OT: 245 Years Ago Today: Rutgers Charter Day -- Take 2

[Source]

According to the November 11, 1895 New York Times, Rutgers erroneously celebrated its Centennial on June 21, 1871, 100 years after the first Queen's College 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. A second 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."

 

[Scarlet Jerry]

Yep. Take a look at the stone in the top of the geology museum.

Scarlet Jerry

 

[RutgersMO]

Is There A Third Charter Date...And When Do We Make A Deicision?

This sounds like a recruiting scenario....

Thanks Source, as always, interesting stuff....

Please drop me a line rutgersmo at roadrunner dot com

Thanks

MO

 

[e5fdny]

Originally posted by Source:


According to the November 11, 1895 New York Times, Rutgers erroneously celebrated its Centennial on June 21, 1871, 100 years after the first Queen's College 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. A second 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."

* The first appearance of the RU Screw?

Or after reading the article was it the first time somebody uttered the phrase..."Same ole Rutgers."

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by e5fdny:

Originally posted by Source:


According to the November 11, 1895 New York Times, Rutgers erroneously celebrated its Centennial on June 21, 1871, 100 years after the first Queen's College 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. A second 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."

* The first appearance of the RU Screw?

Or after reading the article was it the first time somebody uttered the phrase..."Same ole Rutgers."

Did they actually erroneously celebrate it. It seems that they had the second charter (from 1770) and chose instead of celebrate the day of the first classes (which is probably a more legit start date - the day that the school went from being an idea on paper to a real thing), rather than the day of the chartering anyway.

 

[Source]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The "RU Screw" actually began as a phrase when Rutgers expanded in the 1970s, the school admitted women for the first time in 1972, new dorms went up, and it was all too much, too fast to accommodate everyone efficiently.

"Old Rutgers" was a legitimate and affectionate way to refer to Rutgers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

They actually did make plans and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rutgers in 1871.... a school with a student body under 150. The New York Times first noted the change in Charter Day dates in 1895 and by 1897, Rutgers was thinking of holding Charter Day football games on November 10. In 1908 and 1909 they actually did but holding games on weekdays in the early 20th century was becoming problematical.

It's true that when King George approved a November 10, 1766 charter, the powers that-be had to go looking for an appropriate place to start their minister-training school and it was another 5 years to do that and get things in order. But Rutgers wouldn't be the first (or last) to make their birthday the moment the document was signed and opened the door to their eventual existence.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

As source points out, there was a delay between Charter and holding classes. As was the choice of WHERE to have the campus. Hackensack was a favorite for many.. New Brunswick won out.

My favorite asterisk in our history was how Rutgers (or was it Queens at the time?) was closed down at the same time a young Cornelius Vanderbilt lived in New Brunswick running a steamship line. New Brunswick was quite the little port city at the end of the D&R Canal bringing Pennsy coal to New York City.

One wonder what could have happened had Vanderbilt established ties to a young Rutgers U at that time.

 

[Source]

Ironically, someone is on ebay right now selling an original page of 1814 Lottery Coupons used to attempt to raise money to keep Queen's College's doors open (a common practice in America's early life). Rutgers was actually closed from around 1793 to the laying of the cornerstone of Old Queen's Administration Building in April of 1809. Old Queen's opened and stayed open through the War of 1812. But they had to close the doors with the September 26, 1816 awarding of degrees (16 in all). They wouldn't re-open until Col. Henry Rutgers donation in 1825. The Queen College Grammar School (a.k.a. Rutgers Prep) did continue however and the powers-that-be helped all Queen College undergrads finds new schools.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was just starting his steamship service, including New Brunswick to New York City, in the 1810s. According to Vanderbilt University publications, Vanderbilt founded the University in 1873 with a $1 million endowment. He had never visited the south but "...hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War."

This post was edited on 3/23 4:04 PM by Source

1814 Lottery Tickets for Queen's (Rutgers) College

 

[beaced]

Chartering is CHARTERING.Starting classes or opening the doors are just what they imply.If you are going to celebrate A Chartering Day it MUST be the Day when the Charter was granted.Otherwise celebrate a First Class Day or an Opening of the Doors Day.