200 Plus
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•July 26, 2012
The Great Escape
July 17, 1812, had not dawned with promise for Capt. Isaac Hull and the frigate USS Constitution. Hull and the crew realized they were surrounded by a squadron of British warships, and there was no…
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•July 19, 2012
Desperate Situation Calls for Desperate Measures
On July 16, 1812, the frigate USS Constitution was off Egg Harbor, N.J., to the north in the direction of Long Beach Island. The captain, Isaac Hull of Connecticut, was informed there were…
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•July 12, 2012
Bow to Bow Off the Jersey Coast
July 12, 1812: Two opposing naval forces were sailing toward each other and would collide in the waters off the Jersey Shore. What would take place there would help one ship become a legend and alter…
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•July 5, 2012
The Akron Tragedy
On July 2, 1912, the thousands of visitors to Atlantic City watched in horror one of the greatest aviation disasters to date. Melvin Vaniman, with a crew of four, was completing a test flight in his…
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•June 28, 2012
Tragedy Strikes the Skies
One hundredyears ago, the nation was preparing for Independence Day;however, in the aviation world and at the Jersey Shore, thoughts weren’t on the past, but the future. In Atlantic City, Melvin…
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•June 21, 2012
Akron Takes to Atlantic City Skies
In Atlantic City in the predawn hours of June 1, 1912, Melvin Vaniman, a well-known adventurer and photographer, was busily preparing his revamped airship Akron, the first to be constructed by…
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•June 14, 2012
Does Lighter-Than-Air Have a Future?
For the time period 1910 through 1912, Atlantic City became a focal point for America’s newest craze, flying. During the summer of 1910, tens of thousands of people crowded the boardwalk to see their…
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•June 7, 2012
There’s No Going Back Now
Once the declaration of war had passed the Senate by a vote of 19 to 13 on June 18, 1812, events began to move rapidly. President James Madison and his cabinet had been discussing the role for the…
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•May 31, 2012
Crossed Signals Lead to War
If the United States ever entered into a war that could have been prevented, it was the War of 1812. While the lure of land in Florida and Canada was the driving force behind the war hawks, the…
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•May 23, 2012
Growing Sentiment for War on Great Britain
Throughout the winter and spring of 1812, the terms “impressment” and “free trade” were being touted in the halls of Congress as the U.S. government began to think seriously about war. The…
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•May 17, 2012
War of 1812: Behind the Scenes
When you write a history column and it is called “200 Plus,” you have to take special notice of the bicentennial of a major event. Next month the United States and Canada will begin to commemorate…
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•May 10, 2012
States Fight Over Fire Jurisdiction
The burning of the ferryboat New Jersey on the night of March 15, 1856, as it crossed the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Camden left several unanswered questions. More than 150 years later, the…
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•May 3, 2012
Ferry Fire Claims Unknown Number of Lives
At about 8:30 on the night of Saturday, March 15, 1856, approximately 100 passengers boarded the steam ferry New Jersey for the short voyage from today’s Penn’s Landing to the Jersey side, near where…
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•April 25, 2012
Maritime Disaster on Delaware River
When you think about great New Jersey maritime disasters, your mind usually pictures a deserted beach in a raging nor’easter. But one of the worst on record took place not off the east coast of the…
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•April 19, 2012
‘Starving Artist’ Lived Disciplined Life
As the nation was embroiled in World War II, Hugh Campbell was living in a 15-by-15-foot tarpaper shack, with no running water, on Sunset Drive near the Rancocas Creek in Mount Holly. N.J. He had…
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•April 12, 2012
The Thoreau of Rancocas Creek
When you hear the expression “starving artist,” perhaps your mind turns to Greenwich Village or someone wearing a beret on the left bank of the River Seine, not to someone trudging the dirt roads of…
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•April 5, 2012
Ephraim P. Emson
Sometimes a series about cranberries and the environment can lead to politics, education and sexual harassment. Ephraim P. Emson was born in Toms River on Oct. 28, 1829. His family moved to Ohio but…
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•April 4, 2012
Teacher Tackles Accuser Head On
During the spring of 1886, the Victorian-era gossips of Ocean County were having a field day. Louise Blackman, a young Quaker schoolteacher from Tuckerton, had entered a school trustees meeting where…
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•March 28, 2012
Schoolteacher Fights Back
Excitement was at a fever pitch in March 1886 in the village of Colliers Mills, in western Ocean County. The richest man in the village, Ephraim P. Emson, a former senator and a freeholder who had…
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•March 21, 2012
200 Plus: The Senator vs. the Schoolteacher
Sex scandals were nothing new to American politics, whether it was Thomas Jefferson keeping a slave as his mistress or Sen. Dan Sickles of New York shooting his wife’s lover in cold blood across the…
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•March 6, 2012
LBI Becomes Home for ‘Nature Freaks’
Sometimes the introduction of a species into a new location is intentional and sometimes it isn’t. The first mention of a strange species on Long Beach Island came in the February 1878 issue of…