NEHEMIAH VREELAND (1856-1945)

This week I offer another in my series of articles about people who exhibited their coin collection to the public at a local bank. The subject was suggested by Julia Casey.

Nehemiah Vreeland was a lifelong resident of Paterson, New Jersey, and born there on February 7, 1856. He was the son of John Elias Vreeland (1831-1912) and Ann Louisa Post (1832-1919). He had an unusual name, possibly unique, and was known as Jim.

His maternal line was through the Post family and he wrote a history of the Paterson branch. The Vreeland and Post families settled in America in the 1600's. His ancestry was Dutch and Nehemiah was an active member of the Holland Society of New York. He was elected vice president in 1921.

He began collecting coins at the age of twelve.

On June 13, 1883, he married Louisa Franziska Klein (1858-1943). They had one son who became an architect.

 

His first job was with E & H Clark Hardware Store and he took over that business in 1899. Just past midnight on February 8, 1902, the Great Paterson Fire broke out in the local trolley car sheds. The fire burned all day and destroyed 459 buildings, including City Hall, the Free Public Library, and Clark's Hardware Store on the corner of Main and Ellison Streets.

He moved on to work for the Hamilton Trust Company and represented various local banks. He was also affiliated with the Manhattan Shirt factory.

 

He joined the ANA in 1904 as member 617. He contributed an article on "Ring Money" to The Numismatist for September 1915 and "Notes on the Coinage of Greenland and Iceland" for February 1916.

 

In 1909, he presented a paper to the British Numismatic Society on "Wampum: The Native Substitute for Currency in North America," published in The British Numismatic Journal for 1910. This article was reprinted in The Numismatist for September 1914.

In December 1912, Vreeland was elected an associate member of the American Numismatic Society.

Vreeland acted as a bank messenger carrying funds and securities from Paterson to Manhattan. On Monday, January 4, 1915, he was attacked on Thames Street in the New York banking district while he was carrying a parcel with $20,000 in cash in his right hand and securities in his left hand. Two men approached him, and one of them hit him and rubbed red pepper in his face, causing a temporary loss of sight. As the man tugged on the parcel in his right hand, Vreeland kicked at the robber. The commotion drew a small crowd of spectators, and the two assailants fled. He carried a pistol, but both hands were holding the parcels. He also could not see well enough to aim at a target.

Vreeland was not so lucky on March 7, 1925. He and another employee were delivering a leather bag with $17,999 from the First National Bank in Paterson to the Manhattan Shirt factory for their payroll. They were attacked by three men who struck Vreeland on the head and knocked him down. Two of the robbers escaped in a touring car, while a third tripped and fell as the car drove off. He was chased down by a mob of spectators who held him for police. In May, two of the robbers were convicted and sentenced for twelve to eighteen years in prison.

He sold much of his collection to Chapman in 1924. He kept the odd and curious coins and exhibited them locally.

Another hobby was making and accumulating fine old wine and his cellar had thousands of bottles.

Vreeland had a love of music and was an organist for the Market Street, Main Street, and Grace Methodist Churches.

He died at the home of his son in Paterson, New Jersey, on May 23, 1945, and is buried in Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson. There are 125 people named Vreeland buried there.

Vreeland became known as a numismatic expert in Paterson, partially because of his public exhibits of coins. In July of 1901, while still in the hardware business, he had an exhibit in the window of Elliot's jewelry store. Featured was a piece of Swedish plate money of Frederick I dated 1724. This was the four daler denomination weighing 6.75 pounds, ten inches square, and a quarter inch thick. Vreeland had bought it in a New York auction.

On May 4, 1911, there was a major exhibit of coins at the Second National Bank of Paterson with fifteen hundred people attending. This was from the collection of Farran Zerbe. This exhibit was supplemented by an exhibit of gold coins in the director's office, provided by Nehemiah Vreeland.

Coins from Vreeland were shown at the Second National Bank on Market Street for four days September 19-22, 1923. The exhibit was described as "The product of fifty years of study, correspondence to the far corners of the earth, pulling of strings in foreign courts, friendship with diplomats, travelers and missionaries, all ranged within the confines of three cabinets." The collection was valued at more than $50,000, with Vreeland stating that his cost exceeded $25,000.

Vreeland donated a Connecticut lottery ticket, dated 1753, to the Paterson Museum. It was on display there in March of 1927. The lottery was for the benefit of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University.

It was described as "One of the notable coin collections of the world" when his collection was shown at the Hamilton Trust Company building in Paterson. It was shown for four days, June 7-10, 1927. One coin mentioned was a fifty-tael silver coin of China weighing sixty ounces.

Another exhibit was in the window of the Hamilton Trust Company in 1928. These were coins recently struck in Palestine, Great Britain, Italy, and Chile.

In 1929, he showed a coin of King Nicholas I of Montenegro in a Paterson Savings Bank window. Another exhibit showed coinage of the Irish Free State.

An exhibit was placed at the Hobart Art Gallery in the Paterson Free Public Library in 1930. The owner was described as "nationally known for his rare coins." Along with what would currently be called odd and curious coins was a Lincoln "penny" with the Lord's prayer engraved on the reverse.

In 1931, he showed an exhibit of Papal coins in the window of the Hamilton Trust building.

In 1935, he exhibited the new Texas and Daniel Boone commemorative half dollars in the window of the Hamilton Trust building.

On February 6, 1936, Vreeland presented an exhibit to the Paterson Rotary at the Y.M.C.A. At the time, Nehemiah's son, Frederick K. Vreeland, was president of the Rotary. His remaining collection was sold in 1942.

A description of highlights from the Vreeland collection was included in History and Genealogy of the Vreeland Family by Nicholas Garretson Vreeland (1909).

 

Nehemiah Vreeland is an example of a collector who was prominent locally, generous in sharing his collection and with a little exposure on the national level. He is largely forgotten because there is no surviving record of his collection through an auction or other catalog.

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