Independence Celebrated at Site of Washington's Encampment

By Mike Deak 

The only reminder at Camp Middlebook that it’s the 21st century is the constant hum of traffic on Route 22 about a half-mile down the mountain.    

Otherwise, except for the loudspeakers and recorded music, the 129th Independence Day Celebration of the Washington Campground Association on Thursday had the timeless honor of a cherished tradition that dates to the 19th century.    

More than 100 people came Thursday to the 129th celebration of Independence Day at the sloping site on Middlebrook Road, where Washington’s army camped during the Revolutionary War and where the newly-adopted American flag was first hoisted over the Continental Army,       

That’s a small turnout, compared to the crowds that came up Watchung Mountain from Bound Brook and the Raritan Valley more than a century ago, said Lt. Col. Bob Fazen (retired), the president of the Washington Campground Association who served as master of ceremonies.

In 1907, Fazen said, more than 2,000 marched in a parade from Bound Brook to the campground to celebrate Independence Day. What made that parade so memorable, Fazen said, was that it was the first reported parade in the United States that included a procession of automobiles.

The ceremony began with the retirement of the tattered flag that flew over the campground, one of the few places in America where a 13-star is flag is allowed by an act of Congress to be flown 24 hours a day.    

After the new flag was raised, Fazen asked all the children present to line up before the flagpole and lead the crowd in the Pledge to Allegiance.      

The ceremony then moved to the East Grove where the Declaration of Independence was read by former Bound Brook councilman Brad Higgenbottom, a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy who’s been in charge of Bound Brook’s Memorial Day parade since 1994. Higgenbottom’s mother read the Declaration of Independence at a July 4th ceremony at the campground in the 1940s.

Bridgewater Council President Christine Henderson Rose quoted the late newspaper columnist in her remarks: “You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”

Six sixth-graders from schools in Bridgewater-Raritan, Bound Brook and South Bound Brook were given American Citizenship Awards for the traits of good citizenship they have demonstrated in school. 

Receiving plaques and $50 were Nicholas Diaz and Matthew Carmosino of Hillside Intermediate School in Bridgewater, Ashley Liranzo and Charlie Wong Jaramillo of Smalley Middle School in Bound Brook and Sandra Adjei and Anthony Wesner of Robert Morris School in South Bound Brook.

The keynote speaker was State Sen. Michael J. Doherty (R-23), a West Point graduate whose three children are serving in the armed forces.

Doherty said he joined the military because, “I wanted to do something that was bigger than myself.”

Doherty, who noted the stark contrast between democracy and Communism as seen in post-World War II Berlin, emphasized the importance of a “radical” sentence in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Doherty said Americans believe that “people should live in freedom and liberty” because of those God-given rights.

“You can’t give them away,” he said.

“If you stand up and speak the truth, amazing things can happen,” Doherty said.

Kels Swan, historian of the Washington Campground Association, explained the strategic importance of Washington’s encampment on the Watchung ridge. That allowed the Continental Army to keep an eye on the British troops in the Raritan Valley and prevented them from marching across the state to capture Philadelphia. 

“Washington won a victory without a battle,” Swan said.