Indyk, Joseph
(Sept. 26, 1917 - May 31, 2007)
Mayor and farmer

Spend time around Helmetta, New Jersey, and the name of Joe Indyk is bound to come up sooner or later. You may not know, for instance, that he ran for a seat in the 94th Congress on the Republican ticket. Had he won, his life would be an open book. Everybody would want to know where he came from, something about his family, education, his occupation, and what he accomplished in Washington.

As I didn't know, when Joseph Indyk died in Raritan Bay Medical Center, the funeral home that buried him at Holy Trinity Cemetery in Monroe Township, where he was the mayor in the early 1970s, would not reveal anything about the public figure. This is briefly part of the dialogue:
Q. Where was he born?
A. It's private.
Q. Who were his parents?
A. Can't tell you.
Q. Why didn't news of his death provide this information?
A. Because it's up to the family.

Whatever the reason for a flawed obituary, most undertakers I have met in the past were goodwill ambassadors of their profession and were delighted to help me write stories of people they buried.

The Indyk saga probably began when a snuff mill in the borough of Helmetta, lying on 0.9 square miles of land between Jamesburg and Spotswood in Middlesex County, New Jersey, attracted hordes of Polish workers. In 1910, when it employed 500 people 343 persons from Poland lived in the company houses around it and on farms in Middlesex County. In 1925, the mill became the largest of its kind in the world, and in 1934, during the Great Depression, virtually every man in Helmetta had a job. Since 1888 its name - that of George W. Helme and his daughter - has recalled its snuff industry. Both Helmetta and the Polish population grew apace. She Polish snuff workers for the most part built their own house of worship, Holy Trinity R.C. Church, in 1911, and in the Second World War, 153 of its parishioners were in the service.

Exactly when it joined the Holy Trinity congregation is one of the unanswered questions of the Indyk family. According to the Social Security Death Index, of seven brothers and four sisters in the Indyk family, John died in Elizabeth in March of 1982; Henry, September 4, 2005, at Somerset; and Frank C. Indyk, who was born August 3, 1910, died September 15, 1996, at Jamesburg. Did any brother fight in World War II? If none of their children and heirs, some of whom have changed their last name to Indyke, would talk about their war heroes, what does loyalty mean to them?

As Joseph Indyk is no longer able to speak for himself, it's a shame that the nephew handling his estate said, " I can't talk now," when I reached him on the telephone. He wouldn't take my number to call me at his convenience.

While Joseph Indyk was mayor of Monroe Township, the population of the township jumped 73.5 percent from 9,138 in 1970 to 15,858 persons in 1978. The township had to expand several schools and build new ones. Instead of farms, houses spread from one end of the township to the other. The street signs bore new names. Strip malls and golf courses appear between housing developments. The population hovered over 28,000 in 2000.

Over the years, many dairy farms and corn fields in New Jersey were changed to strawberry and pumpkin patches, fruit orchards, and truck gardens. The New York Times market guide listed Joe Indyk's roadside market, 595 Spotswood-Englishtown Road, at harvest time. He also allowed people to pick strawberries.

Not many voters realized when he completed his four-year term as mayor that he decided to run for higher office. The person he tried to unseat was Matthew J. Rinaldo, who won an open House seat in 1972 when Florence Dwyer retired, and represented one of New Jersey's largest and wealthiest districts in Washington. The 12th Congressional District stretched from the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean. It included rich and poor townships, farmers and mechanics, small boroughs like Jamesburg and Helmetta and heavily industrialized centers like Elizabeth, where Rinaldo was born to Italian immigrants in 1931. In his first term Rinaldo, a moderate Republican, visited every community and senior citizen centers in five counties, attended testimonial dinners and labor functions, and spent many nights on the telephone in Washington talking with constituents about their problems. Indyk struggled for name recognition. Rinaldo was elected as a Republican to ten U. S. Congresses, twelve years from the 12th District and, when Elizabeth was changed to the Seventh Congressional District in 1983, he was elected five more times.

If he were alive today, Joseph Indyk could write a book of his campaigns for public office without invading anyone's privacy.

From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)