USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Nutley > The history of Nutley, Essex County, New Jersey > Part 4
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Club was formed with Dr. Rusby as its President. In 1880 he was sent by the Smithsonian Institute to the southwest to explore the flora of that region. In 1885 he was commissioned to visit South America, to in- vestigate the medicinal plants of the Amazon. Alto- gether he has contributed several hundred new species to our pharmacopoeia. He has written a number of important books on Plants and Materia Medica and a still larger number of pamphlets and scientific articles, as well as a "History of the New York College of Pharmacy."
Before Henry Goslee Prout came to Nutley, life furnished him with many romantic episodes. He served through the Civil War and when there was no more fighting to be done, he entered the University of Michigan, graduating with the degree of Civil En- gineer in 1871. In 1873, when the Khedive of Egypt sent for an American engineer to become a Major of Engineers in the army of Egypt, Prout was chosen. "Our job," he says, "was to start a meridian line to be run from the great pyramid north to the sea, to be the backbone of a survey of the Delta. An episode of this was the erection of a flagstaff on the top of the Great Pyramid, which still stands there covered with the names of tourists and probably there is not a man in Egypt who knows who put it there or why." While in Darfour, Prout was ordered to the head of the Nile to take over the command of the Equatorial Provinces which Gordon relinquished on being made Governor- General of the Soudan. The Equatorial Provinces, however, being soon brought under the Soudan Gov- ernment, Prout came to serve under Gordon. He was
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rapidly promoted to the rank of Colonel, his com- mand extending to the Great Lakes or about one thousand miles as the Nile runs. His troops were about three thousand Arabs and negroes. Within a year, Colonel Prout came down with the fever and Gordon sent him to London to build steamers. These steamers were the first to go up the Nile. Before he could return, the Khedive had abdicated, the whole Upper Nile project was given up, and so Prout re- signed. Khartoum fell and Gordon perished. Return- ing to this country, Colonel Prout became editor-in- chief of the Railroad Gazette, a post which he held for a number of years.
L. Frank Tooker has been for many years one of the editorial staff of the Century. He built for himself the house now occupied by Mr. Root, on Nutley Ave- nue. Among his poems are "Aspiration," "The Call of the Sea," "Homeward Bound," and "On Gilgo Beach."
The lovers of "David Harum" will perhaps be sur- prised to know that they owe that popular story to the discrimination of a Nutley critic. The manu- script of that work, after repeated rejections by others, reached the hands of Mr. Ripley Hitchcock, then reader for Appleton's. The simple trick of transferring the famous horse-trading chapters from the middle of the book to the beginning gave it the needed send-off, and once started, it was an undoubted success. Mr. Hitch- cock and his gifted wife, Martha Hitchcock, after- wards dramatized the novel for William Crane. They lived some time in the house now owned by Mrs. Bayne. They took a most active interest in everything that pertained to the town, in home, church or club
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life. Mr. Hitchcock was born in Fitchburg, Mass., in 1857. He first became a special correspondent to the New York Tribune, then art critic on the Tribune from 1887 to 1890, when he became literary adviser to Appleton and Company. He has been a writer upon American history, art and literature. Mrs. Hitchcock has published a number of delightful poems, among which are "Fruition" and "Revelation."
The house known as the "Annie Oakley House" was the home later of Richard Kendall Munkittrick, the "Dean of the Poets of Printing House Square." He was born in Manchester, England, in 1853. He was on the editorial staff of Puck from 1889, and has been editor of Judge since 1901. He is well known as a writer of humorous verses. His best qualities are shown in his poems of "The Moon Prince and other Nabobs" and "New Jersey Arabian Nights."
Nutley has always had the reputation of being a favorite home for artists. Frank Fowler, Arthur Hoeber, Albert Sterner, Francis L. Day, E. L. Field, Frederick Dana Marsh, Frederick Dorr Steele, Hamil- ton Hamilton, Harry Chase, Charles Kendrick and Ferdinand H. Lungren are of the number.
Mr. Kendrick is an Englishman, whose work is largely the illustration of children's books. His home was the house now occupied by Mr. Guy Edwords.
Mr. Day has his home and studio on Maple Place, He has a reputation as a portrait painter and illus- trator.
Mr. Chase was a well-known painter of marines. He lived in the Stockton house for several years. He
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is most pleasantly remembered by his former friends here, and his untimely death was deeply deplored.
A little house on Vreeland Avenue has sheltered three successive artists, who have set up their easels in the old barn with a skylight. Here Mrs. Florence, an Englishwoman of much talent and personal charm, lived and painted until her husband's death. Hamilton Hamilton was the second occupant. He is widely known as a landscape painter and etcher. George Waldo, an American of New England family, lived here also. His portrait of the actress Modjeska hangs in the Players' Club.
Mr. E. L. Field built the house on Walnut Street which was his home. It is now occupied by Mr. Steele, the artist. Mr. Field studied in Paris, lived a good deal abroad, and was well-known as an etcher.
Ralph Goddard was the only sculptor in Nutley's history. One of his best works was a life-size figure of a vigorous youth eager for the race of life.
Mr. Lungren only recently left Nutley for Califor- nia. His has been an adventurous life in the West and among the Indians. He is an adopted son of one tribe and is a priest of the Antelopes. Distinctly a painter of the south and southwest, his pictures are brilliant with the rose color of the cañon and the blue of the Arizona sky.
The present residence and studio of Mr. Marsh in the "Enclosure" was built by Mr. Frank Fowler for himself. Here he lived until the death of his talented wife, who was herself a painter, musician and writer.
Mr. Fowler was born in Brooklyn in 1852. He studied in Florence and in Paris where he was chosen
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by Carolus Duran to aid him in painting the Luxem- bourg frescoes of the Apotheosis of Marie de Medici. His fame as a portrait painter is well known. His sitters have been many of them distinguished people. Everyone in Nutley felt a proprietorship in the frescoes of the Waldorf-Astoria which Mr. Fowler was com- missioned to make for the smaller ball-room. Weekly excursions were made to watch their progress at his Nutley studio, and the dancing nymphs and fawns look pleasantly familiar to his old friends as they now adorn the ceiling in the great hotel.
The Fowler Studio did not long stand vacant before Frederick Dana Marsh took possession of it. Mr. Marsh was born in Chicago in 1872 and studied at the Art Institute of that city. He has studied in Paris and worked in his own studio there. He returned to America in 1900 and is obtaining recognition as a painter of unusual imagination. It is at Nutley that he has started out on a path quite untrodden by others, the portrayal of the life that goes on in connection with great commercial industries. He paints "the laborer at work on iron beam or bridge, swinging high in the air," working fearlessly eighteen stories high on the sky scraper, or "delving in cavernous mines with pickaxe and shovel, men heroes every day, working with un- conscious dignity at their perilous tasks."
Mr. Hoeber, whose picturesque home is in Nut- ley's "Enclosure" has an almost equal talent for painting and writing. Although painting, especially of landscape, is preëminently his chosen field, he is also a well-known critic. He was born in New York in 1854, studied there and later in Paris under Gérôme. In 1882
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he first exhibited at the Paris Salon. He is a contribu- tor to most American exhibitions. He has been art critic on the New York Times, associate editor and dramatic critic of the Illustrated American, editorial writer of the New York Journal, and is at the pre- sent time art critic for the New York Globe and Commercial Advertiser. He is the author of two books, "Treasures of the Metropolitan Museum of Art" and "Painting in the Nineteenth Century in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy." Of late years Mr. Hoeber has devoted himself almost entirely to painting landscapes. He especially delights in "streams wind- ing through marshy land under a twilight or a sunset sky, pictures which seem to carry one with them into an out-of-doors of sentiment and beauty."
Mr. Steele is a Western man, who as a child drew and painted as naturally as he breathed. Coming East he soon was led into illlustration, and his charm- ing pictures of Myra Kelly's little East-side Hebrews, his apt illustrations of Stockton's "Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine" and his illustrations of Richard Hard- ing Davis's stories are delightfully familiar to us.
Mr. Sterner has long occupied an enviable posi- tion as an illustrator. Mrs. Humphry Ward, in her preface to her latest novel, "Fenwick's Career," pays a rare tribute to him. From all illustrators of any country, Mrs. Ward chose Mr. Sterner as most sympathetic and strong. Born in London in 1863 and educated at King Edward's School at Birmingham, Mr. Sterner is however an American citizen. He studied in Paris at Julien's and at the École des Beaux Arts. He came to the United States in 1881, going
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to Chicago. He studied, taught, painted scenery, tried lithographing, then came to New York. He began to draw for Life, and as his work became known, he appeared in Scribner's, the Century and Har- per's. His illustrations for Curtis's "Prue and I" im- mediately established him as no ordinary illustrator. He has also illustrated Poe's works and Coppée's Tales, as well as the works of Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mr. Sterner is noted also for his water colors and his portraiture in crayon.
The "artist life of the arena" has had its represent- atives in quiet Nutley. Eaton Stone, the first bare- back rider in the world and the first man to ride four horses, for a number of years made this the winter quarters for his troop. His circus building until a few months ago stood on Kingsland Road. The spirited performances, to which the townspeople were freely invited, are a cherished memory. The later genera- tion hear of them, only to regret that such delights have passed from Nutley.
Annie Oakley, "Little Sure Shot," (in private life, Mrs. Frank Butler) is another and more famous name. She shot with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for sev- enteen years. During this time she received honors from many of the sovereigns of Europe and prominent people of our own country. She was asked by the Prince of Wales to shoot with him, and perhaps more of a compliment still was the coming of the King of Senegal in person to buy her. He offered twenty thousand dollars for her, and wanted to take her back to his country to kill off the man-eating tigers. He could not understand the refusal of his offer! Her one
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public performance in Nutley was at the circus given in aid of the Red Cross fund. Mr. Kendrick, the artist, made a poster for the occasion, representing "Little Sure Shot" on horseback, ready to fire. She writes that after visiting thirteen countries she loves America and Nutley best of all, and adds that here she hopes to end her days.
Conclusion .- From the far-off time of those Dutch and English pioneers who subdued the wilderness and the forest, we have come to the day of the gardens and homes and smiling beauty of modern Nutley. The history of the Nutley Area from the first European foothold is a record of two hundred and forty years. The history of the Town of Nutley is but just begun, but begun with a force and promise that assure her a strong and honored maturity.
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CIVIL ORGANIZATION.
Town of Nutley, in the County of Essex, New Jersey.
Chosen Freeholder (county official)
Mayor
Town Council: 2 members from each of the 3 wards Town Clerk
Town Treasurer
Town Attorney
Town Engineer
Supervisor of Roads
Collector Assessor
Recorder
Justices of the Peace
Overseer of the Poor
Dog Warden
Chief of Police
Constables Chief of Fire Department
Water Department: Clerk and Meter Inspector Commissioners of Assessment
Board of Health: President, Clerk and Inspector Board of Education : President, Superintendent of Schools, District Clerk.
.
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SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND CLUBS.
Civic Association
Franklin Building and Loan Association
Nutley Improvement Society
Nutley Field Club
Yountakah Country Club Nutley Fortnightly Club
Povershon Tennis Club
West Nutley Country Club
Nutley Athletic Association
Nutley Friday Afternoon Club
Woman's Public School Auxiliary
Lodges .- Nutley Lodge, No. 167, F. & A. Masons Kempton Council, No. 1545, Royal Arcanum Nutley Council, No. 286, Junior Order Uni- ted American Mechanics Stars and Stripes Council, No. 173, Daugh- ters of Liberty Crystal Council, Knights of Pythias.
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PUBLIC UTILITIES.
Railroad .- Newark Branch of the Erie Railroad.
Stations: Nutley1 (first called Stitt's Station), West Nutley, and Avondale.
Trolley .- North Jersey Street Railway Company.
Water Supply .- From East Jersey Water Company, Pequannock watershed.
Telephone .- New York and New Jersey Telephone Company.
Lighting .- Gas and electric light from Public Service Corporation of New Jersey.
Fire Department .- Organized 1894. Yantacaw En- gine Company, No. I, with combination chemical engine, quarters in Town Hall. Avondale Hose Company, No. I, has its own building equipped with combination chemical engine. West Nut- ley Hose Company, equipped with hose and hose carriage.
Bank .- Organized 1906. Located in Town Hall. Local Papers .- The Nutley Sun and The Nutleyan. Libraries .- The Public School Library, including the State Traveling Library, at The Park School. The Nutley Library, Passaic Avenue.
1 The present building was erected by popular subscription, after the first one was burned.
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STATISTICS.
Area of Nutley : 3.492 square miles.
North boundary : 1.75 miles.
East boundary : on Passaic River, 1.2 miles.
West boundary : 2.1 miles, of which about one-sixth of
a mile is the middle of the Morris and Essex Canal. Altitude. The highest point in Nutley is on Povershon Hill, 238 feet above sea level. The only official altitude ("bench") taken by State and U. S. Sur- vey, is the "rail of Erie R. R., opposite Nutley Station, 98.5 feet above sea level."
Population from census of 1905 : 4,556.
Assessable valuation : $3,875,939.
Rate of taxation : $1.66 per $100. Outside hydrant district : $1.63 per $100. Poll tax : $1.00.
Wards: 3.
Streets : 112 named avenues, terraces, places, streets. Roads maintained by county : Washington Avenue, Kingsland Street, East Passaic Avenue, Center Street, High Street, Franklin Avenue from Har- rison Street to the Belleville line.
Bridges, maintained by county : over Third River, 7; over Basking Brook, 3; over brook leading through Nichol's Pond, 3; over raceways through "Yantacaw Park," 2.
School Children enrolled: 1010.
Teachers enrolled : 34.
Town appropriation for schools, for 1906-7 : $23,000.
State "School Money," for 1906-7, $10,900.77; appor- tioned on character of work done, days at- tendance, and number of teachers and supervisors employed.
NOTE .- State School Money is of vital importance to Nutley. Every absence recorded on the register reduces the sum that would be allowed to the town.
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MAY 7 1907
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
00014894573
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