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.
Guy
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.
Guy
