li!'!|li'!i lliil Ml 11'' I!! i ill l!!l ;i! ii ii i iii! il|iiiii!iiiiiHi!!!iil|ltilttii!i! Ill^^ '.i 111 ill ! ii il! Hiiiiiiyi i::'t I I THEOLOGICAL SEMInSy^| Princeton, N. J. ^ BX 8949 .06 H69 1860 Hoyt, James, 1817-1866. The Mountain society:" -JS-'A THE OLD PAKSONAOE. "The Mountain Society:" A HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBTTEEIAN CHURCH, ORANGE, N. J. OEG.l.>aZED ABOUT THE YEAR 1719 AS AN INDEPE.VDEXT SOQETT, AND LONG KNOWS AS THE " CHURCH AT NEWAKK MOUNTAINS ;" PRESBYTERIAN SINCE 1748 ; INCOR- PORATED IN 1783 AS THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NEWARK ; AND KNOWN BY ITS PRESENT TITLE SINCE 1811 : WTIH AN ACCOUNT OF THE E^'.RLIEST SETTLEMENTS IN NEWARK AND ITS VICINITY, THE NAMES AND LOCALITIES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS NEAR THE MOUNTAIN, THE CONTRO\'EIlSIES AND RIOTS RELATIVE TO rSOPKIETARY AND INDIAN LAND TITLES, INaDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION, THE FORMATION OF OTHEE CHURCHES, ETC., ETC. ; COMPRISING THE MOST INTERESTING PARTICULARS IN THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF ORANGBL BY JAMES HOYT^ PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., No. 25 Park Row. 18G0. ICntercd acoording to Act of Congresf, in the year 1860, by C. M. SAXTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for • the Southern District of New Torlc. Edward O. .If.nkins, T'rinter, 26 Frankfort St., N. Y. This volume — the fruit of laborious and careful researcli, yet somewhat hastily written — is respectfully presented to the Session of the First Church, under whose advice it was undertaken ; to the Congregation whose indulgence has been shown to the writer in its preparation ; to his many fellow- townsmen who have encouraged him in it ; to the gentlemen who have aided in the collection of its materials ; and to all who shall further patronize it as a worthy endeavor to preserve what is memorable in our past and passing local history. PREFACE. The historical materials here presented have" been collected, during the last two years, in the midst of professional engagements which only a pastor can fully appreciate. The task of arrangement has been executed during the latter half of that period. Had all the difficulties of such a work been understood by the writer in advance, it is not at all likely he would ever have undertaken it. Yet he has felt in a degree compensated by the success of his researches. This is the only compensation expected, aside from the satisfaction of doing a service which may prove ac- ceptable to the community among whom his lot is cast. A local history of tliis sort can have no general circulation through the book markets. Its value, however, is not entirely local, nor limited in time. The Christian public at large, and the Church of the future, have an interest in the preservation from oblivion of the names and deeds of those who founded our civil and sacred institutions. 6 PREFACE. He who planted His Church, niul with it a purer civilization, in Canaan, " made His wonderful works to be remembered." This was done for a time by historical monuments, as by the twelve stones taken out of Jordan, the Ebenezer set up by Samuel, the manna laid up in the ark, &c., — memorials that served to 2:>erpetuate a traditional history. But these memo- rials Avcre perishable, and traditions could not long be relied on. Hence the pens of historians were also employed. The early Puritan Churches of America have abun- dance of unwritten memorials. In every piece of our grand frame-work of institutions are seen the Ebene- zers which successive generations have reared. The First Church of Orange -may point to its " pile of stones," containing the very material of a more an- cient sanctuary — " our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised," more than a huudred years ago. It has preserved, too, its ancient faith and pol- ity. But no written history of it has ever before been attempted. The men of the past knew little of their own importance to the religious future of the country ; and if they had known it better, they were so engrossed with the struggles and necessities of the hour as to have little leisure for the historian's work. If Ave have a,s little in these no less stirring times, we PKEFACE. 7 have readied a position which makes it imperative that the task here undertaken be no longer delayed. The past recedes, and the obscurity that gathers over the annals of our older churches will soon be a dark- ness forbidding all research. This conviction led to the formation, in 1852, of the Presbyterian Historical Society, with which all ministers, elders and others are invited to " cooperate, by collecting and trans- mitting old sermons, pamphlets, newspapers, maga- zines, letters, books, manuscripts, portraits, or any relics of the olden time which throw light upon our annals."* The existing records of our Church Session date from January 30, 1803, about a year after the settle- ment of Mr. Hillyer. Those which were extant when he came to the parish are said to have perished in a fire. Thus the names of the ancient officers of the Church, the record of its membership, and the account of its spiritual administration for more than eighty years, were forever lost, except as the first might be gathered from other documents and memorials which time has spared. The oldest papers in the parish are certain deeds preserved by the trustees, which date from its beginning. The oldest volume is the private * Any contributions of the kind may be sent to Samuel Agnew, Esq., 821 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. 8 PREFACE. account-book, m the form of a ledger, and once well bound in parchment, kept by the second pastor, Caleb Smith, and commenced in 1T51. In this are found the names of his parishioners, of a number of boys instructed by him, and an account of the settle- ment of his estate by the executors. After his death tiie trustees kept their records in it, and copied into it the charter obtained in 1783. And from that time the minutes of the trustees, and t])0se of the annual meetings of the parish, have been preserved. From these and other sources much knowledge has been ob- tained respecting the parish during the last century. The labor involved in researches of this kind is peculiarly tedious. Let the reader imagine himself starting from the mouth of the Mississippi, without a map, to trace backward its lengthened flow to its dis- tant sources. Let him think of following the trunk up to its branches, and these to their tributaries, and these to their thousand little feeders and inlets. Such a labor is this. It has sometimes required months to trace some family stream to its ancient springlet. Many an afternoon has been passed in the old gi-aveyard, among monuments so bronzed and moss-grown by the long action of the elements, as almost to defy the hand of Old Mortality. Recourse has been hnd to historical societies, to ecclesiastical PREFACE. 9 records, to old account-books and journals, to deeds and wills, to town records, and to the living descend- ants of pastors and others noticed in the history. The list of Church officers and the statistical tables are the result of investigations renevv^ed and perse- vered in for a year or more. Of all this tbe reader will have little thought as his eye runs over the pages. But as the beauty and pleasure of life, or the value of any work of art, is a result depending on a thousand indispensable details and trifles, even so is it wath a historical narrative. The present labor will have its reward, if, in this " walk about Zion," the writer has gathered anything worthy of being " told to the generation following." In that portion of the work which relates to the early settlements of the town, free use has been made of Dr. Stearns' History of the First Church in Newark ; and much personal aid has been received from Dr. Samuel II. Congar, " the indefatigable antiquarian of Newark," and librarian of the New Jersey Historical Society. Indeed, without the kind interest taken in the work by the latter gentleman, the history in its present expanded form would never have been under- taken. In the biographical notices of two of the pas- tors (Smith and Hilly er), much information has been drawn from Sprague's Annals of the American Pul- 10 PREFACE. pit. For many facts relating to Jedediah Chapman, the writer is indebted to his gi-andson, Kev. Robert H. Chapman, D. D., of Asheville, N. C. He is also under obligations to Rev. Dr. Van Rensselaer, of Philadelphia, Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Albany, Rev. Dr. Murray, of Geneva, Rev. Dr. Krebs, of New York, and a number of others, for their courteous responses to his inquiries. The brief notices given of other religious societies in Orange are from statements kindly furnished by their present pastors. That of the Bloomfield Church is from the published historical discourses of its late j)astor. Rev. J. M. Sherwood. While the pai'ticular subject of this history is the Mountain Society^ it "snll be seen to be identified through a long period Avith a general history of this part of the old township of Newark. The author has undertaken it in the hope of doing an acceptable service to his fellow-townsmen of eveiy class, as well as to the congre2:ation to Avhom ho ministers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. A Hundred and Forty Years Ago— Glance at the Colonies— Ante- cedent History — Proprietary Government— Settlement of New- ark—Names of the Settlers— A Disappointment— Purchase of Lands— Second Purchase — Casting of the Lot — Mountain Farms — Settlers near the Mountain — Accessions — Men who Made their Mark — Character of the Hackinsacks — Bears and Wolves — Houses— Self-Government— End of Proprietary Rule— Horse- neck Purchase 13-45 CHAPTER II. THE MOUNTAIN SOCIETY. Half a Centurj' — A Generation Gone — Presbyterianism and Con- gregationalism — Changes in Newark — A Society organized at the Mountain — Lost Records — Deed given by Thomas Gardner in 1719— Site for a Sanctuary — Question of Date— Newark Par- sonage Lands — Purchase made by the Mountain Society — Its 12 CONTENTS. Boundaries — A " Dissenting Ministry " — First Meeting-House — Spirit of the Settlers — Samuel Pierson, the Carpenter — Hands that Helped — A Happy Day — Pews and Pulpit — Lining the Psalm — Peaceful Worship 46-57 CHAPTER III. EEV. DANIEL TAYLOR. Graduation at Killingworth — Labors on Long Island — Death of his Wife— Eemoval to New Jersey — Deeds and Dates — Home- stead and Farm— Revival of 1734-5 — Negro Plots— The Great Land Monopoly — Its Rights Examined — Measures of Defence — • Prosecutions and Riots — The Rioters Vindicated — Defence of the Proprietors— Mr. Taylor's Part in the Controversy — Mr. Taylor's Will— His Death— Officers of the Church - 46-81 CHAPTER IV. KEV. CALEB SMITH. Samuel Harrison's Day-Book — Parsonage House — The Young Minister — The Church Presbyterian — The Minister's Marriage — Parsonage Memories — Wood-Drawing — More Riots — A Queer Wind — Influence on the Provincial Assembly — Indictments and Fines— Second Meeting-House — Contract for Finishing — Pewholders and Rates — A Hurricane — Death of Mrs. Smith — Sanctified Sorrows — Second Marriage — Mr. Smith's Character — Catechizing — Anecdotes — His Sickness — His Death — Memoir — Settlement of his Estate 82-110 CHAPTER V. EEV. JEDEDIAH CHAPMAN. Letters to Rev. Josepli Bellamy— Settlement of Mr. Chapman — His Marriage — Inadequate Support — Death of Mrs. Chapman — Second Marriage — Samuel Harrison's Will— The Patriot Pastor CONTENTS. 13 — Revolutionary Incidents — Two Young Adventurers — A Court Martial — Figures Sometimes Lie — Murder of Stephen Ball — Effects of the "War — Fourth of July — Mr. Chapman's Politics — The Parish Incorporated — Orange Sloop — Orange Academy — Division of Parsonage Lands — Caldwell Church — "Orange " and " Orangedale " — Sermon before Synod — Items voted by the Trustees — Collection of Rates — Bell-Ringers— Lots for Sale — School Advertisements — Church at Bloomfield — Mr, Chapman's Salary — His Dismission— Newark Cider — Anecdotes of Mr. G. — His Missionary Labors, and Settlement at Geneva — His Death. 111-153 CHAPTER VI. . REV. ASA HILLYEE, D. D. A New Century— Light from the Inner Temple — Revival under the Preaching of Mr. Griffin — Mr. HiUyer's Impressions of Him — Board Account— Rev. Asa HLUyer — Ministry at Madison — Call to Orange — Archibald Alexander — View of the Parish — Church Officers-The Common— Sale of Lots— Revival of ISOT-S — Effects on the Youth — A Ball given up — Strong Convictions — — An Impressive Scene — The Ingathering — Orange Township- Mr. H.'s Salary— Tliird Meetmg-House— The Old BeU— Dedica- tion and Thanksgiving — The Sermon — Cost of the Edifice — The Mineral Spring — Provision for Servants — Removal from the Parsonage— Revival of 1816-17— Sunday-school— Bible Society — National Societies — A Doctor's Degree — Academy Deed — Retrospect— St. Mark's Episcopal Church— Death of Mrs. Hill- yer — Methodist Church — Second Presbyterian and South Orange Churches— Rev. Edwin F. Hatfield, and the Revival of 1832— Dr. Hillyer's Resignation — Division of the General Assembly — Sermon before the Synod — The Last Communion — His Death — Tablet Inscription 154-202 14 CONTENTS, CHAPTER VII. REV. WILLIAM C. WHITE. His Nativity — Studies — Preaching at East Macliias— Settlement at Orange— State of tlie Parisli— Causes of Diminution— Cliureh Officers — Salary — Second Parsonage — First Baptist Church — School Laws — End of the Academy — Vest Bloomfield Church — Sexton's Salary — Hymn Book — Lecture-Eoom — Decrease of Membership — Increase of Beneficence — Revival of 1850 — Mor- ris and Essex Railroad — Immigration — Alterations of the Sanc- tuary — Grace Church— The Old Parsonage Demolished— Mr. "White's Resignation — His Declining Health — Rev. Silas Billings — Mr. "White's Sudden Decease — Minute adopted by the Session — Tablet Inscription 203-225 CHAPTER VIII. RE V . JAMES H O Y T . Five Pastorates — Permanency of the Pastoral Relation — The Writer's Settlement — Death of Judge Day — Officers of the Church — New Officers—View of tlie Parish — James Greacen — Mission Scliool — North Orange Baptist Church — The Flock Smitten — Commercial Crisis — Blessings in Adversity — Revival of 1858- Features of the Revival — Additions to the Churches — New House of Worship by the Methodist Congregation — Gas Lights — Church Edifice at Orange Valley— Sunday-school Re- established for Colored People— What vire owe to the Past — Progress of Society — What we may Claim — Summary View of the Churches - - - 226-252 CHAPTER IX. A VIEAV OF ORANGE. Orange in 1834— Climate— Relations to Newark and New York — Extent and Appearance -Trade and Business - Farms and CONTENTS. 15 Homes— Lie \vell3a1 Park — Eagle Rock—The Old Mineral Spring —Barrett's Park— The Mountain House— Orange Valley — The Village— Springdale Lake— Second River and the Streams that form it — Rosedale Cemetery — Institutions of Orange — Printing- Press— Orange Journal— The Old Academy Building — Orange Female Seminary — Private Schools and Academies — Public Schools — The Old Orange Library — The Lyceum — The Orange Library Association — What the Village Needs— Laj,e Improve- ments — Fire Engine — Police Wanted — Preliminary Measures Toward a Better Government of the Town - - 253-280 HISTORY. CHAPTER I. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. IN those ancient Lands where civilization had its birth, the centuries pass with little change of scenery or society. " That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been." Na- tions revolve, like the planets, in a fixed orbit, and the stereoscope of history presents ever the same view. The pyramids are their historic symbols. The current of the ages brings nothing to them and bears nothing away. Even changes of race and religion leave behind them a marvellous sameness. The old is a receptacle of the new, and arts, man- ners and ideas are soon shaped to the mould into which they have been cast. The causes are ob- vious ; the cautious conservatism of despotic gov- ernments, and the stagnation of man's intellectual life under them. 2 14 GLANCE AT THE COLONIES. We need not suggest to the intelligent reader the contrast seen in our western civilization, especially in the free States of North America. Here all is action, motion, progression. Turning the eye to any part of the wide field of our history, we see realized in society the gigantic strides ascribed by Homer to his divinities. The present history dates from a point not very ancient — less than two hundred years ago. Its proper beginning lies nearer, in the time of George the First, about two-thirds of a century before our national independence. The European popula- tion of New England then scarcely exceeded a hundred thousand. East and West Jersey were just united. The smoke of the wigwam rose here in the forest; the fox and the wolf strayed without fear from their mountain coverts. The Boston Neivs-Letier, the first American newspaper, was but fourteen years old, and without a competitor. Philadelphia and New York were provincial villages. The first post-ofiice in America, at New York, had been established less than ten years. The spinning-wheel was just crossing the ocean, and the potato was just taking root on the plantations of Londonderry. The first cargo of tea was about em- barking, to try its fortunes this side of the water. The colonists were yet dependent on Europe for their table luxuries, for many physical comforts, ANTECEDENT HISTORY. 15 for Bibles and other books, for academic privileges and preachers. There was in New York " a small Presbyterian flock, assembling in a house without galleries, six out of its eight windows being closed with boards, poverty preventing their being glazed, and the fraction of light being enough for the hand- ful of people."* The old Presbytery of Philadelphia, formed about 1706 with seven ministers, had increased in number to twenty -five, and had just resolved itself in 1716 into four presbyteries, forming a synod. New Jersey had scarcely a dozen churches. The founder of Methodism was a youth of sixteen in Oxford university, quite ignorant of the grand mis- sion for which the grace of God was preparing him. His future competitor in the work of evangelical reform, George Whitefield, was playing about the rooms of the Bell Inn, kept by his mother at Gloucester, a lad of five years old. Since that day, — a hundred and forty years ago — what hath God wrought ! These fourteen decades, — have they not been, in the progress of American civilization and Christianity, as fourteen centuiies ? But we shall have to go back a little farther to gain the proper starting-point of the present narra- tive. Our history Avill lead us over a considerable period, during which civil and ecclesiastical affairs * Webster's Hist. Pres. Cluirch, p. 120. The Church was or- ganized in 1715. 16 PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. were blended. We shall find the ground we stand upon a field of conflict with English proprietors, and a religious community unhappily agitated by "questions of their law." We may as well, there- fore, at the outset, explain the antecedents of that controversy, by giving a short account of the settle- ment of this region, under the proprietary govern- ment. As early as 1658, a settlement was begun upon what was called the " Bergen grant," on which a trading station had been established by the Dutch, forty years before. In 1663, a band of Puritans from Long Island obtained permission of the Dutch to plant their institutions on the banks of tlie Raritan and the Minnisink. In the following year, some families of Quakers were found on the south side of Raritan Bay. In the same year. King Charles the Second, by letters patent under the great seal of England, granted to his brother James, Duke of York, a tract of land stretching from the Connecticut river to the Delaware. Of this exten- sive grant, the portion now called New Jersey was conveyed the same year, by deeds of lease and re- lease, to John Lord Barclay [or Berkley] and Sir George Carteret. This portion was again divided, in 1676, between Sir George and the assigns of Lord Berkley, the former taking the eastern part. Carteret, by his will, dated December 5, 1678, de- vised to certain trustees therein named a power to KULES OF SETTLEMENT. 17 sell East New Jersey ; a trust which was executed three years thereafter, by a sale, conveying the same in fee to William Penu, Kobert West and others, to the number of twelve. These twelve proprietors, by particular deeds, took each a part- ner, so that East New Jersey became vested in twenty-four persons, who were known thencefor- ward as the twenty-four Proprietors. By these a Council of Proprietors was appointed, to consist of at least one-third part of the whole number of proprietors, or their proxies, and possessing all ne- cessary powers of administration.* To encourage immigration, the proprietors, Berk- ley and Carteret, published their "Charters of Concessions," prescribing the fundamental rules and methods by which property in their lands should be acquired. One was, "That all such persons who should transport themselves into the province of New Jersey within certain times limited by the said Concessions, should be entitled to grants or patents under the seal of the Province, for certain quantities of acres in the said Concessions expressed, paying therefore yearly the rent of one half-penny, sterling money, for every acre so to be granted." Another rule was, "That all lands should be pur- chased by the governor and council from the Indians, from time to time, as there should be oc- * See Publication of the Council of Proprietors, March 25, 1746, in appendix to Bill in Chancery ; also, in New York Post-Boy. 18 NEWARK SETTLED. casion, in the name of the Lords Proprietors ; and every person settling was to pay his proportion of that purchase money and charges."'"' It will be seen that the proprietors recognized in these rules the right of the Indians to a compensation for their lands, while they monopolized the right of purchase. No others could buy but through them. The Indians could sell only to them. Against this as- sumption of power over the soil and its original tenants, there was made subsequently a vigorous and determined opposition. In August, 1665, Philip Carteret, a brother of Sir George, having received an appointment from the proprietors as governor of the colony, appeared among the tenants of the scattered cabins about Elizabethtown, which was then but a cluster of four houses. In honor of Lady Carteret, the place re- ceived her name, and rose into dignity as the capital of the province. The settlement of Newark, by immigrants from Connecticut, began in the following year. The movement was occasioned by dissatisfaction with certain measures attending the uaion of the New '* Publication, &c. as above. They also offered a bounty of seventy-five acres for the importation of each able slave. This in- human appeal to avarice had its motive in the fact that the Duke of York v?as a patron of the slave trade, and president of the African Company. f Bancroft, Hist. U. S., Vol. II., p. 318. OBJECT OF THE SETTLERS. 19 Haven and the Connecticut colonies, of wbicli one of the most obnoxious was the half-way covenant, that secured certain ecclesiastical privileges, such as the baptism of children, to persons not in full com- munion with the church. The 2:)ioneer company, which comprised about thirty families, came from Milford in the spring of 1666. Their 'first town meeting was held the 21st of May, when delegates were present from Guilford and Branford to con- fer upon the subject of a union in the organization of a township. The union was mutually agreed upon, and its object and conditions explained and arranged. The great object was " the carrying on of spiritual concernments, as also of civil and town aJBtairs, according to God, and a godly government," which had ever been the cherished idea of the Puritans. It was a grand religious idea, but every experiment, before and then, only added to the proof that " spiritual concernments" are best carried on through institutions of their own, under political protection, yet separated from civil affairs. A godly government, as they understood it, cannot long be maintained without the disfranchisement of worthy citizens. And the making of piet3'' and church communion a necessary qualification for civil" offices, is but a premium offered to hypocrisy. The settlement of Newark was among the last ex- periments that demonstrated the delusive hope of the old Puritans, who were greatly wise in many 20 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT. things, but not in all. It was another and vain repetition of an experiment which the Branford pastor had already made at two previous settle- ments, first on Long Island, and then at Branford. In the following October, the delegates having returned and reported, a meeting was held at Bran- ford, and two articles drawn up, known as "the fundamental agreement," to which twenty-three principal men of the town attached their names. They were the following : "1. That none shall be admitted freemen or free Burgesses within our town upon Passaic river, in the Province of New Jersey, but such planters as are members of some or other of the Congregational Churches, nor shall any but such be chosen to magistracy, or to carry on any part of civil judica- ture, or as deputies or assistants to have power to vote in establishing laws, and making or repealing them, or to any chief military trust or office ; nor shall any but such church members have any vote in any such elections ; though all others admitted to be planters, have right to their proper inheri- tances, and do and shall enjoy all other civil liberties and privileges according to all laws, orders, grants, •which are or shall hereafter be made for this town. 2. We shall, with care and diligence, provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion professed in the Congregational churches." * '■"' Newark Town Records. Stearns' Hist., p. 11. NAMES OF SETTLERS. 21 These articles were subscribed by- JASPER CRANE, ABRAHAM PIERSON, SAMUEL SWAINE, LAURENCE WARD, THOMAS BLACTHLY, SAMUEL PLUM, JOSIAH "WARD, SAMUEL ROSE, THOMAS PIERSON, JOHN WARD, JOHN CATLING, RICHARD HARRISON, EBENEZER CANFIELD, JOHN WARD, SEN., EDWARD BALL, JOHN HARRISpN, JOHN CRANE, THOMAS HUNTINGTON, DELIVERED CRANE, AARON BLACTHLY, RICHARD LAURENCE, JOHN JOHNSON, THOMAS LYON. And upon being transmitted to the new settlement the inhabitants already there held a public meeting, June 24, 1667, when the following names, forty in number, were also subscribed to them : ROBERT TREAT, OBADIAH BRUEN, MATTHEW CAMFIELD, SAMUEL KITCHELL, JEREMIAH PECK, MICHAEL TOMPKINS, STEPHEN FREEMAN, HENRY LYON, JOHN BROWNE, JOHN ROGERS, STEPHEN DAVIS, 2* GEORGE DAY, THOMAS JOHNSON, JOHN CURTIS, EPHRAIM BURWELL, ROBERT DENISON, NATHANIEL WHEELER, WILLIAM CAMP, JOSEPH WALTERS, ROBERT DALGLESH, HANS ALBERS, THOMAS MORRIS, 22 A DISAPPOINTMENT. EDWARD RIGS, HUGH ROBERTS, ROBERT KITCHELL, EPHRAIM PENNINGTON, JOHN BROOKS, MARTIN TICHENOR, ROBERT LYMENS, JOHN BROWN, JUN., FRANCIS LINLE, JONATHAN SEARGEANT, DANIEL TICHENOR, AZARIAH CRANE, JOHN BAULDWIN, SEN,, SAMUEL LYON, JOHN BAULDWIN, JUN,, JOSEPH RIGGS, JONATHAN TOMPKINS, STEPHEN BOND. The names thus brouglit from tlie Connecticut coast to the banks of the Passaic have since ra- diated in all directions over this portion of New- Jersey ; while the church in Newark, whose roll they first constituted, and in which many of them are yet found, is still " liice a tree planted by the rivers of water," Its leaf has not withered by an age of nearly two hundred years. We have seen that, by the Concessions, all lands were to be purchased of the Indians by the Gov- ernor and Council in the name of the proprietors, while every person settling was to pay his propor- tion of the purchase money and charges. By this rule the colonists expected to find Indian claims pacified, and the way clear for the undisturbed occupancy of such lands as they needed. But when the Milford compan}' arrived and commenced landing their goods, a party of the Hackinsacks appeared, who warned them off, saying the lands PURCHASE OF LANDS. 23 were uot yet purchased. This unexpected an- nouncement came near defeating the enterprise. For " on the subject of real estate in the New World, the Puritans differed from the lawyers widely ; asserting that the heathen, as a, part of the lineal descendants of Noah, had a rightful claim to their lands."* And so, putting their goods back upon the vessel, they were about to return. The governor, however, dissuaded them from this, and as the Indians were not unwilling to sell their lands, resort was had to negotiation. The agents on the part of the town were Eobert Treat and Samuel Edsal ; on the part of the In- dians, the chief negotiator was Perro^ a Sagamore, acting with the advice and consent of an aged Sagamore, not then able to travel, whose name was OratoTL John Capteen, a Dutchman, assisted the negotiations as interpreter. This was in 1666. The bill of sale was not made out till July 11, 1667. This was signed by Obadiah Bruen, Michael Tompkins, Samuel Kitchell, John Brown, and Eo- bert Denison, on the part of the town ; and by Wapamuck, Harish, Captamin, Sessom, Mamus- tome, Peter, Wamesane, Wekaprokikan, Cacnack- que and Perawae, on the part of the Indians.f * Bancroft, Yol. II., 319. f Stearns' Hist., p. 11. "Was Perro, (whose name is variously spelled in the old manuscripts as Perro, Parow, Parrow, Ac.,) the same person with Perawae ' 24 SECOND PURCHASE. The purchase extended to the foot of the great mountain called Watchung," The price paid was " fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets^ four barrels of beer, ten pair of breeches, fifty knives, twenty hoes, eight hundred and fifty fathom of wampum, twenty ankers of liquors, or something equivalent, and three troopers' coats." A second purchase, March 13, 1677-8, extended the limits to the top of the mountain, for " two guns, three coats, and thirteen cans of rum."* The second purchase was from " Winachsop and Shenachtos^ Indians, the owners of the great moun- tain Watchung." The reader who knows the pres- ent worth of those mountain lands, would scarcely imagine that the whole broad slope which men of capital and taste are now so eager to purchase and * It may interest the reader to find a fragment of the language spoken by these primitive masters of the soil. The following numerals are remembered by Aaron Burr Harrison, as communi- cated to him by his great uncle, Samuel Harrison, who was born in the year 1719, and lived to his 92d year. We can fiincy iiow often they were repeated during the negotiations above described. We discover in them the decimal svstem. 1. een. 6. latter. 11. een dick. 16. een bumsack. 2. teen. 7. satter. 12. teen dick. 17. teen bumsack. 3. tether. 8. po. 13. tether dick. 18. tether bumsack. 4. fether. 9. debbety. U. fether dick. 19. fether bumsack. 5. fimp. 10. dick. 15. bumsack. 20. enock. CASTING LOTS, 25 occupy, was once valued at " two guns, three coats, and thirteen cans of rum," The territory thus acquired, by a moral right from the natives, and by a legal right from the Pro- prietors, embraced the present townships of New- ark, Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Clinton. In the division of the lands, each settler received a "home lot" in the town laid out on the river, for which lots were drawn ; the Jersey Canaan being assorted in strict conformity with Hebrew prece- dents — ever the Puritanic model. There were, also, first, second and third divisions of the " upland," with an equitable distribution of the " bogged meadow," an indispensable accessor}^ The settlement on the river began very soon to spread itself in this direction. The inviting plain between the Passaic and the mountain could not long remain an uncultivated woodland, with a race of hardy yeomanry growing up on its border. We give such names as we have been able to gather of those who first located or had lands surveyed to them in this part of the wilderness. Robert Lymon^ by warrant of Aug. 19, 1675, had ''part of his third division on the mountain" — 44: acres — bounded north-west by the mountain, north- east by John Baldwin, Sen., south-east by Capt. Samuel Swaine, south-west by Eichard Harrison. August 28, 1675. Samuel Swaine had 40 acres at the foot of the mountain, with John Baldwin, 26 ORANGE SETTLERS. Sen., on the north, Robert Ljmon and Richard Harrison on the west, Richard Harrison on the east, the common on the south. Sept. 10, 1675. John Baldwin^ Sen., had for his third division, near the mountain, 40 acres, with Capt. Samuel Swaine and John Catlin north, Ser- geant Richard Harrison east, John Ward (distin- guished as John Ward, turner,) south, the top of the mountain west. John Catlin had 60 acres, ex- tending to the top of tlie mountain. Richard Har- rison had fifty acres, with tlie widow Freeman south, and also 15 acres "upon the branch of Rah- way river," bounded west by John Catlin and John Baldwin, Sen., east by a small brook running from the mountain, north and south by the com- mon. June 9, 1679. Thomas Johnson had a tract by the foot of the mountain, 50 by 13 chains, bounded north by John Ward, Jun., south by Mr. John Ward, Sen., east by the plain, west by the top of the hill. Said tract to remain for 50 acres, allow- ance being made for bad land. John Ward, Sen., had 50 acres, with Thomas Johnson north, the plain east, John Catlin south, the hill west. Anthony Oliff (or Olive) had 50 acres, with Sam- uel Harrison south, the mountain west, unsurveyed lands on the north and east. This farm included on its northern border the street now known as ORANGE SETTLERS. 27 Williamsville. It appears, from the town-book, that the owner at first took possession of more land than the agreements allowed, confessed his fault, submitted the land to the town's disposal, and bj his request was admitted a planter in 1678. He married the widow of George Day,-;7-the orig- inal of that name in Newark and Orange — and died, without children, March 16, 1723, aged 87 years. His grave has the oldest headstone in the old burial-ground. The owner of the farm after his death was PeUg Shores^ who, on the 23d of April, 1723, conveyed the eastern and southern portions of it (one equal half ) to Jonathan Linds- ley, the deed being witnessed by {Rev) Daniel Tay- lor and Mattheio Williams. In 1726, the same was sold to David Williams^ who, in 1730, purchased also the other half. June 13, 1679. Fifty-nine acres of upland were laid out for Joseph Harrison, bounded on the north- east by Benjamin Harrison, and on the north-west by "Perroth's brook." If any of these farms were at this time under improvement, they were scarcely occupied as homesteads ; for it was not till Dec. 12, 1681, that surveyors were chosen, of whom Eichard Harrison was one, " to lay out highways as far as the moun- tain, if need be, and to lay out the third division to all who have a desire to have it laid out, and passages to all lands." 28 ORANGE SETTLERS. In March, 1685, Paul^ George and Samuel Day, heirs of George Day, had surveyed to them by W. Camp, surveyor, sixty acres, bounded with the mountain west, Matthew Williams south. Wigwam brook east, and the common north ; Matthew Wil- liams having been admitted a planter, with others, in 1680, " provided they pay the purchase for their lands, as others have done." In January, 1688-9, Greorge exchanged lands with Matthew, the latter parting with a dwelling-house, shop, or- chard, and other edifices and lands near Newark, and receiving two tracts at the mountain, one bounded east with Wigwam brook, and the other (swamp land) with Parow's brook. The place to which he seems to have removed his residence about that time has since taken the name of Wil- liamsville, from his descendants. By the will of Joseph Riggs, 1688, land at the mountain was given to his sons, Samuel and Zo- phar. The latter is supposed to have been the father of Joseph, who died 1744, aged 69. It em- braced probably the farm a little west of South Orange, on which an old stone house yet remains, in which Elder Joseph Riggs was born, in 1720. By warrant of April 27, 1694, there was laid out for John Gardner, in right of Abraham Pier- son, a tract at the foot of the mountain, having Azariah Crane on the north-east, Jasper Crane on the south-west. ORANETOWN. 29 Azariah Crane, brotlier of Sergeant Jasper, and son-in-law of Capt. Eobert Treat, was a deacon of the Newark Churcli. His sons, Azariah and Na- thaniel (father of William and Noah), settled Cranetoion, now West Bloomfield. At a town meeting, held January 1, 1697-8, it was " voted that Thomas Hayse, Joseph Harrison, Jasper Crane and ]\Iatthew Can field shall view whether Azariah Crane may have land for a tan-yard at the front of John Plum's home lot, out of the common ; and in case the men above-mentioned agree that Azariah Crane shall have the land, then he, the said Azariah Crane shall enjoy it so long as he doth follow the trade of tanning." As we learn from the Town Book that, in 1715, he and Ed- ward Ball had been settled near the mountain many years, we conjecture that the decision of the examiners in the matter of the tan-yard was against the applicant, and that it gave to Cranetown one of its first inhabitants, if it did not give to the Mountain Society one of its first deacons. Deacon Crane was by this time an old man. Whether his relations were ever transferred to the new Society, may admit of a doubt. Nathaniel Wheeler obtained a warrant, April 10, 1696, for 100 acres at the mountain, which were surveyed in three tracts : one north of the high- way, with John Johnson north, Thomas John- son and Mr. Ward's lots west ; one south of the 30 ORANGE SETTLERS. mountain-path, witli Eobert Dalglesli east, Jasper Crane south, Harrison's lot west ; the third on the upiper Chestnut hill, by the stone house brook, bounded south bj said brook, west by Sarnucl Freeman and unsurveyed land, north by Thomas Luddington ; these several tracts to lie for 100 acres, because there was much barren in them. He was a son of Thomas "Wheeler, of Milford, where he was married, June 21, 1665, to Esther, daughter of Henry Bochford. With his young wife, he came to Newark with the first company, signed the agreement with the Branford Company, came to the mountain, and lived just long enough to see the Mountain Society organized, and to con- vey to it " a parcel of ground for a burying-place," where he was one of the first to be interred. He died, Oct. 4, 1726, in his 87th year; his wife, March 14, 1732, at the same age. Samuel Pierson, who was probably one of the first deacons of the church here, was born in Bran- ford, in 1664, a son of Thomas Pierson, senior, so called to distinguish him from a son of Eev. Abra- ham Pierson. His mother was Mary, daughter of Richard Harrison, Sen., of Branford. Coming to Newark, he married Mary Harrison, daughter of his uncle Richard, and sister of Joseph, Daniel, Samuel, Benjamin, George, and John Harrison, and settled probably in South Orange, where his descendants lived. He was by trade a carpenter. ORANGE SETTLEKS. 31 His children were Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, Caleb, Jemima, Marj, Hannah. In the line of Joseph were Deacons Bethuel and Joseph Pierson, of the next two generations. He (Samuel) was bn^ried in the old church-yard of Orange, March, 1730, with an honorable memorial. Samuel Harrison, one of the sons of "Richard just mentioned, owned land at the mountain, but never resided on it. His wife was Mary, daughter of John Ward, Sen., and sister of Dorcas, his brother Joseph's wife. By his will, dated Jan. 7, 1712-13, he gave fifty acres to his son Samuel, bounded by Anthony Olive on the north, widow Abigail Ward on the south, a highway east, and the mountain west. The farm was improved by . the son, whose descendants are now numerous in the township. He had another son, John, who is said to have settled in Bloomfield, and five daugh- ters, of whom Eleanor, the youngest, wife o£ Eben- ezer Lindsley, lived to the age of 100 years and two months. She was born about 1696. The Lindsley s, of Orange, are descended from Francis, one of the Newark settlers. In the old colony records of New Haven, the names of Fran- cis and John Linsley, brothers, appear as early as 1644. The births of Deborah and Euth, daugh- ters of Francis, are on record in Branford. His sons, Benjamin, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Ebenezer, (and probably a Daniel,) were born in Newark. 32 ORANGE SETTLERS. ThroTigh Ebenezer, Benjamin, and John, we trace the line down to John M, Lindslej, the oldest liv- ing representative of the name in this locality. Ebenezer died in Orange in 1743, at the age of 78. Joseph, at "Whippany, 1753, aged 77. John, (or one of that name, in whose will a brother Daniel is mentioned,) at Morristown, 1749, aged 82. Fran- cis, the ancestor, was living in Kewark in 1704, when he must have been more than 80 years old. His grave is not found, and the writer is informed by Samuel H. Congar, that not one of the name has a headstone in the old burying-ground of Newark. From Edward Ball have descended the Balls of South Orange, in the line of his son Thomas and grandson Aaron. From Caleb, another son, have sprung the Balls of Hanover. Those of East Bloomfield are from Joseph, another son. A daughter, Lydia, married Joseph Peck, ancestor of the Pecks of Orange. There were two other chil- dren, — Abigail, wife of Daniel Harrison, and Moses, who had no children. Of the two Canfields, (or Camfields,) who were among the original settlers, Matthew died about 1673, and Ebenezer in 1694. From the latter, through his son Joseph, and his grandson Eben- ezer, who Avas buried in Orange at the age 73, have descended the Canfields who are now Avith us. We find on a headstone in Orange, the name of ORANGE SETTLERS. 33 '' the very pious and godly Mr. Job Brown, one of the pillars of the church of Christ in this place," who was born in 1710. The man whose pious worth is thus honorably commemorated, was a great-grandson of one of the first settlers. Though he left children and gTandchildren, the name (though not likely to become extinct in the world) has dis- appeared from our church list. His ancestor, John Browne, had a 'daughter Hannah, who married Joseph Riggs, and Elizabeth, who married Samuel Freeman, Both these names belong to our history, but Ave are unable to connect the latter with an}'' of the lines that we have traced backward among the Freemans of a later day. He was doubtless an ancestor of Deacon Samuel' Freeman, who was another " pillar of the church of Christ," contem- porary with " the very pious and godly Mr. Job Brown." The Dodds^ now a numerous race, are descend- ants of " Daniel Dod," (from England,) who died in Branford in 1661:-5. He and his wife Mary having deceased before the emigration to New Jersey took place, and their sons being all minors, the name does not appear among the subscribers to the fundamental agreement. Of their children — four sons and two daughters — Mary was the wife of Aaron Blachthly (or Blatchly) ; Daniel had a home lot assigned him in Newark, and a farm on the hill west of the town ; Ebenezer was admitted 34 DODDTOWN. a planter (on subscribing the agreement) in 1674, and Samuel in 1679 ; Stephen settled in Guilford, Conn. " In March, 1678, Daniel Dod and Edward Ball were appointed to run the northern line of the town from Passaic river to the mountain. About this time Daniel Dod surveyed and had located to him a tract of land on and adjoining to "Watsessing plain [now Bloomfield], and bounded on the west and south by unlocated lands. A considerable portion of this land is yet in the possession of his descendants. He was chosen a deputy to the Pro- vincial Assembly in 1692, being then 42 years of age."* On this land his sons Daniel, Stephen, and John, and his daughter Dorcas, settled, — John building on the site occupied by the late David Dodd (and now by Josiah F.) in Doddtown. In the numerous family of the third Daniel was our elder and deacon, Isaac Dodd, whose name will appear at a later period. Among the early accessions to the Newark col- ony were John and Deborah Cundit^ or Condit. Their son Peter married Mary, daughter of Sam- uel Harrison, Sen., and was the flither of Samuel, Peter, John, Nathaniel, Philip, Isaac and Mary. His place of residence is not known, but his son John was probably the John Cuudit mentioned in * Records of Daniel Dod and his descendants, by Rev. Stephen Dodd. The original orthograpliv was Dod. ORANGE SETTLERS. 35 1739, in connection with John Ward, to whom the court gave license to keep public-honses at the mountain. The Cundit House, kept at a more re- cent period bj Isaac A. Smith, is identified in locahtj with the " Orange Hotel," now kept by T. A. Eeeve. The name belongs to every period of our church and township. David Ogden came to Newark from Elizabeth- town about 167 7. John Ogden — probably his son — married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Wheeler, and their children Avere Hannah, Phebe, Jemima, Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Isaac. Joseph Peck appears in 1699. In 1719 he was one of a commission, including Deacon Azariah Crane, Joseph and Moses Ball, Joseph Baldwin, and four others, appointed on the part of Newark to meet the commisioners of Ackquackonong for the purpose of renewing a boundary line. Joseph Peck, Jr., born 1702, became an elder and deacon of the Orange church. His son John, who held the same offices, was father of Mr. John Peck, one of the oldest living inhabitants of Pecktoion^ (East Orange,) which has taken its name from the family. Besides these, among the first or second generation of settlers, we find the names Tichenor, Tompkins,* * Michael Tompkins is supposed by S. H. Congar to have been the man who concealed the regicide judges in Milford, viz. : Goflfe, Whalley, and Dixwell, concerned in the condemnation of King Charles T. See the account in Stearns' Hist , p. .3.5, note. 36 MEN OF MARK. Kitchel], Lamson, Nutman, and others, now found in Orange. The Muuns and Smiths have come in somewhat later. The Camps, of Camptown, lie within or near the ancient limits of our parish, but the name is not a frequent or prominent one upon any of its records that now exist. These men had little thought that a historic in- terest could ever attach to them. Reared among the peasantry of England, or in the American wilderness before the schoolmaster was abroad, they had simply the knowledge that is unto salva- tion, and the ambition to live as members of a godly community. Some of them could not write their names. Thus, in signing the fundamental agreements, Thomas Lyon made Iiis L viark^ and John Brooks his B marlc^ and Robert Lymens his V marl-^ and Francis Linle Ids F marl:^ and Robert Denison his R marl^:. Yet did these same illiterate men make their mark also upon the institutions of New Jersey, impressing upon them a character they were never to lose. And they were the stock whence others have sprung, who have adorned the highest stations. They brought with them the energy of the Anglo-Saxon, and the somewhat rigorous yet vigorous and stable religious princi- ples of the Puritan. Entering the forest with bold hearts, they placed tlie rude cabin b}' the side of the wigwam, and made the woods vocal at once with praise to God and with the sounds of civilized indiajSts peaceable. oi industry. While the institutions of Penn were spreading and taking form in the bordering prov- ince, and those of English Episcopacy in Vir- ginia ; while Eliot, " the morning star of missionary enterprise,"* was giving the Bible to the jVIas- sachusetts Indians ; while the Pohanokets, under King Philip, were spreading terror through settle- ments around which they hung " like tlie lightning on the edge of the clouds ;"■!* while Cotton Mather, with a cruel zeal for the Lord, was exterminating witchcraft from his parish at Salem ; the Newark colonists, intermingling with the peaceful Hackin- sacks, whose rights they treated with justice and respect, were quietly engaged in felling the forest, breaking up the generous soil, building mills, dig- ging mines, exterminating the bear and the wolf; or, as often as the Sabbath came, assembling de- voutly at the beat of the drum in their rude but honored sanctuary. To the peaceable temper of the Indians we have this testimony from the Council of Proprietors at a later period : " 'We are well assured that, since the first settlement of New Jersey, there is not one instance can be assigned of any breach of peace with the Indians thereof (though very few of the other provinces can say so as to their Indians) ; nor that any pro[)rietor ever presumed to dispos- sess one of them, or disturb him in his possession ; • Bancroft. t Wnshiiisjton Irving'. 3 38 BEARS AND WOLVES. but have always amicably paid tbem for their claims, from time to time, as they could agree with them ; nor was the Crown, nor the Legislature of the province of New Jersey, now for fourscore years past, since the settlement of this province, ever jmt to one penny of charge or expense for keeping the Indians thereof in peace, in bounties, presents, or otherwise ; which is well known to be far otherwise in other provinces, and may, and probably will soou be, otherwise here, if some late tamperings with the Indians thereof be neglected and passed over with impunity."* The bears and wolves, especially the latter, in the township of Newark, were more troublesome. From their ramparts in the mountains they would listen to no terms of negotiation. A peace with them had to be conquered by stratagem or prowess. And many a bounty, as tempting to the poor colo- nist as the excitement of the hunt, had to bo offered. Repeatedly, for a considerable period, avc meet with such votes ns the following, in the min- utes of the town nieeting: "September 6, 1698. It is agreed upon by vote, for the encouragement of those that will kill wolves, that they shall have twenty shillings per head allowed them in a town rate for this year." Four years later, the- bounty offered was twelve shillings. This for a full-grown * Pnblionlion of 25tli Marcli, 1140 BOUNTIES. 89 wolf; for a bear cub, five shillings. But tbe beast must be caught and killed within the limits of the town to secure the bounty. Sergeant Riggs, who had charge of a wolf pit, seems to have directed his soldierly art and courage to this species of war- fare, as the mighty jSTimrod did long before him. The wolf, being captured, was taken to "a magis- trate, who took his ears to witness to the transac- tion, and gave to the captor, in return, a receipt that passed for the value of the specified bounty with the tax-collector. The town had one expedient for the relief of such as were out of purse, which Governor Carteret had not, perhaps, thought of, when he answered the objections originally inade to the halfpenny quit-rent by saying : " As for the purchasers being out of purse, I cannot help them therein." A certain Scotchman, James Johnstone, writing to his friends at home, said the wolves " are nothing to be feared, neither are the country people afraid to be among them all night, insomuch that I oft- times going wrong, and lying out all night, and hearing their yells about me, and telling that I was afraid of them, the country people laughed at it."* The snakes were still less to be feared, "for ^" Quoted with references, by Stearns, p. '79. In 1682, a double bounty was offered for wolves, 15 shillings being paid by the county, and 15 by the town. " In 1695, these bounties were re- pealed, and it was left to the discretion of each ^wn to adopt 40 HOUSES. nothing can come near them but they give warn- ing with the ratthng of their tails, so that people may either kill them or go by them, as they please." What influence these assurances had to bring over the water any of the "kith and kin " of the worthy Scot, we know not. There was a con- siderable infusion of Scotch into the Newark settle- ment before the beginning of the eighteenth century. The style of the Jersey houses of that day is thus described by Gawen Lawrie, writing to a friend in London : " A carpenter, with a man's own servants, builds a house. They have all ma- terials for nothing, except nails. The poorer sort set up a house of two or three rooms after this manner: The walls are of cloven timber, about eight or ten inches broad, like planks, set one end to the ground, and the other nailed to the raising, which they plaster within." At Ambo}^, where a great city was to be built, a beginning was made by Samuel Groome in the erection of three houses, in 1683, which were thus described by him : " The houses at Amboy are thirty feet long, and sixteen feet wide; ten feet between joint and joint ; a double chimne}^, made with timber and clay, as such measures as might be necessary to exterminate the wolves. General legislation, however, was again resorted to, in JIarch, 1714, and the bounty was extended to panthers and red foxes." In 1730, tliat on foxes was withdrawn. In 1751, the bounty was " sixty shillings for wolves, and ten shillings for whelps." Barber find Howe's Hist. Collect. (1S44), p. 40, SELF-GOVERNMENT. 41 tlie manner of the country is to build." Such edi- fices " will stand in about £50 a house."* These were doubtless a fliir type of the homes of the wealthier class. The capacity of the Newark community for self- government was early tested. " Will you know," inquires Bancroft, " with how little government a community of husbandmen may be safe ? For twelve years the whole province was not in a set- tled condition. From June, 1689, to August, 1692, East Jersey had no government whatever." The maintenance of order, during this period, rested wholly with the local authorities and with the people themselves. A town meeting was ac- cordingly convened, March 25, 1689-90, to pro- vide for the exigency, Hamilton, the deputy-Gov- ernor, having left for Europe the preceding August. It was "Voted, that there shall be a committee chosen to order all affairs, in as prudent a way as they can, for the safety and preservation of our- selves, wives, children and estates, according to the capacity we are in." The committee consisted of Mr. Ward, Mr. Johnson, Azariah Crane, Wil- liam Camp, Edward Ball and John Brown, " with those in military capacity." It was well for the little commonwealth, in those times of disorder, that they were qualified, not only for "the carry- " Smith's New Jersey ; Steams, p. 30. 42 END OF PliOPRIETARY RULE. irig on of spiritual concernments," but also for the regulation of " civil and town affairs, according to Ood and a godly government. ^^ It was not simply that they were a community of husbandmen, as inti- mated by the historian, that made them safe with- out the protection of provincial laws ; they had a higher law, a more imperative rule of action, writ- ten upon ilie heart. The breaking up of the Proprietary government took place during the war between England and Holland, when the Dutch took forcible possession of the province. On the return of peace, the Pro- prietors were reinstated with new powers. Pro- fessing still to adhere to the original Concessions, they published a " declaration of their true intent and meaning," which was really a declaration, in some essential points, of things not intended and meant. The people saw in it a breach of the Con- cessions, and a dangerous abridgment of their priv- ileges. And the seeds of discontent, thus rashly sown by the Proprietors, rapidly ripened to such power, that they were constrained, in 1702, to sur- render the reins of government to the British crown. Tyranny, acting in obedience to avarice, defeated its own end. Nor did the effect stop here. The wave set in motion by the popular reaction rolled on with accumulating force, and having first stripped the Proprietors of their governmental functions, broke down at last their gigantic and HORSENECK PUllCHASE. 43 odioas monopolj^ of the soil. This was, however, the work of three-quarters of a century. The Last and effective sweep of quit-rents and proprietary exactions was made by the American revolution. About this time was made another extensive purchase of Indian lands. The tide of population, setting back from the coast, had reached the moun- tain. It was now to break over, and carry its freight of civilization still farther into the interior. Preliminary action was taken at a town meeting, Oct. 2, 1699. " It was agreed, by the generality of the town, that they would endeavor to make a purchase of a tract of land lying westward of our bounds to the south branch of Passaic river ; and such of the town as do contribute to the purchase of said land, shall have their proportion according to their contribution." Mr. Pierson and Ensign Johnson w^ere chosen to go and treat with the Pro- prietors about obtaining a grant. Samuel Harri- son, George Harrison, Thomas Davis, Eobert Young, Daniel Dod, Nathaniel Ward and John Cooper were a committee to consider and put for- ward the design. On the 3d of Sept., 1701, cer- tain ^'■articles of agreement'''' touching the matter were adopted and subscribed by one hundred prin- cipal men of the town, and one woman, each sub- scriber designating the number of lots he would take. These were subsequently known as the "Articles of the First Committee." Mr. John 44 ITS LEGALITY. Treat, Mr. Joseph Crane, Joseph Harrison, George Harrison, Eliphalet Johnson, John Morris and John Cooper, were now appointed, with full power to " treat, bargain and agree with such Indians as they find to be the right owners thereof bv their diligent enquiry" — the major part of the commit- tee to have full power to act.* It is a circumstance not ea==ily explained, that we find in these articles no reference to the Proprietors, while the fourth article declares that " the said land, purchased and paid for by us, shall be held and continued as our just rights, either in general or particular allot- ments, as the major part shall agree from time to time." As, however, an act of the General Assem- bly of the province, passed in 1683, was still in force, forbidding the taking of any deed from the Indians, except in the Proprietors' name ; and as the inhabitants of Newark, down to the dafe of this new purchase, had maintained an unimpeachable loy- alty to the Provincial government ; especially, as they had but two years before sent a committee to the Proprietors to obtain a grant of this very tract ; the presumption is, that they obtained the grant, and that this important accession to their territory ^ The tract was secured for £130, and a deed obtained of the Indians. This important deed was destroyed by tire, March 7, 1744-5, in the burning of Jonathan Pierson's house. It was promptly renewed within a week, so far as it could be, by another conveyance, to which Daniel Taylor was a witness, signed by the desceudanto of the sagamores who had .signed the first. ITS LEGALITY. 45 was made iu a way that satisfied at once the rights of the natives and the claims of authority.* The bonds of loyalty had not yet snapped under the strain of oj)pression. It needed the administration of a Cornbury, and the attempt to subject the Puri- tans of New Jersey to an ecclesiastical" establish- ment from which their fathers had fled, to give vitality to those seeds of discontent which had already been planted, and which were to ripen with the gTOwth of another generation. * Yet the account given of this period by tlie Council of Pro- prietors, in 1747, bears certainly against that presumption. It runs thus: "In 1688, the then king, James, broke through the rules of property, by seizing the government of New Jersey, and things continued in disorder and confusion till some time after the glorious revolution in England, that the Proprietors' government was restored ; from which time, peace and tranquillity remained until 1698. From that time till 1703, all rules of property were slighted ; many riots, and much disorder and confusion ensued* In 1701, during that time, it's said that Horseneck purchase and Yangeesen's purchase were made, and possibly the others that they, the Committee, say they have concern in and for. And then was a grand effort made, by the Remonstrance and Petition before- mentioned, to King William, to oyerset all the rules of property in New Jersey, and to establish Indian purchases ; but in this they failed, and kept their purchases secret. And to prevent the like disorder, confusion and attempts for the future, the Act of 1703 was made, and peace and tranquUlity restored ; which New Jersey ever since happily enjoyed, to the great improvement thereof; tiU 174-5, that the worthy Committee, as is supposed, formed great plans and estates for themselves in their own minds, by setting up Indian purchases again." — Appendix to Bill in Chan- cerv, p. 37. 3* CHAPTER II. THE MOUNTAIN SOCIETY. FIFTY years have passed. The venerable Pier- son, leader of the Branford flock, has long rested from his labors. His son and successor, more dis- tinguished as the first president of the Connecticut college, to which he was removed from his Newark charge, has also finished his course. The pioneers in the settlement on the Passaic sleej) in silence within sound of its waters. A generation has passed away. Five pastors have closed their min- istry in Newark. The aspects of the congregation, and its relations and circumstances, have consider- ably changed. It adheres to its early fliith, but it has felt the force of surrounding influences upon its ecclesiastical usages and forms. New Jersey, except as held by the Quakers, is in the main Pres- byterian ground, and the Newark church, jdelding to the influences of its position, and having received a considerable infusion of Presbyterian elements from abroad, has received its sixth pastor, Eev. Joseph Webb, from^ "the hands of the Presbytery." The statement of Dr. McWhortcr, quoted by Dr. CHANGES IN NEWAKK. 47 Hodge,* that Newark was settled by English Pres- byterians, and had elders from the beginning, ac- cording to his best information and belief, is dis- proved by well-established facts. At the same time we must agree with Dr. Hodge, that on the soil of New Jersey at large Presbyterianism hjis not in- vaded and supplanted Congregationalism. It was the earlier and predominant type of ecclesiastical order, and naturally absorbed and assimilated the Congregationalism that came in. This assimilation Avas not, however, without a struggle between the two systems, and in a community like that of Newark, originally composed of Congregationalists only, the process of change was necessarily slow. When the second Pierson manifested some leanings toward the Presbyterian order, the displeasure of his peo- ple was excited, and troubles arose which resulted in his dismissal. Yet on the 22d of October, 1719, Joseph Webb, in the line of his successors, was or- dained and settled over the same flock by the Pres- bytery of Philadelphia, and the next year took a seat in the Synod with a ruling elder from his church. Did that event precipitate an Independent or- ganization at the mountain? A comparison of dates will make the supposition appear at least probable. The records of the Newark Church, and those of "'' Hist. Pres. Church, part I., p. 108. 48 CHURCH AT THE MOUNTAIN. this church also (it is said), perished or were lost in the time of the Revolution. But in a parcel of old deeds and other papers preserved by the Trustees of this church, is a deed of twenty acres of land sold by Thomas Gardner to " Samuel Freeman, Samuel Peirson, Matthew Williams, and Samuel Wheeler, and the Society at the Mountain associated with them," which bears date, January 13, 1719. As the year then began on the 25th of March, January followed October in the calendar. The deed was therefore given about three months after Mr. Webb's ordination and settlement in Newark. This coincidence, taken in connection with the previous history of the old Society, and with the well-established fact of the Congregational form of this Church till after the death of its first minister, affords presumptive evidence of the opinion ex- pressed above, that the change which took place in Newark stimulated the new movement here. In 1720, ground was purchased of Samuel Wheeler on which to erect a house of worship. This again favors the supposition of a recent or- ganization. Dr. Stearns places the event "in or about the year 1718."* A congregation was doubt- less collected here by that time. Yet it seems scarcely probable that the Church had existed two years before steps were taken to build a sanctuary. With such light as the subject obtains from the * On the authority of Dr. ilcWhorter. PARSOJSTAGE LAND. 49 facts above given, we incline to the opinion that the Society took organic form sometime during the year 1719. Among tlie inducements hekl out to the settlers by the Proprietors of East Jersey, was the offer of two hundred acres of land for the support of public worship in each parish. A warrant for the survey •of 200 acres and meadow for a parsonage was granted to the Newark settlers October 23, 1676. The actual survey, however, does not appear to have been made till twenty years later, April 10, 1696, when, besides the tw^o hundred thus appro- priated, three acres were assigned for a burial-place, three for a market-place, and sis for a training- place, the last being on the present site of the First Park in Newark. We shall have occasion hereafter to notice the contentions to which these parsonage lands gave rise, and the measures adopted from time to time to protect them from plunder. How soon the Mountain Society- set up its claim to a portion of them we do not know. Such a claim was very likely to have been among the first thoughts of the new congregation. However this may be, the mountaineers were not indifferent to their supposed duty of making per- manent provision for the ministry. Their first act as an ecclesiastical body, of which we have any knowledge, was the buying of land for the minis- ter's use. They were manifestly unwilling to leave 60 'rilE GAEDNER PUKCUASE. SO important a matter to any issues connected with their rights in the property of the Old Society. The land jiurchased of Thomas Gardner in 1719, being " the sixth year of the reign of our sover- eign Lord, George, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, defender of the faith," &c., the deed informs us was sold " for divers good causes and considerations, me thereunto mov- ing, but more especially for and in consideration of the sum of £25 current money of New York." It was " to be and remain for the use and benefit of a dissenting* ministry, such as shall be called to that work by the grantees before-named, and their associates from time to time." It is described as " scituate, lying and being in the bounds and limits of Newark aforesaid, on the east side of a * So called by English usage till the colonies became iudcpeud- ent. The Puritans in America were in no just sense dissenters. They secured here that " freedom to worship God " for which they left the fatherland. In New Jersey, religious Uberty was explicitly guaranteed by the Proprietors. When the latter, in 1702, surren- ered their civil jurisdiction to the crown, an attempt was made by Lord Cornbury, the governor, to subject the people to the forms of the Church of England. " The Prayer Book was ordered to bo read, the sacraments to be administered only by persons episco- pally ordained ; and all ministers, without ordination of that sort, were required to report themselves to the Eishop of London. A bill for the maintenance of the Church in the Jerseys was defeated solely through the unflinching perseverance of a Baptist and a Quaker— Richard Hartshorno and Andrew Browne." "Webster's Hist. Pres. Church., p. 88. FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, 51 brook commonly called and known by the name of Parow's Brook.* Beginning at said brook near a bridge by tlie road tliat leads to the mountain, thence running easterly as the road runs, so far as that a south-westerly line cross the said lot (it being twelve chains in breadth) shall include twenty acres of land, English measure : bounded southerly with Joseph Harrison, westerly with said Parow's Brook, northerly with said mountain road, and easterly with my own land." This locates it east of the Willow Hall Market, south of, and including, the present park. A meeting-house Avas the next demand. This was the central object of interest in every commu- nity of the Puritans.f If no D wight had ever composed for their use the precious hymn — " I love thy kingdom, Lord, The house of thine abode," they were quite familiar with the inspired original * Named from Perro, one of the Indians who negotiated in the sale of the lands. See Robert Treat's testunony, Bill in Chancery, p. 118. t A joint letter sent in 1684 to the Proprietors in Scotland, by David Barclay, Arthur Forbes, and Gawen Laurie, says : ' ' The people being mostly New England men, do mostly incline to their way ; and in every toicn there is a meeting-house, where they worship publicly every week. They have no public law in the country for maintaining pubUc teachers, but the towns that have them make way within themselves to maintain them." Stearns, p. 78. 52 THE BUILDERS. from which its touching sentiments were drawn, " If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning" — were words that echoed the warmest feelings of many a settler's bosom. If the reader has ever worshipped in any of the primitive sanctuaries of the far West or South, he will have no difiiculty in limning for himself a pretty correct portrait of the rude and lowly edi- fice. The site selected for it was on the highway leading to the mountain, a few rods cast from where the First Church now stands. Time has not spared for us the name of the architect and the particulars oi" the contract, as it has of the sanctuaries since built on nearly the same spot. The town records of Newark, though occupied much with ecclesiastical matters, have nothing to say of the Mountain Society. They are indeed silent upon the building of the second house of worship in Newark, which is supposed to have been erected between April, 1714, and August, 1716, where a vacancy in the records occurs. Had we the details of that work, which took place just before the Society here was formed, we might obtain some probable clew to the men engaged upon the building here. The mountain congregation, however, were not entirely dependent upon the Bezaleels and Hirams of the old Society. Samuel Pierson was a carjienter, and his sons HANDS THAT HELPED. 63 Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, and Caleb, — all of them now arrived at manhood, for the father was fifty-six years old — must have had some knowl- edge of the trade. He was a good man, who had a care for the spiritual^ as well as for the material edifice, as appears from the testimonial placed upon his headstone ten years afterward. We surmise that the holy structure went up under his superin- tendence, though the use of the broad-axe, the saw, and the auger, may have been left to younger hands. Doubtless there were others of the craft connected with the work. Many a right hand lent its cunning. And many a rough hand, accustomed more to the labors of forest and field than to those of the carpenter's bench, lent to the enterprise its manly strength. Samuel Harrison's saw-mill, which did good service for the parsonage twenty-eight years later, was not yet in operation, and planing-mills, sash-and-blind factories and the like, were institu- tions still more distant in the future. But our men of the wilderness were men trained to expedients. The want and the will brought the ways and the means. One by one, the straight shafts of the forest fell before the axe and were fitted to their places. From week to week the progress of the meeting-house Avas a principal topic of conversation, and when at last, on a little knoll in the midst of the travelled road, which on either side retired like the parting Jordan making way for the Ark, the 64 HOLY JOYS. completed sanctuary was seen, we can imagine with wliat care every domestic duty and labor of the field were so arranged that the future worshippers might join in the act of its solemn dedication to the worship of God. "We have not the programme of that solemnly glad occasion. Who offered the prayer, who preached the sermon, who read the psalm, who led the congregation in their hearty song of thanks- giving, were then matters of interest; but tHey have ceased to be matters even of traditional re- membrance. A ''beam out of the timber" yet remains of the ancient edifice, but it is silent when questioned relative to the persons and scenes of that distant day.* It is probable that Mr. Webb, of the old Society, was among the ministers pres- ent ; for tender ties yet existed between him and the separating portion of his flock ; while eccle- siastical ties may have brought from Connecti- cut or Long Island some prominent Independent minister to take the leading part of the service.f * This relic of the first meeting-house is in tlie frame of Mr. Charles Harrison's barn, in Valley street. It is a heavy cross- beam, of white oak, worked down a little from its original size, and having a line of mortises for studs. The post that supports it at the oast end was also a post in the old meeting-house. The barn, or that part of it, was built by Samuel Harrison. The beam has answered one inquiry of tlio writer, viz. : that the meeting- house was framed, not a lug home. t According to a letter written March, 1729, by Rev. Jedediah THE CONGEEGATION. 55 This supposition is tlie more likely, if Daniel Tay- lor was at this time pastor, of which there is room for doubt. It is more easy to guess who were some of those who occupied the pews. There was seen, if not too infirm to attend, the hoary head of Anthony Oliff, probably the oldest man in the society, a patriarch in years though not a father. We have in our thoughts a figure of the eccentric old man, now about fourscore and five years old, and per- mitted to sit a few times in the new meeting-house before he was " in the church-yard laid." There was Nathaniel Wheeler, who had also numbered his fourscore years ; Matthew Williams, aged about seventy ; and probably Azariah Crane, a veteran, of seventy-four. Around these aged men were others somewhat younger, in the midst of family groups that shared the joys and hopes inspired by the occasion. Arranged in their square pews, the more aged sat with their faces pulpitward, their eyes reverently fixed upon the preacher. The smaller ones were seated opposite, while on the right and left were youths and maidens in a side- wise position, suggestive of a state of mind that lent one ear to the sermon and another to whatever was passing in the rear of the house. High up in Andrews, of Philadelphia, referred to by Richard Webster, (p. 583,) this was the only church in the Province at that date which did not conform to the Presbyterian mode. 56 STYLE OF WOKSHir. a little pulpit, with sounding-board above, sat the minister of the day. And in his place, a person- age not to be overlooked, stood the jjrecentor^ to line out the psalm which the minister had read, and lead the congregation in the solemn service of song. Some recollections of the meeting-house arrange- ments, and the style of worship pertaining to tliat remote period, yet remain in the minds of elderly people. Time has since brought with it many modifications in matters not affecting the spirit and benefit of religious worship.* The old Society in Newark had built its first meeting-house amid the alarms created by Indian atrocities in New England, where Philip's war was at that time raging. The men who had worked upon it had their arms ever at hand, and the walls of the house, "filled up with thin stone and mor- tar as high as the girts," were for walls of protec- tion in case of an attack. But those days of terror * "We are not sure but one change has affected the spirit and true effect of pubhc worship. While the introduction of hymn books has obviated the necessity of reading tlic hymn by couplets the introduction of choirs has almost set aside the hymn book, or its appropriate use by the congregation. There are exceptions to the statement, wliich are happily increasing in number. In some parts of our country the precentor yet exercises his primitive func- tions. The writer, while laboring in one of the Southern States, where he preached occasionally to a number of Scotch congrega- tions, has ofteu, after reading the psalm, handed the book to the chorister, to be read again by him as the lines were sung. MIXTURE OF FACES. 57 were now past. Fifty years of peaceful intercourse with the natives had produced a general feeling of securit}'. It was no longer necessary to worship in forts, or to erect fianhers at the church corners for the shelter of armed sentinels. Indeed, the gospel had by this time penetrated the darkness,. of the aboriginal mind, and in the same Christian assem- bly might have been seen the white man with his African servant and his Indian neighbor. Amid this mixture of races the foundations of our Zion were laid. Just about a hundred years later, (Feb- ruary 24, 1820,) New Jersey passed her emancipa- tion act, and now African and Indian have together receded before the resistless intelligence of a supe- rior race. CHAPTER III. EEV. DANIEL TAYLOR. IT may be presumed that tlie year 1721 found tlie Mountain Society in circumstances to invite to their pulpit a pastor, if this step had not been already taken. There is a tradition in the parish, that before the settlement of Daniel Taylor, the Society had a minister, who was drowned, together with his son, in crossins; the Connecticut river at Saybrook, on a visit to his friends. This tragic in- cident, however, belongs to the history of Rev. Joseph Webb,'" of the Newark church. It is quite likely that before the congregation had obtained a * The Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal of Oct. 27, 1741, contained the following : " We have an account that, on Tuesday last, the Seabrook ferry-boat overset, wherein were the Rev. Joseph Webb, of New Haven, and his son, a young woman, and several otliers. The two former were drowned ; the others with great difficulty got safe to shore." (Sec the New P]ngland Historical and Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal, January, 185G.) Mr. Webb liad been about five years dismissed from his Newark charge. HIS NATIVITY. 59 minister, Mr. Webb had occasional appointments here. The people were a part of the flock to which his predecessors had ministered. It it also likely that during the four years of his residence in Newark, after his dismission from that charge in 1736, when he continued still to preaclj^in the neighborhood, this part of the town received his occasional labors, //e, however, could not have been Mr. Taylor's predecessor here, and the fatal casualty at Say brook ferry did not occur till 1741, when the latter is known to have been in the field eighteen years. According to the inscription on his tombstone, Mr. Taylor was born about the year 1691,* and was in liis sixteenth year wlien he graduated at the high school, or college, at Killingworth, the embryo Yale. It was not uncommon at that period for boys to be put through the required course of Greek and Latin at sixteen years. Inquiries respecting his nativity have been fruit- less. We have sought for it among the Taylors of Deerfield, Mass., and among those of Norwalk and Danbury, Conn. It appears, from the town records of Smithtown, Long Island, that he resided there four years, ending with 1717, and that Rich- ard Smith and his four brothers, on the 13th day * Not 1G84, as given by Thompson; Hist. Long Island, 2d cd., vol. I., p. 4 GO. 60 LABORS ON LONG ISLAND. of February in that year, gave liim fifty acres of land on the west side of Nesaquake river, in con- sideration of his ministerial labors. There, too, at the age of twenty -four years, died his wife, Jemima, April 20, 1716, as indicated by a headstone in the old burial-place of the Smiths. In what year he came to New Jersey is not known. It was prior to April 23, 1723, at which time he and Matthew Williams were witnesses of a deed given by Peleg Shores to Jonathan Lindsley, conveying " one equal half of the farm or planta- tion which did formerly belong to Anthony Olive." On the 18th of May, 1726, the same land was con- veyed by Jonathan Lindsley to David AVilliams, and the deed again witnessed by Daniel Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor.* The latter may be pre- sumed to have been his " beloved wife, Eliza^beth," mentioned in his will. She married a Hedden after his decease. According to traditions handed down in the line of his family, Mr. Taylor brought a wife from Long Island, whom he buried here. From such light as we can gather from his will, and from the ages recorded on their tombstones, we suppose her to * On the back of the deed is a deposition, certified Dec. 27, 1765, to the effect that the said Elizabeth Taylor, now Elizabeth Hedden, personally appeared before Samuel Woodruff, one of his Majesty's Council for the province of New Jersey, and swore that she saw the within deed lawfully executed. MR. Taylor's family. 61 have been the mother of his oldest son and second daughter ; and if he came to this parish after the year 1721, he must have brought with him three children. This second wife is said to have been afflicted with a nervous disorder, which so affected her mind as to bring great trials upon h^r hus- band. Toward the end of her life she had a ham- mock suspended in her room, on which she was laid and gently swung, with a view to its soothing and sleep-inducing influence. Before the spring of 1726, her sufferings had evidently terminated ; un- less we suppose the Elizabeth Taylor mentioned above to have been the mother or sister of the min- ister, instead of his wife.* The lady whom he next married, and who bore that name, outlived him by at least eighteen years. From this and other circumstances, it may be inferred that she was considerably younger than he. From the number of deeds witnessed, and appar- ently drawn up by Mr. Taylor, he appears to have * An ancient volume of sermons, said to have been given by Mr. Taylor to Susan Tichenor, and now in the possession of Widow Mary Freeman, of South Orange, contains upon a fly-leaf the in- scription : " Elizabeth Taylor, her Booke, 1686." Tlie tradition is, that it had belonged to his sister. If so, she had probably received it from her mother, as the name was inscribed five years before Mr. Taylor's birtli. The volume is a thick quarto, pubhshed in London in 1674, and containing thirty-one sermons by leading preachers of the time ; the first being by the compiler, Dr. Samuel Annesly. 4 62 HOME AXD LANDS. been the scrivener^ as well as the ministc]-, of the parisli. His ready pen and knowledge of kgal forms were in frequent demand, and doubtless saved to the planters many a fee that would other- wise have gone to the lawj^ers. He was the owner of his residence, which stood on the site now occupied by Joseph B. Lindsley, corner of Main and Hillyer streets. This bordered upon the twenty acres bought of Thomas Gardner by the parish. His house is said to have been afterwards moved to where the Park House stands, and to have been fitted up for a tavern. Besides the homestead, he had a tract of land, lying a quarter of a mile to the north, on the south- west side of Washington street, now owned by the Williams family. Fifteen acres* of this, h'ing be- tween the upper end of Park street and the brook, * Described as " one certain tract or parcel of land, scituate, lying and being in the bounds of Newark aforesaid, at the moun- tain plantations, so-called, and by a brook commonly called and known by the name of Perrow's brook : Beginning at a walnut-tree markedjOn the western side of the highway ; thence running north- west down to said brook ; thence northerly, as the brook runs, to the land of said Matthew "Williams ; and thence by his land to an highway, and so round by highways to the place whore it began : containing and to contain lifleen acres, be there more or less." Signed by DANIKL T.WLOR. GORSHOM WiLLIAJIS, his Thomas + Lamson, j ^i'^^^^es. mark. j REVIVAL OF 1734. 63 were deeded by him to Matthew Williams, Jun., June 1, 1731. The rest of it lay on the other side of Park street, including the ground on which Aaron Williams now resides. Between it and the main road were twenty-six acres, owned by ISTa- thaniel Williams, and sold by him, Feb. 10, 1735, to Matthew Williams, who again sold four acres of the same to the parish, in 1748. We know little of Mr. Tajdor as a preacher. From the boldness and zeal with which, according to their statements, he took sides against the Pro- prietors in defence of Indian titles, we may infer a character of energy, fearlessness, and firmness. Such a man must have been one who shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. And it is pleasing to know, not only from the perpetuity and growth of the Ch urch, but from records made at that time of the mighty works of God, that power divine attended his words, and that revival scenes were passing here while the gTeat awaken- ing in Kew England was in progress. President Edwards, in his Narrative of Surprising Conver- sions, thus alludes to a work of grace here : " But this shower of Divine blessing has been yet more extensive : there was no small degree of it in some parts of the Jerseys, as I w^as informed when I was at New York (in a long journey I took at that time of the year, for my health), by some people of the Jerseys whom I saw : especially the Rev. Mr, Wil- 64 REVIVAL IN NEWARK. liam Tennent, a minister who seemed to Lave such things much at heart, told me of a very great awakening of many in a place called the Moun- tains, under the ministry of one Mr. Cross," &c.* What numbers were truly converted and added to the fellowship of the Church, as the result of this '•'•very great awakening o/"7wa7?,y," we have no means of ascertaining. About four years later, viz , in August, 1739, a revival of similar power took place in Newark, under the then youthful Rev. Aaron Burr. It was just before the first visit of Whitefield to this part of the country. Beginning among the youth, it reached the adult portion of the congregation by the following spring, when " the whole town were brought under an uncommon concern about their eternal interests." As the work abated in Newark, it broke out in Elizabethtown, after Whitefield had been laboring there with apparently no suc- =■-• It is stated by Rev. Richard Webster (Hist. Presb. Cli., p. 413,) that John Cross, " styled by Dr. Brownlee ' a Scottish worthy,' was received as a member of Sj-nod in 1732, and settled at a place ' called the Mountains, back of Newark.' The remark- able revival in his congregation there, in 1734 and '35, is noticed in Edwards's ' Thoughts on Revivals.' " Here is a double error. Mr. Cross, of Baskingridge, could not have been settled here, though he may have preached here during the revival — for he was very zealous in revival labors : and the passage referred to in Edwards is cited from the wrong treatise, being found in his Narrative of Surprising Conversions. NEGRO PLOTS. 65 cess. Again, in the following year, it was revived in Newark, with more glorious manifestations of Divine power than before. To Avhat extent its in- fluence was felt by this congregation, we have no means of knowing. It is painful to turn from these pleasing views of the triumphs of the gospel of peace, to the troubles and disorders that ensued. Serious apprehensions were excited, about this time, of insurrections among the servile population. As early as 1734, a rising was attempted in the neighborhood of the Earitan, in consequence of which one or more ne- groes were hung. In July, 1750, two others were executed at Perth Amboy, for the murder of their mistress. Between those events, in 1741, a formi- dable negi^o plot was thought to be discovered in New York, which resulted in " many executions, both by hanging and burning." The plan laid in the insurrection of the Earitan was, to join the In- dians in the interest of the French, in a general massacre of the English population. But the troubles in which the planters of this locality were more seriously involved, grew out of their relations with the great land-monopoly. The Proprietors of East Jersey had, in 1702, surren- dered to the crown their powers of government, but not their right to the soil. It was stipulated, among the conditions of the transfer, that " the crown disclaims all right to the province of New 66 RIGHTS OF THE CROWN. Jersey, other than tlie government, and owns the soil and quit-rents, &c., to belong to the said Gen- eral Proprietors; and the Grovernors are directed not to permit any other person or persons, besides the said General Proprietors, to purchase any land whatsoever from the Indians Avithin the limits of their grant." By an act of the Assembly, pub- lished in November, 1703, after the arrival of Lord Cornbury, not only all Indian purchases which had not been made by the Proprietors before that time, were declared null and void, unless grants for them were obtained within six months ; but also all who should thereafter make purchases of the Indians, except Proprietors (and they only in the manner prescribed by the act), should forfeit forty shillings per acre for every acre so pur- chased. This stringent prohibition was thus confidently vindicated : " Has not the crown of England a right to those void or uninhabited countries which are discovered by any of its subjects? Has not the crown of England a right to restrain its subjects from treating with any heathen nation whatsoever? And has not the croivn of England, in consequence of that right, power to grant the liberty of treating with any heathen nation to any one particular per- son, exclusive of all others, and that upon such terms as by the crown may be thought proper? Has not the crown of England at least granted that CHALMERS' OPINION. 67 right to the proprietors by the grants of New Jersey, Tinder the great seal of England ?"* Yet there were some in Newark, as there had been long before in Elizabethtown, who ventured to call this right in question; "blindly led on," say the Proprietors, " by a position, that the Indians were once the owners of the soil ; and therefore they con- clude that those who have purchased, or got deeds of their right, must also be owners now." It is not our business to discuss the question here at issue. The reader will however be interested in the following views of Dr. Chalmers, touching the same question. A band of Moravian missionaries, exploring the coast of Labrador in 1811, took formal possession of the country in the name of George III., whom they represented to the natives as the Great Monarch of all those territories. " "We do not see the necessity of this transaction," says Chal- mers, " and confess that our feelings of justice some- what revolted at it. How George III, should be the rightful monarch of a territory whose inhabi- tants never saw a European before, is something more than we can understand. We trust that the marauding policy of other times is now gone by, and that the transaction in question is nothing more than an idle ceremony. "f * Publication of April, 1746. f On the efficacy of Missions as conducted by tlie Moravians. — These claims of the Christian potentates of Europe have a curious 68 PAPAL CLAIMS, Sentiments similar to tliese began to be general in our mountain settlement in tlie course of twenty years after the constitution of tlie parish. Various causes had operated to excite disaffection toward the proprietors. Many of them were ab- sentee landlords, living in England and Scotland on the rents which they drew from the province. It history. Tliey began with the popes, wlio, as God's vicegerent?, claimed to be the earth's sovereign masters and proprietors. All heathens, heretics, and infidels, according to tbeir theory, had no right to any possession of the earth's soil. Hence, Pope Eugene IV., in 1440, made a munificent donation of Africa to King Al- phonso v., of Portugal ; " not because that continent was unin- habited, but because the nations subsisting there were infidels, and consequently unjust possessors of the country." By the same principle, Pope Alexander VL, in 1493, the year after its discovery, gave the whole of America to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, (although one of his infallible predecessors had declared that no such continent as America did or could exist) ; a grant which the royal pair accepted (according to Herrera) against the advice of the Spanish civilians and canon lawyers. The disposing power thus assumed by the popes was too absurd to be regarded by Roman Catholic princes, when exercised to the prejudice of their interests. Tet, with greater absurdity, they arrogated for themselves the power which they denied to the suc- cessors of St. Peter. Thus, Henry VII. of England, in 1496, com- missioned John Cabot and his three sons, with their associates, " to navigate all parts of the ocean, in five ships, under the banners of England, for the purpose of discovering such heathen or infidel regions, countries or islands, wherever situated, as were unknown to christian states ; with power to set up the King's standard in any lands, islands, &c., which they ipight discover, not previously occupied by christians, and to seize, conquer, and possess, all such DISAFFECTION. 69 happened in a few instances that lands were twice sold "under conflicting proprietary titles, so that cer- tain purchasers were dispossessed. Some who had purchased a proprietary interest, with the privilege of selecting their land afterward, took advantage of the circumstance to select and sell at their pleasure. Licenses to buy of the natives were also forged or lands, Islands, &c., and as his liege vassals, governors, locumtenentea [lieutenants] or deputies, to hold dominion over and have exclusive fropertij in the same." Elizabeth, James, and their successors, gave similar commissions, all containing this proviso, ''that the territories and districts so granted be not previously occupied and possessed by the subjects of any other christian prince or state." What liings would not concede to popes, was by virtue of their power conceded to kings, but under protest. Thus, Bartholomew De Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, in a treatise dedicated to Charles v., represented that the natives of America, "having their own lawful kings and princes, and a right to make laws for the good government of their respective dominions, could not be expelled out of them, or deprived of what they possess, without doing vio- lence to the laws of God as well as the law of nations." " It is universally acknowledged that discovery, the only title that any European State could allege to the lands of America, affords no just claim to anj'- but derelict or uninhabited lands, which those of America are not. [Griffith, vol. 10.]" " All the nations of Europe, and indeed of the world, have been as unchristian and as savage as the aborigines in America ; and if ignorance, either in matters of religion or science, could defeat the title of a people to their country, the English must be unjust possessors of the British soil, and incapable of conveying it to their posterity." See an " Examination into the riglits of the Indian Nations to their respective countries," &c. Phila. 1781. 4* 70 OPPOSITION MEASURES. altered. These things all together created no little confusion ; and between the errors of agents and the arts of the unprincipled, the planters often found their just interests sacrificed. It was not difficult to tui"n the current of popular indignation against the proprietors, even when the latter were victims of the fraud. As early as 1744, we find the settlers about the mountain adopting measures for the defence of their titles.* Contributions were raised for defraying the * See Samuel Harrisoa's account-book, preserved by Edward Pierson, Esq., of Newark, iu which is the following " account of what each one hath paid in order to the establishing their right of land, and in defraying the charge," The dates belong to 1744. "Nathaniel Crane, £1-10-0 Thomas Williams, £ 3-0 Sam. Harrison, in cash to Samuel Wheeler, 17-6 Capt. Wheeler, 7-0 Going to N. England 4 days. 1- 4-0 Nathaniel Camp, 7-0 Going to N. England 9 days, 2-14-0 Samuel Baldwin, 7-0 Going to Horse Neck with Sam. Harrison p'd Mr. Tay- Jlr. Taylor, 5-0 lor, 3-6 Going to Horse Neck with John Cundict p'd Jlr. Tay- Dan. Lamson, 5-0 lor, 7-0 Cash p'd to l!r. Taylor, 8-6 August iO. Garhshom Wil- " p'd to John Cundict, 14-0 liams, 7-0 do. 2-4 Oct. 7. I received of Amos " p'd to John Tompkins, 17-10 Williams, on accompt of Going to New York, 10-0" the charge of the purchase «&c. &c. right, 7-0 Wo find the following entry also about that time: "Jan. 23, 1744-5. Samuel Freeman brought to me two wolves' heads, and I marked it [thorn] according to law and gave him a ticket for the same." We may infer that Mr. Harrison was a magistrate, and that Deacon Freeman did not consider the poor wolves entitled to ■ the charities of his office. LOSS OF DEED. , 71 expenses of agents sent to Connecticut and to Horse Neck [Caldwell], for tte purpose, it is presumed, of obtaining papers or affidavits tending to confirm their rights. In these proceedings Mr. Taylor appears to have taken a prominent part. From the coincidence of dates it woifld seem that these measures were made necessary by the loss of the deed of the large Indian purchase of 1701. That important document was destroyed — whether accidentally or intentionally cannot be known — by the burning of Jonathan Pierson's house, March 7, 17-14—5. With all haste another was drawn up, which was signed on the 14th by certain descendants of the old Sagamores, and witnessed by Isaac Vangiesen, Francis- Cook, [his mark,] Daniel Taylor, and Michael W. Vreelandt [his mark.] The event furnished an occasion, how- ever, which seems to have been seized upon for disturbing many persons in their claims and pos- sessions, and this in turn gave rise to the idiots that ensued. Samuel Baldwin, for getting saw-logs off his laud, was arrested and put in jail. His friends went to his rescue, broke open the jail and released him. In November, depositions were made before Joseph Bonnel, Esq., "by John Morris, aged 79 years, Abraham Van Giesen, aged 80 years, Michael Vreelandt, aged 81 years, Cornelius Demaress, Samuel Harrison, John Condit, Deacon Samuel 72 ■ RIOTS. Ailing, Samuel Tompkins, Francis Spier, Ilen- drick Francisco, Joseph Riggs, and others, relating to the course of the Proprietors of East Jersey, in obliging them to repurchase their lands after hav- ing enjoyed long and peaceable possession."* In the same month, Nehemiah Baldwin, Joseph Pier- son, Daniel Williams, Nathaniel Williams, Eleazer Lamson, Gamaliel Clark, and twenty-one others, stood before the Supreme Court for riots committed in Essex county. Affairs were now converging to a general and spirited struggle with the Proprietors. During the year 1745, an association was formed, and another large purchase west of the mountain was made of the Indians, in which all proprietary claims were ignored. It was the famous purchase of fifteen miles square, obtained, as the Proprietors sneer- ingly asserted, " for the valuable consideration of five shillings and some bottles of rum . . . from Indians who claimed no riglit, and told them they had none ; but no matter for that, it was enough that they were Indians, and they had their deeds." The purchasers took a different view of the transaction. They had their vindicator too. There was " A Daniel come to jud<^ment ; yea, a Daniel." Toward the close of the year, there appeared in New York a little pamphlet of forty-eight pages, * Rutherford MSS. See Analytical Index, by N. J. Hist. Soc. VINDICATION. 73 entitled " A Brief vindication of the Purchassors Against the Proprietors in a Christian Manner." It is supposed to have been written by Mr. Taylor.* A writer also in the New York Post-Boy, of Feb- 17, 1745-6, just after another riot and release of prisoners in the Newark jail, took up the cause of the planters, laying on the Proprietors "the blame of the disturbance. And in April a petition was addressed to the General Assembly, in which the charges set forth in the Post-Boy were enlarged upon, and measures of relief were sought. In the meantime, prosecutions were renewed against the agitators ; a list of forty-four persons concerned in the last riot being filed in the Supreme Court at the May term. But law owes its potency to public opinion, and so the Proprietors in turn made their appeal to the public by means of the press. From their publica- tion of April 7, 17-1:6, it appears that this part of Newark bore its full share of responsibility for the riots, while a very charitable apology is suggested for some of the offenders. They say : " Possibly * There is a copy in England among the Board of Trade papers. On the title-page is this note in the hand of Mr. James Alexander, of the Council of New Jersey : " This ought to have been with papers transmitted in December and February last, but copies could not then be got at New York, the author having carried all to New Jersey for sale there." See Analytical Index to the Colo- nial Documents of N. J., p. I9fi. 74 REPLIES. many of the rioters, being ignorant men, and many of them strangers to tlie Province, and since they came to it living retired in and behind the moun- tains of Newark, upon any land they could find, "without enquiring who the owner thereof was, have of late been animated and stirred up to believe, that those things which the laws of the Province have declared to be criminal and penal were law- ful ; and that those crimes committed gave the criminals rights, privileges, and properties ; but though many have been ignorant enough to be so seduced, we cannot think that all can with truth plead that excuse." Doubtless among the excepted cases was " Parson Taylor," suspected by council- man Alexander (who wished he had sufficient evi- dence of it) to be the composer of all their papers. In their publication of Sept. 14, 1747, we find the following spicy allusions to our ancient pastor : " The Committee [of the opposition] who appear on the stage, are nine expert men, with an Assem- blyman in the number, and many hundreds, even thousands, say they, of club-men at their command. And who can withstand that interest ? Especially as the worthy Committee and clubmen have two supernumerary prompters behind the curtain — Clergymen — who sanctify their actions ! One of them, it's said, is the before-named Mr. Taylor, a reverend Independent minister of the mountains behind Newark, secretary, scribe, and councillor to PULPIT VIEWS. 76 the worthy Committee, in their several late per- formances in newspapers, petitions, proposals, and answer now before us ; and a worthy partner with the Committee in the fifteen-mile-square purchase aforesaid, lately (as before is said,) for a five-shil- lino- York bill and some rum, bought of some Indians who claimed no right ; and yet (if we will take their words for it) this their purchase was honestly, duly and legally made : which Eeverend Pastor, it's said, makes it as clear as the sun, in his sermons to the Committee and Eioters, that all that they have done is authorized by the Bible ; for there, he assures them, he has found a charter-grant for their lands ; and even cites book, chapter and verse for it ; and no man can question that to be the hest record on earthy and all authority of man that would derogate from that charter, is rightly to be resisted and opposed. The other clergyman, it's said, is the Rev. Mr. John Cross, late minister of Basking-Ridge, Secretary, scribe and counsellor to the worthy Mr. Roberts, who assumed to be com- mander-in-chief of the rioters in their late expedi- tion to Perth Amboy, on the 17th of July last ; and for which he and many others stand indicted of high treason." Such was the tone of the controversy. It is not imlikely, if the sermons alluded to could be repro- duced, we should find indignation as eloquent, if not sarcasm as abundant, on the other side. 76 OTHER THOUGHTS. But Mr. Taylor's interest in the controversy was now ending. A subject of more solemn concern- ment claimed his thoughts. About three months after the above publication was issued, he was setting his house in order as one whose time of departure was at hand. We present to the reader a copy of his will, taken from the probate records at Trenton, as showing the manner in which the old Puritans closed up their earthly affairs, " In the name of God, amen : this twenty-first day of December, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and forty-seven, I, Daniel Tay- lor, of Newark, in the county of Essex and prov- ince of New Jersey, clerk,* being aged and infirm of body, but of sound and perfect mind and mem- ory, thanks be given unto God therefor, calling unto mind the mortality of my body, and knowing it is appointed unto all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament. And principally, and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God who gave it, hoping through the alone merits of Jesus Christ to have eternal life ; and my body I recommend unto the earth, (being dead,) to be buried in a decent Chris- tian manner at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power * That is, cleric, or clergyman. MR. Taylor's will. 77 of God. And as touching sucli worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, devise and dispose of the same in the following manner and form : " Imprimis^ I give, devise and bequeath unto my beloved wife Elizabeth, one equal third part of all and singular my household goods and chat- tels, if she please to accept it as her dowry from me. " Item, I give my son, Daniel Taylor, besides what he hath already had from me since he came of age, (which is to the value of more than sixty pounds,) the sum of ten pounds, to be paid within one year after my decease, either in money or what may be equivalent thereto. " Itern^ I give my daughter Jemima what hath been provided for her against the day of her mar- riage of household furniture, as also a cow, and the sum of five pounds to be paid her as is above said. ''^ Item, I give unto my other two daughters, viz., Mary and Elizabeth, the other jDart of my house- hold goods, and the sum of twenty pounds in m.oney, to be paid to each of them by their breth- ren hereafter mentioned, when or as they shall come to full age, &c. " Item, I give unto my other three children, viz., Davie, Joseph and Job, all and singular my estate? (not otherwise herein disposed of,) both real and personal, to be unto or for them (when they come 78 THE WITNESSES. of age) and their heirs and assigns forever. And my will is, that if any or either of my children do or shall decease before the}^ come of age, or with- out issue, their portion or inheritance shall be dis- tributed or divided unto or among the survivors, viz. : if inales, unto the males, and [if] females, unto the females ; and also that the negroes, if they desire it, shall be sold, or at the discretion of my executors put out on hire, for the good of my sons aforesaid, till they come of age, and that they, par- ticularly Joseph and Job, be put to learn some trade. "Jfe/w, I do hereby constitute, ordain and appoint my beloved friends and brethren in covenant rela- tion, Joseph Peck and David Williams, executors of this my will to see it duly performed, and I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke and disannul! all other and former wills, legacies, bequests, and executors, at any time before-named, willed or bequeathed, ratifying and allowing this to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the day and year first above written. Daniel Taylor. [L. S.]" The witnesses were " Abraham Soverhill, Eleazer Lamson, Sarah Lamson [her mark.]" Eighteen days afterward, the testator experienced the solemn HIS DEATH, 79 cliange *' appointed unto all men." The will was proved January 23d. On a plain liorizontal slab of brown stone in the old graveyard may be read the following : " Survivers, let's all imitate The vertues of our Pastor, And copy after him like as He did his Lord and Master. To us most awfull was the stroke By which he was removed Unto the full fruition of The God he served and loved." And below it — " Here lyes the pious remains Of the Rev"i Mr. Daniel Tayler, Who was minister of this parrish Tears, Dec-i Jany 8* A.D., 1747-8, In the 57th year of his age." The omission of the numeral before years^ has left it impossible to determine just when he came to the parish. We have already spoken of his family. His first wife, buried at Smithtown, was probably the mother of his daughter Jemima, who bore her name, and who, as we may infer from the will, was considerably older than her sisters. Daniel and Mary were nearly of an age, and are supposed to have been children of his second wife. As the will implies that at least one of his daughters was 80 r^' DESCENDANTS. a minor at the time of his decease, we suppose Elizabeth and her younger brothers to have been children of his third marriage. The grave of his second wife, if she was buried here, is without a headstone and its place unknown. Daniel,* the oldest son, who lived on a farm beyond the moun- tain, died Oct. 17, 1794, aged 74 years, and was buried near his father. Of the daughters, Mary became the wife of Deacon Amos Baldwin, and died Sept. 30, 1795, in her 75th year. In common with many of his parishioners and ministerial contemporaries, Mr. Taylor was a slave- holder. His will indicates a humane regard for the wishes of his servants in the disposition to be made of them after his decease. We should like to be able to pay a due tribute to some of those worthy men who were the helpers of Mr. Tajdor's ministry ; but with a single excep- tion, the names of the church ofl&cers of that period are unknown. Their only record is on high. There is presumptive evidence that Samuel Pierson, the carpenter, was one of the first deacons. The evi- dence is found in the following lines upon his head- stone : * Daniel and Anne Taylor had a son Oliver, who died Aug. 11, 1785, in his 31st j-ear. Also a son Daniel, who lived to old age and had several children. Among them was the late Mrs. Char- lotte, wife of John M. Lindsley. The descendants of the old pastor are found among the Lindsleys, Baldwins, and Cranes. None of the Taylor name, now resident here, have been traced. CHUKCH OFFICERS. ' 81 " Here lies interred under tliis mould A precious heap of dust, condoled By Cliurch of Christ and children dear, Both which were th' objects of his care." His decease occurred March 19, 1730, in liis 67tli year. Josepli Peck, one of the " beloved friends and brethren in covenant relation " selected by Mr. Taylor to be the executors of his will, held subse- quently the double ofS.ce of elder and deacon. He was forty-six years old at the time of Mr. Taylor's decease. It is not known that he was then an of&- cer. The same may be said of the " pious and godly Mr. Job Brown," who was in his full man- hood — thirty-eight years old. Deacon Samuel Freeman, whose name will occur in the following- chapter, was six years younger. These and others soon to be mentioned, received the bread of life from the first pastor of the flock, and formed a part of the sorrowful procession that followed him to his rest. CHAP:rER IV. REV. CALEB SMITH. IF, when Samuel Harrison was writing the accounts of his fulling-mill and saw-mill, he could have foreknown what was yet to be the historic value of a single leaf of his account-book ; that after a hundred years and more the church records of that day Avould all be lost, the names of its officers lost, and all knowledge of the age and origin of the old parsonage lost, till the said account-book should open its bronzed and tattered lips to reveal the in- teresting secrets ; possibly that knowledge would have secured for the volume a more careful hand- ling and a choicer place in his writing-desk. Be- yond a doubt, it would have put in exercise all his clerkly skill. The pen would have striven for a little more method and grace, and the dictionary would have corrected sundry slips of orthography. This Samuel Harrison was the second of that name in Newark, and a grandson of Sergeant Eich- ard. He exercised the quadruple functions of mag- istrate, farmer, fuller and sawyer. He was, withal, THE PARSONAGE. 83 a loyal rent-payer, as appears from a petition ad- dressed to Governor Belclier in 1747, and signed by Nathaniel Wheeler, Jonathan Pierson, John Con- diet, Nathaniel Camp, Samuel Harrison, Samuel Baldwin, and others, asserting their loyalty, and vindicating themselves against an implied connec- tion with recent disturbances and riots. From the entries in his day-book, we learn that in July, 1 748 — the summer following Mr. Taylor's death — he was sawing "oke plank" "gice," "slep- ers," and other material, and also receiving sundry sums of money, "on account of the parsonage." The money was received, in sums ranging from a few shillings to near twenty pounds, from David Ward, Jonathan Shores, David Williams, Thomas Wil- liams, David Baldwin, Nathaniel Crane, Noah Crane, Azariah Crane, Stephen Dod, John Dod, Eleazer Lamson, Gershom Williams, Ebenezer Farand, Peter Bosteda, William Crane, Jonathan Ward, Jonathan Sergeant, Samuel Cundict, Joseph Peck, Deacon Samuel Freeman, Bethuel Pierson, Thomas Lam- son, Samuel AVheeler, Robert Baldwin, and Joseph Jones ; — a list of twenty-five names, chiefly repre- senting (we may presume) heads of families. It thus appears that the society took occasion from the loss of its pastor to provide a home for his suc- cessor. Instead, however, of placing it on the par- ish lands, a new lot of four acres was bought of Matthew Williams, lying "on the north side of the 84 CALEB SMITH. highway that leads to the mountain, near the house once the Eev. Daniel Taylor's, late of Newark, de- ceased." It lay opposite to the twenty acres previ- ously owned by the parish, and included the ground now occupied by Grace church. The deed was given September 14th, the price being " four pounds per acre, current money of New Jersey, at eight shil- lings per ounce." The house was to be of stone, and while the saw- mill aforesaid was turning out plank, &c., the quarry was yielding more solid material for the walls. At the same time the committee-men were looking out for a minister. This search was not a long one. There was a young man — a licentiate — who had just completed his theological studies with Eev, Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabethtown. He was a son of William and Hanuali Smith, of Brook haven, L. I., where he was born December 29, 1723. Enter- ing Yale College in his sixteenth year, he displayed during his course of study a vigorous mind and com- mendable application. He became also, in his sec- ond year, one of the hopeful subjects of a work of grace in the College. After receiving a degree in 1743, he remained some time as a resident graduate. In 1746 he was applied to by Rev. Aaron Burr, of Newark, to aid him in conducting a large Latin school. Other engagements prevented him at the time from accepting the place ; but some time after, upon an invitation of Mr. Dickinson, he went to THE CHURCH PRESBYTERIAN. 85 Elizabethtowii to instruct a number of young men in the languages. There, as we have said, he prose- cuted simultaneously his studies for the ministry, and. having, by the advice of Mr. Dickinson and other ministers, presented himself to the Presbytery of New York for licensure, and creditably sustained his trials, he was licensed by the Presbytery in April, 1747. In the course of the next year and a half, he re- ceived a number of invitations to a settlement. He referred these to the Presbytery, but the latter sub- mitting them to his own judgment, he decided in favor of the call received from this society. Ac- cordingly, on the 80th of Novem.ber, 1748, about eleven months after the death of his predecessor, he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery. We see in this ecclesiastical act a previous and important decision of the Church, of which we know not the particular reasons and history. The relig- ious elements in New Jersey — and in New Eng- land no less — were originally mixed. There Con- gregationalism, and here Presbyterianism, had grad- ually absorbed the otliers. The Mountain Society maintained its Indepen- dent relations about thirty ja^ars. But the influ- ences that caused this were now yielding to others. The generation of its founders Avas passing away. New circumstances produced new views. Either before or in connection with the acquaintance made 5 86 MR. smith's marriage. with Caleb Smith, the Churcli resolved to eonform to the prevailing type of ecclesiastical order in the province. From that period to the present, it has adhered steadily to constitutional Presbyterianism — ever true, at the same time, to the common cause of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, on whosc battle- ground it stands. Mr. Smith was about twenty-five years of age at the time of his settlement. He was not married. But as he stepped into the new house from time to time to observe the progress of the work, or to drop a suggestion relevant thereto, we fancy thoughts of other relations than those which bound him to his people were sometimes present with him. The fu- ture mistress of the manse, Miss Martha Dickinson, was yet at the parsonage in Elizabethtown. It is quite likely that during the winter the young pas- tor found occasion now and then for a short absence from his mountain charge. As spring came on, Mr. Harrison's day-book received sundry charges (at the rate uniformly of three shillings sixpence a day) for work done on the parsonage. May 3d was employed in "slaking lime." Another day was devoted " to topping up the chimney." The sum- mer saw the work completed. In September, 1749, the minister's youngest daughter became the young minister's wife, and was happily installed in the stone mansion, tlien one of the best houses, we sup- pose, this side of Newark. PARSONAGE MEMORIES. 87 That mansion was to have a long history. It was to be occupied about thirteen years by Mr. Smith ; then several years by others, as it might find tenants ; then thirty years by another pastor ; then about fourteen years by another ; and finally used as a tenement house near forty years more be- fore its demolition. What memories have since gathered around it ! There were life's sweetest pleasures. There were its tenderest sorrows. It beheld in turn the hy- meneal joy and the mourner's anguish. The serene happiness of the fireside, the calm intellect- ual life, the steady flame of devotion, all that is generous and grateful in the charities of the heart and the benefactions of the hand, had there a home. Many a kind token found a silent way to its kitchen, its wardrobes, its library. Warm greetings were exchanged within its doors. Vigor- ous thoughts were born in it. Well beaten oil went from it to the candlestick of the sanctuary. And there freedom found ever an advocate, if not always a shelter. In the days of the Eevolution it was a mark for British vengeance. But He who guards and blesses the habitation of the just, joreserved it from the torch of war and the accidents of time till more than a century of years had rolled over it. There was one custom which had a long exist- ence in connection with the parsonage. Once a year there was a general turn-out of men and teams 88 WOOD-DRAWING. for placing at the minister's door a suitable quantity of fuel. While the forest yet waved over the par- sonage lands, the invading axe was directed thither. When these were stripped, the standing wood was purchased elsewhere. The minister having con- tracted for the wood, his people did the rest. On a day appointed axes and oxen were in motion. The strokes resounded in the forest. The roads were astir. The pile in the parsonage yard grew large as the day grew small. There was a lively commotion too luitliin doors, where the ' better-half of the parish provided the last and best part of the entertainment. A supper and a scene of right social cheer for old and young was the winding up of the wood frolic. Time and change have set aside this merry custom. The woodlands have vanished or been shorn of their strength, and the blaze of the old broad chimney has waned to the dull glow of the imprisoned anthracite. There was another species of wood-drawing prac- tised upon the parsonage lands of the old society — in which the mountain society contended for an interest — that it was found no easy task to suppress. Vote followed vote in the town meetings against the trespassers, with little apparent effect. Was the plunder stimulated by the cupidity and jealousy of contesting claimants? As a sample of town legislation on the subject, we give the following : March 10, 1746-7. — It was "unanimouslv voted, A QUEER WIND. 89 that whoever shall cut any wood or timber on any of the land called the parsonage land, shall forfeit for every cart-load, ten shillings, and so in propor- tion for a larger or lesser quantity, for the use of the poor ; also to forfeit the wood and timber, to be fetched away by any person, for the use of the poor ; the person carting the wood or timber to "be paid by the overseers of the poor. Joseph Peck, Josiah Lindsley, Emanuel Cocker, David Crane, Samuel Plum, and David Bruen, were chosen to take care of the parsonage lands and prosecute offenders."* The circumstances of the parish, when Mr. Smith entered upon his labors here, promised anything but a quiet and successful ministry. Disorders were rife. Not a week had passed after his ordina- tion, when the following appeared in a New York paper, of date Dec. 5, 1748: "We are informed from New Jersey that one of the heads of the rioters having been committed to jail at Newark, a number of those people came to the jail on Monday night last and let him out ; and he afterwards made his boast that a strong north-west mind blew the door off the hinges^ and he walked out of prison as Paul * A depredation of another sort, upon the produce of the Newark orchards, is noticed in a letter of Gov. Belcher to Col. Low, April 12, 1748. The Governor had a fortnight before desired the Colonel to send him some cider, " rich and potent, without any spirits put into it." Out of the seven barrels sent, such a quantity was drawn by the wagoners and others that it took all but seven gallons of one to fill up the other six. Aualyt. Index, p. 227. 90 A pastor's feelings. and Silas did." We doubt if the mountain pastor shared the feelings of the liberated prisoner with respect to this north-west gale. He was evidently a man of different temper from his predecessor, while we are not to judge of the latter by the hear- say accounts repeated and amplified in proprietary documents. Mr. Smith was eminently a peace-lov- ing man, and one who appears to have devoted himself with great singleness of aim to the specific duties of his high vocation. Only with feelings of anxiety and grief could a man of his spirit have contemplated the disturbances which agitated his parish during the whole period of his connection with it, and which were at once a cause and a conse- quence of the low state of religion that prevailed. He knew of course the state of things when he came here, but we do not doubt that his whole personal and ministerial influence bore in the direc- tion of pacification and compromise. His voice, however, had not power to allay the storm. In the July following the above incident, the jail was again opened by a mob. Two prisoners were in it, whose friends (so wrote Mr. Alexander, one of the ProjDrietary Council,) tried to obtain a commis- sion for a special court to try them " by their fellow- rioters and relatives." Failing in this, " on the 15th inst., in the dead hour of the night, a number of people in disguise came to and broke open the jail, and lescued the two prisoners. By their com- MOKE RIOTS. 91 ing in disguise, (the writer added,) it seems tliey have got a little more fear and modesty ^than thej used to have." The congratulation was premature. A letter written October 14, 1749, by David Og- den, of Newark, to James Alexander, discovers to us the confusion which at that time involved the subject of land claims in this region, T.he letter states that the bearer, Daniel Pierson, a man well informed on the subject, "would testify that three- fifths hold lands under proprietary titles ; one-fifth have no pretensions to any title, and these were the chief destroyers of timber ; and the other fifth hold under Indian titles ; but not more than one-third first settled their lands under an Indian title ; and the other two-thirds purchased the Indian title within a few years then past." By this time, a strong sympathy with the people in their opposition to the proprietors began to show itself in the provincial assembly. Governor Belcher, in a letter to the Board of Trade, November 27, 1749, complained that the Assembly of New Jersey, during the whole session, was in dispute and con- tention with the Council; and that it would enter into no measures to suppress the riots. On the same daj^, David Ogden wrote again to Mr. Alex- ander at Perth Amboy, relative to a riot committed a fortnight before at Horseneck, when the house of Abraham Phillips was broken open, the owner turned out, and a stack of his oats burnt ; suggest- 92 ARRESTS AND INDICTMENTS. ing that "proper affidavits of this riot would be proper to Accompany our Assembly's representation home, of the pacific spirit of the rioters." In the following March, according to another letter of the Governor, the rioters were spreading their influence to such a degree that the legislature seemed to be stagnated by it.* In these circumstances, the proprietors looked to the judiciary. Even Governor Belcher was sus- pected of a want of firmness. The courts were more reliable. Eiots were followed by arrests, and arrests by indictment and conviction. In 1755, at the June term of the Supreme Court, a large num- ber of persons were indicted, and the records of the court show that "some of the good people of the Mountain Society were certainly in this respect- able company,"'!' Jonathan Squier, John Vincent, Thomas Williams, Samuel Crowell, Nathaniel Wil- liams, Samuel Parkhurst, John Harrison, Moses Brown, Benjamin Perry, Levi Vincent, Jun., Josiah Lindsley, Bethuel Pierson, Nathaniel Ball, John Baker, Nathan Baldwin, Abel Ward, John Dodd, Timothy Ball, Ely Kent, Jonathan Davis, Jun., Ebenczer Lindsley, Eleazer Lamson, Enos Baldwin, Samuel Ogden, John Brown, Jun., Timothy Meeker, * Analyt. Index, pp. 251-8. f S. H. CONGAR— to whom the writer is indebted for extracts from the records. "I say respectable,'' he adds, "for doubtless they were generally in good repute." SECOND MEETING-HOUSE. 93 Zebedee Brown, and Thomas Day, threw them- selves on the mercy of the court. Daniel Williams, Amos Harrison, John Tompkins, Ebenezer Farand, Eobert Young, Paul Day, Joseph WilKams, and Elihu Lindsley, were fined five shillings. "Ee- cognizance £100 for their good behavior for three years, and stand committed till fine and fees are paid." But the Mountain Society showed signs of pros- perity and progress even amid these adverse influ- ences. Mr. Smith had been in the parish but a few years, when the erection of a new and better house of worship was undertaken. The following con- tract refers to the finishing of the house the year after its erection : " Articles of agreement entered into this 18th day of March, 1754, between the committee of the Society of Newark Mountains, regularly chosen to manage in the affair of building a new meeting- house in said Society, by name Samuel Harrison, Samuel Freeman, Joseph Harrison, Stephen Dod, David Williams, Samuel Condict, William Crane, and Joseph Eiggs on the one party, and Moses Bakhvin on the other party ; whereas the said com- mittee have bargained and agreed, with the said Baldwin perfectly to finish the said meeting-house excepting the mason work which now remains to be done to the same ; which articles of agreement are, as to the most considerable particulars, as follows : 94 CONTRACT FOR FINISHING. "1. That said Baldwin shall faithfully and hon- estly finish the said house in the general, after the model of the meeting-house in Newark. "2. That said Baldwin shall find all the mate- rials for finishing the said house, such as timbers, boards, sleepers, glass, oil and paint, nails, hinges, locks, latches, bolts, with all other kinds of mate- rials necessary for finishing the said house after the model aforesaid, excepting the materials for the mason work. " 3. That he shall seal [ceil] the arch, ends above the plate, and under the galleries, with white- wood boards, and paint the same well with a light sky color. " 4. That he shall take the desk of the old pulpit and so new model it that it shall be proportionable to the rest of the work, and that the rest of the gum- work be as the house in Newark, and oiled. "5. That he shall make six pews, one on each side the pulpit, and two on the right and two on the left fronting the pulpit, with doors and hinges. " 6. That he shall make shutters for the lower tier of windows, painted blue and white. " 7. That lie shall set all the glass, and pamt the sashes, and j)ut springs in the same to prevent their falling. "8. That he shall make a row of pews in the front gallery next tlie wall. "9. That the said committee shall pay to the said THE COST. 96 Baldwin for tiuisbiiig the said meeting-house as above-mentioned, provided he completes it by the first day of December next, the sum of two hundred and forty pounds current money of this province, the payments to be as follows, viz.; that he shall be paid forty pounds upon demand, one hundred pounds more upon the first day of December next, and the last hundred pounds upon this day twelve months. " 10. That the said Baldwin shall employ any of the joiners belonging to this Society for so long a time as they shall chuse to work, until they have paid what they shall freely give to the said meet- ing-house, and that he shall allow them four and sixpence per day, " 11, That the said Baldwin shall have whatever he can get out of the old meeting-house that he shall work up into the new, together with all the hooks, and hinges, and locks. All which articles we whose names are above written do promise and oblige ourselves faithfully to perform and fulfil : in witness whereof, we have hereunto intercliangeably set our hands the day and year above written."" This agreement had reference to the carpenter work upon the house, the walls of which were stone. The latter furnished work for many in the parish, who had doubtless equal privileges with the « The original paper is preserved by S. H. Congar. 96 helpp:rr in tiik work. joiners. Thus, on the 20th of March, Samuel Jones received credit, 15 shillings, for six loads of rough stone ; David Peck, for four loads, 10 shil- lings ; David Williams by Davie Taylor, two loads, 8 shillings ; -while Deacon Freeman had 7 shillings for laying sleepers two days, and Justice Harrison, William Crane, Thomas Williams, Samuel Cundict, Isaac Cundict, John Cundict, Stephen Dod, David Williams, Capt. [Matthew] Williams, Isaac Wil- liams, Joseph Harrison and others, for " taking down the ceiling of the old meeting-house," and for other work, were duly and equally credited at the rate of three shillings sixpence a day. In " Justice Harrison's " old account-book already referred to, we find a series of charges to the meeting-house ac- count from May to July 4th, when, says the record, "we raised the meeting-house galleries." On that d'ay thirty years later, another generation were raising liberty-poles. By the autumn of 1754, six years after Mr. Smith's settlement, the new house must have been occupied by the congregation. It was built for en- durance, and was to continue in use nearly twice as long as its predecessor. It stood a few rods farther west, nearly in front of the present edifice. It is not known that the Second Mecting-House was ever pictured by any contemporaneous hand. The view here presented was drawn from descrip- tions furnished bv those who well remember it and ■ 4iA:MS!t<^^^' minister's salary. 97 who often worshipped in it. The representation given by the artist (E. E. Quinbj, Sew York,; Is said to be an accurate one. Of the state of the parish at this period we are able to furnish some particulars from a book of ac- counts kept by Mr. Smith. It contains the names of about eighty persons who are regularly charged for their annual rate, varying from a few shillings to the sum of two pounds and upwards. The ag- gregate per annum was not far from £65, or about $150.* The rates were doubtless graduated by the ci\'il tax list. This income was added to the use of the parsonage house and lands. There were, how- ever, as the account shows, some tardy rate-payers, who had several years of arrearages to settle for with Mr. Smith's executors, after his decease. A iSTew York paper of July, 1756, notices a destructive hurricane, from which some of Mr. ^' From an entry made in 1762, it appears that the dollar was then equal in value to eight shillings eight pence. "Wlieat was 6*. to Is. per bushel : oate. 2s. &d. ; Indian com, 3^ to 4».; buckwheat, 2?.*6. BOARD ACCOUNT. 157 to settle his board bill. This lattSr, for twentj-nine weeks and two days, amounted to £144 85. 7cZ., or $385. It included, however, besides board, (at £2 per week for Mr. and Mrs. Griffin,) a charge for two rooms entirely famished (£20) ; the service of a hired woman, at six shillings a week, and her board at ten shillings ; the v/ages of a nurse for Mrs. Grifl&n at sixteen shillings a vreek, and her board at twelve shillings ; the keeping of a horse at twelve shillings a week, on " one peck of oats a day and the best hay ;" harnessing horse for Mr. Griffin and his visitors ; cutting wood, making fires, running on errands, &c., (£11 12.5.) ; candles for the 29 weeks (£2 10.5.). It will be seen that some of these charges grew out of the state of Mrs. Griffin's health. From the whole the reader will infer a disposition on the part of the people to sur- I'ound the minister of Christ with all necessary comforts and facilities for his work. Their reward was proportionate. Failing to secure the permanent ministrations of Mr. Griffin, the congregation of Orange had their attention soon directed to the Eev. Asa Hillyer, of Madison. His long and useful ministry in the parish demands at our hands some notice of his earlier history. Mr. Ilillyer was a native of Sheffield, Mass., where he was born April 16, 1763. He was the son of a physician, Avho became a surgeon in the Revolu-! 8 158 REV. ASA HILLYER. tionarj army. Entering Yale College Avhen he was nineteen years old, lie graduated after a four years course of study in 1786. His father was at this time residing at Bridgehampton, L, I. In crossing the Sound on his return home from college, he came near losing his life by a storm, which arose in the night and drove ashore the vessel in which he sailed. Among his fellow-passengers there was a mother with several children. The sight of these touched the heart of 3'oung 11 illy er and roused all his heroism. Obtaining a boat, he placed them in it as soon as it began to be light, and then sjiring- ing into the water himself, pushed the boat to land. At this time he had no Christian hope, and the effect of the night's disaster and of its merciful ter- mination was the immediate and solemn consecra- tion of his life to God, Having resolved upon entering the ministry, he began a course of theological study with Dr. Buell, of East Hampton, which he subsequently pursued and finished with Dr. Livingston, of New York, and in 1788 he was licensed to preach by the Pres- bytery of Suffolk. His ordination and settlement at South Hanover, now IMadison, N. J., by the Presbytery of New York, took place July 28, 1790. The next year he was married to !Miss Jane Eiker, of Newtown, L. I. — a union destined to be long and happy. In 1798, under an appointment of the General Assembly, he went out upon a mis- MISSIONARY TOUR. 159 sionarj tour through northern Pennsylvania and ■western New York, being absent from his charge nine weeks, travelling more than nine hundred miles, and preaching daily or oftencr. He carried the gospel to places where it was never heard be- fore. Among these may be mentioned the place where now stands the city of Auburn.* * At this place lie was entertained at the house of a lawyer of sceptical sentiments, whose father, one of the signers of the Dec- laration of Independence, had been a man of piety. In convers- ing with the wife of his host, Mr. H. discovered her to be in a state of serious concern for her salvation. The gentleman pro- posing a ride the next day, for the purpose of giving him a view of the country, he accepted the invitation. After riding a short distance, the former observed that he had a special motive for the ride, desiring to have some conversation with him on a subject which was deeply engaging his thoughts. He informed him that he had been a disbeliever in the Bible. The book had lain in his ofBce unused, except in the administration of oaths. One day, as his eye rested upon it, these thoughts arose : " I have read much that has been written against that book, but have never honestly examined the book itself. My father was a firm believer in it. He was not a man of weak intellect or of doubtful integrity, but intelligent, conscientious, patriotic, and pure-minded. It did not injure him, but contributed to make him what he was. I will now be honest with myself and give it a fair examination." He had commenced reading it, and its truths had so impressed and dis- turbed his mind that he had since found no peace. " Have you ever spoken to your wife on the subject?" asked Mr. H. He said he had not. As they continued their ride, the opportunity was improved to deepen his convictions of Gospel truth. On their return to the house, as the gentleman was fastening his horse, Mr. H. stepped in and disclosed to the wife what he had learned of 160 CALL TO ORANGE. After laboring about twelve years with great acceptance at Madison — then, known by the name of Bottle Hill — Mr. Hillyer was invited to the pas- toral charge of this congregation. After a due consideration of the subject, he decided to accept the invitation. The people of his former charge, in receiving his resignation, placed a minute upon their records, which (in the language of the present pastor of that church) "does honor both to them- selves and to him ; and furnishes a beautiful exem- plification of the spirit Avhich ought to be exhibited both by pastors and people, v/hen in the providence of God the}^ are called to separate."* Although the call from this church was not unanimous, Mr. Hillyer entered the field hopefulh', believing that a general concurrence would not long be withheld. He did not miscalculate the power of love. The field was soon his own, long to be held b}^ the power that won it. The call, drawn up in the usual form, was as follows: "The Congregation of Orange Dale, be- ing on sufficient grounds well satisfied of the minis- her husband's state of mind. lu a few moments the latter en- tered. His wife met him aftectionately. As their eyes met, both were overcome with emotion. They embraced each other and wept, and were soon rejoicing togetlier in the hope of salvation. — Related by Dr. Hillyer to Rev. James "Wood, now President of Hanover College, Indiana, and by him to the writer. * Hist, of Pres. Church, Madison, by Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle.. p. 40. TERMS OF THE CALL. 161 terial qualifications of you, the Eev. Asa Hillyer, and lia\dng good hopes from our past experience of your labors that your ministrations in the Gos- pel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pas- toral office in said congregation, promising you in the discharge of your duty all proper support, en- couragement, and obedience in the Lord. And that you may be free from worldly cares and avo- cations, we hereby promise and oblige ourselves to pay to you the sum of six hundred and twenty- five dollars in regular annual payments, together with the use of the parsonage house and twelve acres of land adjoining the same, and thirty cords of wood annually, during the time of your being and continuing the regular pastor of this church. The congregation, moreover, engage to put the buildings and fences in good repair. But the Eev. Asa Hillyer is to be at the expense of after repairs, with the privilege of collecting the necessary mate- rials from the parsonage to repair the fences. In testimony whereof, &c. Done October 20, 1801." The call was signed by the trustees, viz. : Aaron Mun, Joseph Pierson, Jun., Thomas Williams, Dan- iel Williams, Samuel Condit, Isaac Pierson ; — by the elders, viz. : Joseph Pierson, Jun., Amos Har- rison, John Perry, Aaron Mun, Linus Dodd, Henry Osborn ; and by Eev. Bethuel Dodd, Moderator. 162 THE SETTLEMENT. The installation took jjlacc December 16.* Mr. Hilljer was now in his full strength, being in his 39th year — the age at which one of his pre- decessors had been called from his work. He had a tall and manly figure, and features not a little resembling those of George Washington. With- out the eloquence of Grif&n, he had a vigorous intellect, sound learning, ardent piety, courteous manners, and great benevolence of character. Few men have possessed a happier combination of min- isterial qualities. There was another, however, possessing many similar traits of character, whose name is inciden- tally connected with our history at this point, and between whom and Mr. Hillyer a long and warm friendship subsequently existed. He was nine years younger, being in his thirtieth year, when, in the summer of 1801, having resigned a brief presidency of Hampden Sidney College, in Virginia, his native State, he made an extensive tour of observation on horseback through the Northern States, for the improvement of his health and mind. Having travelled through New England, he was returning homeward by way of New York and New Jersey. A Sabbath was passed in New York, where he preached in the evening for Dr. Eodgers in the * Dr. McWhorter presided and gave the charge to the minister ; James Eichards, of Morristown, preached ; Aaron Condit " made the address to the people." ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. 163 Brick Church. " The next day was partly spent at Newark, with the venerable Dr. McWhorter, after which he proceeded to Elizabethtown, and visited the Eev. Henry Kollock, at the house of his father. It a was a favorite plan of Mr. Kollock to have his friend settled in the congregation of Orange, but the steps taken by him wefe unsuc- cessfal."* This young Virginian was Archibald Alexander, then little known in this region, but whose name New Jersey was yet to cherish with a just pride as enrolled among those of her ablest theological teachers and most useful writers. It is likely that the congregation of Orange had their thoughts fixed upon Mr. Hillyer, if they had not already invited him, and Providence had other and yet larger designs for Mr. Alexander. His friend Kollock, (afterward Dr. Kollock,) one of the most eloquent preachers of his day, settled in Sa- vannah, Ga. He was a son of Shepard Kollock, of Elizabethtown, an active patriot in the Kevolu- tion, and for some time editor and publisher of a newspaper.f The old stone meeting-house was now the memo- rial of a generation gone. It had stood almost * Life of Dr. Alexander, p. 264. f Mr. Hillyer's oldest son, Asa, married Lydia, a daughter of Shepard Kollock. He lived but about eighteen months after their union. The widow became the wife of Rev. Dr. Holdicli, of the Am. Bible Society. 164 CHL'KCH OFFICERS. half a century. The stone parsonage had more than completed that period. Both had from time to time seen their age renewed by sundry improve- ments, and they were not yet to be released from service for a dozen years or more. The church had a membership of about two hundred. The exact figure is not known prior to 1806, when it was reported at two hundred and twenty-three. The congregation was among the largest to be found in the rural parishes. Such was the field. It was entered by the new pastor in the hope of a more expanded usefulness. And who were to be the helpers of his ministry ? Few were left of those who, thirtj^-five years be- fore, had given the right hand of their confidence to his j)redecessor. In the line of elders, Bethuel Pierson had been gone some ten years, and Joseph, his son, had succeeded to the " double honor " of which he had been counted worth}^ Noah Crane, at the age of eighty-one, had passed away but a year and a half before, and Zenas Freeman, at half that age, had speedily followed. Isaac Dodd and Joseph Crane had been transferred to Bloomfield. Of the officers who remained. Deacon Amos Bald- win was in his eight3^-second year — old enough to retire from service. Judge Peck, also an elder and deacon, stood next in seniority, being in his sev- entieth year. John Perry was fifty-five. Joseph Pierson, Aaron Munn, Linus Dodd, Amos Harri- THE SEXTON. 165 son, and Henry Osborn, were younger. The names of Moses Condit and John Lindsley were added to the list a little more than three years after. These ■were the associates of our pastor in the earliest period of his administration here. They were all literally his elders, who were to finish their course before him. There was in the parish a young man of twenty- six, who was to be an office-bearer at the end of thirty years, when these were gone. At this time he might have been seen on a Sunday morning or a .Wednesday evening performing the duties of bell- ringer. This was Josiah Frost, who was employed in 1800 to ring the bell " on Sabbath and lecture days " for £3 14?. ; the widow Sarah Condit hav- ing charge of the sweeping at £5 per annum. The sexton's offices were thus divided between the two till 1805, when the former assumed the whole busi- ness, with a salary of $33 87. By the terms of the contract he was to take the whole and proper charge of the meeting-house, sweeping the same, finding the sand, ringing the bell, and lighting the caudles ; the last named-article to be found at the expense of the parish, and " the ends left to go to the person who lights the candles." This service Mr. Frost performed through a number of years. In due time he was called to serve the church in a higher office, and at the time of our present writ- ing he has just " entered into the joy of his Lord," ripe in years and spiritual fruitfulness. 166 LOTS ON THE COMMON. The growtH of the village creating a consider- able demand for building lots, the parish in 1802 resolved to sell a portion of its lands along Main street for that purpose — the interest to be appro- priated to the support of the Gospel. Five lots north and eight lots south of the street were accord- ingly sold, for the sum of $3,546, secured by bond and mortgage. The strip of ground already used for a Common, lying opposite the j)arsonage, was to be reserved for that purpose forever. The eight lots lay along the southern border of this, and comprised six acres and fifty-eight hundredths of an acre. The Common was for a special and pa- triotic use, as well as for the public convenience and for the adornment of the village. The mar- tial parade drew hither annually its display of arms, and a crowd of citizens, old and young, who looked to the occasion as the carnival of the year. Generous dinners were famished by the tavern hard by, while travelling hucksters and auctioneers did a thriving business by the wayside. The locality is that now known as the pari-. In 1806, the trustees resolved to build a store- house on the Orange Dock, " 18 feet by 30." The work was executed by Amos Harrison, he being the lowest bidder, for $239 75. About two 3^ears from Mr. Hillyer's settlement, the church received a gentle refreshing. This in- dication of the divine favor excited his thanks- KEVIVAL OF 1807. 167 givings, and relieved him of a lingering fear that he had mistaken the voice of Providence in the matter of his settlement. If any measure of that fear remained, it was put to' rest a few years subse- quently, when there came down a baptism of the Spirit which surpassed anything known, before or since, in the history of the congregation. There is, happily, a narrative of this great revival, writ- ten by himself to some clerical friend. The name and date are not found in the transcript before us. We give his account of it without abridgment. " Rev. and Dear Sir : — A weakness in my side, occasioned by the illness from which I was just recovering, when I saw you last September, which rendered it extremely painful for me to write, has prevented my complying with your request until this time. But supposing that, even at this late hour, it may not be displeasing to you to receive a brief account of the wonders of divine grace which have been witnessed in this congregation, and a general view of the work of God in this vicinity, I will endeavor to give as general and succinct a relation of these things as I am able, " In the beginning of September, 1807, some tokens of good were discovered. A number of praying people were stirred up to fervent prayer, and there appeared to be an increased at- tention to the preached word. For more than three years a meeting for special prayer had been attended in the church on the first Monday evening in every mouth. This meeting now increased in numbers and solemnity. " This church, in connection with two neighboring churches,* * Those of Newark and Bloomfield, doubtless. Dr. Griffin, then pastor in Newark, made this record in his journal: "September, 168 ST'ATE OF MORALS. agreed to set apart September 4tli for lasting and prayer, and in an especial manner, make supplication for the effusion of the Holy Spirit. A number of praying people also agreed to meet at nine o'clock on Sabbath morning, in the academy, to spend an hour in prayer for their minister, and for a divine blessing on the exercises of the day. This has been attended from that time to the present by a great proportion of the praying people of the congregation. It has been very refresh- ing to them, and accompanied with very happy effects. " But it may not be improper to remark here, that for some time previous to this, everything around assumed a gloomy aspect in regard to evangelical piety. All meetings for prayer, except the first Monday in the month, were relinquished. Gambling, horse-racing, intemperance, and dissipation of every kind, threatened all social order with destruction. A moral society had been established for two years, the object of which was the suppression of vice and immorality ; but no human effort was able to withstand the torrent of vice which threat- ened us on every side. At the same time the exertions of Christians were paralyzed ; the wise were sleeping with the foolish. This state of things alarmed a few praying people ; they agreed to resume a prayer-meeting which had, for the first time in more than forty years, been relinquished the spring be- fore. This took place about the latter part of July. For a number of weeks not more than twelve or fourteen persons at- tended ; but such fervent and earnest wrestling with God I never witnessed. They prayed as though they saw their chil- dren and neighbors standing on the verge of destruction, and that, without an immediate interposition of almighty grace, they were lost for ever. 1807. Began a great revival of religion in the town. Ninety- seven joined the church in one day, and about two Imndred in all."' Fifty, or more, were gathered in at Bloomfiold. THE BALL. 169 " It was soon perceived that our public assemblies were un- usually solemn, but no special impression appeared to be made until the third Sabbath in September. In the morning the assembly was addressed on the awful solemnity of a future judgment ; and, iu the afternoon, from these words : Choose you this day whom yeioill serve. This was a day long to be remem- bered. Such solemnity had not been seen for many years, and many date their first impressions from that day. " The case of one young Miss it may not be improper for me to mention. She had been excessively fond of balls and parties of pleasure ; and had so strong an aversion to the public institutions of religion, that it was with difficulty she could be prevailed upon to attend public worship. This day she re- solved to give up her amusements, and attend to the vast con- cerns of her soul. In the evening we had a crowded assembly. An address was made from these words : All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. The doctrine brought to view in this passage of Scripture greatly exasperated a number present, among whom was this young lady. She now declared she would attend no more meetings ; ' for,' said she, ' if I am given to Christ, I shall be saved ; if not, all my efforts will be vain.' In the conclusion of the exercises, the youth were particularly addressed, and afiectionately told of the wonderful things God was doing for the young people of Newark and Elizabethtown. The young lady above-mentioned, notwithstanding her enmity to the truth, resolved to break up a ball she had engaged to attend the next Tuesday evening. Accordingly, earl}' Monday morn- ing she called on a number of her female companions, and per- suaded them to unite with her, and have the contemplated ball deferred until the next week. They succeeded ; the ball was defer- red, and has not since been attended. The disappointment which this occasioned greatly exasperated some of the young men, who determined to seek revenge on their minister and others, whom they accused of breaking up (he ball; although 170 THE PRAYER-MEETING. their minister knew nothing of the ball until they mentioned it afterwards, with abhorrence. They resolved to attend the prayer-meeting the next Wednesday evening, and then fix upon another time for their favorite amusement. ' We will go,' said they, ' and crowd out the old fellows, and let Mr. H. see that for once he has enough young people at his prayer-meeting.' " When I came to the house, I was not a little surprised to see two rooms and the entry filled with people, the most of whom had never been seen in such a place before ; and, as I entered the room, to see the seats previously occupied by a few praying persons now filled by some of the most profligate youth in our village. The first prayer was made by an aged Christian, who is the only surviving member of the meeting when it was established, forty years ago. His prayer was solemn and im- pressive. An address was then made from these words : Coine now, and let us reason together. No attempt was made to work upon the passions. The youth, in an especial manner, were exhorted to consider the reasonableness of giving their hearts to God, and consecrating the best of their lives to his service. The assembly was unusually solemn. These during youth were made to tremble under the word. Numbers were evidently pricked to the heart. Their tears, which they made great exertions to conceal, betrayed an awakened conscience. Such a scene had never before been witnessed by any person present. " No disturbance was made. All retired in solemn silence. Twelve or fifteen of the youth, who came with an intention of disturbing the meeting, went away trembling under a sense of guilt. As they had no suspicion of each others' feelings, each made an eSbrt to conceal his own. One of them has since said, supposing that none of his companions felt as he did, and that he should be unable to conceal his feelings, he crossed a corn- field and went home unobserved. Another said, while walking the street he assumed an unusual gayety to conceal his feelings, POWER OF THE EEVIVAL. 171 although the terrors of his miud were such that it appeared to him the earth would open and swallow him up. " One, who had not been in the house, made an effort to stop the young 23eople in the street, to concert a plan for the contem- plated ball ; but his efforts were vain — all hurried home. After the people retired, four or five young women, who had waited in a back room, came in the room where the family were sitting, wringing their hands, and exclaimed, ' Oh, Mr. H., what shall we do ? ' After giving them such instruction as their case seemed to require, I engaged to meet with them the next even- ing. These, with a number of others, met the next evening in conference. Saturday afternoon we again met in conference. The beginning of the next week, the number under serious impressions had become too great to be accommodated at a private house. "Within a mile of the church we have an academy and two large school-houses. It was agreed to hold our conferences at these, alternately. Our assemblies, on these occasions, were frequently so large we were obliged to repair to the church. Sabbath and Wednesday evening we had stated lecture in the church. Our assemblies were all solemn, but without noise or disorder. After the usual exercises of our evening meetings were concluded, it was often difficult to persuade the people to retire. Indeed, this was impossible, until they were left by those to whom they looked for instruction. " One evening, after the benediction had been pronounced, the whole assembly stood in solid column. Scarcely an indi- vidual moved from his place. Such evidences of deep and heart- felt sorrow I never witnessed before, on any occasion. While all stood in solemn silence, there seemed a greater appearance of solemnity than during any part of the previous exercises. Sometimes it seemed we had only to stand still and see the sal- vation of God. It seemed, indeed, that the Lord was there, and that he gave us an example of his immediate work upon the conscience and the heart. 172 TOWNSHIP OF ORANGE. ■' If it were proper for me to go further iato detail, I might mention other scenes similar to this. Within two weeks from the commencement of the work, more than one hundred were deeply impressed. A visible change seemed to be produced throughout the village.'' The cliurch received much strength from this re- markable work, one hundred and fortj-five persons being ackled to its communion in the course of the next year. So large an ingathering belongs to no other year of its history. Orange had continued, till about this time, to be a part of the township of Newark. In 1806 it was organized as a town, under the name it now bears. The new township was consecrated by a glorious baptism ! About tlie close of the year 1808, Nathaniel Bruen and David Munn were chosen elders. The latter, though his name appears at two or three meetings of Session, declined the appointment, and was never set apart to the office by ordination. In 1809, an addition was made to the pastor's salary, raising the amount paid in money from $625 to $800. By the separation of the town from Newark, it became necessary for the church to change its cor- porate name. The legislature being applied to, changed its title, in 1811, from the Second Presby- terian Church in Newark to the First Presbyterian Church in Oranw. HONORABLE TRUSTS, 173 It was during this year Mr. Hillyer was made a trustee o'f tlie College of New Jersey— an office wliicli he held to the close of life, and which Vv-as accom- panied with a sincere and active devotion to the interests of the institution. He was also chosen, in 1812, one of the first directors of the Theological Seminary at Princeton. This appointrpent was regularly renewed until the disruption of the church ; and, also, subsequently to that event, after a single omission. These important trusts, held for a quarter of a century, are indicative at once of a generous public spirit, of persistent good-will to- ward those from whom he was ecclesiastically sepa- rated, and of established confidence in his integrity and administrative ability. A similar confidence, on the part of his people, was manifested, and also justified, in the success of an important enterprise within the parish, which is said to have originated with him. This was the erection of a new and larger temple in which to worship God. Time, and the progress of popula- tion, had created what seemed to him a necessity for this. He proposed it. Some approved, and some objected. Some thought it feasible, and some impossible. He asked certain persons of the latter class, if they would favor the undertaking, provided he would secure the subscription of a certain sum of money which he named. They answered him, Yes. He started out with his paper on Monday, 174 THIRD MEETING-HOUSE. and by the close of the week had procured double the amount specified. We learn, from MV. Moses Harrison, that his father, Jared Harrison, opened the subscription with $500. A laudable emulation was awakened. Those who refused donations stood ready to purchase })ews. The thought, once fairly before the people, kindled desire, and desire led to action. The initial steps of the enterprise were taken in 1811. At the parish meeting in May, the trustees were authorized to purchase a half acre of ground for a site, lying on the north side of the road in the rear of the church. It was purchased of Stephen D. Day, for $400. The next year the work began, under the direction of the trustees, assisted by a building committee. It was voted by the parish that the front and sides of the new edifice should be built of dressed stone, the rear of undressed. The trustees were at first instructed to have the work done by contract, but these instructions were subsequently recalled, the matter being left to their discretion. They accordingly employed an archi- tect and proceeded with the work, manj^ members of the parish preferring to turn in their labor on their subscription account. The principal architect was Moses Dodd, who received, for his services, three dollars a day. We have found no written details relating to the progress of the work, but we are told by Mr. Adonijah Osraun, that the corner ITS DIMENSIONS. 175 Stone was laid tbe 15tli of September, 1812. At the meeting of the parish, the next April, it was voted to take down the old meeting-house, for the purpose of using its material in the construction of the new. The double work of demolition and edi- fication followed, — the Sabbath assembly, in a meas- ure broken up and reduced in immbers,^ being for several months held elsewhere. The stone tablet, over the door of the demolished edifice, was trans- ferred to the inside of the tower in the uew, where the inscription upon its face may yet be read, unob- scured by the mould which has gathered upon its contemporaries in the old graveyard. A goodly sanctuary was reared, considerably ex- ceeding the dimensions of its predecessor. It had a front of sixty-three feet, and a depth of ninety in the central and longest part, the rear wall having a curvature or convexity of four or five feet. This length does not include the projection of the tower in front, which was four feet. The walls had an elevation of about thirty-six feet to the roof The tower, eighteen and a half feet wide, was carried up to the top of the building. The steeple was re- served for the work of another year. Three large folding- doors admitted the worshipper to the vesti- bule. Two opened from that into the audience- room, connecting with two aisles between which, at the hither end, stood the pulpit. The house had double rows of windows, which numbered ten on 176 THE OLD BELL. each side, six at the rear end, and three in front, exclusive of lights above the doors. Galleries at the sides and end rose above the pulpit in sublimity of position, if they were not always to equal it in sublimity of thought and solemnity of feeling- These, for some time to come, were to be kept in order by a Sunday police stationed at suitable dis- tances. The bell, taken down from its modest quarters in the old steeple, was suspended on a pole to perform its last offices in calling the "workmen to their tasks. A calamity had befallen it some time previously, of which it still bore the mark. The tongue hav- ing dropped out when its voice was needed on a funeral occasion, was taken by the bell-ringer and struck upon the rim of the bell, by which a frac- ture was produced. The bell was taken to a smith, who attempted to weld the fracture. Instead of this, a piece was melted out. The failure, however, proved a success, for the tone of the bell was in a good measure restored. Having in this condition continued to do duty, it was now, as we have stated, put to a useful service in signaling the hours of labor. But it was destined to share the fate of the old church — bequeathing its metal, while losing its individuality. As the new house went up and the work drew near completion, a workman named William Halsey, to secure the parish against possi- bilities which excited uneasiness in some minds. THE THIKD MEETING-HOUSE. DEDICATION, 177 gave the bell a finishing stroke with his hammer. A piercing knell — and the tongue which had so long discoursed solemnly of eternity and sweetly of heaven, which had called a generation to their nightly repose and to their weekly devotions, which had been the music of their lives and a mourner at their burial, was silent forever ! The new building (except the steeple) went up during the summer and autumn of 1813. The date of its dedication Ave have not been able to deter- mine. According to the recollections of some who were present, it occurred in the month of Decem- ber, the weather being quite cold, Mr. Hillyer preached. The assembly was large and the occa- sion inspiring. Taking a text from Genesis 28 : 17> he thus congratulated his audience, who were now partakers of his joy as they had been of his toil and hope : " My Brethren : — The circumstances in which we meet this morning are calculated to inspire us all with unfeigned gratitude and lively joy. By the good providence of our God, a work of great labor and expense is so far accomplished that we may this day begin to enjoy its fruits. If we look back to the moment when, with solicitude and trembling hope, we laid the corner-stone, and con- sider the rapidity and safetj^ with which 'the work has progressed — that in a little more than twelve months this large, convenient and beautiful build- 178 MR. HILLYEli's SERMON. ing Las been thus far completed — that in all the dangers to which a numerous body of useful mechanics and laborers have been exposed, not a life has been lost, nor a bone broken* — \yhat heart does not feel, and what tongue does not confess, that this is the finger of God ? We are permitted in health and in peace to assemble around these altars, and by prayer and thanksgiving dedicate this house to our God and Kedeemer," Words equally earnest, and which have not yet lost their fitness or force, were heard as the speaker drew his discourse to a close. Tlie thoughts evolved from his subject and from the occasion, were thus brought home to his congregation: " The God of Jacob has given you a Bethel — not in the wilderness, not in exile from domestic endearments, not in circumstances of poverty and want, but in circumstances happily adapted to spiritual improvement. Let me beseech you, my * This was true ; 3'et one of the workmen (David S. Rofl") had fiillen from the scaffolding, when tlie wall was within one tier of the top. By a singvalar providence he fell where a pile of sand was or had been lying, and thus escaped being broken on the frag- ments and chips of stone which covered the ground all around the spot. Those who saw him fall observed that he rebounded from the ground a foot or two. It was on the east side of the building. The accident was occasioned by stepping on a loose bit of stone. The injury did not prove serious. Josiah Frost was standing where he fell. Hearing the noise, ho looked up, saw the man de- scending, and had just time to save himself by stepping a.-> 1815 45 419 12 35 9 25 10 00 •2.2 1816 9 374 3 40 7 27 7 25 14 10 «l 1817 1818 119 9 518 520 35 24 64 12 00 12 00 13 67 18 26 4 7 83 20 00 2100 1819 4 8 13 813 40 00 1820 8 511 3 32 6 00 2 37 36 00 1821 17 524 3 31 5 00 5 00 26 50 6 00 1822 G 522 2 20 5 00 5 00 19 00 1823 5 4 78 4 78 14 50 31 25 1824 7 518 1 23 6 Oy 6 03 9 68 43 00 1825 518 4 63 1172 1172 24 43 14 00 1826 90 596 26 63 5 68 5 68 11 10 6 00 1827 18 604 2 43 10 00 4 62 17 00 3 00 1828 5 588 T 31 8 00 5 75 10 00 3140 590 168 789 184 85 159 17 312 94 250 65' 280 Ar;'i:NJ)lx. No. a US §1 SI S ■3 <1« ^-6 OS 1 Missions. 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