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No. 19 Vol. 9
www.mypaperonline.com
September 2021
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West Orange Man Details His Town’s History
J
By Henry M. Holden oseph Fagan was the unofficial historian of West Orange since before 2002 when his first book on West Orange history was published. “In 2012, I was officially made the township historian by the town council and the mayor.” “I’m the fourth generation in my family to have grown up in West Orange. My family roots in the Oranges go back farther than that so I’ve always had an interest in local history. I think it’s my great great grandfather who settled in the Oranges in the 1840s.” As a result, Fagan has been gathering historical stories, pictures, and artifacts of West Orange. “In 2009 I wrote my second book on the “History of West Orange.” When the West Orange Chronicle asked me to write history articles, I thought it would last a couple of weeks, but I’m into my 12th year now.” When Fagan first started writing he
thought he would run out of material in five or six months doing an article every week. “I found that not to be the case, I found so much to write about. My contention is that there is more to write about than Thomas Edison, who came here in 1887. He certainly deserves his rightful place in history, but I think I went about a year without mentioning Thomas Edison’s name in my articles.” Fagan’s second book was published in 2009, another in 2014, and a fourth in 2016. “One book, “Stories of West Orange” is just as the name suggests, stories of West Orange and many can be found in my weekly West Orange Chronicle articles. The editor generally requires 800 words for those articles, and I sometimes find it challenging to tell the story in 800 words. I generally have expanded on those articles for a book where I can go into much more detail,” Fagan says.
Astronaut Scott Kelly, a native of West Orange took Fagan’s book into space with him to the International Space Station and returned it autographed to Fagan. (Courtesy Joseph Fagan)
“I always try and recognize the audience for whom I’m writing. The newspaper version is a more of a condensed story. Whereas with the book I want to give more detail. Maybe some facts need to be left out of the newspaper article, but you’ll find them in the book Book Stories of West Orange. (Courtesy Joversion where there is seph Fagan)
more background information.” In the “Stories of West Orange” book, it is mostly text with a few illustrations. The other three books Fagan says have mostly pictures and he tells the story in captions, and narratives. Fagan doesn’t see book writing as a money maker. “When you calculate the time you spend on research materials and photographs it often doesn’t come up to a positive number. In my case it’s really a labor of love. There is so much great history in West Orange it would be a shame to allow that history not to be passed on, or just lost. There is so much more history to West Orange than anybody really knows. Edison’s legacy lives on today because of historians. Prior to Edison’s arrival there is more than a century of history dating back to the American revolution. While Edison is a recognized icon of West Orange history, I think people are slowly realizing that there is so much more to West Orange history than is known to them.” To prove there is plenty of history still untold, Fagan
has been instrumental in placing historical markers around West Orange. There are 10 markers up, and none of them have anything to do with Thomas Edison. Most of Fagan’s research is through paper and book documentation, not the Internet. “It took me several years, and several research locations, to come up with what I have. One of the unintended consequences of my writing is I literally have my own private research library. I’ve been able to collect every book that has ever been written on West Orange history although it took several years to do that.” In the total body of his work Fagan claims that he has about 15-percent of it derived from the Internet. “My objective is to keep this history alive. I’m just a steward of the history and hopefully it will be passed on and create a body of work for those who are coming after me. I’m hoping that this history will give them a starting point in their research.” For more information on the history of West Orange, email jfagan@westorange. org.