[Elizabeth, NJ]

Alexander Hamilton arrived here in 1773 planning to hit the books and learn enough Latin and Greek to pass the entrance exams for college.

For this whip-smart, low-class charity case fresh off the boat from the Caribbean, a college education could transform him into a respectable gent with a future. Less than one in three thousand Americans attended the small institutions that  colleges were in those days.

Hamilton studied for about nine months in a now long-gone building that would have been right near the church and schoolhouse now existing at the corner of Caldwell Place and Broad Street.

Where did Hamilton’s school go? The Redcoats burned it down in 1780.

Hamilton’s headmaster, Francis Barber, who became Colonel Francis Barber during the war, wasn’t much older than his star student. But the student became the master at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. That’s because when Hamilton led his famous charge against Redoubt #10, Barber was one of the men under his command.

Barber lived to tell of the glory and valor of the successful attack but not for long. In 1782 some of his fellow American soldiers were chopping down trees and one fell on and squashed him. Barber had long had a reputation for being a domineering taskmaster. And rumors persisted for years that the death by lumber was no accident.

Why else is Elizabeth so important in the life of Alexander Hamilton? It’s very possibly where he first laid eyes on a vacationing lass from Albany, Elizabeth Schuyler. who would someday be his wife.

And it’s also very possible that he and Aaron Burr, who was older but had gone to the same academy, first crossed paths and sized each other up here.

Pictured at right is the still-standing Boxwood Hall, mansion of Elias Boudinot. Hamilton lived here for a period of months while attending school.