Bilby Joseph G - On This Day in New Jersey History

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2015 by Joseph G. Bilby, James M. Madden and Harry Ziegler

All rights reserved

First published 2015

e-book edition 2015

ISBN 978.1.62585.055.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014956338

print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.522.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Outlining the story of New Jersey through historical highlights on a day-by-day basis, following on our previous year-by-year effort, has proved an interesting and challenging project and provided an opportunity to include a number of new stories. We consulted a wide variety of sources, including existing timelines, general and specific histories of New Jersey, online resources and microfilm and digital copies of newspapers, all of which are noted in our extensive bibliography, as well as leads provided by friends in the states historical community. We would like to extend our thanks to Henry Ballone; Captain John Bilby, NJNG; Katherine Bilby; Margaret Bilby; Patricia Bilby; Gordon Bond; Ed Civinskas; John Crowley; Dan Daly; Ron DaSilva; Captain Jarrett Feldman, NJNG; Carol Fowler; Sue Kaufmann; John Kuhl; Duncan MacQueen; Marc Mappen; Chris Schneider; and Captain Vincent Solomeno, NJNG. Our thanks are due to all, and our apologies to anyone we inadvertently missed.

INTRODUCTION

In honor of New Jerseys 350th birthday, we wrote a book cataloging events in the colony and state over the course of those years. That publication and the response to it, especially from history teacher friends of ours, provided the concept for the current work, a day-by-day account of historical events in the Garden State, some well known and many long forgotten. Needless to say, it is, in any work like this, as with its predecessor, impossible, within the constraints of available space and the need to be balanced and inclusive, to cover everything that occurred over the course of more than 350 years. We have, therefore, tried to span the centuries with brief accounts of varied events and personalities from New Jerseys colorful political, military, cultural, arts and entertainment, business, sports, literary and judicial past on a daily basis, providing a sampling of the rich and diverse history of our state that we hope will engage general readers and students of history alike and encourage them to pursue those stories in greater depth.

JOSEPH G. BILBY

JAMES M. MADDEN

HARRY ZIEGLER

JANUARY

January 1

1641 Sibout Claessen signed a lease for a bouwerie or farm that included a brewery in Hoboquin (todays Hoboken) and became the first beer brewer in what would become New Jersey.

1687 Daniel Leeds, founder of Leeds Point, published the first almanac in America, which was printed in Philadelphia.

1744 James Moody, a Loyalist officer who became known for his daring operations behind Patriot lines in New Jersey during the Revolution, was born in Little Egg Harbor. Following the war, he left for England and then Canada, where he settled in Sissaboo, Nova Scotia, and became a ship builder, farmer and local politician and militia officer. Moody died in Nova Scotia on April 6, 1809.

1781 The Pennsylvania Line regiments of the Continental army, encamped for the winter at Jockey Hollow near Morristown, mutinied over a lack of supplies, length of service time and pay issues.

1864 Alfred Stieglitz was born in Hoboken. Stieglitz became one of the best-known American photographers of his era, as well as a gallery owner and promoter of the arts, including photography. He divorced his wife and married renowned painter Georgia OKeeffe in 1924. After a long and colorful career, Stieglitz died in New York City on July 13, 1946.

1905 Vailsburg Borough was annexed by Newark, providing an exception to the growing New Jersey practice of the era of fragmentation of larger communities into smaller ones.

1915 A series of mysterious fires and explosions broke out at the John A. Roeblings Sons steel plant in Trenton, damaging the factory and workers houses. Washington Roebling blamed the fire on disaffected foreigners angered by labor issues, but many thought it German sabotage related to American sales of war equipment to the Allies in World War I. The cause was never conclusively proved.

1916 Italian-born Michael Commini became the first Italian American from Trenton elected to a public office when he was sworn in as a member of the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

1948 New Jersey adopted a new state constitution, approved by voters the previous November, to replace the constitution of 1844, which, in its turn, had replaced the constitution of 1776.

1949 New Jersey established a state temporary disability insurance plan for public and private workers. Today, New Jersey is one of only five states, including Rhode Island, California, New York and Hawaii, providing temporary disability benefits to workers.

January 2

1752 Philip Freneau, poet of the American Revolution, Princeton graduate, sometime privateer, political activist and newspaper editor, was born in New York City. Freneau was raised in Monmouth County and forever after was associated with New Jersey. He was living in Matawan at the time of his death on December 18, 1832.

1777 Following the Second Battle of Trenton along Assunpink Creek, General George Washington disengaged his army from contact with the British and slipped away during the night, headed for Princeton.

1810 Christian Sharps, who patented the famous Sharps single-shot breech-loading rifle in 1848, was born in Washington Township. Sharpss rifles and carbines were used extensively in the Civil War and were popular with target shooters and buffalo hunters in the postwar years. Sharps died in Meriden, Connecticut, on March 12, 1874.

January 3

1777 General George Washington defeated the British at Princeton and quickly moved on to Morristown, where he established a winter camp and rebuilt his army.

1846 Franklin Murphy was born in Jersey City. Murphy moved to Newark as a child and enlisted in the Thirteenth New Jersey regiment while a student at Newark Academy during the Civil War. He was discharged as a first lieutenant in 1865 and entered the family varnish manufacturing business in Newark. A progressive Republican, Murphy served as governor of New Jersey from 1902 to 1905, the only Civil War veteran besides George B. McClellan to hold that office. He died in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 24, 1920, and is buried in Newarks Mount Pleasant Cemetery. A statue of Murphy, erected in Weequahic Park in Newark in 1925, still stands, albeit neglected and vandalized.

Courtesy of Joseph G. Bilby