Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

This time we reprint Continental rebel and British nationalist reports on and arguments over the Toms River blockhouse raid and later hanging of patriot leader Joshua Huddy through various American and British newspapers in 1782.

First, a primer on the blockhouse raid and Joshua Huddy, courtesy HistoryNet.

Dunlap and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser
March 30th, 1782

TRENTON, March 27.
Extract of a letter from Monmouth, dated the 25th of this month.

"I am sorry to inform you our guard at Tom's river were cut off yesterday morning by about 100 refugees, under command of one Devenport. On the alarm captain Huddy repaired to the blockhouse, in which some of the inhabitants joined him, and others remained outside; the house was defended till the ammunition was expended, when it surrendered. Major Cook, who was out of the house, fell. Five others were killed, and two wounded. Captain Huddy, Daniel Randolph, esq; and several more, are carried off prisoners. Devenport was wounded, supposed since dead, and one negro was killed. The enemy then burn the village, except the houses of Aaron Buck, and Mrs. Studson, after which they went off immediately. The unfortunate inhabitants have not saved more than two houses could draw."

Dunlap and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser
May 1st, 1782

TRENTON, April 24.
Extract of a letter from Freehold, Monmouth county, dated April 15, 1782.

"Last Saturday was brought to this place the corpse of captain Joshua Huddy, who was, about ten o'clock the day before, most barbarously and unwarrantable hanged, at Middletown-Point, by a party of refugees. This murder was attended with so much deliberate injustice and wanton cruelty, that the circumstances ought to be preserved and made public, not only to call upon the vengeance of his countrymen to expiate the manes [soul of the dead] of the sufferer, but as a shocking instance of the blackness of that guilt of which human nature is capable.

Captain Huddy was one of the bravest of men, a fit subject therefore of cowardly inhumanity. He has distinguished himself on a variety of occasions, one instance of which I cannot avoid mentioning: The summer before last, alone and unassisted, except by a woman, he defended his house against a party of near seventy refugees for several hours, and when it was in a manner riddled with musket balls, and in flames about him, he refused to submit until he obtained from the assailants safe and honourable terms...

Captain Huddy also commanded the troops at the block-house on Tom's river, when it was lately reduced; he defended it most gallantly against a vast superiority of numbers until his ammunition was expended, and no alternative was left. The refugees, like their task-masters the British, who employ them in every kind of infamous business, are always cruel in success and pitifully mean in adversity. After the little brave garrison was in their power, they deliberately murdered five of the soldiers asking for quarters.

From Tom's river, Captain Huddy, Justice Randolph and the remaining prisoners were taken to New-York, where suffering the various progressions of barbarity, usually exercised upon those who are destined to a violent or a lingering death, those two gentlemen, with a Mr. Fleming, were put into the hold of a vessel. Captain Huddy was ironed hand and foot. On Monday last a certain John Tilton, a refugee, came to him, and told him, "that he was ordered (by the board of refugees, we suppose) to be hanged."

Captain Huddy asked "what charge was alleged against him?" Tilton replied "that he had taken a certain Philip White, a refugee, six miles up in the country, cut off both his arms, broke both his legs, pulled out one of his eyes, and then damned him and bid him run." To this Huddy answered, "it is impossible that I could have taken Philip White, I being a prisoner closely confined in New-York at that time and for many days before he was made a prisoner."

Justice Randolph confirmed what Huddy had said, and assured Tilton that he could not possibly be charged with White's death; upon which Tilton told Mr. Randolph, that "he should be hanged next." This flimsy story, which must have been created by the murderous hearts of the refugees, to cloak their villany, was the only crime charged against captain Huddy, and was the common subject of their conversation.

From the sloop, captain Huddy, with his fellow prisoners, were put on board the guard ship at the Hook, and confined between decks till Friday morning the 12th instant, when some men, strangers to the prisoners, came below and told captain Huddy to "prepare to be hanged immediately." He again said, "he was not guilty of having killed White," and that "he should die an innocent man and in a good cause;" and, with the most uncommon fortitude and composure of mind, prepared for his end, and with the spirit of a true son of liberty, he waited the moment of his fate, which he met with a degree of firmness and serenity, which struck the coward hearts of his executioners with admiration. He even executed his will under the gallows, upon the head of that barrel from which he was immediately to make his exit, and in a hand writing fairer than usual.

"The circumstances attending the death of the above mentioned Philip White, were as follow:

"On Saturday, the 30th of March last, he was surprised by a party of our people, and after he had laid down his arms, in token of surrendering himself a prisoner, he again took up his musket and killed a son of colonel Hendrickson; he was however taken by our light horse, and on his way from Colts-Neck to Freehold, where they were conducting him, he again attempted to make his escape from the guard, who called on him several times to surrender, but he continued running, although often crossed and recrossed by the light horse, and desired to stop, and finally, when leaping into a bog, impassable by the horse, he received a stroke in the head by a sword, which killed him instantly. The above facts have not only been proved by the affidavits of our friends who were present, but by the voluntary and candid testimony of one Aaron White, who was taken prisoner with the said Philip.

"Captain Huddy was taken prisoner on Sunday the 24th of March, and kept in close custody, with justice Randolph, out of whose presence he never was for half an hour from the time he was taken, until the hour of his execution, which shews how impossible it was for him to have been concerned in White's death, and that they must have known it was so.

"To shew their insolence yet further, they left the following label affixed to the breast of the unfortunate captain Huddy."

We the refugees, having with grief, long beheld the cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but such measures daily carrying into execution.

"We therefore determine not to suffer without taking vengeance for the numerous cruelties, and thus began (and I say may those lose their liberty who do not follow on) and have made use of captain Huddy as the first object to present to your views, and further determine to hang man for man as long as a refugee is left existing.

"Up goes Huddy for Philip White."

"This paper needs no comment. Is it not high time seriously to enquire whether these refugees are owned by, and under the direction of the British commander at New-York? If so, and he should refuse to deliver up the wicked perpetrators of the above murder, ought we not to treat his officers in the same manner until satisfaction be obtained? If, as some say, they are not under his authority, what are they but pirates and robbers? and, why ought they not to be treated as such when they fall into our hands?"

Dunlap and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser
May 4th, 1782

The following has been handed to us, as a genuine copy of the letter from his Excellency the Commander in chief [George Washington] to Sir Henry Clinton, on the subject of the murder of Captain Huddy.

SIR, Head-Quarters, April 21st, 1782
The inclosed representation from the inhabitants of the county of Monmouth, with testimonials to the fact (which can be corroborated by other unquestionable evidence) will bring before your excellency the most wanton, cruel and unprecedented murder that ever disgraced the arms of a civilized people. I shall not, because I conceive it altogether unnecessary, trouble your excellency with any animadversions upon this transaction. Candour obliges me to be explicit: to save the innocent I demand the guilty.

Captain Lippencut therefore, or the officer who commanded the execution of captain Huddy, must be given up; or if that officer was of inferior rank to him, so many of the perpetrators as will according to the tariff of exchange, be an equivalent. To do this will mark the justice of your excellency's character. In failure of it, I shall hold myself unjustifiable, in the eye of God and man, for the measure to which I shall resort.

I beg your excellency to be persuaded that it cannot be more disagreeable to you to be addressed in this language, than it is to me to offer it; but the subject requires frankness and decision.

I have to request your speedy determination, as my resolution is suspended but for your answer.

I have the honor to be, &c.

Our correspondent adds, that in consequence of this just and decisive measure, Sir Henry Clinton declared, that he had been imposed upon by the board of refugees, who had obtained the person of captain Huddy from him, on pretence of conveying him to the Point to be exchanged for a favourite refugee officer in our possession, instead of which they had put him to death. The menace contained in the general's letter a spirited memorial from the British officers, who stated to Sir Henry Clinton, that as they considered themselves in a totally distinct point of view from the refugees, they hoped and trusted that he would not suffer a British officer to be sacrificed on so unworthy an occasion, which they thus publicly disavowed; and expressing their wishes, that the perpetrators of the murder in question would be delivered up. This remonstrance occasioned a counter memorial from the board of refugees, against the delivery of Lippencutt, followed by representations of their resolution, in case it should take place, of laying down their arms, or even of defending themselves with them, as they could not but consider such a step as an intended discouragement and sacrifice of all the loyalists.

It is said that Lippencutt has been delivered up; but as there are various reports on the subject, we have not been able to ascertain the actual result of these proceedings.

The Derby Mercury (England)
July 11, 1782

[General Clinton replies to General Washington]

Sir Henry Clinton ordered a Court-Martial upon Captain Lippencot, in consequence of this Application; but such was the Situation of Affairs, and such the Temper of the Refugees, that the Captain has not been given up to Gen. Washington, but the following letter from Gen. Sir Henry Clinton was sent in Answer to the above Letter from Gen. Washington.

Sir,
YOUR Letter of the 21st Instant, with the enclosed Testimonial, respecting Captain Huddy's Execution, was delivered to me Yesterday; and though I am extremely concerned for the Cause, I cannot conceal by Surprize and Displeasure of the very improper Language you have made use of, which you could not but be sensible was totally unnecessary.

The Mildness of the British Government does not admit of Acts of Cruelty or persecuting Violence, and as they are notoriously contrary to the Tenor of my own Conduct and Disposition (having never yet stained my Hands with innocent Blood) I must claim the Justice of having it believed, that, if such have been committed by any Person under my Command, they could not have been warranted by my Authority, nor can they have ever the Sanction of my Approbation. My personal Feelings therefore required no such Incitements to urge me to take every proper Notice of the barbarous Outrage against Humanity (which you have represented to me) the Moment it came to my Knowledge; and accordingly when I heard of Captain Huddy's Death (which was only four Days before I received your Letter) I instantly ordered a strict Enquiry to be made in all its Circumstances, and shall bring the Perpetrators of it to an immediate Trial.

To sacrifice Innocence under the Notion of preventing Guilt, in place of supressing, would be adopting Barbarity, and raising it to the greatest height. Whereas, if the Violators of the Laws of War are punished by the Generals under whose Powers they act, the Horrors, which those Laws were formed to prevent, will be avoided, and every Degree of Humanity War is capable of, maintained.

Could Violations of Humanity be justified by Example, many from the Parts where your Power prevails, that exceed, and probably gave rise to this in question, could be produced. In Hopes that the Mode I mean to pursue will be adopted by you, and prevent all future Enormities,
I remain, &x.
(Signed) H.C.

[earlier this same news page included such language from the British perspective of their desire to "assist in bringing the Colonies to a re-union with the Mother County."]

​Jackson's Oxford Journal (England)
August 3rd, 1782

AMERICA.
A REPORT to the Board of Loyalists, respecting the Execution of JOSHUA HUDDY, inclosed in a Letter to Sir Henry Clinton, dated April 27, 1782.

SIR,
In Compliance with the Orders of the Honourable Board of Direction, we beg Leave to communicate to your Excellency, for the Information, an Account of the Proceedings of the Loyalists from Monmouth, on the late Expedition for the Relief of Capt. Clayton Tilton, and two other Loyalists, then Prisoners with the Rebels in that Country.

Being frustrated in the Design of bringing off Capt. Tilton by Force, and our Offers for Exchange rejected, we dreaded that he was reserved for a Fate simmilar to that our Associate, Philip White, had suffered, who was taken at the same Time with Captain Tilton, and inhumanly and wantonly murdered by the Guard who were carrying him to Monmouth Gaol.

This recent Instance of Cruelty, added to the many daring Acts of the same Nature which have been perpetrated with Impunity, by a set of vindictive Rebels, well known by the Name of Monmouth Retaliators, assicated and headed by one General Furman, whose horrid Acts of Cruelty have gained him universally the Name of Black David, fired our Party with an Indignation only to be felt by Men who for a Series of Years have beheld many of their Friends and Neighbours butchered in cold Blood, under the usurped Form of Law, and often without that Ceremony, for no other Crime than that of maintaining their Allegiance to the Government under which they were born, and which the Rebels audaciously called Treason against their States.

We thought it high Time to convince the Rebels, who would no longer tamely submit to such glaring Acts of Barbarity; and though we lament the Necessity to which we have been driven, to begin a Retaliation of intolerable Cruelties, long continued and often repeated, yet we are convinced that we could not have saved the Life of Capt. Tilton, by any other Means. We therefore pitched upon Joshua Huddy, as a proper Subject for Retaliation, because he was not only well known to have been a very active and cruel Persecutor of our Friends, but had not been ashamed to boast of his having been instumental in hanging Stephen Edwards, a worthy Loyalist, and the first of our Brethren who fell a Martyr to Republican Fury in Monmouth County. Huddy was the Man who tied the Knot, and put the Rope about the Neck of that inoffensive Sufferer. This Fact will appear by two Affidavits which we have the Honour to enclose. When the Board are pleased to take into their Consideration the Motives which induced us to take this Step; and that Huddy was executed in the County where so many Acts of Cruelty have been committed on Refugees, we hope they will not think our Conduct reprehensible, the more especially when your Excellency perceives the following State of Facts:

1st. That Joshua Huddy was one of the Rebels who took Stephen Edwards, of Monmouth, a worthy Loyalist, of good Family and Property, out of his Bed, and acknowledged himself to have been active and assisting in hanging the said Edwards.

2d. That James Pew, a Loyalist, from Middletown, of reputable Family and good Character, was taken Prisoner by the Rebels in 1778, confined for a considerable Time in Freehold Gaol, and put to Death by the Sentry.

3d. That Stephen West, Stephen Emmons, and Ezekiel Williams, three Loyalists from Monmouth, were all of them most inhumanly murdered by the Rebels in 1778.

4th. That John Wood and Thomas Emmons, Loyalists from Monmouth, were taken by the Rebels in 1778, and executed at Freehold.

5th. That Jacob Fagars, a Loyalist from Monmouth, was wounded in 1778, of which Wound he died, and was privately buried by his Friends. The Rebels soon after got Information of this, dug him up, carried his Corpse to Freehold, and hung it on Gibbets.

6th. That John Farnham, and Jonathan Burge, two Loyalists from Monmouth, were taken by the Rebels in 1781, and executed at Freehold, notwithstanding there were Rebel Prisoners of Rank and Consequence taken by the same Farnham and Burge, confined in our Prevost, one of them a Lieutenant Colonel of Militia, and another of the Rebel Assembly, who were offered in Exchange for them.

7th. That Joseph Wood, an associated Loyalist, from Monmouth, was taken at Longbranch, Shrewsbury, in 1781, carried to Coltsneck, where he was Prisoner for several days; that in removing him from thence to Freehold, he was most inhumanly put to Death by the Guard, within half a Mile of the Prison.

8th. That Joseph Mullener, an associated Loyalist, and Captain of a Whale-Boat Privateer, was taken by the Rebels in 1781, carried to Freehold, removed to Burlington, tried and executed, notwithstanding he produced his Commission, as Captain of the said Privateer, at his Trial.

9th. That Richard Bell, and John Thompson, two associated Loyalists, from Monmouth, were taken by a Party of Rebels in November last, from off Sandy-Hook, within his Majesty's Lines, carried to Freehold, and hanged.

10th. That Philip White, taken the other Day at Shrewsbury, in Action, was marched, under Guard, for near fifteen Miles, and at a private Part of the Road, about three Miles from Freehold Gaol, (as it is asserted by creditable Persons in the Rebel Country,) was kept back by three Dragoons, while Captain Tilton and the other Prisoners were sent forward, and after being stripped of his Buckles, Buttons, and other Articles, the Dragoons told him they would give him a Chance for his Life, and ordered him to run, which he attempted, but had not got three Yards from them before they shot him, and then cut him with their Swords over his Eyes and other Parts, until he expired.

Many of the above Facts are ascertained by Affidavits; and such as are not, are too notorious to be denied, even by General Furman himself, the most persecuting Rebel in the Country. By a strange Fatality the Loyalists are the only People that have been treated as Rebels during this unhappy War.

We have the Honour to be, in Behalf of the associated and other Loyalists of Monmouth County, your Excellency's most obedient and humble Servants.

The Freeman's Journal or The North-American Intelligencer (U.S.)
September 4th, 1782

It is now many months since captain Huddy was murdered in a most barbarous manner, and no retaliation has yet taken place. We are informed Congress and general Washington, took up this affair about the same time, but the latter had demanded captain Lippencut of general Clinton before the dispatches of Congress reached him. While sir Harry remained at New York nothing was done; on his departure the command devolved on sir Guy Carleton,--a fresh demand was made, with threats of immediate retaliation on a prisoner of equal rank, in case of refusal; and captain Asgil of the British guards was selected as the equivalent.

This induced sir Guy to set on foot an enquiry. Lippencut was brought before a court martial, but he objected to their jurisdiction, and claimed the right of a free British subject to be tried before his equals, and in the county where the fact was committed. His plea was overruled. Even Smith the nominal chief justice and Kemp the pretended attorney general, declared for the competency of the court military, because Monmouth county in New Jersey was possessed by rebels, and because the courts of common Law in New Jersey were not open, of course martial law must of necessity interpose to prevent the failure of justice.

--The court martial finding their own ideas thus supported proceeded on the trial, and Lippencutt, who belonged to the refugee associators proves a verbal order from governor Franklin, president of the board, Dan Cox and Mr. R. Alexander, members of the board, to hang the unfortunate Huddy. The court martial upon this evidence acquits Lippencut.--Sir Guy Carleton after three months sends out transcripts of the proceedings, evidence, &c. &c. to General Washington declaring his abhorrence of the detestable murder of capt Huddy, and determination to make farther investigations, let them affect who they may; but at the same time suffers governor Franklin to go in the packet for England.

COMPELLED TO DISGORGE
Two days later, when a wrecking vessel and lighter came down from Sandy Hook to save the cargo, the greater part of it had disappeared and the wreckers had become peaceable fishermen in Barnegat Inlet. Two boat loads of wine and brandy that were taken from the cargo of the Liberty by the pirates were secreted in the fastnesses of Big Swamp, which was several miles nearer the wreck than Cedar Swamp, where the silks were hidden. Such a hue and cry was made over this job that the pirates, fearing that the State authorities would send troops here to extirpate them, gave up nearly all the goods. Eleven wreckers were arrested, but they gave bail and were never tried.

Two log cabins were built in Big Swamp, where the liquor was stored, and for weeks after the wreck of the Liberty the pirates spent the greater part of their time in drunken revelry. These cabins were used afterwards as the rendezvous of the band when night came on and they were not within easy sailing distance of Forked river and the Red Water swamp. Captain Ben's father was once met by Odell and the elder Paxon, who ordered him to follow them. They entered Odell's boat, crossed into Big Swamp and spent the night in the cabins. Peters was allowed to go home in the morning, but before leaving the pirates he was told that if he talked too freely about their retreat he would be shot on sight.

On one occasion Paxon became jealous of the popularity of Captain Bill Holladay and a free fight occurred on the beach. Paxon and his friends withdrew to the Forked River region, while Holladay and his supporters retired to Big Swamp. A week or so later the factions met on the bay and as the majority were armed with heavy ducking guns a regular naval engagement ensued. Half a dozen of the men were wounded and Paxon had one of his eyes destroyed and his rival lost two fingers. The injuries being about equal the captains buried the hatchet and the band was reunited.

The brigs Fairweather and Dolphin were wrecked and their crews badly abused by the pirates, who wanted to set them adrift again in their small boats, created a small sensation and got to the ears of the authorities in the upper end of the county, but it was not until the Twin Brothers was lured ashore and rifled that the respectable people took the matter in hand.

CAPTURED BY THE VIGILANTES.
When wrecks were scarce the pirates, emboldened by success, preyed upon their honest neighbors in Ocean, Burlington and adjoining counties. Paxon became such an outlaw that he did not visit any of the towns in the county for fear of being shot, as several men who had suffered from his raids vowed they would kill him on sight.

In February, 1847, a posse of resolute men, with horns and dogs, rode into Big Swamp for the purpose of capturing Paxon and Odell. The wreckers were warned and fled, but before doing so they fired the cabins, which were but a heap of smouldering ruins when the vigilantes, who had been guided to the place by the smoke, came up. The hunt was continued, however, and a few hours later Paxon was captured in a tree. He is said to have shown the white feather at once by begging his captors not to lynch him. Four of his band were captured on the following day near Forked river and the others either fled from the state or gave up their evil practices.

Big Mag Holliday, young Paxon's wife, is said to have been nearly six feet high and a perfect Amazon in strength and courage. She married Paxon when she was sixteen years of age, but a few months later they quarreled and she came very near ending his piratical career by chopping him with a boat axe. One night while Paxon and his confederates were looking for prey on the beach his house on the mainland was invaded and searched by a party of officers. Suspecting that he was across the bay and would return before morning they made themselves comfortable in the house, leaving one of their number to watch the point at which Paxon and his friends would land. "Big Mag" made an excuse to leave the house, ran half a mile, swam two creeks and reached the home of her father; but the men were all away with her husband. Nothing daunted, she jumped into a skiff, rowed across the bay, found and notified her husband and his companions of their danger. They immediately entered their boats and stood away down the bay. The officers waited until daylight and then went away. Abe Paxon disappeared after his father, and the others were captured and never reappeared in Ocean county.

FATE OF THE CREW.
"Big Mag," after waiting several years for her husband to return, mated with the captain of a charcoal schooner and was last heard of as the owner of a sailors' boarding house in New York. The elder Paxon and those of his confederates who were arrested were tried and sent to prison for short terms, and common report has it that Paxon died before he had been locked up a month. In many of the houses along the coast relics that once belonged to the pirates are kept as curiosities. Captain Ben Peters exhibits with no small amount of pride a dagger with a buckhorn handle and a twelve-inch blade which he declares once stuck in the belt of the redoubtable Captain Holliday. Captain Ben said: "I reckon when Captain Holliday had that knife he socked it into many a man." The present owner uses it to scale and disembowel fish. One or more curiosities like Freebooter Holliday's dirk can be found in many of the old fishermen's houses.

Captain Ben kindly volunteered to pilot the reporter to the hut of Captain Sam Darden, the ex-pirate and present hermit, who lives in Big Swamp. The invitation was accepted and early on the following morning the journey began.

After crossing the bay and threading the narrow bayous that cut up the flats on the land side Captain Ben pulled his skiff up the bank and then a mile tramp through creeks and bogs, underbrush and timbers, until a small clearing, with a log cabin in the centre, appeared in view. Captain Ben stopped short, saying: "That's the place. Suppose we give a yell, just to let him know we're coming, 'cause he ain't much on visitors." The yell was given and answered by five mongrel dogs, who came dashing out like wolves. Heedless of the yelping curs Ben trudged on toward the house, on the shady side of which sat an old man with white hair. It was Captain Sam. He was barefooted and surly, and sat on the ground examining one of his feet. Captain Ben said, "Hellow, Sam!" to which salute the old wrecker did not reply.

"What ails your foot?" continued Captain Ben, eyeing the extremity in question with unnatural interest.

"Skinned heel," replied Captain Sam, gruffly.

No reasonable person could expect a pirate with a skinned heel to be in an angelic frame of mind, and, appreciating that fact, Captain Ben took steps to cheer up the sufferer. His first step was a flask of whisky and the second a plug of tobacco. Captain Sam began to thaw at once, and in a few minutes was swearing at his skinless heel with that richness and vigor which has from the days of Captain Kidd made pirates famous.

AN OLD PIRATE'S STORY.
After Captain Sam had exhausted his stock of profanity, Captain Ben said, with amazing coolness, "Sam, here is a man that wants you tell him how many men you and Paxon's and Holliday's crew killed."

To say that Captain Sam swore at this question but faintly expresses the broadside of profanity he poured into Captain Ben, who hastened to say that he did not intend to offend him. Captain Ben finally succeeded in propitiating the wicked old freebooter, who at last consented to tell his story, wanting it distinctly understood, however, that he never killed or helped to kill a man.

Captain Sam is sixty-nine years old and a native of Norfolk, Virginia. Darden is the name he assumed when at sixteen years of age he ran away to sea. At twenty he was the second mate of a slaver fitted out in Baltimore. He made four voyages in her before she was pursued by an English man-of-war and the crew escaped by taking to the small boats and landing on the South African coast the night before the vessel was captured.

Tom Paxon was the first mate of the slaver and he and Dardin were warm friends. They reached Cape Town, then Liverpool and finally New York, where they separated, Paxon going to his wife and family in Ocean county, while Dardin remained in New York. A few months later Darden visited Paxon, who was engaged in fishing, and remained in that neighborhood ever since. He admitted that many vessels had been pillaged on Long Beach, but declared most emphatically that the men in the interior of the county, who got the greatest share of the booty, were never heard of by the public.

When the schooner Elferidu came ashore he says four thousand dollars in Spanish gold was found in her cabin. That money was divided among eleven men. He considers wrecking a legitimate business and wished more of it was done. The old reprobate chuckled when Captain Ben asked him about Holliday's cow, but he could not be induced to say that he ever knew of a vessel being lured to the breakers by false lights. He also says the wreckers saved many more lives than they ever got credit for.

Darden has lived in the swamp thirteen years, with no companions but dogs. Until two yeas ago he made some money by fishing and hunting, but lately rheumatism prevents him from hunting much in severe weather. He visits Barnegat once a month and purchases ammunition, tobacco and coffee and corn meal. He sells his game and fish without going into the town.

"I have no friends," he said, "and I am too old to begin to make acquaintances. I get along very well alone, and I won't have people coming here to bother me."

The hut is rudely but by no means uncomfortably furnished, and it is passably clean. When his visitor said good-bye and started out of the clearing he simply nodded his head and limped back into the house.

"I haven't been here for two years and it will be two more before I come sloshing through this mud again," said Captain Ben, "but he treated us a good deal better than I expected."

"It's a wonder he didn't try to make the dogs chaw us," continued the Captain. When the boat was reached, Captain Ben, who had been strangely silent for half an hour, remarked: "Say, he never said he never saw a man killed, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll just bet my boots that he's killed more'n a dozen himself."

Having relieved his mind by that strong expression of opinion Captain Ben pulled the skiff up close to the mud and a few moments later the swamp that harbors the last of the Barnegat pirates was fast fading into the horizon.

Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

Today we share the account of an enterprising reporter who interviewed old-time residents of our shore area, including one retired “pirate,” to get details on the activity of famed “Barnegat Pirates,” published by the Philadelphia Times on July 24th, 1882 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

PIRATES OF LONG BEACH.

The Philadelphia Times
July 24th, 1882

CAPTAIN PAXON'S LAWLESS CREW.

Tales of Shipwreck and Plunder Told by the Old Salts of Barnegat--How Vessels Were Lured on the Beach and the Seamen Butchered.

The capture of Captain Tom Paxon and four members of his notorious band and the establishment of the present life-saving service on the New Jersey coast in 1848 had the effect of breaking up the organization of the much-dreaded Barnegat pirates and the half hundred barbarous wreckers whose deeds made the twenty miles of coast between Egg Harbor and Forked river a terror to honest sailors. Only one member of this viking band is known to be alive and he is a surly hermit in an Ocean county swamp. During the reign of the Barnegat pirates Long Beach gained a reputation that clung to it for years, and even now there are many ignorant sailors who dread the place.

In January last the German bark Fatherland went ashore a few miles south of the Barnegat light, and after much difficulty the men of the Life Station got a line from the shore to the vessel, but to their astonishment the crew refused to make use of the life-rope. Two men went out to the bark and finally succeeded in convincing the frightened mariners that Barnegat wreckers were creatures of the past.

Long Beach is twenty miles in length and from a quarter to half a mile wide. The outside is fringed with monster dunes of white sand, washed up by the Atlantic, and the inside, which is washed by Barnegat Bay, is low, marshy and covered with swamp grass, reeds and cattail. Clumps of cedar trees, strangely distorted by frequent storms, dot the island, or Beach, as it is commonly called, and give it rather an inviting appearance when seen from a distance. There are several primitive hotels on the Beach now, and hundreds of people go there every summer to bathe, fish and battle with mosquitoes, but when the pirates reigned they alone inhabited the place. Barnegat Bay, which separates the beach from the mainland, is from five to six miles wide, and, with the exception of its narrow and tortuous channel, is very shallow.

WHERE THE PIRATES LIVED ASHORE.

The shore of the mainland is low and swampy--so swampy that many square miles of it cannot be traveled over by man except in winter. Bears, catamounts and other wild animals live in safety in the depths of Big and Cedar Swamps. The country back of the swamps does not differ from any other part of Southern New Jersey. There is the same abundance of sand, pine trees, dwarf oaks, mosquitoes and green flies everywhere.

The majority of the Barnegat pirates lived at or near the mouth of Forked river. All were watermen and many owned boats stout enough to cross Barnegat bay on the stormiest night. Then, as it is now, every coast native over eighteen years of age was a captain and every pirate whose name has been handed down to this generation has that handle to his cognomen. Tradition and the salty historians of Ocean county have it that Captain Tom Paxon, who had been the mate of a slaver, was the first professional wrecker and shore pirate on Long Beach, but the hermit of Big Swamp, who was a wrecker himself and should know, declares that Captain Jack Norton, who was at one time a local Magistrate, is entitled to the credit that is given to Captain Paxon. All, however, agree that Paxon was a leader of the band.

All vessels bound in for Sandy Hook make their course very near the Jersey coast and the pirates took advantage of this and by false lights on stormy nights lured many vessels to destruction. Paxon's wife was a [biracial] woman and he had three sons--big, brawny ruffians--who were famous along the coast as whisky drinkers and rough-and-tumble fighters. Captain Job Manly, who, although sixty-eight years of age, commands a yacht that carries people from the mainland to the Beach, is in his way an oracle.

"Know them Paxons?" repeated Captain Job, as he shifted the tiller to his left hand in order that his right could be more freely used in emphasizing his remarks; "why, that was I know Tom Paxon like an old red dog; knowed the whole caboodle of 'em, in fact, though I never did 'sociate with 'em. I was a young sort of a chap then, but my old man he used to say there never was a Manly cut out for a pirate. 'Twasn't because we was skeerish, cause, by Jinks, if I do say it myself, as shouldn't, we was a fightin' family.

BURIED IN THE SEA

"Why,continued the ancient mariner, "my old man plugged a feller--. Oh yes, about Paxon. Well, the first time I heerd much about Captain Tom was along in the thirties. That was when a coaster came ashore down near Squan, and next day old Captain Heber--by Jinks! he was a good old man; use-ter ride a circuit, he did--well, Captain Heber he found a sailor half buried in the sand on the beach, and when he dug the body out the skull was smashed with a club. Well, the old man was such a good old man that he was 'stonished at sich goins on, and he came to Barnegat and raised a dickens of a fuss. Next morning a lot of people went over to get the body and bury it decent, but when they got there all they found was a trail through the sand where some one had dragged the body down on the ebb tide and chucked it into the sea.
​
Everybody believed the Paxons caught that poor, miserable, unfortunate sailor after he swam ashore and, so as to keep his mouth shut about a false light on shore, they brained him. Well, it wa'n't long after that when some fishermen near Cedar creek found the corpses of two men lying on the beach, and by Jinks, they had been strangled to death, for all around their throats were hand-marks. They had been robbed, for their pockets were turned inside out, and a little way up the beach the fishermen found a letter and some scraps of paper that must have belonged to the sailors. No, nothing ever came of that, but Captain Paxon came a-floating around in a day or so in a mighty nice life-boat. He told my old man that he picked her up on the beach, but my old man he always said that air yawl brought them two murdered sailors ashore."

"Captain Job, can you remember what kind of a looking man Tom Paxon was?"

"Well, not exactly," replied the oracle, thoughtfully, "'cept he was a biggish sort of a man, with one eye. I knowed his boy, Abe, first rate. Abe was a wrecker, like the old man. That's the feller married big Mag Odell; you offen heard me speak about big Mag, hain't you, Captain John?" said the ancient narrator, appealing to a weather-beaten young man who sat smoking on the shady side of the sail.
​
Captain John answered, "Um, hum," and Captain Job went on: "The Odells and Hollidays and Nortons and Perlys and a lot more people got going together and respectable people had to take a back pew and keep their mouths shut."

DECEIVED BY FALSE LIGHTS

"Every night a storm came up you'd see a gang sailing over to the beach. There ain't many people living around here now, but there was a good deal fewer here then. Whenever there was a wreck on the beach most everybody used to turn out and save things that came ashore. Nothing wrong in that, you know; but when Paxon and Holliday and that crew got to doing wrong, no decent people would go with them and they had nearly all the night jobs to themselves. I tell you, no one will ever know how many poor fellows came ashore on that beach, only to be cast back by them devils."

At this point Captain Job became so lost in his subject that he dropped the tiller and as the yacht went about the boom dislodged young Captain John and swept him, pipe and all into the bay. When Captain John was picked up and the yacht put back on her course the commander was corked up. The accident had evidently put the old man out of humor, but he came around again in a few minutes, when the dripping Captain John said: "Captain Job, how about the pirate's cow?"

The old man's eyes kindled and he said: "By Jinks, that'so. I forgot all about her. Gentlemen, you know when it was blowing a gale them wreckers, or pirates as they call 'em, used to build a big fire on the beach in front of the sand hills and out of sight from any place but the sea. Then the man at the wheel, thinking it was a lighthouse, would steer in and wreck the vessel. The fire worked all right, but when the sailors came ashore they discovered how they had been drawed in. So the wreckers wanted some kind of a big light that they could put away quick after a vessel got in the breakers. Well, some how or other they got hold of a big ship lantern. Some said she'd hold a bucketful of oil. Then Captain Holliday he took over a cow on a raft and turned her loose on the beach. After that, when the weather was bad outside, they'd lash that big lantern on that cow, light the wick and lead the innocent old beast up and down the beach. That light would deceive any sailor in the world 'cause it kept moving slowly and gradually, drawing the ship into the breakers, and then you know all they had to do to hide the light was to turn the cow around, or they could put it out in a jiffy, drive off the beast and no one but themselves would know anything about it. They say the cow worked like a charm, but you couldn't blame her, 'cause she didn't have no idea what she was doing.

Any number of reputable people substantiate Captain Job's description of this wonderful bovine. She was kept on the island eight or ten years and carefully cared for every winter. When Abe Paxon was arrested in 1847 for robbing a wrecked vessel the cow, with the what other personal property, was sold by his wife to obtain enough money to engage a lawyer to defend her husband. The cow was bought by Judge William M. Hawley, of Ocean county, who kept her as a curiosity until she died of old age. Captain Israel Holmes, of Barnegat, declared that when he feasted his eyes on the old cow just before the war "she was about twelve hands high and the skinniest-looking thing" he ever saw.

When Captain Job finished his interesting account of the peculiarities of the wreckers' cow the yacht had reached the island on which the beast had performed such excellent service for her employers.

A dozen guests and as many natives lolled around on the porch of the hotel. The guileless landlord, with a frankness that is not common with owners of summer resorts, was telling a group of new arrivals who inquired about the insect life on the island that a few evenings before a south wind brought up a cloud of mosquitoes that darkened the sky and sent a drove of cattle on the beach bellowing into the surf with tails as erect and rigid as jackstaffs. The newly arrived guests shuddered at the picture this primitive boniface drew. Of course, the landlord is a captain. So is the cook and the barber and the hostler and even the sad-looking young man who mixes solferino-colored cocktails.

It is Captain Ben Peters, however, who, after Captain Job Manley, knows most about Barnegat pirates, and he tells what he knows without coaxing. He began where Captain Job stopped, and for four hours reeled off piratical stories that must have made the flesh of some of his nervous hearers creep.
​
He was a young man when a French ship called the Liberty, loaded with silks and other valuables, was wrecked on Long Beach. The beach was alive with wreckers that night, and when the crew came ashore in life-boats they were hurried across the island, carried over the bay and deposited near Barnegat pier by the pirates. The vessel was beached and went to pieces and the shore was covered with valuable goods. These goods, principally silks, were loaded on the wreckers' vessels in the bay and taken to secret hiding places in Cedar swamp, near Forked river.

Island Heights native and worldwide professional photographer/videographer, Peter Slack, this weekend has released online his documentary on the annual World Duckboat Championship, a treat that we’re happy to share with our Seaport followers today.

"People of all ages and far off places gather for one of their favorite days of the Summer...the Duck Boat Worlds.   The Duck boats are judged the night before and a trophy is given for the boat in the best Bristol condition.  There is much to be learned from these old wooden boats as they give the older generation a chance to share their stories and wood working techniques...and their secrets to what makes a Duck boat go fast."

Enjoy!

Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

Today we zip around Barnegat Bay and Toms River’s July 4th activities, as covered by the Philadelphia Times on July 9th, 1899 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

BARNEGAT AFFORDS NUMEROUS DIVERSIONS

Special Correspondence of THE TIMES.

Barnegat, July 8.
Jolly times were had by the summer visitors here this week and what with the fishing, sailing, wheeling on superb gravel roads, crabbing, bathing and the like there has been time for nothing like ennui.
To-day a regatta will be sailed by the mosquito fleet under nineteen feet in length.
Fish are being caught in large quantities. Mostly there are weakfish, but at the Inlet big red and black drum have been taking the hook, to say nothing of the channel bass...

FAMOUS FISHING AT BEACH HAVEN

Special Correspondence of THE TIMES.

Beach Haven, N.J., July 8.
Fishing is now at its best, and nearly every yacht comes in with a big box full of the finny beauties. The Beach Haven yacht captain has a way of his own for catching the toothsome weakfish. Instead of giving the novices at the sport each a long bamboo pole, dropping his sail and anchoring his yacht over the shell bed, as a Barnegat Bay captain would do, the Beach Haven salt proceeds in an entirely different manner. He doesn't anchor his yacht, but brings her up in the wind on the windward side of the channel, keeping his sail up, but hanging loose in the wind, and lets his boat drift slowly across to the leeward side of the channel in a diagonal line, as the tide sets up or down the channel. Nor does he give the amateur angler a long pole; a hand line, he says, will fell the bite better, and on the windward side of the drifting boat it is no trouble to keep the lines and bait far enough from the yacht. If the fishermen are experts with rod and reel, that is a different matter, but for the novice, your Beach Haven salt maintains that a hand line will feel a bite quicker, and can be used to hook the fish more securely than the pole. The fish are big two and three pounders, what are called channel or tide runners, and not the small half-pound school fish of August.

Nor does the Beach Haven fishing party spend all day at the sport, taking out luncheon, as is the habit in Barnegat Bay. Instead they go out after breakfast, rarely sailing more than a half mile or so from the big dock, and return by 10 or 11 o'clock with all that the most ardent angler could wish. After dinner the sport may be repeated...

REGATTAS POPULAR AT ISLAND HEIGHTS

Special Correspondence of THE TIMES.

Island Heights, July 8.
July Fourth was a big day in the history of the Heights as a summer resort. Practically all the cottages are rented and the hotels are assured of all the guests they can accommodate for the next eight weeks. In fact, the crying need of Island Heights is for more hotel room.

The event of the week was the regatta of the Island Heights Yacht Club on the Fourth. The chief prize, the club championship cup and pennant, went to the Virginia, owned by W.G. Hartranft. Albert Mulford won second prize, a ship's lantern, of brass, in the Carita. A ship's compass was the third prize and fell to Edward Megargee.

Another race was sailed the same day and over the same course by the mosquito fleet of boats under 18 feet in length. The William H. Miller, sailed by Keeper Ed Miller, of Island Beach, L.S.S., won first place, beating Howard Webb's Golden Rod three seconds actual time, 29 seconds corrected time, over a ten mile course, with the wind blowing a gale. Tom Wilbur finished third.

Rev. Daniel Everett Lyons, who will have charge of the camp-meeting, announces that it will be held from August 13 to 20 inclusive.

A dinner and supper was held at the Auditorium on the Fourth by the ladies of the Methodist Church...

SEA SIDE PARK IS IN THE SWIM

Special Correspondence of THE TIMES.

Sea Side Park, July 8.
Several additions have been made to the fleet of yachts at this resort. General Superintendent Frank Sheppard, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, has his yacht Sculpin here in charge of Captain "Les" Penn. The craft is sloop-rigged, with a naphtha engine for auxiliary power when the wind is light.

Another naphtha launch is the Adele, owned by Messrs. Jackson and Sharp, of Philadelphia, the proprietors of the Berkeley Hotel.

The pier at the foot of Fifth avenue has been built out some hundred feet or more into the bay and is a favorite harbor for the Barnegat Bay yachtsmen, who have been reaping a rich harvest with sailing and fishing parties.

The Fourth of July saw perhaps the biggest crowd in the history of Sea Side Park. The cottages are now all occupied and the hotel is doing a nice business. The reduced railroad rates are also bringing many people from the city, who come down to see what this new resort is like and who invariably go away with the intention of returning for a longer stay...

​JOLLY CAMPERS AT TOMS RIVER

Special Correspondence of THE TIMES.

Toms River, N.J., July 8.
The Fourth of July made a busy week and brought with it many guests, not a few of whom are remaining for the summer. Yachting continues in favor and the yachting parties were so numerous on the holiday that yachts had to be procured from various Barnegat Bay resorts to accommodate them.

Bathing at the "Spiles" [today Beachwood Beach] is much in favor, and this whilom [we had to look it up, too: means formerly, or "in the past"] resort of the village lad is now given over to the summer visitors of both sexes, who enjoy still water bathing and swimming.

A new yacht, 28 feet over all and 21 feet on the water line, has been built by Amos Lewis, of Forked River, for Messrs. H.A. Low and John Imlay, and added to the Toms River fleet of cat boats...

The Boys' Brotherhood, of Philadelphia, in charge of Charles Mitchell, are encamped near Money Island, some fifty strong. Professor E.J. Thompson, of the Boys' High School, is president of the brotherhood and is a member of the camp. Dr. C.C. Morgan, the vice president; Professor C.R. Coggeshall, the treasurer, and Dr. C.B. Reynolds, camp surgeon, are with the lads, who occupy seven tents.

The Logan Yacht Club, of Philadelphia, are camped near the brotherhood camp.

Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays - 10 am to 2 pm
78 East Water Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
Guided Tours By Request - New Members Always Welcome
(732) 349-9209 - office@tomsriverseaport.org

Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

Today we spend time in a summery 1890s Island Heights, as covered by the Philadelphia Times on July 5th, 1896 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

Note: this article includes a special collection of illustrations originally found in the sketchbook of a Swarthmore College co-ed, Henry C. Turner, who documented the trip of his group of friends to Island Heights in summer 1893.

SUMMER LIFE AT ISLAND HEIGHTS

IT IS ONE OF THE PRETTIEST INLAND RESORTS IN NEW JERSEY.

THE BATHING DELIGHTFUL

Fishing Parties Are in Season Now, and Every Morning Numbers Are Seen, Lunch Baskets and Fishing Tackle in Hand, on Their Way to the "Cats," Awaiting to Sail Them to Barnegat Bay, Pier or Inlet, All Excellent Fishing Points.

Special Telegram to THE TIMES.
ISLAND HEIGHTS, July 4.

This is one of the prettiest inland summer resorts in Jersey. It is a group of bluffs, carpeted with vari-colored grasses and flowers, shaded everywhere by trees with the heaviest foliage and ornamented with attractive cottages. It is situated on what is generally called Tom's river, although it is in reality but an arm of Barnegat Bay. This body of water is beautiful, as blue at times as the ocean, and almost as breezy. It is three-quarters of a mile wide and three and a half miles long, and always as thickly dotted with white sailboats as a field of daisies with butterflies. All who sojourn here learn to swim and row well, from the great-grandparent to the tot of 4 years. And right well was this fact demonstrated last evening in a rowing and swimming match--all parties concerned being Philadelphians. Mr. Wesson, quite well known in the Quaker City, and who might be termed a water enthusiast, for he spends his whole time on the water, is one of the luckiest fishermen, an expert sailor, fine oarsman and an A 1 swimmer, arranged these two matches. He selected the oldest bachelor, Philip Arnold, aged 93, and Anna Winston, 87, for the swimming match, and the two youngest Philadelphian "experts," Maud Hudson and Earl Vinson, for the rowing match. The old pair took the lead, and the race was won by "Miss Anna" by several feet. The second race was only a quarter mile against the tide, and was easily won by the little Maud by more than the length of her boat. The first race was amusing, extremely so: the second very spirited and interesting. When the dimpled hands of the wee maiden dropped her oars and shot past the the stake the river echoed with cheers from the crowd on the boardwalk. The prizes were presented as soon as the winners reached the shore. The first prize was a bicycle, the second a diamond ring. Mr. Arnold handed Miss Anna the wheel, and with many smiles and bows begged that he might teach her to master her silent partner. Master Vinson very cunningly gave the ring to the little maiden who had defeated him.

​Bathing is delightful here, the river being shallow, except in the channel, and always pleasantly warm. There is no danger, or but very little, attached to either bathing or rowing, so that lovers of such sport are safe to indulge as frequently as their desire dictates. This place is 18 years old and has yet its first fatal accident to chronicle. All the old settlers are proud of this fact, and never fail to boast of such a record.

​A trio of Quaker City belles, who are as much at home in and on the water as on land, are Miss Louise Randolph, Miss Essie Mills and Miss Margy Berry. These young ladies are much more attractive in their bathing suits than in ordinary dress, and that can't be said of everyone. They are graceful swimmers and splendid oarswomen. There are a half dozen men here from Philadelphia whose swimming attracts much attention. These men could scarcely sink if weighted down. They swim over the river at any time, and almost every morning and evening swim two miles up or down the stream. They are Paul Mills, Eugene Ellis, Ned Palfrey, Edward Littleton, Henry Slonger and Samuel Black. Mr. Mills is without doubt the best swimmer. He often sits on a chip no larger than his hand out in the deepest part of the river and fishes for an hour or more. How the tiny bits of wood bear him up no one knows. But there he sits, contentedly fishing, and actually catching fish, for the edification of his admirers. It is very amusing to see the vain attempts of others trying to accomplish this same feat.

​Fishing parties are in season now, and every morning numbers are seen, lunch baskets and fishing tackle in hand, on their way to the "cats" awaiting to sail them to Barnegat Bay, Pier or Inlet--all excellent fishing points. The experience of all who go up to Barnegat to fish is rather exciting, but sometimes too exciting for one's peace of mind. Friday morning Mr. Weister, of Philadelphia, started out for a half day's sport, at least, but had just as much as he wanted in about twenty minutes. His line was seized the moment it dropped down in the water either by a very hungry or very angry fish, and a perfect monster, at that. The boat was capsized and the line became tangled around his body and he was dragged nearly three hundred yards. When almost drowned, the line broke, or, since it was new and strong, was cut by the fish, and he managed to extricate himself. He was dreadfully strangled and the line had cut his arms above and below the elbow, where it was wound so tightly, to the bone. He suffered so that he left for home to be treated by his family physician.

​Mrs. Weeks, of North Tenth street, Philadelphia, who is sojourning here for the season, had two of her fingers jerked out of place by one of the big Barnegat fish. They were put in place by an old tar who chanced to be near, and the little lady has quite recovered and is ready to indulge again in her favorite summer pastime--fishing.

​This morning while a freight was coming in from the Junction, a girl, bare-headed and half-clad, was seen sitting on the track. The engineer blew the whistle sharply many times, but the girl seemed not to hear. Seeing that she paid no attention to the approaching train, Mr. Martin, an old resident here, hastened to her and lifted her out of danger. He recognized the girl as the daughter of an old acquaintance of his, and a former resident of this place. The girl he knew almost in an instant was demented, and in that state had wandered away from home unknown to her family. Mr. Martin says the girl was to have been married this summer, but that her lover was among the killed in the Pittston mine. Her mother, who lives in Jersey City, wrote to Mrs. Martin only a few days ago that the death of Eva's lover had so affected the girl that she was afraid it would unbalance her mind. Mr. Martin put his coat around the girl, and brought her to his home. After coaxing her to put on some of his wife's clothes, he boarded the next train with her to Jersey City. The girl has quite a pretty face.

All of the men wear white trousers, strangely inappropriate as they are for such splashy, dirty sport as fishing. At least, it is supposed they were white when first put on, but they are rarely what they were. If one may judge by what one sees, then the chief occupation of the men is sitting. The seat of their trousers tells the tale.
​
The Girard College boys, five hundred strong, will reach here in the early part of next week. They will camp here for a month or six weeks. They are a jolly set, and great times are expected.

The bicycle girls are in their element here. There are no trolleys, nor any of the annoyances of city life to frighten them. So with clear, smooth paths, they glide happily all day long over hills, and through the valleys, taking with them everywhere rosy cheeks and tanned noses.

Most of the cottages here are owned by Philadelphians, and a number from the Quaker City are here and others are to follow in August. A few, however, weary of the quiet life here, have rented their homes and are sojourning at other resorts. Some of the Philadelphians who are happily domiciled here are Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shoemaker, Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Whroads, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, Mr. and Mrs. Herring, in Perrins' cottage; Mr. and Mrs. Webb, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Gifford, Mr. Pettit and others. F.F. Milne and family are in their pretty cottage on the river front. They have the sailing yacht Vesper in commission, and will soon have their steam pleasure launch ready for use.

Edward Perkins, of Philadelphia, has engaged the yacht Wang for the summer.

One of the prettiest hotels in Island Heights is the Perennial. It is happily situated on the river front, giving an attractive view of the river, and a peep 'round the bluff at Barnegat Bay. Rev. W.A. Ferguson and John L. Ogden are registered at the Perennial from Philadelphia, and a number of Philadelphians are expected at this hotel tonight.

The Fourth of July flags have been waving over the city all day. There has been a sound of crackers, and the odor of powder. Those of mature ears are deaf, but the small boy is so happy that he doesn't know or care that his face is powder-blacked and his hands burned. He has had a glorious day, and will live in fond remembrance until the next Fourth.

Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays - 10 am to 2 pm
78 East Water Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
Guided Tours By Request - New Members Always Welcome
(732) 349-9209 - office@tomsriverseaport.org

​Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

Today we learn about controversy from overfishing along the Jersey shore, as covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer on August 21st, 1894 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

MENHADEN MEN FISHERMEN'S FOE

Fish Steamers' Big Purse Nets Ruining Sport on the Jersey Coast.

Blockade the Inlets and Scoop in Thousands of Food Fish.

Pound Nets Aid in the Slaughter.
Legislation to Protect the Fishing Industry Needed--One of the Chief Attractions of the Seaside Resorts in Danger

Special to The Inquirer.
TOMS RIVER, N.J., Aug. 20.--If something is not speedily done to stop the encroachments of pond fishermen on the one hand, and of menaden steamers on the other, the angling along the Jersey shore will be a matter of history and of tradition only in a very few years' time. Of the two evils the menhaden fishermen are the most destructive. Fitted out with swift steamers and large crews, they cruise along the shores, particularly in the neighborhood of the inlets, where the fish are seeking the quieter and fresher waters of the bays and thoroughfares for spawning places. With large purse nets they take everything from the smallest menhaden or "mossbunkers"--as the shore fishermen call them--up to the largest of blue and weakfish, sea bass, rock fish and all that is going.

It is no uncommon thing to count on a clear summer's day from twelve to fifteen of these steamers plying their trade within a radius of two or three miles, either at Barnegat Inlet or anywhere along Island and Squan beaches. With the utmost of assurance they stand right in the mouths of the inlets and scoop the waters of the teeming millions of fish that have always made the bays their spawning ground.

To the inhabitants of New Jersey's shore, whether it be the hotel men who have millions of dollars invested in hotels at the various resorts, or the poor fisherman, whose whole outfit is a bank skiff and a few band lines with which he has to make his daily bread, the worst feature of this piracy is that it is almost all done by fishermen from other localities.

GREEDY MENHADEN MEN

The menhaden oil factories were first started down in Maine and when the waters of the Eastern States were depleted of these small and non-edible fish, which form the principal food of the blue fish, the menhaden men turned their attention to the coast of New Jersey, but the native fishermen have never taken kindly to the business. Hence 80 per cent. of the menhaden fishermen who are scooping the fish from the coast of New Jersey are from either Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut or Long Island.

At the mouth of the Mullica are two factories that employ three steamers between them, and one of these steamers in one week's time during July landed at the Adams factory, New Gretna, 712,000 fish. Any day scores of these steamers may be seen in a short trip along the coast.

The menhaden men claim that the fish they take are not fit for food, but the nets they use are intended to catch the small mossbunkers, hence it is impossible for the larger fish to escape. Where the bunkers are, also, it is always found that they are followed by shoals of blue fish and other game and food fish. Hence it is impossible to surround them with the purse nets without inclosing the food fish also. But all are bunkers which once get into the nets of the menhaden boats.

There seems to be no way under present laws of restricting this wholesale slaughter of food fish. Twelve years ago A.C.B. Havens, then Senator from Ocean County, after a hard fight succeeded in passing three bills in the Legislature which would have stopped the evil, but Governor Ludlow, on a very labored opinion from Attorney-General Stockton, allowed the bills to die.

During General William J. Sewell's term as United States Senator he attempted to get Congress to take action in the matter. But New Jersey stood alone. The Western Congressmen thought it no concern of theirs, the New England representatives were in the interest of the capital invested in the fish oil factories, and the South Atlantic States were not awake to the fact that they would be the next to suffer from the menhaden pirates. So nothing has been done, and in 1892 the fish factory men had the audacity to introduce a bill, which was favorably reported in the Fisheries Committee, allowing purse net fishing in all inlets, bays and rivers under the jurisdiction of the United States. But the very audacity of this bill killed it.

​THE DEADLY FISH POUND

The fish pounds from Mantoloking up to Sandy Hook are becoming almost a destroyer of the food fish as are menhaden steamers. To be sure, the fish pounds are stationary, while the steamers cruise after the fish everywhere, but the pounds are built in the very lines of travel always pursued by the food fish, and with long outstretched wings take in whole schools of fish. At Elberon and Sea Bright this summer between three and four hundred thousand pounds have been caught in two days.

The immense shoals of fish crowded in the pounds cause large numbers of them to die and render them unmarketable. Senator Bradley, at Asbury Park, has been compelled to keep men patrolling the beach to pick up these dead fish. So many fish have been caught in the past three weeks by these pounds that the city markets have been glutted and thousands and thousands of pounds of fish had to be thrown away.

Not only is there no apparent law to prevent these depredations of ocean fishermen, but net fishermen have become so bold that in the close waters of Barnegat Bay in defiance of law they scoop with drift nets the channels, both day and night. Where a few years ago there were sheepshead shipped by the hundreds of pounds daily to the city markets, now there is hardly one of that gamy fish to be found.

Ten years ago it was by no means uncommon for fishing parties in Barnegat Bay to catch from six hundred to a thousand weakfish in a few hours' time. Now two hundred is boasted of for days, and the party that gets a half dozen fish apiece is considered as doing fairly well. Notwithstanding the direct law that no nets must be used in Barnegat Bay from May 1 to November 1, ever since the weakfish entered the bay last June the channels have been swept by nets.

​New Jersey's game laws are supposed to be enforced by a Game and Fish Commission consisting of George Pfeifier, Jr., of Camden; Parker W. Page, of Summit; W. Campbell Clark, of Newark; and Howard P. Frothingham, of Mt. Arlington. Thomas Maskell, of Morristown, is State Game and Fish Protector, and each county has two Fish Wardens. The wardens patrol the inland streams but make no effort to enforce the law along the coast.

The hotel proprietors and property owners along the shore are beginning to recognize the fact that if it were devoid of its attraction as a fishing resort it would lose many of its most frequent visitors, and a movement has been started to check the menhaden pirates and net fishermen who are depleting the fish supply.

​FOOD FISH MUST BE PROTECTED

Captain Ike Jennings, of Harvey Cedars, says: "The menhaden fishermen are certainly ruining the hook and line fishing. Where there are plenty of young menhaden for food there you will always find good fishing. But these menhaden steamers send their boats within a few yards of shore, between the bar and the beach, and scoop up everything that can be found, so that nowadays squidding for blue fish in the surf is almost a thing of the past. Only this week I counted eight menhaden steamers right off Harvey Cedars. The United States should unite with Great Britain--as that country long since requested us to--and forbid menhaden fishing within three miles and a half of land."

Pilot Commissioner Henry C. Gulick, of Barnegat, says practically the same thing. Ex-Senator A.C.B. Havens, now clerk of Ocean County, has long made the fishing interests a study. He says: "The State should assume authority to act in the case of the menhaden fishermen."

Captain Jacob Birdsall, of Waretown, says: "I have counted this summer as many as fourteen menhaden steamers lying at the mouth of Barnegat Bay, directly in the Inlet. Net fishing must be abolished, and the fish pound as well, or angling at the Jersey coast resorts will be wiped out, and it will be a short time only when there will be no fish in Barnegat Bay."

​At Forked River, Byron E. Eno, proprietor of the Riverside House, who has made salt water fish conditions a study for years says: "Menhaden fishing is destroying one of the largest industries along our coast, and is beside seriously endangering our food supply. Before the advent of the menhaden and pound fishermen hundreds and thousands of families along the Jersey coast were comfortably supported by hook and line fishing, the market was steady, never glutted and the supply was sufficient. The menhaden boats diminished the supply and caused the introduction of the fish pound to supply the market. I think they should be compelled to keep off shore at least seven miles."

These are sample opinions of the influential men along the shore on the menhaden question, and a sentiment is being created by these marauders that will result in a determined effort to protect food fish along the New Jersey coast.

Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays - 10 am to 2 pm
78 East Water Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
Guided Tours By Request - New Members Always Welcome
(732) 349-9209 - office@tomsriverseaport.org

Welcome to Toms River Seaport Society’s (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

This week dive into life around the Barnegat Bay summer season, as covered by the Jersey City News on August 10th, 1897 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

BARNEGAT'S SEASON.

Crowds of Visitors at the Old South Jersey Resorts.

GOOD FISHING AND SAILING

Sport Universally Fine--How to Get There and What the Trip Costs.

"I don't know when we ever had as many Newarkers down here as we have since the rains ceased," said a Forked River hotel man on Tuesday. They might have said the same thing at Barnegat, Waretown, Toms River or the "Pier," for the visit of Newarkers to all points on the bay amounted almost to an invasion last week.

The reason of it is that Newarkers know a good thing, and just now there is no better place than Barnegat Bay for anglers or gunners, camping parties or yachting people. The weather last week was perfect--neither too warm or too cool. The breezes were constant and at no time stiff enough to cause any but the most cautious sailors to resort to reefing. There was no fog during the week, and the only drawback to the complete enjoyment of the delightful weather was the swarms of mosquitoes which swooped down at night when the wind died out. Barnegatters are used to mosquitoes, however, and no house is without its netting. Campers fight the little pests with smudges, and some folks try to disgust the insects by anointing themselves with pennyroyal or pine tar lotions. They say down there that mosquitoes never deterred a Newarker from visiting the bay, and never drove one away, although New Yorkers were frequently dismayed and retired vanquished by the little pests. When a visitor was anathematizing the mosquitoes on Monday night, Captain Ed Parker said:--"Pshaw, 'skeeters don't amount to anything. Just wait till the green heads get at you." "Green heads" are little cattle flies, which come out to the boat to look for you while fishing. They are not many, but they are quite warm and extremely persistent, says the Newark "Sunday Call."

Now, having told what the disagreeable features of life at Barnegat Bay are, it will be only fair to speak of some of the attractions of the place, with a little description for those who have no well defined idea of the lay of the land and the water.

The bay is a little over thirty miles long, four miles wide in the widest part and nowhere more than twelve or fifteen feet deep. The northern extremity of the bay is at Bay Head, a mile and a half below Point Pleasant. Its eastern boundary is a narrow strip of sand dunes and salt marsh, running southward for twenty-three miles from Manasquan inlet to Barnegat inlet. This is Barnegat Beach, and at its widest part it is scarcely a mile in width, taking into consideration the marsh on the inner side. In many places the width of the strip is less than an eighth of a mile, and it seems strange that the sea does not cut through it in stormy weather. On this beach are Mantoloking, Chadwick's, Lavallette, Ortley, Berkeley and Sea Side Park. The latter is half way between Bay Head and Barnegat inlet, and the Pennsylvania Railroad runs to this point, then turns westward, crossing the shallow bay on a trestle bridge nearly 3,000 yards in length and running to Island Heights and Toms River on the river of that name. There are three life-saving stations and one or two fishing and shooting huts on the beach below the bridge. Altogether there are eleven life-saving stations on the outer shore of the bay.

Barnegat inlet is about 1,500 yards or less than a mile in width, and is navigable at high tide for vessels drawing ten feet of water. On the southern side of the inlet is a tall brick lighthouse and the quaint settlement known as Barnegat City, which contains two hotels, one of which is so large that it has never been filled up. Five miles below the lighthouse on this strip of sand known as Long Beach is the famous Harvey's Cedars, one of the most retired and most attractive spots on the Jersey coast. It is famous only for its fishing and shooting, but it is a difficult place to get at except by means of a yacht. There is a railroad on Long Beach, running out from Manahawkin, but it is a most discouraging sort of a road. This finishes the outer coast of Barnegat Bay, except that a pleasant spot has been neglected in passing.

Half a mile or more inside of the north point of the inlet are two island separated by a narrow creek. They are known as the Great Sedge, and one of them is occupied by Dr. Warner's shooting box, a comfortable big cottage which for two seasons has been open to the public. It is now a well patronized boarding place, and is convenient to the best shooting and fishing points on the bay, though inconvenient to reach from the railroad. Great Sedge is five miles across the bay from either Forked River landing or Waretown station.

​On the inner side of the bay Toms River is the first railroad town having access to the good fishing waters. It is a most picturesque and attractive town five miles up the river from the bay. The navigation is easy, and a big fleet of yachts make the head of the river their anchorage. The town has two large hotels and a number of boarding houses, and is undoubtedly the prettiest place on the road as well as the most important and thriving. Six miles further down the road is Lanoka, formerly called Cedar Creek, which has a few yachts doing business upon the bay.

Three miles further south is the town to which nearly all the Newarkers go when they want fishing. It is called Forked River, because it lies upon a stream with three branches which take a winding course through the meadows. There are three good hotels in the village proper, and one large one at the landing, a mile down the road toward the bay. The most popular hotel with the anglers is undoubtedly the old one known as the Lafayette House, which was kept for years by the late Sheriff Parker, and is now run by his son-in-law, Asa Tilton, in exactly the same manner. He believes in high feeding for horse or man. "Keep 'em well fed and they'll be careful," Asa says, and everything is put on the table so that a guest can get all he wants. An ordinary breakfast for one guest on Monday morning consisted of an omelette, a steak, two fried soft crabs, clam fritters, muffins, a broiled weakfish, fried potatoes, slices tomatoes and coffee. Of course he could not eat it all, but he remarked that he did much better than when he arrived at the place a week previous.

As a family resort, the Riverside House, kept by B.E. Eno, at the landing down the river, is extremely popular and at the same time it entertains many angling parties. It has a big farm in conjunction with the hotel, and the eggs, milk and vegetables are produced on the place. A long string of yachts occupy the front of the hotel landing.

The price per day for a Barnegat Bay yacht, going out from Forked River, is $4 [$147 in 2023 dollars]. They are nearly all roomy, half-cabin catboats, well fitted with cushions, folding table, camp stools and deck seats and carrying ice and ice water with facilities for keeping other things, which some anglers regard as indispensable, such as bottled beer and soft drinks. The captain of the boat is engaged over night and asks a few stereotyped questions about bait and beverages required. He gets up early and stocks up the boat. The hotel keeper prepares lunch for the party and the captain and it is always more than they can eat. If the party is stopping in the village, the hotel stage takes the members to the landing with their tackle and lunch, and the boat is found ready to start. The boat is sailed or poled out of the shallow water into the open bay, where there is nearly always wind enough to fill the sail. If there is not, it does not matter much, for it would be difficult to find a place in the bay where the "setting" pole will not reach bottom. The run to the fishing grounds is usually a speedy and pleasant sail, and whether at anchor or drifting the sport is just now assured. It is due to the worst kind of mismanagement if a Barnegat captain fails to find weakfish now, and he can give his patrons a chance to catch 400 school fish or four dozen big tide runners, as they may elect. At the same time he is keeping his eye open for bluefish, which have been abundant this season, and if he sees a school he will quickly get out his squids and cruise for these coveted fish. Big, tide-running weakfish, however, are the chief dependence, and they give excellent sport upon a light rod. A three pound weakfish will fight for five or ten minutes if the angler cares to play him on a six ounce rod with light tackle, which is not strong enough to yank him right out of the water. Most visitors to the bay, however, are equipped with stout rods capable of bringing the biggest fish quickly to boat, unless the tackle breaks, as it frequently does with the first rush of a heavy fish. Shedder crabs is the only bait to be considered in weakfishing unless after school fish, which at times will bite at anything white, even though it may be nothing but a piece of cotton.

There are places in the bay where the angler may catch plaice, seabass and porgies, and occasionally a few fine sheepshead are taken but the mainstay is weakfish. Striped bass are plentiful in the channels, but the fishing for them must be done by trolling from rowboats, as the yachts cannot go where the bass congregate. Blood worms are used in catching bass, and for two seasons they have been supplied by the bait catchers at Forked River. They did not know what they were or how to get them until several New Yorkers displayed them two years ago and told how they were obtained.

While Forked River has more boats and better facilities for anglers than any other place on the bay, there are two other much visited resorts further down the bay. One is Waretown and the other is the ancient village of Barnegat, with its two hotels and a few boarding houses. It is the father of all fishing places on the bay, and sends out a dozen boats per day in the busy season, catering to a lot of old-time visitors to the bay and feeling that no other place has so good a right to exist. It is a quaint and almost pathetic old village, reeking with history and full of historians, many of whom have traveled the world over as masters of deep water vessels.

Getting to Barnegat Bay from Newark is considerable of an enterprise, and one might go to Baltimore as quickly as some of the trains take one to Forked River. There is a train which leaves the foot of Liberty street, New York, at 4:30 A.M. and arrives at Forked River at 8:35, covering a distance of seventy-six miles in a little over four hours. Other trains do a little better, perhaps an hour better. The Newarker changes at Elizabethport, Red Bank and Manchester on most of the trains, although there is a train in the afternoon which does not make the latter change. Within a month the Central Railroad Company has put on a Sunday train, which leaves New York at 9:15 A.M. and can be caught by taking a train from the Broad street station in this city at 9:30. It arrives at Forked River before noon and returns from there at 6:44, arriving here before ten o'clock. Anglers say that it would be better patronized if it started two or three hours earlier and gave them a chance to spend six or seven hours on the bay. They could certainly get all the fishing they wanted in that time. The hotelkeepers along the bay do not like the Sunday train, because it takes so many of their guests away who would otherwise pay for bed and breakfast, and brings down few who stay for dinner.

Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays - 10 am to 2 pm
78 East Water Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
Guided Tours By Request - New Members Always Welcome
(732) 349-9209 - office@tomsriverseaport.org

Welcome to a new feature by the Toms River Seaport Society, the (Mari)Time-Warp, taking our supporters back through the nautical history of the Barnegat Bay and Toms River watershed areas!

This week, a peek into the founding of Lanoka Harbor (part of Lacey Township today) by George M. Lane, as covered by the Daily Press of Asbury Park on August 22nd, 1892 and rediscovered thanks to Newspapers.com.

​THE FOUNDING OF A NEW TOWN

BEAUTIFUL LANOKA.

The founder or projector of a city, village, hamlet, or resort, is always among the first who are entitled to a place upon the honor-roll that is kept in the mind of the public, as well as upon the pages of books and newspapers.

This, for the very reason that the projector or founder is always a developer, a creator of the scores of enterprises that invariably of necessity follow in the train of new or growing settlements. This preface is justly called for as an introduction to a gentleman who has been one of Asbury Park's most valuable citizens so far as his public service is concerned, (as the ensuing history of his life will show,) while he ias at present in the midst of the work of founding a new community.

Reference is made to Mr. George M. Lane, the projector of the beautiful locality known as Lanoka, in Ocean County, and formerly known as Cedar Creek.

The past career of this gentleman is so favorably and well known that it is but necessary to state that he came to Asbury Park in 1880, since which time he has always taken an active part in business affairs. Mr. Lane was the organizer of the Asbury Park Electric Light Works and acted as Secretary and Superintendent of the Company until about July, when, finding that the routine of business was undermining his health, he decided to resign from his duties as an active officer. However, Mr. Lane retains his interest as a stockholder and director.

In addition to his financial interests, he is the owner of a number of valuable patents which he will now have an opportunity to develop. Among these inventions may be mentioned a station indicator designed to do away with the present annoying process used to inform passengers of their destinations; a self-regulating arc lamp; a telegraph key and sounder; insulating joints for electrical fixtures; and a carbon so constructed that it will burn all night in a single lamp, thus dispensing with the complicated mechanism required in the ordinary all-night lamp, etc.

Added to Mr. Lane's recent ventures is the purchase of a splendid plot of land at Lanoka which he has laid out in building lots and is now offering to the public.

​The locality of Lanoka is well known to people who frequent Barnegat Bay for fishing, sailing and other recreative benefits, and it is the object of the projector of this new resort to give residence to those who seek these diversions directly at the place they are found. The popular fishing banks of Barnegat Bay are abreast of Cedar Creek, or Lanoka, and a desirable but unsettled portion is now proposed to be opened up for new people and summer cottages, while the shores of Cedar Creek and the bay form favorite sites for club houses.

Lanoka is situated on the main shore road, six miles from Toms River, and but three miles from Forked River, a resort attracting hundreds of people annually for the excellent fishing and other natural advantages this bay district affords.

Lanoka is reached by railroad from New York and Philadelphia; has a good hotel, school, stores, and is situated in the midst of oak groves overlooking Barnegat Bay and the beach. Cedar Creek, from which the original village took its name, is an ever-flowing stream fed by numerous tributaries in a vast stretch of back farm-land country and empties itself into Barnegat Bay. The conditions surrounding Lanoka are exceptionally favorable for the development of this section of seashore.

It is proposed to establish a canning factory at Lanoka, and for natural advantages it would be impossible to select a more favorable location; inasmuch as it is surrounded by some of the finest trucking land in the state of New Jersey. The surrounding country is rich in the growth of berries of every description, which may be purchased at an exceedingly low price. However, this is but one of the manifold advantages to be derived from a residence at Lanoka.

​Geographically speaking, its proximity to Barnegat Bay would enable the canning factory to run the entire year, as the canning of oysters, terrapin, clams, etc., with which the Bay abounds, could be carried on during the winter months.

Mr. Lane's business experience alone speaks for the exceptionally advantageous features of Lanoka; for hs is by great odds too level-headed and far-observing to be induced to take upon his shoulders a venture in which he could not see his way clearly, or that he did not deem absolutely worthy of all the time and attention that he bestowed upon it.

Mr. Lane's past business career gives ample proof that he never makes a business move without first consulting its merits, after which he pushes it for all that there is in it, but in such a way and upon principles that are wholly within keeping of the operations of an honorable business man.

There is no doubt but Mr. Lane has a worthy and profitable venture in Lanoka; and it is but a question of time before it will be one of the most popular and frequented resorts along the eastern coast of the state.

A feature of Lanoka which should not be overlooked is the fact that new towns are springing up along Barnegat Bay. The facilities afforded for sailing and steam yachts between Lanoka and these cities of the future will open up numerous pleasure jaunts, that will go far toward giving that variety which is the spice of life, even in pleasure making as well as the soberer moments of existence.

Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays - 10 am to 2 pm
78 East Water Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
Guided Tours By Request - New Members Always Welcome
(732) 349-9209 - office@tomsriverseaport.org

Third month.
Full moon tonight.
And this is March.
Days are much longer.
Planning your garden now?
Just think—strawberries will soon be ripe.
Soon we'll be discussing daylight saving time.
The vanguard of the Florida tourists are on their way home.
A sure sign of spring—the baby chicks singing in the post office [being sent in the mail to the area poultry farms].
Thousands and thousands of baby chicks are being hatched now.
Haven't heard of anybody starting the swimming season yet. Now, when we were boys--
Plenty of ice left in river and bay, and on ponds and bogs it is ten to twelve inches thick.
While cranking his car on Friday last Mariano Gentile suffered a sharp blow when the crank handle snapped back, breaking a small bone in his wrist.
Main Street wants a good heavy rain to wash the dirt off of it. Once in awhile somebody cleans up the dirt in front of his place—but about the only ones noted are two hotels, Ocean House and Marion Inn.
Harold Chamberlain and family have moved from Dayton Avenue to their newly bought poultry farm at Berkeley Heights, south of the P.R.R., on the Dover road [now South Toms River Borough]. They have farm No. 2, on the northwest side of the road.
Bert Blackman, of Lakewood, to acting agent of the C.R.R. Depot since the death of C.M. Campbell. Blackman is a native of Tuckerton, was stationed at Barnegat as agent for some years and is now extra agent on the C.R.R., living in Lakewood.
Edwin H. Berry, who last week returned from a Florida trip, says you can see folks form this section wherever you may go. Mr. and Mrs. Berry saw Mr. and Mrs. Crabbe in both St. Augustine and Miami. In the latter city he met Will Klippel, a former Toms River boy, now at Detroit, Mich. He also saw William C. Alexander, of Island Heights, and others, from this locality at various places he visited.
Ben Novins, of Fire Company No. 2 has been troubled with a wound in his hand ever since the fire at the Kaufman feed store, on Water Street, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Novins was on Kaufman's second floor when the side gave way and the building fell. He jumped and his hand went through a window, cutting the tendon in one finger in two, and the physicians last week decided that they had about fixed him up. He may, however, not get back the use of that finger—or he may, if the surgery develops right. Ben is a brother of Joe Novins, president of No. 2 Company who lost his life at the Hankins fire last spring.
Martin Brandt is building a large chicken house at his Hooper Avenue place.
This is the time of year to get your business in shape for the rush days you expect in July, August and September.
High school students are working up their debate on the ship subsidy question which is to come off at Barnegat in a few weeks.
The front of the Mathews and Evernham building, on Main Street, has been torn off and is being rebuilt, about four or five feet back of the former front.
Coal seems to be coming along once more, and the worst of the cold weather must be over. Well, we have survived the winter and the coal famine so let's be thankful and happy.
The cross roads and back roads in the township have been the cause of much loud and heated talk in the past month. Ruts froze hard, and the fellow unlucky enough to get his auto wheels in a rut was lucky if he had any tires after traveling awhile.
The village school has been reduced to burning wood for the most part this winter, and without wood it would have been necessary to close it down, as coal has for a good part of the time been impossible to get. Most of our churches have also burnt wood a good part of the winter.
Harry Staples has started work on the foundation for Ellenberger and Leming's new machine shop on Main Street, adjoining the George Alsheimer building. The store will set back some sixty feet from the sidewalk, leaving room for a store in front should they decide to build one.
There will be several hundred thousand chicks hatched in Ocean County this season by the commercial hatcheries alone. In Fact it is said there are four hatcheries that can, and probably will, turn out a half million chicks. Two of these are at Toms River—the Authorized Breeders' Association and the Hathaway Hatchery; one in Laurelton, the Laurelton Farms, and one in New Egypt, Howard L. Davis.
The Scott Poultry Farm, at Pine Beach, finished the contest at New York State School of Agriculture, Farmingdale, Long Island, for 1922, with the fourth best hen and the fifth best pen, out of 1000 birds in the contest. Mr. Scott has been in the poultry business for seventeen years. In 1905 he started at Valley Stream, building up a stock of 1000 layers; ten years later, in 1915, he moved to a larger farm at Rockville Center, Long Island and increasing his flock to 2000 layers; in 1919 he bought the 55-acre farm, just east of Quail Run, running it as an auxiliary to the Rockville Center plant till last summer, when he sold out on Long Island, and moved his entire outfit to this place. Mr. Scott's sons, Theodore and Harold, are associated with him in the poultry business. They breed single comb white leghorns exclusively.
Complaint is made to The Courier, that owing to Main Street being so much firmer walking than Main Street sidewalks [it being recently paved with concrete for the first time], in wet and muddy weather, pedestrians are using it to such an extent as to endanger their own lives. On a wet night, either rainy or foggy, the auto driver has a slippery pavement to contend with and sometimes it is impossible to swing a car out suddenly to escape hitting a pedestrian...
Boat owners are now due to look over their craft and dream of summer cruises—coming down from the city for the week ends to do it.
Snow on Tuesday.
Easter comes on April 1.
Sap is running in trees and shrubs.
Flocks of bluebirds are seen about.
Did you see the eclipse Friday night?
The first turkey buzzard was noted on Sunday last.
The bottom dropped out of gravel roads with last week's thaw.
Robins are reported now and then. Rather disgusted with the weather, though.
Heard a song sparrow on Sunday. P.L. Grover says he heard one on Thursday before.
During the warm spell wasps were seen—other insects were out—and a grasshopper was reported as seen in Pershing [section of Toms River].
Days are almost as long as the nights—in fact, the daylight is now longer than darkness, if we include the twilight.
The post office is getting many applicants for the two jobs as letter carriers under the new free delivery plan. A number of the applicants are from out of town, too.
A fire was started in the brush up Lakehurst road on Sunday morning, about 9 o'clock. No damage was done. The fire was started by Elbert Malcolm, a young lad, who said he wanted to hear the whistle blow and see the firemen come. Elbert is not responsible for his acts, and he will probably be secured a place in the Colony at Four Mile, Burlington County, or at Vineland, where he can be taught and cared for.
About the finest sweet potatoes we have seen this winter were in a package that William C. Willoughby, of Pershing, left at The Courier office last week. Mr. Willoughby is an old sweet potato grower, having learned the art in Maryland, as a young man, and having had lots of practice.
The Township Committee have changed the hours of the police so that one many is on duty at night, up till 5 A.M. This meets the complaint of merchants, that when a watchman was needed most, he had gone home, the night policeman formerly going home at 3 A.M., according to schedule.
With two motor vehicle inspectors in the county, two state troopers at the county seat, beside our own peace officers, we ought to get by this summer in peace and quiet.
The gap on Water Street, where the Kaufman building formerly stood shows what a fine thing it would be if the town could afford to buy all the property on that side of the street and clear it to the river [this happened during urban renewal projects in the 1960s, which is why Huddy Park and the river is viewable from Water Street today].
Capt. Jim Chamberlain says he saw king turtles crawling about in the creek during the warm spell, and also saw several kingfishers last week.
Several people reported hearing frogs piping on Monday. But they were sorry on Tuesday.
Jack Woods, who has been with the American Stores Company for some years, coming here as manager of their Toms River store, and for some time past being district manager, will resign soon and open a market of his own in the Traco Building.
Local growers expect to make shipments of sweet potatoes in a week or ten days, as the market is getting stronger.
A large list of candidates for naturalization papers came before Judge Newman today at the Court House.
Sheppard Robbins, of Bridgeton, has been appointed station agent on the Central, at Toms River, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clifford M. Campbell. He took charge yesterday.
Spring rains.
When there is a dry day, boys get out the ball and bat.
The concrete road on Main Street wants a good sweeping.
Herman Fuhr is out again after a fierce tussle with the flu.
The herring are running, how soon will it be time to bob for eels.
A houseboat belonging to William Irons, on the lower end of the sandspit, was burned on Sunday night while Irons was away. It looks like a case of arson. One of Bill's dogs was also killed, it was reported, and he lost $60 in money that he had hid in the boat. The fireman turned out.
Manager Perrin, of the Marion Inn, has been exhibiting some photos of Toms River, taken by the officers in Army C-14, recently, when they circled over the village.
The two traffic posts have arrived, and will be set up the first of the week. The one at Main and Water streets will have four green lights flashing up and down Main, and east and west on Water Street. The one at Main and Washington streets will show green flashes on Main and yellow when coming west on Washington Street, to tell the traveler that the street goes no further. These are standard lights, adopted by road associations. The lights will be of the carbide tank kind, burning gas, the tank needing to be refilled only at long intervals. They set on a concrete base, and are as high as a man's head. They are the same type as those in use in Lakewood.
Spring.
Frequent rains.
Maples in bloom.
A few robins are heard.
Boys are playing baseball.
Frogs have been “singing.”
Small girls are jumping rope.
Women plan house-cleaning.
Crocus buds opened Sunday.
Boat builders are in their spring rush.
James Purpuri of Main street learned last week of the death of his father, Rosario Purpuri, at Castelbuono, Sicily. The Purpuri shoe store closed three days in his memory.
Jack Woods has left the American Stores Company and is now getting his new market in the Traco building ready for opening in a few weeks.
Franklin Minturn has been appointed eastern distributor for the Elto marine motor, which he sold in this section last summer. He now has a much larger territory.
Boatmen are beginning to talk and think about boat races.
There are current many rumors of counterfeit $10, $20, and $100 bills being in circulation all along the Jersey coast, as having been paid out by the New York end of the rum-running syndicates to their helpers and to the ship masters who brought the rum to the shore. Let's hope that the $3000 cash bail given in behalf of the Clam Island “rum scout” doesn't turn out to be counterfeit money.
Large quantities of sea clams have washed ashore on the beaches for several weeks past. Thousands upon thousands have been gathered for food. But for the most part vast flocks of gulls that have gathered on the beach have been feeding on them. The gulls in the air, on the beach, or sitting in the ocean, must aggregate millions.
Frogs piping.
Birds singing.
Moonlit nights.
Boatbuilders are busy.
Buds are swelling more.
Lawns show a spring green.
More robins came last Friday.
Elms and maples are in bloom.
Gardeners are clearing up and getting ready.
Painters and paperhangers are now getting orders.
William Herbert is tearing down his house on the northwest corner of the village, and will rebuild it. Meantime, he has fitted up a new barn as a house and the family are sheltered there.
Several cases of measles among the children and many of whooping cough.
Bob Cahill and partner, of Toms River, captured the silver loving cup in the prize fox trot contest recently held at Forked River.
An examination for letter carriers for Toms River has been slated to be held on Saturday, April 21. There are a number of applicants.
Fifteen new books weer put on the pay shelf of the public library in the past week, and all were taken out the first day. It is the plan to add a few books of recent fiction each month this summer.
The recent death of William L. DeGraw, the Water Street merchant, removes from the village one of its best known and best liked citizens. “Uncle Will,” as scores called him, had a cheery word and a pleasant smile every day and for everybody. The village loses in his death but is the gainer by the years he spent here.
Little Bobbie Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. B.F. Johnson, had a personal message by radio from the broadcasting station which sends out the bedtime stories. Bobbie listens in to the bedtime stories every night, and is very fond of them. Recently hearers were asked to send in their names to the station, and Mrs. Johnson sent in Bobbie's name. One night this week the station at bedtime said it had heard from Bobbie Johnson of Toms River, adding that the sender had been to Toms River fishing and crabbing many times.
No. 2 Fire Company bought 600 feet of hose, with nozzles, wrenches, bars, axes and other outfit at the Proving Ground sale on Tuesday. They also bought two electric siren fire alarms. They had intended putting one of these up for a modern fire alarm system in the village, but add that they have been told they will not be allowed to do it. Similar alarms have just been installed at Island Heights and Seaside Park at a cost of several hundred dollars each. It would seem that if Toms River could get one at a small cost, rivalry between two fire companies ought not to be allowed to stand in the way of an advantage to the village.
April.
A cold Easter.
Fourth month.
Sparrows are nest building.
River is full of herring they say.
Daffodils are trying hard to bloom.
Forest fires have been numerous if not large.
More boats are being built for Barnegat Bay racing this summer than ever before in any one year.
The wooden mask has been torn off the Toms River Supply Company building which now shows up with a light brick front, like that of the Economy Sales Co. building next door. The two buildings make the finest looking business block in town, and are a credit to their owners.
Large crowds yesterday at Traco benefit for Fire Co. No. 2.
William F. Johnson of Hooper avenue is planning to carry on a gasoline and oil station on the corner of Cedar Grove road and Hooper avenue.
From Friday to Tuesday night there were a number of forest fires, Tuesday evening the horizon from the north to the south, on the west side of town, was lighted up.
George J. Gould, of Lakewood, has been reported as very ill at his villa in France. [He would soon die of pneumonia on May 16, 1923, on the French Riviera after contracting a fever in Egypt where he visited the tomb of Tutankhamun.]

​HYERS AND SNYDER STREETS
If Dover Township does nothing else in 1923 it ought by all means straighten out the difficulties of Hyers Street. Here is one of the main arteries of travel in the town, which remains a country road, with no sidewalk, and with no entrance to Washington Street when it gets there. A good part of its length Hyers Street should be widened; it should be given sidewalks on both sides; the hole in the wall should be opened up. People living on Hyers Street, and those who travel it, pay taxes. They are not apart from the rest of the town. We are told they cannot have free mail delivery because they have no sidewalks. They are surely entitled to all that the rest of the village has—and they must get it, too.
And when Hyers Street is being put on the map why not extend Park Street through to Snyder Street, and give that cul de sac an outlet? [100 years later, and this was never done—houses now block the way] Of course, Park Street could not run straight on, but the improvised road used all last fall could be made into a street. Snyder Street people are also entitled to a sidewalk on each side of their street, and the street should be widened to obtain it. Why put these things off year after year when they are so obvious that anyone can see they ought to be done at once? The longer you put them off, generally the more it costs to get them done.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Praises for Prof. Haupt
To The Courier:
It was somewhat over a year ago that I wrote you a letter of “defense” of Professor Haupt—now even to the people of this section he needs no defense for his works are a monument to him.
At that time I spoke of how he designed some jetties calculated to keep open the mouth of the Manasquan River and how the government engineers said it could not be done, and how the half completed jetties were washed away in a storm and how they blamed him, losing sight of the fact that they built them three months later than Professor Haupt said they must be built. Now he has accomplished the seemingly impossible task of harnessing the power of the ocean and make them open the closed channel.
At Barnegat Light the half completed jetties, partly destroyed because of their incomplete state, are still holding the sands they accumulated despite the severe storms of the past winter. Out on the beach can still be seen some of the $60,000 worth of “rocks” the government engineers placed there and the balance are deeply buried under the sands by the ceaseless action of the ocean. If you climb the 200 steps to the top of the light you can still see a few more piles in the inlet buried so deep under the waters that they can only be seen when looking from above. Now the government is planning to place (or bury) $100,000 more “rocks” while the Haupt jetties still stand.
His knowledge is proven again when one looks at the jetties before Barnegat City [today Barnegat Light] and Surf City and now he is to build an additional jetty at Beach Haven Inlet, to stop the sea from encroaching and engulfing more lots at that resort.
Is it not time for Seaside Park to get busy and have him design a jetty to prevent the mighty ocean breaking an inlet at that place? But possibly I am wrong. It may be quite interesting to the summer visitors at the Park to see how the government buries “rocks.” If they wait for the government to do it, then the money might have to be used to protect property from an inlet, for the inlet might be a fact before the engineers get busy and if an inlet does break through who knows but what it would cause the abandonment of the railroad bridge and then Mr. Haag and his fellow-citizens will be delayed more than the are now by the “dreadful delay of running into Island Heights.”
No one knows Professor Haupt as I have known him, but to admire the engineer and the man.
Charles F. Maisch
Island Heights, N.J., Feb. 26, 1923

​BARNEGAT SNEAKBOX AT THE NEW YORK MOTORBOAT SHOW
Visitors from this section at the New York Motorboat Show, held the past week in Madison Square Garden, were much pleased with the exhibit of a Barnegat sneakbox, from the shops of J. Howard Perrine, at Barnegat. The boat shown was one of his one-design models, of which some of the yacht clubs in this section have fleets. The show had a number of new ideas in motorboat building, but the improvements and changes—the novelties shown—were more in accessories and fittings than in either boats or engines, is the report that comes back from New York.

​SCANDAL OVER DISAPPEARING EVIDENCE
GRAND JURY ROOM GUARDED SMUGGLED WHISKEYS VANISH
A mystery surrounds the session of the Ocean County Grand Jury on Monday last, March 5, that all the county sleuths have been unable to unravel.
One of the matters the grand jury had before it was the seizure of 287 cases of smuggled Scotch whiskey on George J. Gould's gunning preserve, at Clam Island, on February 11. According to one of those mysterious stories that have no father, no mother, no sister or no brother, yet are known to everybody, a case of Scotch was taken from the county jail where it was behind triple-locked steel bars, and delivered to the grand jury room as evidence.
The jury room door is guarded when the grand jury is in session, by from one to three officers, and that was the situation on Monday. Yet when the case was turned back to be again placed in safe keeping in the county jail, there was not a bottle of the smuggled whiskey left in the box. All had mysteriously disappeared.
The whiskey seems to have a disappearing habit, unless it is behind locked doors and bars. According to the receipt given for it when it was brought into Barnegat Inlet and landed on Clam Island, February 4, there were even 300 cases. A week later, when seized by the Sheriff's officer and Coast Guards, there were thirteen cases that had disappeared during the week it was cached on Clam Island, the tally showing but 287. The disappearing habit, or trick, still stays by the stuff, if we are to believe the report about the happenings on Monday.

​LONG BEACH HAS BOOM
MANY HOUSES TO BUILD
Long Beach, particularly from High Point to Beach Haven, is said to be on the boom, and scores of houses are being built in the next few months. George P. Eckert, a Philadelphia business man, who spends about half the year at Brant Beach, was at Toms River on Wednesday, and reports that Long Beach is feeling the impetus of newcomers and is also reaping the benefits of the work done in recent years by those who have planned and gone ahead with pioneer development work. His home town, Brant Beach, with its water and lights, is an example, and a number of nice homes have just been built, and others will follow there. Last summer the Misses Dornan finished a fine summer home; last fall Walter L. Focht, of Birdsboro, Pa., completed an $3000 summer residence; the Morrison family are just completing a fine bungalow; William L. Evaul, of Riverton, will also have a nice bungalow for this summer. There are four or five more houses to be built at this one resort this spring.
The largest building operations are generally at Beach Haven, but the string of small resorts all along the beach are also putting up houses. Beach Arlington [later consolidated within Ship Bottom Borough] and Ship's Bottom with their small homes are adding to the number all the time. The new resorts at the Junction had several new houses built last fall, and more are promised this spring.
The Long Beach Township Committee have, Mr. Eckert reports, just completed the jetty at the north point of Beach Haven Inlet, as designed by Professor Haupt. He reports that the committee inspected it last Saturday and found that it had made a great deal of land, and that the sand was being impounded rapidly. There is need of another jetty, but the township is about at the end of its financial ability to build jetties, and has asked aid from the Board of Freeholders, and also from the State Department of Commerce and Navigation.

​JEALOUS LOVER SHOOTS GIRL AND KILLS SELF
ETHEL RICHMOND, LAKEHURST, VICTIM OF FORMER SOLDIER
Jealous because his former fiancee had danced and laughed with other men at the ball to which he had taken her, angry because she told him that the engagement was broken, and that she would not marry him, despondent because he had thrown up his job in Jersey City to be near the girl he loved, John H. Boyd, a former service man, put a bullet into the breast of Miss Ethel Richmond, at Lakehurst, last Saturday morning, March 24, and sent two bullets through his own heart. He died almost instantly; she is at the Paul Kimball Hospital, Lakewood, and will recover, not being seriously wounded.
Miss Richmond, aged 19, tall, slender, vivacious, has been a popular figure in Lakehurst and Lakewood social sets. She lives in Lakehurst with her mother, Mrs. Lillian Richmond, and her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Higgins. Her father, from whom her mother is divorced, is William Richmond, now of Trenton, son of Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy Richmond, of Lakehurst.
Boyd was a soldier during the war and was stationed at the Proving Ground Post, after the close of the war. While at Lakehurst, attending dances, and other social gatherings, he became acquainted with Miss Richmond. He was somewhat older than her, perhaps 28 years old, his friends say, and wished to get married. She was young, full of fun and life, and did not want to settle down. For awhile she wore his ring and they were considered by her friends to be engaged. There was another suitor, a sailor at the Naval Air Station, who was also liked by the young girl, who apparently had not made up her mind which she liked best. The story goes that after the sailor was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Boyd thought he had a clear field. Lately this sailor had been sent back to Lakehurst. Meantime Boyd had been in Jersey City, working on the Pennsylvania Railroad, but returned to Lakehurst about a week before the tragedy. It is thought by some of his friends that he threw up the job to be near Miss Richmond.
Friday night Boyd had taken Miss Richmond to the dance. It was noticed that he sat and sulked most of the evening, while she was full of life and fun, and rallied him for his sullen and sour behavior. She danced with other men, and also with the rival, the sailor. After the dance they walked her home. A neighbor, who had been at the dance, a married woman, walked home with them. This was between 1:00 and 2:00 Saturday morning. It is alleged that Boyd again asked Miss Richmond to marry him. She said that it was all off between them. He insisted on knowing if this was final, and she replied that it was final. It is then alleged that he said, “Well, if I can't have you, no one else shall,” and fired twice at her. She sprang aside and away from him as he pulled the gun, and only one ball took effect, making a flesh wound in her side, and not hitting a vital spot. He then turned the gun on himself, firing three times, two bullets going through his heart.
Mrs. Richmond and the other occupants of the house were roused by the shots, and ran down stairs to find Boyd lying on the floor, the smoking revolver several paces away from where he had staggered, and the girl just collapsing. She was hurried to Kimball Hospital, and word was sent to Dr. Frank Brouwer, of Toms River, Coroner, and to Prosecutor W.H. Jayne, Jr., of Lakewood. Boyd's body was removed to C.P. Anderson's morgue at Toms River.
That Boyd had intended to commit suicide if Miss Richmond refused to marry is evident from two letters he had written on Friday and from his taking a loaded revolver to the dance with him. The gun was a business-like .32. …
Miss Richmond, a graduate of the Lakewood High School, was employed as a clerk at Silverman's department store, on Second Street, Lakewood. She is a niece of Mrs. William Giberson, of Lakehurst, who is serving a life term in the state prison for the murder of her husband...

​WANT TWO-COUNTY BASEBALL LEAGUE FOR 1923 SEASON
The Asbury Park Press is proposing a two-county baseball league for the summer of 1923. It would take Lakewood and Point Pleasant from this county, and any others that cared to join, and mix them up with Asbury Park, Bradley Beach, Manasquan, Atlantic Highlands, Long Branch and Red Bank.
Wonder if they would let Toms River in on that game—if Toms River should have a team this summer?

IN GROVER'S STORE
They were talking about luck the other night in Joe's store, and of course the tales were many and varied. When there came a lull, a quiet fellow, who generally has little to say, but who is a good listener, remarked: “I had quite a run of luck myself this last week. First, my wife went to the city, shopping, and lost her pocketbook—goodbye to $25 in cash [$449 in 2023 dollars]; then the fire went out, during the cold snap, and a radiator in an upstairs room froze and burst, and water ran through the floor, spoiling a room below, that had just been repapered and repainted. And next day I ran my car over and killed a neighbor's dog.”
Then the gang began to talk about how the flounders were biting at the inlet.

BAYVILLE COAST GUARD BAGS RUM RUNNER AT SANDY HOOK
Boatswain's Mate Elwood Butler, of Bayville, a member of the Coast Guard crew at Sandy Hook Station, on Friday morning last, before daylight, bagged a small rum-running motorboat in Raritan Bay, on its way from the rum fleet off Sandy Hook. In the boat were fifty cases of liquor. The crew of the smuggler beached their boat and ran for it into the woods. It was a small craft equipped with two Pierce-Arrow engines. It was thought part of her cargo was flung overboard while being chased by the Coast Guards.
The same night the Coast Guard crew from Sandy Hook captured the 60-ton motorboat Avenger, laden with 150 cases of rum. She was taken to New York and her crew of three men were jailed.
Loren Tilton, of Silverton, one of the Sandy Hook Coast Guard crews reports that the rum runners are fitted out with the fastest engines obtainable and that the slow lifeboats used by the Coast Guards can only seize the rum smugglers when some break or fluke favors the Coast Guards. Francis W. Downs, of Tuckerton, another member of the Coast Guards in the Sandy Hook waters, chased several rum smugglers the same night, but they escaped him with their superior speed. It is said that the U.S. Government is having a fleet of the fastest motor boats that can be built, specially constructed to head off these smugglers.

“A SALT WATER PREACHER”
When Rev. Elijah Reed, newly stationed at the Tuckerton M.E. Church, was going through Toms River to his new charge last week, he stopped at Grover's Store, Toms River, to say “Howdy” to old friends. Mr. Reed told Joe Grover that in Rev. John W. Wainwright, the Toms River M.E. Church had as a pastor “another salt water preacher.” Dominie Reed ought to know. He was brought up out Metedeconk way, and has been picked out for such appointments as Island Heights, Belford, and now Tuckerton himself. But then the shore towns have always liked the “salt water preacher.”

​14-ROOM SCHOOL VOTED BY DOVER TOWNSHIP 209-152
REVERSES VOTE OF LAST MAY WHEN SCHOOL WAS DEFEATED
By a vote of 209 in favor to 152 against, the Township of Dover decided on Tuesday, February 27, to build a new school house at a cost of $155,000, when completed and furnished. This is the second vote on a new school house in about a year. On May 16, 1922, the proposition of building the same school as that voted on favorably this week, but with the addition of an auditorium, to cost $43,000 more, was voted down by 428 to 138...
The proposed new schoolhouse is on plans furnished by Clinton B. Cook, of Asbury Park. It calls for a two-story and basement building, facing Hyers Street, and standing on the brow of the schoolhouse hill and running some 215 feet, with one end facing School Street, and the other facing Sheriff Street. On the ground floor there will be six school rooms, with the administration rooms, main entrance, and a corridor the full length of the building; also stairway at each end. On the second floor there will be eight school rooms, making fourteen in all. In the basement are to be boiler room, coal storage, play rooms and toilets for both boys and girls and also a kitchen and lunch room.
The building is so arranged that each room has its own cloak room. It is also planned so that, should it ever be necessary, it could be continued around a hollow square, and should the town ever desire to do so, an auditorium could be constructed in the center of the hollow square.
Each of the fourteen school rooms is planned to house about forty pupils. The building is to be of brick, with slag roof, and to be fireproof throughout except for wooden floors and desks and seats. Even the trim for windows and doors will be of metal. Everything that can be done to make the building sanitary and fireproof is promised by the architect.
It is planned to use the new schoolhouse for the first six grades. The high school will be kept in the present building. If the suggestions now made are carried out, and also the eighth grade. The annex will house the seventh grade. It is assumed that with this building for a little while to come there will be ample room in the school, and it will not be necessary to deny any pupil full time instruction...
The Chamber of Commerce got behind the proposed schoolhouse, and some of its members worked earnestly to put the plan before the people in a fair way so that they might judge for themselves whether or not they wanted to vote for it. That in part accounts for the turn over in less than a year. Another significant fact in the election Tuesday was the large number of mothers who came out to vote. It is without doubt due to the mothers of school children that the proposition carried, more than to any other one element.

​CULTIVATING BLUEBERRIES
Few people, even in this immediate neighborhood know to what extent the cultivation of the blueberry or swamp huckleberry has progressed at Whitesbogs, New Lisbon, under the direction of Miss Elizabeth White. It seems that Miss White has made a financial success of her blueberry plantation, and she predicts that growing huckleberries on the ground surrounding cranberry bogs, will in the future be an added source of revenue to the New Jersey grower of cranberries.
Last year Miss White reports from sixteen acres she had picked and shipped 966 bushels of fruit, selling for $10,059.90,, as net returns after shipping and commission charges were deducted.
There are several experiments in blueberry culture at Toms River. The Double Trouble Company (Messrs. Edward Crabbe and H.B. Scammell) have a plantation at Double Trouble that should be able this coming summer to market considerable berries, as some of their bushes came into bearing last summer. County Agent Waite has set out a number of plants or bushes. There are three other plantations on a scale large enough to produce berries for market, reported by Miss White, all getting their bushes from her—Messrs. Bishop, Stanley Coville and Dr. Darlington, all of Burlington.
Miss White says that she has shipped blueberry plants to Alaska, Oregon, Washingon, Florida and nearly every state in the Union. Also to Czecho-Slovakia, Canada, England and Scotland, and has had inquiries from Tasmania. One shipment was of a carload of bushes, two feet high, to the Long Island estate of a New York millionaire, who wanted them for a hedge on his property. These bushes sold for $5 each.

​HOODED MEN PUT FIERY CROSS IN POINT PLEASANT STREET
Point Pleasant has had its Ku Klux Klan flurry, following the one a few weeks ago in Lakewood. On Saturday night last three cars, carrying eleven men, all robed in the style that the popular mind associated with the Ku Klux, drove into Point Pleasant Beach Borough. They stopped at the corner of Richmond and Arnold Avenues, at Brisbane Park, and lighted a fiery cross [Brisbane Park today is the site of the building that houses Beach Bagel]. This took place, it is stated, at 9:30 P.M. Few people saw it, but the words of what had happened emptied the moving picture theatres and the streets in that vicinity were soon filled with excited people. The hooded men, it was stated, as soon as they had applied the match to the cross, leaped into their cars and sped west, apparently toward Lakewood. They were fully disguised and were not recognized.
This performance was almost an exact duplicate of that a few weeks previous at Lakewood, where a fiery cross was lighted across the C.R.R. tracks from the railroad station, in the early evening, and the hooded and robed men, who placed it there disappeared in waiting autoes. In all probability Toms River may look for a visit next, the cross to be placed, judging from the previous performances in some such places as the schoolhouse ground, and perhaps, if they are particularly bold, in the Court House grounds. When the Lakewood affair was heralded abroad some thought it was the work of practical jokers. After the Point Pleasant exposition of the fiery cross, the general impressions seems to be that the Ku Klux Klan has a representation in Lakewood, and wants the public to know that it is planted in this section.
An interesting feature of last Saturday night's affair is that Brisbane Park, where the cross was planted, is owned by and called after Arthur Brisbane, editor of the Hearst publications, and these publications have been particularly bitter against the Klan.

​OIL NUISANCE ON BEACHES UNABATED BY CONGRESS
One of the bills that the late Congress failed to pass was the Frelinghuysen-Appleby bill, to prevent the pollution of beaches, oyster beds, etc., with oil refuse sludge discharged by oil-burning steamers. Sen. Frelinghuysen succeeded in getting this bill through the Senate two months ago. Congressman Frank Appleby, of Asbury Park, has given two years of diligent, constant, forceful toil to trying to get this bill through the House. But “Big Business” blocked the measure aimed to benefit the general public. The opposition that prevented the passage of the Frelinghuysen-Appleby bill came from the tannery industries and other manufacturing concerns in Massachusetts, who would have been prevented by its passage from dumping their plant refuse into navigable rivers. Other chemical and manufacturing plants, coal mine operators and saw mill owners joined with the tanneries and killed this measure.

258, NOT 287 CASES OF WHISKEY IN RECENT SEIZURE
Sheriff Joseph L. Holman asks us to state that the number of cases of whiskey seized on Clam Island last February and turned over to him at the county jail, was 258, not 287, as stated in the Courier last week. Sheriff Holman says that the 258 cases were checked up by Coast Guards, State Troopers and his officers, a the time it was brought to Toms River and placed in the county jail. There are now but 257, one case having been lost last week, after being called for evidence in the grand jury room.

T.R.H.S. BASEBALL GAMES
Toms River High School is putting a baseball team on the diamond this spring. A.C. Worth is captain; Harold Woolley is manager, and M.T. Rahn, of the high school faculty, is coach. The season began yesterday, with the Alumni game...

A TRIP TO FAIRYLAND
The poorest could take a trip to fairyland on Wednesday afternoon, and see such beauty as the most lavishly spent wealth of the richest could not duplicate, when the bright sun came out on trees every branch and twig of which was encased in sparkling, diamond-bright ice. This beauty show kept up all the afternoon and was still to be seen Thursday morning, till the sun melted the ice away toward noon. It was a sight not seen very often, but always recalled with a thrill and a gasp of pleasure.
Farmers say that a sleet storm like that is good for fruit, and always predict a good fruit year following such a storm. Scientists now come out and say such a freeze kills fungus growth and insect enemies of the fruit trees, and allows a better crop. The sleet was too early to harm fruit buds.

COAST GUARD GETS 30 BAGS OF LIQUOR NEAR SEA BRIGHT
In response to a telephone call at Coast Guard Station 100, at 12:30 o'clock Friday morning, March 2, Captain Lewis G. Brower and his crew, hurried to the beach at Normandie and captured 30 bags of liquor that had been abandoned on the shore. Each burlap bag contained six bottles.
Captain Brower stated that they had no idea as to who gave the alarm. The coast guards said that as they approached the spot they heard a motor boat apparently departing, but did not arrive in time to see it. Apparently, it was said, the bootleggers had seen the guards coming and had fled, without stopping to take the liquor away with them. Captain Brower is a Mantoloking man and has several Ocean County men in his crew.

HELIUM GAS EXPERIMENTS AT LAKEHURST AIR STATION
Interesting experiments are being made at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, with helium gas, the non-inflammable and nonexplosive gas, that is obtained from Texas, where it oozes from the ground, in spots, like natural gas. It is hoped to use it for ZR-1. The experiments are being made on a cell such as those that make up this aircraft...

​WHAT COUNTY FARMERS ARE DOING NOW
BY COUNTY AGENT E.H. WAITE
Egg-Laying Contests
The New Jersey Farm Egg-Laying Contest is directed by the State Agricultural College, and the records of the co-operators are sent in by the County Agents from the various counties... Ocean County has a few over 50 co-operators in the contest. During November Martin Vogel, Whitesville, was high man, with 17.7 eggs per bird, and Chris Miller, of Toms River, was second, with 15 eggs per bird. During December, 1922, Martin Vogel was again high man, with 19.3 eggs per bird, and Fred Franke, Lakewood, and William P. Flint, Toms River, were second with respectively 16.4 and 16 eggs per bird. In January William Marquis, Toms River, was first with 19.6 eggs per bird, and Martin Vogel, second, with 18.3 eggs per bird. In February, William Craft of Dr. Ill's farm, at Toms River, was first, with 18.1 eggs per bird, and Charles Jagge, Whitesville, second, with 16.2 eggs per bird.
Just to compare the production obtained by these men with the standard production for each month. Standards are as follows: November, 8 eggs, December, 10 eggs, January, 10 eggs, and February, 12 eggs [all per bird].

Poor Hatching Year
Hatches this year are unfavorable. The percentage of hatches have run from 10 to 70 per cent, or better. The best hatches reported are those of William P. Flint, Toms River, with two hatches of 70 per cent, or better. The average hatching is running around 40 to 45 per cent.

Saved Chicks
Mr. Rabinowitz, of Lakewood, saved a large hatch of baby chicks when the brooder stove went out one windy night we had lately, by taking the whole bunch and putting them back into the incubator. Out of well over 800 Mr. Rabinowitz only lost a very few, although these chicks were practically stunned when he put them in the incubator.

Duck Plant
Borman and Schissel, of Laurelton, are expanding their plant and will raise 30,000 to 40,000 ducks this coming season.

Growing Bettasweets
Sweet potato growers are getting ready for another season. Wider Bros., of Forked River, and George Newman, Bert McKelvey, Melvin Hyres and Mrs. J. John, of Toms River, are getting ready to plant seed beds, as is Hamilton Tilton, of Silverton. All those beds will be planted with certified seed, and arrangements have been made with the Department of Agriculture, Trenton, to certify the plants taken from these beds which will be a double insurance against disease.

Growing Blueberries
The Double Trouble Company, of Toms River, have set several thousand blueberry plants on the area cleared last year. H.B. Scammell has had a very successful year with the propagation of blueberry plants. The Double Trouble Company's goal is 100 acres of cultivated blueberries.
County Agent E.H. Waite has set out a plantation of 500 plants of blueberries on an area back of Martin Welbrook's saw mill, near Toms River, with the object of conducting a demonstration. These plants can be easily seen from the railroad and later a sign will be erected calling attention to the demonstration. There are nine of the improved varieties planted.

Pure Bred Holsteins
Julius Wider, Hollywood Farm, Forked River, and County Agent E.H. Waite, spent Monday in Somerset County inspecting pure bred Holstein herds. The term accredited herd means that the animals in the herd have passed three or more consecutive tubercular tests without any animals reacting. Mr. Wider has entered his herd with the Bureau of Animal Industry, State Department of Agriculture, Trenton, for accrediting.

BEACHWOOD RESIDENTS HOLD WINTER REUNION IN NEW YORK
COME FROM FAR AND NEAR TO THIRD ANNUAL DINNER
Beachwoodites to the number of nearly 200 gathered in the Rose Room of the Hotel Astor, New York, Saturday, February 24, to attend the third annual dinner and dance of the Beachwood Property Owners' Association. This has come to be an event that is looked forward to each winter by the residents of this popular summer colony...
In the past it has been customary to have one or two outside speakers, but this year only home folks discoursed. O.F. Rost, President of the Property Owners' Association acted as toastmaster in his customary manner... He introduced Mayor Collins, who spoke briefly of various matters pertaining to the borough. He told about the new borough hall which is in process of erection and which will also have ample quarters for Beachwood's efficient volunteer fire department; explained the steps that are being taken to provide for a new crossing of the railroads to Beachwood Heights [unofficially and long-forgotten name of the southern part of town below what today is Route 9] and spoke of a new Recorder who is soon to be appointed to act in conjunction with the police department to see that the laws of the borough are lived up to at all times.
The Mayor further stated that he expected that upwards of forty new bungalows would be built this season and he predicted a most enjoyable summer for all.
The toastmaster then called on the head of the various organizations of Beachwood to tell something of their plans for the summer. Speaking for the Polyhue Yacht Club [predecessor to Beachwood Yacht Club], Commodore Frank Young told the diners of the plan to purchase a twenty-foot racing yacht, to be known as “Miss Polyhue” to take part in the races of the Barnegat Racing Association, and asked all of the members of the club to get behind the proposition and help bring new glory to this enterprising club. Mrs. George Siffert, president of the Beachwood Woman's Club, told of the plans that are being made for building a clubhouse and commented briefly on the various civic improvements for which the club had been responsible. President Fred Jussen told of the success shoots that have been held this winter by Rod and Gun Club, and urged all those present who were fond of shooting to come and enjoy the fun. This organization, while one of the youngest in Beachwood, is the only one that actually owns its own clubhouse...

OYSTER SHIPPING FROM OUR BAYS STOPPED BY THE ICE
There was very little shipping of oysters from Ocean County bays during February, as most of the time the bays were shut up by the ice. The planters who had oyster stock laid out in the creeks, where they could get at it were able to ship that much, but it was impossible to take up stock in the bays. The planters are hoping to start at once with shipments and clean up their stock that is ready for market in the next month or six weeks.

NEW KIND OF BOOTLEGGING
The Seaside Park news of the Seaside Heights Review, says: some Chinese wine in peculiar shaped jugs washed ashore but those who tasted the wine say it was very bitter, not being agreeable to the palate of people raised according to the tenets of the newer civilization.

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AGAIN
It is probable that daylight saving will go into effect in this part of the country on April 29. The Daylight Saving Ordinance passed by the Philadelphia City Council last year, is in full force and effect that it is said that there has been no serious move made looking to its repeal... As the action of the municipal governments of Philadelphia and New York has controlled the time in the majority of surrounding cities, in the past [due to the railroads originating within yet operating beyond their city limits], in the past, it is deemed probable that this section will start getting up an hour earlier when the clocks are set ahead in Philadelphia.

ROBBERY AT CEDAR RUN
The W.S. Cranmer store, at Cedar Run, which a few weeks ago passed into the possession of Wesley Pettibone, was robbed on Saturday night last of about $50 worth of goods. Entrance was made by forcing the front door. State troopers and county officials are trying to ferret out the burglars.

NAVAL STATION MEN DINE AND DANCE AT MARION INN
Some forty odd couples from the Naval Air Station, at Lakehurst, last night, March 8, dined and danced at the Dave Marion Inn. The affair was gotten up in honor of Commander F.C. McCrary, and Commander R.D. Weyerbacher, of the Navy, who are in charge at the Naval Air Station. Dinner was served by Mine Host Perrin, in the best Marion Inn style, and hugely enjoyed by all. The dance followed...

JAIL FOR THREE IN RUM RUNNING CASE
Harry Linden of Highlands, owner of the motorboat Nina and Ida, which for the second time in less than three months was captured Saturday with 150 cases of whisky on board, was sentenced to eighteen months in the Atlanta Penitentiary and fined $500 by Federal Judge Rellstab Monday. His two so-called employees, Ross L. Coose and Chester Philbrook, also of Highlands, were sentenced to nine months each in the Mercer County workhouse.

​JAPANESE RADIO OFFICIALS VISIT TUCKERTON STATION
Tuckerton, March 2.— Daitro Arakama, radio engineer of the U.S. Department of Communication and K. Yonemura, of Tomioka, Japan, were here on an official visit to the Tuckerton Radio Station this week.
They were in company with Harold D. Kent, a former member of the radio force here, now Superintendent of broadcasting for the Radio Corporation of America.
Mr. Yonemura is Superintendent of the Iwaki, Japan, radio station, which is similar to the station here and is used in connection with the local plant.
Messages are sent to the Pacific station of the Radio Corporation of America, located at Bolinas, California, relayed to Hawaii, thence to Japan.
The Japanese officials were interested in radio communication and were here to gather facts on new methods now being used in this country.

C. OF C. PATTED ITSELF ON BACK AT LAST MEETING
The meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening of this week was almost a jubilee meeting, the C. of C. patting itself on the back, so to speak, because of the accomplishment of a number of things it had been striving for. Committees were able to report that the new schoolhouse had been voted; that free delivery was only a question of a few weeks, if people wanted it; that the township had taken over a large part of the expenses of the Rest Room; that the township had agreed to make a “white way” of the Main Street business block, with ornamental iron poles and lights; also that automatic, gas-burning traffic posts had been ordered for Main and Washington and Main and Water street junctions.
The matter of town planning, so that parts of the town now unoccupied could have streets opened at some later day instead of street “just happening” was talked over at some length. Messrs. C.N. Warner and William H. Fischer weer appointed to attend the next meeting of the Township Committee and ask that Hyers Street be given attention—beginning at the “hole in the wall,” at Washington Street and going its whole length.
Emphasis was again put on the fact that the dock around Huddy Park is not available to transient boats because so many boats tie up there permanently; also to the fact that the Washington Street line at Main Street has not yet been straightened out.

FREE DELIVERY FOR TOMS RIVER ASSURED
TWO MAIL CARRIERS AND TWO DELIVERIES DAILY PLANNED
Free delivery for Toms River seems assured. Postal Inspector C.H. Harrison, of Arlington, N.J., came here on Monday, and with Assistant Postmaster Samuel B. Pierce, went over the town, to lay out two routes. One route is approximately three miles, the other is a half mile shorter. The plan calls for two deliveries, one to leave the office after the arrival of the morning mail, or at 9:15, as near as may be; the other will leave the office at 3 P.M., and will carry out the Philadelphia mail arriving at 10:30. Of course mail coming in after 3 P.M. must wait for delivery till the next morning. Unfortunately mails do not arrive at Toms River in a way to fit in with any possible schedule by which two carriers could deliver them all quickly.
The lock boxes will of course be retained in the post office, and those preferring to get their own mail instead of having it delivered, will be allowed to do so. It is doubtful, however if the post office will remain open as late as it does now.
Carriers will start out on collection trips at 7:30 A.M. and will also collect from street boxes on their two delivery trips. The collection boxes will be located in front of post office (combination letter and package box), letter boxes at Main and Water Streets, Main and Broad and Main and Walton Streets, at Central Railroad Station and at Court House...
Inspector Harrison says that the free delivery service can be started just as soon as the houses are numbered and fifty per cent of the houses to be served are fitted up with receptacles for mail. This may be a mail box on the front porch or a slot in the front door, at the option of the householder...

LAKEHURST AIRSHIP TO BE USED IN POLAR RESEARCH
Polar explorations will be made by the ZR-1, the United States Navy's first rigid dirigible airship, now being put together in Lakehurst, which will go into commission about July 1, according to statements made by Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. In addition to trips to the north and south poles, Admiral Moffett said that the airship would fly over the principal cities of United States and would be sent on a voyage around the world.

STILL ANOTHER HEARING ON BARNEGAT R.R. ABANDONMENT
Another hearing will be given at Newark on March 5, next Monday, on the application of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Tuckerton Railroad for permission to abandon service on the Barnegat Railroad, running up Long Beach from the Junction, at the bridge across the bay, to Barnegat City [today Barnegat Light Borough], at the Inlet. A hearing was held at Trenton on Tuesday of this week, and the opponents of abandonment think that they got in some good licks...

ZR-2 [AIRSHIP] SURVIVOR AT LAKEHURST
N.O. Walker, who has been stationed at Akron, Ohio, is back at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst. Walker is the only survivor of the ill-fated ZR-2, which collapsed over Hull, England, in August, 1921, killing over 40 men.

1922 CRANBERRY CROP GAVE 204,000 BARRELS FOR JERSEY
Final reports on the cranberry crop for New Jersey in 1922, as gathered by Crop Statistician Weiss of the Department of Agriculture, and as reported by H.B. Scammell, of Toms River, secretary of the American Cranberry Growers' Association, in his published account of the fifty-third annual meeting of that body, show a total crop of 204,000 bushels. It is figured that these berries were shipped as follows: West Jersey and Seashore R.R., 31,059 barrels; Trenton Division of P.R.R., Tuckerton Railroad, and Pennsylvania and Atlantic R.R., 87,500 barrels; Atlantic City Railroad (P. and R.), 8573 barrels; Central R.R. of New Jersey, 72,900 barrels; locally consumed, 4000 barrels.
The report notes that 30 years ago the fall of 1892 produced 26,000 barrels, a light crop, as the average crop in the decade preceding 1892 was 36,000 barrels.

ARMY DIRIGIBLE VISITED TOMS RIVER YESTERDAY
The Army dirigible, C-14, went over Toms River on Thursday, March 1, about 11 A.M. The big aircraft came apparently from the west, crossed Main Street, over the Union House, swung round to the northwest when it reached Hooper Avenue and started off toward Lakewood. Later it swung round again toward Lakehurst. The C-14 was flying low. The roped on the rigging could be plainly seen by the naked eye, as could the mooring cables that streamed down from her bow. She flew an American ensign at her stern. Seven men could be seen in her carriage, three forward and four aft. The whole village was out looking at the airship. She was painted aluminum color, and the legend “Army C-14” was in large characters on her side.
The dirigible came up from Maryland and landed at the hangar at the Lakehurst Air Station. Captain Reid, of Lakehurst Station, took her and made the trip to Toms River with his own crew, returning to Lakehurst. The army crew then started back to Maryland.

​DIRIGIBLES AND PLANES AT LAKEHURST AIR SCHOOL
The report is given out that the army dirigible, C-14, which was in this neighborhood a fortnight ago, is to be used in the Navy-Army Air School, to be held at Lakehurst, where both army and navy officers will be trained in handling aircraft. It is also stated that a number of airplanes are to arrive at Lakehurst this week for the same purpose.

[More Information and above photo, courtesy Scott Air Force Base, Illinois: In the summer of 1923, the U.S. Army Balloon and Airship School at Scott Field received the training airship C-14 from Langley Field, Virginia. as part of the Army Air Service’s plan to consolidate airship training at Scott Field.
Background: C-14 was not actually an Army C-Type airship, as the C-14 designation was actually derived from the Goodyear Type UA control car number C-14. In reality, the unique Army airship C-14 was a combination of several classes of airships, consisting of a D-type envelope and control surfaces and a TC-type control car.
Operational History at Scott Field. C-14 was transferred to Scott Field from Langley Field, Virginia in June 1923 as a replacement for the destroyed Scott Field airship, TC-1. On 17 July 1923, C-14 deflated while on the ground at Scott Field in just a 10 mile per hour wind. The accident investigation determined that the envelope was probably defective and recommended the airship be scrapped. C-14 was dismantled shortly thereafter after just one month service at Scott Field.
Photo – Army training airship C-14 inside the massive Scott Field Airship Hangar (Oluf T. Jensen Collection at 375th Airlift Wing History Office)]

PERSONAL
Dr. George T. Crook spent Saturday in New York to visit the motorboat show.
Atlantic City dispatches report the death of Capt. Sam P. Gale, inlet boat captain, from pneumonia, at the age of 67. Capt. Sam had one of his inlet boats, the Mehrer II, built at Toms River by the late William P. Kirk, and he was well known to many Ocean Countians. In fact he was a descendant of a Tuckerton family.
Edmund S. Fritz, who is working on the plan to build a dam across Toms River, west of the town, was here from Philadelphia this week.
Newspaper reports this week say that Delos Thomas, aviator, who for two summers past flew from the various resorts along Barnegat Bay, from Bay Head to Beach Haven, is missing from Miami, Fla. Thomas, who had a fine record as a flyer, was at Miami, with a seaplane, taking out passengers, as he did in our bays in summer, and has been missing since February 28, with his mechanician, according to reports.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Crabbe and daughter, Miss Georgiana, arrived home on March 15, after a six weeks' motor trip to Florida. They also made a visit to Cuba, spending some time in Havana and its environs. Mr. Crabbe reports seeing Toms River and Ocean County people in all parts of Florida...
A letter to The Courier, from U.S. Consul Howard D. VanSant, at Dumferline, Scotland, formerly of Island Heights, says that he is well, and that his daughter, Miss Gretchen, who was with him last year on his visit to Island Heights and Toms River, is attending school at Edinboro, a Ladies' College... “The Squire” says he has rewritten Barnegat Pirates, and that another edition will be published next fall. The new issue will be illustrated.
Senator and Mrs. A.C.B. Havens, of Toms River, celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, March 27. They made no formal celebration of the affair, but their family, friends and neighbors dropped in through the day and evening to offer their congratulations upon this unusually long and happy period of married life. Mr. Havens served in the State Senate from 1881 to 1884; he was county clerk, and moved to Toms River in 1888, serving in that office fifteen years. In the thirty-five years they have lived in Toms River, Mr. Havens has been an active factor in the growth and development of the town, helping to form the Water Company, Electric Company, the Ocean County Trust Company, and being connected with the Dover Building Association and other public-spirited concerns... Senator Havens' 82d birthday was on Wednesday of this week.
Announcement has been made by Mrs. James Woodruff Lillie, of the engagement of her daughter, Miss Edith Holt Lillie, to Mr. Franklin J. Minturn, son of Supreme Court Justice James F. Minturn, of Hoboken.

WANT HOUSES NUMBERED
At the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening, Postmaster Havens explained that the department was ready to start free delivery at Toms River on May 1 if the houses were numbered and fifty percent of them had some place to put the mail by that time...

DOINGS AT TRENTON
Assembly Bill No. 207, incorporating the Borough of Forked River, also Assembly Bill 306 (both introduced by Assemblyman Parker, of Ocean County), reducing salaries of County Freeholders in Ocean and Cape May counties from $3000 to $1500 (as originally made), have passed the Assembly and are now in the hands of Senator Mathis. Also Assembly Bill, by Parker, authorizing the incorporation of the Borough of Beach Arlington on Long Beach [Island], has passed second reading in the Assembly, and will probably pass the Assembly at their next session, next week.

CARR, THE BEE MAN
E.G. Carr, of New Egypt, knows the State of New Jersey exceptionally well. There is hardly a town or hamlet in which he has not spent an hour or two. Also, he knows bees. He can go out among a lot of hives, walk around without being molested, and he can tell one all about the habits of the “honey-makers,” as he is well versed in “bee-lore.” Mr. Carr travels into every country in the state in the performance of his duties and he knows “bee men” everywhere. Occasionally he finds time to talk before some of the various societies in the counties and always gives them a lot of valuable information.

CAN THIS BE SO?
Hanover Farms letter in Mt. Holly Herald says: “Rumor says that some capitalists contemplate getting control of the land in this vicinity that is underlaid with bog ore with the idea of establishing a furnace for making iron. Years ago there were several furnaces in the pine sections of Burlington and Ocean counties where iron was made out of this bog ore.

FISH AND GAME
The Newark Call says that Jack Williams, of Elizabeth, caught three striped bass, fishing a small creek below Barnegat last week. Also that Bert Conley, of Newark, went out fishing off the beach at Seaside Park, with some Swede fishermen and caught seven cod, recently.
The ice in the upper bay has prevented perch and pike netting all of February. It is against the last to haul seines under the ice in the old-fashioned way.
With the bootleg fleet lying just outside the three-mile limit, the outside fishing ought to be a very popular pastime with a certain brand of fishermen, who are particular about their “bait” this summer.
Great quantities of geese and ducks are in the bays. The game wardens are kept busy watching for the gunners who are sometimes not too particular about obeying the law.
Herring are in Barnegat Bay and its tributaries—at least the forerunners are here. On Saturday last an Island Heights fisherman, Charles Johnson, brought in two herring, the first so far reported.
The Newark Call states: “James Creed and Phil Crane are going to join the salt water fishing clan. They are looking for a bungalow site along Barnegat Bay, and expect to put a new sea skiff overboard about May 1. They fished the lakes for black bass last summer, but found it rather tame sport, they said. Creed had one day at Point Pleasant, where he caught a six-pound striped bass. Joseph Stuttgart has been working in a lumber camp in North Jersey all winter and is now getting ready to join the fishing fleet at Barnegat Bay, with Toms River as his headquarters. He said that it was a hard winter on the game birds and rabbits up his way. He expects to take out fishing parties this summer.

RECENT DEATHS
Howard VanSant VanSchoick
Howard VanSant VanSchoick, son of the late William R. VanSchoick, of Island Heights, died from pneumonia on March 3, aged 27 years. Mr. VanSchoick had spent most of his life in Island Heights, and he was a general favorite in all this community, liked by all. He served in France, going to Camp Dix from Toms River, on February 26, 1918, and being in France a few months later. His death is attributed to the condition of his heart and lungs were left in from being gassed while at the front in the fall of 1918...

Mrs. LeRoy J. Hutchinson
Mrs. Hutchinson, wife of LeRoy J. Hutchinson, of Pine Beach, died on Sunday last, March 4, at a Philadelphia hospital. She had gone to Philadelphia about a week before her death, and underwent an operation for the removal of a tumor, it is reported, on Thursday of last week. The body was taken to Townsend, Del., and buried yesterday. The Hutchinsons were from Delaware. They were among the early comers at Pine Beach, and have many friends in all this locality, where she was highly esteemed. Beside her husband she leaves two daughters, one married.

Edwin Stott
Edwin Stott, who for a generation had lived in this vicinity, died at his home on the Lakehurst road, on March 2, aged 73 years. Funeral services were held on Monday at the home; burial at Riverside Cemetery. He was a native of Pennsylvania. For a long time he lived on the large farm which afterward was sold to Mrs. Janet John. Having sold his farm he built a home on part of the tract he reserved. He was a familiar figure about the village, peddling vegetables and delicacies.

Goldson Test
Goldson Test, who some years ago made his home at Toms River, died on Saturday last, March 10, at Merchantville, in his 83d year. The life of his father, combined with his own, had covered every presidential administration in the United States, as his father was born in the time of George Washington...

DEATH HITS HARD AT THE BOROUGH OF TUCKERTON
Death hit hard at the Borough of Tuckerton the past week. Five well-known residents died in the last few days, and another, who died in Atlantic City, was brought to Tuckerton for burial. The list includes:
Thomas Speck, one of the Speck Bros., well-known oyster planters, and the father of former Mayor T. Wilmer Speck, aged 78 years.
Charles M. Berry, for many years one of the leading men of the town, aged 81 years.
Michael H. Gale, better known as “Bennett” Gale, aged 84, and a life-long resident of Tuckerton.
Mrs. Mary Gaskill, a sister to Freeholder William H. Butler, of Beach Haven, and Mrs. Sarah Layton, spoken about in our Tuckerton letter this week.
Also Thomas Riley, a former Tuckerton boy, son of the late Jacob Riley, who died at Atlantic City, aged 70 and was buried here.

Dr. Leon Goble
Dr. Leon Goble, for many years a practicing dentist at Toms River, and also at Pemberton, who retired from active practice the latter part of 1921, died at his home on Main Street, Toms River, Tuesday morning, April 3. He passed away without a struggle, not waking up from his sleep. He had been failing for the past few years, but on Monday last he was in excellent spirits, happy and cheerful, and had been feeling well physically...
Dr. Goble was a good citizen, a man of thought and action both, and had made his influence felt for good in the three communities where he spent the most of his life—Pemberton, where he lived and practiced part of the week for some forty years; Island Heights, where he had a summer home, and took an active part in yachting; and Toms River, where he was brought up, where he practiced dentistry half the week for a generation or more, and to which place he moved last fall to end his days. He was always on the side of morality, right and justice in every discussion and in every crisis.
Dr. Goble was the son of James and Sarah Wardell Goble, prominent in the life of this village for many years, his mother, after the death of her husband, keeping the Union house on Main street... He leaves a widow, who was Mary Elizabeth Southwick of Pemberton, and five grownup children... He would have been 71 years of age on April 21, next. As a dentist, as a citizen, and as a neighbor, he was held in high esteem. In his younger days he was a school teacher.

Lucien B. Gravatt
Lucien B. Gravatt, for a lifetime a well-known resident of Toms River, and for several terms Assessor of Dover Township, died at his home, on lower Main Street, Monday morning, April 2. He had been failing for some time past, and on Sunday afternoon had a stroke of apoplexy which hastened the end.
Mr. Gravatt was the son of the late Sheriff and Mrs. George Gravatt, and came with them from Jackson Township to Toms River, when Mr. Gravatt, Sr., was elected Sheriff for a second time in 1868. He married Miss Woodward, of Toms River, and they spent their married life in the house on lower Main street, where he died on Monday. Mr. Gravatt was a salesman most of his life, in the retail grocery line, and also on the road for many years with a wholesale grocery house. In his later years he opened a cigar and tobacco store in the dwelling on Main Street, which he conducted up till his death...

BARNEGAT
J. Howard Perrine and J. Howard Gaskill attended the Motor Boat Show in New York last week.
J. Howard Perrine had a fine display of his boats at the Motor Boat Show in New York. He is considered here to be the best boat builder along the shore and is right up to the standard in all of his works. When you buy a boat from him you know that you are getting something that is well built and equipped in every way, and he is a good man to do business with.
Those who have electric lights in their homes may be thankful, for on Sunday night there was no gas. Both churches had to use lamps and you can imagine the light you would get from a few lamps in a large building.
Augustus H. Tolbert has the contract to build the new Tuckerton Bank. He will also build William Ireland's new bungalow here. He has just finished the front of his brother Harry's store, which makes a fine appearance to the business section with the large plate glass windows. It is one of the finest store fronts in town.
The debate was held last Friday night in the Opera House, which was packed and jammed. It was late when they got started, having to wait for one of the judges who came in on the late train. The songs and cheers by the Toms River pupils were very good and some of their arguments were also good, but nevertheless Barnegat won, and I will say that they are hard to beat. Their songs and cheers were also very good. Barnegat will soon debate with another team, to be held at Lakewood.

BAYVILLE
The new house of William Harvey, at Mott's Corner, will be ready for the summer. Rumor says it will be a restaurant.
B.F. Butler has taken a contract to load a lot of clay at Crossley for the Crossley Mining Company. Ben furnishes men and trucks for the job.

BEACH HAVEN
After spending several summers here, Mr. and Mrs. Richards have finally moved here for their all-year residence, and have been in their cottage at the southern end of the boardwalk for several months past.
George Sprague last week finished his enlistment in the Coast Guard Service and is home feeling like a free man again.
J.W. Berry's men are working on Tommy Jones' new house on Center Street, west of Bay Avenue, near the dock. This artistic bungalow will be a great addition to that part of town.
Leonard Cody says his flock of fifteen hens laid two hundred and eighty-five eggs during the month of February.
Miss Beatrice Pharo and Mrs. Ella Cummings spent part of last week visiting friends in Mount Holly and Camden and had a shopping trip to Philadelphia.
At the Borough Council meeting on Monday night several bids were received for building the jetty as proposed, but all were rejected because not in the proper form, and the Council declared they would be ready to receive another lot of bids at the next meeting. The jetty at the Inlet is practically completed, and it is hoped it will do the work predicted for it and prevent further washing away of the beach. This destruction has been going on all winter, so visitors to the Inlet say, and many yards of road and sand hills have dropped into the sea.
A highly respected citizen dropped dead in church on Sunday morning. He was George Lamson, for years a member of the official board and prominent in church work. Mr. Lamson was 69...
That broad smile Ed Parker is wearing is caused by the new baby boy the stork left at his home last week.
Mrs. Charles McCoy and son were recent guests with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lane, after spending some time with Capt. McCoy at Little Beach Coast Guard Station.
Mrs. Potter is having her newsstand enlarged to meet increasing business and add convenience for the summer trade.
Edgar Hayes and Tom Tuberville, of North Carolina, have been in Beach Haven, for several months, and seem to like the place very much, and the girls, especially, by the way they are vamping them. For further information ask the gentlemen; perhaps they will tell.
The new tea room and apartment building which is nearing completion on the Boardwalk and is to be conducted by Mrs. Shingloff, is an attractive building and will, doubtless, be quite a convenience to the summer visitors.
The borough has purchased a tractor to keep the streets in order...
A fire alarm came in last Tuesday afternoon and the engine was soon on the job. It proved to be that a brush fire near Mayberry's cottage on Beach and Chatsworth Avenues had spread to the fence and the cottage was threatened, but the boys soon made everything around there safe and came home.
Another alarm came in Saturday evening, this time from Spray Beach, where the train had ignited some dry grass which soon made a big blaze in the high wind. But the engine soon put it out.
Nearly all of the cottagers who expected to be down on Easter sent word ahead and had the water turned onto their houses, and the cold snap, which came last week, froze most of the pipes and made quite a rush for the plumbers for a few days, and considerable inconvenience for those cottagers who had come.
The jetty at Beach Haven Inlet is said to have built up the sand for more than 150 feet from the former shore line. In fact, from the present condition of the inlet some folks are predicting that it will probably close again.

BEACHWOOD
Irwin Reinhart, of the Naval Air Station, met with a very painful accident at his work the other day. He was employed in the carpenter shop and was sawing some quarter round wood on a fast revolving saw. Somehow the piece of wood rebounded and pierced his side, making an ugly gash. Medical attention was given, and Mr. Reinhart was removed to his home here.
The Commissioner of Streets of this Borough has ordered a Ford truck with a steel dump body for road work. The borough will use this to cart gravel instead of hiring teams.
There are no new houses to start just now but a number that are planned to go up in the spring, unless the recent jump in lumber scares off those who intend building.
Work on the new Fire House and Borough Hall was started on Monday of this week. Herman Fuhr, of Toms River, has the contract.
J.H. Payne is planning to build a fine new bungalow. Mr. Payne is one of the Naval Air Station force, who has made his home at Beachwood for some time.
The corner-stone of the new borough hall and fire house will be laid next Sunday with appropriate ceremonies. The American Legion Orchestra from Toms River will furnish music for the occasion.
The corner stone of Beachwood's new borough hall and fire house was laid Sunday afternoon [March 18th]. It is expected that the building will be ready for use during the early part of April. The appropriate ceremonies attending the laying of the corner stone were opened by the raising of the flag over the structure and the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” by the American Legion orchestra of Toms River. About one hundred residents of Beachwood stood with uncovered heads as the flag was hung to the breeze.
Rev. R.S. Nichols, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Toms River, offered prayer and delivered an address before the corner stone was put into place by Mr. Russo, the contractor. The stone bore the inscription, “Borough Hall and Fire House, 1923.” Before the stone was sealed in, a copper box donated by Mr. Frank Goodrich, was placed inside. In the box was a brief history of Beachwood written by Wm. H. Jeffrey, the borough solicitor, and papers of the various civic and social organizations of the borough.
Commissioner John Nolze, director of public property, read aloud the contents of the box, and then introduced the mayor, Edwin D. Collins, who spoke of the high hopes and ambitions of the present borough government for a greater Beachwood. Wanda Lohr, who is recognized in Beachwood as the original exponent of fire protection, made a brief address.
The new building is of concrete block with asbestos shingle roof. It is 25x40 feet and two stories high. The ground floor will be used to house the fire apparatus and the upper floor will accommodate the various borough officials...
Considerable building going on here and much more is being planned—provided the high prices of labor and material do not scare off the ones who have been planning.
Mr. Waite, county agricultural agent, held a pruning demonstration at the Widmeier place. Mrs. Widmaier invited a number of Beachwood residents to attend the demonstration.

FORKED RIVER
The chimney of Capt. E.L. Holmes' house caught fire on Sunday and communicated to some of the woodwork, house was saved. Capt. and Mrs. Holmes had been spending the winter with their son, Major Grant Holmes, U.S. Army, in Maryland, and only returned home last week.
The above fire shows our people the need of a water supply. The Forked River stream would furnish power to supply the town with water easily.
The old Potter farm, at Murray Grove has a new tractor and other farm machinery.
Capt. Joe Smires attended the Motor Boat Show in New York Tuesday. Mrs. Smires has also returned from a visit away from home.
Keeper Nelson Rogers, of Bonds Coast Guard Station, with his wife, came here to see Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Williams. Mrs. Rogers staid here to care for her mother, who was sick, but is now better.
William Wilbert is busy at his boatshop these spring days.
Report says that some of the fishermen, whose nets were frozen in the ice, lost them when the bay opened up.
Shotwell Frazee, who had for a long time been working at Atlantic City, is home for awhile and will build a place for bottling soft drinks.
Capt. Joseph Holmes had a party of four out one day recently and caught 200 flounders.
The Girl Scouts took a hike to Barnegat on Saturday last.

HIGH POINT [section of Harvey Cedars, on Long Beach Island]
Soft coal, from the schooner recently ashore at Ship's Bottom, is washing up along the shore of Long Beach. Folks who are out of coal get a little to stand them through the cold weather in this way.

ISLAND HEIGHTS
Harry W. Applegate, of Merchantville, a former resident here for many years, was low bidder and will construct the rest room on Central Avenue, which it is expected will be ready by June 1. His bid was $4351.40.
The Island Heights Fire Company have purchased an electric siren fire alarm and hope to have it in operation the coming week. Beginning with Friday evening, March 9, they expect to try out this siren each Friday at 7:30 P.M., by blowing one long blast. The fire alarm signals have been arranged as follows: Two blasts means fire is in the centre of the borough, between Maple Avenue on the west and Laurel Avenue on the east; three blasts means the fire is west of Maple Avenue; four blasts means the fire is east of Laurel Avenue; five blasts means fire in Windsor Park; six blasts means the fire is outside the borough limits; one short blast is recall of the Fire Company.
Some of the fishermen are getting ready for the spring fishing. Of course the ice has been in the bay, but about the end of the third week in March almost always finds some of the herring in our bay.
Harry Hendricks' radio has at last arrived and it has already given much pleasure and enjoyment to his numerous friends. He reports wonderful results from the Pittsburgh station. They listened to a most wonderful concert and other interesting features equally good.
Our town was plunged in grief and sorrow when it was learned that Howard VanSchoick, the youngest son of the late postmaster and Mrs. Mary E. VanSchoick had passed out [died], taking the long, long trail on Saturday evening. He had been very desperately ill with pneumonia and having been gassed [by the Germans in the World War], it was hard to combat it. He was genial, courteous and well-liked, had done service on the other side with a great deal of credit and now to have him go in the flower of his young manhood is heartrending. We extend our sincere sympathy to the family and to his dear mother.
The Island Heights Fire Company tried out their new siren at 7.30 P.M., last Friday evening, and it is understood that it will be blown each Friday evening at that hour.
The Borough of Island Heights has engaged Harry J. Sherman as engineer to draw plans for a new boardwalk, running from the P.R.R. depot east to Simpson Avenue. The borough has also made application for the riparian rights along this strip of waterfront, and has been offered title thereto for the sum of $4000 by the state. It is asserted that the borough, in putting down its boardwalk and docks has been a squatter on state lands in the past.
They tell us they hear the new siren fire alarm as far as Toms River and farther.
Mr. Siddons will open his movie hall on Saturday, the 31st, with Irene Castle, in “French Heels.”
Charles J. Webb, the first commodore of the Island Heights Yacht Club, and for a number of summers a resident here, last week gave Philadelphia a pleasant shock by contributing $100,000 [about $1.8 million in 2023 dollars] toward an endowment fund for the Salvation Army in that city. Another man, interested in Island Heights, the late John Wanamaker, in his lifetime used to be called “the best friend the Salvation Army ever had” in that city. Now that he is gone, another is raised up to help. The city will endeavor to collect a large endowment for this work.
Joseph P. Truitt and sons, Robert and Birnie, are at Mrs. Peto's.
Dr. A.L. Mulford was a week-end visitor, and was much interested in the stories about those new racing catboats.

LAKEHURST
The petty officers' club at the Naval Air Station gave a dance on Thursday night of last week at the Lakewood armory. A model of the ZR-1 [later to be christened the U.S.S. Shenandoah] was floated above the heads of the dancers from the ceiling. The music was from the Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia.
It is stated that Lieutenant Commander C. Kline, U.S. Navy, has been picked to command the ZR-1 when she is completed and ready for flying.
One of the rumors afloat here now is that if the ZR-1 proves that she can fly successfully and safely, a much larger ship will at once be started next fall for the navy, built at this place [it crashed inn Ohio in 1925].
Lakehurst is feeling pretty good over the fact that the Mathis bill to add the Lakehurst-Brown's Mills road to the state highway system has passed the Senate.
The Pine Tree Inn has been having an excellent season, with a large number of guests.
There has been good skating on the lake here this past week, the ice being reported as ten inches thick. Employees of the Pine Tree Inn cut and put in ice the latter part of the week.
Edwin Allen''s bungalow on Pine Street, is about complete and nearly ready for occupancy.
David Giberson, aged about 92 years, Lakehurst's oldest resident, passed out early Thursday morning of last week. Services were held at the house Saturday afternoon and internment was in Roadside Cemetery. He is survived by one son and six daughters and a number of grandchildren. Mr. Giberson was a veteran of the Civil War, and was a member of Company B, Twelfth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, under Capt. Charles Lippincott and Col. John Williams. He was assigned to the Third Brigade, Second Division and to the Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He participated in the battles of Chancellorsvilla, Va.; Gettysburg, Falling Waters, Spotsylvania, Mine Run, Cold Harbor, Petersburgh and many others. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war. He was a member of Reno Post, No. 84, G.A.R., of Lakewood. Rev. S.H. Magee officiated at the funeral in the absence of Rev. William Moore, who was sick.
Several persons attended the funeral of Clifford Campbell, at Toms River last week. Mr. Campbell was a former ticket agent here.
The $1000 reward, which was alleged to have been promised to the finder of Mrs. Massee and her little daughter, who wandered from the Pine Tree Inn some three weeks ago, was considerably exaggerated. It is now stated Mrs. Massee's father, Dr. Chas. McGraw, sent a check to the Lakehurst Fire Department for $100; that Thomas and William Folkes received $50 between them, and Fred Hornberger $30.

LAVALLETTE
Our new Fire Company is getting along nicely. Seven more new members were added to the roll call last Saturday night.
There is quite some talk here of opening a new coal yard in the near future.
Zach Gaunt has bought the lot adjoining their home on the east, and expects to build another house. They have rented their new home for the summer to a family from Germantown, Pa.
The first excursion train on Sunday brought about forty people down.
The new Fire Company has taken option on a lot for a fire house on Reese Avenue, between Grand Central and the Railroad.

MANAHAWKIN
While getting gas at McAnney's garage on Saturday the Ford sedan of Samuel Johnson caught on fire and the inside was totally wrecked. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and baby, who were in the car, luckily escaped with only a few slight burns.

OCEAN GATE
The borough had a few men Monday last chopping the ice from around the piling at the Wildwood avenue pier.
Council room was filled with interested bidders and taxpayers on Saturday night, when bids for building the comfort station and for carting gravel to rebuild most of the streets in the borough were opened...
Bids for the comfort station at Wildwood Avenue and River front were much higher than had been estimated [$2,600 to $2,900]. All these were Ocean Gate bidders... The amount estimated and appropriated for the job was about $1200, and the whole matter had to be laid over for further deliberation.
Councilman Page reported the electric light situation as follows: Poles have been shipped from Idaho, and are expected to reach here any day; on their arrival the Electric Company will at once put on a gang of men to set them, and string wires; the Company promises current not later than June 9. Instead of mailing out contract forms to the possible users, those wishing to use the current will make application at the Company Office, in Toms River. A charge of $1 will be made for installing meter, and when the current is turned off in the fall, for summer residences, a charge of $1 will be made for that. The minimum rate for the year will be $10.
The improvement committee reported that the large Ocean Gate signs [spelling out the name of the town inside large arrows with reflective circles at the border and seen for many years on the highway entrances after which enticed numerous families to discover and settle Ocean Gate], for which Jacob Vogler has the contract, will soon be put up.
It was a busy meeting of Borough Council last Saturday evening, with Borough Solicitor W.H. Jeffrey present from Toms River, and a full house of interested spectators. A deed was received from the Great Eastern Building corporation for a strip of land at Angelsea Avenue and the river front, so that the borough can apply for the riparian grant in order to build the Angelsea Avenue pier. The riparian lease is to be granted the borough for fifteen years, at a rate of $2 per foot. The dock is to be 300 feet long, which means that if the borough buys the grant, it will cost $600; if it instead leases, the cost will be seven per cent of that sum yearly. For the present the land will be leased, but the borough has the privilege of buying for several years yet. Bids for building the pier are advertised in this issue of The Courier, to be received at the meeting of Council on May 14. The ordinance accepting the land from the company is also in this issue of The Courier, and a hearing will be given by Council on this ordinance at the same time.
Contract for building the comfort station was given to Herman Fuhr, of Toms River, low bidder, for $2273. He is to start work this week or the first of next week, and has sixty days in which to finish the job.
The Boardwalk Committee was instructed to have the boardwalk repaired for summer use.
The borough order that lots must be cleared of underbrush is resulting in parts of the borough being greatly improved in appearance, and the danger from forest fires being greatly lessened. The spring is about here, when these fires are always to be feared.
A meeting of the Ocean Gate Yacht Club was held at the home of Mrs. Hudson, 5211 Locust street, Philadelphia, on the evening of March 22. A resolution was passed to buy the lots at the corner of Ocean Gate avenue and the Riviera, on the western side, and it is planned some time in the future to move the clubhouse, which now stands on pilings over the water, to these lots...
The first shipment of the electric light poles arrived this week.
The work on the Comfort Station was started on Monday last.

PINE BEACH
Mr. Thole, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, has been down to arrange for building his bungalow on the river front.
We have quite a store here, for it is possible to buy fresh meats now. Such a store has been needed here for a long time for it is a great convenience.
Work on the new dock is to commence this month.
While no one has any desire to hurt Island Heights in any way, yet the abandonment of the railroad and the converting of the railroad bridge into an automobile and foot bridge would benefit the whole section of the country. How many people realize that the Toms River bridge at the bank is like the neck of a bottle through which all north and south bound auto traffic in this section from New York and Philadelphia and points between must pass to reach Pine Beach, Ocean Gate, and all points down to Atlantic City. With Main Street, in Toms River, blocked, as it has been since before Thanksgiving, so that only one car can pass, all this section of territory has just that narrow space for auto traffic to go through. With an auto bridge across from Pine Beach to Island Heights there would be another outlet for north and south auto traffic. For cars coming up from Atlantic City, whose owners wish to journey near the ocean it would not be necessary to go all the way to Toms River and back again. It would be possible to cut through Ocean Gate, Pine Beach and Island Heights to the bridge and the ocean.
People in Island Heights have complained during the summer that the shuttle bus has annoyed them by its noise going back and forth all day and keeping up steam as it waited in between times. Besides, many times that train has gone back and forth without a single passenger. Another great advantage to an automobile bridge between Pine Beach and Island Heights is that it will eliminate three grade crossings for automobiles going to Pine Beach, Ocean Gate and other places along the state road. Cars can come in the Brown's Mill-Lakehurst road through Toms River, on Washington Street, to Island Heights over to Pine Beach and on down the state road. This would cut out three dangerous grade crossings where accidents have occurred frequently.
Many Island Heights people have to take an auto at the station as it is and ride to their homes. The disadvantage to Pine Beach is that it would bring too much traffic through here and Pine Beach would lose its charm to many of the people who came just because it was off the beaten path and in the heart of the forest.
The Yacht Club plans to install a radio during the summer.

PLEASANT PLAINS
Harvey McKelvey has moved from his home to a small bungalow in the rear of Wilmer Clayton's place. He will build a new home later.
Alonzo Applegate is building a chicken house for C. Herflicker, also a garage for W. Herflicker.
Tom Perri has a radio set. He is just enjoying himself, hearing so much good music and lectures. We think perhaps he is going to give us an evening with it in church (in the near future).

POINT PLEASANT
The Riviera Theatre at Point Pleasant has been discontinued and is being remodeled into stores with apartments overhead.
Freeman Stines will build two more bungalows in the inlet section at Point Pleasant Beach. Last year he built several there. Earl Limroth has just built a garage in that neighborhood to house forty-two cars.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS
The three stores to be built on the boardwalk by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Williamson have been started. Rumor has it one is to be occupied by the A. and P. Co. We will hope they have plenty of sugar to sell at a fair price.

SEASIDE PARK
Three new bungalows are being built on the Venice Park tract, which was filled out into the bay.
Joseph Lamson is working on the Bayview Inn, to have it ready for the summer trade.
Some improvements are being made by Mr. and Mrs. John Hill on their restaurant property for the coming season. Contractor Joseph Lamson is doing the work.
Borough Council is planning to extend the Boardwalk and also Ocean Avenue two further blocks south, from Twelfth to Fourteenth Avenue, M Street from the Boulevard to Central Avenue, is to be graded, graveled, concrete sidewalks and curbs laid. Tenth Avenue is to have concrete sidewalks and curbs between the P.R.R. and Bayview Avenue; Sixth, Seventh Avenues and M Street, also from Bay View Avenue to West Central Avenue, 200 feet of water mains will be laid out on the Venice Park tract, where Cummings Bros. have built several small bungalows and sold them to Walter A. Anderson, George H. Hankins and Fred P. Hess. There is still about 13,000 feet of water main to be laid in the borough.
There was a meeting of the Borough Council on Saturday... A suggestion was made that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company be interviewed for better train service for the commuters from Mt. Holly.
It is gratifying to know that the bridge contractors are on the job and work has actually begun on the repairs of the bay bridge. It is thought the bridge will be completed by the middle of June.
The car belonging to Anthony Stagerwald that was stolen Saturday evening last from in front of the parish house, was located at Belmar and has been returned, minus lights and a tire.

SHIP BOTTOM
The Coast Guards are very busy and have been for a month past.
The telephone is forty-seven yeas old, they tell us. What would we do without it now?

SILVERTON
After the rising temperature last week, the temperature of auto drivers rose pretty high, too, especially when on the soft roads where numbers mired down and staid there till shoveled or pulled out. Tractors and scrapers were put on the roads in this section and smoothed them, making travel less rough—but since the snow and rain they will continue very soft for some time yet.
About time for forest fires. But if every smoker would take the time to put out the fire of his cigar or cigarette butt or pipe ashes before casting to the roadside, there would be less forest fires.
C.J. Hulse, of Mantoloking, and E.D. Townsend, of Asbury Park and Silverton, have bought the Albertson Hotel, at Mantoloking. Mr. Townsend is busy now at the hotel, having hot and cold running water installed in the guests' rooms and many interior changes. The house will be quite modern and up to date and will be called “The Breakers.” Mr. Townsend will manage the hotel with Mr. Hulse as assistant manager.
Harry Beardslee has recently installed a radio set in his home and is getting marvelous results.

WARETOWN
The winter fishing seems about over and the baymen are thinking of overhauling their boats for the summer party season.
Waretown is as nicely located as any place on the shore. It is just opposite the Inlet and out on the bay shore. It ought to be built up with summer homes. It would not take a great deal of enterprise and hustle to do it, if our people wanted to see the town grow. The only reason why we stand still is because most of our people want it as it is now.

WEST CREEK
William P. Rutter is having a power boat built for his business. Richard L. Johnson is the builder and predicts great things for the craft.
G.G. Fenimore is having a handsome power boat built for his oyster business. The oystermen have been on an enforced vacation now for some time and are hoping to resume trade as soon as the uncertain March weather permits.
Messrs. Harry Shinn and Frank Pharo now have their homes wired for electricity, our local electrician, Howard Shinn, Jr., doing the work.
Miss Ruth Kelly of Leeds Point, N.J., spent the week-end here with her parents on Kelly avenue. Another of our schoolma'ams who feels that a day at home will better prepare them for another week's work. If there is another town of the same population in New Jersey that can produce more school teachers or young business people than this town has sent out, we would like to get in communication with it.