RELICS OF BYGONE DAYS.
New Methods Responsible for Deserted Homes and Villages in Parts of New Jersey.
In driving through certain portions of the townships of Washington and Bass river, says a Mount Holly (N.J.) dispatch to the Chicago Inter Ocean, one is struck by the number of deserted homes that line the main thoroughfare through the pines. In some circumstances small villages that were once prosperous communities are uninhabited and rapidly falling to decay.
In years gone by in the pine district there was considerable manufacturing going on, shipbuilding was an active industry, and the lumber trade occupied a large share of attention. The manufacture of iron from bog ore was also carried on. Now this is all changed. New methods have been responsible for it. The old furnace at Martha, where large quantities of iron were made, is a heap of ruins.
Near Hampton Gate is a church in which the colored people used to worship and it, too, shows the marks of time. “King” Lewis Armstrong, deceased, of Mount Holly, was wont to come in years gone by and stir the brethren to fresh deeds of spiritual valor.
Another historic place is Washington tavern. Years ago it was popular resort and favorite stopping place for teamsters carrying merchandise from the shore to Mount Holly. Today the building is tottering.
Washington Bee, 23 January 1904, p. 5
Best regards,
Jerseyman
New Methods Responsible for Deserted Homes and Villages in Parts of New Jersey.
In driving through certain portions of the townships of Washington and Bass river, says a Mount Holly (N.J.) dispatch to the Chicago Inter Ocean, one is struck by the number of deserted homes that line the main thoroughfare through the pines. In some circumstances small villages that were once prosperous communities are uninhabited and rapidly falling to decay.
In years gone by in the pine district there was considerable manufacturing going on, shipbuilding was an active industry, and the lumber trade occupied a large share of attention. The manufacture of iron from bog ore was also carried on. Now this is all changed. New methods have been responsible for it. The old furnace at Martha, where large quantities of iron were made, is a heap of ruins.
Near Hampton Gate is a church in which the colored people used to worship and it, too, shows the marks of time. “King” Lewis Armstrong, deceased, of Mount Holly, was wont to come in years gone by and stir the brethren to fresh deeds of spiritual valor.
Another historic place is Washington tavern. Years ago it was popular resort and favorite stopping place for teamsters carrying merchandise from the shore to Mount Holly. Today the building is tottering.
Washington Bee, 23 January 1904, p. 5
Best regards,
Jerseyman
