The world’s first boardwalk, built in Atlantic City, keeps people from tracking sand into hotels and railroad cars. Saltwater taffy is made at the Jersey Shore in the 1870s.

The population of New Jersey tops one million people. One of every 83 people is Episcopalian.

The diocese divides into two, and the northern portion becomes the Diocese of Northern New Jersey (now the Diocese of Newark).

Bishop Odenheimer dies after a long illness. In his episcopate he confirmed nearly 20,000 people. His tomb at St Mary’s Burlington reads “Rest awhile.”

John Scarborough, born in Ireland but raised in the States, is elected fourth bishop of New Jersey and serves for nearly 40 years. The Women’s Auxiliary (New Jersey Branch) is formed this same year.

Thomas A. Edison developed the first incandescent lamp in Menlo Park.

St John’s, New Brunswick, is the first Episcopal Church to be illuminated with electric lights.

Walt Whitman dies in Camden on March 26 at age 72. At his funeral, 3,000 people from all walks of life pay their respects.

The diocese acquires its first typewriter. The machine called the typewriter was invented in 1868, so the diocese took only 25 years to adopt the new high-tech equipment.

A “condensed” soup is cooked and canned in Camden County. It later become the first product of the Campbell’s Soup Company.

The first professional championship basketball season is held in Trenton in 1898-99.

The Women’s Auxiliary pledges $125 for a scholarship to a Japanese woman. The first recipient becomes the senior female missioner of the Church in Japan.

The diocese produces its second diocesan magazine, entitled (slightly unimaginatively), The Diocese of New Jersey.

The first diocesan magazine? The Missionary, begun by Bishop Doane and published from 1834 to 1838 and again in 1847-1850.

Women communicants are now allowed to vote at regular parish meetings and the next year, the Diocesan Altar Guild is established at Christ Church, New Brunswick.

Paul Matthews is elected fifth bishop. Dean of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault, Minnesota he is on the faculty of Seabury Divinity School.

The Chapel of the Annunciation forms. They soon move to Lawnside, the only historically African-American incorporated municipality in the northern U.S. The first chapel is erected in 1941. The loving and loyal congregation flourishes today.

The Miss America pageant is born in Atlantic City. An Oklahoma Cherokee, Norma Smallwood, takes the title in 1923.

Trinity Cathedral is founded, born of the merger of Trinity Church and All Saints in Trenton. Construction begins in 1934.

Monopoly, based on Atlantic City streets, is marketed commercially for the first time.

And the next year... General Convention is held in Atlantic City.