Ocean County: 100 Years This Week! (May 9-23, 1924)

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

Let your mind wander as you consider life from May 9th to 23rd, 1924, courtesy the New Jersey Courier and Ocean County Review weekly newspapers, from the Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 20 minute read).

BREVITIES AND EDITORIALS

(often 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)

​May time.
Woods fires.
Fifth month.
Blossom time.
Apple blossoms.
Moonlit evenings.
Full moon May 18.
Green things growing.
Sunday was a dusty day.
Meadowlarks are singing.
Was it the blossom storm?
'The merry month of May.'
New moon last Saturday.
Mother's day next Sunday.
Fog and rain on Wednesday.
Ice and frost Monday morning.
School vacation days draw near.
Blossoms show on the oak trees.
Many trees are green with new leaves.
Poppy day will come on Saturday, May 24.
No more beautiful time of the year than this.
The wrens and the catbirds arrived last Friday.
Redwinged blackbirds are seen in the marshes.
Auto drivers take tests at the courthouse today.
Frank Irons is painting his house on Dayton avenue.
R.H. Byers is driving a new Overland Champion sedan.
The Henry A. Low house on Washington street has been in the hands of carpenters and painters.
Tonight and tomorrow night at the opera house the high school give their operatta, “The Gypsy Rover.”
Swamp maples are gay with their seed vanes, pink, red, terra cotta—in many shades—but all beautiful.
Vernon Sutton has a new Chevrolet commercial car for his contracting business.
There seems to be no lack of work—especially in the building trade. If you think otherwise, try to get a carpenter, mason or plumber to do a job for you.
Sunrises tomorrow (Saturday) at 4:50 and sets at 7:04, sun time. This gives 14 hours and 14 minutes of daylight. Twilight makes the day an hour and a half longer, at least.
The Thomas A. Mathis Inc., sold during the month of April 37 passenger cars, 19 trucks, 8 tractors with graders, 5 Lincoln cars, and 36 used cars.
The local American Legion auxiliary expects to join with other auxiliaries about the county and have a “food-selling” concession at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, on May 31, the proceeds to go to the Convalescent home.
The A.B. Newbury Co., are making many changes at their new yard at Seaside Park, formerly owned by A.L. Lewis. Wilmer Johnson is in charge of the yard, and Rowland Buckwalter, Jr., with Frank Butler, in charge of the store. Charles Horner, of High Point, will also be employed at the yard.
Supreme Court Justice Minturn has had young shade trees set out all around his property at Water and Horner streets, opposite Robbins Park.
Another American Legion dance this evening at their rooms on West Water street, with music by the Jolly Five of Vineland.
Lieut. Wiley, of the Naval Air Station, spoke at the Kiwanis Club on Monday evening last.
Joseph Finley left Wednesday for Brooklyn to buy electrical fixtures. Joe thinks there is no place like Brooklyn for shopping.
While Joe Wainwright, Marcus Russell and Leslie Lane were driving to the Naval Air Station to work on Tuesday morning, Wainwright's Buick roadster struck some soft sand, and turned turtle, with the three men underneath. Wainwright and Russell got some scratches, but Lane was unscratched. The car caught fire and burnt up completely—a total loss. It had just been overhauled and repainted.
Dr. George T. Crook is overhauling his motor yacht Gertrude for the summer.
Charles Wilbur, of Cedar Grove, says he still has a silver dollar he earned one summer when a boy. That summer he drove cows three miles to the meadow, and back the same distance at night, for the wage of 45 cents a week and saved the gold dollar out of his earnings.
Lots o' rain.
May is half gone.
Clover grows well.
Full moon next Sunday.
Lilacs are purple or white.
Oak trees are now in blossom.
Only four weeks left for school.
Apple trees blooming everywhere.
Strawberry vines are in full bloom.
Beachplum bushes are white with bloom.
The cuckoo is reported in from the south.
We have not seen much of this moon.
Roads have been muddy, wet and full of holes.
Grain fields and meadows are growing fast.
Sassafras shows its yellow-green blossoms.
Swamps and woods are in pastel shades now.
Well, at least the rain stopped the forest fires.
The new school does seem to move ahead very fast.
Roadsides are purple here and there with the sand violet.
Swamp maples are as beautiful, in another way, as they are after a frost in the fall.
Everybody is looking forward to the big aerial circus at Lakehurst on May 31. All roads will lead to the Naval Air Station that day. Some folks say that the wise one will leave his car at home and travel on the train.
Where will cars be parked in the average town if they keep on making them and people keep on buying them?
Poultry raisers are loading their guns with buckshot for chicken thieves, and say they will shoot.
Wisteria, royal purple in hue, hangs out in large clusters of bloom—a glorious spring flower.
Much rain.
A wet May.
Fish in the bay.
Plenty of flowers.
Oats are heading up.
No frosts since May 5.
Memorial Day next Friday.
Overcoats are still in style.
Rain makes the grass grow.
Trees are getting in full leaf.
School closes Friday June 13.
If these rains don't stop, we'll all get webfooted.
Cranberry growers are drawing the water off their bogs.
Corn planting time—oak leaves are surely as big as the squirrel's ear.
More progress at the new school house—but it is hard to see it done on September 1.
Some of these tight-fitting hats the women now wear have the classic lines of a Greek helmet, and some look like a German tin hat.
The humming bird is reported, and also the cuckoo, as arriving last week. That brings all our summer birds here.
Jess Robbins, son of S. Robbins, agent at C.R.R. station at Toms River will be in charge of the station at Beachwood this summer.
Huddy Park with its newly paved walks of red gravel will be admired by many tourists this summer when the flowers are in full bloom.
George W. Applegate of Dayton avenue, is building himself a new home at the corner of Hadley avenue and Grand streets, on what we used to call, when we were boys, “the hothouse lot.”
Give the Grand Army men your time and support on Memorial Day. There was a time when your forebears were glad to have these same “boys in blue” stand between them and the armies of the south.
John P. Kirk, the boatbuilder, delivered a speedy seaskiff, which he had just completed, to Cold Spring Inlet, Cape May, on Saturday last. Capt. Ben Asay was at the wheel. They left here at 8.00 a.m. and reached Cape May, 147 miles distant, at 5.00 p.m. The engines were new and stiff, and were not opened up, and the trip was made inside, which further reduced the speed, and so both builder and owner were well satisfied with the voyage. The craft is 28 feet long of the bankskiff model developed by the bank fishermen who fish the Jersey coast, and is owned by John K. Large, of Philadelphia.

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HEADLINE NEWS

MORE 15-FT. SNEAKBOXES FOR BAY HEAD SAILORS
Down at Barnegat J. Howard Perrine, the well known boatbuilder, is working on an addition to the fleet of fifteen foot sneakboxes of the Bay Head Yacht Club. There are some eight of these new boats to be sailed this summer, it is reported. The fifteen foot classes in the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association make perhaps as much fun and pleasure—yes, and sport, as any class on the bay. It is also a training school for the youthful yachtsmen, from which the sailors of larger craft in the future will be recruited. The new boats have been ordered by the following: Mr. Edgar H. Boles, Miss Margaret Biggs, Miss Charlotte Conover, Mr. Fred J. Cox, Major Stanley Washburn, Mr. F.S. Hetherington, Mr. Samuel Emlen and Mr. Edgar T. Orny. The addition of these boats will bring Bay Head's total up to nearly thirty, the largest fleet at any one club on the bay.

CRABBE TO BUILD SCHOONER FOR WEST INDIES CRUISE
Edward Crabbe, of Toms River, is planning to build a schooner yacht this summer and fall for a cruise to the West Indies next winter. Morton Johnson of Bay Head will be the builder, and Charles Maurer, of New York, will design the craft. Mr. Crabbe has the material on hand, oaken knees and cedar planking, cut from his swamps at Double Trouble and sawed in his own mill, and allowed to season with time.
Barnegat Bay yachtsmen are wondering if the Mary Ann, for the past two summers the champion in the catboat class on Barnegat Bay, will be in the races this summer? There is a rumor that Federal Court Judge Charles McKeehan, of Philadelphia and Island Heights, owner of the Mary Ann, is contemplating a trip to Europe this summer. Heretofore he has sailed the Mary Ann himself, and has won as fine reputation for his sportsmanship and fairness as the yacht has for speed. The other yachtsmen would be sorry to see the Mary Ann out of the races this summer, as there would always be a question, whoever won, whether the Mary Ann might have still been the better boat. There is another rumor that should Judge McKeehan be away this summer Thompson Brooks, as skipper, and the Mary Ann's old crew, would uphold the honor of the Island Heights Yacht Club.
Francis P. Larkin, of Seaside Park, has had his yacht Tamwock remodeled since last summer. Tamwock proved a fast sailor in the races last summer, but not quite fast enough for Mary Ann. During the winter Mort Johnson of Bay Head remodeled her bow, taking some of the fullness out of it, and making it on the concave pattern affected by yachts forty years ago.
Commodore Frank W. Thatcher, of the Seaside Park Yacht Club has his new racing catboat nearly completed at Mort Johnson's Bay Head yard, and the new boat will be the same model as Mary Ann. It makes an interesting problem as to which will be the better boat, if they are both the same in lines.

A WAVE OF PROSPERITY HITS OUR COAST
BEACH GOES AHEAD WITH GREAT LEAPS AND BOUNDS
Squan Beach is going ahead this spring with great leaps and bounds. You can start at Manasquan Inlet and come south, and everywhere you see the march of improvement and progress. Perhaps the greatest showing is made at Point Pleasant, where the State has a number of projects on foot. The contract has been given for the new Manasquan River bridge, to cost $450,000 [$8.2 million in 2024 dollars] or there abouts, one of the big improvements. The workmen are now at work on the drawbridge across the Bay Head-Manasquan River canal at West Point Pleasant, on Route Four. This job will perhaps cost another $100,000 [$1.81 million in 2024 dollars]. From Point Pleasant to Laurelton [section of Brick Township], Route Four is all concrete, beginning on Richmond avenue, Point Pleasant, near the bridge, running south through Point Pleasant, and swinging with a wide curve from Richmond avenue to Ocean avenue, and thence back into the road from Point Pleasant to Lakewood at Hance's Corner. Point Pleasant Borough has also laid concrete roads on its principal streets, and also down on the beach front, particularly in the Inlet section.
The new owners of the Beacon hotel, which is on the south line of Point Pleasant Beach Borough, at the beach front, are remodeling that oldtime hotel into a modern structure. It has an excellent location, and when completed, should be in a favorable place to do business this summer.
Bay Head is flourishing. You can see fine new houses going up here and there, and many of the older houses are being remodeled. At the lower end of the borough the new syndicate of Bay Head and Mantoloking folk are making a big showing on their handsome tract of beach. Between the County Road and the beachfront, they have laid out three streets, running east and west. These streets have been graveled, sidewalks and curbs laid, and water mains are also being put down on this tract. Electric wires are already in, and a number of fine large houses built.
Mantoloking is also building some new homes for summer folks. The new draw which the county has been trying to get in at Mantoloking bridge for the past two years, has now just been started. Below Mantoloking you pass an entire new outfit of buildings for the Bay Head fishery, erected between the County Road and the railroad, their old camp between Mantoloking and Bay Head having been demolished. Also, before you reach old Chadwick, going south on the Beach Road, you come to Normandy Beach, which is being put on the market by J.M. Slim, who helped build Seaside Heights. Here there is somewhat of activity.
Old Chadwick is the only dead place on the beach. Below it, at Lavallette, you strike another up and coming resort. New houses, showing the bright yellow of new shingles, are seen in every direction. The borough expects to put in a water plant to supply the town with drinking water, at a cost of $100,000. On the west side of Main Central avenue, near the south end of town, a substantial Catholic church is building, of light brown brick, perhaps the costliest structure in the whole resort. Lavallette is going ahead in many ways.
Ortley Beach comes next, and Ortley Beach is taking a new lease of life. Just below the street that leads to the site of the hotel that was, comes the new Ortley Beach development, in which A. Carl Haag and H. Ross Turner, of Seaside Park, are moving spirits. Workmen and teams are grading the land, which lies remarkably level for the beach. The thickets of wild cherry, bayberry, sweet fern, huckleberry and blackberry bushes have been shorn away, and the property is being made ready for lot sales.
The old layout of streets will be discarded and a new plan has been submitted to the Dover Township Committee at Toms River, for their approval.
Immediately adjoining this tract on the south, and connecting it up with Seaside Heights, the Cummings Bros. have a development, where they are also selling lots, and have made some improvements.
Seaside Heights boasts a new railroad station, built last fall, and this season it will come into use. Seaside Heights also boasts its new bank and new bank building. New homes are going up in all parts of the borough, and the Boulevard shows a good number of new buildings.
Seaside Park has set the number of new homes it expects to be built inside its bounds this year at 100, as a minimum. About half that number have taken out building permits and started work. The water plant is undergoing improvements, and an addition was recently made to the boardwalk. There is every indication of a big summer at both Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.
One of the big changes at Seaside Park this spring was the purchase of the Lewis Lumber yard by the A.B. Newbury Company, of Toms River, and the alterations since made there by J.P. Evernham, manager of the Newbury business. The store will be fitted up this spring and summer carried on as a hardware store, with an increased line over any store that has previously been conducted on the beach in this section. The yard is being stocked up with a complete lumber and building line, and the plans of Mr. Lewis, for a mill, will probably be carried out by the new owners. It is another instance of the growing tendency of the beach.

SUB-CHASERS TO RUN DOWN RUM SMUGGLERS ON THE COAST
Washington, May 2.—Treasury officials took further steps to-day in developing the program to curb rum running. Conferences between all units of the Treasury engaged in prohibition enforcement brought about a closer co-operation between the prohibition forces under Commissioner Haynes, the Coast Guard and the Customs Service, and provided for a “central control” of Coast Guard work in its efforts to stop the landing of contraband on American soil.
Commander Harry G. Hamlet, a longtime Coast Guard officer, was selected to maintain the general headquarters of the Coast Guard's dry navy and has left for Philadelphia to take charge of the reconditioning of the seven destroyers turned over by the Navy Department. He will direct the operation of the entire dry forces in thwarting the rum runners along the Atlantic seaboard.
Simultaneously, the three arms of the enforcement service reached an agreement on jurisdiction under which the Coast Guard hereafter will seek to protect all coast lines on deep water, and the prohibition and customs agents will be responsible for smuggling through small waterways and on land. The arrangement is expected to result in a material tightening of the lines, and when the Coast Guard has obtained the full quota of new craft planned under the recently enacted appropriation of $14,000,000 Treasury officials believe much will have been accomplished toward better enforcement.
Work already has begun on reconditioning the former navy destroyers, and the Treasury to-day let contracts for the new speed boats for use by the Coast Guard in its pursuit of rum runners. Five of the boats will be constructed in Detroit for use on the Great Lakes and five in Jacksonville, Fla., for service among the inlets and bays of that section. They will cost approximately $5,000 each [$90k in 2024 dollars].
Coast Guard engineers also are drawing specifications and expect soon to call for bids for fifty new craft to add to the dry fleet. Meanwhile, a thorough-going training is being given the officers and crews to man the craft. When all of the new boats are in service and fully manned, the Coast Guard will have a personal virtually double its present strength.

PERRINE'S FAME [originally included in the BARNEGAT column]
J.H. Perrine, whose famous “sneakboxes” are known around the world, owes his fame as a boatbuilder to the fact that he is always represented at the annual boat show held in New York. He has orders now from California, Maine, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, Florida, South Carolina and Texas. He has numerous letters from different parts of Europe and recently had one from Egypt, asking prices and rates on his boats. The man who thinks he is a business man today without advertising cuts about the same figure as a lighthouse keeper would should he put a dark curtain around his light to guide the mariner. Last week Mr. Perrine made a shipment of eleven boats to Lake Hopatcong. There are now twenty at his yard being finished for a shipment. Levi Cranmer, one of the best boat workers along the shore, is foreman of the boat works.

NEW FIRE HOUSE ON WATER ST., FOR COMPANY NO. 2
A new fire house is being built on West Water Street for Fire Company No. 2. The house will stand west of the road, and will be built of cement blocks, with two large double doors in front. The back end will be of wood, in case it should ever be necessary to enlarge the building which is now being constructed 25 ft. across the front and fifty feet deep. The building is being made possible by the public interest in the company, who are “selling” concrete blocks to their friends at a dollar a block. The lot was bought by Joseph Y. Murphy, and donated to the company by him. It is 160 feet deep; [he] also gave the foundations. A number of others have given labor and money, and the lumber yards are allowing the company to get supplies at cost. George Alsheimer has contributed labor, and the concrete blocks at cost. Members of the company have been working nights. The house will be big enough to store four cars.

WILL HOUSE SCHOOL GIRLS IN GOULD STABLE BUILDINGS
The large stables attached to Georgian Court, the estate of the late Geo. J. Gould, at Lakewood, will be turned into girls' dormitories to house the students of Mount St. Mary's Catholic College and Academy, of Plainfield, N.J., which recently purchased the buildings and grounds.
The two-story stable building will be enlarged to make a five-story dormitory. Other improvements will also be made before the college is moved to its new home in Lakewood, and the added room will allow of the opening of courses for grade classes for young girls, who hitherto have not been accommodated  at the college.
Work on both the Plainfield and Lakewood buildings will be carried on throughout the summer months, at a total cost of about $300,000 [approx. $5.4 million in 2024 dollars]. The Lakewood site will take care of about 200 students, while about twice that number will be schooled at the Plainfield address.
Mother Cecilia, sister to the late Congressman Thomas J. Scully, of South Amboy, who gave her personal fortune to Mount St. Mary's College, has been made president of the institution. Bishop Thomas A. Walsh, of the Catholic Diocese of Trenton, is the ex-officio head of the college.
The college at Lakewood will open about October 1, and there already is a long waiting list.

PINEWALD GETTING READY
A number of improvements have been made at Pinewald recently and still more will follow. Building has started, a new road has opened from the Atlantic City Boulevard to the Bay making this resort a short distance from its shores. Three Lodges, Pinewald Lodge, Pinewald Villa, and Lakeview have opened to accommodate land owners and prospective buyers. More than forty people were accommodated last Sunday. The week end visitors are brought down from the City in large buses. Pinewald has its own bus to furnish free transportation from Toms River to Pinewald, meeting two Philadelphia trains daily. A general store has been opened by Mr. Wandling of Philadelphia. Two boats were put on the lake which was cleaned out for boating and its shores will be laid out for a park. All the streets are to be 55 and 60 feet wide, the Main Boulevard is 105 feet wide. Some of the old buildings are to be fixed up and repainted. The engineering is under the management of Mr. Dalot. Mr. Baker who developed Wildwood will visit this new resort soon.

NEW SPEED BOAT GETS RUM HAUL ON HER FIRST TRIP
Sandy Hook, May 5.—Using a new speed boat for the first time, coast guards from this station this morning seized 50 cases of liquor which was being brought ashore by bootleggers. Under Captain Loren Tilton, of Silverton, the government men gave pursuit in the early morning hours. None was captured, but the fleeing smugglers were forced to throw their cargo overboard in lightening their vessels and the 50 cases of whiskey were salvaged from the sea.

KLAN AT SILVERTON
Forty-three robed Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Ladies of the Invisible Empire attended church services at the Silverton Church last Sunday evening. Arthur E. Bell, recognized leader of the Klan in this district, and Mrs. Bell, head of the women's order in New Jersey, addressed the congregation. A visitor of special distinction was present in the person of the Imperial Klabbe of the women's order. This is the first time that a member of the Imperial Palace has made an appearance in this section.

CHICKEN THIEVES AROUND
Chicken thieves have been busy the past week or so on the edges of town.
Last Friday night sixty pullets, nine weeks old, were stolen from the William P. Flint farm on the east side of town. Murray Golinken, of the Freehold road, lost about 125 eight weeks old pullets, and Ambrose Combi, also of the Freehold road, had about as many stolen from him. Other thefts are reported. The Atlantic Coast Poultry Producers' Association has a standing offer of a $100 reward [about $1,800 in 2024 dollars] for anybody furnishing evidence to convict a chicken thief.

TUCKERTON TO HONOR LAD WHO LOST LIFE IN WAR
On Memorial Day Tuckerton Borough will honor the memory of Ensign George F. Randolph, son of Roland F. Randolph, now located at Atlantic City, but formerly of Tuckerton. The father of Ensign Randolph has provided a monument to the memory of his son, which will be unveiled on Memorial day.
Young Randolph lost his life off Seaside Park on the night of August 27, 1918. He was berthed aboard Mine Sweeper 200, which was sunk by the guns of a merchant vessel. The crew on the vessel saw the mine sweeper near them in the dark, and in a fright, fired at the craft, thinking it to be one of the German U-boats that had been operating that summer off the Jersey coast. Randolph was among those who went down.
The plans for Memorial day at Tuckerton call for a big day, the biggest it is said that has yet been attempted there. The Masonic Band of Atlantic County will furnish music.

TOMS RIVER H.S. PLAYING GREAT BASEBALL THIS YEAR
Toms River High School has a winning baseball team this year. It has put it all over Lakewood, Point Pleasant, Tuckerton, Barnegat and Freehold, though it has been a little outmatched by Rider of Trenton and Asbury Park.

ALCOHOL IN 5-GAL. CANS WASHED UP ON THE BEACH
During the storm last Friday a number of beach combers, from Long Branch to Barnegat Inlet, picked up alcohol from the surf in five-gallon cans. The cans came ashore, two cans in a wooden box. Some of the cans had rusted through, and contained saltwater instead of alcohol. Some said it was grain alcohol, and others that it was grain alcohol that had been denatured and the poison afterward removed by chemical process. There was a heavy wind and sea Thursday night, and it is thought the stuff may have come from a rum ship off shore. Officers were sent over but found none of it.
Another report says that it was wood alcohol—at least a number of men in the fish pound crews and others, who found and drank the stuff, were made deathly sick. There are also stories that some cases of scotch and rye whiskeys were cast up on the beach. This story is of the kind that is always just a little further on. At Asbury Park, the find was located at Point Pleasant; in that town they had heard the story, but it was at Mantoloking; successive inquiries pushed it down the beach and across the inlet to Barnegat City [today Barnegat Light], and folks at that place also had heard of their finding cases of whiskeys at High Point.
On some of the beaches there were all kinds of fruits and vegetables washed up on the beach, some of it in eatable shape, and some of it past use. Oranges, lemons, pineapples, grape fruit, onions, and such, showed that it might have, the beachcombers say, been from a northbound Florida packet.

STRIKE OIL AT NEW EGYPT
In a seven column head across its front page, the New Egypt Press announces that “H.N. Moore thinks he has really and truly struck oil” in driving a well at a new bungalow he has been building on Magnolia avenue, New Egypt. The Press says that the “oil sand” taken from the well has been sent away fro analysis, and all the property owners in that section are standing on their tiptoes ready to “go” if the report is favorable.

NAVY'S BEST FLYERS AT LAKEHURST MAY 31
COOLIDGE UNABLE TO BE AT LAKEHURST ON MAY 31
So far Commander Klein and his staff, who are arranging the big aerial demonstration at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, have come in for one big break in their plans. They had hoped and fully expected to have President Coolidge to view the big circus, but he has sent word that his other engagements on that day will not permit. The program had been to send a plane to Washington and bring him here, give him a ride on the Shenandoah while at the station, and return him by plane to Washington, all in the space of a few hours. Washington advisors of the President probably did not take kindly to the possible risk of an airplane journey—but suppose Theodore Roosevelt had had such a program put up to him when he was in the Whitehouse!
By the way you must not again speak of the aerial circus. The word circus does not carry enough dignity with it for the Navy Department, and official Washington has notified the Air Station that hereafter May 31 and its program are to be designated as an aerial demonstration. The word circus is taboo. But it won't change the program any.
The events of May 31 are getting a vast deal of publicity. Newspapers in the nearby cities find it a good feature story. W.O.R. at Newark, broadcasts a story three times a week, and Commander Klein has also sent it by radio from Newark, Providence and Boston. Fox and Pathe News service have both had camera men at the station getting all the preliminary pictures they can, and will have a whole battery there on May 31.
Free rides in the Shenandoah and in airplanes, kite balloons, etc., are being arranged, in connection with sales of souvenirs. Each souvenir will be numbered, and lots will be drawn, the holder of the winning numbers getting the rides. Three civilians will thus get a ride in the Shenandoah. It took special permission from Secretary Wilbur to announce this part of the program. In all twelve people will be taken up...

CONKLING'S 13-L.B. WEAKFISH
Capt. Woodie Conkling, formerly of Toms River, made a nice haul of weakfish at Beach Haven Terrace last week end. He was fishing with Joseph F. Reed, of Waretown, and they netted over a hundred fine weakfish, one of which weighed nearly 13 lbs.

BACK FIRES CAUSE LOSS
Alleging that back fires, set without due knowledge of ground conditions, and then allowed to run wild, did much more damage than the original fire, those who had property burnt or endangered in a fire north of town on Tuesday, urge that hereafter more care be taken in starting and watching these backfires.
The fire originally started near the Cox-Crow farm, at the junction of the Lakewood and Freehold roads, six miles north of town. It burnt across to the bay, at Silverton. An old house on the Lucina VanNote property, on the north shore of Kettle Creek, was burnt. It was unoccupied, and of little value. The Andrews house at Silverton, the M.E. Church, and the William Applegate mill, were saved by fire fighters. No. 2 Company of Toms River, and a company from Point Pleasant did valiant service in fighting to save these buildings, and the Toms River boys say that Applegate's mill would have been burnt but for the Point Pleasant boys. Shifting winds toward night made the fight more difficult. The Lakewood firemen were also called out to aid the fire fighters.

MOTOR VEHICLE DEPT. AND OUR SENATOR GET IN NEWS COLUMN
MATHIS DENIES HE SOLD LINCOLN CARS TO STATE
State Senator Thomas A. Mathis, who, as the Thomas A. Mathis, Inc., is agent for the Ford and Lincoln cars at Toms River, denies the charge made by some upstate papers that he sold four Lincoln cars to the State Motor Vehicle Department, through the Statehouse Commission, after the State Purchasing Agent had refused to approve the bargain. Last week the Newark Evening News and the Trenton Times, among other papers, carried stories about the sale of these cars...

WHITE LEADS CRANBERRY GROWERS IN NEW JERSEY
The following excerpts from an article about Joseph J. White, of Whitesbog, New Lisbon, are from an article in the Mount Holly Mirror. Mr. White was the recognized leader in cranberry culture, harvesting and shipping in this state, and was a friend to all the other growers, who sincerely mourn his death.
Mr. White, who was seventy-eight years of age, was best known as one of the pioneer cranberry growers in New Jersey. He was, as well, one of the most successful, making a large fortune in the cranberry growing enterprise. He was rated an authority on cranberry culture and his extensive bogs on the road to Lakehurst, about six miles from his comfortable home, are among the finest and most extensive to be found. The property is known as “Whitesbog.” It has the distinction of being the largest cranberry growing property in the world.
Many have been the innovations introduced at Whitesbog in the development of the industry and the plant is recognized as a model one among cranberry growers.
Sixty years ago, more or less, Mr. White became interested in cranberry growing and with him it grew to be his life's work. He added to his holdings, one bog after another being set out and developed, until his vast property required the services of hundreds of pickers to gather the crop of berries annually. At other times of the year a large force of laborers was required to do the necessary work on the great expense of bogs.
For many years before the growers learned how to combat the many insect and bacterial enemies that have brought ruin to so many, Mr. White fought determinedly to save his bogs from ruin. At one time a large flock of turkeys was introduced to help keep down the fireworms and grasshoppers. Late and early frosts also worked havoc before the system of reservoirs by which the bogs could be quickly inundated, was introduced with great success. Then there were the almost insuperable difficulties of marketing with which the growers always had to contend and Mr. White, attacking the problem with characteristic force and determination, finally had the satisfaction of seeing this problem quite successfully solved, although the question of when and where to sell is one that still perplexes the growers, especially the smaller ones.
But now that Mr. White is gone others are left who learned the business from him and who are as deeply attached to the great plantation at Whitesbog as the owner was. These will carry on and it is not expected that the sound policy upon which the great enterprise was founded will be changed by his successors to any appreciable degree...

$15,000,000 IN GOULD ESTATE
The accounting of Kingdon Gould and Schuyler Nelson Rice, executors of George J. Gould, was passed by Judge Newman on Wednesday of this week in the Orphans Court. The amount of the estate was about fifteen and a half millions. Kingdon Gould himself was in court, probably his first appearance at the courthouse since the day in the fall of 1917 when he marched to the P.R.R. depot to en train for Camp Dix with a group of National Army men. There were about a dozen lawyers present, representing as many big city law firms, to keep an eye on the proceedings.

NEW RUM CHASER TAKES PRIZE OFF SANDY HOOK
In command of one of the new government speed boats, Capt. Loren Tilton (a Silverton man) of Sandy Hook, last Saturday captured a rum runner in Sandy Hook bay carrying 98 cases of assorted liquors, and made things so uncomfortable for three others that their cargoes, believed to have contained 100 cases, were thrown overboard. Some of the liquor discarded were later recovered.
Two prisoners were also captured, Charles Huldburg and “Joe” Ryan, both of Highlands, who have been held for the federal authorities.
Capt. Osborne, of the Monmouth Beach Station, accompanied Capt. Tilton on the trip. The chase was declared to be exciting with enough thrills for a first-class moving picture. The new government boat, according to Capt. Osborne, is a hummer and calculated to put the average rum runner in the shade.
The boat captured was known as K-13441. After its capture the coast guardsmen turned their batteries on three other illicit rum runners. Their boats were heavily loaded, and it could be seen from the government boat that they were unloading in order to make their escape. The guardsmen gave chase for several miles, however, before giving up.

ROADS OCCUPY A LARGE AND IMPORTANT SPACE IN THE NEWS
STATE PROMISES NOTHING ON BROWNS MILLS ROAD
So far the State Highway Commission has promised this section of the state no aid on the Browns Mills road. As told in the Courier some weeks ago the state has set aside $27,000 [$490k in 2024 dollars] as a subsidy to Burlington County, to induce that county to take over the road from the Burlington County line through Pemberton. But for the part of the road in Ocean County, no arrangements have been made by the state, so far as is known to the public.
Admiral Moffett, the head of the Navy air service, recently wrote to Gen. Hugh L. Scott, chairman of the State Highway Commission, explaining to that body how the Air Station at Lakehurst was dependent upon this road for its truck communication with the air craft construction works at League Island Navy Yard, in Philadelphia. Gen. Scott wrote back that he was sorry, but that at the present time the state had no money for this particular piece of road...

LOCAL MEN GET CONTRACT ON LAKEWOOD ROAD WORK
The contract for all the hauling of supplies, gravel, etc., for the new road, to be built of concrete, between Toms River and Lakewood, has been given by Commissioner Burdette Lewis, head of the State Department of Institutions and Agencies, to the Holman and Thompson Construction Co. The department of which Lewis is the chief, has the general contract with the State Highway Commission to build the eight miles of concrete roadway with convict labor...

PERSONAL
C.P. Lippincott, of Cleveland, Ohio, writes the Courier that he hopes soon to come east and spend the summer, accompanied by Mrs. Lippincott, at the home of her parents, Collector and Mrs. E.L. Worth of Bayville. Mr. Lippincott is also well known at Ocean Gate, where he has been prominent in yacht club affairs.
Miss Adelaide M. Rogers, who spent the winter at St. Petersburg, Fla., is now on her way north in the Steamer Mohawk, sailing on May 8. She expects to be at Toms River shortly.
Harry A. Grover, of Lakewood, a world war veteran, who has been under hospital treatment in Newark and Brooklyn for injuries received in France, has come home to Lakewood, and visited friends here this week.
Toms River friends will be interested in knowing that on May 1, Mr. H.G. Flint resigned the sales managership of the Shredded Wheat Company, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., to take effect June 1, and expects to come to his home at Toms River for a year's vacation, the first real vacation he has had in twenty years. He will probably stay here for a year at least, and during the summer will have his boat on the river and bay.
Herbie Staples, who recently returned to Toms River after a stay of four or five years in England, his old home, is getting acclimated to Toms River again, and finding lots of his old friends where he left them. Mrs. Staples, their son and daughter, have been here for some time.
Horace Jennings is spending some time with his brother, Kenneth, and is surely enjoying the days spent out of doors on the chicken farm.
Ralph Hart of the U.S. Navy, is home on a twenty-five day furlough, his ship being in Philadelphia Navy Yard for alterations. Ralph has seen considerable of the world in the past four years.
Edward Crabbe of Toms River, Judge James E. Otis of Tuckerton, and other cranberry growers attended the funeral of Joseph J. White, the largest cranberry grower in the state, which was held on Tuesday last at New Lisbon.

FISH AND GAME
The wildfowl have about all left the bay to go to their northern nesting ground, except the blackduck “and such,” as they say here the year round. There was less lawless shooting of wild fowl after February 1 this year than in any previous year, though the bay was full of geese during February, March and well along into April.
The fact that weakfish were netted in Barnegat Bay last week has got all the anglers up on their tiptoes. Bluefish are apt to be right behind the weakfish, and if you strike into the blues, no matter how early in May it might be, they will bite.
Flounders are the mainstay of the fishing parties that visit Barnegat and Tuckerton bays. There is some talk of catching summer flounders also, but of that we will hear more later. The winter flounder still has the call.
The Newark Call says that Clarence McDowell and Robert Fay, of New Brunswick, are to build a bungalow on the Barnegat Bay shore, for fishing this summer. The Call says this is getting to be quite the thing for North Jersey fishermen and gunners...

RECENT DEATHS
Mrs. William Nickerson
Mrs. Juliana G. Nickerson, widow of William Nickerson, who for several years conducted the Ocean View hotel in Bay Head, died Thursday, May 1, in her apartment at the Smith building, corner of Clifton and Second avenues, Lakewood, where she resided during the winter months for the past five years. Death was due to general debility.
Services were held at St. Mary's-of-the-Lake Church at Lakewood Saturday; burial in St. Mary's cemetery, Lakewood.
Mrs. Nickerson was well-known among residents of Bay Head. A few days ago G.H. Underhill took charge of the Ocean View and will manage it this summer. Mrs. Nickerson is survived by two sisters, one of whom resides in England.

Charles L. Worth
Charles L. Worth died at Bayville, N.J. on Friday last, from heart trouble, aged 73 years. He had been ailing for some time. He was a member of an old colonial family and the last of seven sons...

Riley Johnson
Point Pleasant, May 7.—Riley Johnson, aged 86, died here at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Albert Britton, on Monday night, after a stroke of paralysis five weeks previous. He was a well-known resident, an oldtime surfman and lifesaver, and also a veteran of the Civil War...

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TOWN LIFE

BARNEGAT
The junior class of the Barnegat high school will give “The Rose 'o Plymouth Town,” a playlet of the time of the Pilgrim's first settlement, at the opera house here this (Friday, May 9) evening. They will also give the same performance at the Colonial theatre, Beach Haven, on Friday next, May 16.
Ground has been broken for the C. Wyatt bungalow on Bay street. Amos Bahr has the contract.
A number of people attended the movies at Manahawkin Saturday night.
There seems to be a good deal of grippe here; also colds.

BAYVILLE
Charles L. Worth, one of our oldest residents, died on Friday night. Services on Monday afternoon in his late home.

BEACH HAVEN
President Walter Sharp called a meeting of the Beach Haven Athletic Association for last night (Thursday) to discuss baseball for the coming summer. It is rumored about town that manager Charles Woods, of the Tuckerton team, would like to sign up several Beach Haven players, among them third baseman Paul King and pitcher Joe Sprague. Tuckerton has joined the Athletic League and will play at Tuckerton on Saturdays, and out of town on Sundays.
George Graboldinger, of Camden, who last year kept a bakery at Beach Arlington, will soon open an up-to-date bakery, with full electrical-driven bakery machinery of modern type, at Beach avenue and Center street. He will make his home here and keep the bakery open the year round.
After several successful seasons running the Hotel Baldwin, Mrs. May F. Purnell has sold the place to Mr. Wm. York of Philadelphia, who has been down making plans for the coming season. He expects to open during the early part of June and has many interesting plans for the season's business.
Captain Tuck Parker is getting the “Sylvia” in shape for the twice daily run to Atlantic City this season. Captain Tip Seaman of West Creek is aiding him.

BEACHWOOD
Mrs. N.T. Pulsifer motored down from New York Thursday to open her summer home in Beachwood.
Herman Fuhr is going to build a bungalow for Mrs. N.T. Pulsifer. [one of these bungalows was later given to the town and has since been operated as the Beachwood Library].
Mayor Collins, who is chairman of the Yacht Club building committee, had hope to be ready to lay the cornerstone of that new acquisition to Beachwood, the yacht clubhouse, on Memorial day, but the date has been deferred. The Polyhue Yacht Club is one of the outstanding factors in the social life of Beachwood each summer, and the new clubhouse will add greatly to its possibilities in that line. The foundation walls will be up on Decoration day. A program will be prepared to interest all members of the club, and others. The committee expect to have a portion of the building ready for use this summer. Mayor Collins says that subscriptions to the building fund are coming in handsomely, and over $2000 [about $36k in 2024 dollars] is in hand or in sight at present, with a large number who will want to give, as yet not heard from.

CEDAR RUN (section of Stafford Township)
Mr. Mura has an ideal poultry plant; one worth your while to travel miles to see. Most folks in this section do not seem to see poultry possibilities that lie at their door. Wake up, people and show the rest of the world that this is indeed the poultry section of the U.S.
W.S. Cranmer, who is connected with the Strout Farm Agency, is selling many properties and winning many prizes in competition with their 700 other salesmen.
The local wet wash laundry is running at full blast and is doing a very acceptable work and is a great convenience to our people.
New parties have just taken over the Vogel, Samuel Morey, Mrs. Peterson, Gunderson and other properties.
Captain Samuel B. Conklin and family have moved to Beach Haven, where they will open their boarding house and they anticipate a very successful season.
Mr. and Mrs. Passmore have moved into the Jesse Truex house and are developing into expert truckers and poultry raisers.

FORKED RIVER
Randolph Phillips has strawberries in bloom.
The eel fishermen say that their branch of fishing is good now.
Joseph Parker is building Lacey road out toward Cedar Crest.
The baymen report that the first run of weakfish is much larger than the usual number of fish caught. Also that the fish are feeding on shrimp, which fill the bay.

ISLAND HEIGHTS
Work is progressing very rapidly on the new fire house and also on the new M.E. Church. These two new structures will add very greatly to that section of the town when completed.

LANOKA HARBOR
The Lanoka Harbor lots are selling to city people right along and a number of new houses are planned in this delightful spot.
The change of name from Lanoka to Lanoka Harbor was brought about in order to show people on the outside that our little town is on the water and has Barnegat Bay as its boundary on the east. People want to get near the water, and a resort without stands little show these days.
Lanoka proper had quite a fright on Friday last when the 3 o'clock train set a fire which almost surrounded Harry Worth's home, burning right up to the garage, but damaging no building. Both fire companies of Toms River responded quickly and kind friends from nearby towns came. Thus the fire was soon under control for which we are very grateful to every one. We are sure the spirit of fraternity is readily shown when necessary.

LAVALLETTE
Mr. James Walling is building some new houses on Vance avenue, near the railroad.
There was quite a fire in the brush on Monday. The Fire Company worked pretty hard to put it out.

OCEAN GATE
The borough has finished graveling Point Pleasant avenue from Asbury to the Algor property and are now graveling from curb to curb on Long Branch avenue near the fire house for parking space.
After several weeks delay, due to the hold up in the piling for the new boardwalk, this week is now well under way. The piling are in as far as Wildwood avenue and caps and decking between Ocean Gate and Asbury avenues.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Graham are to be congratulated on the birth on May 1 of a young daughter, Miss Jean Billings Graham.
May 25 is the date set for the opening and the laying of the cornerstone of the new Catholic church [by 2024 a private home for many years].
The new milk depot of Raymond Keisel on Ocean Gate avenue is nearing completion and will be ready for opening about May 15. This plant will be run the year round and will in addition to supplying this town, supply all nearby towns with milk, cream, butter and eggs.
One of our residents recently received an anonymous letter which was picked up near his home. The letter was signed KKK.
E.P. McAllister has started his Saturday boat trips to Toms River.
Quite a number were in town on Sunday last looking for cottages.
The work on the boardwalks is coming along in fine shape. Driving of the piling will be almost completed by the end of the week. Laying of the deck will be completed to about Monmouth avenue. With all the bad weather the contractors had to contend with, as contract calls for completion by June 15, from the way the work is progressing at the present time this contract will be finished by the specified time.
The commuters' train started running from Philadelphia for shore points on Thursday evening of this week; first trip from the shore to Philadelphia on Friday morning.

PLEASANT PLAINS
Murray Galinken had about a hundred and twenty-five, eight week-old pullets stolen from his farm on May 1. Mr. Ambrose Combi also lost about the same number a short time ago.
Mr. Nash, who has for several seasons rented the Kipp farm, recently bought the farm and is making numerous alterations.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS
Some of the attractions on the boardwalk are in operation, and soon the people from far and near will gather for an evening's fun.
Mrs. George Roes has bought the Stanger cottage on Du Pont avenue, and will open a tea room soon.
The Fire Company were out in full force Monday evening, burning the grass off the vacant lots.
The hotels report a very busy day on Sunday last, many people being in town.
Seaside Heights folks are proud of the Coast National Bank...
The local board of trade will give a barn dance at the yacht club dance hall on May 31.
The borough has appropriated $50 [$900 in 2024 dollars] toward the expenses of the National Coast Anti-Pollution League, which is fighting the dumping of oil and other polluting substances in the sea, where they wash ashore.
Poles will be set up and ropes placed for a bathing beach this summer, the work to be done by the borough, and the place to be selected by a committee of the borough council.
There is one residence in Seaside Heights where the display of tulips is such that every passerby gasps to see such beauty growing apparently from beach sand. It is too bad it did not happen to be located on the Boulevard, for it shows what can be done on the beach with care and work.
New houses going up in all parts of town. Otto Berg has a little block of new houses in a row. But the buildings that show up the most are the new stores on the Boulevard.

SEASIDE PARK
Frank Fay and son spent the week end here and will be among the first with their boats, ready to enjoy the bay.
George Cummings and family will soon occupy their handsome new residence at Central avenue and Decatur avenue.
The new Reo fire truck, equipped with double chemical, hose and ladder, arrived last Wednesday and the firemen celebrated on that evening with a clam bake, entertaining the officials who delivered the apparatus, and staid over to enjoy it.

SILVERTON
Everybody out this way was out fighting fire on Tuesday. It was a bad time and for many of the property owners here it lasted till Wednesday at dawn, as they were working all night to save property. It seems a serious matter that the carelessness of some one man can thus endanger so much property, and possibly lives also. Perhaps if the man from whose place a fire started was held strictly accountable for the loss occasioned, there would be fewer fires.

WEST CREEK
Miss Helen Zagiba is employed out of school hours at Marshall's Ice Cream parlors in Tuckerton.
We are instructed that the site of the Hoffman property in the western section of our town has been christened as “West Creek Heights” and the section recently developed on South Main street, beginning from Penn Hill and ending with the Florence property, is designated as “West Terrace.” The builder and land development fever is still rising and everybody teeming with activity. Other enterprises are being discussed which would further enhance the business possibilities of our location. Let's hope a Fire Department will be the next feature created for the safety of our growing town.

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SPECIAL SECTION

SPECIAL REPRINT FROM THE BEACH HAVEN TIMES
BY R.G. COLLINS of BARNEGAT

OCEAN TRAMPS
There are two kinds of ocean tramps. The kind generally spoken of are the many steamships, which trade from country to country wherever the best freight can be had. They have no special place in view, but like our land “tramp,” they go where the prospects look the brightest. When we speak of ocean tramps, we have in mind the derelict, abandoned, waterlogged and drifting at the mercy of the wind and currents, going where the elements may carry them. These wanderers are a great menace to the mariner as they are generally partly submerged and only the sharp eye of the officer on watch can detect their presence until they are too close to clear them and many a ship has sailed away, lost, and been looked for and given up, and another mystery of the deep added to the long list; and these drifting wrecks have been the cause of their disappearance.

Years ago the sea was known as the “trackless deep,” but today it is charted and every part laid down so plain that the trans-Atlantic ships have their regular lanes and seldom deviate from them. The hydrographic office in Washington has a small army of men tracing out the currents the same as a surveyor lines out the highway on shore. The winds, currents, temperatures, depths and obstructions are studied with great care, and from the records thus obtained the ship master is able to lay out his course with a knowledge and precision that could hardly be more accurate than if he were contemplating a trip from New York to Atlantic City over our well kept roads of today. On the wall of the Hydrographic office, hangs a large map of the ocean and with the wireless service today, every derelict or wreck, of every kind is at once reported giving the exact longitude and latitude, and a notation is made on the map. The next report of these same wrecks will show a different position and thus the office can tell how far and what course they have drifted since the last previous report. Some of these reports are of little consequence, some of startling import, and others are filled with romance and mystery.

We are reminded that God holds the sea in the hollow of His hand; so do the men in the Hydrographic office have the sea charted that they can see at a glance what the currents and winds are doing with derelicts. The ocean liners all work in cooperation with this office. They keep a log of the weather, giving all the details of the trip and send a report to the office so that the officials can arrange the charts from time to time, until they have a complete knowledge of the sea and its workings. Another great help to this office is the casting overboard of sealed bottles. These bottles contain a printed form in all the different languages so that whatever nationality picks them up they can at once see what they are for, giving the exact latitude and longitude, time, date and re-sealed and cast overboard. When they are found it is duly taken note of and sent to the first American Consul they may reach or sent direct to the Hydrographics office. The purpose of these bottles are to give the course of the currents and tell how far they will drift in any length of time.

Many interesting instances have been recorded of the drift of these bottles, some have been recovered after drifting over 4,000 miles and have been in the water for several years. Some have gone straight across the ocean; some have been picked up on our beaches here, while there have been known instances of their being found in shark's stomachs.

While there are many of these found, yet thousands are never heard of and may drift for years and then land on some uninhabited part of a coast or on some islands where they become covered up with sand and driftstuff. We had a little experience in casting bottles overboard at sea. In two instances we heard from them and one is in our possession now that was thrown overboard several miles off shore between Barnegat and Montauk Point. It was found on the beach near Egg Harbor after a very very few days drifting. In another instance was within a few miles of Gay Head [Massachusetts] when the bottle was tossed into the sea and in twenty-two days it landed on the beach at Cape Henry, and the finders notified us. These two cases show us there is a southerly current usually running along our coast. The wind has little or no effect on anything floating even with the water as is often thought. Of all the features of the ocean, none appeals more strongly to the fancy and none offers greater and more hidden danger than the hidden derelict. Under no human guidance; at the mercy of the winds and currents which often drive them with considerable speed and mostly in the track of trans-Atlantic ships.

For the most part the destruction of these rovers is left to nature, to be eaten with worms until they fall apart, or if near the coast they are destroyed by our Coast Guard cutters.
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So many of them are so far away that they are left to drift whither they may and damage or destroy whatever comes in their path. The possibility of salvage does not attract the Captains of merchant ships to tow them in for the reason it would make a difference in their insurance as they are cargo carriers and not tow-boats. Often one steamship will tow another when there is a possibility of saving life and property. Several hundred of these floating wrecks are reported yearly. Some are identified and many others are far too destroyed to ascertain their names, so they are reported as an unknown floating wreck in latitude so and so, longitude so and so and left to perhaps be the cause of more wrecks, and then go on its way seeking new victims...

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