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An interesting pictorial history of Franklin Township and its beginnings.

Franklin Township is a picturesque, rural oasis with rich soils and sparkling streams in the heart of Hunterdon County. Settled in the early 1700s by Quakers, it was touched by the Revolutionary War. Although the township was never occupied by British troops, New Jersey deputy quartermaster general Moore Furman's gristmill supplied flour for George Washington's troops. Its beginnings as a farming and milling community remain at the heart of Franklin. Agriculture continues to hold cultural, historic, and scenic importance, and Hiram Deats, who manufactured a cast-iron plow patented by his father, John, in 1828, is still honored. Charming villages and hamlets boast 99 historic stone structures and 183 frame homes built before 1900. This idyllic area stands as proof that nature and bucolic farmland still hold sway in one of the nation's most densely populated states.

Ocean City: 1950-1980 illustrates the growth and change of this seashore community founded in 1879 by a group of Methodist ministers.

The venture was an immediate success, and the area quickly grew into a prosperous year-round community and a bustling summer resort. The Great Depression and World War II slowed this development, but by the beginning of the 1950s, the burgeoning economy and optimism in the country again encouraged people to enjoy family vacations. With the wide beaches, scenic boardwalk, three new major highways, and comfortable family atmosphere, Ocean City became a superb family destination.

Located in northwest Wisconsin and surrounded by Beaver Dam Lake, the city of Cumberland is known as the "Island City." The lake was known to the local Ojibwa tribe as Che-wa-cum-ma-towangok, or "Lake Made by the Beavers."

With over 1,100 acres of open water, the lake's resources brought in loggers to cut the big stands of timber to be milled into wood that would build the northern part of Wisconsin. Soon, an influx of Italian immigrants called Cumberland home, creating one of the largest communities of people of Italian descent in the entire state. The early pioneer families - Miller, Hines, and Ritan - had established stores, mercantile businesses, and livery stables to help the community grow. Over the years, many notable people have come from the area, including Olympic gold medal wrestlers John and Ben Peterson, statesman Thomas St. Angelo, and football standout Julius Alphonse. Stokely Foods, Ardisam, and 3M also call the area home. When the railroads came, the town became a destination for settlement and agriculture. After the timber industry moved away, the community became a popular place for summer cottages and homes.

Flint is a city full of legacies overshadowed by tragedy. Read the stories of the innovations and surprising elements of the city's past.

In the shadow of Flint's success as an industrial hub and the tragedy that is the water crisis that came to a head in 2014, the fascinating past of Flint has been largely forgotten. Local author Gary Flinn showcases the obscure and surprising elements of the Vehicle City's past, such as local Civil War hero Franklin Thompson who was actually Sarah Edmonds in disguise; the city's most prolific inventor, Lloyd Copeman, created the electric stove, flexible ice cube tray and automatic toaster; and even Thread Lake's Lakeside Amusement Park that offered seaplane rides and a giant roller coaster partly built over the water before closing in 1931. Flinn offers the reader the often-overlooked but fascinating history of Flint, including how the 2014 water crisis was a half century in the making.

Called the ""Gem of the Endless Mountains,"" Sullivan County has been a crossroad and ethnic melting pot in the highlands of northern Pennsylvania for more than two centuries

In New York's Sullivan County, there are villages, ghost towns, family farms, and hunting camps scattered along valley floors and clinging to the mountainsides. Early lumber mills were built along the Big and Little Loyalsock Creeks and tributaries in the early 1800s, and outdoor sports and modern tourism became major industries in the 20th and 21st centuries. Land speculation by companies such as Asylum Land Company led to the development of coal, lumber, and railroad industries throughout the county.

Examine the early years of El Paso’s evolution from a sleepy, adobe village to a vital international crossroads.

Located at the far western tip of Texas, the city of El Paso is bordered on the north by New Mexico and on the south by the city of Juarez, Mexico. The area's recorded history dates back more than 400 years when Spanish missionaries gave the region its name: El Paso del Norté, or The Pass of the North. Between 1850 and 1950, El Paso's growth was influenced by a variety of people and events. The four dead in five seconds shootout in 1881 gave El Paso the short-lived nickname Six-Shooter Capital until the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, happened later that year. The Mexican Revolution influenced the city in the early part of the 20th century, and the 1920s saw Prohibition energize the local tourist trade with barrooms and gambling available just across the border. El Paso also became an inland Ellis Island, with thousands of immigrants entering the United States eager for a new start.

Purchased from the Manhattan tribe of the Wappinger Confederacy by the Dutch, Governors Island has long been the secret island in New York's harbor.

Although this pristine island has appeared on maps since the 1600s, little regarding it has been known by the populace. It has been the site of horse races, inventions, college classes, hangings, military musters, and unidentified bones. All of these are part of the unique history explored within the pages of Governors Island.

Pine Island is tucked between the mainland of southwest Florida and Sanibel and Captiva islands, only 17 miles long and accessible by a single drawbridge.

The community of Pine Island is a rare and lingering remnant of old Florida, with many praising it as the new Key West. The island's shores are home to mangroves teaming with fish instead of crowded beaches, making it a major destination for sport fishing enthusiasts and providing a livelihood for the independent commercial fishing families of the island. Strolling the lazy street to Bokeelia's famous fishing pier, or exploring an active Calusa Indian archeological site in Pineland, the crowds and tourist-related glitz common to most of Florida's islands are nowhere to be found, leaving visitors to discover Pine Island's unspoiled beauty at their own pace.

Anchored around the county seat of Jasper with a population of less than 500, Newton County is a nature lover's dream.

The majority of the county is composed of the Ozark National Forest and the scenic corridor of the Buffalo National River, the nation's first national river. Spring weekends find the area filled with vehicles bearing canoes and kayaks traveling to float the incomparable Buffalo River and, as year-round backpackers head out for scores of trails through the most striking wilderness in the eastern half of the nation. Amidst the scenery, long before the backpackers and vacationing families, Newton County was home to self-sufficient pioneers who began arriving in the early 1800s to build log cabins and farms to support their families—a spirit that remains today.

Elgin was named by a city founder, James T. Gifford, after his favorite hymn.

The city shares its name with 20 cities in 15 states and 8 countries. Elgin is situated on the banks of the Fox River, 35 milesnorthwest of Chicago, the city with which Elgin had thriving business exchanges in agricultural and industrial goods. The city's world-wide fame, for the most part, has come from its watch factory and Mr. Gail Borden's milk company. Pianos, shoes, books, and even chewing gum were also manufactured in Elgin and sold internationally. This exciting new study of a major Midwestern city is chock-full of images, many of which have never before been published. Featured in Elgin, Illinois is information about the Elgin National Watch Company, early circus and carnival attractions, as well as rip-roaring national road races. Highlighted in one chapter is Elgin's part in helping to win World War Iat home, complete with original photographs from the front in Europe. This lively and historical look at Elgin from the 1800s to the 1930s is interwoven with national and international trends and events.

Forgotten Detroit delves into the wellspring of history to retell some of Detroit's lesser-known stories within the Motor City's rich heritage.

Detroiters know their history well. Founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the city subsisted on a variety of industries: fur trading, stove building, and, of course, the automobile. Names such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh resonate in Detroiters' common memory while Detroit's meteoric rise during the 20th century established the city as an influential leader in commerce, culture, and religion. This growth spawned the development of numerous businesses, organizations, and institutions, many now forgotten after the passing of so many years. Individuals from the Michigan metropolis, such as Albert Kahn, Mary Chase Stratton, and Henry Ford II, all made their marks on the history books, even if the average Detroiter couldn't tell you who they were.

Tiffin, Ohio, may be most well-known for a devastating flood but it is defined by so much more than tragedy.

The flood of 1913 is likely the reason people are familiar with Tiffin, Ohio. It took the lives of 19 people in a disaster that literally reshaped the city. However, the city is much more than that.

Tiffin--named after Ohio's first governor, Edward Tiffin--was first settled in 1817. The seat of Seneca County has been home to businesses of wide renown: Tiffin Glass, National Machinery, and Ballreich's Potato Chips, among others. Tiffin's institutions of higher learning, Heidelberg and Tiffin Universities, and its strong public and parochial school systems reflect a deep commitment to education among the city's residents. Historic figures like Charles Dickens and Thomas Edison, as well as local luminaries such as Josiah Hedges and Gen. William Harvey Gibson, have played a part in forging Tiffin's history.

Included in Midland: The Way We Were are photographs that span the first 100 years of the city.

Midland, Michigan began life as The Forks, where the Tittabwassee and Chippewa Rivers met. By 1858, The Forks became the Village of Midland, and in 1869 it was incorporated and named the Village of Midland City. Lumbering and farmland attracted the first settlers, and in 1897 a brash young man named Herbert Henry Dow persuaded 57 investors to start a new business there named the Dow Chemical Company. Midland, by then a city, was forever changed. Included in Midland: The Way We Were are photographs that span the first 100 years of the city. From Main Street landmarks such as the Frolic Theater, to the churches and schools where Midland's residents worshiped and learned-here are over 200 images detailing Midland's history.

Discover the story of the construction of the monument that is as thrilling as the bravery that inspired it.

We have met the enemy and they are ours. . . . So wrote Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to General William Henry Harrison following his decisive victory over a British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie. Perry's victory served as a catalyst both for this battle and for ending hostilities in the Old Northwest Theater of the War of 1812. Captured here in over 200 vintage images from the Monument archives, is a pictorial and technical record of how a monument befitting this naval victory and the resulting peace became a reality.

During the remainder of his life, the country heralded Perry as a national hero whose bravery and fortitude enabled the U. S. to win, or gain an honorable peace from, its war with England. A deserving result of this victory was creation of a monument to honor Perry and his men. Seen here are the original photographs taken by prominent Put-in-Bay photographer G. Otto Herbster, capturing the builders, architects, mishaps, and triumphs that occurred during the construction of one of Ohio's most revered treasures.

Lake Superior Country: 19th Century Travel and Tourism to Michigan's Upper Peninsula will follow these 19th century travelers, from the explorers in search of land titles and valuable mineral deposits in the early part of the century, to "literary travelers" seeking to witness the romantic region made famous by Henry W. Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha," to the sportsmen and sportswomen who found a bounty of wildlife and fishing grounds. It will also illustrate the various methods of travel undertaken by these people, from birch bark canoes, to steamers, to the railroads, and how these different methods of travel defined the overall tourist experience.

In November 1834, Capt. Gilbert Knapp staked a claim to 141 acres at the mouth of the Root River, naming it Port Gilbert. This site became the city of Racine.

During the pioneer years, Racine was dubbed "the Belle City" of the Great Lakes (from the French word belle, meaning "beautiful"). The growth of this beautiful city and its harbor was captured in vintage postcards at a time when people sent little notes and messages to friends and family the way people use e-mail and cell phones today. These cards are like vignettes showing the changes that have taken place since one century ago - a pictorial documentation of Racine preserved for future generations to enjoy.

See Highland Park's transformation from forest and farmland to a fashionable and residential Chicago community.

Highland Park represents one of the finest examples of late-19th-century suburban development. Its abundant natural beauty was quickly recognized and preserved by the visionary design of two well-known landscape architects, Horace W. S. Cleveland and William M. R. French. Capitalizing on the setting and boasting ""good schools, good churches and good society,"" the Highland Park Building Company transformed the scenic village into one of the most desirable communities on Chicago's North Shore, attracting socially prominent residents who built gracious lakefront estates and quiet country homes along its bluffs and shady lanes.

Historic photographs illustrate this change and capture the social, civic and business accomplishments of Highland Park's early citizens. The city's early progress and prosperity are celebrated in this book.

Barbara Austen and Barbara Bryan compiled this set of images to bring Fairfield's past into focus, helping us to envision more clearly the bright future of the area.

In the fall of 1639, Roger Ludlow, a founder of the colony of Connecticut, led a small group of men and a large herd of cattle to the shore of Long Island Sound, where they established a settlement that became known as Fairfield. With this exciting new photographic history, the members of the Fairfield Historical Society have created a unique look back in time. More than 200 rare photographs in this book document the dramatic changes that have occurred in Fairfield's landscape and population during the last 130 years of its 350-year history. Agriculture dominated Fairfield's economy from its founding to the mid-nineteenth century. With the rise of neighboring Bridgeport as an industrial center in the 1860s to 1920s, laborers and business owners moved to Fairfield, and the once-rural landscape was transformed into suburban home lots. Today the town's population is a vibrant mix of commuters, local business people, and young families.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, famed for flood and disaster, is shown here in over 200 rare images, many publsihed here for the first time.

In this photographic history of Johnstown, readers will enjoy more than two hundred rare images, many published here for the first time, from the collections of historical organizations and private individuals. After enduring three devastating floods, residents have adopted the phrase "This town won't die" as a testament to their gritty determination to survive and to be seen as more than flood victims. Johnstown records the true American Dream: the faces of immigrants building their lives in a new country; the expansive golden age of American industrial growth in the steel, mining, and railroad industries; a community's iron will in the face of destruction; and a snapshot of human bonds through love for family and nation, as well as an inherent faith.

When the bustle of a city slows, towns dissolve into abandoned buildings or return to woods and crumble into the North Georgia clay. In 1832, Auraria was one of the sites of the original American gold rush.

The remains of numerous towns dot the landscape - pockets of life that were lost to fire or drowned by the water of civic works projects. Cassville was a booming educational and cultural epicenter until 1864. Allatoona found its identity as a railroad town. Author and professor Lisa M. Russell unearths the forgotten towns of North Georgia.

Upper Darby, one of the earliest settlements west of Philadelphia, began with the Lenni Lenape Indians and early Swedish settlers of the 1650s. From the beginning, influential families left their mark.

Mills and farming were fueled by several creeks forming a fall line before dropping off to the Piedmont through Upper Darby. The descendants of Samuel Sellers were inventors whose skills benefited the nation. Dr. George Smith authored the bill for Pennsylvania public education, and famous financiers A.J. Drexel and his son A.J. Drexel Jr. created beautiful estates with landscaped vistas where residents enjoyed leisure activities. By the early 1800s, most farms had turned to dairying and became part of the Butter Belt. The Sixty-Ninth Street Terminal, built in 1907, was the transportation hub for those going farther west and brought rapid development to the community. Upper Darby chronicles the people and the changing demographics of this thriving area.

With its expansive, scenic views off the Parkway, discover why the mountain village of Blowing Rock is known as the Crown of the Blue Ridge.

The beautiful and mountainous area of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, has a rich history dating back to the days when the Native Americans passed through on the Nickajack Trail, which led into Tennessee.

Blowing Rock derives its unique name from a rock outcropping near the town, where the winds defy gravity and have the ability to blow light objects thrown from the rock back to the rock. During the 1790s, several families settled the area, and by the mid-1850s, inhabitants of Blowing Rock along with summer visitors from Lenoir enjoyed the beauty and comfort of the mountainous area. The construction of the Lenoir-Blowing Rock Turnpikeafter 1845 provided easier access to America's Switzerland, and visitors or cottagers, as they were called, soon began building second homes in the area.

The images contained within Blowing Rockprovide readers with a glimpse into the small-town charm, friendly faces, and inspiring scenery that ensure the town's future as a destination for those who yearn for the comfort of mountain life.

From its founding by Connecticut Yankees to its label as Home Town USA,  this is the history of a picturesque community with a long and storied history.

In 1945, Pathfinder magazine selected the village of Medina as a shining example of small town living and, with the film company RKO Pathe, produced a 15-minute movie about Medina called Home Town USA. The film focused on the Victorian square and on the nearby tree-shaded streets lined with century homes. But the film did not tell the dramatic story behind the picturesque facade. Medina was hewn out of the Ohio wilderness by Connecticut Yankees, many of them Revolutionary War veterans who brought with them a tradition of democracy and strong community spirit. In 1848, a fire devastated the public square. The citizens rallied, and it was quickly rebuilt. In 1870, another fire wiped out most of the business district. Over the next decade, the square once again rose from the ashes, and the result was a village center filled with handsome Eastlake Victorian–style buildings. That public square sits at the heart of the community whose history this book puts on display.

Once known as Junction Grove, the rich history of Englewood began in the mid-1800s as the area quickly developed into a rail and commerce crossroads.

Before 1850, the area was an oak forest with dense swamp land, but the railroad would change things forever. Several of the railroad lines crossed at what became known as Junction Grove, but in 1868, the name would change to Englewood; in 1889, Englewood became part of the city of Chicago. With its four railroad stations, Englewood has long been a transportation hub of the southwest side. This easy access helped to make Englewood one of the largest outlying business districts in the country for much of the first half of the 20th century, but the quality of life in Englewood has dropped dramatically since. Now a struggling urban area, known as Chicago's murder capital, it is also nevertheless known for its grassroots organizations and strong sense of community, on the forefront of revival.Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood: At the Junctionexplores the history of the people, places, commerce, and community that have created this ever-dynamic neighborhood.

The Sebago Lake Area is a pictorial history, chronicling the transformation of this natural gathering place over time.

Clean and clear, the waters of the streams and ponds that feed into Sebago Lake bring a constant supply of newness to a region centuries-deep in tradition. Located in southwestern Maine's Cumberland County, Sebago, ""great stretch of water,"" has been a gathering place for generations of native people and settlers. This striking pictorial history quickly transports us to the past. We see the area as it was before the railroad came through; fishermen coming to enjoy the famous landlocked salmon of Sebago, travellers spending the night at farmhouses, and later inns and hostelries. A turn of the page and we find ourselves watching majestic steamboats as they slip through quiet waters. Vistas of summer camps and classic cars abound--fond memories for many.

Through the medium of historic photographs, Cudahy, Wisconsin: Generations of Pride captures Cudahy's evolution from the late 1800s to the present day. Featuring over 200 historic images from both the Cudahy Historical Society and Public Library as well as photographs from private resident collections, this book tells the stories of the people who settled there: where they worked and worshiped, how they lived, and how they celebrated. Today, Cudahy is in the midst of downtown redevelopment, and community pride continues to grow with each generation.

A piece of land handed over to pay a debt becomes a vibrant corner of Queens!

Glendale, New York, lies just six miles from the center of the bustling metropolis of New York City but has always managed to retain its rural charm since its beginning. Taking its name from Glendale, Ohio, the town began with the unlikely occurrence of a piece of land changing hands in payment of a debt in the mid-1800s. Development of the land was slow in comparison to the surrounding communities, and many of the unoccupied parcels were bought up by people interested in building picnic parks and other types of recreational areas. Around that same time, a New York state law banned the construction of any more cemeteries in Manhattan, so Glendale's available land became equally attractive for this type of development. Glendale takes a journey back in time to the picnic parks, German biergartens, and early industries that took this community far from its origins as a farming town.

A well-read and inventive community, Franklin has been home to a number of influential Americans itself, including Horace Mann, the "Father of American Education." Mr. Johnston's pictorial history of Franklin honors the memory of these great citizens and also chronicles the development of the town through its industrial revolution.

Warrensburg, Missouri illustrates the history of the city in more than 200 vintage images, detailing the faces, places, and events that have colored the town. The "healing waters" of Pertle Springs drew visitors from all around, and in 1870, Warrensburg would be made famous by a trial concerning a slain hunting dog, Old Drum.

The Buckeye Road neighborhood of Cleveland has a long and storied multicultural history of immigrants from Hungary, and its residents who created a rich and enduring history in Ohio.

Although it has been called ""Little Hungary"" or ""Little Budapest,"" Cleveland's Buckeye Road neighborhood exceeds that description. A more apt moniker might be ""Little Danube."" Like the Danube, Buckeye's history has flowed through a multicultural immigrant community and into a modern urban neighborhood striving to make its mark. Fueled by the industry of its first settlers in the 1880s, the district spread from what is now Buckeye Road and Woodland Avenue to the border of Shaker Square. Shops, restaurants, taverns, and other businesses too numerous to count flourished. The Buckeye neighborhood became a commercial center to serve immigrants and their families who worked at the factories that dotted Buckeye's west end. Community life was refueled over the years by waves of immigrants--mainly from Hungary--fleeing various tides of oppression in Europe. As the 1970s approached, Buckeye, like many Cleveland areas, became a victim of urban flight. Today residents and businesses, along with the Buckeye Area Development Corporation, are working to create and sustain another resurgence in this grand neighborhood.