Forgotten History is a podcast that tells intriguing and obscure stories from central New Jersey's past. Join us for strange and surprising tales you won't hear anywhere else.
When the Spanish Flu hit Philadelphia in 1918, it first overwhelmed the hospitals, then the morgues, then the gravediggers. The disaster was the fault of one man, public health director Wilmer Krusen, who allowed a Liberty Bond parade that spread the disease at a catastrophic rate. But was Krusen really at fault? We speak with James Higgins, a history professor at Rider University whose research challenges the commonly told story.
18 Mar 2020
12 New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle
In the mid-1800s, the isolation of the Sourlands region made it a refuge for some, and was a place where black people could own land and establish their own communities. (See Episode 2) But the isolation also meant that the mountains could be lawless. Historian Jim Davidson, in his talk, "The Dark Side of the Sourlands" discusses the mayhem, murder, and disappearances that made this region "New Jersey's Bermuda Triangle."
13 Feb 2020
11 Hellfighter
Needham Roberts, a porter from Trenton, went to fight in WW1 and returned home decorated and victorious after a bloody hand-to-hand battle against impossible odds. But he and many other black veterans would find that America in the era of Jim Crow could be almost as hostile as the trenches of the Argonne. Algernon Ward, Jr., a re-enactor, tells the story of this brave but flawed war hero.
9 Jan 2020
10 The Cloudbuster Part 2
In Part 2 of our two-part series on Wilhelm Reich, we examine the ongoing legacy of his work, a college in Princeton that carries on his research into “orgone energy,” and Diccon Hyatt interviews a man who was given Reichian therapy as a child. Please note there is potentially disturbing material in this episode.
8 Jan 2020
9 The Cloudbuster Part 1
In Part 1 of a two-part series, we discuss the life of Wilhelm Reich, one of the most controversial figures of 20th century science. Reich claimed to have discovered a new form of energy called “orgone” which was responsible for everything from the human libido to the movements of the planets in the Solar System. In 1940 he visited Albert Einstein at his Princeton home to prove once and for all that orgone energy was real. Many of the details of Reich's life used in this episode came from Christopher Turner's biography Adventures in the Orgasmatron.
6 Dec 2019
6 The Garden In The Machine
Far beneath the roar of Route 1 in Trenton, there is another manmade highway that lies in stillness and darkness, unused and nearly forgotten for nearly 100 years. It is a section of the Delaware and Raritan Canal and in the last century it too was a great artery of commerce, dug with shovels and picks by thousands of men. Beyond this underground section, the rest of the canal is now beautiful parkland in the center of New Jersey. What started as the machine in the garden has become the garden in the machine.
7 Oct 2019
8 Horror At The State House
On the afternoon of Friday, December 22, 1978, the festive mood of Trenton preparing for the holiday weekend was shattered when a shocking crime took place on the steps of the state house. This is a story about that crime, and about the aftermath for the people whose lives it affected.
27 Aug 2019
7 F. Scott Fitzgerald's Gift to Football
It's pretty common for football fans to have ideas for how the coach should run their favorite team better. What's unusual is for those ideas to be put into practice. When F. Scott Fitzgerald, who has been described as history's first football fan, called Princeton's football coach with an idea one night, the coach listened, and the game of football changed forever.
6 Jun 2019
5 The Man Who Never Slept
Albert Herpin was known throughout the world as "Trenton's Sleepless Wonder" for his claim not to have slept for decades. By the time he died in 1947, he was the subject of hundreds of newspaper articles as well as an entry in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Could there be a grain of truth in this tall tale?
30 Apr 2019
4 A Twisted Tale Of Magnetic Mind Control, Castration, And Twinkies
A late 19th century health guru named Webster Edgerly founded a health club/cult that attracted 800,000 members. His books told his followers that by performing a series of exercises, they could use "personal magnetism" to control the minds of others and communicate telepathically. Today all that remains of this strange social movement is an equally strange house that Edgerly built in Hopewell, NJ. We interview archaeologist Dr. Janet Six, the world's foremost expert on Edgerly and the Ralston Health Club. Six lived in Edgerly's former home and studied the remains of Ralston Heights, where Edgerly attempted to establish a utopian community and "create a new race."
4 Apr 2019
3 The Flight of the Aereon
In 1971, a strange aircraft took to the skies over New Jersey. The Aereon 26 was a prototype intended to be the first in a series of increasingly gargantuan hybrid airships. We explore the history of the Aereon, which goes back to the Civil War, and its links to modern day blimp-building projects. We also interview Jack Olcott, the test pilot of the Aereon and the only person ever to fly it.
28 Feb 2019
2 Sourland Legacy
The black community of the Sourland Mountains included war heroes, a man who stood up to Charles Lindbergh, and an enslaved woman who beat up her owner and escaped to live past the age of 100. Their stories have rarely been told. Diccon Hyatt and Joe Emanski interview authors Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, whose new book, "If These Stones Could Talk," tells the story of these and other black residents of the Sourlands.
20 Dec 2018
1 The Cure for Madness: A Story of Psychiatry Gone Wrong
Around the turn of the last century, Dr. Henry Cotton set out to relieve the suffering of the mentally ill by discovering and curing the underlying biological causes of madness. Unfortunately, his scientific research led him to try very unusual and painful procedures on thousands of patients. Dr. Cotton's career turned out to be a bizarre and forgotten dead-end in the history of medicine.
Written and narrated by: Diccon Hyatt
Co-Host: Joe Emanski
Theme music: The Quiet Earth by Thomas Barrandon
Special thanks to Eric Weinstein. Recorded at the studios of 107.7 The Bronc at Rider University.
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