Happy Birthday Rutgers

[Source]

Rutgers is 9-12-0 when playing on November 10. That is Charter Day – Rutgers birthday.

Rutgers played special Charter Day football games scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday in 1908 and 1909 respectively. Rutgers considered convincing NYU to play a Charter Day game in 1897 but eventually had to cancel the game. The same thing happened with Navy and NYU and Stevens for various reasons.

The first updated Charter Day celebration wasn’t until 1895. According to the November 11, 1895 New York Times, Rutgers erroneously celebrated its Centennial on June 21, 1871, 100 years after the first classes were held. According to the November 10, 1908 New Brunswick Home News, it wasn’t until a story discovered in the April 20, 1767 New York Mercury revealed Queen’s College original charter date of November 10, 1766. An amended charter was issued on March 20, 1770 and is kept at Rutgers. The first has been lost to history. “The college is one of the few, possessing royal charters, it having been granted by George III.”

Old Queen’s held its first class on November 12, 1771 in the basement of the Sign of the Red Lion Tavern at the corner of Albany & Neilson Streets. Some of the original Tavern stones currently make up a wall and bench in the middle of Old Queen’s campus.

 

[ecojew]

Thanks for the history reminder. I always enjoy telling new people I meet about Rutgers having been chartered by King George III. Outside of the Northeast and Tidewater Virginia, few people are aware that there were universities in what are today the United States prior to the American revolution.

 

[198hamilton]

Source as always great stuff.
Do you know exactly where on Old Queens those stones are used?
BTW did you ever meet the older Professor McCormick? I think you know more about Rutgers history than he did

 

[Source]

Source as always great stuff.
Do you know exactly where on Old Queens those stones are used?
BTW did you ever meet the older Professor McCormick? I think you know more about Rutgers history than he did

Approximately 50 yards in front of Murray Hall in the middle of Voorhees Mall. There's a stone structure with wooden plank seats and a plaque explaining the stones.

I was there when Professor McCormick (his son later became RU President) was teaching but never had the pleasure of taking any of his classes, although classmates who did spoke highly of him.

Know more than him? AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA ! Good one there 198hamilton... good one.

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Our History | Rutgers University

timeline.rutgers.edu

 

[198hamilton]

I had a couple classes with the younger (future president) McCormick. He was actually a very good professor. I still remember his dramatic reenactment of TR's charge up San Juan Hill 35 or so years later!

 

[virginiaru]

Professor McCormick (the elder) was my advisor (I'm class of 1972). Great teacher and he almost convinced me to go to grad school in history.

 

[ecojew]

Professor McCormick (the elder) was my advisor (I'm class of 1972). Great teacher and he almost convinced me to go to grad school in history.

Why only "almost?"

I entered RU with the university's bicentennial in 1966 and read the elder Professor McCormick's bicentennial history of RU. I'm sure I must still have that book sitting around the house somewhere!

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Here is the bench... google maps street view link

@198hamilton

Little note about Voorhees mall.. in front of Voorhees there are now a few huge trees that were planted to stop a group of us from playing football on the mall in the 80s. I suppose bringing a keg to a game was the last straw. Of course there were a lot of trees but planting a few in the middle of an open field and not in line with other tree patterns.. well, purposeful Rutgers screw.

 

[REDRICH65]

Great history. Thank you

 

[198hamilton]

Thanks Goodol'
I've sat in that bench a 100 times!

 

[Source]

Here's a little known story about The McCormicks and "owning a piece of New Jersey"

A century before Queen’s College even existed, there was an East Jersey (whose capital was Perth Amboy) and West Jersey (whose capital was Burlington). The two provinces were divided up into shares and the collective shareowners owned all of the future New Jersey. An East Jersey and a West Jersey Board of Proprietors regulated sales. You had to have at least 1/32nd of a share to serve on either Board.

While most state constitutions did away with such royal arrangements after the Revolution, New Jersey never did. Dick Segoine, star quarterback (1904-07) and a founder of the first Rutgers basketball team willed 1/4th of an East Jersey share to Rutgers that was sold to the late Professor Richard Patrick McCormick, father of the former Rutgers President, entitling him to sit on the Board of Proprietors. McCormick was already on the West Jersey Board.

While most of New Jersey has long since been sold off, occasionally small pieces show up with no title holder. In the 1940s, surveyors discovered a sliver of land where the Garden State Parkway was being built that was unclaimed. Ownership reverted back to the Board who then got to sell it and kept a proportional gain for themselves. Over time this has dwindled to a pittance. A February 9, 1978 Targum article said McCormick had his gains diverted to a University account to help the library purchase rare books and manuscripts. “There was about $3,500 in it the last time I checked several years ago,” he said.

The East Jersey Board dissolved in 1998 but the West Jersey Board of Proprietors still exists as the oldest corporation in America. For the 321st year in a row, the legal successors of Lord John Berkeley met outside and unanimously re-elected 10 proprietors at high noon at the corner of High and Broad Streets in Burlington City in May of 2009. Among them was Richard Levis McCormick, the 19th president in the history of Rutgers University and son of the Rutgers professor emeritus who died on January 16, 2006. At the end of 2005, the West Board followed the East Board’s lead and transferred all of their valuable documents, containing signatures of famous and non-famous Americans dating back before 1688 to the New Jersey State Archives.

 

[198hamilton]

Source that's all well and good but you didn't provide any information regarding how East Jersey and West Jersey broke down on 1) Taylor ham vs Pork roll and 2) Wawa vs Quick Check
Sorry but bad job

 

[Skull83]

It's always been interesting to me that the folks in 1871 celebrated the centenary of the first day of classes, rather than the "charter day." Kind of makes sense.

 

[Source]

Source that's all well and good but you didn't provide any information regarding how East Jersey and West Jersey broke down on 1) Taylor ham vs Pork roll and 2) Wawa vs Quick Check
Sorry but bad job

Taylor hadn't even been born yet.

The Jersey argument of the times was applejack (or is it Jersey Lightning) vs. hard cider?

 

[beaced]

I had a couple classes with the younger (future president) McCormick. He was actually a very good professor. I still remember his dramatic reenactment of TR's charge up San Juan Hill 35 or so years later!

Bully for you

 

[198hamilton]

Well done. TR fan?

 

[virginiaru]

Why only "almost?"

I entered RU with the university's bicentennial in 1966 and read the elder Professor McCormick's bicentennial history of RU. I'm sure I must still have that book sitting around the house somewhere!

I wound up going to law school. I never clicked with the history dept. TA's and couldn't see myself being one of them. I had a high draft lottery number so didn't have to worry about Viet Nam and felt law school gave me more options (I was very undecided about what I wanted out of life). Law opened doors for me including allowing me to spend a lot of my career overseas. Never gave up my love of history.