USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1 > Part 79
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In the summer of 1871 an enthusiastic young Normal School teacher was engaged to take this Orchard Street School. This teacher worked hard, and soon his reputation as a skill- ful teacher extended beyond the limits of his district, and brought from the academy side many applicants for admission. This soon brought about a crowded school-room, which necessitated large accommodations. A room was rented in a neighboring dwelling to provide for the overplusage of pupils. This fact served to bring, more prominently than ever before, the condition of the schools before the public. Com- munications from interested citizens appeared in the local papers advocating the building of a new school-house and the establishment of a graded school, and the editors threw their weight
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Democrat was notably zealous in his advocacy of better school accommodations. Much oppo- sition was manifested from sources that had become interested in the private school enter- prises of the town. A popular vote in favor of a new building, it was thought, could not be obtained.
In the winter of 1873 the first effort was made to obtain from the State Legislature the passage of a bill that would allow the people of Freehold to secure a new school building. The passage of the bill was secured; but, owing to the lack of a provision in it giving power to dispose of the old school property and other minor points, it was found to be practically inoperative, and the subject was dropped until the following winter, when a bill passed both Houses of the Legislature 1 and became a law, giving full power to the board of trustees of the town of Freehold, acting in conjunction with three other persons chosen by the people by ballot, to build a new and commodious building and dispose of all the old school property. They were further impowered to issue bonds of the school district to the extent of sixteen thou- sand dollars.
In pursuance of this law, in the spring of 1874 a public meeting was called, at which Elihu B. Bedle, John W. Bartleson and George W. Patterson were elected to act with the school trustees, . who were George W. Vanderveer, William Cooper and William E. Conover. These gentlemen immediately set to work to carry out the object of the legislative enactment. An excellent site was secured on Hudson Street, and a large and commodious brick structure was erected upon it. The building committee em- bodied in the new school-house the substantial and healthful, rather than the ornamental. The whole cost of the property, when completed, was about nineteen thousand dollars. The commit- tee worked harmoniously throughout, and served to the entire satisfaction of the community. In the month of January, 1874, the building was
formally dedicated to public use. Addresses were made by Professor Samuel Lock wood, county superintendent, and others. The attendance at these exercises was notably small. The enter- prise of a graded school was as yet tentative, and many withheld their support and even sym- pathy.
THE FREEHOLD GRADED SCHOOL was opened February 4, 1874. John Enright, who had been very successful as teacher in the Orchard Street School, and who was a member of the board of examiners of teachers for Monmouth County, was appointed principal, with Lizzie Havens, Emma Mulford and Sarah Parker as assistants. The school opened with but feeble support from the best citizens, but it soon sprang into popular favor, and at the close of the school year the number of children had increased so that another teacher was engaged for the coming year. Dur- ing the next year (1875) the school grew more and more in favor, and it became necessary to furnish another room. This was done and an additional assistant was employed. During this period the school population remained sta- tionary or nearly so, yet school attendance in- creased surprisingly fast. Before the graded school-house was built three teachers did the work ; in two years after its opening it required six teachers. The reputation of the school was now established. The best citizens of the town had become its patrons, and applications from pupils outside the limits of the school district came pouring in, and notwithstanding the fact that the tuition was made reasonably high, yet applicants had to be turned away for want of room. This demand for admission into the school has been kept up and increased from year to year.
The course of study comprises all the English branches .. Thoroughness in the fundamental branches is a marked feature of the school. Upon the completion of the course of study a handsomely executed diploma is presented to each student. The first regular class was graduated in the year 1879, before a large au- dience of friends and citizens generally. Classes have been graduated annually since that time. The interest in these exercises and the school has increased from year to year, and the graded
1 " An act to enable the Trustees of Frechold School Dis- trict, Number Seven, to sell the present school property and to buy other property and erect a School-House thereon, and to issue Bonds in payment therefor." Approved April 4,.1873.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
school commencements have now become a marked feature of the events of importance in the year. In all, fifty-six students have com- pleted the course of study and graduated from the school, and many of them are filling im- portant and responsible positions in the profes- sions and other walks of life. Many of the undergraduates, as well as graduates, are occu- pying positions as teachers in the schools of Monmouth County.
Mr. John Enright, who is still the principal of the school, labors hard and unostentatiously for the advancement of public education, and deserves well of the public whom he has faith- fully served. Much of the success of the school is due to the district clerk, Mr. Gilbert Combs, who has taken great interest in its wel- fare. He gives to the advancement of the school much of his time, and has the gratitude of the best citizens of the community.
SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, PH.D.,1 was bred in the city of New York, except his professional course, his entire education having been received there. His father was a well-to-do person, somewhat prominent as a politician, but who succumbed to reverses. Tradition has it that the paternal ancestor, in the days of the merry-men all " of Nottinghamshire, was a doughty personage, who entered the lists and did featly achievements with the long-bow." He was an "archer of renown." In the maternal line were two brothers, who were of a Moravian family, which had left Germany in exile for conscience' sake. Each one became the head-master of an endowed school in England. One of these brothers, the grandfather of our sketch, was a man of taste and refinement, an artist and an amateur engraver on copper. His youngest daughter, our sub- jeet's mother, was a lady of deep religious sensi- bility, with a profound love of the religious part of classical English poetry. She would often cite long passages from Milton and Young. But the child lost his mother so early in life that his only knowledge of her appearance is from a miniature on ivory. He first saw the light January 20, 1819. A frail-bodied boy, he was while very young thrown upon his own
resources. An incident then occurring seemed almost prophetic. For some childish service rendered to a gentleman he received a present of an old-fashioned shilling. At that time a custom much in vogue with the few booksellers of the city was to make an ostentatious display of their limited stock in the store-windows. The boy book-worm could tell the window stock of titles of every book-store in the city. In one of them he saw a small book, price one shilling, " The Voyages of Jean François de Galoup, Count de La Perouse." This was the great French navigator, the rival of Captain Cook. With that shilling he bought the book, and La Perouse was literally devoured. How the boy ever learned to read he never knew. But the elders called him an elegant reader, and this fact did for him more than it deserved, as it got him a reputation for a better education than he then possessed. For his callow years he was well read. He had his living to earn, but always kept some book at hand for the spare moments. An old gentleman once caught him in this way poring over an old grammar, which he carried in his pocket. That book he had committed thoroughly to memory. The old man obtained for him a ticket to the Apprentices' Library. The boy's idea of a library was a place or vehicle of knowledge, or intellectual improvement ; hence, when he noticed that almost all the readers called for some work of fiction, usually a novel, he was surprised. Walter Scott was succeeded by a troupe of weaker novelists, who, as being newer, were the favor- ites. When the librarian took down his name for the first time, and inquired what book he desired, he seemed surprised and asked again. The boy wanted " Adams on Electricity,"-an old book that had never been loaned before. The truth was the borrower had had his appetite in that direction whetted by reading the " Life of Benjamin Franklin." The work borrowed was in two ponderous volumes, and quite anti- quated even then. However, they were plodded through, and many notes taken during the reading.
A course of lectures on natural philosophy was given in the institution, which young Lock- wood enjoyed highly. At the close of one of
1 By John Enright.
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these lectures an old gentleman, one of the di- next matriculated at the New York University, from which institution he was in due time grad- rectors, said he had a pleasant fact to communi- cate to the young men. He had a letter in his ' uated as A.B., and three years afterward took the hand written by one of their number, although degree of A.M. He helped make both ends meet up to his junior year by taking chargeafter- noons of the higher mathematics in a ladies' sem- inary,-a really exacting matter, as they did not use the same text-books to which he had been accustomed. At this time he received a note from the old schoolmaster, whom he had for- merly assisted. It inclosed an advertisement it was anonymous, that it expressed grateful- ness for these lectures, and hoped for another course, giving some wise suggestions, that the letter had been read in council, and probably a course as laid out by the writer would be given next season. Then the good old gentleman ex- pressed his delight that any boy should write
Sam. Lockeword.
such a letter. He wished they could know his | cut from the Sun, and the old gentleman urged name, and he went on to predict an intellectual | him to apply. The advertisement read,- and useful career for the author. Then the "Wanted, a person competent to undertake the revision of a manuscript book soon to be given to the press. Address, by letter, 'Author,' Sun Office." buzz went round " Who wrote it?" The real author, half frightened, hurried away, for it seemed to him that they would make him out.
Some years of hard study had gone by, and we find our subject engaged as teacher in a city academy, and in the winter months also teaching night school, then, again, conducting a school of a select character over his own name. He
The proposition seemed to him presumptuous. True, he had written a preface to an arithmetic, of which the old schoolmaster was the author, but nothing more than this had he achieved in the literary line. However, he wrote a note to
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
" Author," and received a reply requesting an in- terview at the Sun office. There, to his astonish- ment, he found himself closeted with Moses Y. Beech, the proprietor of the Sun. The book in ques- tion was " The Wealth and Wealthy Citizens of New York City." It included all who were worth fifty thousand dollars and upwards. But the book was a mere bait. Mr. Beech questioned the young man in a way that brought out more than he himself knew to be in. Said the shrewd old man, " The work is not yet ready ; but you may go home and write me some articles for my paper on such topics as are timely, and I will pay you for those that are used." A war with Mexico was imminent, and that very day a city lawyer had destroyed himself. So he wrote two articles, one "The Mexican War," the other "The Moral of Suicide," and sent them to the office. To his surprise the suicide article ap- peared next morning as the "leader." He had the additional excitement of hearing it com- mented upon by the boarders, who, of course, were ignorant of the author. As "The Mexican War" would keep, it appeared later, but the same day came a note by penny-post requesting the writer to call on Mr. Beech, when the posi- tion of assistant editor was offered and accepted. The work each day began in the afternoon, running late into the night. This, with his col- lege work, was a severe strain on the student.
Mr: Lockwood's mind was set toward the ministry of the Reformed Dutch Church, and upon graduating at the university he left the Sun and entered the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, N. J. He soon found himself on the verge of giving up, for he had become penniless, and the prospect was bad. He took a bold step to raise the sinews of success ; for he went to an old citizen of the town, who was noted for his careful finance, and asked a loan of fifty dollars on his note for thirty days. To his surprise, the old gentleman advanced the money without hesitation. It afterwards appeared that the old citizen was pretty well informed on some On settling in Monmouth County he found that he had left an interesting fossil flora for a region containing relies of an equally interesting fossil fauna, and it was a curious coincidence that as he had discovered a gigantic cryptogam, points of the young man's character and history. However, he had never before taken a student's note ; but Providence smiled, and the note was promptly settled when due. It was the young man's first note, and he has told the writer of | he should now unearth from the Cretaceous clay
this sketch that until it was paid he felt as if he were carrying the debt of some corporation.
Again the clouds gathered blackness, and the student was in a strait whether to go on or stop. In this juncture an advertisement caught his eye in a city journal, offering a premium of one hun- dred dollars for the best local story. Smaller prizes were offered for those of lesser merit. A friend urged him to compete, which he did, producing "The Treasure Hunters " as the result of a two weeks' holiday. The manuscript was intrusted to an acquaintance to deliver; but by a stupid blunder, it was put into the hands of an unscrupu- lous rival, by whom it was kept concealed. The fact came out barely in time to enable the author to obtain it upon demand, and soget it beforethe proper committee. It. won the first prize. That one hundred dollars carried him through his theological course. He was ordained in the church at Courtlandtown, N. Y., in 1850. Thence he went to the church at Gilboa, N. Y., in 1852, and in 1854 he took the pastorate of the Reformed Church at Keyport, N. J.
Mr. Lockwood from early years has been a devoted student of nature. When a pastor in Schoharie County, N. Y .. he made a study of the local geology, which resulted in a discovery that established the grandeur of the acrogen flora of the Devonian period. On this subject Hugh Miller's "Old Red Sandstone," of Scot- land, had aroused great interest, but his idea of the vegetation of the Devonian age scarcely went beyond plants whose stems were about as thick as a pencil. In working out the fossil flora of that part of New York, Mr. Lockwood discov- ered that the acrogens of that age were gigantic, and he deposited in the cabinet of Rutgers Col- lege a section of one of his fossil plants, of thirty-six inches diameter, which was named by Dr. Dawson, Psauronius textilis. He was pre- paring notes and drawings of these fossils to send to Hugh Miller when the tidings came of his sad death.
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a relic of the hugest reptile then known to science, and the first one that showed the close relation of these ancient monsters in their oste- ology to the modern ostrich. Hence, Mr. Lock- wood's famous reptile received from Professor Cope the name Ornithotarsus immanis. In 1866 he demonstrated' the strange fact of that singular fish, the sea-horse, that the male bears on his abdomen a pouch or sack, into which is received the spawn of the female ; there it is hatched, and thence the young fishes are emitted into the water. The paper was published the next year in the American Naturalist, and at- tracted the close attention of scientific men. As the work of an alumnus, the chancellor of the Uni- versity directed to it the attention of the council, who ordered the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to be conferred on the author. At the request of the Lyceum of Natural History, of the city of New York (now the Academy of Sciences), Dr. Lockwood was induced to study the life history of Limulus, the horse-foot, or King Crab. The result, among other things, was the startling fact that this crab is a higher form of the trilobite, that fossil which has been so per- plexing to scientific men. The paper was read to the society in 1869, and published in the American Naturalist in 1870. It was trans- lated into German by Professor Anthon Dorhn, of the University of Jena ; it received flattering consideration from the eminent French zoologist, Milne de Edwards, and was highly compli- mented by the veteran comparative anatomist, Dr. Owen, in a related paper read to the Lin- næan Society, of London. Dr. Lockwood's knowledge of the oyster and the oyster industry is shown in his exhaustive manual on the oys- ter, published in the report for 1883 of the Bu- reau of Statistics of Labor and Industry of the State of Jersey.
Among American scientists much interest was awakened, in 1860, by the discovery of the Scandinavian savants, that the great inland oyster beds of the Jutland fjords and shores of the Danish Islands, supposed to have been left by a change of the sea-level, were actually the leavings of a people of the Stone Age. Hence, they were called kitchen-middings, or food. leavings. Among these shells were found
stone implements. In 1856-57, Dr. Lockwood. made the unique discovery of an American kitchen-midding on the Raritan Bay shore, about a mile and a half northeast of Keyport. There was an inland oyster bed, which the doctor determined to be a kitchen-midding of the Stone Age. Here, year after year, with his children, he explored, making a collection of stone implements and chips. In an article read before the Natural History Society of Rutgers College, he also showed that this kitchen-mid- ding, then not more than half a mile from the water at low tide, was formerly much farther inland. In 1863, Dr. Charles Rau, in a visit to the doctor, was informed by his host of his discovery,-a fact which he hesitated to believe until he took him to the spot. Dr. Rau worked up the matter in an article for the Smithsonian, in report of 1864, in which he says : "Here we have Kjoekken-moedding, in the real sense of the word." Dr. Rau acknowledges his in- debtedness to Dr. Lockwood as the first dis- coverer.
The doctor is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is an honorary member of a number of scientific bodies, including the Societe Belge de Microscope. He has for many years been the secretary of the New Jersey State Microscopical Society and president of the American Postal Microscopical Club. His contributions to science in botany, zoology and microscopy are very numerous. He is one of the staff of writers in the " Standard Natural History," now in course of publication. In popular natural his- tory Dr. Lockwood is regarded as introducing a new school : his style is so fascinating, and yet so rigidly accurate in scientific statement. In that interesting compilation, " A Natural His- tory Reader," Professor James Johonnot speaks of his indebtedness to the "admirable sketches of Rev. Samuel Lockwoood. This accurate observer has a poetic insight and a sense of humor which invests every subject with which he deals with a peculiar human interest."
The first year, especially, of the late war, with its financial distress and general gloom, was a testing time of men ; though quiet and unobtrusive, even to the verge of conservatism,
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
and the pastor of a church, our subject threw himself as a patriot into the necessities of the times. By methods singularly original and in- genious, he caused the raising of money for the first volunteers, at Keyport, and their necessitous families. On another occasion, having accom- panied a squad of volunteers to the camp near Freehold, a setback occurred. Not one of the men would allow himself to be mustered into the service, alleging that they had been de- ceived, as not a dollar of the promised bounty money was forthcoming. All argument had failed, when one who had acted as spokesman said: "If Dominie Lockwood will give his word that the bounty will be paid in a reason- able time, we will sign the muster-roll." The response came like a flash : "God bless you, boys. Give me ten days, and if I am alive, I will put the money in your hands." After a wild hurrah for the dominie, they were mus- tered in. It was a large sum of money to raise entirely by voluntary subscriptions upon per- sonal solicitation ; but it was done, and the pas- tor, on the tenth day, put into the hands of each man twenty-five dollars.
Actuated by his personal knowledge of the distress among the relatives and families of many of those who went from Monmouth County to the war, he went to the field of operations as allotment commissioner, and, with one solitary exception, every Jerseyman he met signed his roll of home remittances.
Dr. Lockwood's proudest role in the history of Monmouth County must be looked for in his educational work. When he came into the county the condition of the public schools generally was very low. A few gentlemen there were who viewed the situation similarly, and who were imbued with the same spirit,-namely, the late principal, Amos Richardson, of the Young
assemblages met in the different villages, the effect was a quiet leavening of the community. Dr. Lockwood worked devotedly on the earliest County Institutes, and, at a request made at one of them, he even undertook to lecture on the needs of the schools in every village of the county. Unable to pay carriage hire, much of his traveling was done on foot in one of the severest seasons known to New Jersey, so that his winter's work was with suffering and with peril, as a dangerous illness ensued. In 1859 he was elected town superintendent for the town- ship of Raritan. A statute of long standing gave the Board of Frecholders of each county the power to appoint a board of examiners, whose duty should be to license teachers. Mon- mouth had never heeded this law. So, in 1865, a law was enacted making it the duty of the Freeholders to appoint, and in default, it should be the duty of the State Board of Education to make the appointment. So, in the spring of 1865, the Board of Freeholders appointed Rev. S. Lockwood and Rev. A. Millspaugh said ex- aminers. The office had a good deal of work, but no pay. The teachers in each township were summoned to meet the examiners in the school-house most central. The examinations were chiefly oral, the candidates standing in line. Dr. Lockwood was much dissatisfied with the first experiments, as too often the individual with the most cheek would appear to advantage over some timid female much his superior. But the harvest of this much sowing was not far off.
Dr. Lockwood had given his earnest labor to the State Teachers' Association in its early days. From this body went a presentment and petition to the Legislature for the appoint- ment by law of a State Board of Education. This was done, and now progress was possible, for this new State Board soon obtained the Ladies' Seminary ; Dr. O. R. Willis, the passage of what was for years called "The founder and long the principal of the Freehold | New School Law." This was in the spring of Institute ; Rev. A. Millspaugh ; and that live 1867. It abolished the office of town superin- tendent and of county examiners, and instituted the county superintendent, with an examining staff. Dr. Lockwood had been elected to the office of town superintendent nine times, and now was honored with the appointment of county teacher of the public school at Farmingdale, W. V. Laurence, who became eminent as a clergymen. For years a county organization of teachers was kept up, which met semi-annually, for a two days' session, an evening being devoted to public addresses in some church. As these | superintendent.
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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.
After a pastorate of fifteen years, in August, 1869, he resigned his care of the church at Keyport in order to devote himself to the edu- cational field now before him, and in 1870 he moved to Freehold, to be more central to his work.
The first examination of teachers held under the new order of things was in July, 1867, . in the grand jury room, Freehold. The en- tire exercises were in writing. The county superintendent had composed the questions and one of his examiners, Spafford W. Murphy, who was skillful as a text printer, had printed each topic on a large sheet, which was hung up in sight of the candidates. There were twenty- seven present, and a feeling of apprehension prevailed. After the stationery was distributed, the superintendent said he would ask their at- tention a few minutes before they began their work. He assured them, in words of gentle- ness, that he was in sympathy with them ; it was a severe ordeal to which they were called ; the situation was trying and new. He said he would narrate a bit of western experience. "A judge, named Coulter, was holding court, and as the offense was so common, and no notice had been taken of it before, it caused surprise that an old man should be put on his trial for cutting some of Uncle Sam's timber ; hence, the opinion prevailed that it would amount to nothing, even in the event of conviction, as only a nominal punishment would be inflicted. The result differed from expectation, as Judge Coulter gave the old man two years' imprison- ment,-in fact, exemplary punishment. The poor fellow, in astonishment, asked if he might be allowed a word, and said, 'Hasn't your honor set the Coulter too deep for new land ?' And now, dear teachers, do your best. I have con- sidered the situation, and will set the coulter for new land." This little speech was an inspira- tion of courage to the timid and of confidence to the suspicious. Comparing the educational present with the past, what a contrast ! Those early County Institutes, with, perhaps, an at- tendance of twenty teachers a day; now, at these gatherings one hundred and eighty-five teachers answering the roll-call. How differ- ent their appearance, too ! then how many were 29
slouchy and slovenly! now, well ordered and commanding respect. The average scholarship of the public school teacher to-day is fifty per cent. over that of those days. Our school sys- tem now is absolutely free; then a rate system prevailed. The illiteracy of the young is by actual individual enumeration in our county considerably under two per cent. When Dr. Lockwood organized the county he caused a careful estimate to be made of the public school property. It went very little beyond twenty thousand dollars. To-day it is not far from four hundred thousand dollars. At that time there was not a graded or High School in the county. Now the one single village with- out such an institution is regarded as the ex- ceptional one in the county. Each year our public schools graduate a large number of pupils whose education is superior to that of the average public school teacher of those days.
As a lecturer, whether on pedagogies or nat- ural science, Superintendent Lockwood is very popular among teachers, and in that capacity he has done institute work in every county of the State. In the great educational exhibit at the Centennial Exposition, he made an archæ- ological exhibit for Monmouth County, which won high praise, and for which he received a medal and diploma from the International Jury of Education. In 1878, nearly broken down with excess of work, the teachers and friends of education in Monmouth County sent their su- perintendent to Europe to visit the Paris Expo- sition and recuperate his health.
Dr. Lockwood is a man of broad views and the most liberal convictions. Narrowness and bigotry have no lodgment in his nature. While reasonably conservative, he has the profoundest respect for the honest opinions of mankind. In his dealings with men, both professionally and in the ordinary every-day transactions of life, he is the very essence of honor. His motives are pure and without reproach, personal feeling in him always giving way to a high sense of duty, directed by the sincerest judgment. He is charitable, in the ordinary meaning of the word, even to a fault, his pity giving ere charity begins. Especially helpful has he been to de-
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