The first seaside resorts in New Jersey in all probability were Long Reach, in Monmouth, and Tucker's Beach, in Little Egg Harbor. The first named place, now in Ocean county, is opposite the villages of Barnegat and Mannahawkin, and the latter opposite Tuckerton. Of these places Watson's Annals of Philadelphia says:

"We think Long Beach and Tucker's Beach in point of earliest attraction as a seaside resort for Philadelphians must claim the precedence. They had their visitors and distant admirers long before Squan and Deal, and even Long Branch itself, had got their several fame. To those who chiefly desire to restore languid frames, and to find their nerves braced and firmer strung, nothing can equal the invigorating surf and general air. * * Long Branch - last but greatest in fame, because the fashionables who rule all things have made it so - is still inferior as a surf to those above named."

Before the Revolution, Philadelphians and others from a distance who visited Long and Tucker Beaches, went in old-fashioned shore wagons on their return trips from the city, and took with them their stoves, blankets, etc. Some people on the beaches began to make provisions to receive these transient boarders, and so originated this business in New Jersey in which now annually is spent such an immense amount of money. The shore wagons carted fish and oysters to Philadelphia, Trenton and other places over a hundred years ago, and these primitive conveyances on their return trips were first used to convey health or pleasure seekers to our earliest seaaside resorts. What a contrast between then and now - between an oyster wagon and a palace car!

Long Branch comes next in order, being first known as a watering place about 1788.

Cape May began to be known as a watering place about 1813. Atlantic City was founded some forty years Later, about the time of the completion of the Camden and Atlantic railroad.

The foregoing watering places from Long Branch to Cape May, it is said, were all brought into notice by Philadelphians.

The earliest mention of Long Branch as a watering place in any historical works that the writer of this has found, is in Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, published in 1830, as follows:

"This place, before the Revolution, was owned by Colonel White, a British officer, and an inhabitant of New York. The small house which he occupied as a summer residence was existing among a clump of houses owned by Renshaw, in 1830. In consequence of the war the place was confiscated. The house was first used as a boarding house by Elliston Perot, of Philadelphia, in 1788. At that time the whole premises were in charge of one old woman left to keep the place from injury. Of her Mr. Perot begged an asylum for himself and family, which was granted, provided he could get beds and bedding from others. Being pleased with the place he repeated his visit there three successive years, taking some friends with him. In 1790-1, Mr. McKnight, of Monmouth, noticing the liking shown for the place, deemed it a good speculation to buy it. He bought the whole premises containing one hundred acres for £700 and then got Mr. Perot and others to loan him two thousand dollars to improve it. He then opened it for a watering place and before his death it was supposed he had made forty thousand dollars by the investment. The estate was sold to Renshaw for $13,000."

According to Watson it would seem that Elliston Perot was the founder of Long Branch as a watering place. The Perot family has been a prominent one in Philadelphia annals. During the Revolution the Perot mansion at Germantown was used by Lord Howe as a residence, and after the war, while General Washington was President, he also occupied it for a time during the prevalence of the yellow fever in the city in 1793.

At a conference between the whites and Indians held at Crosswicks, N. J., in February, 1758, two Indians known by the whites as Tom Store and Andrew Woolley claimed the land "from the mouth of Squan river to the mouth of the Shrewsbury, by the streams of each to their heads and across from one head to another." This claim was satisfactorily settled at a subsequent conference held at Easton, Pa., in October of the same year.

The following extracts are from the New York Gazette, Morris' Guide and other authorities, to which some comments are added:

From the best sources we find a tradition generally credited among the best informed descendants of old settlers, that a party of Indians, whose grounds lay back of this portion of the coast, visited the shore in the fall of 1734. So well pleased were the red men with this inaugural visit to the seaside, that like many of their modern white brethren, they became habitues of the place, still adhering to the original camping ground, a location near the Clarendon Hotel. Here they made their annual pilgrimage for fishing, &c, and welcoming, after a long march, the termination of the land, called the place "Land's End."

A few years thereafter settlers bought crown lands for twenty shillings per acre, and to protect their dwellings from the winter winds upon the coast, located them a short distance from the shore, pursuing the double calling of farmers and fishermen. They opened the Burlington pathway to Monmouth Court House and attracted other settlers, thus establishing old Long Branch Village, one and a half miles from the beach and within a radius of this distance embracing a population of over three thousand.

When the old settlers had opened the Burlington pathway to Monmouth Court House, intersecting a road to Burlington, communication was then opened with this point of the Atlantic coast, possessing advantages as a salubrious seaside resort far superior to any other. No other portion of this coast commands a bluff of more than from half a mile to a mile in extent, while Long Branch has a continuous range of five miles of bluff, which extends over a rolling country of increasing elevations back to Monmouth Court House at Freehold, a distance of seventeen miles. At the early period indicated, Philadelphians availed themselves of the opportunity thus presented to drive over the new road and enjoy the luxuries of a sea bath.

"Long Branch takes its name from a brook, a branch of the South Shrewsbury river, which runs in a direct line northward with the coast. It is of little use except for gathering ice for the hotels and cottages.

Tradition points to an Indian fishery, established in 1734, as the first occupation of this place, which was styled at that time 'Land's End.' A legend tells us that in those early times four men named Slocum, Parker, Wardell and Hulett, came from Rhode Island in quest of land. They found the Indians friendly but not disposed to sell. It was proposed by the Yankees that a wrestling match should be made up between one Indian and one of the whites, to be decided by the best in three rounds. If the champion of the white men won, they were to have as much land as a man could walk around in a day; if otherwise, they were to leave peacably. John Slocum was selected for the struggle - a man of great proportions, athletic and of great strength, courage and inflexibility of purpose. Great preparations were made to witness the encounter. The chosen Indian wrestler practised continually for the event. The day long expected proved cloudless and auspicious. The spot chosen was the present Fishing Land. A circle was formed and the Indian champion, elated, confident and greased from head to foot, appeared. Slocum advanced coolly and the struggle began; it was long and doubtful; finally Slocum threw his antagonist, but in an instant the Indian was again on his feet. A murmur ran through the circle. Again the Indian made a violent effort and both fell. Another murmur was heard. Silence prevailed as they came together again, broken only by the roaring of the surf. A long struggle. Slocum inured to toil, hardy and rugged, proved too much for the Indian and threw him, to the intense disappointment of the Indians and undisguised joy of the whites. The terms were then all arranged. John Slocum had two brothers and they located that part of Long Branch reaching from the shore to Turtle Mill brook, embracing all lands lying north of the main road, from the sea to Eatontown, between these two points to the south of Shrewsbury, except Fresh Pond and Snag Swamp, which was located by one of the Wardell family. A considerable portion of these lands continued in the possession of the Slocums until fifty or sixty years ago. All are now gone into other hands. The Parkers placed themselves on Rumson's Neck. Hulett lived for a time at Horse Neck, but afterwards left this region. Indian warrants, it is said, still exist in the county conveying these lands to the white owners.

After some years a few hardy settlers from neighboring provinces purchased lands from the agents of the Crown at the rate of twenty shillings per acre, deeds for which, it is stated, are in existence over the signature of King George III or his agents."

Probably the most noted Indian in this section of Old Monmouth was the celebrated Indian Will, of whom a number of traditions were published and which are given elsewhere. He was well known at Eatontown, Long Branch and vicinity, at Squan and along the coast down as far as Barnegat. A tradition in Howe's Collections says the Indians in this section sold out their lands to Lewis Morris in 1670, but Indian Will refused to leave. The probability is that this tradition has confounded two transactions. Indian Will, according to the best traditionary authority, lived near a century later, and the Indian sale of land with which his name has been connected was probably the one originating at a conference held at Crosswicks in February, 1758, and concluded at Eastern Pennsylvania in the same year.