Cape May County Celebrates 325th Birthday

COURT HOUSE – It’s Cape May County’s 325th birthday and local history organizations have planned events to commemorate the county’s history, beginning with the recent dedication of a historical plaque by the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Jersey.
The plaque, which is erected outside at the Cape May – Lewes Ferry Terminal at 1200 Lincoln Blvd. in North Cape May, celebrates the county’s birth date, Nov. 12, 1692, and its early development, when London investor and primary landholder Dr. Daniel Coxe divested to the West Jersey Society and the land was sold to Whaler Yeoman, carpenters, blacksmiths and others.
The Colonial Society plaque dedication ceremony was hosted by the Cape May County Culture and Heritage Commission and is part of a year-long celebration honoring the historical retrospective of Cape May County.  Special events and programs are planned throughout the year honoring the history of the county. For more information about Cape May County’s 325^th celebration, and a full schedule of events, contact the Cape May County Cultural and Heritage Commission at (609) 465-1066 or via e-mail at culture@co.cape-may.nj.us or visit www.cmcculture.net
“Special events and programs will celebrate the development of Cape May County from its early stages as a whaling community and a homestead for tradesmen, carpenters and blacksmiths to the mom and pop business community that is characteristic of today’s leisure tourism economy,” explained Director Diane Wieland, Cape May County Department of Tourism, Public Information and Cultural and Heritage Commission.
“This special year-long birthday party will celebrate the whaling days of the 1600’s to the modern day fishing and agriculture industry that has spawned a thriving leisure destination which currently has the second-highest visitation in the state,” Wieland added.
In 1687 Dr. Daniel Coxe, an Englishman, secured 95,000 acres of the Cape May peninsula from the Native Americans living here, the Lenni Lenape people, paying for his purchase with rum, tobacco, and other trinkets.  Coxe Hall, a two-story manor house, was constructed on the bayside of Lower Township above New England Creek later called Coxe Hall Creek.  A part of Coxe Hall still exists at Historic Cold Spring Village, the oldest known surviving building in the county, circa 1691.  Although Coxe never lived here, the first recorded court session was held at Coxe Hall in 1692.
Whaler yeoman from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut and Long Island arrived here even earlier, in the 1600s, following the whales and settling along Delaware Bay.  All remnants of those early communities are gone, claimed by the sea, but names of those whaler yeoman – Hand, Hildreth, Leaming, Corson, Townsend and many more – are still prominent in Cape May County.  In fact, there are more Mayflower descendants buried in Cold Spring Cemetery in Lower Township than anywhere outside of Massachusetts.
The Cape May County Museum, housed in a 1704 Colonial period home is a repository of exhibits, displays and artifacts from Native American times through the 21^st century that preserve the county’s history.