USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The history of Newark, New Jersey : being a narrative of its rise and progress, from the settlement in May, 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut to the present time, including a sketch of the press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878 > Part 32
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While, as the foregoing exhibit clearly indicates, religious institu- tions have continued to receive, as from the first, the hearty and generous support of the people of Newark, secular instruction has in no degree been neglected. We have in an earlier chapter traced the rise and growth of education here, and have seen that the founda- tions of the present public school system, which has come to be one of the very brightest jewels in the crown of Newark's glory, were laid about the time the city succeeded the town ; but it was many years later before our educational structure began to assume its present important and imposing character. In the early days there was much opposition to the public school system, but time vindicated the wisdom of its establishment. Under an act of the Legislature the Board of Education was first organized in 1858, the first President of the Board being Dr. S. H. Condict. In 1860 there were maintained in the city one high school, consisting of two departments, one for each sex, with four hundred pupils, selected semi-annually from the first classes in the grammar schools; ten
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NEWARK SCHOOLS IN 1876-THE GERMANS.
grammar schools with two departments each; eleven primary schools; three primary industrial schools ; five evening schools, four for males and one for females ; one Saturday normal school and a school for colored children. The number of pupils enrolled was about 10,000 and the total expense about $53,000 annually. The number of teachers employed was 112. Ten years later there were established eleven grammar schools, the attendance being about 13,000. Of 169 teachers employed 146 were females. The total amount raised for school purposes was $150,577.43, the value of public school property being $463,500. In 1876 the total value of school houses, sites and school furniture was officially stated to be $1,015,000. The total expenditures for the same year were $208,032.85, and the number of pupils registered 18,464, of which number 1,108 were attendants at evening and normal schools. Independent of the public schools there has long been a large number of private schools supported by tuition fees as in the days before the introduction of the public school system. Among these are several whose curriculums are collegiate in their scope.
As early as 1856 the German inhabitants of Newark matured a plan to establish schools under their own control, wherein, in addition to a good English education, children would also be taught the tongue and literature of the Vaterland. A preliminary meeting of Germans was held on March 6th, 1856, and a few weeks later the nucleus of what is now the Green Street School was formed, and an association organized of which Fritz Anneke was President ; Heinrich Schoppe, Secretary ; Jacob Widmer, Treasurer, and Messrs. Nenninger, Ill, Huber and Umbscheiden, Trustees. The school they established grew greatly in favor among the Germans and was most generously sustained, so that soon the conductors of the enter- prise were encouraged to establish several other similar schools. In 1868 the erection of a new and commodious building in Green . street was begun, and finished before the close of the year at a cost of $16,000. The opening formally took place on November 15th. Steps were then taken to elevate and broaden the system of instruction. The total amount of money spent annually by the Germans of Newark for the support of their own exclusive schools is about $27,000-a fact that speaks volumes for their desire to place their children in possession of the amplest educational opportunities.
311
THE SPECULATIVE ERA-THE CRASH OF '73.
Following the close of the war an epidemic of recklessness and extravagance in public and private expenditures broke out every- where in the land. Newark was no exception to the rule. Vast sums of money were spent-many thought squandered-on public improvements which were afterwards declared to be entirely unnecessary, at least for many years to come. As it was with the use of public funds so it was with those of a private character. Corporations and individuals became inoculated with the virus of speculative recklessness and gross imprudence. Excessive borrow- ing dulled "the edge of husbandry," and loans lost too often both , themselves and friends. Then came the change, the turning of the tide and the rushing outward of the mighty waters. From the apparently unexampled prosperity of the years immediately suc- ceeding the close of the war there came a change, a period of hardship and disasters unparalleled in its duration and extent. As early as 1872 there were symptoms of the coming storm, but it was not till 1873 that the first great financial crash came, the tumbling down of nearly a score of well known banking firms in New York and elsewhere. Thenceforward matters in the financial, commercial and industrial world generally changed only from bad to worse, until here in Newark, as well as elsewhere, strong, sturdy. stalwart and honest but hungry workingmen gathered in public places and revived the cry of 1857-" We ask not alms, but work, that our wives and children may not starve!" In New York, and nearly all the other centres of trade and industry throughout the country, bank after bank, firm after firm and individual after individual went down, swept to ruin as are trees in the way of the Alpine avalanche. Disasters " followed quick and followed faster " until the wrecks and ruins of erstwhile strong business concerns were-
" Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallambrosa, where the Etrurian shades High over-arched imbower."
As regards frauds, defalcations and betrayals of trusts, public and private, no city in the Union, great or small, is able to present a whiter record during the period under consideration than Newark. A few reputations, some public and some private, were drawn into the whirlpool of destruction, and errors of judgment and failures to foresee the future were not infrequent; but the fact remains that
312
THE " LITTLE LEAVEN" OF PURITAN TEACHING.
from 1873 to 1878 not a single important public official, except one, was proven to have laid unlawful hands on the public purse. Nor, in the financial and commercial circles of the city, was there a single important failure or suspension, except one, where the cause was shown to be anything worse than mismanagement. In its comparative freedom from plundering officials and defaulting bank and other trust association officers, Newark stands singular among the leading cities of the Republic. At least as regards the estab- lished and representative institutions, there cannot be recalled during the period in question a solitary officer, from a President down to a messenger, who has betrayed his trust. Such, indeed, is the enviable reputation of the city at home and in outside States that its bonds are most cagerly sought after. The bonds of but few municipalities secure prices as high as do those of the city of Newark.
To what is Newark indebted most largely for this comparative freedom from the besetting vices of the time? Above all other things to that conservative character to which reference has been made, to the bequeathed and innate love of sturdy honesty and principle among her people, and to the Puritan spirit which still obtains in a subdued form among the many times multiplied descendants of the Argonautic pioneers from Connecticut two centuries ago. Still, as when the population was a few thousands, the "little leaven" of Puritan thought, teaching and custom transmitted from one -generation to another "leaveneth the whole lump." A venerable descendant of Obadiah Bruen, second on the list of Milford emigrants in 1666, is authority for the statement that within his knowledge a few years ago there were living in Newark and its vicinage descendants of forty-eight out of the entire sixty- five original settlers. These, though numerically small, are large and powerful enough to still exercise a controlling influence in shaping the general habits, customs, character and government of the community, even though it now includes in its population of 122,000 about 70,000 inhabitants either born in foreign lands or of foreign born parentage. The remainder of the population includes thou- sands of inhabitants who came hither from other States, so that of those whose forefathers founded Newark the number here is comparatively small-probably not more than from eight to ten thousand.
And now, having nearly completed our task-having traced the
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MILITARY PARK AND VICINITY.
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NEWARK-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
development and growth of Newark from its foundation in 1666 by a handful of New England Puritans-having seen the wilderness and its aboriginal inhabitants give way to the Christian civilization of the white man and blossom into a beautiful home of the Albanian fathers-having watched the quiet hamlet change into the thrifty village, next into the bustling town, and, finally, into an important centre of industry, population and wealth-having, in a word, observed how the little one became a thousand, and how the small one spread out into a strong and influential city, it is worth while, perhaps, to pause and consider what Newark is and what it yet may be-its actual present and its probable future.
First, then, what of Newark as it is-what of its weakness and its worth, its strength and its character?
It is said that Newark lacks enterprise, that it is slow and " old fogyish," and that its ruling element is prone to cling to systems and methods of the past, rather than to spring forward with the . progressive spirit of the present. That there is some basis for the accusation is not to be denied. The city is yet unable to attract the eye of the visitor with a single imposing public building. It has no art gallery, no public statues, no monuments or fountains. Out of about one hundred and twenty miles of streets there are paved only about twenty-two miles, and even that extent is wretchedly paved in the main. But, after all, it is a question if this slow or conservative spirit has not proven a blessing in disguise. During a period of appalling public and private demoralization, a long drawn out ยท saturnalia of turpitude, when "to be honest, as this world goes," was "to be one man picked out of ten thousand "-throughout an era of sickening frauds, defalcations and trust betrayals on the part of public officials and persons occupying important fiducial positions -- this conservative spirit spared Newark the shame and disgrace which overtook many of her sister cities whose marvelous enterprise often served as a subject of admiration for superficial commentators, and enabled her to pass through the fierce furnace of malversation with scarcely the smell of fire upon her official and fiducial garments.
So much for Newark, past and present. Now for the Newark of the future. Will it advance or will it recede? Will its population, its wealth, its industry and its influence increase or will they diminish ? There are those who take the darker side and prophesy a decadence henceforward ; who insist that the sun of Newark's prosperity and
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CONTIGUITY TO NEW YORK-OLD AND NEW MARTS.
greatness has not only reached its meridian, but has slowly started on the decline. The arguments advanced to sustain these discour- aging views are (1) that Newark is too near New York, the American metropolis, to permit of its ever becoming a really great city, and (2) that important fields of labor which once it largely monopolized, such as the manufacture of leather and leather goods, clothing, &c., are now extensively occupied by Newark's former markets, the South and the West. As to the first point, the question at once suggests itself, when was Newark less near New York? In point of fact, the closer the metropolitan city of New Jersey has been drawn to the Empire City by the iron grasp of the railroad, the greater has been the increase of population and manufactures. When, forty years ago, it took nearly two hours to span the distance between the two cities, the population of Newark was about 20,000. Now, when the distance is nearly reduced to half an hour's travel, or when Newark , is practically nearer to the business heart of the great city than is . New York's own geographical centre (Newark being joined thereto by no less than 198 trains daily over four lines of railroads), the population is more than six times greater. In other words, as railroad facilities have increased, so has our population. Contiguity to New York would seem, therefore, to be an infinitely greater benefit to Newark than an injury. The more the metropolis grows the more it becomes a monster warehouse, the grand bazaar of the continent, and consequently the more demand there is for an adjacent workshop correspondingly extensive. Brooklyn is seven miles nearer New York than Newark, yet it has been largely built up, rather than blasted, by its elder brother. So long as Newark can furnish economical homes for those who cannot afford to dwell in the metropolis, and can provide cheap and convenient workshops to supply the markets of the latter, the prosperity and increase of Newark will borrow from the prosperity and increase of the great city of Manhattan Island.
Touching the second point, the loss of old marts for our manu- factures, it is true that neither the South nor the West take from us the large supplies of former days; but it is also true that other markets have opened up to us and give sure promise of increase. Newark manufacturers of boots, shoes, leather, machinery and other branches of industry now send wares not only to all parts of the Union, but to Europe, Cuba, the West Indies and South America.
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THE DEEP VISTA OF THE FUTURE.
Our shoe manufacturers are now able to compete with the cheap labor of Germany. Our cutlery and edge tools have begun to grow in favor and demand even in the country which has so long boasted of its Sheffield and its Birmingham. British machine shops are no longer the sole furnishers of engines and machinery to Cuba, South America, Japan and China ; Newark has a growing share of the trade. Considering, then, the constantly developing markets at home and abroad, the marvelous genius of our people to invent economies for labor and thereby cheapen production-the skill, industry and thrift of our artisans, the plenitude of rapid transit, and the great desirability of the city as a location for homes and factories, it must be clearly manifest to the thoughtful that the sun of Newark has not set, that its star as a manufacturing centre is not on the wane, but that its future, under a restored state of general prosperity, with improved commercial, navigation and financial laws, and wisely directed energy and enterprise on the part of her own manufacturers, is radiant with the brightest promise. Now, as we trace these lines, all America is under a financial and commercial cloud, deeper and darker than any ever witnessed before in the history of the Republic; but it is always darkest before the dawn. Already the clouds are breaking and the silvery linings begin to peep out as harbingers of hope and cheer. Once the complication of disorders long oppressing the country has been removed and a normal state of healthfulness sets in, Newark will be among the first to feel the impetus of improvement, and she will go on prospering and to prosper, spreading out her lines until she becomes the first city in the Union in extent of manufactured products, and perhaps the sixth or seventh in point of population, wealth and influence. Frugality in the cost of local government, securing a low rate of taxation and cheap rents, will invite population among us ; liberal encouragement to manufacturing capitalists disposed to come and establish here, in a spirit similar to that which the founders of the town manifested towards handicraftsmen, will be sure to produce gratifying results.
To the historian is allotted the duty of recalling and collating the events of the past ; to the statesman that of studying the past and present and piercing with the eye of foresight the deep vista of the future. Already the gift of prophecy has been exercised to the extent of a declaration that the day is not very far distant when the
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SUMMARY OF CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS.
vacant spaces between most of the towns of Essex and of Union Counties will be built up; when Elizabeth and Newark will be practically united, and when Newark will be the happy home of a third of a million of people, and a seat of industrial art famed the world over. The nearness of that day is a question which rests largely with those who have succeeded to the places of the founders of the town-those who mould, those who constitute and those who guide " the town's mind "-the men of wealth, the men of influence, and the men of broad mental grasp, whose enterprise is directed not merely to the successes of the present but to the great harvest of the years to come. "The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day ; it is for a vast future."
In summing up the true character and achievements of this ancient seat of congregated industry, of Christian civilization and of sturdy character and worth, the fact must not be lost sight of that over and above the example of thrift, energy and general excellence it has at all times set to its sister cities of America, Newark has been a distinguished contributor to the glory and greatness of the country and the Republic from its foundation upwards. In the field, whenever the liberties of the people were imperilled, or the integrity of the nation was menaced-from Montgomery's ill-starred assault on Quebec to the decisive surrender at Appomattox -- the patriot sons of Newark have invariably been present. With "a voice potential " Newark has been represented in the councils of the nation and of the State by a long list of distinguished men. One of her sons-one, alas! whose conceded brilliancy and greatness are shrouded in the dark cloud which history (that history which is not always generous or impartial) has thrown about his life and character-was Vice-President of the United States. Another-one whose name is never spoken but with affectionate remembrance by all who knew the man-was a beloved and honored Speaker of the National House of Representa- tives. Still others of her sons have been Senators, Representatives in Congress, Federal Judges, Governors, Legislators and State Jurists of the highest distinction. The. memorable crossing of the Delaware by Washington's "ragamuffin army" and the country- saving victory at Trenton were the result of a council at which, by invitation of "the Father of his Country," a Newark patriot-pastor assisted. A century later, two eminent citizens of Newark exercised
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OTHER NEWARKS.
powers controlling the national destiny in connection with the Electoral bill which, as is generally believed, saved the Union from being torn afresh by fierce civil discords, the probable consequences of which appal the imagination.
Nor is it alone in the field, the council or the forum that Newark through her citizens has performed signal services to the nation. She has likewise contributed greatly to the development of the country's material growth. One of her sons did much to found the Republic of Texas, preparatory to its being admitted as a State in the Union. The Newarker Burnet was the first President of Texas. Foremost, also, among the Argonautic explorers of the Pacific's golden slope were daring Newark spirits. Newark, besides, can lay just claim to be a mother of towns, as well as of soldiers, statesmen, jurists, explorers, inventors and "cunning artificers " in all sorts of metals and materials. Scattered through the Union there are no less than twelve towns and villages named Newark besides this, the parent one. There is a Newark in Ohio (having a large trade in coal, grain, live stock and important manufactures, and with a population of 6,697 ; ) one each in the States of Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Delaware and Vermont, and two in the State of New York, one being in Wayne County and the other in Tioga County. All these, beyond a doubt, owe their nomenclature and foundation to the restless energy and affection of the wandering sons of "Newark-on- Passaic," even as it, in turn, owes its name to the English home of the Puritan pastor, Pierson.
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In conclusion, as regards the character of the Newark of to-day, it may be said that it possesses some of the best traits of the old Puritan rule and practice, and with these mingles in its general comity a share of modern liberality and rationalism strong enough to secure to all its inhabitants the amplest degree of civil and religious liberty. Its churches, its schools, its hospitals and other charities, its comparatively cheap and satisfactory government and low rate of taxation, together with its salubrity of climate and general healthfulness, likewise its unexampled railroad facilities, all combine to make it a most desirable home alike for the merchant and the mechanic, and a most convenient and in every way advantageous seat for all sorts of manufactures.
Such is the history of Newark-the rise and progress of " our
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A TYPICAL AMERICAN CITY-FINIS.
Towne on Passaick River " -- the " round, unvarnished tale " of its growth and character. Still, as.in the days of the Fathers, Newark is a place of thrift and industry ; a home of Christian civilization, and, above all things, a sure and lasting refuge for civil and religious liberty. Take it for all in all, surely its people may proudly present it to the world as a typical American city-as a model of the municipalities of our beloved Republic.
APPENDIX.
THE PRESS OF NEWARK.
FROM 1791 TO 1878.
The "New Jersey Journal "-" Wood's Newark Gazette "-Printer Halscy and Editor Wallis-The "Centinel of Freedom," its Founders and Career-The "New Jersey Eagle"-T. B. Crowell-Bishop and " Riche- lieu " Robinson-The Journal, its Founders and its Fortunes-Fuller and His Flag-Fuller's Associates and Successors-"The Daily," its Founders and Conductors-William B. Kinney-His Successors- Hagadorn's "Intelligencer"-The "Anti-Jacksonian "-The Morning Post and the Castner Murder Trial-A Bit of Genuine Newspaper Enterprise Many Years Ago-Ephemeral Presses-The Mercury, Courier, Register, Sunday Call and Essex County Press.
It was not until the year 1791 that a press of any kind was established in Newark. Up to that time the only publication in the County of Essex was the New Jersey Journal, which was first issued in 1777 by Shepherd Kollock, during the white heat of the Revolution, when the Jerseys were aflame with the conviction that " Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." The Four- nal was published at Elizabethtown, and still flourishes under the title of the Elizabeth Daily Journal. Under Kollock's management the paper performed services for the American cause which cannot now be measured in words. Indicative of the vicissitudes through which it passed during the war, is the fact that it was often forced to change its place of publication. At one time it had to be removed from Elizabethtown to Chatham. It was issued weekly, its price in 1781 being " three shillings in produce or the value thereof in money." Its tone may be judged by its reference to Benedict Arnold as "that fiend and dog of hell." In an issue published during 178I it informed its readers that some refugees from Bergen County tried to capture Josiah Hornblower, but failed, though Hornblower had a narrow escape. It also announced that New Jersey prisoners in the Sugar House in New York were allowed only six ounces of flour and six ounces of pork per day, the pork being " often very bad."
The first newspaper published in Newark was
WOOD'S NEWARK GAZETTE AND NEW JERSEY ADVERTISER. Printed by John Wood, near the Episcopal Church, May, 1791.
This was a weekly journal, issued for the first time on May 13th, 1791. Like the press gener- ally of the period, the Gazette was a feeble, unpretentious concern, a vehicle mainly for the political opinions of village Solomons in no way connected with the publication, except as vol- untary contributors. There is an issue of it dated October 2, 1793, with this title: Wood's Newark Gazette and Paterson Advertizer, (No. 21, Vol. 3), so that it was probably the mustard seed of journalism in Paterson as well as in Newark. In November, 1797, the paper again changed its title, and this time its proprietorship. With the last issue, in October, 1797, John Wood retired, and the Newark Gazette and New Jersey Advertiser was "printed by John H. Williams for the Proprietors." Who these proprietors were is uncertain, but there are good reasons for believing that among them was Jacob Halsey, a printer who had been forced to fly from Flatbush, Long Island, early in the Revolution for having announced the landing of the British. He was pursued from place to place by the British, and finally made his way to Spring-
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