Morris Plains is where Teddy Roosevelt, Gustave Stickley, Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill, Lillian Russell, and the Flora Dora girls came to dine. It is home to the first mighty Arabian horses ever to be spirited out of the Arabian desert, and where the wealthy and powerful built luxurious mansions and caught the "Millionaire's Special" to New York. Watnong Plains is the early name for the flat land on either side of West Hanover Avenue, including part of what later became Morris Township. Morris Plains is the story of that place: the early forges and mills on the Watnong Brook, the small settlement at Five Corners, the expansion north and west with the coming of the railroad, and the building of the New Jersey Asylum for the Insane. You will discover where the first settler built a sawmill in 1685 and how to find the 1866 schoolhouse, now thriving as an apartment building. The 250-year-old building that once housed Morris Plains's first general store is still here--you probably pass it dozens of times a year, if not daily. And if you have never discovered the ancient Stone Steps, here is your chance to verify their existence.

Jewish settlers began arriving in Morris County as far back as the Civil War. These early Jews settled in Morristown, a market town; Dover, a mining town located on the Morris Canal; and the farming towns of Pine Brook and Mount Freedom. When each of these communities had 10 adult males, the minimum number for religious services, they established Hebrew schools, synagogues, and congregational cemeteries and made Morris County their home. Morristown and Dover Jews were prosperous merchants with heavily populated Jewish business districts located on Speedwell Avenue and Blackwell Street. Stories of live chickens hanging in the kosher butcher's window and fish swimming in glass pools reflect this bygone era. Nearby Pine Brook and Mount Freedom Jews, not able to make a living as farmers, opened summer boarding houses and grew thriving full-service kosher hotels that rivaled New York's Catskill resorts.

Includes the society's Annual reports.

"This case study offers scholars, policy makers, and the public a deep analysis of one of the few districts that is making progress toward true integration. The research team behind the book has diverse content and research design expertise and have been able to study the legal, educational, political, historical, and sociological dimensions of the case of the Morris School District by employing qualitative and quantitative research along with GIS mapping. This book provides policy makers and the public with a series of lessons learned from the Morris School District. Many of these lessons-which are at times inspiring and also still continuing to challenge the district-will prove valuable for those engaged in building equitable school systems. It will provide scholars with a superb example of mixed methods research and draws on a range of essential theoretical frameworks to aid in the analysis of one district's journey towards true integration"--

"This narrative, which on its surface is an account of three generations of women (and a few of their men) living on the plains of Nebraska ... only gets more strange and beautiful the more you look at it, like a photograph that slowly reveals its truth under very close inspection."--Introduction, p. [v].