HISTORICALLY SPEAKING: A look at Allentown-Upper Freehold during the American Revolution.
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Information provided by Allentown resident Ann Garrison, Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society President John Fabiano and society member Alice Wikoff, who together authored the draft abstract, "Allen’s Town, New Jersey: A Crossroads of the American Revolution, 1775-1783." Having completed the chronology of the draft, what follows reflects ongoing research:
Isaac Pearson, found in the C. R. Hutchinson Collection, are the notes of Joseph H. West, a 19th century local historian. The following tale about Isaac Pearson from White Horse, tradition tells, was the effect of an Allentown man’s actions in Hightstown.
"Isaac Pearson, owned the farm now Peter DeCou’s estate. It was part of the tract taken up by Thomas Tindall. His house stood north of the present one, on the lane to the road, where the ground begins to rise. Just before he was killed he built the present brick house, now the P. DeCou Est. farmhouse.
"Isaac could hardly be called a Tory. Some of the Pearsons may have leaned towards the King, but none that I have heard of took any active part. Isaac’s twin brother, Robert, befriended Samuel Tucker, the State Treasurer, when he was captured by Tories, and gave his parole that Tucker should stay on his farm till called for.
"Isaac was a prominent man in the State when the struggle for independence began, and he seems to have been a patriot at first. He was elected to the legislature for several terms when the war was in its early stages and he was also a member of the Council of Safety. He surely would not have been chosen to such positions had he not been considered a staunch patriot. But when the times came that tried men’s souls, Tucker’s heart failed, Tennent took the Oath of Allegiance to Britain, which he soon bitterly repented of, the British raised the standard, and invited all to come and take the oath, threatening vengeance on all that refused. It was in the dark days of the latter part of 1776: those or many of those who owned land, felt that all was gone, and that it was the best they could do to take the oath and save their property.
"It must have been at this time and under these circumstances that Isaac Pearson made up his mind to take the oath for policy sake. Anna Stout, of Middletown, who afterwards, in 1778, married William West, had a sister Sarah, who had married Isaac Pearson’s nephew, son of Thomas Pearson. Anna Stout was visiting the Pearsons at this time, and part of what she saw and heard has been handed down among her descendants.
"She said that his family tried to dissuade him from going to take the oath, but that he thought his property was at stake, and he started on a fleet mare he owned. She saw his dead body brought home. The accounts differ as to where he was killed, but I believe the following to be the best, as it accords with a local tradition, and was told me by my father.
"A pursuing party got after him when near Hightstown and he ran into a house recently owned by the Rev. John Seger, and but recently torn down. He ran out of the back door, toward the Cedar Swamp, and was shot in the back, and fell dead in the field. The pursuers may have been partly militia or minute men, or they may have been some of his neighbors, the party feelings being very high, and as has been told by some of the Pearsons, some of them may have been actuated by a spirit of lawlessness as a well as patriotism, and some of them may have been after the money he was supposed to have about him, but it was most likely that the pursuers were carrying out the feelings of the times, and the feeling was bitter towards any one who favored the British.
"It has been stated that years afterward, a man on his deathbed, who was believed to have had a hand in the affair, was heard in his delirium to call the name of Isaac Pearson. His body was brought home, and one account says that a table was used to make a coffin with; others that boards were taken from the unfinished barn he was building at the time. It was a sad affair. Others who had done the same thing escaped. But we can form but a poor estimate of the feelings of the times.
"The Tories in some parts were savage, and the feeling against them in some parts was great, especially in Monmouth County, where families were often divided. The murder of Anna Stout’s nephew, Leonard Hoff, at Middletown in 1778, and John Pearce and Joshua Huddy and others by Tories, caused the feelings to run high, and bloody reprisals were sometimes made.
"It is likely that the fear of the great influence which would have been felt by the turning over of so great a man as Isaac Pearson, had something to do with his being put out of the way. If he could have seen ahead only a few months or weeks, how different would have been his history.
"Unless he had done something which has not been handed down to us, he could not properly be called a Tory. His twin brother, Robert, was dreadfully shocked at his death, and very slowly recovered after a lingering illness caused by the news.
"Years after his death, a man who lived near White Horse, used to, when in his cups, sing ‘The Battle of the Kegs,’ to annoy William Pearson, Isaac’s son. William’s son, William, was a Captain in the U.S. Navy, and died at White Horse some years ago. Some one taunted him once with an insinuation that his forefathers were Tories, and he resented the insult in a way that in other sections would have ended in a duel.
"My opinion is that the Pearsons during the war were staunch patriots at first, but did not favor an open revolt, and did not like, through their education and religion to fight against the King, but rather to obtain their rights by legislation, through agitation and petitions, like many others."
Thomas Rodney’s Journal, prior to the second Battle of Trenton, refers to Pearson’s body passing through Allentown. "The Battle of the Kegs" was written by Bordentown’s Francis Hopkinson about a failed Patriot attempt to destroy the British Fleet at Philadelphia in 1777.
Historically Speaking is a regular feature. For more information about the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society send e-mail [email protected] or call (609) 259-9127.