This Day in History: August 21st, 1922

This Day in History: August 21st, 1922

FESTIVALS ARE IN GREAT FAVOR: MILLTOWN DOINGS

MILLTOWN, Aug. 21 — There are two peach festivals planned for this week in the borough.
Tomorrow evening, Our Lady of Lourdes Church will conduct a festival on the church grounds, plans having been made to entertain a large crowd. Peaches, cake, and ice cream will be the principal refreshments for sale, but various other goodies will be offered.
Friday evening at Lawrence Brook Grove, the Sunshine Class of St. Paul’s Reformed Sunday School will conduct the other festival. Tickets are being offered for sale. They cost thirty cents, including peaches, cake, and ice cream. Other kinds of refreshments will be on sale.

Cantaloupe Festival.
Peach festivals have been playing a big part in the social life of the borough. Something new has been planned to replace them by the Ushers’ Union of the Methodist Church. This will be a cantaloupe festival and will be held Wednesday evening, August 30, at Lawrence Brook Grove. The affair is in the hands of a committee, of which J. S. De Hart is chairman. Good music will be in attendance.

Other News.
This evening, the Emanon Club, with the husbands and friends of the members, will journey to Morgan, where they will be entertained by Miss Mae Bradley. The trip will be made by auto truck, leaving John Street at 5:30 o’clock sharp.
The Girls’ Crescent Club will be entertained this evening by Mrs. D. Servis and Miss Bertha Snedeker at the home of the latter on Ford Avenue.


This Day in History: April 17th, 1914

Milltown Grange Recreational Group September 23 1937

Many at Spring Session of Middlesex and Somerset Pomona Granges Held Here

MILLTOWN, April 17. – A largely attended and most interesting Spring session of the Middlesex and Pomona Grange was held between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Junior Mechanics’ Hall, Milltown, yesterday, with representatives from South Branch, New Market, Middlebush, Plainsboro, and Milltown granges present. During the morning session, simply routine business was transacted. At 12 o’clock, a delightful luncheon was served by the ladies of the Milltown Grange.

During the afternoon session, resolutions of respect were drawn and read on the death of a deceased brother, B. DeWitt Giles, of the New Market Grange. Telephone messages were sent to two brothers who were unable to attend owing to illness, namely, Master Van Nest, of the Raritan Valley Grange, of South Branch, and Prof. A.L. Clark, lecturer of the Milltown Grange.

The literary program consisted of the following:

“Corn Growing in Different States” by John B. Voorhees (Of the Experiment Station of New Brunswick)
“Corn Growing Contest to Be Run by the Middlesex Board of Agriculture in Middlesex County” by Bro. George B. Redshaw
Reading, “Take No Notice,” by Mrs. Schaffer (Of the Raritan Valley Grange, South Branch)
Essay “On Bones,” written by a schoolboy and read by Mrs. H. Kline, of the Somerset Grange, of Middlebush
“Good of the Order” by David Perrine (Of New Market Grange)
Music was furnished by the Milltown Grange Orchestra, consisting of Mrs. Cosgrove, of Weston Mills, pianist; George Redshaw, of Weston Mills, violinist; John Cruit, of New Brunswick, cornetist.

Three new applications for membership were received during the session. Tonight, at the Methodist Church, the Epworthians will hold a rally, which promises to surpass any held before, as assurances have been received from a number of neighboring leagues that they will send a delegation, especially the St. James Leaguers, of New Brunswick, who will turn out strong to hear their pastor, Rev. J.P. Carman, make the principal address of the evening. As already stated, there will also probably be something interesting heard from other visiting pastors and, in addition to the usual rally speeches, there will be refreshments served in the lecture room of the church and a general social time will be enjoyed.

Walters Guards have been granted the use of the Crescent’s reading room for their dance, which is to be held in Red Men’s Hall next Wednesday evening.

Personals and Other Notes:

Charles Denhard, secretary of the Liquor Dealers’ Protective Association, attended a meeting of that body held in Carteret yesterday. Mr. Denhard is contemplating improvements to his hotel surroundings here by the removal of two large trees on the sidewalk and the laying of a concrete walk.
The Tamakwa Camp Fire Girls were entertained at the home of the Misses Glock last evening.
The L.C.S. was entertained at the home of Miss Anna Hoffer last night.
Mrs. Ernest Yahnall and Mrs. Ida Hermann were New York visitors yesterday.
William Kaiser, who has been visiting in Albany, N.Y., has again returned to his home.
The Cheerful Circle was entertained at the home of Mrs. C. Bennett in New Brunswick on Wednesday.
Jackson Barraud has returned from a visit with his parents at his home in Mt. Sinai, N.Y.
E. Jumet, of the Michelin Tire Company, recently purchased an Overland auto.


What is a grange anyway? https://newjerseygrange.com/about.html

Did you know?

The Middlesex County Fair was founded by the Milltown Grange in 1938 as a successor to their Flower and Crop Show which had been held at the Grange in 1937. Incorporated as a non-profit organization, the original Trustees had to be members of the East Brunswick Grange. The Grange had been in the process of changing their name having moved to East Brunswick in 1936 to the new Grange Hall built near the corner of Dunhams Corner Road and Ryders Lane – which was the home of the Raritan Valley YMCA until it was sold in 2003. Fred Gauntt, Master of the Grange at that time appointed H. Earl Propst as Fair Chairman and Fred C. Heyl as Secretary-Treasurer of the fair. Heyl remained Secretary-Treasurer until his death in 1956. https://middlesexcountyfair.com/history/


George McGinnis at a Loss to Know Who Robbed Him

MILLTOWN, April 17 – Upon awakening yesterday morning, George McGinnis, of South Milltown, discovered that one of the cleverest burglaries he had ever heard of had been performed during the night at his own home. The visitor or visitors made entrance through a window in his bedroom, ransacking his trousers and then going downstairs to his daughter’s apartment, Mrs. Jennie Steins, and getting away with a loot comprising some thirty-two dollars, a sum of change, and two gold watches, which Mr. McGinnis had purchased to make presents with.

Mr. McGinnis said he didn’t care so much about the money but he did care a great deal about the two watches which were engraved with the initials of the parties to whom they were to be presented. He said that one was to have been presented to his daughter and another to some other little girl.

In going through Mr. McGinnis’s trousers, the burglars secured a twenty-dollar bill, a two-dollar bill and some change, and the other ten dollars were secured from the daughter’s room downstairs.

The Entrance

The method by which the robber gained entrance was one of the cleverest stunts ever attempted hereabouts, and the methods involved would lead to suspicion. The visitors went to Mr. McGinnis’s own barn, found a stick about 3×4 inches and about 16 feet long, and on this single stick nailed about six slats forming such a ladder as would enable them to reach the second-story bedroom window on the side of the house where they had entered.

Mr. McGinnis said that his trousers were near the window and that they could have reached for them from the outside without entering the house. The front door was found open yesterday morning, as was a cellar window, but it is believed they made their exit by way of the front door.

In the shed or barn where this stick was found, whereby the burglars made their ladder, there was also a dog, but the visitors evidently made friends with this guardian and yesterday morning he was found on the front porch. It was also said that, much to the surprise of Mr. McGinnis, a lamp was found in his bedroom when he awoke yesterday morning, which he is positive was not there when he retired the night before.

Just what time the burglary occurred is not known. Mr. McGinnis said that both he and his daughter were out in the early evening and he returned to retire about 11 o’clock, and during the night he heard nothing whatever that would cause him to think there was any mischief going on.

When asked by a Home News reporter whether he suspected anyone, Mr. McGinnis replied, “Certainly, sure. But I didn’t catch them in the act, so I can’t do anything in the matter just now.”

He said, “I don’t care so much about the money, but I do care a whole lot about the watches, and whoever did get them won’t dare to wear them for they had been inscribed with initials of the parties to whom they were to be given.”