The Fire
Paraphrasing a New York Times article:
In November 1939, Loretta Dougherty was a married mother of five
boys: Herbert(17), Raymond(15), Robert(9), Walter(4) and Theodore(5
months). They lived in a West Main Street, Spotswood home with
Loretta's husband Elwood. Very early in the morning of November 27,
1939 there was a fire. It was a terrible blaze, caused by a faulty
kerosene stove and probably started accidentally by four year old
Walter while the rest of the family was upstairs most likely
sleeping.
The raging inferno blocked the family from escaping via the
staircase. A female neighbor heard Loretta Dougherty screaming,
immediately ran to the house in her nightgown and caught two of the
children in her arms - baby Theodore and 9 year old Robert. They
had been dropped from a second floor window by their mother who
soon was overcome by smoke. Elwood Dougherty jumped to safety from
another window and suffered burns and cuts. He was too distraught
to speak with authorities at the scene.
Tragically, Loretta Dougherty and three of her five sons
(Herbert, Raymond and Walter) died in the fire. They were buried
together in Osage Cemetery in East Brunswick, NJ.
UPDATE: Apparently Elwood Dougherty remarried, passed
away in 1984 and is buried in the same cemetery with his second
wife. I was unable to find information about baby Theodore, however
I did find some info on a Robert Dougherty of Spotswood, who passed
away in July 2008. He was past president and life member of the
Spotswood Fire Department and served as
Spotswood Fire Inspector for 30 years. I do not know if he is the
same Robert Dougherty who survived the 1939 fire as a child as
there is a two year age discrepancy between
his obituary and the 1939 New York Times
article. If they are two different Robert Dougherty's of
Spotswood it is certainly an eery cooincidence.
The Cemetery
Osage Cemetery (now known as Frost Woods Memorial Park) is
located on New Brunswick Avenue in East Brunswick near the
Spotswood border. Many years ago it fell into disrepair. When I
moved to the area in 1990 it was overgrown. Approximately in 1995
the property was taken over by the Osage Cemetery Association, Inc,
and was renamed Frost Woods Memorial Park. It is in the "Memorial
Properties" family of cemeteries. Current township documents, many
people and even my Garmin GPS still refer to it as Osage Cemetery.
A mauseleum was partially constructed at the entrance soon
afterwards. It remained unfinished for a couple years adding to the
creepiness (it is in use now). I remember thinking of how
out-of-place the mauseleum seemed amongst the old graves. The rear
section of the cemetery is now Chinese; in 2004 there were a couple
bulk plot sales to Chinese and Buddhist companies. The older
cemetery graves are in front. I found two graves of civil war
veterans. Many of the headstones are very old and illegible. The
management on location had only a crude map of the older graves to
show me. I wanted to do more research on the history of Osage
Cemetery but never got around to it. Maybe you can fill me in!
The Cache
The cache is in a medium-small lock & lock (slightly larger
than a sandwich container) located in Frost Woods, in clear site of
the cemetery and an easy walk to the Dougherty gravesites. You can
enter Frost Woods from the cemetery when the gates are open which
is usually daily 8AM to 6PM, however no cemetery hours are posted
and sometimes the gates are open all night (creeeeepy). If you park
in the cemetery you'll only have to hike as little as 60 feet.
Please respect the cemetery property and do not trespass when the
gates are closed. You can still access the cache at other times by
entering Frost Woods on New Brunswick Avenue with parking on Lonnie
Court. Frost Woods is officially open daily dawn to dusk.
There is some minor scrappy brush to walk through, and there may
be a manageable incline of a few feet to the woods from the
cemetery depending on where you enter. Please remember to CITO, as
it looks like this section of the woods is in some need of it.
Cache is starting out with an FTF prize (unactivated TB dogtag), an
active TB, an Ekitt10 PFN card and some other trinkets that I'm
sure the Dougherty boys would have liked. Being boys, perhaps their
spirits will play with the cache toys when the cemetery gates are
closed.
The cache also contains a copy of the original New York Times
article describing the fire. Please leave it in the cache for
others to reflect on. Also provided are the waypoint coordinates to
the gravesite of Loretta Dougherty and the three children who
perished in the fire. Elwood Dougherty and his second wife are a
few rows closer to the front. May they all rest in peace.
Congratulations to Blitznmore on the FTF
!
Congratulations to IM Spider for STF!
This cache is certified
Central
Jersey!
