Read Ebook: Punch or the London Charivari Vol. 105 November 11 1893 by Various Burnand F C Francis Cowley Editor

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Sheyichbi and its People 9 The Lenni Lenape and their Customs 10 Arrival of the Dutch 13 Wampum 14 The Relations of the Delawares with the Whites 16 Indian Names of Localities 16 Pavonia 18 Massacre of Indians 19 Indian Troubles 20 Communipaw 22 The First Ferry 23 The First Roads 24 Bergen 25 Bergen Court 27 The First Schoolmaster 27 School Houses 28 Early Ministers 30 The First Church, 31 The First Pall 33 The First Communion Set 33 The Second and Third Churches 35 Early Church Customs 35 The Voorleezer 37 Church Funds 38 Marriages and Town Poor 40 Burial Customs 41 Cemeteries 44 Paulus Hook 47 Paulus Hook Ferry 47 Revolutionary Period 50 The Battle of Paulus Hook 53 Lafayette in Bergen 57 Sergeant Champe 60 Bergen Patriots 61 Early Customs 64 New Years 64 General Training 65 Early Dutch Recipes 67 Cooking by Open Fires 69 Spinning and Weaving 71 Candle-making 72 Slavery 74 Lotteries 74 Jersey City 75 Municipal Changes 75 Forming the City 77 Newark Turnpike 78 Robert Fulton 80 The Ferries 81 Edge's Windmill 85 City Hall and Schools 87 Public School No. 1 88 Scholarships 89 Post Office 91 Churches 92 Business Interests 94 Jersey City Pottery 95 Fire and Police Departments 99 Hudson County Bar 99 Street Lighting 100 Railroads 101 Steamships 102 Street Railways 103 Waterworks 105 War Records: Army 107 Navy 110 Militia 111 Hospitals and Churches 117 The Clubs 120 Libraries 130 Parks 133 The City of To-day 135 The Old Houses 136 The City of the Future 143

FROM THE MINUTES OF THE LITERATURE COMMITTEE OF THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF JERSEY CITY.

At a meeting of the Committee January 5th, 1898, one of the subjects for the day was "Jersey City's Old Landmarks." In the discussion that followed, Miss M. Louise Edge moved that Mrs. Eaton be requested to write a short history of Jersey City, to be published by the Club: the proceeds of which to be used to erect memorial tablets on historic sites of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods.

At the meeting of October 12th, 1898, Mrs. Eaton made the following report:

I take pleasure in reporting that in accordance with the request of this Committee embodied in the motion made by Miss M. Louise Edge upon January 5th, 1898, I have prepared the story of Jersey City. My authorities have been: Winfield's History of Hudson County, The Jersey City Journal's History of Jersey City, Colonial and City Records, Versteeg's Translation of the Deacons Accounts of the Bergen Church, Taylor's Annals of the Classis and Township of Bergen, and numerous descendants of the old colonial families,--the Van Reypens, Van Horns, Van Winkles, Sips, Newkirks and many others, to all of whom I am greatly indebted. Also to Dr. Brett, who has kindly assisted me with his great store of historic data.

I wish particularly to express my great indebtedness to Mr. C. C. Van Reypen, who, with his wonderful memory and knowledge of Bergen, has been of invaluable assistance to me.

Respectfully submitted,

Harriet Phillip Eaton

SHEYICHBI AND ITS PEOPLE.

Before the white race came to America, the locality now known as Jersey City, was occupied by a branch of the Minsi division of the Lenni Lenape Nation of the Red Men, and was called Sheyichbi. The whole of the present state of New Jersey belonged to the Lenape, and was occupied by bands bearing different names according to the special features of the locality, but all recognizing their unity as one people. Those who lived here, along the western shore of the New York Bay, extending to the sea, were known as the Wapings, or Pomptons, and were the first of the Lenape to meet the white man when Verrazano visited this harbor in 1524. Their last home was along the Raritan river. The name Lenni Lenape means "Men of our Nation," and they claimed to be the oldest nation and root of the great Algonkin stock, which, in its various divisions, with forty distinct dialects, occupied this continent from Hudson's Bay to South Carolina, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and the great plains, with the exception of a portion east of the Lakes where the Huron Iroquois dwelt. The other Algonkin nations were spoken of by them as "children," "Grandchildren," or "younger brothers," and to them was always accorded the respectful title of "grandfathers." Their traditions taught them that they came from Shinaki, the "Land of the Fir Trees," which was probably north of Lake Superior, and in their migrations they came upon the Cherokees, probably in the ninth or tenth century of our era, with whom they fought one hundred years for possession of the Ohio Valley. Finally the Cherokees went south and the Lenape eventually, in the eleventh or twelfth century, made their home in the mountainous region of the head waters of the Delaware river. Their hunting grounds included lands now in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. In 1758, New Jersey paid them ,000 for their lands in this State.

They were called by the western nations Wapenachki,--"People of the Rising of the Sun." The name Delaware was given to them and one of their rivers, after Lord de la Ware, which they at first resented but accepted it after being told that he was a great "Brave." In character they were a noble spirited but gentle, kindly people, and all the early writers concur in testimony to their hospitality. Each family lived in its separate wigwam, a wattled hut with rounded top, thatched with mats woven of corn leaves, sweet flag, or bark of trees. These were built in groups and usually surrounded with palisades of small tree trunks firmly planted in the ground, sometimes two or three rows, interlaced, and from twenty to thirty feet in height. Their clothing was made of deer skin, soft and pliable and beautifully embroidered with wampum beads or dyed porcupine quills. In some of the arts they had attained great skill, excelling in dressing deer skins and in feather work; carved stone, made ornaments of shell and a rude pottery, some in the shape of animals. They recognized the value of the Trenton clays and Indian potters used them for centuries before the white men came. While their weapons and utensils were principally of stone, they also used copper, both native New Jersey ore and that brought from Lake Superior, which they deftly hammered into shape. Old mining holes and Indian tools have been found between Elizabethtown and New York. Bowls were carved from wood and from soap-stone, kettles were made of the latter which would hold from ten to twelve gallons. They used both vegetable and mineral paints and dyes; were very expert fishermen and hunters.

They were accurate in computing time and had some astronomical knowledge; women and children could give names to many of the stars, and their year began with the first moon after the February moon. The time for planting was calculated by the rising of Taurus in a certain quarter. To this constellation they gave the name of a mythical great horned beast. They had a word for year, and counted their ages and sequence of events by yearly periods, but recognized only twelve moons in the year. They kept a record of the years by adding a black bead of wampum for each year in a belt kept for the purpose. Their picture writing was scratched on stones or cut or painted on bark or wood. It was a record of current events, the past history of the nation, and in memory of famous men, events, and actions of note. They also recorded abstract ideas, as, when an Indian gave William Penn a drawing of the "Great Man" within a series of concentric circles as their idea of God. These picture writings were understood and could be read by the various branches of the Algonkin stock. Bunches of slender sticks notched or painted were also used as records.

In religion, they worshipped Light and its representatives, the Sun, Fire--"a special messenger to the Sun," the Four Winds--"Bringers of rain and sunshine," and Totemic Animals. "Light was the body or fountain of Deity," something "All Light, a Being in whom the earth and all things in it may be seen; a Great Man clothed with the day, yea, with the brightest day, a day of many years, yea, a day of everlasting continuance. From Him proceeded, in Him were, to Him returned all things, and the souls of all things." This was their faith taught by their Priests, called "Powow," meaning dreamer. They interpreted dreams and claimed to have visions which foretold future events. They believed in reincarnation and that the pure in heart might recall former lives. There were traces of the survival of Serpent worship among the people of this locality. Cast-off serpent skins were believed to have wonderful curative properties and supplications were offered to them. In 1683 Penn said there were ten divisions of the Lenape, numbering about six thousand souls, but they soon began to decrease from disease, massacres and migrations. The New Jersey Indians rapidly died out, Peter Kalm said,--"Smallpox had destroyed increditable numbers, but brandy had killed most of the Indians."

ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH.

In the fall of 1609, Hendrik Hudson anchored the "Half Moon" off Communipaw, and the simple natives met him and said "Behold the Gods have come to visit us." Little they dreamed of the long sequence of evil results which would follow his coming and the introduction he gave them to "rum," the most potent destroyer of their race. When Hendrik Hudson anchored off Communipaw, where lower Jersey City now stands, it was largely salt marsh, and the heights above were crowned with heavy forests.

When he first came within Sandy Hook and gained his first view of Jersey shores he pronounced it a "very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." Later the country about Communipaw he thought "as pleasant a land as one need tread upon." He found an Indian village near the shore called Gemoenepa and another at Hackensack. It is said that Summit Avenue follows a part of the trail or path connecting the two villages. Hudson found the natives along the west shore, from Sandy Hook to Weehawken, friendly and generous; they brought him oysters, corn and fruits. Of the beauty of these people Verrezano, who visited New York Bay in 1524, was quite enthusiastic and declares of two chiefs that "they were more beautiful in form and feature than can possibly be described." He said that "the women greatly resemble the Antique, of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenance and pleasing appearance in manners and modesty." The early writers all unite in describing these people as "generous, giving away whatever they had," also as "being sumptuously clothed in embroidered deer skins wrought in damask figures," and that the women wore more ornamental clothing than the men.

The Dutch early manufactured wampum at Hackensack, turning it upon a lathe; this manufacture was continued until late in this century.

During the French and English war the Delawares joined the French. In 1776 they joined the Federal cause and fought with us in the Revolutionary war. In their relations with Penn's colonists "they showed" to quote Dr. Brinton, "a sense of honor and regard for pledges equal at least to that of the white race." From 1782 to 1795 there was a bitter war between the white people and the Lenape owing to the desire of the whites to possess the Indian lands, which resulted in three cruel massacres of Christian Indians, and of the removal of the Lenape, first to Ohio, next to Kansas, and last to the Indian Territory. "In this long contest," as Dr. Brinton says, "the history of the relations of the white race with the Lenape is not one calculated to reflect glory upon the superior civilization and Christianity of the white race." In the war of 1863-65, one-half of the adult population of the Lenape officered by their own men were in the volunteer service of the United States. "No State in the Union furnished so many men for our armies from the same ratio of population as did the Lenape nation." The old men, women and children worked the farms and while the men were away fighting for the Union their white neighbors stole from them ,000 worth of stock.

Of our Indian predecessors in this region the only trace remaining is in a few corrupted names of localities:

HACKENSACK, FROM ACKENSACK--low land.

SECAUCUS, FROM SISKAKES OR SIKAKES--the place where the snake hides. The Indian name for Snake Hill, now transferred to the upland between Pinhorne Creek and Hackensack river.

WEEHAWKEN, FROM AWIEHAKEN--at the end of

HOBOKEN, FROM HOPOGHAN HACKINGH--the land of the tobacco pipe. At this point they procured the stone from which they carved their pipes. It was a piece of upland called by the Indians, an island with salt marsh lying between it and the Hill.

HARSIMUS, FROM AHASIMUS, the meaning is now lost; it was another bit of upland lying south of Hopoghan.

COMMUNIPAW, FROM GEMOENEPA, the meaning is not known.

NAVESINK--a good fishing place.

PAVONIA.

On July 12th, 1630, Mr. Michael Pauw, Burgomaster of Amsterdam and Lord of Achtienhover, near Utrecht, obtained through the Directors and Councillors of New Netherlands, a deed from the Indians to the land called Hopoghan Hackingh, this being the first deed recorded in New Netherlands. On November 22nd, of the same year, the same parties procured from the Indians a deed to Mr. Pauw of Ahasimus and Aresick , the peninsula later called Paulus Hook. These were the first conveyance by deed of any land in East Jersey. To these tracts Pauw gave the name Pavonia from the Latinized form of his own name, Pauw in the Dutch and Pavo in Latin meaning Peacock. When the first settlement was formed or the first house built is unknown. In May, 1633, Michael Poulaz or Paulusson, an officer in the service of the Company, was living at Pavonia. He probably occupied a hut on the Point which received from him the name of Paulus Hook. In the latter part of 1633, two houses thatched with reeds were built, one at Ahasimus, near what is now the corner of Fourth and Henderson streets, and the other at Communipaw. So far as is known these were the first regular buildings in this county.

Paulusson had charge of the trade with the Indians and was Superintendent of Pavonia. He was succeeded in 1634 by Jan Evertsen Bout, who selected the house at Communipaw for his home, and was the first white resident there; this farm which Bout leased after Pauw had sold his rights to the Company, was known as Bout's farm, and included all of the upland lying between Communipaw Creek, where the Abattoir stands, on the south, and the meadows where the engine house of the Central railroad stands, or Maple street, on the north. Later the Governor, General Kieft, and the Council gave him a patent for this farm. The house was burned in 1643. It was in commemoration of Jan Evertsen Bout that the circular hill and section of upland at the mouth of Mill Creek was named Jan de Lacher's Hook. In 1636 Cornelis Van Vorst became Superintendent of Pauw's property and lived in the house built by Pauw at Ahasimus. For several years there was trouble between the Company and Pauw, which was finally settled by the Company paying to Pauw 26,000 florins for his interest in Pavonia.

In February, 1643, about a thousand Indians fleeing from the Mohawks came to the Dutch for protection. They were encamped on the upland near the present intersection of Pine street and Johnston avenue. Here, on the night of February 25th, a party of Dutch soldiers, by order of Governor Kieft, murdered and brutally mutilated a large number of men, women and children. The sickening details of this massacre by white Christians cannot be surpassed by the records of savage races. This led to serious troubles; all the Indians united and for a year and a half made war upon the Dutch. They burned the house at Ahasimus in which the widow and family of Van Vorst lived. A portion of the farm-house built on the site of this first house was still in existence in 1895. Between 1649 and 1655, there were quite a number of patents for lands issued, principally to soldiers, at Communipaw, and as far down as the present town of Greenville, and there were quite a number of flourishing farms at Hoboken, Ahasimus, Paulus Hook and Communipaw. The land upon which they lived was known as Bouweries, and the outlying farms as plantations. At that time the land known as Kavans Point, below Communipaw, extended farther into the bay. Winfield states that "within the present century the waters of the bay have encroached over 200 feet, and that a cherry orchard once stood where fishermen now stake their nets."

In 1655, an Indian girl stole some peaches from a farm near the present site of Trinity Church, New York, and was shot by the farmer. On the night of September 15th, 1655, five hundred Indians made a night attack upon New Amsterdam, being repulsed, they crossed the river and set fire to every house in Pavonia. Twenty-eight farms and outlying plantations with crops and buildings were all destroyed. Of the settlers one hundred were killed, one hundred and fifty were taken prisoners and three hundred were left homeless. For five years the settlements were practically abandoned. According to the Indian laws the title to the lands was again vested in them by right of conquest. In 1658 the Indians made a new deed of the territory to the Dutch. The former settlers who were about to return to their farms asked for exemption from taxes that they might be able to put their farms in order. The petition was granted on condition of their building a fortified village. In February, 1660, a decree was issued ordering all farmers to move their houses into groups, that might be protected by palisades or stockades, from six to seven feet above the ground. Indian stockades always were of tree trunks, as are those of the Hudson Bay Company to this day. Probably the early Dutch were also, although the later stockades may have been of heavy plank.

COMMUNIPAW.

The first legalized ferry across to Manhattan Island was established at the foot of Communipaw avenue when the village of Bergen was started in the fall of 1660 by William Jansen. The boats were periaugers, the old Spanish pirouge, pointed at both ends, with two masts, but no bowsprit. When horses and carriages were to be transported they were detached and lifted into the boat. The Governor General and Council fixed the rates. Jansen had much trouble, he claimed the exclusive right to transport people and goods to Nieu Amsterdam and objected to people crossing in their own boats. He complained to the authorities at Nieu Amsterdam and the people brought a counter charge against him for refusing to ferry people across; judgment was rendered January, 1663, that "the Sheriff must assist him in getting his pay and that he must do his duty or be discharged." He and his successors ran regular boats three times a week. In 1669 Governor Carteret issued a license to Peter Hetfelsen to run a ferry from Communipaw to New York with a list of the rates to be charged; all of which were payable in wampum. "Any person, letter, packett or message of public business, and the Governor and his family were to be carried free." Hetfelsen was succeeded in 1672 by John Tymensen under the same conditions. From that date there is no mention of the ferry until 1783 when Aaron Longstreet and Company advertised that "constant attendance was given by the boats at the ferry stairs, near the Exchange, at 3 p. m. to bring passengers to Communipaw where the Newark stage would be ready to convey them to Newark and thence by the Excellent New York and Philadelphia Running Machines in one day to Philadelphia."

THE PROFESSION OF--JOURNALISM.

Yours faithfully,

P.S.--Of course you will be insulted at the usual rate.--ED.

"BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY."

Of readers not a few Deem RIDER HAGGARD gory. We have MACBETH, it's true-- "But that's another story."

One JOSEPH was enrolled-- Though now a sort of Tory-- A Williamite of old-- "But that's another story."

Some maids would make it known They'll wait till locks are hoary, But wed for love alone-- "B u t t h a t 's another 'story.'"

IN BLACK AND WHITE.

THAT pair of gloves you wore when first we met Were what you called, I think, a "pair of loves." You won them from your cousin on a bet-- That pair of gloves.

Now as to colour, this or that shade proves A shade expensive, runs you into debt. Tan's universal, while a tint of dove's Particularly nice for evening. Yet Black with white stitching most my fancy moves, And such were yours. I never can forget That pair of gloves.

SIR HENRY LOCH may hold the key In Africa, but all must see That RHODES the handle hath fast grip on, Shouts "Let her rip!"--despite Lord RIPON. Cut is poor LOBENGULA'S comb, 'Tis said that all roads lead to Rome. The new Ring that old saw explodes; Where'er we roam we're led to--RHODES. Whether or no this Great Panjandrum Is the true friend of Civilisation, And puts her laws in operation; At least he can maintain with pride, He has her Maxims on his side.

FABIUS FIN-DE-SI?CLE.

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS.

Yes, SCROOGE was an altered man! He was genial and amiable, and altogether an estimable being. SCROOGE'S nephew was delighted with the change. He could scarcely believe his ears and eyes.

"And don't you really interfere with the theatres, Sir?" asked SCROOGE'S nephew. "At one time you were always telling them to take down this, and put up that, and making the lives of the managers burdens to them. Don't you interfere any longer?"

"Of course not, my lad," replied SCROOGE, heartily. "Why should I? This is the pleasantest world imaginable, and it would be less charming without its playhouses."

"Right you are, Sir," returned SCROOGE'S nephew; "but I suppose you look in occasionally at the halls to supervise the entertainments?"

"I am sure I don't know, uncle; but I thought it was a way you had. And then you are going to strip the hoardings of the posters, aren't you?"

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