The various accounts of the early history of Southern New Jersey, including Magnolia, are not easy to knit together. In reviewing them, as a group, one gets the feeling that the most reliable accounts are by the local historical societies, including the account pulled together by members of the Magnolia Historical Society, found here ...
In any event, in trying to get a mental picture of the earliest history of Magnolia -- that is, in the part of the colonial period immediately preceding that which is discussed in the link set forth above -- it is useful to incorporate into one's understanding several sources at once.
FIRST, MAGNOLIA WAS LENAPE ALGONQUIAN
There is fascinating evidence that the pre-colonial history of the Lenape Algonquians of the Delaware Valley, including those situated along the banks of the Cooper River including into the forests and meadows of what is now Magnolia, Camden County, New Jersey, is much more complex and interesting than most imagine. More on that another time.
Suffice it to say that portrayals of the Lenape, dividing them into three sub-tribes called the Minsi, the Unami and the Unalachtigo are probably artificial and the product of European thought processes.
A Lenape Indian living in a group in what we now call "Magnolia Borough" would probably have been surprised and confused to hear that he was an "Unalachtigo" living in "the land of the Unalachtigo." "Tribal leadership" appears to have been un-colored by European political concepts of "real property" and "boundaries." Kraft, in his book on the Lenapes, agrees with this notion of the simplicity of Lenape conceptualization of themselves: There is not good evidence that before the Europeans came, the Lenapes were organized into 3 sub-tribes.
However, contrary to Kraft, the Lenape were not illiterate. They could write, with a complex and clever Algonquian writing system called Mide Script by scholars today. What Mide Script really is is astonishing beyond the reckoning of most today. More on that another time.
The Lenape in our area lived in Quonset-Hut-like longhouses ...
... and were hunter-gatherer-farmers.
There were probably rumors among the Lenape of sightings of the earliest European explorations of the areas which we now call Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.
The last two verses of the Lenape language epic called the Walam Olum probably reflect those rumors of the sightings ...
At this time, from north and south, the whites came. They are peaceful. They have great things. Who are they?
--The Walam Olum, Book V, Verses 59-60.
Dutch explorer David DeVries' map
of southern New Jersey.
Note well the Lenape longhouses
from the vicinity of "Timmer Kil" --
Big Timber Creek --
and "Rankokus Cil" -- the
Rancocas Creek in Burlington County today.
THEN MAGNOLIA WAS DUTCH
"The whites" of the Walam Olum were probably the Dutch, who first established their settlement, Fort Nassau, apparently a trading post inside a square palisade enclosure surmounted with cannon, in what is now Westville, Gloucester County, New Jersey, between 1624-1627, on the Delaware just south of Big Timber Creek (of which Magnolia's Otter Branch Creek is a tributary).
A drawing of Peter Stuyvesant's Fort Casimir
in what is now Newcastle, Delaware,
which was made of dismantled Fort Nassau,
and so it is probably a good portrait
of Westville's Fort Nassau, also.
So, initially, from 1624 to 1627, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the Dutch colony headquartered in what we now call Westville, New Jersey.
Because trade with the Lenape was profitable only certain times of the year, the Dutch would occupy and operate Fort Nassau on an intermittent basis, only. The Indians themselves appear to have occasionally made use of the fort when the Dutch weren't around.
THEN MAGNOLIA WAS ENGLISH
The English didn't like this Dutch presence on the Delaware one bit. So, in 1635, about a decade after the Dutch first established a European presence in our region, a group of English settler/soldiers from the Jamestown colony in Virginia sailed up the coast and into the Delaware and seized unoccupied Fort Nassau.
Suddenly, in 1635, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the suddenly-English colony headquartered in what we now call Westville, New Jersey.
THEN MAGNOLIA WAS DUTCH, AGAIN
When reports of the English seizure of the fort in what we now refer to as Westville, New Jersey reached the ears of fat Wouter Van Twiller, Director-General of the colonial headquarters of the Dutch West India Company's colony of New Netherlands, he did not like this new situation one bit, and so he immediately dispatched an army of Dutch settler-soldiers to the Delaware from New Netherlands -- the Harbour of New York -- who captured a boat-load of English settlers on their way up the Delaware to settle the lands around that fort in what we now call Westville, and kicked the English out of the fort, and once again raised the Dutch flag over what we now refer to as Camden and Gloucester Counties.
Suddenly, in around 1637, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the suddenly-Dutch colony headquartered in what we now call Westville, New Jersey.
The Dutch began to aggressively organize their re-established colony with Deeds to settlers.
I was unable to discover if Magnolia was included in the deed description in one of these earliest Deeds for our area.
THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME SWEDISH
The Swedes "wanted in on the action" on the Delaware. Beginning in 1638, the Swedes of the Swedish West India Company began settling both banks of the Delaware from Wilmington northward with hundreds of Swedish and Finnish settler/farmer/traders.
The Dutch did not like and did not consent to this new and massive Swedish presence in their hard-won colony. De facto sovereignty gradually passed to the Swedes in southern New Jersey in the lands in from along the river all of the way up the river to north of the Rancocas.
Slowly but surely, the Swedish flag went up the flagpole with the Dutch flag, and finally held sway in our area, so that ultimately, probably around the mid-1640s, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the Swedish colony of Nya Sverige, New Sweden, headquartered in what we now call the State of Delaware.
AND THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME DUTCH AGAIN
The officials of the Dutch West India Company did not like this Swedish presence on the Delaware one bit. In the late 1640s, the new Director General of the Dutch West India Company in what we now call New York, Peter Stuyvesant, began to dispatch a Dutch military presence to the Delaware Valley. In 1651, he had Fort Nassau on the Delaware south of Big Timber Creek in what we now call Westville, New Jersey dismantled and transported to what we now call Newcastle, Delaware, and constructed what we now call Fort Casimir, to consolidate and strengthen the Dutch presence and Dutch sovereignty on the Delaware River.
Gradually, the Swedes settled-in along the Delaware on both sides, including in South Jersey, came to view themselves as being subjected to their Dutch adversaries.
Slowly but surely, the Dutch flag went up the flagpole and re-ascended over the Swedish flag, and finally held sway in our area, so that ultimately, probably around 1653, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the Dutch controlled former Swedish colony of Nya Sverige, headquartered in Fort Casimir in Newcastle, Delaware.
A diorama of Fort Casimir
in what is now Newcastle, Delaware
AND THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME SWEDISH AGAIN
The Swedes didn't like this Dutch resurgence one bit.
In 1654, Johan Risingh, a deputy of the Swedish Governor of Nya Sverige, took Fort Casimir back from the Dutch, and raised the flag of Sweden over Nya Sverige, again, re-establishing Swedish sovereignty over South Jersey.
The Swedes actually convened a council with the Lenape, and established with them a treaty recognizing them as subjects of the newly re-establish Swedish colony.
Suddenly, in early 1654, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the suddenly-Swedish colony headquartered in what we now call Newcastle, Delaware, this time with the supposed consent of Lenape leaders.
AND THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME DUTCH, AGAIN
The officials of the Dutch West India Company did not like this new Swedish resurgence on the Delaware one bit.
In 1655, Peter Stuyvesant himself led a large Dutch force which essentially "kicked the tails" of the Swedes of Nya Sverige, took over all of the forts of the Swedes on the Delaware in the ensuing few years, decisively re-establishing Dutch dominion over the lands along the Delaware.
Suddenly, in late 1657, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied outskirts of the "re-Dutch-ified" colony locally headquartered in what we now call the State of Delaware.
MY ANCESTOR, GERRIT VAN SWEARINGEN, FINDS HIMSELF ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE DUTCH COLONIES ON THE DELAWARE -- AND SO, OF MAGNOLIA (ALTHOUGH I'M NOT SURE THAT HE WAS MORE THAN VAGUELY CONSCIOUS OF THAT FACT) !!!
One of Peter Stuyvesant's soldiers in the re-taking of Fort Casimir / Newcastle, Delaware, in 1657 was a young man named Garrett Van Swearingen,
my mother Eleanore Ann Eitelman's
father Edward Decatur Eitelman's
mother May Katherine Pitman's
father Decatur Pitman's
mother Eleanore Amanda William's
father Congressman Jared William's
mother Anne Swearingen's
father John Swearingen's
father Thomas Swearingen's father.
In essence, Garrett Van Swearingen was a Catholic kid from post-Reformation Holland who "made good" in the New World.
My great great great great great great great great grandfather Garrett Van Swearingen was fluent in French, German and English. That made him very useful to the Dutch West India Company, which in 1656 made him "supercargo" -- Superintendent of Cargo -- on the Dutch West India Company ship the Prince Maurice. In March, 1657, the Prince Maurice became hung up on submerged rocks off Long Island. G8 GF Garrett, as supercargo, had the presence of mind to organize not only the effort to save the crew and passengers, but also the valuable cargo of the Prince Maurice. Duly impressed, Governor Stuyvesant included G8 GF Garrett in the military force forcibly removing the Swedes from Fort Casimir, where he settled after the fort was taken.
G8 GF Garrett Van Swearingen rose up steadily through the ranks, from Clerk in the Fort Store, to Chief Commissary, to Second Councilor, to First Councilor or "executive officer," to Captain -- the military commander -- and "Schout" or Sheriff, and judge in the Fort's Court.
AND THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME ENGLISH, AGAIN
(2) Then, beginning in 1627, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the Dutch colony.
(3) Then, beginning in 1635, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the English colony.
One of Peter Stuyvesant's soldiers in the re-taking of Fort Casimir / Newcastle, Delaware, in 1657 was a young man named Garrett Van Swearingen,
my mother Eleanore Ann Eitelman's
father Edward Decatur Eitelman's
mother May Katherine Pitman's
father Decatur Pitman's
mother Eleanore Amanda William's
father Congressman Jared William's
mother Anne Swearingen's
father John Swearingen's
father Thomas Swearingen's father.
In essence, Garrett Van Swearingen was a Catholic kid from post-Reformation Holland who "made good" in the New World.
My great great great great great great great great grandfather Garrett Van Swearingen was fluent in French, German and English. That made him very useful to the Dutch West India Company, which in 1656 made him "supercargo" -- Superintendent of Cargo -- on the Dutch West India Company ship the Prince Maurice. In March, 1657, the Prince Maurice became hung up on submerged rocks off Long Island. G8 GF Garrett, as supercargo, had the presence of mind to organize not only the effort to save the crew and passengers, but also the valuable cargo of the Prince Maurice. Duly impressed, Governor Stuyvesant included G8 GF Garrett in the military force forcibly removing the Swedes from Fort Casimir, where he settled after the fort was taken.
G8 GF Garrett Van Swearingen rose up steadily through the ranks, from Clerk in the Fort Store, to Chief Commissary, to Second Councilor, to First Councilor or "executive officer," to Captain -- the military commander -- and "Schout" or Sheriff, and judge in the Fort's Court.
AND THEN MAGNOLIA BECAME ENGLISH, AGAIN
The English did not like this new Dutch resurgence on the Delaware one bit. They had come to view North America as "English property." Soooooooo ...
"The Dutch soldiers were taken prisoners, and given to the merchantmen that were there, in recompense of their services; and into Virginia, they were transported to be sold, as was credibly reported by Sir Robert Carr's officers, and other persons there living in the town.
"All sorts of tools for handicraftsman, and all plough gear, and other things to cultivate the ground, which were in great quantity; besides the estate of Governor Debouissa and myself; except some household stuff and a negro I got away; and some other movables, Sir Robert Carr did permit me to sell.'"
And so, in 1664, my G8 GPs Garrett Van Swearingen and and Barbara DeBarette Swearingen and their children and Barbara's father and brother moved to St. Mary's County, in southern Maryland, and began a new life there."
In 1664, the world turned upside-down for the Dutch and for Garrett and Barbara Van Swearingen [his wife] and their family. Relationships with the local Indians finally exploded, and Van Swearingen was dispatched to patrol the vicinity and kill Indians. One chronicler wrote, "He had fought the Mohegan Indians in the forest beyond Beverwych, driving the war bands before him, consuming their villages until the savages begged for mercy. His days went by with battle and nights with watchfullness. Van Sweringen and his company came down from the hills through the forest of Beverwych, to find the city of New Amsterdam had been taken by the English."
The English, it turned out, had invested New Amstel and simply stolen it from the Dutch while Van Swearingen was off fighting Indians. Here is the Chronicler's full account, including Lord Baltimore's miraculous offer to Garrett and his wife and children...
"Colonel Nicols of England, sent by His Majesty, Charles II, and his deputy Sir Robert Carr were to take over the Dutch colony at New Amstel
"Van Sweringen said wearily, 'Without a blow they took Amsterdam, as if there were no one near.' Then drawing his sword from the scabbard, he kissed its long, straight, splendid blade, and, with sudden of anguish, broke it across his knee, and standing as high as he could in his stirrups he threw the pieces over the wall into the dusty meadow grass. 'Farewell good blade, forever more!, he said, 'forged in honor, honorably brave, shall never be drawn in dishonor. Thou wast wrought to strike for the Netherlands, and thou mayst not strike for the Netherlands. Thy steel was for the Netherlands, my hands are for van Sweringen.' Then he stretched his hands out before him, saying in a piteous, chocking voice, "They are all that is left, I am ruined!' For at first he was thinking of himself, but now he thought of his wife and daughter. He rode through the gate to the house where his wife and daughter were staying, he went quickly. His wife was sitting at the window. 'Barbarah,' he said, 'I am ruined!' and there he stopped, he was choking. She looked up quietly, 'Yes Garrett,' she said, 'I heard of it. They can not say that I married thee for thy money anymore,' and with that she laughed very softly. Garrett said , 'I have not a guilder to my name, I am brought to beggary.' Barbarah said, 'I am just as rich as thee, dear heart, as ever I was. To be ruined without fault is no disgrace.' She said, 'it matters not to me for I gave up home and everything to go with thee.' His wife was sitting on one side, Elizabeth, his daughter, on the other, sitting upon a foot stool and leaning against his knee. 'Father,' said Elizabeth, 'We don't mind it terrible for us. We shall take a little house, and mother shall do the weaving, and I shall do darning and spin, oh how I can spin, and I shall gather wild hops for the brew, and nuts and berries in the woods. We woman will cook, and thee shall work by the day, and we shall save stuiner by stuiner untill the stockings are full again.'
The English, it turned out, had invested New Amstel and simply stolen it from the Dutch while Van Swearingen was off fighting Indians. Here is the Chronicler's full account, including Lord Baltimore's miraculous offer to Garrett and his wife and children...
"Colonel Nicols of England, sent by His Majesty, Charles II, and his deputy Sir Robert Carr were to take over the Dutch colony at New Amstel
"Van Sweringen said wearily, 'Without a blow they took Amsterdam, as if there were no one near.' Then drawing his sword from the scabbard, he kissed its long, straight, splendid blade, and, with sudden of anguish, broke it across his knee, and standing as high as he could in his stirrups he threw the pieces over the wall into the dusty meadow grass. 'Farewell good blade, forever more!, he said, 'forged in honor, honorably brave, shall never be drawn in dishonor. Thou wast wrought to strike for the Netherlands, and thou mayst not strike for the Netherlands. Thy steel was for the Netherlands, my hands are for van Sweringen.' Then he stretched his hands out before him, saying in a piteous, chocking voice, "They are all that is left, I am ruined!' For at first he was thinking of himself, but now he thought of his wife and daughter. He rode through the gate to the house where his wife and daughter were staying, he went quickly. His wife was sitting at the window. 'Barbarah,' he said, 'I am ruined!' and there he stopped, he was choking. She looked up quietly, 'Yes Garrett,' she said, 'I heard of it. They can not say that I married thee for thy money anymore,' and with that she laughed very softly. Garrett said , 'I have not a guilder to my name, I am brought to beggary.' Barbarah said, 'I am just as rich as thee, dear heart, as ever I was. To be ruined without fault is no disgrace.' She said, 'it matters not to me for I gave up home and everything to go with thee.' His wife was sitting on one side, Elizabeth, his daughter, on the other, sitting upon a foot stool and leaning against his knee. 'Father,' said Elizabeth, 'We don't mind it terrible for us. We shall take a little house, and mother shall do the weaving, and I shall do darning and spin, oh how I can spin, and I shall gather wild hops for the brew, and nuts and berries in the woods. We woman will cook, and thee shall work by the day, and we shall save stuiner by stuiner untill the stockings are full again.'
"About this time there was knock at the door, it was Lord Calvert. Needless to say Garrett Van Swearingen was in no mood for English humor, which he misunderstood. The governor actually came to offer Garrett a position of sheriff in Maryland. 'There are pretty posies hanging their heads in rows for the lass to come and pick. Carr is a dirty scoundrel, I have just told him so to his thieving face.' said Master Calvert. 'Let me make good the wrongs he has done. Then ye shall need no more to curse the English for a pack of thieves and perjurers. Come down to Maryland, Van Sweringen, you and all that be yours. Man it will be a happy day! Mistress van Sweringen,' he said, with a laugh and half a choke, 'Prevail with me against this dear, honest fool of thine. He is the most obstinate , argumentative person that I ever stood against. Lord Baltimore had told him you can take up 1,000 acres, at twenty shelling a year. Ye may believe as you please and say what you will, so you be Christian and speak no treasons, and if you will teach us to keep our own lawns as you have kept of the Dutch, you will confer a precious favor on the next Lord Baltimore.' As his long speech ended, he silently bowed, and stood there quietly. Meinheir van Sweringen got up from his seat turning said simply, 'My friend, my good and true friend, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, you have put a new light in the world for me.'
"Van Swearingen later testified, ‘Sir Robert Carr did often protest to me, that he did not come as an enemy, but as a friend; demanding, only in friendship, what was the King's own, in that country. There was taken from the City and the inhabitants thereabout, to the value, so near as I can now remember, of four thousand pound sterling, likewise arms, powder and shot in great quantity. Four and twenty guns were, the greatest part, transported to New York.
"Van Swearingen later testified, ‘Sir Robert Carr did often protest to me, that he did not come as an enemy, but as a friend; demanding, only in friendship, what was the King's own, in that country. There was taken from the City and the inhabitants thereabout, to the value, so near as I can now remember, of four thousand pound sterling, likewise arms, powder and shot in great quantity. Four and twenty guns were, the greatest part, transported to New York.
"The Dutch soldiers were taken prisoners, and given to the merchantmen that were there, in recompense of their services; and into Virginia, they were transported to be sold, as was credibly reported by Sir Robert Carr's officers, and other persons there living in the town.
"All sorts of tools for handicraftsman, and all plough gear, and other things to cultivate the ground, which were in great quantity; besides the estate of Governor Debouissa and myself; except some household stuff and a negro I got away; and some other movables, Sir Robert Carr did permit me to sell.'"
And so, in 1664, my G8 GPs Garrett Van Swearingen and and Barbara DeBarette Swearingen and their children and Barbara's father and brother moved to St. Mary's County, in southern Maryland, and began a new life there."
Suddenly, in 1664, Magnolia was part of what was very loosely comprehended as the Lenape-occupied portions of the English colonies in the New World of Charles II of England.
So, Magnolia was (1) initially part of the realm of the Lenape Algonquians, in lands watered by what we now refer to as the Cooper River and Otter Branch Creek, a tributary in the Big Timber Creek watershed.
(3) Then, beginning in 1635, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the English colony.
(4) Then, beginning in 1637, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the Dutch colony, again.
(5) Then, beginning in the mid-1640s, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the Swedish colony.
(6) Then, beginning in the early 1650s, it was Lenape-occupied territory on the outskirts of the Dutch colony, again.
(7) Then, in 1664, it was Lenape-occupied territory inside of the English colony of what later came to be called the State of New Jersey.
It was shortly after this period of "See-saw Sovereignty" that Magnolia as we know it today finally began to take shape, as described in the Magnolia Historical Society's excellent narrative, the link for which is set forth above.
It was shortly after this period of "See-saw Sovereignty" that Magnolia as we know it today finally began to take shape, as described in the Magnolia Historical Society's excellent narrative, the link for which is set forth above.
More to come.
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