10 Years Ago – 1999
• The luck of the Irish fell upon Monroe Township High School again this year. Members of the band, cheerleading squad and drill team were selected to march up 5th Avenue in Manhattan for the third consecutive year to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. More than 100 members of the band played traditional Irish music.
• Daisy Troop 448 of Monroe visited the Cranbury museum to view its doll exhibit which spans two centuries.
• The Henry Ricklis Holocaust Memorial Committee is holding the annual Yom Hashoa Holocaust Commemoration on April 18 at the Monroe Township High School’s Richard P. Marasco Performing Arts Center. The featured speaker is Rabbi Ira Samuel Grussgott, and his topic is “Those Who Fought Back.” Holocaust survivors who wish to participate in the candle lighting ceremony can call Florence Ackerman, Harriett Stoll or Mark Weichman.
25 Years Ago – 1984
• Controversial police Director Sal Naimo sat at his desk Monday, grinning. Flowers from his wife and well-wishers brightened a bookshelf. For the first time since he started his job two years and nine months ago, he no longer felt handcuffed by the Jamesburg Borough Council. After a three-hour public hearing, he remained police director, an ordinance that would have replaced him with a uniformed chief was defeated.
• Pvt. William C. Martin, son of Mattie L. Martin of Jamesburg, has completed basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. He is a 1983 graduate of Cedar Ridge High School, Old Bridge.
50 Years Ago – 1959
• John E. Perrine of Jamesburg, son of Mrs. Pauline E. Perrine of Sedgwick Street, Jamesburg, has been selected secretary of the Varsity “G” Club at Gettysburg College. A graduate of Jamesburg High School, he is a junior physical education major and a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
• Henry Dobenski of Front Street, Jamesburg, has been named to conduct the Jamesburg Cancer Crusade. He is a 24-year employee of Forsgate Farms and is a supervisor in the organization.
• Salvatore Puccio was named chairman of the 1959 Red Cross campaign in Jamesburg and he will be assisted by Mrs. Malcolm S. Kirkpatrick. He is a borough councilman, past commander of Legion Star Post 137, member of the board of directors of the United Cerebral Palsy, commander VFW 9530 and squadron chairman of Sons of Legion. He is married to the former Maria Salvaggio and lives at 4 Hooker Street, Jamesburg.
• The Cranbury Fire Company was called out to a stubborn forest fire in Monroe Township, requiring the men to walk hundreds of yards with tanks on their backs through thorny underbrush.
75 Years Ago – 1934
• Members of the Jamesburg High School senior class will visit Washington, D.C. in May. There will be forty seniors making the trip.
• Master George Lanning of Union Valley suffered a broken leg in falling from a bicycle and is in St. Peter’s Hospital, New Brunswick.
100 Years Ago – 1909
• D.H. Kirkpatrick is putting up farm buildings on his land recently purchased from the Buckelew estate.
• The new Post Office building is in course of erection and will be ready at the time appointed.
• The farmers of this area met at Chamberlin’s Opera House, Hightstown on March 20th and were addressed by Mr. C.L Green of the Immigration Board of the United States Government Bureau of Labor. He spoke to farmers and others who are interested in employing laborers.
Compiled from back issues of The Cranbury Press by Peggy S. and Frank J. Brennan Jr.

