Showing 9 results

William Franklin Phelps was born on February 15, 1822, to Lucinda Hitchcock and Halsey Phelps, in Auburn, New York. He attended Auburn schools, then graduated from the State Normal School at Albany in 1846. He stayed at the Normal School to teach in their model school, while also earning a master's degree from Union College in 1852. That same year, he married Caroline Chapman Livingstone (1820-1903), who came with children from a previous marriage, and together, they had daughter Alice Livingstone Phelps (Smith, MacGregor) (1854-1936) who later attended the Model School at Trenton for a brief time. He was the first Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School from 1855 to 1864, and organized the Farnum Preparatory School in Beverly, New Jersey at the same time. He left for Minnesota to become the second principal of Winona Normal School from 1864 to 1876. He was president of the Whitewater Normal School from 1876 to 1878, City Superintendent of Schools in Winona from 1878 from 1881, and Resident Director and board member of the State Normal Schools of Minnesota at Duluth. In addition to his roles heading schools, he served as president of the National Education Association and president of the American Normal School Association, and was widely published in educational publications. He died on August 15, 1907, in Minnesota. He was posthumously honored at Trenton State College with the dedication of a new dining hall, Phelps Hall, in 1956. Phelps Hall was razed and rebuilt as a much larger dormitory and rededicated in 1990.

Lewis Melvin Johnson was born on November 19, 1837, to Mary Chase and Joseph Johnson in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He attended Brown University from 1857 to 1858, and received a master's degree from Williams College in 1861. He was a teacher at Maplewood Institute at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Principal at Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, and Principal of Newark High School. In 1870, he accepted the position of Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School. On June 30, 1873, he married Anne Morris (1844-1921). He left the New Jersey State Normal School in 1876 to head the Young Ladies’ Seminary in Philadelphia. He died on November 19, 1904, in Philadelphia.

Washington Hasbrouck was born on November 26, 1824, to Sally Auchmoody and Philip S. Hasbrouck, in New Paltz, New York. His early educational training is not known. He was the vice-principal of Kingston Academy and founded the Hasbrouck Institute, an all-boys private school in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1856. He married Sabra King (1829-1894) in about 1850 and had two children: Albert Crowell (1851-1900) and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hasbrouck (1854-1908). He received several honorary degrees including a master's from Rutgers in 1857, a doctorate from New York University in 1869, and a doctorate from Princeton in 1876. A few years after the [financial] Panic of 1873 caused declining enrollment at Hasbrouck Institute, he left to become Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School on July 1,1876, where he remained until 1889. He died on February 24, 1895, in Newburg, New York.

John Seely Hart was born on January 28, 1810, to Abigail Stone and Isaac Hart, in Old Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Shortly after, the family moved to Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton (then known as the College of New Jersey) in 1830, and from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1834. He taught at Princeton and in other New Jersey and Pennsylvania schools, and was the principal of Central High School in Philadelphia. In 1836, he married Amelia Caroline Morford (1814-1889), and had a son, James Morgan Hart (1839-1916). In 1848, he received a LLD degree from Miami University of Ohio. Along with teaching and school administration, he was the editor of the American Sunday-School Union, publisher of the Sunday School Times, and a prolific writer of school books and essays. In 1862, he moved to Trenton to become Head of the Model School, then Principal of New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton until 1871. He died on March 26, 1877, in Philadelphia.

Superintendent of Schools in New Jersey and Member of the Faculty Committee on Assembly Programs at Trenton. Later president at Glassboro from 1937-1952.

Clayton Roy Brower was born in 1922 in Kingston, New York. He earned a Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Syracuse University, served in the army, and later earned a Doctorate from Columbia University. He began teaching in 1948 in Pulaski, New York, was the assistant superintendent of Plainfield Public Schools in 1955, then became professor and Chair of the Education Department at Trenton State College in 1962. In 1970, he became Interim chief executive, then president from 1971 to 1979. He died at the age of 99 on June 30, 2022.