The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
There was more than soup and chili served up March 11 by the East Millstone Historic Society at its annual meeting.
Music by an Irish music trio, Lesser Seamus – featuring village resident Michael Steinbrück – and talks by Delaware and Raritan Canal author Linda Barth and Bob Mettler, the township historian, were also on the menu.
Mayor Phil Kramer also stopped by to update the members on what’s going on in the township.
The group also got some business done during the meeting in the election of new officers.
“It’s a nice way to bring the community together,” said the historic society’s Patti Sofran.
Offering food for guests is also an annual tradition, she said. The food – several varieties of chili, soups, corn bread, cookies and other items – was made by members of the group’s Board of Trustees, she said.
The society has between 20 and 30 members, Sofran said, and exists primarily to preserve the history of East Millstone.
“We preserve the memory of those who have built our history and ensure that those stories are preserved,” she said.
Mettler was on hand to talk about East Millstone’s contributions to World War I, seeing as this is the centennial year of the “War to end all wars.”
A total of 24 village residents served in the war, Mettler said, including John Richard Nevius, a Rutgers University educated engineer whose job it was to build hospitals in France.
“He received a field commission because he pretty soon had officers reporting to him, so they figured he should be an officer,” Mettler said.
Mettler said East Millstone residents also contributed to the local YMCA, which at the time functioned as a USO.
