USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume II > Part 15
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Note :- For information concerning the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, the Young Men's Catholic Association and the Young Women's Chris- tian Association see the Chronological Table (A) in the Appendix.
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CHAPTER XXX.
LIBRARIES-NEWSPAPERS-LITERARY NEWARK- THE EARLY STAGE. -
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CHAPTER XXX.
LIBRARIES-NEWSPAPERS-LITERARY NEWARK-THE EARLY STAGE.
T HERE have been libraries in Newark since the very days of the founders. At least one of the settlers brought one with him, for the Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first pastor of the Newark flock, possessed several hundred volumes. Three or four others among the founders were men of some learning, and it is little short of certain that they had a few books, at least. Each succeeding pastor of the church had his library.
THE FIRST LIBRARY, 1765.
Samuel Smith in his history of New Jersey, published in 1765, says that Newark had a circulating library at that time. He gives no other information on the subject, however.
"Our quondam friends, the Newarkers," says the New Jersey Journal, in its issue of November 30, 1791, when it was published in Elizabethtown, "alive to improvements external and intellectual, have opened a subscription for establishing a public library in the town for the diffusion of knowledge." This library, if it were established, may be the one referred to near the end of the next paragraph.
It was a common custom, too, for the proprietors of the town newspaper either to conduct a circulating library of their own, or to permit any group of citizens who chose to form one, to have use of room in the printing shop. In 1797 there was such a library in the lower part of the building occupied by John Wood's Gazette and Paterson Advertiser, at the corner of Broad and what is now New street, and on January 16 of that year the paper announced, speak- ing of the library: "It will be open for the first time on Wednes- day, the 17th instant. Attention should be paid to the delivery and receipt of books on that day, and on each succeeding Wednesday, from 10 o'clock in the morning until 8 in the evening. Every person in possession of books belonging to the old library is desired
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immediately to return them to the subscriber." No subscriber was given in the notice. Isaac Crane was secretary for that year. From the preceding we find that Newark had a circulating library soon after the War for Independence, and not counting that of 1765.
In 1797, also, the Centinel of Freedom published the follow- ing: "Library Association-A number of gentlemen being desirous of instituting a library in this town, on liberal and general prin- ciples, met on Monday evening at Johnson Tuttle's inn, when they appointed Messrs. Jesse Baldwin, W. Halsey and W. Pennington a committee to draught an instrument for that purpose and report the same on Monday evening next at the same place, where all persons who wish to promote so commendable an undertaking are requested to attend. The subscribers to the present library are par- ticularly requested to attend, that a union on equitable principles may be brought about."
John Woods gave up the Gazette in 1797, and the "present library" referred to above was probably the one conducted in his printing shop. A quarterly meeting of this Library Association, the first, as far as is known, in Newark, was held at Tuttle's tavern in March, 1798.
In an advertisement of "Proposals for Instituting a large and extensive Circulating Library in Newark," published in the Centinel of Freedom in March, 1802, subscriptions were solicited at $4 a year. Town subscribers were to be entitled to two books at one time; country subscribers, four books at one time. One volume, octavo, was figured as equal to two duodecimo. Town subscribers were to be allowed six days to return books; country subscribers ten days. The names of A. Coe and M. Ward were signed to these "proposals."
A "LITERARY FAIR" IN 1805.
In June, 1805, a "Literary Fair" was held in Newark, "the greater part of last week," says the Centinel. "Booksellers from various parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecti- cut and Jersey attended. We understand exchanges to a very large amount and, much to the satisfaction of the members, were made."
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It is possible that Fair street got its name from being the site of one or another of these fairs, although there is no proof extant to support this theory. These "fairs" were really clearing houses, of a sort for publishers and booksellers. They were held in Newark on several different occasions. Mr. Wilberforce Eames, of the American History division of the New York Free Public Library, contributes the following concerning them for this work:
"Notices of the 'Literary Fair' are to be found in 'The Spec- tator,' New York, June 2 and 12, 1802, where it is stated that a Literary Fair, on the plan of those held at Frankfort and Leipzig will be held annually at New York the first day of June. The Americars speculate that in consequence of the union between Eng- land and Ireland, cheap books can no longer be imported from the latter into America, and consequently that they shall be soon able to print at home on cheaper terms than they could be supplied from Ireland. In pursuance of arrangements previously made, there was on Tuesday, June 1st, a general attendance of booksellers at the ()ld Coffee House, from various parts of the Union. Hugh Gaine was chosen chairman, and Mathew Carey secretary to the meeting. Several resolutions were adopted, and committees appointed to make report on subjects which were thought calculated to promote the objects contemplated. The encouragement of correct and decent printing, with the various branches of domestic manufactures con- nected therewith, with the more general extension and sale of use- ful and valuable books, together with a liberal and familiar inter- course between those in the trade, are among the primary objects of the gentlemen assembled on this occasion."
THE "INSTITUTIO LEGALIS."
As early as 1783 the law students of Newark and Elizabeth- town founded a society which they called "Institutio Legalis of Newark." The original minute book of this society is now in the possession of the New Jersey Historical Society, and was carefully preserved for many years by the late Amzi Dodd, for many years the distinguished president and mathematician of the Mutual Bene- fit Life Insurance Company, and who died at his home in Bloom- field, January 22, 1913.1 The "Institutio Legalis" was active only intermittently. The last entry in the first minute book is of 1817. Mr. Dodd received the old book from the late Justice Bradley, of the United States Supreme Court. From a note left by Justice Bradley
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it seems that the old organization was revived in 1837. When the organization began, in 1783, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain had not yet been signed, and the British soldiers were still in New York. The founders are given by Justice Bradley as Richard Stockton, Jonathan Rhea, J. Ogden Hoffman, Jacob De Hart, Jr., Aaron Ogden and Nehemiah Wade. The Cincinnati Society (explained "The Lorist" in the Newark Evening News for April 12, 1913) was formed only nine days before the "Institutio Legalis." The revival of the society was not, apparently, of long duration. Among those who revived it were: Jacob Van Arsdale, Joseph P. Bradley, Cortlandt Parker, Frederick Frelinghuysen, William F. Day and Lewis C. Grover.
1 Amzi Dodd was eighty-nine years old when he died, and spent most of his long life in Essex County. He was precocious in his studies and a mere boy when he graduated from Princeton. He taught school for a while and ever afterward insisted that there was no training equal to it. He studied law and entered politics, serving as clerk of the Common Council of Newark, and later a term in the Assembly. He delivered one of the Fourth of July addresses here, about sixty years ago, which was famous in its day. He went into the Republican party movement in 1856 with enthusiasm, and kept up his attachment to the organization all his life. He made speeches and made a hopeless fight for Congress, and was the man whose advice was constantly
sought. Mr. Dodd began his mathematics when most boys are playing with toys, and all his life the science was his special delight. He was, indeed, one of its great masters in this country. He and the late Justice Joseph Bradley, also a great mathematician, used to write each other long letters which looked like cryptograms, being discussions of problems in higher mathematics which most of us not only couldn't understand, but could never hope to.
The task which Mr. Dodd most enjoyed, at least in memory, was his work when he was the first and at that time the only Vice-Chancellor of New Jersey. The equity court work suited him, and his great learning and deep sense of justice were serviceable here as they would not have been in other judicial positions.
Mr. Dodd was deeply interested in the riparian law of this State. He was on terms of closest friendship with Governor Marcus L. Ward and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Attorney General in Governor Ward's admin- istration, and his advice was sought by them on many matters. When the great question of the State's right to the riparian lands came up, there were many anxious discussions. One conference was held in Mr. Frelinghuysen's library in the rear of his house in Park place, at which Governor Ward, H. Newton Conger, Mr. Dodd and Mr. Frelinghuysen were present. The railroad companies were deeply anxious over the decision, and the late Culver Barcalow, the Pennsylvania's lobbyist in latter years, used to tell how he climbed a tree in the back yard to get a sight of those present. He got nothing more, however. The great policy was adopted and millions of money came to the State as the result and have ever since been devoted to the School Fund. Mr. Dodd kept a sort of guardianship of the fund for
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A Newark Lyceum Society was formed a little before 1804. It was for literary improvement and composed chiefly of mechanics. "The failure of such societies hitherto," says a newspaper announce- ment in April, 1804, "has been due to abandonment of meetings during summer and fall months." The meetings were held in the old stone schoolhouse at what is now 142 Market street. The society indulged in debates, and two of the questions discussed by it in 1805 were: "Whether it is a greater virtue to rejoice over our neighbor's prosperity or to sympathize in his adversity"; "Whether it is better that, forewarned of approaching ills, we should stretch all the nerves of fortitude, and sternly prepare to encounter them ; or that, regardless of to-morrow, we should grasp at the pleasures of to-day."
In 1807 Newark had a reading circle, which met at Johnson Tuttle's tavern. It assembled on the evening of April 6 to deter- mine what papers should be subscribed for the ensuing year.
The village took a decided interest in books and reading in the first decade of the last century. Here is one odd evidence of it: "The person who has loaned 'The Fool of Quality' from this [the
many years after, and made a brave and successful fight against various attempts to misuse it.
Amzi Dodd had been mathematician of the Mutual Benefit Life Insur- ance Company almost in his youth, when insurance was in its infancy and a thousand factors which are now regarded as all-important were hardly recog- nized, except by him and a few others. It is difficult to realize how crude was insurance of life in those days.
The companies guessed, and they guessed in their own favor, of course. Gradually, the business became sys- tematized and more accurate. The Mutual Benefit was substantially mutual at all times, but not in all relations.
Mr. Dodd's marvelous mathematical ability, his great legal learning and his knowledge of life insurance were employed by the company for years, but eventually there was an apprecia- tion of his true importance, and he became general counsel as well as actuary. When the Mechanics' Bank was wrecked, and the then president of the Mutual Benefit was compelled to resign on account of personal relations, Theodore Macknet, a merchant and capitalist of this city, was chosen presi- dent. He knew his own inability to conduct such a business, and after a short time, Amzi Dodd became the head of the great institution. He was probably as strong a man as was ever selected for such a duty. Instantly, the company was transformed. * * * This was Amzi Dodd's work, and the country has recognized it, although grudgingly. Vast knowledge and experience were necessary, but when the writer once asked Mr. Dodd the secret of successful life insurance, he simply replied: "Common honesty." Indeed, when a company lias the facts and the figures, there is only a fair degree of industry and application required. But it takes a genius to see that truth .- Newark Sunday Call, January 26, 1913.
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Newark Centinel] office will please to return it, as it has been kept a much longer time than the rules of the library allow."
APPRENTICES' LIBRARY, 1821.
In 1820 a movement for an Apprentices' Library was started, no doubt in an effort to give the young Newark workingmen some wholesome influences to counteract those of the streets. In that year there were estimated to be 700 apprentices in Newark. In 1822 the Apprentices' Library had 1,000 volumes. It was opened in 1821. In 1826 or '27 the Mechanics' Association was organized, and three years later it had a library of 650 volumes. In 1834 Gordon's New Jersey Gazeteer said of Newark: "Of literary insti- tutions in addition to the schools, we may name an apprentices' library, a circulating library, and the Mechanics' Association for Literary and Scientific Improvement, which possesses a valuable library and philosophical apparatus."
In 1830 it was said of the Apprentices' Library in a local news- paper : "We find the most approved works on Arts, Sciences, Biography, History, Law, Politics, Political Economy, Voyages and Travels, Poetry, Novels, Romances, etc. * And in view of such an intellectual feast, how indignantly should they frown upon the worse than useless trash that is too often thrown in their way, ostensibly to gratify curiosity, but evidently tending to vitiate their taste for substantial reading, to weaken the force of truth upon their minds and eventually to undermine the very foundation of their moral obligation." Boys were boys in those days, just as now; and perhaps it is not altogether surprising that many of the young apprentices of that day preferred a lurid tale from a cir- culating library to the abstruse and prosy volumes with which the shelves of the Apprentices' Library were filled.
THE NEWARK LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 1845.
It was not long after Newark became a city, in 1836, that the need for a public library, of the sort then becoming common in the more progressive communities of the United States, was much
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needed here. Not until 1845, however, were definite steps taken for the establishment of such an institution. Public interest and enthusiasm was aroused through the newspapers and in other ways, until it was felt that the city could no longer maintain its civic pride if it did not possess a library. Leading citizens became active in the crusade and assembled on October 11, 1845, in the office of David A. Hayes, with William A. Wright as chairman and the fol- lowing among those present: Joseph P. Bradley, afterwards of the United States Supreme Court; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, later Secretary of State; the Rev. Samuel I. Prime, of the New York Observer; Jacob D. Vermilye, a well-known New York banker; the Rev. Dr. Scott, and William K. McDonald, afterwards State Comp- troller. In the fall of 1846 a series of meetings in the interest of the library movement were held in Washington Hall on the west side of Broad street, about opposite Mechanic. For a time the promoters of the plan were divided. Some urged that the new institution be devoted to the welfare of apprentices and journeymen especially. At last it was resolved to unite in obtaining a library solely.
2 "A committee on library, consisting of Dr. Prime, William A. Whitehead, William E. Layton, Grover E. Stewart, William R. Inslee and A. T. Hubbell presented, on October 25, 1846, a plan for a library. This plan was adopted and being carried out, it gave to the city the Newark Library substantially as it is to-day [1884]. It provided for the formation of a society with fifteen thousand dol- lars of capital stock, divided into six hundred shares, of twenty- five dollars each, non-stockholders to have the use of the books at low rates. It was decided to begin the enterprise should four hun- dred shares of stock be subscribed by December 1. Committees to solicit subscriptions were appointed for the several wards, and on November 25 they reported three hundred and sixty shares that had been taken. Stirring addresses were made, and before the meeting adjourned four hundred and twenty shares had been disposed of. Two weeks later the whole amount of stock, fifteen thousand dol- lars, had been taken, and on January 4, 1847, directors were chosen, as follows: Rev. Samuel I. Prime, John H. Stephens (Newark's leading merchant), James B. Pinneo, John Chadwick, William R. Inslee, Jacob D. Vermilye, Beach Vanderpool (then Mayor of the
Henry Farmer in Shaw's History of Essex and Hudson Counties, vol. i, pp. 542-543.
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city), Jeremiah C. Garthwaite, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, William Rankin, William B. Kinney and Samuel Meeker. The officers selected were: President, William Rankin; Vice-President, the Rev. S. I. Prime; Secretary, William A. Whitehead; Treasurer, J. D. Ver- milye.
3 "The lot on Market street [on the north side, at 147 and 149] was bought for $6,000, and the structure [containing Newark's most popular hall for the next forty years, known as Library Hall] was erected on plans submitted by J. C. Wells, of New York, under the direction of William Rankin, Beach Vanderpool and J. C. Garth- waite as a building committee, and the building was ready for dedication February 21st of the next year, 1848. The main building was fifty-one by fifty-one feet, as at present [1884], but at first the hall, or lecture-room, as it was called, was only fifty-one by sixty-five feet, with seats for seven hundred persons. The cost of the building was $12,000. At the dedication the Rev. Dr. Prime made an address, and a poem written for the occasion by Mrs. E. C. Kinney, was read.
"In one room the New Jersey Historical Society deposited its books and collection, and in another the Common Council held meet- ings for some time. A picture gallery was added to the building in 1850, for the New Jersey Art Union, an organization of which the present generation knows nothing.
"The hall was enlarged in 1859, an improvement which left the association with a debt of $7,500, which still later improvements to the hall and other expenditures have increased [1884] to $14,000. The first librarian was John S. Barker, but he resigned in 1849 and Frederick W. Ricord [afterwards Mayor of the city] filled the position from that year until 1870, when William E. Layton suc- ceeded him."
Mr. Layton continued as librarian until the formation of the Newark Free Public Library. The founders of this library felt (and in their day and generation were quite justified), that they had done all that could be asked of them in making it possible for the people of Newark who could not afford private libraries to obtain good books for a nominal annual sum. It took another gen- eration and more to make a "free" library in Newark possible. In 1884 a statement published by the Newark Library Association read as follows :
"The largest and best selection of books in the State, having over 25,000 volumes of reading matter on its shelves, and the The total cost of all the real estate ultimately purchased was $23,- 283.40.
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Reading Room is supplied with all the leading weekly and monthly magazines and quarterly reviews. In addition to the stockholders, responsible persons are entitled to the use of the library whenever open, and to take books to their homes for the use of their families on paying the following rates in advance: For three months, $1; for six months, $1.75; for one year, $3."
Under the by-laws of the old association, borrowers were required to deliver books personally, upon returning them, into the hands of the librarian, "in order that he may inspect their condi- tion; and any injury they may have sustained must be made good." Each stockholder had the right to take out four books at one time, "and for every share more than one held by any such stockholder, he or she shall enjoy the privilege of naming an individual being a minor who shall be permitted to draw from the library one volume at a time." This last provision was expected to open the doors of the institution to many apprentices, as it was felt that stockholders would reward faithful and ambitious young mechanics by extending to them the library's privileges.
CIRCULATING LIBRARY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
4 "To St. John's Roman Catholic Church belongs the proud dis- tinction of giving birth to the first Circulating Library in Newark. The Newark Library Association, 'for the establishment of a library with all proper conveniences and appurtenances * * with the view to advance the interests of learning generally and better educate the youth of the city of Newark in science, literature and the arts,' was only created by act of Legislature a body corporate in 1847, and opened in 1848, thirteen years after St. John's library had been put in operation. St. John's Circulating Library was founded in the year 1835, and in 1859 contained 1,300 volumes, including the best standard works on religion and morality."
NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1845.
Almost simultaneously with the creation of the Newark Library Association the New Jersey Historical Society came into being. Both were striking expressions of the quickened interest in the
' History of St. John's Church, by Paul V. Flynn. Circulating libraries of a modest sort were common in Newark from the year 1765, as shown earlier in this chapter.
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finer and better things of life, coming, in Newark's case, after a period of thirty or forty years in which industrialism had been supreme, and when little that did not speak for more or less immediate specific and tangible return for individual benefit, took deep hold upon the public mind. The Historical Society was organ- ized in Trenton, on February 27, 1845, although it has never had any home other than Newark. The organization of an association of the sort had been urged for many years in the public prints.
The first officers were: President, Joseph C. Hornblower, of Newark; Vice-Presidents, Robert G. Johnson, of Salem County ; Peter D. Vroom, of Mercer; James Parker, of Middlesex; Treas- urer, Thomas J. Stryker, of Trenton; Corresponding Secretary, William A. Whitehead, of Newark; Recording Secretary, Joseph P. Bradley, of Newark; Executive Committee, Daniel V. McLean, of Monmouth County ; William B. Kinney, of Newark; Nicholas Mur- ray, Archer Gifford, of Newark; Eli F. Cooley, Richard S. Field, of Mercer; A. Bruyn Hasbrouck, of Somerset; Bishop George W. Doane, of Burlington ; Elias B. D. Ogden, of Passaic.
The society was incorporated by act of Legislature, February 6, 1846, and was immediately established in the building of the Newark Library Association, later being removed to the third floor of the State Bank Building on the north corner of Bank and Broad streets, from whence it was removed to the Library building (the old Park Theatre) in West Park street, when the Free Public Library left the structure for its permanent home at the head of Washington street, opposite Bridge street. It is to-day (1913) an institution of the highest value and usefulness, and is used by students, researchers and others, not only from every section of the State, but from all parts of the country. It possesses old manuscripts and original documents pertaining to the earlier his- tory of New Jersey that are of priceless value. It has also many rare portraits of men and women of importance in past epochs of the State's long and singularly fascinating history. The society acquired possession of the old theatre property through becoming possessor of the stock of the old Library Association, the latter's
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NEWARK FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY Opened to the public March 14, 1901
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realty having risen rapidly in value as the need of the Association itself vanished with the coming of the Free Public Library. The late Francis M. Tichenor was largely instrumental in accomplishing this transfer of stock. In 1913 a small fireproof vault was erected at the northeast corner of the building, in which some of the most valuable treasures of the society are preserved.
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