Travel along the old stage route from philly to egg harbor?

[beachbug]

Hi all. I was hoping to get some info for an upcoming adventure. I would like to take the route that the Quakers took from Philadelphia to Egg Harbor many years ago.

I'm not really sure where to start, but i am off-road capable so i want to do as much original as possible and was hoping maybe some of you may be able to help with a route. from what i gather it would run through Hampton Gate, Quaker Bridge, Mount, Bass River Hotel, Union Hotel in Tuckerton, and wanted to end up at the JD Thompson inn (owned a stage utilizing the route i think in mid 1800s). I have been collecting names of places, but some are hard to actually locate , let alone plot a course. I mean, i know where Quaker bridge road and the Washington turnpike are located, but that's about it. Any help would be appreciated. i always love learning more history about the area! thanks!

 

[Boyd]

Check out Vermeule's map (c. 1870), Cook's map (c. 1885) and the USGS map (c. 1900). But for some reason, none of these had road names, just the towns.

https://boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/vermeule
https://boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/cook
https://boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/pines1899

But you can flip between these maps and the newer USGS maps (c. 1950 and c. 2000) where you should find some named roads

https://boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7110/-74.6687/pines1949
https://boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7110/-74.6687/pines1999

My own map has all the road names that I could find/verify

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.71084/-74.66889/pinesHD

All of these (except Vermeule) are also available in downloadable format that is compatible with about two dozen apps, so you can use them for navigation in your vehicle too.

 

[RednekF350]

Check out Vermeule's map (c. 1870), Cook's map (c. 1885) and the USGS map (c. 1900). But for some reason, none of these had road names, just the towns.

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/vermeule
https://online.boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/cook
https://online.boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7097/-74.6667/pines1899

But you can flip between these maps and the newer USGS maps (c. 1950 and c. 2000) where you should find some named roads

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7110/-74.6687/pines1949
https://online.boydsmaps.com/#14/39.7110/-74.6687/pines1999

My own map has all the road names that I could find/verify

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#17/39.71084/-74.66889/pinesHD

All of these (except Vermeule) are also available in downloadable format that is compatible with about two dozen apps, so you can use them for navigation in your vehicle too.

Boyd,

Making those maps seamless and dragable (Is that a word ?) was a monumental task.
Now, the goal that the original poster has set is more attainable than it has ever been by using these maps. Having the ability to toggle between so many different maps when your placemark is being held by the target in the center of the screen is also an invaluable tool.
Thank you for all of that hard work !

 

[Boyd]

Thanks! And yes, "draggable" is a word and actually even a class of objects in the Leaflet software https://www.wrld3d.com/wrld.js/latest/docs/leaflet/L.Draggable/

BTW, you can use the "favorites" feature on the site to make it easier to flip between different maps. Click the heart icon and you'll see a menu just like NJPB maps. Click the gear icon to open the editor, and for starters just click the reset button and choose "NJPinebarrens Plus". Close the editor and you will now have a list similar to NJPB maps, but with a bunch more years of aerials and topos.

 

[manumuskin]

Hi all. I was hoping to get some info for an upcoming adventure. I would like to take the route that the Quakers took from Philadelphia to Egg Harbor many years ago.

I'm not really sure where to start, but i am off-road capable so i want to do as much original as possible and was hoping maybe some of you may be able to help with a route. from what i gather it would run through Hampton Gate, Quaker Bridge, Mount, Bass River Hotel, Union Hotel in Tuckerton, and wanted to end up at the JD Thompson inn (owned a stage utilizing the route i think in mid 1800s). I have been collecting names of places, but some are hard to actually locate , let alone plot a course. I mean, i know where Quaker bridge road and the Washington turnpike are located, but that's about it. Any help would be appreciated. i always love learning more history about the area! thanks!

You are aware that the Quaker Bridge route and the Hampton Gate route are two different routes that split and come back together? The rejoin at Washington,I forget where the split at but I believe it's at Medford Lakes?

 

[manumuskin]

Oh Yes, the original bridge over the Wading that the Quakers used at Bodines Tavern has been out for some time like over a century,the bridge pilings are still visible when the creek is down but if I was you I"d use Evans bridge as a bypass. You can drive into Bodines Field campsite and find the tavern cellar hole and right next to it just upstream are the visible pilings of the old bridge.

 

[beachbug]

Wow. these maps are awesome. thanks! And no, i didnt realize they were two different routes. How do you figure our what the routes were? Book of some sort maybe? That would be really interesting. But in any case, great ideas for new places to check out! thank you!

 

[Rooftree]

Check out this link.

Tuckerton Stage Road

I drove the length of the Tuckerton Stage Road today. The whole trip from Marlton to Tuckerton took roughly 4 hours. Most of the route was paved. I plan on writing an article on it, but there are some things that need to be cleared up. First, I don't believe that the Tuckerton Stage Road...

forums.njpinebarrens.com

 

[manumuskin]

I think but can no longer remember where I learned there were two routes was in the book "Iron in the Pines" I have also read all of Becks books many years ago and it could have been in any one of those. I cannot remember why there were two routes considering they both started and ended in the same places.The Quaker Bridge route would hav e necessitated two major creek crossings and I know from personal experience the creek at Quaker Bridge is over my head at that spot or used to be back in the 80;s anyway.I read the Quakers had several horses drown there.The Wading tends to be shallower which might be why it;s called the Wading? It's also faster the the Batstnce below Beaver Branch though it does get deep as well. I know on the Quaker Bridge route there were multiple tavern/inns Quaker Brige,Mount,Washington,Bodines.Not sure of inns on the other routes,perhaps at Hampton Gate? I do know of several easy to miss road side cellar holes between Washington and Carranza road that may have been taverns? A;l Brants house whil off the beaten path has quite the cellar,wonder if it was a tavern as well?

 

[NJSRR]

There is a wonderful book: "Leah Blackman's Old Times and Other Writings:, pub by the Tuckerton Historical Society, 2000, which includes the chapter, "Traveling By Private Conveyance Over Fifty Years Ago " in which she tells a very descriptive tale about traveling in 1829 from Little Egg Harbor to Philadelphia in her father's wagon, and the return trip.

Some of the places she stopped at were: Mount Hotel, "Cline's Hotel" near Atsion, then "after riding 3 miles, we reached the Inn kept by Uncle Siah Smith (Dellett - according to Bisbee, a "J. Smith" was listed as operating hotel at this spot in 1849) ) , Hewling's Bridge, Samuel Swain's Hotel (Marlton), and Cooper's Ferry where she took a horse powered ferry boat across to Phila.

One the way home they spent the night back at "Uncle Siah Smith's" where she gives a description of the barroom, and spending the night, having to share a bed w. 2 women, sleeping on a rope bed w. no mattress. The next day, breakfast at the Quaker Bridge Hotel, and home by night.

I highly recommend this book for the one chapter alone............

Here is an article published in 2006 where they duplicate her trip on the "old Tuckerton Stage Road"

http://www.tuckertonhistoricalsociety.org/uploads/6/8/7/1/6871754/stage_road_trip-_sandpaper.pdf

 

[bobpbx]

I do vaguely remember that woman's trip. A lunch of oysters was somewhere in there.

The 2006 article is interesting. Sounds like an interesting and fun trip. One thing they mention is jumping into the cellar hole of Bodines tavern next to the Wading river. I"d like to see that if anyone can point out the location.

 

[RednekF350]

I do vaguely remember that woman's trip. A lunch of oysters was somewhere in there......

Well you should. You were born around the same time weren't you ?

 

[MuckSavage]

Ouch

 

[beachbug]

I was not expecting the can of worms that this idea has opened. Wow, I am finding little tidbits, sometimes contradictory, everywhere. Additional locations and route spurs seem to pop up with every new source found. i found this fascinating little booklet while searching out info on Cooper's Ferry. I got a few tidbits about the old stage road, but so much more! Thanks for all the info and clues you have provided. it has, so far, provided me with many hours of interesting reading! Here is the booklet in case anyone is interested. It focuses on Camden to Haddonfield for the most part.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_7931330_000/ldpd_7931330_000.pdf

 

[Rooftree]

Beachbug; that was a interesting read on the article about Cooper's Ferry. It is basically the history of the area I lived all my life. My take on the old road is Haddon Ave. It comes out Camden, goes through downtown Collingswood, into the Westmont section of Haddon Township (where I live) and then to Kings Highway, at the main intersection in Haddonfield. It probably continues to Berlin.

When I saw the author of the article, James Lane Pennypacker, I knew who he was. There is a monument at Groove St and Cooper River in Haddonfield in his memory. The noted trail runs along that stretch of the river out to Kings Highway. I've ran along that trail many times in the past 40 years. Pennypacker was one of the founding members of the Haddonfield Historical Society. He died in 1934.

The photo of the river is looking up stream from the Grove St bridge toward Kings Highway

 

[MuckSavage]

@Rooftree, I'll agree with you. Haddon Ave to Kings Hwy. Then continues along Haddon, past the Acme (which was a Meetinghouse) then onto Kresson Rd. My research started after seeing a stone marker that reads "8 M" In a yard in Cherry Hill. I drew an 8 mile circle with the marker's location as the radius point. 8 Miles lands at Cooper's Ferry in Camden. It wasn't until I visited the Collins Knight house & saw these 2 markers (that are relocated from Haddon Ave) that I realized the marker in Cherry Hill must mean "8 Miles to Camden". So either the marker in CH is just the top, or the whole thing is buried. These I assume are 3 miles to Camden, 4 Miles to Haddonfield, 2 Miles to Camden.
If the 8 M marker in Cherry Hill means 8 Miles to Camden, I wonder what mileage & to where is on the bottom 1/2 since 8 miles is past Haddonfield? Medford perhaps?
!

 

[beachbug]

Thanks for thoughts on that part of the route guys. i was trying to put that together myself. So i took a ride out today and checked some of the sites out. A little wet out, but nothing the jeep cant handle. Hit up Washington and finally (i think) found the tavern cellar hole. NW corner the next intersection down to the east from the barn/silo ruins right? Checked out mount, quaker bridge. Also did a quick detour over to Amatol raceway and checked that out for the first time, and the little graveyard nearby with the wooden markers. Played with Gaia maps all the way... getting used to how that works at the same time. Can't wait to start putting the route together. But so much information... wow! lol Oh, and checked out one of the cow tunnels in Marlton today as well. Can't believe i have driven over them so many times and never had a clue! Loved being able to pass all this along to my kids. great day in the woods for sure! thanks for all your help!

 

[Zach McGarvey]

As of two weeks ago, when I was last out there, Quaker Bridge road between the bridge and Washington Tavern was a swamp near the east end. I couldn't get through with my pickup, it looked like a few spots were 2 feet deep with soft bottoms. In the warmer months it's normally passable. If you aren't sure if you found the cellar hole, you probably didn't. It's pretty distinctive. The maps call that section "Iron Pipe Rd."

 

[beachbug]

There was some pretty deep water. Thankfully some of it we were able to use the go arounds. I have no interest in getting stuck! i always thought the silo/barn ruins were the tavern until i learned differently. this time, armed with some info that Boyd posted a while back from Iron in the pines, i followed Iron pipe road to the next intersection and saw the very large depression there. it was the larger of two that i saw (looked like a smaller on on the NE corner) and figured that must be it. Speaking of Iron in the Pines... We stopped over that the Baldwin Book Barn in West Chester today... I picked up copies of Iron in the Pines, Ferns, Plants and Shrubs of the Wharton Tract, Jersey Genesis (1st edition), The Roads of Home, and Fare to Midlands. I have A LOT of reading ahead of me!

 

[Boyd]

Played with Gaia maps all the way... getting used to how that works at the same time.

Have been discussing how to get my maps working in Gaia with @WaretownMike here, but he hasn't been around for awhile. https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/boyds-maps-in-gaia-gps.13267/page-2#post-158596

Curious why you chose Gaia? There are 14 other apps for Android and iOS that have been tested with my maps: https://boydsmaps.com/mobile-atlas-creator/