Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-02-23
THE CHOSEN FREEHOlDERS.
FEBRUARY MEETING.

'lt7thS91 ~ ehC pssse nANhvbt Ati etio AiSth7
befs were present except Messts. Barnaby
and Cunningham.
Rev. Edw. Dillon, representing the Dept
ford Free Library, appeared before the
Board and requested the use of the Court
Room some evening in March for free
public lecture to be held under the auspices
of the Trustees, they to pay the expense Of
light and heat and janitor's fee. The re-
quest was granted
The bond of the PaulY Jail Building Co
was, on motion. surrendered and returned.
4 communication from the Commission
er of the L. S. General Land Office, advis-
ing the Board Of the passage OF the .sAet
granting certain property, not exceeding 20
acres. TO the County of Gloucester Tor the
use and benefit of the county as public
park, was read, and committee consist
ing OF Messrs Mathers, Rachor, joyce,
Jones and Gsinger was appointed to act
with the Commissioner in making the sur
yey.
The following communication from State
Road Commissioner Hutchinson, to the
Director, was read
Trenton, January 27, 1905
My DEAR DIRECTOR II have taken the
liberty to write your Honorable Board,
through you. Of the impoI tance of keeping
the county roads in repair. It will soon be
time for your Board to make up its budget
for this year, and, in my Judgment. it is
more important to keep what roads we now
have built in good repair than to construct
new ones.
In looking over the roads of our State, |
find some that are going to be beyond re-
pair if not taken care OF soon As Com
missioner OF Roads, | want the different
Boards of Freeholders to know my policy
from the start. 1t will be useless for those
counties that do not keep their roads in
perfect repair TO ask for any more State aid.
Since the State Aid Law has been in ef-
feet, our State has given toward building
county roads the sum of j s65 $3.50 and
the counties S3.978, 920.1S and ! propose
to carry out the strict letter of the law and
protect what we have already built
Our State to-day has the name Of having
the finest roads Of any State in the Union,
and we want to retain it. Therefore,
want 70 say to your Honorable Board, in
all kindness, that first, we must have good
roads built, and second, we must have them
taken care Of IN order to retain our repu-
tation. Yours very truly,
E c. HUTCHINSON,
State Commissioners of Public Roads.
Clerk Bell read the following eommuni-
cation from Hon. DO Watkins, which ex-
plains itself
February 16 1905.
cN. Ben, Eq. Cisfh Boa,d Of Freeholde,-s,
HIood6ery 4 J.
DEAR SIR:
regret that could not be present at
vour meeting to-day towing to official
duties in order to more fully explain the
law recently passed by Congress relative to
The Red Bank Battlefield.
Through the earnest efforts of Senator
DRYDEN in the Senate. and Congressman
Laudenslager III the House, law has been
enacted and approved by President Roose-
yrlt on January 27tb. 1906, copy of which
j. hereto attached.
| have since been advised by the Com
nissioner of the General Land Office that
your Board, together with the Gloucester
County Historical Society, will be advised
when the time Of the survey is to be made,
so that we may be sure and have the twenty
ACRES properly selected.
The Speaker OF our House OF Assembly,
Hon. John Boyd Avis. yesterday introduced
bill in the Legislature of this State,
authorizing an appropriation of $4,000 for
the erection OF suitable monument to
mark the historic spot ! hope that this
bill will become law at this session; if
not, | am quite snre it will the next.
When this is done, the last of the four great
battle-fields of the Revolutionary War, in
New Jersey, will be properly marked and,
I hope, preserved for generations to come.
namely: Trenton, Monmouth, Princeton
and Fort Mercer or Red Bank.
In this connection, let me congratulate
the Board upon the opportunity given, at
very little expense ID each year, which
feel sure will be no burden to our people, to
preserve and protect in its original simplie
ity, as far as has been saved from the
ravages of time, this Illustration at our very
doors of the heroism of the Revolutionary
patriots in their efforts to obtain the rights
OF man and to establish the principles of
human liberty, which we so much to-day
enjoy and hand it down to future genera
tions, as spot to be cherished, and from
which TO draw their inspirations OF patriot
ism as we'll. Yours very respectfully,
DAVID @. WATKINS.
An Act granting certain property to the
County Of Gloucester. New Jersey.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives Of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That the
Secretary OF She Interior is hereby directed
to convey, by proper patent, to the Board
of Chosen Freeholders of the County of
Gloucester, in the State Of New Jersey, to
and for the use and benefit Of said county,
as public park, such part Of the abandon
ed Red Bank Military Reservation in said
county, not to exceed twenty acres,
including the monument site twenty feet
square, as may be designated by said Beard,
after the same has been properly surveyed
under the direction Of the Commissioner Of
the General Land Office.