1909: Madeline Kuser Weds Bentley Pope

I am, and have been doing DEEP research on the Kuser Family, uncovering some very interesting articles and photos relating to one of Hamilton's most famous families who settled in the city of Trenton and Hamilton Township along "Pond Run." It took some time to re-assemble this Trenton Times 1909 article, but when you read it, you will see just how ELEGANT the Kuser family fit into our "high society" segment of the population. This is "Victoriana" at its very best. Imagine a wedding at the Astor Gallery of New York's famous Waldorf Astoria! I would wager that there are many of my female facebook friends will read and absorb the essence of a wealthy wedding in a venue known all over the world.

1926: FORTY FIVE DOLLARS DOWN, THIRTY MONTHS TO PAY!

Back in the :Roaring Twenties," you could have gotten a choice piece of real estate at Ortley Beach, located between the Seasides and Lavallette for the princely sum of $45 down and 30 months to pay. It would be interesting to know how much real estate at Ortley Beach is compared to those 90 years ago.

1936: EIGHTY YEARS AGO TODAY

It's always interesting to look back "on this date in history." Here's a graphic I put together detailing community activities as they were reported way back in the early part of the 20th century. More to come.

1920's: HAMILTON AND PARK AVENUES, VILLA PARK

From my "VILLA PARK" folder, this photo was part of a real estate ad relating to the area of Hamilton Township's Norway/Hamilton Avenue area. In my younger years this was occupied as a store known as "Margerum's" where I often stopped for a double dip (side by side) vanilla ice cream cone.

THE FAMOUS YARDVILLE "MILL RACE"

I need an expert on Yardville as well as an interpreter for this mysterious but FASCINATIN photo of what they are calling the "Mill Race." My source of confusion revolves around the numerous other views I have seen of this particular vantage point: the old Lawrie's Mill, Gropp's Lake, Etc. Will anyone be able to tell me what that building with the widow's watch is, also is that bridge railing and the narrow raodway South Broad Street? I have seen many versions of this particular view, but this one is really clear and perhaps someone can tell me if we are looking SOUTH or NORTH, (ELEANOR G.? GEORGE G.? GARY L.? CLAIRE Z,? Any ideas on this confusing graphic?

1938: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TAYLOR OPERA HOUSE AND THE RKO CAPITOL

Here's an interesting article telling the story of the heritage of the late, great RKO Capitol theater which took over the legendary Taylor Opera House which was built in 1867. To those of us who are interested in music, musicals, theater, acting, etc., the visions that come to mind are the old days when vaudeville was the entertainment of the masses. Judy's father, Raymond Britton came into the theatrical business just as vaudeville was on the way out. He and his partner Mickey Dailey, were end me in a po;ular Trenton area blackface mistrel show.

1918: EWING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

This beautiful edifice is one of Ewing Township's historic treasures.The above graphic took up nearly 1/4 of the full page of theThursday, April 25th edition of "The State Gazette" and has been meticulously re-formatted so that it can be legibly be seen here in the year 2016.

1923: Trenton's notorious "Comfort Station"

Only those of us in the "Senior Citizen" category will remember this vestige of Trenton's past. As I recall, my Facebook friend Tom Tighue posted a photo of this building picturing workers shoveling snow from the sidewalk surrounding the building. Many are the citizens who wished they had brought a clip on clothes pin for their respective noses when they answered nature's call and they had to make a visit to the structure.

1940: NORTH BROAD ENTERING THE STATE STREET INTERSECTION

How I love these vintage R.C. Maxwell photos that bring our Trenton past so beautifully into view!
Here's an enlarged zoomed in photo of that very familiar downtown Trenton intersection as it appeared 76 years ago.

2016: ONE OF MY FAVORITE COLUMNS

Life is beautiful! Wake up and smell the roses! I have written hundreds of columns during my 32 years of freelance journalism. Some of my favorite columns tell of "all the girls I loved before" starting with my first true pupply love at age 10, Mary Lou Saxton; my next door neighbor who broke my heart when she moved to California. My early years of courting Judy Britton; the lovely girl who would end up being my dear wife for 62 years. My years at Kuser School and Hamilton High School before it became "West-Watson," and my musical attraction from singing in a boys' barbershop quartet and another octet, school choir, and singing around the Glover Gulbranson upright piano in our Hartley Avenue home. One of the God given and too often ignored by our hustle and bustle to raise a family and earn a living lies in the beauty of nature. The column I wrote and repeated a number of times for succeeding generations is reproduced below. If you haven't taken the time to take Robert Frost's "Road Less Traveled," try a woodland walk. It will go a long way to increasing your longevity and well being.

1941: MILITARY INDUCTEES FIVE DAYS AFTER PEARL HARBOR

 

Here is an historic photo and article from the December 13,1941 edition of the Trenton Evening Times. Perhaps a relative or neighbor of yours is among those shown in the photo.I am familiar with two of the inductees. One is Charles Paul who lived on Hobson Avenue here in Hamilton. He is  the brother of my brother in law, the late Bill Paul. The other is Al Serini who built a house on the corner of Hartley and South Olden Avenue after the war. Small world!

1930's: DID YOU KNOW THAT TRENTON WAS ONCE A SEAPORT?

Once upon a time for a very short while, the city of Trenton Joined Phildaelphia a seaport but alas, it didn't last. Apparently by the time one moved up river toward Trenton,the shallow Delaware resulted in the termination of the effort. It is supposition on my part but I believe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that deepening the Delaware to Trenton would be much too expensive. Perhaps a visitor to this website with knowledge on the subject can enlighten me on this subject. It would have been a very important accomplishment if the deepening project came to fruition.

1910 (Ca. 1910) CHRIST P.E. CHURCH

This exquisitely beautiful church was where Mr. Thomas Eli Glover married Alice Naomi Mount back in 1923. My family were regular members of that church long before I was born and before converting to the Roman Catholic faith, I was a St. James P.E. Church member during my early childhood. This church was patterned on the typical Episcopal church one would see along the rual British countryside. A nasty schism took place back in the 1960's and the wonderful congregation fell apart and is no more.

1915: JOSIAH ALLINSON NOW LOCUST HILL

All the COUNTLESS hours I have spent over the past 35 years in digitizing local history has given me unlimited resources that allow me to share this incredibly interesting local history with the local communities which I try to include in the Hamilton Township Local History Collection. The graphic is one of MANY that are part of a "Power Point" type on screen presentation wherein I add some delightful backgrounds to a specific image. This slide is from my "YARDVILLE" on screen program which is open ended and allows for new material to be included as an update. Here in the year 2016, "Locust Hill" and "Montage" community take up a large part of the old Allinson Farm on Yardville-Hamilton Square Road.

1951: LET THE COURTSHIP BEGIN!

Every time I recall my very early years of dating Judy Britton and recall how I would "accidentally" be passing by the intersection of Hamilton and Newkirk Avenue and see her standing on the corner waiting for the Trenton Transit bust that would take her to State and Broad Street for her job at Yard's Department Store. Long story short: I ended up passing that intersection any time I was available and she was on the corner. Then it was off to downtown Trenton and an early detour for coffee and perhaps a doughnut at Clede's Luncheonette on E. Hanover Street for an intimate close up conversation and getting to know each other. The rest is history. My Judy ended up as Mrs. Tom Glover and I fondly look back on those precious hours I spent courting the most beautiful girl in the world. The photo of Clede's is a treasure. Of course Judy standing on the corner was put there thanks to the magic of PhotoShop.

1842:OUR LADY OF SORROWS CHURCH - MERCERVILLE

Since early February, I have been working feverishly on correcting the numerous problems on this website. It is, has been, and will be a tedious time consuming project and will be ongoing for some time. I have finally reached the most intimidating part of the "tweaks" and that is to try to retrieve and re-post those many 2009-2010 posts which eliminated the graphic and replaced it with a black triangle with a "!" I have made enough progress on the tweaks and repairs over the past few months that allows me to begin posting again and hopefully reduce the large number of those graphics which were eliminated not be me, but for some reason Google's copies were deleted from their cloud database.
HERE'S AN ARTICLE TELLING OF THE NEW CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MERCERVILLE, OUR LADY OF SORROWS WHICH WAS THE MISSION CHURCH OF ST. ANTHONY'S HERE IN HAMILTON AND HAS CONSOLIDATE THE TWO CHURCHES INTO OLS-ST. ANTHONY PARISH.

2016: HAMILTON TOWNSHIP'S IMPRESSIVE LOCAL HISTORY PROJECT

Thank you, Former Mayors Jack Rafferty and Glen Gilmore for your respective roles in helping me to form a "HAMILTONIA" collection similar (but different in that it is based on digital technology) from the legendary "TRENTONIANA" collection in the Trenton Free Public Library. Jack, you will recall that back in the late 1980's or early 1990's it was you, Mo Rossi and Joe Bellina who accepted my proposal to form an historical collection for future generations similar to the aforementioned "TRENTONIANA" collection with the added feature of a digital database with 59 gigabytes of old photos, news articles, etc. And Glen Gilmore, even though your letter dates back to the year 2004, it added credibility to my ongoing local history project. The year 2016 marks my 25th year of building this "HAMILTONIA" digital local history collection and the accompanying the Hamilton Library's "Tom Glover's Local History" web site www.glover320.blogspot.com will soon reach 1 million visitors who come back frequently to view additional material. I like to think we are ready for any future advancements in digital technology after I retire at age 103 or so! (Lord willing!)

1950's: C'MON FESS UP YOU 80 YEAR OLDS...YOU WERE A "CRUISER!"

It was a custom back in the 1950's for many of us teens who were just beginning to learn the art of driving, along with a mysterious urge to exercise our new from freedom as we left our bicycles in the garage and took to the open road. Trenton on a Thursday night was a joy to experience. The town was alive with shoppers as the stores all stayed open until 9 PM. These are delicious memories for my fellow "CRUISERS" as we remember those long ago trips to "downtown" Trenton.

1937: TRENTON'S BEAUTIFUL TRENTON CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLF

 Here's a scene sure to warm the heart of any Trenton High attendee who ever performed or sat in the audience watching one of those incredible operettas that high schools performed back in the 1930's and 40's. No falling ceilings here, folks! Maintenance and upkeep back then was as neat and clean as those well groomed students in this photo!

1942: A FEW DAYS AFTER PEARL HARBOR. AMERICANS LIVED IN FEAR

How well I remember "Aircraft Spotters" during the very early years of WWII. To an 8 or 9 year old boy, those scary stories that were coming to us over the radio and in the Trenton Evening Times will be with me forever   The aforementioned aircraft spotters were usually up on the roof of a flat building with their binoculars on 24 hour duty. It was really scary back there in the early years of WWII. Nazi submarines were off the Jersey coast and fifth columnists were known to have been set ashore in rubber rafts to do their dirty deeds in the industrial areas. Over on the west coast, the Japanese navy was lobbing shells into the west coast refineries. I also read the story how the Japanese sent lighter than air balloons up and let the upper air currents carry them to Oregon, Washington and the Northwest where the felll to the ground and expolded. Many stories in my hundreds of columns I have written over the years recalling life on what was known as the "Home Front." Here's an article showing the military guarding our Trenton bridge just a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1942 THE WAR ON THE "HOME FRONT"

As a boy of 9 back in 1942, it was a somewhat frightening thing when the area defense officials decided to perform area wide practice air raids. Japan had recently bombed Pearl Harbor, Hitler's Luftwaffe was bringing all kinds of fear to London and other British cities, and we all wondered if the dreaded Nazi air force would be able to penetrate our shores. I remember blackouts quite well. In our neighborhood the Colonial Volunteer Fire Co. was an integral part of the air raid practice runs. Their familiar siren was sort of frightening when the air raid warning siren sounded. All lights in every home were to be extinguished, shades drawn, and in our house, the radio was on and an "air raid" low wattage glowing blue light gave off a ghostly glow. The Air Raid Warden took to the neighborhood streets looking for leaking lights from careless home owners, and also flagged down moving autos who had to turn off their headlights. I remember it well. My father and older brother were both Air Raid Wardens as were MANY are citizens from that era.

MARCH, 1951: MEMORIES OF OUR WASHINGTON TRIP WHERE IF FELL IN LOVE WITH MY CLASSMATE

It was March, 1951; time for our class trip to Washington in 2 buses. I was on bus 1 and as luck would have it, the girl of my dreams was on bus 2. I'll never forget that day when we stopped at the Luray Caverns and explored Mother Nature's incredible underground display. It was here that I fell in love with Judy Britton. She had on a very stunning navy blue suit, and was movie star pretty. I will never forget the thrill and electricity that surged through me as we walked hand in had in those dark caverns. Here's a pleasant memory of my classmates that I scanned from a 1950 "CRITERION" which I received from Bob Oliver HHS '50.

1960's A GLOVER CHRISTMAS REMEMBERED

Yeah, Christmas was two months ago, but I just came upon this Christmas article I had written many years ago. A writer always has one or more columns which he holds in high esteem; this was one of my best in my 30 plus years of writing.  Judy and I presented the above Christmas present to our three children Juliane, Tom and Ken as a special present to help them understand what the Christmas season meant to our generation and would mean to them in their generation. Now, at the age of 82, I look back on this article with tears in my eyes. So much has happened in the intervening years! I recall how I personally suffered "empty nest" syndrome when my three went on to live their own independent lives. I suffered, but Judy was elated; happily accepting the fact that they were going to go their own way and make their own choices; be that a life of happiness or adversity. Please forgive me for posting this graphic; it is one of my very best and came straight from my heart, and I do believe that many of my visitors can understand and agree with my sentiments.

1941: AN INCREDIBLE CLOSEUP OF E. STATE AND CARROL STREET IN TRENTON

It took a bit of tweaking to bring this beautiful closeup of E. State Street looking west. The DeLuxe Diner, Moose Hall and Post Office (on the right) give an excellent view of the city of Trenton in this area as it looked in the early years of World War II.

2016: THANK YOU JACK RAFFERTY!

How time has flown! Were it not for this Hamilton Township legend, there would be no Hamilton Township Public Library LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION. Jack and Mayoral Aide "Mo" Rossi, along with then Hamilton Business Administrator Joe Bellina were kind enough to let me present my case that Hamilton needed a comprehensive local history repository. I had pointed out the fact that the city of Trenton put us to shame with their incredible interest in preserving their local history. Hamilton on the other had had destroyed countless valuable historic material in order to gain storage space. Even today, few in the upper levels of local governments are too busy with every day business to concern themselves with history. Indeed, the only time they realize that there is a need is when they are commemorating an historic anniversary and seek information. Jack is a fellow history buff and especially knowledgeable on the subject of local American Indian lore. In his earlier years, he did archaeological digs seeking Indian relics and came up with an impressive collection which has been on display at the American Indian Museum that he founded at Hamilton's Veterans Park. In today's society, The Hamilton Library website, "Tom Glover's Hamilton" will soon reach one million visitors; not unique visits, but from those who return day by day looking for the latest posts. I will be eternally grateful to former Mayor Jack Rafferty for accepting my proposal to bring local history to those who are interested.

1930: NORTH OLDEN AVENUE EXTENDED

Did you know that North Olden Avenue once terminated at Princeton Avenue? In 1930 an "extension" was added at Princeton Avenue northward. The article indicates that it terminated at the Scotch Road which I interpret as being Parkway Avenue.

1943: TRENTON DECORATES A FEW OF THE MANY WORLD WAR II HEROES

100 Years from now, future area residents will seek out genealogical information on their relatives who lived back in the 20th century and the World War II era Indeed, it is my belief that future descendants of the men in this photo will avidly resurrect this photo and include it in their respective family trees. Thus, my mission to preserve and digitize as much as I can while I am still able to do so. This post will be posted on my www.glover320.blogspot.com
website as well as here on Facebook. All of which begs the question: Will future generations still be able to retrieve these digital posts.? I feel confident that my "hi-tech" local history articles and graphics will survive in some form. If I am able to retrieve old newspaper articles and photos from the earliest years of the printed page, certainly future generations will probably have a much more refined method of historic research. History must be preserved for future generations and I have devoted my retirement years to embellishing local history.

THANK YOU, HARRY PODMORE!

As I have mentioned numerous times over the many years I have been mining for historic research, one of my favorite subjects is Mill Hill. I was fortunate enough to get an old weathered and "foxed" scrapbook. "foxed is (book people;s reference to the browning and tanning of pages). This old treasure was the property of fabled historian Harry Podmore. Herewith a digitized and dressed up set of pages relating to "Washington's Retreat."

1934: AMAZING RADIO RECEPTION FROM AROUND THE WORLD!

As a licensed radio amateur, I have always been interested in radio. My army career with the super secret Army Security Agency had me using an incredible state of the art Collins "R-390" military radio receiver which back in the 1950's was state of the art. As a young boy I had an intense interest in radio, even experimenting with a very primitive "cat's whisker" receiver. Ask your grandfather to explain that antique receiving apparatus. As a teenager, I developed an addiction to what fellow radio buffs call "DX;" which is short for long distance radio or television reception. Thus this article from a 1934 TRENTON magazine telling the story of the revolutionary new radio receivers being sold by downtown Trenton department stores. I found this article completely captivating as will any of my fellow radio lovers; whether amateur such as I (WA2RVU) or just plain "DX'ers.

1869: A CLOSEUP LOOK AT THE SWAMP ANGEL

One of the more fascinating subjects in our local history centers on the fabled "Swamp Angel" and of course the legendary Camp Olden. I have been pursuing historical documents on that subject since the 1980's when I found an article in my newspaper collection relating to Henry Lawton who had a farm over in the area of today's Kuser School ("Lawton Avenue, etc.) His farm was said to have been on a portion of the Camp Olden boundary.  In 1992, I wrote a column in the MERCER MESSENGER telling the story of Camp Olden as recalled by the brothers Lawton. That article spurred Bob Butera and Vince Mercandetti, and then-Mayor Jack Rafferty to clear the decks for the establishment of today's Camp Olden Park which is located on that triangular intersection of Liberty Street and Hamilton Avenue.

Above is an article from the Daily State Gazette telling the fantastically interesting story of the Trenton made Swamp Angel and with the date of the article being only 4 or so years after the end of the war between the states, one attains a sense of "immediacy" as the article is read. Today, President Bruce Sirak is keeping the Civil War and Hamilton's historic Camp Olden alive with the very viable CAMP OLDEN ROUNDTABLE. (www.campolden.org) This scholarly group meets monthly at the Hamilton Township Public Library.

ABOUT THE ENGRAVINGS: One of our favorite pastimes when we were kids was to sit down at the table, bring out the "Crayola" wax crayons and start filling up that coloring book! Well, folks, at the advancing age of 82, this old codger is enjoying that joys of coloring once again. This time, I find that my crayons are on a Photo Shop color palette where I merely click on the desired color and paint my subject, all the while remembering my Kuser School teachers to "Stay in the lines!" Above left is the original engraving from the 16 page "INDUSTRIAL EDITION" of the Daily State Gazette of July 31, 1897. Now look at the results of my digital coloring book wherein a added a colorful border, atempted to match the colors of the Swamp Angel, greened up the grass at the base, and even lit the lamps on top of this historic treasure. There's a little boy in each of us even as there is a little girl in each of our ladies!

1949: So. Montgomery looking to E. State Street

Remember Zorn's record shop? Back in the late 40's and 50's this was a teenage favorite source to buy the latest record on the top ten tunes of the day. You are on So. Montgomery Street heading toward E. State Street. Recognize that long forgotten "rest station" in the background? Another splendid downtown Trenton photo showing Trenton as it was in 1949.

1941: THE NEW RKO TRENT THEATER

How I love these full page features! Unfortunately they do not reproduce full size on Facebook due to the graphic size limitations of that social media site. However, here at the Hamilton Library Local History web site, you get the full page in all its glory. Here's a fabulous 1941 view of the 75 year old event that gave birth to the legendary RKO Trent theater.John Taylor's original Taylor Opera House stood on this site, and the building shown in the upper left of the photo shows the Trent theater building that was the original opera house. How unfortunate it was leveled and replaced by the modern structure shown to the right of the above page. The original Taylor Opera House is shown below:

1959: MR. FRANK COOK; TRENTON MOTION PICTURE PROJECTIONIST EXTRAORDINAIRE

1959: Movies were getting from television when this article was written. However, it is a really interesting look at the career of Mr. Cook who began back in tThere is a reference here to the early years with the Rialto and American theaters which were allied with Hildinger Enterprises one of the early Trenton are conglomerate who ran numerous Trenton area movie houses. The late Mrs. Rosemary Kerwick McLaughlin was our across the street neighbor and was a relative of the Hildinger family. Rosemary told of the early live piano and/or organ accompaniment that was used during the silent film era.

1888: THE FABLED BLIZZARD OF '88

As this is being posted the northeast U.S. is still cleaning up from a monster blizzard that hit the eastern seaboard and dropped massive amounts of snow that led many to believe that this 2016 storm was the worse snowstorm ever in the northeast. Here's an article. You decide.

1914: A SUMMER AND WINTERTIME PLAYGROUND

Here's a 1914 article dealing with the "old swimming hole" and playground at Sanhican Creek. This is from my "WEST END" folder in the Hamilton Township Public Library Local History Collection.

NEWCOMER TO THIS WEBSITE? YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT!

WWW.GLOVER320.BLOGSPOT.COM

1914: THE HERMITAGE AVENUE SWIMMING AND PLAYGROUND AREA

One hundred and two years ago the Hermitage  area! This graphic is in my "WEST END" folder and produced herewith for history oriented visitors to enjoy. I am posting the graphic ONLY on Facebook due to the fact that Facebook does not have the ability to reproduce a legible and easily read lengthy historical description.

1929: WHEN QUALITY WAS KING - THE NEW TRENTON CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

Like many area residents, I was saddened to see that the legendary Trenton Central High School had to be done in. In my ignorance of the building trades, I thought that even though there was water damage throughout the building due to shoddy maintenance over the years, the red brick super structure could be saved and the interior of the red brick shell re-built with modern classrooms inserted. Newer construction could have been extended out the back end of the building. However, and very unfortunately, experts far more knowledgeable than I said it would be too expensive and too much extra labor. Even though I am a Hamilton High alumnus, my memories of the great rivalry between HHS, Trenton High and Trenton Catholic hearkened back to the golden years of that great high school  where educational excellence prevailed.