I’m one of those freaky people who is a sucker for a rainy day. I actually enjoy them. I love the coziness of being in the house or car with the pitter patter of the raindrops hitting the roof. So I quite enjoyed Thursday, June 17, 2009, as Bob and I made our way into the northern portion of New Jersey via motorcar in the driving rain. Even though we had to frequently hop out of the car in the downpour, we both had our umbrellas so we didn’t do much complaining.
We headed out from our Holiday Inn lodgings in Hazlet, New Jersey, at the respectable hour of 9am – making our way to our first cemetery stop of the day 20 miles north in the city of Rahway. Amazingly, this wasn’t on our itinerary, but Bob had made a mental note that there was a signer in this city – but couldn’t find it on his map so chose to bypass it! So it was just a coincidence that we were passing through that particular city and he recalled that someone was here. At the Rahway Cemetery was the grave of Abraham Clark (1726-1794), who had signed the Declaration of Independence as a delegate from New Jersey. He later went on to serve in the Second and Third United States Congress.
Declaration of Independence signer Abraham Clark
After our rainy day visit to the first cemetery, Bob and I stopped at CVS as we headed toward the city of Elizabeth. I’m not sure what what the ultimate goal was of our drugstore visit, but Bob picked up a Butterfinger, as evidenced below.
Bob and the Butterfinger
We arrived in Elizabeth at about 10:15 – in search of the grave of Jonathan Dayton (1760-1824) at the St. John’s Episcopal Church. This was an odd visit, because the photo we had of his grave showed a flat marker up against the church – but none of the markers against the church bore Dayton’s name. In addition, the churchyard had been closed and locked up. Bob had a phone number for the church and when he called it, the gentleman said he would come out and let us in. Possibly directly from the movie Deliverance, the man helped us search for the marker, which we never found. Turns out (as I found out later) that the church now on the location was later built in 1860 – right on top of the unmarked grave of Jonathan Dayton.
This was unfortunate, because not only was Jonathan Dayton the youngest singer of the United States Constitution, but he is also the namesake of my hometown of Dayton, Ohio. The fourth Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dayton owned 250,000 acres of land in Ohio and supported the building of the Miami and Erie Canal. He was also arrested for treason in connection with Aaron Burr’s conspiracy – although he was never tried.
Searching for Dayton
U.S. Constitution signer Jonathan Dayton – buried under the church at left
Just ten minutes north of Elizabeth was the city of Hillside. Here in the Evergreen Cemetery was the grave of author Stephen Crane, whose most famous work was The Red Badge of Courage. Bob as a former literature teacher was the catalyst for this visit- in addtion to one other literary giant before the end of the day.
Author Stephen Crane
Bob and I were very interested in visiting the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, which includes Edison’s home, laboratory, and grave. But unfortunately, it was closed for extensive renovation and would not open until October of 2009. We bid a rainy-day tearful longing glance at the park, and said “maybe next time…”
Although disappointed by not seeing the Edison site, I was most excited and delighted to visit the Grover Cleveland birthplace in Caldwell. We got there just before noon, and the docent delayed her lunch to show us around. You can read more about the visit to this great Presidential birthsite here.
Me and Bob in the Grover Cleveland birthplace
When I visited New York and Parsippany, NJ, in April of this year, I had disappointed myself a bit. After the trip, I realized that there was a Vice-President buried in Paterson, NJ – which Bill, Peter, and I passed right through as we drove to Parsippany and then back to New York City. But on this visit to New Jersey, I was able to rectify the situation. (I also noted to Bob how close we were to New York City and that we could go see Grant’s Tomb, but he would have none of that).
But the first order of business in Paterson was to grab some lunch at a nice little eatery called Riverside Manor. I enjoyed a mammoth turkey sandwich known as The Gobbler.
Gobbling up the Gobbler
The Vice President who was buried in Paterson was Garret Hobart, possibly the most tragic of forgotten names in the annals of VP history. Hobart died in office at the age of 55 while serving as the 24th Vice President under William McKinley. Had he survived, perhaps he would have run with McKinley on the 1900 election ticket and therefore would have become President upon McKinley’s death in 1901. Either way, the country ended up with Theodore Roosevelt – so all was good.
With 24th United States Vice President Garret Hobart
Another interesting location in Paterson, was a memorial to comedian Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello fame. Costello had been born in Paterson in 1906. It was a nice memorial, even if not in the best area of town. Bob and I had to keep one eye on our car which was being scouted by some riff-raff for possible theft, while we kept the other eye on the statue.
At the Lou Costello Memorial in Paterson
Hey Aaaaabbott!!
Paterson was as far north in New Jersey that we made it, and then started heading southward and as we traveled the rain let up. We made our next stop at Menlo Park in what is now known as Edison, NJ. It was here that the very famous laboratory of Thomas Edison was located. It was while Edison occupied this area from 1876-1884 and while here earned 400 patents – including those for the telephone mouthpiece, the incandescent light bulb, the electric train, and the phonograph.
Although nothing really remained of the original laboratory, there was a nice memorial tower and a tiny museum on the property. Even by 1925, most of the buildings had deteriorated and Henry Ford moved the last two building and even some of the New Jersey soil to Greenfield Village, where the lab was reconstructed.
At the site of Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory
The Edison Memorial Tower
The tiny but quaint museum on the property
The Edison Museum or bust!
Checking out the various phonographs. Hey, there were no cannons around!
This scale model of the laboratory supposedly contained some wood from the original Menlo Park lab
This monument was just down the road from the tower. It was dedicated in 1925, and Edison himself attended the ceremony.
Our last New Jersey stop of the week was in East Brunswick at the Saint Marys Cemetery. Although it wasn’t easy to find at all, Bob and I finally located the final resting place of the Brasno family. George and Olive Brasno were midget siblings who starred in two Our Gang films, Shrimps for a Day and Arbor Day. Also buried along with them was their midget brother Richard. Unfortunately, there was no marker for Olive, who had passed away in 1998. I had twice met up with Olive, the first at her home in Lakeland, Florida in 1995. While browsing the cemetery, I chatted with my boss Sue and we also called fellow Olive friend Steve Cox to alert him as to where we were.
The grave marker for the Brasno family
The marker for George Jr.
And with that, we departed New Jersey and headed back into Pennsylvania. Although I desperately tried to talk Bob out of visiting the city of Perkasie, he wouldn’t listen. It was pretty dramatically out of the way from our final destination of Valley Forge, but Bob had to see the home and grave of Pearl Buck, author of the literary masterpiece The Good Earth so we headed 90 miles west to swing by. We checked out the grave and house, which was closed for tours by that point – and nearly missed getting out of the gate before the closed up around 7:30.
At the gravesite of Pearl Buck
The home of Pearl Buck
As we neared Valley Forge about 45 minutes later, we stopped off for our ‘family dining’ restaurant at a little empty dive known as Christine’s. I had the baby back ribs and fried jumbo oysters.
Bob locates a spot for ‘family dining’
The good eats of an empty restaurant
Bob and I arrived at our hotel in Valley Forge at about 9pm that night. But this wasn’t just any hotel; it was one with a huge historical significance – at least a personal one anyways.
Our trip will continue…
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