Achter Kol, New Netherland

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Map c.1634 (with North to the right). Achter Col is described as Rivieren achter Kol, or rivers behind the ridge or "rivers of the rear pass". Hudson Valley Map Detail Nova Belgica Et Anglia Nova c1634.jpg
Map c.1634 (with North to the right). Achter Col is described as Rivieren achter Kol, or rivers behind the ridge or "rivers of the rear pass".

Achter Kol (or Achter Col) was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, administered by the Dutch West India Company. At the time of their arrival, the area was inhabited by the Hackensack and Raritan groups of Lenape natives.

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Toponymy

Placenaming by Dutch explorers and settlers during the era often referred to a location in reference to other places, its shape, its topography, and other geographic qualities. Newark Bay is connected to Upper New York Bay by the Kill Van Kull and to Raritan Bay by the Arthur Kill. The names of the channels represent the period of Dutch colonialization. The area around the bay and the rivers that feed it was termed Achter Kol. (achter meaning after or behind. and col meaning a ridge or mountain pass) which translates as behind or beyond the ridge and refers to Bergen Hill. The emergence of the Hudson Palisades begins on Bergen Neck, the peninsula between the bay and the Hudson River. Kille in Dutch means stream or channel. During the British colonial era the bay was known as Cull bay. [1] Kill van Kull literally translates as channel of the ridge. Arthur Kill is an anglicisation of achter kill meaning back channel, which represents its location behind Staten Island.

Early settlement

AchterColhistmarker.tif

Achter Kol was near the patroonship named Pavonia, patented in 1630, and reverted to the Dutch West India Company in 1636. Homesteads of Pavonia were clustered at Communipaw and Harsimus on the North River (Hudson River). David Pietersz. de Vries (c.1593c.1655), a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader, who had established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony, Staten Island, and nearby Vriessendael, as was an early European proprietor of the area. In his "Korte Historiael Ende Journaels Aenteyckeninge" (Short Historical Notes and Journal Notes of Various Voyages), published in 1655, de Vries described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or Ackingsah-sack) in which one hundred or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire.

In 1642, Myndert Myndertsen received a patroonship for much of the land north of the Newark Bay. An absentee landlord, Myndertsen hired a superintendent Johannes Winckelman to construct a farmhouse (a combined dwelling and barn), completed the same year. The homestead was at present day Bogota near the Hackensack tribe's encampment at Tantanqua, the modern Overpeck Creek. Originally spared in the reprisals for the attacks at Pavonia and Corlear's Hook that began Kieft's War in 1643, the residents were ordered back to the relative safety of Fort Amsterdam and replaced by a regiment of soldiers with cannons. Perceived as an act of war by the Hackensack it was later plundered and destroyed. The Achter Col Colony was not replaced. [2] [3] The area was later settled and become known as the English Neighborhood.

After some time, relations with the Hackensack Lenape improved. Oratam, the sachem, or sagamore, of the Hackensack engaged peacefully with representatives of the Dutch West India Company. Both parties were helped considerably by Sarah Kiersted, who had mastered the Algonquian language and acted as translator and scribe. For her help Oratam, in 1666, gave her a large tract of (2260 acres) at Achinigeu-hach (or "Ackingsah-sack") between the Hackensack River and Overpeck Creek in gratitude for her work as emissary and interpreter. [4] [5] In late 1654 a series of grants were made for land "achter Kol", [6] which became the small communities of Pamrapo and Minkakwa. Eventually, Oratam, deeded the land to the Dutch in 1665. A representation of Chief Oratam of the Achkinhenhcky appears on the Hackensack municipal seal. [7] By that time the lands west of the Hudson River (modern Hudson County, the Palisades, the Meadowlands, and the Hackensack River Valley) was termed Bergen. Its administrative headquarters at the garrisoned village at modern Bergen Square were later established in 1660.

When the area was taken by the English it kept its Dutch name and in 1675, the East Jersey Legislature officially established the first four counties of present-day New Jersey, (Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth). Philip Cartaret, governor of the proprietary colony granted land to Captain John Berry in the southern part of area where he soon afterward began residence and named it New Barbadoes, after the island of Barbados, where he had resided.

See also

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Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire. The homestead or plantation was located on a tract of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) about an hour's walk north of Communipaw at today's Edgewater. It has also been known as Tappan, which referred to the wider region of the New Jersey Palisades, rising above the river on both sides of the New York/New Jersey state line, and to the indigenous people who lived there and were part of wider group known as Lenape. It was established in 1640 by David Pietersen de Vries, a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader who had also established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony and on Staten Island. The name can roughly be translated as De Vries' Valley. De Vries also owned flatlands along the Hackensack River, in the area named by the Dutch settlers Achter Col. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 in reprisal for the slaughter of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek Native Americans who had taken refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. The patroon's relatively good relations with the Lenape prevented the murder of the plantation's residents, who were able to seek sanctuary in the main house, and later flee to New Amsterdam. The incident was one of the first of many to take place during Kieft's War, a series of often bloody conflicts with bands of Lenape, who had united in face of attacks ordered by the Director of New Netherland.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harsimus</span> Populated place in Hudson County, New Jersey, US

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The English Neighborhood was the colonial-era name for the towns in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, along the Hudson Palisades between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River, particularly around its main tributary, Overpeck Creek. The region had been part of the Dutch New Netherland colony of Bergen, whose main town was located at Bergen Square in modern Jersey City. The name refers to the geography of the region, bergen being the Dutch word for hills. Earlier attempts at settlement at Achter Col and Vriessendael had been compromised in conflicts with the precolonial population, bands of the Lenape known by their exonyms, the Hackensacks and the Tappans.

John Berry was an English colonist who migrated from Barbados to become an early major landowner, militia officer and Deputy Governor under the Lords Proprietor of the Proprietary Colony of New Jersey.

References

  1. Grabas, Joseph A. "Land Speculation and Proprietary Beginnings of New Jersey" (PDF). The Advocate. New Jersey Land Title Association. XVI (4): 3, 20, 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 20, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
  2. "Historical marker of Achter Col "colony"". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
  3. http://www.BogotaOnLine%5B%5D
  4. "The Sarah Kiersted Patend - Teaneck Creek Conservancy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
  5. Nottle, Diane (March 1, 1998). "Do You Know These Women?". The New York Times.
  6. History of new Netherland, E.B. Callaghan (c)1855
  7. Cheslow, Jerry. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Hackensack, N.J.; After Long Decline, Downtown Rebounds", The New York Times , May 3, 1998. "Hackensack is named for the Achkinhenhcky branch of the Leni Lenape Indians, who traded with Dutch settlers along the Hackensack River as far back as the 1660s. The portrait of their chief, Oratam, who negotiated a treaty with English and Dutch settlers in 1690, appears on the municipal seal."

40°43′N74°07′W / 40.71°N 74.12°W / 40.71; -74.12