USA > New Jersey > Bergen County > Hackensack > Addresses, membership roll; semi-annual meeting October twenty-fifth 1919 the Bergen County Historical Society > Part 2
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So you see a man's stay at camp was seldom over sey- enty-two (72) hours after coming back from overseas. There were a number of complaints abont details, but upon inves- tigation it was found that it was not caused by a fault of ours, but the men themselves would often leave Camp and not return on time, and when an individual would return
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Bergen County Historical Society
at ten-thirty (10:30) to make a ten (10) o'clock train he would necessarily be held until the next train for that par- tienlar camp was made up, sometimes causing the individual a two or three day delay.
The matter of feeding-at first the cooks belonging to organizations were required to prepare the meals for their own organizations and we furnished them the rations and neces- sary kitchen equipment, but it was found there was an end- less waste. They would leave the kitchens hurridly some- times, then food was allowed to spoil.
The School for Bakers and Cooks was established and the messing arrangements of the entire Camp was run under the supervision of one head. We had one hundred and sixty- four (164) kitchens in the Camp at one time in operation under the School for Bakers and Cooks. The fires were kept going so that men shifted from one part of the Camp to an- other, their meals were never delayed. In connection with the School we established a course of instruction covering a period of two (2) months which permitted us to send over- seas several graduate cooks and bakers in addition to hand- ling the various kitchens in camp. For a period of six (6) months just past there was a net saving to the Government of a little over two hundred thousand (200,000) dollars over what it would have been if organizations fed themselves.
From the medical point of view, we found it necessary when troops were brought in from overseas that they be put through a sanitary plant. All wornout and shrunken clothing was replaced with new. Prior to leaving camp for the camp nearest their respective homes, the men were examined one (1) hour before entraining and if not found in good phy- sieal condition were taken out and held for the next movement.
As to flies and mosquitoes, it was anticipated there would be considerable annoyance from this source, but on the con- trary we kept the ground free of them, and with forty thous- and (40,000) troops in camp, never have I seen any flies to any great extent. We have fifty (50) colored men of th. Sanitary Detachment operating in a radius of three (3) miles of camp, cleaning out ditches, water-holes and other like breeding places for flies and mosquitoes. With a little effort on the part of the Sanitary Department the grounds were kept in a clean condition.
As to our sick rate, Camp Merritt has the lowest sick rate of any camp in the country. Considering the nature of the camp, men passing through it in either direction, the record of having the lowest sick rate in the country is some- thing to remember. Even during the awful Influenza epi-
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Address by Major Mar W. Sullivan
demic, and having to shift the men, our death rate during that time was lower than any other Military Camp in the country, considering the size.
As to care, the Post Exchange is the general store by which we tried to meet the needs of the men during their stay, and to furnish them with tobacco, &c. From July, 1918, until June 30, 1919, there was a million dollars in sales, the net profit was not quite one hundred thousand (100,000) dollars, so that no soldier could consistently complain that he was charged outrageously in prices. We found that the commercial bakeries would not fix us up a pie that the men liked. We undertook to get a pie from the commercial bak- eries, but they charged us too much. We established our own pie bakery, it cost five thousand (5,000) dollars, and we made up our own pie with a thick filling that cost us seventeen and one-half (1712) cents and we sold it to the men for twenty (20) cents.
Men coming back from overseas were anxious to get out of their hobnail shoes. We found we could buy shoes in five thousand (5,000) pair lots. We obtained them for five dollars and seventy cents ($5.70) and sold them to the soldiers for five dollars and eighty cents ($5.80). We tried to help the men out in every way possible. The same shoe is sold on Broadway in New York City for twelve dollars ($12.00).
We also found that we could give better service to the men in passing through by establishing a barber shop. We constructed a twenty-four chair shop, which was fully appre- ciated. We ent the prices to rock bottom. The barber shop only paid for itself less than two (2) months ago.
Out of the five per cent. profit we made in the last year, one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), forty thousand dollars ($40,000) of that was put into buildings and improve- ments, so that there is not much left in actual money.
As to the Welfare Organizations, Major Landon, as Mor- ale Officer, was their official head, handled them very well.
A camp paper was started there known as the Camp Merritt Dispatch. We tried to develop any current stories about camp that would interest the men and tend to create a home feeling amongst them and give them something to think about during their off moments.
The Y. W. C. A. had a welfare house there. They con- ducted a dance for the enlisted men every Thursday night. The K. of C. likewise had similar arrangements on Tuesday night.
Another place of amusement was the Liberty Theatre. which also added to the welfare of the men during the eve-
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Bergen County Historical Society
nings. The capacity was twenty-three hundred (2300) seats. There were performances each night, vaudeville changes three times weekly, and in that way we were able to keep the men entertained during the evening.
A true soldiers' club located centrally, known as Merritt Hall. was another institution that will always be remembered by the men that passed thru Camp Merritt as it was a place, open day and night, where the men could get something to eat in a hurry at very moderate prices. This elub was always crowded. It contained a cafeteria, library and some twenty pool tables.
('amp Merritt was named after one of our most distin- gnished officers. Major General Wesley Merritt, who was a noted Cavalry leader and Corps Commander during the Civil War, before he was twenty-seven years of age. He was Super- intendent at the United States Military Academy, at West Point. from 1882 to 1887. Hle later commanded our Expe- ditionary Forces, which captured Manila from the Spanish Forces in August, 1898.
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Address by W. H. Roberts
ADDRESS BY W. H. ROBERTS of Closter
Director of the Board of Chosen Frecholders
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I should go baek a little to the beginning-take the letter that Mr. Miller received from Major Landon.
When that letter was received by the Historical Society, they found in looking into the matter, that the problem was a big one. It was a very proper thing to ask the Bergen County Ilistorieal Society, to do this, but the more they looked into it, the bigger it got, so as Mr. Miller tells you, they came before the Board of Freeholders, and with the recommenda- tion of the Army officers and the wonderful spirit shown by the officers at the camp, and the influence of the Bergen County Historical Society, the Freeholders really had no alter- native but to say yes. We felt as you do and as the men at Camp Merritt feel, that Camp Merritt is one of the greatest eamps in the United States. I think Major Sullivan is mod- est when he said a few things tonight. I would rather have him exaggerate, than be too modest. He says Camp Merritt is the best camp in the country. I think it is the best in the world. The boys that have gone through have told me it is like going from the Bowery to Fifth Avenue. They were happy ; I never saw a boy (and I have talked to hm- dreds of them) who was dissatisfied.
The Board of Freeholders were anxious to co-operate with the Historical Society and the Army officials, and we appointed a committee. We have three committees. These committees work together harmoniously. The committees have appointed an Executive Committee who will do a great deal of the detail work and report. The idea of the Board of Freeholders was to perpetuate this memorial and that was the reason why we, representing all of you, should aet as the enstodian of this memorial, because we wanted to make it a permanent proposition. The Bergen County Historical So- ciety is prosperous today, but twenty years from now we do not know where it will be, and in the event that it should disband there would be no one to take care of the memorial, and for that reason the Board of Freeholders decided to accept title to property and to handle funds and to dis- burse them under proper committees, to see that the money was spent properly and as directed. That is as far as we have gone.
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Bergen County Historical Society
It was necessary to get some property. The original idea was to take the intersection of Madison Avenue and Knickerbocker Road, and place the memorial in the center. We had other suggestions, but the committee decided we wanted a site that would place the monument so that you would come against it as you came up either road. We have agreed that the proper place is at the intersection of these two streets.
To aid the Historical Society and committee, the Conty Engineer has done some surveying and the committees have mmanimously decided to use a circle of 150 feet radius from the centre of the road, 100 feet radius from the centre to be devoted to memorial and landscape treatment which will be necessary, and the part from 100 feet to the 150 foot mark for a driveway. Every vehicle, every automobile has to drive around the moment.
When we got as far as that, we found it necessary to get a little further advice. Washington, in the meantime, heard about the Bergen County Historical Society movement for a Camp Merritt Memorial. We received a letter from the American Federation of Fine Arts, composed of men who are of the greatest authority on Art and Sculpture and Landscape. You have all heard of the dollar-a-year men who have gone to Washington to give their services. You cannot afford to hire them, and the Government cannot afford to pay them. Every man of the American Federation of Fine Arts who has volunteered his services gets nothing for it, but he is the greatest anthority in the United States. Hle gets his transportation, but his time away from his profes- sion, and business, and home, is given gratis. They have asked us to meet them in New York, with the idea of getting a fitting monument, something that would do credit to the officers and men who have passed through Camp Merritt. and to the people of Bergen County.
This week the Executive Committee, composed of Mr. (. V. R. Bogert. Major Landon and myself, were to meet with Mr. Moore at the Century Club. Mr. Bogert and } attended. We all regret that Major Landon was too ill to attend.
This Fine Arts Commission was formed at the request of the President of the United States, and it has been busily engaged since the armistice, because there are so many monu- ments being erected that are not right. We have been ad- vised to get in touch with organizations that are putting up memorials. We were fortunate in having the co-operation of this committee. We are awaiting advice from them to
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Address by W. H. Roberts
tell us how to go ahead. They said the average monument is put up under such wierd taste the memorial is not in keeping with the surroundings. He said it is difficult because We have got to treat the subject without the surroundings, and they were pleased to find that we have decided on the cirele of 150 feet radius. It makes the task much easier for them. It is an architectural proposition. They feel that the treatment around that monument is as essential as the monu- ment itself. We accept and vale their advice.
To start this proposition. Major Landon did not say anything about that, but these Army people from Camp Mer- ritt did not come to us with suggestions without giving us something. They are starting the movement themselves with $7,500, through the generous influence of General Dunean and other officers. If the Camp Merritt men, who are giving their lives and every minute of their time outside of their business can do this much, the people of Bergen County should do their share. We expect this memorial will cost $100,000. If the men of Camp Merritt can give us $7,500 it ought to be easy for the people of Bergen County to give us the difference. We expect to get some State aid. We con- template starting a drive. We are rather tired of drives, but the people want to contribute. We will have to let you know how and when we are going to do it. We have a man in mind as chairman. The organization can be perfected in a few weeks. We want every member of this Society to talk about it and advertise it. The Board of Freeholders are doing this because the people want us to do it. We will int you know from time to time through your officers how we are doing it. Get all your friends actively interested, an !! help the publicity committee of this Society to awaken publie interest throughout the county.
46T
DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH ORGANIZED 1686
COURT HOUSE AND JAIL ERECTED 1819
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Local History In The Making
LOCAL HISTORY IN THE MAKING
BY REID HOWELL
Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is my purpose to attempt to bring to your notice a few of the facts and events in Bergen County that might be considered as having something to do with "history in the making.
History is a narration of past events; it is a systematic account of facts and events affecting nations and states- that is the dietionary definition of history. It is not all a story of Kings and Queens.
We rarely find ourselves conseious of the faet that we are observing history in the making. In our work-a-day world we seldom think of minor happenings as having their place in the making of history. Our angle of vision ordinarily does not register events we witness as a part of history. The maeadam road we see being supplanted by asphalt, and this in turn by concrete, is seldom thought of as a fact or event in the history of road building.
However, during the great war there was forced upon our consciousness, and in many emphatic ways, the startling fact that we were witnessing history being made.
The facts and events in Bergen County that reveal his- tory in the making have a past in one of two things-either in the onteome of publie sentiment; or in the outeome of legislative enactment, or are a consequence of both.
The history around which tonight my thought is turning begins with a citizens' movement to establish a small Board of Frecholders, or with the public at large in Bergen County setting up a new mode of administrative procedure.
On the first of April in 1912 there was enaeted by the Legislature an Act to reorganize the Boards of Chosen Free- holders, making it possible for counties having the larger boards of frecholders-in this County a board with thirty-two members-to change their system of administration and place it in the hands of seven men. I need not attempt to go into details about what immediately followed the passage of this Act. But in 1914 a very strong citizens' organization, under the leadership of Joseph A. Brohel, was formed in this Connty for the purpose of having a small Board of Freeholders, and through the influence of this organization was brought about
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Bergen County Historical Society
the adoption of this act in this County, in the fall of 1914, and the election of a small Board of seven men in 1915 .*
On January 3, 1916, these seven men met in the Court House and organized. William P. Eager, of Tenafly, was made Director. He was then presented by his friends from Tenafly with a gavel, and in accepting the gift said, among other things: "Hereafter in this County the public dollar shall be the equivalent of the dollar in the private pocket." James M. Harkness was made Clerk, and William A. Linn was made Collector and Clarence Mabie was made Counsel. On that date there was planted in this County a new mile post. There was begun at that time a new chapter in local history.
Immediately following the fall of the new gavel Free- holder Reid Howell offered the following resolution :
"Resolved, that the By-Laws, Rules and Regu-
lations of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Bergen, New Jersey, now existing be and the same are hereby abolished and abrogated."
Thus bringing to an end and abolishing for all time the old large Board of Freeholders. Upon the adoption of the reso- Intion Mr. Howell introdneed another resolution presenting the By-Laws, Rules and Regulations under which the present Board is now operative.
It is impossible at this time to narrate in detail the work that the Board of Freeholders has since accomplished. nor is it possible to review with much detail many of the events that have since happened, but l do want to cite a few of the facts and events in the life of the new Board that present them- selves as "history in the making."
That Act of 1912 under which the Small Board was created provided, among other things, that "whenever the people of a county should adopt the act as its charter, there should be a complete change in the personnel of the county government, and that, upon the organization of the new board every officer who had been appointed by the preceding board should cease to hold his office without regard to its character or the length of its term, so that the new Board of Freeholders might have, in every branch of the county government, men of its own selection, and thus be unhampered by any condi- tions for the existence of which it was not responsible."
William Beswick, of Garfield: Louis S. Coe, of Englewood : W. P. Eager. of Tenafly: J. Blauvelt Hopper, of Ridgewood: Reid Howell. of Rutherford; Joseph Kinzley, Ir. of Hackensack; E. B. Webbon, of Ridgefield Park.
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Local History In The Making
Thus it came about that among other officers removed at that time was Mr. J. Ernest Thier, the Supervisor of Roads.
By a provision, however, in the Art of 1912, an exception was made of soldiers and sailors of the United States from being removed from office, and it transpired that Mr. Thier, without the knowledge of the new Board, was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and on March 7, 1917, Mr. Thier was reinstated.
I cannot express to you the pleasure I have in recalling to you this fact. Some of you probably are aware of it. In Mr. Thier the county has a capable executive, and the splen- did highways in the county, which we enjoy today, are due to his care in their upkeep.
Another feature of legislation which has to do with his- tory in the making, is the Pierson Act. I am not going to undertake to tell you in minute particulars how the Pierson Aet affects our finances, but it does require of the Board of Freeholders that at the first of each year, or beginning now. October, November, December, that they engage in making up a budget for the next year. During the next three months the Board will have next year's program in the making. Ev- ery account during the next year will be influenced by the acts of the Board during the next few months. The heads of the different departments. the County Collector, the Coun- ty Engineer, the Supervisor of Roads, the various Committees. the Surrogate, the County Clerk, the Prosecutor and the Sheriff will all lay before the Board an estimate of the amount of funds that they deem will be required to run their re- spective departments. For the next few months the Board will consider these estimated amounts and if possible to do so will reduce them, and then will proceed on next year's business with the amount of money fixed upon by the budget. This method of financing the year's work in advance has a great deal to do with many features of your County govern- ment that does not appear on the surface. Some men are only too willing at times to accuse a publie body such as The Board of Chosen Freeholders of extravagance. As I see it, with the budget system and its method of adoption, and I think you grasp the situation, the possibility of extravagance is almost eliminated. As a matter of fact, the Board is in "hard sledding" right now because of the manner in which it trimmed its budget to the bone last year.
The Civil Service law which recently was adopted in this County has brought about a new condition, in that it secures to a great many of the County employees a life tenure in office. A member of the State Civil Service Commission only
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Bergen County Historical Society
last Wednesday visited the Board to lay before it a minimum and maximum wage scale, providing for the salaries to be paid to all County employees affected by the Civil Service rules. This State Civil Service Commission is operating in this way in all the Counties of the State, and it has brought to Bergen County a scale of wages, and recommends its adop- tion. This the Board of Freeholders will very likely do. Such a schedule furnishes a very carefully prepared gnide for the Board to follow in future in fixing the salaries of its employees.
It is interesting to note in this connection that the Board of Freeholders withont such assistance from the State Com- mission have been able to conduct the affairs of the Comfy on a wage scale to employees, exclusive of the unclassified list and the heads of departments, which at present totals $214,970 a year. Many of the employees have been in the service of the County for four years, and naturally their salaries already have been increased from time to time, but the Board at no time has been extravagant about it. In some instanees it would be questionable if it had been just. The minimun rates under the new seale furnished by the State Civil Service Commission would fix the County pay roll. exclusive of the unclassified list and the heads of departments, at $206,000. If the maximum figures were being paid the pay roll would be $273,000. At the present time the pay roll for the same group of employees is only $214,000.
Of recent date the State Highway Commission was changed and the responsibility shifted from a single com- missioner to a commission of eight. Also, the Edge Road Bill became a law, imposing a direct tax of $15.000,000 on the people of the State for a State highway system.
When the Edge Road Bill was presented to the Legisla- ture there was no provision in it for a State highway in Ber- gen County. Assemblyman Walter G. Winne discovered the omission and at the very last moment he had Route 10 put in the bill, describing a ronte From Paterson by way of Dun- dee Lake to Hackensack and Fort Lee. Upon the adoption of the hill the immediate conchision was that the road in Bergen County to be taken over as a State highway was Essex Street, and Court Street north of the Court House, and the Fort Lee Turnpike to the Fort Lee Ferry, a route with which you are all familiar. This Fort Lee Turnpike is a road of many steep grades. It was a very costly high- way to build. Probably the amount of money that went into its construction was $500.000. The taking over of this high- way as part of Route 10 would involve the tearing up of
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Local History In The Making
much of it in order to reduce the grades. The State High- way Commission do not put money into roads having grades of more than 5 or 6 per cent. These hills on the Fort Lee Turnpike have a grade of 10 to 14 per cent. In addition to these grades, consideration also would have to be given to the enormous expense that already has been put into the permanent improvement of that highway.
Now, let me here remind you of an event in history that took place under the old Board of Freeholders. During the very last days of the old Board they took over from the Public Service Corporation the highway on the southerly side of the Court House, known as Hudson Street, and the Bergen Pike-something like five miles of road that had been in possession of the Public Service people for many years. A highway from which they yet were collecting tolls. With the assistance of the old Board of Freeholders the Publie Service put this highway over on the people of the County in an nnimproved and worn out condition and with its bridges very much depreciated in value. The present Board of Free- holders faced a great problem there. They could hardly tell how they were to finance it.
When this new proposition from the State came along, with its plan for Route 10 as a State highway in the County, the Board immediately considered the advisability of divert- ing the route from Court Street and the Fort Lee Turnpike to Hudson Street and the Bergen Turnpike and so put upon the State forever the burden of rebuilding and the upkeep of the Bergen Turnpike. The Board had its Engineering De- partment, under County Engineer Roscoe Parke MeClave, prepare maps with detailed drawings of the new route, also including a new route over the cliff at Edgewater and down to Fort Lee, with the result that when the program was laid before the State Highway Commission with General Goethals present it was accepted, thus relieving the people of the County of the burden of the upkeep of Bergen Turnpike and the rebuilding of the bridges over the Hackensack and the Overpeck Creek.
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