Page 48 - January1948

46 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN

A short time later she received the package. Imagine her surprise when
she opened the case and found the two inaugural buttons pictured here!
This is just another instance where treasures are still to be found and
if you go through the lists of buttons sold at the Galleries who knows
but other specimens may still be in their cases. Let's make an efrort to flnd
them.
The buttons wele exhibited at Newark, New Jersey in mid-October at
the New Jersey State Exhibition.
L. S. A.

WASHINCTON BUTTONS DISCUSSED HALF CENTURY AGO
The "G. W." "LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT" button, with the linked
States border, owned by l\{rs. Edna Schmid, of New Jersey, cart'ied with it a
great amount of intelesting correspondence when she acquired it. There
are seven newspapel' clippings, yellowed by time, dated The Evening Bul-
letin, Philadelphia frorn 1892-1901. Letters written in long hand make
up the lest of the bundle.
Fl-om the corlespondence one gleans that the former owner of this
button. a Dr. Theodore F. Wolfe of Succasunna, New Jersey was in com-
munication with A. W. Balber, of the Department of the Interior, Washing-
ton, D. C., in 1898. 1\'Ir. Barbel also owned a Washington button. Several
other pelsons enteled the picture and the columns of The Evetring Rulletln'
from 1892 to 1901 cat't'ied a number of letters from subscribelslryho owned
a button or knew of someone who had a Washington button.
Sometimes the column was headed-A ll'ashington Buttonl Another
"\ryashington Ilutton," or The "Na-shingtoil Rutton" Ag:rin. Under date of
1892 we read the follo$'ins account.
o tr:r1..1'111," .''
" "rlt',-:"", 1 Y "i:l lli "
"lIalf a centufl':rgo, a then resident of I(envil found upon the roadside
in that place i rnetallic button rYhit'h has come into mt'possession and
Iroves to be a'Washington Rutton,'different froln those hitherto described
b]'anti(lrtarians. It is of ('()l)Der, one lnd three-eights inches in diameter,
llrrt and rather thin, Ol iginitl ly it wns lightly pllt( d lvith silver, but, I'hen
foutrd, the Dlating had bt'en so \\'nrD thl't the l)ns(,r metal \\'irs pitltiirll]- ex-
posecl and the finder, hig:hlr- Dl izilrg the reli(', citused it to l)e rcplated
with gold.
"The cent('r llears the initials 'G.\V.' iu gra( cful lntl olnltte scl il)t; sur-
Iountling these is a cire lot l)(;lIing in lo\\' reli+'f the le gend 'LON() LM
TI{E I'RESIDFINT,'in Rolnan capitlls; outside the circlet and occtll)}'ing the
t'ircnmference of the disc is a set'ies of thirtet'n engravcd elipses oblirlnely
tinked together, each olal bt'ing insct'ilrecl \vith the initial of one of the
original thirteen Statt's in scIit)t, th('whole (lesign being eleg:tnt ancl finely
exe.ut€,d. Soon after i1 carne into ntr.. possessiotr it \vls exhil)itt'd at a
scssion of a N(w 1'orli Flistoric,rl So('iety \yhere it txcited lttu('h ittteIest and
discussion, l)ut nothing of its histo|y was addrl('ed. .-\t the Ie(luest of my
fripnd, lIrs. Lamlr, of the lIfl*i,rzine of ,Anretic:r[ flist(Drt-. I prepar-ed an ac-
( ount and dest.ription lvhiclr was Dublished, with an illustration of the
button, in the Dages of that peliodical. Readers v'ho had se.n or who
had anr- knorvledge of such a button 'vere inlited to col l'esDond s'ith the
editor, but, althoueh the rna8:azitre hr,s a large circulation in all partS of
the countrr*, no response was m:tde at the time. A.n-eilr later, ho1\'evef, a
re,sident of the vicinage of llofristo$'n call.d tlpon me at the college and
-shot'ed a similar button rwhich he s:rid had been fonnd ne:tr Succasunna
ag:o; unable to procure anl'
(N. J.). This rvas nearll'or
quite ten -vears
histor! of the relic. f dismissed the matter and might never have thought
of it again hail I not ver]'recently, seen a third exactly corresponding
button in the hands of Mr. Peter Applegit of Schoole]"s lfountain, who had
found it at PoIl. flot't is.
"The buttons were manifestly made during the Presidency of Washing-
ton: Drobabl]' subsequent to 1789 (since there 1\'ere then only eleven (11)
States) and they were desig:ned to in some way celebrate the much-not to
sar- TOO much-celebrated George. WhateYer the event whieh occasioned
the making of the buttons-Washington's frrogress through New Jersey
enroute to his inauguration or rvhat not-it is strange that the only three
specimens known to be in existence should have been found in Morris
eountt' and within the boundaries of Iioxbury. May they, therefore, have
been intended to commemorate some local event ?
"Probablr- thls publication lvill brinB to light more of the buttons; it tB
to be hoped that it may also serve to reveal tneir nisf6;3l$."H8fir.,,
Succasunna, Sept. 10th, 1892.