William Paynter and Robert Hadfield were the area grocers as the new Bradley Beach community was being built out at the end of the 1800s. They had very different fortunes.
James Bradley was at his most influential in the 1880’s. Into the second decade of his pet project, “From a jungle of pine and the solitude of the ocean a city had risen Mercury-like.”, Asbury Park was an unmitigated success. Not the free for all of Long Branch, nor the overly pious and austere Ocean Grove.
“He busily flits to and fro along the congregated throngs on the plank walk, and strikes you as a very characteristic man, as he with gentlemanly demonstration gives orders to his helmeted watchmen. He is of tall stature, with an auburn beard and moustache adorning a firm but refined countenance. His dress is matchless, with immaculate linens to relieve the reverential black.” Says the pavilion guard. “It's a pity that that man hasn't fifty more years to live. He is a genius, and spends lots of money for the public good ." -Reading Times, Reading, Pennsylvania Mon, Aug 1, 1887 Page 1
“The Founder,” as Bradley was often called, eyed the next patch of sand to the south of the Grove and began in earnest to develop it. Ocean Park was the name of the development on the south side of Fletcher Lake (Ocean Grove). Bradley bought the beach and the undeveloped land to the south toward Silver Lake (Key East) from William B. Bradner, of Newark who had purchased 50 acres in 1871 after making money in coal. Bradner was born into a farming family in Florida NY, near Goshen in Orange County in 1811.
Working with Cortland Parker, the President of the American Bar Association, Bradley funded the felling of trees, smoothing the sand hills and began to lay out roads. From early on, there were suggestions that this entire area be called “Bradley’s Beach”.
In 1888 the US Postal Service received its application for a Special Post Office located in what the applicant called “Bradley Beach”. An 1892 article mentioned that they would not accept “Park” as part of the name, and Bradley Beach it was. The 200 summertime residents would have their mail dropped off at the railroad, and then distributed out of a William Paynter’s store on Newark Ave. Catherine E. Bickerston filled out the application and would serve the first two years until Rev F. T. Alba was named postmaster, followed by Paynter himself.
As the town grew Bradley looked to attract more businesses to the area. He gave more opportunities to his trusted friend, William Paynter.
Paynter had been the primary stage coach operator in Asbury Park. The stage operator was the first person most guests met in town. They took guests and delivered their season’s worth of luggage and domestic help to their hotel or cottage. It was an influential position. The first mayor of Spring Lake, Edward V. Patterson had the same job. Bradley asked him to be a Commissioner of Appeals for the newly formed borough.
Paynter now specialized in filling larders for the season. Bradley built a new larger building for him at 900 Main Street and Ocean Park Avenue and convinced Paynter to open a second store there. Paynter purchased a lot and built a home at 605 2nd Ave. In providing a location closer to Ocean Grove, Bradley was negatively impacting the business of Robert Hadfield. Hadfield operated a produce and grocery store at 47 South Main Street in Neptune, between Bradley Beach, and Asbury Park across from the Neptune School, and the gates of Ocean Grove.
As the century turned, bad luck followed Hadfield, while Paynter thrived. Bradley had the Bradley Beach post office moved north to 900 Main inside William Paynter’s store in 1902 with first mayor Benjamin Bennett’s wife Sarrah as postmaster, and her daughter Lizzie as an assistant postmaster. There was no postal delivery to the homes in the town until 1918. Everyone had to come to Paynter’s store. Paynter advertised high quality and low prices. He gave away a free $6 washing machine for every purchase over $75. Paynter added a bakery and a third location in Avon-by-the-Sea to the south. He contracted to put a butcher shop onto the Newark Ave store. He was fire chief, an active member of the Methodist Church, and a director of the First National Bank of Bradley Beach.
Hadfield had several incidents with his wagons, crashing once with his young son and knocking himself unconscious. The newspapers suggested he was driving drunk. Could this have been why Bradley supported his competitor?
Bradley was a staunch advocate for temperance. He lost his father to alcoholism, and it impacted the rules in Asbury Park and Bradley Beach. He was fully convinced drinking to excess was a failure of character.
Hadfield grew more and more frustrated. He fought with the road supervisor, accusing him of not sprinkling the road in front of his store. Dusty roads damaged the inventory. After Hadfield cursed him out they came to blows. Hadfield pulled a banana knife on Supervisor White, and White overpowered Hadfield and beat him severely. Hadfield had White arrested.
Shortly after, a new ordinance restricted Hadfield from placing his produce on the walk in front of his store. The police ticketed him and then threatened to shut him down. He moved the produce inside the store. As business fell off, he loudly let each of his grocery boys go one by one. When his wife who was the cashier was the only one left, he commanded her to get upstairs and make him dinner. Mary wanted none of his ire, and she told him she would not fix him anything. He proceeded to go to their kitchen, grabbed the lamb chops, and ate them raw on the sidewalk to the shock of passers-by.
Eleven years later, in December of 1920, Hadfield was dead of pneumonia at 68 years old. He left his wife and son. Paynter lasted much longer, selling groceries out of 900 Main until he retired and sold to Schwarz Drugs in 1931. While he was lauded in the community and spent time on the school board and was VP of the First Bank of Bradley Beach, his time was not all fun.
In 1909, butcher Howard Johnson stole the butcher shop that he had built and attached to Paynter’s Newark Ave store. After four years at the site, the men had a falling out, and in the middle of the night, Johnson and some helpers moved the building down the road to another lot.
Paynter’s barn behind the 900 Main store burned down, almost taking out the whole block. His vehicles were in several accidents, including a horse jumping aboard the Sea Girt bound trolley, with the wagon still attached, kicking and breaking everything in sight. When he got a truck, it was involved in several accidents. He prevented a bank run in 1923 after a cashier had embezzled some money. He put up his own money, encouraged deposits and told cashiers to give withdrawals of any size despite a notice requirement for large withdrawals, quite similar to the George Bailey incident in the Frank Capra film, “It’s a Wonderful Life”
He retired from the bank in 1929, but the stock market crashed that October and many banks failed including the First National Bank of Bradley Beach in 1931, and with it Paynter lost significant funds.
He was suffering from arterial sclerosis in 1937 when he took his own life with a gun at age 87.