🦋 Seth Boyden
 I was moved just now to look up and see who Sylvia's new school is named after. Turns out the man was an inventor and engineer who lived in Newark, and then later in Hilton, the town which is now the easternmost neighborhood in Maplewood.
There is a statue of him in Washington Park in Newark, the little triangle of grass outside the Newark Museum -- I have seen that statue many times but never looked at the name on it. The statue was erected in the 1890's*; here is a New York Times article (PDF) from 1909, about a memorial exhibition of his tools opening at the Newark Public Library.
This carven bronze! In face and form it stands
To honor him, a son of toil so true
That from his brain and never tiring hands
Labor was crowned with dignity anew!
For him dull iron welded firmest bar,
And steam and gold gave out a secret lore,
The round sunlight beams sent him from afar,
And silver wielded best of molten ore.
We went to a picnic this evening for new Seth Boyden kids and parents. Seems like a lot of kids from Marshall are transferring over to Seth Boyden for next year!
 *Unveiled on May 14, 1890, further research reveals -- Newark's Central Labor Union boycotted the unveiling because the company that erected the memorial did not use union labor. Also: the Times obituary for Mr. Boyden (second one down), and a notice of his funeral -- their archives get pretty hard to read that far back. The Boyden homestead in Hilton burned down in 1903. (All these links are PDF's -- looks like scans of old Times microfilm.)
posted evening of Thursday, July 24th, 2008
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