UNION, NJ — Caldwell Parsonage will present a program on Sunday, Feb. 28, from 2 to 5 p.m. about Eulace Peacock, a graduate of Union High School, Class of 1933, who was a United States track and field competitor on a par with Jesse Owens.
Owens said of Peacock in 1935, “Eulace is a great runner, and a very good jumper. (He) has been right behind me for quite a while. It looks as though he’s more than caught up now. … I don’t know whether I can defeat him again.”
He never did.
Peacock’s New York Times obituary in 1992 reads that the senior track star set a state scholastic long jump record of 24 feet 4.25 inches that remained unbroken for 44 years until Renaldo Nehemiah of Scotch Plains jumped 24 feet 11 inches.
The Caldwell Parsonage, once the residence of American Revolution heroes Rev. James and Mrs. Hannah Caldwell, is now the Museum of the Township of Union and is listed on both the National and State registers of historic
places. Admission is free, but donations to preserve the site and its artifacts are appreciated. The parsonage dates to the late 1700s and is located at 909 Caldwell Ave.
More information is available at one of the society’s websites, www.uniontwphistoricalsociety.webs.com or by calling Barbara La Mort, president, at 908-687-0048.