{"id":25006,"date":"2025-02-20T03:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T08:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=25006"},"modified":"2025-02-20T03:37:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T08:37:54","slug":"book-returned-to-ocean-county-library-after-99-years-checked-out-by-legendary-local-fisherman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2025\/02\/book-returned-to-ocean-county-library-after-99-years-checked-out-by-legendary-local-fisherman\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Returned to Ocean County Library After 99 Years, Checked Out by Legendary Local Fisherman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Local<\/a>

Local resident Mary Cooper located a book borrowed from the Ocean County Library in 1926 by her grandfather. (Photo: Ocean County Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Ocean County Library system, the state\u2019s largest, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. And in the spirit of housekeeping, it\u2019s only natural that a book 99 years overdue made its way back to the shelves after spending generations buried in a local family\u2019s home. The book itself \u2013 and the people who have had it all these years \u2013 are themselves part of the county\u2019s history, officials said.<\/p>\n

Mary Cooper, a Toms River resident, was sorting through family memorabilia recently when she discovered a book that had been taken out of the Ocean County Library in 1926. The book was still in good condition, with a hand-written log of borrowers and due dates attached to the cover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bunch of things from my mom,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cShe just placed everything in boxes and had them stored away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trip down memory lane yielded a number of books, with Cooper giving each one a glance. One of the books, \u201cInside Home-Made Toys for Girls and Boys\u201d by A. Neely Hall, stood out due to the cardboard sleeve that held the card that was used to check books out and in. The borrow date was in 1926.<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/a>

Local resident Mary Cooper located a book borrowed from the Ocean County Library in 1926 by her grandfather. (Photo: Ocean County Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Local<\/a>

Local resident Mary Cooper located a book borrowed from the Ocean County Library in 1926 by her grandfather. (Photo: Ocean County Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at the dates and I said, \u2018This book\u2019s about a hundred years old,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought, \u2018Whoa\u2026my grandfather checked out this book.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s grandfather wasn\u2019t just a patron of his county library, but a well-known figure himself in Ocean County. Her grandfather was Captain Charles Tilton (1884-1927), an extremely active and popular fisherman on the Jersey Shore, who was born in Asbury Park. He now rests in Point Pleasant\u2019s White Lawn Cemetery. Mary never knew her grandfather, but an obituary from what was then known as the Asbury Park Evening Press<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Charles,\u201d as he was better known, was one of the Barnegat Bay captains between here and Atlantic city [sic] and belonged to several yachting clubs\u2026he was very active in social and fraternal work, being a member of the B.P.O.E. of Asbury Park and also the Knights of Columbus of the same city. He was a charter member of the local fire company.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book that remained in storage for 99 years is a manual of illustrated instructions for simple toys made of wood, metal and household items \u2013 things parents could build for their children themselves. Instead of keeping it or throwing the book away, Cooper returned it to the library system\u2019s Toms River Branch. She did not expect the book to become an artifact, nor that she would be a \u201clibrary rock star,\u201d as staff put it this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intention was just to hand it in at the desk and say, \u2018Here\u2019s an old book if you want it,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A staff member she encountered informed Mary about donation procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Well, okay, but you might want to have this book. It\u2019s a little overdue, by about a hundred years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The unique conversation set in motion a whirlwind of research by Information Services Librarians Elizabeth Cronin and Allison Nazzaro, host of the Library\u2019s \u201cWheeler Talk\u201d podcasts on Spotify and related platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never expected it to gather that much attention,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThey went crazy! I had a good time. It was very interesting to meet everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life at the Library<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cooper, a career nurse and nursing instructor said her rare find correlates well with her lifelong enjoyment of literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love learning about things. I love getting into a story. I love mysteries. I usually solve them in the beginning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When she was a high schooler, Cooper recalled, the librarian at the Point Pleasant Beach branch fueled her mystery musings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the librarian that I wanted to read all the works of Arthur Conan-Doyle,\u201d Cooper recalled. \u201cShe said, \u2018I think we have them,\u2019 and I read them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary became a familiar figure among the stacks. Shortly after high school, she underwent surgery that required considerable recovery time.<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/a>

Local resident Mary Cooper located a book borrowed from the Ocean County Library in 1926 by her grandfather. (Photo: Ocean County Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI asked my mother, \u2018Please, please, please, go to the Library and bring home some books. Just tell the librarian that they\u2019re for me.\u201d Her mom dutifully complied, and so did the librarian, quickly checking out four books. \u201cMy mother asked, \u2018How do you know that these are what she wants?\u2019, and the librarian said, \u2018They\u2019re on her list!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Cooper especially enjoys \u2018whodunits\u2019 and works by Mary Higgins Clark and Diane Mott Davidson. But the book buried among her souvenirs is special, connecting Mary to her legendary grandfather.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very few pictures of him,\u201d she said. \u201cI always was fascinated by him. I thought he must have been a really neat person. I\u2019d have liked to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly a hundred years after taking a book home, Captain Tilton\u2019s simple act of looking for ways to make toys for his children earned him a place in the Ocean County Library archives. And, by returning it, Cooper initiates the library systems\u2019s next century of history, staff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShare history, listen to it, pay attention to it,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you do, you realize how things come around. It\u2019s fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ocean County Library system, the state\u2019s largest, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. And in the spirit of housekeeping, it\u2019s only natural that a book 99 years overdue made its way back to the shelves after spending generations buried in a local family\u2019s home. The book itself \u2013 and the people who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[5390,24,5391,4484,5389,532],"class_list":["post-25006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county","tag-book-return","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-captain-charles-tilton","tag-featured","tag-mary-cooper","tag-ocean-county-library"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mary_cooper.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6vk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}