Ongs Hat Article

[Ben Ruset]

Ongs Hat is a pretty small area. It would be hard to miss anything there. If you take a look on Terraserver you can see that the whole area is fairly dense woods with one road leading out to where the diner is.

Generally when there has been human habitation in the area, the woods take several hundred years to recover, and you can tell where things would have been. Even if there are no ruins there are things like odd clearings, non native trees, etc. There was none of that at Ongs Hat.

When Beck was there he mentioned a clearing with bits of bricks and a tumble down shed. That would have had to have been located right where the diner and the houses are.

 

[BEHR655]

Ben,

Did you check the other side of Magnolia Rd.? Cook's atlas places the name on that side of the road. I know it doesn't mean much but there are several overgrown roads and paths that come off of the road that parallels Magnolia Rd. They don't show up on aerial photos but I've seen them and they are very grown over. It's possible there could be something there. It would take some hiking to find out.

Steve

 

[BEHR655]

I was just looking at Jedidiah's 1794 New Jersey map and it shows Ong as being on a branch of the Rancocas. The would place it nearer to Lower Forge. The map is very crude though and if it was located on a creek or stream the Jade Run would be more likely. That would still place it north of it's present location.

Steve

 

[Pineyprowler]

I'm not sure how acurate this map is but here's the link http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/1872Atlas/BurlingtonCoNorthTopo.jpg
More than likely there is nothing left. I also noticed on this map there is a stream called Ong's run. Even tho it is located far north from Ong's hat in Pemberton, I wonder if it is the same guy? You can see it right next to Pine Mill. Looks like Jacob Ong was a pretty popular guy just like the story says.

 

[Boyd]

I have no opinion about Ong's Hat... but thanks for the link to the Rutger's cartography website. Very cool stuff that I have never seen before!

 

[Ben Ruset]

Ben,

Did you check the other side of Magnolia Rd.? Cook's atlas places the name on that side of the road. I know it doesn't mean much but there are several overgrown roads and paths that come off of the road that parallels Magnolia Rd. They don't show up on aerial photos but I've seen them and they are very grown over. It's possible there could be something there. It would take some hiking to find out.

Steve

Yes - there was nothing there.

 

[Pineyprowler]

Sure no problem about the Rutger's site, I just found it about a month ago while searching for old NJ maps. I guess there really is nothing left of Ong's Hat other than what Ben said. It would be awesome to find something though, even though it probably will never happen due to time.

 

[BEHR655]

I'm not sure how acurate this map is but here's the link http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/1872Atlas/BurlingtonCoNorthTopo.jpg
More than likely there is nothing left. I also noticed on this map there is a stream called Ong's run. Even tho it is located far north from Ong's hat in Pemberton, I wonder if it is the same guy? You can see it right next to Pine Mill. Looks like Jacob Ong was a pretty popular guy just like the story says.

Interesting. The location of Ong's Run is about where the Jedidiah map shows Ong.

 

[Pineyprowler]

That is interesting, very interesting. Could it be that there are possibly ruins or something of that sort there? Looks like it calls for a trip out there as soon as I can get the time! Good find man.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Any ruins to be seen today would have had to have been of a building made of stone or brick. Ongs Hat never had any industry to support that kind of building type. If there were buildings around there (and Gordons 1834 Atlas doesn't mention any mills of any sort) they would have been houses or farms. IF there was anything to be seen today, it would be cellar holes. The problem is that there are no clearings were there would be holes.

Good luck with your search.