Pine Barrens unusual names

imkms

Explorer
Feb 18, 2008
587
224
SJ and SW FL
There are plenty of locations, roads, etc. in or near the Pine Barrens with unusual names, and I would love to know the origin of these names. Some examples that I can think of are Ongs Hat, Purgatory, Penny Pot, Mount Misery, Sweetwater, and too many more to list here. Let's see who can provide info on the origin of these names. The first name I would like to know would be Bloody Ridge.
 

NJChileHead

Explorer
Dec 22, 2011
831
628
Mount Misery used to be Mount Misericordia (translates to Mountain of Mercy), which was a tuberculosis sanatorium run by the Sisters of Mercy.

Ong's Hat had something to do with a man named Jacob Ong who threw a fit and tossed his hat in to a tree, and inadvertently marked the location of one of the local bars with it (or something like that) and it then became the landmark for the town, and eventually the town name.
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,607
552
Galloway
Ong's Hat had something to do with a man named Jacob Ong who threw a fit and tossed his hat in to a tree, and inadvertently marked the location of one of the local bars with it (or something like that) and it then became the landmark for the town, and eventually the town name.

Henry Beck suggests that it is really Ongs Hut.
 
I thought I remembered reading in Chalmers' "Down the Long-a-Coming" that there was something about Penny Pot but I can't recall it presently and there isn't an online version. She did mention that Blue Anchor may have been named after a tavern in the Philadelphia area, but I may be wrong.
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
OK, let's see if you can find these quirky Pine Barrens places:

1) Gigantic City, by Blue Bent Pond, northeast of Ruskville, northwest of Edwina.

2) Buckhorn (where I grew up), up the road from Punch Bowl and the Cannon Range

3) Jewtown, next to Lebanon

4) Rattletrap, near Negro Hill, north of Parsonstown and the Bear’s Head (one of three).
Sorry Jerseyman, you can't play!
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
What do you mean I can't play??? You know how much I love toponyms! Jerseyman

Who do you think I learned from! OK, if you must – with very high difficulty:

5) Osborne Village, next to Lindsay Village. Where the hermit Nature Boy of Java lived.

6) Gardenville, a Jewish settlement, statue.

7) North Newark, more statues.
All are welcome to try at your own peril; duly warned....
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
I got a chuckle out of this.

Kinda ironic. I'm up to eighteen Jewish settlements in the Pines at the turn of the nineteenth century. I made a map of 25 South Jersey agricultural land-based schemes for the 2014 Vernacular Architecture Forum Proceedings (see page 58), but there are more to add.


West Jersey Pine Barrens was an ethnic archipelago chock full of real estate ventures – German, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian, Welsh, Black, etc. Some of their alternate slang names weren't so pretty, either.

S-M
 

Gerania

Explorer
May 18, 2004
280
30
Marlton
Wha
Kinda ironic. I'm up to eighteen Jewish settlements in the Pines at the turn of the nineteenth century. I made a map of 25 South Jersey agricultural land-based schemes for the 2014 Vernacular Architecture Forum Proceedings (see page 58), but there are more to add.


West Jersey Pine Barrens was an ethnic archipelago chock full of real estate ventures – German, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian, Welsh, Black, etc. Some of their alternate slang names weren't so pretty, either.

S-M
What about Shirley?
 
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