An Editor, a Tornado, a Mobilization and an Actor

Today in New Jersey history:

June 19, 1831: John Young Foster was born in Clinton. A newspaperman, Foster worked as editor of the Newark Daily Mercury and the New York Mail, Harper’s Weekly, and, in 1863, the Newark Daily Advertiser. A staunch Republican and Unionist, he delivered a eulogy to the martyred president Abraham Lincoln at Newark’s South Park, today’s Lincoln Park, in 1865. Foster was author of New Jersey and the Rebellion, the first comprehensive account of the state’s role in the Civil War, which was published in 1868. A long time Newark resident, he served as editor of other newspapers and was active in Republican politics in the postwar era, dying at his home on Stratford Place in Newark on November 13, 1896. 

June 19, 1835: A tornado swept across Middlesex County, crossing the state from Amwell and roaring down George Street, killing two people and seriously damaging houses before moving down the Raritan River and finally ending on Staten Island. A young boy was carried into the air from his George Street residence and deposited two hundred yards away in Burnet Street, suffering only minor injuries.

June 19, 1916: The federal government ordered the mobilization of three infantry regiments, one squadron of cavalry, two batteries of field artillery, one signal corps company, one field hospital and one ambulance company of the New Jersey National Guard for duty on the Mexican border in the wake of the crisis caused by revolutionary leader Pancho Villa’s raid into New Mexico. The units assembled at the National Guard Training Center at Sea Girt on June 21 and, after a period of organization, traveled from there to Douglas, Arizona, for border duty. They returned to New Jersey at the end of the year.

June 19, 2013: Actor and New Jersey native James Gandolfini, best known for his portrayal of gangster Tony Soprano on the HBO television series “The Sopranos,” an organized crime drama set in the Garden State, died in Rome.