The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-07-20

W FEwARKERs may claim that Princeton University a founded here
without stepping off the white chalk.fne ST truth one tt or little
& v The story IF the manner in which the big school WAS removed to f.
present site is another and less worthy oe There are those circumstances con-
necnd with the beginning of New Jersey college, as it was then called which
make for controversy. That 4 on may inadvertently hazard all his possessions
on this proposition without being equipped With the Facts a brd's-eye view .
the narrative is in order.
David srainerd was expelled from Yale College for a light amusing qmD
he separated himself from at he expense OF one of his professors He cam 70
New Jersey as a missionary 10 the Indians staid as they were, the Newark
churchmen dd not regard Brsmerdso nense as worthy of death at the stake, or
ever expulsion Sc the youth. uho was popular n talented, was ordained here.
Thereafter it as thought Yale trustees and professors looked but souriy o
jersey AM 1rseyites and Disseminated in the cassroons against theses students
who hailed from this province. When this idea became fixed. New jersey
churchmen began an agitation for a college at home where candidates for the
ministry might pc trained Measures we're taken to tun a small classical school
for young men which ws under III care of the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson at
Elxabahtown into a college October % TAG. a charter vas obtained from
Acting Governor Hamilton fol- "The College of New Jersey" The following
February the trustees advertised that the college " as about to be opened. The
college was actually opened in May. 1t1. but it had n o more than started when
dickinson died. The students, eight in number, were removed to
Newark an placed under tn care of the Rev. Aaron Burr, who a also
a classical school in connection with his pastorat. About this time
Governor Jonathan Beeher arrived from England and immediately expressed
the greatest interest in the suspended college. The ole charter had never been
hhd. Remembe this. Governor Becher granted a new m in september. rEs
The trustees met in the First Presbyterian Church of Newark thu following
November. and the Rev. Aaron Burrw va unanimously chosen president of the
college
Governor Belcher referred to III school al "a noble design an destined. if
God pleases, to prov al extensive blessing, an alma mater to this and neigh
boring provinces"
Thus it may be seen that the institution founded in Eizabethtovn, for
which a charter vas never hnd, had actually ceased to exist almost before it
got started. n that it vas merely the students who removed to Newark, not
the school. The first graduate were Enos Ayres, BENJAMIN Chestnut Hugo
Henry, Israel Reed. Richard Stockton and-payid Thane, Richard Stockton, the
only M o hem h did not enter the ministry, ws later me o. the sisners
Of he Declaration o. independence. The marriage of President Burr in 17s,
caused a lot Of excited comment and took tn minds of some OF the less serious
students off heir books fr a time. In 1856 the college was removed TO Prince
ton, it has beer minated because it did lot receive proper support here.