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 49
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 49
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Precisely at this juncture the good Providenee that had always interposed to lead the man who had signally turned from bright prospects of advancement in the world to any position of usefulness offered by the church led the directors of Princeton Seminary to nominate him for the chair made vacant by the ; death of Dr. Arehibald Alexander. It was the first formal nomination made by this venerable institution itself. Although the General Assembly had been generally heretofore induced to elect the candidate whom the direetors desired, such desire was intimated privately, and sometimes quite uncertainly, and left to mere conjecture. After the failure of two elec- tions in this fortuitous way to fill the important ehair left vacant, the board of directors ventured to ballot among themselves, and unanimously agreed in the result to nominate Dr. MeGill, without the slightest correspondence with himself beforehand. . No one could be more surprised than he was at the announce- ment. The seminary at Alleghany was vexed, and opposition was made in her interest, and by counter nomination at the open Assembly. But the nomina- tion was accepted and confirmed by the vote of a large majority, and Dr. McGill was transferred from Alleghany to Princeton in 1854.
In 1875, Dr. McGill was married a second time, and to Katharine Baehe, the second daughter of his venerable eolleague, Dr. Charles Hodge. By this link the harmony of chairs at Princeton has beeu emphasized, though it could not be made more per- fect than it has been for seventy years of conspicnous fraternity, as much compacted in mutual friendship as it has been remarkable for independence and diver- sity of individual character.
Such are the inen whose record is identified with the beginning, establishment, and character of this theological seminary. It may be said with safety that their successors now living, seven in number, inherit much of the same characteristics and sustain the institution at even a higher standard of learning and advantage than was possible to be reached in a formative state and with small endowment. Two of them were colleagues with Drs. Charles Hodge and J. Addison Alexander for many years, and at the time, 1858-60, when the attendance of students was the largest the institution has ever attained. Five of the seven have been pastors, highly esteemed and greatly successful in that capacity. One has been a mission- ary to the heathen, another a missionary to the desti- tute at home. Five have been translated to this from other seminaries or colleges on account of high dis-
645
PRINCETON.
tinetion as educators in the highest walks of learning. All of them, without exception and without a chai- lenge, are loyal to their trust and faithful to their confession without wresting or twisting its interpre- tation, believing er animo the symbols they are ap- pointed to expound.
THE STUDENTS .- There have been three thousand four hundred and sixty-four matriculated students in seventy years, and reckoning the number of casual members in addition, who came as graduates of other seminaries, or to attend by permission, without the academical preparation required for a regular entrance, the average accession per annum has been at least fifty in number. The number of literary institutions-colleges and universities-represented has been two hundred and thirty-five, including those of the Old World with those of the New. The number of theological institutions from which stu- dents have come to pursue or finish the course of study prescribed is sixty-five.
As far as it can be ascertained, about two thousand three hundred of the alumni are yet living, and, as pastors, missionaries, editors, and educators, they girdle the world with their presence and influence. It can be fairly affirmed that three-fourths of the litera- ture which has hitherto been issued on this continent as distinctively Presbyterian have been produced by the professors and alumni of this institution. Across continents, islands, and seas, from San Francisco, on the Pacific, to Beirut, on the Mediterranean, they are planting and manning theological seminaries. These alumni are not all Presbyterians, nor were they when they entered the seminary. It is probably the most catholic institution of the kind in Christendom. Its privileges are open to all comers that are liberally educated and members of any cvangelical church. Northern and Southern Presbyterians alike; Cum- berland, United, Reformed, and Associate Reformed Presbyterians alike; Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Quakers alike, -- all are admitted freely to the seminary at Princeton, and allowed to share in the benefits of Presbyterian cn- dowment there. So also from Canada, in all her provinces ; Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey; Asia also, from Armenia to Japan, -- from all these regions there have been students in these halls, good men and true, whose ; " profiting has appeared unto all men."
The terms of admission to the seminary on the lit- erary side are more exact and rigid than ou the eccle- siastical side. There must be a classical preparation in Latin and Greek, as well as English. A knowledge of arts and sciences also is required, and these are to be certified by a college diploma, or private teachers of high standing and well known, or by a Presbytery or Classis, or by examination by the professors theni- I selves. Very few now seek to enter who have not been graduated regularly at college, and a large pro- portion of such graduates come distinguished by hon-
ors and prizes at the colleges respectively represented. And the advantages of a situation beside the College of New Jersey, where a post-graduate course of study may to a certain extent be combined with the semi- nary curriculum, are attractive to graduates who come from yonnger and weaker colleges in the new regions of the West, where they have had fewer ad- vantages in consequence of fewer teachers and smaller endowments.
But the advancing standard of sacred study and increasing number of professors in the seminary make all other avocations less and less desirable. The course of three years only in preparing to preach the ever- lasting gospel is crowded so much with important exercises, that time cannot be given to lateral studies, supplementing academical preparation, without jeop- ardy to health and detriment to the power of atten- tion, both of which have their most critical season of fixedness just after the baccalaurcate season of college life is closed. Hence the faculty long for a fourth year to be added to the course, and have already planned its engagements and begun to gather the willing students.
The situation of the seminary in a village is also favorable to that concentration of mind on study in early years which is indispensable to the power of attention and the successful career of educated mind through the future of life. Far more than eramining of lessons, the diversion of mind, by curiosity and bustle, incident to location in great cities must en- feeble the power of attention at the right season, and make it impossible ever to regain it in subsequent of- cupation. Life in the city is too strong in the current for sedentary thoughtfulness, in the period especially of forming its habit of close and conseentive think- ing
There is a time for everything under the sun. Re- vealed religion of old has given this maxim, and in all its own appointments never allows itself to make the distinctive ordinances of grace any exception. "Not a novice" the preacher must be. Not before he is qualified to work is he licensed from on high to do the work. The custom of " church work" devolved on a theological student in term time, when his thoughts are summoned to the utmost in private study for exercises of the class-room, is baleful to the work of preparation. If he is necessitated in this way to earn the means of supporting himself while engaged in sacred study, he is compelled absurdly to sacrifice the end to the means. If he must make money out of every good thing he does before he is allowed to live at the altar, that altar will be en- compassed with a hireling and sordid priesthood from the very habits of his youth. He must be trained to do church work for love's sake and for God's sake, or the " greatest" of the graces will be withered in his hands.
Hence, Princeton Seminary was planted in the country rather than the town. Its location is un-
ليبياويكت
646
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
rivaled. Secluded enough to enjoy the retirement of study, and yet near enough and half-way between the two chief cities of the continent to see the busy world in all its movements and avocations, the place affords at once profound preparation and vast perspective in contemplating the field of usefulness. Instead of leaving the students to vain curiosity in searching out for themselves models of power and fame in the pul- pit, exposed to a thousand perils of evil influence and distraction on the Sabbath, they are assembled in their own chapel to worship with one mind and heart, impressed by their own teachers or by the trusted and eminent preachers invited by the faculty with careful selection from every part of the land.
The endowments of the institution are wisely and liberally shaped for this end. Funds are available to secure all the subsidiary aid in this way for the best advantage as well as ordinary support of needy students ; and the pauper line is obliterated in these provisions. Scholarships are becoming more and more eadetships. The State borrowed from the Pres- byterian Church the wisdom of educating for the army and the navy, rich and poor alike, at the public expense, chosen yonth for the service of the country, in detachment from the industrial pursuits of life, and in honorable devotion to the defense and welfare of their commonwealth, without supreme regard to selfish gain. And why should not the church restore to her own schools the same liberality which characterized her education at her planting in the last century ? Instead of degrading her ministry in the eye of social elevation, a gratuitous education of rich and poor alike would only ennoble the rank of her officers, as it has done conspicuously in the less noble soldiery of land and sea, trained by the nation and fed by rations earned only by study and preparation. The churches of New Jersey have done comparatively little in the endowment of a seminary so venerable and useful in the midst of themselves. The great future of the institution expects them to do more. The Presby- terian, more than any other, is a rural church. The bulk of her best foundations are in the country. Candidates trained by eity institutions hanker for the city pastorates, and are hardly contented with any other. This great rural fountain claims thie interest of rural homes, and insures an education and a will which would equally adorn the cathedral in town and make "the wilderness blossom as a rose."
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Authors and Volumes .- " Princeton," says its his- torian, "has an alcove in the great library of the world filled with her own literature. Her volumes have not been as numerous as they have been solid and useful. Her authors have a celebrity on bothi hemispheres. Their books have been translated into foreign tongues, and are cited with respect in the most learned universities and by the most erudite scholars in all countries." He adds further, "Great men die and may be forgotten ; battle-fields may be
lost sight of in the accumulation of age -; the cemetery, with its marble monuments and tablets, may be buried beneath the plowshare; these grand buildings may not survive centuries, but these literary memorials, these volumes scattered over all nations, deposited in all libraries, kept in use in all ages of the world, will live while the world lasts."
He gives a list of Princeton authors amounting to upwards of serenty in number, and the number of original volumes estimated at four hundred and twenty- fire, withont counting the published matter not yet consolidated and issued as distinct volumes, but which in time will be so issued, adding one hundred and fifty volumes more, making altogether a library of five hundred and seventy-five volumes. This was up to 1879. There have been several new volumes issued ; since that time, but not by new authors so far as we can learn.
Without occupying so much space as would be re- quired in copying the long list of the publieations, a majority of which are religious and theologieal works, we subjoin only the names of
THE AUTHORS.
Rev. Charles A. Aiken, D.D.
Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. Rev. Henry Carrington Alexander.
Rev. James Waddel Alexander, D.D.
Rev. Joseph Addison Alexander, D.D.
Rev. Samuel Davis Alexander, D.D.
Col. William Cowper Alexander.
Prof. Stephen Alexander, LL.D.
Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, D.D.
Rev. James McCosh, D.D.
Samuel Bayard.
Samuel J. Bayard. Rev. Robert Baird, D.D.
David A. Borrenstein.
Rev. Jolin Breckinridge, D.D.
Rev. Aaron Burr, D.D.
Rev. Henry Clay Cameron, D.D.
Rev James Carnahan, D.D.
Rev. Asa S. C'olton,
Rev. Samuel Davis, D.D.
Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, D.D.
Rev. Albert Baldwin Dod, D.D.
Rev. William Armstrong Dod, D.D. Rev. John T. Duffield, D.D.
Professor J. Stillwell Schanck,
M.D., LL.D.
Rev. William Edward Schenck, D.D. George W. Sheldon.
Rev. Charles W. Shields, D.D.
Rev. Samuel Stanbope Smith, D.D.
Commodore Robert F. Stockton.
John Potter Stockton.
Mrs. Lonisa C. Tuthill.
Cornelia L. Tuthill (Mrs. Pierson).
Sarah S. Tuthill (Mis. Wood Baker).1
Rev. William C. Ulyat.
Rev. John Witherspoon, D.D.
Rev. Archibald Alexander Hodge, D.D.
Rev. Charles Ilodge, D.D.
Rev. Matthew Boyd llope, D.D.
Miss Mary A. Hoyt.
Rev. Henry Kollock, D.D.
Rev. James Madison Macdonald,
D.D.
Malcolm Macdonald.
John Maclean, M.D.
Rev. John Maclean, D.D.
George McIntosh Maclean, MI.D.
Rev. Alexander Taggart McGill, D.D.
Rev. Joshua Ilall MeIlvaine, D.D.
Rev. John Miller.
E. Spencer Miller.
Miss Mary Miller. Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D.
Rev. Samuel Miller, Jr., D.D.
Professor Watter Minto, LL.D.
Rev. James C. Moffat, D.D.
Rev. James O. Murray, D.D.
Stephen Van Rensselaer Paterson.
Rev. William H. Roberts.
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D.D. Richard Stockton Field. Rev. Samuel Finley, D.D. Rev. Robert Finley, D.D.
Rev. John Forsythe, D.D. .
Rev. George Musgrave Giger, D.D.
Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D.
James Sproat Green. Rev. William Henry Green, D.D. Arnold Guyot, LL.D. John Frelinghuysen Hageman. Rev. Samuel Miller Hageman. Professor John Seely Hart, LL.D. Professor Joseph Henry, LL.D.
Professor Charles A. Young, LL.D.
1 Mrs. Tuthill and her daughters are the authors of over one hundred volumes.
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PRINCETON.
Princeton in the Civil War .- Educational towns are usually conservative, and slow in adopting meas- ures which tend to revolution or violence, but when revolution is inevitable they rush to the foremost of the fight. The college, having a large proportion of its students from the Southern States, at first main- tained silence on the great issue, but favored the Peaee Convention at Washington, hoping for some benefit from it, while the more deeided Republieans and Union men anticipated the worst and prepared for it.
The Princeton Standard, the only newspaper pub- lished in Prineeton during the war, supported Presi- dent Lineoln and the national eause with firm and uneompromising loyalty from the beginning to the end of the Rebellion.
The Princeton Review threw its strong influence to avert the bloody issue, but stood up for the mainte- nanee of the Union by eoereion when war only eould save it.
Governor Charles S. Olden, who was in office when the war began, and had been a commissioner to the Peaee Convention, was a resident of Princeton. This faet gave more signifieanee to the publie demonstra- tions and opinions of Prineeton in national affairs. Though there were several families who had strong sympathies for the Southern States, and were united by ties of kindred to many Southern seeessionists, the loyalists greatly predominated, and soon gathered en- thusiasm in defending the old flag. The eollege be- came redueed in the number of students, those from the South going to their homes beyond the lines. | The attempt to maintain neutrality on eollege ground failed, and a blaze of patriotism broke out in the town and institutions, and amid proeessions, with fife and drum, the national eolors were hoisted over college and seminary, and over all the most prominent dwell- ings and places of business in the town.
Publie meetings to promote the war spirit and the enlisting of volunteers were held frequently; eom- mittees were appointed to raise money and volun- teers; home military companies were formed, and when the President and the Governor ealled for the first and every subsequent quota of soldiers, Prinee- ton responded promptly. What was done in this way may be found in the preceding general history of this county. We only add here an abstraet state- ment of various ineidents and events of a purely local character which would seem necessary to be given in order to do justiee to the men and women of Princeton in the great struggle.
A 'Union League was organized in Prineeton in the early stage of the war.
A Union daily praver-meeting was also organized, and held its meetings in the Union League room in a eentral part of the town. The meotings were condueted by professors, ministers, and laymen in rotation. They were well attended and highly valued.
The ladies of Princeton attested their love of coun- try and their sympathy with the suffering soldiers by their liberal and constant contributions through aid societies to the United States Sanitary Commis- sion, the Christian Commission, and directly to the army hospitals during the war. As a sample of their labors it is stated in a report published April 4, 1862, that sinee the preceding September they had forwarded twenty boxes to Washington, Cairo, Louisville, and Paduealı. Two of them were filled with reading matter, one with home-knit stockings and mittens, six with home-made wines, jellies, cor- dials, syrups, and other delicaeies, the remaining eleven with bedding of all kinds, wrappers, flannel, and other garments, pads, cushions, books, games, stationery, groceries, fruits, sewing materials, ete. Mrs. Governor Olden presented to the Fourth Regi- nient one thousand soldiers' prayer-books, two hun- dred and sixty needle and thread eases and other things. Mrs. John R. Thomson gave to Company B, First New Jersey Regiment, fifty-two India-rubber blankets. Besides the personal labors in knitting, sewing, buying, and making suitable things for the siek and wounded, they availed themselves of musical eoneerts, lectures, addresses, festivals, and eolleetions from house to house, and in the Union prayer-meet- ing to raise money for their patriotie and humane purposes. This is a mere outline of what the ladies of Prineeton did for the Union cause chiefly by asso- eiated effort. The two Misses Stevens set a good ex- ample by giving each one thousand dollars to the eause as soon as the toesin of war was sounded.
Princeton township had responded so promptly to the several ealls for volunteers that when the enforee- ment of the draft was made in the State the quota of Princeton unfilled was only twelve. By a supple- mental eall for one hundred per eent. to be added, the number was inereased to twenty-four. The draft took place at Trenton. Among those who were drawn were the Rev. Professor Giger, of the college, the Rev. Dr. Mann, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Edward D. Ledyard, valedictorian in college, and several other students. The township provided sub- stitutes for all those who were drafted, exeept in a few instances where the persons drafted procured their own substitutes privately.
The whole number of volunteers who had been en- rolled from Princeton before the enforcement of the draft was five hundred and forty-three, fifty being col- ored. Some of these enlisted several times in different companies, which would reduee the number of men. The township gave a liberal bounty to its volunteers, especially after July 20, 1864, when to those who en- listed for three years it paid five hundred and fifty dol- lars, in addition to what the national and State gov- ernments paid. The money was raised by township bonds, authorized by vote of the tax-payers, and sub- sequently made valid by act of the Legislature. These bonds were paid as they fell due.
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648
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
The capture of Richmond was the occasion of a was represented by Jonathan Sergeant, Jonathan joyous celebration in Princeton on the 4th of April, Dickinson Sergeant, John Witherspoon, Jonathan 1865. It was under the management of the college, Dearc, Jonathan Baldwin, Enos Kelsey, and W. and was on college ground. The tutors, students, Churchill Honston ; and the offices of judge of the Common Pleas and justices of the peace before the Revolution were filled by members of the first fami- lies that came and settled here. In the Continental Congress the members who resided in Princeton were Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Richard Stockton, Dr. John Witherspoon, Churchill Houston, and Dr. John Beatty. and some men of the town got up a torch-light pro- session and some fire-works, and kindled a fire around the big cannon, and paraded the streets with music of the College Glee Club, and the town generally was illuminated. The public mecting was organized on the steps of the North College. Rev. Dr. Hodge pre- sided, Rev. Dr. John Maclean offered prayer, and Rev. Dr. MeGill, Rev. Dr. MeIlvaine, Rev. Dr. Moffat, - Rev. J. B. Hutchinson, and Professor Stephen Alex- ander made patriotic addresses.
The assassination of President Lincoln on the 14th of April, 1865, shocked this community as it did the whole country. The whole town with its public buildings and private dwellings put on the habiliments of mourning. Peacc, which soon fol- lowed that tragic event, was hailed with the greatest joy.
The names of the committee appointed at the first public war-meeting in Princeton to procure volun- teers for the war were John W. Fielder, Henry D. Johnson, George T. Olmsted, Martin Voorhees, and S. Alexander Hamilton ; and Josiah W. Wright was intrusted by the board of chosen freeholders to pay the bounty voted to the volunteers in this town- ship.
Among the higher officers were Maj. Alexander M. Cumming, in the First Cavalry Regiment New Jersey Volunteers ; Capt. Charles H. Dod, on the staff of Gen. Hancock; Maj. Samuel W. Stockton, on staff of Gen. Hunter; Lieut. Edward Field, on Gen. Han- eock's eorps; Lieut. Brainerd Jerome, on the Signal Service Corps; Lieut. Edward Moffat, in Company K, of sharpshooters, in Ninth Regiment; Dr. George M. McGill, surgeon in Gen. Custer's cavalry ; Capt. William V. Scudder, in Second New Jersey Cavalry ; Capt. John H. Margerum, in Twenty-second New Jersey Volunteers, nine months' men.
Prominent Men .- Princeton is noted for the large number of prominent and very eminent men who have resided there in all the periods of its his- tory. There is no town in New Jersey, and perhaps none in any other State, in which so large a propor- tion of its citizens have been liberally educated, and have held such high and influential positions, socially, . is opened upon it. He left four children, two by each politically, and religiously, during so long a period of wife ; one by the latter was his son, timc.
Prior to the removal of the college here in 1756, the inhabitants chiefly belonged to the original families, the Clarkes, Hornors, Oldens, Stocktons, Lconards, Fitz Randolphs, and the leading men among them were Judge Thomas Leonard, Judge John Stockton and his son, Richard Stockton (a graduate of the col- lege while it was at Newark, and then a promising "lawyer, who afterwards became signer of the Declara- tion), John Hornor, Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, and Benjamin Clarke. These were all large landholders, owning in those years almost the entire township, now Princeton.
From the planting of the college to the time of the Revolution there was an accession to the population of new families, adding new names to the list of dis- tingnished citizens of Princeton. Among them were the following :
JONATHAN SERGEANT, who came from Newark, his native plaee. in 1758. His aneestors were from Connecticut ; his brother was a missionary to the Mo- higan Indians at Stockbridge, Mass. He married for his second wife Abigail, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, He was treasurer of the college from 1750 to 1777, and was sent to Princeton and New Brunswick in 1751 to select a site for the college. For several years he lived in Maidenhead, in the house afterwards purchased by George Green, the father of Caleb Smith Green, and so long the Green homestead. In 1770 he purchased the farm of Sam- uel Hornor, deccased, to the east of Prospect, then owned by Jonathan Baldwin. He represented Mid- dlescx County in the Provincial Congress in 1775. He was a warm patriot and a decided Presbyterian. He died of smallpox in 1776, just before the battle of Princeton. His farm was sold to Joseph Olden, and is still in the Olden family. Prospect Avenue
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