200 Plus
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•March 19, 2014
Tucker’s Lighthouse Loses Final Battle
For almost 200 years, man had inhabited what was known as Tucker’s Island or Tucker’s Beach. During most of that time people had tried to develop it for profit, but there was also a battle with…
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•March 13, 2014
Tucker’s Light Keeper Fights Losing Battle
It’s a tale of two resorts only a few miles apart. For one, Beach Haven, it was the best of times; for the other, Sea Haven, it was the worst of times. The powerful supporters of Beach Haven had…
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•February 6, 2014
Tucker’s Island Lighthouse: On Shaky Ground
The story of Tucker’s Island seems to be one of trial and error, success and failure. As the people of Tuckerton petitioned the federal government for a lighthouse on the island, the U.S. government…
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•January 23, 2014
Tucker’s, the Forgotten Island
Recently at the lighting of the recreated Tucker’s Lighthouse at Tuckerton Seaport, I was asked why I had never written anything about the lighthouse and the island on which ithad beensituated. Not…
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•January 9, 2014
Tying Up Last Year’s Loose Ends
The cold winds of January are blowing the across the beaches. The year ahead looks to be one filled with New Jersey history, the 400th anniversary of the first European on Barnegat Bay, the 200th of…
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•December 18, 2013
Test Time: How Much Do You Know?
December is heading toward the shortest day of the year, and that means long nights to tackle the annual 200 PLUS history challenge. There will be 25 questions and 1 bonus that will test your power…
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•December 12, 2013
Relentless Sea Beats at Old Barney
For Barnegat Lighthouse, the Roaring ’20s and the Great Depression would hold its greatest dangers, from the government and the sea. In the 1920s as the ocean eroded closer to the beacon’s base, the…
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•December 5, 2013
Future Looks Shaky for Old Barney
1919 had not been a good year for Barnegat Lighthouse or Barnegat City. Winter gales and an August hurricane had washed away houses and endangered the lighthouse, along with the 20-room keeper’s…
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•November 13, 2013
Unexpected Action Finds Wall in Washington
In September 1862, the people of New Jersey were preparing to go to the polls. Joel Parker, the 46-year-old gubernatorial Democratic candidate from Freehold, had made an issue of Abraham Lincoln’s…
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•October 10, 2013
What Did James Wall Do Wrong?
On Sept. 11, 1861, James W. Wall, a 42-year-old lawyer and former mayor of Burlington, N.J., sat down to dinner with his wife and family. Wall had recently written an open letter to the postmaster…
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•October 2, 2013
Former Mayor’s Letter Leads to Arrest
Today it’s hard to believe that many U.S. citizens from both North and South considered Abraham Lincoln a tyrant and dictator. But with the advantage of more than 150 years having passed, their…
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•August 22, 2013
Tuckerton Tower Pawn in European War
Ninety-nine years ago this month, the battle of the Tuckerton Wireless tower raged. While this battle isn’t mentioned in any history of World War I, its results would have a major impact on the war’s…
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•August 8, 2013
What on Earth Is That Huge Block?
As you drive down Radio Road in Tuckerton toward the bay, talking on your cell phone, you pass the monument to the Revolutionary War battle, then enter the Mystic Island section of Little Egg Harbor…
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•August 1, 2013
Gettysburg Ends Invasion of the North
One hundred fifty years ago in western Maryland on the northern banks of the Potomac River, the armies of Robert E. Lee and George G. Meade were preparing for what might be the climactic battle of…
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•July 25, 2013
Meade Chases Lee After Gettysburg
Today as we look back on the events of July 1863, we know the battle at Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War. The news that Ulysses S. Grant had captured Vicksburg on the Mississippi…
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•July 18, 2013
Death, Horror and Suffering Left Behind
The “glorious” battle of Gettysburg was over. Gen. George Gordon Meade, builder of Barnegat Lighthouse and commander of the Army of the Potomac, had stopped the invasion of the North by Robert E.…
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•July 11, 2013
Overwhelming Carnage at Gettysburg
At Cemetery Ridge on the Gettysburg battlefield late on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, the smoke of the failed Pickett’s charge was slowly drifting away. The 12th New Jersey volunteer infantry had…
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•July 4, 2013
Jersey 12th Halts Pickett’s Charge
The term “Pickett’s charge” is burned into the collective memory of the nation, and on its 150th anniversary, it is the subject of countless articles and TV shows. But here we will look at the…
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•June 27, 2013
Union Officers Fall Like Raindrops
The battle of Gettysburg, fought 150 years ago, was not one of great plans by commanding generals, but one of chance and decisions made by junior officers. In the late spring of 1863 Robert E. Lee…
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•June 19, 2013
The Long Trek to Gettysburg
As we near the sesquicentennial of America’s most famous battle, all eyes will be on Gettysburg, Pa. The road there for the troops from New Jersey had been long and rocky. By the end of summer 1861…
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•June 13, 2013
Pike, Lawrence Mourned as Heroes
During a short period of time, from the end of April to early June 1813, the state of New Jersey suffered the loss of two of its most famous sons, Zebulon Pike and James Lawrence. The nation’s…
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•June 6, 2013
‘Fight Her Till She Sinks!’
June 1, 1813, was the day of reckoning for two famous frigates. The USS Chesapeake, under the command of 34-year-old James Lawrence, born in Burlington, N.J., and the HMS Shannon, commanded by…
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•May 30, 2013
The Chesapeake Takes to the Sea
The naval battle fought off Boston Light on June 1, 1813, resembled a Western gunfight more than a clash of frigates. On one side was James Lawrence, a brash, 34-year-old naval officer from…
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•May 16, 2013
Pike’s Death Releases Vengeance
During the early afternoon of April 27, 1813, the U.S. Army was about to capture the town of York (today Toronto,) the British capital of Canada. A flotilla of 14 American ships commanded by…
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•May 9, 2013
Victory Costs General His Life
On the morning of April 27, 1813, 34-year-old New Jersey native Zebulon Pike, the youngest brigadier general in the U.S. Army, stood on the deck of the USS Madison preparing to lead his men in an…
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•May 2, 2013
Zebulon Pike Goes After Canada
During a brief period 200 years ago, from late April to early June, New Jersey lost two of its most famous military heroes: one on the sea, Capt. James Lawrence, and one on land, Gen. Zebulon Pike.…
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•April 25, 2013
Adding Up Losses From Flu Epidemic
The series on the great influenza epidemic of 1918 started with a report from a Camp Dix medical officer stating that just a few more than 800 soldiers had died in a three-week period at the camp.…
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•April 18, 2013
Flu as Deadly a Foe as Germany
With the approach of November 1918, the people of New Jersey were staring into the faces of two of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, war and pestilence. In the far-off trenches of the Western front…
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•April 11, 2013
Conflict in Efforts to Control Flu
The great flu epidemic of 1918 illustrates the vast difference between reality and life in the abstract worlds of politics and science. As reports of troops dying in military posts including Camp Dix…
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•April 4, 2013
‘A Danger Too Late Realized’
As September 1918 was drawing to a close, New Jersey and much of the Northeast stood on the brink of disaster. Throughout the month, the Spanish influenza had swept through military installations…
