Red Oak Grove Graveyard

[Ben Ruset]

Al,

I saw your post on the PBE site responding to Suits. I'm responding here since I won't post over there.

There is no graveyard at ROG. Beck mentions a graveyard in the area in one of his books, but I am certain that he means the one at Union Clay.

 

[Teegate]

There may have been one there at one time, but as with other places such as Hampton Furnace and other towns, they might have been made of wood.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Well, Beck mentions it, so it would have still had to have been there in his time. The chances of it surviving that long is slim to none.

Since Union Clay was more of a factory than a town anyway, I think that the graves near the factory were people who lived at Red Oak Grove.

 

[Teegate]

What book is that in? If you are talking about his mention in More Forgotten Towns in the Forked River chapter, I believe he is talking about the one we know about. Beck mentions he had been there before, and obviously he wrote about it. I think this chapter is what all the confusion is about when people say there is another one.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

Ben and Guy,
I agree with both of you that it does seem Beck is talking about the one at union clay works but my question is why would the people that lived at red oak grove bury their dead all the way up at the works?Apparently it would seem some people lived at the works themselves because of the well and house across the street and the clearing opposite that i believe were houses.beck also mentions a second well i never found.So I"m going to follow the old road route which parallels todays route on varying sides of the road and see if i come up with anything along the old sections of road if I can track em.They have an annoying habit of disappearing but if i circle ahead I can usually pick them up.
Al

 

[Teegate]

Ben and Guy,
I agree with both of you that it does seem Beck is talking about the one at union clay works but my question is why would the people that lived at red oak grove bury their dead all the way up at the works?
Al

Again, there most probably were graves at both other places, but wooden markers may have been used. I am wondering if the ones at Union were made right there at their clay works, because they have a look similar to the inside of the pipes scattered about. They may have even been the owners family, which would be the reason they are not wooden.....he had money. The employees may have not been well paid, and so they had sandstone graves as you saw. And if Red Oak Grove was during a different era, there would not have been a clay works to make the stones. So probably wooden markers were used, just like at Hampton Furnace as Beck mentions in the Tuckerton Road chapter of Forgotten towns.

I am betting on wood at Red Oak and Old Half Way, or Buzby would have given Beck directions to them also. Just a guess...maybe someone knows, but I don't!

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

I"m definitely not going to put as much time into the search as I did the clay works because the search may be after a wisp of smoke but after the huckleberry leaves fall I"ll probably go out once or twice and see how far I can follow the old roads that head nort-south and southeast from red oak grove just to see what i find.
Al

 

[Ben Ruset]

I'm still not convinced that there was anything there.