This is the fourth in a series.

As March 1924 began, Barnegat Lighthouse was about to play host to a delegation that contained the one man who was supposed to decide its fate.

George H. Manning, a Washington, D.C. correspondent, had followed the lighthouse battles for almost every New Jersey newspaper. He reported on Feb. 29, “In an effort to settle the controversy between local, state and federal officials over the advisability of spending about $100,000 of federal funds for the repair and restoration of Barnegat lighthouse,…