Most People Have No Idea How World War I Actually Ended In New Jersey

In the seven months following the signing of the armistice, a formal state of war was still in existence. Many acknowledge June 28,1919 as the official end of the war with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. While Woodrow Wilson did attend the Paris Peace Conference and witnessed the formation of the League of Nations, America did NOT sign the treaty.

President Wilson never signed the treaty and his successor, Warren G. Harding, also refused to sign. America technically remained at war with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) until the Knox-Porter Resolution came about in 1921. The resolution was passed by congress on July 1, 1921 and on July 2, 1921, the resolution received an executive signature.

President Harding was visiting a friend in Raritan, New Jersey when the papers were brought to him. Legend has it that he was brought in from a game of golf to sign. The friend President Harding was visiting was Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr., a United States senator, and the papers were signed at his New Jersey estate. A plaque on the Easton Turnpike sits inconspicuously among shrubbery, commemorating the signing of the resolution on the site of the former estate.