The work of gathering material and writing an accurate History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties covering a period of over two centuries, so full of interest to residents of these counties and to the people of New Jersey, generally, occupied the spare time of the author of this work for nearly one-half of his life-time, or more than a quarter of a century. Not being engaged in active business during the last three years of his life, Mr. Salter's time was exclusively devoted to research and investigation for the purpose of securing reliable information in regard to the early settlers of Old Monmouth County of which the County of Ocean was once a part. In order to accomplish this great undertaking, the official records not only of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and a number of other counties of this State were searched, but several other States were visited at great cost of time and means and the State and county records patiently and carefully examined- notably those of Western States, to which many of the citizens of Monmouth and Ocean Counties had from time to time emigrated. The result was, the obtaining of a vast amount of valuable historical information, the collection of a great number of interesting local incidents, and unquestionably the fullest and most valuable Genealogical Record of the first settlers of Monmouth and Ocean Counties and their descendants, ever compiled. For twenty-five years previous to his death Mr. Salter was a corresponding member of the New Jersey Historical Society and the recognized authority on genealogical history, having been for years on its Standing Committee of Genealogy of New Jersey families. It was conceded during the lifetime of the author that there was no man in the State so thoroughly informed of the history of first families of New Jersey (1664-1678) as Edwin Salter.

The design in publishing this book, primarily, is to carry out the long-felt desire of the deceased author to furnish the citizens of Monmouth and Ocean counties with a reliable and interesting historical work; secondly, to perpetuate the honored name and memory of the distinguished author, and thirdly, for the benefit of his esteemed widow, who for so many years encouraged and aided her husband in his arduous and responsible duties.

To the undersigned- between whom and the lamented author there existed for nearly twenty years a close and abiding friendship- was assigned the duty of editing and preparing for publication the valuable material left by the deceased historian. In this responsible undertaking the Editor has studiously endeavored to omit nothing essential to the completeness of the history, but has striven to present the work in the form which lie believes would have been acceptable to the lamented author. In the hope that it may be equally so to the citizens of Monmouth and Ocean counties, for whom it has especially been prepared, the work is respectfully submitted.

                      E. GARDNER, Editor,

    December 1, 1889.          Bayonne, N. J.

To give in a cold and conventional way an outline of the life of Edwin Salter would be an easy, and to us an ungrateful, task. It is so little to the purpose that he lived more than sixty years; that he died at Forked River; that he was a member of the Legislature and Speaker of the House; that he was for a score of years a clerk in one of the Departments at Washington- these are the things that we all know, and in some sense he may be measured by them. But our immediate concern with his life, now that he is done with it, is how and to what purpose he lived it. Men of as little moment, after they go hence (and often before) as a dead letter in a waste-basket, go to the Legislature, sit in the Speaker's chair, or hold a clerkship under the government. The political status of the State has come to this, whether by progress or retrogression is of no moment here except to confront the face of the fact and be- it so happens often- rather belittled than distinguished by it. Edwin Salter was not one of the little men of either his time or his generation. When he sat as a servant of the people, it was to their honor and his credit. When he was a government clerk, he was faithful and efficient. His public life was clean and meritorious. So much for truth and for him in this respect.

But, compared to his life as a student and chronicler of State history, his public life was as a flicker beside a flame. When the one is almost forgotten, and when it would be entirely so but for his name being linked with it, his contributions to the career of the State and his delineations of the character of its men and women, will be growing brighter in a steadier, stronger light. When the one will be almost valueless save as a chronological fact, the other will be invaluable as a historical heirloom to all future generations of Jerseymen. By this work he will live in the association of men of renown; his work will be perpetual, because upon its merits it will deserve perpetuity. His patience in collecting data, his industry in the pursuit of information, his care and judgment in selection, his love of veracity and respect for fact, his clearness in detail and ability in setting the whole sum of his studies before the world, his modest and unpretentious concealment of himself- these are some, and only some, of the characteristics of Edwin Salter's life. Men of this stamp do not die and be forgotten. They are not ephemeral. They "still live" when the multiplying years have left their unrecognizable dust far behind. Students of history must pause to do honor to their memory and be grateful to them for the good they did with little hope of reward. Indeed, reward, beyond such as necessity may have entailed, did not enter into the consideration with Edwin Salter. He loved his chosen work, and gave of his means to it as freely as he would have lightened the burdens of a beggar at his door, giving all that he had. His private life was that of the Christian man- pure and undefiled. He was generous to a double fault, honorable to the breadth of a hair, mild and gentle as the village preacher whose life is perpetuated in undying verse, and true as the love that was beneficently given to him that he might share it with others. Thus we knew him, and here we lay this tribute to a beloved memory upon the bier of its departed shade.

(pp. v-vi)

Edwin Salter died at Forked River, N. J., December 15, 1888, aged sixty-four years. He was the son of Amos Salter and Sarah Frazier, and was descended from some of the oldest families of Monmouth county- the Bownes, Lawrences and Hartshornes. His original ancestor in America emigrated from Devonshire, England, and settled at Middletown previous to 1687. He was a lawyer, a man of distinguished ability, which was illustrated in the part which he took as counsel with Captain John Bowne in the controversies of the people with the Lords' Proprietors.

Edwin Salter was born in Bloomingdale, Morris Co., February 6th, 1824. While a youth, he removed with his parents to the more northern part of the State. At the age of fourteen, he became a member of a Presbyterian Sunday school in Newark; three years later he made a profession of his faith in Christ, in a church of the same order. He subsequently removed to Philadelphia and was there employed as a clerk in a book-store, but afterwards removed to Forked River and taught school. For a time he led a seafaring life, being master of a schooner in the coasting trade.

In 1857 he was elected by the Republicans of Ocean county as their representative in the Assembly of New Jersey, the first Free Soil member in that body. He was returned for the two following years and in the session of 1859 he was elected Speaker and filled the position with great ability. In 1861 he received an appointment in the United States Treasury Department, which he held for five years, when he resigned. He was reappointed shortly afterwards to a clerkship in the Fourth Auditor's office, where he remained till 1886, when he returned to Ocean County.

He had a taste for historical research, especially in the study of genealogical lines. He spent much of his time in his later years in prosecuting his researches into the history of the early families of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, his residence at Washington affording him peculiar facilities for the work, through his ready access to the National Archives. The information here obtained was supplemented by searches of the public records of States and counties, north and south. At the time of his death he had accumulated a vast amount of historical and genealogical matter- the work of years of patient and laborious research- for a history of Monmouth and Ocean counties, which he had long contemplated publishing. Referring to notices he had prepared of the principal families now represented in Monmouth, he wrote in a letter to a friend on the 14th of November, 1888, only a month before his death, "Take the matter altogether, I believe it will be the most complete account of the early settlers (and settlement) ever published of any county in the United States settled previous to 1700." Mr. Salter was the author of a series of historical sketches published in the Monmouth Democrat, 1873-'74, entitled "Old Times in Old Monmouth." His frequent contributions to the journals of Monmouth and Ocean over the signatures of "Selah Searcher" and "Pilot" bear testimony among others to his zeal in historical study and his readiness to give the fruits of his research to his fellow citizens.

Edwin Salter's name stands enrolled as a member of a Presbyterian Sunday-school at Forked River, in 1831. In 1860, he was superintendent of the same school, beside teaching the Bible-class. He married, in 1852, Margaret Bodine, of Barnegat, who survives him. Their son, George W. Salter, a most estimable young man, died at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 27th, 1880, of typhus fever, while stationed at that port as paymaster's clerk of the United States Naval Depot.

Mr. Salter was a man of great force of character, generous, open-hearted and strong in the maintenance of the right. He had no sympathy with lawlessness or lowness of aim. Without pretension, he aspired to the best in personal, domestic and social Life. In his religious life there was no affectation or cant. A genuine heartiness and catholicity of spirit moulded his creed and his conduct. His manners were genial, his spirit was broad and liberal. He was a simple-hearted, earnest Christian gentleman. He filled a large place in the affections of his friends and acquaintances, by whom his death is most sincerely mourned.

He was elected a member of the New Jersey Historical Society on May 21st, 1863, and was esteemed one its most valuable members in promoting the purposes of its organization. His remains were laid in the Masonic Cemetery at Barnegat, after a funeral service held at the Presbyterian Church.

(pp. vii-ix)