History of West Hoboken N.J./Chapter 1
CHAPTER I. First Owners of West Hoboken. The Town of West Hoboken is 41 years old having been incorporated as a Township on February 28, 1861. Previous to its being incorporated, it was a part of the Township of North Bergen, which latter Township was at one time a part of the ancient County and Township of Bergen. The first inhabitants of our town were undoubtedly descendants of the early Dutch settlers of the aforesaid County of Bergen; it is not known exactly at what time the first house was erected within the present limits of West Hoboken. but it is very likely that it was in the last quarter of the 18th century; and when the town began to take on the aspect of a village, quite a number of French people settled here, and to-day some of our oldest inhabitants are numbered among our French population. Every schoolboy who has commenced his course in history has read of the discovery of our county by Henry Hudson, the commander of the good ship "Half Moon," who sailed into the lower bay and so on up into the beautiful Hudson one bright September day in the year 1609. The first reference in the annals of New Netherland to the place now called "Hoboken," is found in the journal of Robert Juet, the mate of Hudson's ship, the "Half Moon," under date of October 2, 1609. More than twenty years passed before another reference is made to the place; then the Director and Council of New Netherlands, in behalf of Michael Pauw, Lord of Achtienhoven, purchased from the native owners (the Indians) the land spoken of by Juet.
and conveys all of what is now Hudson County, except that part which lies west of the Hackensack River. In a short time Pauw got into disfavor with the New Netherland government for reasons now unknown; and they, in 1634, took his land away from him. The first white inhabitant of the northern end of the county was Hendrick, son of Cornelius Van Vorst, who lived in a small hut in Hoboken, in the year 1636; he stayed for three years, and in the summer of 1639 returned to Holland and died. On February 15, 1640, Aret. T. Van Putten secured the place, he, without delay, began to improve his home, he cleared the land, fenced in fields, and maintained a general farm. He erected a brew house and thus became the first brewer in the State and Hoboken, the place where beer was first brewed. On the breaking out of the Indian War in 1643, Van Putten was away from home on a trading expedition and was killed near Sandy Hook. His farm and buildings were destroyed and burnt, and such was the fury of the Indians that the place was abandoned by every white settler. The Indians must, at this time, have gotten complete control of this entire part of the county, for we find another deed, conveying this property to the whites, which is, in part, as follows:— "On the 30th day of January, 1658, the Indians sold to the Noble Lord Director General Pieter Stuyvesant and Council of New Netherlands a tract of land lying on the west side of the North River. "Beginning from the Great Clip (Dutch for stone, referring to the Palisades) above Wiehachen (note the spelling), and from there right through the land above the Island Sikakes (meaning Seacaucus) and therefrom thence to the Kill von Coll, and so along the Constables Hoeck again to the aforesaid clip above Wiehachen." Perhaps the price paid for this vast piece of land now worth many millions of dollars, would interest you. This tract was purchased for 80 fathoms of Wampum, 20 fathoms of cloth, 12 brass kettles, 6 guns, 1 double brass kettle, and half barrel of strong beer, valued in all at $675.00. Before this tract of land was settled there was a settlement made at Bergen, which is the oldest town in this State; it was settled in 1616 by Dutch colonists, and the first house was located about where Bergen Square is now.  Bergen County, was included in this Township of Bergen, and although there were in latter years settlements in different parts of the county, they were all governed by Bergen township. On Octobr 14, 1656, Nicholas Verleth married Anna, the sister of Governor Stuyvesant, (mentioned in aforesaid deed) who was also the widow of Samuel Bayard. and on February 5, 1663, he received from Governor Stuyvesant a grant of 138 morgens of land, which is now Hoboken and North Hudson. Varleth died while in possession of this land in 1675, and from his heirs, Samuel Bayard, his step-son derived title. William Bayard, one of the latter's descendents, was the owner, and in possession when the Revolutionary War broke out. After the City of New York had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the patriot army had been driven back toward the Delaware, Mr. Bayard, who at first had been active in the cause of the colonies, withdrew his assistance, and on May 1, 1777, joined the army of the King; for this act his property was confiscated to the State, and advertised by the commissioners of forfeited estates to be sold. On August 25, 1784, the tract of land which comprises West Hoboken, was sold by Commissioner Wm. Herring, and among the buyers at this sale were John Stevens, who bought almost all the property north of Stevens street, this property afterwards became the property of the Hoboken Land Improvement Company. On May 6, of the same year, Wm. Jackson became the owner of a large tract of land adjoining Stevens parcel. On March 21, 1785, Cornelius Van Vorst bought another large piece of this land which comprised the middle western part of the town. A short time after these sales the owners sold parcels to other people, among whom were the De Motts, Traphagens, Van Reipens & Van Winkle's. A large tract of land in the southeastern part of our town was in 1770, owned by a man named Merselis. From his heirs it passed into the hands of our late citizen, John Syms. As I stated previously, all of this territory was part of the Township of Bergen, but this old town was soon to become a thing of the past, because one by one, boroughs began to seceed from her, until on February 22, 1840, the whole southern part of Bergen County was formed into the County of Hudson, and instead of Bergen Township being the only municipality, the new county was divided into five townships, viz.:—Bergen (which comprised all of North Hudson and what is now Bergen in Jersey City), Harrison, Jersey City, and Van Vorst. | ||||||||||||
HORSESHOE CURVE ON HILLSIDE ROAD.
At this time the population of the county was 9,436, and there were only 60 houses from Hackensack south to the Jersey City line. On February 10, 1843, old Bergen Township was again divided in half, when all that part lying north of what is now the Pennsylvania Railroad cut and Snake Hill, was set off from it and named the Township of North Bergen. This latter township, the same as old Bergen, has from time to time been despoiled of its territory for cities and towns, until to-day it consists chiefly of swamps and cemeteries. The breaking up of the Township of North Bergen began when Hoboken seceded by becoming the Township of Hoboken on March 1, 1849, and being incorporated as a city in 1855; then came Hudson City, which was set off from North Bergen on March 4, 1852, and then Weehawken parted company from Hoboken March 15, 1859. The Town of Guttenberg also become incorporated in 1859, then came the Township of West Hoboken and the Township of Union (now West New York), which adopted a government of their own on February 28, 1861; then the Town of Union (Union Hill) divorced itself from the Township of Union (West New York) on March 24, 1864. It is perhaps proper to say a few words here in regards the name "Hoboken," although our town is only 43 years old. The name West Hoboken is perhaps 100 years old, because all the land between South street, Jersey City, and the Hackensack Plankroad was known by that name in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It has been said by many writers that "Hoboken" is a Dutch name, but Chas. Winfield, in his "Monograph of Hoboken," has the following to say on this much discussed subject:— "In the first deed from the Indians conveying this property to the Council of New Netherland the name was spelled Hopoghan. Hackingh meaning "Hopokhan" smoking pipe, and "Hackingh" the land, which would infer that the Indian name of Hoboken, was the land of the smoking pipe. This is all the more true because at Castle Point there was a certain kind of stone from which the Indians made pipes. The name was also used by the Indians in a symbolic sense to express crookedness, and may have been used in reference to the shore of the river, which, at that time, was very irregular at Hoboken. Considering these facts it is nonsense to believe that Hoboken is a Dutch word, even if there is a town in Holland by that name, it is not to be expected that the Indians knew of that city and copied its name for their land, because it was called by that name by them before the advent of the white man in |
HACKENSACK TURNPIKE, 1850.
HUDSON BOULEVARD.
this country. The name is Indian and nothing else. "Hopoghan Hackingh," the land of the smoking pipe, or symbolically, "the land of crookedness."   TOWN HALL, CLINTON AVENUE AND CHARLES STREET.
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