WHEN cannon fire and musket shots rang through the streets of Perth Amboy, few civilians were present to hear them. The town’s commanding position, overlooking the Raritan River and Bay, made it a garrison for British and American forces in turn.1 And when Continental commanders learned the King’s army had control of Staten Island, just … More Tides of war
FORMED in 1807 to map the nation’s shorelines and chart its coastal waters, the United States Coast Survey was beset for much of its early life by military, political and economic pressures, slowing and sometimes halting the progress of the first scientific agency ever established by the federal government. But the value of its aims … More Between the lines
DENIZENS of Perth Amboy in the late summer of 1830 could have had a glimpse, at about 6 o’clock one evening, of a most peculiar passerby, but only if they looked skyward. There floated the young balloonist Charles F. Durant, drifting on a straight but swiftly descending course toward the far shore of the Raritan … More 090–Ascension
DUTCH names grow profusely on William A. Whitehead’s family tree. While his surname betrays an English origin, the children of his father’s first marriage traced their maternal ancestry to the Rikers, one of the foremost families of New Netherland. The lineage of Whitehead’s own children went back on their mother’s side to a union between … More 087–Interregnum
IT could be said that, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Richard Nicolls lost New Jersey. At the behest of his royal master, James the Duke of York and of Albany, Colonel Nicolls went to assert England’s claim on a part of America then ruled by the rival Dutch. In August 1664, his … More 086–Seeds of dissension
TO the east of the village of Newark, waterways were the natural and, for almost a century, the only practical way of moving produce and passengers. Sloops, flatboats and periaugers took on and discharged their cargoes at landings all along the banks of the region’s rivers and streams. But vessels heading for the New York … More 080–The trembling earth
IF a “riot,” by the usual common law definition, requires an unauthorized gathering of more than two people, then behold a Newark riot that wasn’t, until it was.1 The initial upheaval, from a man wielding an axe and with the aid of his employer, happened so quietly and left so slight a wound that few even … More 078–Groundless
(This story includes a death by suicide.) “FRANK Forester,” as he was already widely known, came to Newark trailing tragedy and grief. Death had claimed his young wife the year before; their infant daughter, too. He agreed to a further bereavement, sending off his four-year-old son to be raised in the home of the lad’s … More 077–Infelicissimus
HISTORY was, ironically, news in New York City during William A. Whitehead’s first years living there. His initiation into the New-York Historical Society’s holdings (a membership in that body would have to wait some years more) came just as it was awakening from a long period of slumber. But far from being the preserve of … More 048–Lights and shadows
“DO you want,” pronounced an eminent journalist, “an appropriate emblem of this country, and this age? Then stand on the side-walks of New-York, and watch the universal transit on the first of May.” We could suppose the scene to which Lydia Maria Child referred was some rite of rejuvenation, an urban awakening to the warmth … More 047–Moving Day
An attractive presence 