Welcome back to another era in the Toms River area's past, one century ago this week!
Let your mind wander as you consider life around the second half of March 1922, courtesy the New Jersey Courier weekly newspaper and Ocean County Library archives, and peppered with items of maritime interest (around a 25 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)
Folks are planning gardens.
All Fools' Day will soon be with us. Fish hawks and herring due next week. Wasps and bugs flying about every warm day. Colds and grippy colds, at that, are still about the town and countryside. Robins are seen now and then, and the song sparrow and cardinal bird are heard early in the mornings. Time for boys to fly kites and girls to jump rope, under the old schedule; but they make schedules of their own, now. The apparatus at the sewage disposal plant, by which bacteria are killed by chlorine gas, is being set up this week. F. Lipscheutz Co. have decided to give up their grocery business and confine their attention to the other lines in their department store. On April 1 the American Stores will take the Lipscheutz grocery store on Washington Street, as a branch of their Main Street store. Fire Commissioners Edward Crabbe, I. W. Richtmeyer and R.C. Buckwalter, with a dozen firemen, went to Trenton and White Horse on Saturday last to see the work of a Stutz pumper at the latter place. They also got some ideas on how to keep up a fire company from the Trenton firemen. Charles Potter has built himself a barn on the property he recently bought from Mrs. Abby Irons, on Dayton Avenue. Some of the young men about town have organized another fire company, and will make application to the Fire Commissioners and to Township Committee for recognition. There is also talk that the American Legionaires may do the same. The fifteen young men in the company who signed up this week were: Abe and Joe Novins, George Alsheimer, Lloyd Applegate, Allen Sever, Walter Applegate, Allen Atterson, John Gaskill, Jack Costa, Ed Cornelius, Roy Goble, J.J Donnelly, Mike Shine, George Brahn, John Mason [this marked the formation of Toms River Fire Company No. 2, still active today, one century later]. Green grass is coming through the ground. Auto sales are picking up as auto prices drop down. Bluebirds, robins, song sparrows and blackbirds are reported. Ed Applegate had his house on Hooper Avenue enclosed. It stands in the field between Cedar Grove road and the Davitt house, one of the fine locations on the outskirts of town [approximately the location of the Ocean County Mall, today]. Herman Fuhr has the contract for a $4500 house in Beachwood, to be built for Mrs. Widmaier, of Brooklyn, who is thinking of making Beachwood her permanent home [today 325 Ship Avenue, for years the home residence of her daughter's family, and eventually, granddaughter, Carolyn Campbell]. The yachting fever, like the gardening fever, is breaking out, and men who want boats for the coming summer are scurrying around the boatyards to see what they can buy. P.P. Elkinton has drawn plans for a new front, with two bulk windows, for the A.A. Brant Lumber Co. store on Water Street, and also plans to turn the second floor of the Bump building, at Main and Washington Streets, into two apartments. The wind has taken liberties with the board fence around Gulick field, and flattened out a section or two. We had a few snow flakes on the first day of spring. County Agent E.H. Waite is proudly exhibiting the handsome silver cup won by Ocean County sweet potato exhibits at Farmers Week in Trenton in a state-wide competition, last January. One of the most successful dances of the winter was given on Friday evening last, St. Patrick's day, at the Toms River Yacht Club house. It was the last social affair before tearing out the house for enlargement, which probably means til next June or thereabouts. If Ralph B. Gowdy's shade [ghost] were to visit Toms River today it would at once get a man and a team, give the man a rake, and start him to cleaning up paper, branches and other rubbish from the streets. When he was on the committee streets were kept clean of all rubbish and gutters were for water to run in not to hold rubbish. [Capt. Gowdy was a Civil War captain also linked with Double Trouble Village, being one of the first to develop the cranberry industry here on a large scale. He died in 1911.] A good number of Toms River people attended the opening of the new Palace theatre last night in Lakewood. Some theatre is the verdict. [It closed sometime in the 1950s and became home to the American Vitamin Co. The building was lost to a fire in 1979.] While digging in the riverbank near Bert Dorsett's boatshop last week, Paul Cranmer unearthed an Indian lancehead of chipped flint. It is perfect in shape and looks as if it had just been made. It measured seven and a half inches in length [the lance head likely was attached to the end of a wooden pole and used to spear fish in the river]. If you want to do business with the Pennsylvania Railroad in the middle of the day, you are stuck. Business hours mean nothing to a railroad just now in their present spasm of operation economy. For many years the agent at the Toms River depot has had a clerk to spell him through the day. The clerk has been laid off, and Agent W.A. Sever has been ordered to post a notice that the station is closed after the 10:30 train arrives, and will not be reopened till nearly time for the 3.57, so as to get his day's work inside of eight hours. [The station, located at the end of South Main Street in what today is South Toms River Borough, was closed with the rail spur in the mid-20th century. The station building itself was purchased and moved to Beachwood and is still a private home today]. A delegation from Fire Company No. 2 appeared before the Township Committee on Friday last and asked that the township supply them with quarters. The committee said they had no funds for that purpose and no room at their disposal in the town hall. Spring. Sap running. Birds calling. Spring showers. Moon is on the wane. Roads are settling down. Days longer than nights. Summer will soon be here. Red-winged blackbirds have come north. Snyder & Sutton have started remodeling the Toms River Yacht Club house, on the river front [located where today is Baker's Water Street Bar & Grille, the yacht club having moved down river to Money Island in the 1960s, where it stands today]. Did you see the northern lights on Friday night last? While low down, near the horizon, the light was very distinct against an absolutely clear sky. The Locust Farm, two miles out of Lakewood, on the north, has been bought by the Lightning Film Co., of New York, and motion pictures studios are to be erected there at once, according to the Times and Journal. The film company has twenty acres to work on. Robins galore. Birds are singing. Hyacinths in bloom. Elm trees are in bud. 1922 one-quarter gone. Goodbye to old winter. Lightning Tuesday night. Lawns are emerald green. Fruit buds almost at bursting point. Boatshops are busy overhauling craft for the summer. Green leaves show on rosebushes, lilacs and early shrubbery. Willets Manolt's new home in Montray Park is ready for the plastering. I.P. Evernham has sold the classy looking bungalow which he built in Montray Park to Mariano Russo. Farms have much of their plowing done in the past two weeks. Potatoes did not get in on St. Patrick's day this year, however. Complaints about bootleggers are heard frequently; also charges that moonshiners are growing bolder. Mrs. Christopher Sprague of Beach Haven, with W.H. Jayne as her attorney, has brought suit for divorce from her husband. She is a granddaughter of the late Capt. Joseph Wainwright of Toms River. The baseball grandstand and fence at the Gulick Field are looking pretty poorly. Carpenters and painters both should be put on the job before it is too late. The high school boys ought to see to it that the place is not misused, at least during school time. David O. Parker has had electric lights installed at his home at Main and Messenger streets. The Swedish Consul from New York came to the county jail on Saturday last to confer with the Swedes in the pound fisheries crews who were locked up there to await the action of the grant jury, on the charge of burning the Erthal fishery and ice plant, at lower Seaside Park Monday night of last week. Sales of lots in Montray Park are said to take place now and then, and a number of people are talking of new houses in that tract. It is suggested that the Township Committee now have a chance to keep one part of the town looking ship-shape, by making building lines, grades, etc., and not let this tract, like the rest of the town, straggle along according to individual whim. 140 YEARS AGO Thursday of next week [March 23rd] will be the 140th anniversary of the burning of Toms River by the British and Tories in the closing days of the American Revolution, after the capture of the block house. It was an act of purely wanton destruction, and but two small houses in all the hamlet grouped about what is now Toms River, were left standing. Non-combatants, as well as fighting men, who were captured, were taken prisoners to New York by the British force, and the women and children left to provide their own shelter as best they could. Which goes to show that war then, and war now, except that now it has more wealth, more men and more destructive weapons, are very much the same. HEADLINE NEWS
ZR-1 TO START SOON AT LAKEHURST
With the destruction of the Italian built semi rigid, the Roma, the United States is left without lighter-than-air craft larger than non-rigid blimps. Within a month, however, the actual erection of the ZR-1, an American designed dirigible, will be begun in the large hangar at Lakehurst, N.J., and in a year it is expected that this ship will be ready to take the air. About a third of the structural members or frame of the ZR-1 have been fabricated, and a large percentage of the gas cells have been made. The ZR-1 in name only is a sister ship to the ill fated ZR-2, built in England. ZR is the designation given by the navy to all dirigibles. The ZR-2, or R-38 as she was called by the English, was built according to a new design and was distinctly a British creation. The ZR-1 [later becoming the U.S.S. Shenandoah] is modeled after the L-49, the German Zeppelin, that came down in France during the war practically intact. This airship was closely studied by the French, who sent our government the result of the observations. Lessons were also learned from the L-72, the latest German large rigid airship. The ZR-1 will be 675 feet long and 78 ½ feet in diameter. It will contain gas cells that are about 33 feet long and will contain one large cell in the center of the ship that, taken alone, will contain about 200,000 cubic feet and be larger than the non-rigid ships now in this country. The gas volume of the ZR-1 will be 2,130,000 cubic feet. It will have six engines, and is designed to normally operate with one or two engines idle. A speed of 70 miles an hour under best conditions is expected. The ZR-1 is, however, primarily a war craft, intended to operate at high altitudes, and in this respect it differs from the airship that will probably be built in Germany for the United States government. It is hoped that this ship will be built on commercial lines for high speed at low elevations and designed after the latest German type.
ATLANTIC CITY MEN MAY BUY PINE BEACH INN FOR SCHOOL
An offer has been made to the owners of the Pine Beach Inn to purchase that hotel, with the purpose of turning it into a boys' school. The people back of the plan are some of the leading men of Atlantic City, who are interested in the school that Prof. Douglas Adams has been maintaining in that city for several years. His quarters in Atlantic City he cannot longer retain, and Adams, who spent many summers on Toms River and Barnegat Bay, would like to come here. His Atlantic City backers are willing to put up what money he may need. At present there is a little difference between offered price and asked price. The inn has not been open for several summers.
CULTIVATING BLUEBERRIES NOW A BIG UNDERTAKING
The Double Trouble Company, at Double Trouble, are putting in forty cold frames and will plant 15,000 blueberry (swamp huckleberry) cuttings this spring for transplanting later. They expect this fall to have at least three acres in blueberries. But Mr. Scammell says this is a small acreage compared with that at Whitesbogs, where Miss Elizabeth White has made a study of the blueberries for some years. There about thirty acres are in cultivation, with at least 200,000 cuttings. Last year Miss White sold her large crop of blueberries at thirty cents a cup [about $5 in 2022 dollars; this would make a pint of blueberries cost $10 today]. It is understood that last year the blueberry plantation paid its own way at Whitesbogs. [Elizabeth Coleman White {1871-1954) is credited with being the “mother” of the modern blueberry industry. An easy search online will reveal many articles describing her outstanding accomplishments]. EROSION AND POLLUTION Representatives of numerous shore municipalities conferred with the State Board of Commerce and Navigation last week on the problem of protecting the beaches from damage by erosion. This is a vital matter to many of these communities, especially those situated along the northern part of the coast. A number of these have already been put to heavy expense in the construction of jetties and bulkheads to save not only the beaches but much more valuable shore front and real estate. The claim that the state should assist in preserving its shores from inroads of the sea is based on a substantial foundation since the development of the ocean front has added many millions to the State's ratables. There is little use, however, in either State or municipalities spending money to save the beaches from erosion unless something is speedily done to protect them from pollution. Oil and garbage are so fouling the New Jersey beaches that people are driven away, the food fish supply is being reduced, and if the evil continues to grow the oyster industry will be ruined. Today man, not nature, is the greatest menace to the New Jersey Coast.—Newark Call.
ADDITIONS TO CLUB HOUSE
Additions to the Toms River Yacht Club house on the river front are to go forward at once, at a cost of about $4,000. The house will be extended toward the street line, making a considerable addition the main room, either for use as a dance floor or assembly room. On the southwest corner, taking up the width of the plaza, will be a cellar, for a furnace and boiler, and over it a kitchenette. The enlargement will allow a pool and billiard room on the second floor. Steam heat will be installed before next winter. Snyder & Sutton have the contract for the addition, and plans were drawn by P.P. Elkinton. The architectural design of the club house will not be disturbed. The tennis court will also be rebuilt this spring for use this summer. STEAMER AND SCHOONER COLLIDE On Thursday night of last week the steamer Metapan and the schooner Charles A. Dean were in collision off Barnegat light. The schooner filled with water, but kept afloat, and the steamer, which was uninjured, stood by till a revenue cutter arrived, summoned by the steamer's wireless. The cutter escorted the schooner to Sandy Hook.
WILL START BUILDING FARMS FOR POULTRYMEN AT ONCE
The Toms River Poultry Development Association will start at once building poultry farms on its 400-acre tract that it now owns in fee on the south side of the Pennsylvania Railroad tract [where today is much of South Toms River Borough, approximately Center Homes, part of today's Garden State Parkway, the business plazas and buildings along Dover Road, a large portion of the housing development throughout, plus the Jakes Branch area that remains wooded today.]. Three farms are expected to be the starting unit, and others will follow. Each of the first three farms will contain a six-room bungalow, with electric lights, running water, bath and heat; accommodations for five hundred pullets, and the pullets themselves stocked on the place, so that the buyer has a going concern from the day he takes it over; all necessary fencing, clearing, etc. and a garage and feed storage house. Each farm will contain ten acres. Where a prospective buyer wishes a larger farm than the ten-acre, five-hundred-bird farm, 1000-bird farms will be constructed. Real estate men in this section say that a dozen such farms as this could have been disposed of in the month of February had they then been in existence. The Poultry Development Tract consists of what was formerly the Toms River Chemical Company tract, of nearly 200 acres, and with a mile frontage on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and with almost as much frontage on the Dover road; also the Mayo tract, running on the opposite side of the Dover road to Jake's branch, and extending to within a few hundred feet of the Holman cranberry bogs; and the Crowell, or gravel pit tract, right across the way from the P.R.R. Depot. It is proposed that the first farms will be built on the Chemical Co. tract, on the north side of the Dover road and on the northwest slope of the hill. Farms will then be built on both sides of the Dover road, facing one another. A.S. Tilton is laying out the tract in ten-acre plots. The men who are backing this enterprise, with the hope of increasing the importance of Toms River as a poultry center, are: Charles N. Warner, Frank W. Sutton, Jr., Jesse P. Evernham, Samuel Kaufman, David C. Brewer, William H. Fischer, Edward Crabbe, Martin Schwarz, Daniel S. Priest, J.N. Mathews, David A. Veeder. HOUSES AT SEASIDE PARK RIFLED BY YOUNG BANDITS Three young men are being held in Philadelphia to await extradition to Toms River, on the charge of burglary at Seaside Park. From confessions that some of them have made, they drove to and from Seaside Park for the week ends in stolen cars, while there put up in houses that they afterward rifled, and had a gay time generally at other folks' expense. It was through Chief Souder, of the Philadelphia detective force, that they were caught. The three men are Howard Morgan, alias Peter Duffy, who has been stopping at Seaside Park off and on all winter, and who was arrested last December, on the charge of blackjacking and robbing Shoemaker Henry Jones, at that place, but who succeeded in convincing the authorities that they had made a mistake in arresting him; Joseph Pelasco, alias John Mehan, alias John Dubac, and a lad, known as William F. Townsend or Thomas Townsend. The homes known to have been robbed are those of Judge Frank T. Lloyd, George G. Parry and Mr. Baker. It is believed that investigation will show that others have been ransacked. Last Monday Frank Sprague, Marshal of Seaside Park Borough, received word from Captain Souder that there were some young men under arrest in the city that he ought to be interested in. With Aaron Wilbert, Borough Clerk, Sprague went to Philadelphia and found these lads. They admitted stealing a Cadillac and afterward a Peerless sedan, and driving to Seaside Park, and taking back loot from the houses they robbed. They also robbed the Lexington Garage, as was reported recently in The Courier. On their last trip Captain Souder put a stool pigeon on them in the shape of a mechanic, when they broke their car, the mechanic coming down to repair it, and thus Souder got the inside of the story. The Philadelphia police have a long list of articles taken from these young men, and so far unidentified, besides these articles that are known to have come from three houses named. In one house they left a saucy note, saying they had used the beds, etc., and hoping that the next time they would find something worth stealing. A lot of plunder was found hidden in one of these houses when the officers examined them. The county officials are also busy, and Lieutenant McDonald visited Philadelphia Wednesday for the Sheriff's office. When here they put their car in Parry's garage. RADIO WAVES FROM THE TOMS RIVER ETHER Beginning with this issue a space will be devoted to radio news items of interest to the readers of The Courier. Commander Weyerbacher has installed a radio-telephone receiving set in his home on the Atlantic City Boulevard. Welcome to our radio midst, Commander. Bartolette Havens (2AWJ) is contemplating increasing his C.W. Set so he will be able to talk and broadcast music. Burton Hall (2BGB), one of Toms River's old amateurs at the game, has recently sold his set. Burton has had very good results with his apparatus, regularly receiving concerts from stations up to four hundred miles away. Toms River is wide-awake and up-to-date, as evidenced by a number of persons asking for radio books of Miss Chambers in the Public Library. Mr. Finck has ordered a complete radio receiving set to be installed in the Toms River School. Hurrah! Fred Milford has his aerial up. Atta boy. We understand that Henry Forcanser, of Pershing, is installing a radio receiving set. It will interest radio followers to know that at 8:30 P.M. Saturday evening, the opera “Martha” by Flotow, will be given in its entirety by the Bijou Opera Co. and broadcasted from the Westinghouse Station at Newark. Will answer questions pertaining to radio if addressed care of Toms River Courier. Please enclose stamped envelope. FRANK M. KENNEDY. Mayor Senior, of Beachwood, will install a receiving set when he returns for the summer. Radio manufacturers are working night and day trying to catch up on back orders and meet the enormous demand for apparatus as there is an approximate estimate of over a half a million receiving stations. A number of tugs in New York harbor are installing radio phones and amplifiers to pick up concerts for the benefit of their crews. Agent Waite is receiving music from his radio set that can be heard all over the first floor. He is using a portable umbrella aerial.
TO WATCH FOR FOREST FIRES FROM ROOF OF HUGE HANGAR
The Navy Department having given its O.K. To the plan, the Department of Conservation and Development will arrange to have a watch man stationed on the top of the big hangar at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, to keep an eye on the pine woods in every direction, watching for the tell-tale smoke that proclaims a fire in the woods. North Jersey, where there are mountains, has a number of such lookouts. South Jersey has but few. REAL ESTATE BOOMERS PUT LAKEWOOD TRACTS ON MARKET Encouraged by the success of the Carasaljo Land Company, in putting the tract between the lakes over last year, there are several more real estate booms in the very edges of Lakewood that are putting fine tracts of land on the market in building lot form. The tract just west of Georgian Court (George J. Gould's estate) and running down to Lake Carasaljo is one of the finest parts of Lakewood. It is now wooded with oak, chiefly. Streets have been cut through, and water mains are being laid in some of them. Two houses have been started near the Gould property on the northeast corner of the tract, not far from the road to Hope Chapel, which is now labeled Fourteenth Street. On the opposite side of Fourteenth Street, north of Georgian Court, another nicely situated and well wooded tract is being put out in building lots, on a community or club plan. Streets have also been cut through this tract. These two locations would give Lakewood room to grow at least fifty per cent, of its present size, if they were built up. Building in Lakewood is keeping all the contractors busy. The first of these tracts is being promoted by I.B. Thompson of Lakewood, as the Oak Knoll Section; the second is called the Pine Chalet development and is backed by a New York concern. JAIL STRIKING FISHERMEN AFTER ICE PLANT BURNS Last Saturday, the fishing crews at the four fisheries, just below Seaside Park, went on strike for higher wages. Monday night, March 20, the ice plant storage house and packing platform of the former Bennett & Wilson Fishery, now owned by Julius L. Erthal, were burnt to the ground, the other three fisheries in that locality, the Seaside Park Fishery, the Seaside Heights Fishery and James R. Hensler Fishery having, it is said, by their owners, a narrow escape. Early next morning the bunk house that striking fishermen had rented and were living in, after quitting their jobs on Saturday, was visited by the Sheriff's posse, and sixteen fishermen brought to the county jail, along with another man, suspected of furnishing them with hooch. Tuesday afternoon a hearing was held by Justice of the Peace Arthur C. King, conducted by Prosecutor Wilfred H. Jayne, and the sixteen fishermen were held in the county jail without bail for grant jury investigation. The sixteen men are all foreigners, some Swedes, an occasional Russian and Portuguese... The fire was discovered a little after 9 o'clock on Monday night. The alarm was phoned to Seaside Park, to A.C. Heiring, by the cook at his fishery, who thought it was that fishery which was burning. [Gilbert] Grable [manager of the Erthal Fishery] also lives at Seaside Park, and hurried down with about all the population of the Park and the Heights who went to see the fire. Hensler saw the fire from his home on the river front in Toms River, and hurried over. It was decided among them that the fire must have been set purposely, and the Sheriff's office was called on, and arrests made... A quantity of liquor was seized and brought to the Court House at the time the arrests were made. City papers have been running lurid accounts of riot and battle, terrorized citizenry and all that. So far nobody around here seems to know anything about riot or fight; as for the fire, if it was incendiary, as believed, it was set in a sneaking manner, and not boldly by rioters. BARNEGAT NOW A “RESORT” Thanks to the efforts of Assemblyman Parker, Barnegat is now classed as a “resort” by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and not only Barnegat, but also Manahawkin and West Creek, getting what advantage there is from that classification. Excursion tickets, good for 17 days, are sold in the cities to resort stations, but to no others; at present return trip fare from Philadelphia is double the single fare... Beginning May 1 excursion tickets will be sold to these towns from Philadelphia [for] the same price that Tuckerton and Beach Haven now have. These return tickets are not sold from resorts to the cities. WELL-KNOWN LAKEWOOD MAN NABBED IN PHONE BOOTH Freehold, March 14.—Hearing the burglar alarm on the New York Telephone Company booth in the Pennsylvania Station ring about 11:30 yesterday morning as he was writing a report on the police blotter in the municipal building, adjoining the station, Officer Edwin C. Sloat captured Walter Holman, 37 years, of Lakewood, in the booth apparently endeavoring to repair the lock on the door in the money receptacle. In Holman's overcoat pockets was found a screw driver and $50.56 [$853 in 2022 dollars], all in nickels, dimes and quarter dollars. Holman was arraigned before Recorder McDermott and held in $3000 bail [$50,663 in 2022 dollars] for grand jury action. In default of bail bonds he was committed to the county jail. Holman comes from a family that has been prominent in Ocean County for several generations. He is a native of Whitesville, and formerly kept a garage at Lakewood. There have been many stories afloat about him since the arrest last Monday. It is alleged that this particular booth, as well as similar ones, had been robbed several times, and a trap was set, the booth being wired with an electric burglar alarm. Holman is married and has a family of his own. HERRING, PERCH, FLOUNDERS Island Heights fishermen report big catches of perch and herring in their barrels Monday of this week, and other large catches have been made. J. Ed Johnson says he had the first dozen herring caught. Winter flounders are caught up the bay as far as the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, where a barrel of them were caught in one day this week. This is unusual for them to come so far up the bay in large numbers. FOREST FIRE TOWERS TO OVERLOOK SOUTH JERSEY Watch towers to overlook the South Jersey woods have been arranged for by the Department of Conservation and Development, out of an addition to its appropriations, furnished by the recent legislature. Senator Hagaman, being on the Appropriation Committee, and knowing the danger and the losses from forest fires, was able to help get this needed money. In addition to the ten-foot tower that will be put on Lakehurst hangar, there will be a number of steel towers erected on hills in the South Jersey woods, each with its telephone by which to call up Fire Wardens. C.A. BRANT ADDS MANASQUAN TO STRING OF LUMBER YARDS Clifford A. Brant, of Toms River, has added another lumber yard to his string, the newest addition being at Manasquan. Starting with the A.A. Brant Lumber Yard, which Mr. Brant assumed the management of at Toms River, a few years ago, after the death of his grandfather, Amos A. Brant, the Manasquan plant will make a string of six plants, three in Ocean County and three in Monmouth, located at Toms River, Lakehurst, Lakewood, Freehold, Farmingdale and Manasquan. The Toms River and Lakewood yards are managed by William C. Nolte, with offices at Toms River. The other yards are managed by C.A. Brant, with the main office in Lakewood. The late A.A. Brant established the Toms River business in 1870. The yard at Lakewood was opened in 1918, that at Farmingdale in 1920, and the business of A. Brewer, at Freehold, was bought in 1921. The yard at Manasquan will be located along the Freehold branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad and will extend from Broad St. to Osborne Ave. Construction of an office building will begin in the near future and the yard stocked within the next month. The office will be at the Broad Street end of the lot. CROSS-STATE ROAD FROM BARNEGAT NOW SEEMS SURE After a ten-year fight it looks now as if Barnegat was (before a great while) to get its cross-state road through the pines to Burlington County, via Buddtown [today: Route 72]. The Board of Freeholders have been informed by the State Highway Department that Burlington County has at last taken over the west end of the Barnegat-Buddtown Road as a county road. About eight years ago, when Senator David G. Conrad was on the Board of Freeholders, the county built six miles of the Ocean County end of this road, directly west from Barnegat. This year, on the assurance that Burlington County is contemplating action, the Freeholders are advertising for another two-mile section, the bids to come in April 4. Burlington County now has its improved road as far as “The Four Mile,” and the Pines district is clamoring for an extension. TUCKERTON GIRL GIVES UP FARM FOR MARRIED LIFE Miss Minnie Mullen, who, for some time past, had managed the George Mott farm, at Tuckerton, carrying on a dairy and running a milk route in Tuckerton Borough, has given up the farm for duties of married life. Last week, after Rev. Daniel Johnson, of the Tuckerton M.E. Church, had gone to Atlantic City to Conference, the girl farmer decided to marry her suitor, George A. Dawson, of Akron, Ohio. So the couple followed Mr. Johnson to Atlantic City, where they were married. Mrs. Dawson is reported as saying that she is through with the farm. CRIMINAL COURT MATTERS Judge Jeffrey will hear criminal cases on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, March 22-23. Howard Stillwell, William W. Walker and George Fleckstein, employees of Mike Cella, accused of stealing from Cella Market, and John Martin, of the Ocean Avenue Inn, accused of receiving stolen goods, will be tried on Thursday. Other cases set for next week are the charges of receiving stolen goods against Edward Huss, of Lakewood, who is alleged to have had parts from a stolen flivver; an indictment against Fisher Blesky, of Lakewood, alleged to have rented a Ford from Samuel Grover, of that town, and failed to return it, the car having been found in the woods, stripped of all valuables; Louis Hyman, Lakewood, indicted for assault; Curtis and Marvin Newman, of Berkeley Township, indicted for stealing cranberries; Lester Cranmer, of Cookstown, charged with having stolen a deer, the kill of another hunter; Willard O. Stout, of Lanoka, indicted for deserting his wife and family...
BIG DROP IN EGG PRICES
The past week has seen a big drop in the price of eggs. Local stores have been taking in eggs at 21 cents a dozen [$3.55 in 2022 dollars] and selling them at 24 cents [$4.05 in 2022 dollars], the lowest price since “before the war.” The Poultry Producers' Association has been getting from 33 to 36 cents a dozen [$5.40 to $6.08 in 2022 dollars]. Carton packed eggs for special trade have brought 45 cents a dozen [$7.60 in 2022 dollars]. The general belief is that the cause of the drop was that the advent of spring caught the big egg speculators with storage houses still loaded with last summer's eggs. More eggs were put in cold storage than usual last summer. The winter was fairly open, and egg production not only in commercial plants, but also on the farms of the Middle West, was greater than had been looked for. The speculators held on all winter, thinking that after the break of early January they might get prices up again, but at last had to unload. Last December eggs were as high as $1.05 a dozen [$17.73 in 2022 dollars]. SCHOOL TEACHER WANTED The Borough of Ocean Gate wants a school teacher beginning April 1 for the balance of the school year, ending in June. One room school, first to eighth grades to be taught. Board can be had at reasonable rates near school house. Good salary. Address Wm. H. Newlin, District Clerk, Ocean Gate, N.J.—Adv.
FISH AND GAME
Well, the gunning is all over, fox-hunting is a thing of the past, and the legislature has adjourned, so that the hunter can only think things over. The only excuse he can have now for getting his gun out is to oil or clean it, unless he joins one of the numerous clay bird clubs. Capt. Ben Asay says that the geese in the upper bay every night at dusk start off in a westerly direction up Toms River. He thinks they go to the cranberry bogs near Lakehurst, probably to the Stillman bogs on Sunken Branch, after fresh water and gravel. In the morning they come back. They have been trading back and forth this way for some time. PERSONAL MENTION WITH LOCAL FLAVOR Thomas R. Wilkinson, of Toms River and Trenton, makes the assertion that the radio craze is only in its infancy. Most of us will agree with that, but Tom has a reason for it, not just a hunch, like the rest of us. He says that the one thing which has kept back the radio bug from spreading over the face of this fair land, like a boll weevil through a cotton patch, has been the lack of suitable battery. Dry cells have been used heretofore, and have not been satisfactory because they soon played out and were costly. Mr. Wilkinson says that a storage battery has now been invented to operate radio outfits that will mark a distinct advance in the amateur radio work. A son was born recently to Mr. and Mrs. Wallis Jaquith of East Orange, and has been named John Sleator Jaquith, after his maternal grandfather, John C. Sleator, of Merchantville, who is a frequent visitor at Toms River and Seaside Park. Mr. Sleator is now treasurer and was formerly commodore of the Island Beach Yacht Club, and this is the first grandchild belonging to any member of this club. Accordingly it has been awarded a silver loving cup, which was offered by Commodore Charles J. Maxwell to the first grandchild born to a member of the club. The cup is of sterling silver, and is inscribed: “Boys' race, won by John Sleator Jaquith, March, 1922.” The club members have also sent the little fellow each a “birthday” gift. PERSONAL Mrs. A.A. Brant, one of the best-known residents of Toms River, celebrates her 93d birthday this week at the Brooklyn home of her son, Henry L. Brant, where she is spending the winter. Mrs. Brant keeps her faculties and is bright and keen. She comes of an old Colonial family in Rhode Island—but has made Toms River her home since about 1870. She is a Daughter of the Revolution, one of her ancestors having been a major in Washington's army. Mrs. Richard J. Benson and Mrs. Barbara King, of Weehawkin, N.J., are spending a few days at the Marion Inn this week. Mrs. Benson is a summer resident of Beachwood, owning a bungalow in that resort. Capt. and Mrs. Clarence Birdsall arrived home on Friday evening, after a trip to Cuba. They spent some time at Miami, Fla., on their way home. Miss Harriet Widmaier, of Brooklyn, spent the week end with her sister, Mrs. Paul Grover. William Herflicker is home from Trenton, where he has been employed for several years, and is now bookkeeper at the American Supply Co. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Schofield, of Philadelphia, spent the week end at the Marion Inn, while looking for a summer home at Island Heights or Seaside Park for the coming season. Dave Marion spent the week end at his home here, dividing his time between his farm and the Marion Inn. Steelman Mathis, of Philadelphia, spent the week end with his parents, Capt. and Mrs. Thomas Mathis. Mrs. Edward Crabbe arrived home this week after an absence of almost two months, having spent February in Bermuda, and March with her daughter, Mrs. Starr Ballou, of Concord, N.H. RECENT WEDDINGS Crowell—Cranmer Trenton, March 18.— Miss Amelia S. Cranmer, of Trenton, daughter of Keeper Clarence Cranmer, of Barnegat Lighthouse, Barnegat City, and his late Edith Cranmer, was married Tuesday, March 14, to Mr. Charles Morton Crowell, of Hammonton... The bride is well known in Toms River, where she was graduated from the high school, also in Barnegat and other shore towns. She also is a graduate of the Rider College, Trenton. RECENT DEATHS Mrs. Ellen Lewis Forked River, March 22.— The hand of time has thus removed from our midst another precious landmark in the person of Mrs. Ellen Lewis from the home of her son, Amos Lewis, Forked River, March 15, 1922. When Mrs. Lewis was born, July 6, 1825, the Hon. J.Q. Adams, our sixth president, was just taking his chair; the Erie Canal had just been opened for commerce of the West, and the first line of railroad in America had just been completed. What a span of life she has covered. Her sweet, useful life, presents a rare standard that our young women will do well to follow. Her memory will always recall a rich fragrance to bless the lives of those who knew her best. Among the many friends and loved ones who gathered to pay their last tribute to her mortal remains weer Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Lewis and Mrs. Sylvia Heisler of Moorestown, N.J. TOWN LIFE
BARNEGAT
According to the long series of rains the last few weeks we will come to the conclusion that the Rainmaker of Lakewood is bound to convince us he can do it, but we would humbly ask him to reserve a part of it for some of those July and August days we usually get when life is miserable by heat and dust. The bids were awarded last week for the electric light system for our town. Emmor Mick furnishes the poles, John Lewis the wiring, Howard Gaskill the engine part of it. We will hail its coming with pleasure as our town has resembled a graveyard with a light here and there like the moon shining on tombstones. Nothing puts a town on the map more than a good lighting system, water, fire company and schools. Now we've got 'em all, let's call the outside people's attention to it. BAYVILLE What was formerly known as the Harrison House, owned by the late Benjamin F. Butler, burnt to the ground about 7 A.M. Monday. The fire seemed to start from the roof, presumably from the chimney. The house was occupied by Lester Newman. An alarm was sent to Toms River and the firemen came down from there, but it was too late to do much, even if there had been water to fight fire with. The old part of the house was the old Anderson family homestead. A.S. Tilton is more than busy with his surveying, having so much to do that he is unable to catch up. He is now laying out the Toms River Poultry Development Association's poultry farms at Toms River. Our baymen need a good road to the bay, a big sign on the Main Shore road, telling auto parties about it, and a lunch room or restaurant at the dock if they want their share of the fishing parties that formerly came to Barnegat Pier, but now travel the main road by auto. Why not get busy? Why let all the business go somewhere else? BEACH HAVEN Mrs. E. A. Dease has opened her boarding house, “The St. Rita.” This season's guests will find several worthy improvements since last summer, as Mrs. Dease has added a garage, with chauffeur's quarters, concrete driveways and a sun parlor to her comfortable hostelry. R.F. Engle has contracted with a Philadelphia firm to have The Engleside wired for electricity. The gang came down Monday and began work, and are making their headquarters at The St. Rita. Every room will be lighted with this modern and convenient light and other electrical conveniences added to the house. William Potter, Jr., has received announcement of his appointment as engineer on the buoy tender, “Pine.” Contractor Cranmer has the contract for the cottage now going up for Dr. Sharpless, at the corner of Norwood and Beach avenues. This makes four new cottages now under construction in that section of the town. Elmer King has the old ice plant building on South Street, completely razed. It is rumored he will build a bungalow there to rent. It is easily seen that there is a need for more houses in this town to rent to workmen as it is hard to find a vacant house at a reasonable rental. But the prevalent rate of taxes are discouraging to builders. Such progress has been made at installing the new draw in the P.R.R. Bridge at the Bonnet that the new parts are now in place and it is expected that the regular traffic will be resumed on March 25. The first train to come over the new drawbridge arrived Saturday afternoon. We hope the regular schedule will soon be resumed. The first freight train came in on Monday afternoon. The lighthouse tender Pine was docked at the wharf for the past few days. BEACHWOOD The second annual Beachwood Borough Day dinner, which was held on Tuesday, March 7, at Hotel Astor, New York City, was pronounced a greater success than the previous one held at the Robert Treat, in Newark, in 1921. O. Frederick Rost, president of the Property Owners' Association, under whose auspices the dinner was given, acted as toastmaster. Among the speakers were T.E. Maxfield, of the New York Tribune, who told of the origin of Beachwood, through the combined efforts of the late B.C. Mayo and of the Tribune. Mayor Joseph H. Senior [the first mayor of Beachwood Borough] was the second speaker, who announced that at the end of his term as Commissioner, coming in a few weeks, he would not be a candidate for re-election, and would withdraw from official connection with the borough. This confirmed the statement that had been heard for some weeks, as to his intentions, much to the regret of the Beachwood people assembled at the dinner, who had hoped he might be persuaded to reconsider his determination to withdraw... The Beachwood Woman's Club held a special meeting at the Sherman Square Hotel, New York, on last Thursday afternoon, Mrs. George Siffert presiding... Mrs. W.H. Talmadge, secretary, read a communication from a member who has spent the winter in Beachwood, deploring the pitiful condition of the cats that are abandoned and left to suffer each fall. It was voted that an effort be made to have Mrs. Jasper Lynch, president of the Ocean County S.P.C.A. Address the members at one of the meetings next summer, with a view to forming a branch of the chapter in Beachwood... O. Fred Rost, before he sailed for Europe a week ago, bought a fast motor boat, of the hydroplane type, in Baltimore, and has had it shipped to Toms River. It is stated that the new craft is expected to make forty miles an hour. Buck Woolley will put the boat in shape, and Chris Ellenberger will tune up the engine. CEDAR RUN [section of Manahawkin] W.S. Cranmer last week sold the following farms: L.B. Holloway, West Creek, to J.H. Batcher, New York; Edith Fafflock, Barnegat, to Orest Caselli, New York; Nina Taylor, Forked River, to Joseph Weiss, Brooklyn; Peter Glenn, Barnegat, to W.S. McKinley, Pleasantville, N.Y.; George W. Kenfield, Forked River, to John Fabian, Jersey City; John Cranmer, Cedar Run, to Joseph Levy, Dover, N.J. G.C. Giberson is very busy with his mill. Properties in Cedar Run are being repaired and brightened up and look better than in years, all bespeaking a brilliant future and maintaining its record as being the “Hub” of the “Hub” of the county. Fred Cranmer, Coast Guard, was home several days this week. Always glad to see his smiling face. Our town was stirred with excitement one day last week when the tragical news was officially announced that a famous mule belonging to one of our important citizens was lost. A search was instituted and his “White Honor” was discovered on the automobile bridge, where he had evidently gone for enjoyment of the good, clear crisp salt air that our real estate dealer dotes on. “Tony,” however, had a hair-raising tale to tell that the mule attacked him on the bridge while on his truck, and momentarily expected to be tossed or kicked into the bay, but fortunately escaped. Her name should be Maud. A liberal award will be given to anyone hereafter finding Maud astray. FORKED RIVER Watson Penn had a Lakewood party out flounder fishing on both Saturday and Sunday. Wats reports a catch of 200 Saturday and 250 on Sunday—whether that many flounders or that many pounds we are not sure, which. Capt. Joe Smires will rebuild a large boat for Joshua Shreve, of Barnegat, the craft having been damaged badly. Both tom cod and herring have been caught in the bay by our fishermen. ISLAND HEIGHTS The old stork is not dead yet. He was seen hovering over Windsor Park last week, and left a twelve-pound boy at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Wheelen. The young man is named Charles Francis. The library is well patronized these days. There are now 91 who take out books, and there were 242 books in circulation during February. Besides fiction, the library is accumulating historical and reference books. LAKEHURST Barney Bradley has bought the Ralph H. Wilbur properties on Union Avenue, formerly occupied by Harry Excel, has removed the buildings and is excavating for a larger building on the site. LANOKA Capt. M.V. Bunnell, one of our old baymen, always has a joke for every one when he meets them. It is quite interesting to sit and listen to some of his stories on a rainy day, and he is always sure to chase away the blues. Captain still follows oystering down the river, just adding a few more bushels to the thousands he has already caught. He is in good health, works every day and tells some good jokes as he goes along. LAVALLETTE Frank Faulkenburg had the mishap to run off the road at Ortley, last week, when his car turned turtle and he was pinned under the car for over three hours before he was found. He was hurt quite badly. We will soon have our boardwalk on the beach front and public dock on the bay ready for the summer. MONEY ISLAND Things are beginning to look pleasant around here now and visitors are expected to arrive every clear week end until the final arrival of the summer colony. Visitors to this place are requested by the constable to use a little more care in throwing away burning matches, lighted cigarettes, or cigar stumps. During the past week at least two fires were caused by such carelessness, and might have been disastrous, had not the constable and one or two others been within call. OCEAN GATE Charles Guttentagg [founder of the Ocean Gate resort that eventually became a borough] and Mrs. Chas. Harmon, of Philadelphia, were Tuesday visitors here. H.D. Black left on Thursday for Philadelphia, to sign up the contract for the new club house of the Ocean Gate A.A. [Athletic Association]. The Toms River Ford Agency, it is reported, have sold a new tractor to John Madden, one to Chris Angerer and a new Ford tractor to the borough. It is reported D.H. Black will have two trucks on the job this season to give better service in the ice business. The owners of the Ocean Gate Inn, formerly owned by William Branson are here this week giving the place a new spring cost of paint. It is expected the new train from New York to Toms River, which starts running next Sunday, will bring quite a lot of people down for the day. Charles Gutentagg, of Philadelphia, was a Tuesday visitor here, looking over his new home, which is under construction on Naragansett Avenue. PINE BEACH Those who were in this place the summer that Willard Wilson, proprietor of the Remington Hotel, New York City, was managing the Pine Beach Inn may recall the dashing “Lord Gray.” He drove a big green racing car, ardently courted Mr. Wilson's daughter, Marjorie, and in the fall eloped with her. He posed as a British army officer, and while in New York and Newport, previous to his arrival in Pine Beach, was welcomed into some of the homes of the “400.” Society girls lionized him as a dancer, especially a tangoer,” and he gave dancing lessons to members of some of the most exclusive families. New comes from England that his love of leisure, together with his capacity for borrowing money which he failed to return, has led to his arrest. Investigation has shown that instead of belonging to the British peerage, he was the son of very humble though honorable parents, his father being a cab driver in Glasgow, and his mother kept a boarding house. Like all those who borrow and fail to pay there comes a day of reckoning. Now he is serving a prison term in England. The latest rumor about the Inn is that it is to be a boy's preparatory school. The rumors about the Inn would fill a book. Hotelkeepers from the Adirondacks, New York, the Pocanos, Toms River, Florida and many other places have been mentioned as possible buyers. Other rumors have been that it was to be bought as an army or navy hospital; it was to be taken over by the government; it was to be turned into an apartment house; it was to be used as a sanitarium, or it was to be bought for a monastery. It has a beautiful location, is well furnished and well built and there is no reason why it should not be a success if properly handled. When it was open it was a big asset to Pine Beach [it lingered until 1933 when it was purchased to become Admiral Farragut Academy, operating until 1994. The original Inn, used as Farragut Hall, along with many of the other main campus buildings were demolished in the early 2000s. Large single family homes occupy part of the site; a municipal park covers the other, including Farragut Field]. With the exception of the New Jersey Avenue pier, the docks in Pine Beach are in a disgraceful condition. The New Jersey Avenue dock, built by Mr. Abbott, the county engineer, is in just as good condition as when first put up. Of the Inn dock only a few jagged posts, sticking out of the water, remain. The “T” end of the yacht club pier was carried away by the ice, and the rest of it is in a dangerous condition. It will cost quite a sum to fix it in time for the summer. The Henley Avenue dock, as usual, has been wrecked by the ice and cannot be used until repaired. The river is the chief asset to Pine Beach. It is the attraction that has drawn people here to buy and build. To use and enjoy the river it is necessary to have docks in order to get in and out of boats, and to make the swimming more enjoyable. But every year we have the same experience of the docks being carried away, and then temporarily patched up by the middle of the summer. Some of the people here who have their own docks, save them by dismantling them in the fall and putting away the timbers. No other place along the river acts in such a stupid and heedless way about the docks. Other resorts along here build their docks properly and then watch them. Every year Pine Beach, from the river, looks disreputable and shiftless because of the wrecked docks. Many of us watched the building of the New Jersey Avenue pier with great interest, wondering whether it would last. The piles weer put in much more carefully, and justify the money spent. Mrs. E.P. Smith, who keeps a general store here, has sold out to Mr. and Mrs. Halligan, of Philadelphia. Mrs. Smith has kept store for over ten years and has always been obliging and anxious to please her customers. She will be greatly missed by many who summer here. Mr. Halligan is in business in Philadelphia, and plans to put an addition to the store here and install a large refrigerator. He expects to run a truck down from Philadelphia with supplies for this place. Smoked meats and delicatessen supplies are among the articles he expects to sell this summer. It has been rumored that we are to lose our station agent, William L. Liming, on April 1, and that he has been granted a furlough of two years by the railroad. When Pine Beach was first opened we had neither station nor agent here, and our goods, baggage and freight were all dumped off to lie exposed to the weather or to be stolen, or else they were left in the freight cars until we dragged them out, or worst of all, they were carried over to the Heights, and we had to get them back the best we could. We well remember the day word was passed around that we had a station agent and we all appreciated his efforts to get our goods for us with as little trouble as possible. It was customary to walk over to the station, tell Mr. Liming what we were expecting, and then to be attended to courteously and expeditiously. If we wanted information about trips, rates, etc., or had complaints to make about goods damaged in transit, Mr. Liming was there to supply the needed information. He was instrumental in having school in the chapel instead of having Pine Beach children go over in the train to the Heights, hang around in the cold at noon and perhaps have to come home in the late train, while their parents were worried about them. When he came here first he certainly brought order out of chaos as regards freight and baggage conditions. SEASIDE HEIGHTS Paul Denner has a wireless receiving outfit at the Bridge cafe, and is setting the broadcast message nightly. [mid-1922 saw a “radio craze” for the nascent technology, and by year's end over 500 of the first radio stations were established] Seaside Heights borough school has its playground equipped with swings, see-saws, bars, etc. SEASIDE PARK Never in the history of Seaside Park has there been so many houses building in one winter as this year. Borough Clerk Aaron Wilbert is authority for the statement that some thirty-three building permits have been issued since last summer, on which the work has either been completed or at least started, and that enough more have been issued, on which work has not started, to make the total number fifty. He further says that every indication points to it being seventy-five before June 1. Fire broke out in the freezer of the Seaside Park Fishery, on Monday night, and a call for the fire company was sent in, and although they responded promptly the fire had gotten under such headway they could only save the buildings surrounding it. The crews of the several pounds at the lower end had struck for more wages and as the owners and crews could not agree on the amount asked the latter were discharged. It was thought the fire was started by one of the men. The plant was a total loss. Hutch Faunce is building forty new boats to add to his fleet of thirty-five that he had to hire out last summer. Hutch expects to have enough to go round next summer. Last year he couldn't supply the demand on busy days. SILVERTON Somethings that have been seen and heard this week that are harbingers of spring, wild geese flying north Monday, blackbirds warbling, flies buzzing, ants creeping around, and thunder and lightning on Tuesday, but Wednesday A.M. a flurry of snow and a strong gale of cold wind all day made it seem that winter had not lost its grip much. The first sweet note of the bluebird were heard Thursday A.M., when the sun shone lovely and warm and everything around us was more like gentle spring again. Bart Clayton has a gang of men at work setting out cranberry vines for another large bog. Cranberries are well worth cultivating; the prices they have brought the last few years, especially this year, when they are retailing in some places at 35 cents per quart [nearly $6 in 2022 dollars]. WEST CREEK Capt. Herbert Stiles has gone to Philadelphia to pilot the pleasure yacht Sylvia to Beach Haven for Capt. Clarence Parker. The warm weather is bringing out the wasps, an occasional mosquito, the frogs, baby chicks and garden implements. Those who have survived the grip [flu] and can navigate at all, are planning for an active campaign in their gardens and on their oyster beds. Oyster seed purchase is the topic among the men now. Captain Meirs, of Hampton, Va., brought a schooner load of three thousand bushels of these bivalves to Capt. Henry Cowperthwaite this week and more will follow soon. Wadsworth Shinn is the proud possessor of a radio outfit which is capable of receiving air messages as far distant as Detroit, Mich. This lad gives exhibitions of this wonderful invention whenever requested and can give public chronometer time daily. Wadsworth is a young lad and an expert in this work. He is also a member of the Amateur Radio Club. BONUS SECTION:
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November 2024
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