The Reformed Church

— The Holland people in the northern part of the town were no doubt connected with the neighboring Dutch congregations at a day quite as early as the Puritans of the town with their own. The Dutch Churches were on the west at Horseneck, on the north at Totowa, on the northeast at Acquackanonck, and on the southeast at Second River. While such men as Bertholf, at Acquackanonck and Second River, were abounding in apostolic missionary journeys, and the learned and humble-minded Meyer was at Totowa and Horseneck, and their associates or successors, Coens, Van Sanvoord, Hoeghoort, Marinus, Leydt and Schoonmaker were caring for the Holland people all the way down to 1794, the Holland farmers of the Franklin, Stone House Plain and Speertown neighborhoods found attractive churches and pastors at hand. Their natural affinity was at Acquackanonek and Second River. However early the school-house was erected, there was the preacher in an occasional service in the Dutch tongue and later in the English. It is probable that Stone House Plains was first a regular preaching-station under the Rev. Peter Stryker, who came to Second River in 1794. Under him the Reformed Church at Stone House Plain was organized in 1801. The first church edifice was erected in 1802. The present edifice, built of freestone and ten feet longer than the first, was built on the old site in 1857, the spire completed in 1860—61. The Rev. Mr. Stryker served both churches for some years. The Rev. Staats Van Sanvoord seems to have succeeded him as pastor of the two churches, and the two churches continued together until 1826.

A good number of the Holland people, such as the Cadmus, Joralemon and Kidney families, residing among the Puritan population, were also connected with the church at Second River.

Elders

The second subscription, in 1798, "for the use of the meeting-house" amounted to L737 12s., or $1844. It was a large enterprise, and there was little wealth. All were workmen,— Samuel Laurence Ward was the architect, and Josiah James, of Newark, also superintendent of construction; Aury King, chief mason, associated with Henry Cadmus and Henry King. The managers of the building were Simeon Baldwin, Nathaniel Crane and Joseph Davis. The trustees in 1797 were Samuel Ward, Ephraim Morris, Oliver Crane and Joseph Davis. Gen. Bloomfield made a visit in 1797 in recognition of the honor done him in giving his name to the town, was publicly welcomed by the people, and contributed one hundred and forty dollars to help on the building. Mrs. Bloomfield presented a pulpit Bible and psalm-book. The services began in the edifice in 1799, before the windows were in or the floors were laid, and the first Sunday of the new century opened with the new pastor. The building has since been twice enlarged. Fifteen feet were added in length in 1853, and a handsome transept Sunday-school room was completed in 1883.

The original elders and deacons in 1798 were Simeon Baldwin, Ephraim Morris, Isaac Dodd and Joseph Crane; the original membership, eighty-three persons.

The Later History from the time of the Revolution

— Patriotism, education and religion were the passions of the Puritans. Each of these passions took form in unusually bold expression in Bloomfield. The "Common," the parading-ground of citizen soldiers, was spacious and central. It was laid in front of the church lot, which was already occupied with material for the new edifice. The academy, which soon followed the church, was a massive edifice for a rural community in the early century. It included in its plan of education, in connection with neighboring pastors, missionary and theological training, and sent many young men into the ministry. It was the culmination of the excellent common schools long before established and of the catechetical instruction of the Puritans.

The stone church, far larger than their present need, with foundations and walls wisely laid for successive enlargement and for modern adornment, was the concrete symbol of their value of religion.

The Presbyterian Church wsas identified with the name of the town and with the larger body of the people. The Reformed Dutch Church at Stone House Plains was identified with only a section of the town. The Bloomfield Church became the Third Presbyterian Church of Newark; the congregation organized in 1794, the civil society in 1796 and the ecclesiastical body in 1798.

A parchment subscription in October, 1796, contains fifty-nine names with five subscriptions of one hundred pounds each and other subscriptions all the way down to one pound. The Baldwins, Cranes, Dodds, Morrises, Wards, Balls, and Davises constituted about three-fifths of the population in the Puritan part of the town at that time. The Vincents, Cadmuses, Cockefairs, Uriances and Garrabrants were the principal Holland names among the Puritans. The sum of the parchment subscription in 1796 was £1615 4s., or $4038.

The Revolution and its Traditions

Continuing from HISTORY OF ESSEX AND HUDSON COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
Compiled by William H. Shaw. Everts & Peck, Philadelphia. 1884.
CHAPTER LXVIII BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.
— When the Third Battalion was called for by Congress, and by the State, in 1776, Joseph Bloomfield, then from Bridgeton, appears as the captain of the Seventh Company.

The larger part of the enlistments from the northern part of Newark were in the militia rather than in the regular service. The following officers from Essex County, in 1777, were quite likely from this territory: Lieutenant Colonels, Jacob Crane, Mathias Ward and Thomas Cadmus; Major, Caleb Dodd; Captains, Amos Dodd, Henry Joralemon, Abraham Speer and Cornelius Speer.

The following officers are without date of enlistment: James Joralemon, (wounded afterwards at Springfield,) John Kidney, Josiah Pierson, Samuel Pierson, Thomas Seigler, Isaac Smith, Henry Speer, Jonas Ward; Jesse Baldwin at first ensign, then lieutenant, then quartermaster, then quartermaster in the regular army; Second Lieutenants, John and Joseph Crane and James Spear; Sergeants, Obadiah Crane, Joseph Crowell, Samuel Jones, who host a leg in Newark in 1782; Musicians, Benjamin and David D. Crane.

There are among the privates from the county thirty Baldwins, among them Daniel, David, Ichabod, Israel, Jabez, Jesse, Jonathan, Matthias, Lewis, Silas, Simson and Zophar; fourteen Balls, among them Daniel and Joseph; four Cadmuses, Henry, Isaac, John and Peter; twenty-nine Cranes, among them Aaron, Amos, Elias, Israel, James, John, Mathias, Moses, Nathanael and Phineas; eight Davises, among them John, Jonathan, Joseph and Peter; twenty-two Dodds, among them Abiel, Abijah, David, Ebenezer, Isaac, John, Joseph, Moses, Parmenas, Thomas, Timothy and Uzal; Thomas Doremus; three Franciscos, Anthony, John and Peter; eight Freelands and three Vreelands; four Freemans; Garrabrant Garrabrants and two others of the name; fifteen Harrisons; four Jacobuses; three Joralemons, one of them Halmock; five Kings, among them Aury; six Kingslands; David and Davis Morris; seven Ogdens, among them John; thirteen Osborns, Osbornes and Osburns; Richard Powelson; Isaac and Peter Riker; six Spears and Spiers; eleven Taylors; two Van Houtens; five Van-Rikers, among them Cornelius, Gerrit and Morris; four Van Winkles; John and Levi Vincent; and seventeen Wards, among them Bethuel, Caleb, Caleb, Jr., Jacob, Joseph, Nathaniel, Samuel, Timothy and Zebina.

A large share of these persons whose names are selected from the rosters were from this outlying part of Newark. They took their place, some as minutemen, some in the regular troops and many as militia, ready for an emergency, such as they were called to face in the battle of Springfield.

The Declaration of Independence, it is said, was first read in this region at the school-house on Watsessing Hill.

There were two campaigns of the Revolution which touched this region,— the retreat of Washington through New Jersey in 1776, and the attempts of the British on Washington’s position at Morristown through Connecticut Farms and Springfield, in 1780.

When, after the battle on Long Island, in September, 1776, Washington’s army retreated across the Hudson to Acquackanonck, and then fell down to Newark, Newark as a township is no doubt meant. The army in rapid retreat marched, no doubt, on parallel roads, and the old road over Watsessing Hill and Plain was probably one of these roads. The tradition is that when Washington came to the Joseph Davis house he found it occupied by Gen. Knox and sick soldiers, and refused to displace them in order to make it his quarters. It is quite likely that he went on over the hill, and took temporary quarters at the Moses Farrand house. When the army swept on to Newark village, and a detachment moved through Orange, both portions of the army pursued by the enemy, the people fled over the mountains and into Stone House Plains.

The two pastors of the people, Dr. Alexander MacWhorter and Rev. Jedediah Chapman were zealous patriots, and were compelled to flee: Dr. MacWhorter in the council of Washington. The posts on the mountain crest were filled with watchmen, the rear of the mountain with refugees. The whole region was ravaged for plunder. The Hessians swept through Watseson and East Orange. When the reaction came, on Washington’s return through Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth to Morristown, the people returned to their desolated fields and plundered houses. "Whiskey Lane" still remains as the name given to one of the roads where whiskey was seized by a British company, or where whiskey itself seized the raiders.

At the battles of Connecticut Farms and of Springfield, in 1780, the militia of the whole region seized firelock and sword. The captains, the major, the lieutenant-colonel from this region were among them; and Washington was delighted with the patriotism and bravery of the people. He was just then on the march from Morristown to the Hudson, but he moved slowly, and was temporarily in Bloomfield, at the Thomas Cadmus and the Stephen Fordham houses.

The Hollanders were patriots equally with the Puritans, as the names of the officers have shown. The adventure of Capt. John Kidney, Capt. Henry Joralemon, Jacob Garlon and Halmock Joralemon shows them in the raids which shot back and forth across the marshes and the sound. The story is that with fleet horses and a common wood-sled, on a wild wintry night, they crossed the marshes to Bergen, proceeded to a school-house where British officers and soldiers were making merry, surrounded and took the house, with their mighty force of four, muffled and secured an officer and a refugee, regained the meadows before the alarm-gun fired, took the prisoners to the Morristown jail, and returned the heroes of the day among their old neighbors.

Walnut

Looking north, along Morris Canal,from Newark and Walnut

Glen Ridge

From Bloomfield's First Baptist Church historical website:
When Bloomfield seceded from Newark in 1812, Glen Ridge was a section "on the hill" composed mostly of farms and woodlands with the exception of a thriving industrial area along the Toney's brook in the Glen. For most of the nineteenth century, three water-powered mills produced lumber, calico, pasteboard boxes and brass fittings. A Cooper, a sandstone quarry and mine were nearby. With the arrival of the Newark and Bloomfield Railroad in 1856 and the New York, Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railroad in 1872, Glen Ridge began its transition to a suburban residential community. Stately homes slowly replaced orchards and wooded fields.

Residents "on the hill" became unhappy with their representation on the Bloomfield Council. In spite of repeated requests to Bloomfield officials, roads remained unpaved, water and sewer systems were nonexistent, and schools were miles away. In early 1895, the stage was set for succession. Several men met on the third floor of the Robert Rudd's home on Ridgewood Avenue. They marked out the boundaries of a 1.45 square mile area to secede from Bloomfield. At the February 12, 1895 election, the decision to secede passed by only twenty-three votes. Robert Rudd was elected the first mayor of Glen Ridge.

If you're reading this today (Feb. 16th), head on up the hill for tonight's slide presentation: "When We were Bloomfield."

Belleville Ave

Oakum

Lackawanna Plaza home of C. W. Powers, owner of Oakum Factory in Watsessing. In modern times, the fibrous material used in oakum is derived from virgin hemp or jute. The fibers are impregnated with tar or a tar-like substance, traditionally pine tar (also called 'Stockholm tar'), an amber-colored pitch made from pine sap. Petroleum byproducts can be utilized for a tar-like substance that can also be used for modern oakum. White oakum is made from untarred material.

Early Houses

We do not know that there was a house built in all this region before 1695. John Baldwin, Sr., in 1670, was to have one extra acre, by vote of the town, added to his "second division, of upland" for "his staying on his place the first summer." This seems a special inducement for him to remain somewhere on the outlands of the Newark tract, whether within or without the present Bloomfield.
Thomas Davis had "liberty to set up a saw mill" in the summer of 1695. It has been supposed that this was the saw mill on a site near the pond above Wheeler’s paper mill, in Montclair. The existence of a saw mill points to coming houses. Thomas Pierson’s "fence" appears below Watseson Hill in 1695. Anthony Olive’s house, on the border of Orange, near Wigwam Brook, makes its appearance in 1712, and the same year a saw mill, near or on "Bushie Plain Brook," which brook crossed the road "from the town to the mountain."

The first authentic dates of dwelling-houses are two,— the house of David Dodd, afterwards occupied by his son, Amos Dodd, still bearing in the corner-stone the initials of himself and wife, "NOUM 10, 1719, D.S.D." (Nov. 10, 1719, Daniel Sarah Dodd), the present dwelling-house (1884) of Chester Gilbert; and a dwelling-house of Abraham Van Geisen, on the east bank of Third River, near "Canoe Swamp." There was also a "mill lately built" (a grist mill, probably) in 1720 on the Third River, on Capt. John Morris’ plantation, and also a dwelling of one Vannevklor, near Toney’s Brook, in 1724. Among other ancient houses without authentic dates are the following: the Joseph Davis mansion, opposite the Baptist Church, supposed to have been built before the Revolution; the Abraham Cadmus house, on Montgomery Street; the Moses Farrand house, below Watseson Hill, Washington’s temporary quarters (now an inglorious unused cider mill, with honorable bullet scars in the old shell); the Thomas Cadmus house, on Washington Street, since known as Washington’s headquarters; the old house far down on Belleville Avenue; the Ephraim Morris house, removed some years since from the grounds of Mr. Thomas; and the old Crane houses, in Montclair.
A good number of these ancient houses were built of stone, for in 1721 the freestone began to be quarried for the market. The chimney and the big oven built outside the house indicated the Holland family.
Samuel Ward’s mill (a woolen mill) was in existence in 1725; and George Harrison’s saw mill, at Montgomery, either in 1728 or in 1740.
With mills to saw and a mill to grind and a mill to card the wool, and abundance of field-stone or even quarry-stone, the houses multiplied henceforth.

Early Roads

"A highway is to pass through" the lands of Elizabeth Ward (Ogden), and of Elizabeth Morris "near" and "by" the Second River in 1675.

There is a "third going over," supposed to be a third crossing or ford of Second River, on Thomas Pierson’s land about 1678. A north and south highway bounds Matthew Camfield’s land on the Third River, next to Benjamin Baldwin, in 1698.

A highway is to pass through Elizabeth Ward’s (Ogden’s) land "by the Third River," which land adjoins Samuel Plum’s land by the "Ocquekanunc lyne" by the great river, in 1679.

These points in roads indicate rough wagon tracks, during the first early years of settlement, northwest towards Watseson, through the present centre of the town towards the "Morris plantation," and northwards from the Newark village through the present Belleville to the Acquackanonck line.

The road to the present centre of the town from the Newark settlement undoubtedly bent northeastward to pass around "mill brook swamp." It then found its way past "sunfish pond," over "Watseson Hill" to the Second River, to the plain between that river and the Third River and to hands on the Third River farther north.

In 1675 the east and west line of Aaron Blatchley’s land, "by the first branch of ye second river," is a highway. This is, no doubt, a rough road from the Newark settlement westward to the lands of Crane, Huntinton, Kitchell and Blotchley, in the upper part of the present Montclair. Surveyors are chosen in town-meeting, on Dec. 12, 1681, "to lay out highways as far as the Mountains if need be, and Passages to all Lands." An east and west highway lies along the south side of Matthew Camfield’s land, "by the mountain path," next Thomas Huntington, in 1698. A road from the town to the mountain crosses "Bushie Plain Brook" near a saw-mill in 1712.

These signify, no doubt, the early road or roads from the settlement to "Newark Mountains," as Orange was at first called.

A road from Stephen Morris’ mill, "up the hill," as the hill "will alow," was laid out in 1762. This is, no doubt, the Bay Lane road, and it indicates that the old Cranetown roads, from "Isaac Dodd’s corner" and from the Caleb Davis house, and the road westward on Watseson Plain to the mountains, were already in existence.

The Earliest Names

Owners of land are found in the southern part of the Bloomfield region within nine years after the Newark settlement.
In 1675, Stephen Davis, Robert Lyman, Hans Albert, Jonathan Sergeant and Matthew Camfield have land "in the mill-brook swamps," northwest of the Newark settlement, in the region along the present Morris Canal.
In 1679, Samuel Ward and John Gardner and Jabez Rogers have land at the mouth of the Second River.
John Ward, dish-turner, Elizabeth Ward (Ogden), Elizabeth Morris, John Ward, Sr., Samuel Harrison, Edward Ball and Thomas Pierson have land from 1675 to 1679 at or near the Second River.
Samuel Dodd takes land in 1678—79 "on Watseson," and Daniel Dodd, Thomas Richards and Thomas Pierson near or on "Watseson plane" or "on Watseson Hill;" and at about the same time Benjamin Baldwin at Watseson Hill and Second River.
Jasper Craine, Thomas Huntinton, Samuel Kitchell and Aaron Blachley are owners of land "at the head of the Second River," "in the branches of the Second River," "by the first branch of the Second River." In 1775, Robert Lyman, John Baldwin, Sr., Richard Harrison, Samuel Swaine, John Catlin, Hannah Freeman, Thomas Johnson, Anthony Oliff, "at the mountain," probably on the borders of the present Orange and Montclair.
Elizabeth Ward and Samuel Plum locate lands also on the Third River in 1679, and Samuel Plum "by the Ocquekanunc lyne."

We do not know that there was a house built in all the region before 1695, but these were the inhabitants in the sense of land-owners who used the tracts as wild lands or woodlands or grazing lands. There are at the least about sixty of them definitely known in the general territory extending from the present Orange border to the Acquackanonck line from the mountain to the Passaic.
Towards the end of the first quarter of the new century houses begin to appear.

The Puritan Colony

The principal early population, however, was a portion of the Newark colony. The New England colonists were neither petty settlers of a little village nor were they great handed proprietors. They aimed at the possession of a large tract, but their purpose was a division into small plots for equal citizens. Many of those who established, themselves on a "home lot" in the first village, and took up a meadow lot in the salt marshes, took up also an "out-lot" or a "mountain lot" in the northern and western part of the town. Their children found their way to these lands and became the first out-settlers. Once past the swamps behind the Newark hill, they pitched on the Watseson lands or on the Second River sites, and followed the fenceless wagon tracks which forked to the mountains.

The Dutch Movement

[Note: Most of the previous posts have been taken from Rev. Charles E. Knox's Detailed Bloomfield Township, Chapter LXVIII in the book: HISTORY OF ESSEX AND HUDSON COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
Compiled by William H. Shaw. Everts & Peck, Philadelphia, 1884. We've added appropriate illustrations that are in the public Domain, It can be read sequentially starting with the post of 1/4/12]

The period of the early history may be considered as extending from the year of settlement on the Passaic to the times of the Revolution.

The Holland colony at Bergen flowed northward to Hackensack, then westward to Acquackanonck (Passaic), and thence still westward over the mountain, and southward into the Newark colony. The strongest Dutch settlement within the region which became Bloomfield was "Second River." The northeast portion of the township was filled with Dutch farmers. That portion became known in more recent times as Franklin, and fell within the boundaries of Belleville. The northwest settlements became Stone House Plains and Speertown.

The Dutch purchase at Acquackanonck was from the Indians in 1679, and from the proprietors in 1684. The lands laid out in strips for farms ran parallel with the northern boundary of Bloomfield, and the migration swept over the boundary and possessed the northern part of the town. The northern end of Horseneck was filled almost exclusively with Holland people down to about 1800, and their reactionary southeast movement gave the township of Bloomfield some of its best citizens. At length the Holland blood was mixed with the Puritan, and the Holland families are now found in all parts of the town.

Some of the oldest names are Speer or Spier, Thomason, Arent, Vreelandt, Uriansen, Van Siles, Francisco, Kiper, Cadmus, Garrabrant, Van Riper, Jerolemon, Low and Kidney.

Vincent is a very old name of French Huguenot extraction, but at first was associated with the Hollanders.

Their church was established at Second River in 1727, and another Reformed Dutch Church was built at Stone House Plains on the opening of the present century, 1801.

Indian History

The early Indian history is connected with the general purchases of the Newark colony. Few native names have been preserved as specially connected with this portion of the tract— hardly more than Yauntakah as the name of Third River, Wachung as the mountain, and Watseson, Wattseson or Watsessing, the crooked stream. The Hackensacks continued numerous for some years.

Outbreaks were sometimes feared, as in the time of King Philip’s war in Connecticut in 1783, but no disturbance occurred here. As the natives were a peaceable tribe and their lands were honestly purchased, they quietly withdrew. The last one left the region for Canada in 1761.
[Benjamin West's painting (in 1771) of William Penn's 1682 treaty with the Lenape]

1859 Bloomfield

Cranetown

"Cranetown "by popular designation became after 1812, West Bloomfield, but was incorporated as Montclair in 1868. The incorporation took away another third of the original Bloomfield, on its western side. The line between Bloomfield and Montclair was located as follows:

"Beginning at a point in the centre of the stone arch bridge over the stream crossing the road west of and near to the residence of Henry Stucky, on the Orange line; thence, front said starting-point in a straight line, about north thirty-one degrees five minutes east, to a point in Passaic County line, which point is five hundred feet west, on said county line, from the centre of the road running in front of the residence of Cornelius Van Houten."

The present township of Bloomfield is four and a half miles long, by an average breadth of one and three-quarter miles. (For statistics of square miles, population, etc. see the end of this historical sketch.)

The township of Acquackanonck lies on the north, Belleville and Newark on the east, Newark and Orange on the south, and Montclair on the west.

Belleville

(Photo: Branchbrook Park)
This line crossed the mountain to the upper Passaic and so recognized either the provincial division of Newark or the aspiration of the Newark settlers for further territory. The division continued until Bloomfield had received its name in 1796, and until within three months of the time when Second River took the name of Belleville, on July 4, 1797. (The division wits discontinued on April 10, 1797.)

Belleville became a separate township in 1839. It took from the township of Bloomfield about one-third of its territory, and established the line between them as follows:

From the great boiling spring at the corner of the township of Orange "northerly on a straight line to a point on the northerly side of the old road leading from the village of Bloomfield to Newark, midway between the dwelling-houses of Charles R. Akers and Nicholas Coughlin; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of the roads nearest to and north of the bridge across Randolph’s pond; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of the roads leading to Franklinville and Morris’s Mill, near Peter Groshong’s dwelling-house; thence along the west aide of the road leading to Franklinville to the division line between said Groshong and lands late of Abraham Pake, deceased; thence, westwardly along said division line and the northern line of lands of Stephen Morris, to the centre of the Morris Canal; thence, along the middle of said canal northwardly, to the southern line of land of Christopher Mandeville, thence along said Mandeville’s line to the western line of said road, to the corner of the road leading from Franklinville, to Stone House plains; thence northwardly on a straight course to a point in the eastern line of the road near the late dwelling-house of Garret P. Jacobus, deceased, where the line of Acquackanonck township, in the county of Passaic, crosses said road."

Internal Divisions

The benevolent care of the poor was the occasion of the first internal division of the Newark township. The "inhabitants of Second River and the Body of Newark" acted separately "in all affairs rebating to the Poor" for fifty-three years. The line of division established, was in part the line which afterwards divided Belleville from Bloomfield. The description given in 1748-44 is as follows:

"Beginning at Passaik River at the Gully near the house of Doctor Pigot, thence northwest to Second River, thence up the same to the Saw Mill belonging to George Harrison, thence a direct line to the north east corner of the Plantation of Stephen Morris, thence to the Notch in the mountain, leaving William Crane’s house to the southward thence on a direct line to Stephen Van Sile’s Bars, and Abraham Francisco’s to the Northward of said line; and it was agreed that all on the Northward of said lines should be esteemed Inhabitants of Second River, and all on the Southward of the Body of Newark."

Southern Line

The southern line of Bloomfield was established in 1806, when the township of Newark was divided by its own authority into three wards,— the Newark Ward, the Orange Ward and the Bloomfield Ward. The Orange Ward became that same year the township of Orange and the Bloomfield Ward became the township of Bloomfield in 1812. The line between the Orange and the Bloomfield Wards was established in 1806, as follows:

"Beginning at the Green Island in Passaik River, and running from thence to the Boiling Spring on lands of Phinehas Baldwin, dec’d., and from thence to the Bridge at the Slough between the houses of Jonathan Baldwin and Elihu Pierson, and from thence to the bridge near Martin Richards’, and from thence to Turkey Eagle Rock, on the top of the first Mountain; which we agree shall be the line between the Bloomfield Ward anti the wards of Newark and Orange."

Original Boundaries

The purchase from the Indians in 1666 did not define a west line. The corrected deed of sale in 1677—78 specifies "that it is meant, agreed and intended that their bounds shall reach or goe to the top of the said Great Mountaine and that Wee, the said Indians, will marke out the same."
The Town Patent or Charter was not given till 1718, and has a complete boundary. It specifies the land "Purchased from ye Indians, now known by ye name Name of Newarke, Bounded easterly by a great creek that runs from Hackingsack Bay, through ye Salt Meadow Called by the Indians Wequahick, and now Known by ye Name of Bound Creek, and continuing from the head of ye Said Creek to the head of a Cove to a Markt Tree; from thence it Extended Westerly upon a Straight Line, by Computation Seven Miles be the Same more or Less, to the End or foot of the Great Mountain, and to the Ridge thereof, called by the Indians Wachung, Near where Runs a branch of Rahway River; from thence extending on a Northerly Course along the Ridge of the Said Mountain to a heap of Stones, Erected to Ascertain the Boundary between the s’d Town of Newark and the Town of Achquickatnunck; front thence Running a South-east course by Achquickatnunck Bound Line to where the brook or Rivalet Called by the Indians Yantokah, but now Known by the Naune of the Third River, Emptieth itself into Pasayack River, and from thence Continuing Down along by the said Pasaiack River and Hacklngsack Bay to the mouth of the said Bound Creek." (East Jersey Records, liber A A A, folio 145.)

This gives us the west and north and east line of what became afterwards Bloomfield.(click on map to enlarge) For one hundred and thirty years, however, before Bloomfield received its name the territory was identified with the Newark township, and it was not until one hundred and forty-six years from the first settlement that it received a separate town charter.

Earlier and Later Outlines

The tongue of land bounded by the curve in the Passaic River was originally divided between the Puritan and the Dutch colonies. The mountain was the ridge of the tongue. The whole breadth of the middle and the southern portions was Newark, and its settlement proceeded from the "town on the Passaic." The smaller portion of the tract— the tip of the tongue— was Acquackanonck, and its settlement proceeded from the Bergen colony, through Hackensack and through the nearer Indian village of Acquackanonck (Passaic), at the head of navigation. The line between the two was the original line of the Newark colony in 1666. The eastern line at that time was defined to be the "Pesayac River," and to reach northward "to the Third River above the town," and the northern boundary "from thence upon a northwest line to the mountaine."

The mountain was the west line of the Newark colony, or the Newark town proper.

The purchase from the Indians in 1666 did not define a west line. The corrected deed of sale in 1677—78 specifies "that it is meant, agreed and intended that their bounds shall reach or goe to the top of the said Great Mountaine and that Wee, the said Indians, will marke out the same."

More on General Bloomfield

The next year Gen. Bloomfield paid the town a visit with a military escort, in formal recognition of the honor done him. The civil township, however, was not erected until 1812, when it included the territory from the crest of the mountain to the Passaic River.

The Bloomfields were of the old colony of Woodbridge. Moses Bloomfield, M.D., the father of Gen. Bloomfield, was "an influential member of the Legislature, and of the Provincial Congress before the Revolution."

Joseph Bloomfield was captain in the Third Regiment of the New Jersey Regulars in 1776. The regiment, commanded by Col. Elias Dayton, was sent that year to support the Northern army in Canada, but it was diverted from Albany to the Mohawk valley. Capt. Bloomeld brought Lady Johnston, of Johnstown Hall, as a prisoner to Albany. The regiment went on to the German Flats and to Fort Stanwix (Rome, N.Y.), to which place Capt. Bloomfield returned from Albany, bringing the news of the Declaration of Independence. He was made major in December, 1776, and was present in the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth, and resigned his commission in 1778 to accept the clerkship of the Assembly. In 1783 he was attorney-general of the State, and was re-elected to that office in 1788. In 1794 he was general of militia, and took part in the suppression of the "whiskey insurrection" in Pennsylvania. He was Governor and also chancellor of New Jersey in 1801, and from 1803 to 1812. In the war of 1812 he was appointed a brigadier-general. He died in 1825, and was buried in Burlington, where he had resided for many years.

General Joseph Bloomfield

Gen. Bloomfield, who had come into notice during the Revolutionary war, was now recognized throughout the State as a rising man. His public services and personal popularity directed attention to him at the critical time. His name was chosen, and the honor tendered was acknowledged in circumstances alike creditable to the people and to him. The choice was the act of the Presbyterian congregation then worshiping for some time in "the Joseph Davis house;" and inasmuch as the people were then beginning the erection of a house of worship, a white marble tablet, with the inscription, "Bloomfield, 1796," was set in the brown free-stone tower, to mark the beginning of a new township.

The Third River

If a native name was to be selected, Wataeson or Watsesing should have been chosen. This Indian name is said to mean crooked or elbow-like, and to have been applied to Third River, the principal stream of the present town, which is very crooked throughout its course, and which makes a large elbow near the centre of the town.

A History of Bloomfield

HISTORY OF ESSEX AND HUDSON COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
Compiled by William H. Shaw. Everts & Peck, Philadelphia. 1884.
This Chapter on Bloomfield was written By Rev. Charles E. Knox

BLOOMFIELD took its name, in 1796, from Gen. Joseph Bloomfield, afterwards Governor and chancellor of New Jersey. Local names had become attached previously to separate settlements during the slow growth of a hundred years. "Second River" was designated by the Newark Town Council as a district of Newark in 1743—44 for that portion of the late Bloomfield now known as Belleville. "Cranetown became a popular name for the western portion towards the mountains at about the same early time "Watseson Plain" and "Wattseson Hill" were the hill and the plain in the southern part. "Newtown" was applied to the straggling settlement eastwards well down the present Belleville Avenue. The "Morris Plantation" had drifted into "Morris’s Mill" or the "Morris Neighborhood." The "Stone House Plain" for the northern end appears as early as 1695. "Crab Orchard," as colloquial for land then covered by crab-apple trees north of the old church, and "Hopewell" as an invention of the young men for the same region, had died a natural death.