On September 8th, 1660, Jaques Cortelyou was ordered to survey
Gemoenepa and lay it out into village lots. The village site fronted
on the Bay, was two hundred feet deep and extended from what is now
Communipaw avenue on the north to the Bay Shore House on the south. The
Council ordered that the village should be stockaded, but there seems
to have been numerous delays, for in June, 1663, Gerrit Gerritsen,
Harman Smeeman and Dirck Claussen were appointed commissioners to
fortify Gemoenepa. May 9th, 1661, Egbert Sandersen and Jan Theunissen,
inhabitants of Midwout and Amersfoort, L. I., petitioned for leave to
erect a saw-mill on a stream at Gemoenepa and move their families there
and for a lot of land for each. The request was granted and probably
they erected a mill below the Point of Rocks on the stream formerly
called the Creek of the Woods and "Creek of the High Woodlands." In
papers of 1671, the mill is mentioned as the "Mill of Hossemus;"
probably from this mill the creek received its name of Mill Creek.
Later Priors Mill was built upon this site and remained until removed
and the creek filled in when the cut was made for the Pennsylvania
railroad in 1837. In October, 1661, Sandersen asked permission to erect
a saw-mill on Showhank Brook; this creek had its rise in an Indian
spring in West Hoboken; it ran south until it reached the point where
New York avenue crosses Palisade avenue; thence it turned down the
hill through a wild ravine and emptied into Mill Creek. There was a
saw-mill on this stream at the foot of the hill, until it was destroyed
by fire in 1835.
The first legalized ferry across to Manhattan Island was established at
the foot of Communipaw avenue when the village of Bergen was started in
the fall of 1660 by William Jansen. The boats were periaugers, the old
Spanish pirouge, pointed at both ends, with two masts, but no bowsprit.
When horses and carriages were to be transported they were detached and
lifted into the boat. The Governor General and Council fixed the rates.
Jansen had much trouble, he claimed the exclusive right to transport
people and goods to Nieu Amsterdam and objected to people crossing in
their own boats. He complained to the authorities at Nieu Amsterdam and
the people brought a counter charge against him for refusing to ferry
people across; judgment was rendered January, 1663, that "the Sheriff
must assist him in getting his pay and that he must do his duty or be
discharged." He and his successors ran regular boats three times a
week. In 1669 Governor Carteret issued a license to Peter Hetfelsen to
run a ferry from Communipaw to New York with a list of the rates to
be charged; all of which were payable in wampum. "Any person, letter,
packett or message of public business, and the Governor and his family
were to be carried free." Hetfelsen was succeeded in 1672 by John
Tymensen under the same conditions. From that date there is no mention
of the ferry until 1783 when Aaron Longstreet and Company advertised
that "constant attendance was given by the boats at the ferry stairs,
near the Exchange, at 3 p. m. to bring passengers to Communipaw where
the Newark stage would be ready to convey them to Newark and thence by
the Excellent New York and Philadelphia Running Machines in one day to
Philadelphia."
The first road built in this county was from Communipaw to Bergen in
the fall of 1660. It ran along the present Communipaw avenue to Summit
avenue, then northerly along Summit avenue to Academy street; thence
westerly to Bergen. It was called the "Off-fall" road, from the stream
that ran from Tuers pond and fell over a ledge of rock at the present
intersection of Grand street and Communipaw avenue. Until Grand street
was extended across the marsh in 1848 the people from Communipaw and
along to Bergen Point could only reach Jersey City by way of Bergen,
and the Priors Mill road or Newark avenue; where Monticello avenue now
is was a marsh until comparatively recent times. On November 24th,
1790, the Legislature appointed five commissioners to locate and build
bridges across the Hackensack and Passaic and lay out a road four rods
wide from the Newark Court House to Paulus Hook. They were authorized
to raise by lottery £27,000, part of which was to aid in completing the
road, part to build a bridge over the Raritan, and part in providing
suitable buildings for the Legislature.
[Illustration: COMMUNIPAW.]
[Illustration: BERGEN AND BUYNTEN TUYN.]