Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-31
BY DUKE WELLINGTON

An optical ram DIE through SOME o.
the old records of the Board of Free
holders. particularly the minute books
of the meetingssfrom 1880 onward, re-
veal some quaint happenings that
took place in days long agone.
Probably the mcst curious entry,
however, is not of such extremely an
cient history, being only fifty-eight
years old. That is one of March IL,
1856. and refers to a report of the jail
committee. 1t reads as follows:
THE committee to discharge prison
ers reported that there was a man
named Horace Barnes sent from
Belleville, by order of Theodore Sand
ford, Esq. on the 30th of January.
1866, as a vagrant: that he is stupid
and harmless. and unable to give his
name: that he is a nuisance and not
fit to remain longer in JAIL"
Sad to relate, the old records of the
freeholders do not show what became
of Mr.. Barnes, who was a jail nuis-
ance and unit to remain there.
It would be pretty soft for Warden
Richard McGlinness these days If,
when he found a nuisance in Jail, all
i
prison committee and they would take
steps to rid the jail of the nuisance.
The records Of the meetings Of the
Board of Freeholders at the time of
the above were becoming fairly VOL
luminous and meetings were held al
most monthly. But from 1870. when
the first of the records starts. to 1880,
one regular meeting and one or two
special meetings q year seem TO have
been all the meetings necessary for
the freeholders.
A sample Of the minutes Of one of
! the meetings is fair one Of all of
them On May 49, 1878, the second
book for the keeping of minutes was
started, the first entry in 1t reading as
follows: "At the annual meeting of
the Board of Chosen Freeholders of
the County of Essex, convened In the
court house at Newark on Wednes-
1 day, the thirteenth day of May A. d.
1918, the following members attend
1 ed--viz. as follows"
| Then follows a list of names OF
twenty-four men that then constituted
/ the membership of the board, after
which the minutes proceed: AT eleven
o'clock the board proceeded to the
choice of q director and clerk for
the present year, when Israel Day.
ESQ, was chosen director and Isaac
Andr,1ss upon
motion IL was resolved that this board
adjourn to meet forthwith at the house
of Moses Rolf, innkeeper."
For probably a dozen years along
In that period the minutes of the or
gsnization meeting read almost pre-
cisely like the above. Always there
is the long line of deshes after the
election of the clerk Is made known.
followed by the statement that the
meeting adjourn to meet forthwith at
the house Of Moses Ron, sometimes
designated as innkeeper, while at 9TH
ers the meeting place is named as
Moses Roff's tavern.
And when the tavern was reached
the board would reconvene and take
UP the business of the year, but one
regular meeting of the board being
held each year at that period.
And a rather illuminating resolution
that would seem to bear on this habit
of the boards holding the business
sessions at inns and taverns was
adopted on July II, 1888. 1t reads as
follows: Resolved that no bills be
paid for the individual expenses OF
any member Of the board AFTER the
board shall have adjourned"
The freeholders at that time re-
ceived no salary, but as general
thing drew from s12 to SIS expenses
on each meeting day. What the ex-