History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 165

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 165
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 165

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678

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

since which time a class has been graduated at the close of each school year in June.

Since the organization of public schools in 1851 there have been seren principals, seren presidents of the board, four secretaries, five treasurers, fifty-two members of the board, and one hundred and sixty-eight teachers.

The following are the public school buildings in the city :

Bayard Street, erected 1852; estimated value, $30 ;- 000; seating capacity, 720; primary and grammar school.

French Street, erected 1854; estimated value, $5000; seating capacity, 150; primary school.

Carman Street, erected 1861 ; estimated value, $12,- 000; seating capacity, 400; primary school.

Hale Street, erected 1871; estimated value, $8000; seating capacity, 100; primary and grammar (col- ored).

Guilden Street, erected 1873; estimated value, $20,- 000; seating capacity, 250; primary school.

Livingston Avenue, erected 1875; estimated value, $75,000; seating capacity, 750; grammar and high school.

OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

PRESIDENTS.

James Bishop, April, 1851, to May, 1855,

Henry Sanderson, May, 1855, to May, 1857.

Moses F. Webb, May, 1857, to May, 1862.

Jobn De Mott, October, 1862, to May, 1863.

Hugh N. Wilson, May, 1862, to October, 1862.

David Cole, May, 1863, to May, 1866.

Georgo C. Ludlow, May, 1866, to May, 1878.

Henry L. Janeway, May, 1878, to May, 1882.

SECRETARIES.

llenry Sanderson, April, 1851, to May, 1855.

Dr. Charles Dunham, May, 1855, to May, 1856.

J. G. Sweet, May, 1856, to May, 1857.

Lewis Applegate, May, 1857, to May, 1882.

TREASURERS.

John B. Hill, May, 1855, to May, 1857.

Henry H. Palmer, May, 1857, to May, 1859.

Henry R. Baldwin, May, 1859, to May, 1861.

William Maloy, 1861, to December, 1867.

Lewis Applegate, December, 1867, to May, 1882.

The number of children of school age in the city in 1882 is 6305: females, 3067; males, 3238. Number enrolled, 1818; average attendance, 1743. Expenses for schools for the year ending May 1, 1882: ordinary current expenses, $27,447.62 ; extraordinary expenses, $12,302.13 ; paid teachers, $22,624.50.

Under the new law the colored children have been received into the other schools, leaving the school- house formerly occupied by them on Hale Street vacant.

STATISTICS .- The public school library contains at present 1364 volumes, of which the "Reference Library" contains 77 volumes ; the Miscellaneous Library, 867 volumes; and the George W. Deshler Memorial Library, 420 volumes. The number of books drawn the past year has been nearly fifty per

cent. in excess of that of any previous year, and the character of the books read shows that an improved taste for a better class of literature has been cul- tivated.

Some time since the Board of Education passed the following resolution in reference to the library :

" Resolved, That all givers of money or books to the public school li- brary amounting to not less than twenty dollars shall have their names inserted on the list of honorary patrons, and shall be entitled to all its privileges."

In accordance with the above resolution the follow- ing names have been placed upon the list : Mr. Gus- tavus Auten, Mrs. Lewis Applegate, Mr. Charles D. Deshler.

The amount of money received and expended each year for the library up to the present time is as fol- lows :

Received.

Expended.

1872

$40.00

$44.35

1876 ..

140.36

78.14

1877

110.00

125.14

1878

242.58

251.82

1879

203.97

183.93

1880,

255.62

141.22

1881

241.57

211.83

1882, to May 1

70.40

123.67

Totals ..

$1304.50

$1160.10

Cash on hand ..

$144.40

Rutgers College.1-The Hollanders who settled in the province of New Netherland, comprising the ter- ritory between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, brought with them the love of religion and learning that characterized their mother-country. The mem- ory of the great universities of Leyden and Utrecht, then the most renowned institutions in the world, was a part of their peculiar treasure and glory. It never occurred to them that the care of their churches could be committed to any but men thoroughly educated, not only in general knowledge, but also and cspecially in the constitution and doctrines adopted for the Reformed faith by the National Synod of Dort, 1618-19.

During the entire period of the Dutch supremacy, and for more than a century after the surrender of New Netherland to the English in 1664, it was their custom to call clergymen from Holland, or to send candidates thither for education and ordination. This arrangement did not, however, supply more than one- third the number of ministers needed. At one time, for example, there were only seventeen ministers for sixty churches. And, moreover, while it sometimes failed to secure good men, it was always attended with delay and expense. Several prominent minis- ters, therefore, hoping to effect a gradual change for the better, met in the city of New York, 1737, and drew up a plan for a yearly assembly or " Coetus," which should be composed of delegates, lay and cler- ical, from every church, and which, under the per- mission of the Classis of Amsterdam, should have power in special cases to ordain ministers, as well as to exercise limited jurisdiction over the churches rep-

1 By Prof. T. S. Doolittle, D.D.

679

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

resented. After a delay of nine years the Classis of Amsterdam finally gave its consent to the official or- ganization of the Coetus; but the majority of its members growing restive under their restricted priv- ileges, and feeling sorely the need of a more efficient system of providing the gospel for their brethren in this New World, began to aim at the formation of an independent Classis, and at founding a college or seminary for the education of candidates for the pnl- pit. In 1755 they holdly proceeded to cut loose from the Classis of Amsterdam by organizing an American Classis, and by commissioning Rev. Theodorus Fre- linghuysen, of Albany, to visit Holland to solicit funds from those in sympathy with the American movement for the establishment of an academy. The conservative wing of the Coetus, believing it would be impossible for the Dutch people alone to provide means for training up a learned ministry in this conn- try, and regarding the above proceedings as radical and destructive, withdrew and formed an opposition party under the name of "Conferentie," the Dutch equivalent for Coetus, and meaning an assembly. The warfare between these two parties (both of which, while differing as to methods, were yet animated by the same motive, namely, the desire to secure a learned ministry) was bitter and violent in the extreme, di- viding congregations and often families into hostile and abusive factions.

Mr. Frelinghnysen did not, however, sail for Ho]- land until 1759. How far this progressive spirit and excellent divine succeeded is not known,-he died while returning on ship off Sandy Hook. After long and violent opposition from the Conferentie party, and the rejection of proposals from the Episcopa- lians on the one side to unite with Kings College (which had been established in 1754), and from the Presbyterians to unite with the College of New Jer- sey (now at Princeton, and which had been estab- lished in 1746), the Coetus party undertook in 1769 to embody their plan for an independent institution in a tangible result. The charter was reduced to form, the name of Queen's College, as expressive of loyalty and as an antithesis to the name of Kings College, was decided npon, and a board of trustees was elected.

On March 20, 1770, in the tenth year of the reign of George III., William Franklin, Governor of the province of New Jersey, granted the long-desired charter. Its principal provision declared that the college was founded "for the education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sci- ences, and especially in divinity, preparing them for the ministry and other good offices." Another pro- vision required that there should always be at least one professor or teacher grammatically to instruct the students in the knowledge of the English lan- guage, while all the minutes, rules of order, and financial transactions should be in the "same lan- gnage and no other." In the outset it had been in-

tended to exclude English entirely from the college, bnt the necessity of a change of purpose on this point had forced itself npon the conviction of all but the aged and hopelessly conservative. For although it was considered as late as 1763 "a dreadful innova- tion" that Dominie Archibald Laidlie should be called to New York as the first pastor in the Re- formed Churches to preach in the English language, yet the younger generation in New York and vicinity could not at that date understand Dutch preaching, and in 1770 an enlightened regard for the situation and future growth inspired the founders to make English the leading tongue in their college. Forty trustees were appointed by the charter, including, ex officio, the Governor or commander-in-chief of the colony of New Jersey, the chief justice of the colony of New Jersey, and the attorney-general of the colony of New Jersey.

The seal was to bear the motto, Sol justitice et occi- dentem illustra.

On May 7, 1771, at a meeting of the trustees held at Hackensack, the location of the college, which was desired both at Hackensack and at New Brunswick, was fixed at the latter place, because its citizens, through the influence of Dr. J. R. Hardenbergh and Hendrick Fischer, had come forward with a great amount of subscriptions, and perhaps also because New Brunswick, being larger and situated on the line of travel between New York and Philadelphia, gave higher promise of prosperity for the institution. In October of the same year the long-contending factions of the Coetns and Conferentie were induced, mainly by the agency of Dr. John H. Livingston, to strike hands in fellowship on the basis of the organization of the Dutch Reformed Churches in America into a Synod and five Classes independent of the mother- country, and with power to license and ordain minis- ters. But the Conferentie party so far carried their point that the united body were not to have a theo- logical professorship in connection with Queen's Col- lege, thus defeating the object which had been so dear to the hearts of the Coetus party. "One or more theological professors were to be chosen from the Netherlands, upon the advice of Classis, who were to have no connection with any English acade- mies."

And yet Queen's College, whose proposed establish- ment sixteen years before had been the occasion of the division, became now by its actual establishment the main element in the reconciliation, for the approval by the Classis of Amsterdam of the plan for the union and ecclesiastical independence of the American churches had been given upon the express condition that provision should be made for educa- tion, " as the Church of Holland could not and would not acknowledge or maintain any connection with a Church which did not provide herself with an edu- cated ministry." And Queen's College, though not brought into official relation with the theological

680

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

professorship about to be founded, was nevertheless regarded as the child of the Dutch Reformed denom- ination, and would, it was expected, furnish prepar- atory training to young men on their way to the study of divinity. "The Synod made but feeble attempts, in fact, to secure a professor of divinity, while the trustees with remarkable energy determined to carry out their plan of a combined literary and theological institution." Negotiations to this end were inter- rupted by the Revolutionary war.

The precise date of the opening of the college, owing to the loss of the first book minutes, cannot now be ascertained. "It must have been," says Mr. Bradley in his centennial oration, "prior to 1775, and was probably as early as 1772." Dr. John H. Livingston having declined the presidency, a com- mittee of the trustees was appointed to act as the " faculty." The members of this committee were selected on account of their learning and judgment, and it was their duty to attend the quarterly exam- inations and to recommend candidates to the board for academic degrees. Thus in 1782 it appears from the minutes that Rev. Mr. Froeligh and James Schureman were added to the faculty, and in 1790 Dr. Lewis Dunham and R. C. Chapman. The actual instruction and management of the institution were for many years performed by tutors of the college and teachers of the grammar school. Since the name of Dr. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, who had been exceedingly active and influential in obtaining the charter, appears as president on the diploma of Simeon De Witt under date of Oct. 5, 1776, it is inferred that he had been filling, possibly from the outset and certainly on some occasions, the office of president pro tempore, although he continued to dis- charge · his duties as pastor at Raritan. And not only did this brave and self-sacrificing spirit give instruction in the languages, moral philosophy, and other branches, but in company with Rev. John Leydt he went from door to door through New Brunswick begging money for an endowment. He was a man of great energy and sound judgment, and is entitled to the praise of being the chief founder of the college. His wife was the widow of John Frelinghuysen, and grandmother of Theodore Fre- linghuysen, the subsequent president. Her keen intellect, deep and fervent piety, and helpful sym- pathy in behalf of the young college have made her name honored and cherished among all the families of the Reformed faith. Her son, Frederick Freling- huysen, was the first tutor in the college. He was a man of thorough scholarship, and of abilities that subsequently made him eminent as a lawyer and patriot. Another of the early tutors, and probably Mr. Frelinghuysen's successor, was Col. John Taylor, who continued in the institution with the exception of one or two intervals down to 1793. Col. Taylor, like most of those connected with the college, was devoted to the cause of American liberty. He drilled

the students as a military company, and subsequently took part in the battles at Princeton, Germantown, and elsewhere. He wrote text-books in natural phil- osophy, and rendered efficient service to education in various ways. Under these faithful men, whose hope and courage are always deserving of grateful mention, thirteen students were graduated before 1776. Among these was Hon. Simeon De Witt, who became surveyor-general of the United States and afterward of the State of New York, and by whom the present plan of laying out the lands of our Western domain was devised.

In the fall of 1776, the British troops having taken possession of New Brunswick and burned, it is be- lieved, the original college building, teachers and students were scattered. After a brief suspension of literary exercises the college began a new but migra- tory existence. In consequence of the irregularities likely to be caused by the presence of soldiers its sessions were held now at Millstone and now at North Branch, while the commencement of 1778 was held at New Brunswick. At this time and for some years subsequently the future of the institution was dark enough. The General Synod would only recognize it as a preparatory school, and the value of its promised care over it was much diminished by the appointment of a committee to establish a similar school at Schenectady.

In June, 1785, the trustees united with the consisto- ries of New Brunswick and Six-Mile Run in calling Dr. J. R. Hardenbergh to be at once pastor of the two churches and permanent president of the college. He accepted, and continued in office greatly beloved until his resignation a few months before his lamented death in 1790.

The record of events during this period is of the most meagre character. The country was painfully emerging from the prostration of the Revolutionary struggle. The currency was in a deplorable condi- tion. The citizens of New Brunswick had suffered more than the rest of New Jersey. Their property had been devastated, their business broken up, their churches burned or dismantled, their securities de- preciated. The insignificant funds of the college had been invested in bonds and mortgages, on which poor people could pay neither principal nor interest. It may well be conceived, therefore, that it cost the ' trustees a struggle to rebuild and equip their burnt college. This they accomplished in 1790, locating it on the present site of the Second Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick, where, according to tradition, their former building had stood.

This earliest college building of which anything is definitely known was a two-story frame white house, fronting the north, and with its gable end turned in true Dutch style towards George Street. It was without cupola or belfry, and was as plain and unpretending in its architecture as the simple taste of the day de- manded. This building continued to be occupied by

681

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

the grammar school and college until 1811, when it was sold to the city for a Lancasterian school, and was moved down the hill below George Street, where it still stands, on the north side of Schureman Street.

The position of president pro tempore was occupied about this time first by Rev. William Linn, of the Collegiate Church in New York, and then by Rev. Dr. Ira Condict, who had followed Dr. Hardenbergh as pastor of the church in New Brunswick, and who was eminently active in performing various duties in behalf of the college. Unsuccessful attempts having been made to unite the college with the synodical professorship, or with the College of New Jersey, or to remove it to some other place nearer New York, it was forced on account of financial embarrassments to close its doors in 1795.

Although this first period of Queen's College was troublons, yet it had accomplished good work. There were graduated from it over sixty young men, of whom ten were subsequently licensed by the Dutch Reformed Church, while several others became cele- brated leaders in politics and science.

To Rev. Dr. Ira Condict belongs the credit of orig- inating a new movement in 1807 for the revival of the college. He was a man of untiring energy, pub- lic-spirited, and always ready to make any sacrifice in order to secure a noble object. Under his leader- ship the General Synod agreed to establish a theo- logical professorship in the college, and ten thousand dollars were subscribed towards it in a few days in New York alone. The college was reopened with Dr. Condict first as temporary and then as permanent president. A new, large, and spacious stone edifice was begun in 1807, and so far advanced in 1811 as to be serviceable. Dr. Condict assumed instruction of the highest class, which entered junior. His son, Harrison Condict, became tutor ; Robert Adrain, LL.D., took the chair of mathematics, and Dr. Liv- ingston accepted the professorship of theology. Through the influence of Hon. James Parker, the devisees of the elder James Parker donated five acres of ground, to which was added by purchase another plot of one and one-third acres, which together form the present beautiful campus. Dr. Condict, after having raised over sixty thousand dollars by his own exertions in New Brunswick and vicinity, and given the best strength of his life to the college in manifold directions, died in 1810. During the same year Dr. J. H. Livingston accepted a renewed call to the pres- idency, but as he was mainly interested with his theological classes he did little more for the college proper than to " preside on public occasions and sign diplomas."

The funds were increased, according to the fashion of those times, by a lottery, which was duly authorized by the Legislature, and the proceeds of which amounted to eleven thousand dollars.

At the solicitation of parties interested in a medical college in Duane Street, New York, the trustees iu

1812 appointed the medical faculty of that institution to be a medical faculty in Queen's College, but as this , department never had more than a nominal connec- tion with Queen's College it may be dismissed from further notice.

The number of students was encouraging, but since the church was chiefly interested in the theological professorship, and the trustees were unable to raise means for the completion of the new building and the proper equipment of the literary department, the ex- ercises were suspended again in 1816. Degrees, how- ever, were conferred by the trustees until 1818.

During this period of nine years forty-one students were graduated. Eight of these entered the theologi- cal seminary, and one, Cornelius L. Hardenbergh, a grandson of the first president, became subsequently professor of law in the institution.

CHANGE OF NAME .- As Queen's College had been originated by the Dutch Reformed denomination in the strong desire to provide itself with an efficient and learned ministry, so its revival once more under the name of Rutgers College in 1825 is traceable to the same cause. "Immediately after the death of Dr. Livingston, in 1825, Dr. John De Witt proposed the resuscitation of the college in the hope of increas- ing the number of theological students, and was sec- onded by Dr. Milledoler." The theological depart- ment had been kept running as a distinct affair during the quiescence of the college, and the plan was now to obtain from the church endowments for three pro- fessorships (two of which were already in existence and partially endowed) in the theological seminary, and then to have the three professors give gratuitous instruction, and at the same time to make an effort for independent professorships in the college. The Collegiate Church in New York agreed to pay seven- teen hundred dollars a year for three years, provided that the General Synod should raise twenty-five thou- sand dollars as a permanent fund, and that the col- lege exercises should be recommenced. And the promise was fulfilled. Over fifty thousand dollars were eventually subscribed, of which twenty-seven thousand, contributed by the northern section of the church, were set apart for the new and third profes- sorship. The election of Abraham Van Neste as trustee helped very greatly to bring about this happy result. " The college edifice and lot had been trans- ferred to the Synod in 1825, in consideration of the latter advancing the sum of four thousand dollars to pay off a debt which the trustees had incurred." In September, 1825, an additional covenant was adopted by which the Synod allowed the trustees the free use of such parts of the seminary building, formerly be- longing to the college, as might be necessary, and by which the two institutions became generally more closely united. Dr. Milledoler became president, and professors were appointed. . . . The distribution of duties was as follows: "Moral Philosophy and Evidences of Christianity, to the Professor of Didactic

682

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

Theology ; Belles-Lettres, Elements of Criticism and Logic, to the Professor of Biblical Literature; Meta- physics and Mental Philosophy, to the newly-elected Professor of Church History ; grammatical instruc- tion of the theological students in Hebrew and Greek was assigned to the Professor of Languages; special provision was made for the religious education of the students ; biblical recitations under the conduct of the president, and Sabbath services in the Theological Hall were appointed. The government of the college was intrusted to a board of six superintendents, appointed by the Synod and trustees in equal parts. Its admin- istration was given to a faculty consisting of the presi- dent, professors, and tutors. That the course of edu- cation might be more beneficial, the number of pay students was limited to one hundred. It was deemed expedient to drop the name of Queen's, as it recalled the condition of vassalage from which the nation had been delivered. The present name, Rutgers College, was chosen by the Synod in consideration of the character and services of Col. Henry Rutgers." He gave five thousand dollars towards its endowment. Thirty students attended, and the number was soon increased to sixty. The building was adorned with a cupola, in which a bell was hung, and a grammar school edifice was erected. The library, for which the trustees had appropriated eighteen hundred dol- lars as early as 1815, was increased, a mineralogical cabinet was commenced, and a society of natural his- tory organized by the students. An English and scientific school was established in 1832, under Mr. Mortimer, and a medical school again attempted, which, however, was soon abandoned. Medical de- grees were not conferred after 1835, and only rarely after 1827.

In 1833 the corps of instructors was increased by the election of Rev. Dr. Jacob J. Janeway to the vice-presidency and to an unsalaried professorship of the Evidences of Christianity and Political Economy. And to insure fuller instruction in Hebrew, a profes- sorship of Oriental Literature was created, and its duties assigned to the Professor of Biblical Liter- ature.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 165

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224