USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Atlantic City > Atlantic City and County, New Jersey, biographically illustrated : a short biography : illustrated by protraits, of prominent residents of Atlantic County and the famous summer and winter resort, celebrated throughout America - Atlantic City. > Part 2
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Commander Somers proposed to fill this craft with powder, load her deck with projectiles, and sail at night into the midst of the Tripolitan fleet and blow the whole collection out of the water.
Elaborate preparations were made. One hundred barrels of powder were poured into a central compartment, fuses and port-fires were carefully arranged, shot and shells were piled above. Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, of the Constitution, volunteered to go as second in command, and ten brave Yankee seamen made up the crew. Lieutenant Joseph Israel, of the Con- stitution, joined at the last moment. A couple of boats were taken in tow to provide a possible means of escape.
A Sad but Heroic Ending
The entire fleet was pervaded with a tense feeling of sadness and admiration for the little group of venturers which reported upon the Intrepid at 8 P. M., September 4, 1804. An hour later anchor was up and the sails trimmed for the narrow gap in the reefs several miles away. The long line of ships was peopled with the silent spectators of this fearful undertaking.
A long hour elapsed, and then those who had marine glasses saw the
flicker of a lantern far away across the breakers, and a moment later a great gleam of light, flecked with flying wreckage, and finally a " sound like thunder," the bursting of shells, and the silence which closed over a failure which, perhaps, meant death.
And all night long the crews watched for the coming of the boats and the cheery shouts of the seamen, but when daylight spread abroad, there was no dot upon the heaving reach in front, only the surf, and behind it the gloomy castle, the low town and the scattered huts of the fishermen, with the gunboats of the pirate huddled together like frightened ducks.
But over upon the shore that morning, Captain Bainbridge and Sur- geon Cowdery, of the Philadelphia, found the fragments of the Constitu- tion's cutter, and as the bodies came in upon the tide, blackened and torn, they were buried in the sands, the officers a little aside, and there ended the story of Somers, of Somers' Point, leaving a legacy to the navy in the
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mystery of that night, which is still talked about in the mess-rooms of the American warsmen ; and just why the Intrepid was prematurely exploded has never been settled ; but old Commodore Preble used to say that Somers had sworn that the Bashaw should not get the powder, and that when he had run upon a reef in the darkness, he lighted the fuse, and in the turmoil of waters failed to get away. And this is just what the fleet all agreed upon, considering how well they knew Somers.
Che Gallant Hobson
Since this record was penned another boy-hero has impressed his
name upon the enduring pages of our naval history, its situations with the
wonderfully similar in incident of Tripoli.
The entrance into Santiago and Merrimac by and his men
the harbor of sinking the Ensign Hobson has fortunately happy denoue- In consid-
had a more ment.
worthy record of
ering the note- the old Somers
family, one is led to their strain is likely to brave stock as that of the
the supposition that spring from the same heroic but unfortunate Sir George Somers, Kt., who perished by the loss of his ship upon the reefs of the Bermudas in the year 1609, while upon the way to the relief of the
St. George's starving colonists upon the Virginia plantations. Every visitor to Ber- Bermuda muda will recall the monument to his honor in the wall of the Public Garden of quaint old St. George's, which was named for him.
A pioneering people, located upon the sea-coast, with a broad reach of tide-washed meadow in front, protected from the open ocean by almost continuous ramparts of sand ; an arable border of land between this and the inland wilderness, from which comes the out-flow of navigable streams,
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possess, at their command, a wide variety of profitable pursuits. Their different occupations, in the forest, upon the sea, or in the less hazardous tillage of the soil, tending to the development of a hardy ancestry, fit to found a thrifty and deeply rooted native population.
People of the Coast
These forefathers of the modern New Jerseyman of this section, were equally farmers, wood-choppers, shipbuilders, hunters, traders and sailors. The fine, cultivated lands, which now reach down to the fragrant salt marsh, through which the old road along the coast has its way, were cleared by them. Many a fine craft has slid from its cradle here, and gone out upon the deep, manned by the sons of Absecon, whose schooling in the coastwise trade has made them valuable in our navy when our wars have called them forth. Saw mills were plentiful in the old days, and salt works were scattered upon the islands. Probably one of the most attractive and remunerative trades was that of the hunter and fishermen, for the woods were full of the game commonly found in this latitude, including the bear, panther and deer, the pheasant, wild turkey, wild pigeon, partridge and woodcock, and, in the marshes, the wild goose and the duck. The thoroughfares were alive with sheepshead, rock, sea bass, flounders and perch, and the getting of subsistence was an easy thing to do. The Indian word, Absecon, is said to signify " The Place of Swans."
A Legend Tradition, often cruel and unjust, declares that the business of the wrecker was an active pursuit along this coast. No doubt the flotsam and jetsam of the sea brought its share to the substance of the people, and lent an element of excitement to the secluded existence of the natives, which gave it welcome zest.
A curious suggestion of the cost of wayfaring in the Jerseys in the last century is gained from an old tariff of prices enacted by the County of Gloucester for the better regulation of hotels and inns. It is worth some sample quotations :
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Every pint of Madeira Wine I s. od. Every quart Bowl of Punch made of Loaf Sugar and
fresh Limes
I s. 6 d.
Every quart of Mirabo made of Muscovado Sugar . o s. 8 d.
Every quart of Metheglin
Is. od.
Every quart of Cyder Royal o s. 8 d.
Every jill of Brandy o s. 6 d.
Every jill of Rum . o s. 3 d.
Every Breakfast of Tea, Coffee or Chocolate o s. 8 d.
Every Breakfast of other victuals o s. 6 d.
Every hot Dinner or Supper provided for one person,
with a pint of Strong Beer or Cyder
I S. od.
Every Night's Lodging, each person s. 3 d.
Che Drinks of Onr Forefathers
Atlantic County finally came into being as a distinct political division in the year 1837, and this event may be taken as the mile-stone marking the beginning of the modern order of things. May's Landing became, and still continues to be, the County seat.
A Sbore County
Atlantic County now embraces the townships of Mullicas, Buena Vista, Hamilton, Galloway, Weymouth, and Egg Harbor. It forms an irregular quadrangle, having upon its southeastern side a sea front of twenty miles. Mullicas, or Little Egg Harbor River, and Tuckahoe River are respectively, its northeastern and southwestern limits.
Long Branch was locally noted as a seaside resort soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. Sixty years ago three hotels of considerable proportions were there maintained and a steamboat plied to and from the Amboys regularly.
The statement is made that Reuben Tucker opened the first beach hotel along the middle coast upon Short or Tucker's Beach. It is referred to in Watson's Annals. This house was burned about fifty years ago. John Horner, who kept the Tucker hotel above mentioned for a time, built a small house at the southern end of Long Beach about 1815. It was bought by a party of Philadelphians in 1822 and after being enlarged was
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called the Philadelphia Company House. It was near the once famous and popular " Bonds," built in 1847.
First hotels
In the middle of the present century Cape May was already an old time resort, popular especially with the affluent families of the South, but the region of Absecon was less understood by the average resident of Phil- adelphia than is the coast of Oregon to-day. Only the tireless occasional gunner toiled along the dusty miles of the winding roads through the jungles of pine to tramp across its marshes and sand dunes. Extending along the margin of the dry plateau bordering the lonely meadows was the Old Shore Road with its scattered hamlets and intermediate farms of the amphibious native Jerseymen, a class equally at home at the plow and the tiller. Over upon the dreary waste of Absecon Beach, where no beacon light yet warned the sailor from its outer shoals, was the ruin of the salt works of the first inhabitant, Jeremiah Leeds, an officer in the Revolutionary Army, who located here in 1785. The Steelman and Chamberlain families were also owners of beach property here. The whole stretch of beach, as level and broad as it exists to-day, was associated in the minds of the mainlanders only in connection with its tragic chronicle of wrecks.
" THE DREARY WASTE OF ABSECON BEACH "
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ยท
Atlantic City.
Chapter 11.
The traveler seaward bound to Atlantic City gains his first appetiz- ing whiff of the savory odor wafted from the wide expanse of salt meadow at Pleasantville. As the train halts here for a moment he may note that it is a scattering village of undefined extent wherein the old houses, built long before Atlantic City came into existence, lurk beneath the shadows of large trees, and new ones stand out in the glory of this season's paint in the full sunshine.
The Old Sbore TRoad
It will be seen, too, that a well-graded road traverses the place parallel with the edge of the land, which is, indeed, the principal thorough- fare of the village. This is the Old Shore road, extending from Leeds Point at the north to Somers Point upon the south, and passing through the inter- mediate settlements of Oceanville, Absecon, Cottage Hill, Pleasantville, Bakerstown, Linwood and Bethel.
This road and its characteristic environment have been but little changed by the vast increase in population and values over upon the imme- diate sea front. For many generations it has been the highway binding together the continuous farms of the amphibious natives. Between Pleas- antville and Somers Point it has lost much of its traffic since the building of the branch railroad to the latter haven.
The early fami- An Early Type
lies of the region, whose fathers, sons and brothers found profit upon both the
A TYPICAL OLD SHORE HOME
sea and the land, held broad farms extending from the tidewater thorough- fares over the meadow and far back across the ridge into the pine barrens to the westward. The ridge land, with an average elevation of from 25 to 30 feet above high tide, proved an ideal trucking strip. The heirs of each generation divided their inherited lands, each retaining a portion of the meadow, field and woodland, the present holdings being often ribbon-like strips, like the ancient seigniories of the Beauport Road, below Quebec, and thus numerous branches of the Somers, Steelman, Scull, English, Ireland, Adams, Ryan and Lake families are scattered along the Old Shore Road.
Tatives inland
The highway skirts the margin of the upland, affording almost contin- uous outlooks across the meadows to Longport, Brigantine Beach, Atlantic City, Ocean City and Beasley's Point. The white pleasure fleets are seen cruising in and about the inlets. Forty or fifty years ago the mainlanders were the guardians of the coast, and at the first sight of naked spars projected above the sand-dunes or of black hulls lashed by the surf, they swarmed tumultuously across the wet marshes to gather the flotsam and jetsam of somebody's misfortune. Nowadays the Jersey coaster of Atlantic County goes over to the shore in frequent local trains to jostle awhile in vanity fair, or, perhaps, drives over in the moist dawn his load of " garden sass " for the certain and profitable market that awaits him there. A good turnpike road makes this an easy expedition. Much of the table supplies of the great resort is grown along the Old Shore Road, and it's worth a day's drive to see the thrifty expanses of all the seasonable fruits and vegetables, not to mention the quaint old gardens, flower beds and wide-spreading trees that rally around the gray mansions built by Jersey skippers long, long ago.
Quiet Highways
My friend J- is a business man in Philadelphia. Being an expert in his occupation, his business can be led. Therefore, for five months in the year he leaves his city home and takes a little farm of a dozen acres, with a comfortable house, close beside the Old Shore Road. Here, with his
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family, he dwells all summer, working at his table, " bossing" the man who tills the farm on shares, fishing, and, with the rest of his brood, growing brown and impervious to the able-bodied mosquitoes that, it must be con- fessed, do inhabit this latitude.
Jersey Arcadia To enter for a day or so into the simplicity of this Arcadia I left the cars at Bakersville. We first went to the post-office, the social rallying point of the little place.
To gauge a country village one must go to the post-office, and the cemetery. At the Bakersville Post-office were gathered sundry old captains, Cap'n Bob, Cap'n Tom and Cap'n Jack, hearty, ruddy old fellows, rejoic- ing, most of them, in the fruits of many long cruises, full of narrative as the Ancient Mariner, and not altogether reconciled to the sort of innovation rep- resented by the pretty city girls, halting in their dog cart for the mail to be sorted. The inherent provincialism of many of these old residents is found in the candle-mold still used in many of the farm-houses.
The Old Shore Road is hard and level, a real joy to the cyclers that spin to and from Somers Point. Its picturesque suggestion is almost con- stant, needing only an English to find and paint its gnarled cedars, willow's and oaks ; its rounded maples, hickories and walnuts and all its confusion of underbrush. There are several old farmyards along the way, choked with sea junk of all sorts. Some gray-tinted readers will recall, doubtless, the old-time Dolphin Hotel, at Somers Point, with the cedar grove upon the slope. Probably the new hotels clustered beyond have lured away some of its trade, but it still continues business cheerfully "at the old stand." About a mile back from the road, near Linwood, is the practically abandoned village of Bargaintown. Probably the colonists there got more than they bargained for.
Along the Road
In the matter of theology the Baptists have got a clear lead, and are away to the windward along the Old Shore Road. Upon a Sunday the way is bright with pilgrims to the frequent chapels, but the unregenerate also
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throng the road in vehicles of all degrees. Upon Sunday it is pleasant to loiter down one of the lanes that end at a wharf redolent with oystering, where fleets of schooners lay at anchor for want of profitable occupation. Cat-boats skim before the breeze, and fiddler crabs spatter in regiments through the ooze at one's feet, and sitting there one may muse and wonder why the world at large should worry itself so grievously when so much plenty can be found by looking for it, and why Philadelphians should broil in narrow streets when, for so little, they might have farms somewhere hereabout, and wear out last year's coats and dresses in reasonable peace and comfort.
There is but one single shadow athwart this idyllic scene. It is in the danger that the Old Shore Road will become fashionable. Already the Country Club of Atlantic City, duly mentioned elsewhere, has taken to itself an old time farm-house and a wide reach of land between the old highway and the sedge, and now the red coats of the ardent golfers fleck the scene so lately the undisturbed domain of the ruminative cow. The restless capitalist is turning his speculative eye hitherward, and it may be that the year is in sight when the Old Shore Road in its quaintness and simplicity will become a boulevard of modern estates, its peculiar charm for the lover of nature existing only as a fading memory of the days that were.
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Atlantic City. Chapter 111.
To Dr. Jonathan Pitney, a progressive resident of Absecon village, and Samuel Richards, a manufacturer of glass, local history awards the honor of first recognizing the superior possibilities of this place for the devel- opment of a resort for people from the cities. A casual study of the map of Central New Jersey affords no special hint of the advantage of this particular stretch of shore above that either to the north or south of it for many miles, save that here only it was possible to build a railroad direct to the beach, and it was to the promotion of this railroad that Dr. Pitney bent his ener- gies. In 1852 when this movement began there were but six houses, small and weatherbeaten, upon the island.
That some special reasons do exist which have contributed to the advantage of Atlantic City will appear more fully in later pages. One of
Ube JGirtb of a City
these is the fact that here the line of the shore trends to the westward to a greater degree than at any other portion of the coast, giving an ocean expos- ure but little removed from southern, which deflects, at a sharp angle, the
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heavy scour of northeasterly storms. Another and very important condi- tion urged very strenuously by physicians is that Absecon Beach is belted by a broad thoroughfare of pure sea water always running in and out, quite undiluted by fresh water streams and securing perfect immunity from malaria. These and many other advantages were doubtless urged by in- domitable Dr. Pitney, and believed by many who listened to his enthusi- astic predictions, for, upon June 24, 1852, the subscription books for the stock of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad Company were opened at the Arch Street House in Philadelphia, ten thousand shares were taken and the books were closed the same day. The incorporators were John W. Mickel, Andrew K. Hay, John H. Coffin, John Stanger, Jesse Richards, Thos. H. Richards, Edmund Taylor, Jos. Thompson, Robert B. Risley, Enoch Doughty and Jonathan Pitney. The thirty-eight original stockholders elected the following gentlemen as the first Board of Directors : William Coffin, Joseph Porter, Andrew R. Hay, Thos. H. Richards (who subsequently gave place to J. C. Da Costa), Enoch Doughty, Jonathan Pitney, Stephen Colwell, Samuel Richards and William W. Fleming. The first president was John C. Da Costa.
Cbe Camden & Atlantic Railroad
Early in the movement of this enterprise the projectors were so for- tunate as to secure the professional services of Mr. Richard B. Osborne, a young but already well-known civil engineer, whose enthusiasm for the success of what was regarded by many investors as a very hazardous ven- ture, was strong enough to convince doubters, and whose predictions have all been verified a hundred-fold. Mr. Osborne is one of the few survivors of those who "made" Atlantic City, and is still a resident of Philadelphia. He not only surveyed and put into motion the first of the iron bands uniting the Quaker City with the New Jersey coast in this section, but he planned the city of pleasure which was to spring, almost like a scene of magic, from the barren waste of sands upon Absecon Beach. Twenty- five years after the completion of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, at a great
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quadri-centennial of the event held at Atlantic City in June, 1879, Mr. Osborne had the happiness to see the verification of his forecasts and as one of the principal speakers of the occasion to furnish an accurate history of the inception, completion and operation of the original railroad, which, as reprinted, in part, in this book will have an increasing value as an authoritative chapter of reference.
Mr. Osborne first referred to the great difficulties encountered in enlisting interest in the project, and to his first interview with the officials upon May 24, 1852, and then continued: " Arrangements were made on that day with me for a preliminary survey. Accor- dingly, in this very month of June, seven-and-twenty years ago, my engineers, under the active super- vision of the late Mr. E. Lyons, as my principal assistant engineer, stretched rapidly across the State of New Jersey the thread of our first experi- mental line, which afterwards was woven into an iron band 5916 miles long, to bind Camden and Philadelphia to this beach.
" This survey was completed to the sea on the 18th of June, 1852, and the engineering party became that day the first bathers that had traveled along the line of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad to get a reviving plunge in the waters of the
Atlantic, an example which it has rejoiced millions since to be able to follow.
" The report of this survey was submitted by me to the directors on the 21st of June, 1852, who at once adopted it. Previous to the completion of the experimental survey, the directors, by the solicitation and the request of their engineer, made a carriage trip across the State to visit the island and Absecon Beach, and pass their opinion on there being a fitting site there
RICHARD B. OSBORNE, C E.
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' for a bathing village,' to be called Absecon, as its beach bore that name. We had a weary journey through the deep, dry sand, and after leaving the village of Long a-coming (now the town of Berlin-the name Long-a- coming seemed appropriate for all the country we passed through), we at length gained the village of Absecon, and were joined by the directors, Messrs. Pitney and Doughty.
PRIMEVAL SOLITUDES OF ABSECON BEACH
" The flat, wet marshes, with their water ditches and thoroughfares, turned our party into a sail-boat, by way of Absecon Bay, landing us at the point on the Inlet now occupied by the Inlet Pavilion. The island appeared most certainly uninviting to the eyes of city gentlemen, and its sterile sand heaps, naked in their desolation, gave it a weird, wild look, a veritable desert without a building on it that many would deem worthy of being called a habitation. My directors, save Messrs. Pitney and Doughty, were disap- pointed : they did not deem it desirable as a site for the proposed bathing
A Gloomy Prospect
village, that to build a railroad to reach such a wild spot would be a reckless piece of adventure. All of these gentlemen were doubtful about the possibility of a locomotive being sustained while crossing these meadows, some of them felt certain this never could be accomplished. Thus, indeed, all hope of making our trip and visit the means of leaving a favorable impression on the minds of these gentlemen, as to the feasibility of the project. and of giving them any sure hope of a return, and of getting from them a decision that would settle the question of the construction of work that in the opinion of the engineer was certain to prove a boon and blessing to the city of Philadelphia, to carry civilization and wealth to that part of the State within reach of its influence, and to yield a rich reward to its enterprising promoters, seemed almost lost.
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"it was the turning point on which everything depended. There were no like interests elsewhere to be secured that would offer sufficient inducements to attempt it. The words and wills of those few gentlemen in that short hour, on that memorable day, controlled events measured by millions. 1 heard their expressions of disappointment and disapprobation with regret. In reply I said : Gentlemen, every objection made (if viewed properly) is really an argument in its favor. I pleaded for the site, and in this Messrs. Pitney and Doughty coincided with me; I showed that its rough, wild state was precisely what would give them the control of the ground at low rates, and that here was a fortune in itself. This argument was very assuring to the directors, 'if only the meadow's could be crossed by the trains.' I was not unprepared to meet this question, and for the time settled it in the minds of the gentlemen by giving them a guar- antee that the locomotive should pass safely over its whole extent.
Wben Speech was Golden
"I quote from a communication written in June, 1852, to show how this assurance was imparted and the efforts that were necessary to remove the doubts occasioned by the first visit of the directors to this beach just described, viz .: 'As the pioneers through this country in railroad works, you will surely be the recipients of large profits-yes, much larger than can accrue to many roads which traverse a country intersected with railroad lines.' Again, 'Your road will have the benefit of all the latest improve- ments, and if the public be not excluded from a fair participation in them, it must prove a popular work, affording the largest accommodation at the least cost.' Again, ' I will assume that but 20,000 of the inhabitants of Philadel- phia will, in the first year, be attracted to your road, while the Cape May visitors last season numbered 120,000. Twenty thousand passengers will thus be taken on your railway, and freight and other articles in like propor- tion. There has been enough evidence given you by me to show that in all my estimates I have kept far within the bounds of what I should be justified in going to.'
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