March 3 Meeting

The meeting of March 3 will be held at 2 pm in the Hanson House, with our guest speaker,
Aimee Fernandez-Puente, Supervisor of the Local History and Special Collections Department
of the Elizabeth Public Library. She will describe and explain the scope and content of the
library’s collection and its availability to researchers of Elizabeth and Union County.
Her program is entitled, “History Lives at the Elizabeth Public Library.” We hope to
have at least thirty people attend, members and guests.

Rajoppi Verifies Elections

On January 2, 2019 the County Clerk, Joanne Rajoppi, who is also the Society’s vice-president,
attended Roselle’s re-organizing meeting and verified the election of the two new council-people
who were sworn into office shortly after. The meeting room was well crowded with relatives,
friends and well-wishers from the general public. The next day Joanne did the same thing at the
Roselle Park re-organization meeting.

Remember the Maine

“Remember the Maine.” Thus was the battle-cry on February 15, 1898, only one hundred twenty-one
years ago, after the battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor in Cuba. With blame
for the disaster falling on the Spaniards, this act soon brought on the Spanish-American War,
resulting in the defeat of Spain and the many heroes of the United States armed forces.

A monument honoring a victim from Elizabeth of the explosion stands in a park in the port
section of that city just across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The monument
features a rusted ten-inch cannon projectile salvaged from the wreck of the sunken battleship.
Cleaned and restored, it stands atop a tall base.

Annual Dinner

Our annual anniversary dinner will be held April 7, 2019 at 2 pm in the Garden Restaurant on
Magie Avenue in Elizabeth near the Union town line. This will be the 150th anniversary of the
birth of the Society. Please get your order in early, to relieve the minds of the committee.
The program for the afternoon will be given by our vice-president and author Joanne Rajoppi,
who will tell us about life in Elizabethtown during the years of the American Revolution.
With the British occupying Staten Island only five hundred feet across the water of the
Arthur Kill, armed raids in both directions took place frequently with rarely a dull moment
for the town. Some of those raids included the burning of the Presbyterian Church and the
nearby Court House. The price for the dinner will be $35, payable in advance to our treasurer,
with a check made to the Union County Historical Society.

Pictures From Our Files

Shown here is a picture of Thomas Edison’s First Village Generating Plant for Isolated Light,
where it all began on January 19, 1883. The station was part of an experiment by Edison to
prove that he could light an entire village with electricity from a single source. Having
invented a practical incandescent electrically powered light bulb, Edison needed a means
to show it to the world. He sought a town that did not have gas, and the Village of Roselle,
New Jersey was the answer. In 1882, Roselle was still a residential section of Linden Township,
operated by the Roselle Land Improvement Company, and Miller Fox Moore, who worked with Edison
in Menlo Park, was a resident on East Fourth Avenue in Roselle. He arranged a meeting between
Edison and the town officials, resulting in a deal where Edison would build a generating
station, install poles, wires, and bulbs, and provide street lighting, assuming the entire
cost for one year. The cost to the village was a single dollar. When the steam-driven generator
was turned on, electricity illuminated 150 street lamps and forty buildings, including houses,
Stone’s store on Westfield Avenue, the railroad station, and later the First Presbyterian
Church. By today’s standards the system was primitive, with no switches, but the experiment
was successful and led to the world-wide use of electricity. The system was not without
incident, including stories of broken bulbs, leaking “juice,” and kitchen mishaps. After
Edison ended the experiment, the people of Roselle continued operating the generator for
nine more years, eventually installing meters under strict town ordinances.

Winter Weather

The sloppy weather and threat of severe storms interrupted the work of the office staff at
the Hanson House and caused delays in answering mail, but operations are now catching up
and returning to normal.

Over the Back Fence

Bill Frolich wonders if anyone else remembers the toboggan chutes that the county set up
on the Galloping Hill Golf Course about 1940, when it was covered with snow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the USS Maine memorial significant in Elizabeth?

The memorial honors an Elizabeth resident who died in the 1898 explosion and preserves
the city’s connection to the Spanish-American War.

Why is Roselle important in the history of electricity?

Roselle became the first village in the world illuminated by Thomas Edison’s incandescent
lighting system when the generating plant went live on January 19, 1883.