By JF Grodeska
SHREWSBURY – The rain was holding off, just barely, at the Shrewsbury Presbyterian Church on Sycamore Avenue Oct. 14 as members of the Daughters of the American Revolution Shrewsbury Towne-Monmouth Chapter gathered for a graveside ceremony honoring two former members.
“We’re honoring two ladies who were so important to our DAR chapter over the years – Mrs. Charles F. Borden, Helen, and her daughter, Miss Margaret Emily Borden,” said Leslie Clark, the current Shrewsbury Towne-Monmouth regent. “Helen served as regent of our chapter from 1959 to 1962 and Margaret served as regent from 1971 to ’74, and then amazingly again from 1988 to 2000.”
Clark went on to talk about the Revolutionary War patriots from whom Helen and Emily descended, including Jonathan Forman who served as Cornet in the New Jersey Militia and also as a private and sergeant under Capt. Jacob Covenhoven and others in the Monmouth County Militia light dragoons.
“The light dragoons were units of highly mobile mounted cavalry,” Clark said at the service. “They became the eyes and ears of the American Army. It became common for these highly mobile groups of light cavalry to not only provide valuable service during major battles, but to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance, engage enemy troop movements, disrupt delivery of supplies, raid and skirmish enemy positions, and organize expeditions behind enemy lines for gathering intelligence.”
Following a prayer, Shrewsbury Mayor Erik Anderson spoke about the history and the work of the D.A.R. “Despite the Revolution being hundreds of years ago, it is important that we remember our past. If we don’t, we’re doomed in the future. The objective of DAR is to cherish, maintain, and extend the institutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of our country.”
Don Burden, former mayor of Shrewsbury and president of the Shrewsbury Historical Society, also spoke at the ceremony. “We stand here today in front of the Borden monument and it’s kind of sad because this is the end of the Borden line,” he said.
Burden noted the family came from New England and Rhode Island to become a “mainstay of the development of Shrewsbury, with the Borden store and the homes that the Borden family built on the Four Corners.”
Borden is “a very important name for the Borough of Shrewsbury,” he said
During the ceremony two United States flags were placed in DAR flag holders on each side of the grave.
The article originally appeared in the November 2 – November 8, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
