Forsaken KInGS
Emma Spreckels is the only daughter of Claus Spreckels, "Sugar King" of San Francisco, and one of the richest men in the world. Emma is infatuated with the beauty of Hawaiʻi and its king, David Kalākaua. Emma is her father’s favorite, but she learns there is a dark, ruthless side to his success. Claus rules with an iron fist and will destroy anyone who defies him, including the Hawaiian King and his own children. Trapped by others' expectations for her life, marriage, and her own feelings of inadequacy, Emma must choose between her duty to her parents and her personal happiness.
Based on true events during the gilded age and the twilight of the Hawaiian Monarchy.
The Women Who Saved Spring Lake
Spring Lake is an elegant beach community founded in the 1870s when the elite of Philadelphia were looking for a new summer resort. Described in the 1880s as "The Paradise of Watering Places", its lake, beach and quaint commercial district still set the standard of elegance in a shore resort. While more famous resorts, Atlantic City and Asbury Park attracted the "excursionists", Spring Lake remained quiet and demure. At a time when women were just gaining equal rights to own a business, male hotel owners outnumbered women 5-1. Not in Spring Lake. A large contingent of women owners and active citizens built a very different seaside resort. This is the story of the making of Spring Lake and the maintenance of its way of life through its first 140 years. Perfect for anyone interested in the history of the Jersey Shore, and those who have come to love Spring Lake.
Sea Girt the Last Town at the Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore as a beach destination has a long history. Its initial blossoming had its roots in Revolutionary America.
In the period just after the Civil War, religious groups, speculators, and the very wealthy built out sixteen beachside communities for Victorian-era vacations.
One town, Sea Girt had an early start but took almost 50 years to prosper.
"Sea Girt is the last and only accessible large tract on the North Jersey Coast still undeveloped." It didn't mention the 1875 brochure, two auctions, five groups of investors, or 35 years of delays, but hinted with the cryptic phrase "...due to the peculiar conditions attending to its ownership." - A 1908 land sale brochure.
It turns out these "conditions" were in fact peculiar. Presidential politics, bank fraud, robber barons, forgery, and fugitives played a large role in the delayed development of the little town described in a late 1800s newspaper as "The most beautiful strip of sand on earth."
This is the Jersey Shore history you have never heard.
Anyone with an interest in the origins of Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Belmar, Bradley Beach, Manasquan, and particularly Spring Lake and Sea Girt will find interesting information.
The story encompasses true crime narratives, religious revivalism, Quakerism, the Civil War, and Bossism. It also gives a Shore perspective on
Revolutionary War History, the Industrial Revolution, and in particular the development of the Railroad and Steel, hotel, and hospitality industries, much of it emanating out of Philadelphia.
While there is scandal and intrigue, it is also the story of families who made this area a place of fame and were good to their neighbors, and promoted kindness in the world.