CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OCEAN COUNTY.
HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES
OCEAN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY,
BEING A SERIES OF HISTORICAL SKETCHES RELATING TO OCEAN COUNTY,
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW JERSEY COURIER,
TOMS RIVER, N. J.
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/
By EDWIN SALTER
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE NEW JERSEY COURIER.
TOMS RIVER, N. J.
1 878
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PLD J
I M ES IN
P
C E A N
po
U NT Y,
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF
Forked River, Cedar Creek and Vicinity.
BY EDWIN SALTEll.
[Note. — The f^rcatcr part of the following sketches was prepared by request, for the
Presbyterian Society at Forked Kiver, Rev. James M. Denton, pastor, for their Centennial
Fourth of July celebration. Since then, both Mr. Denton and the writer have received nu-
merous letters from clergymen and others, asking for extracts, and also inquiries in re-
gard to matters not presented for want of time in the orginal paper. In consequence,
it has been suggested that the sketches should be published in the New Jeksey Courier,
with additional matter, to make more complete historical notices of the places named.]
DISCO\^BY OF OCEAN COUNTY.
Who first discovered this section of
our country ? Who first entered Barne-
gat Bay, and explored its shores ? Who
were the first whites who located here ?
Have any accounts of the Indians once
living here been preserved ? These are
among the first questions which natural-
ly present themselves in making inqui-
ries into the early history of this section
of our State. While the records of the
past, meagre indeed as regards this lo-
cality, do not furnish as full answers as
desirable, yet much has been preserved
which is of interest to all desirous of ob-
taining information on these and kindred
points.
The discovery of that part of New
Jersey now kno-rni as Ocean County, was
by Sir Henry Hudson, on the 2d day of
September, 1609, while cruising along
oiar coast in the celebrated Dutch ship,
the Half Moon. This ship was quite
small, being of only eighty tons burthen,
and of a build that would now be con-
sidered quite novel, reminding one of
the curious-looking Dutch galliots, which
occasionally were seen in the harbor of
New York a generation or so ago, which
used to attract the attention of, and are
well remembered by old seafaring men
of Ocean County.
This ship, two or three days previous-
ly, hatl tried to enter Delaware Bay, but
finding the navigation dangerous, no at-
tempt was made to land, and she again
stood out to sea. After getting fair-
ly out, Hudson headed northeastwardly,
and after a while hauled in and made
land, Sept. 2d, near Egg Harbor. A
very complete log of the ship was kept
by the mate, Alfred Juet, which was sub-
sequently pubUshed, and from which is
made the following extract gi\Tng their
observations of the coast, bay, land, «fec.,
as they sailed close along shore. It will
be seen it quite accurately describes our
GOftsfc from Egg Harbor on to witbiu
biglit of the Higlilauds of Niivcsiuk. The
lake spokcu of is noAV kiiowu as Banie-
gat Bay, aud the month of it as Barne-
gat lulet :
" Sept. 2d, 1G09. WTien the sun arose
we steered north again, and saw land
from the west bj^ north to the northwest,
all alike, broken islands, and our sound-
ings were eleven fathoms and ten fath-
oms. Then we luffed in for the shore,
aud fair by the shore we had seven fath-
oms. The course along the land we
found to be northeast by north. From
the land we first had sight of until we
came to a great lake of water, as we
could judge it to be, being dro^-ned land,
which made it rise like islands, which
was in length ten leagues. The mouth
of the lake has many shoals, and the sea
breaks upon them as it is cast out of the
mouth of it. And from that lake or
bay the land lies north by east, and we
had a great stream out of the bay ; and
from thence our soundings were ten
fathoms two leagues from land. At five
o'clock we anchored, being light wind,
and rode in eight fathoms water. The
night was fair. This night I found the
land to haul the compass eight degrees.
Far to the northward of us we saw high
hills. This is a very good land to fall in
with, and a pleasant land to see."
The next day the Half Moon i^roceed-
cd northwardly, and entered Bandy Hook,
and the day after, Sept. 4tli, a boat was
sent on shore, which contained the first
Europeans who landed on New Jersey
soil. It is supposed they landed in old
Monmouth, not far from Keyport. The
Intlians looked upon the whites and their
ship with Avondcr, and some ventured on
board with presents of green tobacco
leaves, aud seemed pleased to see the
whites. After lingering there until the
10th, the ship got under way, and . pro-
ceeded up the Hudson River, which de-
rives its name from its discovery at this
time by the commander of the ship ; and
on their return down the river, the ship
put to Bca without any attempt to laud.
By the extract given alwvc from the
log of the Half Moon, it will be seen
that the opinion of the whites who first
saw this part of our coast, was that " this
is a very good land to fall in with, aud a
pleasant land to see."
EXPLORING OLR COAST.
The fh'st attempt to make exploraticms
on our coast was in 1614, hy Captain
Cornells Jacobseu Mey, in the ship For-
tune. He displayed considerable ego-
tism in naming places after himself, as
New York Bay he called " Port Mey ;"
the Delaware Bay, " New Port Mey,"
and its north point, "Cape Mey," and
its south one, " Cape Cornells. " Only
one of these designations has been re-
tained — Cape May — and that with a slight
change of orthography. It is probable
it was he who gave tjje names to Banie-
gat Inlet aud Egg Harbor. On the map
of the original explorations, the inlet
now knoAvn as Barnegat was marked as
Barcndc-gat, the Dutch words signify-
ing " breakers' inlet, " or an inlet with
breakers. Absecom Inlet was also
marked Bareude-gat, but the present
name, of Indiau origin, was eventually
substituted. Barende-gat was in course
of time corrupted by the English to
Barndegat, Bardegat, and finally to
Barnegat. Egg Harbor was so called on
account of the luimber of gulls' eggs
found by the exjilorers (m the islands with-
in the inlet ; the Dutch calling it /v//t Ha-
ven, which in English means Egg Harbor.
In 1615, Captain Hendrickson, in n
little yacht called the " Onrcst," (which
in English means " Restless,") also
cruised along the const to make explora-
tions. This little yacht was the second
vessel built in America. The year pre-
vious a Dutch shiiJ, while lying near
New York island, had accidentally caught
fire aud burned up, and during the win-
ter the crew 'nuilt the Restless, about
where Beaver Street, New York, now is.
When she was launched in the spring,
her first cruise was up Long Island
Sound, under Captain Adrian Block, who
3
went as far as Block Island, named after
him, and his perilous adventures through
Hell Gate, caused him to bestow the
name it has ever since retained. The
name he gave to what is now called
Rhode Island, has caused a very natural
mistake to be made in our school text-
books, which say it was so called from its
fancied resemblance to the island of
Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea, while
the fact is Captain Block called it lioodt
Island ; Roodt, which is pronounced as
Rhode, is the Dutch word for red, and
the island was so called from red soil and
leaves that attracted Block's notice. Af-
ter Block returned to Ncav York, Caj)tain
Hendrickson took command of the Rest-
less, and cruised south along the New
Jersey coast. He made a curious majD
of his discoveries, which he took to Hoi-
land, and which has since been copied in
this country. One writer claims that he
was the first white man who set foot on
the soil of West Jersey or Pennsylvania.
From the small size of his yacht, about
sixteen ton§, it is quite probable that
Captain Hendrickson entered Barnegat
Bay, and that he was the first white man
who set foot in wliat is now known as
Qeean County.
Another noted navigator, named De-
Vries, was on our coast April 15, 1633,
and says that off Barnegat ' ' he fished
with a drop-line, and caxaght in two hours
eighty-four codfish, Avhich are very good
flavored, sweet fish, better than those of
Newfoundland." And in 1(55(5, A^ander-
donk, another noted Dutch explorer,
speaks of Barnegat and Egg Harbor In-
lets as safe harbors, but says they are
seldom used, seemingly because their
seafaring men were not acquainted with
the channel ways.
It is probable that about this time,
this section was occasionally visited by
white men from the settlements on the
Delaware and near New York, for the
purpose of explorations and to get furs
of the Indians, and before the close of
the centi;ry, some Swedes from West
Jersey, and perhaps others, had perma-
nently located at points from Toms
River to Egg Harbor.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
i KEFUGEES AT FORKED EmilE, OEDATt
CP.EEK AND VICINITY.
j During the Revolutionary War, Forked
River, Goodluck and Cedar Creek were
! occasionally \asited by parties of Refu-
I gees under command of the noted Capt.
John Bacon, the Dover Refugee, Daven-
j)ort, and jDerhaps others.
Bacon, in one of his raiding expedi-
tions, with fifteen or sixteen men, plun-
j dered the dwelling house of John
j Holmes then residing at the upper
! (Frank Cornehus) mill. The party
{ camped in the woods near the house un-
I til daylight and then came and demanded
; money. Mr. Holmes had the reputation
; of being somewhat forehanded, and the
Tories expected to make a good haul.
In expectation of such a visit he had
buried many of his valuable.'?, and at this
time he had most of his money hid under
a gooseberry bush in the garden. The
Refugees put a bayonet to his breast and
threatened to Mil him if his money was
not forthcoming. Mr. Holmes's wife
happened to have some money about her,
which she delivered to them, and this
I seemed to satisfy them as far as money
1 was concerned. They then ransacked
the house and took provisions and such
other things as they wanted. An ancient
newspaper, probably referring to this
affair, says that about the last of April,
1780, a party of Refugees visited the
house of John Holmes and robbed him
j of a large amount of Continental money,
a silver watch, gold ring, silver buckles,
pistols, clothing, &c. While a part of
the gang remained here, a detachment
: went over to Goodluck to plunder the
houses of John and William Price, from
I which they took such things as they
; wanted. John Williams, Esq., an aged
citizen stUl living at Goodluck, who is a
grandson of John Holmes, says that
among other things taken from the i
Prices were a musket, fife and drum, and
that the last two came near causing^
trouble among the Kefugees themselves,
for as they mai-ched back to Holmes'
mill to rejoin Bacon, they played upon
them for amusement -vvdth such effect
that Bacon thought a party of Americans
was after him and he arranged his men '
on the mill hill prepared to fire as soon i
as the party emerged from the woods, j
Unfortunately for justice he saw who the
men were in time to prevent firing.
Bacon, in his raiding expeditions in this I
vicinity, was materially aided by an Eng-
lishman named William Wilson, better
known as Bill Wilson, who pretended to
be neutral, but who really acted as a spy
for the Eefugees. During the war he
lived at Waretown ; but a patriot named
Reuben Soper was killed on the beach
below the lighthouse, by the Eefugees,
and BUI Wilson was supposed to have
aided, and the Waretown Sopers com-
pelled him to leave. He finally located
on the North Beach, about opposite
Forked Eiver, where he lived to quite
an advanced age. There are persons
now living who remember him, among
them Eeuben Williams, who when a boy
was quite a favorite of Bill Wilson.
Bacon had a cabin, or cave on the north
liranch of Forked Eiver, near Franks
Crossway ; after he was killed his widow
came from Pemberton to Forked Eiver
to get some of his things left in the cave,
and Eeuben Williams remembers some
of the incidents of her visit as related
by Mrs. Williams, with whom Mrs. Bacon
stopped. Mrs. Bacon lived during the
war and long after at Pemberton, where
she was respected by the Americans ;
she had two sons who grew itp and went
west and became useful citizens. In her
late years she married a man named
Monis. The late Samuel Fox, of Barne-
gat, an aged citizen who died a few
months ago, knew her and her last hus-
band.
It is well known that during the Revo-
lution, members of the same family not
unfrequently took different sides in the
war, and tradition states that a relative
of the John Holmes mentioned above,
named William Holmes, sympathized
with the Eefugees ; that at the time John
Holmes was plundered, his team was
taken and this William was compelled to
drive it loaded with plunder to a Eef ugee
rendezvous in Manahawken or Bass
Eiver swamp ; that he was compelled at
one time to act as guide in disguise, to a
party who plundered John Eogers,
gi-andfather of Judge Eogers, of Cedar
Creek, when he was recognized and sub-
sequently compelled to cause the return
of the plunder. The Holmes family
Avas quite numerous in old Monmouth,
and nearly all were active patriots, some
holding honorable positions in the Amer-
ican Army, but two or three aided with the
British, and at the close of the war left
for Nova Scotia. Those of the family
now living here are descendants from pa-
triots who suffered severely for their ad-
herence to the cause of liberty.
THE BEFUGEE DAVENPORT AT FORKED
RIVER, AXD HIS DEATH.
On the 1st of June, 1782, Davenport
with eighty men, half of whom were
black and half white, in tAvo long barges
landed at Forked Eiver, first on the
north side where they demanded pro-
visions of Samuel and James Woodman-
see, brothers who then lived on the
James Jones and Joseph Holmes places.
They then i^roceeded to the south branch
of Forked Eiver, to the house of Samuel
Brown, an active member of the militia,
who then lived on the place owned some
twenty odd years ago by John Wright.
They plundered his house, burnt his salt
works, and came near capturing Mr.
Brown himself, who just had time to es-
cape to the woods. Mr. Brown often
had to sleep in the woods for fear of
I Eefugee raids at night.
! After completing their work of de-
struction, the two barges proceeded down
Forked Eiver to its mouth, when one
went lip the bay, while the other with
Davenport himself proceeded down the
bay with the intention of destroying the
salt works of the Americans at Ware-
town and vicinity. Davenport expected
to meet with no opposition, as he sup-
posed no militia Avere near enough to check
him. But before he reached Oyster
Creek he perceived a boat heading for
him. His crew advised him to turn back,
as they said the other boat must have
some advantage or they would not ven-
ture to approach.
Davenport told them they could see
the other boat had fewer men, and ridi-
culed theii* fears. He soon found, hoAv-
ever, why it was that the American boat
ventured to attack them. Davenport's
men had only muskets with which to de-
fend themselves ; the Americans had a
cannon or swivel, and when Avithin prop-
er distance they discharged it Avith so ef-
fective an aim that DaA'enport, who was
standing up in the boat, was killed at
the fii'st discharge, and his barge dam-
aged and upset by his frightened crew.
It happened that the water was only
about four feet deep and his crew waded
ashore and landed near Oyster Creek,
not far from the place now OAvned by
James Anderson, and thus escaped, scat-
tering themselves in various directions
in the woods and swamps. The late
John Collins of Barnegat remembered
some of them calling on his father and
other Quakers begging for provisions.
Back of Toms River is a stream called
Davenport's Branch, which some suppose
to have derived its name from his having
places of concealment on its banks.
OLD RESIDENTS IN A BAD SCRAPE.
During the Revolution, three men
living in this vicinity and Waretown,
named Asa Woodmansee, Richard Web-
ster and Thomas Collins, hearing that
farm produce was bringing exorbitant
prices in New York among the British,
loaded a whale-boat with truck from
farms along Barnegat Bay and proceeded
to New York by way of old Cranberry
Inlet, opposite Toms River, which then
was open. These men were not Refu-
gees, but undertook the trip merely to
make money by trying a kind of ' ' running
the blockade " business on a small scale.
They arrived safely in New York, sold
out their produce, and were about return-
ing home when the noted Refugee Capt.
John Bacon called on them and insisted
on taking passage back in the whale-boat.
Much against their will they Avere forced
to alloAV him to come on board. They
arrived near Cranberry Inlet before sun-
down, and lay outside until after dark,
being afraid to venture in the bay dui-ing
the day. In the meantime the patriot
militia stationed at Toms River had got
Avind of their proceedings, and being de-
termined to put a stop to the contraband
trade, a small party under command of
Lieutenant Joshua Studson took a boat
and went across to the inlet and con-
cealed themselves behind a point just in-
side. After dark the Avhale-boat came
in, but no sooner had it rounded the
point than to the consternation of those
on board they saw the boat of the militia
so close by that there was no apparent
chance of escape. Lieutenant Studson
stood up in his boat and called upon
them to surrender. The unfortunate
sjjeculators were unai-med and in favor
of yielding, but Bacon knoAving that his
life was ah-eady forfeited, refused, and
having his musket loaded suddenly fired
with so deadly an aim that the brave
lieutenant instantly dropped dead in the
boat. The sudden, unexpected firing,
and the death of Studson, threw the
militia into momentary confusion, and
before they could decide how to act the
whale-boat was out of sight in the dark-
ness. The militia returned to Toms
River the same night and delivered the
body of Studson to his wife, who was
overwhelmed with sorrow at his sudden
death. Studson's home then was in a
house near the water's edge, just below
the present Toms River bridge. Some
6
years after Mrs. Studsou married a
Chamberlain at Toms Kiver.
The crew uf the whale-boat, knowing
it was not safe for them to remain at
home after this affair, lied to the British
army and were forced into service, bnt
were of little use as " they were sick
with the small pox, and suffered every-
thing bnt death," as one of them (Col-
lins) said, during their stay with the
British. Taking advantage of one of Gen-
eral Washington's proclamations, offering
protection to deserters from the British
Army, they were afterwards allowed to
return home. James Mills, an aged, re-
spected citizen now living at Barnegat,
in his young days resided with one of the
Woodmansees on the James Jones place, ;
at Forked River, and frequently met one
or two of these ill-starred blockade run- {
ners. Thomas Collins lived to an ad- .
vanced age, and was always badly scarred
from the small pox, which he caught
within the British lines.
THE SKIRMISH AT CEDAR CREEK BRIDGE.
The Refugee, Captain John Bacon,
had rendered himself so obnoxious to
the Americans that they determined to
capture him if possible, and accordingly
a sharp lookout was kept for him. In !
December, 1782, a party of Americans |
from Burlington County in pursuit of
him, stopi^ed at the inn on the north
side of Cedar Creek, in later years kejit 1
by Joel Piatt, for rest and refreshment.
They had not been in the house long be-
fore word came that Bacon and liis party
were on the south side of the creek near
the bridge. The militia immediately {
mounted horse and started to meet them,
with what would appear to be more i
valor than discretion, for they had to j
to cross a long narrow crossway ended
by a bridge which exposed them to the
lire of Bacon and his men who were con-
cealed l)y a thick gi-owth of trees and
underbrush on rising ground. The fol-
fowing account of the skirmish, which
occun-ed December 27, 1782, is from
Collins' New Jersey Gazette, January
8th, 1783 :
"On Friday, the 27th nit.. Captain
Benjamin Shreve, of the Burlington
County Light Horse, and Capt. Edward
Thomas of the Mansfield Militia, having
received information that John Bacon
with his banditti of robbers were in the
neighborhood of Cedar Creek, collected
a party of men and went immediately in
pursuit of them. They met them at
Cedar Creek Bridge. The Refugees be-
ing on the south side, had greatly the ad-
vantage of Captains Shreve and Thomas,
in point of situation. It was neverthe-
less determined to charge them. The
onset on the part of the militia was fu-
rious, and opposed by the Refugees with
great firmness for a considerable time,
several of them having been guilty of
such enormous crimes as to have no ex-
pectation of mercy should they surren-
der. They were nevertheless on the
point of giving way, when the militia
were unexpectedly fired upon from a
party of the inhhabitants near the place,
who had suddenly come to Bacon's assist-
ance. This put the militia in some
confusion and gave the Refugees time U^
get oft". William Cooke, Jr., sou of
William Cooke, Esq., was unfortunately
killed in the attack, and Robert Reckless
wounded. On the part of the Refugees
Ichabod Johnson, (for whom the govern-
ment had offered a reward of £25) was
kiUed on the spot. Bacon and three
more of the party are wounded. The
militia are in pursuit of the Refugees,
and have taken several of the inhabi-
tants prisoners, who were with Bacon in
the action at the bridge, and are now in
Burhngton jail ; some have confessed
the fact. They have also taken a con-
siderable quantity of contraband and
stolen goods, in searching some suspected
houses and cabins on the shore."
John Salter, a member of Captain
Shreve's Light Horse trt)op, was also
woimded in the action.
As before stated, in this attack the
Refugees Lad great advantage iu posi-
tion, being on tlie south side of the i
creek, on rising ground at the edge of a I
thick wood which commanded the long }
narrow causeway and bridge over which ,
the Americans had to pass. Cooke was
on the bridge when killed, and his horse, '
mortally wounded, sprang off into the
stream ; a man named Imlay found the J
body of the horse at a landing below I
and secured the bridle, &c. , next day. '
All the Refugees kept concealed iu the
woods, except Ichabod Johnson, who
foolhardily showed himself, daring the
militia to come on, when he was instantly
shot, and died during the day at the
house of a man named Woodmansee,
who then lived, it is said, on the place
. noAV owned by Judge David I. C. Rogers.
((James Mills, an aged resident of Bar-
uegat, who .in his youth lived at Forked
River, and was then acquainted with
stirvivors of the Revolution, says that
he was told that Ichabod Johnson was
earned to the house of James Wood-
mansee, where he died ; that James
Woodmansee then or subsequently lived
on the place in late years owned by the
late Capt. Joseph Holmes, and that this
Woodmansee had his house twice plun-
dered by Refugees. ) The Woodmansees
were not sympathisers with the Refugees,
but some of the family seem to have
been Quakers, or inclined to their belief.
The ancient paper quoted above, speaks
of some of the inhabitants as aiding
Bacon. There were no residents of the
place who rendered Bacon assistance,
but skulking, roving Refugees who had
cabins or caves at different points back
in the woods near the head waters of the
various streams, where they made tem-
porary stay in their travels up and down
shore. Remains of these places of con-
cealment have been found in late years.
We are quite confident that no known
Refugee lived in any of o\ir shore vil-
lages.
From the unusual number of men
with Bacon at this time, and from the
fact that the war was .about closed, it is
not improbable that the Refugees all
along shore were endeavoring to get to
New York, to leave the country for Nova
Scotia, Bermuda Islands, and other
places, with other British sympathisers,
who were then leaving New York in great
numbers, in ships provided by the Brit-
ish government. This skirmish at Cedar
Creek, and the general watchfulness of
the militia, probably caused the Refugee
band to scatter, and each member to
look out for himself. Bacon himself,
with unaccountable foolhardiness, re-
mained until the following spring, when
he was killed about half a mile below
West Creek, at the house of a woman
known as "Old Mother Rose," by a
party of Americans, among whom was
young Cooke's brother.
SETTLEMENT OF FORKED RIVER.
The first regular survey of lands iu
this section was by order of the Gov-
ernor and Twenty-four Proprietors, in
"Instructions concerning laud," dated
July 3d, 1685, which directs as follows :
"That whenever there is a convenient
plot of ground lying together, consist-
ing of twenty-four thousand acres, as wo
are informed will more especially be at
Barnegat, it be marked in twenty-four
parts, a thousand acres to each propriety,
and the parts being made as equal as can
be, for quality and situation, the first
comers, presently settling, to have the
choice of divisions, and where several
stand in that respect upon equal terms
and time of settling, the choice to be de-
termined by lot."
In pursuance of these instructions, the
land in this vicinity and elsewhere along
Barnegat Bay was divided off into tracts
of a thousand acres each, and the titles
to land now are derived originally from
the individual proprietors to whom tho
tracts were allotted. " Baker's Patent,"
so frequently mentioned iu old deeds,
and on which ii part of the village of
Forked River is located, was probably
the thousand acres allotted to Thomas
Barker, (sometimes called Baker in old
records) who was a Loudon merchant
and one of the Twenty-four Proprietors ;
but he never came to America.
The first settlers, who piirchased from
the proprietors, generally located some
distance east of the main shore road and
not far from where the uplands join the
meadows. Their dwellings in this vicin-
ity were generally situated about in a line
from the old Captain Benjamin Stout
farm, east of Goodluck Church across
Stout's creek, by the Joseph Holmes and
James Jones places, and thence to the
south side of Forked River by the old
James Chamberlain or Ezekiel Lewis
Ijlace and James Anderson's ; then across
Oyster Creek by the old Camburu home-
stead. And the original main route of
travel along here appears to have been
by these places. Then the little north
branch of Forked River, now known as
Bridge Creek, had a bridge over it, and
there was a ferry across Forked River
nearly opposite the old Wells swamp at
the place still called "the ferry," by old
residents.
A century ago, the most noted resi-
dents appear to have been : David
Woodmansee, who lived on the place
now owned by Judge D. I. C. Rogers ;
Thomas Potter, who lived on the farm
east of Goodluck Church ; Samuel,
James and Gabriel Woodmansee, sons of
David, who lived on the James Jones and
Joseph Holmes farms ; Samuel Brown,
who lived on the old Wright place on
south branch of Forked River ; and John
Holmes, who lived at the upi^er mill,
Forked River. William Price, who was
a captain in the militia during the Rev-
olution, and his brother John, who was
made Major after the war, moved to
Goodluck two or three years before the
war ended. There was a tavern at Good-
luck before the war, and one just over
Cedar Creek during the war.
BUSINESS IN OLD TIMES.
The first permanent settlers at Forked
River, as well as other places along-
shore, depended for a livelihood on culti-
vating the soil and the products of the
bay. After getting fairly settled, the
next consideration was to find something
they could send to New York and other
places to exchange for articles they
could not raise. About the first enter-
prise of this kind they engaged in was
cutting the cedar in the swamps for rails,
shingles, etc. , to export. Many vessels
were engaged in carrying cedar-rails to
iliflferent pomts on the Delaware River,
and other places. It will surprise some
who remember the thick, heavy growth
of cedar on the branches of Forked River,
Cedar Creek, Oyster Creek and other
streams forty years or so ago, to lears
that it was all a second grow.th, the first
growth having been cut off along Barnc-
gat Bay as long ago as 1760.
The next important business was in
pine lumber, to pirepare which saw-mills
were built on the head water of the
streams, generally a few miles west of the
main shore road — among them Double
Trouble INIill on Cedar Creek, the Frank
Cornelius Mill on Forked River, onco
owned by the noted Thomas Potter,
Little Mill on Oyster Creek, and the
Waeirs Mill near Waretown. To persons
who remember, the obstructions in these
streams in late years by branches of
trees, logs, &c. , it would seem a difficult
task to float lumber down them towards
the bay; but the streams then were
cleared, and small rafts of lumber made
and floated down towards their moutlis
ready for shipping. This business was
quite flourishing just before the Revolu-
tion, and also after that war until the
early part of the present centuiy when it
began to decline, probably because the
convenient timber was generally cut oft',
and also because of competition from
places more convenient to market.
While this business flourished along our
bay, lumber from here was sent to New
York, Newark, New Bruuswiek, ami utli-
er places.
When the ecdar swamps began to give
out, our shore people feared their vessels ,
would no longer be of use, but the lum-
ber trade sprang up and gave them am- ;
pie cmijloyment. Then, in turn, the I
lumber business began to fail, and again
our people feared ruin. But about this
time -were rumors that Fulton, Fitch, and
others had made inventions by -which
vessels could be run by steam, and that
these steam vessels would eventually
take the place of sail vessels. The coast-
ers were incredulous, and ridiculed the
idea of a vessel being di'iven by a "kettle
full of boiling water," Nevertheless,
steamboats proved a success, and not
only that, but the salvation instead of
the ruin of the coasters, for they required
before many years, an immense amount
of pine cord wood for fuel, which our
coasters could carry and did carry from
various places along the bay. Some
thirty odd years ago the cord wood along
shore began to give out, and then again
came the inquiry "what business next
could be found for vessels ?" This was
satisfactorily answered to many by the
starting of the charcoal trade. The long
ranks of cord- wood near the npper and ,
lower landings of north branch of Fork-
ed River and on the middle and south !
l)ranches, with which old residents had
been familiar from childhood, gave way
to piles of charcoal, the dust from which i
rendered it almost impossible to tell
whether our seafaring friends in the
l)usiness were white or black. AVheu
this trade gave out, trade from Virginia
and other southern States became brisk.
The great civil war interrTipted that and j
apparently ruined it, but it soon opened
other and more remunerative business in
carrying supplies for the army. And
now the coasting trade is again at a low
ebb and those engaged in it, as their |
predecessors often have before, are won-
dering if it is possible for anything to '
turn up to revive it. j
HEmuiOUS .SOCIETIES .^I.ONO SHOICE.
The first preachers who visited any
part of the New Jersey shore, of whom
Ave have any account, belonged to the
Society of Friends, commonly called
Quakers. This Society established a
meeting at Tuckerton, in 1704, and built a
meeting house there in 1709.
The first religious society established
in Ocean County was jjrobably that of
the Rogerine Bajitists, a company of
whom came to Waretown about 17:37, and
remained here about eleven years, and
then left. They Avere singular people in
their ideas of worship ; among other pe-
culiarities, the members took work to
meeting with them, and during services
the men made axe and hoe handles, the
women knit, sewed, &c. The principal
member of the Society Avas Abraham
Waeir, from Avhom WaretoAvn derives its
name.
An Episcopalian clergyman, named
Rev. Thomas Thompson, visited Barue-
gat and Manahawken, while he was a
missionary in Old Monmouth, from 1745
to 1751, and on his return sent Christo-
pher Robert Reynolds, Avho was a school
master of the " Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel in foreign parts," to
labor at these tAvo places, but on account
of his age and infirmity he remained but
a short time.
At Manahawken, according to the
record there, three Baptists named James
Hey wood, and Benjamin and Reuben
Randolph, settled about 1760; and Au-
gust 25th, 1770, a Baptist Society was
organized there.
A church, which tradition says was
free to all denominations, was built at
Manahawken as early as 1758, which A\'as
the first church built in Ocean County.
This church is noAV known as the Baptist
Church.
The second church built in Ocean
County, was the noted Potter Clnu'ch, at
Goodliick^ built by Thomas Potter about
17G5, which lie intended to be free to all
denomiufttions.
10
The third church built iu Oceau Coun-
ty, was the Quaker Meeting House, at •
Baruegat, erected as early as 1770. This
was the first church in the county 1 )uilt
for a particular society.
I'RESBYTERIANISM AT FOKKED KIVEU AND
VI(!INITY.
The first preachers of any religious so-
ciety who held meetings at either Forked
River, Goodluck or Cedar Creek, of
whom the WTiter has found mention,
were Presbyterians. Ministers of this
society visited Old Monmouth and Egg
Harbor at least as early as 1746, and reg-
ular supplies were furnished for Egg
Harbor as early as 1755, during which
time it is possible some may have held
occasional meetings in this vicinity, and
it is probable that ,Ilev. John Braiuerd
visited here about 1700.
The first notice of regular meetings iu
this vicinity and elsewhere along shore,
is found in the following letter from Ecv.
John Brainerd to Rev. Enoch Green :
" Trenton, June 21.s/, 1701.
Reverend and Dear Sir : — It has
not been in my power, by any means, to
make a visit to the shore, since the ses-
sion of the Synod, and consequently
could not make appointments for yoii.
Your places of preaching, however, M'ill
be as follows :
Toms River will be the most north(>rly
place. Then southward, Goodluck,
cither at Thomas Potter's or David
Wooilmansee's ; Baruegat, at Mr. Ru-
lou's ; Maunahocking, at IMr. Haywood's
or Mr. Randall 's (Randolphs.) * * *
If you can begin at Toms River and be
there a day or two before Sabbath, to
notify them, you might make your ajj-
l)ointmeut8 and send them seasonably
before you. * * * Thus, dear sir, in
iu a minute or two, as I pass through
town, I have given you these hints,
which may perhaps be of some use to |
your tour on the shore, in which I hope j
the blessings of God will attend your
labors, and am with all respect, reverend
and dear sir,
Your aftectionate brother,
John Braineki>.
To Rev. Enoch Green.
P. S. — If you could consult witli Mr.
Thomas Smith and Mr. McKnight, who
will succeed you, and make appointments
for them, it would be of use. I hope
you will be kind enough to call and see
me upon your return."
After the above named, the Rev. Ben-
jamin Chesuut was appointed to supply
this section, from the first Sabballi iu
Sejitember, 1763.
Webster's History of the Presbyterian
Church says : " There was in 1767 a new
Presbyterian meeting house at Baruegat,
and probably as early there was one at
Manahawken." This is a mistake ; he
evidently refers to tlie old Potter Church
at Goodluck, then sometimes called Bar-
uegat, and to the old church at Mana-
hawken, commonly known as the Baptist
Church, both of which were built to be
used free to all denominations. As they
^^•ere always open to PrcKbyteriaus, Web-
ster inferred they were Presbyterian
churches.
It would seem tliat tie first Presbyte-
rian ministers who visited this vicinity
were Rev. Messrs. John Brainerd, Ben-
jamin Chesn\it, Enoch Green, Charles
McKnight and Thomas Smith.
Dr. Hodge in his Constitutional His-
tory of the Presbyterian Church, says :
" The effects of the Revolutionary
War on the state of our churcli, were ex-
tensively and variously disastrous. The
young men Mere called from the seclu-
sion of their homes to the demoralizing
atmosphere of the camp ; congregations
were broken up ; churches were burnt,
and in moi"e than one instance, pastoi's
were murdered ; the usual ministerial in-
tercourse, and eilbrts for the dissemina-
tion of the Gospel, Avere iu a great
measure suspended, and public morals
in various respects deteriorated." The
11
war seems to have suspeuded all Presby-
terian efibrts iu this section, and the
writer knows of no systematic attempt
to renew them, nntil 1850, when Rev.
Thomas S. Dewing commenced regular
services at Forked River, Cedar Creek
and Toms River.
METHODISM IN OCEAN COUNTY.
The first Methodist Society established
in Ocean County held its meetings in the
old Potter Church at Goodluck. In the
dark days of the history of Methodism,
when it not only met with opposition
from other societies on account of differ-
ence iu religious views, but also when
diiring the Revolution, their enemies un-
justly charged them with being in sym-
pathy with Great Britain, and would
allow them to hold meetings in but few
l^laces, the old Goodluck Church was al-
ways oi^en to them, and the people of
this vicinity gave its preachers a welcome
which they rarely met with elsewhere.
It is probable that the pioneers of
Methodism visited our county within a
very few years after the j)rinciples of the
society were first proclaimed in America,
and that occasionally some preacher
would hold forth in one of the free
churches, in school houses or in private
houses, possibly as early as 1774. Rev.
William Waiters, the first itinerant of
American birth, was stationed iu our
State in 1771, and it is possible that he
and the noted Captain Thomas Webb, of
Pemberton, (then New Mills,) may have
visited this section. That zealous, self-
sacrificing minister of the Gospel, Rev.
Benjamin Abbott, is the first preacher
who sjjeaks positively of visiting this
vicinity, though before his visit which
was in 1778, it is probable that some if
not all the following named, may have
loreached here, viz.: Captaiu Thomas
Webb, Revs. Philip Gatch, Caleb B.
Pedicord, William Watters, John King,
Daniel Ruff and William Duke. From
that time uj) to the year 1800, the names
of preachers assigned to this part of the
State, is given iu the " History of Meth-
odism in New Jersey." During the first
thirty years of the present century,
among the most noted preachers iu this
section were Revs. Sylvester and Robert
Hutchinson, Ezekiel Cooper, Charles
Pitman and Geo. A. Raybold. Rev.
William Watters, above mentioned as
the first itinerant of American birth, who
was located in our State iu 1771, pub-
lished in 1807 an account of his labors
here and elsewhere ; and the author of
Methodism in New Jersey says he
knows of but one copy in existence, and
that in possession of a gentlemen iu Balti-
more, but the writer has a copy pur-
chased by a relative over half a century
ago, which is still iu a good state of pres-
ervation.
A METHODIST PIONEEK.
Rev. Benjamin Abbott, who ex-
perienced considerable persecution else-
where, for his Methodist views, without
molestation preached at several places in
our county in 1778, and we give his ac-
count of his visit. The first mentioned
place was probably Manahawken :
' ' At my next appointment I preached
Avith great liberty from these words :
' If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not iu us ; if
we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness,' John 1:8, 9.
And many wept much. A Baptist being
present when I had done, I asked him
; what he thought of what he had heard,
1 and whether it was not the truth in
Jesus ? He replied that it was, and ex-
\ horted the people to believe it.
I
BENJAMIN ABBOTT AT WARETOWN.
" Next day I went to my appointment
at WaretoAvn, but a woman being dead,
''■ close at hand, I was requested to preach
her funeral sermon. While I was speak-
ing, I observed to my hearers that the
12
darkest tiniP in the night was just before
the dawning of day ; and that tliis was
tlie case with a sonl groaning for re-
<lemption in Christ ; for just as they
saw themselves on the very brink of
eternal damnation, destitute of every ■
jiower to extricate themselves, the Sian
of Righteousness, the Lord of Life and
Glory, broke in upon their souls and set
them at liberty. Up rose a Baptist wo-
man and said that she had come twenty
miles through the snow to hear me, and
then related her experience to the fol-
lowing puiijort :
A SIN'GITL..VR EXPERIE^fCE.
" T was standing on the heai'th with
my husband and two children, and
thought the earth opened before me, and
I saw hell from beneath opened and
devils ready to receive me. I then
started and ran into the room and cried
mightily unto God to have mercy on my
soul. Meanwhile my husband went after
the cattle, and I continued in prayer un-
til the house was filled with the glory of
God, brighter than the sun at noonday.
T then arose and sat on the foot of the bed,
wishing for my husband's return. After
a while he came in ; I i*an out to meet
him and clasped him about the neck and
told him what God had done for my
soul. The power of God came uj^on me
again as it had dcme in the house, and I
cried out in siich a manner that it
frightened my husband and the cattle, so
that the cattle ran off again, and my hus-
band wedt away also. I went to the
house, happy in God, and our people
(meaning the Baptists) say it is only a
delusion of the devil, for that God did
not come to the i)eople in such a manner
now-a-daya. "
" Then she asked me what I thought
of it, 'for I feel,' said she, 'the same
power in me now. ' T told her it was the
work of (i(xl, a change of heart, and
that if the Lord ever had converted my
Houl, he hud converted liers. She im-
mediatelv laiil liold of faith, and was in-
stantly delivered from that anxiety and
despair tliat had attended her mind.
AISBOrr AT (H)OI>Li:{K AND TOMS ia\T3K.
"She rode next day "with one of her
friends to a place called Goodluck, Avhere
I preached from these words : ' Awake,
thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead; Christ shall give thee light,'
(Eph. 5 : 14,) with great liberty, and tlie
power of God attended the word.
"Next day I rode with one of our
friends, about twelve miles, through a
nortlieast storm of liail, to Esquire
Aikens' on Toms lliver. When we
arrived we were both wet and cold.
After drying myself a little, I gave an ex-
hortation to the few present, and tarried
all night. In the morning I went to my
api^oiutment, and had an attentive con-
gregation, and the Lord attended the
word with power. A Frenchman fell to
the floor and nevei- rose until the Lord
converted his soul. Here we had ti hap-
jij time. "
The foregoing is all we find in Abbott's
Journal that relates to our county. The
Esipiire Aikens he mentions, was Abiel
Aikens, who lived on the south side of
Toms River. He was an active patriot
in the Revolution, and his house, the
first in which Methodism was preached
at Toms River, was burned with others
by the British AVhen the l)lock house was
taken March 24, 1782. In his old age,
our Legislature (1808) passed a law for
his benefit. Next year (1878) will be one
hundred years since Abbott visited our
section, and it should be commemorated
hy a Centennial sermon at old Goodluck
(>hurcli, and from his old text : "Awake,
thou that sleepest," Sec. What a contrast
between now and then, when he was
mobbed, when soldiers entered his meet
ings with drawn .swords, &c., so aus-
picious were they of Methodism.
AN OLD TIME METUODIKP WEODtNO.
In 178.'3 a ^Methodist Quarterly Meet-
ing of unusual interost was held in tlic
13
Gondhick Chuvcli, at which, on Sunday, '
James Stirling was married to Rebecca
Eudd in the presence of the congrega- i
tion. We presume this was the James
Stirling, of Burlington, the most noted
and influential layman of the Methodist
Church in his day in New Jersey ; and if |
so it was his second marriage. James
Stirling was a merchant living at Bur-
lington, and some of our shore store-
keepers were supplied with goods by
him, among them Major John Price, of
Goodluck. His business affairs and
his interest in Methodism would occa-
sionally bring him to the shore, and here,
as elsewhere, he proved himself a most
energetic, useful layman of Methodism.
BISHOP ASBUKX AT GOODLUCK. |
That noted, faithful, untiring minister \
of the Gospel, Bishop Francis Asbury,
visited this vicinity twice. It is doubtful !
if any minister of any denomination ever
performed so much labor in travelling
and preaching as did he, and none ever
kept a more complete journal, which is a
marvel when we remember the thousands
of miles he travelled in all parts of the
United States and his unparalleled phys-
ical and mental exertion. When he first
j)reached at Goodluck, it was after a tire-
some travel through Old Monmouth ; and
that he thought the people here so difier-
ent from what other Methodist preachers
did, we are inclined to ascribe to his be-
ing worn down with labor himself. Of
his first visit he says :
" Tuesday, Sept. 2Gth, 178G. I had
many to hear me at Potter's Church, but
the people were insensible and unfeeling. "
His next visit was in 1809. " On Mon-
day, April 24th, 1809, I preached at
Waretown. I staid awhile with Samuel
Brown, and came to Thomas Chamber-
lain's (Forked River) ; I was compelled
by uncomfortable feeling to go to rest at
six o'clock. At David Woodmansee's
(Goodluck), on Tuesday, I preached on
2nd Tim. 2 : 15. On Wednesday, after
a rain, I set out for Polhemus' Chapel
(Polhemus' Mills) where I preached."
Some modern Methodist writers have
been puzzled to know where Avas the Pot-
ter's Church to which Asbury alluded,
and from whence its name, and seem in-
clined to think it wa»s erected for work-
men in some potter's ware establishment !
METHODISM AT BARNEGAT.
The old church in the school house
lane at Barnegat was built in 1829, to be
used free for all denominations. The
same year a Methodist society was estab-
lished, and held regular meetings in it.
The late Rev. Job Edwards was the class
leader and local preacher from the organ-
ization of the society, and continued for
over forty years to faithfully and accept-
ably fill these positions, and during that
time no one was so well known from
Cedar Creek to Mannahawkin for labors
in meetings, exhortations and at funeral
services. To him, and his relative, the
late Joel Haywood, of West Creek, Meth-
odism in the southern half of Ocean
county is probably more indebted tlian
to any other two men, for the compara-
tively prosperous condition of the society.
The people generally showed their appre-
ciation of both men, by electing them to
represent the county in the Legislature,
and Joel Haywood was the regular Whig
and Temperance nominee for Governor
of New Jersey, in 1853.
DOVER CHAPEL.
Dover Chapel, near Bayville, was
erected as a church free to all denomina-
tions, about the year 1825, as we are in-
formed by the venerable Captain Samuel
R. Bunnell, himself one of the old land-
marks of Methodism, whose voice was
familiar to us in meetings almost a gen-
eration ago, in exhortations in the cause
of the great Master. Methodism has
long had a strong hold on the people in
the neighborhood of Dover Chapel,
though in it Protestant Methodists, Pres-
14
bvterirtiis and fithors have liolil statod or
oooiVHioiirtl moctiiicfs.
TOMS KIVKR IN THE KEVOLUTION.
Duriug the greater jjai-t of the Revo-
hitiou, militia were on duty iu Toms River
or in its vicinity ; they were generally
twelve months men, commanded by differ-
ent officers, among whom, it seems from an
ancient record iu the library of the New
Jersey Historical Society, were Captains
Bigelow, Ephraim Jenkins, James Mott,
John Stout and tlie well-remembered
Joshua Huddy. Caj^tain Mott had com-
mand of a company called the Sixth
Coiupiuiy, of Dover, and Captain Stout,
of the Seventh Company, of Dover.
The Fifth Company was in old Stafford
toAvuship, and commanded by Captain
Reuben F. Randoljih, then of Manahaw-
ken, but originally of Middlesex County.
During the war salt works were quite
numerous along Barnegat Bay, and of so
much imjJortauce that the British and
Refugees make several attempts to de-
stroy them, and the first mention that
we have found of militia to be stationed
at Toms River was for the pi-otection of
works in its vicinity, and is found in the
following extract from the minutes of
the Pennsylvania State Council of Safety,
November 2d, 177G, from which it ap-
l)ears that that State owned works near
tilt' village :
" Resolved, that an officer and twenty-
five men be sent to the salt works at
Toms River (erected by this State at
Toms River, N. J.,) as a guard, and
twenty-five spare uniskets and two lunv-
itzers and a sufficient (piantity of ammu-
nition to defend in case oi attack."
In the Continental Congress, 177(1, the
President of Congress was requested to
write to Gov. Livingston, of New Jersey,
for two companies of militia to guard
salt works at Toms River.
Sabine, in his notices of Loyalists,
.says : "John Williams jjlaccd the signif-
icuut letter R. , on the buildings of the
salt works at Toms River bridge, by or-
der of (ileneral Skinner, of the N. J.
Royalist brigade." And in another place
he says : " Col. John Morris, of the N.
J. Royalists in 1777, was sent by Sir
William HoAve to destroy the salt works
at Toms River bridge, but when informed
that the jjroperty was ^jrivate iu part, he
dc^clined to comply with the order."
Sabine gives no exi^lanation of the mean-
ing of what he terms the significant let-
ter R., but the inference is that persons
who then favored the Royalist cause,
were part owners of the buildings near
the bridge. It will be remembered tliat
at the outbreak of the Revolution, tlie
people of Old monmoutli unanimously
protested against the tyrannical acts of
Great Briikiii, and favored an armed re-
sistance, but were divided in the j)olicy
of declaring independence. When the
Declaration of Independence was
adopted, hundreds of citizens of Old
Monmouth jDrotested against it, and
joined the Royalists, and this Avas pro-
bably the case with some of the owners
of these buildings. From the folloAving
we infer the PenusyiA'ania and other
works from Toms River to the head of the
bay Avere destroyed the following year.
An ancient paper says ; ' ' About the
first of April, 1778, the British under
Captain Robertson with a strong force
landed at S(piau and destroyed a number
of salt Avorks on the coast ; one building
they said belonged to Congress, and cost
£G,000." A letter iu the Ncav Jersey
Gazette, speaking of this raid, says|:
"About 135 of the enemy lauded on
Sunday last, about 10 o'clock, on the
south aide of Squan Inlet, burnt all the
salt works, broke the kettles, <S:c, and
stripped the beds, &c., of some people
Avlio I fear wished to serve them ; they
then crossed the river and burnt all ex-
cept Derrick Longsti'eet's. After this
mischief they embarked. The next day
they landed at Shark RiA'cr and set fire
to two salt Avorks, when they observed
fifteen horsemen heave in sight, Avhich
occasioned them to retreat with great
15
precipitation ; iuJectl tlit-y jninpecl iuto
theii- Aat-bottomeJ boats with sucli pre-
cipitation that they sank two of tliem.
The enemy consisted chiefly of Greens,
the rest of Highhinders. One of their
pilots Avas the noted Thomas Oakerson. "
Sabine says, Thomas Oakerson had
previoiisly been ordered to be committed
to jail for aiding Eefugees, by'Oontinent-
al Congress, July 17tli, 1776. The
Greens, referred to, were from the ren-
egade Jerseyman, who joined the British
and formed a brigade, calling themselves
the N. J. Eoyal Volunteers, placed un-
der command of General Cortlandt
Skinner, and were called Greens, from
their uniform.
The owners of salt v.'orks, along the
bay experienced a streak of ill luck about
this time, as within a week or so after the
above raid a storm of unusual severity
destroyed many of the smaller works
and caused the tide to rise several feet
higher than ever was known before,
drowning cattle on the beach, floating
furniture out of lower rooms of houses,
that stood low ou the water side, &c.
In October, 1778, the British destroyed
Chesnut Neck mills, at Tuckerton, &c. ,
and then despatched a detachment to
destroy the salt works from Little Egg
Harbor to Toms River, but were pre-
vented by the appearance of Count
Pulaski's legion.
PEIVATEERS AT TOMS RIVER.
During the war of the Revolution, old
Cranberry Inlet, then open, opposite
Toms River, was often found to be a
very convenient haven for privateers and
their prizes. These j)rivateers were
generally fitted OTit in New England.
The following notice of a prize brought
here by Rhode Islanders, is from a cer-
tificate in i^ossession of Hon. Ephraim
P. Emson :
"Providence, Feb. 21, 1777.
" This may certify that Messrs. Clark
and Nightingale and Capt. Wm. Rhodes
have purchased here at vendue the
schooner Pope's Head, which was taken
by the privateer Sally and Joseph, (un-
der our command,) and carried into
Cranberry Inlet in the Jersies, and there
delivered to the care of Mr, James Ran-
dolph, by our prize masters.
James ^Iauo.
John Fish."
The following extracts from papers
published durmg the Revolution, give
an idea of the stirring events that oc-
curred in Toms River and vicinity :
"August 12th, 1778. We learn that
on Thursday se'en night, the British ship
Love and Uuity from Bristol with 80
hhds. of loaf sugar, several thousand
bottles London porter, a large quantity
of Bristol beer and ale, besides many
other valuable articles, was designedly
run ashore near Toms River. Since
which, by the assistance of some of our
militia, she has been brouglit into a safe
port and her cargo properly taken care
of."
The cargo of this ship was advertised
to be sold at Manasquan, on the 26th of
the same month, by John Stokes, U. S.
Marshal. The articles enumerated in
the advertisement show that the cargo
must have been a very valuable one.
The Americans were not so lucky with
the ship as with the cargo, as will be
seen by the following :
"Friday, Sept. 18th, 1778. Two Brit-
ish armed ships and two brigs came close
to the bar off Toms River inlet, where
they lay over night. Next morning, be-
tween seven and eight o'clock, they sent
seven armed boats into the inlet, and re-
took the ship Washington (formerly the
Love and Unity,) which had been taken
by the Americans ; they also took two
sloops near the bar, and captured most
of the crews. The captain of the shi]),
and his officers, escaped to the main in
one of the sloop's boats. After they got
ashore, a man named Robert McMulleu,'"
who had been condemned to death at
Freehold, but afterwards pardoned,
jumped into the l)oat, hurrahing for the
16
Britisli, and rowed oil" t<j join tliom.
Auotliei' llet'ugee named William Dillon,
who had also beau sentenced to death at
Freehold and pardoned, joined this party
of British as pilot."
Bv the following extracts, it will be
seen that the Refugees, McMnllen and
Dillon, had been out of jail but a short
time when they joined the British in
this expedition :
"July 22ud, 1778. We learn that at
the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at
Monmouth in June last, the following
parties were tried and found guilty of
burglary, viz : Thomas Edmims (Uias
Burke, John Wood, Michael Millery,
William Dillon and Robert McMuUen.
The two former were executed on Friday
last, and the other three reprieved. At
the same time, Ezekiel Forman, John
Polhemus and W^illiam Grover -were tried
and convicted of high treason, and are to
be executed August 18th next."
On the 9th of December, 1778, it is
announced that a British armed vessel,
bound from Halifax to New York and
richly laden, came ashore near Barnegat.
The crew, about sixty in number, sur-
rendered themselves prisoners to our
militia. Goods to the amount of £5,000
were taken out of her by our citizens,
and a number of prisoners sent to Bor-
dentown, at which place the balance of
of prisojicrs were expected.
About March, 1779, the sloop Success
came ashore in a snow storm, at Barne-
gat. She had been taken by the British
brig Diligence, and was on her way to
New York. She had a valuable cargo of
rum, molasses, coffee, cocoa, A-c, on
board. The prize master and three
hands were made prisoners, and sent to
Princeton. lu the case of tlxis vessel
and the one previously mentioned, it is
2)OHHible that the Toms River militia aid-
ed, as the name Barnegat was frequently
applied to places gcnierally along Barne-
gat Bay.
In February, 1779, a sale at Toms
River, prububly prizcK and cargo, was
advertised by the U. S. Marshal, viz :
Schooner Hope and sloop Fancy, with
cargoes of pitch, tar and salt.
On the 14th of May, 1780, Major John
Van Emburgh, of the 2nd Middlesex mil-
itia, and eight or nine men from West
Jersey, on a fishing party, were surprised
in bed, at Toms River, by the Refugee?,
and put on board a vessel to be sent
prisoners to New York ; but before the
vessel sailed, they managed to escape.
Toms River, then, did not seem quite
as desirable a place for a pleasure resort
as it is at the i^reseut day. Ancient jja-
pers do not mention whether the Major
was successful in catching fish ; all we
know is that he got caught himself.
About the middle of December, 1780,
a British brig in the West India trade
was captured and brought into Toms
River. This brig had run short of water
and provisions, and, mistaking the laud
for Long Island, sent a boat and four
men to obtain supplies. The militia
hearing of it, manned two boats, and
went out and took her. She had on
board 150 hhds. of rum and si)irits, which
our ancestors pronounced "excellent,"
from which we conclude they must have
considered themselves competent judges
of that article. With the British, rum
must have been deemed a necessity, as
in almost ever}' prize it formed an im-
portant part oT the cargo.
The British ship Molly was driven
ashore in a snow storm, about this time,
on the beach, and her prize crew made
prisoners and sent to Philadelphia.
In the same month, December, 1780,
Lieutenant Joshua Studson, who lived in
the village of Toms River, with some
militia, crossed over the bay to old Cran-
berry Inlet to intercept some men en-
gaged in contraband trade with the ene-
my at New Y'^ork, Avheu he was shot and
instantly killed by the Refugee captain,
Jolm Bac(m, the i)articulars of Avhicli
have been given in describing Revolu-
tionary events relating to Forked River
and vicinity.
17
The lOth of March, 1782, it is au-
nouuced that the privateer Dart, Capt.
Wm. Gray, of Salem, Mass, , had arrived
at Toms River with a prize sloop taken
from the British galley Black Jack. The
next day he went with his boat and seven
men in pnrsnit of a British brig near
Cranberry Inlet. Unfortunately for
Capt. Gray, instead of taking a prize he
was himself taken. For a long time af-
ter, the people of Toms River wondered
what had become of him. In August
following, they heard that after he got
outside the inlet, he was taken prisoner
and carried to Halifax, and subsequently
released on parole. He stated that he
was well treated while a prisoner.
A few days after Capt. Gray was taken
prisoner, the British attacked and burned
Toms River, the details of which are too
lengthy to give here. This attack on
Toms River was the last affair of any
note that occurred here during the war,
but south of Toms River several events
of local importance took place. The
Refugee Davenport made a raid on Fork-
ed River, with 80 men, and was himself
killed off Oyster Creek, in June. In
October, Bacon attacked and killed sev»
eral men on the beach about a nule below
Barnegat light-house. In December oc-
curred the skirmish at Cedar Creek
bridge, when yoxing Cooke was killed,
and in the following spring, Bacon him-
seK was killed near "West Creek.
During the war, interesting events
outside of miUtary matters occurred at
Toms River.
In January, 1778, the sloop Two
Friends, Capt. Alexander Bonnett, of
Hispaniola, was cast away near Barnegat,
with 1,600 bags of salt, 48 hhds. molas-
ses, also a lot of rum, sugar, etc. Only
160 gallons of rum saved. The shore
people went to their assistance, but one
man was lost. Capt. Bonnett then
shipped as a passenger in the sloop En-
deavor, at Toms River, for New York;
but, sad to relate, while she lay at anchor
in the inlet a storm parted the cable
and all on board were drowned in the
bay.
In December. 1778, Capt. Alexander,
of the sloop Elizabeth, of Baltimore, was
taken by the British ; but he was permit-
ted to leave in a small boat, and landed
at Toms River Lilet.
It was during the war, in 1778, that
Rev. Benjamin Abbott expounded the
then new princii^les of Methodism to the
people of Toms River, first at the house
of Esquire Abiel Aikene, and then at an-
other place ; and had here, as he says in
his journal, "a happy time."
WARETOWN REMINISCENCES.
By the side of the main shore road
through Waretown, adjoining the farm of
ex-Senator Samuel Birdsall, is a grove
where a century ago was a grave yard in
which, among others, was buried Abra-
ham Waeir, from whom Waretown derives
its name. His tombstone is still pre-
served, though removed from its original
place, and the inscription upon it reads
thus :
"In memory of
ABRAHAM WAEIR,
Died March 24th, 1768,
Aged 85 years
Whose inocent life
Adorned true light."
In the inscription, a letter is left out of
the word innocent, as will be seen by
the above copy. In the same grave yard
was another tombstone, a rude affair, a
remnant of which is preserved ; the in-
scription on it is only partially legible,
the following being all that can be deci-
phered :
"E. WAEIR.
Year 1757."
In the grave yard commonly known as
the "Birdsall burying ground," are to
be found the following inscriptions upon
tombstones, the first named of which is
the most ancient in the village, if not in
the county :
3
18
' ' Here lyes ye body of
WILLIAM CARBEL
Died Sept. 15, 1742
Aged 51 years."
Auother reads :
"lu memory of
ISAAC STANSBERY
Who departed this Ufe Oct. 10, 1803,
in the (31th year of his age.
[Ropreseutatiou of two cannons crossed.]
Reader, remember, as you pass by,
As you arc now so ouee was I,
As I am now so you will be,
Tiiereforc prepare to follow me."
From the cannons crossed, it
would be inferred that the deceased be-
longed to the ordnance branch of the
militaiy service.
Abraham Waeir, from whom Ware-
town derives its name, was a member of
the sect generally called Eogeriue Bap-
tists, thongh they themselves seemed to
prefer the name of Quaker Baptists.
A company of Rogerine Baptists came
from New London, Conn. , to Schooley's
Mountain in Morris county in New Jer-
sey, in 1734 ; and after remaining there
three years, they removed to Waretown
and remained here from 1737 to 1748,
eleven years, and then the greater part
of them returned to Schooley's Moun-
tain. The principal members at Ware-
town were Abraham Waeir, John Colver
and Mann. The Waeirs, tradition
says, did not go with the rest to School-
ey's Mountain, but remained here, and
their descendants removed to the head of
Baruegat Bay or near Squan. The
Colvers and Manns went "with the others
to Morris county, and in 1790 the Roger-
iues were reduced to two aged persons
whose names were Thomas Colver and
Sarah Mann ; Init the posterity of John
Colver, who ai^pears to have been the
Iciuler here, is yet numerous in Morris
county, and of him more particular men-
tion will be made in giving a sketch of
the Rogerme Baptists. The traditionary
accounts of the peculiarities of this sect
while at Waretown — among which may
be mentioned the men making axe han-
dles, baskets, etc., the women sewing
and knitting during their religious meet-
ings, as related by the late Judge Jacob
Birdsall, Jeremiah Spragg and other old
residents of Waretown and vicinity — are
corroborated by the notices of them in
New England and Long Island histories.
Their building, used for meetings and
schools, we have understood was in the
field a little south-easterly of Capt. T,
Oorlies Newbury's residence,
riKE AND LOSS OF LITE AT WAKETOWX.
About sixty years ago a sad event oc-
curred at Waretown, which is thus de-
scribed by the late Hon. Jacob Birdsall,
who was a witness to the melancholy
affair :
" A blacksmith named George Sojjcr,
or Sopher as I understand some of his
descendants now spell the name, and his
wife Betsey then lived in a house standing
about one-hundred and fifty yards to the
the eastward of where Taylor C. New-
bury now lives. One very cold winter's
night about twelve o'clock, an alarm of
fire was made at my father's house bj'
IMr, William Predmorc, and upon look-
ing out of the window wo saw that Geo.
Soper's house was on fire. Mr. Pred-
more hurried on and got there just in
time to save a young man named Brown,
who was ai)prentice to Soper. When
Brown got uxit, the house was beginning
to fall ; he had nothing on but his night
clothes, and Mr. Predmore had to lend
him a part of his own wearing ajjparel.
It was then discovered that Mrs. Betsey
Solder was in the fire. It seemed that
her husband was over to Mr. Hillman's
on business — attending a trial, I think.
I did not reach the house until after it
fell in, and then I witnessed as awful a
sight us human being can behold ; the
husband so frantic that he could hardly
be kept from rushing into the fire where
his wife lay, a mass of burning flesh
plainly to be seen by all present.
19
Heaven grant that I may never look up-
on such a sight again ! There had been
some company there the previous even-
ing, and among the visitors was Mrs.
Ann Haywood, wife of the late James
Haywood, of Mannahawken. Mrs. Hay-
wood, previous to her marriage, had lived
with Mrs. Soper, and from her testimony
and other evidence, there was no doubt
but that the unfortunate affair was
caused by liquor. "
FIGHTING FIRE — liOSS OF LIFE.
Fires have been so frequent in the ex- ;
tensive forests of Ocean county, that it
is a hopeless task to attempt to enumerate
them or describe in detail the exciting
scenes they have occasioned. Often
thousands of acres are swept over and
tens of thousands of dollars worth of
timber are bunied in a very short time.
With a high wind, the roar of the fire in
the woods, the fearful appearance of the
sky, the flames leaping from tree-top to
tree-top and running along the dried
leaves and bushes on the ground make
an appalling scene never to be forgotten;
and the exciting work of fighting fire,
with the flames often leaping over their
heads or on the ground escaping and
surrounding them, is too familiar to our
old citizens to need describing.
About fifty years ago, a fire broke out
in the woods between Oyster Creek and
Forked River, and many persons from
Waretown and Forked River endeavored
to subdue it. A sudden shift and increase
of the wind brought the flames down
with such rapidity upon the men that
they had to run for then- lives toward the
nearest body of water, which happened
to be the old Frank Cornelius mill j)ond
on Forked River ; but one man named
George Collins, of Waretown, missed
the right road, and was overtaken by the
flames and burned to death. His shoes
were left to mark the si^ot where he
was burned, for twenty or thirty years
after.
AN EXCITING DAY AT WARETOWN.
Perhaps the most exciting time in the
history of Waretown was during the last
war with England, when Commodore
Hardy, of the British man-of-war Ramil-
lies, on March 31st, 1813, sent several
large barges into Barnegat Inlet to burn
the Greyhound and other vessels there.
The citizens of Waretown feared a repiti-
tiou of the scenes enacted by the noto-
rious Admiral Cockburn in Virginia and
Maryland, plundering and burning
dwellings, insulting women, &c., and
women and chihli-en fled from the village
to dwellings back in the woods as far as
the late Moses Headley's place, and the
excitement spread to Forked River and
other places. But before the barges had
finished all the work assigned to them,
they were recalled by signal guns from
the Ramillies, lymg off the bar, caused
by the discovery of a ship at sea which
they wished to overhaul.
MISCELLANEOUS TRADITIONS.
The following items relating to Ware-
town were derived from aged citizens
living from fifteen to twenty years ago in
this and adjacent villages.
Abraham Waeir, it is said, came from
near the Hurlgate above New York,
where he had a mill which was destroyed
! by a flood. He had sons here named
Thomas and Timothy, and perhaps other
' children. The Waeirs lived on the place
; owned in recent years by Hon. Jacob
Birdsall, and had two saw-mills. A canoe
: was dug out of one of their old mill dams
I in recent years by Judge Birdsall near his
1 residence ; how it came to be thus
buried seems to be unaccountable,
i During the Revolution, one of the
; most noted salt-works on Barnegat Bay
was Newlin's, near Job Headley's land-
ing, beside wliich were others less noted
above and below. Most of those works
were destroyed by the British during the
war, but some were rebuilt.
The Brown family, of Waretown, it is
said came originally from Goshen, N. Y.
20
Samuel Brown seems to have been one
of the early friends of Methodism in this
place, and among Methotlist pioneers who
made their home with him was the cele-
brated Bishop Asbury. The Headleys,
it is said, also came from New York
State, as probably did the Chamberlains,
the first comers of whom located above
Waretown on the Cambum place and on
Oyster Creek where James Anderson
now lives. Samuel Bennett, the first of
the Bennetts, of Waretown and Bame-
gat, of whom we have heard, came from |
New England. David Bennett, we have ;
been informed, kept the public house at ■
Waretown, during the Revolution.
The first settler on the Soper place,
between Waretown and Barnegat, ac- ;
cording to the late Jeremiah Spragg, an
aged citizen of Barnegat, was John Per-
kins, whose daughter married James
Spragg, father of Jeremiah ; Mr. Perkins
came from England during the old French
War, and located near Soper's Landing,
and subsequently sold out to Joseph
Soper, ancestor of the numerous Soper
families in this vicinity and elsewhere.
The first house built on the beach, oppo-
site to Waretown, according to Mr.
Spragg, was by Thomas Rogers. It was
located near the Inlet, and in it lived Rog-
ers and also James Spragg, father of Jere-
miah ; and duriug the Revohitiou they
witnessed many exciting scenes, such as
shipwrecks of war and merchant vessels
and contests between the British and
Americans in efforts to capture crews
and cargoes. The first Soper in New
Jersey, was Thomas Soper, who landed
in West Jersey, iu 1G78 ; the old mem-
bers of this family had a tradition that
they were of Huguenot descent.
An early settler on the place now
owned by Hon. Samuel Birdsall, tra-
dition says, was a Dutchman named
Daniel Rackhow ; one of his sous was a
reputable young man, named Peter, who
run out the Rackliow road, near Barne-
gat, and who died comparatively young ;
another son, Peter Rackhow, Jr., joined
the Refugees, and was not heard of after
the war. Daniel Rackhow, Senior, had a
brotlier on Staten Island, and descend-
ants of the Rackhows changed their name
to Richards.
The first Cambum at Waretown,
whose name has been preserved, was
William, who, according to the late Dan-
iel Cambum of Waretown, a grandson,
and other aged descendants, came when
seventeen years old, with his father from
New England, probably from Nantucket ;
before and after coming here, the first
Camburus went to sea on whaling voya-
ges. William Cambum's father, origi-
nally settled on the place nearly opposite
Judge Birdsall's lane, on which in late
years lived Captain Job Falkinburg, and
subsequently Capt. Amos Birdsall, and
some of William's first companions were
Indian children.
The Birdsall family originally came
from Long Island, probably from Oyster
Bay. Amos Birdsall, a prominent citizen
of Waretown in the early part of the
present century, was during the war of
1812 captain of the schooner President,
and was captured by the British. In
later years he was better known as Es-
quire Birdsall.
Ralph Chambers, another respected
citizen of Waretown, was a soldier in
the war of 1812, and seriously wounded
at the battle of Plattsburg. As he was
somewhat forehanded, he would not go
in the hospital for soldiers to risk the at-
tendance there, but went to a private
house and paid for his surgical and other
attendance out of his own pocket. Mr.
Chambers, we believe, had the honor of
being the oldest regular subscriber for a
newspaper in Ocean County, having
taken the old Trenton State Gazette for
between forty and fifty years.
The Eayres came originally from Bur-
lington County, and were among the first
settlers there. The Bowkers, or Bogers,
as the name is sometimes spelled, we
believe, are also from Burlington Coun-
ty ; Samuel Boger wiva a soldier in the
21
Revolution, from Burlington. The
Predmores are said to be from Middle-
sex County ; the first of the name we
have found in New Jersey, owned a large
tract of land at New Brunswick, in 1684,
and then, as now, the name was some-
times given as Prigmore. The old mem-
bers of the Penn family, who came from
Bass River or thereabout, and located a
few miles back of Waretown, claimed
that they were descended from the cele-
brated William Penn, though by bar
sinister. This is probably true ; none
of William Peon's sons bore the irre-
proachable character of their father.
Thomas Penn, son of William, had left-
handed children, and from these the
Ocean County Penns probably descend.
The late Jesse Penn bore a remarkable
resemblance to the life-sized portraits of
William Penn.
MORMONISM IN OCEAN COUNTY.
In 1837, Elder Benjamin Winchester
preached the first Mormon sermon in
Ocean county, in a school house, in
New Egypt. Winchester was from the
State of New York, and one of the early
disciples of Joseph Smith. He contin-
ued for some time to hold regular servi-
ces here, and in his discourses gave mi-
nute account of the alleged original dis-
covery of the golden plates of the Book
of Mormon near Palmyra, New York, by
Joseph Smith, and their translation by
him and Sidney Rigdon, and claimed that
they were deposited by a people two
thousand years before, whom they said
were the Lost Tribes of Israel. He
also preached in neighboring places.
He made some fifty converts, who were
baptized ; among them was Abraham
Burtis, who became a preacher, and a
large number joined the society at Horn-
erstown, where they finally built a
church, and where a good many respect-
able people aihered to the faith. The
church has since gone down, but a few
people remain favorably impressed with
the principles. The excitement extended
to Toms River, and here too they built a
small church, on the south side of
the river, which is remembered as the
first building in which the Ocean County
Courts were held after the county was
established, and before the court house
was built. Their preachers also went as
far south as Forked River, where they
made a considerable impression, and
baptized some in the mill pond — the
preacher complimenting one convert, it
is said, by saying, after immersing her,
that he saw the devil as big as an owl
leave her !
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mor-
monism, visited New Egypt, Horners-
town and Toms River, in 1840, and
sealed a large number, some of whom
are probably still living. William
Smith, brother of the prophet, frequent-
ly preached at New Egypt ; he preached
the funeral sermon of Alfred Wilson,
who was originally a Methodist, but be-
came a Mormon preacher. James L.
Curtis, originally a Methodist, also be-
came a Mormon preacher. The present
successor of Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young, as head of the Mormon Church,
is John Taylor, who has also preached in
Ocean county, and was probably the
last who preached as far south as Forked
River, He held forth some twenty-five
or thii'ty years ago, in the old Forked
River school house, and his sermon, to
the writer, seemed to differ but little
from an old-fashioned Methodist sermon
on the necessity of salvation, as he made
but Httle allusion to the peculiar tenets
of Mormonism. About twenty-'five or
six years ago many Mormon converts left
Ocean county for Salt Lake City, among
whom were Joseph Chamberlain and
family, of Forked River, and a number
of respectable families from Toms River.
They encountered serious hardships in
crossing the plains. It is generally con-
ceded that the Mormon converts were
noted for sincerity, industry, and frugal-
ity.
212
Of Joseph Smith's visit to New Egj-pt, I
some amusing stories, probably exagger-
ated, are told at the expeuse of converts,
such as of a wealthy niiiu being told by
Smith to repair to a i:)articular tree at a
certain hour of the night and pray for
direction from Heaven, and the Lord
would rejjly. Accordingly the man !
sought the place and prayed as directed ;
he was answered by a voice from above,
which, among other things, directed him
to give a good share of his worldly goods
to the prophet Smith ; but the man
seemed to doubt it being the voice of an
angel — it sounded more like Smith him-
self concealed in the branches.
ROGERINE BAPTISTS OF WARETOWN.
About the year 1737, a society of Eog-
erine Baptists or Quaker Baptists, as
they were sometimes called, located at
Waretown in Ocean county. From vari-
ous historical notices of this singular sect
and accounts of how they came to locate
in New Jersey, we extract the following :
Tliis society was founded by John Kog-
ers, about 1()74. His followers baptized
by immersion ; the Lord's sujjper they
administered in the evening with its an-
cient appendages. They did not believe
in the sanctity of the Sabbath ; they be-
lieved that since the death of Christ all
days were holy alike ; they used no med-
icines, nor emjjloyeel doctors or sui'geous;
Vr'ould not say gi-ace at meals ; all prayers
to be said mentally except when the spir-
it of prayer compelled the use of voice ;
they said "all unscriptural parts of reli-
gious worship are idols," and all good
Christians should exert themselves
against idols, &c. Among the idols they
placed the observance of the Sabbath,
infant baptism, &c. The Sabbath they
cdled the New England idol, and the
methods they took to demolish this idol
were as follows : They would on Sunday
try to be at some manual labor near
meeting houses or in the way of people
going to and from church. They woiild
take work into meeting houses, the wo-
men knitting, the men whittling and
making sjilints for baskets, and every
now and then contradicting the preach-
ers. "This was seeking persecution,"
says one writer, "and they received plen-
ty of it, insomuch that the New England-
ers left some of them neither liberty,
property nor whole skins."
John Rogers, the founder of the sect,
who, it is said, was as churlish and con-
trary to all men as Diogenes, preached
over forty years, and died iu 1721. The
occasion of his death was singular. The
small-pox was raging terribly in Boston,
and spread an alarm to all the country
around. Rogers was confielent that he
could mingle with the diseased and that
the strength of his faith would preserve
him safe from the mortal contagion. Ac-
cordingly he was presumptuous enough
to travel one hundred miles to Boston to
bring his faith to the test ; the x'esult was
that he caught the contagion, came home
and died with it, the disease also spread-
ing in his family and among his neigh-
bors. This event one would think would
think wotild have somewhat shaken the
faith of his followers, but on the contrary
it seemed to increase their zeal.
In 1725, a company of Rogerines were
taken up on the Sabbath in Norwich,
Connecticut, while on their way from
their place of residence to Lebanon ;
they were treated with much abuse, and
many of them whipped in a most unmer-
ciful manner. This occasioned Gov.
Jenks, of Rhode Island, to write spirit-
edly against their persecutors, and also
to condemn the Rogerines for their j^ro-
voking, disorderly conduct.
One family of the Rogerines was named
Colver or Culver, (Edward's History
spells the name one way, and Gov. Jenks
the other). This family consisted of
John Colver and his wife, who were a
Ijart of the company which was treated so
rudely at Norwich, and five sons and five
daughters, who, with their families, made
lip tlie number of twenty-one souls. In
23
the year 1734, this large family removed
from New London, Conn. , and settled in
New Jersey. The first place they pitched
upon for a residence, was on the east side
of Schooley's Mountain, in Morris county.
They continued here about three years,
and then went in a body to Waretown,
then in Monmouth, but now in Ocean
coiinty. Wliile here they had their
ineetings in a school house, and their pe-
culiar manner of conducting services was
quite a novelty to other settlers in the
vicinity. As in New England, during
the meeting the women would be engaged
in knitting or sewing, and the men in
makin*^ axe handles, basket splints or in
other work, but Ave hear of no attempt to
tlisturb other societies.
They continued at Waretown about '
eleven years, and then went back to Mor- i
ris county and settled on the west side of j
the mountain from which they had re-
moved. In 1790 they were reduced to
two old persons whose names were Thos.
Colver and Sarah Mann ; but the j,)oster-
ity of John Colver, it is said, is yet quite
numerous in Morris county. Abraham
Waeir, from whom the village of Ware-
town derives its name, tradition says was
a member of the Eogerine Society.
When the mam body of the society left,
he remained behind, and became quite a
prominent business man, generally es-
teemed ; he died in 1768, and his de-
scendants removed to Squan and vicinity
near the head of Barnegat Bay.
Before concluding this notice of the
Piogerines, it should be stated that an-
other thing in their creed was that it was
not necessary to have marriages performed
by ministers or legal officers ; they held
that it was only necessary for the man
and woman to exchange vows of mai-riage
to make the ceremony binding. A zeal-
ous Rogerine once took to himself a wife
in this simple manner, and then to tan-
talize Gov. Saltonstall called on him to
inform him they had married themselves
without aid of church or State, and that
tlicy intended to live together ns husband
and wife without their sanction. "What,"'
said the Governor, in apparent indigna-
tion, " do you take this woman for your
Avife?" " Yes, I most certainly do, " re-
plied the man. "And do you take this
man for your hiisband ?" said he to the
Avoman. The woman replied in the af-
firmati\'e. "Then," said the wily old
Governor, ' ' in the name of the Common-
wealth I pronounce you husband and
wife — whom God hath joined together
let no man piit asunder. You are now
married according to both law and gos-
pel."
The couple retired much chagrined at
the unexpected way the Governor had
turned the tables upon them, despite
their boasting.
MANAHAWKEN IN THE REVOLUTION.
Manahawken, during the Kevolution,
was noted for the patriotism of its citi-
zens. From a manuscript originally
found in Congressional records, but now
in the library of the New Jersey Histori-
cal Society, it appears that the militia
company here was called the Fifth Com-
pany of Monmouth, Reuben F. Randolph,
captain, and Nathan Crane, lieutanant.
Captain Randolph Avas originally from
Middlesex county ; about the time of the
Avar, he kept the iDublic house at Mana-
liaAvken, which in later years was kept by
Joseph R. Wilkins. His sons, Thomas
and Job, were in his company. As the
names of the heroic men of his company
shoiild be preserved as far as possible,
and especially by their descendants, Ave
give a list of such as we have ascer-
tained.
FIFTH COMPANY, MONMOUTH MILITIA.
Reuben F. Randolph, captain ; Nathan
Crane, lieutenant ; James Marsh, ensign.
Privates : — Micliael Bennett, Jeremiah
Bennett, Samuel Bennett, Israel Ben-
nington, Joseph Brown 1st, Joseph
Brown 2ud, Joseph Camburn, Thomas
Chamberlain, William Casselman, Luke
Courtney, Seth Crane, Amos Cuflce,
24
David Howell, David Johusou, Thomas
Johnson, David Jones, Thomas Kelson,
Philip Palmer, Jr. , Benjamin P. Pear-
sou, Benjamin Paul, Enoch Pvead, Job
Randolph, Thomas Randolph, David
Smith, Joseph Sopcr, Reuben Soper,
Zachariah Southard, Jeany Sutton, Ljous
Pangbum, Sylvester Tilton,
Of the above, Reuben Soper was killed
by the Refugees on Long Beach, in
October, 1782. He left a son, named
Reuben, who has children still living,
among them Mrs. George W. Lippin-
cott, of Tuckerton, who has preserved
several interesting old-time relics ; and
her brother, also named Reuben Soper,
inheriting the patriotism of his grand-
father, enhsted in the Union army, in
the Rebellion, was mortally wounded,
and died three weeks after in Saterlee
hospital, Lyons Pangbom was killed in
the skirmish at Manahawken, Dec. 30th,
178L Sylvester Tilton was dangerously
wounded at the same time. One of the
Cranes was wounded near his own resi-
dence.
THE SKIKinSH AT MANAHAWKEN.
At one time it was rumored that the 1
Refugee, Captain John Bacon, with a '
party of his marauders, was on his way
to Manahawken, on a plundering expe-
dition, and such of the militia as could
be notified, were hastily summoned to-
gether at Capt. Randolph's house to pre-
pare to meet them. The handful of mil-
itia remained on the alert the greater
part of the night, but towards morning,
finding the enemy failed to appear, they
concluded it was a false alann, and re-
tired to sleep, after stationing sentinels.
Tradition says that the sentinels were
stationed on the main road, two above
the hotel, and two below, and that on
one post were Jeremiah Bennett and
Job Randolph, and on the other, Seth
Crane and Samuel Bennett, and that
Capt, Randolph superintended the look-
out.
The RcfugocH came dowu the road
from the north, and the first intimation
the sentinels stationed near the old Bap-
tist Church had of their approach, was
hearing their bayonets strike together as
they were marching. The sentinels
halted long enough to see that the party
was quite large, double the number of
the militia, and firing, ran across the
fields to give the alarm. By the time
the few militia were aroused, the Refu-
gees were abreast of the house, and be-
fore the Americans could form, they
were fired upon, and Lyons Pangbum
killed, and Sylvester Tilton severely
wounded. The militia were compelled
to retreat down the lane before they
could organize, when, finding the Refu-
gees had the largest force, and were well
armed, they were reluctantly compelled
to decline pursuing them. The Refu-
gees passed down the road towards West
Creek.
Tilton, who was so severely wounded,
recovered almost miraculously, as the
baU passed clear through him, going in
by one shoulder and out at his breast ;
the physician, as is well authenticated,
passed a silk handkerchief completely
through the woimd. After the war was
over, Tilton removed to Colt's Neck,
where it is believed some of his descend-
ants now live. Lyons Pangburn, who
was killed, was probably the same person
who aided in organizing the Baptist
Church at Manahawken, was the first
delegate to the General Association, and
also the man referred to so very kindly
by Rev, John Murray, as "Esquire"
Pangburn.
Sylvester Tilton alwtiys believed that
a Refugee named Brewer, was the man
who wounded him, and he vowed to have
revenge if he should ever meet him.
Several years after the war closed, he
heard that Brewer was at a certain place,
and he started after him unarmed,
though he knew Brewer was always well
provided with weapons. He found Brew-
er and closed in on him before the Refu»
gee could avail himself of weapons, and
25
gave liim a most uumerciful beatiug ; it
would probably have fared worse with
Brewer but for the interference of a
much esteemed Quaker named James
Willets. After Tiltou had finished, he
told Brewer, " You scoundrel, you tried
to kill me once, and I have now settled
with you for it, and you've got to leave
here and follow the rest of your gang."
The rest of the Eefugees had fled to
Nova Scotia.
A PATRIOT WOUNDED ; ANOTHER C.\PTUBED.
The Mariahawken Militia, and tJie Battle of
Monm.ouih.
Tradition says that one w^arm summer
evening during the war, there had been
religious services at the Church, at Man-
ahawken ; after services the minister
went home with one of the Cranes,
(Silas Crane, we think it was,) when the
minister and Crane sat conversing until
late in the evening. The front door was
open, and also a window on the opposite
side of the room, by which Crane sat.
At length, happening to look at the front
door, Crane got the glimpse of two or
three men with muskets, and knowing
the Refugees had threatened his life, he
sprang throiigh the back window ; as he
jumped he was fired upon, and thoiigh
severely wounded in the thigh, he man-
aged to escape.
The notorious Refugee leader, John
Bacon, it is said, worked as a farm labor-
er, a year or two for the Crane family,
before the war.
Captain Randolph and his heroic mil-
itia, just previous to the battle of Mon- ^
mouth, marched on foot, though the
weather was intensely hot, to join Wash-
iugton's forces beyond Freehold, but
were unexpectedly prevented from eu- j
gaging in the battle ; tradition fails to |
give a reason why they went so near, I
and yet did not participate, but the his-
tory of the battle and of Washington's j
disposition of his forces sufficiently ex-
plain it. Washington had stationed
General Morgan at Shumar's ]Mills, (near
Blue Ball,) with positive instructions
not to move until he should receive or-
ders, and through that memorable battle
Morgan was compelled to listen all day
to the distant firing, chafing with impa-
tience for orders to jtjiu, but orders'
failed to come. The JNIanahawken mili-
tia, when they got to Shumar's Mills,
were probably placed under Morgan's
command, and this would account for
their not participating in the battle.
During the war Captain Randolph was
one night surprised in bed, at home, by
Refugees, taken prisoner and carried to a
swamp and tied to a tree, but managed
to escape. At another time the Refu-
gees surrounded and searched his house
while he was in it, but his wife success-
fully concealed him under feathers in a
cask.
T^\0 UNARMED MILITIA CAPTURE THREE
ARMED REFUGEES.
Seth Crane and David Johnson, two
members of the Manahawken militia, on
their return from a fishing excursion one
day during the war, were in their boat
by the bank of a meadow, preparing to
go home, when three armed Refugees
came down to the boat, and the leader
leaning his musket against the side of
the boat, went aft, and unceremc-
niously began to pick out the finest of
the fish, and said he meant to have them.
Crane told him he could not without
paying for them ; the Refugee said he
would take them by force. As quick as
flash. Crane f)icked up an eel spear, and
holding it over him, told him to drop
the fish or he would run the spear
through him. Crane was a small sized
man, brave, but apt to be rather hasty,
and his comrade Johnson, who was just
the reverse, large, powerful, but apt to
be too slow, now saw the probability of
a serious fight before them, and as he
stood on the meadow by the bow of the
boat between the remaining two Refu-
gees, instantly with his powerful fist,
knocked one of them, musket and all,
2(i
into the Avater, and tlieu grasping the j
musket leaning against the boat brought I
it to bear upon the remaining tory, who
was so startled by the unexpected turn of
events, that he started to run, npon :
which he was told to drop his musket '
instantly, or he would be a dead man ;
the tei-rified man did so. Johnson and
Crane secured the muskets and then let ■
the Refugees go with a seasonable warn- '
iug against stealing fish in future. '
i
OIBERSON, THE REFUGEE, AND THE MAN-
AHAWKEN MILITIA.
During the war the Refugee leaders
appear to have had our shore divided in-
to districts ; Davenport and his men had ^
Dover township for their "stamping"
ground ; Bacon from Cedar Creek to
Parkertown, below West Creek ; around
Tuckerton and below it Joe Mulliner
and Gibcrsou, from their head- quarters
at the forks of the Mullica river, sailed
ft)rth on their i:)redatory excixrsions.
These men do not appear to have left
their respective districts except to aid
their confederates.
One time Giberson, with a part of his
band, suddenly ajjpeared at Tuckerton,
and thinking they were safe went to
Daniel Falkinburgh's tavern, (where Dr.
Image's house now is,) and determined to
liave a good time. They began liy mak-
ing night hideous with their bacchana-
lian revels. Some of the villagers at
once sent word to the Manahawken mil-
itia, and Sylvester Tilton and three or
four more started in a farm wagon to at-
tempt to capture or disperse the outlaws.
Giberson was informed by a Tory that
the militia had been sent for, and so he
retreated towards the landing, to a good
petition near his boats, and when the
militia arrived he poured into their raiiks
such a volley that they were compelled
to retreat, as they found the Refugees
were in greater force than had been
represented.
The militia jumped into theii- wagon
and drove back, folloAved 1»t Giberson
and his men, who pursued them to AVest
Creek bridge, where the Refugees halted.
This little affair was about the only one
duiing the war that gave the Refugees a
chance to boast, and so they often re-
lated the story Avith great glee and much
exaggeration ; but after all there was
but little to brag about, in a strong force
cav;sing the weak one to retreat. As the
militia were driA'ing over West Creek
crossing a mishap occurred to the wagon
tongue — one end dropping down, which
checked them long enough to allow the
Refugees to fire again, but fortunately
without effect.
TERRIBLE CALAMITY AT MANAHAAA'KEN.
During the war (in December, 1780,) a
shocking calamity occured at ManahaAv-
ken, by which several lives Avere lost. A
dwelling house owned by William Pid-
geon, on what was once known as the
HayAvood place, took fire and burned
doAvn. Captain Isaac Andrews lived iu
the house. His two daughters, one
white hired man and two colored men
were burned to death, so rapid was the
fire, occasioned by a high wind. Six
persons in the house managed to escape,
but A^athout apparel. Mr. Pidgeou at
the time was ill in the house, and got
somewhat burned, but leaped out of the
second story, window and was tlien taken
to a neighboring house ; he was taken
worse from excitement, and caught cold
that night, having been removed in his
shirt, and died a few days after.
THE BURNING OF TOMS KIVEK.
CAPTURE OF THE BLOCKHOUSE — INHUMAN
BUTCHERY OF AMERICANS — A TERRIBLE
DAY AT TOMS RIVER.
The attack by the British and Refugees
on Toms River, was made early in the
moniing of Sunday, March 21:th, 1782.
The blockhouse iu the village was under
command of Captain Joshua Huddy, who
received notice of the expected attack the
prcA'ious evening, and at once notified
the inhabitants, and carefully stationed
27
sentiuels, and towards morning sout a
scouting party to reconnoitre. This pav-
ty missed the British. It is j^robable
they went down the river road, while the
enemy, guided by a Refugee named Wil-
liam Dillon, came up the road where the
Court House now stands. The sentinels,
stationed some distance oiitside the fort,
on the enemy's approach, fired their guns
to notify the little garrison. Before
reaching the fort, the British were joined
by a band of Refugees under Davenijort,
whose head-quarters were in cabins and
caves back in the woods in old Dover
townshij).
The rude fort or block-house, which
was unfinished, it is said was six or seven
feet high, made with large logs with loop-
holes between, and a number of brass
swivels on the top which was entirely
open, with no way of entering but by
climbing over. The little ganisou, said
to have consisted of only twenty-five or
six men, had, beside the swivels, muskets
with bayonets and long pikes for defence.
The enemy's force appeared quite for-
midable, considering the weak garrison
they came to attack. They left New
York on the Wednesday preceding, under
command of Lieut. Blanchard, of the
British ai'med whale-boats, with (accord-
ing to their own statement) about eighty
men, with Captain Thomas and Lieuten-
ant Roberts, of the Bucks County Roy-
alists, and between thirty and forty other
Refugees. They proceeded to Sandy
Hook, where they were detained by un-
favorable weather until Saturday, the
23d. Then under convoy of the British
armed brig Arrogant, Captain Stewart
Ross, they proceeded to Old Cranberry
Inlet, and about 12 o'clock at night, the
whale boats or barges entered the moiith
of Toms River, and the party landed and
reached the block-house about daylight.
The sentinels fired as they approached,
and then retreated. Lieutenant Blancli-
ard stated that he " summoned the gar-
rison to surrender, which they not only
refused to do, luxt bid him defiance, "
That he summoned them to surrender, is
clearly disproven by the affidavit of Es-
quire Randolph, one of the guards, from
which extracts will be given hereafter.
Blanchard added that on their refusal to
surrender " he ordered the jjlaco to be
stormed, which was according done, and
though defended with great obstinacy,
was soon carried." He acknowledged
that on his side two officers were killed,
viz : Lieutenant Iredell, of the armed
boatmen, and Lieutenant Inslee, of the
LoyaUsts, and that Lieutenant Roberts
and five others were wounded ; but the
damage inflicted on them must have been
greater. A negi-o Refugee, killed, was
left by them outside the fort for the
Americans to btiry. On the part of the
Americans, the British in their exagger-
j ated report stated that among the killed
I was a major of the militia, two captains,
j one lieutenant, and five men beside, nine
I in all, and twelve made prisoners, two of
I whom were wounded, and the rest es-
j caped. The American account, as fur-
I nished to Gen. Washington, stated that
' Huddy and fifteen men were made pris-
oners and that five men were deliberately
murdered after siirrendering and asking
! for quarter. Major John Cook, of the
Second Regiment Monmouth MiUtia,
was brutally killed outside the fort by a
negro, after surrendering ; John Farr
I and James Kensley were also killed ;
Moses Robbins was seriously wounded in
the face . John Wainright fought until
shot down with six or seven bullets in
him. From circumstantial evidence, it is
probable that Captain Ephraim Jenkins,
of Toms River, was also killed. Among
the prisoners taken were Captain Joshua
Huddy, Esquire Daniel Randoljih and
Jacob Fleming. Tradition says that one
of the sentinels named David Imlay es-
caped and hid in a swamp until the Brit-
ish left.
Mr. Randoljili's account of the attack,
given under affidavit three weeks after-
wards, and forwarded to Gen. Washing-
ton, and by liim sent to Congress, is a
28
cleai' statement of so miicli of the affaii*
as came imder liis own observation. In
his deposition, he stated that he resided
at Toms Kiver ; that on Saturday, March
23d, 1782, the inhabitants of the \dllage
■were informed by Captain Huddy that a
body of Refugees were approaching to
attack the post ; that deponent joined the
guard ; that just as day began to appear,
on Sunday morning. Captain Huddy de-
tached a party of the guard to make dis-
covei'y where the enemy were, and bring
him accounts ; that this guard missed
the enemy, and soon after, before it was
broad daylight, the enemy appeared in
front of their small unfinished block-
house, and commenced an attack without
any previous demand of surrender ; that
Capt. Hixddy did all that a brave man
could to defend himself against so supe-
rior a number ; that after quarter was
called for, and the block-house surrend-
ered, he, Randolph, saw a negro Refu-
gee bayonet Major John Cook, and he
also saw a number of Refugees jump into
the blockhouse, and heard them say they
would bayonet them, but he did not see
it done to any person other than Major
Cook.
After the capture of the block-house,
the brutal enemy proceeded to burn the
dwellings in the village. They boasted
that they burned the whole town, which,
they said, consisted of about a dozen
houses, together with a grist and saw
mill and the block-house, and carried
away two V)arge8, one a fine one belong-
ing to Capt. Adam Hyler, spiked an iron
cannon and threw it into the river, and
intended to visit other places to destroy
them, but were prevented by the condi-
tion of their wounded. The barges of
Hyler, referred to by them, generally
carried thii'ty or forty men.
All the houses in the village were
Imrned, except two, one belonging to
Aaron Buck and the otlier to Mrs. Stud-
sou. Aaron Buck was an active Whig,
and one reason why it was spared was
probably owing to the fact that his wife
was a niece of William Dillon, the Refu- [
gee guide. Mrs. Studson's husband.
Lieutenant Joshua Studson, had been
murdered a short time before by the
Refugee captain, John Bacon, and the
British probably thought injury enough
had already been done to her. Among
the houses burned, was one belonging to
Capt. Ephraira Jenkins, and also one on
the south side of the river in which Abiel
Aikens lived and in which the first Meth-
. odist sermon was preached at Toms
River. Mr. Aikens' daughter came near
being burned in the house ; when the
ruffians surrounded the house, she re-
[ treated up stairs, and when she came
1 doMii, the stairs were on fire, and fell
just as she reached the bottom. About .
; a mile north of the block-house, was a
i dwelling in the woods, belonging to a
! man named Wilbur, which appears to
have been overlooked by the Refugees,
I as it was spared.
j What a terrible day to the inhabitants
of Toms River, was that memorable Sab-
bath ! Probably not less than from sev-
enty-five to a hundred women and chil-
' dren were rendered houseless and home-
less ; household goods and necessaries of
j life destroyed ; the killed and wounded
j demanded their attention ; husbands and
j fathers were carried away captive. Some
! families were entirely broken up, the
■ heads killed syid mothers and children
j scattered, to be cared for by strangers.
THE GARKISON AT TOMS RFVEK. '
Captain John Huddy was stationed at
Toms River at the request of the citizens
I of Old Monmouth, made in a petition to
j the Legislature, dated December 10,
1781, recommending him as a suitable
person to command a guard at Toms
I River. The State Council of Safety, it
is supposed, gave him his orders in the
mouth following, and as it must have
taken a little time for him to collect men
i he could not have been long at Toms
I River when attacked. The British, after
their return to Xew York, stated that the
29
garrison of the block-house consisted
of twenty-five or six twelve months' men.
This, probably, was about the number
of men they found in and around the
block-house, but several did not belong-
to Captain Buddy's Company. They
were volunteers from the citizens of the
village, who responded to his notice the
evening before, and hastily joined him
to aid in defending their homes. Among
them were Daniel Randolph, Jacob
Fleming and David Imlay, and also Ma-
jor John Cook and Captain Ephraim
Jenkins, who appear to have been home
on leave. From Randolph's affidavit, it
would seem that most of the remaning
citizens vohmteered to join the guard,
and went down the river road and were
thus cut off from aiding, by the enemy
getting between them and the blockhouse.
In the official register of officers and
men of New Jarsey, in the Revolution,
the following names are given of men be-
longing to Captain Huddy's Company.
As the privates are termed " matrosses "
it is probable they had experience in ar-
tillery sei-vice. The names in italics de-
/ iiote men who had also served in the
Continental army.
Captain, Joshua Huddy ; Sergeant,
David Laudon.
Matrosses : Daniel Applegate, Wil-
liam Case, David Dodge, James Edsal,
JoJin Fan; James Kensley, Cornelius
McDaniel, James Mitchell, John Morris,
John Nlverson, George Parker, John
Parker, Joseph Parker, Jonathan Petti-
V more, Moses Jlohbins, Thomas Rostoin-
der, Jacob Stillwagne, Seth Storey,
Thomas Valentine, .John Wainright, John
Wilbur.
Of the above named, John Farr and
James Kensley were killed in the fight,
and Moses Robbins and John Waim-ight
dangerously wounded ; and of those who
volunteered the previous evening, Major
Cook and Cai^tain Jenkins were killed.
In regard to Major Cook's murder by
a negro, after surrendering, it is jjossible
that his death might have l^een avenged
by some one in the block-house shooting
the negi'o through the port holes, as a
negro was killed and left lying there.
MEMORANDA RELATING TO PERSONS MEN-
TIONED IN THE FOREGOING.
Daniel Randolph, Esquire, who re-
sided at Toms River at the time of the
attack, was well-known throughout Old
Monmouth as a man of prominence and
influence among the Whigs. He Avas
taken prisoner and carried to New York,
where two or three weeks after he was
exchanged for a Refugee captain, named
Clayton Tilton. Jacolj Fleming was ex-
changed for a Refugee, named Aaron
White. On the 15th of April, about
three weeks after the attack on Toms Riv-
er, Esquire Randolph was in Freehold and
made the affidavit before refeiTcd to.
Captain Ephraim Jenkins was an active
patriot ; he had commanded a company of
the Monmouth militia, and June 14th,
1780, he had been commissioned as
Captain in Colonel Holmes' regiment of
State troops. From the fact that the
writer has not been able to find any
mention of him after the fight, and that
his chiklren were afterwards scattered
along shore to be cared for by strangers,
it is p^'obable that he was one of the two
cajitains said to have been killed. One of
his daughters Avas adopted by Major John
Price, of Goodluck and she subsequent-
ly married a man named Springer.
Abiel Aikeus suffered severely for his
patriotism during the war. In his old
age (1808) the Legislature passed an act
for his relief. He was the first friend
Methodism found at Toms River, and a
prominent citizen of the place many
years after the war.
Aaron Buck, was also a well-known
Wliig. The Dillon, whose daughter he
married, was not known as a Tory, and
was a much better man than his In-other
William, who acted as guide to the
Tories. Aaron Buck left two daughters,
one of whom married Judge Ebenezer
Tucker, formerly a member of Congress,
30
after whom Tnckcrtou was named. An-
other daughter married John Rogers,
father of the late James D. and Samuel
Rogers. It is said that in a fit of tem-
porary insanity jNIr. Buck committed
suicide by hanging himself on board of
his vessel at Toms River.
William Dillon, the Refugee guide,
had been once tried and sentenced to
death at Freehold, but pardoned ; soon
after he aided as pilot to the British ex-
pedition which came from New York to
recapture the ship Love and Unity, as
described in a jjrevious chapter.
Captain Joshua Huddy was taken to
New York and confined until the 8th of
April following, when he was taken on
board a sloop and carried to Sandy Hook,
and on the 12th of April he was barbar-
ously hung by tlie Refugees near the
Highlands.
THE LAST WAR WITH ENGLAND.
C.AJ'TURE OF OCEAN COITNTY VESSELS.
During the war of 1812-14, Ocean
county vessels trading to New York and
elsewhere, found their business seriously
injured by British cruisers on our coast.
Occasionally some bold, fortunate mas-
ter of a yessel would succeed in eluding
the enemy's vigilance, and arrive safely
at New York ; but generally they were
not so fortunate. Commodore Hardy, in
his flag-ship, the Ramillies, a 74-gun
ship, had command of the British block-
ading scpiadron on our coast. All ac-
counts, written and traditional, concede
that lie was one of the most honorable
officers in the British service. Unlike
the infamous Aflmiral Cockburn, who
commanded the blocking sqtiadrou fur-
ther south, Hardy never took private
property' of Americans, except contraband
in war, without offering comiiensation.
By his vigilance, he inflicted considerable
damage to otir coasters, and by nearly
stopinng this trade, injury also resulted
to a large jjortion of other citizens, tlien
depemliug on tlie lumber trade.
On the last day of March, 1813, Hardy
in the Ramillies, came close to Bamegat
Inlet, and sent in barges loaded with
armed men after two American vessels
lying in the Inlet. They boarded the
schooner Greyhound, Capt. Jesse Rogers,
of Potter's Creek, and attempted to take
her out, biat she grounded ; the
enemy then set fire to her, and she
was burned, together with her cargo of
lumber. They then set fiie to a bIooj)
belonging to Capt. Jonathan Winner,
Hezekiah Soper and Timothy Soper, of
Waretown ; this vessel was saved, how-
ever, as signals were fired by the Com-
modore recalling the barges in haste,
that he might start in pursuit of some
vessel at sea. As soon as the barges left,
the Americans went on board the sloop,
and extinguished the fire. The name of
the sloop has generaDy been given as the
Mary Elizabeth, but one or two old resi-
dents insist that it was the Susan ; the
probability is that vessels of both names
were fired, but at diff"erent times, TVTiile
the barges were in the Inlet, a party
landed on the beach, on the south side,
and killed fifteen head of cattle belonging
to Jeremiah Spragg and John Allen.
The owners were away, but the British
left word that if they presented their bill
to Com. Hardy, he would settle it as he
generally did similar ones ; but the own-
ers were too p£\.triotic to attempt anything
that seemed like furnishing supplies to
the enemy.
At another time, the schooner Presi-
dent, Captain Amos Birdsall, of Ware-
town, bound to New York, was taken by
Com. Hardy, who at once commenced to
take from the schooner, her spars, deck
planks, etc. Capt. Birdsall with his
crew had liberty to leave in their yawl ;
but on account of a heavy sea, they were
detained a day or two on board, when
they succeeded in getting on board a
fishing smack and thus got home. Be-
fore Capt, Birdsall left the Ramillies, the
masts of his schooner had boon sawed in-
to plank l>y the British.
31
The sloop Elizabeth, Captain Thomas
Bunnell, of Forked River, was captured
by barges sent into Barnegat Inlet, and
towed out to sea ; but it is said she was
shortly after lost on Long Island. The
captain saw the barges coming, and he
and the crew escaped in the yawl. She
was owned by Wm. Piatt and Capt. Bun-
nell. At another time, Capt. Bunnell
was taken out of another vessel, and de-
tained by the British some time, and then
put on board a neutral vessel, said to
have been Spanish, and thus got to New
York. The sloop Traveler, Captain Asa
Grant, was set on fire by the British,
but the fire was extinguished after the
British left. At another time, two
sloops, one named the Maria, the name
of the other not known, were chased
ashore near Squan Inlet.
A vessel commanded by Capt. John
Rogers, who lived near Toms Rfver, was !
also captured, and Rogers himself de- '
tained for a while on the British man-of- ]
war. Capt. Rogers used frequently to
relate his adventures on this ill-starred
trip which cost him his vessel, and among
others to the late well-remembered Billy
Herbert, or Harbor as he was generally
called, at the old Toms River hotel. The
British, he said, treated him with civili-
ty, and one day, an officer, who believed
in the superiority of his ship, asked
Rogers, rather boastingly, ' ' What would
an American man-of-war do alongside a
ship like this?" "And what did you
tell him ?" asked Uncle Billy. " I told
him she would blow the Ramillies to h — 1
mighty quick !" said Rogers.
Capt, Jesse Rogers, of the Greyhound,
who lived to quite an advanced age, made
efforts to have his losses re-imbursed by
Congress, as ditl also Messrs. Spragg and
Allen and others, but they were unsuc-
cessful.
In giving reminiscences of Waretown,
mention has been made of the excitement
created by the barges of Com. Hardy en-
tering the inlet and burning the Grey-
hound, At Forked River, a new dwell-
ing and store had just been erected at
the upper landing by Charles Parker,
father of Gov. Joel Parker. Mr. Parker
informed the writer that though his
house was unfinished, yet the roof was
filled with persons watching Hardy's
proceedings. Judge Jacob Birdsall, then
a boy, was among the children sent to
dwellings back in the woods for safety.
The war of 1812 did not seem to be a
very popular one in New Jersey, as the
political party opposing it generally
carried the State. To raise troops, a
draft was at one time ordered along
shore, which called for one man in every
seven. This draft, however, seemed to
work but little hardship, as seven men
would chib together to hire a substitute,
who could generally be engaged for u
bonus of fifty dollars. Most of the men
obtained under the orders for drafting,
were sent to defend Sandy Hook, where,
from the reports they siibsequently
made, their time was principally occTijHed
in uttering maledictions on commissaries
for furnishing them with horse beef and
other objectionable grub. Among those
who volunteered, the last survivor at
Forked River was the late Gershom
Ayres, who served under Gen, Rossell.
At Waretown, Ralph Chambers was the
last survivor. He was properly entitled
I to extra pension for wounds received in
i the battle of Plattsburg ; but as he had
money of his own when wounded, he
hired medical attendance at a private
house to insure good attention, by which
means his name escaped being embraced
in the official report of wounded. At
Bamegat, Tunis Bodine is a survivor of
the war of 1812, and is in receipt of a
pension for his services. In September
last, Mr. Bodine completed his eighty-
sixth year, and was so remarkably well
and hearty that he made quite a round to
Philadelphia, Trenton and other places,
transacting business, writing letters, etc.
as well as most men twenty years his
junior.
Refei-ring to losses of our citizens by
32
the war of 1812, remiuds iis uf au aucc-
dote of Capt. Winner, a rather eccentric
citizen of Goodhick, who before the war
was i^ossessed of some property ; but his
vessel was bnrned by tlie British, his
business ruined, and he was aboixt
stripped of everything. One time he
was travelling some distance from home,
quite depressed Avith his misfortunes.
The landlord of an inn, where he stojjped,
asked him his name. Winner replied,
"I am ashamed to tell it, for it is a con-
founded lie !" The landlord then asked,
"Well, where are you from ?" Winner
replied, "I am ashamed to tell you that,
for it is another confounded big lie !"
The landlord and bystanders began to
think he was drunk or crazy, when he
explained : " My name is Winner, but I
am always a loser; I live at a place
caUed Goodluck, but I never found any
thing there but infernal bad lurk/''
After hearing a detail of his h)sses, the
bystanders were satisfied that in his case
both names were misnomers, !
GENERAL JOHN LACEY.
LACEY TOWNSHIP, WHENCE ITS NAME —
FOUNDER OF FERRAGO FURNACE — A
YOUTHFUL BRIGADIER — A QUAKER IN
THE WAR PATH.
Lacey township derives its name from
General John Lacey, who established
Ferrago Forge, in 1809, and the well-
known Lacey Road from Ferrago to
Forked River lauding must have been
laid out soon after. General Lacey was
quite a noted man in the Revolution,
and the following outline of his life will
show that he Avas desei-ving the honor of
having his name bestowed on a part of
the county he endeavored to benefit.
John Lacey was born in Bucks Coun-
ty, Pa., February 4th, 1755. His pa-
ternal ancestor Avas from the Isle of
Wight, and came to this country with
Wm. Peun. General Lacey's ancestors
and all his descendants were Quakers.
At the breaking out of the Revolution,
his love of freedom i«-edomiuated over
his anti-war creed, and he made u^) his
mind to obtain it peaceably if he couhl,
forcibly if he must. He took a captain's
commission of the Continental Congress,
January Gth, 1776, for which he was at
once disowned by the Quakers. He left
his home, his society, his mill, to do
battle for his country. He served under
General Wayne, in Canada, and per-
formed the hazardous duty of carrying
an express from General Sullivan to
Ai'uold, when before Quebec. On his re-
turn next year he resigned on account of
a difficulty with General Wayne. He
was then appointed by the Pennsylvania
Legislature to organize the militia of
Bucks County. He was soon elected
Colonel. He was now in the midst of
Tories and Quakers, who were acting in
concert with the enemy, some of whom
threatened him with jjersonal vengeance.
These threats he disregarded as the idle
wind. He brought his regiment into
the field and performed feats of valor
that at once raised him to a high standard
in the list of heroes. His conduct was
particularly noticed by Washington, and
he was honored with the commission of
Brigadier General, January 9th, and or-
dered to relieve General Porter. He
was then but twenty-two years old.
Probably influenced by Refugee neigh-
bors, the British, in Philadeli^hia, de-
termined upon taking him, dead or alive.
His duties were onerous and his watch-
fulness untiring. On the first of May,
following, he was stationed at a place
since called Hatborough with less than
500 men, mostly raw militia. Owing to
to the negligence of the officers of the
picket guard, his little camp was sur-
rounded just at the dawn of the morning,
by about 800 British rangers and cavalry.
He formed his men quickly and cut his
Avay through with such impetuosity that
he threw the enemy into confusion, and
escaped with the loss of only twenty-six
men and a few wounded and prisoners,
who were treated with a barbarity that
casts savage warfare in the shade. The
33
bold maueuvre of Geu. Lacey aud
his brave Spartans Avas a matter of ap-
plause througliout the country. He -was
constantly employed by General Wash-
ington in hazardous enterprises, and in
every instance receive his unqualified
approbation. After the evacuation of
Philadelphia, Gen. Lacey was a member
of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and
served three consecutive sessions. In
1781 he closed his military career, and
like a good citizen married an amiable
daughter of Col. Beynolds, of New Jer-
sey, and commenced a successful career
of domestic feUcity. He filled various
civil offices, lived in the esteem of every
patriot (not of all his Quaker relatives)
and died at the village of New Mills,
(now Pemberton) New Jersey, Feb. 14th,
1814, in his 59th year.
The foregoing notice is substantially
from a work by L. Carroll Judson. In
Niles' " Principles of the Eevolution," is
to be found considerable correspondence
between Gen. Lacey and Gen. Washing-
ton, which shows the responsible duties
General Lacey had to perform, princi-
pally in preventing Tories from furnish-
ing supplies to the British. Both of
these Generals distrusted the Quakers of
Bucks county, a notoriously Tory section
Avhich furnished Befugees to attack
Toms Biver, and in one letter General
Washington orders Gen. Lacey to pre-
vent all Quakers from the surrounding
country from going to Philadelphia year-
ly meeting, as he " fears the plans settled
at these meetings are of the most perni-
cious tendency." The Whigs at this
time suffered so much from information
and supplies to the enemy, that, on re-
ceipt of Washington's letter, Lacey at
once issued orders to stop all Quakers
and others from visiting Philadelphia,
and "if they refused to stop when hailed
to tire upon them and leave their bodies
in the road." This order was afterward
modified by Congress, to confiscation only
of horses and provisions.
In regard to the surprise of Geu. Lacey
and his men by the British, alluded to
above, Lacey -smtes as follows :
' ' Some of my men were butchered in
the most savage and cruel manner ; even
while living, some were thrown into
buckwheat straw, and the straw set on
fire. The clothes were burnt on others,
and scarcely one was left without a dozen
wounds with bayonets and cutlasses."
He says he retreated upwards of two
miles, fighting all the way, until he
reached a wood and extricated himself,
losing thirty killed and seventeen
wounded.
Gen. Lacey and his corps were dis-
charged by the Executive of Pennsylva-
nia, Oct. 12, 1781, with the thanks of the
Council.
Samuel H. Shreve, Esq. , who in past
years has furnished many valuable his-
torical items to the New Jersey Coue-
lEK, says in a communication dated Janu-
ary, 1868 : " Ferrago Foige was erected
by Gen. Lacey in 1809, and the same
year Dover Forge was built by W. L.
Smith, the father-in-law of Lacey."
From this it would appear that Gen.
Lacey was twice married. We have
heard it stated that Lacey expended ten
thousand dollars at Ferrago in building
the dam alone, and the contruotion of
the forge and other buildings and of the
road to Forked Biver must have required
a very considerable outlay of money.
INDIAN WILL.
AN ECCENTRIC ABORIGINAIi OF THE SHORE.
In days gone by, the singular char-
acter and eccentric acts of the noted In-
dian Will formed the theme of many a
fireside story among our ancestors, many
of which are still remembered by older
citizens. Some of the traditionary inci-
dents given below diflfer in some particu-
lars, but we give them as related to us
many years ago by old residents. Inchan
Will was evidently quite a traveler, and
well known from Barnegat almost to the
Highlands. At Forked Biver, it is said
34
he often visited Samuel Chamberlain on
the neck of land between the north and
middle branches, and was generally fol-
lowed by a jjack of lean, liungiy dogs
which he kept to defend himself from his
Indian enemies. The following tradition
Avas published in 1842, by Howe, in His-
torical Collections of New Jersey :
"About the year 1670, the Indians
sold out the section of country near Eat-
ontown to Lewis Morris for a barrel of
cider, and emigrated to Crosswicks and
Craubiuy. One of them, called Indian
Will, remained, and dwelt in a wigwam
between Tintou Falls and Swimming
River. His tribe were in consequence
exasperated, and at various times sent
messengers to kill him in single combat ;
but, being a brave, athletic man, he al-
ways came off conqueror. On a certain,
while partaking of a breakfast of suppawn
and milk with a silver siJoon at Mr.
Eaton's, he casually remarked that he
knew where there were plenty of such.
They promised that if he would bring
them, they would give him a red coat and I
cocked hat. In a short time he was ar-
rayed in that dress, and it is said the
Batons suddenly became wealthy. About
80 years since, in pulling down an old !
mansion in Shrewsbury, iu which a
maiden member of this family in her
lifetime had resided, a (juantity of cob
dollars, supiDosed by the superstitious to
have been Kidd's money, was found con-
cealed iu the cellar wall. This coin was
generally of a square or oblong shape,
the corners of which wore out the
pockets."
A somewhat similar, or perhajjs a vari-
ation of the same tradition, we have fre-
quently heard from old residents of
Ocean county, as follows :
"Indian Will often visited the family
of Derrick Lougstreet at Manasquan,
and one time showed them some silver
money which excited their surprise.
They Avished to know where he got it,
and wanted Will to let them have it.
AVill refused to part with it, luit told
them he had found it iu a trunli along
the beach, and there was plenty of yellow
money beside ; but as the yellow money
was not as pretty as the white, he did
not want it, and Longstreet might have
it. So Longstreet went with him, and
found the money in a trunk, covered over
Avith a tarpaulin and buried in the sand.
Will kejit the white money, and Long-
street the yellow (gold), and this satis-
factory' division made the Longstreets
wealthy."
It is probable that Will found money
along the beach ; but whether it had
been buried by i^irates, or Avas from
some shipAVi-ecked vessel, is another
question. However, the connection of
Kidd's name with the money would indi-
cate that Will lived long after the year
named in the first quoted tradition
( 1670j. Kidd did not sail on his pirati-
cal cruises until 1696, and, from the
traditionary information the Avriter has
been enabled to obtain, Will must have
lived many years subsequent. The late
John Tilton, a prominent, much-re-
spected citizen of Barnegat, in early
years lived at Squan, and he was quite
confident that aged citizens who related
to him stories of Will, knew him per-
sonally. They described him as stout,
broad-shouldered, with prominent In-
dian features, and rings in his ears, and
a good-sized one in his nose.
The following are some of the stoi'ics
related of him : Among otlier things
Avhicli Will had done to excite the ill-Avill
of other Indians, he was charged with
haAdng killed his Avife. Her brother,
named Jacob, determined on revenge.
He pursued him, and, finding him un-
armed, imdertook to march him off cap-
tive. As they Avere going along, Will
cspiod a pine knot on the ground, man-
aged to liick it up, and suddenly dealt
Jacob a fatal bloAv. As he dropped to
the ground. Will tauntingly exclaimed,
"Jacob, look up at tlie sun — yoii'll
never see it again !" Most of the old
residents who related traditions of Will,
85
spoke of bis finding honey at one time
on the tlead body of an Indian he had
killed ; but whether it was Jacob's or
some other, was not mentioned.
At one time to make sure of killing
Will, four or five Indians started in pur-
suit of him, and they succeeded in sur-
prising him so suddenly that he had no
chance for defence or flight. His cap-
tors told him they were about to kill him,
and he must at once jirepare to die. He
heard his doom with Indian stoicism,
and he had only one favor to ask before
he was killed and that was to be allowed
to take a drink out of his jug of liquor
which had just been filled. So small a
favor the captors could not refuse. As
Will's jug was full, it was only common
politeness to ask them to drink also.
Now if his captors had any weakness it
was for rum, so they gratefully accepted
his invitation. The drink rendered them
talkative, and they commenced reasoning
with him upon the enormity of his of-
fences. The condemned man admitted
the justness of their reproaches and
begged to be allowed to take another
drink to drown the stings of con-
science ; the captors consented to join
him again — indeed it would have been
cruel to refuse to drink with a man so
soon to die. This gone throx;gh with,
they persuaded Will to make a full con-
fession of his misdeeds, and their magni-
tude so aroused the indignation of his
captors that they had to take another ;
drink to enable them to do their duty
becomingly ; in fact they took divers
drinks, so overcome were they by his \
harrowing tale, and then they were so |
completely unmanned that they had to
try to recuperate by sleej). Then crafty
Will, who had really drank but little, j
softly rose, found his hatchet, and soon ,
dispatched his would-be captors.
It was a rule with Will not to waste
any ammunition, and therefore he was '
bound to eat whatever game he lolled, :
but a buzzard which he once shot, sorely ;
tried him, and it took two or three days '
j starving before he could stomach it.
I One time when he was alone on the
beach he yvas seized with a fit of sickness
and thought he was about to die, and
not wishing his body to lie exposed, he
succeeded in digging a shallow grave in
the sand in which he lay for a while, but
; his sickness passed off and he crept out
and went on his way rejoicing. In the
latter part of his life he would never
kill a willet, as he said a willet once
saved his life. He said he was in a canoe
one dark stormy night crossing the bay,
and somewhat the worse for liquor, and
unconsciously about to drift out the
Inlet into the ocean, when a willet
screamed and the peculiar cry of this
bird seemed to him to say " this way,
Wni ! this way. Will !" and tliat way
Will went, and reached the beach just in
time to save himself from certain death
in the breakers. When after wild fowl
he would "^sometimes talk to them in a
low tone : "Come this way my nice bird,
Will won't hurt you. Will won't hurt
you !" If he succeeded in killing one
he would say ; "You fool, you believed
me, eh? Ah, Will been so much with
white men he learned to lie like a white
man !"
Near the mouth of Squau river is a
deep place known as "Will's Hole."
There are two versions of the origin of
the name, but both connecting Indian
Will's name with it. Esquire Benjamin
Pearce, an aged, intelligent gentleman,
residing in the vicinity, informed the
writer that he understood it was so called
because Will himself was drowned in it.
The other version, related by tlie late
well remembered Thomas Cook, of Point
Pleasant, is as follows :
Indian Will lived in a cabin in the
woods near Cook's jjlace ; one day he
brought home a muski-at which he or-
dered his wife to cook for ilinner ; she
obeyed, but when it was placed iipon
the table she refused to partake of it.
"Very well," said he, "if you are too
good to eat muskrat you are too good to
36
live with me." And thereupon he took
her clown to the place or hole in the
river spoken of, and drowned her.
Mr. Cook gave another tradition as fol-
lows : Indian Will had three brothers-
in-law, two of whom resided on Long
Island, and when, in course of time,
word reached them that their sister had
been drowned, they crossed over to Jer-
sey to avenge her death. When they
reached Will's cabin, he was inside eat-
ing clam soup. Knowing their errand,
he incited them to dinner, telling them
he would fight it out with them after-
ward. They sat down to eat, but before
concluding their dinner Will pretended
he heard some one coming, and hurried
to the door, outside of which the visitors
had left their guns, one of which Will
caught up and fired and killed one Indian
and then shot the other as he rushed to
close in. In those days the Indians held
yearly councils about where Burrsville
now is. At one of these councils Will
met the third brother-in-law, and when
it was over they started home together
caiTjing a jug of whiskey between them.
On the way, inflaimed with liquor, this
Indian told Will he meant to kill him
for drowning his sister. They closed in
a deadly fight, and Will killed his antag-
onist with a pine knot.
Mr. Cook said, Indian Will finally
died in his cabin above mentioned. From
the traditions related to us many years
ago, by Eli and John Collins and John
Tilton of Barnegat, Eeuben WilUams of
Forked River, and others, and from
Thomas Cook's statements, it is evident
Indian Will must have lived until about
a ceutuiy ago and if he jjrotested against
any sale of laud it must have been
against the titles ceded about 1758. At
the treaties then, an Indian called Cap-
tain John, claimed the lands from Mete-
deconk to Toms River, but other Indians
Baid they were also concerned.
BAPIISTS IN OCEAN COUNTY.
MANAHAWKEN CHURCH.
The first church built in Ocean county
was the one generally known as the Bap-
tist Church at Manahawkeu. It was
built at least as early as 1758, as it is
said the original deed for the land on
which it was situated is dated August 24,
1758, and calls for 1 20-100 acres, " be-
ginning at a stake 265 links north* west
from the meeting house," by which it
appears the edifice was already erected.
There is a tradition that the church was
originally erected as a free church, chief-
ly through the instnimentality of James
Haywood. That it was free to all de-
nominations is quite evident, as in it
meetings were held by Quakers, Presby-
terians, and probably Methodists, and
Rev. John Murray, the founder of Uni-
versahsm in America, also preached in it.
In Webster's History of Presbyterianisni
it is claimed as a Presbyterian Church.
The author probably supposed it to be
such because ministers of that society
held regular services in it — in fact, they
held them many years before the Baptist
Society was organized, and were enter-
tained by Messrs. Haywood and Ran-
dolph, subsequently named among the
founders of the Baptist Society, as ap-
pears by a letter written by Rev. John
Braiuerd in 1761. It is evident that the
early settlers of Manahawkeu were not
only anxious to hear the Word of Truth,
but also believed in religious toleration.
The history of the Bajitist Society at
Manahawkeu, as given in its old church
record, was evidently written many years
after the organization of the society. It
is well worth preserving in our local re-
ligious history, though not as definite on
some points as the sketch given in the
Baptist Century Book. The following
is substantially from the church record :
"About 1760, James Haywood, a Bap-
tist from Coventry, England ; Benjamin,
Reuben and Joseph Randolph, also Bajj-
tists, from Piscataway, settled in this
37
neigliborhood. They were visited by
Rev, Mr. Blackwell, who preached and
baptized among them. Other Baptists
settled among them from Scotch Plains ;
so that in 1770, they were multiplied to
nine souls, which nine were constituted
a Gospel church that same year by Eev.
Benjamin Miller. They joined the Bap-
tist Association, and were occasionally
visited by other brethren, so frat in 1776
they numbered fifteen. Rev. Henry
Crossley resided among them some time,
and was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Bon-
nell, after whose departure there was no
more account of Manahawken Church ;
so that in 1799, at a meeting of the Bap-
tist Association at Great Valley, they
were about to be erased from the records,
but at the intervention of one or two
brethren they were spared, and visited
by ministering brethren, and that not in
vain, for though there could none be
found of the character of Baptists save
five female members, two of whom are
since deceased, yet a number round
about were baptized among them ; but
not meeting in membership with them,
it remained doubtful whether they could
be considered a church. Next season,
they were represented to the Association
with flattering prospe its, and a query
was made whether they really were a
church, which query was answered in
the aflfii-mative ; in consequence of which
supplies were named, some c f whom pro-
posed the propriety of receiving into fel-
lowship among them such as had been,
or may be in future baptized among
them. The proposition was generally
accepted, both by the old members and
young candidates, and in confirmation of
which the first Sunday in July, 1802, was
set apart for the above purpose, when
Bros. Alex. McGowan ^and Benjamin
Hedges gave their assistance. Brother
McGowan, pastor of the church at New
Mills (now Pemberton), by authority,
and on behalf of Sarah Puryne (Perrine?)
Mary Sprague and Elizabeth Sharp, the
remainder of the church in the place.
j receiving into union, by right hand of
j fellowship, the following named persons,
j viz :
Daniel Parker and Elizabeth his wife ;
Edward Gennings and Abigail his wife ;
Thomas Edwards and Catharine his wife;
Samuel Grey and Katurah his wife ;
Amos Southard and wife ; Mary Fortune-
berry ; Phebe Bennett ; Hannah White ;
Martha Headley ; Leah Clayton ; Han-
nah Sulsey ; Jemima Pidgeon ; Hester
Perrine. " In the above, Mary Fortune-
berry, we presiame, should be Mary
Falkinburgh,
The Baptist Century Book furnishes
additional information to the above as
follows :
' ' The Baptist Society at Manahawken
was organized August 25th, 1770. In
October 1771 there were eleven members,
and Lines Pangburn was a delegate to
the Baptist Association. The foUowiug
were the appointments made for that
year :
Rev. D. Branson, 3d Sunday in Dec,
and May.
Rev. D. Jones, 3d Sunday in Nov. and
March.
Rev. Jas. Sutton, 3d Sunday in Feb.
Rev. S. Heaton, 3d Sunday in April.
Rev. P. P, Vanhorn, 4th Sunday in
July,
Rev. R. Runyon, 3d Sunday in Aug.
Rev. W. Van Horn, 3d Sunday in Sep.
In 1772 there were twelve members ;
delegates from Manahawken and Pitts-
grove, Daniel Prine ; preachers appointed
for the ensumg year. Rev, Messrs.
Crossley, Miller, Kelsey, and David
Jones.
1773. No delegates; twelve members.
1774. Rev. Henry Crossley, delegate ;
fifteen members ; four had joined by
letter, one by baptism and one died.
The church this year is called "the
Stafford Church."
1775. No delegates ; members the
same.
From 1775 there are no returns until
38
tlie year 1800, when five members are
reported.
1801. Four members, one having died.
The remaining members of the church
having some doubts in their minds be-
cause of the fewness of their numbers,
whether they exist as a church or no,
it is the sense of this Association that the
church still exists, and while they re-
joice in that prosperity which has lately
attended the preaching of the Gospel
among them, they exhort them to proceed
to the reception of members and the
election of officers.
1802. Edward Gennings appointed
delegate ; four baptized, twenty received
by letter, oue dead ; remaining, 27 mem-
bers.
1803. Thirty-three members.
1804. Amos Southard and Samuel
Grey, delegates ; 31 members.
1805. Samuel Grey, delegate ; 74 1
members ; 44 baptized ; two received by ;
letter, and three dismissed. [
1806. Samuel Grey and Edward Gen-
nings, delegates ; 69 members."
Here ends the record of this church in ,
the Baptist Century Book. \
It wiU be seen by the foregoing, that i
from the out-break of the Revolutionary j
war this society seems to have shared \
the fate of so many others in that event- i
ful period, being virtually broken up for
a time. Some of its principal members
and supporters responded to their coun- ;
try's call ; Reuben F. Randolph became
a captain in the mihtia, his sons members
of his company ; Lines Pangburn, who [
we presume was the same person first
elected delegate, was killed by the Refu-
gees within sight of the church, and
doubtless others were among the patriots
from this village, who did military ser-
vice during the war, particularly in ,
guarding against marauding bands of ;
Refugees who were active until the very
close of the Revolution.
Rev, Benjamin Miller, who organized
the church, belonged to Scotch Plains, '
where he labored for over thirty years,
and died in 1781, !
For the items relating to the original
deed of the church we are indebted to I
the researches of Samuel H, Shreve, i
Esq. j
OTHEK BAPTIST SOCIETIES,
The Baptist Century Book says that
"the Baptist Church of Squan and
Dover" was received into the Baptist
Association in October, 1805, and the
same year Samuel Haven was delegate,
and the society had 38 members. In
1807 Samuel Haven was again delegate ;
45 members.
In Gordon's History of New Jersey, it
is stated that a Baptist Society was es-
tablished at West Creek in 1792, which
had, about 1832, 33 members. This
statement is given in close connection to
statistics of the Manahawken Church,
and leads to the inference that West
Creek, in Ocean County, is referred to.
But we have never heard of a Baptist
Society in past years here, and we are
informed by Wm, P. Haywood, Esq. , of
that village, that none existed until
within a couple of years, and that the
West Creek referred to by Gordon, was
in Cape May County.
OLD CRANBERRY INLET.
A century ag5. Cranberry Inlet, oppo-
site Toms River, was one of the best in-
lets on our coast. We have no account
of the exact depth of water on its bar,
but large vessels like the loaded brig
Hand-in-Hand, in 1770, and the ship
Love-and-Unity, in 1778, came in with-
out difficulty, and during the Revolution
it was of much importance, and often
used by privateers from New England.
The question of the exact year when it
was first opened, was brought before
our courts, some years ago, in a suit in-
volving title to land in its vicinity, but
no decisive information was elicited. It
is probable, however, that it broke
through about 1750, It is laid down on
39
Lewis Evaus' map, published, iu ITon,
aud on au English map by JeJBFreys,
originally drawn by Capt. Hallaud, the
same year. David Mapes, a well-re-
membered, much-esteemed colored man,
late of Tiickerton, when a boy, it is said,
was tending cattle on the beach for Sol-
omon Wardell, when Cranberry Inlet
broke through. He slept in a cabin, and
was astonished one morning on waking
up, to see the sea breaking across the
beach near by. The Inlet finally closed
about the year 1812, though for years
previous it had been gradually shoaling.
ATTEMPTS TO OPEN NEW INLETS.
The closing of Cranberry Inlet caused
great inconvenience to coasters, especial-
ly those belonging to the upper part of
the bay, as they had to go several miles
out of their way to Barnegat Inlet.
About the year 1821, an attempt to open
a new inlet near the head of the bay was
made by Michael Ortley. He worked at
it, off and on, for several years, and
spent considerable money in the under-
taking. At length, one day, a large
company of men volunteered to aid him
in completing it. In the evening after
finishing it, Mr. Ortley and his friends
had quite a celebration ; but sad was
their disappoiniment the next morning to
find that the running of the tide, which
they supposed would work the inlet
deeper, had a contrary effect, and had
raised a bulkhead of sand sufiiciently
large to close it up. The result was that
the inlet was closed much more expedi-
tiously than it had been opened.
Many supposed that if an effort was
made to open an inlet farther down the
bay in the vicinity of old Cranberry, it
would prove more successful. Acting
upon this supposition, another effort was
made to open one opposite Toms River.
The work was done by some two or three
hundred men under direction of Anthony
Ivins, Jr. , of Toms Kiver, and completed
July 4, 1847. In this undertaking, care
was taken to let in the water when it was
high tide in the bay and low water oixt-
side ; but this enterprise also proved a
failure — the sea washing sand in it, and
speedily closing it.
BAKNEGAT INLET.
Barnegat Inlet has always been open
from our earliest accounts. The first
Dutch navigators called it Barcnde-gat,
meaning " breakers' inlet," or an inlet
with breakers, and the present name is a
corruption of the original Dutch one. In
the character of the inlet, depth of water
and roughness on the bar, it has always
been the same as now, except during the
brief period Cranberry was open, when it
was more shoal and difficult to use than
before or since. The inlet has shifted
up and down the beach, two or three
miles, and, about twenty years ago,
washed down the old lighthouse. At one
time, there was au island iu the inlet with
a pond in the centre, bixt it soon washed
away.
BARNEGAT LIGHT HOUSE.
The first light house at Barnegat Inlet
was built about 1834, Congress, by an
act approved June 30th, of that year,
having appropriated $6,000 for the pur-
pose ; and it was refitted in 1855. The
new light house was completed in 1858,
an appropriation of $45,000 having been
made to build it two years previous. The
height of the light above the level of the
sea is 165 feet ; height of tower from
base to light, 159 feet. It can be seen
by an observer standing ten feet above
the level of the sea, twenty-five English
miles ; and from masthead, about thirty
miles. Its light is revolving, intervals
of flash ten seconds, and to aid mariners
in distinguishing it, the upper half is
painted red and the lower half white. It
is one of the finest light houses in the
United States. Its majestic tower, mag-
nificent light and curious revolving ma-
chinery make it as well worth seeing as
any Ught house on our coast. It is 38 i
miles from the Highland light houses,
40
Ite latitude is 39 deg. 45 miu. 54 sec. ,
and its longitude 74 deg, 6 miu. 1 sec.
Its tower is the tallest in the United
States with one exception, that of Pensa-
cola light, which is only one foot higher.
THE STOUT FAMILY.
The Stout families of Ocean and Mon-
mouth coiiuties descend from John Stout,
a gentleman of good family, of Notting-
hamshire England, whose son Kichard
had a love affiiir with a young woman
beneath his rank, and on account of his
father's interference he got angry and
went to sea in a man of war and served
seven years. He was discharged at New
York (then called New Amsterdam) and
lived there awhile, when he fell in with a
Dutch widow, whose maiden name was
Penelope Vanprinces, whom he married ;
he was then said to be in his 40th
year, and she in her 22d. They had
ten children, seven sons and three
daughters, and Mrs. Stout lived to the
remarkable age of 110 and saw her off-
spring multiplied into 502 in about 88
years.
The remarkable history of Mrs, Stout,
as given in Smith's History, published in
1765, is substantially as follows :
While New York was in possession of
the Dutch, a Dutch ship coming from
Amsterdam was stranded near Sandy
Hook, but the passengers got ashore ;
among them was a young Dutchman who
had been sick most of the voyage. He
was so bad after landing that he could not
travel, and the other passengers, being
afraid of the Indians, would not stay
until he recovered. His wife, however,
would not leave him, and the rest prom-
ised to send for them as soon as they ar-
rived at New York. They had not been
gone long before a company of Indians,
coming to the water side, discovered
them on the beach, and hastening to the
spot soon killed the man and cut and
mangled the woman in such a manner
that they left her for dead. She had
strength enough to crawl to some logs
not far distant, and getting into a hollow
one lived within it for several days, sub-
sisting in part by eating the excrescences
that grew from it. The Indians had left
some lire on the shore, which she kept
together for the warmth. Having re-
mained in that manner for some time, an
old Indian and a young one coming
down to the beach found her ; they were
soon in high words, which she afterwards
understood was a dispute ; the old In-
dian was for keeping her alive, the other
for despatching her. After they had de-
bated the point awhile, the oldest Indian
hastily took her up and tossing her upon
his shoulder, carried her to a place where
Middletown now stands, where he dressed
her wounds and soon cured her. After
some time the Dutch at New York, hear-
ing of a white woman among the Indians,
concluded who it must be, and some of
them came to her relief ; the old man,
her preserver, gave her the choice to go
or stay ; she chose to go. Awhile after,
marrying one Stout, they Uved together
at Middletown among other Dutch in-
habitants.
The old Indian who saved her life used
frequently to visit her. At one of his
visits she observed him to be more pen-
sive than common, and sitting down he
gave three heavy sighs ; after the last
she thouglit herself at liberty to ask him
what was the matter. He told her he
had something to tell her in friendship,
though at the risk of his own life, which
was that the Indians were that night to
kill all the whites, and he advised her to
go to New York. She asked him how she
coixld get off? He told her he had pro-
vided a canoe at a place which he named.
Being gone from her, she sent for her
husband out of the field and discovered
the matter to him, who, not believing it,
she told him the old man never deceived
her, and that she with her children
would go ; accordingly at the place ap-
pointed they found the canoe and pad-
pled off. When they were gone the bus-
41
band began to considered the matter and
sending for five or six of his neighbors,
they set upon their guard. About mid-
night they heard the dismal war -whoop ;
presently came up a company of Indians ;
they first expostulated, and then told the
Indians if they persisted in their bloody
designs they would sell their lives very
dear. Their arguments prevailed ; the
Indiana desisted and entered into a
league of peace, which was kept without
violation. From this woman, thus re-
markably saved, is descended a numer-
ous posterity of the name of Stout, now
inhabitants of New Jersey. At that
time there was supposed to be about fifty
families of white people and five hundred
Indians inhabiting those parts.
Another account of Penelope Stout is
given in Benedict's History of the Bap-
tists, as follows :
She was bom in Amsterdam, Holland,
about the year 1602 ; her father's name
was Vanprinces. She and her first hus-
band, whose name is not known, sailed
for New York about the year 1620. The
vessel was stranded at Sandy Hook ; the
crew got ashore and marched towards
New York, but Penelope's husband be-
ing hurt in the wreck could not march
with them ; therefore he and his wife
tarried in the woods. They had not
been long in the place before the Indians
killed them both, as they thought, and
stripped them to the skin. However,
Peulope came to, though her skull was
fractured and her left shoulder so hacked
that she could never use that arm like
the other ; she was also cut across the
abdomen so that her bowels appeared ;
these she kept in with her hand. She
continued in this situation for seven days,
taking shelter in a hollow tree and eat-
ing the excrescence of it. The seventh
day she saw a deer passing by with ar-
rows sticking in it, and soon after two
Indians appeared, whom she was glad to
see, in hopes they would put her out of
her misery ; accordingly one made for
her to knock her in the head; but the
other, who was an elderly man, prevented
him ; and throwing his watch coat about
her, carried her to his wigwam and cured
her. After that he took her to New-
York and made a present of her to her
countrymen, viz : an Indian present,
expecting ten times the value in return.
It was in New York that Richard Stout
married her. He was a native of England
and of good family ; she was now in her
22d year and he in his 40th. She bore
him seven sons and three daughters, viz :
Jonathan, John, Richard, James, Peter,
David, Benjamin, Mary, Sarah, and
Alice. The daughters married into the
families of the Bounds, Pikes, Throck-
mortous and Skeltons, and so lost the
name of Stout. The sons married into
the families of Bullen, Cra-wford, Ash ton,
Truax, &c. , and had many children.
Rev. T. S. Griffiths, pastor of the
Baptist church at Holmdel, Monmouth
county, in a late historical discourse says
that is believed that Penelope Stout was
buried in an old grave yard near Holm-
del, about one hundred yards south of
the residence of the late John S. Hen-
drickson.
THE FALKINBURG FAMILY.
The Falkinburg families of Ocean
county, it is said, are descended from
Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, who came
from Holstein, a little province adjoin-
ing Denmark on the South. His name
in old records is not always given alike ;
Smith's Histoi-y of New Jersey calls him
Heuric Jacobsou Falconbre ; Jasper
Dankers, who -visited him 1679-80, at his
residence near the upper edge of the
present city of Burlington, calls him
Jacob Hendricks, and sometimes, we be-
lieve, he was called Hendrick Jacobs.
The Dutch and Swedes at that day sel-
dom had surnames, and from their usual
mode of bestowing names their designa-
tion of him would probably be rendered
into EngUsh as Henry Jacob's son, of
Falconbre or Falkinburg.
When the first Englisli 'came to settle
42
iu West Jersey, in 1677, the Bi-ceuten-
nial of which was lately celebrated in
Burlington, they wished an interpreter
between them and the Indians living be-
tween the Rancocas and the Assanpink,
where Trenton now stands, and Falkin-
burg was recommended to them. He
appears to have enjoyed the confidences
of Dutch, Swedes and Indians, and must
have been somewhat of a linguist, as he
seems to have understood their lan-
guages and the English also. At that
time he lived farthest up the Delaware
of any white man, on a point of land on
the river just above Burlington. He
was quite successful in aiding the
Quakers to negotiate with the Indians,
and the land on both sides of the river
was purchased by a treaty made Oct,
10th, 1677. When this land was divided
oflf between the settlers, Richard Ridg-
way, ancestor of the Ridgways of Ocean !
and Burlington counties, had 218 acres
allotted to him on the Pennsylvania side
of the Delaware, nearly oj^posite Tren-
ton, as shown by a map made about
1679, a copy of which is given iu the
Journal of Dankers and Sluyter, pub-
lished by the Long Island Historical
Society. This Journal describes the
dwelling of Falkiuburg, which, as it was
one of the best found by Dankers, iu
that section, in his travels in 1679, we
copy as showing the contrast between
dwellings then and now :
"Nov. 19th, 1679, Satui-day ; * * *
Before arriving at the village (Burling-
ton) we stopped at the house of one
Jacob Hendricks, from Holstein, li\'ing
on this side, but he was not at home.
We therefore rowed on to the \Tllage in
search of lodgings, for it had been dark
all of an hour or more, but proceeding a
little farther, we met this Jacob Hen-
didcks, in a canoe with hay. As we were
now at the village we went to the ordin-
ary tavern, but there was no lodgings to
bo obtained there, whereupon we re-em-
barked in the boat and rowed back to
Jacob Hcndrick's, who received ns very
kindly and entertained us according to
his ability. The house, although not
much larger than the one where we were
last night, was somewhat better and
tighter, being made according to the
Swedish mode, as they usually build
their houses here, which are blockhouses,
being nothing else than entire trees, split
through the middle or squared out of the
rough and placed in the form of a square
upon each other, as high as they wish to
have the house ; the ends of these tim-
bers are let into each other about a foot
from the ends, half of one into half of
the other. The whole structure is thus
made without a nail or a spike. The
ceiling or roof does not exhibit much
finer work, except among the most care-
ful people, who have the ceiling planked
and a glass window. The doors are wide
enough, but very low, so that you have to
stoop on entering. These houses are
quite tight and warm ; but the chimneys
are placed iu a corner. My comrade and
myself had some deer skins spread upon
the floor to lie upon, and we were there-
fore quite well off and could get some rest.
It rained hard during the night, and
snowed and froze and contintied so until
the 19th, Sunday, and for a considerable
part of the day, aflfording but little pros-
pect of our leaving."
During this day, Sunday, Dankers
again visited Burlington, and at night re-
turned to FaUdnburg's house, and this
time he says he slept on a good bed, the
same that on the previous evening had
been occupied by the guide and his wife,
" wliich gave us great comfort and re-
cruited us greatly."
Falkinburg seems to have been so fa-
vorably impressed with the Quakers that,
it is said, he joined their Society, and re-
moved to Little Egg Harbor by, or be-
fore 1698, settling a short distance below
Tuckcrton. Mrs. Leah Blackman, ui
hor valuable contributions to the New
Jersey Coitrieb, relating to the history
of Little Egg Harbor, published in 1866,
says that after Falkinburg had concluded
4d
a treaty with the shore Indians, his first
dwelling was a cave on the Down Shore
tract, on that poi-tion of it now known
as the Joseph Parker farm, the site of
which is still discernible, and that after
he got his dwelling fixed up he went
back to West Jersey, and returned with
his intended wife, whom he married by
Friends' ceremony in the presence of the
principal Indians thereabouts ; and that
their first child, Henry Jacobs Falkin-
burg, Jr. , bom in this cave dwelling was
the first white child born in that section,
from whom descends the numerous fami-
lies of Falkinburg in Ocean and else-
where.
BARNEGAT.
The village of Bamegat derives its
name from the inlet, which was original-
ly called Barende-gat by the first Dutch
discoverers on our coast. Barende-gat,
meaning an inlet with breakers, was sub-
sequently corrupted by the English to
Bamdegat, and finally to Bamegat.
Among the first whites who settleel at
Bamegat and vicinity, tradition says,
were Thomas Timms, Elisha Parr, Thom-
as Lovelady, Jonas Tow (pronounced
like the word noiv) and a man named
Vaull. Thomas Lovelady is the one
from whom Lovelady 's island, near Bar-
negat, takes its name. The first settlers
seem generally to have located on the
upland near the meadows, on or near
the Collins, Stokes and Mills' farms.
There was a house built on the Collins
place by Jonas Tow, at least as early as
1720. The persons named above as the
first comers, do not appear to have been
permanent settlers, and tradition fails to
state what became of any of them, with
the exception of Jonas Tow, who it is
said died here.
Among the first permanent settlers, it
is said, were William and Levi Cranmer,
Timothy Kidgway, Stephen and Nathan
Birdsall and Ebenezer Mott ; and Eben-
ezer Collins followed soon after. The
Cranmers and Birdsalls came from Long
Island about 1712 to Little Egg Harbor,
and not long after members of the fami-
lies located at Bamegat. The Cranmers
are said to be of the stock of the cele-
brated Archbishop Cranmer, and the
Ridgways descend from Richard Rilg-
way, who came with other Quakei 8 to
West Jersey two hundred years ago. He
first took up, about 1678, a tract of 218
acres of land, on the Pennsylvania side
of the Delaware, nearly opposite Trenton ;
his descendants were among the earliest
settlers of Little Egg Harbor. Ebene-
zer Mott, it is said, came from Rhode
Island about 1745, and shortly after
located at Bamegat, Ebenezer Collins
was a native of Connecticut, came to
Goodluck, and about 1749 married a
daughter of David Woodmansee, and in
1765 he moved to Bamegat. He subse-
quently went to New York to sail for
South America, to look after some dye
wood lands he owned there, and was
never afterward heard from. From his
two sons, John and James, descend the
Bamegat Collins, Ebenezer was not a
Quaker, but his son John became a noted
and influential member of the Society.
On the place now owned by Captain
Howard Soper, an ancient settler named
Cassaboom hved ; his residence was sur-
rounded by woods, and probably was
the first within the limits of the present
village, the other settlers living a mile or
so distant on the Mills, Collins and
Stokes places. The ancestor of the
shore Rulons was also au early settler ;
he probably Uved in the house which
once stood close by the old one, back of
Captain Ralph Colhns' in which twenty
years ago lived David Rulon, a descend-
I ant.
The first member of the Cox family iu
this vicinity, was Jonathan who original-
ly located at Littleworth Mill ; he had a
son Jonathan whose descendants now
live in Bamegat. James Spragg, father
of the late Jeremiah Spragg, during the
Revolution lived on the beach, by the
inlet, in a liouse built Thomas Rogers,
44
niul after tho war he located on the farm
a niih^ or so south of Barnegat, some-
1 iuies called the George Applegate place,
aud subsequently owned by Messrs.
Predmore and Bodine and others. James
Spragg married a daughter of John Per-
kins, the first settler at Sopers Landing, a
mile or so above Barnegat. Perkins had
been a soldier of the old French war ;
he sold the place to Joseph Soper, an
cestor of the Soper families at Barnegat,
Waretown and elsewhere, and it is said
he was buried near Soper's Landing.
Two brothers named Stephen and John
Conkliug, were early settlers in the vicin-
ity of Barnegat, Stephen once owning
the place on the northerly edge of the
village, in late years owned by Capt.
John M. Inman, deceased. The Inmans
first located at Manahawken, and then
members of the family branched off" to
Barnegat. James Mills, ancestor of the
Mills families, was boni in West Jersey,
and before the Revolution, when a boy,
oame to Forked River, and lived on the
place subsequently owned by the late
James Jones ; from thence Mr. Mills
moved to Barnegat, where he lived to an
advanced age. Mr. Mills remembered
many incidents of Refugee raids in old
Dover township, which then extended to
Oyster Creek.
A dwelling was built in 1793 by Wil-
liam Cambura, along the main shore
road, west side, by Camburn's brook, on
the place owned during the late Rebel-
lion by Captain Thomas Edwards, de-
creased, William Camburn was a de-
scendant of the Waretown early settler,
and from him, it is said, the brook de-
rives its name.
The first permanent settlers at Barne-
gat, as well as ut other jjlaces along-
shore, appear not to have ijurchased
titles of the proprietors until several years
after they came. The first land taken
uj} from the proprietors, it is said, was
the tract of 500 acres, bought by Tim-
•jthy Ridg^ay aud Levi Cranmer, Sep-
tember 9th, 1759. of Oliver Delancey
aud Henry Cuyler, Jr., agents for the
proprietor, William Dockwra. This
tract included the lot upon which the
Quaker church is built, biit the main
portion lay south-easterly. The land
along shore was originally divided ofl'
into two tracts of about a thousand acres,
by John Reed, surveyor, and allotted in
alternate divisions to the proprietors ;
William Dockwra having for his portion
a large part of the land on which stands
the \411age ; next north came Robert
Burnett's, and then Lord Neill Camp-
bell's. Lochiel brook, between Barne-
gat and Waretown, it is said, was named
in compliment to Campbell's locality in
Scotland.
The first Cranmer family at Barnegat,
lived in the tract iDurchased as above
mentioned, and their dwelling was on or
near the site of the one owned in modern
times by Captain Isaac Soper and subse-
quently by Captain John Russell.
The Rackhow road was laid out by
Peter Rackhow, a son of Daniel Rack-
how, who once lived in the place now
owned by Samuel Birdsall, Esq. , Ware-
town. Rackhow, it is said, was a Dutch-
man, who eventually changed his name
to Richards ; he had two sons — Peter
above named who was a reputable young
man, and died quite young, and another
who joined the Refugees, went off with
them and was not heard of afterwards.
KELIGIOT'S SOCIETIES.
The first church built at Barnegat was
the Quaker meeting house. The deed
for the land on which it is situated, is
dated June 11, 1770, and is from Timo-
thy Ridgway and Levi Cranmer to
Stephen Birdsall and Job Ridgway, of
Barnegat, and Daniel Shrouds aud
Joseph (Jauntt, of Tuckerton. The deed
calls for one acre and half a quarter —
consideration money, twenty shillings.
The meeting house was then already
built, as the deed calls for the beginning
of the survey at a certain course and dis-
tance " from the soutli-east coi'ner of the
45
meeting house." The Job Ridgway
named in the deed, we presume, is the
same person who died July 24, 1832, aged
89 years.
The principal settlers of the place
were Quakers, and, before their place of
worship was erected, traveling ministers
visited our shore, and occasionally held
meetings at private houses. Among
those who first preached at Bamegat,
was the philanthropist, John Woolman,
who was here in August, 1746, and again
in 1765. After the house was built,
among noted preachers who have record-
ed their visits here in their published
journals, may be mentioned Patience
Brayton m 1772, Job Scott in 1785, and
Ehzabeth Collins in 1807. The early
Bamegat Quakers were regular in their
attendance upon the monthly meetings
of the society at Tuckerton. As an in-
stance, the late John Collins, bom in
1776, for sixty years regularly attended
the Egg Harbor monthly meetings, and
his father before him was as regular in
attendance, but probably not for so long
a period.
The second John Collins was among
the most prominent and useful men of
his day. In his early life, he was master
of a vessel, and made his first trips out
of old Cranberry Inlet ; but in his later
years he settled down to the more con-
genial business of farming. For sixty
years he missed attending but two elec-
tions, and probably no man was ever so
often selected to fill township offices.
His duties often called him to old Mon-
mouth Court House, as Freehold once
was usually called, where he was well
known and respected. Mr. Collins had
a remarkably retentive memory, and to
him, more than to any other one man, is
the writer indebted for valuable tradi-
tionary information of olden times in
Ocean county. He seemed to be a con-
necting link between the past and pres-
ent.
The Presbyterians were among the
early religious pioneers of the village,
and about 1760 they commenced holding
regular or occasional services. Among
the first preachers were Rev. Messrs.
Chesnut, Green, McKnight and John
Brainerd. From a letter written by Rev.
John Brainerd in 1761, it seems the
Presbyterians held their meetings at the
house of Mr. Rulon.
The Presbyterian Society now at Bar-
negat is of recent origin, having been or-
ganized in February, 1876, with nine
members.
The first effort to introduce Episcopal-
ianism in Bamegat, was by Rev. Thomas
Thompson, between 1745 and 1750, which
he mentions in his published account of
missionary services in old Monmouth in
those years. He made four trips to Bar-
negat and Manahawken, and, after his
return to Shrewsbury, he sent Christo-
pher Robert Reynolds, a schoolmaster of
his faith, to labor from house to house at
Bamegat and Manahawken. Reynolds
remained here one year, and then, ac-
count of age and infirmity, he went back
to Shrewsbury.
The Methodist pioneers held regular
or occasional services probably as far
back as the Revolution. The first Meth-
odist Society was organized in 1829, with
the late Rev. Job Edwards as the first
class leader and local preacher. Mr.
Edwards' grandfather, James Edwards,
who had been a soldier in the old French
War, was one of the earliest and most
earnest converts to Methodism along
shore, and in more modem times the so-
ciety in this section has had no more
zealous, successful laborer than Rev.
Job Edwards. "He still lives" in the
cherished remembrance of his fellow-
members, and in the evidences of his
works in the cause of his Master.
i INDUNS AT BARNEGAT.
' Long after the first whites settled at
I Bamegat, Indians from West Jersey
would frequently visit the place and re-
' main a part of the year. One called
4G
Indian John, with his squaw, had a wig-
wam near the northerly edge of the vil-
lage, on the road to the Hamilton place,
and another Indian, name not remem-
bered, had a wigwam close by. The last
and most noted Indians who visited Bar-
negat were Charles Moluss or Moolis, and
his wife Bathsheba or Bash as she was
commonly called. They had their wig-
wam on the place now owned by Cap-
tain Timothy Falkinburg, a few hundred
yards northwesterly of his residence, by
the edge of Camburn's Brook. They
had two papooses or childi-en, and Bash's
sister, named Suke, was generally with
them. Among the Quakers of Builing-
tou coimty Bathsheba was considered as
a kind of Indian queen, and Mrs. Leah
Blackmau, in her sketches of Little Egg
Hai'bor, says she was quite a favorite
with the Quakers at Medford, and when
she visited Tuckerton on her annual
visit to the shore, she was not permitted
to camp out with other Indians, but
always invited to the dwelling of some
one of the Little Egg Harbor Friends.
Bathsheba belonged to the remnant of
Indians who once lived at Edgepelick
about three miles from Atsion, in Bur-
lington County. At Bamegat, her hus-
band, Indian Charles, made baskets to
sell, and himself and family were on good
terms with the whites. They probably
left New Jersey with the remnant of their
tribe in 1802. While the Quakers of
Burlington viewed Bathsheba in the
light of a Indian Queen, and she was
probably superior to other Indian wo-
men, the Bamegat traditions give no
very romantic idea of her, as may be in-
ferred from the unpoetic name of Bash,
V)y which she was generally known. The
late Uncle Eli CoUins, an aged citizen of
Bamegat, informed the writer that one
day when he was a young man he had
been from home all day, and on his way
back he stopped at Indian Charles' wig-
wam. Bash was boiling something in a
pot that sent forth an odor that was de-
lightful to him, an he had enten nothing
since morning ; he was invited to dine
with them, and being very hungry he ac-
cepted the invitation, but he speedily
changed his mind when he found the
savoury smelhng dish was hop-toad soup !
! An old Bamegatter once tried to teach
Indian Charles the names Shadrach,
I Meschach and Abednego ; the words
j were too much for him, but he replied
! "give me cider and to bed me go," which
was as near as he cared to come to them.
The remains of shell beds on the farm
of James Mills, Esq. , and at other places
show that the Indians at Bamegat, long
before the whites came, caught shell fish
in great quantities. Some of course
were eaten here, but the principal object
of the Indians appeared to be to prepare
a quantity to take back with them ; this
was generally done by roasting and then
taking them out of the shell, stringing
and drying them in the sun. On their
journeys back to West Jersey, they some-
times slung these strings around the neck
to carry them conveniently ; when they
were wanted for food they were often
soaked and boiled.
The appearance of the shells here in-
dicate that the colored portions were
taken out to be prepared as wampum, or
Indian money, which was so much prized
by the Indians that fifty years after the
whites came to New Jersey a shot bag
full of wampum was worth one-fourth
more to the Indians than the same quan-
tity of silver.
MISCEIiliANEOUS ITEMS.
The first inn or public house in Bame-
gat was established in 1820 by David
Ohphant, on the site of the present one
at the comer of the main shore road and
the road to the landing.
The well-remembered old public house
of Eli Colhns was occasionally patron-
ized forty or fifty years ago by distin-
guished visitors, among them the noted
Prince Murat with quite a train of ser-
vants. He was one of the most expert
hunters of his day. Murat was a large.
47
powerful mau, and of remarkable powers
of endurance — able to tire out almost
any other hunter or gimner he met. He
would make his head-quarters at Mr.
Collins' inn, for his gunning expeditions
on the bay, being generally gone about
two weeks, during which time he would
sleep in his boat, or camp on the beach,
or on islands in the bay, and rough it in
a manner surprising to our shore gun-
ners, who had no idea a scion of royalty
had so much physical endurance.
Another celebrated personage who oc-
casionally stopped here was Lieut., or
Captain Hunter, of Aivarado fame.
Once as he drove up, an hostler stepped
out to attend to his horses and addressed
him by name. Capt. Hunter was sur-
prised to find himself addressed so famil-
iarly by so humble a personage, and
upon inquiry found that the hostler had
once held some oflSce in the Navy, and
been on a man of war with him up the
Mediterranean, and while there had acted
as Hunter's second in a duel. Hunter
replied, " Proctor, I know you, but I
don't know your clothes !" Proctor had
considerable natural ability, but it was
the old story, liquor sent him on the
down grade. Frank Forrester (WiUiam
Henry Herbert) the great authority and
noted writer on field sports, was evi-
dently well acquainted here, as his writ-
ings show wonderful familiarity with this
section. Uncle Eli Collins' house and
the lower tavern once kept by David
Church were old well-known headquarters
for gunners from distant places. Speak-
ing of gunners, reminds us of one who
stopped once at the lower tavern with a
fierce bull dog ; the landlord told the
gunner to keep his dog away from a yard
where he had a loon wounded in hifl
wings, as the loon might hurt the dog.
The idea of a loon or any other wild
fowl hurting his bull dog amused the
gunner, and he offered to bet fifty dollars
that his dog would kill the bird. The
landlord took the bet, the dog was let in,
but in an instant the loon picked out the
dog's eyes by suddenly darting his sharp
bill in quick succession.
Among the traditions handed down by
old residents of Bamegat, is one relating
to a man named Bennett, who lived on a
strip of land called Bennett's Neck, in
late years occupied by Solomon Burr,
deceased, situated about a mile below
the village on the road to Manahawken.
It is said that Bennett was only an as-
sumed name, and that when he was a
youth he was bound apprentice to a sea-
faring man who afterward joined the pi-
rate Kidd in his cruises, and compelled
his apprentice to go with him ; that when
the pirates were captured, taken to Eng-
land and tried, some were convicted and
executed, but this apprentice was cleared
because it was proved that he did not
join the pirates from choice, but was
compelled to do so by his master. After
being liberated, wishing to lead an hon-
est life where he was not known, became
to America, and wandered down along
shore to this place, where he erected a
small habitation, and lived an honest life
by himself until his death. A reference
to the trial of Captain Kidd and his men
shows that this tradition is not improba-
ble. Captain Kidd was tried at the Old
Bailey, London, in May, 1701, with
some of his men — ten in all. They were
all found guilty but three, named Robert
Lumly, William Jenkins and Richard
Barlicorn, who proved themselves ap-
prentices, and that they were forced to
go. It is not unreasonable to suppose
one of these apprentices, disliking the
odium attached to his name on account
of the company he had been forced into,
would abandon his countiy, and under
an assumed name seek a retreat in some
retired place like Bennett's Neck.
Another ancient tradition relates to
Jonas Tow, whose name has been men-
tioned among the first settlers. His
neighbors seemed to be suspicious of his
character — some supposing him to be a
counterfeiter, and others that he was or
had been a pirate, but there was nothing
48
ever proved against liim. The reasoua
giveu for these suspicions were that Tow
had a shop on the place owned in late
years by Samuel Leeds, in which he kept
a curious, miscellaneous lot of articles,
which some supposed could only have
been obtained by a rover of the seas.
This shop was separated from the house
by a thick swamp, and as he would never
allow any of his neighbors to visit it,
they surmised he might be engaged in
counterfeiting or other unlawful busi-
ness. As before stated, nothing was ever
proved against him ; but while he lived,
and after his decease he was always
spoken of as a suspicious character, and
what added to the suspicions was the fact
that the energetic measures against pi-
rates generally before Tow came here,
had caused them to disband, quit the sea
and seek retreats where they were not
known ; and as the pirates had known all
the inlets on the Atlantic coast, it was
possible that Tow had been a rover, and
sought retreat here, bringing some of his
miscellaneous plunder with him and
probably burying the most valuable.
During the Revohitionary war, parties
of both Refugees and Patriots, as they
traveled up and down shore, would stop
at the houses of the Bamegat Quakers,
and demand victuals ; but on the whole,
the residents suffered less during the
war than did those of any other place
along shore, except perhaps West Creek.
They had, however, but little reason to
congratulate themselves on this score, as
tkey suflfered enough after the war
closed ; for then in time of peace, on ac-
count of their conscientious scruples
against militia training and paying fines
for non-attendance, they were continually
harassed by lawsuits, arrests, fines and
executions, and imprisoned or property
sold for non-compliance with militia
laws. The once notoi-ious Esquire "Wil-
liam Piatt, of old Dover township, bore
no enviable name among the Quakers
for his vexing them with suits on thi»
account.
During the Revolution, quite extensive
salt works were carried on at Bamegat,
on the meadows near the farm of Mr,
: James Mills, by the Cranmers, Ridgways
1 and others. The usual plan to manu-
I facture salt was to seek some place on
I the salt meadows where no grass could
■ grow. By digging wells in these bare
places, the water was found to be strong-
ly impregnated with salt. The water
from these wells or springs was put in
large boilers with a kind of arched oven
underneath, in which a fire was builtj;
after most of the water was boiled away,
; the remainder, thick with salt, was poured
j into baskets of sugar-loaf shape made to
allow the water to drain out. One of
I these curious-shaped baskets was pre-
! served, and in possession of the late
; Uncle Eli Collins as late as 1860.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM TOM.
In regard to the origin of the name
Toms River we have two distinct tradi-
tions ; one alleging that it was named
after a somewhat noted Indian who
once lived in the vicinity ; the other at'
tributes it to a certain Captain William
Tom who resided on the Delaware river
over two hundred years ago, and who it
is said penetrated through the wilderness
to the seashore on an exploring expedi-
tion, when he discovered the stream now
known as Toms River ; upon his return
he made such favorable representations
of the land in its vicinity that persons
were induced to oome here and settle,
and these settlers named the stream after
Capt. Tom, because he first brought it
to the notice of the whites.
Captain Tom lived many years before
Indian Tom, and in view of the disagree-
ment as to the origin of the name Toms
River, some may be disposed to compro-
mise by conceding that it originated with
Captain Tom, and was perpetiaated by
Indian Tom. Reserving the discussion of
this question to another article, it seems
an opportune time to pfive an outline of
Oaptaiu Tom's life. It will be seen that
41)
he was a coufidential officer of the Eng-
lish army, and subsequently held various
civil positions of trust, such as commis-
sary, justice, judge, town clerk, keeper
of official records, collector of laud rents,
agent for lands, etc. , and that he stood
high in the estimation of Governors
Nichols, Audross and Lovelace, and of
the Swedes, Dutch, English and Indians.
Captain William Tom came to this
country with the English expedition un-
der Sir Robert Carre and Col. Richard
Nicholls, which conquered the Dutch at
New Amsterdam, (New York), August,
1664. Immediately after the English
had taken formal possession of New York,
two vessels, the "Guinea" and the " Wil-
liam and Nicholas," under command of
Sir Robert Carre, were dispatched to at-
tach the Dutch settlements on the Dela-
ware river. After a feeble resistance the
Dutch surrendered about the first of Oc-
tober of the same year (1864). Captain
Tom accompanied this expedition, and
that he rendered valuable service, there
is evidence by an order issued by Gov.
Nicholls, June 30, 1665, which states
that for William Tom's "good services
at Delaware," there shall be granted to
him the lands of Peter Alricks, confiscat-
ed for hostility to the English. Captain
Tom remained in his majesty's service
until August 27, 1668 ; during the last
two years of this time he was commissary
on the Delaware. He was discharged
from his majesty's service on the ground,
as is alleged, "of good behavior." In
the early part of 1668, a servant of Mr.
Tom's was killed by some evil disposed
Indians, who it is said also killed one or
more servants of Peter Alricks at the
same time. The Indians generally were
disposed to live on amicable terms with
the whites, and these murders were the
result, it would seem, of selling liquor to
the Indians, the majority of whom seeing
its evil effects requested the white au-
thorities to prohibit the sale of it among
them. The perpetrators of these out-
fages were not apprehended ; and
because this was not done, Gov. Lovelace
attributes another murder two years
later ; he severely censured the authori-
ties, for too much remissness in not
avenging the previous murder of Mr,
Tom's servant, etc.
On the 12 of August, 1669, Captain
Tom was appointed collector of quit
rents, which were imposed on all persons
taking up land along the Delaware river
on both sides. This office he held for
three years, when he resigned. Its du-
ties must have been of considerable re-
sponsibility and labor, as it involved the
necessity of visiting all places where set-
tlers located, from the Capes of the Dela-
ware to the Falls of the Delaware (Tren-
ton.) While engaged in this business it
is probable that as he traveled from place
to place he made it a point to search for
eligible places for new settlers to locate,
and acted as agent for the sale of lands.
At one time he acted as land agent for
John Feuwick the noted Salem proprie-
tor.
We find that Captain Tom not only
stood well in the estimation of Gov.
Nicholls, but also in the opinion of his
successor, Gov. Lovelace, who, at the
suggestion of Captain T. , issued several
orders relating to affairs on the Dela-
ware. Aug. 12, 1669, Gov. Lovelace at
request of Wm. Tom, grants certain
special favors to Finns and others re-
moving near New Castle, Del. By his
order "permission on request of Mr.
Tom" was granted to families from
Maryland to settle in the same vicinity,
" to the end that the said place may be
inliabited and manured, it tending like-
wise to the increase of inhabitants. " An
order of the same date is preserved which
allows William Tom to kill and mark all
wild hogs in the woods near his land.
In 1671, an extraordinary coimcil was
convened in New York, on the occasion
of the arrival of William Tom and Peter
Alricks, just from the Delaware, with the
particulars of the Indians murdering two
Christians (Dutch) near Burliugtou.
50
These murders ■svere committed by two
Indians who were known, and who re-
sided at Suscunk, four miles east of Mat-
iniconk or Burlington Island. Governor
Lovelace, in a letter to Cajit. Tom, dated
Oct. 6th, expresses great surprise at what
he has learned from Mr. Tom in regard
to these murders. This letter gives
stringent orders to guard against e\'il-
disposed Indians in the future, and from
it we find that Burlington Island was
then occupied as a kind of frontier mili-
tary station. Gov, Lovelace recommends
a good work about Matiniconk house (on
Burlington Island) which, strengthened
with a considerable guard, would make
an admirable frontier. Vigoroiis efforts
were made to secure these Indian mur-
derers. The result is seen in the follow-
ing letter written by Capt. Tom to Gov.
Lovelace, Dec. 25, 1671. He says that
' ' about eleven days since, Peter Alricks
came from New York, and the Indians
desired to speak with us concerning the
murders, whereupon they sent for me to
Peter Kambo's, where coming they faith-
fully promised to bring in the murderers,
dead or alive ; whereuijon they sent out
two Indians to the stoutest, to bring him
in, not doubting easily to take the other,
he being an Indian of little courage ;
but the least Indian, getting knowledge
of the design of the sachems, ran to ad-
vise his fellow, and advised him to run
or else they would both be killed, who
answered that he was not ready, but in
the morning would go with him to the
Maquas, and advised him to go to the
next house for fear of susiDicion, which he
did ; and the two Indians coming to his
house at night, the one being his great
friend, he asked him if he would kill him,
who answered 'No, but the sachems
have ordered you to die ;' whereupon he
demanded what his brothers said, and
was answered ' They say the like, ' Then
he, holding his hands before his eyes,
said ' Kill me ;* whereupon the Indian
that comes with Cocker, shot him with
two bullets in the breast, and gave him
two or three cuts with a bill on the head,
and brought him down to Wicaco, from
whence we shall carry him to-morrow to
New Castle, there to hang him in chains.
For this, we gave to the sachems, five
watch-coats, which Mr. Alricks paid
them. When the other Indian heard the
shot in the night, naked as he was, he
ran into the woods ; but this sachem
promised to bring the other alive, for
which we promised him three watch-
coats. The sachems brought a good
many of their young men with them,
and there before us they openly told
them ' now they saw a begiuniug, and all
that did the like, should be served in the
same manner.' They joromised if any
other murders were committed, to bring
in the murderers. How to believe them
we knew not, but the sachems seem to
desire no war."
What official position Capt. Tom held
in these transactions is uncertain, but he
appears to have been more relied upon
than any other man to settle difficulties
at this time.
In 1673, Capt. Tom was appointed one
of four appraisers to set a value on Tini-
cum Island in the Delaware. In 167-i,
he was appointed secretary or clark for
the town of New Castle, and he appears
to have had charge of the public records
for several years. In 1673, the Dutch
regained their power in New York, New
Jersey and Delaware, biit retainfd it on-
ly a few months ; after they were again
displaced in 1674, Gov. Andross appoint-
ed Capts. Cantwell and Tom to ' ' take
possession for the King's use, of the fort
at New Castle, with the public stores.
They were authorized to pro\-ide for the
settlement and repose of the inhabitants
at New Castle, Whorekills (Lewes) and
other places. "
In 1675, some settlers complained
against Capt. Tom for molesting them in
the enjoyment of meadow land adjoining
their plantations. The settlers probably
supposed because they owned uplands,
they should also have the use of meadow
51
land without paying for the same. The
Governor ordered a compromise. In
1676, he -was appointed one of the Jus-
tices of the Peace and a Judge of the
Court. He sat as one of the Judges in
an important suit, in which the defend-
ant was John Fenwick, the Salem Pro-
prietor. Judgment was given against
Fenwick, and a warrant issued to take
him dead or alive. Fenwick, finding it
useless to resist, gave himself up, and
was sent prisoner to New York.
Capt. Tom was reappointed Justice
and Judge in 1677. Toward the latter
part of this year, complaint was made
that the town records of New Castle were
in confusion, and Mr. Tom was ordered
to arrange and attest them. It is not im-
probable that ill health prevented him
from completing this task, as we find his
death announced January 12, 1678,
coupled with the simple remark that his
papers were in confusion.
From the foregoing and other facts
that are preserved, it would appear that
William Tom was about the most promi-
nent, useful and trustworthy man among
the early settlers in South Jersey, from
the coming of the English until his death
just two hundred years ago, and that his
varied duties w^ere performed to the sat-
isfaction of English, Dutch, Swedes and
Indians ; and we may safely infer that
he did as much, if not more, than any
othsr man in his day towards ' ' the set-
tlement and repose of the inhabitants. "
And it is no discredit to Toms Eiver to
be named after such a man.
THE HOLMES FAMILY.
The Holmes family of Ocean county
are descended from Kev. Obadiah
Holmes, so favorably remembered in the
annals of the Baptist Church in America.
He was born at Manchester in Lanca-
shire, England, in 1606 ; married in 1636
to Catharine ; and came from Pres-
ton, Lancashire, to Salem, Mass., in
1639. For his zeal in preaching Baptist
doctrines, he was sentenced by the Puri-
tans of New England to pay a fine of £30
or be publicly whipped. Although
abundantly able to pay the fine, he re-
fused to do so, as he deemed it would be
an acknowledgment of error, and he
chose rather to suffer than to "deny his
Lord." In September, 1651, he was
publicly and severely whipped at Boston
"with a three-corded whip, thirty
strokes."
Eev. Obadiah Holmes was one of the
original patentees of old Monmouth, al-
though it is believed he never resided
here ; but his son Jonathan Holmes be-
came a resident, and in 1668 was a mem-
ber of the Assembly. Subsequently he
returned to the family homestead at
Middletown, K. I., having settled his
two sons, Jonathan and Obadiah, upon
his lands in Middletown, N. J., which,
in 1713, he bequeathed to them. These
two sons were among the pioneers of the
Baptist faith in New Jersey. This son
Obadiah had a son named Jonathan who
died about 1766, and this Jonathan's son
John is supposed to be the John Holmes
who lived at the upper mill at Forked
Eiver, during the Eevolution. This
John Holmes married Catharine Potter,
and they had children — William, John,
Huldah, Katy, Polly and Sally. Huldah
married Esquire Daniel Williams, and
the Williams families near Goodluck are
their children or descendants. The last
named John Holmes (the second in Ocean
county) married Catharine Lane, and
their children were Joseph, William,
Jacob, Stephen, Alice, and jjerhaps oth-
ers. William, Jacob and Ste2Dhen went
west. Alice first married Daniel Cono-
ver, and afterwards Daniel P, Pierson,
and left children by both husbands.
Capt. Joseph Holmes married Anna
Stout, daughter of Daniel Stout, a hero
of the Eevolution, and their children and
descendants, we believe, are the only
ones now bearing the name of Holmes in
this vicinity. Their ancestry may thus
be traced back : Joseph, son of John,
52
who was the sou of Johu, sou of Jona-
than, son of Obacliah, son of Jonathan,
sou of Rev. Obadiah Holmes, born in
Lancashire, EngLaud, 1 606. This carries
the line back, in an unbroken chain, over
270 years.
The recurrence of given names in dif-
ferent generations is noticeable in the
genealogy of the Holmes family. There
have been several Josephs, Johns, Hul-
dahs, Catharines and Alices (or Elsie as
it was sometimes called), and an Alice
Holmes last century married a Daniel
Conover, as did an Alice Holmes this cen-
tury.
Much trouble has been taken by one
or two persons to collect the genealogy
of this family from the time of Rev. Oba-
diah Holmes down, and the writer is un-
der obligations to Rev. Mr. Schenck, of
Marlborough, for a complete genealogi-
cal chart of the family in Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and old Monmouth.
The founder of the family, Rev. Oba-
diah Holmes "of precious memory,"
died at Newport, R. I., in 1682. The
Somerset counties. In No, 29 of a series
of articles headed "Historical Notes,"
published in 1876, in the New Bninswick
Fredonian, is a notice of the descendants
of Mr. Gulick in that section, which
states that his grandson Joachim had
sons Abram, William, John, Joachim,
Jabobus and Peter, and three daughters.
The Ocean county Gulicks descend from
Jacobus, who at one time lived at Pleas-
ant Plains and then removed to Rhode
Hall, where he kept the main hotel and
stage house between New York and Phil-
adelphia. He had children Joachim,
Cornelius, Abram (or Brom, as the Dutch
called it,) John, Jacobus and Isaac. The
last named, Isaac, who settled at Toms
River in 1794, married Abigail Hatfield,
a widow with one child by her fijrst mar-
riage. Her maiden name was Van Deven-
ter. Her son, named John Hatfield, on
his arrival at manhood, followed the
coasting trade from Toms River, and was
lost with all his crew in a severe snow
I storm, Dec. 13th, 1811. He was a young
1 man of much promise, and his loss was
township of Holmdel, in Monmouth greatly regretted by all his acquaint-
county, is named for him. ; auces. From him, John Hatfield Gu-
lick, late Surrogate, derives his name.
Isaac Gulick and Abigail his wife had
THE GULICK FAMILY. , g^^ ^^^^^ ^j^ . james, Stephen, Abner,
The Gulick family are descended from | William and Nimrod. Of these, Stephen
Joachim Gulick, who came to this coun- 1 is the only survivor, being over eighty
try in 1653, and settled first at Graves- years of age*. Abner and William mar-
end, Long Island, where we find his ried, removed to Ohio and died there,
name in 1656, with the Tiltons, Still- j leaving families. Nimrod moved to
wells, Stouts, Bowues, Applegates and ; Tuckahoe, N. J. , and died there, leavuig
others Avho subsequently settled in old a family. James Gulick, who was the
Monmouth county. The first time the first Judge appointed in Ocean county,
English recorded his name, they seemed was born near Cranbury, Middlesex
at a loss to know how to spell it, and so ^ county, Jan. 9, 1793, the year before hie
wrote it " Joachim Guylock. " Mr. Gu- father moved to Toms River, and died
lick, it is said, took the oath of allegiance July 7, 1855. He had five sons, of whom
in 1687, and moved to Six Mile Run, John H., Sidney and Henry C. still sur-
near New Brunswick, N. J. , previous to vive. His sop Horatio, who died about
1717, and he subsequently owned 330 a dozen years ago, was one of the first
acres of land lying on both sides of Ten Collectors of the county. Stephen Gu-
Mile Run Brook. His descendants ap- lick married Deborah Page, and they
Ijear to have settled near and on both had two daughters, both living. One
sides of the line between IMiddlesex and married Captain William Jeflfrey, and the
63
other Theodore McKeau, now living in
Utah.
A tradition handed down among the
old members of the Guhck family says
that two brothers (probably Joachim and
Hendricks) came from the Netherlands
together, and that the name Gulick is
derived from the town from whence they
came.
Most of the old members of the Gulick
family were men of stout, almost gigan-
tic frames, and possessed of extraordinary
powers of endurance. They were noted
for their patriotism in the Kevolution.
Isaac was then too young to serve, but
his brothers were in the ai-my, and among
them and other GuUcks in tlie State
troops were three Abrams, Cornelius,
Benjamin, James, John, Peter and Joa-
chim. The last named, a brother of
Isaac, was noted for deeds of daring dur-
ing the war, in which he was a captain.
He was a man of giant frame and Hercu-
lean powers. At one time he was sta-
tioned below New Brunswick to watch
the movements of the enemy, who were
expected to come up the river by water.
While on one of its banks a few miles be-
low the city, the British came in sight,
and commenced iiring on the party, who
were compelled to retreat up a steep hill.
When partly up, the Captain heard a
C17 of distress, and, looking towards the
place whence it came, saw one of his
men lying on the ground, wounded and
helpless. He immediately ran back,
took the man on his shoulders, and took
up in safety amidst a shower of bullets
and the cheers of his men.
The original Gulick tract near Ten
Mile Run is now divided into three tracts
or farms, two of which are now owned by
William Cannon, and the other by Simon
H. Nevins.
THE EDWARDS FAMILY.
The Edwards family, in the southern
pari of Ocean county, with branches
elsewhere, are descended from James
Edwards, who was with General Brad-
dock at the time of his disastrous defeat
in the old French war. After that war
he first settled in Pennsylvania, and then
removed to Little Egg Harbor, and from
thence to Barnegat. Here he frequent-
ly described to his neighbors the partic-
ulars of Braddock's defeat, and he always
positively asserted that Braddock was
killed by one of his own men, who
thought that he was uselessly sacrificing
the lives of his soldiers. His statements
have subsequently been fully corrobor-
ated, and the following particulars are
derived from Virginia and Pennsylvania
local histories :
" Gen. Braddock was shot by one of
his own men, named Tom Fawcett, who
lived to quite an advanced age near
Uniontown, Fayette Co., Pa. In the
presence of friends, Fawcett did not
hesitate to avow that he shot Braddock.
Fawcett was a man of gigantic frame, of
uncivilized, half savage loropensities,
and spent most of his later years among
the mountains as a hermit, living on the
game he killed. He would occasionally
come into town and get drunk. Some-
times he would repel inquiries into the
affair of Braddock's death, putting his
fingers to his lips and uttering a sort of
buzzing sound ; at other times he would
burst into tears and appear greatly agi-
tated by conflicting jjassions. In spite
of Braddock's silly order that his troops
should not protect themselves behind
trees from the murderous fire of the
Indians, Joseph Fawcett, brother of
Tom, had taken such a position, when
Braddock rode up in a passion and struck
him down with his sword. Tom, who
was but a short distance from his brother,
saw the whole transaction and imme-
diately drew up his rifle and shot Brad-
dock through the lungs, partly for re-
venge for the outrage upon his brother,
and partly, as ho alleged, to get the Gen-
eral out of the way and thus save the re-
mainder of the gallant band who had
been sacrificed to his obstinacy and want
of experience in frontier warfare."
54
Mrs, Leali Blackmail, in her Egg
Harbor Sketches, states that James Ed-
wai'ds was wounded in the battle, receiv-
ing a musket ball in his leg, which he
carried to his grave, and she adds that
" he lived to an advanced age and was
burried in the Methodist Church Yard
at Tuckerton. He was also a soldier in
the Kevolutionary War, and fought un-
der Washington, whom he loved 'W'ith an
undying love. One of his grand-
daughters told me that when the angel
Death was hovering over him, one of his
daughters who stood at his bedside,
asked him if he knew he was dying, and
he replied, ' O yes, I shall soon be with
Jesus where I shall meet my dear old Gen-
eral Washington.' His daughter asked
him if he believed that wan-iors like
General Washington inherited the King-
dom of Heaven ; he answered ' Yes, I
believe that Washington is a bright star
in the regions of glory.' Soon after
this his spirit took its flight to the spirit
world."
James Edwards was one of the first,
probably the first, adherent of the prin-
ciples of Methodism at Barnegat and
vicinity, and continued to his death a
strict, faithful member of the Society.
His two sons, James and Thomas, do not
appear to have united with any religious
society, but both encouraged religious
efforts by clergymen of different denom-
inations ; James especially entertaiaed
preachers of all denominations. Among
his frequent visitors was Kev. Mr. Jayne
a Baptist preacher, father of Dr. Jayne,
of Philadelphia, noted for jiopular med-
icines.
James Edwards, the first, married
Elizabeth Hedden ; their children were
Zophar, Thomas, James, George, Debo-
rah, Elizabeth, Amy, Prudence, and
Katurah. Zophar and George both fol-
lowed the sea ; George was taken sick
and returned to h^ home and died un-
married ; Zopliar contiuuetl in the same
employment, but when and where he
! ended his days were uulniowu to his
relatives.
I Thomas Edwards married Phebe Corn-
stock, of Elizabethtown, N, J., and their
children were George, Samuel, Thomas,
i Richard, Mary, and Ann Eliza ; the last
two died unmarried ; George married
Hannah Mills, Samuel married Thursa
Hedden, Richard married Jemima Hed-
den, and Thomas married a Miss Clayton
of Freehold. Captains Nelson and
Mills Edwards, and Mrs. iMary A. Pred-
more, wife of Capt. John Predmore, Sr.,
and Phebe, ^vife of Captain John Inman,
are children of George and Hannah
Edwards.
Samuel and Thursa Edwards had chil-
dren, Thomas, Samuel and Phebe Ann,
who married Jonathan Lawi'ence ; the
the last named Thomas, made a noble
record during the late Rebellion as an
officer of the Na\'y.
James Edwards, 2ud, married Sojjhia
Ridgway of Barnegat ; they had six sons
who grew to manhood, viz., Clayton,
Gidion, Jesse, Job, James, and Noah.
The three first never married ; Job mar-
ried, first Nancy Slaght, and second
Susannah Haywood ; James, 3d, married
Serena Craumer, daughter of Isaiah
Cranmer of Manahawken ; Noah, the
well-known Methodist minister, married
first Hannah Downs, daughter of Isaac
Downs of TuCkerton, second Phebe Ann
Hartshorne.
Of the children of James Edwards,
2d, the only survivors now are James
Edwards, 3d, merchant, Waretown, and
Rev. Noah. Job, who may be considered
the founder of the present Methodist
Society at Barnegat, served the county
in the Legislature, two terms.
Deborah EdAvards, daughter of the
first James, married Thomas Collins of
Barnegat.
Elizabeth, daughter of the first James,
married ]5arzilla Matins of Egg Harbor.
Amy, daughter of the first James,
married Stephen Shourds of Tuckerton.
55
Prntlence, daugliter of the first James,
married Phineas Burton of Egg Harbor.
Katurah, daughter of the first James,
married Richard McChire.
The daughters of James Edwards, 1st,
have numerous descendants along shore
and elsewhere ; the names of their chil-
dren living in Egg Harbor were given
by Mrs. Blackman in her sketches of that
vicinity, published in the New Jersey
CouEiEK several years ago.
The religious princii^les of the Society,
of which the first James Edwards was
the earliest adherent we have found in
Ocean county, have an able representa-
tive in a descendant in the fourth gener-
ation. Rev. James T. Edwards, D. D.,
at present principal of the Chamberlain
Institute, a flourishing and well endowed
institution of learning at Randolph, N.
Y. Prof. Edwards is son of the late
Rev. Job Edwards, and though com-
paratively young, his career has been
singularly active and useful ; besides
being a successful educator, he served
honorably as an officer in the army dur-
ing the late Rebellion, was a leading
member of the Rhode Island State
Senate, and as an able and eloquent minis-
ter of the Gospel he was awarded the
degree of D. D., at an unusually early
age.
CAPTAIN THOMAS EDWARDS.
Captain Edwards entered the U. S.
Navy as Acting-Master, Oct. 22, 1861,
and was assigned to duty on the favorite
man-of-war, Oneida, and while on her,
served under the then Captains, but sub-
sequently Rear-Admirals, Bailey, S. P.
Lee and Preble. He was in many hotly
contested, memorable engagements,
among which w^ere the battles of Port
Royal, Forts St. Philip and Jackson, the
taldng of New Orleans, the battle of
Vicksbiirg and other engagements on
the Mississippi river, and also at the cap-
ture of Fort Morgan and the taking of
Mobile. When the Oneida and Varuna
j were in the thickest of the fight in the
[ most terrific combat probably known in
naval warfare, in the passage of the forts
' below New Orleans, under fii-e of the
forts, running the gauntlet of fire-ships
and rafts to the barriers across the river,
and that obstacle overcome by Union
daring and ingenuity, there among and
thi-ough the swarm of rebel irou-clads
and gun-boats, Capt. Edwards was among
the most active and fearless in his line of
duty, repeatedly narrowly escaping
death, as when in one instance being for
a moment called from the battery of
which he had charge, the officer who
stepped into his place was instantly
killed with several men near him. When
the first rebel vessel surrendered, he was
detailed to receive the rebel commander's
sword. After the taking of New Orleans,
he was ordered on board the U. S. S.
Stockdale to take command of her and the
naval force, consisting of four or five ves-
sels on Lake Ponchar train, to prevent
contraband trade. While in the Stock-
dale, he received his promotion for merit-
orious service, to the rank of Lieutenant
(Acting Volunteer), April 12, 1864, and
well had he earned it, for he had been
over three years attached to the Gulf
Squadron, being longer on continuous
duty than any other officer, all the rest
having been detached, killed, dismissed
or sent home. It required his utmost
vigilance to check the continital attempts
to carry on the contraband trade, and
hence his duties were not at all monot-
onous ; in addition to which, he was fre-
quently called upon to relieve suflering
among the rebel families living in the
adjacent districts. In a letter to the
writer of this, dated April, 1864, he says :
' ' The rebels in the district along the
lake are in a most terrible state of desti-
tution — their subsistence being nothing
but corn bread (and very httle of that),
and no clothing to be had. I have had
ladies who, three years ago, were living
in luxury and wealthy in negro and other
property, come on board my ship, and
56
beg for a few pouuds of pork to keep
them from starvation, and they declared
tliey had not tasted meat of any kind for
months ; they would also beg me to pro-
cure for them a few yards of calico for
the commonest dresses. It is impossible
to describe their distressed condition. If
any produce is raised, the Confederate
soldiers seize it, and many come to take
the oath of allegiance merely to keep
from starving."
His letters describing the different bat-
tles which he witnessed, written immedi-
ately after they occurred, are graphic ac-
counts of events which have passed into
history.
But it was evident, from some of his
letters, that the brightest day to him,
during his long, excitkig labors, was the
one towards the close, when he had the
pleasure of welcoming his wife on board
his ship, for with our brave men on land
and sea there were times when thoughts
of home and loved ones overpowered all
other feelings, as when one time both
armies lay encamped near each other,
and tlie Eebel band to taunt the Union
men struck up Dixie. It was at once re-
sponded to by the Star Spangled Banner.
Then the rebels replied with the Bonny
Blue Flag, which aroused vindictive feel-
ings among our troops, and their band
responded with Eally 'Bound the Flag.
By this time, the rival tunes had stirred
up warlike feelings on both sides, both
parties felt the taunts intended, and both
were stirred eager for strife ; but sud-
denly, in the evening air, another band
struck up Home, Sweet Home, and it
was wonderful how quick that tune
soothed down angi-y passions on both
sides, recalling love<l ones at home, and
tears trickled down many cheeks, and
then soldiers on both sides felt like clasp-
ing hands across the bloody chasm.
'■Tlic bravest arc the tcndercst,
The lovini^ arc the dariuf^."
Captain Edwards stood well in the es-
timation of his different superior officers,
and with one or two his relations wei-c of
I the most confidential nature. For his
' old admiral, Farragut, he had the high-
est admiration. He was deeply in ear-
nest in the Union cause. After a little
over two years' hard service, referring to
a rumor that he wished to leave it, he
writes : " God forbid that I ever should
as long as this glorious old flag floats
over my head, and I have strength
enough to point a gun towai'd a traitor. "
He returned home on a furlough during
the last Lincoln campaign, in which he
was among the most active and eflective
supporters of the Union ticket in the
county, and was the chief organizer and
marshal of the largest political proces-
sion then known in the county, which
proceeded by can-iages, farm wagons,
etc. , to Tuckerton, to aid a Lincoln dem-
onstration there.
Captain Edwards died at his home in
Barnegat on Sunday, February 25, 186G.
Skilful and brave in his profession, en-
terprising and honorable as a citizen,
warm-hearted and faithful as a friend,
his early decease was a severe loss to the
community in which he lived. He was a
worthy descendant of the first James
Edwards, who, in two wars, risked his
life for his countiy.
THE LAWRENCE FAMILY.
The following is a notice of the coming
to America of the first members of this
family :
"April 2, 1635. Barque Planter, Cap-
tain Nich, Trarice. Among the passen-
gers, who, it is said, were chiefly from
St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, are
found the names of John Lawrence, aged
17 year.s ; William Lawrence, aged 12
years, and Marye LaMrence, aged 9
years. In 1055, another brothei-, named
Thomas, came over."
It will be noticed that some of these
were quite young. The greater propor-
tion of the Lawrences in America descend
from the second brother, William.
The first Lawrence who settled within
57
tlie limits of old Monmoulli, it is said,
was Elisha, a son of William. Elislia
commenced business as a mercliaut, in
the latter part of the seventeenth century,
at Cheesequakes, on the south side of
the Raritan river iu Monmouth county ;
but his store having been joillaged by the
crew of a French privateer, he removed
to Upper Fi-eehold, which once included
a part of what is now Ocean county. He
represented the county iu the provincial
Assembly in 1707. His residence was
called Chestnut Grove. He was born in
1666, and died May 24, 1724. He mar-
ried Lucy Stout, and had children as fol-
lows : Sons — Joseph, Elisha and John.
Daixghters — Hannah, who married Rich-
ard Salter : Elizabeth, w^ho married
Joseph Salter ; Sarah, who married John
Ember, and Rebecca, who married a
New Yorker named Watson. The sec-
ond sou, Elisha, had a son named John
Bruen Lawrence, who was the father of
Commodoi'c Lawrence of "Don't give
up the ship " fame, and grandfather of
Commodore Boggs, who distinguished
himself on the Varuua in passing the
forts at New Orleans.
The first-named Eliiha Lawrence's sou
John was born in 1708, and is noted as
having run the celebrated "Lawrence's
line " between East and West Jersey.
He married Mary, daughter of William
Hartshorne, and had sons, John and
EUsha, who became noted amoug the ^
Royalists iu the Revolution, but have no i
descendants now living. His daughters |
were Helena, who married James Holmes; :
Lucy, wlio married Rev. Henry \Vaddell ; |
Elizabeth, who married Yv'illiam Le- ;
Compte, and ^lavy and Sarali wlio died
single. '
It is impracticable in the i^reseut arti- ,
ele to trace out the genealogy of all the i
Tjawrenees iu Monmouth and Ocean, but
the foregoing gives it so far as relates to
the branch which was most noted iu the
early history of old Monmouth. Two or
three publications have been issued giv- ;
the genealogy of the Lawrences, by
which descendants can trace their auces'
try.
The Lawrence family claim to be de-
scended from Sir- Robert Laurence, of
Ashton Hall, Laucastershire, England,
who went to Palestine during the Cru-
sades with Richard Occur do Leon, and
participated in the siege of St. Jean de
Acre, in the year 1119, and was the first
to jalant the Banner of the Cross on thf
battlements of the town, for which he
was knighted. A grandson of Sir Robert
Laurence, named Sir James Laurence,
married into the Washington family in
the reign of Henry Third. General
George Washington's half-brother, Law-
rence, was so named on account of liis
relationshir) to this familv.
DICK BIRD,
THIS potter's creek oittlaw.
This scounckel, who was probably one
of Davenport's gang, was exceedingly
obnoxious to the Americans on account
of many daring outrages in which ho
was concerned. He was intimately ac-
quainted with all the roads and bye-paths
in the woods and swamps in old Dover
township, which then extended to Oyster
Creek. Tradition says, that early in the
wai- he had a cave near the head waters
of Cedar Ci'eek, and that his sister, who
was married to a patriot soldier, named
Cottrell, resided iu a cabin a short dis-
tance from the village of Cedar Creek,
near where the late Benjamin H. Stout
formerly lived. This sister, for fear of
Bird's getting her into trouble, finally
moved to the Burnt Tavern, near Free-
hold ; she was motlier of Mercy Worth,
wife of Peter wortli, from whom all of
this name in Berkeley township descend.
Bird for a long time managed to elude
the vigilance of the Americans, but one
day, he, with a companion, was seen
along the road, a little south of Toms
River, by some one who at once notified
the militia on duty at Toms River, and
two or three at once started in pui'suit.
\
Bird's comrade escaped by hiding under
a bridge, over wliich liis iiursuers passed,
and Bird himself managed to ehide them
them until after dark. It is supposed
he had intended to make for his cave,
near Cedar Creek, but the pursuit caused
him to change his plan. Xear Quail
Eun was a woman of low character,
whom he often visited, and this time he
called on her ; she told him as the militia
were after him, they would tiud him
there, and advised him to go to a less
susijected place, and he then left and
stopped at a house on the old Anderson
place, near Dover Chapel. He was seen
by some i^atriotic women, who sent in-
formation to his pursuers, and some of ;
them, one tradition says, went into the
house and chatted with him until it was I
time for the Whigs to arrive, and that
one of them was sitting on his lap when |
she saw his pursuers looking in the win-
dow. Another version, which is most
probable, is that it was the woman of
low character, before refen-ed to, who was
sitting on his lajj, and she sprang oti' and
he jumped for his musket, which was in
the chimney corner, and just as he
reached it his pursuers fired through
the window and killed him instantly.
It is said the girl was so little atiected
by his death that when the pursuers
came in the door they found her search-
ing Bird's pockets.
Bird was a married man, but when he
joined the Refugees his wife forsook him
and went to Toms River, where she re-
sided many years after his death. While
lie was pursui)ig his infamous career she
bitterly denounced him, yet when she
heard of his death she grieved so much
that her neighbors expressed their sur-
prise, knowing the disgrace lie had been
to her. The simple-minded womau, as \
one story had it, replied that it was not
the man she so much cared for, but he
often sent her a quarter of venison, when
lie had more than he could use, and she
would so much miss such presents
now !
CAPTAIN JOHN BACON.
AX OTTTiAW's CAP.EER, AND ITS TERRIBIiE
END.
This noted Refugee leader, whose name
is so well remembered by old residents
of Ocean, Monmouth, and Burlington,
appears to have confined his operations
chiefly between Cedar Creek and Tuck-
erton. His eftbrts were mainly du'ected
to i^lundering the dwellings of all active
members of the patriotic militia organi-
zations. Some old residents, generally of
Quaker proclivities, considered him one
of the most honorable partisan leaders
opposed to the Americans, because they
asserted, excepting calling for a meal's
victuals for himseh and men in passing,
he never molested the i)ersous or proper-
ty of any but Americans in niihtia ser-
vice. Himself and men were well ac-
quainted with the roads and paths
through the forests of old Monmouth
and Burlington, some in the lower part
of the county still being known as Refu-
gee ijaths, and they had numerous hid-
ing places, cal>ins in the woods and caves
in the banks by the headwaters of Cedar
Creek, Forked River and other streams,
which they used as temporary resting
places as they passed up and down the
shore. A principal one of Bacon's was
near Frank's crossway, above the upper
mill on Forked River.
Several events in which he was en-
gaged havffbeen described in notices of
Forked River, Manahawkeu and Toms
River. The following are tlie principal
additional atiairs in which he was con-
cerned :
rLUNDERINC4 OF JOSEPH SOPER.
Among other zealous Americans for
whom Bacon had a strong antipathy was
Joseph Soper, who lived at Soper'a
Landing, between Waretown and Barnc
gat. His attentions to Soper were so
frequent and threatening that he had
often to seek refuge, and sleep in the
swamps along Lochiel Brook, and some-
times at the place in that vicinity in late
59
years owned by James Letts, deceased.
At this time there lived at Waretown an
Englishman, known as Bill "Wilson, who
pretended neutrality but who really
acted as a spy for Bacon. Mr. Soper
was a vessel builder, and at one time he
had received pay for building a small
vessel. Wilson accidentally witnessed his
receiving the money, but did not know
the amount. After he left, Mr. Soper
suspected that he would inform Bacon,
and so he divided his money into two
parcels, a small amount in one and a
large amount iu the other, and then
buried both in separate places, not far
from the house. Sure enough, iu a very
short time. Bacon and his men \dsited the
house, piloted by a man with a black silk
handkerchief over his face that he might
not be recognized. This man Avas be-
lieved to be Wilson, though eflforts
were made subsequently to induce the
Sopers to think it was another man,
then li\T[ng near Waretown. Mr. Soper
n.t this time had taken refuge iu the
swamp, and the house was occupied only
by women and chikli-en. "N^Tien the llef-
ugees entered they at once began be-
having rudely and boisterously, flourish-
ing their weapons iu a menacing manner,
pushing their bayonets in the ceiling, and
doing other things to frighten the wo-
men. Their threats compelled the wo-
men to lead them into the garden, to the
Hpot where the smallest sum of money
was buried ; when they received it they
seemed to be satisfied, thinking it was
all they had ; they then returned to the
house and made a clean sweep, as they
had several times before, of provisions,
clothing and such other articles as they
<;ould carry. Among other articles taken
by Bacon at this time, was one of Mr.
Soper's shii-ts, which afterwards served
for a winding sheet for Bacon, as he was
sTibsequently killed and buried with it
on. Bill Wilson could never be fairly
con\-icted of actual complicity with the
Refugees, in overt acts, yet all who knew
him were convinced that he was a spy of
Bacon's. It was alleged that he was with
the Refugees in their raid on the Holmes
and Prices at Goodluck. After the war
closed he remained for some years in the
vicinity of Waretown ; but he foiand it a
very uncomfortable place for him to live,
for occasionally some zealous Whig, who
had occasion to hate the Refugees, would
take him in hand on very slight pretexts
and administer off-hand justice. At one
time, at Lochiel Brook, Hezekiah Soiier,
sou of Joseph, gave Wilson a severe
thrashing and then nearly drowned him
in the brook for alleged participation in
the murder of Reuben Soper, a brother
of Hezekiah's. Wilson, finding Ware^
town did not agree with him, at length
moved over to the North Beaoh, above
the Inlet, where he hved a lonely life
until his death, which occurred between
sixty and seventy years ago. Two or
three old residents arc still living who
remember seeing him when he came oflf
to Forked River to procure supplies.
mt;rder of eeuben sopek. massacre
OF SLEEPING MEN ON liONG BEACH.
This was the most important affair in
which Bacon was engaged. The inhuman
massacre of sleeping men was in keeping
with the memorable affair at Chesnut
Neck, below Tuckerton, when Count
Pulaski's guards were murdered by
British and Refugees. This massacre
took place on Long Beach, about a mile
south of the light-house, at a spot once
known as '* the lower end of the cedars."
At this place we think more men were
killed than in any other action during the
war in our county — one account stating
that twenty were killed or wounded, most
of them belonging to Capt. Steelman's
comj)auy, from Atlantic county, who
were doing coast guard duty. A Tory
paper, published at the time, gives the
following version of the affair :
" A cutter from Ostend, botmd to St,
Thomas, ran aground on Barnegat shoals,
October 25, 1782. The American galley
Alligator, Captain Steelman, from Cape
00
Ma J, with tweuty-five nu-n, pluudorecl
her ou Saturday night List, of a quautity
of Hyson tea and other vahiable articles,
but was attacked the same night by Cap-
tain John Bacon with nine men, in a
small boat called the Hero's Eeveuge,
Avho killed Steelman and wounded the
first lieutenant, and all the party excejjt !
four or five were either killed or wound-
ed."
In this account the number of Steel-
man's men is doubtless overestimated,
and Bacon's underestimated. When the
cutter was stranded ou the shoals, word
was sent across the bay to the main land
for help to aid in saviug the cargo, in
consequence of which, a party of men,
among whom were Joseph Soper and two
of his sons, Reuben and Hezekiah, pro-
ceeded to the beach to render what as-
sistance they could. The party worked
hard while thei-e to get the goods through
the surf ou the beach. At night they
were tired and wet, and built fires, around
which they meant to sleep. It is sup-
posed that as soon as they Avere all asleep
that Bill Wilson, who was there, arose uji ,
^h'h'> S^^ ^ '^^'ii^ and rowed off to the
niaijiland to inform Bacon how matters
stood.
Bac^ju and his party huriitd over to
the beach, and arrived just beforii' day-
break at the spot where the men were
sleeping, and immediately commenced
firing on them as they lay on the ground.
(-)f (!Ourse the xVmericans were taken l)y
Buqjrise, and had no opportunity of de-
fending themselv( s. Among those shot,
was Keuben Soper, one of the sons of
Joseph Soper. He was mortally wound-
ed, and died during the day, in the boat,
on his passage towards home in c.u-e of
his father and brother. Fortunately for
his father ami others of the jjarty from
the mainland, they had risen before
Bacon's arrival and gone some distance
down the beach in search of water, and
they remained at a safe distance, being
unarmed, until Bacon's departure, which
»nist have been very early iu the day.
Bacon's chief object appears to have
been the surprise and destruction of
Captain Steelman's command. He knew
it would not have been safe for him to
remain many hours on the beach, as the
miHtia from the main were on the look-
out for him.
Reuben Soper, who was killed, was a
mari-ied man with two or three children ;
his widow removed to the vicinity of
Bass River, in Burlington, w^here his de-
scendants now live. At the time of his
death he was a member of Caj^taia Ran-
dolph's Staflbrd militia company.
Some interesting relics of the Sopc r
family are still preserved by descendants,
as will be seen by the following extract
of a letter from AVm. P. Haywood, Esq.,
of West Creek, dated Oct. 1866 :
" The wife of Geo. W. Lippencott, of
Tuckerton, N. J., is a grand-daughter of
Reuben Soper, who was murdered by
the Refugees on Long Beach. While at
her residence I was sliowu a quaint look-
ing pocketbock, full of ohl Avritiugs that
belonged to her grandfather, which has
sacredly been kept until the present
time. Among other v.ritings of interest
was a marriage certificate which I give
II rliatiiii ct lilci'dliiii :
" New Jersey, }
Monmouth Co. s
These Ijjies sertii'y that Reubin Soper
was Maryed to Marv Mathis on the 22nd
day of May, 1779, By me.
Jess:: Halsey. justice.
Witness present,
Richard Brown, Letislie Brown."'
Mr?. Li])pencott's father, Reub^ni
Soper, (2dj had seven children ; five are
still living. A son, Reuben, was wound-
ed in the late Rebellion, and «lied three
weeks after in Saterlee hospital.
Among other wi'itings in the pocket-
book was an order from Reuben's son
Joseph, requesting the return of five
crowns in money, deposited witlj some
one for safe keeping, while his fath-
er was on board the cutter. This
order was written shortly after his
father's murder. One of the papers Avas
Gl
personally iuterostiug to me, us it liud,
:imong other uames, that of my fatlier,
Joel Haywood, as a pupil to Eeubeu
Soper, Jr. This paper was Jateil Mana-
hawken, 180(S. Most of the scholars, as
well as the teacher, have passed to a
higher school." This letter of Mr. Hay-
wood's gives auother instance of heredi-
tary patriotism — a descendant of Reuben
Soper, and named for him, having also
lost his life in his country's service.
bacon's i.ast ketreat.
The next aifair in which Bacon was
concerned, was the skirmish at Cedar
Creek, Dec. 27, 1782, which has been
described in speaking of the Refugees at
Forked River and Cedar Creek. This
afi'iir seemed to have caused the Refu-
gees to scatter, most of them probably
getting to New York and from thence to
Nova Scotia or Bermuda ; but with un-
accountable foolhardiness, Bacon re-
mained behind until the following spring.
About the last of March, 1783, a vessel
was wrecked on Long Beach, oj^posite
West Creek, and to the surj^rise of those
on the beach, Bacon made his ajipear-
anee among them, and endeavored to
make himself conspicuous by giving or-
ders to the wreckers, some of whom,
knoAving him, determined to take him
prisoner that night. Their jjlan was
heard by a girl Csubsequently the mother
"f the late Sylvester Birdsall, of Barne-
gat) who informed Bacon, and he quietly
slipped away, got over to the mainland,
and proceeded to the house of Wm. Rose,
situated just over the Ocean county lino
in Burlington, about a half mile below
West Creek, Rose's wife, generally
called "Mother " Rose, was known to be
friendly to Bacon, and the very night he
arrived there he was surprised and kUled
by a party under Captain John Stewart,
guided liy a man named Thomas Smith,
who had vrorked in the neighborhood,
and was intimately acquainted with the
locality. The most reliable account of
Bacon's death is found in a paper fur-
'nished to the New Jersey Historical So-
'ciety, in 184G, by ex-Governor George
r. Fort, of New Egypt, the substance of
which we give below. Gov. Fort de-
rived his information from a son of Capt.
Stewart.
DEATH Ol" BACON".
" John Bacon was a rotorious Refu-
gee who had committed many depreda-
tions along the shores of Monmouth
( which then included Ocean) and Bur-
lington counties. After ha-ving been a
terror to the people of this section for
some time, John Stewart (afterwards
Capt. Stewart) of Arneytown, resolved,
if possible, to take him. There liad been
a reward of £50 sterling offered by the
Governor and Council for his capture,
dead or alive. A short time previous to
this, in an engagement at Cedar Creek,
Bacon and his company had discomfited
a considerable body of State troops,
kUliug William Cook, Jr. , a brother of
Joel Cook, of Cook's Mills, now Cooks-
town in Burlington county, which ex-
cited much alarm and exasperated the
whole country. On the occasion of his
arrest, Captain Stewart took witli him
Joel Cook, John Brown, Thomas Smith,
John Jones, and auother person whose
name is not recollected, and started in
pursuit, well armed. They traversed
the shore, and found Bacon separated
from his men at the public house or cab-
in of William Rose, between West Creek
and Clamtown (now Tnckerton), in Bur-
lington county. The night was verj-
dark, and Smith l)eing m advance of tlie
party, approached the house, and dis-
covered through the window a man sitting
vdth a gun between his knees. He im-
mediately informed his companions. On
arriving at the house, Captain Stewart
opened the door, and presenting his
musket demanded a surrender. Tlie
fellow sprang to his feet, and cocking his
gun was in the act of bringing it round
to the breast of Stewart, when the lat-
ter, instead of discharging his piece.
62
closed iu with Jiim aucl succeeded after a
scuffle iu briugiug liim to the iloor. He
theu avowed liimself to be Johu Bacou,
aud asked for quarter, which was at once
readily granted to him hj Stewart. They
arose from the floor, aud Stewart (still
retaiuiug his hold on Bacou) called to
Cook, who, when he discovered the sup-
posed murderer of his brother, became
exasperated, and stepping back gave
Bacou a bayonet thrust unknown to
Stewart or his companions. Bacon ap-
peared fidnt and fell. After a short time
he recovered, aud attempted to escape
by the back door. Stewart pushed a
table agaiust it. Bacon hurled it away,
struck Stewart to the floor, o]>ened the
door, and again attemiJted to pass out ;
but was shot by Stewart (who had re-
gained his feet) while in the act. The
ball passed through his body, through a
pai't of the Viuilding, and struck the
breast of Cook, who had taken a position
at the back door to prevent egress.
Cook's companions were ignoi-aut of the
fact that he had given Bacou the bayonet
wound, and would scarcely credit him
when he so informed them on their way
home. They examined Bacon's body at
Mount Miseiy, aud the wounds made by
Vioth bayonet and ball were obvious.
They brought his dead Ijody to Jacobs-
town, Burlington county, and were in
the act of burying it in the public high-
way, near the village, iu the i)resence of
many citizens Avho had collected (m the
occasion, when Bacon's brother ajjpeared
among them and after much entreaty
succeeded in obtaining his body for ])ri-
vate burial."
This affair took i)lace on Thui'sday
evening, April .'Jd, 178:?.
As there have l)een some disputes in
traditionary accounts as to the exact
manner of Bacon's death, we have been
at much trouble to get at tlu^ truth.
Some old residents of tlie vicinity wliere
he was killed are positive that ho was
shot down after asking for quarter. They
sny that Captain Stewart's party sudden-
ly opened the door and pointed a musket
at Bacon, wht) instantly rose up and held
I a table before him and begged for quar-
, ter, but the musket was fired, and the
ball went through the table and killed
him. But after much patient investiga-
tion and inquiry we believe this story is
untrue, and that the correct version is
about as Governor Fort has given it.
, We are soriy to add, however, that the
' party treated the body with unjustifia-
ble indignity. As soon as Bacon was
killed his body was thrown into a wagon
with his head over the tail-board, and
the party drove for home that same
night. Young Cook seemed qiiite "car-
ried away " to think he had avenged his
brother's death, and at the inns at Man-
ahawkeu and Mount Misery, insisted on
treating Bacou with liquor, fastening
oi^en his mouth while he poured liquor
into it. The descendants of British
sympathisers have charged the party
with much cruelty, but the only founda-
tions are the indignities offered to his
body ; and even there we can find some
Ijalliation for it, when we consider tlie
excitement, bordering on frenzy, of young
Cook.
In addition to what has been quoted
from Governor Fort regarding Bacou's
burial, we have heard it stated that in
accordance witli an ancient cust<mi with
great criminals, the intention was to bury
Bacon at the forks of some public roads,
with a stake driven through the body ;
bnt his brother's arrival cbauged their
plan. This brother of Bacon's was gen-
erally respected where he was known.
The writer of this has been informed
that before the war Bacon's home was in
Burlington county, though he occasion-
ally worked in Staflbi'd township, in
Ocean coimty, and that Bacon left a wife
aud two sons, named Jesse and Edward,
at Pemberton ; that his widow mamed
a man named Alorris, and the two sous
emigrated West, and became respectable
aud useful citizens.
The late Samuel Cox, an aged, es-
63
teemed citizeu of Eaiiiegat, whoBe death
was noticed in the Courier of Dec. 27,
1877, was a native of Pemberton, and
knew Mrs. Bacon aft«r she married
Morris, and bore testimony to the respect
in which she was held by tliose who
knew her.
After Bacon's death his widow came to
Forked Biver, and Mrs. Hnldah Wil-
liams, then quite young, went with her
to Bacon's principal cave near Frank's
crossway, where they found a sword and
other articles belonging to the Refugee.
The last attempt of which the writer has
heard to find the location of the caves of
Davenport, Bacon and other Befugees
was by the late Charles I. Errickson,
who some thirty years ago started from
Toms Biver with an old woods guide,
and was successful in finding vestiges of
them on branches of Toms Biver and
other streams.
THE POTTER CHURCH AT GOODLUCK.
THE EIRTHPIiACE OF UN ITERSAI.ISM
IX AMERICA.
A singular and interesting chapter in
the religious histoi*y of our State, relates
to the historical old Goodluck Church,
formerly known as the "Potter Church,"
built from 1760 to 1765, by the noted
Thomas Potter, a benevolent citizen of
the village, who then lived east of the
church on the farm since owned by the
late Capt. Benjamin Stout. Before
))uilding the church. Potter had been in
the habit of opening his house to travel-
ing preachers of all persuasions ; and,
after a while, to accommodate them, he
erected t'ais edifice free for all denomin-
ations, and it was used by Presbyterians,
Quakers, Baptists and Methodists, and
in it was ijreached the first Universalist
sermon ever delivered in America.
In giving the history of this church,
it is proper fii-s:t to quote the account
found in the journal of the celebrated
Rev. John Murray, the founder of the
Universalist Society in America, as this
account has made the Potter Church so
noted in the religious history of our
country.
The Rev. John Murray, the first
preacher of Universalism in America,
sailed from England for New York, July
21st, 1770. When he left England,
though a warm advocate of the principles
of that society, yet he was not a regular
preacher, and had but little idea then of
becoming one in America. During a thick
fog in the early part of the month of
September, the brig "Hand in Hand,"
on which he was acting as supercargo,
striTck on the outer bar of old Cranberry
Inlet (now closed, ) nearly opposite Toms
River. She soon passed over, and was
held by her anchors from going ashore.
Here she remained several days before
she could be got off". While lying here
the provisions of the brig were exhausted,
and after locking up the vessel, all hands
proceeded in a boat across the bay in
search of sustenance. Being unacquaint-
ed with the main, they spent the greater
Ijart of the day before they could effect
their purpose, after which, it being late,
they proceeded to a tavern to stay all
night. Mr. Murray's mind appears to
to have been much exercised by eventful
scenes in his previous life, and to have
longed to get somewhere where the busy
ares of th3 w orld would not disturb his
meditations ; and hence as soon as the
boatmen arrived at the tavcni he left
them for a solitary walk through the dai-k
pine grove. "Here," said he, "I was
as miich alone as I could wish, and my
heart exclaimed, ' Oh, that I had in this
wilderness the lodging of a poor way-
faring man ; some cave, some grot, some
place where I might finish my days in
calm repose.' " As he thus passed along
musing, he unexijectedly reached a small
log house where he saw a girl cleaning
fish ; he requested her to sell him some.
She had none to spare, but told him he
could get all he wanted at the next house,
"What, this ?" said Mr. Murray point-
ing to one he could just discern through
64
the woods. The girl told him no, that
was a meeting lionse. He was much
surprised to find a meeting house there
in the woods. He was directed to i)ass
t)U by the meeting house, and at the
next house he would fiud fish. He went
on as directed, and came to the door,
near which was a large jiile of fish of va-
rif)ns sorts, and standing by was a tall
man, rough in appearance and evidently
advanced in years. " I'ray, sir," said
^[r. Murray, "will you have the good-
ness to sell me one of those fish '?'' "No,
sir," was the abrupt reply of the old
gentleman. "That is strange," replied
Mr. Murray, "when you have so many
fish, to refuse me a single one!" "I
did not refuse you a fish, sir ; you are
weh^ome to as many as you please, but I
do not sell the article ; I do not sell the
fish, sir, I have them for taking up, and
you may obtain them the same way."
Mr. Muriay thanked him ; tlie old man
then inquired what he wanted of them,
and was told he wished them lor supper
for the mariners at the tavern. The old
man oftered to send the fish over for him
and urged Mr, Murray to tarry with him
that night. Mr. Murray consented to
return after visiting tlie crev/ at the pub-
lie house. Tlie i>ld gentleman was
Thomas Potter. Mr, IMurray says he
was astonished to see so much genume
politeness and hospitality under so rough
an exterior, but his astonishment was
greatly increased on his return. The
old man's room was prepared, his fire
blight and his heart opened. " Come,"
said he, "ray friend, I am glad you have
returned, I have longed to see you, I
liave been expecting you a long time."
Expecting him ! Mr. Murray was
amazed, and asked what he meant. Mr.
Potter replied, "I must answer in my
own way. I am a poor ignorant man,
and know neither how to read or write ;
1 was born in these woods, and worked
on these grounds until I became a man,
when I went on coasting voyages from
here to New York ; I was then about get-
ting married, but in going to New York
once I was pressed on board of a man-of-
war and taken in Admiral Warren's ship
to Cape Bi'eton. I never di'ank any rum,
so they saved my allowance ; bnti would
[ not bear an affront, so if any of the of-
' ficers struck me I struck them again,
I but the admiral took my part and called
me his ucw-liglit man. ^\^len I reached
Louisburg, I ran away, and traveled
barefooted through the country and al-
most naked to New York, where I was
i known and supplied with clothes and
, money, and soon returned home, where
I found my gu'l married. This rendered
me unhappy, but I recovered my tran-
quility and married her sister. I settled
down to work, and got forward quite fast,
I constructed a saw-mill, and possessed my-
self of this farm and five hundred acres
1 of adjoining land, I entered into navi-
gation, own a sloop, and have now got
together a fair estate, I am, as I said,
unable to read or write, but I am capable
of reflection ; the sacred Scriptures have
! been often read to me, from which I
I gathered that there is a great and good
Being who has preserved and protected
me through innumerable dangers, and to
whom we are all indebted for all we en-
joy ; and as He has given me a house of
my own I conceived I could do no less
thau to open it to the stranger, let him
I be who he would ; and especially if a
traveling minister passed this way he al-
ways received an invitation to put up at
my house and hold his meetings here.
"1 continued in this i)ractice for more
tliau seven years, and illiterate as I was
I used to converse with them, and was
■ fond of asking them questions. They
pronounced me an odd mortal, declaring
I themselves at a loss what to make of mo;
while I continued to afiirm that I had
but one hope ; I believed that Jesus suf-
fered deatli for my transgressions, and
this alone was sufiicient for me. At length
i my wife grew wearj' of having meetings
held in her house, and I determined to
build a house for the worship of God. I
65
had uo cbildreu, and I kuew that I was
beholden to Almighty God for everything
which I possessed, and it seemed right I
shoukl appropriate a part of what He be-
stowed for His service. My neighbors
offered their assistance, but *No,' said
I, ' God has given me enough to do this
work without your aid, and as he has
put it in my heart to do so, so I will do.'
' And who, ' it was asked, * will be your
preacher ?' I answered, ' God will send
me a preacher, and of a very different
stamp from those who have heretofore
preached in my house. The preachers
we have heard are perpetually contra-
dicting themselves ; but that God who
has put it into my heart to build this
house, will send one who shall deliver
unto me His own truth — who shall speak
of Jesus Christ and his salvation. ' When
the house was finished, I received an ap-
plication from the Baptists, and I told
them if they could make it appe?.r that
God Almighty was a Baptist I should
give them the building at once. The
Quakers and Presbyterians received sim-
ilar answers. 'No,' said I, 'as I firmly
believe that all mankind are equally dear
to Almighty God, they shall all be equal-
ly welcome to preach in this house which
I have built. My neighbors assured me
that I should never see a preacher whose
sentiments corresponded with my own,
but I uniformly replied I assuredly
would. I engaged for the first year with
a man whom I greatly disliked ; we part-
ed, and for some years we have had uo
stated minister. My friends often asked
me, ' Where is the preacher of whom you
spoke ?' and my constant reply was, ' He
will by and by make his appearance. '
The moment, sir, I saw your vessel on
shore it seemed as if a voice had audibly
sounded in my ears, ' There, Potter, in
that vessel, cast away on that shore, is the
preacher you have so long been expect-
ing. ' I heard the voice and believed the
report, and whea you came up to my
door and asked for the fish, the same
voice seemed to repeat, ' Potter, this is
the man — this is the person whom I hnvO
sent to preach in your house ! ' "
As may be supposed, Murray was im-
measureably astonished at Mr. Potter's
narrative, but yet had not the least idea
that his wish could ever be realized. He
asked him what he could discern in his
appearance to lead him to mistake him
for a preacher. "What," said Potter,
" could I discern when you were on the
vessel that could induce this conclusion ?
Sir, it is not what I saw or see but what
I feel which produces in my mind full
conviction." Murray replied that he
must be deceived as he should never
preach in that place or anywhere else.
"Have you never preached? Can
you say you never preached ?"
' ' I cannot, but I never intend to preach
again. "
" Has not God lifted up the light of
I His countenance upon you ? Has He not
I shown you the truth ?"
" I trust he has. "
"Then how dare you hide this truth ?
Do men light a candle and put it under a
bushel ? If God has shown you His
salvation, why should you not show it to
your fellow men. But I know that you
will — I am sure that God Almighty has
sent you to us for this purpose. I am
not deceived, sir, I am sure I am not de-
ceived."
Murray was much agitated when this
man thus spoke on, and began to wonder
whether or no, God, who ordains all
things, had not ordained that this should
come to pass ; but his heart trembled, he
tells lis, at the idea. He says he en-
deavored to quiet his own fears and to
silence the waim-hearted old man by in-
forming him he was supercargo of the
vessel, that property to a large amount
was entrusted to his care, and that the
moment the wind changed he was under
solemn obUgatious to depart.
" The wind will never change," said
Potter, " imtil you have delivered to us,
in that meeting house, a message from
God."
t)()
Murray still resolutely determiued
never to enter any pulpit as a preacher ;
but being mucli agitated in mind, asked
to be shown to bed after he had prayed
with the family. When they parted for
the night his kind host solemnly request-
ed him to thiuk of what he said.
" Alas," says Murray, "he need not
have made this request ; it was impossi-
ble to banish it from my mind ; when I
entered my chamber and shut the door,
I burst into tears ; I felt as if the hand j
of God was in the events which had j
brought me to this place, and I prayed
most ardently that God would assist and
direct me by His counsel."
So much exercised was he in mind that
he spent the greater jiart of the night in
praying and weeping, " dreading more
than death " he says, " supposing death
to be an object of di-ead, the idea of en-
gaging as a public character. "
In his writings he gives the substance
of his meditations on that memorable '
night. In the morning his good friend
renewed his solicitations: "Will you
speak to me and my neighbors of the
things which belong to our peace ?"
Murray, seeing only thick woods, the
tavern across the field excepted, request-
ed to know what he meant by neighbors.
" O, sir, we assemble a large congre-
gation whenever the meeting house is
opened ; indeed when my father first set-
tled here, he was obliged to go twenty
miles to grind a bushel of corn, but now
there are more than seven hundred in-
habitants within that distance. "
Murray still could not be prevailed
upon to yield, but Potter insisted and
seemed positive the wind would not
change until he had spoken to the peo-
ple. Thiis urged, Murray began to
waver, and at length he tells us he " im-
plored God, who sometimes condescends
to indulge individuals with tokens of His
approbation, graciously to indulge me
upon this important occasion, and that
if it was His will that I should obtain
my soul's desire by passing through life
as a private individual ; if such was uot
His will, that I should engage tis a
preacher in the ministry. He would
vouchsafe to grant me such a wind as
might bear me from this shore before
another Sabbath. I determined to take
the changing of the wind for an answer.
But the wind changed not, and towards
the close of the Saturday afternoon he
reluctantly gave his consent to preach-
ing the next day, and Mr. Potter imme-
diately despatched his men on horseback
to notify the neighbors, which they were
to continue to do until ten o'clock in the
evening. Mr. Murray appears to have
had but little rest that night, thinking
over the responsibilities of the avocation
he was so unexpectedly aboiit to be en-
gaged iu, and of what he should say and
how he should address the people ; but the
passage " Take no thought what ye shall
say," etc., appears to have greatly re-
lieved his mind. Sunday morning they
proceeded to the church, — Potter very
joj'ful and Murray uneasy, distrusting
his own abilities to realize the singularly
high formed expectations of his kind
host. The church at that day is de-
scribed as being "neat and convenient,
with a pulpit rather after the Quaker
mode, with but one new pew and that a
large square one just below the pulj^it iu
which sat the venerable Potter and his
family and visiting strangers ; the rest of
the seats wea-e constructed with backs,
roomy and even elegant." As Murray
was preaching, Potter looked up into the
pulpit, his eyes sparkling with pleasure,
seemingly completely happy at the ful-
fillment of what he firmly believed a
promise long deferred. We have no re-
cord of the substance of this, the first
Universalist sermon in America, nor of
its impression upon any of the hearers
save one — that one, Thomas Potter him-
self, api^ears t') have had all his expecta-
tions realized, and upon their return
home overwhelmed Murray with his
frank warm-hearted congratulations ; and
soon visitors poured in. Said Potter to
67
them, " This is the happiest Jay of my
life ; there, neighbors, there is the min-
ister God has sent me. " Murray was so
overcome by the old man's enthusiastic
demonstrations that he retired to his
room, and tells us he "jsrostrated him-
self at the throne of grace, and besought
God to take him and do with him what
he pleased."
After a while he returned to the com-
pany and found the boatmen with them,
who wished him to go on board imme-
diately, as the wind was fair. So he was
compelled to leave. His ho.st was loth
to part with him, and exacted a promise
from him to return, which he soon did,
and preached often in the Potter church,
and other villages. The first place he
visited during this stay was Toms Eiver.
He relates tAvo or three interesting scenes
occurring here, in explaining to individ-
uals his peculiar religious view?. The
next village he visited was probably
Mauahawken, for though he does not
mention the name, yet he speaks of a
Baptist preacher and church, of a family
of Pangburns, Szc, and there was then a
Baptist church at that village, and the
Pangburn family were then prominent
members of it. Lines Pangburn was a
delegate from the Manahawken Baptist
church to the Baptist General Associa-
tion, in 1771. A man named Lines
Pangburn was afterwards killed by Eef-
ugees at Manahawken — probably the
same one.
For many years, and though travelling
in various parts of the United States,
yet as long as Thomas Potter lived, his
house at Goodluck was considered by
Murray as his home. At length, after
being away some time upon a religious
mission, he returned and found that his
good old friend was dead ; his letter de-
scribing this visit, recounting some of
the scenes of Potter's life, his traits of
character, his own feelings, etc. , is full
of tender feeling and sincere grief, ad-
mirably expressed, and the substance of
the discourse which he preached on that
occasion, in that memorable old chapel,
is a touching specimen of Murray's elo-
quence, A brief extract will serve to
give an idea of Murray's style and of his
feelings towards his departed friend.
His text was, " For ye are bought with a
price ; therefore glorify God in your
body and in 3'our spirit, which are God's. "
Towards the close of his discourse, point-
ing towards Potter's grave, which could
be seen from where he stood, he says :
"Through yonder open casement I
behold the grave of a man, the recollec-
tion of whom swells my heart with grat-
itude, and fills my eyes with tears. There
sleeps the sacred dust of him who well
understood the advantages resulting
from the public worship of God. There
rests the ashes of him who glorified God
in his body and in his spirit, which he
well knew were the Lord's. He believed
he was bought with a price, and there-
fore he declared that all that he had and
all that he was were righteously due to
God, who created and purchased him
with a price, all price beyond. There
rests the precious dust of the friend of
strangers, whose hospitable doors were
ever open to the destitute, and him who
had none to relieve his sufferings ; his
dust reposes close to this edifice, itself a
monument of his piety. Dear, faithful
man, when last I stood in this place, he
was present among the assembly of the
l^eople. I marked his glistening eye ; it
always glistened at the emphatic n':ime of
Jesus. Even now, I behold in imagina-
tion, his venerable countenance, benig-
nity is seated on his brow, his mind ap-
parently open and confiding, tranquility
reposeth upon his features, every vaiy-
ing emotion evincing faith in that endur-
ing peace which passeth understanding.
Let us, my friends, imitate his philan-
thropy, his charity, his piety. I may
never meet you again until we unite to
swell the loud hallelujahs before the
throne of God. But to hear of your
faith, of your perseverance, of your
works of charity, of your brotherly love,
08
will lieighteu my eujoymeuts auJ soothe
my sorrows, even to the ^erge of mortal ,
pilgrimage." i
Potter, in his will, left the church to j
Murray. The clause in his will reads, '
as given in Murray's Life, as follows :
" The house M-as built by me for the
worship of God ; it is my will that God
be worshipped in it still, and for this
purpose I will that my ever dear friend, |
John Murray, preacher of the gospel, I
possess it, having the sole direction, dis-
posal and management of said house and
one acre of land ui^on which it stands
and by which it is surrounded."
It was Mr. Murray's desire as well as
Mr. Potter's, that the church should be
kept free to all denominations for the
worship of God. In his sermon just
quoted he says : "Thomas Potter built
the house that God might be worshipped
without interruption, that he might be
worshipped by all whom he should ;
vouchsafe to send. This elegant house,
my friends, the first friends who hailed
my arrival in this country, this house
with its adjoining grove, is yours. The
faithful founder bequeathed it to me
that none of you may be deprived of it," ,
and in Mr. Murray's will he expressly '
left a free to all drnoininnlions.
This church property is now under
the control of the Methodists ; the Uni-
versalists, although manifesting little or
no disposition to dispute their claims,
yet contend that its sale was through
' ' the mismanagement of the executor to
satisfy illegal claims," &c. The Uuiver-
falists held an interesting conference at
the church. May 15th, 1833, which was
atteuded by many of their leading
preachers and laymen, and while there
erected the tombstone over Potter's
grave, which yet marks the spot where
he was buried. The ceremony was (juitc
impressive ; Rev. A. C. Thomas deliver-
ing an appropriate discoiu'se, after which
a hynm composed for the occasion was
sung among other exercises. This con-
ference, while there, adopted a circular
letter to their churches generally, m
which, among other things, they say :
"We have been on a mission of love and
gratitude, have assembled in the ancient
house of our Fathers, have convened
around the grave of the venerated Potter,
and dropped a tear of grateful remem-
brance on the spot where repose his
ashes," etc., and then earnestly invite
their brethren from the East and from
the West, from the North and from the
South to unite with them "in an annual
pilgrimage to this sacred spot — this Holy
Land — in order that we may all receive a
little of the Godlike spirit of benevolence
which warmed the soul of that man of
God, and friend of man, Thomas Potter. "
THE CENTENARY OF UNIVERSALISM.
CELEBRATION AT GOODLUCK. •
Kev. Abel 0. Thomas, a noted and an
aged minister of this society, furnished
the following account of the centennial
celebration in 1870, at Goodluck, for the
New Jersey Courier, shortly after it
occurred :
Mr. Editor : — In behalf of many
Universalists, I thank you for your late
fair and liberal article respecting Thomas
Potter, of Goodluck, and the Rev. John
Murray. We exp:ct no man to endorse
the statements of the latter, as recorded
in his autobiography ; nor the tradition-
al accounts of his remarkable interview
with the former ; but we are happy to
know that the time has arrived for a
truly catholic representation of our his-
tory as a people, as illustrated recently
in your columns. In one item you were
misinformed. We had no expectations
of large " delegations " of our members
at the late celebration in Goodluck.
Our centenary had been attended the
wc'ek previously in Gloucester, Mass.,
the number present being variously es-
timated from ten to fifteen thousand, in-
cluding two hundred and fifty out of six
i hundred and fifty clergy meu. It was
the date of the stated annual session of
69
our general couveiition, aud was ap-
pointed to be held in Gloucester under
the following circumstances. In 1770 a
Mr. Gregory, j^resumably a mariner,
brought from Loudon to Gloucester a
book written by Rev. James Relly, in
advocacy and defence of the doctrine of
the restoration of all souls, in the Lord's
own time and way. This book was
passed from hand to hand, and made
happy converts of a number of influen-
tial religious people.
It would require no great stretch of
imagination to date the landing of that
book on the 28th of September, of the
year named, and on that day Eev. John
Murray, a disciple of Relly (in the sense
that Relly was a disciple of Christ) land-
ed on the coast of New Jersey, as nar-
rated in your recent article.
After an extended missionarj service
in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New
England, Murray was for the second time
in Boston, in 1774. Having heard of
him as a disciple of Relly, the Glouces-
ter people sent for him. He accepted
the invitation, the visit being a meeting
of the lines of providence in the case.
Here he afterwards settled as a pastor,
his meetings for worship being held in
private houses until 1788. In that year
a meeting house was erected, and a more
pretentious one in 1805. The old build-
ing was then sold and devoted to secular
uses in the village. Ten years later it
was removed to a fann about two miles
distant, aud since that time has been
used as a hay barn. In 1804 Murray re-
moved to Boston, and his successor in
Gloucester, Rev. Thomas Jones, for
forty-two years was minister of the
parish, dying in 1846. During the ses-
sion of our general convention last week,
we had a memorial service at the old
church barn, and also at the grave of
Father Jones, the latter being marked
by aliuge granite obelisk in the cemetery.
The late great convocation in Gloucester
antedated the landing of Murray by the
space of one week, and a few of us de-
termined to spend the exact Centenary
at Goodluck. This was what took us
there ; precisely one hundred years from
the landing of Murray, we held a memo-
rial service in the old cliurch, and also
at the grave of Thomas Potter — the order
being substantially the same that we had
used in Gloucester. The only change
was this : '* We strew this evergreen and
these flowers in memory aud honor of
Thomas Potter, the friend and patron of
John Murray, our early preacher of Uni-
versalism in America. "
After a brief address by the Rev. Abel
C. Thomas, who conducted the services,
the following hymn was sung, and the
service proceeded in the order given be-
low.
Whilst far aud wide thy scattered sheep,
Great Shepherd, in the desert stray.
Tlij' love by some is thought to sleep,
Unheedful of the wanderer's way.
But truth declares they shall be found
Wherever now thej' darkling roam ;
Thy lore shall through the desert sound,
x\nd summon every wanderer home.
Upon the darkened waves of sin.
Instead of terror's sword and flame,
Shall love descend — for love can win
Far more than terror can reclaim.
And they shall turn their wandering feet,
By grace redeemed, b}' love controlled
Till all at last in Eden meet.
One happy, universal fold.
All the ends of the world shall remember
and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds
of the nations shall worship before thee ;
For the kingdom is the LorrCst, and He is lli,e
Governor among nalionif.
Send forth thy light and thy truth, O Lord ;
let them lead us and bring us to thy holy hill,
and to thj' tabernacles, even unto God our ex-
ceeding joy.
Thou wilt shoui us the path of life : in th;/
prese7ice is fullness of joy ; at thy right hand
there are pleasures forevermore.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of
Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord ;
]\ly heart and my flesh crieth out for the liv-
ing God,
As the sparrow findetli a house, aud the
wallow a nest for herself where she may hides
70
lier youufi', so let im- dwell ai thiue altars. O
Lord of Hosts, iiiy Kiuo; and my God.
Jllesscd arc they who dwell in Ihi/houfie ; they
null be still praising thee.
A day in thy courts is better than a thousand
elsewhere; I had rather be a doorkeeper in
tlie bouse of my God than to dwell in the tents
of ungodliness.
Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that
trusteth in thee.
Thy perfection is hij^her than heaven ; what
can we do to celebrate thy praise .' It is deeper
than hell; what can we know of thy fathom-
less love ?
We 2^raise thee, God ; ice aeknoirled/je thee
to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, tlie Father
everlasting. To thee all angels cry aloud, the
heavens and all the powers therein. To thee,
cherubim and seraphim continually do cry :
Uohj, holy, holy Lord of Sabaoth! heaven
and earth are fall of the nrajestv of thy glory I
The illustrious procession of the patriarchs
praise thee ;
The jubilant assembly of tlie prophets praise
thee ;
The glorious company of the apostles praise
thee :
The noble army of martyrs praise thee :
The Holy Church throughout all the world
(loth acknowledge thee, the Father of an in-
finite majesty ;
Also thy ivell-beloved and consecrated Son. and
the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
O God, the King of Glory, help thy servants
whom thou hast redeemed by the hand of thy
niiglity power;
Make thein to be nunibrreil icith tlt.y saints in
glory everlasting.
O Lord, save thy jyeople and bless thy heri-
tage : govern and lift tbem up forever.
Day by day we manifest thee : and loe toor-
ship thy name ever .- world without end.
Vouchsafe. Lord, to keep us evermore
without sin. All our trust is in thee.
Lord, in thee I hare trusted .- Let me never
be confounded.
It is iiotliing wonderful tliat the occa-
non slionld have special attractions for
)iir. After the final visit of Murray to
(Toodluck fit was I believe in 1790) no
Universalifit clergyman had been there
until my first visit in 1832 — being ac-
companied by Eichard Norton and James
Ely, of Hightstowu. I was again there,
accompauied by several friends, iu May
1833 — at which date we erected a
plain headstone at the grave of Potter,
and engaged Benjamin Stout (then owner
of the Potter farm) to erect a paling
fence. This was removed a few weeks
since, and a beautiful and substantial
iron one substituted, by an organization
known as the Goodluck Association.
This Association also recently bought an
acre of wooded ground adjacent to the
meeting house as a sort of perpetual
memorial.
We have no present thought of estab-
lishing a worshiping assembly iu that
vicinity, and the courteous treatment re-
ceived from all the neighbors, and from
the Rev. Mr. Johnson, Methodist minis-
ter in charge, gives us assurances that
the door of the old meeting house will
not be closed against us for an occasional
service in years to come.
Truly yours,
Abeij C. Thomas.
Philadelphia, Sept. 30, 1870.
THE INDIANS.
Of the different accounts by ancient
writers of the manners and customs of
the Indians of our part of the State and
West Jersey, about the most vivid and
readable is by the celebrated Swedish
traveller. Professor Kalm, who visited
our State in 1748, and from whose writ-
ings the following extracts are taken :
INDIAN MODE OF FELLING TKEES.
When the Indians intended to fall a
thick, strong tree, they could not make
use of their clumsy stone hatchets and,
for want of proper instruments, employ-
ed fire. They set tire to a great quantity
of wood at the root of the tree, and
made it fajl by that means. But that
the fire might not reach higher than
they would have it, they fastened some
rags on a pole, dipped them in water,
and kept constantly wetting the tree a
little above the fire.
71
MAKING CANOES — A SEIIIOUS TASK.
Whenever the Indians intend to hol-
low out a thick tree for a canoe, they lay-
dry branches all along the stem of the
tree as far as it must be hollowed out.
Then they put fire to these dry branch-
es, and as soon as they are burned out,
they are replaced by others. While
these branches are burning, the Indians
are very busy with wet rags and pouring
water upon the tree to prevent the fire
from spreading too far in at the sides
and at the ends. The tree being burnt
hollow as far as they found it sufficient,
or as far as it could without damaging
the canoe, they took their stone hatchets,
or sharp flints, or sharp shells, and
scraped off" the burnt part of the Avood,
and smoothed the boat within. By this
means they likewise gave it what shape
they pleased ; instead of using a hatchet
they shaped it by fire. A good sized ca-
noe was commonly thirty or forty feet
long.
PREPAKING LAND FOR CORN — RUDE
FARMING.
The chief use of their hatchets was to
make fields for maize plantations ; for
if the ground where they intended to
make corn fields was covered with trees,
they cut off" the bark all around the trees
with their hatchets, especially at a time
when they lose their sap. By that
means, the trees became dry and could
not partake any more nourishment, and
the leaves could no longer obstruct the
rays of the sun. The small trees were
pulled out by force, and the ground
was a little turned up with crooked or
sharp branches.
MAKING FLOUR — INDIANS ASTONISHED.
They had stone jjestles about a foot
long and as thick as a man's arm, for
pounding maize, which was their chief
and only corn. They pounded all their
corn in hollow trees ; some Indians had
only wooden pestles. They had neither
wind mills, water mills nor hand mills
to grind it, and did not so much ns know
a mill before the Europeans came to
this country. I have spoken with old
Frenchmen in Canada, who told me the
Indians had been astonished beyond
expression, when the French set up the
first wind mill. They came in numbers
even from the most distant parts to view
this wonder, and were not tired witli sit-
ting near it for several days together, in
order to observe it ; they were long of
opinion that it was not driven by wind,
but by spirits who lived within it. They
were partly under the same astonishment
when the first water mill was built.
TOOLS OF THE INDIANS.
Before the coining of the Europeans,
the Indians were entirely unacquainted
with the use of iron. They were obliged
to supply the want with sharp stones,
shells, claws of birds and wild beasts,
pieces of bone and other things of that
kind, whenever they intended to make
hatchets, knives and such like instru-
ments. From whence it appears they
must have led a very wretched life.
Their hatchets were made of stone, in
shape similar to that of wedges used to
cleave wood, about half a foot long, and
broad in proportion ; they are rather
blunter than our wedges. As this
hatchet must be fixed with a handle,
there was a notch made all around tlie
thick end. To fasten it, they sj^lit a
stick at one end, and put the stone be-
tween it, so that the two halves of the stick
came into the notches of the stone ; then
they tied the two split ends together with
a rope or something like it, almost in the
same way as smiths fasten the instru-
ments with which they cut oft" iron, to a
split stick. Some of these stone hatchets
were not notched or furrowed at the
upper end, and it seems that they only
held these in their hands to hew or strike
with them, and did not make handles to
them. Some were made of liard rock or
stone. Fish hooks were made of bones
or birds' claws.
72
THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN JOSHUA
HUDDY,
THE HEKO OF TOMS RIVEK.
Captain Huddy was iu command of
the block house at Toms River when it
was captured by the British and Refu-
gees on the memorable Sunday, March
24th, 1782. He, with Esquire Daniel
Randolph, Jacob Fleming and other
prisoners were taken to New York and
lodged in the noted siagar house prison,
where they remained until April Ist,
when they were removed to the Provost
guard and closely confmed until April 8,
when Huddy, Randolph and Fleming
were carried on board a sloop, put in
the hold and ironed, Huddy having irons
on both his hands and feet by order of
the notorioiis Captain Richard Lippen-
cott. The next evening they were trans-
ferred to the gviard ship at Sandy Hook.
On the 12th the Refugees took Captain
Huddy on shore and near the Highlands
they erected a gallows and barbarously
hung him about 10 o'clock iu the fore-
noon. While under the gallows he
signed his will on the barrel from which
a few minutes later he was launched into
another world. In this will he appoint-
ed Samuel Forman, of Freehold, his ex-
ecutor. A few yeai's ago, Bennington
F. Randolph, Esq., a favorably remem-
bered member of the bar at Freehold,
discovered among the papers of the late
Col. Samuel Forman, Huddy 's executor,
this will, a copy of which was furnished
to the writer by Mr. Randolph and
reads as follows :
" In the name of God, amen : I,
Joshua Huddy, of Middletown, in the
county of Monmouth, being of sound
mind and memory, but expecting short-
ly to depart tliia life, do declare this my
last will and testament. First, I commit
my soul to Almighty God, hoping He
may receive it iu mercy ; and next, I
commit my body to the earth. I do also
appoint my trusty friend, Samuel For-
man, to be my lawful executor, and after
all my just debts are paid, I desire that
he do divide the rest of my substance,
whether by book, debts, bonds, notes,
or any effects whatever belonging to me,
equally between my two children, Eliza-
beth and Martha Huddy. In witness
thereof I have hereto signed my name,
this twelfth day of April, in the year of
our Lord one thousand seven huudreil
and eighty-two. Joshua Huddy."
The will was written on half a sheet
of foolscap paper, on the back of which
was the following statement :
" The will of Captain Joshua Huddy,
made and executed the same day the
Refugees murdered him, April 12th,
1782."
Captain Huddy's children subsequent-
ly became Elizabeth Green and Martha
Piatt ; the last named lived to an ad-
vanced age. In early life she removed
to Cincinnati, Ohio. Both daughters
left descendants.
The Refugees alleged that they exe-
cuted Huddy in retaliation for the kill-
ing of Phil. White, and they fastened
the following label to his breast :
"We, the Refugees, having long with
grief beheld the cruel murders of our
brethren, and finding nothing but such
measures daily carried into execution, we
therefore determine not to sufifer without
taking vengeance for the numerous cru-
elties ; and thus begin, making use of
Captain Huddy as the first object to pre-
sent to your view ; and further, deter-
mine to hang man for man while there
is a Refugee existing.
UTP GOES HtTDDY FOR PHIL. WHITE."
The Refugees also asserted to Esquire
Randolph and others that " Huddy had
taken Phil. White prisoner, cut off both
his arms, broke his legs, pulled out one
of his eyes, damned him and then bid
him run." It is inconceivable why stich
a monstrous falsehood should have been
put forth, as it was notoriously false, for
Phil. White was not taken prisoner by
the Americans until a week after Huddy
was captured by the British.
73
While Huddy was standing on the I leaped a fence on horseback and headed
barrel he shook hands with Capt. Lip- him off when he made for a bog ; North
pencott, whom he requested to come jumped from his horse, dropped his gun
near for that purpose. After his inhu- and pursued him with drawn sword, and
man murder, his body was left hanging overtook him ; White would not stop,
until afternoon, when the Americans } and North struck at him with the sword
came and took it to Freehold, to the
house of Capt, James Green, where it
was April 15th. He was buried with
which wounded him in the face, and
White fell, crying that he was a dead
man. Borden repeatedly called " White,
the honors of war. His funeral sermon j if you will give up you shall have quar-
was preached by the celebrated Eev.
John Woodhull, of the First Presbyte-
rian Church.
PHIL. WHITE'S CAPTURE AND DEATH.
tersyet." White's body was taken to
Freehold, and the evidence of General
David Forman and others who saw the
body, showed that he had received no
! other woimds but the gun shot in his
! breast and cuts of a sword on his face.
j The probability is that Phil. White
cape, and he made the effort at a place
where he thought the woods, fences,
marsh and brook would imj)ede the light
horsemen.
Among some old residents, the Befu-
gee version of Phil. White's death at
one time seemed so far accepted as to I supposed if he was taken to Freehold
imply a belief in wanton cruelty to i^^l' <^^at he would be tried and hanged
White, and Howes' Historical Collection ^^v his participation m the murder of
seems incHned to favor the same belief. ^"^^ father of John Kussell, one of his
But they seem not to have been aware ! guards, and the attempt to kill Kussell
that the whole matter was thoroughly j himself, as well as in other misdemean-
investigated by both the British and | o^^> ^^"^ ^« ^® determined to try to es-
Americans shortly after it occurred, and ,
the evidence, subsequently filed in the
State Department at Washington, con-
clusively proves the falsity of the [Ref-
ugee assertions of wanton cruelty. This
evidence is given in full in a report made
to Congress, Feb. li, 1837, on a report
relating to pension claims of Capt. Josh-
ua Huddy's heirs. Among the affidavits
taken and forwarded to General Wash-
ington were those of Aaron White, a
brother of Phil. White, who was taken
prisoner with him, John North, William
Borden and John Eussell, who were his
guards. White was captured near Long
Branch, and the guard was ordered to
take him to Freehold, Before starting
he was told if he attempted to escape he
would be shot down. When between
Colt's Neck and Freehold, White shpped
off his horse and made for the woods ;
the guards called on him to stop, but he
refused to halt and they fii'ed on htm ;
the ball fired by Borden wounded him
and he fell on his hands and knees, but
got up and ran for the woods, but North
THE ATTACK ON THE RUSSELL FAMILY.
This outrage was an unusually aggra-
vated one, even for the Refugees, and
the particulars will show why Phil.
White was afraid that he would be hung
if he reached Freehold. John Russell,
one of his guards, after the war, remov-
ed to old Dover township, near Cedar
Creek, and his descendants now live at
Barnegat.
The following extract is from the New
Jersey Gazette, published during the
Revolution :
"On the 30th of April, 1780, a party
of negroes and Refugees from Sandy
Hook, landed at Shrewsbury in order to
plunder. During their excursion, a Mr.
Russell, who attempted some resistance
to their depredations, was killed, and his
grandchild had five balls shot through
him, but ie yet living. Capt, Warner, of
9
u
the privateer bidg Elizabeth, was made
prisoner by these rufl&ans, biit was re-
leased by giving them two and a half
joes. This banditti also took off sev-
eral prisoners, among whom were Capt.
James Green and Ensign Johu Morris
of the militia."
The following is from Howes' Collec-
tions :
" Mr. Russell was an elderly man
aged about 60 years ; as the party en-
tered his dwelling, which was in the
night, he iBred and missed. William
Gillian, a native of Shrewsbury, their
leader, seized the old gentleman by the
collar, and was in the act of stabbing
him in the face and eyes with a bayonet,
when the fire blazed up and shedding a
momentary light upon the scene, ena-
bled the younger Eussell, who lay
wounded on the floor, to shoot Gillian.
John Farnham, a native of Middletown,
thereupon aimed his musket at the young
man, but it was knocked up by Lippen-
cott, who had married into the family.
The party then went off. The child was
accidentally wounded in the affray."
The Liijpencott above mentioned, we
presume, was Capt. Richard Lippencott,
who subsequently had the command of
the party which hanged Capt. Joshua
Huddy. John Russell, mentioned above
as having been wounded, and who sub-
sequently was one of Phil. White's
guard, lived to quite an advanced age,
at Cedar Creek, and his accoxmt of the
affair, as related to the late Captain
Ephraim Atcheson, was substantially as
follows :
There were seven refugees, and he
(John) saw them through the window,
and at one time they got so that he told
his father he could kill four of them,
and he wished to fire as he believed the
other three would run. His father per-
suaded him not to fire, but to do so when
they broke into the house. When they
broke in, the father fired first, but missed
his aim ; he was then fired upon and
killed. John Russell then fired upon
and killed Gillian who had shot his fath-
er. During the affray John was shot in
the side, and the scars of the wound
were visible until his death. After be-
ing wounded, he fell on the floor and
pretended to be dead. The Refugees
then went to plundering the house, The
mother and wife of John were lying in
the bed with the child ; the child awoke
and asked, "Grandmother, what's the
matter ?" A Refugee pointed his gun at
it and fired, and said " that's what's the
matter !" Whether he intended to woimd
the child or only to frighten it is uncer-
tain, but the child, as before stated, was
badly wounded, but eventually recover-
ed. As the Refugees were preparing to
leave, one of their number pointed his
musket at John Russell as he lay on the
floor, and was about again firing at him,
saying he didn't believe he was dead yet,
whereitpon another, probably Lippen-
cott, knocked up the musket, saying it
was a shame to fire upon a dying man,
and the load went into the ceiling. After
the Refugees were gone, John got up
and hail his wounds dressed, and ex-
claimed to his wife, " Ducky ! bring me
a glass of whiskey ; I'll come out all
right yet." He did come out all right,
and before the war ended he aided in
visiting merited retribution on the Ref-
ugees for their doings at this time.
When some two years later he aided in
the capture of Phil. White, one of the
party who killed his father, it is not
probable that he desired his death be-
fore reaching Freehold, as it was quite
certain justice would be meted out to
him there. Of the seven Refugees con-
cerned in the attack on the Russell fam-
ily, at least three met with their just de-
serts, viz : Gillian, killed at the time ;
Farnham, subsequently captured and
hanged at Freehold ; and Phil. White,
killed while attempting to escape.
75
moved to Amwell near Shawuock. Feb-
ruary 20, 1680, Richard and Penelope
Stout, the first of the family in America,
sold a lot of 16 acres in Middletown to
Thomas Suowselle, and signed the deed
by making their mark. July 20, 1686,
Richard Stout, Sr., was still living. I
have never seen a statement of the date
of the death of either Richard or Penel-
ope. December 19, 1689, Richard
Stout (no doubt Junior) is said to be a
resident of Squan."
One branch of our Ocean county Stouts
descend, as stated by Benjamin B. Stout,
Esq. , of Goodluck, from the last-named
Richard Stout — Squan Richard as he
was sometimes called — as follows :
Richard Stout, of Squan, had a son
Benjamin, who married Mary Johnson ;
this Benjamin and Mary, his wife, had a
son also named Benjamin, who is still
well remembered and known as Captain
Benjamin Stout, and who married Sarah
or Sally Breese. Capt. Benjamin Stout
THE STOUT FAMILY.
GENEALOGICAIi NOTES OF DESCENDANTS IN
OCEAN COUNTY.
As stated in another chapter, the Stout
families of Ocean county are descended
from John Stout, a gentleman of Not-
tinghamshire, England, whose son Rich-
ard came to New York where he married
about the year 1622, a Dutch widow
whose maiden name was Penelope Van-
princes. They had seven sons and three
daughters. The order of their birth
and the names of the daughters, as given
iu Benedict's History of the Baptists,
have already been given ; but the follow-
ing from Rev. G. 0. Schenck, of Marl-
borough, Monmouth county, diflPers a
little in these particulars from the account
by Benedict. But as the Rev. Mr,
Schenck is probably the best informed
person on the genealogy of many fami-
lies iu this State, and thorough and care-
ful in his researches and statements, his
version is undoubtedly correct. Speak-
ing of his copy of the noted Stout manu- 1 bought the noted Thomas Potter farm at
script, the original of which was drawn Goodluck, where he died February 13,
up by Nathan Stout, he says in a letter 1850, aged 69 years, 7 months and 5 days,
to the writer of this : He had sons — Joseph, Benjamin B.,
" Richard and Penelope Stout had to- Daniel, James and John — and several
gether seven sons and three daughters, daughters. His descendants can trace
namely : Sons — John, Richard, Jona- their ancestry back in an unbroken line
than, Peter, James, Benjamin, David ; for over three centuries, and no family
daughters — Deliverance, Sarah, Penelo- in New Jersey can go back further among
pe. All of these sons and daughters ancestors. Their genealogy may be
lived to raise large families. John, the briefly stated thus : Joseph, Benjamin
eldest son of the first Richard, named his B. , and other children of Benjamin
eldest son Richard, who, when married, . Stout, who was the son of Benjamin, son
settled at a place called Squan, and was of Squan Richard, son of John, son of
generally afterward called Squan Richard Richard, son of John Stout, of Notting-
or Squan Dick, who raised a large fami- hamshire, England,
ly, some of whom scattered about Barne- If the first Richard Stout was 40 years
gat Bay along shore, a great number of old when he married in 1622 (as stated in
whose descendants are there to this day. Benedict's History), he must have been
The said John named his second son, born about 1582, and his father, John
John, who in consequence of following the , Stout, probably between 1550 and 1560.
sea was called Sailor John, of whose fam- [ This would carry the genealogy from
ily I am unable to give but little account the present time back to the birth of the
(although it was niimerous), except one first John — about 325 years,
daughter whose name was Penelope, who , At the breaking out of the Revolution-
married John Sutphen and afterwards ary war, a John Stout, who tradition
76
says was a sou of James Stout, lived iu
old Dover township, wliicli tlien extend-
ed to Oyster Creek, between Forked
River and Waretown. This John was a
captain in the militia, and at times was
in command of the military post at Toms
Eiver, He had sons — Daniel and John
— who were in his company ; the last
named, John, was killed by the British
at Hornerstown, according to Strykes'
Revolutionary Roster. Of Daniel, men-
tion will be made hereafter. Capt. John
Stout's father, James, must have been a
son or grandson of the first Richard.
Garret Stout, the favorably-known
hotel-keeper of Cedar Creek, is a son of
Abraham Stout, whose father was also
named Abraham,
Phoebe Stout, who about seventy-five
years ago married Anthony Parker, was
a daughter of David Stout, of old Shrews-
bury township, who was probably a
grandson of the first Richard. Anthony
Parker and Phoebe, his wife, located at
Forked River, and had children— Thom-
as, David Stout, who married Emeline
Baiter, Abigail who married Rev. David
B, Salter, John who married Hester
Woolley, and Joseph who married Eliza-
beth Predmore. Of these, Capt. David
Stout Parker and ex-Sheriff Joseph
Parker now live at Forked River.
The old stock of the Stout family were
noted for longevity. Penelope, wife of
the first Richard, lived to the age of 110,
and as it is stated she was born in 1602,
she must have died about 1712. It is
believed she was buried in an old grave-
yard near Holmdel, about one hundred
yards south of the residence of the late
John S. Hendrickson. Rev. Mr. Schepck
states that the first Richard was living
in 1686 ; he must then have been 104
years old, if he was 40 years old when
he married in 1622.
Richard and Penelope Stout appeal- to
have lircd in New York until the first
English came to Long Island, Avlien they
located with them, and were Hving there
iu I64;j. In 1648, they, with five other
families, moved over in old Monmouth,
near Middletown. These were the first
white settlers in East Jersey ; and as
the other families were probably Dutch,
Richard Stout was the first Englishman
of whom we have any account who set-
tled in New Jersey. On account of hos-
tile Indians, about 1655, these settlers
were compelled to leave, and Stout lo-
cated at Gravesend, L. I., with other
English. About 1665, he, with other
English, came back to Middletown, and
made the first permanent settlement
there, and members of his family were
among those who established the Baptist
Church at Middletown, which was the
first Bajstist Society established in New
Jersey.
ESQTJIBE DANIEL STOITT.
Esquire Daniel Stout, one of the last
surviving heroes of the Revolution, who
died at Stout's Creek near Goodluck,
September 2, 1843, was born November
14, 1758, in old Dover township. He
had a brother John, and they both, at one
time, served in the war in the company
of their father, Capt. John Stout. John,
Jr., was killed, it is said, at Horners-
town. The following record of the ser-
vice of Daniel Stout during the Revolu-
tion, we extract from the records of the
Pension Oflfice at Washington :
Daniel Stout served about one month
at Perth Amboy iu 1776 ; in 1777, was
on guard at Toms River one month, and
two months at Monmouth Court House,
and then again six months at Toms River.
For a short time, he performed light
horse duty at Morristown, and was de-
tailed to procure cattle for Gen. Wash-
ington's army. In 1780, he was in his
father's company in Col. Samuel For-
man's regiment. Towards the close of
the war, he served every other month on
guard at Toms River under Captains
Pri<;o, Hankins and Brewer, and his mil-
itary career ended in 1783. His actual
time in service was about two years and
three mouths. He api^ears to have beeu
77
but eighteen years old wlieu lie first eu-
listed. He married Anna Chadwick,
December 25, 1792 ; his wife, -who was
born December 9, 1772, was daughter of
Capt. Thomas Chadwick, a noted hero of
old Monmouth. She lived to an advanced
age, and was a lady of marked natural
ability, retentive memory and agreeable
conversational powers, and one of the
most interesting narrators of Revolution-
ary and other old time events in our
county. Daniel and Anna Stout had
children as follows : John, born 1793, and
died 1795 ; Elizabeth, born 1794 ; Han-
nah, 1796, married Capt. William Rog-
ers; Rachel, 1798, married John Wil-
liams ; Caroline, 1800, married John
Henderson ; Catharine, 1802, married
William Holmes ; Anna, 1805, married
Capt, Joseph Holmes ; Alice, 1807, mar-
ried Randolph Dey ; Margaret, 1809,
married John Applegate ; Sarah, 1811,
married Judge D. I. C. Rogers. Of
these, the following are still living in
this vicinity : Elizabeth unmarried, An-
na who married Capt. Joseph Holmes,
and Sarah who married Judge David I.
C. Rogers. Catharine and Margaret
went to Ohio after marriage, and Caro-
line to Leeds Point.
THE BODINE FAMILY.
The Bodine family, in the southern
part of Ocean county, are of French Hu-
guenot descent. The first members orig-
inally came to Staten Island, and from
thence descendants came to this county.
The History of Staten Island, by Clute,
in speaking of the origin of this family,
refers to John Bodin, a celebrated law-
yer and literary character, who was born
at Angers about 1530 ; for a time he en-
joyed the favor of King Henry III, which
however he lost by his patriotic conduct.
Among his works, the most remarkable
are a treatise on Republican government
and a work on witchcraft called Demona-
nia. He became chief magistrate of
Laon, and while holding that position,
died of the plague in 1596.
The first known member of the family
in America was John Bodine, who pur-
chased land on Staten Island in 1701, and
was living in 1714. His wife was prob-
ably named Hester, as John Bodine and
his wife Hester are mentioned in Staten
Island records in 1736-7. He had a son
Francois, who married Marie Dey, and
they had a son, Jean or John, baptized
November 29, 1719, who married Dor-
cas , and had children, viz : —
John, bom February, 1753, and James,
born December 17, 1758. The last
named John died March, 1835, aged
about 82 years ; James died May 13,
1838, in his 80th year, John married
Catharine Britton, and had children :
John (subsequently known as Squire
John), Jacob and Edmund, and perhaps
others. The last-named James Bodine
first married Elizabeth Egbert, daughter
of Tunis Egbert, and they had four sons
and two daughters, viz : Nancy, Dorcas,
John, Tunis, James and Edward ; he
next married Margaret Oakley, daughter
of Israel Oakley, and they had six chil-
dren, viz : Eliza who married Isaac
Swift, Margaret who married Abraham
Houseman, William who married Rosan-
na Willetts, of Warwick, Va., Andrew
who married Mary Houseman, Abraham
who married Abby Kinsey, and Israel
who died young.
Of the sons of James Bodine, two came
to what is now Ocean county in 1816,
namely, Tunis and James. They origin-
ally located at Manahawken, and entered
into the mercantile business ; beside
which they started a stage line, probably
the first, from the ferry below the vil-
lage to Mount Holly ; James soon sold
out and left, and embarked on a ship,
and subsequently died of cholera. Tunis
married Ann Haywood, of Manahawken.
After living at that place some six or
seven years, he removed to Barnegat,
where he still resides. He had children :
Elizabeth who married Capt. Wright
Predmore, James who married Cornelia
Holmes, Sarah who married Joseph Sex-
78
ton, and Ann who died young. Tunis
next married Amelia Cliadwick ; tliey
had no children.
William Bodine, son of James and
Margaret Bodine, who married Rosauna
Willetts, had children : George James
who married Emeline Williams, William
Oakley, Margaret who married Edwin
Salter, and Abraham.
A TOMS RIVER BOY KIDNAPPED.
In the early years of our county paper,
it gave one item of news that always
had a melancholy interest to many old
residents. It was published, if I mis-
take not, chiefly at the request of the
late Charles I. Errickson, who will long
be remembered by many for his kind
deeds, and who took much interest in
this particular affair. The substance of
the story was this :
The late Captain Samuel Beatty, of
the schooner Amos Falkinburg, was
lying near Franklin, on the Gulf coast
of Louisiana, when, one day, he was as-
tonished by a colored man, a slave in
the vicinity, hailing him and asking him
if he knew certain men, whom he nam-id,
then living at Toms Eiver, Cedar Creek
and Forked Eiver. Capt. Beatty, sur-
prised, asked him how he came to ask
the question, and how he, a slave so
far away, knew the names of these men.
The colored man said he saw by the
stern of the vessel where she was from,
and then stated that he was originally
from Toms River, knew the late Capt,
Wm. Rogers, father-in-law of Capt.
Beatty, was a boy with Capt. Hiram
Horner, of Toms River, and went on
sitflficiently to prove that his story was
substantially correct. He was then asked
how he came to be a slave down in Lou-
isiana. He replied that when he was a
good sized boy, a man who once lived at
Toms River was about emigrating West,
and persuaded his mother to let him go
along, promising to do well by him ; but
after getting out West, this man was in-
famous enough to sell the boy as a slave
to some trader going down the Missis-
sippi to New Orleans. When Capt.
Beatty returned, he found plenty of
proof that the boy was free born, and
Mr. Errickson entered warmly into the
case, and communicated with the then
Governor, Geo. F. Fort, of New Egypt.
Gov. Fort was deeply impressed with
the outrage committed, and would glad-
ly have aided in redeeming him from
bondage, but he had no authority to in-
cur the heavy costs of sending witnesses
so far and paying expenses of lawyers,
trial, Szc. And so the poor fellow was
left to his fate. It is some consolation
to know that if he was living, the late
civil war must have resulted in his free-
dom.
Was it wrong in so many of our citi-
zens who remembered this offence, re-
joicing, a few years later, to hear the
news that the man who committed it,
was safe inside the grated doors of Toms
River jail ? Thoitgh for another offence,
it was some satisfaction to know he wag
imprisoned in the place from which the
boy was stolen.
A RARE OCCURRENCE.
A HOinCIDE IX OCEAN COUNTY.
Few, indeed, are the places of equal
population -rt'ith the district now known
as Ocean county, which can present a
record as unstained by serious crimes.
About the most noted event in its crimi-
nal calendar, was the killing of a lad
some fifteen years old, named Thomas
Williams, son of Esquire Daniel and
Huldah Williams, by a man named Peter
Stout, at Goodluck, on the 19th of No-
vember, 1802. Peter Stout was always
considered as a half-witted, partially
crazed man, but had always, previous
to this affair, seemed harmless. At the
present day, it is no uncommon occur-
rence if a half-witted or drunken man is
seen, for a troop of thoughtless boys to
follow him, calling names and torment-
79
ing him, tiuch shoiilcl learn a lesson
from this story. The boys around Good- '
luck often tormented Peter Stout, calling ',
him nicknames, the principal of which
was " eel head — hollo, old eel head !"
On the morning in question, young
"Williams left home to di'ive cattle to the
meadows, down the road along the north
side of Stout's creek. On his way he
met Peter Stout, who had an axe on his
shoulder, and thoughtlessly began to
plague him, calling him " eel head," &c.
Stout let him pass, and then turned, slyly
ran up behind him and struck him on the
head with the axe, killing him instantly.
During the forenoon, the boy's mother,
uneasy at his long absence, went in
search of him, and found the body at a
spot marked for half a century after by
twin oak trees, about opposite the com-
mencement of the path leading across
Stout's creek, towards the place formely
owned by the late Capt. William Rogers,
Mrs, Williams was so horror-stricken at
the sight of the lifeless body of her son,
covered with blood, that for a time she
was bereft of her senses. It seems she
grasped the boy in her arms and carried
him home, a distance of about half a
mile, but she remembered nothing about
it, however, until she came to her senses,
when she found herself in a chair at
home, rocking her boy, her dress shock-
ingly covered with blood.
The neighbors were soon uotiJfied of
the event, and the body taken to the inn
at Goodluck, for the j)urpose of holding
a coroner's inquest. In past years a
superstition prevailed in the minds of
many in England and in this country,
that if the murderer touched the body of
the murdered person, the wounds would
commence to bleed afresh. At this in-
quest, some person mentioned this su-
perstition, and it was proposed and
agreed to that every one present should
by turns approach and touch the body.
All did so but Peter Stout, who was
present, and who extended his hand
towards the body, but suddenly checked
himself, ws if afraid of the ordeal, re-
fused to touch the body, and turned
aboiit and went out whistling. Blood
was observed upon his clothes, and
upon being questioned, he said it was
from a fowl he had killed. Suspi-
cion being strong against him, he was
arrested and sent to Freehold, tried,
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
While in jail he made a full confession,
which was afterwards printed. As it
was generally conceded by all who knew
Stout, that he was not of sound mind,
strong efforts were made to have his
sentence changed, and among those who
labored hard for it were Esquire Wil-
liams and his wife, the parents of the
murdered boy. They visited Freehold
for that purpose, and visited the con-
demned man in jail ; but all their efforts
were unavailing, and the unfortunate
man suffered the extreme penalty of the
law. His body was taken to Goodluck,
and buried by the road along the south
side of Stout's Creek, and the spot
marked by a grape vine. This spot and
the place where the boy was killed can
still be pointed out by old residents.
Young Williams was buried in the grave-
yard at Goodluck, and on his headstone
is this inscription : " Thomas Williams,
died November 19th, 1802, aged 14 years,
9 months and 18 days, "
TOMS RIVER— ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
GOOSE CBEEK — INDIAN TOM — CAPT, WM.
TOJX,
Two distinct traditions have been
hand down, giving the origin of the name
of Toms River ; one that it is derived
from a certain Captain Wm. Tom, who
resided on the Delaware River over two
hundred years ago, before any whites
had settled in what is now known as
Ocean county, and who, in the prosecu-
tion of his duties as a kind of land agent,
I penetrated through the wilderness to the
seashore in search of eUgible land for
' settlers, and discovered this stream ;
80
upon his return he made such favorable
representations of the land in this vicin-
ity that settlers were induced to come
here, and they named it Toms Eiver,
after Capt. Tom, because he first brought
the place to the notice of the whites.
The other tradition attributes the ori-
gin of the name to an Indian named
Tom, who lived in the vicinity during
the first half of the last century.
The stream was also anciently called
Goose Creek, and this name was used to
designate it in legal writings, and on
maps for over a century.
In regard to the name Toms Eiver,
the writer of this acknowledges that after ^
patient investigation of all sources of in- j
formation known to him, he has found ;
nothing that conclusively settles the
question of its origin ; yet he is strong
in the belief that it originated with Capt.
Wm. Tom some two centuries ago, and
that Indian Tom, who lived a generation
or so later, aided in perpetuating it ; and
the reasons for this belief will be given
before concluding. In regard to the
name
GOOSE CREEK,
it seems to have been bestowed by the
proprietors or their agents, when the
land here was originally run out in 1690.
Samuel H. Shreve, Esq., a careful in-
vestigator of land titles in this vicinity,
in a communication published in the
Ocean Emblem about fifteen years ago,
says :
" The first patent to Dr. Johnson was
dated 1G90, and in that as well as in the
patent to Robert Barclay, of the same
date on the south side of the river and
opposite Dr. Johnson's, the name is
Goose Creek. It is the same in all doc-
uments that I have been able to find un-
til 1727, when Obhonon Cedar Swamp is
referred to as being on a branch of Toms
River ; subsequently, in 17iO, the well-
known surveyor, John Lawrence, desig-
nates it as Toms River, and after that
date the name occurs more frequently
than that of Goose Creek, though deeds
made by parties living near the river
mentioned it thus : " Goose Creek (alias
Toms Eiver) and ' Goose Creek, other-
wise called Toms River,' as late as 1789,
as if the former the correct name, while
the latter was the more common. I can-
not, therefore, but believe the original
name was Goose Creek."
In addition to what Mr. Shreve states,
the writer has found the name of Goose
Creek given to the stream on various old
maps, among which may be named
Mitchell & Pownall's map, 1755, and Jef-
frey's map, 1778 ; and the last time on
Carey's map of New Jersey, 1814, which
calls it " Goose or Toms Creek."
INDIAN TOM.
Information in regard to Indian Tom,
is very meagre indeed. The most defi-
nite notice that the writer has is in the
communication of Mr. Shreve above re-
ferred. The same number of the Ocean
Emblem which contained Mr. Shreve's
communication, had another, advocating
the Indian Tom origin of the name,
signed " A Native," which, we presume,
was from James N. Lawrence, Esq.
We give the substance of both as show-
ing the strongest arguments we have
found in favor of the Indian Tom origin.
Mr. Shreve says :
' ' There certainly was a Tom, * an in-
dividual incarnate Tom, and he had a
wigwam. I haye a map made in 1740 of
the country about Mosquito Cove, a
I short distance north of Toms River, on
which " Barnegatt Toms wigwam " is
located upon the north point of the cove.
The fact that an Indian by the name of
Tom, most jDrobably Barnegatt Tom,
lived on the river near the head of Dil-
lon's Island during the Revolution, seems
|.to be well established. Suppose this to
have been in 1778, As I have mentioned
before, the name of Toms River occurs in
1727, and if Tom was at the latter date,
say twenty-seven years of age, or even
older, the story is still plausible. Be-
81
side the tradition itself, that the river
took its name from the Indian, is entitled
to some credence when we consider the
fact that the descendants of our first
settlers are living among us, and they
especially believe it.
As Mr. Shreve says, his theory is
plausible iipon the facts he gives ; but
the following extract from records in the
Freehold Court House quite effectually
destroys his foundation. After men-
tioning under date of Oct. 13th, 1713,
certain roads in the upper part of old
Monmouth, the record mentions
THE FIRST ROADS LAID OUT IN OCEAN
COUNTY.
"Laid out a highway from Henry
Leonard's saw mill to Barnegate ; that is
from said saw mill along John Hankin's '
path to Hay path ; then to ye head of \
Sarah Reape's meadow and down ye side ']
of ye said meadow as ye line of marked '
trees, to the Fish path ; then as that goes |
to Mauasquan ; thence along ye Fish j
path to the Cedar path, and along the
Cedar path as the marked trees that lead j
to Metetecqnk, and following the marked
trees to Goose Creek, called Toms
liiver, and over said river, by marked
trees to the line of the lands of late
Thomas Hart." Signed by John Reid,
Elisha Lawrence and Obadiah Bowne, ■
commissioners. j
The foregoing was copied by Judge
Beekman from the original records and
published in the Monmouth Democrat, I
Feb. 8, 1877, in his articles on the Boun-
daries of Old Monmouth. Judge Beek- '
man, who has proved himself a careful,
reliable investigator of the history of
Old Monmouth, informs the writer that ;
tne name Toms River was certainly thus
used as stated as early as 1713, showing
it was a common name then. Hence, if,
as Mr. Shreve surmises, Indian Tom '
was twenty-seven years old in 1727, he
would have been only thirteen in 1713 ; j
and if the Indian Tom of the Revolution ;
was the Indian Tom, he might have been |
still younger , and it will not be seriously
contended that the stream was named
after a little Indian jiapoose.
Perhaps the most strenuous advocate
of the Indian Tom origin of the name,
was the writer before referred to, who
signed himself a " Native," (probably
James N. Lawrence). We give the sub-
stance of his article which also contains
references to old Toms River settlers :
' ' By reference to actual survey, and
especially to Andrew Johnson's patent,
1690, he (Mr. Salter,) will see that said
patent commences on the south side of
Miles Foster's patent at Tilton's Creek
and runs south to (xoose Creek, which
patent includes the Ralph place (Messrs.
Schofield's and McLean's), Edwin Jack-
son's, Thomas Salter's (late Cook's), and
Dillon's (now Robiason's Island). Grant-
ing that the gentleman is somewhat of
an antiquarian, I suggest that he ramble
over Johnson's patent, thereby visiting
the old salt works erected by Albertus
Schoeslear, Savidge and Coats, Thomas
Salter and others, merchants from Phil-
adelphia, who were engaged in the salt
business during the Revolution. Some
information may be obtained by refer-
ence to a controversy between Messrs.
L. and Justice, published in the Mon-
mouth Inquirer of November and Dec-
ember, 1819 ; also the Emblem of Feb-
ruary, 1858, where the editor gives the
name" George's" instead of Goose Creek.
Surveyor John Lawrence, in his notes
(1725) of New Barnegat Inlet or Cran-
berry Inlet, gives the bearing of com-
pass from certain points in the bay, the
channel running from opposite Tilton's
Point to Nigger house farm ; thence by
a thoroughfare to the north point of land
at the Inlet. Aaron Bennett, Richard
Phillips and William Chadwick, de-
ceased, I have heard make the same
statements ; also that the inlet called
Burning Hole or Barnegat, was opposite
Egg Island, north of where Amos Grant
now lives, and that Barnegat was called
New Inlet in those days. Rebecca
82
Buad, (laughter of Daniel Liiker, the
first white inhabitaut of the jjlace, told
me, in the winter of 1835, that the above
was coiTect ; also, that she conld remem-
ber when it was a thick cedar swamp
where the bridge now is, and a log was
used for pedestriaiis to cross on. Then
came a severe storm Avhich destroyed
the timber, after which a ferry was kept
by her father until a bridge was built, a
portion of which may now be seen.
John Lawrence, in his notes, calls it
"the riding-over place," afterwards
Luker's fen-y. Capt. Htephen Gulick,
the oldest male inhabitant now here, will
corroborate my sketch.
Tom, from whom the name was de-
rived, and his brother, Jonathan Pumha,
owned all the land south of Metedecouk
to Goose Creek (see Smith's History of
New Jersey, 1721). Tom died about
1734 or 5, miich lamented as he was
known as a friend of the white man, al-
ways holding out inducements for the
whites to settle on his lands.
Respectfully yours,
A Native. "
In tlie foregoing the writer states some
things which are true, some which are
doubtful, and some which are probably
erroneous ; and it is to be regretted that
man who had such opportunities to ex-
amine into papers and records relating
to old times at Toms Eiver, should be
so careless in his statements. It is true
that there was an Indian named Tom,
that there was a Luker's ferry and a
riding-over place, and that there was
miich business done in the salt trade,
especially about the time of the Revolu-
tion. But we vei-y much doubt that
Surveyor John Lawrence's notes stated
that Old Cranberry Inlet was opened as
early as 1725 ; that Daniel Luker was
the first white inhabitant ; that a log,
unless a remarkably large one in a very
dry time, was ever used to cross Toms
River ; that Thomas Salter was a Phila-
delphia merchant, though he and Joseph
and Richard Salter were old time resi-
dents or business men at Toms River,
trading with Philadelphia merchants ;
we doubt if Bamegat Inlet was ever
called New Inlet, unless about the time
Cranberry closed and then, if at all, only
for a vei-y brief period. Smith's History
of New Jersey was not published in
1721, but in 1765, and Mr. Shreve, a re-
liable writer, has given good reasons to
beUeve that Indian Tom lived many
years after 1734-5. And as to the In-
dian ownership of the land from Meted-
econk to Toms River, Smith's History, i
page 413, says at the great conference
held at Crosswicks, N. J., in 1758, for
extinguishing all Indian claims to lands
in New Jersey, at which the commission-
ers were Andrew Johnson, Richard Sa'
ter and others, a paper was submittec
declaring the lands from the half wa^^^i
from the mouth of Metedecouk river tO^
Toms Eiver, from the sea to the heads'
of the rivers, belonged to Ctqit. Johi'^
Totamy Widoc/ciris. There is nothing
in Smith's History that refers to any lu^
diau Tom in this vicinity. But on th^i
contrary, several references to Capt*^
William Tom, which show that he was le;*
prominent man in his day. ^^•
That Indian Tom lived as late as th(W-
time mentioned by Mr. Shreve, we hav<ve
heard traditionary corroboration fronU.
the late Hon. Charles Parker, (father o;
Governor Joel Parker,) who was in bus-U-
inessatToras River in 1810.- Mr. Par- a
ker liad a remarkably retentive memory ,3f
and he informed the writer that when heA
first came to Toms River, he talked to^
men who had known Indian Peter, a 3
brother of our Indian Tom ; that Indiau
Tom once undertook to sell lands for \
other Indians, but proved a defaulter, /
and was not again trusted, was di-uukeu,
&c. ; and the personal recollections of
these men would probably not go further
back than say about fifty years before
Mr. Parker talked to them. And Na-
tive's own letter gives a statement which
is also corroborative : he says iu 1835 he
talked to a daughter of Daniel Luker,
83
who was the first white iuhabitaut of the
place. If ludian Tom induced whites
settlers to come here, it then must have
been after Luker located here, and it is
evident that if Luker had a daughter
living in 1835, he could not have lived
longer ago than the time Mr. Shreve
states Tom lived. Mention is made in
ancient deeds of A. Luker's ferry at
Toms Eiver in 1749. Was he the father
,f Daniel ? Eeference is made to Capt.
tephen Gulick as the oldest inhabitant,
-t the request of the writer, Capt. Gu-
ck v/ais interviewed by Chas. W. Bun-
ell, Esq., of Bayville, who stated to
im the substance of Native's statement,
apt. Gulick's reply was that he knew
othing about ludian Tom more than
jhers knew ; he had heard there was
ich an Indian. Many who never heard
■ Capt. Tom, and had heard of ludian
om, would be likely to guess that the
ver was named after the Indian.
In concludiug the notice of the ludian
om theory, we shall simply repeat that
le river could not have been named af-
'.r him, because he was living on Dil-
n's Island in the Revolution, and the !
lace was well known as Toms River
iarly seventy years before, and it is not
Ttain he was even then born ; at most
i must have been a very young pap- j
t4jose, and more likely to have been
imed after the river than the river
named after him.
The reasons for believing the river de-
, rived its name from Captaiu Tom, will
next be briefly stated.
WHY AFTER C.VPTAIX WILLIAM TOJI.
Among aged jiersons now living, who
were acquainted at Toms River sixty or
more years ago, is Rev. David B. Salter,
formerly of Forked River, but at i:)res-
ent residing in Bayonne, N. J. He is a
gentleman noted for observation and
retentive memory, and he is very posi- j
tive that the river derived its name from
Captain Tom, from information he ob-
' tained when at the place about sixty
years ago, from residents who then were
ancient ; and some twelve or thirteen
years ago he named a gentleman still
older than he, who had investigated the
subject when at Toms River about sev-
enty years ago. This gentleman then
lived in Illinois, and the writer of this
addressed him on the subject. His reply
fully corroborated the statement. He
said when he first visited Toms River,
intelligent old residents not only assured
him that the place was named after Cap-
tain Tom, but showed him an old histo-
rical work that explained the reason,
which was in substance that Captain
Tom induced settlers to locate here, and
these settlers named the stream after
him. By reference to the sketeh of
Capt. Tom's life, previously given, his
statement seems sufficiently sustained to
justify his assertion of the origin of the
name. Cajjt. Tom was apjwinted col-
lector of quit-rents and land agent, by
Governor Lovelace in 10(39. It was his
duty to call on settlers in South Jersey,
• from the Falls of Delaware (now Tren-
ton) to Cape May, including what is now
knoATU as Ocean county. By notices of
him in Smith's History of New Jersey,
Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania and
New York Colonial Documents, it is evi-
dent he was a great traveler, and ' well
acquainted from New Castle, Del., to
New York, with settlers' paths through
the forests, and desirable places to lo-
cate ; and it would be both in keeping
with the character of the man and in the
legitimate line of his duties, to explore
the country by ludian ijaths to Toms
River, and on his return report what he
thought of the place. And it is reason-
able to believe that the fir^t settlers
named the river after the man who in-
duced them to locate near it.
Captain Tom appears to have been a
leading man in public matters, and pop-
ular with the settlers. He came to West
Jersey in 1604, and subsequently held
various positions of j-esixmsibility,
o/7 <7 ^ ' 7
'
84
among them Keeper of Public Records,
Commissaiy, Deputy Governor, kc.
There is force in the remark made by
Mr. Shreve, quoted in speaking of In-
dian Tom, that a tradition handed down
from old settlers should receive consid- ^
eratiou. But the writer has, in person ;
or through friends, interviewed about,
all the aged persons now or formerly
livmg at Toms Biver that could be
reached, and with the exception of the
rambling writer who signed himself *' A
Native," and -whose statements have been
sufficiently answered, he has found no
one who positively asserts the Indian
Tom theory ; all they stated was simply
a repetition of the statement of the late
Uncle BiUy Harbor (Herbert), so favor-
ably remembered in connection with our
late stage line, who was authority on
many local traditions. When questioned
as to the origin of the name, his reply
substantiaEy was : " It is said there was
an Indian named Tom living in the vi-
ckdty, and I suppose the name might
have come from him." This was the
natural guess of those who had heard of
Indian Tom, but not of Captain Tom.
The two old gentlemen referred to in
the foregoing as being positive that the
place derived its name from Captain Tom,
belong to a family that had special oppor-
tunities of obtaining information on the
subject. William Salter (named by
"Native,") was a commissioner appoint-
ed in 1801 by the Legislature, to aid the
remnant of New Jersey Indians in sell-
ing their land. Before this, in 179G,
Joseph Salter, whose heirs until late
years owned the James Cook place, was
commissioned to aid the Indians to lease
their lands ; and before them, in 1756,
Bichaid Salter was Indian Commissioner,
(see Smith's New Jersey, and Samuel
Allison's sketch of New Jersey Indians,
in New Jersey Historical Society Pro-
ceedings, January 1875). So that if the
place had been named after the Indian
Tom, they would have known it.
From what has been said of Indian
I Tom it seems impossible that the river
i could have been named af tey him ; and
from the facts presented it is safe to as-
siime that Toms River derives its name
from Captain WHliam Tom.
\
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