January 2, 1889--"Monmouth Junction School Opens"

January 2, 1889--"Monmouth Junction School Opens"

The origin of the idea for the first public school in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, actually started in May of 1888, when the Monmouth Junction School District (No. 77 in Middlesex County) was formed. Permission to build a school was granted by H. Brewster Willis, Middlesex County Superintendent of Schools. W. W. Emens, Pat Casserly, and William Rowland were the Trustees at the time. They made sure money was appropriated for purchasing a lot (($200) and for covering construction costs ($840) on August 25, 1888. Construction started during the same year on, or near, 13 Old Ridge Road across the tracks near the railroad bridge. The one-room school house was completed just before the end of the year and thirty shivering students, representing eight grades, entered its door on the second day of 1889 (not 1891. as certain sources maintain). There to greet them warmly was a rosy-cheeked and smiling teacher (and janitor as well), Miss Kate Davison. She had prepared a warm fire in the school's new stove. Students were almost glad to come in out of the cold. Miss Davison's salary that year was $30 per month spread over only eight months and paid for by subscriptions. Over the next few years the enrollment figures swelled to seventy pupils come winter when the farm boys were able to attend class. This was sporadically at best. The soon crowded one-room school house lasted for thirteen years until a multi-room building was constructed on New Road.