This is the third in a series.

The battle to save Barnegat Lighthouse from falling victim to the encroaching tide shifted from Washington to Trenton when the federal government announced it wasn’t going to spend the money needed to complete projects to save the light. It was at this point Thomas A. Mathis, the state senator for Ocean County, took up the cause.

Modern writers haven’t spoken very highly of the Republican, comparing him to Frank Hague of Hudson County, or Enoch “Lucky” Johnson from Atlantic.