ciation for their personal use, and a further sale of 269 lots had been made. In 1871, "impelled by a sense of duty to the Association and the lot-holders already located," and growing out of the heavy demand for lots, the price advanced from $100 to $150, and then to $250.

In this connection it will be interesting to note that Mr. James A. Bradley, now known throughout the length and breadth of the land as the "founder" of Asbury Park, was the first purchaser of a lot by choice.

Asbury Park-Ocean Grove's next-door neighbor to the north—may properly be called the first outgrowth of Ocean Grove.

Not only has it been named for the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop Francis Asbury, but Mr. Bradley, himself a Methodist, purchased the acreage "to prevent its falling into the hands of some one who was not in sympathy" with the principles which prompted the formation of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association and the founding of Ocean Grove.

THE STORY OF ASBURY PARK

The history of Asbury Park is interesting, and who can tell it better than Mr. Bradley himself? His own words are so characteristic that we quote rather than to write anew. Mr. Bradley says:

"One afternoon in May, 1870, I was walking down Broadway, New York, and suddenly ran against my friend David H. Brown, Esq., treasurer of the Ocean Grove Association. 'How is Ocean Grove getting along?' I asked. 'Very fairly,' said he; 'why don't you buy a lot? Those who have their names put down now have first choice.' 'Well, put me down for two,' said I. A few days after, in company with others, we started for Ocean Grove. We took the boat for Port Monmouth, thence by railroad to Eatontown. The seashore route was opened a few days afterward. After dining at Mr. Brown's country house at Eatontown, we drove to Ocean Grove in carriages. The turnpike company had just commenced operations, and from Great Pond (now Deal Lake) to Ocean Grove was one of the worst roads that could well be imagined. I was completely taken with Ocean Grove and its surroundings-so much so that I purchased the first lot ever sold there, the premium being $85.

"Having for some time previous been in bad health, I concluded to try what I had been recommended-sea air. So, a few days after purchasing the lots, taking two horses, carriage and tent, and John Baker, my colored man, I left the hum of the busy city behind to become an inhabitant of the wild woods, where my wearied body and brain might rest, lulled to sleep by the murmuring sea at night, awakened in the morning by the songs of birds in the pine trees surrounding my couch.

“John and I arrived at Ocean Grove just at nightfall, and having

gotten our horses under shelter, in a barn belonging to Charles Rogers, near the present Ocean Grove schoolhouse, we entered the woods and about half a mile off, erected our tent. It was too dark to get poles, so we hung the tent on the beams of what was afterward the Association Office, the first building ever erected in Ocean Grove. This building stood near the Auditorium and was afterward torn down or removed. The building at that time was without roof. We were without light, and soon after lunching on some crackers we lay down to sleep, our heads resting on the carriage cushions, and our covering being the carriage blankets. So we spent our first night in Ocean Grove, and so began an entire change in my mode of life and which led eventually to an almost complete restoration to health.

"In the morning Baker sighed and said, 'Mr. Bradley, this is a wilderness place.' He was homesick; for, let the reader, who perhaps has been on the same spot during the busy summer season, and heard the continuous click of the telegraph instrument, and seen the vast throng of men and maidens call for their letters when the mail arrives, remember it was far different on the morning of which we are writing; although it was the 10th of June, not a soul was within hearing distance of us. I cheered him by saying: 'O, don't be cast down,' and soon we were eating our morning lunch. That finished, we proceeded to my lots on the lake, and pitched our small and large tents, and so we began our Crusoe life. During the day we occasionally saw Mr. Franklin's men, who worked about the Grove, and at night we were left to our solitude. Mr. Franklin's men tented on the lots now covered by the Hayward cottages (at the New Jersey Avenue Bridge), but on Sundays went to their homes in the interior of the township.

"Baker was my steward, housekeeper, and cook. I procured a box and dug a hole in the ground and put it in, and that was our ice house. We would sometimes drive to Long Branch, six miles away, and procure food, principally canned goods. Foreman Franklin's men indulged more in fresh meats than Baker and I, so I would trade canned goods for the oldfashioned savory stew that gave muscle to the men who first removed briars and brush from Ocean Grove and made its streets.

"One evening Baker and I took a stroll along the ocean, and I proposed a bath. Baker smiled and said, 'No, no.' 'But remember, John, cleanliness is next to godliness.' I took an ocean bath; but O, how different from the way bathers usually enjoy the surf, the waves dashing over their heads. I laid down on the soft sand and allowed the water to just touch my body, and I can tell you, reader, it is somewhat lonely to trust yourself in the great ocean in the twilight and alone. After I had been lying on the beach for a little while I looked around to see what had become of Baker. He had plucked up courage and had really divested himself of his clothes, and, coward like myself, barely allowed the water to touch

him. His dusky skin was somewhat in contrast with the white sand, and the whole scene forcibly reminded me of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday.

"During the Camp Meeting that took place in August we often heard the inquiry, 'Who owns the land on the other side of the lake?' One day the Rev. William B. Osborn and myself went over, and at the risk of having our clothes torn from our bodies, worked our way through the briars until we reached Sunset Lake. And, like the red man of whom we read in tradition, we could say, 'Alabama-here we rest,' for we stood on the banks of as beautiful a sheet of water as can be found anywhere. We returned to the Grove by way of the beach, and soon set to work to make up a company to purchase the land. We soon learned the owner would not sell the land in parcels, but the purchaser must take the whole or none. Here was a difficulty: five hundred acres! 'Never mind,' said some; 'the more land we have the more profit we will have. Our company was to consist of eight persons, some of whom were very enthusiastic; but alas! when the cool nights of autumn came along, it chilled their enthusiasm, and their example had its chilling effect on me. But I often thought of the matter, and as soon as I heard that Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, urged the Ocean Grove Association to purchase it, to prevent its falling into the hands of some one who was not in sympathy with the enterprise they had in their hands, I called on David H. Brown, and proposed he should join me in the purchase by taking one eighth, the price asked being about. $90,000. 'No,' said he. 'I am determined to have nothing to do with any enterprise in that neighborhood that would seem to place me in an inconsistent position, as I am now treasurer of the Ocean Grove Association. This I will do: I will write to every member of the Association, and if they say buy, I am inclined to think I shall not oppose it, although I think we have enough land now. But if they do not buy it, you can. And as you wish me to negotiate the purchase, I will so do on condition that you advance the requisite amount to secure the property, and if the Association decides to take it, your money to be refunded. We are to have a week's option to consider the matter.' A majority of the Association decided not to purchase the land, although some urged it very strongly; so the property became mine-I, at the same time, assuring them that the property would be resold only to such parties as would appreciate the situation of the place. After the purchase, the briars before alluded to, with the tangled underbrush, were removed at a cost of several thousand dollars. And very few would now suppose that the choice spots upon which are now erected beautiful cottages was so recently a jungle.

"As stated previously, it was supposed that immense profits would result from the purchase of the land known as Asbury Park, but the man who has tried to meet every emergency that has risen is wiser now than

when he first risked a fortune in an entirely new and untried scheme. There was not, so far as he knew, a seaside resort, an incorporated town, on the American continent or in Europe, where in the deeds the sale of intoxicating liquor was prohibited. 'With your restrictions you can never make a seaside resort a success so near New York,' said the timid and the croakers, but the founder of Asbury Park, with an intense and lifelong hatred of the liquor traffic, has given hundreds and hundreds of deeds. which are on record at the County Clerk's office, and contain a protest against the curse of society which the American people strangely allow to exist; and yet Asbury Park, notwithstanding, did grow, and its success has been so great that the anti-liquor clause is now a feature in the deeds of many seaside resorts started on the New Jersey coast."

Not only was there friendly protective interest to Ocean Grove on the north, but likewise the same on the south. Another Methodist, Bradner by name, from Newark, New Jersey, purchased the tract south of Fletcher Lake, later acquired by Mr. Bradley, the founder of Asbury Park, and now known as Bradley Beach.

During the first year-in 1870-large numbers of men and teams were engaged in clearing that portion of the ground between Main Avenue and Wesley Lake, and the turnpike and the ocean. Ocean Pathway, two hundred feet at the grove and three hundred feet wide at the ocean, and fifteen hundred feet long, was graded and laid with gravel walks, with a "beautiful highway through the center ten feet wide reaching directly to the surf." It was necessary to trim about forty thousand trees, cut out and remove dead trees, go through the grove with brush hooks, and to cart out hundreds of loads of brush to be burned upon the clearings. The opening of the avenues on the beach from the grove to the surf, which was also done, helped greatly in the sale of the beach lots.

Much grading of the land and some drainage was required in laying out the grounds. To begin with, an immense sand bank, poetically named "Sea Drift Heights," extended across Ocean Grove from Wesley to Fletcher Lakes, following a course where the Model of Jerusalem and the Young People's Temple now stand. This must have been from twelve to fifteen feet high. By degrees this was removed, some of the sand being used to fill in the low ground on Ocean Pathway, and some to fill in the lots of the lessees.

With a keen foresight for the comfort of those who might come, a small icehouse had been filled and the contents sold during the summer for $150.

RESTRICTIONS

Much has been said and written about the "Restrictions" at Ocean Grove. These so-called restrictions were simply designed for mutual pro

tection. From the beginning it was said: "Those who violate a rule for what may seem to their advantage to-day may have a similar rule violated to-morrow by others which will prove to their great disadvantage. Adherence to the old gospel precept, 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,' is all we ask in regard to our regulations here."

Everyone in accepting a lease from the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association agreed in advance to these regulations. None of them was unreasonable.

The superintendent was required to rigidly enforce the rules that cottages should not, without the written consent of the Association, be occupied except during the season from May 15 to October 30. The cottages were light and combustible, and to occupy them in cold weather required more heat than safety allowed; it was therefore feared a violation of the rule would lead to the destruction of property. The reasonableness of this soon became apparent to all. So far as is known no proper and responsible person ever has been denied the privilege of remaining. This rule is still enforced, though changed living conditions and modern houses make it possible in most instances to permit all-year-round occupancy.

Another rule relates to the transfer of leaseholds from one owner to another. This rule-a charter provision, amplified in the by-laws-stipulates that property may be transferred only to those "who may be vouched for as of good moral character and in sympathy with the objects of this Association."

A rule that has called forth much comment is that requiring the gates to be closed on the Sabbath. Of this, Dr. Stokes said at the very beginning, "We are a religious place and a religious people." To the thoughtful people the Sabbath quiet is one of the chief attractions of Ocean Grove.

To correct many misapprehensions concerning these "restrictions," there was published by order of the Association in July, 1875, five thousand copies of a "Hand Book of Rules to be observed at Ocean Grove”—a little pamphlet of eight pages. These were distributed throughout the Grove and resulted in a more thorough observance of the regulations than ever before, and it is said the universal sentiment appeared to be, "Keep your rules without alteration or abatement."

Always there has been an almost universal disposition on the part of the proprietors of the large hotels and boarding houses to comply with the regulations of the place.

Dancing and card-playing have not been encouraged. On one occasion, many years ago, one of the policemen in requiring a couple of young men to desist from a game of cards was met with the question indignantly proposed, "Don't this Association allow us to play cards upon their grounds?"