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 In the early 1666, an association of church members from three separate towns in Connecticut, sailed into the Passaic, and landed at a point previously selected, “beyond the marshes lying to the north of Elizabethtown.” Scarcely had the emigrants brought their goods from shipboard, when a party of Hackensack Indians appeared on the ground, claiming the soil as their own, and insisting that it should be paid for before the settlement could go on. Having selected the tract in expectation that Carteret was authorized to extinguyish the Indian title, the disheartened colonists prepared to abandon their enterprise; but at the earnest request of the governor, they agreed to hold a council with the natives, from whom they purchased the territory comprising more than one-half the present county of Essex, paying for it in goods and  wampum, valued at about one hundred and forty pounds, New England currency. Having thus settled their difficulty with the Indians, the emigrants immediately began to erect a town, to which they presently gave the name of Newark. Constituting themselves on the narrow and intolerant principal of withholding certain political rights from all persons not subscribing to the doctrines “of some one of the Congregational churches,” they resolved, “with one heart and consent”, to carry on “their spiritual concernments, as well as their civil and town affairs, according to God and a godly government;” and to be ruled “by such officers as the town should annually choose from among themselves,” under “the same laws as they had in the place from whence they came.’’

 

The influence of the puritan emigrants was felt in the first assembly of New Jersey, which commenced its session at Elizabethtown, on the 26th, and closed on the 30th of May 1668.

 

History of New Jersey , edited by W.H.Carpenter and T.S.Arthur, published in 1856

 

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The original deed of sale make by the natives to the inhabitants of the town of Newark, bareing date the eleventh day of July, 1667, it is said to the foot of the Great Mountaine, called Watchung, alias  Atchunck, Wee Winocksop and Shenocktos, Indias and owners of the said Great Mountaine, for and in consideration of two Guns, three Coates, and thirteen Cans of Rum, to us in hand paid the receipt werof wee doe hereby acknowledge, doe Convenant and declare to and with Mr. John Ward and Mr. Thomas Johnson, Justices of peace of the said towne of Newark, before the right Hon'ble Phillip Carteret, Esq., Governeur of the Province of New Kersey, and the other witnesses here under written, that it is meant, agreed, and intended that their bounds shall reach or goe to the top of said Great Mountaine, and that Wee the said Indians will marke out the same to remaine to them the said inhabitants of Newark, their heires or Assignes for Ever. In Witness hereof Wee the S'd Indians have hereunto sett our hands and scales the 13th of March, 1677-8.

Wiocksop, Shenocktos

Signed, sealed and Delivered in the presence of

James Bollen, Secretary

Hendrick Drodgestradt,

Samuel Harisson,

The ackowledged before me the day and yeare above written

PH. CARTARETT

 

 

Note from a Lenape (see site): "Many of the early treaties and land sales we signed with the Europeans were in our people's minds more like leases. The early Delaware had no idea that land was something that could be sold. The land belonged to the Creator, and the Lenape people were only using it to shelter and feed their people. When the poor, bedraggled people got off their ships after the long voyage and needed a place to live we shared the land with them. They gave us a few token gifts for our people's kindness, but in the mind of the Europeans these gifts were actually the purchase price for the land."

 

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The Indians

The Indians that where here when Newark Mountain was developed were the Lenni Lenape

That name means the “original people.” Some local white settlers on Newark

Mountain referred to them as “country people.” The Lenni Lenape probably settled on the

Newark Mountain around two hundred years before its development. They most likely came

from southeastern Canada via New York.

 

“The number of Indians belonging to the Hackensack tribe and who laid claim to the

Passaic lands sold to the Newark settlers, is believed to have been small. The whole number

in the Province, at the time of its coming under the dominion of the Crown, was probably, not

more than two thousand. They were under the rule of about twenty kings, and some of the

tribes numbered less than fifty souls. Oraton was king of the Hackensack’s, and Perro

claimed proprietorship of the Passaic lands. In the years of the early settlement of the

mountain, the few remaining natives of the soil were of vagabond habits, getting a precarious

subsistence upon game, occasional patches of corn, and the good offices of the settlers.”

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These Indians were well mannered, healthy, tall and handsome. They were not

immune from our diseases and fell prey to our rum.

 

There are two Indian campsites shown on the Newark Mountain map. One was on

the southwest corner of Valley Street and Tuscan Road. While most of the Indians moved

elsewhere as the Eighteenth Century approached, some still retained their attraction to the

home of their ancestors. Chief Tuscan was not an exception. He would return frequently and

stay at the ancestral campsite of his people. This was located on the southwest corner of

Valley Street and Tuscan Road. Even today it is still a very tranquil location with a stream

flowing down the mountain into the Rahway River. At his request his people performed his

Indian funeral ceremony there in 1801. This was met with strong objection from the local

settlers. The problem was that the Indian ceremony dictated that the corpse be suspended on

a scaffold for seven days prior to interment. The pre-interment ritual was accelerated to keep

the peace.

 

The other Indian campsite was located where Center Street and Harrison Avenue

come together. This area is known today as Orange Park. While Chief Perro has long since

moved on, his presence is still sensed by the water flowing from the spring that feeds the

brook. This body of water today is still called Perro Brook.

“A certain Scotchman, James Johnstone, writing to his friends at home, said the

wolves ‘are nothing to be feared, neither are the country people afraid to be among them all

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Stephen Wicks, History of the Oranges, 1892 A.D., 974.9 W63, p. 22.

 

Reference: Newark Mountain by Charles T. McGrath Jr. Rockaway, N.J. pdf version

 

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