AMERICANS watched with apprehension, through the winter and spring of 1831-32, as an epidemic of Asiatic cholera swept westward across Europe, conscious that the proliferation of swift oceangoing vessels made it unlikely the plague’s process would stop at the far shores of the Atlantic. Fear combined with a morbid fascination to accelerate the sale of … More 101–This wholesome place
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
WITH a dramatic reading of Henry VIII, Fanny Kemble (Mrs. Frances Kemble Butler until her divorce was finalized later in the same year) closed a series of one-woman performances from the stage of New York’s Stuyvesant Institute. After solo renditions before audiences in Boston, New York City and Brooklyn through the winter and spring of … More 084–Thy book doth live
INITIALLY, William A. Whitehead had doubts that a state historical society for New Jersey could succeed. He wondered whether members and public support could be found “in any one of our towns or cities” sufficient to assure the survival of such an institution.1 After its founding, however, there was scarcely room for skepticism: the historical … More 083–Fire-proof
NO stranger to the place, or to history, a Newark newspaper correspondent ascended to the third story of that city’s Library Hall, where beneath the façade’s stone crenellations was lodged the library of the New Jersey Historical Society. On his visit the writer lingered, momentarily, before two of several pictures that hung about the walls: … More 082–A house divided
SIX mornings of every seven, William A. Whitehead stepped aboard a rail car at Newark’s Centre Street depot. His train crept briefly north, then eastward to cross the Passaic River. Getting up speed, the engine trailed a thick plume of smoke and cinders along its flat, straight course through the Kearny meadows. Once over the … More 081–The monopolists
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
WHERE the surest token of wealth and worth, present and future, is the land that one owns, possession of an unsullied title and clear delineation of boundaries are somewhat akin to godliness. Landholding has been construed, historically, as compliance with the injunction in the book of Genesis to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the … More 076–The saints of old