USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 23
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 23
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To ignore the presence and influence of these scv- eral national and State institutions, not the buildings alone, but the uses made of them, and the demand they make upon the home market, the frequent at- teudance upon them by citizens from other countics in the State, especially the attendance upon the courts and the Legislature, would be to omit a very important chapter in the history of the city of Tren- ton and of Mercer County. In this respect this eounty is peculiarly situated, and enjoys peculiar advantages.
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CHAPTER LI.
THE SEAT OF HIGH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
As a State is honored and benefited by the re- nowned institutions of learning that exist within its limits, though they may be private and independent - 35
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of State support and State econtrol, so a county in which such institutions are located must. by reasou of its eloser proximity to them, receive their more immediate and felt influences. And this principle grows more emphatic as the arca contracts within the limits of the town or eity in which they are estab- lished. The fame of a town is often due to the celebrity of some world-renowned school established there. The homes of illustrious meu often lend dig- nity and public character to counties and States, just as battle-fields do.
So the county of Mercer derives honor and im- portance from the presence and power of distinguished schools of literature, scienee, and theology planted and flourishing within its borders.
Princeton College, known in its charter as "The College of New Jersey," which is twenty years older than the State of New Jersey, is in this eounty. It has a proud history which the world delights to read. The filial cry of Alma Mater sent up yearly from its dis- tinguished alumni who are scattered abroad through- out the world, and many of them in high places of power and influence, is not without affection and pride. It is the mother of statesmen, of philosophers, of scientists, of edueators. It came down through the Revolutionary war with honored scars, but with it gave through its president, its sons, and its patrous to the eause of liberty and independenee. The bless- ings which it bestows yearly in diffusing education in its various grades among the sons of this and other States ; the growth it exhibits in all its departments of study, and in its endowments, in its magnificent buildings, in its library aud other appliances of col- lege work, and in its grand school of seience, are known and felt with peculiar force by the people of this county. Old Nassau Hall on its high elevation, with its large cluster of beautiful, costly, and magnifi- cent college-buildings around it; with its large fac- ulty, with over five hundred students in attendanee, and intrusted with several millions of property, is a public treasure, a public trust, a local power planted upou the soil of this county, and challenging the sympathy and protection of our citizens and our civil institutions.
The Princeton Theological Seminary of the . Presbyterian Church is an institution hardly less widely known than Princeton College. It was estab- lished in 1812, the oldest of all the theological semi- naries of that denomination in this country. It is beautifully situated near the college in Princeton, yet unconnected with it. It has been endowed with mil- lions of dollars. It has costly and massive public buildings for its use, with a valuable library and other appliances of study. It has been distinguished with eminent and honored professors who consecrated the first half-century of its existence. It has now an en- larged faculty of seven professors, with an attend- ance of about one hundred and forty students.
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
This, too, is a great power and a great honor, and is recognized as such throughout the country, and its influence upon the ecclesiastical institutions of this county, in which it is located, is happily enjoyed and cherished.
In an appropriate chapter of the local history of Princeton, hercinafter given, a full historical sketch of both the college and seminary will be found.
The Pennington Seminary and Female Collegi- ate Institute, an institution belonging to the New . ing, with pleasant surroundings, on the old road from Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Princeton to Trenton, in a quiet and pleasant village was established at Pennington, in Hopewell township, in 1839. It is a school of high grade for both sexes, designed to give young ladies a finished education, and for training young men for college, for teaching, : or business.
The buildings are two hundred and seventy feet long and forty feet wide, and four stories high. The two departments, male and female, are entirely sepa- rate. Twenty-five acres of land are connected with it. While this seminary is cherished by the Metho- dists as their denominational preparatory school, it has a local patronage from families in the county who are not so ecclesiastically connected. More especially is this the case in the female department. Its com- mencements attract a large publie attendance yearly.
Peddie Institute is a literary institution estab- lished at Hightstown, in East Windsor township, by and under the Baptists of New Jersey. Thomas B. Peddie, of Newark, was a liberal benefactor, having contributed about fifty thousand dollars to it, and it was named in honor of him. The college building now in use was formally opened Oct. 26, 1869. It consists of centre and wings in line, extending two hundred and fifty-five feet in length, and is five stories high, including attic and basement. It cost one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and is well equipped and adapted to its use. It has one hundred and seventy-five students in attendance. It has three departments, viz .: 1, a preparatory course to prepare young men for college ; 2, a scientific course for young men who do not propose to go to college; 3, a course for young ladies, similar to the scientific course for the young men.
Ladies and gentlemen have equal advantages and graduate on equal terms, both receiving diplomas con- ferring the regular degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. It is as promising as it is an important institution to the Baptist denomination, and its able corps of in- structors attract many pupils from families in that part of the county who are outside of that denomination.
The Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, established at Lawrenceville, in the county of Mercer, in 1810, by the Rev. Isaac V. Brown, D.D., and which has been under the control and direction of the Rev. Dr. Samuel M. Hamill and brother since 1837, is an unincorporated institution for preparing boys for college or for a business life. It is a first-class boarding-school, and in it have been
trained for college and for unprofessional life a large number of young men who have become prominent and highly honored. While it has been highly es- teemed in this county and liberally supported by a local patronage, it has gained a wide reputation throughout all the States, and on its roll of graduates are names from many foreign countries in Europe, Asia, and South America, and from nearly all the States of this Union. The large stone classical build-
i noted for order and good morals, combines more of the home comforts and security of the family, with the manly training of the students, than most classi- cal boarding-schools are able to afford. Situated in the centre of the county, with a history of seventy- two years, without denying its national reputation, the county of Mercer cherishes it as one of her im- portant institutions of learning. The trustees of the John C. Green estate have purchased this institution, and are about to erect new buildings and establish a first-class Preparatory School, with a larger endow- ment than any similar institution in the country.
The Trenton Academy is an educational institu- tion of an incorporated joint-stock company one hun- dred years old. During that long period it has been the chief if not for years the only high classical pre- paratory school in the city of Trenton. It has trained many students for Princeton College. Its students, of course, have been chiefly day scholars from families of the city. It is still a prosperous school.
The Trenton Business College should also be enumerated among our important institutions of learn- ing. It is so convenient of access to the young men of Mercer County that they can attend its sessions and still board at home.
The Normal and Model Schools, though State in- stitutions, and as such have been noticed in the pre- ceding chapter, should be remembered as of special local advantage to the county in which they are situ- ated as a home agency in popular education.
Female Academies .- There is one at Hopewell, one at Hightstown, one at Lawrenceville, and one at Pennington, which are public boarding and day schools, unconnected with other higher institutions. These are noticed in the local history of the township.
Without referring to divers other private schools, or to the great system of common schools as fully car- ried out in this as in any other county, it must be evident that the citizens of Merecr County are living more in the presence of the higher institutions of learning, and more under the influence and exhibition of intellectual forces and stimulus of study than those of any other county in the State. Whether this at- mosphere of colleges and schools is appreciated as it ought to be, and whether the grade of intelligence among the people is advancing in a higher ratio in this than in other counties, we have not the data to test and to determine, nor do we desire to do so.
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ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
CHAPTER LII.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE-COUNTY COURT- HOUSE, OFFICES, AND JAIL-COURT OFFICIALS.
THE creation of a new county involves the creation of a new scat of justice, where new courts and all the legal machinery of justice are constituted. Citizens within the new county are recalled from their jour- neys to the old court-house in the original county to - which they formerly belonged. The old county jury- : list is revised, and names which had become as famil- iar as household words in the old court-houses are transferred to the new lists in the new county, and become associated with names which had been known only in other distant county-seats. The legislative act of erecting a new county is a very simple thing, but its effect upon the people in dissevering their po- litical and civil relations to the counties to which they severally had belonged is not altogether with- out regret, that old associations and ties are thus broken, and old ways and familiar places are aban- doned for new ones.
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This is not mere sentiment. If we take a stand where we could look over the territory of what now composes Mercer County, fifty years ago we would see the inhabitants of Trenton on the north side of the Assanpink, and of Lawrence and Hopewell linked to Flemington, where they were accustomed to go to court as jurors, witnesses, litigants, and for other legal business, while those on the south side of that stream were wending their way to the courts at Mount Holly, the capital of Burlington County.
And in like manner the citizens then in Montgom- ery township, on the north side of the Main Street of Princeton, could be seen making their long journey of eighteen miles to Somerville to attend the courts, then held four times in a year; while those on the south side, including the Windsors, would drive to - New Brunswick, in Middlesex County, for the same purpose, a distance of twenty miles.
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wrongs among the throngs who daily filled the court- room than is dove at the present day. Those who served on the grand and petit juries were freeholders and the most solid and intelligent men of the county.
With the creation of Mercer County in 1838, all this was changed. The remote townships of those several counties, whose inhabitants were from fifteen to twenty miles distant from their county-seat of jus- tice, were detached from them and consolidated into a new county, in which no family would be farther than about a dozen miles from the county-seat. It made a visible change in the courts of the four old counties. The lawyers at Trenton and Princeton, whose local clients had belonged to several different countics, but now to one, and that at home, began to withdraw attendance from the old and more distant county courts, and cultivate the business in the new county in which they resided.
At this time thic railroad came into use, and it be- came a common thing for all who attended court to go liome at night.
In the administration of justice in the county of Mercer, there is not much to state which does not be- long to the history of other counties. The people of the county are intelligent and moral, and conse- quently orderly. The civil business transacted in the courts of the county is very much less now thau in the earlier years of the county. The civil calen- dar seems to grow shorter and shorter yearly. The cases litigated are very few, and seldom involve large amounts or important legal principles. Very few days of the term are required to try the causes which are litigated in the Supreme or county circuits, some- times less than a week. It is a matter of wonder to the bench and the bar that there is so little of liti- gated business in a county of fifty-eight thousand in- habitants, including the city of Trenton, which is not only the capital of the State, but is a city of factories, with a large foreign population, where there is a con- vergence of railroads which pass through all parts of the county, and a large investment of capital in banks and business. It is quite inexplicable how all the business of Trenton and of the county of Mercer can be carried on year by year with so little com- plaint of wrong and breach of faith, and so little resort to the courts for redress of grievances. The business in the Mercer courts is less than that in the counties of Hunterdon, Warren, and Monmouth, though she exceeds all those in population.
In the absence of railroads, the common highway to these several distant seats of justice would be lined with wagons, gigs, sulkies, and public stages. Every lawyer kept his horse and sulky in those days, and their attendance upon the county courts involved the necessity of their remaining, generally, during the whole week, and it was so with jurors and witnesses. . The public hotels were thronged with people during ' the whole term of court, day and night. The table And the criminal side of the court corresponds with the civil. The number of indictments found for the . higher grade of felonies is very small compared with other counties in which there is present so large a manufacturing city population. Since the county was formed there has been but one conviction of murder in the first degree, and that was followed by capital execution. That was the remarkable case of Charles Lewis, for the murder of James Rowand, the set for the court and bar in those and previous years makes an interesting chapter in the history of judges and lawyers who practiced in the courts of the county. County courts in those years were very dif- ferent from those of the present time. They were more expensive and inconvenient, and they were at- tended with more conviviality it may be, but they were more impressive upon the people of the county, and diffused more knowledge of human rights and | jeweler of Princeton, in 1862. The arrest, the trial,
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
the conviction, and the execution in that ease did honor to the administration of justice in the county.
We find but one other case of capital punishment inflicted for murder within the territorial limits of this county, and that was in Hopewell, before this county was formed, in the year 1827. James Guild, a colored boy, between thirteen and fourteen years of age, killed Mrs. Beakes, a white woman, aged sixty years, with an ox-yoke. He was tried, convicted, and executed at Flemington. The case is reported in 5 Halst. Rep. 163.
There have been other cases of homicide, and other indictments for murder, but no other convictions in the first degree followed by capital executions.
The public mind is not burdened with a sense of infidelity on the part of the civil authorities in exe- cuting the laws and enforcing justice. It happens sometimes that justice is cheated out of its victim, but this is rarely the case. In criminal cases the leaning of all our courts seems to be against the ac- cused. The sentiment is as often heard expressed that the prisoner who has been convicted ought not to have been convicted as that he who was acquitted ought not to have been acquitted.
But the people have strong confidence in the integ- rity and ability of our courts. It devolves upon the courts of this county to take cognizance of criminal offenses which arise sometimes in connection with the Legislature sitting iu Trenton. The charges of
bribery have been again and again presented before , only sits in the Oyer and Terminer when that class of the grand juries of Mercer County, and they have . crimes is tried which cannot be tried without a jus-
received a thorough investigation, and in some in- stances there have been indictments, trials, convic- tions, fines, and imprisonments, which from the pecu- liar circumstances and political relations involved, most honorably vindicated the independence, imupar- tiality, and integrity of those whose duty it was to administer the law.
It has been the honor of Mercer County to be favored with the chief justices to preside over and to hold the circuits of this county for about thirty-two years out of the forty-four years of the existence of the county,-Chief Justice Henry W. Green, from 1846 to 1860, with some exceptions, and Chief Justice Beasly, from 1864 to the present time.
The legal ability of these eminent jurists has added dignity and reputation to the bar, and greatly assisted the legal profession in sceking justice for their clients. The associate justices who presided at this cireuit when the chief justice did not were Justiccs Dayton, White, Randolph, and Brown, and others occasionally.
The business of the court is transaeted at one ses- sion a day, with a little recess at noon. This is done to accommodate counsel, parties, and jurors to go home at night. The calendar for each term, with the list of jurors, is printed for the bar, and is dis- tributed also to some extent among the jurors. Sat- urday is growing to be a dies non at the court-house.
There is one facility in the trial of causes allowed by law which has been uuaccountably ignored in this cirenit, and that is the use of a public stenogra- pher. In cases where the testimony is voluminous, the time and labor required in taking the testimony are so great that the business of the circuit must be obstructed thereby, and especially in cases where the cause may be carried up on error or on motion for a new trial, it is of vital importance to have a clear statement of the evidence, the rulings, and charge of the court. The stenographic provision which is gen- erally adopted in other counties is not used here ; whether it is waived by the court or the bar we have no information, but we infer that the court does not de- sirc it. It would lessen the days of jury duty, and be economical. We note it, however, as a peculiarity in the administration of justice iu this county at the present time.
The common law courts of the county remain as in other counties of the State. The Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Courts are held by three judges, one of whom is a law judge and pre- sides over these courts. The Sessions dispose of a majority of the criminal complaints by trying the defendants without a jury when they waive the jury. The cases are mostly larcenies, assaults, and viola- tions of the liquor laws. This court holds a session at least one day in a week from term to term, except perhaps in the month of August. The chief justice
tice of the Supreme Court.
The court holds three terms in each year, instead of four, as the law required when the county was first formed.
The sergeant-at-arms, or crier of the court, opens its 'sessions in the old style of "Oyez ! Oyez !"' etc. The constables are required to hold their staves, and keep order in the court-room. .
Looking at the question in every aspect, the con- clusion must be reached that the people of Mercer County are peaceful and orderly, and, it may be added, moral, whether it be due to the Quaker blood still coursing in their veins, or to the influence of their schools and churches, or to the pacific counsels of the bar.
There is a District Court in the city of Trentou, held by a law judge, which has the same jurisdiction as the justice's court.
Justice's courts have now jurisdiction when the claim is two hundred dollars or less in amount, in- stead of one hundred dollars, as formerly, but this in- crease of jurisdiction involves no compulsion to select the justice's court.
The Court-House .- The location of the court- house when the county was formed was a question which, as is usual in such cases, created a good deal of interest and some divisions among divers sections of the county. Some wanted it at Lawrenceville,
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some at Hamilton Square, some at White Horse, and some in Trenton. But the strongest combination se- lected Mill Hill, in South Trenton, and it was de- cided by a majority of votes to build it at the latter place.
The lot on which the court-honse stands is a large one, and beautifully situated on high ground on the south side of Broad Street, with a fine view of the Delaware westward.
The court-house was built by Charles Steadman, architect, of Princeton.
The style of the structure is Grecian, with Corin- thian columns at the end fronting the street and also in the rear. It was built of brick, stuccoed or rough- cast, with a basement underneath for a jail. On the first floor the grand jury and witnesses' rooms are on the west side of the entry, and the rooms for the jailer's family on the east side.
The second floor is occupied by the court-room, ยท with two small jury-rooms on each side of the entry before reaching the court-room. -
The court-room is one of the largest of the kind in the State. There are ten large windows in it, and it has much the appearance of a plain church. The ar- chitectural order was spoiled somewhat by the cupola and bell which were placed upon it.
On the right of the building as you enter the gate from the street stands the clerk's office, and on the left the surrogate's office. These were built of the same kind of material with the court-house, and are Greek miniatures of it. They have both been enlarged from time to time, and are well provided with fire-proof vaults and suitable furniture. Each office is desig- nated by neat gilt letters upon the door. The grounds are neatly kept in grass and flower-beds, and are surrounded with a substantial, massive iron fence on the street.
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The original cost of the building was about sixty thousand dollars.
About twenty years ago a new jail was erected at the southwest end of the court-house, on the same lot and touching the main building, and after that a work-shop for the county was built on the southeast corner, opposite the jail. The old jail had been re- peatedly presented by the grand jury of the county as disgraceful and unsuitable, and this new one is well adapted to the object for which it was built. It will bear inspection. It is well kept, but really not large , enough for the numbers that are committed to it, many of them only temporarily. It receives prisoners
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, from the police justices' courts of the city of Trenton and other municipal boroughs of the county, as well as those who are properly county prisoners. It also receives United States prisoners.
another class may be saved from a long confinement in the common jail of the county. The judges who arc shut up to the necessity of imposing such sentences acknowledge the need of such a reformatory prison, where those who have fallen for the first time into crime, and who are not incorrigible felons, but who would gladly be rescued from a felon's life and des- tiny, might be confined and subjected to reformatory appliances. The average number of prisoners daily in the county jail in the year 1881 was seventy, each one costing per week for maintenance two dollars and fifty-two cents, and earning nothing. A large proportion of these are tramps and disorderly con- victs.
Mercer County Officers.
SHERIFFS.
1838. Richard Jaques.
: 1861. Robert L. Hutchinson.
1841. George T. Olmsted. . 1864. George Brearley.
1844. Daniel D. Britton, died in 1867. Henry T. Cox.
office. 1870. Thomas Crozer.
1846. John Hammell.
1873. Benjamin F. Walton.
1849. Joseph Justice.
1875. Joseph S. Mouut.
1852. William Boswell.
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