Howdy JM. Some interesting stuff there. I don't live in Martin's Beach, My home is actually in Twins Hills Section of Willingboro. However our backyard faces out onto what was Irish Wharf. The site at the bottom of Kennedy way was under another name. IW was the last 2 quays at the end of what is now Beechnut lane. At about the time we're speaking of it was owned by "Aunt Sally" Haines. From what Granville Haines told me, any of the quays upstream from IW belonged to "The Port Of Rancocas". The Customs House was the Brownstone on the curve coming off the bridge.
Crick Angels?? First I've heard of this. Before moving into Rancocas, we lived in Willingboro, then Levittown. We moved in winter, 59-60. I went to HS with folks from the familys you mentioned, never noticed anything odd about them though. I came to know Wat Buck rather well and with all of the respect due him, I will say that you have to be careful when accepting his recollections as total fact. I was fortunate to have known him, however I was moreso to have known folks like Granville Haines, Nelson Grovatt Sr. [young Nelson is alive and still farming] and Ed Friend. I had sources to check Wat with, and the most valuable in that sense was "Pop Gibbs". The last Senior chemist for the Match Factory that stood at the end of Texas Ave. near or where the Turnpike runs now. There was an entire company town there called Texas, population approx. 200.
I don't think you could find a single cellar whole now. It was the site of the first mass produced phosphorus tipped matches. In the late 1890's Diamond Match bought them out and dismantled the entire complex, workers homes and all.
Wrangleboro:
The information about the Crick Angels I know about first-hand and did not come from Watson, although he knew of them as well. There are numerous branches of the families I identified and not all of the members of those families can be identified as Crick Angels. But for those who intermarried, the physical appearance is unmistakable. I suspect many of the old-time Crick Angels have died off by now and their progeny have either married outside the family or relocated to other areas. Nonetheless, they are a known quantity to some people. The Mohn family in Rancocas Village had some relationship to them. They lived at the eastern end of 2nd Street.
The quays or landings that you mention at the end of Beechnut belonged to the Stokes family and Granville and Charles Stokes during the late nineteenth century. I used the phrase “at the foot of Kennedy Way” as convenient reference point for other readers, but the Irish Wharf actually stood just upstream from there and the predecessor of Levitt’s Beechnut Lane led to it. I’ve been conducting research on the Rancocas for the past 45 years and I know through separate research that the cement block plant stood precisely where Watson pointed out. When it comes to oral history and traditions, I check what everyone tells me. By profession, I am a documentary historian, so I always need to see everything down on paper. If I can’t verify what I am told, I either discount it entirely or, if I do cite it in my work, I proclaim it as suspect information.
While I never had the opportunity to speak with Granville Haines, I knew Nelson Grovatt Sr. and Jr. I knew Ed Friend and I knew Bill and George Gibbs. I also knew Engle Conrow, who lived on Bridge Street. I’ve seen that population figure for Texas, but I don’t accept it because it is derived from the application for Bougher Post Office and the numbers on those applications are always inflated to provide a rationale for the USPO Dept. approving the application. Sometime back, some folks had found a number of clay retorts that Gibbs & Lowell used to store the phosphorus in the pond that had served as a millpond for the clover mill that once stood there. They wanted $25,000 for the retorts. Needless to say, they did not receive any bids! The development on Creek Road known as Timbercrest pretty much wiped out was what remained of the phosphorous plant.
Here is a birds-eye view of the plant at Texas:
Here is a view of the steam tug Mary Louise coming down past those landings you mentioned:
If you look closely, you can see the Centerton Bridge in the background. And here is a shot of that bridge, completed in 1907:
And here is the second Annie L. Vansciver waiting for Mr. Johnson to open the swing span at Centerton with his giant key:
Someday, if I live long enough, I hope to write a book about the creek.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
P.S. Obligatory Pine Barrens content: the Rancocas Creek is the only watercourse that drains the Pines to the Delaware River instead of the coast.
