Did
You
Know
That ?

• 1931 - January 6 - The first electric train (3,000 volts of Direct Current) runs on the Delaware Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad. T. Leonard Hill of Peapack was on that train from Hoboken to Bernardsville.
• 1890 - April, Grant Schley (rhymes with "eye") organizes building the "Millionaires Express" train linking Far Hills to Gladstone. Service from Hoboken began six months later!

Volunteers and History

Bernards Township Volunteer Piecemaker Quilt Group Combine Artwork, Local Pride, and History while celebrating township's 250th Anniversary.

Piecemakers create Quilt
to Celebrate 250th Anniversary

Expressing our heritage and history is alive and well, firmly sewn into the fabric of our community ...literally. Volunteers of a local quilting group called the "Piecemakers" have created a handmade quilt depicting some of the most historic sites in Bernards Township to mark the 250th anniversary of Bernards Township. The official debut of the 250th anniversary quilt will be on Charter Day, May 15, 2010 at the historic Brick Academy, just off the town green in Basking Ridge.

The quilt is a handmade effort of over 25 women who volunteer their time to a group they call the"Piecemakers" quilting group, which is part of the Bishop Janes United Methodist Church Women. The project began back in December 2009 and hopes to be fully completed in time for the township's Charter Day celebration.

In 2010, Bernards Township marks its 250th anniversary of its formal charter as a township. Back in 1760, the town was known as Bernardstown, named in honor of the Governor of New Jersey.

The anniversary quilt is 56"w x 71"h. Each of the 17 squares were built individually, first by creating sketches of the scenes on cardboard and transferring them to cloth, later sewing them together. Then the pieces were assembled with additional backing. A boarder edge will surround the quilt and the group will end the process by "quilting" the fabric, which firmly secures the quilt together. "The quilt, made in a folk art style, tried to capture the essence of our great town", mentioned one of the volunteers. "It's hard to narrow it down to these images since there is so much history in our town but it was so much fun creating this one."

From top left: Basking Ridge Village Green monument, Downtown Basking Ridge, Bishop Janes Methodist Church, Bernards 250th logo, old Basking Ridge Fire Department, The Historic Oak Tree and Presbyterian Cemetery, Van Dorn Mill, BT logo, The Brick Academy, Bernards Twp Town Hall, Basking Ridge, Train Station, Bernards Twp Public Library, The VA Hospital, and the Oak Street School.
Click the image to enlarge.

The Piecemakers

The Piecemakers Quilting Group was founded by Basking Ridge resident Ann Forsman over 25 years ago. While Ann has passed, the Piecemaker quilting group is still strong today. While it seems like a play on words, while peacemaker is defined as "one that makes peace", the group is actually called piecemaker, a quilting term. Funny how the two terms fit together well.

The group meets every Thursday at Bishop Janes Church and works on various volunteer and community based efforts. Participants do not need to be Methodist to participate in the social group. While THSSH tried to get a photo of all of the participants who worked on the effort, they declined. Actually, they are there, just behind the quilt (Click on the quilt to see).

The quilts made by the group are sold at the church’s annual bazaar and all proceeds go to support charitable organizations.  Quilts are also made for wounded soldiers and people in need.

This quilt will be donated to The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and displayed on the main floor of the Brick Academy commencing on Charter Day, May 15, 2010.

Come visit and see this beautiful piece of historic quilting artwork.

Additional Information

To learn more about the local history of Basking Ridge, Bernards Township, many of these historic sites, and the Somerset Hills area, please visit us online at www.THSSH.org or www.brickacademy.org.

To learn more about The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills - visit them online at www.THSSH.org

Submitted: April 19, 2010
Submitted by: Brooks Betz

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About The Brick Academy

The Brick Academy (also known as the Basking Ridge Classical Schoolhouse) is a 1809 Federal-style architectural structure located in the center of Basking Ridge in Bernards Township. The Brick Academy has been a boys’ private preparatory school, a public school, a meeting hall for several fraternal and benevolent organizations, and the Bernards Township municipal building. It currently serves as the headquarters of The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills, as well as a schoolhouse and museum to local history. The Brick Academy also celebrated its bicentennial in 2009.

 

About the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH)

Founded in 1928 originally as the Historical Society of Basking Ridge, the mission and name of the society was later changed to The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization including all five communities of the Somerset Hills region: Bedminster Township, Bernards Township, Bernardsville ,Far Hills, Peapack-Gladstone which are all located in Somerset County, New Jersey.

The mission of The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills (THSSH) is to acquire, conserve and share local artifacts and information on matters of local historic interest; cultivate interest in local history; encourage the preservation of local historic resources; facilitate historic research; and preserve, operate, and interpret the Brick Academy.

To further this mission, THSSH sponsors events and activities that promote community awareness and appreciation of the history and architecture of the Somerset Hills. THSSH headquarters is at the Brick Academy in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, where our collections of items of local historic interest are available to the public.