The Old Mill is preserved and Golf is all the rage

Guglielmo Marconi cames to the United States to cover the America’s-Cup yacht race aboard ship with his new device, a wireless telegraph using radio waves. The word ‘automobile’ appears in print for the first time to describe a horseless carriage or motorcar. The rapid advancement of technology has some people focused on preserving the past

J. Bunford Samuel of Sea Girt purchased the 1830s-era grain mill out of bankruptcy. He wanted to preserve the area around the mill. He loved to canoe in Wreck Pond, and bought the 45 acres surrounding the pond at Old Mill at the head of the stream in Spring Lake Heights and the land around it.

The Old Mill in the late 1880s. All Mill photos by Marriott C. Morris via the Library Company of Philadelphia

When J.B. Samuel died, he donated the land to the National Farm School (the future Delaware Valley College) so that they could continue to operate the mill and use the surrounding land for education and quiet enjoyment. He envisioned preserving the head of Wreck Pond for future generations.

Samuel was a supporter of the college, founded by Jewish Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf to promote young people of all faiths to get out of the congested cities which were bursting with immigrant ghettos and to embrace the fertile land in the countryside. Krauskopf’s message was overwhelmingly positive, and he was a lauded public speaker. One of his quotes exemplifies his attitude.

Elliston Morris standing left, and J.B. Samuel, right in tree, loved to accompany younger people on days in nature

“It requires courage, moral courage, the highest kind of courage to be honest: fairly, frankly, fully honest. If you are honest, there lives not a man on earth who can humiliate you. If you have honor, though very little else besides, you have more wealth, more glory, more power, than all the hypocrites combined.”

The school sold the land when it was no longer practical for them. The Old Mill School and Park were part of the old Samuel property, as is the Mill Inn catering hall where the mill stood

The ladies came along and rowed their own boats.

The sporting life was the height of 1890s luxury. Golf became the sport of 1899.

In 1897 in the southwest section of Spring Lake there were few homes built. Members of the summer community laid out nine golf holes and leased the vacant lots for the origins of the Spring Lake Golf Club. The fairways crossed streets and some homes were struck by errant shots. By 1898 they had organized and used the 1840s Forman Osborne farmhouse on 4th and as their clubhouse. Caddies were paid 15 cents to carry clubs.

There were more elaborate links at Deal Lake, by the Hollywood estate in Long Branch, at Monmouth Beach, and along the Navasink, near Red Bank. Lawrence Harbor, Atlantic City, and Cape May also had golf clubs at this time. Freehold and Atlantic Highlands announced the formation of clubs and the USGA went from 5 clubs to 195 clubs in its first five years. Famous golfers could describe the game in front of huge crowds.

Percifor Frazer, a professor at Pennsylvania College, was from a colonial Pennsylvania family and his son Jack, was an all-around sportsman and Penn graduate student. They spent a few weeks at the Beach House in Sea Girt in’99. They were credited with bringing golf to the forefront of the discussions at the Beach House hotel, the Parker House and all the in cottages in between, providing Spring Lake’s links with a full house most days.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club was started by Penn alumni, in Wissahickon and is the oldest country club in the nation, dating to the 1850s. The first golf course at the club was laid out in 1897 and the Frazers were two of the club’s best players.

Thomas Morrison, a cousin of Andrew Carnagie’s had his cottage on the oceanfront in Crescent Park. He was a member at Deal, Pinehurst, and Oakmont PA clubs.

Women as well as men had clubs in their hands, and the open space, dunes and lawns in Sea Girt allowed people to practice the game without fear of striking a building. Women were said to be more interested in golf than dancing, driving or visiting the troops.

There were more people interested in the sport than opportunities to play, and most clubs required an invitation from a member. The most connected, and best players could get into a foursome. The Hollywood golf club at the Hollywood Hotel in Long Branch announced that they would stay open all year, which was good business for the hotel, and entrepreneurs looked for idle farms they could lease out to set up their own links. A farmer was declared ‘golf mad’ when his son found him in the field knocking the heads off his cabbages with his swing.

There was rumor that the Sea Girt vacationers would hold their own tournament when September rolled around, but it never happened. People would be content with joining the Spring Lake Club. As homes were built around the original 9 holes, the members purchased the Thompson farm across Route 71 for the current 18-hole layout and used the Thompson farmhouse as their clubhouse. Later they built the current clubhouse on site and in the 1930s the Thompson farmhouse became the Village Barn (proprietor Henry Bossett Jr. and his wife Ellen), and then Doolans.