Jerseyman, I haven't conducted a title search on the Atsion Tract, just some deeds on East Fruitland. The Fruitland deeds say part of a larger tract call the Atsion Estate.
The Sale of Atsion Furnace
- Thread starter Ben Ruset
- Start date
Jerseyman, I haven't conducted a title search on the Atsion Tract, just some deeds on East Fruitland. The Fruitland deeds say part of a larger tract call the Atsion Estate.
They were Husband & wife. W. G. P. Brinckloe was a clergyman from Bucks County, PA. I guess she was the pioneer woman and he stayed home to tend the flock.
no Dutchtown?
Although the name changed, the East Fruitland village remained. An old friend of mine Norman LeMunyon told me years ago that the remains of the Claypoole house, the Owens house and the Jones house were still back there in the 1920s. Of coarse he called it Atsion and I didn't know any deference at the time.
Claypoole, the Woolman brothers and Slocumb the first owner of the stone bridge farm, raised cranberries on their farms, I don't know about the others.
Peer review really helps hone our accounts! Although a county concept was not fully dead (poor choice of word?) with Carruth’s demise in 1875, the Fruitland namesake appears in 1871; good catch. One source for the Landis County narrative was an unpublished manuscript by Professor Harry Gershenowitz of the then Glassboro State College. In a work called Landis County (undated), an account of Landis’ failed political subdivision is provided. While there was an Assembly Bill No. 31 recorded in the State Legislature on January 16, 1871, it was “during the turbulent days of January 1871” that “flurried responses from the opponents of this bill” were lobbed at an anti-county rally in Malaga on January 10, 1871.
Gershenowitz writes, “The major objection was that there would be an increase in taxes for the citizens of the proposed new county in order to build a new courthouse, a new clerk’s office, a new jail, a new poorhouse, a new county farm and more bridges.” Other local-opposition rallies erupted in Mays Landing and Newfield with the similar complaints.
Gershenowitz continued, “A local newspaper, Salem Sunbeam, on Friday, January 6, 1871, reported that the Landis group did not expect such strong opposition from the people of Pittsgrove, and in order to mitigate the antagonism, the Landis supporters offered to change the name of the proposed county from ‘Landis’ to ‘Fruitland.’ But this placative action failed.”
It was local citizens and county leaders, not the State legislature that truncated Landis County for fears that “he was making his bid to become emperor of South Jersey....an avaracious man” (avaracious = having or showing an extreme greed for wealth or material gain).
When Gershenowitz recently passed away (on tip from Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society curator Patt Martinelli) historian Carl Farrell and I salvaged a number of the professor’s papers from oblivion. These are now archived as a special collection at VHAS. Gershenowitz wrote on a wide range of local cultural and natural history, with titles like Bears and the Ecosystem of Cape May County, Life Along the Tuckahoe River, Phrenology and Spiritualism in South Jersey, and The Mrs. Treat of Darwin’s Scientific World.
S-M
Gershenowitz writes, “The major objection was that there would be an increase in taxes for the citizens of the proposed new county in order to build a new courthouse, a new clerk’s office, a new jail, a new poorhouse, a new county farm and more bridges.” Other local-opposition rallies erupted in Mays Landing and Newfield with the similar complaints.
Gershenowitz continued, “A local newspaper, Salem Sunbeam, on Friday, January 6, 1871, reported that the Landis group did not expect such strong opposition from the people of Pittsgrove, and in order to mitigate the antagonism, the Landis supporters offered to change the name of the proposed county from ‘Landis’ to ‘Fruitland.’ But this placative action failed.”
It was local citizens and county leaders, not the State legislature that truncated Landis County for fears that “he was making his bid to become emperor of South Jersey....an avaracious man” (avaracious = having or showing an extreme greed for wealth or material gain).
When Gershenowitz recently passed away (on tip from Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society curator Patt Martinelli) historian Carl Farrell and I salvaged a number of the professor’s papers from oblivion. These are now archived as a special collection at VHAS. Gershenowitz wrote on a wide range of local cultural and natural history, with titles like Bears and the Ecosystem of Cape May County, Life Along the Tuckahoe River, Phrenology and Spiritualism in South Jersey, and The Mrs. Treat of Darwin’s Scientific World.
S-M
Does anyone have a date or time period of Landis' ownership of the Atsion property? Or maybe a map.
As I indicated in a previous post, local opposition to the erection of a new county was likely and Harry did a great job of documenting it! I knew Harry and appreciated his attention to detail. Despite the local opposition, however, the final decision fell to the legislature and, as I stated before, the Democratically controlled state house was not going to allow the creation of another solidly Republican county in South Jersey. If Republicans had dominated the legislature, I doubt all the local protest rallies would have prevented passage of the bill laid before the General Assembly in 1871.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Don:
Samuel B. Coughlin sells William W. Fleming’s moiety of the Atsion Tract—what I would call the southern half—to Michael G. Landis on 21 March 1860.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Thanks Jerseyman:
I don't know if you have this, but in 1854 William H Richards' assignees sold his half of Atsion to Daniel L. Miller Jr.
This is the half that includes East Fruitland, but not Fruitland it's self.
Don
I don't know if you have this, but in 1854 William H Richards' assignees sold his half of Atsion to Daniel L. Miller Jr.
This is the half that includes East Fruitland, but not Fruitland it's self.
Don
Don:
Yes, I have that deed and the subsequent deeds that lead up to Michael G. Landis acquiring a moiety in the Atsion Estate. William H. Richards sold to Daniel L. Miller Jr. who sold to Clayton Allen and Ellwood Matlack in November 1855. With Fleming’s disappearance, the title for the entire Atsion Tract became quite muddied and the whole thing ended up in the Chancery Court of the State of New Jersey in November 1856. Three parties were involved in the court action: Walter Dwight Bell and Albert Markley, assignees of William W. Fleming; Daniel L. Miller Jr.; and Elwood Matlack and Clayton Allen. The court ruled in favor of Matlack and Allen, so the other parties drafted deeds to these two men. In August 1857, Allen sold his interest to Matlack and Matlack sold the entire moiety to Samuel B. Coughlin in December 1857. Coughlin is the one who sold the moiety to Landis in March 1860.
Daniel L. Miller Jr. was involved in Hammonton and the creation of Riverton, too.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
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Landis is partners with Allen and Matlack at the Weymouth Farm and Agricultural Company (Elwood, Newtonville, Folsom, founded 1854, prospectus below).
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This coincides with Raleigh missing and all the problems that went with it. They resurveyed the Atsion Tract and the Commissioners placed stones at the corners. Jerseyman ...do you have this deed? If so, would you mind passing it to me so I can look for more of the corners? If you don't have it I will have to try and get it.
Guy
Guy
Guy,
I have seem a East Fruitland lot that starts on the division line by the Atsion River I believe.
I have seem a East Fruitland lot that starts on the division line by the Atsion River I believe.
Jerseyman,
Charles D. Matlack sold East Fruitland farm lots in 1867 & 1868. These farm lots were part of a larger tract called the "Atsion Estate" that he bought from Sarah W. Dickson in April 1866. Dickson was Matlack's single aunt that lived with him and his family in Philadelphia. Sarah W. Dickson bought this tract from John Landon in March 1861. (Wm Patterson didn't buy his Atsion until July of 1862.) The next deed book was missed in Mt Holly and no one there knows where it is. There is another copy recorded in Mays Landing, But:
I will be sidetracked from a trip to Mays Landing for a couple of months with a broken ankle. I was going down the stair steps at home and you know what they say about that last step, it's a doozy.
In any event, it looks like I am on one half of the Atsion Estate and Landis is on the other. Did Landis sale to Jarvis Mason, Patterson has to come in pretty some. Patterson's Fruitland must have come before East Fruitland, but it was pretty close. Fruitland was incorporated in Nov of 1866 and the first East Fruitland lot I found was sold in April of 1867.
Charles D. Matlack sold East Fruitland farm lots in 1867 & 1868. These farm lots were part of a larger tract called the "Atsion Estate" that he bought from Sarah W. Dickson in April 1866. Dickson was Matlack's single aunt that lived with him and his family in Philadelphia. Sarah W. Dickson bought this tract from John Landon in March 1861. (Wm Patterson didn't buy his Atsion until July of 1862.) The next deed book was missed in Mt Holly and no one there knows where it is. There is another copy recorded in Mays Landing, But:
I will be sidetracked from a trip to Mays Landing for a couple of months with a broken ankle. I was going down the stair steps at home and you know what they say about that last step, it's a doozy.
In any event, it looks like I am on one half of the Atsion Estate and Landis is on the other. Did Landis sale to Jarvis Mason, Patterson has to come in pretty some. Patterson's Fruitland must have come before East Fruitland, but it was pretty close. Fruitland was incorporated in Nov of 1866 and the first East Fruitland lot I found was sold in April of 1867.
That would be great Guy, as soon as I can hobble around pretty good.
I would like to find out who John Landon bought Atsion from and also go back to Richards ownership. Before the division line it was just called an undivided half. I'm thinking the division line will separate Fruitland from East Fruitland maybe right where the shape of the lots change on the map post #72. I don't think East Fruitland was very big, maybe that little section of oblong lots. They are the only lots East of that road going through.
If Fruitland and East Fruitland are on the same side of the division line I am right back where I started.
I was playing with google and came across a pertinent digital book:
Pages 306–386 are the Jersey interests, mostly Weymouth and Martha land. Many deeds and their descriptions are found within demonstrating how confounding these land titles can be. Just surf the net for the book by name.
S-M
Gans E.W. 1900. A Pennsylvania Pioneer: Biographical Sketch with Report of the Executive Committee of the Ball Estate Association.
S-M
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Thanks Spung-man! I was looking the Martha info over and they discuss Jonathan Hough who owned portions of the Oswego Tract. I did not know the time frame for Jonathan Hough's life and your find clarified that he had agreements in 1793 with Isaac Potts who as we all know built Martha Furnace ....in 1793.
With that said, we now know that this stone has been there a long time.
Guy
With that said, we now know that this stone has been there a long time.
Guy