The Herald «nd The Umteni

WednewUy, October 15. IWt

P»gel

CAPE MAY - TV Belt meeting at Ujt Vlltage Greene Civic AeeocUUon will be held In the aiy Auditorium at 1:90 p m

Officials Invited To Gvie Meeting SWWF1IHFS Seturdey, Oct. 18. Chief Prank Franceeconl A ihort business nectlng

Mayor Arthur Blomk vest, Deputy Mayor Adrian Capehart. City Manager J. Fred Cokhen, and Police

have been Invited to an- will precede the apawer queetlona which a roar / pea ranee of Ihe speakers, during the last meeting of startingat 1:30p.m.

the Association.

by Janwotto O'May

Cape Real Estate Sales Were Easy In 17th. Century •Thar She Blows'!” , n»e whaler’fr cry was heard In Cape May County 300 years ago when th6 denizens of the deep cavorted in the Delaware Bay. Seamen came down from New England and Long Island to take advantage of the milder climate and to escape from Puritan pedantry. Town Bank was the first permanent settlement for these adventurers, with 13 original huts. Real estate men even in those days didn’t have difficulty selling land in our county (I wonder what their commission was?). Consider this purchase in 1688: Dr. Daniel Coxe, a London physician, bought, sight unseen, 95,000 acres. He established a whaling company and built a two-story manor called Coxe Hall, which was used for Baptist and Quaker services and other local functions, and served as offices and court when Cape May County was created in 1692. WHALING PROVED VERY lucrative and many of the pioneers purchased land offshore and built substantial homes. One of these is the Christopher Learning House, constructed in 1720. Jack and Emily Aprlll purchased this property 25 years ago and in the past several years have created Learning’s Run Botanical Gardens on the adjoining acreage. The cooperage, which is Mrs. Aprill’s dried flower shop, was used by Christopher Learning to make barrels for whale oil. This house and barn are believed to be the only whaler’s residence remaining in New Jersey. When the whales went away (probably due to the indiscriminate killing of the cows), and Town Bank succumbed to the ravages of the sea, in many instances sailors became landlubbers and turned to trapping, cattle grazing, farming and cedar shingle mining. Did you know that from 1864 until 1930 many natives in West Cape May did gold beating, and that in 1880 workers around Rio Grande made a living from a sugar factory? Naturally fishing, clamming, oystering and boat building were the livelihood of many, bpt an unbelievable gross venture was the opening of a porpoise factory in the 1860s for the purpose of reducing this lovely creature to leather, oil, and “dolphin delmonico”. Purportedly the first p. r. person for Cape May County tourism was the Rev. Samuel Finley, pastor of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church from 1740 to 1742, who extolled the health-giving qualities of Alantic Ocean bathing. In the past century it has certainly become a whale of an industry!

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