Jersey City and Its Historic Sites - Harriet Phillips Eaton

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to make, being ground down on grooved stones, and pierced by a sharp splinter of flint fastened in one end of a reed, the other end being slowly revolved upon the right thigh while the bead to be pierced was held between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand. The beads were usually from ⅛ to ¼ of an inch in length, and because of the difficulty of manufacture they became one of the most valuable Indian possessions and to a certain extent a standard of value. Long Island, called by the Indians Sewan-hackey—land of shells—which was inhabited by branches of the Lenni Lenape family was the great center of wampum manufacture. There were specialists who devoted their time to making wampum. It was largely used by all of the eastern Indians, not alone for embroidery and ornamentation, but in record belts which were used in their treaties. The two colors, white and purple, being wrought into figures which were mnemonic and enabled the "wampum keepers" to remember the words of the speech which were "talked into" the belt presented at the time. It was used in bunches of strings, strung in a certain manner, to represent the hereditary Chieftain name, and from the convenience of carrying it, it had become nearer to being a recognized currency than anything else of value among the Indians. Therefore it was used among the white colonists all along the coast, not only for the Indian trade but among themselves until late in the 18th century. They gave it a corresponding value to their own currency. At one time four black and eight white beads equalled a stiver, but in 1673 the Governor and Council of New Jersey decreed that henceforth three purple and six white wampum beads should equal one stiver or an English penny; twenty stivers, a guilder. As currency it was usually carried in strings, one hundred and fifty in a string, a "fathom of wampum" is often mentioned by early writers, and it was also used loose. The following list will show the value in "seewan" of the kinds of money mostly received by the Deacons of Bergen:

st.
A piece of eight was worth ƒ12.00 in seewan
A realtje, about 1.10 "
A loan dollar 11.00 "
An £ English 40.00 "
so that $1 American was worth 8.00 "

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

      During the French and English war the Delawares joined the French. In 1776 they joined the Federal cause and fought with us in the Revolutionary war. In their relations with Penn's colonists "they showed" to quote Dr. Brinton, "a sense of honor and regard for pledges equal at least to that of the white race." From 1782 to 1795 there was a bitter war between the white people and the Lenape owing to the desire of the whites to possess the Indian lands, which resulted in three cruel massacres of Christian Indians, and of the removal of the Lenape, first to Ohio, next to Kansas, and last to the Indian Territory. "In this long contest," as Dr. Brinton says, "the history of the relations of the white race with the Lenape is not one calculated to reflect glory upon the superior civilization and Christianity of the white race." In the war of 1863–65, one-half of the adult population of the Lenape officered by their own men were in the volunteer service of the United States. "No State in the Union furnished so many men for our armies from the same ratio of population as did the Lenape nation." The old men, women and children worked the farms and while the men were away fighting for the Union their white neighbors stole from them $20,000 worth of stock.

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

      Hackensack, from Ackensack—low land.

      Secaucus, from Siskakes or Sikakes—the place where the snake hides. The Indian name for Snake Hill, now transferred to the upland between Pinhorne Creek and Hackensack river.

      Weehawken, from Awiehaken—at the end of (the Palisades.)

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

      Harsimus, from Ahasimus, the meaning is now lost; it was another bit of upland lying south of Hopoghan.

      Communipaw, from Gemoenepa, the meaning is not known.

      Navesink—a good fishing place.

       Table of Contents

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

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

      The Van Vorst Homestead.

      Jan de Lacher's Hoeck.

      In February, 1643, about a thousand Indians fleeing from the Mohawks came to the Dutch for protection. They were encamped on the upland near the present intersection of Pine street and Johnston avenue. Here, on the night of February 25th, a party of Dutch soldiers, by order of Governor Kieft, murdered and brutally mutilated a large number of men, women and children. The sickening details of this massacre by white Christians cannot be surpassed by the records of savage races. This led to serious troubles; all the Indians united and for a year and a half made war upon the Dutch. They burned the house at Ahasimus in which the widow and family of Van Vorst lived. A portion of the farm-house built on the site of this first house was still in existence in 1895. Between 1649 and 1655, there were quite a number of patents for lands issued, principally to soldiers, at Communipaw, and as far down

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