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.
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