Jerseyman,
Thanks so much for checking the Foster-Clement collection for information on the Atsion Company, a disappointment for sure, but still greatly appreciated. From the HSP’s website you would think this information is filed and easily accessible.
Maybe we can put a positive spin on item No.1 of your transcription. Does anyone know where Sleepy Mill is actually located in the field. If it is about three miles below Atsion Work and in Washington Twp. it must be near the locks in the Locks Bridge area. “where boards are taken from the mill-tail by water to the forks” sounds like it may be on the Atsion River? Right now my take on the Locks is that they were locks that’s where the name comes from, and the Atsion Company used them to get their boats with finished iron products on them down river to sea. And when they did they flood some Batsto ore beds and this may have been part of the problem. (I don’t know if Batsto ore beds were that far up river?)
On May 23, 1765 Charles Read signed an agreement to cut all the coal wood on John Estell’s land lying between the Batsto River and the Atsion River. The only description is the land between the Batsto and Atsion rivers. If this is not all the land between the Batsto and Atsion rivers then there is no way of knowing just where Estell’s land was. If it is all the land between rivers, then the 700-acre Sleepy Mill Tract is on Estell’s land?
Josiah Foster ran the Sleepy Creek Mill, interesting, is this the same Josiah Foster that surveyed the Brotherton Reservation when they sold it in 1802 and bought the two best tracts for himself. One had the Indian sawmill on it. Oh, and by the way, he was also one of the Indian commissioners.
It’s been some time since I was into this so, if I have something wrong please let me know.
Thank much Jerseyman,
Don