Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 1 1 December '85 27

SHOP AT HOME IN CAPE MAY COUNTY

—jersey Cape Historically By John Merrill Q

Travelling Route 47. the journeyer will arrive in an area that is known today as Dennisville and South Dennis. Earlier in the history of Cape May County. Dennisville was knwon as Dennis Creek and vied for position as the center of Cape May County government. Proponents of Dennis Creek made note of the fact that their town had one of the most extensive shipbuilding industries in Cape May County. SHIPBUILDING? In all that marsh area - the Great Swamp? Yes. The creek. Dennis Creek, was only the center for shipbuilding, with the mules and men tugging ships from their point of construction at the headwaters of Dennis Creek, down the winding creek on "corduroy" paths or from the Delaware Bay inland. The Great Marsh area was also the center of the shingle-mining industry in South Jersey. SETTLED IN 1726. by Anthony and Joseph Ludlam, the shipbuilding industry at Dennis Creek began in the early 1700s and reached a peak of construction in the early 1880s. The ships, which were large compared to the width of the creek, had to be launched sideways. Each launching was a general invitation for members of the community to have a picnic. Communtiy residents viewed the launching from one side of the creek and "outsiders" from the other side, opposite the launch area. THE POSITION of the "outsiders" viewing area usually resulted in their drenching, to the laughter of the residents. Rather than building shipworks in the marsh area near the Bay with the ever present possibility of flooding, the shipbuilding works of Richard Learning and Jesse Diverty were located seven miles up Dennis Creek, where marsh turned into woodlands. This brought the shipbuilding activities closer to the source of lumber and settlements, and outside the area of occasional flooding by the Delaware Bay. TODAY. IF one visits Dennisville or South Den-

nis, little remains of the great industry that once thrived there. The beautifully restored houses, the ever present Great Marsh and Dennis

I Creek, and on rare occasions, one might even glimpse sections of the old corduroy path that once brought such vessels as the Marcus Davis and the James Diverty into Cape May County history, remind us of the investment of the peoples of Dennis Creek during those years when the community was the King of Cape May-

County shipbuilding and shingle-mining (ED. NOTE Merrill teaches social studies at Lower Cape May Regional High School and has lived in the county since 19 75. If you're interested in a particular historical item, write him care of this newspaper. P O Box 430. Cape May Court House. NJ 08210.)

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