Bizarre History of Cape May -- Early physicians left their mark on Cape May County

Last Updated on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 10:46 am Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:00 am

Imagine a time when there were no heart pills, certainly no Medicare, and when the only anesthesia was a good slug of whiskey while people held you down and extracted part of your body.

Welcome to medicine circa 1800s and 1900s in Cape Island before and soon after it was renamed Cape May. Obviously times were not that scientific then, and some today may argue in absence of tangible evidence that then was better than now, although today’s life longevity proves otherwise.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Early physicians left their mark on Cape May County

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape May County saw its share of action in War of 1812

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, August 08, 2012 04:45 am

The War of 1812, more accurately described as the war of 1812, 1813, 1814 and 1815, was referred to by at least one chronicler as the war that few people at the time understood why it happened in the first place.

Today, as the 200th anniversary of the war is marked, little attention is being given to that occasion in the media or elsewhere. If the Korean War is called “The Forgotten War” then The War of 1812 certainly deserves to be referred to as “The Lost War,” despite all the history it has made.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape May County saw its share of action in War of 1812

Bizarre History of Cape May --Town Bank was once touted as a whaling town

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, August 01, 2012 04:19 pm

 It can be said with levity that the early settlers who came to the Cape Island/Cape May area had a whale of a time here. Many historical accounts have recorded that these arrivals from Long Island and Connecticut migrated in the 17th and 18th centuries to profit from whaling, and not so incidentally to make an impact on the future of the territory.

The most popular place to catch a whale then appeared to be the waters of what is now the Town Bank section of Lower Township. So popular, in fact, that Town Bank, also known as New England Town, Portsmouth Town and Falmouth, was being touted in the 17th century as one of the most successful whaling communities in the New World.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May --Town Bank was once touted as a whaling town

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape May County had its own little ‘civil war’ over site of new court house

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Thursday, July 26, 2012 09:02 am

 They did not fire bullets and there were no casualties, other than political, but the developments during the first half of the 19th century in Cape May County may have been a harbinger of bigger things to come in the nation during the 1800s.

This was civil war mini-style. The issues were which part of the county, the north or the south, was to dominate in government and where the county seat should be located – the middle or more toward the north of Cape May County. Sometimes it grew real nasty and war-like during the process.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape May County had its own little ‘civil war’ over site of new court house

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Parkway

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, July 11, 2012 11:14 am

 When Horace Greeley led a delegation from New York City to Cape Island, later to be renamed Cape May, in August 1847 to interview Henry Clay, it required an overnight voyage aboard a ship. The same journey by stage coach would have consumed two days and nights.

That, of course, was long before Wilbur and Orville Wright had made an impact on air transportation, and certainly before Henry Ford and Louis Chevrolet appeared in Cape May with their land vehicles. The railroads didn’t begin to show up until the Civil War, sometimes so inefficiently that the passengers had to get out and push when the trains were mired in the mud.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Parkway

Bizarre History of Cape May --Inaugural trip of Cape May-Lewes Ferry was not so smooth

Last Updated on Thursday, August 02, 2012 02:33 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, July 03, 2012 11:24 am

They love to hold parties in Cape May and in early July 1964 they held two of them, one to mark Independence Day and the other to celebrate a grand opening.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May --Inaugural trip of Cape May-Lewes Ferry was not so smooth

Bizarre History of Cape May --Cape May Canal’s history runs deep

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, June 27, 2012 02:15 pm

 Given the many issues that arose from the birth of the nation, one would not expect that the subject of boat canals would be one of early America’s priorities.

It probably never would have made the top 10 most needed projects of that time, but President George Washington thought enough of it to speak out for posterity when he said he wished Americans had “the wisdom to improve” the nation’s system of waterways.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May --Cape May Canal’s history runs deep

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Turn of the century was a time of change for Cape May

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, June 20, 2012 06:00 am

 Cape May and the nation were enjoying a respite from war when the calendar turned to the 20th century. There was to be an 18-year interlude of peace from the time the four month Spanish-American War ended in 1898 and the United States’ entrance into the already raging World War I in 1916.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Turn of the century was a time of change for Cape May

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape has seen its share of panics, recessions and Depression

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, June 13, 2012 04:10 pm

  When historians write about the grim times when the national economy turned bad, the inevitable major reference goes to the period that has been called The Great Depression.

There was nothing great about the 1930s, when the distraught were jumping out of skyscraper windows to wipe out the poverty that faced them, or when men were selling apples on street corners to try to earn a pittance for their hungry children, or when hobos hopped on and off box cars in their rail travels from one town to another in fruitless searches for employment or food handouts.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Cape has seen its share of panics, recessions and Depression

Bizarre History of Cape May -- Roaring Twenties brought Suffrage, Prohibition to Cape May

Last Updated on Tuesday, June 05, 2012 05:11 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, June 05, 2012 04:59 pm

 Some people, especially the women who fought for their rights and then bequeathed their stories to posterity, considered the Roaring Twenties a fun decade, even in conservative Cape May.

They had fought the battle for the right to vote during the 1910s and ultimately achieved their goal on Aug. 18, 1920 when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. New Jersey was the 29th state to ratify, but it wasn’t easy.

Read more: Bizarre History of Cape May -- Roaring Twenties brought Suffrage, Prohibition to Cape May