Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-12

only about one-half of n per cent
of Perth Amboy's present popula-
ton ever heard (to use a fraction
very frequently seen and heard these
days) deserves more credit for the
little we know of Perth Amboy's
part in the Revolutionary War than
all others combined. The average
J man who is at all conversant with
local history unhesitatingly quotes
Whitehead. and that interesting
writer is very free with his acknowl-
edgments of his indebtedness to
William Dunlap. In his Arts OF
Design in America" as well as in his
"History of the American Theatre,
Dunlap tells almost entirely what he
learned from an old gentleman who
lived in a house facing east on the
south side of Market street and the
westerly side of City Hall Park, or
Market Square. He was Thomas
Barlow and the house is that moved
a short distance west on Market
, street to make way for the Baptist
church, now in course of construc-
ton.
Reading what Dunlap wrote of the
old gentleman, one is impressed with
the strange friendship which 1t must
! have been between the man, aged
and feeble when the boy was born,
and that boy who was destined to
preserve for the edification of future
generations the tales of scenes and
incidents Of the War of Independ-
ence. Dunlap was seven years old
when the Declaration was signed
Just old enough to have fixed In his
memory the facts related to him by
his friend two generations older,
coupled with what he saw.
Historian Whitehead tells us that,
by feebleness and rheumatic affec-
tons, Mr.. Barlow was prevented
from any active participation in the
proceedings of the colonists, al
though their cause had been by him
warmly espoused. The same author
lily tells us that Mr.. Barlow built the
old house known as a Kearny house
when the historian of Perth Amboy
wrote and until recently called the
Smith house, because DR.. Charles
Mcknight Smith, whose wife was a
member of that famous Kearny
family, occupied it for many years
until his death and then, for forty
years more, it was the home of sew
eral of his daughters.
Little has been ascertained of Mr..
Bartow's early life. He was. it is
known, a son of that Rev. John Bar
tow who was the first rector of st.
Peters church, in Westchester. New
York. A history of Westchester
makes the mother of this sketch a
Read, "sister of New Jerseys COVER
nor of that name" In the late de-
cades of the seventeenth century the
surveyor for the Board of Proprie-
tors of East Jersey was John Reid
and it may have been that the rec
tors wife was his sister-a Reid and
not a Read. At any rate, her mar
riage was solemnized in 1905, which
would strengthen the explanation of
the relationship here (and else
Where) suggested.
Mr.. Bartow's grandfather was
General Bertaut, a French Protes-
tant, who fled his native country and
went to England in 1855. When
Dunlap, a lad of from six to ten
years, became a friend of the sage
of Market Square, the big house was
occupied only by Mr.. Barlow and
two servants, a housekeeper and a
male assistant. There the little boy
was welcomed and made much of,
perhaps with the thought hat he
was being helped to form habits
THAT MOulu contribute 10 his IuIulo
welfare, and it may have been that
the thought uppermost in the old
mans mind was the avenue it af-
forded him of relief from the tire
some m%onotony of the life of a her
NIT. as he practically was. 1t any
rate, as Dunlap puts it, thus COM
menced his acquaintance with
Homer in his English dress, with
Pope, with Milton, with Troy, Greece
and Rome. In his ARTS of Design"
Dunlap introduces Bartow's name,
with an acknowledgment of his In
d~ebtedness, creditable alike TO the
pupil and the preceptor.
We are told and we find nothing
of Mr.. Bartow's family life. but it is
recorded that when 1t became too
turbulent for him to longer live here
in peace and comfort he went to
Bethlehem, Pa, where he died be-
fore the end of the war. His son,
the only reference we find TO his
family, married a daughter of
Anthony Benezet, a Philadelphia
who was far ahead of his time in his
denunCiation of The use of alcoholic
beverages and who was equally bit
ter against slavery.
Despite his peculiarities, Mr.. Bar
tow held a number of public posi-
tons. In 1875 he was clerk of the
supreme and chancery courts, a post
that no one man would be allowed
to fill nowadays. Half a dozen years
later he was clerk of the provincial
assembly. In 1852 he was clerk or
registrar of the surveyor generals
office of the province and for some
years after 1856 he acted as survey
or general. That important position
was held at the time by William
Alexander, better known as the
American Lord Stirling. In 1740 he
also held the position of commission
er of probate.
Mr.. Barlow is described as a
small, thin man, whose pale and
worn countenance was rendered
highly impressive by long, gray
locks, which, divided from his fore
head to the crown of his head, hung
down on either side in comely guise.
rheumatism had affected his walk,
age had enfeebled his frame. and
these, with wildness of expression
and demeanor, his hoary head and
neatness of person, for which he
was remarkable, made him striking
~ venerable in appearance. His
books were the principal source of
his amusement, and, apparently, his
only company, except the youthful
William Dunlap.
Although the old gentleman used
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