Raritan River
The Raritan River is a major river of central New Jersey in the United States. Its watershed drains much of the mountainous area of the central part of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. Geologists assert that the lower Raritan provided the course of the mouth of the Hudson River 6,000 years ago. Following the end of the last ice age, the Narrows had not yet been formed and the Hudson flowed along the Watchung Mountains to present-day Bound Brook followed the course of the Raritan eastward into Lower New York Bay; the river forms at the confluence of the North and South Branches just west of Somerville at the border of Bridgewater and Hillsborough Townships. It flows for 16 mi before slowing in tidewater at New Brunswick, its estuary extends 14 mi more entering the western end of Raritan Bay at South Amboy; the river has served an important water transportation route since the Pre-Columbian era. The name Raritan is applied to the Raritan people, an Algonquian tribe that inhabited Staten Island, near the river's mouth.
In colonial days, the river allowed the development of early industry around New Brunswick, as well as the transportation of agricultural materials from central New Jersey. During the American Revolutionary War, the river provided a means for troop conveyance; the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal along the right bank of the river provided a critical link between New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. Comprehensive measures have been taken to increase the water quality; these actions have benefited the fish population which include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, catfish, chain pickerel, american eels and yellow perch. Pike can be found in relative abundance in some portions of the river like Califon. An occasional Musky has been taken out of the Raritan as well; the tidal portions of the river host migratory salt water species such as striped bass, winter flounder and bluefish. Efforts to restore anadromous fish populations have been made, done by removing many of the obsolete dams and the constructing dam bypass infrastructure.
This will result in restoring shad, striped bass, sturgeon populations in the river. Many nesting birds and water fowl make their homes along the length of the river. Crustaceans such as blue claw crab, fiddler crabs and green crabs are found in the tidal sections of the river. Crayfish can be found farther upstream; the river is used for recreational boating, including use by the rowing team of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The river is featured in the title of Rutgers' alma mater, On the Banks of the Old Raritan, its flooding is mentioned in the song; the musical 1776 mentions troops bathing in the Raritan River. Near its mouth, the river is spanned by a New Jersey Transit railroad bridge which carries the North Jersey Coast Line. S. Route 9; the Raritan River is an important source of drinking water for the central portion of New Jersey. Two water purification plants, operated by New Jersey American Water, are located where the Raritan River and its largest tributary meet just east of Manville, New Jersey.
At times of drought and low water flow rates, the flow rate in the Raritan River is enhanced by planned discharges from the Round Valley Reservoir and Spruce Run Reservoir, both of which are located close to the South Branch of the Raritan River in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, are connected to the river via outflow pipes/channels. The water levels are boosted so downstream water purification facilities will have adequate water supplies in times of drought; the Raritan River has persistent flooding problems when excessive rain from storms affects the river basin. The flooding problems affect the town of Bound Brook, built on a natural flood plain at the junction of several tributaries, Manville, which has a large neighborhood known as Lost Valley that lies on the floodplain between the Raritan River and its largest tributary river, known as the Millstone River. Other towns in the Raritan River basin experience flooding to a lesser degree. Record flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in September 1999 flood crest, 14 ft above flood stage) caused renewed interest in a flood control project called the Green Brook Flood Control Project, designed to protect Bound Brook from a 150-year flood.
In August 2011, record flooding occurred once again. This problem was exacerbated by well-above average rainfall that fell in the weeks before the storm hit, spurred completion of the Army Corps of Engineers flood control project; as of 2015, the current status of this project is: The R2 levee system is functionally complete – The R2 Levee System is designed to provide Bound Brook with protection from a 150-year flood level. The levee is built to the height of the raised Talmage Avenue Bridge. Closure gates along Raritan are functionally complete – The gate closures across the New Jersey Transit railroad tracks on the western side of Bound Brook and at the South Main Street railroad underpass that leads to Queens Bridge have been completed and are used to keep flood waters out of Bound Brook; the new Talmadge Avenue Bridge that connects Bound Brook and Bridgewater, New Jersey is functionally complete. The replaceme
National Football League
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the highest professional level of American football in the world; the NFL's 17-week regular season runs from early September to late December, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, held in the first Sunday in February, is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC; the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States.
The Super Bowl is among the biggest club sporting events in the world and individual Super Bowl games account for many of the most watched television programs in American history, all occupying the Nielsen's Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U. S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL's executive officer is the commissioner; the players in the league belong to the National Football League Players Association. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen; the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII for their sixth Super Bowl championship. On August 20, 1920, a meeting was held by representatives of the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio; this meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference, a group who, according to the Canton Evening Repository, intended to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules".
Another meeting was held on September 17, 1920 with representatives from teams from four states-Akron, Canton and Dayton from Ohio. The league was renamed to the American Professional Football Association; the league elected Jim Thorpe as its first president, consisted of 14 teams. The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio was at the September 17 meeting, but did not field a team in 1920. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain. Although the league did not maintain official standings for its 1920 inaugural season and teams played schedules that included non-league opponents, the APFA awarded the Akron Pros the championship by virtue of their 8–0–3 record; the first event occurred on September 26, 1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3, 1920, the first full week of league play occurred; the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans.
On June 24, 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League. In 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. At the time, teams were ranked on a single table and the team with the highest winning percentage at the end of the season was declared the champion; this method had been used since the league's creation in 1920, but no situation had been encountered where two teams were tied for first. The league determined that a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the league's champion; the teams were scheduled to play the playoff game a regular season game that would count towards the regular season standings, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but a combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, which did not have a regulation-size football field. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the smaller playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0 and thus won the championship.
Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions. The 1934 season marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league; the de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure and coinciding with the removal of a similar ban in Major League Baseball. The NFL was always the foremost pro
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is located on a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, the most densely populated of the 50 U. S. states. New Jersey lies within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey was the second-wealthiest U. S. state by median household income as of 2017. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes founded the first European settlements in the state; the English seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey after the largest of the Channel Islands and granting it as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton.
New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities, Paterson, Trenton, Jersey City, Elizabeth helped to drive the Industrial Revolution. New Jersey's geographic location at the center of the Northeast megalopolis, between Boston and New York City to the northeast, Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. to the southwest, fueled its rapid growth through the process of suburbanization in the second half of the 20th century. In the first decades of the 21st century, this suburbanization began reverting with the consolidation of New Jersey's culturally diverse populace toward more urban settings within the state, with towns home to commuter rail stations outpacing the population growth of more automobile-oriented suburbs since 2008. Around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa; the pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains.
Around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as many rivers and gorges. New Jersey was settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact. Scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land, now New Jersey; the Lenape were several autonomous groups that practiced maize agriculture in order to supplement their hunting and gathering in the region surrounding the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, western Long Island Sound. The Lenape society was divided into matrilinear clans; these clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign: Turtle and Wolf. They first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade; the Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey. The Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of land ownership was not recognized by the Lenape, Dutch West India Company policy required its colonists to purchase the land that they settled.
The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which became the Bergen. Peter Minuit's purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden; the entire region became a territory of England on June 24, 1664, after an English fleet under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into what is now New York Harbor and took control of Fort Amsterdam, annexing the entire province. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and gave sanctuary to the King, it was from the Royal Square in Saint Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton.
The area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the state's inception, New Jersey has been characterized by religious diversity. New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants. While the majority of residents lived in towns with individual landholdings of 100 acres, a few rich proprietors owned vast estates. English Quakers and Anglicans owned large landholdings. Unlike Plymouth Colony and other colonies, New Jersey was populated by a secondary wave of immigrants who came from other colonies instead of those who migrated directly from Europe. New Jersey remained agrarian and rural throughout the colonial era, commercial farming developed sporadically; some townships, such as Burlington on the Delaware River and Perth Amboy, emerged as important ports for shipping to New York City and Philadelphia. The colony's fertile lands and tolerant religious policy drew more settlers, New Jersey's population had increased to 120,000 by 1775. Settlement for the first 10 years of English rule took place along Hackensack River and Arthur Kill –
Henry Muhlenberg
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, was a German Lutheran pastor sent to North America as a missionary, requested by Pennsylvania colonists. Integral to the founding of the first Lutheran church body or denomination in North America, Muhlenberg is considered the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States. Muhlenberg and his wife Anna Maria had a large family, several of whom had a significant impact on colonial life in North America as pastors, military officers, politicians, his and Anna Maria's descendants continued to be active in national political life. Muhlenberg was born in 1711 at Einbeck, to Nicolaus Melchior Mühlenberg and Anna Maria Kleinschmid in the German Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, he studied theology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. As a student, Muhlenberg came under the influence of the Pietist movement through fellow students from Einbeck who had worked at the Francke Foundations in Halle, an important Pietist institution. With two other men, Muhlenberg started a charity school in Göttingen that became an orphanage.
After completing his studies in spring 1738, Muhlenberg secured a teaching position at the Francke Foundation's Historic Orphanage. Its director, the theologian Gotthilf August Francke was the son and successor of the Foundation's founder, August Hermann Francke and a professor at the University of Halle. Muhlenberg was ordained in Leipzig in 1739, served as assistant minister and director of the orphanage at Grosshennersdorf from 1739 to 1741. In 1741 Gotthilf August Francke encouraged Muhlenberg to accept a call from German-speaking Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Accordingly, in 1742 Muhlenberg emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean, where he founded the Lutheran Church as an institution in North America; the Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania had been founded by lay ministers. As Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf was successful in winning a number of converts to the Moravian Church, the Lutherans asked German churches for formally trained clergy. In 1742, Muhlenberg immigrated to Philadelphia, responding to the 1732 request by Pennsylvania Lutherans.
He took charge of the congregation in what is now Trappe, Pennsylvania. He provided leadership to a series of congregations from Maryland to New York, working to secure control over less qualified pastors and starting new congregations among the settlers of the region. In 1748 he called together The Ministerium of Pennsylvania, the first permanent Lutheran synod in America, he helped to prepare a uniform liturgy that same year, wrote basic tenets for an ecclesiastical constitution, which most of the churches adopted in 1761. He did much work on a hymnal, published by the Ministerium in 1786; the dedication stone of the Augustus Lutheran Church, above its door, is dedicated to Muhlenberg and its other founders. It reads, in Latin, translated into English: "Under the auspices of Christ, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg with his Council, J. N. Crosman, F. Marsteller, A. Heilman, J. Mueller, H. Haas, H. Rebner, erected from the foundation this building dedicated by the Society of the Augsburg Confession. A. D.1743."
This is the only known church building bearing an inscription that designates the confessional document of the congregation instead of the name Lutheran by which it is popularly known. The name of the first church—Augustus—was adopted in honor of Herman Augustus Francke, founder of the Halle Institutions, whose son persuaded Muhlenberg to accept the call of the three United Congregations in America, the first such confederation to bring Lutheranism to North America. Muhlenberg traveled beyond the three congregations assigned to him. During his 45-year ministry, he reached from New York to Georgia, he ministered not only to the German-language populations he was assigned to, but to colonists from the Netherlands and Britain as well, in their native languages. His colleagues requested his help in arbitrating disputes among Lutherans, or in some cases with other religious groups. Muhlenberg worked to recruit new ministers from Europe and to develop more ministers from the colonists. In Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey, the Old Stone Union Church of German Valley housed a congregation said to have been organized by Muhlenberg.
His eldest son, the Reverend Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg served as pastor there and served as a major general in the Continental Army. Poor health forced him into limited retirement, he died at his home in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was interred in the rear of Augustus Lutheran Church with his wife Anna Maria, followed by their son Peter. By request, he was buried next to the grave of his good friend and sponsor, Augustus Church co-founder Frederick Ludwig Marsteller. Soon after arriving in Pennsylvania, in 1745 Muhlenberg married Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of colonial leader Conrad Weiser; the couple had eleven children and founded the Muhlenberg Family dynasty, where generations were active in the US military, politics and ministry. Of their children, three sons became prominent in other fields as well, their son Peter became a Major General in the Continental Army and was elected to the U. S. Congress. Frederick served as the first Speaker of the House in the U. S. Congress after his election to office.
Henry, Jr. became pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church at New Jersey. Henry Ernst was an early scientist, the first president of Franklin College, their daughter Elisabeth married future general Francis Swaine. Maria Salome married the future US Congre
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most identify, indicate whether or not they are of Hispanic or Latino origin. The racial categories represent a social-political construct for the race or races that respondents consider themselves to be and, "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country." OMB defines the concept of race as outlined for the US Census as not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference." The race categories include both national-origin groups. Race and ethnicity are considered separate and distinct identities, with Hispanic or Latino origin asked as a separate question. Thus, in addition to their race or races, all respondents are categorized by membership in one of two ethnic categories, which are "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino".
However, the practice of separating "race" and "ethnicity" as different categories has been criticized both by the American Anthropological Association and members of US Commission on Civil Rights. In 1997, OMB issued a Federal Register notice regarding revisions to the standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity. OMB developed race and ethnic standards in order to provide "consistent data on race and ethnicity throughout the Federal Government; the development of the data standards stem in large measure from new responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws." Among the changes, OMB issued the instruction to "mark one or more races" after noting evidence of increasing numbers of interracial children and wanting to capture the diversity in a measurable way and having received requests by people who wanted to be able to acknowledge their or their children's full ancestry rather than identifying with only one group. Prior to this decision, the Census and other government data collections asked people to report only one race.
The OMB states, "many federal programs are put into effect based on the race data obtained from the decennial census. Race data are critical for the basic research behind many policy decisions. States require these data to meet legislative redistricting requirements; the data are needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act by local jurisdictions". "Data on ethnic groups are important for putting into effect a number of federal statutes. Data on Ethnic Groups are needed by local governments to run programs and meet legislative requirements." The 1790 United States Census was the first census in the history of the United States. The population of the United States was recorded as 3,929,214 as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution and applicable laws."The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in'two of the most public places within, there to remain for the inspection of all concerned...' and that'the aggregate amount of each description of persons' for every district be transmitted to the president."
This law along with U. S. marshals were responsible for governing the census. One third of the original census data has been lost or destroyed since documentation; the data was lost in 1790–1830 time period and included data from: Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia. Census data included the name of the head of the family and categorized inhabitants as follows: free white males at least 16 years of age, free white males under 16 years of age, free white females, all other free persons, slaves. Thomas Jefferson the Secretary of State, directed marshals to collect data from all thirteen states, from the Southwest Territory; the census was not conducted in Vermont until 1791, after that state's admission to the Union as the 14th state on March 4 of that year. There was some doubt surrounding the numbers, President George Washington and Thomas Jefferson maintained the population was undercounted; the potential reasons Washington and Jefferson may have thought this could be refusal to participate, poor public transportation and roads, spread out population, restraints of current technology.
No microdata from the 1790 population census is available, but aggregate data for small areas and their compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. In 1800 and 1810, the age question regarding free white males was more detailed; the 1820
Schooley's Mountain
Schooley's or Schooleys Mountain is a mountain ridge in northern New Jersey that stretches from Lake Hopatcong in the north to Hampton in the south. It is centrally located within the southern Highlands, positioned equidistantly from the Kittatinny Valley in the west and the Piedmont plateau in the east. Schooley's Mountain is one of the largest ridges in a group of geologically similar and parallel mountains, which include Allamuchy Mountain, Pohatcong Mountain, Scotts Mountain, Jenny Jump Mountain. Schooley's Mountain is separated from Musconetcong Mountain by a gap and the valley of Spruce Run, which bifurcates the mountain itself higher in its course; the mountain ridge extends about 20 miles northeast, being separated by Budd Lake and the South Branch Raritan River from Mooney Mountain. The northeasternmost point looks out upon Waterloo and the Musconetcong River, the valley of which lies upon its northwestern side. Prominent subsidiary peaks include Mount Kipp, at the southeastern tip, Point Mountain, overlooking Anderson in the Musconetcong Valley.
The summit of the ridge proper lies in an area of private homes on Kim Lane, on the northeastern part of the ridge. The community of Schooley's Mountain is on top and in the middle of the ridge, which rises about 400 to 800 feet above the surrounding valley; the mountain is named for Rogerene landowners in the area during the 1790s. The mountain air and the chalybeate springs on the mountain once made it a fashionable summer destination. For similar reasons, a state tuberculosis sanatorium was once located around Mount Kipp. Many small iron mines were worked on the mountain in the late 19th century. Granite was quarried from the mountain; the main crossing at the mountain is Schooley's Mountain Road Washington Turnpike. General George Washington noted in his diary that he considered the route from "Dutch Valley to Schooley's Mountain a hazardous and round about thoroughfare." While much of the flatter terrain on the ridge has been cultivated or, more developed for residential housing, much of Schooley's Mountain is still wooded.
On the northwest side, Cataract Park, along Schooleys Mountain Road, preserves a waterfall and an old mine opening on the steep side of the ridge. Schooley's Mountain County Park, home of Randolph YMCA's Camp Washington, encloses the valley of Long Valley and small Lake George on the southeastern side of the mountain. Lake George has been drained and dredged but swimming is no longer permitted; the Electric Brook runs from Lake George over several waterfalls in the park before it reaches the south branch of the Raritan River. The park offers boat numerous amenities above and beyond hiking. One of the completed segments of Patriots' Path runs through the park. High Bridge Branch abandoned railroad line running in the valley along the South Branch Raritan River. History of Hackettstown Schooley's Mountain County Park
Mike Rossi (freestyle skier)
Michael "Jersey Mike" Rossi is an American freestyle aerialist from the Long Valley section of Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey. He has been competing in the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup since the 2011-2012 season. In the 2012-2013 season, he earned a bronze medal at the Deer Valley World Cup competition. Mike Rossi at the International Ski Federation Mike Rossi's Official Website
United States
New Jersey
