Creative History

  On the afternoon of July 2, 1921 the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, is playing a round of golf at the Raritan Valley Country Club in Raritan, New Jersey, with his friend and political ally, New Jersey Senator Joseph Frelinghuysen. Harding, a former Republican Senator from Ohio, in July of 1921 is, at that time, one of the most popular Presidents in American history.  A friend of the President’s once noted that, “Harding used his oratory to good effect; it got him elected, making as few enemies as possible in the process.” During his political career spanning over three decades, he has become well known for adeptly working together with members on both sides of the political aisle. After Harding’s election to the Senate in 1914 the First World War launched him onto the national political stage.  The Republican Harding used his renowned speaking skills to gain support among both politicians and the American public for then Democratic Preside...

  “The storm reached the city shortly after 8 o’clock in the morning and the high winds prevailed for about two and one half to three hours.” - The New York Times September 17, 1903 It seemed to come completely out of nowhere and smash, without warning, right into the New Jersey coastline just north of Atlantic City in the early morning hours of September 16, 1903.  A tropical cyclone with hurricane force winds and drenching rain, ravaging the Jersey Shore, over 1,000 miles north of where storms like this one were supposed to happen. The storm, which at the time was simply called Hurricane Number 4 of 1903 in an era before weather events were given proper names, was so unexpected, and the damage that it caused to the Garden State was so unprecedented that the leading newspaper in Atlantic City at the time, The Atlantic City Press , dubbed it “The Vagabond Hurricane” because it seemed to have mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, destroyed everything in its path, and then l...

  On November 5, 1780 John Cleves Symmes Jr. was born in Sussex County, New Jersey.   He was named after his uncle John Cleves Symmes who had served as both a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress and as a Colonel during the American Revolution. As a teenager, young John arbitrarily placed the  suffix “Jr.” onto the end of his name so that local residents could tell him apart from his famous patriot uncle.  John Cleves Symmes was a voracious reader growing up, and the scope of his intellectual interests was wide and varied, ranging from engineering to natural science to philosophy and religion.  It seemed as if John Cleves Symmes Jr. would be destined for a successful career in academia.  Soon, though at the age of twenty-two, the younger John followed in his elder uncle’s footsteps by gaining a commission as an Ensign in the United States Army in March of 1802. He went on to receive an officer’s commission as a Lieutenant in the 1st In...