Richard Van Dyke Reid, left, photographed Frederick William Bissett’s grocery and drug store, above left, at the corner of Main Street and Ferry Street in South River in the 1890s. Above right: A view of lower Main Street in South River on Oct. 26, 1895, while the digging was taking place to lay the tracks for the trolley that completed its first run on Nov. 2, 1895. Below: the “Inez & May,” decorated for an aquatic carnival in New Brunswick on Aug. 22, 1895. Owned by Asher W. Bissett, the boat was entered on behalf of the Columbia Yacht Club of South River. It won first prize in the competition. SOUTH RIVER — If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a 128-page picture-filled book showcasing the history of South River should be a rather long read.
Published on June 15, the book chronicles the history of the town as seen through the camera of Richard Van Dyke Reid, the borough’s first unofficial historian. The book showcases 200 of Reid’s vintage photographs.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SOUTH RIVER HISTORICAL AND PRESERVATION SOCIETY “The photos are all his. He’s very important for the historical society. He is one of our best sources for this time period,” said Stephanie Bartz, a member of the South River Historical & Preservation Society.
Van Dyke Reid, who according to the society, was born in 1833 in South River and passed away in Red Bank in 1915, and was crucial to documenting the borough during this time period.
“He was essential to the whole thing,” said Brian Armstrong, president of the South River Historical Society. “It was his vision. He wanted to capture what the town was like at that time.”
Bartz co-wrote the book with society Armstrong and Vice President Nan Whitehead.
The book begins in the late 1800s, when the borough was still a part of the Township of East Brunswick.
“You don’t see it so much anymore, but South River used to have a lot of industry. We had the brick making and embroidery factories,” Bartz said, noting that the industrial hub attracted a lot of immigrant groups to the area.
“The ethic communities have changed over the years, but there are sections of town that were known for their communities.
“We continue to have thriving populations of Polish, Belarusian, Russians, Hungarians and now the Portuguese and other [groups]. We have fabulous ethic restaurants in town. People come from all kinds of different places to come to our restaurants,” she said.
For Armstrong, putting together the book also showed him how much history the bor- ough has.
“As much as I know about South River, there is always more to learn,” he said. “I thought it was interesting how many houses still exist on Main Street.”
According to Bartz the response from the community about the book was “absolutely fabulous.”
“We had an absolutely fabulous response after the book was published.
“We had a book signing event. It was scheduled to run from 7-9 [p.m.]. People started to line up at 6:30 and they never stopped coming. It was an absolutely positive community response.
“We got to the end of the evening and they all said, ‘So when are you going to work on the next one?’ Maybe for the anniversary – 300 years is not too far away,” Bartz said.
Despite the struggles the community has gone through over the years, there is still hope among the authors that South River can reclaim what it once had.
“It’s true that South River needs a little work to get it back to what it used to be, but I think it’s still a great place,” concluded Bartz.