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By Frank R. Stockton
Originally published in 1896
The Indians on this reservation came to be known
as the Edge-Pillocks, and in course of time considerable
civilization crept in among them. It is a proof of this, that one of them, who took the name of Stephen
Calvin, kept a school, and that his son Bartholomew
went to Princeton College, and afterwards taught
school. It is said that in his school there were as
many white scholars as Indians.
In 1801 these Edge-Pillock Indians were invited by
the Mohicans of New York to leave their New Jersey
home and come and live with them. In their
invitation the Mohicans said they would like them
"to pack up your mat and come and eat out of our
dish, which is large enough for all, and our necks are
stretched in looking toward the fireside of our grandfather
till they are as long as cranes."
The Edge-Pillocks sold their reservation, had the
money invested for them in United States stocks, and
went to join the Mohicans. After that, both tribes decided
to buy land in Michigan, and the Edge-Pillocks
disposed of their stocks to pay for their share.
But our New Jersey Indians did not fare well in
the West. Their fortunes did not prosper, and they
grew poorer and poorer, until in 1832 their numbers
decreased to about forty. Feeling the pressure of
poverty, their Indian disposition suggested to them a
remedy. They remembered, that, although they had
sold their reservation, nothing had been said in the
deeds concerning the game and the fish on the property;
and they chose to consider that these still belonged
to them. They therefore sent Bartholomew
Calvin, who was now their oldest chief, to New Jersey
to ask the Legislature to buy these remaining rights.
The Legislature promptly agreed to do this, and appropriated two thousand dollars, which was the sum
Bartholomew named, to buy of the Indians all their
remaining rights of every kind in New Jersey.
This act may be considered as one of kindness and
charity to the former owners of the land, rather than
as an act of justice, because there is no doubt, that
when the Indians sold the reservation, and invested
the proceeds, they intended to sell every deer, fish,
bird, and mosquito on the whole tract. But it is an
honor to the Legislature of that day that it was willing
to make happy the last days of the New Jersey
Indians by this act. That the Indians appreciated
what had been done, may be seen from the following
extract from a letter from Bartholomew Calvin:-
She lived to be more than ninety years old ; and
her long straight black hair, her copper-colored skin,
her bright eyes, gave the people of the
neighborhood a good idea of what sort
of people used to. inhabit this country
before their ancestors came over the sea.
She had many true Indian characteristics, and loved to work in the open air
better than to attend to domestic matters in the house. Even when she
was very old, she would go into the
woods and cut down trees as if
she had been a man. She did not
die until December, 1894; and
then the people who had known
her so long gathered together at her
funeral, and buried the last of the Indians of New Jersey.
Thus Scheyichbi, the land of the Indians, became
truly and honestly New Jersey, the land of the English settlers;
and to this State belongs the honor of
having been the first in the Union in which the settlers
purchased and paid. for the lands on which they
settled, and in which the aboriginal owners were so
fairly treated that every foot of the soil not purchased
of them by individuals was bought and paid for by the
government of the State.
Authorities:
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
But the love of their old home did not die out entirely in the hearts of all the Edge-Pillock Indians,
who emigrated, first to New York, and then to
Michigan. There was one Indian brave and his squaw,
who, after living at Oneida for some time, began to
long again for the old hunting ground in New Jersey;
and, before the rest of their tribe went West, these
two came back to Burlington County, and established
themselves in a little house near Mount Holly. Here
these two Indians lived for about twenty years; and
when they died, they left a daughter, a tall powerful
woman, known in the neighborhood as "Indian Ann,"
who for many years occupied the position of the last
of the Lenni-Lenape in New Jersey.
"Upon this parting occasion I feel it to be an incumbent duty
to bear the feeble tribute of my praise to the high-toned justice
of this State in dealing with the aboriginal inhabitants. Not a
drop of our blood have you spilled in battle, not an acre of our land
have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for themselves,
and need no comment. They place the character of New
Jersey in bold relief, –a bright example to those States within whose territorial limits our brethren still remain. Nothing save
benisons can fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni-Lenape."
"History of New Jersey." S. Smith.
"History of New Jersey." I. Mulford.
"History of New Jersey." T. F. Gordon.
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