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by Jude M. Pfister
Arcadia Publishing - The History Press, 2015
Acorn Hall has always been a home. In 1852, Dr. John Schermerhorn conceived the sprawling estate and mansion, and he spent four years decorating it in a lavish Rococo style. Banker Augustus Crane later bought the estate and mansion, had it redesigned and rechristened it Acorn Hall, and it remained in his family through two world wars and numerous financial crises. Mary Crane Hone donated the landmark to the Morris County Historical Society in 1971. After its devoted members lovingly restored the hall, it became a focal point for the community and a beautiful setting for the society’s collections. Today, it is imbued with a sense of purpose, tradition and reverence for the past. Local historian Jude Pfister tells the remarkable story of Morris County, New Jersey’s Acorn Hall.
Paperback
160 pages
ISBN 9781626196315
Retail price $19.99
Jude M. Pfister is Chief of Cultural Resources, Morristown National Historical Park. Dr. Pfister has been at Morristown since 2004 overseeing the museum, archival, and library programs. He has been with the National Park Service in the field of historic preservation and cultural resource conservation since 1993. A historian by training, he has experience in a variety of settings impacting many of our nation’s most important historic sites. He is the author of several books as well as multiple articles and reviews.
by Donald Johnstone Peck
American History Press
An American Journey of Hope is a rousing and vivid chronicle of how the colonial society of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, unique because of its Old World connections with heredity, aristocracy, feudal land systems, an established church, omnipotent governments and slavery, redefined itself as a center of political and religious forces that held forth the promise of plenty and a way of life that emphasized freedom and opportunity for all.
The original vision of the twenty-four Proprietors of East Jersey in the seventeenth century was to establish a colony for persecuted Scottish Quakers. Their plan was to help those who were oppressed and suffering, and to rescue prisoners and exiles by offering them a place to live that embraced religious toleration. In this way Perth Amboy became the port of entry for both the Quaker and Calvinist Non-conformist Presbyterian Covenanters who would subsequently establish the Presbyterian Church in America. The author details the events that accompanied these changes, and continues with a precise chronology of the incidents in the city that led up to the American Revolution.
As the narrative continues to unfold, An American Journey of Hope becomes the story of the conflict between a stronghold of prominent Loyalists and their engagement with many of America’s leading patriots in the struggle for American religious and political independence. The story of Perth Amboy provides a unique lens through which to observe the upheaval that overturned the old order.
Hardcover
160 pages
ISBN 10: 1-9399950-0-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-939995-02-5
$26.95
Available from the publisher
Donald Johnstone Peck is trustee for the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey; immediate past president of the Raritan-Millstone Heritage Alliance, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey, and board member and contributing writer and editor for their quarterly publication, The Link. A member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township, he is a past commissioner of the Woodbridge Township Preservation Commission, life member (since 1972) and president emeritus and past president for three non-consecutive terms of the Proprietary House Association, Perth Amboy and founding member and past vice president of the Colts Neck Historical Society, Colts Neck, New Jersey. A direct descendant of six signers of the historic Mayflower Compact, he has active memberships in The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Jersey and several state and national organizations. A direct descendant of Elisha Parker, Sr., progenitor of the illustrious Parker Family of Woodbridge and Perth Amboy, he also descends from Sir George Scott and Dr. John Johnstone, proprietors of East Jersey.
by Joseph G. Bilby & Harry Ziegler
Arcadia Publishing, 2012
Asbury Park's landmarks create an unforgettable impression in this legendary New Jersey resort city. From the art deco Convention Hall to venues that gave Bruce Springsteen his start and gave rise to the city's iconic place in music history. This book covers the sights of the town, some recovering, others deteriorating, as they were then and now, recalling the history of each, as Asbury Park enters a new era.
Paperback
126 pages
ISBN 978.1.60949.680.7
Retail price $19.99
Available from Amazon, at local bookstores, and from the publisher
Joseph G. Bilby was born in Newark, NJ. He received BA and MA degrees from Seton Hall University and served as an army officer in the Vietnam War. He is author, co-author or editor of 21 books on NJ and military history and has received awards from Monmouth County and the NJ Historical Commission. He is Assistant Curator of the National Guard Militia Museum of NJ.
Harry Ziegler was born in Neptune, NJ. He received his BA degree from Monmouth University and his MA from Georgian Court University. He worked for the Asbury Park Press, as managing editor. He is currently associate principal of Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison. He is coauthor of seven books on NJ history with Joseph Bilby.
by Linda B. Forgosh
Brandeis University Press, 2016
The only biography of Louis Bamberger—department store magnate, merchandising genius, enlightened philanthropist, and Newark’s leading citizen
Louis Bamberger (1855–1944) was the epitome of the merchant prince as public benefactor. Born in Baltimore, this son of German immigrants built his business—the great, glamorous L. Bamberger & Co. department store in Newark, N.J.—into the sixth-largest department store in the country. A multimillionaire by middle age, he joined the elite circle of German Jews who owned Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Filene’s. Despite his vast wealth and local prominence, Bamberger was a reclusive figure who shunned the limelight, left no business records, and kept no diaries. He remained a bachelor and kept his private life and the rationale for his business decisions to himself.
Yet his achievements are manifold. He was a merchandising genius whose innovations, including newspaper and radio ads and brilliant use of window and in-store displays, established the culture of consumption in twentieth-century America. His generous giving, both within the Jewish community and beyond it, created institutions that still stand today: the Newark YM-YWHA, Beth Israel Hospital, and the Newark Museum. Toward the end of his career, he financed and directed the creation of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, which led to a friendship with Albert Einstein.
Despite his significance as business innovator and philanthropist, historians of the great department stores have paid scant attention to Bamberger. This full-length biography will interest historians as well as general readers of Jewish history nationally, New Jerseyans fascinated by local history, and the Newarkers for whom Bamberger’s was a beloved local institution.
Hardcover & Ebook
296 pages
ISBN 978-1-61168-981-5
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61168-982-2
Retail price $29.95; Ebook $24.99
Available from the publisher
Linda B. Forgosh is an independent scholar and Executive Director and Curator of the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey. She has written extensively on the history of Jewish life in Essex, Union, and Morris and Sussex counties New Jersey.
by Donald Johnstone Peck
American History Press
A longtime leader of the New Jersey Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and founder of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party in New Jersey, to this day General Joseph Bloomfield is regarded as Woodbridge, New Jersey's most illustrious citizen. The great-grandson of a founding family of the oldest chartered township in the state, Joseph Bloomfield was both a lawyer and soldier,but his elite background and Revolutionary War service quickly propelled him into political leadership, and in time he was elected governor.
As the narrative of Bloomfield's life unfolds, the reader steps back in time to trying political, religious and social issues faced by the founders of the State of New Jersey and the United States of America. Strongly influenced and driven to action by the religious enthusiasm of the Presbyterian Church and its political agenda based on rights, General Bloomfield served with distinction in George Washington's Flying Camp. During the course of the war he participated in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, and endured harsh conditions at both Morristown and Valley Forge.
After a period of indecision, General Bloomfield emerged as one of a few genuine "landed aristocrats" in New Jersey who was willing to join the Jefferson cause, as opposed to the Federalist Party. As governor he used his moral and political leadership to initiate the gradual emancipation of slavery in New Jersey with his signing of the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1804. He later served with distinction in the War of 1812 and was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives
Softcover
122 pages
ISBN 10: 1-939995-06-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-939995-06-3
$18.95
Available from the publisher
Donald Johnstone Peck is trustee for the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey; immediate past president of the Raritan-Millstone Heritage Alliance, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey, and board member and contributing writer and editor for their quarterly publication, The Link. A member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township, he is a past commissioner of the Woodbridge Township Preservation Commission, life member (since 1972) and president emeritus and past president for three non-consecutive terms of the Proprietary House Association, Perth Amboy and founding member and past vice president of the Colts Neck Historical Society, Colts Neck, New Jersey. A direct descendant of six signers of the historic Mayflower Compact, he has active memberships in The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Jersey and several state and national organizations. A direct descendant of Elisha Parker, Sr., progenitor of the illustrious Parker Family of Woodbridge and Perth Amboy, he also descends from Sir George Scott and Dr. John Johnstone, proprietors of East Jersey.
by Kathleen P. Galop and Catharine Longendyck
Arcadia Publishing, 2007
Branch Brook Park, located in Newark, was America's first county park, established in 1895 as the cornerstone of the Essex County Park System. The vision for Branch Brook Park began in 1867, when Newark park commissioners retained Olmstead, Vaux and Co. to identify a site for a park. That vision matured and is now woven into the urban experience of Newark and its neighboring towns. Branch Brook Park is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. Today it is home to the Newark Cherry Blossom Festival, organized long-distance runs and bicycle races, picnics, prom and wedding photos, and sports activities from baseball to bocce to soccer and tennis, and remains a constant source of great beauty.
Paperback
127 pages
ISBN 978-0-7385-5038-1
Retail price $19.95
Available from the publisher
Kathleen Galop was the author of the Nomination listing Branch Brook Park on the New Jersey and Federal National Registers of Historic Places. She is an attorney and the principal of Preservation Possibilities LLC, a historic preservation consulting firm.
Catharine Longendyck is a retired corporate executive and an amateur historian who lives in Newark's Forest Hill Historic District.
by Dennis Rizzo
Llumina Press, 2011
"The colonial rebellion," as King George refers to it, is in a crisis. Washington and his army are huddled between the capital of Philadelphia and the King's troops, across the Delaware River. Hessians and Scots have taken over most of the towns and are carrying away anything not buried in the yard or hidden in the forest. Three days before Christmas a small group of militia attacks Hessian outposts. Hessian Commander, Count von Donop, moves his entire force sixteen miles from their posting in Bordentown to the little hamlet of Mount Holly. After sending the gathered militia scurrying for safety, he dallies for the holiday. Colonel Rall, commanding at Trenton, will need his help the day after Christmas; but he is not there. Why? Told through the eyes of Tom Dyer, apprentice to the widow Betsy Ross, and Hessian Jaeger Jacob Brunner, A Christmas Conspiracy brings into the open a little known event that changed the course of the rebellion. Read it and get to know the women that helped the colonials win at Trenton, giving new life to the revolution. Learn about the roles of ordinary people in America's first civil war. Enjoy a fast-moving tale of strife, intrigue and human endeavor, and never again be able to say, "I didn't know."
Paperback
332 pages
ISBN 13:978-1605946450
Retail price $21.00
Available from the publisher
Available from Amazon
Dennis Rizzo has written several books and articles in the fields of social services and history. He has two historical novels and a third in the works, which he has decided will be an E-Book in deference to the vicissitudes of modern readers. In 2010 he retired and moved with his family to Central Ontario (Canada) where he is completing an anthology of local stories and anecdotes in time for Canada's 150th Anniversary in 2017.
by Sandra W. Moss, M.D., M.A. (History)
Xlibris, 2011
The Country Practitioner is the story of a short-lived but lively medical journal published in New Jersey between 1879 and 1881. Today, copies of this long-forgotten journal are found in only a handful of archival collections. It's editor, Ellis P. Townsend, M.D., of Beverly, N.J., created a publication for general practitioners in villages across America, who, in his view, were underserved by the urban medical journals of the day. Townsend brought his own strong opinions on topics such as bloodletting, obstetrics, and diphtheria to the Country Practitioner. He also editorialized, often tartly, on the tribulations of general practice and the woes of medical editors. Townsend's personal odyssey included service in a Gettysburg military hospital, a post as medical officer for an ill-fated engineering expedition in the deep Amazon, and his death in Montana following frostbite while on a medical call.
Paperback
138 pages
ISBN 978-1-4568-5000-5
Retail price $19.99 $19.99
Available from the Amazon
Dr. Sandra Moss practiced and taught general internal medicine in central New Jersey. In 2005, she completed a master's degree in the history of technology, medicine, and the environment from the federated history program of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. Dr. Moss has published numerous articles, chapters, and reviews in the field of medical history, and regularly addresses diverse audiences on a variety of topics in the history of medicine. She is past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey and of the American Osler Society.
by Kathleen P. Galop and Catharine Longendyck
Arcadia Publishing, 2014
Forest Hill, located in the North Ward of Newark, overlooks the Passaic River to the east and Branch Brook Park to the west. A 52-block area is a National Historic District, listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. In the mid-1800s, three Newark businessmen acquired most of the former farmland and built mansions for themselves and modest housing for those who worked in their nearby plants. With easy commuting access to downtown Newark and New York City, Forest Hill was marketed to wealthy professionals. This residential neighborhood is filled with large homes representing a variety of architectural styles, from Richardsonian Romanesque to Craftsman. Forest Hill showcases the rich architectural and community history of this Newark neighborhood.
Paperback
127 pages
ISBN 978-1-4671-2060-9
Retail price $21.99
Available from the publisher
Kathleen Galop was the author of the Nomination listing Branch Brook Park on the New Jersey and Federal National Registers of Historic Places. She is an attorney and the principal of Preservation Possibilities LLC, a historic preservation consulting firm.
Catharine Longendyck is a retired corporate executive and an amateur historian who lives in Newark's Forest Hill Historic District.
by Jude M. Pfister
Arcadia Publishing - The History Press, 2009
In 1772, the Ford family began building what would easily become the largest home in Morristown and years later became the site of the first National Historic Park in the United States. Completed just before colonial unrest reached a boiling point, the home quickly secured a reputation as a place of prominence for supporters of colonial interests. Today, the mansion is best known as George Washington’s headquarters, when it became a strategic site for Washington during a winter encampment and gained importance for its role in the American Revolution. Jude Pfister tells the story of this beloved home that has endured the tests of time and whose own history is inextricably woven into that of the country’s.
Paperback
160 pages
ISBN 9781596297166
Retail price $21.99
Available from the publisher
Jude M. Pfister is Chief of Cultural Resources, Morristown National Historical Park. Dr. Pfister has been at Morristown since 2004 overseeing the museum, archival, and library programs. He has been with the National Park Service in the field of historic preservation and cultural resource conservation since 1993. A historian by training, he has experience in a variety of settings impacting many of our nation’s most important historic sites. He is the author of several books as well as multiple articles and reviews.
by Robert A. Mayers
Heritage Books, Inc., 2014
"The Forgotten Revolution" depicts battlefields, encampments and sites of many critical events of the American Revolution that have been lost or neglected by history. Man-made changes in terrain have been enormous since that time and this work revives these forsaken locations with fresh research from original military records and on-site visits. The author's on-site visits to battlefields, encampments and places of many critical events of the Revolutionary War shed light on revered places where patriots fought and died but are unmarked, shrouded in mystery, distorted by mythology and unknown even to local people. Bob Mayers' quest for these sites took many unexpected turns. Analysis of obscure sources ignored by earlier writers yielded many surprises and unknown details were revealed at well-known sites. He made detours outside of known boundaries and textbook timelines and found that myths were often created when the winner wrote the history. Little known British, Hessian and Loyalist accounts often reveal more than the details we have traditionally accepted as authentic. At each of the places he sought out "witnesses," people with special local knowledge. They were staff at national and state parks, regimental re-enactors, members of historical societies, private owners who live on the land and descendants of original settlers whose ancestors are buried in local cemeteries. All have become caretakers of local history and they provided him with special insights and information that cannot be found in recorded history. An index to full-names, places and subjects completes this work.
Paperback
298 pages
ISBN 0788455591, 978-0788455599
Retail price $33.00
Available from the publisher
Robert A. Mayers is an active member of ten historical societies, a frequent speaker, and contributor to various publications. He has given presentations at West Point and the Pentagon, has recently been featured on Comcast TV, and published in the History Channel Magazine and Garden State Legacy. A former Human Resources executive, he is a graduate of Rutgers University and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University. Mayers served as a combat officer in both the Navy and Marine Corps. His military experiences provide him with a deeper perspective of the campaigns and battles depicted in his works.
by Gordon Bond
History Press, 2013
South Jersey is perhaps best known for its beachside boardwalks, glitzy Atlantic City hotels and blueberry farms, but behind these iconic symbols are the overlooked tales that are unique to New Jersey. While much of Harriet Tubman's life is well known, her time in Cape May is usually overlooked by biographers. Few know that the classic American drive-in movie theaters were born in South Jersey. Even the famous Wildwood, with its distinctive Doo-Wop architecture, hides forgotten stories: at the height of its popularity, this shore town was hosting some of the country's first rock-and-roll acts. Often overshadowed by its more urban northern counterpart, South Jersey nonetheless has a hidden past. In this collection, author Gordon Bond uncovers the most intriguing of these tales.
Paperback
144 pages
ISBN: 9781626190092
Retail price: $19.99
Available from the publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Linda Barth
History Press, 2013
Enjoy this seek-and-search book for ages 3 to 103. Chock full of fun facts about the best state! Read about the famous and not-so-famous people, places, and events of our great little state. Explore our diverse geography: mountains, highlands, rivers, lakes, and seashore. See little-known places in all the regions of the Garden State. Learn about some inventions (including the Band-Aid®, the bar code, and Bubble Wrap®), New Jersey firsts (baseball, dinosaur skeleton), and other fascinating facts. Beautifully illustrated by Hazel Mitchell.
Hardcover and Paperback
34 pages
ISBN: 978-1-934-133231
Retail price: $17.95 Hardcover; $7.95 Paperback
Available from the author
Linda Barth has been a fan of New Jersey for a long time. As a fourth-grade teacher, she tried to focus students’ attention on the positive aspects of our state: its diverse geography, history, agriculture, industry, and famous firsts and inventions. A lifelong resident of the Garden State, Linda has written two books on the D&R Canal for Arcadia Publishing and two children’s picture books: Bridgetender’s Boy, published by the National Canal Museum in 2005, and Hidden New Jersey, from Charlesbridge Publishing in 2012. A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone, published by the History Press, was released in 2013. With her husband she has published The Millstone Valley Through Time and Somerville Through Time. She has also contributed to the Encyclopedia of New Jersey.
by Sandra W. Moss, M.D., M.A. (History)
Xlibris, 2014
Edgar Holden, M.D., of Newark: Provincial Physician on a National Stage is a study of medicine and health in Essex County, New Jersey, and its largest city, Newark, in the decades following the Civil War. The book is structured around the multifaceted career of Edgar Holden, a Newark physician who transcended the provinciality that characterized Essex County's medical community and institutions. The author demonstrates how institution building and new paradigms of medical authority funneled from burgeoning urban medical centers into the provincial and sluggish medical landscape of northern New Jersey. An exploration of this lively community of well-trained practitioners, fledgling institutions, and ailing citizens sheds light on similar medical communities that found themselves importing-but rarely exporting-knowledge and expertise.
Paperback
559 pages
Amazon: $23.99
ISBN 978-1-4990-2129-5
Kindle
Amazon $3.99
ISBN 978-1-4990-2127-1
Dr. Sandra Moss practiced and taught general internal medicine in central New Jersey. In 2005, she completed a master's degree in the history of technology, medicine, and the environment from the federated history program of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. Dr. Moss has published numerous articles, chapters, and reviews in the field of medical history, and regularly addresses diverse audiences on a variety of topics in the history of medicine. She is past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey and of the American Osler Society.
by Linda Barth
History Press, 2013
Since Edison opened the first research and development laboratory in Menlo Park, the Garden State has been known as the Innovation State. As Alex Magoun, former director of the David Sarnoff Library, put it, “The state’s twentieth-century history is filled with the technologies we take for granted, from electronic television and antibiotics to the transistor and liquid crystal displays.”
New Jersey inventors and innovators have changed the lives of people around the world. From the phonograph to the electric guitar, from the telegraph to Telstar and from baseball to college football, hundreds of products and ideas got their start in New Jersey
What makes New Jersey the state where ideas grow? Is it because we’ve been home to so many communications and pharmaceutical companies, including Bell Labs, Sarnoff, Johnson & Johnson and Edison’s invention factory? Is it our proximity to Philadelphia and New York?
Or does the fact that we’re the most densely populated state mean that bright people are also densely packed in the Garden State?
Hardcover and Paperback
192 pages
ISBN-10: 1626192065
ISBN-13: 978-1626192065
$20.00
Available from the author
Linda Barth has been a fan of New Jersey for a long time. As a fourth-grade teacher, she tried to focus students’ attention on the positive aspects of our state: its diverse geography, history, agriculture, industry, and famous firsts and inventions. A lifelong resident of the Garden State, Linda has written two books on the D&R Canal for Arcadia Publishing and two children’s picture books: Bridgetender’s Boy, published by the National Canal Museum in 2005, and Hidden New Jersey, from Charlesbridge Publishing in 2012. A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone, published by the History Press, was released in 2013. With her husband she has published The Millstone Valley Through Time and Somerville Through Time. She has also contributed to the Encyclopedia of New Jersey.
by Dominick Mazzagetti
Rutgers University Press, 2018
The Jersey Shore provides a modern re-telling of the history of New Jersey’s beach communities, from the 1600s to the present, from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Mazzagetti describes how the coast appeared to early European explorers; the whaling trade; the first attractions for tourists in the nineteenth century; and how the coming of railroads, and ultimately automobiles, transformed the Shore into a major vacation destination. The book details the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the efforts of the State and its residents to rebuild in its aftermath. Mazzagetti also explores how the impact of changing national mores on development, race relations, and the environment, impacted the Shore in recent decades and will into the future.
348 pp 18 b/w and 14 color photos
6.125" x 9.25"
978-0-8135-9374-6 cloth $29.95
Available from the publisher
Dominisk Mazzagetti graduated from Rutgers University and the Cornell Law School. He clerked for the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and engaged in the private practice of law. He served as Deputy and Acting Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking in the administration of Governor Tom Kean, as Executive Vice President of Cenlar Federal Savings Bank, President/CEO of NJM Bank, and President/CEO of RomAsia Bank. Mazzagetti presently lives in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and wrote a column on local history for the Hunterdon County Democrat for a number of years.
by Fred T. Rossi
Published December 2019
What was it like when the Martians "invaded" New Jersey in 1938? What was it like having Albert Einstein as a neighbor in Princeton? How did a teenage Bruce Springsteen from Freehold get his high school band into a recording studio? What inspired young Charles Addams from Westfield to come up with his ghoulish cartoon creations? Have you heard of Thomas Mundy Peterson from Perth Amboy, who cast a very historic vote 150 years ago? How about Garret Hobart from Paterson, who was almost President of the United States? What about Col. Robert Johnson from Salem County and the legend of the poisonous tomato? These are just a few of the stories about New Jersey that you’ll find in Jersey Stories.
Softcover
183 pages
ISBN: 978-0-578-62691-8
$19.99
Available from the author
Fred T. Rossi has been a journalist for more than 30 years, writing about the soft drink industry, the nonprofit sector, investment opportunities in post-Cold War Eastern Europe, education law, internatiobnal travel and local government and politics. He also is the editor of a monthly investment-advisory newsletter. He resides in Scotch Plains, N.J. and has always been interested in history and trivia, especially pertaining to New Jersey. He is also an amateur photographer and an avid traveler.
by Gene Pantalone
Archway Publishing, 2016
In 1881, a little girl was born in Turkey to an Armenian father and a French mother. Her life's journey would eventually lead her to immigrate to America, marry, and run a training camp in Chatham Township, New Jersey, that would host twelve world heavyweight champions and no fewer than seventy-eight International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees.
In a well-researched biography, boxing enthusiast Gene Pantalone shares the story of Madame Bey-a remarkable and fiery pioneer of women in business-who stood tall in a sport of men. Pantalone details the history of boxing and the life of Bey as she demanded exemplary behavior from the toughest of men. He shines a light on her ability to connect with people without preconceived notions, her roots in government and opera, and her friendship with President William McKinley. Included are bios of the notable boxers during Madame Bey's era.
Madame Bey's: Home to Boxing Legends shares the fascinating story of an aristocratic woman who managed a training camp for world champion boxers during the early twentieth century.
Paperback and Ebook
504 pages
ISBN: 978-1-48083-644-0
Retail price: 33.99; Ebook $9.99
Available from the publisher
Gene Pantalone is a boxing enthusiast who had the opportunity to visit Madame Bey's camp in its waning years when boxers still trained there. Today, he lives near the original boxing camp site and is an expert with the camp's storied existence.
by Gordon Bond
Garden State Legacy, 2017
On the drizzly evening of February 6, 1951, the Pennsylvania Railroad commuter train known as "The Broker" derailed in Woodbridge, New Jersey, killing 85 and injuring hundreds in what remains the deadliest railroad accident in the state's history. Communities all along the Jersey Shore were shaken by the sudden and violent loss of family and friends.
What happened was self-evident from the mangled railcars and bodies. Why was another matter and would lead investigators to delve deep into the inner workings of the self-proclaimed "Standard Railroad of the World."
Drawn from contemporary accounts, investigation transcripts, and recent interviews with those whose lives were forever changed, MAN FAILURE puts the reader at the center of the story-from the gripping human dramas of survivors, rescuers, and families who lost loved ones, to the controversies surrounding the investigations trying to get to the bottom of a tragedy that still haunts those who experienced it.
Paperback
351 pages
ISBN: 9780692867983
Retail price: $30.00
Available from the publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Peter Osborne
Yardley Press, 2014
On Christmas night 1776 George Washington and twenty-four hundred men stepped off from the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River to cross the icy waterway. They went on to win a decisive victory at Trenton, New Jersey, and then later at Princeton. The battles changed the course of the Revolutionary War. The first official efforts to memorialize the heroic event began in Pennsylvania in 1895. A park commission was created in 1917, and they formally dedicated the park in 1921. The park includes the historic shoreline, the McConkey Ferry Inn and Thompson-Neely House. Both buildings played a role in that fateful evening. Over the years millions of visitors have come to the park and contemplated the Crossing, the famed painting of Washington Crossing The Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, picnicked on the grounds, played on the sports fields, and walked their dogs. Visitors have also enjoyed the beauty of the Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, and climbed to the top of the Bowman's Hill Observation Tower. Find out why this park is one of the jewels in the crown of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's historic sites.
Hardcover and Paperback
728 pages
ISBN: 098603052X; 978-0986030529
Retail price: Hardcover $39.99; Paperback $29.99
Available from the Amazon
Peter Osborne has been an historian for more than thirty-five years. He was the Executive Director of the Minisink Valley Historical Society in Port Jervis, New York and then served as the Curator of Education and Special Events for the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton, New Jersey. He has written six books on state parks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania including his latest Where Washington Once Led: A History of New Jersey’s Washington Crossing State Park and No Spot In This Far Land Is More Immortalized: A History of Pennsylvania’s Washington Crossing Historic Park.
by Gordon Bond
The History Press, 2012
Did you know that the Dust Bowl hit New Jersey? Twice? How about that a mysterious experiment in "subliminal advertising" was conducted at a Fort Lee, New Jersey movie theater? Or that railroad communication was advanced on a northwest New Jersey railroad line? Or that America first heard about the Russians launch of Sputnik 2 (with a dog onboard) thanks to a Ukrainian refugee in Perth Amboy, New Jersey? Or that prisons could buy a custom electric chair from a Trenton, New Jersey electrician? Or that aviation matured into an industry thanks to Newark Airport? This book is a collection of articles from www.GardenStateLegacy.com, an online quarterly magazine devoted to New Jersey history that the author began in 2008. The Garden State features to some degree even as a footnote in larger historical stories far more often than one might think. It could just be a matter of someone from the state going on to something of historic importance somewhere else; or that by dumb luck something just happened to occur within its borders. New Jersey may be a footnote in these tangential tales, but they are the kind of unexpected connections that makes exploring New Jersey's history so delightful.
Paperback
160 pages
ISBN: 9781609495565
Retail price: $19.99
Available from the publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Dennis Rizzo
Arcadia Publishing - The History Press, 2008
For slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, names like Springtown and Snow Hill promised sanctuary and salvation. Under the pressures of racial prejudice, free blacks, runaway slaves and even many Native Americans formed island communities on the periphery of South Jersey towns. While Lawnside and others continue to thrive today, "fringe communities" like Marshalltown and Timbuctoo now exist only in memory. This discussion of these primarily African American communities validates their role in the preservation of tradition, definition of extended family and creation of a social bond between diverse peoples; together they formed parallel communities based on, but independent of, the larger towns and villages familiar to us all.
Paperback
160 pages
ISBN 9781596295421
Retail price $19.99
Available from the publisher
Dennis Rizzo has written several books and articles in the fields of social services and history. He has two historical novels and a third in the works, which he has decided will be an E-Book in deference to the vicissitudes of modern readers. In 2010 he retired and moved with his family to Central Ontario (Canada) where he is completing an anthology of local stories and anecdotes in time for Canada's 150th Anniversary in 2017.
by Gordon Bond
Garden State Legacy, 2010
When James Parker established New Jersey's first permanent print shop in his native Woodbridge, NJ in 1753, he had already made a name for himself among New York City's printers. In his everyday struggles, like many printers of the period, he had to find a balance between the idealism of liberty of the press and the pragmatism of economic survival. He stands as an under-appreciated figure in the evolution of "the press" as it went from meaning the apparatus upon which one printed to meaning journalism. His personal story is one of rising through hard toil, suffering reversals of fortune, and scrapping his way back up again - all against the backdrop of a country sliding into revolution.
Paperback
624 pages
ISBN: 9780615405773
Retail price: $25.55
Available from the publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Sandra W. Moss, M.D., M.A. (History)
Xlibris, 2014
Poliomyelitis: Newark 1916 - "The Grip of Terror" is a study of the devastating "scourge" that struck the city of Newark a century ago. Most victims were infants and toddlers for whom there were no effective treatments, no vaccines, and no iron lungs. Per capita, Newark was the hardest hit of any American city, with 1360 cases and 363 deaths. The book draws heavily on newspaper accounts, public health documents, and the accounts of physicians who faced the epidemic with uncertain knowledge and no effective treatment. Public health officials, as in all epidemics, desperately sought to limit the spread of disease and, in the process, risked creating a medical police state. Hundreds of survivors faced a lifetime of disability, giving poliomyelitis its particular power to terrify.
Paperback
220 pages
Amazon: $19.99
ISBN 978-1-5144-6917-0
Kindle
Amazon $3.99 (read with Amazon free app)
ISBN 978-1-5144-6916-3
Dr. Sandra Moss practiced and taught general internal medicine in central New Jersey. In 2005, she completed a master's degree in the history of technology, medicine, and the environment from the federated history program of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. Dr. Moss has published numerous articles, chapters, and reviews in the field of medical history, and regularly addresses diverse audiences on a variety of topics in the history of medicine. She is past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey and of the American Osler Society.
by Joseph G. Bilby and Harry Ziegler
The History Press, 2019
Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry. The state, though, was not immune to the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the first half of the twentieth century. Former vaudevillians Arthur H. Bell and his wife used the tactics of public theater to advertise and recruit for the organization. At a massive riot in Perth Amboy, thousands of immigrants besieged a few hundred Klansmen, tossed them out of building windows, burned their cars and ran them out of town. The allying of pro-Nazi German Bund groups and the Klan in the lead-up to World War II marked the end of the Klan’s foothold. Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry.
Paperback
176 pages
ISBN: 9781467142625
$21.99
Available from the publisher
Joseph G. Bilby was born in Newark, NJ. He received BA and MA degrees from Seton Hall University and served as an army officer in the Vietnam War. He is author, co-author or editor of 21 books on NJ and military history and has received awards from Monmouth County and the NJ Historical Commission. He is Assistant Curator of the National Guard Militia Museum of NJ.
Harry Ziegler was born in Neptune, NJ. He received his BA degree from Monmouth University and his MA from Georgian Court University. He worked for the Asbury Park Press, as managing editor. He is currently associate principal of Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison. He is coauthor of seven books on NJ history with Joseph
by Robert A. Mayers
American History Press, 2015
The people most responsible for achieving America's independence by winning the Revolutionary War were George Washington's foot soldiers-the men of the Continental Army. Who were they, and what was it that inspired them to endure such appalling hardships throughout the conflict? What was their life like during and after the war? And what is their legacy?
Searching for Yankee Doodle - Washington's Soldiers in the American Revolution probes the lives of the men (and some women!) of the Continental Army and the inspiration that allowed them to endure such appalling hardships. The author's work will astonish many people by revealing the real motivation, ethnic diversity and public neglect of these men in war and in peace. Lavish details and vivid personal stories expose long forgotten truths that challenge the myth of the zealously patriotic citizen-soldier and prove that it was the mostly poor and landless men who formed the standing American Army and won the war.
In an effort to uncover the facts about these men, author and historian Bob Mayers has scoured through obscure documentary material and little known British, Hessian, and Loyalist records to unearth truths that challenge traditional beliefs about Washington's soldiers. The fighting men and women of the Revolution were incorrectly portrayed as zealously patriotic citizen-soldiers, when in reality they were professionals dedicated to the American cause. This realization lies at the heart of the book, and propels the narrative along in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. Corroborated with excerpts borrowed from personal diaries and records, these men (and women!) are once again brought to life, in a way that allows us to understand their personalities through their behavior and deeds.
Hardcover
320 pages
ISBN: 1939995159; 978-1939995155
Retail price: $28.95
Available from the publisher
Robert A. Mayers is an active member of ten historical societies, a frequent speaker, and contributor to various publications. He has given presentations at West Point and the Pentagon, has recently been featured on Comcast TV, and published in the History Channel Magazine and Garden State Legacy. A former Human Resources executive, he is a graduate of Rutgers University and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University. Mayers served as a combat officer in both the Navy and Marine Corps. His military experiences provide him with a deeper perspective of the campaigns and battles depicted in his works.
by Donald Johnstone Peck
American History Press / Flying Camp Press, 2010
New Jersey has recently been hailed as the “Crossroads of the American Revolution.” This is a fitting designation, given that General George Washington spent the majority of his time in the colony, and engaged the British in several decisive battles within its borders. In fact, a large portion of the War for Independence may be said to have been won in the counties of Middlesex, Somerset, Monmouth and Mercer, where shifting loyalties and local resistance on both sides presented a constant challenge to the combatants.
Have all physical vestiges of the Revolution vanished from the Garden State? Not at all. In fact, the reader will be pleasantly surprised to discover that many historic sites still do exist, places that offer us a genuine glimpse into the Spirited War of the times. Donald Peck and his companion Jane Doherty lead us on an in-depth tour of many of these Midland sites, each interpreting the facts from their individual point of view. As historian and psychic, they provide a fresh analysis of events that took place in the area, along with explanations of the personalities involved in them. The result is a very readable and exciting narrative, one that affords us an entirely new perspective on the past that surrounds us.
Besides George Washington, readers will discover that other Revolutionary War heroes were associated with Central New Jersey, among them Benjamin and William Franklin, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Nathanael Greene, Charles Lee, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Numerous battles also took place on its soil, including Washington’s Retreat across New Jersey in 1776, the crucial Battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth in 1776-1778, the Battle of Springfield in 1780, and the celebrated march to victory with the French, led by the Comte de Rochambeau, in 1781. New Jersey’s truly was the “Crossroads of the American Revolution”, and A Spirited War will prove it!
Paperback
206 pages
ISBN 13: 978-0-9842256-2-0
ISBN 10: 0-9842256-2-5
$18.95
Available from the publisher
Donald Johnstone Peck is trustee for the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey; immediate past president of the Raritan-Millstone Heritage Alliance, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey, and board member and contributing writer and editor for their quarterly publication, The Link. A member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township, he is a past commissioner of the Woodbridge Township Preservation Commission, life member (since 1972) and president emeritus and past president for three non-consecutive terms of the Proprietary House Association, Perth Amboy and founding member and past vice president of the Colts Neck Historical Society, Colts Neck, New Jersey. A direct descendant of six signers of the historic Mayflower Compact, he has active memberships in The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Jersey and several state and national organizations. A direct descendant of Elisha Parker, Sr., progenitor of the illustrious Parker Family of Woodbridge and Perth Amboy, he also descends from Sir George Scott and Dr. John Johnstone, proprietors of East Jersey.
by Joseph G. Bilby & Harry Ziegler
The History Press - Arcadia Publishing, 2016
The first American submarine, David Bushnell's Turtle, met its end in 1776 when the ship it was on sank in the Hudson River off Fort Lee. The "Intelligent Whale," the only surviving Union Civil War submarine, largely built in Newark and tested by the navy in the summer of 1864, sits in the National Guard Militia Museum in Sea Girt. The first US Navy submarine was invented by Paterson Irish immigrant John Holland, who tested his undersea boats in the Passaic and Hudson Rivers.
In 1918, the German Navy's U-151 went on a six-ship sinking spree off the New Jersey coast. A 1942 U-Boat offensive torpedoed numerous ships off New Jersey in 1942, leaving oil soaked beaches strewn with wreckage. That coastal conflict has left an echoing narrative that resonates dimly down to the present day - and this is its story.
Paperback
128 Pages
ISBN 978.1 46713.536.9
Retail Price $21.99
Available from Amazon, at local bookstores, and from the publisher
Joseph G. Bilby was born in Newark, NJ. He received BA and MA degrees from Seton Hall University and served as an army officer in the Vietnam War. He is author, co-author or editor of 21 books on NJ and military history and has received awards from Monmouth County and the NJ Historical Commission. He is Assistant Curator of the National Guard Militia Museum of NJ.
Harry Ziegler was born in Neptune, NJ. He received his BA degree from Monmouth University and his MA from Georgian Court University. He worked for the Asbury Park Press, as managing editor. He is currently associate principal of Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison. He is coauthor of seven books on NJ history with Joseph Bilby.
by Gordon Bond
Garden State Legacy, 2020
On May 30, 1884, citizens of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, pinned a gold medal to Thomas Mundy Peterson’s coat in honor of his having done something that, in another part of the nation, a noose might have been put around his neck for daring. It had been proven that on March 31, 1870 Peterson was the first African American to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment. Ever since, the story of his historic vote has been told in terms of how unusually progressive Perth Amboy’s white community had been, having both encouraged and celebrated his suffrage as a matter of civic pride. Yet, in the process, Peterson himself has become a prop in his own story. The event that lifted his name out of obscurity had ironically obscured him. Gordon Bond's book “To Cast a Freedman’s Vote” rediscovers Thomas Peterson by placing him in a broader historic context that makes his story relevant to modern dialogs on race, suffrage, and citizenship.
6x9 softcover, 201 pages
16 pages of black and white photographs.
ISBN: 9780578652092
Available from the Publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Dominick Mazzagetti
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011
Lucien A. Voorhees and William Mackenzie Thompson left Flemington, New Jersey, in high spirits in September 1862 as enlisted men in the 15th New Jersey Regiment. On the march South they each began a correspondence with local newspapers back home. Within weeks they came face-to-face with the realities of war at the Battle of Fredericksburg. These young men proved to be great writers as well as patriots. Their letters convey their feelings and the events they witnessed in vivid and colorful language. They soon discovered that their service would demand great sacrifice. "True Jersey Blues" presents a true sense of the Civil War as experienced by the men enlisted to fight.
272 pages
6" x 9"
978-1-61147-002-4 $92.00
Available from the publisher
Dominick Mazzagetti graduated from Rutgers University and the Cornell Law School. He clerked for the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and engaged in the private practice of law. He served as Deputy and Acting Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking in the administration of Governor Tom Kean, as Executive Vice President of Cenlar Federal Savings Bank, President/CEO of NJM Bank, and President/CEO of RomAsia Bank. Mazzagetti presently lives in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and wrote a column on local history for the Hunterdon County Democrat for a number of years.
by Robert A. Mayers
Westholme Publishing, 2009
This is a true account of the life of Corporal John Allison, a farm boy who was born in 1754 in Haverstraw, New York. His army service spanned the entire Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783. What is truly astonishing is that he was present at many of the most critical and pivotal events in the War for Independence.
Few diaries or journals of private soldiers have come down to us from the war, and the handfuls that have survived are brief and fragmented. But a wealth of personal information about him can be found in rich primary sources such as muster rolls, orderly books and his own service records at the National Archives. With these historical documents, we can follow the details of the life of this common soldier, at times day to day, during his career in the Continental Army. Consulting with other historians at National park sites and archives centers provided Mayers with special insight for specific events and times.
Accounts of the author's visits to the battlefields and other scenes of the action have been added to this documentary. Sadly, some of these places have been lost in history. No amount of archival research compares to visiting these sites and visualizing how they looked over 200 years ago. Combined, these sources provide an accurate recreation of Corporal John Allison's eight years in the army. This period covers a tense time of troop movements, skirmishes, battles and encampments all leading the American forces to their fateful encounter at Yorktown.
Hardcover
352 pages
ISBN: 1594160821; 978-1594160820
Retail price: $26.00
Available from the publisher
Robert A. Mayers is an active member of ten historical societies, a frequent speaker, and contributor to various publications. He has given presentations at West Point and the Pentagon, has recently been featured on Comcast TV, and published in the History Channel Magazine and Garden State Legacy. A former Human Resources executive, he is a graduate of Rutgers University and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University. Mayers served as a combat officer in both the Navy and Marine Corps. His military experiences provide him with a deeper perspective of the campaigns and battles depicted in his works.
by Peter Osborne
Yardley Press, 2012
On Christmas night 1776 George Washington and twenty-four hundred men stepped ashore on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. They went on to win decisive victories at Trenton and Princeton which changed the course of the Revolutionary War. Efforts to memorialize the heroic event were begun in 1895 and culminated with Washington Crossing State Park being formally dedicated in 1927. It took years to bring a dream of many to fruition as leaders and organizers proposed ideas, raised awareness, sought funding and then developed the properties. It is remarkable that these efforts continued moving forward given the logistical, legal and political challenges they faced. Over the years millions of visitors have come to the park and contemplated the crossing, visited the Johnson Ferry House, hiked the trails, played on the sports fields, attended park programs, picnicked at Sullivan Grove or walked their dogs. Find out why this park is one of the jewels in the crown of the state's park system and why so many find this place irresistible.
Hardcover and Paperback
352 pages
ISBN: 0986030503; 0986030505
Retail price: Hardcover $32.99; Paperback $24.99
Available from the Amazon
Peter Osborne has been an historian for more than thirty-five years. He was the Executive Director of the Minisink Valley Historical Society in Port Jervis, New York and then served as the Curator of Education and Special Events for the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton, New Jersey. He has written six books on state parks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania including his latest Where Washington Once Led: A History of New Jersey’s Washington Crossing State Park and No Spot In This Far Land Is More Immortalized: A History of Pennsylvania’s Washington Crossing Historic Park.
by Gordon Bond
American History Press, 2015
Wicked Woodbridge & Crazy Carteret is an unflinching romp through some of the less respectable history of New Jersey’s oldest townships. Drugs, prostitution, bootlegging, riots, swindles, counterfeiting, and even witchcraft - all have variously appeared on the otherwise pleasant streets of Woodbridge and Carteret. Bond places these local stories firmly within the broader context of how shifting social attitudes and moral standards of the world-at-large play out in our backyards.
Paperback
225 pages
ISBN: 1939995124; 9781939995124
Retail price: $19.95
Available from the publisher
Gordon Bond is an independent historian, author, and lecturer. He is the founder and ePublisher of Garden State Legacy. His other areas of research include the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin and his invention of roll photographic film; and he and his wife, Stephanie Hoagland, are studying New Jersey’s folk grave marker tradition. He also runs his own freelance graphic designs business, Gordon Bond Designs.
by Donald Johnstone Peck
American History Press, 2018
Set against the backdrop of the colonial and Revolutionary War period in New Jersey, Witness to History is a broad-spectrum account of the history and times of several important historic sites in Woodbridge Township. While focusing on the Cutter Farm and Old Stone Cottage, author Donald J. Peck augments his work with stories of nearby sites—the Cross Keys Tavern, Dunham House, the Old White Church and historic Route 514 (Main Street). With the upcoming 350th anniversary of the charter of this oldest New Jersey township in mind, local personalities, such as Joseph Bloomfield, Dr. Moses Bloomfield, Timothy Bloomfield, Campyon Cutter, Janet Pike Gage, Nathaniel Heard, James Parker, the Reverend Azel Roe and Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, are also expertly woven into the narrative.
This chronicle of colonial life and the struggle for independence in Woodbridge Township and New Jersey compels us to reflect on the American story itself. It spans beyond the usual interpretation by making a personal connection to the trying issues of political, racial, religious, social and environmental justice and the freedoms for which patriots fought—freedoms which could not be more important in today’s complex world.
In Witness to History Mr. Peck has given us a reason to contemplate the present while enjoying stories of the past. He has also endeavored to suggest a new rationale for saving historic buildings. Will we become good stewards of the past? What will we leave to those who come after us? And who will advocate for preserving our historic sites?
Paperback
156 pages
ISBN 10: 978-1-939995-30-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-939995-30-8
$21.95 (Bulk order rates are available upon request)
Available from the publisher
Donald Johnstone Peck is trustee for the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey; immediate past president of the Raritan-Millstone Heritage Alliance, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey, and board member and contributing writer and editor for their quarterly publication, The Link. A member of the Board of Directors of the Historical Association of Woodbridge Township, he is a past commissioner of the Woodbridge Township Preservation Commission, life member (since 1972) and president emeritus and past president for three non-consecutive terms of the Proprietary House Association, Perth Amboy and founding member and past vice president of the Colts Neck Historical Society, Colts Neck, New Jersey. A direct descendant of six signers of the historic Mayflower Compact, he has active memberships in The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Jersey and several state and national organizations. A direct descendant of Elisha Parker, Sr., progenitor of the illustrious Parker Family of Woodbridge and Perth Amboy, he also descends from Sir George Scott and Dr. John Johnstone, proprietors of East Jersey.
by Maryanne Maggio Hanisch
Kindle Direct Publishing, 2017
History begins in our small towns, and each place has a favorite local yarn. The Legend of Butler's Wooden Fireman chronicles the true story of an iconic statue in New Jersey. Follow his journey from Newark to a small town fire department, with adventures along the way.
Paperback & Kindle
42 pages
ISBN: 1979589798
$10.00 paperback; $2.99 Kindle
Available from the publisher
Maryanne Maggio Hanisch is an experienced schoolteacher with over thirty years in her district. She has taught a wide range of ages and subjects, from elementary-level general education through high school remedial classes and art. She was the Gifted and Talented Specialist for grades K-4, for fifteen years.
Mrs. Hanisch’s interests in writing, painting, and travel have combined to produce two children’s book series that she has produced in recent years: Small Town Tales and Go Now! with Professa Questa.
Small Town Tales currently has two titles: The Legend of Butler’s Wooden Fireman and A Ride on the Boulevard Trolley.
The Legend of Butler's Wooden Fireman is a true story, told in picture book form, of an iconic wooden statue, and it follows his adventures in the early 1900s from Newark to a small town in New Jersey. The Legend of Butler's Wooden Fireman is a featured segment in the upcoming historical documentary: Where the Rubber Meets the Road, from Silk City Films (Paul C. Bastante, Director, Writer, Actor), premiering Summer 2021.
The second book in the Small Town Tales series is called A Ride on the Boulevard Trolley. The setting is 1920, in rural New Jersey, mingling the history of the local women who were active in the Suffrage Movement with the trolley that connected towns in northern New Jersey. This story is especially timely, as we marked the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment in 2020.
Go Now! with Professa Questa highlights our country’s national parklands by following a group of animal characters who travel and camp in these treasured spaces. Their entertaining misadventures bring fun and interest to unique parts of the USA. Titles include: Dinosaur National Monument; Craters of the Moon National Monument; Moab, Utah; Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook Unit; and A Detour to Area 51.
Ms. Hanisch was a contributor to the Centennial Edition of Butler, NJ - In Story and Pictures 1901-2001, and to the online Italian Notebook. She contributed illustrations and stories to Cooking Up the Pyramid: An Early Childhood Nutrition Curriculum (Katherine M. Brieger, MA, RD, CDE; 1993). Ms. Hanisch’s vintage watercolor scene of the Butler Railroad Station hangs in the Butler Museum.
Look for Ms. Hanisch’s Facebook page: MMH Picture Books for Kids for posts on each book, photos, background, and other information. All titles are published by Kindle Direct Publishing, and available on Amazon in paperback or for Kindle.
by John K. Turpin &
W. Barry Thomson
Mountain Colony Press Inc., 2004
During the decades following the Civil War, the United States experienced tremendous economic growth and the concomitant accumulation of enormous wealth by a select, but growing and increasingly interrelated, group of industrialists and financiers who were determined to join the ranks of the established upper class. To assimilate themselves into society, these new plutocrats lavishly spent their newfound wealth to acquire all of the physical manifestations of the aristocratic life, including large country houses in one or more of the country's exclusive residential colonies, such as Newport, Bar Harbor, Lenox, the Main Line, the Hudson River Valley, and the Somerset Hills of New Jersey. These great country estates were intended to be examples of conspicuous consumption and the pursuit of leisure and a blatant statement of the owner's social standing.
The two, large-format, lavishly illustrated volumes of New Jersey Country Houses: The Somerset Hills chronicle the country estates that were built in the rolling countryside of northern Somerset and nearby portions of Morris counties, New Jersey, from the 1870s through the Great Depression to the start of World War II. Volume 1 covers the estate houses that were constructed prior to World War I, and Volume 2 covers the prolific estate-building activity that took place between the two world wars. Each volume also includes essays about other landmark buildings and social activities, such as foxhunting, carriage driving, and country clubs, that are associated with the history of the Somerset Hills.
Hardcover
263 pages
ISBN: 0-9749504-0-8
$75.00, plus shipping and handling and sales tax for New Jersey residents
Available from the publisher
Co-authors John K. “Jack” Turpin and W. Barry Thomson both grew up in the Somerset Hills on properties that were once part of estates featured in their books. Their lifelong fascination with architecture and local history, as well as their extensive knowledge of the Somerset Hills, led them to join forces to create these volumes.
At the time of his death, in 2010, Jack Turpin was president of Turpin Realtors, north-central New Jersey’s premier independent real estate firm that had been established fifty years before by his mother. Jack was also a trustee of Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, and a member of the borough council of Far Hills, New Jersey.
After leaving a corporate career in New York, Barry Thomson has been engaged with many architectural and local history projects in New Jersey. He has written articles that have appeared in The Black River Journal and other publications, and he is a frequent lecturer on topics of architectural and local history. A one-time David Rockefeller Fellow of the Partnership for New York City, Barry has served on the boards of many not-for-profit organizations in New York and New Jersey. In New Jersey, Barry is at present an advisory trustee of the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and Friends of Historic Bernardsville and a trustee of the Schiff Natural Lands Trust. He has also volunteered his services as history consultant for five Mansion in May fund-raising projects sponsored by the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center.
by John K. Turpin & W. Barry Thomson
Mountain Colony Press Inc., 2005
During the decades following the Civil War, the United States experienced tremendous economic growth and the concomitant accumulation of enormous wealth by a select, but growing and increasingly interrelated, group of industrialists and financiers who were determined to join the ranks of the established upper class. To assimilate themselves into society, these new plutocrats lavishly spent their newfound wealth to acquire all of the physical manifestations of the aristocratic life, including large country houses in one or more of the country's exclusive residential colonies, such as Newport, Bar Harbor, Lenox, the Main Line, the Hudson River Valley, and the Somerset Hills of New Jersey. These great country estates were intended to be examples of conspicuous consumption and the pursuit of leisure and a blatant statement of the owner's social standing.
The two, large-format, lavishly illustrated volumes of New Jersey Country Houses: The Somerset Hills chronicle the country estates that were built in the rolling countryside of northern Somerset and nearby portions of Morris counties, New Jersey, from the 1870s through the Great Depression to the start of World War II. Volume 1 covers the estate houses that were constructed prior to World War I, and Volume 2 covers the prolific estate-building activity that took place between the two world wars. Each volume also includes essays about other landmark buildings and social activities, such as foxhunting, carriage driving, and country clubs, that are associated with the history of the Somerset Hills.
Hardcover
322 pages
ISBN: 0-9749504-1-6
$75.00, plus shipping and handling and sales tax for New Jersey residents
Available from the publisher
Co-authors John K. “Jack” Turpin and W. Barry Thomson both grew up in the Somerset Hills on properties that were once part of estates featured in their books. Their lifelong fascination with architecture and local history, as well as their extensive knowledge of the Somerset Hills, led them to join forces to create these volumes.
At the time of his death, in 2010, Jack Turpin was president of Turpin Realtors, north-central New Jersey’s premier independent real estate firm that had been established fifty years before by his mother. Jack was also a trustee of Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, and a member of the borough council of Far Hills, New Jersey.
After leaving a corporate career in New York, Barry Thomson has been engaged with many architectural and local history projects in New Jersey. He has written articles that have appeared in The Black River Journal and other publications, and he is a frequent lecturer on topics of architectural and local history. A one-time David Rockefeller Fellow of the Partnership for New York City, Barry has served on the boards of many not-for-profit organizations in New York and New Jersey. In New Jersey, Barry is at present an advisory trustee of the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and Friends of Historic Bernardsville and a trustee of the Schiff Natural Lands Trust. He has also volunteered his services as history consultant for five Mansion in May fund-raising projects sponsored by the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center.
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