NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
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L+<le
LI
CENTENNIAL. 1876.
I
THE
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OF
RY
Rev. JOSEPH F. TUTTLE, D. D.,
Pbehide-st of Wabash Colx-eg-e. Indiana.
Jul? ^th, 1876.
BENJ. H. VOGT, PBOrTER — THE IRON ERA OFFICE.
DOVER, N. J.
(
iviorris County,
4
*
t
AN ADD1:EK.S delivered AT |
I
MORRIo.. X,, X,. ..., JULY 4tli, 1876 |
^
■fTpr
M>412
THE ORATION.
irai.
t-'t-o-
The bero and the s'arine have been severely
condemned and yet men continue to worship
the one and bow at th« other In so doing
they mean no wrong, but meirly espress the
sentiment of admiration we- feel for a great
deed and the one who performed it, and the
sentiment of reverence which we experience
for the place in which a great deed has been
performod and a great man has been.
We may in oar philosophy jeer at llr. Gar-
lyle's notion of hero-worship, and feel grieved
as We see onr fellow men bowing at their shrines
of what ever kind.
And yet the greatest philosopher uncovers
his head at the tomb of Washingtoa and the
most devout Protestant is thrilled with rever-
ence >e he stands under the tree where Lather
rested, or at the swpulctier which holds his dost.
ilr. Webster in his speech at Valley Forge
said "there is a power in local association. All
acknowledge it and all feel it. Those places
natnrally inspire na with emotioa which in the
coarse of tiuman history have become connected
with great and interesting events."
On this one hundredth anniversary of our
nation we experience sentiments, which are
among the best ever felt in the human bre.ist.
Wo think of the original colonies, in themselves
weak, and this weakness increased by their
independence and jealousy of each other ; of
tho contrast between tliom ind the great
power th.it coerced theia — they weak, it the
strongest on «arlh ; of the conviction which
leadiog men in England had before the collis-
ion that " notwithstanding their boasted aSec-
tion for Great Britain the Americana will one
day set up for independence" — a CDUviction
which such men as Franklin regarded as the
portentious prophecy of bloody battle, and they
therefore m all sincerity hastened to assure
the people and rulers at home that "Americans
can entertain no such idea unless you grossly
abuse them," and that "a union of the Ameri-
can colonies was impos^sible uniess they be
driyen to it by ihe most grievous tyranny and
oppression ;" of the scenes in many a private
home and many a council chamber, as well as
in the more pubUc assembly, whether of legis-
lators or people, in which with unutterable
forebodings and agony and yet with heroic
courage the best and truest men in this cooa-'
^- '-I- '
try weighed every principle, determined the
character of every act affecting them, and at
last announcing their independence fought for
it through years of darkness and blood ; of the
special incidents of that long straggle and the
great men that acted on the conspicuous ■
theatre in the presence of all civilized nations.
Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Torktown, bat-
tles which were the offspring of Independenc*
Hall and the Declaration -the Adams, Patrick
Henry, Thomas Jefferaom, and the greatest of
them all Washington. I say, we thjnk of these
great acts and great men and with more fervent
devotion than ever we pronounce the words,
" OcR CocxTEy," and we jield our homage to
the men who gave us a country and we devout ly
bow as at a shrine at the spots where they
achieved the deeds which give them immortal
renown. '
But whilst to'day wa indulge in these remi-
niscences of our national glory —these great in-
cidents and persons that find place in general
history— let ours be the humble task of re-
connting some incidents which are part of the
history of ilorns countv during that period
which to-day is in every thought.
And her* I find myself bes(?t with a peculiar
embarrassmeut which is twth like and uahke
that of the great French pulpit orator when he
preached m the cathedral of the French capi-
tal. Like him whon he preached sermons al-
ready printed and in the hands of his hearers,
all that I know of our local hisXory t)as bean in
Tour bands for years ; and unlike him in the
eloquence with which he si«"ept away the em-
barrassment, I in my humble gift of speech
mutt yield to it with an appeal to my hearers
for their indulgence. In former years gather-
ing many a fact of our Revolutionary hiatory
from lips that arv now dead, and fn.im sources
so scattered in archives, libraries and garrets
that many of them now are beyond my own
reach, I have not hoarded them, but without
money and without pnco have given them ftee-
ly to the press, the historian and the orator.
Some of these facts, so precious to me as their
preserver, in one case with no recognition of
their source, are found in a general history of
this country ; in another a graceful pen so pre-
sented^them on his glowing pages, and so
"kiudiy^dofiuetl^ their source that in their new
•i
REVOLUTIONARY FOREFATHERS
bo?i»ty I almost forgot they were ever mine;
anil in still another case the tongue of the Sen-
ator repeated them so eloqueutly and with
such generous coniraentt?(tion— I crave pardon
for the weakness— that though a thousand
miles away as I read his words, my blood
tingled as with wine. Thanks to the historian,
the journalist and the Senator for their appre-
ciation of khid incomplete, yet genuine, labor
of lore amid the reminiscences of men and
things a hundred years ago in this goodly
county of Morns I
And yet this does not help me to-day and
here very much, for whether I speak of our own
heroic men and women, or of those patriots
who dwelt here during two winters in house,
oabin or tent, or of the things grave, or the
things not so grave, that were done among these
hills so long ago, a hundred of my hearers will
either nod or shake their heads in approval or
dissent as if they knew these things a great
deal better than the speaker himself, which no
doubt they do since they have his knowledge
and their own!
You see, my friends, how much I need your
forbearance, and how kind it will be in the
wisest of you to look as though you never had
beard of these things as I repeat them to-day!
And, moreover, even if yoa do hear these things
for the hundredth time, pray remember that
Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, and the Declara-
tion, are quite old and familiar, and yet old as
they are how they cau.^e the blood to leap !
Though they had seen the old flag a thousand
times, "the boys in blue" wept and shouted as
they saw it run up at Fort Donaldson and Port
Koyal ! • ■
How different the Morris County of 1776 and
the Morris County of 1876 1 It is true its moun-
tains then as now were grand to look at, tlio
conspicuous watch-towers whence our fathers
saw the enemy and gave the alarm, and yet
these mountains then stood in the midst of a
sparsely settled wilderness in which were scat-
tered a few towns and villages with far fewer
acres under cultivation than in our day. Its
churches were few, the principal being the
Presbyterian churches at Morristown, Hano-
ver, Bottle Hill, Rockaway, Mendham, Black
River "(or Chester), Parsippany, Succasunna,
the Congregational Church at Chester, the
Baptist church at Morristown, and the Dutch
churches and OldBoonton and Pompton Plains.
Its schools were few. The late Dr. Condit says
that the majority of those who learned the most
common English branches did so in night
schools taught either by the preacher or some
itinerant Irish scholar. The roads were bad
and the wheeled vehicles so scarce that at the
funeral of a light horseman oa Morris Plains
after the war, as an eye witness once told me,
there was only a single wagon of any sort pres-'
ent, that being the one that carried the re-
mains to the grave. Dr. Johues the pastor,
tlie attending physician, the bearers, the momTi-
ers, and the friends were either afoot or on
horse back. Nor in this respect was this funer-
al of ihe light horseman very different from the
more oretentions funeral of the Spanish Am-
bassador who died at Ulorristown the second
winter the army was in this pla e.
The ijianners and occupations of the- pegp.'e
were simple. The fleece, the flax, the spinning
wheel and the house-loom were found in every
mansion, and the most eloquent men at the
bar and in the pulpit, as also the most beauti-
ful women, and brave men who made this coun-
ty so glorious in those days, wore garments
which the women had made of cloth which
themselves had manufactured. They were
hardy, simple, frugal, bravo and good, and
when the conflict eVme it required as little to
keep both men and women in fightirg condi-
tion as it did the soldiers of the Great Froderic.
The contrasts between the, beginning and the
end of the century in these as also in many other
respects are remarkable, and one cannot but be
inspired by it not only to glory in the splendor
of our county as it now is, but in the sturdy
simplicity o f the people of our county as it then
was.
The strength of the county as a military po-
sition has often been noted. Ou the south, not
far beyond the Morris boundary line, is Wash-
ington Rock, on a bold range of mountains well
adapted for observing the movements of the
enemy in the direction of New Brunswick, as
also for repelling an attack. Coming north-
ward we have Long Hill, the Short HilLs.
and Newark Jiouutain, on which are
many points which on a ck-ar da.y com-
mand a wide view of the .Passaic and Hack-
ensack valleys, together with that sweep of
countiy which includes the Bloomfield, New-
ark, E lizabeth, Rahway, Amboy, Bergen, the
Neversink Highlands, the Narrows, and, but
for Bergen Hill, New York itself. One does not
need to be a Jerseyman to admire such a view
as he gets from the Short Hills, Eagle Rock, or
the rugged ledges of rock just north of the
toll-gate on the mountain back of Montclair.
But it is not of the beauty of this regioa, but
its strength, that I now speak. An enemy ob-
served is half vanquished; and from these
watch towers, which guarded the approaches to
Moiris county, especially the one on the Short
Hills, near " the Hobart Notch," night and day
se ntinels were casting jealous glances to de-
tect the slightest sign of an enemy. It is also
sure that loyal men, scattered over every part
of the country between these Highlands and
New York, were on the alert, and their courier*
A
OF MOERIS COUNTY.
ilways ready to ritle swiftly westward to the
hflla of Jlorris to carry tbo alarm. On theao
iilevatcd places were signal s?uns and the bea-
C',)D3 rtady to be kindled. On Kimball Moan-
rain, DenviUe Mountain, Green Pond Moun-
tain, and even on the spur of the Catskill
range dividing Orange county from New Jer-
sey, Wert other stations like that on the Short
Hills; 8o that, let the enemy n3ver so secretly
cross to Staten Island, and thence to Eliza-
liethto-wa Point, or in the winter cross the
meadows to Xewark, as ihey often did, the eye of
novao sentinel, either on the hills or the plains,
detected the movement, which the flying cou-
rier, the lond-moatbed cannsn or the ominous
beacon flaming its warning from mountain to
monniaiii, conveyed to a patriotic people, who
thfcmselves were ever on the watch and ready
to respond. On several occasions the enemy
in""ved across the river from New Brunswick,
or, crossing the Raritan, reached Elizabeth-
town, Lyon's Farm, Connecticut Farms, and
twice Springfield, within cannon shot of "the
Old Sow," as the signal gun was called, and
the beacon on the Short Hills.
But such were . the advintages for watching
tbe enemy and alarming the people, and such
■*lso the natural strength of its mountain ram-
p:irts, that the enemy were always met by large
bodies of as brave men as ever bore a firelock
to the defence of altar and home. The enemy
supposed himself unobserved, but invariably
found himself confronted by a foe that seemed
to him to spring out of the very ground or to
drop'iown from the clouds. There were sev-
eral '"Dducfe'lients which led the enemy greatly
to desire the possession of, or at least a closer
acquaintance with, the county of Morris. It
was well k nowu that Col. Jacob Ford", Jr., who.se
widow was Washington's hostess the second
' winter, had built a powder mill on the Whip-
• (Kioy river, which was making considerable
amounts of "good merchantable powder," the
.1 mount of which Col. Benoni Hatha'vay was
I careful to esaggeiate by what might be called
" Quaker powder" kegs," that were filled, not
with powder, but with sand, and these, under
careful guard, were conveyed to the magazine I
There was not only the well-guarded Powder
i Magazine in some safe place, but the general
ni agaz'.ne on the south side of Morris Green,
w hose treasures of food and clothing and other
articles for the army were in fact never enough
to be of any great value, yet Colonel Hatha-
way so managed the deposits made there that
they seemed to aU but the initiated very form-
idable.
A di.zen miles north of Morristown werescv-
9ral forges that were furnishing iron for the
»cmy for horse shoes, wagon tiro aiid other
purposes. And at Mt. Hope and Hibemia, each
about four miles from ' thft village of
Rockaway, were two blast furnaces. The
former was the property of -John Ja-
cob Faesch, a pairiotic German, and
!he other belonged to General Lord Stiriinjr,
and nnder the management first of Jos. Holf,
and after bis death of his brothei Charles, ?on«
of Charles Hoff, of Hunterdon. .A.t both these
furnaces la-^-^e quantities of shot ^cd shell ware
cast for the irmy, and at Hibemia Hoff made
repeated attempts to cast cannon, and in one
of bis letters to Lord Stirling says he "did
cast one very good one, only it was slightly de-
fective at the breech." " ■
These mannfactories of array munitions were
3 upplementcd by large breadth.'* of arable land,
a considerable part of which was of eicellent
qaality, and which all together produced an
immense amonnt of the provisions needed by
armies. And not only so. but the acres of Mor-
ris were the key to the richer acres of Sussex.
Indeed, it is difficult to exaggerate the impor-
tance of our county in all these respects, and
when we add the fact that it was a perpetual
th rcatening to the enemy who made New York
their base, we can see why so many attempts
were made by the enemy to penetrate it.
Some of ihe attempts were by Tojics, led by
Claudius Smith, who once threatened Mt.Hope
and who actually robbed Robert Ogden be-
tween Sparta and Hamburg, Charles Hoff at
Hibemia, and Robert Erskine at Ringwood.
The most imposing attempt to visit Mortis
county was in 1780, under Knyphausen, and he
reached Springfield, where he was suddenly
confronted by a part of Washington's army
then in motion for the Hudson and great num-
bers of the Morris minute msn. Dr. Ashbel
Green says his father. Parson Green, witnessed
the fight from the adjoining hills, and rumor
says Parson Caldwell did not stick to the hills,
but mingled in the fray, which gains some no-
toriety from bis distributing the hymn books
of the neighboring chnrch, accompanied with
thb exhortation to "put Watts into them," be-
lieving that the best hymn of Watts would
cjake a good wad in a patriotic gun I Here,
too, it was that Benoni Ha^haway's wrath was
so excited because his commander ordered his
troops to the top of " a Hy Monntain" ii stead
of against the enemy.
It was here also that Timothv TutMe. with a
company of men, making theif way through a
rye field, poured a deadly volley into a detach-
ment of the enem\ taking dinner. The pepper'
made their soup too hot for comfort, and they
left it in a hurry. And here, too, it was that
an American oEBccr was badly woundrd, and
one of his men, named Mitchell, ran ia be-
tween the confronting armie.^ and on his own
strong shoulders carried his capt;un to a placi;
REVOLUTIUN'AKY FUREFATHEKS
of uafoty. As his a.Hwas pereeived t'fro enemy
died a voUoy at^him, conceruinyj wbich be aft-
erwards remarked, with amusiog MimpUcity, "I
TOW I waa skoared !"
And hero I may quote a coni)Ie of verses from
aa old newspaper of the day to shoW how I he
«aia effort of KnypUaasea to reach Morris
coanly was regarded by the men who drove
him back :
" Old Knip
And old Clip v
Went to the Jersey sbors
The rebel rogues to beat ;
But at Yankee Farms
They took the alarms
At little harms,
And quickly did retreat .
Then after two days' wonder
Marched boldly to Springfield town,
And sure they'd knock the rebels down;
But a.s their ioes
Gave them some blows,
They, like the wind.
Soon changed their miud.
And in a crack
Retarn«d back
From not one third their number I"
The remarkable fact remains that the enemy
DbTer reached our county, except now and then
a marauding party from Orange county, like
those led by Claudius Smith and the Babc-ocks.
I have mentioued the rapidity with which
the alarms of Invasion were cirvulatcd through
the county,' and the readiness with which Mor-
ris county men hurried to the place of danger.
There wore two oiganizatious in the county
which had much to do with this splendid fact.
The first of these was what was known as the
"association of Whigs."
Among the papers of the late Colonel Joseph
Jaekson, of Rockaway, I found the original pa-
per containing the articles of " the association
of Whiga in Pequanac Township, 1776," with
one hundred and seventy-seven autograph sig-
naturcij, except a score or so made their
■'marks." Tlie articles rehearse the reasons
for thus associatmj; in the somewhat lofty and
intense style of the day, and 'declare that "we
are firmly determined, by all means in our
power, to guard against the disorders and con-
fusions to which the peculiar circumstances of
the times may expose us. And we do also fur-
ther asuociato aud agree, as far as shall bo con-
sistent with the measures adopted iur the pre-
ijervation of American freedom, to support the
magistrates and other civil oflScers in the exe-
cution of their duty, agreeable to the lawa of
this colony, aud to observe the directions of our
committee acting."
Tho Committee of Safety for Pequanoc cou-
aiated of Robert Gaston, Moses Tuttle, Ste-
phen Jackson, Abram Kitchel and Job Allcu.
Each of tnese had a paper like the one quoted.
and circulated it. The one hero referred to
was in the hands of btephea Jackson, and per-
haps as many more names wore on the papei-n
held by the other members of the committee;
In each township of the county this organi-
zation existed in such sirengtb as to inelmlr
most of the loyal men.
Besides this there was an organization known
as "the minute men," who were re^larly en-
roUea and officered, and they wei'w pledged to
be always ready to assemble at some preco;i-
certed rendezvous. In critical limes the min-
ute men took their guus and ammunition with
them eveiv-where, even to tho church. .Thiri
httla fact is the hinge of an anecdote 1 hai;
from Mis. Euriic& Pierson. She described Gen .
Wm. Winds as a powerful and imperious man,
a devout Christian, who took his part in tuc-
lay services of the old church at ilockaway
when there was no minister,' uttering all ordi-
nary petitions in quiet tones ; but when Ue
prayed tor the country raising his voice lilt it
sounded like thunder. Although he had botfi
a leading officer in the armv, after his retire-
ment he became a minute man, always carry-
ing bis wagon whip and his gun into tb*:-
church. One Sunday during sermon he ap-
plied the whip to an unruly boy, and ou
another Sunday a courier dashed. up to tht:
church door, shouting the alarm that the e-ie-
my was marching towards the Short Hills.
Of course in a trice the meetiug adjourned
in cop.fusiou. not waitiug for benediction.
Gen. Winds seized his gun, aud rushing out of
the house ordered the miuute men into iiue ;
but, lo aud bt-'hotd ! not. a man had his guu !
"Then," said Mrs. Pierson, "Gen. Wiuds ravcd
ind stormed at the men so loud thit you might
have heard him at the Short Hills'." You may
remember that Dr. Ashbel Green speaks ot
Winds' voice as " stentorophoric. It was ar-
'ticolate as well as loud, aud it exceeded in
power aud efficiency every other humin voice
that I ever heard." And yet, caught uuarmeiJ
that time, the general rule was the contrary.
Whenever the signal gun was heard or the om-
inous tongue of fl.ime shot up from the beacon
hills, or the clattering hoofs of the courier's
horse over the roads by day or by
night to tell the people of the invading en-
emy, these minute men were in an incredibly
short time on their way to tho appointed places
of meeting.
I recall an illustration which may show this
whole movement of tho minute men in a beau-
tiful manner. In MenJham there was a minute
man named Bishop. Jh& battle of Springfield
)
OF ilOKKIa C'VLlxTi.
occnrred June 2:3, 1^0. The havvu-st was aoa-
«ual]y early that summer, aad this man that
uiurning was harvesting hia ^heat when tbe
8<iund of the si.mial giia was faintly bt.arJ.
They listeued, ind again, the soaud came boom-
ing over the hills. " I must go," said the far-
'mer. " Tou bad b3^tcr take <nrc of your
wheat," said his farm band. Agaio the sound
of the gun pealed out clear in the air, aud
Bishop exclaimed, '• I can't stand it. Take
uare of the graia the best way you c;;a. I am
off to the rescue '" And in a few minutes was
on his way to iCornstOivn. And bo says that
aa he went there was not a road or lane or f ath
along which he did not find troops of men who,
liVe himself, were bunjing to the front.
— VTe have only to recall " the association of
Whigs," with their CumLQittees of safety," and
the organization 6f " minuto men," which
were formed m evei-y part of the county, to un-
derstand hrt'.v it was that our Morris yeomc-a
were always jeady to resist any attempt of the
^nemy^ to invade the county. In fact, tbey were
resolved that the enemy should never reach
tbe county if thc:y could prevent it. Tlioir spirit
was expressed in the familiar reply of Wiads
to the young EjgHsh olScei. who came to Chat-
ham bridge to exchange some prison-jrs. Said
the young Enghshman, '' We mean to diau in
Morris town some day." "If you do dine in
Morristown some day," retorted Winds in not
th* most refined language, "you will sup in
hell the same evening!"
We cannot understand tbe remarkable effect-
iveness of the people of this couuty during that
long war without recalling the fact that all the
resources of the county were coucectrated and
iiandled by tbe "Assjtciation of Wbigs," and the
■'Minute Men."
There is another influence to 1>€ added and in
the grouping I certainly mean no disrespect to
either party. I Quw refer to the women and tbe
clergy of Morris County. lathe wars of civil-
ized nations both these will bt* found a power-
ful agency, but in some wars their influence
has been very positive and direct. It was so
in the war of tbe Revolution and pre-eminently
so in this county. At the very bcgmuing of
the conflict ifr. Jefferson asserted the necessity
of enlisting the religious sentiment of ttie coun-
try by appointing fast days and iuducing the
ministers to preach on tbe great issues of the
day. He admitted that he could see no other
way to break up the apathy and hopelessness
which were destroying the popular courage so
aecessrry at such a crisis.
It is a very interesting fact that a skeptical
statesman' .should have sagaciously perceived
and recommended such an agency. At once
tbe force thus invoked did that which it was
already doiog, but now with the authoritative
endorsement of the highe.«;t character. The
muiisters of the several chnrcees — preemineoc
I among fhcm— it ia not iavidious to say Congre-
gational and Presbyterian — on fast days, and in
their ordinary services dwelt oa the very themes
which had evoked the eloquence of Joffersou in
the Declaration, of Henry, and Lt^e, and Adams,
and Rut'edge in legislative halls, and of others*
not less mighty in their appoala to the peo-
ple. It is not saying too much >o declare thai
when we consider that with all :he rsvervnce in
which ia thisa days they were hold as God's
ambass-idor'?, and the high character they pos-
sessed as m.;a of learning, pur:;y and public
spirit, their appeals carried gr-^c<sr weight with
vast multitudes tha.n any word.-i -zi the mere pol-
tician or statesman. In that day far more thaa
in this tbe mini.'<ter was clothed with a sort of
divine authority, and when the American clergry
from ■ the pulpit denounced the tyranny of
Great Britain and commanded their hearers to
go to the rescue of their '"poor bleeding coun-
try," it was in a measure as if God himself had
s{)okeu by them.
The ministers m Morris County daring that
period were chiefly Presbyterian and Dutch
Reformed. The leading Presbyterian miuis-
ters were Joboes at 3Iorristown, Grooa at Han-
over, Kennedy at Baskingridge— a part of
which was in this county— Lewis and bis sul-
cessor Joline at Mendham, Horton, .\aron
Richards and Bradford at Bottle Hill, Woicl-
huU at Chester, and Josepii Grover at Pax^ip-
pany, David B2[dwin, Congregational, at Ches-
ter, and Dominie Myers at Pomp ton Plains.
There were other ministers in the county, but
rhave named the principal ones. Of these we
may singlu out Jobn<:s and Greeu aa f.nr sam-
ples of them all. The eulogv which .Albert
Bamei pronounced on Dr. Timothy .Johnes is
lully sustained by the facts. An ahie and
.sometimes a truly eloquent preacher, he was
a remarkable pastor, and his ability in that
respect was tasked to the utmost during the
two years the American army was in Morris
County. If anyone d )ubt3 this statement let
him examine the "Morristown Bill of Mortali-
ty," which la simply a record of fdn9r.\ls which
he himself had attended. In the year 1777 he
attended 205 fumrals, of which more than half
were caused by small pox, putrid eore throat,
and malignant dysentery. During a part of
tho time his church was occupied as a Enspita!
for the sick. Tbe same was true of the church-
es at Succasunna and Hanover. The latter
was used for "a small pox hospital for patients
who took the disease in the naturtl wav."
Tlio fact that the Morristown church was occu-
pied as a hospital accounts for the other oft-
lold f*ct that Washington once rcceivod the
communion elements trov V- ^ '-■■ ^ a: a
UEVOLUTIONARY F OEEFATIIEIIS
^rtcrituerital 3<^rvice heM in k s^ove at the rear
of the Doctor's own house. The atury has been
diacvedited by snrue, but I have lieanl it from
too many who w.^ri' living wheu it occurred to
loubt its truth.
Dr. Johnes threw himsKlf with the greatest
*rdor into the cause of his couutrymen, and
ilia influence was widely felt over the country.
The Kev. Jacob Green— "Parson Green'" as
he waa commonly called— was a marked man.
One of the most thorough and absiduous pas-
tors he was also an able preacher. Besides this
he had an extensive practice aa a physician, fud
unable to educate his children otbcrwiso he
opened and managed a classical school with
tho aid of a tutor. He did not a little also in
other kinds of seculai business, such as milling
and distilling, and as if those were not tnough
to use up his energy he drove quite a law busi-
ness, wrote articles on political economy for
the newspapers, served in the Legislature, and
was for a considerable time Yice President of
the College of New Jersey. .Ho was held in the
greatf-st reverence and died in the midst of his
labors which had been extended in the one par-
ish ever a period of forty-four years.
In the pulpit, the houae, the newspaper, and
in all places 3Ir. Green espoused the cause ot
Independence with the greatest zeal. Such was
, his known influence in the parish and county
as a citizen, a minister and a physician, that
before he issued orders to inoculate his soldiers
Washington invited this country parson to a
consultation about this important measure.
('onvinced by Washington of its neces.-iity, both
Green and Johnes— and no doubt Kennedy,
Woodhull and the othei Morris county minis-
ters — took the matter in hand to inoculate their
own people. They arranged hospitals and dic-
tated every plan with a precision and positive-
ness that was not to be disobeyed by their par-
ishioners, and such was the weight of this au-
thority that it is said very few of the members
of these chnrehes disregarded it, and that few
of them died of the foul disease. Of the 68
funerals from this disease attended by Dr.
Johnes only six were members of his church,
and these died before the local arrangements
for inoculation were perfected.
I mention thi^ as a sign of the authority of
these ministers, and to show what an influence
they exerted in favor of the cause of American
Independence. How they wrought in the good
cause is matter of record. The Associated
Whigs and the Minute Men of Morris heard
many "a powerful prayer and discourse" from
these ministers to make them of good courage.
With these men we must associate the women
of Morris County. There were some tories in
the county. Thomas Millcgo, the sheriff elect,
was one, and he was not the only one. There
wore some in Tocka way Valley who impudent-
ly declared their ejcpectation that tho British
would triumph, in which 'Vent they had ar-
ranged which of the farms belonging to tho
Whigs thi^y would take as their nhare of th*^
spoils! But so shrewdly and bravely did Mrs.
Miller concentrate tho WbigH of that regioji
through meetings held in lier own house as to
defeat the raa:als and clear them out.
So often has the story of the Morris Connlr
women been told that I fear any reference to it
may seem tedious to you. It was- no uncom-
nuin thing for these women to cultivate tho
fields and harvest' the crops whilst the mf-a
were away to the war. On nif^re than one occa-
sion not a dozen men, old or young, were left
in the Whippany neighborhood. The same was
true in many other neigliborhoods. Anna
Kitcbel was a fair representative of all the Mor-
ris County women, in both scorning "a British
protection" when her husband and Jour broth-
ers were in the American arn;y, and in keeping
the great pot full of food for the patri' * -■ '
dicrs.
Yes, Fhe spoke for a thousand like htr?elf
when she said so proudly to the Deacon who
urged her to get a protection, "If the God of
battles will not take eare of us we will fare with
the rest!" Brave Anna KitcLel! and ovor in
Mendham the second winter the ai-my was
repeatedly reduced to the vei-y verge of starva-
tion, and with roads blocked up with snow for
miles, so that at one time a correspondent of a
Philade-pliia paper says tlirre was "an enfon-ed
fiist of three days in the camp." The poor TcUiiv. s
were only saved by their own personal appeals
to the farmers of the county. Ct>l. Drake once
told me that for months that winter not a
rooster waa heard to crow in the region S)
closely had they been killed and the balauif
were only kept si-.te in tlie cellars! And the
hungry, bare-footed and thinly clad soldiers
went to the Morris County kitchens, and
Hannah Carey, the wife of David Thompson,
— she once scalded an impudent tory— spoke for
all the women who presided over these Morri.s
County kitchens, as she ladled out the food
from her great pot, "Eat away, men, yon arc
welcome because you are fighting for the
country ; and it is a good cause yon arc engaged
in!" Brave Hannah Thompson! br.ave Anna
Ki tchel ! brave women of Morris County I The
men fought well for the countrj- and so did
the women I
In tho New York Observf r recently appeared
a spirited anecdote of a 5Irs. Hannah Arnctt of
Elizabethtown, who heard her husband and
several other dispirited patriots discussing the
question of giving up the effort to national
indcp endencc. When she .«aw the fatal conclu-
sion to which they weie >Irifting she burst into
X
OF MOREIS COUNTY.
room, and iir spite of the remonstrancst* of
jr husband, rebuteJ thoirweakcowirdice and
.aid to hinj, "What greater cir.ae crrald there
rt' than thatofconntry. I married a gond man
ladtrue, a faithful Iriencl, and loya! Chridtian
ntlemao, bat it needs nodivorce to sever me
,r< Qi a traitor and a coward. If you take the
afamous British protection which a treacherous
■iifiry of your coun try offers you— yon loae your
Tife and I— I lose my husband and my liome!"
Hannah Arnett spoke for the patriot women of
America! and she was as grand aa any of them !
The burdens of the war fell very heavily on
New Jersey. It was "the battle field-of the
Ri'volution." The presence of the armies in
j-ursuit, retreat o r battle, put th&counties below
liifi Qiountaics in a chrcnic distress. Indeed
iiii'h were tiie hardships endured at the hands
of the enemy in these lowland counties, that
the people held m the greatest detastation "the
Kad coats and the Hessians." From their
presence the Morris County people were free,
and jet it should not be forgotten that the '
a'most intolerable burdens, consequent on the j
jjiesence of the American army two winters, (
f»'ii on them. Durmg the winter and spring of I
1777— the army reached Iforriitown about the !
7tf! of January, 1777— the soldiers were billeted |
Ml the families of Morristown or Hanover,
B'lrtle Hill, and other parts of the county.
Twelve men were quartered on Parson Green,
sixteen on Anna K)tchels' hu.sbaud U?al. a
/»core on Aaron, Kitchel, and so throughout the
;a:niiEj5 diatricl. To these famihew it was al-
:n( St niinou.s, since all they had whs eaten up
:q the service, :-*o that when the army marched
ijS'it left tlie ugion as bare as if it had been
.HWfpt by a plague of locusts. ,
■j To this we muse add the almost inconceiva-
/ !i!_- terror and hardship of the enforced universal
' i:ii.culation of the people because the soldiers
were inoculated. The late Rev. Samuel L.
T\ittie, of Madison, so carefully investigated
Miis matter in that parish that he fonud out
where the small-pox hospitals were and some
;,'r3TG yards where our soldiers were buried.
Dr. .Ashbel Green in his autobiography says
that the Hanover church was a hospital for
rho.se who had the disease the natural way, and
ID Itarlully picturesque language be describes
• he horrors of the scenes he had witnessed in
(hat old church. It is true that it was a singu-
lar fact (hat scarcely one who was inocnlated
<Iicd, whilst scarcely one who took the disease
in the natural way got well. But in either
ca.sc the horrors of this loathsome disease laid
fiu our Morn's i'iti'^-^hm; --He a burden whose
wdight must have 1^^^ ^^Ling. And thus
yon ace a hungry and &'ji^s«««iy in those homes
>f our ancestors the first winter.
Of th e second winter I have already spoken,
but refer to it again to ronrad you of the dct
that during that almost unparalleled winter
when gaunt famine hung over the Amfcricaa
camps, and when the paths and roads about
them were marked with blood from the feet of
the ill-shod soldiers, the forests of Morris
county gave timber for cabins and wood for
fuel, their bams yielded Jorage to the army
horses, the yards furnished meat and, the
granaries and cellars gavo forth food for the
soldiers. There is no arithmetic or book-keep-
ing that can announce the value of these con-
tributions at such a crisis, and yet so gener-
ously and unseliishly did our fore- fathers
respond tothiscail of their country That it is
said that receipts for the supplies wore declined
by most and that a very small fraction of the
whole value was covered by the receipts. In a
word the magnificent fact rises before us to-day
that the Morris county people of the Revolution
did what they did with such ample charity in
both those dreadful winters substantially with-
out reward. They gave their men to fight,
their women to sufffcr,'and their property to be
consumed for country and liberty withouf
money and .without price. Nominally what
they had was worth fabulous prices in a cur-
rency rendered worthless by over-issue and
counterfeiting, but they seemed for the time
to forget the ordinary uses of monej' and to
open to the patriot soldiers all vherr stores to
make ibrm strong to fight the great fight that
was to win for them a country.
Of course I have not told all that crowds upon
the memory of tho.se heroic linieji. but it is
time to Jlrrost this discourse alrcaay priotrarfed
unduly. We are not to forget ihe more con
spicucus names and deeds which belong to our
Revotutionaty history and which atter a cen-
tury shine out like slars at night in the clear
sky. They will not bo forgotten. From a thou-
sand platforms thzik praises will be rehearsed
this day, whilst the booming cannon and the
pealing bells, and the glad shouts of our people
shall proclaim how we prize the great men and
deeds of that heroic penod.
Wo have followed to-day a humbler impul-'e
and recalled the fore-fathers of our own couxty
in the Revolution. We have orn henxa, and
our shrines are where thty wrought tor their
country. Each old parish has Ha her<ifS, and
each old church was the shrine at which brave
men and women bowed in God's fear, con.sccrat •
ing their all to their coUntiy. And surely no
desctndant of theiu can stand on the Short
Hills at the point where the unskcping scr-
tiaels of the old county stood a hundred yeir^
ago, nor wander along the Lrantica Yallcy, or
over Kimball Mountain where American sol-
diers suffered and Morrw county men ac'l
8
REVOLUTIONAilY FOREFATHE RS
woDieo sustained them, nor tread tLe lawns
that environ the old Ford mansion and etiter
its hoaored balU whcic once dwelt Washington
in the midst of a circle of illuatrious men with-
out profound emotion.
These are our shrines, and as from these
points we look over the magnificent county of
which we are 30 proud, we are not to forget
that our aucestors did what they could to save
it from the enemy and make it a place in his-
tory. But this picture of the patriotism, the
trials and the triumphs of our Morris county
ancestors fairly represents the people in other
'iouutics ot New Jersey aud the other States of
the Union. It was the peopK^ who asserted the
principles ot the Declaration. If they had not
felt as tbev did, and labored and suffered as
they did, if they had not laid themselves and
their children, their estates, the increase of
their herds and their flocks, the golden wealth
of their fields and graua-ies, indeed their all on
the altar of their country, if from thousands
of family altars, closets and pulpits, the people
had not sent their cries to God for their coun-
try, even Washington could not have gained
U3 what we now have, a couxruT ! We love
our country and it is worthy of our love. Let
us not cease to i)rai3e God who gave the men
of '76 wisdom, courage and fortitude which led
to results that are so couspicuovis to-day.
The Republic has survived a hundred years.
It has passed through some tremendous perils,
and I fear the perils are not all past. I speak
not as a partisan to-day, but as an American
as I assort the convicti jn that amidst the sha; i
ing foundations of systems and belK-fs aii'
nations in every part ot the" civilized world i
wilUbc well for evsry Araoricau patriot t
fortify his heart, nut by rufi.rring to the exaiupi'
of Greek and liuman hcroos, but by recallin,
the names of those who signed the Declaration
and foui^ht our battles and through great an'
heroic suffi;rings wrought out for U3 lliC'K"
triumphs which are now crablazoQed in resuJi
vastly grander than t"iey ever dreamed of.
.\nd in these glories of our Centennial yt;u'
let us proudly remember that in the acliief^-
nient of these glories the men and women Wh<i
a hundred years ago lived in llorris county
bore an honorable part, and see to it that t!j<-y
are forever held in grateful remembrance.
Fellow citizens of Mon-is county, I have tilli^
thrust out my hand at random and gathcn d
into a garland a fcw of the names and deeds i-t
the patriot fathers who a hundred years agi.
bore their part in the great struggle fo;
mclepeudence among the grand old hills ff
Morris. Such as it is on this Centennial ith '
July in the spirit of a true loyalty both to ou.
common country and to our honored county I
bring this garland from afar as the sign of tl.i-
love I have both to our county and our coun try .
And as the fore fathers were wont on all Surt-;
of documents and occasions to say, so let mt
close these remarks with their oft repeated
prayer,
" God save Atutrica I"
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