By Cathy Miller

Brenda Heinrich Higgins was raised in the small Warren County village of Broadway, as was her mother, grandmother, great-grandfather, and their families. She is a 53-year member of the Broadway United Methodist Church, like her parents before her. She is also a member of several historical organizations. Before retiring in 2006, she worked the front desk at White Township Consolidated School K-8.

She shares a passion for genealogy with her husband, NJSP Sgt. Robert “Bob” Higgins (retired), Washington Barracks. Brenda and Bob have lived in Washington Township since 1982 and will celebrate 50 years of marriage come April.

The Heinrichs of Broadway

As Brenda, a lifetime member of both the Warren County and Hunterdon County Historical and Genealogical Societies and chair of the Franklin Township Historical Commission, spends a considerable time working on genealogy and local history, it is no surprise that she can provide a lot of detail in discussing her family.

Her mother, Dorothy M. Heinrich, was born in Broadway on February 17, 1918. She was a daughter of Howard and Tamzon Deremer Hoppock and lived almost her entire life in Broadway. She graduated from Washington High School in 1936, the first class to complete all four years in the new high school. Dorothy was a 74-year member of the Broadway United Methodist Church. She belonged to and served as treasurer for the Methodist Women’s Society and was a member of the Franklin Township Senior Citizens.

Brenda’s father, John R. Heinrich, Sr., was born on October 27, 1916. He was also a member of the Broadway United Methodist Church and a builder. He was awarded the contract for construction of the new church at 2233 NJ-57 in 1954 and built their altar railing by hand.

Brenda’s twin brother, Brian, was a volunteer firefighter with the Washington Borough Fire Department when he lost his life fighting a fire in downtown Washington on May 29, 1980. Exactly 40 years later, a special memorial parade was held in his memory with 65 trucks from 22 fire departments across Warren, Hunterdon, and Morris counties. A monument stands in front of the Borough Hall honoring him.

The Other Broadway

While many think of the glitz and glam of New York City when they hear the name “Broadway,” Brenda’s Broadway memories are a little quieter, nestled in rural Warren County.

“People in the Broadway area were deeply involved with the Broadway United Methodist Church. We had all kinds of youth groups. There were also Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4-H, and their Seeing Eye Program,” she said. “We could walk to the Villa Roller Skating Rink, which was the tops, that was the place to go! That was our allowance, to get to go roller skating. We usually went Friday nights, sometimes if my father’s work schedule was good, we’d go Saturday night, too.”

Later, in high school, she worked at Baylor’s Restaurant (next door to the current Eye Center, and she said Friday was the night to be out and about. They used to move a big piano out onto the sidewalk and have Harry Kuebler play music in front of Dean’s Appliances. Banks would stay open until eight or nine o’clock those nights, while there were customers strolling about. Brenda also described dances held in the Borough Park every Saturday during the summer.

As with many small towns, everyone knew everybody else, she said.

In many ways, this was a good thing. Brenda’s mother would join others in going around town when somebody died, collecting money for flowers. There was also a collection container in the general store. Everybody pitched in to send a floral tribute from the town. People would send food too.

But there was a downside: “Let me tell you something. If we did something down at Bill’s store, where the stop light is now, my mother knew about it before we got home.”

For example, her mom asked the school photographer to take a photo of the twins together because, at that time, most people didn’t have cameras. “So, it was taken in a cloak room and we had to sit on a milk crate. As soon as the picture was taken, my brother shoved me onto the floor. I stood up and started fighting with him. The ‘helping teacher’ heard us and said, ‘knock it off or I’m telling your mother.’ That was it. We quietly walked back into the class.”

In a small town, that’s no small threat.

What was school like, anyway? Brenda said Franklin Township Elementary School officially opened in 1961, consolidating three separate schools: Broadway, New Village, and Asbury. For the students, it was a dream come true – inside toilets topped the list! Before that, each little school had two outhouses. Kindergarteners and first graders were not allowed to go to the outhouse without a buddy.

“We had a water fountain and a place to wash our hands in each school, but the outhouses were always out in the back,” she said. “We had to post a girl in back of the outhouse to make sure the boys didn’t try to peek.”

Turning History into Stories

Brenda not only spends endless hours researching local history and genealogy, but she recently authored a period novel called Blackberry Winter, Dormant Vines. Although a work of fiction, it is solidly planted in history and local community life, written as a journal covering 1774–1804. It follows the Deremer family from a comfortable lifestyle in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to the “untamed frontier” of Mansfield Woodhouse, New Jersey.

She is also working on a sequel, Blackberry Winter, Flowering Brambles.

Blackberry winter

A short cold snap that coincides with the time blackberries are in bloom in early to mid-May

Her son-in-law, Shawn, designed the cover for Dormant Vines and will likely base the sequel’s art on the herb house where Peggy Warne, a midwife who is said to have taken over the role of doctor when the others were called away to aid in the Revolutionary War, grew her medicinal herbs.

These aren’t her first books, though, just her first foray into fiction.

Many of her photos appear in her self-published book, Stepping Back In Time: A Brief History of the Village of Broadway, Franklin Township, Warren County, NJ (2017), although she’s the first to say that the book was a group effort with many locals providing photos and sharing stories.

An interesting aside is that the same day she walked up and down Route 57 to collect exterior shots of local homes was the same day that the bank right there was robbed. She didn’t catch it on film, though.

In addition to the Broadway book, she is working on a similar compilation for greater Franklin Township.

Of course, not every book is for the public. She pointed out another spiral-bound book. “There are ways to promote history within the family, to get them interested and have fun. I did this in-house for my family, to put history in their heart,” Brenda said.

The book is full of old photos of landmarks around town and newspaper clippings and quotes from the community.

In it are the good times: her great-grandfather’s appointment as postmaster in Broadway, engagement and wedding pictures, her dad as Uncle Sam at the Fourth of July parade, her sister getting married in Brenda’s hot air balloon (yes, you read that right—she is a hot air balloon pilot, too!). Then there are the bad times, too: obituaries from people around town, the memorial to her brother in Washington Borough.

Brenda also assembled a photo album for her family members. It contains 98 family photographs, each with a label on the back listing names, dates, relations, and locations–as much as Brenda knows about each person. The oldest photo is dated 1870 and is from an original glass negative. 

The local author has held several book signings, visiting Woolf’s Farm and Washington Borough Farmers’ Market. “Earlier in 2020, when Blackberry Winter first came out, I had a signing in my church and sold 36 books on the first day! I served coffee and cookies and everybody could sit around and talk and look at their books. It was fun.”

A Passion For History

When did Brenda first become interested in history and genealogy? “In 1954, I was diagnosed with severe asthma. Back then the treatment for asthma was no exercise, no nothing. I was stuck in the house with Mom. There were a couple things that first interested me – a collection of antique buttons that I’d pore over and ask my Mom to tell me what each one would be used for. Then she showed me postcards from town and told me all about them.”

When Brenda and Bob were married in 1971, they immediately dug into genealogy. “We actually plan our vacations around genealogy,” she announced proudly, such as when they visited Fort Ticonderoga, where one of Bob’s ancestors served. “Bob had ancestors that fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, others were Minutemen. We discovered my ancestor that fought in the Battle of Long Island.”

She is a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and he is in Sons of the American Revolution. He is also of Mayflower ancestry, she said.

“We started our very first family tree in 1971. We still refer to it. It’s on a linen window shade. We wrote everything in pen, nothing fancy. As you go back, you keep rolling it out, Bob’s one side, mine is the other. It’s a quick reference, you don’t need the computer. Just grab that tattered and worn window shade.”

This was before the internet, and they had to go to repositories like county courthouses, municipal buildings, museums, cemeteries to collect information. But they have managed to find out a lot over the years.

“I go back to 1540 in Antwerp, Belgium. My family came to Amwell Township, New Jersey, about 1630. I also had ancestors who came in through New Amsterdam earlier. Eleanor Roosevelt is a distant cousin of mine!”

Her husband’s ancestry goes even further—”to the 1300s! Being from England, they kept excellent records. Bob’s relatives were in the King’s Army in New England. He’s related to all the kings in England.” She added, “When we told my husband’s grandchildren they were related to Princess Diana, suddenly we’ve got their attention.”

He’s related to some impressive names here in the U.S., too. “If you came to New England, to Massachusetts, where the Mayflower came, there’s a good chance you’re related to presidents, too, which Bob is—the Bushes.” 

So, when does day-to-day living attain historic significance?

“I think it’s what you make of it, what you make of an event. Every Easter egg hunt that I’ve had for my grandchildren became history in my eyes. When I look back at my pictures, it’s a page out of time, it’s something cherished. You have to cherish it to make it history in your own heart,” Brenda said, adding, “You have to make your own history.”

“We have a lot of history here. … I get to walk down the streets in Broadway where my grandmother walked. I never knew her. But it’s the same feeling. You’ve really got to pause and smell the flowers.”

Studying local history never ends. “I never stop uncovering new data about this area. I love to interview the older people. Georgia Bowman Coleman was a teacher at Franklin Township School District and retired in 1965. On Friday afternoons, I’d visit my Mom and Georgia. They’d be sitting there and Georgia would say ‘I can’t believe it, Dot, that we’ve lived this long. Can you believe it?’ Then I would just sit back and listen.”

They would talk about using Hi-C juice cans for ice skates, to skate on the Morris Canal in winters, she said: “They’d punch the top to pour the juice out, then they’d shove their foot down in the center of the can so it wrapped around their shoe or boot. That’s what they’d use for ice skates.”

Whether listening to others’ stories or telling her own, Brenda firmly believes that “History is meant to be shared and I’m willing to help.”

For further information, questions, or to share stories and photos, contact Brenda via email: bhiggins7403@comcast.net. Her books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A note on Brenda’s scarf in the pictures. It is purple and white, a DAR design to celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, giving women their right to vote. The American suffrage colors – purple, white, and yellow – stand for loyalty, purity, and hope, respectively.