The Treasurer Goes to Jail & the Ex-Governor Chairs a Meeting

Today in New Jersey history:

June 5, 1878: The New York Times reported that a petition was being circulated “praying for the release” of ex-New Jersey treasurer Josephus Sooy, who was serving a five year sentence in the state prison in Trenton for embezzling $47,000 in state tax receipts paid by the Pennsylvania Railroad. A Republican, the 70-year-old Sooy was apparently a very popular person with both Republican and Democratic legislators, many of whom readily signed the petition, which called for his release to the custody of his son, a minister. Eventually released, Sooy died in Camden in 1888 and was buried in Mount Holly.

June 5, 1885: The first meeting of the Industrial Education Association of New Jersey, patterned on an organization already in place in New York, was held at Castle Point in Hoboken, with former governor General George B. McClellan presiding. The stated purpose of the association was to “promote interest in manual training as an intellectual discipline.”