It is impossible to form a complete genealogical and biographical list of all of the first settlers of Little Egg Harbor, and also of their numerous descendants. Many of the members of the different families, and the various generations have emigrated to other parts of the world, and there are many persons now living, who have but little knowledge of their ancestors. One generation comes, and another goes down to the grave, and like the ocean's waves, we are rolled to the shore, where we remain for a short time, and are then hurried into the arms of death, and ourselves and our knowledge, buried in the grave, and we, and all of our acts, are soon forgotten; for soon a race who knew us not arises to fill our places, and after the lapse of a few years, historians have a difficult task to discover any thing about us.

Such materials as I have been able to collect, I shall arrange to the best of my ability. In some cases I shall be able to bring the genealogical list down to the present time, and in others, it will be an impossibility; and even if it were possible, it Would cause these sketches to be too voluminous. People of the present time have sufficient knowledge of the kindred of their own generation, and also of a generation or two back. My intention is to speak more fully of by-gone generations, than of those of the present time. In looking up the dead of the long past, I have obtained far more authentic information than I at first deemed it possible for me to collect. If I had commenced this work thirty years ago, I should not have been at a loss for much valuable information, which now is gone forever. At that time there were several old people living, whose knowledge would have been important links in the chain which connects the past with the present, but death has claimed them one after another, until now all are gone who possessed a living or traditional remembrance of the primitive "fathers" of Egg Harbor.

In most cases it will be impossible for me to place the children of a family in the order of seniority; to a considerable extent, I have adopted the plan of placing the sons of a family-before the daughters.

The following two or three items about the Falkinburgs I clipped from the publications of Hon. Edwin Salter. As this account of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg is so necessary to my history of the Falkinburg family, I hope Mr. Salter will excuse my appropriating it.

The Falkinburg families of Ocean county, it is said, are descended from Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, who came from Holstein, a little province adjoining Denmark on the South. His name in old records is not always given alike; Smith's History of New Jersey calls him Henric Jacobson Falconbre. Jasper Dunkers, who visited him 1679-80, at his residence near the upper edge of the present city of Burlington, calls him Jacob Hendricks, and sometimes, we believe, he was called Hendrick Jacobs. The Dutch and Swedes at that day seldom had surnames, and from their usual mode of bestowing them their designation of him would probably be rendered into English as Henry Jacob's son, of Falconbre or Falkinburg.

When the first English came to settle in West Jersey, in 1677, the bi-centennial of which was lately celebrated in Burlington, they wished an interpreter between them, and the Indians living between the Rancocas and the Assanpink, where Trenton now stands, and Falkinburg was recommended to them. He appears to have enjoyed the confidences of Dutch, Swedes and Indians, and must have been somewhat of a linguist, as he seems to have understood their languages and the English as well. At that time he lived farthest up the Delaware of any white man, on a point of land on the river just above Burlington. He was quite successful in aiding the Quakers to negotiate with the Indians, and the land on both sides of the river was purchased by a treaty made October 10th, 1677. When this land was divided between the settlers, Richard Ridgway, ancestor of the Ridgways of Ocean and Burlington counties, had 2l8 acres allotted to him on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, nearly opposite Trenton, as shown by a map made about 1679, a copy of which is given in the Journal of Dunkers and Sluyter, published by the Long Island Historical Society. This Journal describes the dwelling of Falkinburg, which, as it was one of the best found by Dunkers, in that section, in his travels in 1679, we copy as showing the contrast between dwellings then and now:

"Nov, 19th, 1679, Saturday: * * * * Before arriving at the village (Burlington) we stopped at the house of one Jacob Hendricks, from Holstein, living on this side, but he was not at home. We therefore rowed on to the village in search of lodgings, for it had been dark all of an hour or more, but proceeding a little farther, we met this Jacob Hendricks in a canoe with hay. As we were now at the village, we went to the ordinary tavern, but there was no lodgings to be obtained there, whereupon we re-embarked in the boat and rowed back to Jacob Hendricks, who received us very kindly and entertained us according to his ability. The house, although not much larger than the one where we were last night, was somewhat better and tighter, being made according to the Swedish mode, as they usually build their houses here, which are blockhouses, being nothing else than entire trees, split through the middle or squared out of the rough and placed in the form of a square upon each other, as high as they wish to have the house. The ends of these timbers are let into each other about a foot from the ends, half of one into half of the other. The whole structure is thus made without a nail or a spike. The ceiling or roof does not exhibit much finer work, except among the most careful people, who have the ceiling planked and a glass window. The doors are wide enough, but very low, so that you have to steep on entering. These houses are quite tight and warm, but the chimneys are placed in a corner. My comrade and myself had some deer skins spread upon the floor to lie upon, and we were therefore quite well off and could get some rest. It rained hard during the night, and snowed and froze, and continued so until the 19th, Sunday, and for a considerable part of the day, affording but little prospect of our leaving."

During this day, Sunday, Dunkers again visited Burlington, and at night returned to Falkinburg's house, and this time he says he slept on a good bed, the same that on the previous evening had been occupied by the guide and his wife, "which gave us great comfort and recruited us greatly."

The above account of Falkinburg agrees with my previous supposition about him, which was that he was pretty well advanced in years when he settled in Egg Harbor, and that the wife he married there was his second wife.

A certain author says "When the English ship Kent arrived in the Delaware in 1677, the Quaker commissioner found Falkinburg (Henry Jacobs Falkinburg,) who had been settled here sometime and acquainted with the Indians and their languages, and engaged him as interpreter in their purchase of land of the aborigines, which extended from the Falls of the Delaware at Trenton down to the Rancocas. In 1676 Henry Jacobs Falkinburg lived on a "hook" or point of land on the east side of the Delaware, close to the northern boundary of the present city of Burlington, as shown by a map made that year, a copy of which is given in the journal of Dunkers and Sluyter, 1679-80, published by the Long Island Historical Society. Previous to the coming of the English the Swedes and Dutch strictly speaking generally had no surnames. If a man named Jacob had a son named Henry the son would be designated as Henry Jacob's son, perhaps shortened to Henry Jacobs. If this son Henry in turn had a son named John he would be called John Henry's son, and perhaps John Henry; the surnames thus changing with each generation. Henry Jacobs Falkinburg was often known as simply Henry Jacobs, and we think occasionally this name was transposed by travelers to Jacob Henry, or Jacob Hendricks."

It appears that some time before the year 1698 Henry Jacobs Falkinburg came to Little Egg Harbor with a small amount of merchandise, adapted to the wants of the aborigines, and with said merchandise he purchased of the Indians the lands now comprising the farms known as Osborn's Island, Wills' Island, and also the uplands constituting the Eayre Oliphant farm, the Elihu Mathis and the Joseph Parker farms. The returns from the Council of Proprietors for the above named lands are in the name of Henry Jacobs, but the deeds which he and his posterity gave to those who afterwards purchased some of the above lands denominated him "Henry Jacobs Falkinburg."

The following is a copy of the returns for the above lands of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg:

Henry Jacobs, 800 acres, February 7th, 1698. Per Daniel Leeds.

Surveyed then for Henry Jacobs in his own Indian purchase near Egg Harbor eight hundred acres in two parts: Begins at a pine tree and black oak for a corner back in the woods and runs thence in breadth sixty-three chains west and by south to a small creek, from which two corners it runs south by two parallel lines one hundred and two chains to two stakes in ye meadows taking in 600 acres besides allowance for ways.

Also 200 acres encompassing the two great islands in ye meadows lying in the form of a triangle taking in same meadow within ye said triangle, being in all eight hundred acres as above, besides allowance for highways.

Recorded in Revell's Book of Surveys, folio 139, at Trenton, N.J.

Tradition says that Henry Jacobs Falkinburg was a native of Holland, and that when he settled at Little Egg Harbor he came from Swedesboro, N.J., and also that he located himself in Egg Harbor about the year 1698. After Falkinburg had concluded his treaty with the natives, he dug a cave on his Down Shore tract, on that portion of it known as the Joseph Parker farm. About thirty years ago the site of his cave was discernible by a deep indentation in the ground. The cave was situated on the easterly side of a little stream that runs through the Parker farm.

After completing his habitation he furnished it with a few really necessary articles of the rudest description. His table was a rude structure, yet it was loaded with fat venison, wild fowl, fish and oysters, the cooking of which he did himself. For a time he followed the varied occupations of hunter, fowler, fisherman, oysterman and housekeeper - the latter being a branch of the business with which he became disgusted, and resolved on quitting the service, and going to look for one more competent for the housekeeping department. Like Alexander Selkirk, he was "Monarch of all he surveyed," and like him he sighed for "society, friendship and love," and one morning ere the sun had gilded the top of his cave, he arose from his rude couch, arrayed himself in his best home-made suit, partook of a hastily prepared breakfast, shouldered his musket, and set out on foot and alone for Swedesboro, N.J. This was a somewhat tedious and dangerous tramp through the wilderness infested with panthers, bears, wolves and wildcats, yet the pleasing reflection that he was about to meet with "society, friendship and love" served to keep up the courage of the solitary traveler.

I would have my readers recollect that Falkinburg was a widower bound on a courting expedition, and also that widowers do not fancy long and tedious courtships.

On his return to Egg Harbor he brought his intended wife with him, and soon after arriving at his primitive habitation, he set about making preparations for his wedding, and invitations were given to all his Indian acquaintances on Monhunk (Osborn's island), Minicunk (Wills' island), and in other sections of Egg Harbor, and when the guests had assembled he and his fair bride married themselves (according to Friends' ceremony) in the presence of the Indian Kings, Queens, ancient warriors and young braves, venerable squaws and black-eyed Indian maidens. The supposition is, that the marriage feast consisted of venison or wild goose, or fish, or oysters, or perhaps all of these good things combined. It is scarcely probable that there was any bread and butter or cake eaten at this primitive wedding feast, nor any cards or cake sent to absent acquaintances.

The first white child born in the township of Little Egg Harbor was Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr. He was born in the cave where his father first set up housekeeping, and where he celebrated the first Quaker wedding that took place in that wilderness land. This young and first native Egg Harborman is said to have been the only child of his parents and the inheritor of all of his father's estate.

Either the senior or junior Falkinburg built a large farm house on the farm now known as the Elihu Mathis farm in the neighborhood of Down Shore. In the time of the senior Falkinburg the Elihu Mathis and the Joseph Parker farms were one farm, until one of the Henry Jacobs Falkinburgs sold the Parker farm to Thomas Ridgway, Jr., who then resided on the farm now called the Oliver Parker place.

The doors of the above said farm house were of solid mahogany, but where the mahogany was procured tradition does not say. Probably it came from a ship that was stranded on the coast. The said house was burned about seventy years ago.

During most of his married life, Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., resided on Wills' island farm. In the year 1731 Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., married Penelope Stout, of Shrewsbury, N.J. This Penelope was a descendant and likewise namesake of the first Penelope Stout who was maltreated by the Indians, but in spite of her murderous treatment, lived to see one hundred and eleven years. Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr.'s children were John, David, Jacob, Henry, Hannah and Mary. He resided on the farm called Wills' island, where he died about the close of the revolutionary war, his wife outliving him and reaching the age of one hundred and two years. This island farm has always been designated by the name of its proprietors. While the Falkinburgs possessed it, it was called Falkinburg's island,and then Lockhart's, Ridgway's, Blackman's, and lastly Wills' Island. The Indians called it Miniconk. The island was the principal Indian settlement in Little Egg Harbor. The Indians told the primitive white settlers of the great battles that had been fought on their Miniconk island.

When Richard Osborn, Sr., came to settle in Egg Harbor, Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Sr., sold him Miniconk Island, and Osborn set about clearing it up in order to make a farm. It proved to be a difficult task to convert the land into a tillable condition, and Osborn becoming discouraged with the undertaking, induced Falkinburg to take back Miniconk Island and sell him Monhunk Island (now Osborn's Island.) Falkinburg consented to the proposition, and Osborn became the owner of Monhunk, which be converted into a fair farm.

John, son of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., married Mary Somers, of Great Egg Harbor. Her sister, Judith, married Nathan Bartlett, Sr., and her sister, Hannah, married Peter Andrews, 2d.

John Falkinburg's children were Samuel, John, Joseph, Somers, Hannah, Tabitha, Judith and Susanna.

John Falkinburg owned and lived on the Elihu Mathis farm, and about the year 1785 he sold it, and removed with his family to Warrington, York county. Pa.

David, son of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., married Faith Cook, of upper Burlington county.

David Falkinburg built the first tavern and was the first landlord in Tuckerton. The tavern stood where the late Dr. Thomas Page's cottage now stands. It was erected some time before the commencement of the Revolutionary War. Falkinburg had occupied the tavern but a short time before he sold it to Solomon Rockhill, of Moorestown, and removed to the West.

Hannah, daughter of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., in the year 1769 married Richard Buffin, of the upper section of Burlington county, and Mary, her sister, married David Antrim, of the same place. These two marriages took place at the same time, in the old Friends' meetinghouse, at Tuckerton.

Jacob, son of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., married Phebe Southwick, sister of Amos Southwick, of Mannahawkin. I have not ascertained the name of any of Jacob's children except Charles and Caleb. The Falkinburgs of Ocean county, N.J., are the descendants of Jacob Falkinburg. Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., divided his island farm between his sons David and Jacob. David sold his share of the farm to his brother Jacob. John, their brother, held the Elihu Mathis farm.

Jacob Falkinburg resided on the farm (now called Wills' Island) until some of his children were grown, and they considering the island a lonesome place for young people who were of a social disposition, persuaded their father to sell his farm and go to reside where there was a better chance for them to mingle with persons of their own age and tastes. In order to please his children he traded the Island farm with John Lockhart, for a property that he had in the then Monmouth county - now Ocean county. I think it was a tavern.

The children were highly gratified with the change, but their father was miserably disappointed. He considered himself the victim of a bad bargain. Thoughts of his valuable and pleasant island home harrassed his mind until he became insane. His sons Charles and Caleb then rented the farm of Lockhart, and with their father went there to live, hoping, that such a course might reconcile him and clothe him in his right mind. Theirs was a fallacious hope. He knew that the island was no longer his, and that sad reflection drove him into more desperate insanity. He availed himself of an opportunity that offered when his watchers were absent, searched for the gun which they had hidden, procured it, sat down on the side of his bed, placed the muzzle of the gun under his chin, pulled the trigger with his toes, and blew out his own brains, which were scattered over the upper ceiling of the room, where the marks of them remained as long as the house stood - a sad memento of his trouble about the loss of his and his forefathers' valuable home. This rash and melancholy deed was done in the old house built by the Falkinburgs - the present house has been erected since that time. Lockhart built the easterly part of the present house, and Jeremiah Ridgway the westerly section. After Falkinburg shot himself his friends sent to Tuckerton to have him a grave made in the Friends' burying-ground. The sexton dug a grave for him, but some of the strenuous members of the Society objected to having a suicide interred in their graveyard. At that time it was the only burial place in Tuckerton. It was finally agreed to bury him in a lot where there was a school-house situated. He was buried there, and that lot is now the Methodist burying-ground at Tuckerton. At this late day there are but few who know that Jacob Falkinburg was the first person buried in the Methodist graveyard. He rests in utter forgetfulness of his life's troubles, and the place of his grave is unknown, but undoubtedly it will be revealed on the morning of the great awakening of the dead.

Henry, son of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, Jr., was an idiot, and as he was not capable of making a judicious use of his property, his father did not leave him any of his landed estate, yet he left him a legacy sufficient for his support. All of the ancient Falkinburgs left Egg Harbor except Samuel, son of Samuel, who was a son of the first John Falkinburg. There is none of the Falkinburg posterity left in Egg Harbor, except the descendants of the above named Samuel Falkinburg. Captain Samuel Falkinburg was the son of Samuel Falkinburg and Alice Mathis, daughter of Nehemiah Mathis, Sr.

Captain Samuel Falkinburg (whose posterity reside in Egg Harbor) married Mary, daughter of Josiah Cranmer, of Cranmertown, Ocean county. The children of this marriage were John, Hezekiah, Samuel, Timothy, Josiah, George, Lemuel, Charles, Fountain, Nelson, Mary Jane and a girl who died in infancy. Samuel Falkinburg's second wife was Hannah, widow of Jacob Truax. The children of this union were Fountain, Ellen, Hannah and Elizabeth. This unusually large family of children have been unfortunate as to the manner of their deaths. The father and all of the sons were seamen, the majority of them being captains. The eldest son, Capt. John Falkinburg, many years ago, was shipwrecked and drowned at Cape Henlopen; Samuel Falkinburg, his brother, was lost in the schooner Greenberry Holsk; Lemuel Falkinburg was drowned in the harbor of New York; George died of the cholera on board of a vessel; Capt. Charles was drowned in the harbor of San Francisco, California; Fountain, the 2d, was drowned in Chesapeake Bay. Two or three of the grandsons and some of the great grandsons have met death in a like manner.

In the year 1715, when the Friends' Monthly Meeting was established at Little Egg Harbor, there was a resident female minister by the name of Mary Jacobs, and I am strongly in the belief that she was the wife of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg, who at that time was usually called Henry Jacobs.