Community Corner
Beach History: OCBP Captain Alfred R. Smith meets Gov. Woodrow Wilson
Lifeguards aided Police Chief Samuel B. Scull with crowd control.
One hundred years ago on Sept. 28, 1911, Police Chief Samuel B. Scull asked Lifeguard Captain Alfred R. Smith and his men to help with control of the crowds at the Hippodrome Building on the Boardwalk, where Gov. Woodrow Wilson was going to speak.
At 8 o’clock that evening, Gov. Wilson spoke of what he had accomplished since his election as chief executive of New Jersey, and what he hoped would come in the future. At the conclusion of his talk, he shook hands with many of the people at the meeting, including Captain Smith.
Wilson was elected president of the United States 13 months later. Wilson placed second among Ocean City voters: Theodore Roosevelt (running under the "Bull Moose Party") got 381 votes; Wilson 185; and William H. Taft, 144. All over the country it was a landslide for Wilson, as Roosevelt and Taft spilt the Republican voters.
