Arthur
Appleby
My name is Arthur B Appleby. It should be a familiar name to those of you are local. I was elected the very first Mayor of Spotswood. Let me explain how that came to happen. Around the year 1838 Monroe Township, South Amboy, Spotswood and East Brunswick were all one big community. In that same year, Monroe decided to go their own way and broke away from South Amboy, taking Spotswood and East Brunswick along with it. In 1860 Monroe again broke away from East Brunswick and again Spotswood went along.
At this time Monroe was mostly a land of farmers and desired to be a “dry” community….that means no taverns or alcohol of any kind. Now at this time, Spotswood already had 3 taverns that were very popular. Deciding that the restrictions that Monroe wanted were not what Spotswood wanted, all 800 residents took a vote in 1908 and decided to become independent.
Spotswood had 3 general stores, one of which was mine. The others were Fred Cornell’s and Edward Underhill. While most people were able to grow or produce most of their own foodstuffs, there were things that they needed like fabric, flour, grains and the like. In these days we did a lot of delivering of goods to those who lived far away from town and couldn’t make it in to shop. My home was where the current Rite Aid and Cambridge Inn stand and my store was right across the street. For me, an easy commute!!!
We also had the Hodapp Butcher Shop, a barber shop, a bicycle shop (cars had not made it to Spotswood by then, so bicycles and horses were the main form of transportation) and a blacksmith. Our 3 taverns were on the North side of Main street which became known in town as the “Devil’s Side”. On the South side of Main Street were 3 churches, Immaculate Conception, The reformed Church and our very own St. Peter’s Episcopal. This side of the street became known as the “Lord’s Side”.
Back to the election: As I said we decided to go independent in February of 1908. The borough of Spotswood was officially created on April15 of the same year. In June of 1908 a meeting was held at the old firehouse to elect our borough officials. From then on the firehouse became known as Borough Hall.
But I digress…… our very first meeting was opened with a prayer by the Rev. Francis Smith who at that time was the rector of this very church, St. Peter’s. I was elected Mayor almost unanimously…there was 1 vote against me! The original council members were William Bissett, Augustine Cornell, Augustus DeVoe, Hamilton Hazelhurst, Joseph Hodapp and T. Francis Perrine. Many of these names are, I’m sure, familiar to you, and in fact you will hear from a couple of them on this tour! My main objective while in office was to establish a borough water supply, electric lights and paving the dirt roads. Our first council passed several ordinances that were critical to the efficient running of the borough. I will defer to my esteemed colleague, William Bissett, who is on this tour, to explain these ordinances to you.
In the various histories of Spotswood I have been called a staunch Democrat and I am very proud of that description. As the years went by many of my offspring and relatives went on to also hold public offices. But something happened along the way. The 3rd mayor was J. Randolph Appleby, Sr……a Republican…in fact the first Republican Mayor of the town. His son also became the Mayor in 1925…again a Republican!!! And insult upon injury…in the 1960’s my General Store was used as a campaign headquarters for Richard Nixon. It was enough to make one roll in their grave!!!!
Before serving as Mayor, I was also President of the Board of Education.! I recognized a need for a centralized area for teaching our children and led the effort to build a schoolhouse. So the Spotswood Public School was built around the late 1890’s. It was located on Main Street right across the street from St. Peter’s. It was originally a 4 room structure that was expanded over the years. It was renamed for Margaretta M Birchall who was a faithful and long time elementary school teacher. Eventually, somewhere around 1970, the structure became unsafe for children, but apparently safe enough for adults as it became the Board of Education offices. In 1985 it was sold to Grace Hydrusko who operated, of all things, a bus service of over 85 busses!!! It was sold again in 1998 and, after serving a long and varied career, was demolished in 1999.
I led a good and fruitful life. My marriage to Hattie Dill was the joy of my life. I served my community and some have even called me “The Father of Spotswood”. I was called home to the Lord in 1929 and have rested here at St. Peter’s since then.