From the May 9 edition of the Register-News
By:
100 years ago
Raymond Brown escaped from the Burlington County insane asylum last Monday night. Notwithstanding that he was in one of the strongest cells and handcuffed, he managed to break an iron spear head from his cell window and with that chopped his way through a 2-inch oak door. As the handcuffs will attract attention the officers expect to find the runaway.
The automobile, which was not put on the Allentown route, is doing good service at Asbury Park. Wednesday the directors of the Bordentown Automobile & Transportation Company, to which the auto belongs, declared their second monthly dividend of 3 percent. About August 6 a new gasoline coach from Chicago is expected to arrive here. It will be a 12-passenger one, canopy top, cross seats and have solid rubber tires. It will be a handsomer one than that now owned by the company.
At Hutchinson’s pond, Wednesday, John Kirby, 10, saved the life of Mary Satterthwaite, 9. The latter accidentally fell into deep water when Kirby straddled a log and held her head up until his shouts brought help.
90 years ago
The new road machine, ordered by Common Council, some time ago, was given a tryout by the street committee on Monday afternoon. Nelson C. Dennis, secretary of the Barron & Cole Co., manufacturers of the machine, came here to set it up and make the test. the committee was favorably impressed with the work of the apparatus and decided to accept it. The old road scraper, too heavy and unwieldy for efficient work on local streets, will be sold.
80 years ago
Four members of a family were filled and two others fatally injured Tuesday afternoon when an eastbound passenger train on the Kinkora Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad struck an automobile at the unguarded grade crossing at Day, near Roebling.
Benjamin Franklin visited Bordentown two centuries ago, when as a boy he made his famous tramp to Philadelphia from Boston. Monday, his spirit came back for a fleeting visit and his image, in bronze, stopped here in a neighborhood wherein his friends resided.
The organization of a Bordentown branch of the New Jersey League of Women Voters was perfected at a meeting held in the Community House, Friday afternoon. Mrs. C.W. Meloney, of Farnsworth Avenue, was elected president and Miss Jennie Allan, of Crosswicks Street, secretary.
60 years ago
A huge service flag now flies from the halyards at the municipal building. After considerable time and effort devoted to the research, Commissioner Vaughn Donnelly reported that the number of servicemen now on the country’s roster had been set at 364 and this number appears on the flag. The number can be changed at intervals to keep it up to date.
This year the Poppy Sale for the American Legion Auxiliary should have a special significance to all citizens. In former years our money has been used for all veterans of the former wars but now we have the veterans of this war to look after and rehabilitate when they are sent home and it will be the duty of all legion and auxiliary members to aid them in any way possible to take up their lives where they left them when departing from home for this war.
Compiled by Vanessa Sarada Holt from the Bordentown Register, 1902-1922; Florence News, 1942).