14 FIRST COUXTY PAEK SYSTEM 



prietor of The Sunday Call, had been active on lines looking 

 toward immediate results. On January 21, 1894, the fol- 

 lowing editorial appeared in The Call : 



'^'The park question has been brought forward again by 

 the Orange people, and we hope they will keep at it. The 

 County of Essex is made up of cities and towns whose 

 people are without opportunity to get near Xature or enjoy 

 any open-air recreation, excepting on the public highways, 

 or by trespassing upon private property. There is available 

 for public park purposes at moderate expense the finest park 

 site known near any Eastern city — ^the slope and crown of 

 Orange Mountain. Delay will remove it from possible use 

 as a park, for it is being rapidly occupied by residences. 

 The appropriation of a suitable tract, at almost any point 

 from Maplewood west to near Montclair, is now feasible, 

 and it will not be so a dozen years hence." 



STROXG SUPPORT FOR PROJECT. 



This article indicated that at least one of the leading 

 county papers would favor the movement, and with the 

 two Board of Trade organizations actively interested in the 

 work, there was every encouragment that strength and en- 

 larged influences would be rapidly added from all portions 

 of the county. This prediction was very soon verified, as 

 the sequel of events will show. 



In order to insure interest and co-operation in legislative 

 circles, a copy of the resolutions which had been adopted by 

 the Orange Board of Trade favoring a park system was 

 sent to Senator George W. Ketcham, then the representa- 

 tive of Essex County in the State Senate, to which, on 

 March 31, 1894, he replied: 



"Your communication of the twenty-fourth instant, en- 

 closing resolutions relative to public parks, is duly received. 



"The subject is a most important one, and has my s}Tn- 

 pathy. Some weeks since the iSTew England Society sent a 

 similar letter, and my suggestion was that Assemblyman 



