Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now Living — John Shaqi
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
The present level of the Gully road is much lower than it was even fifty
years ago, and there is a legend that one hundred and fifty years ago a
great freshet cut out large quantities of earth here, but the higher
level could hardly have been of long duration, for Mrs. Gibbs recalls
that a number of years ago, while workmen were digging a trench,
possibly for the sewer, they brought up what are thought to have been
Indian relics from a depth of twelve feet or more. Mr. Gibbs’s brother
was passing at the moment of discovery and tried to purchase the find
from the man in charge, as he regarded it of considerable ethnological
value, but the contractor refused to sell, and when Mr. Gibbs and his
brother returned to the spot the men had gone and their discovery with
them, and to-day the exact character of the find is not known. Other
Indian finds in this immediate neighborhood are a stone mortar and
pestle and many arrow points on the Gibbs place. On the Sandford place,
just above, a stone mortar hollowed out of a heavy block long stood by
the well. This was kept filled with water for the chickens to drink
from. When the place was regraded this stone disappeared, it having been
probably buried.
(Since the above was put in type I have found one of the laborers who
was employed in building the sewer through the Gully road. He tells me
that this was about fourteen years ago, that the find occurred just east
of the entrance to the Gibbs place on the north edge of the road, and
consisted of four or five Indian skeletons with many stone hammers,
arrow points, etc. My informant is under the impression that the burial
place was extensive and only partially uncovered.)
From the fact that Indians would hardly dig to any such depth as
indicated above, it is fair to presume that the filling in may have been
comparatively recent; possibly some great storm had washed masses of
earth down into the gully.
The Gully road is now well paved and lighted and much affected by that
brazen highwayman the automobile, but there was a time when it was a
dark and lonesome place where no honest man desired to be caught after
dark; where it is said smugglers filed by during the silent watches of
the night, the deserted river bank here being a favorite rendezvous for
those whose deeds were evil.
OLD MOLL DE GROW.
Sixty years or so ago a stone wall ran from the bend of the Gully road,
near the river diagonally to Belleville avenue, across the property now
occupied by the cemetery. Beside this stone wall was buried the first
person interred on the site of the cemetery—a noted witch, old Moll
DeGrow, the fear of whose shade lent greatly to the terrors of the Gully
seventy-five years ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account