Women’s History Month is slipping away, and I don’t want it to finish without giving some attention to another New Jersey woman who made history. Anne Morrow was born in 1906 in Englewood, NJ. Her parents achievements would fill a blog post nicely, but keeping focus on Anne, she was to meet Charles Lindbergh, already an accomplished pilot, when her father invited him to visit in Mexico (her father had been the US Ambassador to Mexico, and eventually a Senator in NJ).
Charles loved Anne’s quiet and thoughtful personality, and would marry her at her parents home in Englewood, NJ, which is actually less than an hours drive from where I live now. Charles’ love and encouragement built Anne’s confidence in herself. Charles taught her to fly, through him, she discovered abilities within herself she never knew she had. It is a rare person who has not heard of Anne and Charles Lindbergh. Ann would go on to be the first woman to receive a glider’s pilot license, and her husband the first to fly from NY to Paris (before they met). They went on to fly together, Anne as Charles’ co-pilot, recording flight routes and playing a great role in the history of flight as they traveled all over the world.
Their first child, Charles Lindbergh III was kidnapped from their then Hopewell, NJ home, and murdered, leading to the famous Lindbergh Trial that lead to so much media coverage that the couple had to leave the country for Europe. There are writings about how the Lindbergh’s were drawn in a bit by the thinking of Nazi Germany at the time, something that Anne would regret in later times.
For Anne, writing was an even greater passion than flying, and her husband, Charles, wrote as well, after the war in order to regain respect of the people who turned against him because of his thinking during the war.
Anne died in 2001 at the age of 94, 27 years after her husband’s death in 1974.
As I was typing the post yesterday about Clara Barton, and how she started the first public school in the US right here in New Jersey, then went on to start and oversee The Red Cross, it didn’t occur to me that this month is considered American Red Cross month. We do have much to thank the Red Cross for, if you haven’t visited their website to see all that they have accomplished, you may want to do so today.
If you listen to the news, you know that it seems like disasters are happening more, and whenever they happen, the Red Cross is there.
As we honor Women’s History Month, I thought a post or two honoring New Jersey women who have made it into the history books for their influence in American history would be appropriate.
All of you, boomers and non-boomers alike will remember reading about Clara Barton. I have to admit I wasn’t much for history class, no matter what grade I was in, the teachers made it so boring to listen too, but it fascinates me today, I guess I’m making up for lost time.
Clara Barton is best known as the founder of the American Red Cross, but she began her working career in education. In 1852 she opened the first public school in Bordentown, NJ (pictured), a school that grew from humble beginnings to 600+ students. Sadly, she left the school when they would not allow her the position of head of the school because she was a woman. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it, when you consider that she opened the school. But history shows us that she had a greater destiny.
Her real fame was realized as a nurse during the Civil War. It was then that she founded the Red Cross. She oversaw the leadership of the Red Cross for over 20 years.
Looking back at her life, I can see that it is a good example of how, when God ends something that we think is important to us in our life, perhaps it’s because He has something greater in store for us.
As we look at the Primaries and Caucuses leading up to the election of our next President, my thoughts turned towards leaders that carried out historic moments here in New Jersey. This post focuses on a government leader who had everything to live for, but his life ended in Weehawken, NJ in a famous duel. His name was Alexander Hamilton. A few of the things he is noted for follow:
He was born in the West Indies, an illegitimate child to Rachel Fawcett Lavien and James Hamilton.
He came to America around 1772 and lived in NY
His guardian hoped to enroll him in College of New Jersey, but he ended up attending what would become Columbia University in New York
He enlisted in the militia, his skills caught the eye of George Washington who commissioned him as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army
He lead a regiment in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
He was an elected member of the Continental Congress
and his accomplishments go on, including being the first Secretary of Treasury
But the part of his life that capture the imagination, as if all the above isn’t enough, is how his life ended. After leaving the government, Hamilton returned to law. He did not support the leader of the nation at that time, President John Adams, and was against his re-election in 1800. He also did not like Aaron Burr who was running for the Presidency, hoping to win over Thomas Jefferson. Now Hamilton didn’t like Jefferson or his policies, but he decided to support Jefferson over Burr because he didn’t think Burr was a man of principle.
This angered Burr, and he challenged Hamilton to a duel…I thought these were things that you just saw in movies, or Westerns, not actions that were carried out by civilized men, but I am obviously wrong, because Hamilton took Burr up on his challenge. On July 11th of 1804 the two men met in Weehawken, NJ. From accounts that I have read, Hamilton shot his gun into the air, perhaps not wanting to actually do harm, and with his military training and skills, I’m sure he could easily have hit his mark. However, Burr aimed directly at his opponent, and Hamilton died the next day of his wound. He is buried in New York City at Trinity Church Yard.
What surprised me is that the man who was the first Secretary of the Treasury for our country left his wife and his 7 children with a large number of debts that they could not pay, but those debts were paid by friends who appreciated his service our Nation.
Women’s History Month is slipping away, and I don’t want it to finish without giving some attention to another New Jersey woman who made history. Anne Morrow was born in 1906 in Englewood, NJ. Her parents achievements would fill a blog post nicely, but keeping focus on Anne, she was to meet Charles Lindbergh, already an accomplished pilot, when her father invited him to visit in Mexico (her father had been the US Ambassador to Mexico, and eventually a Senator in NJ).
