In the Spring of 1908, the resort promoters at Sea Girt cleared the land between the train tracks and the Manasquan Pike (Rt.71). They solicited members of the community to join the new Spring Lake and Sea Girt Country Club. The area west of the tracks between Baltimore Blvd and Brooklyn Blvd was laid out with a regulation polo field surrounded by a track. It quickly grew to 200 members, and a clubhouse was constructed. Early events were horse shows and polo.
The Clubhouse and membership opening Pach Brothers photos courtesy of RUCOR Rutgers University Community Repository
Prominent as an officer of the club was Ferdinand W. Roebling, second of the four sons of John Roebling who invented twisted wire rope and designed the Brooklyn Bridge. The Roeblings summered at their Spring Lake home on Jersey Avenue starting in the 1890s.
Roebling’s bridge during the 13-year construction, 1870s Library of Congress photo. The first cable crossed the East River in 1876.
Patriarch John Roebling’s foot was crushed at the bridge building site in 1869 and he died of infection in less than one month. Oldest son Washington took over the Brooklyn Bridge project, but he also was injured, getting the bends when a fire broke out in one of the pressurized caissons under the river. His wife Emily took over the day-to-day supervision while he was bedridden. Together they completed the bridge in 1883; the crown jewel of dozens of Roebling bridge projects. Emily’s story is told in a popular historical fiction novel, The Engineer’s Wife, by Tracey Enerson Wood. Emily died in 1903 of stomach cancer at 59 and Washington retired.
Washington’s brother Ferdinand, known as F.W. ran the company out of Trenton. As it grew they needed more room and brother Charles was placed in charge of developing the town of Roebling out of vacant land in Flanders NJ along the Delaware River. The town had housing for 4,000 workers and four factories. The Roebling business did over $15,000,000 in business per year by the early 1900s and the brothers became fabulously wealthy.
F.W. summered at Spring Lake with his brother Charles and their children. They voted in Monmouth County. The family kept a large stable of horses in Trenton and gravitated to the new Polo field.
Cars lined up to see the races at the country club. View is north, approximately from where SGES is today.
Women rarely competed at polo. Louise Hitchcock at the Meadowbrook Country Club on Long Island introduced women to the sport in 1901. Before, many American women rode side saddle. Hitchcock was an excellent teacher and her son went on to be the best player in the world.
In 1908, F.W. Roebling started lessons for women at Sea Girt. The team debut was in 1909. His niece, Charles’ daughter Emily Margaretta, named after her aunt, was an excellent rider and athlete. She showed off her skills in front of her fiance Richard McCall Cadwalater, a banker from a wealthy Philadelphia family. They continued until at least 1914 when they also started a women’s horseball team, basketball on horses, derived from an Argentine game played with a live duck.
The Roeblings were also interested in automobiles. They developed the Mercer Raceabout, one of the first American race cars. Several articles written around this time criticized drivers auto racing in Spring Lake’s streets. Charles’ son Washington II, “Washy”was the family car enthusiast and he raced Mercer’s at several venues.
The Spring Lake and Sea Girt Country Club featured a “gymkhana” on the small track in 1911, a festival of driving skills. They raced cars through obstacle courses. A woman came in second in the ‘slow race’ where drivers had to finish a lap in as close to 1.5 minutes as possible without a watch. They also had short-track sprints. F.W. Roebling was instrumental in the organizing of the races and Mercers won several events. The Roeblings were also active at the Casino (Bath and Tennis). In this same year, the old 9-hole course of the Spring Lake Golf Club was moved to the more expansive 18-hole site in Spring Lake Heights. The area was at its sporting height.
The Mercer in Trenton (Library of Congress) Caleb Bragg was a Grand Champion
In 1914, the Mercer was the first American-made car to win an International grand prize. The Vanderbilt Cup races were held in Santa Monica, Ca. With Roebling’s Mercer motor factory worker Eddie Pullen driving, the Mercer blew away the field at an unheard-of average speed of over 71 miles per hour, securing Mercer’s position as the fastest cars of their time.
Eddie Pullen in his champion Mercer (Library of Congress)
The decade was hard on the Roebling family.
Auto enthusiast Washy Roebling II left for Europe in 1911 and cruised around the continent with a friend Stephen Blackwell, son of a US Senator, test-driving a new Fiat sports car. Blackwell had lost his wife, and the trip was partly to cheer him up.
The pair sailed for home sharing a first-class cabin in 1912 aboard the maiden voyage of the Titanic. When the ship hit the iceberg, Roebling went below. As an engineer, knew the seriousness of the situation. He and a chum, Londoner Howard Case went to the cabin of Margaret Graham at the request of her mother Edith who could not find her daughter. Washy found her and calmly told her to put on her fur coat and they would escort her to her mother on the top deck.
Margaret, heir to the American Can Company joked darkly, “But I can’t swim in my fur”. After helping the Grahams and several other women step into the lifeboat they watched a few men jump from the deck into the lowering boat. Case calmly lit a cigarette and Washy smiled and waved to the Grahams. They were never seen again.
FW Roebling went immediately to New York to find his nephew. There was confusion as the manifest did have a Mr. Washington on board, but the family was heartbroken to learn Washy was not among the passengers saved by the Carpathia. The Fiat and the chauffeur arrived safely on a different ship.
Prominade deck of the White Star Line’s Titanic -Library of Congress
FW died in 1917 and his brother Charles died in 1918, just as the company was running full out for war production. FW’s son, Karl G. Roebling was saddled with the management of the entire Roebling and Sons enterprise after his father and uncle died. He worked 18-hour days and didn’t last three years.
In 1921, KG was golfing at the Spring Lake Golf Club and teed off of the third hole with friend William Anderson. Andersen started after his dive when the caddie called him back. Karl had dropped to the ground immediately after hitting his ball, dead from a stroke at 46. 84-year-old Washington Roebling un-retired to run the company until his death at 89, assisted by FW Roebling Jr.
In the wake of the loss of four Roeblings, both Mercer Automobiles and the Country Club lost their shine. World War I also played a role. The Mercer factory was bested by competitors and closed in 1925. The Country Club struggled as most of the military-age men went off to serve. They planted potatoes at the club along the Manasquan Pike in 1917 to help with the War effort, and in 1922 the land was sold for development. Streets were carved to match the streets on the eastern side of the tracks and Bell Place was added down the center. A “Bungalow City” was announced.
The Roeblings remained in Spring Lake. Ruth, FW’s widow donated $200,000 and raised millions for the Ann May Hospital on Vroom Ave. and its successors, which eventually became Jersey Shore Medical Center. FW was passionate about the need for well-trained nurses, and improved care.
Ferdinand W. Roebling Jr. purchased Lowlands, an estate of the full block between Ocean, Lorraine, Prospect, and Monroe with fabulous sunken gardens for $150,000. They bought from Thomas Morrison a US Steel Director and cousin of Andrew Carnegie.
Emily M. Cadwalater purchased a 104-foot wooden yacht, the Sequoia for $200,000 and used it to sail with her husband and up to 20 guests to Florida. It would later become the US Presidential yacht from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter.