Baileytown

[manumuskin]

I decided tis the season to get some good Baileytown remains photographs now that the vegetation has died down.I am starting closer to my house on the east side and am gradually going to work my way west and hopefully get photos of all the structures relating to the farms of the people forced out by the ever benevolent state of NJ back in 1942 so that their houses could be used as targets by pilots gearing up to put a butt kicking on Hitler.Here is a link to maps and info on Baileytown.If you find the pic of Herschel Scehck,he was the father of my now deceased preacher and adopted uncle Clayto T. Scenck.His dad left his largest indian relic collection in NJ to him.I do not know where it went after his death but it was huge.
http://www.baileytown-nj.com/index.htm
Here be the Felmey cellar hole,I first found this years ago when about 30 and was unaware of Baileytown though I knew of remains in the woods.There was about 2 ft of snow on the ground and I was just cutting across country for a rather vigorous walk when I darn near fell into this five foot deep cellar hole.Really with the snow i almost did not see it.I would have got lumped up for sure.

Then I took a shrot drive south to hit the Jamat buildings. Some are impressive.

And now for the Reichert remains.By the way that century plant would be at least 69 years old now.I have plenty in my yard.They are indestructible,even when you try,darn good cordage material too.

I'll have more coming up in the future.There is a very odd plant with purple berries that is around virtually every foundation area in baileytown.I have never seen this shrub grow wild and is obviously plants descended from ones planted by the homesteaders.I took two pics of it but they were blurry because i didn't use the tripod.I'll have to get better ones.I call it Baileyberry for want of a better name.Would love to know what it is.Very pretty berries.

 

[manumuskin]

http://s857.photobucket.com/albums/ab133/manumuskin/Baileytown/
Here is the link to the photobucket album if you want larger pics.I have the originals if you need even larger pics for more detail.

 

[Gibby]

Manumuskin, the plant you are describing sounds like dichotoma, or Purple Beautyberry.

 

[manumuskin]

I just googled it.yes I believe your right.It does look like it.I take it that it's an ornamental and not native.Only see it around ruins in this area.

 

[bobpbx]

I love it Al. I'd like to see the whole place, let's do it sometime. I'll bet we can find that stump that gent is sitting on in the schoolhouse photo. That is a big one and should still be there.

 

[Gibby]

Manumuskin, have you ever come across any relics of the old targets or brass shell casings from all of the shooting that occured? The wooden tank, in the photograph in the link you provided, are very cool. (The bike next to the stump Bobpbx noted is awesome.)

 

[Chrisr]

Al, you had asked before if I had relatives named Bartholomew in the Baileytown area. Well, this much I can tell you, my great grandparents owned a farm on the land where Millville airport is now. The govt. came in, bought there farm, put in an airfield and trained pilots there.

 

[manumuskin]

Al, you had asked before if I had relatives named Bartholomew in the Baileytown area. Well, this much I can tell you, my great grandparents owned a farm on the land where Millville airport is now. The govt. came in, bought there farm, put in an airfield and trained pilots there.

Chris if you check the Bullock.Pasadena thread I put the info of the bartholomew property on there complete with coords.I don't have pics yet but i have been there.A very nice yard still there and a very big cellar hole.You can see the yard/field through the woods from Buckshutem road.

 

[manumuskin]

I love it Al. I'd like to see the whole place, let's do it sometime. I'll bet we can find that stump that gent is sitting on in the schoolhouse photo. That is a big one and should still be there.

Sure thing Bob.We could probably see all of them in a day but it would probably take most of a day to see them all.

 

[Boyd]

Cool stuff Al, thanks for posting. I have driven through there many times but have never explored the woods.

 

[manumuskin]

Boyd,
The main nucleus of baileytown is at the rifle range where Ackley Road and Snow Hill Road north meet.If you drive Ackley from Spring garden road to the Unimin sand plant road and then drive past the range north to Battle Lane you will have passed roughly half of the foundations in the game reserve.Some are further back in the woods and many right along the roads.I habitually refer to all of the abandoned farms withing Millville (Bevan) WMA as baileytown because they were all abandoned for the same reason as can be see byt the fact that on Historicalaerials all these farms are there in 1940 and the next image in the 50's they are all gone.I was always under the assumption the houses disappeared from people cannibalizing the ruins for stone and lumber but after reading the material on the Baileytown site it is apparent that without orders the pilots availed themselves of the opportuinty to blast the houses to smithereens for target practice. As a reply further up the line The only place I have found evidence of shells and brass is in front of both sets of target bukers there are small clearings visible on aerials today.In each of these clearings There is not a blade of grass growing and innumerable flecks of brass scattered in the sand.My uncle used to metal detect a lot and he told me that the brass and lead in the ground there kills all vegetation and is still doing it today.I have never specifically went into the target areas shown on the map on the site to look for shells.I would think if there was any danger the area would be flagged and have never seen or heard of any danger or of anyone around here finding anything.Perhaps they cleaned up after themselves really well?
Al

 

[Boyd]

Cool - thanks. NJDEP puts Baileytown here, which is what I used on my new map.

I believe the rifle range is one of the clearings to the East, on the road that runs North from Ackley. Or maybe I don't recall correctly.

 

[Gibby]

Thanks Al, for the posting and the information. Eventually, I will take a trip to the area and do some exploring. I'll add it to my bucket list.

 

[Chrisr]

Chris if you check the Bullock.Pasadena thread I put the info of the bartholomew property on there complete with coords.I don't have pics yet but i have been there.A very nice yard still there and a very big cellar hole.You can see the yard/field through the woods from Buckshutem road.

Thanks Al! I do remember my mother mentioning Buckshutem Rd., so I would imaging the yard and cellar hole you found would be my great grandparents property at one time. On a side note, which you of all people will like, I remember my grandfather telling me that the place had tons of "rattler" snakes. I imagine they would pretty much be extinct from the area now??

 

[manumuskin]

I imagine the rattlers were real,there is a very nice cedar swamp about a half mile behind the place that was and still would be good denning.Haven't heard any reports since I've been around but even the uplands are thick with laurel so there may be a few in there.who knows.

 

[manumuskin]

Okay yesterday I went out and did Baileytown part two.I am probably half way done Baileytown now. I started out at the Lacovikz place.

only one cellar hole there and a very shallow hole behind it.I then proceeded across the road and down a hundred yards to their neighbors across the road.I could not find the name of this family anywhere on any of the maps and only knew this hole was there by the aerials but if you drive by real slow in the winter you can see it,it's about 40 ft. off the road.

I then went to Lida Fosters house up the road on the same side.This was a little old lady who lived alone and was run out by the state with the rest of em.You cannot really see the hole in the photo but it is right in front of the camera and the pile of brush you see is in the hole with a Baileyberry patch patch behind it to the left.

I then went exactly across the road to a home site that is also not shown on the maps but is plain on the aerials and also obvious as you look back into the woods that someone lived there.These next four pics are from this site.The last one shows the clue to where it's at.

I then recrossed the road and went a few more hundred yards and came to Bert Snaiths residence.The driveway to this place was driveable upto maybe ten years ago when the state blocked it with logs.There used to be a section of wall standing next to the road but it has now been knocked down with only a few stones lying beside the road.The next three photos be of Berts place.

Then comes the School House.This building was moved to Mauricetown and the remains of it were photographed a few years ago shown on the Baileytown site.It was allowed to fall over.It is behind an old barn somewhere in town,it may be gone now.

I then visited the Brady house.I have no idea how they fit six kids,two parents and Alice all in a house the size of this cellar hole?

I then crossed the road to the Smith place (Likely name,yeah,right) and though the yard was obviously quite large and treed all I could find was one small hole right next to the road with just a couple stones still visible.

Then off to the Tribbit place,the only place I found no BaileyBerry growing at all.I found this place as a young boy of eleven,running the woods barefoot and free.Had no idea who lived here then or how long ago but I found it following a clear little cedar swamp stream which the houses were up against.This stream is where I soak any hides I'm tanning now.

I then proceeded to John Brookfields which for years I thought this was just a scoop taken out from the edge of the road.I explored the area a few years back and realized there were the remains of a wall next to the hole.Where Gravelly Run crosses Battle Lane a hundred yards away is a much older earthen dam that used to hold back a grist mill pond shown on the Hartman map of the area.

Then later in the day I went and got my dawg since this would be a walk well off of roads where she could get her simple self run over and we headed for the Fiddler place.

and then even further to the Brewster place.I just discovered this area last winter in a couple feet of snow.It sits on a hilltop in quite a scenic setting.One large foundation has a briar thicket on top of it so I can not ascertain how large it is but it is big.

The just a few minutes further to the Kocidij residence. There is a small foundation here that is virtually covered in dirt and another larg shallow hole full of pine tree saplings but this foundation shown here is an odd cookie and similar sort of to the one at Brewsters only no cellar hole attached there.

Then I took Sophie home and headed for the outback of Baileytown,actually a place in the Millville city limits.This baby is for you Chrisr.This is your Great Grandaddy Bartholomews place and what a lovely place it be.This has to be the prettiest yard in Baileytown.There are more impressive cellar holes but this yard is tops.The only mar to the beauty is the constant traffic on Buckshutem road and the incessant roar across the road at the Motorsports park.Here you are Chris,this is for you.

I have now been to about half of the Baileytown farms.Many of the rest have no names to go with them.I have one more to explore I have never been to.This one technically is not a Baileytown farm since it is not on state land and lasted into the 50's on the aerials.There were two farms near each other but the other succumbed to sand mining operations and the one I intend to visit nearly did.I may get to it tomorrow,possibly.
Al

 

[Chrisr]

Thanks Al!!!! Thanks a ton!!! I really appreciate that. Now I have to make a trip there and see it for myself. When I do I'l let you know, maybe we can meet up.

 

[manumuskin]

Thanks Al!!!! Thanks a ton!!! I really appreciate that. Now I have to make a trip there and see it for myself. When I do I'l let you know, maybe we can meet up.

long as I'm not working.it"s about 7 minutes from my house.I have the original photos which are bigger (had to downsize for the forum) if you want them sent to you.There is a ditch with water in it between the road and the yard.you'll need to know where to cross it or wear knee highs,I used to be able to drive back there along your pops old driveway but when the motorsports park bought land on that side of the road someone went in and surveyed and made all these weird diagonal (to the road) slashes and pretty much destroyed the road.one slash catches the corner of the yard.I don't know why they surveyed down this far west,far as i know the state owns the woods right up to the road where your pops farm was,further east the city owned it almost south to the swamp and the city is who sold land to the motorsports park because all the Millville mayor cares about is money,he';s made that perfectly clear.
Al
ps i just checked and your pops is on city property which means the motorsports park does own it.

 

[manumuskin]

Went out again today and the first three pics are of a farm not related to Baileytown but nearby.There were two farms here but one is now gone in a blue hole and this one is only 50 ft from where the woods were levelled and a couple hundred yards from said blue hole.They are expanding and I'm not sure but this hole had flags behind it and may be gone in the future.

The this pic is the Seeds farm.

The Miller farm

and the rest are the Dupree farm,no doubt the biggest foundation in the area.Half way through this shoot I tripped and fell into a tree smashing Bills tripod that I had in my hand so only the first few shots are HDR the rest i had to shoot by hand.Sorry, Whip :-(

Now all i have left is all the holes west of 555,excepting Bartholomew.

 

[drb]

Boyd,
I have never specifically went into the target areas shown on the map on the site to look for shells.I would think if there was any danger the area would be flagged and have never seen or heard of any danger or of anyone around here finding anything.Perhaps they cleaned up after themselves really well?
Al

A lot of it has been collected, but when the njmp was being built the federal government cut roads through much of the area to clean up all the munitions, at least south of the park but north of the foundations. Cleaned up the military dump site too.

Been hard to find many shell casings or munitions since then though I never found any near the foundations. Like you, Al, always found them near the bunkers and down as far as Factory Road where the stream crosses.

There were some munitions found in the past that were live, I remember as a kid...