Category Archives: Looking Back At History
April Marks Ninetieth Anniversary Of Nellie Bly Wreck In Pennsauken
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
Ninety years ago, the first of two fatal train wrecks occurred near the same curve of track at Derousse Ave. in Delair. While the toll of this earlier accident was much less in terms of loss of life and injury, the response of the community was similar in both tragedies, evoking both shock and horror and a rising to the occasion that we would well remember to this day.
Skeletal Discoveries At Griffith Morgan House
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
Five years after Pennsauken Township was created, a macabre mystery was literally unearthed at our own historic Griffith Morgan House, situated in the community known then as Morris Station. Evanescent as a specter, what was then revealed is subject only to theory and imagination.
The Father of Labor Day And His Pennsauken Monument
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
In Arlington Cemetery in Pennsauken, N.J. there stands two monuments to Peter J. McGuire. The older of the two marks the resting place of the man and his family, but includes the inscription “Labor Omnia Vincit,” labor conquers all. When this monument was erected in 1906, any truth in that motto was largely due to the life’s work of the man so honored, and to a handful of his close colleagues in the labor movement.
Reflection On A 20-Year Community Friendship With The Pennsauken Library
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
Unless you are a teenager, or not much past, 20 years doesn’t seem to be a very historic period of time looking back. On the other hand, yesterday’s news is already history. It all depends on perspective and the relative significance of events. Measured by these factors, the founding of the Friends of Pennsauken Free Public Library is historic, because of the fundamental worth to our community of the Library itself. In these years of challenge for our local public institutions, it is all the more so.
The Beginning Of 50 Years Of Historical Work In Pennsauken
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
“Where I lie down worn out other men will stand, young and fresh. By the steps that I have cut they will climb; by the stairs that I have built they will mount. They will never know the name of the man who made them. At the clumsy work they will laugh… but they will mount, and on my work; they will climb, and by my stair!”
– Olive Schreiner
This passage from an allegory about the pursuit of truth, written in 1890 by a South African woman, was informally adopted as a credo by the first members of the Pennsauken Historical Society, as an expression of their faith that the generations that succeeded them in the community would continue the work of our local history. It also expressed their belief that their work, imperfect as it would be, would benefit those who came after to carry it on. For them, the most important thing was to get the work begun, and cut new stairs for others to go higher.
We Were Where We Ate: Pennsauken Eateries Past
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
Restaurant and hospitality businesses have gone through as many evolutions over time as any other enterprises, suiting the needs of the historic communities they serve. Changes in transportation, communication, household technology and germinating ethnic and cultural diversity in the population contribute to this evolution, as do specific historic events such as Prohibition and its repeal. Changing tastes in food and advancing understanding of diet and nutrition also help determine both menus and the economic success of dining establishments. Add to these influences the atmospheric and entertainment dimensions of a night out, and the public accommodations of the past become an interesting way to trace our historic timeline.
New Book On Cooper River Overflows With History
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
A flowing river with its tributaries, turns, widenings, narrowings, its pools and its occasional shallows and rapids, is a frequent and apt metaphor for history. A new volume in the popular “Images of America” series of local historical books, “Along the Cooper River: Camden to Haddonfield,” carries us on the currents of our local past, from the Lenni Lenape, to events as recent as last year. It is a voyage worth taking with authors Robert A. Shinn and Kevin Cook.
Celebrating The Welsh Heritage Of Pennsauken’s Griffith Morgan
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
It is often observed that America, settled by immigrants, is a nation composed of many nations. Even in its earliest days, this may have been truer of the colony of New Jersey than of most, and it is certainly very true of the State of New Jersey today. Yet among the colorful tapestry of nationalities comprising our state, some among the very earliest to settle in the area are also among the least remembered when numbering the members of our demographic panorama. This may be due to a variety of factors, such as an apparently seamless assimilation as the broader culture developed, but it nonetheless belies a surprising cultural diversity among identities rarely distinguished as unique today. One such national identity that settled early and with good fortune on the land of the future Township of Pennsauken was that of the Welshman, Griffith Morgan.
The Wright Brothers’ Airplane at Central Airport
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
The weather was favorable at Central Airport in Pennsauken on December 17, 1934, when an assorted group of men in technicians’ coveralls, civilians in long coats and fedoras, and cameramen with hand-cranked motion picture cameras assembled on the ground near the hangars. They came to witness a wooden framework covered with cloth carry two men into the air, pushed by two large propellers mounted on the back of the flimsy wings that extended from the crate. The machine was more than 20 years old, and it had not flown in a period nearly the same length. It had been built by the Wright brothers of Dayton, OH, only eight years after they had been the first humans to fly.
Remembering Our Vets And A War That Began 75 Years Ago
By Robert Fisher-Hughes, AAP Columnist and Amateur Historian
2014 has been a year of historic anniversaries, of local and global significance. This year, New Jersey attained the ripe age of 350. Pennsauken’s own “Jersey Joe” Walcott was born 100 years ago. The 50th anniversary of the Pennsauken wedding of Chubby Checker and Dutch beauty Catherina Lodders occurred earlier this year. And it was also a century ago that the world was plunged into the cataclysm of the Great War, which altered human affairs in so many ways.
