All,
If you are interested, this is a little piece of history that I recently uncovered, and Al and I investigated it yesterday. You may remember from my Rockwood article that Rockwoods daughter sold most of Rockwood to Franklin Earl Haines, and when Henry Beck vised there in the 1930's Haines still owned it. You can read about that in More Forgotten Towns of South Jersey in the "Nothin in Nothin in Rockwood" chapter. On February 10, 1932 his life ended and not long after so did his wife's. Both Franklin and Elenore Haines deeded their property to their son Frank Earl Haines, and one of the pieces of property is the subject of this post.
Block 38 Lot 2 in Shamong township sits directly in the middle of a portion of Wharton near Hampton Furnace at the very top of the Cranberry Bogs at Deep Run. You can see the 10 acre property on topo's, aerials, and tax maps even today. Frank Earl Haines and his wife Edith lived on Tuckerton Road in Medford, and on May 9, 1966 they offered to sell the property to the state of NJ. It was completely surrounded by state property and was quite useless to them. So along with another property near Rockwood, the state acquired it sometime in late 1967 or before the middle of January 1968. The price for both properties which totaled 35 acres was a whopping $2025.00.
On January 19, 1968 Robert Roe the Commissioner for the Department of Conservations and Economic Development send a memo to Joseph Truncer who was one of the surveyors of Wharton, and informed him to "Take all necessary and appropriate action to protect these premises from theft and vandalism". Today, there is nothing there except a swamp, and one lone stone that Al found on Saturday. It is a large stone that has fallen over and is pinned down by a tree. Our attempts to look at the other side for inscriptions proved unsafe for the stone and we left it as is.
A Shamong map from their website showing it but not using true north.
Aerial
Topo
The large stone held down by a tree.
This survey map is quite interesting. I have determined that the road shown in the map currently curves, and the present road is not the same as back then. You can compare the road here and in the aerial above. You may find what it says at the bottom right of this survey quite interesting if you are into cellar holes and foundations. It states one of the corners is "North of the road leading from Westley Willits old stone bottom to Hampton Gate." Other info I have leads me to believe that there are or were ruins nearby or along the road that Jessica and I will be looking for in the coming months. With the direction of the road changed, this may be an interesting search.
Guy
If you are interested, this is a little piece of history that I recently uncovered, and Al and I investigated it yesterday. You may remember from my Rockwood article that Rockwoods daughter sold most of Rockwood to Franklin Earl Haines, and when Henry Beck vised there in the 1930's Haines still owned it. You can read about that in More Forgotten Towns of South Jersey in the "Nothin in Nothin in Rockwood" chapter. On February 10, 1932 his life ended and not long after so did his wife's. Both Franklin and Elenore Haines deeded their property to their son Frank Earl Haines, and one of the pieces of property is the subject of this post.
Block 38 Lot 2 in Shamong township sits directly in the middle of a portion of Wharton near Hampton Furnace at the very top of the Cranberry Bogs at Deep Run. You can see the 10 acre property on topo's, aerials, and tax maps even today. Frank Earl Haines and his wife Edith lived on Tuckerton Road in Medford, and on May 9, 1966 they offered to sell the property to the state of NJ. It was completely surrounded by state property and was quite useless to them. So along with another property near Rockwood, the state acquired it sometime in late 1967 or before the middle of January 1968. The price for both properties which totaled 35 acres was a whopping $2025.00.
On January 19, 1968 Robert Roe the Commissioner for the Department of Conservations and Economic Development send a memo to Joseph Truncer who was one of the surveyors of Wharton, and informed him to "Take all necessary and appropriate action to protect these premises from theft and vandalism". Today, there is nothing there except a swamp, and one lone stone that Al found on Saturday. It is a large stone that has fallen over and is pinned down by a tree. Our attempts to look at the other side for inscriptions proved unsafe for the stone and we left it as is.
A Shamong map from their website showing it but not using true north.
Aerial
Topo
The large stone held down by a tree.
This survey map is quite interesting. I have determined that the road shown in the map currently curves, and the present road is not the same as back then. You can compare the road here and in the aerial above. You may find what it says at the bottom right of this survey quite interesting if you are into cellar holes and foundations. It states one of the corners is "North of the road leading from Westley Willits old stone bottom to Hampton Gate." Other info I have leads me to believe that there are or were ruins nearby or along the road that Jessica and I will be looking for in the coming months. With the direction of the road changed, this may be an interesting search.
Guy
