This Week in Ocean County, 1922! (January 6th)

1/9/2022

Welcome to another era in the Toms River area's past, one century ago this week!

Let your mind wander as you consider life around January 6th, 1922, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 15 minute read).

BREVITIES AND EDITORIALS

(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)

1922
January
First month.
Wintry weather.
Bay frozen over.
Moonlit evenings.
A week of skating.
Days getting longer.
Full moon next Friday.
Rain on Wednesday afternoon.
Lincoln's Birthday is the next holiday.
The Christmas tree has lost its glory.
Plenty of strong winds; also plenty of dust.
A New Year's dance was given at the Marion Inn on Saturday evening, and was taken advantage of by the young people of the village.
The Toms River Yacht Club gave a dance last Friday evening at which many of the members appeared as Pierrots or Pierrettes, and the chief refreshments were hot dogs.
Young folks have had lots of fun skating. The Jakes Branch cranberry bog [located between Beachwood and what is today South Toms River Borough, now derelict and grown over for many decades] has been the favorite spot hereabouts. Down at Pershing the cranberry bog was also in use.
Automobiles shed their green and white tags on Saturday last and blossomed forth in the 1922 black and white colors. Dealers tags again have a big D in front of the number; passenger carriers have the letter O, for omnibus; freight carriers the letter X.
John Collins, of Keyport, on Saturday, took his “Moving Inn” back to that place, after having it at Prickly Pear Island all the fall. The “Inn” is what our English cousins would call a caravan—a house on a big truck, as large as the biggest moving vans you see. The interior has a kitchen and supplies, with oil stove, four bunks and two transoms for sleeping, a coal stove, folding table, wash bowl, toilet, etc. with running water and electric lights.
Old Man Winter has a firm grip on us now.
The Boy Scouts give a dance tonight in their hall in the Bump building, with Wardell's Orchestra to supply the music.
The teachers in the village school who live out of town and who went home for the Christmas holidays were all back “on the job” on Wednesday.
Former Sheriff Chafey had some fine shooting the first of the week, going down to High Bar from his home at Point Pleasant—at least it was a fine goose that he left at the home of the Courier man.
The sun rises his very latest this morning, at 7:25. Beginning to-morrow he will rise a little earlier each day till June 22.
Monday, January 2, the holiday, was the coldest day of the winter. A cold wind blew and it froze, even in the sun, all day. The mercury hit five above zero that morning.
Clifton Avenue is coming along in fine shape. The new owner of the Ida Robinson farm is building ten laying houses, and will go in for chickens extensively. The new owner of the Frank Hankins house has doubled its size. Rev. I.E. Hicks has been making additions to his home.
The following were added to the membership of the Toms River Yacht Club last Friday evening: Jesse W. Herman, Martin Wellbrook, Arthur S. King, C.H. Grier, Philip F. Conover, P.P. Elkington, Joseph B. Willits, Lincoln Boger, C.B. Dickson, Joseph R. Johnson, all of Toms River, and Frank B. McKaig, of Philadelphia.

HEADLINE NEWS

JETTIES ARE HOLDING THIS WINTER AT BARNEGAT INLET
While there have been no great storms or storm tides so far this winter on the coast, the jetties at Barnegat Inlet are said to be holding and also to be accumulating and holding sand. The dwellers at the beach are pleased that there has so far been no loss over last summer, though the winter is nearly half gone. Complaint is made that sand which was gained by one or more of the jetties was scraped up and carted to another place by the contractor, who had the government contract to fill in at the new site of the coast guard station, but at the present time it is not necessarily thought that this will do any great damage.

CAUGHT MAKING HOME BREW IS FINED $75 IN COURT
Charles Basler, of Beachview, near Manahawkin, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the charge of making intoxicants at his home. He was fined $75 [$1,240 in 2022 dollars], and given a warning that the jails were built for violators of the law. Owing to its being a convenient place for the fishpound men from the beach to assemble, Manahawkin has had a good deal of trouble with illicit liquor; but the officials think they are getting it cleaned up.

BUILD CRUISER ROUND ENGINE
Mayor “Bill” Rote, of Island Heights, is showing yachtsmen a new scheme in boat building. In putting together a fifty-foot cruiser for Charles K. Haddon, of Haddonfield and Island Heights, Bill, instead of building the yacht and setting the engine in it, set the engine on its bed, bolted to the yacht's keel, and is building the boat around the engine. The engine is a forty-horse Wolverene, and weighs a couple of tons. That was why the unusual method was devised. During the war, and up till this fall, Mayor Rote had charge of the building of pontoons at League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, for seaplanes put together there, and had a good many boat builders from this section working there.

STATEN ISLANDER GIVES T.R. EGG PLANT A BOOST
In a recent issue of the Staten Island Daily Advance, a third of a column was devoted to the views of a couple of their residents who had recently made a visit at Toms River, and while there inspected the Egg Packing Plant. They praised the new proposition and declared it the only way of getting fresh eggs direct but they found fault with the prices as they compared with New York quotations. They didn't stop to consider that city eggs, as a rule, are storage eggs, even those that are sold as strictly fresh.

TOMS RIVER BOY GOES TO REBUILD WAR-TORN FRANCE
Henry C. Irons, of Plainfield and New York, a Toms River boy, one of the foremost construction engineers in this country, whose services were recently sought by the French government to undertake the task of rebuilding the devastated areas, sailed with Mrs. Irons on the Aquitania Tuesday, for Europe, for the purposes of making a personal inspection of the situation and learning the extent of the reconstruction work...

T.R.R. WORTH $503,946 SAME AS YEARS AGO
Last week the Interstate Commerce Commission, at Washington, valued the line of the Tuckerton Railroad Co., operating 29 miles of road, between Whitings and Tuckerton, at $503,946 [$8.3 million in 2022 dollars], as of June 30, 1916.

TRY C.R.R. FOR DEATH OF EIGHT AT PERTH AMBOY
The Central Railroad of New Jersey must stand trial for manslaughter on January 9, next Monday, on a charge of manslaughter, growing out of the grade crossing accident at Perth Amboy last summer, when eight firemen of that city were killed. Allan Ridgway, of Barnegat, was conductor, and Theodore Brown, of the same village, was engineer, on the last train from Jersey City to Barnegat, and were coming through Perth Amboy, at forty miles an hour, when a fire truck, answering an alarm, crashed into the train at a grade crossing. Eight of the firemen were killed.
The railroad attorneys demanded that the gate tender, who is also under indictment, be tried first, so that he might testify in the railroad trial without incriminating himself. This motion was refused by Judge Daly, sitting at New Brunswick. It would look from this as if the railroad defence might be that the flagman was at fault.

LANOKA MAN'S CAR HIT AT FARMINGDALE CROSSING
A car driven by Harry Rhodes, of Lanoka, who was on his way home from Newark, and had with him his little son, Harold, aged four years, was hit at the Main Street crossing, Farmingdale, on Saturday night last, December 31, by a train of empty passenger cars of the Central Railroad going back to Jersey City from Lakewood. Rhodes car was mashed to pieces and his boy was badly hurt, but Rhodes himself was almost unhurt.
Passenger traffic on the New Jersey Central Railroad, between New York and Lakewood was unusually heavy Saturday, necessitating the running of several trains in two or more sections. That night, at 9 o'clock, a long train of empty passenger coaches returning to Jersey City after transporting passengers to Lakewood, struck Rhodes' Brisco touring car on the Main Street crossing.
Rhodes was not familiar with the road and did not know that he was approaching the railroad track until the train was within a few yards of his car. Realizing his imminent peril, intuitively he swung his steering wheel and ran his automobile parallel with the track in the same direction as the train, which was speeding a mile a minute. The locomotive missed his car, but the latter unfortunately swerved slightly toward the right, when it struck an obstruction and was side-swiped by a passenger coach.
Owing to the high speed of the train the impact was terrific. The automobile was hurled thirty feet more and completely demolished. Rhodes was thrown through the windshield, but escaped practically uninjured. His son, Harold, aged four years, was not so fortunate, as he sustained severe injuries, one side of his body being badly bruised and he was also probably internally injured. The impetus of the train was so great it was nearly a mile before it was stopped and then backed to the place of the accident.
Dr. Walter P. Havens attended the injured lad who, with his father, remained over night at the home of Jonathan C. Ackerman. They were taken to Lanoka Sunday morning by Walter I. Applegate.
Rhodes was a frequent visitor in Newark, but formerly traveled the Adelphia-Lakewood road. He was advised yesterday to change his route and return home through Farmingdale.
The car was literally crushed to fragments and the escape of the occupants from instant death is inexplicable. The crossing where the accident occurred has a flagman on duty during the day. At night the only precautionary signal to warn travelers that a train is approaching is a bell that rings automatically when the train is in the block.

NEED WATER FOR BOGS
Will New Jersey be compelled to adopt water-right laws similar to those covering irrigation systems in the arid western states? This question is agitating cranberry bog owners in a wide stretch of the central Jersey water shed, where thousands of acres of vines are said to have been ruined during the last week, as far as next year's crop is concerned, by inability of the owners to collect in the reservoirs a sufficient quantity of water to flood the bogs. Bogs at the headwaters of the streams are well supplied with water, but while their reservoirs were being filled, following a long summer and fall drought, it is the contention of owners further down stream that their bogs were deprived of their natural supply.
With drought conditions having created similar trouble, more or less serious, during recent years, the ownership of water in the tiny streams that flow out of the central Jersey swamps has become a matter of increasing dispute. Bogs at the headwaters of the streams have advanced in value, but the owners of other bogs have refused to recede in their argument that they are entitled to a share of all water flowing from the original springs. Some owners have settled the question for a time by purchasing the waste swamp land along the entire water course from which they fill their reservoirs, but their position is attacked by the other owners, who claim the water in the streams is a publicly-owned resource.

LETTING PROF. HAUPT HOLD THE BAG AT SQUAN INLET
Reports from Point Pleasant seem to confirm the suspicion that the resorts up that way are letting Prof. Lewis M. Haupt, a summer cottager there, hold the bag, in the matter of inlet improvement. The story is that Professor Haupt has gone ahead at his own expense and with what he could borrow from friends, to build the jetty that is expected to maintain the inlet, and that now there is no way open to reimburse him or to complete the work.
In the early part of 1921 the Manasquan Inlet closed three different times, and had to be opened each time by the residents along the river. There was grave danger that it would close again during the summer, as a bar formed only a little way outside the inlet, only needing a storm to fling its sand all the way across. As some put it, the sand which formed the bar across the inlet when it was closed, was only moved a few hundred feet to sea when the inlet was opened. It was the talk of all that section that three boroughs in Ocean County, Point Pleasant Beach, Point Pleasant and Bay Head, and the Township of Brick, and the boroughs in Monmouth County of Brielle, Manasquan, with Manasquan Beach and Wall Township, would unite to keep the inlet open.
Now these municipalities all seem to agree that they have no warrant for spending money outside their limits. Application has been made to the state and to the county, but the county is also questioning its power to spend money in this way, and the Department of Commerce and Navigation say the state has provided them with no funds for such purposes. Joseph F. Moran and another summer resident of Point Pleasant Beach offered $500 each [$8,272 each in 2022 dollars] for the work, but the public subscription idea did not get much farther. While unable to say who is to be blamed in the matter, it looks as if aged Professor Haupt was likely to lose most of the money he has put in this jetty. He agreed (by the way) to ask nothing for this work unless it did what he claimed it would do. Mr. Haupt is now in his winter home in Cynwyd, Pa. The matter was before the Board of Freeholders on Tuesday. The general opinion seems to be that the maintenance of waterways is a matter of the federal government as that government claims jurisdiction over navigable channels.

BARNEGAT CITY JCT. DEPOT WILL BE BEACH ARLINGTON
Reports received from Long Beach indicate the removal of the Barnegat City Junction Station to Beach Arlington soon. The Pennsylvania R.R. hopes to do away with an extra stop by making this change and at the same time give Beach Arlington the benefit of an agent during the summer season. Beach Arlington and Ship Bottom, combined with their fish pounds, should net the R.R. a nice revenue, and with the additional service the population of the two resorts should increase [Beach Arlington later joined with Ship Bottom to incorporate as a unified municipality].

DEER HUNTER WHO LOST FOOT LATER LOST HIS LIFE
Edmund Hayes, of Camden, who was shot in the deer woods the first day of the deer season, December 16, died last week as a result of the wound. His foot was amputated at Mt. Holly Hospital, and he was removed to Camden. Later it was found necessary to take off still more of the leg, but the infection spread, causing his death. Hayes was watching the operation of a new gun, or trying it out himself, when the charge went through his foot. This is the second death from the deer hunting season, from wounds received near the Ocean-Burlington County lines. The other death was that of Henry Johnson, of Red Bank, a Toms River boy, who died at Kimball Hospital, Lakewood, from a gun shot wound received at Pasadena, from the gun of John Oakes, an employee, of the Red Bank Register, and a friend of Johnson's.

BEFORE JUSTICE KING
Two Manahawkin cases were heard by Justice A.C. King, on Tuesday, in the Court House:
Harry Fromm, a Manahawkin farmer, “swore his life against” Mr. Basler, a Beachwood farmer, growing out of a dispute, Fromm alleging that Basler had threatened him. The latter was “bound over to keep the peace.”
Randall Thompson, for years the draw tender on the Bay bridge, at the Bonnett, between Manahawkin and Long Beach, was accused by Game Warden J. Hamilton Evernham, of selling eight wild ducks, and was fined $20 on each charge, or $160 [$2,647 in 2022 dollars]. Randall is a poor working man, and that is a big sum for him to raise, accordingly his counsel, Judge Berry, will appeal. Randall's defense was, and he had five or six witnesses to back him up, that the ducks were not wild fowl, but “munglers,” raised by Captain Holmes, of the Ship Bottom pound fishery, who had fifty or sixty ducks in which black ducks, mallards and various breeds of tame ducks were hopelessly intermixed.

FISH AND GAME
The Board of Freeholders on Friday of last week paid bounties of $3 [$50 in 2022 dollars] each on 84 foxes. The fox pelt is worth about $5 [$82 in 2022 dollars], so that the fox hunters are not altogether wasting their time, though it would be poor business if they were doing it to make a living, as many a day they have no fox pelt, but only their fun for their day's trouble. The “Thompson boys,” of Toms River, have bagged five foxes this winter, and sold the pelts at $5 each, having a standing order for skins at that price. The Britton boys, of Berkeley Township, have the record this winter with about fifteen foxes.
With the bay frozen up te gunners are looking for better shooting among the wildfowl. The bay closed up last week, and the cold weather the first of this week strengthened the ice. Saturday morning, between the ice and the southerly gale, there was some pretty good shooting, if you happened to be at the right spot.
Saturday, Dr. O.C. Bogardus, of Keyport, with a party of friends, came through town on their way home from the Doctor's gunning place, on “Ma'shelder” Island in the lower bay. They had a fine lot of black duck, and were bewailing a cruel fate that compelled them to leave for home Saturday morning, when the fowl were flying. But the fact was that they had 1921 tags on their car and were taking no chances in coming up the shore with green tags on January 1—not with the state police patrolling the roads.
The Newark Call says that Thomas Hawley, of Elizabeth, recently got a goose and 15 ducks at Green Island, and is coming back for another chance at them. Fred Neiman, of New Brunswick, will come with him. The Call also says that George Wald, of Newark, brought up a backload of ducks and geese last week from Beach Haven. His good luck will result in a number of his friends going to Beach Haven this month.
Bert Dorsett and Paul Cranmer, of Toms River, have bagged a number of ducks “up the creek,” hardly a day going by one or the other getting a shot. That comes of living right on the gunning ground, so to speak.
Our Courier “Devil” [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] spent the New Year gunning at the mouth of Goose Creek, and at the Bay Bridge. He says he killed a redhead; but others who are envious insist that the duck had its feet frozen in the ice, and was untouched by shot. Still, if he got the duck--

PERSONAL
Burtis H. Ellis, who for the past five years has been president and general manager of the Manhattan Electrical Company, of New York, one of the large electrical concerns in that city, retired from active business on December 31. Mr. Ellis is the son of Sheriff Frank Ellis, of Toms River, and has a summer home in Barnegat. He has been with the Manhattan Company for more than twenty-five years, and seen almost the entire growth of electricity as we now use it in daily life.
Edward Crabbe, Jr., accompanied his sister, Mrs. Starr Ballou, to her home in Concord, N.H., this week, returning to Princeton University.
Capt. C.M. Elwell, U.S. Army, left last Saturday for the University of Pittsburgh, where he is an instructor in army tactics and strategy. Mrs. Elwell expects to join him in that city in a week or so.
Miss Harriet Simpson has returned from Amatol, where she spent the holidays with her parents [Amatol is today considered a “ghost town,” having been a WWI munitions factory town. More can be learned of it through Atlas Obscura, here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/amatol-ghost-town]

TRENTON GOSSIP
Governor Edwards announced that there is no probability of the state of New Jersey losing Camp Dix as a military reservation, either now or in the immediate future. This information is the result of correspondence which has passed between Secretary of War John W. Weeks and the governor, covering an extensive period...

RECENT DEATHS
Cassius W. Seymour
For twenty-five years known to all of downtown New York City as “The Blind Stationer of Maiden Lane,” Cassius W. Seymour, a former Toms River boy, died at his home in Passaic, N.J., on December 28. His body was brought to Toms River, and laid away in Riverside Cemetery on Saturday last. He lives a widow and one son. Mr. Seymour spent his boyhood in Toms river, and learned the printer's trade on The Courier, going from here to New York, where he was employed on the Weekly Witness, at that time an important religious and family paper. He later went in the jewelry business and built up a successful trade in the wholesale jewelry line, when he went blind. Undaunted, though unable to continue his jewelry trade, he started a stationary business which he carried on for a quarter century at 37-39 Maiden Lane, New York City. He was 60 years of age. A few years ago he spent a summer with his family at the Seymour house, on Lein Street, where he was brought up, and renewed old acquaintances. His ear was so keen that he recognized voices of old acquaintances after years of separation. It was always his desire to return to Toms River to live.

TOWN LIFE

BARNEGAT
A number of young people attended the dance at Manahawkin last Monday night.
J.H. Gaskill is making another improvement in his movie theatre. He has lowered the floor near the stage, making an orchestra pit and will install a larger electric organ and orchestra.

BAYVILLE
The young folks are having a fine time skating.
The Cardinal bird almost daily visits at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Cornelius.

BEACH HAVEN
The advance guard of the company at Red Bank, who were awarded the contract to move Bond's Coast Guard Station, arrived this week, and is making arrangements for the job, hiring men, engaging stable and garage room. The station is to be moved back and south a total distance of a thousand yards, and placed on the west side of the road. This distance from the continually encroaching sea, which seems to be more active in that section of the island, the government officials believe will insure the station's safety.
The cold snap of the first part of the week found our people well prepared, as it had been expected during all the pleasant weather of the past month. There is plenty of coal here, as well as other fuel, and the spring and summer's prosperous months have well fortified the citizens for a period of idleness if it is forced on us by the weather.
With the advent of snow and ice on the meadows and feeding grounds of the wild fowl our gunners are wearing their white suits, giving them the appearance of a “white-cap” raid when several of them walk up the Dock Road in company. Fowls are plentiful and especially fat and fine flavored.

FORKED RIVER
The New Year's even dance at the Greyhound was one of the most successful ever given there, about two hundred couples from various parts of Ocean County, and from the cities being present. The six-piece orchestra music was much enjoyed. Prizes were given in a number of events.
A good-sized seaplane, called the Bluebird, has been hauled out at Wilbert's boat-yard.

LAKEHURST
“Jimmie” Maleady tried a new stunt on the ice at the lake Tuesday. He was riding a bicycle with his skates on when he struck a thin place and went through. Fortunately there was help enough to get him out without any delay.

PLEASANT PLAINS
Water is scarce out in this part of the country. Some have to borrow water of their more fortunate neighbors.
Mr. and Mrs. Cephas Johnson have moved from Cedar Grove back on the farm. Cephas is busy sawing wood for his neighbors. We are glad they are back with us.

SEASIDE PARK
William Bates is substituting at Coast Guard Station, 109.
The Daughters of Pocahontas held a cake and ice cream social on Saturday evening, in the hall. The large crowd present remained to see the old year out and usher in the new year.
The community tree, which stood on the church grounds was dismantled on Tuesday last.
Several of our young folks attended the dance at Bay Head on Friday evening.
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Wickham are the proud parents of a nine-pound girl, born on Monday, in Philadelphia.

SHIP BOTTOM
Andrew Martin has returned home after spending one year in Alaska.
Calvin Falkinburg, Keeper of the Coast Guard Station, spent a few days in Tuckerton this week with his family.
Clarence Olsen is keeping the fishery's horses for the winter.
We have one of our streets all graveled for the summer season.
It looks like winter on this part of the beach, with the bay all frozen over.
While gunning one day last week two of our boys killed four geese and some black duck.

SILVERTON
Some of the sports here livened up a little Saturday night just as the clock struck 12. The church bell rang, guns were shot off, etc. Don't know whether they were welcoming the New Year in or the Old Year out—at any rate, they seemed to be having a good time.
There is an epidemic here that seems like colds—most every family has one or more members sick.
Monday was truly a bitter cold day for outside work or sport. However, it being a holiday a party of gunners, including James Riley, Thomas and William Quigley and Cecil Elmer, of Mt. Holly, motored to Silverton and went out on Barnegat Bay to shoot ducks, but all they got was a good cooling off. There was too much ice for gunning.
Bartine Clayton and his saw mill are kept busy here these days since the cold weather began.
Dan O'Hare killed a large hen hawk last Thursday that measured over three feet across its wings, from tip to tip.
Dick Thomas, of Manasquan, a frequent visitor here (because of a charming young lady you know) went down to Barnegat Inlet last week for a short time duck shooting. He bagged nineteen black ducks, one goose and a brant.
Mrs. Herbert Brand, of the Larue Farm, has recently had a fine chicken house built for her beautiful flock of black Leghorns.

ADS OF INTEREST

MISSED AN ISSUE?

December 30th, 1921
December 23rd, 1921
December 16th, 1921
December 9th, 1921
December 2nd, 1921
November 25th, 1921
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

Boats of Barnegat Bay T-Shirts Make Great Gifts!

All Sizes Available - Order Today! (CLICK HERE)

Enjoyed this article? Please consider making a one-time or recurring donation today!

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.

PLEASE NOTE: THE MARITIME MUSEUM IS CLOSED UNTIL TUES. JAN. 18th

(After Jan. 18th) 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]

News