Cranberry Hall

Ben Ruset

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Oct 12, 2004
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I think I remember reading about the town of Cranberry Hall in one of my Pine Barrens books, but I forget which one it is.

Does anyone know anything about this town off the top of their head, or where I could get some information on it?

It's located within Fort Dix.
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Welcome to Ben's site suits! I was hoping you would sign up one day.

Guy
 

oji

Piney
Jan 25, 2008
2,128
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Browns Mills
I think I remember reading about the town of Cranberry Hall in one of my Pine Barrens books, but I forget which one it is.

Does anyone know anything about this town off the top of their head, or where I could get some information on it?

It's located within Fort Dix.

An obituary in the local Pemberton Twp. newspaper this week had a man who was born in Cranberry Hall in 1921. Recently I was thinking of a way to explore ruins on Ft. Dix property and thought ,if you have a hunting license you could sign up to hunt on base and before the season starts areas would need to be scouted to find a good spot for your stand.
 

Ben Ruset

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Oct 12, 2004
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I've explored Cranberry Park, Cranberry Hall, Brindletown, and Hanover Furnace. Hanover Furnace is the only site that looks like it once was a town, since it has cellar holes and slag. The other places were bulldozed and not a trace remains.
 

oji

Piney
Jan 25, 2008
2,128
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Browns Mills
While I do not have any historic images of Cranberry Hall to offer, I can supply some great views of Pointville if anyone would be interested.

Just let me know.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
I am very interested in any pictures from this area. My interest in pinebarren history and folklore started in the Pemberton Twp. area and progressed outward with every book I read. I was looking at a pictoral history of Browns Mills in the library just the other day and was amazed to see a photo of a large hotel where a WaWa now is located.
 

Ben Ruset

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The only place worth taking pictures of was Hanover Furnace.

http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/showgallery.php/cat/296

Cranberry Hall is nothing but the intersection of two dirt roads. I didn't see any evidence of cellar holes anywhere near there. I am pretty sure Cranberry Park is now a range. Brindletown has a nice lake, and there had been some simple archaeological shovel tests done there, but again, nothing terribly exciting to see.

The fort did a great job of obliterating those towns.
 

whitingrider

Explorer
Jun 28, 2007
193
0
Whiting
Jerseyman,
I sure would be interested in any old photos of Pointville, Scrabbletown, Ticktown or Brindletown. I loved reading Father Beck's take on "Camp Dix" in the late 1930's. He spoke of the expansion for "the World War" and then the subsequent partial abandonment following the war and finally the revitilization for the comming war. I agree, Ben, alot of history has been bulldozed out there, but this enormous compound has it's own rich history.

Back in the 90's I had occasion to be on the fort as they were beginning to abandon it again (history repeating itself?) And I marvelled at the incredible amount of abandoned parking lots, bunkers, ranges, and whole housing areas. And that stuff was on the main part of the base, I can't imagine what could be hidden in the remote areas. One example: There is a brand new asphalt plant on the base which has never batched out a single load. Out along range road there is a County prison (I just found that out), a Federal prison on Pointville Rd., and a massive amount of equipment just sitting and rusting.
Tom
 

oji

Piney
Jan 25, 2008
2,128
549
64
Browns Mills
The Pointville graveyard is still intact right alongside Texas Ave. I read of someone local being buried there a few years ago. I think a few local families must have plots still unused. Would anyone have info/pictures of Little Pine Mill? I have grew up and still live by Little Pine Lake and wonder where an area is big enough for the mill,dancehall and bowling alley.There are some areas that look promising but they aren't alongside this lake.
 

Oriental

Explorer
Apr 21, 2005
257
147
Pheasant Moor

The Hutchinson family (from the Georgetown area) owned bogs out in that area of Fort Dix. They had a small village there that they called Pheasant Moor. A decendant of the family once drew me a map of the settlement which was nothing more that a house or two, a saw mill, and some cranberry related buildings. From his description, I was able to determine the location but it is right beside one of the firing ranges there. I would love to go and explore but suspect the area is off limits. If anyone has any ideas about gaining access, please pass them along. I even have an old token from the place that they used to pay the bog workers with. It's really cool. The Army grabbed all that land in 1939 when they expanded the "camp". Owners were given $200 an acre and told to get out in a month.

I remember an old article in "Cranberries" magazine briefly discussed the impact of losing that valuable cranberry land to the Army. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Rich
 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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Do not even think about going to the range. Even if you think you have permission, don't even think about going.


Guy
 

whitingrider

Explorer
Jun 28, 2007
193
0
Whiting
Rich,
I can get in there legally. My company does business on post. There are sections of Range Road that are open to the public. You can also drive all the way from Whitesbog to Range Rd. Send me a PM.
Tom
 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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You better make sure you are certain that you have permission by everyone involved to be there. Jessica and I along with one other person took what I thought were the correct steps to access a specific area of the woods near there, and we were unceremoniously tossed out of there on the morning after Thanksgiving a few years back.


Guy
 
Pointville

I am very interested in any pictures from this area. My interest in pinebarren history and folklore started in the Pemberton Twp. area and progressed outward with every book I read. I was looking at a pictoral history of Browns Mills in the library just the other day and was amazed to see a photo of a large hotel where a WaWa now is located.

Oji and folks:

Greetings_from_Pointville.jpg


Pointville takes its name from the star-shaped intersection in the center of town:

Pointville_Map.jpg


The community dates to the late eighteenth century and began life as Scrabbletown in Hanover Township. Thomas Gordon’s 1834 Gazetteer of New Jersey describes Scrabbletown as follows:

“hamlet of Hanover t-ship, Burlington co., 10 miles E. from Mount Holly and 12 S.E. from Bordentown; contains a tavern, and 6 or 8 cottages; in a poor, sandy, pine country.”

On 3 December 1857, a post office opened in Scrabbletown, but carried the name Pointville. Daniel F. Gibbs served as the first postmaster, but on 1 May 1861, Joseph M. Reeves replaced Gibbs due to a change in political parties at the White House. Here is a list of the rest of the postmasters:

December 9, 1874—George N. Warren
January 14, 1879—Harry C. Squires
April 1, 1884—J. Lytle Allen
July 28, 1885—Thomas Vaughn
May 11, 1889—Jonathon H. Harker
August 4, 1891—Frank F. Ent
September 16, 1893—Ellis Cramer
January 25, 1898—Thomas McIntire
May 24, 1909—Maggie E. Lewis
September 16, 1917—Joseph D. Glassberg
November 27, 1922—Katherine P. Harker (acting)
December 27, 1922—Katherine P. Harker
May 29, 1925—Post Office Discontinued-Service to Browns Mills

David Moore opened the tavern during the closing years of the eighteenth century and stood at the northwesterly angle of the roads to Wrightstown and Jobstown. In 1817, William Heaviland held the license to operate the tavern and three years later, Jacob Gaskill took over. In his license application, Gaskill described the tavern house as “on the road leading from Wrightstown to Abraham Brown’s Mills, two and one half miles from the former place.” His 1827 application refers to the surrounding community as Cherry Valley, a name it retained for approximately ten years. William Gaskill operated the tavern in 1852.

Browns_Mills_Road_Pointville.jpg


John Borden maintained a store in this village early in its existence. Albert Allen purchased an old school and converted it into a store, which subsequently passed through several owners. Someone erected another store in 1872. D. Woodward constructed a store here in 1881. Woodward also operated the hotel during the 1880s. The community now boasted of a population totaling 150, the three stores and a hotel, a church, a schoolhouse, and about 30 dwellings.

Moving into the twentieth century, Pointville became a beehive of activity as the United States entered the First World War. Various organizations assumed control of the various buildings in the settlement to serve soldiers undergoing basic training at Camp Dix, which installation surrounded Pointville.

Farmhouse_Pointville.jpg


Methodist_Hostess_House_Pointville.jpg


Pointville remained intact following the end of World War I:

Scene_at_Pointville.jpg


Street_in_Pointville.jpg


Scene_at_Pointville_II.jpg


but its population began to leave in 1925, providing the rationale for closing the post office. The United States accelerated the removal of Pointville from the landscape when it began to ramp up for the Second World War. The War Department acquired all of the land and buildings in Pointville to expand now Fort Dix. The only thing that remains is the Pointville Cemetery from the old Saint Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church:

Pointville_Methodist_Church.jpg


This church began with meetings being held in the school for several years. In 1849, the congregants erected its first frame edifice measuring 40 feet by 30 feet at a cost of $1500. The faithful replaced the original building with the one depicted on the post card during the late 1880s or early 1890s.

Today, the cemetery is an plot of ground surrounded by cyclone fencing within the Fort Dix installation.

This, in a nutshell, is the story of Pointville.

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

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Thank you for all the info Jerseyman. Very interesting!

Guy
 
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