USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. II > Part 11
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A portion of the site of the town was formerly known as the White farm, and the old homestead, where Bishop Asbury preached in 1809, is vet standing on its criginal location near Shark River. The town was platted in 1873 under the name of Ocean Beach by the Ocean Beach As- sociation.
Como, frequently called Lake Como, from the handsome little body of salt water within its borders, is a beautiful little village. It is prettily built with excellent streets, and is provided with water from artesian wells and is lighted by electricity. For pleasant and quiet bathing. fishing and .driving, its advantages are unsurpassable.
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Spring Lake is one of the most fashionable resorts on the coast. Its location is ideal, on the shore of the beautiful sheet of water from which it takes its name. A plank and asphalt walk is laid around it, and a rustic bridge spans its west end. One of the peculiarities of this lake is the trans- parency of the water. A coin dropped into it can be seen at a depth of twenty-five feet. All around the shores among the woods-pines, hickories, maples, oaks and other trees-are handsome cottages and charming drives, and the lake swarms with black bass, sunfish and pickerel. Night car- nivals are often held on the lake, and prizes are offered for the most gaily
LAKE SCENE.
illuminated boats taking part. Wrack Pond Inlet runs through the south- erly part of the village and gains its supply from the ocean. It is a shallow body, affords good .crabbing, and is perfectly safe for the fleets of row and sail boats that are constantly using it in summer. A borough govern- ment is maintained, and artesian water and sewerage systems were recently inaugurated at an outlay of eighty thousand dollars. The residences are of beautiful design, particularly those in "Hastings Square," a group of some twenty houses of Queen Anne architecture. In the autumn of 1900 three hotels were destroyed by fire, the Monmouth House, the largest in the village, and the Essex and the Carleton. The town was developed by the Coast Company, which annually sells a limited number of building lots to approved buyers who intend to become permanent residents. The place first began to develop in the region of the Monmouth House, the hotel seeming to serve as a nucleus for the growing settlement of summer residents, and in its immediate neighborhood are streets, cottages and
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churches, making of Spring Lake a resort conspicuous for the elegance of its exterior.
Sea Girt, fifty-seven miles from New York, is a particularly favorite resort, possessing ideal natural advantages. Highlands of no mean alti- tude, near the northern portion of the village, afford a beautiful view of the ocean and the country inland with its fringe of pine forest, while the beach gives opportunity for all the enjoyments of the seashore. Ex- cellent hotels are many, and among the principal of these are the Beach House, the Tremont and the Parker House. Permanent residents are few, but in the outskirts are many fishermen who follow their calling in Sea Girt Inlet and offshore.
Sea Girt owes its great distinction to the fact that it is each summer the rendezvous for the National Guard of New Jersey for their annual encampment, as it has been for many years past. Prior to the establish- ment of the encampment at this point, the National Guard assembled on the old rifle range near Elizabethport, but it was inadequate for that pur- pose, and had no camping ground connected with it. When the State decided to purchase land for a suitable site, Sea Girt was chosen as the most superior place in every particular, and negotiations were quickly closed. The grounds extend from the railroad to the ocean, affording. the soldiery ample opportunity for healthful recreation in the water. Per- manent headquarters and commissary buildings were erected, and the loca- tion for the tents of the soldiers is fixed as from the beginning. The well grassed parade ground is one of the most beautful spots for its purpose to be found in the country. At the ocean extremity of the grounds are the rifle ranges, set oceanward, in order to avoid all possible danger to human life during target practice. These grounds are also the scene of the most important interstate marksmanship tournaments.
The annual encampment is attended by great throngs of visitors from all sections of New Jersey, as well as by those from all adjacent States. who are interested in military affairs. On Governor's Day, when the chief executive of the State, who is also commander-in-chief of the National Guard, makes his visit of inspection, a brilliant asemblage is always pres- ent, and the scenes of the day are most inspiring when all the various arms of the service, infantry, cavalry and artillery, perform their evolutions and pass in review. In the evening is held "the Governor's Ball," which is not only the great social event of the place, but attracts society people in . throngs from all parts of the State, and from New York and Philadelphia.
Manasquan, one mile south of Sea Girt, is situated a mile inshore, and is a village with four churches, numerous stores, two hotels, the Os- born and the Squan, and a number of boarding houses. The most delight-
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ful feature of the place is its proximity to the Manasquan River, the south- ern boundary of Monmouth county, which at this point broadens out to lakelike proportions. The stream abounds in fish-striped bass, bluefish, blackfish and weakfish ; and crabs are plentiful. During the autumn months duck, plover, quail and woodcock are numerous, and attract many sports- men from New York and elsewhere. On the ocean front is an ample pavilion and excellent bathing accommodations.
The site was settled on in 1815 by fishermen. In 1872 the village of Sea View was founded on the Manasquan River, and is now a part of Manasquan.
Brielle, the northernmost coast village in Ocean county, is one-half mile south of Manasquan, and is a pretty little place with a modern and well- appointed hotel, the "Carteret Arms." It was founded by the Brielle Land Association, which in 1881 acquired a tract of land on the south bank of the Manasquan River, which here forms a cove formerly known as Mud Pond, and more recently as Glimmerglass. An excellent road leads to the beach which adjoins Manasquan Inlet, now nearly closed by reason of the intrusion of a Spanish brig, which years ago was wrecked at the mouth of the Inlet, and, being loaded with iron, became imbedded in the sand.
POINT PLEASANT.
Point Pleasant is sixty-four miles from New York, and is the ter- minus of the New York & Long Branch Railroad. With the ocean on the east, Barnegat Bay on the south, and the circuitous Manasquan River on the north and west, its claim to being among the coolest resorts on the coast is not to be disputed. There is an attractiveness about the place that brings thousands to its doors each summer, among them those in search of wild shore and ocean scenery. Marine painters have reproduced it on canvas, and yet come in the hope that the coast storms of the previous winter have produced something new. The scenery at the point is wild and picturesque. On all sides are great piles of sand washed up from the sea and drifted into fantastic shapes by the winds that sweep in mad fury across the peninsula during the heavy storms. A peculiar rank ribbon grass finds nourishment sufficient to sustain it in these sand dunes and adds greatly to the scenic effect as it waves to and fro like a sea in itself. This · curious speciment of marine vegetation, while found elsewhere on the coast, has here a most luxuriant growth, and Mrs. Sara L. Oberholtzer made it the theme of a poem under the title of "The Longport Ribbon."
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"Queen of the centuries, weaving on In the loom of ages from dawn to dawn, Thou hast turned out nothing of late, I ween, To equal this ribbon, afloat between The reaches of water that sway and smile And kiss and beckon the broadening isle."
Point Pleasant is a borough on Point Pleasure Beach, and has a permanent population of 746. The large hotels, the principal of which is the Leighton, are to the east of the railroad facing the ocean. They are as well conducted as any on the coast, and are occupied to their full capacity every summer. A place of interest that all sojourners here should visit is the headquarters of the superintendent of the New Jersey Coast Life Saving Service, with its splendid museum of wreck relics and other flotsam. The facilities for fishing, bathing, boating and gunning in this place and vicinity are not surpassed elsewhere upon the entire coast, if, indeed, they are to be equalled.
Projected southward from Bay Head to Barnegat Inlet, a distance of twenty miles, between the waters of Barnegat Bay and the ocean, is a narrow peninsula upon which have been built numerous pleasant little vil- lages. First of these, at the northern extremity, is Bay Head, where splendid piscatorial sport is afforded by the ocean, the bay and the Metede- cong River, with Chadwick a short distance to the south. The principal resort on this peninsula, however, is Sea Side Park. This is but fifty- nine miles distant from Philadelphia, and is the nearest seaside resort to that city, from which it derives a large and constant throng of visitors during the season. The location is immediately opposite the wide and picturesque mouth of the Toms River, on a narrow strip of land extending from Manasquan on the north to Barnegat Inlet on the south. The broad ocean in front and the ample expanse of Barnegat Bay in the rear give the place the advantage of being actually several miles out at sea.
The natural advantages of the place are numerous and unsurpassed, and combine to make it one of the most restful and desirable summer resorts of America. Surf bathing is, of course, one of its chief attrac- tions, and from its perfect safety is here especially inviting. The beach is one of the finest along the New Jersey coast. The sand hills have been brought to a common level and the bay shore filled in to several feet above high tide. There are therefore no pools or sedgy depressions of any kind where stagnant waters breed or harbor mosquitos. Extensive improve- ments have been made in the city water supply and sanitary arrangements,
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as well as in hotels and cottages, thus insuring perfect healthfulness and ample accommodations.
Inland and southward from Point Pleasant, a distance of about eight- een miles, to Lakehurst, and thence southwardly to Barnegat Bay, is known as the sportsmen's paradise. The bay itself is a feeding ground for wild fowl as famous as ever was the Chesapeake Bay region. The great pine region, with its forest hidden creeks, swamps and ponds, affords the se- curest hiding place for wild fowl possible. Ducks and geese are constantly seen winging their way skyward or riding the wavelets, and snipe, plover, teal and other aquatic fowl are also plentiful in the proper season. The stream and the lands on either side are delightfully picturesque, and the roads are so admirably kept that they are famous with cyclists. One of the favorite drives is to Island Heights, where a magnificent view of the bay and ocean is obtainable. Other fine drives are to Lakewood and Bamber and along the main bay shore. On the south shore of the river is the house in which Thomas Piacide, the once famous actor, committed suicide.
As a sailing ground Barnegat Bay is unsurpassable. It is the farthest north of a series of bays which are separated from one another by encroach- ments of the salt meadows fringing their shores and by sedgy islands, and between these islands the channels are so deep and wide that it is possible to sail from Barnegat Bay to Cape May. At various points competent yachtsmen are always in attendance for the accommodation of fishing or sailing parties, and a fine steamer makes several excursions each day be- tween Island Heights, Toms River and Sea Side Park.
TOMS RIVER.
The principal town in the Barnegat Bay region is Toms River, sit- uated on both sides of the river of the same name, and four miles from its mouth. By rail it is fifty-two miles from New York. Notwithstanding its distance from the ocean (seven miles) it is one of the most favorably known of New Jersey summer resorts, and is sought each year by throngs of visitors. principally of a well-to-do class who really seek health and quiet recreation rather than engage in the more exacting social life of the fashionable watering places. The natural advantages of the place are ideal in their character.
The town itself has a quaint air which is restful and refreshing in itself. Yet it is ail-sufficiently modern. Its streets are lighted by elec- tricity, water is distributed by modern works of first-class construction, and an efficient fire department is maintained. The town has a national bank,
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and two newspapers, the "New Jersey Courier" and the "Ocean County Democrat." The educational system comprises a graded school employing five teachers, and seven suburban schools employing nine teachers. The churches are of the Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Protestant Episcopal and Roman Catholic denominations. One of the hotels is cele- brated throughout the State for its quiet homelike air, and for the excel- lence of its table, particularly with reference to oysters, fish and wild fowl. The salt water bred oyster, innocent of the contamination of creek refuse, is famed the land over, and for still-water fishing, trolling, crabbing and all other sporting that the deep green sea affords; the region is not surpassed on the Atlantic coast.
Toms River is recorded on the books of the proprietors in 1740, when of 2,580. The origin of the name of the village has never been deter- mined, and will ever be a cause for dispute. Tradition says that it was named for Tom, a noted Indian, who lived on what is now known as Island Heights, near the mouth of the river. This claim finds objection in the statement that Indian Tom flourished about the beginning of the Revolu- tionary war, and that "Toms River" appears on a map printed as early as 1727, prior to which time the stream was known as Goose Creek. Edwin Salter, a careful local historian, was of the opinion that the name was taken from that of Captain William Tom, a British army officer, who came to Elizabethport, New Jersey, with the first English colony in 1665, and afterward removed to Delaware. He was. a surveyor, and penetrated into the country from the Delaware River, and is supposed to have visited and mapped the Toms River region.
Toms River is recorded on the books of the proprietors in 1740, when the lumber trade began, and afterward salt manufacture, and it became a scene of busy industry. During the Revolutionary war many privateering vessels were fitted out, and many prizes were brought into harbor. The burning of the village by British troops in 1782 is a part of the military history of the State. Until after the Revolutionary war the place was known as Dover (the township name), or as Toms River Bridge. At a town meeting the name of Washington was adopted, in honor of the "Father of His Country," but the enactment was futile, and the present name came to be universally recognized, the "Bridge" suffix being dropped.
About 1812 Cranberry Inlet, opposite the mouth of Toms River, closed up and remains closed to this day. In 1821 one Ortley expended consider- able means in digging a channel across the beach, but it filled up almost immediately. In 1847 Anthony Ivins, Jr., made another attempt, but the work was abandoned after three hundred men had labored for three days.
Ocean county was formed in 1850, when Toms River became the coun-
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ty seat. The first newspaper was then printed, the "Ocean Signal," which has for its successor the present "New Jersey Courier." The Methodist church, built in 1828, was replaced with a new edifice, and a Presbyterian church was built about the same time. Other churches are of comparatively recent establishment.
South of Toms River, on the mainland, are numerous villages which are sought by many pleasure-seekers whose principal enjoyment is in fish- ing and hunting. Cedar Creek, flowing into Barnegat Bay, is a particularly favorite region, and well inland is good ground for aquatic fowl. The stream is large and swift, at places expanding into lakelike proportions, and affording delightful bits of scenery. Near by, at Good Luck, the Murray Grove Association holds its annual meetings.
Forked River derives its name from the convergement of the three branches which form the main stream, at a point just above. It is a vil- lage of some four hundred population, with a public school and churches of the Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian and Universalist denominations. It has four comfortable hotels which are noted for the appetizing way in which the game and fish of the bay are served, and numerous cottages. which afford accommodation for many visitors during the summer months. The oyster shipments from this point are very large. In the early days the place was the port for the Lacey and Ferrago furnaces.
Waretown, five miles south of Forked River, is immediately opposite Barnegat Inlet. Its permanent population is four hundred, and this num- ber is doubled during the summer by the influx of pleasure seekers. It contains a public school and four churches, Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian and Universalist. A large hotel, the Bayview. is admirably well conducted, and its site commands a delightful view. The resident population is principally engaged in the fish and oyster industry. The people are noted for their hospitality and old-fashioned cheeriness of manner.
The name of the town is derived from that of Abraham Waeir, who headed a Baptist colony which settled here in 1737. During the Revolu- tionary war there were salt works here, and during the war of 1812 it was the rendezvous of whaleboatmen and privateersmen, and numerous skirmishes took place in the vicinity.
The village of Barnegat lies on the mainland, a short distance below Waretown. This is a flourishing place of one thousand inhabitants, with borough organization. A graded school, Methodist Episcopal. Presbyterian and Quaker churches, and lodges of the leading fraternal and benevolent orders, provide amply for the necessities of educational, religious and social
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life. A cemetery owned by the Masonic Cemetery Association is an orna- ment to the place, and is most creditably maintained. There are several excellent hotels, and one at Harvey Cedars, seven miles distant across the bay, is a favorite resort. Among the residents are scores of watermen who provide all descriptions of craft for pleasure seekers and fishermen. The principal industries are oyster planting, fishing and clamming. Great quan- tities of cranberries are sent into market from here, and the greater num- ber of the florists and seedsmen in the United States and Canada draw upon the place and vicinity for the sphagnum moss and peat taken from its cedar swamps and bogs.
The name of the village was originally "Barendegat," the Dutch equivalent for "broken waters," given it because of the tumult caused by the many bars and shoals at the mouth of the inlet. For the first hun- dred years of its existence the majority of the settlers were Quakers.
No manufactories are as yet established. The natural advantages offered for the purpose are sufficient to make it a desirable place. Rail- road service is very good, freight rates are low, and the population is large enough to insure a sufficient supply of labor for any class of industry not particularly requiring skill and training.
One of the most famous regions of the coast is Little Egg Harbor, which term includes the waters and shores lying between Manahawkin and the stream known as Mullica River or Little Egg Harbor River. The settlement of the region began in 1689, and its name was given it because of the great quantities of gull's eggs there found. According to its orig- inal boundaries, about 1709, it was a tract of land about seventeen miles in length, with an average breadth of seven miles. In this territory are comprised a number of flourishing villages, of which the principal one is Tuckerton.
Beginning at Barnegat Inlet a slender thread of land trends its way almost southwestwardiy for a distance of some thirty miles, terminating where the waters of Great Bay meet the ocean. Upon this are several spots which are sought by visitors-Barnegat City, on the northern ex- tremity, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach City, Barnegat City Junction, Peahala. Spray Beach, North Beach Haven and Beach Haven. A trolley line reaches all these points, and at Barnegat City Junction (Surf postoffice) a branch connects with the mainland at Manahawkin.
Great Bay, marking the northeastern boundary of Atlantic county, receives Atsion and Wading rivers and numerous smaller streams. South of its point of reaching the ocean begins Brigantine Beach, following the general direction of the coast ani terminating at the inlet which separates it from Absecon Island. The waters of the bay are dotted with a multiplicity
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of islets. Brigantine Beach is reached from Atlantic City by steam ferry, and is steadily coming into favor as a summer resort.
ATLANTIC CITY.
Atlantic City possesses advantages all its own, peculiar to itself, in which it is without a rival. Climatically, it is pleasurable and health-restor- ing to those from the north and those from the south, and at all seasons of the year. It is the most cosmopolitan of sea-shore resorts. The multi- millionaires and the ultra-fashionable find here all possible opportunity for expenditure of wealth and for display, while the great middle class and those poorer may live comfortably and economically, and yet enjoy those blessings from the Almighty which are not purchasable, but are free to all-the pure air and sea which He made. Best known to the world as the queen of American watering places and health resorts, Atlantic City is also a great seaside city, where, throughout the year, people may abide in comfort. Many of the visitors linger until December, and ere the holiday festivities are fairly over at home the first company of winter vis- itors has arrived, harbingers of that larger company whose appearance is coincident with the advent of February. Excepting an occasional "nor'- easter," which is a treat in itself by way of contrast, the weather at this season is all that one could desire. The winter and spring, or Lenten sea- son, is the most notable of the year. The resort then becomes the abode of a distinguished company who seek to escape the rigor of northern climes. The great hotels, which remain open throughout the year, are filled in the earlier months by the best representatives of society from the east, the west, the north and the south.
The city is easily accessible. With Philadelphia and all the railroads centering there it is connected by numerous fast trains, while with New York and the east there is ample communication by through trains which make the rim from New York to Atlantic City in three and one-half hours. To these splendid transportation facilities is due the fact that while the permanent population of the city is less than twenty-eight thou- sand (27,838 according to the census of 1900) the summer visitors swell the number to as many as one hundred and fifty thousand.
From the beginning all has been done that science could devise and means would procure to enhance the desirability of the city as a place of abode, permanent as well as transient. There are excellent churches and schools, good government, good society and good order. There are the seashore advantages, to be mentioned at greater length hereinafter. There are four hundred and fifty hotels and large boarding houses, and in addi-
HIGH SCHOOL.
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INDIANA AVE SCHOOL
NEWJERSEY AVE SCHOOL
TEXAS AVE SCHOOL
CHELSEA SCHOOL ·
PENNA AVE SCHOOL
GROUP OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ATLANTIC CITY.
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tion to these there are over one thousand five hundred cottages, many of which receive boarders. Of the two hundred and forty larger hotels and boarding houses, over one hundred are open throughout the year. The hotels are among the finest and most comfortable along the coast. The city is admirably lighted with electricity. The authorities spend nearly $40,000 a year for lighting. The ocean promenade and all the principal avenues are lit with brilliant electric lights the year round. The under- ground sewerage system has worked so successfully that Atlantic City is admitted to be the only perfectly drained resort on the coast. The waves that beat on the beach here are not required to act as scavengers for the city. The surf is absolutely free from refuse or defilement of any kind. The city garbage, which amounts to 10,500 tons annually, is collected in sanitary carts and taken to the crematory at the extreme northwestern side of the city and there cremated. The crematory is a model plant and cost $58,000. The city pays the contractor $10,000 a year for collecting the garbage. The water supply from artesian wells, some of them 1,000 feet deep, and from natural springs on the mainland, is inexhaustible. There is no purer or clearer water anywhere in America. This is con- ceded by scientists and recognized by thousands of critical visitors, and is better confirmed by statistics. The national mortuary table averages the deaths among the resident population at 12.05 to the 1,000, or second only to one other place in the country, and that a small city in Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie-a surprising testimonial to the healthfulness of the locality.
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