Thomas P. Farner

Today as we look back on the events leading up to American independence, it’s easy to say which side you would have been on. Winning has a way of doing that. But if you were alive in the fall of 1775, things weren’t as clear.

When you think about the Jersey Shore’s role in the American war for independence, it usually involves privateers. These licensed pirates harassed and captured British shipping along the coast, supplying the rebel government with vital supplies.

As the days of December grow shorter, all minds turn to the NFL playoffs and who made the final 12 in college football. But there are two other major events that take place during the month: The SandPaper doesn’t print for two weeks, and the readers of 200 Plus face the annual year-end test. Be ready for questions on shipwrecks […]

Well, 2025 is finally over! The Eagles are in the playoffs and luckily the Giants and Jets still call themselves New York. But before we start thinking about the new year there is some unfinished business for those of you who bravely took the 2025 year-end 200 Plus trivia challenge. Here are the answers. Give yourself four points for each […]

On Friday, May 30, 1969, two college girls left the Somers Point Diner for Pennsylvania. Their car was found on the Garden State Parkway a few miles away.

This is the sixth in a series. The 1969 murder of two college girls in the woods near milepost 31 on the Garden State Parkway grew cold. Rewards, artist renderings and tips from the public went nowhere, as the nation moved on. Man landed on the moon, the country’s bicentennial was celebrated, hostages were held in Iran, and gas prices […]

This is the final part in a series. The story that began Memorial Day weekend 1969 when two college girls, Elizabeth Perry and Susan Davis, were brutally murdered near milepost 31 on the Garden State Parkway has never been solved but has repeatedly been revived. In the late 1980s following the execution of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, his psychologist […]

This is the second in a series. Most people think of July 4 as the date when the United States was born. If so, then it marks the end of a long and complicated pregnancy. By May 1776, what had started as a protest to British policies began to change. On May 15, John Hancock signed an order issued by […]

This is the eighth in a series. Some celebrate the Fourth of July, others Independence Day. Are they the same or distinct holidays? During the winter of 1776, as most people only thought of a future break with England, others saw it as only a beginning to something much larger. In March of that year, Abigail Adams wrote to her […]

Independence Day 1826 was set to be the biggest celebration in the nation’s history. In the 50 years since the Declaration of Independence, it had survived wars with England, France and the Barbary pirates. It had prospered and expanded, adding states and the entire Louisiana territory, making its boundaries the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The opening of the Erie Canal brought the wealth of the Midwest to the East Coast.