Folks:
Of the proposed developments at Atsion, Fruitland came first. In 1862, William C. Patterson acquired the northern half of the Atsion tract and four years later incorporated the Fruitland Improvement Company. He planned to develop a sugar plantation on the property and intended to plant French sugar beets. He even imported a steam-powered cable plow from John Fowler & Company of Liverpool, England, at a cost of $13,000. His fortune and his plans went up in the smoke of a major conflagration that struck his gigantic Philadelphia warehouse complex during August 1869 followed soon thereafter by the death of his wife and son. Patterson lost his east coast holdings and traveled west to start over.
During a May 1871 land auction, Philadelphia merchant and manufacturer Maurice Raleigh purchased the Fruitland tract. In the city, his mill wove fancy goods and webbing, so he constructed a cotton mill in Atsion which offered employment to about 70 hands. The railroad delivered raw cotton from the south and carried the finished goods as well. Raleigh expanded his Pineland empire when he acquired the adjoining Waterford Tract and its glassworks once owned by Joseph Porter & Sons. Raleigh continued window glass production for a time, but the glassworks failed financially and he closed the doors. He converted one of the buildings into a hosiery mill during the late 1870s. Maurice Raleigh died in January 1882. At the time of his demise, he owned 30,000 acres between Atsion and Waterford. Most of factories burned shortly after his death. His heirs incorporated the Raleigh Land & Improvement Company in New York State and attempted to sell lots and farms before selling the entire estate to Joseph Wharton.
As I recall, I believe there are actually three different sheets to the Raleigh Land & Improvement Company maps, not just one and the Camden County Historical Society, I think, possess all three plates.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
