The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-02-02
STATE LIBRARIAN.
Sketch of Colonel Morris
Hamilton, Custodian of
the commemorative
Books.
A NEWSPAPER MAN
His paternal Grandfather Was Gov
ernor and His Maternal Grand
father Surveyor General.
A NEWSPAPER MAI
snccia1 to The Jerseu citu Ne1rs.

II enCClM TO tUC OCISGDS tt9 'SF"D'
TRENTON, Feb. 2, 1s95.-The present
custodian of the State Library is Col.
Morris R.. Hamilton, who was eiectea
by the Commission January 26, 1854, lor
a term of five years, and was re-eieeleo
in 1889 and 1894. His salary is s2,oW a
year.
Immediately opposite the entrance 10
the library is the Librarians once, d
+ costly fitted up apartment when seems
to be pervaded with an air OF erudltloh'
and the very notes that dance III the
sunbeams seem to be atoms OF Wlsaoni
/ floating in the atmosphere. on the Wahs
are portraits of several former lhcuih-
bents, including Charles &C. Yard, whose
term extended from october n, 1881, TO
! october q, 1843: Charles j. Ihrle, from
May 30. 1853, to February q, 1866; Jere-
miah Daily, March rs, 1863, to January
26, 1872: James S.. McDonalds, January
26, 1872, to January 26, 1884, when Col.
Hamilton was appointed.
The most valuable and costly works
in the library are to be found in the
cases in this room. Immediately over the
ColonePs desk is a portrait of Rem
brant Van Ruyn, a Flemish artist VINO
flourished from 1905 to 1868.
Col. Hamilton himself is worthy OF
more than passing notice. He is a born
1iterateur. He loves books, and is pass
ing the, happiest days of his lie sur
rounded by them, and has picked up
many treasures during his long lie.
Among them is one in which he takes
particular PRIDE, and that is a copy Oh
Livy that once belonged to Melancthon,
who was contemporary with Martin LII
Their. The work is full of annotations
made by his own hand. The old book
case that Maskell Ewing was ordered
to procure in 1896 is yet doing excellent
service.
Col. Hamilton was born in Sussex
county, at Oxford Furnace, May "a, 1926,
and is the son of the late General Samuel
r. Hamilton of Trenton. He is of Scotch
descent, being a great grandson of John
Hamilton, Provincial Governor of New
Jersey from 1876 to 1747, and of Andrew
Robertson, Surveyor General of the Pro
vince at the same time, both being
Scotch immigrants.
EARLY STRUGGLES.
Col. Hamilton was educated at the old
Trenton Academy, L~awrenceville High
School and Princeton College, from
which he graduated in 1889. He studied
law with his father and was admitted
to the bar in 1912. While studying law,
he, with a number of other men who
were Of a literary turn of mind, estab-
lished a sort of circulating library, made
up of current domestic and foreign maya
zines, which was cared for by the young
law student, and from which he received
much benefit. The embryo library was
kept in the hall of his fathers residence.
After his admission to the bar, he went
to Camden to practice law, and the
library went to pieces.
He is a genial conversationalist, and
when the writer called upon him he re-
lated many interesting facts about men
and things of his earlier years, when he
was an ardent politician, of strong Demo-
cratic proclivities, and during heated
campaigns he was in constant demand
on the stump. He said, in relating the
happenings of those days:-'In the year
1874, after four years of terrible political
campaigning pom the stump, l found
myself a briefess attorney in Camden.
AS the campaign had resulted in the
~ascendency of the Democracy, l escaped
impending starvation by obtaining the
position of letter carrier in the Philadel-
phhia Post Office; There were then but
they had to sort their letters from the
mails and collect their postage once a
MONTH"
After holding this position for five
years he received a letter from his father
that he had bought the Trenton Daily
News" then edited by the late Judge
lawyer to come to Trenton to edit the
paper. He accepted the invitation. and
IN the 18th of November, 1849, he assumed
the position of editor of the Daily True
that of the DAILY News" He succeeded
in building the paper up until the LIST
of April, 1858, when his father sold the
LIFE AS A NEWsPAPERMAN.
It is very entertaining to hear the
Coio mel recount the many episodes OF
until 1884, during which time he occupied
editorial positions upon the New York
N 7 ii. .pesmocrata the Sussex Her Her
ark Journal the Sussex Record" and
drifting out West to ST. Louis. where he
was employed for a time by an insurance
company, n then editor of the kansas
City News"
When that paper was sold, he drifted
back to his native State, where he edited
afterward was New Jersey editor of the
Philadelphia Record" when Col. Will
liam NJ. Singerly first assumed charge Of
ceived the appointment of State Lii
brarian, which he still holds. Quoting
/ his own words, he said:-'If you can inn
agine how a man would feel when land
ed upon the .gravels' back of the State
House, after swimming up the Delaware
station upon being elected Librarian, af-
Ter being exhausted with my continuous
varied and improbable newspaper duties
for so many ears
Early in life he married Harriet Pen
nington Halstead, a granddaughter of
William S.. Pennington, who was Gov
ernor of New Jersey from 1S13-15. She
died about four years ago. Seven chill
dren, four sons and three daughters,
were the result of this union.
Ellis, the oldest, was killed in the Bat
tie of the Wilderness during the War of
rSe Rebellion. and is buried in Mercer
Cemstery.. Harry, a remarkably bright
and promising young man, died in Phila-
] delphfa while yet a young man. He
was Actuary of the Penn Mutual Insur-
That lreQ FeelEng