Aberdeen NJ Life: History

This page provides local, regional, state and national history items of interest to residents of Aberdeen and Matawan. Many of the items are based on articles found in archives of The Matawan Journal and The Independent.

I've written a number of articles focused on local history, most about Matawan Borough and Township.

1775

Major General Charles Lee and the Battle of Monmouth (1778)

1800

Bedle's Row (c 1840 - 1930)
Isabella Grapes, Keyport (1849)

1850

Africa section of Matawan (1855)
Map of Downtown Main Street, Middletown Point (Matawan)(1855)
Matawan Township established (1857)
Rose Hill Cemetery (1858)
New Jersey 5th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Co K (1861-1865)
Matawan Journal Advertisers (1869)
Third Great Awakening (1869)
Notices and ads (1870)
More ads (1870)
Murder at the Farry Hotel, Matawan (1870)
Wagon House Fire at Cliffwood Inn (1870)
Singer Sewing Machines in Middlesex and Monmouth Counties (1870 -1972)
Matawan Professionals and Businessmen (1871)
Attempted Jail Break at New Brunswick (1871)
Thanksgiving (1871)
Matawan Journal Xmas Ads (1871)
Temperance and the Matawan Journal (1871 - 1889)
J P Geran Co, Carriage Manufacturer (1872)
Hawkins the Hatter, Matawan (1872)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 1 (26 Jul 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 4)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 2 (2 Aug 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 6)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 3 (9 Aug 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 1)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 4 (16 Aug 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 5)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 5 (30 Aug 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 4)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Installment 6 (6 Sep 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 4)
Matawan in 1873, by Charles E Close - Final Installment (20 Sep 1935 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 3)
Main Street, Matawan, Part 1 (1873)
Raritan River railroad bridge (1874)
Matawan Township Primary (1874)

1875

Horses pull wagon into the bay (1875)
Matawan Train Station Building (1875)
Hutchler's Crossing (1875)
First Annual Monmouth County Firemen's Parade, Matawan (1875)
Old Hotel Building, Matawan (1875 - 1919)
Matawan Journal Argues for Temperance Society (1876)
Local Miscellany, Matawan Journal (1876)
The Ravine Farm, Matawan (1876)
Jacob Greiner Sells His Livestock, Furniture at Public Sale, Cliffwood (1877)
Major Fire Consumes Downtown Keyport (1877)
Red Bank and Keyport Armories (1877 - 1923)
County sheriffs in New Jersey lose earnings from bankruptcy fees (1878)
Matawan Hook and Ladder Company No 1 Election (1879)
Professionals and businessmen (1880)
Businessmen Charles and Elmer Geran (1880)
Benjamin E Griggs, Grocer (1881)
Gilbert McDermott Goes to Florida, Christmas (1881)
Fourth of July in Matawan (1881 - 1962)
Monmouth Battle Monument Commission Accepts Design (1883)
Rev Robert J Kent, First Presbyterian Church (1883 - 1888)
Abortion in The Matawan Journal (1883 - 1958)
Decoration Day, Matawan (1884)
Matawan Borough incorporated, Borough Commisssion established (1885)
Rabies (1885)
Railroad News in Matawan Journal (1885)
Matawan Journal Calls Out Austrian Anti-Semitism (1885)
Iron Bridge, Matawan (1885-1887)
Electrification (1886)
Horses &; Mules (1886)
Prospect Grove, aka Money Island (1886 - 1923)
Edward Payson Terhune Accepts Rome Chaplaincy (1887)
Decoration Day, Matawan (1887)
Horse Car Railway Bill, New Jersey (1887)
Hebrews in the Matawan Journal (1887,1894)
Tennis in the Matawan Area (1887 - 1949)
Dr Dutcher, Veterinary Dentist (1888)
Brookdale Farm, Lincroft (1888 - 1967)
Wolverton's Atlas - Matavan and Matawan (1889)
Matawan's Response to Johnstown Flood (1889)
Blacksmith (1890)
Poll Tax in the Matawan Journal (1890 - 1960)
Rochester Lamp Company (1891)
Edward Farry & Co, Matawan (1891)
Our Matawan Portfolio, local stories (1891)
Two Undertakers in Matawan (1893)
Jacob Geissenhainer (D-NJ) Incurs Labors Wrath (1894)
Cliffwood Brick Company (1894-1961)
Rose Hill Cemetery sexton threatens thief (1895)
Matawan Borough Council established (1896)
Near hurricane force wind storm hits Bray house in Matawan (1896)
Monmouth County Collector (1897-98)
Call for network of stone roads in New Jersey (1899)

1900

Petition for a Cliffwood primary school (1900)
African-American population of Matawan (1900)
Death of Thomas Lynch, Keyport (1900)
Middletown Turnpike Company (1900)
Matawan and the Great Storm at Galveston (1900)
Alice Cartan Dead at 24 (1900)
Monmouth County Fugitive Killed by Bounty Hunters in Virginia (1900)
Aberdeen Inn (1900-1909)
Odd Fellows Purchase Fire Damaged Washington Hall (1901)
Charles M Applegate Moves to Freneau (1901)
County Bridge to Cross Raritan River at the Amboys (1902)
United Cigar Manufacturing Company Factory, Matawan (1903)
Monmouth County and the Hudson Tubes (1903)
Fountain Hardware (1904)
Matawan train station building (1905)
Main Street (c 1905)
Washington Fire Company Purchases Latest Fire Fighting Equipment (1905)
New Jersey adopts the electric chair for capital punishment (1906)
Monmouth County Hangings (1691 - 1906)
Car vs Horse: Henry S Terhune Suspected of Hit n Run in Holmdel (1907)
Matawan School Construction (1907)
Worthley Canning Factory (1907)
Monmouth County Fair (1907 - 1916)
Car vs Horse: Red Bank Candyman Forced into Ditch (1908)
Triple Murder on Farm Near Wickatunk (1908)
Matawan Journal Advertisers (1908)
Frelinghuysen Amendment to Automobile Act of 1906 (1908)
Ackerman Civil Service Act (1908)
Elizabeth Spader Clark at Smith College (1909)
Benjamin Foulois Visits Sandy Hook (1909)
Diphtheria (1910)
Agriculture in The Matawan Journal (1910)
Main Street, Matawan in the 1910 Federal Census (1910)
Harris Hardware (1911)
Matawan School Board elections (1911)
Matawan doctor in auto accident (1911)
Aberdeen Inn, Part I &amp
Aberdeen Inn, Part II (1911)
Hahne & Co, Newark (1911)
Whitcomb Suicide (1911)
Crosswalks in Matawan Borough (1911 - 1917)
Matawan Garage (1911 - 1924)
New York Telephone Co Promotes Phone Ownership for Travelers (1912)
A J Cartan's Department Store, Matawan (1913)
Charles Appleby, Real Estate Tycoon, Dead at 89 (1913)
New York Businessmen Use Long Distance Phone Service at Jersey Shore (1913)
Snowstorm of March 1914 (1914)
New York Telephone Co, Red Bank Office (1914)
Home deliveries from Holmdel butcher (1915)
Young Swimmer Rescued at Morgan (1915)
Matawan Creek Bridge (1915)
I Didn't Know the Gun Was Loaded, Keyport (1916)
Brickyard Payroll Ambush (1917)
Elizabeth Spader Clark (1918)
Wartime Elixir Ad Targets Women's Sense of Duty (1918)
Gillespie Munitions Plant Explosion at Morgan (1918)
Bushnell Motor Company (1919)
Wickham Company Fire (1919)
Camp Alfred Vail (Fort Monmouth)(1919)
Bell Beef Co (1920)
Nellie Maxwell and "The Kitchen Cabinet" (1920)
Gypsies in Oak Shades (1920)
Matawan Fire Police (1920)
Asher Woolley Hardware (1921)
What Is The Ku Klux Klan? (1921)
Equipment for Home Laundering (1921)
Samuel King, Auto Dealer (1922)
Joshua T Clowes, Filling Station Owner, Matawan (1922)
Pennsylania Express Derails South of Matawan (1923)
KKK Meeting in Farmingdale; Keyport Inductees and Sponsors Attend (1923)
Klansmen Attend Red Bank Baptist Church (1923)
Pollution (1923, 1924)

1925

Standard Gasoline of NJ (1925)
Rivoli Theatre, Matawan (May 1925)
Easter Fashion, Steinbach Co, Asbury Park (1926)
Keansburg Gateway (1926 - 1958)
Jilted Lover Stabs Himself in Neck at Matawan Train Station (1927)
Butler Masonic Lodge no 42, Cliffwood (1927)
First Drowning Victim in Lake Matawan (1928)
J Mabel Brown Visits Hawaii (1928)
August Kattner Electronics (1928)
Brick Worker Shot at Card Game, Lands in Matawan Hospital (1928)
Cliffwood Beach (1929)
Cliffwood Beach Pool Constructed (1929)
Elizabeth Spader Clark Memorialized (1929)
First Presbyterian Church Choir, Matawan (1929)
Esso Ad (1929)
Childhood Stories from Matawan area (1930s)
Depression Era in Matawan Township (1930s)
Keyport Golf Course (1930)
Blue Laws Challenged (1930)
Matawan HS Girls Soccer Begins (1930)
Henry S Terhune Donates Park (1930)
Keansburg Steamboats and Matawan's Main Street Businesses (1930)
Herbert Hoover Supreme Court Nomination Affects NJ Politics (1930)
Matawan Bank Gets First Bulletproof Glass in NJ (1930)
Biddle Aviation Field, Matawan (1930)
Matawan Township Cedes Two Neighborhoods to Matawan Borough After Referendums (1931)
JCP&L Xmas Ad (1931)
Plans Approved for Terhune Park (1931)
Wash Jackson, Cliffwood Beach, Arrested for Breaking and Entry (1931)
Monmouth County Maternal Death Rate Highest in Nation (1931)
Matawan Theatre (1931)
Fourth of July (1932)
Elsie Gates, First Female Candidate for Matawan Twp Council (1932)
Construction of State Route 36 Underway, Keyport to Atlantic Highlands (1932)
Peanuts, Thompson Family Pet Pony, Struck by Auto and Killed (1932)
Matawan Journal Miscellany (1932)
Matawan Drugs (1932 - 1962)
End of Prohibition, Formulation of Liquor Sales Rules in Matawan (1933)
Buttonwood Manor Opens (1933)
Wheeler and Almond Circus (1933)
Bedle Funeral Home Opens (1934)
Founding of Matawan First Aid Squad (1934)
County Ignores Aberdeen Road Bridge Over 40 Years (1935)
JCP&L Markets Easy Washer (1935)
First Birth Control Clinic Established in Monmouth County (1935)
Township Ired at Boro Move for New Annexation (1935)
History of the Two Matawans (1936)
85th Anniversary of Trinity Episcopal Church (1936)
Crop Dusting (1936)
Advancement in Police Communications in Monmouth County (1936)
Charles E Close, obituary (10 Apr 1936 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 1)
The Matawan Journal Online Archive contains only one page of one 1937 edition of this paper. The remainder of these editions are not available online. (1937)
Distant Cousin has a transcript of the obituary of William A Rodgers , Matawan borough clerk, from the 6 May 1937 edition of the Matawan Journal. (1937)
US GenWeb Archives says the celebration of the 50th wedding anniversary of Matthew Lester Terry and his wife Mary Emma (Morris) Terry was noted in the 17 Jun 1937 edition of The Matawan Journal. Their wedding took place at the Longstreet home on Beers Street in Keyport. (1937)
The Matawan Aberdeen Public Library has a hard copy index to births, marriages and deaths reported in The Matawan Journal, including those mentioned in the missing 1937 editions. For example, an Ancestry.com message board says Theresa Caliendo's marriage to Samuel Della Pietro appeared in the 29 Mar 1937 edition.
Cheesequake Park land acquisitions begin (1938)
Walling Field, Raritan (Hazlet) (bef 1942)
New Year's Day After Pearl Harbor (1942)
Libya in the Matawan Journal (1942 - 1968)
The Batman at the Keyport Strand (1943)
NJ Bell Wartime Ad (1943)
LaParee Undergarment Company, Matawan (1944 - 1949)
Matawan doctor wins Bronze Star (1945)
Matawan Corporal Bears Witness to the Elbe (1945)
End of the War in the Pacific (1945)
Foreigners Deported to Free Up NJ Jobs at War's End (1945)
Sebastian Straniero, Bronze Star (1945)
NJ Bell Wartime Ad (1945)
Matawan Corporal Bears Witness to the Elbe (1945)
War Dead From Matawan Township, World War II (1945)
Robert G Thixton, Mayor of Matawan (1945 - 1947)
Guadalcanal Post 4745, VFW, Cliffwood (1945 - 1957)
USS Solar Explosion at Leonardo (1946)
Liberal Building and Loan Association, Matawan (1946)
Matawan Creek Trestle Fire (1946)
NJ Bell Postwar Ad (1946)
NJ Bell Xmas Ad (1946)
NJ Bell Ad Seeking Telephone Operators (1947)
Sex Crime Panic in Monmouth County (1947 - 1950)
Student Loans Liberalized in Monmouth County (1949)
American Cancer Society Ad (1949)

1950

Jersey Central Appliance (1950)
Matawan School District Forumulates A-Attack Plan (1951)
Sloan Products (1951)
Four Boys Rescued From Frozen Lake Lefferts (1952)
Curly Beauty Salon, Keyport (1952)
Nord Chemical Company Explosion, Keyport (1952)
Women Allowed to Wear Shorts in Public (1952)
James King Murders Mary Lee Vann (1952)
Morganville Woman Fatally Beaten with Tree Limb in Matawan (1952)
Newberry's, Keyport (1953)
End of Passenger Rail Service Between Freehold and Matawan (1953)
Garden State Parkway Construction (1953)
Garden State Park to Absorb Cliffwood Peach Orchard and Brickyard (1953)
Electric Appliances for Laundry Promoted by JCP&L (1953)
Raritan Bay Pollution Symposium, Keyport (1953)
Founding of Cliffwood First Aid Squad (1954)
Loew's Open Air Drive-in (1956)
Airport Plaza (1956)
Clean Literature Ordinance, Keyport (1956)
Ladies Day Excursions by Train to NYC (1956)
Palm Sunday Church Directory, The Matawan Journal (1956)
Ground Observer Corps (1957)
NJ Bell Seeking Operators (1957)
100th Anniversary Edition of Matawan Journal (27 Jun 1957)
Downes Pontiac, Matawan (1958)
Kovach's Gulf Service Station, Hazlet (1958)
Newark Bay Lift Bridge Train Accident (1958)
Farmers & Merchants Bank Building to Become Matawan Borough Hall (1959)
A & P Comes to Cliffwood, Port Monmouth (1959)
Marc Woods Development, Matawan (1960)
Bell Labs of Holmdel (1961)
Matawan Regional School District established (1961)
Poet's Inn Opens (1961)
Matawan Journal Praises Red Cross Response to Hurricane Donna (1961)
American Can Co (1962)
Katherine Boggs, First Female on Keyport Council (1962)
JFK Assassination (1963)
McDonald's Restaurant, Middletown (1963)
Don Quixote Inn (1964)
Strathmore Jewish Center Becomes Temple Beth Ahm (1964)
Millicent Heuser dies (1965)
Dearborn Fruit Farm, Holmdel (1965)
Bus Fare - Keyport to Port Authority (1967)
First Presbyterian Dedicates Education Building (1967)
Local reaction to Martin Luther King, Jr assassination (1968)
Interfaith Concert (1968)
Monmouth County Recommends One-Way Routing Through Matawan (1969)
Racial conflict at Matawan High School (1970)
Planned Parenthood Clinic, Matawan (1970)
Local Businesses (Xmas 1971)
Newspaper Boys, Matawan (1972)
Dedication of Bayshore Community Hospital (1972)
Renovation of Second Baptist Church, Matawan (1972)
Strand Theater Owner Arrested, Keyport (1973)
Rose Hill Cemetery Restoration Effort (1974)
Rose Hill Cemetery Vandalism (1974, 1975)

1975

The American Bicentennial in Matawan (1976)
Patents in Our Region (1976-2011)
Renovation of Airport Plaza (1976-77)
Sambo's Restaurant opens on Route 34 (1977)
January blizzard (1978)
Lisbon Manor Bar and Restaurant, Cliffwood (1989)
Middletown Helps Its Own (1991)
Matawan Fire Ladder Truck (1995)
Aberdeen Voting Patterns (2011)

Miscellaneous
Local Topical Pieces

Matawan Avenue (also Bull Run, Heuser Boulevard, Matawan Road)

Local Individuals and Their Families

I do the occasional background piece on individuals and families that lived in Matawan. Here are some of the names: