Toms River is the county seat of Ocean County, New Jersey. The county was only created a decade before the Civil War. The population had exceeded 2,300 by the outbreak of war. Today, the township has 95,000 people. The town earned notoriety in the 1990s with its excellent Little League teams!
I went looking for this Civil War memorial at 1600 Oakdale St, Toms River, NJ 08757. Most of the memorials I have visited are either at a downtown location that was the center of village life when they were built, or at the entrance to the town, or at the local cemetery. This monument location did not fit any of those descriptions. I drove down suburban streets which were marked with the direction to “Grand Army Memorial Park” on wooden signs.
I drove down the streets until I saw a large parks surrounded by suburban houses! It was well kept up, but there were none of the accoutrements I have seen on the 240 other Civil War monuments I have visited over the last two and a half years. I parked in front of a typical suburban house and right next to it was the memorial.
The memorial is surrounded by a metal chain, with recently added park benches. You can see that the people of the town still consider it a place to memorialize those veterans of the Civil War. Plants have been recently planted and the lawn is very well-maintained.
There is at the center of the memorial park a twenty foot high masonry monument. In front of it is a flagstaff with two Civil War cannons guarding it. A pathway leads from the street to the monument, flanked by fine shrubbery.
The monument says it is to ” PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.” The Grand Army of the Republic was the largest Union veterans organization following the end of the Civil War. The Women’s Relief Corps of New Jersey played a key role in erecting the monument. By the 1930s, the overwhelming majority of Civil War veterans were dead, but with the 75th Anniversary of the war coming up, many sons and daughters wanted to honor them men who had fought in the war.
The site was donated in 1932 by A. Jackson on a bluff overlooking Pine Lake and the Toms River. With suburban sprawl you can no longer see the two nearby water bodies from the site. The Women’s Relief Corps contracted with Beatty and Cramer of Elizabeth, New Jersey to put down a pediment and construct the monument of five pillars.
Every Memorial Day, Manchester Township holds its commemoration here.
The two cannon’s are twelve pounders and they were both made in 1862. If anyone knows which battery they were used in, leave a comment at the end of the article.
The cannons are mounted on 20th Century ceremonial mounts.
On one of the cannon is inscribed:
“OUR WORK IS DONE
WE DID OUR BEST
FOR OUR DEAR COMRADES
LAID AT REST”
The other cannon has this inscribed:
“ERECTED BY THE
G.A.R.M.P.A.
SPONSORED BY
MINNIE M. HOFFMAN
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
1933”
I have tried to identify the G.A.R.M.P.A. but I could not. Because of the first three initials it was likely an “Allied” organization. Because it was headed by a woman it may have been made up of relatives of veterans.
I have visited several monuments put up by the Grand Army of the Republic. Near my home are the monuments at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan. While both reference the Grand Army, their focus is on the fighting men of the Civil War in the Brooklyn monument or on General Sherman in Manhattan. Here, this Toms River monument says it is to “PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.” I think that by the time the monument was erected in 1933, the war had been over for 68 years and most of the veterans were dead. By 1949, the last Encampment of the G.A.R. had taken place and only a few very old survivors were still around. The monument seems to be an attempt by the families of the veterans to keep alive the memory of the veterans’ organization that was rapidly fading into the cemetery.
The monument, which is in fine condition today, has symbols on it associated with the Union forces of the Civil War.
The anchor representing the navy. This is particularly apt for this location. According to local records many recruits had been sailors, fisherman, or baymen. They may have been attracted to serve in the Navy.
Next is the artillery.
The third symbol shows the cavalry.
At the far right demonstrates the power of music for the soldiers.
Next to it is the symbolic representation of the infantry.
Mid-way below the artillery is this very small memorial to the officers and men of the U.S.S. Akron. I had to look up this. I though it might be a Civil War ship, but it turned out this was a rigid airship built by the United States Navy in 1931. It was the largest airship kept afloat by helium. Akron was the first balloon to launch and recover fighter planes in the air! The craft was lost during a storm just off the coast of New Jersey in April, 1933, just as the GAR memorial was about to be unveiled. Underneath the memorial is a recovered piece of the airship. 73 of those onboard were lost when the ship went down, the largest loss of life from an airship disaster. The German Zeppelin Hindenburg was destroyed in a fire just a half-dozen yards from the GAR memorial in 1937. That later disaster killed 36 people.
As you can see in the following photo, The cannons face out on a late 1960s suburban street.
However, the monument is extremely well maintained with flowers planted at the edge of the park along the street, shrubbery flanking the path, two modern benches, and the natural woodland backing the monument.
Every year, the park is an assembly point to honor all veterans on Memorial Day.
My only problem with the park is the lack of signage explaining what it is. If you came upon it by chance and did not know what the Grand Army of the Republic was in this post-World War II neighborhood you might not think it was put up to honor veterans from the Civil War. The county may want to put in an explanation of its association with the Civil War and the role of women’s organizations in preserving the memory of the men who fought in that conflict.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
