the lot.
April 12, 1906, ground was broken for the new building.
June 14, 1906, the corner stone was laid under the auspices of the
Classis of Newark.
January 20, 1907, the new church was opened for worship.
January 21, 1907, the building was dedicated.
Memorial windows to the memory of Mr. C. C. Hine and Mrs. Mary H. Hine,
to Mrs. Anna W. Hine and to the parents of Mr. Mellen, the minister,
were placed in the building.
The cost of the new church complete was a trifle over $46,000.
This brief outline by no means tells the story. As before stated, the
inception of the church is due to the Rev. Henry Merle Mellen, and the
raising of money was also largely due to Mr. Mellen’s activity and
unselfish devotion to the cause. The building committee was more than
fortunate in its chairman and members, and the result of their work is
an ornament to the locality.
INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH.
During the very early days of the church on the hill, sexton Budd
introduced his patent gasoline lamps for lighting purposes, and no doubt
was proud of his accomplishment, but why the crazy things did not blow
up the first time they were lighted is the chief mystery of the
situation. As nearly as we can recall the outfit consisted of the
ordinary glass font with a small metal tube at the top through which the
vapor arose, which gave light when a match was applied. These did not
stay long, for Mr. Hine, who was an insurance man, very shortly
discovered their possibilities.
The lighting of Christ Church was first accomplished with kerosene
lamps, there being no gas in the neighborhood then, except that made on
the premises of Mr. Hine for his own house. It occurred to that
gentleman that he could attach the church (which then stood on the lot
adjoining his home) to that same gas machine, and thus do away with the
dim and troublesome kerosene burners.
The idea was good, but the pumping machinery which forced the flow of
gas through the pipes was inadequate for the extra work and, as a
result, the pump must be wound up by hand two or three times during a
Sunday evening. This usually fell to the lot of the small boys who did
not go to evening service, they being strictly charged to visit the
cellar every thirty minutes or so and do the necessary work; but small
boys had a way of getting sleepy in those days, and there is a tradition
that Mr. Hine, being warned by the gradual dimming of the lights, had to
leave the church in a great hurry occasionally and operate the pump
himself.
THE CHURCH CHOIR.
Mr. Hine was musical to his finger tips and found great enjoyment in the
practice of the art. In his youth he composed a number of songs and
ballads which were published in St. Louis. Naturally he had charge of
the church music, and among the pleasantest experiences of his life were
the choir rehearsals, and particularly was this the case when Mr. Jay
Ten Eyck presided at the organ and the quartet choir consisted of Mrs.
F. W. Schmidt, Mrs. Dr. J. E. Janes, Mr. Harrison I. Norton and Mr.
Hine. One who knew him well at that time has said that “he was just like
a boy going to a ball game when he came down to the church on choir
rehearsal nights”, such was his enthusiasm.
The selection and preparation of special music for Easter and other
occasions gave him the most keen delight. At such times he would come
home with an armful of carols and spend evening after evening trying
them, usually with his flute, his daughter-in-law being at the piano.
The possibilities were then taken up by the choir and the resulting
music was reasonably good, though considerable good natured fun was
poked at the choir-master on one occasion, at least, when, after having
labored earnestly over a long Easter Sunday anthem the domine
immediately began his prayer with, “Oh, Lord, we thank Thee that it is
finished”.
Mr. Hine was notably successful with the Sunday school music, having a
peculiar faculty for arousing the enthusiasm of children. His “Now,
children!” brought prompt and complete attention from all, and he was so
absorbed himself in the work and was so much a part of it that the
children abandoned themselves to his sway and responded with a gusto
that made the singing of the school a great feature.
WOODSIDE, 1868-9.
Woodside was set off from Belleville in 1868 and lasted as an
independent town just about two years. Again I fall back on Mr.
Swinnerton, who was town clerk both years, for details. He says:—
“When the new element came it found a lot of old-timers, very glad to
welcome us and to benefit by the church and Sunday school privileges,
but unwilling to spend any money for street or sidewalk betterment.
Belleville contained many of the same sort, but there were some there
who helped us secure our set-off into a township.”
WOODSIDE TOWNSHIP.
UNION TICKET.
For Judges of Election,
CHARLES AKERS,
EDWARD P. SNOWDEN,
HORACE B. NICHOLS.
For Assessor,
NATHANIEL J. CRANE.
For Collector,
JAMES S. GAMBLE.
For Town Clerk,
JAMES SWINNERTON, JR.
For Justice of the Peace,
ELIAS OSBORN.
For Town Committee,
CHARLES AKERS,
MILES I’ANSON,
JOSEPH I. DOWLING,
HORACE CARTER,
JOHN McMULLEN.
For Commissioners of Appeal,
JOHN C. BENNETT,
EDWARD G. FAITOUTE,
JOHN I. BRIGGS.
For Chosen Freeholder,
CHARLES AKERS,
HORACE H. NICHOLS.
For Constables,
JOHN BURKE,
BETHUEL MUNN,
PHINEAS M. SMITH.
For Surveyors of Highways,
TRUMAN H. ALDRICH,
GEORGE K. HARRISON,
JOHN C. BENNETT.
For Pound Keepers,
NATHANIEL J. CRANE,
JOHN C. BENNETT,
JOHN I. BRIGGS,
JOHN McDONALD,
GEORGE K. HARRISON.
Road Tax $4,000 00
School Tax, per child 3 00
Poor Tax 500 00
Dog Tax, as the law allows.
Incidental Expenses 500 00
“The village had scarce gained its independence, however, when it was
saddled with a heavy debt in the shape of bonds for the Midland (now
Greenwood Lake) Railroad. This made it imprudent to attempt the raising
of money for local improvements, but the year Mr. Hine was on the Town
Committee $4,000 was raised for street improvements and divided between
the five districts of River road, Washington avenue, Back road,
Bloomfield road and the cross road in Woodside. Mr. Hine spent $600 in
making a gravel walk from the cemetery to Carteret street, and gave the
remaining $200 to General Cumming for use on the Gully road.
“Our portion went to Soho (which appears to have been then a part of
Woodside). The others stirred the ground a little, leaving the mud as
deep as ever.” Woodside was an awful mud-hole in wet weather.
The Town Committee met at night, usually in the house of Mr. Swinnerton,
Town Clerk; none but the town officers attended these meetings. The two
annual town meetings were held in a small hall on Washington avenue,
opposite the Morrison & Briggs carpenter shop; this hall burned later.
Two or three informal meetings were held in a small carpenter shop
standing in Mr. Swinnerton’s yard, on the northeast corner of Elwood and
Lincoln avenues (this was the first Morrison & Briggs shop). Here
Woodside was given its present name.
So far as can now be recalled the Town Committeemen were General
Cumming, for the River road; Mr. Hine, for Washington avenue; either Mr.
Phillips or Mr. Faitoute, for Lincoln avenue; Charles Akers, for the
Bloomfield road; “a fine, old Irish gentleman for Soho”, and Joseph
Dowling for the cross street. James S. Gamble was Treasurer.
A WOODSIDE TRAGEDY.
Possibly the only tragedy connected with Woodside was the shooting of
Albert D. Richardson on December 2, 1869. Mr. Richardson was a
celebrated newspaper correspondent and an author of some note. He had
traveled over a large part of the United States and had settled in
Woodside because of its rural beauty, having purchased the house built
by Miles I’Anson, which now stands on Summer avenue, facing Chester.
A Mrs. McFarland, who was later known to literature as Abbie Sage
Richardson, and who came of a good Boston family, married Daniel
McFarland, the black sheep of a prominent New York family, and, after
supporting him for a reasonable length of time, she secured a divorce.
Mr. Richardson assisted her in establishing herself, and about this time
McFarland, while under the influence of liquor, met him in the office of
the Tribune and shot him down. Richardson was removed to the Astor House
and lived for a week. He was a widower with three young children and,
desiring Mrs. McFarland to look after them, he married her while on his
deathbed.
WOODSIDE AND THE STREET CAR.
From the beginning and up to comparatively recent times Woodside has
been compelled to make a continuous fight for proper street car service.
The first car track laid extended from the cemetery to Orange street,
where it met the track which had been laid in 1862 from Market street.
There was but one car, and that was pivoted on the trucks so that, a
king bolt being drawn, the body of the car was swung around while the
trucks remained on the track—this instead of reversing the horses to the
other end of the car, as was done later. About 1865 the tracks were
extended north through Woodside to Second river, to what was then known
as “Flanigan’s station”, and for six years they went no further.
It was many years before the Woodside section was treated as part of the
main line, all sorts of bob-tail excuses being offered us. Cars would
come as far as the “Pump” (cemetery), and there passengers could wait
for the “bob-tail” or walk as they saw fit. There was no shelter against
the winter’s storm or shade from the summer sun. “Old Mose”, who watered
the horses at the pump, which stood just about where the Washington
avenue sidewalk on the west now ends, was possessed of a movable bench
which followed the shadows of the trees as the sun made its daily
progress through the heavens, and this was the only spot whereon to rest
our weary bones while waiting. Mose was a good natured old soul whom
every one liked, and was as much of an institution as was the old
West-farm pump from which he drew the water for the horses. His “Now,
William, let her propel”, when it was time for a car to start, became a
by-word.
Naturally those living in Woodside were always grumbling at the poor car
service furnished, and there was a constant fight with Mr. Battin, and
later with Mr Barr, and many a delegation descended on the Board of
Aldermen, and almost invariably its head and front was Mr. Hine who,
while he loved peace, did not believe in peace at any price. The
company’s charter required that all cars should run to the city line
(Second river), and Mr. Hine, with his wonted energy, at once
inaugurated an active campaign by writing to the papers as well as
stirring up the City Fathers, and by dint of his “sticktoitiveness”, as
he called it, he won his point and the octopus was forced to loose his
tentacles and be subject to the law governing its agreements.
In this connection a friend writes concerning Mr. Hine: “I remember, of
course, his prominence in our town meetings and meetings after Woodside
became annexed to Newark. He was the best speaker by far in our section,
and better versed in parliamentary rules, so that he kept the meetings
in better order than they would otherwise have been. He had a great
faculty of leading people to state their views, thus getting a subject
well ventilated and adding much interest to a meeting. In consequence of
his great ability for speaking he was always chosen leader of our
citizens’ delegations whether to the City Fathers for better horse car
facilities, or to the Erie Railroad officials for improvements on that
‘system’.”
NOTES ON MR. HINE’S CHARACTER.
Mr. Hine’s character was of a grade not often met with. I was with him
probably more than any one else, as for many years we came and went
together morning and night and were closely associated during business
hours, and I can in all truth say that never once have I heard him utter
a word, even by implication, that could not have been uttered in any
presence, nor did I ever hear him gossip of his neighbors nor offer a
criticism of any one not present except once, and that was so gentle
that, had it come from another, it would have passed unnoticed. In this
one case he referred to an erratic genius who played the church organ
for many years, and who sorely tried his patience.
But it must not be supposed that because of his gentle ways Mr. Hine
could not fight. Nothing could stop him when a sense of duty impelled;
not even the fear of death—if he ever had any such fear. As an instance:
When traveling for the Ætna Insurance Company Mr. Hine, shortly after
his marriage, and when a wife and baby were dependent on him, was sent
to a town in Arkansas to establish an agency for the company, being
instructed to select a certain man if he was found to qualify.
They met and Mr. Hine, being satisfied, gave the man his commission as
agent, but during the following evening he discovered that his new
appointee had celebrated by getting drunk, and immediately concluded to
take up the agency. Those acquainted with the man, however, insisted
that he do nothing of the sort, stating that his agent was a fire eater,
who would accept it as a personal insult and would shoot.
Mr. Hine believed that only a coward carried arms and never did so
himself, though he had been much in the Southwest and recognized the
small value put on life (this was about 1857 or 8). However he saw what
he believed was his duty and, while admitting later that he faced the
man with considerable fear of the consequences, he did face him, and as
briefly and with as little sting as possible, stated his reasons for
withdrawing the commission. Strange to say the “fire-eater” acknowledged
the justice of the move and expressed himself as sincerely sorry at the
outcome. Only the highest class of courage can compel a man to face such
a situation.
I once by chance heard him tell an individual himself that he was either
a knave or a fool, but neither knew that the remark was overheard, and
Mr. Hine never again spoke of the matter so far as I know. He could tell
the man himself, if necessity demanded it, but would never speak of it
to others.
His contempt for money, except for the good it could be made to do, was
genuine and deep seated. His charities, considering his limited income,
were boundless, as evidenced by his check stubs after his death. An
examination of these showed merely that the $50 or $100 had gone to “an
old friend”, or were marked with the one word “charity”. While in many
cases money thus handed out was ostensibly loaned, Mr. Hine early
learned never to expect its return, and he was seldom disappointed. One
of his pet aphorisms, “gratitude is a lively sense of favors to come”,
was frequently applied to this situation.
The fact that he was imposed on and defrauded by charity fakirs time and
again never made any difference; the next time he would take chances
rather than run the risk of not helping where help was needed. He often
said that “he could swallow anything he could get through his shirt
collar”, and his shirt collar was a mighty easy affair, as many “a
friend in need” discovered.
On the other hand, no matter how much it might curtail his income by
antagonizing a customer, he would hit every head in sight if he thought
it deserved it, and he knew how to hit—none better. He had a way of
grasping a situation and clarifying its follies or crooked features that
was at times merciless.
As before stated, Mr. Hine’s opportunities for school education were
limited in his youth. On the other hand, his knowledge was almost
universal. How he kept abreast of the times as he did was a mystery,
even to his own family, for he had no time to read, beyond his morning
and evening paper between home and office. His evenings, when not filled
with church matters, were largely taken up by those who were ever
calling on him for help and who never went away without receiving the
best he had to give, whether they were young or old, or the poorest of
the poor. He would explain a matter to a child with as much courtesy and
patience as to an adult.
On one occasion when he was confined to the house with some slight
indisposition a small girl appeared at the back door with a straggling
bunch of field flowers in her hand and handed it in with the simple
message, “Tell Mr. Hine that I love him”. Hardly anything could have
touched the recipient more deeply, and yet that small girl voiced a
sentiment that was almost universal among those who knew him best.
Mr. Hine was as punctilious in doing for his own boys as for the church,
and while he believed in making them earn those things they desired,
that they might the more fully appreciate them, he always stood by his
agreements, not only in letter but in spirit. His idea seems to have
been to make the boy feel satisfied that he had been given a square
deal. Possibly one or two small instances will do no harm here:—
One of the boys once saw a velocipede in a Newark store that he thought
he wanted, and began to save his money for that purpose. As I recollect
it, the machine was to cost $12. In the meantime the father saw one in
New York for $10 that looked to him just as good, and told the youngster
about it, and announced that he would bring it out. On arrival it proved
to be a size or two smaller—a $10 size—and the boy was disappointed, but
instead of telling him it was just as good, he seemed to get down to the
lad’s level and appreciate that it was a matter of importance to him,
and he made good without a hint of grumble at the extra trouble involved
in taking the machine back and bringing out the larger one, and he paid
the added $2 himself. He had said he could get one just as good for less
money. He seemed to expect no particular thanks, merely giving the
impression that he was only doing what he had agreed to do.
Mr. Hine’s eldest was probably born with a streak of tar in his
composition, for he has been an ancient mariner ever since I first knew
him. No sooner was the boy large enough to run around a bit than he
wanted a row boat on the river; but his father promptly responded to
such a proposition with, “No, young man; not until you can swim across
the river”, evidently in the belief that this was still some seasons
off. But the lad wanted the boat, and the moment he could stand the
temperature he was in the river, and generally several times a day (his
mother never suspected how often), and by hard work and much persistence
he managed to get the hang of the thing long before the summer was out,
and one day announced that he could swim across the river and wanted the
boat.
Naturally his father was a bit incredulous, but they went to the water’s
edge, and while the elder hired a boat at the Point House, the son
retired to the privacy of the Melius dock and stripped for the ordeal.
His clothes were put in the boat and the two started, and you can be
sure that the father kept close by in case of accident, but there was
none, and the boy got across all right. Then his father asked if he
could swim back, and he said he would try, and did.
No sooner were his clothes on again than he said: “Now, can I have that
boat?” and quite as promptly came the answer, “Yes; we will go down town
now and get it”. There was no quibbling or hesitation or delay, and no
matter how the father may have felt in allowing his small son to have a
boat, he had given his word and that settled it, and within the hour the
lad was rowing up the river in his own boat, as proud as any small boy
could be and without any idea of the situation except that both parties
to the bargain had lived up to it.
His methods of punishment were usually well fitted to the occasion. I
still recall one instance with a clarity of vision that omits no detail.
Mr. Hine was left in charge of the Winser premises during the absence of
that family in Europe and, during that portion of the year when “sling
shots” are in vogue, a group of young highwaymen, of which the younger
two hopefuls of the Hine family were members, thought it was fine fun to
sling stones between the blinds of the Winser house, then vacant, and
hear the glass smash. But one day Mr. Hine discovered what was going on,
and appointed himself a committee of one to investigate. He made no fuss
whatever—just said we would have to replace the glass. It made no
difference that others besides ourselves had helped in the mischief; if
the others would help to pay for it that was all right, but none of his
affair. Of course few of the other boys could see the thing from our
point of view, and it took just about all of our little hoard, which had
almost reached the point where we could purchase a greatly desired
printing press, to pay for the damage. It was a cruel blow, but we never
broke any more glass.
Mr. Hine, just as a matter of course, did any little thing he could for
friend or neighbor; it never occurred to him to hesitate when he saw the
opportunity.
When the matter of a station agent was first being agitated for the
Woodside stop on the Newark branch of the Erie, one who thought he
wanted the job fixed up a petition and went to the depot one morning to
secure the signatures of such commuters as he knew. Seeing Mr. Hine and
hoping for his name to head the list, he offered the paper to him,
asking that he sign it if he approved. After reading Mr. Hine not only
signed, but himself took the paper to every man present and insisted
that each one sign, responding to those who objected that they did not
know the young man, that he did, and had known him almost all his life,
and knew he was safe to indorse. The result was that twice as many
signatures were secured from that group as were hoped for. It was a
small thing, but the prompt and hearty way in which it was done made it
a benediction, and that man still thinks of Mr. Hine with pleasure and
likes to tell why.
MRS. MARY HAZARD AVERY HINE.
Mrs. Mary Hazard Avery Hine was born in Westport, Conn., January 29,
1821. Her parents removed to the West when she was a young woman, and
she met Mr. Hine in St. Louis, Mo., and there married him. Mrs. Hine was
educated in New Haven, receiving the best schooling which that city
could give a girl eighty odd years ago, and she grew up under favoring
circumstances. She was a woman of fine mind and great breadth and
strength of character, and a recognized leader.
Mrs. Hine was the third president of the Y. W. C. A. of Newark, and
remained at its head through the many trying years of its youth, and
when it was a very different institution from the present and very
differently managed. She was also for many years president of the New
Jersey branch of the Women’s Indian Association, and one of its most
active members.
Nearer home she organized and conducted a Zenana Mission Band which, in
itself, would have been considered work enough by most women and, in
addition, she carried on a large Bible class in the Sunday school—all
this without interfering in the least with her household duties, which
she was slow to delegate to others.
THE ZENANA MISSION BAND.
The Zenana Mission Band, which was started by Mrs. Hine, became quite an
institution, with its bi-weekly meetings and annual fair, which were
held in the home at 209 Washington avenue. Just when it was begun, or
how, I am unable to state, but it was many years ago, and the meetings
were only stopped when advancing years compelled Mrs. Hine to give up
the responsibility.
The meetings began early in the fall and lasted the day out. These
continued until a fair was given during the following May or June, at
which time the entire lower floor of the house was stripped of its
furniture and devoted to the event. Tables and booths for the sale of
all manner of articles, from embroidery to ice cream, being erected in
every available corner.
Mrs. Hine designed the embroidery patterns used and both she and Miss
Avery, being expert with the needle, began the pieces and set the pace
for the others, they having been brought up at a time when household
duties and the finer uses of the needle were a part of every girl’s
education. Some of those with whom I have talked look on the educational
value to those who came to these meetings as possibly the more important
feature, believing that many of the young women who attended would never
otherwise have had their taste and skill for such work developed, for
the embroidery was most rich and elaborate, requiring exceedingly
careful manipulation.
When the fair fell on rainy times and the fancy goods did not go off as
desired Miss Avery would take a bundle of the best to New York and there
dispose of the articles among her friends, for just about so much money
was wanted to send out to India each year, and if it did not come it
must be gone after.
MISS JANE A. AVERY.
In this connection I cannot forbear from a brief word concerning Miss J.
A. Avery, Mrs. Hine’s sister and aid in all good works. Miss Avery was
one of the most lovable persons I have ever met, her self-sacrificing
spirit and constant thought of others being most marked. And with a
saintly spirit she had an attractive personality quite beyond the
ordinary.
She has been compared to a bit of delicate Sevres china, and possibly
that is as good a comparison showing her daintiness as could be made,
but Miss Avery was something more than merely attractive; her devotion
to any duty in hand was such that she never had a thought of fear, nor
did she allow the discomfort of pain to interfere. Before the day of
trained nurses she was caring for an uncle—Judge Edward Avery of
Massillon, Ohio—who required constant attention, and while so engaged
the bones of one foot were crushed by the falling of a heavy iron. The
doctor insisted that she must not stand on this foot, but this
injunction she felt it was impossible to obey, and made that same doctor
whittle out a thin board and bind it to the injured foot, and thus she
hobbled about in constant pain, but giving the unremitting attention
required by her patient.
One who knew Miss Avery well for many years writes that she “was one of
those rare characters whose mission it is to bring comfort and cheer to
their fellows. She was one of those large natures of whom Goethe says,
‘They impress not by what they do, but by what they are’.
“Wherever she went she was welcome; she had the remarkable faculty of
seeing at a glance what was needed, and without a word doing the right
thing, the wonderful gift of tact which, with a loving nature, makes the
possessor a tower of strength. So winning was her personality that she
made friends wherever she went, and always said laughingly that she
could travel all over Europe with only her mother-tongue.”
It is impossible at this date to go into details concerning all those
who were active during the early days of this period, but there are a
few in regard to whom I have been able to secure some bits of
information.
MR. HORACE H. NICHOLS.
Mr. Horace H. Nichols was a man who left his impress on all those who
came in contact with him. Mr. Nichols was a carpenter and builder in
Newark before his removal to Woodside. He secured the contract for
fencing the cemetery and that brought him this way, and the beauties of
the country gave him a longing to turn farmer, and so he bought a
considerable tract here in 1846, and in 1852 built the white house which
still stands back from the road. Here he started the growing of fruit,
and was very successful, as many of us can testify.
Mr. Nichols had the character of a saint and, while not an aggressive
man, was always ready “to dig down in his jeans” whenever the church
called for help, and was ever looking for the opportunity to do his
share—rather an unusual trait.
REMINISCENCES OF MR. HENRY J. WINSER.
Mr. Henry J. Winser was not with us during much of the very early
period, owing to his appointment as consul at Sonneberg, Germany, during
the eight years when Grant was President, and also through the term of
President Hayes, and he had little opportunity for local activity.
Mr. Winser’s earliest experience in the War of the Rebellion was as
military secretary (with the rank of first lieutenant) to Col. Elmer E.
Ellsworth, whose blood was the first shed in the war.
The friendship with Ellsworth began in 1855 when he came to New York, a
youth of seventeen, from his home in Saratoga County, hoping to be
appointed as cadet to West Point. In this, however, he was disappointed,
as the politicians desired the places for their friends’ sons.
He then began the study of law in Chicago, but also kept up his study of
the art of war and, becoming impressed with the tactics of the French
Zouaves during the Crimean War, and being well known in military circles
in Chicago, it was an easy matter for him to form a company. This was
organized as the Ellsworth Zouaves, and was composed of the flower of
the youth of Chicago.
The fame of the “Chicago Zouaves” had become so widespread that a year
or two before the war Ellsworth was asked to bring his men East, and so
great was the enthusiasm over their exhibition that Colonel Ellsworth’s
methods were soon widely copied.
At the time of Mr. Lincoln’s election to the Presidency, Ellsworth was
employed in his law office. He accompanied him to Washington and
remained near the President during the unsettled period which followed
the inauguration. He was among the first to obtain a military commission
from President Lincoln, and was sent to New York with instructions to
form a regiment from the ranks of the Volunteer Fire Department of the
city in the shortest possible time.
Mr. Winser was impressed into the service on this occasion. In a very
short time Ellsworth had twelve-hundred men enlisted and mustered into
the service of the United States under the call for three months’
volunteers, and in the extraordinarily brief period of three weeks from
the time he arrived in New York he marched at the head of a thousand
well-equipped men to the steamship at the foot of Canal street. On
reaching Washington this body of raw recruits was at first given
quarters in the Capitol building, owing to lack of camp equipage.
There were many anomalous things connected with the organization of the
volunteer forces in the early stages of the war, and not the least
anomalous was the fact that Ellsworth appointed Mr. Winser his military
secretary, with the rank and uniform of first lieutenant.
The advance into Virginia had been determined upon and instructions were
given to embark at two o’clock in the morning for Alexandria. Ellsworth
then entered the tent which he and Mr. Winser shared and asked the
latter to get some sleep while he finished his final arrangements. Then
it was that he wrote that brief, but pathetic letter to his parents
which drew tears from many unaccustomed eyes after it was published. The
letter is in an old scrapbook of Mr. Winser’s, and reads as follows:—
“Headquarters First Zouaves,
”Camp Lincoln, Washington, May 23, 1861.
“My dear Father and Mother:—
“The regiment is ordered to move across the river to-night. We have no
means of knowing what reception we shall meet with. I am inclined to the
opinion that our entrance to the city of Alexandria will be hotly
contested, as I am just informed that a large force has arrived there
to-day. Should this happen, my dear parents, it may be my lot to be
injured in some manner. Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation
that I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty, and to-night,
thinking over the probabilities of the morrow and the occurrences of the
past, I am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be,
confident that He who noteth the fall of a sparrow will have some
purpose even in the fate of one like me. My darling and ever-loved
parents, good-bye. God bless, protect and care for you.
ELMER.“
Just as daylight was breaking on the morning of the twenty-fourth of
May, the steamers carrying the Ellsworth Zouaves arrived at Alexandria.
The commander of the sloop-of-war Pawnee, which lay off Alexandria, had
already proposed terms of submission which had been accepted by the
city, and it was supposed that there would be no resistance to the
occupation of the town.
The following is Mr. Winser’s account of what occurred:—
“Ellsworth was the first to land, and then Company E, Captain Leveridge,
formed upon the wharf. Without waiting for the remainder of the regiment
to disembark the Colonel gave some hurried instructions for interrupting
the railroad communication and, calling to me, said: ‘Winser, come with
me to the telegraph office. It is important to cut the wires.’ Mr. E. H.
House, correspondent of the New York Tribune, had accompanied the
expedition, and he and the Rev. E. W. Dodge, chaplain of the regiment,
who were standing near, asked if they might go with us. We had gone only
a few paces when I suggested to Ellsworth that perhaps it would be well
to take a squad of men as an escort. He assented at once and I soon
overtook him with a sergeant and four men from Company A. We ran up the
street for about two blocks on a double-quick in the supposed direction
of the telegraph office, meeting a few sleepy-looking people on the way.
The Colonel at this moment caught sight of a large Confederate flag
which had just been raised above the roof of a building apparently two
or three blocks distant to the left. He at once said: ‘Boys, we must
have that flag!’ and told the sergeant to go back and tell Captain Coyle
to follow us with his entire company.
“Not heeding the mission to the telegraph office for the moment, we
pushed on toward the building with the flag flying over it and found it
was the Marshall House, an hotel of second-class grade. As we rushed
into the open door the Colonel called out to a man in shirt and trousers
who was entering the hallway from the opposite side: ‘What flag is that
over the roof?’ The fellow looked neither surprised nor alarmed at the
irruption of armed men, and answered, doggedly as I thought: ‘I don’t
know anything about it; I am only a boarder here.’ Without further
parley the Colonel ran up the long winding stairway to the topmost
story, the rest of us following closely. It did not take long to find
the attic room, whence opened a skylight with the flagstaff within easy
reach, and the large flag was soon upon our heads.
“I passed it down to the men below, and as I got off the ladder I saw
the Zouaves tearing off pieces as mementos of the exploit. This I
stopped, saying that the flag must not be mutilated, but must be
preserved as a trophy. The entire occurrence could not have occupied
more than a couple of minutes. I was busy rolling the long flag over my
arm when Ellsworth turned to the stairway holding one end of the flag.
He was preceded by Private Francis E. Brownell, of Company A. Mr. House
and Chaplain Dodge were close beside him, and I was a few steps behind,
still rolling the flag on my arm as compactly as possible. There were
two men in the attic room whom we had not noticed at first in our
eagerness to get down the flag. They arose in great bewilderment to
witness our deed and were almost fully dressed. They had, however, no
connection with the tragic event.
“In the order I have mentioned we began our descent of the broad,
winding stairway. My attention was too much occupied in managing the
bulky flag to know by actual observation precisely what happened in the
first instant of the lamentable tragedy. I heard the clash of weapons
and at the same moment the report of two guns, with so imperceptible an
interval between that it might have been taken for a single shot. I saw
Ellsworth fall forward at the foot of the first flight of stairs, and I
saw Brownell, standing on the landing near the turn to the second
flight, make a thrust with his bayonet at the tottering form of a man
which fell headlong down half the second flight of stairs. No
explanation of what had happened was needed. As Brownell reached the
first landing place, after the descent of a dozen steps, a man rushed
out and, without noticing the private soldier, leveled a double-barreled
gun squarely at Ellsworth’s breast. Brownell said that he made a quick
pass to turn the gun aside, but was not successful, and the contents of
both barrels, slugs or buckshot, entered the Colonel’s heart, killing
him instantly. He was on the third step above the landing when he
received the shot, and he fell forward in that helpless, heavy manner
which showed that every spark of life had left his body ere he reached
the floor. The murderer’s fingers had scarcely pressed the triggers of
his weapon when Brownell’s rifle was discharged full in the centre of
his face, and as he staggered to his fall the shot was followed by a
bayonet thrust of such force that it sent the man backward down the
upper section of the second flight of stairs, where he lay for hours
afterward with his face to the floor and his rifle beneath him. This man
proved to be James T. Jackson proprietor of the Marshall House, and I
fully recognized him as the person we had met as we entered the house.
“We were dazed for a few seconds at the shocking calamity, but we
rallied, not knowing how soon we should be called upon to defend our own
lives. There were only seven of us, and Mr. House was unarmed. The noise
and confusion of the last few moments had aroused the sleepy household,
and we saw that in point of numbers we were in a small minority. I
stationed the three Zouaves at points commanding the approaches to the
passages converging on the stairway where we stood, and directed that
the first man who showed himself in the passages should be shot down.
The occupants of the rooms in our immediate vicinity were gathered
together in a single apartment and Brownell, who had reloaded his rifle,
was placed as guard over them with instructions to shoot the first man
who should evince a hostile disposition. The Chaplain and I searched the
story above, finding only the two men whom I have before mentioned as
being in the attic room when the flag was cut down; these we led down
and put in Brownell’s custody. Mr. House, meanwhile, had kept watch that
no one approached us from the story below. These defensive measures were
only the work of a minute or two.
“We next turned our attention to our dear friend, the Colonel, whose
life-blood had literally deluged the hallway. If we had not been too
sadly sure that he was beyond the reach of any aid we could offer there
would not have been even the slight delay there was ere we raised him
from the floor. Mr. House and I lifted him up tenderly and laid him upon
the bed in a room that was vacant. His uniform was so drenched with
blood that it was almost impossible to discover the exact location of
his wound. Unfastening his belt and unbuttoning his coat we found that
the murderous charge had penetrated his left breast, taking into the
wound much of the clothing, making a cavity almost large enough to
insert a clenched hand. Poor fellow! We washed the stains from his face,
which was beautiful in death—the expression of the handsome features not
at all changed, except by the pallor, from that which his friends knew
so well in life, and we composed his body, over which we laid the
Confederate flag which had so long waved in defiance within sight of the
White House, feeling that its use in this way purified it.”
The sword which Ellsworth wore at the time of his murder was given to
Mr. Winser and is still in the possession of the family.
Mr. Winser was at the battle of Cold Harbor and had his horse shot under
him. After the battle, during the night, a rifle ball lodged in the tent
pole directly over his head, so low down that it must almost have passed
through his hair, but so exhausted was he that he was all unconscious
that death had been so near. During the Draft Riots in New York, in
July, 1863, Mr. Winser was in command of the battery which protected
Printing House Square. He also did effective work in communicating with
the authorities on Governor’s Island, and although he was a marked man
owing to his connection with the New York Times, he went fearlessly
about the city looking after his friends in the sections where a reign
of terror had set in.
Mr. Winser was once made prisoner of war by Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, who
was in command at Beaufort, S. C. Mr. Winser had criticised his methods
in a letter to the Times. This so angered the General that he caused his
arrest, sending him on board the Arago, which was just leaving for New
York, without permitting him to communicate with any of his friends. The
publication of the affair resulted in Mr. Winser’s reinstatement at
headquarters in South Carolina.
Mr. Winser was with Farragut at New Orleans, as a representative of the
Times. In those days the means of communication were exceedingly slow,
and Mr. Winser, recognizing the value to his paper of such a “scoop” as
the first news of this important event would be, rowed down the
Mississippi from Fort Jackson to the Gulf, where he found a schooner
bound for Key West. This he boarded, and reached his destination a few
hours ahead of the steamer from Havana, Cuba, which touched here for
mail and passengers on its way to New York.
Thus the New York Times had an account of the bombardment and surrender
of Forts Jackson and Phillip three days in advance of any other journal.
This was considered the greatest “beat” ever known in the history of
journalism. It was not only the means of giving the news to the country,
but was also the first intimation that the government itself received of
the success of the fleet. Mr. Winser returned to New Orleans and was
there during the Butler regime and chronicled the General’s achievements
for his paper.
Mr. Winser was also present at the meeting of Grant and Lee under the
famous apple tree to arrange for the surrender of the Confederate Army.
He was one of the commissioners for the exchange of prisoners from
Andersonville, and his reports of the condition of the men were most
harrowing.
When the famous Butler-Porter controversy occurred in 1889, it was Mr.
Winser who was able to prove that Butler’s charges against Porter were
untrue.
When Mr. Winser sent his report of Farragut’s passage of the forts below
New Orleans (as narrated elsewhere), fearing there might be a
miscarriage, he wrote a second account which was forwarded by the same
steamer that carried the letters of other newspaper correspondents. This
latter manuscript was returned to him and hence, when Admiral Porter
wrote, asking him if he remembered the circumstances of the sudden order
from Captain Porter to the flotilla to cease firing and return, Mr.
Winser was able to give a transcript of the affair from his manuscript
letter.
It was a great grief to Mr. Winser that General Butler should have
placed himself in so unpleasant a position, for he had valued him as a
friend and soldier, and was most reluctantly brought into the
controversy.
[Illustration: Woodside As God Made It. Picture taken about 1885 from a
Washington Avenue back yard. Looking south across the fields toward the
Passaic.]
When he settled in Woodside Mr. Winser was city editor of the Times and
was deep in the investigation of the Tweed Ring. This work was so
exacting that he had no time even to attend to his own private affairs,
and paid little attention to Woodside politics, except in one instance.
During the first year of Woodside’s independence there were no politics;
no salaries attached to any of the offices, and consequently the good
men were allowed to fill them. But by the time the second annual
election approached there were a few soreheads who joined themselves
unto the scattering Democrats and the house was divided against itself.
This necessitated some electioneering, which was undertaken by Mr.
Winser and Mr. Theodore G. Palmer, who went the rounds of the district
canvassing for votes. The result was overwhelmingly Republican and
eminently satisfactory.
Mr. Winser broke down in January, 1869, and was told by the doctors that
he must stop night work. He was advised by a friend to apply to General
Grant for a consular position, and Sonneberg was suggested for its
beauty of location and the wide field it offered for consular and other
work, as it was the largest consulate in Germany.
Mr. H. J. Raymond, of the New York Times, was bitterly opposed to this
and refused to help in any way, declining even to write introductions to
his political friends in Washington or to request their aid in the
appointment. Mr. R. said: “I do not want you to leave the Times and I
shall in no way help you in your desire.”
But after Grant’s inauguration Mr. Winser wrote, asking for the
Sonneberg post, and his was the first appointment made after March 4,
1869.
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish was a friend of Dr. Cox, father-in-law
of Mr. Winser, and knew his (Mr. Winser’s) record as a journalist, and
this doubtless was a help. Mr. Winser’s appointment was regarded as most
remarkable, in that politics and pressure had nothing to do with it.
Grant made it because he was a personal friend and the State Department
probably sanctioned it because, in the application, Mr. W. said that he
spoke three languages and referred to his Times editorials upon
political matters.
While consul at Sonneberg Mr. Winser was appointed by the United States
Government, Commissioner to the World’s Fair at Vienna in 1873.
When Mr. Winser returned from Sonneberg in 1873, intending to resign,
Mr. Fish urged him to reconsider his decision and return to his post to
go on with the work he had done for the government.
Mr. Winser was the first American officer to look into the emigration
from Germany. He stopped the deportation of criminals from Germany to
this country. He was the first man to study the forestry system in
Germany, the consulate being in the centre of the forestry department of
the country. Knowing the language thoroughly and being persona grata in
high official circles he had access to all departments.
He wrote a most exhaustive report on the “Forests and Forest Culture of
Thuringia”, which was sent to the State Department on November 28, 1873,
and is in the “Commercial Relations” of 1873. So valuable was this
report deemed by the State Department that it was printed as a separate
pamphlet and sent to every newspaper in the country. In his report Mr.
W. urged upon this country the necessity of cultivating and preserving
its forests, as the time would come when care would be needed for their
conservation from an economic point of view, for the supply of timber
and for the effect they produced upon the climate, rainfall, etc.
The press of this country, one and all, hailed the report with derision,
it being regarded as ridiculous that this great country with its
primeval forests and its vast area of timber land could ever be
depleted. Even the Times feared that Mr. Winser’s four years’ residence
in a little country like Germany had dwarfed his ideas.
Twenty years later when the country became alarmed concerning the
fearful devastation then going on throughout its forests men were rushed
to Germany to learn its art of forestry.
Mr. Winser sent the government the first translation of the new German
tariff. It was received from the Coburg Minister of State within an hour
after he received it from the Imperial Government, and permission to
keep it for twenty-four hours was given. At 9 a. m. Mr. and Mrs. W. sat
down, after giving directions that they were not to be disturbed, and at
8 p. m. the work was finished, they dividing the pamphlet book in half
and each working independently of the other. This feat created a
sensation at the State Department and at the Consulate General at
Frankfort. Mr. Winser had taken the precaution to notify the State
Department that the voluminous matter had left Coburg on a certain date.
He also wrote the Consul General, through whose office all documents
were forwarded, that he had done this, so that no detention could be
possible on the way. It was a fortunate thing that this was done, as the
Consul General wrote he was sorry that he could not keep the document
for a few days that he might get “some points”. He wanted to know how it
was possible for Mr. W. to obtain the law before it had been given to
the public.
Mr. Winser also sent the first translation of the new laws concerning
the Rinderpest to the government.
On Mr. Winser’s return from Germany he was appointed, by Mr. Henry
Villard, Chief of the Bureau of Information of the Northern Pacific
Railway. In this capacity he inspected all the country tributary to the
railroad, writing many pamphlets on the resources of the far West. He
also wrote concerning the Yellowstone Park and its wonders.
He was in charge of the foreign guests at the celebration of driving the
last spike of the railroad. Later he became assistant editor of the
Commercial Advertiser, and then became managing editor of the Newark
Daily Advertiser. Just before his death he prepared the history of
Trinity Church, Newark, on the occasion of the sesqui-centennial
celebration. For nine years he was clerk of the vestry.
Mr. Winser was one of the charter members of the “Monks of the Passaic”,
a literary organization affiliated with the “Monks of the Meerschaum” in
Philadelphia.
Mr. Winser, Mr. Noah Brooks and Prof. Byron Matthews organized “The
Wednesday Club”, which has become one of the best-known literary clubs
of Newark. He was a life member of the New Jersey Historical Society.
Mr. Winser’s church and other connections in Woodside are referred to
elsewhere.
MR. JAMES SWINNERTON.
Mr. James Swinnerton, to whom I owe more than to any other one man for
material covering this period, was a member of Swinnerton Bros.,
manufacturing jewelers in Newark. He removed to Woodside in 1866, being
one of the very first of the new element.
Mr. Swinnerton immediately assumed a prominent place in the community,
being town clerk during both the years of local independence and taking
a foremost position in church and Sunday school development. So well
satisfied were the voters with his work as town clerk that, when the
second annual election was held, and an opposition ticket was put in the
field, he received 185 of the 192 votes cast for that office.
Mr. Swinnerton has a natural antiquarian bent and, as a consequence, has
preserved many memorials and a vivid memory of the past, and such of
these as relate to Woodside he has freely put at my disposal, throwing
light into many a dark corner.
MR. ALBERT BEACH.
Mr. Albert Beach was born in Newark and moved to the Bartholf farm on
the old Bloomfield road about 1865. He was a kindly man and had a number
of boys who were always ready to help along any mischief in which we
were interested, and as Mr. Beach himself was much interested in the
church we were quite neighborly, boy and man. And then all boys
appreciated Mrs. Beach, who was one of those who sensed the fact that a
boy’s heart lay next his stomach, and who immediately established close
relations with both. The Beach house was overrun with boys a goodly
portion of the time, and they were not all Beach boys, either.
GEN. GILBERT W. CUMMING.
General Gilbert W. Cumming lived on the River road in the old Stimis
house. The General’s property came down to the swamp where we boys
learned to skate, and his rail fence was a great temptation when a fire
was wanted, which was mostly all the time. It is still well remembered
how, on such occasions he would come charging down the hill “spitting
blue sparks”. The General’s habit of language was acquired in the army,
apparently, and it generally sounded as though the army was in Flanders
at the time; certainly it was of the pyrotechnic order, and no one could
well blame him with such an inciting firebrand as his rail fence became.
He was a thoroughly good man, however, and while he had the reputation
of being somewhat crusty and quick tempered, he could be quite genial
when all things worked together for peace. “He was an old-fashioned
lawyer of the Abe Lincoln school.”
The General was born March 12, 1817, of Scotch parents, at Stamford, N.
Y. He was admitted to the bar in New York, but removed to Chicago in
1858. When the Civil War broke out he offered his services and was
appointed Colonel of the 51st Illinois Volunteers, which he was largely
instrumental in raising.
Under General Pope he participated in the battle of New Madrid, Mo., and
while in charge of a brigade on the way to Tiptonville his capture of
Island No. 10 against great odds brought him prominently to the front.
For this he was made a brigadier-general for “gallant and meritorious
services at Island No. 10”.
Proceeding to Tiptonville he assisted in the capture of 6,000 Southern
soldiers and later took part with his brigade in the attack on Fort
Pillow. He was also at Corinth and Shiloh and was brought home from the
latter on a cot, his breakdown being due to hard work and exposure.
During a long rainy period he regarded himself as fortunate if he had a
brush heap to sleep on, such a thing as a tent or any form of shelter
being out of the question. He never fully recovered from a mild form of
paralysis induced by these hardships.
During one period of his service he was placed as a guard over a
Southern home occupied by its mistress. The General applied to her for
permission to sleep on the porch of the house, but she promptly
responded that no “Yankee” could sleep on her porch, and he was
compelled to wait until all were asleep before he could venture to seek
its shelter. Being a polite man, the General did not fail to thank the
lady on the following morning.
He used to tell how the Yankees, after stewing their coffee again and
again until there was nothing left to extract, would sell the grounds to
their opponents for a dollar a pound. Johnny Reb must have been in
straits for coffee.
In spite of all he went through the General was a strong temperance man,
never drinking liquor, even in the army, where good drinking water was
often impossible to find. The General was always to be found on the side
of law and order and was the one to whom Mr. Hine went in the early days
of Woodside to stop the Sunday horse cars. Ideas have changed greatly
during the past forty years in regard to the observance of the Sabbath,
and it may seem strange to some that a serious effort was once made to
disconnect this rural settlement from the rest of the world on that day,
but such is the fact. The General did get out an injunction and the
peace of the neighborhood was complete for a time, but the street car
people, as usual, had their way in the end.
MR. JOHN MORRIS PHILLIPS.
Mr. John Morris Phillips belonged to that generation which was the last
to be born in the old farm house now standing on Summer avenue, and he
appears to have been the first to break away from the traditions of the
farm.
Mr. Phillips was born November 4, 1817, and early showed an inclination
for mechanics. He was apprenticed to the pattern making business under
Mr. Horace T. Poinier, and later found employment under the noted Seth
Boyden; afterward he worked for the West Point foundry and from there
came to the Novelty Iron Works, New York City, and all this time was
learning and perfecting himself in every detail for future activity. His
memory was so phenomenal that when he had examined a piece of mechanism
its details never passed from his mind, and he could duplicate it
without again referring to the original. This, of course, was a
tremendous help in after life.
In the fall of 1845 the Hewes & Phillips Iron Works were started in a
small way at 60 Vesey street, New York, but the following year the
business was moved to Newark. The concern grew rapidly to large
proportions, and by the time the Civil War broke out was one of the
foremost establishments of the kind in the country and during the war it
did an immense amount of work for the government.
All the turret machinery for the first “Monitor”—the one which saved the
day in Hampton Roads—was made here, as was that for the five succeeding
monitors including the Modoc, Cohoes, etc. That the Monitor’s machinery
was well made the action at Hampton Roads amply proved.
Over 200,000 stand of arms were manufactured at the Hewes & Phillips
Works, and here the government also sent 12,000 flint-lock muskets to be
modernized. These, it is said, were part of a gift to the country made
during the Revolution by LaFayette, which had not been used at that
time.
Mr. James E. Coombes, an expert on American military small arms, writes
that Hewes & Phillips did alter a number of flint-lock muskets to
percussion, but he doubts if they were such obsolete weapons as those
brought over by LaFayette. Mr. Coombes says: “It was the policy of the
government to use only the later models of flint-locks for this purpose,
as there was a vast quantity of them on hand. I have seen a number of
these guns. They were stamped ‘H & P’ on the nipple lug—in fact, have
two in my collection, but they are all late models.”
Mr. Coombes’s opinion is accepted by military authorities generally, but
in spite of this I am inclined to think that the story is correct,
because it appears to have come so straight from Mr. John M. Phillips
himself.
Hewes & Phillips also altered 8,000 flint-locks for the state of New
Jersey, asking nothing more in return from the state than the actual
expense of the work. The machinery for the first Holland submarine was
made here during the Civil War.
Owing to threats made by Copperheads during the latter part of the war
that the factory would be destroyed, the place was guarded day and night
by a company of infantry. At that time Mr. Phillips lived on Bridge
street and his back yard adjoined the machine works, and he could step
from his house to his shop without exposing himself to possible danger
from the disaffected element.
Of the seventy boys and men who went out from this factory to enlist in
the army every one came back, and not one received a scratch to show for
his service. All apprentices who enlisted before their time was up were
put to work on their return at journeymen’s wages, while serving the
remainder of their time as apprentices. Thus did the firm at its own
expense recognize the services rendered by these young men to their
country.
That Mr. Phillips was a broad-minded and far-seeing man is not alone
proven by the business foundation he laid, but also by the monument he
left in beautifully embowered Lincoln avenue. His love for trees was
almost as great as for human beings, and because of this Lincoln avenue
is to-day as beautiful as is the traditional New England village green.
When the city saw fit to improve Lincoln avenue it did so by cutting
down all its shade trees and transforming it into a dreary desolation.
Mr. Phillips had in front of his house a row of cherry trees which were
his pride and admiration and were also, alas, a source of considerable
friction between himself and the neighborhood small boy, for the boys
found it comparatively easy to adapt themselves to the Phillips
cherries. I believe that their owner finally discovered that a generous
coat of fresh tar on the tree trunks was as good a small boy preventive
as it is in the case of certain insects. There is a tale of an
expressman who took one of these tarred tree trunks to his bosom before
he discovered the error of his ways, and the manner in which he blessed
his tarry top-lights—so to speak—is one of the traditions of the
neighborhood.
These cherry trees went with the rest, and when the destruction had been
so complete that there was no further job for the contractor-friend of
the politicians that functionary went elsewhere. Then Mr. Phillips
called on his neighbors in an effort to enlist them in a plan to
rehabilitate their street by the planting of trees but, finding most of
them indifferent, he planted trees on both sides of the way, from the
cemetery to Phillips Park, a double row one-half mile long, and it is
these trees which to-day shelter the avenue from the summer’s sun. The
trees were procured from a nursery on his own property located about
where Delavan ends in Summer avenue.
MR. DAVID MACLURE.
“The memory of him is sweet and pleasant”, more than one of his former
scholars testifies. Mr. Maclure is a round peg in a round hole, although
he happened into his present line of work in rather an accidental
manner.
He was the first clerk that the Prudential Insurance Company ever
employed, but earning his bread and butter by such uncongenial drudgery
soon wearied him, and he gave up the position with the idea of turning
to art or to the ministry for his life work; but while in this somewhat
uncertain state of mind the fates decided otherwise.
At this time he was living at the home of his parents on Lincoln avenue,
and, when it was learned that the school at Montgomery was closed for
lack of a teacher, a friend fairly pushed him into the opportunity thus
opened. He shortly became popular with old and young, and fitted so
snugly into the position that vaulting ambition has never since troubled
him.
From the Montgomery school he came to the Elliott Street School in
Woodside, was next transferred to the Eighth Ward School, and from there
to the Chestnut Street School, where he has been principal for many
years. Mr. Maclure has a way of making study attractive to children and
stimulating them to strive the more to reach that promised land which he
pictures so pleasantly—that those who have once been his scholars
remember the days spent under his care with unmixed pleasure. “Beyond
the Alps lies Italy”, is the way he sometimes put it to them.
The following verse is not offered as an evidence of Mr. Maclure’s
literary skill, but rather to show the personal interest which he takes
in the children, and as one of the many ways in which he attaches them
to him:—
“To Annie E. Bennett, March 27, 1883.
“‘Dear Anna, on your natal day,
A word of wisdom let me say:
Grow up, my blithe and little lass,
So that, as years and seasons pass,
You’ll still be found as pure and good
As on this day of bright childhood.
Remember this, my little maid,
That youth and beauty soon will fade;
But truth and honor ne’er decay,
But live to bless life’s closing day.’
“Written expressly for you on your eleventh birthday
by your friend and teacher,
“David Maclure.”
Mr. Maclure is a many-sided man: A painter of pictures—good pictures—a
writer of books and magazine articles, and a designer and maker of fine
furniture. His home is full of his handiwork, which is the more to be
praised because “the kitchen is his work-shop”.
A book of poems entitled “Thoughts on Life”, and two novels, “David
Todd” and “Kennedy of Glen Haugh”, have brought him fame in the literary
world, and he is also the author of several school text-books.
COL. SAMUEL L. BUCK.
Col. Samuel L. Buck, according to the dry records of the
Adjutant-General’s office at Trenton, was commissioned Major in the
Second Regiment, Infantry, New Jersey Volunteers, on the twenty-second
day of May, 1861, and was mustered into the United States service as
such for the period of three years. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel
January 20, 1862; Colonel, July 1, 1862; and was honorably discharged
July 21, 1864, during the War of the Rebellion. The official record goes
no further.
He was at Chickahominy June 27, 1862, when of the twenty-eight hundred
men in the Second Regiment only nine hundred and sixty-five answered at
roll-call the following day. He commanded the regiment at Crampton’s
Gap, where it met Longstreet. He was wounded at Chancellorsville, and
was in many engagements.
The Colonel delivered a lecture on his recollections of army life in the
Woodside Presbyterian Church, April 3, 1879, which was later published
in pamphlet form, but he was so extremely modest as regards his own part
in the fighting that it furnishes no data for my purpose. Many recall
that he had a fine record for bravery and efficiency, but I have found
no one who could tell the story.
MR. DANIEL F. TOMPKINS.
Mr. Daniel F. Tompkins was an antiquarian whose researches brought to
light and preserved much that was interesting concerning the local
history of Woodside. He discovered a number of Revolutionary relics in
the “Anthony Wayne camp ground” west of Summer avenue in the Carteret
street neighborhood and his inquiries among the old inhabitants resulted
in the preservation of valuable and interesting matter that would
otherwise have been lost.
Mr. Tompkins was a somewhat eccentric man and had some rather odd
fads—possibly the best known of which was his large flock of goats,
which was a prominent feature of the Washington avenue landscape for
many years. Another, which was possibly not so well known, was a
fondness for choice toilet soaps, of which he is said to have kept a
large quantity in his house. We all know that cleanliness is next to
Godliness.
That he was public spirited and alive to the value of a park system
there is no doubt, in fact he might almost be called the father of the
Essex County park system of to-day. Mr. Tompkins owned property around
the Boiling Spring, which has been a boundary mark from time immemorial
and one of the corners of Woodside, and he was the first to suggest a
park in that region, offering to give his land if the city would
purchase more and make the whole into a public park, and while his offer
was not taken, there is little doubt but that he helped to start the
agitation which resulted in the present system of breathing places for
the people.
JOHN F. DRYDEN.
The history of the man who has made a success of this life is always
interesting. Starting with nothing but a willingness to work and an
ability to think and having faith enough in himself and his ideas to
hold to his purpose through all set-backs and discouragements, he is
reasonably sure to reach the top.
When or where Mr. Dryden was born I do not know, but he may have come
from the land of wooden nutmegs, as he was a graduate of Yale. I do know
that he came to Woodside in the early seventies a poor man; so poor, if
his old neighbors remember rightly, that he did not even possess an
overcoat to keep out the chill of winter.
One cold, cheerless day a gentleman and lady with two children were seen
to enter a vacant house on Lincoln avenue, just below Elwood. Those
living nearby noted that the gentleman made frequent excursions to the
front gate, evidently looking for that load of furniture which did not
come. After considerable persuasion he was induced to accept an
invitation from a neighbor to spend the waiting time in that neighbor’s
house.
Such was Mr. Dryden’s introduction to Woodside, but even then he was
dreaming of industrial insurance, and his constant companions and most
intimate friends were mortality tables and dry statistics, and it was
not long before he became acquainted with certain gentlemen who
succumbed to his persuasive tongue and furnished the capital with which
the Prudential was started.
At first the company consisted of Mr. Dryden and an office boy, and
occupied a corner of somebody’s store on Broad street, Mr. Dryden’s
salary at this time being $10 per week but growth was rapid, and soon
Col. Samuel L. Buck was installed as assistant, and it was not long
before the office became a hive of Woodside men and boys, many of whom
have grown up with it and still remain in its employ.
It is not necessary to follow Mr. Dryden through his many successes. He
long ago became too great for Woodside, and removed to other
surroundings, but he is part of the early history of this region.
“One with a flash begins and ends in smoke;
The other out of smoke brings glorious light,
And (without raising expectation high)
Surprises us with dazzling miracles.”
THE “COUNT”.
No stronger contrast to Mr. Dryden could be shown than in the person of
“Count” Whitehead, a debonair gentleman who began with a flash and ended
in smoke. For a brief period our friend was the glass of fashion and the
mould of form for Woodside; he had some money and an ability to “blow it
in” that was notable. During this period he drove tandem and clothed his
Adonis-like figure in a way that held all eyes. When last heard of the
“Count” was a ticket chopper in the Pennsylvania ferry house.
LIEUT.-COL. W. E. BLEWETT.
In the spring of 1861, Mr. Blewett became active in organizing a company
of volunteers, the men being recruited principally from Belleville. This
company of 101 men subsequently formed Company F of the Second Regiment
of New Jersey (three-year volunteers). They were mustered in at Trenton
May 1st, 1861, as part of the First New Jersey Brigade, reporting on May
6th at Washington, being the first fully organized brigade to arrive for
the defense of the National Capital. A few days later the brigade
crossed the Potomac, and was the first regiment of three-year volunteers
to enter the state of Virginia.
At the Battle of Bull Run, July 21st, 1861, the Brigade (4th Division
under General Runyon) was held as a reserve, but not engaged. They,
however, were of service in covering the retreat of our army to
Centerville. Later the Second was attached to the First Brigade
(Kearny’s), Franklin Division; afterward to the First Brigade, First
Division, First Army Corps. After much service and a most brilliant
career, on the expiration of its term, the Brigade returned to New
Jersey for muster out.
The Second New Jersey was pre-eminently a fighting regiment.
On June 12th, 1861, Mr. Blewett was mustered in as Second Lieutenant of
Company F; June 4th, 1862, received commission as First Lieutenant, and
April 16th, 1862, by command of Brigadier General Kearny, was detailed
to take command of the Provost and Artillery Guards. Of this command he
was very proud, owing to the fact that the appointment came direct from
General Kearny, a much coveted honor.
Friday, June 27th, 1862, the First New Jersey Brigade was ordered to
Woodbury’s Bridge over the Chickahominy, there to meet Gen. Porter’s
Division. (Six companies of the Second, under Lieut.-Col. Samuel L.
Buck, were at that time on picket duty, and therefore took no part in
this action.) Colonel Tucker led out the remaining four companies,
including Lieutenant Blewett’s command with the rest of the Brigade.
From Woodbury’s Bridge this Brigade, with others, was sent to engage the
enemy near Gaines’s Mills and was soon in the thick of the fight.
Porter’s Division, in hand-to-hand conflict, held their position against
overwhelming odds until reinforcements, long delayed, arrived, but owing
to the fact that their position was unfavorable and to the superiority
of the enemy in numbers, the Union troops were compelled to retire. (The
Confederate forces numbered perhaps 56,000; the Union troops, 33,000.
The Union loss was 6,000 killed and wounded, besides nearly 2,000
prisoners. The Confederate loss was placed at 9,000 killed and wounded.)
The Second Regiment had the right of line, and though outnumbered and
flanked by the enemy, they were the last to leave their station in the
field. In this fight the regiment lost its colonel, Isaac M. Tucker,
Capt. Charles Danforth, Color Sergeant Thomas Stevens of Belleville, and
many others. The flags taken at this time were returned by a North
Carolina regiment many years after. On the afternoon of June 27th
Lieutenant Blewett was shot in the right breast. The ball took a
downward course, and remained lodged in his side. While working his way
to the hospital a fragment of a bursting shell cut his belt and
accoutrements from his side. Upon arriving at Gaines’s Mills, then used
as a hospital, Dr. Oakley dressed his wound and advised him to stop
there, but fearing capture he continued on. This was fortunate, as later
all the wounded at that hospital were taken prisoners. Aided by his
colored servant he reached home in Belleville, July 4th, 1862. Owing to
the fact that the ball could not be located the wound was long in
healing. This incapacitated him for active service, and while stationed
in Washington, September 9th, 1862, he resigned. Later Lieutenant
Blewett became active in the National Guard of this state, was
commissioned Captain Company H, Second Regiment, New Jersey Rifle Corps,
September 19th, 1866; Captain Company H, Second Regiment National Guard,
April 14th, ’69; Major and Quartermaster on the staff of Joseph W.
Plume, Brigadier-General First Brigade, October 27th, ’69;
Lieutenant-Colonel and Brigade Inspector, November 27th, ’71; resigned
November 30th, ’74.
MR. THOMAS W. KINSEY.
Mr. Thomas W. Kinsey comes from a long line of warriors, and has lived
up to the traditions of the family.
Four brothers of the name came to this country in the Mayflower: two
settled in Connecticut and two in New Jersey. An early ancestor, John
Kinsey, was speaker of the New Jersey House of Representatives. The
grandfather of Thomas W., Joel Kinsey, fought in the Revolution; his
son, Joel, Jr., volunteered for the war of 1812, and his grandson,
Thomas W., above, when fifteen years of age, enlisted for three years at
the beginning of the Civil War and, when his time had expired,
re-enlisted on the field for three more, or until the end of the war,
putting in four years and seven months of fighting.
During this time he received four wounds and two furloughs, one of ten
days for bravery on the field of battle and one of thirty days after
serving three years in the ranks. And Mr. Kinsey says he “had no special
adventures—just plenty of fighting”.
By the time his mother had given her consent to his enlistment all the
New Jersey regiments were full, so this fifteen-year-old boy went to New
York and enlisted at Fort Schuyler in the First Long Island Regiment,
which was principally raised through the efforts of Henry Ward Beecher,
whose brother was chaplain to the regiment and whose son was a
lieutenant therein. This regiment was later known as the 67th N. Y., and
when its members became decimated by slaughter it was merged in the 65th
N. Y.
Mr. Kinsey was in all the principal engagements of the Army of the
Potomac except that at Winchester. During the Battle of the Wilderness
he received a bullet in his leg which he carries yet. At the Seven Days’
Battle, under Brigadier General Abercrombie, his regiment could see
nothing in front because of fields of tall grain, and he alone
volunteered to scout, keeping a couple of hundred yards more or less in
advance of the line, climbing trees and exposing himself in other ways,
and it was for this exhibition of bravery that he received the ten days’
furlough referred to above.
He was promoted to the sergeancy of Company C, 67th N. Y.; was shot in
the head while before Petersburg, a “minie” ball, which is about the
size of one’s thumb, passing through his cheek and out of the back of
his head at the base of the brain. Because of this wound he was in the
Fairfax Seminary, which had been turned into a hospital, when Lincoln
was shot, but through the efforts of Governor Ward was transferred to
Newark, and was here in the hospital some three months, being mustered
out while still a patient, on August 8, 1865.
Mr. Kinsey came to Woodside in 1867 and has ever since resided at the
northeast corner of Summer place and May street, in the first house
erected by Morrison & Briggs.
DR. J. E. JANES.
Dr. J. E. Janes is worth a good word if for no other reason than because
of the good he did. The Doctor never refused to go when a call came, no
matter what the night, or if he knew that there was no money
compensation for him. He was endowed with that good Samaritan
disposition that is so typical of our associations with all that is best
in the old-fashioned country doctor—everybody’s friend and at the
service of all. When the Doctor found it necessary to remove his family
to the balm of the southern California coast Woodside lost a man.
MR. PETER WEILER.
Mr. Peter Weiler of the River road is spoken of as a man of large
stature and determination and, withal, not easily bluffed. When the
Paterson & Newark Railroad (now the Newark Branch of the Erie) was put
through, the railroad people made every effort to avoid adequate payment
for the land taken, and in many cases they succeeded in securing the
property for little or nothing, but such an arrangement did not at all
meet with the views of Mr. Weiler, and when they attempted to rush his
place he built a rail fence across the proposed line of track and
mounted guard with a shotgun, and the railroaders, like Davy Crocket’s
coon, came down.
BELLARS.
One of the queer sticks of the times was Bellars, the church organist.
No one ever called him “Mr.” Bellars—he was just plain Bellars—an odd
combination of ignorance and musical genius. He could not read the
simplest Sunday school music but, once he heard a tune, nothing could
drive it out of his head.
When it came to new music he was a trying proposition and grievously
tormented Mr. Hine’s patience. Occasionally there were stormy scenes
about the organ loft, and at least once Mr. Hine threatened to dismiss
him if there was not an immediate improvement, winding up his peroration
with “It’s a short horse and it’s soon curried”.
During the latter years of the Bellars reign Mr. Hine owned a house on
Cottage street, opposite the school house, which he allowed the former
to occupy rent free as compensation for his weekly performance on the
organ, and somehow the organist got it into his twisted noddle that the
house had been given to him for work done, and it became necessary for
the court to pass on the matter.
Bellars employed Will Cumming as his attorney, and the latter showed
considerable genius in handling the case, for he led his forlorn hope in
such fashion that he almost prevailed against the facts, and as Mr.
Hine’s lawyer was as lame as Will was active, the case actually looked
serious at one time because of the ease with which the young man whipped
the elder around the legal stump.
Bellars was the music teacher of the neighborhood at a time when my
benighted parents conceived the notion that I should learn to play the
piano. Now, while Mr. Hine was very musical, my mother’s one standard of
music was the speed at which it was performed, and one could play to her
on a Sunday such a secular composition as “Yankee Doodle”, if only it
were played slow and solemnly, and she would accept it as orthodox
without hesitation, and I am my mother’s son when it comes to musical
matters; hence I call my parents benighted for casting their money
before Bellars.
So far as can be judged, at this distance, Bellars’s chief notion of the
teacher’s function was to receive the dollar, or whatever the lesson
cost. Thus we can readily comprehend what the result must have been when
such a teacher and such a pupil got together. The gentleman was a
ventriloquist, or said he was, and he would cause little birds to sing
up the chimney or under the piano, and sometimes a cat would meow or a
dog bark in the far corner of the room. All this served to pass the hour
devoted to the weekly lesson.
The last time I saw Bellars was some years after his departure from
Woodside, on an occasion when he was gawking down Broadway with a carpet
bag that must have long lain dormant in some neglected corner, a picture
that would have done a Puck artist a world of good, with his lean figure
and excruciatingly thin visage. What was his latter end I know not, but
I verily believe that he dried up and blew away.
BOATING DAYS ON THE PASSAIC.
During the eighties and early nineties the Passaic river, where it
skirted Woodside, was one of the most celebrated rowing courses in the
country, and here assembled well-known oarsmen from far and near,
including such men as Courtney, Hanlon, Oomes, Ten Eyck, Edward Phillips
and George Lee.
So far as known, the Rev. Mr. Sherman, rector of Christ Church,
Belleville, was the first to use a racing shell on the river. Closely
following Mr. Sherman came Mr. James S. Taylor, whose earliest
recollections are of the river and its ways. Mr. Taylor grew up on the
water and was one of its first boatmen.
Probably the first boat club was the Woodside Rowing Club; but this was
more of a social organization with rowing as a side issue. John
Eastwood, a leading member, later joined the Tritons and became
Commodore of the Passaic River Rowing Association. The Passaic Boat Club
is considered the first. Its original house was situated about opposite
Centre street, but it was not long before the Club moved to Woodside and
established itself just below the Point House.
The Triton Boat Club, the third to be organized, soon out-distanced the
others, and became the social as well as the boating centre of the
Passaic. It was really born in 1868, in Phil. Bower’s boathouse, where
certain oarsmen stored their boats, but was not officially organized
until 1873, when the members met in the office of the Newark Lime &
Cement Company. Twelve men attended this meeting, but only six names are
given as organizers of the club: Frederick Townley, Henry C. Rommel,
Truman Miller, Samuel A. Smith, Frederick Earl and Sidney Ogden. The
other six seceded and organized the Eureka Boat Club.
About 1875 the club built its first house at the foot of the Gully road,
and the following year the first regatta was held. The Passaic offered a
beautiful course to oarsmen, but it did not come prominently before the
country until the Eurekas rowed in the races held at Philadelphia during
the Centennial. This called attention to the Passaic and resulted in the
first National Regatta on its waters, 1878. A moonlight race between the
Tritons and the Viking Boat Club of Elizabeth, which was pulled off in
October, 1879, is remembered as one of the notable events.
Both Edward and Frank Phillips were prominent as oarsmen of the club,
the former so much so that he, with Henry Rommel, was sent to the
National Regatta held at Saratoga in 1881 or 1882. Henry Rommel, by the
way, is probably the most “be-medaled” member of the club. George Small
was another well-known Triton, as was George Lee who was brought out by
the club and sent by it to England.
Those enthusiastic members who had no time for meals, recall Ed. Holt’s
“Floating Palace” with its cargo of pie and soft drinks as a welcome
haven of refuge, and they also indorse the statement that the place was
entirely respectable.
[Illustration: A Canoe Regatta On The Passaic. As seen from the float of
the Ianthe Canoe Club.]
It is still a matter of common remark by oarsmen of other localities
that the Passaic was the finest river on which they ever rowed.
The Triton organization still exists in the hope that some day the river
will be restored to its old-time purity and again be in condition for
aquatic sports, but all it does at present is to eat a dinner once each
year. It is rather a remarkable fact that the club has never lost an
active member by death, except in one case of suicide.
Possibly the first racing boat other than a single shell owned by the
Triton Club, was one fitted for three pairs of oars and a coxswain,
which was originally purchased by a well-known group of gentlemen that
resided on the banks of the Passaic. John Rutherfurd was one of these,
and the boat was kept for a long time on the lawn in front of his
dwelling.
One of the familiar figures of early days was Doctor Lauterborn, of
Mulberry street who, after walking to the Passaic boathouse, thought
nothing of rowing to the city of Passaic and back, finishing his
afternoon by walking home.
CANOEING RECOLLECTIONS.
The history of the Ianthe Canoe Club, and of canoeing in general on the
Passaic river, dates back to a certain mysterious green canvas canoe
that, in 1880, appeared from no one knows where. Presumably it was
constructed by some budding genius in the loft of his father’s barn, but
all that we know definitely now is that its discovery was made by Will
McDonald.
This green canoe was the inspiration which set others at work and during
the winter of ’80-1 a second canvas canoe, painted black, was built in
the cellar of 77 Lincoln avenue, by “Lin” Palmer, who, as he won the
first canoe race ever paddled on the Passaic and launched the first
white man’s canoe on our beautiful stream, so far as is known, is
entitled to a central position in the limelight.
The black Palmer was launched with much circumstance in the following
spring, and was at that time the only canoe on the river, as its green
progenitor was not baptized until some time later, when Will McDonald
purchased her.
In 1881 a group of six boys, consisting of Lincoln B. Palmer, Robert M.
and Albert Phillips, Will McDonald, John Russell and one other, formed
the Ianthe Canoe Club. John Russell was boy in a drug store at the
corner of Belleville and Bloomfield avenues, and he brought to the
meeting a soda water fountain catalogue, which contained many pretty
names, and from this the name of the club was selected, the lady
appearing therein as a particularly attractive water sprite. George P.
Douglass, who became a factor in canoeing circles about 1887, was a
later acquisition to the club.
The old Woodside Rowing Club’s building was standing idle. It belonged
to the Messers. Hendricks, and a visit to these gentlemen resulted in an
arrangement whereby the club was to have the building rent free,
provided it kept the place in repair.
The club grew and prospered and in August, 1882, its members were
invited by the Triton Boat Club to participate in the first canoe race
ever held on the river. It seems that one Hussey, a member of the Triton
Club owned a canoe and had a reputation as a paddler, and it was because
there was no one else to play with that the boys were asked to enter the
race. There was no thought but that Hussey would win; he had been in
races before and was the star of the occasion. “Lin” Palmer beat him
quite handily and there was gloom in the home of the Tritons. And thus
ended the first canoe race, which was participated in by “Walt” and Will
McDougall, as well as by “Lin” Palmer and —— Hussey.
During the following five years the club prospered greatly, but no
events of importance are recorded. In 1887 John Pierson, of Bloomfield,
and “Lin” Palmer, were sent as the first representatives from the
Passaic river to an American Canoe Association meet, which this year was
held on Lake Champlain. Neither of these representatives had ever been
on such an expedition before, and their outfit was primitive in the
extreme—so much so that they were shortly dubbed “the frying pan
cruisers” by those who traveled with more elaborate and cumbersome
outfits. But from now on the Ianthe moved up into the front rank of
canoeists, as its members acquired the habit of capturing prizes, and
held this position until the condition of the river drove all boating
from its surface.
A LAST WORD IN REGARD TO MR. HINE.
We have about come to the end of this somewhat peculiar narrative, but
before closing it I wish to say a final word in regard to Mr. Hine: I
have interviewed very many who had to do with the early days of
Woodside, without reference as to whether they were personal friends or
not, and have heard but one opinion expressed, and universally
expressed, in a manner too sincere to admit of any doubt. Each one
recalls the man with a vividness and interest that time seemingly cannot
dull, and each impression is but a repetition in one form or another of
a great heart and a pure, clean minded man.
It is given to few to be remembered as is Mr. Hine, and though he has
been dead more than twelve years (April 16, 1897), the memory of him and
the impression he left are as distinct and clear as though his departure
were but yesterday. The abundant tears which were shed over his bier
came from hundreds who felt that they had lost a personal friend and
helper.