USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 35
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During the first decade of its existence the College of New Jersey owned neither grounds nor buildings, and the early classes were taught in the residence of the President or in convenient rooms. The present Univer- sity buildings form a stately group situated upon a beautiful tract of two
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hundred and twenty-five acres of ground. The most striking building is old Nassau Hall, dating from 1756, its ivy-clad reddish gray sandstone walls redolent of glorious history. Another old edifice is a stone building erected in 1803, which contains the University offices. The others of the early buildings have been previously mentioned.
The material improvements made under the administration of Presi- dent McCosh were of immense importance. In 1869 were erected the Halstead Observatory and the Gymnasium. In 1870 a building was erected for academical class room work, through the benefaction of John C. Green, who named it Dickinson Hall, in memory of the first President of the college. In the same year was erected a dormitory building con- taining fifty-four suites. The funds were donated by members of both schools of the Presbyterian Church, who, to commemorate the reunion of their respective church branches, named it Reunion Hall. The corner- stone was laid by the General Assembly. In 1873 was built the library building, named for Chancellor Green. It was provided for by John C. Green, who had previously created the Elizabeth Fund for the purchase of books. Mr. Green also founded the School of Science in 1873. Univer- sity Hall, a dormitory building, was erected in 1876, and in the following year was built Witherspoon Hall, for similar purpose, and named for an early President of the college. The Observatory of Instruction was built in 1878, Murray Hall in 1879, and Edwards Hall (dormitories) in 1880, Marquand Chapel in 1881, and the Biological Library (presented by the class of 1877) and the Art Museum in 1887.
Marquand Chapel, the gift of Mr. Henry G. Marquand, of New York, is a beautiful structure of brownstone, in shape of a Greek cross. The mural and window decorations are noteworthy. The St. Gauden's heroic bronze high relief of the late President McCosh, erected by the class of 1879, faces the visitor on entering; by its side are the low relief memorial tablet to Professor Joseph Henry and the bronze tablet to Pro- fessor Arnold Guyot, the latter set in a fragment of a Swiss glacial boulder presented by the authorities of his native city, Neuchatel. On the east wall of the southeast corner of the chapel is the memorial tablet to Rev. James Ormsbee Murray, first Dean of Princeton University, presented to the University in November, 1901. This tablet consists of rose-colored Numidian marble, upon which is a medallion portrait in bas-relief of white marble, surrounded by an embossed wreath. The north and south win- dows are in memory of Frederick Marquand, of the class of 1876, and William Earl Dodge, of the class of 1879. The west window is the gift of Mrs. T. Harrison Garrett, of Baltimore, in memory of her son, Horatio
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WV. Garrett, of the class of 1895. The daily morning services and Sunday vespers are held in this chapel.
Of more recent date, and most beautiful in construction and decora- tion is Alexander Hall, the gift of Mrs. Charles B. Alexander. This is used for commencement and class day exercises, public lectures, and other university gatherings of a general character. The auditorium is arranged with sloping floor and high gallery, so that an audience of fifteen hun- dred may be comparatively near the speaker. The rostrum and President's chair are finished in colored marbles and polychromatic mosaic. Behind the rostrum is a row of mosaic wall pictures illustrative of the Homeric story. A large organ stands in one of the small galleries. The building is constructed of granite and brownstone in the Romanesque style of western France. The front toward the south exhibits a large rose-window beneath a gable roof. Beneath the window is a seated figure of Learning, on one side of which are allegorical figures of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Poetry, Music and Belles Lettres, and on the other are Oratory, Theology, Law, History, Philosophy and Ethics. There are other sculptures about the rose-window and in the niches around the ambulatory.
After the accession of President Patton to the Presidency, numerous additional buildings were erected.
Albert B. Dod Hall, built in 1890, by Mrs. David Brown, of Prince- ton, in memory of her brother, Professor Albert Baldwin Dod, of the class of 1822, is in Italian style, the body stone of granite with trimmings of Indiana limestone, while the columns flanking the entrance are of Georgia marble. The small amount of carving over the main entrance is Byzantine. The building has accommodations for one hundred students.
David Brown Hall, a dormitory of fifty suites, is another valuable gift from Mrs. Brown, and was erected in 1891. It is modeled after a Florentine palace in the Italian renaissance style and forms a hollow square of four stories enclosing a courtyard. The first three stories are of granite and the foundation is Pompeiian brick.
Blair Hall, a sesquicentennial gift from the late Hon. John Insley Blair, was the first representative of the style of architecture which has since been adopted for the later Princeton dormitories. The style is the Norman, or English collegiate. Blair Hall is built of Indiana limestone, - and is one of the largest dormitories on the campus, comprising ninety- eight suites. The square massive central tower is pierced by an archway which, with the terraces and flight of steps, forms the entrance to the cam- pus from the southwest.
Stafford Little Hall, the gift of the Hon. Henry Stafford Little of the class of 1844, is the newest and most complete of the dormitories. It
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was erected in 1899, and its seventy-two suites have the advantage of all the conveniences of a thoroughly appointed dormitory building. A sec- ond Stafford Little Hall, the gift of the same generous benefactor, is to adjoin the first, thus forming, with Blair Hall at one end and the new Gymnasium at the other, a series of architecturally harmonious buildings marking the western confines of the campis.
University Hall was originally planned as a hotel, but now serves as a dormitory. The main hall on the ground floor is used for concerts, pub- lic meetings, dinners, etc.
Two other dormitories are the Upper and Lower Pyne building's, erected by M. Taylor Pyne, of the class of 1877.
The most important recent building is that built for the University Library, by the Pyne estate of New York City-a splendid edifice in per- pendicular Gothic style, in quadrangular form, after the fashion of an Oxford College building. The various book collections (in the main li- brary and in other buildings) aggregate 239,656 volumes, of which 68,400 are contained in the library of the Theological Seminary. The various departments of geology, paleontology, archaeology, biology and ornithology have excellent collections, and the museum of historic art is wonderfully comprehensive.
In 1902 the faculty and instructors of Princeton University num- bered 101, and the officers and curators were fifteen. The students num- bered 1,354, representing forty-one States and Territories, with four from Great Britain, three from Turkey, and one each from Japan, China, Ger- many, Holland, Egypt and Canada.
A remarkable fact in the history of Princeton University is that nearly all the Chief Justices and Associate Justices of New Jersey who re- ceived collegiate education came out of it, and this serves to indicate how useful the institution has been in preparing men for the most important fields of effort. It is also peculiarly interesting to note that, with one ex- ception, every Chief Justice of the State since the Revolution has been a Presbyterian, and the large majority of the Associate Justices have also been attached to the same denomination, many of them holding the office of Elder.
Yet Princeton, while dominated by a deeply Christian spirit, has never been a denominational school; no creed has ever been taught within its walls, nor has any proselyting effort ever been exerted. Among its faculty and Trustees have been and are adherents of various religious sects, as have been and are many of its alumni, as Meade. Mellvaine, Hobarts and Johns, all Bishops in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and
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many more conspicuous examples could be given were it necessary to the subject.
RUTGERS COLLEGE.
The founding of Rutgers College grew out of the urgent necessity for ministers to supply the growing demands of the Reformed Dutch Church. From the coming of the Hollanders until more than a century after New Netherland had come under English control, its ministers were brought from Holland. But the need was far greater than could be met ; not more than one-third the nuniber of ministers desired could be thus procured, and at one time, while there were sixty churches, the ministers numbered only seventeen. A Coetus was formed, and to this was given power to ordain ministers, under certain restrictions, but this method was unsatisfactory in various respects, and in none more conspicuously than in the want of pro- vision for what was most earnestly desired-a constant succession of lib- erally educated men for the ministry.
In 1755 an American Classis was organized, and the Rev. Theodorus Frelinghuysen, of Albany, was commissioned to visit Holland for the pur- pose of procuring means for the establishment of a school of learning. His going was, however, deferred until 1759, and what his encouragement was remained unknown, for he died while on his return voyage and when within sight of his destination.
Meantime, the projectors of the school received overtures from Kings College and from the College of New Jersey, both of which were desirous of absorbing an element which they looked upon as promising of rivalry. These were declined, and an organization was formed (1769) under the name of Queen's College. March 20, 1770, Governor William Franklin granted a charter creating a board of forty trustees, including (ex-officio) the Governor, the Chief Justice and the Attorney General of the Province. The document declared that the college should be "for the education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sciences, and especially in divinity, preparing them for the ministry and other good offices," and also provided that there should always be at least one pro- fessor or teacher to give instruction in English, and that all the records of the institution should be kept in that language and in no other. This was a long step forward, for in the inception of the enterprise its pro- moters had considered only the conditions of those of their own age, whose mother tongue alone was familiar and grateful to them. But fif- teen years had now intervened, and a younger generation of their own blood were as unfamiliar with Dutch as they themselves were with Eng- lish, and in their interest, and with conception of the future, all but a few had given their approval of the charter provision as to language.
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The Trustees met May 7, 1771, at Hackensack, whose people greatly desired that the college should be there established. But Dr. J. Harden- bergh and Hendrick Fisher made representations as to the greater desira- bility of New Brunswick, then a place of considerable importance, and re- inforced their arguments with one another altogether unanswerable --- a liberal subscription-and New Brunswick was declared to be the seat of the new institution.
The exact date of the opening of Queens College is not ascertaina- ble owing to the non-discovery of the early records. Mr. Bradley placed it as prior to 1775, and probably as early as 1772. Dr. John H. Livingston declined the Presidency, and at the outset the teachers were members of the Board of Trustees, but it has been 'ascertained that Dr. Hardenbergh was acting as President in 1776, as appears from a diploma under his sig- nature, and bearing date of October 5th of that year. No man could have been more active than was he. Although he was at the same time pastor of the church at Raritan, he gave instruction in the Languages, Moral Philo- sophy and other branches, and he (with the Rev. John Leydt) made per- sonal appeals throughout the neighborhood for endowment funds. The first tutor in the college was Frederick Frelinghuysen (a stepson of Mr. Hardenbergh), who was an accomplished scholar, and subsequently became a man of great prominence. Another early day tutor was John Taylor, who wrote some excellent text-books on natural philosophy. He was also an ardent patriot, and drilled his students in military tactics, and he him- self participated in the battles of Princeton and Germantown. Under the instruction of these men thirteen students were graduated prior to 1776, and one of these, Simeon DeWitt, subsequently became United States Surveyor-General and devised the method after which the western public lands were laid out.
In the autumn of 1776 the British army was in possession of New Brunswick, the school was disrupted, and its first building was presumably burned during this time. Subsequent scholastic sessions were held in Mill- stone and North Branch, and again at New Brunswick in 1778, when com- mencement exercises were held. In 1785 Dr. Hardenbergh became perma- nent President, and he served most capably in that position until failing health obliged him to resign, and his death occurred a few months later, in 1790.
The college was impoverished during the Revolutionary War, and it was only after severe struggling that the Trustees were enabled to erect a building in 1790. This was a two-story frame house, without a cupola or belfry, and was built (it is believed) on the same ground upon which the original college building stood-the ground now occupied by the Second
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Presbyterian Church. In 1795 the college was closed on account of want of means. A good work had been accomplished, however-more than sixty students had been graduated, ten of whom became ministers in the Reformed Dutch Church, while several others arrived at distinction in pub- lic life, in science and literature.
In 1807 the college was revived under the inspiration and through the earnest personal effort of the Rev. Dr. Ira Condict, who became President and served in that capacity until 1810, when he died. His work in con- nection with the re-establishment and conduct of the college was eminentiy useful. Through his instrumentality the General Synod agreed to establish a theological professorship, and $10,000 were subscribed in New York City for the support of the chair, to which was appointed Dr. J. H. Living- ston. Dr. Condict taught the most advanced college classes, and the other members of his faculty were his own son, Harrison Condict, as tutor, and Robert Adrian, LL. D., instructor in mathematics. This was the highest approach as yet toward the dignity of college establishment, and the ma- terial improvement was commensurate with it. Hon. James Parker pro- cured from the heirs of his father a donation of five acres of ground, to which was added by purchase an adjoining tract of one and one-third acres, and these form the present beautiful campus. Dr. Condict secured upwards of sixty thousand dollars in and near New Brunswick, and this sumi was increased by about eleven thousand dollars procured by means of a lottery (a no unusual method for such purposes in those days) under authority of the Legislature. The erection of the college building-a substantial stone edifice-was begun in 1807, and in 1811 its construction was so far advanced as to justify its occupancy.
After the death of Dr. Condict, Dr. Livingston was installed as Presi- dent, but his interest in his class in theology claimed the larger share of his attention. At the same time the Trustees were unable to procure means for completing the building and to properly support the college, and in 1816 the classes were suspended. During this period forty-one students were graduated.
President Livingston died in 1825, and Dr. John DeWitt proposed the resuscitation of the college. The theological department had been main- tained while the college proper was in a quiescent condition. More than $50,000 were subscribed for the support of the theological department, with the understanding that the three professors should give gratuitous literary instruction. About the same time the college property was trans- ferred to the General Synod, which defrayed a debt incurred by the Trus- tees. The college was granted free use of certain portions of the building. Dr. Milledolor was made President, and a course of study was provided
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for, covering all departments of a ministerial education. A cupola with a bell was added to the building, the library was increased, a mineralogical cabinet was commenced, and a natural history society was formed by the students. The name of the institution was changed to that of Rutgers Col- lege, out of gratitude to Colonel Henry Rutgers, who had made a consider- able subscription toward the endowment fund. The school now numbered sixty students.
In 1835 the last medical degree was conferred, and the medical school, which had been irregularly maintained, was abandoned. In 1840 President Milledolor resigned and was succeeded by Abraham B. Hasbrouck. Be- tween 1825 and 1840 the number of students graduated was two hundred and fifty-eight, of whom seventy-one were licensed by the Reformed Dutch Church. Many others became conspicuous in public life and in the learned professions. In the class of 1836 alone were Joseph P. Bradley, afterward an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court; Frederick G. Frelinghuysen, who became a United States Senator; William A. Newell, who became Governor of New Jersey, and distinguished himself in con- nection with the Life Saving Service; Cortlandt Parker, who became one of the most eminent lawyers in the State; and George W. Coakley, who was for years a member of the faculty of the University of New York.
The relations between the College and the Synod were partially sun- dered in 1840, and larger provision was made for the collegiate work proper. Additional buildings were erected, new professorships were cre- ated, and the endowment fund was increased. In 1862 occurred the death of Theodore Frelinghuysen, who had been President for some years, and he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. William H. Campbell. In 1863 the Rutgers Scientific School was established to meet the demands for more thorough instruction in scientific and practical studies, and the following year the State College of Agriculture (noted in the chapter on "Agricul- ture") was created by the Legislature and made a part of the Scientific School. In 1865 matters were finally adjusted between the College and the Synod, and the former became independent and non-sectarian.
In 1870 was celebrated the centennial anniversary of the college, and this was made the occasion for a determined effort to place the institution upon a substantial financial foundation. Under the masterly direction of President Campbell nearly $150,000 was subscribed, and during a few years following various substantial bequests were made to the endowment fund.
Dr. Austin Scott succeeded to the Presidency of the college in 1890. He was graduated from Yale in 1869, took his Master's degree from the University of Michigan in 1870, was made a Doctor of Philosophy at
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Leipsic in 1873, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Prince- ton University in 1891.
The old "Queen's College," built in 1808-9, occupies the central po- sition of the group of buildings, and has an air of antiquity which is almost awesome. It contains the splendid Henry Janeway Weston Memorial Collection of books, engravings and curios relating to Napoleon I, depos- ited in a room fitted for the uses of the students, particularly those pur- suing certain elective courses in history. This valuable collection was. given by the late Mrs. Katharine Weston, who furnished the room, and at her decease left a sum to provide for its maintenance.
The Fine Arts Building was erected in 1841-2, and was formerly used as the residence of the President. It contains the Thomas L. Janeway Memorial Collection, illustrative of the topography, art and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. This was the gift of the heirs of Dr. Thomas L. Janeway, of the class of 1863.
Van Nest Hall was erected in 1845, and was named for Abraham Van Nest, Esq., a liberal Trustee, in recognition of his services and gifts to the college. In 1893 it was beautified by the addition of a stone porch, the gift of Mrs. Ann Van Nest Bussing, daughter of Abraham Van Nest, who at the same time refitted the eastern portion of the second story into a handsome hall for the regular and occasional exercises of the students in elocution. During the same year the Trustees added a third story to the original building, creating a large and well-lighted room for the use of the classes in draughting.
The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory, erected in 1865, is a two-story brick building with revolving dome. It contains an equatorial refracting telescope and all other necessary equipments.
The Geological Hall, erected in 1871, contains all necessary philo- sophical lecture apparatus. The most recent building is the Kirkpatrick Chapel and Library, of brownstone, after French Gothic models of the fourteenth century. The library comprises 42,656 volumes.
Rutgers College comprises two schools, the Classical and the Scien- tific, whose relations are so close that the facilities of both are open in large part to students of each. In the Classical School the various courses lead on the one hand to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and on the other to the degree of Bachelor of Letters. In the Scientific School each of the five courses leads to the degree of Bachelor of Science. All courses re- quire four years for their completion.
CHAPTER XII.
BENCH AND BAR.
Whatever the conflict between the English and the Dutch for pos- session of the territory in which was included what is now New Jersey, and whatever the awkward situations growing out of the claims of rival grantees or proprietors-these are not of great moment with reference to the topic now in hand. The important fact remains that the English sys- tem of jurisprudence alone secured a firm and enduring establishment. That exaggerated powers were assumed and exercised by servants of the crown is true, but these conditions were incident to the times.
Under the Dutch rule, local government was of a crude and patri- archal nature. Governor Kieft was a believer in government by procla- mation, and soon after his arrival he had the trees and fences in and around New Amsterdam covered with proclamation placards ordaining all sorts of regulations, even prescribing the hour when people should go to bed and when they should arise to pursue their usual vocations. He was quite a fussy tyrant, too, and interfered in all sorts of ways with the private af- fairs and arrangements of his subjects. His conduct more than once called down the denunciation of Dominie Bogardus in the pulpit, and he re- taliated by causing his soldiers to beat their drums and play all sorts of noisy pranks outside the church, so that the good clergyman had to con- fine himself to moderate language for the sake of being permitted to preach in peace. The Governor was also a court of last resort in all dis- putes, even the most trifling.
Governor Stuyvesant, who succeeded Kieft, was of more equable dis- position, yet he was jealous of his authority. Under him the town sys- tem of Kings and Queens may be said to have developed, and Flatbush, Flatlands, Newtown, Flushing and Hempstead arose under his signature, but he would not permit them to exercise self-government or permit their Schepens to be more than figureheads. In short, while the law permitted these municipalities to be formed, he made it his business to see to it that
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his wishes and views were paramount to those of Schepens or people. This the Long Island communities fought against, and on December II, 1653, delegates from each of the towns met and drew up a protest against Stuyvesant's methods, which they addressed to the Governor and Council and "to the Council of the High and Mighty Lords the States General of the United Provinces." In the course of it they said :
"We acknowledge a paternal government which God and nature has established in the world for the maintenance and preservation of peace and the welfare of men, not only principally in conformity to the laws of nature, but according to the law and precepts of God, to which we con- sider ourselves obliged by word and therefore submit to it. The Lord our God having invested their High Mightinesses the States General, as his ministers, with the power to promote the welfare of their subjects, as well of those residing within the United Provinces as those on this side of the sea, which we gratefully acknowledge; and having commissioned in the same view some subaltern magistrates and clothed them with authority to promote the same end, as are the Lords Directors of the privileged West India Company, whom we acknowledge as Lords and patrons of this place, next to your Lordships, as being their representatives."
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