Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River (Hudson River) across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Halve Maen
Explored to The Narrows by Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing on a French expedition in 1524, the area was visited by Spanish and English seafarers during the next century. It was again visited in 1609 by the Englishman Henry Hudson, who had been commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to find a navigable passage to Asia. During this journey his ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon), laid anchor at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove, and Weehawken Cove,Hoboken's earliest days: Before becoming a city, 'Hobuck' went through several incarnations , Hudson Reporter, January 16, 2005. "On October 2, 1609, Henry Hudson anchored his ship, the Half Moon, in what is now Weehawken Cove/ and other places along the river which now bears his name.
At the time of his exploration the shoreline was considerably different from today, consisting of huge tidal marshes and oyster beds. Several other expeditions to the coast of North America were made between 1610 and 1614; surveys and charts from them were incorporated in a map made by Adriaen Block which named New Netherland for the first time.
Lenape
At the time the existing population were bands of seasonally migrational Algonquian people, the Lenape. The area that would become Bergen was the territory of Unami, or Turtle Clan, called the Hackensack Indians and the Tappan.Ruttenber, E.M.,Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, (Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001) While the Hackensack tended to camp on the tidal lands (Upper New York Bay and Meadowlands), the Tappan moved in the highlands (North Hudson to Palisades Interstate Park). Other closely related peoples circulated in the region: the Acquackanonk, the Manhattan, the Raritan, the Haverstraw, the Rockaway, and the Wecquaesgeek. Some were later called Delaware Indians (after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr).
Their larger communities were palisaded villages where they practiced companion planting (of the three sisters) to supplement foraging, hunting, and fishing. Shellfishing in the vast oyster beds spread throughout the entire estuary was essential to their diet.Kurlansky, Mark, The Big Oyster, , Random House Trade paperbacks, New York, 2006 The trapping of beaver and rodents for pelts played a crucial role in their interaction with the Swannukens or Salt Water People, who procured the land from them through "purchases" that were misconstrued by both parties. A basic misconception was that while Europeans thought they were buying land in perpetuity, the Lenape believed they were entering into defense alliances with farming, hunting, and fishing rights. The Tappan and Hackensack had early and frequent contact with the settlers, and their sagamore, Oratam, negotiated many agreements and treaties with them.
Pavonia
In 1621, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) was founded to exploit trade in the Western Hemisphere, and by 1625 had established a colony at New Amsterdam (Lower Manhattan). In the hope of encouraging settlement the company, in 1629, started to offer vast land grants and the feudal title of patroon.Johan van Hartskamp, De Westindische Compangnie en haar Belangen in Niuew-Nederland, een overzicht (1621–1664)http://stuyvesant.library.uu.nl In 1630, Michiel Pauw, a burgemeester of Amsterdam and a director of the company, purchased two tracts from the native population at Hopoghan Hackingh (Castle Point) and at Ashasimus (Harsimus), though the patroonship likely included the entire peninsula between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, and possibly his holdings on Staten Eylandt (Staten Island). It was given the Latinized form of his surname (which means "peacock"), Pavonia.
It is said it was sold to him by the Manhattans after they had retreated there after the sale of their home island to Peter Minuit some years before. Initially, a small hut and ferry landing were built at Arresick, called Powles Hoek (Paulus Hook), but Pauw failed to fulfill the other conditions set forth by the company (which included populating the area with at least fifty adults), and was later required to sell his interests back to it. In 1633, the WIC commissioned a house to be built for an appointed superintendent, Jan Everts Bout (aka Jan de Lacher), at Communipaw. Another homestead was built at Ahasimus by his replacement, Hendrick Van Vorst, in 1634. Abraham Isaac Planck (aka Verplank) received a land patent for Paulus Hook on May 1, 1638.Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey; Cornelius Burham Harvey, ed., 1900,
In 1640, David Pietersen de Vries bought from the Tappan a tract of about and established Vriessendael (Edgewater), about an hour's walk north of Communipaw. In 1643, Hoebuk (Hoboken), was leased by Aert Van Putten, where he built North America's first brewery. These homesteads grew into small, mostly agricultural, communities as the land around them was sold or leased and "bouweries" (home farms) and "plantages" (outlying fields) were developed. Trade between the indigenous and settling populations consisted mostly of wampum, European manufactured goods, and beaver pelts. Though the settlements were small, they were strategic trading posts with a good harbor and foothold on the west bank of what had been named the Noort Rivier (Hudson River).
Achter Col
Place naming in 17th century Europe was frequently influenced by location in reference to other places, shape, age, topography, or geographic features. Such was the case with Achter Kol (Meadowlands/Newark Bay). "Achter", meaning behind, and "kol", meaning ridge or pass, can be translated as the "behind the ridge",Online Nederlands Woordenboek (Online Dutch Dictionary) in this case Bergen Neck. The appeal of Achter Kol would have been great: Close to Fort Amsterdam, the tidal flats were similar to those of Lowlands, while the riparian lands surrounding them were abundant with beavers, whose pelts represented the potential for great profit.
The river valleys to the north would allow access to the interior. The term Achter Col was used by the New Netherlanders, and later the English colonials, to describe the entire region around Newark Bay and the waters that flow in and out of it. Its name eventually evolved to Arthur Kill, given to the channel that separates Staten Island from the mainland. The Kill Van Kull is the channel from the ridge or mountain pass behind it.
In 1642, Myndert Myndertsen, who bore the title Heer van Nederhorst, received a large land grant (including much of contemporary Bergen and Passaic Counties), where he wished to establish a colony called Achter Kol (Bogota) The site chosen was "five or six hundred paces" from the Hackensack village on Tantaqua (Overpeck Creek). An absentee landlord, he contracted the construction of a "boerderij" (house with attached barn). The crew hired to build it soon engaged the Hackensack, who they had supplied with alcohol, in a fatal confrontation. That incident, and another on Staten Island involving the theft of pigs, led to rising tensions between the natives and settlers.
Kieft's War Willem Kieft was appointed Director of New Netherland by the Dutch West India Company in 1639, with one of his orders to increase profits from pelts for the fur trade at Achter Kol and its port at Pavonia. Kieft attempted to levy a tax on the Tappan but was ignored. The payment of tribute was common among the tribes, and the British had forced upon it the Pequot. In February 1643, the Mahicans attacked Wappinger encampments in order to collect overdue payment.
At first they fled to New Amsterdam, but after 14 days, fearing for their safety they scattered themselves among the Hackensack and Tappan at Communipaw and to Corlears Hook. Kieft ordered they be attacked on February 25, 1643. The initial strike was a slaughter: 129 Dutch soldiers killed approximately 120 people (including women and children): eighty at Pavonia and thirty at Corlear's Hook (Lower East Side). Overcoming their other rivalries in face of a common enemy, the indigenous populations united and retaliated in October of the same year, attacking the plantations at Pavonia, with survivors fleeing to the fort at the tip of Manhattan. The brewery at Hoebuk survived, its roof not being made of thatch. De Vries, with interest in and better contact with the local population, was able to negotiate temporarily holding off attacks at his farm and the Achter Kol Colony, from which settlers were evacuated.
In August 1643, Oratam (representing his people and other groups), agreed to a truce with the New Netherlanders. The peace did not hold and for the next two years the whole of the province was at war. It was not until August 30, 1645 that a treaty to cease hostilities was finally concluded.
Peter Stuyvesant
Pieter Stuyvesant was selected to replace Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland and arrived on May 11, 1647. Further colonization of the area proceeded slowly. In 1646, a land patent at Konstapel's Hoeck (Constable Hook) was granted to New Amsterdam's chief constable, Jacob Jacobsen Roy, who declined to settle. A year later, Maryn Andriansen, who had led the attack at Corlear's Hook, received a land patent of 169 acres at Awiehaken (Weehawken). It was incidents further afield that led to the area becoming more seriously settled. In 1654, the Dutch Republic lost their colony in northern Brazil known as New Holland to the Portuguese. Many of its residents emigrated to New Netherland. It was in that year that a series of land patents were made at Communipaw and Harsimus extending to Achter Col, as well as farther south along the bay at Minkakwa and Pamrapo.Timeline for the Founding and History of the City of Bayonne , Bayonne Historical Society. Retrieved August 4, 2008.
In 1655, the settlers again came in fatal conflict with the native population in the Peach War. According to popular belief, it started when a young Lenape girl was shot by a Dutchman as she attempted to pluck fruit from a peach tree in an orchard on Manhattan. Her murder elicited calls for revenge from the native population, who did a house-to-house search of New Amsterdam.Geheugen van Nederland – Achtergrond Not finding the perpetrator, they prepared to leave, but were attacked. At the time, Stuyvesant and his troops were on an expedition to the Zuydt Rivier (Delaware River), where they had forced the colony of New Sweden to submit to the rule of his government. Several hundred Lenape attacked Pavonia and Staten Island, killing 40 settlers. One hundred hostages were taken and held at Paulus Hook. When later ransomed they returned to New Amsterdam, and once again the settlements on the west shore of the Noort Rivier were evacuated.
Bergen Square
Responding to lobbying by those who wished to return to their land west of the North River and to re-establish their claim there, History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, p. 62 Stuyvesant, on January 10, 1658 "re-purchased" most of the land that would become Bergen Township. The conveyance (as translated from the Dutch) read:
Therinques, Wappapen, Saghkow, Kagkennip, Bomokan, Memewockan, Sames, Wewenatokee, to the Director General and Council of New Netherland for land on the Westside of the North River from the great Clip above Wiehacken to above the Island Sikakes, thence to the Kill van Col, so along to Constable's Hoeck, thence again to the Clip above Wiceacken.