James Betelle, Where Are You?

James Betelle wrote articles for countless magazines and journals, but as far as I know, only one book; a forward to a 1933 publication by The Carteret Book Club entitled Colonial Dutch Houses in New Jersey. I suspected the book was rare, as it could only be found in by-appointment collections; no open stacks or [...]

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This morning I went down to the Surrogate Court Building in New York to find information on Marie Betelle. According to her obituary, she died living in NYC, so I was hoping to both find a copy of her will and perhaps see what her building looked like (my first walk around that area revealed [...]

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I ventured back into Newark last week, confident I wouldn’t encounter the shape-shifting roads of my first trip. My goal this trip was to research a number of Betelle-related items at the Essex County Hall of Records. Going there served a dual purpose; not only does the Hall house the deeds and mortgages to all [...]

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As satisfying as it is to find an elusive publication, photograph or news item I had been looking for, even more thrilling is finding material I wasn’t looking for. I had a lot of this recently. Last week I came into posession a stack of letter between Betelle and Pierre S. duPont regarding the schools [...]

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Driving to Newark isn’t for the faint of heart. Exiting Route 280 into the bowels of the city is like being swallowed by a mobius strip; once you’re inside, there’s no escape. And yet there I was, this past Saturday morning, navigating the one-way (No left turn! No right turn!) streets in a vain attempt [...]

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