Burlington County Insane Asylum?

[Teegate]

No problem Jerseyman. I figured if you had time you would have posted the Google maps.

Sean, just a few tidbits of info on the place. Back in 2004 there was a tornado here is South jersey that ripped across it and did some major damage to the place including the trees on the property.

Here are a few articles.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6DE133DF93BA15754C0A9629C8B63

http://sjol.com/articles/?articleID=11422


The website.

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/pfnurse/newlisbon.htm


Also, back where your grandfather was there the place sported a large smokestack. While searching for geodetic markers at Apple Pie Hill I learned the stack was used as an Azimuth for the marker.

1935

NO AZIMUTH MARK WAS SET BUT THE TALL BRICK SMOKESTACK AT
STATE COLONY WAS CUT IN TO BE USED FOR AN AZIMUTH. CLEARING OR
A 15-FOOT STAND WILL BE NECESSARY TO SEE THE STACK.

Guy

 

[Jerseyman]

Also, back where your grandfather was there the place sported a large smokestack. While searching for geodetic markers at Apple Pie Hill I learned the stack was used as an Azimuth for the marker.

1935

NO AZIMUTH MARK WAS SET BUT THE TALL BRICK SMOKESTACK AT
STATE COLONY WAS CUT IN TO BE USED FOR AN AZIMUTH. CLEARING OR
A 15-FOOT STAND WILL BE NECESSARY TO SEE THE STACK.

Guy

Guy:

The colony erected a powerhouse and attendant brick chimney sometime after 1916. The equipment in the generating station even allowed the colony to manufacture its own ice, reducing its reliance on cutting their own or having it delivered. Here is a photograph of the concrete blockmaking factory at the colony. In the background you can see both the colony’s water tank and what I presume to be the chimney from the powerhouse:

Best regards,
Jerseyman
__________________
scriptor rerum Nova Caesarea
Dei memor, gratus amicus

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Jerseyman. Here is more.

1954

THE TALL BRICK SMOKE STACK AT STATE COLONY WAS VISIBLE FROM
THE GROUND WITHOUT CUTTING.

1974

(STATE COLONY, TALL BRICK SMOKESTACK) NO
LONGER EXISTS.

Sean, I see you collect autographs. You need to get Jerseyman's. I did.

Guy

 

[relayer]

Here, for whatever its worth, is a link to a map of the area from 1876.

Best

relayer

 

[relayer]

hmmm
better try that again
http://www.westjerseyhistory.org/maps/burlco_scott_1876_atlas/index13.shtml
there, thats better
r

 

[Jerseyman]

hmmm
better try that again
http://www.westjerseyhistory.org/maps/burlco_scott_1876_atlas/index13.shtml
there, thats better
r

Thank you for this relayer. However, everyone should understand that the Four Mile Colony does not begin until the state purchased the Jannone Farm there in 1913.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
__________________
scriptor rerum Nova Caesarea
Dei memor, gratus amicus

 

[relayer]

Jerseyman
You wrote

"The Burlington County Insane Asylum is located on Pemberton Brown's Mill Road just east of Burlington County College on the north side of the road. The county established its first institution here in 1799 when it purchased the Josiah Gaskill estate, a farm comprising 472 acres. Here the county set up its poor farm and almshouse. The county built the first building there in 1801, a structure to house the poor and indigent measuring 40' x 80'. Workers added a new wing to the building during the mid-nineteenth century."

The map shows the almshouse you mentioned and the area around it in 1876. If I was not clear enough the first time I trust this will be helpful.

relayer

 

[Jerseyman]

Jerseyman
You wrote

"The Burlington County Insane Asylum is located on Pemberton Brown's Mill Road just east of Burlington County College on the north side of the road. The county established its first institution here in 1799 when it purchased the Josiah Gaskill estate, a farm comprising 472 acres. Here the county set up its poor farm and almshouse. The county built the first building there in 1801, a structure to house the poor and indigent measuring 40' x 80'. Workers added a new wing to the building during the mid-nineteenth century."

The map shows the almshouse you mentioned and the area around it in 1876. If I was not clear enough the first time I trust this will be helpful.

relayer

relayer:

Thanks for the clarification and for the map.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
__________________
scriptor rerum Nova Caesarea
Dei memor, gratus amicus

 

[Teegate]

I think you are correct on the confusion Jerseyman. In any event, the map relayer posted is one that everyone should take a look at.

Guy

 

[Shane]

Thank-you all so much!

Jerseyman, Teegate and relayer, I am amazed at the posted information. That is a great picture of my grandfather. I was not aware of the book but I am familiar with abebooks and will seek it out. A present to myself.

I am still reading your posts. I have learned a lot. I am enjoying the links very much and I thank-you all for giving me something to go on.

Thank-you. This is a terrific forum.

I think I am so new that I don't have private post privileges. The Jones side (my mother's side) of my family hails originally from the Alton Bay area of New Hampshire. This would include my grandfather. For years the tiny home he lived in still stood.

That side of the family does have a well known New Jersey relative in it's ancestry. We are related directly to Joshua Huddy who was hanged at Tom's River.

Shane

 

[oji]

I'm hoping the Pemberton R.R. is still open on my way home from work on Monday so I can get a copy. Right by the Almshouse is the house a friend grew up in. It's listed as one of the residences of Jonathan Smith but was originally built by Benjamin Jones (Halstead).He once told me about all the non-native trees he saw while exploring the woods behind his house and now I can see why. You can also see a small pond by the R.R. tracks by where his uncle dammed the stream in the 1970s but during a heavy rainstorm it caused the main road to flood so the Twp. made him take down the dam.

 

[Medictrode]

Very interesting thread,I love History..But I gotta tell ya,for modern creeps and just plain heebie jeebies New Lisbon Developmental Center is enough for me.I am forced to go there on a regular basis,and that is enough for me.You always leave there with that smell stuck in your nose......

 

[Tom]

Thanks Shane.

 

[Shane]

You are welcome Tom.

Spooky places...they recently tore it down or most of it but the old Danvers State Hospital here in Mass. was often visited and photographed by people belonging to the Urban Exploration sites.

It was a VERY creepy place.

Shane

 

[MarkBNJ]

Jerseyman, my hat is off to you again. Great background, and how wonderful that you have a book inscribed by Shane's grandfather.

 

[Jerseyman]

Jerseyman, my hat is off to you again. Great background, and how wonderful that you have a book inscribed by Shane's grandfather.

Thanks, Mark!! How serendipitous that I should have that book in my collection and then to have Shane become a member of the forums!! Life is amazing and we live in an increasingly smaller world, thanks in large measure to the Internet!!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[kathleen demarrais]

Burlington County Insane Asylum

Thanks for the information regarding this institution. I just found one of my relatives listed on the 1920 census (enumerated in March, 1920) and wondered when the facility burned down. Does anyone know what happened to the people who lived there? Thanks so much, Kathleen

 

[Jerseyman]

Thanks for the information regarding this institution. I just found one of my relatives listed on the 1920 census (enumerated in March, 1920) and wondered when the facility burned down. Does anyone know what happened to the people who lived there? Thanks so much, Kathleen

Kathleen:

Glad you found the information helpful. The fire in the almshouse hospital occurred in December 1920, as described in this story from the 15 December 1920 issue of the New Jersey Mirror:

On Friday morning fire broke out in the east wing of the almshouse hospital at New Lisbon, imperiling the lives of the twenty or more aged patients, practically all of whom were helpless to make their escape from the burning building unaided. Miss Amy Simpson, aged ninety-one years, died as a result of the blaze, her death being cause (as written) by suffocation from the dense smoke. Two other women, Mrs. Angelina Price, of Mount Holly, and Mrs. Sallie Adams,of Burlington, were also seriously overcome by smoke and for a time their condition was despaired of. Miss Simpson had been at the hospital for a long time and it is not known that she had any relatives living. The flames, which started in the basement, were discovered by Miss Anne McGettigan, a nurse, and she promptly telephoned to Mount Holly and Camp Dix for aid from the firemen. The call was quickly responded to and valiant service was done in rescue work and also prevention a spread of the flames to nearby buildings. The burning structure was close to the almshouse proper and the tuberculosis hospital and while the flames were raging there was intense excitement among the inmates of those institutions. A similar condition prevailed at the county asylum located not far from the scene of the fire. The Board of Freeholders had just started the regular weekly meeting in its room adjoining the County Collector’s office in Mount Holly, when a telephone message was received advising the officials of the serious fire that had broken out at the county institution. A recess was immediately taken and the Freeholders and other county officials who were in attendance at the meeting sped in automobiles to New Lisbon. A quick trip was made, the county cars arriving on the scene before any fire apparatus had appeared and while four of the aged women inmates of the hospital were still imprisoned on the second floor of the fiercely burning building. The officials did valuable service in directing the work of fighting the flames and of rescuing the imperiled women. There were many volunteer fire-fighters on the scene and a plan of rescue was quickly devised for saving the lives of the women remaining on the second floor of the hospital. A ladder was run up on the outside to a window leading to the dormitory, and volunteers agilely ascended, entered the smoke filled room and grabbing up the helpless and, in two or three cases, unconscious women, rushed back to the window with their human burdens. The women were lowered to the ground with the aid of ropes and quickly carried to the almshouse close by where they received first aid treatment.The first firemen to arrive on the scene were those from Camp Dix and they did excellent work. America chemical truck also arrived about the same time and helped in extinguishing the flames. When the fire was finally under control and then extinguished, there was little left of the hospital building but the blackened outside walls. In view of the rapidity with which the flames spread it is regarded as fortunate that a greater toll in human life was not taken as the result of the mysterious morning blaze. Charles A. Bowne, steward of the almshouse was away at the time and was unable to account for the fire. The loss was placed at $15,000 and is said to be covered by insurance.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Dick Spence]

Snoopy:

The Burlington County Insane Asylum is located on Pemberton Brown's Mill Road just east of Burlington County College on the north side of the road. The county established its first institution here in 1799 when it purchased the Josiah Gaskill estate, a farm comprising 472 acres. Here the county set up its poor farm and almshouse. The county built the first building there in 1801, a structure to house the poor and indigent measuring 40' x 80'. Workers added a new wing to the building during the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1900, Burlington County constructed an insane asylum at the growing complex. A fire occurred in 1920 which destroyed the hospital associated with the almshouse. During the second decade of the twentieth century, the county added a tuberculosis hospital called Fairview Sanatorium. A fire destroyed the old almshouse and the county made plans to construct a new one based on plans drawn by architect Hugh A. Kelly of Trenton. He designed the new two-story almshouse to conform with the colonial revival styling of the insane asylum. With the completion of the new building, the county named it Buttonwood Hall and named its older insane asylum Evergreen Park. Subsequently, the county razed the old tuberculosis hospital and in more recent years added the Post House and the juvenile detention center to the complex.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Dick Spence]

Dear Jerseyman,

I saw your post about New Lisbon and read it with great interest, particularly about how New Lisbon was once Josiah Gaskill's farm. Josiah was my 4X great-grandfather. He was born 4 January 1751 and died 30 August 1797, both in Springfield Township. He married Beulah Mason in 1773. HIs line of descent goes back to the Gaskills, or Gascoynes, of Salem, Massachusetts as follows: His father was Jonathan Gaskill (1710-1754, Burlington County, married to Jane Shinn); Jonathan was the son of Josiah Gaskill (1678, Salem, MA - 1761, Burlington County, married to Rebecca Lippincott); Josiah was the son of Samuel Gaskill (1634/35-1720, both Salem, MA, married to Provided Southwick). ​

Josiah Gaskill (born 1678) migrated to New Jersey with his brother, Edward Gaskill and his brother-in-law, Josiah Southwick. Edward is considered by many to be the founder of Mt. Holly as he, Josiah Southwick and their sons dug the millrace and set up the first mills. ​

​

Josiah (1751-1797) Gaskill's will dated 13 August 1797 stated that his wife, Beulah [Mason] was to receive his plantation until Josiah, Jr. his twelve-year old son, reached his majority, and "other land in Gloucester Co. and said county [Burlington] was to be sold" to support , Josiah Jr. until he was 18, and the residue was to go to his seven daughters: Hannah [wife of Joel Reeves], Martha, Ann, Beulah, Rachel, Jane and Rebecca.​

The sale date of 1799 fits with my suspicion that one property sold was the farm in Pemberton that became the New Lisbon Asylum. My grandmother, Martha Alice Gaskill Small, was living in Burlington City as of the 1910 census. She died in 1915 at age 66 years in New Lisbon. ​

I'm still researching deed and death records to fill in these gaps. Your post was a big help along the way, so thanks again!​

Dick Spence​