Next Meeting Date

Don’t forget the next meeting date of September 9, which will be our picnic in the rear yard of the Hanson House, starting at 2 pm. All are invited, and bring a guest if you wish. The Society will provide the hot dogs and hamburgers, and members are asked to bring other picnic-type food.

During the afternoon, our president will conduct a brief meeting that will include an announcement of the new slate of officers for the coming election in October. This slate was worked out at the August meeting of the Executive Board.

Requests For Information

Occasionally we receive email requests for information about history or ancestry. It is rare that we can assist with family history, but sometimes we are able to answer historical inquiries.

One recent request concerned a property on Woodside Avenue in Linden, New Jersey, dating back to 1882. Research at Linden City Hall showed no such address. We advised the writer to investigate Roselle, as Woodside Avenue existed there and was part of Linden in 1882, before Roselle became an independent borough on December 20, 1894. We have not yet received a reply.

First Presbyterian Church of Roselle

In September 2018, the First Presbyterian Church of Roselle celebrates its 150th anniversary, having been organized in 1868. Its first building was erected on West Fifth Avenue near Chestnut Street in the new Village of Roselle, then part of Linden.

When electric lighting was introduced in 1883, the church became the first church in the world to be illuminated by Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb, using a thirty-bulb “electrolier.” Though badly damaged in a 1949 fire, the fixture was salvaged, restored in 1964, and remains in use today.

Pictures From Our Files

Built in 1750 as the home of Samuel Woodruff, the house was sold in 1772 to Elias Boudinot, later president of the Continental Congress. In 1795 it became the residence of Jonathan Dayton, the youngest signer of the United States Constitution.

George Washington stopped here for lunch in April of 1789 while traveling to his inauguration. The event was re-created in 1889, 1939, and again in 1989 during a Union County celebration.

Independence Day and Mother Nature

Many members celebrated the Fourth of July with cookouts and fireworks, but on the evening of July 3, severe thunderstorms caused power and telephone outages across the area. Service soon returned to normal.

The Origin of the Camera

The term “camera” comes from the camera obscura, Latin for “black box,” an early optical device that projected moving images onto a wall long before photography was invented.

Over the Back Pence

Bill Frolich claims that half of 8 is either 3 or 0, depending on whether you slice it vertically or horizontally.