The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-10-02
IN MEMORY OF MERCER
Tablet Unveiled at Princeton
in Honor Of the Martyr
American Liberty.
Especial to "The Jersey city News.

Especial to The Jersey city News.
PRINCETON, Oct. 2. 1S97.-The Hugh
Mercer celebration yesterday attracted to
Princeton crowd of visitors that taxed
the Entertainment Committee to it's ut
most in providing accommodations for
them. The celebration was held both in
commemoration of the sesquicentennial
anniversary of the battle of Princeton, in
which General Hugh Mercer lost his life,
and in connection with the fiftieth anni-
versary of the Hugh Mercer Engine Com
pany, No. g.
The memorial exercises began Thursday
evening in Alexander Hall, under the
direction of James E. Burke. chairman
of the Committee of Arrangements. The
programme included music on the organ
by Mr.. Walter Cottrell, invocation by
President Francis L. Patton, an intro
ductory address by James E. Burke
chairman, and an historical memoir of
General Hugh Mercer by Judge Beverley
r. Wexford, of the class of 1847, Uni
versity of Princeton and of Virginia, the
benediction by the Rev. William Mercer
Grosvenor, of the Mercer family, and
rector of the Church of the Incarnation.
New York city
The town was literally draped for the
exercises of yesterday, and business gem
orally was suspended in honor of the
occasion. The commemoration at noon
took the form of the unveiling of a tab
let to the memory of General Mercer
on the battlefield The place selected is
on the brow of the hill where the con-
test took place, and near the house now
occupied by Henry E. Hale, into which
the wounded general was carried; and
where he died on January II, TIT.
The bronze tablet is embedded in a
large boulder taken from sTusculum, =
the residence and property of the Rev.
John sWitherspoon, a signer of the Decla-
ration of independence and president of
the college.
The table carries the following IN
scription: ITO the memory of General
Hugh Mercer, the revered martyr of
American independence. Born in Scot
land about 1920. Educated as a physician,
emigrated to America 1747, was appointed
by Congress, June 6, 1776, brigadier gen
seral in the American Army. Was NOR
tally wounded at the battle of Princeton,
January 3, 1777. and died in the house now
standing near this spot. January u, 1s7l-
This tablet was erected by Mercer En-
gine Company, No. 3, OF sPflnceton, ~. j.,
October l, 1897, at its semi-centennial eele-
bration."
The unveiling was by Master Hugh
Mercer, the great-great-grandso of
General Mercer. 1t was followed by an
invocation by the Rev. James 0. Murray,
dean of the university, and an address by
Professor Henry c. Cameron of the uni
versity. Professor Cameron is an ac-
knowledged authority on local historical
matters and his address was a history of
the battle of Princeton.
The exercises at the battlefield were
closed with the benediction by Dean
Murray A parade of firemen completed
the public exercises. The. paraders in
cluded all the local companies and visiting
companies from Camden, Moorestown,
Railway, Plainfeld and Bayonne.
Among the invited guests at the ex-
ercises were the descendants in direct
line of General Mercer and representa-
tiyes of ST. Andrews Society of Phila-
delphia, the society which erected the
first monument to his memory in Phila-
delphia, and representatives of the So
ciety of the Cincinnati, Sons and Daugh-
ters Of the Revolution and Colonial
=