12 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
In thus adhering to the line of truth, I shall reproduce 
here and there letters and oral statements of those officially 
or directly concerned, adding, in this way, the element of 
personal touch and a present and live interest to the record. 
For a number of years prior to 1893, I had given con- 
siderable attention to the development of the larger 
American and European parks, and had become firmly 
convinced of the needs and opportunities for a park system 
covering the interesting and varied topography of Essex 
County, with Newark as the central or radiating point. 
On December 6, 1893, the Board of Trade of the Oranges 
adopted a resolution which I had presented to the meeting, 
urging “that legislation may obtain at an early date that 
will enable the growing communities in this portion of the 
State to provide a suitable system of parks and parkways,” 
and authorizing copies of the resolution sent to “His ex- 
cellency, Governor Werts, also to the Senator and to the 
Assemblyman-elect from this district.” 
The resolutions were well received and favorably com- 
mented upon at the time. Very soon afterward, January 3, 
1894, the first annual dinner of the board was given in the 
Music Hall building, Orange. Among the sixty or more 
guests present was President William A. Ure, of the 
Newark Board of Trade. 
In responding to the toast, “Orange and Its Suburbs,” I 
referred to the action that had previously been taken favor- 
ing a park system; described the wonderful views from 
Eagle Rock and other points on the crest of the Orange 
Mountain; noted that no such locations for public parks, 
with such views and overlooking such vast populations, were 
elsewhere available in this county, and brought out the 
desirability of immediate action. Later in the evening, in 
meeting then for the first time Mr. Ure, his generous and 
complimentary reference to my presentment of “the larger 
park project,” as he termed it, led to the suggestion made 
at his office in Newark, a few days afterward, that the com- 
mittees of the two boards should “get together” and see 
