Welcome to another era in Ocean County's past, one century ago this week!

Let your mind wander as you consider life around November 25th, 1921, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 15 minute read).

(written by NJ Courier editor, William H. Fischer, as he sat at his desk above Main Street near Washington Street; it was much like a collection of online social media updates seen today)

Snow holds off well.
Persimmons are ripe.
Another stormy Sunday.
New moon next Tuesday.
Some fine November days.
Rain on Thanksgiving day.
Christmas the next holiday.
Five more days of November.
Sunrise at 6.59; sunset at 4.35.
Measles still prevalent in town.
Wish our roads were in better shape.
Edward Irons has had his Main street home repainted.
See the sunset last Sunday afternoon, did you? There were wonderful colors.
Most of the school teachers from out of town have gone to their homes for holidays.
Recent rains have filled up wells and springs so that the danger and trouble from that source is no longer felt in the countryside.
Let's hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving day in such a way that you were thankful for that day as well as for other good things we all have.
Toms River high school won a football game Monday from Freehold. Perhaps now that they have broken the spell, we may look for more.
The high school has issued the second number of the Cedar Chest. It is a booklet of 28 pages and covers containing school news, original stories and poems, etc.
E.H. Waite has broken ground for the house on the chicken farm he will start on Lakehurst road. He has bought eight and a half acres from Mrs. Johnson on the east end of her farm, running diagonally back from Lakehurst road.
Sutton and Snyder are building a bungalow for A.B. Newbury on M street in Seaside Park. They are also starting a second house for Vernon Sutton on Park street.
L.J. Hutchinson has about completed the rebuilding of the Lipschuetz house on Hooper avenue and Water street. He has started a house for Mr. Miller up the Lakewood road, on the Harry Green farm.
John Grove had a second crop bartlett pear, nearly full grown, blown from his tree on Saturday last.
The Triangle Taxi Association have their phone in the Henry South store.
Edward T. Applegate is planning to build a home on Hooper Avenue, on the “Tom Hooper tract,” in the forks of the road, which he bought some time ago.
The public library is getting to be a popular institution. One week recently 360 books were issued; and one day recently 101 books were put out by Miss Chambers, the librarian. New books are coming in frequently.
A new school bus, to take the place of the one burned last summer, is expected here by next week. It will be like the others, a Mack truck chassis, with a body built in Long Branch.
A big mail box has been put outside the post office, so that parcels can be mailed when the office is closed. Say thank you to the Chamber of Commerce.
Beachwood Rod and Gun Club held a shoot on Thursday.
The registered mails are now guarded to and from the trains with two armed men. All the railway mail clerks are armed.

NEW YAWL FOR C.K. HADDON
William T. Rote, of Island Heights, is building a fifty-five feet auxiliary cruising yawl for Charles K. Haddon, of Island Heights and Haddonfield. The yawl will have 18 foot beam, and will be an up-to-date craft with every convenience. It is the first large boat to be built on the shore since the war began. Mr. Rote, during the war, was in charge of the pontoon shops for the naval aircraft plant at League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, and has only been home since this fall [World War I had ended over three years earlier, on Nov. 11, 1918].
​
TEN NEW MEMBERS JOIN TOMS RIVER YACHT CLUB
Ten new members were elected to the Toms River Yacht Club [at its original location, until 1968, where today Water Street Bar and Grille operates] on Friday evening last, November 18. Arrangements were made to put in a heater in order that the club may be kept open during the winter. The newly-elected members are:
J. Leonard Clark, Franklin Minturn, Edward J. Snyder, L.R. White, Edmund A. Smith, John F. Grover, Winfield S. Snyder, J. Mitchell Abbott, John B. Morton, Dr. Paul S. Goble.
It was voted to have E.A. Smith place a heatrola plant in the club house on trial. The entertainment committee, Frank Buchanan, chairman, announced a dance and card party on Friday evening, November 25; also a beefsteak dinner, to be given in December and a New Year's party on New Year's eve.

THANKSGIVING DAY
By Frederick Milford
in the Cedar Chest [Toms River High School publication]
Everyone is up early on Thanksgiving Day—mother is hustling around doing a million things at once, and father puts on his hat and coat and goes outside, taking an axe with him. Everyone is working at full-speed, and now father returns with a turkey. All express their satisfaction at his size and start preparing him.
This hustle has been going on for days, but this is The Day. The mince and pumpkin pies are made, and now the dinner is in the oven cooking. The delicious aroma causes everyone to be in the highest state of anticipation.
“Here's Harry,” calls out someone.
Everyone rushes outside in time to see Harry and his family coming up the drive in his auto. The joyous shouts and answering greetings, although hearty, seem inadequate to express the emotion portrayed on every face. All are happy and well—who could be otherwise on Thanksgiving?
At last dinner time has arrived, and all are crowded around the table loaded with good things to eat. Was there ever a turkey so big, so juicy, so brown, and so crisp? Were there ever such pies and puddings? If ever there were they could not have surpassed these.
Father says grace in his deep, reverent voice—and then, Oh, was there ever such a dinner! Words cannot express the deliciousness of that repast for it is more than just a dinner; it is a reunion, a home-coming of one who has long been absent, and it is Thanksgiving!
What a thanksgiving was in the hearts of mother and father to have their son once more, and perhaps how much more in the son's to be at home again in the old surroundings and with his parents again?
After this remarkable feast the men sit out on the porch and smoke their pipes, the women wash the dishes and the children run about and play in the same old places and the same old games that their father played when he was a boy.
Then comes supper—another feast. My how we can eat on Thanksgiving! Then the children are put to bed and the “grown ups” sit around the fire recalling anecdotes and people of their childhood.
What a great day this is! What a great force for good is in this homecoming day!
Such is Thanksgiving.

TOWN NOW OWNS GULICK FIELD AND SCHOOL BLOCK
Toms River village now has a publicly owned athletic field, as on Friday last the Board of Education took title to the Gulick field, adjoining the school ground on the north and east. The same day the board obtained the balance of the school house black, and now owns all the property in the block bounded by Horner Street on the east, Sheriff Street on the south, School Street on the north and Hyers Street on the west.
The Gulick field was bought from Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Lonan, of Richmond Hill, L.I. Mrs. Lonan is the daughter of the late John Hatfield Gulick, formerly Surrogate of the county and the owner of the Gulick tract for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Loman sold the part of the tract that is taken up by the baseball ground, also all as far north as the hollow that divides the field diagonally, and on which the past summer a public street was laid out, to be known as the Valley road. This piece was sold the School Board for $2500, though the owners might have obtained a higher price from private buyers. However, having an interest in the old town of their childhood, and wishing the coming generation to have a play ground and athletic field, they sold the property to the School Board at that figure...
...The first school house was a log building on the west side of what is now Hyers Street... the second school house... stood on Horner Street... the third school house [was] on the north side of School Street... In 1870 this school house was too small, and the building now known as the opera house, was built in front of the then “old” school house, and this enlarged school building lasted thirty years. In 1900 [for some reason other articles say 1898], the present building was erected, and was thought to be large enough to last a long time, as the school up to that time had not but five rooms, and in this building were seven rooms, beside the high school equipment of three rooms. Since it has been considered wise to close outside schools [one-room schoolhouses] and bring in the pupils to the village school, and since districts with no high school have been compelled to send children who wished to go to high school to towns where such a school was maintained, the school house has been too small to hold the pupils brought in from outside the village and the natural increase in children in the village itself, so that now there are five other buildings used for school purposes...

PLANS FOR NEW SCHOOL MAY RUN UP TO $200,000
Plans for a new school at Toms River are said to run up well toward $200,000, though the school house itself, as proposed by the architect, might be built for about $162,000. After that it would be necessary to put in the heating and furnishings, and rearrange the present school house. The architect selected by the Board of Education is Clinton F. Cook, of Asbury Park. The whole proposition is as yet in a tentative form.
The plan as sketched by the architect would be to build a sixteen-room school house on the brow of the hill to the west of the present school house, facing the west, and with wings running back toward the east on the School Street and Sheriff Street fronts. In the middle of the court formed by this building would be an assembly hall to seat 750 people, with a gymnasium on the lower floor beneath the assembly hall. 
This plan is that the new school buildings should be used for the elementary grades, and would carry with it the remodeling of the present school building for high school use entirely. The new building, according to this plan, would be fireproof and be so constructed that should the school attendance grow, still additional rooms could be added on the School and Sheriff Street fronts.
At present the high school is on the second floor of the main school building, using also one room in the old fire house as a laboratory. There are five grade rooms on the tower floor of the main school building, one in the old fire house, two in the opera house, one in the town hall, two in the annex, making eleven in all. It is figured that there are two or three grade rooms that ought now to be divided, and in building a sixteen-room school there would be at least thirteen or fourteen rooms in use right away, especially so were Germantown and Cedar Grove Schools closed and the pupils brought into town, as has been done with most of the other outside schools. The high school department thinks it could use the whole of the present main school building, and also take over the annex for a laboratory. Just now the opera house is used as an assembly hall and the Low house for a dinner kitchen.
These are the main features of the plan for a new school building as it has been talked over in a rather vague way in the meetings of the Board of Education. It is likely that these plans will be put into more definite form and submitted to a vote of the people of the township before a great while.
[Construction did happen and resulted in everything as described above. The 1920s sixteen-room Toms River Elementary School buildings were later put out of use as new regional elementary and intermediate schools were built as Ocean County housing development exploded from the 1950s to the 1980s, and were demolished in 1982. Today Toms River High School South's softball field operates on the former buildings' site. The Toms River High School South tennis courts, on the corner of Sheriff and Hyers streets, stand on the former building's front lawn. The earlier school building, built in 1898 or 1900, given an annex in 1915, and renovated as part of this early 1920s project, became known as the “J Building” and used for various other school district operations until its demolition in 2006. A parking lot stands there today between the county jail and softball field.]

by Sanne Young, Asbury Park Press Staff Writer
June 7th, 1984

Dozens of old loving cups and plaques, an 1891 diploma, a 1950s scrapbook and balls from games played generations ago have been discovered in the various nooks and crannies of Toms River High School South.
The surviving fragments of the school's history are being prepared for permanent display in the school's newest wing, scheduled for completion in September.
When former Principal Edward Kuchnick retired last year, the new administration under Principal Peter Kohl, assistant principals Donald E. Musselman and Charlotte Spillane, decided to take a look around the school, Musselman said.
What the administration found last summer was boxes and boxes filled with forgotten trophies and mementos dating from the most recent years back to 1915 and earlier.
“It's human nature: You put things on the shelf. The years go by, and you forget they're there,” Musselman said.
Most items were found among stacks of paper in the central supply room. Decades of dust had accumulated on the plaques, and the silver loving cups were so tarnished that engravings were illegible.
“It was filthy, dirty. Dust was everywhere,” Musselman said. He said Ed Walsh, the head custodian, used elbow grease and silver polish to clean the items, but some will require professional cleaning this summer.
Other problems remained. Not enough room remained in the school display cases for trophies won during the 1970s, much less trophies from an earlier era.
A partial solution was found with the discovery, in a school garage, of two massive oak showcases that had been salvaged when the old Toms River Elementary School building was torn down in 1982. The building had previously housed Toms River High School before the school moved to its current location in 1951. The name of the school changed to Toms River High School South when a second high school opened in the district, Toms River High School North, in 1969.
The showcases were temporarily placed in a small side lobby in the school, with many of the old trophies displayed inside. School officials hope to refurbish the old showcases and place them in the lobby of the new wing when it opens in September.
“So hopefully the legacy will be visible,” Musselman said.
Large new display cases will be constructed this month in a hallway leading to the existing gymnasium to house more recent trophies.
Among the old trophies are a small silver loving cup commemorating an Interscholastic Speaking Contest held April 23, 1915, and a huge cup showing that Toms River High School students were spelling champions in 1921, 1922 and 1924.
A football painted the school color, maroon, its leather cracking now, sits in the case. Gold lettering indicates the football was used in a 1927 game against Trenton, which Toms River won 6—0.
An old baseball from a 1940 game, in which Toms River beat its traditional rival, Lakewood, also survives, with the names of players written on it.
Trophies and plaques show that Toms River High School students won a 1934 typing contest, a 1938 spelling bee, and the 1937 and 1941 Asbury Park Press Shore Conference Relay.
A large photograph shows the class of 1949 in the dining room of the Hotel Taft, New York, on an unidentified occasion. Also found, on the back of another photograph, was former student Gertrude Johnson's diploma, dated June 18, 1891.
 Former principal Nathaniel S. Detwiler said he hasn't seen any of the trophies in years, but he remembers many of the former students and contests they won.
Detwiler came from Spring City, Pa., to take a job at Toms River High School in 1923 at age 23.
“It was my first experience with flat country, because I came from the hills of Pennsylvania. I was delighted to have the opportunity to do clamming and fishing, particularly in the surf,” he said in an interview at his home in Toms River.
Detwiler was hired to serve as assistant principal, an English teacher, and coach of the football, baseball and track teams for a salary of $1,200. Several years later he was promoted to principal, a position he held until his retirement in 1960.
Toms River High School South alone has an enrollment of 1,400 students. When Detwiler came, 45 boys and 49 girls attended the high school, which was housed in four classrooms on the second floor of the old bell tower building on Horner Street. The sixth, seventh and eighth grades weer taught on the first floor.
The high school chemistry and physics laboratories weer housed over a water utility office and harness shop in the building across the street that today houses a cobbler shop.
In the old days, Toms River High School drew students from Seaside Park, Seaside Heights, Island Heights and Ocean Gate among other towns in central Ocean County. Students from the Forked River section of Lacey Township came by the train along the now-defunct Central Jersey line, and others came by horse-drawn vehicle, or they walked.
Students arrived by 7:30 a.m. and stayed until late afternoon, Detwiler said.
He said the school had “a very close and tightly-knit student body.”
“I not only knew the pupils, I knew each of their parents by name,” he said.
He said he prepared students for debating contests and spelling bees, and he directed school plays as well as coaching sports. The school had football, baseball and track teams.
“We had no track (field), but we ran anyway. We ran around the baseball field,” he said. Limited by transportation, the school mainly competed against local high schools in Tuckerton, Barnegat Township, Lakewood, Point Pleasant and Manasquan.
Detwiler said in later years he drove students to games and scholastic contests in an old bus, assisted by the Rev. Ainsley Van Dyke of the Presbyterian Church of Toms River, who drove a five-passenger Ford automobile.
“I was very active as a high school principal. I led cheers at pep rallies,” he said. At the old school, students would run up the bell tower and ring the bell each time the football team scored.
Known as “The Singer of Victories,” the bell was later removed from the bell tower and placed on a four-wheeled cart so it could be hauled out and rung at football victories.
Two plaques were placed on the cart, one dedicating the bell to Detwiler “in grateful appreciation and with deep affection,” from students and the other bearing the legendary cheer led by Detwiler, “Grr, Fight.”
Detwiler said the plaques were removed when the cart was taken to the school carpentry shop for refurbishing, and were never replaced. In 1970, however, 10 years after he retired, four school janitors brought the plaque dedicating the bell to Detwiler to his house.
The janitors said they thought Detwiler would like to have the plaque, which had been lying around the carpentry shop all those years. He accepted it and proudly displays it in his home.
The other plaque, bearing the cheer, apparently has not been found. But school officials note that the general house cleaning of the school, started last summer, is not over yet.

BANDITS GET $10,000 FROM SCHRODER'S STORE
Bandits robbed one of the chain of jewelry stores in Philadelphia owned by A.J. Schroeder, a summer resident at Money Island, on Wednesday and got away with $10,000 [$154,518 in 2021 dollars] in gems. Schroeder has several jewelry stores in Philadelphia. The one robbed was in West Philadelphia, at Fifty-second and Chestnut Streets, and the robbery was in broad daylight, at 9:35 A.M. A car drove up, two men got out and two stayed in the car; one man smashed in the window, and another the glass in the door. A tray of diamonds, set in platinum, was grabbed, and they rushed to the auto and made their getaway, menacing all who saw them with their revolvers.
Mr. Schroeder, some time ago, bought the Charles L. Applegate farm, running from Washington Street to the river, and adjoining Money Island on the west. He built a handsome home on the river front, and spends his summers there [the farm land was where the housing development including Breton Harbor Drive north to south and 1st through 10th Bayways stand today].

TWO RUNAWAY LADS FROM WARETOWN BROUGHT TO JAIL
It was a rather sad and dismal Thanksgiving for Spencer and Harold Bennett, aged 11 and 13 years, who were brought to Toms River jail from Freehold on Wednesday. The boys are grandchildren of John Predmore, of Waretown, and recently ran away from home. They were picked up at Ocean Grove and sent to Freehold jail and transferred here.

REORGANIZED GRANGE AT TOMS RIVER SATURDAY LAST
A meeting to reorganize the Toms River Grange [a fraternal organization for farmers] was held last Saturday evening at the Court House, and fifteen persons signed the charter list. The Grange was formed at Toms River about eight years ago, but faded out during the period just before the entrance of the United States into the World War. District Deputy D.T. Jones of Freehold, presided at the meeting Saturday evening. Arthur McKelvey was made the temporary secretary, and Dr. R.R. Jones was chosen temporary Treasurer. Charles Bazley, master of the Farmingdale Grange, was one fo the visitors who told of what the Grange is doing in other places. Mr. Bazley is a successful farmer, who has been selected by the state to take charge of the various state farms, at Jamesburg Reform School; Skillman Home for Epileptics, Vineland Home for Feeble Minded, etc.
As a practical farmer Mr. Bazley suggested that Ocean County ought to get right in the business of growing sweet potatoes on a large scale, a fact that County Agent Waite has been driving home for the past two years. He stated that with a large amount of sweet potatoes grown here, there would be no trouble to market them, as the growers of every product found, when they were willing to organize. He pointed out the poultrymen's shipping house at Toms River as an instance to prove his argument. Another meeting will be held at the Court House, Tuesday evening, November 30.

COUNTY AGENTS VIEW LAKEHURST'S BIG HANGAR
While on a road inspection trip, to look into various kind of road construction, the New Jersey Association of State Engineers on Saturday last inspected the big hangar at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. They also got a fair idea of what a week of rain would do to gravel roads, as they traveled on Friday from Trenton to Lakewood, and on to Atlantic City, via Lakehurst and Toms River. Saturday the day was spent in a trip to Bridgeton, and returning to Atlantic City. Before reaching Lakewood, various types of hard paved roads in Mercer and Monmouth County were ridden over by the engineers.

THE CEDAR CHEST
The Cedar Chest, the magazine published by the Toms River high school, put out its second issue this week. Miss Roda Berrien is editor in chief; Miss Katherin Dorwart of Lanoka, assistant; Miss Margaret Grant, athletic editor; Grace McGuire, exchange editor; Adah Murphy, alumni editor; Evans Hicks, joke editor. The class reporters are: Senior, Melvin Worth; Junior, Harold Wooley; Sophomore, Georgette Larkins; Freshman, Alex Grant and Robert Wood; Eighth Grade, Sarah Platt and John Elverson.
The business staff consists of: Business manager, Clifford Angerer of Ocean Gate; circulation managers, Joseph Maimone, Ridgeley McKelvey.

TOMS RIVER HIGH SCHOOL NEWS
(Taken from the Cedar Chest)
ALUMNI NOTES
'18
Alice Grant, who attended Dickinson College for two terms, now goes to the New Jersey College for Women, a branch of Rutgers. The women's branch of the college has been recently organized and Miss Grant is the first woman to enter the college as a student.
'20
Elizabeth Sculthorpe plans to enter Montclair School in February.
Grace Wilbur, who graduated from Rider Moore and Stewart Business College, is now employed by the Toms River Gas Company.
Stanley Grover continues to help solve the housing problems for the birds in Birdville [still standing, though defunct, in what today is South Toms River Borough].
'21
Allen Brouwer is studying at the University of Pennsylvania. He intends later to make use of his bulk and strength in the gentle business of pulling teeth.
Marion Worstall is attending Rider Moore and Stewart Business College, and is living with her two sisters, Ida and Henrietta. Trenton has its troubles assorting the various Worstalls.
Ralph B. Gowdy is working for the A.B. Newbury Company.

DOVER TOWNSHIP SCHOOL NOTES
The number of pupils out with measles is decreasing, as practically every one not immune has caught 'em. One day last week 140 pupils were absent, mostly from this cause.

FISH AND GAME
Deer season is near at hand—less than a month off. Many who travel through the pines tell of seeing good sized herds of deer, but more often of seeing lone bucks. Every deer haunt is being marked by guides who will take out deer hunters in December.
Reports from the inlet say that the brant have been coming in the bay by the thousands. That is the only way the gunners can give the idea of the large flocks. It is true that not a great many of them have been killed in proportion to the numbers in the bay, but at that we hear of a good many bags of brant.
The bay has been full of broadbills, so the report comes up from around Barnegat and Waretown. Other ducks are in good numbers. The mild weather has coaxed the wild fowl to stay in Barnegat Bay instead of going on to the Chesapeake or further south.
The season for pike fishing closes with November. It has been pretty cold for “piking,” but some fishermen keep it up till the season closes. They seem to think that pike from cold water are better than when the water is warm.
Net fishermen are putting their nets in the bay and rivers for perch hauling.
The Newark Call says that Thomas Stephens of that city, with a party of friends, shooting in Tuckerton bay, bagged eighteen ducks, three geese and two brant.
Pound net fishing has closed for the season. Some of the net owners have pulled the net poles, while others are taking the chance of having them carried away by storms during the winter. The poles cost from $50 to $80 each [$772 to $1,236 in 2021 dollars] planted, so they are worth saving. Toward the end fo the season few fish except ling and whiting were caught, and for these there is no sale in the city markets.
James R. Hensler, who has a pound net in the ocean opposite Seaside Park, reports seeing more wild ducks there a few mornings ago than he ever saw before at one time. Mr. Hensler was going out with his crew to pull the net poles and store them for the winter. Between the beach and the net the water was covered with ducks which, on the approach of the motor boat, rose in flocks that fairly darkened the sky. They were of all varieties, but the coots were most numerous.
Ralph Irons bagged a fine fox last Friday.
Thirty-four quail and a pheasant is the bag that A.C. King and Newell Harker reported Wednesday.
Sheriff (or former Sheriff) Harold Chafey bagged some geese this week at High Bar.
A flock of honking geese went over town Wednesday evening.
Quite a number of woodcock have been killed this fall in this section, and the same report came in last fall. The season for these birds closes November 30.
The season for pike and the fresh water basses closes November 30.
Deer season will be December 16-20 inclusive.
Winfield Irons, Harry Herbert and Joseph Abbott bagged seven rabbits on Tuesday.
Judge Frank T. Lloyd, of Camden and Seaside Park was here yesterday on a gunning trip with County Engineer Abbott.
Willard H. Eddy, of Philadelphia; Charles Grover, Charles Applegate and Hadley Woolley returned Wednesday night from a two weeks' trip down the bay, and had a fair lot of wild fowl to show for their trip, too.

PERSONAL
James W. Lillie spent several days in New York this week.
The Kilpatrick family have closed their summer home on riverfront and returned to New York for the winter.
Miss Sally Thompson, one of the high school teachers, has been ill with measles.
A cabaret dance was given on Wednesday evening at the Marion Inn by the younger married set. Talent was brought down from New York for the evening by Dave Marion. The committee planning the affair were Dr. and Mrs. Loveman, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Then, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Buchanan, Mr. and Mrs. Atwood Hyers, Miss Esther Hyers, John A. Hensler.
Miss Georgiana Crabbe is visiting her sister, Mrs. Ballou, in Boston.
Mayor J. Hampton Moore, of Philadelphia, who spent Thanksgiving at his country home, in Island Heights, visited the Traco on Wednesday evening.

BARNEGAT
Toms River fire company made $200 [$3,090 in 2021 dollars] with its Hallowe'en affair. Down shore papers please copy.
J.H. Perrine is building a large house boat for Miss Elizabeth Wright.
We mentioned recently that Walter Ridgway was building a garage. After some deliberation he found that extensive alterations would greatly add to its architectural appearance. So he placed a ladder, grasped a saw, climbed to the uppermost peak, and at once began to separate the objectionable part of the structure—when, horrors, he had sawed off the very part that held up his ladder. Walter volpaned to the earth, the ladder preceding him by the fraction of a second, the saw and amputated part of the garage following. He will have an architect now draw the plans before he will drive a nail.

CEDAR RUN
Robert Hampton, manager of W.S. Cranmer's store, runs a delivery route as far as West Creek.
Clam shipping from this place is a flourishing business.

LAKEHURST
Everybody is wondering what effect the disarmament conference at Washington will have on the future of the Naval Air Station here, the big hangar and the airship that it has been planned to build here this winter. Some think that if battleships are scrapped, airships will be given more attention, and some think that disarmament may apply to air as well as land and sea forces.

SILVERTON
It is quite unusual for pansies to bloom out in the open at this time fo year, but Mrs. Theo. Irons has a tub of them blooming gaily in her front yard.

WEST CREEK
Miss Mildred Jones, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Jones, was married to Mr. Ernest Willis, of Pleasantville, N.J., at Manahawkin, on the 19th inst., by Rev. Mr. Stephens. The happy couple will make their home at Pleasantville. Rumor says more “entanglements” are to follow.
Joseph Johnson is smiling broadly on the account of the stork's visit to his house last week, leaving a second son.
Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Seaman have gone to Beach Haven over the winter.
The freakish weather and times produce most freakish results. Capt. Francis Kelly caught from fifty to sixty flounders in the bay one day last week, a feat not often accomplished at this time of year.

If you missed any issues of Ocean County 1921 and want to catch up, use the links below!

November 18th, 1921​
November 11th, 1921​
November 4th, 1921
October 28th, 1921
October 21st, 1921
​October 14th, 1921
October 7th, 1921
September 30th, 1921
September 23rd, 1921
September 16th, 1921
September 9th, 1921

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Welcome to another era in Ocean County's past, one century ago this week!

Let your mind wander as you consider life around November 18th, 1921, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 20 minute read).

(written by NJ Courier editor, William H. Fischer, as he sat at his desk above Main Street near Washington Street; it was much like a collection of online social media updates seen today)

Full moon last Tuesday.
Days getting pretty short.
It's “Sheriff” Holman now!
“Thirty days hath November.”
Thanksgiving Day next Thursday.
Trees are looking bare and desolate.
Rain Saturday, and again on Monday.
Sun rises tomorrow at 6:51 and sets at 4:39.
Venus, Mars and Jupiter are now all morning stars.
Just think, Christmas will be here in five weeks more.
Complaint is made out Cedar Grove way of Sunday gunning.
Wet weather churned up the roads last week, and left plenty of pot holes, too.
George Sherman is building himself a bungalow on the Lakewood road at Claytontown.
The chrysanthemums, except for the humble dandelion, is about the only outdoor flower left us.
I.W. Richtmeyer has presented Vanderveer Post, American Legion, with a gavel block of stone bearing the insignia of the order carved by Mr. Richtmeyer.
Heavy white frost Wednesday morning.
Wintry looking and wintry feeling weather in November.
Toms River Yacht Club holds its regular meeting tonight.
Say, how'd you like to have daylight saving time these mornings?
Measles has reduced both school and Sunday-school attendance, especially among the younger children.
James R. Hensler will build two houses on Irons Street, east side, between the street and the river.
The taxi drivers have formed the Triangle Taxi Association, and have joined in getting a phone by which all in the association may be called at any time of day.
John Lyons, who last week was hit on the head by a heavy timber at the new Evernham building, on Main Street, is home from Kimball Hospital much improved.
William S. Degraw, Jr., the two weeks' old child of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Degraw, died on Saturday last, November 12. The parents have the sympathy of the whole village in their loss.
The young people of the town are planning a dance at the Marion inn on Wednesday evening next, the night before Thanksgiving. A jazz orchestra is promised, also an entertainment by talent from the Keith circuit...
Muddy streets!
Christmas goods are showing in some stores.
The High School Cedar Chest is being put to press this week [a semi-regular journal produced by the school through the year; prior to formal hardbound yearbooks, the last edition of the school year included senior student portrait photos and items similar to a traditional yearbook – when hardbound yearbooks took over those duties, they kept the name Cedar Chest, used to this day by TRHS's descendant, Toms River High School South].
In the swamps, even the magnolia trees, that try their best to be evergreen, like all laurels, are blasted by the frosts.
Charley Grover and Buck Woolley brought 75 ducks up from the bay on Wednesday night. The boys say they never saw so many fowl in the bay at one time before.
In rainy weather lower Main and Water Streets are a sea of mud, and what is worse, full of holes, calculated to break springs and good resolutions.
Allaire, the deserted village, has lost its railroad agent on the P.R.R. for the winter.

MOST IMPRESSIVE SERVICE NOON ON ARMISTICE DAY
Seldom has there been so impressive a service held in Toms River as the ten minutes given over to remembrance of the dead in the World War, and in prayer for world peace, held at the Court House, directly on the stroke of noon, on Friday last, November 11, Armistice Day. The court room was well filled with townspeople, Vanderveer Post, American Legion and Burnside Post, Grand Army of the Republic, having the seats of honor. The service was conducted by the clergymen of the town, with Rev. Samuel H. Potter as chairman, assisted by Revs. R.S. Nichols, I.S. Hankins, Ira E. Hicks and William W. Payne. The audience stood for two minutes in silent meditation and prayer while the whistles blew at noon, and this was followed by fervent prayers and brief remarks by the clergymen.
Following this meeting a dinner was served at Vanderveer Post room, by the Ladies' Auxiliary, at which the guests were, beside the Legion, the Grand Army veterans, the Womans' Relief Corps and the Boy Scouts.
Further exercises were held in the Post room, at the close of the dinner. Rev. W.W. Payne made an address that received great commendation from those in the room, and an expression of desire that the whole village might have heard it. George C. Westcott sang a tenor solo; Mr. Rafferty read two original poems; Edward P. Knox also read the message of Marshal Foch to the Legion. To those fortunate enough to have been there it proved a most inspiring afternoon. That evening the Legion's second entertainment in its winter series, was given at the opera house by Reno, the magician.

A.R. SMOCK PUTS OVER LAKEWOOD'S NEW SLOGAN
Arthur R. Smock, in his newspaper and roadside advertising, has given Lakewood a new slogan—“The fastest growing resort in the world.” Here's the way Smock backs up his slogan: Lakewood, this year, he says, in his big page advertisement in Lakewood papers, has been building over 150 new homes, two new theatres, twelve new business places, ten additions to hotels and boarding houses, and innumerable smaller additions to homes and building places.” Lakewood seems to take Smock seriously, as last week it elected him on its Township Committee, with a majority of 418 over one competitor, and 606 over the other Democratic candidate. A couple of years ago Smock showed his belief in the growing powers of Lakewood by buying the tract of land between the Lakes and putting it on the market. This is now building up as one of the choice residence districts for Lakewood business and professional folks, and is covered with new houses, where before it was a wilderness of shrubbery.

DEER KNOCKED MAN OVER IN CHICKEN YARD AT CASSVILLE
If you are to believe a story that comes from Cassville, either the deer in that section are rather bloodthirsty or else they are panicky and don't just know what they are doing when frightened. The story is that Jacob McKaig went out into his chicken yard early one morning recently, when a deer nearly or quite knocked him over in its efforts to get out. It is assumed that the deer had been run by dogs, and had taken refuge in the chicken yard.

“IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE”
If you put your advertisement where people will read it, it pays to advertise. The Courier classified advertisements are read.
One day recently, Frank R. Austin, president of the Tuckerton Bank, lost a wire wheel and tire from the back of his car, en route from Long Branch to Tuckerton. He put a thirty cent adv. in the Courier, and got back his lost wheel and tire.
Last week Ralph Irons lost two hound dogs. A fifty cent adv. found them in Beachwood, where they had been impounded by the Borough Marshal, Frank Turner.
We could quote scores of such instances happening every week, showing that these classified advs. are read by thousands of people.

STATE TO BUILD TWO FINE BRIDGES AT POINT PLEASANT
Two fine new bridges are expected to be built at Point Pleasant soon by the State Highway Commission, at a total cost of from $300,000 to $500,000, is the report that comes from that corner of the county. One is to replace the present Point Pleasant-Brielle bridge across the Manasquan River, and is estimated to cost anywhere up to $350,000, more or less. The second is a jack-knife draw, at West Point Pleasant, where the new Bay Head-Manasquan River canal is to cross Route 4, from Point Pleasant to Lakewood. It is reported that plans have been prepared for a bridge here to cost something like $150,000.

ARMISTICE DAY IN TUCKERTON
Armistice Day was observed in Tuckerton with a parade by the school children, in charge of Supervising Principal J. Wade Wimer and the teachers.
The children of each grade were dressed in bright colors, mostly red, white and blue effects with many American flags. They halted at the memorial monument near Pohatcong Lake, where a short service was held.
After the parade there were two games of basketball on the school grounds. The boys' and girls' teams of Barnegat and the Tuckerton High Schools met, the latter winning both games.
Bells were tolled at the noon hour, a signal for the two minutes of silent prayer proclaimed by President Harding.

TO REVIVE GRANGE AT TOMS RIVER NOVEMBER 19
A meeting in the interest of reviving Toms River Grange will be held at the Court House tomorrow, Saturday evening, November 19, at 8 o'clock. D.H. Jones, district deputy, has the work in charge, and will be here from Freehold, very likely accompanied by others prominent in the Grange. Both men and women are taken in as members of the Grange, and it a leader in all kinds of work for rural communities, and in making farm life more pleasant and more profitable. One of the speakers will be Farm Demonstrator E.H. White.

DROWNED FISHING CAPTAIN ONCE LIVED AT PT. PLEASANT
The Point Pleasant Beach Leader says that Captain Gunny Johnson, one of the eleven fishermen drowned near Angelsea [today North Wildwood], while returning from a trip pulling up pound poles at the end of the pound fishing season, was formerly a resident of Point Pleasant. The story goes that he was employed by Postmaster William E. Blodgett for some time in Blodgett's fishery, and at the time of his death was a member of the Metedeconk Tribe of Red Men. He has a brother living at Elberon and two other brothers in Sweden.

FISH AND GAME
“Bill Ed” or Willard H. Eddy, a former Courier man, for many years on the Philadelphia Record; “Sampson” or Charles B. Grover, “Nip” or Charles Applegate, and “Buck” or Hadley Woolley, all of Toms River, are on a two weeks' trip at the inlet in their houseboat, trying to locate the incoming flocks of duck and brant. Meantime, soft or hard clams, flounders or sedge oysters are apt to be on their bill of fare, as these boys make the most of their time.
Down at Barrel Island the past week [a sedge island to the west of Beach Haven on Long Beach Island] has been a gunning party consisting of Mayor John H. Lippencott, Jr., of Haddonfield, George Burton, former Assemblyman Ephraim T. Gill and his son, John Gill, with three gunners. In three days they had bagged a fine lot of wild fowl, when the two Gills left for home, and the rest staid three days more with two gunners, native bay men. In the six days 120 wild fowl were killed, mostly brant. They did not get a shot at a goose. Barrel Island is now owned by a club, composed chiefly of West Jersey business men. Assemblyman Gill is one of the foremost breeders of Guernsey cows in this country, his Haddonfield farm herd being known all over this and other dairy countries.
Deputy Surrogate P.I. Grover, Jess and Bill Irons, of Lakehurst road, while gunning for rabbits on Friday, had their dog get on the trail of a fox, which was killed by the Thompson boys, who had also been after the same fox.
Fox hunting, if successful, is about the only sport that pays these days. The county pays a $3 bounty [$456 in 2021 dollars] and the pelt is worth, if in good condition, about $5.00 [$77 in 2021 dollars], with higher prices for exceptional skins.
The Courier devil [a printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type] took last Saturday off to go crow ducking, and came back with two rabbits. At least that is his statement, and he has made his reputation of telling the truth.
Some gunners say there was no rabbits; others tell of getting a bunch of them. Some say that quail are scarce, and others that they are plentiful. Guess this must mean that there is an average amount of game.
Pike fishing ends this month. Pike bite hungrily most any time of year, and do not, like fresh water basses and sunfish, refuse to eat in cold weather.
Winter flounders are in the inlet now and are caught by anglers and also with fykes.
Frost fishes on the beaches are making the usual fall diversion.
A.P. Willits, of Haddonfield, writes the Courier that on Saturday last a big flock of geese went over their farm, southward. His son Robert killed ten rabbits on the opening day of the season, but he says the quail and pheasant that had been on the farm all the summer and up till the opening of the season could not be found when the season came to.
The bay is reported as full of ducks and brant, with some geese, though the geese are not plentiful. The rough weather has made some gunning-luck for baymen and their parties from the city.
City men as individuals and in clubs are buying up more and more of the island and meadow points in the bays. Soon there will be almost no place for the native gunner, and having sold his gunning point, and spent the money, he will be like Esau after he had eaten his pottage—mighty sore, and blaming his troubles on somebody else.
Several coon hunting parties have been out the past week or so. You can chase coons with dogs, but you are not allowed to shoot them. All other game you are not allowed to kill by any other means than a gun held at the shoulder. The coon is an exception. It takes a pretty hard bunch of dogs to beat Mr. Raccoon when they get him cornered, as he is a fighter with few in his class.

DOVER TOWNSHIP SCHOOL NOTES
The following program will be given in the Opera House on next Wednesday, at 2 o'clock, in commemoration of Thanksgiving Day. The public is cordially invited to attend.
Song—“America, the Beautiful,” the School.
Recitation—“When the Frost is on the Pumpkin,” Katherine Dorwart.
Piano Solo—“Minuet a l'Antique,” Salathe.
Recitation—“The Pumpkin,” Walter Mariatt.
Operetta—“The Indian Princess,” Grades Seven and Eight.
Recitation, “A Thanksgiving Dream,” Lewis Wainwright.
Class Song—By members of the Senior Class.
~~~
On Wednesday of last week it was necessary to dismiss the pupils of Grade 5A because the room became filled with coal gas. The east wind was the cause.
Thanks to the generosity of the Y.M.C.A. And certain industrial concerns, who have sent films in excess of those asked for, there have been movies at the Opera House each noon this week. Today two reels on Sulphur are being shown, particularly for the students interested in chemistry. Other reels used during the week are: “The Go-getter,” a four-reel picture, showing the advantages of electricity on a farm; two reels on “The Cincinnati Zoo;” One Drop of Ink Makes Millions Think; “When Black is Read, the Story of a Newspaper;” the Multigraph.
On Monday, at 11 o'clock, the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Grades, and any patrons of the school who are interested will be the guests of the Sixth Grade at a lantern slide entertainment, “A Trip Through France.”
Meeting of the Playground Committee of the Home and School Association was held at the home of Mrs. Scammell, on Wednesday. The committee decided to purchase a few pieces of very substantial apparatus, even though it is quite expensive, rather than to get the quantity of cheaper things which would soon need to be replaced. So far as is possible the materials will be purchased locally and the installation will be made as soon as possible.
Measles is still very much the order of the day, especially in the lower grades. Almost all the children who have not had the diseases previously have been victims this fall, and some are even stricken for a second time.
The football team was obliged to disappoint the Clinton High School team on last Saturday. Although the weather here was entirely unfit for the game, Clinton reported favorable conditions. Nevertheless, the local bus driver, who had agreed to make the trip refused to start, and it was impossible to get anyone else to go on such short notice. The boys have offered to try again on Saturday, the 26th.

RECENT DEATHS
Mrs. George J. Gould
Mrs. Edith Kingdon Gould, wife of George J. Gould, dropped dead Sunday, while playing golf with her husband at the Georgian Court links, Lakewood. Death was said by Dr. G.W. Lawrence and Dr. Irwin H. Hance to have been practically instantaneous. She had been in the best of health to all appearances, and was in the enjoyment of life.
Mrs. Gould was Edith Kingdon, an actress of considerable merit, who had won her place on the stage by real ability, and a woman of considerable beauty. She inherited from her mother a remarkable persistence in overcoming obstacles that might be in her way, and a rare common sense. She was the mother of seven children and leaves also fourteen grandchildren...
Mrs. Gould very naturally has been a large part of Lakewood life in the richer winter colony for many years. The Goulds, at their big estate, Georgian Court, have entertained lavishly at various times, particularly so when George J. Gould himself was deeply interested in polo, and games were played on their grounds by the best polo players of the country.

Commodore E.P. Bertholf
New York, Nov. 11.—Commodore Ellsworth Price Bertholf, retired commander of the United States Coast Guard died here today, at the age of 54. He was one time located as inspector on the New Jersey coast, and is remembered by all the old Life Saving Service men. Commodore Bertholf was born in New York. He attended the Naval Academy for one year, resigning in 1886 to become a cadet in the revenue service and later an officer in the Coast Guard, its successor.
In 1898 he received a gold medal and thanks of Congress for heroism in saving the lives of 200 American sailors frozen in on a fleet of whalers at Point Barrow [a headland on the Arctic coast in Alaska – it is the northernmost point in the United States]. To accomplish this feat he led a party of three 1700 miles overland in the frozen Arctic country. He retired as Coast Guard commandant in 1919.

Joseph J. Brooks
A well-known resident of Money Island, Joseph J. Brooks died at his home in Philadelphia, 6232 Dicks Avenue, on November 11. He was 67  years of age. The funeral was held on Tuesday, from his home in West Philadelphia, with burial services in Northwood Cemetery. Mr. Brooks had many friends in the Money Island summer colony who regret to hear of his death.

PERSONAL
Reports from Mt. Holly say that Philip S. Irons is now rapidly regaining strength and health, after a three months or more struggle with typhoid fever during much of which time there was little hope for his life. He was one of those taken from eating supper at the Jacobstown church on July 27. Mr. Irons was a former Toms River boy, and has hosts of friends here who are glad to hear of his recovery.
Charles J. Stones, of North Philadelphia, has put his power-boat out of commission for the season. Mr. and Mrs. Stone were former residents of Pine Beach.
Tilden Kirk, Allan Brouwer and Albert Grant, all of the University of Pennsylvania Dental School, were home for the week end.
Mrs. Charles B. Grover is spending a fortnight with Mrs. Widmaier, of Beachwood, in Brooklyn.
A son was born on Thursday of last week to Mr. and Mrs. Philip S. Irons, Jr., of Mt. Holly, and has been named Philip S. Irons, 3d, after its father and grandfather, former Toms River people.
Fred Hyers spent part of last week at Annandale, where he had some fine shooting, killing nine rabbits and a hare in one day. He returned via Philadelphia Monday, when he had the pleasure of seeing Marshal Foch. Fred says there was a tracking snow in the hill country of north Jersey Monday morning.
W.F. Lewis, of Barnegat, a veteran of the Civil War, was in town last Friday for the Armistice Day affair.

BARNEGAT
Marshall Reeves has bought the Edward Bennett property on West Bay Street. He will tear down the old house and build a home for himself. This old house was built by Selah Oliphant about seventy years ago, and was the first house built on that side of that street. The only other buildings that time on that side was the old blacksmith shop on the corner, where Abramowitz' furniture store now stands, and the Nathan Pharo house, owned by Tolbert. Joseph Bond was the man who worked the bellows and shod the horses of the teamsters at that time. On the north side of the street there was a house long before the Bennett house was built. This was occupied by Wm. Rose. Thomas Cranmer bought the property and built part of what is now the Clarence Hotel. The Rose house was moved back and is now used as an ice house.
John Birdsall has just finished a fine house on North Main Street for Roy Jones. He will also take charge of remodeling the John Letts property at Waretown on the bay shore.
There are few people who know where the word “tip” comes from, though most of us have had to tip people to get what we had already paid for some time or other. There is a legend that in a restaurant somewhere a box was placed on a table labeled, “To Insure Promptness,” and those who were in a hurry to be waited on, dropped a coin in for the waiters, and got good service. (Good service, by the way, is not guaranteed by a tip these days.) There is no one today who travels at all, but knows what the word tip means, even if they do not know its origin. Whether a hotel or restaurant, or steamboat, or dining car, if you want fair service, you must tip the waiter. If you are going to stay in a hotel for awhile, a good way is on the first day to tear a bill in two, give half of it to the waiter, and tell him if you have been treated right, when you leave he will get the other half. Generally that will insure good service. Some folks say it is wrong to top waiters; others do not object to tipping our servants in Washington or Trenton to get what they want—provided, of course, it can be kept on the q.t. But of course this kind of tipping goes by different names, such as bribes, presents, gifts, funds, other designations.
Years ago it was the regular thing for people to go out into the woods and gather pine knots. These knots were from pine trees that had been burned years before and had fallen and rotted, leaving only the knots, which were used in the fireplace for light and heat. Our grandmothers did their sewing and knitting by the light of these pine knots. Candles were a luxury seldom indulged in except when company came in. It was no uncommon thing to light a rag in a saucer of grease to see and sew by. And now we say that gas, oil and electric lights are poor.
Holidays will soon be here and with them comes the spending of millions for useless gifts—given to those who have no use for them. If one-half the amount spent on useless things were given to the needy poor there would be many happier hearts and the giver would feel the real pleasure of Christmas giving. Did you never while sauntering along the streets in the shopping districts during the great holiday buying time, notice a person coming out of a store with both arms full of statuary, pictures, bric-a-brac, etc., really worth nothing to the person receiving it. These people thus loaded with useless but costly trifles cannot notice a little child that may accost them asking them to buy a pencil or some other little thing to help the child get a crust for a meal. How great must be their pleasure, when presenting these worthless trifles to call to mind the poor children they met half clothed, blue with cold, and with the marks of deprivation showing in their little wan faces. What will be the reward of such people? It is not only the rich who give away useless things, but many people strain their purse strings to give something to some one who is far more able to buy what they want than is the giver. If the real spirit of Christmas giving were followed out as it originated in Germany several hundred years ago there would be many more happy families, less want, and a feeling of having done a kind act where it was needed and appreciated.
Every year we see people coming from the cities to get rich on some of our old skim milk farms. There is nothing like the experience, which they soon get, and then are ready to return to the city and forget their dreams of green pastures and shady woodlands, with cattle feeding, great flocks of chickens, fat hogs, immense crops of corn, and a big bank account—all of which our shrewd land agents can picture to them so vividly. When one goes, another is always ready to take his place and try his fortune delving in the soil, which he soon finds unrelenting in giving up the abundant crop he had dreamed of. Farming is a trade, and in these times it takes one skilled in the art to make both ends meet. Our shore farms are a paying investment, but generally it is the land agent who makes the money out of them.
One often hears the remark, “There's money in the water if you know how to get it out.” And some of our Barnegat City fishermen seem to know the trick. Olaf Hanson recently made a catch in one day that netted him nearly $800 [$12,361 in 2021 dollars]. Don't make a mistake in reading the amount, it was eight hundred dollars; the catch was mostly weakfish. Other fishermen made into the hundreds that day.
Duck shooting has been good the past few days. Many of the guides have brought back their parties with the limit of geese and brant.
Upland gunners have also made fine kills. A.W. Kelly and two friends brought home twenty-eight rabbits, some quail and pheasants. At that Kelly complains that the quail will fly, and he is going to see Mr. Dunn, of the Game Farm, for permission to shoot them in pens where they can't get out of shot, should be miss with the first barrel.
The big shoots, however, are yet to be reports, when Billy Hankins, assistant cashier of the bank, puts on his coat of mail and goes forth after the birds of the air and the beasts of the fields. Have you noticed, by the way, the smile Billy is wearing lately? His wife has returned from two months with her sister in the Blue Grass State.

BARNEGAT CITY [today Barnegat Light Borough]
William H. Bailey, of Fire Island, formerly of Barnegat City, came down for a few days last week. He has rented his store to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Applegate, and they already have a fine line of groceries in stock. They are very enthusiastic storekeepers, with a great desire to please, and deserve success in their new undertaking.

BEACH HAVEN
H.H. Hayes has the contract for grading and graveling Eleventh St.
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Mullen have taken up their residence for the winter on Center Street.
Frost fish have begun to come ashore.
The well diggers have driven the well 920 feet, but in order to get a satisfactory flow they will be compelled to pull part of the pipe out.

BEACHWOOD
Miss Ivy R. McLean, formerly secretary to B.C. Mayo, was a recent visitor at Beachwood, where she is a property owner. The past summer Miss McLean conducted “The Four Hundred” in Atlantic City, but this week she returned to her former home in Narberth, Pa.
Last Saturday evening the Borough Commission adopted an important building ordinance which will be found in this issue of the Courier, also a resolution for curbing Beachwood Boulevard, between Atlantic City Boulevard and the railroad.
Mrs. A.D. Nickerson is visiting her sister in New York City.
Mayor J.H. Senior and family will spend the winter, as usual, at the Alvord Hotel, East Orange, N.J.
Capt. and Mrs. Parker expect to spend the winter in their bungalow at Barnegat Boulevard and Lookout St.
Bobbie Nickerson is attending a Connecticut “prep” school.

CEDAR RUN
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Cranmer, of Ships Bottom, are spending a few days in their old home town.
It is reported here that Fred G. Steelman is making a success of editing the Eatontown Advertiser.
Phineas S. Cranmer and family are at the club house at Martins for the gunning season.
W.W. Allison, of Barnegat City coast guard station, was a week-end visitor with his brother.
Mr. Wiles, of Cornell University, who bought the Jesse Truex place, intends raising raspberries on a large scale, and will set out a large number of canes. His brother-in-law, Mr. Wood, will be in charge.
Mrs. L. De Fanti, of New York, has been spending some time on the farm here. Mr. De Fanti has a tractor for his farm work.

FORKED RIVER
Capt. Joseph Smires has completed two sneakboxes for the High Bar Gunning Club, and one each for Mr. Bray and Dr. Williams, of Red Bank. Capt. Smires and family visited the radio station at Tuckerton on Sunday.
Wesley Wilds, of Jersey City, has been spending a few days with his uncle, George Frazee, at the farm.
Deputy Fish and Game Warden J.C. Parker is on the job after the violators, and we are glad he is making the people live up to the law.
Eugene Sanders killed seven rabbits the first day of rabbit season.
J.W. Wright and a party from Jersey City, were here gunning a few days, and boarded at Gowdy Hotel.
The Clover Troop of Girl Scouts will give a dance in the Town Hall Tuesday evening, November 22, 1921. There will also be games and eats.

ISLAND HEIGHTS
Mr. and Mrs. H.J. Smith are on a much needed vacation in North Jersey. Rabbits and other shootable things please take notice.
Mrs. L. Hallock has sold the Wood cottage on Central Avenue.
Little Lyon and Leroy McKelvey, sons of Mr. and Mrs. William McKelvey, are up and around again after a sharp attack of the measles.
Chester, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Johnson, is just recovering from the measles.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Simpson wish to thank the many friends and neighbors who did all they could to help them in their sorrow and bereavement when their little son, Edgar Lawrence, passed away.
The pupils of the Island Heights School will present the play, “I'd Be Thankful If” on Wednesday afternoon, November 23, at 2 P.M., at the school house. Cake and candy will be sold. The proceeds will be used for purchasing library books.
We are glad to see the schools open again after the scarlet fever scare. There are quite a few cases of measles around but all seem to be light ones.
Mrs. Sarah J. Harris has opened her “Little Wool Shop” in Lakewood, and has gone there for the winter.
Almost none of the yachts left in commission now.
Some of the summer folks come on gunning trips.

MANTOLOKING
Contractor Joseph Stillwell has more work in the building line than he has had for some time.
H.W. Polhemus is having a bungalow erected by Contractor Joseph Stillwell.
Mrs. W.B. Simonds and family have returned to New York City, after spending the summer in their ocean front cottage.

NEW EGYPT
The Electric Light Company have just installed an automatic re-closing circuit breaker advertised as “the breaker with brains,” a device that if tripped by over-load or other cause will, without attention, re-close as soon as the trouble is over.
Gunners report game as very scarce this season. Edward Grubby, Frank Davis and Gus Frank, all of Adelphi, and Joe Davis, of this place, bagged nineteen rabbits. Chester Foulks secured three rabbits and one quail. Anthony Van Hise, of Trenton, in company with John Singleton, secured respectively, five and three rabbits. In this gunning party were Thomas Haw and Ralph Rhoades, of Trenton. The American House entertained a number of gunners from Hoboken and New York...
R.M. Ryan, dealer in victrolas and musical instruments, has purchased three lots from John Meirs, on the east side of Mill Street, beyond Ivins Chambers. James A. Irons, who purchased three lots last week has broken ground for a $5000 bungalow.
Chautauqua [an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, preachers, and specialists of the day] at New Egypt began last Friday and lasted till Monday. It was held in the Isis Theatre.

OCEAN GATE
The Ocean Gate Fire Company, which attracted favorable comment in the Hallowe'en parade in Toms River, held another successful social session Saturday evening last, in the fire house. The Ocean Gate Orchestra—Mrs. Alvin Black, Anthony Endler and Hugo Schwindt furnished the music for the dancing and singing, and Mrs. H.D. Black, Mrs. Mollie Madden and Mrs. Howard Bancroft served the refreshments. Teh grand march was led by Miss Florence Lindenburg, of Newark, and Jack Madden; and W.D. Erisman was the floor manager. A list of those present would be a fairly accurate copy of the registry list of Ocean Gate, headed by Mayor William H. Newlin. At a late hour the party broke up, anticipating another party in the near future.
Mrs. Charles Biernbaum and family are spending the winter at Barnegat, where they operate a bakery shop.
Armistice Day was observed by tolling the bells of the Methodist Church and the fire house at noon. Mayor William H. Newlin and the Fire Company stood at attention at the fire house in honor of the heroic dead.
Anthony Endler, who was recently elected to Councils, wishes to express publicly his thanks to the electorate of Ocean Gate for their support in the recent election, and assures them he will do his best to deserve it by giving the borough real service.

PINE BEACH
Ice in Pine Beach and pumps frozen.
Gunning season opened on Thursday and ever since the sound of the guns can be heard on all sides. Poor Johnny Cottontail hasn't much peace now. Several of our hunters met with success, and rabbit pot-pie and stewed rabbits were enjoyed in several houses.
Mr. Brown, of Philadelphia, motored down for the shooting, staying at Captain McKelvey's bungalow. The party was quite successful.
Friday was a very dreary, rainy day but the poor rabbits got no peace.
Mr. Singleton and Charles Schiel went out hunting. Charlie's dog, Buddsy, distinguished himself as a gunning dog, by driving a rabbit out which was shot by Mr. Singleton.
Mr. William Combs, while gunning, shot some rabbits.
The electric lights in the houses here went out about 6 o'clock on Friday night and did not come on again until quarter of 11.
We now have a milkman who delivers milk every morning, and we hope he will stick.
On Armistice Day the chapel bell was tolled from 11:45 A.M. to 12 P.M.
The station has not been closed yet. In fact conditions are better than before, for it is now possible to buy family tickets here, instead of having to go over to Island Heights and pay several dollars more.
Mrs. Staples, at present staying at Mr. Cooper's, has bought a lot in Beachwood and expects to build there.
The road through Pine Beach on Springfield Avenue has caused such dissatisfaction and grumbling. It is of more use to Ocean Gate people than to Pine Beach, and is more of a danger than a service. Pine Beach people were desirous of having the two blocks of Springfield Avenue, between Motor Road and Beachwood, filled in, brought up to grade and hard graveled, making a short cut through Beachwood to the State Road or Toms River. This short cut would eliminate two dangerous railroad crossings, one in Pine Beach, and one on the State Road, and would save much time for motorists to and from the city. It is this stretch of road, only two blocks, that Pine Beach people wanted most. There is a feeling here that the wishes of Pine Beach people were disregarded and the road built from Motor Road to Ocean Gate to serve people outside of Pine Beach.
The children in Pine Beach who go to the High School in Toms River are compelled to meet the school bus at the entrance to Pine Beach on the State Road, and on the way home are dropped off there, regardless of weather conditions. Notes have been written to the authorities in charge of the matter but no one has attended to it. As the weather gets worse, and the roads are full of snow, it will be a great hardship for the children. Taxes are high enough in Pine Beach, and we have gotten little enough here. At least the children should be looked after. They have almost a mile to walk to and from the entrance.

PLEASANT PLAINS
Mr. Wilmer Clayton presented his wife with a new Victrola, purchased from Ed Irons, in Toms River.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS
The S.S.H. Volunteer Fire Company, Seaside Heights, held its regular meeting on Monday evening, November 7, and elected the following officers: President, Joseph Endres; vice-president, A. Wolff; secretary, Samuel Tollins, Jr.; treasurer, A.J. Wolff; chief, William Hauser. Plans were made at that meeting to hold a dance on Thanksgiving eve, at Holland Hall.
Dr. Lawyer and son Harold were here last week and enjoyed the gunning, having great luck.
Miss T. Kelly has returned to Philadelphia after a pleasant summer and fall spent at the St. Charles. Miss Kelley is the popular pianist at the Colonial Theatre [movies of the silent era were often accompanied by live piano music].
Mayor Freeman spent the week end here.
Dr. Helen English, our local doctor, has office hours now at the Toms River Hospital, from 3 to 5 P.M. daily, for the accommodation of her many town patients.
An investigation is being made by the borough officials into an alleged discrepancy in the accounts of former Collector Charles F. Homer. Judge Jeffrey, the Borough Solicitor, will make the inquiry.
Two [railroad] carloads of lumber are here to finish the north end of the boardwalk.
Mayor-elect Frederick Jones, has been busy receiving congratulations the past week. He has been a faithful servant of the borough while a member of Council, and ought to give the borough a good administration, especially if all interest in the advancement of the resort help out.
Quite a lot of building going on and more promised.
A card party will be given tonight at the home of Mrs. C.H. Kropff, 4907 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, in aid of the yacht club.
The borough has signed a contract for electric current for two years with the Lakewood and Coast Electric Company.
Sheridan Avenue is to have sidewalks under a recent borough ordinance; another ordinance will control the erection of tents for business purposes in the borough.

SEASIDE PARK
It is reported that William Cowdrick, who has been employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, as freight agent here for several seasons, has now been advanced as station agent at Seaside Heights, filling the vacancy there of Gordon Homer, who is now stationed at Manasquan.
The oyster dinner and supper given by the Red Men [a fraternal organization] last Tuesday was well patronized, it being held to accommodate the voters who came from a distance; also for the maintenance of an orphans' fund.
William Burdge is building a bungalow on Island Avenue for his family.
Allan Brower, of Toms River, was a guest of Edward Brockaway, on a gunning trip last Saturday.

SILVERTON
Thomas Van Note has the frame up for his new house.
Corson McKelvey has put a new roof on part of his home and built an addition by raising part of the rear of the building another story.
William Beardsley has the roads leading to Silverton well plastered with signs about his repair shop for automobiles.
Quite a number of people have been here of late on gunning trips.

TUCKERTON
Mr. William A. Morris, Jr., a former Tuckerton boy, but now of Washington, D.C., represented the Treasury Department on Saturday, November 12, at the unveiling of a bronze tablet on the revenue cutter Tampa. This boat was recently completed by Union Iron Works, of San Francisco, at a cost of approximately $900,000, and has been built to replace the coast guard vessel of similar name which was sunk in the Bristol Channel during the war, with the loss of 115 lives. With the exception of the U.S.S. Cyclops, this was the largest individual loss suffered by the American naval forces during the war. The vessel is 240 feet long, 39 feet wide, and of 2000 horsepower, with a speed of 16 knots. This bronze tablet will be in memory of those who lost their lives on the original vessel. [Nearly 13 years later, this ship responded to the Morro Castle fire disaster off Asbury Park, and World War II service included patrols off Greenland.]

WEST CREEK
John Pharo, of Cape May, visited his former home here during last week. He is looking over a proposition for work to be done, by way of an innovation on an oyster boat belonging to one of our townsmen. John, by the way, is an expert in his line of work—boat building, and has a prosperous business in Cape May.
William Cranmer, of Barnegat, agent for a Camden firm, has rented a room in the C.L. Shinn house, on Main Street, where samples of his goods are displayed, and orders for same taken by Miss Helen Shinn.
Mr. J.T. Grey had the misfortune to step on a rusty nail a few days ago, making a painful wound in his foot, which, however, is doing well under the circumstances.
Joseph P. Haywood has taken up his residence with his daughter, Mrs. E.P. Brown, on Division Street, for the winter months, but still has “office hours” in his own home, adjoining.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Holloway have opened their home on Main Street, after a lengthy residence this fall in Toms river, where they have been looking after their cranberry interests.
Benjamin S. Cox has left us for the winter months for a residence in Florida. At present he is located in Daytona. More of our townspeople will leave for the same state a little later on.

10th ANNUAL MASQUERADE BALL
Thanksgiving night. Prizes in all events. Music by the Harmony Jazz Band of Asbury Park. Greyhound Inn, Forked River, N.J.—Adv.

UNUSUAL STORY IS MADE INTO UNIQUE FILM PRODUCTION
“Black Beauty” at the Opera House next Friday, under the auspices of the Toms River Home and School Association.
Scarcely one out of each ten thousand books published in the nineteenth century is read or remembered by the present generation, but those that have retained their popularity are more firmly fixed in the affections of the public than any recent publication can be. Time either effaces memories of books or hallows them. For this reason, stories that have stood the test of time are assured of extraordinary popularity when put into motion pictures.
Until now, the work which stands eighth in popularity among all the books in the world, after more than forty years, had not been visualized. There seemed to be almost insurmountable difficulties in the way. These have been triumphantly overcome by Vitagraph, however, and Anna Sewell's “Black Beauty,” the famous “Autobiography of a Horse,” will be shown at the Toms River Opera House on Friday, November 26.
The complete story of Black Beauty, Ginger, Merrylegs, Sir Oliver, Duchess and the other equine characters, as written by Anna Sewell in the early seventies [1870s], has been faithfully told in pictures, together with a thrilling story of the lives of Black Beauty's human friends and acquaintances.—Adv .

WE VISIT A HAUNTED HOUSE
By John Hazelrigg

[This unexpected late-Halloween tale by proto-explorers in the Weird N.J. Magazine style appeared on Page 15 of this issue, and due to its length it didn't quite fit into the above format, so we include it here as an extra surprise bonus for anyone who reads this far down the article. Enjoy!]

We didn't believe in ghosts nohow—when twenty miles intervened between our convictions and the scene of operations. I've met this sort of skeptic aplenty under the glare of the noonday sun. But at midnight, when “graveyards yawn,” and the moonlight suddenly filters through a begrimed window pane and creeps stealthily across the floor in something approaching the latest design in shrouds, or moves up a side wall and silently slumps into a tombstone posture—well, that's a horse of a different color, as J. Caesar remarked at the Battle of Monmouth.
Now, the particular little party whose experiences enter into this chronicle, had but one thought, that of invading Ghostland and testing the resiliency of its nerves and emotions in a fashion not possible with a game of checkers or solitaire. In this mood we left Toms River late one afternoon with the spirit of crusaders in our hearts, victory on our banners, and a healthy vermillion hue in the cheeks, though it has been somewhere cynically asserted that this latter as the effect of excitement is no proof of the absence of a yellow streak in the hepatic region. Being no psycho-analyst I will skip all matters of controversy such as this.
Our personnel included Wilbur and his much-better half, and Miss Evelyn, and Master Jimmy and Dot, these two aged respectively 12 and 14. Lest pulchritude be thought a liability in an expedition of this nature, let it be said that Dot has read spook literature all the way from the time of the Witch of Endor to and including the last record of the Psychical Research Society; while Jimmy, as a baseball outfielder, is no slouch when it comes to doing Marathon stunts. Then there was Marcus—whether Aurelius or the Antonius person I have never been able to discover. Oliver and the writer completed the group, in which it will be seen that the principle of safety in numbers had been thoughtfully adhered to. I have purposely omitted full names, as not one of us feels to be a decently fit subject for a laurel crown—after what occurred.
The house of haunts which had set forth its appeal to us was located on a seldom-used road not far from Eatontown, set well back in bleak isolation and surrounded by premises that bespoke the last word in neglect. Indeed we had been told that tenant after tenant had been forced to vacate because of happenings that are referred to only with bated breath, and finally it had fallen into permanent disuse, though fully furnished as when previously occupied. A more desolate domicile could hardly be imagined—dusty, forlorn, cobwebby, and permeated by dank odors suggestive of vaults and charnel places, inhospitable and cold, though the melancholy days were scarce at hand and the tang of the fall was not yet in full swing.
We reached its uninviting portals just as the evening shadows had taken on that drab, umbral hue that makes one want to talk in low tones and discuss the latest fashion in funerals and similarly delightful topics. Wilbur seemed to fall automatically into leadership, at least it could be noticed that every one clung pretty closely to him, perhaps because of an unholy glint now coming into his eye that could have meant either courage or a possible panic; and we didn't purpose that any desertion at this point should leave us without a safety quorum, for it was incumbent to decide at once whether to locate on the outside or inside of the house.
Now, in all serious ghost investigations this is a most important matter for settlement, for if the interior be chosen as the zone for the slaughter one must familiarize oneself with the lay of the furniture, and the shortest distance between two given points. You see, the subject has been reduced to a mathematical equation. If a further reduction were possible I doubt not it would have been made ere this. Under similar circumstances of investigation I once knew of a man who made a quick jump for what he thought was the outer door. He went through a door all right, and took a good bit of the carpentry with him. But it happened to be the door leading to the cellar, and he landed in a coal bin; after which one couldn't have told from his countenance whether he was just naturally scared stiff, or whether mortification had set in.
Well, we concluded to take the interior, though the outside spaces seemed calling with strange insistence. Cautiously we effected an entrance, thence through the hallway into what must have been the sitting room. It was at this time that we made the discovery that we had brought only three candles. These we lit and placed on the mantlepiece and a corner bracket, and then distributed ourselves about the room in as comfortable a manner as the accessories would permit. To enliven the occasion and to start us off in a sportive frame of mind, Oliver told a rip-roaring story, but none laughed except Mrs. Wilbur and Evelyn, and they accomplished the feat only in a half apologetic way that sounded more like hysterics than risibilities.
The darkness had crept in with an unhesitancy that appeared to mean business right from the start, and with an opaqueness that our few candles did little to relieve. Have you ever noticed what a sputtering candle can do to the innocent shadows in a half-lighted room? Well, ours did that same, and then some. Besides, as usual with nightfall at this season, the wind had risen, and came moaning about the eaves and the cornices, thence in smothered volume down the chimney, like the solemn suspiration of surf on a shoal shore. Our enthusiasm at this moment was beginning to border on that state of slump in which one feels that a compound fracture  of the Eighteenth Amendment [editor's note: the alcohol prohibition amendment, then in effect] would about measure up to the needs of the occasion. After a prolonged and grim silence those who didn't have the creeps had the jumps. Once I observed Jimmy making a careful inventory of floor space and exits, doubtless with some anticipative thoughts in mind, and Dot was getting a cast in the eye from trying to look four ways at once.
After about two hours of this, in which small conversation was carried on in a suspiciously reticent manner, one of the ladies suggested that we sing “The Beautiful Gates Ajar” as a propitiatory offering, but Oliver insisted that something like “We Won't Go Home Till Morning” would give more backbone to our purpose. Marcus thought “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” would be more soothing to the nerves, and so he started the opening lines with a tempo and a compass that made up in sincerity what the lacked in vocal nuance, so to speak. He had just reached “The dawn's early light,” ranging from the key of A minor to somewhere in the neighborhood of a lusty and full-fledged G sharp, when his crescendo effort must have hit the ceiling, for the stairway door swung open with a crash, and a tornadic wind swept in from the upper regions in a whirl so infuriative that two of our candles went out of business; and came near doing the same thing for Jimmy, for with a “My Gawd!” he was on his way for a home run when I grabbed him. So instead of going the limit he collapsed on the floor. It was some little time before we brought him to, and then when we had brought him two more he seemed really on the way to a happy convalescence, though he still looked a little sick at the stomach, with an expression resembling that of a mal de mer [seasickness] when mixed with a porcine diet. I had no time to observe in detail the effect upon the others, though after the candles were re-lit we found Evelyn on the sofa crying, and Marcus fanning her; but as he was using the fire shovel for this, she only said, “Go away!”
And here I give Wilbur credit for evincing a measure of genuine and much-needed courage. The excitement had awakened him from a spineless creature of over-indulged apprehension into a dynamo of new purpose, and with a fire of fanaticism in his eye he declared that “no ha'nt was going to keep him from taking a survey of the upper floor, b'gosh!” Not to be outdone, Marcus manfully offered to accompany him, and very closely together they climbed the stairs and vanished into the Stygian darkness beyond. We heard them moving cautiously about, and then—wow!!! Over went a chair, something fell with a dull thud to the floor, and through a pandemonium of noises we heard someone screech, “Get off my neck, will yuh!” —this followed by a wail as of a lost soul, and with a yell at every jump Marcus came through the upper floor like a streak of lightning against a black sky, and negotiated the stairs in one comprehensive leap, with Wilbur about two feet and four inches behind him.
Later, when the matter was cleared up, the cause of the commotion and the inglorious retreat was found to have been an old white skirt that had been left hanging by an open window. This had been blown into Wilbur's face and wrapped its sinuous folds intimately about him, and in drawing back, horror-stricken, he had knocked a chair over and fallen to the floor. Marcus had caught a glimpse of the thing at that moment and headed for the stairway, stepping on the fallen hero in his hasty exit. After this there was a unanimous agreement that the unknown regions could go hang as far as further invasion was concerned.
But—and here is our justification and our recompense—we did truly hear what we had come for, and what we were told had been heard by others in the aforetime; what had been borne with fortitude till fear and misgivings had made it no longer bearable, and that were the footsteps across the floor directly above us. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning that this occurred, by which time familiarity with our surroundings had begun to breed its proverbial contempt, when Dot touched me on the arm and said, “Listen!” While each did so breathlessly, a series of steps passed slowly and measuredly across the floor to the head of the stairs, as if with the intention to descend; steps such as might be termed furtive, if that word could be applied to the pedal extremities—slump, slump, slump. If they had continued in our direction I shudder to think what would have been the consequences. Instead they passed back whence they came, after which—silence. I never before thought silence could be vocable, but the stillness which followed upon those steps seemed to terminate in one prolonged “H-u-s-h!”
Fortunately the morning was not far away, and we were glad when the sun's rays crept through the window-lattice and relieved the gloom.
We reached Main Street, a hungry bunch of spook-chasers, and having arrived home, Wilbur introduced us to oatmeal and grapefruit topped with a raisin, the fermenative excellence of which combination has no call for discussion at this time. But we have another haunted house down on our books that will receive our official attention when sufficiently recuperated. You see, ghost-hunting is a strenuous business.

If you missed any issues of Ocean County 1921 and want to catch up, use the links below!
​
November 11th, 1921​
November 4th, 1921
October 28th, 1921
October 21st, 1921
​October 14th, 1921
October 7th, 1921
September 30th, 1921
September 23rd, 1921
September 16th, 1921
September 9th, 1921

Your donations support preserving and restoring our shared maritime heritage on the waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay, through our boat workshop, educational programs and special events. Thank you.

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 - [email protected]

Welcome to another Wooden Boat Wednesday!

This week we turn our attention to the Morgan Cup race of 1909, courtesy The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Results of the race:

I.H.Y.C. Racing length 20 ft. 9 in. (Time allowance 1 min 5 ½ seconds.)
Start: 2.26.40
Finish: 4.06.03
Elapsed Time: 1.39.23
Corrected Time: 1.38.32

Manhasset. Racing length 21 ft. 11 inches, scratch boat.
Start: 2.26.40
Finish: 4.10.22
Elapsed Time: 1.44.12
Corrected Time: 1.44.12

Special to The Inquirer.
ISLAND HEIGHTS, N.J., July 17.—With Captain A.L. Mulford at the helm, I.H.Y.C., the champion of the Island Heights Yacht Club, today added another to her string of victories by capturing the J. Willard Morgan Challenge Cup. Her only contestant was Manhasset, owned by former Mayor John Weaver, of Philadelphia, and carrying the Seaside Park Yacht Club colors.

The Morgan Cup was donated to the Island Heights Yacht Club, to be raced for annually on the third Saturday in July, the race open to boats from Island Heights, Seaside Park, Bay Head and Mantoloking Yacht Clubs. Last year the cup, which had been won three years straight by Seaside Park, was recaptured by I.H.Y.C., and this year the gallant racer repeated last year's performance.

The course was from the gaily decorated Island Heights Yacht Club house down to Toms River, to its mouth, opposite Seaside Park, return to the club house and repeat. A puffy wind came over the hills and out of the cones from the northwest. Herman Muller, sailing Manhasset, put his craft across the line first, but he was soon picked up and passed on the first round by I.H.Y.C.

After the race was won the gallant tars [period slang for seaman] gathered in the pretty home of the I.H.Y.C., where the cup was awarded to the syndicate owning the yacht by Commodore John C. McAvoy. Each of the crew of this winning yacht was also given a silver shield inscribed with the date and event.

The crew consisted of Dr. Alfred Mulford, a former U. of P. half-back and coach, as captain; Robert McConnaghy, Lin Brown, Leslie Mulford, Reed Kilpatrick, Howard Schetzline, Arthur Kiefaber. 

I.H.Y.C. Was built a year ago on lines laid down by Charles B. Mower, of New York. She has two rudders and two bilge boards in place of the usual centreboard of the Barnegat Bay type of boat. She is owned by a syndicate of the Island Heights Yacht Club, with Ray M. Vanderherchen as manager.

Your donations support preserving and restoring our shared maritime heritage on the waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay, through our boat workshop, educational programs and special events. Thank you.

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 - [email protected]

Welcome to another era in Ocean County's past, one century ago this week!

Let your mind wander as you consider life around November 11th, 1921, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 5 minute read).

(written by NJ Courier editor, William H. Fischer, as he sat at his desk above Main Street near Washington Street; it was much like a collection of online social media updates seen today)

Armistice Day.
Election is over.
Rain wanted badly.
Yep, moonlit evenings.
Full moon next Tuesday.
Seven weeks left in 1921.
Six weeks more and—Christmas.
Once more the country is saved.
Ice in the fountain election morning.
There was a good corn crop, to judge from the full cribs seen about the country.
The trees show their bare limbs—but the flapper now wears transparent silk, as the bathing season is over.
The School Board have had a number of plans for new school houses submitted to them by various architects.
The street has been widened on Washington Street, at Main, north side, and a new sidewalk laid, the township and county splitting 50-50 on the expense. It makes an easier job turning that corner.
Red Bank defeated Toms River High School at football on Saturday last, with a score of 18-0. Red Bank also had a record of not winning a game in two years. Toms River can still make that boast, but Red Bank can no longer.
The Poultry Producers' Association packing house last week sold over the counter to local purchasers $1200 worth of eggs, beside shipping several times that value to New York. Mr. Dunton, of Indian Hill, is gathering up eggs for the association from the membership.
The blue birds, seldom seen around here in summer time, are now back for the winter.
Most of our summer birds have gone south. A few robins linger in the swamps and in the red cedar thickets.
Willard H. Eddy, of the Philadelphia Record, arrived Wednesday, for his annual gunning trip. He and his crew (Charles B. Grover, Hadley (Buck) Woolley and Charles Applegate) are starting down the bay in their houseboat for the duck and brant shooting at the inlet.
The fund for the cow has been increased another dollar, sent in by Cephas Johnson through Charles Herflicker. Mr. Borga says that luck seems to have turned for him since kind friends bought him the cow. He has been given a job at the garage of the Novins Bros., on West Water Street, and can now see daylight ahead for this winter, while a few weeks ago things looked dark for his little family.

STONE RIPRAP SEA WALL TO SAVE BARNEGAT LIGHT
Washington, D.C., November 2.—What may prove to be the final step in the preservation of the historic Barnegat Lighthouse, was taken today when Senator Frelinghuysen, Congressman Appleby and Robert F. Engle of Beach Haven, a member of the New Jersey Board of Commerce and Navigation, had a lengthy conference with Secretary Hoover relative to the most desirable type of sea wall and jetties necessary to be constructed. Because of the cost, as well as the question of their durability, the Department of Commerce has consistently opposed the construction of jetties of which wooden framework was an essential part, and sought the cooperation of the New Jersey Board of Commerce and Navigation in a recommendation for a type of jetty that would be permanent.
Last summer, after thoroughly inspecting the conditions surrounding the Barnegat Light, Congresman Appleby suggested to the board that in his estimation the rip-rap type of jetty, which has been successfully used for protection in the Sea Bright and Sandy Hook section, would be the most desirable, as well as the most economical...

YACHT CLUB GAINS 18 MEMBERS
Eighteen new members were elected at the meeting of the Toms River Yacht Club on Friday night last, as the first fruits of a membership drive started by Commodore Horace A. Doan, and entered into heartily by the bulk of the old members. The new men are: Martin Schwarz, Jr., Joseph E. Abbott, Vernon P. Sutton, Daniel S. Holmes, James W. Lillie, Bernard Hough, Daniel S. Priest, Sidney R. Harris, Francis G. Taylor, Clarence A. Case, Charles F. Burkhard, Frank Richie, Reginald Potter, Tilden Kirk, Franklin H. Doan, Edward G. Crabbe, Daniel McE Crabbe, Allan Brouwer.

CONVICTED OF STEALING CRANBERRIES AT BURLINGTON
One of the cranberry thieves, operating with an auto in the pine belt, was convicted last week in Mt. Holly courts. Maurice Anderson, of Medford, was found guilty of stealing thirteen bushels of berries from the cranberry house of Henry S. Lippencott, and trying to sell them as his own berries to Harry L. Knight. The car was traced by its tire marks. Anderson's defense was that he bought the berries from some unknown man.
Several similar charges will be tried at Mt. Holly soon, as the cranberry growers are determined to break up this kind of theft at its beginning.

OIL MENACE ON COAST AN INTERNATIONAL MATTER
Congressman Appleby's efforts to abate the nuisance of crude oil refuse being dumped in the sea off the Jersey coast has reached the point where international complications have set in. It is found that foreign vessels, as well as American ships, are burning oil, and dump the refuse from their oil tanks before entering New York, and if they dump this refuse outside the three-mile limit they snap their fingers at Uncle Sam. Beside, who is to tell when or what ship dumps the oil unless patrols are thick enough to watch every vessel.
The result of this complication is that the Congressman has offered a resolution, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, asking the President to take this matter up with other maritime nations and secure their consent to a conference which will consider ways and means of reaching this menace, which must be as much a nuisance outside and inside the harbors of other countries.

75 HORSES INOCULATED; TWO MORE DIED LATELY
Seventy-five horses were inoculated on Wednesday in the territory between Toms River and Tuckerton, for the dreaded botulinus infection or “horse sickness,” as it is more commonly known. Two more deaths from this disease were reported the past week, both from Manahawkin—Luther Paul losing a horse on Monday, and James T. Corliss on Friday last.
The inoculation was done by men from the State Bureau of Animal Husbandry, accompanied by County Agent Waite. Early in September a large number of horses were “shot” for this disease, but the inoculation seems to give immunity only for a space of from six to eight weeks, and next year plans will be made to inoculate the horses in this territory twice in the fall. The disease is similar to spinal meningitis. It is caused by a vegetable organism, like mould, which seems to leave its spores in the earth, and which grows rapidly with a few damp days.

MARK GRAVE OF SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
On Armistice Day Tennant Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, will mark and decorate the grave of a Revolutionary soldier, John Chamberlain, at the old burying grounds in West Point Pleasant. John Chamberlain is the ancestor of several members of the chapter, one of whom is Mrs. Rachael Van Note, of Point Pleasant.

SPRINGS AND WELLS LOW
The lack of rain that has characterized the last six months is having the natural effect on wells and springs, drying them up all through the countryside. In some places farmers in the dairy business have to haul water for their stock. Others have found it necessary to haul water for their house use.
Last week's rain was not heavy enough to sink in the ground. November generally brings rains, and in this belief the dwellers in the country on farms and villages are now pinning their hopes.

CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS SENT ABROAD BY JR. RED CROSS
This week the Ocean County Junior Red Cross has been packing and shipping abroad their contribution of Christmas stockings to the little children of what was formerly Austria, Roumania and Serbia. Wednesday there were 270 of these stockings packed and shipped, and Lakewood is expected to have from 200 to 400 more. In each stocking was toys, picture cards or books, home-made candies, nuts, toilet articles, etc. Each stocking contained a self-addressed card, so that the child receiving it could write to the one sending it. The gifts will be distributed by the American Red Cross workers, who can write these cards for the little folks overseas in English, for the American children to read.

WILL REVIVE GRANGE AT TOMS RIVER THIS FALL
District Deputy Jones, representing the State Grange, was here from Freehold last week, seeing various men prominent in the farming industry of this section, and was very hopeful of being able to revive the Toms River Grange [a fraternal organization of farmers], which died a natural death during the war.
A meeting for this purpose will be held at the courthouse, Toms River, at 8.00 p.m., Saturday, November 18.

RECENT DEATHS
William T. McKaig
William T. McKaig, for the past forty years a prominent figure in Ocean County politics and otherwise, died on Monday, November 7, at Kimball Hospital, after a long illness, of a complication of diseases. He was a native of New Egypt, 66 years of age, and with his father and mother and brothers moved to Island Heights when that resort was started, in the late seventies [1870s], his father, Henry McKaig, having a number of contracts there. He married a Miss Adams, of Philadelphia, and leaves her a widow with three daughters, Mrs. Helen, wife of Alvin Hurley, of Camden; Mrs. H.C. Bartholomew, of Dixon, Ill., and Mrs. G.A. Mills, of Eau Claire, Wis., the latter being now in Florida for the winter.
Mr. McKaig early showed an aptitude for politics and was many years chief lieutenant of the late Capt. Ralph B. Gowdy and Judge Albert C. Martin, when these men were the arbiters of political affairs in the county. About the only office he aspired to, however, was the Assessorship of Island Heights Borough, which he held many years. He was in the real estate and contracting business most of his adult life. Charles H. McKaig, of Island Heights, and Jacob A. McKaig, of New Egypt, are brothers. He had a wide acquaintance in the state and in near-by cities, and was a man of much more than ordinary abilities.

PERSONAL
Mr. Farrall, the head of the Farrall Construction Co., which built the Traco Theatre here, and is now building the Palace Theatre, at Lakewood, was in town over Monday night.
Joseph Priest, of Princeton, father of Daniel S. Priest, of Toms River, and of Carl Priest, of Bay Head, celebrated his 83d birthday on Friday of last week. He is hale and hearty and is on the job every day at his famous Princeton pharmacy, known to every boy who has attended Princeton for the past generation.
Edward Crabbe, Jr., a Princeton student, spent the week end at home, coming home Saturday with his father after the Princeton-Harvard game.
Capt. Henry Ware, of the Coast Guard Service, was in town from the beach on Monday. Captain Ware said that the fishing in the bay and surf was all over for the season.
James A. Price, a former Tuckerton man, is keeper of the Angelsea [North Wildwood] coast guard crew which came in for much criticism last week, as the result of their failure to see the capsizing of two pound boats, in which accident eleven fishermen were drowned. Harrison Chadwick, of Barnegat, was also a member of the crew of guards. The eleven men went out to take up the pound poles on the morning of Monday, October 31. The had two heavy pound boats lashed together with heavy timbers, and the poles when pulled were put on timbers between the two boats. They had apparently finished the job and started back to the inlet with the poles and struck on the inlet bar. No one knew of the disaster till one of the bodies came ashore about six o'clock that evening. The coast guards were severely criticized because their lookout did not see the disaster. The pound fishery belongs to Hilton and Hilton, old-time fishermen, and in the fishing crew were three boat captains, the crew all being experienced surfmen. The bar is a mile or so off shore, and the coast guards assert that the weather was so thick it was impossible to see that far.
Charles Grafly, a well-known Philadelphia sculptor, who some years ago had a studio at Island Heights, was last week awarded the Potter Palmer gold medal and $1000 [$15,451 in 2021 dollars] for a portrait bust exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute, at the thirty-fourth annual exhibition of American art.

BARNEGAT
Some years ago our streets were dark at nights, and we did not expect anything else. After a time we got oil lamps, and they made us think of Broadway, N.Y. They were followed by gas lights—oh, my, such dazzling lights! For some time past we have again been without lights, and on some nights even the moon refuses to shed its silver light over our quiet little burg. Now our Main street corners are so dark and dreary that our cemetery seems like the Atlantic City Boardwalk by comparison.

FORKED RIVER
A Hallowe'en party was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Jackson. Dancing, music and games were enjoyed to a late hour and refreshments were served. All had a fine evening.
On Saturday Farley Wilbert, Walter Frazee and Frank Brower bagged 25 ducks, 5 shelldrakes and 5 brant.
Edward Roch, a former resident, stopped here this week, on his way back from a coon hunting trip in South Jersey. He had two coons.
David A. Parker, who is in charge of the gunning club at Sedge Island, reports black ducks and shelldrakes plentiful, also some brant in the bay.
Winter flounders are in the inlet. Frank Penn and son report catching some the past few days.
Thievery is going on around here, something we generally are free from. Somebody on Sunday night stole a big wagon from Charles Woolley; the same night a shock of corn was stolen from Joseph Parker.
The large barn on the Hanford place has been sold to Mr. Cranmer, of Chesterfield, who will tear it down and use the lumber to build himself a barn at Chesterfield.

ISLAND HEIGHTS
Charles K. Haddon has sold his auxiliary yacht Mabel to parties who will sail her on the Shrewsbury River.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wallace are making great improvements to their place enlarging their greenhouse, making it four feet wider and ten feet longer.

PINE BEACH
Who says the old Pine Beach Inn stage coach has outlived its usefulness? It participated in the Hallowe'en parade in Toms River and won a prize.

SEASIDE PARK
Nearly all boats have to be laid up for the winter which makes the club house look deserted.
Harry Cross has laid the power houseboat Mercy up for the winter after a very successful summer as far as pleasure and comfort figures.

WARETOWN
John Eiseman arrived home last week from Panama, where he has been for two years in the army.
Corliss Brothers are clearing up their cranberries for the Christmas market.
John Mick recently lost a horse from the horse disease.

If you missed any issues of Ocean County 1921 and want to catch up, use the links below!
​
November 4th, 1921
October 28th, 1921
October 21st, 1921
​October 14th, 1921
October 7th, 1921
September 30th, 1921
September 23rd, 1921
September 16th, 1921
September 9th, 1921

Your donations support preserving and restoring our shared maritime heritage on the waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay, through our boat workshop, educational programs and special events. Thank you.

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 - [email protected]

Welcome to another Wooden Boat Wednesday!

This Wednesday continues the sketch of life about Barnegat Bay in the 1890s, courtesy Kobbe's The New Jersey Coast and Pines, an Illustrated Guide-book with Road-maps.

SPORT. —Barnegat Bay is all sport. In summer, hundreds of little vessels scud over its waters to the fishing-grounds near the inlet; and of the early mornings in winter, the figures of gunners may be seen dimly outlined against the gray horizon as they row their sneak-boxes out of the creeks toward some sedgy point or island. The earlier the start the better, for a few of the “shooting points” are considered to be more favor ably located than the rest, and it is a gunner's ambition to get his “man” to one of these points — that is, if he knows his man to be a first-rate sportsman. There is amusing rivalry between the different places along the bay shore for pre-eminence as sporting headquarters, especially between Forked River, Waretown and Barnegat (not to be confounded with Barnegat Pier, Barnegat Park or Barnegat City). At Forked River they will tell you that at Barnegat you have to drive one and a half miles from the station to the landing, and that the gunners there are so numerous they will double up on the good "points.” At Barnegat they will tell you that their landing, although one and a half miles from the station, is right on the bay, while at Forked River, although the landing is near the station, it is far up the creek, and that unless wind and tide are favorable you will be a long time reaching the bay. At both places they will say that, while Waretown is right on the bay, so that you have neither to drive to the landing nor to navigate a creek, the fact of there being no creek for a harbor makes landing there dangerous in stormy weather.

The reason these three places are rivals for pre-eminence as sporting resorts lies in the fact that the best fishing-grounds and shooting points are in their vicinity. The great summer sport is weak-fishing. Weak-fish from one to one and three quarters pounds in weight can be caught in great numbers a short distance from the mouth of Forked River, while in Oyster Creek Channel, or in the Elbow near the Inlet, the large “tide-runners” are almost equally numerous. On a fine summer day there is always a large fleet of fishing-boats from Tom's River, Barnegat Pier, Forked River and Waretown anchored over these grounds. Sheep's-head can also be caught in Oyster Creek Channel during July and August, while many king-fish are taken from near Clam Island. The Barnegat fishermen have an excellent weak-fishing ground a short distance from the north mouth of Double Creek, where their landing is. In the fall, there is also fine striped-bass fishing, especially in the gap between Sandy and Marsh Elder Islands and in the Marsh Elder thoroughfare. From February, or even earlier, if the bay is clear of ice, until May there is excellent sport fishing for flounders through holes in the coral beds formed by worms.

In point of fact, Waretown is the most favorably located of the three places for fishing excursions, because there a tongue of solid ground penetrates the salt meadows to the edge of the bay, and the landing is within a few minutes of the railroad station and at the same time right on the bay. Nevertheless among sportsmen Forked River is considered the fishing headquarters for Barnegat Bay, and Barnegat the headquarters for gunning. Forked River undoubtedly owes much of its reputation among sportsmen to the fame of its comfortable, old fashioned sporting house, the Lafayette, which for many years has been kept by old Sheriff Parker, large of frame and of heart, and as genial and cheery as the blaze of pine logs and stumps, which in winter are piled up on the hearth of the Lafayette sitting-room. The house is noted for its plain but delicious cooking, and the variety of fish, oysters, clams, crabs and game which the Sheriff makes a point of serving. To use his own expressive phrase, he “feeds his guests off the bay.” A free stage is run from the railroad station to the house, and from the house to the landing. Fishermen wishing to make an early start can have breakfast at 5 A. M., or earlier if they desire, and the Sheriff will put up lunch for the party and the captain. When boats return from fishing, a signal flag is hoisted at the landing and a stage is dispatched thither. If, while the boats are out, the horses are not in use, the Sheriff bundles the mothers and children into the stages and sends them out for a drive. The house is picturesquely situated on the most northerly of the three branches which give Forked River its name. On the south bank of this branch is one of those beautiful stretches of dark cedar swamp which add so much to the attractiveness of the scenes in this section of the coast, and which so temper the winter winds that the main shore of Barnegat Bay is a pleasant dwelling-place during the winter months.

The gunners make their headquarters at Barnegat because the principal shooting points are in its vicinity, Lovelady and Sandy Islands being considered the best points on the bay now that the Sedge Islands have become private. Nearly all the islands and points south of Stout's Creek, and whether on the main shore or beach are, however, resorted to by gunners, the points of vantage shifting with the changes of the wind, problems of the sport, the solution of which is best left to the gunner who is piloting the sportsman. The ducks which frequent Barnegat Bay are teal, broad-bills, blacks, red-heads, whistlers, mallards and shelldrakes; occasionally canvas backs stray up from the Chesapeake. From October 20th till December 1st, and March and April are the best periods of the year for duck-shooting on Barnegat Bay. Brant are plentiful in the spring. Goose shooting is followed with greatest success further up the bay, around Tom's River and Chadwick's.

In the woods back of the main shore are quail, rabbits, coons and foxes, and on the meadows English snipe.

Boating, fishing and gunning on Barnegat Bay are not expensive sports. One of the roomy, comfortable Barnegat Bay cat-boats with cabin, can be hired for $ 4 a day. Bait is 75 cents a quart for shrimps; $1 a dozen for soft-shell crabs. The captain finds the tackle. Four should be the limit of a party for comfort, though the $4 allows you to make your party as large as you choose. Gunning is $4 a day, the price covering boats and decoys. Shooting through the woods or over the meadows is $2 a day. Row-boats range from nothing to 20 cents an hour. 

Your donations support preserving and restoring our shared maritime heritage on the waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay, through our boat workshop, educational programs and special events. Thank you.

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 - [email protected]

Welcome to another era in Ocean County's past, one century ago this week!

Let your mind wander as you consider life around November 4th, 1921, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 10 minute read).

(written by NJ Courier editor, William H. Fischer, as he sat at his desk above Main Street near Washington Street; it was much like a collection of online social media updates seen today)

​November.
Eleventh month.
Leaves litter the ground.
Election day next Tuesday.
Hallowe'en was a gay night.
Tuesday was All Saints' Day.
Oak trees are ruddy or brown.
Few yachts left in commission.
Three legal holidays this month.
Some pee-rade on Monday evening.
Warm rain Monday night and Tuesday.
Banks, etc., have two holidays next week.
Sample ballots were mailed Wednesday.
Mercury stood 60 degrees at 7 A.M. November 1.
Candidates are on the last lap of the political race.
Armistice Day, Friday, November 11, a week from to-day.
The sand spit seems to be a public hauling out place for boats.
The Women's Relief Corps held a supper on the night of Hallowe'en.
Plenty of soft clams on the flats and the bay full of ducks is the report.
The wild cherry, one of the last of the trees to lose its green, is now yellow, orange and crimson.
The sewer digging force is being transferred to a job at Palmyra. Most of the sewer in Toms River is laid.
The Water Company has had an extension laid on Hyers Street, from Washington to Sheriff St., with a hydrant at the upper end. This will give another hydrant for fire fighting in event of a fire on Washington Street, which is now a built-up business block. It will also lay an extension on Irons Street, from Water Street across the central railroad track, and the Township Committee will have two hydrants on that street, which with the Hensler lumber yard, has become a fire hazard.
Postmaster David C. Brewer is raising and remodeling the house he has on Hooper Avenue, better known as the Jackson house.
Chrysanthemums are the reigning flower.
A son was born on Saturday, October 29, to Mr. and Mrs. William De Graw.
Gasoline has gone up another cent—27 cents per gallon retail [$4.14 in 2021 dollars]; 24 cents wholesale [$3.68 in 2021].
A.J. Harris, of Allentown, made a trip from his farm with a truck load of apples for Toms River customers last Saturday.
George Riley Applegate is suffering from the effects of a fall down a flight of stairs last Wednesday, at his Walton Street home.
Work of widening Washington Street on the north side, at Main Street, has been started. The sidewalk will be moved further in and leave a few feet more for the turn at that corner.
The Lipschuetz house on Water Street and Hooper Avenue has been completely remodeled. With heavy cornices, large sun parlor, stuccoed outside and asbestos shingle roof, it looks like a new house.
Not much mischief by the boys these Hallowe'en occasions. It seems to be more fun to dress up and mask than it is to play tricks. But on Tuesday morning a chicken crate was at the top of the flagpole on the American Legion lot.
The big storm sewer has been completed on Main and Hyers Streets, running up Hyers Street beyond School Street to the Old Pond. There are inlets also on both sides of Washington Street, and both sides of Main Street, at the junction of these two streets, to carry off the surface water coming down the gutters.
Dr. and Mrs. Hubert Milford, who recently arrived in Toms River from Sydney, Australia, suffered a considerable loss in personal property and a big collection of war relics and curios shipped from Sydney on the American steamship Conestota which, according to reports they got from that Sydney, blew up shortly after leaving that port, vessel, cargo, and crew all being lost. She carried a large supply of gasoline that is supposed to have caused the explosion.
Everybody wore a green tag last Saturday.
The rain held off Monday night till after the parade.
Toms River High School football team was defeated by Lakewood High School on Saturday last, Score 53—0.
Measles have broken out in the lower grades of the public school, and a dozen to twenty cases are reported.
Somebody solved the problem of “widening Main street” in the business block one night last week, when he drove his car down the west sidewalk and took out a panel of fence for C.L. Tilton. The latter couldn't see the joke.
Over at the Newbury lumber yards they are salvaging what is good from lumber damaged in the recent fire, and tearing down damaged sheds. Work of construction of the new sheds and mill is going on all the time.

Visit our Maritime Museum this Saturday, November 6th from 10 am to 2 pm and enjoy our FALL OPEN HOUSE AND BRASS SALE!

At noon, RECLAM THE BAY'S GIANT CLAMSHELL will be rededicated following its restoration by Toms River Artist Community (TRAC) artist, Judy Calderone-Favia!

Finally, our BOATS OF THE BARNEGAT BAY SHIRTS have been restocked since our Summer Festival and all sizes are now available!

Come join us!

Corner of Hooper Avenue and Water Street (parking entrance on Hooper), Toms River

BODY OF LAKEWOOD SOLDIER HAS ARRIVED FROM FRANCE
The body of Ambrose Matthews, the first Lakewood boy to be killed in the war, arrived on Saturday from France.
Matthews was in the Red Bank Ambulance unit, which went overseas with the Rainbow Division, the first troops to reach France other than regulars and engineers. He was in an ambulance when a shell struck in the road, a piece of it killing him instantly. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Matthews, of Lakewood.
Upon arrival of the body in Lakewood a military funeral, under the direction of the local American Legion Post will be held.
Ambrose was born in Lakewood October 17, 1896. He lived in Lakewood all his life, and attended the public school. He died in action July 26, 1918.
Ambrose enlisted at Red Bank, June 3, 1917, and was sent soon afterward to Sea Girt, and finally to the Rainbow Division, which was formed at Camp Mills, N.Y.
Surviving him are his mother, Mrs. Bendo M. Matthews; his father, George S. Matthews; his brother, Clarence E. Matthews, and two sisters, Mrs. Klarman and Mrs. A. Lyle Clayton, all of Lakewood.
Matthew's body reached Lakewood Tuesday. The funeral services will be on Sunday, and the town is preparing to do its loyal son special honors. The American Legion will turn out in a body.

SURVIVORS OF ZR-2 CREW AT LAKEHURST AIR STATION
The officers and mechanics sent overseas expecting to bring the ill-fated ZR-2 to the massive hangar at Lakehurst, arrived at the Naval Air Station last Thursday night and the entire crew trained for the destroyed air craft, excepting those who were lost with the ship, are now at Lakehurst...

HORSE SICKNESS APPEARS AGAIN IN SHORE VILLAGES
The horse sickness, so fatal a few years ago, and more or less epidemic last year along the shore, has reappeared at Barnegat and Waretown. On Sunday County Agent E.H. Waite was notified that Elton Carter, of Barnegat, had lost a horse from it, and that Mick's sawmill, at Waretown, had also lost a horse. The disease has been the subject of a great deal of study, for about six years ago it spread all through the Middle West, costing the farmers of the Mississippi Valley millions of dollars' worth of horse flesh. It is assumed to be the result of the horse taking into its mouth, by feeding or drinking, a vegetable germ which finally attacks the spine and brain, somewhat like the spinal meningitis and the infantile paralysis among the humans. These scientists also say that this germ is found in the soil, as is the germ of lockjaw, or tetanus, another horse disease, to which the horse is generally immune, but which is often fatal  to man.
Early this fall County Agent Waite started a campaign of inoculating horses against botulinus, as inoculation had last year appeared to be successful in preventing infection. A hurry call has been sent for veterinaries and they will, with County Agent Waite, make a tour of the shore, inoculating horses in every shore town...

CRANBERRY PRICES HIGH
Cranberry prices are ruling rather high, and there has been a flurry in the New York and Philadelphia markets because the big growers have been shipping their berries all into the West. Fancy berries, like the Howes, have brought $15 a barrel [$230 in 2021 dollars], and on down to $12 for cheaper grades [$184 in 2021]. Local growers, who started their first carload lots out to the Pacific coast are now shipping to west of the Alleghenies, to Louisville, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Small growers, who ship direct to the commission men in New York and Philadelphia, have got as high as $4 and $4.25 a crate for choice berries [$61 to $65 in 2021]. The demand is for the Thanksgiving trade.

SCHOOL GROUND BONDS O.K.'D
The State Department of Education has approved the issue of school bonds of Dover Township, put out to buy the school house hill from A.C.B. Havens and Son, and the Gulick Field from Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Lonan, of Richmond Hill, L.I., formerly of Toms River. It will take $2500 for each purchase [$38,311 ea. In 2021 dollars]. The town is to be congratulated in getting these properties.

ASK STATE $200,000 FOR ONE BRIDGE, $100,000 FOR OTHER
Trenton, Nov. 1—Citizens prominent in the commercial, financial and political life of Ocean County this afternoon discussed with the Road Committee of the State Highway Commission the question of the compensation from the state for the Beach Haven bridge [from mainland to Long Beach Island], and the Island Heights-Seaside Park Bridge [later replaced by the Mathis bridge, then later still added upon with the Tunney bridge, between Toms River and the Seasides], which two structures connect Ocean County's seashore from the mainland. The Highway Commission took over the structures the first of last March and lifted the tolls.
Under the law the state must compensate the owners, the Long Beach Turnpike Company and the Island Heights-Seaside Park Bridge Company. The former wants $100,000 for its bridge [$1.5 million in 2021 dollars], and the other is asking $200,000 [$3 million in 2021 dollars]. The committee will make a report to the Highway Commission.

BIG CROWDS WATCH MARCH OF HALLOWE'EN MASKERS
Crowds from all the surrounding towns gathered in Toms River Monday evening and watched the parade of Hallowe'en maskers. This was the third event of the kind arranged by Toms River Fire Company, and in some respects was the most successful of all. There were more individual entries in the line, though not so many organizations as last year or two years ago.
Dr. E.C. Disbrow was marshal of the parade, on horseback, and was followed by the fire truck. Then came the marching contestants for prizes, followed by various organizations, chief among whom were the American Legion, the Mannahassett Haymakers, the Ocean Gate and Seaside Heights Fire Companies, Steiner's girls, making the acrostic “Universal,” each carrying one of the letters, weer also in the line; and the Klu Klux Klan carried the flaming torch. Following the parade there was a dance in the Scout Hall. The company figure that they made between $100 and $200 out of the evening [$1,532 to $3,064 in 2021 dollars].
The Boy Scout Band, of Paterson, furnished the music for the parade and also an orchestra for the dance hall...

THIS SAILOR NEAR DEATH
Lakewood, Nov.1—Reggie Conly, of this place, after a serious illness at Camp Dix Hospital, lying for days at the point of death, is greeting friends here, getting about on crutches. Conly was on the Lakehurst Naval Air Station fire engine the night it hurried to Toms River to help fight the Newbury fire last summer, and was severely injured when the machine skidded into a telephone pole.

KIMBALL HOSPITAL MAKES APPEAL FOR MANY NEEDS
The Kimball Hospital, at Lakewood, has sent out to the newspapers of the county an appeal for its many needs, and the further appeal that the good people of the county remember this institution with Thanksgiving offerings. Among the articles asked for are:
Sheets, 72x108 inches; pillow cases, 36x45, or smaller; tuck-in pillows, tray covers, 16x20 inches; towels of any size.
Toys and picture books for child patients, and clothing for new-born babes.
Fruits and vegetables, fresh or canned; groceries, poultry, etc.
Cups and saucers, and other china ware; reading matter; warm clothing for out-going patients; money to help along patients after they leave the hospital.
Everybody in the county knows where Kimball Hospital is, on River Avenue, Lakewood; its 'phone No. is Lakewood 410.

MORE PIPE FOR OIL WELL
A carload of pipe arrived at Lakewood and were taken out to the oil well at Jackson Mills on Monday. The big derrick on the hill above Jackson Mills pond is all activity these days, and somebody is surely spending a wad of money there. Every once in a while the report comes that they have “struck oil.” Let's hope so.

ARIZONA MAN WANTED HERE JUMPED BORDER TO MEXICO
Lakewood, Nov. 1—Constable Richard Riley, who with Prosecutor Plumer went to Phoenix, Ariz., after a prisoner, returned here last Saturday without his man. They went after Robert Bruce, indicted for criminal assault on a girl under fifteen years. On their arrival Bruce was given a preliminary hearing and his lawyer got him out on bail, when his is alleged to have jumped the border into Mexico. Prosecutor and Mrs. Plumer went to the California coast.

PERSONAL
About a hundred people, most of them in costume and masked, attended the Hallowe'en affair of the Toms River Yacht Club on Friday evening, October 28, at the club house. Commodore and Mrs. Horace A. Doan were the host and hostess, and the entertainment was in charge of a committee—Frank Buchanan, John Hensler and S.A. Loveman. A pretty pantomime was given by Messrs. Buchanan and Hensler, and Miss Elizabeth Sculthorp. Music was furnished by a Lakewood orchestra, and dancing was enjoyed till a late hour. About $100 was the net result financially [$1,532 in 2021 dollars].
In honor of the fifth birthday of Benjamin Leet, Mr. and Mrs. Max Leet, on Sunday afternoon, entertained twenty little folks at their home in Berkeley. Mrs. Wilmer Clayton presented Bennie with a handsome birthday cake, decorated with candles. The little folks will long remember the happy time they had.
Allen Brouwer is taking up dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

FISH AND GAME
Upland gunning begins on Thursday next. Gunners are locating the quail and rabbits, and land owners are posting their grounds. Each year there are more and more land owners who feed quail during the winter, get accustomed to having them around, and don't like the idea of the flock being killed off by gunners. These kind of folk post their lands with the idea of preserving the quail altogether. Others post their lands to save the shooting for themselves or their friends.
Indications are that the number of quail is a little higher than usual this fall, and rabbit about as usual, while the gunners may be looked for to increase several percent.
Sunday there were a number of crabbing parties on the bay bridge at Seaside Heights. The crabs caught were few and small.
A few geese are shot on their southward flight. Most that have been killed are brought down from points in the upper bay.
Not very many migratory ducks up to this time have reached the bays.
The Newark Call says that some pound fishermen have reached the point where they favor the federal control of sea fisheries, and gives the reasons in the following:
“One of the leading pound net owners of the coast declared a few days ago that the season now nearly closed had been a poor one for the net owners. He said there had been vast numbers of fish ten to twenty miles off the coast and that the fishing smacks had never made larger catches but that inshore the fish were scarce. He attributed this scarcity to two factors—the oil pollution and the increased amount of sewage poured into the sea from the resorts along the coast. This sewage, he declared, remained close to the shore, as did the oil, and drove the fish away. Salt water fish, he said, with few exceptions, will not stay in polluted waters, and having the whole vast body of the ocean to swim in, they naturally refused to remain near the shore where the water was impure. He declared it was time for the federal government to do for migratory fish what it has already done for migratory birds.”
Fred Penn, of Seaside Park, celebrated his fifteenth birthday by shooting his first wild goose. Fred was some proud of this fine fowl, as he has a right to be.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Collins and Mr. and Mrs. Horace G. Smith, of Keansburg, spent several days last week at Prickly Pear Island, at the mouth of Goose Creek, gunning. They came down in the most complete traveling home that has been seen in this part of the state. It was a regular house and is christened “Moving Inn.” It contains its own water and electric light systems, the pressure water tank holding sixty gallons, and forcing water up into the interior. Besides the kitchenette there are bunks for sleeping four people. The whole outfit is on a five-ton truck, and goes where its owner wants it to. They have leased the shooting on the island.
A.C. King and Jess Miller, of Toms River, on Monday bagged forty-five ducks in the upper bay.
Win Irons bagged a wildcat last Saturday while exercising his dog in the swamps along Toms River, west of the village. This cat was treed by the dog, and Win poked him out with a pole several times, but each time the cat would make another tree. Charles L. King, of Broad Street, heard the noise and joined the chase. The last time the cat went up a tree, King went up after it and flung it to the ground, where the dog was waiting for it. The cat punished the dog so badly that Irons jumped in and got his foot on its neck, when it writhed 'round and tore his rubber overshoes to shreds with its teeth and claws. Hundreds of people stopped to look at the wildcat in Grover's window Saturday night. It was a house cat of unusually large size, with long claws and half-inch “eye teeth.” It had evidently been living in the woods for some time, as Harry Herbert and other gunners have reported seeing a “wild” cat in that piece of swamp several years straight. Win Irons did not have all the excitement or notoriety on Saturday, however, as his son, Milton, came in for a little of it. Milton, with Joseph E. Abbott, fire warden, went gunning for crow ducks in the coves near Silverton. Somehow their sneakbox turned over with them and both of them went clean out of sight in the cold water of the bay. When they stood up they were in water breast deep, so no harm was done. One explanation is that they thought they saw a hell diver and each tried to catch him under the water, but that is rather fishy, don't you think?
Reports from Laurelton say that there have been some gunners shooting nights at Forge Pond, and the game wardens have been after them.
The story of Game Warden Evernham's encounter in the deer woods with a camel and an elephant was reprinted in the Philadelphia Ledger on Sunday last, with supplements and embellishments.
With all Chatsworth out hunting a bear last week, and a bear, a camel and an elephant in the Bamber woods, the Hawkin Bear is put to his stumps to get back upon the pinnacle of fame. But just leave it to Lee, Steve and Sam. If they can't hoist him there, Phin will send some help from Atlantic City.
Surf and bay fishing are both over for the season. Flounders are around the inlets and outside, and tom cod are caught, but that is not looked upon as sport by most of the fishermen.
Frost fish are picked up on the beaches o'nights, and make good eating for a change.

DOVER TOWNSHIP SCHOOL NOTES
The teachers of the High School, with Mr. Finck, attended the annual convention of the New Jersey High School Teachers' Association,, at New Brunswick, on Friday evening and Saturday of last week.
The football team took its fourth straight beating on Saturday, Lakewood High turning the trick in this instance. The score was 52—0. Toms River is hampered by the lack of experience and weight. The Lakewood team outweighed them twenty-five pounds to the man. On Saturday of this week the boys go to Red Bank and next week to Clinton, to meet Mr. Hellman's charges. They promise better results against these schools which are more nearly in their class.
The first issue of the Cedar Chest [a semi-regular journal produced by the school through the year; prior to formal hardbound yearbooks, the last edition of the school year included senior student portrait photos and items similar to a traditional yearbook – when hardbound yearbooks took over those duties, they kept the name Cedar Chest, used to this day by TRHS's descendant, Toms River High School South] is in the hands of the printer [the printer being the printing office of this New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper, as part of its other services offered to the community]. Copies will be ready for distribution in about two weeks' time.
The Home and School Association took in $341.16 [$5,228 in 2021 dollars] with its tag day last Saturday. This is thought to be enough for the playground equipment—at least for a start.
At its meeting Wednesday, the Home and School Association had the first demonstration of the moving picture machine it has bought and placed in the opera house for educational purposes. They also received a number of new members, and are expecting more. The banner was awarded to the fourth grade.

RECENT DEATHS
Edgar Lawrence Simpson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Simpson, of Island Heights, died at Kimball Hospital last Saturday, October 29, after an operation for appendicitis, in his fifth year.
Funeral services were conducted by Rev. H.J. Smith, at Island Heights M.E. Church, November 1. Burial at Riverside Cemetery.

BARNEGAT
Walter Ridgway is building a large garage for the accommodation of the many summer boarders who stop at his place.
There have been several business changes here recently—Mrs. Curtis, of Camp Dix, has bought the Spangler restaurant; Mr. Stahl, of Bamber, has the Shreve pool room and has also fruits and vegetables; Walter Brower has opened his barber shop; Cranmer and Reeves are doing a good business with the assistance of Tom Galvin, who is a live man in the advertising line. He knows advertising what you have brings the people to you and then a pleasant smile and a courteous treatment holds them. Conrad Brothers are very busy with their lumber and coal yards, employing five men, four trucks, two teams and are busy all the while. Gray and Rutter have extended their meat business at Forked River, where they have established a branch in Al Grant's store. Elmer Bennett has two trucks constantly busy in his delivery business. Gaskill's Garage is a busy place, four men are busy, with always a line of cars outside waiting for repairs. The new shoemaker in the Conrad Building is developing a good trade. Mrs. Miller has a large stock of goods in her store for the fall and winter trade. The baker's family have returned here from Ocean Gate; he does the baking there and brings the goods here for the shop. Perrine's boat shop is a very busy place now-a-days. Billy Froust is having a fish pond dug out at his place downtown. Samuel Mathews is getting ready to operate an up-to-date milk route. In spite of the general depression of business throughout the country our place has not felt it yet.
Gunning parties are very scarce compared with other seasons. Many of our guides have had but one or two parties so far. There are two reasons given for this condition, one is that ducks are scarce and the other because many of them have not the money they had some time ago. We must remember that all who come here are not rich, but ordinary people who have put a little aside for a few day's pleasure, and like the rest of us, figure on how much they can get for the amount.
That thieves are no respectors of persons was shown recently at Chatsworth, when Rev. Clarence Woodmansee, of this place, who is stationed there, was robbed of clothing and cash. He had a room in the church for his study and it was in this room that they made their haul. They left two old dirty sweaters in place of his clerical garb.
Why will so many people persist in walking in the street when there are good sidewalks. They then wonder why autos will hit them occasionally.
Did you ever consider what the Shewsbury Bay Head Canal and the new road will mean to our bay? They are both coming and with them a great chance for those who make their money out of those who come here for sailing, crabbing, fishing and other sports. Here is one thing that would bring a good return to the owner—take one of the large bay scows and make it absolutely tight; put a strong open cabin with an upper deck, a kitchen on one end; serve chowders, deviled crabs, sandwiches, soft drinks, cigars, etc.; have a dozen row boats for hire; give moonlight dance parties; advertise for crabbing parties, also fishing right from the deck. There are many other things that would attract thousands to our bay if proper means were taken to entertain them. Many people have been turned away from here this season through lack of row boats, and if they tell their friends, that keeps many more away. The man who starts something to accommodate and bring the people will find a good thing, provided he knows how to cater to them and keep their trade and at the same time gain others. Trying to get their money for little service as possible, with the idea that they are here today and gone to-morrow, won't bring new ones or keep the old ones. Don't be afraid of a little extra work to please them, it always pays in the long run...

BAYVILLE
Mrs. Laura Brockway and Miss Carrie Bonnell spent Wednesday of last week at Barnegat Pier with Mrs. Wesley Falkinburg.
We suppose, from what we read, that Bayville is to lose another of its leading citizens, who will make his home where he has long been in active law practice, at Toms River—we refer, of course, to Judge David A. Veeder, to whom (and his bride) Bayville folk wish every joy.

BEACHWOOD
The Beachwood Gun Club held a series of trap-shooting matches on October 20... each shoot being 25 birds apiece. The club now has a membership of 140, and is still growing, being expected to cross the 150 mark soon. It is planning weekly shoots.
The Woman's Club is planning a series of meetings this winter in New York or some central point for its members while at their winter homes, under the leadership of Mrs. Siffert, who takes an active interest in all Beachwood matters.
The Beachwood fleet is housed away for the winter. Big things are looked forward to next summer in the yachting line.
Mayor Senior and family are among those staying into November at their home here.
Dr. Slonaker, who has the contract for transporting school children, has a comfortable 'bus for them to ride in.
Jake Hoffman thinks it is time for another clam chowder supper at the Rod and Gun club house.
The Borough Commission meets on Saturday evening, November 5, and at that meeting the charges against Frank Turner, Borough Clerk and Marshal, will be heard.
Mrs. N.T. Pulsifer, of New York, was here on Wednesday.
Both diphtheria and measles have appeared in parts of our town. The families are under strict quarantine.
Wednesday morning a big buck deer strolled down Lookout Street, wandering about Club House Place, and then leisurely went off down the river bank toward Pine Beach. We live close to nature at Beachwood.

CEDAR RUN
We are pleased to see the family of S.B. Conkling at their home here, after a summer at Beach Haven.
The lot at the corner of Boulevard and Bay Street has been sold to W.T. Cook, and it is expected a bungalow will be built there.
The numerous changes of property in this locality has brought many strangers here and also increased the population some.
The Hallowe'en dance at Manahawkin drew a number of the young folks.
Postmaster W.S. Cranmer has rearranged his store and post office, put in new fixtures with lock boxes, a pipeless heater and other changes.
Capt. Samuel B. Conkling reports oysters exceptionally fine in these waters this fall.

FORKED RIVER
The Clover Troop of Girl Scouts gave a benefit social and dance at Mrs. Malcolm Dunn's in the form of a Hallowe'en party. The evening was spent in dancing and appropriate games. Senorita Clovera wrote fortunes with the aid of the spirits. A large company attended and the affair was a success financially and in enjoyment. The Scouts have passed the tenderfoot test, and are studying and working toward becoming second class scouts. This is recommended as a splendid movement for girls and is encouraged by the home, the school and the church as an aid; in fact, the records show that troops are started by these institutions. The scouts know the policy and laws governing them and are willing to tell everyone what a wonderful time they can have while trying to keep the rules.
Capt. Joe Smires and family motored to Toms River Monday night to see the parade.
The Greyhound Inn held a dance on Hallowe'en that was attended by many of the young people. Parties came from Lakehurst, Cedar Crest, Tuckerton to this masque ball.
Capt. Theodore Hanford has returned to Jersey City to resume his job as captain in the P.R.R. tugboat fleet.
President Ernest Napier, of the State Fish and Game Commission, has been making some fine catches of striped bass while out on the bay with J.S. Bunnell. His score is now 25.
Townsfolks will receive folders from the pastor requesting them to take an active part in the noon-day prayer on Friday, November 11, Armistice Day. Our church bells and school bells will be rung at 12 noon—a call to prayer for the abiding peace among the nations of the earth.

ISLAND HEIGHTS
The sympathy of the entire community is with Mr. and Mrs. Frank Simpson, in the death of their little son, Lawrence, aged 4 years, who died from the effects of an operation. The little body was laid to rest on Tuesday afternoon, in Riverside Cemetery, Toms River.
Mrs. W. Haverstick gave a Hallowe'en dance on Saturday evening at her bungalow on Ocean Avenue. Among those present were: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sharp, Mr. and Mrs. E. Moore, Miss George Jahns, Misses Florence Forrester, Dorothy Stokes, Mary Stokes, Mrs. A.E. Stokes and Lewis Forrester.
Little Leroy McKelvey, son of Mr. and Mrs. William McKelvey, is around again after the measles.
Two or three cases of scarlet fever and our school closed. With careful quarantine, we hope to escape an epidemic.

LANOKA
Hallowe'en was celebrated on last Saturday night by our young people of town visiting different homes and having a good time.
Capt. Martin McCarthy, of 109 C. G. S. [Coast Guard Station], was home over last Monday.
Capt. John McCarthy bagged fifteen ducks one day this week.

LAVALLETTE
The test on street lights will take place on Saturday. There are several houses that have been inspected O.K. For turning on the lights.
Charles Hankins, the boat builder, is very busy with pound boats for next season.
Mr. Tallman, of Bayonne, has plans for building a cottage on the corner of Guyer Avenue and Boardwalk, which will make quite an improvement on the beach front.
Mr. Roller, of Newark, is the first to pay for having the lights turned on in his house.
Mr. Hemphill is very busy at this time getting houses wired.
Everyone who missed seeing the ocean for the last few nights certainly missed a grand sight. The phosphorus made quite an illumination.
There have been a large number of wild geese and ducks killed in the past week. Gunners from all over the state in Lavallette this season.
The fishermen are getting their nets ready for fishing in the bay for perch.
There are lots of crabs seen in the bay staying later than usual this season.
W. H. Nugent is very busy overhauling his boats and storing others away for the winter.
There is a heavy fine for breaking electric light bulbs. Anyone caught will be given the full penalty of the law.
The new law passed last winter puts a heavy fine for breaking glass on the highways or streets of any town or borough in the state. If you ride over the roads you can see lots of bottles broken and scattered all along the way. This is a bad practice and should be stopped.

MANTOLOKING
Contractor Joseph Stillwell is repairing Mrs. Sarah W. Downer's cottage.
Captain Fred Bailey entertained friends this week.
Samuel Brower, of the Coast Guard Service, has had his house painted. Claude Hurley and Albert Ware did the work.
Mrs. J.R. Albertson, of the Albertson Hotel, has been spending some time at Mohonk Lake, N.Y.

OCEAN GATE
Last summer the Ladies' League of Voters of Ocean Gate Borough held a “parcel post sociable” to raise money to procure a bell for the fire company. As usual, they were successful, the money was raised, the bell procured and placed on the fire house. The fire company, to show its appreciation gave a chicken supper in the fire house, last Saturday evening, handled entirely by the men, without assistance. The fire house was tastefully decorated and the long table looked very inviting. Marshal Joseph Sellinger was the head chef, and certainly was at home in the kitchen. The waiters, headed by Assistant Chief H. D. Black, wore boudoir caps, white aprons and pleasant smiles, and were very attentive to their duties. The menu started with chicken soup, strong enough to draw a prize in a lottery, followed by generous portions of chicken, green peas, potatoes, plain and colored, celery, olives and other relishes, coffee, cake and ice cream. President Shindler welcomed the guests and thanked the ladies for the bell. Brief remarks were made by H.D. Black, Marshal Sellinger and others. Want of space prevents giving the names of those present. Music was furnished by Anthony Endler and Hugo Schwindt, with Mrs. Alvin Black at the piano. Dancing was enjoyed by those who desired and there was solo singing and dancing, with singing of old-time songs, everybody joining in the choruses. It was such a social success that another affair of the kind is expected in the near future.

PINE BEACH
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wheeler went to Pine Beach on Hallowe'en. Mr. Wheeler is now connected with the West Philadelphia branch of the Saving Fund instead of being at Seventh and Walnut Streets.
Mr. John O'Boyle, one-time summer visitor, was the guest at a dinner at the Rittenhouse on Saturday, given him by several of the public school principals of Philadelphia.
Mr. and Mrs. Chris Bauer were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks, in Island Heights, over the week-end. They motored over to Pine Beach to look over their own place.
Miss Schaeffer, while riding horseback through Pine Beach the other day, was thrown from the horse and sustained some slight injuries.
Mr. Thomas Sheeran has added another story his garage and divided it into bed rooms. He has also added a kitchen and provided for heating in the winter time when he comes down in the gunning season. Mr. McKaig, of Island Heights, did the work.
Mr. Thole, a prominent lawyer, of Philadelphia, has purchased a lot on the river front.
The auxiliary of the Yacht Club gives a dance at Mosebach's on December 11th.
Most all of Pine Beach was at the Hallowe'en celebration in Toms River Monday evening.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS
Seaside Heights has given the Lakewood and Seacoast Electric Company a two-year contract to light its streets, beginning November 24. The company will also sell electric current to the borough. It now has its lines down the beach from Point Pleasant to Seaside.

MISSED AN ISSUE?If you missed any issues of Ocean County 1921 and want to catch up, use the links below!
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October 28th, 1921
October 21st, 1921
​October 14th, 1921
October 7th, 1921
September 30th, 1921
September 23rd, 1921
September 16th, 1921
September 9th, 1921

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Welcome to another Wooden Boat Wednesday!

This Wednesday continues the sketch of life about Barnegat Bay in the 1890s, courtesy Kobbe's The New Jersey Coast and Pines, an Illustrated Guide-book with Road-maps.

THE PIRATES OF BARNEGAT. – Many of the beaches south of Bay Head retain their original wild and desolate character. One can wander for miles among the dunes without coming upon human habitation other than the Life-Saving stations or an occasional gunner's hut. These beaches were settled by whalers as early as 1640, whales being then plentiful off shore. Afterwards, and until the establishment of the Life-Saving Service, it was on these beaches that the "Barnegat Pirates" plied their infamy. These miscreants had not the venturesome spirit to cruise the sea and attack every vessel they met, sometimes even accepting the risk of a fair battle. Their piratical acts were the more dastardly because they rarely involved peril to the lives of those who perpetrated them. A man who coldly shoots down his fellow-man from ambush is not more cowardly than were these Barnegat Pirates. Woe to the ship and crew which in those times found themselves off one of the Jersey beaches of a stormy night! The elements were not half as pitiless as the wretch who trimmed the false beacon on the beach, while the band of wreckers stood among the dunes peering with straining eyes through the gale and sleet in eager expectation that some vessel would be lured out of her course and driven on to the shoals. It is easy to imagine the scene which was then enacted. Suddenly a ghostly, heaving form is discerned through the storm. A ship is plunging toward the breakers. There is a crash, a wail of despair, heard above the uproar of the tempest, and the false light has fulfilled its mission. The wreckers are now watching the surf. Suddenly a dark object is tossed up from the hollow of a wave and rolled ashore through the surf—the corpse of the first poor fellow to drop benumbed from the ice-coated rigging. The wreckers regard him with indifference - he is only a sailor with no money about him. Another is cast ashore and then another; and then they come rolling in faster. Some object larger than a man's body darkens the surf. It is a door from which one of the panels has been knocked out. A man has thrust an arm through the frame and hangs on to it, while with the other he clasps a woman so tightly that even the fury of the elements has not availed to separate them. The wreckers pay more attention to these corpses. They search the captain's clothing till they find a wallet and then take his wife's ear-rings. The number of corpses washed ashore has confirmed what the crash with which the vessel went on the shoal told the wreckers—she is a large ship, a prime prize for the Barnegat Pirates in spars, timber and cargo. And the chances are she will break up before daylight, so that they can secure a good share of the plunder under cover of the night. Such were some of the scenes once enacted on that desolate shore when the Pirates of Barnegat were in league with the demon of the tempest. When one reflects upon the terror of a storm at sea; the joy with which the tempest tossed mariner must have beheld what seemed to him a familiar beacon; and the despair that must have come over him when he saw the line of hissing breakers ahead, and realized that he had been lured to certain death, one fails to find words strong enough to express one's sense of the villainy of the Pirates of Barnegat.

The natives of the coast are rather chary of information regarding these matters—they are too nearly contemporaneous to be freely spoken of. But sometimes, while sitting of a winter evening around the open fire-place of one or another of the old-fashioned inns on the coast, one can gather no uncertain details of these crimes, and old sportsmen will tell of taverns among the dunes where wines of the finest vintages of France and Germany could be had for a mere song. There is also a dark tradition that of wild winter nights a white female figure can be seen wandering up and down Long Beach and suddenly falling upon her knees and bending over with clasped hands, as it over a corpse. This is said to be the specter of a young woman who was an active member of a band of wreckers of which her father was the leader. One night, when the corpses were beginning to roll in from a vessel which this band had lured on to the shoals, the men heard their leader's daughter give a shriek and saw her throw herself over one of the bodies. It was the corpse of her sailor lover, who, it was afterwards learned ,had escaped from a wreck on the British coast and had then shipped for home in the very vessel she had helped lure to destruction. Nowadays, the only men to be found on the beaches of a stormy winter night are the life-savers. The service has put an end to wrecking as a business. For a living the natives now “follow the bay" or provide entertainment for summer visitors and the sportsmen who are at all seasons attracted to this coast. Of a winter night, instead of hoisting false signals on a storm-swept beach, they draw up to the open fire place or sit around the tap-room stove of their village inn, and their signaling is confined to "tipping the wink” to one another when to begin “loading up” some fresh, green youngster, down from the city on his first duck-shooting expedition, with stories of the wonderful sport to be had on the Bay—stories in which the 52 broad-bills bagged in a day by one gunner at Wrangle Creek, or the 73 bagged in Sedge Islands thoroughfare, or the single haul of 200,000 pounds of fish in Metedeconk River in 1847, usually figure in the expressive native vernacular. Another story is perhaps cut short by a gust of wind caused by the opening of the door. Three muffled figures seem to be fairly blown in. When they have thrown off their great-coats the new-comers turn out to be an ex-sheriff from Tom's River, with a spare, shrewd, gray-whiskered face, and two friends who have come down to have a quiet little game with the landlord. They join the circle around the stove, and the ex-sheriff reminiscences for the benefit of the young sportsman of the days when he could beat every man in Ocean and adjoining counties at quoits. Then he invites all hands up to the bar. “Drink hearty, gentlemen! Drink hearty!” he says briskly, and tosses off three fingers of rye, after which he and his friends retire with the landlord. The next morning, at breakfast, the landlord and the ex-sheriff's two friends can hardly hold up their heads; he has long ago hitched up and is well on the road to Tom's River. It may be judged from this brief sketch that life along Barnegat Bay is quite different from that at the resorts north of Bay Head. There the visitors do not mingle with the natives. But along Barnegat Bay one is brought into quite different relations with them. You feel like knowing more of the man who brings down his red-head every time, who knows every fishing-ground, and who can steer his yacht unerringly through all the channels, thoroughfares and “slews," and an entente cordiale, such as exists between the Adirondack hunter and his guide, is soon established between the sportsman on Barnegat Bay and his boatman or gunner.

Your donations support preserving and restoring our shared maritime heritage on the waters of Toms River and Barnegat Bay, through our boat workshop, educational programs and special events. Thank you.

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 - [email protected]