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 19
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SCHUBERT VOCAL SOCIETY, 1880.
The Schubert Vocal Society was started in February, 1880. It was organized by Louis Arthur Russell, who had been the piano accompanist of the short-lived Clinton Vocal Society. At first the
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society confined its attention to part songs and light choruses. Later it began to sing short cantatas, and finally attempted the great oratorios after the decease of the Harmonic Society. The name was then changed to the Schubert Oratorio Society and still later the word Schubert was dropped entirely. The society has always been and is still conducted by Mr. Russell.
NEWARK MADRIGAL CLUB, 1886.
The Newark Madrigal Club of mixed voices was started in a volunteer chorus gathered to give a concert in 1886 for the benefit of St. Barnabas' Hospital. When Frank Granville Ilsley died in that year this Madrigal Chorus gave a benefit concert for his widow. The ladies and gentlemen, most of whom had been mem- bers of a private society called the Newark Vocal Society conducted by Mr. James Johnson, then formally organized the Madrigal Club and for twelve years gave two concerts each season under the direction of Mr. Frank Linwood Sealy. The programmes were almost entirely made up of unaccompanied part songs and light choruses, and the singing of this club was never surpassed by any other organization in Newark. The club was strictly private, and its subscribers took all the cards of admission and distributed them among their friends.
ORPHEUS CLUB, 1889.
The Orpheus Club of male voices had its origin in a friendly gathering of men to sing under the direction of Mr. Samuel Augustus Ward, then the organist of Grace Church. In 1889 the club was formally organized. It gave three concerts each season for fourteen years under Mr. Ward, when failing health compelled him to resign. He died a few months later. The club has since been directed by Mr. Arthur Mees and gives two concerts each season. The best music written for male voices of all schools, American, English and German, is found on its programmes. The club has given sixty-one concerts up to the spring of 1913. It is also a private association, selling no tickets to the public, but depending entirely on its subscribers who divide the cards of
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admission among their friends. Several short-lived male voice clubs were started as rivals to the Orpheus Club-the Apollo, the Amphion, and others, but without success.
In the fall of 1890 a number of ladies living in the north end of Newark organized the Ladies' Choral Club, which gave two con- certs annually for eight years under the direction of Miss Ada B. Douglass, then the organist of Trinity Church. When Miss Doug- lass was married to the late Sylvester S. Battin she retired from all her musical work. The Ladies' Choral Club was then disbanded and the Lyric Club was started in its place. Mr. Arthur D. Woodruff, of New York, was engaged as conductor and the first concert was given on February 21, 1900. It began with forty ladies in the chorus, and has now increased until its membership numbers over one hundred. The club has given two concerts each season, and up to the present time has given twenty-eight concerts in all. It also is a private club, depending upon its subscribers.
CONCERT HALLS.
A difficulty against which Newark music lovers had had always to contend has been the lack of a proper hall in which to give concerts. The early societies and soloists gave their concerts in churches. This was unobjectionable, as the programmes of those early concerts were almost entirely made up of sacred music, but when societies and companies of singers devoted to secular music, and vocal soloists and instrumental players began to come, they were at first forced to appear in hotel parlors and private associa- tion rooms. Several small halls were opened in different parts of the city, but there was not a sufficient musical patronage for them, and they were either turned into theatres or business houses, or given up to dancing parties and private club meetings. In 1847 a new hall was opened at the corner of Market and Harrison (now Halsey) street. It was named Concert Hall. This hall was lighted by gas, being the first public hall to be so lighted. It had a large stage and a drop curtain, and soon attracted the attention of the dramatic managers who finally monopolized it. The hall was
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renamed Newark Theatre and has since undergone many changes of name and character.
Library Hall, on Market street, was opened in the spring of 1848. It seated 600, and for many years was the favorite hall for concerts. Oraton Hall, at Broad and Bridge streets, was opened in 1856, and for several years was the scene of many fine concerts. But its fine level floor attracted the dancers, and gradually the hall was given up to social affairs. When the Park Presbyterian Church, on West Park street, moved away from that site the floor of the church was converted into a music hall and opened with a concert in 1873 by the Newark Musical Union, really the Harmonic Society. Soon, however, the building was remodelled into a theatre and later the Newark Free Public Library was housed there. The building is now the home of the Historical Society. The New Insti- tute Hall, in lower Washington street, grew out of the Newark Industrial Institute. It was opened by J. Leonard Gray as a con- cert hall September 30, 1876, and in this hall were heard Rubin- stein and Von Bulow, pianists; Ilma di Musrka, Clara Louise Kel- logg, Parepa-Rosa and other great singers; Downing's Ninth Regi- ment Band, the Royal Saxony Band, Gilmore's Band, Thomas's Orchestra, Seidl's Orchestra, and other famous musicians and musical organizations. But here, too, the drama came and drove out the musicians.
In April, 1881, the Young Men's Christian Association remodelled an old church on Clinton street and opened Association Hall there. It was small, but convenient. Many of the small society concerts, including those of the Madrigal Club, were given there. In 1893 the Essex Land Company remodelled another church in Clinton street and opened the Essex Lyceum as a con- cert hall on January 31, 1894, but the Union Building and the Essex Building now occupy the sites of those two halls. The Young Men's Christian Association rebuilt on Halsey street at the head of Cedar street, where Wallace Hall offers a fine place for concerts. There the Orpheus and the Lyric clubs have given their later concerts.
Gottfried Krueger built a fine and large hall on Belmont ave-
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nue in the heart of the German district. He called it Saenger Halle, but later renamed it Krueger Auditorium. In that hall the German singing societies, especially the Arion, give their concerts, and there a number of famous musicians of recent years, including Paderew- ski, Josef Hofmann, Eugene Ysaye, Fritz Kreisler, Jan Kubelik, Mischa Elman, Madame Nordica, Madame Emma Eames, Madame Schumann-Heink, Miss Maud Powell, and others equally famous have been heard. In 1910 Siegfried Leschziner built a fine hall at Broad and Hill streets and called it Symphony Auditorium, but after a year's experience he rented it to a motion-picture manager.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
FROM THE REBELLION TO THE PRESENT.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
FROM THE REBELLION TO THE PRESENT.
THE CITY'S TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY-THE INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION OF 1872-THE NEWARK BOARD OF TRADE-NEWARK BECOMES COSMOPOLITAN. DEDICATION OF THE KEARNY STATUE, 1880-NEWARK IN THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR-MONSIGNOR DOANE -- STATUES AND TABLETS-THE BUILDING AND LOAN IN NEWARK-ORGANIZED LABOR IN NEWARK-CONCLUSION.
N TEWARK emerged from the Civil War, according to a city census, with a population of about eighty-eight thou- sand, an increase of about fifteen thousand from 1861, despite the fact that there was a drop of about five thousand during the early years of the war. In a little more than two decades the population was to double. We may say that a new era began for Newark with the closing of the war, but the evidences of the change manifested themselves gradually for twenty years and more, despite the great.increase in population.
During the war the city lost three of its leading citizens by death, men who had played potent parts in the advancement of the community and who represented an old and most estimable type of public-spirited men, and for whose kind we may look far and search long to-day. Ex-Governor William Pennington, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives just before the outbreak of the war, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, of whom much is told in Chapter XXVII, both died in 1862, the former on Febru- ary 16 and the latter on April 12. On October 22, 1863, Dr. John S. Darcy ' passed away. Younger men, strong and willing and able, had already taken upon themselves the work of progress which these virile characters (and a large group of others of more or less similar calibre had been members) had promoted so successfully during a previous generation.
1 John S. Darcy was a captain in a company of New Jersey militia which served near the close of the War of 1812. His father was surgeon in the same regiment. The son was born in Hanover, Morris County, on February 24, 1788. He came to Newark in 1832, setting up the practise of medicine, being a skilled physician liko his father. He became Major-General of the
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THE CITY'S TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY.
A year and a month after the war closed, Newark reached its two hundredth anniversary. Preparations for a fitting celebration were begun in May, 1865. The exercises consisted of a parade of the militia, the fire department and many civic societies, with distinguished guests from all parts of the State, followed by historical exercises in the First Presbyterian Church, conducted under the auspices of the New Jersey Historical Society. William B. Kinney delivered the oration of the day. William A. Whitehead read a carefully prepared historical paper upon the founding of Newark. Dr. Thomas Ward read a lyrical poem dealing with the formative period of Newark. During the exercises a dignified ode, written for the occasion by Dr. Abraham Coles, set to the tune of the hymn, "Lenox," was sung by the assemblage. The ode was as follows :
Our father's God we bless, We magnify and sing
Th' abundant faithfulness And mercy of our King; To us and them whose hands did sow
Those fields Two Hundred Years Ago.
O fair the heritage, They from the red man gained,
Passing from age to age The title all unstained!
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State militia and served for several years in that capacity, until 1847. A little later he went to California with a company of about thirty Newarkers, in the height of the gold fever. The party suffered great hardship and two of its members died. Dr. Darcy returned to Newark in 1851. He became the Democratic candidate for Congress in 1854, but was defeated by A. C. M. Pennington. During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Dr. Darcy was United States Marshal for New Jersey. He was continued in that office during the administration of Martin Van Buren and rendered valuable service in wiping out a band of land pirates and wreckers who had been perniciously active along the Jersey coast. At the time of his death, and for many years before, he was president of the New Jersey Railroad Com- pany. He had a large and lucrative practise as a physician and was unweary- ing in his kindly care for the poor. His position as a railroad magnate and his other public services-for the upbuilding of railroads was looked upon as a public service of great value then-made him one of the foremost men in all the upper section of the State, while his many benevolent acts brought him an esteem and admiration from the lowly that amounted to something very little short of reverence.
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Good men and true they were, we know, Who lived Two Hundred Years Ago.
This city, nobly planned, Adorned with park and shade, Their tasteful eyes and hand The first foundations laid; Men fearing God they were, we know, Who built Two Hundred Years Ago.
Though slumb'ring in the ground, Their spirit walks abroad, In schools and workshops found And temples of our God. What they did plant God made to grow E'er since Two Hundred Years Ago.
O river, smiling near, And blue sky overhead! The same from year to year, Ye do not mourn the Dead. The Dead who left this scene of woe For heaven Two Hundred Years Ago.
The memory of the Just Thrice blessed is, and sweet Is their neglected dust We tread beneath our feet,- Unfilial feet to trample so Dust of Two Hundred Years Ago.
Thrice has a righteous sword Been drawn in Freedom's cause, Done battle for the Lord, For equal rights and laws; Fraternal blood been made to flow Ah! since Two Hundred Years Ago.
What wonders God has wrought! Then let us warble forth Tis love beyond our thought, His majesty and worth- Exalt his power and grace below, Like those Two Hundred Years Ago.
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The third stanza from the last is a telling allusion to the desecration of the Old Burying Ground, which had for several generations been sadly neglected and whose unsightliness grew as the community's population increased. More than twenty years was to elapse, however, before the remaining bones of the settlers were to be removed and placed in in vault under a statue of a Puritan in Fairmount Cemetery.
THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1872.
By far the most noteworthy event in the years immediately following the Civil War was the great Industrial Exhibition held in 1872 in the antiquated building, part of which still remains, on the west side of Washington street, between Marshall and Court streets. While the South was closed to Newark as a market for its goods by the war, that struggle, as mentioned in Chapter XXVIII, kept many factories and thousands of workmen busily employed in turning out small arms, military clothing, saddlery, harness, etc. The war ended, Newark's manufacturers speedily found new markets.
The advisability of holding an Industrial Exhibition was long debated in the Board of Trade and out of it. The leader in forming a proper organization was A. M. Holbrook, and Marcus L. Ward and General Theodore Runyon were deeply and actively interested in the movement. The exhibition was opened on August 20, 1872, and is believed to have been the first of its kind ever held in the United States. The display was of Newark-made goods. It con- tinued for fifty-two days and was visited by great throngs from all parts of New Jersey and from many other states. The total attendance was 130,000. On September 17, Horace Greeley, then candidate for the Presidency, visited the exhibition, and in the course of an address told of a visit he had made to this city (then a township), forty years before, when it was "a smart, rather straggling but busy village (on week days) of about ten thousand inhabitants, one-twelfth of its present population, and bearing about the same characteristics it does now." A few evenings later
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President U. S. Grant, then a candidate for his second term, was a visitor.
The display of Newark workmanship surprised not only all visitors from outside of the city, but all Newarkers themselves. It showed Newark manufacturers the great industrial strength of the community far more graphically than had been possible hitherto. It had been originally intended to make the Industrial Exhibition an annual affair; indeed, exhibitions were held for the next three years, but they were not successful. The period of hard times in 1873 and for a time thereafter, and the demands made upon Newark manufacturers by the Centennial Exposition at Phila- delphia, were the chief factors in the failure to continue this laud- able enterprise. In May, 1912, an exhibition of the city's industries was held in the Armory of the First Regiment, National Guard, which proved highly successful. It was engineered by a group of five members of the Newark Board of Trade, who took the financial responsibility upon themselves. These five were: Curtis R. Bur- nett, chairman; James M. Reilly, secretary; George W. Jagle, H. Stacy Smith and John L. O'Toole.
THE NEWARK BOARD OF TRADE.
The Newark Board of Trade has taken a potent part in the advancement of the city's industrial interests, and in other ways, ever since it was organized, in a room in Library Hall, on February 24, 1868. General N. Norris Halstead presided at that meeting and Gustavus N. Abeel was chosen secretary. The following were appointed a committee on organization: N. N. Halstead, Henry Hill, S. R. W. Heath, Henry W. Duryee, Orson Wilson, Andrew A. Smalley and Isaac Gaston. On March 21, 1868, the first officers of the Board of Trade, proposed by the committee on organization, were elected. They were as follows: President, Thomas W. Daw- son ; vice-presidents, N. N. Halstead, Moses Bigelow and T. P. Howell; secretary, Gustavus N. Abeel; directors, George Peters, S. R. W. Heath, Orson Wilson, Peter H. Ballantine, William H. Camp, William H. McClave, Thomas Sealy, William M. Force and Herman Schalk. The board was incorporated by legislative enact-
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ment in 1869. After fifteen years, the Newark Board of Trade had about 160 members. Now (1913) it has upwards of 2,000 members.
The presidents of the Board of Trade have been as follows: 1868, Thomas W. Dawson; 1869, William H. McClave; 1870, Henry W. Duryee; 1871, David Campbell; 1872, John C. Johnson; 1873, Thomas B. Peddie; 1874, Charles E. Young; 1875-1876, Edmund L. Joy; 1877, David C. Dodd, Jr .; 1878, George B. Swain; 1879- 1880, George B. Jenkinson; 1881-1882, Samuel S. Sargent; 1883- 1884, James W. Miller; 1885-1886, A. F. R. Martin; 1887-1888, Allan Lee Bassett; 1889-1890, R. Wayne Parker; 1891-1892, Allan Lee Bassett; 1893, Samuel Atwater; 1894-1896, William A. Ure; 1897-1898, James S. Higbie; 1899-1900, Richard C. Jenkinson ; 1901-1902, George W. Tomkins; 1903-1904, Edward S. Campbell; 1905-1906, S. E. Robertson, M. D .; 1907-1908, Peter Campbell; 1909-1910, George F. Reeve; 1911-1912, Curtis R. Burnett; 1912, A. V. Hamburg.
The first secretary of the Board of Trade, Gustavus N. Abeel, served for two years, and was succeeded, in 1870, by Colonel R. S. Swords, who in turn was succeeded, in 1878, by P. T. Quinn. Mr. Quinn retained the office of secretary until 1903, when James M. Reilly was given the title, although he had performed a large share of the duties of the office for many years previous. He is the present (1913) secretary.
The treasurers of the Board of Trade have been: 1868-1871, Isaac Gaston; 1872-1878, John P. Wakeman; 1879-1890, Edmund L. Joy; 1891-1904, James E. Fleming; 1905, Abram Rothschild; 1906, Edward T. Ward; 1907, David H. Merritt.
It is not within the scope of the writer's portion of this history to further trace the influence of the industries upon the city's little short of amazing development in the last generation. Other chap- ters upon that subject will be found in this work, by another writer.
NEWARK BECOMES COSMOPOLITAN.
In 1864 Mayor Bigelow was succeeded by General Theodore Runyon, who served for two years, and in turn gave way to Thomas B. Peddie, a prosperous and public-spirited manufacturer. Four years afterward, Frederick W. Ricord became the city's chief
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magistrate, serving faithfully and well until 1874, and afterwards becoming librarian of the New Jersey Historical Society. Nehe- miah Perry, at one time in the House of Representatives, was Mayor from 1874 until 1876, when he was succeeded by Henry J. Yates. Four years later, William H. F. Fiedler, subsequently in Congress, was elected Mayor, in response to the powerful move- ment for a more liberal government. It was said in 1878 that the descendants of the original settlers (and at that time no less than forty-eight of the founders' families were still represented here or nearby) still exercised a controlling influence over the "general habits, customs, character and government of the community, even though it now includes in its population of 120,000 about 70,000 inhabitants either born in foreign lands or of foreign parentage. The remainder of the population includes thousands of inhabitants who came hither from other States, so that of those whose fore- fathers founded Newark the number here is comparatively small, probably not more than from eight to ten thousand."
That number has been very greatly reduced since 1878, and in 1913, it is to be doubted if more than a few hundred who can trace their lineage back to the founders still remain in Newark.
The grip of the founders' descendants was loosened with the election of Mayor Fiedler, and it is really no reflection upon them to say that the community has gone forward more rapidly since then, whilst it cannot be denied, the problems of good government promoters have increased. A government that reflected the ideas of the majority was essential, however.
Newark's trend toward a cosmopolitan population began to show itself very soon after the Civil War. The Germans and Irish, of whose coming much has been told in other chapters of this work, had been a factor in the community's development for several decades before the war and were no longer looked upon as "out- landers." In the 1860's the Italians began to appear, the first little group arriving as early as 1866 and probably earlier. They did the work of laborers the Germans and Irish had done before them, and a goodly proportion of them are still doing it, although now forced
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to share it with the Russians, Poles, Roumanians and other more or less kindred races; the Hungarians, and latterly the Greeks.
History is forever repeating herself. When the Irish and then the Germans first came to Newark they were looked upon with something akin to distrust by the descendants of the Puritan founders. As has been said in an earlier chapter, neither the native born nor the Irish and German newcomers understood each other. The Italians were received in much the same way by those already on the ground, and much the same process of amalgama- tion was begun all over again. The Italians have had much to learn, and the born-and-bred Newarkers have come gradually to change their view concerning the Italians. The latter often come from sections of Italy where they and their people for generations have been forced to live lives almost diametrically opposed to all that we of these United States consider essential to good citizen- ship. They have had much to unlearn, and the native-born have not always exercised the proper forbearance.
To-day (1913), however, Newark has many Italian citizens of sterling respectability, who in the passing of the years are grow- ing to understand true Americanism, and who in turn are coming to be better understood. The public schools are now a powerful factor in the Americanization of the children of the Italian immi- grants. Another force, whose breadth and potency is as yet but indifferently appreciated is that of the city playgrounds. Newark of to-day is yet to accord proper credit in this direction to William J. McKiernan, truthfully spoken of as the "Father of Newark's City Playgrounds," and who was the first supervisor of them. In the playgrounds and schools many young Italian-Americans are. rapidly grasping the true essentials of good citizenship. Newark now has many Italian residents of means, and many who are destined to take an active and praiseworthy part in the advance- ment of the city in the immediate future.
It is impossible to tell when the first Italian immigrants took up their abode in Newark. Some who came here as early as 1870 and 1871 tell of a family of the name of Catalana that had been
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residents of Newark for some time before. The Newark Directory for the year 1864-1865 contains the name of one Angelo Cattaneo, a hatter, who lived at 282 Mulberry street. When a family of the name of Genelle came to Newark in 1870 it found a number of Italian peanut venders and others, and one or more families whose members spoke English fluently, indicating that they had been residents of this country for several years. The oldest living Italian-born resident of Newark in 1913 was believed to be Angelo Maria Mattia, who came to this city in 1871. It was late in the 1870's before Italian immigration found its way to Newark in any volume, and it was not until nearly a decade later that it assumed anything like its present proportions.
The census of 1910 revealed many things that furnish food for thought for every public-spirited Newarker, who, while he welcomes all from other climes who are honest, industrious and law-abiding, cannot cease from wondering how quickly and how well these newcomers are to be assimilated, and they or their children made good Americans fitted to carry on the manifold works for advancement now in operation. During the decade, 1900-1910, the proportion of white foreign born or of foreign parentage in Newark increased from 68.1 to an even 70 per cent., meaning that of Newark's 347,469 inhabitants in 1910, no less than 243,000 were either foreign born or of foreign parentage.
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