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I HlSTORYojTHUDSON CoUNTY
I and of the
Old Village g/^" Bergen
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History of Hudson County
and of the
Old Village o/" Bergen
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The founders of Bergen erected a palisade
of logs around their settlement on the site
of what is now Bergen Square, Jersey City
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History of HUDSON COUNTY
and of the
Old Village of Bergen
^ Being a brief account oi th&
fou7idation and growth of what
is now Jersey City and of the
many advantages now offered
the inhabitants thereof in the
newly constructed buildiiig of the
Trust Company o/'New Jersey
Issued by
The TRUST COMPANY ^/NEW JERSEY
Jersey City, N. J.
^ / ^ ^ / «a
(Copyright 192 1 by the Trust Company of New Jersey
TSTs
'Designed, Engraved and 'Printed by Bartlett Orr Press, JA(ja/ York
g)r.l.A654l31
The Old Village of Bergen
cyf History of the First Settlement in New Jersey
HEN the first representatives of the Amsterdam
^ Licensed TradingWest India Company built
four houses on Manhattan Island in 1610-
1 6 1 2, one could hardly consider the territory
crowded. Those ancestors of New York and
New Jersey, however, had more spacious ideas
than are held by their apartment-dwelling descendants. The
charter of the Dutch East India Company, which had granted
the trading monopoly to its West India Company, designated
NewNetherland as comprising"the unoccupied region between
Virginia and Canada" — a little tract that must forever inspire
pained admiration in modern real estate dealers. It was
bounded approximately on the south by the South River, as
the Dutch called the stream that the Enghsh afterward re-
christened the Delaware. And because the Delaware was
South River, the river explored by Henry Hudson in 1609,
which first was called Mauritius River in honor of Maurice
of Nassau, Prince of Orange, came to be referred to as North
River, which explains why we today call it Hudson River or
North River, just as the words happen.
Henry, we may suspect, always had remained a little
disappointed, if not indignant, about that river. He had no
T^he History of Hudson County
The Coming of tie K'hite Men
genuine interest in rivers. He was one of the many dreamers
who for two centuries had been butting against the coast line,
hoping for that rainbow thing, a passage to the golden East
Indies. But the steady-minded Dutch traders who followed
him thought very well of it. They saw it as a perfect water
highway to the fur country, giving them almost direct access
to the fur-trading Indian tribes of Canada, whose offerings
passed from hand to hand down to Albany, while all along
the banks could be gathered the almost equally rich tribute
from the fur lands of Adirondaclcs and Catskills.
Its beauty, too, was loved by the Dutch. Dutch commercial
instinct, Dutch thrift, never made the Dutchmen dull to the
good art of living. They loved the straight wild cliffs of
the Palisades. They loved the squall-darkened broad reach
that they named the Tappan Zee. They loved the sweet
and of the Old Village of Bergen
Fro7Ji the Mural by Hoivard Pyle, Hudson County Court Home
tranquility of the vastly stretching sea meadows at its mouth,
where flowed the rivers Hackensack and Passaic, the deep
sound of the Kill von Kull, and many pleasant little streams
that have been filled in long ago and are covered now by
streets and towns.
They looked out from their New Amsterdam, and despite
all ample Manhattan Island north of them, the western shore
invited prettily. Its river mouths and undulating sea-grass
plains and shining sleepy coves reminded them of home.
Men who had come so far were not men to sit down and sink
root in one little spot. The performances of Captains Hen-
drick Christaen and Adrien Blok are recommended earnestly
to the attention of those who imagine that the Dutchman is
a large body that moves slowly. Adrien Blok sailed from
Holland in 1614. He arrived at Manhattan Island in 1614.
8 '^he History of Hudson County
His ship was destroyed there by fire in 1614 and he built
himself another in 1 6 1 4. Their handful of men built those four
houses, and for good measure a fort, Fort Amsterdam, on
the land above what later was known as Castle Garden, and
now is the site of the Aquarium. They sailed up the North
River and established a trading post. Fort Orange, on an
island below Albany. They sailed through Hell Gate, which
even now is no place for timid navigators, though it is not
one -tenth as dangerous as it was then. They explored the
whole great Long Island Sound to Cape Cod. They looked
thoroughly into that tract which afterward became the Rhode
Island Plantations. They investigated the Connecticut River.
And they started the opening up of New Jersey by establishing
atrading poston thewestsideof the North Riveroppositelower
Manhattan, following it some years later with a small redoubt.
They might have left records as romantic as the narrative
of Captain John Smith, for they explored and traded every-
where, from Cape Cod to the Delaware. But they were not
men of the pen. We are not sure even of their exact names.
The few scattered records refer with generous freedom to
Adrien Blok, Adrian Block, Hendrik Christaen, Hendrick
Christianse and Hendrick Christansen. The best people in
that time were more than liberal in spelling, and many of the
most important official documents have a sprightly way of
giving two or more quite different spellings to the same name.
All around the handful of Europeans were Indians. Sea-
coast Indians came in canoes through the marsh thorough-
fares and from the high lands beyond the Raritan. Warrior
Indians came down the river in war canoes from their forests,
and of the Old Village of Bergen
From an Old Print
Prior^s Mill, located near ivhal is r.oiv the Corner of Fremont Street and Railroad Avenue
where they were well accustomed to contest the hunting rights
with other tribes. For a long time there was little strife between
them and the Dutch. The men of Holland were sharp traders,
but they were not robbers or tyrants. From the very first they
purchased instead of taking, and so, though Indian wars finally
came into even their quiet history, they were wars not caused
by attempt to snatch lands or other possessions from their
savage neighbors.
They left the Indians to live their own free life, and the
red men were well satisfied to exchange their furs, maize and
tobacco for the strange and tempting goods that had been
brought across the great salt water. The Dutchmen smoked
their long pipes in peace, cultivated tulips in the alien soil,
drank their aromatic Hollands in taverns that were Holland
10
Hhe History of Hudson County
In the Old Dutch Days
transplanted, and walked forth in untroubled dignity with
enormous guns to shoot the wild fowl whose wraithlike flights
filled that sky which now is filled by wraiths of smoke from
Sandy Hook to the Highlands of the Hudson.
During the next fewyears the silence of their bay was broken
at rare intervals by a cannonshot below the narrows. Then all
New Amsterdam gathered at the Battery and watched for wide
sails over a wide ship — a ship almost as wide as long, but in all
dimensions so small that we of today would think it no small
adventure to make a mere coasting voyage on her. Out of the
ship would come arrivals from Holland in wide breeches and
noble Dutch hats, solid as the Dutch nation itself
The passenger lists of these occasional ships could find
room on small scraps of paper, yet the pioneers plainly felt
that there was too much pressure of population, for only a few
and of the Old Village of Bergen
II
Fro7i: the Mural by Hoivard Pyle, Hudson County Court Home
years after Adrien Blok builtthe first four dwellings some New
Amsterdammers moved over the river. They selected a lovely
wooded ridge that looked down on a green, water-cut foreland
and temptinglyacross at the little Dutch houses of Manhattan.
Unfortunately these settlers did not leave a precise record,
for they did not realize that they were making history by
establishing the first settlement in New Jersey. Therefore we
know only that "sometime between 1 6 1 7 and 1 620 settlements
were made at Bergen, in the vicinity of the Esopus Indians
and at Schenectady." We cannot even be sure that these first
settlers in New Jersey were Dutch. "It is believed," says
another historian, "that the first European settlement within
the limits of New Jersey was made at Bergen about 161 8 by
a number of Danes and Norwegians who accompanied the
Dutch to the New Netherland."
12
I'he History of Hudson County
Various chronicles allege that the name "Bergen" was
intended by these people of Scandinavian stock to perpetuate
the name of the old city of Bergen in Norway. Others maintain
that it was to recall Bergen op Zoom in Holland. But the
word "bergen" also means "hills" or "mountains," and thus
would have been an obvious title for the Dutch to give the
ridge. Most of the names of early land-holders as recorded in
the deeds of the succeeding epoch seem indubitably Dutch.
The Amsterdam Licensed Trading West India Company
did not succeed in extending the colonization of the new
old Octagonal Church
Corner of Bergen Avenue and Vroom Street
and of the Old Village of Bergen 13
country very largely, and really energetic efforts were lacking
till 1 62 1 , when powerful and rich Hollanders formed the great
Dutch West I ndia Company. 1 1 was of the semi-governmental
form then common in companies for undertakings over seas,
and thus had the wealth and power of the States-General of
Holland behind it. The Licensed Company was taken over
by it, and ships were sent to all parts of the coast from Cape
Cod to the Delaware. By 1623, there were settlements on
Long Island and at Fort Orange, near Albany, while New
Amsterdam on Manhattan Island gained rapidly increasing
importance as headquarters for the Company and its officers.
In 1 629, the Company granted the famous charters to men
who would undertake to found settlements, and who bore the
title of Patroon. These charters conferred exclusive property
in large tracts of land (sixteen miles along a river "and as far
back as the situation of the occupiers would permit") with ex-
tensive manorial and seigneural rights. In return the Patroon
bound himself to place at least fifty settlers on the land, provide
each with a stocked farm, and furnish a pastor and a school-
master. The emigrants were bound to cultivate the land for
at least ten years, bring all their grain to be ground at the
Patroon's mill, and offer him first opportunity to purchase
their crops.
Various directors of the West India Company, among
them Goodyn, Bloemart, Van Renselaer and Pauuw, obtained
charters as Patroons, and sent ships with agents to select land
and make settlements. The land granted to Pauuw was Staten
Island and a large tract along the North River shore opposite
Manhattan Island. This holding along the river, "Aharsimus
14 T^he History of Hudson County
and Arresinck, extending along the River Mauritius and
Island Manhatta on the east side and the island Hobocan-
hackingh on the north" became the Patroonship of Pavonia.
The name is said to have been based on the Latin equivalent
for the Dutch word paaun, meaning peacock. Michael Pauuw,
or Pauw as some records have it, was a burgher of Amster-
dam and Baron of Achtienhoven in South Holland. Hobocan-
hackinghjwhichwas Indian for"the place of the tobacco pipe,"
later became known as Hoebuck, and is so referred to even in
Revolutionary annals. Today it is Hoboken, and the tidal
streams that made it an island havebeen long covered by streets.
After a few years, the Company sought to revoke Pauuw's
Patroonship on the ground of non-fulfilment of contract; but
they evidently found him a bird rather tougher than a mere
peacock, for the records show that they had to buy him out,
paying him 26,000 florins, or about 1 10,000. We find what
look like echoes of that old dispute when we search through
the meager history of the period; such laudatory remarks, for
instance, as that "the Boueries and Plantations on the west
side of the river were in prosperous condition," and such
pessimistic reports as "in 1633 there were only two houses in
Pavonia, one at Communipau, later occupied by Jan Evertsen
Bout (who had come over as Pauuw's representative), and one
at Ahasimus, occupied by Cornells Van Vorst," who was suc-
cessor to Bout.
In that same year of 1633, Michael Paulus erected a hut
on a shore front of sand hills as a government trading post
where the Indians could bring their product by canoe. The
place became known as Paulus Hoeck. Some records give this
and of the Old Village of Bergen
15
Van Wagenens Cider Press. (Academy Street, west of Square)
trader's name as Paulaz, others call him Paulusen. For a time
the Dutch name of the "Hoeck" was lost entirely, having
been changed by ready spellers to "Powles's Hook." Then
the original name came back, and that part of the shore was
so known long after Jersey City was made into a municipality.
With the elimination of Patroon Pauuw, Paulus Hoeck was
leased in 1638 to Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck. The sand
, hills covered about 6^ acres, and they became popular for
tobacco planting. In the past generations there has been so
1 6 'The History of Hudson County
much filling in of shore front that the site of Paulus' trading
post is more than a thousand feet inland.
Jan Evertsen Bout, the lone house-holder of Communipau,
got a lease of Communipau from the Dutch West India
Company in the same year, 1638. His yearly rental was set
as "one quarter of his crops, two tuns of strong beer and 12
capons." Presumably the New Amsterdam representatives of
the Company knew what to do with the two last items. In
1 641, Hobocan-hackingh, or Hoebuck, was leased to Aert
Teunisen Van Putten for twelve years, for a rental of "the
fourth sheaf with which God Almighty shall favor the field."
These, and a Bouerie in the Greenville section occupied by
Dirck Straatmaker, were apparently the only notable settle-
ments then existing in the large tract that afterward became
the township of Bergen.
The conveyances of the lands that had belonged to the
Patroonship of Pavonia were made by Director- General
William Kieft. It is a melancholy duty to say that William
Kieft lacked that equable disposition which so distinguished
most of his fellow colonists. His zeal for the interests of the
Dutch West India Company was perhaps sincere but certainly
injudicious. When he went so far as to demand tribute of
maize, furs and other supplies from the Indians, with threats
of force if they refused, they responded in their own injudicious
way by capturing or killing cattle. The peaceful intercourse
of the past ceased, and mischief followed on mischief. Finally
Kieft ordered an attack on an Indian encampment behind
Communipaw, or rather Communipau, as it was called till
well into the Nineteenth Century. The order was obeyed with
and of the Old Village of Bergen 17
unhappy punctuality. According to the records, "eighty
soldiers on the night of February 27, 1643, under Sergeant
Rodolph attacked the sleeping Indians and massacred all."
From the Raritan to the Connecticut, red runners carried the
news. There came an uprising of tribes so sudden and so
terrible that almost over night the whole territory was swept
clear of white men, "not a house was left standing and all
Boueries were devastated."
The settlerswho succeeded in escaping madetheirmiserable
way into New Amsterdam with the plaint: "Every place is
abandoned. We wretched people must skulk with wives and
little ones that are still left, in poverty together by and around
the Fort at New Amsterdam."
What happened thereafter stands as a good memorial to
the sober sense and the stout intelligence of these Dutchmen.
In their misery, with the fruits of years of hard toil gone as
in a whirlwind, they might have been excused for giving way
to rage and hate. They might, as did many other pioneers
in similar circumstances elsewhere, have cried for a war of
extermination. They did not. These Holland men ran true
to the Holland history of straight thinking. They complained
to the States-General against the Director-General (or Gover-
nor, to use a common term for his office) and demanded his
removal.
Holland was far away, Kieft did not lack friends, and
governments move slowly. So it was 1646 before there was
a decision; but when it came, it was the best that could have
come, for the man who arrived in 1647 ^^ govern the Colony
was Petrus Stuyvesant — Petrus the hot-headed, Petrus the
Hhe History of Hudson County
hot-hearted, Petrus who in his person exemplified in dramatic
degree all that obstinacy side by side with tolerance, that
courage mingled with liking for peaceful ways, that shrewdness
grained with a deep honesty that has made the small Dutch
nation a power in the world to be reckoned with, both in
peace and war.
The great Petrus Stuyvesant — and he was indeed one of
the greatest of the men who had come into the New World
up to that time — was emphatically
no pacificist. But he knew when to
fight and when not to fight. Little
by little he restored something of
the old good relations, until settlers
again dared to enter New Jersey.
For ten years they planted and
traded in peace. Then in 1654 the
killing of an Indian girl on Man-
hattan Island caused another war.
The Indians brought it home to
New Amsterdam itself. On the New
Jersey side they swept the country
almost as before. " Not one white person remained in Pa-
vonia." Twenty Boueries were destroyed and three hundred
families were collected in the Fort on Manhattan Island.
Governor Stuyvesant had been away on a little war against
the Swedes who had settled along the South River (Delaware)
in defiance of Dutch claims. He returned quickly and again
conciliated the Indians, even agreeing to pay ransom for their
prisoners whom they held at Paulus Hook. Gradually peace
and of the Old Village of Bergen 19
returned, but there was not the old feeling of security. On
January 18, 1656, the Director-General (or Governor as we
shall call him hereafter) issued an Ordinance commanding
all settlers to "concentrate themselves by the next spring in
the form of towns, villages and hamlets so that they may be
more effectually protected, maintained and defended against
all assaults and attacks of the barbarians." To enable them
to restore their holdings, another Ordinance exempted them
from tithes and taxes for six years on condition that they obey
the concentration order by establishing villages of at least
twelve families.
The Dutch did not like to live in fear, and they did not
like to live huddled. They were a sociable people but they
wholly lacked the timid herd instinct. It was impossible for
them to look over the rich valleys and bottom lands and
remain content in close settlements. They had stout bodies
and stout weapons — two arguments generally recognized as
excellent for acquiring title to coveted domain. Yet despite
the bitterness of two Indian wars, they still preferred more
commonplace methods of real estate transaction. In January
30, 1658, Governor Stuyvesant and the Council of New
Netherland acquired by purchase from the Indians a tract of
land lying along the west side of the North River. This
territory was signed over for the red men by the Indian chiefs
Therincques,Wawapehack,Seghkor, Koghkenningh, Bomo-
kan, Memiwockan, Sames and Wewenatokwee (which pre-
sumably was a casual approximation to their real names by
the honest Dutch scribes and notaries) to "the noble Lord
Director-General Pieter Stuyvesant and Councill of New
20 "The History of Hudson County
'■'■There Came an Uprising of Tribes"
From the Lunette by C. T. Turner, Hudson County Court House
Netherlandt." It is described as "beginning from the Great
Klip above Wiehachan and from there right through the land
above the island Sikakes and therefrom thence to the Kill
von Coll, and so along to the Constable Hoeck, and from
the Constable Hoeck again to the aforesaid Klip above
Wiehachan."
The word "Klip" was Dutch for "cliff." It is hardly
necessary to explain what places were meant by Wiehachan
and Sikakes. Merely as a matter of superfluous accuracy we
mention apologetically that they were Weehawken and
Secaucus. Secaucus was scarcely an island. It was a strip of
firm land surrounded by tidal marsh. For some reason it was
highly prized by planters. Its name was Indian for "place
of snakes" and it and Snake Hill or Rattlesnake Hill, appear
frequently in subsequent land transfers.
and of the Old Village of Bergen
21
Paying for the Land
Frotn the Lunette by C. T. Turner, Hudson County Court House
For the territory thus sold, which included all the land
between the North and Hackensack Rivers and the Kill von
Kull, the Indians received"8ofathoms of wampum, 2ofathoms
of cloth, 12 brass kettles, i double brass kettle, 6 guns, 2
blankets,and one-half barrel of strong beer." It does not seem
much; but wampum was good Indian money, and 8o fathoms
is 480 feet, and 480 feet of good money would seem not
insignificant even today. One wonders, however, how the
tribes divided the one "double brass kettle" and who drank
the beer. In 1920, this territory was assessed for taxes on a
valuation of 1671,141,067. It seems to have been one of
those excellent transactions that permanently satisfied both
parties to the bargain.
Despite the purchase, the concentration orders and the
remission of taxes remained in force, and on August 16, 1660,
22 The History of Hudson County
a petition for farming rights was granted to several families
on condition that, first, a spot must be selected which could
be defended easily; second, each settler to whom land was
given free must begin to build his house within six weeks
after drawing his lot; third, there must be at least one soldier
enlisted from each house, able to bear arms to defend the
village.
In November of the same year the village of Bergen was
founded "by permission of Peter Stuy vesant, Director-General,
and the Council of New Netherland," and thus Bergen,
(described as being "in the new maize land") besides being
the earliest settlement in New Jersey also holds the honor of
being the first permanent settlement in New Jersey.
The site of the original village is marked by the present
Bergen Square and the four blocks surrounding it, the bound-
aries being Newkirk and Vroom Streets north and south,
Tuers Avenue east and Van Reypen Street west. There were
two cross roads, and they are still represented today by exist-
ing streets. The present Bergen Avenue was the road to
the Kill von KuU and also to Bergen Woods, now known as
North Hudson. Academy Street of today was then the
Communipaw road. From their height the inhabitants looked
over island-dotted and stream-divided meadows of tall sea-
grass, swarming with wild fowl andrichwith fish. Those bright,
unstained expanses gave them mighty crops of salt hay for no
trouble save that of harvesting it. They were crops that could
not fail so long as the tides ran. Everywhere the salt tides were
the Dutchman's friend. He utilized high flood to bring craft
close to his farms for easy loading or unloading. He used the
and of the Old Village of Bergen 23
ebb to help him to the bay and so to market at New Amsterdam.
He used the flood to help him home again. Indeed, his very
land-roads were tidal; for the lower reaches to Paulus Hook
and other shores were often under sea in the full-moon tides.
In the center of the village, which was in the form of a
square 800 feet long on each side, its founders established
a vacant space, recorded as being 160 by 225 feet. In great
part this remains as today's Bergen Square. Around the whole
village was a palisade of strong logs, with openings at the
two cross roads. Daniel Van Winkle, Bergen's accomplished
historian, says that Tuers Avenue and Idaho Avenues on the
east and west, and Newkirk and Vroom Streets on the north
and south, mark the line of these palisades. In the evening,
or when there were rumors of Indian trouble, the cattle were
driven in and the openings barred by heavy gates. The farms
expanded throughout the surrounding country, and were
called "Buytentuyn."
On September 5th, 166 1 , the Director-General and Council,
in response to a petition by the inhabitants, granted the
town "an Inferior Court of justice with the privilege of appeal
to the Director-General and Council of New Netherland, to
be by their Honors finally disposed of, this Court to consist
of one Schoutwho shall convene the appointed Schepens and
presideatthemeetings." By this Ordinance, Bergen becamethe
first civic government to be establishedin the Colony. The first
Schout was Tielman Van Vleck. The Schepens were Michael
Jansen (Vreeland), Harman Smeeman and Caspar Stynmets.
The creation of this Court gave Bergen the dignity of seat
of government for all the surrounding country, for the grant
24
T^he History of Hudson County
of 1660 had conveyed to the inhabitants "the lands with the
meadows thereto annexed situated on the west side of the
North River in Pavonia, in the same manner as the same was
by us purchased of the Indians." Thus the freeholders of
Bergen held all of what is now known as Hudson County.
The Schout and the Schepens soon had their hands full.
The placid Dutchman had a placid way of insisting stubbornly
Second Church, Erected Ijy^
Bergen A'venue and
Vroom Street
and of the Old Village of Bergen 25
on his rights. One of their first cases was that of WiUiam
Jensen or Jansen to whom they had granted the right to
operate a ferry between Bergen and the Island of Manhattan,
at fixed rates for daytime and fair weather, while in stormy
weather or at night the rates were to be "as the parties might
agree." We may guess that there were deep argviments
between the ferryman and the passengers as to exactly what
constituted stormy weather. That the parties did not man-
age to "agree" is shown by his strenuous complaint to the
Schout and Schepens that the people ferried themselves over,
"much to his loss and discomfort." The people, however,
made so plain that they did not intend to let the ferryman
monopolize a Httle thing Hke the North River that the Court
formally decreed that each one had the right to keep and use
his own boat or "schuyt."
Most numerous of all were the disputes over land bounda-
ries. The government grants were beautifully vague, and
some of the cases must have made the official heads ache, as
for instance, in the case of title such as Claus Pietersen's,
which called for "138 acres bounded west by the Bergen Road
and north by Nicholas the baker," or the town lot deeded to
Adrien Post as being "on the corner by the northwest gate
in Bergen, and a garden on the northwest side of the town."
There were other famous cases that shook the community.
Their records have, unhappily, been lost, but their tenor is
'Uustrated by the appeals that came before the Council in after
years. One was the great hog case which Captain John Berry
carried indignantly to the Council on appeal against the Schout,
complaining that the Schout and Schepens had "instituted
26 T^he History of Hudson County
actions against him for carrying off some hogs as if he had
obtained them in a scandalous manner, by stealing" whereas
he had simply taken his own hogs from an enclosure where
they were being withheld from his possession. The Schout
informed the Council that the Captain had not been charged
with stealing but simply with "inconsiderate removal of the
hogs." The Captain, thus pressed, acknowledged that per-
haps he had "rashly removed the said hogs." The Director-
General and Council, after deep deliberation, solemnly cleared
Captain Berry of the suspicion of theft, but found that he
"had gone too far in inconsiderate removal of the hogs" —
and fined him one hundred guilders.
The surrounding little settlements also did not always
agree with the Schout and Schepens. The latter had to com-
plain in 1674 to the General Council that the inhabitants of
"the dependent hamlets of Gemoenepa, Mingaghue and
Pemrepogh" had refused to carry out an agreement "res-
pecting the making and maintaining of a certain common
fence to separate the heifers from the milk cows, and that
they also refused to pay their quota for support of the
Precentor and the Schoolmaster."
The men of the three hamlets were so indignant that they
almost issued a Declaration of Independence. There were
great ferriages to the Fort at Manhattan to fight it out. The
Council debated and decreed. So fierce became the contest
that arbitrators were appointed and greater debates ensued.
The arbitrators met the fate of all arbitrators. Gemoenepa,
Mingaghue and Pemrepogh did not Hke their decision, and
therefore unanimously called it no decision at all. Loureno
and of the Old Village of Bergen 27
Andriese, Samuel Edsall and Dirk Claesen went to the Fort
on behalf of the hamlets and demanded that the Schout and
Schepens be ordered once and for all to "leave the petitioners
undisturbed about the fence." In the end the Council
evidently got impatient, for it issued a decree ordering the
hamlets to attend to both the fence and the quota, and to do
it at once. The records do not show if they did. Knowing
the fine, upstanding firmness of the race, it may be that the
cows and the Precentor and the Schoolmaster passed away
from old age with the matter still unsettled.
Petrus Stuyvesant soon had more serious things to consider
than appeals from decisions of Schout and Schepens. In 1664,
Charles II of England in his large, generous way granted his
brother, the Duke of York, a royal charter for the "whole
region from the west bank of the Connecticut River to the
east shore of the Delaware." The Duke, without pausing for
the trivial details of proving title, promptly conveyed to
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret all the territory that
now is New Jersey. The early voyages of the Cabots were
the foundation of the EngHsh claim. The small fact that these
voyages were made in 1498 was not permitted to disturb the
legal mind.
Colonel Richard Nichols with three ships of 130 guns and
with 600 men appeared before New Amsterdam. Everybody
knows how brave old Petrus wanted to blow up the fort and
all within it rather than to surrender, and how the burgers
declined to go to a glorious death.
The English took the place and immediately renamed it
New York. It seems to have been the most important change
28
like History of Hudson County
The Coming of the Englhh
that they made. The inhabitants remained Dutch in every-
thing save the flag that flew over them, and they accepted that
emblem philosophically, holding fast to their ways, their trade
and their lands, and letting emblems be emblems. The new
rulers were more concerned with keeping the Colony than
with changing it. They confirmed all the old grants, or most
of them.
At first the New Jersey territory was called Nova Cesarea,
but the name New Jersey soon became the common one.
In a charter granted on September 22, 1668, by Sir Philip
Carteret, brother of Sir George and Governor of the new
province, he confirmed the original grants to "the Towne and
the Freeholders of Bergen and to the Villages and Plantations
thereunto belonging." The township was estimated in this
deed as comprising 1 1,520 acres, which was probably a mere
and of the Old Village of Bergen
29
From the Mural by HoivarJ Pyle, Hudson County Court House
guess since it seems to have been too little by half. It was
about sixteen miles long and four miles wide "including the
said Towne of Bergen, Communipaw, Ahassimus, Minkacque,
and Pembrepock, bounded on the east, south and west by-
New York and Newark Bays and the Hackensack River."
By the conditions of the charter the freeholders were bound
to pay "to the Lords Proprietors and their successors on
every twenty-fifth day of March fifteen pounds as quit rent
forever." The boundaries fixed in this charter remained
unchanged till the Act of Legislature that in 1 843 constituted
a new County of Hudson.
Among other confirmations of previous grants we find a
record of a deed "to Laurence Andriessen of the land in the
tract called Minkacque under the jurisdiction of Bergen, north-
east of Lubert Gilbertsen, southwest of Derrick Straetmaker,
30 The History of Hudson County
comprising fifty Dutch Morgen(a Dutch land measurement)
for a quit rent of one penny English for each acre," and a con-
firmation of patent to "Isaacsen Planck for a neck of land
called Paulus Hook or Aressechhonk, west of Ahasimus."
On July 30, 1 673, during the second war between England
and Holland, a Dutch fleet took New York, and re-christened
it New Orange. Aside from changing the name and calling
on all the inhabitants to swear allegiance, which they did with
cheerful good will, things remained as they had been; and when
the peace of 1674 definitely turned over New Netherland to
England, the colonists changed flags again unruffled and —
remained Dutch. The record of the Oath of Allegiance to the
Dutch government enumerates "78 inhabitants of Bergen and
dependencies, of whom 69 appeared at drum beat." A report
of 1680 describes Bergen as "a compact town" containing
about 40 families.
Gradually, to be sure, English people came in. New York
was growing into a great town, and it drew merchants and
adventurers from all parts, becoming indeed so metropolitan
that even the pirateis of the seven seas esteemed it as an
excellent market for their plunder. But on the western bank
of the river the old habits of Holland remained so fixed that
we still find characteristic Dutch traits, Dutch architecture,
even Dutch customs from the Hudson to the Ramapos.
In 1682, the Province of New Jersey was divided into four
Counties — Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth; and
in 1693 ^^^^ County was divided into townships. In 1714,
an Act gave a new charter to "The Inhabitants of the Town
of Bergen."
and of the Old Village of Bergen 31
With the growth of population Paulus Hook became an
important place. The Van Vorst family had acquired it in
1669, and it remained in their possession till well into the
Nineteenth Century. It was the natural terminus for ferries
to New York and stage Hnes had been estabhshed early. By
1764, Paulus Hook was more than a mere ferry landing. It
was the terminus of the stage routes from Philadelphia. In
the New York Mercury of that year we find the announce-
ment that "Sovereign Sybrandt informs the PubHc he has
fitted up and completed in the neatest Manner a new and
genteel stage Waggon which is to perform two Stages in every
week from Philadelphia to New York, from Philadelphia to
Trenton, from Trenton to Brunswick and from Brunswick
to the said Sybrandt's House and from said Sybrandt's House
by the new and lately estabhshed Post Road (on Bergen
which is now generally resorted to by the Populace, who
prefer a Passage by said Place, before the Danger of crossing
the Bay) to Powles's Hook opposite to New York where it
discharges the Passengers. Each single person only paying
at the Rate of Two Pence Half-Penny per mile from said
Powles's Hook to said Sybrandt's House and at the rate of
Two Pence per Mile after. — N. B. As said Sybrandt now
dwells in the House known by the Sign of the Roebuck
which House he has now finished in a genteel Manner and
has laid in a choice Assortment of Wines and other Liquors,
where Gentlemen Passengers and others may at all Times be
assured of meeting with the best of Entertainment."
Michael Cornelison also operated a stage line to and from
Philadelphia and a ferry to New York. He had a tavern on
32
T^he History of Hudson County
¥ir%t Voyage of the Clermont y l8oj
From the Lunette by C. T. Turner, Hudson County Court House
Paulus Hook, and he was firm with passengers. They had to
arrive from New York the day before. Between sunset and
sunrise CorneHson considered the river officially closed.
Paulus Hook also had a race track. It was established in
1 769 by Cornelius Van Vorst and it was pounded democratic-
ally by the hoofs of blooded horses belonging to New York
sports and by the larger hoofs of the corpulent steeds belong-
ing to the country side. There was a noble race in 1771,
"round the course at Powles Hook, a match forThirty Dollars
between Booby, Mug and Quicksilver, to run twice around
to a heat, to carry catch riders." In the Bergen woods, the
gentry had regular fox hunts on horseback in English style.
No greater things excited these peaceful people till the time
of the Revolution. Then, though that country was spared
any great battles, it had its share of marches and counter-
marches, skirmishes and alarms. It was a raiding ground, for
and of the Old Village of- Bergen 33
Waihin^on and His Officers
From the Lunette by C. T. Turner, Hudson County Court House
it was rich in fat cattle and plentiful farm produce, and as
always in war, the non-belligerent population suffered all the
hardships without any of the glory. It appears humorous now
to read the wail of certain burghers who were stopped by a
raiding party on their way home from church and stripped of
their breeches; but undoubtedly it seemed a bitter thing to
the owners. There were more serious things, too, and in
plenty. There were sudden raids at night, with burnings and
killings, or at the least with plundering that left homesteads
stripped bare of cattle and goods.
After Long Island was evacuated by Washington's troops
and it was decided impossible to hold New York, much of the
artillery and stores and many wounded were taken to the New
Jersey shore for transportation to Newark. An account dated
"Paulus Hook, September 15, 1776," says: "Last night the
sick were ordered to Newark in the Jersies, but most of them
34 T^he History of Hudson County
could be got no further than this place and Hoebuck, and as
there is but one house at each of these places, many were
obliged to lie in the open, whose distress when I walked out
at daybreak gave me a livelier idea of the horror of war than
anything I ever met with before. About 8 a, m, 3 large ships
came to sail and made towards the Hook. They raked the
place with grape and killed one horse. On the night of the
17th, the garrison tried to burn the ships which had anchored
3 miles above. They grappled the Renown of 50 guns but
failed. She cannonaded us again later. Colonel Duyckinck
this morning retired to Bergen leaving Colonel Durkee on the
Hook with 300 men." After three days' cannonading by
ships, the Americans withdrew and thereafter the British held
Paulus Hook. Bergen remained the headquarters of the
American forces till it too was evacuated.
The British were not permitted to hold even the Hook
undisturbed. American parties made daring raids again and
again, the most famous of these being known as the Battle of
Paulus Hook. On the night of August 19, 1779, Major Lee
(the celebrated Light Horse Harry of Revolutionary annals)
brought his men across the Hackensack and through enemy
territory along a perilous causeway through the swamps, falling
on the British so suddenly and fiercely that he was able to
carry back with him 7 officers and 100 privates.
The loyalist I<iew York Gazette of August 28, 1780, said:
"General Washington, the Marquis de la Fayette, Generals
Greene and Wayne with many other Officers and a large body
of Rebels have been in the vicinity of Bergen for some days
past. They have taken all the forage from the Inhabitants of
and of the Old Village of Bergen 35
Columbia Academy^ Northeast Corner, Bergen Square
that Place and left them destitute of almost everything for
their:present and Winter Subsistence."
The editors of the New York papers may be excused. They
existed by grace of the British military authorities, and the
military authorities had a hard time explaining why all their
troops and warships and other plentiful means could neither
force a passage of the Hudson past West Point nor break that
"pitiful line of ragged Rebels" that held the long line all the
way from the Ramapos to the upper Hudson. So they in-
dulged themselves in the thin comfort of printing sarcastic
things about them. The Royal Gazette^ published by the
notorious Rivington, "printer to His Majesty in New York,"
36 T^he History of Hudson County
was particularly martial about it, and it was this journal that
delighted its readers with a succession of verses called "The
Cow Chace" in which the Revolutionary Generals were agree-
ably pictured as rustics, drunkards and dunces.
"The Cow Chace" based on a raid by General Anthony
Wayne on a British block house at Bull's Ferry near
Hoboken, was the work of a young British officer named
Major Andre. If he was a little crude in literary etiquette
and a very poor poet indeed, he knew how to die as a brave and
honest gentleman. He is said to have given the last canto
of his epic to the editor of the Royal Gazette on the day
before he left New York for his disastrous conference with
Benedict Arnold at West Point. The final verses appeared
in the edition that was published on the very morning when
the gay, gallant young fellow was captured :
'^Tet Bergen cows still ruminate
Unconscious in the stall
What mighty means were used to get
And lose them after all.
:;: * * :i: :^
And now I've clos d my epic strain
I tremble as I show it,
Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,
Should ever catch the poet"
The Nineteenth <3:W Twentieth Centuries
HE first important changes in Bergen and its
surrounding territory were brought by the
development of transportation, and this de-
1^ velopment was due chiefly to the rapidly
growing business between New York and
Philadelphia. Stage route terminals on the
North River meant short ferriage as against the bay ferriage
involved in the alternative New Brunswick-Amboy-Staten
Island route. The thoughtful ferrymen of Paulus Hook
did not permit the public to remain bhnd to it. Their adver-
tisements are full of humane warnings against the " Dangers
of the Bay."
It was not a trifling consideration in the days before steam,
when even the river ferriage was an adventure. The first river
ferries were rowing skiffs or, more simply, canoes of hollowed
soft wood logs. The river was no more tranquil than it is now
and its width was far greater, for today there are parts on both
shores where more than a thousand feet have been filled in.
As late as 1 8 1 6, the mail was carried across in rowboats, and we
have a dramatic narrative of a twenty -four hours' battle to
rescue a mail carrier and his negro boatman from the ice-pack.
Another narrative, not so well authenticated, but so pleasing
that it ought to be true, is that of a Dutch planter and his wife
who were in mid-stream when "a large fish leaped into their
skiff" and knocked a hole into it. With admirable intelligence
the honestly built wife sat on the critical spot and by virtue of
38
'^he History of Hudson County
her many and vast petticoats defeated the river's passionate
attempt to sink them.
As traffic increased, rowboats were supplemented, though
not driven out, by sailing craft of a type known as periagua —
a word presenting such difficulties to the casual spellers of the
time that nearly every reference in early print enriches us with
a different version from "peraga" to "pettiaugre." They were
built of white-wood, modeled largely on the plan of the dug-
out, and in time were made large enough to carry horses and
carriages.
Early in i 800 the ferrymen installed "horse boats" pro-
pelled by horse-driven machinery. They held their own for
many years after the Albany Gazette announced that "The
North River Steam Boat (Robert Fulton's "Clermont") will
leave Paulus Hook on the 4th of September (1807), at nine
o'clock in the evening. Provisions, good berths, and accomo-
dations are furnished. The charge for each passenger is as
and of the Old Village of Bergen
39
follows; Newburgh, fare ^3, time 14 hours; Po'keepsie, fare
I4, time 17 hours; Esopus, fare $5, time 20 hours; Hudson,
fare $5^, time 30 hours; Albany, fare $7, time 36 hours."
John Stevens who had bought Hoboken in 1 804, installed
the first steam ferry in the world in 181 1. It made its trial
tripinSeptemberandranbetweenHobokenand Barclay Street,
New York, but before long the horse boat was reinstated.
Similar lack of success attended the installation of the steam
ferries "Jersey" and "York" built by Robert Fulton for the
York and Jersey Steam Boat Ferry Company and put into
operation in 18 12. Although an enthusiastic account had it
that "we crossed the river in 14 minutes in this safe machine,"
cynics alleged that the safe machines more often needed an
hour, and that when the "York" and the " Jersey " met in mid-
stream there was time for painfully long contemplation before
they succeeded in passing.
These ferries were not small. Their length was 80 feet,
only 20 less than that of the " Clermont" which was considered
One of the Early Sleam Ferries
40
The History of Hudson County
A Stubborn Competitor of Steam, iSjO
a great vessel. There were two hulls braced with the paddle-
wheel suspended between, and with a deck over all 30 feet
wide. The passengers sat in the open, but there was a hold
for refuge in bad weather.
In 1 8 16, the company had succeeded in earning only one
dividend (of five per cent), which explains why Philip Howe
who leased the West Hoboken or " Weehawk" ferry in 182 1
contented himself with two sailboats and a horse boat. John
Stevens also adhered to sail and horse after abandoning his first
steam terry, and did not try steam again till 1822. By that
time, however, it had become practical. The Canal Street ferry-
boat "Pioneer," which went into commission in 1823, had a
ladies' cabin warmed with open fireplaces and was lavishly
decorated.
In land transporation, steam met similar difficulties. In
1830, Peter Cooper's locomotive "Tom Thumb," with Peter
and of the Old Village of Bergen
41
One of the Firs: Steam Trains, iSjI
Cooper himself in charge, was sadly defeated by a stubbornly
unprogressive stage proprietor who raced it with a single horse
hitched to the same kind of coach that was drawn by the loco-
motive. All the stage companies in the land spread the glad
news. They also told with infinite joy how the foolish and
heinously dangerous locomotives showered passengers with
flaming wood embers so that they had to protect themselves
with hoisted umbrellas which, alas! caught fire themselves.
Therefore though optimists went on laying rails, the stage
business continued to prosper so healthily that in 1 832 at least
twenty stage Hnes were crossing Bergen in all directions.
In that year the Paterson and Hudson Railroad completed
its tracks and began operation with a rolling stock of "three
splendid and commodious cars each capable of accommodating
30 passengers, drawn by fleet and gentle horses." Locomotives
were introduced a little later, but with excellent caution the
42 The History of Hudson County
company announced that "the steam and horse cars are so in-
termixed that passengers may make their selection & the timid
can avail themselves of the latter twice a day." This is the
road that was absorbed by the Erie Railroad and served as its
route to tide-water till the Erie Tunnel was pierced in 1861.
The main stage route to Philadelphia in early 1 800 is sup-
posed to have been about along the present line of Grand,
Warren, York and Van Vorst Streets, crossing a marsh at Mill
Creek, following a road to old Prior's Mill, and connecting
with the Old Mill Road. An old Eighteenth Century plank
causeway over the meadows to Newark that "trembled under
foot" was replaced about this time by the Newark Turnpike.
It had dangers of its own. The records show that the great
cedar swamps on both sides had to be burned off to drive out
robbers.
By 1 8 13, four stage Hnes were in hot competition for the
New York-Philadelphia business. The title "stage-waggon"
became too tame for these fervid rivals, and one of them in-
vented the title of "machine." Mightily stirred by this poetic
imagery, another named his stages "flying machines." From
that day so long as a stage survived, every self-respecting
stage driver referred to himself as operating a flying machine.
The fastest flying machine of 1 8 13 left New York at i p. m.
and did not fly into Philadelphia till 6 a. m. next day.
In 1 820 the disintegration of Bergen Township began with
the incorporation of the City of Jersey, re-incorporated in
1 829 as Jersey City. Except for a moderate increase in popu-
lation, the teritory in that period was little difl^erent from its
aspect and manner in the old days. There were compararively
and of the Old Village of Bergen
43
Park^ Homestead. (Vroom Street and Bergen A'venue)
few inhabitants not of Dutch descent, and Dutch habit and
thought were dominant. There were no buildings except dwel-
Hngs and farm structures, and practically all the dwellings
were of the stoutly typical long, low, comfortable Dutch style.
From their ridge the Bergen men, looking down on what is
now lower Jersey City with crowded factories and piers, saw
a shore-land that still was largely amphibious, and when high
tide covered the marshes, they could still distinguish the three
"islands" that originally comprised the only solid land in that
tract. Paulus Hook was the same pile of sand as in the begin-
ning, with little except fishermen's huts here and there besides
44
The History of Hudson County
the race track and ferries. Northern Jersey City's water-front
was practically empty save for a ferry house. Hoboken's Elysian
Fields held unmarred the beauty which had won the high-
sounding title, and a single little tavern sufficed to entertain
holiday makers there. The placid population made barely
enough employment for the single Court at Hackensack and
for a few local Dutch justices of the peace. It was a happy
land that made no history.
Steam was winning, however, and soon its early demands
gave a great impetus to the mechanical hand-crafts that it was
destined to destroy. Jersey City, which had only about 300
inhabitants at the time of its incorporation in 1820, is credited
in a record of 1 845 with having 4000 population at that date.
Among its larger industries were the works of the American
Pottery Company, the Jersey City Glass Company employing
about a hundred men, a famous fireworks establishment, a
candle factory and many shops owned by individual me-
chanics. There were two foundries. One was Fulton's at the
The Monitor, iSb.
and of the Old Village of Bergen 45
corner of Morgan and Greene Streets, and it was at this
foundry that some of the first ironclads for the Civil War
were fabricated later.
Fulton also had a dry dock. It appears to have had ample
business, for by 1 845 the water-front business had become
sufficient to justify the building of a vessel, the "Dudley S,
Gregory," constructed at Burlington expressly for Jersey City
trade. Two years later, Jersey City celebrated the docking of
its first Cunarder, the "Hibernia."
Bergen adhered to its agriculture and other old ways longer
than the surrounding communities. Its inhabitants looked
serenely down on Jersey City's accumulating factory chimneys
and saw its increasing bustle and wealth without apparent
desire to emulate it. Years after gas had made the streets
below their height look like far-trailed strings of beads, they
remained content with candles and sperm whale oil, and as
late as 1858 there were only 60 gas consumers on the whole
ridge.
Bit by bit its less restful constituent parts broke away, much
as the offspring of the good old burghers themselves was
breaking away from the good old customs. In 1837, Bergen
County's opulent girth was sharply reduced by taking away
enough to make Passaic County. In 1 840 another legal opera-
tion set off the County of Hudson. Bergen Township was like
a fine Dutch cheese exposed to busy mice. It was nibbled at
from all sides. In 1841, two years after full rail traffic had
been opened between New York and Philadelphia by the New
Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, Van Vorst
Township was nibbled off. Another nibble in 1 842 bit off the
46
T^he History of Hudson County
Bergen Square, l8j2. (From an Old Print)
part north of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and made North
Bergen from which Hudson City and Hobolcen were set off
before i860. By the time Bayonne and Greenville had been
cut out of Bergen, it was in much the same condition as the old
families whose ancestral plantations had been reduced by suc-
cessive street encroachments to mere town lots. When, in
1868, a new charter was given to the City of Bergen, its area
had decreased in inverse ratio to its wealth and real estate
valuations. Finally, on March 17, 1870, popular vote con-
soHdated Bergen, Hudson and Jersey City into the Greater
Jersey City.
T^he Trust Company ^New Jersey
► HiLE workmen were excavating at Sip and
Bergen Avenues for the foundation of the
new eleven-story building of the Trust
Company of New Jersey, they unearthed
an ancient well. It was 45 feet deep, reach-
ing down to a subterranean stream. The
hollow logs that formed it fell apart as soon as they were
handled. At such wells the early Van Vorsts, Van Homes,
Van Winkles and others drew the water for the houses within
the old palisades; and it was such a well, with troughs for
cattle around it, that was dug in the center of Bergen Square
Old Dutch Well
48 T^he History of Hudson County
by order of the Schout and Schepens of Bergen, ratified by
the Council at New Amsterdam on February 9, 1662,
If these men of 1660 had returned to Bergen a hundred
years later they would have found no marvelous changes.
Even in i860 they would have found much that was un-
changed, despite steamships and railroads, streets lit with gas,
and busy factories. All local transport still was done with
horses, there were enough cattle, sheep, pigs and goats at large
to keep a pound-keeper fully occupied, the salt meadows were
lively with flights of duck and snipe, and sea fish and sea turtle
still were being taken in the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers,
the Kill von Kuil, and in Newark and New York Bays.
It was left for the period within our own generation to
change the world so colossally that today those Dutch ances-
tors would indeed imagine themselves to be among sorcery
and witchcraft. Automobiles flashwhere they plodded behind
oxen and fat slow horses. Where the old windmill on Paulus
Hook ground corn less than a hundred years ago, there stand
and float implements of commerce whose use they could
not comprehend. Their descendants are shot in electric
trains under that North River which they ferried with
labor and fear.
Most amazing of all, however, would be the tall buildings;
and it would be almost impossible for them to believe that the
vastly reared piles of marble and granite are not palaces of
their High Mightinesses the States General of rich Holland,
but simply the modern successors of their little trading posts
under trees where, with scales held in the hand, they weighed
furs in exchange for wampum.
and of the Old Village of Bergen 49
They would not know what to make of a modern banking
institution with mighty steel vaults; for wampum, the cur-
rency of sea shells, was the leading medium of the New
Netherlands during more of a century, and what little gold
they possessed was " banked" in hiding places under the floors
or in the gardens.
The sea-shell currency was known by the Indian names of
wampum or seawant. The first Dutch arrivals found it in
general use among the savages, and adopted it partly from
choice, but largely from necessity. Dutch currency was not
only scarce and precious, but it was unknown to the Indians,
and thus it occurred naturally that the financial system of the
new colony estabhshed itself on a shell basis instead of a gold
basis.
The shells were of a special kind and occurred in two colors,
black and white. The Indians prized the black shells at a ratio
about double that of the white. To the Dutch traders it seemed
immensely like making money by magic to obtain valuable
furs for common shells ; but as commerce grew, it happened
inevitably that wampum could not be confined to trading with
the Indians, and it had to be accepted by the Dutch in dealings
among themselves.
Soon the "easy money" revenged itself as easy money
always has done. Wampum was held to be worth a stiver for
three black shells or for six white ones, and as twenty stivers
equaled a guilder (about 40 cents) it encouraged many finan-
ciers to engage in the business of fishing industriously for the
precious shell-fish. There was no law to forbid anybody from
thus operating a submarine mint; and even if we repudiate
50
'^he History of Hudson County
Washington Irving's libelous insinuation that Director-
General Kieft gave grants to his friends to rake and scrape
every shell-bed from the Delaware to Cape Cod, it remains
undeniable that the wampum financial system became fright-
fully inflated.
In 1690 there must have been almost a wampum panic, for
the Council issued a Proclamation: "Whereas with Great Con-
cern we have observed both Now and for a Long Time past
the Depreciation and Corruption of the loose seawant, where-
by occasion is given for repeated Complaints from the In-
habitants that they can not go with such seawant to the Market,
nor yet procure for themselves any Commodity, not even
a White Loaf, we ordain that no loose seawant shall be a
Legal Tender except the same be strung on one string: that
six white or three black shall pass for one stiver; and of base
seawant, shall pass eight white and four black for one stiver."
Tht Old and Neiv Hudson County Court Houses, Jeney City
and of the Old Village of Bergen 51
Today wampum seems a ludicrously worthless currency;
but centuries after wampum had vanished, governments and
peoples continued to dream that government edicts and laws
could establish values. There are no doubt many Bergen
families that still possess, as historical souvenirs, such currency
as the "shin-plasters" that were issued by Jersey City in 1862.
Such money, issued by Federal, State and local governments,
was, after all, simply a paper form of wampum; for, though
it may have had more or less tangible value behind it, its chief
characteristic was the value that had been given it by edict.
It was left for our own era to establish a financial system
founded on a sound basis. How sound that basis is was proved
when the great war broke on the world. This, the greatest
economic catastrophe that the modern human structure has
known, immeasurably more calamitous than any other that
ever occurred, was borne by the financial system of the United
States almost without a tremor.
Integrity of asset values is the one and only thing which
made this extraordinary strength. The shock has been so
tremendous that it tested the foundations of everything
that man has devised, and only absolute soundness could
resist it. But even had there been no catastrophe of war, the
integrity of our modern American financial system has been
tested in our time in a manner equally searching.
During the past quarter century we have had a growth of
commerce that has led us from terms of thousands of dollars
to terms of millions, and from terms of millions to terms of
many millions until we have learned to contemplate even such
gigantic sums as billions. There could be no better illustration
Bergen and
Lafayette Branch
Monti cello Avenue
and Brinkerhoff
St reel, Jersey City
Hoboken Branch V\
12 and 14
Hudson Place
Toivn of Union
Branch
Bergenline A'venue
and Hackensack
Plank Road
Toivn of Union
N.J.
People's Safe
Deposit "Branch
Central A'venue
and Boivers Street
Jersey City
Branch Offices of The Trust Company of New Jersey
'The History of Hudson County
S'i
of this great change and growth than is presented in the
records of the Trust Company of New Jersey. It is only
twenty-five years ago since four men, schoolmates in their
youth, A. P. Hexamer, Henry Mehl, John Mehl, Jr., and
William C. Heppenheimer met in the office of Russ & Hep-
penheimer and organized the People's Safe Deposit and Trust
Company. That was in the spring of 1896, and a bank was
established at the corner of Hutton Street and Central
Avenue, Jersey City, as Main Office, with a branch in the
Town of Union. The venture was a success from its inception,
as is evidenced by the first statement issued by the bank, cover-
ing the nine months ending December 31, 1896:
Capital SI00»000.00.
PEOPLE'S
Safe Deposit and Trust Company,
COR. CENTRIL AVENUE & HUTTON STREET,
COR. LEWIS STREET i. PALISADE AVENUE.
OFFICERS:
President, • . WM. C. HEPPENHEIMER.
Vice-President, - - - WM. PETER.
Treasurer. - . . . JOHN MEHL. Jr.
Secretary and Cashier, - - WM. T. VIDAL.
DIRECTORS :
Wm. Petir, Henrv Bkauticam.
Hemby Mehl, Rudolph F. Ra£E,
Richard Schlemm. M. D.,
John Mehl, Jr.. Alex. P. Hexamer,
Wm. C. Heppenheimer, Edward Russ.
[over]
STATEMENT
The PEOPLE'S
Safe Deposit and Trust Company,
Jersey City. N. J. and Town of Union, N. J.
FOR NINE MONTHS ENDING DEC. 31 ST, 1896.
RESOURCES.
Cash on Hand and In Bank, - $143,441.03
Loans and Discounts, ... 69,838.07
nortgages, 9>,3>3-36
U. S. Qov. Bonds, .... 90,046.87
nuniclpal Bonds, .... 17,293.50
Banking House, Furniture and Fixtures, 25,117.18
$437.050-01
LIABILITIES
Capitai, . - . • $100,000.00
Deposits, . - . . 328,019.30
Certified Cliecks, - - 7,308.31
Undivided Profits (E»penses& Taxes Palil), 1,722.40
Jersey city. N. J ,
Jairatr; l«. I89r
$437,050.01
WM. T. VIDAL,
SECRETARY 4 CASHIER.
54 The History of Hudson County
In the spring of the year 1899, the same group of business
men concluded to organize a trust company in the city of
Hoboken, operating as a branch of the People's Safe Deposit
and Trust Company of Jersey City. They were met by the
law of 1899, then on its final passage in the Legislature, pre-
venting the operation of branches which theretofore had been
permissible. Nothing daunted, they organized the Trust
Company of New Jersey in Hoboken, which also was suc-
cessful from the start.
In 1902, the Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company was
founded in the Bergen Section of Jersey City, and in 1 9 1 1 , the
Carteret Trust Company was organized and located in Journal
Square at the Summit Avenue tube station, Jersey City. Both
these companies were founded by the same men as the other
two, and were similarly successful.
In 19 13, the Legislature of the state of New Jersey passed
an act permitting the consolidationof trust companies and their
operation as branches with one main office. In accordance
with this act, on the 20th day of September, 19 13, the
People's Safe Deposit and Trust Company with its branch in
the Town of Union, the Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company,
and the Carteret Trust Company all went out of existence and
were taken over by the Trust Company of New Jersey, with
Hoboken as the main office. Since that date the other institu-
tions have been operated as branches under the names of
People's SafeDepositBranch,Townof Union Branch, Bergen
& Lafayette Branch, and Carteret Branch.
The following gentlemen formed the Board of Directors
of the consolidation which had thus become the Trust
and of the Old Village of Bergen SS
Company of Newjersey : F. E. Armbruster, George A. Berger,
Ernest Biardot, Chas. A. Coppinger, Walter M. Dear, Robert
R. Debacher, Lawrence Fagan, John Ferguson, Louis Formon,
Ephraim De Groff, Joseph Harrison, Edward V. Hartford,
Ernest J. Heppenheimer, Robert E. Jennings, Anthony R.
Kuser, John P. Landrine, Edward P. Meany, Walter
Meixner, Wm. L. Pyle, John T. Rowland, Jr., C. Howard
Slater, Edw. H. Schmidt, Edward J. Schroeder, Emil
Schumann and J. Hollis Wells.
The assets of the combined institutions at the date of their
consohdation on September 20, 1913, were $17,656,778.78.
On June 30, 1921, the total resources of the Company were
I37.343.663.43.
With the completion of the new building at Bergen and Sip
Avenues, Jersey City, it was decided by the Board of Direc-
tors to move the main office there. The Hoboken office thus
becomes the Hoboken branch, continuing the same Hne of
business as heretofore.
AfiV Main O^ice Buiuiing, Bergen an J Sip A-ienua, Jo ie\ Ql\
The New Building
of the Trust Company ^New Jersey
d^owERiNG from the crest of Bergen Hill, with
command of view that includes the whole
panorama of the Island of Manhattan, the
Hudson River, the great harbor, and New
Jersey inland to Newark and the Oranges,
stands the new building of the Trust Com-
pany of New Jersey.
Located on the southwest corner of Bergen and Sip Ave-
nues, Jersey City, it has a situation that not only gives it the
utmost convenience of access from New York and all sur-
rounding suburbs and towns, but that also makes it central
to all the business activities of this industrial and commercial
New Jersey territory.
Past its doors go the principal trolley lines, as well as
jitney and bus lines that radiate through Hudson County.
It is on the lines of the Hudson and Manhattan River Tube
trains, and branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Throughout its design and construction there has been a
consistently executed plan for combining the most complete
modern utility and comfort with the greatest beauty attainable
in these tall structures which so admirably lend themselves
to splendid effects. Its architects, Clinton & Russell, have
made it a perfect expression of the Italian Renaissance style,
attaining height and magnitude with effortless grace.
58
T^he History of Hudson County
-**^ .^v^r
The Banking Room
The building is of eleven stories and basement. Of these,
the basement, besides accommodating a part set aside for the
mechanical plant that serves the building, contains the fully
equipped large safe deposit and storage vaults of the Trust
Company of New Jersey.
The banking room of the Main Office of the Trust Com-
pany is on the first floor, the entrance to the offices being
on Bergen Avenue and the entrance to the bank being on
the corner. These premises are designed not only to give
customers all modern banking conveniences, but to provide
them with surroundings that shall satisfy a high sense of
beauty. The decorative scheme is in the rich Italian marble
known as Botticini, and the accompanying details are worked
out in bronze and mahogany as the appropriate metals and
and of the Old Village of Bergen
59
woods. There is a ceiling in plaster with finely wrought
decoration in flat relief.
The upper ten stories are wholly for tenant purposes, there
being about 60,000 square feet of space for offices. They are,
of course, served thoroughly with all conveniences of the
highly modern office building.
There are three elevators, and they are of the high-speed
traction type, thus assuring adequate service under peak load
conditions. The completely fire-proof construction is sup-
plemented with two flights of fire stairs, fire stand-pipe, hose
connections, and many exits.
Besides hot and cold water, steam and electricity, the
building is provided with a system of pipes that convey
hygienically cooled drinking water to all premises. The win-
dow spaces are large, and plate-glass panes assure clearness
of vision as well as good appearance within and without. The
tiling and plumbing, as well as all other accessories for daily
convenience, are of the best modern sanitary construction.
Safe Deposit Faults
BERGEN AVENUE
Typical Floor Plan, Fourth to Tenth Floon inclusi-ve. New Mair Office Building of
The Trust Company of New Jersey
7>^^ Trust Company ^New Jersey
Bergen and Sip Avenues (Journal Square)
Jersey City. JA(\ J.
Resources, June 30, 1 92 1 . . $37»343»633.43
HOBOKEN BRANCH
12 and i^ Hudson Place, Hoboken
PEOPLE'S SAFE DEPOSIT BRANCH
Central Avenue and Bozvers Street, Jersey City
BERGEN AND LAFAYETTE BRANCH
Monticello Avenue and Brinkerhoff' Street, Jersey City
TOWN OF UNION BRANCH
Bergenline Avenue and Hackensack Plank Road, Town of Union, N. J.
OFFICERS
William C. Heppenheimer, President
MAIN OFFICE
Edward P. Meany, Fint ^ice-president Edwin H. Stratford, Secretary and Treasurer
Walter Meixner, SixtA Vice-president William C. Veit, Assistant Treasurer
Henry C. Perley, Comptroller
PEOPLE'S SAFE DEPOSIT BRANCH BERGEN AND LAFAYETTE BRANCH
F. E. Armbruster, Third Vice-president Joseph Harrison, Fourth Vice-president
_ TT L • /f • T John T. Minugh, Assistant Treasurer
Eugene Huberti, Assistant treasurer J ° '
HOBOKEN BRANCH
TOWN OF UNION BRANCH ^ ^ _ o j rr- v
George A. Berger, Mcond Vice-president
Louis Formon, Fifth Vice-president EivizrA A. O'Toole
Rudolph Sievert, Assistant Treasurer Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer
DIRECTORS
F. E. Armbruster ...... Third Vice-preiident
George A. Berger ...... Second f^ice-president
Ernest Biardot ......... Retired
Chas. A. Coppinger . . . . . . . D. D. S.
Walter M. Dear . . . Treasurer Evening Journal yissociation
Robert R. Debacher . . . President ffm. Schimper & Company
John J. Pagan ...... President Fagan Iron fVorks
John Ferguson ...... President F. Ferguson & Son
Louis Formon ....... FiJiA ^ice-president
Ephraim De GrofF ........ Physician
Joseph Harrison ...... Fourth ^ice-president
Edward V. Hartford .... President Edward V. Hartford, Inc.
Ernest J. Heppenheimer . . President Colonial Life Insurance Company
Wm. C. Heppenheimer . ...... President
Robert E. Jennings ........ Capitalist
Anthony R. Kuser, President South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company
John P. Landrine ........ Hardivare
Edward P. Meany ....... First Vice-president
Henry Mehl ..... Treasurer John Alehl & Company
Walter Meixner ....... Sixth Vice-president
Wm. Peter .... President fVm. Peter Brewing Company
Wm. L. Pyle ^Physician
John T. Rowland, Jr Architect
C. Howard Slater Real Estate
Edw. H. Schmidt . . . . E. H. Schmidt Hygiene Ice Company
Edward J. Schroeder .... Edtvard Schroeder Lamp fVorks
Emil Schumann ........ Real Estate
J. HoUis Wells Clinton & Russell
Functions of
7>^^Trust Company of New Jersey
This Company transacts a general Trust Company and
Banking business, and
Receives Savings Deposits, and pays interest thereon, at the
rate of 4 per cent per annum.
Receives deposits subject to check, as in a bank, payable at
sight or through the clearing house, allowing interest thereon
at the rate of 2 per cent ; also issues certificates of deposits
bearing interest.
Lends money on approved security.
Acts as Trustee under any mortgage or deed of trust, or for
any individual who desires to provide for members of his
family or others.
Acts as Executor, Trustee, Administrator, Guardian, Receiver,
Committee, Assignee or Registrar.
Acts as Fiscal or Transfer Agent tbr any State, municipality or
corporation.
Accepts securities for safe keeping, remitting interest and divi-
dends to the depositor.
Acts as Agent in this State for corporations organized under
the laws of the State of New Jersey.
Rents Safe Deposit Vaults from $5.00 upward.
This Company makes a specialty of the accounts of per-
sons who, through lack of experience, desire assistance and
advice in the management of their investments.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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