Week in History: Omar Sickles Goes Eeling
A look through Red Bank Register archives at what happened this week in Monmouth history.
Omar Sickles wasn't a bad fisherman--he just needed a proper lesson in eeling. (Hint: eels don't bite spears.) The February 10, 1904 front page the Red Bank Register recounts the eeling adventure Sickles and his valet, Cocus Reed, took in the Shrewsbury River. Sickles attempted to lure the eels by leaving his spear in the water and waiting for the eels to bite. Reed explained to his employer that in order to spear an eel, you need to, well, actually spear the thing. This little lesson landed Sickles several hundred pounds of eels, according to the Red Bank Register. Sickles, who was a fixture in the Middletown Republican Party in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drew a comparison between the political game and the art of eeling, …
