The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-10

| Dickinson's tombstone al Elizabeth has
no mention in his connection With the col
believe that the charter alluded to ia the
New York Gazette, never existed and
that tha first charter was that granted
in Newark. All efforts to get In trace
eight students who came from Elizabeth
to Newark lived around In various fam
lilies and had their -recitations In Pastor
Burr's study. In i77 Jonathan Beicher
became Governor OF the Province OF New
Jersey. He was deeply interested In the
cause Of education,. and on May u l74S,
in q letter to President Edwards OF Yale
spoke In warm terms OF the new enter
prise Qhe College OF New Jersey. He
called 1t an embryo college, saying It was
pleases, to prove an extensive blessing"
He had adopted it," he said, as a
daughter. and hoped it may, in time be-
~neighboring Provinces" Through Gov
vernon Belcher a new charter was OBJ
tanned on September is 174s, and on No
president This was the practical begin
ming Of the college SO far as ein
records go. 1t wac the fourth OF its kind
to be established in the country. There
was at N~eshaminy, Pa, what was known
as the Log College" founded in 1928. but
1t couldn't confer degrees. 1t sent some
good men to Newark, however, to assist
one Of the new colleges first trustees,
and Rev. John Blair, another Neshaminy
student, was the first professor of the.
ofogy, and at one time a vice president of
FfRsF CLASS NUMBERED SIX.
to the presidency November 8, 174s, six
of the eight students who had started
their studies at Elizabeth with Pastor
Dickinson, received their frst degree as
graduates of the college. They got their
sheepskins muchs easier than Princeton
men do today, for they could not have
been students in the college for more
than a year and a half. Thus, the first
commencement, was celebrated. says one
ehronicler, with great pomp n cere-
mony equally novel and interesting" OF
the six graduates, five became ministers
ton, had the honor of signing the Dec
l~aration of independence a quarter of a
century or So later. The public exer-
in the County Court House. The trus-
tees never regarded the college as located
permanently in Newark, but If proper
support had been given it things would
people Of old Newark 80 little alive to
their own interests? The beginnings of
the college were very humble, to be sure,
and no one dreamed what 1t was de-
stined to become. Still, the other col
leges Of the country were small, too, and
their beginnings had been no more pre-
sumptuous. Is it not strange that the
town which a century and a half ago
looked upon higher education with SO
much Indifference, in spite of the les
son taught 1t by the growth Of Prince
ton, is now maintaining much the same
attitude on the High School question?
Newark is consistent, whatever else it
may be, for there are people today who
hin the High School a useless insti-
tuition.
MOVED TO PRINCETON.
President Burr resigned from the pas
torate of the Presbyterian Church In 1755,
having found that the college demanded
most Of his time. Fpur years before this
the people of New BrunSwick had made
an effort to have the8eellege removed to
that town. There were many hindrances
to the change, and finally Princeton was
hyed upon. Buildings were erected, and
the institution removed from Newark in
the fall of 1855. A year later President
Burr died. In removing the college his
health had suffered, and he went to
Stockbridge, Mass, to recuperate. While
Orange Mountain now Orange) to preach
the fueral sermon of the wife of Caleb
Smith, of Newark. Then he hurried to
Philadelphia IN college business, and i'm
mediately after he got there had to re-
turn in haste to preach the funeral ora
Of Elizabeth. He was suffering from
fever at the time: Then the good man,
after q long life. busted with the cares
and troubles of Others laid himself down
and turned his face to the wall
When the college left Newark the
tutors were az follows:-John Maltby,
Samuel Sherwood. Jonathan Badger,
Alexander Gordon. George Dufield,
William Thompson, Benjamin Prime and
John Ewing. Some idea of the growth
~sojourn in Newark may be gained from
the fact that it had at its removal as
many tutors as it had students when it
came hither.