Very sad the obvious impacts are being OVERLOOKED!

[LuckyLady]

My family tree is full of history on the water as Bayman and clammers and commercial fishermen.

Here is a history lesson from the HISTORY books

I will add further comments to my post later today or tonight.

PLEASE DON'T TAKE AWAY MY CURRENT PASSION, MY FAMILY HERTITAGE AND LOVE OF THE WATER, AND ITS FISHERIES. HIRE A PRIVATE COMPANY TO REPORT AND MANAGE IT. GET THE GOVERMENT OUT OF OUR FUTURE.

Mary Inman
Manahawkin, NJ

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History of Barnegat, NJ

http://www.ci.barnegat.nj.us/history.html

Around 1609 Henry Hudson sailed along the coast of New
Jersey coming to an inlet which he named Barende-gat, a Dutch word meaning an inlet with breakers. This name was replaced by Barndegat by early mapmakers and later evolved into the present day spelling of Barnegat.

The earliest settlers in the Barnegat area were the Lenape Indians, who would leave their winter homes inland and venture to the shore where they would spend the summer gathering clams, roasting and drying them for use during the upcoming winter. They would also make wampum (their form of money) from left over shells of clams, mussels and whelks. Once they had gathered a large supply of food they would travel back inland to their winter homes.

The first white settlers came into the area around 1720. By 1750 several families had established homes on lands near the creeks and bays. The first house built in Barnegat was at the Collins' farm. Early settlers were of Dutch, Swedish and English origin.

Among the first permanent settlers was William Cranmer from Long Island and later his son, Levi Cranmer, Timothy Ridgway, Stephen and Nathan Birdsall and Ebenezer Collins. Whalers came down from Long Island, Rhode Island, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Most notable among these was the Inman Family. Later followed the Coxes, Burrs, Pharos, Vaulls, Stokes, Oliphants, Mills and Rulons. It is difficult to say exactly when these early settlers came to Barnegat as they did not always purchase the titles to the their lands until several years after their arrival. A Mr. William Dockwra owned the land on which the village of Barnegat now stands.


One of the first recorded land purchases was in 1759 by Levi Cranmer and Timothy Ridgway, who bought 500 acres along what is now East Bay Avenue. From that land, one and a quarter acres was deeded to the Quakers and in 1767 the Quaker Friends Meeting House was built. The Quaker Meeting House is still located at that spot and is most likely the oldest building in Barnegat. It was the first church built in Barnegat and the third church to be built in Ocean County. It should be noted that since most of the families in Barnegat at this time were strict members of the Quaker Society, who have a strong belief against fighting, there was little participation by these Barnegat settlers during the War of Independence.

As early as 1745 Episcopalian Minister, Thomas Thompson , held services in Barnegat. The Presbyterian pioneers began holding services in 1760 in the Rulon House located near Cedar Bridge.

The Old Free Church of Barnegat (1829-1867) stood in the old graveyard next to Barnegat Primary School which later became Perrine Boat Works.

The Methodists go back to the Revolution, with the first Society being formed in 1829 with Job Edwards as their leader. The first Methodist Church was dedicated in 1859, but burned down in 1882. The church was rebuilt and dedicated in 1887 with the Rev. John Wagg as pastor.

During Barnegat's early days most of her men were whalers who built their whaling boats out of the cedars of the Great Swamp. Later, around the time of the Revolutionary War, Barnegat ships carried cargoes of cedar rails and pine wood to New York. With the advent of the steam powered ship in the beginning of the 19th century the demand for pine wood as a fuel kept the Barnegat seamen even busier carrying the wood to Virginia and other points along the east coast.

Between 1820-1840 the supply of pine wood diminished and Barnegat's seamen turned to the charcoal trade, then to transporting freight from New York to parts of New England to Virginia and as far south as Florida. This trade was at its height during and after the Civil War. The majority of Barnegat's men were either Captains of their own ships or sailors or crewmen aboard these ships. It was not unusual at the time for the captain, mates and crew to all be Barnegatters

Numerous two and three masted schooners, as well as some sloops, were built in Barnegat between 1860-1886. The L.H. Hopkins was recorded as the first schooner to be built and the Loie Robinson was the last to be built in Barnegat. Many artifacts and historical information from Barnegat's seafaring days, including pictures of Captains and their schooners are housed at the Barnegat Historical Society's Heritage Village located on East Bay Avenue.

The first Inn or "public house" was built in 1829 by David Oliphant about one mile east of the present day intersection of Rt. 9 and Bay Avenue. This Inn was later replaced by one owned by Daniel Cranmer. Another Inn owned by Eli Collins was said to have been patronized by such dignitaries of that era as Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother.

In the early 1900's J.H. Perrine purchased the old Barnegat Primary School (erected in 1867) and set up his boat-building business. His specialty was the Barnegat sneak box - a boat designed for hunters, but also sailed in races and for pleasure, not only on our bay but on waters all over the world. Due to the popularity of the sneak box the Village of Barnegat was known round the world.

During this era Barnegat was the most popular place for people from surrounding communities to shop. Barnegat bustled with grocery stores, a bank, a dry good's store, a butcher, a shoemaker, a bakery, blacksmiths, two doctors, a lumberyard and a coal yard. Automobiles were seldom seen in the area and the most common mode of travel was either by horse and buggy or train. Two main railroads had depots in Barnegat; the Tuckerton RR Station (also known as the Pennsylvania RR Depot) located on the east side of Memorial Drive, and the Central RR of New Jersey Depot located on the north side of West Bay Avenue.

Barnegat Glass Co. was built around 1896 and closed it's doors in 1914. Many new families came into Barnegat to work in this factory. Products made in the Glass Works are now considered collectibles.

The first Telephone Exchange was brought in by Mr. Byron M. Eno in the early 1900's. Elizabeth Clayton, who later married Captain Ed Ridgway was one of the earliest operators.

In 1908 Barnegat welcomed a central water system, Barnegat Water Co., owned by Luther Cox, who , along with his wife Mary Ann also owned the Times Beacon Newspaper. Luther was the son of Capt. "Billy" and Marietta Cox, who built the Cox House which stands at the corner of Rt.9 North and Bay Avenue. The Cox House was the first house in Barnegat to have electricity and running water. Currently the historic Cox House is the meeting place for community organizations and hosts many special events throughout the year.

In 1910 John Charles began a Silkworm Industry. In this same year the first Post Office was built on the north side of West Bay Avenue. This later became the Barnegat Municipal Building , then a police station, the library and now houses The Alliance for the Arts. Barnegat was also home to another unusual business adventure during this period - George Ridgway's "mink farm."

There was no radio or television in those early days - entertainment was provided by local talent that put on plays, and by traveling vaudeville and minstrel shows which made yearly visits to the Barnegat Opera House. This building was located on Rt. 9 north in the vicinity of the present day liquor store. Movies came to Barnegat somewhere between 1915-1920. They were first shown in the Opera House which was later converted to the Park Theatre.

The present day municipality of Barnegat is located in the southern half of Ocean County, New Jersey, and covers an area of approximately 35 square miles. Barnegat is 60 miles east of Philadelphia and 90 miles south of New York City. It is bordered on the east by Barnegat Bay and separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the barrier island of Long Beach. Woodland Township is on the western border, Stafford Township is the southern border and the northern border is shared by both Lacey and Ocean Townships. As the Mate of the Half Moon wrote in his journal "….this is a very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see!"*

*Tides of Time 1940, Ocean County Prinicpal's Council
Out of the Past 1981, Barnegat Historical Society
Courier Newspaper, various editions from 1895 - 1900

[LuckyLady]

What does this mean for the coast guard???


HISTORY OF NJ COAST GUARD STATION - BARNEGAT LIGHT, NJ

http://www.uscg.mil/d5/staBarnegat/Past.asp

Station History
Long Beach Island lies off the New Jersey Coast about 65 air miles south of Manhattan and 57 miles east and slightly south of Philadelphia. The Island follows the coast for a distance of 18 miles in a roughly northeast-to-southwest direction. Barnegat Bay, which separates it from the mainland, is approximately two to six miles wide. The width of the Island ranges from more than a mile to less than 200 yards.

Past History
The first inhabitants of Long Beach Island were the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware, members of the Algonquian linguistic family, that predominated in what is now the Northeast U.S. The Island was first mapped by the Dutch sailing from New Amsterdam. The results of their discoveries appear on a 1614 map that shows Barnegat Bay as Barende Gat, or inlet of breakers. One of the early documents that reference the Island dates from 1690 while the earliest extant map to name the Island - as Barnegat Beach- appeared sometime between 1671 and 1717.

As with any island, Long Beach Island's history is intimately entwined with the sea. Legends of piracy and treasure abound in the area around the Island and Barnegat Bay. There is at least one well-authenticated instance of a significant treasure find made on the Island in the late 1800s, and when the occasional Spanish silver coin is discovered along the beach the mythical images of Buccaneers and brigands become vivid once again.

Most of the first European settlers to the Island were whalers attracted by the rich seasonal hunting within sight of land. In the early 1700s, one of these whalers, Aaron Inman, built a home near what is now Surf City and was followed by others. The offshore industry they established lasted until the 1840s. These hardy folk supplemented their incomes by salvaging and smuggling, as well as through more commonplace activities like fishing and crabbing, harvesting salt hay, and much later, commercial duck hunting. Local ship captains put their "skills" at smuggling and salvaging to good use during the Revolution.

During the war, the Island served as a base for American privateers who commandeered British vessels and seized their cargoes as prizes. They profited handsomely while aiding in the Patriot cause. But as the war went on, bands of organized Loyalists and refugees increasingly began to take their revenge- harassing, plundering and terrorizing their way up and down the coast from Little Egg Harbor to the Toms River. From bases in the Pines and in the swamps, these Loyalist renegades hunted down American privateers, fought local militia, and put homes and property to the torch. Even after the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, they continued to press the war against Ocean County.

The Loyalist offensive that began with the assault on the Toms River Block House in March of 1782 ended with a final atrocity on Long Beach Island. A British cutter bound for St, Thomas went aground off Barnegat Light on October 25, 1782 and was soon after seized as a prize of war by Captain Andrew Steelman, of Cape May. Steelman and his crew spent the day unloading the vessel's cargo to the beach. Worn out from the heavy work, Steelman's crew fell asleep on the beach. Many of them would never wake. John Bacon, a notorious Tory outlaw, quickly got news of the wreck and sailed down Barnegat Bay to claim it. Seeing the cargo already on the beach, Bacon and his men put ashore. Under cover of night, Bacon and his men attacked Steelman and his crew while they slept. When it was all over, Steelman was dead and his First Lieutenant injured. Of his crew, only four or five escaped unharmed. The rest were either dead or wounded.

Over time the Island acquired a dubious reputation as the scene of many shipwrecks from colonial to modern times. In one two-year period in the 1840s, 122 vessels wrecked on or around the Island. In the Spring of 1864, seven ships came to grief in 13 days. The worst disaster occurred in 1854 when the immigrant ship Powhatan foundered off what is now Surf City, with a loss of over 350 lives. Because of the danger posed by navigating the Bay, in 1835 a lighthouse was built on the Barnegat Inlet at the Island's northern tip. It was replaced in 1858 with a towering new structure built on the same site. Rising 172 feet above Barnegat Bay, the Barnegat Lighthouse remains an impressive monument, The Light House was Placed out of service in 1944, but was relit on the first of January 2009. The Light is one of the finest of its kind ever built in America.

The reality of treacherous crossings in the Bay led to the establishment of "houses of refuge" on Long Beach Island around the middle of the 19th century. These structures were provisioned and equipped especially for the rescue and sheltering of shipwreck survivors.

1872 saw the founding of what would become the United States Life Saving Service, and within a few years the Island had six fully equipped stations. After 1886, these stations were manned by full-time, paid crews. The Service along with its facilities, was taken over by the United States Coast Guard in 1915.

[LuckyLady]

NJ Bayman History - are we going to have our heritage taken away???

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The Bayman
A Life on Barnegat Bay

by Merce Ridgway

http://www.down-the-shore.com/baymanex.html


222 pages, 23 chapters,
38 photographs, index.
$24.95 hardcover
ISBN 0-945582-62-5


The following excepts are from The Bayman: A Life on Barnegat Bay, by Merce Ridgway, Down The Shore Publishing.
© 2000 Maurice Inman Ridgway and Arlene Martin Ridgway

The old ways on Barnegat Bay are rapidly vanishing. Few today see the bay, the wetands, and the pines as holistically as generations of baymen families did — a place from which to make a totally self-sufficient living, a home, a school, a place of spiritual connection. In The Bayman, from which these excerpts are taken, Merce Ridgway shares some of this connectedness with readers — as if we sat down next to him at the clam dock at the end of the day.




Merce Ridgway and Sam Hunt during an inpromptu pickin’ session along Barnegat Bay.
A Young Boy of the Pines
The earliest memory I have is cloaked in a beautiful fall day. I have followed my father to a place in the woods where he is cutting pine. He kneels down on one knee, and looking me in the eye, says, “Stay within the sound of my axe, but not too close; wouldn’t want a tree to fall on you.”
These were thrilling words to me. It was the most gentle of tethers, leaving me free to wander through the pinelands of South Jersey and practice the new knowledge I was gaining of the land.
At first I watched from a safe distance the rhythmic and powerful swings as my father worked. With each blow of the axe, chips as long as my face flew high in the bright morning air. I watched and a certainty grew within that one day I would do the same.
Soon the lure of the woods beckoned, and I would wander off to practice the things my father was teaching me: to read the signs of life there, to forage for berries or look for lady’s slippers to admire. The teaberry provided a snack and leaves to chew. A laurel cluster offered a place in the sun to dream. When I realized that the sound of the axe had stopped, I knew the direction to go, and headed back.


Life, it appeared, held many wonderful activities that a person might take part in when he grew up. If there was one thing I most wanted, it was to have a boat to go out on the water. I don’t know why, I just wanted to.
By the edge of the field between our house and Grandpop June’s there was an old boat. It was a pretty large sneakbox, it seemed to me, and remembering it now, it must have been eighteen feet long. Even though she was old, she was all clean inside because she’d never had a motor in her. Evidently they had sailed it at one time.
I loved to crawl inside that boat and inhale the fragrance of old cedar. That smell was better than anything I could think of. There is something special about an old boat that has been out in the bay in the salt water when she sets upon the land. Funny thing about that particular scent those old cedar boats have.
I was five in 1946 in my earliest memory of Barnegat Bay. My father had an ancient sea skiff. Chugging sedately out Forked River creek was a dreamlike experience, which turned into a sort of nightmare as my father opened up the motor to full throttle on reaching the bay. The roar of the engine, the flying spray, the vibration all conspired together to scare the wits out of me.
Seeing that I was upset, he slowed the boat down. I quickly recovered to enjoy the gleaming expanse of bright blue water and sparkling sunshine.
There were no houses in sight and the dunes at Island Beach seemed to beckon with a golden glow. I was fascinated not only by the water but by what must lie beneath the water. I thought perhaps sunken pirate ships and golden treasures might lie there. I was overcome by a passion to know and explore the vast body of water, but this would come later.

The Scallop
Scallops have a rough, sharp edge where the new growth is occurring. We used cotton gloves through the season, as they provided the manual dexterity to sort out the catch. Some days we would wear out two pair, the catch would be so rough.
The first shock of cold water through the gloves seems unbearable. On a winter’s morning, when the wind is blowing, our hands would quickly grow numb. As we worked, sorting out the catch and pulling the dredges, a wonderful thing happened. We began to feel the tingle of the returning heat to our hands and soon our hands felt perfectly warm. As long as we kept on working, our hands would stay warm, as would the rest of our bodies. Take a break for a sandwich and coffee, and you had to start all over again! We didn’t break much on cold, windy days.
Dredging for scallops was like tonging for clams. You got real sore for the first couple of weeks, particularly the hands, from the constant pulling on the ropes as you hauled the dredges. Then you would get “broke in,” and you would harden up to the work.

Philosophy of the Bayman
For the baymen of my time, it is a double tragedy. Not only do we have an unproductive bay, but also we have also lost the use of the wetlands that were a part of the bayman’s life. At times or according to the season, they were a source of income, food and even fuel for the stove.
My people were religious and did not work on the Sabbath. That meant there was one day a week that was open to recreation, after church on Sunday morning.
My brother and I used to head for the woods. It was about a mile through the woods to the meadows. The route to get there passed through swamps where the flies and bugs would eat us alive in the summer. When you got out on the meadows, though, the afternoon breeze would clear the air. Most often it would be the prevailing southeast wind off the bay. As you got closer to the water of the bay, the temperature of the air dropped. We spent many happy summer afternoons roaming the bayfront.
And so the meadows were a source of recreation to the bayman from the time of his youth. As I grew older and began to work on the bay, there was less and less time to enjoy idle days. It became more important to get the day’s work done than to satisfy an urge to take a walk or to catch soft crabs.
Never mind, I would say to myself. I will not work forever, and when the time comes, I will do as I did in my younger years. I will feed myself from the bounty of the bay and the meadows. That, I said, will be my reward for years of hard work. I will build myself a nice duck boat, carve a set of stool ducks and set them out when the northeast wind blows. I will feast on the broadbill and black duck.
All this and much more I promised myself. As the years passed I began to see it was never going to happen.
What we did not lose to the developers we lost to government programs that bought up large tracts of wetlands in order to preserve them, and then banned us from going on them. If I want to shoot or walk, I must get a map and see where I am allowed to go. Much of the land is off-limits. Along with the loss of land went part of the baymen’s cultural legacy.