Sara Elizabeth Croasdale was born in 1878 in Atlantic City. She graduated from the Normal School in 1899, and went on to teach in Atlantic City Schools for over 25 years. She died in 1932, in Absecon, New Jersey.
Estelle Van Zandt Ashton was born in 1897. She graduated from the Model School in 1916 (along with her brother Henry Rusling Ashton). She then went on to attend the Normal School where she graduated from the Domestic Science course in 1918. In 1928, she married Wilbur R Craig. She taught in Trenton Public Schools after graduation through the early 1930s when she moved with her husband to New York, where she also was a teacher. She died in Connecticut in 1988.
Member of the Model class of 1900; son of William Craft, industrial woodworker https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61679120/edmund-w-craft.
The College of New Jersey’s academic tradition reaches back to 1855 when it was established by the state legislature as the New Jersey State Normal School. It was the first state-established teacher training school in the state and the ninth in the nation. Governor Rodman Price promoted the idea of a training institute for New Jersey’s teachers and mobilized support among influential state leaders. Located on Clinton Avenue in Trenton from 1855 until the early 1930s, the Normal School flourished in the latter 1800s, expanding both its academic offerings and physical facilities.
The Model School was founded within the Normal School shortly after opening to serve as a teacher training laboratory for primary, secondary, grammar, and high school students. Additional affiliated teacher training and specialty schools operated outside of Trenton such as The Farnum Preparatory School of New Jersey (1856-1912) and Rural School Observation Centers at Hart’s Corner, Harbourton, and Plainsboro (1917-1930). A variety of partnerships were established with schools around the state for teacher training. The Model School closed in 1917 and was replaced by the Training School, which served grades 1-6 and was tuition-free. Once the Normal School planned to move to the Hillwood Lakes campus, the Training School closed. In 1931, the Normal School entered into an agreement with Ewing Township to use the Lanning School for teacher training. This arrangement lasted until the late 1950s.
In 1925, the first four-year baccalaureate degree program was established. This change marked the beginning of TCNJ’s transition from a normal school to a teachers’ college and was accompanied by a change in physical surroundings. In 1928, a 210-acre tract of land in Ewing Township, then known as Hillwood Lakes, was purchased as a new site for the College.
Graduate study was instituted at the College in 1947, and accreditation from various national associations was forthcoming in the 1950s. The enactment of the Higher Education Act of 1966 paved the way for then Trenton State College to become a multipurpose institution by expanding its degree programs into a variety of fields other than education. By 1972, 70% of entering students selected non-teaching majors..
The College of New Jersey emphasizes the undergraduate experience. A strong liberal arts core forms the foundation for a wealth of degree programs offered through TCNJ’s seven schools — Arts and Communication; Business; Humanities & Social Sciences; Education; Science; Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science; and Engineering.
In addition, the college experienced five name changes over its history:
1855 New Jersey State Normal School
1908 New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton
1929 New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton
1937 New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton
1958 Trenton State College
1996 The College of New Jersey
Model School Class of 1897 and Thencanic Society member, ca. 1890s. No other information available. No known relation to Margaret Cochran Wagg. Possibly the Lewis Cochran buried in Newton, Sussex County. (his father's FindAGrave page--see the transcribed obituary: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11485519/lewis-cochran)
