USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Atlantic City > The Daily union history of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey : containing sketches of the past and present of Atlantic City and County > Part 10
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1896 .- Mayor, Franklin P. Stoy; Recorder. Robert H. Ingersoll: Akler- man, James D. Southwick; Treasurer, John A. Jeffries; City Clerk. Emery D. Irelan; Collector, Carlton Godfrey; Solicitor. Allen B. Endicott: City Comp- troller, A. M. Heston; Chief of Police, Harry C. Eldridge; Overseer of Poor. Robert Dunlevy: Mercantile Appraiser. J. W. Parsons; Superisor of Streets. Beriah Mathis; Building Inspector, S. L. Westcoat: Electrician, C. Wesley Bru- baker; Council, President, Jas. D. Southwick, Samuel Barton, Albert Beyer, Jos. C. Clement. S. L. Doughty, Enos F. Hann, Wm. A. Ireland, Edw. F. Kline: Daniel Kanner. Edward S. Lee, Henry W. Leeds, Jos. E. Lingerman. George H. Long. Edwin A. Parker, Harry H. Postoll, Samuel B. Rose, Frank L. Southrn.
1897 .- Mayor. Franklin P. Stoy: Recorder, Robert H. Ingersoll; Alderman. James D. Southwick: Treasurer, John A. Jeffries: City Clerk, Emery D. Irclan: Collector, Carlton Godfrey; Solicitor. Allen B. Endicott; City Comptroller, .\. M. Heston: Chief of Police. Harry C. Eldridge: Overseer of Poor; Daniel L. Albertson; Mercantile Appraiser. J. W. Parsons: Supervisor of Streets, Beriah Mathis: Building Inspector, S. L. Westcoat; Electrician, C. Wesley Brubaker: City Marshal, Cornelius S. Fort; Council, President. Jas. D. Southwick, Samuel Barton, David R. Barrett, Albert Beyer, Jos. C. Clement, S. L. Doughty, Enos F. Hann, Wm. A. Ireland, Samuel H. Kelley, Daniel Knauer, Edward S. Lee. Henry W. Leeds, Jos. E. Lingerman, George H. Long, Edwin .A. Parker, Samuel B. Rose, Frank L. Southrn.
1898 .- Mayor. Joseph Thompson; Recorder. John S. Westcott: Alderman. James D. Southwick: Treasurer. John A. Jeffries; City Clerk. Emery D. Irelan: Collector, William Lowry, Jr .: Solicitor, Carlton Godfrey; City Comptroller. . A. M. Heston: Chief of Police, Harry C. Eldridge: Overseer of Poor, Daniel L.
BURROWS C. GODFREY, ESQ.
ROSTER OF CITY OFFICIALS
Albertson; Mercantile Appraiser. J. W. Parsons: Supervisor of Street -. Berialı Mathis; Building Inspector, S. L. Westcoat: Electrician, C. Wesley Brubaker: City Marshal, Cornelius S. Fort: Council, President. James D. Southwick, Sammel Barton, David R. Barrett, Albert Beyer. Jos. C. Clement, S. L. Doughty. Hugo Garnich, Enos F. Hann, W'm. A. Ireland, Samuel 11. Kelley, Daniel Knauer. Edward S. Lee, Henry W. Leeds, Jos. E. Lingerman, George U. Long; Edwin A. Parker, Samnel B. Rose.
1899 .- Mayor, Joseph Thompson; Recorder. John S. Westcott; Alderman. James D. Southwick; Treasurer. John A. Jeffries; City Clerk, Emery D. Frelan: Collector, William Lowry, Jr .; City Comptroller. A. M. Heston; Solicitor, Carl- ton Godfrey; Chief of Police, Harry C. Eldridge: Overseer of Poor. Daniel 1 .. Albertson; Mercantile Appraiser. J. W. Parsons; City Engineer, John W. Hack ney; Supervisor of Streets, Samuel B. Rose; Building Inspector, S. L. Westcoat: Electrician. C. Wesley Brubaker; City Marshal. Cornelius S. Fort: Council, President, James D. Southwick, Samuel Barton, David R. Barrett, Albert Beyer, Jos. C. Clement, S. L. Doughty, John R. Fleming, Hugo Garnich, Enos F. Hann. Wm. A. Ireland, Samuel H. Kelley, Daniel Knauer, Edward S. Lee, Henry W. Leeds, Jos. E. Lingerman, George H. Long. Edwin A. Parker.
1900 .- Mayor, Franklin P. Stoy: Recorder. Robert E. Stephany; Alderman, Harry Bacharach; Trasurer. John A. Jeffries: Collector, William Lowry. Jr .; City Clerk, Emery D. Irelan: Controller. A. M. Heston; Overseer of Poor. Daniel L. Albertson; Council, Harry Bacharach, David R. Barrett, Albert Beyer, Jos. C. Clement, E. A. Parker. Edward S. Lee, E. F. Hann, John Donnelly, Henry W. Leeds, George Long, John R. Fleming, Willis Vanaman, Somers L. Donghty. W. A. Ireland, Thomas H. Thompson, William Bowker and Hugo Garnich.
RYAN ADAMS MOVES TO TOWN.
Ryan Adams, one of the early settlers on this island, erecting the fifth house. the first on the Chamberlain tract at Arctic and Delaware avennes, first lived on Inside Beach, near the Cedar Grove honse at South Atlantic. He moved up and was the first to occupy and operate the old salt works at the Inlet, before John Bryant moved over from Absecon and took charge.
In those days the important article of salt was made along the coast before inland salt springs had been discovered or developed. There had previously been a boiling salt plant on this island and on Brigantine, but projectors decided that an evaporating plant would be more profitable. Large shallow tanks, with movable roofs and windmill pumps were constructed and the surrounding country was supplied with pure rocksalt.
At that time vessels could sail. at high tide, through what is now known as Dry Inlet, above Ventnor. At low water it was safe for a team to ford the channel.
Joshua, son of Ryan Adams, on the day of the moving, drove the old mare up the beach attached to a light wagon. It was not yet low tide when the boy reached Dry Inlet and the old mare with the wagon to pull had to swim through the ebbing tide. She barely escaped being carried out to sea. The team was swept down the channel to the ocean side of the beach, where the old mare luckily touched bottom and got ashore.
Ryan Adams and his wife Judith had four sons: Joshna. Owen. Peter and Daniel, and two daughters: Lovenia, who became the wife of Joseph Showell, and Armenia. who never married.
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ENOCH A. HIGBEE, ESQ.
Atlantic City Before the Railroad.
I N 1852, when the first railroad was agitated, seven houses stood where Atlantic City stands to-day. The first of these was the last residence of Jeremiah Leeds. It was still occupied by his family and was a frame structure standing at the corner of Baltic and Massachusetts avenues. Soon after the death of Jeremiah Leeds, in 1838, a two-story addition was built to it and the widow, "Aunt Millie," as she was called, then forty-eight years of age, engaged more extensively in the business of taking boarders. Sportsmen from the city then as now found a visit to the seashore enjoyable. For ten or a dozen years "Aunt Millie" had the only licensed house on the island. In 1853, just before the building of the railroad. she rented the property to one Thomas McNeelis and went to live with her oldest son, Chalkey, where she spent the last twenty years of her life.
Close to it stood the cedar log house in which patriarch Leeds lived many years. This was built of good cedar logs, shingled on the outside and sealed with plowed and grooved boards inside. It had two rooms below and plenty of cham- ber room above. An ordinary man could walk under the mantle into the large open fireplace which had but one jamb, so that large logs could be rolled in and one end burned off. when the log could be pulled up into the fire. This saved chopping wood. This house was used as a shed and storeroom when a larger frame house was built near it later, and was finally torn down in 1853, when the railroad was building and the cedar logs were converted into shingles.
The next house in point of age standing at that time was the residence of Andrew Leeds, youngest son of Jeremiah by his first wife. It stood where a section of it still stands as a part of the Island House property, near the draw- bridge. It was built about 1815 and was a con- spicuous landmark from the bay side of the island.
The next house was the old salt works near the head of Baltic avenue, where the Inlet channel now flows. It was built and occupied by one John Bryant, who operated the salt works till one John Horner came here from Tuckerton, when Bryant moved to Absecon. The building is still standing. being a portion of the residence of Irving Lee on Pennsylvania avenue.
HOUSE OF ANDREW LEEDS.
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JOSEPH S. CHAMPION.
Another of those island homes was the residence of Ryan Adams, at Delaware and Arctic avennes. In it the first city election was held. The building is still standing, but not on the original site.
The sixth honse was the home of James Leeds. another son of Andrew, at Arctic and Arkansas avennes. It now forms part of the second story of a tenement on Arkansas avenue above Arctic.
F
HOUSE OF JOHN LEEDS
The seventh and last house to be built on the island before the railroad was that of Richard Hackett and Judith Leeds. It was erected in 1844 and was demolished in 1898. It stood in an open sqnare near Baltic avenne between New York and Tennessee.
OLD RYAN ADAMS HOUSE.
The first log hut that was occupied by Jere- miah Leeds when he first came to this island, in 1793. to live permanently, stood near the corner of Arctic and Arkansas avenues in what was after- wards known as the old Leeds Field. In this rude cabin the children by his first wife were born.
Till the narrow gauge railroad was built, in 1877. a cedar tree marked the site of the fireplace of this first log house, which was torn down when Jeremiah built a better one nearer the Inlet. That Cedar tree is still preserved as a post and is the property of Mrs. Abbie Leeds, of this city.
In addition to these seven houses, which stood within the present city limits, there were two or three houses at or near South Atlantic City, where different families have always lived.
HOUSE OF JAMES LEEDS.
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JAMES M. AIKMAN.
The first Visit and ffirst Train.
HE first visit of the new railroad directors to the site of the proposed bathing village was made in June, 1852. After a tedious drive by car- riage across the country they reached Absecon, and thence proceeded by boat to the forbidding sand hills which little suggested the site of a city.
But the discouraging aspect of the island was made an argument in favor of buying up the land at a nominal figure, which the railroad when operated would vastly enhance in value.
The party consisting of Samuel Richards. W. Dwight Bell and Richard B. Osborne, Dr. Jonathan Pitney and Gen. Enoch Doughty, landed at the Inlet and spent a few hours inspecting the plantation or estate of the Leeds family. They came unannounced, received no welcome, and were unable even to get dinner before they left for the mainland. Some of them questioned if the soft meadows would bear up a railroad train or an engine, but were assured by the engineer, Richard B. Osborne, that their fears were groudless. The extension of the road from Winslow to the ocean all depended upon reaching the beach and successfully establishing a "bathing village" thereon.
At the meeting of the directors August 25. 1852, the location of the road to Winslow was settled and John C. DaCosta succeeded Thomas H. Richards as director and was elected President of the small board.
September 28. 1852, Samuel Richards was chosen Secretary, pro tem., and the action of a special committee was confirmed to buy one thousand tons of iron at fifty-five dollars per ton.
December 10, 1852, Andrew K. Hay was elected President to succeed John C. DaCosta, who resigned.
January 7. 1853, DaCosta and Richards were given full power to close the contract for ferry-boats and property at the Vine street wharf.
January 31, 1853, committee reported they had purchased 168 acres of Mark Reed at ten dollars per acre on Absecon Beach.
March 10, 1853, sale of land to Wm. Neligh, at one hundred dollars per acre, confirmed, provided he give security that one wing of the United States Hotel on the property be completed by July Ist, following.
May 30. 1853. Executive Committee authorized to negotiate five hundred thousand dollars of the company's bonds.
January 2, 1854. Train time adopted to and from Atlantic. Richards and others to arrange for the opening of the road, six hundred tickets to be issued.
September 2, 1852, the construction work was sublet to P. O'Reilly, and he two days later received bids from sub-contractors for sections of one mile each.
The crossing of the Camden and Amboy railroads at Tenth street in Camden was effected one night in July, 1853.
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SMITH CONOVER.
175
THE FIRST VISIT AND FIRST TRAIN.
On June 20th of that year the whole arrangement of the contract for the construction was given over by P. O'Reilly to John H. Osborne, civil engineer, who completed the remaining portion, which was about three-fourths of the whole contract. Rails were laid at .Absecon, and also from Camden to lladdon- field in August, 1853.
Passenger trains commenced running from Camden to Haddonfield the same month, and to Winslow, 27 miles, regularly in January, 1854.
The winter had been mild and open and favorable to work on the railroad, but in February a storm tide made a clean sweep of the roadbed which had been graded on the meadows, and again the following April a terrible northeast storm prevailed for a week. flooding the meadows, sweeping away miles of the graded roadbed which was ready for the track and scattering the ties and wheelbarrows for miles along the coast. This was the storm which wrecked the emigrant steamer Powhattan on Long Beach, April 16, 1854, when 311 lives were lost and some eighty bodies were picked up and buried in this country. The track was then laid on the original soil where it remained securely for twenty-five years.
Damages were repaired and the whole work completed in time to celebrate the opening of the entire line with a special excursion on July 1. 1854. The pioneer excursion train of nine cars, attached to the new engine "Atsion." steamed out of the Camden station at 9.30 o'clock that morning. There were six hundred invited guests aboard, stockholders, merchants and newspaper men from Phila- delphia, Camden and New York. Several stops were made at Haddonfield, Waterford, Winslow and Absecon, where salutes with guns and floral welcomes were given in honor of the event. It was the consummation of twenty-two months of hard work, which involved the expenditure of $1.274.030, with only $240,100 paid in for capital stock. The train arrived at the United States Hotel, which then faced on Atlantic avenue, at 12 M., making the run of 58 6-10 miles in 21/2 hours. A banquet was spread in the big saloon of the new hotel. Judge Grier presided and spirited addresses were made by Henry C. Carey, Abraham Browning. J. C. TenEyck, Gen. Wyncoop. John C. DaCosta, Thomas 1f. Dudley. and others. That event was celebrated by the survivors twenty-five years later, after a beautiful city had been built and when the wisdom and enterprise of the pioneers and promoters could be appreciated and their fondest anticipations be so fully realized.
Every train that has crossed the meadows since has added more or less to the business, wealth and population of the island.
The train and its guests made the return trip in equally good time, leaving the hotel at five or six o'clock. Three days later the road was opened to travel and trains run regularly. The earnings of the road, the first full year, ending with June, 1855, was $122,415, which was more than Mr. Richards' first and only estimate, and the expenses were $71.751. Robert Frazer was the faithful and trusted Secretary and Treasurer of the Company from November. 1852. till November, 1863. 11 years, and was then chosen President of the Board, serving till 1873. He was both a lawyer and a civil engineer and filled these important positions with great satisfaction.
CHARLES A. BAAKE, ESQ.
The First IRailroad.
THE FOUNDING OF ATLANTIC CITY.
O the charm and fascination of the ocean chiefly must be attributed the remarkable growth and prosperity of Atlantic City. In 1850, when a railroad in this direction first began to be talked about, Atlantic County had a population of 8.961. The sea captains and vessel owners, oyster- men and fishermen along the bay shore, and the wood choppers, charcoal burners, and shipbuilders, and glassblowers, along the rivers, were not clamoring for railroad facilities. Indeed they gave the enterprise very little encouragement. They were busy and prosperous, with their ships, and their industries, carrying glass, iron, wood, charcoal, oysters and clams to New York, and getting supplies in return. The associations and habits of many of them were more of the sea than of the land, especially in matters affecting their livelihood. Limited lines of travel were over sandy roads. There were but a few miles of railroad in the State.
To the sagacity and enterprise chiefly of Philadelphia merchants and manu- facturers who owned vast tracts of land with glass and iron works, particularly in Camden County, is due the credit under such circumstances of sending the first iron horse to this seashore resort, opening up a favored and important sec- tion, establishing on this island a seashore city, and fine farming towns along the line, bringing thousands of immigrants and vastly increasing the wealth and population of the territory.
Of the live and enterprising merchants who fostered and promoted the building of the first railroad, the Richards family figured conspicuously. William Richards, the first of that name to settle in South Jersey, was a grandson of Owen Richards, who came to this country from North Wales, before 1718. William Richards was a man of great physical strength and untiring energy. He acquired a vast estate at Batsto, at the headwaters of the Mullica river, and prospered as a manufacturer of glass and iron. He stood six feet four inches in height, and is said to have been as great in mind and integrity as he was physi- cally. He was the father of nineteen children, fourteen sons and five daughters, by his two wives. He died at Mt. Holly in 1823, aged 85 years. One of his many sons was Thomas Richards, the father of Samuel, the principal promotor of Atlantic City. Thomas became a glass manufacturer on a portion of his father's estate, at Jackson, a small village in Camden County, near what is now Atco, and his son Samuel became a partner with him previous to 1850.
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RICHARD B. OSBORNE, C.E.
179
THE FIRST RAILROAD.
Many teams were required to do the heavy hauling of the raw material for glass and the manufactured products, between Jackson and Philadelphia, and to reduce this heavy expense a railroad from Camden towards the seashore began to be talked about before 1850.
Joseph Porter, at this time, had glass works at Waterford, and was the owner of six thousand acres of land. Andrew K. Hay and William Coffin were making glassware at Winslow and owned land there. William W. Fleming owned thirty thousand acres and was engaged in the same business at Atsion, a few miles above, and one Hammonton Coffin had owned land and operated a similar plant at the foot of the lake at what is now known as "Old Hammonton." Jesse Richards, a brother of Thomas, succeeded his father at Batsto, and was actively operating an estate of fifty thousand acres. including an iron furnace and glass works. Stephen Colwell and W. Dwight Bell operated a similar estate at Weymouth. ten miles south from Batsto, covering one hundred thous- and acres, belonging to the estate of their father-in-law, Samuel Richards, another son of William.
FIRST RAILROAD STATION, LOOKING SOUTH.
Gen. Enoch Doughty, at Absecon, owned an estate of twenty-five thousand acres, and was supplying ship timber, gathering tar, and selling wood and charcoal.
Dr. Jonathan Pitney had been practicing medicine in Absecon and surround- ing territory for thirty years when the railroad question began to be agitated. in 1850. Since he rode into Absecon on horseback, with his saddlebags, from Mend- ham, Morris County, N. J., one May morning in 1820, and announced that he had come to stay, Dr. Pitney had become one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of Atlantic County. He had taken an active part in the creation of Atlantic County from a part of old Gloucester, in 1837, and had always been as he continued to be till his death, a close personal friend of Gen. Enoch Doughty, who was High Sheriff of old Gloucester County before the division. In 1844 Dr. Pitney represented Atlantic County in the State Constitu- tional Convention. In 1848 he was a candidate for Congress. Before 1840 he had agitated and advocated the building of a lighthouse for the protection of ships
4
JACOB H. LEEDOM.
THE FIRST RAILROAD.
along this dangerous coast. When the railroad question came up, in 1850, 0 man was more prominent or influential than he, or helped more to shape matters to speedy conclusions. lle seems to have been the first physician to appreciap. the beneficial effects of ocean air upon invalids and the manifokl advantages of a "bathing village" upon Absecon beach.
Dr. Pitney and Gen. Doughty on their frequent trips to Philadelphia, met and discussed the railroad project with Andrew K. Hay. Gen. Joseph Porter. Thomas and Samuel Richards and others, some of whom questioned the advisa- bility of extending the railroad farther than the glassworks at Winslow or the iron works at Weymouth. It was undoubtedly due largely to the work and in- fluence of Dr. Pitney that the railroad was continued to the beach, as he seems to have understood the value and importance of the coast region better than his contemporaries.
It was in the little old store of John Doughty on the hill at Absecon that Dr. Pitney and Gen. Enoch Doughty dictated the first draft of the charter for the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. As they dictated, John Doughty, the son. wrote it out. That was in the winter of 1851. Whether this first draft was later revised and amplified by Abraham Browning, counsel for the incorporators, can only be conjectured. But it was largely due to the personal efforts of Dr. Pitney. as well as to the unflagging and persistent support of Samuel Richards, who followed the bill through the Legislature, and to the resolute advocacy of .Assem- blyman John A. Boyle, of Atlantic County, that the charter became a law, March 19. 1852. The Camden and Amboy politicians waived their objections at last. on the grounds that this "air line" to the coast was an impossible scheme that could never be consummated. No railroad without a town at the terminus could ever amount to anything.
The incorporators mentioned in the charter were John W. Mickle. Abraham Browning, Samuel Richards. Joseph Porter. Andrew K. Hay, John H. Coffin. John Stranger. Jesse Richards, Thomas H. Richards, Edmund Taylor, Joseph Thompson, Robert B. Risley, Enoch Doughty and Jonathan Pitney.
Samuel Richards had been from the first one of the most active of these men. He was thirty years of age, of pleasing manners. tireless energy, perse- verance and great ingenuity, being the patentee of several useful inventions. He accomplished what others regarded impossible, and entered heart and soul into this enterprise of railroad building. It was he who, on May 22, 1852, wrote the first letter to engineer Richard B. Osborne, instructing him to make the pre- liminary survey as ordered by the incorporators. Mr. Osborne completed his work on the 18th of June following, after which the company was organized and the location of the road ordered to be made by the directors. Samuel Richards made the first estimate of the probable business of the proposed road, and useil it as an argument in favor of the enterprise.
Some of the objects of the line which he had in view were:
First, to secure better transportation for the glass works at Jackson, Water- ford, Winslow. Batsto and Weymouth.
W. BLAIR STEWART, M.D.
1,3
THE FIRST RAILROAD.
Second, to convert large tracts of waste lands, owned by his relatives and associates into fruit and truck farms.
Third, to open up South Jersey by establishing an attractive bathing resort at the nearest possible point from Philadelphia.
At a meeting of the directors held in Philadelphia, June 11. 1852, Jesse Rich- ards, Esq., was chosen President, and Andrew K. Hay, Secretary. The following resolution was adopted :
Resolved, That John W. Mickle, Samuel Richards, Joseph Porter, Andrew K. Hay, Enoch Doughty, Jonathan Pitney, Jesse Richards, and Abraham Brown- ing, be severally authorized to procure subscriptions to the capital stock of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, and report at the next meeting of the company.
In the diary of the late W. Dwight Bell, occurs this memorandum: "June 22, 1852. Meeting at the house of Samuel Richards, Fifth Street. Philadelphia, of people interested in construction of Camden and Atlantic Railroad. Present, Samuel Richards, W. Dwight Bell, Enoch Doughty, Jonathan Pitney, Joseph Porter, Stephen Colwell. Thomas Richards and Jesse Richards."
Samuel Richards continued in the Board of Directors twenty-four years, and was an active officer as Director or Assistant President. The following letter indicates as much.
RICHARD B. OSBORN, EsQ.
DEAR SIR :- A resolution was passed at the last meeting of the Board, re- questing you to prepare for filing in the office of the Secretary of State that por- tion of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad commencing where it crosses the White Horse Road, and ending at Longacoming.
Yours respectfully, SAMUEL RICHARDS, Sec'y, pro tem.
Philadelphia, October 21, 1852.
At another meeting of the Board that same year he offered a resolution which was adopted, deciding on the name of "Atlantic City," a city on the Atlantic for this resort, as Mr. Osborne had suggested on the map which he had prepared. He thought there was as much in a name here as in Philadelphia, and by his wise suggestion and prompt action the names of the streets and avenues were named for the several States of this land of liberty, and the great oceans of the world.
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