle, the Nahr and the sinuous Neckar ? If his native hills, rivers and homesteads are so dear, how is it tliat at the present day we find the German to be in the greatest num- ber of all the foreign population in far-away America f To 28 The Story of ax Old Farm. properly answer this question it will be necessary to consider the political aspect of Germany at the time referred to, and to take a hurried retrospective glance at the history and condition of the common people for several anterior decades. One does not delve very deep in Continental annals of the eighteenth century without discovering that at this time the condition of Germany was most deplorable. Many of the innum- erable kingdoms, duchies, principalities, independent towns and free cities that were strewed disconnectedly over the land between the Rhine and the Danube had rulers who claimed an almost absolute sway over their hapless subjects. They often demanded their lives, their fortunes, their services ; the latter not called upon always for the benefit and protection of their own country or community, but to be bartered for gold to other gov- ernments. Successive furious wars had raged with but short intermission for several generations. And the end was not yet ; the map of Europe was to undergo many changes, and the destiny of all Germany was to be determined. The great Frederick was yet to mould his small kingdom into the powerful nation of Prussia. Even when that work was accomplished, and fifty years after that illustrious king had returned from the Seven Years' War, the German people gathered themselves together for the greatest struggle they had yet attempted ; but it was with happier hearts and a more abounding faith that they entered into this contest, for they felt the glow of a national patriotism, and each blow struck was for a common cause and fatherland. The sun of peace, prosperity and greatness, as has been well said, did not rise on Germany till the year 1813, which saw the end of the prolonged struggle that may be considered to have commenced with the Thirty Years' War. But we must go back of the year 1700 to look for the original cause of German emigration. In the early part of the seven- teenth century the peasants, burghers and the great middle- class of Germany were well to do. The prosperity was occa- sioned by the long continued peace, giving to the people the opportunity of cultivating their fields and promoting agriculture, the foundation of opulence in all countries. Some historians consider that garden and field cultivation in 1618 were superior to that of two hundred years later, arguing that the present cen- The Thirty Years' War Overwhelms Germany, 29 tury has only seen Germany brought back agriculturally to •where it was those long years ago. Tillage, of course, produced much less variety, many of the grains and vegetables of the pre- sent century being then unknown. Flax was a staple, and much money was made from the cultivation of anise and saffron. Everywhere were vineyards, and in the fields were to be seen hops, wheat, horsebeans, turnips, teazel and rape. The houses were much inferior to those of to-day, but they were not defi- cient in interior comforts. Many a German matron of the pre- sent time exhibits with pride the curiously carved chairs and cupboards, ornamented spinning wheels, and treasures of earth- ernware and drinking vessels that, having escaped the vicissi- tudes of the years gone by, have been handed down to her as precious heirlooms of those ancient days. Ye», it was a happy time for the common people of Germany. The scars of war were healed. Of course they had their bur- dens. The nobles were oppressive. There was the door tax, the window-tax, and other heavy impositions, and much that was earned must go to support the comforts and luxuries of the cas- tles and manorial houses. But as the people knew nothing of true liberty they were satisfied and happy in following their peaceful avocations. They gave no thought to war, or to the fact that the politics of Germany was a bubbling cauldron of conflicting interests, on the verge of boiling over, and little they recked of the horrors in store for them in the near future. What did they know of the bloody horoscope that was being cast by the disputes of the house of Hapsburg and the German rulers, or of the princes that were unfurling the banners of the two hostile religious pai'ties? In Catholic commimities the inhab- itants were well content with their parish priests, and in the Protestant towns and hamlets the faithful pastors filled all the needs of the people. In the village Gasthaus, in the evenings, there may have been talk of fighting and suffering in Bohemia ; but it mattered little to the villagers, as they drank their beer and smoked their porcelain pipes, except as furnishing subject for chat and wonder. As the months and years rolled on, rumors grew more rife, and localities named grew much nearer ; by 1623 it was in Thuringia that conflicts were reported ; by the next year there was no longer any doubt that Middle Ger- 30 The Story of an Old Farm. many was being overrun by foreign troops; in a few months the Spanisli soldiers, under General Spinola, bi'oke in the lower Palatinate, and all the miseries of war fell upon the entire Rhine valley. For over a quarter of a century the whole country was devastated by contesting armies. Hordes of Cossacks, Poles, Walloons, Irish, Spaniards, Italians, English, Danes, Finns and Swedes, together with their camp followers, tramped over Ger- man soil, settling like swarms of locusts on the comfortable vil- lages and fat fields, obliterating in a few months' stay in a local- ity every vestige of the accumulations of years of patient toil. Readers of German history are familiar with the bitterness and woe of the next three decades, — an epoch fraught with such distress that the mind almost refuses to contemplate the detailed and prolonged sufferings of the German people. Gustav Freytag, who has pictured in strong outline the desolations of this time, considers the reason that the war raged for a whole gener- ation and exhausted a powerful people was because none of the contending parties were able to prosecute it on a grand or deci- sive scale. He claims that the largest army in the Thirty Years' War did not equal an ordinary corps of modern times. The Austrian commander, Tilly, thought forty thousand to be the greatest body of men that a general could properly handle; during the war it was rare that an army reached that magni- tude. The fighting was mostly done by smaller bands distrib- uted over a wide area of country, and the distress brought upon the communities was not more caused by the sacking and pil- lage of the soldiery than by the wretched system of camp follow- ers in vogue at that time. Not only the officers but the privates, also, were accompanied on their campaigns by wives, mistresses and children; they, in their train, often had a following of a much worse character, and all the dissolute men and women of a community were generally to be found about the camp of an occupying arm}^ This condition of affairs was not confined to the foreign sol- diers, but the evil also attached to the German troops. Wall- hausen reckons as indispensable to a German regiment of infan- try four thousand women, children and other followers. At the close of the war in 1648, General Gronsfeld reports that the Imperial and Bavarian armies contained forty thousand drawing The Treaty of Westphalia Brings Peace. 31 rations, and one hundred and forty thousand who did not. These figures give some slight idea of the horrors of war at that period. Picture an army made up of many nationalities, with its greater army of followers, largely composed of the depraved of both sexes from all parts of Europe. The troops were paid, clothed and fed by their respective governments; but what of the great out- lying camp? It^ could only subsist and exist by thieving, oppression and crime. The thatch was torn from the cottages that the horses of the marauders might be bedded. The cottages were razed to furnish materials for building huts. The carts were taken from the yards, the oxen from their stalls. The pas- sage of an army meant the entire disappearance of all the cattle. The immense flocks of parish sheep that nibbled the grass on the sides of the stony heights and roamed over the abundant ver- dure of the meadows found their way to the roasting-ovens and stew-pots of the great mob, and the national wool of Germany, known in every market of the world, was lost forever. The large cities proved a place of refuge for the upper classes, as in them some semblance of government and order was maintained ; but for the country people there were no such retreats. They were robbed and maltreated ; and if they did not promptly dis- close the hiding places of their treasures, were beaten, maimed and often killed. Their lads swelled the ranks of the soldiery; their daughters, alas, were often kidnapped and coerced into the ranks of the concubines. Did an array remain long in one local- ity fear seized upon the inhabitants; and the effect of the feel- ing of terror and insecurity, and the horribly vicious associations with which they were surrounded, produced a condition of despair and moral recklessness which were appalling. Frequently the villagers themselves turned robbers, wives deserted their husbands, childi'en their parents, and many fled to the mountains and forest for a place of safety. It was a time when the face of Jehovah seemed turned away from Germany — when the whole land apparently lay under the shadow of the Almighty dis- pleasure ! The middle of the century brought peace. The thirty years of tears and blood were over. The graves could not give up their dead ; the treaty of Westphalia might assert the triumphs of religious and political liberty in Germany, but it could not 32 The Story of an Old Farm. restore the virtue of the dissolute, nor the prosperity of the com- munities. Nor did the sorrows end with the war ; there were still desolated homes, abject poverty and rampant crime ! For thirty years the vagrants of Europe had made Germany their abidin<^ place. They did not all leave with the troops, but wan- dered about the country, a disorderly rabble, terrorizing the people. Still there was peace ! Bells were ringing, bonfires burning, and in the cities peace banquets were spread, and anthems sung. The rocky fastnesses, the distant forests and the larger cities gave up their refugees. The people again gathered in their dismantled villages and on their wasted lands, the gut- ted fields were inspected, holes in the barns repaired, and their damaged and often tottering houses were made habitable. The broken links of society were welded, and the forging of the great chain of progress and growth which had been so rudely broken was again undertaken. Recuperation, however, was slow, and the impoverishment of the people so great as to render them almost helpless. In some neighborhoods sixty per cent, of the population had disappeared, and three-fifths — yes, four^fifths — of all property had been dis- sipated. Furniture, tools and utensils were gone, and the peas- ants in again attempting their industrial pursuits found them- selves almost in a state of nature. In some principalities the improvement was more rapid than in others. Prussia was raised from the lowest depths of misery and desolation by the energy and wisdom of Frederic William, the great Elector, who ruled from 1640 to 1688, and in the south and east, where the country enjoyed the blessings of peace for comparatively a number of years, slow but continued strides were made toward betterment. But on the western frontier and along the valley of the Rhine and its tributaries no such opportunity was given the exhausted people for regeneration and revival. Peace had not come to stay ! For nearly a century yet, these fair regions were to lie devastated and prostrate, the plunder and fighting ground of France and her allies. I have dwelt thus long on the detailed horrors of the Thirty Years' War, and the subsequent years, because it was a time fated to have a momentous efi'ect on the future of our own country. The result of that cruel contest, and the after-paralyzed condi- Germany the Fighting Ground of Europe. 33 tion of affairs, was the tide of emigration that rose toward the close of that century, swelled to a great flood in the next one hundred years, and since then has rolled, and even now is rolling, a vast human sea of Germans across the American continent. Without doubt other influences assisted and encouraged this great movement. Despotic princes, petty differences between small states, sumptuary laws, extortions, and cruel conscriptions in later wars, all helped to wean the German from his country. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, which cost France seven hundred thousand of her best citizens, brought much suf- fering on the Protestants of Germany. Huguenots from over the borders flocked in great numbers to the shelter afforded by the Lutheran Palatine elector. This insured to that prince and his people the vengeance of Madame de Maintenon ; she gave peremptory orders, through Louvois, that the Palatinate should be utterly destroyed, and one hundred thousand French soldiers were despatched by Louis XIV. to do the work. Thousands of Germans were forced to escape religious persecution by flight. But the original idea of emigration, the first setting in motion of the ball of expatriation, was due to that foundation of all Ger- many's subsequent miseries, the Thirty Years' War ; and had it not been for that prolonged conflict, which so weakened the country as to render the people unable to withstand their future trials, our nation would to-day be without millions of citizens who now honor it, and make it the greater, because of their intelli- gence, industry, frugality and virtue. In 1672 Louis XIV. astonished Europe by the rapidity with which he conquered three provinces and forty fortresses in Hol- land ; but the dykes were cut and the newly elected stadtholder, WiUiam of Orange, formed an alliance with Germany and Spain. In the several years of war that followed, the Rhine country was repeatedly ravaged, the devastation earning for General Turenne and the French the execration of the world. Hardly had this war terminated by the treaty of Nymeguen, in 1679, before Louis XIV. laid claim to several German territor- ies, leading to another distressing contest of four years, the Rhenish provinces bearing the brunt of the suffering. The treaty of Ratisbon, in 1684, ended this conflict, but within two years William III. of England formed the league of Augsburg against 34 The Story of an Old Farm. France, and in 1688 Louis' army was again desolating the Pal- atinate and other portions of Germany with fire and sword, destroying the towns, villages and castles, until to this day, from Drachenfels to Heidelberg, the line of march is marked by crumbling walls, ruined battlements, and blown-up towers. A short rest was brought the Germans by the peace of Ryswick, in 1697 ; but it is useless to continue the narrative of Germany's wars through the conflict of the Spanish Succession, Frederic the Great's campaigns, and the continuous fighting of the eighteenth century. Sufficient has been recounted in the above rapid review to bring before the mind of the reader ample evidence to show why the Germans, especially those of what is now Rhenish Prussia, should have, notwithstanding their love of home, been so impoverished and disheartened as to be constrained to sorrowfully turn their backs on Germany, and seek in the new world that peace, freedom and protection which had been denied to them and their fathers on their native soil. CHAPTER IV. German Expatriation — The Distribution of Teuton Emigrants in the American Colonics, In the preceding chapter an endeavor has been made to show that even early in the seventeenth century the Germans had good cause for deserting fatherland. When resolved on expatri- ation their steps nearly all turned westward, and they seemed of one mind as to what coimtry offered the greatest inducements to home-seekers, and presented the most complete assurances of relief from the heavy burdens under which they had groaned in Europe. The tide of emigration set steadily toward America, and from those early days till now, the name and thought of our country has been as a sweet savor in the nostrils of oppressed Teutons. Commencing as a little rill the current gradually increased in volume, until, as we learn from recently published statistics, between 1880 and 1884 the yearly exodus from Ger- many averaged nearly one hundred and seventy-five thousand souls ; while of two millions, six hundred and one thousand Ger- mans now living outside of the Empire, two millions are citizens of the United States. There is no accurate record of the earliest Teuton emigration to America. Edward Eggleston, a diligent student of colonial history, claims that Germans came with the colonists of Massa- chusetts Bay, and, without doubt, some of the so-called Dutch of the New Netherlands were High Dutch, or Germans, from the Rhine, beyond the Holland border. Before the close of the Thirty Years' War the vast movement from the Rhine country may be said to have commenced, and the year 1640 found Germans settled on the Delaware in the Swedish colony planted by the Lutheran king, Gustavus Adolphus. 36 The Story of an Old Farm. But until 1682 the arrival of immigrants in this country was neither frequent nor regular. In the preceding year William Penn had advertised to the world his liberal govern- ment, and offered in Pennsylvania homes for the persecuted and oppressed of all nations. Penn had acquired his great American grant of forty thousand square miles of territory from the Crown, in payment of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds due his father. The King named the tract after the elder Penn, and it is inter- esting to know, as illustrating the modesty and simplicity of the son, that he sitrongly objected to this appellation, even going so far as to attempt the bribing of an under-secretary, that the name might be changed. In 1683 Francis Daniel Pastorious, a Fran- conian German of education, arrived with other immigrants at Philadelphia, taking up land at Germantown, commencing that settlement with thirteen families. Arents Klincken erected the first two-storey house, Penn being present, and helping to eat the " raising dinner." Within a few years the settlement was aug- mented by the arrival of over one thousand Germans, among whom were the ancestors of the present prominent Pennsylvania families of Rittenhouse, Shoemaker, Carpenter, Potts and Van Wart. The most of them came from near the city of Worms, in Westphalia. They must have felt grateful for their quiet provincial homes when they heard of the dreadful ravages of the French, in 1689, who laid waste the entire country from which they had emigrated, the flames rising from every hamlet, market place and parish church in the Duchy of Cleves, in which Worms is situated. The greatest influx of Germans commenced about 1700. Within the following twenty-five years vast numbers fled from the desolations and persecutions at home to the English colonies in America, and it is estimated that over fifty thousand within that time reached the province of Pennsylvania. A few miles from Bendorf, on the Hhine, is the well built and attractive town of Neuwied ; it has now a population of about ten thousand, com- prising Romanists, Lutherans, Moravian Brethren, Baptists and Jews, who live together in harmony. Count Frederic of Wied, whose descendants still occupy the spacious palace at its north end, founded the town in 1653, on the site of the village of Lan- gendorf, which was entirely destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. The Settlement of German Valley, N. J. 37 Here, in 1705, arrived a number of Lutherans, who had fled from persecutions at Wolfenbrdttel and Halberstadt. The then Count of Wied, who welcomed all comers without distinction of religion, gave them residence and protection. Here they remained for some time, and then went on down the river to Holland, where they embarked, in 1707, for New York. After a severe and protracted voyage a violent storm drove their small ship south of Sandy Hook, obliging the master to take refuge in the capes of the Delaware, and ultimately land his passengers at Philadelphia. Determined to continue to the province of New York the immigrants left the Quaker City, journeying overland. Travelling, thitherward, they reached the crest of the Schooley's Mountain range, in Morris County, New Jersey, and were sud- denly confronted by the view of a charming valley. Below were the pleasant reaches of the Musconetcong, flowing tranquilly between grassy banks, with rich meadows rolling back in gentle undulations, seeming fairly to invite settlement. To these tem- pest-tossed wanderers it appeared, indeed, a land of promise ; what more could they desire in a search for homes ? New York province certainly would offer no richer or more inviting local- ity, so here they decided to remain. Descending the mountain side they drove their tent stakes, and laid their hearth-stones, as the commencement of a settlement which has been known from that day to this as the German Valley. It is claimed that many now well-known families in Morris, Hunterdon and Somerset Counties take their origin from this ancient little Lutheran community.* *This account of the first settlement of German Valley is based on statements made in Rupps' " Early German Emigrants to Pennsylvania," Mott's "First Century of Hunterdon County," Blauvelt's "Historical Sketch of the German Reformed and Presbyterian Church of German Valley," and Snell's " History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties." Persons well informed in the history of Morris and Hunterdon doubt this story ; indeed, do not hesitate to deny the pos- sibility of its truth. Various objections are made to the belief that these Bruns- wick and Prussian emigrants were the progenitors of the present resident Ger- man families of Clinton, Lebanon and Tewksbury, in Hunterdon, and of Wash- ington, in Morris county. The most tenable one advanced is that there is not a particle of documentary evidence to show that there were many, if any, Ger- mans occupying the region now forming those townships previous to the year 1720, and that the family names of Pickel, Welch, Apgar, Alspaugh, Philhower, Kline, Rhinehart, Eick and others, which liave been credited as being those of persons descended from those persecuted immigrants, can all be accounted for as importations after the year 1720, and most of them after 1730. 38 The Story of an Old Farm. Hendi'ick Hudson, after his voyage in the "Half- Moon," in 1609, in writing of the locality on which now, a populous cres- cent, the city of Newburgh rests, mentions it as "a pleasant place to build a town on." As the Palatine parish of Quassaick, on this "pleasant place," a town was laid out, about one hun- dred years later, by emigrants from Germany. The company comprised forty-two persons, who, under the guidance of their pastor, Joshua Kockerthal, had been sent to America by Queen Anne, who had guaranteed them nine pence a day for a year's support, and a grant of land on which to settle. They had been driven to the fields in mid-winter by the destruction of their homes by the French, and had applied to the English govern- ment for aid, as Protestants who were suffering from abject pov- erty, because of their religious beliefs. On reaching New York Lord Lovelace had them transported to Quassaick creek, and ultimately his successor, Grovernor Hunter, issued to them a patent for twenty-one hundred and ninety acres of land. The first place of worship in Newburgh was a little Lutheran church, twenty feet square, built by these foreigners. The settlement as a German community did not prosper. The Palatines, who were mostly husbandmen, found the rough hillsides much inferior for cultivation to the rich lands they had known over the seas. Attracted by descriptions from friends, located in Pennsyl- vania, of the fertile regions they inhabited, the individual own- ers gradually sold the plots originally apportioned them and removed to that Quaker colony. By 1743 practically the place had changed from a German settlement to a Scotch-English neighborhood. Notwithstanding the comparatively short time the Palatines lived on Quassaick creek, they left an indelible mark on the country, and a record of which the people of New- burgh are still proud. That city's historian, E. M. Rutten- ber, writes that "no citizens of more substantial worth are found under the flag of this, their native land, than their descendants; no braver men were in the armies of the Revolution than Herki- mer and Muhlenberg. Had they done nothing in the parish but made clearings in its forests and planted fields they would be entitled to grateful remembrance; but they did more — they gave to it its first church and its first government, and in all its sub- sequent history their descendants have had a part." Thirteen Thousand Germans Reach London in 1709. 39 The citizens of London were astonished to learn, in May and June, 1709, that five thousand men, women and children, Ger- mans from the Rhine, were under tents in the suburbs. By October the number had increased to thirteen thousand, and comprised husbandmen, tradesmen, school teachers and minis- ters. These emigrants had deserted the Palatinate, owing to French oppression and the persecution by their prince, the elector John William, of the House of Newburgh, who had become a devoted Romanist, though his subjects were mainly Lutherans and Calvinists. Professor Henry A. Homes, in a paper treating of this emigration read before the Albany Insti- tute in 1871, holds that the movement was due not altogether to unbearable persecutions, but largely to suggestions made to the Palatines in their own country by agents of companies who were anxious to obtain settlers for the British colonies in America, and thus give value to the company's lands. The emigrants were certainly seized with the idea that by going to England its government would transport them to the provinces of New York, the Carolinas and Pennsylvania. Of the latter province they knew much, as many Germans were already there. Pas- torious, the founder of Germantown, had published circulars in Germany, extolling the colony and inviting settlement. Penn had also well advertised in the Palatinate the inducements for settlers offered by his grant. The emigrants may have heard of the success of Pastor Kockerthal's little colony which had gone to New York the previous year, and they were all eager to be transported to a country where rich lands were to be had at no cost, and where their efforts for subsistence would be undis- turbed by oppressions. The English government was much distressed by the arrival of this vast number of impoverished emigrants. Their coming not having been anticipated, no plans had been made for their distribution in the colonies, or their care in England. Means were taken at once to notify the Dutch and German authorities that no more would be received. This certainly had the sym- pathy of the elector Palatine, who had already published an order punishing with death and confiscation all subjects who should quit their native country. Great efibrts were made to prevent suffering among these poor people; thousands of pounds 40 The Story of an Old Farm. were collected for their maintenance from churches and individ- uals all over England; they were lodged in warehouses, empty dwellings and in barns, and the queen had a thousand tents pitched for them back of Greenwich, on Blackheath. Here, on that historic moor, where Wat Tyler and Jack Cade had assembled the rebellious men of Kent, and where later, Claude Duval, and other bold riders of the road, were wont to relieve belated travellers of their gold and jewels, was presented the strange spectacle of an encampment of five thousand alien peo- ple, speaking an alien tongue, awaiting with patience and confid- ence a help and relief they felt sure would come from the sym- pathy and compassion of Protestant Englishmen. Although Mortimer, in his "History of England," says it was never known who encouraged them to this emigration, a com- mittee of the House of Commons appointed in 1711 elicited facts, as its report shows, going to prove that the Queen's gov- ernment was not altogether guiltless in provoking the move- ment. The Palatines testified that they had left their country because of books and papers containing Queen Anne's picture that had been distributed, urging their coming to England that they might be sent to Her Majesty's plantations in the colonies. It is hardly to be believed that they would have come almost at one time, and in such great numbers, without having received encouragement from agents or others, who must, at least appar- ently, have made promises with authority. The Germans evi- dently expected that immediately on arrival in England they were to be dispatched in a body across the sea; but no one stood ready to carry out such a programme. If the government had made promises it was with expectation of no such liberal response. To carry thirteen thousand people would require a great fleet of the small vessels of that time, and there were no ships for such a service. Much time would also be required in preparing for their arrival in America, and in perfecting arrange- ments for their final settlement. Notwithstanding the great efibrts made by the English people, very much distress followed this unhappy hegira. Disease decimated their ranks, and many wandered about England, becoming a poverty-stricken incubus on the parishes. Numbers of the younger men enlisted in the British army serving in Portugal, and some made their Palatines Settle in Ireland in 1710. 41 own way to Pennsylvania, presumably by effecting arrangements with the masters of vessels, whereby, on arrival, their services were to be sold for a term sufficient to secure payment of their passage-money. This was not an unusual means of emigration to the colonies at that time. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland petitioned the Queen that some of the people might be sent to him, and by February, 1710, thirty-eight hundred had been located across the Irish Sea, in the province of Munster, near Limerick. The government granted them temporary help, and within three years twenty- four hundred pounds had been expended on their removal and maintenance while settling. In 1715 they became naturalized citizens. Professor Homes recites in his monograph that they '' now number about twelve thousand souls, and, under the name of Palatinates, continue to impress a peculiar character upon the whole district they inhabit, both in a social and economical way." Farrar writes of them, in the beginning of this century, that they have " left off sauer-kraut and taken up potatoes, though still preserving their own language;" that "their superstitions savor of the banks of the Rhine, and in their dealings they are upright and honorable." Kohl, a German traveller of 1840, testifies that they have not lost their home character for probity and honor, and that they are much wealthier than any of their neighbors. According to "Luttrell's Diary" about one-tenth of the whole number that reached England were returned by the Crown to Grermany. This action of the authorities seems to have been provoked in consequence of the portion returned not being Prot- estants, and for that reason out of favor. Among the exiles were a large number of people from Heidel- berg. Professor Rupp thinks that more than six thousand per- sons had left that vicinity within twelve months. They had suffered persecution because unable to change their religion as often as did their government. The Elector Palatine, Frederic II., became a Lutheran ; Frederic III. turned Calvinist ; Ludovic V. restored the Lutheran Church, while his son and successor embraced the Calvinist faith ; he was succeeded by a Catholic prince who cruelly oppressed the Protestants. All travellers remember with pleasure the beautiful university town of Heidel- 42 The Story of an Old Farm. berg, that, almost hidden in dense foliage, occupies a narrow- bench of land between the lofty Konigstuhl and the restless Neckar, which here forces its foamy way through a narrow gorge to the broad Rhine plain, just below. Away up on the side of the mountain, clinging to the very edge of a wooded precipice, is the most magnificent ruin in Middle Europe. The royal residence and stronghold of generations of electors, it was three hundred years in growing from a castle to a palace ; then came the French, with their claim to the Palatinate, and this royal architectural pile was battered and desolated, but fortu- ^ nately not entirely destroyed. Beyond the castle, higher up, on a little plateau, is a restaurant and garden — the Wolfsbrunnen. Here the citizens of the town meet on Sundays, fete days and holidays to listen to music, and chat under the trees with their neighbors. As they blow the foam from their cool steins of beer and overlook the ivy-clad ruin, with its quadrangles, bastions, moated exterior walls, and graceful interior fagades studded with sculptures and statues, they must find abimdant subjects for thought and conversation. If they are inclined to "mourn over Israel " they need not give all their tears to the defacement of that effective mass of stone ; their minds and sympathies can revert to the miseries of their townspeople in the years gone by, before they had become a portion of United Germany. In the early part of the Thirty Years' War the imperial Count Tilly sacked Heidelberg, putting five hundred of the inhabitants to death. Later on, in the same war, the generals of the French captured the city, and people without number w^ere slaughtered. In 1688 the French were again in Heidelberg ; this time they burned the place to the ground, reducing the castle, and blowing up its ancient and massive corner tower, although the walls were twenty-one feet thick ; one-half of the structure fell into the moat below, where it lies intact to this day, a most picturesque ruin. Heidelberg was rebuilt only to be once more, in 1693, overwhelmed by the armies of Louis XIV.; flames again rose from every building, and the citizens — men, women and children — fifteen thousand in number, stripped of everything, were turned at night into the fields. Not long after, the elector induced the inhabitants to rebuild the town under a promise of liberty of conscience and thirty years' exemption from taxes. Germans in Virginia and North Carolina. 43 Within a few years this same elector, growing more devoted to his Romanist faith, served God in his fashion, which was by breaking his promises, and beginning severe persecutions against his Protestant subjects. It was then, Rupp tells us, that thou- •sands from this vicinity, despairing of a future at home, escaped to England. • Before we return to Blackheath, where we left some of them under tents, let me place in strong contrast to the wretchedness just portrayed the picture a traveller draws, a few years later, of the happiness and peace of Germans in the American colonies. Some time before 1745 Germans from Pennsylvania penetrated the Shenandoah Valley, near Harrisonburg, Virginia. The traveller, before referred to, visited that neighborhood during the French and English war, and writes as follows of the country and people : The low grounds upon the banks of the Shenandoah River are very rich and fertile. They are chiefly settled by Germans, who gain a sufBcient livelihood by raising stock for the troops and sending butter down into the lower part of the country. I could not but reflect with pleasure on the situation of these people ^nd think if there is such a thing as happiness in this life they enjoy it. Far from the bustle of the world they live in the most delightful climate and on the richest soil imaginable. They are everywhere surrounded with beautiful pros- pects and sylvan scenes — lofty mountains, transparent streams, falls of water, rich valleys and majestic woods ; the whole interspersed with an infinite variety of flowery shrubs constitute the landscapes surrounding them. They are subject to few diseases, are generally robust and live in perfect liberty. They know no wants, and are acquainted with but few vices. They possess what many princes would give half their dominions for — health, contentment and tranquiiity of mind. — Hoiue's Coll. of Va. The Lord Proprietors of Carolina agreed, in 1709, with Chris- topher de Graffenried and Lewis Michell,from Switzerland, to sell to them ten thousand acres of land in one body, between the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers. They formed a land company,* and, of course, were much in needof settlers. They covenanted with the English authorities for the transfer of about seven hundred of these poor Heidelberg refugees to the colony. Before the end of the year they had arrived with them at a point in North Carolina, where the rivers Neuse and Trent join. Here they established a town, calling it New-Berne, in honor of Berne, Switzerland, de Graffen- ried's birthplace. Each man, woman and child was granted one hundred acres of land, tools for building houses and cultivating the soil, and with provisions for twelve months' subsistence. De 44 The Story of an Old Farm. Graffenried proved false to these people. In their ignorance, they failed to secui-e titles, and later on he mortgaged the entire grant for eight hundred pounds, and the lands ultimately, through fore- closure, fell into the hands of the heirs of the mortgagee. Notwith- standing this great check to their prosperity, the Germans, by their industry and economy, acquired other property and comfortable homes. Many years later they petitioned the king, and were partly indemniiied by a grant of ten thousand acres, free for ten years from quit-rents. As is the experience of all new colonies, they at first suffered great trials and privations. Before two years had passed, one hundred of their number had been massacred by the Tuscarora Indians. But, as is shown by Williamson, the historian of North Carolina, their industry and frugality triumphed over all obstacles, and the stale is to-day greatly bene- fited by the wealth and holdings of the descendants of these perse- cuted emigrants from the valley of the Neckar. It has not been found possible to properly account for all the thirteen thousand Palatines who reached England. Queen Anjie sent some of them to Virginia, settling them above the falls of the Rappahanock, in Spottsylvania County, from whence they spread into several adjoining counties, and into North Carolina. Irving mentions that when George Washington, in 1748, was sur- veying lands in this portion of Virginia, he was followed by Ger- man immigrants with their wives and children. Most of them could not speak English, but when spoken to answered in their native tongue. " Such were the progenitors of the sturdy yeo- manry now inhabiting those parts, many of whom still preserve their strong German characteristics." After the Irish transportation, the largest number that was moved in one body, and probably the final one under government auspices, was the fleet-load that in the spring of 1710 was des- patched to New York. Lord Lovelace having died, Robert Hun- ter was commissioned as '' Captain General, Governor-in-Chief of and to the provinces of New York and New Jersey and territories thereunto belonging, and Vice-Admiral and Chan- cellor of the same." Gordon writes of him as a man of merit and personal beauty, and a friend of Steele, Addison, Swift and the wits and the literati of that day. His appointment was said to have been due to the influence of his friend Addison, who at GrOVERNOR ROBERT HUNTER AND THE PALATINES. 45 that time was Under-Secretary of State. He had received in 1705 the commission as Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, but while on his way to that colony his ship was captured by the French, who carried him a prisoner to Paris, where he was con- fined for some months. On reaching the colonies Governor Hunter, growing much interested in the province of East Jersey, became a large owner of its lands, acquiring tracts and planta- tions both north and south of the Raritan, and probably in Hun- terdon, for we find that in 1713-14, when that county was set off, it was named in his honor. The Governor established a home at Perth Amboy, on the bluff overlooking the lower bay and ocean. Here he retired when in need of rest from the labors of the New York administration, and while enjoying the beautiful panorama of hills, islands and watery expanse, and the sea breezes blowing fresh from Sandy Hook, employed his leisure by correspondence with Swift, Addison, and other English friends. In 1719 Hunter went to London and did not return to this country ; while there he exchanged with William Burnett, son of the celebrated bishop, who succeeded him in the executive office. He did not, however, lose his interest in New Jersey, but continued to acquire land in the province, and retained his friendship with the people through correspondence. Before this royal governor embarked for America he was invited by the Board of Trade to make suggestions regarding the disposition of the remaining Palatines. Among the many plans proposed it was decided to transfer them to the New York colony, for the purpose of engaging in raising and manufacturing tar, resin and turpentine for naval purposes. A fleet of ten ships set sail with Governor Hunter in March, having on board, as is variously estimated, between three and four thousand Ger- mans. They covenanted before embarking that after arrival they would labor for a sufficient time to discharge the cost of their transportation and settlement, after which each emigrant was to receive forty acres of land, exempt from taxation for seven years. The voyage was of nearly five months' duration, the ships arriving at intervals between the middle of June and the last of July. The immigrants were encamped on Nut, now Governor's Island, for about three months, when a tract of six thou- sand acres of the Livingston patent was purchased for them, one 46 Thk Stoky of an Old Fahm. hundred miles up the Hudson, the locality now being embraced in Gerraantown, Columbia County. Eight hundred acres were also acquired on the opposite side of the river at the present location of Saugerties, in Ulster county. To these two points most of the immigrants were removed. Professor Homes names twenty-two hundred and nine as the greatest number settling on the river; the papers signed by the Palatines themselves in the "Docu- ments relating to the Colonial History of New York" reduce the number by several hundred, and Edward Eggleston, who has lately been making researches in the British Museum on the subject, writes me that "in the manuscript report of the Board of Trade and Plantations, dated 1721, the number of Palatines settled contiguous to Hudson's river is set down at twenty-two hundred and twenty-seven." It is knoT\Ti that over four hun- dred died during the voyage. From one hundred and fifty to two hundred, mostly widows and sick persons, remained in New York city, and the orphans, amounting to almost as many more, were apprenticed by Governor Hunter in New York and New Jersey. Among the poor widows was Johanna Zen- ger, with three children, one of whom, John Peter, at that time, thirteen years old, was bound to William Bradford, printer. His, it was, whose trial for libel, in 1734, was a cause celebre in the early legal history of the city of New York. The manufacture of turpentine and naval stores did not prove a successful undertaking. During the two years necessary to await the result of their labors, the Germans grew dissatisfied; they complained of ill-treatment, and especially of the bad char- acter of the provisions supplied by Livingston, the government inspector and contractor. Growing insubordinate. Governor Hunter attempted coercion, which but widened the breach ; many wandered off seeking new homes, and, in the autumn and spring of 1712-13, seven hundred deserted the Hudson, and, making their way sixty miles northwest, settled in one of the fertile valleys of Schoharie county. Owing to ignorance regard- ing land-tenure, and the carelessness with which they had taken up their individual holdings, much suffering was eventually caused these migrators by the discovery that the titles to many of their properties were invalid. After nearly ten years of harassing litigations and contests, one half the settlers for a third time moved. German Grievances Against New York. 47 on, floating down the Susquehanna river for three hundred miles, and finally finding homes under the friendly government of Pennsylvania. Palatine Bridge and township, in Montgomery- County, New York, indicate the point to which a second portion of these Schoharie Germans removed, and a third contingent settled in Herkimer county, at a place since known as the Ger- man Flats. The Livingston Manor immigrants always felt that they had great cause for grievance against the authorities of the province of New York. Whether they were right or not, it is at this late day difiicult to determine, but there is no doubt that the exist- ence of such feeling resulted in after years to the great advan- tage of Pennsylvania. Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, who travelled in America in 1748, remarked on the populousness of Pennsylvania, and that the province of New York had much fewer inhabitants. He explains that fact in the following man- ner : — "In the reign of Queen Anne, about the year 1709, many- Germans came hither, who got a tract of land from the English government which they might settle. After they had lived there some time, and had built houses, and made cornfields and mead- ows, under several pretences they were repeatedly deprived of parts of their land. They returned violence for violence and beat those who thus robbed them of their possessions. The most active people among the Germans being taken up, they were roughly treated and punished with the utmost vigor of the law. This, however, so far exasperated the rest that the greater part of them left their houses and fields and went to settle in Pennsyl- vania. There they were exceeding well received, got a consid- erable tract of land and were indulged in great privileges, which were given them forever. The Germans, not satisfied with being themselves removed from New York, wrote to their rela- tions and friends and advised them, if ever they intended to come to America, not to go to New York, where the government had shown itself so inequitable. This advice had such influence that the Germans, who afterwards went in great numbers to North America, constantly avoided New York and always went to Pennsylvania. It sometimes happened that they were forced to go on board such ships as were bound for New York, but they were scarce got on shore, when they hastened to Pennsyl- vania, in sight of all the inhabitants of New York." 48 The Story of an Old Farm. By this time the fever for emigration was deeply seated in Germany. Ship after ship sailed up the Delaware from over the seas, black with Palatines, Hanoverians, Saxons, and Austrian and Swiss Germans. Spreading over the present counties of York, Lancaster, Berks, Adams, Montgomery and Northampton, they soon made their industrious presence known by the innumerable houses of logs that fastened themselves to the sloping sides of the valleys, and by the shrinking back of the forests from the patches of well-tilled clearings that began to mosaic the Pennsyl- vania wildernesses. They brought with them their axes, mat- tocks and mauls, and land that had lain for ages under the dark canopy of the trees, fattening on the richness of decaying leaves and vegetation, was opened to the warm sunlight, until acres of forest were converted into arable fields, smiling with the results of well-directed labor. It was not that province alone which bene- fited by the spirit of unrest that had seized upon Europeans. Maine, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Louis- iana received accessions to their populations by the arrival of emigrants. Gayarre, the historian of the last state, says that some of Louisiana's best citizens and wealthiest sugar-planters have sprung from a little colony of three hundred poor Germans who settled on the river, thirty or forty miles above New Orleans, in 1722. But it was toward Pennsylvania that the great tide of emigration steadily set. By 1717 such vast num- bers were arriving as to cause much uneasiness to some of the early English settlers in the province. The governor's council in that year made note of the fact that it might be a very dan- gerous consequence, having so many foreigners from Germany daily disposing of themselves, without producing certificates from where they came, or what they were, and without making application to any of the magistrates. This led to measures being taken whereby all arriving immigrants were obliged to be registered by the secretary of the province. In that way, over thirty thousand names of the later foreign arrivals are pre- served, and on file at the state house in Harrisburg. This unnec- essary fear of the German influx did not prove of long duration. We find the royal governor saying, in 1738, ''This province has been for some years the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate and other parts of Germany ; and, I believe, it Arrivals in Pennsylvania before the Revolution. 49 may truthfully be said that the present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure owing to the industry of those people." Pennsylvania continued, up to the time of the Revolution, to be the objective point for German emigrants. Ships, brigantines, scows, pinks and bilanders, mostly English bottoms, plied with great regularity between the Maas and the Delaware, transport- ing the Palatines, as they seem to have become historically known, from Rotterdam to Philadelphia. The vessels were small and the voyages prolonged, but the frequency with which the same craft — as shown by the records — entered the capes of the Delaware, implied a traffic partaking somewhat of the char- acter of a ferry. For, year after year, the ships '' St. Andrew," " Phoenix," " Dragon," " Patience," " Mortonhouse," '' Pennsyl- vania," ''Two Brothers," "Nancy," and many others, discharged their human cargoes at Philadelphia^ the average passenger-list embracing one hundred and fifty souls. In the year 1719 some six thousand are said to have landed, and Proud avers that in the year 1749 twelve thousand Germans arrived in the province. Sypher claims that prior to 1727 fifty thousand people, mostly from the Rhine country, had emigrated to the Quaker colony. In 1766 Benjamin Franklin testified before a committee of the House of Commons that he supposed that there were in Pennsyl- vania about one hundred and sixty thousand white inhabitants, of whom one-third were Quakers and one-third Germans. And so it was that each twelve months saw the population of the province much increased and enriched by a people who brought with them the greatest of all wealth, industry and integ- rity, and characters that had been superpoised and developed by years of suffering and persecution. CHAPTER V. Johannes Moclich Beaches Pennsylvania in 17 85 — His Experi- ences in Philadelphia and Germantown. In early colonial days King, now Water, street, in Philadelphia, lay close to the edge of the Delaware. A low, one-storey, ram- bling tavern-house stood fronting it, near the corner of Chestnut, its creaking sign bearing in dull paint the legend of a crooked stick of wood. It was here that Benjamin Franklin ate his first dinner in the Quaker City. This inn gave to the short dock facing it the name of the Crooked Billet Wharf, often mentioned in old-time Philadelphia annals. Any one loitering on this dock on the morning of the twenty-ninth of May, 1735, could have heard the splash of a right-bower, and the rattle of an anchor chain — but hold ! a historian is privileged to be prosy but never to be untrue — nearly seventy-five years must elapse before a Phila- delphian, or any one else, will hear the musical clank of a paying- out cable, and in the meantime many a stout ship will drift to its destruction on the rocks, because of its hawser being cut by sub- merged ledges. Well ! the loiterer would at least have heard the splash of the anchor, and, on looking up, discovered the ship " Mercury," Captain William Wilson, from Rotterdam, swinging round to the tide. As she lies in the stream the vessel shows repeated marks of her weeks of battling with the fierce waves of the Atlantic, and her sides are streaked by the salt spray of many a weary gale. The log of this ship has not been preserved, so we know noth- ing of the particulars of her voyage or of the date of sailing. She was without doubt a small vessel, and many days must have elapsed since the yellow arms of Dutch wind-mills had waved farewells to her passengers from behind the dunes of the low Hoi- The "Mercukt" and the Passengers. 51 land coast. Something may be learned of the time usually occu- pied in such a voyage from a German MS. in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which i-ecounts the incidents in the journey of David Sholtze and eighteen associate Schwenck- felders. They set sail from Rotterdam on the twenty-fourth of June, 1733, on the brigantine '^ Pennsylvania Merchant," Cap- tain John Stedman. The journal of these Germans tells of but little save head winds, seasickness, and the occasional death of an emigrant. The first occurred on the eleventh of July, and an account is given of the body being sewn in a sack, weighted with sand, and dropped by the sailors into the sea, the passengers singing the hymn, '■'■Nun lasset uns den Leib hegraben." The ship rested for seven days in the harbor of Plymouth, and on the twenty-eighth of September reached Philadelphia. It is fair to presume that the '^ Mercury's " passage was of equal length, and that it was yet February when she spread her canvas at the mouth of Maas, and made her first bow to the rollers of the North Sea. Among the one hundred and eighty-six sun-burned, weather- beaten Germans and Swiss who leaned over her taflfrail, looking with curious eyes upon the little entry port of Pennsylvania, was Johannes Moelich and his family. The aspect of this provincial town in its setting of dark forests must have presented a strong contrast to the animated quays, and the spires, belfries, lofty pinnacled houses and dark windmills of the quaint old city from which he had embarked. It would be pleasant to be able to narrate Johannes' impressions and experiences on landing. Had he known that one hundred and fifty years later many of his posterity would have been glad to read of his movements in Philadelphia, he doubtless would have kept a faithful journal. In the absence of such forethought on his part we must draw upon our knowledge of the Quaker City in those early days, and, with the help of Watson, that delightfully garrulous Boswell of old Philadelphia, we shall be able to see with Johannes' eyes as he and his family make their way up into the city. It was now over fifty years since the little ship '' Welcome," of only three hundred tons burthen, had landed William Penn in Pennsylvania, and its capital bad grown in population to some eight thousand souls, among whom were 1,621 taxables and 52 The Stoky of an Old Farm. 1,097 voters. Thomas Lawrence was mayor, Philadelphia hav- ing been a chartered city since 1701. It was a compact little town of about one thousand houses, nearly all of brick, one and two storeys high, with double-hipped roofs, although occasionally a more pretentious dwelling elevated its dormers above a third storey. The area was not very extensive; a very short walk would bring one to the outlying commons and woods. Beyond Fourth street the houses were but scattering ; of course there were no pavements, and westerly there were no streets marked out beyond Seventh. The highway leading out of town followed the line of High, now Market, street, and after crossing the location of the present Eighth street, the forest commenced, and extended to the Schuylkill. Did you ask was there any one to welcome Johannes? Though no message from below had announced the coming of the " Mer- cury, " without doubt the arrival of the ship was soon noised through the city ; let us hope that the immigrant was expected and that when he landed on the Crooked Billet Wharf he found awaiting him some warm-hearted compatriot, who seized his hand and bade him a hearty welcome to America. In fancy, at least, we will picture him so greeted. We have already learned that his younger brother, Johan Peter, had reached Philadel- phia in the ship " Mortonhouse," Captain John Coultas, on the twenty-fourth of August, 1728. Perhaps he was among those who thronged the wharf on this May moniing. In all the thirty thousand names of foreigners preserved in the Pennsylvania archives as reaching that province between the years 1727 and 1776, those of Johannes' family and that of Johan Peter are the only Moelichs that appear. We will constitute ourselves one of the party as they leave the wharf and make their way along Water street, the children hang- ing back to look into the shop windows, for in the year 1735 that street was the centre of the retail trade of the city. They are going to the State House to fultil the iirst duty of all newly arrived foreigners, the registering of their names with the secre- tary of the province. What is more delightful than the first few hours spent in a new country, where everything is totally differ- ent from one's ordinary surroundings ? Weeks of pleasur- able experiences may be passed later, but the peculiar charm First Impressions of the Quaker City. 53 of the first uproUing of the curtain will never return. Though their own country had been rich in the picturesque, the Moelichs found much to excite both interest and wonder, and in the short time occupied in reaching the State House they received many new and strange impressions. An American on visiting England or the Continent for the first time finds himself attacked by a strange illusion. As he feels himself surrounded by an atmos- phere of hoar antiquity, while wandering from one ancient town to another, his whole nature saturated with the charm of quaint architecture and picturesque efi'ects, imperceptibly there steals over him a faint impression of a prior acquaintance, as if revisiting scenes familiar in some previous existence ; and he finds himself almost doubting that the retina of the eye is actually receiving the impression of a picture seen for the first time. He recognizes the illusion and fully appreciates that what he sees is really new because not viewed before — he recognizes^ also, that to him, at least, it is truly old and familiar ; old in a thousand impressions and desires, born of books and the talk of travellers, consequently, he is rarely if ever confronted by the entirely unexpected. Johannes and his party were not troubled by this double vision. They had read no books descriptive of America, nor had they listened to the oft-told tales of returned travellers. To them all the panorama of the Quaker City exis- tence was novel and interesting. Probably the life of the streets afi'ected them as the most peculiarly foreign and odd — indeed, not only the Germans were so impressed for we, who have attached ourselves unbidden to this little party, find no less cause for wonder at the strange sights of these provincial thorough- fares. Proceeding westward along Chestnut street they are met by such a procession as has never been seen on the highways of Europe ; a drove of negroes, coupled two by two, recently imported from the Guinea coast, and probably just landed from Barbadoes, which at that time was the distributing mart of the English slave trade. On reaching the next corner there was to be seen an even sadder phase of this barbarous institution. In front of a tavern, from a rude platform resting on two upright hogsheads, was being held a slave auction. '' Likely negro boys '^ and " breeding wenches," as the placarded bills announced, were being knocked down at a few hundred dollars a head, for. as 54 The Story of an Old Farm. importing at that time was brisk, slaves did not approach in value to those of our ante-bellum days. As the Moelichs walked along the street the bordering, detached houses had a kindly, domestic presence, due to their comely little porches with pent-house roofs shading wooden seats, seemingly extending to the passer-by a hospitable invitation to tarry. This air of hospitality was further enhanced by the attractive balconies that faced even the smaller dwellings, on which their occupants were wont to gather to enjoy the air at the cool of the day. Occa- sional glimpses of quaint interiors were obtained, through open windows that swung on hinges inward, with small panes of glass set in their leaden-framed lattices. In some of the finer houses the best rooms were wainscoated in oak and red cedar, but in most instances the walls were plainly whitewashed. No carpets were to be seen, the floors being covered with silver sand drawn into fanciful figures by a skillful use of the sweeping brush, in which the housekeepers took much pride. Lofty chests of drawers, with round black balls for legs, extended nearly to the ceiling, and all the family china was to be seen through the diamond lights of odd little corner cupboards. On the massive Dutch dresser were displayed brightly polished porringers and platters of pewter, the dinner plates of that day being nearly altogether of that metal, though the use of wooden trenchers was not entirely out of date. Sometimes, through farther doors opening into the kitchen, our party was much amused at the sight of a peculiar feature of house- hold economy. Before cavernous fire-places, often girt with ancient Dutch tiles, were set baking-ovens, whose spits were turned by little bow-legged dogs trained to run in a hollow cylinder, like a squirrel, by which means was the roasting meat kept revolving. '^ Mine host " Clark, of the State House Inn, advertises about this time in Andrew Bradford's weekly " Mercury," and in Ben- jamin Franklin's " Pennsylvania Gazette," that '' he has for sale several dogs and wheels, much preferable to any jacks for roast- ing any joints of meat." But what means this turmoil and uproar, and from whence comes this advancing crowd, enveloped in dust ? Johannes' •party quickly leaves the street and takes to a little foot-path that runs diagonally from the corner of Third to High and Fourth streets. Standing there, they see surge by an unfragrant A Parade of Evil-Doers. 55 rabble, in the centre of which, tied to the tail of a cart, a poor wretch is bellowing with pain, as stroke after stroke from a con- stable's whip falls on his naked back. The Germans look stolidly on the scene ; they are too familiar with despotic punish- ments to be surprised or affected thereby, but their accompany- ing ghostly posterity — meaning you and me, reader, — find it an inhuman spectacle. Following the cart are a number of petty criminals surrounded by constables. It is the weekly market day parade of evil-doers. After their tour of the city, and their suf- fering from the turbulence of the ribald torrent of the populace, they will drift into no quiet eddy within the seclusion of the jail. They must take their places on the pillory and in the stocks that have been set up for their reception, opposite the prison on High and Third streets. This day addled eggs will sell as well aii those freshly laid, for many a passer-by of this rough age will deem it a virtuous action to have a fling at the culprits, for th? pleasure of seeing them dodge their heads in the endeavor to avoid the noxious missiles. Benjamin Franklin, in his "Auto- biography," says that the position of a Philadelphia constable was at that time one of a considerable profit. The management of the city-watch was in their hands. It was the duty of the officer of each ward to summon a certain number of resident household- ers to attend him each night to aid in patrolling his district. This service could be avoided by paying six shillings, which was supposed to go to hiring substitutes. The number who paid for the exemption was much greater than those hired by the constables to walk the rounds, consequently the officers put much unlawful money in their pockets. This system resulted in the night-watches being largely composed of irresponsible persons who undertook the duties for a little drink-money, but quite neglected to fulfil their obligations. Evidently that time was no more the golden age of municipal purity than is the present. Retiming to Chestnut street our party, rambling on, is soon in frorit of that noted structure which the events of later years baptizsd as Independence Hall. The Philadelphian of the pres- ent day, who halts for a moment in the sturdy presence of this time-honored, historic building, looks with veneration on its homely fa9ade. To him it bears amid the surrounding turmoil 56 The Story of an Old Farm. a dignified expression of peace and rest, as if emanating from the consciousness of a deserved repose, after a great work, noblj performed. Very different the aspect it presented to the newly- arrived Germans. No throbbing tide of humanity ebbed and flowed beneath its shadows; Chestnut street, not yet the artery of a great city, did not pulsate at its portals. At this distance out it was but little better than a country road, and the State House, just completed, faced it square and prim, bright, from lintel to roof-tree, with red bricks, fresh paint and white mortar. There was then no beautiful park as a rich setting; the unkempt grounds extended but half across the square, and several small detached brick dwellings fronted Walnut street, at its rear. Upon the original book of record in the Department of State of Pennsylvania, there is still to be seen the signature made by Johannes on that day; it is evidently the writing of a man of intelligence, as it is not only legibly inscribed, but would stand as an example of good penmanship. Most of the arrivals by the same vessel, being unable to write, made their marks. The names are preceded by the following entry : At the Court House, Pliiladelphia, present, the Honorable Patrick Go'don, Esq., Lieutenant-Govornor Thomas Lawrence and Charles Read, Esquires. The Palatines, whose names are underwritten, imported in the ship Mercury of Lon- don, William Wilson, master, Rotterdam, but last from Cowes, did this day sub- scribe the oaths to the Government, May 29, 1735. The grounds about the State House, on this May moraing, framed an interesting picture. Johannes, on leaving the build- ing, after registering, was a good deal surprised by the sight of an encampment of Indians, who happened that day to have taken possession of the open space. For a long time after this, it was the practice of bands of red-men to occasionally make excursions to the city for the purpose of purchase and barter. Generally they would remain for a week or more, and it was. their custom to establish themselves, with their squaws and chil- dren, in the State House yard. While the young bucks roamed about the streets, shooting coins off posts with their arrows, and visiting the stores for trade, the squaws and old men occupied themselves in camp by making and selling plaited baskets, beaded moccasins and porcupine-quill work. The aborigines of this portion of the British colonies were known as ''Delawares,'^ Resting at the Indian-King Tavern. 57 because first found in the vicinity of that river, though they called themselves Lenni-Lenape, which means "The original people." The great mass of this tribe, or clan, had moved toward the setting sun in the year 1728, but at this time there remained several thousand in Pennsylvania, who were much dis- satisfied with the sale of their lands ; a discontent which was greatly increased, a few years later, by what was known as the "Walking Treaty," they claiming to have been swindled by the English in the great area of territory acquired by the Europeans in that famous bargain. It was not tiU ten or fifteen years later that the Pennsylvanians, by calling to their aid the Six Nations of the North, induced these remaining Indians to depart for the "Sweet Waters of the West." Again we find ourselves deploring the fact that Johannes neg- lected his journal. Where did he go on leaving the State House ? After so long a voyage he must have desired to stretch his legs by a more extended walk, but, perhaps, Mariah Katrina and the children were not so eager for exercise. We will sup- pose that he established them comfortably at the Indian-king tavern on High street, where, before sallying out for a prowl about the city, he refreshed himself with his first glass of West- India rum, at that time the only liquor imported in quantity into the colony ; or with a foaming tankard of ale, which was then in such common use that most dwellings had small brew-houses connected with their kitchens. Johannes could not have been put to a very great expense at the tavern, as only modest charges for board and lodging were known in those early days. Profes- sor Kalm, the Swedish botanist, narrates in his account of his travels that, when in Philadelphia, in 1728, he lodged with a Quaker where he met many honest people. "I and ray Yung- straem, the companion of my voyage, had a room, candles, beds, attendance and three meals a day for twenty shillings per week in Pennsylvania currency." Two dollars and eighty-eight cents. On leaving the tavern, Johannes' friends carried him to see Christ Church, then just completing, and, after the State House, at once both the pride and the wonder of the people. It reared its impressive bulk on an open square, adjoining a pond which reached from Arch to High streets, once a noted place for shoot- ing ducks. This, then considered, lofty architectural pile 58 The Story of an Old Fakm. appeared much as at the present day, though wanting its grace- ful spire — that, came seventeen years later as the result of a lot- tery. It lacked more than a spire ; it was new, and however grand a new church edifice may be, until it has been consecrated by years of service, it does not seem entitled to that hallowed reverence, born of old associations and decades of prayer and praise, that, involuntarily, an ancient temple evokes from its worshipers. Though, at the present day, this church is with- out many of its original quaint characteristics, such as the high- backed slips, bedroom pews and brick-paved aisles, their loss is more than compensated for by the acquisition of that mellow atmosphere of age, with which kindly time has enveloped the building's antique walls and gables, until it appears as venerable as the steadfast hills. Of course the mysterious friend, with whom we have gener- ously supplied Johannes, insists upon a pilgrimage to the house of William Penn at Second street and Morris' alley ; for that is a shrine at which newly-arrived foreigners earliest worshiped. Penn's reputation was as a cherished heritage to all oppressed Europeans, and his memory, as the father of Pennsylvanian immigration, was especially revered by the Grerman heart. As our visitors strolled in that direction, the streets were enlivened by numerous and varied odd costumes. It seemed very singular to meet so many long-drawn Quakers, mov- ing at measured pace with solemn visage, clad in lengthy shad-breasted drab coats adorned with horn buttons, their flap- ping waistcoats extending far down over the small-clothes that covered their sober strides. The long, straight hair of these peripatetic monuments of sedateness was covered by broad-brim- med felt hats, looped at the side with strings. These Quakers offered an excellent foil to the brilliantly-arrayed, young gallants, "who tripped jauntily by, under gold-laced cocked-hats, with their gaily embroidered coats cut low at the neck behind, that the great silver buckles fastening their plaited stocks might be dis- played. In that picturesque period it was the fashion for young gentlemen to wear short, straight, steel rapiers, often with jewelled hilts, which gave them quite a martial appearance, though not altogether in keeping with their clocked silk stockings, paste- buckled shoes and ruffled wrists and throats. Street Scenes and Colonial Costumes. 59 Gay apparel was not confined by any means to the younger nien. Old gentlemen, met on the way, were frequently resplendent in plush breeches, vests of various hues, and skirts stif- fened with buckram till they stood out at an angle. Often double rows of solid silver buttons extended down their coats, and it was not uncommon to see suits decorated with conch- shells set in silver. A brilliant sight they presented in all the glint of polished metal, as they stamped along, shaking their powdered wigs, striking the pavement with their long silver- headed canes, stopping occasionally to greet some old friend and extend a pinch of snuff, not so much because of generous procliv- ities, as the desire to display their chased silver and gold snuff- boxes, which were generally carried in the hand. The kaleidos- copic changes of colors, to be noted among the people thronging the streets this bright May day, were not all to be attributed to the well-to-do of the populace: body-servants contributed their full share to the brilliant hues of the colonial costumes, and as they minced over the pavements at a respectful distance behind their masters and mistresses, often presented a gorgeous appear- ance. An absconding one is described in an advertisement of that year as wearing damask breeches, copper-colored cloth coat trimmed with black, and black stockings. A barber's servant, who ran away a few years before that time, wore, according to the notice in the "Weekly Mercury," a light wig, a gray kersey jacket lined with blue, a white vest faced and lined with red, and having yellow buttons, a pair of drugget breeches, a pair of black stockings and a red leathern apron. The last feature of his dress, his apron of leather, was at that time a distinguishing badge of servitude ; they being worn not only by workingmen, but by all apprentices, clerks, and employees of store and shop- keepers. It was also the custom for the wives and daughters of tradesmen, who assisted them in the business, to wear short skirts of green baize. On reaching Penn's house, it was found to be a sturdy edifice with bastions and salient angles. Its flanking gables fronted on the street, but the main portion of the building set well back, so that the house faced three sides of a small court. At the rear were beautifully shaded gardens, extending half-way to Front street and nearly to Wahiut street. This edifice was built in the 60 The Story of an Old Farm. earliest days of the city by one of its greatest improvers, Samuel Carpenter, and it was fitted up for Penn's occupancy on the occa- sion of his second coming to America. Penn brought with him his family and household gods, expecting to make his home permanently in Pennsylvania ; but within two years after taking possession of this mansion, owing to the distaste of his wife for colonial life, and owing to the fact that his enemies in London were dangerously threatening his powers and rights in America, he was forced to return to England. It was thought his absence would be temporary, but his affairs becoming more and more involved, he fretted away year after year in a vain endeavor to return, until he finally died, in 1718, without again visiting his colonial possessions. In 1704 Samuel Carpenter sold this house to William Trent for eight hundred and fifty pounds. This was the same Trent, who, in 1719, established mills on the Delaware, thus founding Trent-town — now Trenton. He died there, in 1724, as Chief Justice of New Jersey. Penn's mansion ulti- mately became, and continued to be until many years after the Revolution, a fashionable boarding-house. From there was car- ried, in 3 782, the body of the eccentric General Charles Lee, which was interred in Christ Churchyard. Our German friends, while wandering around the town visit- ing its many points of interest, probably found their way to another spot associated with the founder of the colony — the Blue Anchor Tavern, on the corner of Second and Dock streets, it being the first house he entered on reaching the city. Penn arrived at Newcastle by the ship " Welcome," in October, 1683. After spending a little time there, and at Chester, he proceeded to Philadelphia, landing at a low sandy beach fronting this tav- ern, at the mouth of Dock Creek, which, at that time, had grassy banks and rural surroundings. Tradition designates this inn, then just completing, as being the first substantial house erected in the city. For many years it was the point at which landings were made from small vessels trafficking with New Jersey and New England. It was also used as a ferry-house by persons crossing to Society Hill, to the New Jersey shore, and to Wind- mill Island, where a Dutch-looking structure ground the grain of the early settlers. Meanwhile, the day is wearing on, and the Moelichs have Philadelphia Equipage in 1735. 61 still a journey before them, for it is not to be supposed that newly arrived Germans will remain in Philadelphia when but a few miles beyond is a thriving settlement, composed entirely of their own countrymen. The good Pastorius, the faithful pastor, magis- trate, teacher, patriarch, and friend of Teuton folk, had died fif- teen years before, but he left behind him, at Germantown, seven miles away as the road then ran, a sturdy German community, and a firmly established Lutheran church. It was the pole toward which the needles of all Rhenish emigrants turned, and we must conceive of some means of transporting Johannes and his party to that prosperous place. The human imagination is quite capable of bridging centuries and of creating situations, so there is no reason why we should not be equal to this task, especially as we feel confident of the assistance of Thomas Skel- ton, who advertises in the " Gazette " that he has " a four- wheeled chaise, in Chestnut street, to be hired." This was the only public conveyance in the city. It was twenty-five years later before Jacob Coleman began running the first stage — " with an awning " — from Philadelphia to the King of Prussia Inn, at Germantown. In 1735 the city boasted of but eight four-wheeled coaches, one of which belonged to Deputy-Governor Gordon. The streets were singularly clear of vehicles of every description. There were but six four-wheeled, one-seated chaises, drawn by two horses, besides the one that Shelton had to hire. The few carriages, if they could be so called, to be seen were two- wheeled, one-horse chairs, a cheap sort of a gig with a plain painted body, ornamented with brass rings and buckles, resting on leathern bands, for springs. The general means of conveyance, both for goods and people, was by horses ; farmers' wives came to town on pillions, behind their husbands, and stout market-women rode in from Germantown, panniers, filled with produce, flanking their horses' sides. Much of the freighting of the province was done by pack-horses, and it was a common sight to see a long line of them entering Philadelphia, laden with all manner of merchandise — some so enveloped in fodder as to leave exposed only their noses and hoofs, others bearing heavy casks suspended on either side, whilst still others staggered along beneath the weight of bars of iron, bent so to hang as to escape 62 The Story of an Old Farm. the bordering trees of the contracted trails and roadways. There were but few carts ; the man who brought the silver sand to the different doors each morning owned one ; and we have seen to what base purpose another has been put hy the town constable. That peculiar Pennsylvania institution, the big blue-bodied wagon, had not yet made its appearance, though it was not many years before the prosperity of the province was such as to result in every farmer having his wagon. Their first introduc- tion caused great indignation among the owners of pack-horses, who feared that their business would be ruined. In 1755, when Postmaster-Greneral Franklin found Braddock fretting and fum- ing at Frederick, in Maryland, because his contractors had failed to provide means of transportation, he at once agreed to furnish one hundred and fifty wagons, with four-horse teams, from Penn- sylvania, and have them at Will's Creek within ten days. Franklin fulfilled his agreement, and thus was Braddock's army enabled to move on to its disastrous overthrow. We will impress one of the carts into the service of aiding Thomas Skelton in moving our party. Johannes must return on some other day for his heavy luggage and furniture, as the " Mercury " will hardly as yet have commenced discharging from her hold. The Germantown road left town at the upper end of Front street, and, after following the river for a short dis- tance, wound in a northwesterly direction, and plunged into a dense forest, the haunt then, as it had been for centuries, of bears, wolves, deer and wild turkeys. The wolves seemed to have proved the most annoying to citizens, as we find bounties for their extirpation offered for many years after. The highway was not much more than a trail, the branches of the giant trees, that steed in solid phalanxes close to the wheel tracks, forming over the travellers' heads a roof of impenetrable foliage. Occasion- ally the shade was broken by the sunshine of a clearing, in the centre of which stood a log house, having a long sloping roof of thatch — the harbinger of the future greatness of suburban Philadelphia. Some of the clearings were already green meadows, in which no sign of trees appeared; others were studded by stumps showing the recent marks of the pioneer's axe. On nearing Germantown the road traversed a swamp, the wheels of the cart and chaise jolting over the rough logs of the corduroy road-bed that made the bog passable. Johannes Reaches Germantown. 63^ Our friends, listening to the tales of their guides, as they moved slowly through the woods, must have been filled with the most agreeable anticipations, on approaching the end of their journey. They found Germantown to be as thoroughly German, in language and in the appearance of the people, as any of the villages they had left, perched on the picturesque banks of the river of the Schoppen in the mother country. With its one long street bordered by straggling houses, it still presented much of the aspect of a frontier settlement. Many of the dwellings were the primitive structures of the early comers. They were built of logs, the interstices filled in with river-rushes and clay, and covered with a thin coat of plaster ; their gables confroiited the- street, and a man of ordinary size could easily touch the eaves, of their double-hipped roofs. The more modern houses were- of dark glimmer-stone, with little windows set deep in the thick walls, and with huge chimneys rising at the corners. These low substantial buildings, with their steep roofs and protecting eaves, were planted well back from the highway, and surrounded by fruit-trees. The comfortably -rotund matrons of these dwellings, who looked out at the new arrivals from the open upper half of their Dutch doors, were all busily knitting, for these Germantown housewives had already acquired an inter-colonial reputation as the manufacturers of superior stockings. The first German newspaper in Pennsylvania, and the first in America printed in a foreign language, was issued in German- town the year of Johannes' arrival. This place retained all its German characteristics down to the year 1793. Until that date all the public preaching was in German ; it was the language of business and society, and even that of the boys playing in the streets. The outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia, in the year '93, caused the offices of the general and state govern- ments, and of the city banks, to remove to this suburban town. This introduced an English speaking element, and a population, which proved to be, in part, permanent. Germantown thus becoming favorably known to Philadelphians, rapidly increased the number of its English speaking people. And now we must bid Johannes a many years' farewell — here he and his family fade for a time from our sight and knowledge. By the aid of a lively fancy, we have been able, for one day, to 64 The Story of an Old Farm. clothe him with all the attributes of existence and experiences, but to continue that for a decade would be to tax the powers of your scribe beyond his capabilities. Family tradition asserts that he remained in the vicinity of Philadelphia for ten years. We will leave him there to acquire the language, educate his children, rub off his foreign characteristics, and gradually to assimilate himself and his family with the manners and customs of the people of the new country of his adoption. Our next knowledge of his life is from the pages of a letter he received from Bendorf in the year 1745. That interesting communica- tion will be presented in the coming chapter. CHAPTER VI. Letters from the Old Country — Bendorf Comes under the Dominion of the Murdering Margrave of Anspach. It is before me as I write — this old letter — a little torn in places, and tanned by time to the color of old gold; yet, in a good state of preservation, and the penmanship almost like copy- plate in excellence. Its writer, Johannes Georg Hager, was an " Evangelical Prseceptor," (teacher of a Latin school), and clerk of the Bendorf church ; such a person in a German village being second only to the pastor and burgomaster. The parish register, in speaking of his death, in 1775, in his sixty-first year, records that he had been active for thirty-four years in his church and school duties. This letter served as his first intro- duction to Johannes' immediate family, as, in 1744, the preceptor had married Magdalena Christina Catharina Antonetta, the twenty-year-old daughter of Georg Peter Otto, whose wife, Ver- onica Gerdrutta, was the sister of Mariah Katrina. The com- munication is interesting, not only on account of the news it gives of the middle of the last century, but because of the piety evinced in its solemn invocation and benediction, and also as showing the stately and courteous style of writing at that time. Corner torn off. Bendorff, June, 1745. Mr. cousin AND Lady CHILDREN. — dear friend with all my heart sympathy [torn] all wish extraordinary joy by the long [torn] expected wish from the foundation of [torn] the heart that the Almighty [torn] continually bless you also for the future and all your acts [torn] and that although in a foreign country our friendship may get cultivated and grow stronger, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen ! You may perhaps think what a new cousin 1 may be, wherefore I commence by informing you tliat after the 5 66 The Story of an Old Farm. death of Mr. [torn] pold in 1742 I was called here as preceptor and was mar- ried last Fall, 1744, with Magdalena Catharina, the only danjjhter of your brother-in-law, Otto, which accounts for our new relationship. To our all deso- lation our Lord has taken from us in 1741 my mother-in-law, in consequence of a fever — the same sickness which caused the death of young Mrs. Giegmann and many others, [torn] On 31 Jan., we had a calamity here as you will per- haps he aware already, whereby 75 houses were burned down. The fire com- menced at the Forsten house, near the Steingate, but how it originated has not been ascertained, so far, and from there everything burned down to the Herrschaft& Keller House, touching also my school house ; the principal street burned down as far as Ca'sar's house, and on the other side down to the pastor's house. So that between the Stein-gate and the Bach-gate there was not a single building remain- ing, and as you are acquainted yet with the locality you may judge for your- selves who are the people who are burned out, and if you had been present yet you would have been a sufferer too. The misery was terrible for these poor people, to see their fruits and corn a prey of the flames, and the whole was done so remarkably quick that in half an hour's time all the buildings, actually burned down, stood in full flames. It was lucky that it happened in day-time and not during the night, as otherwise many a life would have been lost ; but thousand times thanks to our Lord there was no accident of the kind. On a conflagration which came so sud- denly scarcely nothing of personal property could be saved ; many of them have commenced rebuilding like [several names torn out,] cousin Andreas Kirgerber, who sends thousand greetings, and many others. As we are now under a differ- ent " regime," that of the Landgraf of Anspach, which is near Nuremberg, many things are changed here, the town having formerly been under the dominion of Hackenburg, but now in consequence of an exchange we belong to the margrave alone, whereby changes in the manner of building are to be observed which cause many expenses, and no one can build up his house again on the spot it formerly stood on. but had to build in conformity with certain street regulations. The fire made many people poor, and the loss of the 1740 barrels of wine and vineyards, during the late war, reduced the inhabitants so much that I am afraid that Ben- dorff will never be again what it was before — commerce and trade in general being in poor condition. Amongst other news I may mention that Pastor Schmitt and his wife are dead, also Knobels, and your cousin, Mrs. Ruckert, away from seven children. Of your four letters we have not received one, except the first one, whereupon we wrote again immediately and would have written oftener since, if we had known of an opportunity available. I am very much surprised that cousin Henry in Hochstenbach, did not write to you through the opportunity which was offered to him. It seems, however, as if your sister dear, our cousin, had died, some information of the kind having reached us at the time my mother-in-law was still living. Her loss was very much lamented by my mother-in-law and all the friends, and they all wished she would live yet. •* * * As regards her succession cousin Anton Kirberger has been curator over it, and was trying to get something out yet, but the matter was treated so copiously that the lawyers made the most of it. Although he took the matter at heart more than a brother, he could not attain his purpose to have bankruptcy declared, in which ease everything would have been divided honestly. * * * Our Lord the Almighty restitute it to you 1000 times, and bestow upon you good health and a long life; 1000 greetings to all relations and friends whatever The Germany of Yesterday and To-day. 67 their names may be, and that they all may prosper. I would most obediently request that you may avail yourself of the first opportunity offering to write again, and we shall surely answer by returning opportunity. You would at the same time do us a favor to write us something about the customs of the country, the description of houses, mills, furniture, gardening, vegetables and what the difference is between those we have in Germany, and about iron for the mechanics, and cloth, and anything connected with husbandry and agriculture ? And now I leave you all to the mercy and providence of our Lord, recommending myself to your continued remembrance, and remain with our best salutations and much esteem. Your all, sincerest friend and servant, JoH. Geo. HaCtER, Prreceptor. " On the human imagination events produce the effect of time." I am indebted to Cooper for this idea — No ! not for the idea, but for the words expressing it ; for no one discourses more eloquently, than does this novelist, of the links of recollection that bring back to the mind the innumerable changes in a comparatively short period, which causes a recent date to appear as remote as the days of dark antiquity. A. D. 1 745 is not a long time ago ; the span of existence of but few lives would bring us back to that year ; but yet, when one contemplates the astounding alter- ations that have taken place in the map of Europe since that date, events seem to mark a far greater lapse of time than do the intervening years. When the writer of this old letter was rounding his sentences, Germany was composed of hundreds of separate kingdoms and principalities, each with conflicting interests, their rulers at all times ready to pounce on each others' territory in defence of real or imaginary rights, or in vengeance for fancied wrongs. Prussia was still in the throes of its birth ; Frederick, not yet the Great, was in his direst stress, and in imminent danger of having to abandon to Maria Theresa, that Silesia which he had bought with so much blood and treasure. But, two days after this letter was written, he was saved from that humiliation by the battle of Hohenfriedberg, once of world- wide renown, now almost forgotten. It is when the mind reverts to the altered conditions of the political and personal relations between ruler and subject in Germany, and the great strides taken on the Continent in the advancement of individual rights, that one recog- nizes how different, as affecting the daily lives and destinies of mankind, is the world of yesterday from that of to-day. In the preceptor's letter there is no sentence weighted with 68 The Story of an Old Fakm. such meaning as the few words announcing the transfer of Bendorf from the sovereignty of Hackenberg to that of Anspach. Late in the seventeenth century Bendorf was included in the county of Sayn-Altenkirchen, which also comprised the districts of Friedewald, Freusburg and Altenkirchen. It was probably known to the Herr Prseceptor as the sovereignty of Hackenberg because of the records having been preserved in that town. This territory was the personal estate of Johannetta, wife of the Duke Joh. George I., of Sachsen-Eisenach. By her will of the thirtieth of November, 1685, it was to descend, under the rule of primogeniture, in the line of her eldest son. In 1741, the male line having become extinct, it passed to the descendants of her daughter, Eleonora Sophie, wife of the Margrave .Johann. Fredrick of Brandenburg- Anspach, and consequently fell to her grandson, the Margrave Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, of Anspach, who reigned from 1729 to 1757. I have already spoken of the despotic power of petty German princes in the eighteenth cen- tury. They ruled over dominions often no larger than one of our counties, and outside of the boundaries of Prussia and Austria, Germany was a patchwork of — when you include free cities and the estates of imperial knights — hundreds of large and small governments. Nor were they compact, as their several posses- sions were frequently at detached distances, as we seQ by this letter was the case in the margrave of Anspach acquiring Ben- dorf. All these princes maintained courts and armies, and their poor subjects were taxed and oppressed to support the luxury and state of the rulers and privileged classes. The peasants were not much better off than serfs, and hordes of officials levied tribute on even the middle and better classes occupying the towns and cities. In some localities sumptuary laws regulated the dress and the food of the people. As Frederick of Prussia grew stronger in his government, matters in this regard were much improved, his example having a beneficial effect on the better class of sovereigns, inducing them to have some respect for the rights of their people; but yet, freedom of the individual, such as was at that time known and enjoyed in the American colonies, had no holding or understanding in the average Ger- man mind. When Johannes read this letter, if he knew anything of Bendorf's Wicked Ruler. 69 the character of the margrave of Anspach, he had good cause for devoutly thanking God that he and those dear to him were no longer citizens of Bendorf, and, consequently, subject to the will and caprice of a ruler who was entirely without sympathy for the rights and wrongs of his people, and who himself was governed by impulse and prejudice, rather than by a knowledge of justice, and an intuitive sense of what was due a community over which the chance of birth had placed him. Like all men controlled by their impulses, he could, at times, be generosity itself, but, nevertheless, his subjects preferred to give him a wide berth, acting as had done those of the previous king of Prussia — Frederick the Great's father — who used to fly around corners on the approach of their doughty monarch, fearing to be whacked over their shoulders by his stout cane. But, when the margrave was in a bad temper, and his judgment distorted by passion, his cruelties were apt to be of the most atrocious character. This was rendered more deplorable by the power he wielded over the destinies of the people he ruled ; at such a time woe betide the noble, burgher or peasant upon whom he set his malignant eye in anger. Numerous instances are given of the severity and excesses of this prince. In 1740 he imprisoned for life one Christopher Wilhelm Von Rauser, who was merely suspected or accused of posting up caricatures of the court. Once, on hearing that his dogs were not well fed, he rode to the house of the man who had them in charge and shot him dead on his own doorstep. In 1747 he hanged, without trial, a poor servant girl, who was accused of helping a soldier to desert. As the margrave was riding out of his castle one day, he asked the sentinel on guard, who happened not to be a regular soldier, for his muskot ; the unfortunate fellow, recognizing his prince and not daring to dis- obey, unhesitatingly gave up his piece, whereupon the margrave called him a coward and no soldier, and had two hussars drag him through the mill-pond; of which treatment he died. It is not my purpose to continue the recountal of the idiosyncracies and wickednesses of this murdering prince. The personality of such a ruler could not but have a far-reaching influence for evil on all his representatives, and the citizens of distant Bendorf had to bear their proportion of the sorrows occasioned by such a government. Nor was escape by emigrati'^n any longer an easy matter, as 70 The Story of an Old Farm. under the new regime, no subject could leave the dominions of the margrave without his permission, and that permission was not be had for the asking. I shall again have occasion to refer to Anspach, when we find, some thirty years later, the troops of that principality marching across Somerset county, in New Jer- sey, in their endeavor to assist King George III. in his hold on the revolted American colonies. Communications by post convey in their pages a subtle charm quite wanting in spoken words. Letters sent from persons for whose views and opinions one cares but little when present, are often received with pleasure and read with interest, when the writer is but a few days' journey away ; such is the mysterious something an enclosed missive carries within its envelope. If this be so, how important an event must have been the arrival of this long message from Germany. Letters were great affairs in those days, and three, four, and often five months were occu- pied in their coming from the old country. We can easily pict- ure with what eager interest Johannes' family gathered about him as he read aloud these closely-written pages from Bendorf. Perhaps they expressed surprise at the marriage of Magdalena with the schoolmaster, though they were surely glad of a new relative who could write so good a letter. But Mariah Katrina could not forget his predecessor. Preceptor Kippold, whose wife had been her best friend, and had stood godmother for her sec- ond boy, Andrew, in 1729, How they all wondered, as they heard of the great fire ; what words of sympathy fell from their lips as were mentioned the names of friends and neighbors whose all had been devoured by the flames. Tears doubtless fell as the death of this or that loved one was made known. They probably already knew that Maria Katrina's sisters, Mrs. Otto and Mrs. Kirberger, had died, but that the dearly-beloved pastor, Joh. Georg Schmidt and his wife, were no more was, indeed, a new grief. Had not the reverend man been the life-long friend of the parents ? Had he not married them, baptized all of their children, and stood at the open graves of the two little ones they had left lying under German sod? They had tender thoughts for the seven children that the wife of the fruit-dealer, Simon Ludwig Riickert, had left motherless; and they were sorry enough to hear of the death of their old friend, Gottfried Knebel, The Kirberger Family. 71 who had stood godfather for, and given his name to Johannes' youngest brother in 1724. How the good wife must have shud- dered at the recital of the losses and distresses caused by the late war, and have thanked God, too, that there was no prospect of war and its bitterness in America. You may be sure that all the gossip of the preceptor was read and re-read. That they regretted the copiousness of the lawyers in settling the estate of Mariah Katrina's sister is a matter of course, — the cormorants of the profession evidently did not originate on this side of the water. Anton Kirberger, the curator, who was so unsuccessful in pre- serving the estate from the hungry attorneys, was not a brother of Mariah Katrina, but probably a cousin, being the son of Joh. Wilhelm Kirberger of Bendorf, and a prominent citizen and court assessor of that place. He was certainly closely allied to the family, and, in 1724, stood godfather with Knebel to Johannes' youngest brother, Gottfried, and, in 1732, performed the same service for Johannes' son, Georg Anthon. It was his brother, Ehrenreich Kirberger, who, in 1725, acted as godfather for, and gave his name to, Johannes' oldest son, Ehrenreich, or Aaron. Their father was probably the brother of Burgomaster Gottfried Kirberger. This magistrate married, in 1673, the ^^ right respectable Jimgfrau^^ Veronica Gerdrutta, the daughter of the deceased Rev. Joh. Thumers, of Bendorf. Their children were Anna Barbara, Johannes Jack, Johann. Philipp, Anna Cathrina, Johann. Weimar, Andreas and Elizabeth. In 1694 the Burgomaster married, as his second wife, Elizabeth Margaretha, daughter of Peter Israel, of Altenkirchen. Their children were Veronica Gerdrutta, who married Georg Peter Otto; Maria Mar- garetha ; Maria Catherina, who married Johannes Moelich ; and Johann. Heinrich. It seems odd that the first-born of this second marriage should receive the name of the first wife — it certainly shows that the burgomaster's second choice had a patient and self-sacrificing nature. Her youngest child was the "Cousin Henry" mentioned in Preceptor Hager's letter, he being at that time the burgomaster of Hochstenbach. I have another old letter from Bendorf, dated four years later. Like the first, it is yellow and time-stained, though its odd old- German characters are as legible as if lately penned. The 72 The Story of an Old Farm. writer was Johannes' wife's cousin, the curator, and he tells the same story, as did the preceptor, of marriages and deaths, of wars, and of the great fire, which latter seems to have been the most important event of that age in the existence of the villagers. But, here is the letter ! — let it speak for itself. Bendorf, 25th May, 1749. Highly esteemed cousin and lady: I have seen witli great pleasure from your letter that you and your good lady with your family are well, and so are we and our other friends and acquaintances. We are glad to hear, and so are these people, that you are doing well. As regards myself, my wife and our chil- dren, we are, thank God, in good health and spirits ; the Almighty keep them and ourselves so for many years longer ! Otherwise there has been transpiring a good deal of news which, of course, we cannot write all. I don't know whether you have heard of the great fire which we had here in 1743. All that part from the Oberbach Gate to tlie pastor's house, and on the other side down to the C?esar's house up to Ralter house was destroyed, burning down everything to the ground, including the gates and your former house. Pilberger's house is the only one which was saved, all the rest being burnt down, so that no one could recognise certain places any more at all. Much cattle was burnt, too, but, thank God, no lives were lost. A good deal has been built up again since, but there is plenty of waste-ground yet, and the new buildings are erected much costlier than before. We belong now to the Margrave of Anspach, who ordered an architect to be sent who suprintends the erection of buildings, laying them all out in straight streets. I have, thanks to God, got through with my build- ing; I have put up a house about six times as large as my former dwelling was. Your brother-in-law, Holingshausen, lives in Pilberger's house. [two lines illegible.] but he is in bad circumstances, he cannot do much any more, because he trembles so much, just like his mother did. In consequence of the fire many people moved away, others became sick and many died. Your cousin, Otto, died half a year ago ; Joh. Weimar Kirberger died two months ago; old Hergemann died eight days ago; Pastor Schmit and his beloved are dead long ago, which you have, no doubt, heard already. We also had a good deal of war since, but have peace now. Joh. Michael Moelich is still living, but his wife is dead. I would wish that we could converse verbally, but as this cannot be the case, I send my greetings to all of you. And remain your sincere cousin, Joh. Anton Kirberger. It will be seen by this letter that Maria Katrina was now called upon to mourn the death of her half-brother, Johan. Weimar, and her sister Veronica's husband, Georg Peter Otto. The peace referred to by the writer of this letter was that fol- lowing the second Silesian war, between Prussia and Austi-ia and their numerous allies. Frederick II. had withdrawn from the conflict in 1745, but the war was continued by Austria Bendorf Billets Troops m 1749. 73 against France and Spain till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. It was during these later years that Marshall Saxe gained his famous victories of Laufeldt, Ragoux and Fontenoy, the latter being fought in the presence of Louis XV. and the dauphin. The vicinity of Bendorf suffered but little from actual conflicts, but the Rhine was the highway between Aus- tria and Holland, which latter country was the fighting ground of the war. Bodies of troops were constantly passing and repass- ing along its banks, exacting from the villagers billets and for- ages, and impoverishing the people by the thefts and extortions always inflicted on a rural community by a foreign soldiery. Cousin Kirberger might well rejoice at the advent of peace, and the opportunity for recuperation it brought to the people of his neighborhood. The repose, alas ! was not to be for long. The Seven Years' War, but a few years ahead, was lying in wait for its victims — that great combat, in which nearly all Europe was to be engaged, and which was to emblazon on the pages of his- tory, for all time, the illustrious name of Frederic us Magnus ; that conflict which ultimately resulted in the unification — in the kingdom of Prussia — of the many electorates, duchies, bishoprics, and dominions of landgraves and princes that then formed the inextricable jumble, and most extraordinary patch-work, called the map of Germany. CHAPTER VII. Johannes Moelich Appears in New Jersey in 1747 — All About His Brother Godfrey— Echoes from the Ancient Walls of Z ion Lutheran Church at New Germantown. Johannes faded from our view at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1735. He emerges from the mists of the years in Decem- ber, 1747, in Greenwich township, Sussex, now Warren, county, New Jersey, where he appears as the purchaser from John F. Garrets of four himdred and nine acres of land fronting on the Delaware river and "Pohohatacong" creek. This investment Avas made for the joint benefit of himself and his youngest brother Gottfried, whom it will be remembered as a lad of eleven accompanied Johannes to America. Gottfried — known in family annals as Godfrey — was. born in Bendorf on the Rhine in 1724, and after reaching this country continued to be a mem- ber of our ancestor's household until he was twenty-one years old. On growing to man's estate he settled on this land border- ing " Pohohatacong " creek and the Delaware, in which vicinity many of liis posterity are now living. On the twenty-eighth of November, 1758, Johannes conveyed to this brother one hundred and eighty-one acres of the four hun- dred and nine that he had acquired from John F. Garrets. The deed recited that at the time of the conveyance he, the grantee, was in actual possession of the land conveyed, and that "he, the said Godfrey Moelich, was a prime purchaser, and was to have been a party in the grant and conveyance of the said four hun- dred and nine acres, and for that purpose paid one hundred and forty-nine pounds, his share of the consideration money agreed by thorn to be paid by the said Godfrey Moelich, the receipt of which said sum, he, the said Johannes, doth hereby acknowledge to Johannes, and Jacob Kline in Hunterdon. 75 have had." From all of the above it would appear that Johannes acted as guardian for his younger brother, having brought funds with him to America to insure his proper settlement when of age. Godfrey increased his possessions that same year by purchasing one hundred and fifty acres of land from William Lovet Smith, for one hundred and fifty pounds. Long before this time he had built a stone house on the Garrets land, and for ten years had been married. In May, 1748, he took unto himself a bride of fifteen summers, Margaret, the daughter of Christopher Falken- berger, a young woman of some education and refinement, as is evidenced by her correspondence, preserved by her descend- ants. Johannes does not seem to have occupied his portion of the land on the Delaware. On his death it became the homestead of his second son, Andrew. Papers in my possession show that in the year 1750 he was living in Readington township, Hunter- don county, where he was interested in a tannery with Johann. Jacob Klein (Jacob Kline), who had, a few years before mar- ried his eldest daughter, Veronica Gerdrutta (Fanny). Though I have no documentary evidence in proof of the assertion, there is every reason to believe that at that time the homestead of Johannes was a farm of four hundred acres — two hun- dred of which was in black oak timber — located adjoining the present line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, midway between the White House and North Branch stations. The land lay on both sides of the County Line road, and extended north to the slope of Leslie's ridge, being crossed from east to west by Leslie's brook. Whether the title to this land vested in our ancestor, or whether he merely occupied it in con- junction with his son-in-law I am not informed. Ultimately it came into the sole possession of Jacob Kline, and there is no doubt that here he and his father-in-law established a tannery, prob- ably the first one in northern New Jersey. The Hon. Joseph Thompson, when eighty years of age, wrote me that he well remembered the old bark and currying houses that stood on the Kline property ; and that John, the grandson of Jacob Kline, had often pointed out to him the location, of the dwelling of his grandfather, Moelich, as being just south of the brook, and on the other side of the road from his — John's — residence. On this 76 The Story of an Old Farm. property Jacob Kline and his sons and grandsons carried on an extensive tannery business for over seventy-five years. The land is no longer in possession of the family, the original four hundred acres being now sub-divided into the farms of George W. Coles, Walter Opie and George Stillwell. " The Ridge " obtained its name from George Leslie of Perth Amboy, of whom we shall learn much in a future chapter. It is a rise of land commencing at Leslie's brook, and in breadth extends nearly two miles to Rockaway creek and Lamington river. In length it is traversed by the New Brunswick and Easton turnpike, which soon after leaving North Branch village (going westward) attains a considerable elevation that is maintained three or four miles until White House is approached, where by a gradual des- cent the general level of the country is again reached. Here on this breezy upland and along its slopes, from which the surround- ing county is viewed like a map unrolled, have dwelt, and still dwell many of the descendants of Johannes' son-in-law, " Old Jacob Kline." We learn from the records of the '' Kirchen Buch der Corpor- ation von Zion in New Germantown in West Jersey^'' that Johannes Moelich was an active member and officer of Zion Lutheran church in Tewksbury, then Lebanon, township, in the same county. The exact date of the establishment of this congregation is not known. As early as 1730 there were German-Lutherans in the vicinity of what is now New German- town, it being supposed that they came from Germantown, Pennsylvania. In 1749, Zion corporation had been for some time in existence, and in that year a new church building " was solemnly dedicated to the service of God by the brethren Brunn- holtz, Handschuch, Hartwig, Schaum and Kurtz." This antique structure is still standing, and its thick stone walls will doubtless continue to house congregations for generations to come. Since those early days, however, it has undergone many alterations, and in present appearance differs materially from that of the original edifice, which in outward form was not unlike the little church on Pohick creek in Virginia, built a few years later, where Washington worshiped. An immense roof, con- verging to the centre, capped the walls, in which small windows were set high from the ground. A huge sounding board sur- ZiON Lutheran Church at New Germantown. 77 mounted the lofty pulpit, and in the center of the building, in the broad middle aisle, was a square pit in which burned in cold weather a bright charcoal fire. It has been suggested that this fire served not only for the comfort of the worshipers but as an illustration for the preacher, who pointed his finger at the glowing bed of coals when dwelling on the everlasting fire that awaited the ungodly. In 1831 the quaint building was remodeled. The old barrack -like roof made way for one more modern in style, Gothic windows were introduced, the exterior waUs were covered with a composition of lime, sand and pebbles, and a vestibule, spire and bell added. Within ten years still greater changes followed, and the auditorium was made to more nearly conform to the present fashion of church interiors. There is still in existence the original instrument by which Ralph Smith conveyed to the trustees of Zion congregation seven and one quarter acres of land, which included the site of the church then "newly erected." It is in the form of a lease running one hundred and four years, demanding an annual quit- rent of ''nine pence three farthings for each one acre, of Procklamation money." This portentous document is elabor- ately inscribed on a heavy piece of sheep-parchment over two feet in breadth, the ink of the text still being distinctly black, although that of the signatures has grown pale, while yet per- fectly legible. The leasehold was ultimately converted into a fee by the commutation of the quit-rent. The phraseology of the conveyance begins in this wise : This Indenture made this tenth Day of November in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-Nine, Between Kalph Smith, Esq., of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon and Province of New Jersey, on the One Part, and Baltis Bickle, Hones Melek, Philip Phise, alias White, Casper Hender- shot, Lowrence Rulifson, Samuell Barnard, David Melek, Jacob Cline, Adam Vockerot, Jacob Shipmann, George Swart and Joseph Hornbaker, Trustees to the Luthern Congregation in the Countys of Hunterdon, Somerset and Morris, on the other part, Witnesses, etc. None of the names of the lessees are correctly spelled. The second one is, of course, that of our German ancestor. The writ- ing of the lease, which is in a good, round, clerkly hand, is that of Smith, the lessor, who wrote Hones for Honnes, which is Hollan- disch, or Low Dutch, for John. Ralph Smith was an English- 78 The Story of an Old Fakm. man of wealth, and a large land-holder in what is now New Ger- mantown. He came to Lebanon township from Boston in 1734, and is said to have been ambitious to found a town, which he desired should be called Smithfield. With the influx of Ger- mans, however, his influence was not strong enough to prevent the village from being named after the Pennsylvania town from which many of these new-comers had migrated. Although all early documents mention this neighborhood simply as " King Street," or Tewksbury, Smith persisted in using the name Smithfield in his leases, even after the high-sheriff of Hunterdon plainly designated it in a public advertisement as New German- town. The first record of this last name appears in a legal instrument drawn by Richard Stockton of Princeton, dated the twentieth of July, 1760. AVhile Ralph Smith was unable to control the nationality of new arrivals, he endeavored, at least, to dictate the nature of the religious observances they should intro- duce into the neighborhood. He inserted in the lease of the church lot a clause which provided that Zion society should not allow '' any other doctrin to be taught but that, according to the Lutherrien scheem, excepting a farther advance towards the Protestant Churches now established, according to the doctrins, contained in the Thirty-nine Artickles of the Church of England, or according to the Presbyterian scheem as professed and adhered to in America." The lessor was evidently solicitous that no popish errors should be propagated in the community. But imperfectly understanding the Lutherrien scheem (as he styled it) — for the services of that church were mostly in Ger- man — he was careful to provide that the preaching in the new house should not deviate in any essential respect from the doc- trines of the Thirty-nine Ai'ticles and the Westminster Confes- sion of Faith. For several reasons this conveyance from Ralph Smith pos- sesses an interest for the historian of Johannes Moelich. First, as showing who were at that time his co-trustees in Zion ; and second, in the fact that his name appears among the first of the trustees. As their names were probably placed in the order of their importance, it is fair to presume that Johannes ranked among the most prominent of the officers and congregation. " Baltis Bickle," or more properly speaking, Balthazar Pickel^ Baltis Pickel and Other Worthies. 7& was easily the first in possessions, age and social consequence in that German community. He was a native of Hamburg, and early in the century settled in Hunterdon county, purchasing a large tract of land at the foot of that considerable elevation which in consequence of that purchase lost its euphonious Indian appellation of Cushetunk, and has since been known as Pickel's mountain. Here his descendants for several generations have lived, and a portion of the original purchase is still in possession of the family. At the death of Balthazar Pickle, by his will he bequeathed one thousand pounds to Zion church, the intention of the pious donor being that the interest on this sum should pay the whole of the minister's salary. In this regard his expecta- tions were not fulfilled. The money willed must have been in colonial pounds, as the total amount realized from the bequest by the trustees was a little less than two thousand dollars. Baltis and his wife Charity, ''good old mother Pickel," lie buried close to the east walls of Zion. His grave stone bears the following inscription : Here lies the body of Baltis Pickel Who departed this Life, Dec. 5th, 1765, In the 79th year of his age. Kemember me as you pass by. As you are now so onst was I, As I am now so must you be Prepare for death and follow me. Near by is the grave of a youth of twenty, bearing the same name, upon whose stone is the following curious verse : My Dwelling Place is here This Stone is got To Keep the Spot That men dig not too near. The date of the advent in Hunterdon county of David Moe- lich — mentioned as one of the church trustees — has not been ascertained. He is believed to have been our ancestor's cousin. David was born in Bendorf in 1715, being the son of Hans Peter, who it is supposed, was a brother of Johannes' father. Jonas Moelich, a bachelor brother of David, who was bom in Bendorf in 1710, was also at this time a Hunter- don resident and a member of Zion congregation. There was 80 The Story of an Old Farm. still another of the name then living in Lebanon township, who later became prominent in the affairs of Zion society. This fourth Moelich was Antony, Anton or Tunis, Johannes' nephew, he being the son of Johann. Peter, who emigrated unmarried from Bendorf in 1728, but who must have found himself a wife soon after arrival, as his oldest child, Tunis, was born in 1730. It would be very agreeable to tell the whole story of the rich historical memories that cling to these old walls of Zion. Such a story would entail the narrative of the growth of population in this section of New Jersey; but, just now, our interest in this church lies with some of its early founders and their suc- cessors, and we must confine our notice to such incidents in the life of the society as relate to our German ancestor and his chil- dren. It may be mentioned, however, that as early as 1745 it appears that the Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenberg occa- sionly supplied Zion pulpit, while at the same time having gen- eral charge of the affairs of the congregation. This divine, — familiarly known as Father Muhlenberg — was born in Hanover in 1711 ; after graduating at the University of Gottingen, which he had entered in 1735, he settled at Halle. The early German emigrants to America were essentially a religious people, and to them no distress connected with exile was more grievous than the loss of the religious instruction they had known in the old country. During the first four decades of the last century there was not in New York or New Jersey a properly-accredited clergyman of the Lutheran persuasion. The people of that faith repeatedly implored the home church to send them a minister. After much urging, Mr. Muhlenberg consented to accept charge of the American churches, and reached Philadelphia on the twenty-fifth of November, 1 742. The Germans realized in him the consummation of their highest hopes for a priest, and with great joy they welcomed the ministering of holy religion in the form and manner of the church in fatherland. The labors, suf- ferings and successes of this Lutheran patriarch are matters of eccelesiastical history. To the character of an humble and sin- cere Christian were joined natural qualifications and educational acquirements that peculiarly fitted him for the arduous and varied duties incidental to his position. He was a skilful sur- geon as well as a ripe theologian, and could preach to his con- Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 81 gregation with equal facility in English, German and Low Dutch. Grentleness and firmness in him were singularly blended; his wise counsel and tender sympathies won such respect and devotion that throughout his life his influence among the Germans was unbounded. We are told that his eloquence was of an order that would equally move and melt the heart of the wildest frontiersman, or rivet the attention of the most cul- tured and educated member of the synod. In 1745 he removed from Philadelphia to the village of La Trappe — New Providence — in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, which at that time con- tained the largest and most important German congregation in the country. From then until his death, in 1787, he seems to have had a general oversight of, and to have exercised a sort of presiding eldership over, the churches of the Lutheran denomin- ation. He was a wonderful organizer of congregations. Heat nor cold, storm nor wind, robbers nor Indians, could daunt his energies or repress the enthusiasm of the missionary spirit, which led him to travel thousands of miles through the Middle and Southern States at the call of his German brethren. The rare virtues and talents of this unusual man were, to a remarkable degree, transmitted to his posterity through successive genera- tions. As clergymen, soldiers, statesmen, educators, authors and poets, we find that his children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren have taken rank with the most distinguished men of the country. The first missionary of Zion church was the Reverend Johannes Christophorus Hartwig, (anglice), John Christopher Hartwick, who contributed his erratic services during the years 1747-1748. He did not tarry long in Tewksbury as his useful- ness was much impaired by an unfortunate repugnance he felt towards all womankind. Neighborhood gossip recites that he would cross the road, or even leap a fence, to avoid meeting one of the gentler sex. The story is told that when preaching in New York state, on awaking one morning at the home of a parishioner, he found that the good woman of the house had arisen in the night and silently spread a thick petticoat over the bed, lest he should suffer with the cold ; so indignant was the clergyman that he made his way to the stable, saddled his horse, and rode off before breakfast. On the seventh of September^ 82 The Story of an Old Farm. 1748, there arrived at Philadelphia, by the ship " Hampshire,'^ Captain Thomas Cheeseman, from Rotterdam, the Reverend Joh. Albert Weygand. At the instigation of Father Muhlenberg, he was soon preaching at New Germantown as a candidate, and in the following year this immigrant-minister was invited to be the regular pastor of the congregation. Among the seventy-eight names signed to his call were those of Baltus Pickel, Johannes Moelich, Samuel Earnhardt, Jacob Kline, Joseph Hornbaker, Philip Weiss, Lawrence Roelifson and others. Mr. Weygand's services proved very acceptable to the people and it was during his pastorate that the church edifice was completed and dedi- cated. How long he officiated is not exactly known, but it is cer- tain that in a printed publication of 1755 he is spoken of as " the minister of the old Lutheran Church at New York and Hackensack " — serving alternately the people of Bergen and Rockland counties, and the congregation of New York city. Following Mr. Weygand came, in about the year 1754, Pastor Ludolph Heinrich Schrenck ; his stay was short and his depar- ture is unrecorded. During these changes and vacancies Father Muhlenberg continued his episcopal direction of Zion's people. In the autumn of 1760 he sent a young man — Reverend Paul Bryzelius — on horseback to the " hill country of New Jer- sey," to preach to the waiting congregations of Zion and St. Paul. Of the latter church society we shall learn something shortly. With him he dispatched a letter addressed to his '* highly respected and dearly beloved Brethren Messieurs Balthasar Pickel and John Moelich, senior, at Racheway, etc." This last word expresses Father Muhlenberg's endeavor to spell Rockaway, the name of the stream which drains the country west and south of Tewksbury tOAvnship, and upon the south branch of which lived Balthazar Pickle. The writer of this letter makes another effort to anglicise — this time a foreign, not a native word. The name " Brucelius " is written in English, and was evidently an attempt to convey in Roman characters the sound of the young clergy- man's name. In subsequent entries upon the church books Muhlenberg wrote it Bry.?elius. Doctor Hazelius, afterwards of Zion's pulpit, and himself of Swedish origin, spelled it *' Brize-. lius." But enough of preface ! Here is a translation of this pastoral message from the last century : Father Muhlenberg's Letters to Zion Chuhch. 83 Worthy and Beloved Fathers and Brethren : Herewith I send in my place on a visit an honest teacher, namely, Domine Brucelius, who studied in Sweden and traveled several years in Germany and England, and tried many things. He is still in his best years, cheerful and very industrious, humble and friendly in company, lives sober, godly and exemplary, and understands well how to deal with the rich and poor, with the learned and unlearned, with the sick and healthy ; has a great knowledge in the true Christianity, and tries to lead soula to Lord Jesus ; understands good English and German. Since, however, in past years he preached mostly in Swedish and English, and had little practice in the Gei-man language, therefore, German seems a little difficult. He will very soon, however, regain his knowledge of German when he has had just a little practice. You will hear and see for yourselves wherein he will please you in doctrine and conversation, and write me what you think of him. I am for the present not able to pay his traveling expenses, and hope the dear brethren will take care of this out of love because he has hired from his congre- gation a horse for the journey, which he must himself pay for. Receive him in love as a true servant of Jesus, and make his conversation use- ful to you. To your wives and worthy relations, especially to the long-suffering sick mother, Pickel, give consolation out of the abounding love of Jesus, and be true even unto death ; then will you receive the crown of life and glory. Thus wishes, worthy and beloved fathers and brethren, your old well-wisher and friend, Henry Muhlenberg. New Providence, 25 Nov., 1760. This day I have buried my youngest son. This young minister found such favor with the good people of the hill country as to be regularly called as their pastor, and he continued preaching to the congregations of New Germantown and Pluckamin until 1767, when he removed to Nova Scotia. He was the first occupant of the parsonage near the first named village. In May following Mr. Bryzelius' removal, Father Muhlenberg was elected ''Rector" of the united churches of Zion and St. Paul. As the patriarch never resided in New Jersey, and continued, as before, the pastor of the Lutheran churches of Philadelphia, the inference is that the election and formal accept- ance was a prudential measure intended to further the temporal interests of the united congregations. During the vacancy of their pulpits he occasionally occupied them, as did the Rev. Christian Streit, who was afterward the pastor of a Lutheran congregation at Easton, Pennsylvania. Father Muhlenberg appears, how- ever, at all times to have given his personal care and direction to the affairs of the society. Not long after the departure of Mr. Bryzelius he addressed to the brethren the following quaint and characteristic letter, advising them as to their course while with- out a spiritual guide. The reference to Bedminster will be 84 The Story of an Old Farm. made plain, later, when we come upon the founding of St. Paul's congregation at Pluckamin. The superscription in English reads : To the Wardens and Vestries of the United Lutheran Churches in New Ger- mantown and Bedminster. The original letter is in German : Honorable Corporation, Beloved Brethren : I recently wrote a letter to you and gave it to Mr. Bartles. Eev. Kurtz, our old minister, has promised to make a visit to the United Congregations after the Holy days of the dear Lord. If he sliould be too feeble for so difficult a winter journey, some one younger will come. 1 beseech, however, the Honorable Corporation that she take care of her charter and order, and open the churches to no disorderly preachers or tramps. The fugitives who run where they have not been sent must stop with their equals. Because where the carcass is there gather the eagles. The Honorable Corporation will take also into consideration and provide that during the coming spring the parsonage may be set in habitable order. It would be very good if the God-fearing members of both congregations would assemble on Sundays in their churclies, would sing together an edifying hymn, order some- ting to be read, and would pray. Some one will be amongst the brethren who can do it. 1 send you my hearty greeting, and hope we may soon meet again. I am your old Friend Muhlenberg. Philadelphia, 10 Dec, 1767. The next incumbent at New Germantown came to New Jer- sey confident of possessing the affections and esteem of her people, for he was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the eldest son of the patriarch, who after much solicitation had consented to serve as resident deputy-rector for his father. He occupied Zion's pulpit for the first time on the fifth of February, 1769, and continued to supply that and St. Paul's for three years. He awakened an enthusiastic devotion in the members of his flock, and though at this time but twenty-three years old, he soon won their respect as well as their aflfections. In 1772 his father was applied to by the Germans of the valley of the Blue Ridge, Virginia, for a minister for their new church at Woodstock, the county-town of Dunmore, they asking that his son might be sent. This request was acceded to, and the young minister made his way beyond the Potomac, where he so conducted him- self as to insure his name ever being honorably preserved on the pages of history. We shall pass some interesting hours in this Father Muhlenberg's Letters to Zion Church. 85 excellent man's company on his return to New Jersey, after exchanging his rector's gown for the blue and buff of a Conti- nental general. For several years following the loss of Peter Muhlenberg, Zion's pulpit appears to have been without an occupant, Father Muhlenberg continuing his oversight of the congregation. Repeated requests were made to the rector that he would send one of his two remaining sons to fill the office of "assistant minis- ter." While this desire was never gratified — at least to the extent of a residence of either for a continuous period — it is in evidence that Henry Ernst, the youngest, occasionally supplied the churches, and presided at regular vestry councils. His con- sent was at one time obtained to become the rector in place of his father, but the joint congregations of Philadelphia refused to release him from a prior engagement, and so the arrangement was not consummated. That, meanwhile, unsuccessful efforts were made to secure a minister is shown by the following letter of Father Muhlenberg addressed to Ehrenreich Moelich and his co- trustees. Our immigrant ancestor, Johannes, having by this time become a member of the congregation of that greater and eternal Zion, his eldest son had taken the sire's place among the fathers of the earthly church. As it is dated the year previous to the one in which Peter Muhlenberg severed his connection with the New Jersey congregations, it would seem that he was absent from his charge during some part of 1771. He may have been on a visit to the valley of Virginia, and evidently had already notified his parishioners that he intended to leave them. Worthy and Beloved Brethren : I received your dear letter of the 16th September from Bedminster, through the dear brother, Anthony Melick, and understand from it : 1st, That the majority of the members of St. Paul's church met on Wednesday and voted for Mr. Kuntze and Mr. Buscherch. 2nd, Now^as far as Mr. Kuntze is concerned, he thanks the dear brethren heartily, because they have been so good as to vote for him. It is not possible for him to accept the call, since the corporation of Philadelphia positively will not release him, neither can they let him go, nor will they, and he himself also before God has neither conviction nor desire to leave without a cause the congregation entrusted to him. 3rd, And because the beloved brethren have also voted for Mr. Busch- erch, and I have heard that Mr. Buscherch will preach next Sunday in New Germantown ; if then the Bedminster corporation thinks that Mr. Buscherch is strong and qualified enough to feed your three congregations, and the corporation of Zion's church, likewise, thinks and agrees with you, then can you ask him by chance if he is willing to accept a call from you or not. The congregations have. 86 The Story of an Old Farm. indeed, a right to vote, nevertheless the question remains whether the preacher for whom tliey voted truly can accept the call, or will. For this time I don't know anything further to answer, except that I greet you all heartily and kiss you in Christ, who for the comfort of the Believers has promised " Look, I am with you every day, until the end of the world." I remain your old wellwisher and intercessor, Henry Muhlenberg. Philadelphia, 22 Sept., 1771. My next record of a shepherd to this Lutheran flock is that of William Anthony Graff, a native of Grunstadt in Rhenish Bavaria, and a graduate of the university of Gressen in Hesse- Darmstadt. This godly man came in 1775 and preached until his death, thirty-four years later, his memory being still pre- served as a precious heritage by the descendants of the fathers of Zion. His cei'tiflcate of ordination, dated in September, 1760, is in the handwriting of Father Muhlenberg, and it records in stately, scholastic Latin that he was called in that year to the charges of Hackensack and Ramapo, ''prefectures of New Jer- sey belonging to the kingdom of Great Britain." With those congregations he remained for fifteen years, until called to New Germantown. This certificate shows further that the newly- ordained one vows "to abhor all fanatical opinions, such as pontifical, anabaptist, sacramentarian and similar errors." And then to him is entrusted, with pious ceremony, '' the office of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments according to the calling and rule prescribed in the Prophetic and Apostolic writings, w^hose sum is comprehended in the three Symbols, Apostolic, Nicene and Athanasian, — in the Augsburg confession presented to the Emperor Charles V. in the year 1530, and in the Apology of the same — likewise in the smaller and larger catechisms of Dn. Dr. Luther, and in the articles to which signa- tures were appended in the assembly of Schmalcald." The whole closes with the handsome signatures and seals of Caroi.us Magnus Wrangel, S. S. Theol. Doctor Concionator Aulic. Ord. Suecorum Regis & Ecclesiarum, SuEco Luther-in America Praepositus. Henricus Muhi>enberg. Ministeru-Germanico LUTHERANI PrAESES ET Senior. Pastor Graff's Flourishing Congregation. 87 The first signature, with its appended title, may be translated: Charles Magnus Wrangel, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Regular Court Preacher to the King of Sweden, and Head of the Swed- ish Lutheran Churches in America. About the time of the coming of Pastor Graflf we may con- clude that this Lutheran congregation was in a flourishing condi- tion. Before me lies an original list of the communicants of the church, dated the second of May, 1773, showing their number to have been ninety. It is in the handwriting of the elder Muhlenberg, and the names present a singular mixture of Ger- man, Latin and English spelling. Among them are to be found, Ehrenr Moelich, evidently intended for Aaron Moelich, the first name standing for Ehrenreich ; his wife is set down as Charlotta; Jonas Moelich; Christian Meelich; Mr. Anthony Meelich, n fr. Eleonora ; Mr. Balthas Pickel ; Mr. Jacob Klein, n fr. Euphronica; Gottfried fein n fr. Magdelena; Marcus Koenig, n fr. Elisabeth ; Joh. Appelman, n fr. Ursula Magdal ; Mr. Thomas van Busshkerk, n fr., Esther ; Frau Miillerin Henrichs. The Christian Meelich mentioned above was the son of Johannes' cousin David ; Anthony Meelich, as we have already learned, was Johannes' nephew, while Frau Miillerin Henrichs was Maria Catherine, a sister of Anthony at Tunis, who, in 1755, became the wife of Joh. Henry MiiUer — Anglice, Miller. Her husband emigrated from Germany in 1750, and three years later settled near New Germantown, where he became a valued citizen, being for thirty-four years the clerk of the township. Although a devoted Christian, he was of the German Reformed persuasion, consequently we do not find his name on Zion communion lists, where that of his wife for a num- ber of years frequently appears. Eventually she proved a wan- dering sheep and strayed from the Lutheran flock — the church of her forefathers. In the year 1782 a Methodist minister arrived in Tewksbury who secured the good-wiU of her brother, Tunis — then a church warden — with whom he lodged. Among the few persons that he succeeded in converting to the new, and generally considered heterodox, faith, was his host's sister. This did not accord with the views of her husband, Henry Miller, who, thereupon, interviewed the missionary, and reported the result in writing to his wife's pastor, Mr. Graff, 88 The Story of an Old Farm. declaring that he found the newcomers religious beliefs to be "scandalous and despicable of the church." On the following Sunday, the rector, from the pulpit, denounced the itinerant as a "proselyting upstart." This brought Tunis Melick to his feet in defence of his guest, and he angrily interrupted Mr. OraflF, being joined in his protest by Godfrey Rinehart, another church- warden. A great commotion was produced in the congregation, and the two malcontents were subsequently tried and deposed from the vestry. Tunis Melick and his wife adhered to the new faith, and with a few others stemmed the current of opposition, until their perseverance was finally rewarded by the establish- ment of a Methodist congregation, in which their descendants have been prominent to this day. Catherine Miller was much beloved, and was long remembered in Tewksbury because of the impress made by her strong char- acter and deeply religious nature upon the people among whom she spent her life. John Fine, who died in 1861 at the age of eighty-two, and who himself was as modest and humble as he was good, used to tell that in his boyhood he was indentured for a term of years to Henry Miller. He soon found his master's wife to be not only very pious, but exceedingly strict. She treated him well, but insisted that he should comprehend his duties and perform them all in their proper time and order. On one occa- sion, being seriously punished for running the milch cows from the field, he was inclined to resent the whipping, and did revenge himself by some ugly boyish trick. "In after years I regretted it very much," said the good old man, " and more especially did I grieve over it, when, upon the death of Mother Miller, it was discovered that she had knelt so often and so long in secret prayer that ^callusses^ had grown upon her knees, resembling those upon the hand of a common working-man." Henry Miller upon the death of his wife thus recorded the event in his family Bible : " 1807. To-day the 22nd Jan.: at 1 2 o'clock noon, has my dear wife Maria Catherina fallen peacefully asleep in the Lord, and will be buried on the 25th day. After we have lived fifty- one years, nine months and three weeks together in the Holy estate of matrimony. And she is the first one who has died in ray house. May the dear God prepare us who are left behind to follow piously after, for the sake of his dear Son, Jesus Christ, Character and Appearance of Father Graff. 8& Amen." " Grood old Father Fine," who has preserved to us the story of Catherine Miller's habit of prayer, seems to have reached a height of spirituality unattainable by his contemporaries, and he left a name that stands as a synonym for Christian piety in all the Tewksbury region He was a man of '' wise saws, sen- tentious apothegms and apposite anecdotes," and the tales, related by the village gossips of his biblical honesty, are the wonder of the present generation. He and his wife were early converts to Methodism, he being blessed with a help-mate as heavenly minded as himself. "Mother Fine" was renowned for sanctity, for charity, for every tender feeling. A clerical bull is asso- ciated with her name. An Irish minister said to her at a social meeting, " Sister Mother, please lead our devotions !" But these reminiscences are carrying us too far away from Pastor Graff, to whom we must return. At the time of his com- ing to Zion and St. Paul's he was in the prime of manhood, being about eight and forty years old. An interesting family, consist- ing of a wife and half a dozen children (of whom four were daughters), consitituted the whole of his worldly wealth — if we may except a traditional " roach-backed " horse, with riding equipments, and a certain weather-stained " shay" of a comically antique construction. Father Graff's parishioners delighted in his imposing appearance. He was very fond of the saddle, and wearing a three-cornered hat and military boots, was often to be seen astride of his faithful steed, riding between New German- town, Pluckamin, and on to Roxbury, where he also supplied a Lutheran pulpit. Mr. Graff's salary was to be the interest on the Pickel legacy (supposed to amount to sixty pounds), and sixty pounds more to be raised by contributions from the congre- gations of Pluckamin and Roxbury. For this the New German- town congregation was entitled to preaching twice monthly, while the lesser flocks were forced to be contented with Sunday visita- tions of once a month. He soon dropped from his official title " deputy," or " pro tem " as Father Muhlenberg, hearing of the excellent choice of the congregations, very willingly resigned the rectorship. Mr. Graff preached alternately in German and English, but his efforts to conquer the latter tongue were never entirely successful. It is said that to the end of life he persisted 90 The Story of an Old Farm. in calling the village of his residence '' New >S'/mrrmantown," and that of the location of St. Paul's church " Blook-a-)>^ee/^." The story is told that once, when delivering a sermon on the temptation of Eve, the word, serpent, slipped his memory. Try hard as he would it continued to elude him. After an awkward hesitation and much endeavor he stammered out in broken English : '■^ Dot old — dot — dot old Tuyfel^ der shnake." The good rector may have been a little uncertain in his language, but there is no doubt that his virtues and attainments were of the most j^ositive character. All testimony is concurrent as to his having been a devoted, diligent and loving pastor, and a truly learned and pious man. Possessed of an eminently happy disposition he was esteemed and beloved by his people, both for the many amiable qualities of his personality, and for the faithful perform- ance of his pastoral duties. During the last four years of his life, age and infirmity seriously interfered with his public minis- trations. Children, however, were brought to his house for bap- tism, marriage rites were not considered complete without his blessing, and he even performed the last offices for the dead while supported in his tottering steps by dutiful and affectionate parishioners. We shall see him standing by Aaron Moelich's coffin within a few weeks of his own death. At last, on the thirty- first of May, in the year 1809, after days and nights of wearisome pain, his soul was gently released from its decaying tenement, and good old Father Graff's pastorate was over. At the north- east corner of the village church, which he so faithfully served for nearly thirty-four years, a plain, brown-stone slab marks his final resting place, and chronicles in simple language the span of his life. With Mr. Graff we will conclude the enumeration of Zion's ministers, for with him ends the line of those who bap- tized, married and buried the descendants of Johannes Moelich. Among the archives of the church are two interesting docu- ments bearing the signatures of our German ancestor. He spells the name " Molich ;" the diaeresis over the o, denoting the omission of the letter e. The first signature is attached to an obligation in which he was a co-signer with twelve other elders and dea- cons. It reads as follows ; Know all men by these Presence that We, to wit, I, Lorentz Kuloft's ; I, Jacob Shuppmann; I, Andreas Abel Sen.; I, Johannes Moelicli ; I, Adam Fiikeroth; I, ZioN Church Members from Bendokf. 91 George Schwartz; I, Phillipp Weiss; I, David Moelich; I, Casper Hindersheidt ; I, Samuel Bernhard, signed [Barnhardt] ; I, Joseph Heriibekker; I, Jacob Klein, and I, Jacob Fasbiuder, at this time elders and deacons of the High Dutch Lutheran Congregation belonging to the Meeting house Called Zion in Lebanon, are held firmly bound in tlie name of the forsaid Congregation, and Meeting house unto Baltes Bickel of Reading-Taun in the County of Hunterdon and Province of New Jersey, his heirs etc, etc, unto the sum of Eighty Two Pounds, lawful Jersey money at Eight Shillings per ounce, to be paid etc. etc. Dated the Eighteenth day of December in the year of our Lord God, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty. Of the thirteen elders and deacons, six, viz : Johannes and David Moelich, Fiikeroth, Weiss, Klein, and Fasbinder, signed in German character, two — Earnhardt and Hernbekker — signed in good plain English, while the remaining five were obliged to make their marks. It would seem the ancient congregation of the Evangelische Haupt-Kirche of Bendorf on the Rhine, con- tributed a number of officers and members to the " Honorable Corporation " of Zion church at New Germantown. We have already seen that Johannes, David, and Jonas Moelich, had been members of the German congregation, and now we find another of Zion's trustees, Jacob Fasbinder, to have been transferred from the parish on the Rhine. He was born in Bendorf in 1683, being the son of Jacob Fassbender, who migrated to that place from Homburg, and is named on the church register as a "rewfer," or military horsemen. Jacob Fassbender, the younger, was probably attracted to New Jersey, because of the number of his fellow-townsmen who had preceded him across the water. He was over sixty yeai's old before he emigrated, as he landed at Philadelphia from the ship Loyal Judith, James Cowil, master, on the second of September, 1743. Still another member of this New Jersey Lutheran congregation came from the Bendorf church — Gottfried Klein (Godfrey Kline). He was a son of Christian Klein, who, in 1733, stood godfather to Johannes' daughter, Marie Cathrine. I have not discovered any connec- tion between this Christian Klein and Johan Jacob Klein, who married Johannes' daughter, Veronica Gerdrutta. Christian's son, Godfrey, was the emigrant ancestor of another Hunterdon line of that name. Should further researches in the Bendorf parish register be made, it is not improbable that additional names would be found identical with those of the Hunterdon congregation. There is good reason for believing that this inter- 92 The Story of an Old Farm. esting German church was the means of founding the New Jersey corporation. The second document on which the signature of Johannes appears is a faded, yellow, slightly torn, and much worn paper of the date of December 1st, 1757. It is a bond, written in German, for money borrowed in behalf of the congregation to be used in the erection of a parsonage on the glebe land. A stone dwelling was erected one mile and a half from New Ger- mantown, on the road to Lebanon. It has only recently disap- peared ; a gaping cellar choked with weeds and rubbish is all that is left to mark the spot where it stood. The musty, warped, leather-bound church-book, shows Johannes and David Moelich to have been appointed by the vestry a committee to superintend the building of this house. In the bond it is interesting to note their attempt to spell English words in a German fashion. It commences in this wise : Know all men by these Presence, that we, to wit, I, Davilrd Moelich in Riedens- Da'dn in Hiinder-daun, CailncH in the broVimcs of West new Jersey, and I, Johan- nes Moelich in Lebanon-Daiin. same Cailnli and brovurns. Johannes continued his connection with Zion church until his death in 1763. At a meeting of the vestry in the year 1756, it was resolved to erect a new sanctuary for the beneiit of the many members of the congregation living in the adjoining county, on the east. Consequently steps were taken for the erection of St. Paul's church in the .village of Pluckamin, in Bed minster township, Somerset county. The original subscription list, circulated at that time in order to raise the necessary funds, i& still in existence, and the appeal reads as follows : Bedminster, Ye 7 th Day of December, 1756. A Subscription For Raising a Sum of money For Building a Church In Bed- minster town. Whereas the members of the Lutheran Congregation In and near Bedminster town Being necessitated For a Place of Public Worship Tliink a Proper Place to Erect a House for To Worship God, and it is further agreed By us the Subscri- bers That one half of the Preaching, or Every other Sermon Preached By any minister Chosen the Said Lutheran Congregation Shall be in the English Lan- guage and the other in High Dutch. We, therefore, the underscribers, Do Promise To Pay or cause to be Paid The Sum or Sums annexed to our names for the uses above mentioned To any Person or Persons Chosen Cx)llectorof Said money by the said Congregation. Tlie Money is not To be paid until Said Church is a Building and the money wanted for that Use. We most Humbly would Desire w ai Q P^ (— 1 *-^ y^ w 1 ?^ r-i hH i—H >— J ^ W m w H ?^ H 'i it! p-l Q p:! m Q (— » 55 W W W c ^ - N St. Paul's Church at Pluckamin. 93 the assistance of all our well Minded friends and neighbors That are well wishers for Promoting So Good a deseine To Be helpful to us and subscribe such a matter To this our undertaking which will be Accepted with Greatest Humility and thankfulness, and will be Attending to the advancement of ye Glory of God. Then follow the signatures of one hundred and thirty persons, many of them being members of the Presbyterian congregations of Lamington and Basking Ridge, and of the Dutch Reformed churches on the Raritan, and below. Among these names are those of Johannes Moelich, Marcus King, Jacob Eoff Sen., James Linn, Aaron Malick, Hendrick Van Arsdalen, John and George Teeple, Guisbert Sutfin, Abraham Montanyea and Mary Alex- ander. The total amount subscribed was about three himdred and fifty pounds. The church was built on land donated by Jacob Eo£F, senior; it stood until early in this century when it was taken down, its abuse during the Revolutionary war having so weakened the walls as to have rendered them dangerous. Its location was a little southeast of the present Presbyterian church; the burial ground of that denomination originally sur- rounded the edifice of St. Paul's, and in it are interred many members of that Lutheran flock, including Johannes Moelich and his son, Aaron. Among the heir-looms of the "Old Stone House is the altar cloth of this church, which is pre- served as an interesting relic of the days of the family's German ancestry. With the turn of the century the Lutherans of Bedminster had in numbers become a feeble folk, and by the year 1806 St. Paul's communion appears to have fallen into a moribund condi- tion. This is shown by the original draft, now before me, in the handwriting of Pastor Grafi", of the will of John Appelman, dated in that year. The testator must have died an old man, as in 1767 he was elected a vestryman of this church "in Bedminster town," with Aaron Malick, Mark King, Peter Melick, Jacob Eoff, David King and others. This instrument, which constitutes Aaron's son, Daniel, one of the executors, recites : It always has been my will and Intention since Providence gave to me no Heirs of my Body, to give and make a certain sum in my Last Will for the Best of our Lutheran church at Pluckamin to uphold our holy Religion, but since by all human appearance our particular Denomination in Pluckamin as Lutheran 94 The Story of an Old Farm. will soon lose ground on account of the smallness of its Professors, it is, there- fore, now my Will and Intention, not to Limit the proposed sum of One hundred Pounds, intended to our church at Pluckainin only, but to give myne assist- ance in general towards upholding our lioly Religion under the assistance of a merciful God in all our united Lutheran churches in these Parts * * * * These ancient echoes of the walls of Zion are carrying us on mach too fast. We must return to the dates appropriate to the regular progression of events in the story of our ancestor's life. Before doing so, however, we will make one final reference to these interesting Lutheran congregations. In the royal charter granted by George III. in 17G7, ''to the Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of the united Churches of Zion and St. Paid," the following names appear as its petitioners; Lucas Dipple, David King, Jacob EoflF, John Appelman, Leonard Streit, Conrad Meizner, Aaron Malick, Jacob Volser, Mark King, Christofer Teeple and John Teeple, all being residents of the townships of Bridgewater, Bedminster and Bernards, in Somerset county. It will be seen that Johannes always adhered to the German spell- ing of his name. As is shown by the St. Paul's subscription list as well as by the petition for the charter, his oldest son, who had made his advent in this country as "Ehrenreich Moelich," now appears with his name anglicized to "Aaron Malick." In all the letters, bonds and papers in my possession bearing his signa- ture the name is spelled as above. The same may be said of his brother, Andrew. Johannes, his sons and their posterity have written their names with varied spelling ; their signatures appear as Moelich, Melich, Malick, Melegh, Meelick, Mellick and Melick. As late as 1805, old pastor Graff of Zion church spelled it in the old book of record, Moelich, while away back in 1770 the Rev. Peter Muhlenberg — the afterwards distinguished Revolutionary general — wrote the name in the same old book as Melick. As Shakespeare seems to have been a little uncertain in the spelling of his patronymic, we may excuse the same doubts in the early members of this old family during the transi- tional period from the German to the American. Even at this late day there is no uniformity in the spelling, as it is found in New York and New Jersey, MeUick, Malick and IMelick, and in Pennsylvania Moelich, Malick and Melick, though in this latter state the accent is often placed on the first syllable and the divi- sion is made between the 1 and i, thus giving it the sound as if Changes in Johannes' Family. 95 spelled with two Vs. Rector GraiF, referred to above, judging from the church register, was often at a loss as to the spelling of his own cognomen. It is written Graff, Graf, Graaff and Graaf. The year 1751 approaches — one of the most important, per- haps, in the family annals, as it is the one in which Johannes finally decided where to plant the permanent homestead. Mean- while let us consider the changes that have taken place in his flock since the arrival in America. Aaron, the oldest son — the great-grandfather of the writer — has grown to be a man of twenty-six years and is still unmarried. Veronica Gerdrutta (Fanny), who is now twenty years old, as we have seen, has married her father's partner, Jacob Kline, who was born in Ger- many on the sixth of March, 1714. Their first child John William is now beginning to walk and talk, having been born on the fifth of January, 1750. Johannes' second son Andrew has reached majority, while his second daughter Maria is just budding into womanhood, being eighteen years old. Since reaching America two*sons have been born — Philip on the ninth of October, 1736, and Peter on the fifth of December, 1739. CHAPTER VIII. Purchase of the '■'■Old Farm^'' in 1751 — The Title, and Early Neiv Jersey History. And now the current of our history changes. The stream that has heretofore taken wild leaps from America to Europe, from Germany to Pennsylvania, will for a time flow peacefully between pastoral banks, amid the pleasant vales and gently swelling hills of East Jersey. Later on, when England has let loose the dogs of war upon her American subjects, it will rush through wild and turbulent scenes. But for some years to come this little river of narration will flow tranquilly in quiet haunts, skirting broad meadow spaces, meandering through retired vil- lages, and turning the wheels of busy mills seated in deep val- leys ; telling the pleasant story, as it flows, of old Bedmins ter, and its transformation from a wilderness — the home of bear, deer and primitive settler — to a rich agricultural country, peopled by a well-ordered and prosperous community. Since the arrival of Johannes in New Jersey he had been in search of a location that would meet all the requirements of a permanent home. His needs were not confined to good agricul- tural lands ; a water power was also desired, advantageously situated for establishing a tannery. In 1751 Bedminster town- ship in vSomerset county was decided upon as his future place of residence. On the first of November in that year he pur- chased of George Leslie of Perth Amboy three hundred and sixty-seven acres of wild or forest land, having a front of about three-quarters of a mile on the north branch of the Raritan river. The following is the description shown in the deed : Beginning at the Easter most corner of Daniel Axtell's land, where it touches Peapack river, below a log house that John Bun! now lives in. Thence running The Original Boundary of the Farm. 97 South, seventy-three degrees West, along the said Axtell's line, sixty chains to a corner of the land William Hoagland now possesses, belonging unto the said George Leslie. Thence North, forty-eight chains. Thence South, seventy-six degrees. West forty -nine chains. Thence North and by East, thirty-two chains. Thence North, seventy-six degrees, East fifty-nine chains to Lawrence's brook. Thence down the said brook and Peapack river to the first mentioned place of beginning. Bounded East by the said river, Southerly by said Axtell's land, and on all the other sides by the land belonging unto the said George Leslie. The confines of the property as relating to roads and adjoin- ing owners nowadays would be defined as follows : The descrip- tion commences at a point where the Mine brook, or Lamington road, crosses the north branch of the Raritan, which river was the eastern boundary of the estate. From there the line followed the centre of this road to a point in the west boundary of the touse-lot of Clark D. Todd, in the village of the Lesser Cross Roads (Bedminster). Thence, northerly, to a hickory tree stand- ing on the side of the Peapack road, near the gate, or entrance, to what was lately the homestead farm of Abram D. Huff. Thence along this road to the Holland road, where, turning west, the line followed the latter road to the southwest corner of the Opie Farm. Here the Holland road bears north of west, but the line continued westerly, on the left of the highway, to a corner of lands, now or late of Henry Woods. Thence north- erly, following Woods' line, and crossing the Holland road, it extended twenty-one hundred and twelve feet to a comer of land, now or late of Edward Hight. Thence, easterly, thirty-eight hundred and ninety-four feet to a point in the Peapack brook near the head of Schomp's mill-pond, from where the line con- tinued down the brook and the north branch of the Raritan river to the place of beginning. By the above it will be seen that the original purchase, in addition to the one hundred and forty acres now constituting the farm, embraced so much of the village of Bedminster as lies north of the Lamington road ; a portion of the Huff farm on the Peapack road ; and all of the Opie, and a portion of the Hight and Woods farms on the Hol- land road. The price paid for this property was '' seven hundred and fifty- four pounds current money of the province, at eight shillings per ounce." This last clause of the consideration materially modifies the cost of the land. Money at eight shillings to the ounce meant 7 98 The Story of an Old Farm. a considerable depreciation from the standard values. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries English silver was coined on the basis of five shillings and two pence per ounce. The sil- ver coin mostly in use in the American colonies was the Spanish milled dollar or " piece of eight," which the English mint found to be worth four shillings and six pence sterling, or one pound equalling four dollars and forty-four and four-ninths cents. This was established as the standard relative value. But early in the eighteenth century the weight and quality of the Spanish milled dollar did not continue to realize this ratio. The circula- tion of clipped and inferior coins rapidly depreciated all cur- rency values, hence, as Professor Sumner of Yale college, says, " Any such rating as eight shillings to the ounce was only one stage in the various grades of depreciation ; it was a conven- tional attempt to compromise on a standard of weight allowing some depreciation." This rating consequently reduced the pound sterling from four dollars and forty-four and four-ninths cents to three dollars and fourteen and one-quarter cents. Thus we find that the actual consideration for the purchase of the Bedminster land was twenty-three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and forty- four cents, or about six dollars and forty-five cents an acre. With Johannes' acquisition of this property, issues may be said to be joined between the reader and the writer. The story of the " Old Farm " will now commence for we have at last reached the source of the narrative. Perhaps it will interest some of Johannes' posterity to learn something of the title to this little portion of mother earth, from which so many members of the family have been nurtured. It is readily told, as, previous to the Leslie conveyance, the holders of the land had been but few. The Indians, of course, as far as Europeans know, were the first — the Naraticongs, a clan of the Lenni-Lenape, or Delawares, a branch of the great Algonquin family. All the lands of New Jersey at the time of the first settlement by the whites were vested by right of occupation and possession in these aborigines. The country lying between the Hudson and the Lenni-WihitfucJc, as they called the Delaware river, was named by them, " Scheyichhi." Whether these natives were, like the trees, indigenous to the. soil, or themselves owned the land as conquerors of a dispossessed race, is a vexed question ; as is also that other question which The Raritan Indians. 99 has been debated for so many years, whether Indians are des- cended from the Jews, the Welsh, the Mongols or the Malays. The Algonquins embraced about a quarter of a million souls j they were divided into many tribes, among which were the Mohigans, Delawares, Micmacs, Illinois, Monseys, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes and Miamis. They occu- pied much of the country lying between Chesapeake bay and the St. Lawrence river, almost surrounding their hereditary enemies, the Huron-Iroquois family. These latter embraced the Five Nations of New York, the Hurons of Upper Canada, and the Tuscaroras of North Carolina, who had joined the confeder- ated tribes. The clan of the Delawares roaming the country north of the Raritan, as has been said, were the NaraticongSj though the whites gave them the name of the river along which they were located. Their dress was a blanket, or skin, thrown over the shoulders, deer-skin fastened with thongs about the legs, and the feet covered with moccasins of the same material, so dressed as to be soft and pliable, being ornamented with quills and wampum beads. At the time of the settlement of Bedmin- ster there were comparatively few natives in that part of the prov- ince ; those remaining were of a friendly character, and proved of great service to the settlers in supplying them with game, skins and furs. The haunts of the tribe had been originally on the head waters of the Raritan, which O'Callaghan's History of New Netherlands describes as '' a rich and fertile valley situated between two high mountains, some distance the one from the other, through which flowed a fresh-water river that disem- boughed in the Navesink Bay." O'Callaghan further states that some thirty years after the Raritans were first known to Europeans their provisions were destroyed by a freshet, and they were repeatedly harrassed by the Sankhicans. Consequently they moved farther down the river, making a treaty of amity with the Dutch, which they preserved even when the other tribes were retaliating for the massacre of the Indians on the west bank of the Hudson. They established their principal seat where is now Piscataway, in Middlesex county, and here were living their two chiefs, Canackawack and Thingorawis, when, in 1677, they conveyed to the whites their lands in that vicinity. LOFC. 100 Tiic Story of an Old Farm. That at one time the savages must have been in plenteous numbers in the Bedminster neighborhood is shown by the traces of them still to be found. The "Old Farm" has produced a generous crop of stone implements and arrow-heads planted by the aborigines in ante-European days. It is Hawthorne who writes of the " exquisite delight of picking up for one's self an arrow-head that was dropped centuries ago and has never been handled since, and which we thus receive directly from the hands of the red hunter. Such an incident builds up again the Indian village and its encircling forest, and recalls the painted chief, the squaws, and the children sporting among the wigwams, while the little wind-rocked papoose swings from the branch of a tree." All this, you will say, is quite foreign to the subject ! Yes, you are right ! but, much earlier in these pages, you must have learned that your scribe has a vagrant fancy — a mind that is easily seduced from the dry detail of a chain of title by the picture of a dusky Indian, with wampum belt and feathered crest, lurking beneath the shadows of the grand congregation of trees of primitive Bedminster. Of the extinguishment of the claims of the red men, it is necessary to say but little. The modes of procedure in such cases were much the same in all portions of the colonies. Gen- erally the usual number of blankets, jugs of rum, strings of wampum, guns and handfuls of powder were exchanged for treaties and deeds which conveyed great areas of territory. In New Jersey the early settlers, before acquiring the legal title to their purchases, were obliged to satisfy the claims of the natives. The Indian title to the territory which embraced the "Old Farm" was conveyed to John Johnstone and George Willocks on the twenty-ninth of October, 1701, by Tallquapie, Nicolas and Elalie. The deed called for thirty-one hundred acres, but on being surveyed the area conveyed was found to contain over ten thousand, as it included all the land Ij'ing between the north branch of the Raritan and the Lamington rivers, and a point above the Morris county line and the crest of the first mountain below Pluckamin ; — but more of this hereafter. According to Doctor Abraham ]\Iessler, Somerset's first historian, the earliest Indian sale in the county of lands lying north of Bound Brook was in 1683. Among the papers of the late Ralph The Indian Conference at Easton. 101 Voorhees is ca deed dated in 1723, made by Coion, Nutomus and Quaton, three Delawares. It conveyed two hundred acres of land lying near the Millstone river — part of the Peter Sonmans tract — and is thought to be the last Indian conveyance. As the purchases from the natives multiplied they gave rise to complications and disputes. In addition, during the French wars the agents of Louis XV. intrigued with the Indians, caus- ing violent outbreaks in Pennsylvania and exciting ferment among the natives of northern New Jersey. The authorities deemed it expedient to appoint commissioners to confer with the tribes in order to ascertain and remove aU causes of discontent. A series of conferences were held, extending from 1756 to 1758, at Crosswicks, Burlington and Easton, the final one being held at the last place, when Governor Bernard, together with the lieuten- ant-governor of Pennsylvania and five commissioners, met in convention five hundred and seven Indian delegates from four- teen different tribes. This resulted in conveyances being made which it was supposed entirely freed and discharged the prov- ince from all native claims. In 1832, however, the New Jer- sey legislature appropriated two thousand dollars to pay forty Indians — the last remnant of their tribe — for a claim they made as to their hunting and fishing rights, which they considered had not been included in the transfer at Easton. The " Colonial History of New Jersey" bears testimony to the fact of there always having been the most equitable dealings between the Jer- sey people and the Indians. The Six Nations, at a meeting held for the purpose of confirming the acts of the Easton confer- ence, honored the governor of the province by calling him Sagorighweyoghsta, or the " Great Arbiter or Doer of Jus- tice." The people of Somerset — the descendants of its first settlers — have always reflected with much pride on their clean and wholesome record in all' Indian transactions. They delight in remembering the words of one of their county's most gifted sons, Samuel L. Southard, uttered before the legislature, on the occasion of the purchase of the native hunting and fishing rights, before referred to. ''It is a proud fact in the history of New Jersey," said the senator, " that every foot of her soil has been obtained from the Indians by fair and voluntary purchase and transfer — a fact that no other state of the Union, not even the land which bears the name of Penn, can boast of." 102 The Story of an Old Farm. On this occasion the red men were respresented by Shawrisk- Jiekung, or Wilted Grass, a Delaware Indian of pure native blood. He was a graduate of Princeton college, having been educated at the expense of the Scotch Missionary society, which had given him the name of Bartholomew S. Calvin. At the age of twenty-three he entered the Continental army to fight for independence, and at the time he presented to the legislature the petition for pay for the Indian fishing rights, he was upwards of eighty years old. In advocating the claim of his people he warmly indorsed the just tribute paid to the state by Mr. South- ard. The aged Indian closed his address with the following words, testifying to the honorable policy and actions which had distinguished the people of New Jersey in all their treatment of and dealings with the aborigines : "Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle;* not an acre of our land have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for themselves and need no comment. They place the character of New Jersey in bold relief and bright example to those states within whose territorial limits our brethren stiU remain. Nothing save benisons can fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni-Lcnajw. There may be some who would despise an Indian benediction ; but when I return to my people and make known to them the result of my mission, the ear of the Great Sovereign of the Universe, which is still open to our cry, will be penetrated with our invocation of blessings upon the generous sons of New Jersey." The manner of the white man's acquiring possession of and title to lands in New Jersey has been often and variously told ; it is always an interesting story. All historians agree in naming Friday, the fourth of September, 1609, as being the day on which New Jersey soil was first pressed by the feet of Europeans. On the preceding day Hcnrick Hudson, in his little Dutch '^ Vhe- hoat" the *' Half Moon," entered the Lower bay, and the next *Calvin's statement that not a drop of Indian blood had been spilled in battles with Jerseymen is almost, if not literally, true. In the early days of the Dutch occupation of New Amsterdam there were individual instances of murders of whites and Indians, and a few skirmishes took place on the banks of the Hudson and Delaware between natives and traders. But no state of war ever existed between the English colonists and the New Jersey Indians. So states Samuel AUinson — an excellent authority. The Fiest European's Grave in New Jersey. 103 day, dropping anchor in the Horse Shoe, in four and a half fathoms of water and two cable lengths from the Monmouth beach, sent some of his men on shore to discover what manner of men were the natives, and whether they were kindly disposed. When the crew landed they saw '^a, great store of men, women and children who gave them some tobacco and some dried cur- rants." The natives were dressed *'some in mantles of feathers and some in skins of diverse sorts of good furres. They had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper they did wear about their necks." When the Half Moon again crossed the bar, her sails spread- ing for the homeward voyage, she left one of her company lying at the foot of a stunted cedar on Sandy Hook, filling the first white man's grave in New Jersey. John Coleman, with four shipmates, on the sixth of September explored the harbor in a small boat. Penetrating " two leagues to an open sea" (Newark bay), he reported that the bordering lands " were as pleasant with Grasse and Flowers and goodly Trees as any they had scene, and very sweet smells came from them." While return- ing, the fateful arrow of a treacherous red man ended Coleman's voyaging for this world. And now, after nearly three centuries, the miniature waves of the Lower bay are still sobbing on their yellow sands lullabies to the lonely sleeper of this pioneer grave, while on the outer beach the Atlantic rollers sound eternal requiems. The Hollanders on learning of this fair country dispatched other vessels to America, and by the year 1620 had made settlements in New Jersey at the mouth of the Hudson river, and were soon in peaceful possession, and for forty-three years occupied what is now New York and New Jersey, under the title of New Netherlands. After establishing New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, the Dutch soon made their way westward, and to some extent occupied what is now known as the counties of Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Monmouth and Middlesex. It is believed, however, that earlier than the year 1681 there were in Somerset county no permanent inhabitants. All of this time the English claimed title to this portion of North America, resting their right on the voyage of the Cabots, who in 1497-8, sailed along the coast from New Foundland to Florida. Under the English law, discovery and conquest 104 The Story of an Old Fahm. secured to the British Crown title to all heathen and uncivilized countries. In the year 1664 the English expelled the Dutch government from New Netherlands. Having conquered the country, the king's claim now rested, not only on discovery, but by right of conquest as well. James, Duke of York, received from his royal brother, Charles II., on the twelfth of March, 1664, a patent for an area of territory which included what is now New Jersey. He took immediate possession, thus establish- ing the first link in a chain of title emanating directly from the King of England. The duke's grant conveyed not only prop- erty but the powers of government, and, as said Courtlandt Parker in his address at the bi-centennial celebration of the Proprietors of East New Jersey, in 1884, " No other title to the soil of New Jersey than his was ever recognized by the law." The Duke of York not long after this, on the twenty-fourth of June, conveyed that portion of the land included within the present boundaries of New Jersey, together with the accompany- ing powers of government, to John, Lord Berkeley, Baron of Strat- ton,and to Sir George Carteret, of Saltrum in Devon. The nominal consideration was ten shillings, and an annual rent of one pep- percorn, to be paid on the day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, if legally demanded. The true incentive for the conveyance was the desire to reward the grantees for their dis- tinguished loyalty during the civil war. The territory was named Nova Cesarea, or New Jersey, in honor of Cartaret who, while governor of the channel-island of Jersey, had defended it valiantly against the parliament soldiers. He was the last com- mander within the circuit of the British Isles to lower the royal standard. Sir John Berkeley had been an exile with Charles II., and was raised to the peerage on the restoration. The word Jersey is a corruption of " Czar's-ey,^^ or " Cceser's-ey,''^ meaning the island of Csesar. It was intended that Nova Cesarea should be properly the title, but, as the population of the province increased, the people preferred its translated name rather than the classical appellation. At the time the duke transferred New Jersey to these noblemen he had but a slender acquaintance with the value of what he called his " plantations," but it was soon made known to him that his act had been one of haste and improvidence. Governor Nicolls, who was already representing^ The Origin of New Jersey's Name. 105 him on this side of the water, remonstrated warmly with the duke against the cession of so important a portion of his Ameri- can possessions. So the king and his brother at once bestirred themselves in an endeavor to remedy the error. Lord Berkeley, a victim to the variable moods of princes, was already out of favor and office. In order to restore himself to the good graces of his royal masters, he readily acceded to a proposition to sur- render New Jersey in exchange for a patent of Delaware terri- tory ; he also visited Sir George Carteret, who was then in Ireland as lord treasurer, and prevailed upon him to do the same* The proposed exchange was all but completed, when some ugly questions arose between the Duke of York and Lord Baltimore as to priority of title to the Delaware lands; consequently, the transfer of New Jersey to the duke was not consummated. Had this been done there is every reason to believe that at present the state of New York would include that of New Jersey. In August, 1665, there arrived in the Kills the ship "Philip," having on board several families, and Philip de Carteret, Seigneur of the Manor of La Hogue, in the parish of St. Peter, Jersey, who bore the commission of the owners as governor of the province. The baronet, Sir George, and Philip were fourth cousins, being the great-grandsons, respectively, of Edward and Richard, sons of Philip de Carteret, Seigneur of St. Ouen, Island of Jersey, who died in 1500.* The new governor landed at what is now Elizabeth, where he established his home and capi- tal, naming the place in honor of the Lady Elizabeth, wife of his cousin. Sir George Carteret. This gentlewoman, the good god- mother of one of New Jersey's most ancient towns, though living in a profligate court, was possessed of rare virtues. Pepys, in. his diary of 1660, bears testimony that " she cries out against the vices of the court, and how they are going to set up plays^ already. She do much cry out upon these things, and that which she believes will undo the whole nation." This was the third * Governor Philip Carteret, in 1681, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Richard Smith, of Sraithtown, Long Island, and widow of Captain William Law- rence, of Fews Neck, Long Island. He built a large white house on Elizabeth creek, in the centre of the present city of Elizabeth, in which he died in 1682. His widow, in 1685, married Colonel Richard Townley, a leading citizen of Eliz- abethtown, who subsequently sold the governor's house to Peter Schuyler, who converted it into the " Ship " tavern. 106 The Story of an Old Farm. settlement made in New Jersey, and the first by the English. The statement has frequently been made that before the found- ing of Bergen, in 1618, by the Dutch and Scandanavians, a Turkish family named Houghubot had settled at Turkey, now New Providence, in Union county. This story has no historical foundation. The fact remains that the claims of Elizabeth for being thefirst English-speaking settlement in the state have never been refuted. When Governor Carteret landed he found on the site of his new capital four families, as the nucleus of a population. These people claimed title to the land they occupied. In the previous year a large area of territory had been purchased from Staten Island Indians by some. Long Islanders. Governor Nicolls, act- ing as the deputy of the Duke of York, patented, in December, 1664, this Indian purchase to John Ogden, Luke Watson and their associates, eighty in all. At the time of the governor's issuing this grant he had no knowledge of the duke's having divested himself of all rights to the lands in question by the con- veyance to Berkeley and Carteret. There is abundant evidence that Governor Carteret, on discovering that Nicolls had patented so valuable a portion of his principals' domain, was greatly at a loss what course to pursue. At first, it appears that to some extent he conceded to these prior settlers their rights under the grant, and, unhappily for the future comfort of himself and his grantees, attempted to disarm opposition by following a conciliatoi-y course. In furtherance of this policy, before 1666 he purchased, individually, John Bailey's interest in the patent, and acted in concert with the other owners. But event- ually the lords-proprietors refused to recognize that they had any rights in the premises, claiming that the grant by Nicolls was void and of no avail, as it was impossible that he, acting as deputy, could pass a title that no longer vested in the duke. This grant has become^ historically known as the Elizabethtown patent. The claims of Berkeley and Carteret and their succes- sors came frequently in conflict with those of the Elizabethtown associates and their assigns, giving rise to legal commotions that continued until the Revolution. The history of these complex- ities is embalmed in a suit, instituted on the thirteenth of April, 1745, by the Earl of Stair and others against '^Benjamin Bond The ''Concessions and Agreements." 107 and some other Persons of Elizabefchtown." The bill filed at that time in Chancery made a voluminous document, which was pub- lished by James Parker in 1747, and, familiarly known as "The Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery," is to be found in the library of the New Jersey Historical Society. The recipients of this princely gift of New Jersey from the merry King Charles, and his more churchly but none the less vicious brother, James, soon found that to give value to their estate it was necessary to secure inhabitants. In the autumn of 1665, through their representative, Philip Carteret, the newly- arrived governor, they wisely dispatched agents into New Eng- land, who published what was known as the "Concessions and Agreements of the Lords-Proprietors." These publications, by their liberal inducements, such as property in estates and liberty in religion, resulted in quite a migration to New Jersey. The agreements as to lands were very advantageous to settlers. They stipulated that the area of the province should be divided into parcels of from twenty-one hundred to twenty-one thousand acres. These plots were to be subdivided into seven parts, one of which was to be reserved for the lords-proprietors, while the remaining six-sevenths of each plot were to be held for distribu- tion, free of cost except quit-rents, among such persons as might come to occupy and plant the same. These latter were called headlands, and the fundamental rule by which they might be acquired was in this wise: all persons arriving in the pro- vince within a certain limited time were entitled to receive grants for a stipulated number of acres, paying to Berkeley and Carteret a yearly quit-rent of a half-penny per acre. The quan- tity of land to be granted to settlers depended upon the time of their coming, the size of their families and the number of people they brought with them, either as free servants, indented ser- vants, or slaves : the number of acres per head varied from thirty to one hundred and fifty. The immediate result of the publication of these " Concessions" in New England was the advent of people who established three important settlements in New Jersey. Among those who removed to the province in response to this invitation were John Martin, Charles Gilman, Hugh Dun and Hopewell Hull. J\[ak- ing their way westward, along the Indian path that stretched 108 The Story of an Old Farm. from Elizabethtown-point to the Delaware, they reached an attractive spot on the high levels bordering the Raritan, where a few log huts had already been erected on the site of an old native village. Being pleased with the locality, they applied for, and received on the eighteenth of December, 166G, a grant for a large area of territory. To this point they brought their own and numerous other families from Piscataqua, in the province of Massachusetts — now Maine, — of which the name, Piscataway, is a corruption. Of this place, more, hereafter. Another consequence of the distribution of copies of the "Con- cessions " in the East, was the arrival in New Jersey of John Pike, Daniel Pierce and seven associates, from Newbury, Massa- chusetts. They entered into an agreement on the eleventh of December, 1666, whereby, on the third of December, 1667, they received from Governor Carteret and some of the Elizabeth- town associates a grant of land, embracing what is now the township of Woodbridge. They, as the representatives of at least sixty families, on the first of June, 1669, were granted a charter creating a township covering six miles square. The name of their new settlement was derived from their late pastor, John Woodbridge, of Newbury. In laying out this township it was agreed that Amboy-point should be reserved, to be disposed of by the lords-proprietors as the seventh part to which they Were entitled under the " Concessions," and which, in the origi- nal agreement with Pierce, Pike and others it was settled should stand for one thousand acres of upland and meadow. This avail- able and attractive spot was afterwards selected as the place of government. Among the persons allotted lands by the governor and his associates, and the most of whom, it is believed, settled on their estates, were the following : John Pike, Daniel and Joshua Pierce, Obadiah Ayres, Henry Jaques, Thomas Bloom- field, Elisha Parker, Richard Worth, .John Whitaker, Jonathan Dunham, Hugh Dun and Robert A^an Quellen. Most of the new- comers were from Newbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts, though a few families had planted themselves at this point in 1665, having reached the province with Governor Carteret by the ship, Philip. John Pike was the ancestor of that General Zebulon Montgomery Pike who in the year 1806 wrote his name among the clouds on one of the loftiest peaks of the Early Settlers at Woodbridge and Newark. 109 Rocky mountains. Thomas Bloomfield was the ancestor of one of New Jersey's later governors. Obadiah Ayres and Richard Worth were sons-in-law of John Pike, who may be called the patriarch of the settlement. Worth, either because of his name or his virtues, seems to have been much more highly esteemed by his father-in-law than was Ayres, as John Pike in his will left the latter six-pence, while the former received the munificient bequest of one shilling. Another legacy of this will is interesting, as showing the scarcity and value of litera- ture in those early times. He left to his son, Thomas, a '' half right in my book, writ by David Dickson." Robert Van Quel- len, also known as De La Prie and La Prairie, emigrated from Holland, but is said to have been a Norman, coming originally from Caen. He early became an important man in the colony. Governor Carteret secured his services as a member of the first council, and for many years he was surveyor-general of East New Jersey. In addition to his holdings in Woodbridge town- ship he became a large owner of lands on the upper Raritan, and his name is a frequent one in connection with old New Jersey titles. The third New England migration was as follows : In the winter of 1665 and 1666 some of the inhabitants of Guilford and Branford, in Connecticut, finding themselves in need of larger areas of farming lands, sent a deputation to report on the condi- tion and prospects of the country in the neighborhood of Eliza- bethtown. Their impressions being favorable, in the following May thirty families, under the leadership of Robert Treat, pur- chased of the Indians a tract embracing the present townships of Newark, Springfield, Livingston, Orange, Bloomfield and Cald- well. Their new town on the Passaic was first named Milford, but two years later, with other arrivals, came an aged con- gregational minister, Abraham Pierson. At a salayy of thirty pounds per annum, he was the faithful pastor of the colony until his death. In his honor the name was changed to Newark, after the town on the Yarrow, in England, where this minister had been ordained. These settlers from Connecticut were, for a time, disinclined to recognize the rights of the lords- proprietors, and preferred resting the claim to their holdings on the Indian title. They, by this disafi"ection, materially added 110 The Story of an Old Farm. to the complications growing out of the conflicting inter- ests of Berkeley and Carteret and those claiming under the Nicolls' grant. The first general assembly of the province, composed of the governor, council and house of burgesses, convened in Eliza- beth, in 1668, and, with the exception of occasional meetings at Woodbridge, Middletown, and Piscataway, continued assembling there until 1682. In 1686, it met at Perth Amboy, and with but few exceptions alternated between that place and Burlington until the state capital was established at Trenton. Lord John Berkeley was an old man, and having been greatly disappointed in the financial results of his American investment, he decided to dispose of, and did, on the eighteenth of March, 1673, sell his share in New Jersey to two English Quakers, John Fenwicke and Edwaz'd Billinge, for one thousand pounds. These purchasers quarrelled as to their respective interests, but, under the arbitration of William Penn, an amicable division was made, Fen wick receiving one-tenth as his share. Soon after this, Bill- inge becoming bankrupt, his interest was sold to Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, as trustees for his creditors. They, in conjunction with Fenwicke, divided the whole proprietorship into one hundred equal parts, the trustees placing their ninety shares in the market. Before this time — on the twenty-ninth of July, 1674 — a new grant had been given by the king to the Duke of York, and by the duke to Sir George Carteret and to the grantees of Lord John Berkeley. The necessity was occa- sioned by the treaty of Westminster, in 1674, in which New Jer- sey was ceded to the King of England by the Dutch, New Netherlands having been captured and occupied by them during the previous year. In 1675, John Fenwicke, with a large com- pany, sailed from London in the ship " Griffin," and landing near the head of • Delaware bay, established on its eastern shore the town of Salem. This was the first English settlement in West Jersey. The second one was made two years later when a party of immigrants, principally Yorkshire and London Quakers, landed from the ship " Kent," and laid out a town which they first called New Beverly, then Bridlington, afterwards Burlington. In the second grant of New Jersey, made by the Duke of York, a dividing line was mentioned as running from Barnegat creek to The Division of the Province. Ill the Rancocus. From this it would appear that previous to the time of issuing the patent Berkeley and Carteret had agreed upon a division of the province. It was not, however, until the first of July, 1676, that a formal partition of New Jersey was made between Carteret and the Quaker proprietors, it being effected by a conveyance known as the Quintipartite deed, because of its comprehending Sir George, Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Billinge. Thenceforth Carteret's share of the province was what has since been known as East Jersey. It embraced all the territory lying east of a line, which, starting at a point on the Atlantic coast, on the east side of Little Egg Harbor inlet, ran northwesterly to a point in the Delaware river a few miles below Minisink island, in Sussex county. This line crossed the Raritan river just west of Somerville, the point being still marked by a surveyor's stone standing by the roadside, on the south bank of the river, nearly opposite a residence built some years ago by John V. Veghte. CHAPTER IX. The Twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey — George WiU locks and the Peapack Patent. In the year 1679, Sir George Carteret died. By his will he devised his East Jersey property to trustees, empowering them to sell the same for the payment of his debts. For over two years East Jersey government was administered in the name of ''The Right Honorable the Lady Elizabeth Carteret, Baroness, Widow, the relict and sole Executrix of the Right Honorable Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet, deceased, late Lord Proprietor of the said Province, and Grandmother and Guardian of Sir George Carteret, Baronet, Grandson and Heir of the said Sir George Carteret deceased, the present Lady Proprietrix of the Province aforesaid." In 1682 the trustees, together with the widow as executrix, in consideration of thirty-four hundred pounds, conveyed all of East Jersey to twelve purchasers, William Penn, Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groom, Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, Ambrose Rigg, John Haywood, Hugh Hartshome, Clement Plumsted and Thomas Cooper. They, in their turn, sold one-half of their undivided interests to twelve associates, Robert Barclay, Edward Billinge, Robert Turner, James Brain, Arent Sonmans, William Gibson, Gawen Lawrie, Thomas Barker, Thomas Warne, James, Earl of Perth; Robert Gordon and John Drummond. Thus was constituted the " Twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey," an association of land owners that has a corporate and active existence to this day. On the fourteenth of March, 1682, their title was further assured by a confirmatory deed from the Duke of York, giving to the proprietors all neces- sary powers for establishing a council and managing and govern- Origin of the Name Perth Amboy. 113 ing their estate or province. We now find that one undivided twenty-fourth part of East New Jersey is by these conveyances as fully and completely vested in each proprietor as if the terri- tory was a farm or a city lot. Each one had full power to alien- ate the whole or a portion of his interest, or the privilege of locating for himself certain lands which the joint proprietors would secure to him in severalty by a warrant, which acted as a release of the interests of his associates. It also expressed what amount or proportion of his common stock was severed and represented by these located lands. The " Twenty-Four Proprietors " established their seat of gov- ernment at Perth Amboy, deriving the name from the Earl of Perth — one of their number — and from Amho, the English cor- ruption of an Indian word which is generally believed to have meant point. The latter appears variously spelled in early documents; as Omjwgc, Embolic, Anihoyle and Amho. The late Thomas Gordon, of Trenton, considered the derivative of Amboy to be the Indian word Emboli — meaning hollow, like a bowl ; so named because of a depression in the ground, a little north of the city. The Scotch word Perth is said to be a corruption of Barr- Tatha, or the " height on the river Tay." It is on this river that the ancient city of Perth is situated. The new proprietors modified somewhat the " Concessions and Agreements" of their predecessors, though retaining many of their most important provisions. The liberal feature of offering headlands to settlers, free of cost except quit-rents, was retained and continued in force for a number of years. Very complete descriptions were published in Europe of the advantages that would accrue to adventurers who removed to the province ; the manner of the disposition of the lands was explained, and a full account given of the physical condition of the country. In these published descriptions detailed statements were made as to the "goodness and richness of the soil;" that the country was "well stored with deer, conies, wild fowl" and other game ; that the "sea-banks were well stored with a variety of fish, such as whales, cod, cole, hake, etc." ; and that " the bays and rivers were plentifully stored with sturgeon, great bass and other scale fish, eels and shell fish, such as oysters, etc., in great abundance, and easy to take." Much stress was laid on the fact of there 8 114 The Stouy of ax Old Farm. being safe and convenient harbors, affording excellent opportun- ities for the export of the products of the province, among which were enumerated whale-fins, bone and oil, and beaver, mink, raccoon and martin skins. After dwelling on the salubrity of the climate, the good temper of the Indians, and the manner and costs of setting out from the old country, the descriptions, or advertisements, closed with the following excellent advice to the prospective emigrants : All persons inclining unto those parts must know tluit in tlieir settlement there the_v will find their exercises. They must have their winter as well as summer. They must lahor hefore they reap; and, till their plantations he cleared (in summer time), they must expect (as in all those countries) the mosquitos, flies, gnats and such like, may in hot and fair weather give them some disturbance where people provide not against them. The mosquitoes seem to have been early recognized as among the most active of the iniiabitants of the new country. This is not the only time they are mentioned by the first settlers. John Johnstone — whose better acquaintance we shall shortly make — in a letter written in 1684, though "mightily well sat- isfied with the country," could not forbear referring to a little flea that was occasionally blown toward the Raritan from Eliza- bethtown by an east wind. The distribution abroad of these plans and prospectuses induced a considerable emigration from Europe, especially from Scotland, which country was under- going at that time great political convulsions. East Jersey is to this day greatly benefited by the Scotch blood that was then transfused into her veins. The unhappy scenes that, just before and after the year 1700, were enacted in the Haymarket of the gray-castled city of Edinburgh, and the hunting of poor refugees through the mists of the bleak Highlands of that grim, sea-beaten land, resulted in the planting among the hills of Somerset of a sturdy stock which speedily developed into the three strong Pres- byterian congregations of Bound lirook. Basking Ridge and Lam- ington; and in many ways the immigrant Scots have contributed to the individual strength and virtue of the people of that county. When East Jersey came under the dominion of the twenty- four proprietors, in 1682, their historian, William A. White- head, estimates the total population of the province to have been, thirty-five hundred in the towns and about fifteen hundred on the plantations. The towns then existing were as follows : Colonel Lewis Morris Founds Shrewsbury. 115 Shrewsbury, in Monmouth county. The township, embracing thirty thousand acres, had a population of about four hundred, among whom was Colonel Lewis Morris. He was a brother of that Richard Morris, who, flying from England to the province of New York at the time of the Restoration, received a grant in 1661 of three thousand acres on the Harlem river, which he called Morrisania; at his death. Colonel Lewis Morris came from Barbadoes, and assumed the guardianship of Richard's infant son, who in later life became governor of New Jersey. Colonel Morris married for his first wife, Tryntje Staats. His second wife was Tryntje's own niece, Sarah, daughter of Isaac Gouveraeur, whose wife, Sarah, was the daughter of Major Abraham Staats of Albany, and an East Indian ''Begum" or princess, whom the Major had married in Java. These two mar- riages brought to Colonel Morris three distinguished sons. By the first, General Lewis Morris who signed the " Declaration ;" by the second, Gouverneur Morris, and General Staats Morris who mar- ried the Duchess of Gordon ; the acquaintance of this Scotch noble- woman we shall make later in Bedminster. Before the time of the twenty -four proprietors coming into possession of East New Jersey Colonel Lewis Morris had established at Shrewsbury extensive iron-works, which gave occupation to about seventy slaves, in addition to white servants and employees. His grant, under date of 1676, covered thirty-five hundred and forty acres ; he named it Tinturn — now called Tinton — after his home in Britain, which was in the vale of Tinturn, in the extreme south of Monmouth- shire, Wales. There it was that Theodoric, Christian king of Glamorgan, vanquished the pagan Saxons, though so wounded that he died shortly after the battle, in the near-by parish of Matherne. "This is the vale," writes Gray, " that is the delight of my eyes and the very seat of pleasure." Morris was also instrumental in giving Monmouth county its name, he call- ing it after the Welsh shire. The name Monmouth is generally accepted as meaning, and shortened from, Monnow-raouth, the English town of Monmouth being situated on a tongue of land at the mouth of the river Monnow. MiDDLETOWN, covering about the same area as Shrewsbur^^, contained about five hundred people and many improved planta- tions. 116 Thk Story of an Old Farm. This township disputes with Bergen, in Hudson county, the claim of being the first permanent white settlement in New Jer- sey, and connected with the introduction of its Dutch occupation is a strangely romantic and interesting story. When Hendrick Hudson carried the news to Holland of the discoveries he had made in the new country, ships in numbers soon came sailing over the watery waste to visit this "goodly land." From then till now the ribs of many a stout craft have been battered to fragments on the bars and beaches of Sandy Hook. The first shipwreck known to have occurred at this point was as early as 1620, and connected with the stranding of the vessel there has come down to us an account of a most remarkable instance of the preservation of human life. On board was a young woman from Holland by the name of Penelope van Princis ; at least such was her maiden name, that of her husband, who accompanied her, being unknoA\Ti. Those of the ship's company who reached the shore in safety made their way -on foot to New Amsterdam (New York). Penelope's husband, being badly injured, was unable to undertake the jour- ney ; so she remained with him in the woods on Sandy Hook. Soon after the de])arture of their shipmates they were attacked by Indians, who left them for dead. The husband was, indeed, so, but the wife, though fearfully injured, revived. Her skull was fractured, and her left shoulder so cut and hacked that she never after had the use of that arm. Her abdomen had been laid open with a knife so that the bowels protruded and were only kept in place by her hands. Yet in this deplorable condi- tion she lived for several days in a hollow tree, sustaining life by eating bark, leaves and gum. At the end of a week Penelope was discovered by two Indians who were chasing a deer. One of them, an old man, moved by her condition and sex, conveyed her to his wigwam, near the present site of Middletown, where he di'essed her wounds and treated her with great kindness. Here she remained for some time, but, eventually, the Dutch of New Amsterdam, on learning that there was a white woman liv- ing with the natives in the woods beyond the great bay, came to her relief. Her preserver, who had cured her wounds and tenderly cared for her, interposed no objections to her rejoining her friends, by whom she was welcomed as one from the dead. The Settlement of Middletown. 117 Some time after, when in her twenty-second year, this young Dutch widow married a wealthy English bachelor of forty, named Richard Stout, a son of John Stout, a gentleman of good family of Nottinghamshire, England. This remarkable woman was the ancestress of the very large and important family of Stouts in New Jersey, and her history, you may be sure, is often told by her posterity. She survived her marriage eighty-eight years, attaining the extraordinary age. of one hundred and ten, and leaving at her death five hundred and two living descend- ants. After Penelope became Mrs. Stout she did not forget the fertile soil and natural beauties of the Nmi-ves-sing, or Nave- sink country, and there is every reason to believe that she was the means of interesting her husband in that locality. The descendants of these Monmouth pioneers claim that immediately after marriage they settled where is now Middletown, and that in 1648 they and six other families were the only white inhabit- ants of that region. The historian, Smith, says: '^A while after marrying to one Stout, they lived together at Middletown among other Dutch inhabitants." In April, l(i65. Governor Nicolls, as the representative of the Duke of York, patented the whole of Monmouth and part of Middlesex counties to Richard Stout and eleven associates, the patentees agreeing to " manure and plant the aforesaid land, and premises, and settle there one hundred families at least." The late ex-Governor Joel Parker is my authority for saying that this Monmouth patent authorized and put in operation the first local government in New Jersey of which we have any authentic record. The holders under this grant, as was the case with those holding under the one made by Nicolls to the Elizabethtown associates, came into frequent litig- ious conflicts with the grantees of Berkeley and Carteret. PiscATAWAY had about four hundred inhabitants, the township embracing nearly forty thousand acres. WoODBRiDGE contained about thirty thousand acres in the township, and had a population of six hundred. Elizabethtown, the seat of Carteret's government, possessed seven hundred inhabitants, with fifty thousand acres in the township. Newakk also had fifty thousand acres in the township, and a 118 The Story of an Old Farm. population of five hundred. In addition, it possessed jurisdiction over the plantations of Sandford, Kinj^sland, Berry and Pin- home, upon the Passaic and Hackensack rivers. The latter estate was at Secaucus, near Snake hill, and the name of the present Penhorn creek is derived from that of its owner. Will- iam Pinhorne was an Englishman who came to this country with Governor Edmund Andross in 1678. Establishing himself in New York city he became a successful merchant and occupied many positions of public trust. On removing to his estates in New Jersey, he was appointed to the king's council, and was chosen member of the assembly and judge of the supreme court. The Sandford, Berry and Kingsland plantations were at what is now known as Putherford, then called New Barbadoes' neck. This vicinity was first settled by Captain William Sandford, and Isaac Kingsland who came from the West Indies — hence the name. Bergen had three hundred inhabitants, and jurisdiction over several improved plantations on the bays, rivers and kills, besides over sixty thousand acres within its own township, which embraced all the present county of Hudson lying east of the Passaic river. Bergen was established in 1660. Among the earlier settlers were Cornelius Van Voorst, Englebert Steen- huysen, Tielman Van Vleck, Lourens Anndriessen (Van Bos- kerk), Christian Pieterse, Michael Jansen (Vreeland) and Gerrit Gerritsen (Van Wagenen). This is considered the most ancient permanent settlement in New Jersey, dwellings having been erected at Pavonia, within the confines of the township as after- wards established, as early as 1630. The latter name is derived from Michael Pauw, burgomaster of Amsterdam and Lord of Ach- tienhoven, who in that year obtained from the Indians a convey- ance of a large acreage, lying on the west shores of the Hudson. This is believed to be the first conveyance of lands in East Jer- sey. His title was further assured by the Dutch government, and its owner was created one of the original patroons of New Netherlands. Pauw gave his name to this territory, first latin- izing it into Pavonia, pauw in the Dutch, and^jaro in the Latin, meaning peacock. Why should not this proud bird, significant of the first legal occupation of New Jersey, be impressed on the great seal of the state I Subdivision of the Proprietors' Interests. 119 Authorities differ as to the origin of the name of Bergen. New- Jersey's earliest historian, Smith, derives its title from the capi- tal of Norway, there having been Scandinavians as well as Dutch among its early settlers. Barber, Whitehead, and Gordon accept this derivation, but Taylor, in his " Annals" considers Bergen op Zoom, in Holland, to have been the godfather of East Jersey's oldest town. Winfield shows that the towns of Bergen in both Nor- way and Holland received their names from their respective near- by hills. The New Jersey village being located on an eminence overlooking the marshes on the east and west, and the lowlands bordering the Hudson, he believes received its name from the same local circumstances, the word Bergen meaning hill. This seems by far the most reasonable explanation of the origin of the name. The first governor under the proprietors was Robert Barclay, one of the associates, who was appointed for life with the right of ruling by deputy. To represent him he selected Thomas Rudyard, a London attorney of distinction. On arriving out, in November, ]682, this deputy wrote home that he was delighted to find that the province was occupied by "a sober, professing people, wdse in their generation, and courteous in their behaviour." Before the end of 1683 Rudyard was superceded by Gawen Lawrie, whose successor was Lord Neil Campbell, who in turn was followed by Andrew Hamilton. In the autumn of 1690 Robert Barclay died, the power of governing reverting to the proprietors. Deputy-Governor Hamilton, who was then in England on a visit, thereupon, though after some delay, received the appointment of governor-in-chief. Many years had not gone by before the number of proprietors and the subdivision of their interests caused much disturbance and confusion in the manner of govern- ment, and the choice of governor was attended by great rivalry and discord. As each proprietor was at liberty to dispose of his propriety in as many parts as he pleased, these sales were frequently made in small fractions ; consequently the num- ber of proprietors was not only greatly augmented, but their dis- tribution in different countries caused much embarrassment. At this time New Jersey experienced its first political convulsion, finally resulting, in 1709, in an armed resistance to the authori- 120 The Story of an Old Farm. ties. It must be remembered that the people had no choice in the selection of the chief magistrate — that right devolved on the proprietors or owners of propriety interests. These individual holdings so multiplied as to almost render concerted action impossible. The following list of portions of shares acquired by George Willocks — of whom much more hereafter — will best exemplify the extent to which trading was done in these propriety rights ; 1702, January 23- _- 1692, February 15-- 1695, December 2- 1696, September 18- 1727, July 17 1725, October 10- -- 1708, July 6 1716, December 28- 1727, June 28 ORIGINAL rROPRIE'rOR. GRANTOR. Ambrose Rigg- Thos. Rudyard- Thos. Kudyard- Tlios. Rudyard- John Heywood John Heywood John Heywood John Heywood j Thomas Cooper Thos. Rudyard- Thomas Barker John Johnstone- - Benj. Rudyard — Robt. Wiiarton-- Margaret, widow of Sam'l Winder, mar- ries Geo. Willocks- - James Willocks dies, and devises to George Willocks Robt. Gordon .John Parker John Hamilton Thomas Gordon Andrew Job n stone - John .Johnstone QUANTITY. 1-5 of 19-20 of 1-24. 1-2 of 1-24. l-2of l-4of 1-24. 1-2 of 1-2 of 1-24. 3-4of l-8of 1-24. 1-64 of 1-24. 1-8 of 1-24. 1-16 of 1-24. 1-20 of 1-48 of 1-24. 1-8 of 1-24. 1-2 of 1-24. Willocks also purchased of William Violent the one-twentieth of Thomas Cooper's original twenty-fourth, the share being con- veyed to him and Andrew Hamilton with right of survivorship ; at Willock's death this interest vested in Hamilton as survivor. On the twentieth of February, 1698, George Willocks conveyed to Jeremiah Basse seven-eighths of one twenty-fourth. On the eighth of April, 1698, Governor Alexander Hamilton was succeeded by Jeremiah Basse. In the following year num- bers of the inhabitants refused to him obedience on the alleged discovery that his appointment had not received the prescribed form of royal approbation, nor the sanction of a sufficient number of proprietors. The disturbances were further increased by the colonists in the hope that continued agitations would provoke the Crown to deprive the proprietors of authority, in which case the land-owners thought to be able to rest their titles on the Indian grants, and thus be relieved from quit-rents. The New Jersey magistrates imprisoned some of these malcontents, whereupon other citizens rose in arms, broke open the jails, The Proprietors Abandon the Government. 121 and confusion and anarchy ensued. This condition of affairs was increased by certain of the proprietors reappointing Hamilton as governor. Those of the people who sympathized with Basse, refused support to the new administration, resulting in still greater turbulence. Justices were assaulted, sheriffs were wounded, and such general confusion prevailed among the people that the prop**ietors, weary of contentions, were glad to abandon their government, in 1702, to Queen Anne, reserviT^g, however, to themselves every other right that had been granted them. The proprietors, though their importance was much abridged, remained a powerful association of land owners, and the fountain head of the title to all the undisposed acres of East Jersey. The owners of West New Jersey, as the assigns of Lord John Berke- ley, having had equal difficulties in the government of their por- tion of the colony, joined with East New Jersey in the surrender of the right of ruling. The two divisions again became one, and, on the fourth of August, 1702, Lord Cornbury became the first governor under the Crown. Among the proprietors, and one of the original twelve, was John Heywood, a Quaker. His title to the one twenty-fourth part of East New Jersey emanated not only from the estate of Sir George Carteret — he held as well, in conjunction with his associates, a confirmatory grant from the Duke of York, dated the fourteenth of March, 1682. A' copy of a deed in my possession shows that on the twenty-third day of the same month Heywood transferred all his rights and interests in and to the province, to " Robert Burnet, of Lothentie, in Scotland, Gent." By an " In- denture," as the conveyance recites : Made the first day of July, in tlie five and thirtieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc., Anno Dom., 1683. Burnet upon receiving title to his share of East Jersey, con- veyed to James Willocks, " Doctor in Phisick" of Kenny, in the Kingdom of Scotland : " In consideration of" — so runs the deed — " the sum of one hundred and sixteen pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence, of good and lawful money of England, one undivided eighth part of his undivided twenty-fourth part of the said tract of land, and of all and every, the isles, islands, rivers, mines, minerals, woods, fish- ings, hawkings, huntings, fowlings, and all other royalties, profits, commodities and hereditaments, whatsoever, reserving always to the said Robert Burnet and 122 The Story of an Old Farm. his foresaids, the right of the g^overnment, simply and allonerly as it is now established in the persons of the Twenty -four Proprietors." It does not appear that Doctor James Willocks ever visited America. He applied for, and on the sixteenth of April, 1687, received from the joint proprietors a warrant, which confirmed to him in severalty four acres of land at Perth Amboy, and a tract of eight hundred and fifty acres, lying on the east side of the Millstone river at its conflux with the Raritan. Soon after this the doctor died, his brother, George, inheriting his real estate. In April, 1698, George Willocks sailed from England on the ship " Despatch, William Fiddler, Master." He reached Amboy with a cargo of goods belonging to the proprietors, of which he had charge, and he was also empowered to act as attorney for his associates in collecting quit-rents from settlers. He soon removed to Monmouth county, and married Margaret, widow of Samuel Winder, daughter of Deputy-Gover- nor Rudyard. From that time to 1754 he lived again in Amboy, on Staten Island, in Elizabethtown, and in Philadelphia. Not long after reaching East Jersey, Willocks was appointed " Chief Ranger," whatever that may have been, also a commissioner for the court of small causes. He was deputy-surveyor of the province under John Reid in 1701. During Burnet's adminis- tration he was a member of the, king's council. He does not seem, however, to have been in accord with the governor ; their repeated diflferences resulted, in 1722, in his suspension from office, being charged with acting as leader for a cabal of intriguers. '' His Majesty KIxNG George," under the great seal of the province of New Jersey, granted him, in 1719, *' the sole right, benefit, and advantage of keeping a ferry over the Raritan river from Perth Amboy." He also established a ferry across the sound from Amboy to Staten Island. He served the public in many ways, among others as that of one of the commissioners, appointed in 1720, for settling the boundary between the provinces of New York and New Jersey. The memory of George Willocks is most revered by the people of Perth Amboy from the fact of his having been one of the founders and a generous benefactor of St. Peter's Episcopal . church, one of the earliest organizations of that sect in New Jersey. A congregation for services according to the rites of St. Peter's Church at Perth Amboy. 123 the Church of England was established in 1698. For a number of years it worshiped in an ordinary dwelling-house, standing on the banks of the Raritan near the foot of High street, the pulpit being supplied by various missionaries sent out from England by the Bishop of London, and the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Lewis Morris writes, in L700 : " We have made a shift to patch up an old ruinous house and make a church of it, and when all the churchmen in the province are got together we make up about twelve communicants." In 1709 the Peverend Edward Vaughan's services were secured, who officiated for two years in conjunction with his home charge at Elizabeth towai. He was much esteemed by the people, which is more than can be said of his successor, Mr. Halliday, who entirely failed in gaining their affections, he being stigmatized by some members of his congregation — among them Governor Hun- ter — as a wretch, a knave and a villain. Finally, in 1733, after openly denouncing Willocks from the pulpit, the doors of the sanctuary were closed against this minister, and shaking the dust of Amboy from his feet he betook himself to other parts. Again Mr. Vaughan acted as an occasional supply, and in 1720 St. Peter's obtained its first rector, a Scotch divine of blessed memory. This was the Reverend William Skinner. He was a Mac Gregor, by some, thought to be chief of the clan. Being obliged to fly from Scotland after the battle of Preston in 1715, he came by way of Holland and Barbadoes to Philadelphia, where while studying theology he supported himself as a tutor. In 1721 he visited England to receive ordination from the Bishop of London. While there he was appointed by the " Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts " as missionary to Perth Amboy. On arrival he met with such favor from the people, that in the following year he was called to be the permanent pastor of the society, which position he filled faithfully and . acceptably until his death at the age of seventy-one, in the year 1758. In 1718 a charter was granted by the Crown to the congre- gation, and the erection of a church edifice was commenced in the following year. This building withstood the elements for one hundred and'thirty years, it giving place in 1852 to the present structure, which occupies the same site, a beautiful elevation 124 The Story of an Old Fakm. overlookini^ the bay and ocean. St. Peters had many benefactoi's among- the early Scotch worshipers. Our first knowledg;e of Mr. Willocks in sucli a role is from the minutes of the Board of Proprietors, which record that, in 1702, he and Miles Foster advanced six pounds for repairing the dwelling, then occupied for services. When the first church edifice was erected, the grounds (still in use) were donated by him, Thomas Gordon and John Barclay. Later on, he and John Harrison presented the congregation with twelve acres of land lying adjoining the town. On the first of January, 1723, he conveyed to trustees two acres of land fronting on Water street, upon which was a substantial stone and frame residence. Under cer- tain restrictions and limitations they were to hold the property, as the deed recites : For the use of a Presbyter of the Church of England, qualified and admitted into said St. Peter's Church, to serve the Cure thereof — provided always notwith- standing sucli incumbent or incumbents being admitted and qualified, &c., that any time liereafter such incumbent or incumbents that shall differ from the doctrine, discipline and rules of the Churcii of England, shall from thenceforth have no benefit, or advantage by the benefactions aforesaid. More of the ecclesiastical gifts of George Willocks will appear when we come, presently, to learn something of the contents of his will. In grateful remembrance of the above, and other generous donations, the congregation, in 1825, affixed to the walls of the church auditorium a marble tablet, upon which is still to be read the following inscription : THIS TABLET. is designed to express the gratitude of the Congregation of St. Peter's Church in this city, to tlie benefactors of the said church, whose names follow : GEORGE WILLOCKS, who died in 1729. MARGARET WILLOCKS, his wife, who died in 1722. TPIOMAS GORDON, who died April 28, 1722, and JOHN HARRISON. They loved the habitation of God's house and' the place where his honor dwelleth. Erected A. D. 1825. • George Willock's Importance in the Colony. 125 John Harrison was the first sheriff of Perth Amboy, and in the old record his name is often met with as the agent for the proprietors in locating lands and buying the Indian rights. Thomas Gordon came from Pitlochie, Scotland, in 1684, with his wife, Helen, four children and seven servants, and proved no small addition to the virtuous and refined society that his fellow countrymen were establishing in East Jersey. He selected a plantation some ten miles from salt water, on Cedar brook, near the present village of New Brooklyn, or South Plainfield. In February of the next year^ he wrote to the old country as follows : I am settled here in a very pleasant 'place upon the side of a brave plain, almost free of woods and near the water side, so that I might yoke a plough where I please, wei-e it not for want of hay to maintain the cattle, which I hope to get helped the next year, for I have several pieces of meadow near me — There are eight of us settled here, within half a mile -or a mile of another, and about ten miles from the town of New Perth or Amboy point, so that I can go and come in a day — Blessed be God, myself and wife and children and servants have been, and are still in good health, which God continue. His prayer was futile ; in less than two years he was the only one of his family alive. His wife and her six children lie in the old burying-ground of Perth Amboy, where a large stone with an antiquated inscription can yet be seen. Altogether we may readily persuade ourselves that George Willocks was a man of ability and an important personage in the community. Mr. Whitehead tells us that his time was principally employed in attending to his large landed estates, he having become deeply interested in real property. He pur- chased other portions of propriety shares, and gradually his undi- vided interest in the province was converted into holdings in sev- eralty, he obtaining warrants and releases from his brother pro- prietors for large tracts of land in Middlesex, Monmouth, Hunter- don, Somerset, Bergen and Passaic counties. Among the many large bodies of land acquired by George Willocks from the proprietors was one lying in Somerset county, known as the Peapack * patent. The warrant is made to him * Evidently an Indian name. A native thoroughfare which ran from east to west through northern New Jersey, crossing the Lamington river at its falls, was called the " Peapack Path," and was frequently mentioned as the boundary of early land grants. 126 The Story of an Old Farm. and John Johnstone in severalty, as joint tenants, on " the sev- enth day of June, in the thirteenth year of the reign of William the Third, over England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, etc., Annoque Dom. 1701," and is signed by the acting governor of the province, Andrew Hamilton, and five proprietors. Per- haps you may wonder at so few associates joining iu the convey- ance. By this time the proprieties had become divided into many small parts, and their o^vners were distributed into various portions of the world; consequently it was impossible that all of the proprietors, or even a majority of them, could join in a release to an associate. It was the custom, therefore, for a cer- tain number of them to meet with the governor and examine and pass upon applications for propriety lands. Those who met for this purpose were called the " Council of the Proprietors," and to secure a valid conveyance it was necessary that the patent, or warrant, should be issued under the great seal of the province, and be signed by the governor, and at least five of this council. Andrew Hamilton, who executed the grant to Johnstone and Willocks, was a brother-in-law of the latter, and originally a merchant in Edinburgh. He was one of that band of well-born Scotchmen who came to Amboy about the same time, establishing a little coterie of worth and aristocracy in East Jersey which long left its impress on the morals and manners of the people. He reached America in 1(385; coming as one of the proprietors he occupied a seat iu the council of Lord Neil Camp- bell and succeeded him as deputy-governor in 1686. He was governor from 1692 to 1698, and again from 1699 to 1701, and died at Amboy in 1703. John Johnstone, the joint owner with Willocks of the Peapack patent, was another of East Jersey's valued Scotch citizens. He had been a di-uggist in Edinburgh, "at the sign of the Unicorn ;" he was also a skilful physician and much esteemed by both rich and poor, especially by the latter, who were his particular care. Doctor Johnstone arrived in the province in December, 1685, by the " Henry and Francis, of Newcastle, a Ship of three hundred and fifty Tun, and Twenty great Guns, Kichard Hutton, master," in company with nearly two hundred of his banished and. oppressed countrymen. This ship had been chartered by George Scot, THE Laird of Pitlochie. This Scotch nobleman had The Fever Ship "Henry and Francis." 127 been many times fined and imprisoned "for absence from the King's host," attending conventicles and other offenses obnoxi- ous to the government, and was finally released from prison upon his engaging to go to the plantations. He then published that " Model of the Government of East New Jersey in America," which is to be found bound with Whitehead's " East New Jer- sey under the Proprietors," and is the source of much of our information as to the earliest days of the province, and especially of its Scotch immigration. The promulgation, by Scot, of all the facts regarding this transatlantic retreat for the persecuted, induced many of his countrymen to join him in the undertaking of removing thitherward ; among them was his son-in-law, John Johnstone, who, on or before sailing, had married Scot's daughter Euphemia. The " Laird" was also authorized by the Crown ta take with him to America one hundred and five prisoners, then in the tolbooth at Leith, Many of these latter protested in. writing against being banished for conscience sake, in that they had refused allegiance to a king whom they felt bound to with- stand and disown, considering him an enemy to religion and an avowed papist. As all of these protestants were prisoners, some of whom are said to have suffered for their beliefs to the extent of the loss of a left ear, and many of whom were in danger of death, it seems strange that they should not have welcomed the opportunity for transportation to a country where safety, at least, awaited them, and probably prosperity. The " Henry and Francis" sailed from Leith on the fifth of September, 1685. Hardly had she reached Lands End when a malignant fever broke out among the passengers ; among its first victims were George Scot and his wife. The care of the people then devolved on John Johnstone. For many weeks the ship's company battled against disease and the fierce waves of the Atlantic, until finally, in December, when the vessel dropped anchor in the harbor of Perth Amboy, at least seventy of her pas- sengers had found graves at the bottom of the sea. Notwith- standing so inauspicious an advent into the colony. Doctor John- stone's character and attainments soon won for him the consider- ation of the citizens, whereby he was forced to accept many honorable and important positions in the community. He repre- sented the people for thirteen years in the general assembly,. 128 The Story of an Old Farm. and for ten years was speaker of that body. He also served as judge of the supreme court of Monmouth county, was one of the king's council under the Burnet administra- tion, and held many other important offices. He seems for a time to have been a resident of New York, as he was mayor of that city from 1714 to 1718. Doctor Johnstone's Amboy resid- ence, a substantial brick mansion, was preserved until after the Revolution ; he also spent much time in Monmouth county on a plantation called ''Scotschesterburg," granted him and his wife by the proprietors as a reimbursement for his and his father-in- laAv's outlay in importing the Scotch refugees. He became an extensive land owner in several counties, being entitled to grants of headlands, and to grants because of propriety interests, he having purchased one-eighth of Thomas Rudyard's original share, one-sixteenth of John Hey wood's and two-fifth parts of nineteenth-twentieths of Robert Barclay's. CHAPTER X. Early New Jersey History Continued — The Story of the Title Completed — Somerset Land Grants. I wonder do my readers grow weary of these legal chapters ? If so, they must turn over the leaves until they reach some they may consider more interesting. It is a mistake to think that an author desires all his pages read. Naturally you may ask, why then were they written f Miss Woolson, in one of her clever sketches, suggests, '^perhaps for the writer's own amusement. '^ I think she is right, for though these legal chapters may be dull reading, their writing has proved a most agreeable task. There is a peculiar charm in poring over the dry records of a title, and, while tracing the history of a familiar piece of land, in forcing it to divulge the various changes of owners and conditions it has sustained since those early days when it formed an undesignated part of the vast, undefined area of primitive wilderness. So it is, that while I have been occupied in ascertaining all that could be learned regarding the " Old Farm," from the days when it was a portion of the domain of the "Merry King Charles" down to the time it vested in that sturdy yeoman Johannes Moelich, my time has not seemed uselessly employed. It is also pleasant to catch occasional glimpses through the dim perspective of the past of those persons who have directly or indirectly been con- nected with these ancestral acres. Biography is said to be the home aspect of history; so, as research brings to light the names of persons who have been even remotely associated with these homestead lands, I cannot refrain from endeavoring to learn of them all that can be discovered. My readers must be patient if, at times, in giving the results of such research, unimportant per- sonages are apparently allowed undue space and prominence. 9 130 The Story of an Old FAR>r. In reaching the Peapack patent it will soon be seen that we have rescued the " Old Farm " from the indefinite area of the wild lands of New Jersey, and located it within the definite bounds of a personal possession. The limits of this grant cannot to-day be readily defined by its description, which is as follows : Begins on Rackawack river, at the upper corner of a thousand acres of land, belonging to the said George Willocks, thence up the said Rackawack, including the same to the falls thereof, between two steep hills. Thence to the head of the easterinost crooks that unites with said Rackawack, in said Willock's land, and makes the North Branch of Raritan river. From thence east and by north to the top of that ridge of mountains that points southerly toward the Raritan river, thence running along the top of the said mountain southerly, as for as the northeast corner of a tract of land formerly Ann West's, now Michael Haw*don's, thence due west to said Hawdon's land, thus following the lines of said ITawdon's and of said Willock's land, to" where it begain. T have searched in vain at Trenton, at Amboy, and among the archives of the New Jersey Historical Society, at Newark, for a survey of the land included in this grant. If any exists it must be in private hands. The conveyance calls for thirty-one hun- dred and fifty acres, but its description embraces a territory aggregating nearly eleven thousand acres. At first thought this description is hardly intelligible, but a little study of early titles and some knowledge of subsequent transfers made of portions of the grant enables us to define with considerable accuracy the boundaries of the premises intended to be conveyed. The description commences at a point in one thousand acres of land vested in George Willocks by right of his wife, Margaret Winder, who had died in 1722, which land lay at the conflux of the north branch of the Raritan and Lamington rivers, formerly known respectively as the Peapack and Allametunk. This tract is designated as number 51, on the map accompanying schedule number HI., in the "Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery." It was conveyed by Greorge Willocks to Daniel Axtell on the twenty-fourth of June, 1726, and soon after that time that por- tion of the land lying east of the north branch of the Raritan came into the possession of George Teeple, the founder of the Teeple family at Pluckamin. The first real estate transfer within the limits of the present Bedminster township, was the purchase of this tract by Mrs. Willocks — when the widow of Samuel Win- der — on the twentieth of May, 1690. The description in the patent continues, " thence up the said Rackawack." This is The Duchess of Gokdon. 131 evidently an error, and one probably made in copying the grant on the book of records, although, possibly, the mistake may have occurred in the original, as the scriveners of that time had but slight knowledge of the names of the water-courses of the New Jersey wildernesses. Rackawack, in early deeds, stood for Rockaway. The line of the Peapack patent did not touch that stream, but ascended the Lamington to its falls, near the Morris county line ; thence it continued easterly to the head waters of the north branch of the Raritan ; thence, southerly, following that stream to a point where it veers west- erly, below the mouth of Mine brook ; thence to the top of the first mountain south of Pluckamin ; thence following the crest of that mountain southeasterly, to the northeast corner of a thousand acre tract of land conveyed to Ann West on the four- teenth of August, 1693, and which is designated as number 58 on the map before referred to in the " Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery," thence, westerly, along the north line of this land, to the east line of George Willock's thousand acres ; thence along his east and north line to the place of beginning. Ann West was the daughter of Deputy-Governor Thomas Rud- yard, and a sister of Mrs. Willocks. Her husband John West, a merchant, dying early, she married Robert Wharton, and later became the wife of Governor Andrew Hamilton. The upper por- tion of her land adjoined on the east the lower portion of her sister's tract, and, lying on both sides of Chamber's brook, is in both Bedminster and Bridgewater townships. The title to this lot passed to Catherine, Duchess of Gordon, of Gordon Castle, Scotland, who was the daughter of William, the second Earl of Aber- deen, and the locality is still known as " The Duchess." The tract is at present bisected by the road leading from the village of North Branch to Pluckamin, and is now subdivided, or was within a few years, into the farm homesteads of J. T. Van der Veer, Jerome Van Nest, Philip Van der Veer, Jacob Powelson and others, they deriving their title from the descendants of Abram Quick and John Van der Veer, who purchased the land in 1801 from Gouverneur Morris, as agent of the Duchess of Gordon. This Scotch noble-woman made the acquaintance of American investments througli having married Staats L. Morris, a brother of Gouverneur 132 The Story of an Old Fakm. Morris, who early in life entered the English army, and ulti- mately attained the rank of general. The Duchess visited New- York with her husband, and is said to have been long remem- bered by metropolitan society for her good heart, blunt manners, frank conversation and masculine habits. In studying the old records of Somerset one cannot fail to notice with interest how many prominent and leading men of the last century have been directly or indirectly connected with the freeholds of the county. Gouverneiu' Morris may surely be classed among this number, for, in reading the story of his life, discovery is soon made that he was a much greater man than the majority of his contempor- aries. Had he been possessed of personal ambition his memory woidd occupy a more exalted place in history, as his present fame is far less than his abilities woidd have insured had he con- sented to place himself in the front of the many prominent move- ments with which he was connected. His eloquence in conver- sation was phenomenal ; it is claimed that not only would intelligent listeners hang on his words in rapt admiration, but that servants, arrested by his table-talk, stood open-mouthed, dishes in hand, to catch his glowing sentences. Put Morris where you woidd, he was always at home and always made an impression. So great was his equipoise, it was impossible to disturb the tran- quility of his mind and presence. When in France, as United States Minister, his marked individuality, eccentric and original manners, together with his undoubted intellect, made a strong impression on society in the French capital. Madame de Stael credited him with having " Vair tres imposanty^ and the king found in his features an extraordinary resemblance to those of the royal family. On one occasion, while attending an audience, the American statesman was approached by the monarch, who, after looking at him fixedly for a moment, exclaimed " The like- ness is, indeed, too wonderful to be accidental ! Pray, Mr. Mor- ris, was your mother ever in France ?" Morris with a respect- ful bow, quickly replied, " No, your Majesty, but my father was !" It is evident this Peapack patent embraced within its bound- aries nearly the entire township of Bedminster, and extended from below Pluckamin to somewhere near the Morris county Daniel Axtell, the Regicide. 133 line, and from the north branch of the Raritan on the east to the Lamington river on the west. It included surveys numbered 59, 62, 88, 120, 122, and those marked Daniel Axtell, and Doctor Johnstone Lewis and Mary Johnstone, as laid down on the map accompanying schedule III, "■ Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery." In May, 1660, when King Charles II. landed at Dover and made his royal progress to London, he fomid the people mad with loyal excitement. Drunk with the joy of his restoration. Crom- well, who had made England the leading power of Europe, was apparently forgotten. There no longer seemed to be any Romid- heads, Pm'itans, Covenanters, or Papists ; only a bell-ringing, bonfire-blazing nation, hysterical with delight at the return of a kmg. No one was more surprised at this rapture of the people than was Charles himself, who remarked to one of his suite that for the life of him he coiJd not see why he had staid away so long when every one seemed so glad to have him back again. In his pleasure at the enthusiasm his presence everywhere engen- dered, he was quite ready with all manner of promises as to for- giveness for past offences. Hardly, however, had he grown warm to his seat in the saddle of government, before he became con- vinced that justice to his father's memory demanded vengeance on those, at least, Avho had been immediately instrmnental in the sufferings of the late king. Among the unhappy persons who were consequently dragged on hurdles to their deaths was Daniel Axtell. He had been prominent in the Cromwellian army, and commanded the guard preserving order in Westminster Hall, at the court in which Charles I, was convicted of treason and sentenced to be beheaded. After the execution of Axtell, his son, also named Daniel, fled to Jamaica, in the West Indies, where engaging in trade he acquired a fortune. On visiting the American colonies in search of investments, he purchased a large slice of the Pea- pack patent, paying therefor: ^'The sum of one thousand two hundred and fourteen pounds, money of New York." The deed to him from Johnstone and Willoeks, under date of the twentieth of June, 1726, conveyed as follows: All that tract of land situate, lying and being within the bounds of a cer- tain tract of land granted by patent unto the said John Johnstone and George Willoeks, bearing date the seventh day of June, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and one, for their rights to several parcels of land, shares and parts of proprieties, in the eastern division of N'^'v Jersey, as 134 The Story of an Old Farm. aforesaid: Beginning upon the north side of Peapack River, where the east line of a tract of land (granted by the said George Willocks unto Daniel Axtell aforesaid) toucheth the said river ; and from thence up the said river, as it runs, until it comes about ten chains above the forks thereof; from thence south, seventy-three degrees, west three hundred and seventy-two chains, unto AUaiuetunck river, be it more or less ; from thence down the stream thereof, as it runs, to where the west line of the land sold by George Willocks aforesaid unto the said Daniel Axtell toucheth the said River, thence along the said line north ninety-four chains, thence east eighty chains, thence south to Peapack River to where it is said to begin. * * * Containing four thousand and sixty-five acres, excepting one thousand two hundred and fourteen acres, belong- ing to John Hamilton, also four hundred and eighteen acres claimed by Charles Dunster by virtue of a survey made to Lord Neil Campbell and Robert Black- wootl, and entered in the second book of surveys, folio 132. As at that time a New York pound had a present United States coin vahie of three dollars and fourteen and one-quarter cents, we find that in the year 1726 the best of Bedminster lands were considered worth about one dollar and fifty-six cents per acre. With the exception of the exemptions, and of the Wmder tract which Willocks also sold to Axtell, the above conveyance covered all the coimtry boimded by the Lamington river, the north branch of the Raritan river, and the road leading from Bemards- ville to Lamington village. John Hamilton was the son of Governor Andrew Hamilton; his reservation I am unable to locate. The four hmidred and eighteen acres "claimed by Charles Dun- ster" was situated near where the two streams merge, and is designated as survey number 59, in schedule HI., " Elizabethto^^Ti Blil in Chancery." The recital of the area of premises conveyed by the Peapack patent, and by this deed from Johnstone and Wil- locks to Daniel Axtell, enables us to correct tlie following erron- eous statement to be found on page 29 of Messler's " Centennial History of Somerset County " : Between Lamington River and North Branch, Major Axtell owned a large and valuable tract of land, out of which Campbell and Blackwood purchased 3900 acres, in 1693 ; Margaret Winder 1000, on May 20, 1690; Johnson and Willocks 3150, June 6, 1701. This last survey included all the lands in Peapack valley; and finally Andrew Hamilton oljtained a deed for 875 acres on Lamitunk, Feb. 25, 1740. This brings us to the Morris county line. Like errors as to the early history of Bedminster land titles will be found on pages 700, 704 and 705 of Snell's recent "His- tory of Hmiterdon and Somerset Counties." Just here permit me to say that the people of Somerset are William Axtell in New Jersey. 135 greatly indebted to Doctor Messier for publishing the results of his painstaking researches as to the early history of the county. His labors have been valuable, not only in bringing to light facts of which, otherwise, we should have remained in ignorance, but because of exciting in the community an interest in local history, and by inciting in others the desire to still further pierce the dim mists that enshroud the days of long ago. Much the same may be said of the work of Mr. Snell in his compilation of facts, traditions and biography. But while man remains finite, so long will the best of histories be replete with errors. It is not belittling the efforts of these local historians to point out where their statements are erroneous. On the contrary, it is giving an added value to those historical nuggets they have unearthed, that contain only the piu'e metal of truth. As to the value of the materials they have collected there can be no dispute, and, with Macaulay, we may acknowledge an indebted- ness to an historian's accurate researches for the means of refut- ing in his work what we cannot fail to discover as errors. After the death of Daniel Axtell, (second), his son, William, who was born in Jamaica, came in 1746 to New Jersey in order to dispose of this estate. The result of his efforts within a few years was the planting, in this portion of the township, of the Van Doren, Van der Veer, McDowell, Teeple, Streit, Sloan and other families. Ultimately, while visiting New York, he ran away with and married the beautiful daughter of Abraham De Peyster, the treasurer of that province. Axtell built a substan- tial two storey, semi-detached brick dwelling in New York city, where he lived in a lavish manner as long as his money lasted. It stood on the present site of the Astor House, then in the out- skirts of the city ; the other half of the structure was the resi- dence of Walter Rutherford, whose wife was the sister of Lord Stirling. In Mrs. Lamb's " History of the City of New York," there is a picture of this dwelling showing it to have had a steep dormered roof, two small square windows on the main floor protected by heavy wooden shutters, and a front door which, opening abruptly on the side walk without step or break, was approached through a wooden porch. In 1754 Axtell removed to England, stopping on his way at Jamaica where he settled his father's estate. Some years later, returning to 136 The Story of an Old Fa km. America he built a large mansion at Flatbush, Long Island, where he permanently settled. At the breaking out of the Revolu- tion he attached himself to the patriot cause, and was active in arousing the people of his county to the support of the American arms. After the disasters on Long Island and in Westchester his convictions underwent a change, and, swearing allegiance to the Crown, he became a violent partisan of the British. He was commissioned a colonel of a regiment of foot in his Majesty's service, and was also given many offices of a sinecm'e nature, which brought him a fortune. By marrying his adopted daugh- ter to a Major Miles of the Continental army he had hoped to secure his estates, but, by an act of attainder passed by the New York legislature on the twenty-second of October, 1779, all of his property, real and personal, was confiscated, and he, and others who were members with him of the king's comicil, were proscribed. The act declared that "each and every of them, who shall, at any time hereafter, be fomid in any part of this state, shall be and are hereby adjudged and declared guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy." On the evacuation of New York he removed to England, where he received a pension and a colonel's half-pay for life. There are descendants of a collateral branch of the Axtell family now resident in New Jersey. Thomas, a brother of Daniel Axtell the regicide, came to this country in about the year 1 642 and settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts, where he died four years later. His great-grandson, Henry, removed in 1 740 to New Jersey, establishing himself at Mendham in Morris county. This Henry was the great-grandfather of the Honorable Charles F. Axtell, of Morristown, and of the Honorable Samuel B. Axtell, late chief justice of New Mexico. George Willocks died in 1729. His executors, the Reverends Edward Vaughan and William Skinner, offered his will for pro- bate before Michael Kearney, surrogate, on the thirteenth of February of that year. I have in my possession a copy of that voluminous document. It goes to show the testator to have been a man of piety and good works, as it contains numerous generous bequests for religious and charitable purposes, and the following solemn nivocation and profession of faith : GrEORGE WiLLOCKS' WiLL. 137 In the name of God, Amen. I, George Willocks, of Pei-th Amboy in the Prov- ince of New Jersey, being under a languishing distemper, but by God's goodness, master of my reason and memory, do think fit to make this my last will and testament. I acknowledge myself a great sinner, and have nothing to rely upon for the forgiveness of my transgressions, but the merits and mediation of my blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for whose sake, merciful God forgive me, and receive me into the arms of thy mercy, and grant at the last day I may be raised among the elect, to praise Thee forever and ever. This last testament provided for the payment of debts, and the building of a tomb to cost seventy pomids ; this vault, though in ruins, is still to be seen in St. Peter's churchyard at Perth Amboy. It bequeathed to two negro slaves some cows and household furniture. The executors were directed to build a house and lay out a garden spot adjoining, for the slaves ; and a negro lad was to be bound to a cooper, who was to be paid for instructing him in his craft. The franchise and buildings of the ^' Long Ferry" to South Amboy were devised to trustees, who were empowered to let or rmi the same, and apply the income, as the will recites : — To support the incumbent serving the Cure of St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy, and his successors provided always that such Incumbents have received ordination of Deacon and Priest from the hands of a Bishop of the Church of England, and do continue members of the said Church according to the doctrines and discipline of the said Church. Divers tracts of lands in divers counties were ordered to be sold, and the proceeds divided in specified sums between rela- tives, friends, churches and the poor, in America and Scotland. The bulk of his landed estate, which was very great, was devised to George Leslie and Ann Richie, his nephew and niece, the lat- ter receiving his house and lot on Smith street in Amboy. The will disposes of the Peapack patent as follows : And whereas there is a tract of land remaining in partnership, besides what has been sold to Daniel Axtell, and two thousand acres given by me to Eupheraia Johnstone deceased and Margaret Smith, two daughters of John Johnstone, the remaining part of the said tract is still vested in tlie said John Johnstone and in me the said George Willocks, (only 418 acres released by the said John John- stone to me the said George Willocks). I, therefore, pray my executors to get the lands surveyed and a partition made between the said John Johnstone and me, after such partition be made, I give and grant to my executors full power and authority to sell and dispose of the same, and the money arising from such sale, after the payment of debts and legacies, the remaining part, I desire, may be put out upon good security and applied for the support of the children of the said George Leslie and Ann Richie, lawfully begotten. 138 The Story of an Old Farm. Ann Richie and George Leslie were children of George Wil- locks' sister, the former being the wife of John Richie, a mer- chant of Aberdeen, Scotland. Leslie had joined his uncle in America several years before the latter's death, and after that event resided at Perth and South Amboy — at that time within one corporation — mitil his own death in 1751. His homestead property embraced some twelve hundred acres of land adjoining the ferry at South Amboy. He also was an active member of St. Peter's church, being a vestryman from the year 1722 to 1729, and again in 1750. He occupied pew No. 11 for which he paid six pounds and seventeen shillings per annum. Neither in the Department of State at Trenton, nor on the recoi'ds of the Board of Proprietors of East New Jersey at Amboy, nor among the Willocks papers in the custody of the State Historical Society, have I been able to find a copy of the survey directed by the will to be made ; nor any trace of the proceedings in partition. That a division, survey and map were made, is proven by frequent references in subsequent deeds to numbered lots in the Peapack patent. I have also searched in vain for the record of any conveyances of Somerset lands by the executors of George Willocks. At a meeting of the Board of Proprietors of East New Jersey, held the thirty-first of March, 1743, the surveyor-general was directed to survey two thousand acres of land out of the patent for George Leslie. The order reads as follows: By virtue of an order of the Council of Proprietors this day made you are hereby authorized and required to lay out and survey for Mr. George Leslie or liis asbiifns within that tract called Peapack Two thousand acres of land and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. Given under my hand and seal at Perth Amboy the thirtv-first day of March, 1743. On such survey being made, the proprietors, on the twenty- third of June, 1744, conveyed to George Leslie two tracts of land. The description of the one in which we are especially interested reads as follows : Beginning at the northeast corner of the land of Daniel Axtell deceased, where it touches Peapack river; thence along said Axtell's line south, seventy- three Degrees, west one hundred and eighteen chains, to a corner of land late of Doctor John Johnstone decea.sed ; then along said Johnstone's line, north and by east thirty-five chains to his northeast corner ; then along another line of said George Leslie's Bedminster Grant. 139 Johnstone's land, south seventy-six degrees, west one hundred and twenty-three chains to a stake to the northward of a white oak tree marked-on four sides, dis- tant therefrom forty links, which stake is upon the rising of a hill near to Julius Johnstone's, and is another corner of said Johnstone's land ; thence north and hy east to the southwest corner of another tract of land belonging to the said John Johnstone deceased, called by the name of lot No. 4, forty chains; thence north seventy -six degrees, east to the southeast corner of said lot No. 4 ; thence north and by east forty chains ; thence north seventy-six degrees, east twenty-eight chains to a brook commonly called Lawrence's Brook. Tlience down the stream of said brook to where it empties itself into said Peapack river; thence along said Peapack river to the beginning. Containing twelve hundred and ninety-one acres strict measure. The other tract conveyed by this warrant contained " four hundred and ninety-eight acres and thirty-two hundredths," lying on the east side of the Lamington river, just below its falls, and adjoining lot No. 13, belonging to John Johnstone's estate. It woidd thus appear that if the executors sold the portion of the Peapack patent set off to Willocks, the proprietors became the purch5.sers. If not, in some other manner they must have acquired legal title. It is well known that the great difference in acreage, between what the original patent called for and what it eventually surveyed, gave rise to complications and disputes between the proprietors and the beneficiaries under the Willocks "will, which greatly retarded the settlement of the estate. It is not impossible, therefore, that these complexities residted in a compromise whereby a portion of the patent again became vested in the proprietors. This last view of the case is made the more probable on the discovery of the following clause in the will of John Johnstone, which was proven on the seventeenth of Novem- ber, 1732: And whereas in the tract of land at Peapack formerly. Patented to George Willocks and to me the quantity of my share thereof does exceed the quantity of Proprietary Rights that I may have been entitled to. Now I doe hereby appoint and Empower my Executors or the Major part of them or the Survivors or Majority of the Survivors of them to compromise and agree that matter with the Proprietors and for such quantity of acres, as it will be found that I have at Peapack beyond my proprietary Right. I Impower my Executors to release and convey in fee or otherwise assume to the projjrietors an Equivalent out of That Tract of Land Esteemed in the County of Bergen, containing about five thousand eight hundred acres which I am entitled to by a return of survey in the Western Division of New Jersey. We may conclude, therefore, that Doctor Johnstone's instruc- tions being carried out, all differences as affecting his estate were healed by tlie conveyance of other lands to the proprietors. His 140 The Story of an Old Farm. executors and heirs apparently came into peaceful possession of all that portion of the Peapack patent lying between the two rivers, the Morris county line, and the north line of the grant to Leslie which crossed the township at the nioutli of Peapack brook (Schomp's Mills). His estate also owned numerous sui'- veyed lots of extensive area lying east of Lainington and west of the Leslie tract — also the southeast corner of the patent, at and below where Pluckaniin was later established ; the first sale made by Doctor Lewis and Mary Johnstone being five hundred acres to Jacob Eoff, which included the site of that village. By referring to the description in the grant to Leslie, it will be seen that it commenced at Axtell's northeast corner, 'iliis point was where " Demund's bridge " now spans the north branch of the Raritan, and is the same corner at Avhich the description contained in the-deed from Leslie to Johannes Moelich began. The line of the grant extended westerly for nearly one and one-half miles along Axtell's boundary, which lay in the centre of the road rvmning from Bernardsville to Lamington ; here it reached the southeast corner of a plot that had been allotted to John Johns- tone, that fronted on this road for two miles, and extended back, northerly, three thousand and eighty feet. Leslie's line continued along the east and north boimdaries of this Johnstone plot west- erly to its west corner, a distance of over two miles. From there it extended in a northeasterly direction, following the lines of several plots that had been set off to Johnstone, to Lawrence's — then so called — now Peapack brook. From there it continued along the brook to its mouth, and so on down the north branch of the Raritan to the place of beginning. The greatest breadth of this tract, from cast to west, was about three and one-half miles, and its greatest depth, from north to south, one mile. With the excep- tion of the natural meadows bordering the river, it was entirely covered with timber. Leslie's right to this land does not seem to have rested on the ftict of his having been the heir of George Willocks. It was probably granted to him by the proprietors in consideration of proprietary interests, he having become the owner of one-sixteenth part, and seven sixty-fourths part of John Heywood's original twenty-fourth ; one-half of Thomas Barker's, one-eighth of Thomas Rudyard's, one-fortieth of Thomas Cooper's and one-fifth of nineteen-twentieths of Robert Barclav's. Some Perth Amboy Residents in 1751. 141 George Leslie made no disposition of any portion of this prop- erty until the year 1751. And so, after a long story with many digressions, we now find ourselves where we started in this legal talk — at the conveyance, on the first of November, 1751, of the three hundi'ed and sixty-seven acres to Johannes Moelich. In returning to this deed it is interesting to notice that in phrase- ology and general form it does not materially differ from such instruments now in use. It was signed by George Leslie and his wife Elizabeth, witnessed by Griffen Disbrow and Jonathan Nisbitt, and recorded by Thomas Bartow, secretary of the prov- ince. Instead of the grantors having made acknowledgments as to their signatures, Samuel Nevill, one of the justices of the supreme court, certifies that the witnesses to the conveyance having been duly sworn made oath that they " saw the grantors seal, and, as their act and deed, deliver the same, etc." Of these attesting witnesses I know but little. Griffen Disbrow probably lived at or near Perth Amboy, as he was one of St. Peter's con- gregation, the minutes of that church showing that, in 1751, when pew No. 18 was forfeited for non-payment of dues, it was secured by him at an annual rental of £5.2.0. Thomas Bartow, the secretary of state, was the son of the Reverend John Bartow, the first rector of St. Peter's church, Westchester, New York, and the gTandson of the Huguenot General Bertaut, who fled from France in 1685. Bartow was frequently in the service of the province, and was clerk in chancery when the famous Eliza- bethtowri bill, at the suit of "John, Earl of Stair, and others. Pro- prietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey against Benjamin Bond, and others," was filed on th-e thirteenth of April, 1745. By and by, when we shall have occasion to visit Perth Amboy with Johannes, we will look up this worthy secretary and learn some- thing of his home and surroundings. Judge Samuel Nevill ranked among the most important men of the province. He was a native of Stafford, England, and bred a lawyer in London, where for a time he edited a news- paper. The occasion of his coming to America was in this wise. One of the original proprietors was Arent Sonmans, a Hollander, who lived in Scotland. In addition to his own twenty- fourth part, he owned portions of the several shares that had been vested in Gawen Lawrie, David Barclay and Hugh Hartshome, 142 Thic Story of an Old Fahm. which, together with simdry other portions that he had pur- chased, aggregated five and one-quarter proprieties. Sonraans, while preparing to visit East Jersey and while journeying between Scotland and London, was set upon by some highway- men and fjitally wounded. His son, Peter, inherited his Ameri- can interests and, coming to America in 1688, died in 1734, and lies buried in St. John's chm'chyard at Elizabeth. He devised his estates to his Avife, Sarah. At her death, which occurred soon after, Samuel Nevill, as her eldest brother and heir-at-law, came into possession of the five and one-quarter proprieties, excepting a small portion that had been sold )jy Peter Sonmans to John Vail. By this time these shares had groAvn to be of considera- ble value. Mr. Nevill, on finding himself possessed 6f such important American interests, decided to cross the ocean, which he did in 1736, settling permanently at Perth Amboy. His varied talents at once attracted attention, and he soon rose to eminence. The then great dignity of being the mayor of this ancient capital was forced upon him ; he became a member of the provincial assembly, judge of the court of common pleas, second judge of the supreme covu't, and in many other important ways served with honor the people and his king. Under the auspices of the assembly, between the years 1732 and 1761, he published in two volumes an edition of the laws of the province. In 1758, he established and edited the first of New Jersey's periodicals and the second one on the continent. It was called the "New American Magazine," to distinguish it from its pre- decessor at Philadelphia, which relinquished publication upon the appearance of this competitor. Nevill's magazine contained about forty octavo pages, and, judging from the copy to be seen in the library of the New York Historical Society, it compared favorably with many modern publications of the same character. It was printed at Woodbridge by James Parker, who, having served his time with the famous New York printer, William Bradford, had set up, in 1751, the first printing press in New Jersey. Besides the magazine he printed ^' Nevill's Laws," and Smith's "History of New Jersey " which appeared in 1765; from time to time he published legislative and other official docu- ments and did generally the work of the colony. How THE World Moves ! 143 Samuel Nevill died on the twenty-seventh day of October^ 1764, at the age of sixty-seven. He and his wife lie side by side under the shadows of the walls of St. Peter's, of which church he was a warden for twenty years. As before recited, the consideration for the purchase of the three hundred and sixty-seven acres was seven hundred and fifty-four poimds. Of this amount Johannes paid three hundred and twenty-four pounds in cash ; the balance by the execution and delivery of two bonds, payable in six months, for two hundred and two, andtwohundred and twenty-eight pounds. These obligations were discharged on maturity, and, as Leslie had died soon after the sale was consummated, they bear the satisfaction receipt of his two children, George and Elizabeth. Among my old papers relat- ing to this property are these two satisfied bonds. They are espec- ially valued as preserving excellent specimens of Johannes' writ- ing ; on one of them the sig- a nature is as plain and distinct fj L^ /^"l^ '^ ^' ^ as if penned within a few .^7y^'^C?^>^/>^^>^)r years. Here isafac-simile : >^ ^ ^ To the manuscript lover, much pleasure is derived from handling an old document that, having played its part in the work of the world, has in some mysterious way escaped the fate of like papers and is preserved to testify of circumstances and events of an age long past. How the world moves ! Consider the changes that have come to people and countries since these old bonds were new. When these instruments — now in the sere and yel- low, and valueless save as relics — were vested with the poten- tiality of enforcing the payment of a no inconsiderable sum, the land for which they had been given in part consideration was in truth as much of a howling wilderness as it had been for a thou- sand previous years. Lafayette, whose name was to be as fami- liar as household words in this hill country of New Jersey, was yet unborn. Washington, still unknown to fame, was a lad in his teens ; and seventeen years must come and go before the Corsican babe would open his eyes on that Europe he was almost to master. Travellers still crossed the stormy Atlantic in frail pinks, ketches, snows and bilenders. France was being pom- padoured into a condition to make possible the fourteenth of July, 1789. And what of England, then as now, considered in 144 The Story of an Old Farm. the van of civilization ? Its crown was worn by a Hanoverian dullard who hated '^busic and boetrj." In all the island there was not a macadamized road, and the royal mail was carried on ^^ fly- ing machines/' protected from highway robbers, even in the sub- urbs of London, by guards armed with loaded blunderbusses. Parliament was a den of corruption, borough seats in the house of commons being publicly advertised and openly sold. The British people knew but little of their law makers, as to publish the proceedings of their legislature was a misdemeanor carrying a heavy punishment. There were laws enough, however, and they were severe enough, for nearly two hundred crimes knew capital punishment as their penalty, and children of tender years were sentenced to death for petty pilfering. And yet we are constantly told that the world grows no better, that the move- ment and direction of mankind is not onward and upward. CHAPTER XL The Building of the " Old Stone House'^ — Redemptioners — White Slavery in the Colonies. Behold Johannes — the proud possessor of three hundred and sixty-seven fertile Bedminster acres ! land that has lain dormant for centuries, unconscious of its destiny, but ever ready and eager to smile into fruitfulness upon the first advances of the husbandman. In fancy we can see our German ancestor and his two stalwart sons betaking themselves to the hillside. Soon, crash after crash denote the falling oaks that the sturdy strokes and keen axes of the Moelichs have marked as the most fitting contributors to the sills, walls and gables of a new log house ; for temporary shelter is necessary while the more permanent stone dwelling shall be rearing its massive walls. Days are spent in the timber 5 tree after tree is attacked ; they fall on every side ! The undergrowth is cut down and heaped, and, by and by, the warm sunlight, for the first time perhaps in ages, breaks in upon a clearing of two acres, which from that time has been consecrated by the sorrows and gladnesses, rejoicings and repinings, and all the sympathetic experiences that rally around an enduring family homestead. The location is well chosen. Now that the trees are prostrate, it shows an open cheery slope, upon which the sun looks kindly down. The ascending uplands bar the chill north winds, and to the south and east the ground falls away gently to the meadows bor- dering the brook and river, which just here, with pleas- ant splash and babble, merge into one stream. Teams draw the big logs to the spot selected for placing the tem- porary dwelling. It was across the present road leading to the farm buildings, opposite and facing the door-yard of 10 146 The Story of an Old Fakm. the stone house. The ends of the logs are squared, and so cut as to be let in or dove-tailed together. And now comes the memorable day of the " raising." Old neighbors from Hunter- don are invited, and come in goodly numbers. They bring with them willing hearts and stout arms, and plenty of provisions, for, as there are no dwellings near, the raising dinner must par- take somewhat of the character of a picnic. Songs and merry stories go round, as the walls and gables slowly rise from the ground. How easy to imagine the happiness of Johannes, as he now aids in the work, and now directs his friends and co-laborers ! Mariah Katrina, too, is there, lending in the German fashion a strong and ready hand ; and the boys occupy themselves in keeping up brisk 'fires with fragrant chips, and crackling boughs and branches. Cannot you see the smil- ing, hear the laughing, and enjoy the joking, while they dine from off the logs and stumps, and drink to the future happiness of the new residents ? The walls go up apace ; by afternoon, skids are necessary upon which to roll the heavy logs to their places; and when the western sky beyond the crest of the long hill is aflame with the rich colors of the after-glow, the rude house is raised, though still without roof, doors or floor. When entirely completed it was nothing more than a square enclosure, with but one storey, and a cock-loft above, and a roof thatched, with leaves or straw — a primitive cabin, much like many others scattered along the narrow tracks and trails of this newly-opened country. As it was now late in the autumn, or early in the winter, noth- ing could be done in the actual erection of the stone house ", but during the cold weather much was accomplished in the way of preparation. He who in building a house calls in the aid of architect and artisan, and himself supplies only the money wherewith to pay for design and work, knows but little of the true sweetness of creating a homestead. Our ancestor must have felt to the full this supreme happiness, as with his boys he labored day after day in furthering the preparations for the building. Stones were hauled and dressed — a quarry having been opened iii the extreme northwest corner of the property ; materials were brought upon the ground, and round, straight trees selected and rough-hewed to the line, converting them into the A Redemptioner Stone-Mason. 147 stanch, square floor timbers, that to-day, exposed in the ceiling of the living room, show no signs of decay — are sound to the core. With what interest must Johannes' wife and children have viewed the work, and how his heart must have leaped within him as they watched with delight the slow creating of the family nest. With the disappearance of frost the cellar under the west- em gable was excavated, and early in the spring the foundations were laid and the building was fairly under way. To assist in the construction, the services were secured — so runs the story — of Caspar Berger, a German stone-mason and a redemptioner. He had reached New York in 1744, and, being sold by the captain of his ship to repay the costs of passage, was purchased for a term of years by Cornelius Van Home, of White House, in Hunterdon county. John G. Van Houten of that place, whose wife was a granddaughter of Van Home, informed me, when eighty-four years of age, that he had often heard his wife's father say that after Cas- par Berger had served three years of his time he obtained his freedom by building three stone houses. One of them was for Cornelius Van Home at White House, now owned by Abraham Pickel ; and one for Abraham Pickel in the same neighborhood, now owned by William Pickel, a descendant. The third house, near-by, he believed, was " for a Melick," but could not remember the first name. As there is every probability that at this time Johannes was living between North Branch and White House vil- lagesjon the property afterward owned by Jacob Kline, it is reason- able to suppose that it was for him that this third house was built 5 if so, no trace of the structure remains, although, as mentioned in a previous chapter, the descendants of Jacob Kline are still able to locate the spot where stood the Moelich homestead. Mr. Van Houten was confident in his statement that Berger also built a stone house in Bedminster township, Somerset county. Without doubt this last was the dwelling of Johannes Moelich ; as such a story is in full accord with the accepted beliefs of past genera- tions connected with the " Old Stone House." The descendants of Caspar Berger claim that his emigration from the old coimtry was involuntary ; he with others having been enticed on board a ship by its captain, who then set sail for America. This is not improbable, as the masters of vessels were 148 The Story of an Old Farm. often guilty of cruel and unjust acts in this business of the importation of redemptioners. Isaac Weld, Jr., in his book of travels in America, published in the last century, asserts that it was the custom of ship-masters at Rotterdam and the Hanse towns to inveigle the people into their vessels under promise of free passage to America. On reaching the colonies, announce- ment of the arrival of mechanics and laborers would be made, and persons in want of such would flock to the ships, and the poor Germans would be sold to the highest bidders, the captains pocketing the proceeds. Caspar Berger, after obtaining his freedom, by his frugality and industry prospered in the new country and soon waxed well-to-do. During the Revolution he kept the Readington tavern, and later owned a large tract of land north of Holland brook ; the mill of William Fitch, on that stream, was also his property. At his death in 1817 he divided his homestead farm of four hundred acres at Readington between his three sons, Aaron, Peter and Jasper. Aaron's son, John S., now an old man, still owns and occupies a portion of this home farm. Redemptioners, or term slaves, as they were sometimes called, constituted^ in the early part of the eighteenth century a pecu- liar feature of colonial society. They were recruited from among all manner of people in the old world, and through this channel Europe emptied upon America, not only the virtuous poor and oppressed of her population, but the vagrants, felons, and the dregs of her communities. There was thus established among the iirst settlers, a society that, in many places, was almost imbued with a moral pestilence. In Section 10, page 275, "S. P. 0. Colonial Entry Book," number 92, we find the follow- ing recital : That all sturdy beggers as gipsies and other incorrigible rougues and wan- derers may be taken upp by constables and imprisoned until at the next Assizes or sessions they shall either beacquited and assigned to some settled aboade and course of life here, or be appointed to be sent to the plantations for five years under the conditions of servants. Among the redemptioners, however, were a fair proportion of sturdy souls, strong in purpose and endeavor, who appreciated the great opportunity created for them by this complete change of life and country. At the expiration of term of service, many Indented Servants and Free-Willers. 149 by thrift and industry elevated themselves to a respectable position, and were absorbed in the middle class. Of necessity there were improvident and shiftless ones, who contributed to the vicious and ignorant element of the population. There were two kinds of redemptioners : " indented servants," who had bound themselves to their masters for a term of years previous to their leaving the old country 5 and '' free-willers," who, being without money and desirous of emigrating, agreed with the captains of ships to allow themselves and their families to be sold on arrival, for the captain's advantage, and thus repay costs of passage and other expenses. The former — indented ser- vants — were often trapped into their engagements by corrupt agents at home, who persuaded them to emigrate, under false promises of tender and humane treatment, and under assurances of remunerative employment at expiration of service. Section five of the "Colonial Entry Book," before referred to, testifies as follows in corroboration of the above statement : The waies of obtayning these servants have beene usually by employing a sorte of men and women who make it theire profession to tempt or gaine poore or idle persons to goe to the Plantations and having persuaded or deceived them on Shipp board they receive a reward from the person who employed them. The immigrants often discovered, on arrival, that the advan- tages represented to be obtained in America had been painted by the agents in much too alluring colors ; frequently their masters forced them to most rigid labor, and exercised an unnecessary severity. Edward Eddis, a surveyor of customs in the province of Maryland, in his "Letters from America," asserts that this class of servants often groaned beneath a worse than Egyptian bondage, as their masters, knowing that their servitude could last but for a few years, treated them with a rigor more severe than they extended to their negro slaves, to whom, being actual property, they were more lenient. The free-willers suffered even worse treatment at the hands of ship-masters and agents, who had inveigled them into emi- gration by false and specious promises. They were led to believe that on arrival in America their services would be eagerly solicited by parties who would gladly pay the cost of their passages ; which, being only nine pounds, the emigrants 150 The Story of an Old Farm. would soon be able to repay, and thus secure their liberty, And all the enjoyments and prosperity that the new country offered to adventurers. Agreements were entered into whereby these deluded ones bound themselves, that if on arrival they did not succeed within a certain number of days in securing employment on their own conditions, they could be sold for a term of years to defray the charges for their passages. Alas ! the " free-willers," with rare exceptions, had a rude awakening on reaching the colonies. Under their agreements, the captains had a legal lien on the persons of the immigrants until the ship charges were paid ; consequently they were not allowed to go on shore, but were exposed to view on deck to the people who came on board in search of servants. Except in cases of extraordinary qualifica- tions, very few of them were happy enough to make their own stipulations. The sanguine expectations of the redemptioners were doomed to disappointment, and they found themselves sold for several years of tedious labor and servitude. Professor Kalm, the Swedish botanist, reached Philadelphia on the seventh of September, 1748, by the ship "Mary," which had on board twenty-three Germans and their families. He narrates that when about going on shore with his captain, the latter turned to the second mate and strictly charged him "to let no one of the German refugees out of the ship unless he paid for his passage, or somebody else paid for him, or bought him." Masters of vessels often acted with needless cruelty toward their bond-passengers. Published accounts of travels in America during the last cen- tury frequently tell sad stories of the enforced separation of hus- bands from wives, and parents from children. Doctor Ernest Otto Hopp, in a book on German slavery in North America, recently published in Berlin, tells of a ship captain by the name of Heerbrand who acquired a great reputation as a kidnapper of poor Germans for the American market. He had in his pay a number of men whose business it was to regularly steal beg- gars, vagabonds and other people without connections, he paying the captors two florins a head for each victim delivered at his vessel. It is said that this man brought over six hundred such persons to America. The terms and conditions of service differed in the different colonies. Among the archives of the Pennsylvania Historical Colonial Laws Regarding Redemptioners. 151 Society, are some original bonds, or agreements, between ship captains and redemptioners. From them we learn that the usual price paid in that colony, for three years' service, was twenty-one pounds, one shilling and six pence. When his time had expired a man was entitled to receive two suits of clothes, a grubbing hoe, a weeding hoe and a new axe. Children sold for from eight to ten pounds, and their masters were required to see that they were taught to read and write, and had, at least, one quarter's schooling. In New Jersey — according to " Leam- ing and Spicer " — no white servant, if sold or bound after seven- teen years of age, could serve above four years. If under that age, they were to be free on reaching their majority. At the expiration of service their masters were obliged to supply them with two good suits of clothing, suitable for a servant, one good falling axe, one good hoe, and seven bushels of Indian corn. A servant was to be immediately freed in case of being so abused by master or mistress as to result in the loss of an eye or a tooth. The laws against aiding redemptioners to escape were very severe. A fine of five pounds was imposed for offering assistance in such cases, and the aider and abettor were obliged to make full satisfaction to master or mistress for all loss or damage sustained by the absence of, or search for, the runaway. Any one who con- cealed or entertained an absconding redemptioner, could be fined at the discretion of the court, and be made to pay ten shillings to the owner for each day that they had harbored the servant. It was not uncommon for thrifty Germans, who were possessed of enough money to pay their passages and defray the first cost of settling, to allow themselves to be advantageously, and on favorable terms, sold. This was in order that during their servitude they might have an opportunity of learning the lan- guage and of growing familiar with the manners, customs and institutions of the country. Advertisements announcing redemp- tioners for sale are frequently to be found in newspapers of the last century. One in the ''Pennsylvania Messenger" of the fourth of April, 1776, offers for sale : A young girl and raa id-servant, strong and healthy ; no fault. She is not qualified for the service now demanded. Five years to serve. The same paper, on the eighteenth of January, 1774, contains the following notice: 152 The Story of an Old Farm. Germans — we are now offering fifty Germans just arrived — to be seen at the Golden Swan, kept by the widow Kreider. The lot includes schoolmasters, artisans, peasants, boys and girls of various ages, all to serve for payment of passage. It seems rather odd that schoolmasters should be offered for sale in the market. You would think that they would have been eagerly sought for, but, on the contrary, they appear to have been a drug, as is shown by D. von Biilow in a book published in Berlin, in 1797. He says: It is easy to sell the farmers, but there are often men whom it is not so easy to dispose of, e. g., officers and scholars. I have seen a Kussian captain offered for sale eight days, and not a bid made. He had absolutely no market value. It was of no use for his owner to put him up again and again, to offer to make fifty per cent, discount. " He is good for nothing," was all the answer to the offer. The captain of the ship then liad him walked about the town to show, but in vain. After waiting several weeks, he was finally sold at a ridiculously low price as a village schoolmaster. On this subject Doctor Hopp recites that Pastor Kunz of Philadelphia, related that in 1773 he was beginning to econo- mize in order to get together twenty pounds, as he wanted to buy a German student for a teacher. As late as September, 1786, the following advertisement appeared in the '' Pittsbui'gh Gazette " : To be sold. (For ready money only.) A German woman servant. She has near three years to serve, and is well qualified for all household work : would recommend her to her own country people, particularly, as her present master has found great inconvenience from liis not being acquainted with their manners, customs and language. For further particulars enquire at Mr. Ormsby's in .Pittsburgh. In looking back on the many peculiarities, changes and grad- ations of society in New Jersey's colonial days, it is curious to note how the well-to-do immigrants, who brought with them, or purchased after arrival, redemption servants, often lost the prestige of their affluence ; being unable in the new country to maintain their rank and influence. Their humble servitors, however, inured by hardship and labor to the stern necessities of colonial existence, prospered and throve. The bonds-people, after serving their time, acquired by diligence and saving lands and homes ; it was not uncommon in the second generation to find them taking, in every w^ay, precedence to the children of the master who had owned their time during their first years in Mariah Katrina Carries Mortar on Her Head. 153 the country. The affluent immigrant, having been accustomed to ease, proved unequal to the struggle ; and his children, through faulty and ignorant education, rapidly deteriorated. — Enough of redemptioners ! Among the many odd tales of early days at the '' Old Stone House," which have enliv^ened winter evenings around the great fire-place in the living room, is the legend that at its building, Johamies' wife, Mariah Katrina, carried mortar, balanced on her head, to the masons at work on the walls. A very exalted posi- tion, you may ironically say, in which to place one's great-great- grandmother ; but these chapters are supposed to preserve tradi- tions as well as facts, and the writer must put to one side any predilections he may have, as to the matter to be presented. Members of the family, whose pride may rebel against belief in this story, are at liberty to consider it fable ; but the mortar, at least, must be accepted, for to this day it is as solid and imper- vious as the stones between which it lies. Builders of the pres- ent aver that its manufacture is a lost art, and that all of its component parts are not known. Visitors to this ancestral dwel- ling, who, after passing under the wide circumference of the old maple's shade, climb the hill, until they stand in the presence of the structure's kindly and venerable front, can attribute to this mortar the fact that it exists to-day. It has been the agent which has enabled these massive walls to withstand for nearly a century and a half of winters, the wear and tear of time ; and it still binds their stones together in one compact mass of masonry, which, without doubt, will continue to bear up bravely against the assaults of many years to come. Great-great-grand- mother Moelich figures, traditionally, again, at the building of the house. She is said to have vigorously protested against the introduction of so many windows — they are ridiculously few and small. The good woman had probably not forgotten the window- tax of the old country, and had in mind, perhaps, the possibility of such an impost being levied in New Jersey. By early in the summer the house must have been completed. Very plain, both as to exterior and interior, with no fan-lighted door-heads, or ambitious columns, pilasters and carvings. Yet, as we view it to-day, its solid simplicity is truly architectural, for it bears on its every feature a dignified expression of truth — 154 The Story of an Old Farm. of being only what it claims to be, an humble farmhouse of simple utilitarian porportions and fashion, the general effect of whose eaves, roof-tree, double Dutch doors, hall and chambers, but express the purposes of its construction. It is not altogether without picturesqueness. Bedded in the gueen of its surround- ing elms, its wooden-seated porch, sloping roof and rough stone gables coated with lime and pebbles, present a homely picture of comfort and domesticity, in full accord with its setting of turfy hillsides and verdure-clad meadows. To one who appre- ciates in a structure the beauty of simplicity and appropriate- ness, the ''Old Stone House" must ever be a delightful object. To those of us who claim kinship with its early builder, this ancestral home will always be a place of jealous regard ; a spot where will linger reminiscences of former days, and traditions of by-gone generations ; of men and women whose names have been associated with the sturdy walls and hospitable atmosphere of this brave old dwelling. The huge German locks, with their exposed and complicated mechanism, were fastened to the doors ; heavy pieces of furni- ture were placed in the rooms, one, at least, the stupendous Dutch cupboard, occupying to-day its original position ; clean white sand from the brook was spread on the floors, and the great crane was himg in the deep-chested fire-place. Mariah Katrina, as priestess of the household, has put the first torch to the hickory boughs on the hearthstone ; the crackling flames leap up the broad chimney, while wreaths of curling smoke soar heavenward, seemingly bearing in their pungent odors an incense of thanksgiving. The tea-kettle, suspended over the fire, sings its cheery note — the bubbling pot with savory breath joins in the chorus — the procession of generations of good-cheer has commenced. Let us conceive the table spread in the living- room, and the members of the family gathered about the board for their first meal in the " Stone House." While regaling them- selves with creature-comforts from the good wife's newly-stocked larder, if ever faces could be said to reflect content, so must have theirs, as they congratulated each other on the comfort ot their surroundings. And in the evening — believing, as we do, , in the deep religious feeling that controlled all the thoughts and actions of the sire, we need not doubt the erection of a family GO o The Bedminster House Completed. 155 altar ; nor, that at the close of this all-important day, with a heart overflowing with thankfulness, and a voice choked with emotion, Johannes' devout prayers of praise and dedication, borne on the wings of faith, ascended to the Most High ; to that kind Providence who had guarded and guided him and his, through the vicissitudes of all the year since leaving Germany, bringing them at last in safety to the repose of a happy home on this peaceful Bedminster hillside. CHAPTER XII. Johannes Goes to the Post Office — JBedminster and the Adja- cent Townships in 1752. Just here it may be well to survey the appearance presented by Somerset county and East New Jersey at the time the Moelichs took possession of the " Old Farm." In no better way can we do this than by — in fancy — accompanying Johannes to Perth Amboy, thirty miles away. He is going to see if John Fox, the postmaster, has a letter for him from the old country ; for be it known that in the year of grace, 1752, the province boasts of but three post offices — one at Amboy, one at Trenton, and one at Burlington. Letters were left at those places by the Phila- delphia mail carrier, weekly in summer and once in two weeks during the winter ; rather meagre facilities for the people, but they had to be contented until 1 754, when the service was consid- erably increased. In December, 1733, the following notice appeared in the Philadelphia "Weekly Mercury ": " There are a number of letters in the post office at Perth Amboy for persons living in Somerset, Monmouth and Essex counties." To us of the present day, Johannes would have presented a striking appearance, as, mounted on a stout cob, he clattered down the incline upon which he had built the new stone house, and turned west up the long hill. He is now over fifty 3'ears of age, with a figure not tall, but robust, having a high color, blue eyes, and, had the fashion of the day allowed, the whole would have been supplemented by an abundant reddish brown beard. His German origin is still readily recognized, though many of his foreign characteristics have been lost. He speaks English, but not with the facility of the mother tongue, and his dress is that of a well-to-do colonial yeoman. A coarse grey coat with Johannes in the Saddle. 157 generous skirts cut square, buttons across his brawny chest, not hiding an ample leather waistcoat. His breeches, also of leather, meet at the knee stout blue yarn stockings, drawn over a pair of sturdy calves, which are further protected by deer-skin leg- gings extending over his buckled shoes. A short grey wig and a three-cornered hat complete his decently picturesque appearance, while his further belongings comprise a fresh cut whip of sapling, and a pair of saddle-bags suspended on either side of the horse. As he climbs the hiU and overlooks his broad acres, he turns in the saddle for a good-bye glance at the new house resting so cosily against its sunny bank. What wonder, that as he rides through the fresh dewy morning air his face glows with satis- faction ! We can well imagine it because of his thoughts dwell- ing on the pleasant surroundings of his newly established home, and on the peaceful promise it seems to give for the future, as compared with the unhappy uncertainties of the Grerman life he had known on the banks of the far distant Rhine. Johannes' first thirteen years in America have been preparatory, and to an extent, migratory ; but now he feels about him the atmos- phere of an abiding home. He recognizes and appreciates that he is no longer a pioneer, but a permanent member of a commu- nity, where each individual has an interest in the common wealth, and in the continued growth and improvement of the neighborhood. Here he expects to end his days — here be buried ; and here he hopes his children will live, and their gen- erations prosper. The road Johannes traveled was but little more than a broad path cut through the woods ; the trees pressed close on either side of the ruts and wheel tracks, often the bark of the flanking oaks and hickories showing the marks made by the hubs of passing vehicles. It must have been pleasant riding along for miles under the arching branches, the air surcharged with the balsam of the aromatic breath of thousands of acres of giant trees : monarchs of the forest that for centuries had towered over the hills and dales, enriching the ground with their yearly falling leaves, till the soil, rank with vitality, only needed the warm sun and man's command, to blossom into fields of abund- ance. Occasionally, on the roads emerging from its long green 158 The Story of an Old Fakm. arcade, our traveller came upon isolated dwellings, seated amid little clearings, from which, in many instances, the stumps had not yet disappeared. The smoke that gently curled heaven- ward from the chimneys of these dwellings perfiuned the morn- ing air with the odors of burning fresh-cut wood— such smoke as can only come from firesfed by glowing oaken back-logs and crack- ling hickory boughs, over which the good-wife has swung the great black kettle. These rude homes of new settlers were few, however ; population had been very slow in })enetrating this portion of Somerset. The country lay in a broad and almost unbroken extent of fertile waste, with but infrequent traces of human habi- tation discernible. As the grass covers a rolling meadow, mant- ling it in continuous green, so the forest buried the Bedminster and Bridgewater hills and valleys in vast midulations of leafy verdure. From the Morris county line on the north to the Raritan river at Bound Brook on the south ; from Bernards on the east to Hunterdon on the west, the whole area was a broad expanse of woodland wilderness, the continuity of green being- interrupted here and there by a few houses clustering as an embryo village, while an occasional interval, open to the sun, marked the germ of a future farm. At Pluckamin the nucleus of a society was forming ; and at Lamington — a corruption of the more majestic Indian name, Allamehmk — the Presbyterians had erected a church edifice in 1740, though services had been held in a barn for several pre- ceding years. Among the earlier members of the congregation were William Hoagland, Jacobus Van der Veer, Henry Sloane, Ephraini McDowell, John Craig, William Logan, Richard Por- ter, Peter Demun, Thomas Van Horn, Mathias Lane and Guisbert Sutphen. At this time the church building had just been enlarged, and the pastor of the congregation was the Reverend James McCrea, he having in 1740, accepted a call from the congregation known as that of ^' Lametunk, Lebanon, Peapack, Readington and Bethlehem." He was the father of that Jennie McCrea, whose tragic death on the upper Hudson in the year 1777 by the tomahawks of Burgoyne's treacherous Indian allies, was to send a thrill of horror throughout the entire country. Though much of Bedminster remained in a state of nature, beyond its borders, in adjacent townships, communities had been. The Settlement of Bernards Township. 159 planted and many acres of farming lands were cleared. On the north the settlement of Morristown by people from Newark and New England dated from early in the century, and its Presby- terian church had been established since 1738, the year of the organization of the county. Until about that time the neighbor- hood had been known as West Hanover, the first record of the new name, Morristown, being found in an order of the court of general sessions of the peace dated the twenty-fifth of March, 1740. By the year 1713 squatters' cabins existed at Roxiticus, now Mendham — the original settlers being Byrams, Drakes, Cooks, Careys, Thompsons and others. Its first tavern, afterwards the famous '^ Black Horse," was kept by a By ram, and the oldest stone in the graveyard perpetuates the name of Stephen Cook, who died in 1749. Its Presbyterian congregation is first men- tioned in 1738, in connection with New Brunswick. In this year, 1752, the congregation, under the pastorate of Eliab Byram, possessed a small frame church building which must have been erected previous to 1745, as in that year it, together with its site, was conveyed by deed of Edward Burnet. He may have been a good man, but he surely was an evil speller. He describes himself in the conveyance, "• Edmon Burnnant of Rocksiticus in yere County of Summerset in east nu Jareses in Amaracah." The description of the premises conveyed begins, "Scairteen pees of parsel of land on which the meeting hows Now Standeth." Basking Ridge, in Bernards township, already possessed a flourishing community with a well-established Presbyterian church under the charge of a Scotch worthy, the Reverend Samuel Kennedy. His education had been gained at Edin- burgh University, and coming to America, he was in 1751 ordained pastor of this congregation, which he faithfully served for thirty-six years at a salary of one hundred and ten pounds. In addition to his ministerial duties he practiced medicine, and established and took charge of a classical school which attained to great celebrity. Authorities differ as to the time that Bask- ing Ridge and Bernards township were first settled. By some it is claimed that a Scotch congregation and a log church were in existence in the year 1700. Doctor John C. Rankin, in his 160 The Story of an Old Farm. published '^ Historical Discourse," very properly asserts that there could have been no church before there were inhabitants. He goes on to show that it was not until the year 1717 that John Harrison, acting as agent for the proprietors of East New Jer- sey, purchased Indian rights to about three thousand acres, embracing the site of the village, and much of the territory occu- pied by the present congregation. John Harrison will be remem- bered as one of the benefactors of St. Peter's church at Perth Amboy, his name appearing with those of George Willocks and Thomas Gordon on a tablet affixed to its walls. This tract, pur- chased from the natives, was subsequently sold to and divided between four purchasers, one of whom was James Alexander, the surveyor-general of New Jersey and the father of Lord Stir- ling. Alexander's portion embraced between six and eight hun- dred acres of land of great beauty and fertility. This was the property that his son William, in 1761, on his return from Eng- land, after his futile eftbrts to secure an earldom, improved until it blossomed into his great estate, with a fine mansion, rich gar- dens and a park stocked with deer. The first actual settlers of Basking Ridge seem to have come about the time of Harrison's purchase. By 1720 the recorded names appear of James Pitney, Henry Rolfe, and John Ayres. The latter came from Woodbridge, New Jersey, though born at Newbury, Massachusetts, from which place he migrated, as a child, with his father, Obadiah. He died in 1732, and left seven sons, who all lived in the neighborhood, and became active members of the church and community. In 1731, John Ayres conveyed to James Pitney, Mordecai McKenne, George Pack, Samuel Rolfe, Daniel Morris, Thomas Riggs and Obadiah Ayres, trustees, one and one-half acres of land, in the centre of which, surrounded by a grove of trees, stood a log meeting-house. This primitive structure was superseded, in 1747, by a frame edifice that remained standing for ninety years. The oldest gravestone in the churchyard records the death of Henry Haines, on the ninth of June, 1736. There was at this time living in Bernards township one Abraham Southard, who in the previous year had migrated with eight children from Hempstead, Long Island. His coming had insured to Somerset, in the future a citizen who was to prove a great honor to the state. His son Henry, who was The Bedminster Van der Veers. 161 born in 1747, lived at Basking Ridge until he died at the age of ninety-five, having had thirteen children. One of them, Samuel L. Southard, lived to have a national reputation as one of Amer- ica's greatest statesmen. Henry Southard, the father, also served faithfully and well his state and country. For eight years he was a member of the legislature, and for twenty-one a representative in congress. Before he retired from that body he saw his distinguished son a United States senator, and met him at a meeting of the joint committees of the two houses. The father and son were chairmen of their respective committees — a circumstance, as it has been said, without par- allel in the political history of our country. We have already learned how New Germantown was thriving in the west, and toward the south in the direction of White House were comfortable homesteads and cultivated lands. But as Johannes rode toward the Raritan he traversed almost a wooded solitude. As yet there were no signs of the hamlet of the Lesser Cross Roads, the only houses in that vicinity being the one of logs of John Burd, near where '^ Demund's bridge" now spans the north branch of the Raritan, and a similar structure, occu- pied by William Hoagland, standing on George Leslie's land west of the line of the '^ Old Farm." The road from Bernards ville to Lamington had been marked out since 1741, but was a mere trail, and but little travelled. South of this road the forest con- tinued with hardly a break to Pluckamin. In the territory lying between the two rivers — the Axtell tract — there was thus far but meagre settlement. Without much doubt a log house was standing where now lives Henry Ludlow (below Bedmin- ster church). It is known that about the year 1760, Jacobus Van der Veer built the house now occupied by Mr. Ludlow. He had purchased the land of William Axtell — two hundred and sixty acres fronting on the north branch of the Raritan — some time between 1746 and 1752 ; the records do not show the exiact date, but it must have been before the time of which we write, as he was a resident in 1751. In that year he was appointed a commissioner of the highways — an office that could not have been attended with very laborious duties. He was a great-grandson of Cornelius Jansse Van der Veer, who, emi- grating from Alckmarr in the province of North Holland, aforti- 11 162 The Story of an Old Farm. fied city of about ten thousand people, landed from the ship " Otter " in February, 1659, and settled at Flatbush, Long Island. This emigrant's son Dominicus migrated to some point in the Raritan valley, and one of his sons. Jacobus, who married Femmetje Stryker, was the father of the Bedniinster Jacobus Van der Veer, and also of that Elias, who some years later improved the water-power north of Pluckamin, thus establishing what has ever since been a county landmark — Van der Veer's mills. Some distance west of the Van der Veer land, still on the Axtell tract, was another clearing, in which stood a newly erected log house. It was the home of Ephraira McDowell, who on the first of May, 1750, purchased of William Axtell two hun- dred and thirty acres of land, a portion of which is still owned and occupied by his descendants. A few years later a frame dwelling with shingled sides succeeded the original log cabin ; it stood for seventy -five years, one of its rooms being the birth place of three successive generations. Five genera- tions have been welcomed to this ancestral home. Ephraira jNIcDowell died, and was buried in Lamington churchyard, in 1762. The posterity of this sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyterian have left indelible marks of their individuality and strength of character on the society of this and other states. None more so than his grandsons, John and William, who as the pastors of the Presbyterian churches of Morristown and Elizabeth were, we are told, the means of the conversion of three thousand souls. At this time there was no bridge where the Pluckamin road crosses the north branch of the Raritan. The river was often too high to be forded, as in those early days when the country was invested as a garment with heavy timber, all of the streams flowed much greater volumes of water. At such times travellers south- ward were obliged to cross the river near Mine brook, or often as far north as Peapack brook, and thus make their way through •Bernards township. On reaching Pluckamin Johannes found there about a dozen small houses and a tavern. This inn was the first place of entertainment established in the township ; it was built in 1750 by Jacob Eofi", who was one of the pioneers of the village. He was a native of Holland, and early in the last century purchased five hundred acres of land of the heirs of Pluckamin in 1752. 163 John Johnstone, which included the present site of Pluckamin. His tavern remained standing for sixty-four years, its location being the corner now occupied by the house of Joseph D. Nevius. During the Revolution it was the meeting place for the committee of safety, and when Washington's army was quar- tered in this and adjoining counties its boniface dispensed hospitality to many of the leading men of the country. After Jacob's death the tavern was kept by his maiden sister Sarah, who, in turn, was succeeded by Jacob's son Christian ; he abandoned the old structure to his brother Cornelius, who occu- pied it as a residence. Christian built on the opposite corner — the present tavern site — a long, low building called the " Barracks." Here he waxed famous as a popular host. With the best society of New York and Philadelphia, this landlord's name became synonymous with good living ; and summer visitors to Schooley's mountain — a watering-place then in its glory — always arranged that the night necessarily spent on the journey should be passed at Christian Eojff's tavern. Aristocratic coaches with the family arms emblazoned on their panels, and drawn by four and six horses were not uncommon in those good old days in this quaint village of Pluckamin. In the foundation wall of the public house, destroyed within a few years by fire and which took the place of the ''Barracks," is a stone bearing the date 1750, which was taken from the walls of the original tavern built by Jacob Eoff. Of the twelve houses standing at the time of our ancestor's rid- ing through the village, four are believed to be still extant. The one recently known as the Parker house was occupied by John Boylan — afterwards Pluckamin's first store-keeper, who was called " Captain Bullion." He was a contemporary of Jacob Eoff, whose daughter at the age of fifteen became his wife. Mrs. Boylan lived to the good old age of ninety-five, surviving her husband fifty years ; Mrs. Sarah Parker, the late owner of the house, was her daughter. Another of the original dwellings still preserved to us is the one known as the Harmer house, and owned by John Fenner, Jr. In Johannes' day it was the resi- dence of Matthew Lane, whose family settled about 1748 on the north branch of the Raritan, east of Van Vleits' mills. The old Losey dwelling, in which Jacob Losey kept the post office from 1830 to 1860, is also said to have been built as early as 1 752. 164 The Story of an Old Farm. A few years later settlers began to multiply in the vicinity of Pluckamin, but at this time the inhabitants of the neighborhood were not many. Colonel William McDaniels, as early as 1744, owned a large tract of land and a saw-mill, on the north branch of the Raritan, where are now Kline's mills. South of this property resided in the same year George and Jerry Reemer ; the name of the former appears among the contributors to the fund for building St. Paul's church, in 1756. On the east side of the river, on part of the tract (Winder) that George Wil- locks sold to Daniel Axtell, lived George Teeple and his sons, John and Christopher. He emigrated from Germany as early as 1700, and his grandson William was living recently in Pluckamin at an advanced age. The records show George Teeple to have been living in the township in 1745, and his name and that of his son John also appear, in 1756, as sub- scribers to the building of St. Paul's Lutheran church. From a gravestone in the churchyard we learn that John married Margaret Castncr on the tenth of January, 1756, and after liv- ing together for fifty-seven years they died within three hours of each other on the seventeenth of March, 1813, and were buried in the same grave. John Wortman, a native of Holland, in 1750 bought five hundred acres of land located west of Pluckamin on the road leading to Burnt mills, upon which he erected a long, one and a half storey, Dutch structure. The present Schoonmaker dwelling, recently remodelled, embraces a part of the original Wortman homestead, and is consequently one of the oldest houses in the township. It is fair to presume that Johannes dismounted at Eoffs tavern to wish Jacob '■"gntcn morgen,^^ and discuss with him the quality of some of his best Jamaica. It will be seen, as we proceed with the telling of our story, that the Moelichs, both father and son, were intimately associated with the early citizens of this vicinity. Among their old documents and miscellaneous papers in the hands of the writer are many on which appear the signatures of the Eoffs, Teeples, Wortmans, McDonalds, Van der Veers and other Pluckamin worthies. It is to be regretted that Johan- nes, in this and other visits to the village, did not ascertain and transmit to his posterity the origin of its name. It has long been a vexed question, and has served as a subject for many Origin of the Name Pluckamin. 165 arguments and communications. A popular belief among the villagers is that this strange cognomen was occasioned by the assiduously-acquisitive habits of an early innkeeper, who, in his eagerness to secure customers, would '^ Pluck -'em-in." This ancient tavern-porch tale is an antiquated joke, and, without doubt, dates back to the founding of the village. The same mythical tavern-keeper has been found at Mendham, (Fll-Mend- em), New Jersey, and in Tarrytown, New York. No one, how- ever, has ever known his name, or in what year he flourished. By many, '■'■ Plaque mine^^ has been considered the proper spelling of the word, there being such a town in France, and one in the French portion of the Louisiana low-lands. I have long been persuaded that the name, in its present form, is the result of the linguistic efforts of our Dutch, German and English fore- fathers to spell and pronounce an Indian word. It is repeatedly written Blockhemen in the old German archives of Zion church. In the year 1885, when Edward Eggleston was engaged in researches among the manuscripts of the British museum in London, I wrote him, asking if he would endeavor to discover some trace of the word Pluckamin. I had thought it possible the name might appear among the minor ham- lets of Somersetshire, from which we have received the names of Bridgewater and Bedminster. His reply, under date of September sixteenth of that year, was as follows : I have tried in vain in tlie best Englisli gazeteers to find Pluckamin. I think it may be a corruption of Puckamin, which, I believe, though I cannot be sure, was a dialect form of the Algonquin, Putchamin, corrupted by our ancestors to persimmon, the fruit of that name. This seems like a wild conjecture, but I think it is the solution. At any rate, the name is Indian, I doubt not. As the present county-seat did not come into existence until nearly half a century later, there was at this time no road lead- ing from Pluckamin in the direction of Somerville. The county of Somerset was first erected and set off from Middlesex in 1688, but for twenty-five years after, it had no courts of its own, relying upon Middlesex for the administration of justice. The first court-house and jail was erected some time between the years 1714 and 1717, at Six Mile Run, the buildings standing about three hundred feet east of the present church in that village, where its foundation stones can still be discovered. Tliis struc- 166 The Story of an Old Farm. ture being destroyed by fire in 1737, the county-seat was removed to Hillsborough (Millstone), where a new court-house and jail were erected. This last building was destroyed by the British in 1779, the remains of its foundation being still in existence. In 1783 the county erected a tem- porary court-house and a log jail at Tunison's tavern, or Raritan. The former stood just east of the present court-house grounds, where in 1798 permanent county buildings were erected. This gave a great impetus to settlement in the neigh- borhood, which three years later assumed the name of Somer- ville. The road upon which our rider pursued his way followed a more easterly course, and ran along the edge of the mountains to Middlebrook, or Bomid Brook. Below Pluckamin was a tract of four hundred and seventy acres belonging to William McDonald, who had recently built on the ravine of Chambers brook a mill that ground the grists of Bedminster people until after the Revolution. Upon crossing this tract the road plunged directly into the forest, and from there on was but little more than a bare wagon track. Let us imagine Johannes traversing this shady way. As he puffs his pipe and rides musingly along, he gives rein to his steed, and abandons himself to agreeable reflection. While his mind dwells on the future grain fields, barns, mills and improvements in contemplation for the Bedminster hillside, he turns his horse on the soft green moss that carpets either side of the trail, and, as he slowly moves on between the stately trees, breathes with delight the cool sweet breath of grass and leaves and forest. Now he threads a little bridle path or cut-off, which leaving the highway runs under a mass of foliage, through which wild honeysuckles and blossoming grape-vines clamber from bush to tree, filling the air with their fragrance. On every side the shadowy dells and bosky bowers are vocal with the sweetest of nature's music, the chirping, twittering and singing of early summer birds. On the branches overhead saucy grey squirrels, with a whisk of their spasmodic tails, scurry up the tree trunks to safer altitudes, from where they peer down on the horse- man below through a curtain of trembling leaves. Perhaps a bear, with its awkward cubs, shuffles across the trail before him, or a startled red deer bounds away through the glades of the The Great Raritan Road. 167 forest, disappearing in its sombre distances. There were other beasts and game at this time frequenting the quietudes of these Phickamin hills, for we know that in 1730 a law was passed in the province offering a bounty of twenty shillings for full grown wolves, five shillings for whelps not able to prey, and fifteen shillings for panthers. Notwithstanding this inducement for the extirpation of wolves, they seem to have grown more numerous, as, in 1751, an act was passed increasing the bounty to sixty shillings, and to ten shillings for whelps. And now the thicket and undergrowth recede ; the ground falls away, and the trail descending to the broad level of the Raritan loses itself in the ^' Great Raritan Road," which had been the thoroughfare of early colonial travel since the year 1700. It commenced at a point on the north bank of the river, opposite New Brunswick, and following the stream to its branches extended west to the Delaware. Here Johannes finds the already old village of Bound Brook (Middlebrook), its loca- tion then, as now, being one of much natural beauty. Seated on the grassy banks of the Raritan, it overlooks that stream just where with a graceful bend it sweeps to the south, and so makes its deepening way through a fertile valley to the sea. CHAPTER XIII. Bound Brook in the Olden Time — The Baritan Valley in 1752. Bound Brook has of late years grown familiar to the travel- ling public, owing to the name being used to designate one of the prominent railway routes to Philadelphia. Trains by this line, while taking their hurried flight across the state, pause for a few moments at the entrance door to this old village. Their passen- gers look from the car windows with curious eyes upon the ancient settlement sequestered amid its venerable trees ; but few of them appreciate that their glances rest on a place that has been the theatre of colonial and Revolutionary scenes of much historic interest ; and on a locality whose name dates away back to the year 1666. To one fond of the beautiful in nature this valley of the Rari- tan abounds in rural loveliness. It is but its superficial charm. He who has an appetite for the quaint and old, and is eager to discover localities around which memories of the past cluster thickly, finds much along this river upon which to feed his antiquarian tastes. Its associations are among the oldest in New Jersey — none more so, save those of the Hudson and the Dela- ware. After the establishment of the capital of the province at Perth Amboy in 1682, the Scotch and English soon made their way northerly as far as the forks of the Raritan. Long before this time the Dutch had been quick to discover the agri- cultural promises of this favored region. These pioneers, toiling in the vanguard of settlement, while making their way through the thick gloom of the woods bordering the river were attracted by the intervals of broad meadow-spaces, horizoned by zones of forest and rich in abundant grasses. Under the The Genesis of Bound Brook. 169 shadow of their bordering trees often stood Indian cabins, for the red men had used these savannas for raising com, beans, and pumpkins. The Hollanders had good cause for rejoicing at finding in the dense woods lands destitute of trees and ready at once for the plow. The secretary of the New Netherlands, Cor- nelius Van Tienhoven, writes in 1650 that The district inhabited by a nation called Raritangs is situated on a fresh water river that flows through the centre of a lowland which the Indians culti- vated. This vacant territory lies between two high mountains, far distant the one from the other. This is the handsomest and pleasantest country that man can behold. It furnished the Indians with abundance of maize, beans, pumpkins, and other fruits. * * * Through this valley pass large numbers of all sorts of tribes on their way north or east. This land is, therefore, not only adapted for raising grain and rearing all descriptions of cattle, but also very convenient for trade with the Indians. — Doc. History, N. Y. It is generally believed that the name, Bound Brook, is dei'ived from the fact that the boundaries of the present town are the brooks that empty into the Raritan ; this is a natural mis- take, the name having a much greater and more significant meaning. In the year 1666, after certain portions of the Eliza- bethtown patent had been set off to the Woodbridge, Piscataway and Newark settlers, it became necessary to define the limit of what was left of this grant ; consequently it was declared to extend from the mouth of the Raritan on the west to the mouth of the Passaic on the east, and from the Rahway river on the south to the brook emptying into the Raritan on the north, which was from thenceforth known as Bound brook. This is the stream that is crossed by the Central Railroad just below the station, and in after years it gave its name to the hamlet that grew upon its banks. Bound Brook has the honor of being Somerset's oldest settlement, the land on which the village stands having been purchased, in the year 1681, by Grovernor Philip Carteret, and others, from two Raritan Indians named KoN- ACKAMA and QuEROMAK. Doctor Messier considers this to be the first land purchased in this county. It was described as embracing territor}^ lying within the boundaries of the Raritan river on the south ; Bound brook, or Sacunk, (Indian for slow, sluggish stream), on the east; Middle brook, or Rha-weigh-weiros (Indian word meaning running from a deep hole), on the west ; and of a qprtain stony hill and Metapes' wigwam at the mouth of 170 The Story of an Old Farm. Cedar brook on the north. The whole area being known as Baca-hova-wallahy, or "A round plain by the deep crooked water." Only two of these eight purchasers seem to have appeared in the county — Thomas Codrington and John Royce. The former had apportioned to him eight hundred and seventy-seven acres on the westerly side of the grant, fronting on Middle brook. Soon after 1683, he built upon it a large mansion, giving his homestead the name of liacawa.ckhana, an Indian word meaning a meadow or flat by a rapid brook. This is the same property now owned and occupied by Q-eorge La Monte. Codrington was a man of considerable influence ; before removing to Bound Brook he had been sheriff" of the city of New York, and after becoming a citizen of the province of New Jersey he was appointed a member of the governor's council, which position he seems to have been still holding in 1698. The name of John Royce is preserved in that of Roycefield, southwest of Somerville, where he owned twenty thousand acres of land. That portion of this Indian grant, which is the immediate site of Bound Brook, became the property of Thomas Rudyard, one of the original twenty-four propi'ietors of East New Jersey and its first deputy-governor. It Avas his daughter who, while the widow of Samuel Winder, became the wife of George Willocks. About the year 1700 George Cussart, Samuel Thompson and Jacob De Groot purchased Rudyard's land, together with eight hundred and seventy-seven acres adjoining, belonging to John Royce. George Cussart built his residence where now stands the village hotel ; and Thompson's house stood where the Central Railroad line crosses the highway, and was extant mitil the construction of the railway. The most important Raritan resident in social and political' consequence in the seventeenth century was Lord Neil Camp- bell. He lived in considerable state on a plantation of sixteen hundred and fifty acres situated near where the north and south branches of the Raritan join. He was a brother of the Duke of Argyle, and was connected with that nobleman's disastrous effort to aid the handsome " Pretender's" attempt to seize the crown of England. More fortunate than many of his co-conspir- ators. Lord Neil Campbell saved his head; and in* October, Bound Brook Presbyterian Church. 171 1685, he reached East New Jersey, bearing the commission of its proprietors as deputy-governor. A retinue of sixty-five ser- vants, that had preceded him, awaited his arrival at his planta- tion. His two sons, John and Charles, were here before their father, they also being under the ban of the home government for political offenses. John, with his wife, three children and eleven servants it is thought lived on an estate of eighteen hundred and seventy acres that he owned on the west side of the south branch of the Earitan near Corle's mills. Archibald Campbell, a nephew of Lord Neil, and also a refugee, is said about this time to have lived in baronial style on Herbert's island, his residence being known as Kells' Hall. He had many house and field servants, and haiiging in the belfry of the Bound Brook academy is an old bell with which, it is said, he used to call his slaves from their labors. Within fifty years descend- ants of the Campbells were living in this village ; there are none now, though in the adjoining county they are said to be num- erous. The Scotch and English multiplied in this vicinity, and by the year 1700 they were in sufficient numbers to warrant forming the '^ Presbyterian Congregation of Bound Brook," which before long became one of the most flourishing and important religious organizations in the colony. We have no record of where the first services were held — probably in one of the log dwellings that were distributed along the willow -fringed banks of the river. It was not until 1725 that the congregation ei-ected its first edifice, a low one-storey house which stood within the present church grounds, and was preserved until far in this cen- tury, the uses of its later years being that of a school-house. Itin- erant preachers served the needs of the people until 1741, when the Reverend James McCrea was appointed by the Presbytery as a supply, which service he continued till 1749. A second and more pretentious building was completed about the year 1760, the funds having been obtained from the proceeds of a public lottery. Affixed to the walls of the present church edifice is a tablet showing the first settled minister of the congregation to have been the Reverend Israel Read. ' He was called to the pastorate in 1750, " in which he was faithful to his Divine Master to the 172 The Story of an Old Far^f. death." In November, 1793, he was thrown from his carriage while riding near New Brunswick, receiving injuries of which three days later he died. Judging from the congregational records it would seem that members of the Field family have, from the founding of this religious society, been among its most active supporters and benefactors. A portion of the church grounds was conveyed by Benjamin and Jeremiah Field in the year 1749, and the large church Bible which bears a London imprint of 1772, has on its leaf, in the hand writing of the Rev- erend Mr. Read, the following : " Mr. Michael Field's Book 1784 he Presents to the Reverend Mr. Read being the Second Small Legacy made by him to the Church at Bound Brook. Pris-1-8-0." Michael Field died on the thirteenth of January, 1792; a copy of his will, in my possession, shows that he bequeathed one thousand pounds to the trustees of the congrega- tion, the interest of which was to be applied "towards supporting the gospell in the Presbiterian Church at Bound Brook." He also left the sum of five hundred pounds for the support of a free school within the congregation. This was not the first one of the village. The Scotch Presbyterians held the school almost in equal estimation with the church ; schoolmasters were brought from the old country and early established in the East Jersey settle- ments. In 1752, when Johannes visited Bound Brook, John Wacker taught the village children in a low one-storey building within the present church grounds. Doubtless the colonial lads found that pedagogue's name to be appropriate to his call- ing, for schoolmasters of the olden time considered that mental perceptions were precipitated by knuckles and palms being well ridged by hard rulers. One of the first teachers in the free academy established by the bequest of Michael Field was Isaac Toucey, who afterwards was secretary of war under Buchanan's administration. When in 1752 our wayfarer rode down this ancient high- way — the Great Raritan Road — through Bound Brook, he found a village of about twenty houses, all of one storey, guarded at either end by a spiritual and material sentinel, for at the extreme south stood the church, while equally far north was William Harris's tavern. This "public" continued in the same family until 1815, when Isaac Harris combined the duties of Bound Rrook Residents in 1752. 173 being its landlord with those of the sheriff of the county. A portion of the original structure continues to represent the hos- pitalities of this neighborhood in the present Middlebrook hotel. It has been said that it was not until near the end of the century that Peter Van Norden erected the first two-storey house, and painted it a bright green. So much was this architectural extra- vagance condemned by the villagers, that it became known as '' Van Norden's Folly." It was destroyed by fire in 1882, and until then was occupied by descendants in the fourth generation of its ambitious builder. Besides the tavern there is still another building standing in that vicinity, which was in existence at the time of Johannes' visit. It is the old Shepherd house on the heights back of the village, which was built before the year 1730. Among the citizens of this ancient burgh in the year 1752, besides those already mentioned, was Peter Williamson, who lived in a house on the bank of the river, just south of where now is the railroad station, built in 1684 by John, son of Lord Neil Campbell ; John de Groot, whose hovise, built by his father in 1700, stood just north of the main street, — his son Jacob, who lived to be ninety-four years of age, died in this dwell- ing, which was preserved until the year 1839 when it was destroyed by fire ; John Anderson, the remains of whose house are still to be seen on the property of Isaac J. Fisher ; William Moore, a hatter ; John Castner, a shoemaker ; and Tobias Van Norden, who built a store in 1849, upon the site of the one now or lately owned by John D. Voorhees. It was a long building of but one storey, with two dormer windows in its sloping gambril roof. Van Norden continued as Bound Brook's storekeeper until after the Revolution, and we can imagine Johannes dismounting, either going or coming, in order to fill some little commissions from home, as at this time it was the nearest shop to the " Old Farm." A grandson of Van Norden says that for some twenty- five years previous to 1765 his grandfather was extensively engaged in baking ship bread, which he exported direct to the West Indies, carting it in wagons to New Brunswick where it was transferred to vessels. Speaking of a lottery as a means of raising money for complet- ing the Bound Brook church, brings to mind their prevalence in 174 The Stoky of an Old Fakm. colonial times. It was the financial fashion of the age, and con- sidered quite as legitimate as is to-day the placing on the mar- ket of authorized railway securities. The following curious extract from the diary of the Reverend Samuel Seabury, father of Bishop Seabury, shows the peculiar views prevailing in the last century as to the propriety and morality of lotteries and gambling : The ticket No. 5,886, in the Light-house and Public Lottery of New York, drew in my favor, by the blessing of Almighty God, 500 pounds sterling, of which I received 425 pounds, there being a deduction of fifteen per cent ; for which I now record to my posterity my thanks to Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts. These enterprises were under the patronage of the best people in the land. Among the autographic treasures of John F. McCoy, of Brooklyn, is the following : 1768. This Ticket (No. 176) shall entitle the Possessor to whatever Prize may happen to be drawn against its number in the Mountain Road Lottery. (Signed) Go. Washington. Judging from the advertisements appearing in the middle of the last century in the New York papers, there was hardly a settlement in the province that had not on foot some plan for a lottery. The beneficiaries of those extraordinary monetary schemes were most varied in character, and they were often for the aid of private as well as public enterprises. One set up in New Brunswick was for the relief of an insolvent debtor. Peter Bodine advertised another having one hundred and ninety-five prizes, " many of them being lots in the heart of that growing place, Raritan Landing, which is a market for the most plen- tiful wheat country of its bigness in America." It would seem that speciUative real estate bubbles were early afloat in the New Jersey air. The Landing must have stopped growing very sud- denly, and one woiUd need to search diligently now to find that number of lots in this then called market. Within a few years of that time the Presbyterian " meeting-houses" at Amwell and at Bound Brook, the English church at New Brunswick, St. John's church at Elizabethtown, and Trinity church at Newark, were all completed with the assistance aff'orded by lotteries. In Phila- delphia, in 1749, one was established to raise fifteen hundred pounds for the benefit of Nassau, now the College of New Jer- Lotteries in the Olden-Time. 175 seyat Princeton ; and in May, 1754, a Pennsylvania newspaper advertised that tickets in a Connecticut lottery for the benetit of this same college, "will be had of Mr. Cowell, at Trenton." In 1 773 that institution, in conjmiction with the Presbyterian church at Princeton, secured by the same means fifty-six hundred and twenty-six pounds. Toward the end of the century lotteries had grown in bad repute and were generally prohibited ; but immediately after the Revolution the legislature of New Jersey granted the borough of Elizabethtown the privilege of holding one " to raise a sum of money for building a court-house and jail, and finishing the academy, which during the late war was burned by the enemy." As Johannes left Bound Brook and rode southerly down the valley of the Raritan, the country quite lost that impress of soli- tude it had borne during the earlier stages of his journey. The heavy timber was now left behind, the trees grew more sparsely, for he had reached a region where settlers under the first prop- rietors earliest penetrated, and established their plantations. He was now in Middlesex county, and the township he traversed had for fifty years been occupied by the husbandman. Gener- ous orchards and abundant fields had long before taken the place of tangled maizes and impenetrable thickets, and much of the bottom and bench lands had been wrested by the hand of culti- vation from the grasp of primeval nature. No longer were the rude structures of logs that had "housed the families of pioneers the sole architectural features of the landscape; in many instances they had made way for the more pretentious farm-house, the homes of permanent, well-established residents ; and ample banis bore testimony to the fertility and productiveness of the surrounding acres. The board houses were of one storey, with long sloping roofs extending over a porch in front and descend- ing nearly to the ground in the rear. Here the overhanging eaves sheltered the big Dutch oven, and a broad space where rus- set-gowned maids sang at their spinning wheels, and where busy house-wives did the family weaving at their clumsy looms. These frame houses were generally unpainted and rapidly grew venerably dark in color. Their interiors were divided into but few rooms ; one or two sufficed for the needs of the family, wliile the others harbored pumpkins, carrots and potatoes, with dried 176 The Story of an Old Farm. apples and peaches hanging in festoons from the ceiling. The humble log hut, which had originally done residential duty, stood like a poor relation at a respectful distance, often degraded to the menial service of sheltering pigs and kine. Sometimes it was converted into a rude brew-house, for the Raritan settlers manufactured and drank great quantities of malt liquors. Mention has been made before of the fact that Hollanders from Long Island had early learned of the fertility and desirabil- ity of land in the rich valley of the Raritan. By the year 1703, they were thoroughly established on both sides of the river. Judging from a report made by Governor Dongan, of New York, to the English Board of Trade in 1687, it would seem that even by that time the Dutch had emigrated from Long Island to New Jersey. English emigrants, in 1685, had divided into about six hundred-acre tracts nearly all the land between New Brimswick and Bound Brook, extending for two miles back from the south bank of the river ; by the year 1717 the greater part of these lands was out of the hands of their original owaiers and occupied by the Dutch. Interspersed among the Hollanders that located on the north, or east, bank of the river, were many permanent English and Scotch settlers, as the names of Field, Boice, Smith, Ross, Low and others bear witness. Primogeniture being now unknown in this country, instances are not frequent where land descends from father to son for successive generations. In addition to the usual necessity of dividing estates, too often the heir to homestead lands is quite wanting in that love and reverence for ancestral acres that distinguishes people of an older country. It is pleasant to be able to record and make honorable mention of so rare a preservation of a family property as that of Benja- min M., Benjamin B., John K., and John B. Field, Avho now own and occupy five hundred acres of land fronting on the river, a short distance below^ Bound Brook. Theii's is one of the few instances in New Jersey of persons being able, in walking over their lands, to feel the proud consciousness of overlooking a broad territory that has been theirs and their ancestors for nearly two himdred years. The New Jersey forefather was John Field, who, on the fourteenth of December, 1695, pur- John Field's Raritan Purchase in 1695. 177 chased ten hundred and fifty-five acres of land, fronting the Raritan for two miles and a half, extending about three quarters of a mile inland and commencing about one mile below Boimd Brook. He came from Long Island, where he was bom in 1659, being the grandson of Robert Field, born in 1610, who it is supposed came to Rhode Island with Roger Williams. Rob- ert with fifteen associates obtained in 1645 from Governor William Kieft, of New Netherland, a patent for a large area of land on Long Island, embodying the present location of Flush- ing. The New Jersey ancestor was fifth in descent — in the direct line — from the famous astronomer, John Field, born A. D. 1525, who introduced the Copernican system in England. While living in London in 1556 he published the first English astro- nomical tables on the basis of the new discoveries. In recogni- tion of this service he received from the Crown a patent author- izing him to bear a crest on his family arms. His son Richard became chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, and was the author of sev- eral religious works. The Fields trace their descent from Hubertus de la Feld, who held lands in the county of Lancaster, England, in the third year of the reign of William the Con- queror. The name, in the old English, was written, " Feld ;" and is merely the past participle of the verb to fell. Field-land is opposed to wood-land, and means land where the trees have been felled. When such land is spoken of by such old authors as Gower, Chaucer and others, it is always written '^ feld:" " In Woode, in Feld or Cittee, Shall no man steale in nowise." John Field purchased his Raritan lands in 1695 from Benja- min Clarke, who inherited the property from his father — also named Benjamin. The senior Clarke, who died in 1689, arrived in Perth Amboy in 1683, securing headlands for himself, his son, and eight others. He is said to have built a house near the jimction of Market and Water streets, where he established New Jersey's first stationery and book store. In a letter to Scotland in March, 1685, Charles Gordon writes : " Neither are we altogether destitute of Books and Clergy, for George Keith, who arrived three weeks since, with others — (they were all winter in Barbadoes) — have brought mathematics, and Benjamin Clarke a Library of Boohs to sell ; so you may see New Perth begins to be founded upon Clergy." Clarke was a Quaker, and we may judge 12 178 The Story of an Old Fakm. him a stiff-necked one after reading the following extract from the old book of records of the Society of Friends : At the monthly meeting lield in Amboy the thirteenth of the fifth month, 1687, the friends appoynted to speak to Benjamin Clerk brought his answer, which was, that he would not come to meeting because Governor Lawry called him a divil (as he saves) wherewith friends not being satisfied desires George Keith and John Barclay to speak to him again. Many of these ancestral acres have been the homestead lands of Fields from that day to this. At the time Johannes rode through this domain the original estate was owned and occupied by the grandsons of John Field — as follows : Jeremiah, bom in 1713, who lived on the farm lately owned by Stephen Voor- hees, and whose stone dwelling is still extant ; John, born in 1714, who lived on what was lately known as the Oliver farm, in a stone house still standing which has inscribed on the west wall the date 1743 and the initials J. F. ; Michael, born in 1723, who lived on the mill property lately owned by Louis Clark; Benjamin, born in 1735, who lived on the farm now owned by Benjamin M. Field, in a frame house still standing, the newer portion of which is inscribed with the date 1761 and the initials B. F. ; and Richard, born 1726, who lived on the farm lately owned by John D. Field. His house is stiU standing, its corner-stone being marked with the date 1710 and the initial F. ; it is thought, however, that this stone was taken from the original house of the first purchaser, John Field, which stood a few hundred yards away, its foundations and cellars being still plainly visible. You may ^wonder at so prolonged a narrative of the Fields and their property. It should have an interest to the descend- ants of Johannes from the fact that the tAVO families are in this wise connected : Jeremiah Field, born in 1753, married Jane^ daughter of Captain Jacob Ten Eyck of Revolutionary fame. He settled in Bedminster township, purchasing on the sixth of February, 1790, from Daniel Heath a farm of one hundred and three acres, fronting on the Lamington river. Here Richard J. Field was born in 1785, who on the twenty-second of Decem- ber, 1808, married Mary Kline, born on the seventeenth of April, 1791, she being the granddaughter of Jacob Kline, and his Raritan Landing's Industries in 1752. 179 wife Veronica Gerdrutta, the eldest daughter of Johannes Moelich. On reaching Raritan Landing, two miles above New Bruns- wick, Johannes found it, for those days, a place of considerable prominence ; its marked growth of a few previous years having given rise to expectations of ultimate commercial greatness that the future was not to realize. Its prosperity was gained mainly from the fertile valley bordering the Raritan, and the rich fields of wheat and corn that were rapidly multiplying betAveen that river and the Delaware. This, together with the fact that the Landing was on tide-water and at the head of sloop navigation, gave it an importance second only to that of New Brunswick, and by many it was thought to be a serious business rival to that city. In addition to its shipping interests this point had active manufactiu'ing industries. The Raritan was here dammed, and mills were in successfid operation, both for grinding the grain of the back country and for manufacturing flour and meal for shipment to New York and more eastern ports. Among the manuscript papers of the late Ralph Voorhees is the Frank- lin township tax list for the year 1735. This old paper testifies directly as to the early prosperity of this portion of Somerset, by showing that at that date there were already established in the township six grist mills : one at the Landing, owned by Coert Van Voorhees ; another, a mile up the river, on the Rapelye brook ; the third, owned and operated by John Folkers, on the brook emptying into the Raritan, east of the house now or lately occupied by Abrain Sebring ; there was also the Wyckoff mill at Six Mile Run ; the Moere mill at JRocky Hill ; and another on the Millstone river, owned by Benjamin Griggs who is supposed to have been the founder of Griggstown. This last mill in the year 1752 was owned and operated by Nicholas Veghten. At this time there was also a mill, which had been erected in 1747 by Hendrick Schenck, located on the west side of the Millstone river, since known as Blackwells ; and in 1749 Abram Berean erected on the same river the Weston mill, lately known as Robeson's. Much testimony could be produced going to show the popu- lousness and growth of this part of New Jersey at that time as compared with other portions of the province. A correspondent of 180 The Stoky of an Old Farm. ex-Governor Robert Hunter, in a letter to him in England, about the year 1730, writes that '' New Brunswick had grown very rapidly for the reason that the country back of this town had improved quite fast. The farmers principally raised wheat, and the large mills in the vicinity rendered this an important flouring mart." Ralph Voorhees, in one of his sketches of the early settlers, tells us that the water-power at the Landing was destroyed about the time of the Revolution by the people along the upper Raritan, who were exasperated because it prevented shad from ascending the stream. When Johannes reached the Landing he was much inter- ested in viewing what was then considered, and properly so, a very grand mansion. It was surpassed by few, if any, resi- dences in the province. Nearly fifty feet square, it elevated a dormer-windowed hipped roof above two stone storeys, pre- senting a strong contrast to the ordinary wooden buildings of the surrounding country. Embowered in a luxuriant growth of ivy, it is still to be seen on the hillside opposite the road leading to the covered bridge, being owned and occupied by George W. Metlar. This important dwelling was built by Cornelius Low, Jr., who was born on the thirty-first of March, 1700, and settled in East Jersey about 1730, through the influ- ence of the Gouvemeur family, he having married Johanna Gouverneur in 1729. He was a surveyor, and did much valuable work in the province in defining the bomidaries of important estates. Schuyler's " Colonial New York " con- tains the record from Low's family Bible, which recites that he built his new house at '^ Raritan Landing, on the mountain," in 1741. The record repeatedly mentions the burial of members of his family in Jacob De Groot's vault. This tomb was prob- ably in the Presbyterian churchyard at Bound Brook, as this was the same De Groot who in the year 1700, in company with Cussart and Thompson, purcliased the site of that village from Deputy- Governor Rudyard. Cornelius Low, Jr., does not appear to have been of the Presbyterian persuasion, as we find on the minutes of the Dutch Reformed church, " op de 3IiU- stonc" his name entered as a communicant. This congregation was organized in 1727, by the Reverend Henricus Coens of Acquackanonk (Passaic). In this year, 1752, a new edifice had The Church Op De Millstone. 181 been erected on the site of the present Harlingen church. It was an antiquated Dutch structure, having lofty gables and a long steep roof. The interior was divided by one aisle, faced with short pews in which sat the men, while the body of the church was occupied by square pews filled with chairs for the use of the women and children. I do not find that the name of Low has been perpetuated in either Somerset or Middlesex. A descendant married the late Charles King, president of Colmnbia college, New York, and died in Paris a few years since ; her only son, C. L. King, lives in Bellows Falls, Vermont, and a daughter is the wife of Mr. Waddington, the present French minister at the English court. Johannes crossed the river on the rifile below the dam, and making his way down the opposite shore he was soon in New Brunswick, where he dismounted in front of a tavern on Water street, the city's main thoroughfare. After his long ride we can imagine him quite ready for what some one has called the hope of the hungry, the rest of the weary, the consolation of the mis- erable — dinner. CHAPTER XIV. From an Indian Path to the King's Highway — Neiv Brunswick and Historic Piscataway. The antiquated college town of New Brunswick, which the traveller Philadelphia-ward finds perched on the high rolling banks of the Raritan, is located on the most ancient highway in New Jersey ; a road that, before the foot of the first white man had trod the American continent, was centui'ies older than were its flanking oaks, chestnuts and hickories. In those remote days — before the advent of Europeans — a faint path coidd be traced on nature's carpet of fallen leaves and twigs, running east and west through the thick- ets and imdergrowth of the vast and sombre forest. It was the soft impress of the moccasined feet of the Lenni- Lenape, made while on their frequent way to the Lenni- Wihittuck, or Delaware river. This Indian path started at what is now Elizabcthport and plunging into the solitudes of the wilderness extended almost in a direct line to a point on the Raritan opposite where Albany street, in New Brunswick, now terminates. Here the red-men at low water forded the river, or at higher tides paddled across in their birch canoes. Passing up the present line of Albany street, the foot-path traversed the hoary woods with but little deviation till it reached the Dela- ware, just above where now is the capital of the state. This was the Indian's thoroughfare — their main artery of travel. It was intersected by others, the most important being the one by which the Monseys and more noi'thern tribes found their way to the sea. Commencing on the Delaware in what is now Sussex coimty, near where three states converge, this trail, known as the Minisink path, ran southeasterly to within five miles of where Carteret foimded his capital, Elizabethtown. Turning to Indian Paths Across New Jersey. 183 the rig;ht, it stretched across the country to the Raritan, three miles above its mouth. Following the south bank of the river and the shore of the Lower bay, the footpath continued along where now is the village of Middletown, and so onward over the pleas- ant rises and gentle declivities of Monmouth, till it penetrated the hemlock heights of the Highlands, and descending on their ocean side reached the river which the red-man had named Nauvessing,* " the place of good fishing." Another Indian trail branched from the first one at the Raritan ford, and follow- ing the river bank extended north and west, by way of the site of Bound Brook, to the forks of the stream, where it divided. It was over this trail that settlers first made their way up into Bedminster. Early in the seventeenth century other than Indian forms were to be seen passing along our ancient highway. Over this path, which had never been pressed by human feet save by those of the soft-stepping, stealthy savage, strode burly Dutchmen wear- ing hats of generous brim, broad belts and stout leather jerkins ; the smoke from their pipes, fragrant with the odors of the best Virginia, mingling with the breath of the woods and exuberant herbage. The Hollanders had settled New Amsterdam ; sailing in their high-pooped shallops through the Kill von Koll — the creek of^ the bay — they landed on the west shores of the Adder Koll — the back bay — and found this Indian trail a most conveni- ent route to their settlement on the Delaware. Later on, when the English had captured New Amsterdam, they, too, discovered that the natives had marked out an excellent line for a road across the Jerseys — and a road it has been from that day to this. A mutual good will soon existed between the Dutch and Eng- lish and the dusky occvipants of the little wigwam villages that were planted in cool and shady glens or by the side of sparkling * When the Dutch first landed on the shores of this part of Monmouth, they wrote down the Indian name for the place as it sounded to them, thus " Nan-ves- sing." The English converted the word into Nave-sink, from which NeversinL is, perhaps, a natural result. The generally-accepted significance of the name — " the place of good fishing" — is not endorsed by all authorities. By some the original word is interpreted as meaning, " high lands between the waters," while others claim its significance to be "pleasant fields," referring to all the country lying between the Highlands and Chingarora, as the vicinity of Keyport was called. 184 The Story of an Old Farm. rills. The white man had not long used this forest trail before signs of human thrift began to break in upon the wildness of nature. He travelled not only with matchlock and hanger^ but with mattock and axe as well. The wild grape-vines and stunted bushes that encumbered the path were cleared away ; the decaying tree-trunks, giants that had fallen from mere weight of years, no longer impeded the passer-by. Foot-logs crossed the little streams, and soon the glittering axe hewed out a clearing here and there on the side of the path, from which rose little log cabins, premonitory symptoms and prophecies of populous hamlets and villages soon to follow. In 1665, when Philip Carteret reached the place he called Elizabethtown, it was ah'eady a settlement of four log huts. Some of the immigrants who had accompanied him from England made their way along this trail, till reaching a convenient point their brawny arms forced back the forest on either side, and planted the germ of a town which later migrators from New England named Woodbridge. In the following year other pioneers, striding sturdily westward, felled the trees and let the warm sunlight in on a new settlement, soon baptized as Piscataway. A few years later New Brunswick received its first inhabitant. Tradition gives his name as Daniel Cooper. Early in 1681 John Inians and some associate purchased ten thousand acres of land at Ahandcrhamock, as this vicinity had been named by the Indians. In November of the same year Inians located for himself on the west bank of the river twelve hundred acres, embracing the pres- ent site of New BrunsAvick. By 1684 a number of Holland people had settled on his land, among whom were the ancestors of such old Jersej' families as the Vrooms, Andersons, Probascos, Van Duyns and others. A charter for a ferry was granted in 1697 to John Inians for the term of his or his wife's life, at the yearly rental of five shillings. Soon quite a settlement grew up about Inian's ferry, and travellers by the old Indian path began to be frequent. It lost its early appellation and became known as the Dutch trail ; indeed, for many years later it was little bet- ter than a trail through the woods, and was used only by pedes- trians and horsemen. In 1716, nearly twenty years after the establishment of the ferry, the tariff named only ^' horse and man " and " single person." Within a few years this old Dutch New Brunswick in 1717. 185 trail began to present some of the characteristics of a road, and we find imposed upon the innkeepers of Elizabethtown, Wood- bridge and Piscataway a total annual tax of ten pounds for keeping the highway free from fallen timber. This impost, was laid for the preservation of the " lower road/' which, following a branch Indian path, diverged from the main trail a few miles beyond the Earitan, its trend being southwesterly, by way of Cranbmy, to Burlington. The necessity for this tax, as the act declares, was because of the unsettled condition of the country the road traversed, whereby it was in danger of falling into "decay to the great inconvenience of travelers who may pass and repass that way unless care be taken to maintain the same until such time as it may be maintained by those who inherit it." The town grew apace, and before 1717 there were people enough to necessitate the building of a church. A frame struc- ture fifty feet front, containing fifty pews, was erected under the superintendence of Elder Roelef Sebring and Deacons Hendrik Bries and Roelef Lucas. It faced the river on the corner of what is now Bui'net and Schureman streets, and for more than fifty years housed the congregation of the First Dutch Reformed church of the town. This was not the earliest house of worship in this vicinity. One had been erected some years before, about one and one-half miles beyond the present New Brmiswick city limits, and it is believed it was the first sanctuary built in the county of Somerset. Tradition characterizes it as a rude struc- ture, never entirely completed ; the settlement about Inian's ferry growing rapidly, the congregation preferred to transfer itself to a new church in " the town by the river " rather than complete the old one at a point where evidently population would not centre. From this time the tide of settlers rose, and rolled steadily on toward and beyond the Raritan. In 1730 the population of New Brunswick was augmented by the arrival of a number of Dutch families from the upper Hudson, who planted themselves on either side of the road leading up from the ferry, giving it the name of Albany street. Before then it had been known as French street, deriving its appellation from Philip French, the person from whom these new-comers had acquired their lands. He was a large owner in Middlesex county, and was the son of 186 The Story of an Old Farm. Philip French who had been mayor of the city of New York and speaker of the assembly of that province. In addition to their native thrift the migrators introduced into East Jersey the good old Holland names of Van Dyke, Van Alen, Van Veghten, Van Deursen, Schuyler, Ten Broek, and others. Not only the town by the river benefited by this influx of new-comers ; the back country of Middlesex, which had been a county since 1682, lost its aspect of a solitude. The old Dutch trail was rapidly being ti'ansformed into the King's highway ; clearings multiplied, and what had been clearings were now converted into arable fields and well-tilled farms. Immigrants from Germany landing in New York traversed this road, seeking that Mecca of all pil- grims from the Rhine, the province of Pennsylvania. Finding their route bordered by goodly lands, many of them abandoned their proposed goal, and turning aside made their homes among the Dutch and English settlers. The country in the vicinity of this highway, when much of New Jersey was still a wilderness, had the appearance of being comparatively well cultivated and long occupied. James Alex- ander, the father of Lord Stirling, in a letter written in 1730, says that "■ In the year 1715 there were but four or five houses between Inian's ferry and the Delaware river, but that now — 1730 — the country is settled very thick; as they go chiefly on raising of wheat and the making of flour, and as New Brunswick is the nearest landing, it necessarily makes that the storehouse for all the produce that they send to market ; which has drawn a considerable number of people to settle there, insomuch that a lot of ground in New Brunswick is grown to be near so great a price as so much ground in the heart of New York." Prof. Kalni. the Swedish botanist and traveller, when journey- ing in 1748 from Philadelphia to New York, expressed, the greatest surprise at finding so cultivated a region, and declared that in all his travels in America he saw no part of the open country so well peopled. At Trentown, which he reached by sloop, his landlord told him that twenty-two years before, when he first settled there, there were hardly any houses, but the increase since that time had been so great that there were now nearly one hundred. Along the road to the Raritan there were great distances of forests, but yet on much of the way he found New Brunswick Chartered in 1730. 187 extensive fields of grain, and almost every farm had abimdant orchards. He especially noticed the great Jersey barns, which in many instances he thought to be as big as small churches, so large, in fact, that, which to the foreigner seemed most extraor- dinary, they housed horses, cattle, grain, mows, and thresh- ing floors. Their great double doors enabled farmers to drive loaded teams '^ in one side and out the other." The Pro- fessor attributed this generous farm architecture to the Germans and Dutch, whom he reports as occupying most of the country. On the thirtieth day of December, 1730, two weeks before New York was incorporated as a city. King George II. bestowed on New Brunswick, under the great seal of the Crown, its first city charter.* The inhabitants agreed in consideration of the privileges granted by this precious document to pay annually to the kingdom of Great Britain one sheaf of wheat. The opening- language of this charter was as follows : Whereas, our Loving Subjects Thomas ffarmar, Jacob Okey, James Hude Dolin Hagerman, Lawrence Williamson, Duncan Hutchinson, Derrick Schuyler, William Okey, Paul Miller, William Williamson, Abraham Bennett, Cort Voor- hees, James Nelsofi, John Balding, and many Others have petitioned for a city charter, it has been granted. Also for the reason that the said Towne of New Brunswick, standing near the head of a fine Navigable River, and being the Most Convenient place for shipping oft' the produce of a large and plentifull Country Lying on the back thereof is a place of very Considerable trade & Commerce. The citizens of New Jersey in the olden-time had great confi- dence in the future prosperity of the province. In laying out their towns and cities they established corporate limits great enough for that extensive population, the coming of which they so surely anticipated. Thus Perth Amboy — already for twelve years a chartered city — included a thousand acres east of the Raritan, while on the opposite side of the river its northerly line extended from the mouth of South river westerly nearly to Hightstown, and its southerly parallel line ran fully as far into Monmouth county from the mouth of Cheesequake creek. New Brunswick, equally ambitious, extended its southerly boundary *New York City was first chartered by Governor Dongan in 1676, but its fathers, fearing that this governor's corporation might not, under pressure, stand a legal test, asked of the King, and received on the fifteenth of January, 1730- 1731, the royal charter by which the city was governed for a century. 188 The Story of ax Old Farm. to the Amboy line, while its northerly limits stretched west- erly almost to Princeton. And so the two great cities of Middle- sex adjoined each other. The following is a list of New Brunswick's officers for the first year : Mayor, Thomas Farmar; Recorder, James Hude ; Aldermen, Wm. Cox, Jacob Oakey, Dally Hagaman, William Cheasman. Josiah Davison and Lawrence Williamson, Esqrs. ; Sherifi'and Water-baliftj Evan Drummond ; Common Coun- cilmen or Assistants, John Thomson, Cort Voorhees, Minne Voorhees, Henry Longfield, AVilliam AVilliamson and John Van Dyck ; Chamberlain or Treasurer, Alexander Moore ; Coroner, Thomas Marshall ; Marshall or Serjeant at Mace, John Dally ; Overseers of the Poor, John Van Nuys and Daniel Fitch ; Con- stables, John Stevens, David Lee and Michael Moore. It would be pleasant to know what manner of men we're all of these political pioneers — New Brunswick's first city-fathers. Of some of them a measure of information as to their personality gleams upon us through the mists of time. Professor Austin Scott, of Rutger's college, in a paper entitled, " Beginnings of City Life in New Jersey," read before the '^ New Brunswick Historical Club " on the twenty-ninth of October, 1886, paid a high tribute to the character and attainments of Thomas Farmar, the city's first mayor. He is said to have lived on Staten Island and at Perth Amboy before removing to New Brunswick : as early as 1709 John Harrison, who was with the provincial army on the north- em frontier, addressed a letter to him at Amboy. In October, 1711, he was appointed second judge of the provincial supreme coiu't, and was its presiding judge from March, 1728, to Novem- ber, 1729. He ably represented his county in the assembly during the Morris administration, being a stanch supporter of that governor in his spirited tight against the aggressive tyranny of Lord Cornbury. Mr. Farmar had several children : one of of them — Christoplier — assumed the name of Billop, inheriting with it from his wife's family a large estate on Staten Island, to which he removed. His residence — still standing — is a promi- nent land-mark at Billops'-point, at the extreme southerly end of the Island. This antiquated dwelling is well worthy of a visit, not only because of its quaint appearance and old-time charac- teristics, but from its having been the place where Franklin, Adams and Rutledge, conferred with Lord Howe in 1770 in the futile endeavor to establish some basis for an honorable peace. Two of the mayor's daughters married Peter Goelet,and his young- New Brunswick's First City-Fathers. 189 est and most beautiful daughter, Sarah, became the wife of Doc- tor Alexander Ross, of New Brunswick, who was bom in Ireland in 1723, and died in 1775, as his monument in Christ's chui'ch- yard attests. He it was who in the middle of the last century erected on the river bank, opposite and above the city, that sub- stantial residence which is still known as Ross Hall — a most interesting specimen of colonial architecture. At the death of Doctor Ross, his student. Doctor Charles A. Howard, succeeded not only to his preceptor's practice but to his wife and house as well. Recorder Hude was a Scotch Presbyterian and a prominent merchant of New Brunswick. His father, Adam Hude, came to America with John Johnstone on the ill-fated fever ship "Henry and Francis." He settled in Woodbridge township, building a house which was recently standing on the Rahway road one mile north of the village. His son, the recorder, the Honorable Colonel James Hude as he was termed, during a long and use- ful life, occupied almost every important office within the gift of the government and people. At his death in 1762 he was a member of the king's council and mayor of the corporation of New Brunswick. The "New York Mercury" of the eighth of November of that year, in noticing his death, " after a long and tedious indisposition," mentions him as " a gentleman who, for his great probity, justice, affability, moral and political virtues, was miiversally esteemed and beloved by those who knew him." Derrick, or Dirck, Schuyler, one of the petitioners for the charter, was a Dutch migrator from the upper Hudson. He was bom on the twenty-fifth of July, 1700, being the son of Abra- ham, and the grandson of David, the first notice of the latter being obtained from his marriage on the thirteenth of October, 1657, to Catalyna, daughter of Abraham Isaacse Verplanck. He is believed to have been a younger brother of the Philip Peterse who is known in Schuyler annals as " the immigrant." There was also living in New Brunswick at this time Abraham Schuy- ler, a four years younger brother of Derrick, whose wife was Katrina, daughter of Barent Staats. Abraham Bennet, another of the petitioners, lived near the old Dutch chui-ch at Three Mile Run. He was the son of Adrian and Angenietje Bennet and the grandson of William Bennet 190 The Story of an Old Farm. who emigrated from Holland to Gowanus on Long Island early in the seventeenth centmy. He, Aldermen Lawrence William- son (Laurens WUliamse), Dolis, or Dallius, Hagaraan and Con- stable Michael Moore were in Middlesex county at the dawn of the eighteenth century ; their names are to be found on a sub- scription list, dated 1703, by which £10,16s.,6d. was obtained from thirty subscribers to aid in procuring a minister from Holland. Bennet, his parents and wife Jannetie ; Aldermen Williamson, Hagaman and Jacob Oakey (Jacobus Oukee) ; and Comicilman Minne Voorhees ; were all members in 1717 of the Dutch Reformed church of New Brunswick, as the minutes of the con- gregation for that year show. Minne Voorhees was a sort of a lay-domine, an opsinderin, or helper of the minister. He cate- chised the children and in the absence of the pastor conducted the church services, which he did exceptionally well, being blessed with an extraordinary memory that enabled him to repeat a lecture and all the exercises without the aid of notes. He was the son of Lucas Stephens, and grandson of Stephen Coiu'ten who settled at Flatlands, Long Island, in 1660, having reached America in April of that year from the province of Drenthe, Holland, in the ship Bontehoe (Spotted Cow.) The name Voorhees is derived from the Holland village of Hesse, where the family originated ; and with the prefix Van means " from before Hesse." Minne Voorhees owned a mill and a large tract of land on Lawrence's brook just south of the city, and in 1723 is said to have been living on what is now, or was recently, known as the '^ college farm." Councilman Cort Voorhees, a descendant of the same immigrant-ancestor, was also a grinder of grists ; his mill stood at the mouth of the Mile Run at the Landing, about opposite the residence of the late Lewis Carman. As is shown by the Franklin tax list of 1735 he owned one hundred and sixty acres of land and nine head of cattle, on which he paid a tax of £l,7s.,ld. Another Long Island migrator among the city fathers was Alderman Hagaman. He was the son of Denyse and Liurstia Hagaman, of Flatbush, and grandson of Adrian who emigrated from Holland in 1651. Law- rence Williamson, like many modern aldermen, seems to have been a publican of substance. Professor Scott has an original deed by which in 1742 Williamson conveyed to the city as a gift a lot How THE Dutch Obtained Patronymics. 191 " near his old pot-house" on Burnet and Peace streets — now Commerce square. Like most of the Raritan Dutch, he came from Long Island ; he returned there in 1711, in search of a wife, being married at Flatlands on the twenty-ninth of March of that year to Sarah Stoothoff. Jacob Oakey, in his cognomen, is an excellent exam.ple of that peculiar fashion among the New Netherland Dutch of evolving a patronymic from a Christian name. Tracing genealogies from Holland descents is vexatious, because so few of the emigrant families possessed surnames ; in very many instances the Christian name of the father served as a surname for children. Thus Peter's son Michael would be called Michael Fieterserif Fieterse, or Fictcrs, and should Michael have a son Jacob, he in his turn would be Jacob 3Iichaelsen, Michaelse, or Michaels, It was not until the English immigration had become gen- eral that the Dutch felt the necessity of adopting surnames. These were variously chosen — from the Christian name of the father, from their occupations, their homes in the old country, or often some peculiar feature of the locality from which they had emigrated. Accordingly, in this manner were developed such namesas Hendricks, Hendrickson, Anderson, Williams, Williamson, and Johnson. The Van Winkles derived their names from ivinkel, " a shop," the Van Horns from Hoorn, a port on the Zuyder Zee I the Van Ripens and Van Ripers from RijJen, a. diocese in North Jutland ; the Rosendales from Roscndaalen ('' valley of roses "), a town on the Belgian frontier ; Van Dyck means " from the dike " ; Van Zant, " from the sand " (coast) : Van Boskerck, "from the church in the woods," and so on, ad infinitum. Jacobus Ouke, as he spelled his name, was the son of Jacohus Auchersz, of Flatlands, and the grandson of Auke Janse, a Long Island carpenter who emigrated from Amsterdam in 1651. The records of New Amsterdam show that on the tenth of March, 1653, a suit was instituted before the burgomasters and schepens by Hendrick Egbertsen, to recover from Heudrick Gerritsen thirty-five guilders and sixteen stivers for building a house. The contestants were referred to carpenters Auke Janse and Christian Barentsen as arbitrators. Alderman Oakey's carpenter- ancestor waxed so important in the new country as to feel the 192 The Story of an Old Farm. need of a surname, so he assumed the name of Van Nuys, which is the surname of most of his descendants. The posterity of our alderman, however, all became Oakeys ; thus we find two dis- tinct families of different names emanating from a common ances- tor. This is not uncommon in Dutch genealogies ; the Lane and Van Pelt families, of Somerset and Hudson counties, origina- ted in 3Iatthys Janss Van Pelt Lanen, a Walloon, who emigrated from Liege in 1663, and settled at New Utrecht. So with the New Jersey families of Garretson and Van Waggenen ; their ancestor was Gerritt Gerritsen, who reached New Amsterdam in 1660 from Wageningen, a Rhenish town in Gelderland ; some of the second generation assumed his name as a surname (now Garretson and Garrison) others took the name of Van Waggenen. The two old New York families of Rutger and Van Wart derive their names from two brothers, Rutger and Teunis, sons of Jacobus Van Schoenderwoert who came to Beaverwyck in about the year 1640. The descendants of the former, on removing to New York, assumed the name of Rutgers, while those of the latter abbrevi- ated their ancestor's surname, and have since been known as Van Wart. Many instances of divided ancestral streams are to be found among New Jersey's families of Dutch and Scandinav- ian extraction. It is quite time that we return to Johannes ; we may reasona- ably suppose that he has finished his dinner, and before again taking to the saddle is looking about New Brunswick, which he is visiting for the first time. He finds it rather an attractive little town, lying mostly under the hill, on the river bank. At that time it had but two prominent streets, and the houses were generally constructed of plank, though the Dutch of Albany street occupied two-storey brick dwellings, they having brouglit bricks and building materials with them when they migrated. These latter houses presented their peaked gables to the street, and were approached through little wooden-seated porches on which the stout burghers and their families would gather in the cool of the summer evenings. Kalm writes that the Dutch of the city were an exclusive set, keeping much within themselves and quite looking down on their poorer neighbors. We can accept this statement cum grano salis, as in more than one place in his book of travels we find the Swede especially severe on America's Holland citizens. Elias Boudinot's Copper Mine. 193 Besides tlie Dutch church on Burnet and Schureman streets, of which at that time the Reverend John Leydt was pastor, there were two other houses of worship. The Presbyterian church stood on Burnet street below Lyell's brook, it having been built during the ministry of the Reverend Gilbert Tennent, which continued from 1726 to 1740. At this time the pulpit was occupied by the Reverend Thomas Arthur. Christ church, of the Episcopal congregation, had been partially erected since 1743, though it was thirty years before the building of a steeple finally completed the structure. Its first permanent rector was the Reverend Mr. Wood, who was installed in 1747. New Brunswick, in addition to its milling and shipping interests, rejoiced in a copper mine that at this time gave promise of developing into an important industry. In the year 1748 virgin ore was ploughed up in a field belonging to Philip French, about three hundred yards back fi'om the river, and just north of the houses of the town. Elias Boudinot having leased the land, a company was formed, and in 1751 a shaft was sunk sixty feet and a large body of ore found. For a number of years many tons of pure copper were annually shipped to England, and the stockholders anticipated much prosperity for their enter- prise. But eventually, the ore vein being exhausted. New Brunswick awoke from its dream of becoming a great mining town, and settled back to the prosaic glories of its mills, and the much vaunted honor of being at the head of sloop navigation. We have loitered long enough in this Middlesex city. So has Johannes. And now we find him mounting his waiting horse ready to proceed on his journey : on crossing by the ferry scow, his route lies in a southeasterly direction along the ^' King's highway ; " a ride of less than two miles brings our traveller on the main street of the old village of Piscataway, flanked by lofty trees. Those of us who are familiar with the time-stained houses, old-fashioned gardens and aged churchyards of this early settlement know it to be now a far less important place than when in the heyday of youth, a half century and more before the date of Johannes' visit. In those good old colony times its men still loved the king, and met at Hull's tavern to drink his health in long draughts of fiery Madeira, or in modi- cums of more potent West India rum. His most gracious maj- 13 194 The Story of an Old Fakm. esty's governor, council, and burgesses have more than once met in this ancient burgh. On such occasions these road- ways, which now seem sunk in the torpor of ages of sleep, were enlivened by very important gentlemen wearing gold-laced cocked hats and full-bottomed wigs, and arrayed in broad- skirted scarlet coats, satin short-clothes, silk hose and burnished knee and shoe buckles ; who, while exchanging greetings and pinches of snuff, discussed the best interests of the colony. There were then social aspects and picturesque environments to the society of this old neighborhood that exist now but in musty traditions, and in occasional notes to be found in the town rec- ords — historical fragments of antiquity that, by chance, have floated to the shore from the swift current of the river of time. It will be remembered that in a previous chapter an account was given of how John Martin, Charles Gilinan, Hugh Dun, and Hopewell Hull, had removed to New Jersey from Piscataqua, New England, in response to the '* Concessions and Agree- ments" published in the East by the lords-proprietors, Berkeley and Carteret. They received a grant on the eighteenth of December, 1066, for the large area of territory which now embraces the township of Piscataway. Within twenty years settlers from New England and the old country had augmented the nucleus of population formed by the Piscataway families to about four hundred. Among the persons to whom land was allotted previous to 1690 are to be found the following names : Nicholas Bonham, 122 acres ; Benjamin Clarke, 275 acres ; George Drake, 424 acres ; Hugh Dun, 138 acres ; Benajah Dunham, 103^ acres ; Edmund Dunham, 100 acres ; John Fitz- Randolph, 225 acres ; Rehoboth Gannett, 224 acres ; Charles Gilman, 340 acres ; Hopewell Hull, 284 acres ; Benjamin Hull, innkeeper, 498 acres ; John Langstaff, 300 acres ; John Martin, 334 acres ; Jeffery Maning, 195 acres ; John Mollison, 100 acres ; Nicholas Mundaye, 101^^ acres ; Vincent Rongnion, 154J acres; John Smalley, 118^ acres; Edward Slater, 464 acres. The historian of East Jersey, the late W. A. Whitehead, avers that Benjamin Hull was an inn-keeper in Piscataway in 1677, and that the name and business have continued connected up to the present day. Be this as it may, it is an extraordinary fact, and one well worthy of record that, with hardly an excep- Early Settlers at Piscataway. 195 tion, each one of those early landowners has at the present time descendants living in the township. Those of Vincent Rongnion seem to have been well contented with the location chosen by their Huguenot forefather ; they have owned land in the vicinity of the village from that day to this, and at present persons of that name — since converted into Runyon — are in possession of over eight hundred acres, as follows : Mefford Runyon, 240 ; David D., 185; Peter A., 160; Noah D., 144 ; Isaac, 100. Vincent Rongnion was the ancestor of the Honorable Theodore Runyon, New Jersey's recent chancellor. He came from Poictiers, France, and must have settled in New Jersey before 1668, as his marriage license, signed by Governor Philip Carteret, is dated in that year. His wife was Anna, daughter of John Boutcher, of Hartford, in England. John Molleson, one of the original landowners, was considered a man of sufficient education to be town-clerk and recorder of the minutes of town meetings. He may have written a " darkly hand," but oh ! what spelling ! Here is his first entry : Piscataway 13 of Suptumber, 1711. At the town meting then choes William olding and James maning overseers for the puer and Isac Small and John Drak Seneor for the inshueing year asesers: which ofesses they agried execuit grates. The Kaiets is to be used by Discration of the asesers. John Molleson, Clark. At the forsaid meting it is agried that the hiring place shall be fensed sufficient. These town records offer some curious and interesting con- tributions to our knowledge of the beginning of things at Piscataway. From them we learn that Benjamin Hull, the first inn-keeper, figured in the two very different roles of judge and transgressor. Notwithstanding his occupation, in December, 1692, as foreman of the grand jury he indicted several persons for drunkenness and breach of Sabbath ; while in June, 1694, he, himself, was "presented by y*" grand jury for keeping and allowing gaming at Cards, and Bowie and pins at his house." Edward Slater, another old settler, seems early to have " come to grief; " we learn from the town records that he was impris- oned in 1681 for having " uttered very pnishouse and Squer- illouse words Rendering the Government of the province, the Governor and Counsell Odyous in the Eyes and hearts of the people." Judging from the above entry odd rules as to the use 196 The Story of an Old Fakm. of capital letters must have prevailed. Why should eyes have been honored with a capital, while that more important organ, the heart, was forced to beat with a small letter f Slater did not, apparently, remain in durance very long, as in 1683 he was again apprehended on the suspicion of being an escaped criminal from England, and in the same year was presented by the grand jury in an indictment of nine counts, " as a common nuisance and offence." Nothwithstanding the tribulations of Edward Slater, by 1685 he seems to have been entirely restored to public favor. In that year he, with Hopewell Hull, John Fitz-Randolph, and others, was appointed one of a committee to superintend the building of a church edifice, the selectmen having on the eighteenth of January, 1685-6, passed the following resolution : At the Towne Meetinge then agreed yt tliere should be a raeetinge liouse built forthwith, the dinientions as foUoweth : Twenty foot wide, thirty foot Longe, and Ten foot between joyn ts. The Piscataway fathers appear to have been lax in prosecut- ing the work of erecting their first public building, for five years later the towm-book recites that Edward Slater, George Drake, and Isaac Smalley, were chosen " to discorse hopewell hull about the finishen of the towne house, and if hopewell hull refuse to finish it, that the above mentioned men have power to hire workmen to finish the saide house." This " meetinge-house " was for the Baptists, as that denomination seems to have estab- lished the first religious services in the township. The Duns, Drakes, Dunhams, Bonhams, Fitz-Randolphs and Smalleys, of the original settlers, were of that persuasion, and some Irish Baptists from Tipperary joined them in 1683. The first minister was John Drake, who, dying in 1739, was succeeded by Benja- min Stelle, of French extraction. Descendants ol this last " divine " are numerous hereabouts, and the name of the first railway station east of New Brunswick — Stelton — was derived from this family. We can gain some idea of the character of this first "meeting-house" from a letter AA^itten by a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1711 : Piscataqua makes a much greater congregation (than Amboy), and there are some pious and well-disposed people among them ; some come from good dis- New Jersey's First Seventh-Day Congregation. 197 tances to this meeting, but there is nothing among us like the face of a Church of England : no surplice, no Bible, no Communion Table, an old broken house in sufficient to keep us from injuries of the weather, and where likewise the Anabaptists which swarm in this place do sometimes preach, and we cannot hinder the house belonging to the Town. The first congregation of Seventh-Day Baptists in New Jer- sey had its origin in this township, in the following manner : In the year 1700, Edmund Dunham, a Baptist exhorter and the owner of one hundred and ten acres of the town lands, felt called upon to admonish Hezekiah Bonham for working on Sunday ; whereupon Bonham defied him to prove divine authority for keeping holy the first day of the week. Dunham, after investiga- tion, failed to do so to his own satisfaction, consequently he himself renounced the observance of the first day. In the year 1705 he formed a congregation of Seventh-Day Baptists, and was appointed its pastor. This was the second church of that denom- ination in America, the first having been established in 1665 at Newport, Rhode Island. The Piscataway Satm'day worship- pers sent their new minister to that colony for ordination, which he received on the eighth of September, 1705, at the hands of Elder William Gibson, who was holding a church meeting at Westerly. Edmund Dunham apparently gathered within his fold most, if not all, of the Dunns and Dunhams in the township, as on the early church books appear the names of Edmund J., Jonathan, Ephraim, Benejah, John, Azerial, Mary, Dorothy, Phebe, Dinah and Jane Dunham ; Hugh, Joseph. Hugh Jr., Micajah, Samuel Jr., Jonathan, Elizabeth, Hester, Rebecca and Esther Dunn The ministrations of this first pastor continued until 1734, when he died at seventy-three years of age, being succeeded by his son Jonathan, who preached until his death from small-pox at the age of eighty-six years in 1777. During the lifetime of the father services were held in private houses. In 1736 a church was erected on the road leading to Quibble- town — now New Market — and two miles south of that village. This building remained a sanctuary until 1802 when it was con- verted into a barn, for which purpose it is still used, the timbers being as sound as when taken from the forest. The second church building occupied the same site, but it gave way in 1835 to the congregation's present structure which is located in the 198 The Story ok an Old Farm. village of New Market. This church, in an existence of nearly two hundred years, has had but eleven ministers, and at present is in a flourishing condition. The first services, according to the rites of the church of England, were held in Piscataway in 1704, Queen Anne grant- ing a charter to the wardens and congregation as " St. James' Episcopal Church." Services were irregular until 1724, when a church edifice was completed. The pioneer clergyman of this parish was a hard-working missionary named Brook, who rode a circuit of fifty miles preaching at Elizabethtown, Perth Amboy, Cheesequakes, Freehold, Rocky Hill and Piscat- away. He entered the province in 1702 under the auspices of the "London Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," at a yearly salary of sixty pounds. " Besides preach- ing," as Humphries, the society's historian, says, '^ he used to catechise and expound fourteen times a month, which obliged him to be on horseback every day, which was expensive as well as toilsome. However, this diligence raised a very zealous spirit in many of the people." Mr. Brooks died while returning to England in 1707. His widow, who was the sister of Christo- pher Billop of Staten Island, seems to have been well content with the lot of a helpmate to a colonial pastor, as she afterward married the Reverend William Skinner. For several years after Mr. Brooks' death St. James received the occasional services of the Reverends Messrs. Vaughan and Halliday. Upon the completion of the church in 1724 Mr. Skinner became pastor, in which office, in connection with his home duties at Perth Amboy, he continued for thirty years, officiating on every third Sunday, on which occasions, it is said, he was appreciated by large assemblages. St. James' first church building sheltered the devotions of the parish for one hundred and ten years, when it was destroyed by the great tornado of 1835. The present structure was built and presented to the congregation by Joseph Foulke, of New York. It stands in one of the most ancient and interest- ing graveyards in the state. Two centuries of winds have sighed requiems through the waving branches of the venerable trees that brood over the seclusion of this little "God's acre." For we learn from the town records that, as far back as the year 1690 ten shillings were set apart for " minding the burrial BONHAMTOWN. 199 place, and to set it up with good white oacke or chestnut stakes, and bound with good withes." My readers, I can fancy, are crying out — '^ Enough of Piscat- away ! You are making too long a story of this township !" Permit me to offer the very personal excuse that it was the home of my ancestors. The Dunns and Dunhams are all in the writer's maternal ancestral line, of whom at least five generations lie buried under the sods of the churchyard of the ancient parish of Saint James. Well ! your warning is heeded ; at last this inter- esting settlement is left behind, and our cavalier rides on over the high levels of Middlesex. Soon another old village is in his path, the little hamlet of Bonhamtown, the point where Nicholas Bonham located his one hundred and twenty acres. This place would have remained unknown to fame beyond the circle of its immediate vicinity, had it not found itself — twenty-five years later — in the track of contending armies ; its name thus becom- ing historically embalmed in the reports of commanders of the opposing forces. The trend of our " solitary horseman" is now more easterly, and facing the salt water, he canters over a pleas- ant country of low hills, gently subsiding into shallow valleys, diversified with woods and patches of cultivated lands, orna- mented with homesteads. It was yet early in the afternoon when he came in sight of Perth Amboy — its unrivalled location presenting, then as now, a charming shore panorama of grove- crowned knolls, meadows of waving grass, bay, rivers and varied beaches. CHAPTER XV. Perth Amboy as a Provincial Capital — The Appearance the City Presented in 1752. To one possessed of antiquarian tastes there is a singulaJ pleasure in looking back through the long vista of years and picturing in the mind the appearance that a familiar place must have presented in those remote, and seemingly almost poetic days, known as colonial times. A professor of comparative anatomy is enabled by securing a few fossil remains to recon- struct a species of animal long since extinct. So the delver in days of yore, by the proper placing of his few historical facts, illumined by a well controlled imagination, and a fancy verging perhaps on the romantic and picturesque, essays to again bring to life a past social condition, and create appearances and fashions long out of date. Thus would we fain endeavor to rehabilitate in its antique dress this city of Perth Amboy that has dozed for two centuries amid its groves of sycamores and oaks, to bring out by descrip- tion certain aspects that will delineate society and types illustra- tive of pre-Revolutionary days in this portion of New Jersey. When in the full tide of its lusty youth this town had virile ambitions and aspired to be the metropolis of a new world. But those days, now long past, are almost forgotten, and for many decades — until the comparatively recent advent of new railways — this borough quietly slept on its pleasant banks by the wide- spreading waters, apparently well content to sit apart from the cares and vanities of its more successful rivals in trade and population. By drawing on Mr. Whitehead's chronicles of East Jersey, and by filling up the outlines of the little knowledge we Early New Jersey Governors. 201 may have of the place and people in those olden times, we shall hope to present to the reader a fairly life-like picture. An endeavor will be made to unfold such a scene as met Johannes' eyes, when in this spring; of 1752 he rode over the high rolling lands bordering the Raritan and entered ancient Amboy — for it is ancient, having enjoyed the proud distinction of a city charter, and all the honors of a mayor and corporation, since the twenty- fourth of August, 1718. The dignity and importance of the borough at that time were by no means confined to the fact of its possessing municipal rights. From its natal day it had been the seat of government, and since the proprietors surrendered to Queen Anne their rights as rulers, royal governors had frequently made it their place of residence. The first chief magistrate under the Crown was Lord Cornbury, who also ruled New York, as did several suc- ceeding governors. He was a cousin of the queen ; there his nobility ended, for in personal habits and character he was of a low order. He pei'secuted Presbyterians and other dissenters, and violated the agreement entered into between the English and Dutch at the time of the capture of New Netherlands, whereby the latter were guaranteed religious liberty. Lewis Morris, in a severe letter to the secretary of state, charged him with all manner of malfeasance in his high office, and closed his communication in the following words : " He dresses pub- licly in women's clothes every day, and puts a stop to all public business while he is pleasing himself with that peculiar but detestable magot." On attaining to the earldom of Clarendon in 1708, this noble Englishman fairly fled from the colonies to avoid paying his creditors, many of whom were poor tradesmen. Lord Lovelace, his successor, arrived out in December of the same year, but his government had but well commenced when he died on the sixth of May, 1709. Then came Robert Hunter, of whom we have spoken at length in a previous chapter. This popular governor resigned in 1720 in favor of William Burnet, the son of the famous bishop, and god-son of the king of Eng- land, — William of Orange having stood as his sponsor and given him his name. He ruled till 1727, when he was removed to Massachusetts, and was succeeded by John Montgomerie. Both Governors Hunter and Burnet passed much time in their comfort- 202 The Story of an Old Farm. able Amboy homes on the banks of the Raritan, and added greatly to the importance and pleasiu'e of the society of East Jersey. The latter governor is described as having been a man of gay and condescending disposition, the delight of men of sense •and learning, and the admired friend of the ladies to whom he was much devoted. He visited every family of reputation in the province, and letters to his predecessor, Hmiter, say that their writers do not know how the fathers and husbands may like the new ruler but they were sure the wives and daughters did so sufficiently. John Montgomerie was a well known cour- tier who had been a colonel in the household troops and groom of the bedchamber of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. There has been preserved some account of the per- sonal effects and equipage of this royal governor ; we are thus enabled to gain an inkling of the state in which a colonial mag- nate lived. His many articles of furnitm'e included an eight- day clock valued at forty dollars in our money, and a " line yel- low camlet bed '' estimated at seventy -five dollars. There was silver-ware in profusion, and the wines and liquors were set down at twenty-five hundred dollars. A barge with its acoutre- ments, one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; books, one thou- sand dollars ; and eight slaves, one of them a negro musician being valued at over one thousand dollars. In his stables V'ere one saddle horse, eight coach horses, two common horses, t.70 breeding mares, two colts, and a natural pacing mare ; a coach and a four-wheeled chaise ; a fine suit of embroidered horse furniture, a servant's saddle, and two sets of coach harness, brass mounted; a postillion's coat and cape, together with saddles, holsters and housings. Montgomerie continued in office till his death in 1731, when the government was undertaken by William Cosby, who died in 1736. For the third time witj^in five years death entered the gubernatorial mansion, smiting, this time, John Anderson, two weeks after he had commenced ruling as president of the council. For the next two years the government devolved upon senior councillor John Hamilton, who was an old resident of Perth Amboy, and the son of Andrew Hamilton, governor under the proprietors. He was relieved from the duties and honors of the office in 1738 by the arrival of a commission appointing Lewis Early New Jersey Governors. 203 Morris as the first governor of the province separate from that of New York. He lived near Trenton, and was the son of that Captain Richard Morris, who in 1670 settled Morrisania on the Harlem river. His father died in 1672, leaving him a babe not yet a year old, of whom Mathias Nicholl, secretary of New York, wrote of as a " poor blossom of whom yet there may be great hope." The secretary's prophecy proved true ; this ^' poor blossom " grew to be a man of great force of character, with vir- tues and attainments which elevated him to important trusts and positions ; the influence he exerted among the people of the provinces of New York and New Jersey equalled that of any man of his time. Lewis Morris in 1691, when but nineteen years old, married a " Graham of the Isles ^^ of the family of the Earl of Montrose, and the daughter of James Graham, Attorney- General of New York. Morris died in 1746, and President Hamilton again came to the front, but, dying almost immediatel}', was succeeded by the next eldest comiciilor, John Reading, who continued in office one year. The name of this chief magistrate has been perpetu- ated in that of the township of Readington in Hunterdon, he having owned large tracts of land in that county. He lived in Amwell, now Raritan, township, about two miles north of Flem- ington, near where is now Stover's mills ; a portion of his planta- tion is at present owned and occupied by Philip Brown. Doctor Mott, Hunterdon's historian, tell us that he was a true Jersey- man, being identified with the interests of his province and county from boyhood. He lies buried in Amwell churchyard on that ancient thoroughfare, the York road. Acting-Governor Reading's family has further associations with New Jersey nomenclature from the fact that his daughter married John Hackett, an Irishman of ability and prominence, who gave his name to Hackettstown in Warren county. The governor in office at the time of the visit of Johannes to Araboy was Jonathan Belcher. On the eighth of August, 1747, while the early morning mists still lightly hung over the broad expanse of the Lower bay, all the people of the towTi had assem- bled on its banks to welcome that dignitary, who disembarked from a barge of the man-of-war Scarborough, on which he had crossed the Atlantic. He was escorted to the town hall amid the accla- 204 Thk Stoky of an Old Farm. mations of the multitude, where he presented his commission — a portentous document of parchment of three sheets about two feet square, plentifully besprinkled with Latin, and weighted by a heavy pendent disk of stiff brown wax, bearing the royal arms of England. In a gracious reply to the loyal addresses of the council and citizens, he congratulated the people on the beautiful location and thriving appearance of their town. Notwithstand- ing his fair words, the governor, after making the customary tour of the province, established his home in EHzabethtown, where he died in 1757. Senior-councillor John Heading again exercised the office ad interim. In the following year Amboy had restored to her the glories of being the home of the king's representative. The new governor, Francis Bernard, landed on the fourteenth of June from H. M. S. Terrible, and established himself in the old Johnstone house on the bluff between the Long ferry and Sandy point. He soon became a favorite with the people, and it was to their great regret that he received orders from the home government to retire from the province and assume command of that of Massachusetts, where, imfor- tunately, he did not attain to an equal popvdarity. His suc- cessor, Thomas Boone, reached Amboy by land on the third of June, 1760, escorted to the Middlesex line by Captain Terrill's troop of horse from Elizabethtown, Avhere he was met by Cap- tain Parker's troop of Woodbridge. The '^New York ^lercury" of this month has a long account of the fetes, entertainments, and illuminations, incidental to his first visit to the different prominent towns of New Jersey. The British ministers evidently believed in the rotation in office of their representatives. Before the close of the following year Governor Boone was appointed to the chief magistracy of South Carolina. The '^ New York Gazette" of the twenty-sec- ond of October, 1761, announces the arrival of " H, M. S. Alcide, 64 Guns," having aboard Josiah Hardy, New Jersey's new governor. The same paper, in its issue of the fifth of November, gives an account of his landing at Elizabethtown- point, where he was received by prominent citizens and the mili- tary. Captains Terrill and Parker's troops escorted him to Amboy, where they were met by the public dignitaries and Cap- tain Johnstone's militia. He relinquished the government in Governor William Franklin. 205 February, 1763, the authorities " expressing their estimation of the just regard he had displayed for the interests of New Jer- sey." We now reach the hist colonial governor, William, the son of Benjamin Franklin, who, without solicitation on the part of his father and when only thirty years of age, received the appointment. He reached Amboy on the twenty-fifth of Febru- ary, 1763, — an intensely cold day — escorted by the Middlesex troop of horse and numbers of the gentry in sleighs. The " New York Gazette" chronicles that he took possession of the government in the usual form, the ceremonies being conducted *' with as much decency and good decorum as the severity of the season could possibly admit of." The young governor is said to have hired one of the best houses in the town at an annual rental of sixty pounds — equalling one hundred and forty-four dollars. His salary was twelve hundred pounds — proclamation — or about three thousand dollars. In 1774, he took possession of the mansion erected by the proprietors, of late well known as the Brighton house, and recently converted into a home for Pres- byterian clergymen. The history of Franklin's administration is but a narration of the events preceding and the breaking out of the Revolution. In good time we shall have more to say of this royal governor. Meanwhile, we must return to Johannes, whom we left entering the city. Some portions of Perth Amboy are to this day peculiarly attractive because of the splendid growth of large trees. In early times the place is represented as having been most beauti- ful in this respect. The proprietors, in their published descrip- tion, asserted that ^' Amboy Point is a sweet, wholesome and delightful place ;" and it was further described as being '^ cov- ered with grass growing luxuriantly, the forest trees, as distrib- uted in groups, diversifying the landscape with light and shade, and all nature wearing the fresh aspect of a new creation." These characteristics at the time of our visitor's arrival had not disappeared. Great trees that cast a vast area of shade were still a distinguishing feature of the ancient capital, and its most popular pleasure-ground was a fine bit of locust timber on the banks of the Raritan, just west of High street. It rejoiced in the suggestively tender appellation of " Love grove." Under its cool shadows the towns-people gathered on summer afternoons 206 The Story of an Old Farm. to enjoy the ocean breezes that came freighted with the balsamic odors of forest-clad Monmouth. Here in the long twilights colo- nial youths and maidens met to enjoy the agreeable prospect and each other's society ; and, in this sylvan retreat many a youthful troth was plighted to the pleasant musical accompani- ments of the river's murmuring waves. Another favorite resort of the citizens was the elevation over- looking the Raritan near Sandy point, devoted to the fairs and races. All ancient chronicles of the colony revert to this old English custom of " Fair days." The proprietors as early as 1683 instructed their representatives that " it is not to be forgot- ten that, as soon as can be, weekly Markets, and Faires at fitt seasons, be appointed at Perth Towne." Three years later semi-annual fairs were authorized by the assembly, to continue three days in May and October. This custom prevailed till the time of the Revolution. These were days of great revelry and mirth. Horse racing and all manner of games were permitted — any description of goods and merchandise could be sold without license, and on this breezy pleasure-ground at such times were to be seen all the peddling, hawking, thimble-rigging, cudgel- playing, bustle and prevailing confusion that characterized such festivals in the old country. It was a time of general license, and, under the law, no one could be arrested during the continu- ance of the fair except for offences against the Crown and for crimes committed on fair day. To the east of "Love grove", at the foot of High street, was the " Long ferry " that George Willocks had devised to trustees for the benefit of St. Peter's church. The franchise and trust still continue, though it is nearly one hundred years since the last team was ferried over in the " scouw" to the Philadelphia road on the farther shore. Here, too, was the famous Long ferry tavern, a quaint structure of stone, with an odd sloping roof, dormer windows and high Dutch stoop. Built in 1684, it has but recently disappeared, and was considered the oldest house in Amboy. In early times it not only offered rest and refreshment for waiting passengers, but served as a rallying point for the gossip-loving citizens. In warm weather it must have been an inviting inn in which to take one's ease ; in the winter we can well imagine that " mine host" Carnes — a giant Perth Amboy's Town-Green. 207 in stature — kept thrust in the open fire, a logger head, (a red hot poker,) ready on the arrival of guests to be plunged into cups of flip — a mixture of rum, pumpkin beer and brown sugar. It was a favorite hot drink in the colonies and it is said was far from being an unpleasant cold weather tipple. When our traveller rode into the rural city its plan was much the same as that of to-day. Smith street, then as now, was the centre of the retail trade, though occupied also by dwellings. At least one of its stanch stone houses, then standing, has endured the encroachments of time, though it has been removed from its original site on the west side of the street to a lot on Broad street. It was the home of the Farmar family, who set- tled in Amboy early in the last century. While at the time of which we write the location of the streets was much as now, the aspect they presented differed materially from the appearance of the thoroughfares of the prosaic Amboy of to-day. From a tall pole in the centre of the town-green, which interrupts High and Market streets, floated the royal cross of St. George ; while in one corner of the square stood what would now happily be unfamiliar objects, the stocks, pillory and whipping post — dread menaces to the evil-doers of that rude and turbulent period. Why is it that the founders of the towns and villages of this country so rarely established public greens ? Those sunny opens that are such pleasant features of English boroughs and hamlets, and which must of necessity strengthen the local attachments of a neighborhood. The play-ground of childhood — the rendezvous of youth — the verdant mead on which matur- ity and age assemble. There is something in the beauty and appropriateness of such a common bit of ground, in which all have equal rights, that reaches much beyond the gratification of the eye. Jt suggests a community of interests, where man is bound to man by affections that have been engendered by this little bit of sward — a sentiment that seems quite opposed to the selfishness that necessarily attaches to individual holdings. The instinctive fondness for such a spot by its joint owners must grow into an enlarged feeling, and expand into that expression of patriotism which can only be known by men when united in numbers and interests. It is a nursery of virtue and unselfish- ness. With rare judgment the successors and descendants of the 208 The Story of an Old Farm. early proprietors have preserved their town-green — this attrac- tive relic of a by-gone age and of the wisdom of their predeces- sors. For over two hundred years it may be said to have been the theatre of all the events connected with the life of this com munit}', and to learn all that has transpired upon its emerald floor would be to turn over every page of Amboy's history. For two himdred years it has defied the demon of improvement — may it so do for all time. The county court-house and jail, occupying one building, our traveller found a prominent feature of this public square. It stood on the northeast corner of High street, and from 1718, to 1765 when it was destroyed by fire, it continued to be the focus of all the important events of the colony, and much of its pomp, parade and ceremony. Here not only the courts were held, but the be-wigged and be-rufiled members of the general assembly sat in solemn conclave, and enacted those severe laws that were then considered necessary to preserve the peace of the province and the honor of the king. Permit me to quote one deemed meet for the times by those ancient legislators : Tliat all women of whatever age, rank, profession, or degree, whether virgins, maids, or widows, who shall after this act impose upon, seduce, and hetray into matrimony any of his Majesty's subjects by virtue of scents, cosmetics, washes, paints, artificial teeth, false liair, or high-heeled shoes, shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanors. To this Jersey " Hotel de Villey" and the one that succeeded it, came with successive processions and cavalcades all the repre- sentatives of the English ministry from the days of the virtuous Queen Anne to those of the third Hanoverian king ; each telling the same story of the love borne by the Crown for its faithful American subjects. Such stories were always received with loud shouts of fealty from the loyal throats of the populace massed on the square. The time arrived, however, when differ- ent messages came from the monarch beyond the sea, and public tran(j[uillity was disturbed by the growls and threats of the British lion. Even then, though the spirit of liberty hovered around the ancient capital, and the Jersey people in general were electric with patriotic impulse and endeavor, many of Amboy's citizens refused to abandon their allegiance. A large element of its population, especially among the richer class, were Perth Amboy Residents in 1752. 209 dominated in their sympathies by the many years' influence of royal power. At the close of the war but a very small propor- tion of those who had formed the colonial aristocracy remained residents of Amboy. The structure that in 1767 took the place of the court-house can be seen now, though no longer a public building. Its pre- cise fa9ade, lofty roof and antiquated belfry testify of by-gone days. Let us hope that no vandal hand shall be permitted to destroy this temple of the past. May present and future genera- tions guard this venerable structure that, honored by time, has been the silent witness of many scenes connected with that great struggle for justice and humanity, which terminated in 1783 so happily for the American people. On the southwest corner of Market street and the square, in 1752, lived Thomas Bartow, who it will be remembered, as secretary of the province, recorded the deed that George Leslie gave to Johannes. The house stood in the midst of an attractive garden filled with the choicest fruit of that time, and Dunlap, the art historian, who while still a very small boy was Bartow's friend and daily companion, describes his person, dwelling and garden as being equally neat. He mentions him as being, some years later, a small, thin old man with straight gray hair, pale face, plain dark-colored clothes and stockings to siyt. His well polished square-toed shoes were ornamented with little silver buckles, and his white cambric stock, neatly plaited, was fas- tened behind with a silver clasp. It is interesting to picture in one's mind the houses of this provincial capital, and the worthies who occupied them when Johannes for the first time rode over its highways. On High street, in the rear of where is nctw the Merrit mansion, was '^ Edinborough Castle," the home of Andrew Johnstone, a son of that Doctor John Johnstone who had been joint owner of the Peapack patent with George Willocks. He was an impor- tant man in the colony, holding during his life various offices, and dying in 1762 as treasurer of the eastern division of the province, and one of his majesty's council. His obituary notice in the " New York Mercury " of the fifth of July, 1762, reads that he was " A gentlemen of so fair and worthy a character, that truly to attempt to draw it would be throwing away words." 14 210 The Story of an Old Farm. The homestead of his father, Doctor Johnstone, was on the banks of the Raritan, and later, in Governor Boone's time, was con- verted into the gubernatorial residence ; it was a spacious brick dwelling with extensive gardens and a fine orchard. A near-by residence on the river-side was that of John Watson, the first painter mentioned in American annals of art. He came from Scotland in 1 715, and made Amboy his home until his death at the age eighty-three, in the year 1768. Mr. Dunlap, in his '' History of the Art of Design," gives an extended notice of this early limner. He writes : After the painter's tirst visit to America he returned to Europe, and brought thence to his adopted country many pictures which, with those of his own com- position, formed no inconsiderable collection in point of numbers, but of their value we are ignorant. It is, however, a fact that the fir#t painter and the first collection of paintings of which we have any knowledge were planted at Perth Amboy. Mr. Whitehead, in speaking of this artist's dwelling, says : There were two houses, standing near each other, both belonging to Mr. Watson, one of them being appropriated to these paintings, which it is said covered the walls; but before the Revolution this house had decayed and been demolished. The other, occupied by the painter himself, and which disappeared during the struggle, was of wood, having its window shutters covered with heads of heroes, and of kings ' with awe-inspiring crowns ' — owing their existence to the taste and talents of the painter. His portrait represents him as being a man of full face and prominent features, wearing a huge curled wig which hung to his shoulders. The houses of the colonial gentry were generally sprinkled along the blufi^, where the most favored locations were early sought and secured. In most instances they were simple in construction and unambitious in character, but here and there was one of architectural merit, showing (m the part of its builder an appreciation of a design where outline and surroundings should bear some relation to each other. A pleasing example of this latter class has been preserved in a substantial stone homestead, which can be seen resting on the sloping bank of the sound, east of Water, and near Market, street. Its low eaves, solid simplicity and old-fashioned presence speak of a previous century, but its happy expressions of rural dignity do not seem at all out of place in this age of flimsy construction, and grotesque strivings after the extraordinary in domestic architec- Colonial Architecture. 211 ture. It is believed to have been the dwelling of Samuel Nevill, before whom, as judge of the supreme court, George Leslie acknowledged his signature to the deed for the " Old Farm." It was in this year — 1752 — that Judge Nevill published, under the auspices of the colonial assembly, the first volume of his editioa of the laws of the province, and it is believed the book was written in this house. Not far off on the same street is a residential monument to famOy cohesiveness, the well-known Parker homestead. Seven generations of this family have lived within the hoary walls of this colonial mansion. One must be callous, indeed, to the charm of early associations who fails to appreciate the peculiar satisfac- tion which comes to those who feel that their home atmosphere has been consecrated by the lives and experiences of a continu- ous line of ancestry for so many years ; an ancestry whose influence has been transmitted through successive generations, bearing to their posterity the testimony of virtuous, useful and honorable lives. The more modern frame portion of this building was erected just previous to the Revolution, but the stone structure standing in the rear dates away back to the year 1720. At the time of Johannes' visit it was inhabited by James Parker, his wife being the only daughter of the Reverend William Skinner of St. Peter's church. Mr. Whitehead describes him as a man of tall stature and large frame, possess- ing a mind of more than ordinary strength and vigor. He was a member of the king's council, and filled many local offices of the community, including that of mayor, which in those picturesque days was a position of much more honor and importance than it is in this practical age. The old parsonage, that had been devised by George Wil- locks to the congregation of St. Peter's, occupied a portion of the block bounded by Market, Water and Gully (Gordon) streets. Its first storey was of stone, with a wooden two-storey superstructure, and a roof converging to a square centre. The latter was probably its most attractive feature, as usually the quaint roofs of colonial houses, with their simple but effective outlines, added much to the agreeableness and dignity of their proportions. The date of the erection of this house is unknown, but it must have been some time previous to 1729, the year of 212 The Story of an Old Farm. Willocks' death. It was taken down in 1844, but long before had lost its upper storey. But if I keep on speaking of the more important buildings of this provincial metropolis, you will think that in 1752 it was a place of fine residences. Not so ! these dwellings of the quality-folk were Amboy's architectural exceptions — not typical examples. Its houses, of which at that time there were about one hundred and iifty, were, as a rule, poor enough ; a visitor of a few years later, while recognizing the beauty of the location, writes, that "notwithstanding being the capital of the province, Perth Amboy has only the appear- ance of a mean village." So with our traveller ; as he made his way through the streets, he found many of their flanking buildings slovenly in appearance, showing them to have been hastUy put together. Their rough-hewn flat-boarded frames lacked the dignity of the log dwellings seen in the clearings during the morning journey ; these latter, with their feet buried in herbage, seemed less incon- gruous, and more in harmony with surrounding nature. Many of these Amboy houses were unpainted and already showed signs of the rustiness of age, but, bleached and patched by sun and shower, their ci'azy, weather-stained sides were less crude and staring than were the variegated colors of some of the newer houses, whose fronting gables and thick board shutters were painted white, while their remaining sides were covered with dingy red. Architectural taste was, of course, entirely wanting, and in most instances a single storey sufiiced for the needs of the occupants. Of churches there were two. In a previous chapter we have referred at length to the ancient altars and interesting memories of St. Peter's, whose spire rises near where the broad river rushes into the ba3\ Amboy's second denomination, owing to its large Scotch and English immigration, was, naturally, Presby- terian. Of the erection of its first church-building no record has been preserved, though the minutes of the Board of Proprie- tors show that in 1731 permission was given the congregation to '' build a meeting-house on the southeast comer of the Burial- Place on Back (State) street." " Before the Revolution this church had disappeared ; in the present edifice, that fronts the square, services were first held in 1803. The Reverend John Cross Theology in the Last Century. 213 of Basking Ridge is said to have first supplied the Presbyterian pulpit, and among that denomination's historical flotsam rescued from the ocean of time is the fact that in 1735 Gilbert Tennent preached at Amboy on the comforting and encouraging topio of the " Necessity of Religious Violence to Durable Happiness." A text of severe sentiment, you will say ! — but at this time the spiritual shepherds were wont to feed their flocks with food abounding in strength rather than sweetness. The angel of mercy hovered aloft, while the avenging one stood in the dwel- ling, at the road side, in the pew, ever ready under the tutelage of the pastors to wield the flaming sword of justice. The stern Calvinistic tenet that election and perdition were predestined by the divine plan irrespective of human merit was taught and believed, and the believing lacerated many a tender heart. The religious atmosphere of the middle of the last century was dark with the heavy clouds of doctrine and theology. Polemical controversy was rife in the churches. Foreordination, predes- tination, election, and eternal damnation went hand in hand with free agency ; the efibrt to reconcile these conflicting and appar- ently opposing dogmas, provoked labored sermons from the pul- pit^ and prolonged arguments and discussions in farm-house, field and shop. Ministers waxed severely eloquent in their terrible warnings to the unregenerate ; while with equally solemn ear- nestness from such texts as ^' I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen," they preached to the pious and devoted ones of their congregations, ^' the doctrine of disinterested benevolence ;" a doctrine that proclaimed the necessity of entire self-abnegation, and a willingness to accept for one's self eternal condemnation, if such could redound to the great- est good of the greatest number, and God's ends be better accom- plished. The interpreters of the Scriptures held before their people as tests of abiding faith the necessity of eliminating from their religion every element of selfishness, in order that they might have minds and afi^ections so disposed as to be able to accept with complacency the possibility that it might be God's sovereign pleasure to damn them eternally. Such views of life and the future-state evolved a gloomy piety. Agonies of doubt beset the most faithful, when intent on severe internal examination in the 214 The Story of an Old Farm. endeavor to discover evidences that they were not under the ban of God's wrath. Such earnest souls, after lives of the most conscientious well-doing, often died still uncertain of the attain- ment of eternal happiness. Jonathan Edwards, who died in Princeton in 1758, was capable in his sermons of producing so great pain to the quick sensibilities of his hearers that during his discourses the house would be filled with weeping and wail- ing auditors ; on one occasion another minister present is said to have cried out in his agony, "Oh ! Mr. Edwards ! is God not a God of mercy f This celebrated preacher succeeded the elder Burr, who died in September, 1757, in the presidency of Prince- ton college, but he did not take his seat until in February of the following year. Mr. Edwards held the position scarcely a month, dying while imdergoing inoculation for the smallpox. He has been called the turning point in the spiritual existence of the congregations of the last century. It is asserted that New England and New Jersey in the age following him, under the guidance of such disciples as his son, Dwight, Bellamy, Hop- kins, Brainerd and Tennent, gave more thought to religious phi- losophy and systematic theology than the same amount of popu- lation in any other part of the world. CHAPTER XVI. Social Aspects of Perth Amboy in 1752 — The Gentry — Slav- ery — Travelling. There was much of interest to Johannes In this provincial capital besides the churches, and the public and private buildings. The bustle, animation, and variety of its thoroughfares presented an appearance quite foreign to their present aspect ; for there was a picturesqueness in colonial times that must have added much to the light and shade and general effect of ordinary scenes. In those early days population occupied only the fringe or border of the great wastes and solitudes ; we have seen that New Jersey's cultivated lands were largely confined to a narrow strip extending from the Hudson to the Delaware. Belts of wilderness stretched across New York and into New England ; indeed, the whole country east of the Mississippi was covered with vast forests, with but occasional signs of civilization and cultivation along the borders of the sea, and in the valleys of the larger rivers. At the centres of population — one of which Amboy at that time fairly could claim to be — the people, congre- gating as they did from many quarters of the globe, formed to each other strong contrasts, and the local color of civilization must to the chance visitor have made an interesting picture. The Indians were still in goodly numbers about New Jersey towns, and they appeared much more like the children of the forest of our imagination than do those now to be seen on the res- ervations of the far west, whose distinguishing badge of semi- civilization is often a government blanket, and a battered silk hat adorned with bedrao^o-led feathers. These old-time red- men were much less imbued with or affected by the habits of Europeans. They came into the towns with skins, and also sup- 216 The Story of an Old Farm. plied the people with baskets and wooden dishes and spoons. The rederaptioners — men, women and children who for a time owed personal servitude to individual masters — must have heightened the general effect ; and the trappers and hunters, fresh from the woods, with their rifles, powder horns, moccasins, and linsey shirts fringed with deer skin, contributed their bit of color and form to the kaleidoscopic appearance of the streets. Among the expatriated Irish, Dutch, Germans and English inhabiting the vicinity, there must have been many curious and picturesque specimens of the genus homo. Necessarily many of these later were worthless characters, and the pillory, stocks and whipping post on the public square doubtless had a marked influence in preserving the peace and proprieties of this rough age. Opposed to this latter type was the less conspicuous but more useful element of society, the sturdy yeomanry — the stout- hearted middle class ; men who themselves, or whose fathers before them, often had left the old country for political and religious motives rather than a mere desire for adventure and trade. " God sifted a whole nation," said stern, old Governor Stoughton of New England, " that he might send choice grain over in this wilderness." Those of my readers whose ancestral trees root in Rhenish soil, will be pleased to know that the published account of travels in America in the last century all corroborate each others' assertions in speaking of the Teuton portion of this latter class — the bone and sinew of the provinces. They bear universal tes- timony that popidation in the middle colonies was powerfully promoted by its German element ; a people who in their own country had been disciplined in habits of industry, sobriety, frugality, and patience, and were consequently peculiarly fitted for the many laborious occupations of a new land. Among the yeomen, husbandmen, and mechanics they were regarded as the most economical as well as the most industrious of the popula- tion, and the least attached to the use of rum and malt liquor. They were slow in contracting debts and were always endeav- oring to augment their means of subsistence. But it was the gentry, richly dressed in all the magnificence of the times, that presented in customs, manners, and apparel, the strongest contrast to the other actors on this stage of " auld The Gentry in Old Colony Days. 217 lang syne." In colonial times there were in the provinces society distinctions now unknown. Both in town and country the gentry were as distinctive from the people at large as were the upper classes in England. Extensive land-owners, persons with important connections abroad, members of the king's council and the house of burgesses, and those near the government, were held in high consideration and ranked as the great men of their respective counties. Their personal dignity was sustained by their dress, manners, modes of life, and the civil and military offices distributed among them. Amboy, being at this time the capital, was eminently aristocratic, and presented social aspects and phases that would now be considered both brilliant and picturesque. New England is peculiarly rich in descriptive colonial litera- ture ; perhaps it would be difficult to add to its fund of informa- tion on this subject. Our poverty in this regard offers a field fuU of local color for the historian of old New Jersey society. Early church and county records, the archives of the historical societies and of the Board of Proprietors of East New Jersey, and the family manuscripts distributed throughout the state, are mines from which many rich historic social nuggets could be unearthed by the patient delver ; and a most interesting work compiled. In the absence of such a volume, that we may learn something more of the Amboy of the middle of the last century, let us summon a member of his majesty's council from his bed of mould in St. Peter's churchyard. Perhaps he may be able to tell us of social events and observances in old colony days. Here he comes! making his stately old-fashioned way along Smith street. He cuts a strange figure, in this work-a-day world of ours, with his broad- skirted scarlet coat — white silk waistcoat embroidered with flowers — black satin breeches, and paste knee and shoe buckles. As he tickles his nose with snuff from a gold box, his be-wigged head shakes despondingly under its odd three-cornered covering. He looks disappointed — he is disap- pointed ! When this king's councillor stepped out of his grave into the busy nineteenth century, with its wonderful achieve- ments in science and progress, he expected to find Perth Amboy a great city. To him and his fellows of the olden time it had seemed designed by nature for an important commercial metrop- 218 The Story of an Old Farm. olis. Hopes had been entertained that, owing to its nearness to the sea and its unrivalled harbor, commerce would centre here, and that for all time New Jersey's capital would be of great political and commercial consequence. Alas, vain hopes ! — he finds it a city but in name. The councillor in all his magnificence seems oddly out of place among the ugly, modern, brick shops of this business street. We will seat him in a high-backed chair in a broad hallway of one of the old houses of his own time — now he appears in a more appro- priate setting. You need not offer him a glass of whiskey ! he is not acquainted with the beverage. Rum punch ? yes ! he will take that ; — 1 doubt not but that he and his co-councillors have swallowed many a jorum of such toddy while wrestling with knotty questions affecting the good of the province. Now that our colonial friend has washed the dust of nearly a century and a half from his ancient throat, let us hear what he has to say. Evidently, when in the pristine glory of existence, he was a gallant man for his first topic is the ladies ; how they apj)eared — like birds of paradise, if he is to be believed ; with stuffed satin petticoats, taffetas and brocades, tall hats, lofty coiffures, long feathers, powder and patches. Their gowns were buoyed out one or two feet on either side of the hips, but not in front or behind, consequently — as he tells us with a chuckle — a lady of fashion when in full dress, in order to gain admittance to her own door, was forced to present her flanks first, and thus sidle in like a crab. Our "■ resurrected one " describes the flutter in Amboy society caused by the arrival of the first theatre company to the colonies and its presenting plays in the town-hall on the public green ; he says that the ladies in order to secure seats were obliged to send their black servants early in the afternoon to occupy them until the time of the performance. This theatrical company was under the management of the Hallams, who first opened with it in America in 1752. Dunlap, who was born in Amboy, asserts that he has heard old ladies speak in raptures of the beauty and grace of Mrs. Douglas — the leading lady of the company — and the pathos of her personation of the character of Jane Shore. Our New Jersey ancestors took more kindly to the stage than did their brethren of Massachusetts. The assembly of that The Keminiscences of a King's Councillok. 219 province in 1750 prohibited theatrical representations because — as the bill recited — " they tend greatly to increase immorality, impiety, and a contempt of religion." This action of the legisla- ture was occasioned by a tragedy having been acted at the British Coffee-house in Boston by two English officers, assisted by some young men of the town. A graphic portrayal is given by the councillor of the appear- ance of the gentlemen and ladies on Sunday mornings, as they assembled on the bluff to worship at St. Peter's : the dignified walk of the men, with crimson and gilt garments, silk stockings, cocked hats and tall gold-headed canes ; and the young lads — in dress, brilliant but ludicrous reproductions of their elders. The ^^ grand dames''' with high heels and stiff stays came ballooning along, their voluminous skirts swaying and fluttering in the fresh sea breeze. With what ceremony did they greet each other ! As the men raised high in air their gold-laced hats, and bowed low their curled heads, the ladies, stopping short in their promenade, placed one foot twelve inches behind the other and dropped a formal, stately and prolonged curtsey. It is very agreeable listening to his tales of the ostentation and parade at New Jersey's capital in the hey-day of its youth : how one '^ Moneybaird," conveyed to Lord Neil Campbell's son John, all his Amboy interests, in consideration of Campbell's sending a footman to hold his stirrup and wait on him during the meetings of the assembly ; how the mayor, while acting offici- ally, had a mace-bearer who carried before him this ancient insignia of corporation rank ; how the judges, while sitting on the bench, wore judicial wigs and resplendant robes of office, and how it was obligatory for counsellors-at-law, when pleading before the bar of the supreme court, to be arrayed in gowns and bands as worn by barristers in England.* He has much to say * On the eleventh of May, 1791, the leading lawyers of the State, among them Joseph Bloomfield, Richard Howell, Elisha Boudinot, James Linn, Richard Stockton, Frederick Frelinghuysen and Andrew Kirkpatrick, petitioned the jus- tices of the supreme court showing : " That the wearing of Bands and Bar- gowns is found to be very troublesome and inconvenient, and is also deemed by your petitioners altogether useless. Your petitioners therefore pray that the rule of this court made for that purpose may be vacated." "Whereupon the Court taking the said petition into consideration, are pleased to grant the prayer of the petitioners, and do order that the Rule of the Court, which requires the wearing of Bands and Bar-gowns be vacated." 220 The Story of an Old Farm. of the flourish and ceremonies attendant upon court days ; of the judges on circuit being met outside of the town by the sheriff, justices of the peace, and other gentlemen, on horse-back, who escorted them in honor to their lodgings. At the opening and closing of court, in going to and from the court-house, the judges were preceded by the sheriff and the constables carrying their staves of office, and all evil-doers trembled in the presence of the august procession. And now he entertains us with descriptions of the grand balls given at the town-hall in honor of royal governors ; where the dancing was not confined to the youthful belles and beaux, but all ages of the gentle-folk participated ; stepping the decorous minuet or going down the middle in the but little less dignified contre-dance. Altogether, in the last century this home of our narrator must often have been a gala Amboy. He coidd give us more interesting information, if he would, as to its historic charms and associations, and the manners and customs of its people. But the old gentleman is running down ; his voice is beginning to cackle. We will relegate him to that mysterious shade from whence he came. Exit, the king's councillor ! There was the dark side to this old-time picture — the negroes. The evil of slavery took deep root in colonial New Jersey. The reason is readily understood when we remember that in the early days of the province the slave trade was encouraged by the English people, fostered by the home government and enforced by the action of the British ministry. In 1702 Queen Anne instructed the governor of New York and New Jersey '' to give due encouragement to merchants, and in particular to the Royal African Company." Up to the time of the Revolution Great Britain directed her colonial governors to combat the attempts made by the colonists to limit the slave trade ; and under pain of removal to decline assent to any restrictive laws. Only one year before the American congress — in 1776 — prohib- ited the slave trade, the Earl of Dartmouth addressed the fol- lowing words to a colonial agent : We cannot allow tlie colonies to check or discourage, in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to tlie nation. During a debate in the house of commons on the question of the suppression of this trade, a Aviso legislator produced Colonial Slave Trade. 221 a labored argument against its abolition, on the ground of injuries that would result to the market for the refuse-fish of the English fisheries, which were purchased in large quantities by West India planters for their slaves. This astute debater was Brook Watson, who was called an American adventurer, and who not only became a member of parliament but afterwards lord- mayor of London. We are able to relate one incident in the life of Watson, where he was of advantage to the world at large. It was to all our good fortunes that when a small boy he fell over- board in the harbor of Havana and just escaped being devoured by a shark. This gave to the brush of the great American art- ist, Copley, the subject for his well-known painting, "The Res- cue of a Boy from the Jaws of a Shark." The extent of the importation of slaves in the province of New Jersey is unknown, but it is estimated that before the Revolution between three and four hundred thousand negroes were intro- duced into the American colonies. Tha Abbe Raynal supposes that the number of blacks taken from Africa by Europeans before 1776 to have equalled nine millions. Hiine, the Grerman historian of the slave trade, considers these figures too small ; Mr. Bancroft affirms that the English importations in all the conti- nental colonies and in the Spanish, French and English West Indies to have been nearly three million souls, to say nothing of two hundred and fifty thousand thrown into the sea. He esti- mates that the profits of English merchants in this traffic, previ- ous to 1776, were not far from four hundred million dollars. This historian draws in strong outline a sad pictm'e of the miseries endured by the blacks while on the voyage from Africa. Small ships that could penetrate the shalloAv rivei's and bayous of the coast were used, and often five hundred negroes were stowed in vessels of not over two hundred tons burden. They were generally chained in pairs by the ankles ; and below decks, when sleeping, each was allowed a space of but six feet by six- teen inches. For exercise they were made to dance and caper on deck to the tune of a whip. The Africans were chiefly gathered from various points in the far interior of the dark con- tinent, in order that the freight of a single ship might be composed people of different languages and nations. When they reached the sea-coast at imfavorable seasons of the year, diseases were 222 Thk Story of an Old F.\inr. engendered which culminated on the voyage ; this, together with the narrow space afforded their manacled bodies, the bad air, foul stenches and limited food and water, caused a death rate often equalling fifty and never falling below twelve per- cent of the shipment. Sailing-masters on approaching a slaver at sea made it the rule, when possible, to keep to the windward in order to avoid the horrible odors that belched from the open ports and hatches of ships laden with human cargoes. The ingenuity of man, eager to torture his fellow-beings, could hardly have planned a more complete hell than a crowded slave ship on a protracted voyage. The horrors of such a jouraey are best exemplified by the fact that no journal of a trip from Africa to the United States is extant, though it is well known, that slave ships repeatedly entered every port south of Rhode Island. Strange as it may seem, the men who sailed these ships appeared to be ignorant of the fact that they were doing the devil's Avork. Neither the captains of slavers, nor the persons comprising the companies who employed them, seemed to have considered that they were practising on their fellow-men revolt- ing cruelty, and hideous wrong. This was so, at least, in the earlier days of the traffic. Sir John Hawkins commanded the first English expedition to Africa for slaves. His squadron com- prised four vessels, and to their captains he issued the following sailing orders': " Serve God daily ; love one another ; preserve yom' victuals ; beware of fire ; and keep good company." So successful was he in this and subsequent voyages that Queen Elizabeth rewarded him by granting him permission to wear on his crest " a demi Moor, bound and captive." Doctor Hale, in the third volume of that treasury of historical writing, the " Nar- rative and Critical History of America" — edited by Justin Winsor — says that " Hawkins sailed on the ship Jesus with faith as serene as if he had sailed on a crusade." At one time, while on the first voyage, this navigator's ships were so long be-calmed as to nearly cause starvation. But, as this pious slaver recounts : ^'Almighty God, who never suft'ereth his elect to perish, sent us the ordinary breeze." While Hawkins' party was gathering together liuman cargoes on the Guinea coast, the crews were set upon by the natives with murderous intent. But again, as he narrates, " God, who worketh all things for the best, would not have it so, and by Him we escaped -without danger." The New England Slave Trade. 223 In contemplating the slave trade as connected with our own country we must not fall into the error of thinking that the infamy of the traffic attached only to the people of the south^ where the greater number of slaves were marketed. It was the well-to-do deacons and church members of New England who controlled the business : men who deemed it a sin to pick flow- ers on the Sabbath ; who thought .it wrong to stroll along the banks of a stream, or wander in the woods on that day ; men who would dispatch the tithing man to arrest the stranger who was hurrying through their town on Sunday on an errand of mercy. The history of that time reveals Peter Faneuil, on the one hand piling up profits from his immense slave trade, while, on the other occupied in private and public charities, and in the erection of the cradle of liberty in Boston. In the last cen- tury the coasts of Mozambique and Guinea were white with the sails of Massachusetts and Khode Island slavers. These vessels on the outward voyage were loaded with New England rum, which was traded to African chiefs for prisoners taken in their tribal wars. These blacks, together with such others as the ship-captains had been able to steal, were then carried to one of the West India islands, or to a southern American port, and there exchanged for molasses. This cargo was brought to New England and converted into rum for a further shipment to Africa; thus a three-fold profit was secured on each voyage. In the year 1 750 Newport carried on a most extensive business of this character I three hundred distilleries were in operation, and the tonnage of the vessels lying at the town's wharves exceeded that of the city of New York. Mrs. Stowe in her tale, " A Minister's Wooing," has portrayed in the most interesting manner the awakening of the New England conscience as to the sinfulness of buying and selling human souls. As at the time of Johannes' visit Perth Amboy was New Jer- sey's chief port of entry, the blacks were to be seen there in goodly numbers : many of them were freshly imported, bearing their tribal marks, and exhibiting their native characteristics, as if still inhabiting the wilds of Guinea. It was thought desirable^ when possible, to have the slaves brought into the colonies from the West Indies rather than direct fnmi Africa, as after remaining for a time at Barbadoes or one of the other islands they were much 224 The Story of as Old Farm. better able to endure the severities of the American climate. In 1757 the British West Indies contained a total population of a little less than three hundred and thirty thousand souls, of which two hundred and thirty thousand were slaves. Mr. Whitehead says that barracks stood on the corner of Smith and Water streets, in Amboy, from where the negroes, on landing, were dis- tributed in the province. They were eagerly sought for by the settlers and were in the service of all families able to pay from forty to one hundred pounds for a man or woman, according to age. A child of two or three years sold for from eight to foui'teen pounds. As showing the value of slaves in the last century, Mr. Snell, in his Somerset historical compilations, publishes an inven- tory of the personal effects of Theunis Post, one of the '' helpers " of the North Branch Reformed church, who died in 1764 in Branchburgh township, near the mouth of the Lamington river. The following chattels are mentioned : " One negro named Ham, valued at £70 ; one negro named Isaac, valued at £30 ; one negro named Sam, valued at £70 ; one negro girl named Betty, valued at £10 ; one negro named Jane, valued at £60 ; one negro wench named Sawr, valued at £30." The last name is short for Saertje, the Dutch diminutive for Sarah. As the character of these imported, or more properly speak- ing, stolen negroes, were necessarily savage, and but little under- stood by the Jersey people, they were naturally much feared, and the most severe laws were enacted by the colony to insure their control and subjection. One of the official acts that con- stables were the most often called upon to perform was that of whipping slaves for minor offences. Any negro found five miles from home it was the duty of these officers to arrest, and to flog with a whip, into the thongs of which fine wire was plaited that the severity of the punishment might be increased. For this service the owners of the derelict blacks were obliged to pay the constables five shillings, which materially augumented the income of those officials, and added largely to the value and importance of the position. The blacks, on arrival, were physically powerful and good workers, but without much power of reasoning or of controlling their undisciplined imaginations. Though barbarians, their affections were strong, and the marked progress made by negroes Cruel Punishment of New Jersey Slaves. 225 in America may be said to be largely due to that fact. They soon outgrew their savagery, and, affiliating in their sympathies with their work and the lives of their masters, in a very few years became an attached portion of the domestic life of the Jer- sey people. In Somerset coimty, especially, the slaves soon fell imder the sway of kindly influences, and became almost portions of their owners' families. They were comfortably clad ; when sick, well cared for 5 and even to this day old residents tell pleasant tales of the affection existing between our forefathers and the old-time family and farm servants. But before the whites had in part advanced and civilized the blacks, and learned from experience the weakness and strength of their bondsmen's characters, much cruelty was inflicted through fears of risings and rebellions. The ^'New York Gazette " of the twenty-fifth of March, 1734, gives an account of a threatened rising early in that year in the vicinity of where is now Somerville, in consequence of which several negroes, two at least, were hmig. Punishments were extremely severe ; murder and assaidt often insured the culprits being burned alive, and for even petty thefts and misdemeanors they were hung with short shrift. On the twenty-third of September, 1694, John Johnstone — he of the Peapack patent — while sitting as presid- ing justice of the Monmoath court of sessions, sentenced a negro convicted of murder ra the following language : Caesar, thou art found guilty by thy country of those horrid crimes that are laid to thy charge; therefore, the court doth judge that thou, the said Cfesar, shall return to the place from whence thou earnest, and from thence to the place of execution, when thy right hand shall be cut off and burned before thine eyes. Then thou shalt be hanged up by the neck till thou art dead, dead, dead ; then thy body shall be cut down and burned to ashes in a tire, and so the Lord have mercy on tliy soul, Csesar. In those days of severe punishments the penalty followed closely after conviction. On the tenth of January, 1729, a slave named Prince was tried at Perth Amboy for murdering one William Cook, and being found guilty was sentenced to be burned alive '^ on ye twelfth of this Inst." He was executed on the day appointed. In the year 1738 a negro belonging to Robert Hooper was burned at the stake at Rocky Hill for hav- ing killed a chUd of his overseer. On the fifth of July, 1750, in a ravine just north of Perth Amboy, two negroes were bvumed at 15 226 The Story of an Old Farm. the stake ; one for murdering his mistress, Mrs. Obadiah Ayers, who had mildly censiu'ed him for misconduct ; and the other for being an accessory to the fact. Mrs. Ayres was seated at her own window when she was shot by the first negro, with a gun procured for him by the second. In these more lenient days the accessory would have escaped with a lighter pimishment ; he was a mere lad, and, as was shown at the trial, had been coerced by fear into aiding the elder and more vicious negro. At the execution all the slaves of the neighborhood were obliged to be present, that the scene might serve as an exemplary warning and a terrible example. Numerous instances might be given of the severity with which black offenders were punished. There is on record a chronicle of the hanging of a negro in 1750 for theft, the execution taking place at the junction of the Woodbridge and New Brimswick roads, a little way out of Amboy. We have another accomit of an auto-de-fe, in which Sheriff Abraham Van Doren is pictured on his horse, riding with drawn sword between the spectators and a fire, in which was burning a negro murderer. This was at Hillsborough (Millstone) in 1752, the sufferer having been con- victed there of killing his master, Jacob Van Nest, who lived near Milltown, in Branchburgh township. This black wretch was large and athletic, and for a long time had been considered dangerous. In a fit of passion he struck his master a murderous blow with an axe as he dismounted from his horse at his stable door ; the negro's anger was occasioned by the discovery that his master had helped himself to some tobacco from the slave's box. This distressing occurrence does not seem to have prejudiced the family against the owning of slaves, as it will be seen by the fol- lowing copy of a bill of sale that the murdered man's son Peter purchased two, a few years later : "July 10, 1768, John Van Nest, of Bridgewater [now Branchburgh] sold to Peter Van Nest, A certain Neger Winch named Mary and a neger boy named Jack for the sum of £66, York currency." In 1791, bm'ning seems to have been abandoned as a punish- ment for negroes, one being hanged for murder in that year in front of the old coui't-house at Newark. As was the custom the condemned was taken to the First Presbyterian church, where his funeral sermon was preached by Doctor Uzal Ogden. Mr. New Jersey Slavery Statistics. ' 227 Whitehead narrates that the church was crowded, and that the good domine, in alkiding to the repentance of the negro, thought- lessly finished his discourse by impressively expressing a hope that the latter end of his numerous hearers might be like the criminal's. In the province of New Jersey slavery especially flourished because of its large Dutch and German population ; and the greatest number of slaves were to be found in the counties where those races predominated. New Jersey's inhabitants, all- told, in 1726 numbered 32,442, the negroes counting 2,581. The same year Somerset possessed 2,271 souls, white and black, the latter numbering 379. This county was in that year exceeded in negro population only by Monmouth and Bergen. In the year 1738, out of a total population of 47,369, the province possessed 3,981 slaves. Somerset county in the previous year had a popu- lation of about 4,500, of whom 732 were slaves. The census for the year 1790 places the entire Ncav Jersey population at 169,954, of whom 11,423 were slaves. Ten years later — 1800 — the total population had increased to 211,149, the slaves num- bering 12,422. Thi^ was a greater number of bonds-people than was possessed by any other state north of Maryland except- ing New York, which had 20,613. Delaware had but 6,153, Pennsylvania 1,706, Connecticut 951, New Hampshire 8, and Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont none at all. In this year, 1800, the slaves of Somerset numbered 1,863, out of a total population of 12,813 ; this was more than that possessed by any other county in the state excepting Bergen. Morris, the adjoining county to Somerset, at that time having a population of nearly 18,000, owned but 775 slaves. In 1810 slavery had entirely disappeared in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. Rhode Island's holdings were 108, Connecticut's, 300, Pennsylvania's, 795, Delaware's, 4,177, New Jersey's, 10,851, New York's, 15,017. In this year — 1810 — Somerset's slave population was 1,968, still far in advance of all other counties excepting Bergen, and only two hundred behind that Dutch community. Between the years 1804 and 1820 a series of laws wei'e enacted tending toward a gradual abolition. They provided that every child born of a slave within the state of New Jersey after the fourth of July, in the year 1804, should be nominally free, but should remain the ser- 228 The Story of an Old Farm. vant of the owner of the mother until the age of twenty-five if a male, and twenty-one if a female. So beneficial were the results of the operation of these laws that we find by the census of the year 1830 Somerset's full slaves were reduced to seventy- eight in number. At Amboy Johannes had the choice of two leading taverns ; one of them kept by John Gluck, the other by Obadiah Ayres. There was no choice as to expense, as the justices of the peace, at the October quarter sessions of 1748, had established the fol- lowing uniform and moderate rate of charges for all the taverns of the county: "Hot meal of meat, etc., 10*?; Cold meal do, T*?; Lodging per night 4*^; Rum by the quartern 4'.'; Brandy do, 6'?; Wine by the quartern 2'',8'^; Strong beer do, 5"?; Cyder do, \ 4^; Metheglin do, l^'jG'?; Lunch do, l!',2^. Provision for Horses: Oats by the quart 1^'?; English hay per night 1^,0'?; ditto for 24 hours 1?',6'^| Salt or fresh hay per night 8^; ditto for 24 hours 1?,0?." These inns were rival hostelries, each being the head- quarters of opposition lines of boats and stages to New York and Philadelphia. Daniel O'Brien, in October, 1750, had established the first line by this route. His sloop left New York every Wed- nesday ; the passengers were supposed to «pend Thursday night at John Gluck's in Amboy, a stage-wagon leaving on Friday morning for Bordentown, where another sloop proceeded to Phil- adelphia. His advertisement promised to carry passengers through in forty-eight hours less time than did the stage which travelled the old road from New Brunswick to Trenton. The time actually consumed was from five to eight days. O'Brien could be " spoke with at the house of Scotch Johnny in New York on Mondays." The success of the above line was so great as to induce some Philadelphians in 1751 to establish an opposi- tion. Their sloop started from the Quaker City at the "Crooked Billet Wharf" every week for Burlington, " from where" — as their advertisement read — " at the sign of the Blue Anchor, a stage-wagon with a good awning will run to the house of Oba- diah Ayres at Perth Amboy, where good entertainment is to be had for man and beast." The advertisement goes on to lay much stress on the fact that the sloop of this line, sailing between Amboy and New York, had a fine cabin fitted up with a tea table. Stage Routes Across the State. 229 The stage route referred to as passing over the old road, had been established in 1742 by William Atlee and Joseph Yeats. They sold out in 1744 to one Wilson, who ran his stage-wagon twice weekly, leaving the Delaware at Trenton on Monday and Thursday, and New Brunswick on Tuesday and Friday. Pro- fessor Kalm, before quoted, when on his way to New York from Pennsylvania in 1 748, attribiited the great prosperity of Tren- ton to the number of travellers that journeyed that way from Philadelphia. He remarked on the many stage and freight wagons starting from Trenton ; and writes that its inhabitants largely subsist by the carriage of people and aU sorts of goods across to New Brunswick. Wilson's charge for carrying a single passenger in his stage- wagon from the Delaware to the Raritan was two shillings and six pence, with an extra payment for luggage. The fare by sloop from Philadelphia to Trenton was one shilling and six pence, in addition each passenger being obliged to pay extra for luggage, and provide for himself food and drink. This last was important, as, though the distancre was not great, adverse winds often prolonged the voyage into many tedious hours. From New Brunswick, passengers had a choice of three routes to New York : by sloop ; by way of stage-wagon to Elizabeth- town-point, thence by sloop ; and by way of stage-wagon to Amboy, crossing by Willocks ferry to Staten Island, crossing to Long Island at the Narrows, and thence to Flatbush and the Brooklyn ferry. The inhabitants of the Raritan valley and of the vicinity of Flatbush were at this time in close alliance. Late in the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries the Dutch had taken up all of the agricultural lands on the west end of Long Island ; consequently many of the second genera- tion of this Holland stock were forced to seek tillable acres in East Jersey. Thus the ancestry of such well known Somerset and Middlesex families as the Van der Veers, Van Nostrands, Van Dykes, Hagamans, Cornells, Beekmans, Polhemuses, Sut- phens, Suydams, and others, were all migrators from the Flat- bush neighborhood. At this time there was no well-established cross-country road between Trenton and Amboy, though John DaUey had in 1745 surveyed 'the line of a highway, and set up marks every two 230 The Story of an Old Farm. miles as a guide through the woods. In 1756 another stage route was established between the Quaker City and New York. It was called the " Swift, Sure Coach Line," and travelled the old York road, crossing the Delaware river at Lambertville ; thence to Flemington, Somerville, Bound Brook, Plainfield, and along the base of the mountain through Springfield to Elizabeth- town-point, where a packet sloop completed the journey. It was along this route that, about 1846, the first telegraph line between New York and Philadelphia was built. This round- about way was chosen because of the refusal of the New Jersey Railroad officials to allow the telegraph company to set up its poles along their line of railway. The short-sighted and witless reason was given that '' the telegraph would interfere with travel, through enabling persons to transact business by its means, instead of using the railroad." In no better way, per- haps, could be shown the great growth of the telegraph, railway and express interests of this country, than to narrate the fact that the first telegram from Philadelphia to New York was delivered at Somerville, the line being completed only that dis- tance. The message was then carried to the metropolis by the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad in a carpet-bag ; which carpet-bag, or rather its contents, represented the entire daily business of the Hope Express company, which afterward grew into an important corporation and was eventually consolidated with the Adams company. Picture to yourself a traveller of 1752 occupying six days — one hundred and forty-four hours — in traversing the distance between New York and Philadelphia. Imagine for a moment the discomforts and actual pains of such a journey during the winter months. Huddled on a crowded sloop for from twelve to forty-eight hours, fighting icy head tides, beating against winds, chill, drear and contrary, eating cold snacks supplied by your- self-^even '■'■ a fine cabin fitted up with a tea table " could hardly have palliated the miseries of such a voyage. In October, 1723, Benjamin Franklin, when making his first visit to Philadelphia, was thirty hours on his passage from New York to Amboy. His sloop was nearly lost in a squall, and one of the passengers fall- ing overboard narrowly escaped being drowned. Over fifty years later a traveller tells of being twenty hours in sailing six- Stage-Wagons of the Olden Time. 231 teen miles on the Delaware in a sloop, while on a journey from New York to Philadephia. The same traveller was nearly ship- wrecked in New York bay, and lost some of his baggage at Araboy. On reaching Amboy passengers were lodged in uncom- fortable taverns ; they slept on straw-filled ticks, usually with two or three bed-fellows, and with but little choice as to com- pany. The passage overland to the Delaware was none the less disagreeable. The stages were ordinary Jersey wagons without springs, with white canvass covers stretched over hoops, those at the front and rear being very high, which gave somewhat of a picturesque appearance to the rude vehicle. The wheels revolved on primitive boxes, kept grgased by a frequent applica- tion of tar that was carried in a bucket suspended under the wagon body. Clumsy linchpins were supposed to secure the wheels, but they had a fashion, with but slight provocation, of hopping out, and letting the axle down with a thud in the mud, sending the passengers sprawling on the straw-covered floor of the stage. The roads were in a wretched condition with alternating stumps and holes. The rivers and streams had to be forded, and after heavy rains long delays were incurred while await- ing the subsiding of the waters. The men travellers were expected to partly work their passages by walking up the steep rises, and by putting their shoulders to the wheel when the steaming horses were stalled in a slough. But this outside work was not much worse than being jolted on the hard seats within, while the lumbering vehicle lurched and strained over the uneven roads, or staggered across corduroyed swamps, giving the pas- sengers very much the feeling of having had their backbones driven up into their skulls. It was many years before there were any decent roads in New Jersey. Between 1765 and 1768 numerous unsuccessful efforts were made to float a lottery for raising money to improve the highways across the province. Governor Franklin, in an address to the assembly in 1768, thus refers to their condition : " Even those which lie between the two principal trading cities in North America are seldom pass- able without danger or difficulty." When one remembers that the railroad now accomplishes in one day the work of several weeks of the last century, no better 232 The Story of an Old Farm. illustration can be given of the advance made by science in all that adds to the comfort and enjoyment of mankind, and to the diffusion of general intelligence. Beyond almost all the other improvements of this great age stands its progress made in loco- motion. As Johannes smoked his pipe in the taproom of Ayres' tavern on the evening of his arrival at Amboy, and listened to the traveller's tales of hardships by land and water, how incredu- lous he would have been had be been told that his posterity would fly between New York and Philadelphia in a less number of minutes than it took hours for Ayres' customers to traverse that distance ; that in 1889 America would be bound and interlaced with over one hundred and fifty thousand miles of iron and steel roads constructed at an average cost of over sixty thousand dol- lars per mile, and on which carriages would roll without visible means of locomotion, attaining a velocity at times of a mile in forty- five seconds. Still more absurd would behave considered the state- ment that in A. D. 1889, no more time would be consumed in crossing the then unexplored continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific — 3,322 miles — than was in his day occupied in passing over the comparatively short distance lying between the Hudson and the Delaware ; that in the place of clumsy sloops and spring- less wagons, there would be luxurious coaches and mammoth steamboats ; that passengers, instead of suffering extraordinary fatigues, would stroll about elegantly appointed saloons, recline on softly cushioned chairs, or sleep on comfortable couches, while being whirled at from twenty-five to sixty miles an hour over thousands of miles of thickly populated country. We will leave Johannes to make his way back alone to Bed- minster. In the next chapter he will claim our attention while in conflict with rugged nature ; while combating and subduing his timbered hillsides, and reducing them to productive acres. CHAPTER XVII. Clearing the Bedminster Land — Life on the " Old Farm^^ from 1752 to 1763. Intelligent industry will overcome many difficulties. This faculty stood our ancestor in good part when he set about clear- ing the Bedminster farm, and to a great extent its possession can be ascribed to his nationality. The Germans in the prov- ince, generally, being a quiet industrious folk made themselves most valuable citizens. They were plodding, intent on their own business, attentive to the duties of religion, but were inter- ested, perhaps, too little in politics. McMaster writes that wherever a German farmer lived were to be found industry, order and thrift. Their buildings, fences, thoroughly-tilled fields and nurtured orchards were in marked contrast to the lands and improvements of their more careless English and Scotch neigh- bors. Other writers on the condition of the American colonies in the last century speak of the simple and primitive manners and frugal, industrious habits of the Germans, which, together with their contented spirits and honest dealings, made them valued acquisitions to the communities and most suitable infu- sions among the inhabitants of the provinces. Well ! Johannes and his sons are now fairly at work on the " Old Farm," and we must proceed with the telling of its story. He, like other early settlers, is occupied in making history ; not in the sense of the brilliant achievements of heroes ; his a more humble mission — to subdue a wilderness and civilize a community, to make smooth the way of future generations, and to secure for his posterity a comfortable and complete homestead. It took time to transform his heavily-wooded lands into arable fields ; meanwhile many privations had to be endured, and that labor which conquers all things vigoi'ously and assiduously prosecuted. 234 The Story of an Old Fakm. In clearing New Jersey lands in colonial times the settler l)egan by felling the smaller trees and cutting off the stronger tranches of the greater ones. Next, the oaks, hickories and other large trees were attacked. Well girdled by the axe, these were left to stand until the following year, by which time, having been robbed of their sap, they were dead and ready for the burning. Encircling fires at the base of their trunks were ignited ; the trees fell, and by midsimimer the sun began to operate on land that, being formed almost entirely of rotten vege- tation, was rank with productiveness. Instead of rooting up the trees, many of the farmers after burning the stumps let them stand and decay. It gave the newly-cleared land a very ugly appearance, but in four or five years the stumps would have so rotted that they could be beaten to pieces and ploughed under. By July of the second year the ground was ready for a crop, which was generally buckwheat. When harvested in the autumn the land was ploughed, and sown with rye. Often, owing to the richness of the soil from the long drinking of the juices of decaying vegetation, the first year's crop all grew to straw, and it was not uncommon for several seasons to go by before the ground had been sufficiently toned by cultivation to produce good yields of wheat. Agriculture was but imperfectly undei'stood by the new set- tlers, and no knowledge seems to have been had of the value of the rotation of crops. Instances are given where new lands - produced rye for ten years, and then for ten successive harvests yielded wheat. The virgin soil, having been fertilized by nature for centuries, was for several decades prolific, but in time became exliausted, and the crops correspondingly poor. Farmers who had wasted the early strength of their fields were slow in appre- ciating the value of a plentiful use of lime and manure, and it was not until after the Revolution that impoverished lands began to be properly nourished and crops again to be abundant. It is said that the first Somerset farmer, who gave heart to exhausted land by the use of lime as a fertilizer, was Doctor John Reeve, who sent all the way to a quarry on the Delaware for the stone. In addition to profitably working a large farm near Rocky Hill, he was a physician in good practice. Old residents of the county remember him as a tall man of a majestic presence, and as a Farming Implements of the Last Century. 235 graceful and fearless rider. His professional journeys were always made in the saddle, and as nearly as possible in an air line ; scorning such ordinary means of communication as high- ways and byways he rode bravely across the country, taking the fences as if following a pack of hounds at full cry. Although Bedminster township had abundant limestone within its borders, none was burned till 1794, and it was 1830 before Peapack lime came into general use. In the last century natural meadows sup- plied all the grass and grain for live-stock ; it was in the year 1800 that Jacques Voorhees introduced clover-seed into Somer- set county ; the growing of grass on uplands inaugurated a new era in farming and great benefits resulted to husbandmen and the country. To one accustomed to the improved appliances that aid and abet the agriculturist of this age, the tools and implements that Johannes had at his command would seem illy contrived for till- ing the soil. The ploughs throughout the country at this time were rude and ineffective and mostly home-made. They were clumsily constructed of wood, the mould-board being fashioned from a block which had a winding grain approximating to the curve required. Thomas Jefferson is said to have first suggested the proper shape and proportion of this part of a plough. It was 1776 before a wrought-iron ploughshare, some bolts, and a clevis were introduced, and the mould-boards after that time were often plated with strips of iron made from hammered horseshoes. Our state has the honor of being the first to have used cast-iron • ploughs, they being the invention of a New Jersey farmer named Newbold. Their introduction was not general until the year 1797, the people being prejudiced against their use, and it is said that they claimed cast-iron poisoned the soil and ruined the crop. Our forefather sowed his seed by hand, and when harvest time came, no cradler with glittering knife swung his graceful way through the golden grain, marking the field with lines of even swath. Rye, wheat and buckwheat were cut with a sickle, but oats, like grass, fell under the scythe. The sickles used were long and narrow, their sharp edges having close teeth on the inner side. This manner of harvesting con- tinued until after the Revolution, when farmers were delighted by the appearance of the cradle, which improvement created as 236 The Story of an Old Farm. much interest as has, in modern times, the introduction of the reaper. During the first years of life on the farm there was much to do besides clearing and tillage. Gun and worm fences were built — the great barns and mows were erected, and their long, sloping roofs thatched with the big rye straw grown on the strong, new ground ; orchards were set out, and below the hill the water power was improved, and the meadow facing Peapack ^- brook pierced with tan vats. A little above, the mill was planted ; on its oaken floor a huge wooden-cogged wheel slowly revolved, crushing the black and red oak bark. An early undertaking was that of making the old garden to the east of the house — a combined kitchen and flower garden, as was the fashion of the time ; in it was planted the still blooming bed of German lilies. Horticulture was then in its infancy, oi- more properly speaking, as the word is now used, unknown. Old- fashioned gardens contained in the way of flowers but little else than hollyhocks, snow-baUs, roses, lilacs, pinks, tulips, sun-flow- ers, morning-glories and a few other primitive blossoms. As for fruit, no grapes were to be had excepting the poor native fox variety ; and the improved kinds of peaches, pears, plums and melons, had not yet been introduced. Of pears as well as of apples there were plenty, but no knowledge being had of nursing and grafting, they did not attain anything approaching their present perfection and deliciousness. So with the small berries, they were in great abundance, though micultivated, growing wild in the fields and woods. The vegetables of that period were few in variety and poor in quality. Potatoes were a staple, as were in their season cab- bages, beans and Indian corn ; but tomatoes, cauliflower, Mercer potatoes, okra, lettuce, SAveet corn, egg-plant and rhubai'b had not yet been heard of. It wiU thus be seen that " living" at the " Old Stone House " in the olden days was much simpler than those of us found it who were so fortunate as to gather about its well-spread board in the generation just passed. Johannes' table was well supplied with ham, bacon and smoked meats. Tradi- * tions smack their lips over the deliciousness of the tender juicy hams, that hung in rows from the ceiling timbers in the cool cellar. Their rich and nutty flavor was gained from being cured Colonial Farm Diet. 237 in the fragrant smoke of burning hickory and oak, together with the fact of their having been carved from young pigs that had roamed the forest, fattening on acorns, hickory nuts and aromatic herbage. Occasionally fresh meat was had, as it was the cus- tom of farmers when they slaughtered a " critter " to distribute joints and pieces among their neighbors for miles around, relying for pay upon a return courtesy. The family had not yet out- grown its love for sauerkraut, as is shown by the writer's having the antique mortar — cut out of a solid block of wood — and pestle, which were used in the preparation of this compound, so dear to the German palate. A dish that garnished every meal was " kohl-salat," or cabbage salad. The Dutch called it '^ kohl- slaa," and from these two old country terms have come the degenerate word " coldslaw." Our yoeman's table, while ignor- ant of modem prepared dishes disguised with strange sauces, was abundently beset with solid substantial food : poultry, eggs, cheese and such farm diet there was, of course ; hot breads were in vogue ; short cakes, made with buttermilk and baked on a griddle, were in daily demand, and pies, doughnuts and olekokes, were features even of the morning meal. Soupaan — well salted Indian mush, eaten with milk and molasses — was the standard Sunday supper, though occasionally a raised biscuit, called ^weibak, or twice baked, took the place of mush ; this biscuit was made in large quantities, bushels at a time, and then dried in the oven until as hard as a rock ; in a bowl of rich milk it made a toothsome dish, — to the truth of which more than one of Mariah Katrina's descendants can bear witness. As for beverages, a great favorite at that time was madeira, though except on festive occasions it was rarely found save on the tables of the rich. Farmers were content with hard cider, beer and Jamaica rum. The latter was almost the entire tipple of the poor throughout the colonies, except in the East, where immense quantities of molasses were annually converted into New England rum. A hot drink common at that time was soured beer simmered over the fire with crusts of brown bread, and sweetened with molasses. Another decoction, or concoction, of which the Germans of New Jersey were fond, was the extraor- dinary combination of chocolate and links of sausages, boiled in a kettle, served in a bowl, and eaten together with a spoon ; a 238 The Story of an Old Farm. feast of which I am sure but few of my readers would care to partake. It is said that when tea was first introduced in New Jersey its manner of use was for some time unknown. The people in their ignorance boiled it well, throwing away the liquor ; the herb was then dished, buttered, and eaten as greens. For sweetening purposes molasses and maple sugar were com- monly used, as at that time brown or "store sugar" was yet con- sidered a luxury. The story is current that the introduction of white sugar in the Moelich family was by Johannes' daughter, Veronica Gerdrutta, «orae years later, on the occasion of a social tea-drinking. It was then both a curiosity and a treat among farmers, and especially to the Germans, who were a very economical folk. Fanny's husband, old Jacob Kline, not having been informed of the surprise in store for the guests, on sitting down at the table used the sugar as salt, suppos- ing it to be such. This so annoyed his wife that she cried out somewhat angrily in German, " you dumb Irishman, you never will know anything !" In calling her husband an Irish- man, the good wife poured upon his head the full vials of her contemptuous vocabulary. Among the colonists of Pennsylvania and New Jersey there were representatives of many nationali- ties, with widely dissimilar natures, but fortunately the unifying conditions were sufficient to ultimately blend their discordant elements. Yet, for a number of years the Irish and Germans were mutually repugnant, and each held the other in very low estimation ; consequently " Irish " and " Dutch " were bandied between the thi'ifty Germans and the sons of the Emerald Isle as epithets of contempt. In a letter from the elder Muhlenberg to the fathers of Zion church in 1772, the Patriarch complains that his conduct in a certain financial transaction had been misconstrued, and goes on to say : " You must have peculiar thoughts of me, as if 1 tried to cheat you out of some- thing or desired to play Irish tricks on you." Building barns, making gardens, and raising crops, are fair- weather work. There was much that could be done on the "■ Old Farm " in tempest as well as in sunshine. On stormy days and during the long winter evenings, Johannes and his sons were occupied with labor that woiUd now be done at wheelwright shops, factories and forges ; but sloops of all kinds were then few, and at QuiLTiNGS, , Frolics, and Donation-Visits. 239 remote distances. Our forefathers cobbled their own shoes, repaired their own harness, and at extemporized carpenter and blacksmith shops made much of the household furniture and many of the farm and kitchen utensils. The Baroness Riedesel, the companion in misfortune of her husband, the Hessian Gen- eral who was captured witk Burgoyne, made and published many notes on the American army ; among them, one as follows : "Their generals who accompanied us were some of them shoe- makers, and on the days we halted made boots for our officers or even mended the shoes of our men." The Baroness was in error : they were not shoemakers, but the custom of colonial times was for the men to know all about the working of leather, they being able to make their own harness, saddles and shoes, just as it was for the women to spin and .weave ; doubtless these American officers in sore need of money were glad to exchange this knowledge and service for German and English coin. There were few or no luxuries in the olden time that would be recognized as such now ; the industries of the families were of the most complete character, as within each homestead was pro- duced, to a large extent, the necessities of its members. In farming communities, upon the women of the household devolved not only the duties of cooking, washing, milking, and dairy work, as at present ; in addition, they made their own garments and many of those of the men; they spun their own yarn, wove the family linen and woollen goods, smoked and cured meats, dipped tallow candles, brewed beer, and made soap. Their pleasures were limited, being confined principally to quilting frolics, apple paring bees, and husking and killing frolics. The latter were when the men met at each other's houses to do the autumn hog- killing, the women coming in the late afternoon to join them at supper, and have a dance in the evening. The " wood frolic " was also an institution which brought together most of the people of the congregations annually at the parsonages. While the men occupied themselves during the day hauling the minis- ter's yearly supply of wood, the wives and daughters came in the late afternoon and prepared a bountiful supper, to which the tired wood-haulers doubtless brought excellent appetites. The spinning-visit and the donation-visit were both made occasions for festivities. At the former it was the women who spent the 240 The Story of an Old Farm. the day in work, the men coming at supper-time to contribute to the pleasures of the evening. Fielding writes that "• bare walls make gadding housewives." Could he have visited the "living-room" of the "Old Stone House " he would not have expressed this sentiment without noting an exception. It had bare walls, it is true, but Mariah Katrina was no gadding housewife : She was a woman of a stirring life, Whose heart was in her house ; two wheels she had, Of antique form ; — this large for spinning wool, — That small for flax ; and if one wheel had rest, It was because the other was at work. In many of the customs and courtesies of life she was doubt- less rude and mipolished. A helpmate to her husband, she did not disdain to aid him in the field. While occupied with house- hold duties her dress, and that of her daughters, was coarse homespun ; and often in the summer, to make her many busy steps in the farm-kitchen the lighter, she discarded shoes. But for all that, her posterity have no cause for being ashamed of this industrious German matron ; she was the mother of vigorous children, who developed into men and women useful and beloved. They, in their turn, transmitted to their descendants capacities for leading worthy and profitable lives. The "living-room," or farm-kitchen, was Mariah Katrina's kingdom, as it has been for all the housewives of the " Old Stone House" from that time down. It served for many pur- poses, and it was there that all the home life centred. With the exception of what was baked in the Dutch oven in the outer- kitchen, the cooking was done before or in the cavernous fire- place, around which were hung warming-pans, flat-irons, skil- lets, teapots and other necessaries, while from the " chimbley's" capacious throat depended cranes, hooks, pots, trammels and smokcjacks. This was even before the time, in farmers' families, of tin roasting-jacks ; turkeys used to be suspended by twine before the fire, and kept revolving, while the basting gravy dripped to a pan below. The domestic conveniences of that age did not include closets ; household articles were distributed about the walls of this farm-kitchen, hung on cop-stocks — wooden pegs, driven into the beams of the low-studded ceiling. On the A View of the Farm-Kitchen. 241 dresser were rows of polished pewter platters and vessels, stand- ing cheek by jowl with well-scoured wooden trenchers, while laid away on the shelves of the great walnut press were piles of the family's coarse linen. In the corner stood two small wooden mortars, in which were pounded and powdered the mustard and coffee ; and on a convenient shelf were placed the lights for this world and the next, — a round iron tinder-box with its attendant flint and steel, and the huge family Bible, its pages black with qiiaint German characters. Pewter and copper were the mat- erials from which many of the drinking vessels and utensils were made, china and glass being in but little use. The precious metals were not common, except among the very rich, although all well-to-do farmers carried a silver watch and snuif-box, the latter being in frequent requisition. Tobacco was smoked in pipes, of which Johannes had brought a good supply from the old country ; segars were unknown in the " Old Stone House," indeed, throughout the colony in that century they were rarely seen outside of the large cities. Much of the space of the chambers in this Bedminster dwelling was occupied by mammoth " four-posters," stuffed with thick feather-beds that were covered by many-colored quilts and counterpanes of calico, durant and calamanco — whatever the last two may have been. Testers of cloth and curtains of chintz hung from above, while vallances of dimity reached to the floor. Much of the bedroom furniture was heavy, cumbersome and home-made, red cedar being the favorite wood, as it was consid- ered vermin proof and indestructible. The upper rooms, like the one below, then as now, were destitute of closets. People are not apt to feel the need of what they have never possessed ; otherwise we might suppose that Mariah Katrina and her daughters were much inconvenienced for the want of closet room. If you are curious to know in what kind of garments they were accustomed to array themselves, we may, in fancy, mount the oaken staircase to the garret, and there behold the treasures of clothing, of which women in the olden time had a great profusion Hanging on pegs driven in the wall, and depending from lines stretched from the eaves, were shortgowns, overgowns, outer garments and petticoats. The number of the last would now seem excessive, but colonial women thought at 16 242 The Story of an Old Farm. least fifteen necessary, while the Germans and Dutch often had twice that number. They were generally of tow, flannel and linsey-woolsey, and the young women of a household spent much of their girlhood in laying in a stock of petticoats for matronly uses. The shortgowns were of kersey, calamanco and homespun, but the frocks and outer garments were made of gay fabrics, the names of some of which are now obsolete ; beside satins, silks and velvets, there were in use taffety, beaver, French tabby, milinet, moreen, groset, Holland linen, bombazine, and " boughten calico." The men of that time, even in farming communities, were not insensible to the picturesqueness of variety and color in their garb. For daily wear, buckskin, leather, homespun and worsted fabrics were common, but on Sundays and on gala occasions prosperous yeomen were often clad in white, blue and crimson broadcloth coats, with short-clothes of plush, stockinet, yellow nankin, and even velvet. In the living-room, or farm-kitchen, the meals were eaten, friends were entertained, and the spinning done ; while just beyond the door, in the cellar on the same level, stood the clumsy loom, upon which the women banged away at odd times in mak- ing linen cloths and woollen goods for the family clothing. Flax was to Johannes a most important crop ; its treatment was largely within the province of the women of his household, from the pulling in the fields to the making, dressing, hatcheling, and spinning. This was before the days of cotton, and flax had many uses ; in addition to being prepared for the loom, mats and cushions were made from the coarse " hock-tow," and the rope, or finer tow, was twisted by the hands into long strands of yarn, from which were manufactured the farm cords and ropes. Deli- cate girls would seem to have had no place in the social economy of colonial farm families. They must needs have had strong arms and stout hips to have been able to lug the big iron kettles, or to have hung them on the great swinging crane of the yawn- ing fireplace. Strength was also necessary to handle the large sticks of hickory that kept the pot a-boiling, or the vast oven heated to just the point necessary for properly browning the batches of rye and wheaten loaves, the big pans of beans, and the cakes, puddings, and thick pies. Washing-day must have Washing-Day at the Old Stone House. 243 been a sore affliction to the women-folk of the "Old Farm.'' When Monday came a roaring fire was built alongside the wash- house — on the bank of the brook — over which was suspended an iron pot in which the clothes were boiled. Washing machines and wringers were not — and even their predecessors, the corru- gated washboard and washtub, were unknown. The stream fur- nished a generous tub, and stout arms did the wringing. When the dirt and grime had been loosened by boiling the coarse clothing was put in the pounding barrel, and well thumped with a wooden pounder until the dirt was supposed to be elimi- nated. A rude washing machine — but it is said to have done effective service, though the fine fabrics of our day would find such rough handling rather severe ; not only the dirt, but the texture would be eliminated. The years roll on ! All this time the three hundred and sixty-seven acres of wild lands are gradually developing into a fine farm. Changes, too, are taking place in the family in which we are so much interested. Aaron, the first born, has brought home a wife — Charlotte Miller. Who were her parents our investigations do not show, nor are we any the wiser as to the date of the marriage ; it was probably about the year 1757, as their first child, John — the future Revolutionary soldier — was born on the thirty-first of July, 1758. If our surmise is correct, this would make the mother twenty-three years old at the time of her marriage, as she was born on the foui'teenth of May, 1734. To man Heaven gives its best gift in a good wife ; and 80 was Aaron blessed in Charlotte. Though we are ignorant of her parentage, she was evidently the daughter of a good mother, for of such are the best wives made. For over forty years she added to the comfort and happiness of her husband and children, and lived in the " Old Stone House " the life of Solomon's virtuous woman, for " the heart of her husband safely trusted in her, and she did him good, and not evil, all her days." There has not been preserved to us an account of Aaron's marriage. It is to be regretted ; — as in the olden time there were many quaint customs and observances attendant upon weddings. They were not confined to the ceremony ; the occa- sion of bringing the wife home — called the infare — was one of great festivity, often prolongeld for several days, the kinsfolk and 244 The Story of an Old Farm. neighbors being bidden from far and near. The laws regarding marriages were then exceedingly strict. It was necessary for the contracting parties to have the bans published three times, or else procure from the governor of the province a license, which would not be gi'anted unless the bridegroom appeared in person before the chief magistrate, accompanied by two promi- nent citizens. These latter were obliged to testify that they knew of no lawful obstacles to the marriage ; and to give a bond that they would be answerable for any damages that might arise because of any previous promise of marriage having been made, or for any complaints against the contracting parties by their relatives, guardians, or masters. All of the above preliminaries having been complied with, the governor delivered the license upon the receipt of twenty-five shillings currency, which fees materially added to the amount of his annual income. There were other peculiar marriage laws in the province. One relating to widows was particularly diverting. This was before the day of acts protecting the rights of a married woman. She could hold no property individually, and on the death of her husband had not legal ownership of her own wearing-apparel unless bequeathed to her ; otherwise the clothes on her back belonged to the estate of her husband. If that estate proved insolvent, and the widow remarried, care had to be taken that the perplexities of her first husband's affairs did not attach to those of the second. To do this it was necessary for her to be married in nothing but her shift, the giving up of her clothes to the creditors of her deceased husband releasing her from further claims. After the ceremony she was at once arrayed in clothing presented by the new husband. Professor Kalm, the Swedish traveller, quotes the following account as having been read in 1749 in the " Pennsylvania Gazette ;" the circumstances having occurred in New Jersey : A woman went witli no other dress than her sliift out of the house of her deceased husband to that of her bridegroom, who met her half way with fine new clothes, and said before all who were present that he lent them to his bride ; and put them on with his own hands. It seems he said that he lent the clothes lest if he said he gave them the creditors of the first husband should come and take them from her, pretending that she was looked upon as the relict of her first husband, before she was married to the second. Yes ! the procession of the generations has commenced. The The Household in 1760. 245 '^ Old Stone House " is now a home in the truest sense, for its rooms have echoed to the cry of a baby ; within its walls for the first time a mother has looked with eyes of love into those of her infant — the sweetest, tenderest, happiest look that can come from a woman. Johannes and Mariah now mount to a higher plane in the family circle. Clothed in the honor and dignity of their advancing years, they sit on either side of the fireplace with grandchildren at their knees. For the first little one did not remain king ; others followed to claim their share of the house- hold affections — Catharine, born the fifteenth of July, 1761, and Daniel, the writer's grandfather, born on the twenty-eighth of October, 1763. The house can now be said to be furnished ; for it is Southey, I think, who declares that none can be called com- pletely so until there is a kitten on the hearth, and a child of at least three years playing about its chambers. It is now many years since Johannes, his wife, and their little flock passed through the Bach-gate of the ancient city of Ben- dorf, and turned their steps westward. He was still a young man then, but now his hair and that of his dame is thin and rap- idly frosting. As he looks back there can be no call for regret at his having come to America. Surveying his comfortable homestead and contented household, he must appreciate how signally he has been prospered. Successful in his avocations, honored by his brethren of the church, and loved by his children, for what more could he have asked *? Death has not crossed his threshold ; his family is intact though not all together. Aaron, his prop and stay, is to succeed him on the farm and in the tan- nery ; Fanny, married to prosperous Jacob Kline, is already the happy mother of several children. Another of the brood being old enough to fly, has taken wing and left the family nest ; for Andrew, the second son, having found a wife, has made his way into Sussex county. The two other boys and the daughter Maria, though men and women grown, are still at home, con- tributing their share to the family toil and joy. The weather-vane faces the direction of the wind ! — so the faithful German heart ever veers toward fatherland. As our immigrant-ancestor, with his gray-haired wife, slowly floats down the river of life toward the open sea of eternity, his barque freighted with pious hopes, he still remembers the village of 246 The Stoky of an Old Farm. gray antiquity on the banks of the far-distant Rhine. Though he has sworn honest fealty to another government, after having been forced into expatriation by the unjust laws of his own, he has not forgotten that east of the Alantic ocean there lies a fair country, to which the invisible links of aflfection still chain his memory. Through all the years of his American life he has con- tinued in correspondence with relatives and friends in Germany. Among the letters preserved is one from his wife's brother, the burgomaster of Hochstenbach, written in 1760, with which I will close this chapter. It tells the same story, as have the others, of the miseries of continental warfare. It seems a stately, foruial letter to have been written to a sister who was over three thousand miles away, and from whom the writer had been separated for a quarter of a centuiy. Hochstenbach, 20 April, 1760. Much beloved brother-in-law and dear sister : Your lionored letter of September 28th, 1759, we have duly received on the 9th of January, 1760, and noticed to our great joy that you and your good children are in good health, on behalf of which we heartily congratulate you. As regards ourselves we have, so far. Thanks to our Lord, also been enjoying good health. Our country lias been marched over for several years by French Troops, exacting from ns, even last year yet, strong forages to be delivered in Bendorf and Glabach, and in the winter and last spring in Limburg, so that the poorer class of subjects keep scarcely enough for his own use ; May the Almighty soon give us peace again. From Bendorf I have to report that cousin Job. Geo. Kirberger died a few years ago, leaving six children behind. Cousin Hager and his lady and their children are well. In the mean time we wish you our Lord's Mercy, and that he may bless you all. With our best salutations, I remain Your sincere brother and brother-in-law, H. Kirberger. CHAPTER XVIII. The Death of Johannes and Mariah in 1763 — Changes in the Township — The Dutch Congregations of the Raritan Valley — The Building of Bedminster Church. And now Johannes' days are on the wane. Their meridian has long since passed, and the short afternoon having merged into the sober evening of life, he is reaping the comforts and consolations resulting from the active and useful employments of youth and middle age. Like a traveller who at the close of day has reached a high hill whose summit is bathed in the hues of the setting sun, he is able to look back with satisfaction over the pleasant country that has been traversed. Our pilgrim has attained that quiet dreamy hour of life, '^ between the lights," when his ripened years bring the tranquil enjoyments of repose and retrospection. Relieved from labor by the children who have learned habits of industry by his example, they now repay him for many days of anxious and devoted care. Sooner or later all things must pass away. The undaunted one — the messenger of death — inevitably draws near. Johannes must leave his lands, his well-built house, his orchards and his woods, and take up his abode beyond that mysterious shade — that dim spectral mist which curtains time from eternity. There came a day, when the year 1763 was hastening to its close, on which Johannes' hour was come. The mellow October weeks had gone — the Indian summer passed — the golden-rod still stood thickly along the fences, but the many-colored asters which alone remained in the old garden were sprinkling their petals over its lonely beds. It was on the sixteenth day of that gloom- iest month of all the year, when the chill November rains were robbing the earth of its fruits and verdure and beating from the 248 The Story of an Old Farm. branches of the trees their russet leaves, that our German ancestor folded his hands, and was at rest. Calm was his exit, for his end was peace. He was mourned in the "Old Stone House," but he found a companion awaiting him beyond the pearly gates, for his faithful old wife Mariah had died on the seventeenth day of October — old no longer, for we may believe with Mohamet that old women never reach heaven — they all grow young on the journey. Let us preserve the memory of these honest German people. In their dreamless sleep for over a century, they have lain side by side under the long grass of the Lutheran burying-ground at Pluckamin. Generations that followed in their footsteps have like them disappeared from the earth. But we, who yet linger amid scenes that were familiar to their eyes, may consider with gratitude and affection of our indebtedness to these simple Rhine folk and their fellow-pioneers. Their hands gx'ew hard in mak- ing smooth rugged paths on which we now walk with ease. Let their names be revered by their kindred and their honest hard- working lives noted and recorded. " They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." These simple-minded men and women — the forefathers and foremothers of Bedminster — found this township a wilderness. By their virtue and their intelligent industry they left it planted with churches, schools and homesteads, and guarded by laws, social and legal, in wliich were laid the foundations of the happiness of future generations. Johannes is dead, and his first-born reigns in his stead. The father left behind him the name of a good man. He also left to succeed him a good son, well able to take up the work where it had been laid down, and quite equal to perform all the duties of life with the same honesty of purpose and simple earnestness of endeavor as had characterized the daily walk of the parent. With the progression of the story of the "Old Farm" there will be much to tell of the busy and useful life passed by Aaron on these ances- tral acres and in the community, before he ceased to labor, and at the rounded age of eighty-one, made way in his turn for the worthy son who succeeded him. As we shall have occasion to show, he was in every respect a man of affairs, and from the mass of his papers in my possession it is ev^ident that for the forty-five years he survived Johannes in the "Old Stone House " Changes in Bedminster. 249 he played a no unimportant part in the drama of Bedminster life. Seed-time and harvest come and go ! Springtime and autumn slip by ! meanwhile the country roundabout has undergone great changes. Latent forces that have been lying buried for seons of time in these Bedminster hills and valleys, ready to res- pond to man's endeavor and desire, are now in active operation. The warm, palpitating sunlight heretofore arrested one hundred feet from the groimd by the foliage of the rounded tree-tops, now bathes with its genial heat broad open spaces, here and there throughout the township, where children play in gardens and orchards, and the lusty corn tosses its yellow tresses over well- tilled fields. The rude dwellings of the early inhabitants have undergone prosperous transformations, and during the eleven years that the '^ Old Stone House" has been standing, many industries have sprung into active existence. Across the brook X a grist and saw mill are in operation, and homesteads begin to mosaic the hills that roll away toward Peapack. In the direction of Lamington, farms are multiplying; and on the Axtell tract, below where are now the Lesser and Larger Cross Roads, human thrift has been busy, until patches of open and woodland alter- nate, and sunlight and shadow checker all that portion of the township. Lnmediately adjoining the " Old Farm" on the south, Jacobus Van Doren purchased of William Axtell, about the year 1760, two hundred and eighty-three acres of land, and erected a house where is now the residence of Cornelius M. Wyckoff. This land he sold in 1815 to Captain Joseph Nevius, who, some years later, conveyed that portion lying east of the Peapack road to Cornelius M. Wyckofi^, whose son — of the same name — is now in possession. The original house was taken down in 1820 to make room for the present Wyckoff dwelling; Jacobus Van Doren was the grandson of Jacobus Van Doorn^ who migrated from Long Island to Monmouth county about the year 1698. He was also the nephew of that Abraham Van Doren, who it is said was sheriff of Somerset county for twenty years, and whom we found in 1752 superintending the burning at Millstone of the negro slave murderer of Jacob Van Neste. Jacobus was the eldest of the seventeen children of Christian 250 The Story of ax Old Farm. Van Doren and Alche Schenck, who settled on the Amwell road in Middlebush about 1723. In Domine Leydt's time Christian was an elder in the First Reformed Dutch church at New Bruns- wick, and Ralph Voorhees tells us in " Our Home" that it was his custom on Sunday mornings to ride to church, accompanied by his wife and ten children, all well mounted on separate horses. Methinks this cavalcade would serve a painter as an excellent subject for a colonial picture ; and that this peaceful Sabbath- day march of good-man Van Doren, with his household troop drawing rein in front of the old Dutch church, would present a scene quite equalling in interest those of the cavalry that often seem just ready to step out of a canvas of De Taille, or De Neuville. The memory of Mrs. Christian (Alche) Van Doren is revered as that of one of Somerset's mothers in Israel. She was the life-long friend of Jufvrouw Hardenbergh — of whom much more hereafter — and, though living six miles distant, was a constant attendant at church until her ninety-fifth year. When this remarkable old lady died she left three hundred and fifty-two living descendants, among whom were two hundred great-grand- children and six great-great-grandchildren. The size of families in those early days would seem to have been commensurate with the needs of population. Of her children, all but one lived to an old age, and raised families ; and one of her grandchildren, fol- lowing his grandparent's example, had seventeen children. The most of her twelve boys were called after the patriarchs, proph- ets and apostles, nor would she ever permit tiieir names to be shortened ; there were no Jakes, Abes, Ikes, Petes or Jacks in her household. Mrs. Van Doren had the happiness of seeing SiW. of her sons prominent in the Dutch church. Jacobus was active in sustaining the Bedminster church ; in an old salary subscription list, in my hands, his name frequently appears as well as that of his cousin Aaron who, together with the latter's brother John, settled about this time in Peapack, establishing an industry, known to this day as Van Doren's mills. Lewis A. Van Doren, their present owner, is the grandson of John. His father, William A. Van Doren, in about 1832 introduced and oper- ated the first threshing machine in Bedminster. It was a primitive affair requiring eight horses attached to a lever-power to do the Some of the Eakly Churches. 251 work accomplished now by two. Notwithstanding its clumsiness it was considered a great improvement over former methods, as by it in one week as much grain was threshed as until then four men had been able to hammer and tread in two months with swingle-clubs and six horses. Joseph Nevius, to whom Jacobus Van Doren sold his land in 1815, was a descendant of Johannes Nevius, who came to New Amsterdam from Solen in Westphalia early in the seventeenth century. His grandson Petrus was living at Flatbush in 1738, and later removed to Somerset county, and through him are the Raritan valley Neviuses descended. Joseph, before settling in Bedminster, had been the popular host of the Blackhorse tavern at Mendham in Morris county. His eldest daughter, Ann, married John Melick, grandson of Aaron, and lived for many years in the '' Old Stone House," dying at the age of seventy-six on the seventh of October, 1876. She was a woman of strong character and many virtues ; throughout her life she held a position in the community of more than usual influence, and enjoyed the respect and affection of all with whom she came in contact. Often called upon in time of need for counsel or help, her noble nature was ever as ready to condemn the wrong as to uphold the good and the true, and the memory of " Aunt Ann" is cherished, not only by her kindred, but by all with whom she was intimate, and especially by the poor, who were always her care. Previous to the year 1763, without doubt, the most important addition to this Bedminster neighborhood was the organization of the congregation of the Reformed Dutch church and the erection of its first church building. If not a majority, certainly a great number of the settlers of the township were of this religious per- suasion, and were connected with one of the Dutch congrega- tions of the Raritan valley. When the Presbyterians had erected their house of worship at Lamington, and the Lutherans had organized Zion and St. Paul's churches at New Germantown and Pluckamin, many as a matter of convenience joined those congregations, but most of the people still made their way south- ward each Sunday. The nearest houses of worship were the ** Raritan Church" at Van V.eghten's bridge and the " Church of North Branch" at the village of Readington. Tlie first edifice 252 Thk Story of an Old Farm. of the latter congregation was a log structure with a frame addi- tion, erected about 1717, that stood near the forks of the river, on the brow of the hill just east of the junction of the Readington and North Branch village highways. In 1738 a new building was erected near the site of the present edifice at Readington. The Raritan church — now the "First Reformed Church at Sonier- ville" — was erected, probably in 1721, on land donated by Michael Van Veghten, on the bluff facing the Raritan river about one quarter of a mile below the present bridge near Finderne rail- way station. Doctor Messier records that this congregation was in existence long before it had a church building, its meetings probably being held in some private house or bam. The first consistory entry is of the year 1699 when JohnT uyneson j vas installed elder and Pieter Van Neste, deacon by the lleverend Guillaume Bertholf. The name of this minister often appears among the early- records of the Dutch churches of Somerset, and he seems to have been an itinerant domine, having on his conscience the spiritual welfare of all the people of Holland descent in a wide area of countiy. He was sent to the Netherlands in 1693 by the congregations of Hackensack and Aquackanonck that he might be ordained by the chassis of Amsterdam. Mr. Bertholf returned in the following year, the first qualified mini- ster of the Dutch Reformed persuasion in the province, and for fifteen years was the only pastor for all the country lying between Tappan in New York and the upper Raritan in New Jersey, including Tarrytown, Staten Island, Pompton, and Sec- ond River or Belleville. Until his death in 1724 he labored unremittingly to spread the field of usefidness of the Dutch church, and it is said that his mild and placid eloquence and gentle but deeply-religious nature diffused a holy savor of piety throughout all the communities that were so happy as to fall under his kindly influences. The two churches of Raritan and " North Branch" in the beginning of the last century were " col- legiate'' with the one at Three Mile Run; which before 1717 divided and erected churches at Six Mile Run and at New Brunswick. Church buildings were primitive aff*airs in those days. The one at Six Mile Run was but a mere shell, with the Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghutsen. 253 earth for a floor. Its worshippers were ignorant of pews and aisles, the only seats being those brought with them each Sun- day from home. These four congregations were without regular preaching ; occasionally they would be visited by Mr. Bertholf, or by some missionary deputed by him, when communion, bap- tism and other religious rites would be administered. It is fair to presume that services of some kind alternated in the different churches conducted by the congregation's lay preachers or '' fore readers." The title of the official, who served the Dutch con- gregations in this capacity, was voorlecser. His duty it was in the absence of the minister to read prayers and sermons, cate- chise the children, and to generally maintain public worship and nourish the seeds of piety. The four congregations, about the year 1717, joined in applying to the home church in Holland, for a permanent pastor. Two years later Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was sent out to them by the ship King George, Captain Goelet. He preached his first sermon in Somerset county on the thirty-first of January, 1720. We learn from Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit" that he was the son of Johannes Henricus Frelinghuysen, pastor of the Dutch church at Lingen in East Friesland, now a portion of the kingdom of Hanover, where he was born about the year 1691. He married Eva, the daughter of Albert Terhune, a wealthy farmer of Flat- bush, Long Island, and had seven children. His five sons all entered the ministry of the Reformed Dutch church, and his two daughters married ministers in the same communion. Singular to relate not one of the domine's sons was living ten years after their father's death. Mr. Frelinghuysen did a great work in thoroughly establishing the Dutch church in Somerset. He is said to have been a ripe scholar in Latin, Greek and his own language, and Doctor Messier ranks him among the Blairs, Ten- nents, Mathers and other eminent clergymen of his age. White- field, Jonathan Edwards and Gilbert Tennent have left on rec- ord their appreciation of the labors and unceasing diligence of this Dutch Calvinistic minister, whereby the '^ wilderness was converted into the garden of the Lord." Domine Frelinghuysen lived at Three Mile Run, just west of New Brunswick, on a farm of two himdred acres, lately owned by E. Vantine Bronson. 254 The Story of an Old Farm. Here he died about the year 1747, and was buried in the old Six Mile Run graveyard, now Elm Ridge cemetery. Before his death his duties, which extended over three hundred square miles of territory, had been increased by the organization in 1727 of the congregation " op de MiUstotie" now known as Harlingen church. After Mr. Frelinghuysen's death, the con- gregations of New Brunswick and Six Mile Run withdrew from the others of the Raritan valley, and extended a call to the Rev- erend John Leydt. The remaining chui'ches invited Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen's second son, John, to become their pastor. He was born in 1727, and preached his first sermon in the Rari- tan church in the summer of 1750 from the text, " Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children." He had just returned from Holland, where he had been to obtain from the classis of Amster- dam license to preach. He brought with him from the old coun- try a wife — Dinah Van Bergh — a woman of such virtue and piety that during her long life of fifty-six years in Somerset, it is said few ministers exercised more influence for good in that com- munity than did — as she was afterwards known — the " Jufvrouw Hardenbergh." A copy of John Frelinghuysen's call from the three consistories is preserved among the archives of the Somer- ville church ; after stipulating that he should preach the word of God in the Dutch language, faithfully exercise discipline upon offending church members, and generally perform the duties of a servant of Christ, " after the manner of our Reformed Low Dutch church, established at the Synod of Dordrecht, 1618, 1619," it goes on to say : Now in order to be a little more definite, your Reverence will be required to preach, alternating, in each of the afore-mentioned churclies, and, when in healtli, twice on each Lord's Day, except in winter, and then only once, as the custom here is, and also upon the so-called Feast Days, as is customary in the Reformed Low Dutch churches. Also, your Reverence will be required to take charge of the catechizing of the youth, of the visitation of families and of the sick, as time and opportunity permit. To assure your Reverence that this is our sincere desire, we promise you, in the name of our churches, besides all love and esteem which belongs to a faithful servant of (.'hrist, to provide, tirst, for a yearly salary of one hundred and twenty- five pounds, current money at eight shillings an ounce; the half of which, col- lected by the elders and deacons, shall be paid each half year; and a suitable dwelling, with thirty acres of land. The house referred to in tlie call was erected in 1751, and can A Divinity Student's Wooing. 255 still be seen as a portion of the residence of the late Joshua Doughty, on Somerset street in Somerville. It is constructed of bricks that the domine brought with him from Holland in the same vessel with his wife. John Frelinghuysen's pastorate lasted biit three years. While visiting relatives on Long Island he was taken alarmingly ill, and there died in September, 1854. Mrs. Frelinghuysen, who had accompanied him, returned home with the body of her husband in a boat so contracted and inconvenient that, as her biographer recounts, she was compelled, with a very great shock to her sensibilities, to step upon the coffin in passing to the shore. The children of this marriage were a son and a daughter. The former — Frederick — grew up to be eloquent at the bar, wise in the councils of the nation, and valiant in Revo- lutionary fields. Of all the five sons of Theodoris Jacobus, John was the only one who left descendants, and now for over one hundred and thirty years each successive generation of Freling- huysens has presented one or more illustrious sons to the state and country. At the time of this minister's death he had with him in his house of Holland bricks three young men as students. Among them was Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, then but sixteen years old, who was preparing for the ministry. He was born at Rosendale, New York, being the great-grandson of Johannes Hardenbergh, who emigrated from Germany soon after 1650. His son, in connection with Robert Livingston, received a patent for all of Sullivan and a portion of Delaware county in New Yoi'k. On this ^' Hardenbergh patent,'^ this young divinity student was bom, his father, Colonel Johannes, having inherited a great portion Qf the estate. Young Hardenbergh must early have evinced muc'. talent and ability, as we find that John Fre- linghuysen's con^ -egations decided that as soon as ordained he should be their new minister. In the meantime Mr. Freling- huysen's widow had determined, after her short residence in America, to return with her two children to her parents in Hol- land. Within a few months preparations for the journey were completed, and the day fixed for leaving for New York, where she was to embark. But, meanwhile, propinquity, that god- father of so many marriages, had been doing its work on the susceptible heart of the young divinity student. Alarmed at the 256 The Story of an Old Farm. prospect of the near departure of the object of his affections, he suddenly surprised the widow of less than a year with an offer of marriage. In her astonishment she is said to have cried out : "■ My child, what are you thinking about ! " Although not imme- diately, the young lover ultimately had no difficulty in convinc- ing her of just what he was thinking. Her sex asserted itself. The good Dutch lady could not withstand the temptation of a yoimg and ardent husband, so her effects were unpacked and the voyage to the old country abandoned. They were married, and she retired to the manorial homestead of her new husband's father, near Kingston, New York, where she awaited his majority and the completion of his studies. Hardenbergh was at this time not yet seventeen, while his wife was approaching thirty. In May, 1758, Mr. and Mrs. Hardenbergh were again occupy- ing John Frelinghuysen's brick house in Somerville, or as that whole section was then known, Raritan, and the young man of barely twenty-one installed as the pastor of the four united con- gregations of Raritan, North Branch, Millstone, and Neshanic. The last named, had been organized in 1752, and set off from the North Branch congregation, which had long before this abandoned its primitive house of worship, and built a new church three miles away at Readington. The ecclesiastical history of Somerset county will never be completely written without devot- ing many pages to the character and attainments of this virtuous woman — "Jufvrouw Hardenbergh." For the fifty years that she bore this honored name her deeply religious nature was^ alike a prop and stay to the faith of timid believers, and a com- fort and encouragement to profound theologians and the ablest occupants of the Reformed Dutch pidpits. Doctor Messier, in a tribute to the ministry of Mr. Hardenbergh, avers that a large share of the usefulness and success of this divine can be attrib- uted to the influence of his wife. Her father was an Amster- dam merchant, and a man of wealth and fashion. She was educated in a superior manner, and her tastes cultivated to a high degree ; but to her parents' great disappointment, at the early age of fourteen her religious impressions became so fixed as to cause her to find no pleasure in the allurements and amuse- ments of the society of the metropolis. It is said that on one Dinah Van Bergh's Journal. 257 occasion, when forced by her father to attend a dancing school, she to his great anger hid behind the seats, and resolutely refused to partici}3ate in what she considered frivolous amusements. At another time — while she was yet a child — her parents were entertaining some friends, and the guests, as was not unusual at that period, were amusing themselves by playing cards for money. She did not hesitate to walk into the drawing-room and in severe tones solemnly warn her father and his friends against the danger of so vain and sinful a pleasure. Every incident in the daily life of this remarkable woman produced a religious influence, and it would seem that no exper- ience could be hers without resulting in an individual blessing. Throughout her life she had implicit confidence in special provi- dences, and many instances are related in which she claimed to have experienced undoubted proofs of direct answer to prayer. It was her constant habit to make affairs of either great or minor importance a matter of personal appeal to the Almighty. This religious habit was not the out-growth of years, or of ministerial associations, but a custom from her youth up. In the Sage library at New Brunswick is preserved a voluminous journal closely written in Dutch in a fine feminine hand, which, with much redundancy of expression and considerable repetition, nar- rates the operation of her mind under the " Divine guidance " for nine months during the year 1747. This, of course, was when she was living in Amsterdam and still a maiden. I cannot refrain from drawing a little upon this interesting diary to further illustrate the character of Dinah Van Bergh. It was written at the time when Louis XV. and Frederick the Grreat were pursuing their designs against Maria Theresa in the Neth- erlands, and when the French king, continuing his career of •success after Fontenoy, had mastered nearly all of Flanders. The ^' barbarous and vile treatment " of the Hollanders by the French greatly disturbed this young Dutch girl's repose of mind. She writes in her journal : — It stirs me up the more to protest against them at the Throne, to imprecate righteous vengeance on that Assyrian and oppressor. Although she faithfully plead that the Netherlands might be delivered from the French, she acknowledges : — 17 258 The Story of an Old Farm. I could iinvardlv approve of it and jiistifv God slunild He give us over to destruction, and bring in upon our land that boar of the wood — I mean France, that enemy of the heritage of God. During one week that this journal was in hand Zealand was threatened with an invasion by the French army, owing to the intense cold having converted the bays and rivers intx) ice bridges strong enough to permit the passage in safety of horses and artillery. On Sunday Dinah came to the rescue of her imperilled country. All day she prayed that the threatened affliction might be averted. Her diary records : — On Monday I was enabled to continue in filial supplications to God in Christ that if it might so be a change might occur in the weather ; and, oh, adorable Goodness! there was on Tuesday as powerful and delightful a thaw as was ever seen. Oh, how humble was I thus rendered before ra}' compassionate God, and what a lesson of confidence was I thereby taught! Our enemies had boasted that they would do something with which the whole of Europe would resound, now I was led to say, " Oh, Enemy, the daughter of Zion hath laughed thee to scorn, and shaken her head at thee ; for the Lord has strengthened the bars of our gates." On another occasion Zealand was threatened with a dreadfiU inundation owing to very high northerly winds having prevailed for several days. But Dinah dammed the flood with her prayers, which induced the Lord, as she recounts : — To moderate the calamity by giving us an east wind, and that for days in suc- cession, connected witli weather of a most delightful cliaracter. One day, being stricken with a fever in a friend's house, her life was despaired of. But on praying for recovery she informs us that an intimation was given that on a certain date — the six- teenth of September — convalescence would begin. She told her friend, and awaited with confidence the day. It came, and, though previously helpless, she arose and walked several times across the floor, and recovery was assured from that hour. The attendant physician, Avho was an unbeliever, had considered \\ei9 death imminent ; he was so affected by this sudden restoration to health that it resulted in his conversion. The good woman always insisted that this visit to her friend was heaven-directed, in order that her miraculous healing might be the means of awakening the soul of this sceptical doctor. Her coming to America and both of her marriages were due, as she believed, to a special providence. When yomig John Frelinghuysen was in Holland seeking ordination, he pleaded in Dinah Van Bergh's Two Marriages. 259 vain for Dinah Van Bergh to return with him as his wife. Soon after setting out on the home voyage, his vessel was disabled in a violent storm and forced to return to port. The young minis- ter renewed his suit, urging that the Ruler of storms clearly indicated by the disaster, and his consequent return, that the Divine pleasure was for her to yield to his desires. This time Dinah received intimations, and overcoming her scruples against leaving kindi-ed and native land, she braved the opposition of her parents and embarked for a wilderness beyond the seas as Mrs. Frelinghuysen. The story is told that during the passage the ship sprung a leak. After days of arduous labor at the pumps the captain abandoned all hope of saving the vessel, and so informed pas- sengers and crew. Dinah apparently had no fears of a watery grave. She retired to her cabin and submitted the case to her Heavenly Father. Having full confidence in the efficacy of her prayers, she then sat down and awaited with composure the result. Nor did she wait long — for almost immediately the waters ceased rushing into the hold — the pumps again did their work — the ship was saved. Upon an examination being made, it was found that a swordfish had miraculously become wedged in the open seam of the bottom of the vessel, and thus effectu- ally closed the leak. The Reverend William Demarest, in a manuscript sketch of the life of Dinah Van Bergh, recites that her second marriage was also clearly the result of an intimation from on High. It appears that the first occasion of Mr. Hardenbergh's expressing his love for Mrs. Frelinghuysen was just before the day set for the departure for Holland. With her two children she was vis- iting for the last time a favorite place on the meadows between the house and the river, where she had been accustomed often to resort with her husband. While standing there, overwhelmed by her emotions, and '^ after," as her biographer Avrites, '^ having, it may be, just engaged in prayer," her attention was drawn to the approaching figure of young Hardenbergh. She received him with surprise and expressed displeasure at his thus intrud- ing upon her solitude. He excused himself by broaching the subject of his deep affection, to all of which she listened with indifference and distaste. We may suppose that this first attack 260 The Story of an Old Farm. on the forti'ess of the widow's heart was several times repeated by the undaunted youth before the time appointed for her leav- ing Raritan. Nevertheless she did not abate her intentions nor delay preparations for the long journey. At last the day of departure arrived, and she was just ready to leave the house for the sloop that was to convey her to the seaboard when a violent storm arose, so wild in its character as to oblige her abandoning, for that day at least, all thoughts of leaving home. The detention resulted in the vessel on which her passage had been engaged sailing without her. The considerable time that elapsed before another ship was in readiness for the voyage offered to the young student abundant opportunities for pressing his suit, and the good woman soon felt that the God of storms for the second time plainly indicated the intention of directing her marital affairs. To again quote her biographer : — The vista down which she directed her view became altogether clianged. Her bewilderment respecting the divine dealing with her gave way to the delightful apprehension of a purpose on the part of her Heavenly Father * * * and the consummation of the conjugal union lay as a definite thing in the future. So it was in all the affairs of her life, the most ordinary occur- rences were subjects of prayer ; her daily walk and conversation abounded in evidences that to her the interests of religion were paramount to every duty^ pleasure and experience. It is said that so great was her confidence in the Almighty, and in herself, that she was resorted to by both weak and strong for pious coun- sel. The marked characteristic of her nature Avas the rounded harmony existing between its religious and worldly parts ; the spiritual and material blended, and all temporal relations were in perfect adjustment with eternal conditions. Hers was a nature that always and under every circumstance was in complete correspondence with its spiritual environment, and while others of the brightest faith were often attacked by misgivings, her belief was ever as steadfast as the everlasting hills, enabling her at all times to say with the Psalmist : " For Thou art my hope, O Lord God ; Thou art my trust from my youth." Even minis- ters when approaching the pulpit would pause at her pew for words of encouragement, which she always had in readiness. To quote from Ralph Voorhees' Raritan reminiscences : — The Reverend Doctor Ira Condit of New Brunswick, afterwards her minister, JuFVROUW Hardenbergh and Doctor Livingston. 261 requently applied for consolation and advice in seasons of great despondency. Atone of these times he went to her, and said he "could not and would not preach." "Domine," said she "go and preach ! you don't know what you can do until you try." He had to obey. The closing years of Mr. Hardenbergh's life were passed in the pastorate of the Dutch church at New Brunswick, and in the presidency of Queen's, now Rutgers, college. At his death it was greatl}' desired that he should be succeeded by Doc- tor John H. Livingston of New York, who, however, declined at that time to change his field of labor. There has been pre- served a letter written to him by Jufvrouw Hardenbergh, as she was then called, urging that he alter his decision and remove to New Jersey. This communication is a curious and interesting exhibit of the freedom and authority with which she addressed the eminent clergyman, for although she used the most elevated and respectful language, no bishop in admonish- ing and warning a recalcitrant priest could have been more authoritative in counsel and advice. The letter begins in this wise : — Most Reverend Sir And worthy Brother in our blessed and all-worthy Lord Jesus, Zion's King : Constrained by a sense of duty and by love to our Dutch Zion I take the liberty to send your Reverence a few lines and once more to commend to you our college and church ? Mrs. Hardenbergh evidently felt that it was Doctor Living- ston's duty to leave New York for New Brunswick, and she did not hesitate to write : — I fear that you perhaps are not obedient to the voice of the Lord as sounding forth in the voice of the people. She furnished him with abundant scriptural texts whereby his views might be strengthened as to its being his duty to do the Lord's work in New Jersey, and said : — I have heard your Reverence say to my now departed liusband tliat you regarded the college as the fountain of our church : why then be engaged by the streams and let the fountain dry up? The Holy Ghost has made you overseer of that part of His House. Oh that like another Zerubbabel you might be encouraged. In another part of her letter she volunteers the information: — Large cities are often very dangerous * * * to labor for God is certainly 262 The Story of an Old Farm. your delight and your happiness. The Lord enable you to discover what is His Holy will. Farther on she writes : — Now worthy Sir I have a single request to make to you ; will your Reverence speedily let me know whether you have perfect peace in your mind in relation to your residing in New York ? She closes the long epistle bj expressing her hearty love for Mrs. Livingston, and the hope that the Lord would "sustain her ladyship in her infirmities." And then with ceremonious sal- utations she subscribed herself Most Reverend Sir, Your Reverence's handmaid and loving friend in our Lord Jesus Christ. Dinah Hardenbergh, by birth Van Bergh. Being a woman there must needs be a postscript, which was to inform the doctor : No one knows of this letter excepting one female friend. It is between the Lord and us. Mrs. Hardenbergh expressed great fear in this letter that the college and church would fall under the sway of a Presby- terian, and her apprehensions proved to be well grounded. Her husband's successor in the pulpit was Doctor Ira Condit, a disciple of John Knox, who, however, conformed to all the requirements of the Dutch church. She spoke of him afterward as the "beloved Condit," so we may believe she accepted Doctor Livingston's refusal at that time with equanimity. Another instance is given of her offering advice and admonition to a minister. On one occasion a clergyman called to manifest his respect, and to profit by her counsel. Before separating it was proposed that they should unite in prayer, whereupon the domine addressed the Throne of Grace in such loud and boisterous tones as to much grieve and annoy the good Avoman. Upon rising from her knees she said to the vociferous supplicant : " Your God, Sir, must be different from mine, for mine can hear even though no words be uttered, but yours it seems cannot unless addressed in the loudest of tones." This excellent woman survived her second husband seventeen years, dying in 1807 at the ripe age of eighty-one. It is emi- nently proper that we should dwell thus long upon her virt ues and Bedminster Church Founded. 263 peculiarities when it is remembered that she was the first to occupy in the Reformed Dutch congregation of Bedmister the important position of minister's wife. About the time that young Domine Hardenbergh assumed charge of the united congrega- tions, many of his flock who lived north of Pluckamin, feeling in need of a church nearer home, urged the organization of a new congregation. The most prominent families in this movement were those of Jacobus Van der Veer and Gruisbert Sutphen. Of the former we have already learned something as to his settling on the Axtell tract, near where the Peapack road crosses the north branch of the Raritan. He was zealous in religious mat- ters ; his name is to be found on the books of the Lamington Presbyterian church, and in 1756 he subscribed five pounds toward the erection of St. Paul's Lutheran church at Pluckamin. Guisbert Sutphen lived on a farm lying half a mile north of the Larger. Cross Roads, which is now owned and occupied by his great-grandson, Amos Sutphen. With his wife, Ari- ontje Van ?elt, he had entered the township in 1743, travel- ling with their children and household goods in an ox-cart from Monmouth county, where his father, also named Guisbert, had settled early in the century. When it was decided to buikl Bedminster church, differences of opinion arose as to the location. Both Sutphen and Van der Veer offered liberal inducements to have the building placed at points of their selection. Mr. Sutphen's choice was for the vicinity of the Larger Cross Roads, but eventually Mr. Van der Veer's views prevailed, and the new structure was erected on the site of the present edifice below the village of the Lesser Cross Roads, or Bedminster. The first minute of the new con- gregation was made by Mr. Hardenbergh in the Raritan church books on Christmas, 1758. It records a meeting at the parsonage of the consistories of North Branch, Neshanic, op de Millstone, Raritan and Bedminster ; when for the last congrega- tion elders Jacobus Van der Veer and Jacob Banta, and deacons Rynier Van Neste and Cornelius Lane were appointed " opsin- dercnsi'^ or overseers. It is probable that the church was erected in that or the following year. Two acres of land were donated by Jacobus Van der Veer, who also furnished fifty pounds sterling and onc-tliird of all the oak timber. The same amount 264 The Story of an Old Farm. of money, together with one-half of the oak necessary for the frame, was the gift of Guisbert Sutphen. Not then, as would be now, were architects, contractors, carpenters and masons called together to contribute their brains and labor toward the erection of the edifice. The members of the congregation assembled with ox-tearas. axes and stout arms. By them were the oaks felled, the timbers squared and drawn to the spot selected ; perhaps the services of Caspar Berger, or some other good mason, were secured for laying the foundations, but without doubt much of the work was contributed by those most interested. And we can well imagine with what interest these simple country folk watched the growth and assisted in the completion of their new house of worship. The chiu'ch meant much more to the early settlers than now — in those days religion was not a matter for Sunday's consideration alone — it stood first in every one's estimation, taking precedence of all matters secular. Philosophy had not yet opened the eyes or befogged the minds of these honest Jersey people, and for one of their* number to have been a doubter, or in any way unorthodox, would have insured not only the passive but the active condemnation of every able-bodied man in the neighborhood. Nor was there at that time the carelessness and callousness as to spiritual things which the distresses and demoralization of Revolutionary years subse- quently engendered. To a community, therefore, whose chief interests and hopes of life all circulated about the church, we can readily appreciate that to have been without a house of God would seemingly have endangered not only its peace in the next world, but the possibility of success in this. So it is easy to picture the rejoicing and prayers of thanksgiving that ascended to Heaven, when the last nail was driven and the finishing touches given to the new building. When completed, a more bare or a more unimaginative struc- ture could hardly have been conceived. Prosaic to a degree, and entirely wanting in decorative details, it was wholly witiiout architectural residts save that it enclosed space and shut ofi' the weather ; in other words, it was a meeting-house, nothing more. It was nearly square, being a little greater in breadth than in length. A peaked roof, without cupola or belfry, cap- ped low walls, the side ones being each pierced with two square First Service in Bedminster Church. 265 windows. The roof and exterior walls were similar in appear- ance, both being covered with shingles rounded at the ends, that had been riven and shaved by members of the congregation. In fact all of this prim and precise building was " home-made," excepting the window glass and nails. The latter were probably wrought at Mendham. The Dodds and Axtells of that place used to manufacture iron in a primitive fashion from ore that was packed over from Dover in sacks on the backs of horses. In the broad front gable of the new chiu'ch was the entrance, the door of which opened directly on the ground without any porch or protecting portico. A single aisle extended to the steep stair- case which led up into a lofty, round, box-like pulpit, perched on a tall pillar or column. The interior was not plastered, the walls and ceiling being lined with cedar, and a short gallery stretched across the south end of the auditorium. There were no stoves or any means of warming the building ; old ladies during the winter months, in order to keep their feet warm, brought ^' to- meetin," peiforated wooden boxes containing an inner casing of iron, filled with live coals. It was not until after the erection of the second church in 1818 that, in the face of much opposition, wood-burning stoves were introduced. Many of the good people thought that as God's grace had warmed both souls and bodies from the beginning it should do so till the end. To the worshippers, this plain, gaunt structure, destitute of paint, outside or in, and without comeliness or symmetry, appeared as a commodious temple. It is to be regretted that no record has been preserved of the first services held in this primi- tive church. We can without difficulty, hoAvever, see in imag- ination the rude and naked interior peopled by a homely but happy congregation. We know that high up in the tall, undraped pulpit under a broad sounding board stood the young minister, while below him was the precentor, or lining-deacon, who lined out the good old Psalm tunes to the members of the flock, who were seated in great square pews ; the middle-aged and old people with their faces toward the domine, the children opposite ; while to the right and left sat the stalwart youths and modest maidens, who lent their ears to the sermon, but like the lads and lasses of to-day's congregations, I doubt not, gave their glances to " eyes which spake again." CHAPTER XIX. More Changes in Bedminster — The Mills on Peapach Brook — Boyish Reminiscences — Marriages and Deaths. The procession of the seasons continues, and life on the " Old Farm " goes bravely on. No sooner has the ermine mantle of winter disappeared under the kindly influences of the soft south winds of spring, before the crocuses cleave the still half frozen earth. The pond and river, swelling in volume, burst their icy bounds, and the drear days brought by overcast heavens give place to sunnier skies and longer hours. The woods that have so long exposed their anatomy to the keen wintry blasts again shows signs of awakening life ; green can be discovered among the sassafras branches, and yellow among the willows, while the maple buds redden sufficiently to give a warm hue to the entire tree. Leaf and blossom again take possession of the earth, clothing it with glory. 8oon the hillsides are marked by plough and harrow, and the seed falls in generous showers. The crocuses have long since had their day, and June roses illumine the newly planted door- yard. And now the haymakers have come and gone in the meadowSj reapers are on the upland fields, and pyramids of golden sheaves adorn the landscape. Bees hum in the clover, the breath of.all nature is sweet and redolent with wild thyme, mint and fragrant aromatic herbage, while harvest apples in heaps of red and yellow lie imder the trees in the orchard. Summer drifts into autumn. Pumpkins show their golden sides under the corn shocks, and the noise of the flail is abroad in the land. The world begins to glow in color as the October sun paints in deepening crimson and ochre, leaf, and herb, and lichen. The distant hill-tops now blend with the heavens, and a Mills on Peapick Beook Established. 267 golden shade diffuses itself over the face of the country. In the mornings amber-colored mists hang lightly over the lowland pastm'es, and the landscape is veiled in the vague, 3'ellow indis- tinctness of Indian summer days. The brown acorns drop from their browner cups ; the walnuts and chestnuts rattle through, the branches upon the heads of expectant urchins who welcome, below, the toothsome hail. Again the paths through the woods are deep in the dry mummies of summer's luxuriance ; the gusty winds bloAv over fields that, having lost their bloom, lie brown and dusky on the long hill that stretches westward toward the gray horizon. Once more the feathery flakes descend, covering the gromid with whiteness and silence ; — the procession of the seasons continues, and life on the " Old Farm" goes bravely on. Not only were the lands improved, the outbuildings increased in number, and fences made more substantial, but under Aaron's care the tannery below the hill developed into one of the most important industries of that character in the province. A large frame structure was erected . adjoining the house, in which the leather was curried, both negroes and whites aiding in the work and in that of grinding the bark. The number of vats below the dam was increased to eighteen, and the water-power much improved. This latter was done in connection with the joint owners of th^ water-rights on the opposite side of Peapack brook, who, then, as now, utilized their portion in grinding grist and sawing lum- X ber. The exact date of establishing a flouring-mill at this point has not been ascertained, but it is well known to have been the first mill erected in the township. Among the papers of the New Jersey Historical Society is a map of George Leslie's grant made by Samuel Willmot in 1751. It calls for eleven hundred and eighty-seven and one-quarter acres, and shows that at that early date a grist and saw mill were already standing on the west side of Peapack brook. There is little doubt that these mills Avere erected by Wil- liam Allen. On the twenty-first of January, 1750, the '• major part of the executors of the last will and testament of Doctor John Johnstone, dec'd," conveyed to Thomas Clandenin in con- sideration of twenty-eight pounds and eight shillings, eighteen )^ acres of land, lying in the forks of the brook and of the north branch of the Raritan river. On the same day, and on the back 268 The Story of an Old Farm. of this instrument, Clandenin sends greeting, and gives notice "To All Christican People'" that he has sold to "William Allen, his heirs and assigns forever, this present indenture and all mes- suages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments to the same belong- ing." The consideration was "the sum of two hundred and twenty pounds, ten shillings, current money of New Jersey at eight shillings to the ounce." The wording of this transfer, together with the amount of consideration mentioned, would lead one to suppose that buildings of some kind — perhaps a saw and grist mill — had already been erected ; yet all traditi(ms concur in naming William Allen as the person who iirst established mills in Bedminster township. He died in 1761, his will being dated on the twenty-third of May, and proved on the sixth of July of the same year. In it these eighteen acres are devised as follows : I give, bequeath and devise unto my two sons, Robert and Joseph, the house I now live in, and the mill and lands wliereon tliey stand, and all my other rights or improvements of tlie ninety-two acres of land adjoining to said mill lot, with all the farming utensils and the utensils for the mill now on the same, and all other my movable estate, to them and their heirs or assigns forever equally between them their heirs or assigns forever. The new owners had not been milling many years before they discovered that Peapack brook did not at all times contain Sufficient water to supply the races that turned three mill wheels. They consequently conceived th(! idea of increasing the volume by diverting water from the north branch of the Raritan. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the locality, it would be well to explain that Peapack brook, about a quarter of a mile above its mouth, runs for a considerable way parallel with and some three hundred feet distant from the branch. These streams are separated by a long narrow hill known as the *' Hogback, " and imtil within twenty years the highwaj' climbed this ridge and ran along its spine, instead of f:)llowing the bank of the larger stream as at present. At this point a dam was built which, checking the flow of the branch, created a reservoir. The hill was then tunnelled, forming an aqueduct six feet high and three feet broad ; it being c(mstructed on an incline, a considerable quantity of additional water was, through it, led into the smaller stream, thus greatly augmenting the powers of the lat- ter in serving the mills near its mouth. With the strange fatal- ity that often attaches to local nomenclature in rural communities The Mysterious "Folly." 269 this undertaking has always been known as the '^ Folly." It may have been because the results secured were not considered commensurate with the outlay. There is no doubt that before the completion of the work, the Aliens became financially embar- rassed and were forced on the twenty -fifth of December, 1766, to convey the eighteen acres, together with the mills and build- ings, to Stephen Hunt. This watery basin and its mysterious outlet have always pos- sessed peculiar fascinations for Bedminster boys. It was their rendezvous in my early days for miles around. In January its flanking hill shut off the north winds, securing a sheltered skat- ing pond of smooth firm ice. Travellers by the old highway over the "Hogback," on winter Saturdays, were sure to hear the ring of the skaters' steel, and to be greeted by their joyous shouts as they "ground the bar," cut the intricate "pigeon wing" or mastered the "outside edge" — feats of no little diffi- culty on the old-fashioned, clumsy, gutter-runnered skates. In August the same hill guarded a cool, shady pool, which fairly invited a plunge into its pellucid depths. At no place along the branch did catfish, dace or shiners congregate in greater num- bers, or appear more willing to be enticed to the surface by the rude tackle of the country lads. And then there was the *' Folly " ! Was there ever a more weird or forbidden spot upon which the imagination of a stripling could feed f What horrors might not lurk within its grim and silent portals. To explore its interior and brave its ambushed uncertainties was the one supreme test of youthful valor. Where is the small boy that could ever withstand being " double-dared " ? Not the writer, at least, in his callow years. It was this goad that incited him one summer's day of long ago to penetrate the " Hogback " through the dread " Folly." Certain it is that Dante could not have felt more dismayed on reading " All hope abandon, ye who enter in," than did he when girt for the journey. With him there was no encouraging Virgil, as pushing aside the vines that partially hid the low entrance to the tunnel, he boldly groped his way into the very bowels of the earth. Altogether it was a solemn sort of place for a small boy to find himself in. The walls were moist and slimy, and as the waters flowed in a swift current about his naked ankles, imagin- 270 The Story of an Old Farm. ation peopled them with eels, snakes and all manner of creeping things; with every step on the rocky bed squirming creatures seemed to escape from beneath his halting feet. On nearing the centre of the dark and gloomy conduit daylight gradually disap- peared, and courage began to ooze away. Suddenly a jagged dripping wall opposed further advance. Thinking that the aqueduct had come to a sudden end, for a moment terror paralyzed all eftbrts at progress, but discovery was soon made that it turned sharply to the left. Its construction had been simultane- ously undertaken froni both sides of the hill ; through miscalcu- lation the workmen had failed to meet in the centre, rendering a double elbow in the tunnel necessary. Feeling his way around these corners, the glimmer of sunlight could be discerned from the farther end, lightening the urchin's heart as well as lighting the ghostly recesses of the archway. Pressing on with increasing confidence and more hurried steps, egress was soon made into daylight on the Peapack brook side of the hill, where his com- panions received him with open arms and great honor. For many days thereafter your narrator was the hero of the small boy society of that neighborhood. But let us return to the mills ; a direction in which your scribe's steps have always turned with eager anticipation. Even now, when the half-way house of the ordinary span of life has been passed, he never approaches this sequestered vale, and feels the warm breath of summer, cooled by the balm that rises from its rapid streams, without his heart bounding with delight. Des- cai'te writes that a person should not seek to gratify his desires so much as to endeavor to restrain them ; notwithstanding such excellent advice, and though remembering that what may give pleasure in the writing, may not prove equally agreeable in the reading, I cannot refrain from further youthful reminiscence. I must tell of these mills and of their attractive surroundings. Is there any picture more completely to a boy's fancy than an old mill, with its alluring adjuncts of pond and dam and rock- paved stream ? or, for that matter, to a man's fancy, if, as I sus- pect is the case with many of us, a good boy has been spoiled in the man's making i Just such a picture can be seen in the entourage of what is now known as Schomp's mills, which are seated in the deep valley where end the descending acres of the The Mill Below the Hill. 271 " Old Farm." In attempting the description of simple scenes made beautiful by early associations, one finds it difficult to con- vey impressions, the birth of which is largely due to the deep sympathies of well-remembered youthful pleasures. Were my pen unchecked it would run riot with adjective and exclamation; while this might be sufficient for the needs of my expression, it would not go far toward conveying to others an idea of this old water-power and its pleasant surroundings. Let us suppose, then, that all effort at description is abandoned, and leaving the old homestead, together we will visit the mill below the hill. You can see for yourself what it is like — but remember ! I shall look at it with boyish eyes — be sure that you do the same. Passing through a decrepit wicket at the lower end of the garden, a little path, worn smooth by over a century of foot- falls, winding down the side of the hill leads to the brook below the pond. Time was when its bordering strip of meadow was pierced with vats. Memories shoulder each other just here, and the ground seems to exhale ancient odors, which, borne over the years of time, fashion in the mind a picture that includes an antique bark mill with its complaining wheel, great heaps of tan, long lines of drying hides, and piles of sacks of freshly ground oak-bark. Recollection paints, too, a scene in which your guide figures in the foreground as a truant toddler, staggering with the delight of forbidden jo3^s among the tan vats ; while in the middle distance is the view of a nui'sery maid, with fluttering skirts and a nimbus of dishevelled hair, flying down the hill with warning cries to rescue the youngster from a possible immersion in the acid baths. But enough of youthful remem- brances. Here, facing us, is Peapack brook. Is it not an invit- ing waterway ? Interspersed with grassy islands, and arched by venerable trees, it is fed by the curving waters falling in rhythmic melody from the dam, and on the hottest of summer days the air is fresh and cool with the fragrant breath of the descending flood. Crossing the stream by springing from mossy stone to slippery boulder — you must not mind wetting your feet — we are soon in front of the mifl. It is much like many others planted along the numerous water-courses that swell the flood of the Raritan river. A succession of lofty doors rise one above the other to the apex of the gable, in one of which gener- 272 The Story of an Old Fakm. ally stands the dtisty miller, di'awing in fat bags of grist from the overhanging tackle, or guiding descending sacks of flour to the farmers' teams below. The great water-soaked, overshot wheel, which in mj boyish days creaked and groaned in its ponderous, dripping revolutions, is no longer here. Its work is now less picturesquely but more powerfully and silently done by two insignificant turbines, sunk deep in the rapid current of the race. On entering, our nostrils are tickled by the floating particles of the floury atmosphere, and the building trembles with the rumbling of turning shafts and swiftly moving gear. Passing between bins of grain, and barrels tiered ceiling high, we ascend to the grinding floor, which is almost on a level with the pond. The interior of the building is yellow with the deposits of years of gently descending mealy showers, that have long since hidden the original color of its beams and joists ; while the burring sound of the grinding stones falls upon the ear as one of the pleas- antest of all the busy hums of human industry. The western gable — resting on piles — rises directly from the pond ; its image reflected in the tranquil water has much of the completeness of the mill itself. Often on a summer's afternoon have I from its rear door cast the baited hook, and, if not rewarded by a nib- ble, have been more than content in idly w^atching the sleepy bosom of the pond mirror the fleecy clouds floating in the blue expanse above. On such occasions the rural sights and sounds seen and heard on every side were always a source of delight to my nature-loving heart. Stretched on a soft pile of bags, dreaming away a few summer hours in lazily watching the float- ing cork swirl in the eddies, and in drinking in the moisture- laden atmosphere of the watery landscape, seemed ever a happy occupation and never a loss of time. On the right are rich fields of grass and grain, and between them and the water on the gently ascending incline of the bank rests a group of farm buildings. They almost surround an ample barn-yard, from which come the pleasant country sounds of lowing cattle and bleating sheep, while awkward ducklings noisily quack as they waddle down to their convenient element. To the left is a little saw-mill — not much more than a timbered skeleton — through whose ribs you see flashing the upright saw, jagging with hoarse cry its hungry teeth into the A Famous Swimming Hole. 273 slowly approaching logs. Beyond is the great floodgate, with little gurgling riUs percolating through its seams and fissures ; it is framed with massive, slimy beams, from which the frequent small boy of the neighborhood spends many a happy hour in endeavoring to beguile the wary catfish from the cool depths. The stone dam, with its liquid curtain, extends from the gate to the farther shore which, with a graceful curve, lies in the deep shadows of a steep bank of bordering trees, whose drooping branches pressing outward overhang the peaceful pool, — Narcis- sus-like, in rapt admiration of their own mirrored beauty. At the head of the pond the waters shallow, and from their meagre depths rise bullrushes and reedy weeds, which finally overgrow the surface and harden into low banks of bog and sedge, through which the supplying brook slowly makes its way. Thinking over long ago, arresting memory brings to mind many interesting spots in the vicinity of this old miU that are associated with youthful experiences. I have one now in my thoughts — a famous swimming place, called the " Jinny Hole." It is not far from the head of the pond; the brook suddenly deepens, and its almost perpendicular sides admit of one's div- ing in safety from the sedgy banks. It must be confessed that ambitious plungers, who in the hey-day of my remembrance sank too deep beneath the wave, found plenty of soft mud lying in wait at the bottom ; and clambering out on the low banks was always a miry business. But there were compensations, not the least being the interest that attached to the tales that were apt to be told, while dressing, of the individual from whom the hole derived its name — Miss Jane Bailey, a simple maiden of complex attainments, who, like Betty Flannigan, could recollect her " frinds for a month" and her " inimies for a year." Jinny has long since gone over to the "silent majority," which has also absorbed most of her " frinds" and " inimies," but fifty years ago she was a noted character along Peapack brook. James Bailey and his wife Peggy were Irish Presbyterians, who came to this country about 1790, and settled on forty acres of land adjoining the "Old Farm," at the head of the mill-pond. They both died before 1810, leaving two daughters. Jinny and Peggy, who continued living on the same property. Jinny did all the farm work, ploughing, planting, sowing and reaping, 18 274 The Story of an Old Farm. without calling in the aid of any of the neighbors. Peggy died in 1831, after Avhich Jinny lived alone until her death in 1836. She is remembered as a short spare woman, bent nearly double with rheumatism ; her face, the color of parchment, was fur- rowed and wrinkled by age, while coarse, white, uncombed hair covered her head and hung down to her shoulders. Her dress was always the same, a blue, linsey, home-woven short-gown and petticoat, with a tow string tied around her waist, and a man's large straw hat on her head ; she always walked with a cane much taller than herself. Jinny's appearance was in accord with her character ; she believed in witches, ghosts, dreams, signs and sounds, and among the ignorant people of ^the vicinity had a most uncanny reputation. She was Irish to her crooked back-bone, but, though superstitious, was always ready to fight the church of Rome from the lowest-down Catholic up to the pope. As a red rag is to an infuriated bull, so was the mention of the " Scarlet Woman" within Jinny's hearing. It was only neces- sary for predatory bands of boy-tormentors to hint that all Irish men and women were papists, to cause her tawny face to flame with passion, and to call out her richest vocabulary of vitupera- tion. At such times she looked a veritable Witch of Endor. Waving her shrivelled arms and shaking her hoary locks in anger, she shrieked contumely upon the heads of her tormentors and upon those of every Catholic that ever lived, while her hag- gard eyes flashed with all the rage and hate of a Meg Merrilles when cursing the enemies of the heir of EUangowan. I am afraid that these pages are Jinny's only monumental stone ; there is none to mark the grave in Lamington churchyard where she lies buried. With the passing away of the present generation she would probably have been forgotten, so we may consider that we have added a little to local Bedminster history by preserving her memory from oblivion. Her only relics are among my papers. One is the inventory made after her death of her personal effects, which consisted mainly of spinning-wheels, thatching- forks, a hatchel, a flax breaker, a calabash and a few farming implements. Another is Jinny's note of hand given in 1812 to Daniel Melick for two dollars, which, notwithstanding her anti- Catholicism, she signed with a cross large enough to suggest the possibility of its having been made with the end of her long staff. A Cosy Nook. 275 There is another spot about this old mill that has an especial charm of its own. It is reached by following the stream a short distance to where the highway crosses by a dusty wooden bridge, the centre abutments of which rest upon an elongated island that splits the rapid current of the brook. Dropping from the bridge you may make your way down this green island to where the divided waters join. Seat yourself, now, on this mossy bank under the shadowy concealments of these low-spreading branches ; you will find that you have penetrated deep into the heart of rural loveliness. Do you not think it a cosy nook I Although the clear waters of the rapidly flowing stream babble at your feet, the green canopy above is astir with twittering birds, and the soft wind comes laden with the faint cadences of the splash of the dam's cascade, yet, such an air of repose broods over the spot, that you feel the environment of an atmosphere of intense quiet, until you imagine yourself secluded from the world, as if you had found your way to a place of rare beauty hitherto undiscovered. What a bower in which to drowse away an after- noon with Thoreau or John Burroughs ! or, should you have no book, just to lie supinely in the long grass, inhaling the woodsy- watery odors — the subtle emanations of earth, trees and stream — till your entire being seems permeated with the very essence of the hidden secrets of nature. After all, the picture we have attempted to draw is not wholly true. It is of the aspect of the brook in the past rather than of the present. What a disappointment on revisiting familiar boy- ish scenes to find that they differ from the picture one's memory has carried through all the years ! That hills grow smaller may be charged to the lengthened leverage of adult legs, but the decrease in the volume of the water-ways can be more directly explained. As we meet the streams of our boyhood, ranging through wood and meadow, they bear an altered face. Like us they have changed with the years. While it is to be hoped that we with advancing age have grown deeper and broader — not so with the rivers. The vandal hands that robbed the timbered hillsides that guarded their sources were at the same time shal- lowing their pools and bringing the impeding stones of their beds much nearer the surface. Now, in foamy agitation, they protest with loud voice against the loss of their former torrents. 276 The Story of an Old Farm. The procession of the seasons continues, and life on the *^ Old Farm " goes bravely on ! As the years have rolled away many changes are to be noted among the occupants of the " Stone House." . Three more children have come to Aaron and his wife: Elizabeth, born on the eighth of November, 1765; Mar- garet, on the twenty-second of December, 1767; and Maria, on the twenty-fourth of March, 1771. Not only have new lives entered into the family, a little grave is to be seen by the side of those of the grandparents in the Lutheran burying-ground at Pluckamin, for death for the third time has knocked at the door and claimed his own. Elizabeth, one unhappy May morning before she was three years old, while playing about the bark mill, fell under its great revolving wheel and was so crushed that within eight days, on the fourteenth of May, 1768, she died. Aaron and his family, together with his dependents, are now — 1775 — the sole occupants of the " Old Stone House " ; his brothers and sisters having married and made their homes else- where. Philip and Peter married, respectively, Maria and Mary Magdalena King. The wives were probably sisters, and they are presumed to have been the daughters of Marcus King, who was a Bedminster resident at that time and active in church and county measures. Among my documents is a yellow, time- stained bond for two hundred pounds, dated the twenty-ninth of May, 1765, and given by Aaron, Marcus King and Jacobus Van der Veer, to John Van der Veerof Flatbush, Long Island. There is good reason for believing that this bond Avas to secure money borroAved for the benefit of the Bedminster church. This opinion is confirmed by the fact of the interest — as is shown by the endorsements on its back — having repeatedly been paid by Guisbert Sutphen, who was for a number of years treasurer of that congregation. Some of these interest receipts are written in Dutch ; those in English employ the following singular reiter- ative phraseology : " May the first 17 — then Received the full Interest Upon Bond I say Received by me." It is also interest- ing to notice that the payee signed his name in the five following various ways : Van der veer, V. D. Veer, Van Derveer, Vander Veer and Van Der Veer. It would seem that over a century ago members of this Dutch family were as undecided as to the correct spelling of their surnames as are those of to-day. In A German Schoolmaster. 277 the body of this bond Aaron's name appears as Melogh, but in signing he wrote it Malick. Johannes' second daughter and fourth child married, sometime previous to 1768, Simon Ludewig Himroth, or, as the name is now spelled, Himrod. They remained in Bedminster until 1772, when they removed to Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, where their descendants are now numerous. Himroth was a compatriot of Aaron's, being a Bendorf boy ; this is shown by the following interesting letter written by our old friend of twenty years ago — Job. Georg Hager. To my mind there is a wholesome flavor about the Herr Praeceptor^s letters that makes pleasant reading. His words have an honest ring, and seem- ingly flow from the pen of one whose heart beats with sympathy for his fellows. I can fancy him seated in his deep leathern chair in a quaint German parlor, its low ceilings and black- ened beams but half lighted by small round panes set in lead. He wears ratteen breeches, and a well-worn velvet coat with brass buttons. On the table by his side is his cotton cap with its pendant tassel ; within easy reach is a great mug of blue ware filled with foaming beer, while from his mouth hangs a drooping pipe with a brass stopper and chain. On looking up from his letter, he can see through the open kitchen door the frail Magdalena, with gay bodice and blue woollen petticoat, pat- tering from fireplace to dresser, giving the finishing touches to noudels and linoepc, or stirring the rich flour soup whose savory odors mingle with those exhaled from a pot of schokolate, sim- mering on the hearth. Cannot you see the schoolmaster as he gossips over the home news, and fashions his courteous sentences of friendship and good wishes ? A little too red in the face perhaps, and a trifle too ample in girth, but his short, upright gray hair surmounts a broad, smooth forehead stamped with intelligence and sentiment. His small blue eyes twinkle with good nature, a comically fierce moustache hides his mouth, and under his full chin there always lurks a chuckle. You may depend upon it he was a good man, and won the hearts of those with whom he came in contact. His letters show him to have been both cheer- ful and wise ; his merry nature and sound understanding must have diff'used genial influences, and we can imagine the villagers 278 The Story of an Old Farm. always giving him bearty greeting, and ever being eager for a cbat on meeting bira in the street, or on spying him smoking a post-prandial pipe in his garden. Now for news from the old country : — Bendokf February loth, 1769. My beloved friends from all parts ! Your letter of November 15th, 1768, as also that one of 1764, came duly to hand, tlie latter of whicli I answered immediately, but, as I learn from the former, my answer did not arrive. I received this letter of November 15 by the friend S. Bastian through a messenger sent for this purpose. Since I cannot speak to the above named friend myself, and hearing that he passes the night in Cob- lentz I set pen to paper instantly, so that no opportunity is lost, and you have news how we get on. So far no special change has arrived, but that cousin Anton Kirberger has died ; his children are partly happy, partly unhappy, in their matrimony, and in that house many things have changed. Concerning myself, my wife and my children, I can state that we are — thank God — all well. My eldest son is since three years in the employ of a wine- cooper in Amsterdam, and may -be, that if he can not make his fortune there, he will visit America. The second one works with an assessor in Wetzlar, both do quite well. My youngest son and three little daughters are with me. My brotiier-in-law William is safe and well with your family and will soon celebrate Christening with his second wife. All of them send their best regards to you. My wife and myself, who have not yet visited cousin judge in Hochstenbach as long as we are married, made a call on liim last fall; he and she are perfectly well ; I told them all about what you had written to me. He wishes you well^ As I write you directly without losing any time and cannot therefore send him the letter yet so I shall ask him to write to you a letter; as soon as I find an opportunity I siiall try my best to send it to you. I was especially pleased by the news that cousin Simon Himroth has become your brother-in-law, a .scholar whom I have tauglit, and one who has kept himself well all the time; he will do that also henceforth. I and my wife send him our most cordial regards; he understands well how to write, why does he not write me ? In our country a poor time prevails at present, because of the wine-man hav- ing since nearly six years not brougiit a good wine-year; therefore little food for the poor people. My wife sends her especial regards and kisses to her cousin Veronica. May the Lord redeem her the loss of her dear parents and give wel- fare to the whole family and have her grow and nourish in luck and well-doing. If you get a chance give my compliments to Herr faesch, who is doing well I suppose since one does not hear much of him ; perhaps he has married there a nice American lady. As I do not know any other news to report I finish with the desire that the grace of God Almighty shall be with you as well as with our- selves, so tliat we may always have to report good respective news. Give my regards to the cousins all by their names. Tliere may come a time yet, if we should live longer, when we shall see each other personally and entertain our- .'