NEW JERSEY. 



25 



skill is required to manage these light lands profitably 

 The Vineland tract, centring in the town of the sani< 

 name, has been the most noted and in some ways th_ 

 most successful of the attempts at colonizing the 

 waste lands of this State. The Hammonton colon' 

 affords another instructive example of what thrift am 

 intelligence can do with unpromising materials. The 

 town of Lakewood, in the extreme north-east of the 

 comparatively unsettled region of the State, has be 

 come noted as a health-resort, and is especially fre 

 quented in winter. The principal element among the 

 settlers in the best known of the recent colonies in 

 this section is made up of native Americans, chiefly 

 from New England and the State of New York. 

 Egg Harbor City is a German colony, where the mak- 

 ing of light wines is a specialty. Near Estellville ane 

 at Alliance, near Vineland, are experimental colonies 

 of expatriated Russian Jews, driven to this country 

 by the anti-semitic movements in their native land. 

 The principal crops of this region are the small fruits 

 grapes, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cran- 

 berries, with potatoes, sweet-potatoes, and other hoed 

 crops, and the garden vegetables. Rye does extremely 

 well in some parts. Dr. J. E. Garretson, in his 

 BrusMand (1882), gives interesting notes of the crea- 

 tion of a profitable farm in this region out of a 

 tract which, though of very unpromising appear- 

 ance, must have contained in itself to an unusual 

 degree the elements needed to foster success in any 

 agricultural enterprise. The region above discussed 

 is for the most part bounded landwards by very 

 fertile light lands ; and in sonic parts the line of de- 

 marcation is very plain and unmistakable between 

 smiling fertile grass-lands and fields of sand covered 

 with a relatively scanty herbage. It is noteworthy, 

 however, that the unfertile region is singularly rich in 

 plant-species, it being the habitat of many Southern 

 forms which nowhere else occur so far to the north- 

 ward. This region is traversed by nearly all the lines 

 of railway which reach the many seaside resorts of 

 New Jersey. There are other parts of the State 

 which are quite as unpromising in an agricultural 

 point of view as this. The extensive clay-region in 

 the central portion of the State, so important for its 

 terra-cotta. its fine pottery, and its excellent fire-brick, 

 is in part almost inarable. 



The seaside resorts of New Jersey arc very numerous 

 and important Almost from Sandy Hook to Cape 

 May its sea-bathing places form a nearly continuous 

 succession of towns and villages, of which there are 

 more than 50 in 100 miles of coast South of Sandy 

 Hook the coast is everywhere sandy. The beach in 

 Monmouth county is generally elevated and even 

 bluffy, and is backed by a fertile region ; southward 

 the New Jersey coast is much lower and is made up 

 chiefly of a succession of sand-spits and low islands 

 which shield from the open sea a succession of shallow 

 bays, much resorted to by sportsmen for game-birds 

 ind fish. The more southern bathing-places are gen- 

 erally safer, having a more shelving beach with out 

 little undertow. The largest of the seaside resorts are 

 Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Atlantic 

 City, and Cape May City. 



The old boards of the proprietors of East Jersey 

 and West Jersey still exist, the former having its 

 head-quarters at Perth Arnboy and the latter at Bur- 

 lington, but both long ago surrendered all except their 

 proprietary rights. The East Jersey proprietors have 

 latterly laid claim to large tracts of unoccupied lands 

 over which other parties have in some cases exercised 

 the rights of ownership for 200 years, on the ground 

 that no transfer of title is now on record. This has 

 led to costly litigation, and has strengthened a move- 

 ment to have the old proprietary rights finally adjudi- 

 cated, thus terminating all disputes as to claims founded 

 upon any defect of the registration of title-deeds dur- 

 ing the colonial period. 



(c. w. o.) 



. NEW JERSEY, COLLEGE OF. This institu- 

 tion of learning, commonly called Princeton College, 

 was founded in 1746. Like all our early colleges it 

 was primarily established to raise up an educated min- 

 istry, "to be a seminary of true religion and sound 

 learning," especially for the Presbyterian Church. 

 Prominent ministers and laymen of the Presbytery of 

 New York, which then included a large part of New 

 Jersey, after various ineffectual efforts, succeeded in 

 obtaining a charter. The only record of this charter 

 is in Book C., p. 137, of the Colonial Commissions 

 and Charters, and is as follows : ' ' Mem. of a Charter 

 for a Colledge. A charter to incorporate sundry per- 

 sons to found a colledge passed the great seal of this 

 province of New Jersey, tested by John Hamilton, 

 Esq., president of His Majesty's council and com- 

 mander-in-chief of the province of New Jersey, the 

 22d day of October, 1746." This charter was never 

 recorded, but under it the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, 

 castor of the Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, 

 N. J., where he also had a flourishing academy, was 

 appointed president and the college was established at 

 Elizabethtown, the first session beginning in the fourth 

 week of May, 1747. 



President Dickinson died Oct. 7, 1747, and the stu- 

 dents, about twenty in number, were placed under 

 the care of the Rev. Aaron Burr, pastor of the Pres- 

 byterian Church in Newark, to which place the insti- 

 tution was now removed. An enlarged and more 

 liberal charter was granted by his Excellency, Jona- 

 than Belcher, Esq., the Governor of New Jersey, 

 to which the "Great Seal of the Province of New 

 Jersey ' ' was affixed Sept. 1 3 and the charter was is- 

 sued Sept. 14, 1 748. The trustees named" in it, who with 

 two exceptions were Presbyterians, accepted the 

 charter in a meeting held at New Brunswick, N. J., 

 Oct. 13, 1748. At Newark, Gov. Belcher presiding, 

 the trustees unanimously elected the Rev. Aaron Bun- 

 president, Nov. 9, 1748. His inauguration took place 

 upon the same day, and at a later hour the first com- 

 mencement was held. Of the six members of the 

 irst class five became ministers of the gospel. The 

 sixth was Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the 

 Declaration of Independence. The first honorary de- 

 gree was that of A. M., conferred upon Gov. Belcher. 



Liberal subscriptions were obtained, but the con- 

 iributions were wholly inadequate to the execution of 

 ;he designs of the trustees. Rev. Samuel Davies and 

 Rev. Gilbert Tennent were sent to Great Britain and 

 [reland to solicit additional benefactions. Their mis- 

 lion was very successful, many hundreds of pounds 

 laving been contributed by persons of different de- 

 nominations and in various walks of life. The General 

 Assembly of the Church of Scotland even ordered a 

 national collection, and among the contributors were 

 ;he Bishop of Durham and a descendant of Oliver 

 "Iroinwell. 



The second commencement had been held at New 

 Brunswick on the last Wednesday of September, 1749, 

 )ut for the next seven years "the academical exer- 

 jises were generally performed in the county court- 

 bouse" at Newark. The funds obtained by Messrs. 

 Davies and Tennent were devoted to the erection of a 

 college edifice. As the site of this "the little village 

 of Princeton was fixed upon as the most convenient 

 situation, being near the center of the colony on the 

 )ublic road between New York and Philadelphia, and 

 lot inferior in the salubrity of its air to any village upon 

 he continent." 



The people of Princeton made liberal contributions 

 n land and money, " 200 acres of woodland, 10 acres 

 f cleared land, and one thousand pounds proc. money 

 12400)." By suggestion of Gov. Belcher "the edi- 

 ice sacred to liberty and revolution principles," which 

 was erected at Princeton, 1 754-57, was named Nassau 

 Hall, in honor of King William III., "a branch of the 

 llustrious House of Nassau. ' ' Hence the institution 

 tself is often called Nassau Hall. This building, 1 76 



