[Commoenapa,] written in several forms, was the name of the most southern of the six early Dutch settlements on the west side of Hudson's River, known in their order as Commoenapa, Aresseck, Bergen, Ahasimus, Hoboken-Hackingh, and Awiehacken. Commoenapa is now preserved as the name of the upland between Communipaw Avenue and Walnut Street, Jersey City, but was primarily applied to the arm of the main land beginning at Konstabel's Hoek, and later to the site of the ancient Dutch village of Gamœnapa, as written by De Vries in 1640, and by the local scribes, Gamœnapaen. [FN] (Col. Hist. N. Y. xiii, 36, 37.) Dunlap (Hist. N. Y., i, 50) claimed the name as Dutch from Gemeente, "Commons, public property," and Paen, "Soft land," or in combination, "Tillable land and marsh belonging to the community," a relation which the lands certainly sustained. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 234.) The lands were purchased by Michael Pauw in 1630, and sold by him to the Dutch government in 1638. Although clearly a Dutch name it has been claimed as Indian, from Lenape Gamenowinink (Zeisb.), "England, on the other side of the sea." Gamœnapaug, one of the forms of the name, is quoted as the basis of this claim; also, Acomunipag, "On the other side of the bay." The Dutch did substitute paen for paug in some cases, but it is very doubtful if they did here.
[FN] Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter wrote in their Journal: "Gamaenapaen is an arm of the main land on the west side of the North River, beginning at Constable's Hook, directly opposite to Staten Island, from which it is separated by the Kil van Kol. It is almost an hour broad, but has large salt meadows or marshes on the Kil van Kol. It is everywhere accessible by water from the city."
[Ahasimus]—Achassemus in deed to Michael Pauw, 1630—now preserved in Harsimus, was a place lying west of the "Little Island, Aressick;" later described as "The corn-land of the Indians," indicating that the name was from Lenape Chasqummes (Zeisb.), "Small corn." Ashki'muis, "Sea maize." [FN] (See Arisheck.)
[FN] "The aforesaid land Ahasimus and Aressick, by us called the Whore's Corner, extending along the river Maurites and the Island Manhates on the east side, and the Island Hobokan-Hackingh on the north side, surrounded by swamps, which are sufficiently distinct for boundaries." (Pauw Deed, Nov. 22, 1630; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 3.) Mr. Winfield located Ahasimus "At that portion of Jersey City which lies east of Union Hill, excepting Paulus' Hoeck (Areisheck), . . . generally from Warren to near Grove Street."
[Bergen,] the name of the third settlement, is met in Scandinavian and in German dialects. "Bergen, the Flemish for Mons (Latin), 'a hill,' a town of Belgium." (Lippincott.) "Bergen, op. Zoom, 18 miles north of Antwerp, 'a hill at (or near) the bank,' or border." The original settlement was on what is now known as Jersey City Heights.
[Arisheck]—"The Little Island Aressick" (See Ahasimus), called by the Dutch Aresseck Houck, Hoeren Houck, and Paulus Houck—now the eastern point of Jersey City—was purchased from the Indians by Michael Pauw, Nov. 22, 1630, with "the land called Ahasimus," and, with the "Island Hobokan-Hackingh," purchased by him in July of the same year, was included in his plantation under the general name of Pavonia, a Latinized form of his own name, from Pavo, "Peacock" (Dutch Pauw), which is retained in the name of the Erie R. R. Ferry. Primarily, Arisseck was a low neck of land divided by a marsh, the eastern end forming what was called an island. The West India Company had a trading post there conducted by one Michael Paulis, from whom it was called Paulus' Hook, which it retains, Pauw also established a trading post there which, as it lay directly in the line of the great Indian trunk-path (see Saponickan), so seriously interfered with the trade of the Dutch post that the Company purchased the land from him in 1638, and in the same year sold the island to one Abraham Planck. In the deed to Planck the description reads: "A certain parcel of land called Pauwels Hoek, situated westward of the Island Manhates and eastward of Ahasimus, extending from the North River into the valley which runs around it there." (Col. Hist. N, Y., xiii, 3.) The Indian name, Arisheck or Aresseck, is so badly corrupted that the original cannot be satisfactorily detected, but, by exchanging n for r, and adding the initial K, we would have Kaniskeck, "A long grassy marsh or meadow."
[Hoboken,] now so written—Hobocan-Hacking, July, 1630; Hobokan-Hacking, Nov. 1630; Hobokina, 1635; Hobocken, 1643; Hoboken, 1647; Hobuck and Harboken, 1655-6—appears of record first in the Indian deed to Michael Pauw, July 12, 1630, negotiated by the Director-general and Council of New Netherland, and therein by them stated, "By us called Hobocan-Hacking." Primarily it was applied to the low promontory [FN-1] below Castle Point, [FN-2] bounded, recites the deed, on the south by the "land Ahasimus and Aressick." On ancient charts Aressick and Hoboken-Hacking are represented as two long necks of land or points separated by a cove on the river front now filled in, both points being called hooks. In records it was called an island, and later as "A neck of land almost an island, called Hobuk, . . . extending on the south side to Ahasimus; eastward to the river Mauritus, and on the west side surrounded by a valley or morass through which the boundary can be seen with sufficient clearness." (Winfield's Hist. Hudson Co.; Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 2, 3, 4.) In "Freedoms and Exemptions," 1635; "But every one is notified that the Company reserves, unto itself the Island Manhates; Fort Orange, with the lands and islands appertaining thereto; Staten Island; the land of Achassemes, Arassick and Hobokina." The West India Company purchased the latter lands from Michael Pauw in 1638-9, and leased and sold in three parcels as stated in the Pauw deeds. The first settlement of the parcel called by the Dutch Hobocan-Hacking is located by Whitehead (Hist. East N. J.) immediately north of Hobokan Kill and called Hobuk. Smith, in his "History of New Jersey," wrote Hobuck, and stated that it was a plantation "owned by a Dutch merchant who in the Indian wars, had his wife, children and servants murdered by the Indians." In a narrative of events occurring in 1655, it is written: "Presently we saw the house on Harboken in flames. This done the whole Pavonia was immediately in flames." [FN-3] (Col. Hist. N. Y., xii, 98.) The deed statement, "By us named," is explicit, and obviously implies that the terms in the name were Dutch and not Indian, and Dutch they surely were. Dr. A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me: "Hoboken, called after a village on the river Scheldt, a few miles below Antwerp, [FN-4] and after a high elevation on its north side. Ho-, hoh-, is the radical of 'high' in all German dialects, and Buck is 'elevation' in most of them. Buckel (Germ.), Bochel (Dutch), means 'hump,' 'hump-back.' Hump (Low German) is 'heap,' 'hill.' Ho-bok-an locates a place that is distinguished by a hill, or by a hill in some way associated with it." Presumably from the ancient village of Hoboken came to Manhattan, about 1655, one Harmon van Hobocoon, a schoolmaster, who evidently was given his family name from the village from whence he came. He certainly did not give his family name to Hoboken twenty years prior to his landing at Manhattan.
Hacking and Haken are unquestionably Dutch from the radical Haak, "hook." The first is a participle, meaning Hooking, "incurved as a hook," by metonymie, "a hook." It was used in that sense by the early Dutch as a substitute for Lenape Hócquan, "hook," in Hackingsack, and Zeisberger used it in "Ressel Hacken, pot-hook." No doubt Stuyvesant used it in the same sense in writing Hobokan-Hacking, describing thereby both a hill and a hook, corresponding with the topography, to distinguish it from its twin-hook Arisheck. Had there been an Indian name given him for it, he would have written it as surely as he wrote Arisheck. When he wrote, "By us called," he meant just what he said and what he understood the terms to mean. To assume that he wrote the terms as a substitute for Lenape Hopoakan-hacki-ug, "At (or on) the smoking-pipe land." or place where materials were obtained for making smoking-pipes, has no warrant in the record narrative. Hacking was dropped from the name in 1635.