Parsons Towne, Cumberland County

[Cyanna]

Hi, new member here. I don't live in New Jersey but my parents were born in Camden and my ancestors/family have been in Southern NJ since the 1600's.

Has anyone ever heard of a place called Parsons Towne? My great-great-grandmother's record of birth in 1858 states place of birth as Parsons Towne.

 

[manumuskin]

Cyanna
Lived in cumberland county about 44 of my 46 years.born and raised here.Never heard of it but I will look into it for you.Whipoorbill is on the other side of the county.He may no if it's over there.I ruloe the east half,he rules the west half.I'd say we draw the line around Gouldtown.I let him come over here occasionally to listen to the pine barren treefrogs and he lets me over there occasionally to visit Tindalls Island.
I will try and dig up some info on it.
Al

 

[manumuskin]

I have checked the old place names list on the west jersey history projects page and on down jersey site and both list a parsons tavern as being under taverns but when i look there I can find no mention of it or where it was.no mention of a parsons towne at all.I have checked all the old maps i can find except for the hartmans.that will take sometime to thouroughly go over but that may be the best source.
Al

 

[Jerseyman]

Cyanna:

I am still checking my sources for this place name, but here is what I can tell you to-date:

Parsons Town never had its own post office

It does not appear as a toponym in the Scott 1876 atlas of Cumberland County or the earlier 1862 Beers sheet or wall map of the county. The latter cartographic cadastral source, however, does depict in Downe Township an interesting and curious assemblage of Parsons family members living about equidistant on the the road between Haleyville and Port Norris:

I have boxed this settlement in red for your viewing convenience. I have no definitive information on whether the residential area is, indeed, Parsons Town, but perhaps you will recognize a familial name associated with your g-g-grandmother. It is just as possible that Parsons Town existed around G.W. Parson’s shoe factory in the Mauricetown area or even the Parsons livery stable in Bridgeton. If I find any additional information about Parsons Town, I will post it here in this thread.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Teegate]

Nice work Al and Jerseyman!

Guy

 

[Cyanna]

Cyanna
Lived in cumberland county about 44 of my 46 years.born and raised here.Never heard of it but I will look into it for you.Whipoorbill is on the other side of the county.He may no if it's over there.I ruloe the east half,he rules the west half.I'd say we draw the line around Gouldtown.I let him come over here occasionally to listen to the pine barren treefrogs and he lets me over there occasionally to visit Tindalls Island.
I will try and dig up some info on it.
Al

So, you are a bit territorial? Hmmmm...we could be related. I think its a family trait, LOL! I notice you are listed as Manumuskin. Interesting. My grandmother was born at Manumuskin, somewhere along the river Any FORD, HARRIS, REED, NICHOLS or GANDY names in your line?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Cyanna]

Cyanna:

I am still checking my sources for this place name, but here is what I can tell you to-date:

Parsons Town never had its own post office

It does not appear as a toponym in the Scott 1876 atlas of Cumberland County or the earlier 1862 Beers sheet or wall map of the county. The latter cartographic cadastral source, however, does depict in Downe Township an interesting and curious assemblage of Parsons family members living about equidistant on the the road between Haleyville and Port Norris:

I have boxed this settlement in red for your viewing convenience. I have no definitive information on whether the residential area is, indeed, Parsons Town, but perhaps you will recognize a familial name associated with your g-g-grandmother. It is just as possible that Parsons Town existed around G.W. Parson’s shoe factory in the Mauricetown area or even the Parsons livery stable in Bridgeton. If I find any additional information about Parsons Town, I will post it here in this thread.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

Thanks, Jerseyman! I am inclined to agree with you that this area in red may have been considered "Parsons Towne" due to the prolific numbers of Parsons families. My great-great-grandmother was a HARRIS or GANDY, depending on which vital record you believe, but she was "involved" with a PARSONS and her daughter, my great-grandmother, married that man's son. Its all a bit twisted, and tawdry, LOL!

 

[Spung-Man]

Parsons Field

Cyanna,

I write to you from the Cape May Lewis Ferry on return from presenting at a climate change session for the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference in Ocean City, MD, so I will be brief. There is a Parsons Field and settlement associated with Bennetts Mill, between Millville and Milmay. The Parson home can be located on one of the Hartman maps. It is my impression that they were related to the Doughty's of the Milmay Doughty's Tavern. The latter family provisioned charcoal camps.

Both the Bears Head and Blue Anchor Trails meet near Parsons Field amongst a collection of hundreds of intermittent pools or "spungs." Reputedly there was a log cabin church nearby where the Brainards preached to the Indians, who considered the spung on an adjacent hill a special place. The wireless is to slow to search and provide a map link. Guy, was it you who went out to find the meeting stone?

Now I must go up to the top deck and howl at a truly beautiful full moon. More tomorrow...

Cheers,
Spung-Man

 

[Teegate]

Cyanna,

Guy, was it you who went out to find the meeting stone?

Al may have to refresh my memory on this one. He knows that area better than me. There were times down there I had no idea where we were.


Guy

 

[manumuskin]

Cyanna:

I am still checking my sources for this place name, but here is what I can tell you to-date:

Parsons Town never had its own post office

It does not appear as a toponym in the Scott 1876 atlas of Cumberland County or the earlier 1862 Beers sheet or wall map of the county. The latter cartographic cadastral source, however, does depict in Downe Township an interesting and curious assemblage of Parsons family members living about equidistant on the the road between Haleyville and Port Norris:


I have boxed this settlement in red for your viewing convenience. I have no definitive information on whether the residential area is, indeed, Parsons Town, but perhaps you will recognize a familial name associated with your g-g-grandmother. It is just as possible that Parsons Town existed around G.W. Parson’s shoe factory in the Mauricetown area or even the Parsons livery stable in Bridgeton. If I find any additional information about Parsons Town, I will post it here in this thread.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

Paul
That area today is referred to as North Port by locals.I know some folks in that area.I could check mailboxes or the phone book and see if any parsons are still there.it's about 4 mi from my house.
there is also a lost graveyard in the are.it's in the woods behind an old church.no trail to it but locals know about it.all graves are from the 50's and I believe the church was all black.they have plans to rebuild it.the graves are all very sunk in.
Al

 

[manumuskin]

So, you are a bit territorial? Hmmmm...we could be related. I think its a family trait, LOL! I notice you are listed as Manumuskin. Interesting. My grandmother was born at Manumuskin, somewhere along the river Any FORD, HARRIS, REED, NICHOLS or GANDY names in your line?

Thanks for your help!

NO,my Dads family is from NJ/.mostlt quakers from shiloh area and watsons from cedarville and befor hat glassboro.moms side is all hillbillies from wv,ky,va and nc.I'm first generation stump jumper.
Al

 

[Teegate]

Al,

I now know Mark is referring to the Society Stone where the ants were

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

Cyanna,

I write to you from the Cape May Lewis Ferry on return from presenting at a climate change session for the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference in Ocean City, MD, so I will be brief. There is a Parsons Field and settlement associated with Bennetts Mill, between Millville and Milmay. The Parson home can be located on one of the Hartman maps. It is my impression that they were related to the Doughty's of the Milmay Doughty's Tavern. The latter family provisioned charcoal camps.

Both the Bears Head and Blue Anchor Trails meet near Parsons Field amongst a collection of hundreds of intermittent pools or "spungs." Reputedly there was a log cabin church nearby where the Brainards preached to the Indians, who considered the spung on an adjacent hill a special place. The wireless is to slow to search and provide a map link. Guy, was it you who went out to find the meeting stone?

Now I must go up to the top deck and howl at a truly beautiful full moon. More tomorrow...

Cheers,
Spung-Man

Spung man
I believe the stone you refer to is by some called the "Preacher Stone"?It is along manumuskin creek a couple miles below Bennets Mill and shown on the Hartman map as "Two Stones"? Kendawg and I went out in the 90's sometime looking for it and found a very small stone and thought we had found it.Later on I took Whipoorbill out to show it to him and blundered in to the Large stone that is surely the one on the map.Their about 100 ft apart.I believe the two stones refers to the fact the Big stone has apparently split in two long ago no doubt from frost wedging and the smaller part is about 60 lbs and lies on the ground next to the standing large stone that must weigh several hundred pounds and is about 3 ft tall maybe better.I had heard a story that a white man used to preach to Lenape using the stone as a pulpit.never puyt much trust in the story since the stone was put there by surveyors and not for a pulpit and there is no evidence in the immdiate vicinity of any type of cellars or foundations to show that anyone evr lived there.No people plants either.I'm sure Lenape Canoed up That far and may have camped in the area occasionally.The creek in winter carries enough water for canoeing now and may have carried more then and actually been cleared to allow it.Your version is possibly more believable then what I heard.Bennets mill has much pits and gorges that appear to be sandstone mines from long ago.Perhaps to build the old dam very close by.
I took guy there several years ago and as he says this is not his neck of the woods so I got to act as Guide,something he definitely does not need anywhere in the core area of the pines.He taught me how to plot stones and I got my start down here since He came into quite a stash of maps of areas down here so He taught me to plot and I looked at the maps and told Him where they were on the ground.Teamwork
Al

 

[manumuskin]

Al,

I now know Mark is referring to the Society Stone where the ants were

Guy

They guard the stone! I hates them.Allegheny Mound ants with hills two feet high and 6 ft across.Go back to the Alleghenies you insect heathens,you and your fire ant kin of the southlands.
Al

 

[Teegate]

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

Guy

I well remember what was swarming on that sand visible behind the stone.I'm sure you remember me jumping straight up in the air and making a very feminine (Alfreda) like sound before I swiftly headed for less snady pastures.
Al
PS
you can see on the front of the rock where the smaller piece broke off in times past.It appears to fit if you were to lift it and try which I didn't do.

 

[Spung-Man]

Even More Forgotten Towns

Cyanna,

Perhaps we have more than one Parsons Towne, as is the case with Steelman- and Carman-Towns! Here’s some more information about Cumberland Furnace's Parsons or Parsons Field. I heard the name used by old woodcutters, forest-fire fighters, and local hunters to describe this site. Margaret Louise Mints (1968: 11) in the The Great Wilderness writes of a log church where the famed missionary John Brainard preached to Indians near Parsons. She claimed that “The Place of the Stone” was a favorite Indian “meeting place,” which was not far from a small campsite known as “The Pond on the Hill.” Brainard’s Mission was said to have been built of Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) beams with a shingle roof.

Location of Parsons Field:

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.411893541267474&lng=-74.93182182312012&z=16&type=nj1930&gpx=
​

I was told that Cumberland Furnace coalers also used the site, as did ore raisers at the nearby Stone Holes along the Manumuskin that Al noted. Unfortunately the history of Indians and coalers was not worthy of chronicling by early historians. Indians and colliers were marginal transient people who lived in geographic isolation. In the absence of formal research I present these observations as snippets of local knowledge as I too learned it growing up along the edge of the Great Wilderness. Mints like Beck recorded the oral traditions, which may or may not prove accurate under scrutiny. In the absence of formal documentation we are left with tantalizing tidbits that beg further documentation.

Click to enlarge


Figure 1 Excerpt of Hartman (1978: Map #7) showing the eighteenth century coalers' settlement in relation to Bennetts Mill. Indian trails met at a collection of spungs known as the Parsons Ponds. The red arrows indicate trail destinations: 1) Blue Anchor Tavern; 2) Cumberland Furnace; 3) Bears Head Pond; and 4) Leamings Mill.

Hartman, C.S., 1978: Eight maps made by Charles S. Hartman, 207 W. Main Street, Millville, NJ during period 1920 and 1978 and were compiled from searches made at Courthouses Bridgeton, Salem, Cape May, Mays Landing, Woodbury, Gloucester and from ancient survey maps made by old surveyors. 20 chains = 1 inch. Single sheet.

Mints, L.M., 1968: The Great Wilderness. Millville, NJ: Wheaton Historical Society. 148 pp.

 

[Spung-Man]

Relations?

My grandmother was born at Manumuskin, somewhere along the river Any FORD, HARRIS, REED, NICHOLS or GANDY names in your line?

Cyanna,

By the way, according to Mints (1968: 13), in 1837 Tabitha Ford operated Doughty’s Tavern. Doughty’s was the next hamlet on the Bears Head Trail (red arrow #3, Figure 1 in my post above) just four-miles east of Parsons. Her grandson:

“John Ford,” was drawing charcoal when a piece of hot charcoal dropped into his boat burning him severely. This developed into a sore six inches long. At the time there were no doctors in the vicinity and the folks had to depend on home remedies. The sore would not heal and gangrene developed.

A few Indians living in the neighborhood heard of the boy’s condition and made it known to Mrs. Ford that they would bring help. The following day they returned with an old Indian medicine man who examined the boy’s leg. The Indian told Mrs. Ford to wash the leg and heat the preparation which he gave her. He produced a hollow bone about ten inches long with a plug in the end. In the cavity of the bone he had an herb which he had mashed and mixed with bear’s grease, pulverized charcoal and stove polish. This was heated and applied to the sore.

Within two weeks the sore was healing and in a short time, completely healed. They never knew what herbs the Indians had used as he was never seen again.”

​

Old charcoal wagons were called boats, designed to carry large volumes of light-weighted charcoal. Mints continued with another Doughty’s Tavern account, this time about travails between Jesse Ford I and Indian John, an axeman who went rogue while cutting wood for coaling. You can see S. Nichols’ old place on Hartman (1978: Map 5) ten-miles north just off the Blue Anchor Trail (red arrow #1, Figure 1 in my post above) to the northwest of Buena’s Friendship Church. Perhaps these are relatives? What was the name of your grandmother who lived along the Manumuskin River?

Spung-Man

​

Figure 1 Excerpt from Hartman (1978: Map 2) showing Doughty’s Tavern location in 1780. Actually, I believe this is one of the few errors the the mapmaker made. Tuckahoe Road's straight alignment was not laid out until 1817. The original Tuckahoe Trail was several hundred yards to the east, near ancient trail marker oaks now long gone. This is kind of ironic since Hartman’s lived at the Tavern (related through McClures)!

Best wishes,
Spung-Man

 

[Cyanna]

Wow! Lots of excellent responses here so I am going to reply back in one post. Thank you, everyone, for your fantastic feedback!

Okay, my grandmother was Viola SMITH (married Nelson REED of Millville). Her parents were George SMITH (son of Jesse SMITH & Sarah Matilda MATTOX) and Susan/Susanna FORD.

Now Susanna FORD'S parents were Joseph FORD (son of David "Fiddler" FORD and Susan/Susanna NICHOLS) and Elizabeth HARRIS (GANDY?). Confusion on Elizabeth...her marriage record states her maiden name was HARRIS (father Charles, mother Sarah), but her daughter states on her own record of marriage that mother's maiden name was GANDY.

Things get twisted... Sometime after 1895 Joseph FORD and Elizabeth split up, both claiming to be "widowed" on later census records. Elizabeth became the "housekeeper" of a Charles PARSONS, but family lore states she was more than a housekeeper. Her daughter Susan/Susanna married, at age 12, Elmer PARSONS, son of Charles. They had children together, most of whom were taken away by the state. They split up but not divorce, as far as I can tell, but regardless of this Susan then married George SMITH, my great-grandfather. He adopted as his own her son by Elmer PARSONS. Now, throw into the mix a man named Ellsworth CLARK, who also had a relationship with Susan, and some in the family declare that Theodore was NOT Elmer's son, but Ellsworth's. The story gets more twisted... sometime after 1914 Susan and George split up and Susan again became involved with Ellsworth CLARK, who impregnated her (again?) and this child died before 1925. Susan died in 1926, death record states Scarlet Fever, but my grandmother and her sisters always claimed it was suicide, which they witnessed. They said that their mother was yet again pregnant (by Ellsworth CLARK) while suffering from Scarlet Fever and decided she was tired of living and having kids, so she overdosed on the Iodine the doctor provided to relieve the Scarlet Fever. Ellsworth CLARK was the informant on her death certificate.

Interesting enough, Jesse SMITH, father of the above mentioned George, was born at Doughty's Tavern, but I didn't know if this was an actual place or if he was born IN the tavern!

I know, I know, its all a bit tawdry, convoluted and twisted, but hopefully all the connections between the different families will lead to the answer, LOL!

 

[Spung-Man]

Smith, Harris, Mattox, Nichols, Ford, Doughty's Tavern – the right Parsons?

Okay, my grandmother was Viola SMITH (married Nelson REED of Millville). Her parents were George SMITH (son of Jesse SMITH & Sarah Matilda MATTOX) and Susan/Susanna FORD.

Now Susanna FORD'S parents were Joseph FORD (son of David "Fiddler" FORD and Susan/Susanna NICHOLS) and Elizabeth HARRIS (GANDY?). Confusion on Elizabeth...her marriage record states her maiden name was HARRIS. Interesting enough, Jesse SMITH, father of the above mentioned George, was born at Doughty's Tavern, but I didn't know if this was an actual place or if he was born IN the tavern!

Cyanna,

Now I know why I shy away from genealogy. Shish! The names all sounded so familiar. Smith’s have been cutting wood in the area since the mid eighteenth century (e.g., Smith’s Little Mill near Weymouth). The often worked for and with the Woods of Millville. Jonathan Harris Smith had a steam-powered sawmill two miles above Bennetts Mill on the South River Road between the Oasis (New Italy) and Doughty’s Tavern at a place called the Cannon Range. There he cut Vanaman’s Thick n’ Hole Tract.

In 1879 Smith disassembled the mill and reassembled it to process wood cleared from the West Jersey Railroad right-of-way and provide construction materials for Richland – an Edward Randolph Wood scheme. That mill location is now know as Sawmill Park. Note that the Blue Anchor Trail is also named the Mattox Trail on Figure 1 of my first post. Mattoxs’ were also tavern keepers and provisioners. According to Boyer (1962: 149–150) the Mattoxs establishment was along an old Indian Trail called the Long-A-Coming. The Blue Anchor Trail met up with the Long-A-Coming at Inskeeps Ford and its famed blue hole. I relate this in hopes some of these might be kin.



Figure 1 Photo of Doughty’s Tavern at the Intersection of Millville Road & Tuckahoe Road c1910. The McClure home was immediately behind the tavern and is blocked by the center-right tree. You are looking south down Tuckahoe Road.

Boyer, C.S., 1962: Old Inns and Taverns in West Jersey. Camden, NJ: Camden County Historical Society. 326 pp.