THE SOLOMON FAMILY

HOW THE SAM SOLOMON FAMILY CAME TO TOMS RIVER

And so it came to pass on one cold October night in the year of 1937, the head of the Solomon household, Sam, came to the conclusion that with  God's  help,  he and  his family were starving to death. Based on this conclusion, Sam decided there must be a better way to earn a living. So. after talking to a couple of his New York friends he decided to become a chicken farmer in Toms River.

The way he explained it to his family was  so: If a man were to have 500 chickens it stands to reason he would get 500 eggs a day, multiplied by 7 days a week, he would have 3,500 eggs a .week or approximately 300 dozen eggs weekly.  Eggs were selling for approximately 30 cents a dozen and the profit would be almost $90.00 a week. We would have more money than we would know what to do with, for, as he understood it, it only took a few handfuls of grain to feed them, so there was hardly any expense at all. After convincing his family that his research was based on thorough and scientific techniques he moved the family to the farm, in March of 1938; the family being Sarah, his wife, Laura, his daughter, Harry, his son and Renee, his granddaughter.

After the initial shock of becoming a farmer, Mr. Solomon settled down to farming on a small scale and proceeded to do so for a good many years, happily, if not profitably.

His granddaughter, Renee, grew up to be a fine young lady and married Murray Kaufman of Lakewood, where she and her husband and their two fine young sons still reside. His daughter, Laura still resides on (the farm - no longer) Church Road. Laura has a millinery shop in Lakewood and is very happy doing just that.

Sam and Sarah passed away a few years ago and are buried in  the Toms River Community Cemetery.

His son Harry, after discharge from the Air Force in 1946, met a young lady, one Selma Kolb, while she was visiting her Aunt Ida Smith. After a short courtship, they were married, and settled in Toms River. Some begetting and  begetting  took  place  and Paula, Howard, and Barbara were added to Harry Solomon's family.

Presently Paula teaches in Valley Stream, NY. Howard has a position with the Welfare Board in Toms River and Barbara is pursuing her operatic career in NY.

Harry and Selma are now retired and residing on Corwill Terrace in Toms River.

Thirty-eight years have flown by so quickly and with it, many happy memories and a few sad ones, but when one looks back to those years one finds that in 1938, the Community was much closer together. People helped one another and respected each other, and juvenile delinquency were just words in a dictionary. Those days where; if a person just made it through the year healthy and without borrowing it was a successful year.

In those days our police force consisted of 3, and one of the primary duties was on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, to stop the Atlantic City traffic to let people cross Main Street.  There were no traffic lights then. The stores in town were situated on Main Street. In later years some moved around to Washington Street. The First National Bank was on the corner of Water Street next to Berry's Hardware store, and the post office was a little wooden building on Main Street All the young Jewish people went to Lakewood for their fun and frolics.