86 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
and esteem of all the members, and by his death, in Febru- 
ary, 1896, the Park Board lost one of its most trusted and 
careful assistants. 
In January, 1896, A. L. Cross was chosen as assistant land 
agent, in place of Mr. Bond. The purchasing agents were 
not always successful, even in instances where there had 
been no intimation to the owners that the lands inquired for 
or under negotiation were for public use. No one outside 
the board rooms knew of the decision of the commission 
regarding the East Side Park location, as mentioned, or, as 
far as I know, at the time negotiations were opened for the 
land, no one in that part of Newark had any thought or 
knowledge that the subject was under consideration. 
Messrs. Bond and Crane reported that J. M. Lummis 
was the agent of John O’Brien, who owned the 134 unim- 
proved lots, and constituting nearly all of the thirteen acres 
required for the park, bounded by Adams, Walnut, Oliver 
and Van Buren streets, in eastern Newark. They were 
authorized to negotiate with Mr. Lummis and to have a 
careful appraisement made, including their own valuation 
of the property. Later they advised that $148,000 was the 
price asked, and reported the appraisement, which they said 
had been carefully made, at $95,700. The board declined to 
pay any such price as that asked. After some further nego- 
tiations the selling price was reduced to $125,000, as “the 
very lowest price” that would be accepted. At the board 
meeting of December 31, 1895, a resolution was adopted 
authorizing condemnation proceedings toward securing the 
property. Not long afterward I received word at my place 
of business in New York that Andrew H. Green, whom I 
had pleasantly known and whose office was convenient to 
mine, desired to see me. In the interview following Mr. 
Green informed me that as a lifelong friend he had, as a 
personal favor to Mr. O’Brien, consented to look after his 
property interests in Newark ; how both he and Mr. O’Brien 
disliked either to stand in the way of such public improve- 
ments or to go into litigation; and that he had sent for me 
because from our past acquaintance he felt that “we could 
