The New Jersey Lifesaving Service was the forerunner of today’s U.S. Coast Guard, and it was Stafford Township’s Dr. William A. Newell, a U.S. congressman, is credited with starting the service in the 1860s. It’s said he was inspired by pity after witnessing the shipwreck of the Powhattan on the LBI shoals. All aboard, including 250 German immigrants, were lost at sea; 128 washed up on the beach and are buried in the Stafford Old Baptist Church cemetery.
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