newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

In decades past, February was associated as the month of Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday. But in this era of three-day weekends (now unofficially turning into 4-5 day weekends) and extended "store-wide sales," we now have Presidents Day Weekend instead.

It all got us to thinking about Presidents and New Jersey.

Some Presidents have an obvious connection with states: Washington & Jefferson with Virginia; Lincoln-Illinois; Kennedy & Adams with Massachusetts; Roosevelt (both FDR & Teddy) - New York; L.B.J. & George W. Bush --Texas; Nixon & Reagan – California; Truman-Missouri, etc.

But how about New Jersey? The choices don't seem to jump out at me. How about you? Here are some of the possibilities:

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was both the 22d and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.

Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, N.J., to Richard Falley Cleveland and Ann Neal Cleveland. Cleveland's father was a Presbyterian minister; originally from Connecticut His mother (Judith Anderson) was from Baltimore, the daughter of a bookseller. He was distantly related to General Moses Cleveland after whom the city of Cleveland, Ohio, was named.

Cleveland was the fifth of nine children – five sons and four daughters. He was named Stephen Grover in honor of the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell, where his father was pastor at the time; but he did not use the name Stephen in his adult life.

Cleveland's birthplace, in Caldwell is a historic site.

But, he was not in New Jersey for long. In 1841, the Cleveland family moved to Fayetteville, New York, where Grover Cleveland spent much of his childhood. He is, however, buried in New Jersey (Princeton) – the only President to hold that distinction.

Woodrow Wilson – Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia on December 28, 1856 as the third of four children, but important periods of his life were connected to New Jersey prior to becoming President.

A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. To date he is the only President to hold a doctorate of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree and the only President to serve in a political office in New Jersey before election to the Presidency.

Some Presidents have been connected to New Jersey by vacations they spent here.

For example, among the nation's first seashore resorts, Long Branch served as the summer resort of choice for seven U.S. presidents. The Church of Presidents, visited by presidents Chester A. Arthur, James Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson, is still standing.

All were presidents except for Grant when they attended the Episcopal church. The chapel itself, which had served 75 years as a seasonal church, was slated for demolition in 1953, when preservationists stepped in and ultimately succeeded in having the building rededicated as the Long Branch Historical Museum. Today the building is undergoing extensive structural repairs and renovations. It is closed to the public.

Cape May, at the tip of New Jersey, was also a popular vacation destination. Several of the nation's presidents vacationed at Congress Hall (still standing and in operation), including Grant and James Buchanan. President Harrison even called the hotel his summer White House, and conducted national business at Congress Hall.

Although history has it that Abraham Lincoln vacationed in New Jersey, it certainly cannot be said that he was New Jersey's president. New Jersey was one of the few states to favor Stephen Douglas over Lincoln in the Presidential Election of 1860.

The people of New Jersey also cast their electoral votes for George B. McClellan when he ran for President against Lincoln in the election of 1864. The people of this state had the distinction of being the only free state that rejected Lincoln twice. McClellan was later elected governor, serving from 1878 to 1881.

One could make a case that the deepest connection between New Jersey and a President remains that with George Washington. There's that major bridge across the Hudson named after him, and then there are all those places along the Retreat Route traveled by Washington, many of them that tout that "Washington Slept Here."

Today the biggest connections to presidents are likely the Presidents Day sales that draw folks to roads and malls near Paramus, Wayne, Edison, Cherry Hill, etc. It does not, on the surface, strike one to be especially patriotic or substantive – but that's the way it is.

Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.