Notable Women of Hunterdon County

Notable
WOMEN
Throughout the History
of Hunterdon County
Notable
WOMEN
Throughout the History
of Hunterdon County
HUNTERDON COUNTY
CULTURAL & HERITAGE COMMISSION
Stephanie B. Stevens, Chairman
Lawrence K. Carlbon
Frank A. Curcio
Beverly N. Drake
Janet M. Hunt
Estelle S. Katcher
Maude Kenyon
John Kuhl
Ann Sauerland
Donna M. Jenssen, Secretary
HUNTERDON COUNTY
BOARD OF CHOSEN FREEHOLDERS
Frank J. Fuzo
Marcia Karrow
George B. Melick
George Muller
Paul C. Sauerland, Jr.
2000
1
INTRODUCTION
The year 1995 was celebrated nationwide as the 75th anniversary of Women's
Suffrage. With this prestigious occasion in mind, it seemed appropriate that the
Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission should recognize the talents and
contributions of the women of our county. In the past century they have fought for social
and moral justice by establishing schools and libraries, demanding civil service reform, a
clean environment, abatement of child labor, welfare for the indigent, and, in general,
pressing their male counterparts to more civilized behavior toward society.
Because of their dedication to the cause of women's rights and their fight for the
right to vote, to own property, to obtain equal pay for equal work, today's young woman
is virtually assured of a more accepted place in the scholastic, business, and social
world.
Nominations for this written work were solicited throughout the county.
Organizations and individuals involved with every facet of life in Hunterdon were
contacted to nominate outstanding women. It soon became clear that the involvement
of women in all aspects of Hunterdon life was a moving and paramount factor to the
success of every social cause.
We believe this is a beginning of a long overdue tribute.
Stephanie B. Stevens, Chairman
Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission
2
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
While in the process of compiling this publication, many individuals and
organizations submitted information about outstanding women of Hunterdon County.
We thank you all.
The Commission is also indebted to Reba Bloom and former Commissioners
Kenneth Myers and J. Edward Stout for researching and writing a number of the
biographical listings; to Hunterdon County Democrat employee Karen Sheridan for her
assistance in locating additional information and photographs; and to the Hunterdon
County Democrat for permission to reproduce many of the photographs.
We offer special thanks to Robert Thurgarland and the County Printing
Department for enhancing the graphics and setting our words to print.
3
HARRIET STRATEMEYER ADAMS
Harriet was the daughter of the prolific children's book publisher Edward
Stratemeyer. He published his first volume in 1899 and by 1906 had 150 juvenile books
to his credit. Among his series were the popular series Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, The
Rover Boys and The Bobbsey Twins. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was renowned.
After graduation from Wellesley, Harriet worked for her father, editing manuscripts
he brought home from the office. When he died in 1930, Harriet and her sister Edna
Squire were the heirs of the Syndicate. They completed the manuscripts left by
Mr. Stratemeyer. Harriet began writing her own stories, and eventually took over the
family Syndicate.
Pen names she wrote under included Carolyn Keene in the Nancy Drew series,
Franklin Dixon in The Hardy Boys, Laura Lee Hope in The Bobbsey Twins, and May
Hollis Barton in Barton Books for Girls. Harriet Adams continued to write the books in
these various series until her death in 1982.
Nancy Drew became her favorite character and except for the three books created
by her father, Harriet Adams was the author of all the other Nancy Drew stories. The
books contained no violence, profanity or lying, and have continued to be favorites of
children everywhere. By 1980 Nancy Drew had sold 70,000,000 books in the United
States alone. As a child, Harriet Stratemeyer spent summers on a farm she loved in
Lebanon Township. As an adult, she purchased her own farm in Pottersville. It was
there that she died at the age of 89 in March 1982.
4
BETTY M. ANDERSON
After obtaining both a bachelor’s and a
master’s degree, Betty Anderson continued
during her summers to study more about
alcoholism. The subject was important to her and
was to become her life work and devotion.
As founder of the Hunterdon County Council
on Alcoholism, Betty Anderson literally worked
out of the trunk of her car where she stored her
film projector. Those were the days, in the early
70's, when a high-level meeting on alcoholism
would gather only enough people to fit around a
table.
Betty's devotion to the cause of alcohol and
drug abuse saw the programs expand not only in
Hunterdon but throughout the state. Where once
she had to battle for funding, now there is awareness that has loosened the private and
public pocketbooks. Monies now go to educate school children, prisoners, and families
of substance abusers.
Because of her cause, the Hunterdon Medical Center opened its Center for Drug
and Alcohol Abuse and chose Betty to direct the facility.
Recognizing her years of work and reputation, Betty was named “1988 Woman of
the Year” by the New Jersey Task Force on Women and Alcoholism.
Although this former Sergeantsville resident is now retired to Sarasota, FL, Betty's
selfless devotion and concern for the alcoholic has caused her many friends to name
Hunterdon's first halfway house for women alcoholics Anderson House.
5
ROSE Z. ANGELL
If the Hunterdon Medical Center had a single founder -the person who initiated the movement to create a hospital -that person was Rose Angell, the Director of Welfare for
Hunterdon County from 1932 until she retired in 1961 at the
age of 78.
She was a native of Mishicot, WI. Mrs. Angell received
her R.N. degree from Trinity Hospital in Milwaukee in 1903.
After two years as head of the operating room at Madison
General Hospital, she began to teach domestic science. In
the next several years, she was named Director of the
Milwaukee Society for the Care of the Sick, organized the
Retired Nurses Emergency League, and opened a school for
"cadet nurses" (the equivalent of practical nurses) in order to
provide home care for those who could not afford "trained"
nurses. Mrs. Angell, along with her husband and three
children, moved to Hunterdon in 1924, and remained at her Story Brook Farm home in
the Woodglen section of Lebanon Township until her death in 1965.
In 1932, Mrs. Angell's extensive experience in nursing and welfare was brought to a
focus when she was asked to inaugurate the Hunterdon County Welfare Department. In
addition, she was a charter member of the county Mental Health Association, the
Homemakers Society, and the state Welfare Council. She also founded her local P.T.A.
In administering the county's appropriation for hospitalization of people who could
not pay, she was forced to deal with a problem which nobody had the courage to
challenge -- that of providing an in-county hospital. And she proceeded to look for the
answer to this problem.
In 1942, just a few months after Pearl Harbor, Mrs. Angell wrote to the director of
the Commonwealth Fund, known for its pioneering program in establishing rural
hospitals. She requested consideration for the program, and described the then-current
method of providing hospital care for the indigent, in four hospitals in neighboring
counties. At the time of the letter, a total of $9,800 was appropriated each year for care.
It was felt that Mrs. Angell and her staff obtained the utmost in value from a very limited
budget.
The director of the fund indicated that they would back only one hospital a year;
they had already chosen one for the year, and their plans for continuing were quite
uncertain. However, Mrs. Angell refused to let the goal of bringing a hospital to
Hunterdon drop. Only four years later, she and Mrs. Louise Leicester brought such a
proposal to the County Board of Agriculture. And that organization, which agreed to
study the need, took on the job of pushing for a hospital with widespread community
support. It was Rose Angell's ideas which gathered momentum and resulted in the
distinguished institution known as Hunterdon Medical Center.
(See Hunterdon Medical Center Founders, page 81, for more information.)
6
ELIZABETH MONROE BOGGS
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1913 to a socially and
intellectually prominent family, it soon became evident that
Elizabeth was a gifted youngster. Her early education laid
great stress on academic achievement. With this excellent
preparation, she went on to Bryn Mawr College where she
was graduated summa cum laude in 1935, with distinction
in mathematics. At that time, American universities were
not encouraging to women of great academic abilities –
especially in her chosen field of theoretical chemistry. She
went on to Cambridge University in England, where she
was the only woman in that program at the time. Although
Cambridge welcomed her, as a woman, she was denied full
membership in the University and not given the same
degree as similarly educated men, an injustice rectified
after the war.
Completing her studies in 1939, and having secured a position at Cornell University,
Elizabeth was asked to stay in England to do secret work on explosives. Europe was at
war, and England needed her scientific training to help with the war effort. This she did.
Many months later, she returned home to the United States and headed for Cornell.
There she shared an office with a graduate student named Fitzhugh Boggs. A fellow
scientist, Fitzhugh had grown up in France and shared Elizabeth’s concern for Europe
at war.
They were married in September 1941 just before the United States entered into the
war. Throughout the World War II both worked on secret projects, which neither could
discuss with the other! Fitzhugh was involved in developing devices to jam German
radar, and Elizabeth was peripherally involved in the Manhattan Project, America’s
successful effort to build an atomic bomb.
Their son David was born in 1945. Unknown to Elizabeth, the joyful birth of this
normal child was to change her life focus forever. As a tiny baby David developed a
severe brain infection. He was treated with penicillin -- a new miracle drug -- and
survived the disease only to be profoundly retarded and multiply handicapped for life.
Turning her talents towards education of the handicapped, Elizabeth founded the
first classes for the “trainable mentally retarded” in 1950 in Essex County, NJ. She also
participated that year in the founding of the national Association for Retarded Citizens –
now known as the ARC. In 1968 she was elected national president of ARC, and
became a resident of Hunterdon County.
Choosing to advocate for people with developmental disabilities and their families,
rather than continue with theoretical chemistry, Elizabeth quickly rose to national
prominence. In 1960, during the Kennedy administration, she was selected to sit on the
President’s panel on mental retardation. Quickly she became a Washington insider,
working with several administrations and with Congress to create legislation for those
with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
7
The sixties and seventies saw Elizabeth Boggs active in the work of the International
League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicaps. She was one of a small group
that wrote the Developmental Disabilities Act and shepherded it through Congress;
Nixon signed it in 1970. In 1971 she was the recipient of the Kennedy International
Award for Leadership, The Distinguished Public Service Award from the US Dept. of
Health, Education and Welfare, and The Distinguished Service Award, United Cerebral
Palsy Associations, Inc.
In New Jersey, Elizabeth served on the Governor’s Task Force on Services to
Persons with Disabilities, The Governor’s Advisory Committee to the Vocational
Rehabilitation Planning Project that produced the Second Half Century: A Plan for
Vocational Rehabilitation to 1975 and Beyond, The New Jersey Developmental
Disabilities Council, State Human Services Advisory Council, State Association for
Retarded Citizens, and NJ Governor’s Council on Welfare Management. The list goes
on. Dr. Boggs has chaired or served on every council and committee both nationally,
internationally, state and countywide that deals with developmental disabilities. Locally,
she served as member and chairman of the county Health and Human Services
Advisory Council, and was a member of the county Mental Health Board.
Dr. Boggs took courses in special education at Kean College and in social work
administration at Rutgers. She traveled throughout the United States and abroad,
speaking for new programs for the mentally retarded. She was credited with inventing
the phrase "developmental disabilities" to distinguish retardation from mental illness.
Her work in the field of the disabled person garnered Dr. Boggs numerous citations
nationally, and honorary degrees from Kean College, Ohio State University and the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She received a Golden Award from
the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce in 1991. Her array of awards and honors
would be difficult to match anywhere. Elizabeth Boggs was a single-minded, brilliant
woman whose vast talents have served the cause of the disabled worldwide.
David Boggs’ disability was the vehicle through which the world has benefited. It
caused the unfolding of an intellectual giant and a five-decade dedication to the cause
of the developmentally disabled that has recognized and improved the very existence of
the disabled person.
She died January 27, 1996, from injuries received in an automobile accident near
her home in Union Township.
8
MARY WOOLVERTON BRAY
She was 15 and he was 20 when Mary Woolverton
married Daniel Bray at Ringoes in 1772. Her first home
was a log house he built in Kingwood. When the
Revolutionary War broke out, she was expecting their
second child; he was away on various "tours" of military
duty.
Like so many of her contemporaries, Mary
Woolverton Bray was only a teenager with a husband
who went to war for a cause that proved to be just. She
bore his children -- 13 of them, and took care of the farm
chores while he fought, no doubt fearing possible
reprisals from bands of marauding Redcoats or Loyalists.
After the war, Daniel built her a larger stone house
down the road in Kingwood. In her petition for a widow's
pension in 1838, she listed his "tours" in Princeton,
Paramus, Woodbridge, New Brunswick and Monmouth.
But it was that icy Christmas night when her young husband retrieved the boats he had
hidden for George Washington's fabled crossing of the Delaware River that must have
strained her nerve and character to the fullest.
She lived until 1840 and is buried next to her husband in the Rosemont Cemetery.
Mary Woolverton Bray personifies the strong character of the women whose husbands
left home to fight for liberty. The women took care of the children, the farm, the crops
and the animals, and maintained great courage in the face of uncertainty.
They too were heroes.
9
VALERIE L. BROWN
Ms. Brown, a relative newcomer to Hunterdon
County, makes her home in Lambertville. She was
born 16 November 1955 in New York and has not
forgotten her roots. As a black woman from a
broken home in a tough "melting pot" neighborhood
of Brooklyn, Ms. Brown became a powerful
advocate for the poor and the voiceless. Because
of her efforts she was awarded the 1994 Equal
Justice Medal from Legal Services of New Jersey.
Educated at The City College of New York,
with a Master of Arts degree from Miami University
of Ohio and a Jurum Doctor from Howard
University, Ms. Brown serves as legislative counsel
to the New Jersey State Bar Association.
During her tenure with the Bar Association she
has designed and managed a comprehensive government relations program for a
20,000-member nonprofit organization. Her expertise leads to extensive public
speaking engagements as well as strategic planning for issues before the Legislature.
In the course of her employment she has been a strong force in strengthening the
Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, revising New Jersey's adoption laws, legalizing
the use of living wills in New Jersey, and increasing the penalties for the unauthorized
practice of law in New Jersey.
Previous to her association with the New Jersey Bar Association she served as
Associate Director of Policy Research, New Jersey State College Governing Boards
Association. Performing research and analysis for the nine state college presidents was
but one of the important tasks delegated to this young woman. She also monitored
federal and state legislation and regulation for the Boards, published a monthly report to
state college presidents on legal and legislative affairs, and developed and coordinated
research with the Board of Higher Education.
10
RUTH CARPENTER
Ruth Carpenter, New Jersey's first woman sheriff, was born in
Bernardsville, NJ, on 6 December 1918. She graduated from
Clinton High School and went on to Rider College. Her career was
launched as a legal secretary for Wesley L. Lance of Clinton. In
1959 she began working for Sheriff John Lea in that same
capacity, and continued until 1961 when he appointed her
undersheriff. She continued in that post -- serving under Lea's
successor, Sheriff Ervin Wright -- until he became ill in 1977. At
that time he designated her acting sheriff. After Sheriff Wright's
death, Mrs. Carpenter was elected to the first of two 3-year terms
as sheriff.
Her duties required the serving of legal papers, conducting
sheriff's sales which required technical and legal knowledge, and
providing officers to escort prisoners and guard the courts.
When Mrs. Carpenter retired in 1983, of the eight women
sheriffs in the nation, she had been in office the longest period of time. Her career was
colorful, and she drew much national attention to New Jersey and Hunterdon County.
Her signature cowboy’s hat and earrings will be remembered by all.
After leaving office, Sheriff Carpenter, who had been a longtime resident of Glen
Gardner, moved to Raritan Township for a short period of time before retiring to Florida
with her husband, John. She is the mother of John, Robert and Phyllis and has six
grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
11
SARAH CLARK CASE
In 1799 Sarah Clark married Phillip Case, whose father
John Phillip Case was the earliest white settler in
Flemington.
They later moved to Bethlehem Township, the area
that is now Union Township, where the stone bank house
Phillip built for Sarah still stands today.
Eighteenth century physicians generally obtained
training through apprenticeship with other physicians. This
changed in 1772, when the colony of New Jersey was the
first to set up a rudimentary system of examination and
licensing of physicians.
Without these qualifications,
physicians could not practice as professionals. To make
the process more effective, the courts transferred the
granting of these licenses to the New Jersey Medical
Society in 1816. That same year Sarah Clark Case was
granted a medical license -- making her the first licensed female physician in Hunterdon
-- and one of the earliest in New Jersey.
Since medical help in rural Hunterdon County was scarce in the early 19th century,
previous to her licensing Sarah served her neighbors as nurse and midwife. Described
as "a woman of good common sense," her reputation for excellent medical care had
patients requesting that she prescribe medicine. Her loyal following among patients and
physicians was certainly instrumental in the Medical Society’s granting a license to
Sarah.
Sarah Case devoted herself to the health of her patients until old age. She died in
1859 at the age of 83, never knowing that her grandson, Nathan Case, would follow in
her footsteps as a physician.
12
LOUISA BAUER COLE
Louisa Bauer Cole was born on a farm in Pleasant Run,
Readington Township. As a young girl she joined the Hunterdon
County 4-H Sheep Club and has been in 4-H ever since. For
more than 40 years she has been a leader of the Sheep Club.
Louisa initiated the 4-H Junior Leaders' Association in
Hunterdon County, serving for many years as leader of Home
Economics and the Hunterdon Hoppers 4-H Rabbit Club.
As a member of the Hunterdon County 4-H Leaders'
Association, she has held every office and leadership position
while simultaneously chairing county committees and events.
Mrs. Cole serves as president of the State 4-H Leaders'
Association and has organized club exhibits at Pops Concerts.
She has coached and chaperoned the N.J. Horticulture I.D.
Team at the National Horticulture contest. Louisa worked on the
committee that organized the 1993 North East Regional 4-H
Leaders' Forum in New Jersey and participated in a National Policy Session in
Washington at the request of the Director of the Extension Service.
Louisa Cole's hard work and continuing dedication to 4-H and kids is legend, so
much so that she was named the "1992 New Jersey Friend of 4-H." And in 1998, she
was honored with the Golden Award of the Chamber of Commerce.
13
HELEN CONKLING
Mrs. Conkling was born in Jersey City, NJ in
1910, and was graduated from Battin High School,
Elizabeth, NJ, and Pace University, NYC. She
began her 26-year career as a legal secretary -working first for Wesley L. Lance in Glen Gardner,
NJ, and later for Anthony Hauck, a Clinton, NJ
attorney who served as the county prosecutor
during the famous Lindbergh kidnapping trial. She
was last employed by Charles Summerill, a Clinton
attorney who at that time was municipal court
judge.
After retiring, Mrs. Conkling became interested
in local politics. She was elected mayor of Glen
Gardner, a position she held for 12 years from
1960 to 1972.
She was a member of the County Republican Committee from Glen Gardner for 34
years. As a 21-year member of the Clinton Woman's Club, serving as scholarship
chairman for the nursing program, she further expressed her interest and service to her
community.
Mrs. Conkling was a dedicated member of her community and a devoted wife to her
husband, George, for 58 years. She died in 1992.
14
ALMENA CRANE
A Cornell University home economics/education major, Almena Crane probably
never imagined what an extraordinary life she would lead when she arrived in Pittstown,
NJ as a young bride in 1930 to begin life with her new husband, Donald, on their 200acre poultry farm.
Tragically, 12 years later in 1942, she found herself a widow with two young
children. Almena made a major decision to operate the farm on her own, which she did
until 1973 when she moved to Flemington.
Thus began a chain of events leading to involvement and awards from numerous
agricultural and other organizations, which would keep her busy until the end of her life
on 20 October, 1993.
After being named "NJ's Mother of the Year" in 1955, she said to her daughter
regarding her many activities: "They aren't the sort of things you do for glory. You do
them because they have to be done."
In 1939 she became president of Franklin Township School P.T.A., and at 85 was
its oldest surviving past president.
She began serving on the Hunterdon County Library Commission in 1943, retiring in
1965, but continuing her close association through Friends of the Library until 1973.
She was chosen runner up "NEPPCO Poultry Woman of the Year" (Northeastern
Poultry Producers Council Exposition) in 1956.
At a convention of the Associated Country Women of the World in 1959, she
represented the U.S. Farm Bureau in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mrs. Crane held membership in various organizations: Rural Advisory Council,
State Department of Agriculture, Executive Committee of the Hunterdon County Board
of Agriculture, and National Women's Committee of the American Farm Bureau
Federation. She was past president of the NJ Associated Women of Agriculture, and
vice-chair of the American Farm Bureau Women. Mrs. Crane helped spearhead the
organization of North Hunterdon Regional High School and Hunterdon Medical Center.
In 1990 she was in her 37th year as a member of the Board of Trustees at Hunterdon
Medical Center.
While Mrs. Crane had taken painting courses as a coed at Cornell University, she
didn't paint again until after her library retirement in 1973, when she began painting farm
and seashore themes in oils and acrylics.
Mrs. Crane worked on a radio program for senior citizens. As the Wheel Turns was
pre-recorded and transmitted to the airwaves five days per week from Hunterdon
Central Regional High School.
15
LOUISE DAHL-WOLFE
She flew all over the world, photographing the striking models in their beautiful
clothes for the pages and covers of the leading fashion magazines. Yet it was to their
home in the quiet country near Frenchtown that Louise Dahl-Wolfe returned between
assignments and to which she and her husband retired in the mid-70's.
The Wolfes met in North Africa where Meyer Wolfe, a painter and sculptor, was
working. In their more than 40 years of marriage, he designed many of the sets and
backgrounds that she used for her photographs. He recalled that "she had a special
feeling for color and would coordinate the clothes and the set background."
One of her first projects, "Tennessee Mountain Woman," was photographed near
the Great Smoky Mountains. It appeared in Vanity Fair magazine in 1933, and became
one of the most talked-about photographs of the year. Immediately after that, she went
to work for Saks Fifth Avenue, to show the store's latest fashions.
And for a different view, she photographed food for the Woman's Home Companion.
She found that one of her toughest assignments. "I had to climb up and down ladders
all day -- because you shoot down. Often the food had to be artificially glazed in order
to photograph properly."
From 1936 to 1958, she worked for Harper's Bazaar, photographing some of the
most famous models of the day. In addition, her portrait work included such celebrities
as Katherine Cornell, Paul Robeson, Senator John F. Kennedy, and Jacqueline Bouvier
who became Mrs. Kennedy.
In 1943, she did a photographic study of 17-year-old Betty Bacall, who became the
popular stage and screen star, Lauren Bacall. The friendship continued for the
remainder of Louise-Dahl Wolfe's life.
When she retired, Louise Dahl-Wolfe became an active member of the League of
Women Voters. She learned to sew her own clothes and began to learn bookbinding,
with the intention of presenting large albums of her photographs to the Fashion Institute
of Technology in New York as a history of fashion.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
American, 1895-1989
Mrs. Ramsey, Gatlinburg, TN, 1933
Original title: Tennessee Mountain Woman
silverprint
16
MAUD DAHME
Maud Dahme is the first woman from Hunterdon
County to be appointed to the New Jersey State Board of
Education.
The Clinton resident served a distinguished eight years
on the North Hunterdon Board of Education. Mrs. Dahme
was elevated to the State Board in 1983, where she
continues to serve the citizens of New Jersey.
During 1995, Mrs. Dahme was elected president of the
National Association of State Boards of Education. As the
first person from New Jersey ever to attain that office, she
was honored by both the State Senate and the Assembly.
In 1998 she served as president of the Interstate Migrant
Education Council, which deals nationwide with the
problem of education for children of migrant workers. Mrs.
Dahme has also held the offices of vice-chairman and
president of the State Board.
Her credentials include community involvement on all levels. She has served on
the Clinton Township Council, the Board of Adjustment, Board of Health, Cable TV
Committee, and boards of several county charities.
Perhaps the most interesting facet of Maud's life is her childhood. Born in Holland
in 1936, she was a toddler when Hitler declared war in Europe. Since she was a Jew,
schooling was denied to her. From 1942 until 1945 she was one of the many Jewish
Dutch children hidden away by Dutch Christians. Finally, at age nine when she had
mastered the local Dutch dialect and the war was coming to an end, Maud was allowed
to attend school. By 1950 she and her parents emigrated to America, where they
settled in New York City.
In 1994 she was chosen from a select group of leading American educators to
serve on the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, and speaks to students
and adults about her experiences as a hidden child during World War II in Holland.
Married in 1957 on the TV show Bride and Groom to Hans Dahme, she is the
mother of four and grandmother of six.
Her personal philosophy of "Be involved, give of yourself" has carried her through a
life of commitment to her community.
17
ROSEMARIE DOREMUS
For more than twenty years, Flemington resident
Rosemarie Doremus has worked tirelessly to improve
the quality of life for Hunterdon County senior citizens.
First as director of the Meals on Wheels program, then
as the first director of the Senior Multi-Purpose Center;
and since 1985 as executive director of the Hunterdon
County Office on Aging, Rosemarie has initiated
countless programs, activities and services to assure
that older persons can continue to reside in the
community in dignity.
Rosemarie's efforts have not been confined to
improving life only for the seniors of Hunterdon County.
For many years she has been an active member of the
New Jersey Association of Area Agencies on Aging,
and has served as its president.
Through that
organization, legislation and policy affecting all the state's elderly have been addressed.
Rosemarie has served on the Executive Board of the National Association of Area
Agencies on Aging, which advocates for national measures beneficial to the older adult
population. She has conferred with legislative representatives in Washington, DC, and
met with national leaders in the Aging Network. She stands and speaks out for what
she believes is right.
While Rosemarie is an enthusiastic and dynamic leader at the national, state, and
local levels, her primary concern is for the individual seniors with whom she comes in
contact. She always has time to hear the good news and the bad, the hopeful and the
sad. Her affection is sincere. According to Rosemarie, who was born 29 May 1933,
she "grew up with a fond respect, just a wonderful feeling about older people. My
grandparents spent lots of time with me, instilling a respect for the elderly."
No tribute to Rosemarie would be complete without commending her devotion to
her family. She is beloved by her children and grandchildren alike, and she has carried
on traditions handed down by her parents, and by their parents before them. She
considers her office staff her "second family," and her management style reflects that
caring.
18
BERYL L. DOYLE
There may never have been even the idea of parklands or
the preservation of open space for the use and appreciation of
generations to come if it had not been for the tireless energy
more than two decades ago of Raritan Township resident Beryl
Doyle.
She arrived in Hunterdon County in 1958 from Wisconsin
with her equally energetic physician husband. In the next few
years she became the mother of three sons.
Mrs. Doyle recalled that her interest in land preservation
was piqued in 1972, when she learned that the school board for
Raritan Township was thinking of putting a new middle school
on Route 12, close to land that was part open and part woods.
In addition, a total of 17 townhouses were to be constructed
between the elementary school in Flemington and Bonnell
Street. With her leadership, a Flemington-Raritan recreation
task force was created to develop an open space plan for a nearby 10 acres.
In 1977, with the help of a Green Acres matching grant of $7,000 ("a long, tedious
effort to raise the money," she said), it was finally possible to gain land in both
Flemington and Raritan Township. With further effort -- particularly from the Citizens of
Parkland and another Green Acres grant -- there was developed a greenway belt and
the Bernadette Morales Park for outdoor recreation.
With the explosive growth of building in Hunterdon County, she has been very
active on the Solid Waste Advisory Council. Mrs. Doyle continues her work on behalf of
all Hunterdon County citizens to expand recreation areas and parkland, most recently
leading the movement for the preservation of the Dvoor farm in Flemington.
19
WANDA GAG (HUMPHREYS)
Wanda Gag, the author and illustrator of that perennial
children's favorite, Millions of Cats, lived in Hunterdon County
for 20 years until her early death at the age of 53.
She was the daughter of a German artist who settled in
New Ulm, MN. As a young woman her artistic talents were
quite evident. She trained at art schools in St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and later at the Art Students League in New
York.
In 1926, Wanda Gag rented her first country house in
Hunterdon. This rural area was said to remind her of her
native Minnesota. By 1928, she had bought All Creation in
Milford, where she lived until her death. It was here that she
created her famous Millions of Cats. The solitude and
pristine beauty of Hunterdon allowed her to create not only
children’s books but gave expression to lithographs which
drew heavily on her native Minnesota.
Millions of Cats illustrates how Gag devised techniques that would become basic
not only to her books but to all children’s picture books from that time forward.
Imaginative use of the two-page spread, hand-lettered text, the use of black ink (rather
than color) on white paper, the integration of the cover, end papers, illustrations and
story into a whole created a new method in the composition of children's books.
Almost 100 prints and lithographs are attributed to the talented Wanda Gag, most of
them reside in museum collections throughout the United States. Drawing mainly on
her rural heritage in New Ulm, MN, her lithographs celebrated plowed fields and
grandparent's room with equal joy.
Her early diaries, a study of adolescence in difficult times, were published under the
title Growing Pains in 1940.
The 1993 centenary of Wanda Gag’s birth inspired Karen Nelson Hoyle to write an
academic study of Gag’s literary achievements. Titled simply Wanda Gag it joins a
catalogue of her prints by Audur H. Winnans in establishing a secure niche in the world
of literary and visual art for an artist whose fame is derived mainly from children’s books.
Miss Gag was married to Earle Humphreys in August 1943. She died in June of
1946. Her children's books and lithographs have lived on; her fame has never died!
20
PAULINE ROHM GOGER
The first -- and for ten years -- the only female physician on the staff of the
Hunterdon Medical Center, Dr. Pauline Goger was raised in Connellsville, a small town
in western Pennsylvania. After receiving a degree in zoology from Oberlin and a M.A.
from Wellesley, she began work towards a doctorate in genetics at the University of
Pennsylvania, which she was awarded in 1942. In the next few years, Dr. Goger taught
at colleges in Boston, met and married her husband Milton, moved to New Jersey where
she taught at Rutgers, and then started medical school at New York University. She
was graduated in 1950, second in her class. Her postgraduate training was at Bellevue
Hospital in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
One morning her husband heard on the radio about a new hospital in Flemington,
which was to be affiliated with New York University Medical School. She soon realized
that this was a place where she could use her unique training. She was engaged for the
Chronic Illness Survey, providing examinations on patients who had been selected by
countywide sampling. In addition, she received a grant from the state to set up a clinic
for patients with rheumatic heart disease. Eventually, she became a full-time member
of the Department of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Groger felt strongly that gender discrimination was quite evident in her early
years at the Medical Center. It was ten years before the second female physician was
appointed. In fact, when she was considering the initial offer from Hunterdon, her
mentor at Bellevue warned her that "they're (the men) going to give you a rough
time." (It should be noted that at that time -- the late 40's -- Yale and Harvard were not
admitting women medical students, and Johns Hopkins had said she was too old.) In
other subtle ways, she felt there was an "attitude" among her associates.
However, they also learned that she could be relied upon to be effective in
common-sense management. She spoke her mind with blunt vigor and honesty. And
the family doctors regarded her as well-trained and easy to get along with, who would
do her best no matter what the task.
After she retired from practice, she founded an employee health service at
Hunterdon, and managed this service for a number of years. She became physically
impaired, but continued to live alone in her home with the help of a devoted group of
neighbors who cared for her until her death in 1996.
21
NESSA GRAINGER
A native of Philadelphia, Nessa Grainger was already a wellknown and respected artist when she and her husband, Murray,
moved from West Orange to Tewksbury Township in 1985. She
received a classic art education with a B.F.A. from the Philadelphia
Museum School of Art, and studied at Tyler School of Fine Arts and
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Her early work was representational. Feeling the need to
explore something different, she found the answer in abstract
watercolor, to which she later added collage. Inspired by the
unspoiled natural world, especially in the Southwest, she expresses
what she has seen and what she has imagined. Her paintings are
based on the vastness and color of rocks and the striations in them
caused by the wind, the shape of the mountains, the rain, the rivers,
the distance, the massiveness, and the changing of light and
shadows.
Mrs. Grainger has had solo exhibitions of her work at the Elliot Museum in Stuart,
FL; Oldwick's Bosworth-Sans Gallery; the Interchurch Center in New York; Douglas
College; Mutual Benefit Life; Chubb Corporation; Nathan's Gallery; the Bergen Museum;
and has exhibited in shows in New Jersey, New York, California, Indiana, and Ohio.
Her paintings are in the permanent collections of museums throughout the country and
in China, as well as in private collections in America, Mexico, Israel, Holland, India,
England, and Switzerland.
She served as president of the National Association of Women Artists and the New
Jersey Watercolor Society, and has held office in the Allied Artists Program and
Audobon Artists. A six-time recipient of the National Association of Women Artists' Gold
Medal of Honor, she has also received many awards from art societies.
In Hunterdon County, she has been an active member of the Hunterdon Museum of
Art, Tewksbury Historical Society, and the New Jersey Printmaking Council. Mrs.
Grainger was one of five artists invited to participate in the 1994 show sponsored by the
Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission.
22
JUNE AMOS GRAMMER
Artist-designer June Amos Grammer was born
in Woodbury, Gloucester County, NJ in 1927 and
raised in Fort Worth, TX. After graduation from
North Texas Agricultural College with a degree in
advertising, she moved to New York City, where
she spent the next 25 years working in fashion and
children's book illustration. She was art director for
the Franklin Simon department stores and design
illustrator for the promotion department at Harper's
Bazaar magazine. She taught fashion illustration
at Parsons School of Design for ten years.
An interest in antique dolls prompted her to
study and draw them. This lead to Lenox China
asking her to design porcelain dolls. The dolls,
introduced in 1981, have become prized collectors'
items. At the time of her death she was creating several lines of dolls for the Seymour
Mann Company. June was known in the area as a speaker on doll design and doll
making. She was also recognized for her designs for greeting cards, Christmas
ornaments, books, jewelry and macrame. In 1983, she did the cover and beautiful
illustrations for a book about a doll by Mary Mapes Dodge.
In 1962 she and her artist husband, George, purchased the defunct 1880's
Cokesbury Presbyterian Church in Tewksbury Township from the Cokesbury Methodist
Church, which had been using it as a community center and Sunday school. The
couple devoted years to turning it into a weekend home, with studios in the loft and
living quarters on the main floor. The church/home still kept its original stained glass
windows. A prized possession was a motto embroidered by a friend stating "Church
Sweet Church." The couple maintained an apartment in New York City, where they
stayed weekdays, while weekends and off-time were spent in Cokesbury. Once she
started spending weekends in Hunterdon County, June became active with the
Hunterdon Museum of Art. Over the years her works were shown in numerous exhibits
there.
She died on 9 November 1993, at the age of 66. Memorial services celebrating her
life were held at the National Arts Club in New York.
23
ELIZABETH GRANDIN
A descendent of one of Hunterdon County's oldest families,
Elizabeth Grandin was instrumental in opening and financing the
Grandin Library in the town of Clinton. (The library was named for
her uncle, Daniel Grandin.) She was a recognized artist early in the
century when few women were acknowledged. Although in her later
years she taught painting in her Clinton art school, the library was
her first love. She bequeathed to it her estate in order to nourish the
endowment fund.
As a young child, Elizabeth Grandin was educated at Miss
Dana's School in Morristown. It was there that she received her
earliest art instruction. She later studied art in Paris, Madrid and
New York, working with such famous artists as Robert Henri,
William Merritt Chase, John Sloan and Rockwell Kent. While living
in Paris, she opened an art studio and later operated another studio
in New York. She was one of the founders of the New York Society
of Women Artists.
During the 1920's and 30's, Miss Grandin maintained an apartment in Greenwich
Village, but each summer returned to her family farm in Hamden. When her half-sister
became ill, Miss Grandin gave up what was becoming a promising career and moved
home to Hunterdon permanently to care for her. She spent the rest of her life in Clinton
where she taught art, was active in many organizations and devoted herself to the
library. She died in May 1970, at the age of 82.
24
LELA GREENWOOD
Miss Greenwood -- no one ever called her anything else -- was born in 1906 on a
160-acre farm near the village of Oxford, IN. After attending the nearby one-room
schoolhouse and then the village highschool, she enrolled in Indiana University, earning
a degree in Romance Languages. But she had always wanted to be a nurse, and on
the recommendation of her family doctor, entered Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing
in New York.
After graduation with honors, she remained on the staff, and quickly rose to the
position of nursing supervisor of the medical building. She was in charge of 13 wards of
a 500-bed building. In addition, she co-authored two nursing textbooks and was in
charge of the medical nursing staff throughout World War II. After the war, she earned
a master’s degree from Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1950 she became
Supervisor of Clinical Instruction for the School of Nursing.
She had a call one day in 1952 from her personal physician to discuss some
thoughts on nursing care for a proposed new hospital in Flemington, NJ. Was she
interested in becoming the Director of Nursing? Initially, she thought not. However, she
went home "and, I thought, it was in the country. I was born in the country. I loved it,
and I thought, why not?" After meeting with Medical Center board members, she was
offered and accepted the job.
Miss Greenwood was asked to create a nursing staff from ground zero. She looked
around in the community and found an amazing number of nurses who married farmers
and had to give up nursing because they were too far away from hospitals. By the time
the hospital opened in July, she had assembled a staff of 53 -- 34 registered nurses plus
practical nurses, aides and clerks. In addition, she had to order supplies and
equipment, and meet continually with the new medical staff and administration.
With her strong encouragement and support, the Medical Center became one of the
first in the country to offer rooming-in for parents of hospitalized children. One of the
head nurses recalled of Miss Greenwood, "The patients always came first. She set up
this place so that new patients would get immediate attention when they needed it."
The first Chief of Internal Medicine recalled that "she was a person who got along
well with other people, who was not aggressive, yet firm... She was a person of
intelligence. She knew how to 'handle' doctors in the way the older nurses knew how to
handle them. Those nurses were in charge and we knew it.... She was a lady in the best
sense of that word. Women don't like to hear that today, but there is a distinction. She
was also a good leader."
Miss Greenwood was always
interested in professional activities.
She served two terms as president
of District 3 of the state nurses’
association.
Miss Greenwood
remained single, and on her
retirement, continued to live in the
home she had bought near
Annandale. She later moved to an
assisted living community, and
died there in 1997.
25
EONE HARGER
A pioneer in providing services for the older population, in
1994 Eone Harger was honored as "Gerontologist of the Year"
by the New Jersey Society on Aging.
The former Clinton Township resident, who lives in
Washington, DC, was the first director of the New Jersey Office
on Aging, from 1958 to 1970, and developed the program that
led to creation of county offices on aging in New Jersey and
throughout the country.
She is credited with "decentralizing" and "regionalizing"
agencies for the elderly and establishing county offices that
became "a national model."
Mrs. Harger also organized seminars that involved colleges
and universities in the problems of older citizens, took part in
and spoke at national hearings and conferences -- including a
discussion with President John Kennedy at the White House,
taught English and journalism, conducted adult education courses keyed to older
citizens, and published numerous articles in professional journals.
She continued to serve others after her retirement. With her own eyesight affected
by macular degeneration in recent years, Mrs. Harger organized a low-vision clinic and
support group.
The New Jersey Society on Aging, formerly the New Jersey Gerontological
Association, which Mrs. Harger helped organize, is a non-profit association made up of
educators, administrators and others who have a professional or personal interest in the
elderly.
Mrs. Harger, a graduate of Oberlin College, did graduate studies at the University of
Chicago, Brandeis University, and the University of Southern California.
She and her husband, James, whom she met in college, lived in Ridgewood before
moving to their home, Halcyon Acres, in Allerton. They raised a son and two daughters
and were active in community and cultural affairs.
Mrs. Harger was also active in politics. She was a Democratic state committeewoman from Hunterdon, and in 1971 ran for the state Assembly against the late
Walter E. Foran of Flemington.
26
ELLA M. HAVER
Educator and civic leader Ella Haver played many roles in
the life of Hunterdon County. She was born in Franklin
Township in 1913, lived in Clinton for more than 50 years, and
then moved back to the township in 1965. She was graduated
from Clinton High School, received a degree from Montclair
State Teachers College in 1934, and her master's degree from
Teachers College of Columbia University in 1945.
Miss Haver taught at schools in Hamden,
North Branch, and Green Brook, and then -- concentrating on
science, biology and chemistry -- at schools in North Plainfield,
Cranford and Warren Hills. She also taught Sunday school
and vacation Bible school. After retiring from teaching, she
obtained real estate and insurance licenses.
The niece of Hunterdon County "helping teacher" Jennie
Haver, she became president of the Jennie Haver Memorial
Scholarship Fund in 1971 -- which has raised $572,310 since its inception in 1942,
providing scholarships to 279 students from county high schools.
In 1988 the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce honored her with its Golden
Award. Among her other civic activities, she is senior coordinator for Franklin Township
and serves on its recreation commission and board of assistance. Miss Haver is a
member of the Hunterdon County Retired Educators, Council of Parents and Teachers,
Chrysanthemum Society, and Flemington AARP.
27
JENNIE M. HAVER
Jennie Haver (June 13, 1888 - Dec. 31, 1956)
was New Jersey's first "helping teacher."
Appointed in 1916, Miss Haver traveled throughout
the districts of Hunterdon County literally helping
rural elementary teachers to perfect their skills. Hers
was an invaluable service to the isolated rural
teacher whose access to modern teaching methods
was practically non-existent.
Rural schools were very primitive in the earlier
part of this century. Over the years, at least fifteen
one-room schoolhouses were abandoned in favor of
consolidation, which allowed for more sanitary
conditions and modern instruction.
Miss Haver's influence in education was
enormous. During her years as helping teacher she
supervised schools in Alexandria, Bethlehem, Holland, Lebanon, Union Townships as
well as Califon, Glen Gardner, and Lebanon Boroughs.
Upon her retirement in 1950, the county superintendent of schools said of Miss
Haver that she "...has exerted an untold influence for good in the lives of children over
the years."
An excellent teacher, she also wrote for education magazines and was an ardent
traveler.
As a fitting tribute to one who devoted her life to education, the Jennie Haver
Memorial Scholarship Fund was established. Since 1959 an annual All County High
School Revue, sponsored and performed by Hunterdon's high school students, has
helped to raise $572,310 in scholarship money.
28
JILL HENNEBERG
Jill Henneberg is a talented equestrian.
When she was barely out of the Young Riders classification, Jill rode her grey mare,
Nirvana II, in her first Olympics. July 23, 1996 was a big day for Jill. Unfortunately for
the 21-year-old self-proclaimed “rookie” of the United States Equestrian Team, hers was
a short ride at the Georgia International Horse Park. She took a chance on one of the
more difficult jumps in the grueling cross-country test, and her horse, apparently
confused by shadows cast on the water by a covered bridge, crashed into the obstacle.
The miss jump caused Ms. Henneberg to be thrown from her horse. Because she did
not finish the course, disqualification followed the fall.
The next day was the final day of the three-day event. Entering the show-jumping
test, the U. S. team was in second place. The top three scores from each four-person
team count toward the team total in any test. But Henneberg and Nirvana were sitting
this one out – the horse, nicked and scratched and aching, did not pass pre-competition
inspection. Henneberg watched and learned as her teammates held their tight lead
over the third-place New Zealand team, and clinched the Silver Medal – the first medal
for the U. S. in this event since the 1984 Los Angeles Games. She sat out the final test,
but joined her fellow teammates on the medal stand. Afterward, she talked about being
educated.
“I’ve never been on a team before. As the youngest one here, I learned about
teamwork. These three have so much more experience than me, and they’ve been very
supportive, even through the rough times lately. I definitely learned that I should listen
to my coach and my teammates.”
Surely Jill has many Olympics ahead of her. Good luck in the future!
29
ANNE COWLES HERR
Born in 1893, Anne Cowles was a fortunate woman
for her era -- she was a college graduate!
Upon graduation from Michigan State in 1915, Anne
Cowles became an “extension specialist” and found
herself traveling the state as teacher, leader, and speaker
for girls' clubs.
She moved to New York City where she took
graduate courses at Columbia University and worked for
a community club organization, and then moved to
Springfield, MA, to work for the Junior Achievement
Bureau of the Eastern States Exporters, a boys' club/girls'
club organization demonstrating industrial products.
About five years after her graduation, she reported to
the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. Her
assignment was to improve local Red Cross
Administration in Virginia and West Virginia. Later she was assigned to the Junior Red
Cross.
In mid-1922 she arrived in Manila to work with the Philippine Red Cross, which
involved some travel around the Orient. She also assisted in relief for the great Tokyo
earthquake of that period.
Marriage to Ryman Herr in 1925 ended her paid career in the American Red Cross.
As the mother of two sons and wife of a prominent lawyer, she would use her vast
talents for volunteer work.
Continuing her interest in Red Cross work, Mrs. Herr helped to found the Hunterdon
County Chapter. For twelve years she served as president, including the World War II
period.
In the 1930's she was president of the Hunterdon County Symphony Orchestra
Association.
As a trustee of the Flemington Public Library she served 35 years, 24 of which she
was president.
Along with all of these duties, she also volunteered as a “Gray Lady” for the
Hunterdon Medical Center.
Ann Cowles Herr died in 1970. A life well lived!
30
MARILYN RHYNE HERR
A native of Minnesota, Marilyn Rhyne Herr was
graduated cum laude from Gustavus Adolphus
College in that state. After her marriage and move
to Hunterdon County, she began studies for a law
degree at Rutgers Law School. She graduated in
1967 and passed the New Jersey State Bar
examination the day before the birth of the second
of her three daughters!
She was associated with the Somerville law
firm of Ann and Raymond Trombadore when
nominated to the New Jersey Superior Court by
Gov. Kean in 1988. Her nomination was confirmed
in February 1989, and she was sworn in the
following month -- becoming the second woman
resident of Hunterdon County to be named a
Superior Court judge, and the first assigned to the bench in her home county.
Judge Herr served many years as a Girl Scout leader, and two terms as president
of the Rolling Hills Girl Scout Council. She resides in Clinton Township.
31
EDYTHE M. HERSON
Edythe Herson was born in Montreal, Canada, where, at
an early age, she learned to be concerned for the welfare of
others. Both of her parents were heavily involved in
community life, and as she said, “...it seemed natural for me
to be concerned for other people....”
Armed with a master’s degree in social work, she set
about educating women in the life skills needed for a return
to the work force. This she did, in both New York and with
the Hunterdon County Adult Education program.
She has excelled in her chosen career as well as in
volunteer fields. She put together the state organization of
county welfare boards, the purpose of which was to act as a
liaison with the state to enable the counties to have more
local control over their welfare clients.
Mrs. Herson served as a member of the original task
force to organize comprehensive human resources in Hunterdon County. As a member
of the committee to build a new jail in Hunterdon County, she was influential in the
planning from a humanitarian viewpoint.
During her long career in social services she served as co-chair of the New Jersey
Prison Board, as well as chairwoman of the Hunterdon County Welfare Board of
Directors. For ten years she served on the Hunterdon Board of Human Services.
Her compassion for her fellow humans led her to establish health education training
programs as vocational training for nonviolent inmates in the women’s prison.
Now that she has retired from the prison system, Mrs. Herson spends her winters in
Florida, where she volunteers. Only now her charges are children in the public schools
who need a tutor and friend.
32
EDNA HORN
"She can be summed up in two words -- community service."
Thus, was Edna Horn described by a county official.
Born in Minnesota, Edna Horn resided in Delaware Township
from 1933 until her death in 1975.
Wife and mother of two, she soon began her volunteer service in
Delaware by insisting that a planning board be formed in her
township. Her ability to visualize the complexities of future growth,
as well as the need to regulate that growth, caused her to devote her
keen intelligence and boundless energy to formation and
development of the zoning code. For many years she served as
secretary of the Delaware Township Planning Board as well as
president of the Federation of New Jersey Planning Officials.
On the county level, Mrs. Horn became president of the County
Welfare Board and was instrumental in the development of farreaching programs. She was remembered as a stern taskmaster
whose opinion was respected. Her word was her bond, her integrity beyond reproach.
Upon her death, the Board of Chosen Freeholders noted that she had been a “woman
of character and ability, but above all, a person concerned for her fellow citizens.”
33
LAZELLE KNOCKE
Lazelle Knocke, known to everyone as "Bobbie," and the prime mover toward
establishing the Family Nursing Service, was orphaned at the age of 11. She wanted to
be a physician, but because family finances were limited, she went to nursing school,
specializing in orthopedic training. She soon became head nurse on the women's
surgical floor at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where she met her future husband, Dr.
Fred Knocke. They were married just prior to World War II. She also was working for a
master's degree in nursing, and teaching at Columbia.
Dr. Knocke was named head of the orthopedic department at the Hunterdon
Medical Center. The Knockes moved to Hunterdon County in 1953, buying a farm in
Readington Township. Mrs. Knocke had been in love with horses since a small child
and now had an opportunity to raise horses and teach her children to ride.
She looked into employment opportunities at the Medical Center but was told she
was overqualified. She then brought up the question of a nonprofit organization
providing public health nursing service in the county. The local Public Health
Association was responsive to this idea. Mrs. Knocke, who soon became president of
the Association, moved the group to perform a study of the feasibility of such a service
in the county. She met with representatives from every one of the 26 school districts
and 23 municipalities to discuss what might be done. Many municipalities felt they
didn't need additional services, while two or three expressed an interest. Over a period
of five years a community feeling of a need for home health nursing was formed, and
finally, incorporation papers were filed for the Family Nursing Service, a not-for-profit
public agency. Henrietta Siodlowski, a nurse with a Master of Public Health degree,
was hired to direct the agency.
Mrs. Knocke became president of the newly formed board of trustees. When it
became evident that fund-raising activities were needed, an annual horse show was
held on their property, with Dr. Knocke serving as manager of the show. Years later,
she became active nationally as a judge for dressage competition at horse shows. She
continues to reside on the Readington farm.
34
LILLIAN KORNITSKY
During her working years, she dedicated herself to
children. As a senior citizen, she dedicated herself to
her community and her fellow seniors.
Lillian Kornitsky (April 19, 1915 - Aug. 8,1998)
received a national AARP award in 1989 for her
community service. Ms. Kornitsky served on the Clinton
Town Council, was a County Executive
Committeewoman, an Election Board member, and a
member of the Grandin Library Executive Board. She
was past president and legislative chairwoman of the
Flemington AARP, was a coordinator of the Clinton
senior citizens organization, and worked on projects for
the Hagedorn Center for Geriatrics as well as the
Hunterdon Developmental Center.
A veteran of 43 years of teaching and supervising
educational programs for state correctional institutions in New Jersey and Illinois,
Ms. Kornitsky lived in Clinton. She also taught in public schools in New Jersey, with her
final position that of special education instructor in the Franklin Township School.
As a child -- and for many of her adult years -- she lived on her parents' farm in
Franklin Township. She was proud of her Hunterdon County farm background and her
membership in the Hickory Grange.
Her quiet humor and temperament won her many friends and devoted students.
Because of her leadership ability and efficiency, she served as president of many
organizations, including both the Hunterdon and Trenton Soroptomist clubs and the
Quakertown Education Association.
Dedicated to her memory for the 17 years she served as secretary of the Jennie
Haver Memorial Scholarship Fund, the program for The 43rd Anniversary All County
High School Revue presented by the Jennie M. Haver Memorial Scholarship Fund
states that
Ms. Kornitsky was “a woman who really made a difference in the lives of hundreds of
people.”
35
ANNE KURSINSKI
Anne Kursinski, a professional jumper/horse trainer based at George Morris'
Hunterdon, Inc. in Pittstown, was a member of the 1996 Olympic Silver Medal
equestrian team.
Her first round in the Olympics set the stage for the Americans to challenge for a
medal. Anne's mount went clear for that round, thereby encouraging her team
members to higher standards.
1996 was the first time in eight years that the United States Equestrian Team
(USET) had medaled in either an Olympics or a world championship.
Anne was a member or alternate member of three consecutive U. S. Olympic
teams, including the 1988 squad that won the team Silver Medal in Seoul, Korea. She
began competing for USET in 1978. In 1983 she won individual and team Gold Medals
in the Caracas, Venezuela, Pan-American Games.
Anne’s mount in Caracas was Livius, on whom she became the first American to
win the Grand Prix of Rome, Italy in May 1983. In Rome, she contributed to an
American win in the Nation’s Cup competition.
In 1987 Kursinski rode Starman for the USET in three winning Nation’s Cup efforts
in Aschen, Germany, in Hickstead, England, and in Calgary, Canada.
She was honored as the Leading Lady Rider at the 1991 World Cup Final in
Gothenburg, Sweden. In June 1991 she won the Grand Prix of Aachen and became the
second woman and only the third American ever to win this event. That same year
Anne was named the female Equestrian Athlete of the Year by the United States
Olympic Committee.
In 1995 Anne won the American Gold Cup for a record fourth time.
36
MILDRED LARASON
Ms. Mildred Larason was the first woman to serve in the
prestigious position of Hunterdon County Clerk. As such, she
was one of the three constitutional officers of county
government, and the first of her gender in any one of these
positions.
Born June 16, 1908, on the family farm (David Larason
farm between Ringoes and Mt. Airy, on Rt. 202), Ms. Larason
is a descendant of one of the oldest families in Hunterdon
County.
As a child she went to the Mt. Airy two-room school; then
on to Lambertville High School, from which she was graduated
in 1927. The following year, she secured a position in the
office of County Clerk, C. Lloyd Fell, a man well-known for his
precise and gentlemanly ways.
Under the next Clerk, Bergen Carter, Ms. Larason rose to
the position of Deputy Clerk. Upon the death of Carter, Ms. Larason was selected by
the Hunterdon County Republican Committee to run for the office of County Clerk. This
was a very progressive and practical move on the part of the Republicans. Not only
were they supporting the most knowledgeable person, but a woman of such dedication
and reputation would be difficult to beat. Ms. Larason ran away with the election, and in
1967 became the first woman in Hunterdon’s history to hold an office of such visible
responsibility.
For 15 years Mildred Larason served the people of Hunterdon well, retiring in 1982
after 54 years as secretary, Deputy Clerk and County Clerk. The changes experienced
by Ms. Larason during her years in office were many. During her tenure the methods of
filing county records changed dramatically -- progressing from handwritten and manual
typewritten documents to microfilmed records, and later to the computerization of all
records. A new records storage center is being constructed, with state-of-the-art
archival and records retention facilities.
Ms. Larason indicated that the most exciting times in the Clerk's office were during
the Hauptmann trial. The monumental task of taking the minutes of the trial, having
them typed and ready for the reporters, filing the handwritten records, and keeping all
documents up to the minute was both exhilarating and exhausting; however, "people
did their work with great dedication." Ms. Larason was the last remaining county
official to have taken part in the "Trial of the Century."
37
ANNE MARIE LAUCK (nee Letko)
A former resident of Glen Gardner and world-class
marathoner, Anne Marie Lauck wore the red, white, and blue
for Team U.S.A. in the 1996 Olympics.
Her great competitiveness won her two All-America crosscountry titles at North Hunterdon Regional High School.
Interestingly, she was not the star of her North Hunterdon team.
Always overshadowed by teammate Jodie Bilotta, who then
was considered the foremost highschool runner in the nation,
Anne Marie honed her competitive and indomitable spirit.
By age 16 she had decided that her innermost desire was
to become a world-class runner. She took on the grueling
training that goes with such dedication. Summer, winter, spring
and fall, in freezing or hot and humid weather, Anne Marie ran
the roads in her quest for perfection. Along the way she was
three times World Track and Field Championship finalist in the
10,000 meter race, and was ranked as the No. 1 road runner by Runner's World
magazine in 1994.
At age 27, Anne Marie had a college degree in English from Rutgers University,
was married to Jim Lauck, had won the respect of the world track associations, and
made the 1996 United States Olympic team -- finishing 10th in the women’s marathon in
Atlanta.
The death of her mother after a six-year battle with breast cancer tempered Anne
Marie’s joy of making the Olympic team. Her future plans include becoming an author.
She wants to “...write a book, not so much about myself, but about my mom, my
relationship with her and my family. Definitely that is something I want to do, and
know I will down the road.”
Anne Marie made her fourth World Championships appearance (1991, ‘93, ‘95, ‘99)
when she competed in Seville, Spain during the summer of 1999. Knee and back injury
problems, accompanied by the smothering heat and humidity, slowed her down as she
struggled to 16th place in a starting field of 31.
After a short break from training, she will run some road races in preparation for the
2000 U. S. Olympic Track & Field Trials to qualify for the Summer Games in Sydney,
Australia.
Anne Marie Lauck is a woman who set her goals early in life, and with determination
and fortitude has accomplished what she set out to do. Her’s is a vision that inspires all
who are lucky enough to be in her sphere.
38
EVELYN LAWSON
In a career that spanned more than four decades, Miss
Evelyn Lawson has proved her dedication to her follow man
time and time again. Commencing with her graduation from
nursing school, Lawson has served in positions of authority her
whole life. During World War II, she was assigned to set up
operating rooms in two Texas hospitals, as well as at a P.O.W.
camp. Completing those assignments, she was then shipped
overseas to Germany where she again used her talents as an
operating room supervisor --this time teaching young corpsmen
good medical techniques.
Retiring from the United States Army as a Major in 1945,
Miss Lawson returned to the United States and resumed her
career at Muhlenburg Hospital. However, the new North
Hunterdon Regional High School was in need of a full-time
nurse, and Evelyn fit the bill. For 21 years Miss Lawson ran
the Health Department. Not only was she nurse, but teacher and counselor as well.
Because of her daily experiences with troubled teenagers and their families, Miss
Lawson determined there was a need for anonymous help to be offered to the
community at large. Utilizing the telephone as the vehicle for advice and assistance to
the emotionally distraught, in 1969 Miss Lawson founded Hunterdon Helpline. For eight
years she volunteered eight hours nightly for her fellow human beings, listening to all
sorts of problems.
As a volunteer with the Cancer and Tuberculosis Societies, she was able to lend
her vast counseling experiences to set up workshops for the clergy and families on
dealing with the ill person. Again, realizing the need for all human services to band
together to provide maximum help, her boundless energies were instrumental in
founding the Community Services Council. Since 1955 she has served her church as
elder or deacon.
A recipient of the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce Golden Award, Miss
Lawson also received the Gubernatorial Award for Volunteer Service, and the
Hunterdon Grange's Volunteer Award for establishing Helpline. In 1999 the State of
New Jersey awarded her the Distinguished Service Medal.
Indeed, everything Evelyn Lawson does is for the good of the community. She is a
shining light in the history of Hunterdon County!
39
HERMIA M. LECHNER
Often referred to as the “Grande Dame” of
conservation, Hermia Lechner was born in Howell
Township, NJ, and grew to be a pioneering
environmental activist.
Hermia earned a bachelor's degree in education
from Trenton State College and taught in Red Bank
High School from 1926 until 1936, when she and her
husband, the late Robert G. Lechner, moved to
Clinton Township.
From 1936 to 1959 she and her husband
administered the Echo Hill summer camps, which
promoted conservation and preservation of natural
resources. They donated their 74 acres of camp land
to the Hunterdon County Parks Commission in 1974,
retaining the right to live in their home.
Hermia taught environmental education in every school district in the watershed for
the South Branch Watershed Association during 1960-1970, and by 1970 she was
working with more than 2600 children each year.
She joined the Clinton Township Committee in 1971 and served as mayor from
1976 to 1982 and from 1987 to 1990, and during this time formed the Clinton Township
Historic Committee. Hermia left the township governing body when appointed to
administer the state Green Acres program by Gov. Thomas Kean.
A member of the Clinton Township Planning Board from 1987 to 1994, she was
responsible for adopting the Clinton Township limestone ordinance, the stormwater
management ordinance, and a soil erosion sediment control ordinance. Hermia was
also active in developing the Clinton Township Natural Resource Inventory, working
specifically on the groundwater and surface water sections.
Hermia founded the South Branch Watershed Association in 1959, and donated
money and a lifetime of volunteer service and commitment to preserving and protecting
the water resources. Through the Association, Hermia was instrumental in establishing
the Hunterdon County Parks Commission, lobbying and testifying for environmental
legislation, and promoting environmentally sound development through various
programs. She also helped establish other watershed associations, local land trusts,
and more than 15 environmental commissions.
On a statewide level, between 1981-1988, Hermia worked as the administrator of
the Department of Environmental Protection's Green Acres Program. She was
recognized as establishing a direction and plan for the department. Her understanding
of the water resources and watersheds changed Green Acres focus of protecting
recreational sites to also protecting and providing open space. Hermia developed
position papers on the environment for different governors.
40
Hermia promoted alternative wastewater treatment systems by organizing
workshops, establishing a technical advisory committee and producing a model
ordinance and manual for implementing these systems statewide. She promoted the
use of transfer development rights and permanent funding to protect open space. She
also worked on stormwater management for highways and roads.
Her involvement with environmental protection throughout the years is laudatory.
She was a role model and mentor to many people in the environmental field for more
than 50 years. She died in her greenhouse in October 1994 at the age of 81.
As a friend said, “She strode through life; she never shuffled.”
Hunterdon County Park System
41
LOUISE BONNEY LEICESTER
Louise Bonney was born in Eaton, NY, of French
Canadian stock. She worked in the fashion industry and in
public relations, wrote radio mysteries, and eventually went to
work for the manager of the 1939 World's Fair. While at the
Fair, she met William Leicester, a chemist from the Borden
company, who was putting on a demonstration of a new
invention of his -- Elmer's Glue. He also was in charge of
Elsie (the Borden cow) and the division using milk-based
adhesives. They married and moved to Hunterdon County,
buying a dairy farm near Pittstown to breed Jerseys.
Soon Louise Leicester was attending municipal meetings,
Agriculture Development Board meetings, and a variety of
local affairs. She met with Rose Angell, the first Director of
Welfare in the county, after Mrs. Angell's report to the
Freeholders in 1946 stating the need for a hospital was
accepted without comment. These two intelligent women put their heads together and,
rather than appear before the Freeholders, instead went to the powerful executive
committee of the county agricultural board. All they asked for was a first-quality
hospital. Could they not take on this rural health problem?
Using her personal influence with friends from the New York social and medical
worlds, Louise Leicester met with officials of the Commonwealth Fund (who were
interested in funding rural hospitals) and leading public health experts. One key advisor
described how she would "pester and pester" him at the Commonwealth office. Another
said she was very persistent, describing her as a "very flamboyant woman in dress,
jewelry, style of hats, outspokenness."
She kept all of her extensive notes and memoranda, many of them written aboard a
transatlantic liner or from the St. Regis Hotel in New York. She focused on such items
as rooming-in on maternity, the chronic illness survey, attention to mental illness, school
health and home care. One community leader was quoted: "Few understood as well as
she the conception of the hospital as a true community health center, geared to the
needs of the county, and... meeting the problems of how best to deliver optimal medical
care."
Subsequently, Mrs. Leicester became a founding trustee of the Hunterdon Medical
Center. She also was a bold advocate for improved mental health services. She was
on the executive committee of the county Mental Health Association from 1950 to 1955,
and served as first vice president of the state association. She died in 1968.
(See Hunterdon Medical Center Founders, page 81, for more information.)
42
PEGGY LEWIS
Baltimore-born Peggy Lewis has been influential in the art
and editorial world for four decades.
As a young bride she and her husband Michael moved to
New York where she did a short stint with Brand Names
Research Foundation. It was during that time that she planned
and wrote the comic strip Billy Brand, which was carried by 350
country newspapers.
While in New York, and with two little boys,
the Lewises began the Charles-Fourth gallery in their own home.
The gallery specialized in debut exhibitions for young artists.
After moving to New Hope they continued the gallery, giving
shows to a wider range of artists.
Mrs. Lewis joined the staff of Bucks County Life in 1960.
She initiated the book page and eventually became associate
editor.
The family, now numbering four children, father and mother, moved across the river
to Lambertville in 1967. Peggy had been writing for The Beacon, where she reported
the usual range of small-town news. While at The Beacon, she conceived the popular
column,
The Arts. For two years she wrote a weekly arts column for The Times - Advertiser of
Trenton.
As a freelance writer she contributed articles to art catalogues, as well as
magazines all over the state. Joining the staff of the New Jersey State Museum as
publications editor, she edited all Museum publications and wrote news media and
features.
In 1971 she joined the staff of the New Jersey Historical Commission as public
programs coordinator. While there, she was responsible for all programs of public
information and cultural activities. A major activity was coordination of activities for New
Jersey's part in the Bicentennial celebration. She became editor-in-chief for the
Commission's newsletter, which was published ten times annually.
Retiring from the Historical Commission in 1989, Peggy Lewis continues to maintain
her contacts in the Lambertville and New York art community. She and her daughter,
Nora, were instrumental in raising funds for a severely injured New York artist.
43
DOROTHY MacNAMARA
The name of Dorothy MacNamara is synonymous with education of the mentally
disabled child in Hunterdon.
Mrs. MacNamara became an advocate for the disabled in 1960 when she
volunteered to assist Mrs. Corey, a teacher at the Happy Day Nursery. This interest
would last all her life.
Moving through the ranks of the fledgling Hunterdon County Association for
Retarded Children, Dorothy MacNamara worked at everything that would bring the
plight of the disabled youngster to the attention of educational powers. She believed
raising funds to improve and start programs and the dissemination of information were
the keys to helping the less fortunate child.
In the ranks of the ARC, Mrs. MacNamara served on the committee to set up
training for future employment, as recording secretary, several times president, and as
representative to the state council of ARC. Continuing to espouse the cause of the
disabled led her to visit the various training schools throughout New Jersey to compare
educational methods and add improvements where needed in the Hunterdon ARC
programs.
Tireless in her devotion to the cause of the disabled, she helped plan the Teen
Canteen, first held at North Hunterdon High School in 1961. She was progressive in her
methods, believing that children with disabilities should be afforded the same social
outlets as other youngsters.
Both she and Mrs. Corey spent many hours showing a film of the Happy Day
Nursery to P.T.A.'s and women's groups of all kinds, in the quest of informing the public
that there was help for the disabled child.
Continuing to bind the community leaders to her far reaching ideas, Mrs.
MacNamara met with Lloyd Wescott in 1962 and explained her idea for a sheltered
workshop. Years later, that idea would come to fruition in the program first called
Hunterdon Occupational Training Center, which is now known as the Center for
Educational Advancement.
As ARC programs became more visible, and law allowed, in 1963 the Hunterdon
County Board of Chosen Freeholders donated $1,000 to the Happy Day Nursery school.
Things were looking up as more and more of Hunterdon's prominent citizens were
becoming involved in ARC programs and fundraising. Dorothy MacNamara left no stone
unturned as she sought recognition and help for the benefit of Hunterdon's disabled
children.
From a small group of mothers and fathers of disabled youngsters who desired help
for their children to the large ARC unit of today, Dorothy MacNamara has been an
invaluable worker. Her selfless devotion to the cause was an uphill struggle. She did
everything – maintained an office in her home, taught “patterning,” and obtained grants
and free space for various programs for the disabled. Hers was a love, devotion, and
service never to be forgotten. Her legacy – educational opportunities for all children and
a strong, viable, community oriented ARC.
44
EDNA MAHAN
Born in California, Edna Mahan was educated at the
University of California and did graduate work within the
state Bureau of Juvenile Research and Traveler's Aid. At
age 24, she was named superintendent of the Los Angeles
County Detention Home. Three years later, she became
the superintendent at the Correctional Facility for Women in
Clinton, NJ, (known locally as Clinton Farms) where she
spent the rest of her life.
For 40 years, Miss Mahan devoted herself to the
humane rehabilitation of the women placed in her charge.
During her tenure, she became an internationally known
figure in the field of penology. Her philosophy of building
personal restraint and responsibility along with a feeling of
self-worth in her inmates won her the undying respect of
her "girls." Hers was an open prison, run on trust and love
rather than severe punishment -- and it worked.
On her death in 1975, a former inmate wrote: "I loved and respected her more than
any other human being on earth. She gave me back my life, when literally speaking, it
was over. Just by having faith in me when I didn't have any in myself...."
45
VERNITA KAYSER MARR
Vernita Kayser was born in Newark, NJ on June 25, 1903, and attended local
schools.
It was uncommon in the early twentieth century for women to pursue higher
education, but Vernita was different. She desired a better education associated with a
profession she could utilize her whole life. Vernita went on to the highly respected
Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, where she -- the only woman in her
class -- graduated in 1926. At the tender age of 23, Vernita Kayser was the first woman
chiropractor in the United States!
Marriage to John Marr and a family of three daughters only served to encourage her
to continue in her chosen profession. She ran a private practice in Somerville until 1975
when she retired.
A former resident of Glen Gardner, Dr. Marr lived the last four years of her life in
Readington Twp., where she succumbed on August 27, 1995 at the venerable age of 92.
46
ANNE STEELE MARSH
Anne Steele Marsh, the distinguished printmaker
and painter, has had a notable impact on the art world,
both in her native state of New Jersey and in her longadopted home in Hunterdon County.
She was born in Nutley in 1901, the daughter of
Frederic Dorr Steele, best known for his illustrations of
the Sherlock Holmes stories.
The family spent
summers on Monhegan Island, ME, with many other
artists, including the young Rockwell Kent whom Mr.
Steele taught the art of printmaking. The family later
moved to New York City where Anne attended Cooper
Union Art School, majoring in design. She had further
training in occupational therapy and in the arts of
tapestry and weaving, and taught occupational therapy
for several years. In 1925 she married James R. Marsh, a member of a family
distinguished in the art world.
Mr. and Mrs. Marsh moved to Essex Fells to raise a family. Mr. Marsh had a studio
where he designed fine wrought iron fixtures, and Mrs. Marsh was involved with
printmaking, painting and crafts. In 1948, the family moved to Pittstown in Union
Township, naming their farm Fiddlers' Forge. Mr. Marsh, a cellist, and their son Peter,
now a professional violinist, and other musicians held chamber music sessions on
Sunday afternoons in their barn.
In 1952, the Marshes helped lead a group of local citizens to purchase the old stone
mill in Clinton and found the Hunterdon Art Center, which is now known as the
Hunterdon Museum of Art. Mrs. Marsh was in charge of exhibitions. Four years later,
she launched the first Annual National Print Exhibition and began the Museum's
collection of prints from the exhibitions. The "Anne Steele Marsh Collection" now
contains the works of many influential printmakers of the past 40 years.
Over the years, Mrs. Marsh served on the boards of many art organizations,
including the Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton Historical Museum, Audubon Artists,
Delaware Valley Artists Association, New York Society of Women Artists, the Society of
American Graphic Artists, American Association of Museums, and Friends of the State
Museum. She was a founder and president of Associated Artists of New Jersey.
Her wood engravings are included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Art Museum and the Brooklyn
Museum. Her work is also in the New York Public Library, New Jersey State Museum
and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as in private collections.
Among the many awards she has received are those from the Hunterdon Art
Center, Philadelphia Print Club, New Jersey State Museum, Montclair Art Museum,
Audubon Artists, National Association of Women Artists and the National Arts Club.
Mrs. Marsh died in 1995 at the age of 94.
47
BARBARA McCONNELL
Recognized as one of the leading political and business
figures in the state for the last 25 years, Barbara McConnell
has held a variety of influential positions both in the public
and private sectors.
She currently is president of the New Jersey Food
Council, a position she has held since 1982. The council is
the trade association for the state's multi-billion dollar food
industry, representing retailers, manufacturers, distributors
and service companies.
Prior to assuming that post, Ms. McConnell served two
terms in the State Assembly, representing Hunterdon County.
During those terms she was a member of both the Taxation
and Agriculture and Environmental Committees, and
successfully sponsored passage of a number of bills. She
gave up her Assembly seat to enter the 1981 gubernatorial
primary.
From 1973 to 1977, Ms. McConnell was director of the New Jersey Division of Tax
Appeals, and was instrumental in drafting legislation which abolished that division and
instead established the New Jersey Tax Court, an action which saved taxpayers, local
government and businesses millions of dollars.
Ms. McConnell resides in Flemington. She received her B.S. degree from
Tennessee Tech University. She spent eight years in Washington on the staff of
Representative Joseph L. Evins (D-Tenn.), and the House Small Business Committee.
Among her honors is the Woman of Achievement Award from Douglass College in
1982. She also was cited by New Jersey Monthly Magazine as "One of the 10 Best
Legislators in New Jersey" in 1979, and by the Trentonian newspaper as "One of the 10
Outstanding Women of the Decade" in 1980.
48
MILDRED PREEN MORTIMER
Mildred Preen Mortimer was a woman of many
"firsts." She was born in Newark in 1919, and after
graduating from Newark's West Side High School
became the first woman to receive a B.S. in Electrical
Engineering from Newark College of Engineering.
She then earned an M.A. in Public Law and
Government from Columbia University. Her thesis
was A Statistical Occupation: Engineer.
She was subsequently employed by Western
Electric Co., Newark College of Engineering, and her
father's company, Preen Crushed Stone Co., of
Tewksbury Township. Residents recall seeing her
operate heavy road equipment while paving Route
517.
In 1941, at the age of 22, she was elected as a
Democrat to the New Jersey Assembly as the representative for Hunterdon County,
becoming the youngest person ever elected to that position. That record still stands.
She was re-elected for two more one-year terms, but left in 1945 to join the Waves.
On her return to civilian life in 1948, she unsuccessfully ran for the State Senate
against the incumbent Republican Sen. Sam Bodine, of Flemington. In a solid
Republican year, the election was marred by accusations of "mud slinging" by both
candidates.
In 1970 Mrs. Mortimer became the first woman -- and one of the few Democrats -elected to the Tewksbury Township Committee, serving as police commissioner during
her three-year term. The Board of Chosen Freeholders appointed her in 1977 as the
first county administrator, a post she held until her death in January 1979.
She was a licensed private pilot, having successfully completed both Primary and
Secondary Civil Pilot Training Programs. Among her memberships were the American
lnstitute of Electrical Engineers, the Hunterdon County Board of Agriculture, the
Engineering Woman's Club and the National Aeronautic Association.
49
CAROLYN B. NEWMAN
“Excellence in children’s theatre” has been the goal of
Carolyn B. Newman since establishing The High Bridge
Children’s Theatre Workshop in 1986 with just seven children.
Known since 1989 as ShowKids Invitational Theatre, Inc. or
“SKIT,” its membership has grown to 175 -- and there is a
waiting list.
In addition to performances for charitable organizations,
SKIT stages at least two major musicals each year, with lavish
sets, costumes, and a professional orchestra.
On March 19,1992 Carolyn received the MasterCard
Business Card’s “Leadership in Entrepreneurial Achievement
and Philanthropy” (LEAP) Award for the Eastern region of the
United States, and was profiled in the May 1992 issues of
Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurial Woman magazines. The
Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce presented her with
its Golden Award in 1994. She was nominated for an award by ACT (Achievements in
Community Theatre) in the categories of Best Director and Best Producer for her
productions of Bye Bye Birdie (1995) and The Sound of Music (1996), and by the
R.E.C.T. Awards in the category of Best Director for her 1997 production of The Wizard
of Oz. Much to her credit, SKIT was nominated for three consecutive years for staging
the best overall community theatre productions in New Jersey.
Prior to forming SKIT, Carolyn served as past president of the High Bridge Parent
Teachers Organization, was a member of the High Bridge Board of Education, and ran
a private consulting practice as a registered dietitian.
50
YOLANDA NIKITAIDIS
While she may be self-effacing about her talents,
Yolanda Nikitaidis has garnered many friends in her years
in Hunterdon.
During retirement she has been the very successful
leader of the Senior Chorus, which has its origins in the
Senior Citizens Center.
Born in South Jersey, Yolanda showed musical talent
at an early age. She took a B.S. at Glassboro State
College and was a music teacher in the Paulsboro school
system. Several years later she completed her studies for
an M.S. in Education. She won a promotion to the position
of New Jersey Helping Teacher in Cumberland County, and
eventually in Hunterdon.
Helping Teachers are those Master Teachers who go
out into the smaller districts to, literally, "help" the
classroom teacher in methodology and planning.
Over a long career, Ms. Nikitaidis has generously volunteered her off-duty hours to
the Jenny Haver Scholarship Fund Board of Trustees and the Hunterdon County
Council of P.T.A., where she is a life member as well as music chairperson. She has
served as past president of Delta, Kappa Gamma and been a member of the Executive
Board of the Community Services Council. Along with this busy schedule she continued
her love of music by serving as choir leader and organist for her church, retiring in 1993.
51
ORLIE A. H. PELL
Dr. Orlie Pell's civic contributions touched both Hunterdon
County and the international scene. Born in Paris in 1901, she was
an alumna of Bryn Mawr College and received her Ph.D. from
Columbia University in 1930.
A staunch worker for world peace, she joined the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom in 1948, serving on its
executive committee for six years and as its president from 1957 to
1961. She organized an international conference with Russian
women in 1961 at Bryn Mawr with the goal of promoting world
peace. This led to her attendance in 1964 at an exchange
conference in Moscow to promote better understanding between the
two countries.
Dr. Pell moved to Flemington in 1961 and became president of
the Hunterdon County League of Women Voters in 1966. After her
death in 1975, she was remembered by Edgar Van Zandt, of the
Citizens' Housing Council of Raritan Township, as "one of the most public-spirited and
concerned people I've ever met. She espoused many causes, some of which did not
make her popular with all the people. But she believed in what she was doing and
never became discouraged."
The Dr. Orlie Pell Fund was formed in her memory in 1976 to continue her legacy of
community spirit. By agreement with the Fund, the Division of Social Services
determines the eligibility of persons in need; it relies on tax-deductible donations from
individuals, service groups, businesses and churches in the county.
52
ELIZABETH ORBEN PERRY
Mrs. Elizabeth Perry represented the finest of volunteer
characteristics in all she did with her life. Her selfless dedication -to improvement in livestock agriculture, to founding and leading
the first, most active and largest, 4-H sheep club in New Jersey,
and to people in general -- earned her the undying devotion of
countless hundreds of young and old alike.
Over her long and productive life she instilled moral and
ethical values in everyone whose life she touched.
As a
recognized breeder of premier Dorset sheep, she maintained a
standard of accountability second to none.
Because of her many contributions in the field of agriculture,
she was the recipient of the prestigious Block and Bridle Award
from Rutgers University for service to New Jersey agriculture.
Mrs. Perry was the first woman elected to the Readington
Township Board of Education, where she served for nine years.
Those were the days of the one-room schoolhouse and many were the times when she
had to haul coal to the Pleasant Run School because the coal pile was depleted and the
stove was burning low.
Being a dedicated educator and possessed of a keen intellect and curiosity, in 1938
she was founder and first chairman of the Hunterdon Adult Education School, which
was held in Stanton School. Each attendee contributed five cents per meeting to defray
the cost of materials for courses in conversational French, civics, geology and local
history.
By 1948, perceiving a need in this rural county for children to learn how to improve
and care for livestock, she founded the Hunterdon County 4-H Sheep Club, and served
as its leader until 1988.
The 4-H movement was conceived to assist the farm child to improve the skills
needed to become a successful agriculturalist. The fact that this country literally feeds
the world gives credence to the 4-H programs. Beth Perry made every monthly
4-H meeting a learning experience for her club members.
When Beth retired in 1988, the children and grandchildren of the original members
were raising and showing sheep and becoming members of the club.
Perry, whose reputation as a 4-H leader was legendary, also served on the State 4H Advisory Council.
Readington Township used her talents on its Planning Board Advisory Council, as
did The League of Women Voters, who chose her to serve on its first Board of Directors.
As one of the founders of the N. J. Dorset Club, and proprietress of the New Jersey
Sheep Breeder’s store, Mrs. Perry continued her busy life and was elected to the Board
of Directors of the National Continental Dorset Club. Life became even more busy!
53
During those years of community activity she raised two sons, continued to improve
her Dorset flock, assisted her husband, Jack, with his award-winning Holstein herd, and
maintained a household.
In 1989 the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce honored Beth Perry for her
contributions to her fellow man by awarding her the prestigious Golden Award for
service to the community.
Holcombe-Jimison Farmstead said it all when, in 1992, she was included in their
Honor Roll of Hunterdon Farmers.
54
INEZ POST PRALL
Appointed in January 1949 by governor
Alfred E. Driscoll to fill an unexpired term, Inez Post Prall
was the first woman surrogate in the State of New Jersey.
Mrs. Prall, a Republican, served as deputy surrogate
from 1918 to 1926. She then served on the Hunterdon
County Board of Taxation from 1943 to 1949, as well as
on the Lambertville Ration Board during World War II. In
between her civic commitments she raised three sons.
After her appointment as surrogate, Prall went on to
win elections in 1949, 1954, 1959, and 1964 – often
running at the top of the ticket. So popular was she that in
1954 she was nominated by Republicans and Democrats.
A friendly, helpful personality caused Mrs. Prall to be
amongst the most successful civil servants in Hunterdon
County.
55
INEZ CALLAWAY ROBB
A nationally known syndicated columnist, Inez Robb retired in 1969 from a
newspaper career which spanned 50 years. For decades, her column was a weekly
feature of The Democrat. Assignment: America, appeared in 140 newspapers, first
under the aegis of International News Service, then, in 1953 it was syndicated by United
Features under a different title. In addition to her five-day-a-week column, she
contributed to magazines.
She began her journalism career as a teen-age reporter in Boise, ID. After earning
a degree from the University of Missouri school of journalism in 1924, Inez worked in
Oklahoma as a general assignment reporter on the Tulsa Daily World. Hardly more
than two years later she was in New York, writing the society column for the New York
Daily News, and after 18 months as “Nancy Randolph” she was named the society
editor.
Inez joined INS in 1938 as a correspondent, and traveled in some 40 countries,
covering nearly every important event. Among them were the coronations of George VI
and later his daughter Elizabeth, as well as her earlier wedding to Prince Philip. Inez
also reported on the wedding of the Duke of Windsor to Wallis Warfield, interviewed
Argentina’s Evita Peron, and covered national political conventions, noteworthy prize
fights and trials.
She and her husband, advertising executive and author J. Addison Robb, made
their home at Wild Oat Farm in Stanton – and made news themselves. Prior to 1956,
postal regulations permitted only white or aluminum color rural mailboxes; Inez painted
hers yellow. A two-year battle ensued, the government capitulated, and their victory
over post office regulations has had lasting national repercussions.
56
ABIGAIL ROBERTS
Abigail Roberts was born in 1791 and began a career of evangelism in Ballston, NY
in 1816.
Her preaching was said to be spellbinding and, probably because of that and the
perceived threat to established religions, she was many times denied the pulpit. Her
message was simple -- she preached a simple Christian doctrine which became
annoying to her fellow men preachers.
Abigail Roberts moved to New Jersey where she continued her preaching. It was
she who was instrumental in establishing the Christian churches at Locktown, Milford,
Little York and Finesville.
By 1830 she was stricken by severe rheumatism. Her preaching continued on a
limited basis for many more years. As the disease progressed she gave up the pulpit
and moved with her family to Dunmore, PA. where she died in 1841.
In 1855 her body was exhumed from her Pennsylvania grave and reinterred in the
cemetery in Milford, NJ where she rests today.
57
NANCY ROTH
"The Hunterdon Hills are alive with music because of
Nancy Roth's work in the community." These were the
words announcing the Chamber of Commerce’s Golden
Award in 1991 to Mrs. Roth. The driving force behind the
establishment first of the Hunterdon Symphony Orchestra
and then Hunterdon Musical Arts, Mrs. Roth has been a
fixture of the musical scene since the early 60's.
A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, she
taught privately for many years.
In 1980, she co-founded the Hunterdon Symphony, an
orchestra for the instrumental musicians, adult and student,
amateur and professional, of the county. In the nearly two
decades of its existence, the orchestra has performed for
almost 100 events in the Hunterdon community, in four of
the county's high schools, and in area churches. In the
summer, it performs in outdoor locations of Deerpath Park, Clinton Historical Museum,
Riegel Ridge, and at the Delaware River.
In the mid-eighties, the Hunterdon Choral Union was formed to perform choral
works with the orchestra. And to coordinate these groups, Mrs. Roth founded
Hunterdon Musical Arts, a non-profit organization that serves as support and
administration for the orchestra and chorus, for a professional chamber music series,
and for the youth program of ensembles and string orchestra.
Nancy Roth has also served as a concertmaster of the Plainfield, Central Jersey
and Hunterdon Symphonies. She has also been a member of the violin sections of the
Colonial Symphony, the Princeton Chamber Orchestra and the Lehigh Valley Chamber
Orchestra.
Before becoming so involved in musical activities, she was active for ten years with
the Hunterdon County Unit of the American Cancer Society, starting as a solicitor in the
annual fund drive and becoming president of the unit.
She and her husband, Flemington attorney Lee Roth, have raised their two children,
and are now grandparents of four. Her 60th birthday was marked with a special concert
inaugurating the new professional chamber orchestra series, in which she performed
Vivaldi's Four Seasons with three of her former students.
58
HENRIETTA SIODLOWSKI
In the mid-fifties, the Hunterdon County Public Health
Association began to explore public health nursing resources
in the county. At that time, there were only some part-time
school and municipal nurses who had no special training, but
were assisted by a supervisory nurse from the New Jersey
Department of Health.
After visiting other communities and agencies, members
of the Association determined to open a visiting nurse service
in cooperation with the Hunterdon Medical Center. The New
York University School of Nursing suggested candidates to
head this new agency. After nine years of work in Hoboken,
Henrietta Siodlowski, one of the candidates, was very ready
for a change.
She was interviewed on two different
occasions, asked to tea, and offered the position -- which she
accepted. She began work in midsummer 1959.
Henrietta Siodlowski was born in Jersey City and raised in Hoboken, where she
attended local public schools. She remembers that from an early age she always
wanted to be a nurse, although she couldn't say why. She chose a five-year program
through the Jersey City School of Nursing, leading to a degree in Health Administration,
RN, and certification in school nursing. She later studied part-time for a master’s
degree in Public Health Administration, which was awarded in 1957 by New York
University. She worked in Jersey City and Hoboken in public health nursing.
Her work with the Family Nursing Service began in small quarters in the Hunterdon
Medical Center. There was considerable resentment at first from the nurses who had
already been working in schools and for the towns. The Family Nursing Service
proposed to contract to provide services by well-trained nurses both to schools and
municipalities. After several months of negotiations, the State Department of Education
provided rulings that spelled out the training for the school nurse; similar rulings were
developed for municipal nursing by the Department of Health. These negotiations were
performed between home visits and bedside care because Mrs. Siodlowski was both
director and the entire staff for the first few months of operation.
After some months the first nurse was hired. Several years went by before the
workload justified a third nurse. But under Mrs. Siodlowski's leadership the Service
expanded, eventually to include the Crippled Children's program and work with the
Cancer Society. In 1962, the agency moved to a small building on the hospital grounds.
The full-time staff grew, and the nurses in their blue uniforms could be seen all over the
county, providing home health services wherever needed.
In later years, the Family Nursing Service was merged with the Hunterdon Medical
Center, primarily as a result of changes in Medicare reimbursement regulations.
Mrs. Siodlowski retired from full-time professional work but continues to be active in a
number of voluntary agencies. She and her husband have lived for many years in their
home in Oldwick.
59
MICHELE SMITH
The year 1996 was the first for women's softball to be
recognized as an Olympic sport -- and when Team U.S.A. took to
the field in competition with teams from seven other countries at
Golden Gate Park in Columbus, GA, Hunterdon's own Michele
Smith ascended the mound as pitcher.
Recognized as the fastest ever clocked, she is considered the
nation's best all-around Women's Fastpitch player. The lanky
5'10" Smith delivered her 74 m.p.h. pitch and intimidated other
world class pitchers, just as she had over the previous two years
when she was pitching in Japan's industrial softball league.
She grew up in Lebanon Township and started her softball
career in the High Bridge Softball League, later joining the
Lebanon Township Wildcats school team. Michele graduated
from Voorhees High School, where she was an All State softball
player from 1981-85, and an all-conference basketball and field
hockey player. She won an athletic scholarship to Oklahoma State. For the five years
prior to her participation in the Olympic games, she taught English to Toyota employees
in Kariya, Japan. Michele speaks Japanese, loves the Asian culture and earned the
nickname of "The Lion" as a pitcher in Japan.
The way to the Olympics was not paved with rose petals, but rather a reward for
diligence, hard work, and suffering. It was just ten years earlier that Michele endured an
accident that threatened to terminate her athletic career forever. While her father was
driving her home from an appointment, her door opened on a turn and the sleeping
Smith was thrown from the truck out onto the pavement of Route 78. Her pitching arm
was shattered and torn. "It was like losing my identity," she said.
Doctors at Hunterdon Medical Center did marvelous repair work. Oklahoma State
University insisted that she return and enter its rehabilitation program which was geared
to athletic injuries. It was there that she underwent rigorous therapy to repair the
damaged muscles, nerves and bone. This, and Michele’s sheer determination to
succeed, proved to be the key to complete healing.
Within a year she was back, pitching a shutout against Puerto Rico in the '95 Pan
American Games final and leading her team in home runs. And at the age of 29,
Michele was the power behind the Gold Medal winning 1996 U. S.
Women's Olympic Softball Team. Smith throws five pitches, including a
knuckleball that she learned at Oklahoma State.
"If you'd have asked me five or six years ago, I'd have thought I'd be a
thoracic or cardiovascular surgeon by now," she said. "But I realized that
the central theme of what I wanted to do was to help people and make a
difference in lives. On the field, I can help little kids. It might not be in an O.R. suite,
but to put your hands on their shoulders and see their eyes light up and hear them say
they want to be like me someday, that's my proudest moment as an athlete."
In 1999 the softball field at Woodglen School was dedicated in her honor.
60
MELDA CHAMBRE SNYDER
Born in Rochester, NY in 1907, Melda Chambre
Snyder's family later moved to Morris County. After
graduating from Newark State College she went on to
receive a master's degree and completed all work, except
for writing her dissertation, towards her doctorate.
Melda worked in the Hunterdon County schools as a
supervisor employed by the state for service in rural
schools to teachers, who often had little more than a high
school education. These supervisors were called "helping
teachers," and did much towards fostering 4-H and
extension activities.
When the Hunterdon Board of
Agriculture hired its first Home Demonstration Agent in
1938, they appointed Miss Melda Chambre, of Flemington,
to the Women's Advisory Committee to oversee the agent's
work. It was through this work that she met Board of
Agriculture member Clifford E. Snyder, whom she later married.
Clifford taught her farm management, and Melda worked with him running Cliffields,
their 500-acre grain and dairy farm in Franklin Township. When her husband died in
1967, she was faced with tremendous debt due to the estate tax. Enlisting the aid of the
County Board of Agriculture and the State Farm Bureau, she started a movement that
eventually led to farmers' widows and families no longer forced to sell their land to pay
estate taxes.
She ran the farm and became active in farm organizations. With her election as
president of the Hunterdon County Board of Agriculture, she became the first woman to
serve in that office, and Hunterdon County became the first county to elect a woman to
that position.
Mrs. Snyder also served as a director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, president of
the Board of Managers of Cook College of Rutgers University, vice-president of the
State Board of Agriculture, and president of the American Association of University
Women. She served on the Hunterdon County Planning Board, helped organize the
Hunterdon County Visiting Homemaker Service, and was on its state board. Melda
received distinguished service awards from local and state agricultural and educational
organizations, and in 1978 received the Golden Award from the Hunterdon County
Chamber of Commerce.
She and her husband had no children, so when she died in 1987 the bulk of the
farm was left to Rutgers University as a research farm, as it is today. Proceeds from the
sale of the house and assets were used to set up the Clifford E. and Melda C. Snyder
Scholarship Fund, to go to a graduating high school senior who will major in agriculture
or a related field. Thus Melda remembered her two fields of interest, agriculture and
education.
When interviewed by Working Woman Magazine, she was asked why, with the
career opportunities available from her college degrees and background as a
coordinator of school systems, she was seen driving a farm
wagon, going to Pennsylvania for a machine part, and
spending her evenings with the county or state Board of
Agriculture. Her answer was that of a woman satisfied with
her life. "I couldn't be happier living any other way."
61
STEPHANIE B. STEVENS
Stephanie B. Stevens is an outstanding member of the
Hunterdon County community.
An untiring volunteer dedicated to historic preservation,
she is known throughout the state as a speaker and an oldhouse expert, and as a researcher who was instrumental in
attaining historic site status for many local sites as well as
inclusion of Readington's historic districts on the state and
national Registers of Historic Places. She was officially
designated historian for Readington Township in 1980 and,
as chairman of the Hunterdon County Cultural and Heritage
Commission to which she was appointed in 1979, has
served as Hunterdon County Historian since 1986.
Mrs. Stevens received a B.S. in Elementary Education
from Glassboro State College, took graduate courses in
Special Education at Trenton State College, and taught one
of the first classes for the handicapped in Flemington. She worked in the classroom for
ten years, administered Title I programs, and later did private tutoring as time allowed
with her family of five active children. Her concern for those with special needs led to a
continuing involvement as a board member and treasurer with the ARC of Hunterdon.
She was a founding member of the Readington Train Station Library as well as the
Hunterdon-Somerset Jetport Association. Mrs. Stevens initiated the campaign and
directed the restoration of the 1800's Eversole-Hall House, which was to become the
Readington Township Historical Museum. She serves there as director, plans and
supervises year-round programs and exhibitions, and conducts summer living-history
day camp sessions for fourth through sixth grade students, as well as programs for
eighth grade history classes. Her penchant for delving into old records garnered
enough information to win state and county grants, the financial support of local
companies, and the "sweat equity" contributed by a group of volunteers to restore what
remained of the 1828 stone one-room Cold Brook School in Readington Township. It is
now a local museum offering history programs for Readington Township fourth grade
students.
In 1964 her interest in politics led to her election to the Hunterdon County
Republican Executive Committee. She was treasurer of the county Republican
Committee for 20 years. She was mayor of Readington Township in 1996.
She is a founding member of the Hunterdon County Museum Association and life
member of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. In 1995 she was named by
Gov. Whitman to the Task Force on New Jersey History, and in 1998 named to the New
Jersey Historic Trust.
Mrs. Stevens was responsible for the Hunterdon County Cultural and Heritage
Commission's hosting of a workshop for Preservation New Jersey entitled The Right
Stuff: Techniques and Materials for Old House Interiors.
62
Through the years she has continued to utilize her teaching skills when conducting
classes in Tracing Your Old House at North Hunterdon High School as an extension
course offering of Raritan Valley Community College. In 1979 she chaired the Rural
Preservation Conference, the first to bring farmland preservation to the attention of the
residents of Hunterdon County, and subsequently served on a Board of Agriculture
committee to explore various planning options for farmland preservation. She has been
a driving force in the effort to preserve the official records of Hunterdon County, and as
chairman of the Cultural & Heritage Commission, has applied for and received grants to
microfilm records dating back to the late 1700's. The Hunterdon County Board of
Chosen Freeholders appointed her to the County Facilities Committee, which helped
design the new justice center. Her advice has been sought for the planned archival
records retention center and preservation of county-owned buildings.
After "getting her feet wet" by doing much of the research and writing for the 1976
Bicentennial publication of a brief history of Readington Township, Readington
Reflections, she authored For a Better Life: A History of the Polish Settlement in
Readington Township, which explores the significant Polish settlement that occurred in
Whitehouse Station at the turn of the century, and the Forgotten Mills of Readington.
Stone Houses of Readington is a work-in-progress.
Mrs. Stevens’ many volunteer efforts have been recognized with the presentation of
awards by state historical societies and commissions, as well as the 1991 Hunterdon
County Chamber of Commerce Golden Award and the Soroptimist International Women
of Distinction in 1997. In 1999 the NJ Legislature recognized her as a NJ Woman of
Distinction.
63
ANN STEVENSON
Ann Stevenson, a resident of Lebanon Township, contributed her talents to bring
quality education and health care to Hunterdon County.
In 1943 she spearheaded the drive to make Blue Cross coverage available to
county farmers and their families through the County Board of Agriculture. Her efforts to
establish the program, and sign up the initial 100 farmers needed for eligibility, brought
this valuable insurance to hundreds of people in the county in the following years.
Her perseverance and knowledge in health care were called on again when just a
few years later, the first committee was formed to explore the possibility of building a
hospital in the county. The efforts of this committee led to the organization, funding and
building of the Hunterdon Medical Center which opened in 1954.
In addition to pursuing health care issues, for many years Mrs. Stevenson also
served on the Lebanon Township Board of Education and was a member of the first
Board of the North Hunterdon Regional High School.
64
DOROTHY STICKNEY
A Broadway actress whose stage role as “Mother” in Life
with Father gained her stage immortality and a place as one
of the great leading ladies of the legitimate theater.
Born in Dickinson, ND, she attended school in
Minnesota and Massachusetts. Her early career was on the
vaudeville stage and in stock companies.
New York
performances included The Way of the World, On Borrowed
Time, and Life with Father. In 1940 Eleanor Roosevelt
presented her with the Barter award for the best
performance of the year for Life with Father. Stickney has
also published poetry and a book.
Married to playwright Howard Lindsey, Stickney and he
bought a weekend country home in Readington Township in
1935. They owned the farm with its 1741 Dutch style house
until 1997 when it was sold to the Township of Readington.
Holidays, weekends and special times were spent at the farm where the StickneyLindseys became part of the Stanton community. Many stars of Broadway and movies
weekended with the family over the years.
65
TOSHIKO TAKAEZU
Toshiko Takaezu is an internationally acclaimed
artist-craftswoman best known for her ceramics, but
who also weaves and paints.
She was born in
Pepseekeo, HI, one of 11 children of a Japanese farmer
who had come to Hawaii to find work in the sugar cane
fields. Teaching pottery and elementary school classes
enabled her to attend the University of Hawaii. She
studied sculpture and ceramics, and soon realized the
need to leave Hawaii and seek advanced instruction in
ceramics. She enrolled at Cranbrook Academy of Art in
Bloomfield Hills, MI.
A great deal has been said about the Oriental
influence in her work. In 1955-56, she traveled to Japan
to find out more about her own culture and racial
heritage, especially as it might apply to her ceramics.
She lived in a Zen Temple for three months, and visited many well-known Japanese
potters.
For a number of years, Ms. Takaezu was head of the ceramics department at the
Cleveland Institute of Art. She has taught at several universities and in 1966 came to
Princeton University, where she taught in the Visual Art Department for 25 years. She
retired in 1992, and Princeton honored her with the esteemed Behrman Award. She
received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Hawaii.
Toshiko's home and studio in Quakertown was often visited by groups of Princeton
students and others learning the craft of raku and other pottery skills.
Ms. Takaezu was a trustee at Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton for many years.
Through her service on the exhibition committee she influenced and promoted the work
of many artists.
She also brought teachers of international stature to teach at the museum and
organized the Friends of Hunterdon Art Center, which is still functioning as a strong
support group of volunteers and financial help to the museum.
For two months in 1998, all three floors of the museum were turned over to an
exhibition of ceramics selected from a vast collection of Toshiko’s work.
Her work is included in public collections throughout the world, including the
Smithsonian Institution and over 50 other prestigious museums.
66
ANNE MOREAU THOMAS
A life-long resident of Hunterdon County, Anne Moreau
was one of three daughters of Howard Moreau, owner and
publisher of the Hunterdon County Democrat. Born in 1930,
she grew up and attended school in Flemington. After
graduating from Flemington High School in 1947, she went
north to attend and graduate from Middlebury College in
Vermont. It was there that she met her future husband
H. Seely Thomas, and they married in 1952.
After a stint as home economics teacher at North
Hunterdon High School, she went on to teach adult education
classes.
With a background in newspaper writing and
publishing and her great interest in food, it was natural that
she should become Home and Food Editor for the Democrat,
a post that she has filled since 1954.
After the death of her father, Anne and Seely Thomas
bought out her sisters and became the sole owners of the newspaper. Under their
leadership the newspaper then expanded its readership and community influence,
moved into larger quarters, modernized its equipment and became a prize-winning
journal. During these building years, Anne Thomas served the New Jersey Press
Association as trustee, president and chairman, a testimony by her peers to her abilities
in the newspaper business.
These busy years saw her as importantly as the mother of growing children and a
devoted wife and homemaker. However, she also found the time and energy to
contribute her talents to the community she loves so dearly. She has served as trustee
to the Flemington Borough Library, Hunterdon County Historical Society, the Hunterdon
Heritage Conservancy, NJ Museum of Agriculture, and Board of Trustees of Rutgers
University and as chairman of the Board of Governors of Rutgers. A deacon in her
church, Mrs. Thomas also is a member of the Flemington Women's Club, D.A.R., and
the Hunterdon-Princeton Chapter of Chaine des Rotisseurs.
In 1990, her dedication to community activities was recognized with the Golden
Award from the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce. The Rolling Hills Girl Scout
Council honored her with its Women's Achievement Award and Soroptimist International
with its International Women of Distinction Award.
After a long illness, Seely Thomas died in 1994, ending a strong family partnership.
Anne Moreau Thomas is now Corporate Board Chairman of the Hunterdon County
Democrat.
67
MABLE TOMPKINS
Once described as a "one-woman juvenile center," Mable
Tompkins spent half a century helping the youth of
Flemington. It was not uncommon to find her talking to
teenagers in the park, on the corners, anywhere they
congregated. For several years she invited them into the
Women's Club on weekends for "rap" sessions, thereby
keeping many out of certain trouble.
Mrs. Tompkins was a graduate of Cornell University, with
a master's degree from the University of Chicago. She had
been a home economics teacher before her marriage in 1945
to Dr. Tompkins.
She actively sought out youngsters who needed guidance
and help, employing them in jobs around her home. She
taught them to garden, would pay and train them for two years
or so, then encourage them to seek better jobs elsewhere in
town. Some of "her boys" learned to plan and handle larger, more difficult jobs. Her
efforts with young people played a major role in the formation of the County Youth
Center.
Although her chief interest was in young people, she found time to serve both her
church and community. Among her civic activities were the League of Women Voters,
the Mental Health Association, the United Church Women and the Hunterdon Medical
Center Auxiliary. She also was active with the county Community Services Council and
Social Services Board, the Flemington Board of Heath, and the South Branch
Watershed Association, and taught Sunday school at the Flemington Baptist Church.
Mrs. Tompkins died in 1990 at the age of 94.
68
MARJORIE SCHUYLER VAN NESS
Marjorie Van Ness grew up in Plainfield, where she attended the Hartridge School.
She went on to graduate from Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City. On
returning home she became a member of the Junior League of Plainfield, part of a
national organization that trains young women for volunteer work and eventual board
membership of community groups.
For 22 years she served as a hospital volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary of
Muhlenberg Hospital, later becoming president of the auxiliary and a member of the
Board of Governors of that hospital. This interest in health care continued with her
activities as a board member of the Visiting Nurse Association, treasurer of the Visiting
Homemaker Service of Hunterdon County, and as a trustee of Hunterdon Medical
Center. She also served as a trustee and president of the Clinton Historical Museum,
the State Coordinating Committee to Save Open Space, and the 200 Club of Hunterdon
County.
Her husband Eugene died in 1977. They had four children, and Mrs. Van Ness
shared her love of American Saddlebred horses with her daughter Joan. A familiar sight
at horse shows, they bred horses at their succession of Hope Farms, the first in
Millstone, second in Hunterdon's Franklin Township and the last in Raritan Township.
Marjorie's dedication led her to become chairman of the New Jersey Equine
Advisory Board, member of the Executive Committee of the American Horse Council,
board member of the National Foundation for Happy Horsemanship for the
Handicapped, chairman of fundraising for the Committee for the New Jersey Horse
Park, president of the American Saddlebred Horse Association, member of both the
American Horse Shows Association and the United States Equestrian Team, organizer
of the Hunterdon County Horse and Pony Association, vice-president of the Gladstone
Equestrian Association, member of the NJ Professional Horsemen's Association,
treasurer of the Middlesex County Horse Show, and member of both the US Pony Club,
and the Hunterdon County 4-H Advisory Council. Marjorie was appointed by Governor
Cahill in 1971 to be the first woman to serve on the State Board of Agriculture. She also
became the first woman to be president of the New Jersey Agricultural Society, and the
first woman accepted for membership in the 200-year-old Philadelphia Society for
Promoting Agriculture.
In 1986 the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce honored her with its Golden
Award for her community service. She also received the Gold Medallion of the New
Jersey Agricultural Society, and distinguished service awards from the State Board of
Agriculture and the New Jersey Farm Bureau.
69
SALLY T. VOGEL
Sally Vogel was educated as a social worker with a minor in psychology. She
continued her education to receive a master’s degree in Pupil Personnel Services.
From 1970 to 1984, she served as part-time school social worker for Delaware
Valley Regional High School. Overlapping a portion of that time period, she performed
the duties of guidance counselor for the Holland Township school system.
A current resident of St. Clair Shores, MI, Sally Vogel immersed herself in various
community activities that gained her friends the length and breadth of Hunterdon during
her many years in the county. Her constant and continuous concern for the singleparent child with whom she came in daily contact caused her to realize a need for
special friendship and counseling on a continuing basis. It was this interest in the
single-parent child and the emotional problems particular to the child that inspired her to
found the Hunterdon Big Brothers and Sisters, a non-profit organization that matches
children with the missing influence of a father or mother figure.
Big Brothers and Sisters serves to offer friendship to children in need of attention.
Volunteers agree to visit a certain child for a long period of time, sharing special trips
and fun times. The outcome is confidence-building for the child.
Sally is to be congratulated for having left Hunterdon a better, more caring place.
70
ELIZABETH VAN FLEET VOSSELLER
Under the tutelage of "Miss Bessie," the Flemington
Children's Choir School became a nationwide model for training
of children's choirs.
Born in 1874 in Flemington, she and her twin were the
children of Elias and Julia Vosseller, both accomplished
musicians. The twins' early education was at the Reading
Academy in Flemington, followed by further study and musical
training in New York and Brooklyn. Returning to Flemington, she
first taught piano to children. She soon realized that this rural
area had no children's choirs. In 1895, with her friend Miss
Bessie Hopewell, she founded the Choir School when four little
girls were taught the rudiments of group singing. They performed
in the Flemington Presbyterian Church. Other enthusiastic
children joined the little choir which soon attracted so many that
rented quarters were needed. As the Choir School grew, so did
its reputation.
Miss Vosseller continued her studies of vocal music; she and Miss Hopewell, "the
two Miss Bessies," were invited to train children for choir work in other Flemington
churches. Singing good music became part of the religious and secular life of the town.
Youngsters entered the Choir School in fourth grade, with graduation being held
after eighth grade. They then could enter senior choirs.
After hearing a performance of the Children's Choir in 1909, the principal of the
Somerville Schools invited Miss Vosseller to head the music department. One of her
most grateful students was Paul Robeson, who never forgot that she was the first to
recognize and encourage his talent.
71
JOSET WALKER
During the 1940's and '50's, Joset Walker's clothing designs
were regular cover features of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar
magazines. Born in France and educated at a convent school,
she soon became aware of the contrast between high fashions in
Paris and the uniformity of the school. At age 14, she came to
America, eventually completing her education at the Parsons
School of Design in New York.
Her ability landed her a job at Saks Fifth Avenue. When her
boss left for Hollywood to work for RKO Studios, she went with
her. After several months, Walker's boss quit, and she found
herself elevated to the top position at the age of 26.
As head designer, she did all of the sketches for stars such as
Katherine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, and Constance Bennett. But
after one year of Hollywood, which she hated, she returned to
New York.
Almost immediately her sportswear designs appeared in the leading fashion
magazines. Her world travels exposed her to native styles and fabrics which were
incorporated into designs that left a lasting impact on the fashion world.
Joset Walker and her husband made their home in the beautiful Reading Mansion
at Flemington Junction. They were parents to three adopted children and a number of
grandchildren.
1946 Life Magazine Cover
72
MARIE WARFORD
There was no one more devoted to a better high
school for Lambertville students than Marie Warford.
As president of the Lambertville P.T.A., Mrs. Warford
realized that the old high school was crowded and in
poor repair. There were no science labs to serve the
students, no cafeteria or showers. So she organized
a campaign to form a regional district and build a new
high school, no easy task since many Lambertville
citizens held the opinion that the old high school was
just fine.
Her campaign paid off when in 1956 the county
superintendent named her to the first regional board
of education for the proposed South Hunterdon
Regional High School. By dint of extremely hard
work, the school was built and Mrs. Warford stayed
on the Board for 30 years, 12 of them as president.
When her children were grown, she returned to work as secretary to the
Lambertville School Board. Before her appointment, Lambertville voters had twice
turned down proposals for an all-purpose room addition to the school. Feeling that
there was a strong need for the room, Mrs. Warford found a federal program that offered
school funding for small communities. Undaunted by critics who claimed she was
wasting her time, she applied on behalf of the Board of Education, and got the grant.
Over the years Mrs. Warford served her community both at the local and county
level as a trustee for the Jennie Haver Scholarship Fund, board member of the Cancer
Society, on various committees of both the local and state School Boards Association,
and as Democratic County Committeewoman.
After a busy life devoted to the betterment of her city and the education of
children,Mrs. Warford retired in 1990 to spend time with family and friends.
73
BARBARA HARRISON WESCOTT
A noted collector of fine works of art, Barbara Wescott's
appointment to the Advisory Council of the New Jersey State
Museum proved to be the turning point in the museum's existence.
Prior to her influence, the museum was largely "a collection of
arrowheads." It was her knowledge, taste, and love of fine art that
propelled the museum forward in its quest for a collection that would
distinguish the state museum.
Mrs. Wescott's wide and varied interests included women's
rights, world government, care for the mentally ill, the arts and
literature. Her concern for those with mental illness led her to
establish the Karen Horney Clinic in New York City. The clinic
provided free service for its patients.
Her interest in world government may have been prompted by
her childhood travels. Her father was Governor General of the
Philippines during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Later, she
studied at Oxford University in England, and then moved to France, where she
established Harrison of Paris, a small press publisher of fine literary paperbacks.
After her marriage to Lloyd B. Wescott, she moved to Hunterdon County, living first
near Clinton until the property was taken for Spruce Run Reservoir, and then on
Mulhocaway Farm in Rosemont. As a patron of the arts and literary world, Mrs. Wescott
had two best-selling novels dedicated to her during her lifetime. Upon her death in
1977, a sculpture garden at the State Museum was dedicated to her memory.
74
DORIS GNAUCK WHITE
Growing up on a farm in Granville, Wisconsin led Doris White to spend her life in the
agricultural research business. When she was nine years old, her mother, a teacher,
gave her a baby chick. That prepared her for later when her mother brought home 100
chicks and announced that they were Doris’ to raise. Dr. White says that she has “been
in chickens” ever since!
Due to the poor health of her father, and a series of childhood hardships, Doris
literally had to fend for herself when it came time for her to attend high school in
Wisconsin. Since Granville had no high school, Doris accepted an invitation to attend
Shorewood High School – eight miles away. Without transportation, she rode her
bicycle daily with her lunch stuffed into the bell of her French horn.
High school completed, Doris won one of the eight University of Wisconsin Regents
scholarships reserved for men. She completed college with honors in just two years
and eight months. Self-supporting, Doris worked at the University of Wisconsin Poultry
Experimental Farm on genetic lethals, vitamin deficiencies and di-ethylstibesterol (DES)
hormone.
Admitted to the University of Wisconsin Graduate School at the age of 19, she was
too young to teach science in the high schools of Wisconsin. She could, however, teach
in the U.S. Army Military Prison -- which she did under guard. Reaching the proper age,
she eventually did teach chemistry, biology, physics and math in high schools in
Wisconsin.
At the age of 22 she had been granted a M.S. degree and had completed all of her
research for a Ph.D. Continuing to be self-supporting, Doris worked for the University of
Wisconsin Hill Farm for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the field of genetic
resistance of wheat to wheat stem rust, barley smut, ergot of rye, and hessian fly larvae
damage to wheat. These resistance cereal grains are now commercial varieties.
While writing her thesis in horticulture for her Ph.D., she became seriously ill and
was hospitalized for a lengthy period. Upon returning to the field of academia, Doris
found that her assigned professor had retired – only to be replaced with a newly
graduated “Yaleie” who refused to accept her academic credits. After all, horticulture
was a man’s field!
At that point she started over in graduate school, this time in science education, with
a Ph.D. minor in entomology, and received a Ph.D. in 1956. Because of the ruling of
her professor, she now has two masters degrees and two Ph.D.’s.
Doris came east to Hunterdon when her former husband, a physicist, took a position
with Bell Labs in New Jersey. At that time she joined the faculty of William Paterson
College as an associate professor of mathematics and science. In three years she was
granted tenure and, a year later, was made a full professor at the age of 33. Currently
she is a senior faculty member at William Patterson.
Her four sons are all scientists. It must be in the genes! Dr. White’s early research
was in genetics, with a focus on improving field crops and livestock. More recently, she
has worked in the field of environmental problems. One of her projects is drought and
its devastating effects on people and market prices.
75
Dr. White has worked on ways to use wave and tidal pumps to move the fresh pure
water from glaciers to drought-stricken areas – all using natural energy.
Most recently she has concerned herself with the many uses of incinerator ash.
Inspired by a trip to an incinerator, Dr. White did some research into cost-efficient and
environmentally safe uses for ash. She determined that the ash could be used on roads
instead of rock salt to melt snow. Cheap and environmentally safe.
Her superb brain continues to search and seek ways to contribute to the quality of
life for her fellow man. We are pleased to have Dr. Gnauck White as a fellow
Hunterdonian.
76
CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN
New Jersey's first woman governor was born in New York
City in 1946 to Webster and Eleanor Todd, and raised in the
Oldwick section of Tewksbury Township on the family farm. She
attended Far Hills Country Day School, followed by the Chapin
School in New York City. In 1968 she received a bachelor's
degree in government from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Interest in government was natural as Christine grew up in
the midst of politics. Her father was the New Jersey state
Republican Chairman, while her mother was the vice-chairman of
the Republican National Committee. Her first job was with the
U. S. Office of Economic Opportunity, followed by work with the
Republican National Committee. While with the committee,
Christine instituted a program to attract new party members from
groups not traditionally aligned with the Republican Party,
meeting with minority citizens, seniors, students, and gang
members.
She married financial consultant John Whitman and they both taught English as a
second language while living in New York City. They are the parents of a daughter,
Kate, born in 1977, and a son, Taylor, born in 1979.
In 1982 Mrs. Whitman was elected to the Somerset County Board of Chosen
Freeholders, and re-elected in 1985, serving as director and deputy director during her
terms on the board. She was instrumental in the opening of the county's first homeless
shelter and its first transitional housing program for alcoholic male teenagers.
In 1988 she was appointed by Gov. Thomas Kean to fill an unexpired term on the
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and designated to serve as its president. She
resigned in 1989 to run for the U. S. Senate seat held by Bill Bradley, garnering 49% of
the vote.
Among the boards she has served on are the Community Foundation of New
Jersey, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the National Council on
Corrections, The New Jersey Advisory Council on Corrections, The North Jersey
Transportation Coordinating Council, and in Somerset County, the Board of Social
Services, College Board of Trustees, Youth Services Coordinating Commission, and
Planning Board.
The Whitmans moved back to her childhood home in Oldwick after the death of her
mother. She then ran in the 1993 Republican primary election for the position of
governor, facing incumbent Governor James Florio. On Nov. 2, 1993 she was elected
the 50th governor of New Jersey, becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent
governor in a general election and the first woman governor of New Jersey. During the
week Governor Whitman and her husband live in the official Governor's residence in
Princeton, but spend many weekends on the Oldwick farm. “Being able to get home to
the farm is critical to my sense of balance. Taking long walks by the river with the dogs,
or going mountain biking gives me a chance to get away from the pressures of
governing,” said Whitman.
In January 1995 she was spotlighted on the national political scene when she was
chosen to give the Republican response to President Clinton's State of the Nation
address.
77
Long a civil rights activist, Governor Whitman appointed the first African-American
to sit on the state Supreme Court. Her feelings on this issue were summed up in an
address before Renaissance Newark, Inc. in 1994. "When Racism or Hatred speak, it is
incumbent upon the rest of us -- the vast majority of New Jerseyans who believe in
tolerance, in diversity, and equality -- to exercise our First Amendment rights to
confront this disease head on."
78
PRIMROSE WOOLVERTON
The descendant of a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, Primrose Woolverton was born in
Pocomoke, MD on March 7, 1886 and died more than
100 years later. On the celebration of her 100th
birthday, she maintained that reaching the century
mark was “no big deal.”
She was the daughter of a distinguished
Presbyterian minister, and as a young woman lived in
a house that her family had owned since the
Revolutionary War. Today, that Stockton home is
known as the Woolverton Inn.
She was graduated with honors from Vassar
College in 1906, and went on to work in a physics lab
and then to teaching physics at Vassar. After further
work in Tarrytown, NY, she became an English
teacher at Reading Academy in Flemington.
From 1916 to 1944, she served as executive director of a number of YWCAs on the
east coast -- in Trenton, the Oranges, Manchester, NH, and Hartford, CT where
Woolverton Hall was named in her honor.
Returning to Stockton in 1944, she took up residence at the family homestead. Her
active mind and enthusiasm propelled her into all sorts of activities. Miss Woolverton
was known for her stenciled tinware and dried flower prints. She became president of
the League of Women Voters and the Delaware Council of Church Women, a member
of the Lambertville Kalmia Club, a Sunday school teacher and church trustee. It was
only when she was in her late 80's and could no longer drive, that she moved with her
niece to a small house near Flemington. The once active woman was later confined to
a wheelchair and spent her remaining years in a convalescent center.
79
FLEMINGTON WOMAN'S CLUB
One of the oldest clubs in the state of New Jersey, the Flemington Woman's Club is
just four years younger than the New Jersey State Federation of Woman's Clubs. On
November 15, 1898, Mrs. L. D. Temple, wife of the pastor of the Flemington Baptist
Church, asked a few women to attend a meeting at the home of Mrs. John B. Ramsey
to discuss forming a woman's club. Her suggestion was well received and an ad was
placed in the newspaper inviting women to come to a meeting and become charter
members. Thirty-four women joined at the first meeting. The club was named The
Woman's Club of Flemington and its object was "To promote the intellectual and social
life of its members and to engage in such philanthropic work as opportunity may
present, and for the general improvement of the village of Flemington as to cleanliness
of streets, promotion of literary interests, and every other thing tending to the
advancement of the best interests of the village".
The Club's first outside work was the opening of a reading room for the public in the
Deats’ Building. The next was the opening of a Free Public Library. In 1899 a social
was held, open to the public, with admission the donation of a book. One-hundred-andfifty books and eight dollars were collected. In addition, Mrs. Hiram Deats donated
close to 500 books. The library was launched, and, on request by the Club, the Village
of Flemington agreed to take over the library.
In 1900 a Village Improvement Committee was formed. This Committee provided
wastebaskets along Main Street and improved the grounds around the railroad station.
A stone drinking fountain was erected in front of the Court House in 1902, and the Club
turned the weedy lot behind the Court House into a park. In 1905 a sewing class was
started for children and 125 children participated; a boy's club, the George Junior
Republic, was also organized. From 1906 through 1909 a carnival, including a street
parade with floats, was held to raise money to buy land adjoining the "County Lot" for a
park. The Village Improvement Committee received special recognition from the State
Federation of Woman's Clubs. In 1913 the Club furnished an office for the YMCA and
provided part of the salary for a community nurse. Members worked for the Red Cross
during World War I, and in 1919 adopted a child patient at Glen Gardner Sanatorium. A
public restroom was opened in 1923. The Club pledged $1,000 in 1924 to the Music
Building at New Jersey College for Women. Among the projects in 1928 were
donations to the ambulance fund, street signs at the entrances to Flemington, and
sponsorship of a Shade Tree Commission. Funds were raised to build the present
Woman's Clubhouse, which opened in 1936.
In 1950 the Club furnished a room on the 5th floor of the newly completed
Hunterdon Medical Center. Eleanore Roosevelt addressed the club in 1952 on "The
Search for World Understanding." The first academic scholarship was presented to a
deserving Hunterdon Central High School senior in 1957, while in 1960 the vandalized
bandstand in the park was re-built.
In addition to the annual scholarship, recent recipients of the Club's fundraisers are
Hunterdon Hospice, Women in Crisis, Hunterdon Drug Awareness, Parkland
Preservation, sponsorship of a young woman to the Citizenship Institute at Douglass
College, Flemington Free Public Library, Hunterdon Medical Center, American Cancer
Association, American Red Cross, Heart Association, March of Dimes, NJ Special
Olympics, Flemington Rescue Squad, CROP, Pearl Buck Foundation, and the
Hunterdon Developmental Center.
80
HUNTERDON MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDERS
Still waters run deep probably describes Rose Angell best. This quiet, unassuming
lady left an indelible mark on the county she inhabited from 1924 to 1965. It was she
and Louise Liecester who were the inspiration behind the founding of the Hunterdon
Medical Center.
A registered nurse, Mrs. Angell became the first Director of Welfare in Hunterdon
County. As such she soon came to know first-hand the woeful lack of medical care
available in this rural farm county. The nearest hospitals were in Doylestown,
Morristown and Belvidere. By the time a severely injured farmer got to the hospital it
was often too late. All medical care devolved upon the local physician, and there were
few enough of them.
Working as she did with the poor, Mrs. Angell soon came to the bitter realization
that other hospitals wanted no part of Hunterdon's indigent. After years of coping with
the sick and injured in somewhat primitive conditions, Mrs. Angell determined that
Hunterdon should have a hospital of its own.
In her annual report to the Freeholders in 1946 she stated the need for a hospital;
the report was accepted without comment. Refusing to accept that a hospital could not
be part of Hunterdon County, Mrs. Angell went to her friend, Louise Leicester.
A newer resident of Hunterdon County, Louise Bonnie Leicester lived in Pittstown.
She had come from New York where she was a successful public relations
businesswoman. During that era, Louise Leicester was considered to be one of the
most assertive persons in the county.
So these two intelligent women put their heads together and -- rather than appear
before the Freeholders -- went instead to the powerful Executive Committee of the
County Agricultural Board. All they asked for was a first quality hospital. If this group of
farmers could improve livestock and poultry breeds, could they not take on the rural
health problem?
Reluctance and skepticism greeted their efforts, but they persevered. Finally the
Agricultural Board, partially to prove the impossibility of the idea, formed a committee to
study the suggestion. The seed was planted.
Using her influence with a New York acquaintance, Mrs. Leicester persuaded the
eminent public health expert Dr. E.L.H. Corwin to do a survey of a rural community's
health needs. Corwin's report received somewhat casual attention from Hunterdon
residents, but evoked much interest in Trenton where Hunterdon's health needs were a
subject of consternation. Mrs. Leicester also sought the advice of the NJ State Dept. of
Health. No stone was left unturned by this determined woman -- Hunterdon was going
to have a hospital or she would die trying!
Federal monies became available, but they had to be matched. Men, women and
children all over this county set out to match the Federal donation. Children shined
shoes, mowed grass, worked the Fair -- anything so that they could make a donation.
Farm women went from farm to farm seeking pledges. Hunterdon farmers had little
wealth and one hundred dollars was an enormous donation that took months or years to
pay off. But raise the money they did! Today we have a Medical Center that was
brought up out of a corn field, and paid for by the people themselves.
81
From the time Rose Angell conceived the idea and Louise Leicester carried the
torch, seven years passed. Never in the social health history of this county were seven
years more productive.
Hunterdon Medical Center opened its doors In 1953 and has never taken second
place to any hospital. Its staff and care have always been top notch. That's what Rose
and Bonnie asked for and got!
HUNTERDON
MEDICAL
CENTER
82
KALMIA CLUB
Back in 1892 when 45 daughters of the genteel middle class got together and
formed a "Reading Circle" -- the last thought on their minds was the future. Their
purposes were much more immediate. The pragmatic ladies were seeking a break from
their day-to-day lives, a place to use their intellect, and most of all an opportunity to
gather with other like-minded women.
A year after it was formed, the Reading Circle changed its name to the Kalmia Club,
after the botanical name for the mountain laurel kalmia latifolia. That year it also
acquired its clubhouse at 39 York Street. The building, built in the mid-1800's as a
private school, was a gift to the newly formed club by the Quakers, who had used it as a
meeting house until membership dwindled and they moved across the river.
The Kalmia Club has met without interruption for over 100 years, making it the
oldest continuously running women's club in the state of New Jersey. Much has
changed since the club was formed more than a century ago. The afternoon teas have
given way to evening meetings where the women no longer dress up grandly in gloves
and hats. Gone also is the old-fashioned custom of restricting membership to a
particular social class. Today any woman is welcome to join Kalmia.
The club remains an active civic as well as literary organization. Through its
membership in the State Federation of Women's Clubs, it contributes to various
statewide activities. While keeping up with the times the club remains ever mindful of its
sisters in history and its place in the annals of the city of Lambertville.
83
INDEX
Adams, Harriet Stratmeyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Anderson, Betty M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Angel, Rose Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 42, 81
Boggs, Elizabeth Monroe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
Bray, Mary Woolverton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Brown, Valerie L.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Carpenter, Ruth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Case, Sarah Clark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Cole, Louisa Bauer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Conkling, Helen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Crane, Almena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Dahl-Wolfe, Louise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Dahme, Maud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Deats, Mrs. Hiram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Doremus, Rosemarie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Doyle, Beryl L.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
FLEMINGTON WOMAN’S CLUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Gag (Humphreys), Wanda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Goger, Pauline Rohm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Grainger, Nessa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Grammar, June Amos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Grandin, Elizabeth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Greenwood, Lela. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Harger, Eone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Haver, Ella M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Haver, Jennie M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 28, 35, 51, 73
Henneberg, Jill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Herr, Anne Cowles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Herr, Marilyn Rhyne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Herson, Edythe M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Hopewell, Bessie Richardson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Horn, Edna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
HUNTERDON MEDICAL CENTER . . . . . . 5, 6, 15, 21, 30, 34, 42, 59, 60, 64, 68, 69, 80
Founders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81-82
Knocke, Lazelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
KALMIA CLUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79, 83
Kornitsky, Lillian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Kursinski, Anne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Larason, Mildred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Lauck, Anne Marie Letko. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Lawson, Evelyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Lechner, Hermia M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41
Leicester, Louise Bonney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 42, 81
Lewis, Peggy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
84
INDEX, continued
MacNamara, Dorothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Mahan, Edna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Marr, Vernita Kayser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Marsh, Anne Steele. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
McConnell, Barbara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Mortimer, Mildred Preen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Newman, Carolyn B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Nikitaidis, Yolanda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Pell, Orlie A. H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Perry, Elizabeth Orben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53-54
Prall, Inez Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Robb, Inez Callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Roberts, Abigail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Roth, Nancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Siodlowski, Henrietta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Smith, Michele. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Snyder, Melda Chambre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Stevens, Stephanie B.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62-63
Stevenson, Ann. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Stickney, Dorothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Ramsey, Mrs. John B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Takaezu, Toshiko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Temple, Mrs. L. D.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Thomas, Anne Moreau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Tompkins, Mable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Van Ness, Marjorie Schuyler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Vogel, Sally T.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Vosseller, Elizabeth Van Fleet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Walker, Joset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Warford, Marie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Wescott, Barbara Harrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
White, Doris Gnauck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75-76
Whitman, Christine Todd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77-78
Woolverton, Primrose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
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