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    Jersey! Then . . . Again
    Jersey! Then . . . Again
    Jersey! Then . . . Again
    Ebook212 pages1 hour

    Jersey! Then . . . Again

    By Maureen K. Wlodarczyk

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    About this ebook

    There's no place like Jersey today and in the past. Take a trip back to the 1800s and early 1900s in New Jersey with 36 true tales of authentic people and events in the Garden State. Politicians, suffragettes, inventors, street gangs, cyclists, yachtsmen, Lady Liberty, boxers, show biz, con men and more! It was Jersey . . . then. Noted historian Thomas Fleming called Jersey! Then . . . Again "a ticket to a magical time machine that will make you the best storyteller in your family overnight!"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMaureen K. Wlodarczyk
    Release dateNov 10, 2015
    ISBN9781310654503
    Jersey! Then . . . Again
    Author

    Maureen K. Wlodarczyk

    Maureen Wlodarczyk (www.past-forward.com) is an author, columnist, genealogist, speaker and admitted history and genealogy addict. She is a member of the Irish American Writers & Artists organization along with several genealogical societies. She was selected for a 2014 and 2015 Excellence-in-Writing awards by the International Society of Family History Writers & Editors (ISFHWE). Maureen currently writes a genealogy column "History & Mystery: Perfect Together" for the e-magazine Garden State Legacy (gardenstatelegacy.com). She is also a contributing writer for the genealogical e-magazine Irish Lives Remembered (www.irishlivesremembered.ie).Beyond researching and writing about her own family history, Maureen searches for true stories of people and events lost to time, rediscovering and sharing those tales through her books, magazine articles, and her presentations to genealogical and historical groups. These fascinating stories of 19th century Americans, including immigrants, entrepreneurs, social activists, and “regular” people persevering in the face of daily challenges, transport us in a time machine to days long past, intriguing and informing us while bringing context to our own lives. Her 6 books are:Birthless: A Tale of Family Lost & Found - a novel about the power of friendship. Is it ever "too late" to confront long-kept secrets and life-altering decisions? Author and Genealogist Maureen Wlodarczyk takes us on a heartfelt journey from New York to Scotland and Ireland with three women whose friendship helps them face a reckoning with the long-concealed secrets of their youthful pasts. Memories of first love, young motherhood and painful decisions are resurrected as each of them searches for reconciliation and peace after decades of self-imposed silence. What awaits them are unexpected discoveries that will redefine their understanding of love, loss, motherhood, friendship and the meaning of family.Scarlet Letter Lives - a work of historical fiction inspired by the true stories of the owners of three 1850s copies of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: a Mississippi boy of thirteen who, along with his two brothers, is destined for the battlefields of Virginia during the Civil War; a New England sea captain's daughter, newly-married and living in Alexandria, Virginia when that war breaks out; and a transplanted Virginia man living in New Orleans who must flee the Union occupation there. Their family stories converge over the ensuing decades as their copies of The Scarlet Letter and their lives intersect in one woman who will tell their tales and then reveal the secret that defined her own life.Jersey! Then . . . Again - a collection of 36 short stories about New Jersey historic people and events. Suffragettes, boxers, hurricanes, gangs, hot air balloonists, con artists, politicians, inventors, women in the war effort, military heroes and more -- it all happened in New Jersey!Past-Forward: A Three-Decade & Three-Thousand-Mile Journey Home - the story of her 30-year search for her grandmother's Irish ancestral roots and the surprising and poignant discoveries made along the way.Young & Wicked: The Death of a Wayward Girl - the true story of star-crossed first generation Irish-American lovers and petty criminals growing up in 19th century Jersey City. As the police close in, they flee to the Bowery in New York City in 1893 and soon after their life together meets a violent end.Canary in a Cage: The Smith-Bennett Murder Case - historical fiction based on a shocking true story: In 1878, a policeman is found bludgeoned and stabbed to death in his own bed, supposedly while his young wife lay beside him unaware. Did a twenty-something Jersey girl and farmer's daughter turn city-girl killer?

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      Book preview

      Jersey! Then . . . Again - Maureen K. Wlodarczyk

      Introduction

      I am a Jersey girl born of entwined multi-ethnic family lines, for which I am ever-grateful. Thanksgiving meant inhaling the aroma of chicken cacciatore in one grandmother’s kitchen and digging into a heap of stuffing, roast turkey and cranberry sauce at the table of the other. Then there was the sauerbraten . . . .

      It is evident from my writing that I am addicted to history and the stories of our collective past. Those true stories of long-gone people, places and events can still entertain, inform, provoke thought and pique curiosity. I tend not to write about the famous (or infamous) stories that have survived the passage of time, but rather about people and things that have been lost to time. I am drawn to those dusty jewels I often discover in old books and newspapers that serve to transport us back and allow us to experience a real view of life as it was. That color and context make all the difference.

      This collection of New Jersey stories, originally written for newspapers and my blog, features the good, the bad, the bizarre, the amusing, and often surprising people and events of our Garden State. I hope you enjoy these true tales. You can read more of my stories about New Jersey history and my genealogy adventures in Garden State Legacy magazine (www.gardenstatelegacy.com), a great publication devoted to sharing stories of New Jersey’s past. Maureen

      Chapter 1:

      Peter Graham: Phrenologist

      While researching my book, Canary in a Cage: The Smith-Bennett Murder Case, based on the true story of a young woman accused of killing her Jersey City police officer husband in 1878, I read dozens and dozens of newspaper articles about the murder and multiple trials that followed. That 19th century press coverage made for fascinating reading and introduced me to a cast of characters whose real lives rivaled anything a fiction writer might dream up. Among them was one Professor Graham, a Hudson County phrenologist, temperance activist, and something of a Victorian-era life coach.

      Phrenology, quite the thing in the late 1800s, has been described as a pseudoscience of the 18th and 19th centuries based on the belief that a determination of a person’s mental capacity and character (or predisposition to criminality) could be made by examining the skull and interpreting its bumps and depressions. Talk about getting your head examined!

      Peter Graham was born in Scotland in 1833 and married his wife Ellen in Edinburgh in 1851. In 1869, the Grahams and their 8 children, including 4-year-old Abraham Lincoln Graham, booked passage in steerage on the S. S. Helvetia out of Liverpool, England, and landed in New York City on October 1st. When the census-taker made his rounds ten months later, the Graham family was living in Jersey City and Peter gave his occupation as temperance lecturer. Quite a transformation from the occupation of laborer he gave when booking passage on the Helvetia a year earlier.

      In August 1870, Graham gave a spirited temperance speech attended by hundreds in Bayonne at the request of the Sons of Temperance organization and followed that with another at Currie’s Woods a week later. He was also engaged by the Gospel Temperance Union to lecture on the ills of alcohol at the local Republican Club’s Wigwam headquarters. It was reported that he gave a rousing cautionary talk about a devastated woman whose husband and son were in the grip of addiction to rum.

      Graham soon widened the array of topics for his lectures and often included phrenology concepts and examinations as well. He also offered phrenological classes in a variety of places in New Jersey and as far away as New England and Michigan. In 1876, his Paterson students arranged a phrenological tea party attended by over 100 people to honor Graham. Two years later, students in his Boston class, where the Professor had done over 80 lectures, presented him with a set of silver phrenological tools (calipers, ruler and tape measure) in a Moroccan leather case in appreciation of his work.

      Graham reportedly once examined the skull of a woman who attended one of his talks with her husband and pronounced that she must have a most violent temper. The woman turned to her husband asking him to confirm that Graham’s assessment was wrong. The husband made no response but attendees said he told them she was subject to tantrums and throwing things.

      Graham frequently gave talks on marriage, contrasting potential husbands with flat heads versus those having honest heads with appropriate width and height. The flat-headed male, according to the Professor, has character flaws that show themselves in childhood and result in a suitor who has several ladies on a string at one time and, due to lack of moral faculties, is prone to excessive drinking and spousal abuse. He encouraged ladies to feel the heads of their beaus before accepting a marriage proposal and demonstrated how to do so using life-size models of skulls, concluding by saying that a woman would be better off marrying a gorilla than a flat-headed man.

      One of Graham’s lectures in 1878 included a phrenological discussion of the young accused murderess, Jenny Smith, whose story I wrote about in Canary in a Cage. Just days after her arrest, Graham gave a talk in Jersey City titled People Who Murder. He discussed how the heads of some celebrated murderers conformed to each other and, turning his attention to the case of Jenny Smith, concluded that although she might be a loose woman, if her ears were placed high up on her head, she was not a murderer.

      Peter Graham died in Jersey City in 1880, only ten years after immigrating to America. His obituary in a local newspaper described him as a man of marked ability, an ardent advocate of temperance, but eccentric in his manners.

      Chapter 2:

      Decoration Day to Memorial Day

      The sesquicentennial of the American Civil War has fueled renewed interest in the epic conflict that threatened to irreparably tear apart the fabric of our nation. Historians, authors, military and veterans groups, academic institutions and museums are offering programs, exhibits, re-enactments and books about that war, ensuring that this important story is retold and remembered. This is especially timely on the last Monday in May when we celebrate Memorial Day, the day we honor members of our military who died while serving our country.

      Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was born in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War when the families of war dead began the practice of bringing flowers to decorate the graves of loved ones lost in that conflict. In May 1868, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the veterans’ organization for those who served in the Union Army, issued a proclamation requesting that Decoration Day be observed throughout the United States. Commemoration activities in the North in those early years often included rhetoric aimed at Southerners whose secession and rebellion was seen as treasonous. Reconciliation came slowly and painfully on both sides as the years passed.

      In May 1868, Decoration Day services and the placing of flowers on veterans’ graves took place in Hudson County under the auspices of the local GAR chapter. Among the dignitaries and organizations participating that year were the Bergen, Hudson City and General Philip Kearny GAR posts, rifle corps, the Father Matthew Society, Concordia Glee Club, the mayors and council members of Hudson, Hoboken, Bergen and Jersey City and the Police Board. A long line of horse carriages formed at 1pm for the procession leaving from Montgomery Street in Jersey City and heading to the various local cemeteries. The commemoration activities the following year expanded to include horse-drawn hearses carrying the flowers, and Civil War soldiers and sailors, members of the local clergy, distinguished orators, Reinhart’s Band, the Hudson County Artillery, the 4th Regiment of the N.J. National Guard and citizens in their own carriages. Around the County, flags were lowered to half-mast throughout the day and businesses and public offices were closed.

      In May 1870, Decoration Day observances took on a special, solemn significance as the body of a Jersey City man and Union soldier, Stewart Turner, was returned home for burial at the New York Bay Cemetery. Turner, a Private in Company K of the N.J. 2nd Infantry Regiment, had died in July 1865 at a hospital in Alexandria,

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