USA > New Jersey > Morris County > A history of Morris County, New Jersey : embracing upwards of two centuries, 1710-1913, Volume I > Part 48
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Some letters have come to me in response to a notice put in our local papers, asking for information about Dover schools. Among them was the following :
I was born in Dover in 1844. My maiden name was Susan K. Dickerson. I first attended a private school taught by Miss Serena Sturtevant-I think I was then about six years old. The school was held in an old farm house in the center of a field where the Central R. R. Station now is. After that I went to a Miss Serena Ross in a house that stands close to the Orchard street Cemetery gate, main entrance. I do not know how long I went to either of these schools. Went after- wards to the public school. Can not give date or name of teacher, but think I could tell if I could see list of teachers' names. Think my name must be on 1856 roll-book. So far as I know there is no one living who attended either of those little schools with me.
(Mrs.) JAMES BIGALOW, Baileyville, Kansas.
This short letter gives information contained in no other. We have to go to Kansas to gather the history of Dover. Her name is on the list.
Elizabeth Dickerson, now Mrs. Judson Coe, gave me many of my first clues to the names of the early teachers in Dover. Using a confused list of these as bait I began fishing for more information, trying to construct as complete a list as possible of all schools, schoolhouses, and teachers in Dover's early days, for they then constituted the educational system of the town.
I will not now attempt to give an account of every name on this list of 1856. I have called on Dr. Henry Wiggins at his home in Succasunna, and upon David Young, at the Surrogate's office in Morristown. I shall quote him later. I have heard about different ones.
Miss Harriet A. Breese has written to me quite fully about her recollections of the town, and I shall now let her speak for herself, feeling assured that her letters will be read with much interest by her many friends, who regard her as an authority on Dover history.
From Miss Harriet Breese :
Redlands, Calif., March 24, 1913.
My dear Mr. Platt: Your letter and contents were very interesting to me. I was carried back to the days of long ago, when Dover was a very pretty little village, nestling among the hills.
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The old Stone Academy was built in 1829. The upper floor was used by the Presbyterians as a place of worship, the lower floor being used for a school. The earliest date I can find for a school there is in 1858, January first, a Rev. Mr. Dudley and a Miss Avery having charge of it. The building was owned by Mr. Henry McFarlan, and the school, if I am not mistaken was under the auspices of the Episcopal church. Mrs. Chambre, who is living on Dickerson St., two doors from Martin's bakery, is the only one living in Dover at present that I think could tell you about the school at that time. She is a sister of Mr. David Young. I was the last one who taught in the old Academy. In 1875 and '76 I had a private school in the room up stairs. After that time it was turned into a dwelling house.
Mr. Harvey did not teach in the old Academy, but he did teach in the public school building across the railroad and fronting on Dickerson St. I was quite young at that time and was only in the school one term, so that my recollections are not very distinct, although I do remember most of the scholars whose names are on the roll.
About 1860 there was a school building erected on Prospect st., where Mr. Reese Jenkins' house now stands. It was called "Hill Top Seminary" and was a boarding school for boys as well as a day school for both boys and girls. The school was taught by a Mr. Hall, who had as an assistant a young man, a college graduate. Some years after it was used as a private school for day scholars only, and finally disbanded as a school house and moved to the rear on Spring St., where it is now used as a dwelling house. The little school house on Randolph Ave. was built by Mr. Edward Hurd, and the Rev. W. W. Halloway, Dr. Halloway's father, was the teacher. It was not used as a school very long. The picture that Mrs. Berry showed you of the old public school was taken about the year 1861. A Mr. Wilson and Miss Belknap were the teachers at that time.
In regard to the poem, "The Cumberland River," I do not remember ever to have heard it. Mrs. E. D. Neighbour attended the school on Randolph Ave. She might remember about it.
I want to say a few more words about Dover as it used to be. It was such a very pretty little village. Its rows of maple trees each side of Blackwell St. and its beautiful gardens made it a most attractive place. The Rockaway river at that time was a very pretty little stream of water. There were no houses on the northeast side of Blackwell St. from the corner of Morris to the "point of the mountain," as we used to call the lower part of Blackwell St. It was all meadow land and on the other side of the street there was only one house and an old building, from Essex St. down the street. On Morris St., above the school house, there were beautiful woods, where our Sunday School picnics and the Fourth of July celebrations were held.
I wish I could give you more information about the old Academy. You know, perhaps, that Dr. Magie used to write about Dover and you might get something that would be of real help from Miss Magie. She is living at 2430 Aqueduct Ave., New York. My mother said the first school house in Dover stood on the corner of Morris and Dickerson Sts., where the old blacksmith shop is, on the Pruden property.
Thank you very much for your kind words of appreciation of my sister's poems. Her poetry was a true index of her character. We lived, at the time to which she refers in her poem, "Across the Street," on the corner of Blackwell and Morris. Where the Lehman store now stands was our garden, our house standing back from the street. When my father built there, Blackwell St. did not extend farther down the street than to Morris.
Mr. Titus Berry, to whose daughter Phebe the poem was written, lived on the corner where now stands the S. H. Berry & Co. store, and the "streamlet" was the Rockaway river which, as I have already written, flowed through the meadow just at the foot of Morris St. My sister and Phebe were very dear friends from childhood. She-Phebe-died some few years before my sister. "Still I only cross the street" refers to the house we afterwards built on Orchard St., where Mr. Fred Allen now lives. My mother and my sister and I lived there for some years after we sold the old home. Her friend Phebe lies in the Orchard St. Cemetery.
In some respects I like California very much. The climate here in winter is much to be preferred to that in the East, but I do not think there will ever be any place quite like New Jersey to me.
Sincerely yours, HARRIET A. BREESE.
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From "Many Days and Other Poems," by (Miss) Carrie A. Breese; edited by Rev. W. W. Halloway, D. D., her pastor, Dover, New Jersey. (The Iron Era, 1886.)
To Mr. and Mrs. Titus Berry, on the fiftieth anniversary of their mar- riage.
Why come to me? Why should I praise,
As silver or as golden, days That I may never hope to reach By more than mocking forms of speech?
Such is the irony of fate,
The ignorant must still relate Of what he nothing knows, and tell
In rhythmic numbers, ill or well,
By guessing words he cannot spell.
Dear friends, forgive the selfish words,
By selfish impulse in me stirred;
To whom can better right belong
To prove the ministry of song As fitting, simple though my lay,
To grace this golden wedding day? Who is there else has longer known
The beauty of your life and home?
From childhood's rare and earliest day,
When often in its eager play,
From cellar to the garret roof,
The racing feet gave noisy proof
Of unrebuked hilarity
And honest, childish jollity,
Still watched by all the tenderness
Your wisest love could e'er express;
From those glad days to later years,
All full of changing hopes and fears,
To this loved place I've ever come As if it were a second home,
And sweetest lessons here have learned Of life-long worth, and all unearned. 1
The over-fullness of "some lives Drop crumbs" on which another thrives; So yours for me, nor "crumbs" alone, The measure must be all unknown Of kindliness, but this I know, Beyond compute the debt I owe Of gratitude, and were it given, Unbalanced still this side of heaven, Well may I offer then a song
The wedding feast to still prolong.
THE SONG.
Bring golden gifts in fair array,
With bridal wreaths and orange spray, And crown the Old love New to-day.
Fair hopes have gathered, drooped and died; And joys went ebbing on life's tide; Outlasting all does Love abide.
No westering clouds can tinge its light With shadows than itself less bright, Or hide it in enfolding night.
In God's great love enwrapped secure,
-
Titus Berry Home and Store.
An Old Landmark, Blackwell and Sussex Streets, Dover, 1870.
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It shall forevermore endure, Forever faithful, strong, and pure.
Bring gracious gifts in fair array, For bride and bridegroom as you may, And crown the Old love New to-day.
ACROSS THE STREET.
Years ago my childish feet, Daily crossed the village street, Childhood's loving friend to greet.
Maple boughs were overhead,
Grassy paths beneath the tread,
Love and sunshine over-spread.
Rippling ran the streamlet by, 'Neath the joyous summer sky, Or the winter's colder eye.
Wooded hills looked down and smiled On each happy, careless child, Free, in spirit unbeguiled.
Life was narrow then, and play Filled its utmost, day by day; Play, and love across the way.
With the years' swift ebb and flow She has flitted to and fro- Now she's lying low, so low !
Still I only cross the street, Under maple boughs that meet, There to find my love so sweet.
True, she cannot smile to see; True, she cannot speak to me, As in days which used to be.
Yet I joy to cross the street, Olden memories to repeat, Memories of my love so sweet
THE BURIAL.
We covered her with roses; All lovely things she loved, And fragrant as with flowers Was life, where'er she moved.
We covered her with roses; Love could do nothing more, And soft they fell as music On some far distant shore.
She rests beneath the roses; Life's long, long suffering past ; In sleep which is not sleeping, She sweetly rests at last.
And we who scattered roses Must carry now the cross, And bear a new-born burden Of sorrow, pain, and loss.
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The foregoing verses are from a copy of the poems kindly loaned by Mrs. Stephen H. Berry. Mrs. Berry also has a photograph of the old school house which stood where Birch's store is at the foot of Morris street, a frame building. The teachers and scholars are shown in front of the building, and the picture is dated 1860. She also has an old picture of the town of Dover of date 1852, giving a bird's-eye view.
These letters from persons who have lived in Dover and who have been intimately associated with the life of the town for many years, are, in my opinion, valuable historical documents. One way of treating them would be to gather the substance of fact which they contain and rewrite it in an abridged or altered form. But I feel that much would be lost in so doing. The letters are excellent specimens of historical writing. They are the first-hand impressions and testimony of those who know. No better source of information can be found. In point of style they are straightforward, simple, unaffected, free from any attempt at fine writing. They are also an index of the kind of persons who were the product of the Dover schools and who constituted Dover society in their time. They reflect the best influences of Dover homes, Dover schools, Dover churches, Dover life. In this way they are a contribution to the history of this community over and above the mere statements of fact which they contain. And they are the best contribution of the kind that is obtainable. However imperfect my personal contribution to the writing of this book may be, I feel that I have rendered a real service to the town in securing these reminiscences and letters, the first-hand testimony of the most credible witnesses, the expression not merely of fact, but of the love with which they cherish the memory of their old home.
If the teacher of a class in school does all the reciting, a visitor cannot form a very intelligent opinion of the work and quality of the class. I claim the privilege of making some remarks on occasion, but the reader shall hear the class speak for themselves, and my class will be larger than the list of 1856.
From Martin Luther Cox :
13th Ave. School, Newark, N. J., April 12th, 1913.
My dear Mr. Platt: Your recent letter came duly to hand and in reply I am sorry to state that I do not know very much about Hugh Nelson Cox, who was principal of the old school in the Birch building in the '50s.
My mother, who was Caroline Cooper, daughter of Samuel Cooper, son of Moses Cooper, son of Daniel Cooper, Jr., sheriff of Morris Co., son of Daniel Cooper, who lived to be one hundred years old, spoke of him (Hugh Nelson Cox) to her children frequently. As nearly as I can remember, he was in Dover in the years 1855-56. He gave great emphasis to public speaking and to elementary science. My mother took part in several public exhibitions of a dramatic character and Mr. Cox gave great attention to elocution. I still have a copy of "A Guide to Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, Rev. Dr. Brewer," which was the text book used. My copy was printed in 1855 and must have been a new book when introduced. Its introduction made quite a stir in the little village. I know nothing of the antecedents of Hugh Nelson Cox, as I have never come across his name in any family record that I have seen. I am the son of John Backster Cox, of Sussex Co., the son of Martin Cox, son of Arthur Cox, of Sussex Co. I have been unable to find a record of the father of Arthur Cox in the Archives of N. J. Rev. Henry Cox of Harrington, has written a "History of the Cox Family in America."
Very truly yours,
From Mrs. Ella W. Livermore:
MARTIN L. Cox, Principal.
Richmond Hill, L. I., Fulton and Briggs Ave., April 18, 1913. Mr. Charles D. Platt :
Dear Sir: I have been informed you are collecting the names of the teachers who from time to time have taught in Dover. Thinking I may be able to add some
Dover Public School, about 1861.
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names to your list I have enclosed them to you and hope I have not intruded by this voluntary contribution.
Ist. Miss Pike, who taught in the basement of the old church. I think it was about the year 1844-45. I was too young to attend school, but went as visitor with my sister.
2d. A Mr. and Mrs. Pease. Mrs. Pease taught the younger children in the old stone Academy; Mr. Pease, in the school house opposite. I think this was about 1845 and 1846.
3d. Mr. David Stevenson taught in the basement of the old Presbyterian Church in 1848 or 1849. He was a bright young Irishman. Our pastor, the Rev. B. C. Magie, was very fond of him, and they were devoted friends as long as they lived. Mr. Stevenson attended Princeton. I think he graduated from that college, became a Presbyterian minister and had charge of a large church and congregation at Indianapolis for several years. He afterwards came East, settled at Perth Amboy, N. J., as pastor of the Presbyterian Church, where he died, I think, 1901, and is buried at Perth Amboy.
4th. Martin Lee and wife came from Berkshire Co., Mass. Both taught in Dover, I should say about 1853. Near this same time was also Miss Jeannette Chapman, who also taught. She was a daughter of Dr. Chapman of Egremont, Mass., and she married Edward Bile.
5th. In the early '50s, I am quite sure that Mr. Sidney Ives and Mr. Charles E. Noble both taught for a while, but I wish some one to verify this statement before you accept it.
6th. Mr. Darius F. Calkins taught for several years. His widow resides on Prospect St., Dover, with her sister, Mrs. Sarah L. Stickles, and could probably give you the years he taught in Dover. I would say '58 and '59.
7th. Also, as near as I can put the date, 1850 or near, a private school was started on Prospect St. by Mrs. Whittlesey, a widow and a returned missionary from Ceylon, her husband having died there, she returned to her parents in Dover with her two boys and built the pretty brown cottage on Prospect St. and opened her school, which she taught for several years.
8th. In this same school house afterwards taught a Miss Winner, a sister of the Rev. J. O. Winner, who was pastor of the Methodist Church at that time.
9th. Miss Anna Traver (Trauer?) also taught afterwards, as did (10th) Miss Phebe Berry; and (11th) Miss Carrie Breese.
12th. After this the Rev. B. C. Magie had a school opened in his own home, which was taught by Miss Lucy Mason from Vermont. She married and went as missionary to India. Mrs. Whittlesey, Miss Winner, Miss Traver, Miss Berry, Miss Breese, and Miss Mason were all teachers in private schools.
13th. Miss A. L. Forgus, for several years in the school connected with the Episcopal Church, I would say, from 1867 or '68 to 1872.
I have written to my brother who resides in California and is 80 years old, to write me at once and give me all the teachers' names he can remember. He can probably give you some who taught in the early '40s, which you may not have, and I will send them to you as soon as I hear from him. He is prompt to reply to my letters.
I am afraid there were naughty ones among the Dover boys of long ago. I have had one relate to me that he used to make a slipping noose and leave it on the lawn, fill it with corn, fasten the string to the window where he could reach it from his seat in school. The lawn around the school house in days long past was usually filled with Ducks and Geese, which would walk in the slipping noose prepared for them, when the boy would give the string a pull and the Ducks and Geese caught would Squack and Quack to the amusement of the scholars, and disturbance of their good teacher.
One teacher was engrossed in his own studies and was oblivious to all around him. The boys would see how many times during school hours they could jump out the window and walk in the door and not be observed by their teacher. The dear bad boys all lived to be good and useful men. Nearly all have passed on to the world beyond, only a few left to tell of the happy school days in their beloved town of Dover.
I have written this hastily. If it is any help to you I shall be pleased. Anything connected with Dover is dear to me. It is my native town.
I am,
Respectfully, (Mrs.) ELLA W. LIVERMORE.
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While corresponding with persons at a distance, I kept interviewing people near by. My opportunities for travel and change of scene are so limited that I began to search for every item of interest that would make my daily path more interesting. It was surprising to find how much of human interest lay close beside the familiar beaten path that I was com- pelled to travel day by day between my home and my school. Even the architecture of the old houses became an object of note. A chance remark of my friend, Dan W. Moore, called attention to the peculiar finishing-off of the edge of the roof in the Killgore & White building and the Turner store. The edges at the end of the roof are finished off flat, without projecting cornice. Sometimes this effect is removed when a new front is built on, as in the store of E. L. Dickerson, but an examination of the rear discovers the flat finish. So it is in Brown's office on Sussex street. Several buildings of this type are soon noted: The Burchell house, corner of Dickerson and Sussex, the Birch building (once a school), the Pruden home on Dickerson street, an old house near Jerry Langdon's at Mt. Pleasant. In the latter the front slope of the roof is built with a concave curve. These houses were generally placed so that the roof sloped to the street. This observation was contributed by Mr. George Jenkins. Some old houses that were originally of this pattern, like the Spargo house on Morris street, have had cornices built on later. Major Andrew Byram vouches for the change in this house, which was the Byram home when he was a boy. Mr. Dan Moore has observed this style of building in old houses in New England, and the elder Mr. Harris, the jeweler, has observed them in England. And so I manage to travel abroad by studying what I observe at home. It has taken me ten years to see these things.
Not only houses, but the people all along my path and for miles around begin to blossom out with new interest. They have so many interesting memories about the town and the folks who have lived in it. It is like breaking into a ten-acre lot full of huckleberries, just ripe. Every time I turn a corner I can gather a bushel of history, right off the bushes, not put up in baskets or cans to be sold at a store.
Down the street a ways lives Mrs. Emily Byram, née Baker, born in 1824, a granddaughter of Jeremiah Baker who came from Westfield. In 1832 she went to school to Miss Harriet Ives in the Stone Academy. She remembers a little red school house that stood where the Birch Building is, but she does not know what became of it, when it was removed to make way for the new building, the white wooden building which became the public school. The Byrams have their family records back to 1640. Henry Eagle had a carriage shop in the Zenas Pruden shop after Zenas Pruden died.
Major Andrew Baker Byram, son of Mrs. Emily Byram, is a walking encyclopedia of Dover history. He has told me more things than I can here put to his credit. Their garret is full of relics, many of which have been put at my disposal. He went to school to James Cooper in 1866 and later, also to Mr. Nevius, Mr. Conant, in the Magie school (Hill Top Institute ) and to Mr. Howard Shriver who taught in the North-side school. For five or six years he went to school to Miss Forgus. The old original weathervane is still on the Birch Building. The bell used to be rung on Fouth of July nights. Mr. Allen taught some time after 1866.
J. Seward Lamson taught later in Hibernia. Then he became a mail clerk on the Morris & Essex, until he died suddenly. He went west for a while, and out there they called him "Jersey." When he came back the
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name stuck to him. He was one of the Lamsons on the hill, where the chicken farm now is.
Prof. H. J. Rudd, of Newton, used to come every three or four years and drill the children in singing school, and give a concert as a wind-up in Apollo Hall on East Blackwell street, opposite the Dover Lumber Company. They had a crowded house. Prof. Rudd was a music teacher. He taught vocal and instrumental music. Charles Rosevear, brother of E. W. Rosevear, went to this singing school. The singing school was held after school hours, in the Birch Building. They would start with the whole school and then select voices for the chorus and drill for the concert. They used to sing what you might call "light opera," reciting verses and then singing.
When I hear all these items of Dover's ancient history, I feel that Dover is a historic town, just like Athens or Rome,-or Boston, even. I am obliged to give much of this information as I gathered it, in a desultory way, not grouping all knowledge on one topic by itself. Many articles or essays could be written upon the subjects thus touched upon here and there through these pages. Time fails me to tell the story of the old hearse and its strange adventures by moonlight-the town watchman locked up-the old undertaker out with his shotgun-gunning for the boys who were gal- loping over the country side, jumping stone walls with the hearse rigged up like a fire engine-one of their own number riding inside, laid out like a corpse-but I guess I'd better not tell.
One night the boys worked all night changing the signs on the Dover stores. There is a poem about it in The Enterprise.
A pretty story might be made about A Christmas Present of the Olden Time. In 1866, on Christmas day, father Byram hitched up the family sleigh. They were living then near the Byram mine on Mine Hill. He invited the family to get into the sleigh and take a ride. They had a pleasant sleigh ride to Dover and he drove up Morris street, stopping at the Hoag- land house (now known as the Spargo house). He asked his wife and children to get out of the sleigh and walk into the house. They found the house newly furnished, stoves in and fires lighted-everything comfortable and pleasant. Then father Byram explained that this was his Christmas. present to his wife and that they were not going back to Mine Hill any more. The whole Byram tract that went with this house was bought for $6,000, including land on the east side of Morris street. The original check is still preserved as an heirloom. How many stories might be written about the old homes of Dover and vicinity.
And now let us have some more letters.
Letter of E. W. Losey :
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