A reader’s inquiry spurs a story on Thomas Dando

Recently we heard from Wisconsin visitor Keith Buchert who commented on one of our oldest posts – one from 2010. He was looking for the book on the history 1877-1906 of the Riverton Gun Club so he could buy one.

Riverton Gun Club History 1877-1906

The catch up on the uninformed, the famous Riverton Gun Club (RGC) held trapshooting contests by releasing and shooting live pigeons. Members paid entry fees to compete for prizes. (The RGC was covered briefly in Slides #103-106 in a PowerPoint I presented to a meeting in 2011 called “Do You Remember?“)

Keith writes:

Gun Club Silver Prize, IMAGE CREDIT: Keith Buchert

The trophy pictured on the site I once owned and sold 3 or 4 years ago. I am an advanced sporting collector and would like to know more about the historical part of the Riverton Gun Club. I have a gunning box that belonged to T. Dando and has the date of 1885. The Riverton Gun Club must have been a well-respected club because of the shooters that shot there and the quality of trophies that were given out.

I replied by telling him briefly about the RGC, sent him some of our website links, a Thomas Dando bio, and a searchable online archive for Dando’s Sporting Life Magazine.

RGC open book and slipcase

After another email exchange with Keith, I revised that 2010 post and added more information on the organization: a scanned Riverton Gun Club History 1877-1906 book and two other publications by the Club.

He responded with more information that adds to our understanding of the RGC:

Dando gunning box and plate detail IMAGE CREDIT: Keith Buchert

Thank you for providing all that information. I acquired the gunning box from a collector friend that purchased it at an auction in Maryland years ago. I will send you pictures of the gunning box. He definitely used it and it looks like a prize won at the Riverton Gun Club.

What is also interesting to me is the association T.J. Dando had with Sporting Life magazine as I did not know this. I also collect advertising smalls which include advertising pins from Sporting Life. Sporting life was the Magazine that covered both trap shooting and baseball.

Trap shooting two words signifies pigeon shooting. Trapshooting one word is used for clay pigeon shooting. But you probably knew this.

(He gave me too much credit – I did not know the distinction)

Sporting Life used celluloid pinbacks to advertise the magazine…

I also have a website that can be reached on Google under Keith Buchert’s uniquesportingcollectibles.com

I would appreciate any help you could provide locating Dando’s Book on the Riverton Gun Club.

Well, we have one of the 100 limited copies and we are not parting with it, but maybe someone else seeing this can respond.

More Gun Club minutiae, if you can persevere…

Thomas Dando, Riverton Gun Club History

Seeing that gunning box roused me to search the RGC book for Thomas Dando; it received over 400 results.

One was this high-stakes match that he won in March 1896. It required a $100 entry fee and awarded $1,300 first prize. The shooters killed 485 pigeons in this one match.

(According to officialdata.org, $1,300 in 1883 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $33,668.97 today!)

New York Times May 2, 1883
Charles Macalester, Riverton Gun Club History

In 1883, the Club secured bragging rights when The New York Times reported that New York backers of a British shooter retreated from a $5,000 bet on a match with Riverton’s Charles Macalester and Westmin

 

One more…

Annie Oakley by NH Rose c1890s
The Morning Call, San Francisco, April 1, 1894

American sharpshooter and star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, Annie Oakley refereed a contest on the grounds of the RGC between a New York marksman and Riverton’s crack shot, Charles Macalester.

Who wants to see more about the Riverton Gun Club? -JM, Editor

Bored on Sunday

I just took a closer look at this postcard I bought on eBay and see that there is a mark on the picture.

There, in the street about halfway down the street, on the right.

Is that something that was in the photo or some schmutz from the printing process?

The message side reads: Our house is at the white post where I have put a cross. It is a very pretty ave. in summer. Best regards from all. Florence E.

OK, but when? And who’s this Florence E. messing with my postcard?

First thing to check – look for a postmark.

The New Era 1909 Christmas Issue

None. And no copyright either.

Just Published by the Brick Stores, Riverton and Palmyra, NJ, and this NEWVOCHROME logo printed in Germany.

According to metropostcard.com‘s glossary of postcard terms, NEWVOCHROME is “…a trade name for postcards distributed by the American News Company that were printed in black collotype over broad areas of red, yellow, and blue lithography. These cards, printed on paper with a light embossed pattern are characterized by a sharp look and a dull finish. They were promoted as the best made of all German cards.”

Googling for “how to date a postcard” led me to chicagopostcardmuseum.org where I learned that the postal service started allowing the use of divided back postcards in March of 1907.

Except for a wartime increase in 1917 to 2 cents, the postage rate for postcards was one cent from 1872-1919. That narrows it down.

Another clue from postcardvalues.com says that the German cards were of outstanding quality, but WWI shut down the presses and cut off that source before 1915.

I decided to take a chance at finding a Florence E. living on Lippincott Avenue in the 1920 US Census.

1920 US Census, Riverton, NJ, Sheet 7 detail

There is Florence E. Peterson at 209 Lippincott with her husband Lawrence C. Peterson, a tailor, and their daughter Florraine J.

The New Era, June 9, 1922, p2
The New Era, Feb 15, 1923, p2

Checking our newspaper archive, I found that there was an attempted robbery of the home in June 1922 and that Florraine made 3rd Grade Honor Roll at Riverton School in 1923.

In 1935, the home of Lawrence Peterson won a prize in the Borough’s House Christmas decoration project.

Our 1999 Riverton National Register Historic District Application describes the home in two places.

Entries in 1943 and 1957 New Era showed that other families lived in the home.

Folks still come and go in Riverton and questions about the history of a home are one of the most frequent question topics we receive.

There are more 100+ year old postcards on our website. See if you can find your street or house, and if you have a vintage image of your Riverton home that we don’t have, please contact us if you are able to share it.

Yesterday’s newspapers

The New Era, Dec 1, 1938, p10

From the pages of The New Era, Riverton’s hometown newspaper, December 1, 1938, p10.

The New Era was a weekly newspaper published in Riverton, NJ commencing in 1889 and believed to have ceased publication in 1975. It focused its coverage on Riverton, Palmyra, and Cinnaminson, but often included stories from other townships in Burlington County.

Why not open an issue on this snowbound day and see if you find someone you know?

And if you have any issue or even just clippings that we don’t have that you could donate or lend for scanning  PULLLLLEEESE contact us.

Peruse our online back-issue catalog of:
The New Era (Riverton)
The Palmyra Record
The Riverton Journal
The Weekly News (Palmyra)

Looking for a particular topic? There’s a Search This Site button on the lower left side of this page.

It searches the whole site, including the papers, but the results may be repetitive and it misses a lot because of poor text recognition on the old microfilm from which most of our digital copies were made.

Still, “For better is half a loaf than no bread.” – 1546 book of proverbs. -JMc, Editor

How I spent my snow day 2-7-2021

Benjamin mulls over going outside.

Full disclosure – every day is a snow day for me since I retired in 2009.

Some snow photos that I took today.  Get ready for two or more snow events in this week’s forecast.

Some panoramas taken around town…

Click on the photo for a larger screen image. Then look below that larger image for a link to the full-size image.

Past snow pix and a missed anniversary

Past Snowy Pix

Ten years ago… Our first website post-January 20, 2011

Illuminating Riverton’s Past

How the Fortuna shipwreck became an icon for Ship Bottom, NJ

by Harlan Radford, Jr

The maritime history of New Jersey’s eastern seaboard has been punctuated with over 4,800 shipwrecks. Covering the span of some 400 years, the New Jersey Shipwreck Database compiled by Beach Haven’s New Jersey Maritime Museum chronicles pertinent details about those many shipwrecks.

Bird’s-Eye View, Ship Bottom, NJ, IMAGE CREDIT: Deb Whitcraft

One such shipwreck, the Fortuna, became an emblem for the Jersey Shore town that became its graveyard.

Fortuna, IMAGE CREDIT: Six Miles At Sea

The ill-fated Italian bark Fortuna ran aground at what is now Ship Bottom, NJ in 1910.

The grounding of the Fortuna was not the shipwreck that gave the borough of Ship Bottom its name – that is another story.

Fortuna, IMAGE CREDIT: Six Miles At Sea

The arresting Fortuna hulk became one of the most widely photographed wrecks on the Jersey coast and numerous photos depicted people actually climbing the masts, hanging from the bowsprit, and standing on the underside of the ship’s hull.

 

Fortuna remained visible only during most of 1910 until wreckers cut it up for salvage.

Skelton of steel bark, Fortuna from the Radford Collection

As memories of the wreck faded, vintage postcards and old photographs served as the only testimony as to the evidence of this tragic maritime event.

Barnegat Lighthouse Near Surf City, NJ, commissioned  January 1, 1859

While violent storms provoked many shipwrecks, incessant coastal fog and darkness also caused many shipwrecks before New Jersey lighthouses were constructed in the latter half of the 1800s.

The heavily traveled shipping traffic to North American cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston saw many travelers and cargoes sailing along the Jersey Shore.

Because of the treacherous shifting shoals, numerous inlets, and dangerous sandbars, this area off the Jersey coast earned the ominous name “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

On January 18, 1910, the three-masted, steel-hulled vessel with a gross tonnage of 924 and measuring 193 feet long, was transporting a cargo of coal from Montevideo, Uruguay bound for the port of New York City.

RPPC, USCG Station, Ship Bottom, NJ, Built: 1871, IMAGE CREDIT: JMc

Built in 1869 in Hamburg, Germany, and sailing under the flag of Italy, the ill-fated final voyage of the Fortuna ran aground at the 16th Street beach at Ship Bottom during rough seas and thick fog.

USLSS Launching the Life Boat, IMAGE CREDIT: Deb Whitcraft

Members of the Ship Bottom U.S. Life Saving Service saved all 18 persons without casualty including Captain Giovan Adragna, his wife, two children, and a newborn Adragna baby, along with a crew of 13.

That Fortuna has now become associated with the iconography, lore, and history of the seashore town which became its final resting place, has been largely due to the efforts of Brant Beach summer resident Carole Bradshaw.

While walking the beach, Bradshaw came upon some pieces of the ship in 1983. She also discovered Fortuna’s anchor protruding from the sand which was recovered, authenticated, and currently resides on the lawn at the Ship Bottom Borough Hall.

IMAGE CREDIT Jan. 17, 2010, pressofatlanticcity.com

Later, on a frigid but sunny Saturday in January 2010, about 100 persons gathered on the 16th Street beach to witness a historic re-enactment of the wreck of the Fortuna led by Carole Bradshaw.

A scale model replica of the Fortuna sporting white improvised sails, rigging, and an Italian flag atop the three-masted hull bore the name “FORTUNA” in white letters.

Now known as “The Anchor Lady,” Carole Bradshaw authored Fortuna in 2010, an engaging account of how her discovery in the surf drove her to research how the wreck affected Captain Giovan Adragna’s family by tracking down the now-grown newborn.

Bradshaw has presented the Fortuna story to many organizations throughout New Jersey, including the NJ Maritime Museum in Beach Haven.

We invite readers of this intriguing story to share additional insights and information about their memories of the Fortuna shipwreck.

So now you know…

 

 

Photos used with permission from Six Miles At Sea: A Pictorial History of Long Beach Island, New Jersey by John Bailey Lloyd – Down The Shore Publishing, Box 353, Harvey Cedars, NJ 08008 – Copyright 1990 and Two Centuries of History on Long Beach Island by John Bailey Lloyd – Down The Shore Publishing, Box 353, Harvey Cedars, NJ 08008 – Copyright 2005.

Snow pix wanted

I took this gaslamp by the Yacht Club photo in 2019.

Hearing the forecast for snow on Sunday, I asked on our Facebook page if anyone could please take some photos that I could post on our page.

Mark Still kindly sent in this misty photo of the Tacony Palmyra Bridge. A brilliant photo of the same bridge taken by Mark in 2017 serves to introduce the PALMYRA, NJ section of our IMAGES page.

Tacony Palmyra Bridge, by Mark Still 1-31-2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We should wake up to a beautiful snowscape on Tuesday morning. We have more room.

Just sayin’. -JMc, Editor

by Susan Dechnik 2-7-2021

2-8-2021: This just in from my former grade partner,  monarch butterfly enthusiast, and avid gardener, Mrs. Susan Dechnik.

 

 

Things that aren’t there anymore

Olds Community, Broad St. Riverton, NJ – later Stan’s Auto, now Marty’s Auto

All of this time secluded at home during COVID has caused a proliferation of FaceBook groups with a nostalgic look back at places and experiences of our past.

One such group I found recently is About South Jersey. The stated aims of admins Rick and Denise Grenda is to provide… “A place to post photos, information or recollections of about the southern part of the State of New Jersey and close by areas.”

Another is Things that aren’t there anymore – South Jersey edition, which has the goal of connecting… “A group of friendly folks who want to remember people /places/ things from South Jersey ‘way back when.'”

It happened in New Jersey “…makes an effort to post current and big stories from the past that are part of the Great State of New Jersey and surrounding areas.”

The best part – none of them tolerate any posts with current politics, controversial views, spam, or selling.

The Eagle, The Grand Court, John Wanamaker, Philadelphia
TTATA WHYY YouTube

For those with a soft spot in their heart for Philadelphia, a look at the 1993 WHYY production of Things That Aren’t There Anymore and its sequel in 1994 will take you back to Connie Mack Stadium, grand movie theaters, and Willow Grove Park.

Heck, play it on your TV and show your kids what you did back in the day.

Inspired by the TTATA theme, many of our earliest posts were about places that have disappeared in Riverton such as the Lyceum, the Lawn House, Klipple’s Bakery, Dreer’s Nursery, the train station, the bicycle track, Wolfschmitt’s Barbershop, even a dairy and an Acme Market on Main Street, and much more.

Some places are not gone so much as they have transitioned to something else, like the former Olds Community dealership at the start of this post.

Riverton is fortunate to have a historical society and a community that supports its efforts. History speaks to us from the pages of old 19th and 20th-century hometown newspapers, from many collected vintage postcards and photographs, and the collected historical research found in 185 newsletters from 1974 to the present.

The late Town Historian, Mrs. Betty B. Hahle, 10-06-09, age 90

Mrs. Betty B. Hahle, former Riverton Town Historian, HSR President, and editor of our newsletter once advised me to not forget to record the history that is happening today.

Our interpretation of local history has depended so long on these analog artifacts of the past, we wonder what primary source material future historians will turn to in order to chronicle Riverton’s events today.

Stay safe, kids, and please support the goals of the Society with your membership dues and donations of items.  -JMc

A deep dive into our archives III

Just so you know, we are still on the job of discovering and preserving local history during this COVID-19 epidemic. Our board members are each working remotely from our respective homes on exciting projects that will help bring more of the extensive holdings we have collected over fifty years to light. More details will be forthcoming in later posts.

Speaking of fifty years, we missed out on celebrating our birthday party last June!

On June 4th, 1970, 54 persons attended the first meeting of the Historical Society of Riverton held at the Porch Club.

We hope to celebrate with you when the coast is clear.

With so many folks leading reclusive lives during this crisis, a nostalgia for the experiences of our younger years has perhaps prompted a flurry of comments and feedback to many former posts. Thank you for your continuing interest and support.

Unlike the last set of unidentified Riverton School photos, the donors of these photos kindly supplied the year taken and some had the names of people in the photos on the back.

Let us know if you see someone you know.

Click on each image for a larger view. When that opens, scroll down a bit and note the link that opens the full-size image.

If, during your own seclusion, you find something that can add to our collection, please contact us.  Stay safe, kids. -JMc, Editor

A deep dive into our archives II

Another one of those folders that I mentioned in our last post held these four mystery cabinet cards without dates.

Riverton Public School, constructed 1892
1905 Sanborn map detail, Riverton Public School

I believe that the first three photos show students in front of the Riverton Public School that was at the corner of 4th and Howard Streets as shown in this detail of a 1905 Sanborn Insurance Map.

Click on an image to enlarge it. Then scroll down a bit and note the option to view the full-size image.

Riverton Public School, built 1910

This next undated photo probably was taken by the current brick school that was built in 1910. Other additions followed in 1935, 1955, and 1974.

None of the photos have any dates or names. If you have any ideas, please contact us. -JMc, Editor

undated RPS school photo 004