Sint-Sink,of record as the name of Schout's Bay, [FN] also, "Formerly called Cow Neck, and by the Indians Sint-Sink," was the name of a place now known as Manhasset. (Col. Hist. N. Y.) It means "Place of small stones," as in Sint-Sink, modern Sing-Sing, on the Hudson.
[FN] Known also as "Martin Garretson's bay." Garretson was Schout (Sheriff), hence "Schout's bay." The neck of land "called by the Indians Sint-Sink," was fenced for the pasturage of cows, and became known as "Cow Neck," hence "Cow bay" and "Cow harbor," now Manhasset bay. (See Matinnec'ock and Mochgonneck-onck.)
Manhasset,correctlyManhanset,means, "Near the Island," or something less than at the island. The locative was long known as "Head of Cow Neck."
Matinnecockis noted in a survey for Lewis Morris, in 1685: "A tract of land lying upon the north side of Long Island, within the township of Oyster Bay, in Queens County, and known by the name of Matinicock," and in another survey: "A certain small neck of land at a place called Mattinicock." Extended also to an island and to an Indian clan. Cornelius van Tienhoven wrote in 1650: "Martin Garritson's Bay, or Martinnehouck, [FN-1] is much deeper and wider than Oyster Bay; it runs westward in and divides into three rivers, two of which are navigable. The smallest stream runs up in front of the Indian village called Martinnehouck, where they have their plantations. The tribe is not strong, and consists of about thirty families. In and about this bay were formerly great numbers of Indian plantations which now lie waste. On the rivers are numerous valleys of sweet and salt meadows." The name has, with probable correctness, been interpreted fromMetanak-ok(Lenape,Metanak-onk; Abn.,Metanak-ook), meaning, "Along the edge of the island," or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "About this bay." The same name appears on the Delaware as that of what is now known as Burlington Island. [FN-2] It is corrupted in New Jersey to Tinnicum, and is preserved on Long Island as the name of a village in the town of Oyster Bay.
[FN-1] A corruption from "Martin."
[FN-2] Mattinacunk, Matinneconke, Matinnekonck—"having been formerly known by the name of Kipp's Island, and by ye Indian name of Koo-menakanok-onck." (Col. Hist. N. Y.)Koo-menakanok-onckwas the largest of two islands in the Delaware and was particularly identified by the Indian name, which means "Pine-tree-islands place." The name by which the Island came to be known was transferred to it apparently.
Hog's Island,so called by the early settlers, now known as Center Island, has the record description: "A piece of land on Martin Garretson's Bay, in the Indian tongue called Matinnecong, alias Hog's Neck, or Hog's Island, being an island at high tide." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 435.) "Matinneckock, a neck on the Sound east of Muchito Cove." (See Muchito.) The island is connected with the main land by a neck or beach which was overflowed at high tide.
Caumsettis recorded as the name of "The neck of land which makes the west side of Cow Harbor and the east side of Oyster Bay" (Ind. Deed of 1654), known later as Horse Neck and Loyd's Neck. Apparently a corruption ofKetumpset,"Near the great standing rock." The reference may have been to what was known as Bluff Point.
Muchito,the name of what is now Glen Cove, near Hempstead Harbor, is otherwise written Muschedo, Mosquito and Muscota. It was primarily written as the name of Muchito Neck. It means "Meadow"—Moskehtu(Eliot), "grass;"Muskuta,"A grassy plain or meadow." (See Muscota.)
Katawomoke,"or, as called by the English, Huntington," is written in the Indian deed of 1653,Ketauomoke; in deed of 1646,Ketauomocke,and assigned to a neck of land "Bounded upon the west side with a river commonly called by the Indians Nachaquetuck, and on the east by a river called Opcutkontycke," the latter now known as Northfield-Harbor Brook. The name is preserved in several orthographies. In deed to Lion Gardiner (1638),Ar-hata-amunt; in deed to Richard Smith (1664),CatawaunuckandCatawamuck, and in another entry "Cattawamnuck land,"i. e.land about Catawamuck; in Huntington Records,Ketewomoke; in Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, p. 60: "To the eastward of the town of Huntington and to the westward of Nesaquack, commonly called by the IndiansKatawamakeand in English by the name of Crope Meadow;" in another entry, "Crab Meadow," by which last name the particular tract was known for many years. "Crope" and "Crab" are English equivalents for a species of grass called "finger-grass or wire-grass," and were obviously employed by the English to describe the kind of grass that distinguished the meadow—certainly not as an equivalent of the Indian name, which was clearly that of a place at or near the head of Huntington Harbor, from which it was extended to the lands as a general locative. The several forms of the name may probably be correctly read fromKehti,or its equivalent.Kehchi, "Chief, principal, greatest," and-amaug,"Fishing-place" (-amuck,L. I.), literally "The greatest fishing-place." The orthography of 1638 is especially corrupt, andKetawamuck, apparently the most nearly correct, the rule holding good in this, as in other cases, that the very early forms are especially imperfect.
Nachaquatuck,the western boundary stream of Eaton's Neck, quoted as the name of Cold Spring, is translated by Dr. Tooker fromWa'nashque-tuck, "The ending creek, because it was the end or boundary of the tract." "Called by the Indians Nackaquatok, and by the English Cold Spring." (Huntington Patent, 1666.)Wanashque,"The tip or extremity of anything."
Opcutkontycke,now assigned to a brook entering Northfield Harbor, and primarily given as the name of a boundary stream (see Katawamake), seems to be a corruption ofOgkomé(Acoom-), "On the other side," and-tuck,"A tidal stream or estuary." It was a place on the other side of the estuary.
Aupauquack,the name of a creek in West Hampton, is entered, in 1665,Aupaucockand described as a boundary stream between the Shinnecock and the Unchechauge lands, "Either nation may cutt flags for their use on either side of the river without molestation." Also given as the name of a "Lily Pond" in East Hampton. Written Appauquauk and Appoquague, and now Paucuck. The name describes a place "Where flags grow," and nothing else. [FN] (See Apoquague.)
[FN] Rev. Thomas James, in a deposition made Oct. 18, 1667, said that two old Indian women informed him they "gathered flags for mats within that tract." (East Hampton Town Records, 156.)
Wading River,now so called, was also called "The Iron or Red Creek," "Red Creek" and "Wading Place," and by the IndiansPauquacumsuckandPequoockeon,the latter, wrote Dr. Trumbull, "Because Pequaocks, a little thick shell-fish was found there, which the Indians waded for; hence the name 'Wading River,'Quahaugis from this term, andPequaock,Oyster Bay." "Iron or Red Creek" explains itself. Wading River is preserved in the name of a village in the town of Riverhead.
Assawanama—"a tract of land near the town of Huntington called by the nativesAnendesak,in English Eaderneck's Beach, and so along the Sound four miles, or thereabouts, until [to] the fresh pond called by the nativesAssaiwanama,where a creek runs into the Sound"—describes "A creek beyond,"i. e.beyond Anendesak; from Assawa-amhames.
Aquebogue,Aquebauke—"on the north side of Aquebauke or Piaconnock River" (COl. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 600)—means, "Land or place on this side,"i. e.on the side towards the speaker, as is obvious from the description, "On the north side," and from the deed of 1648, which reads: "The whole tract of land called Ocquebauck, together with the lands and meadows lying on theother sideof the water as far as the creek," the latter called "The Iron or Red Creek," now "Wading River." The name is preserved in two villages in the town of Riverhead, on the original tract.
Wopowag,more correctlyWepowage,given as the name of Stony Brook, town of Brookhaven, describes a place "At the narrows,"i. e.of a brook or cove, and usually "The crossing place." (Trumbull.)
So'was'set,correctlyCowas'sett(Moh.), the name of what is now Port Jefferson, signifies, "Near a place of small pine trees." (Trumbull.) The name was applied to what was long known as the "Drowned Meadow," but not the less a "Place of small pine trees" which was at or near the meadow.
Wickaposset,now given as the name of Fisher's Island, appears to be fromWequa,"End of,"-paug(-peauke), "Waterland," and-et,locative—near the end of the water-land, marsh or pond. The island is on the north side of the Sound opposite Stonington, Ct., but is included in the jurisdiction of Southampton.
Hashamomuck,"being a neck of land." (Southold Records.) Hashamomock or Nashayousuck. (Ib.) The adjectivalsHashandNashseem to be fromNashaué,"Between," and-suck,"The mouth or outlet of a brook." The suffix-momuck,in the first form, may stand for-komuk,"Place"—a place between. The orthographies are very uncertain.
Minnepaug,"being a little pond with trees standing by it." (Southold Records.) The name is explained in the description, "A little pond." In Southampton Records the same pond is called Monabaugs, another orthography of Minnepaug.
Masspootupaug(1662), describes a boggy meadow or miry land. The substantival isPóotapaug,Mass., "A bog." The adjectival may stand forMass,"Great," orMatt,derogative.
Manowtassquott,orManowtatassquott,is assigned to Blue Point, in Great South Bay, town of Brookhaven. The record reads: "Bounded easterly by a brook or river to the westward of a point called the Blue Point, known by the Indian name of Manowtatassquott." The name belongs to a place where Menhaden abounded—Manowka-tuck-ut—from which extended to the point.
Ochabacowesuck,given as the name of what is now called Pine Neck, stands forAcquebacowes-uck,meaning, "On this side of the small pines." Narraganset.Cówawés-uck,"At the young pine place," or "Small-pine place."Koowa,Eliot;-es,diminutive;-uck,locative. The name of the tree was from its pointed leaves;Kous,a thorn or briar, or "having a sharp point." (Trumbull.)Acqueb,"This side."
Ronkonkoma,Raconkamuck, Wonkonkoamaug, Wonkongamuck, Wonkkeconiaug, Raconkcamake,"A fresh pond, about the middle of Long Island." (Smithtown Records.) "Woukkecomaugsignifying crooked pond." (Indian deed of 1720.) Obviously fromWonkun,"Bent," and-komuk,"Place, limited or enclosed." Interpretation fromWonkon'ous,"Fence," and-amaug,"Fishing-place" (Tooker), has no other standing than that there was a fence of lopped trees terminating at the pond. The name, however, was in place before the fence was made. The explanation in the Indian deed of 1720 cannot be disputed. The pond divides the towns of Islip, Smithtown, Setauket, and Patchoug.
Potunk,a neck of land on Shinnecock Bay, is writtenPotunckein Smithtown Records, in 1662. "A swamp at Potunk," is another entry. Dr. Trumbull quoted it as a form ofPo'dunk,Conn., which is of primary record, "CalledPotaecke," and given as the name of a "brook or river." In Brookfield, Mass., a brook bearing the name is said to have been so called "from a tract of meadow adjoining." In Washington County, N. Y., is recorded "Podunk Brook." (Cal. Land Papers.) The meaning of the name is uncertain, but from its wide distribution it is obviously from a generic—presumably a corruption ofP'tuk-ohke,a neck or corner of land. "The neck next east of Onuck is known by the Indian name of Potunk." (Local History.)
Mannhonake,the name of Gardiner's Island—"called by the Indians Mannhonake, [FN] and by us the Isle of Wight"—means, "Island place or country," fromMunnohhan,"Island," and-auke,"Land, ground, place (not limited or enclosed), country," etc. (Trumbull.) In common with other islands in Gardiner's Bay, it was recommended, in 1650, as offering rare inducements for settlement, "Since therein lie the cockles whereof wampum is made." "The greatest part of the wampum for which the furs are traded is made there." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 360.) The island was claimed in the deed as the property of the Narragansetts. Dr. Dwight's interpretation of the name, "A place where a number of Indians had died," is a pure invention.
[FN]Manchonackeis the orthography in patent to Lion Gardiner, 1639. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., i, 685.) Dr. Trumbull quotesManchonat,Narragansett.
Manah-ackaquasu-wanock,given as the name of Shelter Island, is a composition of two names, as shown by the record entry, "All that their island ofAhaquasu-wamuck,otherwise calledManhansack."Ahaquasu-wamuckis no doubt the equivalent ofAúhaquassu(Nar.), "Sheltered," and-amuckis an equivalent ofamaug,"Fishing-place," literally, "Sheltered fishing-place."MenhansackisManhansickin deed of 1652, andMunhassettandManhasettin prior deed of 1640. (East-Hampton Records.) It is a composition fromMunnohan,"Island;"es,"small," andet,"at" and describes a small island as "at" or "near" some other island. The compoundManah-ahaquasu-wanock,means, therefore, simply, "Sheltered-fishing-place island," identifying the island by the fishing-place, whileManhasettidentifies it in generic terms as a small island near some other island or place. [FN] The island now bears the generic termsManhasett.Pogatacutt, sachem of the island, is supposed to have lived on what is now known as "Sachem's Neck." (See Montauk.)
[FN] Perhaps explained by the entry, "Roberts' Island, situate near Manhansack." (Records, Town of East-Hampton.)
Manises,orMenasses,as written by Dr. Trumbull, the name of Block Island, means, literally, "Small island," just as an Englishman would describe it. The Narragansetts were its owners. Its earliest European occupant was Capt. Adriaen Block, who, having lost his vessel by burning at Manhattan, constructed here another which he called the "Onrust" or "Restless," in 1614. It was the first vessel constructed by Europeans in New York waters. In this vessel Block made extended surveys of Hudson's River, the Connecticut, the Sound, etc. Acquiring from his residence among them a knowledge of the Connecticut coast dialects, he wrote the names of tribes on the Hudson in that dialect. Reference is made to what is better known as the "Carte Figurative of 1614-16." There is no better evidence that this Figurative was from Block's chart than its presumed date and the orthographies of the names written on it.
Neversink,now so written as the name of the hills on the south side of the lower or Raritan Bay, is writtenNeuversinby Van der Donck,Neyswesinckby Van Tienhoven,Newasonsby Ogilby, 1671, and more generally in early records Naver, Neuver, Newe, and Naoshink. The original was no doubt the Lenape Newas-ink, "At the point, comer, or promontory." The rootNe(EnglishNâï), means, "To come to a point," "To form a point," or, as rendered by Dr. Trumbull, "A corner, angle or point,"Nâïag.Dr. Schoolcraft's translation, "Between waters," and Dr. O'Callaghan's "A stream between hills," are incorrect, as can be abundantly proved. (See Nyack.)
Perth Amboy,at the mouth of Raritan River, is in part, from James, Earl of Perth, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, who founded a settlement there, and part fromAmboy(EnglishAmbo), meaning any rising or stage, a hill or any elevation. A writer in 1684 notes: "Where the town of Perth is now building is on a shelf of land rising twenty, thirty and forty feet." Smith (Hist. of New Jersey) wrote: "Ambo, in Indian, 'A point;'" but there is no such word asAmbo,meaning "A point," in any Indian dialect. Heckewelder's interpretation: "Ompoge,from whichAmboyis derived, and alsoEmboli,means 'A bottle,' or a place resembling a bottle," is equally erroneous, althoughEmbolimay easily have been an Indian pronunciation of Amboy. The Indian deed of 1651 reads, "From the Raritan Point, calledOmpoge," which may be read fromOmpaé,Alg. generic, "Standing or upright," of whichAmboy,English, is a fair interpretation.
Raritangs(Van Tienhoven),Rariton(Van der Donck),Raretans, Raritanoos, Nanakans,etc., a stream flowing to tide-water west of Staten Island, extended to the Indian sub-tribal organization which occupied the Raritan Valley, is from the radicalNâï,"A point," as in Naragan, Naraticon, Narrangansett, Nanakan, Nahican, etc., fairly traced by Dr. Trumbull in an analysis of Narragansett, and apparently conclusively established in Nanakan and Narratschoen on the Hudson, the Verdrietig Hoek, or "Tedious Point," of Dutch notation, where, after several forms it culminates inNavish.Lindstrom'sNaratic-on,on the lower Delaware, was probably Cape May, and an equivalent substantially of the New EnglandNayantukq-ut,"A point on a tidal river," and Raritan was the point of the peninsula which the clan occupied terminating on Raritan Bay, where, probably, the name was first met by Dutch navigators. The dialectic exchange of N and R, and of the surd muteskandtare clear in comparingNanakanon the Hudson,Naratic-onon the Delaware, andRaritanon the Raritan. Van der Donck's map locates the clan bearing the name in four villages at and above the junction of a branch of the stream at New Brunswick, N. J., where there is a certain point as well as on Raritan Bay. The clan was conspicuous in the early days of Dutch New Netherland. Van Tienhoven wrote that it had been compelled to remove further inland on account of freshets, but mainly from its inability to resist the raids of the southern Indians; that the lands which they left unoccupied was between "two high mountains far distant from one to the other;" that it was "the handsomest and pleasantest country that man can behold." The great southern trunk-line Indian path led through this valley, and was then, as it is now, the great route of travel between the northern and the southern coast. (See Nanakan, Nyack-on-the-Hudson, and Orange.)
Orange,a familiar name in eastern New Jersey and supposed to refer to the two mountains that bound the Raritan Valley, may have been from the name of a sachem or place or both. In Breeden Raedt it is written: "The delegates from all the savage tribes, such as the Raritans, whose chiefs called themselves Oringkes from Orange."Oringkesseems to be a form ofOwinickes,fromOwini,N. J. (Inini,Chip.,Lenni,Del.), meaning "Original, pure," etc., and-ke,"country"—literally, "First or original people of the country," an interpretation which agrees with the claim of the Indians generally when speaking of themselves. [FN]OrangeisOranje,Dutch, pure and simple, but evidently introduced to represent the sound of an Indian word. What that word was may, probably, be traced from the name given as that of the sachem,Auronge(Treaty of 1645), which seems to be an apheresis ofW'scha-já-won-ge,"On the hill side," or "On the side of a hill." (Zeisb.) Awonge, Auronge, Oranje, Orange, is an intelligible progression, and, in connection with "from Orange," indicates the location of a village or the side of a hill, which the chiefs represented.
[FN] Dr. D. G. Brinton wrote me "I believe you are right in identifyingOringkeswithOwine—possibly with locativek."
Succasunna,Morris County, N. J., is probably fromSûkeu,"Black," and-achsün,"Stone," with substantive verbal affix-ni.It seems to describe a place where there were black stones, but whether there are black stones there or not has not been ascertained.
Aquackanonck,Aquenonga, Aquainnuck,etc.. is probably fromAchquam'kan-ong,"Bushnet fishing place." Zeisberger wrote "Achquanican,a fish dam." The locative was a point of land formed by a bend in Pasaeck River on the east side, now included in the City of Paterson. Jasper Bankers and Peter Sluyter wrote, in 1679-80: "Acquakenon: on one side is the kil, on the other is a small stream by which it (the point) is almost surrounded." The Dutch wrote here,Slooterdam,i. e.a dam with a gate or sluiceway in it, probably constructed of stone, the sluiceway being left open to enable shad to run up the stream, and closed by bushes to prevent their return to the sea. (Nelson.)
Watchung(Wacht-unk, Del.) is fromWachtschu(Zeisb.), "Hill or mountain," and-unk,locative, "at" or "on."Wachtsûnk,"On the mountain" (Zeisb.); otherwise writtenWakhunk.The original application was to a hill some twelve miles west of the Hudson. The first deed (1667) placed the boundmark of the tract "At the foot of the great mountain," and the second deed (1677) extended the limit "To the top of the mountain called Watchung."
Achkinckeshacky;Hackinkeshacky,1645;Hackinghsackin, Hackinkesack(1660);Hackensack(1685);Ackinsack, Hockquindachque; Hackquinsack,are early record forms of the name of primary application to the stream now known as the Hackensack, from which it was extended to the adjacent district, to an Indian settlement, and to an Indian sachem, or, as Van Tienhoven wrote, "A certain savage chief, named Haickquinsacq." (Breeden Raedt.) The most satisfactory interpretation of the name is that suggested by the late Dr. Trumbull: "FromHuckquan,Mass.,Hócquaan,Len., 'Hook,' andsauk,'mouth of a river'—literally, 'Hook-shaped mouth,' descriptive of the course of the stream around Bergen Point, by the Kil van Kull, [FN-1] to New York Bay." Campanus wroteHócküng,"Hook," and Zeisberger,Hócquaan.[FN-2] The GermanHacken,now Hackensack, means "Hook," as in GermanRussel Hacken,"Pot-hook," a hook incurved at both ends, as the letter S; in LenapeHócquoan(Zeisb.). Probably simply a substitution.
[FN-1] Before entering New York Harbor, Hudson anchored his ship below the Narrows and sent out an exploring party in a boat, who entered the Narrows and ascended as far as Bergen Point, where they encountered a second channel which they explored as far as Newark Bay. The place where the second channel was met they called "The Kils," or channels, and so it has remained—incorrectly "Kills." The Narrows they calledCol,a pass or defile, or mountain-pass, henceKil van Col,channel of the Narrow Pass, and henceAchter Col,a place behind the narrow channel. "Those [Indians] of Hackingsack, otherwise called Achter Col." (Journal of New Neth., 1641-47, Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 9.) . . . "Whether the Indians would sell us the hook of land behind the Kil van Col." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 280.) Achter Col became a general name for all that section of New Jersey.KulandKullare corruptions ofCol.Arthur Kullis now applied to Newark Bay.
[FN-2] Heckewelder wrote "Okhúcquan, Woâkhucquoan,or shortHúcquanfor the modernOccoquan,the name of a river in Virginia, and remarked, 'All these names signify a hook.'" (Trumbull.) Rev. Thomas Campanus (Holm), who was chaplain to the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 1642-9, and who collected a vocabulary, wroteHócküng(ueug), "Hook." This sound of the word may have led the Dutch to adoptHackinghas an orthography—modernHaking,"Hooking," incurved as a hook.
Commoenapa,written in several forms, was the name of the most southern of the six early Dutch settlements on the west side of Hudson's River, known in their order as Commoenapa, Aresseck, Bergen, Ahasimus, Hoboken-Hackingh, and Awiehacken. Commoenapa is now preserved as the name of the upland between Communipaw Avenue and Walnut Street, Jersey City, but was primarily applied to the arm of the main land beginning at Konstabel's Hoek, and later to the site of the ancient Dutch village of Gamœnapa, as written by De Vries in 1640, and by the local scribes, Gamœnapaen. [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y. xiii, 36, 37.) Dunlap (Hist. N. Y., i, 50) claimed the name as Dutch fromGemeente,"Commons, public property," and Paen, "Soft land," or in combination, "Tillable land and marsh belonging to the community," a relation which the lands certainly sustained. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 234.) The lands were purchased by Michael Pauw in 1630, and sold by him to the Dutch government in 1638. Although clearly a Dutch name it has been claimed as Indian, from LenapeGamenowinink(Zeisb.), "England, on the other side of the sea."Gamœnapaug,one of the forms of the name, is quoted as the basis of this claim; also,Acomunipag,"On the other side of the bay." The Dutch did substitutepaenforpaugin some cases, but it is very doubtful if they did here.
[FN] Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter wrote in their Journal: "Gamaenapaen is an arm of the main land on the west side of the North River, beginning at Constable's Hook, directly opposite to Staten Island, from which it is separated by the Kil van Kol. It is almost an hour broad, but has large salt meadows or marshes on the Kil van Kol. It is everywhere accessible by water from the city."
Ahasimus—Achassemusin deed to Michael Pauw, 1630—now preserved in Harsimus, was a place lying west of the "Little Island, Aressick;" later described as "The corn-land of the Indians," indicating that the name was from LenapeChasqummes(Zeisb.), "Small corn."Ashki'muis,"Sea maize." [FN] (See Arisheck.)
[FN] "The aforesaid land Ahasimus and Aressick, by us called the Whore's Corner, extending along the river Maurites and the Island Manhates on the east side, and the Island Hobokan-Hackingh on the north side, surrounded by swamps, which are sufficiently distinct for boundaries." (Pauw Deed, Nov. 22, 1630; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 3.) Mr. Winfield located Ahasimus "At that portion of Jersey City which lies east of Union Hill, excepting Paulus' Hoeck (Areisheck), . . . generally from Warren to near Grove Street."
Bergen,the name of the third settlement, is met in Scandinavian and in German dialects. "Bergen, the Flemish for Mons (Latin), 'a hill,' a town of Belgium." (Lippincott.) "Bergen, op. Zoom, 18 miles north of Antwerp, 'a hill at (or near) the bank,' or border." The original settlement was on what is now known as Jersey City Heights.
Arisheck—"The Little Island Aressick" (See Ahasimus), called by the Dutch Aresseck Houck, Hoeren Houck, and Paulus Houck—now the eastern point of Jersey City—was purchased from the Indians by Michael Pauw, Nov. 22, 1630, with "the land called Ahasimus," and, with the "Island Hobokan-Hackingh," purchased by him in July of the same year, was included in his plantation under the general name of Pavonia, a Latinized form of his own name, from Pavo, "Peacock" (Dutch Pauw), which is retained in the name of the Erie R. R. Ferry. Primarily, Arisseck was a low neck of land divided by a marsh, the eastern end forming what was called an island. The West India Company had a trading post there conducted by one Michael Paulis, from whom it was called Paulus' Hook, which it retains, Pauw also established a trading post there which, as it lay directly in the line of the great Indian trunk-path (see Saponickan), so seriously interfered with the trade of the Dutch post that the Company purchased the land from him in 1638, and in the same year sold the island to one Abraham Planck. In the deed to Planck the description reads: "A certain parcel of land called Pauwels Hoek, situated westward of the Island Manhates and eastward of Ahasimus, extending from the North River into the valley which runs around it there." (Col. Hist. N, Y., xiii, 3.) The Indian name,ArisheckorAresseck,is so badly corrupted that the original cannot be satisfactorily detected, but, by exchangingnforr,and adding the initialK,we would haveKaniskeck,"A long grassy marsh or meadow."
Hoboken,now so written—Hobocan-Hacking,July, 1630;Hobokan-Hacking,Nov. 1630;Hobokina,1635;Hobocken,1643;Hoboken,1647;HobuckandHarboken,1655-6—appears of record first in the Indian deed to Michael Pauw, July 12, 1630, negotiated by the Director-general and Council of New Netherland, and therein by them stated, "By us called Hobocan-Hacking." Primarily it was applied to the low promontory [FN-1] below Castle Point, [FN-2] bounded, recites the deed, on the south by the "land Ahasimus and Aressick." On ancient charts Aressick and Hoboken-Hacking are represented as two long necks of land or points separated by a cove on the river front now filled in, both points being called hooks. In records it was called an island, and later as "A neck of land almost an island, called Hobuk, . . . extending on the south side to Ahasimus; eastward to the river Mauritus, and on the west side surrounded by a valley or morass through which the boundary can be seen with sufficient clearness." (Winfield's Hist. Hudson Co.; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 2, 3, 4.) In "Freedoms and Exemptions," 1635; "But every one is notified that the Company reserves, unto itself the Island Manhates; Fort Orange, with the lands and islands appertaining thereto; Staten Island; the land of Achassemes, Arassick and Hobokina." The West India Company purchased the latter lands from Michael Pauw in 1638-9, and leased and sold in three parcels as stated in the Pauw deeds. The first settlement of the parcel called by the Dutch Hobocan-Hacking is located by Whitehead (Hist. East N. J.) immediately north of Hobokan Kill and calledHobuk.Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wroteHobuck,and stated that it was a plantation "owned by a Dutch merchant who in the Indian wars, had his wife, children and servants murdered by the Indians." In a narrative of events occurring in 1655, it is written: "Presently we saw the house on Harboken in flames. This done the whole Pavonia was immediately in flames." [FN-3] (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 98.) The deed statement, "By us named," is explicit, and obviously implies that the terms in the name were Dutch and not Indian, and Dutch they surely were. Dr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "Hoboken, called after a village on the river Scheldt, a few miles below Antwerp, [FN-4] and after a high elevation on its north side.Ho-,hoh-,is the radical of 'high' in all German dialects, andBuckis 'elevation' in most of them.Buckel(Germ.),Bochel(Dutch), means 'hump,' 'hump-back.'Hump(Low German) is 'heap,' 'hill.'Ho-bok-anlocates a place that is distinguished by a hill, or by a hill in some way associated with it." Presumably from the ancient village of Hoboken came to Manhattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hobocoon, a schoolmaster, who evidently was given his family name from the village from whence he came. He certainly did not give his family name to Hoboken twenty years prior to his landing at Manhattan.
HackingandHakenare unquestionably Dutch from the radicalHaak,"hook." The first is a participle, meaningHooking,"incurved as a hook," by metonymie, "a hook." It was used in that sense by the early Dutch as a substitute for LenapeHócquan,"hook," in Hackingsack, and Zeisberger used it in "Ressel Hacken,pot-hook." No doubt Stuyvesant used it in the same sense in writingHobokan-Hacking,describing thereby both a hill and a hook, corresponding with the topography, to distinguish it from its twin-hook Arisheck. Had there been an Indian name given him for it, he would have written it as surely as he wrote Arisheck. When he wrote, "By us called," he meant just what he said and what he understood the terms to mean. To assume that he wrote the terms as a substitute for LenapeHopoakan-hacki-ug,"At (or on) the smoking-pipe land." or place where materials were obtained for making smoking-pipes, has no warrant in the record narrative.Hackingwas dropped from the name in 1635.
[FN-1] An ancient view of the shore-line represents it as a considerable elevation—a hill.
[FN-2] Castle Point is just below Wehawken Cove in which Hudson is supposed to have anchored his ship in 1609. In Juet's Journal this land is described as "beautiful" and the cliff as of "the color of white green, as though it was either a copper or silver mine." It has long been a noted resort for mineralogists.
[FN-3] Teunissed van Putten was the first white resident of Hoboken. He leased the land for twelve years from Jan. 1, 1641. The West India Company was to erect a small house for him. Presumably this house is referred to in the narrative. It was north of Hoboken Kill.
[FN-4] Now a commercial village of Belgium. The prevailing dialect spoken there was Flemish, usually classed as Low German. The Low German dialects of three centuries ago are imperfectly represented in modern orthographies. In and around Manhattan eighteen different European dialects were spoken, as noted of record—Dutch, Flemish, German, Scandinavian, Walloon, etc.
WehawkenandWeehawken,as now written, is writtenAwiehakenin deed by Director Stuyvesant, 1658-9. Other orthographies are Wiehacken, Whehockan, Weehacken, Wehauk, obvious corruptions of the original, but all retaining a resemblance in sound. The name is preserved as that of a village, a ferry, and a railroad station about three miles north of Jersey City, and is historically noted for its association with the ancient custom of dueling, the particular resort for that purpose being a rough shelf of the cliff about two and one-half miles north of Hoboken and about opposite 28th Street, Manhattan. The locative of the name is described in a grant by Director Stuyvesant, in 1647, to one Maryn Adriaensen, of "A piece of land called Awiehaken, situate on the west side of the North River, bounded on the south by Hoboken Kil, and running thence north to the next kil, and towards the woods with the same breadth, altogether fifty morgens of land." [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 22.) The "next kil" is presumed to have been that flowing to the Hudson in a wild ravine just south of the dueling ground, now called the Awiehackan. A later description (1710) reads: "Between the southernmost cliffs of Tappaen and Ahasimus, at a place called Wiehake." (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 98.) The petition was by Samuel Bayard, who then owned the land on both sides of Wiehacken Creek, for a ferry charter covering the passage "Between the southernmost cliffs of Tappaen and New York Island, at a place called Wiehake," the landing-place of which was established at or near the mouth of Awiehacken Creek just below what is now known as King's Point. Of the location generally Winfield (Hist.. Hudson Co., N. J.) wrote: "Before the iconoclastic hand of enterprise had touched it the whole region about was charming beyond description. Just south of the dueling ground was the wild ravine down which leaped and laughed the Awiehacken. Immediately above the dueling ground was King's Point looking boldly down upon the Hudson. From this height still opens as fair, as varied, as beautiful a scene as one could wish to see. The rocks rise almost perpendicularly to one hundred and fifty feet above the river. Under these heights, about twenty feet above the water, on a shelf about six feet wide and eleven paces long, reached by an almost inaccessible flight of steps, was the dueling ground." South of King's Point were the famed Elysian Fields, at the southern extremity of which, under Castle Point, was Sibyl's Cave, a rocky cavern containing a fine spring of water.
The place to which the name was applied in the deed of 1658 seems to have been an open tract between the streams named, presumably a field lying along the Hudson, from the description, "running back towards the woods," suggesting that it was from the Lenape radicalTauwa,as written by Zeisberger inTauwi-échen,"Open;" as a noun, "Open or unobstructed space, clear land, without trees." Dropping the initial we haveAuwi, Awie,of the early orthography; droppingAwe haveWieandWee,and from-échenwe have-ákan, -haken, -hawking,etc. As the name stands now it has no meaning in itself, although a Hollander might readWieasWei,"A meadow," andHackenas "Hooking," incurved as a hook, which would fairly describe Weehawking Cove as it was.
Submitted to him in one of its modern forms, the late Dr. Trumbull wrote thatWehawing"Seemed" to him as "most probably fromWehoak,Mohegan, and-ing,Lenape, locative, 'At the end (of the Palisades)'" and in his interpretation violated his own rules of interpretation which require that translation of Indian names must be sought in the dialect spoken in the district where the name appears. The word for "End," in the dialect spoken here, wasWiqui.Zeisberger wroteWiquiechung,"End, point," which certainly does not appear in any form of the name. The Dr.'s translation is simply worthless, as are several others that have been suggested. It is surprising that the Dr. should quote a Mohegan adjectival and attach to it a Lenape locative suffix.
[FN] A Dutch "morgen"' was about two English acres.
Espating(Hespating,Staten Island deed) is claimed to have been the Indian name of what is now known as Union Hill, in Jersey City, where, it is presumed, there was an Indian village. The name is from the rootAshp(Usp,Mass.;Esp,Lenape;Ishp,Chip.), "High," and-ink,locative, "At or on a high place." From the same root Ishpat-ink, Hespating. (O'Callaghan.) See Ashpetong.
Siskakes,now Secaucus, is written as the name of a tract on Hackensack meadows, from which it was extended to Snake Hill. It is fromSikkâkâskeg,meaning "Salt sedge marsh." (Gerard.) The Dutch found snakes on Snake Hill and called it Slangberg, literally, "Snake Hill."
Passaicis a modern orthography ofPasaeck(Unami-Lenape), German notation, signifying "Vale or valley." Zeisberger wrotePachsójeckin the Minsi dialect. The valley gave name to the stream. In Rockland County it has been corrupted to Paskack, Pasqueck, etc.
Paquapickis entered on Pownal's map as the name of Passaic Falls. It is fromPoqui,"Divided, broken," and-ápuchk,"Rock." Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, who visited the falls in 1679-80, wrote in their Journal that the falls were "formed by a rock stretching obliquely across the river, the top dry, with a chasm in the center about ten feet wide into which the water rushed and fell about eighty feet." It is this rock and chasm to which the name refers—"Divided rock," or an open place in a rock.
Pequannock,now so written, is the name of a stream flowing across the Highlands from Hamburgh, N. J. to Pompton, written Pachquak'onck by Van der Donck (1656); Paquan-nock or Pasqueck, in 1694; Paqunneck, Indian deed of 1709, and in other forms, was the name of a certain field, from which it was extended to the stream. Dr. Trumbull recognized it as the equivalent of Mass.Paquan'noc, Pequan'nuc, Pohqu'un-auke,etc., "A name common to all cleared land,i. e.land from which the trees and bushes had been removed to fit it for cultivation." Zeisberger wrote,Pachqu (Paghqu),as inPachqu-échen,"Meadow;"Pachquak'onck,"At (or on) the open land."
Peram-sepus,Paramp-seapus,record forms of the name of Saddle River, [FN] Bergen County, N. J., and adopted inParamusas the name of an early Dutch village, of which one reads in Revolutionary history as the headquarters of General George Clinton's Brigade, appears in deed for a tract of land the survey of which reads: "Beginning at a spring calledAssinmayk-apahaka,being the northeastern most head-spring of a river called by the IndiansPeram-sepus,and by the Christians Saddle River." Nelson (Hist. Ind. of New Jersey) quoted from a deed of 1671: "Warepeake,a run of water so called by the Indians, but the right name isRerakanes,by the English called Saddle River."Peram-sepusalso appears asWieramius,suggesting thatPera, Para, Wara,andWierawere written as equivalent sounds, from the rootWil (Willi, Winne, Wirri, Waure),meaning, "Good, fine, pleasant," etc. The suffix varies,Sepusmeaning "Brook";Peake (-peék),"Water-place," andAnes,"Small stream," or, substantially,Sepus,which, by the prefixWare,was pronounced "A fine stream," or place of water.
[FN] Called "Saddle River," probably, from Richard Saddler, a purchaser of lands from the Indians in 1674. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 478.)
Monsey,a village in Rockland County, takes that name from an Indian resident who was known by his tribal name,Monsey—"the Monseys, Minsis, or Minisinks."
Mahway,Mawayway, Mawawier,etc., a stream and place now Mahway, N. J., was primarily applied to a place described: "An Indian field called Maywayway, just over the north side of a small red hill called Mainatanung." The stream, on an old survey, is marked as flowing south to the Ramapo from a point west of Cheesekook Mountain. The name is probably fromMawéwi(Zeisb.), "Assembly," where streams or paths, or boundaries, meet or come together. (See Mahequa.)
Mainaitanung,Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, andMainatingin N. J. Records, given as the name of "A small red hill" (see Mahway), does not describe a "Red hill," but a place "at" a small hill—Min-attinuey-unk.The suffixed locative,-unk,seems to have been generally used in connection with the names of hills.
Pompton—Ponton,East N. J. Records, 1695;Pompeton, Pumpton, Pompeton,N. Y. Records—now preserved in Pompton as the name of a village at the junction of the Pequannock, the Wynokie, and the Ramapo, and continued as the name of the united stream south of Pompton Village to its junction with the Passaic, and also as the name of a town in Passaic County, N. J., as well as in Pompton Falls, Pompton Plains, etc., and historically as the name of an Indian clan, appears primarily as the name of the Ramapo River as now known. It is not met in early New York Records, but in English Records, in 1694, a tract of land is described as being "On a river called Paquannock, or Pasqueck, near the falls of Pampeton," and in 1695, in application to lands described as lying "On Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Paquanneck River," the particular place referred to being known as Ramopuch, and now as Ramapo. (See Ramapo.) Rev. Heckewelder located the name at the mouth of the Pompton (as now known) where it falls into the Passaic, and interpreted it fromPihm(rootPimé), "Crooked mouth," an interpretation now rejected by Algonquian students from the fact that the mouth of the stream is not crooked. A reasonable suggestion is that the original wasPomoten,a representative town, or a combination of towns. [FN-1] which would readily be converted to Pompton. In 1710, "Memerescum, 'sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan,' gave title to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties." (Nelson, "Indians of New Jersey," 111), indicating a combination of clans. Fifty years later the tribal title is entered in the treaty of Easton (1758) as the "Wappings, Opings or Pomptons," [FN-2] as claimants of an interest in lands in northern New Jersey, [FN-3] subordinately to the "Minsis, Monseys or Minisinks," with whom the treaty was made. The clan was then living at Otsiningo as ward's of the Senecas, and seems to have been composed of representatives of several historic northern New Jersey families. It has been inferred that their designation as "Wappings" classed them as immigrants from the clans on the east side of the Hudson. Obviously, however, the term described them as of the most eastern family of the Minsis or Minisinks, which they were.
[FN-1]Pomoteneyu,"There are towns." (Zeisb.) Pompotowwut-Muhheakan-neau, was the name of the capital town of the Mahicans.
[FN-2] So recognized in the treaty of Easton.
[FN-3] The territory in which the Pomptons claimed an interest included northern New Jersey as bounded on the north by a line drawn from Cochecton, Sullivan County, to the mouth of Tappan Creek on the Hudson, thence south to Sandy Hook, thence west to the Delaware, and thence north to Cochecton, lat. 41 deg. 40 min., as appears by treaty deed in Smith's hist, of New Jersey.