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 3
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" When the report of the experimental survey was adopted by the Board on the 21st of June instructions were also given to proceed with the final location of the road, and accordingly, on the ist of July, 1852, my engineering parties took the field, and the 'location' of the line to the sea was completed, and the estimate made by the 25th of August following, and on this date, also, John C. 1)a Costa, at the earnest solicitation of myself, after he had declined to accept the position, consented to act and was elected
president of the Company.
Ube Opening
Wedge
"On the 31st of August, 1852, I submitted to my Board proposals for the construction of the whole road, based on my estimated fixed rates per mile ; and on the first of September, 1852, those proposals were accepted, subject to certain changes of the line to accommodate the Waterford manu- factories and Spring Garden, and subject, also, to other requirements, all of which were not completed till after the contract was signed on the 4th of March, 1853. This change was a detour that shortened my long tangent some 10 miles and left only the present straight line of 25 continuous miles.
" On the 2d of September, 1852, the construction work of the road was sub-let to Mr. P. O'Reilly, and he received his first bid from sub-con- tractors, for sections of one mile each, on the 4th of September, 1852.
"There was no formal breaking ground ; the contractors were set to work as soon as their houses could be erected, and in September, 1852, the construction by grading was started.
" The first estimate, returned December, 1852, was for work on eight sections between sections 4 and 32 and amounted to a payment of $10,000.
" The crossing of the Camden and Amboy rails at Camden by those of this road was laid by night in the month of July, 1853.
"On the 20th of June, 1853, the whole management of the contract work was given up by Mr. O'Reilly to Mr. John H. Osborne, Civil Engineer and previously manager of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, who com- pleted the three-fourths of the whole contract that had not been touched.
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On the 11th of September of the same year this gentleman was also chosen by the directors as their Resident Engineer for the benefit of his advice and for the more active management and superintendence on their behalf of the progress of the work, and for the return of the estimates.
"Track was laid on the road between Camden and Haddonfield, and also at Absecon during August, 1853. Passenger trains commenced running from Camden to Haddonfield in August, 1853, and to Winslow, 27 miles, regularly in January, '54. The wharves at this date at Camden and the station grounds there were nearly complete. In February, 1854, a high storm tide was driven across the meadow's and damaged the grading of the road-bed ; and on the 16th of April following, after the work had been replaced, a northeast storm and spring tide made a clean sweep of the same work. This class of road-bed was then abandoned and the track was laid on the original sod, except at the thoroughfares, where it has rested in spite of storm and flood for five and twenty years. It is right to say the railroad company bore the whole expense of the third renewal. It has made good the guarantee given by the engineer to his directors in 1852, and the loco- motives make their trips now at their usual speed. The whole work was completed in time for the opening celebration.
"On July Ist, 1854, the pioneer excursion train stood at the plat- form in Camden and steamed forth its greeting to 600 guests-gentlemen of the press from New York and Philadelphia, and friends from town and country, who had assembled to celebrate the completion of the line that had occupied two and twenty months in building the 581% miles of main road. Its opening to public travel was on July 4, 1854."
The excursion train conveying the six hundred guests was composed of nine long cars. The "Atsion" engine was selected for the trip. At Waterford, the residence of Judge Porter, one of the directors and early friends of the road, a salute of artillery greeted the arrival. Conspicuous was also a large wreath of native Jersey laurels, and wrought in the interior
Che first Through Crain
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of it the words in flowers, "Welcome to Waterford." It was a poetic em- Through by Rail blem of the faith of the man which had always encircled and wreathed around the enterprise.
From Waterford the train, which left Camden at 9.30 A. M., then started for the embryonic Atlantic City. It was the first engine with pas- senger train that passed over the entire road, and it reached the United States Hotel by 12 M., thus with all the stops at the various stations to respond to the earnest congratulations of friends.
At the meeting of the guests of the railroad company in the great saloon of the United States Hotel spirited addresses were made after the dinner cloth had been removed, Mr. T. H. Dudley moving for an organization of the meeting by the calling of Judge Grier to the chair, and who appointed the vice-presidents, among whom were Henry C. Carey, Hon. Abraham Brown- ing, J. C. TenEyck, T. P. Carpenter, Robert Morris and many other gen- tlemen of note were among the vice-presidents. The first impressive address was made by Henry C. Carey, who offered also an appreciative resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Browning in an eloquent speech. These were followed by addresses from J. C. TenEyck, Gen. Wyncoop, President John C. DaCosta, Mr. Montgomery and Judge Grier.
The train containing the guests left Atlantic City between 5 and 6 P. M., and arrived safely at Camden about 8 P. M.
Success Assured
The success of the road, the Board now felt, was assured. A new era was opened for New Jersey, and the engineer had time to congratulate himself that hisplans had been perfected and his promises made good thus far.
"The line of the road along which the locomotive brought us to-day was located on the 20th day of August, 1852. Surveys of the beach and island had been made by my principal assistant, M. E. Lyons, and also by Messrs. Rowland and Clement, but these last were of later date.
"The centre line of the railroad was run parallel to the general line of the beach for a distance from the inlet southward, of over two and a quarter
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miles, for the purpose of fixing a line that would be suitable for a base on which to plan the village, and which would permit the streets to be carried on in their proper directions whenever requisite to enlarge the village plot. On this as a base, December, 1852, under the instructions of the directors, I proceeded to lay out the plot of the proposed Bathing Village. This plan was completed and submitted to a full board in the middle of January, 1853. "There is, says an old proverb, 'Nothing in a name.' As the engineer 1 denied that it was applicable to this case, and when, before my Board, I unrolled a great and well-finished map of the proposed new The Survey and bathing place, they saw in large letters of gold, stretching over the Taming of Atlantic City waves that were delineated thereon as breaking on Absecon beach the words, 'Atlantic City.' This title was at once approved of by the Board. It was unanimously adopted, and Atlantic City that day came into existence, on paper, and in thirteen and a half months afterward, viz., on the third of March, 1854, was created, by act of incorporation, a city in reality. I have ever claimed, and do so now, that this name created in the minds of men throughout the Union a certain interest in this city, and this interest it was sought to further secure by giving to each State its own avenue, and hence the name of every State from Maine to Iowa to-day designates the avenues that run east and west, while the general parallelism of the shore of the Atlantic with the main line for 2.3 miles suggested the names of all the great oceans of the world for the avenues running north and south.
" It is true, then, that there is something in a name, and I may be per- mitted, without egotism, to say that I am proud of having christened her and her avenues and stamped on her a dignity that my old departed friends, Messrs. Pitney and Doughty, little dreamed of when they talked together on the scheme of getting up a 'bathing village, ' to be called Absecon.
"Early in February, 1853, after the plan of this city had been adopted by the Board, a committee was sent down to Absecon Island, composed of Dr. Jonathan Pitney, a director, and Robert Frazer, the faithful and efficient
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secretary and treasurer of the Company. Dr. Pitney was acquainted with the Messrs. Cordery, Adams, Paterson, Bartlett, Carter, Read, Bowe, and other landowners on the Island. Mr. Robert Frazer took with him a draft of the plot of the new city. These gentlemen were instructed to confer with the owners, (who had been notified December 11, '52, that commis- sioners would be appointed to assess the damages. This land was bought for less than $20 per acre ; it brings to-day in the central parts $50 a foot )- and obtain possession of the land for the formation of the roadbed on Atlantic avenue, arranged on the plot to be the great Highway for the accommodation of the main tracks of the railway.
" The tracklaying commenced May 29th, 1854, and enough for the immediate wants of the road, after its opening from about one-quarter of a mile above the United States Hotel, was finished by the last of June, 1854.
"Such was the barren condition of the Island, that on the first visit of the engineering party, on the 14th of June, 1852, they were unable to get anything to eat ; and Mr. Stack wrote, even on the 4th of June, 1853, that he could get some board for the sub-contractor's hands on the Island, but that he must provide for them tents for their shelter.
An Early Impression
"I remember clearly the misery of my first visit with the engineering party. The Island was rough and sterile, producing only rushes and stunted brush, though in spots the magnolia was to be found. It was comfortless to the weary traveler. There was no accommodation for our little party. But there was faith in the future ; experience of what had been achieved else- where under some similar conditions, determination to persevere, and a power to foresee the great revolution that would be produced by even a moderate success.
"This is the picture of the early beginnings of this city. The present reality is all around you and speaks loudly for itself ; yet to enable others to join you in the contrast, I will say a few words about the glory in which the city of Atlantic stands clothed to-day.
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11
1
A " CROWDED BEACH " IN THE EARLY DAYS
" Connected as I have been with the laying out of towns and cities in the Western States, and professionally engaged in Chicago at the time when her population was less than 5000, and when the great influx of our eastern men began and large investments were made, I was carried along on the tide and became, professionally, the means of placing many towns and paper cities profitably on the market. I know but one of them, to-day, that has not made its mark ; but few of them, in twenty-five years, can show a better record than Atlantic City. My report of August, 1852, foretold much of it all, and the statements therein were then considered enthusiastic, but she has, in some things, exceeded even my sanguine hopes. ฿ 1879
She has made herself more widely known than many towns and cities twice her age. She stands to-day a grand example of the power of a first-class railroad to achieve wonders that wise men once thought chimerical. Her churches, numbering one dozen ; her schools, where over 1,000 children are instructed ; her five or six beneficial societies ; her daily mail and daily news- paper ; her five trains a day from the city of Philadelphia ; her passenger horse- cars, which of course every important city must now have ; her lighthouse, built twenty-two years ago ; her signal service station, city hall, jail, and fire department ; her fifty hotels, many of which are first-class ; her numerous beautiful villas, that appreciative gentlemen, bankers, merchants, physicians
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and professional men own and occupy ; her hundreds of cottages; her boarding houses ; her 34,000 inhabitants, during her busy season ; her 4000 permanent residents, and the fact that about five and a-half millions of people have enjoyed her invigorating and health-giving climate, and her numerous inviting recreations on land and sea since she was opened for the public good. All these form a picture so full of interest, so rich in all the bright tints of a glorious reality in the foreground, that the original back- ground has almost faded away, and had to be repainted to give our visitors to Atlantic City some slight idea of the real contrast.
"There is another point particularly worthy of mention, viz. : the won- derful effect a residence here has on invalids. This is testified to by scores of medical men, who send their patients to the sea as the best prescrip- tion they can bestow on them. It is testified to by the multitudes who have received the benefits.
mature's Great Physician
"In 1852 I called Atlantic City ' the lungs of Philadelphia,' through which she would inhale much of the health and ability of body and mind that now characterizes her business and professional men ; and she has proved the truth of the assertion."
Mr. Osborne referred to Mr. Robert Frazer, the first secretary and treasurer of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, to Mr. John H. Osborne, who became the superintendent in 1855, Mr. George W. Richards, the second president, Mr. John Tucker, Mr. John Lucas, Mr. D. H. Mundy, and others identified with the early years of the Company. He predicted with remark- able accuracy many of the great things which have since become realities and urged the importance of moving to secure government aid in creating at the inlet a great port of entry. Mr. Richard B. Osborne is a native of Eng- land. His early engineering experiences were largely under the guidance of the late Moncure Robinson, C. E. He has long been identified with many of the most important railroad, canal and municipal engineering achievements of his time.
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Atlantic City.
Chapter 1V.
Upon the legal creation of Atlantic City, Chalkley S. Leeds, a son of one of the original owners, became the first mayor and his brother, Robert B. Leeds, was the first city treasurer.
First Administration
It was, perhaps, believed by the originators of the young city that the supply of States would always afford a sufficiency of names for the transverse avenues placed upon the city plan, but the latest official map gives us a long list of new streets to the west of Chelsea bearing the titles of American cities. At Boston avenue, down by the old Sea View Excursion House, Atlantic avenue comes to the sea front and Pacific avenue is halted in its course, a matter somewhat confusing to the stranger.
The hotel man who had ventured thirty years ago to announce his intention to keep open house all winter would have been esteemed a vision- ary unfit for the practical duties of a Boniface. In 1868 the average attend- ance at the schools was 110 pupils. Thirty thousand dollars was expended upon educational facilities.
At that
time the best known hotels were the United States (famous for its fine park), where the first train load of excur- sionists dined
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when the railroad was opened, Congress Hall, Mansion House and Surf House. Other hotels and cottages which were all well filled in the summer were these : Neptune House, Light House Cottage, Alhambra, White House, Seaside House, Clarendon House, Ashland House, Glen's Inlet House,
Early hotels of Atlantic City
Kentucky House, Chester County House, Bedloe's (built in 1854), Pennsylvania Cottage, Cottage Retreat (built in 1854), Macy House, Reed House, Arch Street House, Constitution House, West Philadelphia House, Bradley House, Sherman House, Excursion House, Grove Cottage, Columbia Cottage, Sand House and Atlantic House.
Besides these were scores of less pretentious boarding places scattered through the young city. At this time the road across the marsh, bridging the thoroughfare, was being developed.
The Atlantic House, which originally stood at Baltic and Florida avenues was in its original state a tavern for oystermen, kept by Mrs. Leeds. It was built about 1812 and is the oldest building now upon the island. It now stands on Baltic avenue near Massachusetts avenue.
The heavy travel over the Camden & Atlantic Railroad in the Cen- tennial year, together with the rapid progress of the young city led to the incorporation of the Philadelphia & Atlantic Railroad Company, which was formerly narrow gauge but changed to standard gauge in 1884, now operated by the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company. This line opened for business June 25, 1877. The resulting competition proved of the greatest benefit to Atlantic City, both in the reduction of fares and freight as well as an increase in the number of trains, especially in sum- mer, and a decidedly more rapid schedule. " The Reading" route was double tracked in 1889.
Railroad Progress
In the year 1880 a third bond of iron was extended between Phila- delphia and the sea through an extension of a branch from the West Jersey Railroad, known as the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad, which also affords through service without change between New York and Atlantic City.
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Upon the acquisition of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad by the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company the old name disappeared and it became the Atlantic City Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On completion of the great bridge over the Delaware River above the city in the spring of 1896, with its incidental trackage, which joins the old line at Haddonfield, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company began to run its fast trains to the shore from Broad street station. This line, which is double tracked, has been laid in the past winter with "100 1b." steel rails. The proposed terminal station at Atlantic City will be upon a scale of mag- nificence unknown at any resort in the world.
Che Present Era
The West Jersey & Seashore Railroad is largely devoted to way trains and local traffic. It is expected that its tracks will be elevated through Camden, and other important improvements made in the near future.
The old Philadelphia & Atlantic City Narrow Gauge Railroad was acquired by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company in 1885, and soon afterward was practically reconstructed upon standard gauge lines. Under its modern title of "Atlantic City Railroad," it has always enjoyed a heavy traffic in pleasure and business travel. With ferry-boats from both Chestnut and South streets to its terminal opposite the foot of Washington avenue, it maintains a rapid service upon double tracks ; dividing the honors with the Pennsylvania Railroad in giving a service to and from the shore unequalled by that of any other resort.
HA moted Comfort
A recent number of the Scientific American contains the statement, that the Atlantic City trains are the fastest in the world ; but so smooth is the trackage and fine the equipment that, although running at a mile per minute, the superior speed is not noticeable, except in the fact that while absorbed in a brief story upon the pages of a magazine, the traveler leaves and arrives.
The once ubiquitous " duster " has long since become obsolete, and the excursionist alights at the terminal quite unsoiled by the slightest evi- dence of travel.
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The new Penn- sylvania Ferryhouse, at the foot of Market street, Philadelphia, has been recently completed. It is a modern two story building, which is an ornament to Philadel- phia's water-front.
BEACH LOOKING WEST
At the foot of Chestnut street, the " Reading " has also built its Ferry terminal at large expense. These improvements, with double-decked boats, will make travel to the shore still more popular than heretofore.
A sketch made by the writer twenty-five years ago from the light- house, recalls to mind most vividly the relative paucity of Atlantic City's attractions, and the comparatively limited area covered by the town in 1873. At the Inlet, a single small open pavilion of one story stood upon the site of the present large structure, a rather shaky pier reaching out into the Thor- oughfare for the accommodation of the little fleet of yachts, some of them famous flyers, which afforded one of the chief means of pleasure at the com- mand of the visitor. A horse car line connected the Inlet with the town, over a long stretch of open sand reach.
Atlantic City 25 1)cars Ago
A few more or less pretentious hotels had been built upon the sea-
ward side of Pacific avenue. Narrow and precarious plank-walks extended outward, here and there, toward the beach, subject to the vicissi- tudes of winter gales and high tides, elements which played havoc frequently with the long rank of gay little pavilions which bravely faced
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PENNSYLVANIA R. R. TERMINAL, ATLANTIC CITY
PHILADELPHIA AND ATLANTIC CITY R. R. TERMINAL, READING ROUTE, ATLANTIC CITY
the surf and furnished bathing facilities then regarded as more than ample for the present and future.
Heston's very complete Atlantic City Guide Book states, that the first bath-house upon the beach was built by Joshua Note, from an old wreck, and at that time there were to be seen upon the beach some fourteen wrecks.
Nearly all of the popular hotels were located between Atlantic and Pacific avenues. The former was fairly lined, upon the shoreward or northern side with structures, some of these still existing, but the majority of which have long since disappeared to make room for more costly and elaborate buildings. Beyond this, all of the flat land between the town and the thoroughfare was unoccupied, save by the embankment of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, around the terminus of which, Schauffler's and a few smaller houses of entertainment were located.
happy Days
Over at the bridge which carried the road across the thoroughfare toward Pleasantville, the Island House stood, just beyond the present junc- tion of Baltic and Florida avenues, its nearest neighbor being the Higbee House, just built by Jonas Higbee, upon the northward side of the railroad track. What pleasant memories of happy times that name invokes! Jonas Higbee was a rugged manly specimen of the old type of New Jersey coast- men. For many years he was in the employ of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad Company, having charge of the drawbridge at that point. The original Higbee homestead, a little modest building out upon the lonely meadow to the south of the railroad track, was presided over by Mrs. Higbee, a famous cook, in whose cosy little dining room, the hungry mem- Che
bers of the Higbee Club were wont to gather, with joyful anticipations, upon Saturdays and Sundays, when they used to come hastening down from the hot city to this pleasant haven with due certainty. The Higbee Club bunked in a little shanty at the southern end of the bridge, the vibrations of which used to shake the tired fishers out of bed in the night when casual
Diabee Club
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freight trains rumbled past, and sometimes, when the tide was high, seemed likely to carry the occupants out to sea while they slept. The rotund Secre- tary of the Club, a well-known dentist of Philadelphia, kept the log book and nothing counted but sheepshead. A brace of these gamy fellows were esteemed a fair return for a long day of patient effort, beginning with the first indications of rosy dawn, and only ending when night and hunger impelled the fishermen to pull back to the drawbridge, with the prospects of a savory supper to cheer them. The writer recalls one amphibious old native who haunted the thoroughfare with his leaky punt and maintained, it was said,
IN THE THOROUGHFARE
a multitudinous family somewhere in the depths of the pine scrub, from the products of the waters and the marsh. For a long time this quaint, frowsy old salt enjoyed a monopoly, for he knew, when nobody else could find a nibble, just where the elusive sheepshead were loafing about at any turn of the tide, and the man who was lucky enough to negotiate his valuable ser- vices was certain to come in with the best and biggest fish.
After the new house was built by the Higbees, as a natural result ot their growing fame, spread abroad by the unwise members of the jolly little club, strangers began to come and trench upon the vested rights of the old
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timers. Somehow, the members sighed for the little low-built cottage which stood reproachful and silent across the railroad. And so with the passing years the hand of time closed its veracious log book, full of the records of joyous days and wonderful piscatorial adventures, and the Higbee Club became but a memory worthy only of passing mention among the flot- sam of bygone times.
All of the level stretch of open meadow, between the thoroughfare at the bridge and the city nearly a mile away, which used to rest so still and dark just before the moon began to glow over the twinkling windows to the eastward, and which was so gloriously rich in color when the early sun poured down upon it, is now covered with a close huddle of houses, not par- ticularly pleasing to the eye, either in architecture or environment.
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