Local residents Gretchen Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft, who co-authored their first book Inferno At Sea: Stories of Death and Survival Aboard the Morro Castle in 2012, have taken their maritime knowledge from sea to land with their newest book, devoted solely to the history of Tucker’s Island. The 8-mile-long island, formerly located between the Beach Haven and Little Egg inlets, once was home to a small community of individuals. Tucker’s Island, published by Arcadia Publishing, brings to life the history of those times with never-before-seen photos.
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| Photo via New Jersey Maritime Museum Arvilla Mott Horner relaxes on a boat in the marsh. |
“As with Inferno at Sea, Deb and I are most interested in the human side of the island,” Coyle said. “Who lived there? What did they do? What kind of people preferred life on a barrier island around 1900 compared to more sophisticated towns like Tuckerton or Atlantic City?
“We have created a book for those who wonder about an island long gone,” she added. “Hopefully this book will be popular for not only those who may remember the island or heard some stories, but for generations to come. ... Tucker’s Island will interest people from Atlantic City to Forked River.”
The book starts at the very beginning, when the first people set foot on the island.
“Was it the Lenni Lenape in the 1500s? We have no idea and no proof, but it sure is nice to surmise,” said Coyle. “We know that the Lenni Lenape spent summer months on New Jersey islands, hunting game and gathering wild berries such as cranberries and blueberries.”
People later commuted to Tucker’s Island by first taking the train from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and then by horse and buggy to docks in AC, Leeds Point and Absecon, where they boated in. From the north, they traveled the railroad to Whiting and then finally by boat, Coyle noted.
“It’s neat to look at life in a whole different era. It gives readers an insight into a different lifestyle and a different time. It’s just something that they will never experience,” Whitcraft said. “Today life is so hectic. You’ve got a phone in one hand and you’ve got a computer or a laptop in the other hand. It’s a whole different world.
“People today have no appreciation for what these people saw, what they experienced, how they took joy from simple things like sitting out on the porch at night and singing and having little get-togethers with clams and the fire. It was just a different, simpler way of life,” she added. “I think a lot of people wish they could experience that. I think we all do because there’s such a hustle-bustle in our lives these days. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t work just as hard. In some respects they worked much harder than we do today, but their lives were not complicated. I think they appreciated what they had far more than we do today.”
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| Photo via New Jersey Maritime Museum Samuel P. Cranmer guards the beaches and the marsh. |
The book mostly centers on the people who lived on the island during the 19th century, including life savers under Jarvis Rider and their families, lighthouse keepers Eber Rider and son Arthur and their relatives, as well as people who visited on weekends and during the summer.
“Happy faces say it all whether it was in the old St. Alban’s or Columbia hotels or rustic cottages,” Coyle said.
Eventually, houses and hotels disappeared one by one. The lighthouse fell into the sea in 1927, and the island had completely vanished by 1952.
The last people to travel to Tucker’s Island were families who could get gas for their boats in the mid- to late-1940s, said Coyle. By this time, the island was extremely small, mostly just a sandpit, with no buildings or remains left. Members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary also patrolled part of the area during World War II.
“There were never any indications that German soldiers, submariners, or spies had been on the island. But the Coast Guard auxiliary did beach their boats and walk the island, doing their part for the war effort,” Coyle said.
While Coyle and Whitcraft together offer over a century of local maritime history expertise, they said researching Tucker’s Island was difficult since much of the available information is inaccurate.
“There’s a lot of conflicting information, not because people aren’t telling the truth, but because they’re telling the history as they know it,” said Whitcraft.
The only records kept for posterity are those of the U.S. Life Saving Service – log books kept at the New Jersey Maritime Museum – and a lighthouse log book, which can be found at the Tuckerton Historical Society.
“A lot of the rest is guess work: newspaper articles here and there and some government records about building the lighthouse and lifesaving station,” Coyle said.
“You’d think the Tuckerton Beacon would have been a good source for information. However, we found that by the time information got from the island to the newspaper, it was outdated, misspelled and not helpful,” she noted.
Many of the people associated with Tucker’s Island, when it was a vibrant seashore community, were illiterate, Whitcraft noted, adding that there was a lot of inbreeding among relatives. Documentation of Hilliard Boulevard in Manahawkin, which was named after a Tucker’s Island family, has many different spellings, for example.
“Even the Hilliard family themselves spelled their names different ways,” Whitcraft said.
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| Photo via New Jersey Maritime Museum Ladies clown around for the camera. |
Throughout the process, however, the authors gained access to a plethora of unique research items, including those from Tim Dring, a Coast Guard historian, as well as Shirley Whealton’s genealogy book on the Rider family. George Hartnett, a Maritime Museum trustee, loaned out the Nichterlein family photo album, which Hartnett bought a few years ago on an Internet auction. Artist Cathleen Engelsen, who paints historic scenes directly from her grandfather’s photos, and Nancy Speck and her nephew Jim Allen, whose family is well photographed, also greatly contributed to the book.
“I think one of the advantages we had for this book was being able to communicate directly with descendants who all grew up on Tucker’s Island,” said Whitcraft, who noted they all still live in Ocean County. “That was big because even at the 11th hour, we were able to clarify much of the information that appears in the book.”
Photographs taken of island artifacts kept at the Maritime Museum and Tuckerton Historical Society are also included.
“We hope people will enjoy our Tucker’s Island book as much as we enjoyed writing it,” said Coyle.
The book comes out Aug. 10 and will be available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the Maritime Museum.
An opening book signing will take place at the museum on Aug. 14 from 2 to 6 p.m. Other signings will be held at the Long Beach Island Historical Museum Aug. 24 at 7:30 p.m. as well as at the Spray Beach Yacht Club Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. and the Tuckerton Historical Society Oct. 10 at 2 p.m.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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