Mary Ann Forge and Cranberries

[woodjin]

I spoke to Bud Wilson at the Sweetwater event and he believes the ruins in question were part of the cranberry operation.

I kayaked mt misery a couple of times. Be prepared for some blow downs and lift overs.

 

[Jerseyman]

Folks:

I do not have any definitive information on who constructed this bog or exactly when, but I can tell you that it is a bog built in the twentieth century and probably in the late 1930s or during the 1940s. In 1885, the area did not provide any hints of a bog:



However, by 1949, the area had changed tremendously:



Note the dam across the stream to form the supply lake and also not the numerous road changes and additions. It appears the bog had several buildings situated near it, as evidenced from the black squares scattered around the area.

I have begun assembling nineteenth-century information about this area and hope to have it posted soon. Meanwhile, unless someone has specific knowledge about this bog operation, only a title search will yield its origin and demise.

For those interested in this area, I suggest picking up a copy of Runaway, a pamphlet that John C. Borton wrote about a cabin out in the woods near New Lisbon. The booklet even contains a couple photographs of Lower Mill. I purchased my copy at the North Pemberton Railroad Station museum and I presume they still sell it. Borton begins his story in the early twentieth century and, for the most part, ends it in the late 1930s. While he does mention cranberry and blueberry growing in the area, I do not see a reference to a new bog on the Mount Misery Brook (Branch), suggesting it had not yet been built. BTW, Borton does mention an aggressive species of wire grass that really seemed to clog the bogs and kill off the profitabililty of the cranberry operations in the area, for what’s worth.

As time allows, I will post more information.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[pinelandpaddler]

I just got done reviewing all of the discussions on this site concerning Mary Ann. There has been much mystery and confusion surrounding this area, but I am confident that the following is true:


-Pig Iron was not transported via barges from Hanover to Mary Ann.

-There was indeed a cranberry operation at the site of where the forge pond was located.

-The straight and deep channel was dug out sometime between 1930 and 1956 for the cranberry operation.

-The "canals" that loop around the straight and deep channel are not canals at all, but rather the original river channel that was cut off when the straight channel was dug out.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Jerseyman, thanks for the info. I look forward to any further light you can shed on this. Did you take a look at the 1930 fly-over photos of the area. It appears to have been farmed at that time.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I need to talk to Ariadne -- she's the one who said that the iron was floated on barges. I could have heard the wrong thing.

 

[Teegate]

Guy, are you suggesting that more research is needed to know that the stream was channelized for the cranberry operation, or are you suggesting that more research is needed to even know that there was in fact a cranberry operation there? Let's talk.

I am not suggesting anything. I was just saying that good research such as you looking over the aerial maps always results in the true facts. All of us guessing just does not produce that. There was no negativity at all in my post.

Guy

 

[oji]

Jerseyman, I read a copy of Runaway at the Pemberton Twp. library last week. I made notes of a couple things mentioned. One story about visiting Lower Mill and how grumpy the sawyer was. Also that the mill operated until the dam broke in 1921 and by 1955 there was practically no trace left. In the story about the elephant graveyard he told that it was actually an area of 20 acres that was cleared below Mary Ann by the Pem.Twp. Road Dept. for gravel to build roads.

 

[woodjin]

I need to talk to Ariadne -- she's the one who said that the iron was floated on barges. I could have heard the wrong thing.

I am not sure if it was she or I who originally suggested that the river was transformed to a canal to float iron to Mary Ann. It seemed like a logical speculation. I guess it was straightened to better regulate water levels in the bogs. This system was much different in design than most bogs of the same era.

Jeff

 

[woodjin]

I just got done reviewing all of the discussions on this site concerning Mary Ann. There has been much mystery and confusion surrounding this area, but I am confident that the following is true:


-Pig Iron was not transported via barges from Hanover to Mary Ann.

-There was indeed a cranberry operation at the site of where the forge pond was located.

-The straight and deep channel was dug out sometime between 1930 and 1956 for the cranberry operation.

-The "canals" that loop around the straight and deep channel are not canals at all, but rather the original river channel that was cut off when the straight channel was dug out.

I agree with everything, except we don't know for certain that iron was not floated down stream to Mary Ann. Although, the point is probably not as important if we know that the canal was not dug till after Mary Ann's operation.

Jeff

 

[Jerseyman]

Jerseyman, thanks for the info. I look forward to any further light you can shed on this. Did you take a look at the 1930 fly-over photos of the area. It appears to have been farmed at that time.

Gabe:

I did look at the 1930 (actually 1931) flyover image. My first impression of the cultivation there at the site of where the bog later appeared, is a large-scale blueberry production facility, based on the striations I see present. It would make sense to convert blueberry fields into cranberry bogs. During the early nineteenth century, cedar swamps still covered much of this whole area.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[jokerman]

I had reported in another thread of meeting a man while at Mary Ann (last name Taylor) who grew up in the house adjacent to the pump house you guys are discussing. He said that the big concrete foundations nearby were...foundations when he was a kid. He was in his mid-70's when I met him (about 2003) so he would have been 10 in 1938. Since the topo map shows structures there in 1949 they would probably be later structures (later than the large concrete ones found now) or the map is being redunant and showing structures that were gone by 1949, and according to my friend, before he was there in the late 1930's. I didn't look enough to compare what's shown on the topos to the locations of the current foundations, but am assuming they are included oon the topo.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Heh. I said I was "confident" that the river was channelized for the cranberry operation. I don't know why I would insist that I was confident since it never made any sense. Naw, I think the river was straightned and deepened in order to drain the adjacent swamp for purposes of the blueberry operation. The questions are:
When were blueberries grown there? When were cranberries grown there?

 

[Ben Ruset]

Gabe,

I may have found an answer to your question. I found a reference to the bogs being in operation in a book on Google Books.

The book, the Annual Report of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station for the year 1888 mentions:

Mr John S Clevenger drove me to the Mary Ann Forge bog near Brown's Mills and gave me an opportunity of examining this peculiarly infested plantation peculiar in having not only all the diseases and insects of other bogs but also a fungus and a scale insect peculiar to itself.

So we know that the cranberry bog was in operation circa 1888.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Good find. Maybe this puzzle will slowly piece itself together.