Palmer Raid in South River

in RED -164 Whitehead Ave., circa 1920.

(In BLUE - author's home, 70 years later)

On January 2, 1920, as part of the national so-called "Palmer Raids", the US Dept. of Justice and local South River police force “...augmented by a corps of 60 citizens, representing members of the American Legion, the Fire Department, business and professional men, soldier and sailors and borough officials..." raided what was called the local "Bolshevik" headquarters at 164 Whitehead Avenue  and 8 members of the "red gang" were arrested.

As would prove true in the other New Brunswick papers' articles, the spelling of the names of those arrested were inconsistent.  In this case, all 8 surnames were different in article dated 2/3 and 4/20.  Also addresses of nearby streets were incorrectly spelled as "Jeffery" and "Magarie".

The two-story building, labeled only "Embroidery Facty"  on a 1923 map was directly across Whitehead Avenue from theentrance (in green on large map above) to the former Herrmann, Aukam & Co. factory (then South River Spinning Co.) and half a block from the Raritan River Railroad station  - so in the same area of both the RRRR Riot and the site of the murder of the striking stitchers in June, 1917. 

Besides the local party headquarters, the building also contained the embroidery shop operated by Michael Boshko [ABOVE].

The building would be a "store" (from Sanborn, unknown otherwise) by the early 1930s, and still stands, although addressed as "166" today (compare map above with current Google Map).

Although the raiders found a charter for the Communist Party of America for the group (dated November 1, 1919 - so the local chapter in South River was in existence for only two months), they also found an older Socialist Party charter, made out to:

The lone duplicate being Michalowski, who the 1920 census shows living at 9 North Side, employed as  a mason.

The fact that most of the men taken in the raid at 9 pm on a Friday night lived very close to the site, within a block or two in most cases, suggests that the facility might have served more as a neighborhood social gathering spot than a planning site for revolutionary action.

* A New York Call/ Federated Press article, "24 Communists Are Deported" (December 24, 1920) listed a "Jacob Goroch, South River" as one of the many arrested who were being deported to the Soviet Union on the ship The Imperator. ("Gecob Goroch" is listed on the 1917 lists of South River men available to be drafted).