Past forward: Out of the depths of local history
Borough historian to step down as chair of local historical society
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN - There will be a lot of change in John Fabiano's life in 2007.

At the end of the year, he intends to retire after 30 years with the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services. He also expects to receive his master's degree in public history from Rutgers University in Camden.

After serving for 12 years, Fabiano will step down as president of the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society (AUFHS). While he has no plans to move from his beloved Allentown, Fabiano said he thinks it is a good time to relinquish the society's reins.

Fabiano will still be working hard on local history, though, as he will remain the Allentown Borough historian and the AUFHS historian, as well as chairman of the borough's Historical Preservation Review Committee.

The AUFHS was started in the late 1970s, and its founding members were Ellis Hull, Joe Truncer, John Havens and Malcolm Knowles. It currently has between 75 and 90 members, but Fabiano said the group needs more active members.

"There are a few anonymous members who have generously supplemented the historical society each year," Fabiano said. "They know who they are."

Fabiano said the highlights of his tenure with the society include the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Monmouth in 2003, which was called the "Road to Monmouth." Another was researching and writing the 100-page document titled "Allen's Town, New Jersey: A Crossroads of the American Revolution, 1775-1783," with Ann Garrison.

He said working on the document influenced his decision to go back to school for his master's degree. Fabiano stressed the importance of the road in Allentown as a flanking position in the American Revolution.

During his tenure, Fabiano also witnessed the identification of both Allentown and Imlaystown as endangered historic sites by Preservation New Jersey. In addition, Fabiano said also enjoyed working with Upper Freehold residents on the Visions/Scenic Byway Committee.

Lifelong borough resident Mary Clark, a former Allentown High School history teacher, is also a member of the historical society. She and Fabiano have something else in common - he and his wife live in the house on High Street where Clark raised her children.

Both would like to see some sort of museum go up in the area to commemorate the rich local history.

"Shoppers don't have a welcome center or a museum," he said. "I think it is something the town is missing."

According to Clark, last year's 300th anniversary has revived public interest in local history.

Fabiano thanked resident Pat Roveda for her work on the 300th anniversary celebrations, which involved getting re-enactors to portray Molly Pitcher, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Roveda is currently working on a booklet of audio transcriptions made in 1976 of local residents sharing family and local history.

Clark said residents can assist the historical society by recording their furniture and keeping journals. A 1979 historic survey of 220 homes needs updating, she said, and a survey of outbuildings should also be done.

Fabiano said the volume of records the AUFHS has is "amazing." He said the most outstanding is the Charles R. Hutchinson collection, written in the late 19th century and purchased in 1926 by the New Jersey Historical Society.

"It has beautiful script, and hand-colored images," he said.

The collection is accessible by microfilm. Fabiano said that Hutchinson had a unique indexing system that was done years before the advent of computers and databases. He said that imaging could be done with sophisticated computers and that by putting in a date, it would also be possible to find out who owned particular properties.

"I challenge any small town in America to have had as much of an impact on the overall history of this country," he said.

Clark agreed, calling Allentown "a microcosm of American history."

During the Revolution, Fabiano said there was a real radical group between Allentown and Bordentown.

Clark said that a street in Allentown was named for Thomas Paine, author of the revolutionary pamphlet "Common Sense." However, when Paine wrote "The Age of Reason" in France in 1802, an antireligious tract, the street named in his honor was changed to Church Street, according to Clark.

Fabiano said the rural areas were needed to supply the maritime industry during the Revolutionary era. There was a court of admiralty to decide who got the spoils at the site of the present-day Woody's restaurant, he said.

Fabiano said that John Imlay, whose house on Main Street is currently owned by the Borkowski family, was not only a shipping merchant, but was involved as well in Ben Franklin's secret trade with France. Imlay also provided intelligence to the Continental Congress regarding the British in New York and also reported on Loyalist spies, according to Fabiano.

Fabiano believes that Allentown and Upper Freehold should never have been separated into individual municipalities. That event happened in 1889, he said, when people living in what is now the borough did not want to pay to extend electric utility lines out to farms.

The school district was consolidated 103 years ago; after two "rather bitter meetings." During a public election on Feb. 26, 1904, people voted to consolidate the Allentown and Upper Freehold school districts, he said. However, at one meeting, a newspaper reported that "if the township desired it, it must then be contrary to the interests of the borough."

On Feb. 24 at 1 p.m., the historical society will host a lecture titled "The Underground Railroad." Carole Nelson will speak at the Mill House, 38 S. Main St., Allentown.

Slaves passed information to one another on how to escape via the Underground Railroad by sewing the symbols to follow into quilts. Nelson will display an original quilt (partly reconstructed). In addition, Sid Taylor, a direct descendant of Harriet Tubman, will speak for approximately 15 minutes about his famous ancestor.

General meetings of the historical society are held on the third or fourth Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. in the Community Room at the Allentown Public Library.

During the meetings, members compile a list of nominees for the positions of president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary in compliance with the society's constitution and also develop plans and ideas for the future.

This year's meetings will be held on Feb. 18, March 18, April 22 and May 20. No meetings are scheduled for the summer, and fall meeting dates will be announced.

For more information about the AUFHS, contact acting secretary Pat Roveda at (609) 259-4158 or phirephoenix2@aol.com