Work on oral history
project nets honor

The New Jersey Historical Commission will present its 2002 Awards of Recognition, along with the Driscoll Prize, and its highest honor, the Richard J. Hughes Award, at its annual conference Dec. 7.

The conference, "The People of Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey," will be held at the Trenton War Memorial and the Lafayette Yard Marriott, Trenton.

This year the commission will present five awards of recognition in acknowledgment of outstanding recent work to promote the study, presentation, preservation and popularization of New Jersey history.

The Alfred E. Driscoll Prize will be awarded to John Fea, for his 1999 State University of New York, Stony Brook, doctoral dissertation on "Rural Religion: Protestant Community and the Moral Improvement of the South Jersey Country-side, 1676-1800."

The Richard J. Hughes Award recipient is the New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, for bringing the history of New Jersey to a wide and diverse audience.

Among the recipients of the award of recognition is Flora Higgins of the Monmouth County Library Headquarters in Manalapan. She will be honored for her work on a comprehensive oral history project to document 20th century Monmouth County.

The project was begun in 1999 in anticipation of the turn of the century and involved the Monmouth County Freeholders and many county residents. The project interviewed approximately 100 people who had lived a significant part of their lives in the county. The county published the interviews in 2001 in Remembering the Twentieth Century: An Oral History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Higgins is the head of the Public Relations Office at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters, where she has worked since 1990.

Book chronicles

Marlboro’s history

The Marlboro Township Historic Commission has announced the debut of its second edition of Marlboro Township — A Rich History, a Bright Future.

This history book was the result of the combined efforts of several members of the historic commission and is the culmination of almost three years of researching and interviewing longtime residents, conducting an inventory of numerous historic sites, and collecting hundreds of old photos and vintage maps. The pages follow the story of the development of Marlboro from its early settlement in 1685 and incorporation on Feb. 17, 1848, to the present times.

The book contains more than 250 photos of various phases of life throughout the different sections of the township. The family photos that have been lent to the commission depict everyday life in 11 original hamlets which once made up the town. The text was written by township historian Nathan Handlin, and the pictorial sections were assembled by Nancy Williams, chairwoman of the historic commission.

Copies, which ordinarily sell for $30, are available now for $25, tax deductible. To order, send a check made out to Marl-boro Improvement and Cultural Fund, along with a telephone number, and mail to Marlboro Historic Commission, 12 Hobart St., Marlboro 07746-1521. For further information, call (732) 462-8262.