Hometown History: Mendham By cover art

Hometown History: Mendham

By: Ryan Ross and Katie Feather
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  • Summary

  • Drive west of Morristown NJ about 15 minutes, and you'll see an iconic sign highlighting a rich regional and national history. This podcast tells the story of how one New Jersey town evolved since its start in the 1740s, survived through the civil war and prohibition, housed national heroes, excelled in education, and has proven resilient through a series of curious schisms.

    hometownhistory.substack.com
    Katie Feather
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Episodes
  • Episode 4: When Apples Were King

    Episode 4: When Apples Were King
    May 29 2024
    Listen on your favorite podcast player:iTunesSpotifyOvercastHeartRadioAmazon MusicBibliography:Okrent, Daniel. (2011). Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Scribner.Mockridge, Ella. (1961). Our MendhamEmmonds, Kate. (1973). Through the Years in Mendham Borough. Self-Published.Theme Music:Howard Harper-Barnes / La Danse Timide / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.comTranscript:In the fall of 1919 Thomas Loughlin was tired and worried. In all his years of selling cider in New Jersey - first in Newark, now here in Mendham - it had never been harder to turn a profit. Twenty years ago, business had been booming. The year 1904 in particular had produced a bumper crop of the best apples New Jersey had ever seen. Not so great for the farmers who had to sell their apple crops at record low prices - but great for cider manufacturers like Loughlin. From the pomace of those superior New Jersey apples, Loughlin was able to bottle and distribute quality hard cider and applejack - the American name for apple brandy. 1904 was also the year Loughlin got an opportunity to expand his business, eventually moving his cider press from its original location in the center of town, into the old Nesbitt grain mill three miles west on Mendham Road. It had been a calculated risk to convert a grain mill into a cider mill, but it had paid off for over a decade. But then there was the 18th Amendment, which had been ratified earlier that year, in January of 1919, making the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol illegal. Prohibition would soon be in effect. But as Thomas Loughlin reflected on the events that brought his business to its knees, he undoubtedly wondered what the future looked like for his mill in Mendham. What would happen to this building that he had painstakingly converted, maintained and operated? Would it even make it past the next decade, or would the wheels of his cider mill stop spinning for good?–(Theme)Welcome to Hometown History…A series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home - stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham, New Jersey. And today, today we talk about how one of the icons in that town - a cider mill - evolved with the times, through legislation meant to dry up all the fun. –Fall harvest is a very special season for Mendham. It’s like this area’s superbowl. Porches explode with pumpkins, leaves on the trees of Jockey Hollow sparkle golden in the sunlight, and tourists flock from all over for apples. (Apple crunch) You can pick them, bob for them, eat them candied or caramelized - but in this town, you can also press them. Every year in early October, the Ralston Cider Mill, in Mendham Township, holds a pressing event (one might even call it a “press conference”).Located on the south side of Rt 24 between Mendham and Chester, the Ralston Cider Mill stands like a large but unassuming sentinel. Its worn wooden stairs and slightly ill-fitting door suggest that this place is original to the era in which it was built.JAMES: So, underneath this wooden piece, you see there's a big vertical rod there that's called the main shaft that went from a turbine…James Malchow, the director of the Ralston Cider Mill Museum in Mendham, gave my producer Katie and me a tour of the inside of the cider mill earlier this spring.Now, the first thing you have to know is this place didn’t always used to be a cider mill. Instead of crushing apples, this mill once used water power to crush grain.In 1848 John Ralston Nesbitt, grandson of the first Ralston to settle here, borrowed money from his mother to build a house and a grain mill on this site. And I say that because nearly every history book mentions this strange fact. Poor guy will forever be known for borrowing money from his mom.But, hey, it was a good investment! Because this 175 year old mill has withstood a retrofit, two gruesome deaths, prohibition, two World Wars, and a family of racoons. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. JAMES: In any case, when you start up the equipment, which I can do, if you like…James has me reach down, and turn a wheel 180 degrees, which starts the apple pressing process. The various belts and wheels, once powered by water from nearby Burnett Brook, kick into gear. Today, everything works using electrical power. As we walk around the mill, James points out the belts and wheels turning slowly but surely to move a giant apple press down.JAMES: The apples come into the building from outside on that conveyor, which is controlled off this shaft. The grater that turns the apples from whole fruit into a mush called pomace is controlled off here. And then when the apples and that pomace are made, they come in down from one floor to the other. Now they are under just the power of gravity…I didn’t realize it until I was doing research for this episode, but New Jersey is, ...
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    17 mins
  • Episode 3: A Tale of Two Churches

    Episode 3: A Tale of Two Churches
    May 22 2024
    Listen on your favorite podcast player:iTunesSpotifyOvercastHeartRadioAmazon MusicBibliography:Mockridge, Ella. (1961). Our MendhamEmmonds, Kate. (1973). Through the Years in Mendham Borough. Self-Published.Martha G.; Edward W. Roessler & Wallace G. West Hopler (1964). The Mendhams. Publisher: Mendham Township Committee. Foster, Janet W. (1986). Legacy Through the Lens: A Study of Mendham Architecture. Mendham Free Public Library.Wright, Helen Martha. (1938). The First Presbyterian Church of Mendham, Morris County, New Jersey and its vital records. Self-published.Transcript:One of the oldest aerial photographs of Mendham highlights a specific building. Maybe you’ve driven by it picking up your kids from school, or you’ve been in it during a Sunday service. It’s a white steepled church on a hill. And regardless of your spiritual beliefs, it stands as one of the iconic symbols of Mendham. So when my producer Katie and I went looking for information on the history of the First Presbyterian Church of Mendham, also known as Hilltop Church…we found something a bit confusing. In several older books written about Mendham history we came across references to not only this FIRST church…but also a second presbyterian church of Mendham. (And listeners, in case you’re not aware, currently, in 2024, there is no Second Presbyterian Church of Mendham)We dug a little deeper and discovered that this second church formed, in 1859, from a breakup of the first church. And whenever there is a schism, there is a story. So we wondered…what event could have caused a congregation that had been around for so long (over 100 years at that point) to fracture? Was it geological? Political? Social? A lover’s quarrel? —(Theme)This is the story of two versions of a church. The story behind why…in 1859…it decided to split. Welcome to Hometown History. A series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home. Stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham, New Jersey. —Now, I know this is the second time we’re talking about the church on this podcast. But that’s because The First Presbyterian Church of Mendham held a commanding position in the life of the town, both physically and culturally, since the day it opened its doors in 1745. In fact, according to English law and tradition, you didn’t even have a permanent community until you established a church. And Hilltop Church is much more than just a place of worship for Mendham. Ask any longtime local, churchgoer or not, and they’ll probably have a story to share about Hilltop. Wait this is great…There’s the one about how Ms. Martha Drake, nee Thompson, sat in church near a window during a violent storm and was struck by lightning.(Thunder crack)Or how Rev. Philip Courtlandt Hay was run out of town for preaching too heavily against the evils of alcohol.And of course there’s the story of how the sanctuary was turned into a hospital for soldiers stricken with smallpox during the Revolutionary War. Twenty-seven of them are buried in the cemetery there.The point is, there isn’t a resident of Mendham who doesn’t know something about the history of The First Presbyterian Church.But what about the Second Presbyterian Church? The one that was created in 1859 from a split at Hilltop? It dissolved in 1904, so it’s not as if there are local residents alive today who can tell us all about it.There are several books written by former residents of the town. Our Mendham, by Ella Mockridge; Through the Years in Mendham Borough, by Kate Emmonds; The Mendhams, by Martha Hopler and others. But none of them dedicate more than a page or two to this particular chapter of Hilltop’s history. The archives of the Mendham Borough Library were able to tell us a little more about the second church as it existed, but not a ton of detail about why it split.So we reached out to Hilltop itself - wasn’t there a trove of records we could take a peek at?(Door squeak)They said yeah, come on over to our library.KATIE: Hello…?Uhh it turns out that the library isn’t actually in the physical church itself.KATIE: Hello…?It’s at Hilltop House, next door to the elementary school, where the Hilltop Nursery School is located.KATIE: “Oh my god I just broke into a church…”Yeah…we should’ve figured that out sooner.(Door squeak)By the way, the building that Katie just broke into here – well, technically she got in through a side door that was open – that church, the one we see today was not the first church to occupy this little hilltop. (Music) The first was built in 1745. It was a modest, square, south-facing structure built by John Cary, a carpenter and friend of one of Mendham’s main forefathers - Ebenezer Byram. Now the Byram family, as we know, had a big role in the early history of Mendham. Ebenezer Byram was the proprietor...
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    19 mins
  • Episode 2: Leaders in Education

    Episode 2: Leaders in Education
    May 15 2024
    Listen on your favorite podcast player:iTunesSpotifyOvercastHeartRadioAmazon MusicBibliographyMockridge, Ella. (1961). Our Mendham Woodard, Colin. (2012). American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. Penguin Books. https://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029Munsell, W. W. (1882). History of Morris County, New JerseyTheme Music:Howard Harper-Barnes / La Danse Timide / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.comTranscript:Working on this podcast about hometowns has me thinking a lot about why people move to Mendham. So I started asking everybody I talked to about their first impressions of this place. MELISSA: I thought it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seenMelissa Saharko moved to Mendham with her family from the DC area back in 2017. MELISSA: We looked at houses in May and it just, this place sparkles, everything's green, the flowers are blooming... I love a small town Main Street. I love an old house. I love the character. And that’s the answer I hear a lot. Mendham’s got charm and character up the wahzoo.But if you’re putting down roots and starting a family somewhere, you’re going to be looking for more than flags on Main Street to seal the deal. Any parent worth their salt will tell you that education weighs heavily in choosing a new hometown. MELISSA: Maybe it's the crowd I run with, but everyone I meet who's moved to town in the last few years has little kids. They've moved here for the school system. (School sounds)Jessica Couto is a teacher at Mendham Borough’s Hilltop School. She also happens to be my neighbor. JESSICA: The curriculum is challenging, we have high expectations for our students…It's not just one factor that's leading us to have great schools. Mendham Schools are some of the best in New Jersey. Our two public elementary schools have been awarded blue ribbon status, based on academic excellence. Mendham Middle School is ranked 7th in the state - and that’s saying something. You remember how tough middle school is, right? And West Morris Mendham High School is an International Baccalaureate World School, which gives students an option to learn in a flexible and cross-disciplinary environment. By most measures, this means Mendham schools do an amazing job preparing their students for the future. But what makes Mendham schools so good? Is it because this is a highly educated, upper class community? Of course, that’s definitly a factor.But there’s another big reason why Mendham schools are some of the best in the state. And that has to do with…history! —(Theme)Welcome to Hometown History. A series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home. Stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham, New Jersey. —The best schools in the country, also known as the Ivy League, have three things in common, aside from being the best. First, where they’re located.If you pop open google maps, type in Ivy league, you’re not gonna get a map of the entire U.S. Instead, you’ll get a slightly zoomed in map of only a specific area of the country - the Northeast. Second, their age:Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth. They were ALL established before the revolutionary war. They’ve been around a while. And finally, FINALLY, and this is really cool: Who established these schools.William Tennet of Pennsylvania, John Harvard in Cambridge, James Pierpont of Connecticut. These guys had one thing in common. They were all ministers.(Church organ sounds)So what’s the connection between the clergy and education? And what does this all have to do with Mendham?To answer these questions, we have to know a little bit more about the early settlers of America. In fact, let’s take a quick detour into the classroom…this is an episode about education after all.(Classroom sounds)You guys, be quiet. Professor Woodard is here.COLIN: I'm Colin Woodard. I'm the author of six books, including American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, which is a book about how regionalism is vital to understanding our country’s history…Colin Woodard is a historian, author and Pulitzer Prize finalist. His unique area of interest is a fascinating blend of history, culture, and politics. His 2011 book, American Nations, is all about how our colonial past shapes and explains the present. COLIN: Americans…don't know our history very well, and the history we receive is not always super clarifying or accurate.Now, the first thing you have to remember is that America was colonized by several different groups of Europeans at several different times in history. There were Spanish, French, Dutch, English, German, and even Scottish and Irish people. COLIN: They were entirely different cultures and indeed didn't expect ...
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    15 mins
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