USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Essex county, N.J., illustrated > Part 22
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The Mayor is allowed a private secre- tary and one additional clerk, and in addition, a po- lice officer is detailed to
ALDERMAN THOMAS CORT.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
ST. MARY'S ORPHAN ASYLUM AND CHAPEL, VAILSBURG, N. J.
stand'guard at the executive door during office hours, and to act as Mayor's messenger. Not an imposing staff, truly, but with it the Mayor of this great city must needs be content. During the absence of the Mayor from the city. the executive duties devolve upon the President of the Common Council.
In times past, the Common Council was a proud and import- ant body. Almost all the patronage of the city was exercised by it, and the key of the city treasury was in its hands. Nearly all the city officials were elected or appointed by it. Policemen, firemen and lesser heroes were named and practically appointed by the aldermen of the varions wards, and consequently, an alder- man in his ward was a great and mighty man. In those days to be an alderman was to be a king. But times have changed, and aldermen have changed with them. The Common Council has been shorn of almost all its patronage and power, and an alder- man is no longer the great and mighty ruler that he was. Inde- pendent commissions control the Police, Fire, Ilealth and other departments, and the entire field of Public Works has been transferred to a new and independent board. The Common
form a non-partisan body, two of their number being chosen from each of the great political parties. The present Police Commissioners are : Lyman E. Kane, President; James R. Smith, Edward H. Uffert and Moses Bigelow. The Secretary of the Board is Joseph M. Cox. This Board has the control and management of the Police De- partment, but can only remove a police official for cause, after hearing. The permanency of the force, thus assured, permits the attainment of perfect disci- plme and efficiency, and the police department of the city of Newark, as it exists to-day, is in these respects equalled by very few, if excelled by any. The police force numbered in 1896, 322 officers and men,
Council has now, but little to do besides making the annual appropriations demanded by the various commissions.
The Common Council, as the Board of Alderman is styled, is composed at present of thirty members, two aldermen being elected from each of the fifteen wards into which the city is at present divided. The Aldermen composing the present board are : First Ward. Edmund S. Joy. David D. Bragraw ; Second, Louis M. Finger, Theodore B. Guerin; Third, John Buhl, Charles Jacobi; Fourth. Abraham Manners, William S. Righter ; Fifth, James A. Mc Carthy, Charles Weigend ; Sixth, William O. Kuebler, Edward M. Waldron ; Seventh, Frank B. Knott, William J. Joice ; Eighth, Winton C. Garrison, Sidney N. Ogden ; Ninth, George Virtue, Syhamis Shepperd ; Tenth, William J. Morrow, Minard A. Knapp; Eleventh, Edward W. Benjamin, Abram C. Denman ; Twelfth, William Harrigan, Herman Stahnten; Thirteenth, Jacob Schreihofer, Ferdinand Hosp; Fourteenth, Valentine Frahold, John Bea; Fifteenth, William Mungle, Joseph S. Sutphen.
The Police Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and
BUILDING INSPECTOR F. A. DEY.
EX-MARKET CLERK GEO. HERMONN.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
officered by a chief, four captains, and the necessary subordinate officers. For police purposes the city is divided into four precincts, the first being under the command of Capt. William P. Daly ; the second under the command of Capt. Michael Corbitt ; the third under the command of Capt. Andrew J. McManus ; and the fourth under the command of Capt. John H. Ubhaus.
The Board of Fire Commissioners is also ap- pointed hy the Mayor, and is likewise a non-parti- san body. The present Fire Commissioners are : Henry R. Baker, President ; Henry C. Rommell, Hugo Menzel. The Chief of the Fire Department is Robert Kiersted. The department possesses steam fire engines, hook and ladder companies and chemical engine. It has an elaborate and com- plete fire-alarm telegraph system, and fire-alarm signal boxes, so that a fire in any part of the city may be reached by the fire engines at once. In addition to the engines maintained by the fire depart- ment of the city, the Board of Fire Underwriters maintain a Salvage Corps, whose 'duties are suffi- ciently indicated by its name. The city is thus amply and efficiently protected from fire.
The Board of Assessment and Revision of Taxes is also appointed by the Mayor. Its duties are to make all assessments of all property within the city for taxable purposes, to keep proper records thereof, to revise the same whenever necessary, and to hear and determine all appeals from citizens in matters of taxation. The present members of this board are: Philip Lowy, John Otto, Marcus S. Richards, Frederick W. Paul, R. Heber Breintnall. The Secretary of the Board is Noah Guter.
The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund are Robert F. Ballantine, Frederick Frelinghuysen, Andrew J. Kirkpatrick, and the Mayor and Comptroller, ex-officio. The Sinking Fund is intended to meet the various issues of city bonds as they respectively fall due, and these Commissioners have charge of the investment of the funds intrusted to their charge, until such times as they are needed for the purpose of meeting and retiring bonds.
The Board of Excise Commissioners have charge of the grant- ing of licenses for the sale of spirituous and malt liquors and
wines within the city limits. They are at present : Franklin Marx, President ; Eugene Carroll, Carl Schwartz and James Johnston.
The Health Department is possessed, under recent legislation. of very ample powers for the care and protection of the public health of the city. The present members of the Board of Ilealth are: Dr. II. C. H. Herold, M. Straus, A. II. Johnson, J. A. Furman, W. B. Guild, C. E. Mackey, Dr. C. M. Zeh, Dr. D. L. Wallace. Dr. F. W. Becker. Dr. W. S. Disbrow. The Health Officer is David D. Chandler. The City Hospital and the City Dispensary are under the management of the Board of Health. They control and direct the hospital maintained by the city for its suffering poor, and also maintain at the hospital a training school for nurses.
The Trustees of the City Home are: the Mayor, ex-officio, J. Ward Woodruff, John Breunig, Henry Merz, John B. Rich- mond James A. McCarthy, Frank B. Knott. The City Home is a reformatory institution for wayward and truant children. and its discipline is in- tended to lead them back and accustom them to walk in ways of useful- ness and sobriety.
The Free Public Li- brary, of the city is man- aged by a board of trus- tees which is at present composed of Edward H. Duryee, James I ... Howell, Richard C. Jenkinson, William Johnson, James Taaffe, besides the Mayor and the Superintendent of Public Schools, er-officio.
The Free Library is splendidly housed and elegantly equipped. It contains a library of al- most 30,000 books, besides a finely furnished reading- room.
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WILLIAM W. MORRIS, DOCUMENT CLERK.
PETER ULRICK, COMMISSIONER BOARD OF WORKS.
ST. BARNABAS HOSPITAL, HIGH AND MONTGOMERY STREETS.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
WILLIAM HALSEY 1836 ONE YEAR
THEO FRELINGHUYSEN 1837 TWO YEAR
JAMES MILLER 1839 1848 YEJ.K A.
OLIVER S HALSTEAD 1840 . NF TEAR
WILLIAM WRIGHT 184 "REE YEARS
STEPHEN DODD 1844 ONE YEAR
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ISAAC BALDWIN . 1845 . CAL YEAR
BEACH VANDERPOOL : 1846
JAMES M QUINBY . 1851 . 'HRFL TLARS
HORACE J. POINIER · 1854 . THREE YEARS
MOSES BIGLOW 1857 SEVEN YEARS
PAST MAYORS NEWARK
THEO RUNYON . 1864 .
THOS 8 PEODIE . 1866 FOUR YEARS
FRED*W RICORD * 1870 FOUR YEARS
NEHEMIAH PERRY · 1874 . TWO YEARS
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HENRY J.YATES 1876
WMH F FIEDLER 1880 TWO YEARS
HENRY LANG 1882 TWO YEARS
JOSEPH E. HAYNES 1884 ... TEN YEARS.
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ESSEX COUNTY. N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
MAYORS OF NEWARK.
"S PEAK of men as you find them " is a good old adage. and gives opportunity when writing of such as have been brought before the public, as having been the occupant of some public position, and so it is with those who have been called to the mayoralty of the industrial city of Newark, now, at this writing ( 1897) number just a full score and one more. In carrying out the old adage in speaking of these men. whose photos appear on the opposite page of this work, as we have found them, we will be pardoned for giving expression to the regret which haunts our mind and has an almost paralysing in- fluence over the pen, for that the lack of space to give ever so brief a mention of each one of the men whose executive ability as exercised through the mayorship of the capital city, of Essex County, has had so much to do toward its weal or woe.
As we glance over the page from which these men speak to us, as if they were all living and in our presence, our regrets grow apace that full justice cannot be done nor free rein given
The third on the list was General Miller, a man honored and respected by all. The fourth in the mayoralty succession was Oliver H. Halstead, a scholarly gentleman who was afterward honored with an appointment as Chancellor of the State of New Jersey. It was in the stirring political times of 1840. He served one term.
The fifth was William Wright, who became Mayor of New- ark in 1841. Ile served three years. He was afterward made Governor, and then honored with an elevation to the Senate of the United States. The sixth Mayor of Newark was Stephen Dodd who was elected in 1844. and served one year. His birth place was Mendham, Morris County, March 7. 1770. Mayor Dodd lived to the ripe old age of 85, and passed away March 25, 1855. Next came Col. Isaac Baldwin as the seventh mayor. He was elected in 1845, and served a single term. He died in 1853. Beach Vanderpool came next, the eighth in the line of Newark's mayors. He was born in Newark, in 1808. and was made Mayor of his native city in 1846, and died in
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OFFICERS OF THE THIRD PRECINCT.
to our desires, to let the pen run so that this beautiful souvenir may in all things be just as we would like it. It is now nearly three quarters of a century since Newark became an incorpor- ated city and elected her first mayor in the person of Hon. William Halsey, who so far as we have been able to gather data relating to him, made an acceptable mayor. Mr. Halsey belonged to the Short Hills and Springfield branch of the family, all of whom had made honorable records and some stood by Pastor Caldwell's side when he gave the British " Watts."
The Second mayor was Theodore Frelinghuysen, a name honored and revered everywhere, and in " speaking of him as we find him," we have only to say everybody loved and re- spected him. This great and good man will be best remem- bered as the Whig candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Henry Clay. "Gallant Harry of the west."
1884. sincerely mourned by all who knew him. Such was the character of his genius on all those surrounding him, and what- ever he came in contract with felt his influence.
The name of Quinby is synonymous with the carriage man- ufacturing industry in the city of Newark. This arises from the fact that Isaac M. Quinby, who was the ninth in the Mayoralty succession, was a representative of this industry, which. for many years, took the lead in Newark's manufacturing interests. Mr. Quinby was a native of Orange, served three terms as Mayor of the city of Newark, and crossed the dark river in 1874, mourned by all who knew him.
Among the Mayors of Newark, it will take but the glance of the reader to select the tenth in number from among the men whose phothos grace the page, as one who went out and in among the people, Horace J. Poinier, beloved and honored by all. In 1857 Mr. Poinier was elected Mayor and served three terms.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
Few men had a stronger hold upon the affec- tions of the people than the eleventh in the line of Mayors who served the people of Newark. the Hon. Moses Bigelow. This estimable gentleman, of whom it is not saying too much that Newark never had a more popular Mayor, nor one who was more highly esteemed for his many noble qualities of heart and hand. Moses Bigelow was a pioneer in the varnish manufacturing industry, and amassed a Luge fortune through his correct habits and his close application to business. For seven years he watched the city's interests from the chair of the mayoralty, and when he died, in 1877. very few were ever more sincerely mourned. The old busi- ness which he established is now conducted by his son, Moses Bigelow, and his son-in law. Ex- Judge Samuel F. Bigelow, the well-known and suc- cessful attorney and counsellor at law, is also a son of the Mayor.
The next or twelfth in the line of succession to the mayoralty was the late lamented Ambassador to Germany, Major General Theodore Runyon. The General, as he was always familiarly called. was elected Mayor m 1874 and served for two years. He then accepted the high office of the Chancellorship, which he held for fourteen years. During the civil war he commanded the First New Jersey Brigade, and at he battle of the first Bull Run commanded a division. On re- tiring from the office of Chancellor he was appointed by Pres- ident Cleveland as Minister to Germany, the mission which was raised in his honor to Ambassador. Soon after this new honor had been bestowed, the General while at church in Berlin was stricken with apoplexy, and died soon after reaching his home.
The trunk and bag industry of the city of Newark had in Thomas B. Peddie, the thirteenth Mayor, one of the earliest and firmest supporters and promoters. The First Baptist Church, now the Peddie Memorial, was thus named in honor of Mayor Peddie, who, when he died in 1885, left the church a handsome
1. MAN E KANE, POLICE COMMISSIONER.
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SECOND POLICE PRECINCT BUILDING. COR. SUMMER AND SEVENTH AVENUES.
bequest. Ile also during his life dealt so liberally with the Baptist school at Hightstown that it was called in his honor the Peddie Institute.
The man who is yet going out and in among us, laden with years and honors and yet bearing fruit, was elected Mayor in 1869, and as God raised up Washington and Lincoln each for his special purpose, so, too, was Frederick W. Ricord raised up for the mayoralty, at a time when then the rashness and want of foresight in others required his scrutinizing gaze, his master hand at the helm, to save from utter financial ruin by wielding the pen to veto the great Broad street wood-paving ordinance. So, too, indeed, had Mayor Ricord been raised up. that New- ark did herself a lasting honor when she took up the man and made him Mayor who had the courage and manliness to do the right thing at the right time. The innate goodness of heart of Frederick W. Ricord was con- stantly cropping out when in the prime of life, while the argus eye of the people concentrates its gaze to reach it; and thus it was they called him from his pen to the School Commissionership, to the Mayoralty, to the Lay Judgeship, to the Shriev- alty, to the Librarianship of the Historical Society, where he yet remains, while new honors wait upon his pen.
In 1873 Nehemiah Per . ry, a leading clothing merchant.carried his ban- ner of success to the Mayoralty chair of the city of Newark and was numbered the fifteenth of the line. Mr. Perry, who afterwards represented his district in the lower house of Congress, and as he was himself inter- ested in the manufactur- ing interests of Newark,
JAMES R. SMITH, POLICE COMMISSIONER.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
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OFFICERS FIRST PRECINCT-HEADQUARTERS.
he proved of great service. Mr. Perry served but one term as Mayor.
The sixteenth Mayor of Newark was Henry J. Yates, a mem- ber of the hatting firm of Yates & Wharton, and a gentleman who was deeply interested in the welfare of the manufacturing interests and of the people engaged in hatting and, indeed, in all the lines of her manufacturing industries. He served two full terms as Mayor.
William H. F. Fiedler was made Mayor in 1879 and served one term, the seventeenth in the line of succession. He had represented Essex County in the Congress of the United States and his district in the Legislature of New Jersey. Mayor Fied- ler was president of the United States Credit System Company, and was Postmaster of Newark for the term of four years. Mr. Fiedler is now engaged in the merchant tailoring business. "Billy " Fiedler, as his friends (and he has hosts of them) seem
HENRY W. HOPPER, CHIEF OF POLICE.
privileged to call him, is of German descent, and in his political career none were truer to his standard than they of the Father- land, and among of these he found his heaviest rocks of denfense, and Judge Gottfried Krueger always led the van.
The only representative of the great leather manufacturing interests Newark ever had in the Miyoralty came in the per- son of Henry Lang. the eighteenth of the line of Mayors. Public life was ever distasteful to Henry Lang, and his Scotch home tastes and idealties proved more to his liking than the excitement of political affairs, and at the close of his term he refused a renomination by his party, Mayor Lang had served as Alderman for several years most acceptably, and the writer has reason to know that right for him was always on the lead.
That the educational class had been given the go-by in the selection of Mayorlty candidates never became so evidently manifest as in 1883, when the political needle stopped in front
of the Thirteenth Ward Public School-house, and refused to move on until the magnet which so intlu- enced it came forth, the nineteenth in the line of succession of Mayors, in the person of Joseph E. Haynes, the principal, and for ten long years this representative schoolmaster continued to perform the duties of Mayor. When this faithful school representative and popular official had ceased to be Mayor, the Presi- dent of the United States made him Postmaster.
While Newark had long held the lead as a jewelry manufacturing centre, not a single representative of this industry had found his way to the Mayor's chair, until the time when the twentieth in the line of succession was found in the person of Julius Lebkeucher, of the jewelry firm of Krementz & Co,, and he
EDWARD 11. UFLERT, POLICE COMMISSIONER.
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
was called for and accepted the place. The cares of office and the responsibilities counected with the administration of the duties of the Chief Executive of the city of Newark proving irk- some, at the expiration of his term of office Mayor Lebkuecher retired.
Although extra good dishes filled with superior articles have been served throughout the feast of the chiefs, as we ask the privilege of so denominating the short tributes to the Mayors of Newark, and these, we trust, having been relished and enjoyed, we will now bring on the dessert and conclude with James M. Seymour. the twenty-first in the Mayoralty line. As the tribute proper to him could be better served when his work as Mayor shall be concluded, we can at this time only rehearse a few of the facts in his history and life which have led up to his entry upon the duties of the Mayor's office, and with this we may now say they were indeed well done if continued and finished as well as they are begun. That we have warrant of this in his excellent
zen's quiet, or always on time caught with his club the descend- ing stroke aimed at body, head or limb, intent on breaking or bruising, yet 'twas not until the commission was established did the " force," as it is termed, reach that splendid state of perfection in discipline existing to-day. While the men are no better, and, perhaps, some not so good as the old "lads," among whom there was occasionally rough and ready boys, who grasped their club with firm hand and were off as if on the wings of wind, when the signal "tap" of some comrade came to their ear calling relief from threatened danger and need of help in the moment of peril, perhaps to break the death grapple of a comrade with some midnight marauder on villain- ous purpose bent, were ever true and steady. To realize the fact that the police force of the city of Newark is as near the ideal as it is quite possible to be brought, the interested (and who is not) have only to run their eye over the records and catch what the grand truth tells, recorded on the pages where pho-
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Supervisorship of the State Prison and the satisfactory exhibit he made as a Commissioner of the Water Board, and the ever- watchful care he has exercised as a Manager of the State Board of Education. all these, and his talents as a mechanical engineer and his successful business career, show pretty conclusively what shall happen when a Mayoralty career, so auspiciously begun and continued so far in his first year. And now, when the dessert is finished, there will be little hope indeed for the "waiting, roping scores " when we call on the nuts and cigars.
POLICE OF NEWARK.
W HILE the city of Newark and her people has always had oft-repeated reasons, and as oft-repeated in such de- monstrations that every present eye could see and understand as the policemen trode their midnight round, or fearlessly dashed on where destroyers of peace and disturbers of the citi-
tographs are kept of each man's " duty steps " as he circles his beat in pursuance thereof. Show us the citizen who, when he lies down to his rest and peaceful slumbers, and who does not feel that the argus eye of the faithful policeman does not guard him well, or fails in his duty, we will show you one who is not worthy of the self-sacrifice that is made by the devoted police- man for his sake. The Board of Police Commissioners is a non- partisan body, and therefore it is that the political dark that used to be peeking between the rails of the old fence has been hustled away, and a "a man's a man for 'a that " has taken the place on the force. The Commissioners are five in number and hold office for the term of five years. At this writing the body is made up of Lyman E. Kane, president; Moses Bigelow, James R. Smith, Edward Uffert. Police headquarters are at No. 13 William street, at rear of City Hall. Joseph M. Cox is secretary; Police Surgeon, Dr. J. Henry Clark ; Chief of Police, Henry Hopper. Wilbur A. Mott, Esq., is Judge of the First
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ESSEX COUNTY, N. J., ILLUSTRATED.
CAPTAIN
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CAPT. WM. P. DALY, THIRD PRECINCT.
Peter J. Christie, Richard Lewis, Julius Jaegers, August Jackes, Joseph Wrightson ; Truant Officer, Albert J. Haynes. There are four Captains, one of each Precinct and Sub-Precinct or Second Part, viz., Captain William Daly, 124 Congress street ; Captain Michael Corbett, 84 Park street ; Captain Andrew J. McManus, 8; Clifton avenue; Captain John H. Ubhaus, 89 Springfield avenue. There are also twelve Lieutenants of Police, three for each Precinct and its sub. At the First Pre- cinct, Ernest A. Astley, Peter Walker, Thomas Tracey; Second Precinct, Freeman A, Edwards, Henry Lewis, John H. Adams ; Third Precinct, John W. Prout, Michael Barrett, Alfred C. Dowling ; Fourth Precinct, Charles Klein, Henry Vahle, Jacob Wambold. To the First Precinct there are three Roundsmen detailed, and one Roundsman only for each of the remaining three Precincts. The entire force consists of 265 patrolmen, to each of whom is allotted a certain route, made up of streets, alleys, etc., which, in the parlance usual to the force, are called "beats," but for what particular reason they are possessed of
CAPT. MICHAEL CORBETT, SECOND PRECINCI.
Precinct Court, It William street. Judge Mott also presides in Part II., Sun- mer and Seventh avenues. Fourth Criminal Court, Part II., 134 Van Buren street, Judge Augustus F. Eggers. Judge Eggers also looks after the inter- ests of Part 1. of the same Fourth Precinct Court. corner of Springfield ave- nue and Fifteenth street. Elmer Freeland is Clerk of the First Precinct Court and of the Second Part, and Thomas Pearson, Esq., is Clerk of the Sec- ond Precinct Court, also of its Second Part. There are on the regular force eight Detectives, Benja- min R. Stainsby, William Carroll, John F. Cosgrove,
CAPT. ANDREW J. M MANUS, FIRST PRECINCT.
that peculiar cognomen, or the wherefore of their being so named, we are unable to tell. But now, since the question has been raised, and we are entirely satisfied that it will be no breach of confidence to divulge the fact which tells the reason why they are not so named, viz., because no one ever had the least reason for telling it, and because they had never known a policeman to beat the city out of a single moment of time or an inch of his prescribed route. The name could not by any stretch of thought or peculiarity of language be taken from the old saying, viz., "beating about the bush." Whatsoever, wheresoever or howsoever it may have, the name is here, and, from present appearances, "has come to stay," that is, we should say so, if it is here indeed worth saying anything about. Space permitting, we should have more to say, but the very best thing to say is to say it and have done with it, and before you have paralyzed the language. But ere such a catastrophe should befall us, it is our desire to say in as few words as possi- ble that, taking all in all, and placing every man and all things of or about the Police Depart- ment in its proper category, the police force of the city of New- ark has few equals and no supe- riors. Bring on data, and if comparisons don't prove a trifle odious to the opposition, we have made a mistake of which we shall ever feel proud.
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