History Comes to Life at Society Meeting

Members of the Chatham Historical Society glimpsed history portraying history when Co-Presidents Susan Allen and Heidi Huston showed a theatrical pageant from the Chatham of 1926 captured on camera and newly transferred to DVD.

Susan Allen, the society's copresident, narrated the silent film of the Three Towns Pageant, a skit in five parts that was performed in Chatham in July 1926 in honor of the sesquicentenial of the Declaration of Independence.

The pageant portrayed the original settling of the Watchung Valley through the period of the Revolutionary War, complete with historical figures like Gen. Lafayette and more whimsical figures like the Wind Spirits and a skeletal Death.

Residents of Chatham, Summit (The Heights) and Madison (Bottle Hill) were directed in the pageant by Herbert T. Strong, a "mover and a shaker" from Chatham, in Allen's words. "He was very well versed in history," Allen said, "and he was just involved in everything.

Between 10,000 and 12,000 people attended the performance in 1926. Engineers built a bridge over the Passaic River for the entrances and exits. Sheds and wigwams were constructed and used numerous props, including a bellows, Conestoga wagons and a dead deer (the deer, Allen said, was found injured in the road months before the pageant and died of its wounds. It was kept in a freezer in Madison and brought out for the pageant.)

The Chatham Historical Society paid for a digital copy of the film to be made from a VHS copy provided by Emery Westfall. Allen and other members researched the names of those who performed in the pageant, copied newspaper articles from The Chatham Press and The Madison Eagle about the event. These artifacts were also on display at the members dinner Tuesday, which was held at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township.

It was, Allen said, "patriotism in a very pure form."

The pageant was the culmination of a week-long celebration of the 150th adoption of the Declaration of Independence that took place in Chatham from June 28 through July 5, 1926. It was staged in a natural amphitheater near what is now Minisink Swim Club, and was filmed on 16mm film. Later is was transferred to 8mm film, and then to VHS format, and now to DVD.

Most members agreed that it was not only the film but Allen's narration that made it truly enjoyable. "[She] added to it," said Betty Spencer, one of the evening's attendees.

Some of the attendees remembered people in the video, such as Mrs. Edna Budd, who portrayed an American Indian woman in the pageant, carrying multiple bundles and building a shelter.

"She was like a historian in Chatham, she would have known all about [the area]," said Katie Pentony.

Former borough mayors Barbara Hall and Dick Plambeck found themselves trying to find out exactly where the pageant had been staged. "Before the freeway went through, and before they relocated the river, there could have been some different elevation changes that aren't there anymore," Plambeck said.

"I was there back in '41 when they had a pageant," said Jack Conlan. "You go down University Avenue, make a right on Wilson [Street], and that leads to a dead end. If you look down, that was the pageant ground."

"I wish I'd been there," Hall said. "It looks like it would have been fun."

The Historical Society also awarded the first Historical Home plaque to Carolyn and Daniel McCarthy for their home at 91 Fairmount Ave. The Historical Home plaque is a subsect of the Adopt-A-House program and "gives special recognition to those [homes] that are particularly well preserved and maintain most of the original quality and character," according to Noelle Joralemon.

The Presbyterian Women provided the food and table service for the dinner.