FOOTPRINT Our Waterfront History of Bayville, New Jersey

By Patrick M. Filan

This book was written to document a small piece of our local waterfront history in Bayville, N.J

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: May 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885902823

Book preview

Native Americans of Our Neighborhood

This is a picture of a Red Tail Hawk that frequents our cedar tree in our front yard and some of our other native friends.

As early as 11,500 BC, Native Americans migrated to Ocean County to spend their Summers. The footpaths and trails they used, later became the roadways of today. During their visits they enjoyed harvesting oysters and clams, fishing, gathering, and swimming in the cool waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay. In the Fall they returned to their village or camp in time to harvest the food from the gardens they had planted around their dwellings earlier in the Spring. In the Wintertime, Native Americans would hunt deer, fowl, and other animals. This gave them an abundant supply of fur pelts, which were used to trade for European goods. This was before things got ugly and the European settlers turned violently on them. The first European to set foot on what is now Ocean County, was Cornelius Hendrickson. This Dutch navigator, surveyor and cartographer came through Barnegat Inlet, headed north on the Barnegat Bay, and navigated up the Toms River aboard his ship the Orust. (Restless)

He claimed the land for Holland, which then became part of New Netherlands, in 1614. The Native Americans quickly lost all trust in the European settlers.

In February of 1643, Dutch soldiers slaughtered the Lenni-Lenape village. Hundreds of men, women and children were butchered, some having their eyes gouged out, others dismembered, and their body parts scattered. This horrifying site was later viewed by the remaining tribe members who came upon the carnage. This was the start of their nightmare and the beginning of their extermination. This horrifying act by European settlers has deeply scarred the land and local History.

Native Americans based their lifestyle on adapting to the changes in nature and to the change of the seasons. They were well established in New Jersey long before any European explorers came. They were dehumanized because they were not white or Christian. Conflict between the two cultures lead to many hostile wars. Native Americans were forced off their land, as their land was parceled out to the new settlers. Life would end for most Native Americans as they were brutally slaughtered, and it would forever change for the survivors who remained in New Jersey. They were systematically targeted for cultural extinction, being the first people in North America to be Christianized. They were not allowed to practice their native religion until 1978.

Native Americans were segregated and put on barren and desolate land. They were forced to accept the new imposed society. Today, only a few Native Americans are struggling to regain their nation's almost extinct culture before it is totally lost. They are understand- ably horrified and angered by the act, of their early ancestors’ graves being desecrated and the remains put on display or passed around a classroom, dehumanizing them again. as if they are dinosaurs or some type of animal. There is no fault in excavating these sites, doing the forensics, carbon dating the remains, documenting with pictures, and then returning the remains to their tribal nation for a proper burial. Through lengthy U.S. government processes some of the remains have been returned to the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe for proper burial.

This photo, of the resident fox with her pups not far behind, was taken by our awesome neighbor, Melony Flaven, in front of what is left of the Swiss Cottage, as nature tries to take back the land, with trees growing out of its cellar.

In 1982, New Jersey recognized the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape as a tribal nation and paid them $2.4 million dollars. I have tried several times to contact the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation, in Bridgeton, N.J, Finally I was contacted back, only to be told of their lack of interest in any of their history here, but if they were to talk to me, approval from the Tribal Council would be needed and to contact anyone would depend upon one of them leaving their isolated dwellings and coming to the office for any information from the outside world. The only thing that goes through with no hesitation are the monetary donations. I can’t blame them for not contacting me, because our local Native American History was a horrible nightmare for them. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Above is a photo of the south shore of Island Heights and its bluff, which is directly across from my home. Below the bluff, was believed to be one of the locations of the Native Americans summer caves.

These photos were taken near the top of the bluff where Native Americans visited. The trees are 200 plus years old.

My property is just a very small piece of a parcel of land that was once known as Doctor John (Johnstone) Johnston's Land Patent Grant, which is now known as Island Heights.

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