SEASON OPENING EDITION.

FIRST SECTION.

CAPE MAY COUNTY TIMES,

SEA ISLE CITY, N. J.

A Brief Historical Sketch of Cape May County

May County derive* ita name from that Patch explorer, Cornelius Jacobus May, lited the bay and cape in 1623, for the of colonization. The boast of the Key „_ite that all her broad acres were purfrom the aborigines without the spilling even though the price was hardly more • cost of the proverbial “mess of poti glass beads, hatchets and nails, finds in the purchase of East and West although at probably not quite so cheap And wherein lies the history of the first » New Jersey real estate transaction, a section erf land stretching sixteen the bay and running sixteen miles was purchased from the Indians inhabitMay County, and variously identified Lenni-Lenapes or Delawares, a branch of |uin races from the North, for a price of the usual assortment of colored and trinkets of brass and iron, by the Governor Van Twiller, for two directors East India Company, Messrs. Goodyn and This transaction brought about very in the county’s condition or in its it early records* are hazy in the extreme, find that English settlers came here i 1604 and 1700 from New England and The names of these have a large itation today in the politic;.!, social and is life of the county. Such names as , Hand, Ludlam, Learning, Tathem, Townsend, Champion, Conover, State and * only a few of the representative names county, which from the earliest, times een identified with the vital concerns of

At the Cross Roads at Green Creek, Showing the Old Oak

_ pioneers engaged in whale fishing, cutting, some little farming and pursuit all sorts of which could be obtained for re killing. The beaches and inlets teemed _jh, shellfish and wild fowl; the heaps of dotting the edges of the meadow attest•the aboriginie’s appreciation of the oyster nn. A band of the more hardy pioneers d their way through the bewildering ies of the chain of beautiful islands skirte front and pursued the sportive which romped and thrashed about the „ of the bay and ocean. Revolutionary Days daring bands of padashed out of Cold Spring, Turtle Gut, ord, Townsend and Corson’s Inlets in great x>ats, manned by from 60 to 100 armed —id preyed on English commerce, as it came ■went through the capes on it* way from Amsierdup to Philadelphia and other setats on the coast. Many a handsome and English brig struck colors to the dreaded boat attacks from the hardy heroes of May County. * f CAPE MAY COUNTY WAS CREATED, pe May County was set off from old Glouby an act of Assembly, passed January 10, , and is consequently 200 years old. It had has an area of but 262 square miles, and is >ical f-^inania in formation. In the early the hardy settlers were forced to tackle the aval forest and dig out a spot which looked it had the makings of a homestead, thoee days old Cape May City laid claim to aiyrmi honor of being the only watering on the New Jersey Coast. Briefly quoving d reference it says: “Cape May Beach of the Atlantic Ocean, in Lower Township, 104 miles from Philadelphia by Post (stage) route, is a noted and much frequented watering place; the season at which commences about the first of July and continues until the middle uf August, or the 1st of September. There are here six boarding houses, three of which are very large; the sea bathing is convenient and excellent, the beach affords pleasant drives and there la excellent Ashing in the adjacent waters. There is a post office here.'’ might have been regarded as a slow but MBsly picturesque method for the Philadel- ) *cr (ety, yaMren to bars bandied bm b«g-

On the Beach at Cape May, Showing the Old Colonial Hotel in the Background

Years ol Pstiest Culture is Kvidetur

ml Hydragea Blooms at Cape May

gage into the waiting stage at Kaighn’s or Cooper’s Ferries (Camden), and to the merry crack of the whip start out on an overland journey through the trackless pine woods, through Haddonfield, Long-a-Coming, Blue Anchor to Tuckaboe, or l y way of Gloucester, Blackwood Town and Croat Keys to Tuckaboe, a journey, which, barring accident, occupied the best part of a week and which eventually landed one on Sewell’s Point, which is now represented by the newer portion of Cape May. Another stage route came down through Salem and Cumberland Counties, skirting the Delaware River, converging at Dennis Creek, near Goshen, where various roads formed a five-pointed star, radiating in as many directions. There was a road parallelling the coast from old Cape May to Sandy Hook, which is represented in the present shore road of today, and which forms the backbone of the present main see shore road. . . - —■ The summer seashore visitor also made the trip to Cape May County in a leisurely sailing trip down the Delaware River, if he so liked; but in either case the modern traveler whirled to the shore in from ninety minutes to Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor, to 100 minutes to Wildwood and other points, can only regard the travels of those old-time seashore pioneers in that jocular spirit of twentieth century toiera- - lion lor ancient methods and Instory. The assessor's report of 1832 showed that Cape May County contained but 20,244 acres of cleared and improved land, which left over 140,ouo acres in its virgin state some seventy-eight years ago. The population was a trifle over 4396 souls, or twenty tc the square mile. The total assets of the county were represented in 669 householders, b grist mills, 16 saw mills, 29 stores, 679 horses and 2073 cattle, while the total lax raised by the county was a trifle under $3000. _ SOME PRESENT DAY VALUES. ! A comparison of the County’s ratables of 1910 and ?917 shows an increase of over fifteen millions of dollars, in seven years, or a little over three millions of dollars each year. To quote figures: The total taxable valuation oi Gape May County was $23,766,688 in mo, and last year.. 1917, the valuation was 838,032,641. The total taxes paid in the County last year was well over a million dollars, the net local taxes alone being $672,140.52, to wmch must be auded $38,932.54 State Road Tax: ; *U3,100.20 State School lax. and $269,608.22 County Tax. Compare these vast amounts with the total tax of $3000 paid less than a century ago! These phenomenal increases in the value of Cape May County real estate points out better than words the wisdom of the investor in securing all the land his means will allow, in any one of the County’s resorts or in the rich, fertile 1 arming section of the county. The stranger, who is not acquainted with Cape May County naturally asks, “Where does the money go from all this increase in taxable valuation ?" The answer lies in the County's one hundred and twenty-five miles of finely built roads, as compared with thirty-six miles which had been built prior to 1909. The autoist and the fanner has the finest chain or roadways in any County in the State, size considered, and every resert city in the County has its own splendid wide hard streets in addition to the roads maintained by the County. Each of the resorts is connected with the State Boulevard by a turnpike leading from the Main Seashore Koad, across the meadow, into the resorts. The cost of building these turnpikes alone has mounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. and the cost of maintenance each year is also borne by the County. New roads and bridges are being added to the County's splendid chain of highways each year: large sums are being expended for mosquito exterminations work, farm demonstration work, advertising and the other thouzand-and-one things that go to make up tbe costs of maintaining a progressiva up-to-the minute rmti waft, -jy