Steel and Iron - Special Holiday Gift for History Lovers

 

 

        Here’s a special “ring out the old” end-of-year gift from historian Clifford Zink who was one of the presenters at the County’s “Mercer Makes…” symposium in October. He just shared an expanded version of the presentation he had prepared for the symposium with us, and it’s terrific! Thanks and congratulations to Clifford, and best wishes to all of you for the coming year. Read all about it in his online article Iron and Steel: Entrepreneurs on the Delaware.

Mercer Makes...HISTORY! symposium

 

 

Here's the schedule for the upcoming (October 4th) Mercer Makes...symposium. You can find out more at www.Mercer175 or by reading the press release HERE. Or email tfagan@mercercounty.org 

Mercer Makes: The First Weather Satellites!

Max Mesner of RCA's Astro Space Division in East Windsor with the TIROS satellite, 1960

 

One of the presentations at Mercer Makes...looks at RCA's expansion during the Space Age into satellite design and production at its Astro-Electronics Division in East Windsor, and the evolution of its David Sarnoff Research Center in West Windsor after General Electric Company donated it to SRI International.  

“Max Mesner (1910 – 2004) was a key member of the team of engineers at RCA Laboratories in Princeton who worked under David Sarnoff in the late 40s and early 50s to develop the color television system that became the standard for broadcasting in the US. He went on to join the new RCA Astro Space Division in East Windsor where he did pioneering development of high resolution electronic imaging for the US space program. He led the TIROS camera team efforts at RCA Lab 3. Between 1960 and 1966, RCA video recorders were used on all 11 TIROS weather satellites without a single mission failure.” “NASA came to trust RCA because we so thoroughly tested our equipment that we didn’t have failures. On the basis of this confidence, RCA also got the contract for the TV cameras on the space shuttles” said Mr. Mesner in 2000 for the Rossmoor News.

from the October 2010 issue of the Cranbury Historical & Preservation Society newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15. Mercer by Architecture

page from "M is for Mercer" historic sites coloring book by Martha H Runyon of Mercer County's Division of Culture & Heritage
The book is available for free from the C&H office and is also downloadable

 

       Online registration is now available for the upcoming Mercer by Architecture daylong event which will take place on August 9, 2013 at the Clark Music building on the historic Lawrenceville School campus. The symposium will explore some of this area's rich history through a few of the architects, builders, houses and sites that make Mercer County the fascinating place it is today. The day kicks off with a keynote presentation by W. Barksdale Maynard who'll discuss Princeton: America's Campus, based on his book of the same name. The morning and afternoon panels will look at the historic homes and public buildings of the county, from the 1700s to today. Among the many additional luminaries presenting this day are architects Michael Graves, Bob Hillier and Michael Mills; art/architectural historians Philip Hayden and Kate Ogden; and conservation historian Janet Foster. Professor Meredith Arms Bzdak will moderate.

       The event is cosponsored by The County of Mercer and Preservation NJ as part of the County's 175th Anniversary celebration. It's open to the public. For a full size version of the agenda listed below, click HERE.

       Coinciding with this event will be Mercer County's Historic Sites Open House Weekend. Some of the County's oldest and most important buildings will be open to the public Saturday and Sunday, August 10 & 11. Watch this blog for an online and downloadable program for the weekend.

The historic First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, organized in 1712, current church built 1840, will be one of the amazing buildings
to visit during the August 10 & 11 Mercer Historic Sites Open House Weekend. 

14. Happy Fourth of July!!!

       Many thanks to Carla Olszewski Cook who brought us this terrific photograph of the Fourth of July, 1945, taken in the Chambersburg section of Trenton. Elizabeth and Nancy Morzillo and their friends show off their babydoll carriages decorated with red, white, and blue crepe paper for the holiday. They’re gathered in front of the old Liberty Theater building on Cummings Avenue and West Street. The theater operated briefly as one of Trenton’s early “moving picture” venues in the early 1900s (listed in Trenton’s 1917 City Directory.) The structure, which still stands is used today as a warehouse (by Landolfi’s?) on Cummings Avenue.

[UPDATE: Nancy Morzillo Paulus, Carla's aunt, shares her memories of this location:

"When we lived at 325 Cummings Ave. (approx. 1939--1949), our home faced the side of the then-abandoned large building which previously had been "The Old Liberty," a theatre.   I think it is still there used as a warehouse for Italian frozen foods? This triangularly-shaped piece of real estate divides West Street from Cummings Ave., with – what in a child's eye – was fronted with a large side-walked area that was great for roller skating, bicycling and parades, as you see in the picture on the fourth of July........it was a fun spot.......

"I loved climbing up the boarded windows and looking at the cobwebbed interior of abandoned stage, seats and old draperies. Outside rear was the high-fenced forgotten parking lot. I have no idea of its life, its placement just seems odd, there on the border of Chambersburg, a then mostly residential neighborhood. Maybe some Italian city planner envisioned the spot as a little city/suburbia town with Hamilton Township so close by at Liberty St. and Chambers St...(there's that name Liberty, so maybe it was on the planning board......cruise by and check out its existence.....now I'm curious. Love, Aunt Nancy  Have fun.."

 

     
       This charming photo of a family gathering on the Fourth of July, 1924, comes from the collection of the Historical Society of Princeton, celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year! This image, and many others from the HSP can also be found on their FaceBook page. Remember to "like" them!

       And, finally, thanks once again to our friend Tom Glover who compiled and posted these Trenton articles and ads from July 3, 4, and 5, 1904 for this fun fireworks "blow by blow." Though we don't see free firecrackers given away with our coffee purchases anymore, the cautionary tales on July 4 and 5 continue to resonate today. Hope everyone in the Capitol County of Mercer and beyond had a safe and happy 4th!

13. Strolling Through History, Cemetery-Style

     The historic graveyards throughout Mercer County have a great many stories to tell -- and some can be found easily by visiting the Political Graveyard on-line. This fascinating resource is a work-in-progress - but, already, you can learn more about some of the leaders, the thinkers, and the movers/shakers who helped to shape our County and our Towns. Check it out.

12. Happy 175th to the Titusville Presbyterian Church

Glass slide image by A.L.Opdyke of Trenton, circa 1912,
scanned and uploaded by Rich Burton in a Flicker set of Titusville images.

 

Titusville's Presbyterian Church is still going strong with an active and engaged congregation intent on celebrating this year's anniversary in style. A new book "Shall We Gather...175 Years along the Delaware" is available through the church website. Happy Birthday! (Click on Rich Burton's name in the caption, above, to see more historic Titusville images from A. L. Opdyke.)

11. Around the World in Three Hundred and "Eighty Days"

Harriet Fisher entourage arriving at the Vendome, Paris France

         In 1909, seven years after the death of her husband, Harriet White Fisher - owner of the Fisher & Norris Eagle Anvil Works on Fair St., Trenton - piled her Italian maid, her butler/cook, a dog named Honk-Honk and her chauffeur (and nephew) Harold Fisher Brooks into her four-passenger Locomobile and set off to travel around the world. More than a year later, she returned triumphantly to 125 East Hanover St. in Trenton - the first woman (and entourage) in history to have successfully traveled around the world. Harriet documented some highlights of the trip a year later in her book A Woman’s World Tour in a Motor.

     More than 100 years later, a new exhibit at Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum, shares even more information about the trip - from the chauffeur's perspective. Harold Brooks left his personal collection of photographs, diaries, artifacts and other ephemera about this trip to his grandchildren. One of them, retired Reynolds MS teacher Rebecca Urban has curated this exhibit Trenton Entourage Motors ‘Round the World in 1909 which opens this coming Saturday, June 22. Ms. Urban will also be presenting a slide show featuring her grandfather's photographs and taped reminisences at 2 pm on Sunday, June 30. (Click the exhibit title for more information.) 

Fisher Norris display, Machinery Hall Bldg.

     Her exploits may have captured the imagination of the world - but it was Harriet's business acumen and manufacturing leadership that earned her the respect of Victorian businessmen and political leaders. Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese diplomat who served as Chinese ambassador to the US, Minister of Foreign Affairs and, briefly, as Premier during the early years of the Republic of China, reportedly called her the most wonderful woman in America.

     Harriet was born into a wealthy Crawford County, PA, family in1869. She attended a classical seminary for young women and took finishing courses (in “music and lacework”) abroad. For some time she lived in Flushing, NY, where she served as vice president and treasurer of the Flushing hospital where she also built an infants’ ward. Then, in London in1898, she married Clark Fisher, owner and sole proprietor of the Fisher-Norris Anvil Works of Trenton. [Cptn. Clark Fisher also served for 13 years as Chief Engineer for the US Navy, including time during the Civil War with George Dewey.] Harriet was 29, Clark was 61; she moved from NY to his home at 125 E. Hanover Street in Trenton.

      A year later Clark was felled with a serious illness. Harriet immediately stepped in to handle the business. Clark recovered, but in 1903 the Fisher’s were involved in a train derailment near Menlo Park (Middlesex County) that almost crippled Harriet and left Clark with injuries that lead to his death. Twenty five years later, after being named to American Magazine’s “Hall of Fame,” she reflected on the many challenges of being a woman boss a man’s world.

10. Remembering Mrs. Hurst: Hamilton Twp's First Woman Safety Officer

     Elizabeth E. Cooper brought these terrific articles about her mother, Mrs. Mary Jane Hurst, to the Hamilton One Stop History Share event in May. Mrs. Hurst was Hamilton Township’s first female school safety officer, sworn in as a “Special Police Officer” in January, 1953 – one of the earliest women in the nation to have this position. This was big news in the region; newspapers and civic groups continued to follow Mrs. Hurst in her new career - as the great coverage in the article below (written two years after she was first appointed) shows. This was not Mrs. Hurst’s first ground-breaking role. For some time she also worked at the General Motors plant in Ewing as a "Rosie the Riveter," building airplanes during World War II.

 

          Hervey S. Moore, Jr., the Police Commissioner who appointed Mrs. Furst, is another interesting figure in Mercer history. Shortly after graduating law school 1941, he joined the Army. His service during World War II won him three bronze stars, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Campaign Medal, and the American Campaign Medal. He left active duty in 1946, but accepted a commission in the New Jersey National Guard. 



Hervey Studdiford Moore, Jr. as an enlisted man

 

           Moore, Jr., was mayor of Hamilton Township during 1954 and 1955, and the township’s police commissioner from 1952 to 1955. In 1955 he joined the Princeton law firm of Mason, Griffin & Moore as a partner just weeks after its founding. He headed the state's Selective Service during most of the Viet Name War years (1963 – 1973) before being named to the Mercer County Court bench in 1973 by NJ Gov. William T. Cahill. In 1980, Gov. Brendan T. Byrne named him to the state Superior Court where he served until his retirement at aged 70. Judge Moore was referred to by some attorneys at the time as "the father of civil law in Mercer," who insisted on professionalism, courtesy and civility in his courtroom.

 

 

     His father, Hervey S. Moore, Sr., was also an attorney. Moore, Sr. served in the NJ Assembly and founded the Trenton Lions Club in 1921. In 1916, he reportedly “…caused a sensation, both in society and in political circles…” by accusing his former partner in a real estate business of conspiring to kill him. [NYTimes, 10/12/1915,pg.20]

 

 

 

 

9. Making & Exploring History in Trenton

                 This coming weekend is a big one in Trenton: Art All Night, the 24 hour long extravaganza of arts in all forms, is making its own history, celebrating its 7th year of offering art-for-everyone this Saturday and Sunday, June 15-16. The day, a labor of love for ARTWORKS and a small army of passionate volunteers, takes place in the historic Roebling Wire Works factory building (above) and the adjacent Mill Yard Park.

                 Visitors to Trenton on Saturday, June 15, can make it a full day. The Cadwalader Heights Historic House and Garden Tour goes from noon until 5, and showcases some of the most beautiful and historic homes in that section of the city. This year 11 historic houses and several gardens will be featured in the tour (along with art displays and delicious deserts!) Among the houses open to the public will be 9 Belmont Circle (above) - the first home built in the Cadwalader Heights neighborhood by Frank Forrest Frederick, the director of New Jersey's School of Industrial Arts. 

8. Judge Robbins' History of Windsor

If you've passed through the charming village of Windsor, in Robbinsville Township, you'll note that not much has changed since Judge R.C. (Randall C.) Robbins wrote his 1901 "History of Windsor, N.J. and theMethodist Episcopal Church of Windsor, N.J." Allison Delarue, Princeton Class of '28, donated the pamphlet to the Firestone Library at Princeton University where he may have studied with Judge Robbins' grandson, Edmund Yard Robbins (b. 1867, Windsor, NJ.)

Edmund Yard Robbins

Alison Delarue, Princeton Class of '28, donated this pamphlet to Princeton's Firestone Library. Mr. Delarue may very well have studied under Edmund Robbins during his time at Princeton. Edmund had graduated from Princeton's class of 1889. Several years later he returned to the University after several years abroad studying "comparative philology" and Indo-Iranian linquistics in Germany. He was Princeton University's Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature until his retirement in the late 1930s.





Windsor's Methodist Church is still active today. Judge Robbins tells us that improvements to the Church in 1863 left the congregation seriously in debt until 1891 when the Ladies Aid Society proposed a Quilt-Making idea that raised enough money to pay off "all claims standing against the Church and parsonage"! (History of Windsor and...pg. 11)



7. CDV Cards and Early Photos

Carte de visite or CDV cards were a new form of calling card that featured tiny (about 2 ¼ “ x 3 ½ “) photographs of a person mounted on a slightly larger card. First popularized by photographer Louis Dodero of Marseilles, France in the early 1850s, the cards became enormously popular in Mercer County and throughout the United States during the Civil War.

 

This card by Hightstown photographer Richard R. Priest, features Civil War sailor Charles Mount. It’s featured in Richard Burton’s terrific Flicker set of CDVs featuring Trenton, Hightstown and other local residents in the later 1800s.

Richard did some terrific research on Chas. (Charles) Mount, and reports that the "Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War", 1876, by William Stryker, has Charles W. Mount mustering in on August 11, 1864 and mustering out on May 11, 1865. He also determined that the ship name printed on Mount’s sailor’s hat is probably the USS Canandaigua.

The sailor pictured is probably Charles W. Mount, youngest son of Ezekiel and Anne (Wright) Mount. Charles and his wife, Anna Williamson, raised their 5 children in Hightstown, NJ. He was hired as postmaster for the ETRA post office when it was created in 1890. [ETRA, a village in East Windsor that sprang up around Cosman’s mill. Originally called Scrabbletown or Milford, with the arrival of the post office, the town changed its name to ETRA – the initials of its most prominent resident at the time: Edward Taylor Riggs Applegate. For more about this village, see Kathleen M. Middleton’s excellent publication East WindsorLandmarks available online.]

 

6. The Gift of “Amateur” Historians - and Strawberry Hill



Image courtesy of Tom Glover

Admit it: there’s an astonishing army of curious, creative, investigative, and above all, generous history lovers out there who are researching, curating, and sharing a wealth of information out there. Mercer175 will be sharing the discoveries and research of many of those “amateur” (in the TRUE sense of the word: amateur = “lover of”) regional historians as the year goes on.

One of the best known in this area has to be Tom Glover, well-known columnist, Hamilton township (and environs!) historian, prolific blogger and a member of the Mercer175. Tom has thousands of regular fans who faithfully check out his Hamilton Scrapbook blog where he posts historic photos, old newspaper articles, ads and other fascinating tidbits related to Mercer County history – including this great map of “Strawberry Hill” – the Kuser family estate on top of Baldpate Mountain in Hopewell Township. Although the map isn’t dated, it has a lot of fascinating “clues” – including the location of Charles Lindbergh’s home. The Lindberghs escaped to England by 1936 following the kidnapping and death of their oldest child, and the sensational trial that followed. But that’s for another post!

For more information about “Strawberry Hill”, you can start with the articles in The Furrow (the newsletter by the Friends of Howell Living History Farm), and the Baldpate Mountain page on the new Mercer County Parks Commission website.  There’s also an interesting “outsider’s” write up on the park and the surrounding area on the NJ Skylands website.

5. Great Community "Finds"

      

Chase XCG-18A US Air Force glider at Mercer County Airport during WW II, 1947. courtesy of J. Turek

      Throughout the 175th anniversary year, the County will be sponsoring community "History Share" events where you're invited to bring in your own historic photographs, articles, programs, and other memorabilia about life in Mercer County. Items are scanned in, documented, and shared with the rest of the Mercer County community.

Testing a Switlik parachute during jump over Mercer County airport in 1936.  courtesy of R.L.Pidcock



      Folks at the first three events (in Trenton at the County's McDade Building, at the Lawrence Library and at the county's One-Stop office in Hamilton Twp.) brought in some great photographs and articles. You can see them by clicking on the "Photo Gallery" link on the Mercer 175 main page. In honor of Memorial Day, we're sharing some terrific photos and articles brought in by John Turek and Robert Lee Pidcock that show Mercer people and scenes during WW II and the Korean Conflict.

 

Trenton resident, Sgt. Michael Karaffa, a six-time decorated veteran flyer with the 394th Bomb Group during WW II
recalled to active duty during the Korean Conflict.  courtesy of J. Turek



4. Celebrating Petty's Run

Petty's Run by Martin Griff, The Times of Trenton

     It's not often past meets present so perfectly, but the grand opening of the Petty's Run archeological site between the NJ State House and the Old Barracks in Trenton last week was just such an exciting juncture for the city, county, and state - and history lovers worldwide. A couple of years ago the site, named for the Petty's Run Creek that rushed through the area to the Delaware River, was listed by Preservation NJ as one of the state's most endangered sites. Today it is preserved as an interpretive outdoor classroom for students of all ages interested in early colonial America, thanks to collaboration between the State and Mercer County - and to the passionate citizens who tirelessly advocated on behalf of the project. 

     The history of the site first as a source of fresh water and fish for native Americans and then as host to early paper, cotton and steel mills is explained on six interpretive signs ringing the 18 foot deep display. Hunter Research, Inc., was instrumental in advocating for and researching the site, and they maintained an excellent web journal that provides rich details about the site and the process of excavating, researching and preserving it. 

     For some fine coverage on the Petty's Run opening, check out this feature by Jenna Pizzi and Martin Griff of The Times.

3. Fannie Benjamin Johnston and Drumthwacket

       The lush gardens of the “Moses Taylor Pyne house”, as Drumthwacket (NJ’s Governor’s mansion in Princeton, NJ) was then called, were a featured subject for Frances (Fannie) Benjamin Johnston in the early 1900s. Johnston, one of the first professional woman photographer and photojournalist in the US, established a reputation for portraiture among the affluent and influential of Washington, DC high society in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. At the turn of the 19^th century, Johnston became engaged with the “City Beautiful”/“Garden Beautiful” movements. These movements were, in large part, a reaction to the rapid industrialization and crowded urbanization of the American landscape that came with the affluence of the Gilded Age.

 

       Originally hired to document the new “row house” lots and growing number of formal gardens on estates as new design models, Johnston became a passionate advocate in the movement to beautify America. These images of Drumthwacket (taken around 1906) were among the hand-colored slides she featured in her talk “Our American Gardens,” which was given to groups throughout the nation.



       Moses Taylor Pyne, an industrialist and banker, purchased Drumthwacket from the widow of Charles Smith Olden, the estate’s original owner, in 1893. Money was no object for this successful industrialist. He and his wife Margaretta Stockton Pyne (of the Morven Stocktons) added hundreds of acres to the existing estate, bringing in noted landscape architect Daniel Webster Langton (NJ native and a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects) to create the formal Italian gardens that visitors to Drumthwacket may enjoy to this day.

For insight on how hand colored glass slides like Johnston’s were made, see this article by John Tennant in an 1899 issue of The Photo Miniature  

2. Sabotage at the Roebling Steel Works? 1915

 

Between now and February 22, 2014 (the conclusion of Mercer County's 175th Anniversary year) this blog will feature 175+ posts featuring just a small sampling of the fascinating faces, places, events, mysteries, photographs, things that make this area's history so rich.

 

The photos above show Trenton's famous Roebling Steel Works engulfed in flames and some of the devastating aftermath of a series of fires set during a January night in 1915. The fires, suspected to be sabotage by German agents, caused millions of dollars worth of damage, but the Roeblings quickly rebuilt - and the rest is history.

 

Check out this story by Jon Blackwell that appeared as part of the Trentonian's Capital Century series.

 

 

1. Getting Mercer's 175th "On the Map"

1846 map of Mercer County, NJ - first official map made of the 'new' County after its formation in 1838

 

          Mercer 175's inaugural event, the Mapping Mercer exhibit at The Gallery at Mercer County Community College was a great success. Thank you so much to all the researchers, graphics artists, and historians who helped out with the exhibition, and to the generous folks who loaned historic maps for the exhibit, including Sally Lane and Sam Graf, the Hightstown Memorial Library, and Paul Smith of Framesmith Gallery in Princeton. We hope to post an online version of the exhibit later in the year, and will be showing copies of the 1875 Mercer County Atlas pages that were featured in the show at the upcoming (May 11) NJ History Fair at Washington Crossing State Park. A special thank you to the featured speakers at the exhibit: Donna Lewis and Kathleen Sar, Director and GIS specialist, respectively, of the County's Planning Division; Paul Pogorzelski, Hopewell Township's administrator and engineer; and Maxine Lurie, Ph.D., and Michael Siegel, editor and cartographer, respectively, of Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape.