1674-4 Charles E. Nash John Bailey Lloyd, historian; reference librarian at Ocean
County NJ library. Knew Nash. When Nash died, he turned all his
papers on NJ history book over to Lloyd. Lloyd reviewed him in
book " 18 Miles of History On Long Beach Island. "
Lloyd (home) 609/492-2704. (library) 908/349-6200.
For NJ history, Nash simply updated June 1914 book by George B.
Summerville of same name. Nash 's grandfather, Charles Beck,
owned an engraving company and asked him to update book. Book
actually was property of Long Beach Board of Trade. According
to Lloyd, Nash "merely updated the earlier work and did not add
too much to it. " According to Lloyd 's passage on Nash, the
latter (or his grandfather) removed Summerville's name from the
revised edition and used only Nash 's. Lloyd says it was Nash 's
style not to include his sources; nothing he wrote seems to.
"Nash was a dillettante, " says Lloyd. He did a lot of technical
writing. Really did a fair job. He had plenty of money. He
lived in Maryland, died about 10 years ago. His widow may still
be alive. "
(Lloyd is to call me with phone number of Mrs. Nash in Md. )
None of the papers Nash gave Lloyd have to do with Miami Beach;
"perhaps Mrs. Nash has them, if she still is alive. "
"Nash did a lot of his own work. He did a lot of photography.
He did not do much else with his life. When I think of him as a
writer , he is hard to imagine. "
I asked Lloyd that if Nash wrote that Lum sailed into Biscayne
Bay in 1870 and said he saw three coconut trees, etc. , would he
believe him? "You could trust his words. His book on Long Beach
also is without sources but everything I was able to check in
other places does check out with what Nash wrote.
"He (Nash) was not a good researcher. He was excellent on
technical stuff. He was very thorough in his research of
mechanical things. "
Lloyd wrote another book: "Six Miles at Sea" another pictorial-
type on Long Beach history. Lloyd is 60 years, sounds like he
knows what he 's talking about. He can 't understand what brought
Nash to do a book on Miami Beach. Long Beach Library (Christie
Sullivan 609/494-2480) is mailing to Kleinberg section of
Lloyd 's book which refers to Nash. Lloyd is interested in what
Kleinberg is seeking; says will try himself to contact Mrs.
Nash or people who know her. Says he got a curt letter from
Mrs. Nash when his book said what it did about Nash.