History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 15

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 15
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 15

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The trustees of the academy district having in the year 1845obtained the legislative aid they desired, sold the lot and building to John M. Lindsley, and pur- chased a part of the lot in Day Street on which the old frame school building lately stood, and now oceu- pied by the tank of the Orange Gas-Light Company, who bought the lot when the Park Avenue School- house was built.

The first purchase was made by Ezekiel B. Smith from Thomas D. Spiking, and the deed dated Det. 26, 1846; the lot measured fifty feet front by one hundred and twenty feet deep, and the price paid was one hun- Jred and fifty dollars. Mr. Smith bought it apparently as the agent of the trustees, for on the 4th of Septem- ber, 1847, ho conveyed it to them.

A buikling three-fifths the width of the old frame school building was constructed in 1546-47, and was ready for occupancy early in 1848. The rear part of the lot (it is two hundred feet deep) was afterwards purchased of Stephen D. Day, Esq. Judge Day sold at a price per nere, naming a rate which he thought anthcient, but when the measure was applied, it

742

IIISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

amounted to an insignificant sum, very much to his amazement. This building, after being used for many years, was sold when the Park Avenue School-house was built, and became a tenement.

Before the house was completed and the walls dry the trustees had arranged with Miss Eunice P. Robin- son, daughter of Col. Robinson, to move her private school of some forty pupils into the second story and transfer it to the female department of the public schools. This position was held by Miss Robinson for two years. The first floor was assigned to the boys, ! the teacher of whom being Alexander S. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln made himself janitor, general manager, etc., relieving Miss Robinson of all care of that kind. Mr. Lincoln resigned after teaching one year, and was succeeded by a gentleman who resided in Newark, who taught another year only.

Upon the retirement of Miss Robinson and the male teacher. in the early spring of 1849, Miss Letitia ti. Halsted, of New York City, assumed the duties of the female department April 16th, and E. Monroe Dodd was appointed teacher of the male department. This arrangement continued satisfactorily for the next two years, or until the last of April, 1851, when the building was closed, and remained so during the summer and fall months of that year. This suspen- sion was caused by lack of funds. Late in the fall of that year the trustees engaged Robert N. Cornish, a graduate of the Normal School of Albany, N. Y., to take charge of both rooms. Ile entered upon his duties Dec. 8, 1851, with an enrollment of forty scholars, and before the winter closed the rooms were filled, and a room in Masonic Hall hired and also filled by the primary department. At the close of the term, in June, 1852, two hundred scholars were en- rolled.

The first district school tax, under the law of 1851, which we hear of in this town, was levied at a meet- ing held in the old academy district, which had, under the statute, assumed the name of "t'entral" in the spring of 1852. The levy was four dollars per child. The sum realized by the tax is not on record, but it was judiciously applied, by anticipation, hy the trustees in enlarging the building during the summer vacation of 1852.

During the terms of Mr. Cornish, which extended over a period of over four and a half years, he had at various times as his assistants his brother, Alonzo (1. Cornish; Miss Harrison, daughter of the late Abraham Harrison ; Miss Adaline C'arroll, a lineal descendant of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and a neice of Rev. Hollis Read, then a resident here; Mary Quinby, Endora Smith, Anna Babcock and several other ladies of equal merit.

In 1858, at a cost of three hundred dollars, an addi- tion of thirty feet was made to the school lot, which completed its present dimensions, the money being raised by a district tax. Like the first purchase, the title was taken by an individual, Iliram Ingalsbe,

who was then town superintendent, and was held by him till June 14. 1861, when he tendered it to the trustees.

Jan. 31, 1860, the State Legislature changed the legal standing of the township, by raising it to the dignity of a town or borough corporation, placing its municipal government in the hands of a mayor and Common Council ; all tax levies to be fixed by the popular vote, as heretofore, and no change was made in public school organization.

In 1861 the propriety and advantage of combining the districts lying in the central part of the town, came to be seriously considered and much discussed. The movement is said to have begun in the AAshland district, now included in the township of East Orange.

Mr. E. L. Bartholomew was one of the teachers there. He found a great lack of uniformity in text-books, with all grades of pupils. He invited the then principal of the Young Ladies' Seminary (the history of which is herewith given), to address the patrons of the school and trustees. The desire for centralization was strengthened and diffused by dis- cussion, and during the fall and winter of 1861-2, became quite general in the Ashland, Central, and St. Mark's districts, embracing territory reaching on Main Street, from Walnut Street, in East Orange, to the top of the first mountain, and having a northern and southern boundary of various courses, and con- taining as per statement and report of the superin- tendent, two-thirds of the eligible children of the town.

About March 1, 1862, measures had been taken by the town superintendent and a majority of the trustees of each of these districts, which they sup- posed had resulted in the abolition of the districts according to law.

April 7, 1862, the legal voters of the districts met as one district at Willow Hall, upon the call of the town superintendent. Mr. F. A. Adams was chair- man of the meeting, and J. Addison Freeman the secretary. The meeting elected three trustees for the district, viz. : David N. Ropes, Benjamin F. Barrett, and William Pierson, Jr. This board of trustees, jointly with the superintendent, on the fourth day of June then next ensuing, filed in the county clerk's office their certificate of incorporation.

On the 16th of June, a meeting of the new dis- triet which had been named "Central District," was held at Willow Hall and after a lively discussion adjourned. The adjourned meeting was on the 25th, and for want of room for the audience, adjourned to Library Hall, where Andrew Britton was made chair- man and L. HI. Hill secretary of the meeting, when two very important measures were adopted. One was the adoption of St. John's parochial school as one of the schools of the district, and the other was to tax the district the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, for the support of the schools for the current

743

CITY OF ORANGE

year. This was a distriet tax the town already has- ing voted the customary three thousand dollars.

This was just at the beginning of the second year of the Rebellion, and every man was alarmed at the financial condition of the country, quite as much as at the Rebellion itself. With the present population of Orange, that tax would seem very moderate, but then it was looked upon as extravagant. One ven- theman in the audience, a prominent man and heavy tax-payer, and the only one who had the courage to raise a dissenting voire, gave as one of his reasons for dis- sent, the fact that he had already recently been taxed for school purposes in two districts the sum of ten dollars.

Blunders were found in the action of the trustees in aboli bing the then old district, and relief was sought and obtained through the courts, and the former proceedings set aside. The supreme court at its session in June, 1864, having heard and considered all the evidence pro and con, and the arguments in rela- tion to the three original districts and the formation of the consolidated "Central District," uttered these words through the Judge, who delivered the opinion: "I think the three districts were never legally abol- ished, and consequently, that the tax was illegally imposed, and that the abolishment and the vote im- posing the tax should be declared void, as against the prosecutors. Proceedings set aside." This opinion was based upon the illegality of the proceedings taken in abolishing the three original districts.

In 1863, a successful effort was made in the legis- lature to divide the township. The year before, for geographical reasons, the township of Fairmount had been set off. This township included all the monn- tain district, west of Perry Lane. Now the disintegra- tion was continued and a new line some distance east of the valley road was made our western boundary line, the intervening district being added to Fair- mount, and the whole of it called West Orange. The township of Last Orange was broken off' on a line a few hundred feet west of the Brick Church, and con- tinued on a course which ran near the eastern boundary of Rosedale C'emetery to the Bloomfield line. Thus Orange was disposessed of much of its territory, but it still retained the bulk of population.

For the next five years the public schools of what had become the town of Orange, reduced to two dis- tricts, and a few fragments of districts, followed the usual methods of district organization, until the 3d day of April, 1868, the Legislature enacted that the public schools should thenceforth be under the man- agement and control of a Board of Education, incor- porated by the name of " The Board of Education of the Town of Orange."

This board was constituted of nine members; three from each ward; and the legislature made the first .appointments in manner following, to wit : For the

First Ward, Nathan W. Pierson, James t. Ha lin anıl William Pierson, dr .; for the Second Ward, William Cleveland, Edward H. Ensign and William M. Price ! for the Third Ward, Robert L. Dashiel, Elward Choumont and Aaron Carter, Jr.

In the next succeeding year the charter of the town was thoroughly and systematically revised ex- cept in relation to the Board of Education, whi h having been so recently enacted and drawn with great care, did not require revision.

This centralization of the work of publie instruc- tion, in the hands of one body of men, has been attended with the anticipated and customary good consequences. The varied interests have become one. I'niformity in the course of study and in the adop- tion of text-books; a thorough system of discipline; the selection by rigid examination of principals for the several buildings, and teacher for all the depart- ments ; the choice of a superintendent as the general agent of the board in all matters of tuition ; pro- riding school-houses and keeping them in repair and in a comfortable condition at all seasons ; the sum of these duties proceeding from one source, produces and promotes a unity of effort of great value, which can be obtained in no other manner.

In concluding this historical sketch, the historian cannot forbear to congratulate his fellow-citizens upon the condition of the educational interests. pres- ent and prospective, in Orange. He has noticed high in the public estimation, and justly so.

SCHOOLS IN 1884 .- The condition of the educational interests of the city, so far as the public schools are concerned, is given in the following lines, compiled from the annual report of Prof. U. W. Cutts, superin- tendent of schools, for the year ending in March, 1884:

The statistics show a gain of 59 in the total enroll- ment, 84 in the average enrollment, and 99 in the daily attendance, as compared with the numbers of the year 1882-83, and of 131 over the average daily attendance of 1881-82.

In the first table are given the comparative ages of pupils enrolled,-

1 nder 6 yrs.

Bet. 6 & 16

Over 16.

Whole \

Valley N.lol.

132

. .

142

lincoln Avenue.

.28

. . .

3333

Park Avenue

.54

570

. .

628

High School Building.

193

415

Total

IFAN

1:18

The number of rooms and seating capacity of each building, with the enrollment of teachers and pupils, are given below,-

Schools. Teacher.

l'uplis.

Valley .

lanculn Avenue .

252

533

Park Avenue,

1 11

High School Building

3:41

Elzasex Female.

2 BEEN Total.

415 RE= Total.

Tutal«

30 14:12

Male.

Male

171%

The opinion of the Supreme Court dissolved the i briefly our principal private schools, which stand central district into its original elements and the old regime was allowed to resume its sway in peace.

714

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

The above table includes the principals and super- intendent. The seating capacity and numbers by grades are shown in the statement below,-

RoonIN.

201

96%

5×7

1247

.ranimar.

347

Totals

171x

Enrollment, attendance, and per cent. of atten- dance of the various schools, --

Whole Average As daily Number. Number Attendance, Attendance.

Per cent. of

Valley.

.142

104

Lincoln Avenue. .

. 533

329

302

Park Avenue

. 628

41X

380

High school Building . . 415

280

259

Total . . .1718

1131

1034

Enrollment and attendance by grades,-

Whole

Average

Av. daily

Per cent. of

Number. Number. Attendance. Attendance.

Primary.

1247

x11

736

445

274

254

High school.

4-1

Totat .

.1718

1131

1034

The best interests of the schools, regarded from every point of view, demand that the school-rooms shall not be crowded. With one exception, Orange has less pupils to a teacher, on the average, than any other city in the State.

The work accomplished during the year compares favorably with that of previous years. In some of the branches of study there has been a decided improve- ment. In the teaching of arithmetic in the younger grades numerical frames and counters of various kinds are used for purposes of illustration. In the

the place of abstract examples.

The closing exercises of the High School were held in Music Hall on the 28th of June, 1883. The music was furnished by pupils of the high and grammar schools, under the direction of Mr. Butterfield. The graduating elass was smaller than for several years previous.

Out of thirty-three pupils in the A grammar class of 1879, fourteen entered the High School in the following September, and this number was reduced to four at the time of graduation. The names of the graduates were George M. Gill, A. Alonzo Stagg, Grace A. Condit, Harriet E. Van Ness.

schools was uneeasing, and of a nature paternal in its character. Cautious in his acceptance of new meth- ods, he heartily welcomed those which were approved by sound judgment, or which had stood the test of fair trial. To the teachers he was the wise counselor and the trusted friend, and his memory will always be held by them in grateful esteem.

The Orange Free Library .- In the early part of October, 18%3. a committee of ladies, consisting of Miss Martin, Mrs. J. L. Blake, Mrs. John Gill, Mrs. J. S. Cox, Mrs. John Burke, Mrs. J. T. Kirtland, Miss Pierson, Miss Linne and Mrs. J. F. Dennis, met, and after a full discussion of the subject, and an impartial consideration of the obstacles, as well as the encouragement to the project, decided and planned the opening of a free circulating library and reading- room. They also decided that it would be wise to limit their first undertaking to a term of a few months, and that they would not appeal to the general publie of Orange for assistance, but defray the necessary expenses by their own exertions. On the 7th day of December, 1883, the Free Circulating Library of Orange was opened, a room on the second floor of Central Hall having been hired for the pur- pose.

This room is free to all, from three until nine p. M. The reading table is furnished with the best daily papers of New York and Newark, with various local papers, and the best supply of magazines and periodieals that the committee are able to procure. The shelves now contain a total of three hundred and forty-eight volumes.

Since the library was opened the average daily at- tendance the first mouth was fifty-three, and the aver- age number of books loaned cleven. The second month, sixty-two the average attendance, fourteen books older classes practical questions have largely taken daily loaned; the smallest attendance, twenty; the

fewest number of books loaned, three; this was on the opening day. Total attendance first month, nine hundred and seventy-nine; second month, one thou- sand six hundred and fifty-seven,-showing an in- crease of six hundred and seventy-eight. As ninety- five readers have attended the reading room in one afternoon and evening, it is plain that the room, twenty-four by eighteen, is greatly over- crowded.

The expenses incurred since the opening of the library show that at least eight hundred dollars will be necessary for its annual support. A few interested friends have contributed money, books, letters, tahles, chairs, pictures to decorate the room. Painters, car- penters and others have also given their time and aid.

The experiment proved a great success, which no doubt confers lasting honor on the intelligence of the reading publie of Orange, who rallied so nobly to the support of this branch of the educational interests of this prosperous little city. The secretary and

MEMORIAL, -In the death of the llon. A. II. Free- man, late president of the Board of Education, the public schools of the city experienced a loss not easily estimated. The senior member of the board in age and, with one exception, in length of service, he had been for years closely identified with the edu- cational interests of Orange. To a strong common sense he united a broad intelligence and decided literary and scientific tastes. His interest in the librarian in 1884 was A. Mck. Dennis.

Male

Fenmnie

( Pupils.

Total.

Primary

196

High school .

745

CITY OF ORANGE.

CHAPTER LX.

PITY OF ORANGE.

( Continued.

Industries of Orange Sortethe Fire and Police Reporton its-Banking

Ix the occupation of opening and developing an un- broken forest, as was the case two hundred years ago with the territory now embraced in the Oranges, the first industrial pursuit to be engaged in or that attracts the attention of the pioneer is the clearing of a small patch, large enough on which to erect his enbin, and on which to raise a few vegetables for the first or ste- ceeding year. From 1666 to 1700 but little advance was made in the settlement of the territory. now covered with a population of over thirty thousand souls. During that period, as will be seen by refer- ence to " Pioneer Settlers" on another page, there could be seen only the smoke from an occasional cabin curling itself heavenward and mingling with the ethereal blue above it. Then the Indian path that led from the Newark settlement on the Passayak. up through a dense forest, to the foot of and over the First and Second Mountains, was the only avenne of travel, which answered every purpose of the original occupants of this territory. The sturdy pioneer, as he marched boklly up the old Indian path, now Main street, with his haversack hanging by his side, and his axe and rifle upon his shoulder, saw at once the difficulties and dangers that beset him. He found the red man peaceable and ready to be treated with for a portion of his possessions, but he saw also in the dense forests a deadly foe in the form of wild beasts and reptiles. Looking around him, he saw the sturdy oaks, the lofty pines, the branching and giant hemlocks; the beech, the maple and all other kinds of timber natural to this climate, and, more especially, larger quantities of the beautiful ash, of both varieties. Standing upon the tract which had been pointed out to him as his purchase, or war- ranted tract, he thought of the comforts of that bean- tiful home he had left in the Connecticut Valley for the forests, wild beasts and Indians that surrounded him ; and what a contrast ! The decision had been made, and, almost like the law of the Medes and Per- Hians, was unalterable. He thought of his loving wife and little ones, who were depending upon him for a home and future support and happiness. Here he was ; the first blow had to be struck ; he selects the top of a knoll, or the little platenu just up a little way from the brook, upon which to build his cabin. The first giant hemlock or basswood is felled; the bark is peeled off' in lengths of four, six, or ten feet, as he wants them, to make a shelter until he can get something better. Thus he works till night comes on, when he gathers wood and brush for a sinall eirele of fires, inside of which he can rest secure during the night, from the attacks of the

howling wolves, the hungry bear or the blood- thirsty panther. Thus he works from day to day, until he has a patch of ground cleared, logs enough cut, and of the required length, to build his cabin, when he invites his neighboring pioneers to help him " log up" his mansion. Now, every one knows how a rough log house is made ; therefore we will not describe it. In a few days, or weeks at most, the pioneer family moves in and civilization is estab- lished. For several years their nearest neighbor is beyond the sound of conch shell or tin hora, and neighborhood feuds are unknown. Thus the first industrial blow was struck in what is now the Oranges. From the pioneer log cabin has developed a large and hee-hive-like city. From that first little patch of cleared land has grown the many beautiful farms and gardens embraced in this territory. From the old Indian path has grown the large number ofstreets, broad avenues, the street and steam railroad, im- provements that never entered the most vivid im- agination of the most air-castle-building pioneer of two hundred years ago.

In the clearing up and settlement of this part of Newark, afterwards old Orange township, the first mercantile industry that presented itself to the pio- ncers, who were wondering what to do with the sur- plus timber, was the manufacture of staves and head- ing, from the large quantity of oak and ash timber then standing upon the site of the present city of Orange.

As this part of what is now Essex County was heavily timbered, and of the kind suited for cooper- age purposes, it became a source of profitable revenue for the pioneers who had payments to make upon their land purchases. The market for staves and heading uearly or quite two hundred years ago, was Newark, or rather, "Our town on the Passayak." The purchasers were sloop-owners sailing between that point and the West India Islands. The staves and headings thus split from the oak and ash of what is now the Oranges, and sold to West India traders, were manufactured into sugar aud molasses hogs- heads, and carried to all parts of the then civilized world. This industry was carried on for many years, or until saw mills were introduced, which was well towards the year 1700, or a few years later.

The pioneers that opened this territory came from a land of frame houses and barns, and after a few years' experience in building log houses and barns, felt the necessity of a saw mill whereby their exceed- ingly fine timber could be converted into the kind of lumber they had been accustomed to see in buildings.

Mills, Tanneries and Shoemaking .- The pioneer saw mill, as nearly as can be ascertained, was built on Wigwam Brook, in 1728, by Samuel Harrison, a son of Richard Harrison, one of the pioneers who came here in 1666. A man by the name of Sanford was the carpenter or millwright. The mill stood about sixty rods above where ex-Judge Jesse Williams now

746

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

lives, corner Day and Washington Streets, in the city of Orange.

In 1780, Matthew Williams built the grist mill that stood on the site now occupied by the old stone mill of Judge Williams, on Day Street. In 1840 the pre- sent stone building was erected while the old mill was yet in operation. The present stone walls were built around the outside of the old frame mill, floors and machinery adjusted without interfering with or de- laying the grinding that was being done for cus- tomers. The old mill stands as a monument of for- mer times, and is a link binding two centuries together. It stands on Parrow Brook, and was abandoned for milling purposes several years ago. Capt. Thomas Williams was for many years the " old miller" at the stone grist mill.

Some time during the last quarter of the last cen- tury Col. John Condit built a paper mill about half a mile above what is now Day Street bridge, on Wig- waru Brook. A large business was done at this mill for many years. The foreman of the mill in its palmy days was no less a personage than Charles J. Ingersoll, afterwards United States Treasurer under (General Andrew Jackson's administration. The old mill went to decay many years ago.

Still farther up the Wigwam Brook was the saw mill of Abijah Harrison. This, too, served its time, and went to decay before most of the present genera- tion was born.

Another lumber mill stood still farther up the old Wigwam, built by Matthew Williams. In connection with the saw mill was the Williams' tannery, which for many years was the principal tannery of this sec- tion of country. After serving their allotted time, both were abandoned for the purposes for which they were built, and now scarcely anything remains to mark the spot of these once flourishing business places.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 15

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