Scott and All,
I have been acquiring much info on this area, and want to put some of it out for discussion and ask a few questions.
First, let me say all of this may not exactly be on Red Oak Grove, just the area in general: however, as you mentioned these places are all intertwined. My questions concern a few minor errors I believe you have accidentally made.
First, the village of Red Oak Grove existed sometime in the nineteenth century. It was situated somewhere in the Ocean/Monmouth County Pine Barrens, in what is now Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, and near the Burlington County line. Its name can be found on 1880s United States Geological Survey maps, and its borders are currently within what is now Lacey Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. Finally, there are several foundation pits located in its vicinity and it was serviced by what is commonly known as the Egg Harbor Road. However, beyond this very little is known about the village.
Is Monmouth the correct county you wanted to mention? That is over 25 mile as the crow flies away. I believe it should be Burlington County there. Am I wrong? And Union Clay Works, Old Half Way, and Red Oak Grove are all in the Greenwood Forest and not a part of Brendan Byrne.
Mining reemerged in this region, however, just before the turn of the century. Near Woodmansie were the Old Half Way clay mines, the same that were used to supply Neill’s works. The mines were purchased by Alfred A. Adams, a hotel owner in Woodmansie, who started mining and selling local clay again in 1896
The southern 'pit' that most of us know as Old Half Way was purchased from a John L. Miller by Adams. It consisted of 30.75 acres. I have visited one of the property corners and have a map of the lot. Actually, one of the property corners in the map is just where it reaches the Lacey line and not the actual corner so I am guessing on the SE corner location until I can actually find it. The property is in Ocean County Manchester township except the bottom right corner which crosses into Lacey. The second small map below shows the Ocean/Burlington county line cutting across the bottom left corner of the lot, but that is incorrect. I found that map to be shifted too far west in that regard. You can see where the lot was actually located in regard to the town and county lines in the aerial photo below.
The red line is the Lacey Manchester border, the yellow line is the Burlington/Ocean county border, and the points on the map are the property lines of the lot owned by the Adams Clay Mining Company.
And regarding the lots at Red Oak Grove, here is the property owners around 1907.
And here is a survey of all of the same lots at a future date that I have not determined. Most likely the 1950's. Notice the lots have been divided up again so instead of 4 lots we now have 7. And for the first time we have a lot owned by someone other than a private citizen. Lacey township now owns the left lot, with Silverman, Latcovich, and a hard to decipher name which looks like EL2asar owning all of the other lots.
And the present tax map in Lacey township showing only the Lacey township lots, and reversed, displaying that all of the lots are not state owned, which I believe to be wrong. They have not been updated apparently.
Getting back to the clay pits.... from the photo's above we can say that Adams owned that pit before 1907 and so your mid 1890 dates of the new startup should be very valid.
The small round pit that is directly south is across the township line in Lacey township totally, and was owned at the turn of the century by J. C. Harvey. The property consisted of 33.98 acres.
One thing that seems odd is that one of the maps I have shows many of the major acquisitions in that area from 1743 until 1907 and there is not a mention of a Lewis Neall. There are quite a few mention's of Harry L. Neal and two partners named William L. Kelly and C.Y. James purchasing and selling a few pieces of property in the first few years of the last century, buying one of them from a William Weaver that was 5144 acres. I would have to assume Harry was the son of Lewis.
Two points.
Deed: Harry L. Neall Ex. Vs. To Adams Clay Mining Company Dated March 19th 1902
This property was years earlier a portion of the Hanover Furnace tract and ran basically from just north of 72 along and east of the Central Railroad and included the east side of Woodmansie. It continued on the east side of the JCRR to just above Brooksbrea and then headed south and east to the area of Union Clay and then south back towards 72. The only exceptions were a small Bullock tract on the east side of the Jersey Central, and the property Neall sold to The Brooksbrea Land Improvement company. And a surprise to me there was also a 146 acre tract of land right near the intersection at Bullock that was called the Webb State Park. I am assuming the state was just starting their purchasing of the land in that area by 1907. I have the survey and have just started trying to find the stones for this park. One of the stones is described just like one other I just found. Large Stone 2 1/2 high. This is within 400 feet of the Bullock intersection along the swamp!!! I did not find the stone
Then in a Deed dated February 7th 1905 he and his partners purchased 5144 acres just north of Union Clay in the exact location you mention the Brighton Land Company was going to build 'Red Oak Park" but went bankrupt. The seller was William Weaver and his wife who may have been the people who had planned the failed development. Harry Neall may have gotten the property cheap because of the failure. This property extended all of way across 539 to almost Black's Bridge and up to Wells Mills.
By 1947 much of the property in this area was owned by Stanley Switlik and was called the Greenwood Forest Tract.
Guy
