Episode 9: History of HOTGS – Part III: Daily Life at the House and Some Mysteries About the House
“Episode 9: History of HOTGS – Part III: Daily Life at the House and Some Mysteries About the House” Released: 2022. Track 9. Genre: podcast.
Transcription
Sue Lanza:
Hi everyone. And welcome to another episode of House Guest, the podcast about all things related to the House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown, New Jersey. I’m Sue Lanza, the CEO, and I’m joined today by my co-host, the Reverend Shawn Carty, who is our chaplain. Please enjoy. Hey, Shawn.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Hello, Sue.
Sue Lanza:
How are you today?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I am doing well. How are you?
Sue Lanza:
I’m doing well because we’re in the podcast area.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yes we are. What number is this? We’ve been at this for a little while now.
Sue Lanza:
This believe it or not is episode nine.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh my goodness. Wow.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I would not have guessed that.
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But here we are.
Sue Lanza:
It really is true. So we’re doing another episode about the history, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about this, this is our third time that we’re going on this. So several of our episodes before this have looked at the history of the house, which has a fascinating history, including our start in Orange, New Jersey in the 1880s, then we moved, as many of you will remember, to Hackettstown in the ’60s and that’s where we are today. We also talked a little bit about residents who had connections to famous people. So the topic today, I know that you’ve gathered together for us, is a little bit different. So tell us what we’re going to learn about in this first part of the episode. Because this is a two-parter within this episode.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. So the first part I’ll tell you about in just a second, but then the second part, we’ve got some mysteries to share with folks.
Sue Lanza:
Ooh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So we’ll leave people in suspense.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Let me ask you, have you ever heard the quote well-behaved women seldom make history? Have you ever heard that before?
Sue Lanza:
I have, I love it and my daughter loves it, too, because she feels like that’s the best thing.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Tell me, I’m going to put you on the spot, what do you think that means? How would you interpret that? And by the way, I’ve seen this on bumper stickers, t-shirts, all… and you have, too, I’m guessing, but what do you think that means?
Sue Lanza:
Well, as a goodie two shoes, when I was growing up, I realized that if you really want to make a name for yourself, sometimes you have to break the rules or bend them a little bit. So that’s how I interpret it. That some of these women who went outside the lines, they colored outside the lines, these are the ones that we remember because they did something different.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. Think of Eleanor Roosevelt, for example.
Sue Lanza:
Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg I think of right away.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. It’s an interesting quote. I’ve done a little bit of research on it and it’s relevant to what we’re going to talk about today. The quote comes from a writer and historian and professor at Harvard University, whose name is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. And the last name is U-L-R-I-C-H.
Sue Lanza:
Okay.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
She has won the Pulitzer Prize and has done a lot of work with a focus on the sort of ordinary lives of women, particularly during colonial America.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, it’s way back when.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly. And probably her most famous book is a Midwife’s Tale, which is about a New England midwife who just recorded basic things about kind of ordinary life in those days. So in this case though, the quote that she is known for actually came from, I looked this up, it’s actually from a book that she wrote, an article I guess it is, about Puritan funeral services.
Sue Lanza:
Oh dear.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Now, so most people, when they hear that quote, they think, oh, this is a very sharp quote, somebody thought this up. It was about Puritan funeral services.
Sue Lanza:
Oh brother. Boy, that just ruined it for me.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, there you go. So the point is that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in her academic work, one of her complaints is that the ordinary lives of people, they never make it into the history book. And so when she said or wrote, well behaved women seldom make history, what she was doing really was almost a lament that the ordinary day to day lives of people, didn’t make it into history books. And as you and I both know from classes we’ve taken.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
History is often told in terms of when did this war start and when did this revolution happen and when did this particular famous person do something particularly impressive? We know that’s not all of history.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And so I really, I love this quote, partly because it gets used both ways. And for Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, she realized that at some point that quote had taken on a life of its own. She actually wrote a book about women, as you and I were just talking about a little bit ago, and in particular she focused on the lives of Rosa Parks and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman and Virginia Woolf.
Sue Lanza:
Ooh, that’s great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
She realized that what she intended in a very specific kind of academic way took on a life of its own, and so she’s claimed that mantle. So I just find that kind of interesting. But what I thought for this episode that we could do is to take a look at some of the very ordinary history of the house. Interestingly enough, you and I have, as we’ve been digging through the archives, and by the way, I can’t wait for the historian consultants that we’ve got coming to help us get things in order.
Sue Lanza:
I know. Wouldn’t it be great if you and I could say, hey, we want to look at the 1940s at House of the Good Shepherd.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
There’s a book. We can pull it off the shelf-
Sue Lanza:
We go [inaudible].
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And yeah, no, yeah, not quite yet. But one of the things that we did discover were three ring notebooks with newspaper clippings in them. And you’ve got a little stack-
Sue Lanza:
I do have a few of them here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… by you, and I’ve got some here, these come from back in the day in the, in this particular book that we’ve pulled pages from is from 1970, these come from the day when the local newspaper would run a column every, presumably every week or every so often, just describing the really basic stuff of what happened at the House of the Good Shepherd, a little bit like… and you may remember this, but the newspaper in the town where I grew up, occasionally they would have a column and it would be, Mr. And Mrs. so and so came from some place to visit the Smiths who live on this street and they stayed for three days and then they went.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. It was pretty-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Why that made it into the newspapers was always a bit of a puzzle to me, but I have to tell you now, looking back, those are really interesting things.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. Because you’re really seeing a day in the life what really went on.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. And you wouldn’t get that flavor of it. That’s some of the things that as we’ve been talking and these podcast episodes is you sometimes can’t figure out what went on, and this kind of does take you there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We’ve got, for example, in our archives, we’ve got lots and lots of pictures of when the Bishop came to visit or there was a cornerstone being put into place or construction or a snowstorm or something like that.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The sort of unusual things, but these are very common. And so one of the things I thought we could do is maybe just very randomly pick a few paragraphs to share with folks from a very random choice of a year, 1970.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. I think that would be very interesting. The ’70s just happens to be what you picked, it’s not that there’s anything one way or the other particularly exciting.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. I actually just discovered something here that is still relevant to us today. This particular column I’m looking at is from February of 1970. And it says with regard to our weekly HGS gaze-at, G-A-Z-E dash at.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I know what you’re going to say.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. The weekend distribution was discussed. As of now it does not come to us until Sunday mornings because of our need to know certain things relating to Sundays the day before, the question now is should it be put in our mailboxes on Saturdays? And the answer is, of course.
Sue Lanza:
Of course, I was going to tell them that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Now the funny thing is that we still have the gaze-at.
Sue Lanza:
I knew you were going to say that because I can’t believe this was going on way back then.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
50 plus years later.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And initially I remember when I first got here and I saw the gaze-at and I thought, oh surely that’s a typo.
Sue Lanza:
I remember seeing him, thinking, what is this?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But here it is.
Sue Lanza:
Here it is.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
50 plus years. I mean, who knows how far it goes back.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But a very ordinary thing complaining about how we really should get this on Saturday if it tells us what’s happening on Sunday.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. That’s so funny. Now that’s a new thing I didn’t know anything about, that this has been going on that long.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. Another quick paragraph I’ll just share from this. It says the subject of loneliness was introduced by Mrs. Merrill. What do we do, in case of accidents down in the cottages, which we think of as the village.
Sue Lanza:
Accidents in the cottages.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It was suggested that we start a buddy system. Of course, the neighbors down in the village watch each other. What neighbors don’t? The question is raised. Telephoning was mentioned in addition to the fact that the administration now checks every person every day.
Sue Lanza:
See.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We still do that.
Sue Lanza:
We still do that. And there are some buddy systems. I don’t know how official they are, but it’s so funny that they’re calling the village, the village. The village we’re referring to are not the main building, the little outposts that around in our campus, the cottages and there’s some duplexes and apartments is referred to as the village. But yeah, we make those well calls every day just to check on certain people. And some people don’t want well calls, that’s their choice. But we like to just check on people and we make a visit if we need to.
Rev. Shawn Carty: Yeah. Another quick bit I can share with you and then I’m curious what you’ve found too, because you’ve got some sheets in front of you.
Sue Lanza:
I do.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
At the reading aloud for pleasure group, Mrs. Martha Hopler, since it was approaching Washington’s birthday, reviewed the life history of George Washington, read from the New Jersey History of the Historical Society, an article by Fred Bartenstein Jr., concerning the historical research project, New Jersey brigade encampment in the winter of 1779 and 80. It’s interesting, this had a group in other words where somebody would simply read aloud, and these are the days when you didn’t necessarily have books on tape as we do now. And of course, as we’ve talked about with our last episode about technology, some of our residents have smart speakers who can do these things. But back in the day, back in 1970, there were people would sit around and somebody would read aloud for the group. I just find that kind of an interesting-
Sue Lanza:
And people still like to do that. I know our book club meets to talk about books, but every once in a while somebody reads a poem or does something, and reading aloud it’s fun for any age group.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. And by the way, the same week, the Saturday night movie was Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, and that’s something that they could pull out today. They were just talking about yesterday, we had an independent residence meeting, they were talking about which movies, who should be on that committee to pick which movies because it gets to be something that’s important for everybody. What I have is great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What have you found? I know you’ve got a sheet there.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. This is, I’ve got two interesting things. On this particular day, it’s August 20th, 1970. So they first talk a little bit about having some card playing with tasty refreshments, but this is their big thing. It says the biggest thrill on August 12th, so this August 12th, 1970 was the fact that something we’ve been working on for four years was about to take place, the groundbreaking ceremonies for our community hospital.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh.
Sue Lanza:
Which is now Hackettstown medical center.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s just up the road from us.
Sue Lanza:
It’s up the road a piece, you could walk there if you needed to. But if you’re needing a hospital, I doubt you’re going to be walking there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
No, I would suggest calling the ambulance.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Call that. One can imagine the thoughts that were entertained during the ceremony in question. So many people, especially those connected with the establishments, like the House of the Good Shepherd, must have wondered to themselves if they would ever be patients in this new hospital. If so, when, and yes, for what illness? It certainly will not be much of a trip for you and me. So it’s just, they’ve been waiting for this for four years. I guess they were announcing it was coming. And then it was a very big deal. They also mentioned… This is how eclectic this column is. They talk about chapel service and some other things. And then they say, pinky, whoever pinky is, pinky sent in two interesting articles, one of which I will quote now in the other one next week. And the article she submits is the Purr of a Cat.
The cat’s meow comes from two normal vocal chords in its throat. But, exactly where the cat’s pur comes from, nobody seems to know. Scientists can explain practically anything these days. The rumbling sound heard inside of a satisfied cat remains a mystery. And they go on to talk about, they don’t know if it’s the whole larynx or the voice box that’s shaking, but all the felines, whether they are lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, or the common cat have this single thing that is puzzling that cats produce when they’re pleased or contented as much as happy people do sometimes hum to themselves, which is human purring. I just think it’s so funny that they go from the hospital opening to the chapel service to the purr of a cat.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
To the great mystery of sciences.
Sue Lanza:
Exactly.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And merges the cat’s purr.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, it’s so fun. So fun. So what do you have over there?
Rev. Shawn Carty: Well, speaking of science, one of the things, this is from April of 1970, Friday was quite an active day starting with shopping at 9:30 AM. We took advantage of a mobile TB x-ray unit and had a checkup outside the main building at 10:15 AM. Residents and staff were urged to take advantage of this opportunity.
Sue Lanza:
Oh goodness.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So a mobile x-ray unit would come here and do x-rays to see if folks had TB. I mean, back when we still had to do that to-
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, you would not be something that we go on today because if you were suspected, it would be considered quite infectious and they would… other things would happen.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, in the midst of this pandemic, we forget that there are still other things that we have to focus some of our attention on.
Sue Lanza:
Absolutely.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And as we all know, those of us who work here, we get, what’s it called, a Mantoux test.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. It’s a Mantoux. A PPD also, it’s called. I forget what that stands for. Something important, I’m sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
To see if you’ve TB, sadly is still a very-
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… problematic. And the other thing I wanted to share was, this is again from April of 1970, if you want to come where the action is, come to the House of the Good Shepherd craft studio any Friday.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, come on now.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Any Friday, anytime between 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM, handy work of all kinds are in the making. Knitting, crochet, crewel work, needle point embroidery, tote bags, children’s toys, decorated stationery, et cetera. You name it. We even have cut ups, discarded stockings need to be processed for cushion filling.
Sue Lanza:
Oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The display shelves of finished articles are full of interest. These items to be sold, the money’s to be used to purchase more supplies for the work.
Sue Lanza:
Oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I just, it’s again, a very ordinary everyday kind of thing.
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Doing crafts.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. I’ve got a couple more over here from mine. I don’t know if you’re ready for me yet.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Go ahead.
Sue Lanza:
All right. So this is from the same general column, that was August 20th, 1970. If they talk about our dining room taking splendid care of its guests through the summer months, and one wonders how these young waitresses can cover so many people. And I wonder, too, because we have the same problem today. How do we take care of everybody that we need to? Some days there are more people than others, staffing concerns. But it’s so funny that they said that. Then here’s an interesting thing that they mention about dining. It says at this writing, practically all of the village dwellers, I love how they call that the village dwellers, are congregating along the river every evening for supper. One of these come and bring your own affairs, which is very relaxed and encourages friendly discourse, here and there someone remains in her own unit and misses the others. But it’s a nice little change for so many people. Isn’t that great?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. Well, and you’re reading from August, right?
Sue Lanza:
August. So outside.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. As we know here, we have such beautiful summer evenings by the river.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So you can understand that.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. And the people who come into the village don’t have to have the meal plan that we have. So they often dine on their own. Some do come for dinner, but I could see them getting together as a group and saying, hey, let’s do a potluck dinner along the river. And what a great spot. I love that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I do by the way, just as a general observation, see happy hour gets mentioned quite a bit-
Sue Lanza:
Oh boy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… in these weekly accounts. One other quick thing I noticed on the one I was just looking at, so again, April of 1970, the board of trustees meeting was held on Monday at 4:00 PM in West Orange.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, back to the stomping grounds.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly. And then it goes on to say, spring is here, so we may be sure there is some heavy planning going on with the best of everything in mind for us. We need to remember 1970, they had only been here for five years. And presumably those who served on the board were on the board partly because the house was in Orange.
Sue Lanza:
Right. So they moved to this area and they still have the connections back there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly. I wonder at what point most of the board members lived more here in the Hackettstown area.
Sue Lanza:
Like when did the transition happen more?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
That it was more of this group than the others.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Clearly in 1970, it made more sense to be meeting in West Orange at that point.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What else are you seeing that’s interesting?
Sue Lanza:
Let see. This is from October of 1970. So it says buzz, buzz, not a beehive, but a gathering of the Hackettstown auxiliary ladies and the house folks are having a gala tea party. Oh those cookies, one and another, so good with a cup of coffee or tea. That brings me to today because we were just talking about how our folks really enjoy having a tea party. And so I know I love them. It’s fun to do. It’s just a way to get together and an excuse for socializing with usually great little treats and something hot to drink. Nothing has changes there at all.
And they talk in this article about happy hour in the living room. And as usual, we were treated to some delightful music. And they also talked about reading for pleasure. Reading aloud for pleasure. Wednesday was with Mrs. Francis Osborne followed by a social security film at 7:00 PM in the living room. Don’t ever show me a social security film. I can’t imagine what that would be like, but…
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh my.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, no, it is just so cute. It’s got so many nice things to it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is.
Sue Lanza:
What about you? What do have?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I have to mention as the chaplain, I have to mention that each, almost every single one of these indicates what the chaplain services were.
Sue Lanza:
I see here, too. Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So for example, I’m looking at June of 1970, the Reverend Edmund Tomlinson conducted morning prayer in the chapel last Thursday and remained for dinner or which gave us a chance to visit with our good friend in the living room for a little while. And then it goes on to talk about other times when clergy were coming to visit. On Sunday, the Reverend William Doherty conducted evening prayer for us in the chapel at 2:30. By the way, we still have our Sunday service at two o’clock, so-
Sue Lanza:
Stayed the same.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
A long history there.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The lovely weekend weather carried through and we had a delightful Sunday concert at the Skylar Hall terrace between 4:30 and 5:30. It was indescribably lovely.
Sue Lanza:
Oh wow. I love that. Well, here’s another one about the chapel. This is again from October 1970, it says, I wanted to remind you of another incident that had to do with ministerial service supplied by the House of the Good Shepherd, a friend and I were returning from one of the services in which the Reverend William Doherty had officiated. In referring to him as our chaplain, I said, I thought it meant a great deal to those guests who were pretty much alone having outlived most of their lifetime friends and relatives to have a house chaplain on whom they could depend. I just love that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Mm. Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
It says, I added that I felt sure my chaplain would make every effort, for instance, to get me through, quote unquote, the golden gate when the time comes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh my.
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh my.
Sue Lanza:
I haven’t heard something referred to as a golden gate in a long time. Well, what do you think my dear friend said to me, just this, I hope he has a good big foo., I guess, to kick him right in there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Or push the door open.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. One or the other. So I thought that was really cute.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
How interesting. Well, it makes me glad to know that chaplain’s work through the years has been seen in that way, because I think it is important and I’ve been very grateful for that.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. What else do you see over there?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I came across something that maybe of some interest. This is June 11th of 1970. Our auxiliary had its annual meeting in June 1st at the home of Mrs. R. Smith Shank.
Sue Lanza:
Ah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
In Tall Oaks in Andover, after a delicious lunch and the ladies transacted considerable business and set the day for the annual Silver Tea and sale, which will be held on October 23rd at the House of the Good Shepherd. Mrs. John P. Mile and Mrs. Shank will be co-chairman of this annual event. And that’s the name that’s become a little more in our conversation these days.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And maybe you can explain a little bit more.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. If this is the Mrs. Shank, do you think it is it?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It may be. I think it may be. Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. Then this would be Edna Shank who with her husband, her husband predeceased her, they are the ones who donated what became a substantial bequeath in their will that turned into our foundation that we still have thriving today. She’s a very important person in our history. And we understand and haven’t pinned down exactly when, but we know that she served on the board at some point. And also she was a resident here as her husband was as well. We don’t have all that nailed down exactly, but she’s a very important person.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and this one, I don’t think this is the same person actually, as I look at it, it says Mrs. R. Smith Shank, but presumably part of the extended family or something.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, it must be. Must be.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And did you mention that part of our construction is-
Sue Lanza:
No I didn’t. So why don’t you say what’s going on?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I don’t know if I’m the best person to talk about this, but the dining hall where independent residents are looking forward to being once the construction is finished is intended to be named for the Shank family.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. We’re going to name it maybe a little late since they bequeath the money in 1994, I think, so it’s a little time from that, even though we’ve had a plaque and they have been honored, we just thought our history’s so rich and part of it is because of this generous donation they made that we wanted to have the lodge named after them. So we’re working on that. The people who are going to help us organize the history are going to help us also with some of those details as well.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, do you want to move on to our mysteries?
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Or is there anything else from these columns that you found that you-
Sue Lanza:
Well, just one quick thing that I can’t overlook this. It said that October 29th, 1970, they talked about having seven safaris visited and gave them a good picture of African life, hotel gardens and snapshots. And they had a whole slide show of this, one of the Royal zoos in Ethiopia. It just goes into all this detail. So that sounded like a lot of fun. And I know that’s the kind of stuff our residents still love to have.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh, of course.
Sue Lanza:
Some kind of a travel log. This one also includes, besides Africa, they talked about Colorado Springs and all the wildlife and things, as well as Yosemite Valley and Grand Canyon, Death Valley, they record all of this, which we wouldn’t do. What we would probably do now is say at two o’clock we had a slide show about Colorado Springs. The end. We wouldn’t go into this. But this is great because we would have no record of any of this otherwise.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and it kind of raises the question, should we be recording some of these things?
Sue Lanza:
Yes, get on it, will you?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And-
Sue Lanza:
Well, I’m not doing it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, but then the other thing, and this is, again, another conversation that our historian consultants might help us with is so much of what we do now is so fleeting.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We don’t save the weekly gaze-ats that we still put out.
Sue Lanza:
No, that’s true.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And we might, for example, I know this is true, for example, with our newsletter, we have an electronic copy that’s sitting on our website or within our computer disc, but everybody I know who’s been working with computers for a few years, knows that they have got a box of disc someplace that are never going to be able to read again.
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I wonder if there’s maybe some value for us thinking about a column like this.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. I think they’re going to-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Really basic stuff.
Sue Lanza:
They’re going to give us some, I think that’s part of it. It’s not only what we’re going to preserve and take care of the old stuff, but what do we do? I think your point is totally well taken of how do we go forward and capture some of this stuff, because someone’s going to want to look backwards and say, what the heck were they doing there? Because even during COVID we got a lot of stuff done, and we’re still in COVID it, but the world didn’t stop. We made all these plans for the renovations and then they were ready to go. It was, oh this is two and a half years away. Well, here it is. And we’re ready to roll. So I think there’s a lot of value in the day to day stuff.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, as you know, we’ve all, many of us in the management have been moving offices and sifting and sorting.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I remember coming across papers just recently of like some of the early memos you had written when COVID was first coming into-
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I know. They’re so scary. Aren’t they? When you reread them.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But that’s history. I mean-
Sue Lanza:
It is.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
In a away the way that’s going to-
Sue Lanza:
Well, I have all those.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. I was going to say so down the road, those may be really interesting for somebody to go back and say, gosh, what were they thinking in the middle of March of that year? And how did they see this? What was it… Of course we see it very differently now than we did back then.
Sue Lanza:
But you know another thing you just reminded me of is we also kept, and it was good because I had to show them to the Department of Health at one point, the historical record on their own is what I would say I had that hotline that I did for more than a year, probably like 18 months and that I just stopped. I mean start it again, who knows. On this hotline, I have my script, just what I said. So you can really see the evolution, the number of cases, how many this day, how many that day. And it really kept us in touch during a very difficult time.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well. I go back to that quote from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, well behaved women or people seldom make history. And some of the time, sometimes the ordinary lives of people are worthy of lifting up for us to remember.
Sue Lanza:
I agree. I think that’s a great way to position this discussion that we just had.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So let’s talk about some mysteries.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I love mysteries. You know I love my true crime, which is so crazy. I’m not sure what to make of that about me, but I just like the whole-
Rev. Shawn Carty: What do you think that… No, I’m not going to ask.
Sue Lanza:
Oh no. What I think about it is that I like solving things and I like the whole idea of trying to figure out… when I was a psych major in college, just like you, and I liked figuring out things. That’s where that’s all about.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, it’s like those… Remember those old shows with Angela Lansbury, Murder She Wrote?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Everywhere she traveled, there was a murder and they would solve it within 45 minutes.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Somehow that didn’t…
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That one didn’t grab your attention.
Sue Lanza:
No, I like the real stuff.
Rev. Shawn Carty: That was, in my family, Sunday night. Every week we’d be watching Murder… But that’s another subject.
Sue Lanza:
That’s another subject. Okay. So tell us about what are you going to scare us with?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, they’re not scary mysteries. I think they’re interesting mysteries.
Sue Lanza:
Okay.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The first one is about our cornerstone. As some folks will know, all of us in the building will know, we’ve been starting renovations. And to do that, you start by demolishing things, taking things apart carefully in some cases or just taking apart. And so one of the things that… And I’ve been waiting for this.
Sue Lanza:
Oh boy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
One of the things I’ve been waiting to find out is when the cornerstone gets removed, and it has been now-
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… in what is going to be the Shank Lodge, but the dining room, the lodge, you and I in a previous episode talked about how, when that cornerstone was put in place in the ’60s, there were items put in there as almost like a time capsule.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And I think I shared that in churches I’ve served, and I’ve known that’s a very common thing. The other day, I’m in the chapel and I was-
Sue Lanza:
I know. This is crazy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I forget if I was reading, I forget what I was doing. I might have been doing morning announcements in front of the camera, but in any case, one of the construction workers comes in and he has what looks to me as I see him coming through the door, a sandwich wrapped in foil.
Sue Lanza:
Like a ham sandwich for you. You thought, hey, I’m a vegetarian, don’t give me this.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. I’m not hungry. What do you got? And he was carrying it very gingerly like he had discovered this amazing thing.
Sue Lanza:
He just went to Egypt and just went down in the tombs or something.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What it turns out is it’s a book of common prayer, which in the Episcopal church is our liturgy. And it was wrapped in foil.
Sue Lanza:
Like literally tin foil that you would wrap a-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Aluminum foil from the kitchen. Right?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The Book of Common Prayer that we have here is the version that was approved by the Episcopal church in, let me get the date.
Sue Lanza:
And it’s hard because I’m looking at what you’re doing to tell our listeners it’s falling apart big time.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. And that is part of the challenge with cornerstone and time capsules is that may not necessarily be the best place to do archival preservation.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Unless you do it properly and put it in somehow.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So in any case, this prayer book is from 1886, the version that was approved in 1886. It was probably printed after that point. The mystery is.. There are a couple mysteries. One is, was this originally in the cornerstone, say in Orange and then got moved here? Because in 1965, we would’ve been using in the Episcopal church, a Book of Common Prayer from 1928.
Sue Lanza:
Oh. So this definitely is older. Okay. I bet you’re right about that then.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So this book could have very easily, back in the 1880 something after 1886, been put into a cornerstone and sat there, got moved out here and then got wrapped in foil at some point.
Sue Lanza:
Oh my goodness. Someone probably thought they were doing a very marvelous job of preserving it by doing that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I think they did. I’m sure they did.
Sue Lanza:
Oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But the other mystery around the cornerstone is that we know from our own records, and talked about this in the previous previous podcast, there were other things that we think were put into the cornerstone in 1965. Now, there were some renovations that happened after ’65.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And who knows what happened then. My hope is that whatever else was in the cornerstone got it in a nice box and is preserved in some nook or cranny that we haven’t discovered.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. That would be great if we do find that, because we still have a couple of nooks and crannies to find. But also, I think the point is that this cornerstone that we did talk about in the other episode, it not only has the cornerstone from the original building, but it has the 1965. Somebody put them together at some point and they were probably on the outside of the building. And then when they switched the entrances around that we talked about, they brought it inside together. It’s very possible that what you’re saying is some of these pieces got moved around that other renovation.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. And so one… We do know from our records is that when the cornerstone was put in place, there were coins that were put in with it.
Sue Lanza:
I know. That’s what we’re thinking might be missing. Right?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
Who knows?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I hate to say it, but coins are something that could easily get put into what pocket and walk away.
Sue Lanza:
What are you saying?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I am not making any accusations.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, okay.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But we do have, though, a letter that you’ve shared with me.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Because we asked the gentleman who gave the prayer book. He said, “Oh my gosh.” I said, “Is there anything else?” And he said, “Oh, I have this letter.” And it was like ripped halfway, and so we made a copy of it, but it was pretty tattered looking.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’ve got the copy that you shared with me. It’s a letterhead from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Millburn, New Jersey, which is a congregation still very active and alive.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The Reverend James Elliott Lindsley, who was the rector of the church there. And it just says, in the year of our Lord, 1965 on the 15th of May, a group of people assembled at the former Sherman estates, we bought this property from the Sherman’s in Hackettstown for the cornerstone ceremony, for the new House of the Good Shepherd, the Bishop presiding. And we know that then it lists who the Bishop was, Leland Stark. George Rath, who was the Bishop suffragan, also a retired Bishop, Bishop Benjamin Washburn, all of whom served in this diocese. And then it lists all the other people who were there for this particular occasion. The cornerstone ceremony commenced that let than o’clock. Luncheon followed at the Claredon house. And I don’t know where that is.
Sue Lanza:
I don’t either. Because when I read that, I had no idea. That’s something we’ll have to research, too, with the historical society.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. And then it just concludes, it says this house established by the Episcopal Churches in the Oranges was in the year 1965, moved to this place, whereby by God’s grace, may it ever provide the protection of the good shepherd.
Sue Lanza:
I love that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s just lovely way to think of it. It’s a mystery. We don’t know where other things are. And I sort of quietly wondered, might we put a time capsule in someplace with our current renovations?
Sue Lanza:
I’m sure we could.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
There’s plentiful.
Sue Lanza:
I think it would be wonderful… Maybe the archivists will be able to tell us how to do one properly.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
Doesn’t have to be big, but you put it in and it’s going to last for a number of years. So I think that’s a great idea. And maybe you could get all of our residents involved in something.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
And get the mind off of some of the renovations that are causing havoc here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, it has been a little disruptive, as we all know.
Sue Lanza:
Oh definitely. I know. You’re always fascinating to me because you’re always hiding things with these mysteries that you have or little papers you’re moving around. So you have another mystery. And I understand it, you had tantalized everybody with this a while ago about Stephens State Park.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yes.
Sue Lanza:
That has a connection to us and that’s our park right next door that we love. We all go over there and enjoy it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and this is a mystery you’ve been doing a bit of research, so I’ll let you chime in, too. But yeah, Stephens State Park is across the river from us and up the road as well. What used to be our front entrance is the entrance to Stephens State Park. We’ve moved our front entrance, but there’s still continues to be this same place. And I, as you know, walk my dog up into the park most days for my lunch break.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
In our scrapbooks, I came across a very small piece. It’s a picture and a caption from an article that would’ve been printed in the Hackettstown Gazette. And in it says the top of it says Good Shepherd guest, and then it says, Mrs. Stephens is home. And it shows a picture of an older woman. And then the caption at the bottom of it says, sitting at the window where she can look over at Stephens State Park, the track, which her late husband gave to New Jersey in 1937 is Mrs. Marcy P. Stephens, 82 years old, who came back to Hackettstown last Friday as a resident of the House of the Good Shepherd, which opened last year on the site, which joins the state park. The date that has been handwritten on this article in this picture is April 6th, 1967. The mystery is-
Sue Lanza:
No, there’s a lot of mysteries on this one.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The mystery is, as you discovered when we were doing a bit of research, there’s a person named Marcena Preston Stephens, Marcena P. Stephens, who’s not a woman, who’s a man.
Sue Lanza:
Right. That was a little shocker because we couldn’t figure out, these names seemed interchangeable because it’s Marcy, which happens to be my mother’s name, too.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh.
Sue Lanza:
So it’s a woman’s name, but when you say Marcena and it’s M-A-R-C-E-N-A, and then we’ve seen it M-A-R-S-E-N-A. When you were doing some research and looking in some of the cemetery records, we just couldn’t locate this person. The dates didn’t add up. So we started digging in a little bit more about who is Augustus Stephens, we found out, Marcena Preston Stephens, thinking that’s the wife who donated the money or the land.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Property.
Sue Lanza:
Property for the park. Come to find out they’re brothers.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
But yet the woman who was at the House of the Good Shepherd has a very similar name and seems like she’s married to maybe Augustus.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Possibly. So doing a little bit of math, in 1967, she was 83, 82. So she was probably born in 1884. Something like that.
Sue Lanza:
Shortly after the house was formed in the Oranges.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Back in the Oranges. Right?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
At some point in, it was 1937, the Stephens family gave the property for the state to have as a park. It’s a real, it’s a curious mystery.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, we haven’t figured this one out yet.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And we did find there’s a picture on a website that I am familiar with called findagrave.com.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, that sounds like so much fun.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. Well, so for those of us who love family history, you can, not every cemetery, but a lot of cemeteries, you can find a lot of their records online, including pictures. So the other mystery of course, is that Marsena Preston Stephens died in 1950, which would’ve been 17 years before this picture got taken. So we clearly have some more research to do.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. But if anybody has any info on this, you can certainly reach us here and exactly help us fill in the gaps. Because we just haven’t figured out from the historical society or any more information on this because obviously she lived here and obviously she had a connection to the park, which is such an integral part of our whole existence here. There’s more to be told on this.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The other little clue we did find, and this is a typewritten thing in our scrapbook, was that the woman in the picture, her daughter was Francis J, Zimmerman. And we do know that person, Francis, and it’s Francis with an I, so that’s a man.
Sue Lanza:
Hmm.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I would’ve thought.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, you would think.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, so maybe Francis is the husband, as we used to do.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, right. Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So there’s just a lot here that we’re not quite sure about.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. So please help us. We’re just, we’re digging in. And again, maybe these archivists will tell us, oh, this is where you go and you look this up and that up. I bet we’re going to get some help for these-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I hope so.
Sue Lanza:
… our fledgling little historians that we are here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s right.
Sue Lanza:
They’re going to set us straight.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. So I think we’ll leave it with that with the mystery today.
Sue Lanza:
I love all that. So Shawn, I want to thank you again for a nice chat.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
You’re welcome.
Sue Lanza:
And I guess we’re signing off. I’m Sue.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’m Shawn.
Sue Lanza:
Thanks for listening to this episode of House Guests, the podcast which is dedicated to all great things about the House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown, New Jersey. To learn more about us, please visit our website hotgs.org. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
