As noted in the title of this post, it has been a busy week for some of my special interests in New Jersey history. Early in the week I finished the last of the draft histories of early 19th century New Jersey base ball (two words at the time) clubs - the Champion club of Jersey City. This history along with those of the Eureka club of Newark, the Newark club, the Olympic club of Paterson and the Irvington club will be part of the Pioneer Project, a book being compiled of the most noteworth teams of the amateur era, roughly 1855 to 1870. There is still plenty of work to do, some additional research plus much editing on the above plus writing an introduction and conclusion.
My involvement in this began almost by accident. As posted earlier I became involved in April in the formation of the Eureka vintage team - a team choice that I had nothing to do with. Then I was on Peter Morris' web site about base ball history, learned about the Pioneer Project and volunteered to write a history of the Eureka. My research as well as Peter's wish list developed names that were also candidates for the project. I though for sure that others would volunteer for none of those names, but no one did, so now I am basically writing the New Jersey section.
That's rewarding on at least two levels - first ,if I wasn't doing this, the New Jersey clubs wouldn't have been included. In addition it has been an opportunity to do some original research in areas where it seems very few people are working. At the end of the week, it was announced that McFarland & Co. has been chosen as the publisher. That wasn't a real surprise to me, but it was nice to hear since McFarland has published my first two books and I have always found them easy to work with. The book is scheduled to be published in 2010 which means that my sections are due May 1, 2009. Fortunately that deadline should not be a problem and I am going to try to submit well in advance - say February 1st.
The other activity was with regard to New Jersey Civil War 150. We had our third meeting this past Wednesday at the Peddie School in Hightstown. This was an expanded meeting, we had a good turnout plus some others who couldn't be there. There seems to be a good cross section of re-enactors, round tables and historians. Interestingly we had a Lincoln re-enactor sitting next to a Governor Olden re-enactor which sort of gave the meeting a 1860's type atmosphere. We still don't have much, if any, representation from south Jersey and no racial diversity. Both areas need work especially the latter.
Most of the discussion thus far has been about organizational issues, but ideas are starting to surface. One that came up on Wednesday was a state wide project to replace all of the government issue veteran's grave markers. There was a massive effort in this area at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn - some 3000 as I recall. Of course, they had the advantage of being located in one place, but this sounds to me like an important idea. The grave markers are provided at no cost by the Veterans Administration so it is more of a logistical issue than a financial one - for once, thank God!
We formed a sub-committee to work on the content of our web-site which is called www.NewJerseyCivilWar150.org/com. The name of the group will be the same - The New Jersey Civil War 150th Anniversary Committee and we will operate under the good offices of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association. Our next step is to seek state endorsement (not funding) so that we have some kind of semi-official status. Vision, mission and project brainstorming should begin during January. As far as I can tell from the Internet, we (New Jersey) are ahead of most other northern states in this work.
Both projects came together in a nice and helpful way this week. Peter Morris has a list of famous 19th century players that he is seeking information on. One of them is Charles E. Thomas who played shortstop for the Eureka. Peter is looking for his obituary (as am I) for information about his post base ball career. Without a death date that is looking for the veritable needle in a hay stack. The Civil War grave marker suggestion was made by Bob MacVoy who is the co-compiler of "Our Brothers Gone Before" - a two volume compilation of the graves of all New Jersey Civil War veterans. I asked Bob if he had any suggestions on Thomas - in less than an hour, he sent me an e-mail with what is almost certainly Thomas' death date. I am off to the Rutgers library in a little while to look in the Newark papers.
Oh, to finish the week off, I exchanged e-mails with the Lifelong Learning Program at Caldwell College and I am going to teach a course about the 33rd New Jersey next spring. Retirement is great, but I am working far too hard!!
My involvement in this began almost by accident. As posted earlier I became involved in April in the formation of the Eureka vintage team - a team choice that I had nothing to do with. Then I was on Peter Morris' web site about base ball history, learned about the Pioneer Project and volunteered to write a history of the Eureka. My research as well as Peter's wish list developed names that were also candidates for the project. I though for sure that others would volunteer for none of those names, but no one did, so now I am basically writing the New Jersey section.
That's rewarding on at least two levels - first ,if I wasn't doing this, the New Jersey clubs wouldn't have been included. In addition it has been an opportunity to do some original research in areas where it seems very few people are working. At the end of the week, it was announced that McFarland & Co. has been chosen as the publisher. That wasn't a real surprise to me, but it was nice to hear since McFarland has published my first two books and I have always found them easy to work with. The book is scheduled to be published in 2010 which means that my sections are due May 1, 2009. Fortunately that deadline should not be a problem and I am going to try to submit well in advance - say February 1st.
The other activity was with regard to New Jersey Civil War 150. We had our third meeting this past Wednesday at the Peddie School in Hightstown. This was an expanded meeting, we had a good turnout plus some others who couldn't be there. There seems to be a good cross section of re-enactors, round tables and historians. Interestingly we had a Lincoln re-enactor sitting next to a Governor Olden re-enactor which sort of gave the meeting a 1860's type atmosphere. We still don't have much, if any, representation from south Jersey and no racial diversity. Both areas need work especially the latter.
Most of the discussion thus far has been about organizational issues, but ideas are starting to surface. One that came up on Wednesday was a state wide project to replace all of the government issue veteran's grave markers. There was a massive effort in this area at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn - some 3000 as I recall. Of course, they had the advantage of being located in one place, but this sounds to me like an important idea. The grave markers are provided at no cost by the Veterans Administration so it is more of a logistical issue than a financial one - for once, thank God!
We formed a sub-committee to work on the content of our web-site which is called www.NewJerseyCivilWar150.org/com. The name of the group will be the same - The New Jersey Civil War 150th Anniversary Committee and we will operate under the good offices of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association. Our next step is to seek state endorsement (not funding) so that we have some kind of semi-official status. Vision, mission and project brainstorming should begin during January. As far as I can tell from the Internet, we (New Jersey) are ahead of most other northern states in this work.
Both projects came together in a nice and helpful way this week. Peter Morris has a list of famous 19th century players that he is seeking information on. One of them is Charles E. Thomas who played shortstop for the Eureka. Peter is looking for his obituary (as am I) for information about his post base ball career. Without a death date that is looking for the veritable needle in a hay stack. The Civil War grave marker suggestion was made by Bob MacVoy who is the co-compiler of "Our Brothers Gone Before" - a two volume compilation of the graves of all New Jersey Civil War veterans. I asked Bob if he had any suggestions on Thomas - in less than an hour, he sent me an e-mail with what is almost certainly Thomas' death date. I am off to the Rutgers library in a little while to look in the Newark papers.
Oh, to finish the week off, I exchanged e-mails with the Lifelong Learning Program at Caldwell College and I am going to teach a course about the 33rd New Jersey next spring. Retirement is great, but I am working far too hard!!
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