My Home New Jersey Part II By Paul Czekaj

You know you're from Belleville, N.J., if you....

click:  GREETINGS FROM BELLEVILLE

Anthony Buccino

Belleville native Anthony Buccino has collected his favorite and most-requested writings about life and growing up in Belleville, New Jersey. 

This is Buccino's fourth collection of essays but the first wholly dedicated to his collected writings about Belleville. 

 

Collected writings includes more than forty essays and reflections on everything from junior high school bullies to selling pretzels for Belle Maid's Ed Strat at varsity football games at Municipal Stadium. 

Buccino writes about those duck-and-cover drills in elementary school, junior high school bullies, and high school joy riding to Monk's Castle and Albino Village. 

Spanning six decades, this collection shares the bitter and the sweet, all in an ultimate tribute to growing up in this middle class township in northern New Jersey.

More: http://www.oldbelleville.org/greetings_from_belleville_new_jersey.html

2011 BHS Reunion in Orlando, Florida

Click tab at  BHS Air Boat Ride to see more photos.

Belleville High School - Class of 1958

50th Anniversary Reunion Photo

2010 REUNION IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Notable current and former residents of Belleville include:

Connie Francis

• Russell Baker (born 1925), Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Growing Up.[50]
• Moe Berg (1902–72), Major League Baseball catcher who also served as a spy for the United States.[51][52]
• Dennis Diken (born 1957), former Smithereens drummer.[citation needed]
• Tommy DeVito (born 1936), musician and singer.[53]
• Connie Francis (born 1938), singer.[54]
• Bob Gaudio (born 1942), singer, songwriter and producer.[53]
• Scott Graham (born 1965), Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster.[citation needed]
• David Grant (born 1965), former NFL player.[55]
• George Hrab, musician and podcaster.[citation needed]
• Frank Iero (born 1981), rhythm guitarist for the band My Chemical Romance, co-founder of "Skeleton Crew" Record Label, lead vocalist for the band Leathermouth and lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Pencey Prep .[56]
• Nick Massi (1935–2000), early member of the Four Seasons.[53]
• Tony Meola (born 1969), soccer goalie.[57]
• Paul Mirabella (born 1954), MLB player for the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and the Milwaukee Brewers.[58]
• Liam O'Brien (born 1976), voice actor.[citation needed]

                 

Joe Pesci 

• Joe Pesci (born 1943), actor.[59]
• Diane Ruggiero, That's Life series creator and Veronica Mars writer.[60]
• Reza Saberi, Iranian-American journalist arrested in Iran in February 2009.[61]
• Peggy Santiglia Davison (born 1944), singer, songwriter; lead singer The Angels.[62]
• Ray Toro (born 1977), lead guitarist of My Chemical Romance.[63]
• Frankie Valli (born 1934), lead singer of The Four Seasons.[53]

• Sarah Vaughan (1924–90), jazz singer.[citation needed]
• The Delicates, the late 50s / early 60s girl group made up of Denise Ferri, Arleen Lanzotti and Peggy Santiglia Davison.[citation needed]
• Gerard Way (born 1977), lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance, writer of the comic series The Umbrella Academy and executive producer of the band LostAlone.[64]
• Mikey Way (born 1980), bassist for the band My Chemical Romance and Gerard Way's brother

Belleville locations in The Sopranos

• Episode 3 ("Denial, Anger, Acceptance"): Christopher Moltisanti's "mock execution" is on the pier in the Passaic River used by Belleville High School's crew team (technically, perhaps, in Kearny).
• Episode 28 ("Proshai, Livushka"): Livia Soprano's funeral is held at the Irvine-Cozzarelli Memorial Home, across the street from Belleville Middle School on Washington Avenue.
• Season 4- Even though Furio Giunta's house was stated to be in Nutley, its actual location was Belleville on Essex Street.
• Episode 54 ("Rat Pack"): Junior gets lost and tells the policemen who find him that he lives in Belleville.
• Episode 76 ("Cold Stones"): Rosalie Aprile briefly dates a much younger French motorcyclist named Michel, who hails from Belleville, Paris. Ro expresses a particular sense of kinship with Michel given his connection to a town with the same name as the New Jersey town where members of her inner circle live (e.g., Corrado Soprano) and do business (e.g., the Irvine-Cozzarelli Memorial Home).

Belleville's Part in the Revolutionary War

July 4,2012
Belleville's Mike Perrone shares the story of the Revolutionary War Battle of Second River, which is now Belleville and Nutley, and invites people to remember on the morning of July 4th.

The Battle of Second River in Belleville was fought from Sept. 12 through Sept. 14, 1777.

It was the only battle fought in Essex County during the American Revolution. New Jersey was for the most part a loyalist area, especially during the first few years of the war when the British were crushing the American patriots. But Second River, today's Belleville/Nutley was predominantly Dutch and strongly anti-British.

In 1776, during General George Washington's retreat, it was the militia at Second River that fought alongside the Continental Army's rear guard to protect Washington's retreating army from the persuing British General Cornawallis.

And a year later on the morning of Sept. 12, 1777, British General Sir Henry Clinton, commanding the 71st Royal Infantry Regiment, appeared on the Hills of Schuyler, now the Belleville Turnpike in North Arlington, overlooking the village of Second River.

Two British cannon were pointed at the village center and opened fire. The alarm from the Old Dutch Church was sounded, the church bells tolled and a blast was fired from the lookout's mortar.

The local men of the Second Essex Regiment quickly assembled and formed a line of defense in front of the Old Dutch Church and the village cannon was rolled into position.

The 600 British troops marched down Schuyler's Road, now Belleville Turnpike but then a cedar plank road that had been built to serve the busy copper mine there at the time.

By noon the American forces in Second River had been reinforced by militiamen from Union and Morris counties, who brought a second cannon, and then shortly thereafter by General William Winding and the Continental Army with a third cannon.

Unable to cross the river with such opposition, General Clinton dispatched a messenger to British Brigadier General John Campbell who had arrived in Elizabeth that same day to march with due haste to Second River with the 7th, 26th, and 52 Regiments and two companies of grenadiers.

General Campbell and his force of 1,500 to 2,000 troops arrived in Second River the following day. The American forces then withdrew to a new position in the area of what is now Mill Street above Union Avenue and quickly built a fortification.

On Sept. 14 the British forces attacked the new American position with orders to capture the three cannons. The day’s fighting was a draw and on the evening of Sept. 14 the vastly outnumbered Americans disappeared with their guns into the western hills.

The British returned to New York and General Clinton's report of the battle to British Commander-in-Chief General Howe was published in London in October 1777. The British casualties were eight men killed, one officer and 18 men wounded, nine men and one drummer boy missing, five men taken prisoner.

Two Americans were killed.

More than 20,000 Americans were killed during the Revolutionary War. When one considers that there were less than two million people living in the country at that time, it becomes one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time. Those casualties, one percent of the population, would be equivalent to three million today!

More than 60 Revolutionary War soldiers are buried in the churchyard of the Old Dutch Reformed Church adjacent to the Belleville's Passaic River bridge. The same men who fought the British in front of the church in 1777, Captains Hornblower, Joralemon, Rutgers, Stevens, Van Cortland.

They are not just the names of streets, they were real patriots. The Belleville Historical Society invites the public to join us at 10 a.m. on the morning of the 4th of July for our annual morning ceremony honoring our first Americans.

The 45-minute ceremony includes the Roll Call of the Troops, the Raising of the Colors, the National Anthem and concludes with a 21-gun cannon salute.For more information please call Michael Perrone at (973) 780-7852 or email bell1776patriots@yahoo.com




More on this topic:
http://www.bellevillesons.com/bel_amrev.html