THE 
 
 DUTCH TRADING POST 
 
 AT TRENTON 
 
The Dutch Trading Post 
 
 DR. CARLOS E. GODFREY 
 
 Read before The Trenton Historical Society 
 March 20, 1919 
 
 19 19 
 
 The Trenton Historical Society 
 Trenton, New Jersey 
 
TjGkSZ 
 
 Gift 
 Society 
 
 DEC 13 iSiS 
 
 Press of 
 State Gazette Publishing Co. 
 
THE DUTCH TRADING POST. 
 
 When the oetag'on stone walls were nnearthej in this city 
 by Mr. George Ilernard Consollo}^ in Angnst, 1S72, while 
 excavating- land for the erection of the fonr brick bniklings 
 now known as nnnil)ers 738 to 744 South Warren Street, near 
 the corner of Feriy, there was exposed to view an object 
 ]iossessing rare and nniqne interests, and which was nnknown 
 to persons who had resided within its immediate vicinity for 
 more than ninety years. 
 
 In reporting this circnmstance to the New Jersey Histori- 
 cal Society on Jannary 16, 1873 — with the accompanying 
 illustration, Mr. Charles Megill said, in part^ : 
 
 "The size of the bnilding a]i])ears to have been abont 
 sixty feet in diameter. The foundation walls were com- 
 posed of hard gray stone laid abont two feet thick with 
 mortar, and rnnning six feet deep. The walls had four 
 openings, each opening abont three feet wide and facing 
 to the j^orth, Sonth, East and West. On the outside 
 of the walls, facing the Delaware River, there was 
 built up against the same a bi-ick wall about one foot 
 thick and four feet dee]), of hard burnt brick. * * * 
 On the northwest coruer of the buildiug there was an 
 old stone and brick chimney about six feet wide and 
 six feet deep froui the surface of the foundation." 
 
 1. Proc. N. J. Hist. Soc (2d Ser.).. Vol. Ill, p. 60. 
 
4 THE DUTCH TI{-U)ING POST. 
 
 To this coiierete statement it is fair to add the personal 
 observations of the present JMr. Frank W. Consolloy, of this 
 city, who informed me that when these walls were nncovered 
 there stood within the interi<n' a g-reat transverse wall bnilt 
 of the same material, and the fop of the whole laying about 
 two feet below the surface of the ground ; that the northern 
 extremity was accidentally exposed in excavating the south 
 line of the ]n'o}ierty referred to, near thirty feet in the rear 
 nf tlie eastern buihling line of Warren Street. lie also told 
 me that a few cannon balls were found in the ruins^ and 
 in one corner there was unearthed a quantity of cooking 
 utensils having the appearance of very thick stoneware made 
 in curious shapes, nnich of which were broken in fragiuents. 
 
 Since this discovery local and other historians for years 
 have fancied that these walls were the remnant of an old 
 French fort, built to shield the inhabitants from the hostile 
 savages.' Some conceive it to have been a blockhouse to main- 
 tain the operation of the ferry across the river f or else to 
 protect the iron works in Trenton, located nearly one mile 
 away.'* It has been asserted that it was doubtless the store- 
 house built by William Trent or his successor.^ And others 
 have personally expressed the thought that it was probably 
 the kitchen, or the coachhouse and stables, belonging to the 
 Trent estate. It is really absurd to imagine how the inner 
 transverse walls and the great fire place in the basement could 
 serve either of these purposes, to say nothing of the size 
 and odd shape of the outer structure. 
 
 The celel)rated archaeologist, Dr. Charles Conrad Abbott, 
 without furnishing reasons or authority, alleged that these 
 walls were the remains of an old Dutch trading-post.'"* This 
 theory was rejected by his o]iponents in the discussion be- 
 cause the "post" was never indicated upon any map or survey 
 of the ])ast, and who further claimed that the walls were of 
 later ■construction owina: to the fact that two English half- 
 
 2. Strvker — Trenton (^ne Hundred Years Ago, p. 21. 
 W. S. Yard — State Ga'/ette. Anr. 11, 1910. p. 3. 
 Pennn Matr. of Hi.st.. Vol. XXXV, p. 243. 
 Nelso" — The Iron Industry in Trenton, p. Ifi. 
 
 3. Jo.s. H. West — Trenton Sunday Advertiser, Mar. 25, 1906, p. 17. 
 
 4. Nelson — the Iron Industry in Trenton, p. 16. 
 Penna. Mae. of Hist.. VoL XXXV. p. 243. 
 
 5. C. C. Abbott — Trenton Sunday Advertiser, Mar. 18, 1906. p. 17. 
 
THE DUTCH TRADING POST. 5 
 
 pennies bearing the dates of I7o0 and 1732, respectively, 
 ^\•ere fonnd in the excavation.-' Thus the matter dropped. 
 
 When and bj whom the walls were bnilt is a question 
 Avhich the skilled archaeologist could readily answer with 
 accuracy from his examination of the brick or mortar used 
 in the construction. The old imported Dutch brick we know 
 was extremely dark in color, resembling the "hard burnt 
 brick" which Mr. Megill said was found in the foundation ; 
 the Swedish brick had the colored appearance of amber; and 
 the English brick that of cherry-red. Inasmuch as none of 
 the brick or mortar used in the walls were saved or can now 
 be found, we must resort to history to ascertain when, by 
 whom, and for what purpose these walls were built. 
 
 In doing this we must first obser\'e that the octagon con- 
 struction of buildings was an exclusive characteristic of tin 
 early Dutch. This statement cannot fnnnnt be successfully 
 controverted ! In Holland today will be found numerous 
 large wind-mills and other structures which were built cen- 
 turies ago in the octagon and other angular patterns. In 
 this colony we know that the Dutch emigrants built the 
 octagon stone church in 1680 at Bergen, now part of Jersey 
 City, and which is illustrated in the histories of Hudson 
 County. '^ Mr. Victor H. Paltists of the New York Public 
 Library possesses an original manuscript sketch of an 
 octagon building which was erected by the Dutch at i^ew 
 Ftrecht, on Long Island, at an early and unknown date. No- 
 M'here, however, after diligent search, have I been able to 
 find a contemporary description or plan of the Dutch trading- 
 ])osts built by the West India Company during their regime 
 in America in the seventeenth century. 
 
 The Dutch records show that a trading-post was established 
 by the West India Company at Sanhican, now Trenton, 
 shortly before the year 1G30," where the ''Arms of their 
 High Mightinesses" were also erected by the Dutch authori- 
 ties as a token that the river and circumadjacent lands were 
 the sovereign ]ir(i])erty and under the control of t\w States- 
 
 3 Jos H West — Trenton Sunday Advertiser, Mar. 25, 1906, \y. 17. 
 fi Witifleid — Hist, of Hudson County, pp. .STS, 381. 
 
 Van Winkle — Old Berpen, pp. 16.3. 166. 
 7. O'Callaghan — Doc. Hist, of N. Y„ Vol. I, p. 50. 
 
 Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., p. 245. 
 
b THE DUTCH TRADING POST. 
 
 General of Holland.'' These records also tell ns that this 
 "post" was soon after abandoned,'' owing to the financial loss 
 snstained by the Conij^any, indnced ehielij throngh the harsh 
 treatment which it extended to its emplojes.-*" 
 
 When the Swedes gained snpremacj of the South River, 
 subsequently known as the Delaware River on the English 
 conquest in 1664, both the Swedish and Dutch records show 
 that Governor Printz ordered an armed detachment to go 
 up the river to Sanhican and destroy the "Dutch Arms," 
 which was accomplished on September 8, 1646." This act 
 undoubtedly involved the demolition of the trading-post by 
 fire, the superstructure of which was necessarily of wood, to 
 which the coat-of-arms naturally would be attached. 
 
 The destruction of the trading-post in 1646 is the reason 
 why that it was not delineated upon the map of the upper 
 Delaware by Lindstrom in 1650, by Van der Donck in 1655, 
 or on Pocock's map of 1679, Basse's survey of the Stacy tract 
 for William Trent in 1714, or upon any other later maps or 
 surveys; and, this is also the reason why numerous travelers 
 in passing through Trenton, beginni'tig with Danckerts in 
 1679 and continuing down by others to the year 1800, make 
 no mention in, their diaries of this large, strange, octagon 
 building, because it ceased to exist. 
 
 The only forts authorized by law to be erected in the 
 Colony of New Jersey were first l)uilt in 1755, to repel the 
 incursions of the Indians along the upper Delaware above 
 the point what is now known as Phillipsburg. My examina- 
 tion of the original correspondence of Governor Bernard of 
 New Jersey in the library of Haiward University show that 
 these forts were built of green logs, about ten by twenty 
 feet in size, and which extended a few miles a part up to 
 the New York boundary. New Jersey never built any fort 
 comparing with the size or shape of the octagon structure 
 before us ! We never had any disturbances with the Indians 
 below our northwestern frontiers ; therefore, we had no use 
 
 8. O'CaUaghan — Col. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. I. pp. 271, 292. 
 Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc, N. S., Vol. I, p. 412. 
 
 Myers — Narr. of Early Penna., V^'est N. J., & Del., p. 75. 
 
 9. •lame.'ion — Nurr. of Ntw Netherland, p. 84, n. 3. 
 
 10. Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS.. pp. 235, 244-248. 
 
 11. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc, N. S., Vol. I, p. 412. 
 CCallaghan — Col. Hist, of N. Y.. Vol. I, p. 292. 
 
THE DUTCH TRADING P08T. 7 
 
 for the mythical fort whicli some persons would have lis 
 believe was erected in Trenton. 
 
 The octagon bnilding was located 1805 feet in an air line 
 from the spot where William Trent afterwards built his 
 colonial home; and, it was, as Mr. Megill said and living 
 witnesses know, al>ont sixty feet in diameter. To remove 
 any susjiicion that this bnilding was the kitchen or stables 
 of William Trent I need only quote The Pemisylvauia 
 Journal for March 12, 1767, which shows that his kitchen 
 was built of brick, ;>()) by 20 feet in size, two stories high, 
 the upper floor having four apartments for the accommoda- 
 tion of his sei-^^ants. The dimensions of his bam is given 
 as 40 by 38 feet.^^ Therefore, both of these outbuildings 
 were misfits and impossibilities to the foundation of the 
 octagon walls. 
 
 Aside from the evidence presented to show that the Dutch 
 West India (\>mpany established a trading-post in this city 
 about 1680, of a desii>ii characteristics to the Dutch race, 
 connnon sense instinctively ])rompts the mind to reason that 
 these octagon walls were the remnants of that enteriu'ise. 
 The superstructure was evidently built of logs, otherwise the 
 upper surface of the foundation excavated would not have 
 been level and flush. The great fire-place in the basement not 
 only served the cooking and kept the quarters warm in winter, 
 but ill enabled the traders to try out the fats and other oils 
 ftbtained from the animals which they bartered from the 
 Indians. The transverse walls were built to su]iport the great 
 weight of the skins, stores and other materials which were 
 stored on the floor above. The four barricaded doors in the 
 l)asement furnished convenient exits in the event of attack by 
 the Indians, and, upon being opened in summer, provided 
 proper ventilation to their quarters. The brick wall on the 
 outside facing the river was doubtless built to divert the 
 dampness and the cold northwest winds in winter from the 
 crude walls of which the foundation was composed, and on 
 which side of the basement the traders undoubtedly lived. 
 
 The Dutch records further show that their trading-posts 
 were anned;^^ consequently, it is not strange that a few 
 
 12. N. J. Arch., Vol. XXV, p. 314. 
 
 13. Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., p. 245. 
 
b THE DUTCH TRADING POST. 
 
 small cannon balls were found in the excavation ; nor is it 
 to l>e wondered that much broken crockery was unearthed, 
 if the building was destroyed by the Swedish authorities by 
 fire or otherwise. 
 
 It may he asked why the traders at Sanhican required 
 such a large building to conduct) their business. This may 
 be answered by saying that the headquarters of the West 
 India C^omjiany in America was located at New Amsterdam, 
 now New 'Wirk City. ^Miile the men here had access to 
 headquarters overland by the Indian ])atli, it was the custom 
 of the Company to despatch small shallops from New Am- 
 sterdam tO' 8anliican every spring and fall of the year candy- 
 ing provisions and clothing to the men and goods for barter 
 with the Indians, and returning loaded with skins and other 
 materials of trade. As a result, considerable storage space 
 was necessarv' to administer these semi-annual operations.^ ^ 
 
 AVith the four openings in the w^alls, after the building 
 was destroyed, it is obvious that heavy rains and melting- 
 snows would quickly cany great tm-rents of earth through 
 these a])erturcs, sufficient to ol)literate the ruins from the sight 
 of man within a comparatively short period. 
 
 The bulk of the manuscript records of the West India 
 Company were junked in Holland about seventy-five years 
 ae'o. Therefore, I claim that so nmch of the fraginentarv 
 records relating to the activities of this Coni])any which have 
 been preserved, together with the collateral circumstances 
 I have enumerated — l)ased conservatively on the rule of ex- 
 clusion, abundantly proves beyond a question of doubt that 
 the octagon walls unearthed here in 1872 were the remains 
 of The Dutch Trading Post, upon which was erected the 
 insignia designating that this locality was ]>art of the New 
 Netherlands and under the sovereign power of the States- 
 General of Holland. 
 
 The discovery (if these ruins nuirks the location of the most 
 ancieut historical landmark within this vicinity, or that 
 which is known in any other part of the State of New Jersey, 
 the existence and recollection of which should be forever 
 preserved. 
 
 14. Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., pp. 244-246. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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