USA > New Jersey > Cape May County > The history of Cape May County, New Jersey : from the aboriginal times to the present day > Part 29
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In 1875 Sea Grove, now Cape May Point, was founded as a Presbyterian summer resort by Alexander Whilldin, of Philadelphia, and others. The idea of such a place had been in the minds of Mr. Whilldin for some years. The first move towards its founding was the organizing of the West Cape May Land Company, which was chartered by
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LIFE FOLLOWING THE REBELLION.
the Legislature in March 8, 1872. The incorporators were Alexander Whilldin, Colonel James Pollock. George H. Stuart, H. R. Wilson, S. A. Mutchmore, Nicholas Murray, James H. Stevens, George W. Hill, G. H. Huddell, J. P. Reznoo, John Wanamaker, Robert J Mercer, Hon. M. Hall Stanton and Joseph Freas, of Philadelphia; Return B. Swain, Franklin Hand, Richard S. Leaming, Thomas Bees- ley, Downs Edmunds and Virgil M. D. Marcy, of Cape May county, and former United States Senator Alexander G. Cattell, of Camden county. On the 18th of February, 1875, the Sea Grove Association was chartered by the Legislature, with Alexander Whilldin, Dr. V. M. D. Marcy, Downs Ed- munds, Dr. J. Newton Walker and John Wanamaker as directors.
Under their supervision Sea Grove was laid out on the most northerly point of the State, and on what was originally known as Stites' Beach. The town prospered for a about fifteen years. A postoffice was established there on March 27, 1876, with Alexander Whilldin Springer, nephew of the above, as postmaster. In 1878 the name of the office was changed to Cape May Point, by which it is still known. Shortly after the town was settled a borough government was established, which lasted until 1894.
Alexander Whilldin was born in Philadelphia in 1808, his father being a Cape May pilot, who was drowned in 1812. The mother and son then came to Cape May and lived here until young Alexander was sixteen years of age. He then became a clerk in a Philadelphia store, and did the chores. Gradually rising in his position, he was, in 1832, able to begin business for himself as a wool merchant. He pros- pered until he became one of the first men in the financial world of Philadelphia. He was for years president of the American Life Insurance Company. He died in Philadel- phia in April 16, 1893.
John Wanamaker, a merchant and philanthropist, of Phil- adelphia, was born in that city on July II, 1837. He was educated in the public schools there, and began business in 1861, and now owns the greatest retail establishment in the. United States. He has also a large retail store in New
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
York city. He is a prominent Presbyterian, and in 1857 organized Bethany Sabbath-school, of which he has ever since been superintendent. For many years he was president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Philadelphia. From 1889 to 1893 he was Post- master-General of the United States under the ad- ministration of President Benjamin Harrison. He owns a handsome summer residence at Cape May Point, where he built Beadle Memorial Chapel.
Virgil M. D. Marcy was the son of Dr. Samuel S. Marcy, and was born in Lower township January 5, 1823. At ten years of age he was sent to Connecticut to school, and there prepared for college. At sixteen he was prepared for col- lege, but, being young, waited a year and then entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1844. He became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Society. He then returned to Cape May and studied medicine under his father and Dr. Edmund L. B. Wales, of Tuckahoe. In 1846 he received the degree of M. D. from the University of Mary- land, at Baltimore. He then settled in Gloucester county, Va., and practiced three years, and then, in 1849, removed to Cold Spring, and took up his father's practice, where he re- si led until 1876, when he removed to Cape May City. He was a charter member of Cape Island Lodge, F. and A. M., organized in 1866. He became a member of Cold Spring Church in 1840, and has been an elder for thirty-five years. He is a member of the firm of Marcy & Marcy, druggists.
In the summer of 1876 ten commissioners of the Meth- odist Church South and Methodist Church North met at Cape May City to settle on a basis of fraternal union between the two organizations, which had been divided by the Civil War, and they originated a plan which was subsequently agreed upon by the two bodies.
On June 4, 1875, a company of the State National Guard was organized in Cape May City, which was known as Com- pany H, Sixth Regiment, until it was disbanded in May 16, 1893. Its membership was composed of residents of all parts of the county. The records of the officers of this com- pany are as follows:
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LIFE FOLLOWING THE REBELLION.
Captains.
George W. Smith-Elected June 4. 1875; commissioned June 22, 1875; promoted major September 21, 1882.
Christopher S. Magrath-Elected October 10, 1882; commissioned January 23, 1883; resigned January 15, 1884; afterwards became adjutant of the reginient.
Edwin P. Clark-Elected April 17, 1884; commissioned May 20, 1884; resigned March 21, 1885.
George W. Reeves-Elected July 18, 1885; commissioned September 22, 1885; resigned February 5, 1889.
Herbert W. Edmunds-Elected March 14, 1889; commis- sioned April 19, 1889; resigned September 30, 1890.
H. Freeman Douglass-Elected February 9, 1891; com- missioned May 2, 1891 ; retired May 16, 1893.
First Lieutenants.
Christopher S. Magrath-Elected June 4, 1875; commis- sioned June 22, 1875; elected captain October 10, 1882.
William Farrow-Elected October 10, 1882; commis- sioned January 23, 1883; resigned April 24, 1884.
James T. Bailey-Elected July 4, 1884; commissioned August 5, 1884; resigned March 21, 1885.
Robert C. Hill-Elected July 18, 1885: commissioned September 22, 1885; resigned January 24, 1888.
Herbert W. Edmunds-Elected March 26, 1888; commis- sioned April 24, 1888; elected captain March 14, 1889.
H. Freeman Douglass-Elected April 13, 1889; commis- sioned August 20, 1889; elected captain February 9, 1891.
James T. Bailey-Elected February 9, 1891; commis- sioned May 2, 1891; retired May 16, 1893.
Second Lieutenants.
John Henry Farrow-Elected June 4, 1875; commis- sioned June 22, 1875; resigned December 25. 1877.
William Farrow-Elected February 4, 1878; commis- sioned May 2, 1878; elected first lieutenant October 10, 1882. Edwin P. Clark-Elected October 10, 1882; commis- sioned January 23, 1883: elected captain April 17, 1884.
Charles G. Clark-Elected April 17, 1884: commissioned May 20, 1884; resigned March 21, 1885.
James T. Bailey-Elected March 24, 1886; commis-
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
sioned April 29, 1886; elected first lieutenant February 9, 1891.
William F. Williams-Elected February 9, 1891; com- missioned May 2, 1891 ; retired May 16, 1893.
CHAPTER XXVII. FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROSPERITY.
In 1876 William Doolittle, of Ocean View; W. V. L. Seig- man, of Cape May City; Dr. John Wiley, of Court House, and Downs Edmunds, of Lower township, were appointed by the State Centennial Commission as a local committee to gather agricultural and horticultural specimens from Cape May county for exhibition at the Centennial Exposition, held that year in Philadelphia. They asked the Board of Freeholders for one hundred dollars, with which to accom- plish their purpose. It was refused, and Cape May was, therefore, not represented officially.
In 1876, '77 and '78 William T. Stevens, of Cape May City, was the member of the Assembly. He was born in Lower township on November 13, 1841, and was a great grandson of Henry Stevens and of Henry Young Town- :send, both captains in the Revolution, and a grandson of Joshua Townsend, lieutenant in the War of 1812, and after- wards a member of both branches of the Legislature. He obtained his education in the public schools and under Rev. Moses Williamson and James R. Hughes. He served in Company F, Twenty-fifth Regiment, during the Civil War, and, after being mustered out, as a recruiting officer. Hav- ing learned the carpeenter's trade, he was employed after the war in the rebuilding of light houses in the South. In 1871 and '72, and again from 1886 to 1892, he was a member of the City Council of Cape May City. In 1888 he was president of the body. He was a member of the Board of Freeholders from 1893 to 1896, and was chosen in 1897 for an additional term of three years. He has been building inspector of Cape May City for two years. In politics he has always been a Republican. He is a deacon of the Bap- tist Church, with which he united when a young man.
In 1877 William Hildreth, of Court House, was appointed
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
surrogate to succeed Dr. Jonathan F. Leaming, who re- signed. He was that year elected for five years, and has been three times re-elected, holding the office at the pres- ent time. He is a son of Joshua Hildreth, who was born in 1774 and died in 1859, and who was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Surrogate Hildreth is also a grandson of John Dickinson, colonel of the Cape May regiment in the War of 1812. He was born at Court House- on June 10, 1828. He was first chosen assessor of Middle township.
WILLIAM T. STEVENS.
On March 26, 1878, a part of Maurice River township- was set over into Cape May county by act of the Legislature. The new boundaries were as follows: Beginning at a stone on the old Cape road, on the division line between Cape- May and Cumberland, thence along the several courses of the said Cape Road to the intersection with the Dorchester and Estelleville road. Following that highway to the Cum- berland and Tuckahoe road, the line ran thence along said road to a point on Hunter's Mill Dam in the Cumberland" and Atlantic line, thence along the latter line to the terminus of the present Cumberland and Cape May line, thence to be- ginning. This land was made a part of Upper township ..
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FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROSPERITY.
In 1879 Ocean City, on Peck's Beach, the most northerly in Cape May county, was founded by three brothers, Samuel Wesley Lake, James E. Lake and Ezra B. Lake, all min- isters of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During that summer, while sailing across Great Egg Harbor Bay, they conceived the idea of selecting the place as a Methodist and temperance resort. In October, that year, the Ocean City Association was formed. In February following, William Lake, another brother, made survey, and in May an auction was held. The next year a postoffice was established there, with Rev. W. H. Burrell as postmaster.
In 1877 William H. Benezet, of Court House, was chosen sheriff, serving three years. In 1883 he was again elected sheriff, and served as such until he died, in 1886. He was a descendant of Anthony Benezet, the famous Philadelphia philanthropist, who lived there before the Revolution. He was born at Court House on March 27, 1841, where he ob- tained his education. He was apprenticed to a carriage builder and learned that trade. He afterwards became a shoe merchant at Court House. After his second election as sheriff he removed to Cape May City, and opened a shoe store there. He died August 10, 1886, at Cape May City.
By the census of 1880 the population of the county was 9765, of which 570 were colored persons. The number of males living in the county over twenty-one years of age were: Native white, 2465; foreign white, IO1 ; colored, 144. The population was divided among the political divisions as follows: Cape May City, 1699; Cape May Point, 198; Dennis township, 1812; Lower, 1779; Middle, 2575, and Upper, 1702. The population of the villages reported were : Court House, 570; Dyers (Dias Creek), 356; Goshen, 464; Green Creek, 362; Mayville, 273; Rio Grande, 241; Towns- end Inlet, 309.
Waters Burrows Miller, who was State Senator from 1880 to 1886, and was the ninth and eleventh mayor of Cape Is- land, was born in Gloucester county, N. J., in 1824, and, when eleven years of age, his father, Jonas Miller, a prom- inent hotel man of his day, and who, as proprietor of Con- gress Hall, entertained President Buchanan when that dis-
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
tinguished official visited Cape May, moved with his fam- ily to Cape Island, where young "Burr," as he was famil- iarly called, grew up. Miller, as soon as he was old enough, began his life as a partner with his father in the manage- ment of Congress Hall, which was a most famous place in its day, being known in almost every part of America. His sister, Miss Pauline, married Jacob Frank Cake, who after- ward became famous as a Congress Hall and Stockton Ho-
WATERS B. MILLER.
tel proprietor, who entertained both Grant and Arthur, and num rous Cabinet officers and statesmen. After Mr. Cake's death Mrs. Cake continued to manage Congress Hall.
When the city of Cape Island was made a municipality, he was elected 2+ its first election, in March, 1851, the first alderman of the city, and for the forty years succeeding was one of the foremost citizens, not only of the city, but of the county and State.
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FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROSPERITY.
In the fall of 1852 Mr. Miller was elected a member of the New Jersey Assembly, and served in the seventy-seventh Legislature. In 1854 the people of this city elected him a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, and he was successively re-elected in 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861, and, after being out a year, was again elected to the same office in 1863. In 1865 he was elected a member of the City Council for one year, and again made a member of the Board of Freeholders in 1866 and 1868.
In March, 1869, he was elected mayor of the city for a term of two years. In 1871 he was a candidate for the office, but was defeated by Mayor Joseph Ware by a few votes, two other candidates, Messrs. Richard R. Thompson and Joseph Q. Williams, being in the field and dividing the vote. But in 1873 Mr. Miller was again a candidate and elected for a two-year term. He was again, in 1878 and 1879, made a member of the Board of Freeholders. He was a leading Democrat of the county, and was a power in politics. He tried five times to get into the State Senate, being success- ful twice. He made his first trial in 1855, and was defeated by Jesse Diverty, Know Nothing, afterwards a leading Dem- ocrat and judge of the county courts. He tried for the place again in 1873, and was defeated by Senator Richard S. Leaming. Not discouraged, he was again made the Demo- cratic nominee in 1879, and was successful, defeating his former opponent, Senator Leaming, being the second Dem- ocrat elected to the Senate from the county. He was re- elected in 1882 for three more years. In 1891 he was de- feated in the convention by one vote by Lemuel E. Miller, who was elected.
When the Cape May and Millville Railroad, now the West Jersey, was being built to Cape May, its projection seemed to be a failure, when, by mortgaging his property, he aided materially in its completion to this city.
In 1886 he was the originator of the first electric light company in this county. He was largely instrumental in the securing of the Cape May City charter of 1875. He was postmaster of Cape May City from March 12 to April 16, in 1886.
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
He has three sons, Richard T. Miller, appellate judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court; Jonas S. Miller, prosecutor of the pleas in Cape May county, and Lafayette Miller. He- died at Cape May in September, 1892.
Richard T. Miller, his son, was born in Cape May City December 16, 1845. He studied law with Thomas P. Car- penter, then a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey .. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1867 and as counsellor in 1870. He was city solicitor of Cape May ina 1869 and 1870, and again from 1890 to 1893. He was dis- trict court judge of Camden city from March 3, 1877, to July II, 1888, and was prosecutor of the pleas for Cape May county from 1889 to 1892. On April 1. 1892, he was made. president judge of the Camden County Common Pleas and resigned from that position on March 11. 1893, to go on the- Circuit Court bench of the New Jersey Supreme Court, tor which he had been appointed by Governor Werts for a term of seven years, which will expire in 1900. In politics .. he is a Democrat.
Jesse D. Ludlam, who was elected Assemblyman in 1879,- and who served in the Assembly in 1880, 1883, 1884 and" 1885, was a grandson of Henry Swain, who, with Joshua Swain, patented the centre-board in 1811. He was born at Dennisville, February 28, 1840. He was educated in the public schools and at Pennington Seminary. He was for ten years a member of the Dennis Township Committee ... and for five years its chairman. He was a member of the Board of Freeholders from Dennis township from 1881 to» 1884. He served for many years on the School Board. He is engaged in farming and in selling and shipping cedar. In 1890 Governor Abbett appointed him a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and he served as such until 1896, when. the law was passed reducing the number to one law judge .. In politics he is a Democrat.
Remington Corson, of South Seaville, was sheriff from 1880 to 1883, was born about 1846 and died at his home at South Seaville on April 21, 1894, aged 48 years. He held" township offices and postmaster at South Seaville, where he was a leading merchant from 1867 to 1881, and from 188g-
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FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROSPERITY.
0 1893. He was a member of Calvary Baptist Church. His father, Baker Corson, also postmaster from 1881 to 1885, died one day before Remington-on April 20, 1894, aged 78 years. He was for forty years a member of Cal- vary Baptist Church. He was formerly a sea captain and merchant.
The third newspaper established in the county was the "'Cape May County Gazette," which was printed at Cape May Court House. The first number appeared on March 6, 1880. It was and still remains a weekly. The first issue · contained four pages, each 15 by 21 inches. It was issued
ALFRED COOPER.
by Alfred Cooper, who is still its publisher. Alfred Cooper is a son of George B. Cooper, of Cumberland county, who was a clerk of the New Jersey Assembly in 1865 and 1866. He was born at Kinderhook, N. Y., September 6, 1859. He obtained his education in Millville, N. J .; Valatia, N. Y., and at Pierce's Business College, Philadelphia. After grad- uating he learned the printer's trade at Millville, where he remained until establishing the "Gazette." Since 1890 he hts been on the Count Board of Elections. In politics he is a Republican.
On January 3, 1881, Thaddeus Van Gilder, of Petersburg,
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
died. He was one of the most noted merchants in the- county. He was born April 6, 1830. He conducted a ship-building business and had hundreds of men chopping and shipping wood.
During the session of our Legislature of 1881 a bill was. passed entitled "An act to encourage the manufacture of su- gar in the State of New Jersey." This act provided that a. bounty of one dollar per ton could be paid by the State to the farmer for each ton of material out of which crystallized cane sugar was actually obtained; it provided also a bounty of one cent per pound to the manufacturer for each pound of cane sugar made from such materials. After the passage of this act, the Senate requested the Agricultural College to experiment on the sorghum plant in order to further its cultivation by the farmers of this State.
Mr. Hilgert, an enterprising business man of Philadelphia, member of the firm J. Hilgert's Sons, sugar refiners, built and fitted up an extensive sugar house at an expense of at least $60,000 at Rio Grande. This house during the first fall worked the cane of about 700 acres. The product of crystallized sugar was sold to refiners at seven and eight cents per pound. The yield, though not as large as ex- pected, was regarded as satisfactory. The farmers of that section who calculated on an average yield of ten tons of cane and thirty bushels of seed were disappointed, the av- erage yield per acre being about five tons of cane and twenty bushels of seed, which sold readily for sixty-five cents per bushel. Lemuel E. Miller, who was perhaps the largest cane grower on the cape, raised, on 120 acres, 641 tons of cane and 2500 bushels of seed. The total amount realized by him is reported to be $3648. The cost of growing this crop is not known at present, but the reported cost for Iowa in the year 1873, is, exclusive of fertilizers, $12.50 per acre.
The bounties offered for the production of sorghum cane and sugar encouraged the Rio Grande Sugar Company, which had succeeded the Hilgerts, to invest large sums, and in the purchase of lands upon which to grow sugar cane. This enterprise was continued until 1885. Good crops were grown and much sugar made. The difficulties in establishing a new business was fairly overcome. The ruinously low
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FIFTEEN YEARS OF PROSPERITY.
prices of sugar in the latter years, however, took away all chances of profit in a mill which, at the best, could express only half the sugar in the cane. The process of diffusion, or soaking out the sugar by water, was tried upon a large scale, but difficulties incident to a new business delayed the realization of the hopes of the company, and work by the Rio Grande Sugar Company ended with 1886. The boun- ties offered by the State ended with 1885. The whole amount of bounties paid to encourage this industry was $43.723.
Henry A. Hughes, of Cape May City, who had been the superintendent of the works from the beginning, and who was largely interested in overcoming the difficulties experi- enced in the above enterprise, at the beginning of 1887 or- ganized the Hughes Sugar Company, and, with the assist- ance of the United States Department of Agriculture, built and equipped a small sugar house, to work fifteen or twenty tons of cane per day. The machinery in the house was mainly of his own invention, and included machines for topping, stripping and shredding the cane, and for extract- ing the sugar by diffusion. The results of the work in 1887 were, in many respects, satisfactory, and the experience gained showed where and how many savings of time, labor and expense could be made.
At the beginning of 1888 numerous changes were planned so as to produce effective work, and a large sum of money was appropriated bythe New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station to carry them into operation. But these plans for the expenditure of the money were not carried through.
The United States Government latterly assisted, but in 1890 the attempt to raise sorghum cane was abandoned.
Henry A. Hughes was a grandson of Captain Humphrey Hughes, of the War of 1812. He was for years an employe of Edward C. Knight in the Philadelphia Sugar Refinery.
Rev. Edward Patrick Shields was appointed county super- intendent of public schools in 1881 to succeed Dr. Maurice Beesley, who had resigned.
Edward Patrick Shields, D. D., was born August 31, 1833, at New Albany, Ind., and was the third son of Henry B. and Joanna D. Shields. He joined the Presbyterian Church
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
there on profession of faith in 1849, in the sixteenth year of his age. He received an academical training at New Al- bany in an eight years' course of superior schooling in the classical institute. From 1848 he was employed in a wholesale hardware store in Louisville, Ky., remaining three years. He graduated at Miami University, at Oxford, O., in 1854, during the presidency of Rev. William C. Ander- son, D. D.
Ile then took a three years' course (1854-57) in the New Albany Theological Seminary, now the McCormick Sem- inary, at Chicago, Ill. Another year was added in theology with the class which graduated at Princeton Theological Seminary in April, 1858. He served as a stated supply of the Presbyterian Church at Bloomington, Ind., in 1856, while his studies at New Albany were in progress. He was ordained a minister of the gospel in the Presbyterian denom- ination by the Presbytery of West Jersey, at Pittsgrove, N. J., June 2, 1858. He was settled over the church there from 1858 to 1870. During this time a very handsome brick church was erected by the congregation at a cost of $25,000. He removed on January 1, 1871, to Cape May City, and was installed pastor over the Presbyterian Church, where he re- mained until March 1, 1884, the longest pastorate in the his- tory of the county of Cape May, with the exception of the very long pastorate of Rev. Moses Williamson, at Cold Spring, viz., forty-six years.
He was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church at Bristol, Pa., being installed May 1, 1884, where he re- mained until 1897, when he resigned. His three pastorates averaged thirteen years. He received the honorary degree of D. D. from Miami University, his alma mater, in 1887.
He served a full three years' term as superintendent of public instruction in Cape May county from 1881 to 1884, by appointment of the State Board of Education. His re- moval to Pennsylvania required a change in the office.
Furman L. Richardson, who served in the Assembly from 1881 to 1883, was born in Middle township February 23, 1842. He is a grandson of Aaron Leaming, who was sher- iff of the county from 1812 to 1815. He attended the pub- lic schools at Rio Grande. In 187- he entered into the gro-
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