Join West Orange Township Historian Joseph Fagan at the West Orange Public Library on March 21st at 2:00 p.m. as he peels back the many layers of the town's Revolutionary War past. The program is presented as part of REV 250 NJ. It is a statewide initiative commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by connecting local communities with their own Revolutionary War stories.
New Jersey played a central role in the American Revolution. George Washington spent nearly one-quarter of his time as General leading troops in New Jersey between 1775 and 1783. But did he ever visit West Orange?
Several accounts suggest he did, but questions remain whether these stories represent folklore or myth. What is certain is that the War left West Orange’s history delicately balanced between recorded evidence and historical lore.
Fagan’s program, Women of West Orange During the American Revolution: Divided Loyalties, will explore the community’s unique connection to the War for Independence by focusing on the vital and often overlooked roles played by women who lived in what would later become West Orange.
The central focus of the presentation will be Tory Corner and the Williams family, whose loyalties were torn apart by the war. Nathaniel Williams’ decision to side with British forces in New York left his wife Mary Williams and their four young children behind. Mary believed in American independence and endured years of hardship as her family was fractured by ideological division. It pitted not only husband against wife, but literally brother against brother foreshadowing the national divide that would erupt decades later during the American Civil War. Surviving Williams family artifacts will be on display.
The program will also highlight the story of a young girl Jemima Condict, who lived in today’s Pleasantdale section of West Orange during the same period. Her diary, written between 1772 and 1779, is among the most important firsthand accounts of daily life in Revolutionary War, New Jersey. Condict recorded the news of the fighting at Lexington and Concord in her diary when it first reached West Orange. Her entries reflect the fear, disruption, and instability caused by troop movements in West Orange and nearby communities. A rare 1930 reprint of her diary, one of only 500 copies, will be on display.
Women also contributed directly to the war effort by secretly casting lead musket balls for use by local militia. A marker installed in 1925 by the Daughters of the American Revolution identifies the site where this dangerous and clandestine work went undetected by British forces in West Orange. The location is hiding in plain view and will surprise you.
The presentation will place these stories within the broader context of West Orange’s Revolutionary War history that includes the use of observation posts and signal towers along the Watchung Mountain range by Washington’s army, and the service of the Essex Militia. These men were local citizen soldiers who answered the call for independence and many of them can be traced directly to living what is now West Orange.
Together, all these stories serve as a powerful reminder that the fight for freedom was carried forward not only by famous leaders, but by ordinary women and men whose courage, sacrifice, and divided loyalties helped shape the nation we know today.