Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now LivingHine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
History
Woodside, the North End of Newark, N.J.: Its History, Legends and Ghost Stories Gathered from the Records and the Older Inhabitants Now Living
Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
Hine, C. C. (Charles Cole), 1825-1897; Woodside (Newark, N.J.) -- History
“Our portion went to Soho (which appears to have been then a part of
Woodside). The others stirred the ground a little, leaving the mud as
deep as ever.” Woodside was an awful mud-hole in wet weather.
The Town Committee met at night, usually in the house of Mr. Swinnerton,
Town Clerk; none but the town officers attended these meetings. The two
annual town meetings were held in a small hall on Washington avenue,
opposite the Morrison & Briggs carpenter shop; this hall burned later.
Two or three informal meetings were held in a small carpenter shop
standing in Mr. Swinnerton’s yard, on the northeast corner of Elwood and
Lincoln avenues (this was the first Morrison & Briggs shop). Here
Woodside was given its present name.
So far as can now be recalled the Town Committeemen were General
Cumming, for the River road; Mr. Hine, for Washington avenue; either Mr.
Phillips or Mr. Faitoute, for Lincoln avenue; Charles Akers, for the
Bloomfield road; “a fine, old Irish gentleman for Soho”, and Joseph
Dowling for the cross street. James S. Gamble was Treasurer.
A WOODSIDE TRAGEDY.
Possibly the only tragedy connected with Woodside was the shooting of
Albert D. Richardson on December 2, 1869. Mr. Richardson was a
celebrated newspaper correspondent and an author of some note. He had
traveled over a large part of the United States and had settled in
Woodside because of its rural beauty, having purchased the house built
by Miles I’Anson, which now stands on Summer avenue, facing Chester.
A Mrs. McFarland, who was later known to literature as Abbie Sage
Richardson, and who came of a good Boston family, married Daniel
McFarland, the black sheep of a prominent New York family, and, after
supporting him for a reasonable length of time, she secured a divorce.
Mr. Richardson assisted her in establishing herself, and about this time
McFarland, while under the influence of liquor, met him in the office of
the Tribune and shot him down. Richardson was removed to the Astor House
and lived for a week. He was a widower with three young children and,
desiring Mrs. McFarland to look after them, he married her while on his
deathbed.
WOODSIDE AND THE STREET CAR.
From the beginning and up to comparatively recent times Woodside has
been compelled to make a continuous fight for proper street car service.
The first car track laid extended from the cemetery to Orange street,
where it met the track which had been laid in 1862 from Market street.
There was but one car, and that was pivoted on the trucks so that, a
king bolt being drawn, the body of the car was swung around while the
trucks remained on the track—this instead of reversing the horses to the
other end of the car, as was done later. About 1865 the tracks were
extended north through Woodside to Second river, to what was then known
as “Flanigan’s station”, and for six years they went no further.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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