c,TCTIOy ONE

PAGE THREIv

CAPE MAY COUNT? TIHF.S, SEA ISLK CITY, N. J.

Cape May County—Its Past and Present

Cape May County finrt received a charter or county govejiiment in the year of 1710, and y-as one of the five original cot ities of the State, 'rom 1702, in the reign of Queen Anne, the oiinty has had representation in the Colonial Assembly, the Privincial Congresses and the ;iate Leirislatores. Cape i ay County derives its name from that nbust Dutch explorer. Cornelius Jacobus May, vho visited the bay and cape in 1623 for the lurposes of colonization. The boast of the Keytone Stite that all her broad acres were purhased i rom the aborigines without the spilling I blood, even though the price was hardly more han the cost of the proverbial “mess of potage." in glass beads, hatchets and nails, finds ts paral el in the purchase of East and West ersey, • Ithough at probably not qu J te so cheap price, ind wherein lies the history of the first lona-fid 1 • New Jersey real estate transaction. In 16} 0 a section of land stretching sixteen niles along the bay and running sixteen miles nitnd purchased from the Indians inhabitng Cape May County, and variously identified £ the Lenni-Lenup^s or Delawares, a branch of he Algonquin races from the North, foi a price onsisting of the usual assortment of colored k-ads, and trinkets of brass and iron, by the lutch Governor Van Twiller, for two directors it the East India Company, Messrs. Goodyn and llomaert. This transaction brought about very ittle change in the county’s condition or in it* levelopment. EARLY SETTLEMENT RECORDS HAZY

A Typical Summer Crowd on a Cape May County Beach Where Bathing la Alwayi Safe and Knjorabie.

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The early recordt arc hazy in the extreme, et w’e find that English settlers came here Hitween 1604 and 1700 from New England and jung Island. The names of these have a large cpresentation today! in the political, social and msiness life of the county. Such names as jorson, Hand, Ludlam, Learning. Tathem, 3title, Townsend, Champion, Conover, State and iVay are only a few or the representative names if the county, which from the earliest times lave been identified with the vital concerns of his section. These pioneers engaged in whale fishing, imber cutting, some little farming and pursuit ,1 game, all sorts of which could be obtained for ne mere killing. The beaches and inlets teemed, : ,en as today, with fish, shellfish and wild fowl; ne heaps of shells dotting the edges of the ueadow attesting to the aborigine's appreciaicn of the oyster and clam. A band of the more •ardy pioneers chopped their way through the kwildering morasses of the chain of oeautiful .ands skirting the ocean front and pursued the >portave whale which romped and thrashed -oout ifae waters of the bay and ocean. In Revolutionary Days daring bands of patriots dashed out of Cold Spring, Turtle Gut, Hereford, Townsend and Corson’s Inlets in »reat whaleboats, manned by from 50 to 100 iinned men and preyed on English commerce, as- it came and went through the capes on its way from New Amsterdam to Philadelphia . nd other settlements on the coast. Many a handsome and saucy English nrig struck colors to ihe dreaded whaleboat attacks from the hardy neroes of Cape May County’. Cape May County was set oil from old Gloucester by an act ol Assembly, passed January to, Hiu, and is consequentii’ 210 years old. It nad and has an area ul but 252 square miles, und is a typical peninsula in formation In the early day’s U»e hardy settlers were torced to uxkie the primeval lorcat and dig out a spot which looked as if it had the makings of a Homestead. FIRST WATERING PLACE In those days old Cape May City laid claim to the signal honor of i«eing the only watering Place on the New Jersey Cosat. Briefly quoting «n old relerence it says: "Cape May Island 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 of August, or the first of September. There are here six boarding bouses, three of which are very large; the Aca bathing is convenient and excellent, the beach affords pleasant drives and there is excellent fishing in the adjacent waters. There is a post office here." It might have been regarded * Mow but extremely picturesque method ior tne Philadelphia society matron u) ha we bundled her bagfcsgc into toe waiung stage at Kaiglu: s or Cooper’s Femes (.Cwnucnj, and the merry

Figures That Tell Today’s Story of Cape May County

Population, State Census, 24,407. Estimated Number of Annual Visitors, over 2,000,000. Assessed Value of Real Estate, as shown by County Board of Taxation for year 1919, $39,048,045. -0. Nine Banks, With Banking Houses and Fixtures Valued at $300,000. Total Deposits in Cape May County for year 1919, $8,966,611.19. Total Assets of Cape May County’s Banks over $30,000 ; 000. There are 112,465 Acres of Finest Farm land m Cape May County. 56,649 Building L ts, 90% of which are unproved with buildings, sewer, water, paved streets and sidewalks, on the County’s five resort islands. ^

- Value of Land improvements in 1919 was $21,157,753.00 There are One Hundred and Forty Miles ot Improved Roads in the County. exclusive of the streets within the various municipalities. Twenty-six miles of Atlantic Coast Beach front, all of which is safe and solid for bathing. Four Inlets to the Ocean, all navigaole and affording finest boating and fishing.

Two Railroads. Reading sod Pennsylvania.

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crack of the whip start out on an overland journey through the ‘rackless pine woods, through Haddonfield, Long-a-Coming, Blue Anchor to Tuckahoe, or by v.ay of Gloucester, Blackwood Town and Cross Keys to Tuckahoe, a journey, which, barring accident, occupied the best pait of a week and which eventually landed one on Sewell’s Point, which is now repiesented 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 represenW iu the pre-ent shore road of today, and which for.ns the backbone of the prtsenl main seasho” road The summer seashore visitor also made the trip to Cape May county in a leisurely sailing trip down the Delaware River, u he so liked; but in either case the modern traveler whirled to the shore in from ninety minutes to Ocean Gity, Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor, to 100 minutes to Wildwood and other points, can only regard the travels ol those old-time seashore pioueers in that jocular spirit of twentieth century toleration for ancient methods and history. Values, Then and Now The assessor’s report of 1832 showed that Cape May County contained but 20,244 acres ol cleared and improved land, which left over 140,000 acres in its virgin state some seventy-eight years ago. The population was a trifle over 439b souls, or twenty to the square mile. The total assets of the county were represented in 669 householders, 8 grist mills, 16 saw mills, 29 stores, 679 horses and 2073 cattle, while the total tax raised by the county was a trifle under $3000. A comparison of the county’s ratables of 1910 and 1919 shows an increase of over fifteen millions ol dollars, in seven yean, or a little over three millions of dollars each year. To quote figures: The total taxable valuation of Cape May County was $28,765,588 in 1910, and last year, 1919, the net taxable valuation was $38,559,880. The total taxes paid in the county last year was well over a million dollars, the net local taxes alone being $749,632514, to which musi be added $39,156.38 State Read Tax; $106,420.44 State School Tax, and $298,294J*u County Tax. Compare these vast amounts with the total tax oi $5uuu paid less than a century ago 1 JLtiese phenomenal increases in the value ol Cape May County real estate points out oeltei man words the wisdom ol the investor in securing all the land his means will allow, in any one 01 the County’s resorts or in the rich, reruie larming 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 lorty miles of finely built roads, as compared with thirty-six miles which had been built prior to 1909. The autoist and the farmer lias the finest chain or roadways in any County m the State, size considered, and every resort city in tne County has its own splendid wide hard streets in addition to the roads maintained by the County. Road System links Resorts Together Each of the resorts is connected with the State Boulevard by a turnpike leading Irvin the Main Seashore Road, across the meadow, into the resorts. The coet of building these turnpikes alone has mounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the cost of maintenance , iach year is also borne by the County. New roads and bridges are being added to the County’s splendid chain of highways each y>..r; large sums are being expended for mosquito extermination work, farm demonsiraiiun work, advertising and the other thousand-and-one things that go to make up the costs of maintaining a progressive up-to-the-minute resort county. (’ape May County also benefits from the Edge Road Law, under which two routes of State Highways run through the County. One of these—route 14—which extends from Tuckahoe to Cape May has already been hard surfaced from Court House south, and work wjU be commenced on the northern section this year. To supplement this work tho County is hard surfacing all roads that are being taken over, or re-built, __