History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830

USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 13
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 13

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The railroad facilities of the Oranges are unsur- passed by any of the suburban towns of New York City, The Morris and Essex boing under a lease to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad for a term of ninety-nine years, and operated by that company, with several first-class railroad-stations in all the Oranges, is giving the people an opportunity of visiting New York City twenty-eight times every twenty-four hours.

The street ears also have long atlorded one of the principal means of travel from upper Main Street,

Orange City, passing down Main Street, through East Orange, down Broad and Market Streets, Newark, to the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, leaving each ter- minus every ten minutes from five o'clock in the morn- ing until cleven o'clock in the evening. A line of street cars also runs from the Pennsylvania depot, in Newark to the Morris and Essex Railroad station in South Orange. All of these lines are well patronized, and the accommodations highly prized by the people, and thousands of the inhabitants of the Oranges pass over these lines daily.

Among the great attractions of the Oranges are the fine Macadam or Telford roads and streets. In faet, there is nothing that gives greater pleasure to the stranger within the gates of the Oranges than a ride over these perfect roads, some forty odd miles of which are laid, and which includes every thorough- fare of any importance within the territory of the Oranges. These roads are made by grading to the depth of from nine inches on ordinary carriage drives to sixteen inches on thoroughfares used by heavy trucks, and filling in with crushed trap rock, which abounds along the ridge of First, or Orange Mountain. The stone is used in several sizes, the bottom course being of larger pieces, and the others graduating up to the finest screenings, which, when rolled with a heavy steam-roller, forms a smooth, hard surface, delightful to ride upon. Daniel Brennan, Jr., introduced and constructed a majority of these roads in the Oranges.

Pioneer and Later Taverns .- The pioneer tavern of what is now Orange stood on the site now occupied by the Park House. The building was formerly the residence of Rev. Daniel Taylor, and stood on the cor- ner of what is now Main and Hilyer Streets, and after the death of Mr. Taylor, in January, 1747-48, was re- moved to where the Park House now stands, and con- verted into a tavern, the first in Orange.

Just when the old hostelry was opened is not remembered by any of the inhabitants of the present day, but probably as early as 1755, as at that time Orange Dale, as the hamlet was then ealled, had assumed the proportions of a large hamlet or small village, and although the township business was all transacted at " Our town on the Passayak," yet it is presumed that from the number of inhabitants at that time a tavern or place of "entertainment for man and beast " was one of the necessary evils of the time.

The first dispenser of "provender and Jersey lightning " remembered by the oldest inhabitant was Samnel Munn. How long he kept the old hostelry, or when he entered upon his duties, is not known at the present day. Ile died, however, July 28, 1812. His successor in the old Orange Dale tavern was Fra Munn, who kept the place for several years, and was succeeded by - Kilborn, who kept it as late as 1840.

The next tavern at this place was the Orange

733

CITY OF ORANGE.

House, on the site now occupied by the Central Hotel. It was kept from about 1800 to 1820 by Moses t'ondit, who was known throughout this section of the country as Landlord Condit. He was killed in 1820, while assisting in repairing his cider mill, then standing on the site now occupied by the hardware- store of Hindel & Williams, Main Street, Mr. C'on- dit's distillery orcupied a portion of the Freeman Block, between the Methodist Church and Centre Street. Mr. Condit's widow kept the Orange House for several years, and was succeeded by Isane A. Smith, who kept it for a time and sold to Allen Reeve. Reeve sold to William Allen, who, in a few years, sold to Reeve, since which time it has been in the Reeve family, and is now owned by Edward Reeve.

ti. C. Austin, who for a number of years was pro- prietor of the Park House, in Newark took possession of this hotel upon the Ist of November, 1884, suc- voeding E. Reebe. He has expended considerable time and money in refitting it. The Mansion House, n three-story brick a i frame structure, located oppo- site the Park House, on Main Street, was built in 1870.

Other hotels are the Farmers', kept by Frank R. Harff, and the National, kept by F. Reinhardt.

CHAPTER LVHE

CITY OF ORANGE.

GORDON, in his " Gazetteer of New Jersey," p. 201, says "Orange is a straggling village, and a post-town. extending along the turnpike road from Newark to Dover, and distant nhout 3 miles N. W. from the for- mer, 219 N. E. from W. C., and 53 from Trenton; contains 1 Episcopal, 2 Presbyterian and I Methodist Churches, 2 taverns, 10 stores, 2 saw mills and a bark mill, from 200 to 290 dwellings, many of them very beat and commodious. A large trade is carried on here in the manufacture of leather, shoes and hats. The country about it is level, red -hale, and carefully cultivated. A chalybeate spring near the town is much resorted to."

"Orange City has a geographical position which imparts to its climate some favorable peculiarities. While it is approached by the sea on the southeast, it is very seldom that winds come from that quarter, so that invalida for whom a sen atmosphere is too severe find a shelter from its influence within a few miles from the coast. The south winds are always bland, and those from the northeast, coming from the New England coast, have left the ocean at too great a dis- tance to be schsibly affected by it. Hence persons suffering from pulmonary complaints often experience much benefit from a residence here." -- Hoyt, p. 254.

The distance from Newark is about four and a half miles, and from New York twelve miles. With both places there is constant communication by the Mor- ris and Exex Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the trains of which convey passengers from Orange to New York twenty-eight times in twenty-four hours, and returning from New York, make the same number of stops at the Orange City Station. Besides this large number of of por- tunities for leaving the city, the Newark and Orange street car necommodations are also perfect in that direction, giving the people an opportunity of visit- ing Newark every ten minutes, between the hours of 5 A.M. and 11.30 P.M.

The business of the town is mechanical, mercantile and manufacturing.

The stores and large business houses which line Main Street, and which have of late years branched out on parallel and cross streets, carry on a large wholesale and retail trade. Year after year the old farm boun- daries vanished, the fields were converted into gar- dens and building lots, the meadows into lawns, the old mud roads into Telford boulevards and shaded avennes, the straggling country village into a live, wicle-awake city.

Municipal Organization .- " A meeting of the citizens of Orange, was held at Willow Hall, on Thursday evening, Nov. 17, 159, pursuant to a call of the Township t'omn ittee, to consider the propriety of applying to the Legislature for some change in the laws regulating the Township Government. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Nelson Lind ley. when Dr. Babbit was appointed Chairman, and E. D. Pierson, Secretary. The Secretary read the call of the niceting, when Dr. Pierson moved, in order to test the feelings of the citizens, 'That it is expedient to take measures for the better government of the town,' which motion was carried unanimously. It was then moved and carried that 'a committee of five persons be appointed, who, with the Township Committee, shall determine upon some plan to carry out the wishes of this meeting, as expressed by the first resolution, and report the same to a subsequent meeting.'

"The several matters mentioned in the call, viz. : grading of streets, a police and fire department, license for the sale of liquors, division of clection dis- triets, &c., were then taken up separately, and after considerable discussion, which was participated in by Messrs. Dr. Pierson, Nelson Lindsley, Albert Pierson, J. L. Blake, R. Johnson, E. Gardner, F. P. Sanford, John Bonnell, Simon Harrison, the Chairman, and D. N. Ropes, were each referred to the Committee."

" The Chairman then announced the following as Committee to act with the Township Committee, to draft a plan as aforesaid : Messrs. William Pierson, Simeon Harrison, Napoleon Stetson, Isaac J. Everitt, and Jesse Williams. It was moved and carried, that the Chairman be added to the Committee. The meeting then adjourned."

734

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

The Town Incorporated. In accordance with the action taken at the above stated meeting, the commit- the applied to the State Legislature, and on Jan. 31, 1860, an art was approved incorporating the town of Orange. the second section of which defined the boundaries of the town and wards as follows :

"And be it enacted, That the said town shall be divided into three wanda, as follow. siz. . the first want shall comprise ad the territory lying cast of a line commen ing at the junction of Centre Street and Aleaton Township, thene. along the centre of the same to its junction with Harrison Street, thewwe to the spring near William Prane's, the origin of Parrow's Brook, thener along suid brook to Main Street, thence in a ihrect line to the centre of North Park Street, thence along the centre of raid street to the Bloomfield hne ; the second ward shall com pris the territory lying west and north of the west line of the aforesaid tirst ward and the centre of Main Street and of the turnpike road to Livingston Township; all the remaining territory of the town shall constitute the third ward."

The subsequent twenty-one sections of the act pertain to the duties and power of town officers, elec- tion of town officers, mode of elections, Common C'ouneil, marshal, and various other matters and happenings in a new-made town.

Name Changed to City of Orange .- April 3, 1872, by an act of the Legislature approved on that day, the corporate name of the town of Orange, was changed to that of "The City of Orange." Thus the old long, straggling village, described as such by Gordon in 1834, has grown into a full-fledged city, with all the machinery of a city with a million inhab- itants, and in 1883-84 water was introduced through pipes, from a reservoir on the west branch of the Rahway River, located between First and Second Mountains, in West Orange. (Ser Water Supply of Essex County in general history.)

Civil List. - Following is a list of the officers of Orange under its town and city governments :

MAYORS.

William Pierwot, Tai-02. Stephen W Tichenor, 1863. David N. Ropes, 184-5. Edward 11. Ensign, 1964-17. George J. Ferry, 1868-70. Edward Austin, 1871-73. Henry B. Wiggin, 1874. Heury W. Egner, 1-75-77. George TI. Hartford, 1575-4.

"LEAK8.

Charles J. Harrison, 1x1 0-62.

ima C'anfield, Jr., 1863. Mark A. Ward, 1864-65, 1867. Y'aleb P. Williams, 1860-60. W. Wallace Snyder, 1870. Horace Stetson, 1471-41.

TRVARU'RKRY.

Inen, No election. 1861-02, 1464, Stephen T. smith. 1803, Waldu B. Tichonor

MARSHA 18.

1x10-62, Ephraim A. Kynor. 1863, John O. Hagen. 1864, Joseph ( Tompkins. 186%, Juha Grunnw.

SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLA.

180-61, Iliran Ingalabo. 1862, Frederick A. Adams. 1863-64, Benjamin F. Barrett.

1×60.

First Ward, Jotham Hedden, Andrew Anderson, 1 .. D. Condit ; Second Ward, Thomas D. Woodruff, Edward Hooker, Daniel Bal bit , Third Ward, Napoleon stetson, Lucius D. Tompkins, Nelson Lindsley.

1×61.

First Word, 12. D. Condit ; Second Ward, Daniel Babbit : Third Ward, Napoleon Stetson, Stephen W. Tichenor (to fill vacancy ).

1802.

First Wand, Nathan W. Piersoo ; Second Ward, Edward Hooper ; Third Ward, Simeon Harrison.

1813.

First Ward, William Pierson ; Second Ward, Isaac Baldwin ; Third Ward, I. D. Tompkins. (L. D. Condit was subsequently chosen to till the place of William Pierson, and Pierson resigning. II. H. Freeman was elected in 1864, when David S. Beach was also chosen for the Third

1864.

First Ward, Alexander II. Freeman, Jabez P. Condit ; Second Ward, Peter Gerbert ; Third Ward, Edward G. Smith.

1×05.

First Ward, Jabez P. Condit ; Second Ward, Nathan W. Pierson , Third Ward, Duvid S. Beach.

First Ward, Lenuder Williams; Second Ward, David N. Ropes; Third Ward, John H. Matthews.

1867.

First Ward, Jared B. Porter ; Second Ward, George Lindsey. Henry W. Egner . Third Ward, Joseph L. Steele, George Spottiswood.

1868.

First Ward, Wilberforce Freeman ; Second Ward, Chauncey G. Wil jones Third Ward, David &. Beach.

1869.

First Ward, Ed. D. Pierson ; Second Ward, David N. Ropes ; Third Ward, Birorge Spottiswood. 1870.

First Ward, Thomas Reilly ; Second Ward, Henry W. Eguer . Thinh Ward, Thomas Egan. 1871.

First Ward, Stephen T. Smith ; Second Ward, William M. Kent, Third Ward, Richard D. Jackson

1×72.

First Ward, James F. Wilson : Serund Ward, Laurence T. Fell ; Third Wan, Thotdas ti. Lindsley. 1×73.

First Ward, Hayward A. Harvey , Second Ward, Charles F .. Dodd ; Third Ward, Thumas O. Ayres.

First Ward, Stephen T. Smith ; Secund Ward, Martin Byrne, Damon F Stocker ; Third Ward, Patrick Cahill,

1875.

Fin Ward, Jared B. Porter ; Second WarJ, Daniel Crowley ; Third Wand, Maximilian Trabold. 1876.

First Wand, David Dodd ; Second Ward, Damon F. Stocker ; Third Wand, Robert C. Wetmore.

1877.

Fint Wanl, John Murkwith ; Second Ward, Michael Davis ; Third Ward, Patrick Calull. 1878. First Ward, Edwin W. Hine ; Second Ward, John M. Smith ; Third Ward. James Brennan. 1×79.

First Word, Haywant A Harvey , Second Ward, Thomas F. Brennan ; Third Ward, Robert ". Wetmore.

1880.

First Ward, Thomas J. Gorman ; Second Ward, Michael Davis ; Third Ward, Thuman D. Vaughan. 1881.

First Ward, Adolph Bode ; Second Wand, William Wang ; Third Ward, Christophor BIcCullough.

735

CITY OF ORANGE.

1 met Ward, William H. Fold, James Young : Second Ward, Charles F Metralf ; Third Ward, Lewis L. South.

First Wand, Eph. A. Kynor , second Wand, Robert F. Gint, Jr. , Third Ward, John Seymour

1XX4

First Ward, Jacob V. Corliss Sec and Ward, Milem AA Hanchett ; Third War I, Samuel D Mcchesney

CHAPTER LIX.

CITY OF ORANGE. ("'ontinned.)

Educational.1- The history of education in the city of Orange cannot be written without trespassing upon the adjacent territories of South Orange, East Orange and West Orange, these townships having formerly been included in the old township of Orange ; therefore, some of our history must be remitted to the historians of those townships.

As is well known, the settlement of Orange was coeval with that of Newark, both having been made by people who came from New Haven and its vicin ity. To say that these immigrants highly prized the education of the young would be like saying that the people of Connecticut were thus minded-a fact so well known and understood as to make any affirma- tion of it at this day quite unnecessary.

All the love of learning which the settlers of New- ark and Orange brought with them from Connecticut was transferred to these new settlements, but trange was destined to be for a long time a purely agricul- tural region, sparsely populated nnd comparatively poor, circumstances often, if not always, adverse to «dneational interests.

What our early inhabitants did to promote their religious faith and interests are matters of record. In these things they are known to have been faithful to their traditions, and thence it is fair to assume that in the secular education of their children they were equally faithful.

Our people have always had the reputation of being well informed.

The proportion of those whose signatures appear by their mark is exceedingly small at all periods of our history, and this fact is always taken as an indication of a well-educated people.

It is not claimed, neither is it likely, that these first settlers and their early descendants were as enterpris- ing in the matters of education as the people of their mother-country, but it is claimed that they were always abreast of other settlements from the same source, so far as their circumstances allowed.

The earliest incident of a purely literary character which has made itself a place upon our historie pago is the classical school for boys taught by the secoml pastor of the then village church, the Rev. Caleb Smith. How long he was engaged in this work is not now known. He was pastor from Nov. 30, 1745, to Oct. 22, 1762-nearly fourteen years-living in the then new parsonage (now remembered as the old par- sonage) all the while, with the exception of a few of the earliest months of his pastorate. This school was probably accommodated in the study. Mr. Smith was a graduate of Yale College, and for a short time pre- vious to his settlement here had assisted his prospec- tive father-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Dickinson, in teaching a class in Latin, at Elizabeth, then called Elizabeth Town; a fact going to show that he probably entered upon the enterprise of teaching here soon after the beginning of his pastorate.

The evidence of the existence of this school is found in an old account book kept by Mr. Smith, with his parishioners. Evidently it was not his first book. Iu it we have accounts with six young gentlemen, who are charged with the price of tuition, with Latin and Greek grammars, with several classical books, one with Lucian's Dialogues, and some of them with the price of their board.

Rev. Jedediah Chapman, also a graduate of Yale College, succeeding Mr. Smith as pastor, held the pastorate from 1766 to 1500-thirty-four years. The early part of his pastorate embraced the stormy period of the Revolutionary war and the preparation for it. Whatever was done to promote learning during these years was overshadowed by political interests, and education was, to a large extent, necessarily neglected.

But we know that such abeyance, whether much or little, was short-lived. Peace had no sooner come than measures were taken to ercet an academy, which was completed in the year 1786, and proved to be a substantial building of two stories, yet standing on Main Street, opposite the First Presbyterian Church. The names of the architect and artisans of this build- ing are lost.

On April 2, 1845, the State Legislature, in anthor- izing the sale of the academy lot, recites certain facts as the preamble, viz .: "That on the 30th day of De- vember, 1785, Matthew Condit conveyed by deed, duty executed, unto the Rev. Jedediah Chapman, Col. John Condit and Henry Squier, a certain lot of land in the township of Orange, in the county of Essex, in this State, of the dimensions following, to wit: One chain and thirty-six links (89} feet) front ou Main Street, in Orange aforesaid, and seventy-five links (49} feet) deep, to hold the same in trust 'to be and remain a place for an Academy, which shall be for the use of a public school for all the inhabitants of Orange in general,' upon which said lot a school- house was erected immediately after the execu- tion of said deed, and that after the decease of the Rev. Jedediah Chapman and Henry Squier, two

I By the fate A. 11. Freeman, president of Board of Education, city of Orango.

736

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

of said trustees, Col. John Condit. the survivor. by his deed dated Nov. 14, 1823, made a conveyance of the above described lot not as a surviving trustce, but as in his own right, to Stephen D. Day, Rev. Asa Hillyer, Daniel Babbit, fohn M. Lindley, Daniel D. Condit, Abraham Winans and Samuel W. Tichenor, as trustees of said Orange Academy district, for the same use as specified in the original deed from Mat- thew Condit, and that it has become necessary to build a new school-house."

Rev. James Hoyt, in his "History of the First Pres- byterian Church in Orange," on page 134, says, "t'lose- ly following this enterprise (the Orange, sloop) was another of more lasting and vital importance to the parish. This was the founding of a publie school, long known as the Orange Academy. Incipient meas- ures were taken at a meeting of the parish, of which Deacon Bethuel Pierson was moderator, hell in April, 1787 Mr. Chapman. Dr. John Condit, Dr. Matthias Pierson and four others were appointed a committee to select the location and obtain subscriptions. A site, one-tenth of an acre, was obtained of Matthew Con- dit. In the following January the same three per- sons, with Josiah Hornblower, Esq-, and Bethuel Pierson, were chosen trustees. A substantial two- story building of brick and stone was put up. in which a parochial school of high grade was soon in successful operation. Mr. Chapman's name uni- formly headed the hst of trustees, who were appointed annually, and his love for sound learning, as well as sound doctrine, made him an efficient patron of the institution."

In making his deed above referred to, in 1823, Dr. John Condit, otherwise called Col. Condit, speaking of the character of the academy, uses this language : "To be kept and held by the trustees of the aforesaid academy, forever in trust, agreeable to the above con- voyance (the original deed from Matthew Condit in 1785) to myself and others, which is as follows : 'For tary, but more especially for classical education, and all the inhabitants in general of the place and neigh- borhood of Orange, to be and remain a place for an John McPherson Berrien, long known as a promi- nent and honored citizen of the State of Georgia, who served his adopted State as judge of a District Court for twelve years, in the State Senate two years, in the I'nited States Senate fifteen years, and was also Attor- ney-General of the United States two years, was a native of New Jersey, and finished his education pre- paratory to entering Nassau Hall, at Princeton, in this academy. academy which shall be for the use of a public school.' Furthermore, it is the true intent and mean- ing of these presents that no particular seet or pro- fession of people in said place shall have any right to said premises on account of the profits which may arise from it more than another, but it shall be and remain for the purpose of a good public and moral school of learning, for the use of all the inhabitants which now are or ever shall be in said Orange to the end of time."

This deed of John Condit, in 1823, having been given in his own right, and not as surviving trustee, it therefore became necessary, in order that the trus- tees of 1845 might be able to give a good title, for the Legislature to remedy the defect, which it did in the said act of that year.

A word or two in memory of some of these pioneers in academie education will not be out of place just

here. Mr. Chapman is so well remembered as the honored pastor of the parish for more than a third of a century that he does not stand in need of special notice at this moment.

Dr. Matthias Pierson was a great-grandfather of Dr. William Pierson. He began a race of physicians which has reached its fourth generation in the person of this gentleman. He was also a student of Rev. Mr. Smith, and was prepared to enter upon the study of medicine at the classical school in the parsonage.

Josiah Hornblower, a man of erudition, a native of Staffordshire, England, came to this country in very early manhood, became a resident of Belleville, and was, just about the time he was first elected a trustee of the academy, a member of the old Continental Congress. Subsequently he was a member of the State Legislature and Speaker of the House, for many years a justice of the peace, dying in 1809, at the age of eighty, and at the time in commission as judge of Court of Common Pleas of Essex County. He is bet- ter known to later generations as the father of our late Chief Justice Hornblower.

The association which built the academy was prob- ably for a few years purely voluntary. The earliest statute for incorporating institutions of learning which has come to the notice of the present writer was enacted in the year 1794. The trustees doubtless availed themselves of it, and soon thereafter became an incorporated body.

Our academy to-day is of very unpretending ap- pearance, made so by age, and more so by having been used for the last thirty-seven years for the baser pur- poses of trade only, being used at present as a harness shop by Eugene Smith ; but in its early days it was regarded with pride and pleasure as a model of archi- tectural beauty and fully adequate to the wants of the place, as well as a high evidence of the enterprise ot the people. It was used for the purpose of elemen- its fame drew patronage from abroad.

Joseph C. Hornblower (son of Josiah, above men- tioneel), the late chief justice of this State, was a stu- dent in our old academy, and it was here that he finished his education preparatory to the study of the law as early as 1798, being then twenty-one years of

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 830

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830