USA > New Jersey > Cape May County > Ocean City > Ocean City [N.J.] guide book and directory 1892 > Part 3
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But it having been the wish of his father that his eldest son should follow his business, Dr. Palen, in 1856, entered into partner- ship with his uncle by marriage, George W. Northrop, and built an oak tannery at Canadensis, Pa., afterward taking one of his brothers in as a partner, under the firm name of Palen & Northrop. After- wards, with his two brothers, Dr. Palen built another tannery at Tunkhannock, Pa., but the business proving unprofitable for the manufacturer, owing to the unequal distribution of the profits between himself and the dealers, the doctor determined to retire. The building of tanneries in the woods, cutting down trees, etc., is genuine pioneer work, and to this the doctor was peculiarly fitted by his active temperament. In 1860 the doctor married Elizabeth Gould, daughter of John B. Gould, of Roxbury, N. Y. He became a member of the M. E. church at Canadensis, and at this period his career as a Prohibitionist and temperance worker begins, voting the Prohibition ticket, the voters being so few that he was obliged to write his own. Removing afterwards to Tunkhannock, Pa., he engaged actively in the struggle for local option, which, finally gained, was lost by the treachery or half heartedness of some of its supporters.
In 1876, after a careful examination of the compound oxygen process, he entered into partnership with Dr. Starkey, under the firm name of Starkey & Palen, the former bringing into the concern his perfected system, and Dr. Palen the business experience and requisite capital. From this time the business has prospered
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wonderfully, and the treatment is now known throughout the world. The doctor is an active and honored member of the M. E. Board of Church Extension, and president of the Niagara Mining and Smelting Co., and is always active in every movement for the public good. He has been several times candidate for mayor and recorder of Philadelphia on the Prohibition ticket, accepting each time his anticipated defeat with resignation, but never for a moment despairing of the final triumph of Prohibition.
J. S. WAGGONER, M.D.
Dr. Waggoner was born in Perry county, Pa., where he resided during his boyhood. He afterward removed to Carlisle, Pa., and engaged in the study of medicine. In 1860 he was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. At the outbreaking of the Rebellion, he was appointed assistant surgeon of the 5th Pennsyl- vania Cavalry (Cameron Dragoons), and was also physician to the Eastern Insane Asylum of Virginia at Williamsburg. He was mustered out as a supernumerary of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and immediately appointed assistant surgeon to the 84th Pennsyl- vania Infantry, from which position he was shortly afterward appointed to that of surgeon. In 1864 he resigned, and was appointed post surgeon of the United States General Hospital at Beverly. Here he acquired an enviable reputation as a surgeon. At the battle of Chancellorsville he was carried from the field wounded and given up for dead, but was resuscitated and cared for by S. S. Fowler, now of North Carolina.
After the war he was engaged in private practice in New Jersey. He came to Ocean City when it was first started, and established the pioneer drug store, still continuing the practice of medicine. He has served as borough clerk and city councilman.
Dr. Waggoner is thoroughly conscientious in all his work. The positions which he has held, and the offices he has filled, have been honored by the manner in which he has discharged the duties of each. A retiring disposition has prevented a greater advancement, which his ability has rendered possible.
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H. B. ADAMS, City Clerk.
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W. LAKE, C. E.
Mr. Lake was born at Bargaintown, N. J., April 27, 1838. His boyhood was spent with his father, working at the blacksmith trade. Not satisfied with the educational advantages of the day, he en- tered upon a course of studies by himself and was soon teaching in the public schools. At a very early age he received an appoint- ment as civil engineer, and his progress since then has been steadily upward. He was elected to numerous township offices, and was, in 1863, appointed commissioner of deeds. In 1875 he was appointed master in chancery, and the same year elected to the office of jus- tice of the peace of Atlantic county, which position he held until his removal to Ocean City. His work commenced in this City with the earliest movement made towards its development. He has sur- veyed every foot of the island and examined every original title from 1690 down to the time it was purchased by the Ocean City Association, and has drawn over nineteen hundred deeds. Mr. Lake is in consequence very closely identified with the progress and growth of the City, and has in his possession much interesting and important data concerning its history. He is at present en- gaged in preparing a brief of title of a tract of six thousand acres in Atlantic county, for the purpose of forming a new settlement.
JESSE CONVER.
City Councilman Conver, now holding the office for the third term, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Montgomery county, March 29, 1834. He engaged in the tin and sheet-iron business at twenty years of age, and shortly afterwards removed to Philadel- phia, where he carried on roofing, heating and range business very extensively. He came to Ocean City in 1881, and has since en- gaged in the same business. Mr. Conver is one of the few men who, when coming in contact with the business world, do not allow its influence to draw them from their own conscientiousness of truth. and right, who maintain a strict integrity in all their business trans- actions. The influence of his early life among the hills of Penn- sylvania, of simple habits and firmly ingrained principles of right, are still exerted, and may be felt and seen in his daily life.
3
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R. H. THORN.
Mr. Thorn is a Pennsylvanian, born and reared in Frankford, Philadelphia. He received his education in the public schools, and afterwards learned the carpenter's trade. He came to Ocean City May 4, 1885, and having a previous knowledge of the business, purchased stock and opened a hardware and house-furnishing store at his present stand, So1 Asbury avenue. Mr. Thorn is a brilliant example of what grit, determination and close application to busi- ness will do. Coming at a time when everything was new, the permanent population small, the situation was not a promising one. In 1887 he purchased two lots adjoining the stand he occupied and built store No. 805 Asbury avenue. In 1890 he bought the stand where he commenced business, and in 1891 built still another store between 801 and 805, together with a dwelling house facing on Eighth street. Mr. Thorn has now the largest establishment of its kind in the City, with a constantly increasing business. He has served as city councilman, and has held other positions of trust, both public and private.
R. C. ROBINSON.
One of our rising young men is Postmaster R. C. Robinson, editor and proprietor of the Ocean City Sentinel. Mr. Robinson was born in Atlantic county, N. J., in 1862. His father died when he was nine years of age, and he was early thrown on his own resources. At sixteen years of age he entered a wholesale dry- goods house, but finding the business distasteful, he engaged to learn the printing business in the Banner office at Beverly, N. J. He then accepted a position with A. L. English, of the Atlantic Review, Atlantic City. Mr. Robinson was first in the employ and was then associated with Mr. English in business for over six years. During this time he was editor and manager of the May's Landing Record, and assistant editor of the Philadelphia journal, Over the Mountains and Down ty the Sea. He came to Ocean City in 1885, and forming a partnership with W. H. Fenton, purchased the Ocean
C. H. SCHERMERHORN'S COTTAGE.
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City Sentinel, and in a short time became sole proprietor. In 1888 he represented Ocean City in the board of freeholders of Cape May county. He was appointed postmaster in 1889. Upon assuming the duties of this position, he immediately set about hav- ing the mail service extended and the office designated a money order office, succeeding in both. Mr. Robinson is possessed of those faculties which constitute the elements of success-hard labor and strict attention to whatever line of business in which he may be engaged.
JOHN RYLAND KENDRICK.
Touching at Ocean City in 1884, Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Kendrick, of Philadelphia, were quickly impressed with its beauty and desira- bility as a summer resort. In 1889 they built a tasteful " Queen Anne " cottage on Wesley avenue, below Eighth street, facing the ocean, and possessing in its location every essential of an ideal seaside home. Mr. Kendrick descends from a New England family long prominent in clerical, educational and business circles. His grandfather, the Rev. Clark Kendrick, was an early Baptist chaplain of the Vermont legislature. Prof. A. C. Kendrick, D.D., LL.D., founder of the "University of Rochester" and a member of the board which produced the present revised version of the Scriptures; also the late Rev. J. Ryland Kendrick, D.D., an eloquent preacher and teacher, and president of Vassar College, are uncles of the gentleman whose career we note. The New England Kendricks are in line direct from Edward Kendrick, an eminent merchant of London and Rotterdam, and Lord Mayor of London in the time of " Bloody Mary." This ancestor married Susannah Cranmer, a niece of Archbishop Cranmer, whom the Papists burned at the stake. "Virtue is honor" is the family motto. J. R. Kendrick, whose face appears elsewhere, is in his forty-third year, and con- ducts a publishing business at 1001 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. He also owns and edits "The American Carpet and Upholstery Trade," a journal of wide influence in its sphere, founded by him in 1883. Mr. Kendrick gives much attention to the manufacture of
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textiles, and has several times served the United States government in the collation of industrial statistics. He served in the tenth and eleventh United States censuses, also as special treasury officer under Secretaries Sherman and Windom. He loves the " quill," and has done some writing of permanent value. His articles on "Carpets and Upholstery " for Appleton's Cyclopædia are considered authen- tic data, and his report on the "Carpet Industry of Pennsylvania," made to Governor Beaver's administration, was an exhaustive and laborious piece of work. This appears in the report for 1889, Bureau of Internal Affairs. Mr. Kendrick is devoted to his family, which consists of his amiable wife, two sons and two daughters. The family entertain liberally at their summer home and possess a wide circle of friends.
CROSSCUF & WERT FNG CC
RESIDENCE OF J. F. HAND, Contractor and Builder, 721 Central Avenue.
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Life-Saving Service.
The complications of the system of the Life-Saving Service are comparatively little known to those living inland. This was imper- fectly carried on for some years previous to 1872, but since that time means are taken every year for its greater perfection, and as it reaches its strong arms out to aid mariners in distress and to pre- serve property from destruction, the magnitude of its importance can only be estimated by the long marine official records of its work. The Atlantic coast is patrolled from Maine to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the great lakes their entire coast. Stations are placed at suitable distances apart, furnished with all the necessary appliances for the work. From September Ist to May Ist they are occupied by seven life-guards, one extra going on December Ist. The other four months of the year, the season when few severe storms occur, the captain alone remains ; and as a large percentage of those living on the coast are sailors or fishermen, a volunteer crew can be easily secured should it be necessary. The uniform consists of a navy blue Guernsey, embroidered across the breast with the scarlet letters L. S. S., and the name of the station to which they belong; navy blue pantaloons, overcoat and cap. Around the latter is fastened a ribbon in which is woven in gilt letters the words U. S. Life-Saving Service. Another cap, worn in cold or stormy weather, is a woolen skull cap, called the "Nor- mandy Fisherman."
The men as a class are stalwart, well built, and present a fine appearance. Watches are kept as on board ship, four hours long. Every night at sunset two guards are sent from each station, one going north and one south. Each one is met at a given point by a guard from the station on either side, with whom they exchange
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checks. When this kind of communication is impossible, on account of a bay or an inlet coming between two stations, a clock is placed at the end of the beat in a wooden post, bored out in the side large enough to receive it, where it is secured by an iron plate; this registers every visit made by a guard. At eight o'clock these guards return, and two others take their place, who exchange checks or register, as do also those of the succeeding watches. Each guard is supplied with rockets with which to warn vessels that are approaching too near the shore and to answer signals of distress. A lookout is kept from sunrise to sunset, and every pass- ing vessel noted down. A journal is kept of each day's proceed- ings, which is forwarded to Washington. On cloudy or stormy days the coast is patrolled during the day as well as night.
ROUTINE OF DUTY.
The guards are required to keep in constant practice. Tuesday of each week they go out in the life-boat. This, by a simple yet very ingenious contrivance will bail itself out should it become filled with water. Wednesday is flag day. A few of the most important of a code of fourteen thousand signals are practiced. By this means conversation can be carried on with ships far out at sea. Thursday they practice with the breeches buoy; this is oper- ated in the following manner : A line is shot from a mortar out to the sinking ship. To the end of this line is fastened a whip-line, and to this a hawser. A wooden tag is fastened to the hawser with directions printed on it, one side in French and the other side in English, for making it fast and how to assist in working the buoy. As soon as it is made fast, the guards send the buoy out to the ship; this is a skillfully contrived basket in the shape of a huge pair of breeches. A passenger steps into them, swings out over the angry waters and is hauled quickly to shore, the buoy return- ing to the ship in an incredibly short space of time. This is used only when it is impossible to reach the vessel in a boat. Friday
R. IJ THORN.
R. HI. THORN'S STORES AND RESIDENCE.
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the performance of resuscitating the drowned is gone through with. Saturday is general cleaning day.
Too much praise cannot be lavished on these brave men, who in times of extreme peril never falter. No means, however daring, are left untried for the rescue of life. The keepers of the three stations at Ocean City were all seafaring men years before entering the L. S. S. In their travels they have visited many strange coun- tries. The valuable and interesting information given by them, the courtesy which ever marks the deportment of a life-guard, render the visits of our guests to the Life-Saving stations delightfully entertaining.
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Wrecks.
Peck's Beach has a distinct history written in its driftwood. The features of the coast are constantly changing, as the sea encroaches upon one place and recedes from another. Great Egg Harbor Bar is dangerous to mariners with large craft, on account of its contin- ually shifting sands, and requires the special attention of the coast surveyors. A chart of one year varies greatly from that of another. Its treacherous character is plainly shown in the vast number of wrecks which have strewn the beach. Imagination and fancy have not the monopoly of romance and tragedy. Truth here claims a share beyond the power of either. Since the Life Saving Service has been in operation, and insurance companies have grown more watchful, the number is greatly diminished. In the following pages we give a few of the most interesting.
THE FAME.
The first of which we can gain an authentic account is that of the brig Fame. This vessel was sent out with a number of others to protect the inhabitants of Cape May county from the incursions of the British and refugees. She was in command of Captain William Treen, of Egg Harbor, and made a number of captures of vessels much larger than herself. The night of February 22, 1781, while lying at the anchoring point in Great Egg Harbor Bay rejoicing over a victory just achieved, she was capsized in a heavy gale, with twenty-eight of a crew of thirty-two men on board. Four attempted to swim ashore; three succeeded in landing at the north point of Peck's Beach, the fourth one drowned. Help reached the vessel at daylight, but of twenty-four brave men who had faced shot and shell, tempest and flood, twenty had succumbed to the sleep of death from exposure to the intense cold; the four remaining ones kept alive by walking rapidly and constantly up and down the side of the capsized vessel.
CROSSCUP & WERT FRONTE
ABEL D. SCULL'S "THISTLE" COTTAGE.
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THE PERSEVERANCE.
The brig Perseverance, from Havre, France, to New York, laden with a cargo valued at $400,000, was wrecked nearly opposite the point where the "Ocean Rest" now stands, in the month of December, 1815. The day previous to the disaster (Friday) a vessel from New York was spoken who told the Perseverance she was 200 miles east of Sandy Hook. The news occasioned great joy among the crew and passengers of whom there were seven of the former and ten of the latter, as they expected, according to this intelligence, to land in New York on the following day. The captain, imbued with the spirit engendered by the fatal error to a degree. of recklessness, spread every stitch of canvas to a heavy nor'easter and, with spars strained to their utmost, and cordage creaking, the good ship sped merrily on to her swift destruction. At 3 o'clock A.M. on Saturday the warning cry of breakers ahead was sounded, and a moment later the vessel struck, refused to obey her helm, and backed up on the beach stern foremost. In a short time the sea broke entirely over her. The wildest confusion pre- vailed as the passengers rushed from the cabin with no protection from a piercing storm of snow and hail but their night clothing. Eight of the seventeen souls on board got into the long boat and a heavy sea swept it overboard. It was then discovered to be fastened by a cable which they were unable to cut or in any way detach, and amid piercing shrieks, with the means of rescue just at hand, as the long boat would probably have floated to shore, they went down beside the vessel. The others succeeded in reaching the round-top except a Frenchman by the name of Cologne, who remained in the shrouds. At daybreak the vessel was discovered from the mainland, and willing hearts sped across the bay and down the beach to the rescue. Boats were launched again and again only to be capsized and hurled back by the angry waters. Every means which human skill and daring could devise was tried till Sunday at noon, when they signaled to the vessel that nothing more could be done, and they should try to build a raft of the spars. The poor wretches held up their pocket books and watches as an inducement for those on shore to continue their efforts, but
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the limit of their power had been reached long before. Exhaus- tion from cold and hunger now did rapid work, and one by one, until but five were left, they dropped into the sea. Captain Snow, one of the remaining five, attempted to swim ashore and was lost. In the meantime the mate, who had fortunately secured a hatchet, constructed a raft. A negro, who was assisting, was washed over- board, but swam to shore. The Frenchman, who had remained in the shrouds up till this time, fell into the water senseless; he was. caught by the hair and thus towed behind the raft, which was finally carried ashore by the breakers. The saddest procession that ever trod this beach took up the line of march toward the bay to cross to the mainland. Four exhausted, half-frozen men, borne in the arms of those who had gone to the rescue, followed by others bearing a rudely constructed bier upon which lay the form of a young French girl, the only female on board the ill-fated vessel, and the only victim whose body floated to shore. Her linen cloth- ing was daintily embroidered, and jewelry was concealed in the braids of her hair. Many reports were given of her beauty. Dr. Maurice Beasley, an eye-witness, said: "She was the concentration of all the graces of the female form." Her remains were interred in the burying ground of the Golden family, a little plot now over- grown with weeds and briars a short distance from the wharf at Beasley's Point. Three days later her uncle, Mr. Cologne, who died from exhaustion was buried by her side. For seven miles, the entire length of the island, the beach was strewn with cashmere shawls, leghorn flats, thread lace, fine china and bales of silk and satin. Remnants of the merchandise are still in existence. It is supposed the hull is lying some distance out, covered with sand, and still contains treasure. After the storm of September, 1889, which swept the Atlantic seaboard, pieces of china washed ashore at this point, which, when compared with those secured at the time of the wreck, are of the same design, pattern and quality, and are doubtless from the old brig. These tangible links thrown across nearly three-quarters of a century connecting us so closely with the Perseverance, tell of a time when Madison was president of the United States. The treaty of peace with Great Britain had just
KEV. E. B. LAKE'S COTTAGE.
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been signed. The little Clermont, or "Fulton's Folly," had but a short time before revealed the adaptation of a power that should revolutionize navigation; the magnetic telegraph was unknown till nearly thirty years later, and not till after fifty years had passed was the Atlantic cable completed.
J. AND H. SCULL.
The two-masted schooner J. and H. Scull, lumber laden, from a North Carolina port to Atlantic City, attempted to enter Great Egg Harbor Bay, and stranded, January 18, 1892. The vessel struck with great force. By the skillful management of the captain she cleared the bar and swept into deeper waters, only to become un- manageable and aground a second time. The life-guards of Ocean City Life-Saving station immediately signaled to her, and a little later the surf-boat was launched and speeding over the water. The muscle and brawn of powerful arms were brought into full play as the guards bent gallantly to the oars, while the voice of the cap- tain rang above the roar and tumult of the waves, as he issued his orders, standing firm and erect in the stern of the boat, guiding it upon its perilous journey, one moment poised upon the crest of a wave and the next buried from the sight in the trough of the sea, to rise again on the succeeding wave. The work of transferring the crew from the vessel to the surf-boat was very dangerous, the heavy sea causing the vessel to plunge violently. The captain, the mate, two sailors, the cook and his wife were finally landed without any loss of life. All efforts to remove the vessel from the bar were ineffectual; she was then stripped of sails, cordage and topmasts, partially unloaded and abandoned for a time. The J. and H. Scull was an exceptionally staunch vessel. February 29th, during a violent storm, she cut through and displaced tons of the sand in which she was imbedded, plunged across the channel and landed on the main beach, without one bolt of her hull withdrawn, the mainmast and bowsprit intact, and the gilt arabesque scroll work of the figure head untarnished. Remains of the hull may now be seen at the north point of the beach.
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PANCHITO.
Among the driftwood piled here and there on the island may be seen an occasional piece of logwood, which owes its preservation to the fact of its tough, hard fibre, being almost proof against de- struction by ordinary tools. This wood, lying hundreds of miles from its native soil, was brought here by the Spanish brig, Pan- chito, wrecked February 13, 1888. The circumstances attending the disaster were very mysterious. She came on the bar in the night, but sent up no signals of distress, and even extinguished her lights. At daybreak the life-guards discovered the vessel lying in a dangerous position and immediately went to her aid. The cap- tain represented her as belonging to a wealthy ranchman of Vera Cruz and bound for . New York. The deck was loaded with log- wood, and the hold was partly loaded with logwood and hides. The crew of thirteen men were taken off in life-boats and cared for at the life-saving station. After seven days of hard labor a wrecking steamer succeeded in getting the vessel off the bar. As she was being towed into deeper water the cable parted and she struck again. The deck load was thrown off and she floated a second time. A small quantity of hard tack, a few Mexican beans and a little sugar was all there was on board to eat. The first . mate, an American, was intelligent and well educated. His log book was remarkable for neatness and beauty of penmanship. The captain and second mate were coarse and ignorant Spaniards. They were each armed with a pair of revolvers and a huge dirk. The latter was stuck inside the waistband on the left side in front, and was carried without any sheath. It was a constant source of wonder to spectators how this could be done without inflicting serious injury. The captain carried two watches of exquisite work- manship, besides a number of rings and other jewelry. The mates had in their posssession different kinds of jewelry set with precious stones. The ten sailors were a motley group indeed, and were in a filthy condition. Their long, unkempt hair, unshaven beards and swarthy complexions gave them the appearance of wild beasts rather than men. The weather was very cold, but they were with- out shoes or stockings, and their clothing was in every way insuffi-
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