Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Getting from here to there for New Jerseyans these days can range from slightly annoying to absolutely road-rageous. But nowhere does it approach the wholesale risks taken by 19th century travelers when they booked passagage on a ship, boarded a train or stayed at a tinderbox resort hotel. History and weather repeat, and Siegel deftly captures the déjà vu."
* Star-Ledger *
"Think the winter we’ve just endured was rough? It was a picnic compared to 1888, when the blizzard of March 11 to 14 paralyzed New Jersey, killing nearly 100 people. More than 2 feet of snow fell in some regions, and winds reached 60 miles per hour in an era before snowplows. That's just one of the 28 deadly events pulled from the historical shadows by Alan A. Siegel in his new book, Disaster! Stories of Destruction and Death in Nineteenth-Century New Jersey." * New Jersey Monthly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Fires
Newark, October 27, 1836
Cape May City, September 5, 1856
Cape May City, August 31, 1869
Cape May City, November 9, 1878
Newton, September 22, 1873
Caven Point, Jersey City, Refinery Fire, May 10, 1883
The Standard Oil Fire, Bayonne, July 5, 1900
2. Steamboat Disasters
New-Jersey, Camden, March 15, 1856
Isaac Newton, Fort Lee, December 5, 1863
3. Train Wrecks
Burlington, August 29, 1855
Hackensack Meadows, January 15, 1894
May's Landing, August 11, 1880
Absecon Island, July 30, 1896
Bordentown, February 21, 1901
The Thoroughfare Wreck, October 28, 1906
4. Shipwrecks
John Minturn, South of Mantoloking, February 15, 1846
Powhattan, Beach Haven, April 15, 1854
New Era, Deal Beach, November 13, 1854
New York, North of Barnegat Inlet, December 20, 1856
Vizcaya and
Cornelius Hargraves, Off Barnegat Bay, July 8, 1898
Delaware, Barnegat Bay, July 8, 1898
5. Natural Disasters
The Blizzard of '88, March 11-14, 1888
The Great September Gale, September 3, 1821
Statewide Hurricane, September 10-13, 1889
New Brunswick Tornado, June 19, 1835
Camden Tornado, June 19, 1835
Camden Tornado, August 3, 1885
Cherry Hill Tornado, July 13, 1895
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
