The Paul F. Franco Collection (1724-1975) Descriptive Summary Quantity: 4.5 linear feet (6 boxes) Access: No restrictions Processed by: Daniel Klein with guidance from Cynthia Harris and John Beekman November, 2011/Revised Dec. 10, 2013 Biographical Note Paul Francis Franco was born on Feb. 14, 1893 in New York City, to James and Marie Franco, both immigrants from Italy. The family originally lived in West Hoboken (now Union City), before moving to West New York in the 1910s. Franco served in the U.S. Army in World War I and was an active member of the American Legion after the war. Franco was also a member of the American Friends of Lafayette. Franco worked for many years as a house painter, and donated time and materials in the building of a specially designed wheelchair accessible house for John Borella, a West New York World War II veteran who lost both legs in the war. Franco also collected art, antiques and historic ephemera, with a special interest in local history, as well as Napoleon and the French Revolution. According to his niece, Gloria Carney, he taught himself to read German, Italian, Spanish and some Latin. His antique collecting became so intense that his family urged him to open a shop, which he eventually did, The Brass Key in the Bergen County town of Cliffside Park. Included in his collection were 25 paintings and drawings created by artist August Will, who was born in Germany but immigrated to the United States and lived in Jersey City from the 1850s to 1910. Franco lent those items to the Jersey City Museum for an exhibition in 1977 and died on Sept. 20, 1978. After his death, his estate donated the loaned items to the Jersey City Museum. Scope and Content Note The Paul F. Franco Collection is an assembled collection of Hudson County, New Jersey ephemera spanning from the Colonial era to the mid-1970s. The Franco Collection is made up mostly of paper ephemera, although there are a few photographs and artifacts. A small portion of the ephemera are personal papers of the Franco family, and also some personal papers of the Riker family of North Bergen. There is no clear connection between Franco and the Rikers. The collection is particularly strong in several ways. Geographically speaking, the collection is strong concerning items from West New York, where Franco spent most of his life, Page | 1 and Jersey City, the county seat. The political ephemera from West New York is especially robust because it contains handbills, broadsides and other political mailings for the local elections in the first half of the twentieth century – items that illustrate the down and dirty political battles that Hudson County is famous – or really, infamous – for. As a WWI veteran, Franco also collected a wealth of material by and about West New York’s American Legion Post 15, named for Charles Cusick, a native West New Yorker who died in action during the war. Newspaper clippings from the Hudson Dispatch’s “From By-Gone Days of Old Hudson County” feature from the 1910s-20s illuminate some of the history of Jersey City, Hoboken and the North Hudson towns. The clippings are a potential gold mine for genealogists and local historians, where published histories fall short. These clippings, however, should be handled with care or use copies made as needed due to their fragile nature. Not or hardly represented in the collection are the West Hudson municipalities of East Newark, Harrison and Kearny. Several municipalities referred to in the collection no longer exist under their former names. In some cases they were consolidated by election, in some cases they are just neighborhoods that are no longer referred to by name. In order to reduce confusion to other cities in New Jersey with a similar name, it should be noted that any references to Union or Union Township refer to the municipalities that existed in Hudson County. Most items in the collection are likely to have some type of genealogical significance. Due to the sheer amount of names contained within the collection, it is unlikely a full index will be made, although a list of the personal names and local organizations found in the folder headings are below. It is recommended that genealogical researchers search the folders of the municipalities their ancestors lived in for possible connections. Provenance Note Paul Franco died in 1978, leaving his entire estate to his niece, Gloria Carney. At the time of his death, Franco had lent the Jersey City Museum – then part of the Jersey City Free Public Library system – about 25 paintings and drawings by the Jersey City artist August Will. In 1981, Page | 2 Carney, as Franco’s executrix, donated the drawings to the Museum. Because the Museum did not have archives of its own, it is believed that as part of that donation, the papers known today as the Paul Franco Collection were given to the Library’s New Jersey Room. A large portion of the Jersey City political ephemera came to Franco from Albert Bieber, a rare book dealer and Jersey City resident who was very active as a committeeman in the local Republican Party. Arrangement Note The items in this collection range from the years 1724 to 1975. Most of the material is described to the item level in order to maintain Franco’s original order. Because the collection’s scope is essentially about Hudson County, the collection is broken down into 11 sections, mainly by municipality.1 Ten of Hudson’s 12 current municipalities are represented. Some material regarding no longer existing municipalities have been filed under the town or city’s current name. There is also a section for material concerning Hudson County as a whole or its government, and items that pertain to two or more municipalities. There are also folders that represent the small amount of material from the collection that is either unspecified or originated outside Hudson County. Restrictions There are no restrictions on the Franco Collection, but it should be noted that a few of the items can be considered racially insensitive. Preferred Citation Format The Paul F. Franco Collection, New Jersey Room, Jersey City Free Public Library. 1 Please see the Places subject terms below to determine new or older names for municipalities in this collection. Page | 3 Language Except for a few pieces in German and Italian, all of the other items in the collection are in English. Name and Subject Index Terms Personal Names Bayard, Samuel Bieber, Albert Borella, John Carney, Gloria Crotty, Sr. Madeleine Edge family Fisher, John G. Franco, Paul F. Jandik, PFC Charles T. Jaquins, Lorenzo Koch, Ferdinand Krajewski, Charles Kraus, Hector Linsey, George H. Mulkeen, Betty Eberle Richardson, William Riker, Asa Riker, Irene Riker family Schneider, Frieda Page | 4 Shippen, W.W. Stevens family Corporations and Organizations A.L. Wilson Inc. (Jersey City) American Legion, Chas. Cusick Post, (West New York) Catholic Daughters of America Col. B. Hamilton Cadets (Jersey City) Continental Hotel (Hoboken) Daughters of the American Revolution, Paulus Hook Chapter (Jersey City) Deutsch-Amerikanischen Schule (Jersey City) Eldorado on the Palisades (Weehawken) Emory Methodist Episcopal Church (Jersey City) Excelsior Hook and Ladder (North Bergen) First National Bank of Jersey City Grace Lutheran Church (Jersey City) Guttenberg Fire Department Hawaiian Art Violin Co. (Jersey City) Hoboken Academy Hudson Observer Hudson Stock Company (Union City) Jersey City Board of Education Jersey City Business College Jersey City Museum Meyer’s Cellar (Hoboken) New Durham Hotel (North Bergen) New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Co. (Hoboken) Page | 5 Oscar Schmidt Inc. (Jersey City) Old Rialto Theatre (Hoboken) P. Sandford Ross Inc. (Jersey City) St, Anthony High School (Jersey City) St. Paul’s Church (Hoboken) Thos. Andrews & Co. (Jersey City) Wallace and Limouze Auctioneers West Hoboken Library Association Places Bayonne (N.J.) Bergen (N.J.), See Jersey City Constable Hook (N.J.), See Bayonne Guttenberg (N.J.) Hoboken (N.J.) Jersey City (N.J.) New Durham (N.J.), See North Bergen North Bergen (N.J.) Secaucus (N.J.) Union (N.J.), See Union City, West New York Union City (N.J.) Van Vorst (N.J.), See Jersey City Weehawken (N.J.) West Hoboken (N.J.), See Union City West New York (N.J.) Page | 6 Folder List Box Folder Municipality Contents Year 1 1 Bayonne Constable Hook redevelopment newspaper clippings 1971 2 Bayonne Junior High Vocational School clipping 1927 3 Bayonne Maps of portions of James Currie estate Between 1870- 1912 4 Guttenberg Centennial of the First Reformed Church, Guttenberg NJ 1969 1869-1969 5 Guttenberg From By-gone Days of Hudson County and other Circa 1910s- newspaper clippings 1920s 6 Guttenberg Guttenberg: Terra Made Cognita, New York Times 1973 article 7 Guttenberg Photo [sketch] of A Day in New Jersey, Guttenberg and Undated the Palisades 8 Guttenberg Postcard, H. Delius to F. Pfeifer 1906 9 Guttenberg Souvenir program for the Monster Parade and Picnic, 1908 Guttenberg Fire Department 10 Guttenberg To the Citizens of the Town of Guttenberg 1899 11 Guttenberg Zeman Bros. blacksmith business card Undated 12 Hoboken Bicentenial quilting group newspaper clipping 1975 13 Hoboken Continental Hotel and Meyer's Cellar menus 1930 and Undated 14 Hoboken Exhibition program, New York Society of Model 1953 Engineers 15 Hoboken Floral and Strawberry Festival invitation, St. Paul's 1870 Church 16 Hoboken From By-gone Days of Hudson County and other Circa 1910s- newspaper clippings 1920s 17 Hoboken Hector Kraus, photographer - child subject unkown Undated 18 Hoboken Keuffel and Esser Co. -- Drawing instruments and 1924-1942 materials catalog; 75th anniversary booklet 19 Hoboken Leaves Hoboken Library Where She Served 26 Years 1952 clipping 20 Hoboken Letter to Committee re: Weehawken incorporation by 1859 W.W.