Colonel Neilson: Salt Merchant

Abstract

From the large collection of "Neilson Papers" deposited in the Rutgers University Library, Professor Thompson has extracted a story of the efforts made by the New Jersey patriots to keep the Revolutionary Army supplied with one of the most commonplace and most essential of the sinews of war, i.e., salt. Colonel Neilson served as a trustee of Queen's College from 1782 until his death in 1833. His life is thus intimately connected both with the founding of the United States and with the early development of Rutgers University.