Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now LivingHine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
History
Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now Living
Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
Hine, C. C. (Charles Cole), 1825-1897; Woodside (Newark, N.J.) -- History
Herbert shot himself in the Stevens House, New York, on May 17, 1858. He
was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, overlooking the river he knew so
well, and his epitaph, which he is said to have suggested himself, is
the single Latin word “Infelice”.
EARLIER DWELLERS SOUTH OF THE GULLY ROAD.
In 1743 a Dr. Edward Pigot lived hereabouts, as is noted in the Town
Meeting of that year, quoted elsewhere; who he was or whence he came is
not for me to say. In 1791 Abraham Sandford, Jr., and Elisha Sandford,
lived in an old house on the site of the Herbert house, while building
the Sandford dwelling, which still stands nearly opposite the Point
House. As early as 1680 the property was owned by Henry Rowe, and
remained in the possession of the family until about 1812. Mary Rowe, a
witch, lived in a cabin here, and may be the same person referred to
elsewhere as Moll De Grow.
After that I find no record of a dwelling here until Herbert built.
After his death this house was occupied for a short time by Mr. Joseph
S. Rano, a shoemaker by trade, and a great hunter and a haunter of the
river and its banks; then came Mr. Sanchez y Dolce, who resided here
until the dwelling was destroyed by fire. Then came the cemetery, and it
is now the dwelling place of many dead.
GREEN ISLAND.
Those who only know the Passaic of to-day can hardly realize that there
was once a “Green Island” lying off the northern end of Mount Pleasant
Cemetery which was a noted rendezvous for wild ducks and geese, with
enough water between it and the shore to enable river craft to navigate
the channel.
This Green Island was a thorn in the side of the cemetery people, who
purchased it for $ 1,000, or thought they did; but soon came those who
bluffed them into buying it over again, and this time they paid $10,000.
When the Erie came it claimed that the cemetery had no rights in Green
Island at all, and calmly pre-empted it for trackage purposes.
OF FISH AND FISHING.
Seventy-five years ago this was a hunter’s paradise, and even within the
memory of some of us old codgers the fishing for shad and smelts was a
well established industry. In fact, the fishing rights of Green Island
were for hire, as I am told that one could rent them for a day or a week
and do his own fishing. Old Fink, whoever he was, once gathered in five
hundred shad in one haul; at least one of his contemporaries does
solemnly affirm such to have been the case, and another as calmly tells
me that fourteen bushels of smelts were the reward of two hauls, of
which he had cognizance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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