Does Bridgewater Need its Own Historical Society?

It’s hard to imagine, when you’re in the afternoon rush hour traffic trying to squeeze onto Route 202-206 from Route 287 that you’re at the center of one of the most historical communities in Central Jersey.

And if you’re stopped in traffic, look to the west and see the municipal complex, chances are you don’t know it was site of the township’s poor farm in the late 19th century, about 150 years after King George II of England created Bridgewater by royal charter in 1749.

And though the township is home to the Somerset County Historical Society, which has its headquarters at the historic Van Veghten House — where General George Washington danced for three hours during a party on March 17, 1779 — on the banks of the Raritan River in Finderne, the township does not have its own historical group.

That’s something some Township Council members want to rectify.

Council President Christine Henderson Rose said at Monday’s council meeting that her interest in investigating the possibility of starting a township’s historical group was spurred by her attendance at the Washington Camp Ground Association’s annual Independence Day ceremony.

The ceremony, at Camp Middlebrook on Middlebrook Road where Washington’s army encamped twice during the American revolution and where Betsy Ross’s 13-star flag first flew over the Continental Army, celebrates the day when the 13 colonies declared their independence from England.

Rose said that two people known for their endless efforts to preserve local history, Bob Vaucher and Jesse Havens, were at the ceremony and are “not getting any younger.”

Havens, now in her 80s, wrote “Hindsight,” a long-running and award-winning column on Somerset County history for a weekly newspaper, the Somerset Messenger-Gazette, which was shuttered by Advance Inc., owner of The Star-Ledger and nj.com, after 180 years of publication in 2003.

Havens, Rose said, still writes on a typewriter and has resorted to re-inking typewriter ribbons because she can no longer find new typewriter ribbons.

Vaucher, a decorated World War II veteran, has been active with the Foothills Civic Association, a citizens group that was created in 1932 and still taking a stance on current township issues, including the development of the Wemple property on Foothill Road and the construction of a cell tower by the Green Knoll firehouse. Vaucher, also in his 80s, took a active role in opposing in the Wemple project and voiced his opinion at public hearings.

Rose said it was time to start thinking about starting a Bridgewater historical committee to help preserve the township’s heritage and take advantage of these individual’s assets.

”I think it’s a great idea,” Councilman Matthew Moench said.

Many of Bridgewater’s neighbors, including Branchburg, Warren and the Somerset Hills communities of Bedminster and Bernards, have a historical society.
  
For more on the township’s history, click on http://www.bridgewaternj.gov/pictorial.html  
and http://www.bridgewaternj.gov/middlebrook/history.htm