History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 64

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2 > Part 64

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Herong Long Sheet

married to Catharine V. M., daughter of Wil- liam L. Lloyd, of Hohndel, and Mary Van Mater, his wife. Their children are Mary H. (wife of John H. Ellis), Charles Lloyd (deceased), Huldah H. (deceased, wife of Dr. James S. Con- over) and Henry H. (a merchant who studied law with Rensellaer Dayton, Esq., of Matawan, and was admitted to the bar). Mr. Longstreet, in 1839, removed to and remained two years at. Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, after which, in 1841, he resumed farming for a brief period 54

polities he adheres to the prineiples of the De- moeraey, though never an aspirant for office nor an active partisan. His religious belief is in sym- pathy with the ereed of the Presbyterian Church, of which both he and his wife are members.

SIDNEY BRAY .- The great-great-grandfather of Mr. Bray was a Baptist elergyman from England, who, in 1688, organized the Baptist Church at Holmdel, and ereeted the meeting-house at his own expense, besides donating the land on which now

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTHI COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

stands the church and parsonage, together with the burial-grounds, containing four and one-third acres. For many years the church was known as the " Old Bray Meeting.House," and Mr. Bray himself was coneeded to be a " man of gifts." Sidney Bray was the grandson of Samuel and Mary Bray, and the son of Samuel and Hope Bray. He was born at Holmdel on the 25th of May, 1822, and, making Matawan his residenee, in the spring of 1843, when

W. Mr. Bray was in polities an unswerving and pure-minded Demoerat, though not especially active. in the political field. In social life he was genial and full of pleasant humor. In business he was prompt, careful, reliable and thoroughly informed as to the finaneial status of those in the community, which enabled his firm, in all their extensive business connections, to eonduet their affairs with compara- tively little loss. In 1859, Mr. Bray united with

twenty-one years of age, entered into partnership with Aaron Longstreet, in the lumber, mereantile and freighting trade. He continued aetive busi- ness relations until failing health compelled hin to relinquish his employments, and Messrs. Walker & Conover became their sueeessors. Mr. Bray was, in March, 1851, married to Margaret V., daughter of the late Captain Haddoek Whitlock, whose children are two daughters,-Gertrude S. wife of John J. Beers, Esq., of Holmdel, and Harriet

the Presbyterian Church at Matawan, and for twenty years was its treasurer and a member of its board of trustees. His death oeeurred on the 16th of August, 1881, in his sixtieth year.

WILLIAM SPADER .- Peter Spader was born in Somerset County, N. J., about half a mile from Middlebush Church, on Thursday, the 29th of September, 1785, the only son and child of John Spader and his second wife, Jane Vanderbilt.

MATAWAN TOWNSHIP.

851

His, ancestors came from Holland. The first

1730, from Clem. Plumstead, the heir of one of the and the other of nine hundred and eighty aeres in leases, one of two hundred and ten acres in 1722, Samuel Royse, on September 20, 1718, and two ninety-six aeres of land on the Millstone River of purchase by Johannes Spader of one hundred and in possession of Peter Vanderbilt Spader) in the records we find of them are deeds and leases (now

1790, on Long Island, where he engaged in the of these sons, occurred on the 21st of December, Jane and Annie. The birth of John, the eldest sons-John and Jeremiah-and two danghters,- Jeremiah Vanderbilt, whose children were two the Revolution. He married Annie, daughter of with eredit during the seven years of the War of

employment of a farmer. He married Phebe Lott, of Queens County, L. I., whose children

po Spader

original East Jersey proprietors. This Johannes Spader was the great-grandfather of Peter Spader. The next record we have is when Lord Howe's army was retreating from Millstone to New Bruns- . wiek, in 1777, the barn and out-buildings and part of the house of John Spader, father of Peter Spader, were destroyed by fire by the British army.

William Spader, half brother of Peter Spader, above mentioned, and grandfather of ing been located in Marlboro' township. Desiring the subject of this biographical sketch, served

were John, William, Annie (Mrs. John L. Denton), Jeremiah V. and Stephen L., of whom William and Annie survive. The former, was born March 2, 1817, in Brooklyn, where he received a fair English education and gave his attention to the demands of the farm until his twenty-second year. Monmouth County, in 1839, became his home, the farm he purchased and cultivated hav- some variation from the routine of the farmer, he,

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

in 1861, removed to Matawan, in the same county, and embarked in the lumber business. Continuing thus employed for some years, in 1879 he relin- quished active mercantile life, and finding a suffi cient demand upon his time in the attention given to his private interests, also, as a diversion, culti vated a small tract of land adjacent to his resi- dence. Judge Spader, either as a Whig of the old school or a Republican, has been active in public matters and in the administration of affairs connected with the township. He was ap- pointed associate judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of Monmouth County, and served for five years upon the bench. He has since his re- moval to Matawan been more especially identified with its business interests. He is a director of the Monmouth County Fire Insurance Company, of Freehold, and has been officially connected with other corporations. He is especially earnest in his efforts for the advancement of the agricul- tural interests of the county, and fills the office of president of the Monmouth County Agricultural Society. He is also director of the Keyport and Matawan Gas Company. He still, though not a resident, maintains his connection with the Re- formed (Dutch) Church of Marlboro', of which he has been since 1845 a member, and for twenty- five years its treasurer and one of its elders. Judge .Spader was, in 1838, married to Eliza, daughter of Jeremiah Vanderbilt, of Flatbush, L. I. Their children are Jeremiah V., John, Phebe (Mrs. Dr. J. P. Geran, of Brooklyn), Eliza V. (Mrs. Jacob Prince, of Flatbush, deceased). Mrs. Spader's death occurred in 1845, and he was again married, in 1855, to Mary L., daughter of William H. Whitlock, of Brooklyn. Their children are Anna D. (wife of John R. Dubois, of Holmdel, N. J.) and Mary V. (wife of Wil- liam V. Clark, of Matawan, N. J.).

CHAPTER XXX.

NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP.

NEPTUNE is a sea-coast township, bounded east by the Atlantic Ocean, south by Shark River, which divides it from Wall township,

west by Shrewsbury, and north by the town- ship of Ocean. Its only stream of any import- anee is Shark River. The sea-shore line of rail- way extends along the entire ocean-front of the township. The population of Neptune, by the United States census of 1880, was four tlou- sand one hundred and eighty-seven.

This township was erected by an aet of the Legislature, approved February 26, 1879, which provides and declares,-

"That all that part of the township of Ocean con- tained within the following bounds, that is to say : Beginning at the Atlantic Ocean, where Great Pond empties into the same, and running thence westerly up the middle of said Great Pond and the south branch thereof until it intersects a continuation of the centre line of Asbury Avenue, in the borough of As- bury Park, in said County; thence continuing the course of said centre line (as the magnetic needle now points), north sixty-seven degrees and fifty minutes west, until it intersects the division line between the township of Ocean and the township of Shrewsbury, in said county, in the middle of the public road lead- ing from Eatontown to Squan, near Benjamin King's storehouse; thence in a southerly direction along said line to Shark River brook; thence in an east- erly direction along the centre of Shark River to the Atlantic Ocean; thence northerly along the same to the place of beginning, shall be, and hereby is set off' from the said township of Ocean, and made a sepa- rate township, to be called and known as the townl- ship of Neptune."

The following is a list of the chosen free- holders of Neptune township from its organiza- tion to the present time, viz. : 1879, George C. Ormerod; 1880-83, John C. Hathaway; 1884, Cook Howland.

Along the sea-shore of Neptune township, northward from the southern limit at Shark River to the northern boundary at Great Pond, or "Deal Lake," are located the following- named places and villages: Key East, Bradley Beach, Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, the last named being at the northeast corner of the town- ship, on Deal Lake.

KEY EAST is situated in the southeast corner of the township, on Shark River. Its site was comprehended in a traet of two hundred and sixty-five acres of land patented to Gavin Drummond, November 12, 1701. The tract was bounded on the east by the sea, south by Shark River, north by Duck Creek, and west

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NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP.

by William West's land. This tract passed through several ownerships, but remained intact until 1851, when John Fields (then the owner) died, and commissioners sold the property in parcels to fifteen or twenty different parties. These passed through many changes, and be- tween September 14, 1878, and March 17, 1880, Edward Batchelor, of Philadelphia, came into possession of the entire original traet by purchases made at different times in that period.

The place is a bluff at the month of Shark River, opposite Ocean Beach, in Wall township, and one mile from the southern limits of Ocean Grove. In January, 1883, improvements were commeneed here by the laying out of lots and the grading of streets and avenues. The ave- nues are eighty feet in width ; the lots are fifty by one hundred and fifty feet. Berwick Lodge was built and opened for the season of 1883. Avon Inn was built in 1883-84 and opened for the season of 1884 and is intended to keep open for the winter. A life-saving station is near the bathing-place.

The Summer School of the American Insti- tute of Christian Philosophy held a meeting at this place in June, 1884, and decided to estab- lish here permanently.

NEPTUNE village lies west of and adjoining Key East, being separated from the latter place only by the Manasquan and Long Branch road, where the bridge crosses the river. The bridge was built in 1858, and in that year a hotel was opened at this place by Allen R. Cook. He was succeeded by Lewis C. Green and Theodore Fields. About 1867, William Laird opened a store at the place, now kept by Mrs. Casnir. In 1875, William Devereaux opened a store and was appointed postmaster of the office then es- tablished. IIe still holds the position.

On the north bank of Musquash Cove, David Slocum built a hotel in 1862 and kept it for two or three years, and in 1864 traded property with Jacob Bennett. It was at this hotel, a year or two later, that Hartshorne Fleming was shot by a man who, after committing the homicide, im- mediately went out into the woods and killed himself.

OCEAN GROVE is located on the sea-shore north of Key East and Bradley Beach, on Long Pond (now called Wesley Lake), which forms its northern boundary and divides it from Asbury Park. The place was laid out and brought to its present stage of improvement by the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was organized on the 22d of December, 1869. The history of Ocean Grove was given in a histor- ical address delivered by the Rev. E. H. Stokes, the president of the association, July 31, 1875, and is here reproduced as delivered, with only the exception of the omission of a few passages not pertinent to the history of the place.

Ocean Grove is- not an accident. Far baek in the history of the past-indeed, from the beginning -rest from the wear and tear of human life has been a necessity. Human na- ture, in its mental and physical conditions, can- not endure uninterrupted toil. In the earlier ages life was simpler, and the habits of men sneh as to afford somewhat of the needed rest in the rural pursuits furnished fromn day to day. But as time rolled on, and a higher type of civilization prevailed, brain and nerve were taxed to the last extreme by these refinements, until the physical was often prostrated, and the mind imperiled. : . Then summer re- sorts sprung up to meet a felt want. The mountains, sea-shore, valleys, glens, cataracts, sulphur springs and river-sides were sought out, and soon became centres of attraction. Cape May and the Catskills are among our first re- membranees. These all had their adherents, and served their purpose, and do so still. But there was another element of society increasing, and becoming more and more powerful every day, yet unprovided for. It was the religious element. There was a class of religious men, too, worn down with the toils of professional and business life, whose nerves and brain needed rest like other men, and they said, one to anotlier, "We want to enjoy the sea, and the air, and the bathing and the fishing,-the sea and the air are God's works, and for us-and we need them. Can we not have them, free from the dissipations and follies of fashionable watering-places, and at a cost within our

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

means?" These were important questions, and were asked by thousands. To these men the fashionable watering-places had no attrae- tions,-neither the society nor employments were congenial. The eost, too, was more than their income would allow. We wanted to rest, and to reereate,-to fish, to sail, to bathe, to walk along the surf, to admire the sublime and beau- tiful on the ealm or stormy sea, to inhale the ocean air. The first erude thought was to find somewhere along the coast a little plat of ground where a few of us might get the privilege of pitching our tents for a while in summer, where we could enjoy ourselves, having such religious services intermingled as convenience or inclina- tion might suggest. But it was a long while be- fore the ernde thought gathered sufficient strength to assume a definite shape. Mean- while the Vineland Camp-Meeting for the pro- motion of holiness was held. It was a sueeess; but the shade was not good, and Rev. J. R. Andrews, then pastor of the Vineland Church, and Rev. W. B. Osborn, selected and deter- mined on the purchase of a better grove in the immediate vicinity, for the establishment of a permanent camp-meeting ground. But, through some misapprehension, the purchase was de- feated. The brethren above referred to then said, "Let us select a camp-ground by the sea- side, and then the desired rest and the great salvation needed can be secured at the same time." They agreed; the coast was explored, and the Seven-Mile Beach, Cape May County, N. J., was fixed upon as the spot, and was to be purchased by Andrews and Osborn for fifty thousand dollars, a pretty round sum for two poor Methodist preachers,-but they had faith and zeal, though little money. They went to Philadelphia to complete the purchase, when Andrews said to Osborn, "There is one thing we have forgotten." " What is that?" said Osborn. " The mosquitoes," replied Andrews. "We don't want to buy the mosquitoes." " That's so," said Osborn, and the purchase was abandoned. That was well, too, for Seven- Mile Beach was not the place. Osborn was appointed agent for the Vineland Seminary. In that capacity he traveled largely through the State, and talked up the matter of a sea-side

summer resort for ministers, and the long-cher- ished idea of a camp-meeting by the sea. In the selection of a suitable place, the whole New Jersey coast, from Cape May to Sandy Hook, was carefully explored.

The grounds now occupied were first visited by Rev. W. B. Osborn and Rev. George Neal, then pastor of First Church, Long Branch, in February, 1868, a deep snow being on the ground. They first inelined to a point of land on what is now the Asbury Park side, nearest the lake and the sea. The second visit was a few weeks later ; Osborn, Neal and Rev. R. M. Stratton, then pastor of the Centenary Church, Long Branch, being the company. They ex- plored the grounds pretty thoroughly, but reached no definite conelusion. After that, Os- born brought Dr. George F. Brown and Rev. W. E. Perry, P. E., to view the locality, but no advance was made, and the matter was allowed to rest until the coming summer. Os- born then came alone, and examined all the grounds in the neighborhood. The time was more propitious to seleet a camp-ground than in bleak winter. All things considered, our pres- ent locality, being high and dry, with lakes on either side, a pleasant and shady grove, with splendid ocean-front for bathing, was finally fixed upon as best adapted to our wants, and " Ocean Grove " at once adopted as a name.

At the time of the selection of this land as a place of operation scarcely anything could have been rougher. It was wilderness, desert, deso- lation. Silence reigned. After passing Great Pond, the northern boundary of Asbury Park, all was an unbroken solitude. A serpentine and heavy sand road, wide enough for only a single wagon-traek, was all that penetrated the forest. Crossing what was then Long Pond (now Wes- ley Lake, and turning into the thieket just where our gates are, at the head of Main Ave- nue, our driver (the first time we entered the grounds, May, 1869) stood in front of his car- riage and lifted the limbs so as to erowd our conveyance through the brush and drooping boughs of the trees. We came down by a blind rond, the brush tearing and scratching our cur- tains at every step and stopped just in the rear .of this stand, by the cedar-tree which yet re-

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NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP.

mains as a memorial of the faet. It was a dark, · dreary, drizzly day. The sands hedged us in like petrified billows of the sea, while outside of these banks were knolls and depressions, covered with long beach grass, the picture of desolation; while the sea moaned in the distance as if in unutterable sorrow that it had been doomed for long ages to wash the shore of a land so utterly destitute of every attraction. The grove was a tangled wild-wood,; where briers scratched and bushes tore. The heavens were black, the grass wet, and the sands half-knee deep. We alighted from our carriage, and went forth to explore, Osborn leading, and dilating, with all the energy of which lie is capable, upon the wonder- ful beauties of the place. And, strange to say, blaek as were the heavens, wet as was the grass, deep as was the sand, moaning as did the sea, we had not traveled far before the conviction seized every mind that, dismal and destitute as it was, it possessed capabilities of being made to bloom and blossom as the rose-and while we stood on the sand-drifts south of what is now Main Avenue, and looked out over the great wide sea, it seemed to ns that a more magnificent site for cottages could hardly be found.

At that time, between Great Pond and Shark River, east of the main road, a distance of nearly four miles, there were thirty-four inhabitants. On the grounds now owned by the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association (about three hundred acres) there were but four persons, namely, -- Charles Rogers, wife and two children. On the grounds now known as Asbury Park there was not a single inhabitant. And yet, dark and dis- mal as was that day, destitute as was the earthi of cultivation, and wild as was the seene on every hand, it did not seem lonely then, and never has.

This was the condition of things when a few families, about twenty persons in all, met on these grounds on the last week of July, 1869. Our tents, poor, dingy and old (ten in number), were located about as follows: Rev. W. B. Osborn was near the northeast edge of what is now Thompson Park, under quite a large hickory-tree, which, unfortunately and greatly to our regret, is now nearly or quite dead. Near him was the tent of Rev. J. H. Stockton and

Rev. G. Hughes. A little south of these was Orville Howard, of Troy, brother of Charles E. Howard, of the Pitman House ; then, a few vards north, on the immediate lake-front, on the rise of ground in Thompson Park, just where Pilgrim Pathway curves into Lake Ave- nne, was the tent of J. H. Thornley, Esq., of Philadelphia. In this tent the first meeting was held. A little north to the ravine-which ran down to the lake about where Pilgrim's Pathway lies-was a tent, oeeupied for a night or two by Alfred Cookman. Next to that, about where the Cookman Cottage stands, was the tent of E. H. Stokes; near him, still a little north, was R. J. Andrews, then Gardner Howland and Joseph Hillman, both of Troy. Next to them, adjoining Rev. B. M. Adams' cottage, were two tents and a boarding-table, kept by John Martin. George Franklin, with a few men engaged in clearing away the under- brush, had located, some time before, in a tent about where the Mathews cottage has sinee been built.

This was the company, and here, amid these rude arrangements, they enjoyed themselves for several days. They had religious services in their own tents, as they had in their families at home; but there was no united religious worship until Tuesday night, July 31st. At that prayer-meeting Joseph Hillman sung some of his wonderful songs, and the first meeting at Ocean Grove was one never to be forgotten in the annals of time or eternity. The names of the persons in the tent-meeting were as follows : Joseph H. Thornley and wife, Philadelphia ; R. J. Andrews and wife, New Jersey ; Gardi- ner Howland and wife, Troy, N. Y .; William Manahan, Long Branch; Joseph Hillman, wife and danghter, Troy, N. Y .; William B. Osborn, wife and son, Farmingdale, N. J .; George Huglies, New Jersey ; Orville How- land and wife, Troy, N. Y .; J. H. Stoekton, New Jersey ; John Martin, wife and daughter, Greenville, N. J .; E. H. Stokes and wife, Red Bank, N. J.,-twenty-two in all.

Wesley Lake (then Lake Pond), now dotted with over four hundred nicely trimmed and painted boats, and Fletcher Lake (then Goose Pond), having twenty-three, had then but a

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

single craft,-a clumsy, superannuated fishing- boat, which Mr. Osborn had bought for a small sum of the fishermen along shore, and had christened her the " Barbara Heck." This craft could carry, without inconvenience, nearly, if not quite the whole population of Ocean Grove at that time at a single trip. Bishop Simpson and his lady honored this old craft with their presence, and in it sailed along Wesley Lake up through the wilds towards the bridge, and thought the ride was very fine. But, alas ! one stormy night Wesley Lake, wearied with its long imprisonment, slipped out to sea, and with it carried the old " Barbara Heck," since which time all efforts for its recovery have been without avail.

Some days after the prayer-meeting referred to, Mr. Osborn thought we must hold a kind of camp-meeting. The place fixed on was about where D. H. Brown's cottage stands. Two loads of boards were hauled front Long Branch, pine logs were cut, and on these the boards were placed for seats. A stand, rude as could be, holding three or four persons, a little straw scattered around, and invitations to the few people in the neighborhood being sent out, we were ready for work.

Edgar Orville Howland, of Troy, N. Y., an exhorter, held the first religious service at this little camp-meeting, the theme of discourse be- ing "partakers of Christ," suggested by Heb. xi. 14, the congregation numbering thirty or forty persons. It was a very small, but very good meeting. It soon came to an end, how- ever, and we all went home greatly pleased and profited with our visit to the sea.

Up to the time of this meeting there had been no purchase of lands, save the one-third of a third of one hundred acres, fishing tract, di- rectly along the surf, of Britton White, for fifty dollars .. The deed for this had just been obtained, and Osborn, in company with Charles Rogers, went down to see his new possession. It was eleven acres of sand, nothing more, nothing less,-just as good and pure sand as the world produces ! As they walked and talked, Rogers saw some- thing at his feet that resembled a coin. He did not pick it up, but called Osborn's attention to it. He stooped and took it in his hand. They

both said it was a rusty old English penny, but upon further inspection it proved to be a Span- ish silver dollar. This was regarded as an augury for good.

Soon after this it was decided to purchase a few acres, lying in the grove, immediately along the northern lake, and enough beach land to give us a passage to the sea ; and here in thi- small compass a few of us proposed, in the sim- plest and most unostentatious way, to assemble from year to year, and enjoy our summer rest in bathing, fishing, worshiping or sauntering socially along the shore, free from the heavy cares which we felt resting upon us, welcoming from the immediate neighborhood such as might choose to join us in our simple service by the sea. It was no speculation, no scheme for raising money, no device of any kind; but simply and singly social, recreative and reli- gious,-mainly, excepting the few neighbors who might desire to worship with us, for ourselves alone. The great world we did not seek, but shunned. We wanted simply to rest and re- cuperate.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 2, Part 64

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 994

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 994