Post by sue75 on May 12, 2010 20:59:30 GMT -5
governors.rutgers.edu/BTB-interview-Faherty1.htm
William F. Faherty: Unfortunately, yes, we have to deal with the times. I was born and raised in Hopewell, New Jersey on my grandfather’s farm, 50 Princeton Avenue. It’s still there, but it’s not a farm anymore. It’s now a cluster of housing. But this is what happens. I’m a great believer in progress and I think we’re doing a good job in New Jersey.
Q: I think that’s a nice opening to talk about your childhood and early upbringing on that farm. Expand a little about your earliest memories on that farm in Hopewell.
William F. Faherty: Well, unfortunately, it’s a very sad memory, I think, of my grandfather’s farm. On that farm, the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped and his body was discovered about a mile and a half up the road on Grandpop’s farm, and it was a terrible situation, terrible tragedy. But that was the sad news, but I loved that farm. I mean, we had cows, no horses, but we had pigs and the chickens and everything else. Today, they don’t have that type of thing.
Q: Did you work actively on the farm?
William F. Faherty: Oh, no. I was a kid. I was a kid.
Q: So they didn’t put you to work on the tractor or the plow?
William F. Faherty: No, no. In fact, Grandpop had people to do that for him. He was a railroader on the old Reading line. But I went to school right across the street, the Hopewell Grammar School. It’s still there. Went with the Breckengers -- they were the big builders in those days -- and the son of the minister -- I can’t think of his name, Richard, Reverend Richard’s son.
Q: Before we leave this little piece of history, what memories do you have of that Lindbergh kidnapping and finding of the baby on your grandfather’s farm?
William F. Faherty: In those days, Colonel Lindbergh, who lived up in the Sourland Mountains-- We didn’t have a post office in downtown Hopewell. He had to go to Princeton, and almost every day, he had his driver take him right past our home. And my father had bought me a little airplane you get in and you peddle, and it had Lindy on the side. He stopped one day and gave me his hat. I’m sorry, I don’t know where that hat is today, but this was before the tragedy that struck the family. But I have pleasant memories, and I’ll never forget. This was during the Depression years, and my father was offered a job in Trenton, New Jersey as City Assessor for the City of Trenton. And I came home from school one day, walked right across the street, and my mother was crying. I said “Mom, what’s the problem?” She said “I’m crying tears of joy. We’re moving back to Trenton,” where she was originally from. Her father was the first automobile dealer in the city of Trenton, John Toman [ph?]. And I said “We’re moving where?” “We’re moving to Trenton, New Jersey.” Then I started to cry.
Q: Before we leave the Lindbergh case, was there a lot of flurry of activity after the baby was discovered?
William F. Faherty: Thousands, and I literally mean thousands of people from all over the country. The license plates we used to watch go up and down the road, especially on the weekends, and they wanted to know the exact location. Well, somehow, they found out there was an exact location there. But people from all over the-- especially the eastern part of the United States wanted to see where that baby was found.
Q: Were they trying to take souvenirs from the property?
William F. Faherty: Not really. Not really. No. He was found in an area where they just covered the body with leaves.
Q: How old were you at the time?
William F. Faherty: Eight years old.
Q: How did that impact you? Did that have any lasting impressions?
William F. Faherty: Not really, not really. Naturally, when I used to read, when I got older and read the various articles that were put in the Saturday Evening Post and Look Magazine and Life Magazine of the old days of the Lindbergh kidnapping and the terrible gentleman who they claim who did it, Bruno Hauptmann, who was, by the way, put to death at the New Jersey State Prison. I’ll never forget that night because Gabriel Heatter, a famous radio announcer from WOR, came down and he had a nationwide audience at that time, and he described the death of Bruno Hauptmann.
Q: Did you and your grandfather and the rest of the family follow the Hauptmann very close?
William F. Faherty: My father did. I was only eight years old. My father, I think, and his brothers followed the trial, but that’s about it.