Part 29

The place to which the name was applied in the deed of 1658 seems to have been an open tract between the streams named, presumably a field lying along the Hudson, from the description, "running back towards the woods," suggesting that it was from the Lenape radical _Tauwa,_ as written by Zeisberger in _Tauwi-échen,_ "Open;" as a noun, "Open or unobstructed space, clear land, without trees." Dropping the initial we have _Auwi, Awie,_ of the early orthography; dropping _A_ we have _Wie_ and _Wee,_ and from _-échen_ we have _-ákan, -haken, -hawking,_ etc. As the name stands now it has no meaning in itself, although a Hollander might read _Wie_ as _Wei,_ "A meadow," and _Hacken_ as "Hooking," incurved as a hook, which would fairly describe Weehawking Cove as it was.

Submitted to him in one of its modern forms, the late Dr. Trumbull wrote that _Wehawing_ "Seemed" to him as "most probably from _Wehoak,_ Mohegan, and _-ing,_ Lenape, locative, 'At the end (of the Palisades)'" and in his interpretation violated his own rules of interpretation which require that translation of Indian names must be sought in the dialect spoken in the district where the name appears. The word for "End," in the dialect spoken here, was _Wiqui._ Zeisberger wrote _Wiquiechung,_ "End, point," which certainly does not appear in any form of the name. The Dr.'s translation is simply worthless, as are several others that have been suggested. It is surprising that the Dr. should quote a Mohegan adjectival and attach to it a Lenape locative suffix.

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[FN] A Dutch "morgen"' was about two English acres.

Espating (_Hespating,_ Staten Island deed) is claimed to have been the Indian name of what is now known as Union Hill, in Jersey City, where, it is presumed, there was an Indian village. The name is from the root _Ashp_ (_Usp,_ Mass.; _Esp,_ Lenape; _Ishp,_ Chip.), "High," and _-ink,_ locative, "At or on a high place." From the same root Ishpat-ink, Hespating. (O'Callaghan.) See Ashpetong.

Siskakes, now Secaucus, is written as the name of a tract on Hackensack meadows, from which it was extended to Snake Hill. It is from _Sikkâkâskeg,_ meaning "Salt sedge marsh." (Gerard.) The Dutch found snakes on Snake Hill and called it Slangberg, literally, "Snake Hill."

Passaic is a modern orthography of _Pasaeck_ (Unami-Lenape), German notation, signifying "Vale or valley." Zeisberger wrote _Pachsójeck_ in the Minsi dialect. The valley gave name to the stream. In Rockland County it has been corrupted to Paskack, Pasqueck, etc.

Paquapick is entered on Pownal's map as the name of Passaic Falls. It is from _Poqui,_ "Divided, broken," and _-ápuchk,_ "Rock." Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, who visited the falls in 1679-80, wrote in their Journal that the falls were "formed by a rock stretching obliquely across the river, the top dry, with a chasm in the center about ten feet wide into which the water rushed and fell about eighty feet." It is this rock and chasm to which the name refers--"Divided rock," or an open place in a rock.

Pequannock, now so written, is the name of a stream flowing across the Highlands from Hamburgh, N. J. to Pompton, written Pachquak'onck by Van der Donck (1656); Paquan-nock or Pasqueck, in 1694; Paqunneck, Indian deed of 1709, and in other forms, was the name of a certain field, from which it was extended to the stream. Dr. Trumbull recognized it as the equivalent of Mass. _Paquan'noc, Pequan'nuc, Pohqu'un-auke,_ etc., "A name common to all cleared land, _i. e._ land from which the trees and bushes had been removed to fit it for cultivation." Zeisberger wrote, _Pachqu (Paghqu),_ as in _Pachqu-échen,_ "Meadow;" _Pachquak'onck,_ "At (or on) the open land."

Peram-sepus, Paramp-seapus, record forms of the name of Saddle River, [FN] Bergen County, N. J., and adopted in _Paramus_ as the name of an early Dutch village, of which one reads in Revolutionary history as the headquarters of General George Clinton's Brigade, appears in deed for a tract of land the survey of which reads: "Beginning at a spring called _Assinmayk-apahaka,_ being the northeastern most head-spring of a river called by the Indians _Peram-sepus,_ and by the Christians Saddle River." Nelson (Hist. Ind. of New Jersey) quoted from a deed of 1671: "_Warepeake,_ a run of water so called by the Indians, but the right name is _Rerakanes,_ by the English called Saddle River." _Peram-sepus_ also appears as _Wieramius,_ suggesting that _Pera, Para, Wara,_ and _Wiera_ were written as equivalent sounds, from the root _Wil (Willi, Winne, Wirri, Waure),_ meaning, "Good, fine, pleasant," etc. The suffix varies, _Sepus_ meaning "Brook"; _Peake (-peék),_ "Water-place," and _Anes,_ "Small stream," or, substantially, _Sepus,_ which, by the prefix _Ware,_ was pronounced "A fine stream," or place of water.

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[FN] Called "Saddle River," probably, from Richard Saddler, a purchaser of lands from the Indians in 1674. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 478.)

Monsey, a village in Rockland County, takes that name from an Indian resident who was known by his tribal name, _Monsey_--"the Monseys, Minsis, or Minisinks."

Mahway, Mawayway, Mawawier, etc., a stream and place now Mahway, N. J., was primarily applied to a place described: "An Indian field called Maywayway, just over the north side of a small red hill called Mainatanung." The stream, on an old survey, is marked as flowing south to the Ramapo from a point west of Cheesekook Mountain. The name is probably from _Mawéwi_ (Zeisb.), "Assembly," where streams or paths, or boundaries, meet or come together. (See Mahequa.)

Mainaitanung, Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, and _Mainating_ in N. J. Records, given as the name of "A small red hill" (see Mahway), does not describe a "Red hill," but a place "at" a small hill--_Min-attinuey-unk._ The suffixed locative, _-unk,_ seems to have been generally used in connection with the names of hills.

Pompton--_Ponton,_ East N. J. Records, 1695; _Pompeton, Pumpton, Pompeton,_ N. Y. Records--now preserved in Pompton as the name of a village at the junction of the Pequannock, the Wynokie, and the Ramapo, and continued as the name of the united stream south of Pompton Village to its junction with the Passaic, and also as the name of a town in Passaic County, N. J., as well as in Pompton Falls, Pompton Plains, etc., and historically as the name of an Indian clan, appears primarily as the name of the Ramapo River as now known. It is not met in early New York Records, but in English Records, in 1694, a tract of land is described as being "On a river called Paquannock, or Pasqueck, near the falls of Pampeton," and in 1695, in application to lands described as lying "On Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Paquanneck River," the particular place referred to being known as Ramopuch, and now as Ramapo. (See Ramapo.) Rev. Heckewelder located the name at the mouth of the Pompton (as now known) where it falls into the Passaic, and interpreted it from _Pihm_ (root _Pimé_), "Crooked mouth," an interpretation now rejected by Algonquian students from the fact that the mouth of the stream is not crooked. A reasonable suggestion is that the original was _Pomoten,_ a representative town, or a combination of towns. [FN-1] which would readily be converted to Pompton. In 1710, "Memerescum, 'sole sachem of all the nations (towns or families) of Indians on Remopuck River, and on the east and west branches thereof, on Saddle River, Pasqueck River, Narranshunk River and Tappan,' gave title to all the lands in upper or northwestern Bergen and Passaic counties." (Nelson, "Indians of New Jersey," 111), indicating a combination of clans. Fifty years later the tribal title is entered in the treaty of Easton (1758) as the "Wappings, Opings or Pomptons," [FN-2] as claimants of an interest in lands in northern New Jersey, [FN-3] subordinately to the "Minsis, Monseys or Minisinks," with whom the treaty was made. The clan was then living at Otsiningo as ward's of the Senecas, and seems to have been composed of representatives of several historic northern New Jersey families. It has been inferred that their designation as "Wappings" classed them as immigrants from the clans on the east side of the Hudson. Obviously, however, the term described them as of the most eastern family of the Minsis or Minisinks, which they were.

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[FN-1] _Pomoteneyu,_ "There are towns." (Zeisb.) Pompotowwut-Muhheakan-neau, was the name of the capital town of the Mahicans.

[FN-2] So recognized in the treaty of Easton.

[FN-3] The territory in which the Pomptons claimed an interest included northern New Jersey as bounded on the north by a line drawn from Cochecton, Sullivan County, to the mouth of Tappan Creek on the Hudson, thence south to Sandy Hook, thence west to the Delaware, and thence north to Cochecton, lat. 41 deg. 40 min., as appears by treaty deed in Smith's hist, of New Jersey.

Ramapo, now so written and applied to a village and a town in Rockland County, and also to a valley, a stream of water and adjacent hills, is written Ramepog in N. Y. Records, 1695; Ramepogh, 1711, and Ramapog in 1775. In New Jersey Records the orthographies are Ramopock, Romopock and Remopuck, and on Smith's map Ramopough. The earliest description of the locative of the name appears in N. Y. Records, 1695: "A certain tract of land in Orange County called Ramepogh, being upon Pompton Creek, about twenty miles above ye mouth of said creek where it falls into Pequanneck River, being a piece of low land lying at ye forks on ye west side of ye creek, and going down the said creek for ye space of six or seven miles to a small run running into said creek out of a small lake, several pieces of land lying on both sides of said creek, computed in all about ninety or one hundred acres, _with upland adjoining_ thereto to ye quantity of twelve hundred acres." In other words: "A piece of low land lying at the forks of said river, about twenty miles above the mouth of the stream where it falls into the Pequannock, with upland adjoining." The Pompton, so called then, is now the Ramapo, and the place described in the deed has been known as Remapuck, Romapuck, Ramopuck, Ramapock, Pemerpuck, and Ramapo, since the era of first settlement. The somewhat poetic interpretation of the name, "Many ponds," is without warrant, nor does the name belong to a "Round pond," or to the stream, now the Ramapo except by extension to it. Apparently, by dialectic exchange of initials L and R, _Reme, Rama,_ or _Romo_ becomes _Lamó_ from _Lomówo_ (Zeisb.), "Downward, slanting, oblique," and _-pogh, -puck,_ etc., is a compression of _-apughk_ (_-puchk_, German notation), meaning--"Rock." _Lamów-ápuchk,_ by contraction and pronunciation, _Ramápuck,_ meaning "Slanting rock," an equivalent of _Pimápuchk,_ met in the district in Pemerpock, in 1674, denoting "Place or country of the slanting rock." [FN] Ramapo River is supposed to have its head in Round Pond, in the northwest part of the town of Monroe, Orange County. It also received the overflow of eight other ponds. Ramapo Pass, beginning about a mile below Pierson's, is fourteen miles long. (See Pompton.)

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[FN] Dr. John C. Smock, late State Geologist of New Jersey, wrote me of the location of the name at Suffern: "There is the name of the stream and the name of the settlement (in Rockland County, near the New Jersey line), and the land is low-lying, and along the creek, and above a forks, _i. e._ above the forks at Suffern. On the 1774 map in my possession, Romapock is certainly the present Ramapo. The term 'Slanting rock' is eminently applicable to that vicinity." The Ramapock Patent of 1704 covered 42,500 acres, and, with the name, followed the mountains as its western boundary.

Wynokie, now so written as the name of a stream flowing to the Pequannock at Pompton, takes that name from a beautiful valley through which it passes, about thirteen miles northwest of Paterson. The stream is the outlet of Greenwood Lake and is entered on old maps as the Ringwood. The name is in several orthographies--Wanaque, Wynogkee, Wynachkee, etc. It is from the root _Win,_ "Good, fine, pleasant," and _-aki,_ land or place. (See Wynogkee.)

Pamerpock, 1674, now preserved in _Pamrepo_ as the name of a village in the northwest part of the city of Bayonne, N. J., is probably another form of _Pemé-apuchk,_ "Slanting rock." [FN] (See Ramapo.) The name seems to have been widely distributed.

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[FN] _Pemé_ is _Pemi_ in the Massachusetts dialect. "It may generally be translated by 'sloping' or 'aslant.' In Abnaki _Pemadené (Pemi-adené)_ denotes a sloping mountain side," wrote Dr. Trumbull. The affix, _-ápuchk,_ changes the meaning to sloping rock, or "slanting rock," as Zeisberger wrote.

Hohokus, the name of a village and of a railroad station, is probably from _Mehŏkhókus_ (Zeisb.), "Red cedar." It was, presumably, primarily at least, a place where red cedar abounded. The Indian name of the stream here is written _Raighkawack,_ an orthography of _Lechauwaak,_ "Fork" (Zeisb.), which, by the way, is also the name of a place.

Tuxedo, now a familiar name, is a corruption of _P'tuck-sepo,_ meaning, "A crooked river or creek." Its equivalent is _P'tuck-hanné_ (Len. Eng. Dic.), "A bend in the river"--"Winding in the creek or river"--"A bend in a river." The earliest form of the original appears in 1754--Tuxcito, 1768; Tuxetough, Tugseto, Duckcedar, Ducksider, etc., are later. Zeisberger wrote _Pduk,_ from which probably Duckcedar. The name seems to have been that of a bend in the river at some point in the vicinity of Tuxedo Pond to which it was extended from a certain bend or bends in the stream. A modern interpretation from _P'tuksit,_ "Round foot," is of no merit except in its first word. It was the metaphorical name, among the Delawares, of the wolf. It would be a misnomer applied to either a river or a pond. _Sepo_ is generic for a long river. (See Esopus.)

Mombasha, Mombashes, etc., the name of a small lake in Southfield, Orange County, is presumed to be a corruption of _M'biìsses_ (Zeisb.), "Small lake or pond," "Small water-place." The apostrophe indicates a sound produced with the lips closed, readily pronouncing _o_ (Mom). Charles Clinton, in his survey of the Cheesec-ook Patent in 1735, wrote Mount-Basha. Mombasa is an Arabic name for a coral island on the east coast of Africa. It may have been introduced here as the sound of the Indian name.

Wesegrorap, Wesegroraep, Wassagroras, given as the name of "A barren plain," in the Kakiate Patent, is probably from Wisachgan, "Bitter," sad, distressing, pitiable. Ziesberger wrote, "Wisachgak, Black oak," the bark of which is bitter and astringent. A black oak tree on "the west-southwest side" of the plain may have given name to the plain.

Narranshaw, Nanaschunck, etc., a place so called in the Kakiate Patent boundary, is probably a corruption of Van der Donck's _Narratschæn,_ "A promontory" or high point. (See Nyack-on-the-Hudson.)

Kakiate, the name of patented lands in Rockland County, is from Dutch _Kijkuit,_ meaning "Look out," or "Place of observation, as a tower, hill," etc. The highest hill in Westchester County bears the same name in _Kakcout,_ and _Kaykuit_ is the name of a hill in Kingston, Ulster County. The tract to which the name was extended in Rockland County is described, "Commonly called by the Indians _Kackyachteweke,_ on a neck of land which runs under a great hill, bounded on the north by a creek called Sheamaweck or Peasqua." Hackyackawack is another orthography. The name seems to be from _Schach-achgeu-ackey,_ meaning "Straight land," "Straight along," (Zeisb.); _i. e._ direct, as "A neck of land"--"A pass between mountains," or, as the description reads, "A neck of land which runs under a great hill." Compare Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 48, 183, etc.

Torne, the name of a high hill which forms a conspicuous object in the Ramapo Valley, is from Dutch _Torenherg,_ "A tower or turret, a high pointed hill, a pinnacle." (Prov. Eng.) The hill is claimed to have been the northwest boundmark of the Haverstraw Patent. In recent times it has been applied to two elevations, the Little Torne, west of the Hudson, and the Great Torne, near the Hudson, south of Haverstraw. (Cal. N. Y. Land Papers, 46.)

Cheesek-ook, Cheesek-okes, Cheesec-oks, Cheesquaki, are forms of the name given as that of a tract of "Upland and meadow," so described in Indian deed, 1702, and included in the Cheesek-ook Patent, covering parts of the present counties of Rockland and Orange. It is now preserved as the name of a hill, to which it was assigned at an early date, and is also quoted as the name of adjacent lands in New Jersey. The suffix _-ook, -oke, -aki,_ etc., shows that it was the name of land or place (N. J., _-ahke;_ Len. _-aki_). It is probably met in _Cheshek-ohke,_ Ct., translated by Dr. Trumbull from _Kussukoe,_ Moh., "High," and _-ohke,_ "Land or place"--literally, high land or upland. The final _s_ in some forms, is an English plural: it does not belong to the root. (See Coxackie.) In pronunciation the accent should not be thrown on the letter _k_; that letter belongs to the first word. There is no _Kook_ about it.

Tappans, Carte Figurative of date (presumed) 1614-16, is entered thereon as the name of an Indian village in Lat. 41° 15', claimed, traditionally, to have been at or near the site of the later Dutch village known as Tappan, in Rockland County. In the triangulation of the locative on the ancient map is inscribed, "En effen veldt" (a flat field), the general character of which probably gave name to the Indian village. Primarily, it was a district of low, soft land, abounding in marshes and long grasses, with little variation from level, extending along the Hudson from Tappan to Bergen Point, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Wassenaer wrote, in 1621-25, _Tapants_; DeLaet wrote, in 1624, _Tappaans_; in Breeden Raedt, _Tappanders_; _Tappaen,_ De Vries, 1639; _Tappaen,_ Van der Horst deed, 1651: _Tappaens,_ official Dutch; "Savages of _Tappaen_"; _Tappaans,_ Van der Donck, are the early orthographies of the name and establish it as having been written by the Dutch with the long sound of _a_ in the last word--_paan_ (-paen)--which may be read _pan,_ as a pan of any kind, natural or artificial--a stratum of earth lying below the soil--the pan of a tap into which water flows--a mortar pit. [FN-1] The compound word _Tap-pan_ is not found in modern Dutch dictionaries, but it evidently existed in some of the German dialects, as it is certainly met in _Tappan-ooli (uli)_ on the west coast of Summatra, in application, to a low district lying between the mountains and the sea, opposite a fine bay, in Dutch possession as early as 1618, and also in _Tappan-huacanga,_ a Dutch possession in Brazil of contemporary date. It is difficult to believe that Tappan was transferred to those distant parts from an Indian name on Hudson's River; on the contrary its presence in those parts forces the conclusion that it was conferred by the Dutch from their own, or from some dialect with which they were familiar, precisely as it was on Hudson's River and was descriptive of a district of country the features of which supply the meaning. DeLaet wrote in his "New World" (Leyden Edition, 1625-6) of the general locative of the name on the Hudson: "Within the first reach, on the west side of the river, where the land is low, dwells a nation of savages named _Tappaans,_" presumably so named by the Dutch from the place where they had jurisdiction, _i. e._ the low lands. Specifically, De Vries wrote in 1639, _Tappaen_ as the name of a place where he found and purchased, "A beautiful valley of clay land, some three or four feet above the water, lying under the mountains, along the river," presumed to have been in the meadows south of Piermont, into which flows from the mountains Tappan Creek, now called Spar Kill, [FN-2] as well as the overflow of Tappan Zee, of which he wrote without other name than "bay": "There flows here a strong flood and ebb, but the ebb is not more than four feet on account of the great quantity of water that flows from above, overflowing the low lands in the spring," converting them into veritable soft lands. _Gamænapaen,_ now a district in Jersey City, was interpreted by the late Judge Benson, "Tillable land and marsh." Dr. Trumbull wrote: "_Petuckquapaugh,_ Dumpling Pond (round pond) gave name to part of the township of Greenwich, Ct. The Dutch called this tract _Petuck-quapaen._" The tract is now known as Strickland Plain, [FN-3] and is described as "Plain and water-land"--"A valley but little above tidewater; on the southwest an extended marsh now reclaimed in part." The same general features were met in _Petuckquapaen,_ now Greenbath, opposite Albany, N. Y. Dr. Trumbull also wrote, "The Dutch met on Long Island the word _Seaump_ as the name of corn boiled to a pap. The root is _Saupáe_ (Eliot), 'soft,' _i. e._ 'made soft by water,' as _Saupáe manoosh,_ 'mortar,' literally 'softened clay.' Hence the Dutch word _Sappaen_--adopted by Webster _Se-pawn._" Other examples could be quoted but are not necessary to establish the meaning of Dutch Tappaan, or Tappaen. An interpretation by Rev. Heckewelder, quoted by Yates & Moulton, and adopted by Brodhead presumably without examination: "From _Thuhaune_ (Del.), cold stream," is worthless. No Delaware Indian would have given it as the name of Tappan Creek, and no Hollander would have converted it into Tappaan or Tappaen.

The Palisade Range, which enters the State from New Jersey, and borders the Hudson on the west, terminates abruptly at Piermont. Classed by geologists as Trap Rock, or rock of volcanic origin, adds interest to their general appearance as calumnar masses. The aboriginal owners were not versed in geologic terms. To them the Palisades were simply _-ompsk,_ "Standing or upright rock."

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[FN-1] _Paen,_ old French, meaning _Pagan,_ a heathen or resident of a heath, from _Pagus,_ Latin, a heath, a district of waste land.

[FN-2] Tappan Creek is now known as the Spar Kill, and ancient Tappan Landing as Tappan Slote. _Slote_ is from Dutch _Sloot._ "Dutch, trench, moat." "Sloops could enter the mouth of the creek, if lightly laden, at high tide, through what, from its resemblance to a ditch, was called the Slote." (Hist. Rockl. Co.) The man or men who changed the name of the creek to Spar Kill cannot be credited with a very large volume of appreciation for the historic. The cove and mouth of the creek was no doubt the landing-place from which the Indian village was approached, and the latter was accepted for many years as the boundmark on the Hudson of the jurisdiction of New Jersey.

[FN-3] Strickland Plain was the site of the terrible massacre of Indians by English and Dutch troops under Capt. Underhill, in March, 1645. (Broadhead, Hist. N. Y., i, 390.) About eight hundred Indians were killed by fire and sword, and a considerable number of prisoners taken and sold into slavery. The Indian fort here was in a retreat of difficult access.