Exploring a Different Area of Wharton
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
All,
I thought I would go into a little more detail on what I have been doing in this area, and hopefully some of you will find it interesting. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about the parcel of land shown in the below link. Notice the lines surrounding the red target symbol.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=39.79581&lon=-74.80993&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=m&s=24
As I mentioned this property was once owned by Jesse S. Braddock of Medford. He was married in June 1856 to Rachel Ann Evans of Marlton. The Evans family were prominent Marlton residents who owned the bogs where Kings Grant is now. They also were involved with Friendship Bogs along with the Wills Family. I am uncertain if Rachel Evans was from that line of the family, but I suspect she was. There is a member of this site who may answer that here one day.
Jesse Braddock died at the age of 64 on December, 7 1895, and his wife Rachel lived to the age of 72 and passed away on Sept 11th 1904. Does Sept 11 and Dec 7 mean anything to you?
An interesting coincidence!
Since I did not have the exact location of this property, I used an educated guess on where the corners would be, and Rob and I found the first stone on our hike a week ago. To refresh here is that photo.
Once I find one stone and have a bearing and distance to another one, it is quite easy to find the rest, except physically finding them in the woods. I have acquired the below survey showing the info I needed to do just that. Now take notice of three things in the below photo. First, on the left it says “Beginning stone in coal pit bottom”, and just to the right is a small triangular tract. And just above that is penciled in “Does not show on tax map”. This coal pit stone is what Rob and I was looking for when I lost my stick. The line that comes down on an angle from the top of the map and creates that small triangle is the Medford and Shamong boundary line, with Shamong on the right and Medford on the left. So we now know that for some reason the Medford portion of this property did not show on tax maps, and I was wondering if because the property was not fully surveyed, maybe the property did not actually extend into Medford, and I wanted to find that out.
So today using the info from that map, and our find the week before, Jessica and I traveled yet again there to find that stone. In minutes I found it in semi dense woods that one would never have known at one time had been a coal pit.
In order to get an idea of what that area looked like in the 1930’s, I made this “Then and Now” showing this area in 1930 and today.
Next I needed to find one more stone to be able to get a good idea of the actual property location. Almost 800 feet away we found it flat on the ground along a path.
A search for the fourth was unsuccessful today, so next weekend I will be there again. However, I had found enough of them to accurately see how much of that property extended into Medford. Sure enough the survey map above is quite accurate which you can see by this map. The triangle on the left proves that this property did indeed extend into Medford Township.
Guy
I thought I would go into a little more detail on what I have been doing in this area, and hopefully some of you will find it interesting. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about the parcel of land shown in the below link. Notice the lines surrounding the red target symbol.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=39.79581&lon=-74.80993&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=m&s=24
As I mentioned this property was once owned by Jesse S. Braddock of Medford. He was married in June 1856 to Rachel Ann Evans of Marlton. The Evans family were prominent Marlton residents who owned the bogs where Kings Grant is now. They also were involved with Friendship Bogs along with the Wills Family. I am uncertain if Rachel Evans was from that line of the family, but I suspect she was. There is a member of this site who may answer that here one day.
Jesse Braddock died at the age of 64 on December, 7 1895, and his wife Rachel lived to the age of 72 and passed away on Sept 11th 1904. Does Sept 11 and Dec 7 mean anything to you?
An interesting coincidence!Since I did not have the exact location of this property, I used an educated guess on where the corners would be, and Rob and I found the first stone on our hike a week ago. To refresh here is that photo.
Once I find one stone and have a bearing and distance to another one, it is quite easy to find the rest, except physically finding them in the woods. I have acquired the below survey showing the info I needed to do just that. Now take notice of three things in the below photo. First, on the left it says “Beginning stone in coal pit bottom”, and just to the right is a small triangular tract. And just above that is penciled in “Does not show on tax map”. This coal pit stone is what Rob and I was looking for when I lost my stick. The line that comes down on an angle from the top of the map and creates that small triangle is the Medford and Shamong boundary line, with Shamong on the right and Medford on the left. So we now know that for some reason the Medford portion of this property did not show on tax maps, and I was wondering if because the property was not fully surveyed, maybe the property did not actually extend into Medford, and I wanted to find that out.
So today using the info from that map, and our find the week before, Jessica and I traveled yet again there to find that stone. In minutes I found it in semi dense woods that one would never have known at one time had been a coal pit.
In order to get an idea of what that area looked like in the 1930’s, I made this “Then and Now” showing this area in 1930 and today.
Next I needed to find one more stone to be able to get a good idea of the actual property location. Almost 800 feet away we found it flat on the ground along a path.
A search for the fourth was unsuccessful today, so next weekend I will be there again. However, I had found enough of them to accurately see how much of that property extended into Medford. Sure enough the survey map above is quite accurate which you can see by this map. The triangle on the left proves that this property did indeed extend into Medford Township.
Guy
You know Guy, I think he picked up that property only to pull all the cedar out. Even so, tis an odd piece of property. Does the state own it now?
There are no cedar on this parcel and I doubt there ever was. They are nearby.
As for being private that is an interesting question. According to the text on the right of the survey, the state acquired it since it mentions an acquisition number. I know who wrote "private" on it and have doubts that is correct.
Guy
Often, when Cedar is clearcut, which the 1931 photo shows (something was), then the hardwoods take over. So there very well may have been cedar there. It was always wet, so I doubt they went in there to get pitch pine, because it would not have been in there.
I don't know the details of the Braddock family in Medford, but I would suspect they are at least related.
Here is the Medford map on the website of our very own "Relayer" that has many of the locations of the Braddock family of that era. It does not mention him specifically as far as I can see.
http://www.westjerseyhistory.org/maps/burlco_scott_1876_atlas/index10.shtml
Guy
Guy
Thanks for the plug. I'll take all the help I can get.
Thanks also for the thread. I don't usually gush (I usually leave that to program hosts on HGTV and Discovery Home) but really, what you do just amazes the heck out of me. One of these days you might want to think about producing a book or something. Really, really good.
relayer
Thanks for the plug. I'll take all the help I can get.
Thanks also for the thread. I don't usually gush (I usually leave that to program hosts on HGTV and Discovery Home) but really, what you do just amazes the heck out of me. One of these days you might want to think about producing a book or something. Really, really good.
relayer
Relayer,
Glad to give you the plug, and thank you for the kind words. One day I will get that book made, but I am not sure if anyone would buy something that apparently only interests me and a few others. My hobby is not mainstream for sure.
Guy
Glad to give you the plug, and thank you for the kind words. One day I will get that book made, but I am not sure if anyone would buy something that apparently only interests me and a few others. My hobby is not mainstream for sure.
Guy
We returned to look for the final stone and could not find it. I suspect since it was along a path it is gone. We did make a second search for stones at a very small parcel nearby, and came up with the state marker and the stone.
While returning to the car we found an old bridge that at one time allowed vehicle traffic across a stream. There is evidence of a road being there on one side of the bridge, but no evidence on the other. It has been a long while since this has been in use.
Guy
While returning to the car we found an old bridge that at one time allowed vehicle traffic across a stream. There is evidence of a road being there on one side of the bridge, but no evidence on the other. It has been a long while since this has been in use.
Guy