Van Wickle House - Prominent Matawan Family at Broad and Church

Jason Peist, an owner of 171 Broad Street in Matawan, wrote me this week to share some historic images of the house, which stands on the southeast corner of the intersection of Church and Broad Streets. He invited me to post the images and the history behind them for my readers. Most appreciated.

Below is a set of photographs of the house circa 1919, showing each side of the building.

171 Broad Street (Broad Street view - W side) circa 1919. Visible to the left is a water tower at a factory along the nearby railroad tracks, and a house on Orchard Street, which was behind 171 Broad.

171 Broad Street (Church Street view - N side) circa 1919

171 Broad Street (rear view - E side) circa 1919

171 Broad Street (side view - S side) circa 1919. This was a side entrance. In the window can be seen some beakers, presumably related to the dental office inside. To the left is a house across Church Street, and to the right are two large houses on Broad Street, approximately where the Municipal Building now stands.

If you look closely at the detail below of the Church Street side of the house, you will see a sign that reads DENTIST facing out to passersby at the street corner. The "ickle" portion of the dentist's name can be made out in italicized print arching across the word DENTIST.

171 Broad Street (Church Street view - detail) circa 1919

The current owner did some research and found that from 1899 to 1929, the house served as the home and office of its first owner, a dentist named Orwill Van Wickle. The first floor was his dental practice and the living quarters were upstairs. My research turned up that Orwill was the brother of a long time mayor of the borough.

The 1900 Federal Census for New Jersey listed Orville Van Wickle (Sep 1855 NJ NJ NY) as head of household on Broad Street and with the occupation of dentist. Also in the household was his brother, Daniel E Van Wickle (Apr 1864 NJ NJ NY), a merchant; sister Ora Van Wickle (Dec 1870 NJ NY NY); and widowed sister Anna A Conover (Apr 1858 NJ NJ NY).

Anna Conover was head of the Broad Street household in the 1910 Federal Census. Her sister Ora appeared as Aurelia. Her brothers had married, Orwill to Alice a year earlier and Robert to Florine three years earlier. Robert and Florine had had three children, but only 3 year old son Robert was still alive. Orwill was a dentist.

I found their parents and siblings in Matawan in the 1870 Federal Census. James Van Wickle (53 NJ) and wife Elcy (48 NY) had children Alice (25 NJ), Ann (23 NJ), Sophia (21 NJ), Ida (18 NJ), Orville (14 NJ), Lucina (12 NJ), Eleanor (9 NJ) and Orelia (6 NJ). James was a farm laborer with real property worth $4,000 and personal property worth $600.

Orwill initially hung his shingle as a dentist in town, working from the Post Office building. The professionals listings on the front page of the 21 Oct 1893 edition of The Matawan Journal show Dr O Van Wickle, Dentist.

Orwill's brother Daniel served for many years as Matawan's mayor. (Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, 121st session (1897)

Orwill's brother Daniel Ellswoth Van Wickle served many years as Matawan's mayor and head of the Borough Board of Commissioners, among other political positions. The 1908 Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Treasury of the State of New Jersey shows Daniel E Van Wickle as mayor of Matawan. The Matawan Journal's Personal Mention column (pg 5, col 2) of the 19 Sep 1901 edition of The Matawan Journal reported that R C McElrath of Jersey City was the guest of Dr and Mayor Van Wickle on Sunday. Mr Van Wickle presided over the last meeting of the Board of Borough Commissioners in 1896, according to an except of a May 1896 article summarized in one of my Matawan history blog articles. (link)

The 16 Sep 1915 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 1, col 6) showed Orwill Van Wickle running as the Republican candidate for member of the Monmouth County Executive Committee, presumably the equivalent of county freeholder. The same edition's social page (pg 6, col 1) said brother Daniel's wife and sister Ora were hosting "auction bridge" and a social hour after the game.

Post card image of the Matawan public school on Broad Street.

The house is currently across the street from the Matawan Municipal Building, which served as the Broad Street School for many years. Matawan's first public school, pictured above, was built during Van Wickle's tenure in the home and was just down the road. That school eventually served as the Matawan High School until Matawan Regional was built.

 Orwill Van Wickle died in 1926 and is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery. His wife, Alice Ryer Van Wickle, died in 1936 and is buried there as well. (Find-a-Grave)

The house was purchased in 1929 by Frank Bliss. He and his wife did a major renovation of the home, adding a sun porch, a 9' entrance door, numerous built-ins, a large rear bedroom and bath, and an upstairs office. They stored away the original entry door and kept all their renovation paperwork, all of which the owner still has. For good or ill, Bliss stripped off the gingerbread details from the face of the home.

I've only touched the surface on this story, but alas my time is out for research today. Below are some relatively current images of the home, from Google Streetview. Thanks, Jason, for the information. Please let me know if you (or any of my readers ) can add to or correct anything here.
 

171 Broad Street (Looking down Church Street from the corner with Broad Street) circa 2014

171 Broad Street (Looking down Broad Street at the corner with Church Street) circa 2014

Veterans Buried at Mt Pleasant Cemetery, Matawan, NJ

A friend at the First Presbyterian Church of Matawan gave me a list of 37 veterans of American wars who are buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Route 516 near Route 79 in the Freneau section of Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey. The list was produced by the American Legion Post 176 in Matawan.

The list is from the time when the church still owned the cemetery. I can't vouch for its accuracy but present it here so the roster doesn't get lost. I checked around and didn't see it posted elsewhere. If I've duplicated the effort, no harm done.

I've added my research notes in italics and brackets after certain listings.

American Revolution

• Captain Samuel Carhart (25 Jun 1737 - 26 Dec 1809)
• Lieutenant Samuel Forman (3 Nov 1713 - 18 Jan 1792)
• Private William Forman (? - ?)
• Private Thomas Geran  (1 Mar 1760 - 1 Apr 1842)
• Private Mathias Hulsart (1756 - 1846)
• Captain Thomas Hunn (6 Oct 1736 - 15 Sep 1797)
• Private John Lisk (15 Feb 1756 - 23 Mar 1823)
• Private Matthew T Roberts (21 Mar 1755 - 2 Mar 1837)
• Ensign Cornelius Vanderhoff (17 Oct 1762 - 10 May 1816)
• Private Christopher Van Pelt (1750 - 15 Oct 1816)

War of 1812

•  Private William Hyers (29 Oct 1772 - 10 Aug 1831)
• Major Peter La Torrette (28 Feb 1785 - 11 Sep 1849)
• Private Robert Little (1784 - 29 Oct 1821)
• Private Asher Tice (19 May 1781 - 26 Feb 1865)
• Second Lieutenant Samuel C Vanderhoff (? - 12 Dec 1847)
• Corporal John Van Nuyse (14 Sep 1792 - 21 Sep 1845)
• Private William P Walton (16 Mar 1770 - 27 Jan 1823)

US Civil War

• Private Elisha Arose (9 Jun 1821 - 30 Aug 1902)
• Private William R Bloodgood (? - 2 Apr 1896)
• Private Benjamin Cooper (6 Jul 1814 - 21 Aug 1891)
• Private Gershom Cottrell (21 Mar 1823 - 19 Nov 1907)
• Private William M Cottrell (18 Aug 1819 - 5 Aug 1895)
• Private Thomas S Ellison (1826 - 1908)
• James J Hyer (5 Aug 1818 - 21 Feb 1906)
• Private David Provost (12 Sep 1749 - 5 Mar 1819)
• Private William R Ralph (1828 - 14 Jan 1889)
• Private David O Rappleyea (12 May 1848 - 28 May 1896) {David was age 2 in the South Amboy household of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Rappleyea in the 1850 Federal Census. He enlisted on 15 Sep 1864 for the US Civil War and served in Company H of the 38th New Jersey Infantry Regiment. His company left on 4 Oct 1864 for City Point, VA, where they and the other companies formed a brigade of the Army of the James, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and served garrison duty til the end of the war at Fort Powhatan, James River. The regiment lost 14 to disease. David mustered out on 30 Jun 1865 at City Point, Virginia. He married Mary and settled down in Manalapan, where they had a son William H Rappleyea about 1869, according to the 1870 Federal Census. David, Mary E and sons Alonzo and Edward were residing in Matawan in the 1880 Federal Census; William was not listed and is presumed to have died young. David filed for an early disability in May 1891 from his residence in NJ.}
• Private/Sergeant Howard Reeder (? - 24 Jan 1900) {The Falls River Monthly Meeting of Friends recorded Howard's birth as 1827. Howard was living with his wife Hannah Ann and daughter Sarah in Lower Makefield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1850 Federal Census. His father, Charles M Reeder, age 75, a farmer, was enumerated on the same page of the census. Howard enlisted in the US Civil War on 26 May 1861 and served as a Sergeant in Company I, 3rd Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, 32nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He mustered out 30 Aug 1862. He joined the 5th Regiment Militia Infantry for a couple of weeks in September 1862 as part of a call to the defense of Maryland against Lee's Army. He subsequently served as a Private in Company I, 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, 161st Pennsylvania Volunteers. He deserted on 24 Aug 1864 but returned and mustered out with his company on 11 Aug 1865 at Richmond, Virginia. His military pension record shows that he filed a disability claim as an invalid while living in  NJ in January 1896.}
• Private Job Roberts (4 Sep 1842 - 1925) {Job Mott Roberts was born in Ohio, the son of Thomas T and Ann (Throckmorton) Roberts. In 1863, Job enlisted in the 2nd Infantry Regiment, which was part of the Army of the Potomac. Job could have seen battle at Chancellorsville and/or Gettysburg that year. He was an insurance agent living in Staten Island with his wife Ella in the 1900 Federal Census. In the 1920 Federal Census, Job was living with his cousin, Catherine J Scobey, in Atlantic Township (named Colts Neck since 1962).
• Sergeant Charles P Van Brackle (5 Jun 1844 - 29 Jul 1889) {Charles is one of the rare people I have come across to appear in what's left of the 1890 Federal Census, which was mostly destroyed by fire. Actually it is his widow, Rhoda, who was listed in the veterans schedule, likely related to his pension. Charles had two listings. First he served 5 Dec 1861 to 4 Jun 1863 as a private in Co G, 31st NJ Infantry. He then served 16 Sep 1864 to 30 Jun 1865 as a private in Company D, 28th NJ Infantry.}
• Private John H Van Pelt (? - 13 Apr 1903) {Caution should be observed in using the following information, as the names could represent more than one person. John looks to be John Henry Van Pelt, var John Henry Vanpelt, born in March 1840 in New Jersey; son of John Henry Van Pelt, Jr, born about 1816 in New Jersey, and his wife Rebecca, born about 1818 in New Jersey; and grandson of John Henry Van Pelt, born about about 1781 in New Jersey. John (12) was living with his parents in Marlboro in the 1850 Federal Census, along with brother Hendrick (11), Mary (9), James (7), Noe (5) and Esack (1). John's grandfather, father and siblings James (15) and Esaac (12) were living in Marlboro in the 1860 Federal Census. I found a John H Van Pelt who enlisted on the Union side of the Civil War as a Private, Co G, NJ 3rd Infantry on 27 April 1861 and mustered out at Trenton on 31 July 1861. He enlisted again on 12 August 1861 as a Corporal in Co K, NJ 5th Infantry and mustered out at Washington, DC on 25 October 1862. He re-enlisted on 16 September 1864 as a Private in Co D, 38th NJ Infantry, and mustered out on 30 June 1865 at City Point, Virginia. A John H Van Pelt filed for a pension claiming service in Co G, 19th NJ Infantry (Note: Not 3rd, as above); Co K, 5th NJ Infantry; and Co D, 38th NJ Infantry -- application 16757, certificate 89813. John may be identical with John H Vanpelt (33) with wife Rebecca (24), living in Marlboro in the 1870 Federal Census. They were on the same page of the census with Hendrick Vanpelt (55) and his wife Margaret (50), possibly John's uncle and aunt. John's father remarried about 1870. John (30) lived in his parents' household in Marlboro in the 1875 NJ State Census, with his father, John H (56), step mother Annie E (31), step-brother Holmes (5) and step-sister Mary (1). John may be identical with John H Vanpelt (40), who lived in Manapalan in the 1880 Federal Census with wife Sarah (24) and daughter Mary (1). John's parents, John (66), Anna E (35), appeared in the 1880 Federal Census in Madison, Middlesex County, along with John's step-brother Holmes (12), step-sister Mary E (5) and step-sister Sarah (3). John may be identical with John H Van Pelt (60 - Mar 1840), living in Raritan, Monmouth Co, NJ in the 1900 Federal Census with wife Sarah (46 - Dec 1853), nephew John (14 - Jan 1886), grand-nephew Wesley (3 - Jun 1896) and grand-nephew (?) George W (30 - Dec 1869). The 23 April 1903 edition of The Matawan Journal contains a brief obituary for John. "John H Van Pelt, an old soldier who lived on the Atwater Place, was buried last Friday (17 April). On Saturday April 11 he went to visit James Emmons in Colts Neck and the following Monday he died suddenly. He was 64 years old and leaves a wife and two sons. Interment was in the Mount Pleasant burying ground." See his grave's Find-a-Grave listing here.}
• Private William Van Pelt (? - ?)
• Charles Warn (1845 - 1926) {Charles was enumerated in the 1920 Federal Census as a house builder living in Keansburg with his wife Sarah and sister in law Mary Morris. He was enumerated in the 1850 Federal Census as the 2 yr old son of James M and Margaret Warn and grandson of James M Warn. Charles' father and paternal grandfather were farmers.}
• Private John E Yetman (1825 - 28 Nov 1893) {John Enoch Yetman was a private in Company A, 28th NJ Infantry in the war. He was born in Manalapan, was married to Catherine Elizabeth Applegate in Cranbury, lived in Newark, Millstone and Matawan, and died in Hoboken. The family, including John, his wife and four children, was enumerated in Matawan Twp in the 1880 Federal Census. Ancestry has a nice photo of John in his Civil War reunion uniform.}

World War I

• Private Herman Lamberson (23 Apr 1888 - 16 Jan 1936) {Herman was assigned to the 566th Casual Company, 155th Depot Brigade at Camp Lee, Virginia. He was the son of John and Bertha Lamberson. Herman's father worked in one of the local brickyards in 1900, according to the 1900 Federal Census.}
• Elmer J Morgan (? - Mar 1950) {Elmer J Morgan was born about 1900 in New Jersey, according to the 1940 Federal Census. He and his wife Ethel (age 40) and son William E (age 9) were living at 34 First Street in Matawan at the time. Elmer was a truck driver. I couldn't find a military record. Elmer and Ethel were in Matawan in the 1930 Federal Census. They were each 30 years old. Elmer worked at a local buffing company.}

World War II

•  William Hubbs (2 Aug 1914 - 12 Mar 1959)  {Corporal William Hubbs was assigned to the 1060th Base Unit, Army Air Force, which was a personnel distribution center in Greensboro, NC during the war. He was the son of Charles P Hubbs, Sr and Ameline "Lina" Applegate.}

History: JCP&L Ad Recommends Sun Lamps as Restorative (1934)

The 21 Dec 1934 edition of The Matawan Journal included the following advertisement by the Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) company. The ad promoted the use of sun lamps as "a scientific way to make up for the real sunshine that most of us haven't the opportunity to get. These lamps are highly beneficial to men and women as well as children. Their restorative rays are not costly, either. One penny supplies them for fifteen minutes."

History: Large Prohibition-Era Still Operated for Months on South Concourse (1934)

According to the 21 Dec 1934 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 1 col 8), two persons were arrested at a home on South Concourse in Cliffwood Beach for operating a 2,500 gallon still. The device filled the house from cellar to attic, according to officials. One of those arrested had to be smoked out of an escape tunnel built from the basement to a place behind the garage.

The article said the site was a red brick house at the entrance to South Concourse. The original property owner, who lived in New York, built the house in his spare time over a two year period in the late 1920s. The building and loan foreclosed on him when hard times hit and the house fell into disuse. A renter took the property and made significant improvements about six months prior to the raid.

This event is mentioned on pg 108 of Matawan and Aberdeen: Of Town and Field, by Helen Henderson.

History: Green Acres Project Planned for Cliffwood Beach (1976)

The 29 Sep 1976 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 2) contains the following article that both laments the lost glory of Cliffwood Beach as a popular beach resort and boasts of plans for a Green Acres project to make a park with tennis and basketball courts and other amenities just off the beach.

I moved to Cliffwood Beach two years after this article was published. The park project was all that was described in the article and more, with basketball courts, fenced-in tennis courts, bocci ball frames, swings, slides and climbing toys  for children, and a small recreation building for a recreation manager to provide equipment by the hour. There was a new sloping lawn, parking lot and paved pathways intersecting the property. Bird watching signs were placed along a paved shore path near Treasure Lake to encourage nature enthusiasts.

The beach area was rather isolated, though, so it became a place for people to hang out after hours. While much of the activity was innocent, being mostly out of sight led to graffiti, destruction of equipment and property, other crimes, and frequent visits from the police. The bird watching signs were defaced and torn off their posts. Eventually the recreation building had to be torn down, the tennis courts were converted into a street hockey court and then abandoned, and new swings and recreational equipment and a beach volleyball area were added. The seawall -- already in existence by 1976 -- was made into a promenade a few years ago, with formal access from the harbor end of Cliffwood Beach.

Sandy flooded the area, bringing with it a heavy coating of the dune sands pushed off the beach and onto the basketball courts. The ground in the park became spongy and alkali. The paved walks were submerged in muck and mostly unseen. The storm also changed the effect of the tides on the park -- tidal flooding began to fill the roadway and low lying parkland with frequent surges of seawater and even actual waves. The seawall promenade and the land behind it were pounded and some sections undercut, lifted and cracked by the raging Raritan Bay, but the walkway mostly survived.

The article below starts out with local residents' reminiscences and local impressions of life in Cliffwood Beach. They offer their personal theories of how the resort, built in the 1920s, had been left untended and for the most part disappeared fifty years later. The article ends with local officials discussing the planned creation of an adjoining park that rose and has mostly fallen during the ensuring 40 years.

Can Cliffwood Beach Recapture Glory of Past?

MATAWAN TOWNSHIP

You wouldn’t know to look at it, but Cliffwood Beach was once one of the garden spots of the Jersey shore.

Now all that remains of the boardwalk is a line of forlorn black pilings poking their heads above the waves. The dance hall has vanished without a trace. And the salt water swimming pool resembles a giant concrete planter for reeds and brush mysteriously deposited in the high ground above the shoreline.

The swimming beach has been eroded away and most of the fossil-rich cliffs have fol­lowed them , blasted by storm-driven waves on one side and undermined by septic tank seepage on another.

Treasure Lake is still there, but the water is shallow, stag­nant, and slick with algae.

Some Cliffwood Beach resi­dents remember the glory days, before harsh weather and public and private neglect took their toll. Mrs. Mardell “Mardy” Edwards, Woodmere Drive, rummaged through her keepsakes to dig out a sheaf of old Cliffwood Beach postcards.

“ I ’m not really an old-tim­er," Mrs. Edwards said. “I’ve only been here 27 years. But it was beautiful, really some­thing. Now you can see what neglect can do.”

The postcards might have come from another world. Still fresh with the pastel colors of 40 years ago, they depict clean beaches, wide boardwalks, a bustling pool scene, rowboats on a tree-shaded lake, and an elegant dance hall.

“People who drive by this area on the highway have no idea of the resources that are available,” Mrs. Edwards said. “ The beaches around here, years ago, were poor man’s paradises.”

A neighbor, Mrs. Alex Mose, was a regular summer visitor to Cliffwood Beach before moving here 16 years ago.

“We had homes up on the cliffs, and you could see all the way to New York ,” she re­called . 

“There was dancing in the casino, bungalows every­ here. But the people at the helm were asleep at their posts, and they let the beach go to pot. You can’t imagine what we had here at one time.”

“They didn’t think too much of maintaining the area for the future as they did of develop­ing it for the present,” Mrs. Edwards said. “There was al­ways a lack of maintenance and then we had a big building boom in the 1950s.” 

The building boom, she con­tinued, brought unexpected problems. “We have clay soil around here, and most of the houses built then had septic tanks,” she said. “ Clay soil doesn’t go with septic tanks. The tanks seeped and the cliffs were washed out from under­neath.”

Over the years, Mrs. Edwards said, hurricanes caused damage to the area that was never repaired.

“The salt water pool was bulldozed over after storms cracked it ,” she said, “ and the waves carried most of the beaches out to sea. A lot of the bungalows were washed away and so was most of Cliff­wood Drive .”

Nature, however, has not been the only destroyer.

“The new sea wall is already decorated with brok­en beer bottles,” Mrs. Edwards said. “Nobody goes swimming barefoot anymore. We keep a garbage can down there by the water’s edge, but people throw the bottles any­way.

“Then there’s the eternal battle to try to save the horse­shoe crabs,” she went on. “Some people think they’re doing us a favor by killing them, and we tell them, ‘Next time bring the crabs home and let ’em decay under your windows, and you’ll see how much of a favor it is.’"

Some people believe—and they’re wrong—that you can get stung by the crab’s tail, but  nobody’s ever hurt. By broken glass, yes; but by the horseshoe crabs, no.”

Although the story of ne­glect in Cliffwood Beach is a sad one, Township Manager Donald Guiuzzy said Matawan is hopeful of doing much to restore the area.

A sea wall has already been built to protect the land against the waves, and an earthen slope has been raised behind the wall.

“We hope to finish our slope protection project by mid-Oc­tober,” Guiuzzy said. “We’re planting grass, some flowers, and crown vetch to stop ero­sion.”
 
The next phase of the overall project, he said, will be to install recreation facili­ties, including four tennis courts, shuffleboard and bas­ketball courts, chess and checkers tables, perhaps bocci and horseshoe pits, a parking area, walkways, and “tot lots” for small children. Guiuzzy said the phase should be finished by spring.

“The recreation phase is all funded by state and federal grants,” he said. “We went out and aggressively tried for grants, and we got them.”
 
Guiuzzy said projects for restoration of the beach itself “look good for approval” by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We want to restore one mile of bathing beach,” he explained, “and we hope we can start doing it in the winter. So far, we’re four years ahead of schedule. We’ve shown some of our plans to the engineers and gotten some very favorable reactions. We think they’ll help us.” 
 
Half of the cost of restoring the beach, Guiuzzy said, would at first be funded by the federal government and half by the township. Ultimately, he said, the township hopes to secure 10 percent of the cost from the county and 25 percent from the state. 

“There’s a lot of potential," Guiuzzy said. “ For instance, we’d like to cooperate with Old Bridge Township to create a marina on Whale Creek, right on the county line , financed by the Corps of Engineers. I think that would be a great joint project for the two townships.”

Guiuzzy said he didn’t know if the area could be restored to all its former splendor as a resort site.

“It’s difficult to make a prediction like that,” he said, “But one thing I do know: we’re making it a lot better than it is now."

Holiday Movies Were A Disappointment

I usually have to choose among several great movies for my Thanksgiving dose of Hollywood, but, oh what a disappointing selection of flicks were offered last Thursday.

The best drama - The Imitation Game - was only playing on four screens nationally, and I wasn't heading into the city on Turkey Gridlock Day. Hopefully, this story of the breaking of the Enigma code in World War II, will reach a wider audience soon.

I'm not sure who was targeted to see Horrible Bosses, but its first name says all you need to know. The sassy penguins movie was a nice offering for kids. I wasn't up for another space adventure genre flick. And while there was considerable hunger for a rebellious young female archer, I didn't want to commit to that franchise.

NYTimes: ‘The Hunger Games’ Dominates the Holiday Weekend http://nyti.ms/1yqBzfR

I heard from several sources that Birdman was well acted but a confusing story.

I found a quiet gem called Saint Vincent. Bill Murray was great in this comedy about a grumpy neighbor with a story.

Kudos to Cinemark, the latest owner of the Hazlet multiplex. The new seating is luxurious.

Bridges From Ferguson

In many ways, Michael Brown isn't the ideal  poster child for the movement that has blossomed as a result of his death. He and a friend robbed a convenience store. This wasn't a Stop n Frisk gone bad. Maybe he shouldn't have been killed, but he wasn't coming home from Grandma's minding his own business when he was confronted by police, as I've read in some advocacy pieces. 

And Ferguson isn't the exemplar for a community deserving of sympathy. If they voted and participated actively in local government, Ferguson residents would have a police force and municipal government that better represented their interests.

Intractable problems get worked out as people form bridges and become better acquainted. As long as barriers keep communities insular and separate there will be no peace. Michael Brown's death unfortunately will not bring understanding, not to those who see no problem with high black incarceration rates and high male black mortality rates. 

Who knows? Brown's death might cause law enforcement to rethink policing policies that focus on poor, urban areas, thereby filling courtrooms and prisons with young black men. But if that change comes, it will be because of the tumult over his death, not the circumstances. 

Aberdeen has long been segregated by race. One part of town was labeled Africa on an old map. Only participation in municipal government and social organizations, and personal and community bridge building, offer any hope of real understanding and progress. 

Route 35 Construction at Cliffwood - Update

NJ DOT funded road construction at the Route 35/Cliffwood Avenue intersection seems to be winding down. Cliffwood Avenue now has three lanes (left, straight and right) coming out of Cliffwood Beach. The final paving job is not done, but new sidewalks and curbs have been added, new traffic lights installed, and some landscaping has been done. The old Burlew's Pizzeria lot seems free of construction equipment and supplies. Amboy Avenue no longer connects with Cliffwood Avenue. Bagelicious should be pleased to have traffic coming and going normally again.

I noticed Monday morning that the land movers had moved to the Route 35/Amboy Avenue intersection and there was digging going on along the McDonald's property. Construction at Amboy Avenue can be expected to last well into 2015. Those of you who switched to Amboy Avenue to avoid the Cliffwood Avenue intersection will now have to rethink that strategy.

Final paving and line painting will likely finish up the project sometime next year.

2014 Elections - Go Vote!

Elections are being held in Aberdeen and Matawan today.

FEDERAL

For US Senate, Cory Booker (D) is up against Jeff Bell (R), Joseph Baratelli (L),  plus 4 other candidates.

For US Congress,  Frank Pallone, Jr (D) is up against Anthony E Wilkinson (R) and Dorit Goikhman (L)

COUNTY

For Monmouth County Freeholder, Lillian G Burry (R) and Gary J Rich (R) are up against Larry Luttrell (D) and Joe Grillo (D)

SCHOOL BOARD

Aberdeen-Matawan School District offers two board slots for Aberdeen and one for Matawan.

For Aberdeen, Allison Friedman (Bailey Road), Weymouth D Brittingham (Orchard Street) and Todd Larchuk (Ayrmont Lane) are vying for two available seats.  Larchuk is an incumbent. The second slot was held by Dennis Daniels, who is not running.

For Matawan, Africa J Nelson (Main Street) is running unopposed. The slot was held by Charles Kenny, who is not running.

QUESTIONS

There are two public questions:

1) There's an effort to amend the state constitution to allow courts to hold offenders without bail if they choose. The current constitution requires judges to offer bail.

2) Another amendment to the state constitution would increase the percentage of business tax revenues dedicated to open space preservation, and air, water and soil conservation.