The Alligator

[GermanG]

From the June 30, 1886 New Jersey Courier:

“Mr. Richard Emmett, who has for several years lived on the Alligator Farm, near Lakewood, died on Tuesday of last week. He immigrated to this country on June 26, 1869, and four days after landing in New York had bought the Alligator farm”

In other articles, I found mention of strawberries and other crops being grown on the farm, so it seemed to be just the farm's name, not a reference to actual alligators being raised there, which one would think would have been interesting enough to mention if that were the case. The other articles also located the farm more specifically, to the area in the above posts.

 

[Scroggy]

I think "Mount" was Joseph's surname. Kobbe says "site of the Alligator" in 1891. From the snippets of Zinkin's "Place Names of Ocean County" I can pull from Google Books, it looks like Garret Hines had a tavern there or near there in 1804, and Joseph Mount in 1837.

 

[Ben Ruset]

The Monmouth County Clerk has searchable records of tavern applications from 1736-1919. (Ocean County didn't exist until 1850.) There's no record of Garret Hines but two hits for Joseph Mount having two applications for one (or more) in 1844 and 1849. No mention of an establishment name, but I requested the records for the two hits so we'll see if and when they get back to me.

 

[Ben Ruset]

The plot thickens. There's a Garret Hyres that had a tavern application in Jackson in 1844 and the record has a note: 1846 "Kept as such for past forty years". I requested that record as well.

He has an application for one in 1814 for Freehold Township. Jackson was carved out of parts of Freehold Township in 1844. Maybe tavernkeepers needed to re-apply for licenses when the change happened. That would explain the note.

Joseph Mount has a number of applications for taverns in Freehold dating back to 1828.

 

[bobpbx]

From the June 30, 1886 New Jersey Courier:

“Mr. Richard Emmett, who has for several years lived on the Alligator Farm, near Lakewood, died on Tuesday of last week. He immigrated to this country on June 26, 1869, and four days after landing in New York had bought the Alligator farm”

In other articles, I found mention of strawberries and other crops being grown on the farm, so it seemed to be just the farm's name, not a reference to actual alligators being raised there, which one would think would have been interesting enough to mention if that were the case. The other articles also located the farm more specifically, to the area in the above posts.

So, Mr. Emmett saves all his money, packs up and takes a difficult trip across the atlantic ocean with the rain and the wind and bad food. He gets off the boat and makes it to our vicinity and he's drinking at the local tavern. A farmer tells him of a good deal, cheap land, easy to farm. So Richard pays the farmer most of his life savings, and gets out there with a plow....and....ping! He hits sandstone....ping!, ping!, ping! Everywhere he trys to dig, he gets resistance. He tried to farm it, but only was able to clear an acre by himself. Four years later he dies, broken-hearted.

 

[Ben Ruset]

According to Ellis Island records, Richard Emmett came over from Great Britain from Liverpool on the Issac Webb. He was 18 when he came over, so it's pretty impressive that he was able to buy anything so soon after getting off the boat.

More info on the ship.

 

[bobpbx]

Speaking of Alligators, I noticed this tail (ridge) in the pine plains as I was looking at something today. It had to be those katabatic winds howling off the glacier top and driving the sand up and over a sandstone ridge. The first image below is from the Mid-Atlantic Lidar 3D, and the second is the 3D terrain viewer. You can see the flutes developed as the sand was deposited while the winds were screaming over the top.

 

[Boyd]

FYI: there's more discussion of the Alligator in this thread:

Test Pits on the top of hills..?

The area that I’m currently exploring has an unusual to me situation. Every single hill top has hand dug pits strewn around. Does anyone have a clue what the diggers may have been looking for? This area is very hilly area with diverse elevation changes. It’s along the south branch of the...

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