Jennie Sweetman with her brother Cornelius Vander Stad of Pequannock in 2021. (Photo by Bill Truran)
Northern New Jersey has lost one of the best historians that we have had, and I can certainly attest to the fact of this during my lifetime.
Jennie Sweetman has been the source of an enormous amount of our local history, covering the entirety of Sussex County. She did much research on subjects that had not been looked into. She did a thorough job on each article she wrote, and there were thousands of articles.
Today there are generally a dozen or so Sussex County historians who are good at their trade and devout in their interest of local history. Practically every one of these historians has said, to me and others, that a primary source of their knowledge had been Jennie Sweetman.
When I was in grade school and in Franklin High School, I would sit in my father’s chair and read the Herald, six days a week back then. On Sundays, I would look forward to Jennie Sweetman’s article as she came into the fore with the history column. I learned so much from her. I cherished the columns, cutting each one out of the paper during the days before the internet and pdf formats, with the depth when piled reaching to two feet or so.
Jennie put in more than 50 years of service to the New Jersey Herald, until about the year 2020. Thus, she was the fountain of local knowledge for many of us, the backbone of our understanding of our local heritage. The status of “place” in one’s life is very important, and Jennie helped in grounding many of us in the ways and means of our beautiful rural home.
As county historian, I have well remembered Jennie. The opportunity to write weekly in the Straus News publications serving Sussex County has allowed me to carry forward the wonderful job that Jennie had done for so many years.
Only two weeks ago was Election Day, and for that week, I wanted to show that grueling elections had taken place in the past, and selected 1864. I thought that it to be a good choice to share the column, in the spirit of teamwork. On top of mind was Jennie, who concurred on the selection.
With short notice, she wrote a detailed and compelling article along with my introduction. She responded professionally and on time with the hasty call to her for a quick turnaround. I did not realize, but her health was waning. She died shortly after.
I attended her wake in Warwick, N.Y., a few days ago and was told by the family that she, while in the hospital in her last days and hours, asked for her laptop so as to work on that column.
She felt the need to continue to convey to us the rich heritage that we all should carry forward, to help as always to explain about our past and to help our citizens to understand the times and spirit of our local world. She had closed the laptop when finished, and her time here with us closed as well.
I feel very humbled, and sorrowful, for the passing of the person who had taught me all these years about my home country, establishing and clarifying my sense of place here among the rolling hills of Sussex County.
May Jennie Sweetman’s life, spirit, expertise and knowledge remain with us and her life’s commitments to family and history be an inspiration to us, to invigorate us to carry on from her example.
Bill Truran, Sussex County’s historian, may be contacted at billt1425@gmail.com