Tramp Town USA

Advice and trivia for the do-it-yourselfer

Did you know that Highland Park once had problems with Tramps?  This was not just a Highland Park problem; New Jersey was the first of many states to pass the Tramp Law in March 1876.

By the 1870’s the depression had hit the area hard and many people found themselves out of work.  A “tramp” was defined as an unemployed homeless person; in other words a Vagabond.  This law was really an extension of existing Anti-Vagrancy laws.  New Jersey’s law was broad and included persons who refused to work for pay; persons who were happier begging for alms.  Local law officials were encouraged to round these persons up and jail them, and then farm them out to workhouses or individuals in need of labor.  Very quickly, local jails were soon filled with Tramps.

By June 1876, the Camden County Jail was overrun with Tramps who could not be placed in work houses and thus they were released.  The tramps also created a financial nuisance for towns and cities; in 1891, Overseer Wright issued tickets for 413 tramps, charging the city ledger $41.20 for their night’s room and board.

The Daily Times reported on 10/16/1895 that New Brunswick was quickly becoming the headquarters for the Tramps.

…”these “hoboes “spend the early morning hours begging from house to house in the residence part of the city, and in the afternoon may be found in the business part of the city soliciting money from shoppers and store keepers.  They are very bold in their requests for assistance and then become equally impudent and threatening when their requests are refused. On Tuesday afternoon last a half dozen tramps could be found on George street, between Albany and Bayard Streets, who made a regular business of stopping every man that passed, and asking him for money. Finally Officer Kelly appeared and the tramps consequently disappeared.”

Police officers were highly motivated to arrest Tramps. The cops were rewarded 25 cents per Tramp arrested, and fined $10 for refusing to make the arrest.  By 1897, the Middlesex County Freeholders were determined to solve Tramp nuisance as noted in the Daily Times of 24 August 1897:  “Will Make Tramps Work, A Ball and Chain Gang to Be Started.  Hoboes are not wanted here and if they come, they will be made to earn their board.”  In 1883, the Town Council of Long Branch ordered all vagrants to jail for 30 nights and during the day were put work cleaning the public streets under the charge of the Commission of Public Works.  The problem was so extreme that cost of maintaining these Tramps at times reached $500 per month.

Mr. O.F. Lewis, general secretary of the Prison Association of New York, wrote extensively on the Tramp Problem and identified the railroad as the best and worst friend of the Tramp; “….they enable the man who begs from you on the streets of New York on Monday to accost you on the streets of Chicago on Saturday…”

In  Highland Park, the tramp population occupied the land north of the railroad tracks at River Road, where Johnson’s Pond had been formed by a dam across the old Mill Brook. The hoboes congregated there because the Pennsylvania Railroad Company made its water stops at this pond, providing Tramps easy access on and off the trains.

The Tramp problem in Highland Park came to an end when the railroad relocated its water stop. The land was sold, ultimately for townhouses (the L’Ambiance Condos). Across River Road, a retention lagoon is another landmark of the natural brook that winds through the woods of the North Side.

- Ghislaine Darden