The next house of which there is any memory was a brick structure at the southwest corner of the River and Division roads. This was the property of, and presumably built by, “Jim” Alexander (James G. Alexander?), who came from Newark and passed the place many times as he drove the stage from Newark to Belleville. Alexander was a North of Ireland man who came to Belleville after a brief sojourn in Paterson. For a time he drove a stage between Belleville and New York, and also between Belleville and Newark. He married a Coeyman and thus came into possession of a farm which extended from Grafton avenue south to the Henry Stimis place, and from the river back to Summer avenue. He is said to have run the limekiln at one time.

Alexander’s house burned and he removed to Belleville, where he became somewhat eccentric, parading the streets barefoot and with a silk hat on his head, in which costume he would preach whenever the curious were willing to form a congregation. There are stories current which indicate that he had a ready wit and a tongue sharper than a two-edged sword.

THE LIME KILN.

We have come to the Division road, now Grafton avenue, so far as this end of it is concerned. Opposite, on the river bank, stood for many years the limekiln erected by three Englishmen: Thomas Vernon, Thomas Farrand and John T. Grice. This performed its offices without doing serious damage to the landscape. The last to burn lime here was Mr. Francis Tompkins, but the old Newark Lime & Cement Company was finally too much for him, and he went under. Between the burnings of lime there was little activity about the place, and as time went on it became little more than a picturesque wreck, and thirty years ago or more the old kiln ceased work entirely. Then came Mr. Benfield who, as some of his facetious neighbors were fond of saying, had a process for extracting gold from stone fences. So far as I have any knowledge of the matter, the process was all right, but it cost more to extract the gold than it would bring in the open market, and so in a certain sense the experiment was not a success, and it resulted in the erection of unsightly buildings which have been added to from time to time by others who would do things here, until from being a picturesque ruin the place has grown to be one of the ugliest sights on the river bank.

HOUSES ABOVE GRAFTON AVENUE.

Above Grafton avenue, on the corner, stood the frame house of John McDonald, who married a Coeyman (he was a calico printer by trade), and opposite, between road and river, stood a small frame house occupied by James Coeyman. Above, on the west, was the brick house of Levi Coeyman, and next the frame house of John DeHush Coeyman, while on the site now occupied by the large brick house built by Peter Weiler stood the home of Minard Coeyman, the hive of the Coeymans. Just above, where the brook crossed the road, was the house of Henry Coeyman, and just beyond that of John Coeyman, later occupied by William McDonald and by one Worthington. A cannon ball and numerous Indian relics have been ploughed up on this property. The last three buildings were torn down by Mr. Weiler when he built about 1860. The only other house below Second river was the original Van Cortlandt stone house.

COEYMAN GENEALOGY.

Peter Coeymans of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, had seven children. His five sons sailed from Holland in the ship Rensselaerswyck, October 1, 1636, and settled in Albany, N. Y. The youngest of the boys was Lucas Pieterse Coeymans. “May 14th, 9th year of William 3d of England (1698) Leukes Coeman of the towne of Newark yeoman”, bought of Gerrit Hollaer of the city of New York, land lying on the Passaic river, in the “toune” of Newark and County of Essex, “where the said Leukes Coeman now livith”. This deed was acknowledged January 17, 1699.

The children of Lucas Peterse Coeymans and Arientie, his wife, all of whom were born in Albany, N. Y., were:—

Geertie Koemans, who married Harmanus Bras, October 5, 1695, at Hackensack.