Remove not the ancient landmarks, which thy fathers have set!

[Jerseyman]

TeeGate and all those interested in survey stones and the Pine Barrens:

My good friend Tanton from this site sent me the link to a fascinating article from The American Surveyor magazine:

http://www.amerisurv.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_Guisewhite-StoryOfAStone_Vol8No4.pdf

Note the heavy reliance on documentary research to verify survey point locations and also the use of records from the West New Jersey Surveyor General’s Office.

This is a great article and I thank Tanton for bringing it to my attention!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Teegate]

Very nice Jerseyman! His tenaciousness is something I admire. I have been in his shoes as well as Al and many others. The pine barrens hold so much history which these stones at time can bring out.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

That is a great article! Thanks!

 

[manumuskin]

I will be reading this shortly.Love stone stories but I thought Guy and I were the only ones that tole em

 

[manumuskin]

I am going to have to break out the Camden county mdb file and see if I can find a property that looks like the one pictured. I know the general area. You have any info on these stones Guy? Those photos have me hyperlithiclating now

 

[bobpbx]

Tim, if you read this someday; a very fine article. Well researched and well laid out. I like your comment about how you knew the stone meant something..."we measured to it".

Guy is helping the Forked River Mountain Coalition sort out some of our property lines, and I can see he can be quite tenacious too!

 

[Ben Ruset]

Stone hunting and deed research is like black magic to me. I appreciate it and am in awe of people who can figure this stuff out.

 

[Teegate]

You may want to refresh your memory of this thread by reading the link at the first post by Jerseyman.


All,

It took a little nudge by manumuskin to get me back on track with figuring out the locations of the stones mentioned in the article that this thread is about. After that nudge I read the article again and got down to business and easily came up with where this all took place. However, finding the area was easy, but finding the stones would be much harder. Luckily, the writer of the article gave way too many clues if he didn't wanted someone other than a surveyor to find the stones.

Some of the property getting to the stones is private, so I asked for and received permission from an adjacent land owner to access the area in question. With that access and county and green acres property, I could get to them without crossing the farmers land. This morning with our schedules finally matching we began our 5 hour adventure. In the end it was semi successful but will require future excursions.

Our first find was a stone on connecting property lines.

From there we found a monument that concerns me. I believe one of the stones was at this location and may no longer be there. I am hoping I am wrong and will try to find that out.

From there we plunged into the swamp and ran into this which proved we were heading in the right direction.

And we then found this pretty much where we expected to find something.

At this point we were at the southern end of where we hopefully needed to go and we were heading to the 1838 Abraham Lippincott "lucky" find bog iron ore stone mentioned in the article. Manumuskin made the find.

I realized we had done okay so far, but we had missed something and needed to backtrack. The north end apparently held the bigger and better stones so we traveled back. Confusion set in for a while until we made the decision to move on somewhat. We soon realized that was an important move.

Here is the oldest referenced stone, the pre-1805 Samuel Lippincott stone with a large downed tree on top of it.

You can see some slight damage.

A nearby Green Acres monument and another point to reference to.

As I mentioned I am worried a stone or two may be missing. I will work on trying to either find them or find them missing.

It was great to see manumuskin again and we will be doing more searching for other things in the next few month.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

I definitely need new boots.When I got home my wife said she ordered them.Also need a pair of briar britches.That small 2 inch square hole on my right knee of my carharts allowed my right knee to become a bloody mess.Sophie came home and fell asleep the rest of the day.She loves the swamp but she has yet to find a single stone.
Yes we'll have to return to that place.Found a few nice ones but there are more out there.

 

[Teegate]

All,

Being completely confused about the location of a stone is something I don't deal with well. Reading that article multiple times again just made things worse. I was missing something and did not know what. The article claims he aligned his bearings with an old ditch that only showed on the 1995 aerials, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what ditch until I gave up on that route. I eventually picked a few locations that just seemed odd to me and this morning manumuskin and myself set out to remove my frustrations and find the stones.

Retracing our steps from the last visit we headed in the direction of my first choice. Uncertain if we would be correct we struggled to decide which way to go. Ultimately, we made a good decision and stumbled on the very fascinating ER stone. The article says

"Stone set circa 1824 by property owner "Enoch Roberts" as a witness to a smaller stone behind it on the north bank of a cedar swamp."

Now the question is where is the smaller stone behind it and how far behind it? We searched and came up empty confusing us even more. Eventually we gave up and moved on but riding high on the find. We were realizing that the locations we picked to go to more than likely were the correct ones, and the next one was close at hand. Upon arrival we were greeted with the old weathered looking "R" stone hiding in a very remote spot. The article says:

"1856 "Emmor Roberts" stone set in the remains of the 1754 stone pile, the angle point on the north side."

At this point I realized there must be a discrepencey in the article. The article mentioned the previous stone (ER stone) was a witness to a smaller stone but it was obvious this stone was the proper stone for that.

Our next destination was close by and upon arrival I was really surprised when we arrived at the large sandstone. This was hundreds of feet from where I had originally calculated it to be. This proved that I was way off on my thoughts and calculations over the past few weeks and only my picks from a non 2005 aerial were accurate. The article states:

"The large Jersey sandstone that confirmed the northern angle point"

The only incised stone left was the impressive looking JM stone on a neighboring "swamp." Since we were in the same swamp we certainly would not find it. So we moved on heading to a location Al wanted to visit nearby. Upon arrival we noticed this rod with an orange marker nearby it informing us it was a "boundary."

Al headed on while I did all the usual things I have to do when finding things. Two GPS readings, photographs, and the 360° scan of the woods making sure I did not miss anything. By the time this was done I could see Al in the distance looking back at me as if to say "lets get going." I packed everything up and headed on arriving to see Al sitting down. He then told me he was tired of waiting for me while sitting on a stone. He rolled over and our final incised stone was in front of me. The article says:

"A peculiar old marble monument to a neighboring swamp lot, of Joseph Matlack."

Now that stone may look impressive in size, but in reality it is about 6 inches high and 4 inches by 4 inches. It is really small.


With the finding of this stone we found every incised stone in the article and most of the others including a few monuemtns and metal rods. We did not find the location of the stone in the "root mass" but if we decide to return one day we will find it. I am going to return to see if there really is a pile of stones under the "R" stone that were placed there over 20 years before the founding of this country. Maybe I will go on the 4th of July.

Without the "push" and invaluable help of manumuskin, I would have most likely missed out on all of this. I am seriously grateful for his input and assistance.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Good story.

Do you want me to find you that one in the root mass?

 

[Teegate]

Good story.

Do you want me to find you that one in the root mass?

Very funny Bob .... very funny

We did not look for it yet, so give us time if we do.

 

[manumuskin]

Thanks Guy
I hear Bob you are quite handy in a pinch with stone locating.Perhaps Guy told you to look for Stonecrop???
I usually don't hang that far west in the Barrens since it's getting close to syphillization but was quite impressed with the remoteness of these woods. The swamp has had just about all the cedar removed which is why the stones are there but the Briars ar quite impressive.Possibly some state Smilax records in there.I have shredded two complete sets of woods clothes in there and two perfectly nice legs.Sounds like maybe a PBX hike????

 

[manumuskin]

Guy on that Emmor Roberts stone I bet that second visible stone is part of the pile.

 

[manumuskin]

PS Thanks Jerseyman.You gave us an adventure!

 

[Teegate]

Guy on that Emmor Roberts stone I bet that second visible stone is part of the pile.

Could be. If so then we have the go to the north bank behind it. Maybe that is the root mass stone?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Great thread. Regarding the Joseph Matlack stone, I wonder if these are also his initials?

"Benjamin Brush of Galloway Twp., £90 for 14 acres (messuage, tenement, plantation and tract where the mortgagor now lives) in the same place on the west side of "Mullacais [sic] River Just below a Certain landing called Reads Landing" and on a "Tongue of Land that puts out in a Cove," bounded by I/J. M. (marker), excepting 5 acres lying next to Richard Westcott [discharged 25 April 1780]."

 

[manumuskin]

Could be. If so then we have the go to the north bank behind it. Maybe that is the root mass stone?

we checked the north side at the Enoch Roberts stone didn't we? We shoulds checked at the Emmor Roberts stone? I know wedid not check there but we could see the canal from where we stood.

 

[Teegate]

Great thread. Regarding the Joseph Matlack stone, I wonder if these are also his initials?

"Benjamin Brush of Galloway Twp., £90 for 14 acres (messuage, tenement, plantation and tract where the mortgagor now lives) in the same place on the west side of "Mullacais [sic] River Just below a Certain landing called Reads Landing" and on a "Tongue of Land that puts out in a Cove," bounded by I/J. M. (marker), excepting 5 acres lying next to Richard Westcott [discharged 25 April 1780]."

Could be. If he was looking for cedar he would purchase land all along the Mullica for that purpose. Do you have an idea where this might be? If so, time to stone hunt!

Guy

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Could be. If he was looking for cedar he would purchase land all along the Mullica for that purpose. Do you have an idea where this might be? If so, time to stone hunt!

Guy

Could be. If he was looking for cedar he would purchase land all along the Mullica for that purpose. Do you have an idea where this might be? If so, time to stone hunt!

Guy

I do. Somewhere between The Sweetwater Casino and High Bank. Private property, no doubt.