History: Girls Soccer Begins at Matawan High School (1930)

1930 Florida State Girls Soccer Team (Flapper Girl)

I stumbled upon this article (below) from the 17 Oct 1930 edition of The Matawan Journal marking the beginning of girls soccer at what was then Matawan High School. No doubt the school board saw no harm in letting girls play this odd European sport in gym class since it was so cheap. Give 'em a ball and let them have at it.

The newspaper, on the other hand, seems to have seen soccer's prospects as a (boys) varsity sport before the school did, as the paper compared soccer's cost to that of football and hockey. No telling if either the school or the paper expected it to become a girls varsity sport. Girls were already playing in college. (see photo above from Florida State's 1930 yearbook.)

Ah, Title IX! So important to girls sports. I have my doubts that MRHS complies, given how much they spend on football, but the situation is much better than it was 80+ years ago. Baby steps, I guess.

MATAWAN HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS PLAYING SOCCER

The girls of Matawan High School are getting much enjoyment and physical activity out of a new game, soccer. Soccer is a very active, healthful and interesting game, and the girls are rapidly learning the rules and technique in their physical education classes and in practice after school hours. It is hoped that soon, soccer may become a varsity sport with some keen competition between the high schools of our area. Soccer is less expensive than hockey or football and affords activity for twice as many as basketball.

Who's Your Favourite?

History: Bedle's Row, Mount Pleasant (c 1840-1930)

Bedle's Row was a row of five houses located at the corner of what is now Route 79 and Route 516. The houses were supposedly built by Joseph D Bedle (1831-1894), son of Thomas I and Hannah (Dorsett) Bedle of Matawan. Three of the houses were torn down in 1930 to build a gas station at the corner, while the other two houses were merged and renovated to become the home of the station owner.

BEDLE'S ROW - OWNERS

Joseph D Bedle (NYPL)

A row of five houses was built in Mount Pleasant (now Freneau) in the mid-19th century, supposedly by Joseph D Bedle (5 Jan 1831 - 21 Oct 1894), the 23rd Governor of New Jersey ((1875-1878). (It seems more likely to me that the property belonged to Bedle's father, Thomas I Bedle, a local merchant born about 1806. The elder Bedle would have been in a better position and a more appropriate age to be acquiring property and building homes on it at the time it must have occurred. A check of land records and local atlases is in order.)

William L Dayton (Wikimedia)

The property, eventually known as Bedle's Row in apparent tribute to the Governor, was acquired by a prominent local man named Dayton. Two possibles are listed below.

1) Joseph Bedle's legal associate William L Dayton (17 Feb 1807 - 1 Dec 1864). Dayton was an attorney for the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Freehold and a judge in Trenton then moved into politics. He served as New Jersey's US Senator (1842-1851) and was then chosen over Abraham Lincoln in 1856 to be the first Vice Presidential candidate of the recently formed Republican Party (paired with John C Fremont). After that unsuccessful bid, he served as New Jersey Attorney General until 1861, when President Lincoln made him our emissary to France. Dayton was instrumental in protecting US interests in Paris during the Civil War, especially by keeping Napoleon III from recognizing the Confederate States of America. Dayton died in Paris before the war ended.

2) Alfred B Bedle (b abt 1811) was a local physician living in Matawan  In the 1870 Census, he had $40,000 in property, including $20,000 in real estate. His son Rensselaer Bedle (b abt 1843) was a lawyer living at home.

Dr Nathan Ervin (b abt 1863) bought Bedle's Row from the "Dayton Estate". (Since William Dayton died in 1864, the land transaction was unlikely to have been between Ervin and William Dayton's estate.) Ervin lived with his wife Georgiana at 103 Main Street in Matawan in the 1920 and 1930 Censuses. They lived in the Borough in 1910, but in Madison in 1870 and 1880.

Gaston Colot and wife purchased Bedle's Row from Dr. Ervin about 1927. Mr Colot was born in Brussels, Belgium about 1885 and died in Matawan in 1965.

BEDLE'S ROW IN THE NEWS


The 7 January 1882 edition of The Matawan Journal provided this brief obituary under the caption Mount Pleasant:

Jacob Horner, who resided in one of the dwellings known as "Bedle's Row," died at 4:30 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. He was married, and was the step-son of Mr George Hiser. He has been afflicted with consumption for some time. The funeral took place on Friday afternoon, and the remains were interred in Rose Hill cemetery.

The 26 July 1899 edition of The Red Bank Register provided this short blurb under In and Out of Town: Short and Interesting Items From All Over the County:

A house in Bedle's row at Matawan, occupied by a family named Heyer, was struck by lightning on Sunday of last week. The occupants of the house received a slight shock.

The 8 February 1929 edition of The Matawan Journal announced Gaston Colot's intention to open a modern gas station at the corner of present-day Route 516 and Route 79 in Freneau.

GASTON COLOT TO BUILD A SERVICE STATION

WILL BE LOCATED AT MIDDLESEX AND MAIN STREETS

Three Houses Are to be Removed to Make Room for the New Station

Gaston Colot has extensive plans prepared to build an up-to-date gas and supply station at the intersection of Middlesex and Main Streets, where the present row of yellow houses now stand. Three of the houses near Middlesex Street will be torn down to make room for the new gas station. The building will be of the modern gas station type but considerably larger than most of them seen on the highway. Beside gas and oil service Mr and Mrs Colot will continue to handle tires and automobile accessories as well as their former battery service work. Work will be started about the first of March, or as soon after as the tenants in all five houses can locate elsewhere. The sidewalk will be widened and the corner of the road cut back in circular fashion to give greater width to the road and ease in turning the corner.

The two houses remaining after the three end houses are torn down will be completely renovated and turned into one dwelling in which the Colots will make their home when completed. Just what will be done with the present garage building has not been determined.

This property was bought by Mr and Mrs Colot a couple of years ago from Dr Nathan Ervin. It has been known for a number of years as Ervin's row. When Dr Ervin bought it from the Dayton Estate, the buildings were in a bad state of repair. He greatly improved the corner. Now the new owner plans to make an even greater improvement in line with the general improvements now taking place on all sides in Matawan. Mr and Mrs Colot and family are Belgians and moved to Matawan fifteen years ago. They have been fine citizens and through the dint of hard work and good business practice have progressed.

The 22 August 1930 edition of The Matawan Journal provided this front page article about the end of Bedle's Row:

Gaston Colot has given the tenants in the five houses owned by him and known as Bedle's Row, notice to vacate. He plans to raze the row of houses which are said to have been built by Governor Bedle, the only Governor of New Jersey to have come from Matawan. In their stead a fine super gas station will be erected along the line of the one-stop gas stations of the present day. The road will probably be widened and a great improvement will be made on the site when it is completed. Work on demolishing the end house will be started next week.

The 17 October 1930 edition of The Matawan Journal provided this update to the razing of Bedle's Row:

The construction of a new gas station has been started on the site from where the old building known as Bedle's row was removed recently.

GASTON COLOT IN THE MATAWAN JOURNAL

The 16 November 1916 edition of The Matawan Journal included an advertisement (bottom, right) for Standard Oil that said Gaston Colot was selling their products in Freneau.

Gaston Colot Auto Repair Shop, Freneau, NJ (1919

The 7 August 1919 edition of The Matawan Journal included an advertisement (above) for the Gaston Colot Auto Repair Shop in Freneau.

Colot 1922

The 3 November 1922 edition of The Matawan Journal included an advertisement (left) for Exide car batteries and battery testing and charging at Gaston Colot's repair shop in Matawan. Ford Magneto ignition systems provided an inconsistent flow of current from non-rechargeable dry cells and were difficult to maintain, so customers were moving to rechargeable batteries. Mr Colot's shop sold A and B batteries for wireless, self-starter and generator and recharged Ford Magnetos while you waited. A similar ad appeared in the  4 May 1923 edition of The Matawan Journal. 

Standard Oil, 1916

The 22 February 1924 edition of The Matawan Journal included an advertisement saying that Gaston Colot offered a full array of Chervolet parts and repair services in Matawan.

The 18 February 1965 edition of The Matawan Journal included an obituary for Gaston Colot, who razed Bedle's Row and built a gas station in its place, an enterprise which he operated in Matawan for many years. The article suggested that Mr Colot operated an auto repair shop as early as 1916 but didn't build his gas station until 1930.

Gaston Colot, Matawan, Succumbs In Hospital

Gaston Colot, 80, of 348 Main St., Matawan, who opened the first service station in Matawan Borough, died Tuesday night, Feb. 16, 1965, at Monmouth Medical Center after a long illness.

Mr. Colot was born in Brussels, Belgium. He was the son of the late Felicien and Elvinia Colot. Mr. Colot had been trained for the diplomatic service. He attended Sorbonne University, Paris, and The University of Bonn in Germany and also took advanced studies in the diplomatic field at Nottingham, England. He served as a student officer in the Belgium Navy.

When he was a young man, Mr. Colot and his family came to this country. He had lived in Matawan since 1914 and opened the service station in 1916 which is still in operation, the business being carried on by his son, Robert Colot, a former Matawan councilman, and his grandson, Matawan Councilman Robert R. Colot.
 

Mr. Colot and his wife, Mrs. Clarisse (Suchet) Colot, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1957.
 

Surviving in addition to his wife, son and grandson are two other grandsons. Lt. Comm. Peter Colot, U.S. Navy, Alexandria, Va.; Raymond F. Colot, Matawan, and eight grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. from the Bcdle Funeral Home, Matawan, to St. Joseph's Church where at 9 a.m. a requiem mass will be offered.

Aberdeen-Matawan Train Station Zone To Be Developed Piecemeal

The history of the Aberdeen-Matawan train station redevelopment impasse, as described in today's Independent, is a tale of a fatal difference of opinion between two municipalities over which developer to use. The tussle prompted one of the developers to sue, and that locked things up royally at the proposed Transit Village for years and years.

No doubt there are reasons why the Borough found its own developer instead of sticking with the Township's, but the end result is that an utter lack of cooperation between municipalities has left us in a worse place than if we'd moved forward through compromise long ago.

Amazingly, at this point in the game, the parties seem to have determined that the only way to get anything done is for each municipality to develop its own part of the station and to forgo compromise and cooperation. That piecemeal approach should make the place look just swell, don't you think? A veritable hodgepodge of designs could ensue. And it teaches our youth so much about getting along.

If you thought pointless yet wasteful tugs of war were fought only inside the Beltway, you were mistaken.

2012 Aberdeen Township Zoning Board

The Aberdeen Township Council was to consider Resolution 2012-2 at its 2 January 2012 reorganization meeting. With that resolution, the Council would appoint Thomas Bucco, George Falco and Sherry Gotell to four year terms (2012-2015) on the zoning board and David Phillips to a two year term (2012-2013) as Alternate No 1.

Mr Bucco was to be a reappointment, his 2008-2011 tour having just expired. Harvey Brenner's tenure on the board had also just expired, but he didn't re-up. He was moving instead to the Township Council, having recently been elected. The origin of the third person's four year term must involve Laronda Hobson's 2008-2011 vacant slot on the board. Mr Phillips was replacing Mr Falco as Alternate No 1 as Mr Falco moves up to full board membership.

The zoning board's reorganization meeting is typically held on a Wed eve in mid- to late January, so a meeting is due in the next week or so. Nothing is posted on the Township website yet. A new chair and vice chair must be chosen. The board will also go through the motions of selecting its other officers: attorney, planner, secretary, et al.

Below is the list of last year's (2011) zoning board members as it appeared on the unmodified Zoning Board page of the Aberdeen Township website as of 4 January 2012. (Tenures of service have been added based on research in past Council minutes, as indicated at bottom.)

• Harvey Brenner (2008-2011) - Chair
• Henry Arnold (2010-2013) - Vice Chair
• Maureen Camillary (2011-2014)
• Thomas Bucco (2008-2011)
• Giusseppe (Joseph) Ciaglia (2009-2012)
• Lyle Phelps (2010-2013)
  
• George Falco (2010-2011) - Alternate No 1
• Maxine Rescorl - Secretary
• Marc Leckstein - Attorney
• CME Associates - Engineer
• Coppola & Coppola - Planner

Past Council minutes provide these details about the tenures of the 2011 members above:

• Maureen Camillary was to be appointed to a four year tour (2011-2014) by the Township Council at its 4 January 2011 meeting, per Resolution 2011-2.
• Henry Arnold and Lyle Phelps were to be appointed to four year tours (2010-2013) by the Township Council at its 1 January 2010 meeting, per Resolution 2010-10. George Falco was to become Alternate No 1 (2010-2011).
• The contents of Resolution 2009-2, which approved Zoning Board members that year, are unavailable online, but the intention to nominate Giussepe Ciaglia to a four year term (2009-2012) was contained in the 6 January 2009 Workshop Minutes.
• Harvey Brenner, Thomas Bucco, and Laronda Hobson were to be appointed to four year tours (2008-2011) by the Township Council at its , per Resolution 2008-8. Lisa Aviles was to fill the unexpired term of Edward Wysmierski (2008-2009) and Sam Vinson was to serve a two year term (2008-2009) as Alternate No 1.

2012 Aberdeen Township Planning Board

Aberdeen Township Council is making its annual adjustments to the membership of the Planning Board in its Resolution 2012-1.

• Fred Tagliarini remains as ex-officio Class I member (Mayor of Aberdeen Township).
• Robert Brady will be appointed to another year as the Class II member (Head of Public Works Department).
• Councilwoman Margaret Montone will be appointed to another year as the Class III member (Council representative).
• Arthur Hirsch and Joseph Vena are to be appointed to four-year terms (2012-2015) as Class IV members (At-large members). They will replace Peter Cusumano and Concetta Kelley, whose three-year and one-year terms, respectively, expire at the end of 2011. The 3 Feb 2011 edition of The Independent and the Matawan-Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce website both mention an Arthur "Artie" Hirsch as one of the owners of Snap Fitness in the ShopRite shopping center. A May 2010 edition of All-Fitness News referred to him as a new owner of Snap Fitness. This could be the new member of the board. There are numerous listings, including one at Loopnet, for an Arthur Hirsch working as a Weichert realtor in Aberdeen. Perhaps that is a previous career for Artie or a different person entirely? Vena is a well-known surname in Aberdeen but I didn't find any details about a Joseph except a minor Planning Board action in 2007. Ms Kelley is leaving the board to join the Township Council on 1 January 2012.
• Pedro Mirabel and William Shenton remain as Class IV (At-large) members til the end of their four-year terms (2010-2013). Mr Shenton served as chair of the 2011 Planning Board. What kind of land transaction was Mr Mirabel's Non-Usable Sale in September 2011? It appears on a NJ State Taxation report of some sort. The property appears to have sold for three times its assessed value.
• Wanda Sims will fill the unexpired term (2012) as a Class IV member (At-large member) of Robert Swindle, who is leaving the board to join the Town Council on 1 January 2012. Ms Sims seems to be the daughter of Councilwoman Wilhelmina Gumbs.
• Vincent Vinci is to be appointed to a two-year term (2012-13) as Alternate No 1.
• James DeMattia is to be appointed to a one-year term (2012) as Alternate No 2.

You're well advised to note the names of Class IV At-large members. Their position is a common stepping stone for Democratic candidates to Township Council positions. It would be nice if the Township website included some basic backgrounds on appointees to this board and Zoning.

Refer to my 5 January 2011 blog posting for more information about Planning Board resolutions in recent years.

A Dozen Years Wasted and Counting

One of the last actions of the current Aberdeen Township Council will be 2011-134, which proposes to send the train station redevelopment plan back to the Planning Board for reassessment. The Council proposes to resubmit the question to Coppola and Coppola Associates, the firm that determined the need for renewal in the first place more than 12 years ago.

You might say, "The Council could ask anyone in town if redevelopment is necessary. They don't need to pay experts to determine the obvious. Most people have known for a dozen years that something needed to be done to improve the train station area. They've only been waiting for ground to be broken." But the law under which the redevelopment is allegedly being conducted has changed, so the Township plan has become obsolete and must be reconsidered and reassembled at considerable cost and delay.

The lack of progress at the train station was a campaign issue in the fall. This resolution could not have been presented before election day without consequences for the Democratic ticket. Now that the election is over, this resolution is being enacted before the new slate takes office to minimize any tarnish. This holiday session will also assure few people will even know what happened.

And ultimately, reassessment of redevelopment does not guarantee that the Township Council will resolve its differences with the Borough and NJ Transit et al. It just puts us back to where we were 12 years ago. Where will we be in 2024?

MAPL Offers Many Useful Services - 2011 PSA

The Matawan Aberdeen Public Library beckons. Don't forget to drop in and take advantage of their many useful services and activities. The library is located at 165 Main Street at Park Avenue in downtown Matawan.

Cause An Uproar - Support NatGEO Campaign to Save the Big Cats

You can begin to Cause an Uproar by learning more about the dire situation with big cats, by "liking" the Cause an Uproad Facebook page, and by sending a donation however small to the cause to save the big cats.