Recollections of Early Anglesea
as related to Steve Murray by Mr. Warren Riggin
Speaking on naming original Anglesea residents, Mr. Riggin says, "There were many more but I couldn't list them all. While I was growing up I knew all these people and they knew me-they were my friends."

This year's centennial celebration of the changing of the name of the Borough of Anglesea to North Wildwood brought back thoughts of 14 years ago.

In the winter of 1992 I started a movement to reverse this decision - to change the name back to its original, Anglesea. It never happened but it generated a lot of debate and news media attention, including a full page article in the Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer.

I received letters in regards to this from states as far away as Virginia and Connecticut. The most interesting by far, was from an 86 year old gentleman, Warren Riggin.

Mr. Riggin had lived in Anglesea as a child and his memory at his advanced age amazed me. Following is his letter that is chock full of information and historic trivia. Remember though there are bound to be a few mistakes in the distant memory of this accomplished man.

I wish I would have had the opportunity to meet him in person, with a tape recorder in hand of course. It never did happen. I sent him a long reply and thank you but as far as I know, he passed away within a year of our mail exchange.

Steve Murray
October 2006

A Letter to Steve Murray
July 31 1992
Anglesea, N. J.

Dear Mr. Murray:
I'm 86 years old, my vision is about gone, and with arthritis in my fingers you would be unable to read my handwriting. I'll try using this old typewriter where I use one finger and the hunt and hit method. If there are any typing errors I'll :EX: them out. Please excuse some of the spelling, my memory is a lousy speller.

You don't know me so I will give you some of my background. I was born Oct. 8 1907 (Dr. Maggie Mace). We lived in a house on Walnut St. across from Ludy Bishop's place. My father was raised on a farm in Snow Hill Md. He joined the Pennsylvania railroad and was sent to Linwood NJ as a ticket clerk on the shore fast line that ran between Ocean City and AC. He married my mother while there and was transferred to Anglesea as the station Agent at the new station that was just built. When I was about five we moved to a house on Central Ave. next to the Methodist Church. We lived on the first floor and a family named Colberg lived on the second floor. I had two sisters, Amelia, 10 years older and Ruth 3 years younger. I attended the 10th Ave. school. We moved again to a large house on the S.E. corner of 2nd and Central Ave. The house was owned by Mr. Rohn the Principal of the grammar school. After four years I graduated from Wildwood High and then entered the University of Delaware where I graduated as a Civil Engineer in 1930. That same year due to increase in auto and bus travel the Railroad discontinued passenger service (they kept the freight lines) and they closed the Anglesea station. My father retired and the family moved to Pitman, N J. I had a summer job with the Railroad as a Switchman at the Wildwood station during the last two years in High School and four years during college. My job was to switch the track of the incoming trains (south bound) in against the station platform so that passengers when departing would not have to walk across open tracks. After college my first job for 2 years was on the construction of the George Washington bridge in New York city. Then I worked for the Delaware Port Authority on the construction of the High Speed Line across the Delaware River Bridge and the Subway sections on both ends in Phila. And Camden. While there I married Mabel Daggan (a Wildwood Girl) - we lived in Collingswood and had two children, after that I worked and traveled in 47 of the 50 states. We always tried and mostly managed to get back to Anglesea for a vacation or a visit each summer.

Enough about me, now to get to why I'm writing you. I read the article, with the photos of the Lighthouse, where you said that you are going to attempt to have the name North Wildwood changed back to Anglesea. I think it is a worthwhile project and I wish that I lived down there so that I could be of some help. The Mayor says it will be too costly but I think it will be worth the cost and that funds can be found.

I agree with your idea of pushing the cultural and the historical phase of a new deal but I think you should consider another angle-THE OLD TIMERS. If you can work up a mailing list and then get out a newsletter-then arrange for meeting places-I bet a lot of the Old Timers would be interested. Perhaps you could promote an Annual Old Timers Picnic to be held on the Lighthouse grounds.

At the end of New Jersey Ave. where the Five Mile Beach Trolley Line terminated on the north end, there was the beginning of a nice dock where the town people would gather waiting for the fish boats to return.

It was a wooden dock, with benches, and was supported on pilings. Moore's Inlet Hotel was on the west side of the dock. The dock extended out to the inside edge of the Hereford Inlet channel and then lined the channel to the East and West. About 8 to 10 Party Boats tied up and sailed daily from this dock. There also was a Sightseeing Boat that made daily trips in the afternoon to Stone Harbor

West of the west end of the dock there was a deep water basin used by commercial fishing boats. The basin was about 200 feet wide and ran directly south to nearly Spruce Ave. A heavy duty wharf that had a roof was built down the center the length of the basin. There was an ice house that had several large freezing rooms. Fish would be hauled to the ice house where they were sorted, weighed, iced and placed in barrels to be shipped by rail to wholesellers. About 10 large boats (Smakes) used the wharf. These boats stayed out at sea for a week or 10 days or until they caught a load. A few Skiffs and the Pound boats also used the wharf.

In those days the railroad was the hub of the action. Beside the regular scheduled trains during the day there was the Daily Excursions trains-one dollar round trip- these included the Fisherman Special. There would be one or two sections of these reduced fare trains daily and eight or ten sections on Sat and Sun. I sold baskets (fish) to the fishermen when they were departing. My Dad as Station Agent hired 18-20 year olds as ticket and freight clerks and he had a crew of 6-8 that load the fish barrels into freight cars.

Getting back to your project. No doubt you are going to need the backing of some large companies to push and finance "Back to Anglesea." Here is an idea-why not contact Anhouser-Busch. They may want to publicize their early roots in Anglesea. Back about 1912 you didn't buy beer in bottles or cans-for home consumption you took a (grauwer) (not sure of spelling) to a bar. It was a tin kettle - about 1 quart - with a lid and a bowed handle. You had it filled and carried it home. Anhouser-Busch had a warehouse with a R.R. siding into their platform. The beer arrived in kegs in refrigerated cars and was kept in cooler rooms until it was delivered to the bars. The warehouse was located on the north side of Chestnut St. midway between NJ and NY Avenues. A.-B. serviced all the bars on Five Mile Island from this warehouse. G.O. Frith a local freight hauler who had a gas engine powered truck delivered the kegs to all the Anglesea bars. The kegs were round tapered toward each end and then cut off to form a bottom and a head. You rolled the kegs but they could be easily rocked so that they could be tipped up to stand on the bottom. Us town kids would ride the truck and roll the kegs to get the kegs down off the truck you would drop it on a heavy rope mat. When we delivered the full kegs we would pick up the empties. There was always a little stale beer that remained in the empties and it would run out the bung hole all over our shoes and clothes then I would catch hell when I got home because the smell was terrific.

The Hereford Inlet channel at one time ran fairly close to the end of Central Ave., then past the Coastguard Station, then past the Lighthouse, then past the end of Surf Ave. on it's way to the ocean. The channel ran so close to the Lighthouse that it washed and undermined the foundation so that it tipped or leaned about 15 degrees toward the channel. They jacked the whole building up and moved it back about 200 feet to it's present location. I was 5-6 years old and watched the entire operation. Capt. Hewitt the Lighthouse Keeper at times took me up to help polish the light. I sort of remember that there was an oil lamp that was later converted to electric.

To stop future washouts they built a jetty across the channel opposite Surf Ave. over to Champain island. It did the job but the channel then cut it's way around the other side of Champain island on it's way to the sea. The channel was not so good and all the fishing boats moved down to Two Mile island or Cape May where they had an excellent inlet and a good harbor. The Railroad then stopped running passenger service to the island. They closed the station and my Dad retired and moved the family to Pitman.

A good portion of the old families in Anglesea were Scandinavians-a mixture of Swedes, Fins, Danes, and Norwegians. I bet many of them have fond memories of the old Anglesea that they would gladly pass on.

This is an event that you may not know about. Each Coast Guard Station had a Chief and a crew of about 10 men, some slept in the station and others at home. One of their duties was to walk and patrol the shore line between stations. There was no radio as yet so they were on the look-out for ships that had come aground along the shore. About once a month (in uniform) they would stage a (fake) rescue of the crew of a ship that was grounded near the shore line. They had a tall wood pole with a cross arm near the top erected at the north end and center of Central Ave. This was to resemble the mast of a grounded ship. The guards would wheel a cannon that was kept in the station house and place it in the middle of Central about 200 feet south of the pole. They would then shoot a projectile, on which was attached a light line, over the cross arm, using the light line a guard would pull a heavy line or cable up and attach it to the mast - the lower end was secured on the bottom near the cannon. The Guard using the light line would now pull up the breaches buoy which hung below and traveled on the heavy line. The breaches buoy was a life ring with canvas legs attached to the bottom. They looked like a pair of mens pants, such for the name breaches buoy. A guard would get in the buoy and ride or be pulled down to the ground. Then the buoy would be pulled up again and several of the Guards would take turns being rescued. A large crowd would turn up to watch these practices lining the west side of Central Ave. They would cheer and applaud when it was over. (pictured below)

I'm going to list the names of some of the old Anglesea families and the names of some of their off-spring.

(Please note: it was very hard to read Mr. Riggin's typing at this point and his left and right columns did not line up very well)

CARLBERG Smake-Alice, Charles, Caroline, Florence
AXELSON Two brothers-skiff boats
CARLSON Smake Johnie and a couple girls - Edith
MANSICKQUE Smake Several girls -Evelyn
ASSPENBERG Smake -Jack
APPLEGATE Fishing - Jack, Andy, Drew, gabelling A, C.
SHIVERS Two brothers Lorrie and ? built skiffs
BISHOP Saloon and bar - Ludy
BISHOP Hotel and bar Bill Bishop
MOORE Inlet Hotel, Robert, Bud, Mary
WICKSTRUM Julius
NIDORF Grocery store then the Hilton Hotel -Hymmie, Gabe, and Mike
GRACE Grocery and then Gasoline business -Ethel, Allen, Kenny, Pauline (Allen Grace Store Photo pictured)
BRIGHT Lin, Brother-in-law Allen Grace
ROBINSON Road Maintenance - teams of horses
HOLMES Fishing -Palmer, Natalie, and another brother Stanley
BRAIDWOOD Paper, Cigar, and Candy Tom, Victor, Howard, Betty, Johnie, Kae
RAUCH Grocery store and Meat market
McGINTY Lived above Rauch's store -Elizabeth, Marion, Gint (later a cop)
BUCK Jason, nephew Jason lives in Pitman
SANDERS Contractors Sanders & Wheaton Real Estate, Charles, Linden, Babs
WEATHON Postmaster was former Mayor son-Leon
HEWITT Lighthouse Keeper, wife Aunt Abie
PRICE Chief at Coast Guard St. dau - Ruth
ROHN Principal 10th Ave. School, Ross, Bill
CORSON Isabella was clerk in Post Office
KRESS Barber - shop on 1st Ave.
OSWOLD Shoemaker-1st Ave.
FRITH Local freight hauler - with his truck he towed the fire company apparatus dau -Dorothy
GARWOOD Ma Garwood ran a boarding house, Pop Garwood was a Motorman on the trolley cars. He was a Familiar sight standing on the front of the trolley in his blue uniform with his snow white hair and bushy white mustache.
READING Pres. Of Fish Co. - later the Mayor
SAYLOR Had a big home on the SW cor. 1st & Surf Ave.-came from Pottstown or Pottsville every year and stayed all summer.
SNYDER Pete, Betty and another sister
PAPPERD 5th Ave & Atlantic Ave. Five boys -came from Pittsburg every year & stayed all summer.
EPLER Ice business - Russell and Ruth
PAPPERT Lived on Walnut across from Garwoods near the Channel -there were two sisters 20-21 years old, who as an added attraction would ride on separate Surf Boards being towed by the Sight-seeing boat that made daily runs to Stone Harbor and return. A crowd of people would line the dock to watch when they left and came back. Then there were the familes that lived in the 17th St. area, between say 12th and 26th streets. These people always seemed to hold themselves apart from the real Anglesea. These families included
COLSON-lumber yard. Ace, Harry and a sister:
OTTEN the 17 Ave. Harbor
LOU BOOTH -RICE-Surveyors Bill, Jimmie, Betty
TRUIT Les, express hauling
GRIFFITH Milton and George
CLINE - Edgar and a brother and sister.
BENDER Billy Bender was a singing waiter in the local nite-spots. He built the ELDORADO and operated it as a nite club then sold it to Ed Zaberer who changed it to a RESTAURANT-which became an Anglesea landmark

There were many more but I couldn't list them all. While I was growing up I knew all these people and they knew me-they were my friends.

I looked over this typing-what a hell of a mess. I was going to do it over - but then it would probably be worse. I hope you can read some of it.

Due to my physical condition and age I don't think I will be around long enough to see that you accomplished your mission to "Bring-Back-Anglesea" but I would like to hear how you are making out and what's happening - maybe through a News Letter.

Sincerely yours,
Warren E. Riggin

Breeches Buoy drill at Anglesea Life Saving Station,
C. 1910