The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-03-01
Great Excitement at the
State Capital Over Edwin
R. Walkers Structures
STACY CLAIM DEFENDED
COUNsELOR -AT-LAW FRANCIS B.
LEE SAYS THE CONTROVERSY
RESTS on A DEFINITION
tepeelal o ..rhe Jersey city News.ol


! TRENTON, March /, 19O6-Who
founded Trenton?
Counselor Edwin Robert Walker per
sists that it was his great, great, great,
great, great grandfather. Mahlon Stacy.
The descendants Of William Trent are
quite as certain that it was their ances-
tor and that the inscription on the tablet
erected in Trinity Church is correct.
/ In an interview recently Counselor
Walker referred to communication in
the True American signed Trent"
and said:-
| $50 nom de plume, nondescript,
pseudo knight has entered the lists in the
garb of the motley, answered argument
with sarcasm and facetiousness with buff
foonery. regret that my necessary abb
senee from town today and for the next
day or two will prevent my replying at
length tomorrow, but l will answer, and
that in kind, too. Trent essays to dis
parage and belittle the character and
worth of Mahlon Stacy. He imports a
new phase into the controversy. l OPP
posed the arms of Stacy to the arms Of
Trent: he opposed personality to person.
atty 1 cheerfully accept the issue and
advise Dulcenia to preserve Trent's
knighay D mantle for his winding sheet.
1t may be needed for that purpose short
ly.'
/ Counselor Francis B. Lee, who
is everywhere regarded as authority on
history, and is author of the history of
this city. published in 1895, and of '4New
Jersey as Colony and State said that
the whole question turned upon the con-
struction of the term Founder"
"There can be no denial of the fact
that Mahlon Stacy is to be regarded as
the first permanent settler in the terri
tory now covered by the limits of the
city. If, however, as is eontended by
Adjutant General William S. Stryker in
his Trenton One Hundred Years Ago
that "a village was commenced when
Trent purchased his land in 1714' then
/ the Trent advocates are correct.
In the sketch Of Trent published in
the National Cyclopedia OF American BIZ
ography, vol. XII, page 80, the writer
says that William Trent is justly regard
ed as the founder of Trenton The bril-
liant controyersaists, Counselor Walker
and Trent, who have adorned the sub
| ject, have earned their spurs. 1t would
seem as if these reliable historians inclin-
ed toward the Trent view, and until fur
ther evidence is produced it would appear
that they had rather the best of the ar
gument.
AS to the names given to the terri
4 tory occupied by Trenton. among some
of the original settlers the place was
1 known as Sanhican town, word per-
served in Assanpink. Assam means a
stone There was an Indian town site
here where dwelt the chief of the Unami
subdivision of the Lenm-Lenape or Del
aware tribe of Algonkin Indians The
Unami ranged from Easton to Salem
'sAs to the white settlers. Trenton was
firss visited by Dutch and Swedish petty
traders. who came here as early as 1855
These dealers in wild beasts skins were
in the .yicSlity from time to tinae untn the
English occupancy Of BURLINGTON in 1878.
During the time of the first English
settlement, and until the middle Of the
18th century, Trenton and its vicinity
including the Bucks county side of the
/ Delaware river, was known as the Falls
of the Delaware or as then written, We
ffalles of We De La War. AS late as
1925 there was. / believe. a Bible society
in Trenton known as the Falls Of the
| Delaware Society. Fallsington township
Bucks county, preserves The name.
Before Trent's advent it was also
question if the little settlement should
not be named Yardstown in honor Of the
Yard family, of which ex-Judge William
s. Yard is a member
The Rev. Hamilton Schuyler, rector of
Trinity Church, did not care to discuss
the matter further than TO say that he
believed the editorial opinion expressed
in the sTrue American fully covered
the matter.
Another interested gentleman, whose
maacsty forbids his rushing into a news
paper controversy, put it in this way
There were people living on the site
Of the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania. be-
fore the Pennsylvania Railroad located
its shops there and founded the munici-