The Cranberry Packing House At Hampton Park

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,180
All,

I have a rare treat for all of you that I think you will enjoy. I have acquired two 1946 photo's of the Cranberry Packing House at Hampton Park, better known by most of us as Hampton Furnace. The ruins you pass by when you travel through that area is all that is left of this magnificent building. I also have for you a marketing flier for the "Eatmore Cranberries" brand founded by Charles W. Wilkinson.


Edited from an email to me from Daryl. W. Goodrich.

It was a beautiful all wood structure built from timbers from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The building was a construction marvel. It had beautiful crafted wood beams and an early Otis elevator. It was 4 stories and when loaded with cranberries a lot of weight had to be carried by the post and beam structure. The packing house was not only a cranberry storage facility but also equipped to sort them and put them in barrels for shipping to New York and Philadelphia.

Charles W. Wilkinson owned and ran a fresh fruit and produce distribution company in Philadelphia. My grandfather, Ralph Clayberger, ran it after Charles W. Wilson retired. I have some of the cranberry barrels, packing labels, cranberry scoops and hand picking boxes (used before scoops were used). Charles W. Wilkinson was one of the founders of a cranberry farmers marketing cooperative called Growers Cranberry. It market cranberries under the trade name of Eatmore Cranberries and using a Cranberry Man trademark.

My prize souvenir is the 10 horse power Otto stationery engine from the late 1800s that powered the whole packing house. It was on a brick foundation in the basement of the packing house. It drove flat leather belts to line shafts on each of the 3 floors above to operate the sorting machines. There was also a huge winch like device hung from the 1st floor rafters that would wind up the cable lifting the elevator. the cable ran to the roof rafters where there was a huge pulley supporting the cable down the open elevator shaft.

When my parents were moving out of the farm in 1964, I dismantled that Otto engine and tailored the pieces to my parents home. I have it, still in pieces, in my barn. This engine also ran a generator that my father added. It was quite a scene to witness the packing house in full operation way back in the pine barrens - lights and all.

I have fond memories of the farm. I am sad the packing house architectural marvel has been lost. It was a state of the art storage & sorting facility for the 1800s. The foundation stone work alone was admired by historians. People came to see it several times.



I asked Daryl W. Goodrich how this business which originally was Andrew Rider and Charles Wilkinson became Clayberger & Goodrich.


I guess Charles Wilkinson bought out Rider at some point because Charles W. Wilkinson owned the farm 100% when he died about 1930.

Charles W. Wilkinson had several daughters - My maternal grandmother, Edna Wilkinson, was one of them. She married Ralph Clayberger from Lumberton, NJ. My father, Robert Goodrich, my mother, Elsie Clayberger, and her brother, Charles Clayberger, purchased the cranberry farm from the Wilkinson heirs. My mother, father and uncle then ran the farm under the corporate name of Clayberger & Goodrich, Inc. as a part time business. The NJ government condemned the property in 1964 to take it from the family just so they could control the headwaters of the Batsto River.




C&G_Packing_House_1946.jpg




C&G_Cranberry_Packing_House_1946.jpg




cranberry_flyer.jpg





Guy
 
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Broke Jeep Joe

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Mar 8, 2006
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Pictures

I have always had a picture in my mind's eye of what that building would look like but I could never imagine it like this, excellent. Looks like a before and after in the making.
 

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
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Pestletown, N.J.
That is an awesome structure Guy. A great find and research on your part.
I would have never guessed it looked anything like it did in the photos.
I am really surprised that its demise is such recent history.
Scott
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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Thank him for me (and all of us) Guy, for sharing. That story and photo is a real treat.

I sent him the link. He should see it. It has been the highlight of my week finding that stone and getting the emails from him.

Guy
 

Trailhead00

Explorer
Mar 9, 2005
375
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Haddonfield, NJ
WOW! That is awesome. Thanks a million for posting that picture. I was definitely picturing something much less glorious than that. Boy was I wrong.

That was probably the first foundation I ever saw out in the Pines and wondered what it once looked like. Never thought I would actually find out. Totally blown away by this and this is what makes njpinebarrens.com one of best sites on the web and definitely number one when it comes to the Pine Barrens.

Thanks again.
 

mudboy dave

Explorer
Oct 15, 2008
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Guy, simply remarkable work!!!!! Thanks for sharing. My Father is astonished as well:D
Unfortunately the sad truth lies in your before and after pics and now you have "before,before" :(
Hampton1976_2007.jpg
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Guy
Love the photo.was it taken from the north or south,in other words are we looking at it from the road or from the river towards the road?Whip and I just found the remains of a concrete dam on a canal in that area i never knew existed.an impressive little structure I had passed within 10-0 ft of several times and never knew was there.
Al
 

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
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Guy
Love the photo.was it taken from the north or south,in other words are we looking at it from the road or from the river towards the road?Whip and I just found the remains of a concrete dam on a canal in that area i never knew existed.an impressive little structure I had passed within 10-0 ft of several times and never knew was there.
Al

Spectacular find Guy! Now we can seperate the old days of the furnace as Hampton Furnace and the cranberry days as Hampton Park.
It looks like the photo was taken from the south looking NNE. To the right of the packing house you can see a long wooden shed whose foundation can be seen today. The building and area is much nicer than I imagined it. NJ trashes another piece of history.

The Otto engine. Funny how I hate linking to anything with "wiki" in the source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_engine

 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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I did not find the photo, it came to me. All I did was post it.

Guy
 

glowordz

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Jan 19, 2009
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What a great discovery! Like Trailhead00, my first Pines ruins were those of the packing house. One starlit night I sat on its stones and wrote a scene featuring the crumbled remains, but like y'all, I never imagined such a structure above.

I echo the sadness expressed that the entire area has not been better preserved.

Good sleuthing once again, Guy!

Glo
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
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Jul 31, 2004
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
I am speechless, just like everyone else. Amazing. I would have guessed that was a photo from some gentleman's farm down in Kentucky. :)
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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Here is more info to add to what we know.


My parents lived in Grover's Mills (near Princeton Junction), NJ and my uncle lived in New York City.

There were two houses, a barn, a large single story metal skinned shed and a picker housing building. One house was in the open field (there should be a basement hole in the ground) on your right just after the left road turn you speak of. Dave Kell (sp?) lived in this house until probably the ;ate '40s. I never knew him. My parents stayed the summer weekends in this house.

The other house was on your right just as you enter the right turn in the road you speak of. There was no basement for this house. John & Norah Wells lived in this second house until the late '50s. He was the caretaker of the farm. I knew the Wells. After they moved when John retired, My uncle and his wife stayed summer weekends in this house.

The picker housing was across the road from this second house. It really was very close to the Batsto river.

As the right turn in the road to 206 straightened out, the road crossed a canal my parents had dug to bypass Batsto river water away from the bogs. The road crossed a large concrete bridge/culvert.

About a mile or so down the road to 206 there was another cranberry bog. I do not know who owned it originally. The State owned it during my connection with the area. There was a small packing house and a residence. They were burned down.

I do not have any surveys of the farm. Good luck finding all the corner markers.

Have a beautiful evening.

Be Well,

Daryl


So to clarify him, the canal right on the curve at the entrance to the road to the Batsto bridge was dug by his parents. And the bog he mentioned is the first one you come to heading towards 206. I had asked him about the dwelling that is further back in the woods on the right side heading towards 206, but I am not sure he knew which one I was referring to. I have photo's but right now can't find them, but I will get more and ask him about them.

Guy
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
I have two comments:

1) Is the "E" missing in eatmor on the poster an error?

2) Was Hampton Furnace really that far down the stream from where we always thought it was? Or is it just me that does not really know where it is.

Hampton_Gate.png
 

oji

Piney
Jan 25, 2008
2,096
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Browns Mills
Bob, if you go to whitesbog.blogspot.com there is a n Eatmor cranberry ad and the e is omitted. Guy, great find what a nice looking building. Too bad it wasn't preserved.
 
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