Munyon Field

[Spung-Man]

Jerseyman,

Many thanks for the insight. There seems to be three shared characteristics between Watering Place and Munion: 1) a reliable water source at a stream's knickpoint where sapping springs occur; 2) a busy trail system; and 3) a significant property boundary.

​

Which do you prefer, Munion or Munyon? I somehow feel the latter is better but can't figure out why (Y-not).

S-M

 

[coppersisters]

Hey Sprung-Man.... what were you "sprung" from???? Did you get a divorce? LOL It's Patty K. I live up this way (I love Munion Field Road! You have to drive it slow, but it's very beautiful!) I went out exploring today and found something very interesting...can I contact you privately?

 

[Spung-Man]

Absolutely, Bride of Fire! My gosh, kinfolk from Milmay. You are at the right place. I credit your family for a great deal of the sand in my shoes, teaching me how to appreciate this place.

 

[coppersisters]

Aww, that was nice Mark! As kids, we spent all of Dad's days off exploring the pines and picnicking at forgotten towns and state parks. My parents had friends in Egg Harbor with an equal amount of kids and it was a weekly thing. I guess that's why I love to walk in the woods....chiggers twice this week will attest to it! (And BTW...I was joking, I love Patty!) Ok, starting a new thread about what I found yesterday!

 

[Oriental]

Deeds show that “Munion Field” was an incorrect description of the “Le Munyon Place” or “Le Munyon Homestead” on the Oswego Road that was in existence more than 200 years ago. An 1801 survey of a neighboring property refers to Le Munyon Place and another 1807 survey of adjacent land mentions a line along “the boundary of Shoards Mill Branch near Le Munyon Place”. It seems that a deed from 1850 makes reference to Eley Munyon. Perhaps this was a misspelling of E. LeyMunyon or something similar. This mistake was likely repeated in subsequent deeds and could have been the origin of the “Munion Field” designation. Some deeds in the 1860s refer to “Munyon Field” while others in the 1880s still call it the “Le Munyon Place”. By the first few decades of the 20th century the place was more commonly called “Munion Field” probably because the extensive “paper town” called Appleby Estates used that designation. The property encompassed 72 acres

I am currently trying to figure out some genealogy and find some of the earlier deeds. I have some leads.

Will keep you posted.

 

[Oriental]

Does that seem right? I am truly astounded at the detail these old maps have. My guess is the Munion Field up there in “North Jersey” could have been associated with charcoal provisioning, not unlike the Lee Place field of similar size behind my house down in “South Jersey.” Dozens of charcoal stations dotted the Pines in support of coaling.


S-M

The Le Munyon Place would be just outside the old Martha Furnace tract and the homestead seems to have been built in the heyday of iron at Martha. Perhaps you are on to something Spung-Man.

 

[Spung-Man]

Cool beans Oriental. I will use hereafter use "Munyon" with a Y. Is Aserdaten also sited on the edge of furnace land?

Some have asked about the places I had listed along the Weymouth Tract border (Figure above in earlier post):

Peters) ≥1830s since homes are timber framed, incl. “cigar shed”, Blue Anchor trail to Inskeeps;
Berrys) c.1810, Scott house c.1790, charcoal manufacture for moonshine during Prohibition, Great Pond spungs;
Champions) mill c.1770? (squatters), then Campbells, then Pancoast, a.k.a. Zebulon Pike for its surveyor (legend);
Bears Hole) ancient spung, campsite;
Abbotts) c.1817, timber framed hostelry (unofficial?), intersection of Hance Bridge trail and new straight road of 1817 (Harding Highway), spung;
Thomas') Welsh livery, store, hoop-pole factory c. 1870, my "resting tree" sand hickory, spung;
Lees) field, place, spungs;
Doughtys) tavern c.1790 (moved w/Tuckahoe trail realignment c. 1817), spungs (one of 3 Bears Head spungs) each being head ponds on separate Bear Branches for Bears’ trail?, head of Tuchahoe River;
Clarks) campsite, spung;
Grassy) major Indian trail junction, campsite, fishable-boatable-swimable spung until Dustbowl drought.​

I invoke Beck, as this account is in-part Pinelands fun folklore as I learned it!

S-M

 

[Spung-Man]

Before we got too far along I feel it important to provide a little background. Coppersisters is the younger sibling to my best school mate, and her my sister's. Her brother and I met the first day of kindergarten and lived just five houses apart on the same avenue; there being three-miles between us. Her brother and I would converge mid-way near the Jablonski farm (below, road now grown over) every chance possible to hike along the Manumuskin, which in part sourced from our duck pond (spung). It was a ‘Huck Finn’sky childhood. C-sister was my dance partner, here seen in a fast-paced Azerbaijani number, Bride of Fire. Cumberland County had not one but two Ukrainian dance groups, Zoria (Vineland) and Chaika (Millville). We belonged to the former; a vignette of the Pinelands ethnic archipelago.

S-M

 

[Don Catts]

Deeds show that “Munion Field” was an incorrect description of the “Le Munyon Place” or “Le Munyon Homestead” on the Oswego Road that was in existence more than 200 years ago. An 1801 survey of a neighboring property refers to Le Munyon Place and another 1807 survey of adjacent land mentions a line along “the boundary of Shoards Mill Branch near Le Munyon Place”. It seems that a deed from 1850 makes reference to Eley Munyon. Perhaps this was a misspelling of E. LeyMunyon or something similar. This mistake was likely repeated in subsequent deeds and could have been the origin of the “Munion Field” designation. Some deeds in the 1860s refer to “Munyon Field” while others in the 1880s still call it the “Le Munyon Place”. By the first few decades of the 20th century the place was more commonly called “Munion Field” probably because the extensive “paper town” called Appleby Estates used that designation. The property encompassed 72 acres

I am currently trying to figure out some genealogy and find some of the earlier deeds. I have some leads.

Will keep you posted.

There was a John LeMunyon born around 1824 in Little Egg Harbor and died in Shamong in 1897. Could he have come from Le Munyon's Place. He had a large farm on East Stokes Road. The old timers called East Stokes Road "Johnstown". I have attached a picture of John's cranberry barrel stencil. Notice it says Atsion. I don't know if it is on deeds or not but folks also called East Stokes Atsion at one time.

 

[Spung-Man]

It was common for farmers to work for furnaces during off season, often by or in support of coaling. Unlike company coal-ground coalers, they were not bound to the company store. Ole Uncle Jenk's family settled my property c.1880 from a remote home-base in Newfield. They had portable cabins that could be moved between charcoal camps, using my ground as a post associated with Thomas' station during the 1860s or '70s. The Evans' were refugees from the Molly Maguires in coalfields around Jessup, near Scranton, PA.

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/searching-for-a-cave-in-the-pines.8965/#post-107952​

Jenk's Field, just above the Lee Place, was used during the off season when not tending strawberries, sweet potatoes, grapes, or cranberries; or when road or railroad construction was slack.

Uncle Jenk in Sunday best at coaling age, Evans Place, Richland, NJ,
along with siblings Rachel and Thomas.​

If not mistaken, the big-wheeled wagon by the barn is a typical charcoal boat. Evans' were related to the Snell's from Vineland, who had a livery stable on Landis Avenue in East Vineland.

By 1890, the coal was moved by rail car on the just-built Cape May Branch.

S-M

 

[Menantico]

Before we got too far along I feel it important to provide a little background. Coppersisters is the younger sibling to my best school mate, and her my sister's. Her brother and I met the first day of kindergarten and lived just five houses apart on the same avenue; there being three-miles between us. Her brother and I would converge mid-way near the Jablonski farm (below, road now grown over) every chance possible to hike along the Manumuskin, which in part sourced from our duck pond (spung). It was a ‘Huck Finn’sky childhood. C-sister was my dance partner, here seen in a fast-paced Azerbaijani number, Bride of Fire. Cumberland County had not one but two Ukrainian dance groups, Zoria (Vineland) and Chaika (Millville). We belonged to the former; a vignette of the Pinelands ethnic archipelago.

View attachment 6112​

S-M

In the early 1980s my mom was on the Chaika committee and both my sisters danced at St. Nicks on Carmel Rd. I was too young, but absolutely everyone else in my family, those in the US and France who emigrated from Ukraine danced in groups. In France my Grandfather, Uncles and Aunt had a dance troupe known as the Kuzmanets. That particular Aunt from France, Lesia Shterban, ended up moving to Landisville and is the reason my family moved to the US right before I was born in Vineland. Mark, your brother Eric has a bunch of pictures of us in our traditional costumes as he was friends with my aunt's son Bohdan. Spent a lot of time down in New Kuban with them and the Russians, even though we were western Ukrainian they didn't hold it against us. I do remember an older gentleman who lived in a rustic church off of Terek Rd. behind my cousins place. Wild man with a beard, not unlike Rasputin in appearance. Those were some good times with some crazy Slavs.

 

[manumuskin]

Menantico I didn't know you were related to the Carmel rd Ukes.My old horticulture teacher from Votech lived there.His name was Nicholas Seminiuk.I was also friends with the Dupnocks in high school. Glad to see the Russians and Ukes could get along at one time.I like them both but I understand in Europe they really seem to dislike each other.